Jesus, Emanuel AME Church, and the World

When evening had come, Jesus said to his disciples, "Let us go across to the other side." And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mark 4:35-41)

Since God's Kingdom exists on Earth as it does in Heaven our Christian faith must be about real life. This means that we must deal with the storms of this life, and that we must preach and discuss real life in church, not just "pie in the sky by and by." Hate in our country and the whole world leads to killings and discrimination and terrorism. As Christians we are called to partner with God and other people of good will to find ways to counteract these stereotypes of race, religion, and class that plant seeds of hatred in the hearts of our people.

There are many sources: political, media, and unfortunately, religious, that subtly, and not so subtly promote fear of the other and the hate that goes with it. THE CHURCH MUST BE A FORCE TO PROMOTE UNDERSTANDING AND DIALOGUE WITH THE OTHER AND WITH EACH OTHER. IF WE ARE SILENT WHILE THE PROMOTERS OF HATE ARE NOT, THEN OUR SIN IS WORSE THAN THEIRS. PRAY THAT WE WILL HAVE THE COURAGE TO ACT AS JESUS DID, NOT COUNTING THE COST BUT PROCLAIMING BY WORD AND EXAMPLE THE GOOD NEWS OF GOD IN CHRIST, AS WE RESPECT THE DIGNITY OF EVERY HUMAN BEING.

The redemptive power of public compassion is what caused Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to say, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” King wasn’t alone in this sentiment. Elie Wiesel, the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner, wrote, “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

Public rage must be met head on by public compassion. According to Jesus, reconciliation is everyone’s responsibility. That is another way of saying: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27)

 

As Christians we are called to be compassionate, we are called to speak truth to power, we are called to speak when others are silent, we are called to speak when speaking might make us look bad in our own community. We are called to do what Jesus did, even if it inspires people to do to us what they did to Jesus.

The first step for us is dialogue with one another, to try to understand the sources of fear and hate in our country and the world that would cause a 21 year old white man to believe he had to kill black people; that would cause a young Muslim to hate enough that he believes he needs to kill Christians and other Muslims who disagree with him. We must try to understand the sources of fear and hate that cause us to fear the other, to blame our problems on Muslims, or Jews, or Immigrants, or blacks or the wealthy or the poor, and ignore looking at our own prejudices that may have contributed to the fear and hatred. 

I do not pretend to have all the answers, I do not believe that together we have all the answers,  but I do know two things: that Jesus will be with us during the storms of our lives as he was with the disciples and will take charge and say to the storms and to us, “PEACE BE STILL.”  

I also know that as followers of Jesus we are called to engage in dialogue with one another and the larger community, while praying that the Holy Spirit will lead us and guide us into all truth. 

Turning to this week’s events in Charleston, what in our society causes a 21 your old white man to believe that he must kill Black People?   

I believe that there are forces in our community: media, politicians, and yes even churches which foster fear and thus hate for their own benefit.  I believe that this hate infects us all.  As Christians I believe it is important for us to watch our own sources of news and information, and listen to our own favorite politicians with the same critical eye and ear with which we watch the sources of information and politicians we do not like.  

As the church we then need to speak up against any and all forces in our society that pit one American against another, one human being against another based on unfounded fear. 

I watched the Bail hearing for Dylann Roof, and saw the sadness, compassion and forgiveness of the friends and family members of those who were killed.  I do not know that I could be as forgiving. 

What can we do here at Christ Church, Albertville to defuse fear, hatred and misunderstanding.  Being blessed to be a diverse congregation made up of white, Hatian, Mexican-American, young, old, wealthy, poor, we can carry on a dialogue, a discussion about our community and our nation: The good things as well as the prejudices that exist.  

We can talk with one another at coffee hour, and over lunch and in Adult Sunday School.  We can listen to the opinions and knowledge of others without having to agree with them and we can share our opinions and our knowledge without the need to be always right.   

We are looking for ways to be Christians, to be God’s people on a journey with Jesus, which at times, as Jesus promised Peter, will take us places we would rather not go. 

(Let Us Pray) (A prayer offered by the Kentucky Council of Churches) 

Holy One, we gather in this space and time to join in prayer for our brothers and sisters of Emanuel AME Church. We are disheartened at the tragedy of lives lost, and one of your faithful communities distressed and wounded. We cry out for comfort and healing for the grieving, and justice and mercy for the perpetrator.

Forgive us for any part that we have in the cruelty and violence of this world. Shake us from our complacency, and set us on the path of righteousness that leads us to the justice and healing places where we need to be present. Help us to be instruments of your compassion and peace. Give us the courage to speak out against violence, hatred, and prejudice.  

By your power, heal all wounds, repair all chasms, bring your kingdom to fruition that all may live in joy, peace, love and respect. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. 

 

 

 

 

 

Love and Creating God in Our Own Image

It has been said by some that we can be pretty sure that we have created God in our own image when God loves the same people we love and hates the same people we hate.  If this is even partially true, then how do we recognize real love: in ourselves, in other people?  

A look at Holy Scripture can give us answers as well as challenges:  In 1 John 4:7-21 we read, “Let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”  Nice to know that love begins with God, not with us and that in receiving this love as a gift we are challenged to love others.  The good news given to us is that if we love we are God’s children and we “know God.”  The bad news for us is that “whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”   

Since God showed us divine love in creation and through Jesus, the giver of love and life and truth, we can begin to see ourselves created in God’s Image rather than God being created in our image.  Since we are created in the image of God, “and since God loved us so much, then we also ought to love one another.” As the writer of First John tells us, “God is love and those who abide in love abide in God.” 

John tells us that “there is no fear in love, perfect love casts out fear.” I believe that fear and not hate is the opposite of love, and if we love we are less likely to hate, less likely to be controlled by anger, more likely to know God. 

At this part of this passage I always feel pretty good, but then John hits us with his most powerful challenge: “those who say, I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.”  Jesus came into the world to remind us not only to love God, but to love our neighbors, our brothers and sisters as well. “The commandment we have from God is this: those who love God must lover their brothers and sisters also.” 

Can we really love our brothers and sisters who we not only see, but who complicate our lives? Can we really love people who get in the way of our success or do not pull their weight or just plain lie, cheat and steal, and tear down rather than build up? 

As I was preparing a sermon on this topic I posted some of my reflections about this scripture.  One friend replied by asking if she really had to love the neighbor who had killed her dog, and was it alright to file charges against him.  Another friend asked how we can love Christians who lie, cheat and steal.  After preaching this sermon, a friend in the congregation challenged this love commandment by sharing with me the story of a family member who had hurt her and several other family members in ways that have destroyed relationships and affected the whole family forever.

 

How do we preach love, live a life of love “because God love us first,” in the midst of our lives in which some treat us in ways that tear down rather than build up?  It is easy to preach about God’s love and our being created in God’s image, and loving others because God loves us first.  But, we do not live in a world insulated from reality.  In our lives in the trenches there are times when responsibility and accountability are what love looks like.  Remember that the first and great commandment requires that “we love our neighbor as we love ourselves.”  We must first love ourselves and care for ourselves if we are even to begin to love our neighbors. 

 How do we both love our brother and take him to court?  How do we love our sister and prevent her from destroying our life or our reputation?  How do we deal with a family member who is unlovable?   How do people deal with you and me when we are the ones who are unlovable? How do we “love our neighbor as ourselves without becoming a doormat, without enabling bad behavior?   

I believe we look for the answer to these questions in community.  We keep preaching the love of God found in scripture.  We encourage dialogue around the scriptures and the sermons. After all neither scripture nor sermons are handed down from on high without passing through human hands, hearts and minds, but grow out of the day to day lives of people who struggle to know God and describe their experience of God in a way that invites others into the conversation.  Jesus promised that God would send us the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us into all truth.  I believe that Holy Spirit is most prevalent when we engage one another in conversation and in life as together we seek the answers to life’s persistent questions. 

If we are to learn how to live a life of love, I suspect we will learn it together with our companions on the way as we travel the road of life together.

 

 

More Scriptures to Make Our Heads Spin

I both love and hate the New Common Lectionary, the selections of scripture readings for each Sunday ofthe year, set up on a three year cycle.  I love it because it forces me to think about and pray about and preach about topics and issues with which I would rather not deal.  I hate it because it forces me to think about and pray about and preach about topics and Issues with which I would rather not deal. 

The scriptures for today, John 10:11-18,  Acts 4:5-12 and 1 John 3:16-24, when taken together just make my head spin.  In the first we hear Jesus say, “I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Then Jesus goes on to say, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock and one shepherd.” 

One Shepherd and one flock, sounds great until Luke chimes in through the book Acts: “there is salvation in no one else (but Jesus), for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.” Certainly many Christian Denominations believe and teach that there is only one way to God and that that is Jesus.  Other religions also have factions that teach similar beliefs that their way is the only way.  Any time a religion says something along the lines of “God so love the world, BUT…Look out! I certainly believe that Jesus came to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to invite all nations and peoples into that Kingdom.  I also believe that God is big enough and creative enough to provide pathways for all of God’s people to find their way into the Kingdom. 

Here enters the writer of First John (thanks be to God): “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” 

The writer of First John provides us the key to a living and loving faith: that love appears not just in words and maybe even not primarily in words and speech, “but in truth and action.” It is the Spirit God has given us, that abides in us, that leads us into truth and action.  This truth and action says more about our faith, about our relationship to God and to other people than our judging who is in or out of God’s Kingdom could ever say. 

As the Old song proclaims: “they will know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they will know we are Christians by our love.”  Not by our judgment, or our ability to correct others, or by our need to have our own way. . .but by our love!  Jesus never commanded us to agree with one another. He commanded us to love. Yes, they will know we are Christians by our love!

 

 

Three Holy Days That Changed the World

For Many Christians, the last three days of Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Day, are like time out of time.  We continue to live our daily lives, working and caring for family and doing all those day to day tasks that hold body and soul together. We also live into a parallel dimension in which we walk with Jesus Christ in his passion, through his death, to his resurrection. These days are referred to as the Sacred Triduum in Latin, the Holiest Three Days in English.  Worship on these days appears to be three services but is, in fact, only one. Worship begins on Maundy Thursday with the prayer:  

Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these Holy Mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, page 274) 

There is no dismissal until the end of the Easter worship service when we proclaim, “let us go forth in the Name of Christ, Alleluia, Alleluia!” 

These three days are truly the center of the Christian year.  On Maundy Thursday we share in the Last Supper with Jesus and his disciples as he gives them, and us, a new commandment which he demonstrates by washing their feet.  

Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord. . . So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example that you also should do as I have done to you. (John 13:1ff) 

This is my Commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (John 15:12) 

After this meal Jesus is betrayed, then tried by the Chief priests and later by the Roman Governor Pilate. We end our worship on this evening by striping the altar area of all adornments, symbolizing that the light of Christ is leaving the world.  And then we leave the church in silence and sadness. 

On Good Friday we continue our worship with the following words: 

Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 276) 

The Passion Gospel of Jesus is then read, leading is on the journey to the Garden of Gethsemane, his betrayal, and his death and burial.  We remember the passion of Jesus by participating in his journey.  Prayers for all of God’s people follow, ending with prayers for forgiveness and silent communion from previously consecrated bread and wine. This day is not a time for celebration. The following prayer closes part two of our three day journey: 

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, we pray you to set your passion, cross, an death between your judgment and our souls, now and in the hour of our death.  Give mercy and grace to the living; pardon and rest to the dead; to your holy Church peace and concord; and to us sinners everlasting life and glory. Amen."(Book of Common Prayer, page 282) 

On the Third Day we proclaim, “Alleluia. Christ is Risen. The Lord is Risen indeed. Alleluia.” The three days end and the rest of our life in Christ Begins!

That the Whole World Might be Saved through Him: But How?

In the Gospel of John 3:14-21, Jesus tells Nicodemus that like the bronze snake lifted up by Moses in the wilderness, so must the Son be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life!  This is what Grace looks like, that one person, in this case one Christians believe to be both human and divine is willing to live, and perhaps die, in such a way that the person’s  relationship with God and life’s actions bring people into (or back into) a saving relationship with God and with other human beings.  “This is the first and great commandment. You shall love the Lord your God with all your soule and mind and strength.  The second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no Commandment greater than these.”(Mark 12:29-31) 

Grace continues as we hear the familiar words from John 3:16, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that evryone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”  Eternal life according to the Gospels is “to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom the true God has sent” (John 17:3) and that “in the resurrection we neither marry nor are given in marriage, but we are like the angels in heaven.”(Matthew 28:30) 

The Grace of eternal life for Christians, then, is that we will know God and Jesus Christ, and that eternal life will be nothing like anything we have ever experienced.  Being in the presence of God, wherever that may be and whatever it looks like is sufficient grace for me.  The details I leave up to God. 

John14-21 continues to provide comfort to those of us who believe in God through Jesus: “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the whole world might be saved through him.” As one who believes that God wants to save the whole world, I find this exciting and life giving, a source of Joy.   My joy is short lived, however, as I move from what I consider to be one of the most comforting and inclusive passages in the Gospels, to what I consider one of the most uncomfortable and exclusive passages, without even moving to another chapter, much less another book. 

¹⁸Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  How do those of us who believe that God loves all of God’s children reconcile this statement recorded as the words of Jesus? 

I truly believe that God wants to save the world and that the “world” in scripture refers to “all people,” thus, that God wants to save all people.  But Scipture clearly says something different.  How can we remain faithful to Jesus and still believe that God can save God’s children around the world who follow different faiths, or no faith at all? 

First, I believe that we who are Christians do, in fact, know God most fully through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and if Jesus brings Grace into the world, that perhaps, this grace is not limited only to those of us who know God in this way.  If this is a possibility, then I am willing to take a chance on letting God out of the box we often place God in.  After all, in his teaching, Jesus invited his fellow Jews to love the Lord their God with their entire being and to recognize their God through him, not to worship Jesus, himself.  He also tells the Samaritan Woman that the “day is coming when the Jews and Samaritans will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth. 

Perhaps the last section of this Gospel can help us move to an understanding that will allow God to be God:

¹⁹And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God. 

If our deeds are done in God, then I believe that the scripture has not changed, but that the Holy Spirit has led us to see the Gospel and the World in a new light.  I believe that we have been able to let God out of the box and that God’s Spirit continues to lead us and Guide us into all truth: a truth different from what we once believed, but a truth based on our openness to scripture, tradition, reason and life experience as shown to us by God’s holy, eternal, unchanging and life giving spirit.  

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— ⁹not the result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”(Ephesians 2:8-10)

 

 

  

Ash Wednesday and the Beginning of Lent

 

A Time of Repentance, Preparation and Reflection 

The season of Lent, a time of repentance, preparation and reflection leading up to Easter is for many Christians the most holy time of the year.  It is the forty day period (forty-six, if we count Sundays) leading to the Celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Day.  An important custom in Liturgical Churches such as Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox and Episcopal, the observance of lent is becoming popular in other churches such as the United Methodist, and even some independent churches. 

Ash Wednesday, the first day of lent follows a day known as either Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras: a day in places like Albertville when pancakes, bacon and sausage are eaten, harkening back to the tradition of giving up certain foods as a sign of sacrifice and penitence.  In places like New Orleans and Mobile, the Pancake supper is usually passed over for the Celebration of Carnival ending in the dramatic climax of Mardi Gras, or “Fat Tuesday.” 

Ash Wednesday is a day to slow down, to take a deep breath and to ask God to forgive us of sins past and to “lead us and guide us into all truth.”  The Liturgy, or worship service, on Ash Wednesday at Christ Episcopal Church is quieter and simpler than our normal time of worship on Sunday.  It will provide times for silent reflection on our own lives and how we intend to lead a new life following in the way of Jesus Christ, as well as reflections on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and what this means for the whole world.  Those who would like are also invited to the altar for the “imposition of ashes,” which reminds us that “we are dust and to dust we shall return.”  This simple but powerful act, for me, puts my life in perspective and allows me to see my relationship with God, Neighbor and Self as it really is. 

Ash Wednesday worship begins with the following prayer: 

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have
made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and
make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily
lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission
and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, p.264) 

This is followed by what, I believe, is the most powerful invitation ever offered to those of us on this journey as God’s people. 

Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great
devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and
it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a

season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided 

a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy
Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of
notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful
were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to
the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation
was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set
forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all
Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the
observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance;
by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and
meditating on God's holy Word. And, to make a right beginning
of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel

before the Lord, our maker and redeemer. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 265) 

And finally a reminder of our mortality and our relationship with God:

 

            Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the 
            earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our 
            mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is 
            only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life; 
            through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen. (BCP, p. 265) 

On Ash Wednesday we begin this powerful journey “through the wilderness” to the day of the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

One More Prophet Raised Up By God

I continue to think about the prophets God raises up in our own day and how some of them have changed my life and the world in which we live.  I want to share two stories from the life of one of my personal prophets, one whose life intersected with mine in more ways than I even knew.  I was not aware of some of her prophetic actions until 2011 when several members of the Albertville High School Class of 1966 gathered for the homecoming football game and then conversation at the home of one of our classmates.  The story shared with us that evening by the woman’s son was a story that changed our lives forever and one of which we were not even aware.  I begin her story in the summer of 1965. 

A group of parents of black children in Albertville asked the county school board to allow their children to attend school where they lived.  At the time, all the black children in the county attended Lakeview School in Guntersville.  The school was substandard, did not have indoor restrooms, a lunch room or a Gym.  Educational materials were also substandard when compared to the materials at the “white schools” in the county.  As a part of this process the then county School Superintendent arranged a meeting with the parents of all the black school children in Albertville.  During the meeting he told the parents that he and many other people in the school system and community, including members of the Ku Klux Klan did not want their children attending school in Albertville and asked them to keep them in school at Lakeview.  

At this point, my classmate’s mother, “the Prophet,” stood up and spoke to the crowd and to the Superintendent. “My children are smart children and deserve the same education your children deserve.  They deserve facilities and resources for their education that will allow them to be the best and most educated persons of which they are capable.  So, regardless of your desires, my children are going to go to school in Albertville.” 

In late August, a yellow school bus, preceeded and followed by cars carrying armed police officers and state troopers, made the rounds of all the Albertville schools. At each school, children were dropped off to attend the school in their home town for the first time.  At the high school where I was a senior that year, either four or five black teenagers got off the bus and joined those of us who had attended school in Albertville for years.  I cannot imagine how it must have felt to be new in a situation like this and I applaud their courage.  And I applaud the courage of a mother who stood up to the power establishment of that day and proclaimed by her actions that “my children are more important than anything you can do to me!”  

Years earlier this mother was singlehandedly responsible for opening up the public library to black children as well as ultimately, adults.  She approached Mrs. Fricks, the wonderful librarian of my growing up years and asked her to allow her children the opportunity to check out books at the library.  This small beginning ultimately led to the Albertville Public Library becoming truly The Public Library.   

Prophets know that one person can make a difference.  I pray that God will touch all of our hearts and give us the courage to be the prophet we are called to be, so that God’s Kingdom will come on Earth as it is in Heaven. 

God, give us that courage to always stand up for what is right no matter what.  Give us grace to “strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being (Book of Common Prayer, p. 305).” 

From a Sermon Preached on February 1, 2015 in Christ Episcopal Church, Albertville, Alabama