Tag Archives: Jesus

Being a Neighbor in the Wilderness

07 Friday Mar 2014

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From Wikimedia Commons

This post is based on a sermon preached at an ecumenical Ash Wednesday service on March 5, 2014 at Hope Lutheran Church, Cincinnati.

Last week, I watched the movie Gravity.  In the film, Dr. Ryan Stone is on a space mission with about four other astronauts.  A satellite orbiting earth has been blown up, and now the remaining pieces are flying at high speeds towards their ship.  As the initial fragments propel towards them, it permanently damages the ship and leaves three of the astronauts dead.  One other astronaut is alive, and he is able to catch up with her and tether himself to her.  Eventually, however, he knows that the two of them will die if they continue to be tethered.  So he releases himself from her, and she remains on her own in space.

Dr. Stone can’t reach by radio Houston, so there’s no communication to or from earth.  The emergency pods in the International Space Station are damaged, so she can’t use them to return to home.  There are other possibilities to return to earth, but, again, Dr. Stone is working completely alone with damaged equipment.

Dr. Stone is in the wilderness.  It may seem different than a wilderness than any of us have experienced.  On top of this, Dr. Stone has lost everyone she had started the journey with because of the hurling fragments of satellite.  She is completely isolated from any other living thing, any of life’s comforts and the protection of technology.

This level of isolation reminds me of the wilderness that Jesus could have endured for days and nights on end.  The story goes that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness.  Jesus had no supplies, had no friends in the midst of this journey and fasted from basic needs.  Like Dr. Stone, he is in the middle of no where, feeling distracted by tests and disruptions.

Like Jesus and like Dr. Stone, is no doubt in my mind that each of us are going to journey through wildernesses at various points of our lives.  Sometimes it will be a wilderness of grief or a wilderness of physical illness.  Other times, it will be one that might be from mental illness like depression or anxiety, and we don’t think anyone else can relate.  As our journey in pain continues, we may isolate ourselves more and more and inflict wilderness on ourselves.

There are some of us who enjoy extended times alone.  But imagine having no source of neighbor as we go through some of life’s roughest moments.  There is no one to talk us down from our anxiety, no one to physically be present and no one to even give us insight on how to make the wilderness more tolerable.

Unlike Dr. Stone and unlike Jesus, unlike what we’ve even experienced in the past, when we endure a wilderness, we don’t have to go through it alone.  We have our neighbors.  And if we keep our eyes open, we may see that God is also present.

This is the joy of the love of neighbor: knowing that we can journey through the good times and rough times together.  We are not alone in a desert.  We are not alone in space.  We are here in the midst of community, part of the body of Christ and part of a covenantal body.   We have others pointing to the presence of God in our midst.

Granted sometimes people pull away from us when we’re in a wilderness.  Or we pull away from others.  Sometimes we feel no one can understand our pain.  And even when we are in the depths of the wilderness, it’s hard to see that God is forever present with us.

I remember that at one point in the movie, Dr. Stone says out loud “I don’t know how to pray.”  The fear of not knowing how to pray could keep us from reaching out to God.  But God doesn’t care what we say or even how we say it, and it doesn’t have to be the most beautifully crafted prayer.  It just needs to be a conversation, because God is already fully present and is trying to let this Divine presence be known to us.

Furthermore, there’s a good possibility that many of us aren’t in the wilderness.  So what if we’re the ones who don’t feel isolated by life’s trials but God is calling us to attend to someone who is?  In our call to love our neighbor as ourselves, were asked to serve our neighbors with an open heart, mind and soul and to exit our comfort zones.  Maybe we don’t know what to say to them.   Maybe we want to place ourselves far away from them because we can’t understand their pain.   Staying far away from someone in distress is easy.  But that’s not part of our call in being a neighbor.

Being a neighbor means placing ourselves in discomfort.  It means speaking to someone we’ve never spoken to before.  It means listening even though we may want to talk, talk, talk and give advice.  It means not running away from our calls from God.  It means keeping ourselves in community, even when we completely do not agree with their beliefs or their life.  And it means entering the wilderness with someone else.

This why some of our churches of different denominations are gathering together during this Lent and focusing on what it means to be a neighbor.  It’s to connect with others at different spaces in their lives as we reflect together during this sacred journey of Lent.  It’s realizing that we have neighbors close to us, and that God is also our neighbor when we are in a desolate space.

In the next few weeks, we’ll reflect on what it means to be neighbor in different situations.  We’ll think about our time as literal neighbors – with those down the street or next door.  We’ll look at our virtual neighbors, how we act online as we comment on posts or pray with others in social media.  We’ll consider what it means to be coworker, classmate, or caregiver as neighbor.  We’ll reflect on being neighbors with other churches or people who may believe differently than we do.  And we’ll place ourselves as neighbors with God’s other children across this beautiful world.

And maybe we’ll see how God is asking us to bring our literal, virtual, coworker, classmate, ecumenical and worldwide neighbor out of the wilderness or sit with them as they endure tragedy.

This Lent, let us find ways to help someone else through their wilderness.  Let us celebrate with others when it’s time to celebrate.  Let us cry with others when it’s time to mourn.  But know that we’re never alone.  No matter what our beliefs, which church we attend or where we live… if we’re in space, in a desert or in our homes… we are neighbors on this journey through the wilderness and beyond.  Amen.

HuffPost Religion Article: Jesus, Healing and Grace-Filled Gray Areas

29 Thursday Aug 2013

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HuffPost Religion Article: Jesus, Healing and Grace-Filled Gray Areas

Here’s my latest article on the Huffington Post Religion Page

Sermon: Living in the Scarcity Mindset

06 Tuesday Aug 2013

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This sermon was delivered on August 4, 2013 at St. Paul United Church of Christ, Old Blue Rock Road, Cincinnati.

A study was reported this week that 30 percent of mothers have struggled to purchase diapers for their children.  That’s one-third of the mothers in our country.  Instead, she will sometimes reuse a diaper, causing health and developmental issues for the child and extra stresses upon herself. If a woman makes minimum wage, she’s spending six percent of her pay on diapers alone.

Some may suggest cloth diapers.  But many of these women don’t have washers and driers in their household.  Many have to travel to laundromats to wash their clothes.  Travel is time-consuming and costly.

If this mom is on minimum wage, she would need to work about 87-88 hours per week in order to live.  Many people who work hard on minimum wage still need government assistance.

We all hope in the American dream – that ambitious people will climb from poverty to money.  Unfortunately, this is becoming more rare.  Through personal experience, I see how people with money socialize very little with people in poverty.  Imagine a black tie event, or a golf fundraiser.  Each entry is $1000 dollars.  At this event, wealthy people network with other wealthy people giving them more opportunities to make more money, leaving middle class folks like most of us or people in poverty to rarely associate with people of power.

Sure, some believe that people need the incentive to make more money, something that will drive them to be ambitious.  I believe that seeing a CEO making ten times as much money would make people be more ambitious.  Twenty five times as much money would drive people.  Do CEOs need to make a full 273 times the amount of the average worker?  In the booming 60’s, the average CEO made 20 times that of the average worker.  Twenty times seems relatively fair – enough that would drive people to work for more.  But before the recession hit, the ratio for CEO to average worker pay was over 350 times to one.  The person at the top of the pyramid was so heavy with wealth that the rest of the pyramid crashed.

And no matter how much someone makes, whether it’s the CEO or the entry level employee, there is never enough money in each of our lives.  Rich people are afraid they won’t have enough with billions of dollars, just like those in poverty also don’t feel like they have enough, except that the person in poverty struggles each day to keep their head above water.

This isn’t to discourage the average worker from negotiating more from his or her workplace.  Everyone deserves to be paid fairly.  But at what point does the plentitude need to begin to drip a little more from the people in the top tier of workplaces and society to those at the bottom of the pay rungs?  When are they holding back their extreme abundance when the rest of our society struggles?

Jesus knew how to tell a good story to help the rest of us humans see the world in a very different light.  A good portion of what Jesus spoke about in many of his sayings and parables happen to be about loving our neighbor and taking care of the poor.

Extravagant profit seems to be the bottom line when it comes to the rich man in the parable.  Not only does he have enough, he uses his resources to pay for barns to be torn down and new ones to be built just so he can continue to hoard.  This is more than he could ever to expect to use himself, and affluence actually leads him to being lazier in his life.  Remember the saying “the one who dies with the most toys win?”  Well, the man in the parable believed this, except that God calls him out on being a fool.   For God, being rich means extravagantly loving God and loving one’s neighbor.

The lectionary text stops at verse 21 after the parable, but I thought the context of the larger chapter is important to this story and expanded today’s reading.  Jesus then tells his disciples “Do not worry about your life.”  He’s telling them to drop this fear of scarcity of material goods.  There are so many other issues on which to spend our energy.

But maybe we worry because we know we’re living under a system that not everyone is treated fairly and a serious lack of balance.  Maybe we act out of fear that we’ll be living in poverty at some point as well.

Of course, there are many CEOs, business owners, corporations and small businesses with much integrity – who are trying to use their wealth and power to build our societies and humanity.  Unfortunately, we hear much more about corporate greed which is still a huge part of our picture.  In his book The Powers that Be, theologian Walter Wink writes the following:

“According to eighteenth century philosopher of capitalism Adam Smith, businesses exist to serve the general welfare.  Profit is the means, not the end.  It is the reward a business receives for serving the general welfare.  When a business fails to serve the general welfare, Smith insisted, it forfeits its rights to exist.  It is part of the church’s task to remind corporations and businesses that profit is not the ‘bottom line,’ that as creatures of God they have as their divine vocation the achievement of human well-being (Eph 3:10).  They do not exist for themselves.  They were bought with a price (Col. 1:20).  They belong to the God who ordains sufficiency for all.”

Taking care of those in all parts of our society is part of our job as people of God and has been part of humanity’s call since the Old Testament.  Jeremiah 29:7 says “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”  When we can keep in mind the success of the whole and of the many, not just the few, our foundation is stronger, and our communities can succeed greater.

For the record, I don’t have a problem with capitalism as long as everyone has a chance to succeed.  But even the best systems, theories and programs have faults.  Like Walter Wink says, “the Powers are good, the Powers are fallen, the Powers need to be redeemed.”  Our system of economics is sorely missing something right now, especially because people who work still need government assistance.  There is seriously something out of balance.  And as a follower of Jesus the Christ and as someone called to be both pastoral and prophetic, I would be failing my call if I didn’t preach on ways to make sure “the least of these” are taken care of.

Like the goods in the barns from today’s parable, the plenitude is not flowing from the rich.  When 30 percent of mothers can’t afford diapers, and people working for minimum wage need to work over 80 hours of week to live when people are making 270 times that amount, it is a conversation that we, as Christians, need to have.  And I know that there are a wide range of perspectives on this issue in this congregation.  Where do we start the conversation?  Where do we start reflecting?

Many of us live in this mindset of scarcity.  This mentality makes us stay silent and frightened.  And today’s text is telling us to go against this nature of worry-only-about-our-selves, to step outside of the scarcity mindset.

When we make decisions about our lives, do we listen for God or do we look at the amount in our bank accounts?  Do we hold back in fear of scarcity or do we spring forward in love and abundance?

Let’s move it another step further – What is God calling us to do as a congregation?  Are we using the earplugs of fear to mute the call of God?  Do we follow God’s call with trust that God will provide time, talent and treasure?

Where do we have abundance?  Maybe we don’t have a large congregation, but God has blessed us with a building.  How is God calling us to use this building to build God’s kingdom?

Too often, we support systems that promote the rich man in Jesus’ parable.  Have we let companies with unfair labor practices know that they are hurting the entire of humanity?  Do we let our pocketbooks decide who has the better labor practice – by spending our money at local businesses that take care of their employees?  If we don’t use our voices, are we are no better off than the rich man in Jesus’ parable?

As we go forward wondering what God’s visions for our world, our community and our church are, we must be willing to stand in faith.  We must be willing to risk, to allow our treasures to be used to grow, to allow our building to be used for the good of our community.  We must be willing to stand against systems where hard working people can’t afford diapers, toiletries, shelter and food.  For when we advocate for the well-being of all, we will find our well-being.

Churches in the Tomb

24 Wednesday Jul 2013

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Completely void of light. Darkness envelops us. There is no way to our old lives, but we can’t find our way to resurrection…

I wonder if many of our churches are stuck in the tomb. Holy Saturday won’t end and we continue to wake up each day as if resurrection will never come to fruition.

We can no longer go back to the way we used to do things. Sure, our former ways of living was enjoyable, familiar and gave us great strength. But the church is like the pre-death Jesus: it will never come again. Have we taken the time to grieve for our old ways? Do we actually believe there is new life and that new life means completely letting our old lives go?

Rolling back the stone to the entrance to the tomb and grasping resurrection takes courage. It’s allowing ourselves to give the past to yesterday and take very little with us into the future. In dying and exiting the tomb, we are setting aside the hard-heartedness that comes with loss and walking into the sunlight with faith.

Life rarely thrives in damp, shadowy caves. Many plants need sunlight to flourish. Likewise, leaving behind the tomb for the lighted resurrection world will give our churches a chance to grow.

What will we leave behind in the tomb as a church (individual congregation, denomination and Mainline Protestantism) in order for us to spring up in the bright beams of resurrection? How can living into resurrection create a spirit of thriving?

General Synod Lesson #1 – – You Can’t Do Everything!

29 Saturday Jun 2013

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Here I am at the United Church of Christ General Synod day 2. Exhaustion is already coming upon me, but I think much of it is due to time change. Or maybe it’s information overload. Anyway, I’m cherishing the time I have here as many, many of my friends are present.

What makes me sad is that I’m realizing I can do everything. I can’t be everywhere.

Times conflict. From wanting to go to two workshops during our 2030 event on Thursday to wondering which workshop I should go to this afternoon, I wish I could do more. Learning is one of the primary reasons I come to Synod. And I must choose which topics I am most passionate and in need of more information. Yesterday, I chose an intensive workshop on women’s equality issues. I would have loved to have gone to the workshop on taking care of our veterans, but for me, women’s issues are my number one passion. As a 2030 friend reminded a number of us the other day: “You can’t do everything at Synod.”

So I’m going to miss workshops that my friends are facilitating. And I’m going to miss workshops on fascinating topics. That’s life. I think the sooner we accept that we can’t be two places at once, the smoother life may go.

I remember a story in the Bible where Jesus was going to heal a young person when he was interrupted. When he got to the house, the young person had died. Likewise, when his friend Lazarus was ill he was working on other things. People weren’t exactly happy when Jesus came late, but he was human, and did the best he could.

Each of us at Synod will do the best we can connecting with friends, bringing new information to our churches and participating. We are giving 100 percent of the energy we have. We wish we could give more. But our bodies and brains are human. We pray that we remember that the spirit is always willing but the flesh is weak.

Sermon: Clean or Unclean? We’re All One.

16 Sunday Jun 2013

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This sermon was delivered at St. Paul United Church of Christ, Old Blue Rock Road, Cincinnati on June 16, 2013.

Luke 7:36-8:3
Galatians 2:11-21

Back in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. said that the 11 o’clock hour on Sunday morning is the most segregated time of the week. People of different races, ethnic groups attend their own churches. People of various political or theological views also huddle together in their own faith communities.

Even in a 2012 article, it was found that only seven percent of churches with less than 1,000 attendance are multiracial.

We think we’ve come far in this world. No more segregated water fountains. Interracial couples are legally allowed to marry all over our country where it wasn’t legal a few decades earlier. Yet, very often people of a certain color live in one neighborhood while another race lives in a separate area. And, like in 1963, we still celebrate God in very different spaces.

People always use scripture or faith to find ways to separate the “us” from “them” and to distance themselves from “the other.” Back in the 1800’s people used to scripture and faith to justify both slavery and abolition. Texts from Ephesians 6 and Titus 2 were used to affirm slavery whereas proponents of abolition looked at the ongoing Biblical themes of justice and equality to affirm their stance. Still today, there are multiple issues that one side affirms with Scripture as the other side opposes the issue with Scripture as well. And this keeps our communities divided and ever so segregated.

Why do we have this mentality of us versus them? Of course, it’s not new.

In the gospel reading from Luke, we see Jesus eating with a Pharisee. So, yes, Jesus associated with those with greater societal standing. And then a woman who the world sees as the “other” or somehow “less than” comes in and showers Jesus with attention. Jesus affirms that he experiences more love and hospitality from the woman with the lesser reputation than the Pharisee with the better reputation.

We don’t know much about this woman except that she was a sinner. We don’t know what type of sins she engaged in. They could be referring to her more as a law-breaker rather than a sinner. But wasn’t the Pharisee a sinner too?

The Luke text reminds us that Jesus associated with all types of people: women, the unclean, those who were sick. In fact, he didn’t just hang out with them, but he touched them when healing. He allowed them to touch him too. Whether it was touching dead corpses, people with leprosy or the woman with the hemorrhage, when Jesus came in touch with these people, he became unclean like them – at least according to Jewish Law. Scripture never says he went through purification rituals each evening. As our Wednesday study class had learned the other night from the Saving Jesus Redux video, Jesus had become unclean to relate and save the unclean.

If anyone was allowed to be judgmental, it was Jesus. But even Jesus wasn’t that judgmental about sins. He focused his life and ministry on showing love and grace.

In the reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, Cephas used to eat with the uncircumcised Gentiles even though he was circumcised. Cephas would eat with those who followed very different food rules.

Then James and the group who followed the law, the Jewish members of the early Jesus movement, came back into town. In order to keep people happy or to have people continue to like them, Cephas and Barnabas ditched their relationships with the Gentiles. This is when Paul confirms that there is something greater that the law that some of them followed: grace. Through that grace, both Jews and Gentiles learn to place their differences aside.

During the first century, people segregated themselves because of their rituals and food choices. Sixty years ago it was water fountains and eating spaces. What are today’s issues?

This gives us the opportunity to ask ourselves from whom would 21st century Christians divide themselves and who would Jesus hang out with today? Those who have engaged in drug use in their past? Those who swear? Our gay brothers and sisters? Interfaith or interracial couples? Those who pass a hungry man on the street? Those who own guns? Those who are against guns? Democrats? Republicans? Liberals? Conservatives? Divorced people or people who live together before they’re married? Maybe all of the above???

Wherever Jesus was, it was probably one of the least segregated places in Israel because people from different groups of people wanted to hear about love and grace. They wanted to experience healing. And Jesus himself hung out with both the Pharisees and the unclean. If Jesus showered all sorts of people with love instead of intense judgment, should we do the same?

We may not agree with our neighbors on how they live their lives. As individuals, we each build our moral codes based upon how we relate Scripture to our sense of reasoning, experience and traditions. And we don’t see Scripture, reason, experience and tradition in the same ways. But we aren’t necessarily given a free pass to shun people just because our faith and their faith doesn’t line up. Just the opposite. We are called to be in the presence of those with whom we would never intend to associate.

Jesus was one who prioritized relationships over rules. He healed the sick on the Sabbath, touched the unclean making himself unclean and ate with all sorts of people. Might Jesus be asking us to place our relationships with others over legalism and minute differences? If Jesus, who some think was perfect, was able to associate with all sorts of people and become unclean to be like them, then we who are definitely not perfect are absolutely called to associate with other imperfect people. And as for me, I’ve experienced some of the greatest hospitality and unconditional love from those who many people consider “unclean” in our society.

The way we each look at faith, at our beliefs are going to be different. At a church like ours, it’s not what you believe because, let’s face it, we’re across the board. And thank God we’re not told what to believe. But even when we are different and we’re individuals, we’re still part of the body of Christ. We’re not called to agree with one another but be one in Christ. We are still in covenant with one another even as we live autonomously. There is the Great Connection, and whether we see it on this side of heaven or that side of heaven, we will see that all of us are loved by God and called to do the same.

So as we go forward in asking ourselves “Where is God calling us” do we need to ask ourselves who is God calling us to invite and include? Are we needing to reflect on who we include and reach out to? What would this church look like if it were filled with those who are so different than us? This would be scary – – yet how would this help us to grow and live out the great commission that the Spirit has be nudging Christians to do for centuries?

As we abide in this most segregated hour of the week, let us find ways to bridge the great divide as there is no longer slave or free, male or female, clean or unclean, us or them, but, instead, one in Christ. Amen.

“Not Broken, Just Bent”

28 Thursday Mar 2013

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Recently, I have fallen in love with P!nk and Nate Ruess’ song “Just Give Me a Reason.”  The melody of the song is magnificent.  Yet there’s something about the words that reach into my heart.

It’s the lyric “Not broken, just bent.”

As Christians, what would it mean to call ourselves bent instead of broken?

I ponder the subjects of original sin, total depravity and these centuries-long idea that humans are so fallen that we can’t redeem ourselves – at least on our own.  What if that wasn’t the case?

What if we are just slightly dented?  What if we have the potential to smooth over our dings and bends because of the love of God, the leadership of Jesus the Christ and the strength of the Holy Spirit?

This is where Holy Week comes in…

Jesus died on a cross.  Did Jesus die to repair a brokenness? Or did Jesus die in the process of showing us ways of evening out the indentations on our souls and in our societies?

If we are made in God’s image, maybe we aren’t completely broken.  Maybe we just have been crushed and squashed by life, and it’s time for us to find God’s image within each one of us once again.

There is hope in knowing that we aren’t completely broken.  There’s possibilities for tomorrow.  There’s new ways of finding grace.  There’s dignity where we haven’t seen it before.

So I’m sticking with the school of thought that we are bent and not shattered.  And quite often, bends, twists and dents make us more beautiful anyway.

Bucket Lists

25 Monday Mar 2013

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IMG_20130325_200855In fifteen days, I turn 40.

This gives me no time to fill my “Before 40” bucket list – the list of activities I wished I had accomplished before I turn 40.  There are things I would have loved to cross off before this impending birthday, but it doesn’t look like these will happen.

Here is my “not going to accomplish before 40” bucket list.

  1. Meet the love of my life (could happen, probably won’t)
  2. Write a book
  3. Go to New York City
  4. Get married
  5. Go to Europe
  6. See Van Morrison in concert again
  7. Run a marathon/half-marathon
  8. Have a child (birth or adoption)
  9. Buy a house
  10. Meet Ben Affleck
  11. Take a cake decorating class
  12. Be an extra in a movie

I’m sure there’s other items…

Have some of you felt the urge to complete certain activities before you turned 30, 40, 50, etc?  What happened when you didn’t complete them?  Did you feel discouraged or even less than whjole?

Or did you save them for the next decade?

Why is completing our dreams so important by a certain age?  I think about Jesus the man, especially this Holy Week, I wonder if he was at a content place before he died?  Did he have his own Bucket List?  Was Jesus’ bucket list one that included improving the conditions for the poor and expendables during his time?  Was it one that included a significant other, marriage and children?

Or was he just blissful living fully in each moment?  Maybe that should be #1 on my list.

If you do have a way to help me make the other 12 things happen in the next 15 days, let me know…

Waving Our Palms Means Something More

24 Sunday Mar 2013

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Palm SundayThis is part of the Palm Sunday Sermon delivered at St. Paul United Church of Christ, Old Blue Rock Road, on March 24, 2013.

When we celebrate Palm Sunday, we’re not just praising Jesus.  Our call to faith is deeper than sitting in a cheering section on Jesus.  We can’t support for Jesus without cheering on our sisters and brothers who struggle.   By waving our palms in this parade, we’re cheering a system where all are given dignity and rights.

Here’s the thing – it’s risky.  Jesus died for standing up for humanity and the humans he met.  Jesus died because of the sins of broken systems.  In many similar ways, we’ve seen these deaths in recent history.  Martin Luther King Jr. died because he spoke to loudly on issues like civil rights, labor and the war.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer died because he was outspoken against Hitler and the Nazis.

If any of us to really have the faith of Jesus, we’d have the faith that would put fear aside and put our neighbors front and center.  Our lives would be at risk – from ridicule by our loved ones to arrests and death.

I wish I could have that level of faith that Jesus had – the kind that would stand up for radical love and grace no matter what the cost.  But I worry what others will think.  The let the fear of “what will people think of me if I voice my opinions” get in my way.  What will people think of me if I attend a rally or protest or parade… It’s not that I don’t stand up for what I believe, it’s just that I’ll lower my voice a bit if I know I’ll offend others.  It’s scary to be as bold as Jesus.

But boldness and justice is an imperative part of our faith.  I know that justice is reoccurring theme in Scriptures.  Some form of the Hebrew word for justice, mishpat, is used over 400 times in the Hebrew scriptures.  The faith of the prophets who stood for love and justice was the faith of Jesus.  He carried that radical love and boldness into the future by advocating for the marginalized.

Looking at the repeated mention of justice in scripture would indicate to me justice is a part of our call as Christians.  So how do we look at justice issues as a faith community, especially as a faith community of diverse theological and political views?  Our first and most important step is dialogue.  It’s trying to understand why our neighbors believe what they believe and try to figure out if we are called to advocate for the marginalized.  While we may not agree as a full community, we are still journeying together to find out what we can do to give dignity to all of God’s children.

Yes, we are called to feed and house and clothed, but we’re not called JUST to feed and house and clothe.  Through Jesus the Christ, God has called us to stand up to the powers that be to create just ways of living.  I’ve often used the illustration of mission and mercy as pulling people out of a fast running river.  Justice is going upstream to find out why they fell in the river to begin with.  Most of us have found our place at the bottom of this stream pulling people out.  But what if we traveled together upstream to find out why people have fallen into the river and maybe even do something about it?

And If we had the faith of the prophets and the faith of Jesus to be radically loving and just, who would we stand up for in our society?  Much like they took care of the widows and orphans, is our call to stand up for the single mom who can’t afford childcare?  Just like they called for the Israelites to take care of the aliens, are we called to take care of immigrants in our land?  Just like the Just like Jesus cured those with leprosy, are we called to advocate for those with HIV/AIDS or other stigmatized illnesses?  Just like Jesus had a grassroots protest on the other side of Jerusalem, are we called to protest systems that oppress?

Celebrating Palm Sunday means supporting Jesus’ stand against oppressive systems.  It means more than hosannas and yippees.  It’s standing on the side of justice and risking who we are to stand for the greater good.  So when we wave the palms, we’re not only supporting Jesus, we supporting Jesus’ way of loving others at a cost.

As we face the most intense part of Lent – Holy Week – how will we reflect on the powerful love and courageous steps of Jesus?  In what ways can we love, advocate and serve radically?  In what ways can we be bold in our faith?  If we are willing, let us pick up the palm leaves not only to honor our redeemer, but to stand with him as he shares the love of God with all he meets.

In Christ’s Love – A Letter From a Ally

11 Monday Feb 2013

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Last night, I tweeted this:

“I’m a straight ally pastor who is here for you dealing w/#TheStrugglesOfBeingGay. God loves you just as you are! :)”

I received a few responses from people on Twitter.  I think they needed to hear that there are people of faith who support and love them.

How could I not tweet this?  Jesus the Christ loved everyone.  Am I not called to do the same thing?

But that’s not the only reason.

I have experienced the unconditional, steadfast love of God through my gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered friends.  They have been open to sharing Christ’s radical love.  And this has led me to becoming a straight ally.

Since college, I continuously have new LGBT friends coming into my life.  I’ve met them through friends, work and school.  Some of my dearest friends have come out to me since we’ve met, and others have come out years prior to our meeting.

This is what I would say to those of  you who are my LGBT friends in a friendship letter of love:

I think you are all so very brave to truly be the person God has made you.  And I am blessed by all of you in my life.

When I’ve been down, you have listened to me.  When I’ve been sick, you have brought me food.  You have prayed with me in times of trouble.  We’ve laughed together, and we’ve cried together.  You have encouraged me in my calling and been a huge part of my faith journey.

You are witnesses to the steadfast presence of Christ in our friendships and in this world.  You’ve extended hands of  hospitality and truly cared about me just as I am.

To my friends who identify as gay, lesbian, transgendered, bisexual, queer, asexual, questioning and fellow straight allies… thank you.

This is a letter of love back to you.  Our orientations and gender identities may be different, and I don’t know the true capacity of strife you’ve experienced in  your lives.  But I am proud to stand next to you and say we are all children of God, and we are all made in God’s image.  We all want joy in our lives, and we all want to be loved just as we are.

Thank you for inviting me to your weddings to see new covenants being made.  Thank you for breaking bread with me.  Thank you for allowing me to be a visitor in your homes.  My life is better because you are in it.

Love, Michelle

Now, to my friends who are still in the camp of “traditional” marriage (a.k.a. marriage between one man and one woman): I recognize that you will not all will agree with me.  Many just  aren’t there when it comes to expanding marriage, yet you treat LGBT people with respect.  I try to be sensitive about voicing my views to people who aren’t quite at the same place I am about gay marriage and various gay rights.  Experiencing new people and new situations takes a certain comfort level.  I highly encourage you to continue conversations with LGBT friends, and maybe your views on love, life and God will change.

And then there are people who are relentless about keeping love in a box: those who use the Bible against their fellow sisters and brothers.  I realize that standing quietly by and allowing seriously bigoted views to float through our atmosphere does not make sense anymore.  Allowing bullying and slanderous words should no longer be in our society.

I’ve heard from some people think that loving a person requires trying to change someone into becoming straight, and that being gay is not good enough.  So here’s what I’d like to say to these friends.  Here’s my letter to those who have closed themselves off from having unconditional loving relationships with their LGBT sisters and brothers:

I have to ask you a couple questions: How would you like it if someone wanted to change something about you that you could not change?  How would you enjoy living in a world where people didn’t love you for who you are.

You see, my LGBT friends are moral.  Extremely moral and kind.  They know Christ in ways that many bigoted people seem to miss.  They know Christ in ways that I have even neglected sometimes.  All they want is to have the same chances at love as you do.  And I’m sorry that those of you who are my close-minded friends have missed out on such love and beauty in your lives.

I also do not want my LGBT friends hurting anymore.  I want them to feel the same dignity you and I feel.  I want them to feel no shame.  I want them to experience the overflowing love of God.  And that is why I write to you today.

My prayers are that God helps you see people and the human condition in new ways – mostly so that you will have an enriched life full of overflowing love.

Love, Michelle

After watching Lincoln this weekend, I had to write this.  It came to mind that, generation after generation, some people feel the need to oppress others to keep their status of life more valid.  What happens when slaves are freed – will they get to vote?  What happens when they vote – will women get to vote?  Justice is a slippery slope.  But that’s the good and decent slippery slope that needs to happen.  Through logic, I see how those who defended slavery and stood against voting rights for minorities and women were on the wrong side of justice.  Those who stood against interracial marriage were on the wrong side of justice.  In 50 years, people will wonder why so many in the early 21st century stood on the wrong side of justice.  Just like those defending injustice decades ago, they used God and the Bible as their reasoning (yet continued to eat bacon-wrapped shrimp).

For Martin Luther King, Jr. said “The arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice.”

Join me on this side of the arc of justice.  If you haven’t had the chance to get to know LGBT people around you, I highly suggest it.  They will bless your lives in new ways.  Listen to their stories.  Hear the struggles they’ve endured.  Know that God will be presence as you listen to each.

I feel that writing this is a bit of a risk.  But, in this life, I feel the necessity to share God’s overflowing love.  That’s the love that brings connection and understanding.  And how wonderful of a world it would be if we could experience this in one another!

I thank all of you who have open my eyes to new types of love.  Let’s keep love outside of the box today, this Valentine’s Day and throughout the year.