Joshua J Sander
05/27/12
Pentecost Sunday
Memorial Day Weekend
“All”
Romans 8:22-27
Acts 2:1-21
Welcome back. Previously in the Gospel of John, Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And then I said, “Amen.” We sang a hymn, I gave a benediction, and then we all went home and had lunch. But I hope that the challenge I gave us stayed with you throughout the week: The challenge for us, myself included, was and is to go out into the world and look in the right direction for the Kingdom of God—within ourselves and one another. And where we see that the Kingdom is not present, we should work to make it so. The challenge, in other words, was and is to participate in the reign of God now, that they may all be one.
But what of that cliffhanger? What about that Advocate that Jesus promised to send the disciples? What of the power Jesus promised? Well, Luke tells us about the arrival of the Advocate, I mean to say the Holy Spirit, in the scripture we just heard from the Book of Acts: When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
When the day of Pentecost had come… Pentecost is the English translation of the Greek word for the Jewish holiday Shavuot, or the Feast of Weeks. Which is kind of funny considering… well, you’ll see. Shavuot traditionally occurs at the close of the grain harvest fifty days after Passover and it is a joyful “…feast that celebrated new life and new crops by offering a gift of first fruits in gratitude and praise.” (Kathryn Matthews Huey and Mark J. Suriano) So it totally makes sense that they would all be together in one place.
And Shavuot also explains why there were so many visitors from places we can barely pronounce in Jerusalem—and the fact that we have such a hard time saying Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs is kind of funny because… well, I’m getting ahead of myself. You’ll see.
And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. You know, I think I could go on all day on the theme of wind! I could probably do half a sermon on the philosophy of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I could probably pull together a decent metaphor out of the way the comic book character, Storm, harnesses the wind to literally lift herself up and fly. But none of those fun things hold a candle to the reality of what wind can do in real life. And none of them have the deep meaning that wind has in the Biblical witness.
I think the real life story that puts the phrase “violent wind” most into perspective for me occurred on April 21st, 2001 in my mother’s hometown of Hoisington, Kansas. How many of you have heard of Hoisington? (How many of you know it because of the tornado?) If I have my information right, a funnel cloud touched down just a mile southwest of the city at 9:15 in the evening and quickly grew into a large tornado. Within three minutes, it had intensified to an F4 (that’s out of 5, folks), with winds of more than 200 miles an hour.
According to the National Weather Service, the tornado chewed up a path of “almost complete destruction” along a path two miles long and two blocks wide through northwest Hoisington. I have to tell you that I was in Hoisington later that summer, and nothing prepares you for the reality of a two block wide, two mile long swath of familiarity just—erased. And that was after most of the clean-up.
Can you imagine what it was like for the folk who were working at the Dairy Queen? When the sirens went off they climbed into the walk-in freezer. When everything calmed down they walked out of the walk-in freezer and what was left of the Dairy Queen was the freezer—and about a foot of foundation. Or 17 year old Heather Nye who went to her senior prom and came home to find her house gone. The good news was that she found her car. The bad news is that the car was in her basement. You can’t make this stuff up. This is the kind of change a violent wind can cause.
Many of you know by now that I’m a bit of a linguist, I mean to say that I’m a lover of words, and there’s something really cool about the way the word “wind” is in the Bible. The Jewish scriptures, of course, were written in an ancient form of Hebrew. And the New Testament was written in Koine, a form of Greek that is no longer spoken. In both the Hebrew, “ruah,” and the Greek, “pnuma,” the word not only means “wind” but also “air,” “breath,” and “spirit.”
So in Genesis “the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters” can also be read, “the breath of God swept over the face of the waters,” or “the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters.” Or when God makes Adam “from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being,” you could also say that “God blew into his nostrils the spirit of life.”
I could go on and on—and I invite you to get ahold of a Biblical concordance and look up the word “wind” and try replacing it with “breath” and “spirit,” you get a lot of cool insights that way. For today, though, it is enough for us to notice that the Breath of God, the Spirit of the Lord, filled the house with a sound that probably sounded an awful lot like a freight train going by.
And divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. I’m always struck by this image because it feels like an eye witness trying to describe something indescribable. “And then there was this… energy? It kind of was divided like… have you ever tried to look at a fire and see the individual flames? It was like that. Kinda. And it was on their heads!!”
The other reason I’m struck by the image of the tongues of fire is because the storyteller in me goes, “Aha! This is a reference to a much earlier part of the story…” After all, there is another place in the Bible where there is a description of something like a fire, but not like a fire. “Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro… and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed… When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’"
Well… that was the beginning of one of the most important events in Jewish theology. And here we have more fire-that-isn’t-fire. The storyteller in me wants to assume that something equally important is happening here in Acts. But what is it? After all, as a reflection by Kathryn Matthews Huey and Mark J. Suriano points out, “There have been manifestations, remarkable displays of God's Spirit in the Bible before, of course, with sound and light and amazing ‘special effects,’ as we call them today.”
Where’s the real miracle here? “Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?’” (See, isn’t it kind of funny that we can’t even pronounce the names of their countries anymore, let alone speak their languages?)
The miracle is not in the first question, “Aren’t they all Galileans?” That question is actually based in a stereotype bordering on racism—calling them Galileans is kind of like calling someone a backwoods hick, or a redneck, or white trash—the crowd is initially astonished because of who the sign and the message is coming from, rather than what the sign and the message actually is.
Even at our best we’re all a little guilty of that at some point in our lives, right? And at our worst we simply cannot see past the messenger. At our very worst we actually refuse to acknowledge what’s right in front of us: others sneered and said, "They are filled with new wine."
No, the core of the miracle can be found in the question, “How is it that each of us hears them speaking about God's deeds of power in our own languages?” The real miracle is interpreted, I mean to say it is explained by Peter when he answers the people, saying, “these are not drunk, as you suppose… No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'"
Yes, there are other displays of God's Spirit in the Bible, complete with sound and light and amazing ‘special effects,’ but they were all for the select few: Moses on a mountaintop or Disciples in a locked room. Peter is telling us that God is pouring out the Spirit upon all flesh. Male and female, old and young, slave and free… All of us receiving the Holy Spirit and dreaming! Not only getting to dream but also being expected to prophesy—to hear what God is telling us, right here and now, and to communicate it to the world—to go out and tell somebody, everybody!
Do you remember last week when the disciples asked Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” And Jesus didn’t really answer, saying, “It is not for you to know…” Well I think that Jesus was actually kind to give the disciples a non-answer, because the actual answer was, “You still don’t get it, do you? You just don’t get it.”
Now they get it. The Good News isn’t about restoring the Kingdom of Israel. The Kingdom of God is here now, within us. These are the days Joel was talking about—the days where God pours out the Spirit upon all flesh—the days when sons and daughters prophesy—the days when the young see visions—the days when the old dream dreams—the days where even the lowest among us hear the Word and proclaim it.
Do you feel it? Do you feel the Spirit being poured out on you? Do you hear what God is saying to you? Will you voice it? I’m telling you right now that our youth, our sons and daughters, our young people—they do prophesy. Are we listening? What I’m trying to ask you is, do we get it? Do we? Because these are the days, you know. God’s Spirit is poured out on all of us, male and female, old and young, rich and poor, foreign and domestic, familiar and unfamiliar. All. All. All.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Sunday, May 20, 2012
"One"
Joshua J Sander
5/20/12
Seventh Sunday of Easter
Ascension Sunday
“One”
Acts 1:1-11
John 17:6-19
Sometimes the storyteller in me gets a little frustrated with the Revised Common Lectionary, which is how we know what scripture lesson goes with which Sunday. For example, last Thursday was Ascension Day—the holiday where we celebrate the resurrected Jesus’ final words to the disciples before going up to heaven. Today’s Gospel lesson, as well as the Gospel lessons for the past couple of weeks, come from Jesus’ words to the disciples directly after the Lord’s Supper—before the Crucifixion, let alone the Resurrection. Add to that whole mess the fact that we’ve been spending the last few weeks with the Gospel of John and that the version of the Ascension we just heard comes from the book of Acts—which was written by Luke—and it gets even more difficult to put things in order. So yeah, the storyteller part of me is kind of screaming that things are all out of order today.
So for those of you who need to see the chronological order of things as much as I do, I’m going to try the best I can to put this in order for a minute. Jesus gave the disciples the metaphor of The Good Shepherd before he raised Lazarus from the dead, before the chief priests and the Pharisees plotted to kill Jesus, before the triumphal entry and the Lord’s Supper. After they had eaten, Judas left and Jesus foretold Peter’s betrayal. Then Jesus spoke for a long time the disciples. He told them that where he was going they could not follow and promised to send them the Advocate, by which I mean the Spirit of Truth, to be with them always. He gave the disciples the beautiful metaphor of The True Vine, asking them to live in his love, and then gave them the commandment to love one another. Jesus then warned the disciples that the world would hate them because he chose them to be separate from the world. And then he prayed the prayer we heard in today’s Gospel lesson.
Skip ahead through Easter and you get to the Emmaus walk and the appearance of Jesus to the disciples where they all got to poke him and watch him eat fish. And after he appeared to his followers and demonstrated that he was indeed alive, Jesus spoke to them one more time before ascending to heaven.
So why explore Jesus’ prayer from his last Passover meal on the same day as the story of the Ascension? Well, because there are more ways to organize ourselves than simply chronologically. We can also put things together that have similar themes. In both of these lessons, Jesus is preparing his followers—his disciples and friends—for his absence.
Can you imagine how shocking that last supper must have been for the Disciples? I mean, they were expecting to sit down to dinner with their closest friends and their beloved teacher—granted, it started out a little weird, with Jesus bathing their feet like the servants should have been doing—but then again, Jesus did stuff like that, you know? Just to make his point. But then Jesus just out and said that one of them was about to betray him. And then Jesus said:
Then Jesus goes back to what he was trying to tell them in the first place, only this time he gives them a parable, I mean he gives them a metaphor, he says that it’s like he’s the vine and they are the branches. That they should live in his love. And then he says it again, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
Why is Jesus working so hard for the disciples to get it? Why is using different words to say the same thing over and over again? And still he goes on,
Jesus is praying to God that God will protect Jesus’ followers so they can be one with each other in the same way that Jesus and God are one. Why? Because Jesus is about to die and their world will be turned upside down.
But Jesus doesn’t stop there. “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
Those who will believe in me through their word. That’s me! I believe in Jesus. And that’s you! You believe in Jesus! This prayer—it’s for us!! That we may all be one, just like God is in Jesus and Jesus is in God—so the world might also grow to believe…
You know, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard this prayer for us. I hope that it isn’t the first time you’ve heard it either. I know that in recent history more folk are familiar with the UCC’s God Is Still Speaking campaign
—with the image of the Comma and the accompanying quote from Gracie Allen, “Never place a period where God has placed a comma.” Not to mention the words of extravagant welcome, “No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.”
But the God is Still Speaking campaign and its message of extravagant welcome is only the most recent way the UCC has attempted to tell the world what it is about. Before the Comma there was the UCC logo.
No, not that one.
Closer.
There we go…
The UCC itself formed from a merger between the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches in 1957. I do not know when this version of the logo was adopted. But I do know that the United Church of Christ website says that, “It is based on an ancient Christian symbol called the "Cross of Victory" or the "Cross Triumphant." The crown symbolizes the sovereignty of Christ. The cross recalls the suffering of Christ—his arms outstretched on the wood of the cross—for the salvation of humanity. The orb, divided into three parts, reminds us of Jesus' command to be his "witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth…"
And I also know that the symbol of the Cross Triumphant was present at the 1957 merger.
To this ancient symbol, the UCC added two pieces of text to describe who we are as a community—the first, of course, is our name: United Church of Christ. The second is the prayer that Jesus prayed for his disciples and all those who believe in Jesus: That They May All Be One. Including this piece of scripture “reflects our historic commitment to the restoration of unity among the separated churches of Jesus Christ.”
As for the words Jesus said to his friends and followers just before the Ascension, "This," he said, "is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
And they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" But he didn’t really answer, saying, "It is not for you to know …” Honestly, though, this is another example of the disciples simply not listening and understanding. Remember that this word comes to us from the Book of Acts, which was written by Luke, and in Luke 17:21 Jesus clearly says that “…in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”
The disciples, just like the rest of us, myself included, completely forgot that the Kingdom of God is within us. as the Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchel puts it, “Nonetheless, we still wait a day when Christ will come in a new way. As we waited in Advent, and waited in Lent, so now we continue to wait and watch for Christ to do something new, to enter the world and our lives in a new way. But as the disciples did, so we too often look in the wrong direction. We look for signs of the end of the world. We look for signs that things are getting better or getting worse. Rather, the reign of God is within us, and while we wait for Christ to do something new, we participate in the reign of God now.
And so I’d like to close with a challenge and a cliffhanger.
The challenge for us, myself included, this morning is to go out into the world and look in the right direction for the Kingdom of God—within ourselves and one another. And where we see that the Kingdom is not present, we should work to make it so. The challenge, in other words, is to participate in the reign of God now, that they may all be one.
And now the cliffhanger: Hear the words of Jesus.
5/20/12
Seventh Sunday of Easter
Ascension Sunday
“One”
Acts 1:1-11
John 17:6-19
Sometimes the storyteller in me gets a little frustrated with the Revised Common Lectionary, which is how we know what scripture lesson goes with which Sunday. For example, last Thursday was Ascension Day—the holiday where we celebrate the resurrected Jesus’ final words to the disciples before going up to heaven. Today’s Gospel lesson, as well as the Gospel lessons for the past couple of weeks, come from Jesus’ words to the disciples directly after the Lord’s Supper—before the Crucifixion, let alone the Resurrection. Add to that whole mess the fact that we’ve been spending the last few weeks with the Gospel of John and that the version of the Ascension we just heard comes from the book of Acts—which was written by Luke—and it gets even more difficult to put things in order. So yeah, the storyteller part of me is kind of screaming that things are all out of order today.
So for those of you who need to see the chronological order of things as much as I do, I’m going to try the best I can to put this in order for a minute. Jesus gave the disciples the metaphor of The Good Shepherd before he raised Lazarus from the dead, before the chief priests and the Pharisees plotted to kill Jesus, before the triumphal entry and the Lord’s Supper. After they had eaten, Judas left and Jesus foretold Peter’s betrayal. Then Jesus spoke for a long time the disciples. He told them that where he was going they could not follow and promised to send them the Advocate, by which I mean the Spirit of Truth, to be with them always. He gave the disciples the beautiful metaphor of The True Vine, asking them to live in his love, and then gave them the commandment to love one another. Jesus then warned the disciples that the world would hate them because he chose them to be separate from the world. And then he prayed the prayer we heard in today’s Gospel lesson.
Skip ahead through Easter and you get to the Emmaus walk and the appearance of Jesus to the disciples where they all got to poke him and watch him eat fish. And after he appeared to his followers and demonstrated that he was indeed alive, Jesus spoke to them one more time before ascending to heaven.
So why explore Jesus’ prayer from his last Passover meal on the same day as the story of the Ascension? Well, because there are more ways to organize ourselves than simply chronologically. We can also put things together that have similar themes. In both of these lessons, Jesus is preparing his followers—his disciples and friends—for his absence.
Can you imagine how shocking that last supper must have been for the Disciples? I mean, they were expecting to sit down to dinner with their closest friends and their beloved teacher—granted, it started out a little weird, with Jesus bathing their feet like the servants should have been doing—but then again, Jesus did stuff like that, you know? Just to make his point. But then Jesus just out and said that one of them was about to betray him. And then Jesus said:
Jesus: Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.”Whoa. Poor Peter. Hearing Jesus say that must have been like a kick to the gut. As Philip and Thomas continue to question Jesus—*arm waving* where are you going? We don’t get it!!—poor Peter must have just sat there, dumbstruck. But Jesus goes on, saying “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth… I will not leave you orphaned…”
Pastor Josh: Aw man… this sounds pretty bad, doesn’t it? I imagine that most of them had trouble listening from that point on. There’s Jesus saying,
Jesus: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Peter: Where are you going?
Pastor Josh: See what I mean about not listening?
Jesus: Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterwards.
Peter: Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.
Jesus: Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.
Then Jesus goes back to what he was trying to tell them in the first place, only this time he gives them a parable, I mean he gives them a metaphor, he says that it’s like he’s the vine and they are the branches. That they should live in his love. And then he says it again, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
Why is Jesus working so hard for the disciples to get it? Why is using different words to say the same thing over and over again? And still he goes on,
Jesus: you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you.”
Pastor Josh: And on…
Jesus: those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God.
Pastor Josh: And on…
Jesus: I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me…Until the disciples must have be thinking, “Oh dear God, why must he keep saying these horrible things?" And about the time things must have really been sinking in—just about the time when the disciples must have known deep in their souls that something big was about to happen and that it wasn’t at all going to be fun— then Jesus stops speaking directly to them and turns his attention to God, praying, “Holy Father, protect them in your name so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name. But now I am coming to you…”
Jesus is praying to God that God will protect Jesus’ followers so they can be one with each other in the same way that Jesus and God are one. Why? Because Jesus is about to die and their world will be turned upside down.
But Jesus doesn’t stop there. “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
Those who will believe in me through their word. That’s me! I believe in Jesus. And that’s you! You believe in Jesus! This prayer—it’s for us!! That we may all be one, just like God is in Jesus and Jesus is in God—so the world might also grow to believe…
You know, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard this prayer for us. I hope that it isn’t the first time you’ve heard it either. I know that in recent history more folk are familiar with the UCC’s God Is Still Speaking campaign
—with the image of the Comma and the accompanying quote from Gracie Allen, “Never place a period where God has placed a comma.” Not to mention the words of extravagant welcome, “No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.”
But the God is Still Speaking campaign and its message of extravagant welcome is only the most recent way the UCC has attempted to tell the world what it is about. Before the Comma there was the UCC logo.
No, not that one.
Closer. There we go…
The UCC itself formed from a merger between the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches in 1957. I do not know when this version of the logo was adopted. But I do know that the United Church of Christ website says that, “It is based on an ancient Christian symbol called the "Cross of Victory" or the "Cross Triumphant." The crown symbolizes the sovereignty of Christ. The cross recalls the suffering of Christ—his arms outstretched on the wood of the cross—for the salvation of humanity. The orb, divided into three parts, reminds us of Jesus' command to be his "witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth…"
And I also know that the symbol of the Cross Triumphant was present at the 1957 merger.To this ancient symbol, the UCC added two pieces of text to describe who we are as a community—the first, of course, is our name: United Church of Christ. The second is the prayer that Jesus prayed for his disciples and all those who believe in Jesus: That They May All Be One. Including this piece of scripture “reflects our historic commitment to the restoration of unity among the separated churches of Jesus Christ.”
As for the words Jesus said to his friends and followers just before the Ascension, "This," he said, "is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
And they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" But he didn’t really answer, saying, "It is not for you to know …” Honestly, though, this is another example of the disciples simply not listening and understanding. Remember that this word comes to us from the Book of Acts, which was written by Luke, and in Luke 17:21 Jesus clearly says that “…in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”
The disciples, just like the rest of us, myself included, completely forgot that the Kingdom of God is within us. as the Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchel puts it, “Nonetheless, we still wait a day when Christ will come in a new way. As we waited in Advent, and waited in Lent, so now we continue to wait and watch for Christ to do something new, to enter the world and our lives in a new way. But as the disciples did, so we too often look in the wrong direction. We look for signs of the end of the world. We look for signs that things are getting better or getting worse. Rather, the reign of God is within us, and while we wait for Christ to do something new, we participate in the reign of God now.
And so I’d like to close with a challenge and a cliffhanger.
The challenge for us, myself included, this morning is to go out into the world and look in the right direction for the Kingdom of God—within ourselves and one another. And where we see that the Kingdom is not present, we should work to make it so. The challenge, in other words, is to participate in the reign of God now, that they may all be one.
And now the cliffhanger: Hear the words of Jesus.
Jesus: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Pastor Josh: Amen. And amen. And tune in next week...
Sunday, May 13, 2012
"Chosen by Love"
Joshua J Sander
5/13/12
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Mother’s Day
“Chosen by Love”
Psalm 98
John 15:9-17
God is bigger than you. I hope you don’t find it shocking or insulting for me to say it, but it’s true. God is bigger than all of you and me put together. When it comes to figuring out who God is, we’re like blind people arguing over what an elephant is like. One of us has the trunk and exclaims that an elephant is like a snake. Another of us wraps their arms around a leg and says, “You’re wrong! An elephant is very much like a tree!” Yet a third lays their hands on the tail and says “You’re both wrong, and elephant is clearly like a broom!” Each is accurately describing their experience of an elephant, but none of them has the whole picture. And that’s what it is always going to be like when we try to talk about God.
Have you ever noticed that we tend to use the same words when we talk about God every week? Father, Lord, King, He, He, He… I mean, there are reasons for all of those words for God. Those words accurately describe many people’s experience of God. But it’s just one experience of something so much bigger than those words. And let’s face it, some of us have had difficult relationships with men. Some of us have had worse relationships with their fathers. I imagine that for those people, the idea of a Father God isn’t the best idea, you know?
Now, I’m not talking about Jesus at the moment—he really did have a Y-chromosome. But the God of Jesus’ ancestors? The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob? The God who made the heavens and the earth and brought the Israelites out of Egypt? The God that referred to God’s self simply as “I Am?” That God is so much bigger than any “he.”
On the other hand, we speak English. And in English there’s no neutral pronoun that we use to refer to people. We have he, she, and it. And “it” just doesn’t quite do it, does it now? So what will I do? Well. It seems to me that we ought to use as many different words for God as we can as we go along together. Yes, I will sometimes use the “traditional” male words—Father, or as Jesus said, “Daddy.” Sometimes Lord and King is the appropriate thing to say. Frequently I will simply use the word “God.” Sometimes I’m more specific, like when I referred to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or when I referred to the Creator God.
But… today is Mother’s Day. And while it’s not something you hear every day, I think that Mother is just as good a term for God as Father is. I’m sure that it works better for those of us who have had those difficult relationships with men, or with their fathers… So yeah… God the Mother. She’s bigger than you. She’s bigger than all of you and me put together. And trying to describe her is like a bunch of blind people trying to describe an elephant.
So, speaking of Mother’s Day, I’ve been doing a little historical digging. As near as I can tell, the first person to coin the term “Mother’s Day” was Julia Ward Howe. How many of you have heard of Julia Ward Howe? Well, Julia Ward was born in New York City in 1819 and married Samuel Gridley How—a physician and the founder of the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts—in 1843.
Now on April 12th, 1861, Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military outpost at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, kicking off the American Civil War. Julia Ward Howe and her husband visited Washington, D. C. and met Abraham Lincoln at the White House in November 1861. It was after this meeting that she was inspired to write "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." If you turn in your hymnal to #416 you can find her name under the Words credit at the very bottom of the page. Those words were first published in the Atlantic Monthly in February 1862 and it quickly became one of the most popular songs of the Union during the war.
Well, that was before Gettysburg and Shiloh and Vicksburg in 1863; before the battles of attrition between Grant and Lee as the Union fought its way to Richmond. Before Sherman captured Atlanta and made his famous way to the sea. That was, in other words, before untold hundreds of thousands of people died—more than in any other American war in history—more people dead than both World Wars put together… Well, I guess you could say that Julia Ward Howe changed her tune. In
1870 she wrote The Mother’s Day Proclamation. It was a call to all mothers—especially those who’d lost children in the war—to rise up against violence and war. I think that the strongest line from that proclamation is this: “Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.”
Charity. Mercy. Patience. Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last… I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”
Julia Ward Howe loved her children, so she had a basis for understanding how all the hundreds of thousands of grieving mothers of the dead from the war must feel. In solidarity and love for those mothers she invited them to stand up so that other mothers might not have to go through the same thing. You don’t have to be a pacifist to see her living out Jesus’ commandment as we celebrate Mother’s Day today.
By the way, Mother’s Day didn’t become a national holiday until Woodrow Wilson signed it into existence in 1914. The woman who campaigned for the second Sunday in May to be Mother’s Day was Anna Jarvis. Anna wanted to honor her own mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, who worked throughout what is now West Virginia to promote worker health and safety. During the American Civil War Ann organized women to tend to the needs of the wounded of both the Confederate and the Union soldiers. Charity. Mercy. Patience. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last…
You know, I think that today’s gospel lesson is both fantastic and difficult. It’s fantastic because in it you really can find the core of what it means to be a Christian community—God loves you, be good to each other—but it’s also difficult because it’s so, so easy to get completely derailed by all this “love” talk. It’s kind of like how if you say the same word over and over again it starts to sound really funny. And when that word is “love” it starts to sound like the almost marriage scene from The Princess Bride, “Love… Love is what brings us together today. And love… True love…”
But this scripture is not about the simplistic, rhyming, Hallmark Card version of love. This scripture is not about the happily ever after Hollywood version of love. And this scripture is not about the fleeting, romantic pop music version of love. No, this scripture is about the shepherd laying their life down for the sheep version of love. This scripture is about the love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you version of love. This scripture is about the transforming a world that hates you when all you want to do is hide version of love.
Just think about it—Jesus is saying to his disciples, look: you’re my friends. I trust you. And if you trust me, too, then do this one thing for me. Love one another. Love others the way God loves me and the way I’ve loved you. And Jesus is saying this to the disciples knowing full well that the people he’s asking them to love will turn him over to be tortured to death. In fact, the very next verses are, “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you.”
The world hates you. But this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. And then, only a couple of generations after, the Christian community that the gospel writer, John, belonged to was facing all sorts of persecution and ostracism because of their faith. It must have been so tempting to interpret that commandment in ways that allowed them to turn inward—to judge the world as it moved on without them as beyond redemption—to simply hide on a mountaintop somewhere and pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist. But they didn’t. They saw that Jesus’ commandment was about loving and transforming the world.
It’s hard, I know, to go out and love the world. Kathryn Matthews Huey puts it this way:
But I do want to leave us with a challenge and an example. The challenge is simple. When you go out from here into your day to day lives, always ask yourself if what you’re currently doing is done out of love and what kind of fruit it will bear. And when people thank you for what you’re doing, don’t be afraid tell them where you learned to love. So in closing, here’s a good example:
I don't think I could say it any better than that.
Amen.
5/13/12
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Mother’s Day
“Chosen by Love”
Psalm 98
John 15:9-17
God is bigger than you. I hope you don’t find it shocking or insulting for me to say it, but it’s true. God is bigger than all of you and me put together. When it comes to figuring out who God is, we’re like blind people arguing over what an elephant is like. One of us has the trunk and exclaims that an elephant is like a snake. Another of us wraps their arms around a leg and says, “You’re wrong! An elephant is very much like a tree!” Yet a third lays their hands on the tail and says “You’re both wrong, and elephant is clearly like a broom!” Each is accurately describing their experience of an elephant, but none of them has the whole picture. And that’s what it is always going to be like when we try to talk about God.
Have you ever noticed that we tend to use the same words when we talk about God every week? Father, Lord, King, He, He, He… I mean, there are reasons for all of those words for God. Those words accurately describe many people’s experience of God. But it’s just one experience of something so much bigger than those words. And let’s face it, some of us have had difficult relationships with men. Some of us have had worse relationships with their fathers. I imagine that for those people, the idea of a Father God isn’t the best idea, you know?
Now, I’m not talking about Jesus at the moment—he really did have a Y-chromosome. But the God of Jesus’ ancestors? The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob? The God who made the heavens and the earth and brought the Israelites out of Egypt? The God that referred to God’s self simply as “I Am?” That God is so much bigger than any “he.”
On the other hand, we speak English. And in English there’s no neutral pronoun that we use to refer to people. We have he, she, and it. And “it” just doesn’t quite do it, does it now? So what will I do? Well. It seems to me that we ought to use as many different words for God as we can as we go along together. Yes, I will sometimes use the “traditional” male words—Father, or as Jesus said, “Daddy.” Sometimes Lord and King is the appropriate thing to say. Frequently I will simply use the word “God.” Sometimes I’m more specific, like when I referred to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or when I referred to the Creator God.
But… today is Mother’s Day. And while it’s not something you hear every day, I think that Mother is just as good a term for God as Father is. I’m sure that it works better for those of us who have had those difficult relationships with men, or with their fathers… So yeah… God the Mother. She’s bigger than you. She’s bigger than all of you and me put together. And trying to describe her is like a bunch of blind people trying to describe an elephant.
So, speaking of Mother’s Day, I’ve been doing a little historical digging. As near as I can tell, the first person to coin the term “Mother’s Day” was Julia Ward Howe. How many of you have heard of Julia Ward Howe? Well, Julia Ward was born in New York City in 1819 and married Samuel Gridley How—a physician and the founder of the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts—in 1843.
Now on April 12th, 1861, Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military outpost at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, kicking off the American Civil War. Julia Ward Howe and her husband visited Washington, D. C. and met Abraham Lincoln at the White House in November 1861. It was after this meeting that she was inspired to write "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." If you turn in your hymnal to #416 you can find her name under the Words credit at the very bottom of the page. Those words were first published in the Atlantic Monthly in February 1862 and it quickly became one of the most popular songs of the Union during the war.
Well, that was before Gettysburg and Shiloh and Vicksburg in 1863; before the battles of attrition between Grant and Lee as the Union fought its way to Richmond. Before Sherman captured Atlanta and made his famous way to the sea. That was, in other words, before untold hundreds of thousands of people died—more than in any other American war in history—more people dead than both World Wars put together… Well, I guess you could say that Julia Ward Howe changed her tune. In
1870 she wrote The Mother’s Day Proclamation. It was a call to all mothers—especially those who’d lost children in the war—to rise up against violence and war. I think that the strongest line from that proclamation is this: “Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.”
Charity. Mercy. Patience. Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last… I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”
Julia Ward Howe loved her children, so she had a basis for understanding how all the hundreds of thousands of grieving mothers of the dead from the war must feel. In solidarity and love for those mothers she invited them to stand up so that other mothers might not have to go through the same thing. You don’t have to be a pacifist to see her living out Jesus’ commandment as we celebrate Mother’s Day today.
By the way, Mother’s Day didn’t become a national holiday until Woodrow Wilson signed it into existence in 1914. The woman who campaigned for the second Sunday in May to be Mother’s Day was Anna Jarvis. Anna wanted to honor her own mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, who worked throughout what is now West Virginia to promote worker health and safety. During the American Civil War Ann organized women to tend to the needs of the wounded of both the Confederate and the Union soldiers. Charity. Mercy. Patience. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last…
You know, I think that today’s gospel lesson is both fantastic and difficult. It’s fantastic because in it you really can find the core of what it means to be a Christian community—God loves you, be good to each other—but it’s also difficult because it’s so, so easy to get completely derailed by all this “love” talk. It’s kind of like how if you say the same word over and over again it starts to sound really funny. And when that word is “love” it starts to sound like the almost marriage scene from The Princess Bride, “Love… Love is what brings us together today. And love… True love…”
But this scripture is not about the simplistic, rhyming, Hallmark Card version of love. This scripture is not about the happily ever after Hollywood version of love. And this scripture is not about the fleeting, romantic pop music version of love. No, this scripture is about the shepherd laying their life down for the sheep version of love. This scripture is about the love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you version of love. This scripture is about the transforming a world that hates you when all you want to do is hide version of love.
Just think about it—Jesus is saying to his disciples, look: you’re my friends. I trust you. And if you trust me, too, then do this one thing for me. Love one another. Love others the way God loves me and the way I’ve loved you. And Jesus is saying this to the disciples knowing full well that the people he’s asking them to love will turn him over to be tortured to death. In fact, the very next verses are, “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you.”
The world hates you. But this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. And then, only a couple of generations after, the Christian community that the gospel writer, John, belonged to was facing all sorts of persecution and ostracism because of their faith. It must have been so tempting to interpret that commandment in ways that allowed them to turn inward—to judge the world as it moved on without them as beyond redemption—to simply hide on a mountaintop somewhere and pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist. But they didn’t. They saw that Jesus’ commandment was about loving and transforming the world.
It’s hard, I know, to go out and love the world. Kathryn Matthews Huey puts it this way:
...in our culture, with mobility, career pressure, distractions, and overloaded calendars, it's difficult even to make room for friendship. We don't stay long enough to get to know one another, let alone to care about one another. And yet this Gospel keeps talking about staying, about abiding, about making our home in God, in the Body of Christ.You don’t have to be a parent, although it might give you some insight into what I’ve been talking about. You don’t have to be a pacifist, although I’m pretty convinced that what violence does best is create more violence. You don’t have to organize folk to take care of the needs of the wounded, although that is a good and true calling.
But I do want to leave us with a challenge and an example. The challenge is simple. When you go out from here into your day to day lives, always ask yourself if what you’re currently doing is done out of love and what kind of fruit it will bear. And when people thank you for what you’re doing, don’t be afraid tell them where you learned to love. So in closing, here’s a good example:
I don't think I could say it any better than that.
Amen.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
"Fruit of the Vine"
Joshua J Sander
5/6/12
Fifth Sunday of Easter
“Fruit of the Vine”
Acts 8:26-40
John 15:1-8
Last week the Gospel of John provided us with a really good metaphor for our relationship with Jesus and with each other as Christians. We talked about how Jesus is the Good Shepherd and we are his sheep. And we were challenged by the scripture to accept the others that Jesus brings into the fold as well as to follow in his example and become good shepherds ourselves.
This week we have another great metaphor for our relationship to Jesus and to one another. Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower… I am the vine, you are the branches.” I love this metaphor because it’s so… organic. Grape vines grow and climb and spread and send out these little branches that twist and entwine. It’s one of those mysterious things that happens so slowly that you can’t tell it’s happening when you’re watching, but when you turn your back for a while, suddenly it’s just everywhere.
Well in the grand scheme of things, that’s what healthy Christian communities are like. Everyone is all entwined together in communities that grow and spread and branch out into the world…
Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. This goes way beyond the idea of Jesus protecting his sheep, who hear his voice and follow him. If Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, then we are deeply, profoundly—I mean we are completely dependent on Jesus for life. I suppose it’s possible to have a branch all entwined with the other braches without it being attached to the vine any more, but that branch wouldn’t be getting any nutrients, right? It would die.
Now, of course I’m not saying that people who don’t believe in Jesus are zombies or something. But I do believe that Christian communities—and I mean churches, when I say that. I do believe that churches sometimes cut themselves off from the vine and wither and eventually die. And I believe that sometimes people withdraw from their churches in hurt or anger and they let that hurt and anger eat them up inside rather than working the problem out or finding a new church—and so they die inside a little.
Jesus said, “Abide in me as I abide in you.” I think it’s important to remember that if we really abide—I mean if we really eat, drink, breathe and live in Jesus—then we get all entwined with each other. We get all wrapped up in each other. We get so close to each other that it’s hard to tell where one branch ends and the other begins. I’m telling you that if you get close enough to Jesus, all the places where your brothers and sisters in Christ seem different simply don’t matter anymore.
One of my favorite examples of what I’m trying to tell you here is found in the Book of Acts. It’s the story we heard earlier this morning, where an angel went to Philip and said, "Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court treasurer of the queen of the Ethiopians.
Now, I have to ask, how many of you know what a eunuch is? Ok, how many of you know the difference between a stallion and a gelding? Ok, what you’re thinking right now? That’s right. If you’re lost, come ask me later.
So, this is important because in the ancient Jewish law—check out Deuteronomy 23:1 if you want to see for yourself—but in Jewish law eunuchs were not allowed to be admitted into the assembly of the LORD. Keep that in the back of your mind for a minute, I’ll come right back to it.
Now this eunuch had come to Jerusalem to worship and was riding home in his chariot. And as he was riding, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over to this chariot and join it." So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading and asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The eunuch replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" So he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.
Now the passage he was reading says, "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth."
And the eunuch asked Philip, "Is Isaiah talking about himself, or someone else?" So Philip started with this scripture and proclaimed to the eunuch the good news about Jesus. Then they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look! What is to prevent me from being baptized?"
Well, Philip could have said to the eunuch, “Look, you seem like a nice enough guy, but you’re a eunuch, and there’s this one verse in Deuteronomy that says that eunuchs don’t get to be full members of the church. Sorry. You’re just too different.”
But then again, he’d just been teaching from Isaiah, which says, “thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.”
In other words, Isaiah is saying that there are more important ways to please God than simply making babies, and if eunuchs do those things, they’ll be rewarded in other ways. Philip, of course, not only knew what Isaiah had to say about eunuchs, but also would have remembered the very core teachings of Jesus—that the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. And that there is a second commandment which is similar—love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said that everything the Jewish law and all the prophets have to teach us is based on those two commandments.
Philip recognized that the eunuch was doing the things that please God. He recognized that the eunuch was his neighbor. And so when they come to the water and the eunuch asks if there’s anything to keep him from being baptized, Philip knows—he knows—that there’s absolutely nothing keeping that eunuch from being a good Christian. So they stop the chariot, and both of them go down into the water, and Philip baptizes the eunuch.
Jesus is the vine. Philip abides in Jesus. And now the eunuch abides in Jesus. They are both branches, even though they are very different in some very obvious ways. Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. Jesus said, “Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit…”
Much fruit! Isn’t that exciting? I think that we all crave few things as much as we crave being fruitful. As uncomfortable as it is to preach about a eunuch, I have to admit that I want the kind of fruit Philip bore—one more member of the church gathered in, one more branch entwined with the vine—that’s good stuff right there.
I believe that we are blessed to be members of the United Church of Christ, because we can claim a great history of bearing some wonderful fruit. For example, did you know that Zion UCC of Allentown once saved the Liberty Bell? It’s true! During the American Revolution the British occupied Philadelphia and planned to melt the bell down to make cannon. But by the time they got to it the bell had been removed and hidden—under the floorboards of Zion Reformed Church in Allentown, which is now Zion UCC.
Or did you know that a Congregational minister named Joshua Leavitt was ordained at 1st Congregational Church of Stratford, Connecticut then went on to work for the freedom of the escaped slaves from the Amistad and edited the famous abolitionist newspaper The Emancipator?
Or did you know that the serenity prayer, “"God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other," came from a sermon given by Evangelical and Reformed theologian Reinhold Niebuhr?
Or did you know that the United Church of Christ once involved in Federal court case instigated by the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.? It’s true! Southern television stations imposed a news blackout on the civil rights movement, and Martin Luther King Jr. asked us to intervene. Everett Parker of the UCC’s Office of Communication organized churches and won a court ruling that the airwaves are public, not private property. That decision lead to a proliferation of people of color in television studios and newsrooms.
Now, I’m not telling you all these things because I’m a cheerleader for the United Church of Christ—although I suppose that’s true, too. I’m telling you these things because they seem like exciting good fruit to me.
Or let me put it the way Kathryn Matthews Huey, who is on the Congregational Vitality and Discipleship Ministry Team on the national level of the UCC, when she writes:
The truth is that on my own, I couldn’t accomplish much of anything. But Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. “This is really good news for us, no matter how much it flies in the face of everything we're told about success and measuring up. It's not up to us to dig deep down inside and make happen what needs to happen.” Together we can accomplish great things.
All we have to do is get closer to the vine.
Amen.
5/6/12
Fifth Sunday of Easter
“Fruit of the Vine”
Acts 8:26-40
John 15:1-8
Last week the Gospel of John provided us with a really good metaphor for our relationship with Jesus and with each other as Christians. We talked about how Jesus is the Good Shepherd and we are his sheep. And we were challenged by the scripture to accept the others that Jesus brings into the fold as well as to follow in his example and become good shepherds ourselves.
This week we have another great metaphor for our relationship to Jesus and to one another. Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower… I am the vine, you are the branches.” I love this metaphor because it’s so… organic. Grape vines grow and climb and spread and send out these little branches that twist and entwine. It’s one of those mysterious things that happens so slowly that you can’t tell it’s happening when you’re watching, but when you turn your back for a while, suddenly it’s just everywhere.
Well in the grand scheme of things, that’s what healthy Christian communities are like. Everyone is all entwined together in communities that grow and spread and branch out into the world…
Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. This goes way beyond the idea of Jesus protecting his sheep, who hear his voice and follow him. If Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, then we are deeply, profoundly—I mean we are completely dependent on Jesus for life. I suppose it’s possible to have a branch all entwined with the other braches without it being attached to the vine any more, but that branch wouldn’t be getting any nutrients, right? It would die.
Now, of course I’m not saying that people who don’t believe in Jesus are zombies or something. But I do believe that Christian communities—and I mean churches, when I say that. I do believe that churches sometimes cut themselves off from the vine and wither and eventually die. And I believe that sometimes people withdraw from their churches in hurt or anger and they let that hurt and anger eat them up inside rather than working the problem out or finding a new church—and so they die inside a little.
Jesus said, “Abide in me as I abide in you.” I think it’s important to remember that if we really abide—I mean if we really eat, drink, breathe and live in Jesus—then we get all entwined with each other. We get all wrapped up in each other. We get so close to each other that it’s hard to tell where one branch ends and the other begins. I’m telling you that if you get close enough to Jesus, all the places where your brothers and sisters in Christ seem different simply don’t matter anymore.
One of my favorite examples of what I’m trying to tell you here is found in the Book of Acts. It’s the story we heard earlier this morning, where an angel went to Philip and said, "Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court treasurer of the queen of the Ethiopians.
Now, I have to ask, how many of you know what a eunuch is? Ok, how many of you know the difference between a stallion and a gelding? Ok, what you’re thinking right now? That’s right. If you’re lost, come ask me later.
So, this is important because in the ancient Jewish law—check out Deuteronomy 23:1 if you want to see for yourself—but in Jewish law eunuchs were not allowed to be admitted into the assembly of the LORD. Keep that in the back of your mind for a minute, I’ll come right back to it.
Now this eunuch had come to Jerusalem to worship and was riding home in his chariot. And as he was riding, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over to this chariot and join it." So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading and asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The eunuch replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" So he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.
Now the passage he was reading says, "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth."
And the eunuch asked Philip, "Is Isaiah talking about himself, or someone else?" So Philip started with this scripture and proclaimed to the eunuch the good news about Jesus. Then they came to some water; and the eunuch said, "Look! What is to prevent me from being baptized?"
Well, Philip could have said to the eunuch, “Look, you seem like a nice enough guy, but you’re a eunuch, and there’s this one verse in Deuteronomy that says that eunuchs don’t get to be full members of the church. Sorry. You’re just too different.”
But then again, he’d just been teaching from Isaiah, which says, “thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.”
In other words, Isaiah is saying that there are more important ways to please God than simply making babies, and if eunuchs do those things, they’ll be rewarded in other ways. Philip, of course, not only knew what Isaiah had to say about eunuchs, but also would have remembered the very core teachings of Jesus—that the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. And that there is a second commandment which is similar—love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said that everything the Jewish law and all the prophets have to teach us is based on those two commandments.
Philip recognized that the eunuch was doing the things that please God. He recognized that the eunuch was his neighbor. And so when they come to the water and the eunuch asks if there’s anything to keep him from being baptized, Philip knows—he knows—that there’s absolutely nothing keeping that eunuch from being a good Christian. So they stop the chariot, and both of them go down into the water, and Philip baptizes the eunuch.
Jesus is the vine. Philip abides in Jesus. And now the eunuch abides in Jesus. They are both branches, even though they are very different in some very obvious ways. Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. Jesus said, “Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit…”
Much fruit! Isn’t that exciting? I think that we all crave few things as much as we crave being fruitful. As uncomfortable as it is to preach about a eunuch, I have to admit that I want the kind of fruit Philip bore—one more member of the church gathered in, one more branch entwined with the vine—that’s good stuff right there.
I believe that we are blessed to be members of the United Church of Christ, because we can claim a great history of bearing some wonderful fruit. For example, did you know that Zion UCC of Allentown once saved the Liberty Bell? It’s true! During the American Revolution the British occupied Philadelphia and planned to melt the bell down to make cannon. But by the time they got to it the bell had been removed and hidden—under the floorboards of Zion Reformed Church in Allentown, which is now Zion UCC.
Or did you know that a Congregational minister named Joshua Leavitt was ordained at 1st Congregational Church of Stratford, Connecticut then went on to work for the freedom of the escaped slaves from the Amistad and edited the famous abolitionist newspaper The Emancipator?
Or did you know that the serenity prayer, “"God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other," came from a sermon given by Evangelical and Reformed theologian Reinhold Niebuhr?
Or did you know that the United Church of Christ once involved in Federal court case instigated by the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.? It’s true! Southern television stations imposed a news blackout on the civil rights movement, and Martin Luther King Jr. asked us to intervene. Everett Parker of the UCC’s Office of Communication organized churches and won a court ruling that the airwaves are public, not private property. That decision lead to a proliferation of people of color in television studios and newsrooms.
Now, I’m not telling you all these things because I’m a cheerleader for the United Church of Christ—although I suppose that’s true, too. I’m telling you these things because they seem like exciting good fruit to me.
Or let me put it the way Kathryn Matthews Huey, who is on the Congregational Vitality and Discipleship Ministry Team on the national level of the UCC, when she writes:
“The question for the church today is whether we find ourselves speaking and acting a word contrary to the "comfortable" within us and around us, where we face together, not alone, the forces arrayed against justice and mercy. What would happen if our congregations spent less time talking and worrying and working on our survival and more time on putting ourselves in the line of fire…”Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. And when we abide in Jesus and Jesus abides in us we get in the line of fire to bear good fruit. Why? Because the best fruit is the fruit closest to the vine, where the nutrients are more concentrated. I’m trying to tell you that the closer we get to Jesus, the closer we get to God, as we live in Jesus and Jesus lives in us, then we end up wanting what God wants.
The truth is that on my own, I couldn’t accomplish much of anything. But Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. “This is really good news for us, no matter how much it flies in the face of everything we're told about success and measuring up. It's not up to us to dig deep down inside and make happen what needs to happen.” Together we can accomplish great things.
All we have to do is get closer to the vine.
Amen.
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