@EUCC Sermons

This past Thursday, March 11, marked the one year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic. Usually anniversaries are occasions for celebration, but in this case--not so much. So many lives lost. So many jobs, so many businesses, and so many in-persons lessons lost. There is so much to grieve. Some of us will be grieving these losses the rest of our lives.

And yet, the news is not all bad. There is good news, too. Lessons have been learned, vaccines have been discovered, alliances and partnerships that never existed have been forged, and some archaic systems that have needed to die for a very long time have finally imploded under the stress of the pandemic.

So we have been and we are tossed to and fro during this pandemic like sailors on the high seas in the midst of a hurricane. We are tossed from one side of the ship to another, so we reach for something to grab hold of and we hang on for dear life.

The same is true within the realm of public health. On the one hand, the most vulnerable among us have taken a beating by this virus and its economic impact, and on the other, a bright light has been shown on the least, the last, and the lost. So that no one can deny any longer the suffering of those who are now named “the especially vulnerable:” our frail elders, people of color, kids in cages, refugees and aliens, economic migrants, asylum seekers, people with multiple morbidity issues, and individuals and families with low social and economic status.

These health disparities which are also economic disparities and racial-ethnic disparities have been daylighted, and even the privileged are coming to terms with the news that none of us is safe from COVID-19 unless all of us are safe from this disease and its variants.

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In the interest of exploring this question, I’d like to offer three simple observations about today’s reading.

First, please note that today’s story is from the second chapter of John, not later as in the 21st chapter of Matthew, 11th chapter of Mark, or the 19th chapter of Luke. In the Gospel of John, this outburst is how Jesus’ ministry begins, with a very public demonstration of his dissatisfaction with Temple practices and a bold statement that points to both his death and resurrection, which will happen on his third Passover visit to Jerusalem, three years hence.

Second, unlike donuts, which most Eden members would agree are not integral to our faith, the cattle, sheep, doves, and money-changing were integral to the Jewish Temple practice. The animals were needed for the burnt offerings that would mitigate sin and could not be driven or carried by travelers from their homes so they were bought in Jerusalem. Offerings and Temple taxes could not be made with Roman coins bearing the image of Caesar, so the faithful exchanged them for Temple coins. While it is possible Jesus objects to the market’s location, his actions — making the whip, driving the sellers out — and his words — his Father’s house — reveal a deeper, more profound problem than market location.

Third, the underlying history of John’s gospel supports the idea that Jesus was offering a much more serious challenge to the Jewish faith and Temple system. As the ancient reader of John would have known, the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, at least 10 and possibly 20 years before the Gospel was circulated.

Jesus, through his Christian followers who compiled the Gospel in 80-90 AD, is critiquing a dominant system while simultaneously offering Jewish survivors a new place to meet God, a place they believed was prophesized and validated long before the Temple’s destruction, that being the crucified and risen son of God.

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Stephen didn’t feel any need to use euphemisms to describe himself. In fact, I’m pretty sure that he enjoyed watching others squirm when he used the word “homosexual.” The more nervous the term made others, the more frequently he used it, and the more he relished it and labored over every syllable: “ho-mo-sex-u-a-l.”

Right after he enunciated the word, Stephen would squeal with glee—sort of like my 6-year old great-niece when her mom tells her that her chores are done and she can saddle up her horse for a ride.

At the time I knew Stephen, he was one of the most “out and proud” members of the LGBT communities I was a part of.

Thirty-some years later, I’m here to tell you that the same is true. He still is one of the most out and proud queer people I’ve ever known, but being a homosexual does not adequately describe Stephen. Because he was also unapologetically a Christian.

Like the Apostle who wrote in II Timothy, chapter 1:11-12, Stephen frequently interjected these words in conversation over lunch, as easily as he did from the pulpit of Colby Chapel on our seminary campus:

11 For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, 12 and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. (II Tim. 1:11-12)

I heard Stephen repeat this passage numerous times over the three years that I knew him. In some ways, his doing so wasn’t that remarkable. He was, after all, a card-carrying Baptist,. He had the floppy Bible with the gold trim and the fancy ribbon page markers and the tabs to prove it. He had the blue suit, white shirt, black tie Sunday-go-to-meetin’ clothes too. In addition, Stephen was doing what Baptists do. He was good at quoting scripture.

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Contemplating all of these realities leads me to cry out with my Hillbilly relatives and country music singer, Carrie Underwood, “Jesus, take the wheel!”

Jesus, take the wheel, because our lives and our world are out of control. We are spinning around like an old Chevy with no snow tires on an icy stretch of highway in West Texas, and when we end up in the ditch there isn’t going to be anybody coming along for days to find us, because no one in their right mind would be out on the roads in these conditions.

And yet, when we zoom in on Mark’s gospel lesson today, we discover — perhaps for the very first time — that the wilderness of Lent was and is not the godforsaken place that we may have assumed it to be. Listen again to Mark 1:12-13:

“...the Spirit immediately drove Jesus into the wilderness. He was there forty days, tempted by Satan; and Jesus was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.”

Did you hear that?

The Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness. The Spirit, not the devil, drove Jesus into the wilderness. And Jesus was there forty days and forty nights, and he was tempted by Satan. And, he was with the wild beasts, and the angels waited on him.

To be sure, the wilderness is not “the happiest place on earth,” but neither is it the godforsaken place that we may have thought it to be.

Mark says, the Spirit sent Jesus into the wilderness, and the Spirit accompanied him through the wilderness, and the angels — the good angels, not the bad angel — flapped their wings around him and attended to his needs.

If you let these verses seep into your soul, and if you believe like I do, that God is good, and that, as the prophet Jeremiah says, “God has plans for us--plans to prosper..and not to harm [us], plans to give [us] a hope and a future. “ (Jer. 29: 11) Then, you, like me, may come to believe that the wilderness is a good place--or at least a place where good things can happen.

Wrap your mind around those thoughts for a moment, and ask yourself: “What good could lay ahead in this wilderness of Lent? What good surprises may God have in store in the final chapter of this damn demic?” These are some of the questions that I encourage us to ponder as we travel through this season of Lent. These are questions worthy of our reflection, and that hold the potential for strengthening us in the struggles that we encounter, and prepare us for the final chapter that God has in store for us.

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Today’s reading comes from the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has already taught his disciples who is blessed, ask them to be both salt and light, and spoken against murder, adultery, abandoning wives, oaths, revenge, and loving enemies. Then he turns to offering, prayer, fasting, and wealth, stressing the importance for each of acting in secret or in private, not in a public or overt fashion and definitely not in a way intended to draw public acclamation.

In general, Bible scholars believe that Jesus stressed secrecy in these practices for a couple of reasons. The first was the emphasis on piety and public confession and atonement in religion and the second was the Greco-Roman value that emphasized socio-economic status and advancement through patronage. We don’t have to struggle too hard to understand either, since our culture is equally dominated by those who seek status either by acting holy, making oh so public donations, or seeking status or celebrity. The very fact that we all know what a social media influencer is may indicate that our culture has taken the art of living our lives in public for public favor to the extreme.

To counter these practices, Jesus repeatedly asked his disciples not only to do their activities in private or secret in the Sermon on the Mount, he also got righteously angry with them when they asked questions about their status, like when James and John asked if they could sit next to him in heaven, or their behavior at social functions, where he specifically asked them to avoid the head table where the elite sat.

In essence, Jesus was asking, is asking, that we give up status-seeking behaviors in favor of doing our prayers, giving, and other religious activities in private or in secret. His concern was intent. Those who pray and give to be seen are motivated not by their desire to be in a relationship with God but in a favorable relationship with those who see them. As he says in verse 24, which follows today’s reading: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one, and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”

Authenticity enters when you give up the necessity of being seen or admired by others for what you do.

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Two of our Lenten practices at Eden are always Bible study and prayer. The first opens our minds, the second opens our hearts — both help us listen to what Jesus says. Rather than rely on what others tell us, we can open the Gospels and read and re-read his words and make our own decision about who Christ is to us.

Often what we find is that Christ is multi-faceted like a diamond: he is kind and patient, loving and accepting; he is also righteously angry about injustice.

Accepting one aspect of his person or his divinity does not require rejecting another nor does it give us license to promote his anger toward some over his love for all. We only have license, at this point, to listen.

While searching for a specific sentence or paragraph in Anne Rice’s second novel to share with you, I stumbled on “A Note from the Author” that I hadn’t noticed before. It closes with this: “These novels, whatever their faults, have been written for Him. They have been written for Him and for any and all who seek Him, and seek to meditate on the mystery of the Incarnation. And if these books do not bring you closer to Him, then you are urged, please, to put them aside.”

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Regardless of our party affiliation, patriotic Americans in general, and humanitarians and people of all faith traditions have to ask ourselves, “How have we come to this?” How have we come to this time and place in which so many people question so much? Furthermore, how is that we have come to this time and place when many not only question or flat out reject scientific truth, but they do so to their own detriment and the detriment of others?

Answer: I think many of us have been “Trumped.” We have been trumped into someone else’s self-serving agenda; because we are suffering so much and feeling so vulnerable, and it’s easier to blame someone else or something else than it is to face our own needs and our sense of loss and grief. We don’t like feeling weak. We don’t like losing. We don’t like living this American nightmare. We want to be living the American Dream!

So, many of us are sucked into someone else’s lies, which only builds someone else’s power, and only serves someone else’s future. And, when we do, the symbolic boil of our suffering is lanced, the infection is released, and for a few minutes, we may feel a sense of relief. But, then, sadly, the relief does not last long, because the cause of our suffering has not been appropriately addressed, and the process repeats itself.

Social scientists and historians alike will be busy for a long time studying, mapping, and describing how Donald Trump hijacked the American airwaves and manipulated a significant number of U.S. citizens into believing his lies, fanning his xenophobic agenda into flames, and drinking his toxic Kool-Aid.

They will be reviewing and analyzing this mess for generations to come--and they should. And when they’re done, I hope that we and our posterity will have learned from what we have endured, and I hope and pray that we will find a better way for all of us. But how?

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I wonder, what parochialism (what prejudice) might God be calling us to break away from, so that we can more effectively proclaim the Good News to others whom we might have otherwise have kept our distance or refused to serve?

Our respective answers to this question likely vary depending on our social location. All of us, for example, have been shaped by colonial ideals, but not all in the same ways. Some of us have been shaped in ways that have caused us to be proud of our culture, race, social status, nationality, language, and condition, while others of us have been shaped in ways that have led us to feel ashamed of these things.

Regardless of our situation--being colonizers or the colonized--God calls us to experience metanoia (a change of heart) by finding our highest and greatest identity as disciples of Christ.

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As a pastor, I know Christian talk about what God thinks, says, and does is both a duty and an occupational hazard. Every time I write a sermon or participate in Bible Study, I caution myself from speaking too specifically about God or what God thinks, because like MOST if not ALL pastors I have not received any private communication from God, at least not any as clear as the conversation Samuel or even Eli had with the LORD. And thankfully, I am not among the prophets God is currently using to promote the unconstitutional retention of President Trump. But, how then, you might ask, do I know what to say about God and what God desires in the current political situation or in any situation?

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Consider the mess that unfurled in our nation’s capital this past Wednesday, as Congress began to count the Electoral College votes and that ugly mob stormed the Capitol building. That scene was and is a crucible for showing us just how much work we have to do in order to name and dismantle racism in our nation and world, and how much work we have ahead of us.

Some folks just want to pin all of last week’s drama on Donald J. Trump, but blaming this all on him is way too simple. He is one in a large number.

Every person who has benefited from white privilege, every person who has enjoyed the fruits of oppressed laborers’ work, and every person who has naively thought that what happened last Wednesday couldn’t have happened has some serious work to do to understand white privilege, to discover how we got in this mess, and to begin to make amends.

Donald Trump couldn’t have incited the mob that busted into the Capitol if there had not been like-minded individuals in that hoard. Furthermore, that mob could never have made it into the Senate chambers and Nancy Pelosi's office if there hadn't been sympathizers amongst the Capitol Police.

Think about it, when’s the last time you’ve seen news footage of the Capitol Police backing away from a crowd, opening doors for vigilanties, or taking selfies with people who were breaking the law? Never. Compare that behavior with the way that AIDS activists, Immigration Reform advocates, and Black Lives Matter demonstrators have been treated over the years? See the difference? I bet you do.

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Last, the praise-worthy is worth searching for: There are times, as 2020 has pointed out in extreme, that it is not patently obvious what we should be praising God for, as in “Praise God for the world’s best virus,COVID 19” or “Praise God for economic turmoil.” If you ever get to the point you can’t think of a reason to praise God, it’s time to go looking. Walk outside and find a flower growing out of a crack in the sidewalk, or a beetle the size of your thumb, or a blue jay with the most intense blue you’ve ever seen. Or go online and study the new and ingenious ways people are turning plastic waste into bricks and coats and furniture and imagine our dumps, those repositories of indestructible waste, being harvested in the future. Or study up on vaccines and the people who make them. I am guessing that between nature and the God-given talents of our fellow humans, you will find something that elicits an authentic “Praise God!” and that finding that something will lift up your spirits and open your heart to finding more and more to praise.

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Christmas has a way of shining a bright light on the injustices of our world, and Christmas 2020 is no exception.

In fact, Christmas 2020 might offer the penultimate example of light shining in the darkness, and highlighting the stark disparities between rich and poor, fed and hungry, housed and homeless, white and darker, colonizers and indigenous, temporarily able- bodied and persons with different abilities, the followers of Christ, and followers of every other prophet and deity known to humanity. And the list goes on.

Christmas has a way of shining a bright light on the injustices of our world, because the Christmas message projects God’s vision of how things ought to be right next to the way things really are, and so doing, illustrate the profoundly skewed nature of the two.

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One doesn’t have to be a senior in quarantine or a person living gutting out this pandemic to know the value of personal touch--but these experiences are significant reminders of these truths that we already know, but sometimes take for granted.

Twentieth Century family therapist Virginia Satir who wrote for and spoke to popular audiences frequently noted that human beings need at least 12 healthy hugs a day in order to thrive. Twelve healthy hugs. Think about that fact. There are a lot of people who living with far fewer than 12 healthy hugs through this pandemic.

And, yet, these privations aren’t just artifacts of the pandemic. The irony of our lives in the 21st Century lives is that we have more technology, more ways of communicating with each other than ever, and yet this technology doesn’t afford us the same semblance of connectivity that is possible through in-person gatherings and personal touch.

This is why, I think, God sent a person and not an email into the world. This is why God sent Immanuel and not an IM. This is why God sent the little baby Jesus, and not a tablet of stone. God sent a person, because God knew that there was no suitable substitute to remind us that we are loved beyond our wildest imaginations. Now let that Good News seep into your soul. Merry almost Christmas! Amen.

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It wouldn’t be Advent without the sheer joy of preparing our Annual Christmas Pageant. Undaunted by COVID-19, we rose to the challenge of preparing Eden’s first ever online Christmas Pageant. With many thanks to Illustrated Ministry who provided the script and artwork and to the many Church families, musicians, teachers, and members who acted, sang, created this year’s masterpiece, we are pleased to present “Do Not be Afraid: A Virtual Christmas Pageant..”

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Our good tidings may appear simple and unrelated to our faith — they are certainly unexpected when we compare this Advent to last. Who would have thought in Dec of last year that the imminent arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine would be good tidings for this year. Who would have thought that a new administration and a national mask mandate for 100 days would be good tidings for 2021? And who would have ever imagined that Eden Church would be worshipping God online and that we would have a crew of own angels engaged in contact tracing and investigation, isolation and quarantine supports, and health education. A year ago, we didn’t know half of those words and now home-grown angels are crying out that our community can love and protect one another by getting tested and staying socially distant and we are providing the support so people can do what is difficult but necessary. At the end of this year’s completely unexpected disaster of epic proportions, these good tidings are proof that God is with us and is guiding us back to our “normal” lives, albeit making us stronger and giving us new skills and abilities along the way.

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Wanting to live, not die; wanting to thrive not just survive, these are the sentiments that inspired Isaiah, too.

Retrace the steps of Joe Buck’s life and you will find a trail map that resembles the treacherous path that Isaiah described. Joe’s military service and his fight with cancer are just two of the formidable and formative experiences that shaped his spiritual journey. These hardships tested and strengthened him, and his commitment to work for a better world. They taught him the necessity and the veracity of hope.

Joe, like so many other veterans whom I have known, became an ardent proponent of peace. Joe never forgot what it was like to be a medic on the battlefields of Europe and have to run from body to body trying to decide how to ration morphine, tie tourniquets, and choose which soldiers to carry back to the M.A.S.H., because there weren’t enough medics or time or doctors to save everyone who was wounded. These grim realities of war galvanized Joe’s commitment to work for peace.

I served in Upstate New York during the Gulf War. The younger generations dressed like beatniks headed to Peace Park for a Vietnam War protest. They were quick to organize marches around the town square, and they planted a peace pole next to the church entrance. Joe was solidly behind them. He regularly showed up with his votive candle and sturdy walking shoes ready to go the distance for peace—no matter how long and winding that road seemed to be--and he inspired others to do the same.

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While I do think that God sides with the vulnerable, I think that taking a literal interpretation of The Great Judgment is wrong. And, it’s wrong because the larger heuristic of the New Testament teaches that we are saved by God’s grace, not by our works.

New Testament scholar Douglas R. A. Hare, who is an expert on Matthew, has helped me understand that The Great Judgment is an apocalyptic vision in which the visionary imagines “all nations” gathered together on the last day, and that “all means all”--not just people who were affiliated with Israel.

If all means all, and Matthew says it does, then the “sheep” include Roman pagans who care for the most vulnerable, and the “goats” includes anyone who doesn’t care for the vulnerable--including so-called followers of Christ.

So The Great Judgment story prompts hearers to a life of self-assessment, and it encourages us to look for “sheep” and join their herd.

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I don’t know about you, but the Parable of the Talents has always been a bit unsettling for me.

I have empathy for the guy who buried his money in the ground. I was taught to be very careful with money, and even more careful with someone else's money. In addition, I was taught that being careful meant being conservative and that being conservative was synonymous with being faithful.

But, then, I was told this Parable of the Talents and its lesson seems to fly in the face of what I was taught. Rather than teaching the value of conservatism, and that conservatism is next to godliness, I hear Jesus teaching that we should “Go big or go home!” That’s right, Jesus teaches us to take bold, strategic risks. And, that, my friends, is a good thing, and it’s good news!

The Parable of the Talents invites us to ground ourselves in the knowledge that we worship a generous God who offers abundant blessings, rather than a stingy God who withholds favor.

Making this shift from a conservative approach to investing that fosters stinginess to a strategic approach to investing that leads to abundance requires that we accept more risk.

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