Mighty Deep

12^th Sunday Ordinary Time A

Matthew 10:24-39

Tough texts today

 

 

All week I heard this voice in my head saying: 
What do I know?

What do I know about fear?

Fear of violence?

Fear of persecution?

 

Even though the text offers 3x “don’t be afraid”

I’m afraid

What does ‘take up my cross’ even mean for me

…this text makes me a little uneasy;)

 

So…I approach today’s Gospel with necessary humility

Humility…And a lot of questions

I have a few thoughts…but you might have to complete this homily on your own

 

This part of Matthews Gospel is called the Mission Discourse

Jesus is sending the disciples out

Earlier in the discourse, Jesus promised the disciples power

Power to 

HEAL, RAISE, CLEANSE, and CASTOUT demons

They are being sent to do and say 

what they have experienced Jesus doing and saying. 

 

In today’s text, after preparing them with power

He prepares them for struggle, rejection…maybe worse.

I don’t know about you…But it seems clear to me

…they have every reason to be afraid!

 

What challenge…what advice 
does Jesus have for them in the face of what lies ahead?

In the bit about the two sparrows and all the hairs on their heads

I hear Jesus saying to the disciples:

KNOW YOUR VALUE…
Know it deep down
DIG DEEP

REAL DEEP

THAT’S WHERE YOU NEED TO PLANT YOUR FAITH AND TRUST

DEEP DOWN WHERE IT CANNOT BE KILLED

 

And even though we can’t relate to the context of the disciples 1^st century fear

Even though we are a far cry 

from waking up afraid that we will be tortured/ostracized/ridiculed for our faith

 

Still…this is a call for us too.

 

This call to plant our faith in a God who also sends US

To heal, raise, cleanse, 

and cast out hate in Jesus’ name

This serious call just might be exactly what will take us through to the end

 

The metaphor of planting eventually falls apart

Using agricultural metaphors among some of you farmers is dangerous!

I don’t think farmers keep returning to dig the seed down deeper!

 

But that’s the image stuck in my head

 

 

I came across a more modern story to help us.

…the story of Clarence Jordan.

Jordan’s story is a story about what a deeply planted faith can sustain in a life.

 

This is a real HERO story
An absolute Christian HERO story
The story of Clarence Jordan.

 

Clarence Jordan

A rural Georgia boy

Was From a Prominent family in a small Georgia town 

He was always troubled by the racial and economic injustice he saw all around him

Got an agriculture degree from University of Georgia

Hoping to improve the welfare of sharecropping families of his region.

Later he sensed the need to add a spiritual dimension to the fight against poverty and injustice 

And so went to seminary becoming a scholar of New Testament Greek

So he was a farming NT Greek Scholar
it is said that he only read the scriptures in Greek

…translating as he went.

 

His main legacy is the Koinonia Farm he began in 1942
with his wife and another committed couple
you may know of it as the community that gave birth to Habit for Humanity

It was/still is a community where, 

like we read in the Acts of the Apostles,

everything is held in common.

The vision grew around commitments and beliefs:

The Equality of persons

Ecological stewardship

Ending cycles of revenge

Forgiving

Rejection of violence

(but to be clear…he wanted more than non-violence…he wanted pro-active good will)

 

All was fairly Peaceful…for a while

As the civil rights movement heated up

…The community was mixed race you see…

The threats began

They were thrown out of the local Baptist Church
They were the target of devastating economic boycott

Clarence was a wonderful storyteller and he had a beautiful and quick sense of humor

Humor with a bit of a dagger at the end 

The community sold peanuts at a roadside stand
The KKK bombed it
the community rebuilt it
The KKK bombed it again 
They rebuilt it again
Another bomb and finally they chose mail-order

Jordan’s ad said:

“Help us ship the nuts out of Georgia”

 

 

There is much to be inspired by in the story of Clarence Jordan and the Koinonia Farm

I share it because it offers a bit of an answer to the “where do I go from here” question in the face of today’s Gospel:

 

 

I quote from Rev. James Howell:
Clarence Jordan, 

founder of Koinonia Farms 

and creator of the Cotton Patch Version of the Bible, 

was a bold, no-holds-barred Christian, 

one of those once in a generation believers 

radical enough to dare to do what’s in the Bible. 

 

One Sunday he preached at a gilded, high steeple church in Atlanta. 

After the service, the pastor asked him for some advice. 

The church custodian had eight children, and earned a mere $80 per week. 

The concerned minister claimed he tried to get the man a raise, 

but with no success. 

Jordan considered this for a minute, 

and then said, “Why don’t you just swap salaries with the janitor? 

That wouldn’t require any extra money in the budget.”

 

Jesus was like the child who can’t stop asking questions

Like the child who sees a homeless person by the road 

and asks Mommy, can’t he live at our house?

 

Maybe that church leader can’t pull off the salary swap

And maybe I’m not quite ready to invite the homeless man to live in my spare room

 

 

But I do have two thoughts to share

First: 
It takes a MIGHTY conversion

To trust God enough to live like Jesus did.

A MIGHTY conversion

And Second:
Being here

Struggling together
Is honest momentum

 

 

I am and perhaps I will always 

Be wondering where I land on that conversion spectrum

With Mighty deep over here at one end

And Skin deep over here at this end

 

But honest momentum will surely be leaning me toward the MIGHTY.

 

Thanks to you 

and 

Thanks be to God

Is That a Promise or a Threat?

Homily, 6^th Sunday of Easter Year A

I’ve just returned from a visit with my Dad

He has always had a playful nature

A good storyteller

And a man with a quip for most occasions

These quips were such a hallmark of his personality that

One year, on my Dad’s birthday

My siblings and I designed a coffee mug for him

And it was wrapped with “Ed Sayings”

Many of them only the family would get, like 

C’mon Kisadeetch 

Or 

Omi Cioli Tauni Slau

…ask me at coffee hour;)

And others were common

…quips we have all heard many times

 

Last week, it was one of those common ones that hit me.

 

When I am visiting,

Every time I leave Dad to run a quick errand or take a short walk

I write out 2 notes

One I would put on the ottoman right in front of his chair

And the other I tape to the kitchen door frame right at his eye level

(he would run into it if he went searching for me)

 

The notes say: 

I am going for a walk

Back in 45 minutes

Call me if you need me

And then my phone number

 

As I bring the note to tape on the ottoman

I verbally explain to Dad: going out, back soon, call if you need me

And he always says in reply…with an impish grin

“Is that a promise or a threat?”

 

“Is that a promise or a threat?”

Made me think of the oftentimes,

frustrating language of John’s Gospel 

 

John’s language is so often full of tenderness about love, and abiding and gentle shepherds… 

And then, sometimes, like today

I get confused…

…Is that really how Jesus meant to come off?

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments”

…Is this “promise or threat?”

 

Is Jesus REALLY pointing a finger…waving it back and forth in our direction

“If you REALLY love me…

 

We need some clarity!

 

What is the context of today’s short reading?

Where are we in John’s unfolding story?

What is the liturgical context?

 

ON this 6^th Sunday of Easter

The Lectionary takes us back to Jesus’ Farewell discourse Chs 13-17

This is Jesus’ long and tender preparation/re-cap/pep-talk of sorts

That he gives to his inner circle

 

Before today’s section we have had

the washing of the feet

…the call to humbly serve, 

the last meal shared, 

And Judas’ move to the dark side…

So far we have heard phrases like:

-he loved his own

-loved them to the end

-whoever receives one whom I send receives me, whoever receives me, receives the one who sent me

-a new commandment I give to you

-love one another

-love even as I have loved

Lat Sunday we heard:

-let not your hearts be troubled

And more tenderness today

-I will not leave you orphaned

 

So…if I am concerned about what could be heard as ‘threat’ language

…all I need to do is remember the scene. 

Threat language just doesn’t fit. 

It is promise time. PROMISE…all the way

What will follow the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus…is a promise of another advocate/another paraclete/the Holy Spirit…another one “called alongside”

While Jesus was in the flesh he was all those things. 

 

But in the next time, the meantime, the time of the church, it is the Holy Spirit who makes it possible for us to love as Jesus loved, to do as Jesus did, to live in oneness.

 

And what about the Liturgical context?

Why has the lectionary taken us backwards?

Why ARE we back in that upper room?

 

We read it because we need it!

We read it because like the disciples 

We regularly need to be reminded

Reintroduced

Reconvinced

Of the Promise of the Holy Spirit. 

The promise of being connected to the vine forever.

The promise of never being left orphaned.

 

It’s all a little vague and lofty though…isn’t it?

Its only helpful if it can help us answer the question:

How am I…how are we… to live in light of this promise…in light of the resurrection?

How are WE to live as Easter People?

 

So here we are

In this section of Jesus’ farewell talk

And the themes are love and departure

The promise is that this departure will not leave us orphaned

This departure 
Will not produce in us a sense of LOSTNESS

 

NO, not at all!

The promise of the Holy Spirit

The Advocate

The paraclete

The one called alongside

Is ours…ours to connect the body, to build oneness, to plant the love of God…

So many ways to say it!

 

Get specific:

Talk of the Holy Spirit is notoriously lofty and unspecific.
I can hear your internal voices…Cindy, get concrete!

 

You all have your own examples 

…your own ways of recognizing this companionship of the Holy Spirit 

[and I hope to hear some of them at coffee hour]

 

For me…the best I can do is liken the experience to a 

Nudge/breath/whisper of the Holy Spirit

There is a sense in me that it comes from outside myself

(…without that sense I get suspicious;)

 

For me there are certain parts of our morning prayer 

that almost always break open a space for the Holy Spirit

…a place where I sense that soft breath in my ear

 

In our Confession prayer we end with a purpose statement

…we confess all this because we know that when we do we are more likely to:

“delight in your will and walk in your ways”

This can be very concrete…

as I lay my head on my pillow…

I can recall

When did I ‘delight in your will and walk in your ways? When didn’t I?

 

Or In Canticle 16…one of our regular morning prayer canticles, 

we proclaim...through the words/song of Zechariah:

“in the tender compassion of our God 
the dawn from on high shall break upon us
…to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

how beautiful this invitation to see the dawn breaking

…an invitation each morning

…to allow God to guide our feet…

The dawn, my feet…very concrete…

 

I have to think hard

I have to use my imagination

What is it?

Where can I

Cindy Bernardin of Southern Indiana

Where can I foster life and hope and protection?

 

And then…when I CAN see it…

When it becomes clear…

Can I trust in it?

Can I trust the promise of Christ’s life pumping through me, 

giving me courage and strength to be and do what love commands of me???

 

I used “I” 

But this message is primarily for all of us together

…as one body one spirit in Christ

 

We have to think hard

We have to use our imaginations

What is it?

Where can we…

The Community of St Stephens 

Where can we foster life and hope and protection?

 

My guess is that there is something 

within and among us that needs our care

And ALSO

There is something needed from us.

 

Exciting times!

We don’t need to ask if this contemplation uncovers a promise or a threat

It is Promise all the way!

…all the way!

 

 

 

 

 

SERMON...a poem by Herbert Brokering

 

Sermon

It was a sermon
Not the best but the only one for this day.
I could have slept, with some of the others But I did not.
I dared not.
I never do.
I had to stay ready, waiting and ready for his

sentence,
Ready for the one sentence that was worth it all. I always come to hear all of it for the sake of the

one sentence.
All his preparing and all my listening is for the one

sentence.
When he says it, I will hear it.
There are thought gaps.
Things he leaves out.
Space.
I fill in the gaps as he goes along.
What he does not say to us I say to myself.
He does not try to say it all.
He leaves blanks and spaces for me to fill in.
I do.
He does not know when he says his big sentence.
I know.
It’s when all the words become one word.
When all the thoughts become one thought.
It’s when the words become like flesh and blood to

me.
My flesh and blood, Lord.

Herbert Brokering’s poem, “Sermon,” Uncovered Feelings (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1969) 24-25. Quoted by Roger Van Harn, Pew Rights (Grand Rapids: Erdmans 1992) 159.

Dear Thomas

Second Sunday of Easter - Year A

John 20:19-31

Today’s is a very familiar Gospel

In fact we read this gospel passage every year on the 2^nd Sunday of Easter

We are reading from the solemn ending of John’s Gospel

Endings are important 

 

“When it was evening on that day”

That is how it began

 

It is still Easter Day…and what has happened?

 

Earlier on that day…

When it was still dark

Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb and finds that the stone has been rolled away

And she encounters the Risen Christ

he sends her to announce what she experienced to the others

She runs back, finds Simon Peter 

and the one called “the beloved disciple”

They find the burial cloths

And They believed Mary Magdalene’s testimony

But they still don’t know what to make of it…

and they return to join the bewildered gang of disciples.

 

And now begins today’s passage

On the evening of that day…the first day of the week”

 

The disciples then are locked behind closed doors

What happened to Jesus might very well happen to them

Their fear is understandable

Jesus makes his presence felt in a real and deep way

A way that was impossible for them to deny
It is not just the absence Mary and Peter found at the empty tomb 

And what does he do?

In one grand gesture 

He proclaims PEACE

He SENDS them

And HE breathes on them… the animating power of the Hoy Spirit

 

-----Now let’s step back

It is Easter…the season of resurrection

But our Gospel can’t quite let go of Friday’s trauma

 

All four gospels mention Jesus’ wounds or scars in the stories of his 

post-resurrection appearances.

 

The wounds…Jesus’ wounds are important

 

Very early

Even before all the Gospels were written there was a heresy floating around

Docetism

The Docetists just couldn’t imagine…couldn’t allow…God to be humiliated

So they claimed that Jesus didn’t really suffer and die, tortured on a cross.

It only APPEARED to have happened.

 

But the wounds of Christ

Are much more than a matter of proof

The wounds keep the story real…keep us real

 

Friday really happened

Which shouldn’t be hard for us to believe

Such things are still happening in our world today

Just recall the number of Mass Shooting we have awoken to in the last 6 months

 

Good Friday happened

It is still happening

 

We are at the close of John’s Gospel

John’s Gospel…full of magnificent signs and wonders

And some incredibly memorable characters

The wedding

Healings

Calming storms

The raising of Lazarus

 

And at the end…as a parting gift

This Gospel gives us Thomas

 

The academic study of the Bible’s ancient texts 

Is on-going…Translating the 1^st century texts of the scriptures is a bumpy ride 

And scholars are always getting better at it

But every time scholars improve the translation of a few lines

Bibles don’t just go into immediate reprint

There is a problem with our current translation that is widely accepted in the scholarly community…

And for me…it makes big difference in how we hear and understand this final scene in John’s Gospel.

 

We read:

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them;

If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.

 

the second use of ‘sins’ is not in the Greek

and the word translated retain is, according to many scholars,

better translated as “held fast or embraced.”

 

So:

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven

And anyone you embrace…anyone you HOLD FAST…is HELD FAST 

 

What is so compelling to scholars about this updated translation is that it fits John’s sense of things…Sin in John’s Gospel is equated with unbelief.

 

If you forgive someone who struggles to believe 

They are forgiven

My guess is everyone here has struggled to believe

So that’s good news

AND THOMAS struggled to believe

 

AND now we can see the gift that is THOMAS

 

He isn’t satisfied

He announces his pre-requisites for belief!

I want to See the wounds!

Touch the holes!

Put my hand in the gash!

 

And what do his fellow disciples do?

They hold him fast

They don’t let him go

 

He didn’t end up needing those prerequisites

He never did touch or probe Jesus’ wounds

Despite what Caravaggio painted in the 17th century!

 

Thomas experiences the overwhelming presence of Jesus 

in the small gathering of what we might stretch to call a first “church”

 

And John says to us today

It isn’t necessary to have been in that first group who experienced the risen Christ

In fact, it isn’t even a privilege

 

What is always available

Is Jesus’ presence in the church as she gathers

Two or more “gathered in His name” that is key

 

“When it was evening on that day…”

 

Today, NOW…is that Day

Every Sunday when we gather is that day

 

And what John the Evangelist sets before us 

is his vision of what kind of church…what kind of community we can be.

 

We are sometimes Faithful-sometimes struggling disciples 

We aren’t immune to doubting

 

There is MUCH that can shake our faith

 

And John the Evangelist

In today’s Gospel is, 

I think 

answering a question we all have from time to time:

“Why do we gather?”

 

-NOT to make God happy (but I hope God is;)

-NOT to learn how to be a good person (though that is certainly helpful)

-NOT to absorb the essential tenets of the Church’s teaching (but a good thing)

 

We gather

Like those early disciples

Like Thomas

To encounter…or better…to be encountered by…the Presence of the Risen Christ in our midst

The very same Christ

who continually wants to breathe life and peace and Shalom into our nostrils!

Into our bodies

Into the body that is the church

 

Why? So that we are well equipped to met the world

Overflowing with Christ’s (not ours) life and light and shalom

Thanks be to God