A sermon preached before the congregation at Hamilton Park UCC, Lancaster, PA on Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2010 by Rev. Catherine M. Shiley, Pastor
"Spirit Filled"
Acts 2:1-21
Show the You Tube piece "it's Pentecost"
Okay, for those of us who are older than the target audience for that piece, I've transcribed it into a script that we can listen to a bit more slowly! For those who still have all their hearing and vision intact, and who are used to following quick sound bites, just be grateful that you don't need this extra help and bear with us ... but know that your day will come!
One of the things I learned as an elementary school teacher is that if you want to be sure your lesson reaches the whole class, present that lesson in more than one format. I think the same thing holds true for congregations and sermons, so here's what you just watched, in listening mode:
"Go ahead. Admit it. You are wondering about the future. Maybe worrying.
Do we even have a future? Will our church survive?
Will our children have faith? Will our faith have children?
There are so many challenges ... money, divisions, arguments.
We're getting older. How are we going to pay the bills?
We don't know the people next door anymore.
Why would they want to come to our church?
People pass by. We don't know them. No one comes in. They are outside. We are inside.
And so we wait and watch and worry. But we don't know what to do.
Won't someone come and help us?
These are big questions. But you are not the first to ask them ...
Did you know ... there's a story in the Bible that is exactly like this. Do you remember?
There are only a few left. People pass by outside. They are inside. Waiting. Watching.
And they don't know what to do.
And then it happens.
Wind. Fire. Noise. And ... Silence.
What just happened?
No one came and took away their problems. Instead the Spirit comes and create a new one.
That's right. The Holy Spirit shows up and creates a problem.
They can't stay inside. They have to go out.
And preach and serve and care and witness and teach and pray and love.
And preach and serve and care and witness and teach and pray and love.
And preach and serve and care and witness and teach and pray and love.
And preach and serve and care and witness and teach and pray and love.
(Slow it down this time) ... And preach ... and serve ... and care ... and witness ... and teach ... and pray ... and love.
They just can't help it. It was Pentecost.
So, I've got bad news and good news.
The bad news is, there is no one coming to fix your problems.
The good news is, the solutions you seek are all around you.
You have strength and courage and compassion and a story to tell.
Our problem isn't money or divisions or arguments.
Our problem is that we've got a story to tell and we can't help but tell it.
Now imagine one person reaching out to another and then another and another
To tell ... share ... listen ... love ... pray ... teach ... be ... hold ... feed ...preach
tell ... share ... listen ... love ... pray ... teach ... be ... hold ... feed ...preach
tell ... share ... listen ... love ... pray ... teach ... be ... hold ... feed ...preach
tell ... share ... listen ... love ... pray ... teach ... be ... hold ... feed ...preach.
Why? Because we can't help it. It's Pentecost." (End of script)
There's not a lot that I can say to expand on the message you just saw and heard. It's self-explanatory if ever there was such a thing, so I'm going to leave you this morning with what I will call the Pentecost Challenge.
The Pentecost Challenge is very simple. You should have received a tri-fold brochure when you came in to church today, a brochure that tells something about our church. Right now we are inside, just like those first disciples were inside, but we all know people who are outside. Take that brochure, please, and pass it on to a friend or a relative or a neighbor who doesn't have a church home. Be ready and willing to answer questions ... to tell ... share ... listen ... love ... pray ... teach ... be ... hold ... feed ...preach. You are the solution to the problem the Holy Sprit brought to all of us on that first Pentecost Sunday.
And, if we run out of brochures, we'll be happy to print more this week. Pick up another next week, and another the week after that, and another the next week.
Amen.
***
A meditation preached before the congregation at Hamilton Park UCC, Lancaster, PA on
May 9, 2010 by Rev. Catherine M. Shiley, Pastor
"The Language of God"
Acts 16:9-15
I find the Book of Acts to be one of the most powerful books of our Bible, because it lays out for us, in detail, how the early Christian Church got its start, and because it relates how that same Church spread like wildfire, propelled by the evangelistic ministries of its founders. Today's story tells of the first time the Church was received in Europe and of how that came about. It tells of those who answered the call to go to Europe and of those who received the Church there, primarily Lydia. Lydia already knew God ... now she knew Jesus, too.
What language does God use to speak to you? For the apostle Paul it was the language of a powerful vision of a man in Macedonia pleading for help. For Lydia it was the language of Paul and the disciples telling the story of Jesus. It was the language of this movement that shared the story and built the church. How do you respond to God's language, God's call for your life? Paul and his disciples responded to his vision by going immediately to Macedonia. Lydia responds first by receiving baptism, not just for herself but for her whole household. She responds further by pressing Paul and his companions to accept her hospitality and stay in her home for a time.
God's call on our lives comes in many different forms, as personal as each of us and our situations. In the same way, there are multiple appropriate ways to respond to that language. The United Church of Christ, with its wonderful reminder that "God is still speaking," puts out a weekly Calendar of Prayer, with stories to illustrate the point. This week's calendar of prayer includes some powerful examples of the language of God and of the ways individuals and communities of faith are responding to those calls.
The first story shared is this one - The Open House United Church of Christ ... dubbed "the church for people who don't like church" ... is the first new church start in Maine in over 20 years. It is a "glimpse of the new paradigm of church." Open House UCC is known for its wide open heart ... Open, Affirming, Accessible, Multiracial, Multicultural ... these are the basic assumptions of its identity. There, one sees a broad spectrum of people worshiping together as a Christian community. It's a glimpse of the realm of God.
Planted in Portland, Maine in the midst of what are known as "organ and anthem" churches, Open House UCC is the only progressive church that offers a regular alternative worship experience ... characterized by informality, interactive discussion, and messages that address contemporary issues, with drama or video augmenting a traditional sermon. Worship is always upbeat, energizing, and profoundly spiritual. Open House UCC is reaching faith seekers, many of whom are new to or reconnecting with the experience of "church." The congregation is vital and faithful. Their first baptism service in April 2005, a "triple header," was followed by the passing of their Open and Affirming statement in May. They've participated in the community Bridges for Peace and 24 Hour Food and Fuel Drive and sponsored one of their young adults on a Gulf Coast work trip. It is the dream of the Maine Conference that more churches like Open House UCC will be planted and will flourish in other communities in the Conference.
For us, as a congregation, to consider ... It's interesting to note that, just over 60 years ago, our own congregation was "planted" as a new church start, known as a mission church to this community.
Another story from the Prayer Calendar ... The epitome of mutual partnership in modern-day global mission work, the Disciples congregation in Kinshasa, the Congo, sent a love offering of $500 to Disciples in the Michigan Region who experienced hardships in the winter of 2008. The Rev. Eale wrote, "We know that this may appear nothing, but we believe it shows our compassion to our brothers and sisters in Michigan." In response, Dr. Jon Lacey, Regional Minister of Michigan, wrote, "The months of January and February were especially difficult for churches in Michigan, where some churches were even closed for weeks. This response is very humbling. Not only is it the money, but it is also the love, the compassion, the sense of caring and being a critical presence for us at the point of our deepest need. One cannot place a monetary value on that. We are grateful for this very kind gesture."
One final story ... for today, at least ... of the language God uses to communicate in the 21st century. We'll call this story "Facebook and the Church." Again, from the Calendar of Prayer ... the Rev. Steve Naylor and the good folks of San Mateo, California have fun staying together with this new electronic medium. Technology allows them to stay in touch with one another in ways previously not possible. Actually it isn't only Facebook that helps to keep this 21st century congregation together ... it is the Web site of the church itself. Members and friends can listen to sermons, browse the calendar of events and learn a lot about the history, ministry and the programs of the church. Enriching each others lives, whether through technology or the simple venue of a cup of coffee in a local coffee shop, provide the pastors and people of the UCC to be in ministry with each other and the community.
I need to follow-up this particular story by letting you know that Jim Stoltzfus has been hard at work creating a new website for Hamilton Park UCC ... one that is easier to navigate and more appealing across the board. It's almost ready to launch, officially! Soon, very soon, we'll be making full use of this 21st century form of the language of God!
I leave you with this thought ... it's easy to find stories of both the Church and of individuals responding to the language of God. It's also easy to find just the opposite ... stories of individuals and institutions rejecting God's call for their lives, whether that rejection takes the form of an out-and-out "no," or whether it manifests as a pretense that God's voice is silent. What are the stories we add to the tapestry? As individuals, yes, but especially as a congregation? How do we serve as living testimony to the still speaking God? This is a conversation we need to come back to again and again ... as we try to live faithful lives as disciples and as evangelists. Amen.
***
A meditation preached by Rev. Catherine M. Shiley, Pastor,
before the congregation at Hamilton Park UCC on April 11, 2010
"Lives Transformed"
John 20:19-21
It seems like an awfully long time ago that I first mentioned to some people that I was feeling a pretty strong call to ministry and was considering seminary study as the next leg of this rather round-about journey my life was taking. Several of these people took me aside and warned me to be careful.....they claimed that my faith would be so fully challenged that I might even lose it. Of course, I thought this was just plain silly. And, as you might have guessed, they were right and I stand before you this morning sufficiently humbled!
At one point in this journey, resurrection was the issue that presented what seemed like an insurmountable obstacle for me. I'm a person who likes to know how things work, and I'll usually keep working on a thing until I get it figured out. This is how I was approaching Jesus's resurrection - and I was struggling - when I came across something in a reading for a theology class that just deflated all those shaky theories I'd been assembling ... theories meant to logically explain something that was defying logic for me. I was left with nothing to hold on to (at least, that was my perception at the time) and the worst part was that I wasn't willing to let my guard down and talk with anyone about it.
Here's where I admire Thomas. He was willing to say what he needed......"unless I see and touch, I will not believe." This is what I was saying in my heart, but I wasn't willing to say it out loud for fear people would know I didn't have it all together. Thomas wasn't that proud......he stated his need to his friends and our scripture tells us that Jesus made sure his need was met. Jesus heard my need, too, and made sure that it was met. Let me tell you how that happened.
While these serious doubts were creating havoc with my own faith, I took a call here at the church one day from a Hospice volunteer saying that a friend was dying and that someone from the church was needed. Pastor Dave was away at the time and so I did what seemed right...... I went to be with my friend and his family. I had no clear idea of what was expected from me in this situation and I was pretty sure there wasn't much I could do to help. As I drove to the Hospice center, I remember praying that I would at least not be too much in the way. I couldn't have realized that I was on my way to an encounter that would put to rest my own doubts.
As I held onto my friend's hand and prayed with him and his family, I witnessed his death but I just as clearly witnessed his resurrection. I can't put this into a concise, logical explanation for you, but neither can I deny that it happened. It was one of those experiences for which you just had to be there...fully engaged in the event itself. At a time that was crucial for me, at a time when my heart was aching with doubts, I was invited to see, to touch and, as a result, to believe. I'll never condemn Thomas for his doubt.....I understand him too well.
What I do suggest about Thomas is a shortcoming that's more of a social nature. My experience has been that God "shows up" most fully when we are in relationship with one another. Thomas's unwillingness to be in community with the other disciples, at a time when this group needed to stick together more than ever, is the reason he wasn't in the room with them on Easter night, the first time Jesus made an appearance to them. Yes, Thomas probably was the sort of person who was uncomfortable with public displays of grief (many of us are)........or perhaps he was stronger than the others and was going about his business, not cowering in fear behind closed doors......BUT.....whatever Thomas's intentions, God created us to be in community, to share our sorrows and our joys as one body. When Jesus met Thomas's need to see and to touch, he didn't seek him out in solitude. Instead, he came to Thomas when he was part of the gathered community of disciples. It took a week, but Thomas did rejoin the group, setting the stage for Jesus to show him how powerful resurrection faith can be.
My own doubts weren't eased in solitude, either. It was only in the context of a gathered community that I got my proof. My belief that I needed to puzzle this thing out for myself, by myself, made me guilty of the same kind of community withdrawal of which I accuse Thomas.
We've had a difficult stretch here at Hamilton Park Church. Since December, we've witnessed the deaths of five of our members and that leaves us a bit raw around the emotional edges. But ... and this is really important ... we've also come together in community and witnessed to the resurrections of five of our members. Because we've seen and touched one another.....in pain and in joy.....we are able to believe.
We have a different kind of community witness to address today, as we welcome two children into our faith community through the sacrament of baptism. What is our responsibility to these children? I suggest that it is nothing less than to make them disciples of the risen Christ! We who have seen and touched so much are entrusted with showing them the marks of the nails in his hands, with letting them touch the wound from the spear in his side. We do them justice as members of the same community if we create the space for them to encounter......with us at their sides......those concrete, tangible experiences that remove all doubt. We do them no favors when we hold our pain and doubt away from them, as if it were ours and ours alone.
There's a hymn in our New Century Hymnal called "These Things Did Thomas Count." We're not going to sing it, because we don't know it well enough, but I am going to conclude by reading the words of the hymn, for your consideration ...
These things did Thomas count as real: the warmth of blood, the chill of steel,
the grain of wood, the heft of stone, the last frail twitch of flesh and bone.
The vision of his skeptic mind was keen enough to make him blind
To any unexpected act too large for his small world of fact.
His reasoned certainties denied that one could live when one had died,
Until his fingers read like Braille the markings of the spear and nail.
May we, O God, by grace believe and thus the risen Christ receive,
Whose raw, imprinted palms reached out and beckoned Thomas from his doubt. Amen.
***
A meditation preached before the congregation at Hamilton Park UCC, Lancaster, PA on Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010
by Rev. Catherine M. Shiley, Pastor
"Truly Alive"
John 20:1-18
There?s a well-known children's story called "The Littlest Donkey," a story about Easter, even though the title sounds something like Christmas. The setting is a stable, three days after the crucifixion, and the animals ..... who are all descendants of the animals who were present in this same stable at the time of Jesus' birth (and so they've grown up hearing the stories of the first Christmas) ..... these animals are trying to come to terms with their grief. The cat excitedly rejoins the group after having witnessed the empty tomb, telling the other animals what she has seen. Two of the animals ask an important question: "What does it mean for us?" The cat's reply is quick and to the point, "It means our Lord and Master has risen from the tomb - he has been resurrected from death to life as proof of our salvation!"
Now that's a rather impressive observation for a cat, even one who has a human theologian putting words into its mouth! It's not, however, too much for US to grasp, a claim to make our own, on this holiest of holy days. If a children's storyteller can have a cat take this kind of meaning from the empty tomb, how can we come away with a lesser understanding of this same vacated cave?
The Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor draws a comparison between this empty tomb and the empty shells left behind when the 17-year locusts come out of the ground. This empty, brown shell is not something that was once alive and is now dead, but was simply a shell that housed a living, growing creature. When the cicada is ready, the shell splits open and the living, breathing creature escapes its confines, leaving it behind ..... just as John's gospel tells us that Jesus left behind the tomb and two piles of clothing ..... all of it no longer needed.
None of this was making any sense at all to those who came to the tomb that first Easter morning because ..... according to John ..... none of those who were there understood the promises of Scripture, that Jesus must rise from the dead. Still, when the beloved disciple followed Peter inside the tomb and saw the clothes lying there, he believed. John doesn't even say what, exactly, it was that he believed, simply that he believed and that he and Peter returned home.
The rest of this story belongs to Mary. She's the one who saw the angels. She's the one who saw the risen Lord. Peter and the beloved disciple saw nothing but a vacant tomb with two piles of clothes in it. They saw nothing but emptiness and absence, the equivalent of a split-open, empty, brown cicada shell ..... and yet, on that basis, at least one of them believed, although neither one of them understood.
Any way you look at it, that's an awfully fragile beginning for a religion that has lasted almost 2000 years now ..... and yet that's where so many of us continue to focus our energy ..... on that tomb, on that morning, on what did or did not happen there and how to explain it to anyone who doesn't also happen to believe it. Resurrection runs counter to anything else we know about physical, human life on earth. No one has ever seen it actually happen, which is why it's good to remember that no one saw it happen that first Easter morning, either.
The resurrection is the one and only event in Jesus' life that was entirely between him and God. There were no witnesses whatsoever. No one on earth can say what exactly happened inside that tomb, because no one was there. They all arrived after the fact. Two of them saw clothes. One saw angels. Most of them saw nothing at all because they were still in bed that morning ..... but as it turned out, that didn't matter, because the empty tomb wasn't the point.
The tomb was just the empty cicada shell with the crack down its back. Jesus had outgrown his tomb, which was too small a focus for the resurrection. He had people to see and things to do. His business was among the living, to whom he appeared four more times in the Gospel of John. Every time he came to his friends they became stronger, wiser, kinder, more daring. Every time he came to them, they became more like him.
Those appearances cinch the resurrection for me, not what happened in the tomb. What happened in the tomb was entirely between Jesus and God. For me, Easter began the moment the gardener said, "Mary!" ..... and she knew who he was. That is where the miracle happened and goes on happening ..... not in the tomb, but in the encounter with the fully living Lord.
In the end, that's the only evidence we have to offer those who ask us how we can possibly believe. Because we live, that's why. Because we have found that we are not alone. Because we never know where he'll turn up next. Here's one thing that helps, a clue, if you will ..... don't get so focused on the tomb that you forget to speak to the gardener.
Indeed, as one very astute cat insists on pointing out to us this morning, Jesus has been resurrected from death to life, as proof of our salvation. Death does not have the last word, nor can the tomb hold one who is fully alive.
Thanks be to God.
***
A sermon preached before the congregation at Hamilton Park UCC on Maundy Thursday, April 1, 2010 by Rev. Catherine M. Shiley, Pastor
"On Washing Feet"
John 13: 1-17, 31-35
I want to direct the first part of this message specifically to a few of our young people, Benjamin Jones, Will Miller, and Jack Stoltzfus. I ask the rest of the congregation to eavesdrop - shamelessly!
Benjamin, Will, and Jack ...... you came to the church this past Sunday for an evening of getting ready for your first communion. We sat on the floor of Maugans Chapel around low tables ..... just like the first disciples did ..... we enjoyed a potluck supper together, we watched a video clip of what it might have been like for Jesus and those first disciples at the Last Supper, we made refrigerator magnets reminding us to "Remember the Food Bank," and we made greeting cards so that you could invite special people to your first communion. We took photos of each of you holding a basket of bread so we could hang them up here at church, letting others know about your special time this evening. In my opinion, the most important thing we did was at the end of our evening together. I hope you remember it ..... if not, remember it now by listening carefully as I tell the congregation.
The last thing we did together last Sunday evening was to come over here to the sanctuary, to kneel at the communion railing, and to be shown exactly what will happen tonight as we celebrate the sacrament together. Benjamin ..... Will ..... Jack ..... you knelt at the communion rail, just as you will this evening for the sacrament, and you listened while I explained about taking the bread and eating it right away, then taking a cup of grape juice from the center of the tray and drinking it, then putting the empty cup into the next tray that comes along, and then waiting for a blessing for everyone who is at the communion rail before you return to your seats. You learned that this is the way we receive communion at our early service on "communion Sundays," but that things are done differently at our 10:30 service.
This was important information and you listened carefully, wanting to know how to do things "just right" tonight ..... and you will do just fine tonight, because God's love and grace ..... and the love and grace of this congregation ..... are with you. You are Hamilton Park United Church of Christ's newest disciples ..... and we'll talk in just a minute about what that means.
You received a gift from the church just before leaving here on Sunday evening ..... a poster showing the communion bread and wine and these words ..... "Jesus of Nazareth requests the honor of your presence at a dinner to be held in his honor." I hope you've each found good spots in your homes for displaying these posters. If not, I encourage you to do so this weekend. Put them in your bedrooms, your dining rooms, your kitchens, wherever you will see them every day and remember in whose name and in whose honor we receive this sacrament.
We learned that REMEMBER is a very important word, when we talk about what we do at the communion table, and about how important the words are on your poster ..... Jesus requests the honor of your presence ..... Jesus is honored by your participation in the sacrament of Holy Communion. Certainly receiving the sacrament is something that you do for yourselves, but it's so important to me that somehow our participation in Holy Communion honors Jesus ..... somehow it shows that we are truly his disciples ..... willing to learn what it is that he wants us to do and who it is that he wants us to be ..... in order to take seriously his words ..... "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
This discipleship business is important stuff to Jesus ..... important enough that he wants us to know how to go about being disciples. That's the reason we made those food bank reminder magnets to hang on the refrigerator ..... they will help us remember one simple way that we can answer the gospel's call to let everyone know how it is that a disciple of Jesus behaves ..... how a disciple of Jesus answers the call to love one another. This is how we do like Jesus did and wash feet for other people. It can be as easy as bringing a can of fruit, a box of cereal, a jar of spaghetti sauce along to church with you ..... or as time- and energy- consuming as joining a group going on a work project or a "getting to know you" trip far from Lancaster County. Jesus washed the feet of those first disciples, the ones at the Last Supper, to show them how much he wants us to love one another. It was a powerful lesson and made a big impression, especially on Peter. He didn't get it at first ..... didn't quite understand that Jesus of Nazareth requests the HONOR of our presence. Once he got it though, he jumped in all the way, he was that excited about the possibilities he saw there.
My own experience of preparing for my first communion was so much different from these three children that it bears mentioning here. First Holy Communion was always celebrated in the spring of our second grade year and much of the second grade school year in the Catholic school I attended was spent preparing for the occasion. There was so much to do ..... learning how to be in a procession through the church, folding our hands "just so" and keeping in step with the person across the aisle from you, genuflecting in unison while making the sign of the cross (correctly), learning to sing the hymns, and learning that it was very important to stand on the piece of masking taped that marked your spot in the pew. Crucial to the whole experience was memorization of the questions and answers in the Baltimore Catechism. To this day, I can remember the actual answers to only two or three of these questions:
Q: What is a sacrament?
A: A sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ, to give grace."
Q: What is grace?
A: Grace is unmerited divine assistance given man for his regeneration or sanctification."
Now, as a second grader, the best I could do with that definition was an understanding that grace was somehow a good thing! The Catholic Church did its bit to confuse it further by implying that grace could be gained (even though "unmerited" was part of the definition) by participation in the sacraments, and lost by being in a state of sin, which leads to the last phase of preparation for First Communion ..... preparation for First Confession. Believe me when I say, we don't have time to elaborate on that one tonight.
The author Martha Manning, in her book Chasing Grace, adds her own experience. Because the Catholic elementary school was full when Martha's family moved to a new neighborhood, her name was put on the waiting list and she was sent to the public school. This didn't seem like a big issue until it came time to prepare for First Communion. At this point, Martha realized that she was at a great disadvantage because the children at the Catholic school had pretty much been practicing all year long. The ten public school children had permission to be bused to the Catholic school for rehearsals only in the last two weeks before First Communion was to take place. Martha, who acknowledges that she was gifted intellectually but needed remedial learning in motor skills development, was at an extreme disadvantage in the areas of processing and genuflecting while making the sign of the cross (correctly). Finding her piece of masking tape in the pew proved to be more than she could manage. She tells of genuflecting at the wrong time, backing up the line behind her and getting out of step with her partner across the aisle. An exasperated and probably seriously overworked nun pulled her from the line and hissed at her, "You stupid, stupid girl. Why haven't you been paying attention?"
It doesn't take much when you're in the second grade to make you physically ill and this encounter did it for Martha. She went home in disgrace, with an upset stomach and the conviction that she was not worthy to receive any kind of grace, especially the kind that came at such a high price to Jesus of Nazareth. She didn't realize that Jesus of Nazareth would consider it an honor to have her participate in a dinner to be given in his honor.
Fortunately Martha's mother intervened that day and, when Martha was bold enough to wonder aloud what would happen if someone wouldn't be receiving her first communion that weekend, and her mother asked if she meant someone like herself and Martha said yes, "because the sister said I wasn't paying attention and I'm just no good at lines," her mother assured her that "I wouldn't let something like that happen to someone like you." Martha saw the real meaning of grace that day ..... a meaning that made the complicated definition in the Baltimore Catechism come to life for a seven year old girl. Listen to her description ..... "When the priest actually placed the round wafer on my outstretched tongue, it was almost redundant. I had already received my first communion. My mother was my priest, the flowers she had given me were my Eucharist, and I was the stumbling, sorry recipient, overwhelmed at my own unworthiness, shaky in my faith, but loved completely in spite of it. No, maybe loved completely because of it."
In the final analysis, love will always conquer hate. That's the bottom line of our claim to discipleship. We receive the sacrament and we remember that Jesus's love conquered the hate that was to follow this Last Supper ..... the extreme kind of love that allowed him to perform the ultimate foot washing act through crucifixion and death. Our love for one another ..... both within and outside of the church ..... will overcome the hate that much of the world sees as "normal." If we can begin to wash feet as children, by something as simple as "remembering the food bank," the possibilities as we grow older and more powerful are unlimited. Amen.
***
A sermon preached before the congregation at Hamilton Park UCC, Lancaster, PA on March 28, 2010 by Rev. Catherine M. Shiley, Pastor
"Of One Mind"
Luke 19:28-40; Philippians 2:5-11
Did you notice the amount of shouting that's being advocated in our scriptures this Lent? It's all over the place, if you're tuned in to it. "Be loud, be boisterous, be self-assured, take a stand and then hold your ground." Some of the calls for shouting are commanded, literally, while others are simply inferred, or, better yet, they're encouraged by example. In essence, the message I have heard over and over again, from all the people lifted up in our scripture texts, is this ... "Do as I do, and if you see my actions as leading you to shout out a message, then take on that responsibility and don't hold back."
We began Ash Wednesday with God's charge to the prophet Isaiah to "Shout out! Do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet!" Like a trumpet ... that's some powerful shouting! We came to an understanding that God was charging the prophet with helping the people ("the people" ... that's us, too, you know) ... helping the people to see that their very sacrifices were rebellious because they weren't what God wants ... what God wants, according to Isaiah (and Micah and Amos and Jeremiah and at least a few other prophets) is the kind of "fully involved" sacrifice that puts our very selves on the line for the health and well-being of others.
We've talked about this kind of shouting as a way of extravagantly inviting others to join us ... to join us in worship, to join us in membership, and to join us in the ways in which we attempt to follow Isaiah's direction on God's behalf, whether that involves serving at Community Meals, taking a mission trip to help with the never-ending hurricane clean up, sitting with a child in church and helping them to follow what they can of the worship service, sharing a story that brings the Gospel message alive for us, or making a contribution to the One Great Hour of Sharing offering.
"Shout out," we emphasized, don't keep this good thing that is Hamilton Park UCC to ourselves. Commitment is a key word here, I believe. Commitment to the many, many ways God is still speaking in our collective life as a congregation ... and in our lives as individuals ... this commitment gives us the push we need to lift our sometimes timid voices all the way to shouting volume. Jesus said that, if we are silenced, even the stones will shout out. Do we want the stones to do our shouting for us, or do we prefer the exhilaration of taking that deep, deep breath and that step forward, exercising our own vocal chords? Which mind do we want to imitate? The one that announces the kingdom of heaven on earth, or the one that attempts to destroy that kingdom, out of fear of its own irrelevance? Whether we realize it or not, we make this decision countless times each day, by the ways we spend our time ... our money ... our energy.
As we've moved through the Lenten Gospel readings, we've witnessed so many occasions like today's lesson, occasions where Jesus was pitted against the status quo of imperial rule ... occasions where he made the religious leaders more than a little bit nervous ... nervous because they feared being shut down by the powers of Rome if their favorite teacher continued to thwart the system. We've heard the message shouted out again and again, as it was through Isaiah, that there are two powers at play ... two ways of being in the world. There's the way that makes a claim for the superiority of imperial power and there's the way that makes a claim for the self-sacrificial power that Jesus displayed. One ... the imperial power ... because of its very nature as an entity that relies on force and coercion and vanity ... is shouting the loudest, claiming our undivided attention ... if we aren't vigilant and fully determined to live another way, it will rule the day.
Jesus is still pitted, everyday, against the status quo of imperial rule. It takes an almost superhuman strength even to notice how paradoxical our living is in this world, let alone resist one way in order to commit ourselves to the other. Hold these worlds up, one against the other, and see what I mean:
Compare receiving ashes on our foreheads as an outward sign of our incompleteness, of our fervent desire to live in a way that more closely resembles the life of Jesus, or ...
Receiving botox injections in our foreheads to remove wrinkles, which are an outward sign of our lack of perfection. On the one hand, we take on a sign that we aren't perfect, and on the other hand, we remove such a sign.
Or look at the work of Mother Teresa on the streets of Calcutta in comparison to the work carried out in a place like Trump Towers.
Or ... the nourishment of the communion table versus that of a fast food restaurant.
Or ... the cleansing waters of the baptismal font versus the insidious effects of the x-rated movie industry.
Or ... ultimately, the thing the imperial rulers feared ... and continue to fear ... the empty tomb versus the crumbling remains of the Roman coliseum.
All through the Lenten scriptures, there's shouting. The Prodigal Father shouts with joy at his son's return, while at the same time the elder brother shouts his protest at the way these two are thumbing their noses at the imperial power we call the status quo ... thumbing their noses at the way of a world that doesn't comprehend "gospel."
And there's more shouting ... Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, shouts ... with her gift and with her action ... by pouring out that expensive perfume onto Jesus's feet and then wiping those same feet with her hair. Judas shouts his indignation at the sheer madness of it all.
And then there's today's shouting .. It reads like this ... "the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, ?Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!'" If ever there were words to fire up the fears of the imperialist rulers, no matter what day and age they claim as their own, these are the words. Jesus's claim that, if the people are silenced the stones will take up the shouting, only adds fuel to their already blazing fire.
It can be incredibly dangerous to shout in the way our Palm Sunday celebration advocates ... and yet, I suggest we do just that ... and encourage our children to shout just as loudly and with just as much enthusiasm, no matter how unpopular this message that we pass on to them. We're baptizing a baby here this morning. I can think of no charge more appropriate to young Peter at his baptism than to encourage him to shout out ... shout out like the prophet Isaiah, with his message of removing the yoke of oppression from all our neighbors, shout out like the prodigal father, with joy and forgiveness, shout out like Mary, with extravagant, never-ending love.
Shout out, young Peter, before you become self-conscious and inhibited and fearful ... make shouting your habit ... Children, initially, have no trouble shouting out ... they thrive on it ... until and unless they notice that the adults whom they love and will eventually imitate are silent. If our fear causes us to stand timidly ... if our desire for approval causes us to be reticent ... then that's the legacy we will pass on to our children. Because, even though it doesn't seem that way sometimes, they endlessly imitate us ... the ones who shape their attitudes about themselves and their place in this world.
Be of one mind, young Peter, with Christ Jesus, the one who caused so much shouting ... the one who caused even the rocks to have that capacity.
Did you notice the amount of shouting that's being advocated in our scriptures this Lent? Let's all get a little rowdier, a bit noisier, a lot more willing to put ourselves out there for the sake of the Gospel, in honor of the one for whom even the rocks are willing to shout out. I'll leave you with this question ... assuming that we're going to "let the shouting begin," will our shouting be offered in the form of shrill anti-messages or as joyful acceptance and promotion of that which is good and true and worthwhile? We know who to imitate, so we know the only possible answer.
Amen.
***
A sermon preached before the congregation at Hamilton Park UCC, Lancaster, PA on
March 21, 2010 by Rev. Catherine M. Shiley, Pastor
"Extravagant Love"
John 12:1-8
Credit to Rev. Kate Huey, UCC Sermon Seeds, for inspiration
Remember way back at the beginning of Lent, when we began our Lenten journey by reflecting on the story of Abraham and Sarah? We spent some time "remembering who we are" by remembering "from whom we came." Today, we turn full attention to who Jesus is. Our teacher in today's text from the Gospel of John is Mary of Bethany, a woman presented as having noticeably different priorities from the other women of her time and place.
This anointing at Bethany, at the home of Lazarus, isn't just a nice little story in the middle of John's Gospel. It's set at the turning point of that Gospel, both literally and figuratively. Jesus has turned his face toward Jerusalem ... instead of remaining a popular but mysterious troublemaker, out of reach of the religious authorities and the Roman Empire. His raising of Lazarus from the dead, just a few verses before this passage, has set into motion the events that will kill him in just a few more days. The high priest and the Pharisees hear the reports - from eyewitnesses, no less - that this Jesus has really outdone himself this time - not just curing a leper or driving out a demon but bringing back to life a man who had been in the tomb four long days. When the word spreads that Jesus has brought his friend Lazarus back from the dead - such a sign, such a promise of what was to come - the religious leaders panic. "We've got to put a stop to this," they say - people will believe in him, and that will provoke the powers that be - the Romans - to come in and destroy our holy place and our nation - we'll have to raise the terror alert to orange at least, maybe even red - "So," the text says, "from that day on they planned to put him to death."
Right in the midst of all of this anxiety, plotting, and threat, or perhaps in spite of it, Jesus' friends, Martha ... the hard-working hostess ... and her brother Lazarus, fresh from the tomb, ... and her sister Mary, the passionate one, ... throw a dinner party. It's time to have a party, they say. And who can blame them? For heaven's sake, Lazarus wasn't just sort of dead ... or metaphorically dead, ... like the Prodigal Son last week - remember the words of the Prodigal Father ... "This son of mine was dead, and has come back to life" - Lazarus was dead dead. Dead long enough to cause a stench, remember? Long enough to bring the whole family and the town and his good friend Jesus together in grief - but not long enough to deter Jesus and the power of life and love, even if the consequences of all this is Jesus' own death. Today's beautiful story of extravagant love, Mary's anointing of Jesus with expensive perfume, is set just on the edge of Jerusalem?Jerusalem, soon to be the site of the most extravagant love offering of all.
So the family of Lazarus gathers ... both to honor and to try to thank Jesus, and to celebrate the restoration of their loved one. Still, death is all around, even here, at a party with friends, in a home that should feel safe. Lazarus sits and talks with his friend, Jesus, who will soon be laid in a tomb himself. Can you imagine the conversation between them, one so lately returned from the tomb and the other on his way?Jesus must know he's a marked man. The establishment, always so easily threatened, even by one single truth-telling prophet, is coming after him. He knows his days are numbered, and everyone else must suspect it, too. All around them is the smell and the feel of death - the tomb outside, probably still open, available for the next occupant, the expensive nard, perhaps left over from the anointing of Lazarus only a few days before?things are tense, and you know what happens when people get tense and anxious?they start picking at one another, criticizing one another, counting the cost of everything, losing sight of the big picture and missing the point. They - we - tighten up, worry, maybe even strike out at others. It happens.
But not Mary. Not Mary the passionate one, the one who loves Jesus with her whole heart, loves to sit at his feet and listen to him, Mary, full of love and gratitude and very little inhibition. Mary doesn't let anything hold her back, and more than anyone else - even the guys who have been following Jesus all this time, hearing his words, watching him in action, even more than these, Mary sees the big picture. She recognizes who Jesus is, and what lies ahead for him, and she acts on it. She does things not acceptable in polite company in that culture and time: she unbinds her hair, loosens it as women did only for their husbands or when they were in mourning; she pours expensive balm on the feet of Jesus (his feet, as one would anoint a corpse, not a king - a king would be anointed on the head), and Mary touches Jesus even though she's a single woman - absolutely not appropriate? and then she wipes his feet with her hair. No inhibition at all! Just as Jesus began his ministry with an extravagance of excellent wine at a wedding feast, so his ministry comes to a close here in an extravagance of expensive ointment, a passionate display of love and caring that even the woman who offers it does not fully understand. The gifted preacher, Barbara Brown Taylor, calls this display by Mary "an act so lavish that it suggests another layer to her prophecy: there will be nothing prudent or economical about the death of this man, just as there has been nothing prudent or economical about his life. In him, the extravagance of God's love is made flesh. In him, the excessiveness of God's mercy is made manifest."
What in the world is going on here? You and I are accustomed ... in our generation ... to having news commentators explain to us what is happening before our eyes. I tend to get so annoyed at the newscasters who tell us immediately after a speech by, say, the President, what he just said, as if we're not capable of picking up on any subtleties on our own. But John doesn't annoy us. He adds only a few words, in parentheses, a few words but important ones ... and helpful to us as we look on. Let's be honest - in all our commitment to the poor, wouldn't we be tempted to say, "Hey, what are we about here, anyway? Didn't Jesus always express his concern for the poor? Why are we wasting expensive perfume instead of selling it and buying food for the hungry?" I could almost support Judas' point here, but John pulls us back, whispers in our ear: don't. You know, he says, that Judas doesn't really care about the poor; he steals from the rest of the disciples; his heart is not in the right place. Watch out.
Perhaps the only thing worse than not caring about the poor is pretending to care about them. Here, so close to his act of betrayal, Judas pretends to know what it means to be a faithful follower of Jesus. But it's Mary, not Judas, who teaches us what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. She's our teacher today. She recognizes, at least to some extent, who Jesus is. Just as importantly, she recognizes who she is as his follower: one who serves, one who anoints, one who gives extravagantly without counting the cost?one whose response to Jesus is an act of love. Think about this: in the Gospel of John, at his last meal with the disciples, in the very next chapter after this one, Jesus doesn't take bread and bless and break it and say, Take this and eat?no, he gets up and ties a towel around himself and pours water in a basin and washes the disciples' feet. That is what he wants his followers to do, but he doesn't just tell them, he shows them. Do as I say, he says, and ... do as I do. Mary anticipates that lesson beautifully, acting from her heart, responding to all that Jesus has been in her life.
This story is my favorite stewardship text. Not very many people think about stewardship when they hear this story, because we tend to think stewardship has to do with conserving and saving and using things very carefully. I don't. Well, yes, I do think taking care of the earth and appreciating our gifts and not wasting them are all part of being responsible, grateful caretakers of God's creation. But I also believe that extravagant sharing, extravagant giving, from the heart, is the best stewardship of all. I know it's never a waste to give from the heart and not count the cost. When we love someone, really love someone, it just comes from our heart, doesn't it? - we want to give them not just our stuff - whatever it is and however expensive it is - but we want them to know how we feel, and it doesn't matter if it's the last jar of expensive nard on our shelf, does it? We want to break it open, pour it out?our hearts are full to the brim and overflowing.
This woman who takes an expensive jar of perfume and lavishes it on Jesus' feet is making a heartfelt gesture, most likely with a broken-hearted sense of what is coming at the end of the journey to Jerusalem. When our hearts are full, and when our hearts are breaking, ... and Mary's heart was both full and breaking ... we don't waste time calculating our expenses. When our hearts are full, when our hearts are breaking, when we're not sure what's coming but we feel deep down that it may mean loss and grief anew, we don't waste time computing the cost of our commitment. Can you picture Mary, while Martha (as usual) is doing all the kitchen work, and Lazarus (as usual) is sitting in the living room talking with the other men - Mary, in the storeroom, the one with a lock, I suppose, looking at that last jar of expensive perfume?.looking long and hard?thinking about Jesus, who had risked his life to come back and help her and her sister, to grieve with them for a moment and then to bring life out of death?amazing! What amazing and wonderful thing can she do? ... what can she say? ... not with words, but with her whole self - Mary takes the best she has to give and ... in an hour of need, as death looms over this little band of disciples, she takes it and breaks it open over the feet of Jesus, the one she loves, the one she knows she is about to lose, if only for a little while.
I can only wonder about our own hearts and our own giving, our hearts broken open to one another and to the world God loves?those moments when a gesture of love and generosity transforms a situation - a generous spirit that offers forgiveness and healing, a spirit of kindness that offers healing and hope and speaks words of encouragement, a spirit of freedom that gives out of the abundance we live in so that others have enough to live. This woman, even in the face of criticism, held nothing back, not the most expensive gift she could give and not the gift of her own breaking heart, full of love. This woman, so full of love, is our teacher today. She helps us to recognize who Jesus is, and who we are called to be as his faithful followers.
Let's close with this thought ..... Jesus is on the edge of Jerusalem now, waiting to enter the holy city as the King of Peace, even as others - Pontius Pilate and other petty rulers - prepare to enter it in military pomp and power. Though Jesus has no weapons or legions behind him, he strikes fear in the heart of every petty ruler, and he is headed toward an awful confrontation with that fear. But first, he rests for a while with his friends, with the people who love him even if they don't fully understand him. They are doing what they can, even though the time is short and the hour is at hand to lose the one they love. Again, Barbara Brown Taylor says it well: "When we come to church, or when we spend time in that transfigured space which is Sabbath, it is not just for the sake of the mission and agenda that lies ahead of us. It is also to be there, to have some time like this in Bethany, to cherish the gift of Christ in the now, and to anoint him already while he is our guest." And now, friends, we turn with Jesus toward the road to the cross. May our vision be clear and our hope fixed on the one we follow. On, then, to Jerusalem.
***
A sermon preached before the congregation at Hamilton Park UCC, Lancaster, PA on Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2010 and again on Sunday, February 21, 2010 by Rev. Catherine M. Shiley, Pastor
"Removing the Yoke"
Isaiah 58:1-12
Before I read the focus scripture, Isaiah 58:1-12, I want to say something about my decision to preach on this particular text this evening. It's been five months now since Pastor Dave's departure from this pulpit and five weeks since my own election as Senior Pastor of this congregation. There's something I owe us all at this point, and that's an articulation of my own vision for this special place we know as Hamilton Park United Church of Christ. It's not an easy thing to do, in the sense that I know most of you so well and most of you know me so well and, my goodness, we've all lived and worked together for so long that we might have the sense that we can read each others' minds, can't we?
It's tempting to assume that I know what you think and you know what I think and then to wonder "why don't we just do it already?" Or it might be more accurate to say, "why don't we just keep on doing it?" Of course, that's not the way it works at all ... we need to have a conversation, an ongoing conversation, and a checking of our impressions, such as "is this what I hear you saying?" and "what is our common view on such and such a topic and where do we differ in thought and action on the same matter?" And so, I've chosen this particular scripture as a jumping off point, as a conversation starter more or less, or call it a clear manifesto, if that language makes more sense to you. Listen carefully for God's word to the prophet and to us in the 58th chapter of Isaiah, verses 1 through 12:
"Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God.
"Why do we fast but you do not see? Why humble ourselves but you do not notice?"
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?"
And so, in God's conversation with the prophet, the stage is set ... now for the vision ...
"Is not this the fast that I choose:
* to loose the bonds of injustice,
* to undo the thongs of the yoke,
* to let the oppressed go free,
* and to break every yoke?
Is it not to:
* share your bread with the hungry,
* and bring the homeless poor into your house;
* when you see the naked, to cover them,
* and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
THEN your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
THEN you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help and he will say, ?Here I am.' If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom shall be like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in."
Here ends the reading of the scripture for today, but let there be no end to our conversation with the word.
This particular piece of scripture has always spoken to me so loudly that it can be almost deafening. It may not always be crystal clear, but it's definitely loud and demanding of my attention. And, with a little contemplation, it usually becomes clear enough.
In the opening verses, I hear God speaking through the prophet ... warning against worship that is passive ... worship that doesn't require us to be involved physically, spiritually, AND emotionally ... warning against worship, in other words, that is a human attempt to sway God to act on our behalf ... and our behalf alone, in a way that is local rather than global. God makes it clear that healthy worship that is pleasing to God has a completely different focus than passive, self-interested worship. The kind of worship that elicits the longed-for response from God ... the kind that is healthy and vibrant and inclusive and life-giving to the whole community ... is where my vision begins. Week after week this congregation comes together to worship God ... together ... as an act of faith and an act of community and an act of solidarity with those in our world who are under the yoke of oppression. We bring in many voices, give strength to those voices, lift the cares and concerns of this world in both word and action.
Vibrant worship that extends beyond our own needs and our own walls is one component of my ongoing vision for this church. Now, we could embellish that vision by adding this twist - increased numbers of participants in our worship services is very important to me as well. Why? So we can say we have a specific number (or a high number) of people in worship each week? Well, in one sense that is a sign of a healthy church ... and so we'd like to be able to say "look at how many people we have in attendance ... we must be strong and healthy" ... we would reinforce the notion that God must be pleased with our worship and is blessing us accordingly.
I'd prefer, instead, to yearn for increased attendance in worship as a sign that, in worship, we are doing what we say we want to do. That is, offering an experience in which people become fully engaged in the ways the prophet Isaiah promoted ... intentionally moving toward the removal of the yoke of oppression from among us.
Can our worship really do that? Remove the yoke of oppression? That's an awfully big task, but our worship, along with our common life as people of God can absolutely do that IF, and this can be a pretty big if, we are intentional about it ... if worship infiltrates our every act. Think about it this way ... We have often described ourselves as a mission church in two ways ... a church that began as a mission church ... started as a mission of the E & R church ... and a church that is in turn serving as a mission church by its outreach. We have a strong sense of our mission ... our outreach to our own community and outreach to the larger community, local and global. We have no trouble getting enough participants to engage in work camps, to support our Conference in giving to Haiti relief, to provide for the local food bank, to serve Community Dinners, to offer Back-to-School shopping for Milagro House children. We have a little more trouble getting critical mass to provide overnight shelter staffing for the homeless, but we make it happen, nonetheless. Maintaining our identity as a church in mission ... one that takes seriously the directive to remove the yoke from the oppressed, is vital to my vision for this church.
Building community in which all are fed and are empowered to feed, is another way of saying some of the above, but it also leads to another component of my vision. We have a strong small group life here ... for those who participate in those groups, whether Sunday School classes, Women's Gathering, Men's Breakfast, Companions in Christ, In Depth, Book Review, Committees, Choirs, Youth Fellowship ... and I want to applaud that facet of our life together and ask for a continuation of that life ... or even more of the above. It is through such coming together that we are also fed and empowered to feed the spiritually hungry as well as the physically hungry. You can't put a price tag on the gift of a safe place to explore ideas and check understandings ... to bounce ideas and insights off one another. That is something about our church that I will always value and support. More of the same would be a very good thing.
Support for young families and for Christian Education and for homebound members and for those hospitalized and for those who are struggling with all the realities of this difficult (to say the least) economy are all important ways we live out the mandates the prophet Isaiah reported from the mouth of God in this 58th chapter of his work. These are all mandates for my own vision for this congregation. Are we "doing" them well? Yes, I believe we are. Can we "do" them better? Of course we can. Part of my vision is to facilitate some of those better ways, as we together identify what is helpful.
So, when reaching to fulfill a mandate like the one laid out in Isaiah 58, there's always something that serves as a conscience jogger ... something that glares with its lack when held up against the plenty I've been describing. When I look at who we are and how we try to live a life of integrity as a congregation, there is one area that troubles me. I'll ask it in a question ... Are we people of extravagant invitation? In listing all the ways I see my vision ... and I'm going to be so bold as to call it our vision for the sake of discussion ... in all the ways I see our vision being played out, I'm troubled by the nagging suspicion that we keep too much of it to ourselves.
Put simply, I think we need to be more intentional about growing our church ... we need it for ourselves, as part of living out the scripture, and we owe it to the world ... again, as part of living out the scripture. This is not something we've been consistently good at. We all have friends, relatives, neighbors who are waiting to be invited. They may not know they're waiting to be invited, but it's a fact that, the number one reason people give for not getting involved in a church is simply, "I haven't been invited." It takes a lot of nerve to come uninvited to a party and that's the way many folks see our life together. Their attendance would feel like crashing a party to which they were not invited. They need the invitation and then, after they take the initial step of accepting the invitation, they need someone to show them the ropes and make the appropriate introductions.
This is a justice issue. As much as hunger for food for the physical body is a justice issue, hunger for spiritual food is a justice issue. To have what we have and not be extravagant in our invitation is denying others the opportunity not only to be fed, but to feed others. By keeping others under the yoke, no matter how good our intentions may be, we deny them opportunities to lift the yoke from their own kin.
Of course, the whole question of my vision for this church is much bigger than one meditation can cover. This is a conversation that needs to be continued through a longer season. We are entering such a season ... it's called Lent and it's a time for soul-searching, individual and corporate. The ashes on our foreheads are an outward sign of our commitment to the project ... the project of our life as a life-giving community. Please be in this conversation with me, and invite others to join with us in learning how to follow the mandate God gave to us, through the prophet, to remove the yoke, to share our resources, to stubbornly insist on justice, to invite others.
"When will justice come to Athens?" a student asked the philosopher Thucydides. And the teacher replied, "Justice will not come to Athens until those who are not oppressed are as indignant about the oppression as those who are oppressed." Good food for thought.
Let's close with the words of a modern day prophet, one of my heros of the faith ... Sister Joan Chittister ... "When we refuse to be patient we are just; when we refuse to be intimidated by its delay we are holy." And my words ... Let us, as a congregation, be both just and holy. Amen.
***
A sermon preached before the congregation at Hamilton Park UCC, Lancaster, PA on January 31, 2010 by Rev. Catherine M. Shiley, Pastor
Literally everyone in the region was talking about Jesus. He was preaching in synagogues all over Galiliee and was making quite a name for himself at the same time. Several people had mentioned that if Jesus ever came home for a weekend, they hoped he would be asked to preach in the local synagogue.
It was up to the leader of the synagogue, of course, to extend the invitation. I can imagine he might have agonized a bit before turning over his pulpit ..... "What do I really know about Jesus? He has no credentials - no degrees, no ordination, but he is clearly intelligent. His speaking gifts are remarkable. He tells compelling stories. He's a clever debater. On the downside, though, he's a bit dramatic. Over the top, really. He staged a protest at the temple, turning over the tables of the moneychangers. He eats with non-church people. He has a tendency to challenge the business community and to criticize religious people. Asking Jesus to preach could lead to trouble." Jesus seemed so young, so idealistic. Finally the leader of the synagogue figured that if he did not ask Joseph and Mary's boy to preach, he would have to explain his decision over and over again, so he asked Jesus to preach and put out an announcement.
A huge crowd shows up to hear Jesus. After the singing of a Psalm, the reading of scripture,, and the prayers, they hand Jesus the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and Jesus begins to read, "The Spirit of God is upon me to bring good news to the poor, to announce pardon to prisoners and sight to the blind, to set the burdened and the battered free."
The people love this passage. They are the poor, and they need good news. Several of them notice, though, that Jesus doesn't read the part where Isaiah talks about the day of vengeance on their enemies. This is disappointing. They especially like the part about the vengeance. They wouldn't mind dwelling here for a while.
Then Jesus announces, "This is the day God wants all this to happen." The leader of the synagogue relaxes ... the people relax ... the neighbors are so proud of Jesus. At this point, the reasonable thing for Jesus to do is tell them what they want to hear. He should work verse-by-verse, phrase-by-phrase through this passage talking about what it meant to the people to whom Isaiah preached 500 years earlier. He should politely encourage them to care for one another. If Jesus does that, everything will be just fine. At lunch they will talk about what a fine preacher Jesus is.
But Jesus is no politician. He refuses to be the hometown boy offering a feel-good sermon. If Nazareth had hopes for their local son come home, it seems likely Jesus also had hopes for this visit. These were the people with whom he grew up - his Sunday School teachers, friends who were in the Youth Group with him. Surely they will hear ... they of all people will take what he is saying to heart. But of course they do no such thing. At that point, Jesus understands that they don't really ... deep down ... believe the words he has just read from Isaiah. He knows too well the small range of his neighbors' understanding, and the way they assume that they are at the center of the world. He must be as disappointed as they are.
There before those who know him best, Jesus goes on the offensive. "Let me tell you something ... no prophet is ever welcome in the prophet's hometown." Then Jesus makes sure this prophecy comes true. "You just don't get it. The Spirit of God blows in more places than you've imagined. When Elijah the prophet was in trouble, he didn't go to one of your widows, but to a foreigner ... someone you would never invite to dinner, someone you would cross the street to avoid." The sanctuary, you can imagine, is silent as Jesus continues. "There were a lot of people sick during Elisha's time, some of them lived around here, but Elisha didn't heal any of them ... only an enemy who wouldn't be welcome in this synagogue. The Spirit doesn't belong to you. It's God's Spirit. God is also on the side of the people you look down on." God, you know, is bigger than one group of people, one place
When they hear that, the whole congregation is angry. When they realize Jesus's good news is going to benefit people they don't like, they take Jesus to a cliff and come close to throwing him over the edge. They fail to do it, of course, but not many miles away, after a few more unpopular sermons, they succeed.
It's easy for us to think that the people in Nazareth were primitive, violent people, but part of the truth is that they took Jesus's words more seriously than we do. If Jesus preached this sermon here ... today ... we might not ignore him, but we might go off to lunch and gossip about him some ... wonder where he gets off talking to us this way ... we might question his loyalty, as it were. It's a defensive move, you know. If we really were to hear his words for us, we might be offended. We'd have to ask ourselves ... do we really want everyone to have a place at the table? How open are we to hearing good news applied to people we don't like?
"Good news to the poor" Jesus promised. Do we want all the accumulated inequities wiped out? Do we want our wealth redistributed, for everyone to have equal opportunities when we have more than our share of the resources? Did we not earn what we have? Where's Jesus's sense of fairness?
"Release to the captives" - occasionally I'll see a request in a magazine from a prisoner who wants to receive mail and correspond with a Christian. Would you write a letter to a prison inmate and include your address, so he or she could write back to you? It's not something I'm comfortable doing. Am I right or wrong about this? Is it a matter of being right or wrong, wise or foolish? When I try to live Jesus's good news, this is one of the issues I grapple with - I don't want to be foolish or taken advantage of.
"Freedom to the oppressed" .... there are so many hurting people that it seems foolish to grieve for all of them - impossible, even. How can God expect us to hurt for all the burdened and battered people in the world? There are too many tragedies to feel bad about ... how do we choose? And how are our lives good news? Where do the scriptures come alive in our daily walk?
We all have our prejudices. Who is it that makes us uncomfortable? Who is not included in our circle of friends? Who doesn't quite fit in? There are people whom we have difficulty loving. Maybe we look down on members of certain races or maybe our prejudice is reserved for people we think are prejudiced. Maybe we cannot stand being around people who think Fox News is fair and balanced OR perhaps it's people who think Keith Olbermann is fair and balanced that bother us most. Maybe we are bothered by people who don't think or speak or look enough like us.
In fact, it would be impossible to hear Jesus' words as good news ... were it not for one thing. When Luke tells us this story he begins by saying, "Jesus was filled with the Spirit." The first words Jesus reads are ... "the Spirit of God is upon me." The key to understanding the compassion of Christ is recognizing that Jesus lived in the Spirit of God.
The Spirit led Jesus to see that every life is sacred. The poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed all matter a great deal to God. Their lives are no less holy than any other lives. Jesus recognized that the presence of God is here for all of us. The Spirit is all around us.
Christ can invite us ... and expect us ... to love the unloveable only because we can live in the same Spirit Jesus knew. The Christian life moves beyond the impossible task of trying to love people we do not like ... to the joyous hope of living in the Spirit. Jesus' message to us is that we can live in the same Spirit in which he lived. Knowing the presence of God that Jesus knew leads us to a new kind of life ... a life in which we are released from captivity. We have the capacity to see the extraordinary in the ordinary and to acknowledge the presence of the Spirit, but we are also capable of completely missing God's presence.
The Spirit leads from anxiety to trust, from the bondage of self-preoccupation to the absolute freedom of self-forgetfulness, from our attempts to be good enough to our ability to celebrate the Spirit. The invitation I heard as a child was to "believe in Jesus." I took that to mean believing what the Bible and the church says about Jesus and trying to do the things Jesus did. Now I understand that believing is much more than that. Believing is giving ourselves to the Spirit Jesus knew, to the God who is Spirit.
May we ... here, today ... "believe in Jesus" in a way that is so completely in tune with the Spirit that we can't help but give ourselves over to that same Spirit ... as Jesus did. Then this scripture truly will be fulfilled in our hearing.
Amen.
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