Lectionary 19C/ Proper 14

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

This week the churchwide assembly for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) convened in Milwaukee.

In the ELCA we celebrate being one church body organized in three expressions – the local congregation, the synod, and the churchwide organization, and the churchwide assembly (#ELCAcwa) brings those three expressions together every three years. There, voting members elected by each of the sixty-five synods, as well as our synod bishops and assistants to the bishop and the Church Council gather to listen for where God is speaking and leading; to bear witness to God’s activity in the world; and to take action that shines God’s light in the world in solidarity with the poor, and oppressed, calling for justice and proclaiming God’s love for the world.[i]

I watched worship and plenaries on the livestream from the Wisconsin Center, and while there’s much that could be said about Roberts’ Rules of Order, parliamentary procedure and hot mic moments during the assembly, what made it extraordinary was the joyful worship and preaching that proclaimed that we are saved by a God whose grace has no limits, and the actions taken that spoke to how God’s kingdom is breaking into the world even now.

And, as I listened and watched, the words of our second reading from the book of Hebrews returned to me:

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen… 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.

Like us, the audience being addressed in the book of Hebrews “were not eyewitnesses to the ministry of Jesus and [they] lived in a community that had been founded some years before.”[ii] Like those “Christians who were having trouble holding onto hope when Christ did not return immediately after his resurrection”, we, too, wait for answers from God, and in the midst of daily life we can become discouraged that evil and sin continue to exist in the world. [iii] But the Good News of Jesus Christ is that we are not alone, or abandoned to our despair or our fear.

This text tells us first that faith is “the assurance of things hoped for.”(v. 1) Furman University religion professor John C. Shelley notes, “what we hope for is intimately connected to our faith.”[iv] In the gospel, Jesus tells us “Where your treasure is, your heart will be also.” (Luke 12: 34) The places where we commit our selves – our time, talents and our money – reflect the desires of our hearts, and they reflect our faith because our lives are lived in response to the grace we have been given. The hopes we hold for ourselves, our church and the world cannot be separated from our faith.

One of the actions that the churchwide assembly took was to adopt a memorial that “encourages our synods and congregations to commemorate
the 50th anniversary of the ELCA’s ordination of women in 2020;
the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the ordination of women of color in the Lutheran tradition in the United States and
the 10th anniversary of the ELCA’s decision to remove the barriers to ordination for people in same-gendered relationships..."[v]

I am grateful the ELCA “recognizes the diversity of gifts that women’s ordination brings to this church”[vi] and to this congregation for calling me as Ascension’s first female pastor, but I lament that many congregations throughout the ELCA still refuse to recognize the calls of women in ministry, people of color and our LGBTQIA siblings in Christ. For all who have been told that they cannot serve, in our denomination or elsewhere, our churchwide affirmation of women in ministry witnesses that “the way of Jesus is the way to become who [each of us] most truly is,” as a child of God.[vii] Our action sustains hope for those who do not yet see a way forward.

The text also tells us that faith is “the conviction of things not seen.” (v. 1) As Shelley writes, “faith is not supported by the surrounding culture.”[viii] We forget sometimes how political Jesus was; he challenged the existing systems and leaders on behalf of those who were suffering or ignored and, ultimately, he was executed for it. In Luke’s gospel particularly, he speaks up for the poor, with more than 30 references to wealth, money, possessions and alms in Luke-Acts alone.

We cannot listen to Jesus’s words and think he doesn’t have something to say about how we spend, save and give.

Rolf Jacobson, a professor at Luther Seminary, tells the story of how he started tipping more and then realized he was noticing more the people who are dependent on tips. It’s not just wait staff at restaurants. It’s service personnel who don’t have living wages, and often don’t have benefits that provide healthcare or retirement savings. Again, we hear Jesus: “Where your treasure is, your heart will be also.”

Budgets are faith statements, and at the churchwide assembly, one of the first celebrations was that “Always Being Made New: the Campaign for the ELCA” exceeded its goal, raising more than $250 million in support of new and existing ELCA ministries. Those gifts will provide needed revenue to expand ministries for supporting congregations, leaders, and the global church and addressing hunger and poverty, and we can and should celebrate the ways God will be made known.

Later in the week, the assembly adopted the three-year budget for the churchwide expression which designated 75% of expenses to support and grow vital congregations here in the U.S. and to grow the Lutheran Church around the world; provide relief and development to help end hunger domestically and globally; provide coordination and support for churchwide ministries and support and develop current and future rostered and lay leaders in the ELCA.

Clearly, we long to participate in the beautiful kingdom work that God is doing through our church.

But then, one of the last pieces of business that the assembly engaged was the discussion of a cost-saving measure taken earlier this year that changed the healthcare benefits for the employees at the churchwide organization. The assembly was asked to consider restoring those benefits and the difficult discussion highlighted the challenge of managing money, people and ministry. It also, importantly, affirmed our own social statement that acknowledges how health and health care depend not only upon personal responsibility, but also upon other people and conditions in wider society. It states, “Such interdependence is at odds with the common message of this individualistic society, but it flows from the biblical vision of wholeness.”[ix]

We cannot make decisions about our lives and the lives of those around us apart from our faith.
In the verses that follow those that I read, the writer of Hebrews shares the stories of heroes of faith including Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and reminds us that, as Shelley notes, “faith may provoke hostility and ridicule…and it also presents itself as courage.[x]

Several of the actions taken this week by the assembly required great courage. After thirty years the ELCA has even fewer people of color than our predecessor bodies of the ALC and LCA did; in fact, we are the whitest denomination in the U.S. No single action or set of actions can change that reality quickly but the assembly took three actions that begin to address our history and our future. First, the assembly apologized to the African descent community for our historical complicity in slavery and its enduring legacy of racism in the United States and globally. The second action recalled the events of June 17, 2015 when a young man, baptized and raised in an ELCA congregation in the Carolinas, murdered nine people at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston; in commemoration of those nine martyrs, June 17 was designated as a day of repentance, grounded in prayer. And the third action was the adoption of an unambiguous resolution to condemn white supremacy, proclaiming that “the love of God and the justice and mercy of God are for all people, without exception.”[xi]

There is a Zulu proverb that says, “When a thorn pierces the foot, the whole body must bend over to pull it out.”[xii] We cannot follow Jesus but expect others do the hard and necessary work to address systemic racism in our nation and within the Church.

There are many more examples from churchwide assembly that connect faith and Scripture to our everyday lives and remind us that we are part of the Body of Christ in all its beauty and all its mess. I encourage you to learn more about the actions the assembly took, but also to look at your own decisions and see how your faith informs your live in the every day.

Our faith is alive – it is hope-filled; it is relational and it is public.
It is our faith in Christ whom we proclaim crucified and risen that gives us courage to confront evil and sin in the world with the confidence that God prevails. The writer of Hebrews assures us: we do not need to be discouraged and we are not without hope.

Let us pray…
Creator God,
We give you thanks for the world created by your word
and for Your Son who shows us Your Kingdom.
Forgive us when we fail to put our faith in your promises.
By your Holy Spirit, strengthen and give us courage to seek justice for all your children.
We pray in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
Amen.


[i] Constitution, Ascension Lutheran Church.
[ii] “Hebrews”. Enter the Bible. Luther Seminary.
[iii] David E. Gray. “Hebrews”, Feasting on the Word.
[iv] John C. Shelley. “Hebrews”, Feasting on the Word.
[v] Legislative Update, https://www.elca.org/cwa-2019/guidebook-web-version, accessed 8/10/19
[vi] ibid
[vii] Shelley.
[viii] ibid
[ix] https://www.elca.org/Faith/Faith-and-Society/Social-Statements/Health-Care, accessed 8/10/19
[x] ibid
[xi] Legislative Update, https://www.elca.org/cwa-2019/guidebook-web-version, accessed 8/10/19
[xii] The Right Reverend W. Darin Moore, Bishop, AME Zion Church, speaking at ELCA CWA 8/8/2019.

God will deliver us from our enemy (Numbers 17)

Worship from Sunday, June 21, 2015, 4th Sunday after Pentecost
at Ascension Lutheran Church, Shelby, NC

Introduction
Today we gather together as the body of Christ,

and, with our brothers and sisters, we mourn the nine people who were killed Wednesday night in the shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

As you probably know, the suspected 21-year old shooter was arrested during a traffic stop here in Shelby by our city police. What you may not have yet learned is that he also was a member of an ELCA congregation in South Carolina, and two of the people killed were graduates of the ELCA seminary in Columbia, SC. As Presiding Bishop Eaton wrote in her response to the tragedy, “One of our own is alleged to have shot and killed two who adopted us as their own.”

During worship

During the summer children of all ages are invited to listen as we read from children’s literature. Today, I am going to read from Birmingham 1963 written Carole Boston Weatherford.

This story tells what happened in a Birmingham, Alabama church on a Sunday morning nearly fifty-two years ago. [After the reading] I wonder where God is in the story.

Let us pray:

God of our ancestors,

History shows us that even when evil, hatred and violence cloak our lives in darkness,

you remain Emanuel, God with us.

We commend to you the lives of the saints who were killed on Wednesday night as they gathered in your house:

Rev. Clementa Pinckney, 41;

Cynthia Hurd, 54;

Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, 45;

Tywanza Sanders, 26;

Ethel Lance, 70;

Susie Jackson, 87;

Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, 49;

Myra Thompson, 59;

Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr., 74

  

Holy God, we pray

...for their families, and all who love them, that they will know the comfort of your abiding love in the midst of their pain. Hear us, O God.

Your mercy is great.

...for the congregation of Emanuel AME Church

whose sanctuary has been desecrated that you would bring them to safety and restore peace to them; that they can find rest from their weariness and sorrow. Hear us, O God.

Your mercy is great.

...for our enemies, including the suspect Dylann Roof, that you will bring him to repentance and grant him forgiveness.Hear us, O God.

Your mercy is great.

…for his family and the congregation of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Columbia, and for their pastor, that they will know your presence as they struggle to make sense of the incomprehensible. Hear us, O God.

Your mercy is great.

God, our refuge and strength, we give you thanks for the sanctuary we find here this morning, and we pray for your Holy Spirit to shine light into the darkness of our sin and our world, and guide our steps. We pray in the name of your crucified and risen Son, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

From the pulpit

Let us pray…

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Last Sunday, we heard how Saul fell from favor and young David was anointed in his place, but he isn’t king yet.

He remains a court musician and a shepherd.

The youngest of Jesse’s sons, he is an errand boy,

delivering lunches and supplies to the Israelite soldiers

who are perched on a mountaintop, staring across a valley at their enemies.

One the other side of the valley, the Philistine army is poised to attack.

But nothing happens.

For either side to advance, they would have to cede their privilege and go into the valley. They would have to be vulnerable.

A Philistine infantryman, larger than any of the other soldiers,

a giant of a man named Goliath,

offers to fight one man from the Israelite army to put an end to the battle.

And no one steps forward.

As David is greeting his older brothers at the army camp,

Goliath repeats the words he had said before,

and David witnesses the deafening silence of the Israelites.

But David breaks the silence and speaks up, telling the king,

“Your servant will go and fight…”(v. 32)

Saul offers objections:

“Yes, but you can’t really do that, you’re only a boy and he’s an experienced soldier.”

“Yes, but you cannot go as you are; you will need armor and weapons.”

But David goes, armed with his staff, five smooth stones, and a sling.

And he slays the enemy soldier.

Some would say David was naïve, or foolish, but

David saw what no one else in the Israelite army could see;

sure, they knew the history of warfare and had battle plans drawn.

They could see the terrain and Goliath’s physical stature.

Even after Samuel told them not to pay attention to appearances,

they still based their decisions on what they could see and touch,

whatever was in plain sight,

and they let their fear bind them into doing nothing.

David alone, saw that this was not a battle between two armies of men.

This was between an historic enemy

and “the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel.” (v. 45)

His courage was grounded in his knowledge of the God who we worship,

and the steadfast presence of God in the face of our enemies.

Four nights ago, nine bullets rang out in a church meeting room in Charleston, South Carolina, and pierced the sides of nine black bodies − mothers, grandmothers, sons, fathers and grandfathers. [i] Sadly, as I said earlier, and doubtless as many of you remember in your lifetimes, this was not the first attack against black people in a church. 

It was racism: actions against a group of human beings for no reason other than the color of their skin.

It wasn’t the first attack, and,

unless white churches like ours speak up, it won’t be the last. 

It was, what Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton has called,

“a stark, raw manifestation of the sin that is racism.

The church was desecrated.

The people of [Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church] were desecrated…”[ii]

Bishop Eaton urges us to,

“…to examine ourselves, our church and our [community]…

to be honest about the reality of racism within us and around us…”

It would be easy to respond like Saul, and say,

“Yes, but…” talking about race in our community and country will be uncomfortable.

It is easy to respond like Saul, and say,

“Yes, but…” confronting racism – speaking up in the deafening silence – will be scary.

It’s easy for us to name the reasons

that we shouldn’t confront this historic enemy

that has been piercing the hearts of our black brothers and sisters

not only for the past fifty-two years, but for hundreds of years.

But now is not the time to say, “Yes, but…”

Now is the time to echo David, and say,

“Your servant will go and fight…”(v. 32)

David’s strength is not his own,

but lies in his confession that God will deliver us from our enemy.

The enemy is not the people who are calling the Charleston shootings

a hate crime and racist violence.

The enemy is racism that, as ugly as it sounds, is part of our lives in our country.

It’s not always blatant; in fact it is nearly invisible,

if we don’t know people who aren’t white;

or we don’t listen to the stories of how whiteness and blackness differ.

Bishop Eaton goes on to urge us to “look with newly opened eyes at the many subtle and overt ways that we and our communities see people of color as being of less worth.”[iii]

After internship, I worked in a grocery store deli.

I heard a woman refuse to buy food prepared by our black cook.

I heard customers joke about workers’ accents, but,

because it would have been bad customer service,

I choked back a rebuttal.

All too often, we don’t want to offend or upset someone,

make a conversation awkward, or be accused of being political.

But the theology of the cross calls us to call a thing what it is. [iv]

This is racism. And racism is a sin.

And I am complicit.

Just last month, I parked my car on West Marion Street

and when I saw a young black man who I didn’t know,

walking in my direction on the sidewalk, I felt myself tense.

The irony is we were both going to participate in a monthly meeting

designed to build relationships across cultures here in Shelby.

It’s easy here, too, to answer like Saul, “Yes, but…”

But, no.

Lutherans don’t believe in a grading system for sin.

We believe sin is part of our human condition,

warping our lives and distancing us from God.

The racism embedded in our lives is sin.

Thankfully, we also believe in grace,

that unwarranted and unmerited gift from God that assures me

that I am a beloved child of God, forgiven for my sins.

Like so much of life, we aren’t going to do this work perfectly.

We will make mistakes and say things that someone doesn’t want to hear,

but we cannot be silent or blind or unaware any longer.

Confronting racism,

this historic, larger-than-life, enemy is hard;

it is uncomfortable and it is scary.

Racism won’t be taken down as easily or swiftly as Goliath fell,

but as the Church, we are called to speak up,

and, confident that God will deliver us from this enemy,

we must step up and act.

Let us pray:

Lord of Hosts,

We praise you for your promise to accompany us through the battles we face in life.

We give thanks for your promise to deliver us from our enemies.

We pray now that our eyes will be opened to where evil and racism are embedded in our lives.

Gather us and empower us, by Your Holy Spirit, to do the hard work of dismantling racism in our families, our workplaces,

and God, yes, in your Church.[v]

Move us to act in justice for all of our brothers and sisters.

In the name of your crucified and Risen Son,

Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Amen.

---

[i] Jennifer Bailey. “Rolling in Sackcloth and Ashes,” HuffingtonPost.com http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-bailey/rolling-in-sackcloth-and-ashes_b_7614210.html?1434649529, accessed June 20, 2015.

[ii] Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Thursday, June 18, 2015.

[iii] ibid

[iv] Martin Luther. Heidelburg Disputation, Line 21.

[v] Rev. Mindi, http://rev-o-lution.org/2015/06/18/prayer-a-call-for-justice-for-emmanuel-ame-in-charleston/, accessed June 20, 2015.