Lectionary 29B

Mark 10:35-45

Do you remember being in school and the teacher would begin to ask a question, and a hand would shoot up before the teacher had finished talking? There was always someone ready to jump in, eager to impress but not stopping to listen to what was being said.

James and John, even though they’re grown men, are like those overly excited school children tugging on Jesus’ robes, urging him to choose them, to bless them, to give them the influence or authority - the power - that he has.

Telling Jesus, “We want you to do whatever we ask of you”, they are oblivious to the weight, or burden, of the yoke – the responsibility - that comes with their desires. They cannot see past their own egos to understand what they are asking Jesus to do.

The self-centeredness that James and John display is at the very center of what Martin Luther defined as sin. He called it “incurvatus in se”, or being "curved in on ourselves".

And CS Lewis in his preface to Screwtape Letters writes,

We must picture Hell as a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives the deadly serious passions of envy, self-importance, and resentment.

Self-centeredness and self-importance are the enemies of servanthood, and service to others is central to discipleship and following Jesus.

Two thousand years hasn’t changed the human condition all that much. We see the same patterns or behaviors far too often in modern life.

Most recently, here in western North Carolina, there have been stories that spotlight the sinful human condition that Luther and Lewis describe.

Well-intentioned donors dumped piles of clothing in places like Burnsville and at IAM, trying to help, but creating a flood of textiles that has only made it harder to organize resources. Making a plan that doesn’t include talking with the people we’re trying to help isn’t serving others; it’s only boosting our own egos in the name of “helping.”

And, while those folks missed the mark, others weren’t even trying to help. They simply seized on the stories of loss and created scams to benefit from the generous donors willing to pitch in and help neighbors financially. Others began soliciting work they never plan to finish, targeting vulnerable residents who aren’t sure where to find help.

In these places, no one was asking, like Jesus did,

“What is it you want me to do?”

Instead, they were acting out of their own interests, priorities, and charitably, their own ignorance.

When James and John come to Jesus, he tries to tell them they don’t know what they are asking, and then he addresses all the disciples, as a group, talking to them about what it means to be a servant and a disciple.

First Jesus talks about sacrifice, and the cup that he will drink. And with his words, because we are on this side of the crucifixion, we recall the cup of sour wine or vinegar that the soldiers gave him at the crucifixion. When he speaks about the right and the left, we are reminded that, at the crucifixion, those who are on his right and his left will be a robber and a thief, and most of the disciples had deserted him and hidden themselves out of fear of the authorities.

Jesus then contrasts what the world calls leadership to what leadership in God’s kingdom looks like. He acknowledges that the world expects rulers to be heavy-handed and they expect great leaders to be tyrants. And then he offers the disciples a different way to lead. A different way to be.

Selfless instead of self-centered.

Self-effacing instead of self-important.

Self-sacrificing instead of self-aggrandizing.

It is a way of being that lets someone else write the story.

For us, as Christians, we submit to God.

We surrender our ways for God’s ways.

And we ask God, “What is it You want me to do?”

And then, hopefully, we stop and listen.

When we raise our hand,

when we step forward to volunteer,

when we agree to lead,

hopefully we do so with the humility modeled by Jesus.

Thankfully, there are many stories of good work and generous volunteers responding well and effectively to the wreckage of Tropical Storm Helen in our community and throughout our region.

Many businesses are finding ways to help neighbors whether it was feeding neighbors Brunswick stew, giving away tomatoes, offering free laundry or hosting live music when the lights first came back on;
teams of volunteers are being coordinated through Habitat for Humanity to help households clean up and make repairs;
many, many volunteers are helping IAM and Manna Food Bank box and distribute the supplies they have;
congregations from other parts of North Carolina, as well as the Midwest and South have sent their quilts, blankets and winter coats to us to give to neighbors who may not have what they need as nighttime temperatures fall into the thirties;
Children & Family Resource Center and others have been making sure families have what they need to care for children and babies now;
and Storehouse has begun intake for their annual “Blessings in boxes” Christmas distribution, so that children will have as bright a Christmas as possible; 
and many people are giving financial gifts that help provide funding for recovery well into the future.

As we look ahead at where God is calling each of us, and our congregation, in the future, may we enter into conversation with God and with our neighbors and community, listen well, and ask,

“What is it you want us to do?”

Let us pray.

Good and gracious God, 

Thank you for your son Jesus who shows us what being a servant looks like. 

Help us follow Him and set aside our egos and our desires so that we can listen to You and know Your will. 

We pray in the name of our Lord and Savior. 

Amen.

Lectionary 25B

I preached this sermon in the Spanish service; the English translation is below.

Marcos 9:30-37

Oremos…

Que las palabras de mi boca y las meditaciones de nuestro corazón sean aceptables ante ti, Señor, fortaleza nuestra y redentor nuestro. Amén.

Hace poco estaba hablando con unos amigos y alguien dijo que estar en relación con los demás significa que debemos estar abiertos a que cambien nuestras mentes. No aferrarnos demasiado a nuestras propias ideas. Estar dispuestos a aprender algo nuevo sobre los demás, y tal vez sobre nosotros mismos. Yo añadiría que es importante saber cuándo decir: “No sé”.

En el evangelio de hoy, Jesús ha estado hablando a sus discípulos sobre la muerte que sufrirá y sobre la resurrección que presenciarán. Ellos no entienden y tienen miedo de preguntarle qué quiso decir. Luego, mientras viajan, Jesús los escucha discutiendo. Pero cuando les pregunta sobre qué están discutiendo, no responden. Nuevamente, tienen miedo.

No han aprendido la lección de decir: “No sé”. En cambio, simulan que entienden, y luego se distraen con objetos brillantes y relucientes y discuten sobre asuntos triviales.

Jesús no los regaña ni los sermonea, pero sí los desafía. Les dice: “El que quiera ser el primero, que sea el último de todos y el servidor de todos” (v. 35). Y luego levanta a un niño y lo toma en sus brazos.

En el mundo del primer siglo, si bien sus padres y familias los amaban, los niños no tenían estatus, poder ni derechos. Eran “los últimos” en la sociedad. La declaración de Jesús sobre ser “el servidor de todos” está encarnada en un niño.

Ciertamente, los niños pequeños, como los discípulos, pueden ser egoístas y egocéntricos. Pueden ser imprudentes como Pedro a menudo lo es. Pero esos no son los rasgos que elogiamos en los niños.

En cambio, celebramos su inocencia y confianza, su facil alegría y curiosidad , y su disposición a responder con amistad y compasión.

Mi hermano cuenta la historia de cuando le hizo una pregunta a nuestra madre cuando tenía casi cinco años después de escuchar a una maestra de la escuela dominical hablar sobre cómo todos vieron a Jesús morir en la cruz. Cuando salían de la iglesia ese día, le preguntó a nuestra madre: "¿Cómo fue para ti? ¿Cómo te sentiste, mientras estabas de pie entre la multitud, viendo morir a Jesús?" (Implicando, por supuesto, que ella era mucho mayor que sus veinticuatro años).

Recuerdo cuando mi hija iba al jardín de niños o “kínder” y la maestra me preguntó qué quería que pasara. Recuerdo haberle dicho a la maestra que le encantaba aprender y que no quería que su experiencia en el salon de clases  arruinara eso.

Una madre cuyo hijo menor tiene autismo contó la historia de cómo, el primer día de clases, un nuevo compañero lo había ayudado con la mochila al final del día, en lugar de ignorarlo.

En la Iglesia, enseñamos sobre las señales del discipulado y los frutos del Espíritu Santo, pero a veces, la respuesta a la pregunta: “¿Cómo es una vida fiel?” es aún más simple. Curiosidad, alegría y compasión, todo basado en el amor de Dios por cada uno de nosotros.

Martín Lutero retoma las palabras de Cristo en su escrito“Sobre la libertad del cristiano”, donde escribe:

“Un cristiano es un señor perfectamente libre de todos, no sujeto a nadie. Un cristiano es un siervo perfectamente obediente de todos, sujeto a todos, sujeto para todos”. [i]

Debemos servir a los demás, entrando en cada día con medidas de gratitud y humildad que nos den la libertad de acompañar o caminar junto a los demás, viéndolos como amados de Dios, para escuchar con curiosidad y responder con compasión.

En el evangelio de hoy, los discípulos nos brindan una imagen de lo que no es seguir fielmente a Jesús: tener miedo,

permanecer en silencio en lugar de hacer preguntas,

discutir y ser egoísta y egocéntrico.

En su epístola, Santiago nos insta a vivir con “la mansedumbre que nace de la sabiduría” (3:13) en lugar de caer presos de la envidia, la ambición egoísta, la jactancia y la mentira. (3:14) Se necesita disciplina para resistir las conductas y actitudes del mundo que nos rodea, para renunciar al mal, al diablo y a los poderes de este mundo que desafían a Dios, que se rebelan contra Dios y nos alejan de Él. Más que eso, se necesita que Cristo obre en nosotros, a través de la fe.

Cuando seguimos a Jesús con fe, con la curiosidad, alegría y compasión de los niños, ya no nos centramos en lo que el mundo nos dice que es importante: prestigio, poder, influencia y dinero; en cambio, nos centramos en aquellos a quienes Cristo ama, compartiendo el amor infinito de Dios con los demás e invitándolos a que vivamos juntos.

Oremos.

Dios bueno y misericordioso,

Gracias por tu Hijo Jesús y por atraernos hacia Ti.

Danos poder para resistir aquellas cosas que nos separarían de Ti y ayúdanos a tener una fe como la de los niños.

Llénanos de Tu Espíritu para que amemos y sirvamos a los demás.

Oramos en el nombre de Jesús.

Amén.

Mark 9:30-37

Recently I was talking with friends and someone said that being in relationship with others means we must be open to having our minds changed. To not hold too tightly to our own ideas. To be willing to learn something new about others, and maybe about ourselves. I would add that it’s important to know when to say, “I don’t know.”

In the gospel for today, Jesus has been telling his disciples about the death he will suffer and about the resurrection they will witness. They don’t understand and they’re afraid to ask him what he meant. Then, while they are traveling, Jesus overhears them arguing. But when he asks them what they are arguing about, they don’t answer. Again, they are afraid.

They haven’t learned the lesson to say, “I don’t know”. Instead, they pretend they understand, and then they get distracted by bright, shiny objects and argue about trivial matters.

Jesus doesn’t scold them or lecture them, but he does challenge them. He says, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” (v. 35) And then he lifts up a child, taking the child into his arms.

In the first century world, while they were loved by their parents and families, children had no status, power or rights. They were “the least” in society. Jesus’s statement about being “the servant of all” is embodied in a child.

Certainly, small children, like the disciples, can be selfish and self-centered. They can be reckless like Peter often is. But those aren’t the traits we praise in children. Instead, we celebrate their innocence and trust, their easy joy and curiosity, and their readiness to respond with friendship and compassion.

My brother tells the story of asking our mother a question when he was almost five years old after hearing a Sunday School teacher speak about everyone watching Jesus die on the cross. When they were leaving church that day, he asked our mom, “What was it like for you? How did you feel, as you stood in the crowd, watching Jesus die? (Implying, of course, that she was much older than her twenty-four years.)

I remember when my daughter was going to kindergarten and the teacher asked what I wanted to see happen next. I remember telling the teacher that she loved learning, and I didn’t want her classroom experience to spoil that.

A mom whose youngest son has autism told the story of how, on the first day of school, a new classmate had helped him with backpack at the end of the day, instead of ignoring him.

In the Church, we teach about marks of discipleship and fruits of the Holy Spirit, but sometimes, the answer to the question, “What does a faithful life look like?” is even simpler. Wonder, joy and compassion, all grounded in God’s love for each one of us.

Martin Luther picks up Christ’s words in his essay “On the Freedom of a Christian” writing,

“A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject of all, subject to all.”[i]

We are to serve others, entering into each day with measures of gratitude and humility that give us the freedom to accompany or walk beside others, seeing them as God’s beloved, to listen with curiosity and to respond with compassion.

In today’s gospel, the disciples provide us with a picture of what faithfully following Jesus isn’t:

being fearful,

remaining silent instead of asking questions, and

bickering and being selfish and self-centered.

In his epistle, James urges us to live with “gentleness born of wisdom” (3:13) instead of falling prey to envy, selfish ambition, boasting and lying. (3:14) It takes discipline to resist the behaviors and attitudes in the world around us, to renounce evil, the devil, and the powers of this world that defy God, rebel against God and draw us away from God. More than that, it takes Christ working in us, through faith.

When we follow Jesus in faith, with childlike wonder, joy and compassion, we no longer focus on what the world tells us is important – prestige, power, influence and money; instead, we focus on those whom Christ loves, sharing God’s boundless love with others and inviting them into life together.

Let us pray.

Good and gracious God,

Thank you for your Son Jesus and for drawing us to You.

Empower us to resist those things that would separate us from you, and help us have childlike faith.

Fill us with Your Spirit that we would love and serve others.

We pray in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

---

[i] Martin Luther, “On the Freedom of a Christian”.

Epiphany 5B

Mark 1:29-39

Today’s gospel picks up immediately where we left off last week, with the disciples and Jesus leaving the synagogue in Galilee and traveling to the house of Simon and Andrew.

And here we witness another healing. In the synagogue Jesus had ordered the unclean spirit out of a man, and here, he meets Simon’s mother-in-law, who has been in bed with a fever.

To our hearing, it may sound dramatic to say that the woman was at the brink of death, but two thousand years ago there were no antibiotics or medicines available to bring down fever. There was really no understanding of what caused illnesses. So, we can appreciate how worrisome her illness was, with an unknown cause and no way to bring relief. We can imagine the joy that her family and friends experienced when they saw Jesus take her by the hand and lift her up and the fever left her. And we can understand the gratitude she herself felt at being restored to wholeness.

The healings show us how God is with us in our suffering, and they demonstrate the power of God to set things right. But there is more to this story than the physical healing that takes place.

When she is healed, the woman begins to serve those around her. (1:31) The word here is the same word that we hear earlier in this chapter, when Jesus is in the wilderness and Mark says, “the angels waited on him.” (1:13) Although some traditions have used this story to “put women in their place”, διακονέω (dee-ah-koh-nay-oh) is the beginning of the diaconate, the ministry of service to which we ordain mean and women as deacons today.

Her healing allowed this woman – who like so many women in Scripture is unnamed apart from her relationship to Simon – to fully be herself, to use her gifts in service to God. It happens that her gifts were those of welcome and hospitality, in caring for the needs of her guests. But she just as easily could have been like Lydia who financially supported the disciples’ gospel ministry in Acts 16 (Acts 16:14) or like the prophet Anna who worshiped at the temple in Jerusalem with fasting and prayer night and day and whom we hear about when Jesus is presented at the temple as a boy in Luke 2. (Luke 2:37)

If you have ever been at the brink, at your wits’ end, at the edge of despair, or uncertainty, you share this woman’s story. It is the story of God breaking into our lives to call us to being fully who God created us to be.

These Epiphany stories remind us again and again that all things are under God’s authority, and we can be confident that God is with us in the messiness of our lives and the world we live in.

And we can be just as certain that God has created us and calls us to be witnesses of the love and grace shown us in Christ Jesus in this place.

I share this woman’s story. When I had been working in nonprofit fundraising for almost ten years, I was working with a founding executive director who wanted me to follow in his footsteps. I went to a workshop and as we talked about the stories that were most important to us, I realized that as much as I appreciated the work we were doing, that was not the most important story to me, and it wasn’t the story I wanted to spend the next twenty-five years telling. That realization sent me into a tailspin. I didn’t know what to do next. But I began talking with my husband Jamie, and with my pastor, and later that year, after many more conversations, I entered the candidacy process in the North Carolina Synod to become an ordained pastor.

It was one step toward becoming the person God created me to be.

Growing up, we often think that our progression through life is a straight line, right? Childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood. Primary school, middle school, high school, and then maybe college, or maybe not. But I think we have enough experience in this room to know that far more often, life resembles a roller coaster with more than one ‘loop de loop’ along the way.

And when we are hanging on for dear life, faith helps us know we are not alone, and the journey is not in vain. God is there, with us, helping us become fully who God created us to be.

When we catch our breath or regain our balance, we can ask, “Who is God calling me to be?” and “What is God calling me to do?” and listen for God’s answers.

Faith gives us the freedom to respond to God with our whole selves and serve with the gifts we’ve been given.

Let us pray…

Good and gracious God,

We give you thanks for Your love and grace shown us through Jesus all through this Epiphany season.

Thank you for saving us and healing us that we may be your witnesses in the world.

Help us respond to your presence in our lives and fully become the person that you created us to be, so that others may know You.

We pray in the name of your Son Jesus.

Amen.

21st Sunday after Pentecost

Mark 10:35-45

Have you ever gone out with friends and as y’all were headed to the car, someone shouted, “Shotgun!” They’re claiming their place, or even their ‘right’ to be in the front seat, where you can control the sound and the temperature and get a good view of the road ahead.

That’s what James and John do in today’s gospel. The gospel begins with them separating themselves from the other ten disciples, going to Jesus and asking to be seated on his right and his left, in places of honor and prestige. They called, “Shotgun!”

It’s clear James and John were so focused on themselves that they didn’t really listen to what Jesus had been saying. Because in the verses just before these, Jesus told all of the disciples:

the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; ³⁴ they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again." (Mark 10:33-34)

Jesus even has a hard time believing that if the two of them had been listening that they would have been so eager. And so Jesus says,

You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" (Mark 10:38)

But the pair answer Jesus, insisting, “We are able.”

Maybe they did understand and were able. Or perhaps they believed they could do whatever it takes to be close to Jesus, even if they didn’t know what that would require. But just as likely, they were full of bravado and said “they were able” even though they weren’t at all.

Jesus doesn’t argue with them. He doesn’t rebuke them like he did Peter. Instead, like he did when the disciples were arguing about who is the greatest, he begins teaching again.

Jesus knows that sitting at his right or left hand does not bring power or prestige but suffering. On the cross, it will be a thief and bandit who are on his right and his left. (Matthew 27:38) His cousin John was beheaded, and other disciples will be martyrs for their faith.

The baptism with which Jesus is baptized is a baptism in the Holy Spirit that drove him into the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan (Mark 1:13) and the cup that he drinks is the same cup that he asks to be taken from him on the eve of his crucifixion. (Mark 14:36)

What Jesus promises is not power or prestige but relationship.

When we are baptized, we are baptized into life with Christ. We are forgiven and made new. We set aside our former lives and the things that draw us from God and we seek the things that God wants. We show Jesus to the world through our service, setting aside our egos and selfishness, turning away from ourselves and toward others. It is a relationship that requires sacrifice, not comfort.

Suffering is the cost of discipleship. Whether it is putting the needs of another before ours or voicing an unpopular opinion that aligns with Jesus but stands in contrast to the world and society or choosing service instead of security, Jesus calls us to be disciples.

It’s easy to pick on the disciples in Mark where they seem even more blundering and foolish than in the other gospels. And James and John do appear arrogant and childish asking Jesus if he will do whatever they ask and then asking for seats of honor. But part of our criticism may be stoked by the same feeling that provoked anger in the other disciples. Haven’t James and John just been foolish enough, or brave enough, to ask Jesus for what they really want?

Don’t we all want to know we belong with Jesus?

Thankfully, the assurance we have from Jesus is that we are baptized into a baptism like his. When we are baptized, we are named God’s own children and we receive everything that belongs to Jesus and He takes on all is ours in what is called a “sweet swap.”

We belong to God, and no one and nothing can separate us from God, not even our own childish and arrogant behaviors or questions. Martin Luther called the power of faith “a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a [person] would stake his life on it a thousand times....”^[i]

And so we do. We stake our lives on God’s love and acceptance, and we love others as we are loved. God doesn’t need us to do that, or anything else, in order that we may be saved. But because God loves us, we search out ways to show Jesus to our neighbors and world.

Let us pray…

Good and gracious God,

Thank you for your son Jesus coming into the world that we would know the depth and breadth of your love for us.

Thank you creating us for relationship and belonging and making a place for each one of us.

Give us courage to show your love to our neighbors and not be anxious about ourselves, but having daring confidence in your grace.

We pray in the name of Jesus, our Savior and Lord.

Amen.

---

[i] Martin Luther, Commentary on Romans, Translation J. Theodore Mueller (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1954), xvii.

Maundy Thursday

John 13:1-17, 31b-35 

Grace and peace to you.

Maundy Thursday is traditionally when we would hear the story of Jesus eating with his disciples before his arrest, and we would come to the table to receive the wine and the bread for the sacrament of Holy Communion. But because of the coronavirus, tonight is different, and thankfully, John’s gospel helps us imagine a different way of Jesus being with his disciples. In this account, we hear the story of Jesus washing their feet.

While we may know the story of Holy Week well enough to anticipate the denials and betrayals that are coming, at this point in the story, Peter has not yet denied Jesus and even Judas is still with him when he gets up from the table, pours water into a basin, and washes the disciples’ feet clean and then dries them.

The act of foot washing itself was ordinary. Even mundane. It was necessary. Sandaled feet walking on dusty roads get dirty. But it was usually the kind of work that was assigned to a slave or servant. Here, Jesus, welcomed days earlier into Jerusalem with shouts of Hosanna and proclaimed King of the Jews, humbled himself to serve the people around him.

Foot washing isn’t like splashing in a swimming pool or even a bathtub; it requires gentleness and compassion. Baring our feet, we expose our hardened callouses, painful corns, cracked or broken skin, and arthritic toes bent by age.

It requires vulnerability and humility, and we are not comfortable being vulnerable.

Many of us shun the idea of participating in a public footwashing; it asks too much of us. We worry what others will think or say. Every one of us carries shame from experiences somewhere in our lives, and we are afraid that vulnerability leaves us exposed. It risks too much.

After he washed the feet of his disciples, Jesus asked them “Do you know what I have done to you?”

Suddenly it’s clear that there’s more happening here than we can see. Led by Jesus, the ordinary has become sacred.

Humbling himself and washing their feet, Jesus has invited the disciples to be vulnerable, to surrender their fears and receive the very love of God, who already knows every inch of our bodies and our being and from whom no secrets are hid.

With never-ending love, God washes away our fears and doubts, the sweat and tears we shed from doing hard things, and the messiness of our lives.

Washed clean by the love of God, we are given a new command, to love others just as we have been loved.

We know how to do that! In this time of quarantine and staying at home, we love others by calling to check how they are; mailing cards to those who live alone; putting an extra can of soup into the collection bin at the grocery store; and staying home from unnecessary travel. Being vulnerable means showing up in the lives of people who are hurting. That doesn’t sound so frightening or impossible, or like it asks too much of us.

Maybe one of the gifts of this Maundy Thursday is that even as we are gathered together online and on the phone, we are just far enough apart to dispel some of those fears that we live with and risk being vulnerable, to each other and to God.

So tonight, after our hymn, I invite you to wash the hands of another person, or if, like me, you are alone, to wash your own hands, remembering that, especially now, the act of handwashing is an act of service to our neighbor.

Jesus reminds us that loving others doesn’t require the impossible, but that our most ordinary actions become sacred and extraordinary because they are grounded in God’s love for us.

Thanks be to God.

Third Sunday of Advent

Luke 3:7-18

On Tuesday night I went to a yoga class and heard the instructor tell us several times, “Keep your eyes open.” That was new to me, and I thought, “Oh, ok. There must be some deep, philosophical reason we keep our eyes open. Something about remaining alert to movement or body awareness.”

After class, I asked someone, “Why did he tell us to keep our eyes open?” and she said, “Because you’re less likely to fall.” I laughed at myself because I had made it so much more complicated than it was. The teacher’s instruction was simple and practical – “Keep your eyes open so you don’t fall!”

As we hear John the Baptiser proclaiming his message of repentance in today’s gospel, it’s easy to hear his instruction to repent, and then wonder, like the people around him, “What then shall we do?”

After all, repentance is one of those church-y words that we don’t hear other places, so it can sound strange to our ears. It must be complicated, right?

But John’s answer to the crowds, the tax collectors and the soldiers is very simple and practical –
make sure no one is naked or hungry;
don’t exploit or bully people you encounter.

Repentance involves turning away from ourselves and toward others.

I hear John’s instruction echoed in Martin Luther’s explanation of the commandments that he writes in his Small Catechism; there as he explains the seventh commandment not to steal, he writes, “We should fear and love God that we may not take our neighbor's money or property, nor get them by false dealing, but help him to improve and protect his property and business.

Repentance doesn’t earn our salvation, God’s love or relationship with us; it is our response to God’s redeeming love and steadfast presence in our lives.

It is action or activity that is grounded in servanthood or service to others. Turning away from ourselves, our egos and self-interest, we see how we can live in service to others in our everyday lives.

So, a life lived in repentance doesn’t have to mean you are sitting like Jonah in sackcloth and ashes;[i]
it is the caregiver who sleeps lightly, listening for a cry for help or comfort from their charge;
it is the friend who calls to check to make sure you have what you need before the storm;
it is the volunteers working at odd hours and in raw temperatures to get us ready for Sunday morning;
and it is all of you collecting socks to keep our neighbors warm this winter.

On this third Sunday of Advent, John’s words call us to a life of active and vibrant faith that we live out in community. Not with perfection, but with repentance and with the redeeming grace that God provides us all.

Let us pray…[ii]
Holy and Redeeming God,
We give you thanks that you come to baptise us in your Spirit and fire, renewing us in love and banishing our fear,
so that we might praise your name forever
and draw freely from the well of your salvation.
Amen.

[i] Jonah 3:6
[ii] “Short Preface, Third Sunday in Advent”, Laughing Bird Liturgy, http://laughingbird.net/ComingWeeks.html,  accessed 12/15/18
 

11th Sunday after Pentecost

Ephesians 4:1-16

In the epistle reading, the writer instructs each of us to “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”

Unfortunately, too often that word “worthy” prompts us to ask ourselves, “What must I do to be worthy, or more worthy?” We compare, measure and question our relative worth, mis-understanding worth as a calculation of achievement, wealth, position or power.

But that’s not what worthiness means. Worthiness means “having sufficient merit.”

In the whole of Scripture there are only a handful of verses that speak about “worth” and none that use the word “merit.” More often, the word that is used is “favor.” And can you guess what the Greek word for “favor” is?

It’s χάρις
Grace — which we define as “God’s unmerited favor.”

So, “worthiness” is having sufficient grace.

God’s grace is a gift, not something we earn or accomplish through our good works or efforts, and God’s abundant grace is sufficient – it is enough. These are promises we hear in Ephesians 2 and in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.[i]

 So a paraphrase of Ephesians 4, verse 1 could be:
“Live out your calling according to the grace – or unmerited favor you have already received from God.”

In verse 2, the letter continues urging us to live “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.”

But again, these virtues are not achieved by our work or effort. As Martin Luther wrote when he defended his theological thinking to his fellow Augustinians in 1518 in his Heidelberg Disputation, “[One] is not righteous who does much, but [one] who without work, believes much in Christ.”[ii]

It is Christ in us that produces these inevitable fruits of “God’s Spirit working in and through our lives.” [iii] They are evidence that Christ lives in us through faith.[iv]

Episcopal priest and visiting professor at Wake Forest Divinity School, the Reverend Doctor G. Porter Taylor writes, “Humility keeps us grounded in the reality of who we are as creatures formed from the dust by God.”[v]

And, preaching on this text, Lutheran pastor Tony Durante reminds us,

if it were not for God breathing into the nostrils of Adam,
he would’ve only been dust;
if it wasn’t for Jesus Christ, when he returned from the dead, appearing in that room and breathing the Holy Spirit on his apostles, they would’ve only been dust;
if it wasn’t for Jesus Christ sending out into our lives servants of his Word, we would only be dust,
but in his resurrection, Jesus kicked up some dust![vi]

What I love about Pastor Tony’s image is that it makes room for the messiness of life in ministry and life together in community. Think about when dust gets kicked up, or stirred up: that happens when we move in spaces that have been ignored or forgotten; when we disturb things that have set unchanged or unchallenged for too long; when we dig into dry ground to add the nutrients to make good soil and plant a new harvest. Kicking up dust means moving in new ways, examining what is here now and creating and planting new ideas and ways of living life together as God’s people.

The text says that Jesus equips all the saints — not only the most articulate or educated, not only the prominent public theologians or the celebrity religious — but each and every one of us.

In examining the gifts we have been given, author and Quaker elder Parker Palmer urges us that the standard should not be effectiveness but “faithfulness" —
faithfulness to your gifts, faithfulness to your perception of the needs of the world, and faithfulness to offering your gifts to whatever needs are within your reach.” Palmer goes on to say, “The tighter we cling to the norm of effectiveness the smaller the tasks we’ll take on, because they are the only ones that get short-term results.”[vii]

Like the disciples who scoffed at the five loaves and two fishes in last week’s gospel, our vision often is too narrow, focusing only on our proven abilities, instead of trusting that God is working in our lives in new ways and equipping us for new ministry.

The epistle writer encourages us to have confidence in God’s grace, in faith, and listen to God to discern, or understand, God’s call on our lives.

Last week we reflected on one of our congregation values – outreach – and how God works through seemingly foolish ideas and against absurd odds to accomplish God’s work in the world. As we are called to service – another of our congregation values here at Ascension — let’s pay attention to questions like,
“Am I faithful to responding to the needs that I see?” and
 “Do I enter into opportunities or run away in fear?” [viii]

Jesus shows us in John’s gospel when the crowds want to make him their king and again when they cannot see him as more than a miracle worker that ministry is not about us and it’s not about what we can do; ministry is about living in relationship with God, with one another and with the world, and the relationships we forge and bear in love are our kingdom work. God delights when we use the gifts God gives us for the sake of the world.

Let us pray…
Holy God,
Thank you for the gift of your Son Jesus who gives us grace through faith,
Teach us humility, gentleness and patience, and inspire us by Your Holy Spirit to respond to your invitation to participate in your kingdom work in the world.
May your abundant love always be visible in our words and actions.
We pray in the name of Jesus,
Amen.

[i] 2 Corinthians 12:9
[ii] Martin Luther. “Heidelberg Disputation.” Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings. 59.
[iii] Sam K. Williams. Galatians. Abingdon Press. 151.
[iv] [iv] Martin Luther. “Heidelberg Disputation.” Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings. 60.
[v] Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 3: Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16) (Feasting on the Word: Year B volume) (Kindle Locations 10764-10765). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.
[vi] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6V1dwbBlxE, accessed 8/1/2018.
[vii] http://www.couragerenewal.org/living-from-the-inside-out-parker-palmers-naropa-university-commencement-address/, accessed 8/1/2018.
[viii] https://www.crossfieldsinstitute.com/from-effectiveness-to-faithfulness/, accessed 8/1/2018.