Category Archives: Sermon

by | July 2, 2012 · 9:10 am

Saul: Lamenting a Man of Promise

2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

We have just heard David’s out pouring of grief for Saul and for Jonathan.  He refers to them as “Saul and Jonathan—beloved and lovely!”  It could alternately be “Saul and Jonathan—dear friend and delightful companion!”  David loved them both.  But today, I want to focus on the love that David still has for Saul.  Saul, a man that tried more than one time to kill David and to drive him away.  What did David see in Saul that would still touch his heart after so many difficult and life threatening situations?  David saw that Saul was a man of promise and compassion.

When Saul was chosen to be king, he was a terrified young man.  Samuel anoints him and Saul goes back to his family and doesn’t tell anybody that he is the king.  He has this crazy ecstatic prophetic frenzy fall upon him and it frightens him so much, all he has to say is, “we were looking for donkeys.”

Samuel then goes on a “search” for the king and lo and behold!  It goes something like this…There are 12 tribes and I will cast lots to see which tribe holds the king!  And it was Saul’s tribe.  THEN, There are several families and I will cast lots to see which family holds the king!  And it was Saul’s family.  THEN, There were several people and Samuel says, “I will cast lots to see which person will be king!”  And it is, of course, Saul.  I am wondering if Samuel rigged his dice that day!

So Saul is chosen to be king.  And he is like every hero in the Bible…an imperfect, apparently weak, younger son.  He just is not the testosterony leader that everybody was expecting.  And then, right away, the Ammonite king is on the heals of the Israelites.  The Ammonite king wants to pluck out the right eye of every Israelite in the town of Jabesh-gilead.  When Saul hears this, the Spirit of God came upon Saul and he was furious.  He quickly formed a battle plan, implemented it, and won the war.  He then urged people to be compassionate with each other and especially those that didn’t believe he could be a leader.  Then Samuel drew all the people together with Saul and they went to Gilgal to renew the kingship—they made sacrifices of well-being and rejoiced together.  It was a time of promise.  Saul’s kingship, the system of justice, was grounded in righteousness and compassion.  Unfortunately, like so many of our systems, the promise of Saul’s reign of compassion soon turned to a reign of dread, especially for David, as Saul descended into madness and violence.

This story is all too common.  Somethings starts with promise and is corrupted and becomes death dealing.  That is what I encounter day after day in the juvenile detention system.  It is a continuous process of not living into the Kingdom of God.

I work at two detention centers, the King County Youth Detention Center and Echo Glen Children’s Home.  Both of these centers at one time were considered among the best in the nation.  King County Youth Detention Center was a beautiful facility complete with a gymnasium, a pool, and state of the art monitoring system.  Now, after a major flood, mildew, and the deterioration of about 35 years of wear and tear, the floors need replacing, the pool is a storage room, the monitoring system is an intercom system that requires raised voices and a special ear that can understand people speaking through static filled speakers.  A place of promise has deteriorated to become a place of madness.

At Echo Glen, a state facility in Snoqualmie, the outward beauty of the surroundings that makes it seem more like Camp Indianola than a detention center, is belied by the reality that this facility, created for the most vulnerable and youngest children in the system is aging.  And because of budget cutbacks, the staff to youth ratio is shrinking, the staff chaplains were fired, and recently, due to the closing of Maple Lane, a medium to max security center for violent, older youth and for youth that have serious mental illness, Echo Glen has now taken in the seriously mentally ill youth, altering the entire dynamic of a facility created to become a soft landing place for our more vulnerable youth.  A place of promise has deteriorated to become a place of madness.

And that is just the facilities!  I mentioned that Echo Glen fired its staff chaplains.  Now, in the state of Washington, there are no paid chaplains in juvenile facilities.  Everything is run by volunteers.  There was a time when chaplains were supported by state and county government and when the Church Council of Greater Seattle ran the chaplain’s program at these two institutions with grants from county government and donations from churches and individuals.  That institution, too, has fallen apart.  Over time, as the government cut back on its costs, the Church Council cut back on its support.  Within 10 years, a program that had an $80,000 budget became an entirely volunteer program.  That is a shame.  The Church Council could no longer financially support the organization and they gave the program to WorldVision.  WorldVision then failed to appear.  The chaplaincy fell into chaos as different theologies and churches struggled to gain control of a system run amuck.  A place of hope deteriorated to become a place of madness!

All of these stories of systems gone crazy are mere reflections of the stories the youth have to tell.

One of my favorite ways to sit with the youth in detention is to gather them in for a game of cards.  Over a card game, something happens to their mouths as their hands become busy and their spirits let go of tasks and schedules.  They begin to share and trust.

I remember one particular card game.  It was just after President Obama got elected.  I was playing cards with a group of 3 young men.  One of the youth was getting out of detention the next day.   This is important because one of the youth was African-American.  The election of Barack Obama gave the youth of color hope that their lives could be transformed.  I asked him, “What do you want when you leave here?”  His answer was heart breaking.  He said, “I want to go home to a normal family.”  This was not the answer that I expected.  I stayed quiet, and he went on to fill me in on his life’s story.  His mother was a crack addict and the courts were sending him back home to her.  As a crack addict, she likes people to do drugs with her.  And if he was at home, he told me, he would do drugs with her.  He said, “I don’t have the strength to say no to my mom.”

Inside my head, I was furious at a system that sends this young man back to such danger.  Especially after the detox work he had done inside detention.  I was furious at many things that day.

I asked him about his father.  He told me that his dad was a gang leader and his dad’s job was to run guns from Mexico to Kansas City.  If he went to his dad, he didn’t think he would be alive for very long.  He then turned to me in consternation and said, “when I was 3 years old, I wanted to be President of the United States.”  My heart broke again at the ruined promise and at the choices this young man was forced to make.  Addiction or death.  What a horrific choice for a 16 year old young man to make!  This was not even a choice of sanity or madness, but simply madness or greater madness.

I held all these revelations as they rolled into the conversation and we continued to play cards.  Then another boy opened up and started talking.

This other young man was from Somalia and lived with his aunt and uncle.  If you sat with him, you would notice that there was something seriously off.  I know that he could not write or read and that he was prone to irrational, sudden, violent outbursts.  This night, he started to tell us his story.  As a young person of 8 or so, he was living in Somalia.  There, during the never ending war that seems to be occurring, his parents were taken by the Somalian government.  They were brutally beaten, his mother was raped, and then they were killed.  In front of him.  Finally, everything fell into place for me.  The question is not why is this young man violent, but why not.  How do we expect a young person to survive this with no support or intervention and be normal?  His story was truly a decent into madness of epic proportions.

The third boy at the table that day chose to keep his stories to himself.  He quietly heard the stories and played the game.

I left the detention center that night feeling hopeless and wondering if there was any chance for these children of poverty, addiction, and illiteracy.  It weighed on my spirit like a heavy cloak.  I imagine, too, that your spirit is saddened just by hearing these stories.  I promise that there is good news.

I went home with this heavy cloak surrounding me and told my family they needed to stay away from me for a time while I processed some stories.  They gave me the space I needed to lament a system that has turned into total madness.  But I discovered something while I was lamenting.  I discovered that there is hope.  There is always hope.  And that hope is in the promise of resurrection.  We have the greatest story of all because we have Jesus who was transformed into something new at the resurrection.  And each of these stories can also be transformed into something new.  As difficult as it is to change systems or to change lives, resurrection and the promise that Jesus and God brings to us in abounding love and grace is the answer.  We may start at a place of violence, but we end in the peace and beauty of the Easter lily.

It takes work, though, to go from the madness of Saul to the promise of David.  And that work is beginning.  To tackle the madness of the chaplaincy system, I created the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition.  The Youth Chaplaincy Coalition is a group of like-minded individuals and churches that seek to provide services, in a faith-based context, to Youth Detention Centers.

The mission of the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition is to provide quality, innovative, comprehensive services for the whole person, to youth and families affected by the justice system within a quality volunteer and work environment staffed by knowledgeable, ecumenical, and caring faith-based volunteers.  Our vision is:  While the justice system can treat the psychological and physical symptoms a youth in crisis has, chaplains have a unique opportunity to bring in the third leg of the stool, spirituality.  By bringing a holistic vision of the child, the possibility of healing the body, mind, and spirit becomes a reality.  Our work creates possibilities for transformation and integration.  The mission is attained by adherence to the values of listening and loving.

Listening and loving.  And a little bit of creativity provided by the Holy Spirit as she guides us to this new thing called the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition.  As I started ruminating over what was needed to bring at least one of these systems into stability and resurrection, God planted the idea that gathering people from the geography of the detention centers—the Central District in Seattle—and approaching their churches and congregations, was the way to go.  Now, the churches of the Central District are primarily traditional, independent African American churches.  So I started attending church with them.  I went to pentecostal, charismatic, Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal, Episcopal, churches and more!  I ended up at a Hispanic Roman Catholic Church on the day their bishop was there to visit and was splashed with the waters of baptism and participated in Eucharist.  They welcomed me in even though I had no clue what they were saying since the mass was primarily in Spanish.  This was the Holy Spirit moving.

Everywhere I went, people started gathering around and began to be excited about the detention center again.  It took two things to get to this point.  A call from God and the courage to walk through unfamiliar doors.  Now, gathered from these churches, we have the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition.  The members of the coalition are United Methodists, African Methodist Episcopal Zion, Disciple of Christ, Independent Traditional African American, Church of God in Christ, and a Roman Catholic member.  This is a new thing.  A coming together for the resurrection of the chaplain’s office, the detention center, and for each youth that we encounter.  I am amazed at the work that has begun.  After the hopelessness of Friday, comes the resurrection.  God is making a new creation.

Saul embodies the very promise that each of the institutions I named and each child I encounter has at the beginning of their lives.  Then the world interferes.  Budgets take priority.  Children encounter death-dealing drugs and gangs. Ego takes over and it becomes about my version of God or their version of God.  We forget about Saul and that first battle he was in when he was a young man confronting injustice for the first time.  He steps into the fight because he is disturbed by the threat the Ammonites make.  He is a man of compassion confronting issues of injustice.  It is this man that David mourns.

We can all be that person.  The person who is compassionate and confronts issues of injustice where we see it.  John Wesley certainly was that person.  For some of us, the call is to create something new like the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition.  For others, it may be to feed the hungry, give drink to thirsty, clothe the naked, or heal the sick.  For others still, it may be to support people who are doing the work by offering spiritual, financial, and administrative assistance and I have a handout that shows how you can offer these gifts to the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition if you’re interested.  But there is one thing we can say with certitude, we are all called to act justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.  This allows us, like David, to grieve a broken system and to step forward into a new creation.

Shalom and Amen.

If you want to help:

Spiritual support.

Will you make a commitment to pray for the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition?  The Board Members?  The Volunteer Chaplains?  The Youth of the Detention Centers?  The Staff at the Detention Centers?   Would you want to volunteer at any of the detention centers?  Once a year?  Weekly? In a study? Life skills? Worship?

Financial support.

Could you make a commitment to making a donation to the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition? To being an ongoing donor?  Buying Bibles?  Purchasing study supplies?

Administrative support.

Would you like to help out by providing administrative support?  Finding grant opportunities?  Mailing out fundraising letters? Finding speaking opportunities?

How to help:

Contact Terri Stewart at  stewart6 @ seattleu.edu

Mail checks to (note Youth Chaplaincy on the memo line):

Bear Creek UMC
c/o Youth Chaplaincy Coalition
16530 Avondale Road NE
Woodinville, WA  98077

 

2 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Sermon

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

by | May 22, 2012 · 6:53 am

Homily 1 John 5:1-5

1 Comment

Filed under Religion, Scripture, Sermon, Theology

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

by | April 29, 2012 · 6:48 pm

Sermon on John 10: Beauty of the Sheepfold

1 Comment

Filed under Christianity, Religion, Scripture, Sermon, Spirituality

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

by | January 1, 2012 · 5:46 pm

When the Star in the Sky is Gone

Terri Stewart
Greenlake UMC
January 1, 2012
Isaiah 60:1-6 and Matthew 2:1-12

When the Star in the Sky is Gone

Some of you may know that I am a chaplain serving the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition.  The coalition serves vulnerable youth in the detention centers in King County.  In my capacity as chaplain, I receive many stories that shake my foundation.  One particular night, I was sitting at a table playing cards with 3 kids in the detention center.  During the card game, it seemed as if a light opened up and surrounded just our little table.  In and amidst the clamor of teenage boys in jail, we found a sacred spot.  Playing cards.  At a small table.  When this sacred spot opened while we were playing cards, the boys began to share their stories.  One boy, a Muslim from Somalia, told of leaving Somalia when his parents had been murdered in front of him.  Another boy told of being the child of drug addicts and gang members.  One boy continued to sit silently.  As the boys talked, they talked of their lost hopes and their lost dreams.  I just sat and received their stories, continuing to deal out the cards.  It seemed at that time all I could offer was my ears and my heart.

On the way home that evening, I kept replaying the conversation in my head.  All I could do was bounce what I knew about these kids against national statistics.  These kids had non-existent or fully dysfunctional parenting, their education was below a fourth grade education, they lived in poverty, and they were people of color.  According to statistics, the odds against their success is astronomical.

  • 75% of those incarcerated as adults have brown skin[1]
  • 68% of State prison inmates did not receive a high school diploma[2]
  • A majority of those incarcerated are from low income families[3]
  • Being incarcerated is a predictor of continuing to stay in poverty

These statistics and the stories I received from the boys were bouncing around in my head as I drove home that evening.  I could not see, logically, how they could possibly escape a cycle of poverty and incarceration.  Their future seemed very bleak.  And I felt bleak on their behalf.  I could not see the light.

I know what you’re thinking!  This is a very depressing sermon.  I just ask that you stay with me a little longer, stay in the darkness for just a little while.

In our scripture from Isaiah today, it seems all light and love and blessings.  It is tempting to gloss over verse 2.  Verse two says:  darkness will cover the earth and a thick darkness will cover the people.  Before the promise of the light, comes the promise of darkness.

The darkness is uncomfortable.  It demands that we use different senses and see in a new way.  It is hard to learn new things so naturally, we want to escape the darkness as quickly as possible.

Parker Palmer asks the question, “are we so eager to get to the light that we fail to dwell in the darkness long enough to learn what it has to teach us?  As we know, there are a lot of “longest nights” in life, and some of them seem impossibly long…As one who has spent months in the dark night of depression, I know how important it has been to let darkness become my teacher.  The poets know this too.

Theodore Roethke says: “In a dark time, the eye begins to see.”

Wendell Berry teaches us:

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.

To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,

and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,

and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.

And Rilke says, very simply, “I have faith in the night.”[4]

Faith in the darkness.  The faith in darkness promised by Isaiah leads us to the light.  Isaiah tells us that the promise will come to the light of Israel bringing gold and frankincense, proclaiming the glory of God.  For Christians that foreshadows our epiphany story.  A story about coming into the light, by the light.

Most of us are very familiar with the story of the Magi or the Wise Men.  It is a story of astrologers who studied the stars and studied ancient writings.  In the course of their study, which was done without the light of the star of Bethlehem, they began to learn about the light to come.  Eventually, they put all the information together and they discovered the light in the sky.  Then the star led them to King Herod and then to the young child, Jesus.

This leads to two important things.  First, the Magi leave the child Jesus, they leave the light, to avoid Herod.  Second, Joseph packs up Mary and Jesus and they leave Bethlehem and go to Egypt in the middle of the night.  They go in the darkness.

I imagine that the early followers of Jesus felt like they were in the darkness after Jesus was crucified and after his ascension.  They had the living light right there with them and they lost it.  We know that many of Jesus’ followers isolated themselves from their neighbors, even refusing to disclose their relationship with Jesus.  They lived in the darkness.

You can see the progression of how the disciples lived in the darkness through reading all four gospels in chronological order.  The order is Mark, Matthew, Luke, and then John.  I would suggest that each gospel is trying to answer the question of what to do in the darkness without the living light of Jesus in their midst.

After Jesus’ death, Mark points the disciples and Peter to Galilee.  That is where they will see Jesus again.  If we stick to the original ending of Mark, the resurrected Jesus never appears.  The living light never re-enters the world.  That is Mark’s answer to the question.  Go to Galilee, where Jesus ministered and you become the light to the world and I will join you soon.[5]

When Matthew answers the question, he has the promise of the resurrection and ascension to build on.  Matthew gets more explicit.  Jesus tells them directly, in Galilee, to go among the people and become the light of the world, doing all Jesus commanded.  Then Jesus makes the direct promise that he will be with them always, to the end of the age.[6]

Luke’s answer is similar to Matthew, although the geography has changed.  He says to practice repentance and forgiveness and witness to all people of these things.[7]  But first, wait in the darkness between Jesus’ ascension and the coming of Pentecost.  For Luke, the darkness is then filled with worship and praise in the temple.

John’s answer is different from everybody else.  He no longer is grappling with the absence of Jesus.  He offers us the living Word that was with God before the beginning of the world and stays with us always.  The living Word that is the light of the nations.  John has no darkness.[8]  However, his final statements to the disciples about what to do is clear.  He says, “tend my lambs” and “follow me.”[9]  John’s answer is that we are always in the light.  But are we?  Do we live continually in the light?  Probably not.  But, we can all lay claim to the promise of the light.

The question is, what do we do in the darkness?  What do we do when the star in the sky is gone?

Recently, I was at the Seattle Men’s Chorus “Cool Yule” performance.  During their performance, I was struck by the lyrics of one of their songs titled, “After the Angels.”  When I got home, I googled what lyrics that I could remember.  I found out that this song was based off of a poem by Howard Thurman.

Howard Thurman was a spiritual mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr. He introduced Dr. King to Gandhi and to nonviolence.  He was the grandson of slaves and became one of the most respected preachers of his time.   After serving as the dean of the chapel at Howard University, he surprised many by leaving his tenured post in 1944 to take on the challenge of building the nation’s first intentionally interracial, church—the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples.   This was remarkably prophetic in a period when race relations were quite strained, and religious differences were pronounced.  But that was his style—thinking ahead to a time beyond his own.

In the 50′s and 60′s, many thought he would be the “Moses” of the Civil Rights movement.  But he chose a different path.  His path was to live among the people, visibly showing a new way of being in the world.  He left active involvement in the civil rights movement for the pursuit of deeper spirituality and mysticism.  But, for Thurman, this wasn’t a matter of choosing one over the other.  For Thurman, social activism could only be sustained and nurtured by deep spiritual roots—something that King came to appreciate from Thurman.  Instead of merely protesting what was wrong with society and fighting the institutions, Thurman sought to build a vision of the realm of God within those institutions that would have relevance to social concerns.   As such, he was a light in the darkness as he communicated his vision of the Kingdom of God.  Here is the poem that I discovered that day.  It is titled, “The Work of Christmas.”[10]

When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flock,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among brothers,

To make music in the heart.[11]

When the star in the sky is gone.  When we are in darkness, the work of Christmas begins.  Just as every gospel writer has told us, it is our job to do the work of Jesus while we are in the darkness.  And the particular promise of John is that even though we are in the darkness, the promise of the light is always present.  This is a promise of the light now, but not yet.  We learn and work in the darkness while we live into the light.

Looking back to that long drive home after that night in the detention center, when I was living in the darkness of bleak statistics and possibilities, the light that broke in was that each of us has the possibility and promise of resurrection.  After all, resurrection is the light returning into the world after three devastating days of darkness.  There sits the promise of transformation that is aided by trust in the light even when we cannot sense it.  Our job becomes doing the work of Christmas even in the darkest of times.  Holding on to the promise of the Light with us now, but not yet.  As a community, we are called to return to Galilee and to find the lost, heal the broken, feed the hungry, and to visit the imprisoned.

So, I wonder what the darkness and the light is calling you to do?  How will you meet the challenge of the darkness?  And how will you hold on to the memory of light?

Shalom and Amen.

[4] Parker Palmer, Facebook, 12/20/2011.

[5] Mark 15:7-8

[6] Matthew 28:16-20

[7] Luke 24:44-49

[8] John 1:1-4

[9] John 21:15-19

[10] Biographical information summarized from The Rev. Dr. Paul C. Hayes, “When the Song of the Angels is Stilled,” January 7, 2007.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Christianity, Religion, Sermon, Spirituality

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | October 9, 2011 · 1:53 pm

Invitation and Response

Note:  This sermon was delivered in a non-traditional format using interactive discussions.  It was quite fun and Parkland UMC’ers were fabulously participatory. 

Terri Stewart
Sermon:  Matt 22:1-14
Parkland UMC
October 9, 2011

Invitation and Response

I have been stirring this scripture in my head all week long.  For me, it seems that one of my processes is simply letting things percolate.  It is surprising, sometimes, what comes out.  The two things that kept flowing through my mind were the idea of invitation and the idea of responding to an invitation.

Just this last Friday, I was having an event at my home to help a friend out.  Up where I live, in the Northshore School District, we are having elections of the school board.  One of my friends and a fellow PTA mom is running for election.  I love her, so told her we could have a gathering at my home for her to meet folks.  The easiest way for me to issue invitations is on Facebook.  There you can create an event and invite people and they can RSVP automatically online.  And since I have a zillion Facebook friends, it was an easy way to reach a wide audience.  I was pleased with the results of the invitation.  I was heading towards having about 15 folks in my home and I thought that would be full enough to make it a worthwhile event, yet small enough that my friend could actually talk with everybody.  Then the day of the event came.  That’s where things go awry.  It was rainy, it was timed to coincide with the local high school dismissing their students so traffic was bad, it was Friday….things like that.  The turn-out was actually much lower than the amount of people who originally said ‘yes.’  And in reality, only one person showed up who didn’t know Dawn already.  There were other folks there, but we were all friends.  I kind of felt bad because my invitation process clearly did not inspire people to keep their commitment to come and meet my friend.

I keep bouncing this invitation and response process up against this scripture.  Jesus says, “The Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.”  OK.  Generally, what we know about kings and the hierarchy in that structure is if a king is having a wedding banquet, everybody comes.  The earls and dukes and lords and ladies all come to be seen and photographed.  What do you think could happen that would cause the people that owe their loyalty to the king to not respond to the invitation?

Now I’m going to ask you to do something you may not be comfortable with.  I hope you will be gracious and grant me some leeway today.  Turn to your neighbor or neighbors and talk about invitations you have received.  Talk about why you respond with yes and why you respond with no.  And even why you ignored the invitation.  Then, see if you can come up with a reason that people would not respond to the king’s invitation.  I’m going to give you just “this much time.”

…discussion…

OK.  Do you mind sharing some of the reasons for not responding to the king’s invitation?

The invitation came at a time when there was work to do
The invitation was unclear
The invitation came at a difficult time for the family

The truth is, we could probably come up with a host of reasons why people ignore invitations.  And I’m sure, that some of the people who were initially invited by the king thought they were doing the right thing at the time.  At least one was returning to his farm.  Feeding the hungry is important.  But responding to the king has an even higher value.

Later in the story, we hear that the king’s servants went back out and invited everybody!  Good and bad, saint and sinner.  They came into the wedding hall.  Traditionally, in Ancient Israelite customs, when someone comes to a wedding feast, the host of the event was to provide a robe for each person attending the feast.  So the ‘good and bad’ folks are all sitting in the hall and the host, the king, arrives.  He looks around and sees someone without a robe on.  And when he approaches that person and asks him what he’s doing here, the guy was speechless.  And the king throws him out.  I keep wondering, what if he had not been speechless?  What if he had given a response to the king outlining why he was there without a wedding robe on?  Is the reason he was thrown out because he wasn’t dressed properly?  Or is it because he could not respond to the king?

I suppose you can see my bias.  If the kingdom of heaven is like this parable, then this story has to hinge on the response that people have to the king.  In the beginning, people ignored the invitation and had no response.  And here, later, there is another person who is speechless at the request.

I know in my life that the cost of discipleship, of responding to God, can seem extremely high.  I pay my seminary bills!  But there are the more subtle invitations to respond to God that we receive on a daily basis.  And it is these invitations and our responses that allow the Kingdom of Heaven to break through to the here and now.  But it isn’t so easy.  If it was easy, we would see the Kingdom of God on every street corner and in every person’s heart.  But we don’t see that yet.  Not quite.  Because not enough of us are responding day-in and day-out with a yes.  Most of the time, the invitation is not like a dramatic, beautiful wedding invitation.  It might be more like  a generic Facebook invitation.  Or, even more likely, it could be the small, still voice inside us.

Recently, I was in a parking lot in Seattle.  I was going to my car to leave at the end of a long day.  When I was just about ready to get into the car, a woman approached me.  She was frantic.  A story tumbled out of her…her car had been broken into, her law school books stolen, glass was everywhere, her kids had to take the bus and she needed to take a cab home to let her kids in.  At first I was confused.  I wondered if she needed a parking pass so nobody would tow her car on top of everything.  Then it became clear…she needed money for a cab ride.  I rarely carry cash, but that day I had made sure I had bus money for myself.  So I emptied everything I had into her hands.  It was about $4 in quarters.  That was the easy response to the invitation.  The harder one was when I felt the urge to reach out and hug her and provide a human touch.  That is not the normal thing to do in our society.  Strangers don’t hug.  But I did.  And she responded.  Such a small invitation to treat each other as beloved children of God.  And we both responded to the human touch with a sigh of relief.
Now, if you don’t mind participating in my experiment again, would you gather back together and discuss how you respond to invitations in general and how you respond to God’s invitation.  You might even want to talk about times you ignored invitations and times you easily said yes.

…discussion…

What are some of God’s invitations you have responded to?

And here’s the tough one.  What are some of God’s invitations you have ignored?

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story of Moses.  He’s awesome for showing how a messed up human can respond to God’s invitation.  Perhaps I have an over-active imagination, but I often wonder what would have happened if Moses had not murdered the Egyptian guard.  Here was the perfect set-up for Moses, an Israelite, to be in a position of power in Pharaoh’s family.  Talk about the ability to create change from within!  But he blew it.  I often wonder if that was a missed invitation.  Could Moses have leaned into God and responded to the abuse in a different way that could have resulted in a safe and violence-free liberation of the Israelites?  Maybe.  But what we do know is that God continued to issue invitations to Moses and God continues to issue invitations to us, even when we have ignored God.  What a gracious gift.

Our task is to recognize the gift, begin to receive the invitations that can come as a burning bush or as a small, still voice within, and to respond to God, over and over again, to create the inbreaking of the Kingdom of Heaven here and now.

Shalom and Amen.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Christianity, Religion, Sermon

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

by | August 7, 2011 · 10:00 am

How Beautiful!

August 7, 2011
Romans 5:5-15

How Beautiful!

Sometimes following the rules is very difficult.  A few years ago, I was a volunteer on a Neighborhood Reentry Team.  Neighborhood Reentry Teams meet with folks who have been recently incarcerated and assist them in transitioning back into “real life.”  This particular team met with offenders once a week to help them keep on track.  It was during this experience that I realized that I am not sure I could do what they are expected to do.  Every minute of every day was accounted for.  They would wake up, get ready for work, take a bus across town to work, at lunch they’d go meet with the parole office and get drug testing.  That involved another couple bus trips.  Then back to work on the bus.  Then meeting with Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous.  Squeeze in a meeting with our team, etc.  Some of the complicating factors are that most of the guys we met with were impoverished, uneducated, and lived in group homes.  If they didn’t have a job, they had to prove that they were looking for a job.  Missing one of the court mandated appointments with employment, parole officers, my team, or with Alcoholics Anonymous could result in a parole violation that would return them to prison.  Even if they were following the rules perfectly, a missed bus could land them back in prison.  And let’s face it.  Being able to follow the rules is not the reason they were incarcerated!  And sometimes, all these rules lose sight of the real point.  The real point is to integrate these guys back into society so that they can be healthy and functional and crime-free.  There is a tension.  What rules do we need to create to make sure people are safe and that the offenders are able to adjust to the outside world is in tension with the holistic vision of a healthy and safe environment for all?  Unfortunately, rule following rarely leads to the holistic vision.  This is reinforced by the 70 to 80 percent recidivism rate.  Rule following is difficult.

Paul was caught squarely in the middle of the struggle between folks who wanted to follow established religious laws and those who wanted to be counted as children of God, but were a little terrified of the laws.  To follow the religious laws meant that they would have to do things like being circumcised.  This is not a happy prospect for a grown man.  I was blessed to have a Jewish friend explain to me the religious laws.  There is this concept of “building a fence around Torah.”  What this means is that there are the religion and purity laws in Torah which are the first 5 books of the Old Testament.  Then the rule building comes in.  For example, the law may be, “You shall not make an idol.”  The rules become, don’t make any representation of God because that might become an idol.  And further, don’t write down the holy name, because we might begin to idolize the very name.  See how the fence is built?  The intent is life giving.  The rules can be life giving unless we follow the rules simply because they are the rules. 

In Romans 9:30-32, Paul tells us the problem he is trying to solve:  Israel, who did strive for righteousness based on the law, did not succeed because they were striving based on works alone, not faith.  There was no life.  They were following the rules, staying outside the Torah fence, but losing sight of the life-giving aspects that Torah brings to the Jews.  Paul then pushes back on the rule-following hard.  He proclaims, “if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”[1]

I have to admit that this verse, all by itself, gives me the heebie jeebies.  When I was a teenager, I started going to church.  I felt the pull of God even as an unchurched youth.  Naturally, I went to my best friend’s church.  Turns out that church was a Southern Baptist Church.  This verse is one of the clobber verses they use when judging if someone is really a Christian or not.  In essence, it became a rule.  I know several youth who would parrot these words back without any thought.  But that was enough for the leaders of that church.  Their job was done.  However, merely saying the words “Jesus is Lord” and proclaiming that Jesus rose from the dead cannot secure salvation.[2]  The book of James tells that even the demons believe.  And Matthew tells us, in chapter 7 of his gospel that calling on God’s name will not secure a place in the Kingdom of God.  So there is something more to this business of being saved than reciting an ancient confession. 

This ancient confession, “confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord,” considered in Paul’s culture, carries some extra meaning.  First, this confession uses the word Lord or κύριος in Greek.  This word was reserved for three things:  (1) the Roman Emperors, (2) Greek Gods, or (3) as a reference to God’s divine name.  To associate κύριος with Jesus, meant that if you were Jewish, you trusted Christ as your messiah, if you were a gentile, you ceased worshiping the emperor as κύριος, Lord.  It was an acknowledgment that Jesus Christ was uniquely superior to anyone else.  It was a public declaration of belief in the martyred and resurrected Jesus Christ.[3]  This was a big deal.  It was against the law to worship anybody other than the Roman Emperor, the Greek Gods, or God as defined by ancient Judaism.  Stepping outside of these bounds could be political and social catastrophe.  At a time when the Roman Empire expected unquestioning loyalty, the early Christians were declaring allegiance to the Messiah, Jesus Christ.  So first, this confession is an early declaration of identity.

Second, the questions that come to my mind when I read this confession and these verses are what is belief?  What is being saved?  And the final question…is confession all that is required of us?

So, what does it mean to “believe?”  I had to ask myself if this is different than what it means to have “faith?”  Or what does it mean to “know?”  So of course, I googled it.  And wouldn’t you know, there is a website, by Julie Redstone that has some pretty good answers to these questions![4] 

First regarding knowing, Julie Redstone tells us:

To experience something is to know it. …Here is a common example of our knowing something: When the sun shines on our skin we feel warmth. We don’t need anyone else to tell us what we feel. We know that we feel something we call ‘warmth’. In relation to the sun, we have an ease with our knowing since others share our experience and can understand it.

Regarding belief, she tells us:

We believe things with our minds. Beliefs are ideas. They are concepts. They give us a picture of reality that others can agree with or disagree with. Beliefs are thoughts that can be put into words and these words can be communicated to others. Beliefs, however, are not absolute truths. They are opinions about reality, not reality itself.

And regarding faith, she says:

Having faith in something is different than [belief]. Faith, in a spiritual sense, does not have to do with relative truths but with absolute truths – truths that exist for all time…Unlike beliefs which are of the mind, faith is not just of the mind but of the heart as well…Faith combines our heart’s wish and our mind’s belief into an inner affirmation that the possible is real. Faith is the affirmation of this reality.

I think that our biblical translation fails us just a bit here.  I looked up the Greek dictionary definition for the word, πιστεύω  which is translated belief and it says:  “to believe to the extent of complete trust and reliance…to have faith in.”[5]  I think Paul might be happier if we chose the word faith rather than belief here.  After all, in verse 10, Paul says, “for you believe with the heart.”  Belief here is the exact same word used earlier, πιστεύω.  Faith.  We are to have complete trust and reliance that Jesus is the messiah and that he was raised from the dead.  That is what it means to believe.  Please note that there is nothing that we can do to create faith.  Faith is a complete gift from God; all we have to do is open ourselves.

Having faith, complete trust and reliance, leads to a discussion of what trusting and relying upon Jesus means.  For me, it means that I trust in Jesus to guide me.  And when I choose a place to identify with, it is Matthew 25:

Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’[6]

This is solid ground for me.  Reliable.  Trustworthy.  It touches my heart and my head and speaks to me of who Jesus is and what I know of God.

Next, what does it mean to be confess and be saved?  I find it infinitely fascinating that the same word for saved is related to the word healed.  So there is this linking of salvation and healing.  What does it mean to be healed?  Paul tells us that through confessing that Jesus is Lord, we are saved.  Is that really all there is to it?  Not quite.  When I think of confession, I generally think of a confidential confession to a pastor or priest.  Is the only trick to be healed, to being restored to right relationship with God, saying this confession to a trusted pastor?  I don’t think so. 

I think, though, that the key to deciphering this confession comes in verses 14 and 15. 

14 But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? 15 And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”[7]

This is a reference to Isaiah 52:7, which reads:

7How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

Confession is announcing peace to the world, bringing the good news to the world, announcing salvation to the world.  This brings healing to us and to others.  It is a confession that God reigns.  It is so interesting that Isaiah and Paul reference the beautiful feet.  Feet travel.  Feet get around.  Feet do.  Paul and Isaiah emphasize the feet.  Why?  The feet are the ones sent out into the world and they are beautiful.  And that is part of confessing.  We don’t keep the good news of healing to ourselves.  We share in the responsibility of healing the world and bringing the good news of right relationship with God through Christ. 

There are a good many people who are of the opinion that all it takes for salvation is a confession of the creed.  But that lacks bringing healing.  Remember that church I went to as a teen?  As soon as they were assured of my salvation, they offered nothing.  I was a teenager (strike one), with no faith support in my home (strike two), and with no development of my faith at church other than attending choir (strike three).  Throw in a little ministerial misconduct and I bet you can guess where I was going to church a couple years later!  Nowhere.  The people of the church did not help me understand what it meant to be in right relationship with Christ.  They did not take time to bring healing to a teenage heart.  And the worst thing, they threw in obstacles to faith development!  In many ways they were good hearted people.  I just think they were misguided.  Confessing your faith should enable you to become the bearer of peace, good news, and healing.  These are all “doing things.”  It requires action on our part.  First, we have to be in right-relationship with Christ as Lord of our lives and second, we have to work to bring healing to the world.  And I think we know that there is a lot of healing that needs to happen.

Paul stresses the importance of going out into the world and bringing healing in the name of Christ Jesus, sharing the message of Christ.  Sometimes, people need healing before they can see the beauty of God and other times, seeing the beauty of God leads them to see a healing path.  It would be awfully convenient if there was one simple formula, but there isn’t.  We must do both…bring healing and share our own faith stories.  Sometimes in that order and sometimes, we will be called to share our faith story first.  I know that can be scary. But our boots are made for walking.

I wonder what it would be like if our shoes kept a diary?  What would that say about us?  Would a quick peak into that diary reveal a journey that includes spiritual activities and beautiful feet?  Or would our shoe diary reveal feet that were muddy and looking a bit worse-for-the-wear? 

March 5

Dear Diary,

Today I passed by a homeless man on the street.  I felt so sorry for him, but I didn’t have time to do anything but rush by.

Love, Terri

or what if it read…

March 5,

Dear Diary,

Today I passed by a homeless man on the street.  I felt so sorry for him, but I didn’t have time to do anything but rush by.  Today, though, I turned around and went back and gave him my lunch.   And tonight, I’m going to make a donation to Peace for the Streets.[8]  I know I can’t stop every day, but perhaps I made a difference today.

Love, Terri

Or…

Dear Diary,

Today I don’t know how I resisted the urge to gossip about Elaine even though I have heard some appalling news.  I don’t know where the strength came from!  It must be a God thing.  Actually, I should send an encouraging note to Elaine.  She must be feeling awful.  Maybe I will tell her about the time I felt really lonely and God made a difference in my life.

Love, Terri

Perhaps, this week, you will think about keeping a shoe diary.  Where are your feet going? Are they looking muddy?  Or are they beautiful feet bringing healing and good news to a hurting world.

Shalom and Amen.

[1] Romans 10:9

[2] Cabal, T., Brand, C. O., Clendenen, E. R., Copan, P., Moreland, J., & Powell, D. (2007). The Apologetics Study Bible: Real Questions, Straight Answers, Stronger Faith (1695). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

[3] Kwasi Kena, Evangelistic Preaching Helps for August 7, 2011 — Eighth Sunday Sunday After Pentecost, Year A, http://www.gbod.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=nhLRJ2PMKsG&b=5913121&ct=8155477

[4] Julie Redstone, “Belief, Faith, and Knowing.” http://lightomega.org/Ind/Pure/Belief_Faith_and_Knowing.html

[5] Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Vol. 1: Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament : Based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition.) (375). New York: United Bible societies.

[6] Matthew 25:34–36

[7] Romans 10:14-15

2 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Grace, Religion, Sermon, Spirituality, Theology

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

by | July 29, 2011 · 7:26 am

On the Importance of Boundaries

Terri Stewart
July 29, 2011 

Boundaries and the Samaritan Woman: 
A Sermon on Learning from John 4:7-42 

When I was a young adult, I lived in the Bible-belt of North Carolina in a small town outside of Charlotte.  One of the interesting things about the area I lived in was the presence of Heritage U.S.A.Theme Park, the home of PTL ministries run by Jim and Tammy Bakker.  Everybody in the area knew about Heritage.  At Christmas time, they had the most fantastic light display and going there was almost as good as going to Carowinds, the local amusement park.

Then, in March of 1987,[1] Jim Bakker resigned in a sexual scandal.  He was accused of paying off Jessica Hahn to prevent her from revealing that she had been drugged and raped by Jim Bakker and another minister.  In 1989, Bakker was convicted of eight counts of mail fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy.  He was never convicted of anything regarding Jessica Hahn and still denies that anything wrong, other than adultery, happened. 

I think that is stunningly short-sighted.  Jim Bakker was a multi-millionaire pastor and Jessica Hahn was a 21-year-old secretary.  Bakker was twice her age and had the power to totally financial control Jessica Hahn’s life.  Even if there was no physical coercion, Bakker crossed the line of acceptable behavior.  But, Bakker says, “it was consensual.”  Really.  He violated a boundary that he should never have even gotten close to.  It was a tragedy.

However, we should not rest comfortably thinking this type of conduct ‘is in the past’ or belongs to some other church.  In the United Methodist Church, between 140 and 500 incidents of clergy sexual misconduct occurs every year.[2]  That is up to 500 cases every single year.  Our own clergy are violating boundaries.  This has got to stop and it is up to each of us to prepare ourselves and our churches to make sure that it ends.  And of course, we have the ultimate example of Jesus who negotiates boundaries continuously, to guide us in our behavior.

There are at least three different types of boundaries:  geographical, social, and personal.  Geographical boundaries are fairly easy to negotiate.  The boundary between the U.S. and Canada is apparent and you simply need the right paperwork and you’re good.  Social boundaries are generally the acceptable behaviors of a group.  This can be more difficult as we move from group to group.  For example, in Seattle, rarely do strangers speak to each other on the bus no matter how closely they are crowded together.  However, in North Carolina, there is no such thing as not talking to someone.  Everyone gets greeted or smiled at.  Personal boundaries are those limits that protect our own selves.  In the context of potential misconduct, it would be limits that are placed that protect the vulnerable person from the powerful person.[3]  Like between a patient and his doctor.  Or a pastor and his secretary.

In our gospel story today, we are presented with Jesus and the Samaritan woman.  This story is one big boundary crossing demonstration.  It is important to realize that crossing boundaries is not always a bad thing.  Instead of thinking of a boundary as a cliff of hard rock that is impossible to cross, boundaries are more like the ocean that washes up onto the beach.[4]  The water is not at one spot.  It ebbs and flows depending on the weather and the lunar cycle.  There is a continuous negotiation of space that we would call the boundary between the sea and the land.  That is more reflective of reality.  Especially with different people.  I have different personal boundaries with my best friend than with the kids that I teach during Sunday School than with my kids than with my husband.  It is a negotiation.  We take the risk and go through this negotiation because ultimately, as people, we have a need to be vulnerable.  It is in our vulnerability that we become known and being known is a precious gift.

In Samaria, Jesus negotiates all three types of boundaries.  First, he negotiates a geographical boundary and enters Samaria.  In doing so, he also negotiates social boundaries.  Jews did not enter Samaria.  The Samaritans and Jews had long standing enmity for each other and generally, Jews would travel around Samaria rather than cross into it.  Jesus also negotiates the boundary between men and women by speaking with the Samaritan woman.  Men of this time period did not generally intiate conversations with women, especially women they did not know, and especially Jewish men and Samaritan women.  Third, Jesus negotiates a new way of interacting with the Samaritan woman.  Jesus asks her for a drink.  Sharing life-giving water at the well is a negotiation of new personal boundaries between Jesus and the Samaritan woman.

 Looking at the story of Jim Bakker and his boundary violations and the story of Jesus and his story of boundary negotiation, you must be wondering what they have to do with each other.  They are both examples of negotiating borders. One was life-giving and one was spiritually death-dealing.   In fact, I think Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman was more than life-giving, I am convinced that Jesus healed her in that moment at the well.

The Samaritan woman presents as a trauma victim.  We know a few things about her…she was at the well during the mid-day, she had five previous husbands, and that the man she was currently with was not her husband.  Why are these things unique?  First, women did not go to the well during mid-day and they did not go alone.  But the Samaritan woman did.  Common practice would be that the women generally went to the well together during the early part of the day.  The Samaritan woman was at a minimum an outsider to the accepted social group.  As for her husbands, it is likely that she had married once and her husband died.  This would result in her being passed down, like property, to her husband’s brother.  For a woman to have 5 husbands, that would be several deaths.  And finally, she was with a man who was not her husband.  What would be the psychological result of being forced to be the wife of a series of brothers and then the trauma of their deaths?  What would be the psychological result of having no way to survive other than to live with a man who was not her husband?  If we consider the positions of power, the Samaritan woman was powerless while the men in her life held all the power.  And she was treated like property and then like less than property.  Her body and her life were at the mercy of these men.  The Samaritan woman was a trauma victim.

Judith Herman, author of Trauma and Recovery, tells us of the phases that bring healing to those who have been traumatized.  The phases are (1) empowering the survivor, (2) remembrance and mourning, and (3) reconnection. Jesus, in a masterful way, brings the Samaritan woman through each of these phases.  First, Jesus empowers the Samaritan woman to make her own choice.  He asks for a cup of water.  This gives her the opportunity to negotiate her own personal boundary in relation to a Jewish man, by a well, in the middle of Samaria.  There is a lot of stuff in there from a social boundary perspective and potential danger for her.  She has the strength of character to question Jesus about this social barrier between them.  His Jewishness and her Samaritan-ness.  He offers her God in return and she wants what Jesus has.

Second, Jesus walks her through remembrance of her trauma of 5 husbands and the 1 man.  We know that this remembrance is healing because when she goes back to the Samaritan people, she tells them, “He told me everything I have ever done.”[5]  Jesus saw her for who she was.  He saw her gifts and her pain.  He helped her remember and move past the memory into action.

And the action is the third step of healing.  The action of reconnection.  By passing the Word[6] to the Samaritan woman, Jesus enables the Samaritan woman to reconnect to her people.  She goes to them and tells them of the healing power of Jesus.  They listen to her and believe because of her.  Then they go to Jesus and develop a direct relationship with Jesus.  Significantly, the Samaritans return to the woman, pleased that now, not only because of her Word, they believe because they have met Jesus.  She becomes the spiritual mother of the Samaritans.  Not only does she reconnect, she is empowered to become a carrier of the Word, and she becomes a leader in the community.  Jesus and the Samaritan woman perfectly model how healthy and even how healing boundaries are negotiated.  This is far from our initial story of Jim Bakker.

Now, in our immediate sphere, we rarely encounter stories of such magnitude as that of Jim Bakker and Jessica Hahn.  However, there are thousands of ways that boundaries are violated that do not go to this extreme.  In the early history of my home church, a pastor violated boundaries.  He did this not in a sexually aggressive way, but in a way that caused people to be wounded.  He was bossy and insensitive.  Arrogant and directive.  It caused worship wars in the church and split the fledgling congregation.  He ended up leaving the ministry all together.  This was because he did not honor personal boundaries.  The result of this early trauma to the birth of my home church was a long, 15-year simmer of distrust and resentment among the founders and leaders.  Most telling, when new people come into the church, they were happy until they reached the level of leadership and encountered an environment where people did harm to each other.  Then, they would leave.  For the past several years, we have been working diligently on the culture at the church to change the way people treat each other.  Finally, the church is experiencing hope and new growth.  By teaching people in leadership how to talk to each other and to respect each other’s boundaries, people are beginning to reconnect with each other and to find a future that includes living water for each other.

This is really a cautionary tale.  It took 15 years for my home congregation to begin to start the healing process over boundary violations that seem fairly benign at first glance.  Jim Bakker’s ministry was annihilated.  I would hazard that you would rather not have either possibility occur.  Healthy ministerial boundaries are vital to the growth of the church.  Boundaries[7] help us maintain clear relationships and honor one another.  Having clear boundaries actually frees us to do the work of our ministry.  Boundaries are signals to other people that we are trustworthy.  And let’s face it, in this day and age, church people are viewed with suspicion.  We need every boost we can get!

There are two questions we can ask ourselves in our quest for negotiating appropriate boundaries.[8]  They are:

  • “Is this in the best interests of the other person?”
  • “Would I be comfortable if all my acquaintances knew I was doing this?”
  • “Does it satisfy only my needs?”

If you can answer the first two questions with a confident “yes” and the last with a “no,” you are probably on your way towards negotiating a healthy, life-giving boundary.  If Jim Bakker had approached his ministry with the best interest of others and with full transparency in mind, he never would have violated Jessica Hahn and he would not have embezzled money to cover it up.  If my home church’s previous pastor had approached his ministry in this manner, the church would not have split and he probably would not have left the ministry. 

My challenge to you is for you to go forward in your own ministries as Sunday School teachers, treasurer, committee leaders, music team members, and all the other roles we fill here at church and hold the best interests of the other person as inviolable.  Let us walk with each other and create boundaries that are as refreshing as life-giving water.

Shalom and Amen.

[2] http://www.umc-gbcs.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=frLJK2PKLqF&b=4909851&ct=8799947; The reason it varies so widely is that there is no formal reporting system in the United Methodist Church and many incidents are handled informally rather than go through the appropriate channels.

[3] Marilyn R. Peterson, At Personal Risk:  Boundary Violations in Professional-Client Relationships, (NY: Norton, 1992), p. 3-4.

[4] ”Healthy Boundaries for Clergy and Spiritual Teachers:  Participant’s Workbook,” (Seattle: FaithTrust Institute, 2008), p. 5.

[5] John 4:39

[6] John 4:30 – properly translated ‘the Word (logos) of the woman testifying’

[7] ”Healthy Boundaries for Clergy and Spiritual Teachers:  Participant’s Workbook,” (Seattle: FaithTrust Institute, 2008), p. 7.

[8] Ibid.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Christianity, Religion, Scripture, Sermon, Spirituality

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

by | July 17, 2011 · 11:15 am

Be Seedy Not Weedy

Terri Stewart
BCUMC
July 17, 2011
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

When I was between the ages of 10 and 14, we lived in Colorado.  We lived on a dirt road in a small, close-knit community.  We were also surrounded by fields.  They were filled with sugar beats and corn.  We had fun in the field.  We would run in them when they were empty.  Play hide and seek in the corn when it was tall.  And a couple particular memories include a hot air balloon making an emergency landing in the field north of our house and a particular wind storm that blew everybody’s patio furniture into the fields.  Not just patio furniture, but anything that was outside.  Walking through the fields collecting our furniture and pool toys was an experience.

I used to walk across one of the fields to visit a friend’s house.  It was a pretty long walk…perhaps we would call it a “country mile.”  The short cut was through the field rather than up over and down which would have been a country three miles.  Growing in this particular field was sugar beats.  But there was always other stuff mixed in.  Particularly, there were stalks of wheat around the edges from past plantings.  I am sure the farmer would consider these stalks “weeds.”  I thought they were great for picking and sneaking up behind people and tickling them with the soft end of the wheat stalk!  Perspective is everything.

When I was reading today’s scripture, there was one thing that jumped out to me.  I’ll read it again.  From verses 24 and 25:

“The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away.”

I noticed that Jesus was talking about the Kingdom of Heaven.  There were seeds and weeds sown in the Kingdom of Heaven.  I find that astonishing.  What was God doing while somebody snuck into heaven and planted weeds?  Maybe that isn’t what Jesus meant at all.

And later on in the scripture, the servants are wondering about these weeds that are suddenly being found in the harvest.  Folks want to yank out the weeds and destroy them right there.  But the master reminds them in verse 29,

“in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.”

The roots of the weeds and the wheat have become intertwined.  I don’t know if you have ever walked by a weed and just yanked it out .. or tried to yank it out.  You pull and it doesn’t budge.  You pull harder.  And harder.  Finally it comes out with a mess of roots and dirt in a root ball the size of a softball.  All the stuff that came out was not just the weed.  I probably pulled up a miniature eco-system.  There was no way to easily separate the weed from everything else that came up with it.

Nowadays, some of us have a different approach to weeding.  Instead of pulling weeds, we use Round-Up and kill it.  Now, Round-Up is made by Mansanto.  Mansanto also genetically modifies seeds so that they are Round-Up resistant.  For example, they make a soybean that cannot be killed by Round-Up.  That way farmers can plant the soybeans and use the Round-Up to kill all the weeds.  However, there is a price to pay for using the soybean seeds that Mansanto engineers.  Farmers must commit to a laundry list of demands by Mansanto and they cannot use any seeds gleaned from the plants they grow.  This sets up a circle.  Farmers buy their seeds and their Round-Up.  Then either the farmer has to buy more seeds from Mansanto, or they need to switch to other seeds that are not Round-Up resistant.  There is a third option.  Farmers glean seeds from the Mansanto plants and plant new crops.  Illegally.  Well, it isn’t breaking the law, but it does break a legal contract.  Over the years, Mansanto has made $15 million dollars suing farmers for illegally planting their crops from gleaned seeds.

It seems very easy to get outraged over this company and their treatment of farmers.  But it is a difficult issue.  First, I know a lot of folks are avidly organic in their food choice.  I think that is a great choice if you can afford it.  I have a friend, Lisa, who volunteers in the detention center with me.  She tells me that she loves organic food and that is all she buys, but when she goes into the prisons and sees what the kids are eating, she is well aware how privileged she is to be agle to make the choice.  It is companies like Mansanto that allow people who cannot afford organic food, to eat.  Without the seeds that they have genetically engineered and the weed killer that allows the seeds to grow, it would be much more difficult for many people to get food.  Mansanto does indeed do some good.

What I would really like to say is that Mansanto represents both the weeds and the seeds of human nature.  There is no way of untwining the good we see from the bad.  Sometimes I think they cross the line, but I am well aware that they have spent a lot of time, effort, and money developing products that make food more available and less expensive.  But this is business!  Not the Kingdom of Heaven.  I expect that in business, there are always moral and ethical situations to be faced.  It seems that in the Kingdom of Heaven, it should always be easy to separate the weed and the seed.  The moral and amoral.  But perhaps it isn’t this easy.

In Jesus’ teaching today, he tells us that he is the farmer, the field is the world, the good seeds are the children of the kingdom, the weeds are the children of “the evil one.”

And, although Jesus does not restate it, I would like to add that the entirety of what Jesus just described is in the Kingdom of Heaven.  The Kingdom of Heaven is not limited to the world, but the world is part of the Kingdom of Heaven.

There are so many things that can be discussed deeply in Jesus’ teaching.  But the main question I would like to ponder is, how do we separate the weeds from the seeds, the good from the evil, when it is all within us?  Each one of us has impulses towards good and impulses towards evil.  Not one of us is perfect.  Us, the children of the kingdom, we are the children of “the evil one.” The roots of the weeds and the seeds are intertwined in us.

Remember Jesus saying to Peter, “Get behind me Satan?”  At that point in time, Peter let his impulses rule the moment.  If you will recall, Jesus was telling his disciples that he was going to suffer and die.  Peter declared, “no!”  He did not want to watch someone he loved and cherished die and suffer.  Peter demonstrates a very natural response.

And we do to0.  We often respond naturally to things we don’t understand.  It is these moments that our weediness and seediness is tested.  So, I suppose, we need to define what the test is in order to know whether we are acting weedy or seedy.  And that is seedy like seeds from plants not seedy like shabby or dingy.  The test that I have in my mind is the “simple” question, “what response or action will bring the most spiritual, physical, emotional, and intellectual freedom to those among us who are the lost, the least, and the lonely.”

I would like to read it again, “what response or action will bring the most spiritual, physical, emotional, and intellectual freedom to those among us who are the lost, the least, and the lonely.”

Peter’s denial of the plan that Jesus was revealing was a denial of the salvific action that Jesus was in the process of acting out on behalf of the entire world.  Peter wanted to save the pain of his own heartache and sacrifice the world.  That does not bring the most freedom.

And this is where I think that Mansanto crosses the line sometimes.  By favoring corporate profit over what brings the most freedom to those who are treated the worst, they often sue farmers who can not afford to battle against a corporate giant.  But that is what a business is supposed to do!  Favor profit over freedom.  Sure.  If this were the kingdom of Mansanto.  But it is not.  We are living in the Kingdom of Heaven.  Our job is to make the hard decisions and to influence others to make hard decisions that bring spiritual, physical, emotional, and intellectual freedom.  Our job is to be seedy not weedy.  All too often, though, we fall down on our job and make choices that favor our own comfort.  We all do that.  And sometimes, the decision comes back to haunt us.

For example, we know that food is good.  And then sometimes we choose gluttony.  Or financial comfort is good, and sometimes we choose greed.   

Our saving grace, is well, grace.  We see it in Psalm 139.  God is with us all the time.  God knows our thoughts.  God knows our own weeds and our own seeds.  God will lead us in the way everlasting, if we allow it.

This is the everlasting way of grace.  God gives us the freedom to respond.  That is why freedom is so important.  If we did not have freedom, we would not have God’s call to us.  It would be more like a demand than a call. Grace calls to the seed growing in our heart, not the weed.  That helps us respond to God’s call out of the freedom.  God is there with us, calling us, loving us.  Even when we don’t hear God’s call or even when we respond to God’s call in a rebellious or “weedy” way, God is with us.

We are very blessed that God knows that we will have times when we are the weeds. 

At the end of today’s scripture, there is the phrase “Let anyone with ears, listen.” This phrase is used repeatedly in scripture.  Mark, Matthew, and Luke use it as well as the Book of the Revelation.  What I found out doing some research was that it could be a reference to a phrase from Isaiah 6.  Isaiah is sent out to the people to ask them to listen.  However, it is used in an upside-down way.  God does that upside-down thing sometimes.  Isaiah is saying,

“Keep listening, but do not comprehend.” and a couple phrases later “so they may not look with their eyes and listen with their ears and comprehend with their minds.”

It is possible that Jesus uses the phrase “Let anyone with ears, listen” as scriptural shorthand to let people know that he knows that we are very weedy.  That we won’t always comprehend. 

The comfort is that God sent this message.  OK.  Maybe that isn’t so comforting.  God is sending a message that we won’t comprehend?  So, let’s reframe it.  God is sending a message that we won’t always get it right.  We will continue to be seedy and weedy in our lives.  And God loves us through it. 

Like Peter, like Mansanto, we will continue to make decisions out of our personal need.  But we don’t need to rest in that.  Because like Peter and like Mansanto, we can make decisions that change the world.

The question becomes, in the comfort of our seedy weediness, how are we going to hear and respond to the call of God?  How are we going to create a space of spiritual, physical, emotional, and intellectual freedom so that we can begin to comprehend?  How are we going to make decisions that bring the greatest possibility of freedom for people who are the least, the lost, and the lonely?  What will be the cost of discipleship for each of us?  If we are willing to pay this cost, relying on God, we will truly begin to live up to the motto of the United Methodist Church and begin the deep work it takes to become and create disciples that transform the world. 

Shalom & Amen.

8 Comments

Filed under Christianity, Religion, Sermon, Spirituality, Theology

Tagged as , , , , , ,