Sermon for Good Shepherd Sunday and Confirmation

“The Shepherd's Voice"

It was warm when Jesus was born, not winter. How do we know? Because the Gospel of Luke said the shepherds were watching their flocks out in the field. That's what they did during the warm nine months of the year. During the three cold months, all the sheep were kept in a single large pen on the edge of town. Now it doesn't take ten guys to watch all those sheep, it only takes one.

When spring came and the sheep were sheared, it was time once again to leave the communal pen and go out into the hills to get the fresh grass and water. Well, how did the shepherds sort the sheep out? I mean, they do all look alike. You don't brand them... the shepherds didn't sort out their sheep, the sheep sorted out the shepherds. The shepherds would stand outside the gate and call their sheep. Each sheep would recognize the voice it'd been listening to all its life and go to it.

Once out of the pen the sheep depended entirely upon the shepherd. The “rod” or the “staff” that the shepherd carried along was not only to prod the sheep along, it was also to defend them from wolves.

Sheep are helpless. They are even a danger to themselves. Once they get a coat of fleece on, they run the risk of rolling onto their backs. The fleece on their backs is heavier than their legs, so they are unable to roll back onto their feet and stand up. They'll starve to death if someone doesn't find them and get them right-side up.

The one ounce of brains that sheep have is hardwired to follow the shepherd. That's the one thing they can do well. There might be a lot more danger outside the village pen than inside, but outside the pen is where the fresh food and water is. That's where the life is. To stay in the pen after the shepherd leaves would mean death: no food, no water, no one to pick you up if you tip over... the safety of the pen in town is a very limited safety, a very temporary safety. Before long you have to leave, trusting the shepherd as naturally as breathing itself.

The same is true for us in the Church of Christ. There is a time that it is appropriate for us to huddle together for warmth and safety. But most of the time we need to be out of the pen, a little more on our own (not that we are entirely ever on our own). Even if it's more dangerous out there in the hills, that's where life is. That's where we are more completely what we were created to be. We're still dependent on our shepherd, but we are most healthy, most thriving, most alive when we are out in the larger world.

Our confirmands are undergoing an old rite of passage today. They are not leaving home, they are not leaving this town, they are not leaving their congregation. They are DEFINITELY not graduating from their Christian Education. It has been my goal to teach them enough about the Bible this past year that they will want to keep reading and studying and learning.

It is important that all young people raised by Christian parents and grandparents have enough exposure to the voice of their shepherd so that as they go out more and more on their own – which is all part of growing up – that they can recognize the voice of their shepherd. There are no shortage of voices out there. There are temptations, distractions, wolves in sheep's clothing... not to mention the real wolves. As they move through high school and beyond, they will watch as classmates and acquaintances and friends of friends fall by the wayside. They will be exposed to a thousand forms of self-destruction. They will see people they know, maybe even people they love, follow some voice into violence or crime, someone else follow a voice into victimhood. They will see some just get tired and tip over and not be able to get back up.

They will be, more and more, over time, out there among dangers that their elders know better than they yet do. But they will never be without their Good Shepherd nearby. Keep listening. Keep listening, kids. Listen to the voice of the One you can trust to lead you to green pastures and still waters. We'll be here too, listening and following just like you. Welcome to your adult lives as disciples and apostles of Jesus Christ.

No more "debates!" (Please.)

The day of the debate is gone.  We can't have them any more.  They don't work.  They don't help.  They have become useless in terms of helping the public responsibly choose a candidate.  

• 90 minutes is too short to adequately handle the many complex issues that we need to understand.  A large percent of each 90 minute debate was spent with the moderator sputtering through the "we have to move on" speeches.
• Debates don't work if neither candidate respects the rules of the debate.  They address each other and interrupt each other and shout down the moderator if they feel they must do so to appear assertive.
• Who decided that reporting or reading the news were the same skills that one needs to moderate a debate?  There are still a few high schools and colleges that teach and judge debates.  Why not use those people to moderate candidates' debates?  Doesn't the scope and scale of a presidential race warrant the use of professionals?  I'm pretty sure no one tunes into a televised debate because of the celebrity moderator.
• Then, sad to say, is the question of whether the American electorate can make use of a debate without judging the candidates by foolish criteria like who wears the bigger flag lapel pin, or who is more respectful or too respectful, or looks up or looks down.  I had an interesting experience with the first debate because I was behind the wheel during the first half, and listened to it on the radio, then saw the second half on TV.  It made a huge difference.  When I watched the second half all I could see was Obama looking down.  When I listened to the first half all I could hear was Romney frantically sputtering like he just chugged 6 Red Bulls.  Are either of those experiences worthy of me deciding my vote?  I don't think so.

The supposed point of having a debate is that the format will impose fairness, equality, and sound thinking.  If that ever worked I don't know.  But I'm pretty convinced that it doesn't work now.

What's a marriage supposed to look like?  With so many questioning whether same sex couples should be allowed to marry, many are turning to the Scriptures to see if they can shed any light on what qualifies as "marriage."

If you're looking for a single answer I can tell you right now to forget it.  The Bible portrays many examples of marriage and family customs, all of which, apparently, were OK with God.  You might think we'd start with Adam and Eve but we can't.  The word 'marriage' is never applied to Adam and Eve.  As a social convention, marriage doesn't make any sense --given that there was no society around Adam and Eve.

Let's start with Abraham's time (still pre-history).  People were required to marry within their own tribe.  How they defined 'tribe' is unknown to me.  How closely were these people related?  Sounds dicey.  

Later on we see polygamy with multiple wives or with concubines (child-bearing slaves).  Then there was the custom of "Levirite marriage," whereby a man marries his late brother's widow (probably as a second wife) in order that the widow bear children considered heirs to the late first husband, even though fathered by the brother.  

King David is supposed to have had 1,000 wives -- hundreds of which were married in order to form political alliances.  David's son Solomon only had a few hundred wives.

The practice of polygamy faded after the Israelites landed in the Holy Land.  As a form of tribal survival it was more suited to Israel's days of wandering than it was to a more stable, landed society.

Throughout Biblical times, and up to the 19th century, families tended to be extended families.  Odd aunts, uncles, cousins, orphaned 3rd cousins twice removed, random individuals picked up along the way -- all could be absorbed into one's family unit.  The first and only time that the nuclear family (mom, dad, and their offspring) that we are so accustomed to as our model of family existed, was in post-WWII North America.  It was the only time that economics of a society could support the nuclear family on a wide scale.  Part of that economic picture is also the industrialization of society, which encouraged people to leave the family farm and form their own nuclear families elsewhere.

In short, throughout the Bible, we see marriage and the family shaped by economics.  And until Jesus came along, women and children were extremely vulnerable in all these models.

So does the Bible give us any useful guidelines for how we should understand marriage and family in our time?  Not as such.  But we are inheritors of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who calls us to live in peace, to love, to practice justice, to generously care for the most vulnerable in our society, and  to grant dignity to all.  It is not in the light of the Bible, but in the light of the GOSPEL that we should decide how to order our society.

Below is a message I delivered to the church I served on May 13, 2012.  Maybe a little more scolding than I intended, but I stand by it.  And I had already heard enough hate speech (and speech that bordered on hate speech) flying around the community, to remain silent.  I hate doing stuff like this.  I'm disappointed that the times required it.  

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We 're all aware that there is an election in Wisconsin in June and a national election in November. We have all heard the political language this year get uglier and uglier. And it will probably get a lot worse before it gets better.

As an American you have the right to say whatever you want to whomever you want, as loud as you want, using any language you want. That's your right.

But as followers of Jesus Christ I hope that you will express yourselves politically with decency and respect for those who disagree with you. Every political discussion you happen upon is an opportunity for you to do so, AS YOUR WITNESS TO YOUR FAITH. When we engage in name-calling and hate speech we witness to a belief that the cross and resurrection of Jesus was for nothing; that nothing in the world changed; that the healing of the world through the coming of the Kingdom of God is not possible.

If, however, we believe that the power of Christ is real, we should reflect the spirit of Christ, even in our political speech. We should remember that the eighth commandment is still in effect. Hate speech is not an option for us, even if your best friends engage in it. No one should hear hate speech in our sanctuary, in our fellowship hall, in our parking lot, or in our Thrift Shop.

Jesus calls us – not to legislate our faith, but to live it. We are to be examples of life lived in love – not bullies, not crybabies, not examples of hate. Our goal, as people of faith, should not be to lower our standards to match the times, to match the worst behavior around us. Rather Christ calls us, as a community, to be a light on a hill, leaven for the bread, to affect the whole – not by force, not through screeching or name-calling, but by being the adults in the room, being teachers of civil behavior.

What should you do if you hear someone badmouthing your side? “Those blah blah blah, they're all blah blah blah. Somebody ought to blah blah blah...”  If someone says that about your team, feel free to say something like “I heard what you said about me. And I forgive you.”  

Let's not go back!  One of the phrases often heard on the presidential campaign trail these days is "take the country back."   I understand almost everyone has some slice of America they'd like to go back to.  I'm not exempt.  I'd like to go back to a more civil, respectful tone in our national discourse, for example.  But it occurs to me that the set-up of the universe doesn't allow us to "go back."  We can remember the past, and emulate certain aspects of the past, but time always pulls us forward.  

This is not a bad thing.  It means that we continually have opportunities to build a better world.  Those who wish to build a better world (for all of us) have no reason to fear the future.  The good -- the public good-- does not lie in the past, unrecoverable in the present.  We can always move toward it.

I find myself made nervous by those who would seek to "go back."  We had the 20th century.  It wasn't perfect, but a lot got done.  There are reasons why the 19th century was left behind.  It contained child labor, 7-day work weeks, industrial violence, an abysmal lack of rights for women and African-Americans.  Voting rights, civil rights, workplace rights, reproductive rights, a slowly dawning enlightenment about human sexuality-- these are some of the things that took big strides in the 20th century.  We should not go back to a time those things didnt exist.  We should go forward.  We go forward, not because we have some misguided idea that we can reach some kind of human perfection, but because 1) forward in time is the only direction the universe allows; and 2) because going forward is faithful.

There seems to be some idealized picture of a "Christian" culture that the religious right wants us to move toward.  Some of those cultural elements may rightly lay claim to the title "Christian,' others clearly do not.  Followers of Jesus know that we do not practice a Christian culture, or worship some idealized point in time.  We do not follow a program or a platform.  We do not follow a set of principles.  We follow Jesus Christ --  crucified and raised from the dead.  Christ does not live in the past, calling us backwards toward the first century, or the 19th century or even the 20th!  Christ does not stand behind us in the past pushing us forward!  Christ is with us in the present and also stands in the future calling us forward.  And that's the way we should go, with our rhetoric, and with our work, never losing sight of the fact that Jesus rejected a society where the rich and powerful continually grew richer and more powerful and the poor were used up and ground into oblivion.  In the name of Jesus Christ, let's not go back to that!

Thou Shalt Commit Un-murder Oct. 23, 2011

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Take Up Your Cross

Sermon 8.28.2011 “Take Up Your Cross” Matt. 16.21-28

The church I served years ago in Kansas City was right on the southern edge of Wyandotte County, where the suburban edge of the city met corn fields and farms. The site was chosen because a demographic projection of the area predicted that a very large population of Spanish-speaking people were going to move there from a more urban part of the city. The two-lane road in front of the church was projected to turn into a four-lane boulevard. A Spanish-speaking pastor was brought in from Puerto Rico to start the church up. After eight years the Latino migration never occurred, the street never became a boulevard, and the pastor left a small, somewhat confused, English-speaking congregation behind, and went off to where a Spanish-speaker was actually needed.

Some time later I arrived to help the English-speaking congregation, who assured me they were in a prime location to grow, since quite a few very large housing developments had been built within just a couple miles. What I learned after arriving was that the housing was in Johnson County, to the south. Now, I could stand on the church property and throw a rock into Johnson County. The problem was that in Wyandotte Co., where the church was, numbered streets ran north and south. To the south, in Johnson Co., numbered streets ran east and west. So... to get from the housing developments to the church, you had to successfully negotiate the intersection of 47^th and 47^th, then make the correct turn at the intersection of 55^th and 55^th! It's almost funny --how doomed that church was. Had the church been built 1000' south it would've been fine!

Sometimes the plans we make just don't work out. How many of us can look at our own lives and say, “Well, it's not exactly what I had in mind for myself.” Maybe things turned out OK, but it's a far cry from what you had expected when you were starting out. I think a lot of us have lived lives like that.

Jesus' disciples had some of expectations for Jesus and themselves when, out of the blue, Jesus starts talking about going into Jerusalem and letting his movement blow up – letting himself be arrested and humiliated and killed in the worst possible way. Which would have the effect of putting all of his disciples at risk as well. “Gee, swell plan, Lord! Let's go right now!” When Peter protests, Jesus speaks the famous line, “Get behind me, Satan.” And in doing so he draws a line back to the beginning of his ministry, the Temptation in the Wilderness. At that point Jesus resisted three temptations to short-circuit his ministry and make it something less than it needed to be. So here again near the end of his ministry, Jesus says, no, we're going to do this right, all the way to the end.

Jesus' life was one of sometimes-bewildering and sometimes-infuriating consistency. He called who he wanted to call. He ate with those he wanted to eat with. He touched and healed those he wanted to touch and heal. And he wasn't afraid of anything or anybody. Not afraid of hunger or loneliness or temptation in the desert. Not afraid of lepers. Not afraid of Herod. Not afraid of Pilate. Not afraid of the cross.

We sometimes wonder how to follow such a one as that. How far can we get imitating one like that? I mean, you'd have to be Jesus Christ! And none of us can do that. Our efforts to imitate Jesus are doomed to fail. We don't have Jesus' power, we don't live in Jesus' world. We live in this world – a world where our best laid plans result in planting a church in the only corner of KC that won't grow! Our best laid plans for ourselves run smack into the unpredictable circumstances of life! We can't go very far in imitating Christ... so what we do is internalize him. We listen, we eat and drink. We hear to the words of faith coming out of our own mouths and try to get used to the sound. We expose ourselves to the Good News and let it change and transform us. In doing so we find that we might be giving up some of the plans that we originally had for our lives. We might find that instead of climbing some ladder to fame and fortune that we have these strange impulses to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, find the lost, share a cup of cold water, or share the Good News. We might find that some of our life's plans aren't lost altogether, but are placed into a new context, that of doing the best we can to live faithful lives as God leads us.

I don't believe that taking up one's cross means throwing your life away. I don't think it means living as a hermit and forgoing all worldly comfort. Jesus did not recruit followers to be suicide bombers. Bearing a cross does not mean making oneself a martyr by putting up with people's bad behavior, or enduring chronic pain without seeking medical treatment. We are not called to seek suffering and love suffering. And we are not called to seek out suffering and endure suffering because in doing so we will earn a reward. We are called to make a witness. And we don't have to have the wealth of a Warren Buffet or the power of a Washington politician to do so. Any believer can make a witness. It just so happens that those who make their witness when they are poor or suffering frequently make the most impact. They're considered more credible.

And in every denomination since the beginning of the modern church, the poor have always given a larger percentage of their income to the work of the church than have the wealthy. Logic says the wealthy have more to give. Most wealthy people apparently don't feel that way.

Taking up your cross doesn't mean you go out looking for trouble. It means you make your witness, wherever you are, and with whatever means you have at your disposal. If you find yourself in front of Pilate you tell him the truth and you don't blink. If you find yourself in front of your best friend who's talking about doing something really hurtful, or violent, or dishonest, or selfish you tell him the truth and you don't blink. If you find yourself in front of a total stranger who says that because her life has been tough she has nothing to live for and life is just a cruel joke, you can tell her the truth of what you believe, that yes, sometimes life is really hard and seems really unfair, but she is known and loved by the God who made her, who asks her to lift her eyes from her own pain to see the God that loved her this much (arms spread) on the cross. That God knows what pain and rejection feel like and has hope to offer her of new life and forgiveness and Christian fellowship and people who will encourage and support her.

You can bear a cross and not even know it if you just do what your heart – formed in faith – tells you is right. And if you do what your heart tells you is right, it doesn't matter how many times your life has changed direction or how many surprising turns you've taken, because you will have no regrets.