"Follow Me" is Risky Business

 

Memorial to Renee Nicole Good, Minneapolis, MN.

Every day, I find myself feeling usually one of three emotions: sad, angry, or depressed. Sometimes it's all of them all at once. And I blame our current regime for my constant state of agitation over anything. They are allowing federal agents to run amok on the streets of Minneapolis, kidnapping children, tear-gassing people, chasing Uber Eats drivers into people's homes, and shooting peaceful protestors at point blank range. 

And the current regime in the White House is not only doing nothing to stop the violence; they're telling these thugs that they'll be protected from prosecution. Go do your worst, boys.

The day before I was to preach this sermon was the day agents with Customs and Border Patrol shot to death a nurse who worked at the VA, Alex Pettri. Pettri was holding his cellphone and recording their actions in the street. One of the CBP officers pushed a woman down onto the icy Minneapolis sidewalk. When Pettri attempted to help her up, the agents swarmed him, beat him, and shot him. Within minutes, those in Washington DC were telling the nation that Pettri, who was licensed to carry a concealed weapon, had a gun and was planning to shoot federal officers and would have killed some but for their bravery to disarm him.

That was a lie. There are multiple videos to refute that.

And so a second person has been killed for opposing these raids in Minneapolis.

My sermon's first sentence remained the same.  But I stayed up late...trying to figure out a way to tell the above story...and where I should put it in the sermon. And finally my journalist self said, "It's the lead, silly!" 

And so, I made it the first two minutes of a 15:30 minute sermon.

See what you think.

Text: Isaiah 9:1-4; Matthew 4:12-23

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"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

The philosopher George Santayana wrote those words in 1905.

It’s become an oft-repeated maxim…especially after events such as war.

It’s a phrase we should be paying attention to right now.

Because the worst parts of the world’s history are being repeated.

What happened yesterday in Minneapolis is contemptable…and sinful.

A 37 year-old man…Alex Pretti…an ICU Nurse at the VA…was shot ten times while he was on the ground after he had been pepper sprayed and beaten by six or seven federal agents.

His crime? Helping a woman up from the sidewalk who had been pushed by one of those agents.

This comes only 17 days after another federal officer shot and killed Renee Good…also 37 years old…American citizen…who was trying to back up her Honda Pilot to avoid the ICE agents when one of them shot her point blank in the face through the driver’s side window.

What’s been happening in Minnesota might feel like it’s a world away…but thanks to television and the internet…it’s closer to home.

And you can hear the terror in the interviews of the city’s residents.

They say it’s like they’re living in 1930s Germany.

They’re scared…confused…angry…and sad.

One woman remarked that she’d learned about Nazi Germany in school. But she never thought she’d live to see her own government turn on its citizens.

Now…I said last week that there’s nothing new under the sun.

And what is happening now is nothing new…even for the Scriptures.

Peter…Andrew…James and John…lived at a time and in a place that was dark…and oppressive…and felt as if nothing was going to get better.

Jesus hears that John has been arrested.

John…who had baptized him….and was practicing a ministry outside the establishment…calling on people to repent and return to God…has been arrested by the puppet King Herod of the Roman Empire and thrown into prison.

John’s arrest puts an end to his public ministry.

And like a relay team…the baton is now passed to Jesus to begin his public work.

Jesus leaves his hometown and goes to the region of Zebulan and Naphtali…a major fishing and trading route with a large Jewish population in this Gentile region.

And it’s a place that has been scarred by turmoil.

We know from Isaiah that the people here have suffered many generations of social and political upheaval with the Assyrian Empire conquering them in the eighth century B-C-E…and now the Roman Empire is occupying the territory.

This history matters to Matthew.

Because Matthew is writing in the fervent belief that Jesus represents the catalyst to break this pattern of conquest and oppression.

Isaiah talks about a people who walked in darkness now seeing a great light.

But Matthew indicates that they’ve been sitting there…as if waiting for this great light to shine.

And now that Jesus comes into the region…calling on people to “Repent…for the kingdom of heaven has come near”…Matthew wants us to hear that finally…here… centuries later and with the people still living under the thumb of another brutal regime…the light has come to the people to lead them to freedom from this rod of their oppressor.

Jesus gets to work…looking for his first disciples.

And he knows this troubled region is likely to have people ready to break free from their life of hardship and misery.

Because there was nothing romantic about being a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee during the First Century.

The fish they caught weren’t for themselves and their family.

The Roman Empire had control over their daily haul.

And the authorities would charge taxes on their catch.

Sure…they’d make some money…but most of it was going to prop up the Empire.

It was an exploitative system.

So when Jesus says “Follow me…and I will make you fish for people” it wasn’t just about joining with him.

He’s disrupting the Empire…and throwing sand in the gears of the system.

Without fishermen…there is no daily catch.

No fish for Caesar.

No taxes to collect.

A blow to the economy of the Empire.

Jesus’s call to these men also turned their lives inside out.

“Follow me…and I will make you fish for people “forced them to wonder:

Do I want to keep doing this?

Is there something more than working to benefit the Empire?

Jesus’ call opened their eyes to see a life beyond their fishing boats.

His words moved them to leave behind their livelihoods…and seek a new way with absolutely no guarantees of success.

Just the promise that there was a different type of catch to be made. 

A catch of people.

A way of building community on a foundation of Love.

To drop everything and follow is a total act of faith and trust.

But something deep within them knew that this was the way out of the darkness of occupation and oppression that dominated their everyday living.

Jesus has a way of interrupting our lives in that way.

And he doesn’t do it by force or threat.

He does it by an invitation to go in a new direction.

Is it scary? Sure, it is at the beginning.

None of those fishermen knew what was coming next.

Jesus didn’t let them in on the details that they’d be on a journey to confront the Roman Empire…and shake up the status quo in Jerusalem.

And they had no idea the violent opposition their movement was going to encounter.

They hadn’t seen any miraculous healings at this point…or even witnessed the way Jesus used his skillful rhetoric to deal with his detractors.

And he hadn’t flipped over any tables or chased moneychangers with whips.

Still…

Those words Jesus spoke to them contained a vision of hope for an unseen future…one that wasn’t repeating the patterns of the past.

And a voice inside them said “Yes” to making an important change in their lives.

Amazingly…this process has been happening over and over for millennia.

Not just people who go the way of a religious life.

But people who respond to the call to turn away from their fears and things that are different…explore new paths…and take seriously the idea of loving neighbor as much as oneself.

Before this latest shooting this week in Minneapolis…clergy from Minnesota and all over the country gathered with about a hundred thousand people in the streets to denounce the actions of the federal government in its round up of men, women and children…regardless of their immigration status.

They prayed.

They sang.

They marched in subfreezing temperatures.

Businesses closed in solidarity with this action.

Despite characterizations about those who go to protests…it’s likely these demonstrators are not all of one mind ideologically on the question about how best to strengthen our laws on immigration.

But what is driving them to protest is the moral clarity that says they do not want their neighbors…people who have lived side by side with them for five…ten…twenty years… citizens,  refugees and, perhaps, undocumented individuals who helped them cut their grass and raised their families together…they do not want those neighbors pulled out of their homes and sent miles away with no recourse.

These demonstrations also have historical roots in this country.

I recently heard an interview with Jelani Cobb…the dean of the Journalism School at Columbia University…talking about the Fugitive Slave Act of the 1800s.

He said when he teaches about this law that allowed for bounty hunters…the slave patrols…to go after runaway slaves…his students assume that those in the Northern states who protected these escapees were white abolitionists.

But he says…that’s not necessarily true.

He said some were…but not all of them opposed the system of slavery.

But what united them was the basic command: love thy neighbor.

That’s what Cobb says made two thousand people in Boston Massachusetts gather around a single black man and drive away the slave patrol pursuing him.

That’s what motivates people to gather in the streets of Minneapolis in frigid temperatures to demand an end to ICE raids…even at great personal danger.

The connection to the command to love thy neighbor is what has driven people of all walks of life…ages…and ideologies willing to take these risks to protect their neighbors.

It’s what motivates some to stand for hours…singing and praying in front of courthouses and state Capitol buildings across this country.

It’s what has people calling and writing their elected officials…sharing information online with friends…asserting what they believe in…what they see as the just and right way to treat human beings.

It’s what makes ordinary people respond to that still small voice that asks them to look at their lives and make the decision to do extraordinary… even… risky things for the good.

Following Jesus is an unpredictable path.

But it is the way out of the darkness of despair and into the way of light and hope.

It is a journey that takes us beyond what we think are our limits…and may feel like a bumpy ride…but is still worth the trip.

Epiphany is not only a season where we start seeing more of who Jesus is.

It’s also a time for us to start looking at who we are as followers of Jesus…and asking ourselves how we can keep lighting the way to Love in times of trouble and uncertainty.

Listen to that call…that voice within…and trust that the God of Love is leading the way.

In the name of Our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

Cool the Hot Wind of Hatred

 

What a terrible week. 

Wednesday there was a shooting at a high school...an assassination of podcaster and far-right provocateur Charlie Kirk...and only blocks from my house...there were two women stabbed in the park by a man who then jumped in the holding pond and drowned. 

The Kirk assassination has dominated the news. And what was disturbing was how fast those on the right went from 0 to 60 in no time, accusing Democrats and transgender people of being responsible for this single shot to the neck that killed Kirk in front of an outdoor audience of three thousand Utah college students. 

Republicans went online and on TV. They called for the death penalty. The president laid the blame on the "radical left." White supremacists rallied in Huntington Beach, CA, breathing threats of retaliation. White men were putting up videos announcing how many guns they had and they were ready to use them against "the libs."  

All of this without a person in custody. No true information about a motive.

But that didn't stop people from phoning in threats to Historically Black Colleges and Universities across the South. Many canceled in person classes and students went online for the rest of the week. 

The person the police finally arrested? A 22 year-old white man from a Republican family in Utah. Reportedly, he was a fan of White Christian Nationalist Nick Fuentes, who hated Charlie Kirk because he wasn't extremist enough. 

Yeah. Not hateful enough. 

Meanwhile...if people expressed any level of "meh" about Kirk's death, they were being fired or reprimanded and hounded online. All while those who purported to be mourning their hero were calling for tolerance and toning down the political rhetoric. 

So, if you weren't upset enough about this death, you could be punished by people who felt that Kirk was killed for his speech which was often anti-trans, anti-black, anti-queer, degrading of women.....

Free speech for me, but not for thee.

I strongly recommend you look up the reading from Jeremiah that I used as the launching pad for this sermon. You might even read Psalm14, it's short. And put on some Bob Dylan and tell me what you think. 

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Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Ps.14

One of the great American theologians… the folk singer Bob Dylan… once asked a series of philosophical questions.

Some of you may remember these:

How many roads a must a man walk down…before he’s called a man?

How many seas must a white dove sail before she rests in the sand?

And how many times must the cannonballs fly before they’re forever banned?

His concluding response to these conundrums was simply that the answers were “blowin’ in the wind.”

I’m only half-joking calling Dylan a theologian.

His iconic song of the 1960s came to mind as I looked at our dear beleaguered and bothered prophet Jeremiah.

Jeremiah…tasked with telling his people some really terrible news…also knew that the wind held the truth of what was to become of Jerusalem and Judah.

A hot wind from God…toward God’s people…was coming…not to winnow or cleanse…but to speak judgment.

Scholars don’t know if these words were meant to warn the people of the invasion of the Babylonians…or if this was some sort of retrospective lament for what happen to Jeremiah’s people.

But we do know that Judah and Jerusalem were sacked by an invading army.

The best minds were taken away…and the people were left deeply traumatized…lost and afraid.

They felt that they had been totally abandoned in the wilderness.

The words we heard this morning from Jeremiah are only a portion of a long poetic prophecy of total doom and destruction.

Things had gotten so bad that God was going to do the unthinkable; a total reversal of the creation story in Genesis.

No more birds.

The mountains and the fruitful land? Gone.

All because the people…the leaders…the followers… were stupid children.

Ouch!

Our lectionary diviners then provide Psalm 14 something of a Greek chorus,

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.”

All are corrupt and commit abominable acts;

There is none who does any good.” (14:1)

Again…ouch!

I have to say that this past week…it certainly felt as if these words from our Biblical ancestors could’ve been written for us today.

On Wednesday…the eve of remembering the terrible attack against our country in 2001…when more than three thousand people died in an act of terrorism with airplanes…we had yet another school shooting at a high school in the Denver area.

The 16 year-old shooter reportedly had lots of ammunition that he brought with him to school.

His two classmates were in the hospital in critical condition.

He took his own life.

And then…only a few hours later…Charlie Kirk…a political ideologue…was gunned down on a college campus in Utah.

No matter what anyone might think of Kirk as a person…a man who said many things that were ugly and hateful toward women and minorities…he was a human being.

And it is never OK to shoot anyone.

He’s now another name added to the growing body count…of schoolchildren…politicians…judges…church members…the faithful in synagogues…mosques and temples…mothers…fathers…sons…

daughters….grandchildren…the countless unnamed others across the country…killed by guns.  

More families grieving a senseless loss. 

Again…Bob Dylan asks us:

“How many times must a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see?”

“How many deaths will it take ‘til he knows that too many people have died?”

There is a hot wind that is blowing across this country.

And it’s been blowing a scorching…hard and fearsome heat for way too long.

There is far too much hatred…misdirected anger…blaming and shaming…with neighbor turning on neighbor in ways that I would dare say we have never seen in our lifetimes.

Unfortunately…our political leadership…and those given the trust of our airwaves…and online platforms from which to pontificate… media of all kinds…are not helping us.

In some cases…they are actively working to foment discord…and fanning the inflammatory speech that goes into our ears…and then infects our heads and hearts with disdain and distrust for each other.

The whole tenor of our country is growing more threatening…and dark.

As our former presiding bishop Michael Curry once said, “Our E Pluribus Unum isn’t very Unum.”

Which is why the ending to Psalm 14 is important.

So often…when I am asked about which book is my favorite in the Bible… I find myself first thinking about the four Gospels and their ways of showing us Jesus.

But truly my most favorite book is the Psalms.

The psalmist…who many think was King David and he did write quite few…has a way of capturing our human emotions…and putting things in such poetic words that reflect the joys and struggles of our daily lives.

The psalms give us ways to express our emotions…from lament to laughter…in beautiful and thoughtful ways.

Psalm 14…which the notes on it seem to say that it was not written by David but rather TO him…picks up on the themes of Jeremiah’s rant…but then makes that subtle and hopeful turn toward the end.

“Have they no knowledge, all those evildoers who eat up my people like bread and do not call upon the Lord? See how they tremble with fear, because God is in the company of the righteous.” (14:5-6).

God’s Love has never left us.

Even when we feel God’s absence…we are never alone.

Much like when we’re having day after day of wet and stormy weather…it’s not that the sun…the S-U-N…has disappeared.

It’s just blocked by the clouds for the time being…but it’s still there.

It’s in the sky…keeping time with the moon…waiting for the rain to clear out...and the thunder clouds to move on.

In that same way…God’s Love…the hope that comes from God’s promise to us…is still there.

We heard it in our Gospel this morning that God’s Love will seek and search for us…rejoicing when those who have lost their way are found again.

Right now…in 21^st century America…we seem to be lost.

And what we’ve lost is that sense of our interdependence on each other…our willingness to live together…learn from each other…be in community with one another.

We can… and we will disagree…and annoy one another.

But we don’t have to silence or kill each other.

The gift that we…the Church and all those who look to God in faith and hope…can bring to this world…is the ability to see each other as beloved children of God…no matter our political affiliation…our economic status…our skin color…our gender…our orientation…our native language or country of origin.

For our part…as followers of Jesus…we need to take seriously the charge He gave to us…and commit ourselves to bringing good news to the poor.

How?

Perhaps it’s being more mindful about what we share online…the comments we make…the way we engage with total strangers who…for all we know…are not even real people but a bot halfway around the world programmed to attack our thoughts and opinions…and in flame us against each other.  

We’re to proclaim release to the captives…not just people in physical prison cells…but to those who are caught in any life-killing loop…such as addiction.

We’re to help open the eyes of the blind…help those whom we love and people we know…to see more clearly through our actions that hope…and mercy…and compassion are available for them.

And we’re to let the oppressed go free.

We’re to work toward freeing ourselves and others from our fears that makes them and us seek to have power over people.

We need to quit inventing power struggles with straw men and women because honestly… there is no power struggle that is worth destroying our souls.

We come to this table to be fed.

We receive the body and blood of Christ.

And what we’re bringing into our bodies is more than just bread and wine.

It’s that reminder that you and me and everyone in this room and all who are participating in this ritualistic act around the world…are being brought into a mission that is about countering the powers that want to hurt us…and divide us.

This food and drink is given freely… to help us make this a better world for ourselves as well as for others.

It’s time to make a commitment to cool off this hot wind of hatred…and infuse our world with more love and more hope.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

 

Costly Discipleship

I don't think this sermon needs a whole lot of introduction. Just look at the news in the United States and you will understand instantly all that you need to know for why I have said what I have said. 

It's time for the church...the whole church...to decide what we are willing to give up (security, popularity, complacency, timidity) and decide to follow the one who stood on the side of the marginalized. 

I simply don't know how to read Luke's Gospel any other way. But maybe I'm wrong.

See what you think.

+++ 

 Text: Luke 14:25-33

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?

Our Gospel passage today had me thinking about some of the ways we quickly proclaim that we’re on Team Jesus.

We wear necklaces with Christian symbols.

Put on a T-shirt proclaiming the goodness of God.

There’s a billboard that I would see every time I drove into Wakulla County…south of Tallahassee…on Crawfordville Highway.

I’m not sure if it’s still there…since I haven’t driven that way in a long time.

But it was this big blue billboard with white lettering that announced proudly, “Wakulla Loves Jesus.”

That’s nice but what does that really mean?

If we say we love Jesus…how do we actually show that?

Paying close attention to our Gospel text…it seems to show that we love Jesus is to say that we’re willing to follow him.

And following Jesus clearly has a cost.

What are we willing to give up to follow Jesus?

I think that’s an interesting…and a difficult question to consider.

Imagine what it was for the original hearers of this Gospel.

Although we’re hearing this some two thousand plus years later…Luke’s Gospel was written and shared with followers who had already lost a lot.

The Roman Empire had already destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem…the center of their worship and social gathering space…for a second time.

The Jewish attempt at rebellion against this oppressive regime had failed.

In many ways…the Lukan audience was likely feeling  broken and defeated.

The cross…which we now hold as a symbol of Christ’s ultimate victory…was anything but a symbol of triumph.

It was an instrument of torture and death.

So imagine what it must have been like to have Jesus saying to those who were in the crowd following him:

You must hate your family members and carry a cross.

I don’t know about you…but such a demand would probably leave me feeling as if all the blood was draining out of my body.

Again…what is that we are willing to give up to follow Jesus?

To help us figure that out…Jesus gives a couple of examples….images that are a little more concrete…to help us understand the demands of discipleship.

He talks about the person who decides to build a tower.

For our own sake…let’s think of this in a more generic way.

“Tower building” could be a stand-in phrase for “any major construction undertaking”…as if we’re doing a big renovation on our house.

Nobody…or at least I hope nobody here…just decides to take on such a project without first doing some number crunching…and finding the most reputable contractor.

We’d want to understand the costs involved with labor and supplies…what it will take to pull a permit…what is the time frame for finishing the remodel et cetera et cetera…

In other words…there’s more to this than simply saying, “I’m gonna remodel my home…or in this case…build a tower.”

The same thing with the king who wants to go to war against another king.

Anyone with any sense…whether they have a military background or not…can figure out that it’s not a good idea to wage war against a more powerful nation…without first considering the cost…both financial and human.

The point that Jesus seems to be making is that discipleship is a two-step process.

There’s the weighing of consequences…and the consideration that one must be willing to risk giving up some things…maybe even precious things like the security of family or being part of some “in crowd” in our friend group…to become a disciple.

Because discipleship…following Jesus into a mission of love…compassion…and mercy…is not about being liked or being popular.

Taking a position that goes against what society has accepted as “normal” is the risky turn that Jesus is taking in this march toward Jerusalem.

He knew that he was going to meet with tremendous resistance and that the threat to his life was real.

But he also knew the Empire was causing hardship and terror for the people.

The ways of the Empire…with its commitment to power over others… was not in keeping with the dream God had for the world.

A vision such as what the prophets describe…where mountains are lowered and valleys are lifted up (Is.40:4)…and all are treated with equity and “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:24).

The commitment of Jesus was to stand against the tyrants and the bullies of the world and build up the people who have felt lost and left behind.

And he was not looking for cheerleaders.

Jesus was seeking those who were ready to let go of those things that got in the way of dedicating themselves to this mission of mercy…compassion…and justice for all.

That mission remains the call to us today.

If we say that we are followers of Jesus…if we profess a belief in God…if we have a sense of the Holy Spirit as a burning flame…or the dove of peace hovering over us in our lives…then it follows that we should be doing all that we can to work toward a world where people are treated with respect and dignity.

We are a far cry from that right now.

At some point…we need to address the sins happening in our name.

The epidemic of gun violence that allows for the killing of school children should have stopped with Columbine.

It should have ended at Sandy Hook.

Why did we have to have Parkland?

And now kids are shot during their mass in Minneapolis?

The building of prison camps…when we interred Japanese citizens during World War II…should have taught us something about not stigmatizing people based on their heritage.

But here we are today…with masked men grabbing Latino and Latina people off the streets…at their workplaces…even showing up at the court hearings to arrest those attempting to comply with the law…and sending them to prisons hundreds of miles from their families with no way to find them.

We even had 450 people taken away from the new Hyundai plant in Chatham County a few days ago.

We know that we are a diverse country…reflecting the beautiful mosaic of God’s human creatures.

And yet…there are state and federal authorities actively attempting to erase the existence of the LGBTQ+ community.

There are those in positions of power who are ignoring our medical scientists and their expertise…an insult to their God-given talents…shunning them for work that has saved the lives of millions of people for decades.

The horrible abuse of girls and women…not just by the likes of a Jeffrey Epstein…but what has happened to young children out of the spotlight for decades which leads to hurt and traumatized adults.

These are all sins against that very basic tenet of our Baptismal covenant: to strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being.

To address all of this can feel insurmountable and numbing.

But it doesn’t have to be…if we are willing to acknowledge the sins…and then commit to the hard work of repairing the damage that has been done.

It’s our refusal to face what is wrong with honesty…integrity…and truth that only further compounds the sins.

This is the cost of discipleship.

To be willing to offend those who would want to maintain silence…and just go along with what is happening.

It requires us to break from attachments…our need to be accepted…to let go of our prejudices and hatreds that keep us separated from each other…and to join our lives more deeply to God…accepting the consequences that come with that.

Those consequences will mean some losses…but they also will mean gaining solidarity with those committed to making this a world where all can enjoy the life-giving and liberating love of God.

And that soil of God’s love is more fertile…and more sustaining than the acrid bitter soil of fear and hatred.

Our society needs the church…you and me…to live into the discipleship that Jesus has called us to…come what it may…cost what it will.  

A discipleship that stands with those who are speaking up and even joining the chorus of voices insisting that we must get back to a way of Love...respecting each other and recognizing that our differences are not the definition of our whole being.

It’s time to follow Jesus…and make our own march toward Jerusalem.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

One Nation Under Guns

After yet another mass shooting incident at a school...this time in Winder, Georgia, a rural community between Atlanta and Athens...I found it hard to concentrate on the upcoming lessons for Sunday. 

And so instead...I wrote this. The beginnings of what maybe will be a song. Or a rap. Or just an expression of the rage I feel every time I hear of people getting slaughtered in this country because Congress refuses to crackdown on gun manufacturers. 

One Nation Under Guns
Susan Gage
  
We are
What we believe.
A nation in bereavement
An ineffectual response from government
to the slaughter
of our daughters,
fathers, mothers, lovers,
colleagues,  
sons and friends.
Somebody tell me:
When will this end?
When will this end?!
 
Columbine, Virginia Tech,
Sandy Hook, Connecticut,
Vegas, Parkland, Winder,
Dayton, Stockton,
Pittsburgh, Charleston, Buffalo
Lewiston to Orlando
Nashville, Dallas, and El Paso
Baton Rouge and Atlanta
Aurora,
Thousand Oaks, California:
 
Do we hear ya?
Do we know ya?
Do we even give a damn?
 
At a concert, in a movie,
In a school, or buying groceries
There is no place we are free
From this sick mentality
That puts guns over people
Shooters’ rights as a staple
of the freedoms
we were promised with that life and liberty
Pledge allegiance to this land
With an AR-15 in your hand
 
Thoughts and prayers
Lifted high
But no action in reply:
 
Faith without works
is more death.
 
We are
What we believe
One Nation Under Guns.
 
We are
What we believe
One Nation Under Guns.
 
Bang.

The Greatest Commandment at a Time of Greatest Need

This has been another terrible week in the world. Not only are things escalating in the war between Israel and Hamas, I was shocked and deeply saddened when I opened Facebook about 9:30pm on Wednesday and saw a message from one of my friends marking them "safe" from the mass shooting in Lewiston, ME. 

Lewiston is not a huge metropolitan area. By Florida standards, it might be considered a large town or a very small city. The population, roughly 36,000 people, is one of those places where you know your neighbors in ways that most urban areas don't. 

To have 18 people killed...and more than a dozen wounded? My New England heart felt the injury. 

The next day...listening to the news was an exercise in collective grieving. And it was those thoughts that I had to sit down and start writing my sermon for the 22nd Sunday After Pentecost. 

Text: Matthew 22:34-46

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“The world is losing its humanity.”

I heard that statement on the radio this week.

Philippe Lazzarini said it.

He’s the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. He was speaking of the humanitarian crisis growing in Gaza…a result of Israel’s retaliation for the brutal and horrific attack unleashed on them by Hamas a few weeks ago.

In that same radio hour that I heard Lazzarini’s interview…I also listened with a heavy heart to a shell-shocked and saddened reporter in Maine.

The otherwise small and quiet city of Lewiston has joined the list of places in America reeling from a mass shooting event.

No one knows why it happened.

The gunman was found dead after a massive manhunt.

A report on the CBS Evening News suggested that this man…who was an Army reservist suffering from mental health issues… may have become enraged over a breakup with his girlfriend.

But that’s only speculation…as people try to make sense of a senseless act of violence.

“The world is losing its humanity.”

I thought about this comment…and the news of the week… as I stared at the words of our Gospel lesson.

I thought about the time frame in which this Gospel was written…roughly twenty years after the second destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

The original hearers of this Gospel…just like us…were living in a time of upheaval…violence…and uncertainty about the future.

Judaism has lost one of its major structural grounding points…the temple.

A new thing…which would come to be called Christianity…was emerging for those who found Jesus as the way…the truth…and the life amidst the chaos of the world around them.

With that in mind…Jesus appears in this Gospel lesson as the symbolic representation of the beatitude: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

In this scene in our Gospel…we see another attempt to get Jesus to indict himself…and lose credibility among the people who are listening to his reinterpretation of the law.

He’s already dealt with business about paying taxes.

In the exchange right before this one…he’s had to answer a question about the resurrection to people who didn’t believe in resurrection.

Now here comes a smarty-pants lawyer asking him a question about the commandments.

It’s really a silly question in some ways to pose to an observant Jew.

The First Commandment…one Jews know as the Shema…is a phrase which is recited every day.  

Any Jew worth their salt would know that the first command is to love God.

God is one…love God with all our heart, soul, mind, strength.

These were the words Moses spoke in Deuteronomy.

The fact that Jesus could rattle that off probably didn’t surprise anyone.

What this cheeky lawyer wasn’t prepared to hear was Jesus’ further commentary on his question. Jesus expounds upon the law…drawing on a phrase found in Leviticus… that one must love the neighbor as one’s self.

He then ties the two together by saying that to love God and love your neighbor… are the underpinning to the rest of the law and everything the prophets ever said.

If we’ve been paying attention throughout this year of Matthew…we remember that Jesus famously told those listening to his Sermon on the Mount that the love of neighbor means not just loving the people you like to hang out with.

Loving our people…the ones who look like us…talk like us…think like us…is actually a pretty easy thing to do.  

But in addition to loving our own kind…Jesus expects his disciples…which includes us…to love our enemies.

As Jesus said:

“God makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.”

Tough as this is…what Jesus is saying is that to love God with our all and all means that we must love the things that God loves: which is basically all of creation.

The trees…the birds… the animals…the waters…and most importantly….the people.

All humankind.

All the things who God has made in God’s image.

That sounds good, right?

Putting it into practice?

That’s where we hear again the lament: we are losing our humanity.  

At times of war…in the face of such horrific atrocities…how does one love the enemy who kidnaps and kills innocent people?

How does one love the enemy who retaliates with dropping bombs from the air with no concern for those getting killed on the ground?

How can one’s heart not harden with one mass shooting after another and no effort to change that narrative?

The phrase “thoughts and prayers” rings so empty now.

And yet the words in today’s collect…where we ask God to “increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity” and keep us moving in the direction of loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves…are so timely for this moment.  

It’s when the world seems to want to jack up our fears that our faith in a God who loves must become stronger and more resilient.

Much in the same way our ancestors heard these Gospel messages when they were facing times of crisis in their world…we must resolve to not give up hope…to not lose sight of those helpers who show up and stay with us during moments of pain and suffering.

Helpers like the 23-year-old Palestinian ambulance driver who stayed to administer aid to those Israelis wounded by Hamas gunmen at a music festival.

Or the doctors and nurses in Lewiston Maine who rushed back to work on a Wednesday night to treat people injured by high-powered bullets.

It was the PBS host and Presbyterian minister Fred Rogers who encouraged the young viewers of his television show to “look for the helpers” when they’re feeling scared and under threat. 

Look for those who show the love of God through the way the show up for others.

Not only can we be that for each other…we can look for those people in our lives.

We can elevate those stories and give thanks for those who despite efforts to undermine peace and justice…persist in never giving up on Love as their truth…their way.

Perhaps then we can hope to recover our humanity.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.