Today's Sermon - 10-28-18 Response to the Shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue

Tragedy at Tree of Life Synagogue

(there is no specific biblical reference)

Full disclosure: I’m a mess this morning.  I had written a sermon based on today’s reading from Mark and the idea that the blind man in the story of Mark was known by name and that each of us are also known by God, by name.  But I was up most of the night rewriting today’s sermon.

Yesterday morning, I was making the last minute preparations for a wedding that I would be celebrating for Caird McHolme, former member of Bethesda United Presbyterian Church and his bride, Katie Dolan, when I heard the news that a shooting had occurred in Pittsburgh.  Unfortunately, we are so accustomed to that kind of news anymore that my attention was only slightly swayed from what I’d been doing.  The really scary and horrifying fact is that the news of a shooting in one place or another is no longer the shock and surprise that it used to be.  Afterall, this week alone, as many as 14 pipe bombs were mailed to prominent political figures in the US.  

But then I heard that the shooting was in Squirrel Hill at the Tree of Life Synagogue during the celebration of Shabbat also known as the day of Sabbath for the Jewish people.  And that a bris was being performed and celebrated on the same day.  A bris is when an 8 day old infant boy is to be circumcised and given his Hebrew name as part of the sign of the covenant between Abraham and God.  

Having heard that it was in a synagogue, it got my full attention.  When a shooting occurs in Charleston, SC or in Sutherland Springs, Texas we are saddened and feel empathy for those who were present during such a horrific event.  But it is far away and doesn’t normally affect us.  But yesterday’s event was right here at home in Pittsburgh.  In the past 6 years, since May of 2012, there have been 15 mass shootings in places of worship here in the United States.  And over 700 separate incidences in US.

When I began my doctoral program, I was intent on studying the affects of traumatic events on communities.  For three years I was immersed in tragedy, motivations of such events, people’s reactions, community efforts to rebound after such events and, faith communities’ response to tragedy.  After all that studying, you’d think I’d know what to say.  I don’t.  In fact, I had to stop doing my dissertation and I took a year off.  There were some other factors, but one of them was that it was too difficult for me to face that kind of evil on a regular basis - just reading about it and studying it every day became too much for me.  And I don’t know that I will get back to it.

How do you address such hatred that turns into killing another human being?

How do you face the grief of those whose lives are forever affected by the actions of these kinds of crimes against our fellow human beings? 

“Today we all stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters from the Tree of Life Jewish Synagogue in Squirrel Hill, as we did with those from First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, as we did with our brothers and sisters from Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina, as we also did with members of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin …”

For today’s message, I turn to the pastors and other faith leaders whom I have studied, who have been through this in their own communities, who know tragedy and have seen tragedy firsthand and I offer some of their words.

After the church shooting in Charleston, Rev. John Foster, Senior Pastor, Big Bethel AME Church in Atlanta said that, we live in a world where tragedies happen.  These events demonstrate that we have not met the mark of where God wants us to be.  Martin Luther King stated, “We have got to learn how to disagree with each other without being violently disagreeable.” The real sin of what occurred in Charleston at Emanuel AME Church (and I’ll add at nearly all of the 700 mass shootings) is that we still live in a society where violence is chosen as the preferred choice of action. I believe God’s word is still true: “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). God is challenging us to transform our minds by throwing away our legacy addictions to violence.

In response to the shooting at the AME Church in Charleston, Satpal Singh, Founding Trustee of the Sikh Council for Interfaith Relations said this, “When the shooting at Sikh Gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, occurred, the entire nation and the entire world stood by the Sikhs. Within hours, Sikh organizations received messages of support and solidarity from hundreds of religious, political and social organizations from all around the world. Today we all stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters from the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, which has become the target of the same hatred and venom that keeps engulfing us again and again in the name of religion, race and a myriad of other divisions.  We pray for the peace of those who have left us, and for their families.  We pray for the peace of mind of the perpetrator of such a hateful act, and for the peace of mind for all those who suffer from hate and prejudice.”

          Rev. Natalie Mitchem said, “We will not operate in fear, but with power and love…It is time for all of us to reinvigorate our efforts to banish hatred from our society and to bring harmony among all the sections of our society, irrespective of the divisions that have been created among us. Let this act of hatred strengthen our resolve to spread the message of love and harmony that all our faiths profess. We must all remind ourselves, and our congregations, that blood has no religion. It has no race, no caste, no nationality and no political ideology. And it has no skin color.

Today we are reminded that God in Heaven, our Heavenly Father, provides the peace through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that surpasses our understanding. God is love, and the Bible urges us to overcome evil with love.”

Rev. Jonathan Malone, says that he, “…calls on us all to do the hard work of self-examination.  Ask yourself what stories, what narratives have you accepted as true that may have racist undertones. (and I’ll add – any kind of hatred against another undertones to it)  When you see someone who does not look like you, does not dress like you, does not talk like you, (does not believe like you, does not have the same lifestyle that you have) what assumptions do you bring up about that person?  We all are shaped and informed by our context, and we need to again and again challenge the narrative that we have assumed to be true.  I ask you to speak out against those small, subtle overtures of racism (hatred) that you may encounter on a daily basis. The joke that is said in the hall, the comment made only for your ears, the statement about “those people” all are sprouts from the seeds of racism (hatred against another) and need to be cut down where and when they happen.

Edmund Burke wrote that “Evil triumphs because of the silence of good men” — and I’ll add men and women.  Martin Luther King Jr. indicated that there comes a time when our silence cooperates with our enemies.

Now is the time for a prayerful, thoughtful response, not thoughtless reaction.  All of these acts of violence against one another rise out of our sin of hatred.  Examine your heart.  Each person is made in the image of God.  Each person is given the life sustaining breath of our Father in Heaven.  Each person is guarded by the influence of the Holy Spirit.  And each person is loved with the powerful love of a redeeming Savior.

Allow us to stop looking at other people as if they are not part of that equation.  It is not reserved for us alone.  It’s time to turn away from any thoughts of hatred that harbors evil in hearts turning those thoughts into ideologies about others, which turns our ideologies into behavior and our behaviors into action.  Allow us to find common ground.  Let’s raise our communities and country as models of service and sacrifice, virtue and victory; ever deepening our responsibility to our neighbor.  And finally, never let us forget that it starts with us; we must intercede with our words and our deeds of grace and mercy.

AMEN.

Today's Sermon - Oct 21, 2018 Backwards Day

Backwards Day

(based on Mark 10:35-45)

          You might be wondering why I look so ridiculous with my robe and stole on backwards.  Do you remember going to school on Backwards Day?  It was an unofficial holiday when you got to go to school wearing your clothes backwards.  We would even start the day with last period and work our way backwards throughout the day, ending it with homeroom and the day’s announcements.  For this morning, I even toyed with the idea of doing the entire service backwards as well.

          You’ll be thankful that I chose to just put my robe and stole on backwards because, two weeks ago we read from the gospel according to Mark in chapter 9 when he was having a discussion with his disciples about what they had been arguing about while they traveled to Capernaum.  They didn’t want to admit it, but they had been arguing about which one of them was the greatest among them.  And Jesus told them that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. 

One chapter later, in our reading this morning, James and John take the argument to another level.  They come forward to Jesus to ask him to do them a favor.  “What do you want?” Jesus asks them.  And they say, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left.”

Jesus and the other disciples are pretty angry with them, at this point.  But for different reasons.  When the other disciples found out what James and John had asked of Jesus, they were angry because they wanted those positions for themselves.  Jesus is angry because he realizes that his disciples still don’t get it.

He had already told them that the first shall be last and the last shall be first.  But now he tells them the same thing in a different way.  He says to them all, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.  But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.  For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

So, in the kingdom of God everything we have experienced in this world and everything we understand about how things work and everything we believe to be important now will be different; it will be backwards.  The first shall be last and the last shall be first.  Those who are first will be those who serve, and those who serve will be raised to the highest status.

Obviously, this is not an easy concept for us to fully grasp.  Why else did Jesus repeat this teaching twice in such a short span of time? 

I liked backwards day at school.  Why?  Because it forced me to think, to feel, to experience something routine from a different perspective.  All day long, the clothes that you normally wear, that fit just right the way that you wear them, suddenly feel wrong.  Have you ever put on a t-shirt backwards?  You can do it in the dark and know, just from the feel of it, that it is wrong.  The back part of the neck rides higher than the front, so it actually feels like you’re choking, just a bit.  It’s uncomfortable.  You know immediately that something’s amiss.

Then to experience the day from last period to first period, ending in homeroom feels wrong, even though it should have been a routine day, everything suddenly feels fresh and new.  Your math class is strangely less intimidating.  There’s suddenly new vibrancy during gym.  You actually pay attention to the announcements during homeroom, because the whole day was experienced in a different way.  The old routine is wonderfully fresh and somehow exciting because of it.

Speaking of routines: Why did you come to worship today?

What motivated you to get yourself organized, move away from a comfortable place, travel by car to be in this church building at this moment?  It takes an effort to participate in worship on Sunday mornings.  It never happens by accident.

Why are you an active member or visitor to this congregation?   We live in a time when many people flee from any kind of commitment, avoid community, and refuse to volunteer for anything.  The big trend today is cocooning, wrapping yourself up in your home.  You certainly do not enhance your social status by participating in a church anymore.  And yet people like you regularly share in the gathered Christian community, you support the work of this congregation with your gifts, and many of you work in quiet ways to further Christ’s mission and ministry here.  Why?

Scholars, theologians, church educators and even sociologists and psychiatrists have studied the phenomena of church membership and participation.  There’s a long list of why they think people go to church.  Some have said that it is to gain favor with God.  Perhaps to satisfy a spouse or to appease a parent.  Maybe to deepen a friendship.  Some say that people go to church for the same reason they go to the mall or to a store; to pick up something that you need, sort of like a spiritual full-service mini-mart, a place to pick up the spiritual resources you need in a quick, efficient manner. 

Others come to church for mood alteration – to get a sense of forgiveness when they feel particularly inadequate.  Or to seek a comfort in the midst of difficulty, grief, disappointment.  Many go to church to find encouragement when they feel depressed, lonely, or just down.  Some come to gain confidence when they feel afraid, or inspiration when life grows a tad stale through the week. 

And as almost all scholars concluded, and this is difficult for us to admit, nearly everyone comes to church simply out of obligation, out of routine because their parents made them come – even if those parents have been gone to the heavenly realms for years now.

Jesus wants to shake up that routine and have you think about life from a different perspective, because the reason behind the routine isn’t what you think it should be.  It’s something quite different.

The great value of the gospel is the manner in which it reveals what Jesus means when he speaks of a different viewpoint.  In this lesson, it’s about greatness, and its definition is different from the way the world uses that word.  For Jesus greatness is defined by total, unconditional trust in God.  Jesus tells James and John and the rest of the disciples that greatness is measured in service, in spending our lives for the sake of others.

We tend to define greatness in terms of power, privilege, and prestige.  We measure the importance of a person by external markers – the house they own, the car they drive, the appearance of their lifestyle.  We are impressed by the visible achievement of people: their honors and academic degrees, the importance of their profession, and sometimes even the accomplishments of their children.

But when Jesus speaks of greatness he inevitably links it with service.  As he said to his disciples, that which makes us great is not our ability to rule over others, but, rather, our ability to invest ourselves for the welfare of others.  In a world where most people want to put as little as is necessary into life and to get out as much as possible, Christ tells us of a better way.

Jesus calls us to that “better way” today.  Only when we are willing to put more into life than we take out, to put service to others in a place of honor only then are we worthy to be called his followers.

After nearly thirty years of service as a pastor and a church leader, I am convinced that the Church of Jesus Christ finds its validation not in its public rituals, nor in solemn pronouncements on social issues, nor in the pristine quality of our theology and teaching.  The Church of Jesus Christ establishes its credibility through its acts of mercy and kindness – the cup of water to the thirsty, the bag of groceries to the distraught, the life-giving accompaniment when we walk with someone who can go no farther without a champion.

Once upon a time in a far-off country, a king had twin sons. One was strong and handsome. The other was intelligent and wise. As the ruler grew old, everyone speculated about which son the king would choose as his successor – the strong son or the wise son.

In this land the sign of kingship was a royal ring. Just before the king died, he had a copy of the royal ring made and presented both rings to his twin sons. The chief advisors to the king asked him, “How shall we know which son wears the authentic royal ring?”

You shall know, answered the king, because the chosen one will reveal his right to rule by his self-giving service to our people.

This is not the way our world works, this is not the way the “gentiles do things”, as Jesus said.  But it is the way in which Jesus wants us to do things now; the way he wants us to envision the kingdom of God.  And the kingdom of God isn’t something that will happen in the future, in heaven, in the vision of the new regime when New Jerusalem will be established.  Jesus wants us to work toward the Kingdom of God, now.

In hindsight, I wish I had arranged for today’s worship to be done backwards.  Perhaps that would have given you a fresh sense of what Jesus was trying to explain to his disciples.

But now that I’ve experienced the uncomfortableness of being in this robe backwards for the past hour, I want you to go home and do something backwards, wear something backwards, shake up your routine and think about what Jesus is really asking us to do here and now, in this lifetime….and then start doing it.

Thanks be to God.  AMEN.

Today’s Sermon - The Blessing if Children 10-7-18

The Blessing of Children

(based on Mark 10:13-16)

Children comprise one of the largest groups of the unchurched population in the community today. There are more children at home on any given Sunday morning than at Sunday School and church.

One pastor tells this story:

A church he was serving planned a whole day of activities for the children of the neighborhood to help them prepare for Christmas. They provided craft materials for the children to make Christmas gifts and, of course, they served refreshments and played games. It was the pastor’s role to tell the children the Christmas story from the Bible:

When the time came, he sat on the floor with the children and got to know their names.  Theysang a couple of songs, said a prayer, and then he asked, “Does anyone already know the Christmas story?” A little girl raised her hand and started reciting,

“Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.”

For her, that was the Christmas story. It was all she knew. Her Christmas, and the Christmas of most of the other children sitting there, had nothing to do with the birth of Jesus, but instead with Santa and his reindeer.

Children comprise one of the largest groups of the unchurched population in the community; theyare largely unaware of God’s presence in their lives. And children’s lack of faith is not their fault; it’s a choice their parents are making. The children are only following the example set by their parents.

In most cases today, this isn’t intentional.Some parents are simply lax in their attitude toward the church (after all, at this point, most of them didn’t attend church regularly, either) and they’re not yet aware of the long-range effects it’s certain to have on their children. They’re not hostile toward the church, they’re just simplyapathetic. They’re comfortably busy with their lifestyles and don’t want to be bothered.

They have weekend plans, they work, they have other activities to keep them and their children busy on Sunday morning.  They’d rather sleep in, participate in local sports for them or their kids or just watch T. V. 

Psychologists tell us that the bulk of a child’s personality is formed by the time he/she is five years old. Think about that – before the child starts school, essential character traits are already established and patterns of behavior are pretty well set.

Isn’t it obvious that religious formation follows suit? Children’s patterns of faith, for better or worse, are shaped at a very early age, long before they can articulate what they believe and why.

Knowing what we know about child development, it’s all the more important for parents to decide early on, even before their children are born, to rear their children in the church and to give them the benefit of religious training, to undergird their lives with the knowledge of a power greater than themselves until they are mature enough to confirm their faith for themselves. Children depend on their parents to make good choices for them in all matters of life, and so, it’s up to us, the church, to do everything we can to encourage parents to choose wisely on behalf of their children and their relationship to God. 

So, what are we doing to help them?

In the Bible, God shows particular favor to the least, and children are among the least of those in our society.  A couple of weeks ago, there was a passage – again from Mark – when Jesus made another example of children as a slap in the face of reality for his disciples to truly understand what he was saying.  Do you remember it? 

Jesus and the disciples were walking on their way to Capernaum when the disciples got into an argument about who was going to be greater in the Kingdom of Heaven.  What roles each of them would play and who would get to sit at Jesus’ right hand.  Jesus got frustrated with them and took a child from in their midst and said, “Whoever welcomes one of these, welcomes me, and not just me but also the one who sent me.  Whoever is first shall be last and last shall be first.”  He said it because children were always considered last, they were just property, in those days. 

And perhaps we’ve gotten our priorities mixed up again, if our time, commitment and energy aren’t spent in relating the message of the gospel to the children of our community.

In the language of the New Testament, there are two words commonly used for children. One is “tekna” which refers both to offspring and to the children of God.

The other is “mikrone” which is often translated “little ones,”

Mikrone speaks of the whole range of those who occupy the lower rungs of the social ladder – the poor, the lame, the outcast, the stranger and the children. And the Bible makes it clear, God takes a special interest in seeing that these little ones are given ample protection and care, so that for us to show hospitality to the stranger, compassion for the cripple, generosity to the beggar, concern for the children is to be on the side of God and to gain God’s richest blessings. 

The best example of this overall usage is found in Matthew 25:40:

“The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these (the mikrone), you did it to me.”

When we reach out to the children around us and make a special place for them in the church, we reap the benefits of God’s blessing on ourselves and on our congregation.

Here’s the problem: Jesus said, “Allow the little children to come to me,” but that’s not going to happen if we sit back passively and wait for them to show up on our doorstep. We have totake the initiative, to be proactive. And so, I’d like to give you a challenge.

Since we can’t expect them to just show up on their own, we need to step in and participate in their lives.  So, I’d like to challenge each of you to think of a child or two that you can invite to come to (for Olivet - our afterschool program on Wednesdays) or to church with you on Sunday, or to something completely new and different that we discover, along the way, as well.  Think of a young parent or two with whom you can have some influence – to begin a conversation about faith.Some of you, that’ll be easy. Perhaps you need to have a deeper conversation, not a confrontation, but a conversation with your grown children and your grandchildren.  For others, you’ll need to be more imaginative. You may have to look more closely at the dynamics of your neighborhood.

You’ll need to begin an influential relationship, a dialogue, before you can ask them about bringing their children to church. But don’t be surprised if they say yes! You’ll also need to think ahead. Young adults and children who haven’t been in church much are going to need some help knowing what’s going on and what’s expected of them, when to stand up and sit down, how to behave. And in that dialogue and dynamic of new faith conversations, we may find that we have tostart thinking outside the box in regard to how or when we do worship and what is included in worship.  

It may end up that we not only do what we do on Sunday mornings, but we learn that we need to do something else, as well.

When you consider the big picture, what greater contribution could you possibly make in your lifetime than to bring a child into a lasting relationship with the Christ? Here’s the gist of it all: There are a lot of unchurched children here inour own community and it’s not their fault. They’re victims of circumstances beyond their control. Yet, God is on their side, and God calls us to do what we can to bring them into his presence. To do so is to be faithful to our calling and to open the door to a lasting relationship with Jesus Christ. 

When he was chaplain of Duke University, Will Willimon said it best when he wrote,

“Sometimes it seems as if the older I become the less I understand about the mystery of God’s loving presence in our midst. Do not ask me, adult though I may be, why God loves wayward children like us, how even so diverse a group of people as we are formed into one body, why ‘when two or three are gathered together,’ there he is also…but this I know: These deep, sacred experiences came first to me when I was a little child, fruits of life begun in a loving, embracing family at home and at church. My encounters with God began first by being included in the church’s worship, by being invited to the church’s table, by being claimed at the church’s font. Admittedly, over the years, the meaning of these early experiences has deepened for me. But, as an adult, I must never forget how they began, and I must seek ways to make them available for little ones who come after me.” (“Keep Them in Their Place?” Worship Alive, Discipleship Resources.)

If the church is to take seriously Jesus’ invitation, “Allow the little children to come to me,” we simply must take a more aggressive role in reaching the children who are not here on Sunday morning who can perhaps learn how to worship God and participate in the life of the church in new and different ways.