Relationship makes the difference. Sermon from 5/26/19

First, read the text: John 14:23-29.

Here’s the sermon:

Whose words do you cling to when you are in need?  When you are sick, whose voice comes to mind to comfort or instruct you?  

Consider a coach’s pep talk before a big game, or a mentor’s words of advice.  

Once in a great while these people’s words may be truly inspired, or the person delivering them may happen to be a master rhetorician.  But I think that for the most part, mentors don’t have any uniquely brilliant words. If you read that coach’s pep talk as a transcript, it might sound a little silly, even trite.  

Often as a pastor I  feel like I don’t have anything that special to say – but I know it’s important to say the simple things, especially when it’s hard – “God loves you.”  “You are forgiven.” “Peace be with you.”

The words from the coach, mentor, or even me, could hit completely differently coming out of someone else’s mouth.  I had a bad cold this week and there’s always a small part of me that wants to hear my mom’s advice, even if I know what she’s going to say, even though someone else might tell me the same…

The folks who set the lectionary texts should’ve started this gospel passage one verse earlier.  It’s weird that it starts – Jesus answered. What’s the question? The question that frames this whole passage is the other Judas asked, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not the whole world?”

It’s a good question.  Or in the words of Jesus Christ Superstar, “If you’d come today You could have reached a whole nation Israel in 4 BC Had no mass communication.”  But Jesus says, “those who love me will keep my word.”  

It’s not that Jesus had magical words that transformed people.  This peace that Jesus talks about, the peace not like the world gives, but  untangles your troubles, wards off fear, doesn’t come from magic words, but from a relationship.  It comes from love. Think about how for you it would completely change the words “peace” or “I love you” depending on who it comes from.  

Judas’ question is quite important, actually.  Why did the omnipotent God of the universe choose to come in such a particular, humble way.  The one who created the sky surely could’ve written upon it the secrets of the universe, or at least written, “listen to Jesus.”  Sure, that would’ve been the spectacle of the week, but it wouldn’t lead to deep belief, trust, transformation, or love. At least not lasting.  

It’s the relationship that makes the words ring in your ears, long after the person is gone.  The relationship that makes the words matter. God chooses, even in the aspects of the trinity, to come to us and be defined primarily by relationship – father, son/savior who walked the dusty earth and ate our food, sat down with Judas and love was not abstract.  Jesus is saying that when he leaves them, he won’t leave them orphaned, but the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit, in Greek paraklete, translated here the Advocate, the encourager, will be with you.

It’s all a gift –  that peace – you don’t find it, earn it, or understand it.  Jesus says he gives it. It is always and only a gift. And yes, some people find it in the words on the page or spoken from a pulpit, but I would argue that most often the conduit through which that peace comes is relationship – specifically, love.  Jesus says here that it’s love that causes someone to keep his words.

Recently I was talking with friends about popular writer and speaker Brene Brown, who writes on vulnerability and courage.  I watched her Netflix special a few weeks ago and realized that she’s really charismatic – connects with her audience relationally – and I think that’s the key to a lot of these type of people breaking through.  I bet that most self-help and advice that we take seriously it’s because we feel connected somehow to the person giving it, or someone we trust recommended it.

Often love is the key that opens up people’s faith lives as well.  Someone you love sat next to you in a pew and sang so badly but you loved every minute because you loved the person.  Someone you look up to had a deep faith you couldn’t understand. Love hands these words down. Love is where the Holy Spirit lives.

I don’t believe in magic words.  I believe in stories, relationships, and most of all, love.  This is the God we know, and how God comes to be known.

No perfect combination of words is going to win that Facebook argument, if you don’t know the person you’re talking to.  The temptation is that we think that our words are strong enough. But they’re not. I believe that the best chance we have of healing the divides in our country and world are not debates but dinners.

Relationship changes us, makes words come to life and we keep those words and live them out.  Just across the river all of the flags set in rows at Arlington are powerful, but it changes when you know someone who has or could give their life in service to country.  Those words spoken as the flag is handed over at the graveside mean something more because the love of that person now needs to be kept alive, needs to find peace that can grapple with loss.

We hear endlessly on the news about migrants and refugees.  But it changes when you know someone. The last couple weeks when Lutheran Pastor, Betty Rendon, and her husband, Carlos, were suddenly detained by ICE, it stirred Lutheran pastors and our denomination.  They’re scheduled for deportation on Tuesday, and it makes me worry for people I know, those in our own congregation, whose asylum paperwork waits in a file somewhere, just like Pastor Betty’s did.

Jesus teaches us that the key to this is love.  That peace is unlocked It’s the relationship that makes the words ring in your ears, long after the person is gone.

We’re celebrating 250 years of this congregation.  What held them together all this time? A scrappy band of Lutherans for sure – through generations this church and its people haven’t had it easy.  But the relationships, the connection, made the faithfulness to sustain this place possible.

May you, like all who came before, find peace here.  May the love of Jesus through people, meals, relationships, give you words to cling to when the days are hard, and a song to sing in celebration.  May this love compel us to see how we’re all connected, and that this love that brings peace is to be shared. Thanks be to God. Amen.

What’s on your sheet? Sermon from 5/19/19

First, read the text, Acts 11:1-18, the story of Peter’s vision, the inspiration of a LOT of bad churchy art.  (Maybe this is more just a comment on the fact that there’s a lot of bad religious art out there, including a lot of Sunday school curricula, and great artists don’t taking up stories like this to depict.  So, I picked this one from my Google image search mainly because of the lion in the picture.)

Anyway, here’s the sermon:

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What’s on your sheet?  What has God changed your mind about?  Are there foods? Like – brussels sprouts?  Picture God lowering from the sky a sheet filled with them…

It’s in that first reading from Acts.  This book of the Bible, written by the author of the gospel of Luke, is the stories of how the early church got started.  These disciples have gone out on long limbs for their dead, risen, and ascended Jesus. Peter, like the others except Paul, was Jewish and kept the law – he didn’t eat any of that stuff forbidden in Leviticus, the public health code book of the ancient Judeans.

But Peter had a vision from God – a vision that said – no, don’t let those cultural differences, don’t let keeping the law keep you from sharing a meal with your neighbors.  

Peter’s description of that vision strikes me as honest, because this isn’t how I would’ve told the story.  He could’ve made himself sound better – or maybe he’s convincing his friends that this really was something from God (and not just that he really would like some bacon) – even he didn’t even believe it at first.

Picture it.  Going down the road, Peter sees a big sheet lowered down by its four corners, like a big picnic blanket spread out, with all this forbidden food on it…  God says – get up, kill and eat… Which sounds violent but they didn’t have cling-wrapped Safeway meats section, so it’s just honest about where that comes from.  God declared it clean.

I really doubt that if I heard the voice of God tell me something, a command verb, that I’d be like, nah, don’t think so… But that’s what Peter does.  Not just once, but three times! God responds each time, “what God has made clean, you must not call profane.” Though honestly, we all argue with God, and there’s plenty of times I say no or ignore God’s gentle nudges.

Maybe Peter said no to God because he thought it was a test.  Thought he was supposed to respond with the typical answer, what the religious culture had taught for so long.  Maybe Peter forgot, like we sometimes do, that God is still speaking, and that sometimes you need to turn down the voices of culture and religion in order to hear God’s voice saying a new thing.

Over its now 250 years, this congregation has changed, like Peter, has heard God saying a new thing.  

The German immigrants who founded this church probably always imagined that worship here would be in German, in the words they knew from home.  But by the mid 1800s, the congregation must have seen that God’s good news had a wider audience, and like Luther advocated putting scripture and worship in the common language, so the people here switched their worship language to English. At the time I bet that change caused some heartache, I bet some called it profane.  But God was speaking, and using the local language opened up the doors to more people.

A hundred years later, in the early 1970s, this congregation saw the need for a clinic.  Many loud voice called the victims of the AIDs crisis profane or unclean. But the people here saw their brothers and sisters in Christ, and heard the call of God, to open the first medical support clinic for the gay community, which would later become Whitman Walker Health.  It welcomed anyone, as the Washington Free Clinic, and I meet lots of people today who say they wouldn’t have known what to do if it weren’t for getting help here.

Now, these years, I’m proud that this is a place where people find real sanctuary, where we mean what we say about “all are welcome.”  It’s not always easy, but we’re working on it, individually and corporately. I’m proud that there are folks here who are diverse in background, age, bank account, and political persuasion.  I’m proud that while our culture calls our homeless neighbors unclean, we welcome people in if they come for worship. In fact – a few weeks ago, the scripture text was the story of the prodigal son, and that morning I prayed and said – God, I know you’ve got a sense of humor, and I’ve got a feeling you’re going to bring us some new friends today, who might look a little ragged like that son coming home.  And wouldn’t you know it, God did. Sitting right up front, delighted to be here, and you welcomed them – because you know the Father. This is who we are, and who we are striving to be.

This scripture also tells the truth that sometimes we just don’t get it the first time, and it doesn’t make someone good or bad.  Don’t stress yourself with those categories – they’ll cause you more angst than anything else. Sometimes it takes getting used to something – shellfish, brussel sprouts, or whatever…  You might need to taste it a few times. Sometimes we catch people in the middle of that first bite and expect them to have converted – but like Peter, sometimes it takes three times, or more – even if the very voice of God is talking to you.  So give each other grace. And remember, we come from different places, different food cultures. I marvel at the fact that in the 1890s the pastor at the time wrote about the uniquely metropolitan character of this congregation – that included people from eight nationalities.  I wonder if they had potlucks, just like we did a couple weeks ago, and brought things from our different backgrounds. I wonder if they had to encourage each other to try what they brought. I wonder if they had to let down a bit of their guard and their cultural palate to let Jesus spread the table before them.

So, what’s on your sheet?  What does our culture call unclean or profane?  How might God still be speaking? How has your mind been changed about something?    The Georgetown grads who are here – they know, what it’s like to have a class change your mind, change your major.  It’s one of the best things about college, about learning experiences – they change our minds.

So how has God developed your palate?  Start literally, consider what foods you’ve changed your mind about.  Then let your mind wander to the people that God has changed your mind about, the ways in which God’s still speaking voice – through people.   God didn’t let Peter’s vision be the last word – no, God immediately sent three people to Peter, to say, come over for dinner, just like God sends to us now.  The good news is, God sends people into our lives, to help us through the hard changes.

Some of you had heard these stories before – some are new.  But it’s so that you might hear yourself in God’s story, and inspire us, to hear God’s voice, see God’s spreading the sheet before us to convert us again – what’s on it?  A feast of love. Thanks be to God. Amen.