Sarcastic Lutheran

What is Emerging in the Church?

Several people are undergoing a synchrobog today on the topic "What is Emerging in the Church?" 

What is emerging in the church?  I have no idea.  But I have my ear to the ground at House for All Sinners and Saints, the community to which I belong.

Here's what I think is emerging at HFASS....here's where I envision God calling us to be (some of these things already exist and some are yet to)

I envision a vibrant community which averages 80-100 in worship.  The leadership within the church is undertaken by many people based on what they are passionate about.   We have maintained the participatory nature of our liturgy while more people work to created it.  Writers write the prayers, musicians create music, artists adorn the worship space. It is a place that celebrates the arts in all its multiple facets from music to painting to stain glass windows to poetry, dance and sculpture – both to engage in faith and just to celebrate life in general. There’s always food.  People laugh more than anyone would expect in a church.  We see the promise of narcissism, which is ever present in our consumer culture, for what it is: a lie.  So we do the radical thing of showing up even if it is not the thing we want to do in the moment because it may meet the needs of someone else (not out of obligation or guilt, but out of freedom).  Those drawn to more of a whole-life faith undertake praying the hours together.  A small group gathers for sung Matins each day.  We are known in the community for being purveyors of whimsy and mystery.  We don’t take ourselves too seriously.  We glorify the stranger.  We insist on the gospel.  We sing our hearts to God.  Who we are changes with everyone who joins us or leaves us but what we are about is constant.  We gather around Word and Sacrament.  We respond to the needs around us.   We relish in subversive generosity.  We pray our asses off.  We know what other resources are available in the community so that we can refer people to them.  Work is joy because we do it together and for the sake of God.  We retreat twice a year.  Children help create and participate in worship.  We respond and adapt.  We are nimble yet rooted.  We have a good reputation amongst those who are usually suspect of the church.  New people are given a meaningful place in the community.  We point to nothing but Christ and him crucified. 

May God make us worthy of our calling.

Amen.

Sermon on the Road to Damascus and Breakfast on the Beach

 
 

Acts 9

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest  2and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.  3Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.  4He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"  5He asked, "Who are you, Lord?" The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.  6But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do."  7The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one.  8Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.  9For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
     10Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." He answered, "Here I am, Lord."  11The Lord said to him, "Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying,  12and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight."  13But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem;  14and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name."  15But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel;  16I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name."  17So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."  18And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized,  19and after taking some food, he regained his strength.
    For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus,  20and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "He is the Son of God."

John 21

     9When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread.  10Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught."  11So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn.  12Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" because they knew it was the Lord.  13Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish.  14This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
     15When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs."  16A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep."  17He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep.  .... After this he said to him, "Follow me."

A reading from Acts chapter 7: While they were stoning Stephen he prayed “Lord Jesus receive my spirit” then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.  When he had said this he died.  And Saul approved of their killing him.

    I’m not so sure that the really miraculous thing about Saul’s experience happened on the road to Damascus…sure the pure drama of being blinded by a light and hearing a voice from heaven is great material for a Cecil B Demille movie…  but for me the real miracle took place after he arrived at Damascus. Saul (which was his name before he changed it to Paul) well, Saul, we are told, was breathing threats and murder.  The very oxygen entering his lungs was self-righteousness and a drive to purge what was impure out of the religion he excelled at.

    He was present at and indeed approved of the stoning of Steven, the first to be killed for following Jesus and now Saul had secured the full support of the religious authorities in Jerusalem to hunt down other followers of Jesus, bind them and deport them to Jerusalem where they would stand trial and likely follow their brother Steven in martyrdom.

    They had been warned, those Jesus followers in Damascus that Saul was coming.  They were understandably afraid and likely angry that their fellow Jew was hunting them down. 

    I know I would avoid the guy at all cost were I in that situation.  So when Ananias heard in a vision that he was to go and actually seek out the guy he’s trying to avoid, he had every reason to pull a Jonah and go the exact opposite direction but he didn’t and the result changed everything. The event of Paul’s own transformation may have started on the road to Damascus but it couldn’t actually take hold until someone else’s conversion could take place. Because Paul didn’t really have new eyes until the death and resurrection of Ananias’ own fear. You see, conversion, if we are going to use the word, doesn’t happen in private.  It happens in community.   Paul’s transformation didn’t really happen until Anninias, one whom he persecuted, laid hands on him and called him brother.  This act of forgiveness and reconciliation was I think so powerful that the scales on Sauls’ eye could not help but fall.  The old way of seeing did not stand a chance in the face of such undeserved mercy and reconciliation. He laid hands on Saul and called him brother…and it was perhaps the perfect sermon.  Our brother Annanias had experienced the risen Christ and believed that God can raise the dead.  Even Saul.

    Much later in the book of Acts, Paul will stand before King  Agrippa and recall again his transformation that started on the road to Damascus and Paul will ask “Why is it thought so incredible to any of you that God can raise the dead?”

    And all I can think of is “Do I think it so possible that God can raise the dead that I am willing to see it even in the person who I’ve written off so completely.  Can I believe it possible that God can raise the dead that I am willing to see it in even the most despicable parts of myself that I’ve written off completely?  Look at Saul.  He was arrogant and forceful … a manically driven ideologue and God goes “I could use someone like you, you Saul will be my instrument.  I will use your annoyingly certain personality, your rhetorical brilliance and your passion all the things you used to persecute me I will use to lift my name" says the Lord 

    See, conversion doesn’t mean a change in personality.  Just a change of purpose.  And that purpose is to be purveyors of life abundant.  The kind of life offered in the crucified and resurrected one.  The kind of life abundant that only comes from receiving and giving forgiveness and reconiliation that the secular world will never ever stand for.  There is no justice as we understand it in a man seeking out his persecutor laying hands on him and calling him brother.  I’m fairly certain that I cannot muster up that kind of reconciliation on my own.  But Jesus says you don’t have to.  Jesus says “I’ll go first”.  Before he is even dead on the cross he asks God to forgive those who put him there.  He lays hands on his own deniers.  Goes so far as to make a grilled fish breakfast for them.  He goes to his persecutors and brings peace. And what allowed Anninias to lay hands on Saul and call him brother, what allowed Steven to ask for the forgiveness of Saul and the others who killed him is that they had been made Easter people.  Because Jesus had said It's ok. I'll go first.

    In our Gospel text today Jesus says to Peter come and I will feed you around the very fire from which you really boffed it.  I imagine Peter’s olfactory triggered memory of another charcoal fire. A charcoal fire on the night of Jesus' arrest around which Peter warmed himself with his own self-protection and fear.  Denying his Lord and warming his hands. And now the risen Christ offers him a grilled fish breakfast on the beach.  Jesus kind of snacks his way through the gospels even after he’s died and come back to life.  As a side note I’m kind of amused by the academics (The Jesus Seminar) who have clever little explanations for everything in the Bible…like that Jesus didn’t really rise from the dead…it’s just that his spirit and memory were so powerful to his followers that when they were together that it almost felt like he was really there.  “Yeah, remember when Jesus was dead but his spirit was so strong that it felt like he grilled us some fish on the beach?  Man the memory of that guy can really make a delicious breakfast!”  So I may be naive and superstitious but I actually believe that Jesus was there in the flesh grilling fish because seriously, doesn’t that just sound like something a guy who was accused of being a drunkard and a glutton would do if he came back from the dead?

So he makes a charcoal fire and cooks breakfast for his friends including Peter his denier.  And he does such an unbelievably loving thing and gives Peter 3 chances to proclaim his love. 1 for each of his denials.  Do you love me Peter?  With the smell of charcoal in his nostrils I wonder if Peter could answer yes without tears in his eyes.  I have failed you Lord and denied you in your hour of death despite everything in me that knew it was wrong but yes.  3 times yes. I love you Lord.  How could he not be overcome with the pain of undeserved mercy and a second chance.  This mercy was not tender, it was a blunt instrument.  This is a forgiveness that kills the thing which wronged it.  The part of Peter who denied Christ dies at the blow of the blunt instrument of undeserved mercy and something new is born.  It is the Peter who has encountered resurrection.  He sees differently.  Scales have fallen from his eye and he is now an Easter person.  And Christ doesn’t skip a beat.  He creates these Easter people because frankly he has an agenda. Feed my lambs.  Tend my sheep. It’s called the great commission. Follow me he says. It's ok.  I'll go first.  But go and be what you have received. Practice the forgiveness and reconciliation I bring to you. Because  there’s a spreading of the Gospel that can only come from a forgiven sinner like Peter and Paul and me and you.  And we are an Easter people.

Maundy Thursday at House for All Sinners and Saints

John 13

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. ²The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper ³Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, ⁴got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. ⁵Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. ⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” ⁷Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” ⁸Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” ⁹Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” ¹¹For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” ¹²After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. ¹⁷If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

At our Maundy Thursday liturgy we had an individual absolution following the confession; people came forward, I laid my hands on them saying "In obedience to the command of Christ I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins. Amen".  Everyone had their feet washed and then in turn washed the feet of someone else.  In addition, we assembled safe sex kits for http://www.praxus.org/ to be handed out on the Denver streets to homeless youth, IV drug users and sex workers.  We did this as an act of love and because God loves us where we are and as who we are...not just after we've washed our own feet.

Sermon:

In John’s Gospel the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us.  God’s own self scandalously slipped into skin and moved into the neighborhood.  He called to follow him blue collar illiterates, bureaucrats and prostitutes.  He turned water to wine, and wine into blood.  He raised the dead, healed the sick and fed the hungry.   And he wept.

The question of “Who is this man” followed him everywhere.  He called himself the bread of life, the light of the world, the gate, the good shepherd, the resurrection, the true vine, the way, the truth and the life.  And none of this helped anyone figure him out…not really. He infuriated the religious establishment and confused his disciples. Then after the conspiracy to kill him had begun but before he was betrayed and arrested he was at dinner with his faltering friends when he got up, put the towel of a servant girl around his waist, and washed their feet speaking of love and death and glory.

Then he asks this question “Do you know what I have done to you?”
Do you know what I have done to you he asks.

Well, he’s done something or else you all wouldn’t be here.  Something has happened that has made us followers of Jesus.  I know a lot of you and understand that you quite justifiably have every reason not to be a part of a Christian community.  Several of us have tried to leave but somehow the Christ event is centrifugal.   Something has happened…But what? And why does he ask this now after washing the feet of his friends….Friends like James and John who will be unable to stay awake and pray with him before his death, Judas who will betray him, and Peter who will deny him.  

What has Jesus done to them, to us?  He’s met us with dirty feet.  God was made man and walked among us – walked among the despised and wretched – the rich and haughty and did so – does so – when we are unclean.  The love of God comes to us not when we’ve managed to clean ourselves up a bit…not when God is good and sure that we believe all the right doctrine, but here, now, when our feet are dirty.  He kneels before us in love and says here’s what I’m about.  Here’s the only doctrine you need…God pouring out God’s self and saying now you do the same…. don’t be ashamed of your dirty feet because I will touch them … I will change you.

This following Jesus thing is not a kind of personal dirt management program.  Which is what it feels like the church has so often been about .  Rather than live into the discomforting and radical reality that God is loving us dirt and all, the church has chosen to make it all about worthiness.  We’re like, experts in this.  Only those who are worthy may receive Christ at communion – you have to be baptized or baptized in the right church or you need to have confessed first or agreed with our pure pure doctrine.  Basically you must have thoroughly cleaned your own feet before sitting at Jesus’ table. And let me tell you…this whole church as sin management program thing started about 20 minutes after the first Christians gathered together.  But we miss the point when we try managing our stuff in order to be worthy of being in Christ’s presence. I guess I wonder if a guy who is willing to take off his cloak, wrap the towel of a servant girl around him and wash the filthy feet of his friends who are about to betray him is a guy who would start a religion based on the shame and worthiness of those he loves?  He asked nothing of them but to love each other dirt and all. After all, the dirt is inevitable and not the result of anything but our journey as the broken. To not have the dirt is to not have been on the road at all.  Dirt is simply the inevitable experience of the ambulatory. Yes we too need to be washed of the buildup of being simply ourselves in the world. As Jesus tells Peter, we are washed in God’s grace and yes entirely clean yet still in need of washing off that which has clung to us, the dusty daily remnant of brokenness. But just the feet, and it comes off pretty easily, with the hearing of the Word, with the nourishment of Christ’s body and blood, with the proclamation of forgiveness, with the power of reconciliation.   It comes off of us in beloved community.  This community gathered around Water, Bread, Wine.  It comes off not because we are worthy or have managed to gussy ourselves up for Jesus, but because he has done something to us.  He has come to us while our feet are still dirty and said “let me take care of that.”

He kneels before us in love and says here’s what I’m about.  Here’s the only doctrine you need…God pouring out God’s self and saying now you do the same…  don’t be ashamed of your dirty feet because I will touch them … I will change you.

He commands us to love in this same crazy way.  It is by this, he says, that everyone will know that you are my disciples: By this, he says, everyone will know that you are my forgiven Christ betrayers:  if you have love for one another; not Hallmark greeting card love but If you have Agape for one another. Agape, the derivative love which is only possible from the indwelling of God’s spirit. Agape one another. Not try and manage a deep fondness for the irritating.  Not try and create warm feelings toward the unlikable, the socially awkward, the unlovely. Jesus knew better than to imply that if his followers could only muster up enough niceness they would be up to the task of following him.

Jesus shows us what this love actually looks like.  He shows us divine humility and service. He kneels before us in love and says here’s what I’m about.  Here’s the only doctrine you need…God pouring out God’s self and saying now you do the same.   don’t be ashamed of your dirty feet because I will touch them … I will change you.  
Amen