Sarcastic Lutheran

Good Dirt. Bad Dirt. House's liturgy for the Parable of the Sower

Sunday House's liturgy was based on the lectionary readings of Isaiah 55: 1-13 and Matthew 13:1-9 and 18-23.

Here's my sermon:

It’s been a difficult few weeks for us at House talking about this parable.  We almost called this service: Good dirt bad dirt a liturgy based  on a parable we don’t like.  It just seems so…unfair. Like what about that part “when anyone hears the word of the Kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches it away”.  Which sounds like its somehow our fault for not understanding. 
 For those of us raised in super duper religious homes, the question of what kind of soil we are still looms in our spiritual imaginations…calling out for us to give the obvious Sunday School answer like Rod and Todd Flanders:  “I’m good soil”.  Even if we don’t understand what “I’m good soil” means or we think we know what it means and we suspect that we might be the rocky kind or at least prone to thorns, we answer “good soil…we’re definitely the good kind” all the while harboring the notion that God seems to judge our soil without having the decency to give us the ability to really decide what kind of soil we’re going to be .  If soil is stuck with what it is: rocky, thorny, good, whatever -- then why can’t God’s word change it into what it should be?  It’s like an unfunded spiritual mandate.    Even if I start to think that maybe God’s word has born fruit in me I’m then being prideful and certainly God’s word can’t do a whole lot in prideful soil.  So even if we are good soil we can’t say that or else by doing so we become the bad soil so when asked “what kind of soil are you?” I really just want to hide under the covers, or maybe convert to a religion a little less crazy, like branch davidianism.  All that is to say, we decided that we don’t like this lousy parable of the soil.

Deitrich Bonhoeffer wrote once that original sin is choosing the knowledge of good and evil over the knowledge of God.  What we want is what the disciples wanted – the knowledge of good and evil.  We want to be judgers of soil for ourselves and others.  Like in the passage that immediately follows this gospel text we want to be able to above all else know for sure what is weed and what is wheat rather than know that God is merciful and just, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  And because of this,  we heard this reading today as the parable of the soil.

Until, that is, we realized that this isn’t actually the parable of the soil at all.  It’s the parable of the Sower.  Shockingly this parable isn’t about me after all.  Here, instead of a standard by which we must judge our worthiness to receive God’s word we are offered a lush image of how God extravagantly, wastefully, wantonly sows the Word of the Kingdom.  Isaiah reminds us that God’s Word does not return empty but fulfills its purpose.  So maybe the fact that the evil one snatches the seed from those who don’t understand it is a good thing considering the role of birds in the whole process of reseeding.  They might snatch up seed but only to replant it somewhere else now perfectly encapsulated in it’s own fertilizer. 
Again and again in the midst of a thorny and rocky and good world, God sows the life-giving Word.  All we do is show up.  We hear the story again and again as it works in us, interprets us,  and despite ourselves even bears fruit and yields a hundred fold not because we’ve managed to make ourselves good soil through piety and being really really good.  No.  That would be the parable of the soil.  God’s Word lavishly scattered around us bears fruit because God’s ways are not our ways and God’s word does what it intends without even the slightest amount of soil management on our part because this is the parable of the Sower.

In my tradition, the Word – God’s Word - is first and foremost the Christ principle – the logos- God’s own self made flesh – Emmanual, God-with-us-and-for-us  - The Word, as one of my favorite theologians says- is the God who would rather die than be in the sin accounting business anymore. This is the Word to whom the scriptures bear witness.  The one who always comes to us again and again.  This God who pursues you beyond time and beyond rock and beyond soil and angst and confusion and pride.  This pursuing God, while we seek only knowledge of good soil and bad soil, in the cross this God proclaims, arms wide to the suffering of this beautiful creation, this is who I am.   Making all things new.  Making all things new.  Extravagantly sowing Christ in with and under all things, even the things we least suspect: rock, thorn, weed – us, them, you, me, good, bad….God’s inverted first shall be last, last shall be first kingdom defies our attempts to domesticate the agency of God’s Word. This is the God spoken of in Isaiah.  A God who establishes an inverted economy of free wine and milk.  A God who is continually redeeming the world and even us. God’s word does not return empty, but comes to earth enfleshed in the Christ dies and returns, scattered and sown for the good of the world endlessly pursuing you even in the midst of all the forces that would defy it. 

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  For the interactive piece, we had set the chairs in a semi circle around a green cloth on which sat an empty, very large bowl in the middle - surrounded on 4 sides by somewhat smaller bowls filled with -1.  "soil" 2. "seed" 3. "thorn" and 4. "rock" Around the whole circle sat cushions.  Following the sermon ambient techno played while people were encouraged to sit and feel each of these things in their hands and reflect on what they represent in their lives, after which they were to toss what was in their hands into the large bowl at the center.  All of the soil, rock, thorn and seed then ended up together in the large center bowl.  This then housed the candles for our the prayers of the people which followed.

Sinners and Saints... nothing is new

"In a world of frustration and despair, hypocrisy and deceipt, the young Christian, as he [sic] had always done,  is singing a New Song.  Typified by a sort of sanctified hilarity, these sings come from various fellowships and sub-cultures, both religious and irreverent.

Join with us, through these songs in the vitality and bitterness, the doubt and fear, the joy and love, the humor and hope, found in the emerging church as it celebrates and represents the 'good news'"

-Carlton R Young January 1, 1971

Forward to the Songbook for Sinners and Saints

My favorite song in this little treasure I discovered today:
Song Maybe For Teenage Christians

1. If you;re looking for an answer, if you're looking for a way, if you're looking for a formula to tell you what to say, if you;re looking for an exit, or a lesson how to pray (chorus)

2. If you;re looking for a heaven, like a fairey painting scene, with battlements in O-mo white and pearly gates all clean, if you shrink from all the dirt and sex and sin you've ever seen, (chorus)

3. If you think the church is cozy and a nice place to belong.  If you don;t want to go marching or to sing a rebel song, if you;re scared to let your hair down, or ashamed to wear it long, (chorus)

CHORUS: then there's nothing for you here, You'd better go.  You'd better go.

Wow.

Pente-chaos::Water::Fire::Wind

Our Pente-chaos service started with a remembrance of baptism in which facts about water (6 of them) and the sections of the Lutheran Remembrance of Baptism liturgy (4 sections) were each written on individual pieces of paper and given to 10 folks when they walked in to worship.   They were asked to read these in a specific order and as they did, to place the pieces of paper into the water of the clear baptismal bowl.   So we began with things like -by the time you are thristy you have 1% of your total body water, because of evaporation and condensation, the water on the Earth now is the same water that has always been here... and then went right into Your spirit moved over the face of the waters bringing forth creation....you saved Noah and his family form the waters of the flood....with water you claim us as your own....

Then we used the baptismal water for aspersion. (showering a bit of it on everyone)

For The Word section of the liturgy we projected a film loop of fire

Andie sang the descant for Viene Sancte Spiritus (Come Holy Spirit)

3 stations were set up: The Church, The World, and All Those in Need.  At each station were colored markers and strips of fabric on which to write petitions. We then during the Prayers of the People simply read each petition and then pinned them on a line, turned on a fan and watched them blow out into the world.

Then we all celebrated with our Holy Ghost Red Velvet Cake.

House For All Sinners and Saints' website

The first stage of our website is up:

House For All Sinners and Saints

Pente-chaos

Bible Study

House's Bible Study.  1st and 3rd Thursday of the month 6pm in the basement of St. Mark's Coffee Shop on 17th between Vine and Race in Denver

Our first worship in the new space

This past Sunday House for All Sinners and Saints experienced the first of our monthly worship services.  The space we get to use is absolutely perfect: a hundred year old Lutheran church building minus the pews.  The congregation disbanded over 2 decades ago and for almost as long it has been (and continues to be) the 4 Wind Cultural Survival Project - a Native American community center.  They have allowed us to use the space on Sunday nights.  We are grateful for the relationship that is forming between the two communities but are fully aware that historically when white folks have entered Indian space things haven't gone too well.  Being guests of another cultural group in our own town is not an experience many of us as people of privilege have had and as difficult as it potentially may be for us, we see it as an opportunity to be challenged in some really beautiful and important ways.

The service was curated by the entire core crew (there are 9 of us, with 2 more joining this week).  Jason put together some ambient techno for the 10 minutes before and after the service and during the stations of the resurrection.  We sat in a semi-circle facing the West wall, above the stained glass was projected the words "I am the resurrection and the life".  The service was a traditional Eucharistic liturgy including remembrance of baptism complete with aspersion (sprinkling water from the baptismal font on folks).  The music was simple Taize chant led by a cello, a guitar and an angelic voice (Andie!).  The leader's portion of the liturgy and the gospel reading was shared by 13 different people from where we sat.  Only for the remembrance of baptism (at the font) and the Eucharist liturgy (from the altar) were the leaders standing.  In place of the sermon were the stations of the resurrection; each of the core crew creating a way for folks to experience different resurrection accounts.  Here are a few examples:

* triptych board - on the left the fist half of the John 20 account where Mary Magdalene  doesn't recognize Christ until he speaks her name....middle board ... in large print "Mary" under which are empty quotes for everyone to put their own name which Christ also speaks, on the right the continuation of the passage - in front of which is an icon of Mary Magdalene.

*Another triptych only smaller with rounded tops like an icon.  On the left, the Apostles Creed, with the "I Believe" in larger type.  On the right, the Apostle's Creed, only with "I Don't Believe" in large type beginning each article.  In the middle a question inspired by Thomas - what do we both believe and not believe at the same time?  A paper was provided for people to answer this.

*Recalling the account where Christ meets his friends on the beach - friends who were depressed about having to go back to "normal life", 2 trays of sand with small rocks and shells and a forks to move the sand around offered people a tactile meditation on how Christ calls us both into and out of life as normal which changes the contours of our lives.

37 people attended including 5 children and several people over 50.  A young woman who "hates church" (raised Missouri  Synod) sat and wept.  She told her girlfriend (one of our core crew) that it was beautiful and she'll come back.

I couldn't have been more pleased and the "success" of the service proves that I am not the one making this whole thing happen.

House's Who We Are

***Before I get any more scolding comments I thought I'd clarify that the following statements are the result of a long and prayerful effort to be as honest as possible about the characteristics of the group of people who have gathered together over the last 9 months to do the initial work around developing a new worshiping community.  Rather than compiling a list of who we wish we were, or who we ideally think we are, we chose to just stick with who we and our friends and partners really are (hopefully with a modicum of humility around the fact that we can't do this perfectly).  Worshiping communities, despite what most would say are niche groups.  We are admitting we too are niche.  We are not trying to be all things to all people, but we are located in a very particular cultural context in which we seek to create a Word and Sacrament community.  My friend David put it like this: "Look at Chipotle.  They are really clear about who they are and what they do; Burritos.  They are not going to start cooking burgers, but are burger eaters welcome there? Absolutely."  We also are seriously aware of our need to be in relationship with "the other" whether that be more conservative Christians, people of color, those less fortunate, those more fortunate etc.  To that end we are guests in a space which is the 4 Winds Cultural Survival Project - A Native American community center.  In a meeting with some of the leadership of 4 Winds we told them of this document that we created saying who we are and they were impressed that we would be honest enough to admit that we are White.  We hope to be their allies and perhaps even friends.  We also are seeking out prayer partner relationships with close-by worshiping communities regardless of how similar or not we are theologically or culturally, acknowledging our need to be transformed by contact.  And yes, we get the irony of having a particular population in a House for All.

This describes who we are right now.  It does not describe who is welcome.  We wish to welcome all.

Who are we, and for whom do we do this work?

We are people who went to church once and are now Evangelical refugees.

We are people who never stopped going to church, yet are seeking a community that provides a different level of engagement.

We are youngish and adultish.

We resonate more with the mystical and contemplative than the obvious and simplistic.

We work in non-profits (and non-prophets), we are graduate students, social workers and young professionals.

We participate in virtual culture and are tech savvy enough to realize that we are not actually.

We are artists, who mediate progressive culture outside the mainstream.

We are post-modern urban dwellers who are delighted to not live close to such things as “Applebees”.

We are terminally ironic, white, and educated.

We are the injured who are striving to be self-aware; struggle is an almost constant.

Our cynicism can sometimes just be masking our confusion and vulnerability.

Our idealism is based in the trust that transformation is possible in the individual, the church and the whole world.

We are queer.

Some have children, some live alone, some are alone, some are partnered.

We tend to over-think things because we’re geeky and analytical.

Some of us are rooted here, but most are somewhat transient.

We are friends and allies of all the above.

House For All Sinners and Saints

House For All has a facebook group now...join up!

We will start our monthly worship services next week.
Sunday April 13th 4pm at 5th and Bannock (old church on corner)
Eucharist and stations of the resurrection.

Maundy Thursday Sermon for the House Retreat

I imagine in the room that night the friends and followers of Jesus enjoying each other’s company, glad to be away from the crowds.  They have no idea at the time that this is the night they will never forget.  When I was working as a chaplain at the hospital, I noticed that the family and friends of those who had suddenly or unexpectedly died would in a grief so thick it sucked the oxygen out of the room, they’d gaze off and say “Just this morning we were eating breakfast and talking about baseball”  or “We were just walking the dog, laughing about the kids”  The life changing seems always bracketed by the mundane.  The quotidian wrapped around the profound like plain brown paper concealing either a bar of gold or an improvised explosive devise or sometimes both.  In a slice of a moment we discover the gold beneath the paper or the bomb and then absolutly everything changes, but when we recall it in our now forever changed life, from this side of the event we start with the plain brown wrapping, it looked like every other package, every other morning every other walk.  We were just eating dinner upstairs in some guy’s house, when ...everything changed.
It had been quite a couple of weeks really. Jesus had outdone himself with that whole raising Lazarus thing.  The leaders at the temple were so pissed.  Especially with that totally cool entry into Jerusalem.  Whoever thought of that palm branch thing was genius.   Hosanna in the highest indeed. That’s our guy. 
But there they were just eating dinner upstairs in some guy’s house when …all of the sudden Jesus, the teacher, messiah, LORD is taking off his cloak and as though he completely lost his mind is wrapping around himself not the mantle of a mighty ruler, but the towel of a servant girl.

Well, you’re not getting anywhere near my nasty feet Jesus.
To have one’s feet washed, to be served by another is for them to see and to know that you are covered with grime and filth. I’ll just keep that to myself, thank you very much.  But 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 nurishment of Christ’s body and blood, with the proclaimation of forgiveness, with the power of reconciliation.  It comes off of us in beloved community.   This community gathered around Water, Bread, Wine.  The brown paper of human existence, yet wrapped around God’s own self. 

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for one another.  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.  Instead here in plain brown paper wrapping is God incarnate wrapped in the towel of a servant girl washing us from that which separates us from self, neighbor and God.  Here is Christ poured out for the sake of the world, offering God’s own self as nourishment for the journey.  God’s self-giving provides us a source for the love we share, a love of the servant God poured out for us and for the sake of the world. 
AMEN.