Hushpuppies from Heaven Matthew 15:21-28

My family is from the southern United States. Fried cat fish dinners were often a part of our family celebrations. But there was one particular dish served that no one could resist. It was essentially a corn meal dough with spices and onions that was formed into round shapes about the size of a donut hole and deep fried until golden brown. Add fried potatoes to the meal and you had a triple whammy guaranteed to raise your cholesterol level into the heart-attack zone.

Now the name of the corn meal side dish is very interesting. The story goes that in early American history trappers and travelers would cook up a batch of the delicious dish along the trail. Usually accompanied by their dogs that would start to howl and bark at the smell of the hot food cooking, begging for a bite, the weary traveler would toss one or more in the direction of an unruly dog and say, “Hush, puppy!” So the delicious morsels came to be known as ‘Hushpuppies.” I guess that was better than calling them, “Shut up, dogs.”

In today’s scripture passage Jesus has traveled away from the typical Jewish territory and entered an area where Gentiles predominated: SyroPhonecia. It is interesting to note that in the passages just before this story he has fed the 5,000 in the wilderness. He has instructed them on what it means to be clean and unclean, telling them that it isn’t what they put into their mouths that makes then unclean, but what comes out of their mouth in terms of speech that makes them clean or unclean. Now the author of Matthew will give us a practical lesson in what it means to be clean and unclean.

Here in Tyre and Sidon Jesus and the disciples are in the midst of what some would have called an unclean community filled with non-Jewish person, strangers, foreigners, Greeks and Romans. The differences were not just cultural and religious, but economic as well. The more affluent residents of Tyre and Sidon would have had the economic power to buy up the wheat harvest and literally take the bread out of the mouths of Jewish citizens.

A woman appears, which scripture has identified variously as a Cannanite woman or a Syro-Phonecian woman. Saying she was a Cannanite was an ancient way of identifying the people that surrounded the people of Israel as foreign, as different, as unacceptable, as unclean. It was a derogatory term, not unlike the N word in our own culture. However, calling someone a Cannanite would also be like calling someone from New York a New Amsterdamer instead of a New Yorker. We know that New York was once called New Amsterdam but we don’t use that name any longer. In short, to call someone a Cannanite was to demean them, to call them unacceptable and not a part of your tribe. The woman was probably an educated woman, maybe even a merchant herself, not the typical woman that Jesus and his disciples would have encountered in their own home territory.

Many think that Jesus has gone to this region to escape his popularity and rest and relax. But even here his reputation precedes him having even been broadcast even those who do not share his religion or beliefs. But hope is based on something more than religion, belief, and culture.

The woman filled with hope that Jesus could cure her daughter’s affliction comes and asks for him to heal the child. She cries out, Kyrie Elison, Lord have mercy! We sing those words in worship and say them before communion ourselves. Her cry is the same cry we speak when we are desparate and desire God’s help and guidance, “God have mercy!”

But Jesus ignores her. Not all that unusual when you remember that a man in Jesus’ own community didn’t speak to a woman he might encounter on the street. But even Jesus has broken taboo’s and spoke to women in public before. However, the taboo is double in this situation because this is a foreign woman, not someone from his own community. Isn’t it interesting to note, however, that Jesus who has been the first one to see, really see, the man born blind and others in obvious need that he and the disciples encounter on their journeys, to see and respond to the need of the person he points out to the disciples, instead on this occasion ignores the woman. Here need is obvious for she is crying out for him to heal her daughter. What’s going on here that Jesus turns a deaf ear upon the real cry of a needy person. It doesn’t make sense. Jesus ignoring a need in a person who is calling out for help?

The woman persists and the disciples come to Jesus, basically saying, “Make her shut up and go away. She’s bothering us.” Leave it to the disciples to be the bouncers at the Jesus Club, the ones who check everyone’s ID’s and keep out the riff-raff.

In Jesus’ response to the disciples I hear a human weariness. He has been under enormous stress trying to get people to understand his mission and his meaning. Maybe in his misery he has turned off his listening ear and tried to isolate himself from the demands of the world around him. I’ve been there, so have you. Sometimes we just want to cry out, “Leave me alone. Let me be. I don’t have anything left to give to you. I’m exhausted. I’m tired. I can’t give anymore than I’ve already given.” Sometimes we forget that Jesus was completely human, and just like you and me Jesus could get tired and worn out and even forget what he was suppose to know and do. Does that bother you? Does it make Jesus any less than who he was? For me, it makes him even more than what he was suppose to be. To me it means that Jesus went beyond his humanness to seek and find the divine that was within him. When we are stuck or tired or find it hard to move forward, let us remember that we have the divine spark of Jesus within us to carry us forward when we don’t think we have enough to even take one more step into our future.

Jesus responds, “I was sent to the lost sheep of Israel.” Jesus has seen his mission as one that concentrated on the so-called People of God, the descendants of Abraham, the Children of Israel. He was focused on his mission as he understood it. Within that context he has tried to help others see that it included even those on the edges of their community: widows, tax collectors, the ill and the handicapped, the lepers and the blind, all those who had been treated as unacceptable. You would think that Jesus of all people who have responded immediately to this woman’s pleas. But he doesn’t.

So Jesus snaps back at the woman’s pleas, “I wasn’t sent to take care of your kind. I was only sent to my kind of people.” Who is it that we define as our kind of people, as belonging to our own community? Who doesn’t belong to our community? Who can we legitimately ignore and leave out of our mission and ministry?

I’ve told this story before: family in Abingdon.
“They don’t belong here. Why don’t they find a church where they would feel more at home?”

Do we do that to people when they come to us?
Do we make people feel like they don’t belong in our community of faith? Have you ever felt rejected because of your own difference from a community of people? How did that make you feel?

But this woman is a desperate mother who loves her child and sees in Jesus the only chance for healing her daughter has. She comes and kneels on the ground in front of him and respectfully begs: “Jesus, help me.”

If you don’t think that Jesus was completely human then you haven’t really looked at how he responds to this woman. He responds with a common folk saying of the time, “It’s not right to take food out of the children’s mouths and throw it to the dogs.” Personally I can’t imagine a more derogatory thing for Jesus to say to this woman. He has called her a dog, an extremely negative name that Jesus’ community reserved for Gentiles and those who were not Jewish, for people who didn’t belong to their community. It has all kinds of implications.

We know how powerfully dismissive such a term is for we use a similar term today. The term used here is diminutive, feminine; some would say it is the word puppies. I would say that it is the word, “Bitch.” No do you begin to see how horrible and derogatory this was for Jesus to say to this woman?

Think about it for a moment: This woman is rejected by the one person that should have been willing to see her, to accept her, to help her, but he refuses. Yet this woman won’t give up even in the face of such a derogatory term and response. She says to Jesus, “Even the puppies under the table eat the scraps that are left.” This echoes Jesus’ own ministry that just preceded this episode in the book of Matthew. Jesus fed the 5,000 and when everyone had had their fill, there were 12 baskets of leftover food collected. There had been plenty for everyone.

Out of the midst of his weariness, Jesus is brought to full attention and sees the woman and her faith.
“Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!” This woman is singled out as having great faith. This woman is the only person in all of scripture to ever best Jesus in a debate. Her daughter is healed. But maybe more importantly, and I know this will be hard for some of you to hear, so too was Jesus healed of his limited vision of what the meaning of his own mission was: He was called to all the Children of God, and not just the Children of Israel. No wonder he said that this woman’s faith was so great. She demonstrated enough faith to move him to enlarge his vision far beyond what even he had considered it to be before this chance encounter. Even Jesus could learn a lesson in faith from such a woman.

As we move forward in faith, celebrating our 39th anniversary as a church next week, let’s take the example of the Syro-Phonecian woman and let her inspire us. She wasn’t content to remain in her assigned place in society as a woman, even as a Syro-Phonecian citizen. She crossed the boundaries of sexuality and citizenship and demanded her right to all that God could provide for her, including the healing of her daughter. By claiming her dignity and her faith this woman, perhaps, changed the entire focus of Jesus’ ministry and mission.

We next find him in the Gentile cities of Decapolis, literally ‘the ten cities,’ where he feed 4,000 Gentiles. The miracle of food in the wilderness is carried beyond a blessing for the Children of Israel to the Children of the World. Even Jesus declares in Mark 13:10, “The good news must first be proclaimed to all the nations.” Jesus begins crossing all the boundaries teaching all people for all times that there is indeed nothing that separates anyone from the love of God.

In a chaplaincy training class one student shared a thought with his other minister classmates: Imagine a choir where every note and voice is perfect, but still there is something missing. It is an octave that if it were present would change the performance from good to spectacular, from ordinary into extraordinary. Imagine a choir where every voice is heard, including the voice that is missing, but very much needed. Imagine that we are that choir. What voice is missing? What octave would we have to include in order to transform our congregation and it’s ministry from just good to spectacular, from just ordinary to extraordinary?

Who is missing from our congregation that we need to include? How are we going to find them and include them? What boundaries of religion and society, race and gender, nationality and culture are we going to boldly cross to bring the Good News about Jesus to everyone? How are we, like Jesus, going to change our vision of our mission and ministry so that we see that in crossing the boundaries we can extend our faith to build community and communion with others who are different from us?

Advice for Living From God: Part 3 "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going" John 6:25-69

Though many people followed Jesus,
as he moved closer to the end of his time on earth his teachings became more intense
and harder for people to accept.

The people who followed him
into the wilderness in chapter 15
know that there is something unusual about him, but they opt
to believe that he is just a normal human being.
This will become clear later.
For example when he heals the sick
and then feeds them in the wilderness
they want to proclaim him as their earthly King,
but he disappears
for he does not yet want
to confront the political and religious powers.
The disciples leave by boat to cross the lake
and the people walk around the shore
to get to where they are going,
they are aware that Jesus
was not with the disciples in the boat.
When they do find Jesus on the other side
they ask him not “How did you get here”
but instead “When did you arrive?”
which implies no understanding
that he is more than human.

Jesus doesn’t answer their question.
Instead he tells them that they are looking for him
not because of the signs he performed, demonstrating God’s life-giving power,
but because they got free food
that they didn’t have to work for.

Sure these people worked hard
to provide daily bread for themselves.
However, finding a miraculous source of food
that doesn’t require hard work is certainly amazing and they don’t want to turn loose
of the opportunity that presents:
Give us more of the same!

Jesus, though,
wants to redirect their attention to God.
He reminds them that the manna
that the Children of Israel
received in the wilderness
came not from the human Moses
but from the Divine God.
He reminds them that the manna spoiled quickly. So will this physical food that I have given to you. Instead you should desire something more lasting. Seek the Bread of Life,
food that will endure into the eternal life,
food that nourishes your spirit.

The people then ask him a question
that modern people like you and I often ask:
What must we do to do the work of God?
In other words, how can I make sure
by what I do that I will
inherit eternal life?

Jesus tells them that it isn’t about works,
It’s about belief. They need to believe
In the One that God has sent.
In other words, believe in Jesus!



You and I can be pretty stubborn
when we want to be, especially when it concerns our relationship with God.
How often have you pleaded with God
to show you a sign that what you want to do
is the right thing to do?
We’ve all done it.

Those following Jesus were no different
and they ask him to show them a sign
to prove that he is from God.
That in itself is pretty amazing,
given the fact that they have recently witnessed Jesus heal the sick and feed thousands of people
in the wilderness
but those miracles weren’t good enough for them. They want even more sensational miracles,
not to prove who Jesus is,
but because, they, like us enjoyed fireworks
and awe-inspiring acrobatic performances
for the sheer entertainment
that such things provide.
They are really saying: Entertain us, Jesus!
We want a supernatural performance!
Make sure it involves a miracle or two
and please don’t forget the snacks!

They demand more manna telling Jesus
that Moses gave the people bread from heaven.
They haven’t gotten the message yet,
so Jesus reminds them that it wasn’t Moses
who gave their ancestors bread in the wilderness,
but it was God.
He keeps trying to direct their attention
to the divine, but like you and me,
they insist on sticking to the concrete things of life.

He tells them that the Bread of Life from Heaven
will give them eternal life.
They ask for the bread to be given to them,
showing again that they are totally missing
what he is trying to tell them.

Jesus explains his relationship with God:
“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
Their reaction is basically to ask,
“Who does this guy think that he is?
We know his father and mother.
We know where he comes from.
He isn’t anything special.
And since they know his family
they can’t believe he actually came from heaven.

Let me ask you a question this morning:
Who do you know that could be God in disguise?
Several movies and TV shows over the years
have cast normal human beings
in the role of God. I
t’s always interesting
to see who they give the role to:
an eight year old girl,
a 90 year old man with a cigar.
Let me ask you another question,
Who do you know that you believe
couldn’t possibly ever represent God?
Who would you have trouble accepting
if he or she was God in human form?
A Transperson? A gay guy? A lesbian?
A straight person? A child? A physically challenged person? Who would you reject? Who would you accept?

Jesus explains that he is the Bread of Life from God and that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood in order to have eternal life with God.
You have to understand that ancient people
often talked this way, especially politicians,
by saying such things as
‘eat my flesh and drink my blood’
meaning to agree with me
and join me in my effort.
However, what Jesus says is an affront to those
who eat Kosher food.
You don’t mix bread and blood.
This was extremely offensive talk.
Centuries of eucharistic theology
give us a way to understand these words,
but at the time they were more than puzzling -- they probably were downright offensive.
Rightly reading the mood,
Jesus says, "Does this offend you?"
The idea of eating human flesh
or drinking human blood
still offends us today.

Like us, they probably missed his real meaning
with their perceived offense
of his breaking dietary laws.
It was too much to take and
many walk away from Jesus.
Left alone with his most intimate disciples
and friends he asks them,
“Do you, too, want to leave me?”

Jesus’ question echoes down the ages,
“What about you, do you, too want to leave me?” Are the teachings of Jesus too tough for us
to understand and follow in our personal lives?
Is it out of the question
for us to become the New Community of God?

Jesus was asking his followers
to make some very foundational changes
in their lives.
They wanted their lives to remain the same,
with just a few miracles included
every now and then to keep things exciting.
They wanted to experience the sensational things God could do for them
without experiencing the sensational changes
God wanted to make inside of them,
in their thinking and in their behaviors.
Basically they were saying,
“Jesus, as long as you make us feel good
and perform more miracles,
hey, we’re there with you.
But when you start meddling in our lives
and asking us to change how we relate to God
and others, that’s just too much to take.”

Where are you with Jesus today?
Are you praying for a miracle
to be worked in your life:
a job, winning the lottery,
physical healing, or something else?
What if God does work the miracle
and proves to your personal satisfaction
that God does care about you…
which is really something
that you don’t have to worry about…
because God has loved you
and cared for you from long before the moment that God created you inside your mother’s womb. If you do get your miracle
will you then try to really follow Christ?
What if Jesus asks you to do something
that is really tough?
Will you hang in there with Jesus
and do what it takes
to become the kind of person
that God wants you to be
or will you bail out on Jesus?
Or what if there is no miracle?
Will you follow God anyway?

Doing what God wants takes guts.
My family used to say,
“When the going gets tough,
the tough get going.”
It takes courage to become the person
or the church God desires us to become
especially in our relationships with others.
We seem to forget that Jesus’ ministry
was based on something
that is really very difficult
for most of us to do
…relationship building.
Jesus wants to connect us with God
and with others.
Most importantly Jesus wanted his followers
to expand their definition
of what community meant
and to include within their New Community
all the different varieties of humanity
that then existed.

Living up to the expectations of God
means that even when the going gets tough
and the rest of the world
doesn’t understand what we are doing
and chooses to not come along with us
that we have to keep on working
toward achieving Christ’s vision of the future,
of the full inclusion of all humanity.

We need to concentrate on who Jesus Christ is, what Jesus Christ did,
apply the lessons that he taught.
Jesus is our best textbook
for becoming the New Community of God.
When I don’t know what to do as a pastor
I ask myself, “What would Jesus do?”
And I often get a very different answer
than the one I had thought about
before I asked myself that question.
How can I break down the walls
that separate people from each other?
How can I cross the barriers
that society has erected to keep people apart?
How can I, through what I do and say,
build up hope for others,
for myself, for my church?

Emerald City MCC Seattle is on a journey
to tear down walls and build up hope.
We are searching for what we believe
God wants us to become.
Some have decided to abandon the journey
and have left us,
others, however, have renewed themselves
and joined in the effort with us.
God has blessed uswith a vision
of the future of our church that is incredible!
We can become the New Community of God
built upon faith and hope and caring
…a community that Jesus will be proud of
and says represents exactly
what he was talking about.
Yes, it will be tough.
Yes, it will not happen overnight,
but if we keep our eyes on that vision
of the future God has planted within us,
we will get there, together with God.

Stanley Jones tells of a missionary
who got lost in an African jungle,
nothing around him but bush
and a few cleared places.
He found a native hut and asked the native
if he could get him out.
The native said he could.

"All right," said the missionary,
"show me the way."

The native said, "Walk,"
so they walked and hacked their way
through unmarked jungle
for more than an hour.

The missionary got worried.
"Are you quite sure this is the way?
Where is the path?"

The native said, "Bwana, in this place
there is no path.
I am the path."

I think that it is here that Peter
has one of his more honest and real moments.
His guard was down
because so many people were leaving Jesus.
They were leaving because, quite frankly,
things were getting a little too tough.
So, Jesus asks the twelve,
are you going to leave me as well?
"Lord, to whom shall we go?" Peter replied,
"You have the words of eternal life.
You are the Holy One of God."
Peter speaks for us all.
Because in this world there is no path.
Peter, you are right.
Jesus is the Path!

What about you, will you desert Christ, too,
now that the going is tough?
Like Peter I pray and hope your answer is:
“Christ, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life. 69
We have come to believe
and to know that you
are the Holy One of God.”

Living Life on God's Terms Romans 8:1-5

Life has a way of changing, sometimes so rapidly that it’s hard for us to keep up. Did you ever wonder as society and culture bring enormous changes economically and socially change into our lives just what your faith response is supposed to be? Where is my place in all of this change? Where is God in all of this? How do we hang on to the important spiritual aspects of our faith but allow almost overwhelming changes to enter in our lives without destroying our faith? What can we do or not do to assure our relationship with God is a good one?

I'm sure the First Century Christians in Rome had many of the same questions that you and I do today. Society was rapidly changing for them, too. Then they get a letter from Preacher Paul that tells them that we all, even Paul, are confused about what is God's will for our lives and that we often fall far short of achieving anything near our goal in faithful matters or actions.

"Good news," Paul says. We don't have to do anything to make sure that we are all right with God, because God has already done that for us through Jesus, God's Child, who came into the world to share with us God's incredible Love and Acceptance.

Listen carefully! Whenever you are down on yourself because you think you have failed God or family or friends or yourself, stop and read what Paul says in the first verse of chapter 8: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!"

Get it? You don't have to feel guilty or depressed because you couldn't live up to the expectations you thought God, friends, family, or you had for yourself. God loves and accepts you exactly the way that you are...warts and all. God loves you and me so much that God forgives us, forgets what we've done to keep God away, embraces us and includes us in God's family giving us the same inheritance as our Big Brother Jesus.

The fact is that though we don’t want to sin, that is do those things that separate us from God, we still do them. We then feel guilty because we couldn’t stop ourselves. In chapter 8 of Romans Paul describes the Christian life as feeling stuck between knowing what to do and not being able to do it. Sometimes it is very difficult to choose the right thing to do, knowing that others will have very strong opinions about our choices and may in fact accuse us of sinning because we did in fact choose the right thing which in their opinion was the wrong thing. You ever ask yourself that question, “How can I be right and still be wrong?” Life is very confusing.

Then in the midst of our confusion along comes Preacher Paul and tells us: “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!” Did you hear that? No condemnation! None! Not now! Not in the future! Not ever! Why? Because God loves you enough to forgive you, to restore you to a full loving relationship with God just like the Father welcomed back the Prodigal Son when he came back home.

That, Paul says, is exactly why Jesus came into our world. Not to show us how we must live in order to receive God’s love. Not to satisfy some weird sense of ancient justice that makes it possible for God to love us only if Christ’s blood is shed. And most definitely not to demand that Jesus be tortured and brutalized so that you and I can feel both guilty and grateful for his sacrifice.

No Jesus came to show us through his life and love how much God already loves us. His example was so extremely out of step with what his ancient society thought was right that they killed him. But through his resurrection we found out that God’s love is more powerful than anything, more powerful than death, more powerful than our sin, more powerful than our confusion and guilt.

That last part is probably the toughest for us to understand and accept: No matter how many times we are told that we’re forgiven, no matter how bravely we act, I believe it’d be a good bet that we all live quiet lives of desperation. What is it about your own life that your regret? What happened to you that you can’t quiet seem to get over? What did you do years ago that you still kick yourself about? Are you and another person at odds with each other? Maybe it’s an old lover, a parent, a sibling, a co-worker?

When I talk with people as their pastor there always seems to be one thing in their life that they regret happening and can’t seem to bring themselves to forgive themselves for, or to move forward in their life because of that past. Even when I’ve worked with someone for months, sometimes years, and I think that they have made progress toward forgiving themselves and moving on, I discover that they are still hurting and haven’t yet found a way to forgive themselves or another.

You’ve got two blank pieces of paper in your bulletin this morning. I want you to use one of those papers to write down that one regret, that one bitter moment, that one broken relationship, that failed attempt in your life to get right with God or another. What is it that keeps you from claiming God’s promises in your life? Take just a moment and write something down.

Now I want you to hear Paul’s words one more time: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.” Get it? No matter what you have done, no matter what others may have told you previously, no matter what you think you believed before today, GOD IS NOT ANGRY WITH YOU! God loves you, forgives you, accepts you just as you are and sets you free to live a life of meaning, purpose, grace and gratitude.

During communion this morning. I want you to take that piece of paper and toss it into this garbage pail. Throw away your regrets, toss out your failures, get rid of all the ancient history that keeps you from claiming God’s love and acceptance for you. I don’t care what it is, God doesn’t care what it is, just get rid of it. Stop letting it have control over your life. Stop wearing your shame and confusion like some snail shell you have to carry around with you everywhere you go. Take it off. Take it all off! Do your own strip-tease this morning and get rid of anything and everything that keeps you from having a real and right relationship with God. As you throw that piece of paper away this morning say to yourself: “There is therefore no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”

Let’s practice saying it together, There is therefore no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.” Now you say it: “There is therefore no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”

When you have finished communion, go back to your seat and take out the second piece of paper and write down what it is that you are now free to do or become because you no longer have that threat of inadequacy and condemnation, of shame and regret hanging over you. What might you dare to do? What challenge will you accept? What act of courage or generosity might you attempt because you know that you are beloved by God whether you succeed or fail?

Then I want you to put that piece of paper in your wallet or your purse and take it with you this week as a living remembrance of God’s promise to be with you and to empower you with God’s Spirit to share God’s love with others you come into contact with at home, at work, at play.

One pastor reports that a neighbor has a sign on his front door that reads: “Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life.” My question to you today is this: “Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life now that there is no condemnation. What will you do now that you are free? What will you do with all the love and grace that God can give you? What will you do….?”

Burning Out or Living Joyfully? Matthew 11:16-19, 28-30

Matthew 11:16-19, 28-30
16 “To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:
17 “‘We played the pipe for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not mourn.’
18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”


Matthew begins the story recorded in chapter 11 with John the Baptist in jail. John sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he really is the messiah: “Are you the one we’ve been waiting for or will another come?”

John is suffering. He’s been imprisoned for his confrontation with the king. He’s facing the death penalty. No doubt he’s depressed and dismayed, especially about Jesus, who he announced to all as the messiah they had been waiting for who would bring scorching justice to the world and turn the world upside down making things radically right. But Jesus has come with a different sense of justice and of what life means in the New Community of God that doesn’t include the blazing actions of justice that John expected.

What do you do when God doesn’t answer your prayers the way you think God should answer them? Do you despair and give up hope? That’s what’s happened to John, I think.

Jesus says to John’s disciples. Reassure John, God is at work just as you expected. "Go back and tell John what's going on: The blind see, The lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side. If that is what you were expecting? Then count yourselves most blessed!"

Jesus goes on to praise John as the prophet foretold in the scriptures who would blaze a pathway for the messiah. People followed John out into the desert to hear his preaching and to repent of their sins and turn their lives back toward God. John came with a message and a manner that caused many to think of him as simply a wild-man, a joke, someone who was too strict and too limited in his outlook on life. He called people to fast and to give up their wealth and ease and get serious about living life as God’s word ordered. Seemingly there is little joy in John’s outlook.

Then Jesus says that the people are being very childish as opposed to childlike. Yes, we all need to have faith like a child in God, but none of us need to act like a selfish child in carrying out our faithful words and actions. Both Jesus and John are criticized by the people and the religious leaders. John is said to be too restraining, Jesus too liberal.

So Jesus tells the parable of the children. Children in that society, like our own, would make the celebrative situations of their society into play-games, especially make-believe weddings and funerals. Some see here gender differences as well as children’s behavior. The boys would play the flute and dance as men were expected to do at weddings in their society. The girls would play at weeping and screaming in grief like women did at funerals. But when the boys wanted to play wedding the girls wanted to play funeral. When the girls wanted to play funeral, the boys refused and wanted to play wedding. Nobody could agree on what to play. And so there was little joy.

Jesus says that the people couldn’t accept his style of ministry anymore than they could accept John’s. They say that Jesus drank too much wine. He eats too much. He goes to too many parties. He hangs out with the wrong kind of people. He doesn’t break the rules, but he stretches those rules so near to the breaking point they might as well be broken. Such was the criticism of Jesus. John’s interpretation of scripture was too strict. Jesus too liberal. John wanted everyone to weep and repent and give up all the luxuries of life. Jesus wanted people to celebrate God with joy! Both Jesus and John were rejected by society. No one therefore gave either of them or their message the real consideration demanded.

Jesus identifies his ministry and message with John’s, but there are important differences. Where John’s restrictive style belongs to the waiting period before the messiah comes, Jesus’ celebrative style belongs to the time of fulfillment when the messiah has already arrived. The time for the funeral is over. It’s time to celebrate. Let’s have a wedding, a party of joy and hope! Enjoy the life that God has blessed you with! Enjoy God’s presence in your life! Celebrate God’s power and activity in your life! Look for the good. See the blessings! Take a new perspective on life!

Jesus isn’t just fond of dinner parties, he employs the concept of the final dinner party when all the world’s people come to celebrate with God in the great dinner party that will usher in God’s New Community. No one will be left out of that party. So, Jesus says, let’s begin the party now! Why? Because God is here now! Emmanuel. God with us! The Messiah has come to be with all people. Why weep any longer?

Jesus even employs the dinner party of joy and celebration when he institutes what we call the Eucharist, what we usually refer to as communion. The word Eucharist means “Thanksgiving” and needs to retain the grand sense of joy which then makes sense of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Too often we approach communion as if we are at a funeral remembering the life and death of a dear beloved family member who will no longer be with us. We like playing funeral. We think it should be quiet and reflective and we frown at those who make unnecessary noise and talk during communion. But is that what Jesus really wanted us to do? Wasn’t it supposed to be more like a celebration of the resurrection, of the return to life of the beloved child of God? “Remember me” he said to them. But are we to remember him dead and gone, or alive and present with us now? Crucified or resurrected? I submit to you that for far too many years most of us have concentrated on the death and we have forgotten the resurrection. We remember Jesus dead and on the cross instead of alive and living, present with us even today as the living spirit of God among us. It’s time to stop playing funeral and start the celebration! Emmanuel! God is with us!

Jesus is a realist. He understands that it is hard for us to live the life of God’s New Community with the kind of joy we should when we face so much that brings us down in life. He criticizes the Pharisees and religious lawyers for making the law too oppressive and restrictive. They think he is abusing the law because he doesn’t approach it with the same so-called honor and respect that they believe they give it. Instead Jesus is saying the evidence of God’s law is not seen in the keeping of the rules, but is seen in the compassion and mercy that one practices which results in life improvements for all people and not just a few. When he condemns the cities he has visited in his ministry in this passage, Jesus cannot believe that people are missing the significance of the miracles of life that are happening all around them and are instead concentrating on the strict interpretation of the law. Open your eyes and see. Open your ears and hear! You are missing what God is doing!

Remember that the Pharisees and Sadducees and religious lawyers have come up with 613 separate rules that everyone has to keep in order to prove that he or she is really a child of God. If you don’t keep all 613 rules exactly as they say you should keep them, then they believe you are not accepted by God. It’s an oppressive viewpoint and totally misses the point of why God instituted such laws to start with. The law was to be a guide to life, not an end unto itself.

Jesus says that they have made the law so oppressive that it has become an unbearable weight dragging people down to death instead of helping them live life with joy. Jesus then tells us that his burden is light and his yoke is easy.

Most of us don’t know what a yoke is. It was a neck piece made of wood hung around the neck of a animal or slave to which cords or rope were strung allowing one to pull a load more easily. It was an instrument of work, that could become oppressive if the load you had to pull was too heavy.

However, Jesus invites us to share his yoke. What does that mean? When you had a new young ox it didn’t know how to pull a load automatically. You had to train it. One of the best ways to train a young ox was to yoke it with a double yoke next to an experienced and older oxen. The yoke would look real funny, one side enormous for the older ox, the other side small for the younger ox. The older ox would do most of the work, the younger ox would help pull the load, and while pulling alongside the older ox would learn when to move and how to move to make the best use of the yoke and their combined strength. Jesus is saying, come alongside of me, wear the training yoke, learn how I move as I move, learn how I talk as I talk, learn how I walk through life as you walk with me. Do it with me. You are not alone. I will share my strength and my wisdom with you and you will find the burden to not be so terrible, but to be one we can share together and celebrate the accomplishments we achieve together.

If you study the scriptures you will realize that this portion of Matthew is actually a discourse on wisdom. Jesus is contrasting the viewpoint that keeping the law is not all demand and restriction, but a lightness of being, like the wise woman in Proverbs 8 and 9 who invites people to come to her free feast, or Isaiah 55 with its call to share free food. It’s a call to learn a new way of relating to God and applying what you learn to living life as it should be. God’s law was seen as peacemaking, as relieving the thirst and feeding hungry souls.

In the following passages from Matthew we see Jesus confronting the issue of how to keep the Sabbath. Can you heal a person on the Sabbath? Can you pick a handful of wheat and eat it on the Sabbath as you walk through a wheat field? Jesus tells us that the Sabbath, like the law, was made for people, and not the other way around. It is the person who is most important, and not the law. The law is to help us live faithfully, not to cause us to stumble and fall.

Jesus always interprets the law by focusing on compassion and mercy. Hosea 6:6 says, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” The promise is not heaven some day, but real joy today, real rest and assurance today, not in the time to come. With such a sense of rest we can turn our attention toward that which really matters: people.

Listen to me. It's summer time! We've had a whirlwind time at PRIDE! Some of us are exhausted and worn out. We've kept ourselves so busy getting ready for PRIDE and doing PRIDE that some of us forgot to have fun at PRIDE! Too many of us are on the verge of 'burn-out.' We've given and given and given until we have little left to give. That makes us critical about others who we think should be more involved than they are and who we believe should be willing to give more time and effort than they do. "Why can't they be more like us," we wonder. But do we really want them to feel the same way that we do? Burned out and negative?

As your pastor, I want you to get some rest, to enjoy some time-off from church responsibilities for the next few weeks. Take a walk in the park, smell the roses. Oh, I still want to see you in worship, of course! I want us to keep up our friendships and community going full-speed with each other. But most importantly, I want you to enjoy just being you and doing the things that give you refreshment and renewal in your life. I want you to get all charged up and energized for the exciting future that God has placed ahead of us as a community of faith.

Remember today’s scripture. Let me read it to you from The Message: "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." (Matthew 11:28-30)

It's good advice from Jesus. Let's all try to follow it! I suggest you try following it this week.

The Strip Tease: Take It Off! Take It All Off! Living Without Shame! John 8:1-11

This is the 4th Sermon of PRIDE 2011. I preached it at my church on June 19. It will also be preached at the Seattle PRIDE Community Worship Service on Saturday, June 25.

(Pink shirt and blue breast cancer tie hanging on front of pulpit)

This is my shirt of shame. It’s a gorgeous pink cotton dress shirt that I used to get particular pleasure out of wearing. I bought it a couple of years ago for Easter and have also used it to wear on days when I want to support women who have or who have survived breast cancer. I used to think I looked great in pink! I even got this nice Breast Cancer tie with the little pink ribbons across the blue background to wear with it.

A couple of months ago I wore the shirt to my retail job at Penney’s in Bellevue Square to celebrate my own sister’s 18th year of breast cancer survival. It turned out to not be a great day. One of the other employees decided to be difficult. Thought I tried to be patient and understanding and reflect Christ’s treatment of others in my supervisory capacity after repeated incidents with her, I had had enough and I spoke rather harshly to her. Now, I really don’t need this microphone, my voice booms out across rooms and people literally jerk their heads around to see whose talking. It used to be very useful when I needed to quiet down an auditorium of noisy children in public school. So, of course, everyone heard me tell the young lady that I was in charge and we would do things my way.

A customer who this saleslady was helping, but who had not heard what my co-worker had repeatedly said to me, only what I said to her, decided to come to the young lady’s defense and confront me in front of everyone present. In short, she said that she was tired of men attacking women verbally and that she wanted me to know that she was particularly displeased with my behavior. That would have been okay. I wasn’t very proud of myself. But then she finished, “You are nothing but a fat old man in a gay pink shirt!” I turned to her and said, “Cheap shot, lady.” To which she responded, “Yeah, well, you’re still nothing but a fat old man in a gay pink shirt.”

The rest of the evening I found myself wondering, is that the way everyone is seeing me: Just a fat old man in a gay pink shirt? It really didn’t do any good for others that evening to tell me how much they appreciated my wearing the pink shirt and tie to support those with breast cancer. All that I could think about was other people looking at me wearing a pink shirt and snickering because I was gay. It shouldn’t have bothered me: I am totally out at work, and everywhere else in life, about my being gay and my partner works at the same store. It’s not like my being gay is a secret.

But the confrontation with this woman psychologically took me back to my middle school and high school years when other students ridiculed me for being gay. It made me remember being threatened with physical violence just because I was gay. It reminded me of the times so-called Christian authorities had tried to tell me how unacceptable I was to God because I was gay. I spent a sleepless night reliving the incident over and over again. It was so traumatic for me that I stopped wearing my gorgeous pink shirt. I haven’t worn it to work since then.

My humiliation that day pales in comparison to what happened to the woman in the scripture passage I read to you. She is dragged before Jesus and thrown down in the Temple Court where he is teaching, charged with adultery, caught red-handed in the very act. They demand that Jesus make a judgment on the woman based on the Law of Moses which said that persons caught in such situations should be killed. They even have the stones ready to carry out the sentence upon his ruling.

At my church we have “Talk Back Time” during my sermons during which I ask people for their opinions and thoughts. So let me ask you today, “What’s wrong with the situation in today’s scripture?”

(The man she committed adultery with is missing.)

Yes, where is the man? You can’t commit adultery without a sexual partner.

Do you have any thoughts on why they didn’t bring the man for judgment and condemn him, too?

(Congregation offers thoughts.)

Some have suggested that the situation was a set up both for the woman and for Jesus. They conspired together to trap the woman in a questionable situation so that they could in turn trap Jesus into doing or saying something that they could use against him.

It’s the classic no-win situation for Jesus.
If he says that the woman is guilty and should be killed according to the law then they can make charges against him to the Roman authorities who were in charge of the law and government of the land since the Roman government only could condemn anyone to death. But if Jesus didn’t condemn her then they could incite a riot against him with the people because he refused to uphold their own Religious Law. They reasoned that they had Jesus over a barrel and there was not much he could do about it.

However, they were looking at things the way most of us look at things: right or wrong, yes or no, as if there were only two options Jesus could take. But Jesus, in the creative love of God, surprises them by taking a totally unexpected option. He doesn’t answer them. Even though they have set him up as judge over the woman he turns the question upon them.

Jesus bends down and writes something in the dust. While he is writing they keep shouting and demanding that he answer them. Listen, friend, when things get rough and people start yelling and screaming at you the best response is to attempt to slow the situation down and help people think things through calmly. That’s what Jesus does. I can’t help but wonder what he wrote. Some think he wrote a list of sins the men might have committed. I think he probably wrote the very law of Moses regarding the situation from Leviticus.
Which is where they misquoted their charges against the woman. For there it says that both the man and the woman should be killed.

They have set this up like a court, so Jesus the judge of this court, calls for witnesses when he says “Let the one who is without sin throw the first stone.” From what I understand, it is the one who witnessed the crime and reported it to the authorities that should throw the first stone. So who witnessed this crime? Well, I submit it was the person who set the situation up to trap the poor lady. To admit that you were present while the crime was being committed was essentially to say that you were the male figure who sinned along with the woman. Which is to say that you also deserved to be killed.

The concern of the legal experts and the Phraisees is not for the woman caught in sin, nor even for Jesus. It is to uphold their own understanding of their scriptures which Jesus is turning upside down by ministering to and accepting people they thought were outside of God’s love. Jesus the friend of the leper, the widows, the orphans, the hated tax-collector, the handicapped and ill, is hanging out with all the people they think are unloved and unwanted by God.

This poor woman is probably a widow, may have had children she was responsible for providing food and life. In that society a widow had no rights, could own no property, and if she did not have family that would take her in she was left to fend for herself and her children out on the street. Essentially she was homeless, living off of the handouts of others.

Forced into prostitution to provide for herself and her children she was the perfect foil for the Pharisees and lawyers to use to trap Jesus. They had no problem with heaping shame upon her and using her as a weapon against Jesus because they thought her beneath them for she was already condemned by God for her sinfulness or she wouldn’t be a widow and she wouldn’t be out on the street. God had already pronounced God’s rejection of her according to their way of thinking. Why not use her just like others had used her, for their own purposes and desires. And they thought they were men of God.

After issuing his demand that the ones who witnessed the crime should be the ones who throw the first stone, Jesus writes in the dust again. By now they have read whatever it was he wrote first and they have begun to understand that in responding to his question they may be convicting themselves.

What did Jesus write next? I would like to think that he wrote from Deuteronomy which says that you should not bear false witness against another. If the situation was a set up in which they have trapped this poor lady then they would be bearing false witness against her and according to the scripture they would be condemned with the death penalty also. Oops, perhaps they forgot about that one.

There is something else going on here that many people miss. Jesus is making a statement about who he is and with what authority he is speaking. Jewish tradition and the scripture says that God wrote the Law given to Moses with God’s own finger in the stone. So Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, writes with his finger the same law in the dust of the ground. I believe that would have infuriated the legal experts even more, leaving them beside themselves and enraged with anger, but unable to respond to the very situation they had set up, but which Jesus now owns completely.

One by one the men leave beginning with the oldest, also significant in their law because it is the oldest, the elders of the community, who were charged with carrying out the punishment of any crime. The wiser and older men see that the trap they set for Jesus has now been sprung on them and they depart before they can be implicated and accused as bearing false witness or worse.

Soon, Jesus is left with the woman to whom he says, “Where are those who condemned you?”

She responds, “There is no one who condemns me.” And she was right. There was no one left to condemn her. The only one left with her was Jesus, Jesus who did not condemn her, but who wanted her to live life without shame or condemnation. So he says to her, “Go and do not sin.” He does not list rules for her to follow. He does not extract a promise from her to never sin again. He does not tell her that she should avoid prostitution in the future, nor does he give her any particular advice about how to live her life. He just says, “do not sin,” which means to me to not do anything that separates you from the love of God.

You and I have a problem. We let other people and our own circumstances separate us from the love of God in Christ. We let the shame we feel about the way other people tell us we should live, act, talk, and walk and believe take control of our lives and paralyze us from being the person God created us to be.

The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

It’s time that you and I realize that we need to get rid of the shame that controls our lives and live in the love of God in Christ. It’s time to take it off, take it all off!

(Bawdy music begins. Strip Tease. Remove Coat, Tie, and shirt.)

(Music stops as I pick up pink shirt and blue tie. Put shirt and tie back on as sermon continues.)

I told you that I had been unable to wear this gorgeous pink shirt because of what the woman said to me and the shame I felt at what she said. Well, I’m getting rid of the shame today and putting on my gay pink shirt. I can’t do much about the fat old man part, but I can be proud of who I am, of who God created me to be and put back on the shirt I had been proud to wear, proud to declare my support of women who suffered from cancer, proud to be OUT about who I am and not afraid for all the world to know.

When other people twist the words of the Bible to condemn you and make you feel unworthy of God’s love and acceptance you remember this story in which Jesus gave a woman back her pride in herself and let her know that she was not a reject, for God in Christ loved her and lifted her up to begin again.

God can do the same thing for you if you will do your own strip tease today, get rid of the shame, take it off, take it all off, and begin to live in the love of God. There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

It's Not About the Rules Mark 7:1-23 PRIDE WEEK 3

“It’s Not About the Rules” by Rev. Ray Neal

This is one of four sermons being preached this year during PRIDE in Seattle. The first three are 'repeats' of PRIDE sermons from previous years rewritted and updated. The fourth will be an original and new sermon just for PRIDE 2011.

Have you seen the announcement that Fred Phelps and his congregation will be protesting the PRIDE Parade here in Seattle on June 26? You do know who they are don’t you? I won’t go into a long description of their beliefs or their past history, but they have caused much distress and dissention due to their frequent protests at anything they believe supports or defends homosexual behavior. You may remember seeing their signs in news reports: God hates Fags! But, do remember, Fred Phelps and his family see themselves as the good guys, as on the side of God.

With that thought in mind, I want to start off by saying that there are no bad guys in Mark 7:1-24. The Pharisees and the Lawyers that confront Jesus about the behavior of his disciples do so from the stand point of their own deep belief in God and their desire to live godly lives according to their own history and traditions. They don’t know anything different than what they have learned and been taught. They haven’t had their minds and hearts opened to the revelation that perhaps there is more to being a godly person than they have ever imagined.

It is truly frustrating to work with fundamentalist type religious persons, especially when it comes to interpreting scripture and applying scripture to the way we live and worship today. I doubt it was any different for Jesus in his day.

A fundamentalist will tell you that there is only one way to interpret a particular passage of scripture…his or her way, of course…and that their own interpretation is based on a literal reading of the scripture passage in question and 2,000 years of Christian practice and application…though they offer no research as to how they came to that conclusion.

They make it sound like they have all the answers and that anyone that questions how Christianity has, in their viewpoint, historically interpreted scripture and believed about God and what God desires all of us to do—that anyone that questions that so-called ‘historical’ truth, must therefore be evil and in direct league with Satan or so seduced by evil that they don’t even know they are wrong. As I related to you last week, I’ve been accused of being demon possessed more than once because I had a different opinion from what I was told was the standard, operating procedure for all Christians, including me, whether I believed it or not. Of course, that always means that they think I must believe it their way.

When one points out to them that Christian history is full of many different ways of believing and interpreting, hence our different denominations, they will tell you that they, uniquely, are the only ones with the absolute truth as revealed to them by God. Everyone else is out of the will of God. The same thing the Pharisees felt about themselves compared to Jesus.

The most frustrating thing about dealing with these fundamentalist types is that they aren’t open to examining the scriptures any differently than they have already decided, nor in discussing any options in interpretation except for their own. They are not interested in your helping them to discover any new revelation about their own set of beliefs and applications of those beliefs to how they live, or more importantly to how they think you should live. In their way of thinking anyone who opposes them or offers a different interpretation of the scriptures must be in league with the devil and therefore they don’t have to respect you, or listen to you, or do much of anything with you, except to condemn you, because in their way of thinking, you are not even a Christian.

As an example of this kind of thinking let me introduce you to pastor Steven L. Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist church in Tempe, AZ, who said from his own pulpit less in July 2009, “The biggest hypocrite in the world is the person who believes in the death penalty for murderers and not for homosexuals. The same God who instituted the death penalty for murderers is the same God who instituted the death penalty for rapists and for homosexuals - sodomites, queers! That’s what it was instituted for, okay? That’s God, he hasn’t changed. Oh, God doesn’t feel that way in the New Testament … God never “felt” anything about it, he commanded it and said they should be taken out and killed.”

And that’s just one example; there are plenty more.

Over the years I have found that it isn’t worth my time or effort to argue with such persons. You won’t be able to change their opinion or their interpretations of scripture. I am willing to tell them what I believe, how I read and interpret the same passage of scripture, but I will only discuss it politely and respectfully and lovingly with then, and when they start arguing with me, or condemning me to hell and calling me a demon…because of my different way of thinking from them…then the conversation is over. I will turn my attention toward those who are willing to investigate a different way of thinking and believing. Jesus takes this same approach in dealing with the Pharisees.

These Pharisees from the local synagogues in Galilee where Jesus has his ministry headquarters are very interested in what Jesus has to say and how he and his disciples are living their lives. So they have been following them around, suspiciously listening to what Jesus teaches, seeing the miracles Jesus performs, and seeking evidence for whether he is from God by how he and his disciples conduct their everyday living.

They think that if Jesus is truly from God then the evidence of that will be reflected in how the disciples live. And they are right about that. The evidence of whether you are truly a child of God will be reflected in the way you live your life, the way you speak to other people and care for them. It’s that simple.

However, there are problems with the assumption that we reflect our godliness in our behavior. The Pharisees and lawyers are only looking for the evidence of outward behavior that is consistent with their own belief system and traditions which tell them that people who believe in and serve God will only act in particular ways, and that they will do certain things at certain times in certain ways, and if they don’t, then they conclude that those aren’t very godly persons.

That’s well and good if everyone agrees on what those things are. But as we have seen in our own time not everyone agrees. Some of us believe very differently about what it means to love God and live according to God’s Will and Way.

Hence here in Washington State we faced Referendum 71 in the last election year which was designed to cancel the law passed by the legislature and signed by the governor that gave domestic partners all the rights and responsibilities of marriage without the name. Why? Because there were those who believed that God demands that they call you and me evil because of who we love and they did not believe we need what they called ‘special rights’ and what you and I call ‘equal rights.’ Luckily, we won that political battle at the polls and the Domestic Partner Law was retained as it was written. We don’t have equality regarding marriage rights in Washington, but we do have equity. And that is a step in the right direction.

On this particular day in the scripture story the Pharisees are joined by religious lawyers from Jerusalem, probably also belonging to the Pharisees. Jesus is a threat to their power and their influence which they believe comes directly from God through the traditions and scriptures handed down to them from their ancestor Moses. Remember: They see themselves as the good guys on the side of God.

They attack Jesus’ disciples because the boys did not follow the traditions of preparing and eating a meal correctly, nor did they wash their hands in the ritual manner that was required by tradition in order to reflect the truth of God’s presence in your life. Moses said that God is holy and therefore we should be holy. To the Pharisees, that meant doing things in very particular ways and order so that you could honor God the proper way. They had a whole list of things, more than 600 rules, that they had decided people had to keep and do to build a protective fence around their lives that would remind them that God was holy and that God demanded that they be holy also.

Some of these rituals were quite complex. Some were extremely expensive to carry out. The requirements to wash your hands, to prepare food in a certain way, to only use certain kinds of pots and pans and other utensils, which also had to be washed and prepared in particular ways, were more than most poor people could afford.

Many of the disciples and most of the crowds that surrounded Jesus are from what would we would call the lower economic class of their time and therefore they couldn’t afford to follow the prescriptions for holiness that the Pharisees do. Hence, according to the Pharisees, who don’t make any allowance for your financial ability to follow their traditions, the disciples are not holy or pure, and therefore they are not godly persons. It’s only logical to reach that conclusion if you are a Pharisee or a religious lawyer. There thinking goes something like this: Isn’t it obvious to everyone? What is there to argue about? The evidence is clear. They broke the law. There can be no other interpretation.

That’s when they get surprised by the answer Jesus gives. For Jesus sees things quite differently than they do. He begins by telling them what the prophet Isaiah said: ‘These people mouth all the right words, but their hearts aren’t in it. Their worship is just one big charade. They invent rules to suit themselves and then teach those human made rules as the word of God.’

The issue Jesus is attacking is this long list of rules that the religious leaders have added to the Torah, their scripture. Think of this way: Our church has a set of bylaws that govern our way of operating. There are lots of things stated in the bylaws, but often those bylaws are open to wide variations in interpretation and application. So our church has established a set of SOPs: Standard Operating Procedures which tell us how to apply those bylaws to governing ourselves as a congregation. Those are our traditions. The traditions of the Jewish people are their SOPs for following and applying the Torah.

Jesus is saying that sometimes those 600+ SOPs aren’t really consistent with the Torah and may in fact be contrary to the real truth that God wanted them to know and do. In fact they have taken some of those SOPs and made them of higher authority than the scriptures they were meant to interpret and apply.

In verses 9-12 of chapter 7 of Mark’s gospel Jesus brings up how they interpret and apply the Torah’s commandment to love your parents. The Torah clearly commands that you to care for your elderly parents out of your own wealth and income when they are no longer able to provide for themselves. But the SOPs said that if you pledged your wealth to the Temple, which is to God, in other words, you wrote a will that said when you died all your wealth would go to the Temple, then you were no longer obligated to use your wealth and income to care for your elderly parents. Your parents and your responsibilities to them could be religiously and legally ignored.

This is why Jesus says: “At the end of the day, you are more concerned about your own rules and traditions than you are about what God actually wants of people.”

What does God want of us? Well the scripture passage from James 1:17-27 (from today’s lectionary) gave us a good understanding of that. The author of James was telling us how to be and live as Christians.

Jesus elaborated on that many times. In Matthew 23 he told the Pharisees and Lawyers: “You have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced these, without neglecting the rest.”

Jesus is referring to Zechariah 7 which reads, “This is what God Almighty says, ‘Administer true justice, show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’”

Jesus often used these SOP’s, the Holiness and Purity Codes, for shock effect. When Jesus told his followers that they had to ‘eat his body and drink his blood’ it was extremely offensive to them for those two items to be in the same sentence much less the idea of having both items together in a meal. That was completely against their holiness and purity codes, especially those that dealt with kosher eating.

Jesus knows how important the kosher rules were and he uses those rules now to teach his lesson. He doesn’t argue with the Pharisees and lawyers. He knows he isn’t going to change their understanding or opinions. So he turns away from them and to the crowd gathered around him, full of the widows and the orphans of society, those people living on the edge of respectability and acceptability. The great ‘unwashed’ as some have said, those people that the Pharisees and lawyers would not hang around with for fear of the filth rubbing off on them from the people they considered beneath them and outside of God’s love and acceptance.

Jesus says, not so politely, “The things that really pollute people are not the things they put into their mouths, but the muck that spews out from within them. If you are looking for the cause of evil, look inside of yourselves. Evil intentions are conceived in the human heart, every one of them.”

Mind you, you could read another four-letter word for excrement in place of muck if you wanted to and you would be closer to the way Jesus said it that day in his own language.

Using the idea of the kosher food laws he tells them that it isn’t what they put into themselves that keeps them holy, but what proceeds from their very hearts, from their souls, that is the proof of their godliness. The presence of God living within them will be proven by what they do, and what they say, especially in regard to how they relate to other people, even those that they consider to be out of God’s grace and blessing, the poor, the widow, the outcast, the prostitute, the sick.

Jesus keeps proving to the Pharisees and the religious lawyers exactly what he is talking about through the miracles he performs and the people he cares for.

They bring him a prostitute they expect him to condemn to death according their rules and laws, but instead they find him giving her forgiveness and shaming them. He heals the blind and the handicapped, the sick and the lepers, all of whom they believe are the way they are because of sinfulness and evil in their lives. But Jesus tells them that they are wrong about that and by healing these people Jesus proves that there is no sin in their lives, nothing that keeps them from the blessings of God. The holiness code said you can’t touch a dead body, but Jesus resurrects a young girl by touching her body and becoming unclean himself as he resurrects her to new life. These are amazing sermons in action!

Jesus is constantly calling into question the Holiness and Purity Codes and telling everyone that it isn’t the rules that are important, but how much they love God, and how much they demonstrate that love by loving others.

Why are the fundamentalists so upset with us today regarding marriage equality? Because we are calling into question their interpretation of modern day holiness and purity codes. They are trying to uphold their understanding of what it means to be a godly person, a godly society. And so are we!

They say that we can’t possibly be holy because we are so far out of line with what they believe a person who is a Christian could be like that we must be demon possessed to even believe we are Christian. We are not living up to their ideal of what their holiness and purity code tells them a Christian is supposed to be. According to them we are defiled and filthy because of whom we love and how we love them. In this way of thinking they aren’t much different than the Pharisees and the religious lawyers of Jesus’ day.

During this month when we celebrate our PRIDE in who we are and how we were created, I proudly say, “I am a Christian. I am gay. I am deeply in love with my partner Mark. God is blessing our relationship. There is nothing about our relationship that is evil or sinful. I will not be shamed by anyone who believes otherwise. I will work for justice and equality for all persons regardless of what anyone else believes.”

As Queer Christians we must stand up for what we believe in--not just about marriage equality, but about all the justice and mercy issues that cause people to be pushed to the edges of our society.

Homelessness is a problem. Many in our own congregations have experienced homelessness or are currently living in transitional housing. Some of us live with the threat of returning to homelessness. What are we as a churches doing about homelessness? Are we blaming the victim for their circumstances he or she is in, or are we helping people to new life and hope? I had the vision when I came to be your pastor and learned about the critical homeless problem for our LGBTQ community here in Seattle, but what would happen if we found the funds through grants and donations to open homes for homeless gay and lesbian and transgender persons where they could live without fear of hatred or misunderstanding or violence? Could we help people get off the streets and into good jobs and their own homes by teaching them the skills they need to get jobs, by providing them with social service help to wind their way through the red tape governmental agencies seem to use to prevent them from getting the help they need?

Believe me when I say that I am exhausted and frustrated with trying to get through all the red tape to simply find out how to help someone in our current system dealing with homelessness. How do you think the homeless person feels about having to navigate this seemingly hopeless system? A very large number of those living on the streets are LGBT persons. 40% or more of homeless youth are known to be LGBT youth in the Seattle area alone. Where do we begin to help with this problem?

What about those living with AIDS and HIV? What can we do to make sure that our modern day society does not treat such persons like the lepers of Jesus day were treated? How can our church get involved in ongoing projects and actions that call society to act to treat and heal this disease? Tom will tell you about how he is involved with Shanti anytime you want to ask him.

What about the Transgender? How can we help ourselves and our society understand Transgender persons and come to love and accept them as just another normal variation of the beautiful human Rainbow Creation God has created? Let’s start by going to the Gender Odyssey conference in September here in Seattle and sharing our presence at our information table. Will you volunteer to sit at the table with me and talk about our church to Trans persons?

Perhaps you have your own problems with accepting people that you believe are outside of God’s holiness and purity. Who would that be? Who is it that calls into question for you the issues of whether they are or aren’t in relationship with God because of who they are or what they do, or how they think, or what language they speak, or what religion they profess, or what political party or persuasion they belong to? We all have people we think fall outside of God’s grace and holiness.

The question we have to ask ourselves today is what are we going to do about it? Are we going to reexamine our thinking and our beliefs like Jesus challenged the Pharisees and the lawyers to do in order to get ourselves closer to what God wants, or are we going to ignore Christ’s challenge and stay put behind the fence we have erected to protect our own thinking, our own beliefs, our own way of living regardless of what God wants from us?

Listen to me, while I lovingly tell you that this is especially true about life within our own congregation. Look around you! Who is it that you don’t want to be a part of our community life in this church? Who do you have trouble relating to because of his or her being so very different from you? We cannot become the Body of Christ if we are divided and angry and upset with each other.

I started this sermon off by saying that the Pharisees weren’t the bad guys. There are also no bad guys or gals in your church, unless you’re talking about a very different subject than what I am this morning. Mother Teresa put it this way: “Keep in mind that our community is not composed of those who are already saints, but of those who are trying to become saints. Therefore let us be extremely patient with each other's faults and failures.”

We have to learn how to love each other. We have to learn how to have mercy towards each other. We have to learn how to forgive each other and move away from the past and into the future that God wants to give to you and me and to our church. We can’t get there together if we can’t become the loving, forgiving, welcoming, inclusive Body of Christ that I know God wants us to become.

If we were enrolled in God’s own Holiness College this Fall I think we’d all have to take Christianity 101. Taught by Jesus Christ himself the course guide summarizes the class this way: “Learn how to Love God, Love yourself, and Love each other.” What grade would you like to get this semester? What grade will you get?

"Am I the Older Brother?" Luke 15:11-32

This is the second of four PRIDE sermons for the month of June:

When I went to seminary to prepare for the ministry I looked at all those charming young men and women and decided that if I had been God there were several of them that I wouldn't have called to be ministers under any circumstances. Two years later when I was graduating I shared that memory with a graduating friend who told me, "Yes, Ray, I had the same thoughts, and you were one of the people that I wouldn't have called to be a minister."

His statement shocked me. I had thought I was one of the in-crowd as far as God was concerned. But now another person was telling me that perhaps I shouldn't be so sure, that maybe I could be mistaken about God wanting me to be a Christian minister. However, I was sure that my intentions were in line with God's desires for my life, regardless of what anyone else had to say about the matter.

A man overheard me speaking to a friend at the West Towne Knoxville Mall one day about a sermon I was to give that weekend at Metropolitan Community Church of Knoxville. "So you are a minister?" he asked. "Yes," I answered, in part regretting the beginning of a conversation I knew was probably going to be difficult because I had already pegged him as a right wing fundamentalist Christian. You’ve heard of gaydar. I’ve got fundamentalist radar. He asked what church I belonged to and I told him, which brought up the question of denominational beliefs. I told him that MCC was part of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, founded in 1968 by the Rev. Elder Troy Perry, to minister primarily to the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, and Transgendered community.

Soon we were involved in a discussion of whether or not Queer Persons could even be Christians, since in his viewpoint we were all living lives of sinfulness contrary to the design God had ordered, and of course what the relevant Biblical passages meant, or should I say the seven Biblical passages used to bash you and me.

I must say that I was able to defend my understanding of scriptures, and my work with the GLBT community as a Christian minister, to the admiration of a supportive Christian friend who worked with me and who stood beside me to interfere if the situation turned hostile. An audience of onlookers walking by suddenly circled around us to listen in. However, the other man, declaring that he was a professional Christian evangelist, embarrassed everyone present with his detailed and extremely offensive description of what he believed happened sexually between two men in order to explain how unnatural this was to him. When the crowd showed its displeasure with his statements he then ended his accusation by saying that the only reason he could think of for me not believing exactly the same way that he did was that I was demon possessed, and most, therefore, again, obviously not a Christian, even if the demon had deluded me into believing that I was one.

I’d like to tell you that when I came out to my family that they didn’t believe the very same things this man professed, but I would be lying. When I shared my decision to come out with my sister, who had been raised Southern Baptist, but now a converted and devout Catholic, she burst into tears declaring that she would not see me in heaven when I died. In other words, according to my sister I was no longer a Christian destined for heaven because I was gay. My youngest brother, a fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor, was so appalled by the news that he uninvited me to my nephew's wedding lest, he said, I would use it as an opportunity to promote the so-called gay agenda. I suppose he was afraid I would bring my boyfriend with me to the wedding and he would have to somehow explain that to his congregation.

Did you know that the only gay agenda you can find on the internet is one that Christian Fundamentalists wrote about what they thought our agenda would be if we were to ever write such an agenda? In other words, the so-called Gay Agenda is a fundamentalist Christian lie about us. My brother later asked me to not contact him at all with news about my gay lifestyle, my gay church, or my gay friends. He said all he wanted to hear from me was news about my children, his nieces and nephew. I suppose this was his way of shunning me, a so-called Christian technique of tough love that is anything but loving toward the person to which it is directed.

Even though my father had told others in our familyothers about his dismay at my coming out, when I talked with him he had two important things to say. One was that the only thing I ever did to surprise him was to marry a woman after I graduated from college. In other words, my father already knew I was gay when I was a teenager and a college student. Secondly, he said that he only wanted agape love, God’s kind of love, between the two of us, and that everything else was unimportant. So far my father has kept his word about what he wanted from our relationship.
Yes, much of this family conflict on coming out as a gay man was extremely distressing, but I had the advantage of knowing that my belief in God in Christ was sure and real and that God loved me just the way I was because God had made created me exactly the way I was. I had worked through the theology for myself over many years. That doesn't mean it was easy, just that I had a firm foundation of faith upon which to build my new life as a totally out gay man.

I know the agony that others go through when they have come out to their Christian families and churches and have been met with hostility and rejection. I was privileged to hear Justin Ryan a young gay Christian musician in concert at MCC Knoxville a few years ago. Justin related how, at the age of seventeen, he had been thrown out of his home by his parents when he told them that he was gay. Justin ended up on the street, but thankfully, in his small town of Paducah, KY, there is a Metropolitan Community Church which cared for Justin and gave him a place to stay and helped him to rebuild his life. He also had the influence of some amazing musical personalities that didn’t care whether he was gay or not. They loved Ryan just the way he was, just the way God created him.

Throwing out your child is another form of the so-called tough love that some fundamentalist Christians suggest parents of teenagers and young adults should take. I think it’s pure and simple child abuse. I personally can't understand tossing my own child out on to the street with no means of financial support at such a young age to face exploitation and physical abuse. I find no justification for such parental action anywhere in the New Testament. In fact, given the story of the Prodigal Son, perhaps we should re-title it the story of the Prodigal Father, because this dad does an extremely extravagant loving thing in welcoming home his wayward child and giving him back all the family rights he enjoyed before he ran away.

There is a crisis of homelessness among gay teens and young adults because of this kind of tough love which leaves vulnerable boys and girls out on the streets where they become victims of crime, drugs, and exploitation by unscrupulous men and women. Gay and lesbian and trans youth make up 4 to 10% of the population nationally but they are 20% or more of the homeless youth in our nation. In Seattle that is often as high as 40% or more according to those I talk to who work with homeless youth here in our city. There is also an epidemic of suicide among Queer and Questioning teens as we have witnessed this past year and which resulted in the “It Gets Better” Campaign.

I have witnessed churches tell young people that they cannot sing in a choir, be part of a youth group, serve on the drama team, usher, help with the children’s programming, or be part of a youth Bible study, not because they admitted they were gay or lesbian, but because they appeared to be gay or lesbian by the way they talked, or acted, or by the clothing they wore. If you don’t fit into their narrow definition of acceptability then you must be outside of God’s will for your life, a dangerous influence that must be eliminated.

If you don’t think that happens, if you think I may be exaggerating the situation, then I’ve got some distressing news for you. I have sat on church boards and pastored churches where those exact discussions took place, “Pastor Ray, we’ve got to eliminate this dangerous influence to our youth!” That meant they would shun the young person they thought to be the dangerous influence, when they should have been reaching out in love and mercy to care for that troubled child, not heap more stress and cruelty upon him or her. If you know my personal story, then you know I got up one day in the middle of one of those kind of meetings and walked away from the senior pastorate of a church. I could not be a part of a congregation that treated people like throwaway containers, worthless and hopeless.

I have witnessed adults being told that they could not serve in any leadership position in the church because they were out about being gay. The message that comes across is, “If you are gay, then just don’t talk about it. As long as you are in the closet you can continue to be a leader in our church or a minister in our denomination.” However that kind of logic is contrary to the teachings of the church about truthfulness, honesty, and accepting others with Christ’s kind of love, especially the outcast and the stranger? Where is so-called Christian hospitality when people are refused communion, refused membership, or refused the ability to minister to others in Lay or Ordained positions just because they are gay or lesbian or transgendered.

That kind of behavior can only be compared to that of the older brother in the story Jesus told about the "Prodigal Son" in Luke 15:11-32. The younger brother asks for his inheritance while his father is still alive, sort of like telling your father that you wish he were dead. But this father unbelievably gives his son the cash and the boy goes off to live life in a far away city. Like most young people he makes some pretty big mistakes. His money runs out and he is left homeless and ends up working on a pig farm, eating what the pigs eat to stay alive. This was the most disgusting job Jesus could have cast him in to make the point of his story. Coming to his senses he decides to go back home and ask his father for a job knowing that his father's workers are treated far better than he is being treated as a hired hand.

But when he is still a long way off, his father, who has been watching for his son to return, sees him and runs to him, embracing him. Even before the young man can say much of anything to his father, the father welcomes him home, not as a worker on his farm, but as his child with all the rights and privileges that go with being the child of the owner, yes, and even full inheritance rights. Nobody hearing the story when Jesus originally told it would have missed that important fact. All of those gifts represented the father’s complete and total acceptance of his son back into the family with all rights and privileges. This is a complete and full welcome home by the father with no reservations and no regrets. The father even orders a celebration so everyone else can rejoice in the return of his son.

However, the older brother finds out about the return of his younger sibling and he refuses to come into the party. Just like he did for the younger son, the father goes out to talk to him to bring him into the party. The older brother states how loyal he has been, how hard he has worked and how his father has never thrown a party for him. Notice the slur against his father when he says, “You didn’t even barbeque a goat for me and my friends.” The father is overjoyed at the return of the lost son, but the older brother doesn't get it. He's more concerned with the fact that though he has remained faithful, as he understands faithfulness, but that he hasn't gotten rewarded for it. The father says to this son, who is being just as stubborn and disappointing in his own way as his younger brother had been previously, “Everything I have is yours.” Jesus doesn't finish the story, but I've always wondered if the older brother stayed outside or decided to go into the party. How do you think Jesus’ story turned out: Talk Back Time.

Our fundamentalist Christian families and friends cannot believe that God loves us the same way God loves them: just as we are. They cannot believe that we get full inheritance rights equal to our brother Jesus and them. We will be in the same heaven that they will be in throughout all of eternity. To God it doesn't matter if you are Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Inter-Sexed, non-sexual, or straight. God already knows what your sexual orientation is because God created you exactly the way you are.

God isn't surprised because you grew up to be gay, lesbian, trans or bi-sexual, or straight. That fact never was a secret to God because God created you the way you are and loved you from before you were in your mother’s womb according to the Bible. And your being queer never was a reason for God to keep you out of a relationship with God. God has established no borders and no boundaries to keep some out and let some in. The Bible clearly tells us that everyone is invited and that the only thing that keeps anyone out of God’s community is their own personal refusal to come in to the banquet.

I saw this past week that the current president of Focus on the Family said in an interview that he believes the fundamentalist right has lost the battle on marriage. The polls are changing in our favor. More and more people accept the idea that marriage equality is for all people. Our laws may lag far behind public opinion, but those laws will ultimately change, too.

James Dobson, Pat Robertson, my brother and sister, and all the others who claim to have a special knowledge from God about gays and lesbians are all like the older brother in the story of Prodigal Son. They can't believe that God welcomes us into God's family and they keep trying to tell us that God wouldn't act that way. And because they can't understand how God could act that way, then they claim that ministries like Metropolitan Community Churches must be demon possessed. It's the only explanation they can come up for why God is acting far differently than they thought God could or would act…running right past them and welcoming you and I into God’s welcome home party.

But now the question is put to us, will we accept that God's house is broader and bigger than we thought it could be? Is there enough room in God's house for me, my Queer brothers and sisters, and for our fundamentalist right-wing brothers and sisters? Will we welcome them into God's house, or will we also be like the older brother in the story and stay outside pouting while the celebration is going on?

It's easy for me to accuse those who condemn me for being gay as modern day Pharisees. I could call them names as easily as they seem to want to call me names. I could condemn them for their non-loving ways as easily as they condemn me for my sexuality. I could refuse to commune with them and refuse to share God's love with them just as easily as they refuse to allow me in their churches or to share Communion with them. But at some point I have to ask myself exactly what is being accomplished by my acting just like them? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I Peter 3:15-16 says, “Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is within you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence.”

God wants me to speak to those who are opposed to my being gay and Christian in love - not in anger. When, like the man who spoke to me in the Mall, I can dialogue honestly with them about my beliefs and my understanding of God's love for everyone, maybe we will make some headway in coming to a point where both sides are more willing to at least listen respectfully to the other side. They may never change the way they believe, but the evidence is that a lot of people are changing the way they think and feel about you and me. I'll never know if I don't try. And I'll never try if I refuse to join the party because they are there.