On the killings at Tree of Life Synagogue

I'm not preaching this week, but I wanted to get this out in the newsletter and since it ended up sounding sermonish, I thought I'd add it here. 

As we try to take in yet one more senseless act of anger, hate and fear, I find myself wondering about the place of the Church and if maybe we are not as clear about the gospel message as we might be.  Because I have always been interested in people who don’t participate in a faith community, I wonder often what those who are not part of a church think this Christianity we represent is about.  I imagine them thinking we are gathered around unbelievable stories and the hope of getting into heaven after we die.  I imagine them learning about Christianity from the culture battles waged and reported in the news and worry that they think Christianity has to do with setting ourselves up as judges of those around us.  I wonder sometimes if many of those who only see Christianity from the outside end up saying, as Gandhi was reported to have said, that they might want to be a Christian if they didn’t know so many of them. I worry that others imagine that we are all focused on our own salvation, our own righteousness, our own misguided agendas.  

I am pretty sure I could get a clipboard, go into the city and ask people what they think Christianity is about and not many would say, “Oh, Christians, they are those people who gather in communities so they can learn to better love everyone who crosses their path. They are the people who are trying to change the world by changing themselves.”  I’m pretty sure that is what we are really doing in our little congregations, at least I hope so. I’m just not sure that message is getting out.  In a world where people point at others saying they are not as good as we are, Jesus says that might be true, they may be better at loving than you are.  Let me tell you a story about a Samaritan who found this guy in a ditch. In a world where we so easily point out others’ failings, Jesus talks about taking the plank out of our own eye so we can see to take the splinter out of someone else’s eye.  In a world where we cling to old anger, Jesus says, let go.  Forgive.  Just quit holding onto that stuff that makes life so hard for everyone. Bringing in the kingdom, says Jesus, is not about telling others what they have to do to get there, but about becoming honest about our own lives and participating in our own transformation. Of course there are times for righteous anger.  Jesus went there too.  Of course there are times to call others on their bad behavior.  Jesus never shied away from that either.  But we cannot separate our criticism of the world around us from our examination of our own lives.  If we want to change the world, we have to be about changing ourselves.  Jesus was very clear on that. And maybe that message can be some comfort as we read the headlines this week.  

Part of the shock and sadness we feel in the wake of the Tree of Life Synagogue shootings has to do with the feeling of helplessness.  In the face of destructive forces we can’t understand or even imagine how to contain, we are left asking what we, or anyone, can possibly do to change what is happening around us.  The answer is breaking through loud and clear, if we are attuned to hear and see it.  The news images and sounds of Jews, Muslims, Christians, and those who practice no religion gathered in prayer and song and mutual support send the true message about all of our religions.  The real power of our faith isn’t in a pointing finger or a book of laws.  It is in humility, love, forgiveness, community, and hope.  And we could all get better at all of those things.  And that is where we are not helpless, because we can all get better at all of those things. Even in these troubled times, we can make a difference.  We change the world by changing ourselves.  JB

Sermon for the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost

St. Aidan's, October 21, 2018

You are not alone.  That is our message.  That is the good news.  

The incarnation says, you are not alone.  

The resurrection says, you are not alone.  

The birth of Jesus is a cosmic message saying the great loving power in the universe has not forgotten us.  We are not alone.

The risen Christ who became known among the little band who gathered to remember Jesus still can be found among us and the message is the same.  We are not alone.

Now that introduction may not give you a heads up as to where I am going in todays’s sermon.  I didn’t set out to preach about this boiled down version of the gospel message, you are not alone, but it kind of arose naturally out of the topic I did come to talk about today, and it seems such an important part of the message I thought I should begin there.  You are not alone.  We are not alone.

What I did sign up to preach about this morning was giving, stewardship, returning a portion of what we have been given by God to fund the ministry and mission of St. Aidan’s.  

Yes, my friends, you have come to church this Sunday hoping for some good news and stumbled upon the annual stewardship sermon.  I suppose that is another reason I wanted to start with that business about us not being alone, because it is, I think, the good news at the heart of the gospel and the good news lived out in the lives of the people of this congregation.  Most of us are here because we have discovered that in this place, we are not alone.  And this community and its work is funded by the money we all pledge to keep the lights on, the grass cut, to pay the staff, and buy insurance and supplies.  Everything we do is funded by what we give.  

It is my job today to encourage you to think of your pledge as an opportunity to give thanks to God by returning a portion of what you have received. There.  I’ve said it.  The message-from-this-station part of the sermon.  If this were an NPR campaign, we would be reminded that we all know what we receive and why we want to support this good cause.  It is that part of the commercial that made me want to talk about us not being alone.  

Each year when it is time for the fall campaign, I think about all the reasons why people might say they give.  I try to imagine what different families and individuals might say they get out of belonging to this parish.  Every year I know I will be saying we give in response to what we have received, but that what-we-have-received can be very personal, and it won’t be the same for all of us.  I worry sometimes at this time of year that I will fall into preacher-talk and go on about the “good news” or the “gifts of God” without ever connecting those grand sounding ideas to real lives.  I end up wondering some years if there is any way to talk about the good news that draws us together and that we are charged with carrying into the world that everyone here might recognize.  I end up wondering some years if I have just fallen into an old Paul Stookey comedy routine.  

You remember Paul Stookey, of Peter, Paul, and Mary.  Well when Pater, Paul, and Mary played in concert, Paul often did a little stand up comedy routine as a part of the evening.  He did a piece one time about how the airlines kept promising something they never actually delivered, though they thought they had.  He said, you get on the plane, get all buckled in and the pilot comes on the intercom and says, “we’d like to thank you for flying American.”  Paul says, that sounds good, yes, that would be nice, ok, go ahead.  Thank me.  He says, they never do.  

Some years at stewardship time, I end the day wondering if I indicated I wanted to talk about the good news without ever actually doing it.  Which is why I wanted to say, right from the beginning and often today, “you are not alone.”  I think that may be a way of talking about the good news that we would all recognize.  

If my job today is to help you connect giving with what you have received, then my message is that you are not alone.  As I think of the people in this community, about moments in your lives, about our time together, about our worship and outreach, about pastoral care, teaching, book groups, prayer groups, study groups, I see people who have found support for their lives in this community.  I talk to people here all the time who have discovered they are not alone in their hunger for meaning, for depth and connection to something larger and grander than their every day experience.  I see us living the not alone message in the work and fellowship that bring us together in the choir, tree sales, Octoberfest, in the hypothermia shelter, and altar guild and so much more.  I see us living the not alone message when we provide comfort, meals, presence for those going through hard or challenging times.  And of course, I see us living the not alone message in our worship, where we celebrate community not only with those around us but with God who is in our midst.  In the very traditional Christian language of reconciliation and forgiveness, the answer is always that we are not alone.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God.  That was Jesus’ message and he urged us to continue that message by gathering in communities like this one, by living the message and spreading the word that no one is alone.  I can not imagine trying to live in the world today without a group of friends who share the hope that there is more, that the God of love is present in our lives in ways that are uncovered in our shared life, in our not being alone. 

I hope you received a pledge card and information this week and a letter from our senior warden Kimberly Martin.  If you put on your we-are-not-alone glasses and read her letter you will hear about her having found a haven in this place, you will hear about her finding resources and support among the people of St. Aidan’s.  I hope you go out today thinking of all the ways you are not alone because of your belonging in this community.  I hope you will think of all the people around us who need to hear that simple message, who need to experience it, and find strength in it.  And then I hope you will make a pledge for the coming year, in thanksgiving for the God who comes among us in so many ways to deliver the good news that we are not alone.