Worthy, Loved, and Needed

 I really would love to preach to you today about the Good Shepherd

            and maybe I will get to that by the end of this sermon

but first I need to address what has come up in the last few days

            among members of this congregation.

 

It has to do with the church sign and reader board.

 

“Matter is minimum. Black lives are worthy, loved, and needed.”

 

I have received several phone calls and some email and text message exchanges             about the current message.

Some people were not happy with that message.

Some see it as political and therefore inappropriate for a church message.

Some see it as upsetting a desired sense of love and peace

            among the members of the congregation.

 

First of all, it is important that you know 

            that what goes on that sign requires my approval.

This is not something the vestry votes on.

Anyone may suggest the wording,  but I am the one who gives approval.

 

The idea for the message was presented by email to the vestry for comment.

            Some of the vestry members responded.

            Some held back waiting to hear what others would say.

            Some pondered how others in the congregation would react.

Some people, members of the congregation, outside this vestry conversation 

            had heard about the reader board message and reacted.

All this tells me that this congregation continues to struggle with

            how to talk about issues where people have different positions,

            and how reactive we can get before we even have conversations.

 

If you do not like or agree with the message on the reader board,

            I do not want to hear comments that blame or malign 

                                                                        those who suggested the message.

We have had too much of that already,

            and that has damaged trust among our relationships.

 

Now I am going to say something that I probably should have been addressing

                        in sermons or Bible study classes or forum discussions.

Racism is a huge issue in our country, in our history, 

                                                            in this state and this community.

 

The Episcopal Church has taken some fine steps in addressing this,

            not just recently, but for quite some time now,

and not just because our Presiding Bishop is a Black descendent of slaves.

 

I began my active ministry in the Episcopal Church in 1966 at the age of 20

            working for the Episcopal Mission Society of the Diocese of New York.

My job was being a camp counselor where we took disadvantages kids 

            from all the boroughs of New York City for an outdoor adventure 

                                    in the lakes and forests of the Catskills.

Coming as I did from an all white community of my campers 

            50% were Black, 40% were Puerto Ricans, 

                        and the remaining 10% were everything else.

I learned so much from my campers,

            as I begin to see the world through their eyes.

These were kids that didn’t matter to most of the rest of their community,

            but we told them that they did matter to God,

                        so they were worthy, loved and needed

            even if that was not the message they got when they returned home.

 

In 1990 when I was in the Diocese of Minnesota 

            where there were Lakota and Ojibwe members in every congregation,

we listened to our First Nations siblings asking us to prepare 

            a different kind of observance for the 500^th anniversary 

            of the “discovery” of the New World by Christopher Columbus.

So instead we spent the next two years preparing for an acknowledgement of 

            500 years of survival of indigenous peoples after the European invasion.

 

And then more recently I revived my high school Spanish 

            in order to preside at the Eucharist and even preach in Spanish.

And I learned from these parishioners,

                                    as I did from the Ojibwe and the New York campers,

            that the God of the Bible we read has a preferential option 

                        for those who are marginalized and dispossessed

                                    by the dominant culture among whom they live.

 

There is no level playing field in this country, or anywhere in the world.

That is why the Torah, the commandments in the Old Testament,

            made special provision for those without income, status or power

                        so that they could have some provision and protection:

            the widows, the orphans, the poor and the aliens resident among them.

That is what the Old Testament prophets kept coming back to 

            and reminding the people of these injunctions.

Justice in these cases is seeing that their needs are met

            so that they can be equally productive for the benefit of all.

Everyone is needed.

          They learned that wandering in the harsh environment the Sinai for 40 years

                        having come out of slavery themselves.

 

And the Son of God chose to be born at a very volatile point in history

            among a people who were dispossessed and oppressed.

And you can’t read the Gospels without getting at least a glimmer

                                                                                                of the politics of the time.

And a lot of what Jesus said and did had a distinct political edge.

            Just take the Sermon on the Mount, for instance,

            starting with the Beatitudes.

Who are the Blessed?  the poor in spirit, the downtrodden,

            those who morn, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,

                        that is, being set right in the eyes of God,

                        who, remember, has a preferential option for the marginalized.

 

I am only scratching the surface.

 

Until all lives truly matter and the playing field is level,

            some lives will require just treatment 

                        and our compassionate engagement to make that so.

 

We can preach that, and we can take action in ministry and service,

            and sometimes that upsets the status quo, 

                        equilibrium that can too easily become “don’t rock the boat.”

 

Black lives are worthy, are loved, are needed.

 

Let’s make this more personal.

            We all know Ethan.

                        What a world he is growing up in!

                        How will it be for him in the future?

            But Ethan is worthy, Ethan is loved, Ethan is needed.

The sign outside is about him.

 

It’s about our kids of color who have been bullied and harassed in school here.

                                    The sign is for them.

 

I’m thinking of making the sign read differently next week:

            Native lives are worthy, are loved, are needed.

                        That would be an appropriate message to share in this community.

Then there is all that history about Lewiston back in the old days.

            The following week:  Asian lives are worthy, are loved, are needed.

Then another segment of our community that needs our acknowledgment:

            LGBTQ lives are worthy, are loved, are needed.

Then if you have any sense of your own shortcomings,

                        your own need for God’s grace and forgiveness,

                        your own poverty of spirit,

let the sign read:

            YOUR life is worthy, YOU are loved, YOU are needed.

 

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, laid down his life for the sheep,

            not just the robust and healthy sheep in the flock,

                        but also for the ones left behind, 

                        the ones stuck in the thickets,

                        and the ones who were different from the rest 

                                                                        and were likely to be ostracized.

Jesus talked about the shepherd leaving the ninety and nine

            and going out to look for the stray, that’s how valuable the stray was.

 

So I am asking us all to take a good hard look at how we are reacting right now.

 

Notice how we use the word political right now.

            Have we substituted it for the word moral,

                        as in our Christian moral responsibility?

Does the comfort level for us to be together depend on 

            not talking about moral responsibility 

                                                                        because there are political implications?

 

It is not inappropriate for Christians to take a biblical moral stand

            following the example of Jesus

                        on the grounds that such action is political.

If that is inappropriate, then we would have stopped following Jesus.

 

If so, then we have become the lost sheep

            and we will become prey to the wolves that would devour us:

                        the wolves of hate, closed heartedness, and fear,

                        and inaction in the face of the cries of those in need of justice.

 

Living out the Baptismal Covenant is not as easy as we thought,

            not convenient, not always comfortable.

It certainly wasn’t convenient nor comfortable for Jesus.

 

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, said, “I lay down my life for the sheep,”

            and “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

 

May we recognize this and be open to embracing the abundance of this life

            this life in Christ, this life of Resurrection Presence 

                        in which we live and move and have our being.            

May we embrace this abundance of life 

            that brings us into closer union with each other

            and doesn’t let us rest until the cries for justice are headed and met.

Resurrection Perspective - Opening up the Vision

 In the Gospel for today 

            the Resurrection Jesus is having a teaching moment with his disciples, 

and we pick up something for ourselves in this,

            if we also consider ourselves to be his disciples.

Do you see yourself as a disciple of Jesus, a student following him, 

willing to be open to learning from him?

 

The setting for today’s Gospel reading 

is what immediately follows the story 

of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus 

and their encounter with the Resurrection Jesus 

in the breaking of the bread.

They had just returned to Jerusalem 

and were telling the other disciples about this 

when Jesus shows up, frightening them out of their wits.

 

And so he has to go to some lengths to assure them 

that his physical presence is very solid, 

and not a wispy spirit like a mirage or a ghost.

 

He gives them peace, 

and joy is generated within them replacing their fear.

But they are still incredulous, 

trying to understand what is happening before their eyes.

They cannot get their minds around it; 

                                                                        this is beyond comprehension.

 

And so the next gift that Jesus gives them 

is that he opens their minds to understand the scriptures.

 

“These are my words,” he says to them, 

“my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you 

– that everything written about me in the law of Moses, 

the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”

Throughout all of the Hebrew scriptures, all three parts 

– law, prophets, and the writings – 

the spiritual truth that is fully expressed in Jesus can be found, 

and becomes more obvious 

when it is seen reflected in the Jesus of the Resurrection.

 

But notice that Jesus is the one who opens their minds to understanding, 

not their figuring it all out on their own 

The spiritual master, the spiritual teacher 

            takes responsibility for the disciples 

and does the work in and through the disciples.

 

For example, in the Gospel stories about feeding the multitudes, 

the disciples were the ones distributing the bread.  

It was in their hands that the miracle was taking place.  

It was not the disciple performing the miracle.  

The disciple is merely the instrument, the channel.  

It was the Teacher Jesus who was doing the creating of the bread and fish, 

            working through their hands.  

 

So it is with all who are disciples and followers of Jesus.  

The true ministry and work that is done 

in serving others in the Lord’s Name 

is not the work of the disciple, 

but work of the Spiritual Master who has sent the disciple.  

                        All effectiveness in ministry is his alone.

Ponder that in your own ministry.

 

And last week with the story about Thomas and faith without seeing

            and the charge to forgive and restrain sins 

in the ministry of reconciliation,

the point was made that Jesus doesn’t leave 

anything as important as our salvation, 

to us and our response alone.

 

It was noted that faith is a gift, as well as a fruit, of the Spirit.

            Even the faith that we think is our own 

originates from the One who knows us best

and knows our great need in this area.

 

And now we see that likewise all our understand 

is also within the scope of his management 

and is also his gift to us, opening our minds.

 

Opening our minds first to something of what Resurrection is, 

and then what he wants to effect through us 

the proclamation of Good News, 

to have your minds turned around – that’s what repentance is – 

                        to turn around, 

to stop going in one direction and get reoriented,

to have a changed mind – metanoia.

 

Through the Resurrection 

Jesus is now able to work even more effectually through his disciples 

beginning from Jerusalem and spreading throughout the world.

 

He opened their minds

to an expanded vision from the perspective of Resurrection.

 

If we also are disciples, 

can it not also be said that in this process of discipleship, 

            our vision too will be expanded?

What might that be like for this congregation here?

 

            As a big “for instance”

what might that be like for our calling process for a new priest-in-charge?

Are we all taking the calling process chaplain’s wise words to heart?

            Ray strongly commended to each of us 

                        To pray that beautiful calling process prayer daily.

 

And can we commit ourselves more deeply to the ongoing process of listening?

and to commit to continuing openness with each other 

            that fosters reconciliation and healing?

 

Can we see 

that the Spirit of the Resurrection Jesus is very much present here 

guiding us in this process, 

just as surely as the disciples were guided and their minds were opened?

 

In today’s Gospel lesson

            once the disciples’ minds were opened to the reality of Resurrection,

                        they couldn’t go back to the old way of thinking.

Catch a vision 

and once that has happened      you can’t go back.

                                    Can we cooperate with the process?

 

Our Christian faith comes to us through revelation.

And it is not just revelation to those first disciples 

            who then wrote it down and taught it to others,

                        who taught it to others after them,

                        generation after generation.

No.

It is revelation to each and every person 

            through the agency of the Holy Spirit, the Resurrection Spirit of Jesus.

                                    Can we cooperate with the process?

 

No great experience of blinding insight come to you, you say?

Revelation isn’t always a voice from heaven saying, “Thus saith the Lord.”

 

Think of your own experiences of what has made your faith come alive,

            what insights, what discoveries, 

the times you have read an old, familiar passage of scripture 

            and suddenly something new springs out of it into your awareness,

all these are indications of expansion of awareness, 

            the opening of the mind referred to here in this gospel.

                                    Can we cooperate with the process?

 

And if you are like me, I don’t feel that I get it all yet,

            that I want to be open to more revelation,

            that I want to continue to be teachable,

                        and I will trust the Holy Spirit to teach me.

Faith has an open mind.

The Church exists because of the powerful Name of Jesus

            that reveals to us that which saves us, that which liberates us

                        from all that binds our lives,

                        all that imprisons and confines our lives,

                                    sin, fear, confusion, doubt .

 

There is a spiritual truth we need to get:  form, and attachment to form, 

            blocks the ability to recognize reality.

 

Just as the disciples in the gospel reading for today

            were attached to a framework, a form of perception                                                                                             about dead people and ghosts 

            that Jesus had to break up          

            to get them into a new framework of perception about resurrection,

in the same way there is an immense presumption in the Church 

            about the Institution continuing as it is,

& instead, we might say from current observation this isn’t working for the Church, 

            going through a destruction of a particular familiar form of being the Church 

                                    –  and for its own good!

 

The testimony to the gospel, the declaration of what has been revealed to us, 

is not, I would say, best served by how we have been doing church.

                        I am now speaking about the Episcopal Church in general.

 

The message, the core purpose of the Church, the gospel

            will get expressed, despite our attempts that fumble 

                        or get side tracked into more concern 

                                    about maintaining an institution or membership 

                                    or just about anything else.

 

The message, the core purpose of the Church, the gospel is about Jesus.  

            This is the reality that attachment to form blocks from sight.

 

So, may we keep firmly in mind that it’s about Jesus,

                        about the Resurrection,

                        about the good news of his saving Presence 

                                                to heal, restore, liberate, reveal

                                    in service to all beings, bringing the Word of Life – Jesus.

 

Reconciliation, Thomas, Touch and Taste

Every year on the second Sunday in the Easter Season

            we have this Gospel reading.

 

The main part of it, so memorable, is the story of Thomas,

            absent from the other disciples the previous week - hence his doubts, 

                        then his encounter with the Risen Lord,

                        and subsequently his response to the Resurrection.

 

This should be a lesson to us all of the importance 

            of being in church every Sunday.

Who knows what you might be left out of if you miss even one Sunday!

 

Well, of course, that really trivializes this story and does Thomas a disservice.

He performs an important role, shows us his humanness, 

            so that we can readily identify with him 

                        and thus see ourselves in this encounter with Jesus as well.

Thomas, the “patron saint of Episcopalians!”

 

Well, there’s more in this Gospel reading we can also look at.

 

The first part of the reading is the same one we will hear on May 23,

            for Pentecost Sunday, 

                                    the day more associated with the reading from Acts 2.

 

This first part of today’s Gospel reading often gets overlooked.

            overshadowed by the saga of Thomas today,

I think it might be good to spend some time, therefore, 

            with this section of the Gospel reading, 

                        and in particular with the part about forgiving sins.

Jesus appears to the disciples (all except Thomas) and says to them:

“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

“Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus breathes into them Holy Spirit,

            and then he commissions them into the ministry of reconciliation

                        "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; 

                        if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." 

 

Well, we may want to back away from this statement, sounds too much like:

            "I forgive you, but I don't forgive you."

So let me help unpack this.

 

Two key Greek words here: forgive and retain – 

            forgive, which literally means to send away, send forth, emit,

                        an action that involves separation.

Sins are sent away and separated from a person;

            the action is done on the sins.

Retain, or better translated restrain – to lay hold of, keep under reserve, 

            hold fast, bind them, 

            hold back, hinder their action.

To send away the sins and to bind them from happening.

                                    This is the spiritual action of liberation.

What an incredible thing the apostles were to do!

And by logical extension, what an incredible thing WE are called to do!

 

I think we see very little of this being done in the church,

            and heaven knows the world sure needs this kind of reconciliation,

                        the forgiving of sins, 

                        the sending away of sins and the restraining of sins in the first place.

The first is a response to sin, and the second is a preventative action.

 

And sin, what all is included in the definition of sin?

            What is the most important aspect about sin that we need to remember?

Sin is a violation of the basic human relationships –

            with each other, with God and with ourselves.

That covers everything from murder             

            to something as seemingly minor 

                        as begrudging another’s joy because you do not have that yourself.

So notice: there is a two-fold aspect to the ministry of reconciliation.

Forgive or take away sins – responding to the occasion of sin, reactive reconciliation.  

And retain or hold back sins - proactive reconciliation.

 

            We can have a restraining effect on sin!

 

Think about the implications of this for us in daily life:

          What we say, 

what we do, 

the attitudes we have, 

the opinions we express, 

how we live out relationships 

– all can be proactive reconciliation.

We who are called by his Name,

            have been sent, and 

            have been given an awesome power and force in the world for good,

a force that is as desperately needed now as ever.

 

We are called to ministry of reconciliation through our baptisms;

            Book of Common Prayer, page 855, from a section in the Catechism, Outline of the Faith:

 

Q. What is the ministry of the laity?

A. The ministry of lay persons is to represent Christ and his Church;

            to bear witness to him wherever they may be

            and, according to the gifts given them, 

            to carry on Christ's work of reconciliation in the world; 

            and to take their place in the life, worship, and governance of the Church.

 

There is much more to say about the ministry of reconciliation

            but we also have the other half of this gospel reading.

 

Someone forgot to tell Thomas about the meeting last Sunday.

 

Despite all the other disciples corroborating their story of seeing the Risen Christ

            Thomas says he must not only see, but also touch.

 

He would not trust just his eyes.

He wants to see the wounds; he wants to see that which killed Jesus.

 

Maybe he wants to make sure

            that it is absolutely apparent that Jesus is risen from the dead,

                        not just a survivor of the ordeal of crucifixion.

So Jesus shows up, 

and apparently unseen the Risen Lord had overheard Thomas’ conversation.

 

Jesus shows great compassion to Thomas

            and he gives him a special invitation to touch the wounds.

 

The text doesn't say if Thomas then did touch.            

But what Thomas said is very significant:            "My Lord and my God!"

 

Thomas was not just looking at Jesus as his rabbi, or teacher, or master,

            but as GOD.                        This is bold declaration of faith.            

Thomas goes from doubt to calling Jesus God.

            This even goes beyond what the others told Thomas.

 

Thomas' declaration, "My Lord and my God!" is both a creed 

and an act of devotion or worship, a response to the Holy.

 

Then in verse 29 from the Gospel reading Jesus says:            

            Blessed are those who have not seen, 

            and yet believe.

 

Now here is another place where how the Greek gets translated into English 

            is tricky.

There are nuances of meaning around any Greek word 

            that may overlap with the many nuances of meaning 

                                    around a corresponding English word,

and the Greek verb pistew is one of them.

 

It gets translated believe and have faith in.

            In English for us here in a church setting 

                        believe has a creedal sense to it 

                        – such as in a tenet of belief or a doctrine.

            It can have a sense that having gathered so much evidence 

                        one can now reliably believe something.

 

Have faith in as a translation is more relational.

            We say we have faith in someone 

                        because our experience of that person shows us 

                        that he or she is trustworthy.

It’s a matter of trust level.

            Being willing to trust what is not in my control.

            Trusting what I cannot prove, what I cannot dictate as verifiable,

                        only what has been revealed to me,

what I have experienced so subjectively. 

 

Faith, in this sense then, is a participation in relationship 

with the God of the resurrected Lord in us.

 

Now listen carefully to what I am going to say.

We are not saved on the basis of what we believe.

We are not saved on the basis of what we believe.

 

If that were the case, then purity of theology, the content of belief

            would be of primal importance,

and only those who believed rightly would be saved, would be reconciled to God.

 

That makes for a pretty scary situation,

           since with all the different denominations and all their different belief systems,

knowing what is right belief is problematic.

 

If someone didn’t know the right formula of doctrine, then too bad.

            This would leave out most children, 

            those of low mental capacity and the ageing mind that is forgetful.

 

But that is not the case.

            It is a matter of trust, that kind of faith, rather than belief.

 

So can you see that it is not what you believe, but what Jesus did.

As you have heard me say before:

            God doesn’t leave anything as important as salvation, 

            up to us and our response alone.

Even our faith is a gift.

 

Now back to what Thomas said and its connection with the Eucharist.

The Eucharist is a concrete and specific Resurrection appearance of Jesus.

 

In the Eucharist we say that we have before us the Body of Christ.

            These are the words as the bread is placed in your hands, right?

 

So do you realize what you take into your hands during Communion?

            The very presence of the Resurrected Lord,

                        tangible, touchable.

That is why we make such a point of the moment of silence 

            at the breaking of the Bread.

This represents the very wounds of the crucifixion,

            the very thing Thomas wanted to see and to touch.

And we get to touch and see and taste and eat.

 

When the bread and the cup are lifted up, and the Presider says             

            “The Gifts of God for the People of God” these are words of invitation:

come forward to see and touch and taste

            that our faith, our trusting may be nurtured

            and our spirits and whole being are nourished

            and strengthened for the ministry of reconciliation. 

Take the Mystery of the Resurrection into your own hands.