I'm not sure anyone in the two parishes I was preaching wanted to hear what I said, and I know at least one member of one of the parishes was hopping mad at what I said. But....being a disciple isn't easy, is it? So here are two sermons, both of a similar ilk.
Proper 8, Yr C June 26, 2016
Being a follower of Jesus isn’t easy.
Jesus expects us to love everyone, everywhere, no exceptions.
Jesus expects us to clothe the naked, feed the hungry and welcome the stranger.
Jesus expects us to respect the dignity of every single human being. Every single one. And when we witness someone NOT being treated with dignity, he expects that we will do something about it. Us. You. And me.
Jesus’ expectation seem pretty clear.
He expects us to follow him.
He expects us to do as he did.
He expects us to, above all else, be like him.
And what he wants us to know, what he is saying so emphatically in today’s Gospel, is that following him, being his disciple, proclaiming him as our Lord, our Savior, our God, isn’t easy.
It isn’t safe.
It isn’t comfortable.
He’s saying that before we call him Lord we better be ready to set our own faces for Jerusalem.
In other words, that we, along with Jesus, must be willing to die in order to live.
We must be willing to die to the status quo in order to live into the dream of God.
We must be willing to die to those who embrace exclusion and isolationism in order to live into the dream of God.
We must be willing to die to what is comfortable, easy and familiar in order to live into the dream of God.
And just what is the dream of God?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.
The dream of God is to love others as God loves us.
The dream of God is to persevere in resisting evil and whenever we fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord.
The dream of God is to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ
The dream of God is to strive for justice and peace among all people
The dream of God is just that, a dream.
The realization of that dream is NOT up to God. It is up to us.
And so my friends, as this nation delves further and further into fear mongering and hate speech, as innocents across our land, from school rooms, to church halls, to nightclubs and to offices are slaughtered by the evil and the deranged among us because somehow someway they accessed assault weapons, we have to do something.
As we, each and every one of us, may wonder what in the world we can do; as each and every one of us may, at times, feel as if the problems are more than we can possibly tackle; as each and every one of us may wish that we could stay safe and secure in our little corner of the world, nestled here in rural Wyoming County, in picturesque Perry New York,
I have this to say:
Jesus doesn’t ask us to wait for someone else.
Jesus doesn’t expect us to be brave, he expects us to be scared out of our wits that by speaking our mind we may lose friends, family members, fellow parishioners and then doing it any way.
Jesus doesn’t ask us to be polite.
Jesus doesn’t ask us to turn our backs on the hated and the lonely, on the hungry and naked, on the sick and the suffering, on the evil and the angry.
No Jesus asks us, as he himself did in this morning’s Gospel, to turn ourselves toward all that is wrong in this world, all that is scary, all that is evil, all that is confusing and Jesus asks us to work---long and hard and straight and sure--- to bring that dream of God’s to reality. Here.
And Now.
Because Jesus asks, if not us, now, then who, when?
Today Jesus turns his face toward Jerusalem, where everything he has been preaching will end up causing his death. Today, at this time of our history, with innocents being killed, with hate taking over our airwaves, with fear of our neighbor leading us to build walls, deport people and look at the other with disdain and malice, Jesus is asking us to stand up, speak out and bring God’s dream to fruition.
Right here. And right now.
Amen.
***********
Proper 9, Year C, July 3, 2016
+This morning’s collect reads, in part:
“O God you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and your neighbor.”
Sounds simple, right?
But, as Jesus explains in today’s Gospel and as he explained in last week’s, following Jesus, being his disciple, is not easy.
Because being a follower of Jesus, being his disciple, proclaiming him as our Lord and our God makes us lambs in the midst of wolves.
It makes us bait.
It makes us targets.
It makes us vulnerable….because love challenges fear, love defeats hate and love, when spread throughout the world, shakes up the status quo.
Love makes a lot of people really uncomfortable.
Loving God and Loving our Neighbor is not being nice and polite and considerate.
Loving God and Loving our Neighbor sometimes---oftentimes----means ticking off our other neighbor, our family, our fellow parishioners, our co-workers.
Loving God and Loving our neighbor means we have to stand up, speak out and say no to injustice.
Loving God and loving our neighbor means we have to stand up, speak out and say no to hate and intolerance.
Loving God and Loving our Neighbor means standing up to those who would exclude and belittle others because of the color of their skin, the gender of their beloved or the name of their God.
Loving God and Loving our Neighbor means confronting those who spew hate speech and showering them with the Love speech of Christ---that is, disputing their hate, challenging their intolerance and refusing to accept that there are just some things (and some people) that cannot be changed.
Loving God and Loving our neighbor means welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked and feeding the hungry.
Loving God and Loving our Neighbor means seeking out that stranger and dismantling the systems that lead to people being hungry, naked, lonely and afraid.
Loving God and Loving our Neighbor means being afraid to say out loud that assault weapons are designed for one thing and one thing only: killing people and that it is about time we had sensible laws that kept those weapons out of the hands of the deranged and the evil…being afraid to say it, but SAYING IT ANYWAY.
Loving God and Loving our neighbors isn’t easy, but it is absolutely, positively our job as followers of Jesus, as proclaimers of the Good News, as Christians.
Loving God and Loving our neighbor is God’s dream for us.
It’s God’s goal.
But the only way it can be reached, the only way God’s dream can come true is through us.
You and Me.
Here and Now.
We are God’s foot soldiers. Just as Jesus sent out the seventy, two by two, God, through our baptism sends us out, one by one, two by two, three by three, congregation by congregation: to Love everyone as we ourselves are loved by God. No exceptions. No exclusions, No “yes buts” everyone, everywhere, always.
We do this by respecting the dignity of every single human being. And when we witness someone NOT being treated with dignity, we do something about it.
You. Me. Us. Every. Single. Time.
Loving God and loving our neighbor isn’t comfortable, it isn’t easy, it isn’t safe.
But it is what God wants for and expects from us.
And that, my friends, can feel really overwhelming, can’t it? It’s tempting to say, “no, this is too hard. This is too big. I can’t do anything to stop this. All I can do is pray, pray that someone smarter, someone bigger, someone stronger can come and fix it.”
But, as Jesus repeatedly tells us, as the prophets repeatedly show us, as God continually expects of us, it’s the least among us, the most unlikely among us, the regular folk-- you know, you and me-- to change the world.
One act of loving our neighbor at a time.
One act of Loving our God at a time.
So as we settle into the heart of a glorious Western New York summer, as we gather with friends and family to celebrate this amazing country of ours, as we slow down a bit to rest and rejuvenate, I challenge you…I challenge me….to make this dream of God a reality by standing up, by speaking out and making sure that at this time in the history of this world of ours, Love---our Love as given to us by God--- will win. Not through a distant miracle of God but through a very close, very personal miracle of God: you and me.
Amen.
