Peace and Goodwill to All

Christmas Eve 2016

Luke 2:1-20

(Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzfGFntn_vI )

            In preparing for tonight’s service, and in light of all that’s gone on this year, I found myself pondering that phrase, “peace on earth and goodwill to men.” It’s a pretty familiar phrase, and we’re used to singing it in Christmas carols like the one we just sang, “It Came upon a Midnight Clear.” So, I went back to the Bible to find the exact context and see who says it. Anyone know? It’s the angels, when they come to tell the shepherds in the fields about the birth of Jesus. Except, I couldn’t find it in the first Bible I looked in. I couldn’t find it in the second one, or even the third. I got an idea and looked in the old King James Bible, and there it was. After the angel tells the shepherds, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord…,”[1] then “suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!’”[2] So, it’s not really “peace on earth and goodwill to men,” it’s “peace and goodwill toward men.” And it’s not in hardly any other Bible translation. The reason for this is the problem with the King James Bible as a whole. While it has beautiful poetry, and was quite an achievement of its time as one of the first English Bibles, one of its sources is not as original as other Bible sources. One of its sources is the Latin Vulgate Bible, which dates to the late 3^rd century, and so a lot of the King James Bible is a translation from that Bible, instead of original manuscripts. The Vulgate Bible was also a masterpiece in its time and the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church for over a thousand years, from about 400 A.D. until the 1500’s when the Protestant Reformation occurred and then the Catholic Counter-Reformation, as they tried to address some of the problems raised by the Protestant detractors. Church history aside, the Vulgate is not the earliest translation of the Bible, and there are earlier texts in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, and our other modern Bible translations are based on those earlier manuscripts instead. So, to make a long story short, that’s why the phrase “goodwill to men” is not in most Bibles; it was in the Latin Vulgate, but not in other, earlier manuscripts. I hope I didn’t bore you with all that history!

            Bottom line is that most translations only say, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”[3] Most translations leave out that “goodwill to men” or “goodwill to all” part, and for good reason. Yet it seems that goodwill toward our fellow person has also been forgotten lately. I’ve heard multiple times that our country has not been this divided since 1968. 1968 was the year Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. It’s the year that hostilities increased in the war in Vietnam and locally we had the Catonsville Nine, burning their draft cards to protest the war. Tensions were high then, and tensions are high again, fifty years later. 2016 has not been a good year for many of us. We’ve lost loved ones, experienced new diseases, were scared we were going to lose more loved ones, and went through a traumatic election cycle in which some of our relationships with loved ones were irrevocably changed. We have had a lot going on, and it has not made us a better people. Not many of the large events have inspired us or encouraged us to have goodwill toward our fellow person. Instead, I think we’ve become meaner to each other. I’ve witnessed not one, but two separate incidents on Pulaski Highway where people actually got out of their cars to confront each other in the midst of road rage. The social climate has changed. We’ve lost our goodwill toward men. We’re more likely to be suspicious, to not trust, to not give someone the benefit of the doubt, to not presume someone innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. We’ve lost our goodwill toward our neighbor, toward our co-worker, toward our spouse, our children, …maybe kept it toward our grandchildren J We’ve lost our goodwill toward our fellow driver and toward the person next to us in line at the store. A friend of mine was actually thanked the other day at Wal-Mart for saying “excuse me.” The fact that politeness was so alien to this person that she felt the need to thank my friend, speaks volumes about where we are as a society.

            Now, we can’t change others; we can only change ourselves. So, make it a point this Christmas season and in 2017 to use your good manners that I know all y’all were taught. Say please and thank you and excuse me. Let others go first. Let a car out in front of you when lanes merge or a side street joins a main thoroughfare. Let go of grudges. Give people the benefit of the doubt. Did you know that the first Christmas of World War I, in 1914, there was an unofficial Christmas truce? On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, French, German, and British soldiers from both sides left opposing trenches on the Western front and met up in no man’s land in the middle with no weapons, no harsh words, just gifts and food to exchange. Some soldiers even played soccer together and others sang Christmas carols. Now, after Christmas, the war resumed, and by Christmas of 1915, hostilities were so intensified that both sides were too bitter and too entrenched to do it again. Brothers and sisters, friends, let’s not get to that point, where we can’t break bread and sing and play with people who are on opposite sides from us. Let’s declare a Christmas Truce, not just for these twelve days of Christmas, but to last throughout the coming year, and beyond that, too.

            There’s a Christmas song that John Denver sings, that I know from my all-time favorite Christmas album, John Denver and the Muppets, but he’s sung it elsewhere, too. 

It’s called “The Christmas Wish.”[4]

I don't know if you believe in Christmas,

or if you have presents underneath the Christmas tree.

But if you believe in love, that will be more than enough

for you to come and celebrate with me.

For I have held the precious gift that love brings

even though I've never saw a Christmas star.

But I know there is a light, I have felt it burn inside,

and I can see it shining from afar.

Christmas is a time to come together, a time to put all differences aside.

And I reach out my hand to the family of man

to share the joy I feel at Christmas time.

For the truth that binds us all together, I would like to say a simple prayer.

That at this special time, you will have true peace of mind

and love to last throughout the coming year.

And if you believe in love, that will be more than enough

for peace to last throughout the coming year.

And peace on earth will last throughout the year.

            We need help for that to happen. We need someone called the Prince of Peace in order to have real, lasting peace. We need something as radical and absurd as a tiny baby to save us from ourselves and from each other. Emmanuel means God with us. God, in this tiny, newborn baby, with us. Keeping God’s promise to never leave us or forsake us. Keeping God’s promise to remember us and redeem us. Keeping God’s promise to save us. Keeping God’s promise that evil and suffering and death and miscommunication and betrayal do not have the last word. Keeping God’s Word that God had the first word and will have the last word.

            Theologian and Bishop N.T. Wright once wrote that “what Jesus was up to… was not saving souls for a disembodied eternity but rescuing people from the corruption and decay of the way the world presently is so that they could enjoy, already in the present, that renewal of creation which is God’s ultimate purpose – and so that they could thus become colleagues and partners in that large project.”[5] Joining God in God’s work is precisely this. Enjoying now the renewal of creation, the renewal we see at Christmastime, “a time to come together and put all differences aside,” to reach out our hand to our fellow person, to have goodwill toward them once again. We’ve forgotten it, but it is time to again to have peace in our hearts and goodwill in our thoughts and actions to “the family of man,” the family of God, our brothers and sisters, each and every person, whether they are like you or not, whether they voted for the same person as you or not, whether they are the same religion as you or not. It’s time. For this Christ was born. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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[1] Luke 2:10-11

[2] Luke 2:13-14

[3] Luke 2:14, NRSV

[4] http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-christmas-wish-lyrics-john-denver.html

[5] Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and Enuma Okoro, p. 72

If You Knew

4th Sunday of Advent

December 18, 2016

Canticle of Mary; Matthew 1:18-25

“If you knew.” It’s a fun game we humans like to play. Would you want to be 17 again? If I knew then what I know now. Would you do something wild and daring again? If I knew ahead of time what would happen. If you knew the end at the beginning, would you still go through it? If it has a good ending, of course! If it has a bad ending? There’s always been a young adult novel sub genre of tragic endings, which you know are coming. When I was growing up, the author Lurlene McDaniel wrote a lot of those types of stories. Tragic heroines who are coming of age and who have the odds stacked against them because of disease or some other tragic occurrence. The latest most popular one is “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green; it was also made into a movie a couple years ago. It’s a classic love story of boy meets girl, with a twist. Both boy and girl have terminal cancer. Both are only teenagers. While reading the book, I kept wondering which one was going to die first, and I won’t spoil it for you and tell you. Love is always a risk; even more so when the one you love is expected to die. Is it still worth it?

My husband and I recently saw a movie where the woman knows that she will have a daughter who will die as a teenager. In the movie, she only just meets the man with whom she’ll have this child. At the end, the man finds out that she knew all along, and says she shouldn’t have chosen to have the child, anyway. Is it worth it? 15 years of joy and love, for a sad ending, and grieving that will never completely go away. The man thought it wasn’t worth it. The woman thought it was. If you knew ahead of time… what would you choose? Would the good times and love outweigh the bad ending? This woman thought so. And Mary thought so, too.

One of the Christmas songs we heard last Sunday in the Cantata is “Mary, Did You Know?” This song has been catching a lot of flack on social media by my clergy colleagues this year. Because if you think about it, knowing what we know of the nativity story, what the angel tells Mary, and Mary’s response, with beautiful Magnificat, or Canticle of Mary, yes, she knew what was coming. She knew there would be great joy and great heartache. She knew her son was the Savior of the world; and she knew the authorities and others would hate him for it. She knew. And her response to the angel was still, “May it be with me as you have said.” She still chose to go through with it. She may not have known crucifixion and resurrection. But she knew there would be good news to those who are oppressed, and she knew that the oppressors would resist that. She knew there would be miracles, and she knew there would be doubters. She knew there would be salvation, and she knew there would be a cost for that salvation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian and pastor, wrote a book on the cost of discipleship, and cheap grace and costly grace. He knew there is a cost for following Jesus. And if we act and live as always and accept things without thinking them through, then we cheapen the grace that Christ offers us. Bonhoeffer knew, and paid the price with his life, dying in a German concentration camp in 1945 because he dared to speak out against the Nazi regime.

If you knew the end at the beginning, would you still do it? It makes the risk a little more calculated, and if you’re like me, then you like that. I am only a “moderate risk taker.” I like to know as much as possible about what I’m getting into. And yet, that is the Christian life. That is this season of Advent. We knew when we lit the first Advent candle that we’d be lighting all four of them plus a Christ candle in the middle on Christmas Eve. During this season of preparation, we’ve known what’s coming. I suppose Advent is an easier season to go through than others. We know the end is a baby. We do know what’s coming. This isn’t a hypothetical question for us. We know the end. And not just the end of the season of Advent, but also the end that Mary knew. We know what is coming. We know there will be Epiphany and Jesus’ baptism and the beginning of his ministry at the wedding in Cana and the calling of the first disciples. We know there will also be heartache and rejection and that this spring we will walk through Lent again, journey with Jesus to the cross, and, thank God, not just there but to the other side of the cross, to Easter morning. We know new life is coming. We know that in the end, God wins. WE DO KNOW THE END. Trial and tribulation, yes. Brokenness and a change more radical than we’ve ever known, yes. Yet as Christians, we also know the end of the story. We have the blessed assurance that God is in control and in control of history. We know what will happen at the end of our individual story and the end of the story of the church. God takes us all up to heaven. There will be a new heaven and a new earth and no more crying or weeping anymore. We know the end of the story.

We know the end of our story. We know the end of the story of this little baby who’s about to be born. We go through the story with him every year, the highs and the lows, the good times and the bad. We go through the story with him every year in light of the end, in light of the salvation of the world. We know what’s coming, on Christmas Day, on Palm Sunday, on Good Friday, on Easter Sunday, on Pentecost. And we keep doing it again, because we are people of the story, people of the Book. And this Book, this story, is the one that defines our lives, that illumines our lives, that tells us how then we should live. We live expectant, like Mary, ready and waiting. We live accepting the nearly unbelievable, like Joseph, when we’re really not sure how God is going to make this happen. We live, knowing that while salvation is freely offered, there is a cost to accepting it, because it means we’re not going to be like the world. Our first day of Christmas is Christmas Day, not December 13th. The 12th day of Christmas is Epiphany, not December 25th.  We live differently because we follow this little baby who was born in a barn, because we know the end at the beginning.

For us, there is no hypothetical “if you knew the end, would you do something differently?” We do know the end, and so we do live differently. We don’t live in fear. We don’t live worried about what might happen tomorrow, or even what might happen today. We know God’s got it under control. And so we live generously, looking out for each other and for the poor. When my four year old asked last week why we were going to sing Christmas songs to a church member in a nursing home, my mom answered her, “Because Jesus tells us to visit the sick.” There really isn’t much more to say than that. We visit the sick and those in prison. We feed the hungry and give clothes to those without them. We work with organizations like Streets of Hope to provide hope to the homeless. We do live differently, because we do know. And we know that in a week, we will again celebrate the birth of a little baby boy, the one who saves us all. Thanks be to God!

Thank You to My Sister Clergywomen Who Went Before

(Written December 5, 2016)

Today I went to the clergywomen's luncheon. I was told it might be cliquish. I've heard of young clergywomen being harassed and hazed by older clergywomen (the rationale being that because they had it so tough, they have to make it tough on us). But today's lunch wasn't like that. Older clergywomen wanted to know about me. They were interested in me. And, for the first time, I was grateful for the trail they blazed.

I think I'd always taken it for granted. Growing up in the 1980's and 1990's, of course women could be preachers, too. I'd never appreciated just how recent that was. The church we went to the longest (in the place we lived the longest, 1986-1993) had a female priest (I grew up in the Episcopal Church). So, I normalized it.

The Methodist Church granted full clergy rights to women in 1956. The first woman appointed District Superintendent was in 1967 and the first woman elected Bishop was in 1980.

Only in the first of my three appointments was I the first woman (and I was only the third pastor overall, and the first white - it was a Hispanic church). Now, the church I served as an associate pastor has never had a female senior pastor. And where I serve now, I'm the second woman at one church and the third woman at the other church. The stained glass ceiling was already broken. I'm serving under my second female Bishop (out of four Bishops total). Out of six District Superintendents, half have been women as well. Yet half of all Bishops are not female, nor have I seen a Cabinet that is half women.

I don't think I ever appreciated just how new female pastors are, or what it would have been like to go to seminary in the 1970's or 1980's. It's not that long ago. Thank you, sister clergywomen, for blazing the trail and going before.

Changed Lives

2^nd Sunday of Advent

December 4, 2016

Matthew 3:1-12

(Watch here for the full version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a41k-1nRDW8 )

2^nd Sunday of Advent – John the Baptist Sunday

John the Baptist – Elisabeth and Zachariah’s son; lived in wilderness, dressed in camel’s hair, ate locusts & wild honey

His job – prepare people for Jesus – thru baptism and preaching repentance

Repentance = turn back to God

v. 2:

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (NRSV)

“Turn away from your sins because the Kingdom of heaven is near!” (GNT)

“Change your hearts and lives!” (CEB)

v. 8

“Bear fruit worthy of repentance.” (NRSV)

“Do those things that will show that you have turned from your sins.” (GNT)

“Produce fruit that shows you have changed your hearts and lives.” (CEB)

1.     Sometimes our lives are changed for us –

a.     TJ’s life changed after having 2 strokes in late June

b.     My story with rheumatoid arthritis – Everything changed for me: contact case, shoes, clothes, hair, food, car, where I lived, my profession; then as a result of moving: got married, changed my name, permanent address, who I lived with, got a dog

2.     Sometimes we decide to change, which changes our lives – weight loss program; decide to get married, have a baby, move; John’s calling people to make this type of conscious decision to get ready for Jesus

3.     Either way, there’s always evidence (fruit) of the change (people know something’s different) – whether visible changes or simply how you carry yourself, your attitude, how you treat others, how you spend your time & your $

What Time Is It? ¿Que Hora Es?

1^st Sunday of Advent

November 27, 2016

Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:36-44

(Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE6oF-wKa8Q )

            In 2002 a short comedy sketch came out called “¿Que Hora Es?” (“What Time Is It?”)[1] It’s a parody on a Spanish-speaking soap opera and billed as the Mexican soap opera for people who have only had 3 weeks of Spanish in the 4th grade. The acting is all overdramatic, just like practically any Spanish-speaking soap opera I’ve ever seen, with exaggerated gestures and emotion and overacting. But the words are all vocabulary from a beginning Spanish class. One person asks “¿Que hora es?” and another person answers, “Ocho,” (8) but the inflection and tone of their voice are all suggest that this is a very serious conversation. They say random phrases to piece together a conversation, like “¿Donde esta la biblioteca?’ (Where is the library?) and “Me gusta queso.” (I like cheese.) The kicker comes when a native Spanish speaker enters the scene and starts talking normally, because he assumes they’re speaking fluent Spanish, and the rest of the cast all looks at him very confused, because they don’t understand anything he said. They tell him to use phrases like “como se llama” (what’s your name?) and “cinco de mayo.” The fluent speaker says, “Ustedes no se hablan espanol,” (y’all don’t speak Spanish), and they all respond “si!” Then he responds very melodramatically, “¿Que hora es?” And they all gasp as if he’s said something shocking. It’s hysterical.

Anyway, que hora es, or what time is it, was the question that it felt like we had two very different answers to in our Scriptures this morning. In Romans, Paul tells us, “you know what time it is,” the time has come to wake up, and put aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. You know the time has come, is the first line of our Romans passage. And we do know what time it is, it’s the first Sunday of Advent, it’s the beginning of the Christian year, it’s the beginning of the countdown to Christmas. We know we just had Thanksgiving and Black Friday and Small Business Saturday and that Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday are right around the corner. We know it’s the beginning of the holiday season and the beginning of winter. We do know what time it is.

Yet, then at the beginning of our Matthew passage, Jesus says, “No one knows when the day or the hour will come.” You don’t know when the day of the Lord is coming. It’s coming like a thief in the night, and if the owner of the house knew what time the thief was coming, he wouldn’t let the thief break into his house. Jesus says, you don’t know the time. It’s quite a contrast from Paul, who says you know what time it is, and then Jesus says no one knows the time. So, which way is it? Do we know what time, or do we not? Let’s look at each of these passages a little more closely.

Paul says, “As you do this, you know the time has come,” which, of course, begs the questions, what’s this? If you look back at the first part of Romans 13, you find out that Paul is talking about the commandments and the law. He says that the commandments are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law, which is to show love to your neighbor and to yourself. So, as you love your neighbor as yourself, you know what time it is. The time has come to wake up, salvation is near. The night is almost over, the day is near. It’s like it’s 4 or 5 a.m., and if you’re in my house, your two year old has already been in 3 times asking if it’s time to get up yet, and it’s getting close to sunrise. Of course, today sunrise was at 7:02 a.m., so we could even be talking about as late as 6:00, and you’re getting up, getting ready, because you know the day is coming. It’s almost sunrise. The dawn is about to break. The sky is about to start getting lighter. You know this is coming. You know what time it is.

And Paul says, because dawn is about to break, let us stop doing things that belong to the dark and put on the armor of light. “Let us conduct ourselves properly, as people who live in the light of day, no orgies or drunkenness, no immorality or indecency, no fighting or jealousy.” One of my mom’s favorite sayings is that nothing good happens after midnight. There are times I disagree, but this is still the same idea. It’s time to stop doing things that belong to the dark. Unlike Darth Vader, we do not belong to the dark side, and so it’s time to stop acting as if we did. What happens under the cover of night? Stealing? Sneaking out of the house? Bad TV shows? It’s certainly a time when if you get a phone call, you know it won’t be good news. And so Paul just says point blank, no more reveling and drunkenness, no more immorality or indecency, no more fighting or jealousy. That is not how you are supposed to be acting. That is not what you’re supposed to be doing. That does not show love to yourself or to your neighbor. It is time to shape up, grow up, act appropriately, act decently toward others and toward yourself. Paul says, “Instead, dress yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ, and don’t plan to indulge your selfish desires.” It’s time to put on Christ, like we did in our baptism, to remember that you belong to Christ, and stop paying attention to your selfish desires. No more midnight milkshake runs, or soap operas that border on porn, or whatever your vice is. It is time. Day is almost here, and it will bring to light all these things you’ve been doing in secret, trying to hide them from others and from God and from yourself. That doesn’t work, you know. Jesus says, “Whatever is hidden away will be brought out into the open, and whatever is covered up will be found and brought to light.”[2] Secrets never stay that way forever. Hidden vices to do not hurt only you. It’s time to stop doing whatever belongs to the darkness, and start loving your neighbor as yourself. It’s time. We know what time it is.

Yet then this passage is paired with the one from Matthew where Jesus says, “No one knows when the day or the hour will come.” No one knows when the day of the Lord is coming. It will be a surprise! We know it’s coming, but not exactly when. It’s kinda like being pregnant with a due date, but you don’t know when exactly the baby will come. Or maybe like waiting for the first snowfall of winter, or wondering when the radio is going to switch over to all Christmas music. You know it’s coming, you just don’t know exactly when. The day of the Lord is coming, but you don’t know what time. And Jesus gives the really interesting analogy of the thief in the night. If you know a thief is coming, you take extra precautions and put extra safeguards in place. However, then you might fall asleep while you wait. If you know exactly what time the thief is coming, then you can stay awake, or go to bed with your alarm set, and be ready yourself to prevent the thief from breaking and entering. So then, Jesus says, “you also must always be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you are not expecting him.”

So then, here is the paradox. We know Jesus is coming, but we don’t know when. Jesus tells us to be always ready, because we don’t know when to expect him. It’s time to wake up, it’s time to get ready, and then stay ready and prepared. We know it’s almost dawn, but we don’t have the weather instruments that tell us exactly when sunrise will be. And you know what they say about the time right before sunrise, the night is always darkest right before the dawn. Going through an extra dark night makes it even more important that we are ready, that we resist the urge to join the dark, that we don’t give in to our selfishness, but instead stay ready for Jesus, always loving our neighbor and ourselves.

I know many of us have already begun our preparations for Christmas. I gave out an Advent calendar for the kids to count down. We have lit the first candle on our Advent wreath. We are getting ready. We know what time it is now. We know what we have to do to get ready, whether make cookies or buy presents or wrap presents or clean the house for visitors or go visit family. We’re not ready now. But we will be. We’re going to take the time to put in the hard work to clean up our act, clean up our houses, prepare our worship space, and prepare our hearts to welcome our King.  Because sometimes the only answer we get to our question, “Que hora es?” is “Ocho.”  Amen.

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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cKGyOE_jOI

[2] Luke 8:17

A Kingdom of Shepherds

Christ the King Sunday

November 20, 2016

Jeremiah 23:1-6

(Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy0OyZHge7Q )

At the beginning of the book of Revelation, John talks about how Christ made us a kingdom of priests to serve God. [1]This verse is where Martin Luther got the idea of the priesthood of all believers, that we don’t need a priest to intercede for us; we can go directly to God ourselves. In a sense, we are all priests, we are all servants, and we all minister to those in need. Ministering and caring for those in need is what Jeremiah’s talking about in the passage we read from him this morning. God passes judgment on those shepherds who didn’t act as shepherds, “the rulers who were supposed to take care of his people,” but instead scattered the flock and drove them away.[2] We all know leaders who aren’t good leaders. We all know examples of a person who should have cared, who was supposed to care, and didn’t. It happens, unfortunately. And here, God says those shepherds are no longer going to be shepherds. God’s going to bring back the sheep that have been scattered, and “place over them shepherds who care for them.” Basically, shepherds who are going to do the job shepherds are supposed to do, which is to take care of their flock. Shepherds who care. We have all been given people to love. God has given all of us people to love and take care of. In a sense, we are all shepherds. We all have a flock, of some shape and size, whose care is our responsibility. In a sense, we’re not only a kingdom of priests, we’re also a kingdom of shepherds.

As shepherds, we have the perfect role model of how to be a shepherd who cares, how to be a good shepherd, in the person of the Good Shepherd, Jesus. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep,” and does not run away when trouble comes. “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.”[3] A good shepherd, a shepherd who cares, knows his sheep, and the sheep know him. The shepherd’s not a stranger and the shepherd doesn’t leave when the going gets tough. In the Old Testament, the prophet Ezekiel describes the actions of a good shepherd as one who will gather the flock and feed them with good pasture and bind up the wounds of any who are injured.[4] This is what the Good Shepherd does. The shepherd knows his sheep so that he can always find them wherever they’ve scattered. He gives them good food to eat. And he takes care of their injuries. He washes the wound and adds neosporin and a bandage so that it can heal. He takes care of them. 

This is all what’s described in the last hymn we sang, which is based on the 23^rd psalm. “The King of Love, my shepherd is, whose goodness failed never.”[5] Or, “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul.”[6] The Good Shepherd restores your soul. That’s what good shepherds do. And they do that without losing their own soul in the process. One of the last times I was at the Wal-mart by Piney Grove, I overheard a lady in a wheelchair say to another shopper, “I lost myself while taking care of others.” If you’re not careful, it happens. Jesus, though, takes the time to take care of himself, too. He spends time in prayer, he rests. He makes sure he gets enough to eat, too. He is our model for how to be a shepherd and take care of others.

            Now, the so that, or why, of why God will provide shepherds who care for the sheep is “so that the sheep will no longer be afraid or dread harm.”[7] We need shepherds who care for us so that we don’t have to be afraid. When you have a good ruler in charge, then you’re not worried about what might happen. You know they’ve got your back. When I went to the District Committee on Ordained Ministry last week for a mock interview, that was one of the things the chair told me afterwards. He’s also on the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry and he said that when I come before them, there’ll be 30 other people who don’t know me. He’s got my back and does believe that I am ready to be commissioned this year. I’ve just got to also let those other 30 people know that I am, too. It was really encouraging to hear him tell me that he would completely back me. How often do we get told that these days? How often do we get our fears reassured? When a shepherd cares for the sheep, then the sheep don’t worry about what might happen. They know their shepherd will provide for them and will not lead them astray.

Now, sometimes we’re the sheep, and sometimes we’re the shepherd. Whose back do you have? Who can you help worry less and be less afraid? What words, what actions, help let others know that they don’t need to be afraid or dread harm? How have others helped you? And how can you help others? It is true, unfortunately, that sometimes others will not accept your help. There’s an older gentleman I often see walking around Red Lion Road and nearby, and one day when it was raining, I pulled over and offered him a ride. He didn’t even look at me, just held up his hand and kept walking, in the rain. You can’t help someone who doesn’t want help. You can’t share the Gospel with someone who doesn’t want to receive it. So, you move on, and find someone who is willing to receive your help, someone who does have the ears to hear that you do not have to be afraid. You do not have to dread harm.

The other reason that Jeremiah gives as to why God will provide shepherds who care for the flock is so that none of them will be missing.[8] A good shepherd knows how many sheep are under his care, and goes out and looks for the ones who are missing. Jesus even tells the parable about the shepherd who has 100 sheep, and one night as they return to their pen, he only counts 99.[9] The shepherd doesn’t decide oh well, good enough. No, the shepherd leaves the 99 and goes back out and searches for the missing sheep, and doesn’t stop searching until he finds him. Some of you know that we have to turn in statistical reports every year, in North Carolina, it was even once a quarter. There is, of course, grumbling among pastors about this because numbers do not tell the whole story of a church. Not all ministry is quantifiable by numbers. You may be able to tell how many people came to an outreach ministry, but it’s a lot harder to verify how many were impacted by it and just how hearts were changed. Still, numbers are one measure of church vitality, because, I have heard it pointed out, counting is how the shepherd knew that one sheep was missing. If he hadn’t counted to know how many sheep were present, he wouldn’t have known that one was missing and needed finding. As you look around and see who’s here and you know who’s not here, give them a call or a visit, or even mail them a card this week. Let them know you’re thinking of them and that you care for them.

Sometimes we’re the sheep, sometimes we’re the shepherd. When it’s your turn to take care of others, this is the goal, so that none go missing or live in fear or dread of the future. And sometimes that's what we need others to tell us and check in with us. You remember the story back in Genesis when Cain is so jealous of his brother, Abel, that he kills his brother? Then God asks Cain, where’s your brother? Cain answers the question with another question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”[10] Have y’all ever thought about that question? Or its answer? Because the answer is yes, we are our brother’s keeper. We are responsible for our brothers and sisters, just as they are responsible for us. My husband reminded me that the new Marvel series on Netflix, “Luke Cage,” ends with a reference to this verse. Luke Cage is the good guy in the show and the bad guy is his half-brother. The series ends with Luke saying, “I am my brother’s keeper.” 

We are responsible for our brothers and sisters, and they are responsible for us. We are our brothers’ keepers, and they are ours. Sometimes we’re the sheep, sometimes we’re the shepherd. We are to take care of each other.

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[1] Revelation 1:6

[2] Jeremiah 23:2

[3] John 10:11-14

[4] Ezekiel 34:11-16

[5] UMH 138

[6] Psalm 23:1-3a, KJV

[7] Jeremiah 23:4

[8] Jeremiah 23:4

[9] Matthew 18:12-13

[10] Genesis 4:9

The Heirs of the Kingdom Have PTSD

26^th Sunday after Pentecost

November 13, 2016

Isaiah 65:17-25

Or watch here (in 2 parts because I went over YouTube’s 15 minute limit):

Part 1 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MceJV7iA_U

Part 2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVyytNUcgDk

            I was at a conference on Wednesday morning when a colleague from a different state commented that she felt like she had PTSD from this election cycle. Another colleague agreed, and we wondered if we as a nation have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of the tension and divisiveness of this election season. The election’s over. But does it feel over? We heard so much negativity, criticism, name-calling, and wild accusations that we couldn’t always tell whether they were rumor or fact, that I think most, if not all, of us are still reeling from it. We’re still recovering from it, as if we had national PTSD.

Most often, we often hear about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with regards to our vets, those who have served our country. Veterans’ Day was the other holiday this past week, you know. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that about a third of Vietnam vets have PTSD, as many as 10% of vets of the Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm, and about 11% of veterans of the current war in Afghanistan.[1] It’s a mental disorder that’s caused by experiencing something traumatic, like active combat, but can also include things on the home front like a car accident, abuse, a bombing, or even natural events like an earthquake or hurricane.

A fellow pastor here in Baltimore is experiencing it after she was carjacked at gunpoint a couple weeks ago in front of the church she serves. She’s taking a month off to mentally and emotionally recover from it, it affected her that much. I’m the pastor on call for that church during this time and I invite you to join me in holding her and her family in prayer as she recovers from that traumatic experience. Two of her young grandchildren were with her when it happened. She’s extremely shaken.  

Now, people can go through the same thing and yet not be affected in the same way. An event may be traumatic for you and not for me; we’re all wired different ways. Yet this election season seems to have been traumatic for pretty much everyone. Almost everyone was talking about it, worrying about it, people of faith were praying about it, it had just about everyone on edge. You could feel it in the air when you went out in public. And even though Election Day’s over, people are still talking about it, processing what happened, worrying about the consequences and long-term effects.

It creates a bit of an incongruity with our Isaiah reading. We know where we are; how do we get to this vision Isaiah describes?

“For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind… For I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight… No more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime... They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.” Finally, “the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox… They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.”

How do we get there, from where we are now? Can you even imagine it? The wolf and the lamb shall feed together. The donkey and the elephant shall break bread together. Clinton and Trump supporters will share a meal. Does it even sound possible? Well, the answer in the church is yes. [pause] Because it even happens in this church. Now, don’t start looking suspiciously at your neighbors trying to figure out who didn’t vote the same way you did. That is not going to help anything. And we certainly don’t need to add to the suspicion and distrust that was amplified during the election season. We have enough of that. What we need more of is trust and confidence and giving other people the benefit of the doubt first, and, as brothers and sisters in Christ, remembering that that is our first identity, that is the thing about each person that is the most important. You were made in the image of the one living God. God made you, and your neighbor. And before you start to think, well, maybe God messed up on my neighbor (because I know how some of you think!), remember that God said humanity was created very good. Remember that God calls you and your neighbor beloved. Remember that God loves you and your neighbor.

One of the workshops I went to at this conference was about conflict transformation. I’ve taken a few such workshops since starting this appointment, and this one was facilitated by an expert in the field, the guy who wrote the book on JustPeace, Dr. Craig Gilliam. One of the things he said about conflict is that [slowly] sometimes we want to win so much that we stop seeing people as people, and instead start seeing people as objects. Sometimes we get so caught up that we forget that our opponent is also made in God’s image, is also beloved, is also a child of the living God. Sometimes we forget, and instead we just see them as an obstacle to getting what we want, or getting what we think we deserve. Sometimes our desire to win blinds us to seeing a person’s humanity, and we focus so much on our cause, we forget that they are also a child of God. Has that ever happened to you?

Lately, when Isabel makes me really mad, instead of yelling at her about whatever she did wrong, I manage to take a deep breath, and I tell her “I love you,” and then I address the problem. See, she’s not the problem. Her being 4 is part of the problem, because she’s still learning about how to act in different situations and what’s acceptable and what’s not and developing empathy for how someone feels when she hurts them, intentionally or not. She’s learning boundaries and limits and what will happen if. And if I have less patience at that moment to teach her, then we have a problem. But the problem isn’t her, and the problem isn’t me. The problem, or the conflict, is that she’s still learning and testing out every single what if she can think of to find out what happens.

This presenter said that when he’s called in to resolve a conflict, he’ll often being by having the two people talk to each other. While they talk, he’ll write on a board the problems that he hears them identify. And what he said is that gradually, as they talk and he writes, they slowly begin to turn their chairs so that they both face the board. They both face the board, where the problems have been written down. Instead of thinking the other person is the problem, they’re realizing just what the problem is, and it’s not the other person. You’ve heard of “keep the main thing the main thing”? Well, I think you can also say, “keep the problem the problem,” and the problem is not a person. The problem is racism or sexism or homelessness or hunger or what-have-you. The problem is not a person, or a group of people. Keep the problem the problem, and face that together, instead of facing each other. It is possible to disagree adamantly, and vehemently, and still be open to the other person’s humanity, to honor their dignity and their choice to stand in a different place than me. Not all of God’s children are the same, obviously. We don’t all make the same choices, and we don’t have to make the same choices. There is a beautiful diversity in God’s kingdom with lions and lambs, with oxen and wolves, with donkeys and elephants and all the other parties out there. God didn’t make us the same, and that’s okay. Because it’s okay, we have to remember to view each other first as a child of God, worthy of the same dignity and respect and love as everyone else.

Working through PTSD takes time. I don’t know, maybe you don’t have it. I just know that many of our brothers and sisters across are country do feel shell-shocked, and not because of who won. We feel shell-shocked because of all the vitriol we heard during the campaign season. We heard people say the worst things, we heard people’s humanity and human rights denied. We heard people say that other people don’t matter, or aren’t even worthy to be considered people. We heard people treated as objects.

I will give one example, and it’s not even one I learned recently but back when I was in college. My mom and stepdad had recently married and I was meeting much of my stepdad’s family for the first time. I met a pair of step-cousins in their early 20s and somehow it came up that they don’t use the word that rhymes with witch but starts with a b. My step-cousins don’t use it, because properly used in context, that word means a female dog. That’s the origin and the true meaning of the word. And so, in slang, what that word implies then is that the person is not human. You are calling them a dog, not even a person. (And that’s a general you, because I don’t know who among you curses, because no one curses around the preacher!) That word denies the person human dignity, and makes it easier to objectify them. There are many, many more examples like that.

Even when you get upset with someone, even if the conflict is so big and so tall that you can’t see a way out of it, if you remember that the other person is also a person, also a child of God, made in God’s image, and beloved by God, it will make a world of difference. Treat each person with dignity, treat each person as a person, whether it’s the person who cut you off driving or the person at the store, or as we head into the holiday season, the person who stole your parking space at the mall. We are all made in God’s image. Different, and yet all part of God’s family. Remember, when one part of the family hurts, we all hurt.

I’ll give you one more example that’s going on this weekend. Here in our Conference, we have a youth event every February in Ocean City called ROCK, with which many of you are familiar. In the North Carolina Conference, they have a similar youth gathering, only it’s held the second weekend in November and it’s called Pilgrimage. It’s wrapping up this morning. The one time I went to Pilgrimage was with my first appointment, which was a Hispanic church, and I took 5 youth to it from that congregation. At this year’s Pilgrimage, someone anonymously put a clothespin on the clothing of a Hispanic youth as they walked by with the words “Build a Wall” on one side and “I love Trump” on the other side.” [Pause] That dehumanizes. That hurts. That is not treating that person with dignity.

So whether you have PTSD or not, remember our brothers and sisters who do. Their worries and fears are as real to them as yours are to you. It’s going to take our country a while to recover from this election. And there is no one who was not affected by it; we were all affected by it. So, we all work through it together. We take time together. We break bread together. We talk together. We keep the problem the problem, and not any person. The only person we focus on is the person of Jesus Christ. And with his help, we will recover and regain our equilibrium and sense of well-being. Thanks be to God.

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[1] https://medlineplus.gov/magazine/issues/winter09/articles/winter09pg10-14.html

Grandma’s Necklace

All Saints’ Sunday

November 6, 2016

Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18; Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31

            I think it was Mother’s Day when I shared about my Grandma’s necklace. I hadn’t planned to talk about it; it was not in my notes. But as the Spirit leads during a sermon, you follow, and it fit the example perfectly, I think about using the gifts you’ve been given. However, I didn’t tell you the backstory, and like anything you inherit, there’s almost always a story. The first time I wore this necklace was at my college graduation. I had not put on a necklace and my Grandma thought I ought to be wearing one. So, she took off her necklace from around her neck and put it around mine. Grandpa protested, because he had only recently given it to her. I wore it for graduation, and then gave it back to Grandma. After she passed a few years ago, my mom, as the only daughter, inherited all of Grandma’s jewelry. She already knew from conversations with Grandma which pieces Grandma wanted which granddaughter to have. I received back the necklace Grandma had loaned me.

            Inheritance is also the theme in our Scriptures this morning for All Saints’ Day. In Daniel’s vision, the holy ones inherit the kingdom and shall possess the kingdom forever. This is God’s eternal kingdom, that has no end, that God’s children receive, simply through faith in God. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes that we have the promise of  an eternal inheritance, and that by faith, we can attain this inheritance that Christ has promised to all who follow him. And in Luke, Jesus describes the disciples’ inheritance as children of God, the inheritance of faith, and of grace.

            And I realized there are at least three major differences in our inheritance as God’s children than from any inheritance we receive from a loved one here on earth. First is that whole thing about it being eternal. This isn’t an inheritance that can get used up or run out. It’s not like story of the prodigal son who spends his inheritance so quickly and foolishly that he ends up crawling back to his father seeking forgiveness. God’s kingdom is eternal. It has no end. And it’s our inheritance as God’s children. It’s not going to rust, it’s not going to eventually all get spent, there’s no chance of it getting lost. In 1 Peter 1:3-4, Scripture says, “By God’s great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you…” An inheritance that is imperishable, undefined, and unfading. Remember what you’ve heard about God’s City of Zion? It’s a place where there’s no more weeping or crying. It’s a place where the streets are paved with gold. It’s a place where it’s always day, because the Lamb is the light of the City of God. That’s what’s in store for God’s children.

            A second big difference with this inheritance is the timing of it. Usually you receive your inheritance when the owner passes away. However, God’s kingdom is not something we get when God dies. God’s eternal, just like his kingdom; he’s not going to die. And it’s not something predicated on the death or resurrection of Jesus, either. It’s an inheritance we receive through our faith, it’s an inheritance we receive when we die, and it’s why we can trust that our loves ones are there now, walking the streets of glory. I believe my Grandma is there. I believe your loved ones who you miss are there, too. And, last month, I learned that I do believe that dogs go to heaven, too, and our 13 year old dog is walking those same streets of glory, soaking up heavenly sunbeams. It’s an upside down inheritance, just like a lot of things are with God. The timing is different.

            Finally, unlike other inheritances, there is no chance of losing this one or being written out of the will. The only way we cannot receive this gift is if we refuse it. God will not refuse it to us; he freely offers it. It’s up to us to faithfully accept it. Now, who refuses an inheritance? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of such a thing. We may wish we didn’t have certain family genes or we may work to overcome some family history so that we can be healthy, that kind of inheritance is not one we want to receive. We all have inherited family skeletons in the closet or genetic diseases or predispositions. That’s life. With the inheritance from God, though, we have a choice. God’s not going to write us out of his will. The book of Revelation talks about the names that are written in the Book of Life, those names are already there. We’re already in the will. The names in the Book of Life stay there. This hope and promise of eternal life is for those who believe.

            Some of our loved ones we know for sure that they believed. Others, we don’t have that certainty, and we take it on faith. Our inheritance as the saints of God only happens by faith in God’s promise. And I don’t know about you, but I want to be in that number, when the saints go marching in. I believe the promise. Gathered here we have one beloved community of the saints of God; gathering above is all the saints who have gone before us. I had never sung that middle hymn before, “Come, Let Us Join Our Friends Above.” It’s by Charles Wesley, and it describes the two communities, separated only by a thin veil, really just one community of God’s beloved children throughout all of time. Pretty neat to think about, huh? That’s our inheritance as part of God’s family, which we joined in our baptism. We are part of that number. Thanks be to God.

(The candles lit on the altar of Cowenton UMC on All Saints' 2016)

Mommymommymommymommymommy

24^th Sunday after Pentecost

Reformation Sunday

October 30, 2016

Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

(Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU9x-VqJr-4 )

Habakkuk:

·         Only time we read from this prophet in the lectionary

·         Contemporary of Jeremiah – prophesied in the period before the Exile, likely sometime between 626 and 622 B.C., when the Babylonians were beginning to wreak havoc on Israel

·         What’s different about Habakkuk is that it starts with words addressed to God, not first a message from God that Habakkuk delivers to the people

·         His complaint: “Lord, how long will I call for help and you not listen?” – He just wants God to listen to him! He doesn’t ask God to act; he asks God to listen

“I will take up my post; I will position myself on the fortress, I will keep watch to see what the Lord says to me and how he will respond to my complaint.”

·         Habakkuk decides to wait and watch and see; he knows God will respond

o   Zacchaeus takes up his post to watch from a sycamore tree – he knows Jesus is coming by this way

o   How do you wait? Impatiently? Doing your own thing as if no God? Preparing and ready for God’s answer?

·         2x this past week AJ up at 4 a.m. asking for breakfast and refused to go back to bed – he took up his position, not just to watch, but to constantly remind me that he was hungry

o   Me: wait! Not time to eat! – trust eating will happen, we will have breakfast

o   We know that as parents, do we trust/believe it as God’s children?

o   Easier from parent’s perspective – we know alarm will go off at 6, we know hunger lasts only for a little while

·         Habakkuk: “my complaint” – not request, not problem, not suffering – H admits he’s complaining; he trusts God will respond to him

o   Today is Reformation Sunday – last Sunday in October – marking the occasion in 1517 when Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany – Luther’s complaints

o   What would be on your list of 95 theses? Write complaints on index card and put on altar – what is your complaint to God? What is God not listening to you say?

[5 min or so to do this]

God answers, “There is still a vision. Write the vision, and wait for it.”

·         “There is a vision” – good news!

o   What is it??

o   Is the time right yet?? (Are we there yet?)

·         “Write the vision” – think about what God wants for our community, write it down, keep it simple, and work toward it – write your vision/dream on index card and bring to altar

[5 min or so to do this]

·         “Write the vision and wait for it” – Often God seems to delay – can’t rush a sunrise; God’s timing is not ours – patience is a fruit of the Spirit – take your post, prepare

·         Prayer