Showing posts with label Theology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Theology. Show all posts

Thursday, March 24, 2016

And They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love?

What follows is inspired by my sermon for the people of Word of Hope on Maundy Thursday 2016.  The inspiration for this comes from John 13:35.

"By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

In my sermon tonight, I posed the people listening to ask themselves a question as they move throughout Good Friday tomorrow.

"If someone who didn't know God saw you, would they know that you were a disciple of Christ?"

And this, of course, got me thinking.

Would anyone who saw someone who professes to be a Christian, know through them the same radical and crazy love of a God who becomes flesh and blood and washes feet and dies?

 And the answer, quite frankly, is probably not.

And I can already hear your righteous indignation.  So I'm going to ask you to put that aside for just a minute and truly think about this.

Would anyone who didn't know God, look at your life and experience through you, the radical love of God?

Honestly.

I can say that most people who look at me probably wouldn't.

And it's not because I have tattoos.  Or because I swear.  Or because I've known to have a beer or two.  Or because I'm gay.

But it's cause I'm materialist.  I'm selfish.  I'm often scared.  I, too often, put people in categories of "us vs. them."

I'm white.  I'm male.  I'm cisgendered.  I'm abled.  I'm in that sweet spot of being neither too old nor too young.

And while all of those things do a good job of getting me ahead in the fallen world, they don't really help people experience the God of the oppressed through me.

And how many Christians do you know that fit into similar categories?  And in their lives, do you see God's presence?

(Tangent - this is why a white Jesus isn't saving anyone.  That's a post for another day though.  Or just read James Cone, he says it better.)

And not just in our bodies, but also in how we act.

Do we talk to people who are homeless when we see them?  Do we go out and feed the hungry?  Do we work to support justice for all people?  Do we give more than we spend?

Do we love others in a "let me wash your feet" kind of way?

Do we love others enough that we would, without using violence, be willing to die for them?

Do we love others enough to let go of the power we as the majority have held for two hundred years so that others can have a seat at the table?

Do we live in a way that says "I love you the way that Christ loves you.  And I do this because I know Christ loves me like that too,"?

My gut.  No.

Some might.  But Christians as a whole?  Not a chance.

So let's stop kidding ourselves.  Let's stop calling ourselves Christians.  Or Jesus freaks.  Or followers of Christ.  Or disciples.

Cause we're not.

I'm not say we can't be. But we aren't right now.

So let's confess our sin in the presence of God and of one another.  Then let's humble ourselves enough to let Christ wash our feet.  And then humble ourselves even more to start washing the feet of others.

 
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Wednesday, February 10, 2016

40 Frames and 40 Nights?

Lent is weird.

There.  I said it.

This period of giving things up - usually things we ought to give up anyway like chocolate or soda - in order to offer a great big apology to God for messing up during the year has always felt a little off.

That being said, recently I've seen some articles and blog posts being written that highlight taking something on as a Lenten discipline.  Things like reading scripture, praying more, exercising, volunteering.  All of which are good things, but again, feel like those are things we should be doing on a daily basis, much like saying no to that second piece of chocolate.

As this Lent has approached, I've felt that maybe there's another way.  That perhaps there's a way to give up/take on something new, that will be more than an apology, but rather as an intentional way to step outside of myself and my mistakes and focus on the larger human community and the larger human experience.

That is to say, to be more mindful of the ways that I have unwittingly participated in perpetuating larger systems of sin in our world.  Those big things, like racism, patriarchy, ableism, and yes, even heteronormativity.

How do I participate in these things the most, you may ask?

Well, like any good investigator, I followed the money.  And where did my money trail lead?  To movies and television shows.  Those two things have been where I've consistently spent my money for several years now.

I took stock of my collection and I noticed a sadly overwhelming theme which is that I was swallowing whole-heartedly the world that Hollywood was trying to sell me.  White guy and white girl, guy saves girl, guy gets girl, they live happily ever after with their 2.4 kids in their suburban house (insert my hyperbolic voice here).

So this Lent, I'm going to try something different.  I'm going to start spending my time/money/energy watching films that feel unfamiliar to me.  The films that challenge my views about how the world works.

Over the next week, I'm going to compile a post with 5 (or more) different movies on it - each movie being one that in some way challenges or tells a story different from the ones most of my movie collection has to offer right now.

I'm going to watch each of these movies and invite you to watch them too so together we can explore a different way of seeing the world.

My hope is that by spending our time/energy with these films, we can learn to celebrate the plurality of the human experience instead of trying to highlight one over and against the others.
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Friday, September 18, 2015

#SlateSpeak


#SlateSpeak is a weekly conversation that makes connections between our world and God's plan for our world.  Each week's topic is a different theological focus that speaks to our communities in our world.  These conversations happen between women and men all over the world and provide a safe space to discuss God and God's work (and our work too!). What follows are some highlights from last night's conversation.
































































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Monday, August 17, 2015

Keep Jesus Weird

This sermon was preached to the people of
Word of Hope Lutheran Church
on
August 16th, 2015. 

The Gospel text was John 6:51-58


Just so we get this out on the table, “Jesus is weird.”  I think we’ve all been thinking it over the past few weeks, that Jesus would talk on and on about something as simple as bread, and bread from heaven, and then we get to this week’s text where Jesus doesn’t just talk about bread, but he then talks about eating his flesh and drinking his blood?  I’m sure those who were listening to him thought the exact same thing, “Jesus is weird.”  
So much bread...
And this isn’t even the weirdest thing Jesus has ever said and done.  I mean, it’s up there, but Jesus has at least a few more things that make us scratch our heads that he’s done.  He’s washed the feet of his disciples, he’s encouraged little children to be a part of the “adult class,” he’s eaten with sinners and prostitutes, he’s talked to Samaritans, he’s talked to Samaritan women, he’s called a woman a dog, he’s healed a Roman soldier’s servant, the list goes on and on.  Oh, and he’s was crucified, died, and was raised from the dead.  Yep, Jesus is weird.
Now, weird isn’t a bad thing.  You can ask my brother, who “I think” knows it’s a compliment when I say that he’s weird.  And I’ve seen bumper stickers that say “Keep ‘Local Town Here’ Weird.”  Weird isn’t bad, it’s just...well, it’s just weird.  It’s something you have to think about.  It’s something you have to wrestle with, it’s the twist of the ordinary that you don’t expect, which makes us think.  And it’s that last piece, that “it makes us think” piece, is why some people don’t like things that are weird.  They want things to be black and white, with no shades of gray. They want things to be cut and dry, with easy answers that they don’t have to spend all night wrestling with or chewing on.
Except Jesus has never really given us easy answers or black and white solutions.  When Jesus is asked questions, he answers with more questions or he answers with paradoxes or parables.  Jesus doesn’t offer up one-time fixes, instead Jesus wants people to think and believe on their own.  Jesus wants people to wrestle with him, wants people to engage, to stay up all night gnawing on the answers the way my dog might gnaw on a bone.
And so, knowing this, are we really surprised that Jesus’ answer to “please sir, can we have some more?” turns into a lecture that culminates with Jesus talking about eating and drinking flesh and blood?  Jesus wants us to chew on this reply for a bit.  Jesus wants us to wrestle with it - to gnaw on it.
Of course, many will tell you that this text has an easy answer, that Jesus is talking about Holy Communion, this meal where we gather together and eat bread and drink wine that has become the body and blood of Christ.  But I’m not sure that’s really an easy answer either.  I mean, the Eucharist is kind of weird too.  It really is, I know this, because whenever I have to try and explain it to someone who hasn’t grown up in the church it usually goes something like…
 “So you eat the body and blood of your God?”
“Yes, but it’s also bread and wine.”
“How is this not cannibalism?”
 “Well, because it’s bread and wine, not actually human flesh and blood.”
“Uh-huh, so how does it become the body and blood of God?”
“Well, you see...there’s a prayer, and then God shows up, and it just happens.”
“...right…”
"Is it wine or is it blood?  Come on!?"
I mean, even the church, who’s had 2000 years to figure it out has divided about 4 times on this issue and you get answers from all over the place, like that after the Eucharistic prayer it’s no longer bread and wine it is the body and blood to it’s just a symbol or memorial meal.  It’s not actually body and blood.  And then you have the Lutherans who say, well…it’s still bread and wine, but it’s also Christ’s body and blood, and it just sort of happens.  We’ll call it holy mystery and it’ll be good.
Holy mystery, by the way, is just theology speak for paradox.  Or to put it another way, “yes, we know it’s weird, but we believe it anyway.”  We believe that God shows up in this weirdness and God is made known through this weirdness.
And God always has been made known through this weirdness.  God isn’t just some spiritual deity up in heaven.  God isn’t some puppet master pulling strings.  God isn’t a clockmaker that wound up the world and let it go.  Instead, God has become intimately involved with all creation.  In Genesis, God molds the earth, walks among it.  Then God becomes flesh, becomes a baby.  God combines spiritual and physical.  God descends and fills us with the Holy Spirit.  God is three and one.  God desires humanity to be partners in creation.  God desires humanity to be partners in conversation.  God is willing to go to great lengths to bring us back to God.  And God has done them too!  God is just full of weird things that humans would not have just made up on their own - they’re too weird for us.  They make us think and believe things that don’t make rational or logical sense, and in spite of that - or because of it, God is revealed in them.  

And so, we’re back to this weird text.  This text that doesn’t provide easy answers.  This text that makes us scratch our heads and wonder what on earth Jesus is talking about.  This text that people have been gnawing on for thousands of years.  And perhaps we just need to throw our hands up and say, “Jesus is weird.  God is weird.  And that’s good.  We need weird.”  Amen.  
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Location: Word of Hope Lutheran Church
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