1-25-15: Whales and Lions

Jonah 3: 1-10 (NRSV)

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

Mark 1: 14-20 (NIV)

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

I was really excited when I looked at what our Old Testament reading would be for today, and saw that it was from Jonah. I also need to give you the disclaimer, before I get into what I have for you today, that my family's been watching a lot of Disney this week, and so my thoughts are heavily influenced by that--but you'll see what I mean in a minute.

The lectionary tells us to read a few verses from the third chapter of Jonah, but I think we should back up to the beginning, because it's a very short book (only 4 chapters) and a very good story.

Jonah's story is also one of our Church's most beloved Sunday School stories. Because of that, a lot of us kind of vaguely know what happens, but I also think that when we assume we know a particular Bible story really well, we tend to overlook some of the deeper meaning.

We don't know a ton about who Jonah was. We know his dad's name was Amittai, and we know he was a Hebrew. That's about it. Why, out of all the Hebrew men, God picked Jonah to deliver his message, we don't know. We just know God does exactly that. God tells Jonah, go to Nineveh and preach against the bad things they've been doing over there.

And Jonah decides he's not interested in answering God's call, and he flees, and runs in the opposite direction by taking a boat headed to Tarshish.

And God doesn't take no for an answer, so he goes after Jonah. He creates a huge storm in the sea that Jonah's traveling through, and nearly capsizes the boat Jonah's on. The captain of the boat pleads with everyone on board to pray to their god for safety. But the other men on board decide to cast lots to figure out whose fault the storm is, and then the truth comes out, because the lot falls on Jonah. Jonah confesses that the storm is his fault, because he ran away from God, and he tells the other men to toss him overboard to save themselves. The other men are reluctant to do that because they don't want to hurt Jonah, but when they realize they have no choice they throw him out of the boat. And then the most famous moment of this story happens, and God sends a big fish to swallow Jonah so he doesn't drown in the sea.

The fish spits Jonah out in Nineveh. He does what God told him to do in the first place, and warns the people of Nineveh that God will destroy their city because they've been bad. The Ninevites panic and decide to radically repent, to fast and dress everyone in sackcloth--adults, children, and even the animals.

God sees how dramatically the Ninevites changed their act, and decides not to punish them because they've obviously learned their lesson. And Jonah has to learn, in more ways than one, that God's in charge and what he says goes.

But let's back up a few steps. Let's back up to the famous, even amusing part of this story that everyone remembers: the big fish.

Because this story isn't about the Ninevites. The Ninevites are one of many, many groups of people that develop an appreciation for what it means to fear the Lord, and turn and find salvation. It's not because of what changes within them that our ancestors in the faith decided this story was so important that it needed to be written down and remembered. The reason why we reread, and retell, and cherish this story is because of what changes within Jonah.

Now, Jonah was a bit impatient and pouty, but those aren't the traits God wanted to change about Jonah, at least not yet. Rather what needed to change about him was his ability to figure out that God needed him, and to act.

A lot of us have trouble with this. Sometimes we're just not really listening and we miss God's call. Sometimes we don't get the message quite right. And sometimes, we'll hear what God wants from us loud and clear and we'll ignore him.

We all have moments where we make the mistake Jonah did. But here's what we can learn from him: when God really needs us to go do his work, God's going to make sure it happens, so we can either go the easy route and just obey God, or we can go the hard route and get eaten by a fish.

Yet, by fleeing Jonah implicitly raises an important question: why does he have to be the one to do God's work? Why can't God just go find somebody else?

Well, for the Jonah within each of us, I have your answer. Remember a minute ago when I said I've been watching a little too much Disney this week? One of the Disney movies I've been watching is The Lion King.

Now The Lion King was a super big deal when I was in grade school, and pretty much every kid in the free world saw it. But if you didn't have a kid of the early '90s dragging you to the theater to go see this movie, it's pretty much Hamlet but with lions. Mufasa is king of the jungle, but his manipulative younger brother Scar wants to be king. He takes his brother's life, and manages to convince Mufasa's young son, Simba, that his father's death was his own fault. Simba flees the kingdom, and Scar takes the throne. Turns out Scar makes a terrible king, and he manages to destroy the jungle's delicate ecosystem. Everyone is about to starve, so one of the hunting lionesses goes out in search of help, and finds none other than Simba, all grown up. The lioness tries to convince Simba that he has to go back and save his kingdom, but, like Jonah, Simba doesn't want to help, he wants to run from his calling.

It takes a wise baboon named Rafiki to change Simba's mind. Rafiki finds Simba in hiding and tells him that his father isn't really dead--that Simba can see him when he looks at his own reflection. When Simba doesn't get it, Rafiki explains: he lives in you. When Simba finally understands, he realizes that because he is all that's left of his father, only he can rescue his kingdom.

But where do we fit into any of that?

When God asks a lot of us it's really tempting to react like Jonah and run in the opposite direction. And it can be tempting to question why we have to be the ones to help God's people and restore God's Kingdom. Why us?

Because God the Father lives in us. The only way the world will ever see God is if they see God through us. And it's our responsibility, as God's children, to reflect God's image to a world that needs to see it.

Like the disciples Simon, Andrew, James, and John that Jesus calls in this morning's Gospel story, it's not our place to question why God has called us. It's simply our job to put down our nets and follow Jesus, no matter where he takes us.

Amen.

1-18-15: What Kind of Disciple Are You?

What Kind of Disciple are You?

1 Samuel 3: 1-10 (NIV)

The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down. Again the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. A third time the Lord called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

John 1: 35-51 (NIV)

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter ). The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”

What kind of disciple are you?

This week we're hearing several "call" stories--stories about how five different people came from whatever they were doing before to ministering to God. We hear about five pretty different personalities, and five different ways of approaching God. We can learn a lot about ourselves and our own ministries in our Church when we think about who we can identify with in these Biblical stories. So, today, I invite you to just consider: do any of these disciples remind you of yourself?

First, we meet:

The "Look Over There!" Disciple: Andrew

If you're like Andrew, you didn't find your way to Jesus by yourself. But you didn't need a lot of convincing, either. You just needed a nudge from someone wise enough to point you in Jesus' direction.

John the Baptist had just announced to anyone who would listen to him that his cousin was coming, that his cousin would redeem the people, and that everyone should get ready to make way for him. Seems pretty clear, at least to those of us who have the benefit of knowing how this story ends. But it wasn't enough to get Andrew's attention. He just didn't get it.

John the Baptist picks up on this and gives Andrew a playful nudge: Hey! Look over there! It's the Lamb of God!

That almost sounds like what you would do to get a child's attention--Look! Something shiny! But, if you're like Andrew, you're still young at heart, and, after all, Jesus did tell us: Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” (‭Luke‬ ‭18‬:‭17‬ NIV)

It doesn't offend Jesus that Andrew needed JTB to nudge him along, and it doesn't set Andrew back at all. The first thing he does is talk to Jesus, and ask to see where he's been staying. The next thing he does is go tell his brother all about the man he just met. Which brings us to the next kind of disciple:

The Disciple who was Invited: Simon Peter

If you've ever been invited to visit someone's church, you're at least a little bit like Peter. If you found your way to Jesus, either through this church, or through prayer, or through some other spiritual practice, because someone encouraged you to try out what they've stumbled upon, then you're at least a little bit like Peter.

And, like Peter, you may have had no idea what you were saying "yes" to when you accepted that invitation, whenever and however it happened. Peter decided to tag along with his brother Andrew, and the first thing thing Jesus did was change his name to Cephas!

None of us really know what will come from a life of following Christ, and it takes a child-like ability to open your heart and trust another person completely to be a disciple. As you may know if you've spent a fair amount of time reading the Gospels, Peter ends up taking on a lot of responsibility, and becomes one of the most important leaders of the early Church--all because he accepted his brother's invitation to go check out someone he just met. If you've ever found yourself fully immersed in something that you only tried because a friend was into it, you might be like Peter.

The Follower: Philip

Then there's our friend Philip. Jesus found him and said, Hey, come with me, and he did. No questions asked, no hesitation, not even a moment's thought. He followed Jesus because he just didn't see any reason not to.

I think a lot of us who were raised in the Church all our lives have moments when we can identify with Philip. If you're like me, you might have gone to church every Sunday for years without ever putting a ton of thought into why you were going--I went because my mom said, Hey, get up, it's time for church. It wasn't until I was much older that I started to think about my faith, and my commitment to God, and what gifts I was bringing to my ministry. Yet, those years where I just followed, those years where my Mom said go and I went, were huge in laying a foundation for a lifetime of walking with God. I learned so much because I was so open-minded and curious. I had no reservations, no doubts, no qualms, do there was nothing standing in my way as I started to learn what it meant to be a Christian.

No matter what age you are, if you can have that child-like trust, where Jesus says go and you go, you might be like Philip.

The Skeptic: Nathaneal

And then there's Nathaneal. Like Peter, Nathaneal comes to Jesus because someone invited him: Philip. But he doesn't respond to that invitation with an eager an open mind. He's not curious, or intrigued, or amazed, or mystified when Philip tells him that he's found the one Moses himself said would come one day. Nathaneal's not any of those things--he's skeptical. He doesn't respond to Philip's invitation by saying, really, the Messiah! I want to meet him right now! Rather, he says, Jesus of Nazareth? When was the last time anything good came out of Nazareth?

If you've ever questioned God, if you've ever had any doubts about your faith, then you might be like Nathaneal. If you've ever been skeptical, if you don't like believing things at face value without some proof, you might be like Nathaneal.

Even skepticism, which so often gets cast in a negative light, is an important quality in a child-like faith. If you've ever taken care of a child then you know they don't always just do what you say because you said so. They push back. They say, Why? What for? God doesn't get offended when we ask him those kinds of questions. The truth is that if you're asking God questions, even really skeptical ones, then you're investing a lot in learning more about him. Asking questions and being real about our doubts and disbelief is an important part of how we grow as disciples.

More than that, if you've ever wondered how we're all supposed to radically put aside our differences and all get along here, you might be a little like Nathaneal. If you've ever wondered how we're supposed to put aside our reservations about each other's backgrounds and work together, you might be like Nathaneal. Being a faithful disciple means embracing even the person from the wrong side of the tracks, and learning how to love our neighbor.

The Child: Samuel

We've talked about how Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathaneal all showed traits of a child-like faith in answering Jesus' call to join him in his ministry. But, the only person we hear about this morning who perfectly demonstrates having the faith of a child is the actual child, Samuel.

Samuel's mom, Hannah, promised in exchange for being able to have a baby boy that she would give that baby over to God and have him raised in the Temple in Jerusalem. So Samuel has lived his whole life in the Temple, being mentored by Eli. But, ironically, even though Samuel has been raised in the Temple, he doesn't know who God is.

So if you ever had a hard time getting the message when God was trying to tell you something, you might be a little like Samuel. And if you ever needed help learning how to talk to God, you might be like Samuel. Actually, I think that makes us all a little like Samuel. But, the hallmark of Samuel's child-like faith is the eager curiosity that makes him completely open to hear whatever God has to say to him.

As far as our Old Testament reading is concerned, this morning the lectionary leaves us on a cliffhanger. The last thing we read is Samuel responding to God Speak, for your servant is listening, and we don't hear what happens next. We don't actually get to hear what God says to Samuel. Of course, all you have to do is go read the next few verses and you'll know exactly what God says to Samuel, but that's not the point.

The real point is that, a lot of times, this is what it feels like when God calls us: we make ourselves available to hear God's Word, and then we just listen. We don't always get an immediate answer from God when we say Speak, for your servant is listening. We don't always get to hear right away what God wants from us. Answering God's call means a lot of waiting, not knowing at all what comes next.

But, at the end of the day, no matter which of these disciples you might be able to relate to, know this: the one thing they all have in common is when they were called to service they all said yes. However God calls us to serve, even if it's a big mystery that slowly unfolds before us, the kind of disciple we all need to be is the kind who serves with the faith of a child.

Amen.

1-11-15: The Peaceable Kingdom

The Peaceable Kingdom

Mark 1: 4-11 (NIV)

And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

In all honesty, this sermon didn't finally start to come together until late in this week. I really had no idea what direction I wanted to go with my sermon this week, so I turned to my family and a few of my seminary friends and posed this really open-ended question: if you could hear your pastor preach about anything, what would you most want to hear a sermon about? The first responses I got were from my Dad and my brother-in-law, who essentially both said that if they could hear a sermon about anything right now, they would want to hear a sermon about racism, and how we as a people can get past it.

Well then. If that's not the most daunting thing anyone's ever asked of my preaching, I'm not sure what is, but here we go:

In even tackling a topic like that one I'm standing on the shoulders of the greatest preachers our world has ever known, starting with Jesus himself, who certainly had a lot to say about the race tensions and xenophobia of his time. I stand on the shoulders of the father of United Methodism, John Wesley, who lived when slavery was still legal both in his native England and in the American colonies, and was thoroughly disgusted by it. He encouraged his congregants and lay preachers to seek an abolition to slavery, and social holiness, reaching to the margins of society and not stopping until everyone lived in justice.

I could go on all morning naming great preachers from history who fought against racism and the social injustices that come from it. Walter Rauschenbusch, Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King. And those names are just a drop in the bucket.

Yet, in preaching on a topic like racism I have to face an incredible irony: despite how many of our forefathers and -mothers in the faith have preached for peace among the races, our Church is nonetheless deeply divided along the color lines. It's a sad part of our history that we just can't seem to get past, a wound for which there is seemingly no salve. In fact, our own denomination suffered a fracture along the color line in the late eighteenth century that we have never recovered from. Have you ever heard of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church? The AME Church was founded by Richard Allen in 1787, when he got fed up with the racism he experienced at his home church, St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Although welcome to worship at that church, Allen and all of his fellow African-American congregants were forced to sit in a separate section of pews, segregated from the white parishioners. Allen formed the AME Church, establishing a community that kept the beloved Methodist traditions but that treated African Americans with dignity. And although we can now say, over 200 years later, that the UMC works alongside the AME as partners in ministry, we never healed from that schism, and because we couldn't get over our prejudice then, we're not whole today.

It's tempting to want to say, Oh, get over it, all that stuff's in the past. Slavery's been illegal for 150 years, segregation's gone, our churches ordain black, Asian, and Hispanic ministers right alongside white ministers. There's special scholarship money set aside to ensure racial minorities get a chance to go to college. Affirmative Action has been helping the same minorities get on the ground running in the workforce. Hey, we even have an African American President! There's no such thing as racism anymore, right? Racism's dead, right?

Wrong. Wrong, and this is where I say that all of us with light skin need to check our white privilege.

It's a lot easier to point out racism and call it what it is when you're looking for overt, obnoxious, explicit acts of racism. A disgruntled Caucasian person that yells out racial slurs any time he sees a person of color? Sure, that's racism. A school that will only admit white students? Sure, that's racism. A group of people with white hoods and burning crosses that target racial minorities for acts of violence? That's racism. And I don't see stuff like that going on around me, so racism must be a thing of the past, right?

No. And don't get me wrong, we've come a long way since all of those things were commonplace. But if you ever hear someone tell you, like I did a moment ago, to "check your white privilege", and you don't know what they're getting at, it's this:

Oftentimes in our society it's not in those outlandish moments that we see racism rear its ugly head. Those things still happen, but much, much, more often, racism takes the form of an implicit, underlying, oppressive, systemic current in the river that light-skinned people don't need to notice because we're safe on our cruise ship. That is to say, we don't notice it because it doesn't affect our daily lives. We're protected from it. We're privileged to have light skin in a society that favors light skinned people.

We don't have to worry that we won't fit in, that wherever we go there won't be people who look like us. We don't have to worry that if we dress a certain way, or act a certain way, or say the wrong thing to the wrong person that people will assume we're thugs, or gang members, or trouble makers. We don't have to worry about being profiled by law enforcement, or being watched a little more closely because we look suspicious or conspicuous. Nobody questions whether we belong in this country, or whether we're here legally. We don't need to feel outnumbered and intimidated. We don't need to feel like we need to prove ourselves more, or that we need to work a little harder to achieve the same thing as a lighter-skinned person. Even if we face prejudice for other reasons, even if we're disadvantaged in other ways, even today in 2015, it's still much easier to thrive in this society if you're white.

But let's get right to the heart of what's really going on in our country right now. Because there was a reason why, when I posed this question of what you'd like to hear a sermon about, racism was the first thing that both my Dad and my brother-in-law thought of. Because my Dad and my brother-in-law are two pretty different people with two pretty different world views. But they both watch the news.

And if you watch the news, too, then you know exactly why now is the time that maybe we as a people of faith need to talk about race more than ever.

Because there's so much going on that we don't know what to think. Was George Zimmerman justified in fighting Trayvon Martin, to the point of taking his life, because he thought he looked suspicious? Was Officer Darren Wilson justified in fatally shooting Michael Brown for stealing, challenging him, and evading arrest? Were several officers of the NYPD justified in using lethal force to apprehend Eric Garner? In the media whirlwind that has ensued, amid the protests, amid the mounting distrust between law enforcement and civilians, amid the angry voices shouting "black lives matter" and "police lives matter", we've seen enough chaos to make us repeat Garner's now-infamous last words, I can't breathe.

In recent years it's become popular to have an almost-radical reaction to racism and say things like Well, I'm not racist. I don't even see race. I don't care what color you are. I'm color blind. Everyone is exactly the same to me.

Not so fast. No offense if any of you think this way, or if any of you have ever said something like that. It's a very good thing when people say things like this because they want so badly for our world to start moving past these racial tensions and divisions. The intention is good, but that's not the way to end racism.

Because we're not all the same. We're magnificently different. And if you act like you're color blind and all people are just gray you fail to see the incredible beauty and richness that each unique race and ethnicity brings to our human family. You should care what race someone belongs to, it's a big part of what makes them who they are.

But I think about this famous painting called "The Peaceable Kingdom". In this painting you see lots of different kinds of animals--cows, lions, leopards, sheep, bears, tigers--and even some people. And even though you really wouldn't expect all these different animals to get along, they do. And it's not because they've glossed over their differences. They're all perfectly proud to be the animals they are, and they've attained a state of harmony with each other.

If we could achieve a peaceable human kingdom, one where we celebrate our individual heritages and yet learn how to coexist and work together, that would be the end of racism. The problem is that it's not possible for us to get there on our own.

We need Jesus to achieve that kind of peace. We need something that only Jesus can give us.

In this morning's Gospel passage, we hear about Jesus' baptism in the River Jordan. Mark tells us that even though Jesus' cousin John was baptizing lots of people, this baptism was like nothing anyone had ever witnessed before. Mark tells us that in the moment that Jesus received John's baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove. And then God said to him, You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased. John the Baptist proclaims that all who receive Jesus' baptism are baptized not with water, but with the Holy Spirit.

Our world thirsts for something that only Jesus can give us. By living in a world that has received Jesus, we have received the Holy Spirit on this earth, descending upon our whole human family like a dove.

What does that mean, like a dove? Remember the story in Genesis about Noah and the ark? Noah wanted to know if it was safe to get out of the ark. He wanted to know if the flood was over, if the violence and death and loss of the great flood was over. So he sent a dove out of the ark. And when the dove came back with an olive leaf, he knew the world was at peace again.

The dove is a symbol of peace. Jesus has brought us the Holy Spirit, which descends upon us like a dove and brings us peace.

Well, ok then, Pastor Natalie, that's all well and good, but if this world has really received the peace of Christ, then why do we still see all this tension, and fighting, and prejudice? It's because there's two ways that evil persists in our world: there's people who do evil things, and then there's people who witness the evil around them and do nothing to stop it. Or, from a faith-based standpoint, there's two types of sin: sin by commission, and sin by omission.

It's not enough for us to just play nice and mind our own business. It's not good enough for us to say, Well, I'm nice to everyone, I don't treat anyone any different than anyone else, I'm not racist. That's an excellent step in the right direction, but you're only halfway there.

In order for us to ever see a world where people live in harmony, in order for us to ever see a world where everyone is treated with dignity, in order for us to ever get past racism, we need to speak up for what's right. And, more than anything, those of us who have light skin need to check our white privilege and stop taking the easy path of ignoring the things that don't directly affect us, because whether we realize it in the moment or not, racism hurts everyone. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

A world without racism is a world where everyone is nurtured, and everyone has a chance to thrive. In a world without racism, we don't gloss over our differences, and we do more than just tolerate each other. In a world that's over racism, in a world where racism is dead, we embrace our differences. We acknowledge that we all receive the same baptism from Jesus, we all receive the same Holy Spirit, and we all have a special place in the Peaceable Kingdom of God.

Amen.

1-4-15: In The Beginning

In the Beginning

John 1: 1-18 (NIV)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Friends, between now and Tuesday we're still technically in the season of Christmas, even though we have the option to observe Epiphany today. With no shortage of love for the passage where the three wise men meet the baby Jesus and give him their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, I'm choosing to take us in a slightly different direction this morning, and look at the other option our Lectionary gives me for a Gospel reading this morning: the beginning of Jesus' story as related to us by another of the evangelists, John.

Around this time of the year we hear Matthew and Luke's stories about the baby Jesus so much that we might lose sight of this fact that only Matthew and Luke actually choose to introduce Jesus to us that way, as a baby. That was the choice Matthew and Luke made as authors, to try to tell us something about the early days and years of this very important man, and to try to tell us where exactly he came from. John takes a pretty different approach. He still attempts to tell us about where Jesus came from, but he's not interested in Jesus' infancy. He's more interested in a realm beyond our own planet that Jesus dwelt in before he became a man. John would rather tell us about the parts of God that came to us from heaven and became God incarnate.

John tells us about the most important pieces of the very essence that is God that became the most important parts of Jesus. So what are those pieces? What are the most important parts of a Savior? According to John, Jesus is Word, Light, and Life.

John tells us that before Jesus became anything more, he was the Word. Actually, he tells us that before there was anything at all, there was the Word. God's Word. He was the spoken and written truth about God. Before there was anybody else on earth to talk about their love for God, and long, long before there was anybody writing down the stories of God and God's people, there was Jesus, just holding onto that truth of God's greatness, God's sovereignty over our whole world, and God's love for our whole creation. Before there even was a creation, before there even were people on earth to love, Jesus was the presence of that love. One of the most important things Jesus came here and lived among us to do was to bring us the Word, and to use the Word to teach his followers about God, the ways of God, and God's desire for us, so that those followers could spread the Word. The Word of God became our Good News. We were all made out of that Word, that truth of God, that Good News. It's at our very core. It's at our very core to know and love God.

John tells us that Jesus was light, and that that light is what gave life to all people. We live because of the Light of Christ. Jesus is like the air we breathe.

But, much more than all of that, the Light Jesus brings us is what keeps us going. Jesus brings us hope. And if you ever forget that, if you ever need a reminder of that, then turn to one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible: John 1:5:

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Jesus didn't just come to live this human life among us because it was God's plan. Jesus came to live among people because we needed him. Jesus came to live among a community of people who had worshipped the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for thousands of years, and yet they didn't get it. They didn't really know their God. They didn't know God's plans for them, they didn't know about the way God intended them to live, they didn't understand about God's love for the world, and they lived without Good News.

A world without Jesus in it is a world without hope. And hope is something that you just can't live without. What Jesus gives us in that inextinguishable light is hope. What Jesus gives us is the Good News that God loved us enough to save us. Jesus gives us the promise of a prosperous future for the people of God. A Light no one can put out.

And that Light sustains us. That Light is what keeps us going, and makes us live. That Light illumines God's path for us, and gives us direction, that Light sets our hearts on fire and allows us to live with passion, and purpose. That Light keeps us alive, and gives us a Life worth living.

Jesus carried God's Word to us. Jesus brought us the Light of God's love for us. And Jesus sustains us, so we may have Life.

The Good News of the Christmas season is that Jesus brings us those gifts, and he brings them with great abundance, and without limit. He does that for us.

But that's only the first half of this ongoing story between God and his people. It's not enough for us to just rejoice in the gifts of Word, Light, and Life that we receive from our Savior. The truth is that all those gifts mean nothing if we don't share them.

If we don't pass them on. Jesus has found us in moments of silence, and filled that a silence with God's Word. Jesus has found us in the darkness and cold, and brought us Light. He's found us failing to thrive, and living for nothing, and brought us everlasting Life.

Now we have to re gift those things.

Now we have to take the Good News and share it with people who have never heard it. Now we have to share the Light of Jesus with people stuck in the cold and darkness. Now we have to find the person living without hope and bring them to the infinite fount of hope in Jesus. Now we have to find the person living without passion, living without purpose, living without a plan, living for nothing, and introduce them to the Life Jesus brings us all.

Jesus came to live among us so that he could bring us Word, Light, and Life, so that we could spread his Word, Light, and Life, and keep passing those things on until the whole world was touched by Jesus' love. That sounds like a big responsibility, and it is. But a bit of good news in this is that we don't have to do that alone, we have lots of help. We have a whole Christian family around the world to help.

And because we have so much help, what we have to do on our own to spread the Good News of Christ really isn't that hard, and a lot of us in this community already do some of what it takes to introduce Jesus to someone who doesn't know him.

In fact, there's pretty simple things we all can do to spread Jesus' love around the world. Invite someone to church. Volunteer. And take care of the people Jesus specifically told us to: visit the sick, visit the prisoner, feed the hungry and thirsty, and clothe the unclothed.

And maybe 2015 will be a year where more of the world has seen God's love than ever before.

Amen.

12-28-14: The Three Rules of Life

The Three Rules of Life

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-13 (NIV)

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.

Luke 2: 22-40 (NIV)

When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord” ), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.

Friends, this is the last Sunday of the whole year.

Liturgically, this Sunday is the first Sunday of Christmas. To some of us, this Sunday is that Sunday that's after Christmas but before Epiphany. Some of my minister friends will joke that this Sunday after Christmas is "cannon ball Sunday": the Sunday when there's so few people at worship that you could fire a cannon ball into the pews and it won't hit anyone.

To our community at Vine Valley, this Sunday is the last where we'll be together in this space until Spring.

And, for all of us, this is the end of the year. The end of 2014. A time to think about all that's gone on for you and your life and your family this year, to give thanks for the blessings of this year, to be grateful for the tough moments because you made it through, and maybe even to think about what you want out of 2015. What are your goals for next year? Do you have any New Year's Resolutions? Is there anything you want to change in the next year?

It's a good Sunday to just take stock and reflect on where we are and where we're going. And it's a good Sunday to think about how God has been at work in our lives in 2014, and how we'll remember to appreciate and take time for God in 2015. It's a good Sunday to just remember what it's like and what it means to be the people of God.

While we're thinking about that, we hear King Solomon's very familiar words from the third chapter of Ecclesiastes, appointed by our lectionary for New Year's. And King Solomon in all his wisdom reminds us that we can find incredible comfort living as God's people if we remember that there's three general rules of life walking hand in hand with God:

Rule #1: God is in charge.

King Solomon tells us for everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under Heaven.

I'm not saying that God has already decided the day and time of everything that will ever happen in your life. Your future hasn't been written yet. I'm also not saying that your own choices don't make a difference,

The reality is that you have a lot of control to decide how your life is going to play out. You have the free will to decide what you'll do from day to day, what kind of person you're going to be, what kind of values you'll have, and what goals you'll work toward.

But at the end of the day, when it comes to the big stuff, God's in charge, and he makes the rules--not us. God has decided that we're born, and we die. We can't help that. There will be war and peace in our lives, there will be love and hate. It's up to us to make choices that will help swing the pendulum closer to love and peace than to war and hate, but it's part of the rhythm of life that there will be hard times. We won't always build, we won't always gather, we won't always laugh, we won't always embrace. In order for us to have meaningful times of joy and celebration, in order for us to appreciate the good times, there has to be bad times, too. That's just part of nature.

It's also part of nature that sometimes we'll be productive, and build and plant and gather and keep, and sometimes we'll take a break. Sometimes we'll progress, and sometimes we'll go back a few steps. That might not feel so great while we're going through it, but that's what it's like to grow in this world. That's how God intended for things to work. And even though sometimes we'll suffer and fail, God has a plan for a prosperous future for us. And that's because, above all else,

Rule #2: God loves you.

Even when it's not your time to love, and build, and gather, and heal, and embrace, and find peace. Even during those times when you have to see hate, and war. Even when you have to let go, and pluck up, and throw away. Even when people and things you love die.

God loves you.

We simply don't understand the big picture. God is looking down at the whole book, but over here, earth-side, we can only see one page at a time. We can't see the careful, delicate balance of our world, and we can't see all the wonder of God's works. In short, we don't get it.

Because we don't get it, because there's so much we don't know, and because we can't see the big picture of the plans God has for us, we have to just trust the simple truth that God loves us. In the end, it'll work out. In the end, all things will be worked for good. In the end, all the earth will see God's glory.

When King Solomon wrote these words in the book of Ecclesiastes, he had wisdom enough to see a slightly bigger scope of God's works in this world than we usually can. And he was able to see that God has made us to live in this incredibly intricate world, where, at the end of the day, the good things balance out with the bad things, and create the delicate order of God's creation. If we can appreciate that at all, even a little, then there's only one thing we need to do:

Rule #3: Give thanks to God.

Just acknowledge how much he loves us. Just try to see even the smallest part of the beauty of God's plan for us and our world.

A lot of times, this is as simple as noticing the small stuff. Finding the beauty in something pretty ordinary and saying thanks to God, because even the simple, ordinary things are a gift from him.

This is what both Simeon and Anna do in this morning's Gospel story. They witness something pretty common--Mary and Joseph just had a baby, and they took baby Jesus to be presented in the Temple. That's just what you did when you had a baby. Special to the family, but common.

But Simeon and Anna were both so struck by how special this baby was, that they both felt compelled to bear witness. Jesus was days old and hadn't even done anything yet, but they just knew that this baby would change the world.

To God, the little things are the big things. God sent us a Savior in the form of a baby, and when this Savior grew up he went to the least of these to bring forth the Good News of God's Kingdom.

We don't have to understand everything about God's plan for us. We don't have to understand why the world works the way it does. We can get frustrated and disappointed during the low moments, when we see death and war and loss and don't understand why. God welcomes our frustrations, our doubts, and our questions about why things are the way they are. It's what compels us to act to make our world a better and more loving place.

But understand that even when you can't quite see it, God's grace and love for us abound in this creation of his.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.