Lord, What a Bountiful God

Lord, What a Bountiful God
a sermon based on John 6:1-21
given at Palm Bay, FL on July 29, 2012
by Rev. Earl M. Smith

An old prospector came into a saloon in frontier California and ordered a glass of milk with a shot of whiskey in it. While the bartender was fixing his drink, the old prospector wandered over to speak to some of his friends.

Before he came back, a man came in wearing a black threadbare coat. He walked up to the bartender and timidly said, “Sir, I’m a poor traveling Methodist circuit rider. I’ve just made it across the desert. I’m bone dry. Could you let me have that foamy glass of milk I see you’ve just poured?”

“Take the milk,” said the bartender with a twinkle in his eye. “We’re glad to have you in our town. Take that glass of milk and drink it up.”

The preacher drank that milk with the whiskey in it real slow savoring every drop. Then he looked up towards the ceiling and with a smile on his face he declared, “Lord, what a cow!”

Being a United Methodist pastor I love that little piece of humor, but this morning we want to talk for a few moments about the bounteous goodness of God. And we want to say, “Lord, what a bounteous God!”

Our text tells the story of the feeding of the five thousand. It is a marvelous story of God’s provision for human need. The focus is on bread, but the lesson is about all of life.

You know the story well. A multitude of people had come out to hear Jesus teach. Many had probably come hoping for a miracle of healing.

Some came, doubtless, out of curiosity. “How shall we buy bread for all these people?” Jesus asked his disciples. For he knew that though we cannot live by bread alone, we cannot live without bread either. The disciples were able to scrounge up only 200 denarii–not enough to even begin to feed this mob.

Andrew came to the rescue. “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish,” he said, “but what are they among so many?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.”

We experience the bounty of God, first of all, when we take time to sit down.

Mother Theresa once said that the biggest problem facing the world today is not people dying in the streets of Calcutta. She said the biggest problem is what she called “spiritual deprivation.” She described this as a feeling of emptiness associated with feeling separate from God and from all our brothers and sisters on planet Earth.

There are people within the shadows of this church who know about that kind of emptiness.

Nels Ferre once wrote of a Christian missionary convert from Hawaii. This convert spoke on prayer to a seminary audience here on the mainland.

“Before the missionaries came to Hawaii,” she said, “my people used to sit outside their temples for a long time meditating and preparing themselves before entering. Then they would virtually creep to the altar to offer their petition and afterward would again sit a long time outside, this time to ‘breathe life’ into their prayers. The Christians, when they came, just went up, uttered a few sentences, said Amen, and were done. For that reason my people called them haolis, ‘without breath,’ or those who failed to breathe life into their prayers.”

That may be the reason many of us live such barren lives–we rarely set aside time to breathe life into our prayers. We are so busy doing, so caught up in the rat race, so pressed for time, that we have cut out that which gives us the strength, the courage and the vitality we need to strive successfully.

You may know the famous story of Jean Henri Fabre, the French naturalist, and his processional caterpillars. He encountered some of these interesting creatures one day while walking in the woods. They were marching in a long unbroken line front to back, front to back. What fun it would be, Fabre thought, to make a complete ring with these worms and let them march in a circle.

So, Fabre captured enough caterpillars to encircle the rim of a flowerpot. He linked them nose to posterior and started them walking in the closed circle. For days they turned like a perpetual merry-go-round.

Although food was near at hand and accessible, the caterpillars starved to death on an endless march to nowhere.

That seems to be the story of many people today. They are on a march that leads to nowhere. We need to stop for a moment, and sit down in the presence of Jesus.

Then we need to receive what Christ has to offer us, just as the multitude received the loaves and fish.

Dr. G. Campbell Morgan went to visit a member of his church. He was saddened to learn that she was to be evicted from her house because she couldn’t pay the rent. That was on Saturday afternoon.

On Sunday Campbell Morgan told his congregation that he wanted enough money from them to pay the woman’s rent. They gave it to him. First thing Monday morning he went to the woman’s house with the money. He could hardly wait to tell her the good news. He hammered on the door, but there was no answer. What a disappointment! He knocked again, but still no answer. He went away feeling dejected.

Some time later he discovered that the woman had been at home all the time. She had been afraid to answer the door, for she thought it was the landlord who had come for the rent. All the time she hid in fear, it was her minister bringing her the money she needed.

When we shut God out of our lives, we, too, shut out the very One who can meet our deepest needs. For you see, God’s greatest wish is to provide. God’s very nature is to give. God is love. Love is always giving. If we are not receiving from God, the problem may be on our end, for He is a giving God.

Sometimes we are simply blind to God’s wondrous bounty. We are like the tragic residents of one of America’s first villages.

During the winter of 1610, the population of Jamestown went from about 500 people to about 60. While disease and Indians took some, most of the settlers simply starved. There were plentiful supplies of fish, oysters, frogs, fowl, and deer; but these settlers from the city were not accustomed to obtaining food from the land. Hence, they starved!

We sometimes act the same way. God comes to us continually in the person of the Holy Spirit to guide us. As a loving Father God awaits the opportunity to meet our needs, but we are not accustomed to receiving from His loving hand. Nor does it occur to us to pray. So we wander blindly from problem to problem, a sort of picture of those early settlers who starved in a land of plenty.

“Make the people sit down,” Jesus commanded his disciples. Then he took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed these loaves and these fish to all who were seated, as much as they wanted. So also do we receive God’s blessings when we sit and wait and when we receive what God has to offer.

Notice, finally, how John concludes this story: “So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is come into the world!'”

When we sit and wait upon the Lord and when we receive what He has to offer us, we discover that God is indeed a bounteous provider for His children’s needs.

One of the lessons Christ tried to teach us was the extravagance of God. God is the God who provides in abundance–who sets before us a table in the midst of our enemies–who fills our cup to overflowing. Who when wine is needed for the wedding feast tells us to fill the water pots, and fill them to the brim–who when the Prodigal returns home kills the fatted calf and throws a big party.

Most of the worries that beset us would disappear in a moment if we could lean back and rest ourselves on the extravagance of God’s provisions for His children’s needs. All of nature testifies to God’s bounty.

Consider our universe. Did you know that if you could bore a hole in the sun and somehow put in 1.2 million earths, you would still have space left over for 4.3 million moons. The sun is 865,000 miles in diameter and 93 million miles away from earth. Pluto, still in our solar system but in the opposite direction, is 2.7 billion miles away. And there are billions of such solar systems.

What are they there for? As best we can determine, they have no other purpose than our enjoyment and perhaps to serve as a challenge to humanity to keep moving ever outward and upward.

Galileo once put it this way, “The sun which has all those planets revolving about it and depending on it for their orderly functions can ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the world to do.”

And it doesn’t! God has brought into being a magnificent creation with the sole purpose of providing for God’s children’s needs. Isn’t that mind-boggling? But why such extravagance, why such bounty, why such seeming waste?

Generations ago John Spencer offered an interesting theory on this matter. He noted that the Jewish rabbis taught that when Joseph, in the times of plenty, had gathered much corn in Egypt, he threw the chaff into the river Nile. His purpose was to convey by means of the flowing river to cities and nations more remote the good news of the abundance laid up, not for themselves alone, but for others also.

“So God,” writes Spencer, “in his abundant goodness, to make us know what glory there is in heaven, hath thrown some husks to us here in this world, that so, tasting the sweetness thereof, we might aspire to his bounty that is above, and draw out this happy conclusion to the great comfort of our precious souls–that if a little earthly glory do so much amaze us, what will the heavenly do? If there be such glory in God’s footstool, what is there in his throne? If he gives us so much in the land of our pilgrimage, what will he not give us in our own country? If He bestows so much on his enemies, what will he not give to his friends?”

Perhaps this is the reason for God’s extravagance. He wants to prepare us for the greater extravagance of Heaven.

It reminds me of the old story of two fellows who died and were walking the golden streets of God’s celestial realm. There was more beauty and more splendor and more joy there than they had ever dreamed imaginable. One of them turned to the other and said, “Isn’t this wonderful?”

The other replied, “Yes, and to think we could have gotten here ten years sooner if we hadn’t eaten all that oat bran.”

God has so many blessings to pour out on all of us. He asks us to sit down and receive what He has to give. What He has to give, He gives with extravagance. St. Paul once wrote in I Corinthians 2:9, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Amen.

Peace Dreams

Peace Dreams

a sermon based on Mark 6: 30-34

given at Palm Bay, FL on July 22, 2012

by Rev. Scott Elliott

The text that we just heard is actually the Gospel lectionary text for today. I find that quite interesting, since it begins with Jesus telling those who have been working – by teaching and doing for him– to take a rest. “Come a way to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while,” Jesus lovingly tells his disciples.

It’s interesting that this text is up for preaching because today, of course, is the eve of my doing some resting on Sabbatical.

In this story where the disciples go to rest the next verses (which are not in the Lectionary reading) have them working after they arrive to feed thousands and heal others. So too will I be working as I go to rest on my sabbatical.

I will be studying peace the first six weeks one-on-one with a peace educator.

Then I will spend twelve days studying theatre, by watching plays and seeing the facilities and such at a Shakespeare Festival.

All of this rest and work is paid for by an awesome and hard to get grant we worked hard for and were given by the Lilly Foundation, and were blessed by God to receive.

While I am on Sabbatical I will be working on ideas and projects related to bringing this peace stuff home including in new (if you will pardon the pun) dramatic forms.

When I tell people I am going to study peace on my Sabbatical I often get a strange look and some folks have even asked, why or how one study peace?

That’s actually a good question, and one that makes me a little sad. In our culture studying martial arts and war and all manner of types of fighting and shooting is basically understood. We get a lot of exposure to training for war and violence.

But studying peace? What is that?

The word “peace,” from a Christian theological standpoint, begins with a look at the Hebrew word “shalom” which literally means fullness and well being.

As a theological dictionary puts it, “It’s more than the lack of war and points to full societal and personal well being, coupled with righteousness.” 1

In that sense, peace is when all have enough and are treated justly and with respect.

Studying peace – shalom – is to consider in depth not just what peace is, but ways in which to bring about personal fullness and well being, other’s fullness and well being and communal fullness and well being.

Another way to say it is that studying peace is considering and exploring alternatives to violence in the world, including the violence of war, fighting, injustice, oppression, exploitation and poverty.

It’s about changing the way we feel about those we are taught to hate as “others” or enemies, and how we go about bringing peace through, well … peaceful means.

The Bible sets out the ultimate goal of peace with respect to warring in Isaiah 2 (some of my all time favorite verses):

PARAGRAPHMany peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

PARAHe shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isa 2:3-4 NRS)

“They shall learn war no more.” Peace is that for sure. Jesus commands us to love everyone, even our enemy and puts this into action, including when he stops his disciples from the violent fighting of those who come to arrest him. He tells Peter to put up his sword and heals the wound of one who came to arrest him.

Martin Luther King noted poignantly that:

PARAGRAPHThat through the vista of time a voice still cries out to every potential Peter. “Put up your sword!” The shores of history are white with the bleached bones of nations and communities that failed to follow this command.” 2

Peace educator and advocate Colman McCarthy sums up what peace students look for in peace education. He writes:

PARAGRAPHThe students I’ve been with these twenty years are looking for a world where it becomes a little easier to love and a lot harder to hate, where learning non-violence means that we dedicate our hearts, minds, time and money to a commitment that the force of love, the force of truth, the force of justice, and the force of organized resistance to corrupt power are seen as sane and the forces of fists, guns, armies and bombs insane. 3

McCarthy goes on to note that “unless we teach our children peace someone else will teach them violence.

And if you do not think this is a smart thing to say or think, no less a brainiac than Albert Einstein wrote, “I would teach peace rather than war, love rather than hate.” 4

And Mahatma Gandhi, a peace monger if there ever was one, agreed. He said:

PARAGRAPHIf we are to reach real peace in the world then we shall have to begin with the children. And if they will grow up in their natural innocence, we won’t have to struggle, we won’t have to pass fruitless resolutions, but we shall go from love to love and peace to peace.” 5

Jesus, the Prince of Peace we espouse to follow, tells us in the Beatitudes, blessed are the peacemakers. He also tells us nations will not just be judged on war but on how we, and they, tend to the least amongst us.

So my studying is to go and work and try and become a better peacemaker. I hope to bring back ideas for all of our personal peace work, and most especially for youth and ideas for our educational and spiritual ministries so that we can all work toward being blessed peacemakers.

But I also will be trying to learn ways to discuss and teach that help us put into action and take steps toward a day when we “beat … swords into plowshares, and … spears into pruning hooks; [a day when] nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more,” a day when we find a way to tend to the least amongst us.

What saddens me about questions about peace studies is not so much that most of us have no trouble imagining studying martial arts and war and not peace, but that we are all of us skeptical the day will ever come when “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

Our skepticism should be diminished greatly by two facts. One fact is that people once felt skeptical that a day would ever come that the violence of slavery would end, would be learned no more in our culture – yet here we are today where slavery is learned no more in our culture and is greatly diminished in the world and promises to one day be defeated completely. If it’s a fact that slavery has and is withering away, so can other forms of violence.

The other fact that should diminish our skepticism that peace is possible as promised by God, is not only has God promised it, but God is love, and love is at the heart of non-violence. That makes non-violence the very force of God.

And we have seen that the power of non-violence when unleashed has no match. It is the greatest power in the world.

Jesus taught it to us and practiced it, and his life and actions have continued to vibrate throughout time because of it. Jesus followed the God of love toward peace. Others have done this too, most notably in recent history Gandhi and King.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote that the philosophy and practice of nonviolence has six basic elements. First, nonviolence is resistance to evil and oppression. It is a human way to fight. Second, it does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win her/his friendship and understanding. Third, the nonviolent method is an attack on the forces of evil rather than against persons doing the evil. It seeks to defeat the evil and not the persons doing the evil and injustice. Fourth, it is the willingness to accept suffering without retaliation. Fifth, a nonviolent resister avoids both external physical and internal spiritual violence – not only refuses to shoot, but also to hate, an opponent. The ethic of real love is at the center of nonviolence. Sixth, the believer in nonviolence has a deep faith in the future and the forces in the universe are seen to be on the side of justice. (Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) 6

Being a pastor or member in a church that preaches and teaches and tries to side with justice is not always an easy thing to do. But that last part of what Dr. King said, “the believer in nonviolence has a deep faith in the future and the forces in the universe are seen to be on the side of justice.” is what can get us through.

The future and the forces of the universe – which Dr. King and I would both name God – are indeed on the side of justice, and so that is where we must find refuge when things get tough.

Gandhi and King and Jesus died for peace, they were ridiculed and attacked. So peace makers are blessed but they are also cursed; it comes with being a follower and a doer of love, as one who aims for peace.

Dr. King famously noted that, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension. It is the presence of justice.” That’s basically what I read at the start from the theological dictionary, right? Peace is “more than the lack of war and points to full societal and personal well being, coupled with righteousness.” 7

As I mentioned last week, I believe that God is Love and Creator, and operates in creation not by coercion, but by persuasion, calling all that is to the best it can be in each and every given moment, no matter what has transpired up to that point.

I believe Jesus’ existence on earth proves that the best humans can be in any given moment is Love incarnate in the world. Jesus’ Way can be understood as a path to answering God’s call to be compassionate and to desire the well being of others, in other words, to the best we can be. To love. To be Love, God incarnate.

Love means we work toward a world where all have enough, where justice exists for all, where peace – shalom – fullness and well being reign for everybody.

So, I go off to study how to not just work for a world where there is no more war, but also toward the a world where there is well being for everyone.

This a dream sabbatical for me, to be working toward God and Jesus and most of humankind’s dream of peace.

I am going to conclude with a poem and a song about dreams of peace – something all of us have. The poem is untitled and written by Aashima Khosla.

The song is by Ed McCurdy, it is called “Last Night I had the Strangest Dream” although it’s a song that has constantly been in my head since the 1960s I have not sung it public before, but, it’s haunted me long enough and I am going to try and sing it at last.

Here is the poem:

PARAGRAPHI took a walk the other day and I asked Peace to come with me./ We walked in silence most of the way. /But then Peace whispered that she had something to say./ She sang a song about Peace on Earth and held my hand in friendship/She looked into my eyes in a compassionate way/She danced like the wind on a calm summer’s eve,/and then breathed a sigh which calmed my nerves./She made a wish that, by her hand, /wars would end, oppression would end/And Justice would reign./ Peace took me in her arms and rocked me to sleep/And while I dreamed,/ Peace became me.

Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream

words and music by Ed McCurdy

Last night I had the strangest dream

I’d ever dreamed before

I dreamed the world had all agreed

To put an end to war

I dreamed I saw a mighty room

Filled with women and men

And the paper they were signing said

They’d never fight again

And when the paper was all signed

And a million copies made

They all joined hands and bowed their heads

And grateful pray’rs were prayed

And the people in the streets below

Were dancing ’round and ’round

While swords and guns and uniforms

Were scattered on the ground

Last night I had the strangest dream

I’d ever dreamed before

I dreamed the world had all agreed

To put an end to war. AMEN!

ENDNOTES

1. Westminister Dictionary of Theological Terms

2. King, martin Luther, I Have A Dream 104

3. McCarthy Coleman, I’d Rather Teach Peace, p xv

4 Ibid at xx

5 Ibid.

6. I found this quote on line at http://www.nonviolencetraining.org/Training/quotes.htm

7. This quote is taken from a MLK peace button I own.

COPYRIGHT Scott Elliott © 2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Three Stories of Forgiveness Where You’d Least Expect Them

Three Stories of Forgiveness Where You’d Least Expect Them

a sermon based on Mark 6:14-29

given at Palm Bay, FL on July 15, 2009

by Rev. Scott Elliott

I was admonished last week by one of you for not telling a pun in the sermon. That person, for safety’s sake, will remain unnamed.

Unfortunately for the rest of you, the worst pun I have ever told relates to today’s story. So forgive me. Indeed I may have told you the pun before so forgive me for that too … and forgive the person who asked for the pun.

In seminary, a week before finals, when things were pretty tense, our hermeneutics class met in small groups to discuss this text about Herod and John the Baptist.

When our small group reported back to the class, I was assigned the task of summarizing what we concluded. We were called on first so to lighten the tension I said as I walked to the front that, “We had some confusion in our group since some of us thought at first that the Herod Banquet verses were just a story about two parents wanting to help their child get a head.”

I told you it was bad. Again … forgive me.

That pun aside, over the years I have actually considered the story of Herod’s banquet – where John the Baptist is killed – from a number of serious angles.

It is clearly a tragic story and not just because John is killed but because of a number of things: a child dances to entertain men, and then can have anything, but asks for a man to be killed at the behest of her mother.

And also because Herod seemed to be on the verge of learning some lessons from John and being challenged by him. We are told Herod “liked to listen to [John]” and protected him.

One serious angle I had not thought of before last week in the story is forgiveness. I do not recall having read others write about that angle, but I find it there now and it is quite fascinating.

Jesus teaches his followers to practice forgiveness and I know that today’s Lectionary texts may seem like a strange one in which to hear forgiveness, but as I was working on this sermon I was also working on our summer production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”

And that story while also not usually understood as a story about forgiveness, has this powerful forgiveness piece to it. I know it’s a tragedy but I just could not shake the forgiveness angle. Maybe that is what got me thinking about the kinda hidden forgiveness angle to Herod’s tragic banquet story too.

With all this whispering of the Spirit in my ears about “forgiveness” in tragic stories I decided it was a hint for me to discuss the difficult topic of forgiveness today.

Later in Mark, Jesus – before the resurrection – teaches ‘‘Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

In the Gospel of John, after the resurrection, on Easter Day, Jesus appears to the disciples who are locked in a room with fear over what Jesus’ prosecution and execution might mean to them as members of his revolutionary movement that promoted love; and we are told in John that

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘‘Peace be with you.’’ After he said this he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.

See the thing is, if we let the wrongs in life go unforgiven, the wrongs continue to injure, they continue to trespass in our lives. Forgiveness is not forgetting. It is working toward (and maybe one day accomplishing) the restoration of a good relationship.

Jesus’ point in the verses I just quoted is basically that whenever any relationship is broken and in need of repair we have to work toward forgiveness.

Notice I said “work toward.” Forgiveness is a process. It is usually not an instant happening, but begins with taking steps to forgiveness. of the harm. And if you did wrong you not only confess it, but show remorse and an intent not to do it again and apologize to the victim, requesting forgiveness, and do the best you can to repair the damage.

That’s tough stuff to do, but tougher work still is the victim working toward a day when they give up on any stake in retaliation, the victim doesn’t have to like the wrongdoer or forget the wrong but they do need to aim toward seeing the wrongdoer as a person, someone with worth.

If we don’t do this sorting out and moving past the wrong, it just lingers. As Jesus put it: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

I’m going to briefly address three stories where we can get a glimpse of some of this process of forgiveness going on. One is Romeo and Juliet, another is today’s lesson and the third may surprise you even more, it’s the story of Pontius Pilate.

With respect to Romeo and Juliet, before I get to the heart of the matter, I want to note how wonderful it has been to be part of youth and adults teaming together to understand and give life to the four hundred year old words of that genius William Shakespeare.

Putting on a play is a remarkable process, really; and the “Teaming” part is so important.

Together in relationship with one another the cast and crew have brought the brilliant text to life from the auditions to the now existent living, breathing, work of art.

I was struck as I watched the cast and crew work and bond together by the irony that a play, which centers on youth and adults feuding to the death, serves so well as a vehicle for bringing together youth and adults in a caring and cohesive team. It’s lovely to see really.

Of course as a pastor putting in hours and hours of work on the show I could not help but reflect on the theological implications in the play itself.

Process theologians understand that God is Love and Creator, and operates in creation not by coercion, but by persuasion, calling all that is to the best it can be in the given moment, no matter what has transpired up to that point.

Jesus’ existence on earth proves that the best humans can be in any given moment is Love incarnate. Jesus’ Way can be understood as a path to answering God’s call to be compassionate and to desire the well being of others, in other words, to love.

In “Romeo and Juliet” Shakespeare has a number of characters who try in various ways to answer this call to betterment and love as the story unfolds. Benvolio tries in vain to maintain peace. Romeo turns the other cheek. Romeo and Juliet try to overcome city-wide hate in order to move toward love itself. The Nurse and the Pastor both aid mightily in the efforts of the lovers toward love and away from hate.

But in the end, out of the worst possible moment in their lives, the death of their beloved children, the chief instigators of hate themselves (the heads of the families) pull off the greatest miracle when they stop at last and listen to God’s call to betterment and answer it with love (which is God).

There is no doubt the story is a tragedy, but it ends with a spark of hope: that the God of Love never stops calling, and that no matter what has happened in the past, in each and every moment we can answer the call and in so doing transform our lives and those around us for the better.

You see, in the end, with six deaths and the choice between continuing their blood feud or not, the Montagues and the Capulets finally turn and begin to forgive one another for the worst kind of acts, pure hate and the senseless death of their kindred, including both of their much beloved children.

The feuding stops and the family heads begin at last to reconcile mounting statues in honor of each other’s children. Pretty powerful stuff really. The families in the end, regardless of the harm and who’s to blame, see the worth of each other and their respective families.

In today’s story about Herod killing John the Baptist, we rarely notice something quite remarkable in it. Herod is portrayed as having some worth. He is not seen as a one dimensional monster who killed John the Baptist, but as someone who had worth. John was a very popular leader and he is integral to the gospels, most especially Mark because Jesus’ ministry begins with his being baptized by John the Baptist.

This Herod was, in reality, a pretty poor leader and quite disrespectful of the peoples he governed, he even built his capital city over a graveyard making the city an unclean place for his subjects to visit or work in. 2

He also (as we heard) is lacking in moral boundaries. He steals his brother’s wife. And worst of all, he kills John the Baptist, a man of morals and convictions, a prophet, a man of God.

Given all this “bad-guy-ness” Jesus’ followers would have had every reason to make Herod out as a villain with no redeeming qualities. So it is amazing that they don’t. Herod is given worthy attributes in the story, suggesting that Jesus’ teaching to forgive is being followed – even with respect to enemies.

The story is still told, the sin and evil of John’s killing is not forgotten, and Herod is remembered as doing an evil and sinful thing, but he is also remembered as a person, someone of worth. He was listening, protecting and liking John and he was “deeply grieved” at the request to kill John.

Herod’s awful acts are remembered, but Herod the man, the enemy, is not seen as unworthy. That’s the stuff of forgiveness. The very thing Jesus tells us to do.

The third and last story of forgiveness that I mentioned is surprising. It is about Pontius Pilate, who was the Roman governor when Jesus was prosecuted and executed by Rome.

Pilate is remembered in the Gospels as looking sympathetically at Jesus and trying to protect him, even spare Jesus’ life and recognizing Jesus as innocent.

Pilate was, in reality, an even worse ruler than Herod. He was a poor leader and so brutal that even Rome could not stand his service and removed him from office, and ultimately he is the one who is responsible in history for Jesus’ arrest, torture and execution. Rome, through Pilate’s government in Palestine, cruelly took Jesus’ life. But Jesus followers refused to paint him as a one dimensional scoundrel with no redeeming qualities.

The stories we have of Pilate, who was an enemy of the worse kind nonetheless have Jesus’ followers, remembering him as having worthy qualities.

Although not addressing forgiveness one commentator noted similarities between Herod and Pilate’ stories in The Gospel of Mark writing:

Mark’s accounts of John’s death at the command of Herod Antipas and Jesus’ death by order of Pontius Pilate have much in common. Both rulers look favorably upon their captives, who are prominent religious figures. Each ruler desires to spare the life of the prisoner. 3

The commentator notes too that “Both act against their better judgment.” Which I hear as recognizing that they had better judgment.

These are all pretty amazing attributes for the victims of oppression to put down in words and retell as part of their story in remembering the oppressors. The ones who killed important people in Christianity are, from the start, understood as having worth even though they did wrong. That’s pretty amazing.

That’s amazing grace actually.

And we can choose to hear these stories as examples of Jesus’ early followers, from two thousand years ago, taking Jesus’ words to heart.

[H]e breathed on them and said to them, ‘‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.

Our job as modern Christians is to try and do this too. To forgive. It’s not forgetting by the early Christian communities. Pilate and Herod’s wrongful acts are not forgotten, but they seem to be forgiven.

The story of harm is told, and the tough stuff of the victims working toward a day when they give up on any stake in retaliation, and see the wrongdoers as a person (as someone with worth), seems to have been underway. That’s love at work. That’s Jesus’ teaching of being love incarnate, in action.

May we put love to work in our lives too, working toward forgiveness, being love incarnate. Because if we forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if we retain the sins of any, they are retained.

Let us go and begin the process of asking and giving forgiveness as Jesus instructed us to do!

AMEN.

END NOTES:

1. Hodgin, Michael, 1001 Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking, 156.

2. _________

3. Feasting on the Word , Year B, Vol3, p. 241

COPYRIGHT Scott Elliott © 2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Click Here to Listen to Scott’s Podcast

What’s at the Center

What’s at the Center?

a sermon based on Mark 6:1-13

given at Palm Bay, FL on July 8, 2012

by Rev. Scott Elliott

Today is the day I was ordained six years ago, July 8, 2006. You are the only church I have been a pastor at and we’ve made it together for six years.

I think that is pretty cool.

Thank you for so much love and support, and care and kindness, and for teaching me so much. So far.

In some ways it seems like we have come down a mighty long path together, in other ways it seems like we started just a short while ago. Either way here we are! Together.

We have done a lot and we have a lot to do and my plan is to return from my sabbatical and be here as your pastor as long as I can.

I really truly love this church and congregation. If you think about it, there are so many things we have done together to experience and share Christ’s unconditional love.

We have taught that unconditional love in our Adult Sunday Seminary, Bible Study, Children’s Sunday School, Vacation Bible Schools and in our Teen Groups.

We have shared space with other faith communities and support groups, and we have housed and participate in the Shepherd’s Center, a retiree education program.

We’ve spearheaded efforts to begin an ecumenical clergy group.

Our Matthew 25 Garden is beautiful and has provided much needed fresh produce to Daily Bread, and we’ve provide volunteer work at Daily Bread to help feed those in need.

We have also helped those in need through the Sharing Center, Cold Night Shelter, Back Bay Mission, Heifer International and Compassion International.

And we have helped lead the way with Bob Barnes, as a caring church involved in the Children’s Hunger Project that helps feed hungry children at Riviera Elementary, our next door neighbor.

We have declared and been public about our conviction of the inclusive and unconditional nature of Christ’s love, including becoming the first Open and Affirming Christian church in the county, no easy task to do.

We have a growing internet presence with a website and a facebook page, as well as a cyber-church with things like a Youtube vlog ,an e-version of the column I write, prayer requests and music. We hope to even have parts of the services streaming live by this winter.

We also now have a presence in the community through the monthly Hometown News column in hard copy and our display tables at events like Pridefest, Beachfest and Progressivefest.

We also started Community Family Players, a ministry that connects youth with community through the performing arts which is getting ready to open “Romeo and Juliet” on Friday.

We have a built beautiful Memorial Garden and blazed Prayer Trails and a place for a peace labyrinth on this wonderful campus that God has blessed us with.

We now have pet blessings and Easter Sunrise services every year.

We have housed two UCC Florida Women’s conferences, a clergy boundaries conference and two Christian music concerts.

And we have made huge strides in making our church a more environmentally friendly building and even have a green team in place to help educate us on such matters.

We have provided tens of thousands of dollars in aid though our Community Fund, Shepherd’s Fund, Giving Trees and drives for Riviera Elementary School.

We now have a real kitchen and we have re-arranged and upgraded most of the classrooms and even my office space so that we can do mission and ministry better together.

We’ve had a number of social events over the years including a wonderful building and celebration of our awesome new playground for children.

And of course, we have held weekly worship services, like this one, where God’s love is shared in and through us right here every Sunday morning.

We have gone from what some of us used to call “the best kept secret in Brevard County” to the church that is well known for believing “God loves everybody – no strings attached.”

Our strategic plan that we all passed in April has us adding new ministries and missions in the months ahead. More social events, as well as increased efforts to connect with other faith communities, to work with elders and to focus on peace practices and peace education.

As you can hear we are not a one issue church by any stretch of the imagination. We are a multifaceted, multi-doing church.

We do a lot of different things but we have one thing that we primarily focus on in each and every one of our missions and ministries.

That one thing shouldn’t surprise you, it’s Love. It shouldn’t surprise you because God is love.

When people ask me what our church is about I tell them that love is what we put out on the table and everything – everything – we do we try and filter through love. Why does our church do this? Because that is what Jesus did and calls us to do.

I gave up a law practice and a lovely home in Oregon and trudged my family to a seminary in St. Louis (for three years and a lot of debt) and became an ordained pastor 6 years ago because I believe in Love. And I believe in Loving.

Actually as my actions, I just described suggest, I believe with all my heart, my soul, my mind and strength in Love and loving.

It may sound crazy and obsessive, maybe naive and simplistic, perhaps even foolish or fanatical, but when I read Jesus telling us that we “‘shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength’” (Mar 12:30), I believe him.

That belief doesn’t make me perfect. I know that better than anyone. And I also know that belief has got a lot of people in trouble in 2000 years of Christianity. It’s a belief that some in Christianity may not really want a pastor to passionately believe and act upon, but I cannot help that.

I recently read a book that asked church leaders, including pastors, what they would be willing to die for. In seminary, we were sometimes admonished to be sure of the things we’d metaphorically be willing to “die in a ditch over.”

I have never had a doubt that Love (which is God), and loving (which is being God incarnate the world), are things I would “die in a ditch for.” Indeed, I really don’t think for me it is just metaphor. I believe I am literally willing to die for Love and Loving. Whatever faults I may have I am resolute in my resolve on that.

And I came to this church and have stayed with it through some pretty rough times not only because I believe this church – and virtually all of you people in it – put Love out on the table and try to filter everything through Love, but because I am convinced in no uncertain terms that God brought me here and wants me here to help us be loving in this part of God’s creation through each one of us.

I cannot defend that call, I must leave that up to God. I can only assure you that I believe with all my heart, my soul, my mind and strength in Love and loving here at Riviera United Church of Christ and that I do my best every day to live into my call as your pastor.

In just a couple of weeks I will be leaving on sabbatical for Lincoln City, Oregon to begin work – work – on the last thing on the multifaceted list I just went though.

I will be studying peace with Rev. Charles Busch under a generous grant we worked hard on and received from the Lilly Foundation.

Charles is the pastor who not only brought me to Christianity, but presided over my ordination ceremony, and who now as a retired pastor is a peace educator. Charles and I will be meeting to study and work on peace in the building – the church – in which I was ordained.

God is full of surprises, taking me back to the place where it all began on basically “a full ride scholarship” through the grant that the Lilly Foundation has generously given us.

Some might call that luck. I call it God working in my life and in the life of this church. I consider it an affirmation of the direction the church is heading and the plan that we voted on in April.

The last time I was in Lincoln City was the week I gave my ordination sermon. I pulled that sermon up this past week. I doubt I have looked at it since I preached it in Oregon. It was my first sermon as a pastor, and it turns out that today’s Lectionary text that we just heard read was up in the cycle that day too and it was the basis for my first sermon as a pastor.

And here I am six years later looking at that same Lectionary text.

That sermon from six years ago was very specific to ordination, and it’s longer than sermons I now preach so I decided not to preach it today (maybe on my tenth anniversary). But the sermon was about discerning and service as Christians, both issues that should be a part of all Christians’ spiritual life, both as individuals and as church.

See Biblically speaking, it’s not just the ordained who are ministers in a church.

In our denomination we have a long held belief that all of us are ministers, we often call it, “the priesthood of all believers.” In case you have ever wondered, this is why we refer to a number of our elected officials as ministers. Spiritual Minsters, Outreach Ministers, Church Operation Ministers, Education Ministers and Resource Ministers.

But even without being elected to a church position, all of us Christians are each supposed to be a minister. A minister is someone who serves God. I know we tend to think of ministers as those who are ordained, but actually, if you look it up in a theological dictionary you will find that, “the Biblical perspective [of a minister] is inclusive of all who seek to carry out God’s will.” 1

And we can hear that in today’s lesson too. Christ sends others out to do God’s work, right?

And it is not just spreading the word about the Gospels but it is doing as the Gospels call us to do. And it is not always easy work. Talking the talk is one thing, but walking the walk too is quite another.

And we are never called to just talk the talk, we have to walk the walk.

As much as we might long to just sit in here in the air conditioning and bask in the beauty of the music Chris leads, or see and be surrounded by our dear friends or listen to awesome sermons, church is not about just that – it includes that if you are lucky enough to go here – but church is not just a Sunday morning spiritual cup of coffee.

It’s supposed to get us going alright, but, it supposed to get us going to do God’s work in the world in word and deed in the world. We are called to action on God’s behalf. And in case you are wondering everybody, at one time or another, doubts their ability or worthiness to do it and we all know it can be risky and rough and out on the edge answering God’s call.

I mentioned being “willing to die in a ditch,” for an issue, that was the phrase that we used in seminary.

So I think it is no accident that I found this remarkable story of a modern Christian who was literally willing to do that.

We all are aware that Christianity began with Jesus dying for love and that Christianity has a past full of martyrs, people killed for being love in the world, doing God’s work. In this story the Christian involved does not die but saves lives as he risks dying in a ditch.

On March 16, 1968, Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson was piloting an Army helicopter on a routine patrol in Vietnam when he flew over a village, we know as Mai Lai.

“[H]e happened to fly over the village of Mai Lai just as American troops, under the command of Lieutenant William Calley, were slaughtering dozens of unarmed … villagers– old men, women and children. Thompson set his helicopter down between the troops and the remaining civilians. He ordered his tail-gunner to train the helicopter guns on the [shooting] American soldiers. And he ordered [Calley’s] gunmen to stop killing the villagers … Hugh Thompson’s actions saved the lives of dozens of people . . . [but] he was almost court-martialed … It was thirty years before the Army … awarded him the Soldiers Medal. 2

Hugh Thompson himself told this story at a commencement ceremony at Emory University. And he also, “talked about his faith. Simple words. Speaking of what his parents taught him as a child. Thompson said, ‘they taught me, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”’ The students were amazed at these ‘words of Jesus, words from Sunday school, words from worship, words of Christian testimony … they leapt to their feet and gave him a standing ovation.”

Jesus’ love at the center of the life of a combat helicopter pilot and his crew mattered so much they set down in a ditch in the craziness of war at great personal and professional risk.

They sided with the victims, stopping those who would have hurt them in the face of bullets, grenades and a court marital.

It was the lives of dozens they saved, and although that may not be many in a world of billions, clearly it mattered. It mattered a whole bunch. And not only then, but now. We can hear love vibrating in the actions of Warrant Officer Thompson and his crew still.

I don’t know if I will ever have such a profound affect in the world as Hugh Thompson did as he acted on behalf of love, of God.

All I know is that without God we cannot have any such an affect, and that God without us cannot have any such an affect. The reading today bears this out.

Did you hear read how Christ was powerless when there was not belief ?

Mark tells us that Jesus could “do no deed of power” because of it. Christ is made powerless by those who doubt, by those who have no faith in Christ.

One commentator on today’s text notes that, “The word for us in this text is that were are not held responsible for the response to our ministries in Christ’s name, but, only for our own faithfulness. With such assurance we can witness boldly and faithfully.” 3

I would add that we not only can witness boldly and faithfully, but, that we must witness boldly and faithfully.

That is why our vision statement that this congregation adopted in April reads “Riviera United Church of Christ exists to share Christ’s unconditional love by thinking openly, believing passionately and serving boldly.”

Those are not just pretty words, those are a call to action. They are a call to love, to be God incarnate in our world.

I pray that we all have the courage to do just that, to continue to live into this congregation’s powerful vision statement:

“Riviera United Church of Christ exists to share Christ’s unconditional love by thinking openly, believing passionately and serving boldly.”

Can I have a rousing … and loud … “AMEN.”

ENDNOTES

1.Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms

2. Lindvall, Michael, Feasting on the Word, Vol 3, Year B, p. 214 (quoting Tom Long’s report in Pulpit Resources (Jan-Mar 2004), 39, regarding Hugh Thompson’s speech at an honorary degree ceremony at Emory University).

3. Zink-Sawyer, Beverly, Feasting on the Word, Vol 3, Year B, p. 217.

COPYRIGHT Scott Elliott © 2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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It’s All About Love, Baby, It’s All About Love

It’s All About Love, Baby, It’s All About Love

a sermon based on Mark 5:21-43

given at Palm Bay, FL on July 1, 2012

by Rev. Scott Elliott

The story you just heard has at its heart some rules about impurities that most of us don’t get in the modern world. In the cultural tradition of Jesus’ day certain things were considered impure, not kosher, as it were.

We actually have things in our own culture that we tend to steer clear of. For example we are appalled at the idea of eating dog or horse, whereas some cultures aren’t.

We get uptight about people eating around us without shoes and shirts on, whereas some cultures don’t.

Forget about eating, we have certain clothing requirements in public, that other cultures don’t.

Cultures have impurity rules.

Most of us who are not Jewish still seem to remember for some reason that pigs are considered Biblically impure, that pork is not kosher, it is considered ritually unclean. In fact, pigs are declared as such in Leviticus 11:

The pig, for even though it has divided hoofs and is cleft-footed, it does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean for you. (Lev 11:7-8 NRS)

In the story that takes place in the Gospel of Mark, just before the section we heard read today, Jesus causes demons named Legion to be cast into a herd of pigs and run off a cliff. Pigs are not clean and that is a part of the humor of the story. Symbolically the occupying Roman Legions who are driving everyone mad are driven into unclean pigs and they jump off a cliff. Which is what most in occupied Palestine probably fantasied about happening.

There’s an old proverb that says: You can bring a pig into the parlor, and it won’t change the pig, but it will certainly change the parlor. 1

That proverb (whether we eat kosher or not) is a truism. I mean, who wants a pig in their parlor? Right? And although it’s not a proverb intended to address purity laws and ritual cleanliness toward people, it does come close to giving us a sense of how those the religious elite insisted scripture declared unclean were made to feel in Jesus’ day. This included people with disabilities or perceived disabilities, things like skin ailments, deformities, even menstruation issues.

The woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years was Biblically unclean. And her impurity was considered contagious, that is, if she touched someone then it was believed that they too became impure. So the rule was she was to stay away from others.

The Feasting on the Word commentary describes how very ostracized this disabled woman was to be treated:

Her condition made her ritually unclean, and she would have had to live her days in isolation, separated from her family and village. When people saw her coming toward them they probably would have distanced themselves for fear that she might have brushed against them, for her touch would have made them ritually unclean, especially men. 2

The cultural rules told the lady to stay away and be on the margins, and for others, like Jesus to keep her there out on the fringes, out of the parlor, as it were.

But neither the woman nor Jesus follow the rules. They both radically pursue a different way of being, they choose to play by alternative rules.

Here’s what Feasting on the Word goes on to say:

…she pushes her way through the crowd, She deliberately touches Jesus, a male and popular religious figure. She should have kept her distance and called out to him from a discreet remove. Jesus’ reaction is even more surprising. Mark tells us she threw herself at Jesus’ feet in fear and trembling. But instead of calling her “unclean,” Jesus names her “daughter,” a daughter ever bit as precious as Jarius’(JYE RUS) beloved little girl. Instead of admonishing her outrageous trespass. Jesus praises her faith. Instead of justifiable anger, Jesus bids her go in peace. 3

WOW! That’s some social justice at work. The vulnerable ill woman with no money who is an outcast makes a move for healing justice and that causes Christ to move for healing justice too.

In fact, her actions cause Christ to seek her out and establish a relationship with her.

Being a faithful follower of Jesus means that no matter how others may try and isolate you, or how isolated you may feel, Christ is going to notice you, be there for you, honor and love you – and miracles will happen.

I don’t necessarily mean supernatural events, I mean transforming events that any one of us can be a catalyst for with love.

According to at least some of the religious elite of Jesus’ day “impurity was contagious.” Marcus Borg points out that

Jesus should have been made impure by the touching of his cloak. But the reverse happens: her impurity is overcome through contact with Jesus. Once again Jesus banishes impurity and rescues the impure. 4

This is a healing cure all of us can, if we choose, offer, right? Humans are never pigs in a parlor. They are people in the parlor and deserve to be treated as such.

The disabled woman forced the issue by coming into the parlor (the crowd around Jesus) when she was not supposed to. And Jesus doesn’t deal with her as a pig in a parlor, he deals with her as a beloved child of God. “Daughter” he calls her.

And you know how last week the healthy male disciples did not have faith in the boat in the storm that Jesus calmed? Well this story is about an unhealthy woman who has faith in the midst of a human-made storm that threatens her well being, and look at the results.

Did you hear how Jesus credits HER faith, not himself for her well being? “He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.’”

The lady’s faith makes all the difference, as does Jesus’ efforts to ignore the culture rules. That’s why I love this story!

And another powerful story is woven in along with it. It’s about the twelve year old daughter of Jarius and his wife. By the time Jesus reaches the child she is also unclean, a dead body and was thought capable of transmitting impurities to anyone who touched her. What’s more she is a female and a child making her a lowly being in the culture of the Ancient Near East.

But it’s clear that, regardless of the culture, Jesus and Jarius care very much for her. She matters. Jarius goes to get Jesus and when he got there showed knee-bending faith. His faith causes Christ to come to the aid of his “little daughter.”

And even though she is declared dead before he arrives, Jesus tells Jarius “Do not fear, only believe.” Then Jesus goes to the child and he establishes a relationship with her too doesn’t he? He holds her hand and speaks lovingly to her in his native tongue “‘Talitha cum” which means ‘Little girl get up.’” And she does!

In this woven-in-story Jesus cares for another culturally lowly female, a child in an unclean state. Jesus defies and overcomes the strict reading of scripture and application of the law. Once again he reverses the purity rule that says you become impure when you touch the impure.

What happens is that through Jesus’ Way, when love touches the impure the impure become clean – and they are healed. It’s pretty awesome stuff. The dis-abled in the text are both abled through faith.

And the contrast between the two females in the story in many respects could not be greater. One is an adult, poor and basically among what we might call the living dead, having gone for twelve years without the comfort of community, forced to survive on the edge of town with her disability. The other is a beloved child of a family of some means, but having been sick she is actually dead when Jesus arrives.

Despite the vast differences, the two females have a few things in common. They are both female, a gender Jesus goes out of his way to care for and bring into his community (in a patriarchal culture). They are also both disabled and untouchables, whom Jesus is not afraid to touch. Jesus establishes a relationship with them and in one way or another it brings them both new life. They are – you see – loved by God and by Jesus.

Christ then has power over, not just chaos and evil (as we discussed last week), but power over culturally constructed impurities. Through Christ all are pure, made clean by the fact that Jesus is willing to touch and be touched by them. Jesus reverses the rules. The unclean do not sully him, instead he cleans the sullied. And if you think about it, that’s all of us at one point or another.

By relating to them – to us – Jesus makes all those who have faith – that is, confidence in Christ, God incarnate on earth 5 acceptable.

We can hear that Jesus has this resistance thing going against all sorts of oppression. John Dominic Crossan points out that this resistance included Jesus healing those who were ill and left out of the system, as we can hear this in the disabled woman being healed.

I think I’ve mentioned before that Dr. Crossan argues that Jesus’ “healing” stories need to be understood in light of what he calls the, “dichotomy between two aspects of sickness: disease and illness. Disease refers to a malfunctioning of biological and/or psychological processes, while the term illness refers to the psychological experience and meaning of perceived disease” 6.

In other words, there is a difference between curing a disease and healing an illness. Disease is caused by biological abnormalities and is best cured by a physician. Healing, on the other hand addresses “illnesses” (things like the emotional experience and the socially constructed meaning of the disease) and it is done by what we might best know as a shaman, a spirit person. Jesus is heard to be just such a person.

I am not saying a miracle cure did not occur, but I am saying that whether we believe in super natural miracles or not, we can all hear in the story that Jesus heals by removing the cultural stigma of diseases, the disabled, in the story.

He does this by declaring them clean and then relating to them all, and accepting them into his community. 7

He does this by having compassion and desire for the well being of others, which is precisely what love is. Indeed if you look up the defining characteristic of God in a theological dictionary it will be that very sort of love. Jesus is God incarnate and heals by refusing to let social mores stop him from including those on the outside in.

We have heard that theme a lot at this church because it is the very heart of the Gospels, it is in them a lot. It is what Jesus is remembered as doing over and over again. It could be called his defining characteristic. Having compassion and desire for the well being of others is precisely what Jesus is doing and what God is.

Or to shift gears for a sec and put it in more hip terms, it’s all about love baby, it’s all about love. The Bible is about relationships with God and others and creation, and God is understood to be in others and in creation.

And the beauty of this story is not just that Jesus did this sort of stuff, but that it’s something we can do. We can make the dis-abled abled.

We can take the poor woman who has been disabled and rejected for twelve years, who has spent all her money on health care and is now destitute – and we can dare to let her in.

We can dare to seek her out and have a relationship with her.

We can dare to honor and respect and love her. We can call her daughter. We can care for her.

And we can dare to praise her, not condemn her, when she gets up the moxy to walk through that door – even if she has heard or believes she is unworthy. To heck with all the rules that might claim she is. We can heal by knocking down whatever barrier there is, in this case disabilities and perceived disabilities.

I preach about this a lot because it is in the Lectionary texts a lot. The Gospel is all about love, because that was Jesus’ message in word and action. Love, Love, Love is Jesus’ message over and over again.

And notice that in the story today Jesus shows no favoritism. Just because Jesus spends time focusing on the disabled women doesn’t mean he loves the others in the crowd any less, right? He needs to stop, give her attention and develop a relationship with her, but it’s not favoritism.

We can actually hear this in the story. The poor and the powerful get Christ’s compassion and desire for well being. Christ helps the young and the old; the clean and the unclean; the hidden who seek just to touch him without notice; and those who reach out and bow before him in front of crowds; The long-time religious families and those who have been away from religion awhile – all matter equally.

We can do that too, can’t we? The story makes it clear that the Way to do this is first have faith that Jesus is the one to follow, the one to go to, the one who has The Way for Christians.

Then whether we are in need of help like the father or the dozen years ill woman, we need to reach out to Christ.

Finally, we need to let not only the barriers that keep others from getting to Christ fall away, but also the barriers that get in the way of our having compassion and desire for the well being of others. Indeed with Jesus there is no “other,” there is no “they,” the disabled poor woman and the powerful family of Jarius both get loved. And so does the entire crowd who follow Jesus.

Our church tries to be like that.

We do not seek to bring in and love only this type of person or that.

This is a church with God’s wide embrace that seeks to provide community for anyone who wants to join in this crowd of Jesus followers, even if that person thinks they need to sneak in, even if they have been here a long time. This includes the new to religion folks and certainly the long time religious folk like Jarius.

New visitor to long-time member, all are welcome and loved at Riviera UCC. That’s the aim, that’s what we try to do here. I’m pretty certain everyone at this church would make that claim … which is why I love this place.

That is precisely what Jesus is doing in the Lectionary story today. It yet another story of Jesus beautiful radical love that excludes no one.

Not me.

Not you. Not anyone sitting next to you.

Not anyone who is not here.

Jesus does what God calls us to do, he loves. And love is what God is, so Jesus acts as God incarnate in the world. And that’s our call too.

Jesus has shown us The Way.

And to, once again, sum this all up in more hip terms from my youth: it’s all about love baby, it’s all about love.

AMEN.

ENDNOTES

1 Hodgen, Michael, 1002 Humorous Illustrations, 192.

2 Lindvall, Michael, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Vol 3, p 190.

3. Ibid. 192.

4. Borg, Marcus, The Gospel of Mark, 49

5. Ibid.

6. Crossan, John Dominic, The Birth of Christianity, 294,

7. Ibid at 293-304.

COPYRIGHT Scott Elliott © 2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED