Jesus Christ – Salvaged Faith

Mary the Tower?

Posted on September 5, 2022Leave a comment

Text: Luke 8:1-3, 24:1-11, John 11

As summer draws to a close, we have spent time learning more about some bold characters from our Holy Bible.

They weren’t perfect and in many cases there was nothing all that special about them.

And yet, they were called to stand up, to lead, and to act in ways that were only possible because God was with them.

Today, we get to dive into the story of a woman that maybe we all think we know.

I’m curious… when you hear the name Mary Magdelene… what is the first thing that comes to your mind…

Go ahead and shout out your answers…

In my dictionary of women in scripture, Mary Magdelene is identified as “Mary #3” and the author of her entry, Carolyn Osiek describes her as: “the most famous of Jesus’ women disciples and the one who has been most misinterpreted in Christian history.” (p. 120)

What does scripture actually say about her?

In the passages we heard from this morning, we find Mary Magdalene listed among the women who traveled with Jesus and the twelve disciples.

She is specifically named as someone, “from whom seven demons had gone out,” (Luke 8:2), but also as someone who had her own wealth.

These women were not groupies or even paid to travel and support the men, but it mentions that they ministered out of their own resources.

We also heard from Luke that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb to care for the body of Jesus and was a first witness to the resurrection along with a couple of other women.

Her presence that morning is repeated by Matthew, Mark, and John.

John, however, has a slight adaptation. He places those women standing at the cross, but only Mary goes to the tomb that morning.

She has an encounter with Jesus where she mistakes him at first for the gardener and that lovely hymn, “In the Garden” recounts how much she wanted to tarry there in the presence of the resurrected Christ.

Now… How many of you remember Mary Magdalene as the woman who washed Jesus feet?

All four gospels recount this incident and she is often depicted with a vessel of ointment… but is she in the actual bible as doing so?

In Matthew 26 and Mark 14, an unnamed woman comes to him at a man named Simon’s house in the town of Bethany and this anointing is connected to the transition to his trial and execution… preparing him for burial.

Luke places the story in a different context and place, near the beginning of his ministry in chapter 7. He doesn’t name her either, although Luke adds the detail that she was a sinner. What kind of sinner? It doesn’t say, but we tend to assume that she was a prostitute even though the text does not indicate that.

Only John’s gospel includes a name… Mary, the sister of Lazarus and Martha. Note, this IS in Bethany again, which seems to be in line with Matthew and Marks accounts, although it is Lazarus’ home (John 12). And, this encounter follows chapter 11, where Jesus comes to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead and interacts with Mary and her sister Martha.

And yet, over and over in art, this woman is connected with Mary Magdalene.

And part of that is because in medieval times, some religious leaders like Pope Gregory the Great conflated several women in scriptures all together… including the women caught in adultery, the sinner who anointed Jesus feet, and the Mary we know is from Bethany.

Scholars like Hugh Pope, however, actually agree with this identification of Mary in John 11 with Mary Magdalene because of the central role that she plays in the gospel of John and the praise that Jesus bestows upon her.

What throws a wrench in all of this is when we assume that Mary Magdalene means Mary from a place named Magdalene… like we might think of Jospeh of Arimathea.

However, Luke actually helps us here.

In the Greek passage of Luke, it makes clear that this Mary is called Magdalene.

Not that she is from a place named Magdala or Migdal, but she is named and regarded in this way.

Much like others in this day have nicknames… like Simon who is called Peter, the Rock.

Or Thomas, who is called Didymus, the Twin.

We aren’t actually sure where a village named Magdala or Migdal might even have existed in this time… but magdala in Aramaic means tower or great.

So is Mary of Bethany simply called, Mary Magdelene? Mary the Tower?

To throw a deeper wrench into the conversation, I want to share with you some recent scholarship on John’s gospel and this woman, Mary of Bethany.

I am just learning about this myself, so I am drawing on an account that religious historian and author Diana Butler Bass shared at the end of July at the Wild Goose Festival. (https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/mary-the-tower)

She tells the story of Elizabeth Schrader, who is a doctoral student of the New Testament at Duke University.

Schrader was an active person of faith, but didn’t set out to be a scholar.

However, “one day Libbie walked into a church garden in the city of New York seeking refuge from the city, and sat down to pray. And as she prayed, she heard a voice and the voice said, ‘Follow Mary Magdalene.’”

She thought this was a bit strange, but she listened.

She wrote a song about Mary Magdalene.

She decided to learn more.

And eventually she found her way to seminary and started a master’s program in New Testament studies.

Her final thesis was on John 11 and Mary Magdalene and her professor invited her to look at some of the earliest texts we have.

That is how Elizabeth Schrader found herself sitting with a digital copy of Papyrus 66. Butler Bass describes it as “the oldest and most complete text we have of the gospel of John… dated around the year 200,” and that it “had been sitting in a library for a very, very, very, very long time.”

She uses her newfound knowledge of Greek and reads the first sentence.

Now… here is what my New Revised Standard Version says:

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (11:1)

But that’s not what Schrader saw on this very, very, very, old page.

It read… translated to English:

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and his sister Mary.

What is more, Schrader could see on the manuscript markings of how someone had gone in and tried to change it. His was changed to her. The second Mary in that line (Maria in the Greek) was changed to Martha… as one letter was written over.

At some point, someone had altered the oldest version we have of the gospel of John and split the character of Mary into two.

As Schrader kept reading, in John 11 and 12, in other places where it reads Martha, it originally said Mary.

Where it reads “sisters” it read “sister.”

Pronouns are changed.

And it isn’t just in Papyrus 66. She has discovered evidence of this in other ancient documents as well. (https://today.duke.edu/2019/06/mary-or-martha-duke-scholars-research-finds-mary-magdalene-downplayed-new-testament-scribes)

The repetition of actions and statements might not indicate actions by two different sisters, but a textual reiteration or duplication.

Schrader’s research as a master’s student has proven that the version of John’s gospel we have in our Bible’s today is different from earlier translations which have been altered.

Harvard Theological Review asked to publish her thesis as an article.

And what is more, the Nestle-Aland Translation Committee of the Greek New Testament asked her to come and present her findings to them.

Butler Bass describes this group as “a whole bunch of very old German men who have spent their entire lives making sure the Bibles that we have in English and all the other languages around the world are the closest and most precise Bibles that we can get to the original manuscripts.”

And right now, they are deciding whether or not Schrader’s research should become a new footnote or if we need to actually change John 11 and John 12 and take Martha out.

Now, Luke’s gospel has a Mary and Martha who are sisters. This is the story where Martha is ministering and busy and her sister, Mary, sits at Jesus feet. No mention of a brother, nor being in Bethany.

We aren’t talking about this family.

But in John’s gospel, we are discovering might never have been a Martha.

Why does this matter?

It matter’s because there are only two people in the gospels who confess Jesus is the Messiah.

The first is from Peter… Simon Peter… the Rock.

In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Peter says: “You are the Messiah, the son of the Living God.”

And Jesus replies, “You are Peter, upon this rock I will build my church.”

In John’s gospel, this happens right before the resurrection of Lazarus.

And the person who says it in our Bible’s today is this sister, Martha.

“Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, the one who is coming into the world.” (11:27, CEB).

However, manscripts by Tertullian – a Christian author from the second century, about the time Papyrus 66 is from… indicate this confession was by Mary.

In her paper, Schrader concludes with some important questions:

“Who exactly added Martha to this story, and why? Is it possible that one very important figure in the Fourth Gospel has been deliberately split into three?” (p. 52, “Was Martha of Bethany Added to the Fourth Gospel in the Second Century?” https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10161/18592/Schrader%2018.May.2016.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y)

Later traditions and writings around Mary Magdalene describe her as an important disciple, a leader, a spokeswoman.

The kind of woman that we see in Luke 8 who is traveling as an important figure alongside the disciples.

The research that is being done today is leading us to see her as more of a central figure within the gospel of John as well.

I want to close with how Diana Butler Bass understands these implications:

Is it really true that the other Christological confession of the New Testament comes from of the voice of Mary Magdalene? That the Gospel of John gives the most important statement in the entirety of the New Testament, not to a man, but to a woman, and to a really important woman who will show up later as the first witness to the resurrection.

You see how these two stories work together. In John 11, Lazarus is raised from the dead, and who is there but Mary Magdalene? And at that resurrection, she confesses that Jesus is indeed the son of God. And then you go just 10 chapters later and who is the person at the grave? She mistakes him, at first, thinks he’s the gardener. She turns around and he says, ‘Mary,’ and she goes, ‘Lord.’ It’s Mary Magdalene.

…Mary is indeed the tower of faith. That our faith is the faith of that woman who would become the first person to announce the resurrection. Mary the Witness, Mary the Tower, Mary the Great, and she has been obscured from us… This is not a Dan Brown novel. This is the Nestle-Aland Translation Committee of the Greek New Testament. This is the Harvard Theological Review. This is some of the best, most cutting edge historical research in the world.

Who was Mary Magdalene?

At one time, she had been possessed by demons, but they were cast out.

She was wealthy enough to support herself and the ministry of others.

She was a disciple of Jesus.

She knew him to be her Lord.

She was the first witness to the resurrection.

And more and more we are coming to understand that she might have been that sister of Lazarus, who sent word for Jesus to come and heal her brother, and who confessed that he was the Messiah.

The woman who in John 12 hosted a dinner and anointed his feet with nard.

We are starting to discover that she might be a central figure in the Gospel of John and not merely one among many minor female characters.

And for anyone who struggles to see themselves among the followers of Jesus depicted there…

For anyone who doubts the role of women in the church, especially in leadership…

Well, this is a big deal.

The Army of the Lamb

Posted on May 15, 2022Leave a comment

Text: Revelation 7:9-17

Today in worship, we confirm and welcome twelve new professing members of our congregation and of God’s church. They will stand before us, confess their faith in Jesus, and promise to serve him in union with the Church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races.

These twelve young people are taking their place as servants of God, followers of the Lamb, members of God’s kingdom.

They are joining in the multitude of those who are standing before the Throne.

In this Easter season, we are exploring together the powerful message of hope and new life that we find in the Book of Revelation.

It isn’t a book that we read a lot, probably because it is full of cryptic language and messages.

In fact, in the creed that our confirmands wrote, they describe the Bible as “confusing at times…” and this is a sacred text that even I, your pastor, have a hard time figuring out.

But as our students also proclaim, when we study God’s word, we are challenged and we grow in our faith and understanding.

What we have discovered so far in our study of this text are a couple of simple truths.

First – This is a book of hope with one consistent message: “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.”

No matter where we look, no matter what chapter, this message helps us understand what we might read.

Second – as we talked about last week – the Book of Revelation also tells us about how God will transform the world as we know it into the world that God intends:

Not through violence and destruction, but through the sacrificial love of the Lamb.

Only the Lamb is worthy.

Only the Lamb is able.

https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/revelation-1-11/

As part of the message last week, I talked about these three cycles of seven that we find in the scriptures: the seven seals of the scroll, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls.

In this rendering from the Bible Project, we get a glimpse of how these three cycles repeat and overlap.

Each cycle starts with destruction and devastation – but the message that follows is a reminder that destruction and devastation will not transform the hearts of the people of this world.

People continue to be persecuted and suffer, hearts are hardened, the nations will not repent, everyone and everything is caught up in the chains of evil and by spiritual forces of wickedness.

What we need is someone to break the chains of sin and death and set us free.

Only the Lamb is worthy.

Only the Lamb is able.

Only the Lamb can lead us to the Day of the Lord and usher in the new heavens and the new earth.

But here is the thing… when the Lamb confronts the beastly forces of the world, he does so not with violence, but with love. With faithfulness. With sacrifice.

His robes are stained with blood… not from his enemies, but his own blood given for others.

His only weapon is a sword that comes from his mouth… a word of judgment and redemption.

There is no fight, only victory, and the army of the Lamb simply sings in praise.

In each of these three cycles, we find not just the Lamb, but we also find those who are faithful.

Chapter Seven describes the diverse community of the ones who are sealed, or baptized – and who follow the Lamb.

This group shows up again in repeating images of a battle between the beastly forces of evil, power, and oppression and the Lamb (12-14, 16-20).

Chapter Eleven describes two faithful witnesses, called “lampstands” – an image John has already told us is a symbol of the church. These witnesses show us the mission of the church – to imitate the loving sacrifice of the Lamb – even to death – and share God’s love and mercy with the world.

Today, as our confirmands profess their faith, we are going to look at what our job is as those followers of the Lamb and servants of God. So what, in all of this, is the role of the church?

With forces of evil and natural disasters and disease and death all around us – what is our role?

First – we have to make a choice.

God wants to make us into a kingdom, but that means that as individuals and communities, we need to reject the kingdoms of this world.

Rather than compromise and give in to the national, economic, and spiritual forces of the world, we are called to declare our allegiance to the Lamb.

And one of the ways we do that is through our baptism and our confession of faith.

Our baptism is described as a seal upon our foreheads, a mark of God’s love in our life.

It stands in contrast to the mark of the beast – or the ways we declare our allegiance and support of the powers of this world.

When we join the church, we stand in public and we renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of our sin.

But we don’t have to do that alone.

You see, we also accept the freedom and power God gives us to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.

War, famine, and disease?

Natural disasters?

Beastly forces?

Hate crimes and white supremacy?

Peer pressure?

Temptation?

Persecution?

“Who is able to stand?” the people of the world cry out when they are surrounded by the forces of destruction (Revelation 6:17).

The people of God can.

And that is because the Holy Spirit lives within us.

Because we have fixed our eyes upon the Lamb.

Because we chosen the way of love and mercy.

Second – once we’ve made that choice, we can be witnesses to all of the world of how God intends for us to live.

We are called to embody diversity, equality, and praise.

Last week, I talked about how John of Patmos heard one thing and then saw another.

He heard that the Lion of Judah would be the one to save us, but when he looked, he saw a lamb that was slain.

In the same way, chapter seven starts with one of these reversals.

John HEARS that the people who are sealed, who have chosen to serve God number one hundred forty-four thousand, and come from the twelve tribes of Israel.

He HEARS a sort of military census describing one ethnic group.

But then he LOOKS.

And as our scripture for this morning tells us, he SEES more people than anyone could count.

And they aren’t all the same.

They come from every nation, every tribe, every people.

It is a vision of Pentecost and Palm Sunday all rolled into one with the multitude before the throne waving palm branches and crying out their praises.

John SEES the church that Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races.

He has a vision of a community, as Magrey DeVega writes, “where all people, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, age, socioeconomic status, and background are included in this grand cosmic party.”

When we follow the Lamb, we work to become a community that welcomes all people and who intentionally reaches out and keeps expanding our circle of welcome.

But there is something unique about this diversity.

There is also a sense of equality.

Rather than clothed in their own garments, they are all robed in white.

There is no distinction between them.

No one is more important.

No one is above anyone else.

John has a vision of a community that acts, again in the words of DeVega, as “servants to one another, considering each other as equals, treating others as we would want to be treated ourselves.”

When our young people join the church today, they might not yet be able to drive, but they are just as much a part of the professing membership of this church as those of you who have been members for 65 years.

We are all called to do our part, to use our gifts.

And we are all called to celebrate and encourage and lift up the value and dignity of one another.

When we follow the Lamb, we work to become a community that reaches out to a world of hierarchy and division to proclaim that all are equal and all are children of God.

This community also has one more witness to offer to the world.

It is a community of praise.

They wave palm branches.

They fall before the throne.

They cry out in worship.

When they show up again in later chapters, they do so with music and song.

All of them are focused on the throne and the Lamb of God.

It is a vision of a church that DeVega describes as “clear about its priorities. Not becoming more club-like, but more Christlike… a church that directs the world toward the glory of the risen Jesus.”

In our vows of membership, we don’t just confess our faith in Jesus, but we promise to serve as Christ’s representatives in the world.

We commit to being living witnesses to the gospel, the good news of Jesus.

Now, you might do that through song or through words, but it might also be through your actions.

It might be through the attitude you bring to your work or the way you encourage others in your school.

It might be through the offerings we lift up for UMCOR that are used to make a difference in the lives of people around the world.

But in all that we do… inside and outside of the walls of this church… we do so in the name of Christ.

And part of what we proclaim is the truth of God’s will for us.

We read about it this morning at the end of chapter 7.

We believe God’s will for all people is that there would be no more hunger or thirst…

No more hardships or difficulty…

No more grief or tears…

And whenever we respond to natural disasters, or support refugees fleeing from war, or to visit with a family that is grieving, we are turning those praise and prayers into action.

When we follow the Lamb, we work to become a community that helps others to experience the love and mercy of God.

What we don’t find in these chapters is a promise that once you are baptized or sealed or become a member of the body of Christ that everything is going to be easy.

We are not immune to the challenges of this life.

Instead, we find we have the strength to go through whatever might come at us.

We can stand in the midst of it all, like a lighthouse, a beacon, a lampstand, giving others hope and strength.

And we do so together.

With one another and with God by our side.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

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.

UMC 101: The Local Church & Membership

Posted on February 27, 2022Leave a comment

Text: 2 Corinthians 3:12-13, 3:18-4:1, 5-6; Book of Discipline 201-204, 214-221

Over the last seven weeks, we have explored together some of the foundational beliefs and practices of the United Methodist Church.

Our focus on grace and faith put into practice.

The call to reach out and share the love of God with all people.

A charge that makes room for difference and invites us to use our brains and celebrates diversity.

All grounded and centered in the core of Christian tradition… praising the God of all creation who became flesh and lived and died so that we might truly know life and who continues to empower us by the Holy Spirit.

As we come to the close of this series, we also come to a transitional date on the Christian calendar: This Sunday before the season of Lent is Transfiguration Sunday.

It is the day that a few of the disciples retreated with Jesus to a mountain top and witnessed the glory of God.

They experienced for themselves the very presence of God, radiating with light, in the person of their rabbi, Jesus.

He shone like the sun and they could hardly take it in… much like Moses before them.

Moses, too, had been to the mountaintop.

He had spent time in the presence of God and for more than just an afternoon.

In the account of Exodus 34, Moses spends forty days and forty nights with the Lord learning about the covenant God wanted to make with the people.

Exodus 34:29 tells us that when Moses came back down from the mountain, his face was radiant. He shone and reflected the glory and the presence of God. But the people were afraid and so he put a veil over his face (34:33).

The Apostle Paul picks up on this idea in his second letter to the church in Corinth.

He describes the law of Moses as a ministry of condemnation, because as individual human beings we couldn’t live up to what it asks of us.

That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a reflection of God’s glory… it was!

But Paul believes that the ministry of righteousness we receive from Jesus through the Holy Spirit is even more glorious, because we are set free to truly reflect God’s glory in all that we say and do.

We are transformed by God’s glory and Paul describes the church in Corinth as Christ’s letter… written not with ink, but with the Holy Spirit.

They are the reflection of Jesus Christ to the world and all who see what they say and do will come to know the glory of God.

That local community and its members reflect the light of the knowledge of God’s glory to everyone they meet.

And so do we.

As our Book of Discipline proclaims, “The function of the local church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is to help people accept and confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and to live their daily lives in light of their relationship with God” (¶202, p. 147).

It goes on to say that the members of the church gather for worship, to receive God’s grace, to be formed by the Word, and then we are sent out to do the work of Christ. (¶203)

Or as that familiar song from our childhood reminds us:

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…
Everywhere I go, I’m gonna let it shine…

That light, however, it isn’t my own light.

It isn’t your light.

It is the light of Jesus Christ.

I was thinking about the solar lamps that I installed in my garden last summer. Every evening they light up the path.

But the lamp has no light of its own… it simply captures and stores up the energy from the sun.

The more time it spends soaking up those rays, the brighter and longer it will shine.

Much like Moses shone radiantly after those forty days and forty nights in the presence of God’s glory.

And to keep our lights shining…

To fill up our lamps…

We need to continually spend time in God’s presence.

So as United Methodists, we don’t believe that membership in the local church is simply a box that we check.

It is a commitment and a covenant we make together with God and with the other members of our congregation.

In the coming weeks, our confirmation students will be exploring these vows deeply, but maybe it is good for all of us to get a refresher.

Membership Vows

Renounce, Reject, Repent
Accept God’s freedom and power
Confess Jesus as our Savior
Serve as Christ’s representative to the world
Strengthen the ministries of the UMC
Participate with our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness
Receive and profess the Christian faith

Just as John Wesley brought classes and societies of people together to focus on their spiritual life with one another, our membership vows are a commitment to “a lifelong process of growing in grace.” (¶216.1).

We turn away from sin and evil and turn our lives towards Jesus. Then, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we become ambassadors of Jesus to the world. We see each member as a vital part of the church and we have “method” for helping one another to keep these vows.

First – a local church provides opportunities for a member to grow in their discipleship. From small groups to worship, from mission events to our stewardship campaign, this local church offers ways for you to go deeper in your faith and to discover the will and grace of God. Each one is an opportunity to spend time in the presence of God.

Second – we share a mutual responsibility for one another. We need you, just as much as you need us, and together we shoulder burdens, share risks, and celebrate joys. We encourage one another along in this journey. After all, the people that make up our church are the body of Christ and we also experience the presence of God in one another.

Third – each person is responsible for their own participation. We can have all the opportunities in the world, but ultimately, you are the one who prays, who shows up, who gives, and who reaches out to share God’s love with the world.

However, as part of our Wesleyan heritage, we are called to hold one another accountable to these commitments. Those early Methodist class meetings were designed for members to keep one another on track, it is the responsibility of the local church to reach out in love to invite people to return and to nurture people back into community.

Sometimes that might look like a call or a note from the pastor, but this is the responsibility of all of us.

It is the phone call you make to invite someone to join a small group with you.

It is the note you put in the mail to let someone know you have missed them in worship.

It is the way you speak up if someone in a meeting has said something harmful.

It is the advice you offer when someone seems to be taking a wrong turn in their journey.

We do all of this, because we believe that through these ministries and this community, the glory of the Lord is transforming us more and more everyday into the image of Christ… and that we reflecting that glory to the world.

In Sara Groves’ song, “You are the Sun” she writes:

You are the sun, shining down on everyone.
Light of the world giving light to everything I see…
I am the moon with no light of my own
Still you have made me to shine
And as I glow in this cold dark night
I know I can’t be a light unless I turn my face to you.

The work of the local church and our responsibilities as members of that church is to turn our faces to the Light of the World and let God shine through our lives.

As the Book of Discipline says:
Each member is called upon to be a witness for Christ in the world, a light and leaven in society, and a reconciler in a culture of conflict… to identify with the agony and suffering of the world and to radiate and exemplify the Christ of hope” (¶220).

And we don’t do it alone. We do it together.

The work of the local church is only possible because all of us have gathered our resources and our talents and our time together so that we can reach out to the people in this community, and work to help one another grow. And we also are part of a larger connection, so we partner with other local churches – like inviting students from Windsor UMC to join us for confirmation. We work to be stewards not just of our resources, but of God’s creation as we participate in the mission of the larger United Methodist Church. (¶202, p147-148)

Let us keep soaking up the light of God so that in all of these things, the glory of God might shine through us.

Amen.

What Happened in Damascus?

Posted on July 4, 2021Leave a comment

Text: Acts 9:1-20

Our scripture today starts with lines drawn in the sand.

Us verses them.

The faithful, orthodox, Jewish leader vs. the rebellious believers of the Way.

Division.

Destruction.

And everyone so sure that they were on the side that was right.

You know, on this national holiday weekend, I can’t ignore how this kind of “us” vs “them” language echoes the kind of nationalism we find too often in the world.

We, the shining city on a hill have been blessed by God.

And in defense of our beloved nation, we’ll come after anyone who disagrees with us.

Anyone who is a threat to our way of life and our values.

That is what Saul was doing, after all.

He believed in his tradition, in the law, in who God had called him to be.

And he was willing to defend it all with his very life… taking other lives if he had to.

If you weren’t with him… you were against him.

But in the same way, that “us” vs “them” mentality was present in the followers of the Way of Christ.

When Ananias receives a calling from the Lord to go to Saul, his very first response is to name that man as doing evil… compared with the saints on his own side.

Good verses bad.

Right verses wrong.

Insiders verses outsiders.

Both have cause for why they believe what they believe.

Each can point to actions of the other that would justify their own positions.

There is that old adage that there are two sides to every story and today, I certainly don’t want to get caught up in excusing either side from their actions.

Nor do I want to say that there is not, in fact, a good… a standard… a godly measure of how we should be that we should all be held up against.

Maybe more of what I’d like to note is a simple observation from Stephen D. Jones, “not many of us are ‘breathing threats and murder’ against our opponents. However, we have all been on wrong paths… We have all been headstrong, stubborn, blinded to our own ambition, selfish to meet our own need…”[1]

And in part, I think this story of what happens in Damascus is a reminder that God is not interested in the lines that we have drawn.

God is not interested in the labels we throw at one another.

God doesn’t care about our nationality or pedigree or longevity with the faith.

God is not interested in our us verses them arguments.

In fact, God flips all of the scripts and expectations on their head to change everyone’s lives and instead orient us towards life in the Kingdom of Heaven.

In our Acts study book, N.T. Wright calls Saul a “hardline, fanatical, ultra-nationalist, super-orthodox Pharisaic Jew.”

And yet… he’s the guy that Jesus calls to reach out to the non-Jewish, Gentile community.

Ananias is likely a newcomer to the way of Christ. Damascus was about 135 miles from Jerusalem and you can’t imagine that in this short of time that the good news about Jesus would have taken a very deep hold this far out yet.

And yet, this non-Israelite is the one who Jesus calls to go to Saul.

This non-apostle, non-deacon, ordinary, regular guy is the one who God uses to heal Saul and who baptizes him with the Holy Spirit.

In many ways, God is telling us that it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what your story was…

You, too, just might be called into this inside-out, upside-down, community of Christ.

No one is safe from God breaking in and disrupting everything you thought you knew about your life.

And that… well… that’s a little terrifying.

As a pastor, I sometimes shy away from this story about Saul’s dramatic conversion because it really is just too incredible.

He is a guy who literally makes a 180 degree turn in his life.

He goes from persecuting Christians to preaching the cross of Christ.

His old life dies on the Road to Damascus and three days later, he is born again as an apostle of Jesus.

There are very few of us who can compare our stories with his and William Muehl writes that this can give us a bit of a “faith inferiority complex.”[2]

Or, maybe even more than that, we fear something coming along to cause such a dramatic change in our lives.

Over these last sixteen months, we experienced what it is like to have life come to a stand-still and have everything that we knew to be “normal” upended.

It isn’t something we seek out unless we are desperate or at the end of our ropes.

Maybe that’s why we identify a bit more with Ananias in this story.

You know, the ordinary fellow, going about his day, who gets called to walk down the street and pass along a message to his mortal enemy.

What… that doesn’t happen to you on a regular basis?

I just have to keep telling myself that the main character in this story is not Saul.

And it’s not Ananias.

It is Jesus Christ.

For many chapters now, the disciples and apostles have been talking about Jesus.

But he shows up and calls these two individuals to action.

This is a word about how our Savior continues to show up in the lives of unexpected people to challenge us and push us beyond everything we thought we knew and understood.

Beyond our boundaries and borders and beliefs.

And sometimes, that happens in a heartbeat – like it did on that road to Damascus.

But sometimes, it happens over a lifetime.

Sometimes, truth comes to us in a dream or a sign or a message…

But sometimes it comes through a friend who has the courage to tell it like it is.

All around us, God is moving…

God is pushing us beyond our artificial divisions…

God is opening up our eyes…

God is calling us out of our privilege and bias…

Jesus stands before us, waiting for us to stop breathing threats and running from enemies and to start working together for a Kingdom that is far wider and more expansive than we could ever imagine.

May it be so.

[1] Jones. Stephen D. Feasting on the Word, Year C Volume 2, p 403.

[2] William Muehl, Why Preach? Why Listen? (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), 11.

The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Us!

Posted on May 23, 2021Leave a comment

Text: Luke 4:18-19, Acts 1:8, 2:1-4, 38-39

One of the things that we have re-discovered and remembered this year is that church is not a building.

We have a building, sure.

But the church is the people.

You and me.

The body of Christ.

In the same way, the presence of God is not confined to this physical structure.

And, we don’t have to travel to the Holy Land to be in the presence of God.

It is right here.

Among us.

Wherever two or three are gathered, there I am… Jesus said. (Matthew 18)

Well, that is exactly what happened on that Pentecost morning.

The disciples were gathered together, worshipping, praying, waiting for whatever was supposed to happen next.

Waiting for the power of the Holy Spirit.

And then there was a sound…

Like the howling of a fierce wind…

The entire room was filled with an overwhelming presence…

Tongues of fire danced over their heads…

The Spirit of the Lord was upon them.

The presence of God was right there, in their midst.

When the Spirit of the Lord first appeared to Moses in the burning bush, he heard the call to go back to Egypt and liberate the oppressed.

That power and presence of God released the slaves and set them free for the promised land.

Through a pillar of fire and smoke, the Spirit of the Lord was with the people as they journeyed.

God provided food for their hunger and water for their thirst.

God led them and healed them.

God dwelt among them.

On the mountaintop, the power and presence of God was seen for miles around in wind and fire and Moses journeyed back down forever changed.

He brought with him commandments that would allow them to live according to God’s will.

Laws to help them love God and to love their neighbor.

God wanted this people to bear God’s image to the world.

Yet, as time went on, and the people became settled and rubbed shoulders with folks from lots of different places and cultures, it became harder and harder to stay connected to God’s presence and power.

While the spirit of God continued to call prophets and leaders to keep reminding the people, it was easy to forget about a God who dwelt somewhere else.

So God decided to dwell among the people again.

The Word became flesh.

Jesus entered our lives.

And the Spirit of the Lord was upon him.

As Luke tells us, the Spirit of the Lord sent him forth to preach good news to the poor and heal the sick and to set people free.

People experienced the presence of God through his touch and his words.

And then Jesus promised this same power would be given to the people.

That the Spirit of God would come upon them.

That the presence and power of God would dwell in them.

And they, too, would be sent forth to preach, and to heal, and to change the world.

God would turn the world upside down starting in Jerusalem… heading out to Samaria… and to the ends of the earth.

This was not a promise just for the disciples.

Not just for the Jewish people.

God’s Spirit was pouring out on all people.

On that day of Pentecost, tongues of fire danced over their heads.

God’s presence filled their hearts.

And people from every corner of the world experienced it.

They heard God speaking to them.

They felt God’s presence among them.

And they allowed the gift of the Spirit to fill their lives.

Three thousand people were added to their community.

It is good to be in this space together with folks once again.

But I have to be honest… It is not the space that makes this time of worship holy.

The psalmist may have cried out “How lovely is your dwelling place” and at the time they were talking about the temple.

But the miracle of Pentecost is that the spirit of God dwells in you.

The very presence of God that set that shrub in the wilderness on fire…

And that led the people of Israel through…

That dwelt in the temple…

That filled the life of Jesus Christ…

The Spirit of God filled those first disciples… and then three thousand…

Through them, the presence and power of God moved from Jerusalem…

To Samaria…

To Rome…

And across the oceans…

And right now God’s spirit is upon you.

God’s power dwells in you.

Oh, and how lovely are your faces.

God’s presence is right here in this very room because you are here.

God is with you at home… on your couch… sitting around the kitchen table.

Because the gift of the Holy Spirit is yours.

Right here in the greater Des Moines area, God is with us.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us right here in this city…

One of the unexpected miracles of Pentecost was the way that this presence of God brought people together.

In the time of exile, Jewish faithful were scattered the winds.

They made their homes in far away places and learned new cultures and languages.

But when able they made the pilgrimage back to Jerusalem to be in the presence of God.

Over these last fourteen months, we have felt a bit scattered to the winds.

We have felt like we were in exile.

Exiled from one another and familiar places.

But that exile is not just a result of quarantines and distancing.

This past year we have experienced political discord and division in our responses to racism and vaccinations and masks.

Although the official language we might speak is the same, the words we use have meanings that separate us.

And so even when we gather in the same space, we are not unlike those pilgrims to Jerusalem who can’t understand one another.

When I read through these verses in Acts once again, I am reminded that this division and discord is not what God intends for us.

As Jana Childers writes in their commentary on this passage, “The human community… begins to be mended. As the Spirit arrives… instead of widening confusion, there is dawning comprehension, incipient reunion. What was divided is mended… The Spirit-baptized are drawn together, this time in the Spirit’s power, for the purposes of extending the realm of God.” [1]

We are drawn together in the Spirit’s power to extend the realm of God.

When Jesus stood up in the synagogue at the beginning of his ministry, he read from the scroll of Isaiah.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, he said,

God has chosen me to preach good news to the poor.

To offer forgiveness and pardon to prisoners.

To be an agent of healing and ease the load of the burdened.

And when he finished reading he sat down and told the people, “Scripture came true just now in this place.”

Right there in Nazareth, the realm of God, the Kingdom of God, was at hand.

The as the disciples claimed the gift of the Holy Spirit and began to preach and teach and heal in Jesus’ name… the realm of God became a reality on the streets of Jerusalem.

People who had been divided began to hear and understand.

It didn’t matter their background or their language or their culture… the presence and power of God rested upon them as the Holy Spirit danced in their midst.

And over the course of this summer, we are going to explore just what it meant for those first disciples to be led by the Holy Spirit and how the realm of God expanded.

We’ll learn about what it means to be a community centered in God.

How to speak God’s truth in the face of opposition.

Along the way, we’ll meet sorcerers and centurions and kings.

We’ll experience earthquakes and shipwrecks, tragedy and miracles.

In the footsteps of Peter and Paul, Barnabas and Silas, Lydia and Tabitha, we will witness how the Spirit of God becomes known to the people of Antioch and Damascus, Lystra and Philippi.

And we will discover how we are “part of the widening circle begun in Acts – part of the growing momentum, building ripple by ripple…”[2] until the realm of God stretches to every corner of this world.

As United Methodists, we see ourselves as part of that widening circle. In our Book of Discipline, we claim that:

“Guided by the Holy Spirit, United Methodist churches throughout the world are called afresh into a covenant of mutual commitment based on shared mission, equity, and hospitality… we commit ourselves to crossing boundaries of language, culture, and social or economic status. We commit ourselves to be in ministry with all people, as we, in faithfulness to the gospel, seek to grow in mutual love and trust. We participate in God’s mission as partners in ministry, recognizing that our God-given gifts, experiences, and resources are of equal value… creating a new sense of community and joyously living out our worldwide connection in our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” [3]

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us right here in Des Moines.

We might have a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds and gifts, but there is one Spirit.

And right here in this city, God is calling us afresh to focus on our mission… to cherish what each person uniquely brings… and to reach out in love welcoming all.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us to bring good news and offer forgiveness and heal what is broken and divided.

May the winds of the spirit blow…

Amen.

[1] Feasting on the Word, Year A, Volume 3, page 19.

[2] Ibid.

[3] 2016 Book of Discipline, ¶125, p. 95-96

Again & Again, the Sun Rises

Posted on April 4, 2021Leave a comment

Text: Mark 16: 1-8

Three women made their way to a lonely tomb just after sunrise…

Have you ever thought about a sunrise? Scientifically speaking, it happens every single day, at every single moment, somewhere across this globe. Our planet travels each year in an orbit that is 584 million miles in circumference, but every twenty four hours we make a full rotation, spinning at a pace of 1000 miles per hour. And every time we moment we complete that rotation, the sun appears again over the horizon.

The sun always rises. But we often sleep right through it. Or it is cloudy. Or our view is obstructed. Rarely do we experience or appreciate a sunrise in all of its glory.

I remember one visit with my family to the Hawaiian islands. We tried to catch the sunset every single day, but seeing the sunrise was almost impossible. Our location on the island meant that a chain of mountains obscured the view. So we rented a car overnight, got up while it was still dark, and made a 45 minute drive to a part of the island where we would be able to see the sun rise over the ocean… And it was cloudy.

But you know what? The sun still rose that morning. The sun rises every morning. Again and Again, the earth spins and the sun comes into view. Even if we can’t see it.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how Mark tells the story of the resurrection. Three women made their way to a lonely tomb just after sunrise. There is no joy in this journey, only profound grief. Another morning is another reminder that their nightmare was real. Jesus was dead and it must have felt as if the earth had stopped spinning and the sun would never rise again. Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome could only face the day together.

Together they were journeying to the place where they laid his body. They were going to mourn. They were going to do what so many of us have not had the opportunity to do in this pandemic… to provide what they thought was a proper burial. Not the rushed and distant goodbye that came on Friday when Joseph of Arimathea placed his body in the tomb before sunset. But a real goodbye. Where they would touch and anoint his body with spices. Where they would weep and mourn and comfort one another.

As they neared the tomb, they began to wonder what on earth they were doing. Were the Romans who had crucified their teacher watching them? If they made it there safely, how would they roll back the stone on their own? But maybe even more than these immediate concerns, they had to be wondering… what’s next? Would they, could they, return to their old lives? With Jesus dead, none of the disciples seemed prepared to continue his work. For all the women knew, those men had scattered in the nights before… maybe never to return again. It all seemed to have ended on the cross. All their hopes. All their dreams. All the promises. It was finished. But despite their doubts and fears, they kept moving forward, step by step, clutching one another’s hands, until they came to the place where he had been laid.

What they find there is clouded… confusing… disorienting. Nothing was what they expected. The stone was gone. Inside, a young man sat on the cold, hard slab just inside the tomb. What was he doing there? And where was the body of Jesus? Where they in the right place? Were they hallucinating? The women huddled together, trembling, speechless…

And then the man spoke: “Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus, but he isn’t here! He has been raised just like he promised. Go – tell the disciples, especially Peter, that Jesus will meet you in Galilee.” In their grief, and confusion, and weariness, I’m not sure the women heard a single word the man said. Scripture tells us that overcome with terror and dread, they fled from the tomb and said nothing… to anyone…

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus never appears in his resurrected glory. There is no witnessing from the disciples. No sharing of the good news. In part, Mark ends his story this way because all along Mark has been leading us on a journey. Every time the disciples make a mistake and look like bumbling idiots, we learn something about who Jesus is. Every time they fail, we learn more about what it means to follow God. And when the women come to the tomb in their grief, we are invited to bring our grief as well.

And oh what grief we carry… The grief of not being inside our building…The grief of the meals and the celebrations we have missed… The unimaginable loss of life to the coronavirus, not simply the 2.7 million lives that are gone, but also the ones closest to you. We might not feel like shouting Alleluias in the wake of mass shootings or racial tension or the drowning of Iowa State students or the images from our border.

Debie Thomas reminded me in her words this week, “We’ve witnessed and/or sustained losses on a scale we’ve barely begun to register, much less to grieve. We’re weary, we’re numb, we’re bewildered, we’re sad.” (https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay)

And so like Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, we might hear the words of the young man who is sitting in the tomb… “Christ is risen” And in some part of our minds we might know that they are, as Thomas writes, “the most consequential words we’ve ever heard…” Christ is risen! But when we look at the world around us, how can this be true? Maybe it’s not possible to fully wrap our minds around what Thomas calls “God’s incomprensible work of redemption” as it “collides in real time with the broken bewilderment of our lives.”

But then I remember… even on a dark and stormy morning… the sun will rise. Even when our view is obscured… the sun will rise. Even when our eyes are closed or filled with tears… the sun will rise. Even when night has fallen in one part of the world… the sun is rising… always rising… somewhere in the world. Rev. T. Denise Anderson writes, “resurrection still came, even if they weren’t yet able to receive it… Again and again, the sun rises on a new day, often without embrace or acknowledgement. The same is true of resurrection. Whether or not we discern what’s happening, God is literally and figuratively turning the world around!”

Jesus is not cold and dead and lifeless in a tomb, but out there, loose in the world, ready to change everything. In her painting, Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity imagines “what the women see in the moment before they turn to flee from the tomb.” A horizon breaking open… The heavens blooming like a flower… Sacred darkness that lingers… A winding path illuminated with promise… The sun has risen…The Son of God has risen…

“The Promise” , Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity | A Sanctified Art | www.sanctifiedart.org

You know, there are times when the good news of the resurrection of Jesus seems as common to us as a sunrise. We sleep through it. We expect it. We take it for granted. We no longer marvel at the wonder or stand in awe at the miracle. And we say nothing to anyone about it… not out of fear, but complacency…

But there are other times… maybe like these times… when the good news of the resurrection is like a brilliant and miraculous sunrise that we aren’t able to see… and we simply have to trust it is there.

My friend, and the head of Discipleship Ministries for the United Methodist Church, Rev. Junius B. Dotson was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January and died from the disease at the end of February. But in a devotion he wrote during that time he reminded us of Jeremiah’s hope in God’s promises from Lamentations: “We are sick at our very hearts and we can hardly see through our tears, but You, O Lord, are King forever… and You will rule to the end of time.” (Lamentations 5:17,19) Sometimes our eyes are filled with tears and the skies are filled with clouds and we can hardly see the promise. We can’t see the sun rising.

But the good news from the gospel of Mark is that whether or not we believe it. Whether or not we understand it. Even if we can’t see it. The tomb is empty. Death has been defeated. Jesus is alive. And this story is not over. Your story is not over. The Kingdom story is not over.

Again and again, the sun will rise.

Again & Again, God Shows the Way

Posted on March 7, 2021Leave a comment

Text: John 2:13-22

From the beginning of time, God has been trying to show us the way.

The way to abundant life.

The way to shalom.

We catch a glimpse of how God wants us to live in the laws of Scripture, which Bible scholar, Walter Bruggemann describes as “God’s full intention for the life of creation.”

But again and again, that intention is distorted in our lives.

Many years ago, our family visited Arnold’s Park at Lake Okoboji.

One of the highlights was the tilted house. Walking sideways on crooked steps and the ceilings seem to shrink above you feels odd and disconcerting.

We all know what a house should look like and feel like, and this was not it.

From there, my neice dragged me to the house of mirrors.

As we stood in front of skinny mirrors and fat mirrors and wavy mirrors, she giggled and pointed as we were transformed into creatures we didn’t recognize.

One minute I had mile-long legs and the next a neck as long as a giraffe.

We laughed and told stories about what it would be like to live with really tall tummies and itty-bitty heads.

I have to admit, I found the sight less amusing that she did.

The distortions brought what I perceived to be my flaws into greater focus and blew them out of proportion… or reduced my favorite feature into something grotesque.

We’ve been talking a lot about reality for the last few weeks… and how we come to know what is true about ourselves and our faith.

Sometimes, we don’t realize that we have been looking at ourselves through funhouse mirrors.

We think we know what is true and real about ourselves and our communities.

But perhaps, we have simply been living for too long in a tilted house full of funhouse mirrors.

We have grown familiar and comfortable with the distortion.

So when God shows us a more excellent way, it can feel like our world gets turned upside down and inside out.

So often, Jesus is portrayed as a gentle soul who walks alongside us and listens to our thoughts.

Yet how often does he do the unexpected?

He shows up in places he shouldn’t, loves the unloveable, calls the unworthy and brings us life through his death.

Instead of allowing us to stay comfortably where we are, the Christ we meet in the scriptures challenges everything we know.

In our reading this morning from John, Jesus is in Jerusalem for the annual Passover festival.

Those making the long trip would not have brought the animals required for sacrifice with them, but the streets and Temple would have been packed with vendors offering animals for sale.

Others exchanged currency so that titles and offerings could be made in coinage that did not bear a human image, like the Greek and Roman coins did.

This was the normal, expected way of doing things.

This was routine life in the Temple, especially around the holy days.

Without these vendors, the system just didn’t work.

This structure, with its rules and order, vendors and priests, were all part of how an individual made a connection with the presence of God.

You jumped through the hoops because that was the system.

But as God reaches out to show us another way, some of those systems needed to change.

God wanted to take up residence not within the curtains of the inner sanctuary of a building, but to lay aside glory and be born among us.

This is the moment, for John, when the new understanding of the Temple is born.

overturn
by lisle gwynn garrity
inspired by john 2:13-22
sanctifiedart.org

Jesus begins flipping over tables.

He disrupts the system.

He takes everything we knew and turned it upside down and inside out.

It is chaos and disorder and it will take days for the Temple to get up and running again.

All eyes turn to Jesus and the religious leaders cry out, “By what authority are you doing these things?”

“Who on earth do you think you are?”

They need something to make sense of what has just happened and why everything is in disarray.

Jesus responds by pointing to his own body, the very dwelling place of God.

This story is not about the moneychangers or the Temple… but about Jesus.

It is a caution against any institutional systems and structures that have distorted and twisted our ability to see what God is doing in our midst.

More than once in the history of faith, the Holy Spirit has moved in our churches and turned over some tables and the church failed to respond because of rules and traditions.

A new opportunity for ministry gets snuffed out by people who don’t catch the vision.

A church gets so wrapped up in what color their carpet is that they can’t see the neighbors in need outside their door.

Someone experiences a call to follow Jesus, but the book of rules says that it just can’t be possible.

From the inclusion of women in ministry, to the welcoming of immigrant communities of faith, to the questions we are wrestling with today over whether we will embrace LGBTQ+ people in the life of the church… I have seen time and time again that our systems and our rules and our traditional ways of doing things can get in the way of the very presence of God in our midst.

I love the United Methodist Church… most days…

But as Jesus turns over the tables in the Temple this week, I can’t help but think about the systems that we have put in place that keep us from the real ministry of Christ in this world.

This week, we announced the necessary postponement of our 2020 General Conference to the fall of 2022. With it comes a virtual meeting in May, to approve suspending our rules, so that we can vote by mail on twelve items to keep the institution functioning.

A friend and colleague, Rev. Andy Bryan put it this way:

“I am part of a denomination that needs to set a meeting to suspend our rules so that we can create new rules to dictate what we are supposed to do when we cannot meet to create rules.”

From unnecessary paperwork, inflexible constitutions, timelines that are out of sync with the world, and standards for ministry that deny the way the Holy Spirit moves in the lives of people… if we could flip some tables and transform some systems to better support ministry, we all would benefit.

A lot of us are asking hard questions about what it really means to be the church and do the ministry of Jesus.

For too long, we made a home in a system that felt comfortable… for us.

But the walls were crooked and the mirrors have been distorting who we thought we were.

We are coming to terms with how our institution has supported racist policies and colonial attitudes and are seeing the Holy Spirit move from the margins and tear down walls and chains that have been keeping us from the way of Jesus.

God, after all, does not dwell in the boxes we have created or the books we have written.

God desires more than rituals and rules.

And in our scripture for this morning, we see that lived out… for even with the Temple disrupted, people found a way to celebrate Passover.

They found ways to praise God and remember their history.

It wasn’t the building or the specific rituals that were important… but their relationship with the God who came and dwelt among them and led them out of oppression… the one who showed them what it means to truly live.

A drawing of a bird

Description automatically generated with medium confidence

The Akan people of Ghana have a concept called Sankofa…

San… ko… fa…

In their language it means to go back and take what you need to go forward.

They represent this idea with the image of a bird, reaching back to take an egg from its back.

When we realize that we’ve been living in tilted houses and looking into funhouse mirrors, sometimes the best way to move forward is to go back and remember who we are.

To remember our call to love God and to love our neighbor.

To remember the plan for God’s shalom and the foundation of our life together in the commandments.

To remember that God has already shown us what is good: to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.

This year, our lives have been turned upside down and inside out.

But in so many ways, we, too, have had the opportunity to embrace the idea of Sankofa.

We’ve returned to the basics of our family life.

We’ve spent time reaching out in love and care to one another.

We’ve remembered that God doesn’t just live inside the sanctuary here at Immanuel, but is present in our homes and our work, too.

We’ve embraced generosity towards our neighbors.

As the tables of our lives… and our church… have been turned over this year… I’m grateful for how God’s love has shown the way.

In just a few minutes, we are going to gather around the table and share in communion.

Before we do, we want to share with you the theme song for this Lenten series… “Again and Again” by the Many.

As you watch and listen and pray, we also invite you to gather whatever elements you have at home and bring to them to your table… or coffee table… or set them in front of you.

Pour yourself a glass of juice.

Break apart your roll or donut or slice of bread and make sure each person in your home has a piece.

Let your hearts and minds and bodies prepare for the invitation to meet God right where you are.