Black Lives Matter

Sermon for Trinity Sunday June 6, 202St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Psalm 8

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

Matthew 28:16-20

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to mea. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Trinity Sunday is not a day for me to preach!  I failed in trying to explain the relevance of the Trinity in 1500 words on my General Ordination Exams, the GOE’s – or God’s Own exam as some have jokingly referred to it.  In response I was told by the commission on ministry that I should read another book on the mystery of the Trinity.  Perhaps it is God’s holy humor that has be standing here – a trinitarian humor!

With all that has happened in the past two months – and especially in the past two weeks it does not feel like a time to preach a sermon on the doctrine of the Trinity, a sermon sure to make all of you tune out and tune into another service.  It is a day that feels like I should stop right now for the 8 min 48 seconds of silence to remember the life and cruel killing of George Floyd.

Systemic racism is nothing new.  It has been a part of our dominant culture for years – indeed centuries.  On Friday we attended a zoom birthday gathering for a dear friends 100^th birthday.  One of the participants asked him of his earliest memory growing up in Sacramento.  He said that his earliest memory dates back to when he was two or three – living at 14^th and W.  His memory was of the KKK burning a cross in the vacant lot across the street from the house.

Trinity Sunday is usually a Sunday when the readings are not that helpful.  The lectionary committee struggles to find trinitarian references in our scripture – so we get the version story of creation where we hear God say that humanity was created in the plural “Our Image”, and the only trinitarian reference in Matthew from the final farewell to the disciples.

However this Trinity Sunday the lessons speak to be about a way to see through the terrible devastation of a pandemic and the horrors of systemic racism and injustice.  And the extreme reaction by some law enforcement to peaceful protests that included the removal of peaceful protesters, including clergy, who were offering water and medical supplies, from historic St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington D.C. for a photo op.  A photo op that has been criticized by both the progressive side of our church as wells as the conservative side.

David Lose, a preacher I follow, said in his reflection for Trinity Sunday:

...in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and the massive and world-wide protests that has sparked – not to mention that we’re still coping with a pandemic that has now claimed more than 100,000 lives in the United States and countless more around the globe – the Trinity has never seemed so unimportant or irrelevant.

Except….

Except if there is one thing that seems important and concrete and meaningful about the Trinity, it’s the idea of relationship. Particularly as we – ourselves, our congregations, our communities – seek to move into a future that aligns more closely with what we believe deep in our heart God wants for us, then it matters a great deal that we affirm that God is, at heart, inherently, undeniably, and inextricably relational.[1]

These lessons provide a lens in which we may be able to envision a way to work to bring about God’s dream as expressed through Jesus – when he commands us to love God and to love all people, and to spread that love to all nations – not some people, all people, not some nations but all nations.

In our story of creation I take comfort that God sees all of creation as Good.  As creation unfolded the refrain we hear is that God saw each creation and that it is Good.  Indeed in the end God says that creation is Very Good.  Humanity – in all its varied expressions:  races, gender identities, liberal bias, conservative bias, all was created to be very good.  All was created to be in the image of our triune God.

In our very creation God commands that we be stewards of creation.  That we be in relationship with God and all of Gods good creation.  A command that we have failed over and over again.  In response to our failure God has sent prophets and wise women and men to call us back. 

To call us to recognize our systemic failures that treat others as less than fully human.  To repent the societal failures that lead to others being treated as less than fully human.  To call for change that recognizes that God sees that all creation is good.  A God that calls us to remember, to insist that, Black Lives do matter. 

We are reminded to say that in the story of the good shepherd – the story of God going after the one that was missing from the flock.  A popular meme of the story of the Good shepherd has the “lost” sheep saying that she was driven out of the fold – she did not run away.  Jesus reassures us that those society casts out matter – and with the horrifying murders of people of color in our society at the hands of authority – we need to be reminded that Jesus tells us that Black lives matter and we need to stand with Jesus and say that Black lives matter until our society lets people of color back into the fold.

In our Patron Saint’s second letter to the Corinthians Paul closes with “Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”  Paul emphasizes that God’s dream is for us to live in peace and when we do the God of peace will be with us.  I want to be clear that this is not a call for the protests to end.  The protests are calling for peace and reconciliation.  The protests are prophetically calling us to hear the words of Micah “What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Calling us to hear the words of Isaiah "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?”

Paul is reminding us that God is calling us into a relational faith. A faith that calls, no demands, that we see all of creation as very good.  A faith that calls us to break the bonds on injustice, to call out the systemic racism that has allowed predominantly white churches like ours to flourish for centuries. 

Elizabeth Kincade, professor of Christian ethics and moral theology at Nashotah House Seminary said in her editorial in the Living Church on the photo op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church:

However, while it is easy to condemn the violation of the message of the gospel that the photo-op represents, it is important for the Church to remember that the reason the President chose to appear in this way is simple and utilitarian: this type of appropriation of the Church has worked in the past and he thought it would work now. As abhorrent as his actions are, they only worked because in the past we, as the Church, have failed to rebuke and challenge exactly this type of appropriation and have not made it clear that we choose justice and love over safety and power.

White Christians are responsible because we have let the president and other Americans believe that the Church was the building, rather than people of God on the move with those in the square. There are many ways that the Church in America needs to repent, change, and grow, many of which the protests across our country are making plain. The president’s shameful demonstration throws into bold relief another area of needed repentance. We have allowed the powerful to believe that not only can the things of God be co-opted to promote injustice, but that this is what we want. We must ensure that this never happens again, by making clearer than ever before whose servants we are and which way we follow.[2]

Which brings me to our Gospel reading.  Jesus promised that if we make disciples of all nations Jesus will be with us to the end of the ages.  To be disciples mean a relational faith, a faith that recognizes the image of our trinitarian God in each person.

It can be a comfort to hear that Jesus is with us when we suffer.  These words have been a comfort to those who are being oppressed.  I have been comforted by God’s presence in hard times.  I have been comforted and upheld by prayer when I had cancer, when my mother died and in many other times.

There is an unfortunate  flip side that we Christians in power have misused the statement that Jesus will be with us to the end of ages.  We have used it to say that Jesus is on our side – and by implication not on someone else’s side.  We co-opt Jesus as our ally in oppression at our peril.

Matt Skinner, professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary said we should:

… approach Trinity Sunday with repentant and humble hearts, for a theology that is Trinitarian, confessing faith in a Holy, self-giving, and immanent God, can never become smug. Trinitarianism rules out pretentiousness.

Too often we take Jesus’ pledge I am with you always in a presumptuous way. We assume “I am with you” means Jesus is saying, “I am on your side” or “I will follow where you lead.”

The blood of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, [Stephon Clark],and too many other black bodies is crying out to God from the ground. So too are the lonesome remains of people of color whom America is offering as sacrifices to COVID-19.² It is past time for white preachers in particular to take another look at the “with” in Matthew 28:20.

Instead of reading “with” as an endorsement of our self-serving ideologies or an assurance of personal comfort, let us take it as a simple claim that Christ is always present around us, calling to me from among “the other.” In that call I experience judgment but also invitation.

Christ beckons us out of our own fortified assurances. You have heard his voice again, probably more loudly than usual, during the past one or two weeks.

Christ continues to cry out in agony, cast out to die in abandonment.

That cry, that presence of a suffering God, must pull and not repel us.

Christ continues to show up among the outsider and the oppressed. Christ continues to surrender his own advantages and privileges, urging us to join him.

Will we be with him?[3]

---

[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=5436

Accessed June 4, 2020

[2] https://livingchurch.org/covenant/2020/06/03/standing-at-the-doors-of-the-house-of-the-lord/?fbclid=IwAR1kUHHTggcaGOLYPSKXlDxdHtV0sZs5EBOociEBzaJY1celBYJVQ6eE6B0

Accessed June 4, 2020

[3] https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=5436

Accessed June 4, 2020

My Song is Love Unknown

Sermon for Palm Sunday 2020

The Liturgy of the Palms

Matthew 21:1-11

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

The Liturgy of the Word

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Psalm 31:9-16

Philippians 2:5-11

Matthew 27:11-54

Today marks the entrance into the week we call Holy.  We started today with the remarkable entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on a colt.  Jesus enters as a king – but with a twist – instead of riding in on a war horse with his army he comes in on a colt – or other versions say a donkey.  He comes in on a creature that is not fit for a worldly king and instead of an army he is accompanied by a rag tag group of disciples. Disciples who were fisherfolk, tax collectors, those who were formally so sick they had to be shunned, and women.  As he enters the crowds gather and cover his path with their cloaks and with branches, and shout “Hosanna to the Son of David.”  A line filled with foreshadowing comes near the end of our reading.  It says that when Jesus entered into Jerusalem that they whole city was in turmoil.  A turmoil that will ultimately lead to his death. 

As we celebrate our yearly remembrance of Jesus’ triumphal entry our world is not normal.  Because of the stay at home orders we did not gather in person in the garden.  We did not have the blessing of the palms and the procession into the church.  We are missing one of those days that we let people outside see us as we worship God.  For the past several years starting our worship outside on Palm Sunday has been a wonderful bookend to starting Lent with Ashes to Go.  To be outside and let the world that passes by this corner know that the God of Love is here.

This year it is very quiet on the corner of 15^th & J. Few cars and few pedestrians.  At church there are just four people spread out to maximize physical distancing.  Today is different.  Our routines are disrupted. The way we do church is disrupted.  The way we shop is disrupted.  We are staying at home so that people will live.  We are physically distancing when we walk or go to the grocery store to keep ourselves and others from getting sick.

Nonetheless we are celebrating Palm Sunday.  If today is like the last several weeks our livestream of the service will reach far more people than our normal Sunday.  As of this writing we reached 369 people last week, and the week before 600 people.  In this time of disruption we are still being the church – perhaps we are being the church better now that we have for years.  We are no longer on auto-pilot but we are having to think about and reinvent how we worship in community.  We are being invited to create a space in each of our homes that we can use to focus our prayers during this Holy Season.

Our Jewish sisters and brothers are also facing Passover, which starts this Wednesday, without their communal Seder dinners.  But Passover will still be celebrated.  Just as we will remember Israels deliverance at the Great Vigil they will still remember the exodus and Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt.  In her Shabbat d’rash Rabbi Mona Alfi at Congregation B’nai Israel reminded her congregation that in their remembrance they will still read about the plagues that afflicted Pharaoh and Egypt.  In her Shabbat reflection this week on the upcoming Passover she said  “At Passover we are reminded that to avoid the 10th and final plague – the death of the first born, we were commanded to stay inside, and to mark our doorposts with the blood of the paschal lamb, so that the Angel of Death will know to pass-over our houses.

Once again, we are commanded to stay in our homes so as to avoid the Angel of Death. But it is important for us to remember that while now is the time for physical distancing – we must not succumb to social or emotional distancing. We must continue to reach out to each other, not in person, but on the phone and the internet, to offer comfort, hope and help when needed, to those who need us. So that the plague of loneliness and depression does not strike us down as well.”  A good reminder for all of us.

After the liturgy of the palms our Sunday switches from being Palm Sunday to being Passion Sunday.  We just read the shorter version of the Passion according to Matthew.  We read the shorter version because we are few to share in the reading.  We read the shorter version because it felt right to do so this year.  This was not the year for a passion play.  It was is a year to get to the essence.  I invite you today to read the longer version as part of your personal reflection time.  It starts on the 15^th verse of the 26^th chapter of Matthew and goes until the end of the 27^th Chapter. A lot was left out of the shorter reading.

But don’t worry!  This coming week we will still have time to remember the events that we left out of todays reading.  On Maundy Thursday we will gather together to remember the institution of communion, The Lords Supper at the Last Supper, we will gather on Good Friday and recall the betrayal of one of the disciples and the arrest in the Garden.  This week that we call Holy provides us good time to reflect and recall the final events of Jesus time as fully human on this fragile earth.

 But today we are going to the essence of the passion.  The trial and crucifixion.  We heard that when Jesus breathed his last the curtain in the temple was torn in two, the earth shoot, and the rocks where spilt in two. 

Our time of physical distancing and being at home gives us a unique opportunity to set time aside to remember.  To find ways to be the church that we are called to be.  To create that space in our lives for God to call to us in our time of need.  To hear God calling us to be apart for a season so that we can celebrate once this pandemic is under control.

We heard in our passion reading that the tombs were opened just as surely as our time of physical distancing will end.  Easter and the Empty tomb will be celebrated this year – as it is every year.  It will be different this year.  But we will still remember the love that refuses to die – the love that could not be killed on the cross.  The love that is still calling our names and reminding us that God calls us to worship – not in our building but to worship differently. 

Rabbi Mona Alfi, in her d’rash reminded her congregation that ”Passover reminds us that suffering is part of life. But so is celebrating. We tell the story of Passover in good years to remind us to have compassion for those who suffer all around us, from modern day plagues and because of the hard hearts of modern day pharaohs.

And we tell the story of Passover in our difficult years to remind us that redemption is always possible, and that there is always something to celebrate. On our tables, the food we eat reminds us that the bitter and the sweet are of often intermingled, and the stories we tell remind us that just as our ancestors suffered and prevailed, so will we.” And we will prevail in our celebrations.

On Ash Wednesday we were reminded by the prophet Isaiah that what God desires a worship that is not in a building but one that takes care of those in need.  God, through the Prophet Isaiah said:

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?

This Easter we will celebrate – we will celebrate in community but in a different way – with livestreaming.  And we will remember our call to continue with the worship that God desires.  To continue to be messengers of the Love that refuses to die.

Today we will end our worship with part of my favorite hymn in our hymnal.  My Song is Love Unknown.  It starts:

My song is love unknown,
My Savior's love to me,
Love to the loveless shown
That they might lovely be.
O who am I,
That for my sake
My Lord should take frail flesh, and die?

On this week that we call Holy I invite you to remember the Love that will not lie.  The Love that continually calls us.  I invite you to find  new ways to make this week Holy.  To gather with us as we live stream the services.  To find time for quiet reflection – to reflect on the greatest gift given to us, and is continually offered to us  – the Love of God.

Amen.

"You hypocrites!"

Sermon for August 25, 2019 – St. Paul’s SacramentoProper 16C – RCL Track 1

Jeremiah 1:4-10

Psalm 71:1-6

Hebrews 12:18-29

Luke 13:10-17 

Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day." But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?" When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

After last week’s Gospel reading of Jesus saying that he did not come to bring peace but to bring fire.  Not to bring unity but to sow division, I am happy this week to come back to the Jesus that I expect to encounter in the Gospel of Luke.  We expect healing stories in the Gospel of Luke.  After all it is the in the Luke’s gospel that Jesus starts his ministry of healing in a synagogue by reading from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and saying that that he was the one that the prophet predicted when Isaiah said:

 ““The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,”

Today we encounter the Jesus that we expect to encounter.  Today we have an amazing story of healing.  An amazing story of Grace.  The woman in this story did not approach Jesus for healing.  She, like Jesus, was planning on attending the sabbath services at the synagogue.  It seems that she was not there seeking a miraculous healing.  She was there, like the others, to worship God.   When Jesus sees her come in, he sees the spirit that has bent her over, and calls her over.  Jesus sees not just her physical suffering but sees her spiritual suffering as well. Jesus calls her over and simply tells her that she is free from her ailment and she immediately stands us and began praising God.  There is no prelude dialogue.  There is no proclamation that her faith has made her whole.  There is simply the grace filled healing from Jesus. 

And here is where the story gets interesting.

One of the leaders of the synagogue took issue with the fact that Jesus has just done some work on the sabbath.  And not only did he do work but he did it in the place set aside for the worship of God. In the synagogue.  Jesus, in the eyes of this leader has broken God’s law about keeping the sabbath holy.  He does not object per se to the healing but objects to the time and place of the healing.  He would, it seems, be perfectly ok with the healing if it took place on any other day.  He is upset with the breaking of the law of the sabbath.

Now before we too start calling this man a hypocrite perhaps we should look into our own hearts.  I bet we all have rules, or norms, that have risen in our hearts to the level of laws.  And I am willing to bet that we get pretty upset when those laws are broken.  I certainly have norms that, when violated, can make me upset.  Some of them are pretty silly too.  Like the one about not trying to hold a meaningful discussion with me before at least the second cup of coffee has been consumed.  Others are more serious.  Like taking the commandment to love God and Love our neighbors seriously – although I admit that even with that one, I can fall far short of my own ideal. 

We also take secular laws seriously.  While we may disagree with some of the laws and regulations the government has set four our wellbeing there is a set that we would take as important.  We feel strongly that killing another is wrong.  We feel strongly that abuse is wrong.  I feel strongly that we really should stop at stop signs and for red lights – especially having suffered the consequences of a car not stopping! To name just a few. 

In our worship space we have spoken and unspoken rules of interaction.  And when those are violated, we can get pretty upset.  I belong to a Facebook group of Episcopalians.  And while many of the posts are requests for prayers there are some that talk about when people’s “rules” for worship are broken – and how dare they.  A recent post – which generated many comments – was about the passing of the peace.  The author’s norm was that the peace should last about 10 seconds with a polite handshake only to those in the near vicinity.  Anything longer, anything more expansive than that was not worship and was really degenerating into an intermission that interrupted the flow of worship.  That is certainly not the norm in this congregation – although I have attended churches where that is the norm.  There is no law about how to pass the peace – the prayer book simply says that the “ministers and people may greet one another in the name of the lord.”  We all can get pretty upset if our worship norms are violated.

In the case of the leader of the synagogue he is not just upset that a norm was broken.  He was upset that a commandment that was given to honor the sabbath was broken.  He was advocating for a strict reading of the commandment that came after the people of Israel were set free from the Egypt.  He is worried that if you let some work happen during the Sabbath that pretty soon the sabbath will lose meaning.  David Lose, a preacher I follow said “Which is what the leader of the synagogue is worried about. Once you start making exceptions for this reason or that, pretty soon no one is really keeping the Sabbath and it’s lost its point altogether. And it’s not just the Sabbath. The whole law is like that -- keep making exceptions and it’s not really a law anymore; it’s more like a suggestion, with little or no power to protect and preserve us.”^[1]

Jesus, even though he called this man a hypocrite, is not calling for the abolishment of the law of the sabbath.  He is calling for a different interpretation of the law.  He points out that there are already exemptions allowed.  There are actions that can be taken during a sabbath that look like work even in the strictest readings.  Jesus reminds him that livestock are allowed to be taken for water.  Jesus argues that one is allowed under the sabbath rules to take actions that preserve life.  In this story Jesus says that this daughter of Abraham – this decedent of the house of Israel – a faithful member of the synagogue – should not have to wait until the day after the sabbath to be healed.  She had already suffered for 18 years – another day was a day too long.  For Jesus this act of healing was no more work that taking livestock to water.  It was a mercy that promoted life.

Jesus argues that the law of the sabbath allows for healing.  It allows us to give those in need water to drink and food to eat.  It allows us to expand the reach of God’s kingdom into the places where we live.  Jesus is not telling the people to ignore the rules around the sabbath.  He is instead allowing a more generous reading of what can be allowed.  He is advocating that allowing actions that bring about God’s dream are allowed.  Actions that show God is loved and all of our neighbors are loved – all of God’s beloved children are loved are allowed.

If we continued to read this chapter in Luke Jesus goes on to tell the parables about the Kingdom of God.  The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, the Kingdom of God is like yeast – parables that we skip for now.  But they make clear that the healing was not a breaking of the law but was the in-breaking of the kingdom of heaven. 

David Lose said “Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God, and while the law helps us make sense of and get more out of life in the kingdom of the world, it must always bend to the grace that constitutes the abundant life Jesus proclaims. For above and beyond all the laws ever received or conceived, the absolute law is love, love God and love your neighbor. Or, perhaps, love God by loving your neighbor.”^[2]

The good news is that Jesus calls us to mercy and forgiveness.  Jesus calls us to bring about the inbreaking of the kingdom of God. Jesus does that by showing us examples of where we can interpret the law with grace.  Where we can read the laws with a heart tuned to healing.  Jesus calls us out when we, like the leader of the synagogue, read the laws, and our own norms, in ways that preclude being agents that bring God’s love into our world. 

This reading from Luke calls us to look into our hearts and souls.  To look for those places where we worship at the altar of idols.  To look for those times when we see others not as children of God but as disturbances to our sensibilities. To look into our hearts to see where we fail to welcome the stranger into our midst because their reading of God’s commandment is different than our own. 

Jesus tells us later in Luke that it does not take much for the inbreaking of God’s love.  A small seed, a measure of yeast, seemingly insignificant actions, cause the inbreaking of God’s love into our world. In today’s reading the healing of a women who had been bent over for 18 years showed God’s kingdom of love.  I invite you to look into your heart and see where you might need healing in order to see the inbreaking of God’s love, to look and see where you might be overly strict in your interpretations of law and norms that prevent God’s inbreaking love.  And most importantly to look and see what seeds you have that will cause the inbreaking of God’s love into our world.

---

^[1] http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=2699 Accessed August 24, 2019

^[2] ibid