And so… as best as I can remember… this is what I told the people gathered at Trinity Church, Lancaster, 8 am and 10 am:
Peter really wanted to be the A student. He wanted to be the #1 disciple, he wanted to be Jesus’ go to guy. He wanted to be as much like Jesus as Jesus was. But, when push came to shove, he couldn’t, he wouldn’t. He didn’t.
It was: too risky
too terrifying
too difficult
And so he sank like a stone, he proclaimed, “I do not know the man.” He failed.
And still Jesus built the church upon Peter’s cornerstone. Why? Because Jesus knew that Peter wasn’t a jerk, or a liar, or a pain in the…well maybe he was a pain, but….Jesus built his church upon Peter because Jesus knew that Peter was, simply, human. That the humanity Jesus was counting on to be his eyes and ears, his hands and feet, his voice, was/is incredibly flawed and yet, Jesus left it all to Peter, He left it all to us.
We are to take the lessons Jesus had taught us, and live it. LIVE IT in all that we do, even though being a follower of Jesus, being a Christian, being someone who walks the Way with Christ requires that we take risks, endure fear, and work through difficult things.
It is uncomfortable. We will lose friends, family members, fellow church-members.
It can be incredibly lonely to be a Christian—to really be a Christian. But, at this time in our world as followers of Jesus we must respond to the vitriol of bigots, the horror of the swastika, the ignorance of the confederate flag with the one tool-- the only tool--we have at our disposable: Love.
Hate can be stopped by love.
Hate will be stopped by love but, hear me clearly, this isn’t the love of Hallmark cards or Silly Love Songs, this love is the source of all love, this love is the be all and end all of love. It is L-O-V-E.
It’s risky—Jesus died for it, Ghandi died for it, Martin died for it. We may die for it.
It’s scary—loving everyone, everywhere, no exceptions can be frightening. Sometimes people are so different from us, sometimes their very presence in our world makes us uncomfortable , uneasy and on edge that standing up for them, welcoming them, realizing that they are us—can be really, really hard.
It’s difficult---speaking up when someone is telling a racist joke, standing up when you see another human being belittled, ostracized, hated, letting all who are around you that Hate has No Home Here—this is all really difficult, uncomfortable and scary.
But as long as stand as one to proclaim our faith through our creeds, as long as we join hands around this altar, as long as we share this Holy Meal with each other, as long as we call ourselves Christians, we must.
By virtue of our baptism we must---MUST—do this.
At all times.
In all places.
No matter what.
Do what you have to do to garner the courage to do this--
Pray for the strength, then get off your knees, go through these doors and make your loving, tolerant, accepting self be seen, heard and noticed.
For it is only through us---you and me---that Hate will be overwhelmed, over-matched and obliterated.
We can’t wait for a new president or a new congress or a new culture.
We can’t wait for someone stronger, or braver, or more faithful to do it.
We can’t wait for the madness to end.
We need to end the madness.
We can’t wait.
Love must be unleashed—by all of us, through all of us.
Always and Forever.
May God have mercy on the hate-mongers and may God’s Love embolden us, encourage us, propel us into doing what must be done. Right here. And right now.
Amen.
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