The Resurrection of the Family
Matthew 28:16-20
A
Sermon Preached by
University
Congregational United
Are you taking time, each day, to listen?
To turn off the TV, turn off the radio,
to let the baby sleep, the child be cared for,
to stop and listen?
I invite us take some time to do that together this morning…
(Silence)
Spirit
of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
Spirit
of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
Melt
me, mold me, fill me, use me.
Spirit
of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
Fifteen years ago at this very time of year, I was struggling over whether to give a sermon that I never ended up giving. A sermon to share something deep in my heart, in this case, that I was in love with a wonderful man, named Dave Shull. However, I knew in the place that I was serving as an associate pastor that I could not speak that word there for a variety of reasons. And I have regretted that ever since. We do not share our hearts lightly, easily, with one another, do we? Nor should we. For our hearts are the most precious thing we have to share.
I’ve been thinking about that time, because I have felt called to share with you something of my heart. A different part of my heart. At this time, something of my tears. During my sermon I may cry and that will be okay. I say that as much to myself as to you. And during this sermon you may cry, and that will be okay too. Or you may just feel numb for that is what we have grown used to doing in church too often isn’t it? Being numb and not letting anything touch us too deeply.
We are living in a time that is full of breaking, a time full of tears. Tears that we may get in touch with if we stop and listen. I believe deeply that God speaks through tears. It’s a hard language to hear sometimes, to take in, to give ourselves over to. But I do believe if we listen to our tears, we will hear God speaking.
And so tears. I want to talk to you about last weekend, what happened and four specific tears.
* * * * * * * * * * *
I begin, a week ago, Friday
night. As some of you know, a group of
us from our church and Temple B’nai Torah went to
Israel, the West Bank and Gaza two years ago as part of a compassionate
listening delegation in which we listened to people – Jews, Christians, Muslims
- on all sides of the conflict tearing apart Israel and Palestine, the West
Bank and Gaza. Several of our members
have kept in touch with the families we stayed with in
We got together on Friday night to talk about what we might do to help. We really wanted to do something. It was easy to talk about wanting to help them. It was easy to talk about all the evil things that were being done to them by those other people, in this case, the Israelis. It could have been all too easy to begin to talk about “us” and “them”, the poor people that were suffering and the evil people that were doing this to them. But we didn’t. For fortunately, we looked around the table and realized that some of our family were missing.
It so happened on this night, that none of the Jewish members of our delegation could attend. And without them there, it could have been so easy to slip right back into the way of war that is killing and tearing this land and peoples apart – to find something to do for helping one group while justifying hating the other. How hard it is to find a place that is about meeting need without instilling more hate, more violence on the other. We realized we had to stop the meeting, that we couldn’t go on without the rest of our family. We needed to figure this out together. Without our Jewish sisters and brothers, we could have all too comfortably been led astray from something we were committed to learning and being about – helping to heal across the bounds of all that divides us. Tears.
* * * * * * * * *
Saturday morning I wanted to go anywhere but to Safeco Field. I wanted to come into the office and work on that pile that is always on my desk. Anything but to go there. But I kept hearing that I needed to go to Safeco Field. There was a big rally that day in which people were coming to hear the Reverend Jim Dobson speak against gay marriage. Other people were going to stand outside the park, against these people and what they were against. In this case, to stand for gay marriage. There were all too many “againsts” that day. What I heard in it all was that here was a place where my family was broken and hurting. Here was a place I needed to be.
So I drove downtown. Got there early which I do at my best – to get someplace early enough so I have some time to listen, to pray. As I sat there, I started to cry. And I wondered, why am I crying? Why am I crying? I didn’t really know why. After a little while, I got out of the car. There were families walking over the stadium. Families that growing up, I was sure I would be part of one day – families with moms and dads with four or five cute children. I walked beside them, by myself, across the parking lot to the stadium.
I stood with the folks who were standing outside in support of gay marriage. I wondered what in the world am I doing here? Why am I here? There was this woman who was next to me – a very young woman. And she was angry. Very angry. I spend and have spent a lot of time with angry people but this woman was more angry than almost anyone I have ever seen. She was screaming, screaming obscenities at the people who were going into the rally. Stuff that I won’t repeat here in church. I was drawn to her, and I said, “It sounds like you are really angry.” She said, “You better…..believe I am angry!” And I said, “Tell me about that.” And she talked about her fear of her rights being taken away, and what “these” people were going to do, and how they threatened her. I told her, “It sounds like you are standing here for love, for a different, a wider understanding of love. How do you stand here for love? How do you stand here and embody what you believe in and desire? Do you really do that by screaming at these folks?” Somehow she heard me, she quieted down.
There was this other man, equally as angry. I don’t know if you know how angry some people are at Christians today. Particularly some of our young people. So angry they can’t even contain their rage. Don’t even know how to put words to their rage. I was drawn over to this man. And I asked him why he was so angry and if he really believed what he was screaming. Did he really believe that all these people were going to go to hell? He was yelling, “We’ll pray for you!” at the people walking in. And I asked, “Are you really going to pray for them? And what are you going to pray?” He turned to me and said, “Whose side are you on anyway?” I said, “Good question. I don’t know whose “side” I’m on. What I do know is that I am a Christian and a Christian pastor, and what I see here today is my family is broken. For as a Christian, that is my mother and father, my sister and brother, my children, part of my family that you are screaming at. They’re part of my family. And my family, right here, is being torn apart today. Tears.
* * * * * * * * *
Sunday morning. Last Sunday morning I woke to a news report on the torture of Iraqis in American run jails. News that all of us have been forced to hear, read about and see – for the past two weeks. And I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to say last Sunday. And I haven’t known what to say. And what do you do with a preacher who is silenced? A preacher who doesn’t know how to say anything but is silenced and has only tears?
We have had to look at state
violence again and again – all of us.
We’ve had to look at
It makes me wonder again if the greatest sacrifice is not to die for your country. The greatest sacrifice is being willing to lose your humanity for your country. That is what we have seen. That is what we have witnessed. We have sent our young people into hell, and they have become monsters in our name. Monsters in our name that will call forth other monsters and further monstrosity. Tears.
* * * * * * * * *
And finally, Sunday night. Sunday night we were privileged to host our
new inquirers class at our home. We have
a wonderful group of new members joining the church next Sunday. We really do.
They are all very different. But
they all have one thing in common. They
are all refugees. Refugees. Refugees from the Roman Catholic Church. The Presbyterian Church.
And somehow, they came through the doors of our church and you welcomed them. You made them feel at home. You looked them in the eye and called them by name. And you transformed them. You made a space for them, invited in those who had lost a home. I am really glad, I really am, that we have these new members joining our church. They will bless us deeply, each and every one of them. And I am also sad. Sad. Because these people have lost their homes, their families. They should have been able to stay at the homes they have lost. In an ideal world, they should have been able to stay with and grow with the family who has nurtured them in faith – their moms and dads, their Sunday school teachers who have nurtured the faith in them. And yet, they cannot. You know that’s who we are. Did you know that? We are all a bunch of refugees – all in a variety of ways, displaced from home, what once was home – and called to make home here with and for one another. So tears, tears as well.
* * * * * * * * * *
Often times I come to scripture, hating it before I come to love it. And that is my experience with this scripture today. I hate this scripture. I really do. I hate it. I hate how it has been used and misused by the church to justify some kind of imposed unity upon the church and the world around it. This scripture calling on the followers of Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching people to obey all that Jesus has commanded has been used to justify Christian crusades in ages past and today as well. This scripture has been used to justify dividing people of faith from one another, Christians from one other. It has led to the splintering of nations and families. It has even justified forcibly baptizing people and killing in Christ’s name. This scripture that I believe was written by the early church at a time of great turmoil after the death of Jesus. A church in a world torn by division as our world is so torn today. A church looking for a way of strength, of unity, to meet and be strong in the midst of that violence and division put words in Jesus’ mouth. Words that unless we recover their meaning have been used to justify actions that have nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus. Nothing.
You have to go under this scripture to tear away the layers of misuse and abuse to find the core of the Gospel. To tear those layers away and find again the gospel of Jesus.
Jesus, I believe, had no big interest in “unity”, in making all people “one” in him. No. His world was as divided and torn as ours – people of different faiths, nations, families all killing each other. People dying over divisions. No, Jesus had do delusion of uniting all people together in some perfect unity. No. Instead, he taught and showed people how to survive, how to live in the disunity that is part of the very fabric and way of life. He taught people now to survive, and not only that – to find life, more abundant life than they ever knew they could have in the midst of times of turmoil and division that sought to take life and hope away from everyone.
Jesus did stand for the very things that the Great Commission speaks of. But in a very different way than this scripture has been misused by Christians and the church. Jesus did show people how to make disciples. And how did he do that? He invited people again and again to dinner. To gather around tables. To invite the people over to dinner you would never invite. To bring together the outcast, the stranger, around one table. That’s how he showed how to make disciples. By bringing people who would never sit together, together.
Jesus was baptized. And baptism has become the way of entry into the church. But Jesus never went around forcing baptism on people – imposing it upon fearful people as the church has done at times in Jesus’ name. No, he instead, affirmed what we do in baptism when young and old come forward here to this font to be baptized. He affirmed for people what was affirmed at his own baptism and is true, true for everyone. Everyone. “You are God’s beloved child.” (see Matthew 3:13-17) That is not a gift we have and control. It is something that is true, true for us all – all of us. To us, to the Christian church, has been given the gift of being called to remind people of that – a gift not to be imposed on others, certainly not held and controlled by us. But a gift that we are called to share and affirm for each other. We are all God’s beloved children. And we are called to give our lives, all we are, over to believing and living out that name and sharing it with others.
And Jesus did teach. He taught people to love one another as I have loved you. To do unto others as you would have others do unto you. To love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you. (See Matthew 5-7) Jesus taught people a radical new way to live in the cracks, to be in the cracks, to embody a different will and way. A way he called God’s way. A way of life and more abundant life.
I see signs of that life that Jesus calls us to right here in the heart of University Congregational United Church of Christ. Right here with us. Right here in the lifeblood of this church. Signs of following this Jesus way in our world torn as Jesus’ world was by violence, fear, corruption and lies.
* * * * * * * * *
Our church was in the paper
last week. There on the cover of the
“Local Section” of the Seattle Times on Monday, a picture in our
sanctuary of two young women, a Palestinian woman and a Jewish woman who spoke
here last Sunday. Two women who are part
of a community in
Two weeks ago Elias Chacour spoke here at our church. A Palestinian Christian who is building a
school for Moslems, Jews, Christians in
* * * * * * * * *
Last week, our church was in the paper again. There was Dave Shull on the cover of the Monday Seattle Times talking about homosexuality and the Bible. You know, Dave Shull, God love him, is really interested in Christology right now. And he would love to talk about that. But here he is again being asked to speak about homosexuality and the Bible. And here he is, representing us and speaking eloquently, clearly once again on this issue. Reminding us that we can hold being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender together with being a Christian. Here again, a little word of hope and promise for a world needs such a word so badly. A word of possibility, of hope, for people whose lives and faith are being torn apart.
And this church has a ministry
that we haven’t even stepped into yet – I really do believe this. Reaching out to evangelical and conservative
Christians across the aisle, across the alley, across the
* * * * * * * * *
And…..
Good heavens….I am on a roll this morning!
And….did you know that we have a small group here at church that has been meeting to talk about nonviolence? Last year, Walter Wink came and spoke for our Dale and Leone Turner lecture about nonviolence. A small group heard his talk and something about what he said got into them. They have been meeting and talking about nonviolence ever since. Talk about being on the cutting edge! Here is something we know nothing about. Nothing. What we do know is that if you hit me, I will hit you back. There has to be, there must be another way. Another way. Another way, a way that Jesus spoke of and embodied – a way that we need to learn about, practice, teach and live out with each other, our children, our families. A different way that we are called to teach to the world that is ever more torn by more violence and war. We need to be learn about this Jesus way of nonviolence. We have to stop this mad killing of our children and each other.
* * * * * * * *
And finally, finally, I want to talk about those three front rows where our preschool families sit during first service. I can’t tell you how important it is that they are there. We need them there. We really need them there. We need our children here not because they are cute – although they are. Not because we have something so important to tell them. Not because of any of that. But because of what they have to teach us, to show us, to remind us of. We are a church of refugees, called to make home, a new kind of home here in this place. We are called to be Christ’s home for one another and to embody that way for the world. We need our children to be part of that – my children, your children, our children – to make the family. To restore the family. So we can be family with and for one another.
You know, we come from broken families. I do, many of you do. Families that are broken in many ways. And it is a new family that we are called to shape and embody here in Jesus’ name with and for one another. We need our children and youth to be part of that.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Four little signs of hope following in Jesus’ way of reconciliation. Four little and profound signs of hope that are showing how to bridge all that divides us. Signs of resurrection for the family:
Resurrection for our divided families of faith.
Resurrection for our divided Christian family.
Resurrection for our divided family as a nation and world.
Resurrection for our own families, and we as the family, the body of Christ.
Showing a way of meeting, dialogue, vision and hope. Ways that are at the lifeblood of our church and that we must nurture and support and seek to grow.
* * * * * * * * *
There is a story from
For this new bowl reminds us of several things: The lines of the shattered pieces remain – they are not whitewashed away. Instead you can see and trace the lines, honor the history. The cracks are not forgotten.
The new bowl reminds us that unity is not something we have and hold. Unity is not something we impose on another. Don’t force on one another. Not something we control. But unity is something that is made – made by us in our relationship together. With one another. Unity is made by bringing broken pieces together, side by side, and joining them with gold lacquer paint.
On Friday night Bernard Scott gave the Jesus Seminar lecture here at the church. I asked him afterwards if there is another vision for a way for Christians to live in a time of disunity and division than seeking to impose unity on others. Is there another way besides adding to further division and violence and deeper alienation from each other? Is there another way? And he said, I think the way is to not to hold our truth too tightly. It is to recognize and know that what we are holding on to so tightly might be wrong. We might be wrong.
“Oh”, I said. “Oh”…. We may not hold the “whole” truth. Indeed, no one does we believe, but God. Knowing that, I might not throw the truth I grip in my hand at you like a rock or weapon. Knowing that, I may hear your truth with a little more openness. I may be able to hear and meet your understanding of truth with a little more open hand and heart.
There - open handed - we are called to meet each other – across all that divides us. Here we are to continue the work that is, I believe God’s call and need of us as church - to be the church of the gold lacquer paint. To bring together what divides and show a way of Christ’s reconciling way and love.
To University Congregational United Church of Christ a vile of gold lacquer paint has been given. Given to each and every one of us. Into our hands. Let us go forth to bring together the broken pieces in our lives, our world, our families. Let us go forth to live into our call – to paint. To bring the broken together following in the way of Jesus.
There is an old camp song about unity, “They Will Know We are Christians by Our Love”. I’d like to invite us to sing it. And as we sing it – to think of this work of unity that is our call. The work of making the gold lacquer bowl. Bringing together the broken, separated, and painting them together in Jesus’ way of reconciling love.
We are one in the spirit,
We are one in the Lord.
We are one in the spirit,
We are one in the Lord.
And we pray that all unity, may one day be restored.
Chorus:
And they’ll know we are
Christians by our lov,e by
our love.
Yes, they’ll know we are Chrsitians by our love.
We will walk with each other,
We will walk hand in hand.
We will walk with each other,
We will walk hand in hand.
And together we’ll spread the news
That God is in our land.
Chorus.
We will work with each other,
We will work side by side.
We will work with each other,
We will work side by side.
And we’ll guard each one’s dignity
And save each one’s pride.
Chorus.
* * * * * * * * * * *
The hymn at the beginning of the sermon is “Spirit of the Living God”, a hymn by Daniel Iverson. #283 in the New Century Hymnal.
If you are feeling called to this work of reconciliation , I would love to talk to you:
I would be only too glad to put you in touch with others here at church working on reconciliation. Reconciliation - across lines of faith. Reconciliation - within the Christian community. Reconciliation - doing and learning the ways of nonviolence. Reconciliation - restoring the family of Christ, children and youth and adults here together in our worship and daily lives.