Popular Homiletics

Texts: Psalm 133, Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32, Matthew 15:10-28

In the aftermath of Charlottesville, there is a lot of talk about how one should be tolerant of alt-right ideas in the spirit of tolerance. The usual response is that there is a paradox in tolerating intolerance. Our readings, call to worship and affirmation this morning offer a different answer.

Paul in Romans 11, talks about God’s mercy shown to those who are disobedient. In other chapters, he refers to this as God’s love and God’s grace. Paul also acknowledges what we all know, that some of us are bad most of the time and all of us are bad some of the time. He promises God will liberate us from this.

One strain of ideology in this country chooses to focus on the bad that people do. Systems and institutions are structured to prevent people from doing bad or at least doing bad and getting away with it. Their answer is to have zero tolerance for badness. This will punish all people some of the time if we accept that all of us will be bad at least some of the time. For these people, this helps them with the fear they have of badness and bad people.

The Bible verses in this morning’s service show us another way. God is merciful and loving to all of us. God does not tolerate or have zero tolerance. Tolerance is not the question. Being and acting out of fear for badness or bad people is not the answer. God’s answer is to love all, to be kind to all, to find a way to channel even the bad into God’s world. Let’s leave evil that to God and focus on the goodness in the world. Goodness may seem at times to be preciously rare. It may seem as if goodness is going extinct, but this is to give in to fear. It is not fear, but love that God asks of us, and models for us. As Paul suggests, it is unconditional love that God gives and models.

So, what does this mean? How do we do this? If we love everyone, aren’t we being Pollyannas or utopians or idealistic fools? Given we believe in God, then we cannot truly think God is on the wrong track. God is not a Pollyanna, or an idealistic fool or at least not in the ending reel. So how do we accomplish unconditional love of those who might choose to surround us with guns and torches and pour lighter fluid on us?

Jesus, Gandhi and Dr King have offered answers that seem the most satisfying. Dr King suggested that we have compassion for those affected by the changes that must occur to have justice and peace for all. Folks who feel important only because they are better than someone else, will need another way to define themselves as good. Those who had the privilege to exploit others will have to find another way to get what they need or reduce what they believe they need.

Judging them in the same way as they judged us will not work. We need to recognize the pain that the necessary change will cause. We need to talk about and celebrate the suffering that will end for them and for us when all of us can love all of us unconditionally.

Gandhi offered similar notions. He suggested letting them knock us down, and standing right up again as often as it takes to show we will not be moved. That showing them we respect their ability and power and privilege to knock us down, but showing them also that no amount of knocking us down will take away our dignity, power or privilege.

And finally, as Jesus said, like a shepherd we must find a way to reach out and bring home the lost sheep because they are still part of our flock. Like the Cannanite woman in our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus rewards faith and love, not identity.

Proper 23(28)

Unifying Theme: Regardless of where you are, what you do, and what you say, remember, obey, and praise the Lord!

Scripture

2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c

Psalm 111

Luke 17:11-19

2 Timothy 2:8-15

Doing What God Wants

Today's reading about Naaman and the lepers healed by Christ are examples of the what is needed to reach what God promises for us. This promise is spelled out in the Timothy reading and in the praise Psalm that we used for a call to worship.

 Timothy and the Psalms promise us God's world. A world where those who are marginalized are freed. Those who are slaves to the system or slaves to their pride and power are freed. A world that works for everyone with no one left out. A world where the wisdom of the little people and the power of the big people are used not for destruction, games of dominance or winning that has others lose. It is a world where everyone wins and everyone is great. A world of service and friendship that transcends enemies, transcends faiths and overcomes enmity and death.

Some days it seems so far away. Those in power in Washington, Syria, the UN, and elsewhere seem to forget that their people have needs and are suffering. They are full of pride and seek to dominate others. Whether it is about money or power, they choose to make everything a win for themselves and a loss for everyone else. Those who want to be seen as great strut and act with a flourish. The wisdom and faith of the nations is trampled and lost in the rush to put one over on the other guy. To “make” the other guy “compromise.” To win by force and do violence to the dreams, faith and livelihood of common folks.

The message this morning is about a person troubled by these sins in the Bible. I have chosen the story of Namaan. It is a story of humility and faith.  It is the story of how God reaches out and transforms a person caught in this game of power and violence. The story is given to us to remind us that no matter how bad our situation, God will give the marginalized a time to offer wisdom to the powerful. God will work through those of us who are weaker to bring about God's will and God's kingdom. It is a story that is designed to offer faith to the weak and marginalized. A story of God's triumph and the triumph of those who have faith.

In the time of this story, Naaman is a great man in his country. He is a great general, he is a hero of his people, and is used to being treated that way. The story adds that he has servants, even Jewish ones. Now one can presume that the Jewish servants are the spoils of some previous battle that Naaman had won. So not only is this a great man, but also a feared enemy of the Jewish people. A feared personal enemy from a country that was not as great as Babylon perhaps, but still great. The Arameans lend their language to much of the country that is called Israel and it is the alphabet used for writing Hebrew and was the language that Jesus spoke a thousand years later. The influence of the Arameans was great on Israel and its surroundings. This influence lasts longer than the Babylonian, Assyrian, Egyptian or Persian impact on the common people of Israel. So, Namaan is a great man from a great nation. A nation that Israel fears.

And Naaman has been brought low by leprosy. In all its forms, it was a dreaded disease in those times. Some forms were quite benign such as psoriasis. Some were incredibly contagious. Some were similar or the same as our necrotizing faciitis or flesh eating bacteria. This diseases caused limbs to be eaten away and flesh to fall off according to Biblical descriptions. Leprosy or Hanson's Disease might cause limbs to become useless and for toes and fingers to shrink or curl up like arthritis might cause. The physicians and priests of the day had no distinction between these different diseases. It was a horror to receive a diagnosis of the Biblical “tzaraath” which is translated as “leprosy” in the Bible. One who had this was considered impure in the Jewish belief system and the belief systems of the areas around ancient Israel. Tzaraath is what Naaman is reported to have in this 2 Kings verse.

He desperately seeks a cure and a Jewish child servant tells his wife of a cure in Israel. The little girl, names the prophet Elisha as the one who can effect a cure for tzaraath. Having found no cure in Aram, Naaman prepares to seek out this prophet for a cure.

Now, there are a number of causes for tzaraath, all are sins. These sins are related to tzaraath in the Bible and the Talmud, the commentary on the Bible by Jewish scholars. Gossip was the most common sin, but excessive pride was another sin that caused tzaraath. There were a number of complicated purity rituals involved, but honoring your victims and humbling yourself was the primary cure.

Jewish and other Mediterranean communities reacted to one who had “tzaraath” with horror. First it was a sign of impurity and a sign of great sin. Those who suspect of having this were sent to the priest who would diagnose it and offer ritual practices that would cure it. Physicians would also be consulted. After the cure was effected, it was celebrated with the mikveh or immersion in the living waters. Those who could not be cured were forced to live alone away from the village and had to cover their faces and cry out “impure, impure” as they walked about so that no one might come near and be made impure.

For those who were cured, the mikveh was a celebration of transformation or the beginning of a new time in life.  The mikveh had other uses as well. Women celebrate this every month and in the ninth month of pregnancy. Men and women when they marry, have children, have grandchildren, on anniversaries or achievements of a particular age or life transition celebrate with a mikveh. The mikveh is the acknowledgment of a transition or transformation.  

Now for Namaan, having tzaraath was so bad a future that he seeks the help of his enemies and those he has vanquished. He talks his king into writing a letter of introduction. This king is probably Hadadezer, the king of Aram Damascus. Namaan presents this letter to King Joram of Israel. The letter and its request is so unusual, so incredible that Joram, the King of Israel is sure of a plot to start another war. But Joram has little choice but to honor another king's request.  So Joram sends Naaman to Elisha.

Elisha prescribes a mikveh in the Jordan, without coming to the door to be in the presence of the impure Naaman. For Elisha, it would be a violation of the Jewish purity code to come near Namaan, but also it represents an opportunity for humility for Naaman. Not understanding, Naaman roars in protest at this slight.  Elisha, the prophet, has seemingly ignored his most powerful presence. Elisha, mere prophet, has not come to see the great Namaan, but Elisha has only sent his servant to acknowledge Namaan. Namaan felt he was showing extreme humility in coming to the prophet's door.  Now he has been humiliated by being received by a servant. And Elisha has not just committed these incredible faux pas in Namaan's mind, but Elisha has told Namaan to bathe in the Jordan. Namaan is not just a little angry!

Now to get the full measure of Namaan's outrage, one must know a bit about the Jordan. It is a muddy river that is the garbage dump of the towns along it. No one drinks from it, but rather digs wells nearby to get clear, clean water instead. In the verse, Namaan compares it to babbling mountain streams of his homeland that he might have traveled some way to enjoy. Why not send him there to those beautiful places? Why send him to the local sewer to be “cleansed”? Naaman is outraged!

But his servants understand, perhaps being enslaved Jews. They offer him some wisdom in the form of humble questions. Is Naaman afraid to try this? Would Namaan do something even more difficult if asked by the prophets at home? And hasn't Namaan come to the end of his rope?

Namaan considers and humbly accepts the wisdom of his servants.  I say that, in this moment, Namaan's  sin of excessive pride, is vanquished. He is already cured, but does not know this. He celebrates his mikveh in the dirty Jordan and the scabs and evidence of his disease are washed off or perhaps scrubbed off by the mud. Surely he also goes to a well and washes again. This cleaning in the living waters of a mikveh and his recognition of wisdom in those who are of humble station and of those who are enemies or potential subjects make him a new man. God has intervened through the poor and the humble, the powerless and the marginalized. God has altered and transformed Namaan from a man who triumphs through violence to a man who recognizes the will of God in the well-wishing of his servants, peaceful petitioning and humility among his enemies. These trump the symbols of power, the pride in nation and the fear engendered by violence that are Namaan's usual ways. Now, Namaan sees and acts in the ways of God.  

If only this was a lesson that could be learned by our leaders in Washington, Syria, at the UN, Wall Street and in all the corners of the world where games of power and domination, excessive pride and smugness prevent God's world from developing. Where servants are prevented  from offering wisdom and where cures for diseases are withheld and needless suffering that could be ended is allowed to continue or is increased.

But as the story of Namaan tells us, God's kingdom continues to come like the mustard plant or the dandelion. God continues to work through the poor and the marginalized. Using weakness as a powerful agent to transform. As an incredible source of wisdom.

Proper 18 (23)

Unifying Theme: God has the power to mold and direct His creatures; God appeals to His creation to act on the basis of love.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Psalm 1

Luke 14:25-33

Philemon 1-21

Rewards for the Righteous

The Deuteronomy passage that we read this morning is Moses last message, his last lesson to his people. He will not and cannot by command of God, go with them into the promised land. He will be buried in the land that God's people are standing on, looking into their promised land, their land of promise. And Moses is not going with them.

The Exodus story gives us an explanation why Moses is not going, that is not very satisfying. And perhaps the real reason is that God's call to Moses, that Moses's job, was to get them to this point of a new future. It will fall to others of God's servants to do the work of establishing the Israelites in Canaan. Moses job was to shepherd the people to this point just as an architect produces plans for a house, but does not build it. Other skills, other knowledge are required for building a nation than would be required to shepherd it through the desert. Sometimes the reward for a job well done is the end of the job. There is a passing of the baton, a changing of the guard. What looks like an end, or even a failure, is really just a change.

We often think from our ideas of progress that the past that is overcome was bad, somehow inferior. We might thing that sitting around a fire and waiting for our pig to roast is inferior to being home alone putting our packaged sausage in the microwave.

But that idea of progress ignores the value of a community working together to find, prepare and eat a meal. It ignores the satisfaction of sharing, the appreciation of the work required to create a meal or an event; it covers up the years of science and hard work by many people to make packing and processing, microwaves, trucks and the many things that go into being able to put a package of sausage into a device and eat it hot within seconds.

The same is true in politics and history. We forget what it has taken to get here. We forget what the trajectory of history is from our narrow perspective of our lives or even where and what we are today.

So the Moses and Dr Kings of our age are shown a glimpse of a future that they may not enter. That one arrives at the gate to a new future, is the reward. God offers a view into the future; God takes them to the mountaintop. God shows them that the future is different from the past or present but does not negate that past or present. The future stands on the shoulders of those in the past. The future is the fulfillment of this present and that past. Just as Jesus says that he comes to fulfill the law – to end it and start a new era.

My grandmother was at an earlier time of change, a time of awakening. Iris Israel was her name. She knew early that she had a calling. She was a teacher at fifteen. The hired teacher in their one room schoolhouse had a family emergency and returned East. Iris was the one student chosen out of her twenty two classmates to teach the remainder of that year. She swallowed her fear of teaching and managing the behavior of older students. Iris was able to command their respect and to teach the well what each of her students needed to thrive. She stayed and taught for the next five years.

She also got her preaching license at sixteen from the Methodists, the only denomination that would offer her one. Iris had been guest speaker in the revival tents across northern Missouri and Iowa for two years already. She played the piano for these revivals as well, having memorized the entire Rodeheaver Gospel Songs for Sunday School and Church. The revival tents brought an ecstatic, joyful gospel message of God’s love and abundance. People attended because it was a relief from the fire and brimstone messages they got from their home churches with their staid Dimsdale style preachers.

Iris perfected the art of the back of the envelope sermon at this time. A peppering of gospel verses, hymn verses and popular poetry was the skeleton for a simple and usually triumphant message about faith and love overcoming fear and hate. Her inspiration and a frequent trope in her sermons was Edwin Markham’s poem:

“He drew a circle that shut me out — Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in!

Iris continued her call in the face of criticism. She did what many women did. She married a preacher. She was clever in that she chose a biblical archeologist. My grandfather, Owen, preferred to be on digs in the Holy Land than preach sermons. Owen struggled to craft each sermon and they were apparently rather dull, academic pieces. Often Iris was called upon to be the substitute preacher.

When she was in the cranberry bog country of Massachusetts in 1938, she served Owen’s Methodist church while he was away on an extended dig in Palestine. It was 1940 and the beginning of WWII. The Nazi’s were coming and as risky as it was, Owen remained. The male pastor of the Congregational Church in the next town, chose to be a chaplain and go with the troops to Europe in mid-December 1941. Iris, the only preacher willing to substitute, took on this Congregational Church. She led the Christmas services at both churches in 1941 and served as senior and only pastor for both churches until the end of the war. Both churches grew under her leadership.

Iris was a strong willed woman. Like the parable of the widow and the judge [in Luke 18] she continued to ask her association for ordination at each and every meeting. She and her congregation wanted recognition for the job she was doing. Since no men were available or could be convinced to come to rural Massachusetts, they relented and agreed to ordain her in 1943. Another woman was ordained at nearly the same time in rural western Massachusetts. These were the second and third women ordained in the Congregational Church.

My grandmother in her day brought a new spirit to her churches. She had a vibrancy taken from the revival times and was a model of a successful woman. Her churches prospered in this new spirit. Today, the modern church seems irrelevant to the young who thirst for the Spirit. Hypocritical, lost in its processes and liturgies without a sense of the power of its words and its rituals. In response, Iris lived her truth of an engaging church, a church that recognizes the contributions of all of its members, male and female.

IBM was founded by TJ Watson in 1911. It was not so commentable, except that TJ Watson had been fired as a salesman from NCR. He was fired not so much because he did anything wrong or was not a good salesman, but because NCR was having trouble meeting its financial goals. Watson though that this was what unions were saying about big business, and he would not allow this to happen to good employees in his company. He did not believe that his company needed a union to keep it honest and appropriate to employees, so he structured the company to meet employee needs without being forced to by unions. Watson developed some novel ideas in his day. One was “peace through commerce” and lifetime employment. These were sorely tested in the Great Depression.

IBM was making “black iron” based on the ideas of Herman Hollerith, IBM (and others) had developed machines that used punch cards. These cards could encode information like names, addresses and numeric or alphabetic codes in punches or holes in the cards. There were machines to punch the cards and machines that could process the punched cards. The processing machines had electric feelers that made a circuit when a hole was present and no circuit when there was not a hole. This allowed the cards to be “read” and the cards could be sorted by almost any combination of punches in the card. This sorting could be quite fast. Certainly faster than a human and far more accurate.

When the depression hit, there had been interest in these “black iron” punch card machines for doing both business and government work. For businesses it allowed the analysis of sales data. For example, the sorter could sort orders by region and quickly tally and issue manufacturing orders to regional factories. For government it allowed tallying of census data much more rapidly than the banks of adding machines that had been used. The Constitution says that a census must be done every ten years and Congressional districts re-aligned to make sure that people are appropriately represented. In 1930 census had not been able to tally results fast enough to redistrict for the early 1930 elections. Projections were that it would take the entire decade of the 1940s or longer to do the census and redistrict the USA. The census bureau would never catch up. These card sorting machines were the answer.

But the Great Depression came. Companies laid of almost all of their employees. Companies other than IBM, that is. Working in a backwater town of Endicott, NY, Watson mortgaged everything, sold bonds at deep discount, used his considerable fortune as collateral, and kept IBM employees working. Very little of their production was sold, but Watson stockpiled it in warehouses. Watson knew that there was an opportunity in 1940, if he could keep IBM going. The Depression was longer than anyone imagined, but Watson managed to keep IBM afloat and the employees working. In 1940, NCR, IBM, and the Hollerith company presented bids to the US Census Bureau. The other companies submitted bids with substantial delays in delivery. Only IBM had the equipment all ready on trucks to send to Washington to get started immediately. IBM won its biggest government contract and the largest single contract the USA had made prior to WWII. All of IBMs employees enjoyed a share of the profits in one of the few profit sharing programs in the USA.

Over time, IBM forgot its promises to employees. It reneged on its great principles of Respect for the Individual, the Pursuit of Excellence and the Service to the Customer. The church reneged on its promise for love for all. My Grandmother's last church had her as interim for 25 years as they waited for a “real” pastor – a man.

I left the church in the 70s and I left IBM in the 90s. Both had given me a good grounding in their respective areas. I know Christianity well and the love that it can create, the communities of support and change that they can be, and I know the goodness that is possible through commerce, capitalism and business. And I know how corrupted both can become.

Two weeks ago I had a chance for some hope. I spent some time with a scholar who studies historical trends in denominations and churches, specifically the trajectory of Christianity. Diana Butler Bass writes about the 'emerging church' most notably, but has begun to branch out into the trajectory or arc of history related to Christianity as embedded in our world.

She sees a change afoot. She writes that our society is in the midst of a great awakening. A time that appears to be the promised land for Christianity and progressive values. She presents scholars that suggest that the 1960s was indeed a time of change and that the reaction to that time, may mask the thrust for more openness in society, for less reliance on propaganda for evaluating the role of women in our world or the evils of socialism and communism, or the proper place for GLBTQ people and couples in our society. She suggests that the rise of fundamentalist and evangelical Christianity was a maidservant of this suppression. She also said that this brand of church is dying quickly and a different church is growing to take its place.

Church is no longer an obligation Bass suggests, but rather a resource and a place to find inspiration, traditions that give comfort and workable community, experiences of the divine that offer a sense of purpose and direction in a world of chaos, violence and fear. Churches that offer answers or strict reliance on belief no longer offer the comfort and inspiration that people, particularly young people, need.

Like Paul's offer in Philemon, the church need not order us to believe a certain way or to be reborn a particular way. We need not evangelize or proselytize to prove that we are good Christians. We may do these things out of love of the church or our fellow man. Being a slave to church is not helpful, being a servant out of love of the church might be the purpose and fulfillment of ourselves.

When I first read this morning's story about Moses at the edge of the promised land, I saw this as a failure of Moses. Yet, he is revered and held up with Elijah and Elisha as heroes of Judaism and with Jesus as an equal in Christian teachings. Moses is like the departing preacher who cannot go on with his flock into the land that he prepared them for. It is rather a tribute to the work that Moses did, that God's people are ready now for the Deborahs, Joshuas and Davids.

Neither the church nor business is evil or a failure in leading us to this time. But like Moses, they cannot carry us any further. It is time for them to pass on the torch to those who can lead us while in the promised land. In that vein, I invite you to consider that the fourth great awakening has come. To consider that God is doing a new thing; that a renewed vigor will infect church and communities of God; that they will expand and bring God's love to all; that supportive and alternative forms of faith, politics and economics will bring something more workable, more just and more loving to our world.

When I think of the story of Moses, I also think of Dr King. In his last speech before being assassinated, he said he had been to the mountaintop, he had seen into the promised land. But like Moses, he was not able to join us. His “eyes had seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” He wasn't afraid, he wasn't worried about anything. He was happy that night in Memphis. He wanted all of us to have the joy of being in that Promised Land

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Proper 12(17)

Unifying Themes: Live faithfully in Christ; pray reverently and ask honestly; there are consequences in all that you do--good and bad.

Genesis 18:20-32

Psalm 138

Luke 11:1-13

Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)

  Goodness to Go

We as Christians encourage peace and justice. We send money and pray for peace and justice. We write letters or call a representative or our President. Some of us engage in direct action of some kind, protests and civil disobedience. And yet our country spends half of its annual budget to wage war. In the last ten years, there has been an additional 2 trillion on top of that. In 1984, a professor at Palmer Seminary, a theologian with a doctorate from Yale Divinity and an evangelical pastor, Ron Sider, posed an intriguing challenge to Christians. Dr. Sider did not condemn our huge expenditure for defense, but asked us to consider, “what might happen if we committed similar resources to waging peace as we do to waging war?” How can we do God's will and have it be on earth as it is in heaven in a human world of endless war?

The Mennonites, CoB and Quakers were intrigued with this challenge. Together they formed and funded Christian Peacemakers Teams in Canada and the USA. I will call it CPT for short. A red cap, like this one, signifies their presence as a uniform might identify a military person. CPT sends teams of privileged North Americans to stand with indigenous tribes in the US or Canada as government press to reclaim reservation lands. CPT escorts Palestinian children to school to protect them from harassing settlers. CPT was in Iraq just before the war started. CPT has been in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Colombia and Mexico. CPT also offers a chance to see and report first-hand, what is happening in places where there is endemic violence and injustice, as well as war. The teams are the like the person who knocks persistently in our readings today, the Importune Neighbor – they knock at the closed hearts. They request peace and justice until the door opens.

CPT was invited to participate in the struggle in Vieques. CPT joined a ten year old effort to demand that the US government stop activities that had displaced the people of Vieques or the Veiquenses. The US had created a Naval exercise area on 2/3s of the island. They were happy to do this to support WWII, but it was enough now. The Navy was disrupting their lives with unbearable noise and dust with little notice, regularly closing their fishing areas and destroying their crab pots. The Naval bombings by airplanes and shelling by battleships had over time destroyed the tourist business, poisoned the land crabs that supported locals, and showered the island with chemicals. There were unusual cancers in their children and a sky-rocketing cancer and serious disease rate. Even more troubling, The Navy had used radioactive materials on the island that was picked up by the wind and blew over the populated areas which was likely the source of the sickness and cancers.

Like the Biblical woman and the judge the movement returned day after day to demand justice. Like the importune neighbor of today's readings they kept knocking and praying for justice. The government had done many things to stop the knocking... they regularly teargassed residents. They had the FBI arrest people who were organizing. Any damage to property was blamed on some person from Vieques or another. These poor people rarely were able to overcome the Navy's accusations. Being in jail was a regular event for the Viequenses.

The Navy in order to stay against the will of the islanders, had manipulated local politics and had corrupted their politicians. And for a time, the Navy stayed. The last straw had been when the Navy had bombed and killed a Viequense, David Sanes, who had been employed to do odd jobs on the bombing site. This was when they invited CPT to come.

I went to Vieques and at first was willing to support civil disobedience, but not be arrested. At a later delegation, I decided I would be arrested. I was held for twenty four hours in the fenced enclosure previously used as a dog kennel and a Navy brig.

I was tried with 15 others who had been involved in the civil disobedience on Vieques. In my closing comments, I appealed to the judge in my case to release the grandmother who was tried with me. I spoke of my own grandmother who had taught me about civil rights and liberty. She was a teacher who instilled in her students the principles of liberty and demanding justice. Teaching in Wellsley, Massachusetts, she told the story of the early patriots and their acts of civil disobedience in the face of the Boston Massacre and the unfair taxation of every American. She taught that the imposition of power and force at the detriment of the people is intolerable and required persistent and strident knocking at the door of justice. In that vein, I preached.

I preached my defense. However, the judge had already ruled out any defense that could justify my actions. The only issue in the case was whether I had stood on land controlled by the Navy or not. Even the fact that the land that I stood on had been taken without permission by the Navy and was not actually Navy land, was not admissible. But the judge did release the grandmother.

I convinced my judge with my preaching. She gave me the longest sentence of the group I was tried with!

Prison was difficult. Even though the prison guards and staff were sympathetic and placed all of the protesters in the same wing. Despite the welcome and acknowledgment that I received from fellow protesters and the Viequenses when I arrived at the jail. Even though everyone spoke English and were very pleased that I had joined them. Despite all of this, it was frightening. I wore an ill-fitting jumpsuit. I lived in a place without windows and daily was allowed only a small slice of sunshine. The federal marshals did their best to humiliate me – it was not me personally, but I was treated as any other prisoner. I was laughed at, poked and prodded in private places with little regard for my discomfort. Everywhere, I was made to understand who was in power and who was not. We call this bullying when it happens in school, abuse when it happens in the workplace. But in prison, this is a prisoner's just desserts – it is part of the punishment. And not all the prison staff were like this.

The high point of my jail time was the time that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr was in the prison with us. He had also been arrested and greatly encouraged the Viequenses.

When I review our readings for today, I thought of CPT.

The Genesis reading about Sodom and Gomorrah is not the usual one. That is the next chapter of Genesis. Instead this story resembles the Jonah story. Abraham in his wanderings happens to be going to Sodom. The complaints about Sodom have reached God's ear and God warns Abraham that he is destroying the place. Abraham is aghast for the “collateral damage.” Abraham has pity on at least those who might be righteous and would be killed in God's destruction of the city. Abraham being as close to right with God as any human can be, wrestles with God. Abraham extracts a promise from God that no God-fearing, faithful person would be killed. Abraham is moved by pity rather than anger, he sees evil consuming a people and sighs for the goodness that is suppressed.

The Colossians reading is from the point of view of the faithful. The writer of the letter in the name of Paul, is encouraging the faithful to remain faithful. Inspiring them to ignore the derogatory remarks, challenges and even violence against the community for their belief and Christian ways. To stand with God and Christ in bringing the kingdom in their lives and others in the face of resistance and temptation.

Luke reminds us in the Lords Prayer that opens the passage, that we are working for the kingdom, asking God, not others for our sustenance. That we are to be forgiving of others so that we might receive forgiveness. In the same way to deny a system of debt from which there is no forgiveness. The remainder of the passage is a parable of persistence. That the persistent prayer of action, the doing of God's work consistently and always – reaps the reward.

The readings focus on themes that CPT embodies: measuring your impact on the world for good as Abraham does in Genesis, being faithful and standing firm with God in the face of the criticism and violence as Colossians recommends, doing God's will – having earth be as it is in heaven, and being persistent in demanding that people do the right thing – continuing to knock at the closed heart as Luke writes.

CPT offers a place for Christians to dedicate their lives or part of their lives to waging peace – reducing violence and demanding justice. Going were CPT has been invited to learn and practice non-violence and loving one's enemies. CPT offers a place to use the privileges of a North Americans to do good. CPT offers a chance for first-hand experiences in places of conflict and injustice. The plan is that you carry the appeal from the locals back to your countries and communities. Each CPT volunteer is encouraged to share within their home churches and communities. For the troubled places in the world and for communities there who are seeking peace and justice, CPT is Goodness to Go.

CPT works persistently, despite arrests, jail time, bullying and violence. CPT continues to knock on closed hearts until they open. CPT answers violence with love and peace, this is not passivity but clever ways to disarm the anger, to gather those who seek peace and justice, to help them make their demands, by sharing privilege, by engaging those with power in the struggle, by letting others know first-hand what is happening, by persisting in their faithful struggle for peace and justice. CPT does this as a response to Dr. Sider's challenge, but mostly CPT and its volunteers and staff does this out of a love of people and a love of God. Most especially because it is an act of persistent and consistent faith.

Amos 7:7-17

Psalm 82

Colossians 1:1-14

Luke 10:25-37

Loving Mercies

Our readings today are from Amos, Colossians, and Luke. The Letter to the Colossians offers hope that the darkness will be lifted from our world if we are patient and joyfully maintain faith and give thanks for God's gift of light. Luke tells the story of Jewish man who helps out a sworn enemy, a Samaritan. This enemy is lifted up and given a room at an Inn for as long as necessary and the equivalent of a year's income is spent for his well-being. This Jewish man is extravagantly generous to this enemy who would have died by the side of the road. These readings explore alternatives to anger, violence and fear in bringing God's kingdom. This is not mere charity, but full commitment and love, generosity dedicated to a better world.

In contrast, the Amos story is the central theme of Amos, that Israel is not doing being just to its own. God is unhappy as are the people of Israel. The current regime is making God angry. Amos offers God's warning of a regime change. Either the regime repents or King Jerboam will be ousted. The powerful will be taken to an “unclean land” and family will be tortured and/or killed. The response to Amos is to threaten him and stop him from talking. Edward Snowden's disclosure of wide spread overreach of our intelligence services is a similar message. Julian Assange's disclosure of diplomatic overreach is also similar. Snowden's and Assange's disclosures make obvious mistakes made by diplomatic and intelligence staffs. These demonstrations of corruption and false dealing with our friends and allies are not met with contrition by government and corporate staffs. Rather the government redoubles efforts to capture or quiet these whistle-blowers.

I believe this is from the cynical belief that such behavior and violence is an acceptable means to the end of safety and security. This cynicism is best stated in the old analogy that sausage is a great treat, but you really do not want to see how it is made. As though ethical and acceptable outcomes may require less than acceptable and less than ethical steps along the way. This is part of the hand-waving of the “new realism” in our culture that excuses excess because both Republicans and Democrats do it, all nations do it, everybody who knows anything knows this I happening, our enemies do it so we have to do it too, and really everything is okay at the end of the day. Isn't it? This cynical and means justifies the ends agenda is driven by our anger and our fear. This agenda is driven by our anger at having been attacked on our soil and in the middle of a regular workday. It is driven by our anger at seemingly innocent victims being targeted It is also driven by our fear of dying in a terrorist attack, our fear of losing as a country or even being seen to fail. This has justified violence in Afghanistan and Iraq. It justifies violence done to our fellow citizens who dissent and those who would call our institutions to account.

But oddly, God does not seem to see God's kingdom as working this way. When the disciples wish to rain down fire on an unreceptive village, Jesus rebukes them just as God had rebuked Jonah. God's love is greater than the disciples and Jonah's righteous anger. Jesus tells us that fighting evil with evil is pointless. Jesus tells us that it is love that overcomes fear and anger. Jesus invites us to consider that loving our enemies is the path to God's kingdom. It is a narrow door and a crooked path that not many tread, but it is the only way to God and God's kingdom.

I was with a friend John Roth in Germany and we boarded a train. John is a life-long Mennonite and therefore a pacifist. He came from a small town that being full of Mennonites, there was little open conflict. Fighting was limited to drunken brawls in at the bar or domestic violence, neither of these touched John personally. I am also from a relatively small town up-bringing and violence was more a part of my life. And neither of us were prepared for the experience we had this one evening. While riding the train, a homeless man got in the car and sat down. His tattered clothing and his unshaven and disheveled appearance gave a hint. Talking to no-one we could see and his wild gesticulating, confirmed his untreated and challenging mental illness. At the next stop a group of loud, drinking young men got on. They began talking about the homeless man. Then it escalated to saying horrible things to this man. John, the man, the young men and I were the only ones in the car.

Then the yelling began. The man shrank back in his seat. Now quiet with wild eyes. Soon, one of the young men shook his beer can and sprayed the man directly in the face with the foam. Without any warning, another young man got up and began kicking the man's legs, soon the others gathered around the man and there were fists landing... I was outraged. John and I did not speak, but I could see John flush with anger, too. Stronger for me was the fear. If we interfered would they beat us up too? I had no idea what to do. I fumbled for my cellphone. I looked for a conductor.

Then I heard John whisper a quiet prayer. Later he told me that he was remembering the Iona chant: “Don't be afraid. My love is stronger. My love is stronger than your fear. Don't be afraid. My love is stronger. My love is stronger than your fear. And I have promised, promised always to be near.” Then he got up. He said loudly in German while looking directly at the man, “Hans! Hans, it has been a long time!” John walked between two of the young men and grabbed the man's shoulders in an embrace. John pulled him up. “Come sit with us and visit, Hans!”

While the young men were frozen in surprise, John walked the man back to sit between us. In a voice loud enough for the young men to hear, he began to ask the man questions a friend might ask: “How is your family, Hans?” “How are you doing, Hans?” “Where are you living, Hans?” The man began to answer haltingly at first. The young men looked on in awe. They talked among themselves for a while perhaps considering how to respond. At the next stop they got off. John continued talking to the man until at the next stop, the man got up, mumbled a “danke” or thanks and left the car.

John was generous and courageous in rescuing a Samaritan from the clutches of the robbers. He offer a surprising demonstration of the power of God's love and courage. Giving a generous gift to a man who seemed to draw only scorn from those surrounding him. This is a demonstration in a microcosm of the principles which stand to transform our world from one of darkness to the world of enlightenment and loving mercies that God intends for us.

Let me tell two stories of these principles acting in a larger context. These are paraphrased from entries in Victories without Violence compiled by A. Ruth Fry. [Published by Ocean Tree Books, Santa Fe, 1986.] These come from the written and oral tradition of the Quakers.

At the time of the American Revolution, when some American Indians had been enlisted in service of fighting colonists, there was a Quaker meeting house in Easton, NY. Quakers had refused to cancel meeting despite the battles raging around them. As always they came to meeting without their guns and as always left their door open for the Spirit and for neighbors to join them. During the meeting, a band of fully armed and painted Indians arrived, came in the door and looked around. After a short conference among themselves, they laid their arms by the door and sat down. When the meeting ended, the community had their customary communal meal. Each Indian was offered a place at the table and a share of food. During the meal, the leader of the band spoke in French. To the community, he said, “We came to kill you all. And we found you unarmed, with your door open in the middle of war. You welcomed us to be with you for a meal and communion. We now could never harm you and would fight for you, if need be.”

A bit later in Europe, the Austrians and Hungarians had been allies and had agreed to share an empire of their joint territories. This empire was to be administered from Vienna. But Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, had the idea of taking over the whole empire for Austria. He began violating the treaties between the two countries, by taxing the Hungarians and sending troops to enforce new taxes on the Hungarians. Troops were billeted in Hungarian homes while extorting taxes from their neighbors. The normal Hungarian political system was overwhelmed and felt too weak to oppose the Austrians. Francis Deak, in response, reminded the Hungarians that, “a nation contributes to its own slavery by silence. The nation that submits to oppression and injustice without protest is doomed.”

Deak organized alternative Hungarian education, agriculture and industry. He organized a boycott of Austrian goods. He admonished people not to be betrayed into violence or to abandon the ground of legality – the higher moral ground. “This is the safe ground, where we unarmed, can hold our own against an armed force. If suffering is necessary, suffer with dignity.” Hungarians everywhere adhered to Deak's advice.

When the Austrian tax collectors came, they did not hoot or hurt them, but merely declined to pay them. The Austrian police then seized their goods for auction, but no Hungarian auctioneer would offer them. Austrian auctioneers were brought, but no Hungarian would bid on them. Bringing Austrian bidders to Hungary or shipping the goods to Austria was more costly than the taxes owed. Troops came to frighten the Hungarians into submission and cooperation. Hungarian homeowners were told they must house Austrian troops. Hungarians did not refuse. But living in a house where everyone destests you became trying for the average soldier. The soldiers protested being billeted in these homes and barracks were built.

The Austrian government also declared the Hungarian boycott illegal, but Hungarians persisted. Jails were filled to overflowing with dignified prisoners faithful in their purpose.

Hungarian representatives refused to sit in the Imperial Parliament.

Eventually Emperor Josef tried conciliation. Prisoners were released and partial rule offered. Hungarians were resolute in their demand for a full restoration of their equal position in the Empire.

The Emperor made one last attempt by declaring universal, compulsory service of Hungarians in the Imperial Army. Hungarians responded that they would refuse to obey it. Hungarians would go to jail rather than be conscripted.

Finally, Emperor Josef relented and gave equal power to the Hungarians. Hungarians ruled their own land and Austrians ruled Austria and together they ruled with an equal standing the Empire's other holdings. This remained the situation from 1867 to 1918, when Austria and Hungary became separate countries.

Each of these stories testifies to one truth. In a world primarily driven by violence -- through the instruments of anger and fear, it is courage and non-violence, dignity and love that win the day.

The Amos reading for today testifies that the result of an insistence on violence and injustice is being conquered and exiled. As Jesus said it, “those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.”

Colossians reminds us that there is hope for those who are persecuted. That God and Christ are the light and the hope that the faithful will received

The Luke reading suggests what the faithful will do in the face of violence. Luke tells us what God has in mind as an alternative to violence and prejudice, to the hatred or fear of enemies. In the Good Samaritan story, Christ encourages us to be courageous and extravagantly generous.

God demonstrates time and again, that it is by means of community action, through the use of non-violence that good can overcome. God shows the faithful that with two things we can overcome. If we offer extravagant generosity we overcome. If we honor the dignity of ourselves and others we overcome. If we afford love to ourselves and our neighbors including our enemies we overcome. Through these three expressions of God, we can overcome the oppression of violence and hatred.

In being this way, we can work together for a world that works for everyone with no one left out. Together guided in this way by God we can work for God's kingdom.

Proper 5 (10) (June 9, 2013)

First reading and Psalm

1 Kings 17:8-16, (17-24)

Psalm 146

Second reading

Galatians 1:11-24

Gospel

Luke 7:11-17

God the Transformer

God transforms people and history through love. God offers an escape from fear and oppression. God brings forgotten people to the forefront and offers aliveness through love instead of the death of indifference or fear.

In my social work practice at the nursing home, there are many miracles. The most amazing of these miracles was a kind of resurrection.

There was a 62 year old woman brought to the nursing home that was catatonic. Let's call her Martha. Martha had run out of food, and money in her trailer. She had been desperate in the few days before she was hospitalized – trying to get help for her depression, and food. Then Martha lapsed into catatonia – she was frozen in position. It was her response the the hopelessness and helplessness that our society sometimes leaves people. A neighbor saw her frozen, seemingly dead and called 911.

When Martha arrived at the nursing home, her eyes did not track anything or seem to see anything. Her eyes were glassy and defocused. The nurses would get her out of bed every two hours and put her in her wheelchair. They would have to move her periodically so that she did not get sores. They would put her back to bed every two hours or for the night. They would turn her several times during the night.

Each day I would come while Martha was in her chair and sit with her. Sometimes I would talk to her --- well talk at her. Martha showed no sign of recognition and made no response. I would tell her about the weather forecast, the games that other residents were playing. Martha would continue to stare at the ceiling. I would even talk about some of my challenges as a new social worker, just to have something to talk about.. Some of the time I would just sit with her. I did this everyday for two weeks. Not long, just 5 or 10 minutes at a time.

One day I came in and sat down and something seemed different with Martha I began to talk and this time as I was talking, her hand moved. It moved toward me, slowly but steadily. Martha took my hand and then she smiled wanly. I stopped talking and smiled back. “Go on,” she said just as clearly and plainly as if she had always been speaking. I continued to talk about the games residents were playing. Martha nodded, still with her hand on mine. I thought to ask her a question, “Did you heard me everyday?”

She replied simply, “Of course.” Martha looked me straight in the eye.

“Why did you not respond?” I asked.

“I couldn't...” she said. After a pause, there was a smile and then, “Thanks.”

Within a few days, Martha was talking regularly and getting up. She was eating. And she knew what games she wanted to play. She knew it was going to snow. The nurses were amazed. She asked for me. When I came she asked how my latest job challenge was going. And Martha thanked me for taking the time to be with her.

In our readings today, we have some miracles-- some resurrections in our readings. Elijah and Jesus raise sons from the dead and Paul raises the Galatian church from the near dead. Raising people from the dead as a literal truth seems problematic. I do not believe that this was impossible for Jesus, just hard to explain from my life experience. Metaphoric explanations seem weak, but worth considering. Richard Horsley in his newest book, “Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God” suggests real or not, these resurrections are metaphors for overcoming the little deaths that the system of Empire inflicted on its subjects.

You see an Empire, whether the Roman Empire, the Israelite Monarchy or more modern Empires, maintains itself by exacting money from its subjects, and to get more money it displays its power. It terrorizes those who might resist the political and economic tyranny. Subjects maintain their differences and help them see themselves as other from Roman Empiric institutions. Dismantling the traditions of their subjects and separating subjects from those peculiar institutions that support them was important to induce conquered people to become Roman and support Rome. For Jewish people, this was not going to work. Their culture had survived many such attempts. This despite the face that these Jewish institutions added to the burdens by adding a tithe for the temple to the taxes due to Rome and the high priests of the temple were collaborators with Rome.

The burden of these taxes was enormous. Tax collectors would often collect more than they were due and peasants did their best to hide income to avoid taxes. Sounds familiar even today, no! They also had to hide income and what little wealth they had to avoid the stealing of the collectors. The Jewish people respect righteousness and to justify lying, cheating and not repaying the debts of their neighbors caused additional suffering.

The oppression of Empire wears... The burden of taxes and lying to protect oneself. When drought or other chance disaster reduces production there is no forgiveness – even if it forces a family resources below the amount needed to keep them alive. Families may borrow to survive and often more than they can really pay back. They may lose their land to the rich. Sometimes they get to be sharecroppers, but generally this process leads to a landlessness, debt prison which is official kidnap or likely death by starving and exposure or death at the hands of public officials. Some might have found the challenges too much, like Martha and felt helpless and hopeless.

Much that one works for is taken for and by Empire. There is little left for local efforts. Life looks more tiresome, less fruitful, more of a struggle, life can lose its joy, with more hunger and more of a sense of helplessness and hopelessness. People won't remain dead this way. Ultimately they will find something that will bring give them life. For slaves in the South of the US, it was Christianity and most particularly the deliverance stories of Exodus and Deuteronomy as well as the liberation messages of Christ. For Tibetans it is Buddhism. For us and the Jewish people of Palestine in the Roman days, it the Christ who offers a message of hope and deliverance.

Jesus gave new life and Christ continues to bring new life and aliveness to lives today. He has never died and his miracle of new life continues. Jesus offered an alternative to Empire building on Jewish tradition and culture: Love instead of fear. In the early Christian church there was a community of love. It was a place where debts were forgiven. Early Christians shared food, housing and caring for each other each giving according to their capability and each getting what they need. Early Christians found that this served people well, that they thrived in Jesus communities. These communities were so successful as an alternative to the Roman Empire, that they were outlawed and the proponents executed. Eventually this system of communities overcame the patriarchal system of the Romans with the conversion of Emperor Constantine.

Today, we are facing a similar if not as significant a challenge. More money is being taken not make life possible for the Martha's of the world or anyone. The money is not being used to fix bridges or roads, it is not being used to reduce infant mortality, or to quell hunger or provide more water for communities, but is rather being used to increase the profits of large corporations and the wealth of the richest 100 families in the US. We reduce the taxes for the rich and make war. Like the situation in first century Palestine, there are many different government or quasi government entities that vie for our income – town, county, state all ask for a piece of our income, most often without regard to how much we make. Some of us end up below the resources needed for survival. Perhaps we can get food stamps so that death will not come from hunger. Perhaps we can get a room at the homeless shelter so we do not die of exposure, perhaps we can get Medicaid or we go to the ER, to avoid death due to sickness or injury. Though even these seem to be taken away to feed the monster of greed.

Jesus gives us the same message today as he gave in first century. Render onto Caesar what is Caesar's and give what is God's to God. Caesar's game is rigged to give everything to Caesar. So let that go... You and all creation are God's, so give yourself to God. God gives us the hope of the Kingdom of God as it continues to unfold. Jesus implores us to love our enemies rather than fear them. To cooperate with each other rather than try to compete or be co-opted by Empire. In these ways, we choose to avoid the oppression of the Empire and give to God what is God's.

The African-Americans fighting Jim Crow in the south and discrimination in a more subtle ways in the north, used Jesus's way. They called oppressors to account and demanded liberation based on our shared American principles. They cooperated and shared rides to avoid the buses, resources to beat the voter registration tests, and coordinated action to avoid lynchings and targeted persecutions.

Christ offers us a resurrection and new life... by resisting the deadening impact of Empire, by forgiving our debts to each other, cooperating at the grass roots level and in working to bring the Kingdom of God on Earth as it is in heaven. Jesus talks to us when we are catatonic. He calls on us to awaken. Let's be resurrected to new life!

Ascension of the Lord (May 9, 2013)

First reading

Acts 1:1-11

Psalm

Psalm 47 or Psalm 93

Second reading

Ephesians 1:15-23

Gospel

Luke 24:44-53

Ascension

We are still working through the story of the founding of Christianity in these days before Pentecost. Let me catch us all up on the continuing saga. Eight weeks ago, Jesus was killed on the cross and buried. Peter denied Jesus three times. Jesus's followers, both men and women, hid themselves in fear of the Romans. Christ rose on Easter Sunday. Some women followers were the first to find out. They see angels and have the first conversation with Christ. Christ sends these women to tell the others that Christ is risen! They become the first apostles – the first to have seen the risen Christ. Then, Christ appears to other followers in various places, mostly unrecognized. Christ makes various statements about carrying on God's ministry about the new kingdom and what lies ahead for the disciples.

Ascension Sunday celebrates the last sighting of Christ on earth by the followers in Jerusalem. Our scripture readings today offered a vision of this Ascension. It included all the stuff of a great story: lots of fanfare, the promise of Pentecost and a grand exit. Christ encouraged the followers to create the church. To carry on Christ's work on earth, to be Christ's body as Paul called it. The body of the risen Christ, of course, carrying the good news to the far corners of the earth. This message is still alive today in our celebration. Christ calls to all of us to carry out in words and deeds to be Christ in the world for each other in Christ's community – in God's kingdom of heaven, here on earth.

Paul said it best, each of us in the church are parts of the body of Christ. We each bring our special gifts to the church and the community we worship with. Some of us, like the eyes have vision, some of us, like the ears, can listen for God's messages, others do the work of the church like its arms and legs. With Christ at the head. In everything we do we can express Christ's love. As we play, as we work, as we are the grown children in a family, as we are the parents – matriarchs and patriarchs of our clan. In all of our roles in life we can bring love and creation.

Speaking of matriarchs, it is Mothers' Day, today. I would like to extend our love and our recognition to those who have been mothers, or strove to be mothers. Mothers and women have held a special place in the history of the church. And I say, the future of the church as well! Women are honored by Christ and were certainly part of his original followers and as noted before became the first apostles. Mary Magdalene, Martha, many Marys and many unnamed women were followers, attested to by the gospel writers and Paul. Jesus's story is often told through his interactions and interventions with women including: the woman who annoints Jesus's feet, the woman who washes Jesus's feet with her tears and hair, the woman at the well, the Syrophoenician woman, the woman who touches his hem, the woman who was to be stoned by those without sin, the widow with her mite, and many others are key to the messages of Jesus in his ministry.

Jesus invokes mothering and nuturance as an important ministries many times in his ministry, but my favorite is described in Matthew 23:37 where Jesus laments: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

Jesus specifically acknowledged many of the women in his band or so the gospels tell us. Mary Magdalene is perhaps the most well-known. Jesus also acknowledges the wisdom of Martha's housemate, Mary, learning at his feet. Further Jesus encourages Martha to abandon her enforcing the domestic obligations of women in Luke 10. In Luke 4, Jesus sends the Samaritan women as his first missionary. Alongside the gospels are traditions that inform us that Pilate's wife plead for Jesus and was moved by his “innocence” and by his message of love. Distinctions or divisions between humans were unimportant to Jesus. As Paul said, Jesus coming world, God's kingdom will have no East or West, no male or female, etc. Jesus was happy to have any and all join his band and become fishers of humans. Acts tells us that all the followers gathered, men and women, and were given the baptism of the Spirit at Pentacost.

In his letters, the great missionary Paul, mentions many woman by name whom he describes as full partners in his missions. These women include: Priscilla, the leader of the church at Rome; Phoebe at Cenchrea, Syntyche and Euodia at Phillipi, and Lydia at Thyatira. Many scholars suggest that the letter to the Hebrews was written by Priscilla in Paul's name.

Women were a powerful part of the nuturance and leadership in the early church. Sometimes this was as patrons of important theologians. Origen and Chysostum both were supported by women. Women also offered their leadership talents. There is a named early woman bishop, Theodora. There were also women as elders and possibly bishops in Egypt, Greece, and Sicily. Women carried at least an equal part of the work of establishing Christianity as a transforming and transcending force in the world.

Then, the church overcame Rome and converted their emperor, Constantine. As the Christian church and the early Roman church began forming, many things changed. The all male priesthood of the Roman pantheon created a difficult barrier for women. The Roman church began the process of marginalizing women in its hierarchy. Greco-Roman culture was quite supportive of this change. This culture which holds sway even today, was extraordinarily disparaging of all women. In this paradigm, woman were the source of evil. A public and official church with women in its leadership was problematic to the acceptance of the general Greco-Roman world. Celibacy was the admired and most “sacred” way of life because it excluded “relations” with women. Some of the New Testament text was altered most likely at this time to uphold a patriarchal only leadership.

Still, the influence of women remained strong, if not as common or as public. St. Paula assisted St. Jerome in translating the Bible into the common form of Latin for Christian followers in the West. Many other women contributed to the sacred literature, art and music of Christianity. These included: Hildegard von Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Joan d'Arc, Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena and many others who kept contributing to Christianity despite the pressure of official condemnation.

This tradition continues in the current day: Nuns carry out the social justice ministry of the Catholic Church. They protest and demonstrate against nuclear war and the growing militarism in the US. They are martyrs with the people of South America fighting tyranny and injustice there. Nuns still teach and act as nurses, provide care and support to those who need special care, especially in places where people cannot afford education or healthcare. The ultimate example of this is Mother Teresa. Her clinic for the dying in Mombai inspired billions. It is said that Mother Teresa has more admirers than the Pope and may have more influence on the social justice ministry of the Roman Catholic Church than any pope since John XXIII.

Women still struggle to offer their gifts in the Christian Church. On this Mothers; Day, I wish to honor my grandmother, Reverend Iris Israel Kerr. She struggled to bring her gifts of preaching and church leadership to this world. She convinced with some difficulty, the Methodist Episcopal Church to give her a license to preach at 15 years of age. She was a teacher and preacher that year offering lessons to a K-8 one room schoolhouse weekdays and preaching in revival tents, evenings and weekends. She took on the leadership of a church from her husband, when he went on an archeological expedition and then became a chaplain in WW II. This church was a methodist church in the cranberry bog country of Massachusetts. Another pastor in town moved and she was asked to serve the Congregational Church as well. She managed these two churches as the senior pastor, despite not being ordained. She served these churches from 1939 to 1946. In 1940, she began to ask to be ordained. She was refused by the Methodists who refused to carry her request to the Bishop. The Congregationalists had a more local authority with no bishops, the local association had the authority to ordain her, so she continued to present to them. Like the woman who continues to ask for justice from the corrupt judge until justice is delivered, Iris continued to ask. At each meeting of the association she presented her request. The reports of her performance were glowing and she was obviously worthy. Though the men on the association continued to resist, she wore them down and in 1942, with no prospects of any men to take the post, they ordain her and acknowledged her call to the Congregational Church of East Bridgewater. She is believed to be only the second woman ordained to a senior post. She continued to serve the Methodist Church as well.

Much later in the 1980's, Reverend Iris Kerr took an interim post in a Presbyterian Church in Kahoka, MO. Again, she asked for a formal appointment to the church and for the church to accept the transfer of her ordination. She continued to request this for many years as the church refused. They said that they were waiting for a “real” pastor by which they meant a man. Her request was presented for everyone of the years she served there. She died in2003, still the “interim pastor” of the Kahoka Presbyterian Church for 20+ years! So the struggle continues for the gifts of all to be acknowledged for God's way. The world that Paul promises with no East or West, no male or female, no slave nor master, continues to be a possibility, not a reality.

So on this Mother's Day and Ascension Sunday, let's recognize that Jesus gave his gifts, and ministered especially to women in significant ways. That women have contributed in significant ways to the Christian church in all ages despite challenges offered by our imperfect Christian church.

Especially on this day, let is remember that the risen Christ gave the commission to carry on the ministry of Jesus to both women and men. The Pentecost Spirit fell and still falls on both women and men. Let us not forget that all were and are a part of the ministry of Christ, speaking in various tongues, bringing the good news and healing.

Exodus 34:29-35  2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a)

The Making of an Apostle

Before I begin my sermon, a theologian and religious writer of some note, Brennan Manning died on Thursday.  Most notably, Manning wrote the Ragamuffin Gospel which postulated that trying to earn salvation was not Jesus's message but rather salvation comes only by God's grace. Let me read a quote from his works that is pertinent to today's message:

“The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand-new creation. Not to make people with better morals but to create a community of prophets and professional lovers, men and women who would surrender to the mystery of the fire of the Spirit that burns within, who would live in ever greater fidelity to the omnipresent Word of God, who would enter into the center of it all, the very heart and mystery of Christ, into the center of the flame that consumes, purifies, and sets everything aglow with peace, joy, boldness, and extravagant, furious love. This, my friend, is what it really means to be a Christian.” ― Brennan Manning, The Furious Longing of God

  "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle," Manning has said. "That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."

Sometimes we dig our heels in and are stubborn. Sometimes we want change to stop, to get some security and are so set on this that we dig ourselves in. Sometimes we are so certain, so sure, so absolutely right or that some other person is so absolutely wrong, that we stand in the way. Sometimes we are so doubtful about ourselves, so sure about how wrong we are, that we heap more dirt on us until it has such mass, we feel we cannot move it. In all of these cases, we make ourselves a huge barrier, like a mountain and dare others to move us. Just as in the Call to worship, like Psalm 30, God makes us a mountain, we decide we are unmoveable.

I know this is true for me, because I can remember several times like that. Many times about small things – facts that I thought I knew were facts, and many times bigger things that cost me relationships and perhaps job opportunities.

When I worked at IBM, I was involved in very important project. I was very taken with the project's very elaborate strategy for interconnecting programs on mainframes -- for getting everything to talk to everything. Accounting programs would talk to business strategy programs and corporate chiefs would be able to find out what was happening with their companies as it was happening. This was the nirvana of business computing.

The executives at IBM were also gaga about this strategy. There were color codes and six layers and lots of great new words to describe the relationships between everything. It was a beautiful thing technically and as a work of art. It provided all the right answers and laid out a vision for a business person's paradise – all provided by IBM machinery and IBM programs. Everything IBM did fit into this beautiful structure and everyone could find something that they could do to implement parts of it and everyone could see that their widgets would fit with everyone else's widgets and everything would fit with everything – everywhere.

I had looked long and hard at it. Each part was pictured well enough, and theoretically wonderful. But there actually was no method that existed for the different parts to communicate. Much work would have to be done to allow programs running in one part of the chart to communicate and coordinate with programs running in another part. It looked great, but we had to do a lot of work to make it really work.

I became the mountain. I made sure everyone who presented that chart to our division knew that it was not currently accurate or even possible at this time. It looked like paradise, but it was really a Tower of Babel, I assured them.

In fact, I had the opportunity to make a presentation to my division Vice President. This could have been a career making move. I wanted to share my insight about this wonderful strategy. I wanted to show how wrong this chart was today and how making it work would need lots of money and time. I thought this VP would be the place for it. It never occurred to me that VP's are not likely to care what does NOT work.

I learned this fact, the day I presented to the division VP. I also learned that VPs would be angry to be presented with problems they could not solve – it was my job to solve it or at least have a plan and then they would fund this solution. Actually they never got that far... they chose not to waste more than a few minutes of their time. As soon as I gave my insight they asked for the answer. I told them that it would take, “lots of money and time” to do this. He got very red in the face, he chose words quite carefully. He said, “Great.... come back when you know how much of each. Jeez!!! Bring me a solution! Not problems!”

IBM was a very tolerant place. I retained my job and actually got to work on projects that began to overcome the barriers that I felt so strongly about.

In the readings this morning, Peter and Saul are stuck, they are dug in, they are mountains.

Peter has become resigned about the Christian message and its kingdom. He has returned to the job of fishing that he had before Jesus came to make him a fisher of men. He has heaped more doubt, dirt and mass on the denial of Jesus in the courtyard. He was not the first at the tomb to find that Jesus was not there. His first act of leadership was to hide them all in a room until he thought the Romans had forgotten about them. He had lost his faith and his drive. Or at least it was insufficient to move his mountain.

Then Christ comes... The risen Christ meets some of the disciples and Peter who have returned to fishing. Christ implores Peter three times, once for each time Peter denied him. Peter promises to feed Christ's flock each time. Peter gives up fishing for fish yet again. Peter returns to fishing for men.

Saul is a mountain. He knows that the Christians are wrong. So wrong that he would chase them to the ends of the Roman Empire and disrupt their movement and kill them. Jesus could not be the Messiah of Judaism. No mere mortal could meet the requirements. Saul had all the credentials and all the smarts to be absolutely certain. He had a mountain of evidence that was unmoveable. Therefore he would be unmoveable in his certainty – his deadly certainty. Each murder of a Christian added to that mountain of certainty.

Then Christ comes...Saul is met on the road to Damascus and blinded by the light of the Risen Christ. Christ asks why Saul persecutes him. Saul becomes blind and scales form on his eyes. Saul is taken to the Christians in Antioch and there Saul is healed. The scales fall away and Paul is born with sight and vision. The vision of a Christian world. A world Paul spends the rest of his life building.

Where are each of us a mountain of doubt, a mountain of dead rightness, a mountain of complacency?

Exodus 15:20-22, Luke 1:46-53; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-3

  A Return Worth Singing About

For our scripture we read Miriam's song, the Magnificat of Mary, and the parable of the Prodigal son. Each of these is a celebration of God's deliverance from human self-entanglements.

In the story that that is told about the Exodus, just before Moses and Miriam sing at this point in Exodus, the Israelites call on Moses to surrender and return to Egypt. The Israelites in their fear doubt their God and especially Moses. But the Red Sea parts, and with the prod of the Egyptians behind them, they move forward. Then the Red Sea returns drowning the Egyptian army, but also closing off the retreat of the Israelites. Miriam sings about the liberation of the Israelites from the Egyptians, but also winning over their doubt about their exodus.

In a later story about doubt, Luke's birth narrative suggests that just before Mary sings her Magnificat, Mary finds herself in a predicament of great scandal and humiliation. Hers is a early teen pregnancy. The circumstances as judged by her community could create a life of exile for her and her child, lifelong shame for her family and for her fiance Joseph. Mary runs away. She “goes as quickly as she can,” according to Luke, to her cousin Elizabeth's house. Elizabeth is also pregnant. One can imagine the power of alliance between two pregnant women overcomes any concern that Elizabeth has. The Spirit fills Elizabeth and she affirms the importance of Mary's child and her own.

Mary celebrates not only her own turning back to God in her song, but also the turning back of humanity from its idolatry of the power of kings, and the accumulation of earthly riches. God's love will pull back those who are lost and level those differences that humans have created between each other. This is a radical return to God, it is a return worth singing about.

Mary gives up her running away and praises God for her predicament and her role in the beautiful Magnificat. She returns to Joseph who has also had his moment of doubt and has returned to God's plan. They carry on and raise Jesus whose ministry we celebrate each Lent. This is the Christ we celebrate as the victor over death at Easter. Christ who is the instrument of humanity's return to God's path. The example of a life that turns away from power and wealth and turns back to God's community of love – the kingdom of God.

The most beautiful story of return, is Jesus's parable of the prodigal son. Prodigal is wasteful, extravagant spending. He likens the kingdom of God to the father in the story. The identity of the eldest son is never specified, but many believe that Jesus is referring to those who practice and presume to define righteousness and therefore judge those who do not live up to their definition. Jesus might be thinking of those who judge the Mary's of the world and find them wanting. In contrast to the material wasting of the younger son, the eldest son is wasting the love, community and Spirit of God. He stands outside the celebration so that the father comes to plead with him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” The eldest son faced with a chance to welcome those who have come back to God, to share love and abundance, is stuck in judgment and disdain.” In the face of a return worth singing about, the eldest son faces his own need to return.

I work every day with those that the world has shuffled off to nursing homes. My residents are mentally ill people from 37 to 85 years old. They find themselves cared for by society. Now, some are aware of the gift like our prodigal son, some are bitter with their confinement, and others are oblivious. Everyday, they hear on the TV and radio how wrong it is to support people and to spend money on those who are poor and disabled. These TV opinionators, these self-appointed judges of the righteous, declare that those who are dependent and needy are undeserving. My residents come to see me from time to time. They come in despair that they are despised or they hear the command to be independent and come with a misbegotten hope that they can live outside and support themselves. The message from the Pharisees has its impact.

These modern day Pharisees, rather than celebrate their own abundance and riches which they have had always, they spend time resenting what little is gifted to others. Like the eldest son, they stand outside the kingdom of God, whining. Like the eldest son, cause suffering in themselves and others. They attack any welfare and support, no matter how efficiently provided as “coddling” and “de-motivating.” Social security, Medicare and Medicaid are targets as the instruments of this “evil.” Of course, I would bet they have never befriended the poor or mentally ill. I'll bet they have never had a daughter who was willing to share her predicament with them.

Some are clear that they are creating a problem but are like the little boy who prayed, "Dear Jesus, I'm so sorry I made such a mess in my room today,"  and then adds, "But I sure had fun doing it!"

These modern day Pharisees have driven many away from Christianity. Who wants to be judged and found wanting for what one cannot change – for who one is? Why feel bad about one's mental illness, ones own misfortune, or one's willingness to believe in the mortgage system? Can we blame those who are disillusioned with a God that allows this harshness in God's name? Can we blame these modern day Israelites who despair of the promised land?

Fear is the agenda of these commentators. We need security from terrorists, protesters, socialists and wild gangs of Islamics, blacks, anarchists, or whatever. The President and each of us should carry soldiers weapons out of fear of others with soldiers' weapons.

Greed and selfishness is virtue. Profits are more important than fulfilling the promise that hard work is rewarded with a comfortable living. Quick dollars are more important that telling the truth or developing trust between customers and businesses. Or even between businesses and businesses. Expenses to take care of those in our community that cannot care for themselves, is a drain on potential profits of corporate jailers, corporate warmakers, corporate intelligence gatherers and corporate educators.

Just like the ancient Pharisees, the modern day Pharisees will drown in their own propaganda and die out. Perhaps some will be like Paul, or like the younger son, give up these prodigal ways, repent and return to God's kingdom. Like Miriam we should understand this historical dynamic. When our community has returned to God and gone far enough on the path of God's kingdom, that it can never go back to Egypt – we should sing in joy!

Like Mary we could accept that others will judge us and still be thankful to do God's will anyway. Like the prodigal son, we could see that wasting our share of abundance on war, fear, greed and selfishness is a dead-end. We could be honored to live in the kingdom, caring for the mentally ill, and taking out the trash or similar humble tasks. Jesus's parable tells us that we can free ourselves from the self-entanglements of humanity and God will restore us. Even if some choose to whine and gnash their teeth about it from the outside, God will celebrate our return to God's kingdom and share the universe's abundance with us.