hope – Salvaged Faith

The End of the World as we Know it.

Posted on May 1, 2022Leave a comment

Text: Revelation 1:4-8

“It’s the end of the world as we know it… .

It’s the end of the world as we know it…

And I feel fine.”

More than fine, actually.

I feel hope.

I feel promise.

I am clinging to the love of God that is bursting forth alive in this world!

Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed!

As we journey together through this season of Easter, we are going to wade into the elusive and strange revelation shared by John of Patmos.

United Methodist pastor and theologian, Magrey DeVega writes that this book can be used “as a guide to experiencing the resurrected life. John’s vision allows us to see the world, the church, and the Christian life in the way God envisions it: not for how it is, but for how it can be.” (A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series, Vol. 2, p. 197).

The world as we know it, well, it is kind of a mess.

As we lifted up in prayer already this morning, it is a world filled with hunger, violence, oppression, death, disease, and inequality.

I can’t help but think of the opening of the seven seals in Revelation chapter 6, where four horsemen are unleashed with authority “to kill by sword, famine, disease, and the wild animals of the earth.” (6:8)

Persecution and natural disaster are close at hand (6:9-17).

We may not know where to start interpreting or unpacking the verses of these texts, but we don’t have to look far to see the realities they present in moments of crises all around us.

And you see… that is the thing about apocalyptic literature.

It is an unveiling of what is already there.

The Greek word apokaluptein literally means to uncover.

It means to pull back the curtains and let the light in.

It is not necessarily a prediction of the future.

The prophets of our Old and New Testaments spoke God’s truth and power into their time and place as they point to God’s intentions and will for our lives.

It is also a word from the one who is… and who was… and who is coming…

In that sense, they do point towards the future and the kind of actions and behaviors God is calling us to embody as we are formed into God’s people, made into a kingdom, set apart to serve.

The prophets tell us the truth about the world as it is and beckon us to leave it behind…

No, not just that… they promise us that God is in the business of transforming the world as we know it into a new reality, a new creation, a new life centered on God.

Sounds like an Easter kind of story to me.

So why all the strange images and numbers and blood and violence?

What are we supposed to do with all of the weird stuff that we find within the Book of Revelation?

I must confess that our series on Sunday mornings is not going to dive into all of the nitty gritty of every verse and metaphor and vision.

We will skip large sections of this book.

And part of the reason for that is that it would probably take us a couple of years to really take the time in worship to do this right.

But the other reason is that we don’t need all of the details about what this beast looks like or what is in the fourth bowl or what happens when the fourth trumpet sounds to understand the main point of the text.

As the authors of “Crazy Talk” describe it: “No matter how bad it gets, Christ has already emerged victorious and because you are joined in the body of Christ, you will emerge victorious as well.” (Crazy Talk: A Not-So-Stuffy Dictionary of Biblical Terms)

What I can do are give you some tools to help think about and interpret the things that we will encounter as we read this text.

The first tool that I want to give us is a key to decipher the meaning of the weird stuff that we find.

I want you to think of it like a political cartoon.

In newspapers today, you’ll find images of donkeys and elephants and those of us living in the United States today can understand that it is not about animals, but about people and positions.

Take for example this political cartoon from World War II.

It isn’t a literal depiction of a baby fighting a three headed giant… but depicts the U.S. as newly entering the war against the Axis powers, using the tools of our allies. We are familiar enough with the images and dates that we can interpret the meaning.

But if we were looking at a political cartoon from 100 years ago… or from Nigeria or New Zealand… we might have a harder time deciphering the meaning.

Philip Long writes that when we look at texts like Revelation, “we need to cross two different boundaries. We need to study the imagery in the proper time and in the proper culture… put it in the right era…. [and] know the cultural cues implied by the art.” (https://readingacts.com/2012/04/05/revelation-and-apocalyptic-imagery/)

Knowing that the book of Revelation is from the late first century, written on a Greek island in a time where Christians were persecuted by the Roman Empire, we can start to unpack and interpret some of the vivid and dramatic imagery that we find.

Numbers, for example, have meaning.

The number seven represents completion or totality… the sum of all of the heavens (3) and earth (4)… like the seven days of creation

Twelve represents God’s people… three times four… like the twelve tribes of Israel or the twelve apostles.

We can start to see the beasts as the empire of Rome and its allies and the throne is about where power ultimately resides.

The second tool I want to give you is an orientation in time.

I brought with me this morning a commentary on the book of Revelation that lays out at least four different ways that you can approach this text and then provides at least four different interpretations of a verse based on which approach you are taking.

How many of us here have read “The Late Great Planet Earth” or the “Left Behind” series?

Those authors and some preachers that you might have heard on the t.v. or radio, have a future orientation to the Book of Revelation. They believe that it predicts things that will happen, but haven’t yet.

Or maybe that are happening as we speak.

But just as I wouldn’t take that political cartoon from WWII and use the metaphorical imagery to speak of future events, I don’t think this is the orientation we should take towards Revelation.

It might sell, but I’m not sure that it is truly faithful to the text.

And neither do the leading people who study the Book of Revelation.

In his book “Making Sense of the Bible”, Adam Hamilton writes:

“I’ve got ten commentaries on Revelation in my library, written by some of the foremost scholars to study this book, and every one of them holds some combination of the preterist and idealist perspectives. This is in stark contrast to the views of most television evangelists and many conservative preachers, who favor the futurist view. Most mainline scholars see the book as describing events of the author’s day.” (p.285).

Now, he just threw some big words at us, but the “spiritual” or “idealist” view thinks that the book is timeless… that it uses metaphor to talk about how good and evil constantly battle in this world with the promise that God will ultimately win.

The “preterist” view is oriented towards our past and John of Patmos’s present.

John isn’t reading tea leaves or telling the future, he is describing events that are happening as he is writing and speaking about how God is present in the midst of it.

Many scholars hold those two in tension.

They look back to what was happening in the time of John of Patmos… apocalyptic literature after all is about revealing what is there… but believe we can apply the themes of the text to the struggle between God and the powers of the world we experience and remembering that God will ultimately prevail.

This orientation is probably the most helpful to us today as we try to figure out what to do with this strange writing.

Finally, I want to remind you to keep the main thing the main thing.

The text we began with this morning from Revelation is a sort of overview or introduction to the themes that we will discover within the book.

John of Patmos has received a word, a revelation, from Jesus Christ the slaughtered and risen Lamb and is sharing it with the world.

The message is simple: Jesus is coming and he will sit on the throne and the world and all its powers will not.

Our work is to allow God to make us into a kingdom, to serve as priests, and give God praise.

That’s it.

Those are the basics of this entire book and it is the lens we can use to make sense of every verse we read.

The locusts and plagues and persecution… the worst things will never be the last thing.

And we have a choice about whether we will serve God and worship God or if we will choose to throw our lot in with the powers of this world that bring nothing but disaster and death.

And friends, we know the end of the story!

We know how it turns out!

God wins!

Friends, this is a book of hope and love and life!

These aren’t meant to be texts of terror or designed to confuse or scare us.

As Nadia Bolz-Weber writes,

“originally… apocalyptic literature —the kind that was popular around the time of Jesus—existed not to scare the bejeezus out of children so they would be good boys and girls, but to proclaim a big, hope-filled idea: that dominant powers are not ultimate powers. Empires fall. Tyrants fade. Systems die. God is still around.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/03/14/were-in-the-midst-of-an-apocalypse-and-thats-a-good-thing/

The world as we know it… with all its trials and tribulations… is coming to an end, and we are fine.

More than that… we have hope because it is all in God’s hands.

Time to Go

Posted on November 28, 2021Leave a comment

Text: Luke 21:25-36, Jeremiah 33:14-16

Have you ever been at a gathering… maybe with family or with friends… and all of a sudden you didn’t really want to be there anymore?

Maybe you were tired.

Or maybe the conversation became stale.

Maybe they ran out of food or someone said something that offended you.

Or maybe you just knew that you had an early morning planned for the next day and it was time to go.

You wanted to be back home, in comfy clothes, rather than there.

Maybe you had one of those moments in these past few days!

I just hope you aren’t having one right now 😊

Friends, I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

When my husband and I are at a party, or an event, or even just hanging out with family and the time has come to go home… when it’s time to get outta there… we have a secret phrase.

“Tut-tut… looks like rain!”

When either one of us utters those words, we know it is time to start packing up our stuff.

And when I shared that with church members, I quickly learned how many other couples and families have their own secret signs… a look, a poke, a phrase.

The point is… we all know how to look and listen for the signs that it is time to go home.

This Advent at Immanuel is all about going home…

Getting back to that place that is safe and welcoming and comfortable…

Creating that kind of space in our own lives for other people…

And yet, as we dive into this Advent season, the scriptures of this particular lectionary year are far from comforting.

We get a lot of harsh words from the prophets and startling visions of the end times.

Words of judgement and challenge are going to be leaping off the pages at us.

But there are also words of comfort and promise and grace and love.

You see, Advent is a time of preparation.

It is a time of getting ready.

And it is not just about getting ready for the birth of one very special child.

It is about getting ready for how the world is about to turn!

It is about getting ready for the kin-dom that this child will usher in!

It is about how everything changes and shifts and reorients itself because Jesus has been born and because Jesus is about to come again!

And we are longing for that world and that kin-dom.

We are homesick for God’s reign.

We are waiting and yearning for a reality in which there is no more hunger, no more hatred, no more hurt.

And the truth is, we aren’t quite there yet.

But as people who follow Christ… we hold on in hope to the promise that God’s kin-dom is our true home.

Our gospel reading from Luke this morning is what is known as the “little apocalypse.”

If we glance at these words without diving into the context, they sound awfully scary.

Dismay among nations.

Surging waves.

Planets that are shaken.

Fear and foreboding.

But let’s think about these signs in context of that party or gathering that I described just a few minutes ago.

You find yourself a guest at a gathering of the world, but the tables are empty.

The conversation is heated.

The fire is going out.

And you know in your gut that this isn’t your home and it’s time to go.

You want to get out of there.

You want to get home.

But you can’t.

You don’t know how.

In that moment, Luke’s gospel tells us, when everything seems to be falling apart and lost and ruined and the party has been crashed…

That is when Christ will come…

That is when God’s kin-dom will appear…

That is when we will know that we are just about home.

So, in those moments when you are the most homesick…

the most filled with longing…

That is when we need to hang on to hope, because everything that was promised is about to burst forth in life.

We just need to pay attention.

The prophet Jeremiah knew something about being homesick.

He understood what it was like to wish that the world around him was different.

He was called to bring a word of judgment against the people of Judah for their idolatry. They had broken their covenant with God and as a result would face the consequences of their actions.

Jeremiah was called to proclaim a time of famine, defeat, and captivity.

During his prophetic ministry, he witnessed the exile of the Judean leaders, the fall of Jerusalem, and the destruction of Solomon’s Temple.

Trust me… if Jeremiah could have cried out “Tut-tut… looks like rain!” he might have gotten out of there.

But somehow in the midst of that, he didn’t abandon his job and he held on to hope.

He trusted in God’s faithfulness in spite of Judah’s sin and rebellion.

He continued to pay attention to the word of the Lord being spoken in his midst and it allowed him to trust that this place that was an absolute mess could be transformed into home once again.

A home where God’s will would reign.

A home where what is right and just would be done.

In fact, in the chapter before this, the Babylonians are at the gate of the city, attacking it, and yet Jeremiah buys a field as a sign of his hope in what God could do.

Because as God speaks through him, “the days are coming when I will fulfill my promises and a righteous Branch will sprout from David’s line.” (33:14-15 paraphrase).

Jeremiah trusts and believes that God will make a home among them yet.

Both of these passages come to us on this first Sunday of Advent.

And as people of faith, who are trying to walk in the light of Jesus, the world we experience around us surely is not what it should be.

I think about the gun violence here in Des Moines that has tragically taken the life of so many young ones this year.

In the last month, a two-year old child was struck by a stray bullet on the same night a young man named Dean Deng was shot and killed. Deng was part of the Mabaan South Sudanese United Methodist Church here in Des Moines. The week before the death of a fifteen-year old in the King Irving Neighborhood.

Or I think about the increasing food scarcity in our community.

We have a number of volunteers here at Immanuel that have started checking our little food pantry on a daily basis and they stop in my office and tell me about how every day it empties out. Not only do our neighbors need food, but they need gloves and socks for warmth.

This world is not the home that God intends for us.

And we can be so focused on what is wrong…

We can dull ourselves with all of the anxieties of life…

We can be filled with fear and foreboding…

Or… we can start to pay attention for where there is hope.

We can pay attention to where new life is sprouting…

We can stand up and raise our heads and look for where God is inviting us to invest in the kin-dom… our true home.

I am reminded of the importance of our partnership with local schools and organizations like CFUM and all of the ways we help show young people that they are loved and valued and help put them on a different kind of track – one that doesn’t involve guns and violence.

And I think of how we can do our part to fight hunger, but also how we can join with larger efforts like the work of DMARC. DMARC has seen the need grow so much in these last few years that they are moving to larger facilities to care for the needs of our community. This network is such a vital part of how we partner with our larger community in making sure that all who hunger are fed. Because of this, our Christmas Eve offering this year will go towards helping DMARC move into their new home.

Hope, you see, is not passive.

When everything feels like it is falling apart and we get homesick for a better world, that is when God is inviting us to get up and get busy for the kin-dom.

If we want a just world, then we need to admit our part in injustices, repent, and seek another way.

If we want a world where all are healed, then we can do our part in caring for the sick, creating the conditions for health, and preventing disease.

If we want a world where creeks run clean, then we can recycle and advocate for public policies.

If we want a world where all who hunger are fed, then maybe we should start setting the table and inviting others to join us.

There are signs all around us that things are not as they should be.

But rather than signs of doom, they are simply reminders of where God is tugging at your heart and calling you to be the hands and feet of Christ.

Instead of wallowing in our homesickness, we are called to use that hurt deep within as fuel for a better world.

Friends, if you think that this party is a bust and it’s time to go home… then you are right.

Tut-tut. It is time to go.

It is time to go and get to work for the kingdom of God.

With Complete Confidence

Posted on August 29, 2021Leave a comment

Text: Acts 27:1, 9-12, 15, 18, 20-22, 39, 42-43; 28:11a, 16, 30-31

About a month ago, I pulled together some of our church leaders for an evening of conversation and planning about where we are as a church and where we are going.

We started with this image from Rooted Good which simply asks – in the stormy seas of this moment, where do you find yourself?

Are you tossed about by conflicting opinions and information?

Are you riding the waves, or crushed by them?

In the midst of the constant change what is helping the most?

We took some time in small groups to share the stories of what kinds of stormy seas we are sailing through in our own personal lives… the loss of loved ones, of relationships, the concern for aging parents, the health of people we care about… not to mention the pandemic, economic uncertainty, and the swirling chaos of misinformation.

So many of these things are circumstances beyond our control… stormy seas we have no power to tame.

I’ve been sailing through some stormy seas personally, myself.

Over the last six months, my spouse and I have been working to get help for some mental and physical health concerns.

It has been a long process, with a lot of appointments and hard conversations and work.

I wish I could say that everything is okay or that we see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we aren’t there yet.

We are still riding on the choppy waves.

And the truth is, I know that a lot of you are, too.

It is hard and exhausting.

In that Wednesday night conversation with church leaders, we shared our stories of stormy waters but we didn’t just groan and complain.

We turned to scripture and read aloud these words from the Apostle Paul:

… We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. (2 Corinthians 4:7-12)

Goodness… We have found ourselves in that place, haven’t we?

Battered by troubles… not sure what to do… thrown down?

As Paul wrote these words, you can see the faith that keeps him going.

You sense the deep trust he has that even if everything is not okay, it will ultimately work out according to God’s will.

The hope of God’s promises… in restoration, in forgiveness, in truth, in the resurrection, help him to keep going on.

And when I read those words, I find just a little bit of the strength I need to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Paul wrote these words to the church in Corinth three or four years before this shipwreck and journey from today’s reading.

In part, he is talking about the cross that he must bear… which last week we named as the consequences we face when we choose to follow Jesus.

As he continues in his letter:

…What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us. While we’re going through the worst, you’re getting in on the best! (2 Corinthians 4:7-12)

At the end of the Book of Acts, Paul continues to bear that cross, being taken to Rome to stand trial for charges that still aren’t completely solid but boil down to his hope in the resurrection.

He has chosen to follow Jesus… and as Jesus shines through his words and actions, he finds himself facing the same kinds of opposition as his Master.

That itself is enough to bear… but he understood why he was experiencing those difficulties and sees every trial as an opportunity to let Jesus shine through him.

But then there were the other circumstances beyond his control… stormy seas, literally, that could not be tamed.

As our scripture for today opens, Paul is being put on a ship headed for Rome, but as a well-traveled missionary, he knew that it wasn’t safe to travel.

They were late enough into the season that the seas would be too rough for passage.

Much of the early months of the journey were spent traveling along the coastline of the Mediterranean but eventually they must make for open sea.

Paul has enough struggles to deal with – no sense in tempting fate or adding to his difficulty!

So he urges them to winter-over on the island of Crete.

But his guard and the captain of the ship wouldn’t listen to his warnings and chose to set out anyways.

You know, I can’t help but look at this map and think about the countless numbers of refugees fleeing from Syria and Libya who have tried to head north across the Mediterranean to safety.

We saw images of overcrowded and desperate families and even with modern boats many did not survive those rough waters.

Imagine being at sea during the midst of a storm in the most dangerous part of the year with only a wooden boat and sails to protect you.

But Paul knew and trusted that even though danger and trials and storms and chaos surrounded him, God was stronger.

God would rescue them.

God’s promises stand forever.

And so with complete confidence in what God could do, Paul helped the crew to make it through the storm.

It is a miracle Paul and the crew survived.

They found themselves shipwrecked on the island of Malta dependent on the kindness of complete strangers.

But that’s what God does.

Through the difficulties and trials, God shines through.

The Book of Acts seems like it has been building towards a grand climax where Paul eventually stands before Caesar and his story will wrap up with a nice bow.

But that isn’t what we get.

Instead of a trial, we find Paul continuing under house arrest in Rome.

He preaches to the Jewish leaders there, challenging them to open their eyes and ears and hearts to what God is doing.

His door is wide open and without fear, Paul keeps teaching about Jesus.

And then the story ends.

In some ways, it feels like a let down.

We have followed Paul every step of the way of his journey and we want to know what happens next.

But the Book of Acts isn’t a story about Paul.

It is the story of Jesus.

It is the story of how the word and life and message of Jesus travels from Jerusalem… to Samaria… to the ends of the world.

Paul did his part and through ups and downs and good times and bad, he continued to let the Holy Spirit work through him to share that good news.

Now, it’s our turn.

You see, that message continues to spread throughout this world.

Faithful folks carried the good news to right here in Des Moines, Iowa.

We’ve had our share of stormy seas and trials.

We’ve had ups and downs.

We have faced opposition and economic struggles and personal hardship.

But through it all, God has been with us.

And if we turn our hearts and our lives towards Jesus, we experience rescue.

We experience healing.

If we hold on, with confidence, to the hope of the resurrection, we experience abundant life.

It does not mean that the journey will be easy.

It certainly wasn’t for Paul.

And I know that it isn’t for you.

And it hasn’t been for me.

But when we cling to those promises, then as Paul wrote:

And we can keep going, with complete confidence, because Jesus is with us.

Let’s keep telling his story.

No Christmas without Justice and Hope

Posted on November 29, 2020Leave a comment

Text: Genesis 38: 1-30

In Diana Butler Bass’s book, Grounded, she reminds us that our roots are far deeper than our memories.
We are shaped and influenced by generations that have come and gone, whether or not we remember their stories.

In one of my pastoral care classes in seminary we studied family systems and how the patterns and stories of our ancestors influence us today.
We were asked to map out our family tree and to notice how our actions are influenced by the stories we find.
In fact, I brought my own family system with me today… five generations worth of people who lived and loved and died.
I have discovered through this process the strength of matriarchs, the importance we place on loyalty and fidelity, a deep sense of togetherness, but also why I carry such heavy expectations for myself.

However, the story of my identity is not limited to this family tree.
As a person of faith, my ancestral line and spiritual heritage is found all throughout the pages of scripture.
And so during this season of Advent, as we prepare for Christ to make a home in our lives once again, I find myself remembering his own family tree.
Matthew included in his genealogy of Jesus familiar names like Abraham and Judah and David. But he also breaks with custom to specifically name four women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba.
Each week during Advent, we will be exploring their stories to discover how they shape our lives.
How do they ground our sense of purpose and identity?
How do they help us navigate the trials and tribulations of our lives?
How might we call upon these ancestors and their faith in God to help us persevere in our own journey?

Too often, we have neglected their stories and their voices, but this Advent, we will remember each one.
After all, there would be no Christmas without them.
So let’s start where Matthew does:
Abraham was the father of Isaac.
Isaac was the father of Jacob.
Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.
Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar.

Her story begins in Genesis, chapter 38:
6 Judah married his oldest son Er to a woman named Tamar.
If we situate her story in its context, there are some interesting family dynamics to explore.
First of all, there is a pattern in this family of God’s promises being passed down not through the eldest son, but through the favored one.
Trickery and deception is part of this family’s DNA. Abraham lied about Sarah being his wife. Jacob stole the blessing from Esau. In the chapter right before we meet Tamar, Jacob’s sons turn on their sibling Joseph, their father’s favorite.
While some wanted to kill him, Judah, the fourth born, proposed they sell him into slavery but they lie and tell their father Joseph is dead.
As this chapter begins, Judah, like ancestors before him, moves off on his own into Canaanite territory, marries, and has three sons. His seeks to establish his own legacy.
His eldest, Er, marries Tamar, but things are not happily ever after.
7 But the Lord considered Judah’s oldest son Er immoral, and the Lord put him to death.
Tamar is left vulnerable.
She has no children.
She is no longer a virgin.
Her only hope for security comes through a custom of the day called levirate marriage.

It provided a way to care for a widow and continue the family line by requiring the brother of the deceased to step in and produce a son.
But Er’s brother, Onan, was just as bad as his brother.
He refused to plant his seed and complete the task because it would diminish his own inheritance and legacy. Yet, he continued to use Tamar as he pleased.
As Tom Fuerst notes, “Onan makes an active choice to deny Tamar justice and leave her in a position of vulnerability, where her safety, identity, and future remain questionable.” (Underdogs and Outsiders, p. 20)
So, God strikes Onan dead, too.

Under the law, Judah had two options.
He could continue to welcome her in his home, betrothed to his youngest, who was still a child.
Or he could release with an unsandaling ceremony, allowing her the freedom to marry again (Deuteronomy 25:7-10).
He does neither.
He sends her away to live as a widow in her father’s home.
Helen Pearson notes in her book Mother Roots that “as long as Judah had a son, he had no right to turn her away and give her back to her father, an act of total rejection on Judah’s part and an even greater humiliation for Tamar.” (p.56)
She was trapped by an unjust application of the law.
All she could do was wait and hope.
Wait for a child to grow up.
Hope that Judah and Shelah would fulfill their promises.
And so, she waited and hope and prayed for justice.

Years passed.
Shelah became a man, but Judah failed to act.
Rather than sit back and wait and continue to be unjustly treated, Tamar made a decision.
She cast off her widows robes, put on the veil of a virgin, and went to confront him.
Maybe the confrontation itself would remind Judah of what was right and he would take her home to his son, Shelah.
Maybe she was going to press for her release and freedom by spitting in his face and taking off his sandal, as the law allowed.
Either way, there was hope and possibility for justice to be done and for her to be restored.

But Judah doesn’t recognize her.
More than that, he thinks she is a prostitute.
And he is lonely.
He’s far from home, his wife is now dead, no one will know…
And so he propositions her.

I think Tamar’s game plan changes in this moment.
A new possibility for fulfilling the law and bringing about justice comes into being.
As Helen Pearson writes, “With sacred intent Tamar acted to preserve the name and inheritance of her dead husbands, Judah’s sons. Trusting her life to the Lord of the Hebrews, Tamar believed that justice and redemption would come to her.” (p. 60)
She makes a deal with him.
And the payment for her services is secured with a deposit: Judah’s seal, cord, and staff.
They were markers of his identity, “symbols of his authority” (Mother Roots, p. 59), and would create a kind of security for Tamar if in fact this plan works as intended.
It does. Tamar conceives.

Word gets back to Judah that his widowed daughter-in-law is pregnant, and NOW he decides to uphold the law.
The law which required the death penalty for someone having sex outside of marriage.
Conveniently ignoring his own transgressions, he was prepared to condemn her.
But then Tamar produces his seal, his cord, and his staff.
26 Judah recognized them and said, “She’s more righteous than I am, because I didn’t allow her to marry my son Shelah.” Judah never knew her intimately again.
The man who was so quick to judge and condemn is now convicted by her righteousness.
When Tamar gives birth, Judah claims the twin sons as his very own.
A future is secured… not only for Tamar, but for the entire family of Judah.
More than that…
Tamar’s actions are instrumental to God’s plans for the birth of a Savior.

On this first Sunday of Advent, we often focus on hope.
But I am reminded that there can be no hope without the promise of justice.
You see, hope is the force that allows us to keep pursuing what is right in the face of everything that is not.
It is holding on to the possibility that things can and will be different.
We hope because we are unwilling to accept things as they are.
We hope because we believe that there is a future in which dignity and righteousness will prevail.

In the story of Tamar, we discover a situation in which the law designed to provide security and protection was being thwarted.
Judah and Onan and Shelah abandoned the law for their own benefit.
And by refusing to live according to the law, the person it was designed to protect became a victim.
She was forgotten.
Overlooked.
Isolated.
Alone.
Yet she clung to hope.
She remembered God’s promises and God’s laws and worked to bring about God’s justice.
As my colleague, Rev. Elizabeth Grasham writes, “Tamar shines a light into unjust, corrupt, and banal violations of the law and how they hurt women like her and she uses every resource at her disposal to get what she deserves.”

Her legacy became a part of the ministry of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
He called out hypocrisy in the leaders of his time, who used or ignored the law in order to benefit themselves and oppress others.
I think of the story of the woman caught in adultery we find in John 8:1-11.
When she is brought to Jesus by the religious leaders, they wanted to stone her… following the same law that would have condemned Tamar.
But where was the man who had also been involved?
Surely if she had been caught in the act, he had been present as well.
Was this really about the woman, or were they simply using her to make a point and advance their own agendas?
Jesus refuses to play their games and instead confronts their own sinful and guilty hearts.
God’s justice, after all, is not just about getting what we deserve when we have done something wrong.
It is about seeking to restore relationships, repair harm, and rejoice in the dignity of all people.

As we prepare our own hearts and lives for the birth of Christ this year, the story of Tamar invites us to seek justice and to persevere in hope.
Perhaps we have been like Judah: quick to act in our own self-interest without examining how our actions have harmed others.
Advent is a time for us to confess and repent and make things right.
Perhaps we have been like Tamar: forgotten or trapped by situations out of our control.
Advent is a time for us to cling with hope to the promise that God does not forget the downtrodden, but brings about justice for the oppressed.
Perhaps we are simply bystanders in this story, and I am challenged by their own inaction and refusal to name the harm.
Advent is a time for us to use our own voices and bodies to act and bring about the future that we long for, not only for ourselves, but for all of God’s people.
Advent is a time for light to shine on all places of injustice, for truth to be revealed, and hope-filled actions that prepare the way for the child of Mary.
May it be so.

An Altogether Hope

Posted on December 1, 2019Leave a comment

Text: 1 Peter 1: 3-6, 9-15,22

Keep awake! Get ready! Prepare yourselves!
These are the words that fly at us from the scriptures for this first Sunday of Advent.
But get ready for what?
Get yourself ready for the future that God has already prepared for you.
Get ready to embrace the life that Christ is calling you to embrace.
Don’t just go through the motions of basic goodness, basic practices, and basic sincerity…
Prepare yourself to truly and fully live your life for the Kingdom of God.

Over these weeks of Advent, we are going to be exploring John Wesley’s sermon, “Almost Christian,” where he invites us to hold our lives up against the picture of all that God is inviting us to be and become.
Are we there yet?
Are we doing it perfectly?
Of course not.
But if we never take the time to check in and evaluate our lives, we will never do what it takes to take the next step.
So this year, as we get ready for Christmas, we are also getting ready and preparing to receive Christ even more fully into our hearts and our lives.
This year, we will look at what it might take the get ourselves ready to become Altogether Christians, who wholeheartedly trust God and put that trust into action.
Will you pray with me?

How many of you have ever had a bad day? What about a bad week? Or a whole year?
Life is downright tough sometimes. It is unfair. It is cruel.
We finally find the job we have been searching for, and then our spouse gets laid off.
A misunderstanding destroys a friendship.
Natural disasters wipe homes off the map.
Children go hungry.
And sometimes in the midst of all of the problems this world endures we might start to ask a question that my colleague, Sarah Bessey, asked: “How could we possibly enter into Advent if we are paying attention to this world?”
She goes on to say:
“When, in response to every crisis, our communities seem splintered and divided even in how to bind up each other’s wounds and careless words are flung like rocks at our own glass houses? When perhaps we are lonely or bored or tired or sick or broke or afraid? When we are grieving and sad?
In these days, celebration can seem callous and uncaring, if not outright impossible.
But here’s the thing: we enter into Advent precisely because we are paying attention.
It’s because everything hurts that we prepare for Advent…
We don’t get to have hope without having grief. Hope dares to admit that not everything is as it should be, and so if we want to be hopeful, first we have to grieve. First we have to see that something is broken and there is a reason for why we need hope to begin with.
Advent matters, because it’s our way of keeping our eyes and our hearts and our arms all wide open even in the midst of our grief and longing.” (https://sarahbessey.substack.com/p/does-advent-even-matter-when-the)

When I think back on the tough times that I have been through in my life…
as I have listened to folks share their own stories…
what often transforms the despair of grief into the dawning of hope is that we stop being mad and angry and frustrated and we start living into the reality that we believe is possible.
It seems contrite to say that there are two ways of looking at world – either as a glass half-full or a glass half-empty… but maybe it really is as simple as that.
Either the world is a place of darkness or it is a place where the light of God dwells…
Either God has abandoned us or God is working out a plan of salvation…
Either Christ’s work is done or soon and very soon the Son of Man is coming…
Can you hear the difference in those statements?
Are we going to live as a people of hope?
Or are we going to let the grief and frustration overcome us?
That is our choice.
That is why the prophets and the apostles cry out – Keep Awake! Get Ready! Prepare Yourselves!

Hope itself can seem naïve when the world around us is falling apart.
But I turn to scriptures like the one we have read today from 1 Peter, because they remind me that the trials we are experiencing are nothing new.
In the midst of persecution, Peter wrote to early Jewish and Gentile Christians with advice about “how to survive in the midst of a hostile world” (The Rev. Sharon Ann Alexander – CEB Women’s Bible Commentary)
In the midst of their suffering, they are not promised that everything will be better, but they are invited to be born into a living hope.
This hope is not a pie in the sky wish.
It is a hope grounded in the reality that the one we put our faith and trust in has already overcome the reality of execution and death.
And we do not embrace this hope haphazardly.
We place our hope on Christ with minds that are fully sober and thinking clearly.
Or as the Message translation puts it: “Roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that is coming when Jesus arrives.”

And we do that by embracing God’s will, God’s holiness, God’s truth in everything we do.
We do that by putting our faith and trust and hope into action.

The first step, Peter reminds us is to stop living in grief, despair, and the patterns of our lives before Christ.
We need to let go off everything that bogs us down and drains us.
Or as the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 13: we can’t afford to waste a minute, we must not squander these precious hours of daylight in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed!
Think about one thing that you can do differently this Advent season as you prepare for Christmas.
What is something that you can do that will renew your hope and your faith… instead of depleting your energy and your faith?
In our Advent study, “Altogether Christmas,” Ingrid McIntyre reminds us of the difference between almost hope and altogether hope.
“One stands at a distance while the other relentlessly pursues; one offers platitudes while the other dives deep into the hopelessness of a situation and offers light in the darkness – light that grows and grows and grows.” (p. 42)
Instead of spending hours shopping for perfect present, could you go to someone who is struggling and spend that time with them, offering hope and light into their life?

The next step is to keep God in the center of all we do.
Sometimes, in our frustrating times, in the days that seem without hope, we turn our backs on God.
We look for salvation in all the wrong places.
We look for things that will make us feel better, self-medicating with alcohol or shopping sprees or social media.
We turn towards the darkness and yell at it for being so dark.
And we continue to feel alone, and empty, and lost.
But instead, when we reconnect with the very one who gave us new birth as a living hope… when we love and trust and believe and rejoice in this God even on the tough days… then the very same power that raised Christ from the dead fills up our lives and gives us the strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
So find some time this Advent to spend in devotion and prayer. Take some time to reflect on those questions from the sermon “Almost Christian.” Let the Spirit of Christ fill your heart.

Finally, we need to embrace the truth that hope is not just a sentiment, but an action we are called to embrace with every fiber of our being.
In her article, Sarah Bessey writes that “Advent holds the truth of what is right now up to the truth of what was and what will be.”
As our Advent study, “Almost Christmas,” reminds us:
“John Wesley saw and experienced the same society problems as others, but instead of accepting them, he raised hell about them so that just maybe a few neglected others could experience hope… the Church of England wasn’t living up to the church Wesley saw described in the scriptures. [so] Wesley became prophetic hope for the church.”
“Hope came when a group of people were unwilling to stay silent, who weren’t afraid to stand up and say, ‘We just can’t do this anymore.’… “Instead of just saying the words, ‘thy kingdom come,’ Wesley let God embody the hope of those words through his flesh.” (p50-51)
This Advent, find ways to let the hope of God come alive in your flesh.
Sponsor a family for Christmas.
Speak out against immigration policies that are hurting families.
March for the climate crisis.
Visit our homeless neighbors.
Fill the food pantry with donations…
Whatever it is that is breaking your heart… whatever it is that you are grieving… find a way to hold it up to the truth of what God desires for that situation and get ready to do something about it.
Make hope real with your arms and legs and feet.
Then, maybe God’s altogether hope will be born into this world once again.

The Wilderness: God Provides

Posted on April 14, 2019Leave a comment

Text: Deuteronomy 29:2-6, Mark 1:12-14

A few years ago, I was asked to plan worship for our semi-annual clergy gathering. My team had everything arranged and ready to go. I just had to make sure to arrive early enough in the morning that I could meet with the technical engineer to set up the microphones and other electronics we would need that morning.
At this point in my life, I was not a morning person. And in order to get halfway across the state, I had to be out the door of my house by 5:30 am.
The alarm went off at 5:00.
I turned it off and promptly pulled the covers back over my head.
Every fiber of my being wanted to go back to sleep. So I did.
Notice, I didn’t hit the snooze button. I turned the alarm off, and fell back to sleep.
Ten minutes later, something woke me up.
Whether it was the rustle and squacks of the birds in the tree, or a cat pouncing on my legs in the bed or just some kind of internal switch – I woke up.
And I remember very distinctly taking a deep breath and saying – thank God.
I didn’t mean it in an offhand, irreligious kind of way.
I was grateful to God that I had woken up.
I was grateful to God that although my body was not ready or willing, God was making sure I was going to be able to answer the call I had received.
I was grateful to God, because God provided.

How many of you have heard of the word “providence”?
What exactly does “providence” mean?
The word originally comes from the Latin providentia – and has to do with foresight, prudence, the ability to see ahead. So when we talk about God’s providence – we think of God’s ability to provide for, to direct, to shape the future.
Martin Luther understood providence to be both the direct and indirect work of God in the world. Not only does God provide the good things we need for human life – but God also works through family, government, jobs, and other people. “We receive these blessings not from them, but, through them, from God.”
John Wesley in his sermon “On Divine Providence,” speaks of the care that God has for all of creation and claims, “Nothing is so small or insignificant in the sight of men as not to be an object of the care and providence of God, before whom nothing is small that concerns the happiness of any of his creatures.”
It is intimately related to his idea of prevenient grace, in that God has already laid the foundation for all people to come into a saving relationship with God.
And so, providence is the way that God cares for the universe – upholds the universe – and also the special ways that God extraordinarily intervenes in the lives of God’s people.

Throughout this journey through the wilderness, God’s providence has been all around.
We have remembered together that our ancestors were a stubborn and rebellious people.
They witnessed miracles!
They were released from bondage in Egypt…
they passed through the Red Sea…
they were led through the desert by cloud and light…
they were fed by manna and quail…
they drank pure clear water from rocks in the midst of the wilderness…
and yet they doubted and tried to go their own way.
Yet they did not, could not, would not believe that God would continue to provide.
God did.
The words shared with us in the book of Deuteronomy come from the end of a forty year journey through the wilderness.
For forty years… longer than I have been alive… God led them. God fed them. God provided.
As Moses reminds the people on the edge of these promised land:
You couldn’t make bread or ferment wine because you were not in a place where you could raise grain or grapes… you had to rely upon God and God provided.
The clothes and sandals that you are wearing come from the same fabric and resources you had when you fled from Egypt… and they have protected you from the elements for all of these years.

I meant to bring it today because this piece of clothing is a sermon in and of itself, but my husband still has a t-shirt from elementary school that he wears.
We think the shirt is just over twenty-five years old, but since it hasn’t fallen apart completely, he refuses to add it to the rag pile.
When he worked in the Amana factory, he cut the sleeves off making it sleeveless.
The fabric itself is so worn that it is nearly see-through.
Now, it has become a staple of our summer adventures on the boat and we joke that the shirt has a Sun Protection Factor of 15.

When I think about the wear and tear on that one item of clothing that is worn only a dozen or so times a year, I am astonished by the way God provided for the Israelites all throughout that journey in the wilderness.
There were not laundromats or department stories in the Sinai.
No places to trade or barter for the raw materials.
Just the cloth and creatures they had when they fled from Egypt.
What little they had sustained them for forty years.
God clothes the lilies of the field (Matthew 6:25-34) and God clothed the Israelites in the wilderness.
Why do we doubt God will provide for us?

For most of our season of Lent, we have explored how Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness echoes the journey of the Israelites. Faced with some of the same trials and temptations, he shows us how to trust in God and not seek our own way.
Mark’s account of this time is very different however.
The entirety of his journey is summed up in one single verse:
“He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.” (1:13)
Matthew, too, pulls out that final detail in his account, tell us that when the devil left, angels came and took care of him.
God shows up again in the wilderness.
And God provides.
God cares for and tends to every need of Jesus during this liminal time.
Food, water, protection from those wild creatures, companionship.
God provides.

And as our Palm Sunday account reminds us, God is providing at the end of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem as well.
Before they even get to the city, the colt is ready.
It is tied up just where Jesus tells the disciples it would be.
And the strange and wonderful part of this account is that when they tell the owner that it is the Master who needs it, there are no more questions!

As they enter the city, the disciples break into song, shouting “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”
And when the Pharisees grumble and complain, begging Jesus to tell them to be quiet lest they make a scene and disturb the Romans, Jesus tells them that this awareness of God’s blessing and providence in their midst is so powerful, so noticeable, that if the disciples closed their mouths the very rocks of the earth would start to shout!

And we cannot forget that this entrance into Jerusalem is the beginning of another act of providence in our lives.
For the rest of the journey this week takes us through the gates, to the upper room, the garden, the trial and ultimately to the cross.
In the very life and death of Jesus, God has provided a way for us to be reconciled… to our sin, to one another, to creation, and to ultimately, to God.

Over and over again in the Psalms, we are asked to tell the coming generations about the glorious deeds of God.
We want them to set their hope in God and to know that God will provide for their future.
But I think this act of proclamation is also for us.
When we remember how God has already provided, we find confidence for our future.

Our denomination, the United Methodist Church is wandering through the wilderness right now and we aren’t sure where the end of our journey will be.
But this past week, I gathered with others in Atlanta to celebrate that we have been in mission together for 200 years.
200 years ago, a free black man named John Stewart was a drunk and penniless and falling apart. But one night on the way home, he heard singing and he stumbled into a Methodist revival happening in the woods. His life was forever changed.
And then he heard God call him to head northwest and share to share the good news.
He found himself among the Wyandotte Nation and our first Missionary Society was formed on April 5, 1819 in order to support Stewart and those who would come in this work.
For 200 years, people have set out to share the love of God with complete strangers, and God provided.
They made mistakes along the way, but God provided mercy and forgiveness and we have learned from their journeys.
They encountered opposition, racism, sexism, the death of loved ones, hunger… but they kept going because God provided them strength.

As I heard their stories this past week, it was a reminder that even in times of uncertainty and change, hardship and conflict, God is in our midst.
Even in the wilderness…. Maybe especially in the wilderness… God is providing us with the things that we need to keep going.
When we remember all of the ways that God has worked in the past, we find the ability to have faith and to trust that God will continue to be there providing for our future.
Thanks be to God. Amen.

Surrounded #gc2019

Posted on February 22, 20191 Comment

I’ve been here in St. Louis for two days now because of some committee responsibilities and it is hard to imagine that we are here and ready to get started. We have been talking about this special called conference for a long time. And a big part of me really just wants to be on the other side. To know what the answer will be. To know what everyone needs to do next.

But between now and then, there is an awful lot to do.

There will be disagreements.
There will be harmful words.
There will be tears and laughter.
There will be frustration.
There will be moments we get mired down in the minutiae of Robert’s Rules instead of the movement of the Holy Spirit.

But I also know and am surrounded with glimpses of holiness and resurrection and hope.

I’ve shared meals and broken bread with colleagues from across the world as we talk about what we see and experience in our local churches and the hopes we have there. I hear all around me the excitement of disciple-making and the way people have been pushed into having deeper conversations and engagement with scripture because of this work. We all know that the church will be forever changed by whatever happens… and we know that God is doing and will continue to do amazing things in our communities and that work does not stop because the institution makes a decision. We are surrounded by fields of ministry, just waiting to be harvested.

I’ve stopped and talked with a few homeless guys on the streets. It’s not as cold as it is back in Iowa, but the air is still frigid. As I think about our local church work with Joppa, I’ve been ever more aware of these neighbors among us who so often are disregarded and avoided. So I’m pushing myself to stop and listen and look these folks in the eyes. It was good to be able to share my leftover pizza with Ben and to talk about the day with Clint. We are surrounded by people who long to be seen and to know that God loves them… whether they are homeless, or speak another language, or because of their gender identity or sexual orientation.

I’ve spent more time than I should on my phone… but facebook and twitter and email has been filled with an outpouring of love and support and encouragement. I’ve read posts that really are more like love letters to their denomination – urging us to be the best we can be and reminding us of who we are. I’ve read posts from colleagues from other denominations who just want to let us know that they are in prayer for us. Even some of my fellow gym members have reached out with encouragement and prayers, even though we haven’t ever talked about more than deadlifts and insane cardio. I’ve had people reach out to ask how they can offer support from afar and even had a care package show up in my hotel room from our fledgling, ecumenical “millennial minister” group in Des Moines. We are surrounded by people who are praying with us and who will walk with us long after this conference is over.

And I’m amazed at how quickly relationships form and friendships that sustain time and distance are born. I went up in the St. Louis Arch this morning with members of my Committee on Reference – this quiet little committee that had such important work to do this year. We bonded in a unique way over those days and it was wonderful to have some fun together. But I also have had time to visit and greet and hug people that I served with at General Conference in 2016, or the North Central Jurisdictional Committee on the Episcopacy, or Global Ministries, and as we looked across the room we saw those familiar faces and had to reach out. I even chatted for a few minutes with a colleague from Iowa with whom I disagree about desired outcomes from this weekend and our desire to remain friends no matter what happens… but what it has reminded me is that we are surrounded by love and compassion and grace, even if/when we aren’t sure we agree about who and what the church should be about.

The Redemption of Scrooge: Keeping Christmas Well

Posted on December 24, 2018Leave a comment

Text: Luke 2: 8-20

Over the four weeks of Advent, we have been exploring together in worship the story of Ebenezer Scrooge captured in A Christmas Carol.
Scrooge is a bitter, lonely man whose “soul is as frigid as the bleak midwinter air.” The only friend he had was dead, and Scrooge might as well be dead for all of the living he is doing.
But on Christmas Eve, the ghost of his friend and business partner, Marley, shows up with a dire warning – change your life or you will end up like me.
Over the night, three spirits visit Scrooge. The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come.
Ebenezer Scrooge is transported to his past and reminded of the loneliness of his childhood, but also those moments of joy that he has forgotten.
He is invited to look around him at the present lives of people like his nephew, Fred, and his employee Bob Cratchit and family. He sees the bleakness of their lives, but also the immense joy they find in the simple things.
And finally, he is taken to the future by a silent Spirit and given a glimpse of his own demise. More than that, he sees the possible outcomes of lives that had only just captured his attention – the loss of Tiny Tim Cratchit.
The visits over the night shake him to his core and Scrooge is transformed. He vows that he will live with the Spirit of Christmas in his heart.

Like Scrooge, we, too, have come to Christmas.
If you are anything like me, these past few weeks have been a blur of preparation, purchasing gifts, wrapping presents, baking treats, and traveling to be with friends and family.
The build up to this special time of year is chaos and when we finally get here, we collapse in a heap.
By the time the tree is out on the curb and the nativity is packed away, we start to wonder what it all was for. The kids head home, or we go back to work and school, and we might not even know Christmas arrived, aside from the new gadgets and the extra pounds.

Perhaps, we, like Scrooge, need to learn how to keep Christmas well.

After a night of ghostly visits, Scrooge vows to live his life differently.
He is changed and he wants to make changes in the world.
He wakes up on Christmas morning filled with the Christmas Spirit and he runs from the house, intent on sharing it with every person he meets.
He goes out and buys the biggest turkey he can find for the Cratchit family.
He shouts words of joy to strangers on the street.
He even, finally, accepts the invitation to come and dine at his nephew Fred’s house.

But the amazing thing about the Christmas spirit that fills his heart is that it doesn’t fade when the decorations come down.
No, he allows it to seep into his pores.
As Matt Rawle, author of The Redemption of Scrooge, writes: “Scrooge makes good on his promise, becoming like a second father to Tiny Tim, and a good friend, master, and man to the city he once scorned. It was said thereafter that he ‘knew how to keep Christmas well.’”

Scrooge’s story actually reminds me of the shepherds in the field to whom the angels appeared on that night so long ago.
They, too, were visited by beings that forever changed their lives.
They were invited to discover new truths about themselves and the world around them.
And Luke tells us that this one special night forever changed their lives.
Everywhere they went, and to every person they met, they spread the good news about what the angels had told them about this special child.
They were transformed from simple shepherds, lowly in status, to bearers of good news to the world.
Luke tells us that the shepherds let loose – glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen.
They learned to keep Christmas and keep it well.

What does it mean to keep Christmas well today?
Maybe our clues lie right here in the Advent wreath.
As we lead up to this night each one of these candles reminds us of the Spirit of Christmas that we are to carry with us all year long.

We keep Peace, by forgiving those who have wronged us and sharing comfort with those who are struggling.
We keep Hope, by trusting that God has our future in his hands and offering encouragement to those who are unsure.
We keep Love by sharing God’s presence with strangers and friends, showing up in their lives in real relationships.
And we keep Joy by letting go of our fears and shifting our attitudes towards one of gratitude and simple expectation.
It means that we embrace the awe of the shepherds who kept proclaiming the story, long after the star and the angels left the sky.
It means we keep accepting the invitation to be in relationship with God… not just on this evening, but every day of our lives.