Not a Sermon - Acting Out (Epiphany 4C)

I'm not preaching this Sunday, so I don't need to write a sermon... 😎

But I do have things to say. They might be things I'm too nervous to preach in my current situation - volunteer worship leader in an overseas military liturgical congregation. 😮 

They might be things I'm too afraid to say because they might require something extra from me - take me out of my comfort zone. 😰 And yet, here I go...

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13 NRSV)

I'm working my way through the Epiphany readings from 1st Corinthians, and this week we tackle the "infamous" LOVE chapter, which most of us only hear when we attend a wedding. And it's good for that occasion. Being married is hard work. We aren't always in love the same way we were in the beginning. Somewhere along the way, we realize that just loving serves us much better.

I read a lot - history, theology, practical discipleship, cookbooks, crafting books, science fiction... I love it all. When I was 11 years old, I finally qualified for a library card of my own and got to "book-shop" in the adult section of our local library. One of the librarians had also been a junior high school teacher, so she was really good about walking us around and recommending books to get us started. I have carried my love of a good book into adulthood, which is a good thing since my vocation depends on me to keep reading in preparation for preaching, teaching, and conversations with people in many different settings. You never know what someone will ask when you knit with them at a coffee shop or sit by them on a plane.

Ironically, the COVID-19 lockdown reacquainted me with reading for pleasure. I read through all of the novels I had in my bookshelf upstairs, and many of the "professional" books I had used quotes from, but never read cover to cover. I reread Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, my tattered copy was a gift from a seminary friend when I was left at school to work during Spring break when most of my friends were at the beach. I read it alternately with the books and articles I had collected for a big research paper due a few weeks later. That book changed my life.

But my guilty pleasure is reading romance novels. There are some days when you just need a HEA - happily ever after. Yeah, I know, most of them are not great literature. Many are not well written, but I've decided that I'll plow through a lot of mediocre ones on the happy chance that I'll read something that makes a real impression on me and teaches me something new. I'm amazed at the way that romance novelists tackle real-life issues - racism, grief, infertility, domestic violence, politics, parenting challenges, second chances... the list goes on and on...

But reading romance is mostly an escape - and maybe I need that HEA because the world is pretty messed up. I read or listen to the news and it feels like we keep encountering the same problems over and over. Living in Europe highlights issues that many Americans are paying attention to. I am sickened by people who stand on the side of autocracy. As Americans and as Christians, we should be actively assisting people to have freedom everywhere. We watched the Netflix movie Munich: The Edge of War last weekend and I was unsettled, not just by seeing a portrait of a few pivotal days before the beginning of WW2, but because I saw so many of our current mistakes as reflections of ones that were made then. (See also the satirical disaster movie Don't Look Up!)

It's very disturbing when one or more cable news talking heads spout lies to people who don't know any better. It's next level "messed up" when school districts ban books that show a world that they don't want kids to see, often siting violence and profanity as the reason. Really? Have you listened to the radio lately? Played video games? Watched TV or gone to the movies? I don't think "gratuitous" is a strong enough word to use for the amount of violence or profanity that most of us, including children, encounter every day.

So if that's not what's going on, what is it about? 

Over the last three years, I have been on a reading adventure with a friend here in Germany. He retired as an Army O-6 many years ago and from government service three years ago. He stayed here as his wife continued her work in the DoDEA school system, and at his retirement party, he asked me to help him discover new Christian authors to fill up his free to and help him expand his theological knowledge as he sought to be a better bible teacher and all-around Christian person.

In the last 2 1/2 years, we have read some really challenging books. Every book choice leads us to something even more challenging. Sometimes our choices are very bible oriented... I will never think of the resurrection and heaven the same way after reading N.T. Wright's Suprised by Hope. I have expanded my pool of authors to include minority voices from the black, Latino, feminist, Roman Catholic, progressive evangelical, and LGTBQ+ communities. Still, the #1 favorite: The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr... get it... read it with a friend. But I digress... 

Everybody has an opinion about books. But not allowing kids to read books because they are controversial or deal with difficult topics or because you don't want them to know that these things even happened - that's just stupid. My librarian friend helped me check out Anne Frank's diary the summer before 7th grade, but she made my mom check it out first, and she told me to talk with her about the questions I had. That was where I learned about the World Wars. From there I heard about my grandfather fighting in France in WW1, and my dad serving as an Army Sargeant right out of high school in WW2. I learned about the Holocaust, and I cried real tears when I realized that Anne never made it out alive. 

Later in school, we read Billy Budd and Red Badge of Courage and Lord of the Flies and To Kill a Mockingbird ... very violent, and sometimes sickening to read and discuss. But from those stories, I learned that I didn't want to live in a world like that. And through my life as a Christian, I learned that I could do something about it.

Paul writes to a church in Corinth that is tearing itself apart with is quarrels and disagreements. And he is holding a mirror up to their faces, calling them out for their hypocrisy and un-Christian nature. I imagine from his critique that they are trying to justify their behavior by invoking the name of Jesus. His clear retort - whatever you say, whatever you plan, whatever you do, if it's not done it love it is wasted effort.

And then Paul paints a portrait of love that feels unattainable but is so lovely we can't help but try. I realized when I was reading that second paragraph that Paul's instructions are found as we live out the gifts of the Spirit as taught to the Galatians. And then he goes on to remind us that in this life, we only know part of the fullness of God. In the beginning, we are children in faith, only able to understand in the simplest of terms what it means to be a child of God. As we grow, we let our simple understanding go and learn to embrace the complicated natures of God and Jesus and the Church. 

Even so, in this life, we don't know everything about God. Paul says, "We see in a mirror dimly..." For me, that is what it feels like in the morning before I put on my glasses. I can see shapes and colors, but I can't see the walk down the stairs, much less drive a car. The best news is that one day, we will see God face to face, and we will have a big AH HA! All the missing pieces will be filled in, and we will know God fully, even as God has always known us. 

Until then, we have to give others the benefit of the doubt. We have to accept that we don't have all the answers. There are more things to learn, and amazingly, we will often change our minds - in fact, we must change our minds. 

It is easy to get lured into a sense of comfort in our faith journeys. It's hard and scary to be confronted with differing ideas about who God and Jesus are, and how we are being called to live out our faith. 

As much as I don't want people judging my faith journey, I cannot judge theirs. Yes, that makes me uncomfortable. When people come to me with questions, there are few things more uncomfortable than saying, "I don't know," or "I might be wrong." And I'll be honest - when I don't know, or when I think I'm wrong about ideas I had in the past, I often don't willingly share that info because I don't want to be judged or thought of as wishy-washy or falling away from the faith. In fact, the opposite is true.

Many of you know my backstory: I was a blood bank technologist for six years before I felt the call to seminary and full-time ministry. I tried to slow-roll the process as much as possible because it all felt like stepping off a ledge into the vast darkness of space. I made it into Duke Divinity School with 95% of the work being be done by the Holy Spirit. On the Sunday before I left for seminary, an older woman whispered in my ear, "Don't let that place steal your faith." I can only assume she was afraid that getting more knowledge would weaken my faith... she was totally wrong.

My faith journey has taken so many twists and turns, you absolutely could not make this stuff up. There is nothing in the specifics of my journey that I ever imagined for myself and everything I hoped it would be. More knowledge and more experience only make my faith and my hope stronger... and my ability and desire to love, but always with God's help.

In the last verse of this passage, Paul reminds us that faith and hope are important, but if love is not the underpinning of our whole existence, nothing else matters.  We are called to do everything in love. All of our interactions with other people - and all of creation - must be grounded in love. All of our thoughts - even our anger - must come from a place of love, which feels impossible, at best. If the Hebrew Bible prophets teach us anything, it's that righteous anger is a gift from God and is sometimes the best motivation to do the really hard work. What does that look like? That's different for everyone.

But it might be something as "simple" as

1 - providing a space where kids can read difficult books and talk about them from a Christian perspective... buying copies of banned books for your church library.

2 - reading a book that others have warned you about to see for yourself what it has to say... you don't have to take everything as gospel truth, but you may find something worth considering, and maybe even incorporating into your own life or theological perspective.

3 - reaching out to people who are different from you. Yes, taking that first step is hard, and may even get us in trouble with those who are most comfortable to us,  but brings its own rewards - ones we didn't even know we needed.

There are 101 ways to end this "not a sermon," but I'll leave you with this: 

Love is a choice. And for us to live truly authentic Christian lives, we have to practice love until it becomes as natural as breathing in the air around us. And because we are not perfect, it will always be something we have to work at - it will never be so automatic that we don't have to ask the question, "Is this choice rooted in what Jesus taught us love is all about?" 

I'll leave you with some of my favorite quotes on love, which remind us how different Christian love is from the kind of love the world talks about. 

“Human love is directed to the other person for his own sake, spiritual love loves him for Christ's sake. Therefore, human love seeks direct contact with the other person; it loves him not as a free person but as one whom it binds to itself. It wants to gain, to capture by every means; it uses force. It desires to be irresistible, to rule.” -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community

“Imagine if every church became a place where everyone is safe, but no one is comfortable. Imagine if every church became a place where we told one another the truth. We might just create sanctuary.” -- Rachel Held Evans, Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell." -- CS Lewis, The Four Loves.

Peace, Deb

(c) Deb Luther Teagan, January 2022 

Sermon - Many Gifts - One Body (Epiphany 3C)

 THIRD SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY, YEAR C             January 23, 2022

Nehemiah 8: 2-10; I Corinthians 12: 12-27; Luke 4:14-21           Panzer Liturgical Service 

From a 2006 survey of the unchurched between 18 and 40 years old, David Kinnaman of the Barna Research Group wrote a book, UNCHRISTIAN, which reported the image problem of the modern church. Participants used these words to describe the way they saw Christianity – hypocritical, insensitive, judgmental – with the crowning statement: “I like your Jesus but I don’t like your church.”

While we are trained by our modern society to consider our individuality as sacred, the Bible knows nothing about individuals apart from the concept of community. Abraham was called out for the express purpose of being the father of a people. Moses was called to lead the people out of slavery into the Promised Land. And for forty years, because of the stubbornness and willfulness of these people, he struggled with them in the desert. And no matter how frustrated he got with them, and probably wanted to leave them behind, they were a community. They were in this thing together, and together they would stay.

The lesson from Nehemiah tells of the recovery of the rule of the Law of God as defined by the Torah after the Babylonian Exile. The Jews had finally been allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it under the leadership of Nehemiah as their governor.  One of the first things that Ezra, their priest and scribe, had to do was to re-establish the pattern of worship that had been destroyed. He understood that their service of God was radically incomplete unless and until their common worship was restored. This morning's lesson tells about the process he followed to teach the people what it meant to be Jews living in Jerusalem. 

Here we are reminded that there was no such thing as an individual Jew separated from the people, their understanding of the Law & Prophets, and the worship of the temple community. Any promise of God was made to the whole people together. The Law of God was for all of them together. Their individuality was nested in their identity in being God's people. This is mostly a foreign concept to us because we think of ourselves as individuals – maybe being part of a military community can give us a glimpse of what God had in mind. Mostly, we think of ourselves first, then everyone else comes next. We are personally responsible for our acts, our faith, our relationship to God unless, of course, it goes badly and we feel the need to blame somebody else.

But this is NOT the way the Bible looks at people.  The Bible always looks at individual people, even an Abraham or a Sarah or a Moses, as an integral part of the whole people of God. The Old Testament talks about being one of "the chosen people.” In the New Testament, we call this being part of the "Body of Christ." Claiming our membership in this body is often difficult because society tells us that we are most completely ourselves when we stand alone, uncommitted, uninvolved, and uncluttered by other relationships – “to thyself be true.”

When Jesus read the lesson from Isaiah in the synagogue and began to teach his former neighbors about who he was, they immediately saw him only in the context of previous relationships. Here he was, claiming to fulfill a long-promised prophecy, but they could not get past the fact that he was "Joseph's son." He had grown up among them. They knew his family. He was part of the familiar world. How could they see him any other way? How could he be anyone else?

What was it like for the people of Nazareth when this man they had known all their lives and/or all of his life, suddenly came to them not as "Joseph's son," but as "God's Son?"  How were they supposed to deal with this change from the familiar to the radically other? It is very hard for us to imagine what it must have been like for them because since we have been baptized and worshiped within the Christian community, we have known Him as "God's own Son." So while we can’t step outside our own experience and our knowledge of Him, I hope we can relate to this story because we also have to redefine our own lives in the light of who Christ is to us, both as individuals and as a part of a community of faith.

Our lesson from 1^st Corinthians is one of the clearest expressions of this Biblical understanding of not just community, but also communal identity. In both letters to the Corinthians, Paul is writing to a congregation he founded. But it is a congregation in conflict… lots of conflict. Some of it involves people who are interpreting forgiveness of sin as an excuse for immorality. Some of it involves people who claim to have special, “better” knowledge of God, making a hierarchy of gifts and experiences within the community. Some of it involves a quarrel between those who are more “charismatic” and those who are less dependent on “speaking in tongues.”

Wherever there was disagreement identified, Paul scolded them, promised discipline, and then called on them to live in love and charity with one another. As we read last week, he listed varieties of gifts they have received and reminds them that all these gifts come from God. They didn't make them or “deserve” them, but God freely gave them because of his great love for his creation.

In our reading today, Paul moves on to what it means for us to be the Body of Christ, driving home the point that each of us is necessary for the good and growth of the whole. None of us has all the gifts of the Spirit. Each of us has something, but it takes our working together to bring them to their best light.  

Like our bodies, the community of the faithful is a mixed bag of the necessary, the nice, the ugly, and the occasionally good-looking. Paul is really smart here – he uses a readily available concept to tell a spiritual story. We need all the functions that our healthy bodies provide for us. When a part of our physical bodies fails us, we go to the doctor and try to find a way back to wholeness… medication, rehabilitation, surgery, and psychological therapy all work to bring us back to wholeness, often helping us to compensate when vital functions are gone forever.

I’m sure you all remember my 2020 knee injury – who could forget my hobbled attempts to keep it from making me even more housebound than COVID already had done. I had an uncomplicated surgical repair three months later and another three months of outpatient rehab. But at the six-month mark, I still felt like I would fall all over again whenever I had to tackle stairs or walk on uneven surfaces. I finally got a referral from my PCM and he recommended functional physical therapy –targeted not just to help me recover my strength, but to boost my confidence in my own body. Right away, my PT realized that some of the function in my knee wasn’t going to come back – arthritis can sneak up on you before you know it. But the good news was that we could train other muscle groups in my legs, hips, and back to pick up the slack. What a difference these three months have made. I finally feel like my body is my own again.

Somehow, this feels like an apt metaphor for what Paul teaches here. In the body of Christ, we need all the parts working as well as they can. We are dependent upon one another for the fullness of our life together. When one part is weak, it’s up to the others to get stronger to keep the body in balance. Also like our bodies, not all parts or gifts in the Body of Christ are beauty pageant worthy. Any attempts to make the Body of Christ beautiful or perfect by rejecting the less desirable members or gifts of the community are not only wrong but could endanger the body so that it can’t function at all.

I am reminded of a quote from Rachel Held Evans in her book Searching For Sunday when she said,

“This is what God's kingdom is like: a bunch of outcasts and oddballs gathered at a table, not because they are rich or worthy or good, but because they are hungry, because they said yes. And there's always room for more.” The God who made us, made all of us, knows all of us, loves all of us, forgives all of us, and binds all of us into His Body.

And, for me, at least, that is the most important thing to remember:

·      We don't get to define the Body of Christ. God does.

·      We don't provide the gifts which keep the Body of Christ alive and functioning and doing His work in the world. God does. 

·      We don't have the power to define who or what belongs in the Body of Christ. God does.

And as Jesus proclaimed in Nazareth his call “to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,” he also lays that call upon us. We are called to be the church – ekklesia – a word used by Jesus and other Old and New Testament writers to call out citizens to battle for their communities. 

In Searching For Sunday, Rachel Held Evans shares her continuing journey to find meaning in her personal and communal experience of following Jesus. She writes: 

So church is, essentially, a gathering of kingdom citizens, called out—from their individuality, from their sins, from their old ways of doing things, from the world’s way of doing things—into participation in this new kingdom and community with one another. I’m not exactly sure how all this works, but I think, ultimately, it means I can’t be a Christian on my own. Like it or not, following Jesus is a group activity, something we’re supposed to do together. We might not always do it within the walls of church or even in an organized religion, but if we are to go about making disciples, confessing our sins, breaking bread, paying attention, and preaching the Word, we’re going to need one another. We’re going to need each other’s help.[i]

We are called to do that using the gifts we are given – which means everyone’s call and service will be different, but important, meaningful, and necessary, even when others disagree or don’t understand our call. Our gifts are meant to help us seek justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God, in His Body, doing our part… whatever that may be. May we give thanks that we are called together to be the body of Christ – to love and serve God, our neighbor, and ourselves, as a living witness to God’s presence and love in the world.

Thanks be to God!

 Peace, Deb

Holy God, we thank you that each one of us without exception is a part of the Body of Christ. We love that it doesn’t matter to you how young or old we are, what our physical bodies look like or how well they function in order to be a part of your family. Help us to use the gifts of your Spirit together to fulfill our function to be instruments of your love and peace in the world. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.

---

[i] Evans, Rachel Held. Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church (pp. 272-273). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

Additional Resources:
Melanie Howard
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-after-epiphany-3/commentary-on-1-corinthians-1212-31a-5
Robb Mccoy & Erik Fistler 

https://www.pulpitfiction.com/notes/epiphany3c/#1Corinthians12%3A12-31=
 

Sermon - Many Gifts - One Spirit - Epiphany 2 (C)

 2^nd Sunday after Epiphany (C)                                                      January 16, 2022

Isaiah 62:1-5, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, John 2:1-11                       Panzer Liturgical

Many Gifts – One Spirit

Do you want to hear something crazy? Almost 32 years and I’ve never preached on any of these passages… three of the most recognized passages of scripture, and some of the most preached on… and I had to choose which would be my main focus today.

I’ll admit, John’s gospel account of Jesus’ first miracle is quite compelling. I like to think of it as an accidental or reluctant miracle. Soon after his baptism by John in the Jordan River, Jesus gathered with recently called disciples and family members at a wedding, which was probably a multiple-day affair. It was the responsibility of the host to make sure that there was enough food and drink to go around. Unfortunately for him, the wine ran out sooner than expected and that was very, very bad. I love that it wasn’t Jesus who instigated saving the host’s party… it was Jesus’ mother. Jesus’ reluctance is noted, but Mary waved that away, sure that Jesus will make it all well.

And he does, turning six giant barrels of water into the finest wine. Yes, it made the host look especially good, because who serves the best stuff first? But even more than the impact it had on this one wedding party, it told us something important about the extravagant nature of God’s love and blessing. The ultimate purpose of this accidental miracle was to convince the disciples to believe in who Jesus is. Yes, they started out as a rag-tag band of followers, but in the end, even with all of their mistakes, they changed the world.

That is Paul’s message to many of the early congregations… God will do a great thing through you. And in his first letter to the church at Corinth, Paul wants to both encourage the church’s members and correct some troublesome behaviors. This book of 1^st Corinthians is always highlighted during the season of Epiphany, so in year C we will be reading from chapters 12-14  over the next 6 weeks. In these chapters, Paul addresses not just the practical details about how the church should worship, but also the underlying components of true worship of God. Ultimately, Paul reflects on spiritual manifestations of worship, not just the practices themselves. In chapter 12, we see the focus of worship is not just about what we do in worship. It is also about the attitudes we bring to worship, attitudes about God, ourselves, and one another.

First, Paul talks about spiritual gifts – they are not our possessions alone – they come to us as gifts of grace we are called to use to worship God and serve others. So what problem is Paul addressing here?

Those of us affiliated or in contact with military personal understand uniformity. This is the idea that a mission or identity is best served when things are the same. That’s not what Paul is talking about here. He understands that people have been graced with different gifts, and called to use them in different ways. But no matter what the gift, they are not possessions which we brag about – we didn’t earn them because of anything special we have done, or because we deserve them, but receive them intentionally as gifts for which we must be grateful. And this means that no gift is better than another.

Second, there are a variety of gifts – all coming from the same source – and given, not as we want to receive them, but as the Spirit determines them necessary. I’ve talked about how one of my spiritual gifts is teaching, despite my desire for different gifts. Before I attended seminary, and even early in my ministry, I thought this gift wasn’t as important as preaching or exhortation. It took a couple of years to realize that teaching wasn’t just about sitting in a classroom to give a lecture. Teaching happens in sermons. It happens during mission moments. It happens in hospital waiting rooms, and while we’re having a conversation over coffee. It even happens when we see a movie or read a book or article and see a new way to understand that grace and love of God and share that with others.

No matter what the gift, how we use it, or how using that gift translates the love of God into action, we are called to use the spiritual gifts we receive in service to the same Lord. When we are using these gifts at our best, we are inspired to love and serve others – it’s like we can’t help ourselves. And while some of us find that our spiritual gifts play in concert with our talents and things we are enthusiastic about, sometimes our spiritual gifts require us to act outside our comfort zones.

Third, our spiritual gifts, while different, are how we achieve unity. Next week, we’ll hear more about this, Paul is clear that we don’t get to judge other people’s fitness for the Kingdom of God based on how important we think their gifts are. Look at any community, business, or family. There are all kinds of jobs that need to be done. Those leading are tasked with finding the best people to do the jobs that will bring success. Who wants to go to a restaurant with only goods, but no servers? My brother-in-law and nephew work for the same company in Michigan, but their jobs are very different, not just because of their various degrees and interests. They each bring something to the company which makes their work successful.  Different gifts, but a unifying desire to make the company one of the best in their industry.

I’ve had the opportunity to volunteer in many congregations and chapels in the last 25 years. And most of the time when people find out I have experience leading and teaching, that’s where I get asked to serve. But there have been a couple of places where I got the opportunity to put new spiritual gifts into practice. Let me tell you, I was very happy to volunteer in the community garden our church hosted in Rhode Island… It wasn’t just about helping things grow – my joy was fueled by seeing how excited families were to take home the fresh produce and flowers we spent the spring and summer growing.

In Spokane, we hosted a transitional housing shelter for families with children every other month. We turned the classrooms into bedrooms, prepared meals, and made sure that they had a safe place to sleep as they worked toward more permanent housing solutions. Some of my best nights were spent dishing up spaghetti, playing Candyland while parents took showers, and talking with folks long into the night. Nobody knew my background. No teaching or preaching was required.  I wasn’t Pastor Deb to them – I was the lady who made sure there were Lucky Charms available for breakfast, just in case they were anyone’s favorite cereal.

I don’t know if you have ever taken a spiritual gifts inventory or not – there are several options online which can help you find out what your gifts might be. There are at least 22 spiritual gifts defined in the New Testament letters, and they often are thought of as jobs or responsibilities within our communities of faith. But we should not think that the Spirit’s work through us stops at the walls of our chapel, or only inside our community of faith. Sometimes our gifts take us out into the world, gifted and empowered to bring blessings wherever we go – to people and to the creation itself.

In 1738, John Wesley and his brother Charles returned to England from a disastrous missionary journey to the colonies. It had originally been their desire to preach to the Native communities in upstate Georgia, but they ended up staying in Savannah, John pastoring an Anglican congregation, and Charles as the secretary to Governor Oglethorpe. The Wesley brothers were Oxford-trained and ordained as ministers in the Church of England, but in retrospect, we know they had no joy.

Conflicts ensued and they left Savannah under the cover of darkness to return home unsatisfied. On the 5-week journey home, a violent storm struck their crossing, and John wrote in his journal that he had worried that they might be lost at sea. He watched with envy a group of Moravian missionaries on the same ship who, during the difficult voyage, seemed to be in peace and unafraid. After returning to England, he journeyed to Moravia in modern-day Chechia/ Poland to meet with their church leaders and perhaps learn the secret to their peaceful nature.

On May 24, 1738, John wrote that while he was in a church service listening to someone read from Luther Preface to Romans, he felt his heart strangely warmed, understanding for the first time that Jesus died for his sins. And after that everything changed. Wesley’s group of “Methodists” were no longer known for their strict adherence to bible study, accountability, and Christian discipleship. Their societies became agents of change in English communities, opening hospitals, orphanages, and schools, and ministering to workers in factories, farms, and mining communities. And when the American Revolution separated the new United States from the British Crown, Wesley sent two men to American to ordain pastors for communities in need of spiritual leadership when it was clear Anglican pastors would not be returning to their churches.

Wesley’s claimed authority to do this in the spirit of Paul’s message to the Corinthian Christians… serve because God gave you gifts to serve, and do it wherever you can, in all the ways you can, because the world is our parish. There are many gifts, united by the one Spirit. Give thanks, for we are all called and gifted to serve.

Thanks be to God!

 

Resources:

Robb Mccoy and Erik Fistler, Pulpit Fiction Podcast – Epiphany 2C – Epistle lesson https://www.pulpitfiction.com/notes/epiphany2c/#1Corinthians12%3A1-11=

A. Theodore Mollegen, Jr., Sermons That Work, Gifts For Service – Epiphany 2C, January 18, 1998,  https://www.episcopalchurch.org/sermon/gifts-for-service-epiphany-2-c-1998/

Bob Cornwall, Ponderings on a Spiritual Journey, January 10, 2022, https://www.bobcornwall.com/2022/01/concerning-spiritual-things-lectionary.html

Announcement

Happy New Year!

I've changed the web address for my sermon blog. You can find my weekly sermons at this address:

https://dlteagan-sermons.blogspot.com/

Hopefully, I'll be able to remember this more easily! 😁

Deb

Sermon - We Are Beloved - (Baptism of the Lord C)

Baptism of the Lord (C)                                                      January 9, 2022

Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22                                                          Panzer Liturgical Service

When you boil it down to its most basic simplest explanation, there are two kinds of Christians – those who remember their baptisms and those who do not.  Many of those who remember their baptisms came to the water of their own choosing. Some traditions call it making a decision for Christ. You choose Jesus, and the symbol or sign of that choice is the act of baptism. For many traditions that promote so-called “believer’s baptism,” a sense of personal repentance is a necessary component of the baptismal process.

Almost all of those who don’t remember come from traditions that support and encourage the baptisms of infants and young children. These traditions, many of which are represented here today, work from the premise that God chooses us first, and baptism is the sign or symbol of our response to what God is already doing in our lives. In these traditions, baptism is a singular event. It happens once in our lives, and then we spend future opportunities remembering and reflecting on what our baptisms mean to us.

Each takes their theological rationale from scripture, weaving together the gospel stories of Jesus’ baptism with Jesus’ instruction as his ascension to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you…” (Matthew 28:19-20 CEB).

But baptism didn’t start with Christians. Long before Jesus, people were using water to ceremonially cleanse themselves and their worship spaces. John the Baptist was preaching quite famously about how much the world needed to change – about how much the people needed to turn back to God – about how this would get them ready for the really big thing that God was getting ready to do, and the One who was coming to do it.

For John, the big word was repentance.  For most of us, this means feeling bad about the mistakes we’ve made and trying to do better. For John, repentance was so much more – much more radical and dangerous. For John, repentance was about rejecting their brokenness and becoming ready to bring in a new world order, which in light of the cruelty of the ruling Roman government was very dangerous indeed.[i] People were literally choosing God over the country, and Caesar and his little minions didn’t like that one bit.

Yes, John’s message was dangerous, but it was also one of hope and action. He wasn’t just calling for people to reject the status quo. He was also preparing them to follow someone who would come and turn the world upside-down.

Jesus came to John to be publicly recognized as a pivotal leader in the march toward this new world order. His presence with them, the things he taught through word and deed, laid a foundation for the Church we have today. But the real miracle of Jesus’ ministry was not just that he was God who came in human form to live and teach among us, but that when he left the world at his ascension, the Holy Spirit remained with us to lead, guide, and comfort us through all the joys and messes of our lives.[ii]

And still today, 2000 years later, we also come to the water to reclaim our lives for God. Today I want us to look at this passage from Luke and see at least two ways that our baptisms are a reflection of his baptism.

First, Jesus came to be baptized in public. It was his debut to the world, so to speak. And as we look back on the day, we see that he was identifying himself with John and his followers, who were already in hot water with Herod, the local ruler. Here, Jesus found the beginnings of community. He didn’t go to John in the darkness of night, or in a quiet out-of-the-way place to step out on the stage. He did it surrounded by people, as a witness to the power of God. [iii]

When we come for baptism, it is also a public and community event. It is a time of celebration, and promises are made. Questions are asked of those people baptized, or of their sponsors, about who God and Jesus are, and of their willingness to reject sin and evil and turn fully on the path to God. The gathered community reaffirms their own baptisms and makes promises to support the newly baptized in their life in Christ. Every time we come to the water, we are remembering and promising again to renew our relationship with God and Jesus Christ.

Secondly, in Jesus’ baptism, we encounter head-on the power and person of the Holy Spirit. According to Jewish tradition, the Holy Spirit has been around since creation, but at this moment, we encounter the Spirit in a whole new way. The Spirit is no longer hovering over the world, but descending in the form of a dove, that everyone could see, and speaking in a voice that everyone could hear – “You are my Son, the Beloved – with you, I am well pleased.”

This is true for us, too. Too many times I have heard people speak as if baptism is a magical rite that protects their children from harm or the golden ticket for admission to heaven. It is neither. Nor is it about membership in a particular denomination or congregation - it is so much more.

Baptism is a sacrament that claims and names people into the Kingdom of God. In its waters, we are cleansed from the sin we have committed, and the ones we have not even thought of yet. In its grace, we are healed from the brokenness of the world and prepared to spend eternity with God. Through baptism, God is at work, in us and in the church.  And in return, God expects something from us. He expects us to take our baptisms seriously.  Through baptism, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, not just to become a part of a movement towards God’s new creation, but also to embody that same spirit in the way we live our lives every day.[iv]

So what does this look like? Water plays an integral place in our lives. We need it for sustenance. Given the ubiquitous role that water plays in our lives, we shouldn’t be surprised that the Reformers insisted that every time we wash our hands is an opportunity to remember our baptism and the promises God made to us in it. Baptism, though conducted only once, was never intended to be a one-and-done event, but rather something we remember and renew daily.[v]

Last week, we talked about how the Greatest Commandment calls us to love God and love others – but it doesn’t stop there… we are called to love others as we love ourselves. But many of us have trouble loving others exactly because we don’t practice self-love. We don’t always believe that God loves us more than we can ever imagine. I imagine that our own self-worth would grow if we claimed God’s love for us daily. It might be as simple as saying and believing, “I am God’s beloved child, called and sent to make a difference in the world.”

Each Sunday after the sermon, we rise together and say the Apostles or Nicene Creed. Creed – from the Latin word Credo means “believe”. I’ve known many people who don’t like the creeds because they aren’t sure whether or not they believe all that it has to say. I tell them it’s OK because the creeds are something we grow into, just like our baptisms. And they are not perfect. Saying or praying the creed each week is one way to be reminded of the unique nature of our relationship with God and with one another. The creeds give us a foundation on which to build the personal and communal relationships that God seeks to have with us. They are the foundation of our baptismal and confirmation celebrations. But our commitment to Christ and the Church does not stop there.

Our faith is built on the promise that God is always with us… in good and bad times, and in ways that we never imagined God would be present. In our baptisms and confirmations, we promise to love and serve God, to resist evil and injustice in whatever ways they present themselves, and to trust the promises that have been made to us. One way to do that is to occasionally retake our baptismal vows, which we have done several times in the last few years. But we can also remember our baptisms as we pray a prayer for the renewal of the covenant made between us when we take up the mantle of Christ.

In 1775, John Wesley introduced a covenant service as an important part of spiritual life in the Methodist Societies of the Anglican Church. This renewal service was a time for the participants to gather annually in a time of self-examination, reflection, and dedication, wholly giving up themselves and renewing covenant with God. Repentance through confession and commitment was a key focus of the service, demanding humility from those willing to submit themselves to the dynamic words stated within the liturgy.

According to Wesley’s journal, though the covenant renewal service was held on various occasions throughout the year, by the end of his life, the service was observed typically on or the Sunday nearest January 1st. The covenant renewal service is a practice that continues in churches and Christian communities today, often near the beginning of the new year. It has undergone many revisions and adaptations, but its purpose as an evocative ceremony of commitment to ongoing discipleship and Christ-like character has always remained intact. We are going to pray the closing prayer from this service as we end the sermon today.  This offers us another reminder that our commitment to life in Christ does not rest in the actions of one day, but in the ways that we live out our faith in everything we do.

Do you know the date of your baptism? If not, find out, and on that day for each person in your family, light a candle and say a prayer of thanksgiving for the gift baptism has brought to your life. Use this as an opportunity to serve others, as a reminder that baptism calls us to a life of service in Christ’s name.

So today and every day, remember your baptism and be thankful… that God has worked in you through your baptism and continues to work through you in the world. Remember that your baptism is a part of your identity as a child of God and member of the family with those who follow Jesus Christ.  Remember your baptism and be faithful to the promises made and the work that you are called to do in his name. You are beloved!

Amen.

Peace, Deb

(c) Deb Luther Teagan, January 2022

---

[i] Ron Allen, Preach this Week, January 10, 2016, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2709

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Ibld.

[iv] Ibid.

[v] David Lose, “Preaching a More Meaningful Baptism,” January 6, 2013, https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/preaching-a-more-meaningful-baptism

Sermon - From the Beginning, Chosen to Love (Christmas 2 C)

 Second Sunday after Christmas (C)                                       January 2, 2022

Jeremiah 31:7-14; Ephesians 1:3-14; and John 1:1-18

How ironic to have one of our readings for this Sunday be a part of the creation story… No, we’re not reading from Genesis – we’re reading from the gospel of John. On this first Sunday of the new year, we hear these familiar words, “In the beginning…” Except this story doesn’t talk about the acts of creation – it speaks of the fullness of creation before anything finite was ever created. “In the beginning was the Word… and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Here, in John 1, before we had a formal doctrine of the Trinity, our gospel writer wants to make sure we know that Jesus wasn’t an afterthought or second-hand plan. Jesus was there from the beginning. And he wasn’t just present – he participated in everything that was to come.

There are hundreds of sermons to be preached from these first 18 verses of John, and hundreds more books to be written, but I promise I won’t go there today. Instead, I’d like to focus on the parts of this passage that are especially important to where we are in the Christian year, as we celebrate the second Sunday of this Christmas season. So, while it was important for us to hear the whole prologue, we’re going to focus on the second half of the, especially verses 10-14.

And as weird as this might seem, I’m going to start at the end with verse 14: John writes, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”

One of the keywords for the Christmas season is the word “incarnation.” It is reflected in one of our best-known Advent hymns – O Come, O come, Emmanuel – Emmanuel translates as “God with us.” So, when we think about the “Word of God Incarnate,” we are addressing two different things from our John reading. Jesus is the Word – God speaks the universe into being - and Jesus participates in all of it.

When we take verse 14 down to its roots, we find something interesting. The Greek verb for “lived” used here is skenoo, which gives us this word picture – God “pitched his tent” with us. Think of the Israelites wandering in the desert, wondering why God had brought them to this place. And then, God instructed them to make a “tent of meeting,” a place where they could get closer to God. Yes, God was with them on the journey, but God’s bigness was being diluted by the vastness of the wilderness around them.  When Jesus came into the world as a human, John reminds us that God has chosen to “tabernacle” among us in an even more radical way, as the Word embodied in human flesh. 

Today, we have an almost unlimited number of ways to communicate with one another, but the best way to give important news is to do it in person. Whether it is saying something difficult or sharing impossibly great news, being face-to-face with others carries with it tremendous benefits and responsibilities. Our almost two-year adventure with COVID-19 reminds us of how much we want to be present with other people. At our best, we are caught between a rock and a hard place deciding how much risk we are willing to take to be with other people. I, for one, am grateful for measures like testing, vaccines, verification apps, and rules which help give environments some level of safety as long as I do my part, too.

We went to the movies on the economy over the holidays to see the new Spiderman movie (which I’m sure I’ll be talking about during Lent – it has numerous theological themes running from beginning to the end.) And we felt like it was a safe enough space because of the multiple levels of care given to making it so. Sure, it will eventually be on a streaming service that will allow me to see it again and again, but seeing it in person and bigger than life, it felt like that was a risk worth taking. 

The God who created the universe and everything in it understands this need to be present with others… that is why we have that first beautiful garden and its inhabitants. But the Hebrew Bible story can often be remembered more for its scenes of disaster and destruction, not for the overarching sense of God’s benevolent presence with humankind. Some stories are told from the perspective of a defeated people. Prophets who want people to come back to God not only speak of the need for justice and righteousness but God’s disappointment and judgment when we do not take God’s call seriously. As a result, many who read the Bible come away with the idea that the God we see there is not to be trusted. 

When we turn to a new chapter, we see God putting all the cards on the table… this is the best I have to give. God doesn’t want to be afraid or lost in confusion or distance. What is better news than this: We are not alone. Jesus came to redefine what it means for us to be in relationship with God. Ultimately, God comes to us, not first as unknown prophets walking in from the mist, but as a baby, innocent and non-threatening, and in need of comfort. It is not lost on us, as we look forward to Epiphany on January 6^th (Three Kings Day here in Germany), we will see how intimidating this little baby was, even when he presented no personal threat to Herod or his court. After the Magi worshiped at the baby’s side and left gifts for him that might have provided the means for the family to escape, they went home by another way, fearing the destruction that Herod had in mind.

Martin Luther wrote that Jesus came as a baby perhaps because we are not capable of bearing the burden of God’s majesty and divinity as our first understanding of who God is. When Christ took on our humanity, he did it in such a way that we would not be terrified, but comforted and consoled by his presence, because who among us doesn’t love a baby? Emmanuel – Jesus with us – he has come into the world, not to condemn us but to save us, from the world and from ourselves.[I]

So, when we look back to verses 10-13, we see in this creation story a foreshadowing of how this will play out. Jesus came, but everyone did not know or recognize him. Some rejected him. Some plotted and succeeded in killing him, thinking that would take care of their problem. But it didn’t, because he wasn’t just like everyone else. And in the miracle of his death and resurrection, a new body of believers came together… not just followers, but brothers and sisters in faith, and children of God, not just in body, but in spirit and the truthfulness of their living. That’s what Paul writes to the Ephesians about. Jesus coming changed everything.

If you have the chance to travel to Ephesus in Turkey, you get an immediate feel for the city. Ephesus was remarkably modern for its day. It was a waypoint for travelers going from Asia to the Middle East by ship. Found in the 11^th century BC, for over 14 centuries it was considered one of the most important cities in the ancient world. In the first century BC, the city came under Roman control and had its biggest revival. People came from far and wide to worship at the large temple to the goddess of fertility, Artemis. In the book of Acts, we see Paul in Ephesus, bringing people into the Christian faith. It is reported the apostle John brought Jesus’ mother Mary here to live out her last days. Paul later wrote a letter of encouragement and teaching to them.

Paul opens this letter with a blessing, and then a reminder that God chose them as children (and us) as a part of the overarching plan for creation. We are called to be holy and blameless before him in love – not because we have done something special to deserve it, but because we are his chosen and adopted children. No longer is it necessary to be born into a particular bloodline. We gain entry into the family because of the richness of God’s grace. And our inheritance is not earned by the good things we have done in the past, but in how we respond to this amazing gift, now and in the future. We are called to set our hope on Christ and to live out our lives in love.[ii]

This kind of language can be confusing. Some scholars think that Paul used the framework of adoption because of the long history of Roman rulers adopting other family members as children to pass on their inheritance and rights to rule. As inheritors of God’s grace, we are given both redemption and forgiveness… our sins and debts will not be held against us. This was God’s plan… it was always God’s plan – from the very beginning. We will see later in Ephesians that Paul works hard to hold the Jewish and Gentile Christians into a cohesive community. The language about adoption works there, too. This action doesn’t just to explain the depth of God’s love for us, but how much we are connected to everyone else – as God’s children together – because of that love.[iii] 

So how do these two passages work together on this particular Sunday? In sorting through emails from last year, I ran across this interesting quote which helped me form a message for today. Father Richard Rohr, Franciscan monk, and Christian mystic wrote this:

“Incarnation is the overcoming of the gap between God and everything visible and concrete. It is the synthesis of matter and spirit. Without incarnation, God remains separate from us and from creation. Because of incarnation, we can say, ‘God is with us!’ In fact, God is in us, and in everything else God has created. We all have the divine DNA. Everything bears the divine fingerprint, including, of course, the mystery of embodiment. 

He goes on to say: “The belief that God is ‘out there’ is the basic dualism that is tearing us all apart. Our view of God as separate and distant has harmed our relationship to food, possessions, and money, to animals, nature, and our own bodies. This loss is foundational to why we live such distraught and divided lives….”[iv]

Here, Rohr is saying that Jesus’ incarnation is not just about saving people for sin and getting us ready for heaven. It’s much more important than that. Incarnation is the glue that holds us all together. It is what shapes our spirits and our behaviors. It is a reminder that we don’t do good things to gain eternal life. We do good things to say thank you for the eternal life we have already been given. In short, when we wonder how we are supposed to live, love is always the answer to all the questions.

Thank goodness we are not meant to do that alone. We are called to community – to be the church – because together we can do so much more than we can individually. Archbishop Desmond Tutu said: “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”[v] 

For some, the new year offers opportunities to make changes, to bring order back into disorder, to rearrange our lives. Overnight, I worried that this sermon might lack a practical dimension. And then I realized that faith lived is not always practical. In fact, it often calls us to live in ways that the world deems crazy. Seeing and believing ourselves to be beloved children of God – you can’t work yourself into that state of being. It requires a change of heart. The greatest commandment asks us to love God and love our neighbor, but we often forget an integral piece… loving ourselves is often the missing link. And that’s where our lessons take us today.

The love that God shows us is not just personal and not just communal – it is both. So, accept the love of God, the presence of Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that supported, mentored, encouraged, and challenged, we can grow together in love. And know that this was God’s plan all along.

Thanks be to God!

Peace, Deb

(c) Deb Luther Teagan, January 2022

[i] Elizabeth Johnson, Commentary on John 1:1-18, January 2, 2022, Working Preacher.com https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/second-sunday-of-christmas-3/commentary-on-john-11-9-10-18-9

[ii] Edward Pillar, Commentary on Ephesians 1:3-14, January 2, 2022, workingpreacher.com

[iii] Will Willimon, Blest to Be a Blessing, Pulpit Resource, January 2, 2022. Ministrymatters.com

[iv] Richard Rohr, Daily Meditations – Sunday, June 6, 2021, https://incarnationpianity.com/rohr-on-incarnation/

[v] Sue Bird, Love is Our Foundation – December 28, 2021, Companions on the way https://www.companionsontheway.com/post/love-is-our-foundation