What Does Resurrection Life Look Like? (Walking in Newness of Life) 6/21/20 Pentecost 3A

Rev. Rebecca L. Kiser 

What Does A Resurrection Life Look Like?

(Walking in Newness of Life…)

6/21/2020          Pent 3A    (Fathers Day) 

            There are some events in life that become markers, like there’s the time before x happened, and the different time after X happened. In our country, we have this pandemic - I’ve already found myself describing things in 2019 and early 2020 as “before the virus.” Looks like there will be many changes in healthcare as a result, after this virus.  

There are events in our personal lives as well, like say, a wedding - a wedding certainly marks a time “before the wedding” (or single)…. and “after the wedding” (or married).   Many people change their name, too - a very significant change of identity.  Since we’re celebrating Father’s Day, let’s mention that first child, that changes us from a couple to parents.  Turning 65 was a milestone for me - a dreaded birthday where now I have to check that new box on forms, and the young folks on the Dunkin Donut drive-thru give me the discount without me asking. 

So the apostle Paul is writing to the Christ-followers in Rome in our text today - a long letter that’s more like an Intro to Christianity 101, with explanations of many parts of our faith that have come down as basic doctrines. In our text this morning, Paul takes on some folks who are being rather silly, in thinking about the grace of God  - the grace towards us in forgiving what the Scripture calls “sins,” ie places where we fall short of following Christ, either by accident or on purpose.  They’re saying, so if God gives grace when we sin, let’s sin more!  Then there will be more grace!  At least that what it sounds like to me.

        Although it sounds silly the way it’s explained here,  Paul responds seriously, and uses this to explain his understanding of  the “before” and “after” of becoming a Christ- follower, taking on Christ through participating in Christ’s death and resurrection.  “By no means! (he writes)  How can we who have died to sin, go on living in it?”  Coming to the knowledge of Christ is one of those definitive events, those turning points, of our lives.  It is so radical a change in our being, that Paul says it’s like the old ‘us’ died, and a new ‘us’ is born.  The person we were before becoming a Christ-follower, not knowing or caring what God says or wants, just following what the world tells us - we need to consider that person as having died with Christ.  This new person is born who knows and cares what God says and thinks, this new person who is now in a relationship with the Creator of existence and desires to follow what Christ has said, and trusts that God has told us the truth about ourselves and the world - this new person has been raised like Christ from the tomb where he was laid and buried - into a new spiritual life.  Paul uses the sacrament of baptism (probably practiced as immersion), as picturing this death and rebirth - we go under the water, dying like Christ; and we arise from the water raised to new life like Christ. And it’s not just a symbolism, Paul says - it’s a spiritual reality.  Now we walk in newness of life, he says. 

Jesus used the same concept of new life when he had that encounter with Nicodemus, where Jesus says that to enter the kindom of God, we must be born from above, or born again as older translations put it.  It’s what Jesus means when he calls people to believe, and step into the realm / kingdom / kindom of God, which has drawn near us in his person.  God’s very Spirit comes to dwell in us, Jesus tells his disciples, and we become one with each other,one with God, an immense unitive experience that we don’t really understand, although we desire it and long for it all our journey.  Our spiritual life is born, a new creation.

Some people do have radical conversion experiences, turning from a former godless way of living to a new way of life acknowledging God. I was always kinda jealous of those folk’s ability to tell a dramatic story of transformation by the gospel; as I grew up learning all the Bible stories and characters, seeing folks pray, and hearing sermons about living for God --  with that upbringing, I never really did a lot of things that would make my testimony sound real dramatic.  I was a good kid who tried her hardest to follow all the rules people told me about being a Christian and loving God.  That’s age-appropriate for a child, learning the rules.  Of course as we grow up, we’ll find just following the rules to not be enough, and we have to grow into a different understanding of this walk in newness of faith.  The rules can be a good start. 

            See, what Paul describes as a one-time change might be correct theologically - and really, it does mark the beginning of a new way of being, a new spiritual awareness and purpose.  We don’t exactly wake up the next morning as a spiritual giant, though... who understands all truth and lives perfectly in step with Christ.  What we’ve done is step through the door, or start the journey; a journey that is never over.  Like learning to be married, or learning to be a parent - it’s more like on-the-job training.  Just so, this walking in newness of life is an ongoing thing. 

            It's true for the Capital-C Church, too - the Church was not suddenly totally aware of all the implications of the gospel for how to live our human life according to Christ’s teachings.  Take racism, for example, since that’s an ongoing large issue for our country right now, on top of the pandemic that’s also ongoing.  Our early forebears in this country had no qualms about enslaving other people.  Slavery made the plantation way of life a good economic reality.  Other parts of the country found, similarly, that paying low wages to people desperate for any income at all, also made economic sense to them as owners and beneficiaries of the profits.  Most all these slave owners attended church and were considered good church people - they worshipped God, they gave, they married, they prayed, and they knew Bible stories.  But they didn’t make the connection between all people made in the image of God with their slaves.  Instead, they maligned the whole race of black people with negative stereotypes, even if they were among the owners who treated their slaves better than others did. 

            Come the Civil War, many of these good church people found “proof” in Scriptures that slavery was okay, and argued that helping those poor slaves was civilizing them, which they couldn’t do by themselves.  The Presbyterian Church split over this, as well as the country.  The northern and southern branches of the Presbyterian church only reunited as recently as 1983.  The Juneteenth celebrations which have been in the papers this week celebrate the day the news of emancipation got clear to Texas, June 19th.  Emancipation may have technically recognized former slaves as free people, but it didn’t do anything about stereotypes and discrimination.  It was a large step, yes, and hard won.  But it was still a long way from equality. 

            In the civil rights time in the 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr  was a preacher of the gospel who saw the vision of people living together as a Biblical vision; yet it was resisted by the white church, which still supported the status quo and had a difficult time imagining how this freedom could work.  This is my lifetime now - I started 1st grade the same year as Ruby Bridges walked with 6 US deputies to integrate her school in New Orleans, LA.  I watched the original Poor People’s March on my TV there in DC where we lived.  The folks in my home church were good people, good Christians, serving Jesus and studying the Scriptures and praying for God’s will to be done. But as soon as black families began to move into the neighborhood,  they sold their houses and fled to other suburbs that were still white.  Good church people resisted efforts at integration of schools.  Norfolk, where I raised my own children, resisted to the point of closing the entire school system for one year.  And without home schooling or online classes - the year had no graduating class at all.  That year gave them time to set up private schools for their own white children, to avoid being in school with black children.  We look back now and think, “How could they have not seen the injustice, the obvious Christian welcome to children the same color as the children we sent mission workers to?  Folks in my home church weren’t KKK, weren’t haters, and were willing to be nice and polite to black people - except not to live near them. 

It pains me that the Capital-C church folk weren’t all on the front lines of this call for justice for our sisters and brothers of color.  Some were, yes.  Others Christ-followers were against the social changes, the old stereotypes burned into their consciousness.  Others Christ-followers were afraid to speak out, or didn’t know what to do. 

So we come to the protests and calls for change that we have today, because it just takes so much time to separate out what is cultural tradition and inherited teachings from the actual gospel of Jesus Christ, to let it go, to move beyond what we grew up thinking was the just the way of things - implicit racism taught in our homes and taken for granted in our churches. 

            It seems to take God’s Spirit a lot of effort to lead us to look beyond those things we take for granted as the way things are, and actually see the vision God has for the world; personally as well as corporately.  Many churches, when I was teenager, confused the length of hair and length of skirts with gospel standards; not to mention rock music. They fought over those kinds of things harder than they fought over sins of pride and greed.  Saying the Lord’s Prayer in school was as important in that generation of Christ-followers as mission and evangelism.  Those things were just customs, and just the way things had been - they had nothing to do with the gospel of Christ. 

I'm sure the coming generations will look back at my generation and see the same blindnesses about what to them are obvious ways of walking in Christ’s kindom in newness of life, that we didn’t perceive.  The capital-C Church is always being reformed by God’s Spirit, and our personal journeys are always turning corners to see new vistas.  The Spirit works layer by layer to peel away unessentials and reveal essentials. 

May it be so with us, as the gospel enlightens, calls and  challenges us to perceive this newness of life. 

Compassion versus Patronizing 6/14/20 Pentecost 2A

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

Compassion versus Patronizing

6/14/2020       Pentecost 2A

            A friend posted a...well, quasi joke...about, hey when did 2020 become the Twilight Zone???  Another friend made a..well, quasi joke about Are we revisiting Moses’ 10 plagues? This is some year…changes, stresses, fear, challenge - not life going along as we’ve been used to.

      It seems to me that most of us are past the initial panic that this novel coronavirus threw us into, and are adjusting...we have to - we can’t live in so freaked out a space forever.  We can tell, however, that all these events are affecting behaviors & even mental health. People are on edge, and unsettled. Then there is the report last week of yet another killing of a black man, that triggered long-held angers about mistreatment and injustices of racism in so many ways; bringing the racial tensions in our country to the fore for all citizens once again. And while many people are examining our hearts and seeking ways to end racism, others are going the other way. The pictures of white supremacists wearing military armor and carrying assault weapons in public - with no recrimination by the civil governments, no less - are frightening.

            I’ve wanted to cry a few times as I see the news….pray & cry, because I don’t know how to fix things, & it feels so much bigger than I am. Of course, I’ve been fighting a bug the past 2 weeks or so, thankfully not covid 19; and when my body is low, I tend to be more sensitive to things and tear-up more easily….but still - this is scary. It feels like things are out of control, & no one is doing anything positive or suggesting a good direction for us to go. Or even keeping us all together - it feels like people are so at odds over everything.

I’m so glad we can go to God in prayer, and pour out our fears and hopes to the Holy Spirit.  There are times when we are reminded forcefully that there are forces and powers stronger than us that are moving in the world, and that it is vital that we listen for the words of the Spirit and be guided in the right path, to work with and walk with what God is doing.

So we hear the words of Jesus in today’s text with special urgency - “When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”  Can we see from Jesus’ perspective for just a moment here? All the sick are coming to him for healing, all kinds of illness and human suffering pressing around him.  Can we feel Jesus’ compassion? His heart hurting as he sees the pain of all the hurting people? The many illnesses that already effect people; this sudden virus that’s more virulent than normal, and about which we know so little on top of things; then this ongoing pain of an injustice to people of color that has been part of our national culture since our country’s birth; the way prejudice has been built into the very systems our white ancestors established for order and law; the pain of a whole people being revealed once again to our white eyes and ears.  On top of this, all the economic implications of the world’s suffering - supply chains disrupted, a higher unemployment percentage than ever since the great depression.  We here in Jamesville might not have felt all this yet, but we will see it in higher prices, and increasing hunger and homelessness in the larger populations.  Those of us fortunate enough to have investments are seeing their value decrease steadily, which will eventually affect OUR retirements and standards of living, too.  I’m not being prophetic here - this is easily observable. 

Can we look out at the suffering of people on all these levels and feel the compassion of  Jesus?  Can our hearts be open, as God’s heart is open, to the huge needs of the state, the country, and the world that God created, loves, seeks and longs to heal?  I know that it’s difficult to feel for others when we are frightened for ourselves, and insecure in our own well-being.  However, as a people whose trust is in the eternal God, we can be secure enough to look with compassion toward all those who don’t have that same inner security, much less the outer security. 

Sheep without a shepherd - among the imagery that Jesus uses the most, an image that was a well-known part of that culture - shepherds and sheep.  Sheep wandering around, not knowing where food is, water is, safety is, where the predators are, no protection, no guidance….no leadership making good decisions or pointing the way forward, or organizing programs to help; no one with vision keeping us together or protecting us from scams or bad decisions.  Sheep out of control, going every which way in panic.  Reminds me of our country right now….the needs are great.

Personally, I think that the message of faith, the invitation to step into the kindom of God, embracing the teachings and peace and forgiveness and transformation that Jesus offers - is a basic need for our world.  Yes, we need leaders of courage and good vision to guide us. More basic than that, though, is the inner transformation that turns us to the compassion of God, the care for one another, the new vision that we are ALL family and beloved, that the needs of all people are important to the whole.  We need the underpinnings of faith that tell us creation is an  act of God and a revelation of God, and is good, and that we are it’s stewards.  We need a conception of humanity as both dust and divine breath, set in community, in the image of God, and how God has sought us and provided a way for us through all generations….culminating in coming among us in Jesus the Messiah. We need an understanding of and a sensitivity to the way we are fallen, and in need of being forgiven and transformed, or else we will seek the ways of death and destruction.  The world-view of faith and a growing walk with the God of the Cosmos lays a bedrock foundation for our governing and our interactions - without that faith, we are sheep without a shepherd.  

(Not that other traditions don’t have wise words and a view of kindness & trust….I’m talking from my tradition…)

Jesus goes on to tell his followers to pray to God for more laborers to send into this harvest field, which is ready. This, too, is happening literally in our country, as crops are sitting in fields rotting because the migrant workers and non-citizens who do the back-breaking labor of harvesting food for our consumption can’t travel, or are sick themselves.  We are learning just who are the essential workers, aren’t we?  Jesus is, of course, speaking metaphorically about the harvest of people who he says are actually READY to hear God’s message, if only there were people to go to them and share the good news of God with them. 

Then he goes on to send the 12 out, who are named and instructed in the following paragraphs of today’s text.   A side note - he tells them to only go to the people of Israel at this point - we know that the gospel goes global later - Jesus is telling them to start with those around them, those they know.  John Wesley, among the founders of Methodism, rightly said that the world is our parish, yes, and most congregations have to start locally, among those we know and live amongst.  Jamesville, our hamlet between the city of Syracuse and the farming  or formerly farmed countryside, is our starting place for mission and service - not our only place of service and mission, but a place to start looking beyond ourselves, and offering the compassion of God through offering ourselves.  This is where we live - the new housing developments, the current and former farmers, our schools, our trailer parks, the places of poverty and hunger; and more and more we are being pulled into relationship with the city, as it expands with students, and as people living here work in the city and its businesses and schools.  We are not isolated from the city, nor the other suburban developments north of us.  We may notice that Jesus sends the 12 OUT into the harvest fields - just as we go out from here after our worship together, back into the fields of our lives and neighborhoods.  Just as we need to go out from our structures and into the community to carry God’s compassion and message to where folks are, and where we can serve. 

I was initially going to take a different tact in the sermon, as you can tell by my title - I got carried in another direction from sitting with the “sheep without a shepherd” image.  Compassion is a cool word - com-passion, with passion, with heart, with solidarity, with identifying with others.  God’s love is not a patronizing way that just hands our some largesse and goes away - God’s love is not just throwing money at something - God’s way is to just pass a new rule and hope it helps -- - rather, God comes among us in Jesus the Messiah, living with us, knowing what it's like to be a finite being in this world, knowing our pain and sorrow.  In Jesus, God stands in solidarity with us, lives with us, walks with us, and longs for the same restoration and wholeness and healing that we long for. 

That’s our model for love and compassion.  Listening to the pain, identifying with those who suffer injustices, being in solidarity with those who hunger, or suffer loneliness, or deal with mental issues, or live with disabilities, or cry over their hungry children, or who long for opportunities, or live with dysfunction in their relationships ---  we go to them and listen, we stand with them and serve them as God leads.  And we share the good news of God’s love, God’s care, God’s compassion, God’s forgiveness, God’s restoration…  They don’t come and try and fit in with  us - we go out and join with them.  That’s what God does; that’s what we are called to do.  That’s what mission is - going out, feeling what it’s like for others, and responding from our heart and God’s heart. 

May God’s Spirit continue to open our eyes with compassion to this community and this world, that we become those who are sent to the fields ready for harvest.  AMEN.

All In God's Image 6/7/20 Trinity A

The Rev Dr Rebecca L. Kiser

All In God’s Image

6/7/2020       Trinity A

 A pastor colleague in Myrtle Beach posted this challenge on facebook this week - share the most recent beautiful nature picture in your photos! I posted a picture of the beautiful yellow forsythia from my apartment complex.  Others posted pictures of lilies, rainbows, orchids, backyards, gorgeous old trees - and more.  Part of the fun of spring for me is watching all the different flowers and flowering plants come out - all the varieties, all the colors, all the sizes.  And did you notice?  All the trees aren’t the same green!  And some branches go up and others hang down, and they are all sizes, and all with different barks and leaves.  When God made the earth bring forth plants and such, it wasn’t just one kind of flower in one color - imagine if the only flower created was a yellow marigold - anyone who wanted flowers in their yard had only displays of yellow marigolds. Creation wasn’t just one kind of tree, so that there was just one kind of tree everywhere in the forests - all pine trees, for example.

And God didn’t stop with one kind of fish, or one kind of mammal.  In fact, there wasn't just one dog variety or one dog color; there wasn’t just one cat variety and one cat color.  There wasn’t just one breed of cows, and all the horses looked exactly the same! 

When God created, God had way too much fun with sizes and colors and breeds and necks and noses and beaks and feet and wings and scents and all kinds of any variable!!  When God made stars, God threw millions of them out.  When God made sea creatures, God made zillions.  Plants, too. And land animals.  And not just cute, cuddly things, either - some of my friends online are into pictures of baby goats of all things, and there was a baby platypus the other day, too.  God also made icky bugs and stinky animals, like the cartoon I sent out - maybe they aren’t so cute and cuddly, but, you know, they are a part of nature and important to the environment we live in.  I like alphabet books, and here’s one my sons bought me - the Icky Bug Alphabet book! 

When God made planets, God made plenty of them;  the earth’s land is full of diversity, too - hot, cold, water, ice, mountains, valleys, glaciers, beaches - not to mention all the layers underneath!

Doesn’t it make sense that when God made humans, God also made lots of variety?  This creation story we read today only mentions male and female made in God’s image.  Yes, women and girls as well as men and boys.  We’re all in God’s image.  But God didn’t stop with just a couple flowers or a couple colors or a couple sizes in anything else - humans, too come in all shapes and sizes and colors!  There is simply LOTS of science in how and why all these varieties exist, for different climates, or different amounts of sun, or whatever influenced different characteristics in our DNA - there is WAY too much for any one person to comprehend all the fields of study of creation in depth.   And people are still discovering even more, as we’ve made instruments to see far distances as well as see microscopically.

God’s creation is magnificent and marvelous, and considering all this can overwhelm our minds and emotions, and we cry, Praise!  We are overawed. 

These last weeks have again brought up to our consciousness that not all humans are appreciated like other humans, or treated like other humans. It seems like most nations have a dominant race, with their dominant culture; and things that they design naturally are designed for people like themselves.  And that dominant group tends to think their culture is really the only real culture and right culture - everyone should adjust and become like them, then things would be fine.  Except that its not in our control what race or color we’re born into; nor is it in our control what disabilities we may be born with, or what family we are born into, or what gender we may be born with (although there’s some evidence that gender may be more fluid than we’ve assumed).  Yet it’s a part of our faith that humanity is created by God and in the image of God, no distinctions. 

Sorting people into hierarchies, or into an “us” and a “them,” seems to be almost an innate thing.  We learn to sort and order things early in our childhood - I remember all those worksheets coming home with my children on “different and alike.”  Somewhere along the way, the group with the most alike people decided they were the normal ones, & the best ones, & the other kinds were lesser . Maybe back in our tribal origins, it was important to know what tribe we were in, and work for that tribe, and know how our tribe does things, be scared of other tribes and their ways.  Our Hebrew Scriptures, for example, talk a lot about the tribe of Israel - Israel’s descendents, as the people of the promise, the people who worshipped the real God and correctly; God made covenants with them, took them to be God’s own people, and to not intermarry with those of other tribes. Racial purity is a thing in the Hebrew Scriptures, yes.  And Judaism merges racial identity with religious identity and national identity in quite a mix.  I’d like to read a Rabbi talking about that. 

As I said last week, Christ-followers are called to enlarge our tribe, draw the circle bigger of who is like us. Who our family is is suddenly not a matter of shared DNA, or shared color, or shared language, or shared nation…..our family is now a family of believers, and even the whole family of those for whom Christ came, died, and rose.  Our larger unity is now the unity of humanity, earthlings, people made in God’s image.  We are now all one species, who live on one planet.  In Christ there is no hierarchy - we are sisters and brothers.  The way we’ve learned to love our nuclear family and extended families, the way we’ve learned to care for family members, share with family members, help out family members - this sense of family needs to expand to our family in Christ, in God. 

I didn’t read the 1 Corinthians text assigned for today, which is that text about how we are all members of the body of Christ, like hands and feet and ears and toes etc are parts of our bodies.  And it says, if one part hurts, the body hurts.  Well, that’s true!  If a virus invades my lungs, it's not just my lungs that are sick - I am sick.  If I break my leg, my whole body has to cope.  If my intestines are gurgling, it’s going to affect all of me sooner or later.  If my pituitary gland, which is about the size of a pea, is malfunctioning, it affects all the hormones and  systems in my body.  Our body parts are interconnected; just so are we, members of Christ’s body, interconnected.  Just so is the human species interconnected, as well as interconnected with all nature and creation. 

It hurts all of us that the black people in our country, offspring of the slaves imported here by our white ancestors, are carrying so much of the poverty, poor education, lack of opportunity; and are victims of discrimination and suspicion while walking, hiking, driving, shopping, whatever.  Realizing that Black lives Matter is an important step in broadening that circle of family for us.  It’s a realization that for most of us, our circles have mainly included other folks of some kind of whiteness.  When we’ve thought of “people like us,” color has been a factor; now the challenge is to broaden who we think of as “like us,”  and listen as they tell us what their experience is of living in this system we created for people like us - which hasn’t been the same experience we’ve had.  Our country has taken many important steps in attempting to overcome racism; not everyone in our country has liked it, although many of us have.  There are still more steps to take, in both our government and in our hearts. 

When we celebrate communion, like we do today, we are celebrating the promises of God and the work of Christ for all people, all humans.  Gathered around us at this table are people of many colors, many nations, many languages, and many cultures.  We are gathered to give thanks to God for the blessings of creation, the blessings of how God has sought humans throughout history, and how God sent Christ to help bring us all back to a good relationship with our maker - and to each other.  I’ve chosen a couple  hymns from the religious traditions of our black sisters and brothers for this service, as we support the work of enlarging our circles of who is like us, who is family.  AMEN.

God's Spirit is Still Here and Working 5/31/20 Pentecost A

Rev. Rebecca L. Kiser

God’s Spirit is Still Here and Working

5/31/2020  Pentecost A

            I’ve been looking forward to celebrating the day of Pentecost!  The last few weeks after Easter have been talking about God’s Spirit, with Jesus breathing on the disciples and saying “receive my spirit,” and last week had the promise that as Jesus was ascending now to heaven, the Spirit would come on them, and they would have the Spirit’s power to witness about God, starting from their town all the way to the whole world.  So we’ve been getting prepped for this day, like they were. 

            The story in Acts 2 is like something out of movie special effects, with the unusual visual things that were like tongues of fire on their heads; the sound and power of a great wind, and then the sudden ability they were given to speak in all the known languages of the people gathered in Jerusalem for the Jewish feast day.  Evidently many  who heard those words about God believed them,and Jesus’ followers EXPLODED, from the disciples and mostly unnamed women, and those in other cities like Mary, Martha and Lazarus, and others who were healed - from this more local group, to hundreds, even thousands, who went home to their various seaports around the Med Sea, and told more people! 

            So sometimes Pentecost, marking the coming of the Spirit in those who believe in Christ, is also called the birthday of the Capital-C Church. 

            It’s not that God’s Spirit wasn't present and working before this - there are plenty of places in the Hebrew Scriptures that speak of God’s spirit coming on someone to do great deeds, or tell a big message. It sounds kind of like this is different somehow, though - like Jesus has said before this, the Spirit or Advocate or Teacher or Comforter, whatever name we use - now will live in us and connect us in a unity with all of God AND ALSO with each other.  We will be called now the very body of Christ.  We will be drawn into a new kind of relationship with God is what it sounds like, and a new relationship with ALL PEOPLE, even those NOT like us in color, language, gender, nationality, tribe or whatever other distinctions that have been used to make people hate or fear one another.

    

     As I was driving home from picking up some groceries, enjoying the trees that have leafed out and the spring blossoms of various shrubs and flowers, it hit me - God is here.  I may forget about that for hours at a time, like while I plan meals and compare prices at the grocery, or when I sit at my computer to pay bills, or when I’m on Amazon ordering pinwheels - or any number of daily things that take my attention - I may forget that God is all around, but it’s still true.  God is around and in me while I’m driving, shopping, talking, cleaning, working, ...whatever.  God is here.  God’s Spirit is always present in me, around me and just ,,,well, present.  And God's spirit is working for God’s purposes in everything that surrounds me and happens to me.  It’s MY awareness that is lacking, not God’s presence. 

This is something that the Spirit does - the Spirit brings up the fact of God’s presence, as well as what God has taught us about Capital-L Life.  I can increase my awareness of God’s presence and the Spirit’s presence around and in me by connecting this awareness with my breathing.  Breath and wind are common allusions to the Spirit in scripture; and many religious traditions use an awareness of the breath as a practice of staying in the current moment, and not being distracted.  If I make the association of Spirit with my breathing, then I can remember God’s presence with every breath.  The breath that is the sign of my physical aliveness can become the reminder of my spiritual aliveness as well.  I can increase my awareness that God is with me at all times, by this simple action of breathing.  And just like I breathe everywhere I go or anywhere I am, God is present everywhere I go and anywhere I am.  There’s this one day a year that we celebrate the coming of the Spirit, yet the Spirit of God is actually here every day. 

            As I read about this Covid-19 virus, I often read about the breathing difficulties it brings.  It attacks our lungs, the place where our breathing moves the air to our whole bodies and brain.  Evidently, from our lungs, it spreads into our veins and attacks that system of moving blood around the body as well.  This virus is, in a word, a severe threat to what sustains our very lives - our breath and our veins; it can cause problems in many of our systems that sustain life.

In our spiritual lives, there is also a virus that threatens our life, which is called by the old-fashioned word “sin.”  If the Spirit is the very Capital-L life of our soul, sin is the path of spiritual death. It is anti-God, anti-God’s revealed word, anti-God's teachings, all the ways we limited and mortal folks resist, deny, or even actively choose to not follow The Jesus Way.  Sometimes we sin because we’re ignorant or haven’t thought about it; sometimes we sin because it’s convenient; sometimes our pastors and parents and society have taught us something different, and we haven’t felt the conviction from God’s Spirit about it yet.  Sin infects our breathing in of Spirit, and destroys the ways God’s wisdom goes out to all our actions, like veins do for our human blood. 

So I’m going to get a little political here.  The connection of  George Floyd’s
I can't breathe” suffering and death to the way I was crafting this sermon about breath was just too obvious for me to overlook.  And I’m not the only pastor or Christ-follower hearing that link with the Spirit and Pentecost - my facebook feed has been blowing up with folks making the  same connections.  And I'm certainly not the only person pondering just how the racism of our country can be addressed, nor praying that the Holy Spirit once again come in fire and wind to blow a massive change into our world. 

Racism is a major sin against humanity, that one group of humans could consider another group of humans lesser, and have this poison be so built into the system we live in, that we of the dominant group are even unaware that it exists.  Our situation is not unique in the world or in history - peoples have been looking down on other peoples from way back. Nations with powerful militaries have been invading and enslaving other nations from way back.  People who differ from us have almost always been made into a “them,” as in “them” versus “us.”  Christians, who believe God loves all people and sent Christ for all people, and who are charged to share the message of God’s love to all people - have accepted this way of seeing the world without much critique.  We’ve even bought into the militaristic conquering of non-Christian nations as a way of converting them….  So this is not a new sin; it is a very old sin.  Yet even those of us who sing that we are all one in Christ have not eradicated this racism virus, this racism sin.  Mostly because we Christians got joined to the civic power of a dominant nation way back in the time of Constantine, who held the image of the sword hilt as a cross, and heard the message that in this sign he would conquer.   Christians have often been part of the more privileged class, and so have not seen the underside of racist societies.  Things are good for “us” - “they” should just get in the system.  If the Holy Spirit has convicted Christ-followers of this as a sin, we have ignored it; and the ways of death have quenched the Capital-L Life that God called us to. 

I don’t have an easy answer, friends - these recent deaths of black sisters and brothers that have made headlines haven’t been the pristine examples of right and wrong that we might have wanted.  I admit that I argued some because the black folks weren’t always perfect, either - although the white folks were certainly at the wrong. And I have a son-in-law who is police, and I’ve heard what he’s had to endure while seeking to confront or arrest someone who is resisting or denying any wrong-doing, black or white!  And I tend more to want to find non-violent ways to protest; although even Martin Luther King Jr, an advocate of non-violence himself, admitted that riots are the voice of the unheard.

I’ve read and listened to the experiences of people of color, and begun in a small way the work of seeing my own white culture and how I’ve benefited by being white.  I’m certainly not a white supremist, but neither have I been a staunch ally - I’ve been more of the moderate person with sympathy for those mistreated by our society’s structure, while involved more in other issues.  I’ve wanted to join Dr William Barber’s Poor People’s campaign and learn more, act more - but I put it off until last week during the Festival of Homiletics when I was convicted by hearing Dr. Barber speak about how the minority peoples of the world are carrying the brunt of how our societies are destroying the environment, and seen the data about the unbalanced percentages of people of color contracting and dying from the Covid-19. 

I'm proposing today that it's time for Christ-followers to take seriously the words of our Lord and God that all humanity is made in God’s image, all humanity is beloved by God and sought by God, and that all humanity deserves to be treated well by our governments.  In fact, the Hebrew prophets speak loudly against the countries that oppress the poor, perpetuate injustice on the powerless, and take advantage of those without voice.  Truly, they cannot breathe free. It is time for our churches to follow the Spirit, and lead the way in dismantling racism and its systems, and healing the way we’ve gone along with the systemic mistreatment and injustice of those who are part of the body of Christ, as we are.  We need a wind of change, and we need a fire to burn out this disease from our midst.   

Most of us never owned slaves, and most of us probably consider ourselves non-racist.  Most of us probably know and have worked with people of color, and got along to some degree. Most of us, however, are not fearful that police will stop us and mistreat us; most of us, if our mortgage is somewhat higher than it could be, know its more about our credit rating than our race; few of us would speak up if there were racist things being said, however; and few of us would be comfortable if a black family moved in next to us.  White flight and red-lining of communities have happened within my lifetime.  And 11 o’clock on Sundays is one of the most segregated hours of the week. 

The solutions are probably varied and many.  Most of us white folks need to explore the concepts of white privilege and white culture, and begin the discussions.  Mostly, though, we need the change of heart and awareness that only the Holy Spirit can bring about, as our hearts are softened towards our human family and our minds begin to wonder what truth and justice for all people could look like.  May the Holy Spirit of God fill us, lead us and guide us.  AMEN.

Asking Wrong Questions - So What Are the Right Questions? 5/24/20 Easter 7A

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

Asking Wrong Questions -  So What Are the Right Questions?

Easter 7A  5/24/2020  Sermon   

The latest author whose murder mysteries I’ve been reading to relax is Dick Frances and his son Felix Frances, who between them have enough novels to keep me going for quite a while. All of their books involve English horse racing in some way and from some perspective, and rarely is the main character the same - lots of variety. The story I read last week, the main character kept telling himself, ask the right questions! It was his way of thinking about the central mystery and not to be led astray in digressions by asking the wrong questions.

So when I read this passage from The Acts of the Apostles (the history of the very earliest believers in church gatherings and apostles) it immediately hit me that Jesus disciples were asking the wrong questions! It’s pretty obvious that they ask the wrong question, because Jesus response is, “that’s not for you to know!”

So is it now? Huh? Is it? Is it?

Dudes, let it go already!

Misconceptions are HARD to let go of...

The disciples are talking with the Jesus who is already raised from the dead, and is right before that confusing passage about him ascending to heaven. Just like us, those people who had actually walked and talked with Jesus haven’t been able to let go of their expectation that when the Messiah came all of their tribes people will become victors over all their enemies, and have a huge earthly kingdom that is their’s to rule.So of course they continue to stay in this misconception. Jesus’ resurrection just seems to be another way that God‘s kingdom could be set up on earth with their Jewish nation nation in charge. “Is this the time when you’re going to establish your kingdom?!?!“

Jesus speaks kind of sharply, for Jesus… “That’s not your business, that’s God’s business.”.Then he  adds, “what I can tell you is that you’re going to receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses starting from here and spreading out all over the world.”

Jesus tells them what they should be doing and caring about and thinking about. Luke that game show Jeopardy - we get the answer, so what question is it answering? I guess the right question would have been something like, “How can we continue in your ministry & tell your message, Jesus?”  How are we to continue without your physical presence? Jill Duffield says in her commentary that “....Ours are questions of where & how.” Where? Here & going outward; how? With the Spirit's power? When? Now. What? Spread the message & make disciples. With the Holy Spirit, we have the power. And from God we also have the mission.

So let’s ponder about what are some other wrong questions, some other misconceptions, & what are the right questions?

I think that being all worked up about when we can regather in person in our buildings is a wrong question. The Church has developed a misconception that the building is the church…. and our language about it has become hard to break. I find myself saying about these pinwheels that we’ll spread them out at the church; or let’s meet at the church. This has gone on for decades, so it’s hard to change. We feel unsettled right now & we say that we want to get back to church. When can we get back to church? Friends, we are still the church & we are still gathering. For one thing, we know our building is not the church. For another, it’s not like we have to wait to be back in the building before we can carry out Jesus’ mission. In fact,a building is not essential, in today’s terminology. In fact, being outside the building is where we’ve needed to be to do mission. Jesus never had a building. Let’s try & frame a right question - how can we continue in your mission right now, O Christ? Where & how can we follow your footsteps right now?

Jesus’ answer to us now is probably the same as the answer then - with the power of my indwelling Spirit, you will be my witnesses from near to far; to our community & beyond! I mean, we can meet online & organize our outreach; we can hear the word of God & be inspired & challenged; we can take a class online & dig deeper into Scripture.  We can care for our community in many ways, checking on those who may need assistance, doing good, giving to larger causes, & much more.  In our saving of gas and therefore emitting less pollution, we are caring for God’s creation, our planet garden. The right question can keep our priorities straight.

Another wrong question is, How do we get more young people to join our church? Implied in that question is, and make them learn our ways? When will you make our pews overflow & our Sunday School classes fill up like they used to? I know we are anxious that our congregation continue. However, once again Jesus’ answer to us remains the same - My Spirit is in you to be my witnesses now & here. WE are Christ’s body now - God’s Spirit is in US, even if we are an older group. There is ministry & mission for US to be taking on here & now. There are ways to witness to our faith here & now, and from who WE are.  WE can be showing Christ in our words & deeds, because THAT is what God uses to call people who need to hear the gospel. They don’t just come to us - we go to them with Christ. Go to those who are suffering in the community; go to where people are afraid and speak the gracious peace of God. Go to those places where this pandemic is revealing the cracks in our society, where those are who lack healthcare are struggling to pay bills or feed their children; carry Christ’s good news to those for whom our social policies & decisions don’t work - & lift up their needs to sight. We can work to show how our consumer mentality has brought us to the brink of irreversible climate changes on this planet God created and called good, & appointed us stewards. We can work for the honor & respect of all people, here in our nation & around the world. We can advocate for more equity between rich & poor; we can advocate for the good treatment of refugees; we can enroll those who are disenfranchised to vote; we can model how to listen to those with whom we disagree; we can help call for more equity in our healthcare; we could learn to articulate our experience of God in our lives do we are ready to share when the moment presents itself.  I could go on…. & we don’t need to do them all - just to take on a couple things would move us more into Christ’s work.

Bruce Epperly writes about this passage that “God's Spirit is with us, & God has given us power to be agents of healing & transformation in our time.”  We can prepare ourselves with prayer, deepening our own connections to God and asking for that Spirit to guide us / & be willing to follow whet God leads. Being out of our ‘old normal’ is a great time to remember what “church” actually is, re-envision how we are carrying out Christ’s call, & looking for a new way forward. We’ve been shaken out of our old ways - God can use that. I myself hope we DON’T go back to the way things were. Our God is a God of new life, resurrection & recreation. Let’s move into God’s new future. AMEN.

How Our Advocate Helps Us 5/17/20 Easter 6A

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

How Our “Advocate” Helps Us

5/17/2020    Easter 6A

Our group studying the book SAILBOAT CHURCH (by Joan Gray) has really appreciated and enjoyed what she has to say, reminding us of the work of God’s Spirit with us in the church. Jesus, in our text we just read, talks about that same Spirit   and uses several interesting names for how God’s spirit helps us.  I know we all can affirm the doctrine of “God in three persons, blessed trinity!” like in the hymns I posted for today, Hymn Holy, Holy, Holy.   In the traditional language of our Creeds, we affirm  I believe Godthe Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ his son our Lord….and onto I believe in the Holy Spirit, but that’s a short part, and goes on to the holy Catholic church and more.  We don’t talk a lot about the Spirit unless we’re trying to sound like we’re affirming the trinity, God as three-in-one.  We’re good Methodists and good Presbyterians, structuring our lives with method and order, left-brained and valuing our thinking; God forbid we should sound like holy rollers and be all emotional.  Although, to be fair, our hearts are strangely warmed and we value ardor processed through our order.  So we have emotions, we’re just not ruled by them.  Something about the Spirit sounds like it may be beyond our control.  Of course it is!  God is beyond our control!  God is beyond our understanding, except a few things we comprehend like the commandments that Jesus says…..and I’m not sure we really understand the depth and breadth of those either.  Walking with God is walking by faith, as the Spirit seeks to teach us to walk by faith and not by sight.  

Interestingly, the Spirit is one place that people have often seen a feminine energy in God.  In the Hebrew language, the word for Spirit, or breath or wind, takes a feminine article, and people have wondered about that.  If you remember the book and movie called The Shack, you might recall that the Spirit was represented by a female figure.  And the figure of Holy Wisdom, too.  Actually, the figure of God was shown as a woman and a man in that movie, depending on how God was relating to the bereaved dad.  That was actually pretty cool, although there was a lot of discussion about it in churches.   Wisdom is personified as a woman in the book of Proverbs and actually the book of Wisdom in the intertestamental books as well. The Roman catholic church found the feminine energy of God in Mary, who is pictured as Queen of Heaven in much artwork from the 13th century onward - and finally decaled Queen of Heaven by Pope Pius XII in 1954.   Early mystics of the church often spoke of God using metaphors from both male and female imagery, as the Scriptures of both testaments do contain  metaphors of both.  After all, God is not human, so doesn’t have to be male or female...and when humanity was created in God’s image, humanity was created make AND female.  The historic church has had trouble with that in its teachings…..  Fortunately in this generation, our English language has broadened so we women don’t have to assume we are included in the concept of “man” and “mankind,” and language has become more inclusive of humankind and all people.  Many theologians have also worked on language about God that also moves towards the inclusivity within God.  I like the conception of the holy trinity that speaks of function, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer - all one God. 

Okay, a little digression.  Actually, Jesus himself uses a good many illusions to the figure of Divine Wisdom in his words, and especially in the gospel of John.  John seems to point out that Jesus as the “Word” or Logos of God, has a continuity with the figure of Hokmah, the Hebrew“Wisdom” of God.  I think that’s interesting. And it’s Jesus who compares himself to the mother hen who would love to gather all her chicks under her wings, when he looks out at the city of Jerusalem.  So I’m comfortable with imagining God as encompassing all we might try and divide into female and male gender-wise.  Some folks have criticized that this makes God genderless - difficult to think of.  I suggest that perhaps we think of God as gender-full, encompassing all we know of human energies. 

            Yes, we’re talking rather metaphorically and mystically about God - but...you know, this is the mysterious and God who is ultimately beyond our understanding - yet the God who knows us intimately.  In fact,     Jesus’ remarks in this passage of John are rather mystical in the union that he proposes between God who he calls Father, and we might call Creator; himself who he refers to as the Son and we may also think of as the Redeemer; and this Spirit of God who comes to dwell in each of us, and binds us in an invisible but real unity with the whole of the Godhead.  (Now there’s a weird word - Godhead - trying to refer to the three persons/parts/aspects as one.) 

            Is this all confusing?  In my language, I use the word “God” to refer to the whole Trinity, in both the Hebrew Scriptures and Christian Scriptures.  Maybe I err a bit on the side of the oneness of God, and not perhaps separating Father, Son and Spirit as much as others do.  I think of this as a corrective - many people get hung up in the threeness of the trinity, and try to assign this to Jesus/Redeemer, and that to the Spirit/Sustainer and this other to the Father/Creator.  I think we need to remember the unity, the oneness.  When the Spirit indwells us, that is Godself.  God is with us.  When Jesus is born, he is God with us, Emmanu-el, the Immanent God. 

            This is religion, folks - it’s mystical and it’s metaphorical.  It’s trying to express the hugeness of the Divine and Holy in the limitations of language, and for the limited human brain.  None of it can be taken literally, although it expresses a truth - when we come to follow Christ, somehow the very Spirit of God becomes a part of us, binding us to God and into the mystery of the Divine. Christ calls us sisters and brothers - part of the same family. We become part of the body of Christ, another expression of us becoming part of Christ, and therefore, God. 

Jesus is telling his followers that even if he dies, he will not leave them.  The translation I read today translates it, I will not leave you orphaned.  The King James translation said, I will not leave you comfortless.  In modern parlance we might say, I am not abandoning you.  You will not be alone.  There’s been a lot written about abandonment, whether intentional or unintentional, and what it does to children and even adults.  Leaving - loss - a parent dying while a child is young is experienced as abandonment - unintentional, but still the feeling of the child is of being left abandoned; the loss of an intact family when parents divorce is experienced as abandonment; a significant relationship broken by death - the loss is still felt as abandonment.  A preacher leaving us may be experienced as an important person abandoning us.  I’m sure that now the loss of the use of our buildings has also felt in some way as an abandonment - we are alone in a confusing place on our own, a center of stability gone.  Nobody wants to be abandoned - it’s scary. Even if we like solitude sometimes, when  we go to it ourselves, that’s seeking alone time.  When somebody leaves us and we are alone, it feels different.  

God knows how these followers will feel after Jesus is physically gone - so Jesus says, I’m not abandoning you - my Spirit will be here now.  Physically I’ve only been with you a few years - the Spirit of God will be coming, you won’t be left like orphans. 

Jesus uses an interesting variety of words to describe this Spirit - Advocate, in more recent translations.  The King James says Comforter, to match saying I will not leave you comfortless.  Eugene Peterson’s The Message uses the word “Friend” for the coming Spirit.  Advocate is probably the more correct translation.  I used to think of Advocate as a legal thing, like someone who would stand with me and interpret me to God’s court, so God would be more lenient to me.  That’s a pretty judgemental way to look at God, isn’t it?  Like part of God has to say to the rest of God, Well, look at what she was working with, or something excusing or explaining.  Like God is going to throw me away if the Advocate doesn’t make a good enough case for me. 

We need to turn that image around - switch who’s being advocated for and to - perhaps the Spirit advocates for God to us, explains God to us, helps us understand more about God like Jesus did, brings verses we’ve learned and experiences we’ve had back to our memory, as we reflect on new circumstances. That’s actually more in line with what the scriptures say the spirit does, bringing what Jesus said back to recall, reminding us of God’s love and God’s presence, reminding us that God is here in our times of need.  There is that verse that says the spirit intercedes for us when we have no words for our prayers, so in that case the spirit translates for us - sounds like the Spirit enables communication all around...

Jesus also uses the term Spirit of Truth, God’s truth, reality, the way it is, revealing where we are being defensive or equivocating, or trying to find loopholes - or honestly misunderstanding.  I remember growing up with the old english of the King James version of the Bible and trying to understand it.  I had it in my ears a lot, you know, like many of us here. I got to the place where the sense of the words, the intention of the words, often interpreted the actual words I was reading... I later thought this must have been the spirit, communicating what the intent was, what the larger sense was, and then I could see how the words went together.  Communication again.  Listening to that mysterious and mystical union that is us and God. 

In Sailboat Church, Joan Gray reminds us that even though the Spirit has been a part of our theology from the beginning, that Spirit often gets overlooked in our day-to-day noticing and appreciation.  If the Spirit is about God’s abiding presence, God’s truth and two-way communication with God, perhaps we need to find methodical and orderly ways to acknowledge the need for the spirit’s work in our lives and our church. And acknowledge that the Spirit more in our prayer, our decision-making, and in the practice of our Christian living.  Gray’s book discusses deliberately seeking the direction of our Advocate as we make decisions in our personal lives as well as in our communal life as a church.  Not just a token prayer to open or close a meeting, but in a larger way of prayerful discernment.  She reminds us that our own spiritual life and walk with God is what undergirds our church’s life and walk with God, and thus the importance of our own relationship with God, calling on our Advocate to help lead and teach and direct. 

You may recall I asked for volunteers to form a prayer group or two and begin to pray for our congregation, and all the capital-C Church in this time of learning to cope without our buildings.  Like many clergy, I’m seeing that this may be our new reality for a while, and we need God’s Spirit to lead us to being church in a different situation. Many of us are thinking that this may be the renewal that the Capital-C Church has needed, and lead to a better witness all around.  I would love for folks who feel a tug of interest in this to email or call me and let me know, so we can do this.  Meanwhile, I’m assuming we all will be praying for the church in these current conditions, as well as the world, which will experience some large changes in the coming months and years.  And our government, and other nations.  And specific families we know that are affected.  And your pastor, who was never trained to be a pastor in a pandemic and is learning as fast as she can. 

And may the spirit of Truth, our Advocate, Comforter and Friend, be with us.  AMEN.