Sarcastic Lutheran

God's Politics Blog Posting

I seem to be spending so much of my time writing: sermons, the TBN book, articles, stuff for hire, and the God's Politics Blog.  I'm sorry to my half a dozen faithful readers....no time to blog.  I will soon.

For now check out my God's Politics posting

Pax,
Nadia

Where are the Queers???

I've been at Luther Seminary for 3 weeks now and have yet to meet an out GLBTQ person.  Um, I know they have to be here somewhere.  It's so weird to be in an environment where it is apparently not safe to be out.  It's making me deeply sad actually. I think I'll start being a little obnoxious about it and find some rainbow flags and pink triangles to sport.
Allie Allie in come free!!!!

It's so troubling to me to be a part of system (the ELCA - my denomination) who has a policy of exclusion that I do not agree with....it actually goes beyond disagreement, I think it is sinful.  I just refuse to leave and will (along with many many other folks) work to change my church. That is a threat, not just a promise.

Wanna be in my new book?

Ok, so the life of The Sarcastic Lutheran is a bit insane right now.  Mr. SL got a new call to a church in a Denver suburb and we bought a house in the Park Hill neighborhood in Denver, which is an old multi-cultural-right-next-to-City-Park  urban area.  The house is a bit of a fixer-upper, so we've been insanely busy trying to do improvements while moving in.  The kids start their new school tomorrow and I've just come back 2 days ago from Luther Seminary.  Add to that my new book deal and what do you get?   A very happy , very  busy gal who is attempting to  manage the embarrassment of blessings in her life while trying to remember not to speak of herself in the third person.

The book:
I was approached by Church Publishing/Seabury Books to write a book, kind of a social and religious commentary about the Christian Industrial Complex based on me watching 24 straight hours of Trinity Broadcast Network which is a televangelism cable channel.  I suggested that perhaps the Geneva Convention might address making a person do this sort of thing....right after the paragraph on waterboarding, but then I agreed to it because, well, it was about the weirdest thing someone had asked me to do in a while,so how could I say no?.  I am having a pleasingly bizzare assortment of folks come for an hour each and watch with me so that those chapters become a conversation between us about what we are seeing. Here's where you come in.  I'm inviting my readers to do the unthinkable.  Please watch TBN ... any amount you'd like, between 5:30am Friday August 24th and 5:30am Saturday August 25th (Mountain time) and e-mail me your comments to sarcasticlutheran@gmail.com.  I will have my computer on the whole time as I will be taking notes and may be able to have a little chat right there and then.    Then I may just these comments in the book.  I'm looking for any kind of ideas about what you see: what does it say theologically? about gender? about consumerism? about beauty?  were you surprised?  was the gospel preached despite the makeup and hairspray?   
The book will hopefully be out a year from now so that I can take it to Greenbelt.

Well, there's your mission if you choose to accept it, as fucking weird as it is.

Be well.

Lutheran Confessions

I'm taking a 3 week class at Luther Seminary in St. Paul on Lutheran Confessional Writings.  These writings are in the Book of Concord, a 16th century collection of Reformation documents.  Basically when all hell broke loose after Martin Luther dared to speak theological truth to ecclesiastical power, a bunch of theologians worked quite hard at justifying why we are justified by faith alone and not by any effort of our own.  Which of course begs the question- doesn't that make faith a "work"?  Ney say the reformers, faith is a gift given by the Holy Spirit, as the 3rd article of the Creed in Luther's Small Catechism states:  I believe that                     I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ,                     my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me                     by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and                     kept me in the true faith. 
This is my favorite part of the catechism, because as someone who was raised in an almost entirely works based church  -  a bit like a  salvific meritocracy,  I'm inclined to find the idea that I don't have to try and muster up faith in Christ by sheer individual effort, a great comfort. If I am unable on my own to believe in Christ, then I wonder if when I feel that I am lacking in faith, that it is perhaps almost entirely absent, should I then trust that I indeed do have the faith that I do not at that moment percieve I have?  Perhaps the Holy Spirit gives us faith but not the ability to perceive we have it and we are to just have faith that we have faith and not depend on our thoughts and feelings to determine if we have it.  See, this is quite messy isn't it?

Here's been my main issue in this class: lack of humility.  Would it have killed the reformers to hedge even a little bit in the absolute certainty with which they made their proclamations?  In class the other day  we were talking about how we are all simultaneously sinner and saint.  A student then asked "How are we seen by God?"  The professor then answered - it was convoluted, I could not begin to explicate it here, but the thing that struck me was how certain and immediate his answer was.  So we can know the mind of the Almighty?  We can definitively say "Well, here's how God sees this..."  I'm not so sure.  I think there is a limit to rational thought and we best start confessing THAT.  Here's why I believe this lack of humility exists, and it's a bit circular, so stay with me.   We get that God  is bigger than and has more authority than us, so  in matters of theology we cannot rely on "human experience" or "ideas of man" to tell us about who God is, so we claim that the confession we make - the official church doctrines - are "scriptural" and not of human origin, therefore we have no reason to hedge in our absolute certainty in these matters, for they are from God and not from us.   The problem is that these ARE all human ideas and creations...I'll not get into the issue of authority of scripture, but even giving scripture a high authority - the way in which it is used and explained is entirely human.  Even if you believe that "God wrote the Bible", God did not also write a commentary on the Bible, so any interpretation is going to be from human thought and experience.  I think perhaps we ought to be honest about this and not hide behind "scriptural authority" by trying to pawn off our ideas as God's.  Are we so scared of mystery that in our pride we trust our reason to explain every doctrinal and theological minutiae so that in the end it's all explained to our satisfaction, packaged neatly and tied with a bow?
I love the Creeds and the Augsburg Confession, I even trust them, but I'm just not willing to eliminate the possibility that maybe we got something wrong.  These doctrines are our best shot at the truth, not the truth itself.  I guess I'm just more comforted by mystery than certainty. 
So call me a heretic...again.

Ruth and Mary Magdalene sermon

I know that sermons are a bit long for blog posting...but for the half a dozen people out there who actually read sermons on line....

The lectionary reading are from the 1st chapter of Ruth and the 20th chapter of John...I also refer to this text from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene:

The disciples were in sorrow, shedding many tears and saying: "How are we to go among the unbelievers and announce the gospel of the Kingdom of the Son of Man?  They did not spare His life, so why should they spare ours?"

Then Mary (Magdalene arose, embraced them all, and began to speak to her brothers:

"Do not remain in sorrow and doubt, for His Grace will guide you and comfort you.  Instead, let us praise His greatness, for He has prepared us for this.  He is calling upon us to become fully human."

Thus Mary turned their hearts toward the Good, and they began to discuss the meaning of the Teacher's words.

Picture if you will the perfect cliché’wedding.  Bridesmaids in garish matching taffeta.  The sweating groom,  Pachebell’s canon, or if the church will allow, perhaps the shrill, endless vowels of Whitney Houston's “Iiiiiiiiii will always love youuuuuuuuu”,
and a reading from Ruth:
Where you go I will go
Where you lodge I will lodge
Your people shall be my people
And your God my God.

  When these words are spoken in the context of a wedding, a man and a woman pledge their love to one another and they become one in the eyes of their families and friends and society. 

But these rich love filled verses were not from a wedding, and not spoken between a man and a woman, they were from one woman to another.  More specifically, these words are said from a young Moabite woman to an old Hebrew woman.

Ruth and Naomi’s story starts in the time of the Judges.  The Hebrew people have settled in Canaan, but the time of King David has not yet come about.  There is a famine in the land.  Famine in the promised land.  Famine in Bethlehem, which in Hebrew ironically means the “house of Bread” wow. Naomi, her husband and 2 sons go to Moab where there is food. Moab.  Moab is not exactly spoken of kindly in the rest of the Hebrew Bible.  I can’t imagine what this must have been like.  Perhaps not unlike if we  in America, this land of plenty had a famine and were so desperate for food that we had to go to Saudi Arabia because their crops were growing like gangbusters.  I think perhaps this type of situation would make it difficult to maintain our idea that WE had “Most Favored Nation” status in the eyes of the Almighty.  So the House of Bread is pretty much out of bread, but the Moabites who are not exactly best friends with the Hebrew people, much less with their God ha’shem, apparently are doing ok.
Famine.  In the Promised Land.  Famine.  In the House of Bread -
So, where  exactly is God? 

After having to leave Bethlehem because of famine and after having to go and live with the Moabites,  Naomi’s husband dies leaving her a widow, but at least she has her two sons.  Still, where exactly is God?

So,then Naomi’s sons marry Moabite women. The Hebrew people have continually been told to not intermarry.   Isn’t this a big deal in the Torah that they not marry pagans?  That should settle it shouldn’t it.  This type of marriage is ok, this type is not.  I secretly wonder if they ever claimed to love the pagan, but hate the paganism. 
So Naomi’s sons marry Moabite women and then, after famine in Bethlehem, and after having to flee to Moab, and after her sons marry Moabite women, and ten years after she became a widow, she becomes childless.  All she has is her sons and her sons die.  So, Where exactly is God we ask? Still no mention of God.

So now there are three husbandless women and let me tell you, Life is not friendly to widows.  The fear must have been unimaginable.  It’s not like today when Naomi could “go back to teaching” or even work at Starbucks for the health benefits.  Being a widow meant throwing yourself on the mercy of your kinfolks and hoping...hoping they take care of you.  So Naomi decides to go home after hearing that the LORD had recently  “considered his people” in Bethlehem and given them food again.  OK so, God finally shows up, but only in rumor really and if you ask me, maybe too little too late.  In Naomi’s place I know I would have wondered if it would have been too much to ask for God to have “considered his people” before the famine that caused me to go to Moab where my husband and children died.

So, Naomi has no choice but to return home ... the 3 set out for Bethlehem together - Three childless widows, two were Moabites.  Naomi feels as though God has turned God’s hand from her.   And who can blame her really?  Famine has forced her from her land.  Her husband is dead.  Her sons are dead.  Her value in life is dead.  From this diminished, hollow, dusty place she does what I and perhaps you have done when feeling particularly unlovable and entirely without value.  She tries to push people away from her so as to not feel the pain of being loved while feeling unlovable  To the only 2 people she had left in the world she says “go away from me.  save yourselves for God has turned his hand against me.    I am of no value to you.  maybe the LORD will be good to you if you leave me” and when they protest, when they say, no we want to stay with you, she’s like “Why?  I am only the mother of your dead husbands  - my value to you is only as your provider of husbands, and I have no husbands left in this belly for you.  and look, even if I found a husband tonight and bore more sons for you, be real...it’s a long wait till you could marry them....that’s a long time for a gal to be...you know... unmarried, don’t you think you’d get I don’t know, a bit cranky waiting that long?”  You see, Naomi is barren in more than one way.  Naomi is barren in spirit.    SO Where exactly  is God we ask?
Why didn’t God show up and stop the famine?
Why didn’t God show up and stop the death of her husband and sons?
Why didn't God show up and stop hurricane Katrrina?
Why didn’t God show up and stop the massacre At Virginia Tech?
I don’t know.
But I do know that in our text, God does show up.
God shows up in these words:
where you go, i will go
where you lodge I will lodge
your people shall be my people
and your God, my God.
God has not turn God’s hand against her, because God’s love is right there, revealed in Ruth’s love for her.  Sometimes God’s presence isn’t felt until we cleave to one another.

@@@@@
Naomi’s primary identity was as “one who bore children”, and when those children were gone, she was bitter, and hollowed out and sure God had turned against her.  Now, lest I judge her too harshly, I have to admit there have been hollow times in my life when I too have been bitter and wondered “where exactly is God”, which always seems to be the time when some act of love from another person completely breaks me open till I see that God lives in these sometimes small, sometimes great acts of love toward one another.

In these words of love from Ruth, Naomi’s primary identity shifts from “widow” to her true name of beloved of God where it belongs.
And these shifts in identity due to acts of love happen for us too.

So where exactly is God we ask?
God is in love that gives a new primary identity.  In love shown to oneanother which then returns us to our true identity, beloved of God

Mary Magdalene whose feast we celebrate today...her identity shifted from demon posessed woman to beloved of God through the love of Christ.  In our reading from John today we see her weeping at the empty tomb.  She’s been on a bit of a wild ride the past couple of years.  I imagine that she had been posessed for such a long time...dealing with her demons...filled with despair...being alienated from herself, from her God and from her  community.  Then she met this teacher from Gallilee and everything changed.  He called her by name.  He called her Mary,  not demoniac.  He called her into the fullness of her humanity, into her new primary identity as beloved of God.  But then he was gone. tortured. crucified. dead. buried. gone. “so where is God” she must have asked.  Is it really all over now? They have taken him away and I do not know where he is.   But then it happened again.  While she was in despair weeping for her disappeared Lord she, in a foux pax of historic proportion,  mistakes him for the gardener...how exactly do you live that down?  In her pain and sorrow she mistakes him for the gardener UNTIL  .....he speaks her name.  “Mary”.  He speaks her true name “Beloved of God”  His love for her shifted her primary identity.  In a culture where she was not only a woman, but one who was posessed of demons, one who was outcast, one who was the ‘Other’, he loved her into becoming fully human.  And then chose her to be the first witness to the resurrection and to be the apostles to the apostels.  It is Mary who is given the task of proclaiming the risenChrist, while the boys were arguing about “which one of us is greatest?  who is going to be at your right hand in glory?  Who is first in the kingdom?”  God chooses an outcast woman to tell them that they are beloved of God, that they are called to be fully human and to turn their hearts to the good.
So where is God we ask?
No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another God’s love lives in us and is perfected in us.
Isn’t that what the church is in a way?  A group in which our value comes from being the beloved of God, children of the Most High and not our jobs, or bank accounts or status in society, or sexual orientation...ideally speaking?
There are plenty of times in life when we wonder “Where exactly is God?” when the events of life are painful, or unjust or downright devastating.  When we too are barren of spirit.  Sometimes there are no miraculous healings, or partings of the seas or raising of the dead.  Sometimes there is just us asking where is God.  But Sometimes God is that still small voice of gentle kindnesses toward one another.  Sometimes God is the roaring wind of our mercies undeserved.  But always God is revealed in acts of love toward one another.  No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another God lives in us and God’s love is perfected in us. 

So, my friends, close your eyes if you choose and visualize above your head some of your most primary identities : mother, husband, elderly, lawyer, high schooler, ...whatever they may be.  And as I say these words of love from these women of God, visualize these labels being erased and replaced boldly with the words beloved of God

Where you go I will go
where you lodge, I will lodge
Your people shall be my people
and your God my God

Do not remain in sorrow, for God’s grace will guide you and comfort you.  God is calling us to become fully human.  God had prepared us for this.   Turn your hearts to the good.
You are the Beloved of God

AMEN

Pain and carnival

Wednesday night I got a half dozen friends together to begin having a conversation about the emerging church start here in Denver.  The project won't start officially until I get back from Luther Seminary in St. Paul in December (those denominational hoops must be jumped through), but I wanted to start the conversation now.  What better way to start a postmodern, urban, nu-monastic, Christian community that with dahl and beer?  So with a plate full of curried lentils, overcooked rice and just cooked tortillas, we sat down to what ended up being a really amazing conversation. Here's what I read ( pertaining to a vision of  being church in the city) from Kester Brewin's Signs of Emergence: A Vision For Church that is Organic/ Networked/ Decentralized/ Bottom-up/ Communal/ Flexible/ Always Evolving: "We are the community of the Creator, so we must create.  We are the community that looks forward to the city where divinity and humanity will live side by side, so we must give birth to an emergent, conjunctive, self-renewing, adaptable church that can model this in inclusivity, generosity,creativity and flexibility, welcoming the Other, providing true space for pain, and real time for carnival."  (143)

The idea of providing true space for pain and real time for carnival really sparked some beautiful, rich, thoughtful, hysterical ideas from the group. 

In the end I think that we all agreed that it's possible, needed and timely.

I'm so excited I can hardly sit still.

Dear God,
Make your presence known in this weird little project.  Without your guidance we're sunk.  But with the Holy Spirit in our midst things can be so crazy beautiful and more real that we can imagine.  If our pride and hurt and fear and selfishness and insecurity hinder us, as they will, be a big old carpet thrown over our brokenness over which we can scurry.  That stuff is there, but in You there is a way over.  Thanks for those spaces for pain and those times for carnival in both of which you are to be found.
In Jesus' name,
AMEN

Sermon I preached at Holden Village

I was shocked, thrilled and horrified to be asked to preach at Holden Village.  I had just a day and a half to write a sermon, which I balked at, but that Holy Spirit showed up and she kind of rocked my world.
The lectionary texts were Galations 5: 1-25 and Luke 9:51-62, The Galations reading deals with Christian freedom and the workd of the flesh and the fruits of the spirit.  When folks entered the worship space they were met with a table with two bowls filled with bits of paper folded in half.  The bowl on the right  was filled with the fruits of the spirit "Take one"  the bowl on the left, the works of the flesh "take one"  above the bowls was written: Simul iustus et peccator (Simultaniously sinner and saint) "reflect."  So every one got a random paper from each bowl.  My favorite was Pastor Eric who got "fornication" and "faithfulness". hmmmm. 

Here's the manuscript:

Grace peace and mercy to you from the Triune God. Amen.
So Jesus is kinda harsh in this gospel reading, but
Honestly, I love these Gospel texts like this one which are called “problematic texts”, which is greek for “ones we’d never voluntarily preach on but which come up in the lectionary so we’re stuck with them.  But the Hebrew translation of  “Problematic text in the lectionary” is just “guest preacher”, so I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Pastor Eric for the invitation to preach today....i think.

It’s kind of a weird little story in Luke...
At the beginning of this chapter Jesus has just given the 12 power and authority to cast out demons and to cure diseases and has sent them out to proclaim the kingdom and to heal. This is kind of an important point.  Jesus gave them power and authority, power and authority did not come from them- they weren’t born with it, they did not stumble upon it and the certainly didn’t earn it.  It was given to them from Jesus. 
               So, what do they do with this freedom and this gift they did not earn? If we put this text in conversation with the Galatians reading, we could say that the disciples used their freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence an certainly did not become slaves to one another.  Instead, It totally goes to their heads, they forget that all their mojo comes from God and not themselves and so they start arguing about which one of them was the greatest. ok so that’s strike one.  Strike 2 is that soon after this they come to Jesus and say "so we were out using our power to cast out demons when we came across some guy who was also casting out demons in your name....and we don't know who this guy thinks he is, but we tried to put a stop to that real quick."  to which he answered “give me a break! whoever is not against you is for you.” The very next verse is where we enter in today’s text. 
           So he’s stuck with this ridiculous band of followers who are totally full of themselves and acting like jerks while he has set his face to Jerusalem and what awaits him there, namely the cross.  The passages about the would-be followers we just read are a bit harsh because come on, let’s not forget that Jesus was fully divine AND fully human...the guy has to be already a little irritated: he gives the 12 power to heal and proclaim the kingdom which immediately goes to their heads and they end up arguing, of all things,  about who is the greatest when in fact the only greatness they might have comes not from themselves but from Jesus who granted them power in the first place, so it’s kind of no surprise when in our gospel reading for today strike 3 happens: James and John come back rejected by the Samaritan village and ask “ so, should we rain fire down from heaven to consume them?” Jesus just had to of rolled his eyes.  These guys were a real piece of work.  I read this and thought “so exactly when did raining fire down to consume the villages of folks they don’t like become an option for them"? I even went back to the first verses of the chapter to check...power and authority to cast out demons is there, healing and proclaiming the kingdom is there, but strangely enough, incinerating an entire village because they made you look bad...hmmm...strangely absent. 
         So maybe in these harsh proclamations about what it takes to be a disciple: - that you won't have a place to sleep and can't bury your poor old dad,  or even take a minute to say farewell to your family... maybe what we see here is Jesus indulging in a bit of hyperbole in order to knock some sense into his disciples about what it means to be a follower of Christ.  So he responds to these three would-be followers we meet in today’s text by raising the bar for what it means to live a radical discipleship and I kinda like to imagine that he did this with his voice raised just enough so that he was sure James and John were in earshot.

     Barbara Rossing talked this week in Bible study about  our society’s escaltology...the ideas of the fullness of life, what is the culmination of human potential, which for us might be that that I should buy Loreal shampoo because I’m worth it, that the right car can bring me to the height of what it means to be human, that the fulfillment of all my wants will bring me all I need, that immortality can be obtained through consumption.  She then showed us images from the Roman Empire which portrayed their escatology: a belief that they would always have dominion over other nations as a imperial force, that they had the Gods on their side and they were living into the eschatological fulness of life where they had forever been destined to be the victors and other nations had forever been destined to be the conquered on whose backs and labor the empire rightly stood ...  victoriously in the fullness of time - world without end.
     Standing as we are in the 21st century knowing the rest of the story, namely the deterioration of the Roman Empire ... we snicker at them, knowing it is a farce and that they are just the dead burying the dead... that they are simply whistling in the graveyard.  From there it's almost effortless for us to turn to the empires of our day, the multinational corporations, the military industrial complex, Halibuton, Pepsico etc..Do you, like I, recognize Rome in their flawed and deceitful message of victory, entitlement and dominion?  We see environmental devastation and know that the planet cannot possibly sustain this empire for much longer.  We know that these empires are not the life giving gospel but are the death dealing forces.  They, like the village in Samaria are rejecting Christ and the Kingdom of God. They are the works of the flesh on a global scale.   And with fingers pointing to these death dealers we too say “Absolutely, let the dead bury the dead".  We see Rome burning and we want to hurry the process asking   “do you want us to command fire down from Heaven and consume them? “  And I wonder if we listen for the answer... if we might also hear Jesus rebuking us.    Because to turn from  empire we turn not to a victory party of righteousness where we, like the disciples,, can become drunk on self-congratulations, but we are called with Christ to turn our faces to Jerusalem and what waits there.... namely the cross. Yes we are called to let the dead bury the dead and to turn from Rome and our yoke of slavery to the lies of our culture's escatology - but I guess I wonder if, like in our Galatians text,  we simply are trading one yoke for another, if maybe we become slaves to self righteousness because by having our fingers pointed to the obvious evils we are drawing a line between them - the works of the flesh and us, the fruits of the spirit.  When in reality, we are all simultaneously sinner and saint. 
    Jesus is calling us, like the would-be followers in this text away from comfort and security perhaps even the comfort and security of our own confidence in our righteousness.  But that calling is not just from something but is also to something.  To a life of radical discipleship where we are free from the bondage of self and this freedom allows us to be slaves of one another  This Christian freedom is in self-giving in which we receive much.  This freedom allows us to love one another as we love ourselves.

             This all sounds kind of nice and fluffy, doesn’t it?  A Christian community of folks who are all self-giving slaves of one another?  How exactly does the math work on that?  If we are all set to serve one another, then who is getting served?  How exactly do we, as Paul suggests, “through love be slaves of one another”?  what does that look like? “you go first, oh no you go first, oh no really you go on” 
    In my blog I recently wrote about Christian love and how we are called to this radical loving of one another which is transformative and how this is so beautiful  and I'm totally onboard with the whole Christian love thing except for one little problem: and that is the annoying people.  Seriously, being slave to the annoying or the mean or the manipulative....this is a problem.  But Paul is pretty clear on this one: “Through love become slaves to one another”  So when it comes down to it, I just don’t think I can muster up that much love.  Seriously.  When it comes to Love and for that matter we might as well include joy, peace, patience, kindness,  generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and  (for sure) self-control, I and perhaps you can come up pretty short.  But here’s the good news - these are not the fruits of Nadia.  These are the fruits of the Spirit.
        Maybe that love is not from us but from Christ through us.  If our faces are set towards Jerusalem, then they are set towards the cross and God’s reconciling and redeeming work in the world, not our work in the world...so maybe the love by which we are to be slaves of one another is already accomplished and thankfully does not rely on our own efforts.
Perhaps is this new economy of sinner saint servanthood we all fall short to be fit for the kingdom.  I mean seriously.   Look at the poor would-be disciples in our text who wanted to follow Jesus - the bar gets set pretty high:  it's a bit of a set up really, there's no way to pull it off through our their own efforts, and maybe that's the point, because the good news is that we don't have to.  God's redeeming work through the cross provides for us a source which is an endless source.  Truly world without end.  If Luther is right about Christian freedom and that we are lord of all subject to none and at the same time dutiful servant of all, subject to everyone, then - this source, this power we have is a spiritual source....and it comes from ascribing glory and honor not to ourselves, but to God which then reckons us honorable and glorified through the beautiful paradox of II Corinthians that  “Power is made perfect in weakness”
         So while we should by all means turn from the bondage of empire and the death dealing powers of society with the false eschatology, the false messages of what it means to be fully human, we should  have faith that we are also free from the bondage of self - from idolatry, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, envy and the like.  So here’s the other word of good news:  I not only cannot overcome these death dealing forces within myself, but I am not expected to because it was Christ who set his face to Jerusalem and the suffering of the cross.  He says Follow me...he says to us, come and see.  He does not along this road ask us for directions or ask us to lead the way and thanks be to God for that,   But he set his face to Jerusalem and the inbreaking of God’s reign on earth through the suffering on the cross - where the false eschatology of earthly empire was inverted by the perfecting of true power in weakness.  So if we are called to "Through love be slaves to oneanother", then the good news is that this redeeming work of God and not ourselves is the source of love that makes it possible that we might be free from self and slaves to one another.   This source from which we drink is an endless source, truly world without end.  And this table to which we are about to come is simple bread and wine, but is the most abundant feast.  A feast in which we are called to freely partake.  And the good news is that we don’t all have to show up with our own bread.  And we don’t receive amounts in accordance with our goodness...we are all fed this broken and poured out Christ which gives us freedom and nourishes us to be as Luther says the most free lords of all and subjects to none; and the most dutiful servant of all and subject to everyone.   Christian freedom brothers and sisters- come and taste, come and drink, come and see.

AMEN

Young adults...the elusive demographic: just light the candles and they will come

The church is not unlike film and television.  We all are looking for that 18-35 demographic aren't we?  I was at the Rocky Mountain Synod Assembly (big Lutheran business meeting of like 540 pastors and lay leaders) over the past few days and had the chance to hostess a lunchtime conversation about the emerging church (at breakfast I told Mr. SL that I really was hoping at least 8 people would show up because with less than that, it would just be awkward) there were 45 folks who showed up! - many of whom had to sit on the floor.  I was amazed at the interest so I started out by asking folks to say who they were and why they chose this out of 20 so other options for lunch conversations.  Many were just curious about EC, some were there because the tall tattooed lady was leading it and they were frankly curious about me, and many indicated that their churches were looking at starting an alternative worship service or a second campus geared toward the "younger generation".  Here are my 2 reactions to this last group: 1) I am amazed and pleased at how much these "traditional" church folks want to reach those who are not already coming to their churches and that's a good sign that they are not entirely self-centered, which is great.  2) I unfortunately have yet to really see this work, especially if these churches are trying to reach post-moderns.  If you are reading this and you know of exceptions to this statement, please let me know, especially if these churches have managed to bring in post-moderns who are de-churched or un-churched.  I tried to lovingly tell of what I had seen across the country without being too defeatist about the whole thing.  One red flag that goes up for me when a church wants to try and attract young adults is that there is the implication that traditional congregations are normative Christian communities which everyone SHOULD want to be a part of.  I tend to resent the idea that the current manifestation of traditional church (building, pews all in a row, nicy-nice people, hymns, organ, Sunday worship, aurality as the primary sensory experience of the liturgy etc...) is NOT a single cultural expression of Christian community but the normative expression to which all deviations are judged.  My friend Annie spoke up during the conversation and said that people need to try and not see the emerging church as a resource which can be duplicated in your congregations resulting in young adults joining your church, instead folks should see these new communities as the growth of the church in a bigger sense, not simply a way to try and grow your own congregation.  To this she added that established churches should support the people who are native to the  postmodern culture and then walk away.  Pray for the people who are appropriate to and equipped for this culturally specific ministry, see that this is a needed and vital ministry that you are likely NOT equipped or appropriate for but which is in need of resources....give them money, prayer and blessing...tell the kids who grew up in your churches, but who no longer are in Christian community to check it out.  This is so needed.  Now, is that it?  No.  What trad churches can take from the emerging church is to pay attention to the questions that the EC is asking and then ask those same questions in your community.  Please don't try and have your Easter vigil in a Goth club like Church of the Apostles.  Please don't try and have a "Tomb Show" during Lent like Mercy Seat.  That would be just as silly as them trying to start a "Dorothy circle" (sorry - if you're not Lutheran, that may not make sense), or start a quilting circle because it works for your community.  But DO ask "is our worship service culturally appropriate to our context?"  and "does the language we use in our community reflect our core values?" and "are we noticing where God is already at work in our lives and in our neighborhoods, and are we willing to join in that work?"  This is what you can take form the EC: a renewed focus on mission, context and praxis.  But seriously, I have no starter kit with candles, a glue on goatee and an icon for $49.95 which will attract young adults like flies on shit, and if anyone else claims to, please never stop smacking them.

John 5:1-9

"Dude, high five!"

John 5:1-9
1After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  2 Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes. 3In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralysed. 5One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’ 7The sick man answered him, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.’ 8Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ 9At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a sabbath.

Here's my sermon for this Sunday:

Jesus asks  “do you want to be made well?’” a yes or no question.
does he get a yes or no answer?  not so much.
what he does get to his yes or no question is this:
“Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”
This is kind of a puzzling anwer to the “do you want to be made well”  question isn’t it?

To be honest, the first time I looked over our text for today my first reaction wasn’t “oh, what a beautiful healing narrative”, it wasn’t even “wow, what a weird healing narrative”....trust me, we’ll get to that, but was “where the heck is verse 4?”  Well, lest we think there is some Divinci Code conspiracy to keep verse 4 from us, I’ll assure you, that verse 4 is included in some Bibles and in one family of ancient manuscripts, but not in others.  If you have a King James version at home you’ll see there’s a verse 4 in there.    Here’s what verse 4 says......  ***For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.***
So given that information, the answer to Jesus’ question-“Do you want to be made well?” being, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.” makes more sense. 

But still, that’s a bit disturbing isn’t it?First invalid in the pool gets healed?  What kind of theology is that?
Can you imagine being that guy?  Sitting at the pool for 38 years waiting for someone to carry you in so that you’re the first invalid in the pool. Kind of explains the man’s answer though doesn’t is?  Here’s how I imagine the lame man heard Jesus’ question: “Do you WANT to be healed? I mean come on already,  Pull yourself up by your bootstraps!”
So he was a little defensive, who can blame him?  Hey, “no one will carry me down and when I try and hobble down myself, other guys get in front of me  I’ve tried and tried to be made whole, but it never happens.“ He’s basically saying to Jesus :cut me some slack here.

My theory is that he misheard the question due straight up to sin.  I’m talking straight up sin.
and that sin is a woeful lack of imagination
does that ever fit into our confession?I confess that I’ve sinned against you in thought, word and deed.....and by a woeful lack of imagination.

the sin of lacking imagination looks like this:
it’s as though Jesus has an airplane and is asking :would you like to go flying?  and we say “sounds nice, but I don’t think I have the arm strength to get that thing in the air”
The man at the pool, like us, Completely fails to understand what is being offered to him and, like us, is entirely unable to see that the Son of God LIVING WATER is right before him offering peace and wholeness and God’s shalom.   But he’s just looking for a lift into the pool.. but still....and here’s the cool thing folks,  Jesus heals him anyway... knowing that he didn’t even have the capacity to answer the yes or no question..... knowing that unlike the other healing stories there was no crowd watching who are going to witness this miracle and believeth...... perhaps even knowing that this guy still wouldn’t get it.  he healed him.  He looked on him and despite his inadequacies, or maybe, just maybe ...BECAUSE of his inadequacies, he healed him.  God didn’t insist that this lame man have the right attitude, or that he even understand what was being accomplished in him.   no.  he was unknowingly conscripted into the opus dei, the work of God without being qualified, likable, worthy or even terribly bright.

so  Jesus heals the guy who doesn’t even understand his question, he receives God’s shalom without even having seen it as a possibility, much less having earned it in some way..
This irony is the great thing about John’s gospel, as Tom Thatcher suggests, we get to snicker at all the characters, the Samaritan woman, Nicodemus, this guy....who, unlike us, didn’t have the benefit of reading John’s prologue to his gospel account.  you know, the word was with God and the Word was God and the word was made flesh.  You see, we know by reading John’s prologue that Jesus isn’t just another weird Galilean, but is God made flesh.  He’s not just another prophet, but is LIVING WATER.   this is not information the characters who encounter Jesus have the benefit of knowing.  So we chuckle at people like the lame man at the pool who doesn’t understand what is really going on, who doesn’t understand who’s really talking to him.  We snicker, that is, until the last verse of this passage when we find out the joke is really on us.  Jesus just healed a man who had been sick for 38 years, tells him to walk and carry his mat which we might think was just a little housekeeping detail...”don’t just leave your matt here for someone else to have to pick up”.  But we don’t really get what’s going on until that last verse when the tables are turned on us ....you see, we think we know what’s going on ...that the son of God is healing a lame man...until these 5 little words “this happened on the sabbath”.  what!  We thought it was all about the healing of a man who doesn’t  get it, but no... Now it is US who don’t have the benefit of important background information that might help us understand the importance of this interaction.   Now, in the verses that follow our reading for this morning the man encounters leaders from the temple who say “who told you to carry your matt on the sabbath...yada yada..”.but lest we use yet another opportunity to deride the Jews for their ridiculous rules....we should consider the possibility that when we see Jesus doing something he shouldn’t be doing on the sabbath, this is an invitation for us to reflect on how much we love, I mean LOVE to limit how and with what or whom we think God can be at work in the world.......
a woeful lack of imagination

this  happens in two ways,  -  one:
We kind of have the tendency to limit how we think God might use others.  Look again at the text.  Not only is the lame man at the Bethesda pool lacking imagination, he’s doesn’t even have the manners to ask Jesus’ name...when the leaders at the temple  ask who healed him he’s like “I don’t know, some guy”  In other healing narratives, the one who is healed believes and so do the witnesses to the healing, then they praise God and it’s a big victory party.  Not here. So in our lack of imagination we like to think that God only is at work in those who believe, those who are grateful, those who are deserving.  Not here. When Jesus tells him to walk and carry his mat on the sabbath,  he is conscripted into God’s redeeming work in the world and he’s not even necessarily  a believer....doesn’t even know Jesus’ name!  Ultimately, what is considered sacred is changing and the lame man is swept up into this expanding sacrality of the Kingdom of God. 
Here as always Jesus is messing with our heads.  Upturning our assumptions, inverting our values and loving our brokeness.

Secondly, these sabbath violations are all about us and how we like to limit how we think God can work through us in the world.... 
woeful lack of imagination
  It’s remarkable to me that despite the fact that just about every hero in the bible is really an anti-hero of some sort- David the adulterer, Mary Magdalene the demonic, Peter the denier,  Mary the unwed mother, Rahab the prostitute...despite all that,  we’re still  sure that God can only use perfect people, or at the very least, people better than us .  Show me one character (who isn’t the second person of the trinity) in the Bible , used to participate in God’s work who was used because they were perfect, or grateful, or worthy

  How do we answer when asked if we want to be made whole?  Are we imaginative?  We have a healing ministry right here at Bethlehem...Stephan ministers offer healing prayer on the first sunday...., not just for those who are in need of physical healing, but those who are in need of blessing, of encouragement, in need of God’s shalom.....and that’s ALL of us.  I know I hesitate to take advantage of this because if I admitted that I need healing then others may think that I need healing and would then they’d assume I’m not perfect and we just can’t have that sort of thing going on.
I wonder if God is saying to us: “do you want to be made whole, to 

participate in the inbreaking of my kingdom here and now...to

glimpse the New Jerusalem? 

and then we say: Dude, we’re just hoping for a lift into the pool.
A woeful lack of imagination

Our lack of imagination doesn’t keep God from washing us up into God’s work...work that is happening often far outside of where we look for it.  Our lack of imagination, like that of the lame man in John, just keeps us from naming who healed us, naming who reconciled a broken relationship, who healed our fractured selves.

Beloved of God, Hear the good news:

While we might settle for just a lift into the pool, right in front of us is living water....water available to all .... even us, the young, the old, the smug, the overlooked, the single mothers, the housewives, homeless and the business executives. Water which sweeps us up into God’s work in the world. Not through our own righteousness, not through our own perfection but through the grace of a loving baffling God.   The availability of this water has nothing to do with believing or being grateful, or being worthy.  It has to do with being.  Being children of God in this creation of God’s and being caught up into the work of God.
You are made whole by living water of the risen Christ, may you continue to be swept up into the unexpected and baffling shalom of God. 
AMEN

Scum of the Earth

A couple of weeks ago I visited a church in Denver called Scum of the Earth.  They meet in a huge old grocery store turned into a worship space.

Cool stuff:

• Every Sunday night before worship they serve a free meal to whoever shows up, and trust me...they show up.  Lots of Denver's homeless are fed each week as well as other folks.  A church that feeds people before feeding people is a good thing.
• The room was filled with not only the homeless, but skate punks, street kids, goths, you name it...it was difficult trying to conjure the image of another local church where these guys would be found.  I liked that my heavily tattooed arms were not looked at twice except in admiration.  This is an unusual experience for me in a church setting.

Not so cool stuff

• worship sucked ass.  Seriously.  There is a huge stage on which stood a band who played (well I might add) rocked up versions of praise songs, 3 of them, followed by a 35 minute sermon follwed by another 3 praise songs.  That's it.  That's what they did.  For a gal who's a liturgy princess, this was weird.  No ritual, no liturgy.  It felt like a birthday party without a cake or presents or decorations, just the song.
• It's no secret that I'm generally not a big fan of the praise music (to be clear, I'm all for offering thanks and praise to God, just not with vapid lyrics sung to really bad soft-rock).  I often refer to this as "Jesus is my Boyfriend" music and no shit, there was a line sung during their worship service that talked (to Jesus) in this way: "Your intoxicating scent when we meet in our secret place".  EEWWW!  I felt like I needed a shower.  You CANNOT talk about Jesus that way....creepy.
• The first words on their "Statement of Faith" sheet are as follows: We believe the Bible is the inspired word of God, free from error and the final authority in matters of life and faith. The sixty-six books of the Protestant Cannon contain God's written revelation of himself.  Which leads me to wonder "have you read the thing?"  Free from error?  Read the synoptics in parallel and get back to me on that.

Conclusion:

Not my bag theologically or liturgically (if you could even use that word).  However, they feed a bunch of folks and there are plenty of churches whose worship I love and with whose theology I agree who don't do anything close to that and where these kids would not be found.    I didn't feel like a freak at church and that was nice.  They have a Christian community with whom to worship God and that's a good thing.