Why the Common Roots of Faith Matter

Lutherans, along with everyone else, have gotten excited about the Pope.  The last time a Lutheran got this excited about the Pope, he wrote 95 theses that got him kicked out of the Catholic church.  I think this excitement tells us something; there is a hunger, a longing in our hearts for unity, for harmony, for peace.  We long to be reconciled.  We desire healing.  We wish for a world free from violence and war and poverty.  And we believe it is possible through embodied love.  We love that he skipped a breakfast with lawmakers to dine with the homeless.  This is kingdom power.  Power with, beneath, and under.  It is love power.  And we want it, too.  It’s not that we all long to return to Roman Catholicism.  It’s that we long for this Jesus—the one who embodies perfect love on the cross for everyone. 

Today I want to clarify some things about the church, Christianity, and the ministry of the gospel.  Religion is at the center of so much of our lives these days.  Whether one is religious or not.  And the Pope’s visit seems to highlight this, because Catholics and non-Catholics seem to appreciate his message.  There is a desire for greater peace, for shared prosperity, for increased global health, and for a more secure future.  That future, in part, lies in our shared past. 

I’ll use the analogy of a tree.  Roman Catholics are Christians. So are Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Mennonites, Amish, Brethren, United Church of Christ, African Methodist Episcopal, Greek Orthodox, Pentecostals, Disciples of Christ, Moravians, and a few others I didn’t mention.  I’m saying this aloud because I have people ask me about compatibility.  And we may not realize how much we have in common with people who practice their Christian religious faith under these other names.  The Christian family tree is big, many branches, some thicker than others, some longer than others, some more tender shoots. Some of the branches have smaller branches.  Some have broader, greener leaves.  Some leaves have an autumn hue. And some as brittle as winter.  Some of the branches don’t touch the other branches.  Nevertheless all one tree; many branches.  Same roots.  Jesus of Nazareth, the God of creation, the God of Israel, the God of liberation and justice, the Spirit that gives life and breathes new life into dry bones.  The God of prophets and priests and kings.  The people of the book.  The Jews and Muslims are also on this tree.  Not three trees.  One God, three faiths, many denominations and practices.  We are not so much divided as growing in different directions.  But our roots are the same.We have far more in common than we tend to acknowledge.  Hubris and damaged egos look at our own brothers and sisters with suspicion and disdain.  Our shared roots matter more than out many colored leaves. 

We may think about the human body too, with its many parts.  Paul uses this analogy to describe the church in first Corinthians.  Not all parts have the same function.  But they are an organic and integral piece of the whole.  I wonder what life would be like if we all viewed each other as different parts of the same body.  Does it matter if you are a leg or an eye?  Sure, but not in terms of one being greater than the other. 

In all three readings a single theme emerges.  Cooperation.  Shared leadership, shared ministry.  Looking outside of one’s group to see the work of God.  Eldad and Medad were not with the group of elders called out for spiritual anointing into leadership.  And yet they prophesied.  Moses was in dire need of assistance.  He didn’t need more followers.  He needed leaders, speakers, those who would do the work of God beside him.  It didn’t matter to him who they were or where they came from, just that they shared the rights and responsibilities of bearing he covenant.  Jesus says, whoever is not against us is for us.  He says this in response to John’s concern about non-disciples casting out demons.  Anyone who is confronting the wickedness threatening God’s good creation is on our side, okay?  We don’t have to only play with members of this congregation or denomination to participate in God’s mission.  I thought about the Central PA food bank conference I attended on Thursday with Pastor Rodney Martin from Lititz Mennonite church, our Peter’s Porch mission partners.  We met up with the leadership of OMPH’s food bank. They want to work more collaboratively with Peter’s Porch as we serve our neighbors.  Jesus said whatever is preventing the body from working together as a whole, get rid of it.  The mission is too hard to undertake divided.  I can’t believe how hard it is to get Lutherans to join together.  For worship, fellowship, or ministry.  Maybe the letter of James gives us a way forward.  Prayer.  Corporate prayer.  Prayer that includes anyone.  The prayer of the just is powerful and effective. We believe that those with faith have been made right with God.   You and I are called, all of us to pray for one another in the body of Christ, the church.  Prayer begins with an expectation that God will change the circumstances about which we are praying.  Prayer presumes a desire to change. To pray for every branch of the tree, to pray for healing.  The tree does need healing in so much as we compete with one another, avoid and neglect each other, reject and demonize other believers,  and fail to demonstrate holy love for the body.   And we are called to seek first the kingdom of God, perhaps by seeking the ways in which that kingdom breaks into human lives untouched by the church’s work and witness.  God is indeed actively engaged in the world to heal, restore, and save it.  As I’ve said before, the church does not have a mission, the mission of God has a church. 

    

This church is NOT awesome

This church is not awesome.  We are not special.  We are not uniquely called to grow.  We do not offer worship or programs that inspire.  Your pastor is not so funny or super generous or really kind or an amazing preacher.  I will not entertain or make you feel good.  We are not awesome. If you’re looking for something more awesome, you’ll have to go somewhere else.  Sorry to burst your bubble, if I did.   

When Jesus returns to his teaching about suffering, death, and resurrection the disciples, according to Mark, did not understand him and were afraid to ask.  In Greek they were literally frightened agnostics. An agnostic is someone who is uncertain about their beliefs, on the fence as it were.  Agnostics lean on empirical knowledge, evidence, scientific facts.  Maybe the disciples get tripped up about the rising again bit.  More likely they don’t understand the suffering and death part.  It didn’t jive with their version of the future with Jesus Messiah.  This Kingdom of God movement has a leader, if he dies so dies the movement.  We’ve been over this.  They were expecting greatness.  Power.  Authority.  Demonstration of divine might—plagues, fire, brimstone, armed angels ready to battle.  They were expecting a superhero.  And they believed that Jesus was him.  And they expected a personal reward for choosing or being chosen as his followers, his men.  Why were they afraid?  They didn’t want to look stupid, doubtful, incompetent.  And certainly not in front of the other guys.  Can you imagine being the guy on the team who still doesn’t get the game plan?  Nobody wants to be that guy.  That guy sits the bench.  That guy gets ridiculed.  That guy gets dumped from the team.   

So, along the way they argue about rank and position and rewards for fidelity and proximity to Jesus. Who knew him the best? Who did he trust the most?  Who was his lieutenant?  Who was his favorite?  Who was the strongest?  Smartest?  Most loyal?  I don’t think this was a fight, more of a playful game of male dominance and pecking order.  Everything’s a competition here. Everyone is vying for attention and the right to be where they are.  Everyone wants to have their seat at the table, to prove their worth, that they deserve to be here.   

When they get home, Jesus sits down to teach.  He says, “Whoever would be the greatest must be the last and servant of all.  And he brings a child into his arms and says, “Whoever welcomes a child like this one, welcomes me and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”  I don’t think this was the most offensive thing Jesus ever said or did. Even though children were disregarded, undervalued, and dismissed in that culture.  Especially by men.  I don’t think that was the point this time. 

I think congregations are acting like agnostic disciples.  We don’t get the whole suffering, death, and resurrection bit as it applies to ourselves and the advancement of the Kingdom.  And we are in competition with all the other congregations for resources, people and money.  We’re silent about this, would never pray that God send us more people and money, but we wish it.  I think Lutherans are competing over which congregation serves the best. Who does the most serving, giving, feeding, etc…Our badge of honor is how many people we serve.  Same as McDonalds.  Over a billion served.  People always ask, how big is your congregation?  How many members?  And we tend to say something like:  “We’re a small congregation, but we do a lot of good things.”  We have to prove ourselves with empirical evidence, like agnostics.  Because of our insecurity.  When only 40 people show up on Sunday, we feel disappointed. I know I do.  I’m embarrassed to say that I get frustrated still when there are “only 40 people here”.  We have a purpose because we served this many people, gave this much money to Malaria, assembled this many kits.  We should exist.  We’re still a church with value.  Maybe most of you don’t care about these things at this stage.  Maybe you don’t think about the future of Zion, Akron much.  Maybe you’re content to come when you feel like it or when you’re not out of town.  Maybe you’re not reminiscent for the good ol’ days.  Maybe you just love one another.  And that’s good enough. 

Don’t get me wrong, I am impressed by the production of this congregation.  I brag about us more than I should.  And today I am grateful for every person who participates.  I’m grateful for Pastor Bob and Dodie, who bring wisdom, servant hearts, and the high calling of the gospel to us.  But none of this matters. It does not matter how many baptisms or new members we receive.  It doesn’t matter how many people we served at Peter’s Porch or failed to serve.  That is not the gospel. The good news is not that Zion is growing, that we have enough money to pay the bills, that worship is so awesome, dinner church is thriving, Malaria goals are reached. 

 The gospel is Jesus the Messiah was crucified and raised from the dead.  The gospel is Jesus is in the house and on the way with us.  His death and resurrection joins God to this world of suffering and joins this world of suffering and death to the God of life.  This is so because God loves what God made, all of it.  And love does what love must do to insure the life of the beloved.  We are safe.  Jesus is always in the house.  God is always with us where we are.  And a sign of it is one child in our midst.  So long as there is one child to welcome, we have a calling and a purpose and a way to live.  We are servants of all. Nothing else makes us church.  Servants of All.  A disciples question is only this one:  “How may we serve today?”  We are not awesome, powerful, and super good. But the one I’m following is.  And that’s the only thing that counts now and in the end.  Amen.        

agnostic servants of all

"They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” ---Gospel of Mark.

Mark humiliates the disciples of Jesus.  Time and again, these guys are imbeciles.  They just don't get it.   This may be the good news.  If they didn't get it and they lived it, maybe our agnosticism and doubts aren't so egregious.  It may be okay to NOT totally understand Jesus' teachings.  Disciples are learners, conscious of their incompetence.  I have days when I don't know what I'm doing or how to do what I'm "supposed to do".  I sometimes don't believe what I'm saying or praying.  Maybe we don't have to get it.  Not totally. I'll go out on a limb here and suggest that Jesus chose and chooses disciples who are incompetent, doubtful, fearful, and egotistical.  That's how he gets to me and you.  Maybe we need to learn to live with our ignorance about God. Not other people's ignorance about God, but my own.  Jesus chooses people who understand that neither wisdom nor personal accomplishment gets us in the house.  Jesus lets us in and sits with us, in our stupidity.    
Jesus is teaching them privately now, the hard stuff.  And he does so openly and clearly. He's not using parables or riddles or metaphors.  He speaks of three steps in the son of man's process of becoming the suffering servant; betrayal, killing, and rising. Their response to this teaching is agnosticism (literally in the Greek, their lack of understanding) and fear. This is a little better than the last time he taught them about suffering. On that day, Peter out right, publicly rebuked Jesus, making a fool of himself on behalf of all the rest.  NO WAY! he said.  This time, NO Comment. These guys are slick politicians, aren't they?  
Not only do they not hear and understand the future, they refuse to believe it.  Instead, they discuss positions of leadership and rank within the 12 members of Jesus' party. Who's his top lieutenant?  What's the pecking order?  They continue to expect a Messiah who will overthrow the Roman Emperor and his puppets (Herod's sons).  They expect a restoration of Davidic Monarchy, in which they will share in Jesus' rule.  They seek reward and privilege and honor.
 When he asks them what they were arguing about on the way, they fall silent.  They know him well enough to know that their petty bickering about rank and power was inappropriate.  It was not his message.  And yet they still wanted it to be.
Jesus teaches this about becoming his church, his disciples:  "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." What about competition and winning and 1st place?  Isn't it good to succeed?  Isn't it right to pursue accomplishment and achievement?  Isn't a little glory good for the soul?  Granted, I think America is obsessed with greatness in the most unhealthy ways possible.  From sports and fitness to money and finance, our goals are always to be better, faster, stronger, and richer.  We compare, judge, and belittle to our own advantage.  And, admittedly it feels good to win.  Who doesn't like to kick a little ass once and awhile? 
But Jesus says, be the 12th man on the bench, the guy who fills the water bottles and picks up the sweaty towels after the game.  When he says "servant of all", I suspect he means among themselves.  But he may have more universal or broader application in mind.  After all, he came as a servant to all the people---gentile children possessed by demons and blind Jewish men.  He indiscriminately fed two very large crowds of hungry people.  As an example of the kind of service he renders, he welcomes a child into their group.  And he says that to welcome a child is to welcome him and to welcome him is to welcome the one who sent him.
In some ways, there is simplicity here.  Welcome a child--welcome God. Serve a child, serve Him.  In our world, caring for children with dignity and love makes sense.  We believe in the compassionate treatment of children, to provide for and protect them.  We believe the children are our future.  But in the 1st century world, children were inconsequential to men.  They were non-entities, not full persons.  The women tended them until they were old enough to be useful.  That a child had something to teach them would have been scandalous, absurd, and foolish.  Jesus elevated the status of children.   The way of the servant is to welcome the invisible unloved, unnoticed, and undervalued members of the human family.  In the 1st century world, there was no better example than a child. Who are they in our world?
Children living in poverty?
Formerly incarcerated young adults?
How about the 1.2 million African American children who are missing a parent due to mass incarceration? 
Or single black moms?
How about a Muslim teen who brings a homemade clock to school, only to be arrested as a suspected terrorist making a bomb threat?
The servant of all has welcomed me into his household.  Not because I understood something.  But because he loves me. That's the good news.   


  
     

        

Why we're talking about racial prejudice at church

This is complex.  One blog post won't do it justice.  But I wanted to open up a space for further conversation about race and faith, because it is important.
Culturally, we are experiencing the pressure of a failed economic system that favors the extremely wealthy and bashes the poor, a broken criminal justice system that disproportionately harms black and brown communities, and a disparate education system that geographically favors white suburban communities.  From political commentators to local news, race relations are a central part of life in America.  When a white "Lutheran" entered Emanuel AME church in Charleston this summer and murdered 9 people- including two pastors, we joined many others around the country in expressing grief, anger, and powerlessness.  Why, along with all of the other violent deaths of young lack people, is this happening with such frequency?  We know that violence in the black community has been a problem caused by the formation of ghettos, economic depression and poverty, and drug crime.  Some of us in the faith community have begun to examine more deeply and more critically our personal and public failures and our responsibility to affect change that honors the lives of black and brown people around us.  How do we begin?      
First, prejudice has always existed in human community.  The bible attests to it and is partly responsible for the perpetuation of racial prejudice and injustice.  Despite the fact that the bible's authors and first audience were minorities, the good book hasn't always been so good for minorities. Since biblical times, Israeli/Palestinian relations are partly related to deep-seeded religious assumptions about the other.  The bible, in the hands of European whites, has been used to justify the oppression of women and people of color.  Colonialization and the displacement and annihilation of native peoples in the name of Christ may have started the American story of racial injustice.  In the 19th century, many southern ministers advocated the biblical justification for slavery.

The bible also has a lot to say about overcoming racial hatred and prejudice, about ending hypocrisy and judgment that leads to violence, and about welcoming the stranger and the foreigner with respect and hospitality.  The book of Jonah is a fabulous parable on God's concern for the future of a people beyond the borders of Israel, beyond the chosen covenant family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  It is also about Jonah's hidden prejudice that compels him to "abandon ship"and ignore God's true intentions.  
Jonah was called to deliver a message from God to the people of Nineveh.  He refuses to go, because of his prejudice against Ninevites.  Jonah believed that his proclamation of judgment on the Ninevites would lead to their repentance and God's mercy.  He did not believe that they deserved mercy, but rather judgment and destruction.  He was disappointed when God chose to deal compassionately with them.  God's position toward human kind is not legalistic, moralistic judgment of our failures to live according to God's will.  God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Slow and steady.  God is patiently coaxing humanity toward a future that looks more like heaven than hell.  Despite centuries of insistence that God is angry and wrathful and that few will escape God's vengeance, the bible tells a story of a God who loves what God has made.  God cherishes humans and desires that we learn to live together in harmony and peace.            

The gospel is the story of Jesus of Nazareth, first century Jewish Rabbi who taught healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation as the foundation for a new humanity.  He confronted the powerful who used fear, religious purity, and violence to subjugate and marginalize people.  He did so by compassionately seeing and hearing and touching people who were paralyzed, cast out, driven to insanity, and isolated.  He sought to dismantle the system of isolation and annihilation that powerful people use to maintain their power over others. In the process, he crossed boundaries and borders and ethnic prejudices to teach people what it means to flourish.  Human flourishing requires that we learn to accept and honor diversity as a gift from the creator.  It also requires that people with wealth and privilege see the poor and seek their welfare.  That means more than redistribution of wealth. God's provision is not equal, but just.  That means, everyone is supposed to get what they need to live as full a life as possible on earth.  When some people do not have access to what they need to live, how do we expect justice?  Prejudice and privilege create a system whereby some people have access and others do not.  By virtue of race, ethnicity, or sexuality humans relegate fellow humans to a marginalized state of existence.

Jesus lived in solidarity with those people on the margins.  Jesus worked to dismantle the dividing walls of hostility that existed.  He did so not by political mandate or by leveraging wealth to change the system.  He entered oppressed and marginal communities.  He brought healing to peolpe who suffered in isolation.  He formed an alternative community, the ecclesia.  This group was literally called out of the dominant system of privilege and oppression to embody a different way of being human in communion with God and with one another.  He called this movement the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of heaven or eternal life.  It was not about a post-death reality somewhere else reserved for the chosen religious faithful.  It was a movement to reclaim and restore our divinely made humanity on earth here and now.  And it included people with wealth, the working poor, racial and social outcasts, women and children, urban academics and rural farmers.
Jesus' opposition to the powers-that-be risked a high level of vulnerability, of which he was personally aware. He expected to be killed.  Jesus was crushed by the dominant system, crucified by the Roman empire, abandoned by his own people.  But unlike so many other movements to overcome human failure to live in harmony and peace, Jesus' movement persisted.  It persists, precisely because his followers said that he was raised from the dead. The perpetual movement of Christianity is just that precisely because the teacher and Lord lives on as a new human with a new life, transcendent of the broken old systems of oppression and tyranny and marginalization.  He did not die a failed martyr.  He died and was raised from the dead as a sign of God's promise to make all things new.

But the church has not always followed its Lord.  The church has been co-opted and corrupted by dominant system values. And we perpetuate segregation and prejudice. Christians have narrowly defined the gospel message in order to avoid challenges.  The gospel is about personal salvation and a post-death trip to heaven.  The gospel justifies sinners without transformation.  We prefer comfortable, segregated Sunday morning churches where we are not forced to examine our consciences.  Even confession of sins has been relegated to personal moral failings, rather than broader systemic and structural sin. Dancing, swearing, sex, alcohol, and smoking became the sins churches were willing to discuss. Bias against the underclass and the deprivileged has not been discussed for fear that we would lose members over challenging talk.  

But, recently I've met some people who are looking to be part of a church that will examine itself critically and attempt to embody the alternative way of Jesus' ecclesia.  So we are talking about racial prejudice because the kingdom of God continues to emerge among us. We see glimpses of hope through struggle.  We identify small victories and mountains to climb.  We stand on the shoulders of giants and know that another day is coming.  We long for a world where harmony and peace prevail,where people see skin color and language diversity and cultural diversity as gifts from the creator to be cherished and enjoyed.  We long for a world where basic provisions and protections are afforded to every creature. We desire a higher government and a prince of peace who will rule with compassionate justice and all-inclusive love.  We're talking about racial prejudice because we have some that we need help to overcome. We want to be in recovery from our sins.
This week, we will hear a gospel story about a Lebanese woman who begs Jesus for help. Lebanon and Israel are enemies to this day.  She is humble and she is insistent.  Jesus, on the other hand, is dismissive and resistant.  Like Jonah, he is not interested in handing out God's mercy to "those people".  The encounter changes Jesus.  I think it is meant to change us, too. Come and see.  Sunday at 9:30 am at Zion on Main Street or 6 om for dinner church at Roland/Akron park.  Worship is relaxed and includes an open communion table, where all are invited to share the great and promised feast.  We sing songs from the rich diversity of Christian community around the world.  Join us.              
 


    

Why we Left the Church Building

I serve as pastor of a small Lutheran Church on Main Street in a little town called Akron, PA not Ohio.  This congregation and its building have occupied this location for over 125 years.  There is a cemetery behind the building in which to bury her saints.  I have been pastor here for 10 years. I consider myself a reformer, an evangelist, and a community organizer.  I love the church.  I have lived in church buildings all my life.  It is where I have been, at least on a Sunday morning, for most of my 41 years.  I love Lutheran worship.  I believe Lutheran Christians have a special calling to feed hungry people that comes right out of our biblical and sacramental theology of the cross.  Jesus becomes our bread, so that we might become bread for the world.  Luther said that by faith Jesus is in, with, and under the bread and the wine.  Like a mystery.  God's Word of life and salvation becomes flesh.  Jesus' forgives sins, so that there might be one heavenly banquet at which all God's children are satisfied.  We read the bible as a container of God's Word to humankind, given to the people of Israel and to followers of Jesus the Christ.  The story in the bible is God's story and we are in it.  
The congregation I serve has experienced a decline in the number of regular Sunday morning worshipers that basically follows broader cultural trends.  But, we serve our neighbors through a monthly outreach ministry we call "peter's porch".  It is meant to be a space for encounter and possible community building.  It is a place where hungry people get food; breakfast, groceries, and other household supplies.  It is basically how this middle class congregation of teachers, small business owners, and white-collar workers met neighbors struggling in, with, and under poverty.  Some people have come to peter's porch and found their way into the worshiping and learning community of the church.  Most have not.  But those who have have broadened the congregation's perspective on what it means to have faith.  It's bolder to have faith when you have a mountain in front of you, preventing you from moving into a better life.  I've met people will strong faith, no money, and poor health. 
Along the way, I realized that many of my friends (Gen Xers and younger) were not connecting to church.  Those who were seemed to gravitate toward larger, programmatic churches that didn't miss them if they didn't show up.  They could plug in if and when they wanted with little impulse for commitment.  Some of our friends just didn't participate in any faith community at all.
So, in 2014 we started a dinner church worship that was meant to be more inclusive, hospitable, and welcoming.  We met in the church basement and not the sanctuary and we worshiped during a meal.  We believed this space was less intimidating.  Peter's Porch took place downstairs in the basement, so it had become community space.  We served a community breakfast in that space for several years.  And no matter how many times I invited people to come back to Sunday morning worship, very few people transtioned from the basement to the sanctuary.  So, we started dinner church to encourage community members to participate in the church's worship.  At least everyone was fed and the company was decent.  For some of us worship was also meaningful.  It seemed to answer a common question.  What would it look like to be church together without congregational interests driving the behavior?  We weren't interested in making new members or acquiring more Lutherans or rebuilding Zion, Akron.  We weren't interested in committee members or giving units to pay the church's bills. We were interested in authenticating Christian community as it was described in the new teatament---Koinonia (communion with one another and with the God who made us and raised Jesus from the dead as a sign of a new order breaking into and subverting the old, broken order).  We were interested in risking vulnerability in a small gathering.  We were interested in paying attention to one another and listening for God's story to intersect ours.  We were interested in food and hunger and sharing until all had enough.  We hoped that people, our friends, who were allergic to church or disappointed in church or frustrated with church might try dinner church.  It was a slow start. Sometimes dinner consisted of two families.  Other times 40 people showed up.  We never knew what we would eat or who would come.  We tried to be hospitable and present.   I hoped it would not fail. 
Last Fall something changed.  We fell into a bi-weekly pattern and certain people connected.  Two or three families started participating with us very regularly and intentionally.  Dinner Church became the expression of Christian community they were looking for.  And our average attendance was about 24 people. 
This summer, we risked leaving the church building and became nomads.  Like exiles or wilderness wanderers, we met in local parks and parking lots.  We invited others.  And other people joined us.  There were 20 kids and 18 adults last week as we gathered for dinner and celtic worship.  Every worship service or liturgy is a Eucharist.  We celebrate the Lord's Supper, Holy Communion, the presence of the risen Jesus in bread, cup, and Word.  We pray and sing.  We eat good food.  Leaving the church building was a really good idea.

We left the church building because we want to be a church without a building.  Church buildings can be barriers for communion with God and with one another, especially for people with no experience of church or for people who have experienced church as a place of judgment and exclusion.  Church buildings cost money and are not always designed for the kind of things we intend to do together.  We want to be a church on the way, on a journey, in and for the world.  We want to be in the neighborhood.  And we want to be people first, a koinonia (a fellowship or community of believers struggling with our unbelief, living together with fears and hopes.) People matter to us and to God.  We left the building because some people will never darken a church door, but they will come along to dinner with a friend and listen to songs and prayers and words of wonder and miracle and mystery.  We want to be curious about under-served and ignored people and places.  We want to be present there,where the church has been notoriously absent.  We want to be the church, not go to church. We want to demonstrate accessibility to God, who has come down to us, who dwelt among us in the flesh, who lived and died and defeated death and rose up to show us the way to life.
We left the church building because church buildings have walls and boundaries and limits and capacity.  And the Kingdom of God is transcendent and borderless and transcontinental and international.  We want to reconnect to the earth and its created goodness, too. 
I don't despise church buildings.  I have lived in them most of my life. They have a purpose. And can be repurposed today, too.  We have retrofit our sanctuary to be more user friendly in today's visual world.  But, if we are going to be a church for our neighbors, in this world, we need to consider getting out of church buildings. I think the emerging dinner church community will be nomadic for awhile. It's not easier or more convenient.  I feel like a travelling circus most weeks. But if people connect precisely because we are not church-in-a-box, then the cost to leave.the building is pretty low.
  
 

       
         
     

The Law of Exclusion

"Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands,* thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it;* and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.*) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live* according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
“This people honours me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.”
You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’ Then he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, “Honour your father and your mother”; and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban” (that is, an offering to God*)— then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.’ Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’* When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’"

Jesus saw how religious leaders used the law, including human traditions, to encourage prejudice and maintain exclusionary boundaries. When you hear "tradition of the elders" think system of control and maintenance that prejudices against those who are not acceptably obeying the rules set forth. There were some laws they ignored, if they were not in their self-interest.  And some laws or social norms they insisted on, in order to assert their own social agenda.  This way they justified themselves and excluded others.  Rather than show mercy and offer healing, the religious leaders simply dismissed non-adherents to their version of the law or social norm. "Sinners" were not welcome.  Some people had a place at the table.  Many others did not.  This clearly does not happen today.  Does it?
On the surface one might suggest that this story has little bearing on most of our lives.  This is, after all, a story about kosher foods and Jewish rituals.  According to Mark, Jesus abolished the kosher laws when they were used to alienate or exclude.  And he accuses them of ignoring more important aspects of the law, while focusing their norming religious piety on less weighty matters.  Jesus cares about the people who are adversely affected by these human traditions.
Churches have excluded people because of race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, language, appearance, mental or physical condition, economic status, and a variety of other reasons.  In Jesus' day a system of social norms controlled insiders and outsiders to the religious community---which controlled access to the benefits of God's provision and protection.  If one was deemed unfit or unclean, they were denied access.  In the case above, ritual cleansing was required for eating.  However, Jesus was more concerned about feeding hungry people than whether or not their hands were properly cleaned.  That may sound gross, but the reality is that hunger trumps religious piety.
Now, in my house we pray and wash our hands before we eat.  No big deal.  So what is Jesus so upset about?  A system of exclusion that perpetually denied most people access to God's favor and table fellowship within the faith community.  How could non-Jews every get to know and love God, if Jews continued to reject them?  That is the rub here.  Jesus was more interested in inviting people into a relationship with the creator than he was in upholding a moral code that denied people a sense of dignity as beloved in their common humanity.
There are still systems in place that exclude and deny people access.  The criminal justice system and the current economic system in the U.S. continue to separate people into haves and have nots, good guys and bad guys, blessed and cursed, beloved and maligned.  And we designed these systems to do these things.  So that people of privilege and power retain their proper status and people in poverty stay poor.  Poverty is not a lack of money.  It is not a lack of work ethic.  It is a system of control perpetrated by peolpe at the top of the human pyramid to stay on top.  Jesus saw this for what it was and sought to dismantle it piece by piece.  His calling all foods clean meant one thing.  Gentiles could have access to God, too.  The peculiarity of Judaism was not as essential as the common, universal truth of a humanity hungry for a life that comes from above, from God, from the greatest good.  Everyone wants to eat at the table.  Everyone wants to be part of a Shalom existence, in which there is harmony and abundance.    How do we get there?
Confront the systems that keep denying people their humanity. 
We need to have Jesus' imagination to see a world without walls, borders, and barriers.  A world of access and sharing.  A world where we see and hear beauty in the diversity.  A world where forgiveness and restoration overcomes a need for punishment and vengeance.  I know that this world cannot exist, because there are violent and dangerous people in this world.  But if we cannot dream, we cannot hope.  And if we cannot hope, we will not try.  And if we will not try, we will become complicit in the systematic death of humanity and the creation.  Is it too late?  I hope not.  For the sake of my sons.  And all the sons and daughters everywhere.   
     

What is the Gospel? Part 3

Have you ever felt paralyzed?  Stuck?  Unable to move? Have you ever been immobile without the help of others?  It can be scary.  Paralysis can happen in our minds as well as our bodies.  We can get paralyzed with fear, regret, shame, self-loathing.  We can get paralyzed in abuse and addiction.  Sometimes, we just don't know what to do or to say. We get paralyzed by challenges or obstacles that threaten our security.  We get paralyzed in ignorance and prejudices too embedded to remove. We don't know how to change our circumstances or situation as much as we'd like to see that happen.  Sometimes we get content and comfortable in our paralysis.  We learn to accept and adapt to a reality we don't like.  Our relationships can sometimes prevent us from taking necessary risks, standing up, getting out, moving ahead, and experiencing the maturity that comes from new movement.  Poverty can be a kind of social/economic paralysis.
 Jesus was teaching in the synagogue when a young man came in who was possessed by an unclean spirit.  In other words, this was a Jew who was unwelcome in the synagogue because of immoral behavior.  Maybe he had non-Jewish associates or friends.  Maybe he was a thief or had a chronic illness. Maybe he did not pray enough or dress appropriately.  Maybe he was struggling with mental illness.  This man was under the influence of a power that harmed him. A power exists that prevents people from doing what is good or right.  Call it evil or sin or malace or illness. We can be overwhelmed by dark things.  He entered the synagogue and confronted Jesus.  Jesus rebuked or cast out of spirit and amazed the crowd.  His teaching was new and authoritative.  That is, they recognized his words and actions had a powerful effect, a life-changing effect on the man's situation.  The result would be restoration to the community, the synagogue, the village, the family.  He would, in a sense, come home. 
Another time, Jesus was teaching in a house.  The house was so crowded there was no room for anyone and the door was blocked.  Just the four people carried a paralyzed man to the house.  When they saw that the door was blocked, they lifted the man to the roof, made a hole in the roof and lowered him to Jesus' feet.  When Jesus' saw their faith he said to the man, "Son, your sins are forgiven."  The crowd included some religious leaders, Pharisees.  Their understanding is that God alone forgives sins. And that sin forgiveness has to do with temple sacrifice and appropriate prayers.  To offer forgiveness so casually was unprecedented, especially when sin was tied to affliction.  Clearly, this man's paralysis was connected to his sins. Had God paralyzed the man as a curse?  Did Jesus have the authority to lift a divine curse?  Certainly not! 
Jesus realizes what they're concerned about and says, "Is it easier to say to this man, son your sins are forgiven or son, take up your mat and walk?  But just so you know that the son of man has the power to forgive sins, I say to you, take up your mat and walk." And the man did  And the people were astounded. So, Jesus is good news in that he confronts the things that threaten to cast us out of family, community, and the kingdom of God.  Jesus casts out the thing that can prevent us from living a God-centered life.  Second, Jesus forgives.  How does forgiveness release people from paralysis?  Forgiveness frees us from the past, from what we've done or failed to do.  Forgiveness is a clean slate, a fresh start, a new beginning.  It is also a reminder that we are not only the person we were on our worst day.  We are more than our worst selves.
So, the good news is that God intends to cast out or remove that which distorts our true selves as covenant members of God's household.  In the Genesis creation story humankind is made in the image of God.  That image is a plurality of being that includes men, women, various races and tribes.  We are made in God's image means that some aspect of our selves is a reflection of the creator.  And the bible begins with God calling all that God made GOOD.  It is about time that people of the bible call a thing what it is:  What God has made is Good.  People are good.  Is there distortion, lies, paralysis, and unclean spirits? YES. Are we dirty?  YES. But, Jesus shows us another aspect of our character and condition:  GOODNESS. And Jesus comes to free people to image God's goodness in the world.
Jesus confronts the powers that oppose God's goodness.  This is GOOD News in a world where that opposition seems strong sometimes.  Where violence ruins lives, whole communities, nations.  Where hatred and prejudice separate people.  The nearness of God's rule means an end to the rule of violent, angry opposition to God that exists at every level of human experience.
But who gets to benefit from this good news? Israelite Men---the patriarchs?  Or is it good news only if it is good news for everyone? 

                

What is the Gospel? Part 2

What matters to you?  What do you think matters the most?  Not only to you, but maybe to most people?  No news is good news unless the news matters.  Unless it is something worth sharing. 
  
Enter Jesus of Nazareth.  We might think that the good news starts with his birth---Christmas.  After all, there are angels and shepherds, and miraculous pregnancies, and wisemen from the east bearing gifts.  The angel announces, "Good news for all people, Christ the savior is born in Bethlehem of Judea!".  His birth was connected to King David's story!  His birth was connected to the words of the ancient prophets, who promised a child would be born to rule after his ancestor David.  This story certainly confirms the good news.  But it alone is not the good news, despite our attempts to make Christmas the great day of celebration.  It is his adult life that makes his birth newsworthy. So, we will return to the pre-ministry stories later.    
 He was a carpenter by family trade, who lived in the Galilee region of Israel, the town of Nazareth, in the early 1st century.  He was a practicing Jew, who took turns reading from the Torah at synagogue on the Sabbath.  Around the age of thirty, Jesus travelled to Judea and the Jordan river---about where the Israelites entered the land following Joshua at the end of their 40-year sojourn in the wilderness from Egypt to an occupied homeland.  There, at the Jordan, a man named John was baptizing people.  John was a prophet.  He called people to enter the wilderness and the waters as a sign of repentance, the renewal of their covenant commitment to God.  He believed that a crisis moment was upon them and that he was sent by God to precede one who would come with the power of God.  Baptism was a ritual cleansing act and a drowning of the old self, so that a new self might emerge ready to live in faithful obedience with God.  John opposed Jewish rulers who adopted pagan morality, especially Herod Antipas.  He was one of king Herod's son who had inherited a part of Judea upon his father's death.  Antipas was having an affair with his brother's wife.  John instructed soldiers, tax collectors, and teachers of the law to be prepared for the coming of Messiah (the future King).
Jesus of Nazareth was baptized in the river Jordan by John to "fulfill all righteousness" (according to the Gospel of Matthew).  Jesus' ministry was a fulfillment of the commandments of God and was a faithful renewal of the covenant.  Jesus' baptism identified Jesus privately and publicly as the Son of God, the one anointed by God as God's chosen servant.  Jesus was God's Kingdom representative, who best represented God's intentions and promises for God's people  Jesus was sent to demonstrate God's covenantal faithfulness to God's people through his words and actions.
This was not going to be an easy sell.  Some people would believe that Jesus was God's chosen servant and others would not.  The gospels tell the story of Jesus' life as eyewitness testimony to His identity and vocation, because this had global implications.  By the time the gospel was written down, the Christian movement had spread throughout the Roman Empire and included both Jews and non-Jews in its numbers of adherents.
So, what did Jesus teach and do that identified him as God's representative and how is this good news?
PART 2
Jesus returned to the Galilee after a 40 day wilderness journey.  This journey symbolized a spiritual exodus, a movement from his former vocational identity into a new vocational identity as anointed Messiah.  This movement signified change, transformation, and revolution--both personal and corporate.  This wilderness excursion confirmed his identity as the Son of God.  He depended not on the creation for life, but the creator.  He was not tempted by power or privilege, but chose humility and obedience to the Word of God.  In this way, he overcame the threats inherent in human existence---a desire for self-preservation, the abuse of privilege for selfish gain, and a willingness to pledge allegiance to another in exchange for political power.
In the Galilee, he sought out disciples or students who would learn his way or "yoke".  He was an unauthorized Rabbi, who gathered new students.  He called Fishermen.  These were skilled laborers, whose livelihood was tied to their boats, nets, and daily catch of fish.  They fed people.  These fishermen were not educated men.  They had an elementary education, at best.  They were not studying Hebrew or theology with another Rabbi.  Rabbis gathered disciples from among the faithful, in order to raise up another Rabbi.  A Rabbi would choose children who excelled in schooling.  Others were sent from school to apprentice to the family trade.  People were not vocationally or career mobile, as we are today.  They had one job and typically work was about subsistence and village survival. Fishermen were already working in a trade.
But, these four young men, to pairs of brothers, left their nets and their boats to walk with Jesus and learn his way.  Why?
These were young men, curious and malleable.  They were trapped in the net of Roman tyranny.  They were oppressed.  Discontent, anger, frustration, and fear motivates change. Jesus invited and challenged uneducated workers to join him in this new exodus, this revolutionary journey from slavery to freedom, from death to life, from fear to faith.  This movement was for everyone, not just the pious or the educated or the wealthy or the well-connected.  This movement was for everyone, especially for those who found themselves suffering at the bottom of the human pyramid.  Jesus embodied the Words of God found in the Hebrew Scriptures---words that suggested that the God of the universe established a particular kind of relationship with a particular group of people on earth, in order to become universally known and trusted.  Israel was meant to be a light house, so that other ships might navigate their way toward this God who comes near.  Jesus understood this and expounded on it.   
Jesus began his teaching in this way: "The Time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near.  Repent and believe the good news."  So, his post-baptismal, post-wilderness excursion return was about good news. This good news has to do with timing, God's nearness, repentance and belief. The word for time in Greek here is kairos and it is likened to the ripening of fruit, as opposed to the hands on a clock. This nearness of God's kingdom or rule has to do with timing, like a process being completed or preparations being finished. 
We'll return to the meaning of ''the Kingdom of God" shortly.  But first, about the word repentance.  It is a word that has more to do with revolution than with confession of sin.  It has less to do with personal piety and more to do with a change of one's heart and mind or a reorientation of one's direction in life.  Jesus was inviting people to change course and go another way, toward the Kingdom rule of God and away from the kingdom rule of the Herods, Rome, one's self...Jesus was not democratic or socialist.  If one could suggest a political persuasion, we might say Jesus was a theocratic monarchist.  God is King.  Period.  God is a particular kind of ruler, according to Jesus. 
Next, we will see how Jesus' God's rule is good news for everyone.