“From Faith to Faith”

August 27, 2023 — “Camp Sunday”

Romans 1:16-17

Pastor Mike

The phrase that has captured my imagination from these two verses of Romans is the one containing the four little words “through faith for faith.” The two Greek prepositions, here translated as “through” and “for” have broad fields of meaning. This phrase could just as correctly be rendered “from faith to faith,” “out of faith into faith,” “by means of faith with the result of faith,” or even more loosely, “by faith from start to finish.”

In all its possible forms, the point that Paul is driving home with this phrase is that faith alone allows to us know God’s righteousness, which is to say God’s beauty, justice, and love. Faith amplifies itself, and a life of faith spirals to greater heights and depths. As we live with God, we return often to the basics, to the original questions, to certain fundamental experiences, but each time we come, hopefully, we do so from a more mature vantage. Let’s get away from the idea that faith is simply assent to doctrine. We can substitute “through trust for trust” or “through faithfulness for faithfulness,” which are synonyms in the New Testament for faith. The more we trust God, the more we practice faithfulness to God, the more trust and faithfulness become available to our spirits. God is revealed to us “through faith for faith,” “through faith for faith, “through faith for faith,” on and on, a little further and a little deeper every day. It is a dance of grace: God makes a move, we respond; we make a move, God responds.

One of the greatest ways we can help ourselves along this deepening, spiraling journey from faith to faith is by having places that remain constant in our lives – sacred and holy places that we return to whenever the curl of the spiral asks for them. Places hold memories; they hold our stories. They are steady while we change, so they help us to remember what has been, reflect on what is, and dream about what is coming. Familiar, returned-to places are one of the primary ways we continue to know who we are and trust in our own ripening as disciples.

For so many of you, Camp is one of those places. Camp is a holy place, a place where faith is received, renewed, deepened, and amplified. Commitments to Christ are made through faith, for faith. Self-love is gained by faith, for faith. Children, teens, and adults leap from faith into faith.

The American author, Annie Dillard, whose books include Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and The Writing Life, begins the memoir of her childhood with these words:

When everything else has gone from my brain—the President’s name, the state capitals, the neighborhoods where I lived, and then my own name and what it was on earth I sought, and then at length the faces of my friends, and finally the faces of my family—when all this has dissolved, what will be left, I believe, is topology: the dreaming memory of land as it lay this way and that.

This morning we honor one of the places that has become inseparable from the intergenerational story of this congregation, inseparable from who you know God to be in your lives. Camp is a place that will go with you till your dying day. It persists in memory and, God willing, in reality. Camp is a holy piece of land on which we worship and pray, work and play. It holds the echoes of our faith’s ongoing response to itself.

This morning, we will hear from four folks who love camp: Caroline, Hannah, Tanner, and Marlys. As they share their experiences, may we all consider which places are our holy places. They may be exotic or ordinary, far away or right outside the back door of our homes. The crucial thing is to tend our relationships to these places as we would tend any lifelong friendship or love. Places are companions on our spiral. God willing, they outlast our mortal spiral and keep on blessing others who will come after us. So let us now celebrate the power of place in God’s great creation.

Amen.

“Short Stories, Lasting Calls” Part 6: Ja’el

August 20, 2023 — Ordinary Time

Judges 4:1-22; 5:1, 24-27, 31

Pastor Mike

If I had a hammer
I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening
All over this land
I'd hammer out danger
I'd hammer out a warning
I'd hammer out love between
My brothers and my sisters, ah-ah
All over this land

The book of Judges is a bridge between Joshua, which tells the story of the Israelite’s initial conquest of the Promised Land, and 1 & 2 Samuel, which tells of the founding and failures of their unified Kingdom. In the time between settlement and monarchy, the judges – Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Samson, Gideon, and others – were temporary chieftains who helped Israel manage through decades of instability and disunity. The judges acted as military leaders and delivered the Israelites from militaristic oppression; some were legal experts who handled tribal disputes; and, on occasion, as with Deborah, the judge offered spiritual guidance as well. But the thrust was political. A judge’s leadership was considered successful if a period of prolonged peace followed his or her activity. In chapters 4 & 5, we learn that Deborah (a judge), Barak (a soldier), and Ja’el (a foreign woman) together win forty years of peace for Israel at the expense of King Jabin’s army and its general, Sisera.

All you have to do is read the story of Ja’el to know that the Bible is anything but boring or tame. Ja’el receives Sisera, the fleeing leader of Jabin’s defeated army, into her home. Sisera goes to Ja’el’s people because Ja’el’s husband, Heber, has an alliance with King Jabin. Sisera trusts that this political agreement plus the unbreachable cultural convention of hospitality will keep him safe among the Kenites. He confidently demands Ja’el’s cooperation.

Unfortunately for Sisera, Ja’el has a mind of her own, and King Heber isn’t home. Ja’el lulls the weary general to sleep, covering him with a thick rug and giving him warm milk to drink instead of the water that he asked for. She promises to stand guard while he rests. But once Sisera starts snoring, Ja’el takes a hammer in one hand and a tent peg in the other and pounds the peg through Sisera’s temple, nailing him dead to the floor.

If I had a hammer…

When Deborah and Barack come looking for Sisera among the Kenites and are shown his dead body by Ja’el, they sing a song of praise to God which tradition names the Song of Deborah. It is widely believed that the Song of Deborah in Judges 5 is the oldest written text of the Hebrew Bible that exists. Countless stories were told, certainly, but this song is, at least so far, the earliest written Hebrew scripture that we have. That taproot of the scriptures is a war anthem, sung by a woman, who’s praising another woman for hammering a tent stake through a sleeping man’s head. If you feel that this is both awesome and cringeworthy, join the awed, perplexed company of Bible interpreters everywhere.

Offering hospitality to guests was the pre-eminent social obligation of the ancient world, and Ja’el grossly violated it. She also transgressed her role as a woman, breaking the strategic political alliance forged by her husband. She also, contrary to the whole “thou shalt not murder” and “love thy neighbor” business of the Bible, killed a defenseless man in cold blood. She nailed a man to the floor of her home. Cringeworthy. On the other hand, why not hold Ja’el in the same emotional place we hold young David as he slings his river stone right into the temple of the giant Goliath? An underdog, a nobody, acting decisively to end a war, to say, “The bloodletting stops here. You don’t think I’m strong or important, but let me show you how God can use me.”

Regardless of how you and I might feel several thousand years on, the Bible has absolutely no qualms with Ja’el’s action. The whole story is designed to set her up as an unexpected hero. She has been memorialized in scripture and song: “Most blessed of women,” Deborah sings, “of tent-dwelling women most blessed.”

In this sermon series on call, drawing a one-to-one correspondence with Ja’el is a challenge. It’s one thing for me to say to you, “Go, be like Shiphrah and Puah, and preserve life where you’re being pressured by an authority figure to harm it.” Or, “Go be like Jethro and offer counsel and a listening ear to those younger than you.” It’s quite another to send you out to take a peg-and-hammer approach to the problematic people in your life.

What I think I can draw is an analogy between Ja’el’s response to Sisera and our Christian response to the times when evil and sin cease to be things “out there” abstractly and actually shows up in our hearts and homes. To make the analogy work, we must remember that God had already helped the Israelites to win the battle against Sisera’s army. Ja’el and her hammer didn’t change the outcome of the battle, but they did make God’s victory definitive; they brought the war to an end. Ja’el answered the question of whether Sisera would live to fight another day against God’s people. An enemy in flight is still an enemy, and what happened on the battlefield far from Ja’el – the victory of God – was realized personally, was brought to perfection, through her decisive response to the general in her tent.

From the time of the New Testament to today, Christians have drawn upon the language of warfare, battle, weaponry, soldiering, and victory to describe salvation and the Christian life. “Put on the full armor of God,” says Paul. And he encourages us to “fight the good fight.” This is because one way to explain what happened in Christ’s death and resurrection is so say that Jesus triumphed over sin, the death, and the devil. Defeated them. Won a cosmic spiritual war. On the cross, Jesus emptied the darkest and most broken manifestations of humanity of their power. He suffered betrayal, abandonment, injustice, denial, and pain. He exposed the collusion of political and religious power. He despaired at God’s apparent absence. And yet he was kept by God on the other side of death, and resurrected into a fullness of life that is greater than death. He canceled the power of sin through forgiveness; he filled the nothingness of death with his life; he duped the devil. He emptied hell of its prisoners. Warrior, liberator – Jesus overcame it all.

Which leads to one of the stranger dimensions of Christian faith. We believe that Jesus has already reconciled all things to God. He has already made peace, defeated death, forgiven sin. Yet we pray every day, “Deliver us from evil.” The kingdom is already and not yet; darkness has been overcome, but shadows still linger. As the Apostle Peter writes in his first epistle, “Discipline yourselves; keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary, the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith…” (1 Peter 5:8-9a). We are like Ja’el in this respect: we didn’t fight the Lord’s battle, he fought it for us on the cross and in the tomb. Yet Satan – just like Sisera – is in retreat, looking for a foothold.

We must experience the triumph of God in our intimate spheres – heart, home, and neighborhood – to know it as a present reality.

“The kingdom of God is within you,” Jesus taught (Luke 17:21). His complete victory over what is false and oppressive exists for us potentially. And it really exists. But believing in what he’s done and opening our lives to experience his victory takes work, and that work is at the heart of our baptismal call. Paul writes in Romans, “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him” (Rom. 6:8-9). He says in Colossians, “Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly…” (Col. 3:5). Jesus himself once said that if one of our hands causes us to sin, we ought to cut it off, or if it be one of our eyes, to pluck it out (Matt. 5:29-30).

This vigilance against the echoes of evil has been called by many names in the long history of Christianity: repentance, fasting, testing the spirits, discernment, exorcism, death to self, ego-death, asceticism, to name a few. No matter how it manifests, it is part of the great journey of sanctification, our being made ever more perfect in love.

Here are the questions that Ja’el’s story poses to us:

 First, what am I entertaining in my tent that needs to be gotten rid of?  Consider all the things that Christ has already defeated – pride, greed, lust, violence, apathy, hatred, envy, despair. Are any of them showing up on your stoop, asking for a safe niche to rest and be nourished back to strength. Grab your hammer.

Second, what great battle out there has come into my space demanding my response? Consider all the battles that feel too big or distant for us to fully fathom how our engagement with them could possibly matter or take shape. Racism, environmental destruction, worker exploitation, cultural addiction to violence, homophobia, you name it. It’s easy to feel too small or overwhelmed to do anything about those battles. But when they come to your home, when they affect you or your loved ones, suddenly a respond is necessary. And doing nothing is an unfortunate response. So, grab your hammer.

And the final question: what would keep us from acting? Consider what boxes and boundaries you might need to transgress if you are going to be decisive against sin and evil while you have the chance. Our hindrance to action usually comes from some story we’ve created about who we are supposed to be or how we want other people to see us. These false stories must also die, though it is difficult to face the ego, the false self, head on in the moment. Brute strength won’t do. Like Ja’el, notice it’s there, lull it to sleep, and grab your hammer.

What can we learn about call from Ja’el, most blessed of tent-dwelling women?

She is not explicitly called by God. God never speaks to her. She never speaks to God. She is not one of the chosen people, the Israelites. She’s not, like Deborah, a spirit-filled judge. She’s a marginal character on the fringes of sacred history. Nevertheless, she knew when the battle between good and evil had arrived in her space. She inspires us to vigilance and courage when it comes to keeping a pure heart and a pure home. Whenever we battle what is false in us or in front of us, we can summon the memory of Ja’el. We can channel her boldness, rashness, and ingenuity, and drive the peg of our faith through Sisera.

This warrior woman is in our cloud of witnesses. She is there beside us when it’s time decide whose company we’ll keep.

Amen.

“I’m Exactly Where I’m Supposed to Be — Again”

August 6, 2023 — Ordinary Time

Matthew 13:1-9

Kris Baker

Good morning! I’m honored to once again be here to share with you.

Please pray with me:

Blessed are you Lord Our God, Creator of the universe! May the words from my lips and the understanding of all our hearts bring each one of us to You. In Jesus name, amen.

When I received an email from pastor Mike in June requesting someone to volunteer to preach in Blackfoot, my first thought was, “someone better than me will step up. But shortly after I had that thought I found myself replying that I would volunteer. Immediately after sending the email, I thought, “What have you done now?”

I began to ponder what I could possibly share. I prayed and told the Lord that He would have to guide me in this and provide the words. What is it that You want me to talk about?

Jesus’ response was, “YOU.”

WHAT?! ME!? I thought that wouldn't be very interesting.

In my mind I began to run, and in my “wisdom” I’m calculating how to spin this away from me. What could I do? Since it is summer I will talk about my garden. After all, who doesn’t want to get outside and plant flowers and veggies and get a little dirty? Scripture that popped into my head was the parable of the sower.

I know you are all familiar with this parable; the sower sows his seeds, some fell along the path, some on rocky ground, others fell in amongst the weeds and some fell in good soil.

The birds ate the seed along the path. The seeds that fell in the rocks had enough dirt to sprout but not enough to grow and soon died. The ones that grew in the weeds were choked out and never matured . But the seeds landing in good soil grew and produced fruit.

This is a great passage, teaching us what to expect when we share the good news of Jesus Christ.

But what could I say that would enhance the message, make it fresh and new like the flowers growing all around? I borrowed some reference material from a friend but even with that, I FELT STUCK! Where do I go from here?

I prayed for guidance in growing my message and the only response I received was, “YOU.”

I must say I felt a bit like Jonah must have after he was spat out of the fish’s mouth outside of Nineveh. It seems that I needed to do what Jesus told me, talk about my journey.

OK FINE, I went back and looked at the scripture again (it would have been a whole lot easier if I had listened in the first place).

I looked at the parable again, and I still understood that it is about spreading God’s Word to ALL kinds of people and how it will be accepted and acted upon. But then the meaning changed, and I began to see my journey reflected in these words. Here is what I saw:

When I was a small child (about 4 or 5) I remember being an acolyte. It was very exciting being the one to light the church candles. I felt so important, but I had no idea what it was all about. We sang songs in Sunday school about Jesus and how He loves us but there was no understanding.

As I grew a little older I went to Sunday school, church, and learned some more about Jesus. As a family we read the story of Jesus' birth, celebrated Christmas and Easter. My Dad would read Bible stories to us before bed.

I knew the stories, understood that Jesus loves me. What I did not comprehend was why. Why did God send His Son to die for us because of our sin? What did that mean??? The first seeds of faith in my life fell along the path and were eaten by the birds, no faith grew in me at that time.

It was clear that on Easter Jesus rose from the dead and went back to heaven to live with God. I believed in God, and I believed in Jesus, my seed was trying to grow.

Continuing through High School, going to church was something that was “expected” so we went most of the time. I would do the very least possible. You know “go through the motions”. There was no more Sunday school, my learning did not continue. I did not read the Bible because I could not understand what it meant nor what it had to do with me. The only thing I hung onto was that Jesus loved me. Just like the seeds that fell amongst the rocks, my seed had sprouted but soon died. No one had ever taught me what to do with my belief. I had no soil.

College came next; I was kicked out of one school due to low grades. I just didn’t care which tends to happen after the first time I met my faculty advisor, and without looking up, he stated that he will not help me and that I should change my major, never looking at me he simply continued with what he was doing.

He was unconcerned about the effect his words had on the shy 19-yearold young lady standing before him. I was devastated. My dreams, thrown away like so much trash.

The associate pastor at church suggested that I apply at the Christian College. I wasn’t very hopeful and a little “gun shy” after my last experience but I applied. I figured that with my poor grades from the previous year, I didn’t have much of a chance. However, I guess God had other plans. I was accepted. It seems that Jesus was still knocking at the door.

The school year began, my classes were wonderful and the chapel services that we had to attend three times a week began to open my heart. The college group at my church also served as the counselors for the Jr. High Youth group. I was invited to begin working along with them and I, reluctantly, said yes. The first time I went I have to admit, I was terrified! The meeting began with activity. Generally, it was a version of volleyball we called Jungle ball. After games, we would have supper, prepared by volunteer Mom’s. The meal finished the singing began followed by a message from the Bible then ending with prayer. It was a nondenominational group, and the kids would invite their friends and the leaders would visit the schools meeting friends and sometimes teachers. There were approximately 60 coming each week. God was clearly working. UNTIL………

Mrs. K, a big money tither, went to the administrative board and complained that the group leaders were too young and close to the kids' age, and that there should be parents present to chaperon the meetings. Needless to say, we were not pleased. To get the kids to open up with parents around was not going to be easy. We all knew the kids were the priority, so we kept going, until, as the saying goes; the other shoe dropped. Mrs. K returned to the board and once again leveraged her weight and demanded that Methodist curriculum be used at the Jr High meetings. We protested, telling the board that this was not a meeting held during church hours, but an outreach and most of the kids would stop attending because they were not Methodist. We also asked the board why they thought the Bible was not sufficient. Clearly God was at work in this group. In the end we were ignored. Immediately the attendance dropped. As leaders we agreed that since the Word of God was not enough then we must not be either. All of us left, the Jr High group fell to less than 10 and there was no more college fellowship. We were all broken-hearted.

The weeds kept growing stronger. I stopped going to church. The state program that I was hoping to join was defunded a month before I graduated. After graduation I had a difficult time finding a lab job, I would have to be trained (companies didn’t want to pay for that) and I had no experience. I finally settled on a QA position, which only required a high school diploma. So disappointed!!

I met a man at work, and we started seeing one another. The relationship got to the place where he asked Dad for permission to marry me. Permission was given and wedding plans began. I remember waking up from a bad dream and knowing this was not going to happen. He had never asked me to marry him. Apparently it was assumed since Dad was alright with it.

I ran and did the only thing I could think of, I joined the Marine Corps. Right after I enlisted on delayed enlistment, my brother was hit by a car and was in a coma. My brother survived but by this time the weeds had won! My faith was very small, I remember thinking, (I had stopped praying by now), that I can do this on my own. I have a good foundation and I will be just fine doing this myself.

Off I went to boot camp and then on to training to become an Air Traffic Controller. Graduated top Marine in my class which up to that point meant I could pick my duty station. Not this time, the Commandant thought it would be better to send me to Okinawa. So as not to get into all the details, allow me to sum up my career in the Marines with this: Having leadership of my life led me to have indiscriminate sex, begin to use drugs, distribute a controlled substance, get arrested the day I was going to re-enlist, have a trial, get sent to the brig and ended with a “big chicken dinner” as we called it. I was discharged with a Bad Conduct Discharge. And though I didn’t recognize it at the time, Jesus was still by my side. All charges were solely within the military, so I had no civilian record.

After my discharge drugs became much more prominent in my life. Using drugs, drinking and promiscuity ended up in pregnancy. I couldn’t get a job, but I did stop using drugs, drinking, and smoking as soon as I found out I was pregnant.

For a complete change, and other family factors, I moved to Idaho, lived with my sister’s family and became nanny to my niece’s and nephew (8,6,4). Still not turning to God I did the hardest thing I have ever done; I gave my son up for adoption. I reasoned that I was not fit to raise a child and because of what I had done I was not a good person, or ever would be. I wanted my baby to have a chance at a good life. Two weeks after my son was born I went to the judge and signed the papers to give him up. I still did not turn to Jesus, I felt that He didn’t/couldn’t love me anymore because of what I had done.

I had convinced myself that I was no good and would never be any different. Smoking, drinking, pot, coke and crystal meth became the way I dealt with the world. I went back to California under the pretense of getting a job. I did easily get a job, but the drugs were easier to get as well. It wasn’t until the morning I woke up; sleeping on the floor, after a 3-day runner that my eyes began to open. I remember thinking, “What the are you doing?” I was on the fast track to destruction. I made the decision to go back to Idaho and hoped my sister would take me in one more time. I still had not looked up. I still struggled, couldn’t love myself but managed to get a job and a place of my own, I made enough money to pay my bills, feed my critters and myself and to buy pot. Life was going well, I thought, I was doing alright on my own. Couldn’t figure out why I felt empty and alone. Promoted to full time at work, I bought a house, oh yea, I was doing just fine.

I tried going back to church, even. I was not at all comfortable, certain all the folks were judging me. After all, why not, I earned it. I was a horrible person.

Then one week my sister told me to pack a bag, we were going away for the weekend. This was not a request! I relented, packed my bag and Thursday afternoon we were off. We got off the freeway and I informed my sister that I would go no further without a cup of coffee and wanted to know where we were going. Coffee in hand we continued and pulled into a church. Then I found out that she was sponsoring me to Walk to Emmaus. Fear bolted through me!!! Certain that God was angry with me, I had no idea what to expect. That weekend I finally looked up. The seeds were being sown and this time they were falling on good soil. What I discovered was LOVE.

From that weekend to this, I keep my eyes on Him. Sometimes I forget and stumble but with the help of family and friends I get back up. I know He will never leave me. If any leaving is done I will have to do it.

The struggles are still there but now I have always got Jesus by my side. He DOES love me, and with His continual help I can love me as well. The seeds were growing in the good soil, coming up strong and true. I do not know where He wants me to go but I am willing. So, you see the parable of the sower did fit my life.

When I was young I did not know what faith was so the seed could not grow.

As I got older and had some understanding, faith began to grow. But I had no teaching, and no roots grew.

College came and again faith sprouted. This time it grew strong until the weeds choked it.

Life continued for many years. The weeds of the world over grew my life. Walking by myself only led me in the wrong direction.

God sent my sister to take me by the scruff of the neck and finally I discovered that Jesus had been waiting all this time for me to open the door and let Him in.

The soil was good, and my faith has been growing, slowly but surely, ever since.

I assure you I intend to hang on to Jesus as hard as I can. I am so thankful that I finally listened and shared my journey, a snapshot anyway. I am learning to keep looking up and it’s okay to make mistakes, we all do. But do not make the mistake, like I did, and shut Him out. All He wants to do is LOVE each of us. We can then love Him in return.

1 John 4:19 tells us, “We love Him because He first loved us.”

He will show us how to love. Now I am confident that I am exactly where I am supposed to be, again!

God Bless you all!

“Short Stories, Lasting Calls” Part 5: Rahab

July 23, 2023 — Ordinary Time

Joshua 2

Sus Conner

We’re in the middle of the series: “Short Stories, Lasting Calls” about some of the less recognized characters in the Bible who receive important calls upon their lives in the hopes that we might all start, within our own, biblical imaginations, to recognize call in our own lives.

Today we encounter a mother of the faith who is often skipped over in contemporary teaching, though she is not forgotten in the teachings of the New Testament, as we will see. And it is also one of the most fabulous adventure sequences in the whole Bible. This is the story of Rahab.

The Israelites, lead by Moses, have come to the far side of the Jordan River – the edge of the Promised Land. Upon Moses’ death, his assistant Joshua is appointed by God to now lead the people on the final leg of the journey. You’ll recall that the land promised to the Israelites isn’t empty, there are already people living there, so Joshua’s first act as leader is going to be the planning and execution of a complex military maneuver – they are going to take the walled city of Jericho.

Under cover of night, Joshua sends two spies to survey the area and assess the city’s defenses. Jericho is known for its fortress-like protection, but we’re told that just outside the city wall is the home of Rahab, a prostitute, and in fact she herself lives within the wall. Got to love the Bible, we never really know if we’re getting fact or poetic license, but, okay, Rahab – almost certainly because of her profession – lives half in and half out of the community; literally in the capital-M Margin of the city. And it is here that the spies find they can transgress the wall and gather intelligence.

Surrounding your city with a giant wall isn’t very useful if you don’t have guards on top of the wall. I assume that’s how the king of Jericho finds out that there are spies hiding at Rahab’s house. The king deploys soldiers to find the spies, they pound on Rahab’s door, shouting that she needs to turn over the spies, we know they’re in there. But Rahab hides the men and opens the door, casual, “Sure those guys were here,” BIG wink, “but they went thataway.” And off they run, the soldiers who will now search beyond the gates for days and find no one.

Rahab goes up onto the roof where she left the spies, pulls them out of their little flax stalk hiding place, and she tells them: I know you’re going to destroy my people. We’ve heard what you did to the Egyptians, to the two kings of the Amorites, to Sihon and Og. I understand that your God is the true God. Now. I saved your lives and in return I want a promise that you’ll spare me and my family when you bring your armies back here for war.

And, so, the spies swear to save Rahab and her family because she saved the spies from the soldiers of the King of Jericho. And when Joshua eventually leads his warriors in their seven-day march around the walls of Jericho, and he gives them the final pump-up speech before they take the city, he includes the protection of Rahab and her family: “Shout! (cheers) For the Lord has given you the city! (cheers) The city and all that is in it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction! (cheers) Except Rahab!” And we’re told that her family lives forever with the Israelites.

_______________

Here’s a curious thing about Rahab: The Bible is preoccupied with the sexual morality of women. Old Testament law is lousy with ethical gymnastics when it comes to defining sexual purity and proving virginity. And then men who interpret the Bible, both the writers of the New Testament interpreting the Hebrew Bible and Christian theologians until, like, now, are always trying to figure out if women mentioned in the Bible are prostitutes or not or maybe just publicly sexually immoral? It’s like poor Mary Magdalene, the text describes her affliction as something that we, today, might recognize as acute mental illness and in two thousand years of Christian scholarship we can’t seem to stop asking about her sex life. It isn’t mentioned. And yet – Rahab is actually a prostitute for her job. One of only a handful of actual sex workers in the Bible, as opposed to the many women who are called “prostitute” for a sexual transgression, and in the ten times she is mentioned across the Old and New Testaments, no one ever has a single thing to say about how she makes her money.

When Matthew lists her in the genealogy of Jesus, it’s as the mother of Boaz. When she is mentioned in the letter to the Hebrews, it’s in a list of the faithful, presented on equal footing with Moses and David. And when her name comes up in the Letter of James, it’s as an example of the necessity of living with both faith and good works. The one other example James gives is Abraham.

Scholars think that Joshua chapters 2 through 11 is one of the most ancient portions of the Hebrew Bible. But the story of Rahab has clearly captured the imaginations of early Christians and I think it is significant – possibly essential – that the woman welcomed into the lineage of Abraham, Moses, and David; the woman adopted into the lineage of Christ; embodies the Biblical definition of unfit, unclean, unworthy. Feel this with me: we are some 2,600 years on from the first written record of this story and it would be hard for me, in America in 2023, to come up with a group of people more overlooked, undervalued, and unprotected than sex workers. What is going on here? That Matthew, the author of Hebrews, and James are clamoring to claim her as a mother of the faith? I mean, first century Christians are not known for their celebration of women. In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul doesn’t even want a woman to speak in church. And now Rahab is up on the marquee with Abraham.

The ministry of Christ was to those on the margins of society. I think these guys, these early Christians, these non-Jewish gentile men recognize in Rahab, of all people, someone who was adopted into the family of God, not on her merits, but on the basis of her willingness to answer God’s call when it came. That’s what makes her an Israelite. That’s what makes her an ancestor. The fact that she recognized the presence of God, that two of God’s people put their lives into her hands, and that she used her exact literal place in the world – her place in the wall – to do what no one else could do.

For those of us who feel as if we have been relegated to live in the proverbial wall; those of us who, for whatever reason, present to the world or to our Christian community as unfit; the story of Rahab is a story for us. God can call us to anything from anywhere and the only thing that makes us People of God is that we answer.

_______________

Now. Here’s the second curious thing about Rahab: She’s not going to answer God’s call without asking for something in return.

When Joshua’s spies need to hide in her house, I can imagine that she doesn’t feel like she has a lot of choices. We know she knows that the Israelites are coming to destroy her city. And these spies have come to her house that’s on the wrong side of the wall and there’s two of them and one of her. There’s a way we can read this story where Rahab is really just choosing between being killed on this night or being killed a couple weeks from now. Simple self-preservation. But after she sends the king’s soldiers on a wild goose chase, she comes up to the roof and has the audacity to bargain for her life and the lives of her family members, when it comes time for the inevitable invasion of Jericho. Again: a foreign nation has concrete plans to destroy my home and my people, I am hiding two of this nation’s military men in my house, my job and my gender mean that I live unprotected by my own government, and I have just committed treason. Would I personally have the presence of mind or courage to now say to these guys, “I’m going to need something from you now”?

This is often the super power of people who have lived a long time in the wall. When you have long been without something that you need – food, love, protection – when you have long suffered with no relief – illness, pain, rejection – you are not going to waste any time if you meet someone who might be able to mitigate an imprisoning circumstance. If you’re like me and you’ve more or less lived your life so far with the illusion of control and the resources to address your own problems, it can be easy to dismiss people who are swift and adamant in asking for what they need. But Rahab is asked to risk her life to save the lives of two strangers; two strangers who, with their saved lives are going to bring an army back to slaughter Rahab’s people; thank God Rahab knows what she needs and how to ask for it. She needs to survive.

Christians have a tendency to talk about things like call or mission in terms of self-sacrifice. As if we will know that the call is from God if it involves a whole lot of suffering. We look at the life of Jesus and we can get confused about where to read ourselves into that story. I’ll say, I don’t think our part is really the part where he’s tortured and crucified. Because the ministry of Christ is all about Jesus answering the calls of regular people; all about people asking for something concrete in return for their faith; and about the ways that God wants to respond to those requests with brilliance and abundance. Healing incurable diseases. Giving sustenance where there was none. Returning the outcast to loving community. God isn’t calling us so that we can do some free labor, stick our necks out, tick off of our neighbors, risk financial insecurity, and look generally foolish. Although those can sure be side effects of answering a call. Jesus draws a crowd so that the people can come close enough to be healed. God is calling you to some kind of work in this life so that you come close enough to the ministry of Jesus to get what you need.

I think this is why these new Christians keep coming back to Rahab, how did she know? She wasn’t even one of God’s “chosen,” how could she have known that what God was really hoping for was someone to ask for something in return? To give God an opening for something miraculous.

Whatever God has called you to; whatever work, small or wild, no matter how ill-advised or impossible; you are not expected to receive that call and not call back. What do you need? To make it happen? What would you need? To make that change? It is yours to ask for and there is nothing about who you are now that would exempt you from being called, from being equipped, from being written into the lineage of the faithful.

And, more often than we are called, we will have occasion to recognize the call on the lives of others and participate in the abundant giving of God. My prayer this morning is not just that we would receive our calls and call back with great faith, but that we would embrace the askers. The bargainers. Those among us who require something in return and brave enough to make that known. People of God, these gifts are also ours to give. Life. To anyone who comes to us asking to live.              

Amen.

“Short Stories, Lasting Calls” Part 4: Bezalel & Oholiab

July 16, 2023 — Ordinary Time

Exodus 35:30—36:7

Pastor Mike

This sermon series, Short Stories: Lasting Calls, has taken us off the beaten path to encounter characters in the Bible who we might otherwise pass right by. If this were English class, we’d call them “minor characters.” But from the perspective of faith, they are individuals who responded faithfully to a diverse set of purposes and transformed the world for God. Ananias blessing his enemy, Shiphrah and Puah disobeying Pharoah, Jethro counseling Moses. They’re starting to gather around us, these faithful witnesses, and as they gather, they pose a question. This was my sacred story, what’s yours? How is God calling you into his kingdom and glory (1 Thess. 2:11-12)?

This morning, we head to the wilderness to meet two of the Bible’s great artists as they work: Bezalel and Oholiab, makers of the tabernacle.

After God liberated the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, the people wandered in the desert for forty years, slowly winding their way toward the Promised Land, camping here, camping there. During those forty years, God traveled with the people in the form of a cloud of glory that covered and filled a special tent called the tabernacle. The tabernacle was always at the center of the Israelite’s campsite. Here’s how it’s described at the very end of Exodus:

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. …Whenever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, the Israelites would set out on each stage of their journey, but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, before the eyes of all the house of Israel at each stage of their journey. (40:34, 36-38).

It was a big change for God to want to live among the people like that. Up to that point, God’s appearances were more subtle and individual: a voice telling Abram to go, a man wrestling Jacob in the night, a burning bush catching Moses’ eye. The cloud in the tent was God’s first crack at domesticity, and the tent had to be perfectly made and perfectly maintained. It was holy.

Several chapters of Exodus are devoted to outlining the proper construction of the tabernacle – because it wasn’t just a tent. It had a perimeter with a gate. It had a courtyard, a bronze altar, a washbasin, a tent of meeting with table, altar, and candlestick inside, and, finally, a holy of holies. God explained the tabernacle’s layout, dimensions, materials, and furnishing to Moses in precise detail. Making it was a huge, complex project, especially for a community new to the wilderness, new to independence, new to the free expression of its own creativity.

This is where Bezalel and Oholiab enter the picture. God called them by name and set them apart for the task of making the tabernacle. Artists know who they are. God filled them with them a divine spirit of creativity (Exod. 35:30-31), and the spirit blessed them with knowledge and skill in all sorts of crafts – metalwork, woodwork, stonework, weaving. In Hebrew, “spirit” can also be translated as “breath” or “wind.” Bezalel and Oholiab, the artists, were filled with God’s breath, inspired to create.

The twentieth-century American poet Denise Levertov once wrote, “I believe poets are instruments on which the power of poetry plays. But they are also makers, craftsmen: it is given to the seer to see, but it is then his responsibility to communicate what he sees, that they who cannot see may see, since are ‘members one of another.’”[1] She’s saying that poets are both seized by the creative impulse, which they cannot control, and responsible for turning that impulse into work, a process they can control. Bezalel and Oholiab’s names even echo the creative yin and yang. Bezalel means “in the shadow of God.” Oholiab means “father’s tent.” Artists are overshadowed, overtaken by the creative spirit; but they also make tangible works for it to live in. Some of you are called to be creatives, artists, craftsmen and craftswomen. God needs all the poets, writers, woodworkers, sculptors, architects, musicians, chefs, jewelers, painters and so on that God can get. Your creative work casts the mystery of God in what we can see, hear, taste, and touch. You are the ones who help us feel that this world is truly where God lives.

Importantly, Bezalel and Oholiab were able to live their purpose as creators only because the rest of the community brought them all the materials that they needed to get the job done. Actually, the people brought more than enough. Moses eventually had to tell them to stop bringing more materials. That’s a good problem to have! The gifts are specifically called freewill offerings, which means that the people gave them voluntarily. No one forced their hand. No one tried to guilt them into it. Here’s how it’s put in Exodus chapter 35:

Moses said to all the congregation of the Israelites, “This is the thing that the Lord has commanded: Take from among you an offering to the Lord; let whoever is of a generous heart bring the Lord’s offering: gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purpose, and crimson yarns and fine linen; goats’ hair, tanned rams’ skins, and fine leather; acacia wood, oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, and onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and the breast piece.”

And they came; everyone whose heart was stirred and everyone whose spirit was willing, and brought the Lord’s offering to be used for the tent of meeting and for all its service and for the sacred vestments. They came, both men and women… (35:4-9, 21-22a).

Without these materials, Bezalel and Oholiab could not make their vision a reality. The creative endeavor was supported by the whole community. What we have here is a bit like a Trustees committee – a group of artisans receiving the gifts of the people and using them to make God’s house. This is the kind of work that Roger Hanson, our beloved Chair of Trustees who passed away 10 days ago, did. And it’s the kind of work that you’ll have more opportunities to participate in, from either the making or the giving side, in the coming weeks and months.

We’ve got a lot more than a tent on our hands; we’ve got our building, a building that needs a new roof, greater accessibility, more energy-efficient heating and cooling. It’s a building that blesses the lives of over a hundred children five days of the week, every week of the year, by hosting a strong licensed childcare center, which, it turns out, is an increasingly vulnerable public good. We have the Wesley House, Idaho State’s Methodist campus ministry, soon to be inhabited by the Morton family. All of these spaces, from Sanctuary to Chapel to gym to basement to playground to Wesley House are spaces that, literally, hold us as we live the Christian rhythm of worship, learning, praying, and serving. They are the places where we and others meet the God who dwells among us. I believe that some of you are called, whether for the hundredth time or the first time, to step up and help us perfect these spaces. I believe that we are all called to give freely to the creators, so that our sacred spaces can thrive.

At first, this felt like a bizarre sermon to prepare for the Sunday morning when we’re worshipping outside, away from our property. But then I realized that we have an opportunity out here to get a little perspective.

Bezalel and Oholiab built the tabernacle in the wilderness with nothing but Moses’ vision and the people’s gifts. The first Methodists who worshipped in southeast Idaho, and then in Pocatello, and eventually at the corner of 15th and Clark started out with nothing but their dreams and raw materials. That’s not our exact situation, but it means we should not take for granted what we’ve already got on hand to work with. We should not let things fall into disrepair. We are a step ahead of our ancestors from a material perspective; but from a spiritual perspective, some of our urgency, our belief in the necessity of communal creative act, has waned. Truth is, every generation, even ours, needs its Bezalels and Oholiabs and freewill offerings.

I understand that God is not contained by buildings.

I understand that churches are notorious for driving their people into destitution in order to make opulent places of worship.

I understand that God’s people often engage in idolatry when it comes to their property, caring more about liability than livelihood.

I understand that we worship in spirit and truth, and that the sacrifices truly acceptable to God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart.

But none of that changes the fact that the creative spirit cries out for expression, and the Church can be a place where that spirit gets expressed for the good of many. Assets like ours can be leveraged to do work that others in our community find harder and harder to do.

Here’s something: In the Hebrew text, the word wisdom is like a bead strung throughout this story. In verse 33, “every kind of artistic craft” is, in the Hebrew, “every work of wisdom.” “Skill” in verse 35, which is something God gives to Bezalel and Oholiab, is, in Hebrew, “heart-wisdom.” And “every skilled person,” a phrase used in 36:1 and 2 to refer to those who come forward to assist the master craftsmen, is “every man of wise heart.” God is Wisdom. Art is wisdom-work. Artists channel the force of our endlessly creative God into the world. They, you, have heart-wisdom. Buildings can be albatrosses, money pits, burdens, idols. They can also be places of meeting, out of which life and glory and joy and energy reverberate into the neighborhood, the block, the city. A great divine drum, if tightened and struck just right.

When we sing, “Take, O take me as I am, summon out what I shall be,” we acknowledge that we are God’s handiwork, the work of God’s hands. God makes things beautiful, new, strong, and good. With God’s spirit, so can we.

Amen.

[1] Denise Levertov, The Poet in the World (New York: New Directions, 1973), 3.

“Short Stories, Lasting Calls” Part 3: Jethro

July 9, 2023 — Ordinary Time

Exodus 18:1-27

Pastor Mike

Moses is an example of one of the Bible’s major characters. He is the main character of nearly all of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and tradition once credited him with writing all of those books as well as Genesis. Moses led God’s people during their escape from Egyptian slavery and their forty years of wilderness wandering. He went up into the dark cloud of Sinai to receive the law, and he came down the founder of the Jewish religion. And Moses didn’t just serve God – he knew God. God “would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks with a friend” (Exod. 33:11, NLT). Moses and his legacy changed the world forever.

But Moses was not always so powerful or confident. He nearly died as an infant because, in Egypt where he was born, Pharoah had ordered his people to murder all the newborn Israelite boys. In a last-ditch effort to save him, Moses’ mother had placed him in a basket in the reeds of the Nile River. When he was discovered by Pharoah’s daughter, she took pity on him, even though he was a Hebrew, and raised him as her own son in Pharoah’s house. Many years later, when Moses was an adult, he lost his temper and killed an Egyptian man who was beating an enslaved Hebrew. He buried the body but the news got out, and Pharoah tried to arrest him.

These two things biographical details are all we’re told of Moses’ origins: he was caught awkwardly between his people’s oppression and the privileged house in which he’d been raised, and he murdered someone. Moses attempted to get away from all this by fleeing to the land of Midian. When he got there, he met and married his wife Zipporah, became a solitary shepherd, and tried to forget about his pain.

I offer all this background about Moses because, to really understand Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, we have to understand that Jethro entered Moses’ life at a time when Moses had lost his way. He came to Midian as a fugitive, spiritually rattled and socially estranged. Who was he? What was his purpose? Moses had no clue. But, for the first time in his life, another man entered the picture who took Moses under his wing and gave him what he needed: exposure to a spiritual life, time and space to figure things out, steady work to do, and a family to belong to.

Jethro was a priest. No one knows which gods he served (likely several) but his spiritual sensitivity seems to have been authentic, because on multiple occasions he affirmed Moses’ experience of Yahweh and was proud of Moses’ religious path. I’m guessing here, because the Bible doesn’t say it outright, but I bet that in those silent, glossed over years that Moses spent in Midian, Moses learned some things from Jethro about prayer, ritual, and spiritual awareness. After all, it was while shepherding Jethro’s flocks that Moses had his burning bush encounter and met the God of his ancestors, the “I am who I am.” Who are we to say that Jethro wasn’t also attuned to something good and true in that God-touched wilderness?

By the eighteenth chapter of Exodus, which Lou has read for us, the plot has gone into overdrive and a lot of drama has unfolded. With Jethro’s blessing (Exod. 3:18-19), Moses responded to God’s call, went back to Egypt, assailed the Egyptians with plague after plague, led the Hebrew people out of slavery, crossed the Red Sea into the wilderness, and drowned Pharaoh’s army in the river. God had shown up for the people through miracle after miracle, but things were starting to cool off. The newly freed Israelites, brand new to the hardships of nomadic life, had started to complain about the discomforts of wilderness living. It’s now occurring to Moses that his job as the people’s leader is just getting started. He has to make sure they don’t starve or fall apart or lose focus. Meanwhile, back in Midian, Jethro hears about all this wild stuff that’s happened, and he sets off to reunite with Moses and get the story from the source.

Which brings us to the text at hand. Sometimes, a way toward interpreting a scripture is noticing words that get repeated. In this chapter, the Hebrew word shema shows up three times: in verse 1, verse 19, and verse 24. Shema is the verb for hearing, listening. But the Old Testament uses shema to describe the pivotal act which binds God and human beings in relationship, and it transcends physical hearing. Shema means taking what we hear to heart, letting God’s Word touch and transform us. There’s a verse in the New Testament book of James that calls Christians to not just be hearers but doers of the Word. That concept is derived from Christianity’s Jewish roots of shema. Shema is in the commandment that creates God’s people: “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today” (Deut. 6:4-6). When we receive a word with such intensity and sensitivity that it changes us, we shema.

So this is an important word to notice any time it appears, but especially here where it’s repeated three times, marking three distinct movements of the story.

In verse 1, Jethro “heard about everything God had done for Moses and his people.” Shema. Jethro left Midian and traveled to Moses in order to learn more about this God who had proved to be greater than all other gods. Even though Jethro was a seasoned priest, a man familiar with spirituality and religion, with more experience in these things than Moses, he was excited by this new revelation. He goes to Moses and listens to Moses’ story. Jethro is changed by what he hears: He celebrates with Moses, praises God, offers sacrifices, and holds a sacrificial meal “in Yahweh’s presence.” Jethro is the first to shema. He hears something new about God, something surprising about his son-in-law, something startling about what’s unfolding in a land not his own, and he allows what he hears to change him.

The next morning, after all the storytelling and celebrating, Moses re-enters the daily grind of his work as judge over the people’s disputes. (Poor Moses, agreeing to settle arguments only to realize that that job would take up every waking hour of his day. People are people no matter where they are, I suppose…) When Jethro sees how overwhelming this work is, how little Moses can actually lead the people or take care of himself because all his time is tied up in handling disputes, he realizes that Moses is headed for burnout fast. “Why are you trying to do all this alone?” he asks. “This is not good!” Now, here we go with the second shema. Jethro invites Moses to listen to him, to hear what he has to say and consider the counsel he has to offer. Jethro then lays out a plan for delegating work.

The final shema shows up in verse 24, after Jethro’s speech, and the whole verse really captures the essence of shema. “Moses listened [shema] to his father-in-law’s advice and followed his suggestions.” He hears Jethro, trusts Jethro’s seasoned wisdom, and puts the advice into practice. Doing this saves Moses from burnout and bitterness. It sets him free to be the leader the people actually need, a man who has time to listen to God. It sets him on course to lead for for decades, not just for a brief flash. And let’s make sure we note, as Jethro noted, that delegating work in this way is good for long-term health of the people, too. A worn-out leader is unhealthy for the community.

Jethro heard. Then he asked to be heard. Then he was heard. Shema, shema, shema. It is as if we must really listen to others if we’d like them to listen to us.

I’d like to lay out three directions you might take this story of mutual listening, and in each of them there’s something helpful for thinking about God’s call on our lives.

You might take this story as a story about leadership. Jethro comes to Moses in the narrow gap between the exodus out of Egypt and the reception of the divine law on Mt. Sinai. Moses is pivoting from his role as liberator to his role as pastor. But all his waking moments are spent trying to get arguments settled. Jethro’s words are perfectly timed and perfectly direct: “You’re going to wear yourself out – and the people, too” (v. 17). Jethro is telling Moses that he will not make it if he keeps holding onto all the work and bearing all of the burden by himself. Moses was able to go up the mountain to talk with God because Jethro had helped him loosen his control over other affairs. But here’s the crucial piece: Jethro earned this right to give advice. Moses heard Jethro, because Jethro first heard Moses. Jethro was excited about Moses’ unfolding journey; Jethro knew that Moses was never coming back to Midian to watch his sheep. He laid all that aside and was able to receive Moses as Moses.

Maybe you’re called to act as a wise resource, a leader, for those of us in the daily grind of leadership. And if that’s you, you earn our trusting ear by taking our experiences of God and life seriously, with a spirit of celebration and excitement.

The second place we could apply Jethro’s story is to the perennially difficult nature of intergenerational relationships. Jethro, the older man, learns something about God from Moses. Moses, the younger man, learns something about life and leadership from Jethro. The order here matters. Can I tell you a secret: young people – whom I will boldly count myself among – do actually long for meaningful relationships with our elders. There are certain words that we need to hear spoken to us, certain words that we can and will in fact receive from those farther down the road. But a problem arises when the elders expect to be heard while having no interest in hearing the young. Remember, this is shema. It’s not just going through the motions of listening, but listening in a way that changes your life. Great power is unleashed when an older, wiser, more experienced person stays invested in the younger generation; when they hear first, and then ask to be heard.

If you’re of an older generation, Jethro reveals a wonderful dimension to your call no matter what the specifics of it are. You can be a voice of wisdom in the life of a young person who is just beginning to live out their purpose. The only condition is that you earn their trust by listening to their story and celebrating their unique experience of God.

The final thing we can learn from Jethro – also the broadest, simplest, and most important thing – is that none of us can live our calling alone. We are not meant to go through life by ourselves. We are not meant to forge our own way without the help of others. We will wither, like a leaf burned up in the hot summer sun. We need people ahead of us to set us straight, affirm our call, and guide us; we need people alongside us to share the load and remind us how to take care of ourselves as we go. Our callings, just like our lives, are not self-sustaining, and they cannot be carried alone. We’ll wear ourselves out, and we’ll do harm rather than good to the very people we are called to serve.

Every once and a while, the purpose God lays on us is to stand beside someone else and help them they live their purpose. Sometimes God calls us to become the reason one of our brothers or sisters is able to endure. As Jethro tells Moses, “They will help you carry the load” (v. 22).

We all need people to help us carry the load. Jethro is our example. He hears Moses. He sees Moses. He loves Moses. He helps Moses.

Then he returns to Midian, and we don’t ever hear from him again. But how different Moses’ ministry would have been, how inconceivable the whole existence of Judaism and Christianity, if Jethro had never pulled Moses aside and spoken, as father to son, the truth: “If you do this alone, you’ll never make it.”

Thanks be to God for Jethro. And thanks be to God for all who truly hear us, and, by hearing us, help us.

Amen.

“Short Stories, Lasting Calls” Part 2: Shiphrah & Puah

July 2, 2023 — Ordinary Time

Exodus 1:8-22

Pastor Mike

Last week, I began a preaching series titled Short Stories: Lasting Calls which is going to set us inside the stories of some of the lesser-known characters of the Bible, so that we can appreciate the many different ways that God calls people into God’s work, and then turn to God ourselves and say, with renewed earnestness, “Here I am, Lord. Send me.” Every single one of us is called according to God’s purpose (Rom 8:28). When we put all our trust in Christ and walk in his Way, God gives us work to do. And God tailors this work to our uniqueness as individuals, which is thrilling – but also scary. We can’t deny that we stand personally responsible before our living God. Jesus says in the Gospel of John, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit” (15:5).

The story of Shiphrah and Puah comes from the book of Exodus, the second book in the Old Testament. The Hebrews are living in Egypt because a prior generation sought refuge there during a famine in their own land of Canaan. They came to Egypt because they had an in with a man named Joseph, who was born an Israelite but came of age – and to power – in Egypt. At the beginning of Exodus, we learn that Joseph has died, and that a new Pharoah has come to power who did not know Joseph or respect Joseph’s people. This Pharoah sees that the Hebrew minority population is growing. He fears that if they get too numerous, they could turn against the Egyptians and instigate trouble inside the country. So he enslaves them, forces them into backbreaking labor, and then calls their midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, and gives the women an order: “When you are delivering Hebrew babies, kill the boys.”

Shiphrah and Puah’s story begins with the government telling maternity care providers how to do their job. I want to assure you that this is sermon about call, not a sermon about abortion rights. But the world of these midwives certainly resonates with our own world. They, and we, hear God’s call in the real world. Call is not just about understanding what God wants but feeling the urgency of what God wants, which means we have to hold call and context together. Pharoah has cast his shadow over the maternity care that Shiphrah and Puah offer.

They are midwives. They are women encountering other women in their most vulnerable moments, when bodily instinct has overridden everything else, and all has become a blur of pain and joy and, sometimes, panic. Shiphrah and Puah are women helping new life to enter the world – messy, screaming, glorious life. Loren, my oldest, was born at a midwife practice in North Carolina, and even though I was there for all of it, I’d have been lost without the midwives – their skill, their wisdom and experience, the way they could comfort and challenge in the same word. At the moment of birth, everything was surrendered into their hands. I trusted them to bring Loren and Sus across the finish line safely.

A midwife’s vocation is so close to her identity that the Hebrew language builds the word for the job out of a verb that means to “bear or bring forth.” The midwives, the m’yalledoth are, literally translated, “those who cause (or help) to bring forth.” Pharoah has commanded Shiphrah and Puah to distort the very essence of their work so that it harms rather than helps. Again, as midwives, they step with power and sacred trust into moments when others have completely surrendered. Pharoah has ordered them to misuse their unique role in “helping to bring forth,” to abuse their special access to the vulnerability of others.

If you’re a note taker, here’s the first element of Shiphrah and Puah’s call to put down. Their purpose emerges as Pharoah orders them to distort and corrupt their work so that it accomplishes his agenda. Sometimes God’s call hits us where we work.

Shiphrah and Puah stand among all of you who love your vocation, who have helping professions, and who, because of your job, get to be with people at vulnerable points in their growth and development, in their moments and seasons of bringing forth. Midwives, teachers, pastors, lawyers, counselors, nurses, doctors, and others – there’s you and the people who come to you because they desire or need what you have to offer, and then there’s Pharoah, calling you into his office, pulling you aside in the hall, passing a piece of legislation, whipping up antagonism in your community, so that he can press his will, his way, his fear, his anger into the spaces and lives that your vocation gives you access to. Pharoah is not going to dirty his own hands at the birthing stool – that’s too far beneath him – but he is going to try and pull the strings of your hands.

Shiphrah and Puah refuse to let him. And that’s the second element of their call: they disobey. Sometimes God calls us to disobey.

There’s a way that Shiphrah and Puah could’ve refused which would have been less risky than what they did. They could’ve just ended their midwife practice, quit their jobs: “Well, Pharoah, if that’s how it’s going to be, here are our credentials.” But they did not do that. If they had, they would have surrendered their mediating place between the wiles of Pharoah and the vulnerability of the women and children. It’s one thing to leave so that you don’t do harm. It’s another thing to stay so that you can continue to help. Rather than leave, and rather than blatantly disobey, they take another tack. They put their heads down and continue to do their job with integrity. When Pharoah brings them before him a second and asks why they aren’t killing the boys, Shiphrah and Puah lie.

Yes, they lie. They deceive him. They tell Pharoah that Israelite women are more vigorous than Egyptian women; by the time they get to the birth stool to assist, those babies are already born and safely nestled in their mothers’ arms. It’s an absurd lie, of course, but Pharoah goes for it. It hinges on Pharoah’s unfamiliarity with birthing. Their deception works. As one modern Jewish commentator, Nahum Sarna, has written, “Here we have history’s first recorded case of civil disobedience in defense of a moral cause.”[1]

Shiphrah and Puah discern that God has call them to stay in the middle, between those in power and those in need. They continue to occupy that middle space. They stand in the gap. They block for their birthing mothers and newborn boys, just as you, perhaps, have blocked for your patients, clients, students. Just as you have continued your work in creative defiance of the systems or policies that loom over you. To do this, Shiphrah and Puah can’t be showy or public in their disobedience, their refusal. They must be sly, deceptive, strategic, under the radar. The important thing for them is to keep their access to the birthstool, so that the boys can live.

How did they know to do this? How did Shiphrah and Puah know that this was their God-given work to do? At this point, their story is very different than Ananias’s story from last week. Ananias saw a vision; Ananias heard the voice of God’; Ananias was given specific instructions. Shiphrah and Puah get none of that. They do not experience an explicit call. They do not receive visions or hear God’s voice. As far as we can tell, there is no conversation between them and God. That same commentator, Nahum Sarna, sums it up: In the opening chapter of Exodus, “God is not said to have intervened.”[2]

Shiphrah and Puah just knew that what Pharoah was ordering was wrong. They had an innate moral objection to the command to kill instead of bring forth. It was incompatible with the God of life, love, hope, and joy.

Sometimes we wait around to hear God’s voice, to get clear and explicit instructions for moving forward, when deep down at the level of feeling we know the right path to take. Not everyone sees visions; not everyone hears voices; not everyone receives a blueprint. For some of us, the work of living for God is in learning to trust our gut, our instinct. That’s the third element of this call story. The call comes to midwives from within, not from beyond.

In the original Hebrew language, it is unclear if Shiphrah and Puah are ethnically Egyptian or Hebrew. The grammar construction can be read both ways: “Hebrew midwives” and “midwives of the Hebrew women.”[3] Isn’t that curious? It’s entirely possible that these women creatively disobeying and deceiving Pharoah were Pharoah’s people, Egyptians who knew that it was wrong to abuse their power and harm anyone in this way. What if God’s call is not exclusive to God’s people? What if God’s call, especially the call to “help to bring forth,”  transcends God’s people – it’s something we share with others. No one needs to be told that it is wrong to tear down in spaces and moments of helping to bring forth.

In our hyper-politicized culture, we can be deceived into believing that it is our immediate neighbors who are our enemies, and we are conditioned to treat one another with suspicion, fear, and anger. But it is the powers and principalities who are pulling strings that aren’t theirs to pull. The systems and the Pharaohs find it advantageous to their purposes to set neighbor against neighbor because it obscures the origins of the fear.

I thank God for those of you who, in our troubled times, have felt the call to remain in the middle between the powers and the people, so that life can be brought forth in those who are vulnerable. The God of Shiphrah and Puah is on your side.

 And let us affirm and encourage those outside the Church who are responding faithfully to the same moral call. Let us acknowledge and bless God’s hand working in all who labor with some creative disobedience simply because it is the right thing to do.

After all, it’s Shiphrah and Puah; it’s the midwives, always in the plural.

Amen.

[1] Nahum M. Sarna, Exploring Exodus: The Heritage of Biblical Israel (New York: Schocken Books, 1986), 25.

[2] Sarna, Exploring Exodus, 27.

[3] Sarna, Exploring Exodus, 25.

“Short Stories, Lasting Calls” Part 1: Ananias of Damascus

June 25, 2023 — Ordinary Time

Acts 9:1-19

Pastor Mike

Well, friends, it’s officially summertime. In my typical preaching rhythm, I like to take summers and go deep into a long storyline from the Bible. Give a section of scripture some sustained attention. Something off the beaten path, maybe, something fun. In summers past, I’ve preached through the book of Acts, the life of Abraham, the early chapters of Mark’s Gospel. Last year, some of you may remember, we camped out in the story of Noah, which, let’s be honest, ended up pretty far afield from most of our ideas of fun.

When I travelled to Annual Conference two weeks ago, I still wasn’t sure what I’d start preaching when I got home, so I asked God to stir something up in me while I was away. On the final morning of Conference, there’s always a service of commissioning and ordination. During that service, the bishop anoints people who’ve made their way through the long process toward membership in the Conference as either elders or deacons. Those services always move me. It’s powerful to see folks who’ve been following God’s call for years finally reach that threshold moment, surrounded by their family, friends, colleagues, and bishop, and have hands laid upon them as they are ordained for service in the Church. The broader liturgy of the service is also inspiring. It reminds the whole gathered community that every Christian is called by God to be a witness to the way of Christ in the world – loving, forgiving, making peace, resisting evil, and offering people hope.

Some are called to be clergy in the Church, but most of us – most of you – are called to be laity. And that is a calling. Or it’s a condition – fertile ground, receptive space – for many different kinds of callings to manifest. A theological term for this is “the priesthood of all believers,” which means every one of us has a part to play in the great unfolding drama of God’s relationship with the world.

After this year’s ordination service, an idea came to me. How about a series of sermons which explore some of the many ways that people in the Bible experience and respond to the call of God on their lives.

As I sat with that idea, it seemed to hold a lot of promise for where we are as a congregation. Even as we are maturing in our public congregational witness through becoming a Reconciling Church, each of us is still called to stand before God personally, listening for God to call us out onto our own unique paths of discipleship. Discipleship is central to the story of the New Testament – Jesus calls and gathers many disciples to follow him and learn from him – and it is central to our own United Methodist mission: “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” Being a disciple means committing to follow the prompting or luring of God wherever it leads us, and going with an open mind and a tender heart, committed to lifelong learning. Discipleship is a journey. We’re never done maturing in the ways of the Spirit.

So, I decided, let’s do it. Let’s go and meet many different kinds of people in the scriptures this summer: midwives, craftsmen, prostitutes, PR experts, exiled intellectuals, soldiers, wealthy businesswomen, teachers… None of them got a lot of playtime compared to the Noah’s of the Bible, but that doesn’t seem to bother them, and it shouldn’t bother us. I doubt if any of us is called to singlehandedly save the world from universal destruction, but all of us are called to partner with Christ in loving the world alive. I am excited for us to enter the eclectic, dramatic, hilarious, bizarre, sometimes cringe-worthy world of the Bible to encounter people not all that different from us. I think it’ll be satisfying for both Bible nerds and those of us coming to the Bible with intention for the first time. More than anything, I am praying that these stories will shine light on your own. For you are, as the Bible says, “fearfully and wonderfully made,” “God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ps. 139:14; Eph. 2:10).

What has God prepared in advance for you – in your wonderfully unique personhood – to do?

We begin today with the story of Ananias of Damascus. His story comes from the book of Acts, which is in the New Testament following the four Gospel stories of Jesus, and was written by the same person who wrote Luke’s Gospel. Its opening chapters report Jesus’ ascension into heaven and his sending of the Holy Spirit to the disciples on Pentecost. From there, the book branches out and chronicles the missionary activities of the first Christians, especially those of Peter and Paul, also known as Saul. We will pick up this story in chapter 9, verses 1-19. Even though Saul seems to take center stage, I challenge you to hear this as the story of Ananias.   

[Read Acts 9:1-19]

To me, this is one of the most profound stories in the whole New Testament. We tend to remember this story one-dimensionally as the story of Saul’s conversion, which it certainly is. But within that story – actually, the reasons that story exists at all – is the story of Ananias’s faithfulness.

How many of you have ever envied the clarity, the passion, the certainty of people who have dramatic conversion stories, who can point to a clear moment in their life when God changed everything, when all was revealed, and their life took a radical, irrevocable turn toward something new? Those are Saul stories. Stories of being knocked down on the road – stories with bright lights and heavenly voices. Some of us are blessed with that kind of story. But not all of us. Many of us come into our power and our purpose along the way, after we’ve been living with Jesus for a while. We grow as disciples gradually – perhaps without much outward drama but certainly with lots of inner drama – until God’s invitation to a specific purpose becomes clear. These are Ananias stories. All Luke tells us about Ananias is that he was “a disciple in Damascus” (9:10) who had grown familiar with the voice of God: “Here I am, Lord.” Nothing about his backstory. Nothing about his conversion. We meet Ananias in the middle. The drama’s not back there somewhere, still unfolding. It’s up ahead, about to be revealed.

God can lay a purpose upon us anytime – at the beginning, middle, or end of our journeys. But no matter where we are on the journey, following Jesus means developing an openness and receptivity to his Spirit. When we are present to God in prayer, we are able to be moved by God. Jesus knew he could reach Ananias for this urgent work because Ananias was a person of prayer and of faith. You and I must always be tilling our inner ground, maintaining the space and the silence through which God can reach us.

Now, it’s one thing to receive some direction. It’s another thing to do what’s being asked. What if what we hear seems crazy? Like, try this on: “Get up, and go find the man who has been actively trying to imprison and kill you, whose got all the authority of the religious and political systems vested in him, and when you find him in a very vulnerable condition, put your hands on him and heal him.”

Right? It’s crazy. And Ananias knew it was crazy.

Ananias wasn’t some machine following its programming. He was a person who felt some things about what God asked him to do. He had some very reasonable reservations: Go – by myself, unprotected – to my enemy? Go into a stranger’s house without asking and lay healing hands on my persecutor? You’re telling me, Lord, that the enemy of Jesus is right now, at this very moment, praying to Jesus? Hold up. Let’s get on the same page about Saul and make sure we are working from the same pieces of information. Haven’t you heard what I’ve heard about him?

God seems to know that it’s crazy, too. So God levels with Ananias and tells him that Saul has been divinely chosen as an evangelist, and, importantly, that Saul will suffer plenty, but to leave his suffering up to God. God responds to Ananias’ honest with gentleness, kindness, and candor. Honest communication always leads to deeper relationships.

When we begin to lean into our call, it’s good to get our reservations out into the open early. There’s nothing worse than keeping secrets and harboring discontents or what-ifs, because it ends up souring our journey with bitterness and anxiety.  We might think that the proper religious thing to do is stuff those things down and soldier one, but actually the humble, human thing to do is put our cards on the table.

The Bible is full of people who initially balk at God’s call. Abraham – I’m too old. Sarah – I’m too old. Jacob – I’m not appreciated enough. Moses – I’m not eloquent enough. Naomi – I’ve suffered too much. Isaiah – I’m a sinner. Jeremiah – I’m too young. Zechariah – I’m too old. Mary – I’m too young. Nathaniel – Nothing good comes out of Nazareth. Ananias – This guy’s been trying to kill me! Each of them told God how things seemed from their perspective. Part of why this is healthy is because it places the onus on God to prove to us that he is with us as he has promised to be, that he will give us the power to make the impossible possible so that we can live our callings

The final thing I want to say about Ananias is that he actively participates in shaping his story. Compare what God says to him with what he says to Saul.

God tells Ananias the street to walk on, the house to go to, the person to find; God tells Ananias that he’ll be expected, and that he’s to heal Saul through the laying on of hands; God tells Ananias that Saul is a divinely chosen instrument, and that he will suffer because of it.

Now here’s what Ananias says to Saul, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to your on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

I’m not sure how far Ananias had to walk to get from his house to Saul’s house, but he certainly did some thinking on the way: Hmmm. If God has chosen Saul to be his messenger, and I’m God’s messenger too, then there’s no other way around it: Saul must be my brother. And if he is going to do this job and endure all the sufferings it will bring him, then he’s going to need more than just physical healing; he’s going to need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, just as I have been filled with the Holy Spirit!

You see it, don’t you? Ananias gave Saul a greater blessing than the one God asked him to give.

In his going, Ananias prayed, pondered, and connected some dots. He let God’s love expand in his heart. He added his own creativity and thoughtfulness to his calling, and because of it Saul was given a proper welcome into the family of God. Ananias could’ve run in, done the healing (the only thing God really told him to do), and gotten out fast for fear of this former enemy.  Instead, he went above and beyond,  calling Saul by name, calling him his brother, and calling down the Holy Spirit to fill him for ministry. Ananias and God collaborated, and their synergy birthed something bigger than what was asked or expected. Ananias, we might say, was converted in his going – transformed, sanctified.

If what we’re doing this summer is creating a kind of mosaic of discipleship, placing diversely colored and shaped pieces into a picture of how God can work in our lives, then let’s think of Ananias’ story as the foundation, the surface on which that mosaic will be laid, because it gets to the heart of the journey.

God can lay a purpose upon us at any time in our lives, so our task is to be receptive. God’s purposes can be crazy and risky, pushing us beyond our comfort zones, so our task it to be honest about what we’re experiencing, to speak our reservations out into the open. And when we’re called, we become coworkers, cocreators, collaborators with God. Only we can live our callings because it is through our individuality that they take on their fullest and most beautiful expressions. We get to come alive, too, as we go.

In closing, receive these words from the Apostle Paul and consider from whom he might’ve learned them:

“Now to God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever” (Eph. 3:20-21). Amen.

“Living in the Lord’s Harvest”

June 18, 2023 — Ordinary Time

Matthew 9:35—10:8

John Gribas

Good morning. I am so glad to be here with all of you this morning, on this day. This Father’s Day.

For me, Father’s Day is a reminder of blessing. I was blessed in so many ways by my own father. The opportunity to be a father for my two sons, Adam and Levi, has been an even more powerful blessing—a blessing beyond anything I could have imagined back in my pre-parent days.

So happy Father’s Day to all who have been blessed to be fathers, and to all who have been blessed by their father or by someone who has been for them a good father-figure.

And I hope we all can appreciate this day in light of the endless blessings coming to us from our heavenly father. But not only father. I’ve been reminded over the last number of weeks through what Mike and others have shared here that “father” is but one manifestation of the divine. God is also “mother.” In Jesus, God is “with us” as “companion” and “friend.” Then there is God as Holy Spirit—“spirit” meaning “breath.”

Scripture is full of ways to talk and think about God: Fountain of life. The potter who forms us as clay. Shepherd. Light of the world. Our rock and fortress. What an abundant and rich variety of metaphors offered to us as ways to grasp the divine!

Speaking of abundance, variety, and metaphors, let’s turn our attention to the piece of scripture from Matthew I just read. Here we see yet another manifestation of God. That is…the Lord of the harvest.

When you hear “harvest,” what comes to mind?

Standing here and looking out to all of you, one thing that comes to mind for me is…us. This place. In my relatively brief time as part of this community of faith, I have witnessed what might be called a substantial harvest.

For some time, COVID obviously played a big part in keeping down the number of people willing and able to safely show up on a Sunday. But it seems clear that more has happened here recently than the waning of the pandemic. There are new faces. We have seen multiple baptisms and church membership commitments. Consider the various individuals who are now actively involved in greeting, serving as ushers, singing in the choir, participating in studies, facilitating worship, preaching.

And I see beautiful variety in this increasing abundance. The recent overwhelming approval of this community’s commitment as a reconciling church reflects that variety—and, keeping with the harvest metaphor, it likely tills the soil for even greater and richer variety over time.

Look around. Would you say that “the Lord of the harvest” has been generous here?

If you would say, “Yes,” I would not disagree. The expansion and diversification of this or any other faith family is a blessing. At the same time, and in light of these verses from Matthew, I would also say…let’s be careful.

Jesus’ reference to the “harvest” is a metaphor. And metaphors are tricky things. Beautiful and wonderful things, for sure. Necessary things for finite creatures like us—bound in our world of language—who are trying to grasp God who is infinite, unlimited, and eternal.

Fr. Richard Rohr is a Franciscan priest, internationally recognized teacher, author, Christian mystic, and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation. In his book, The Divine Dance, Rohr reflects on the limits of language and the role of metaphors for those seeking God.

His point seems to be that there is something about the divine that defies being captured by words, and that things like silence and humility are needed to help us avoid the pitfalls inherent in our tools of language. He also argues that all words are essentially metaphors.

As a university professor whose teaching and scholarship has focused on the nature and power of metaphor, I agree. I have spent a lot of time over the last 30+ years thinking about metaphor, and I’ll say it again: metaphors are tricky things.

Here’s why.

Most people understand metaphor as the use of language whereby we bring understanding to one thing by referring to something else—usually something quite different. If we say that someone is a “diamond in the rough,” we are likely drawing attention to that person’s hidden and valuable potential, despite appearances that may suggest otherwise.

But, in actuality, when we apply metaphor, we are not simply using one thing to bring understanding to another thing. Instead, it would be better to suggest that we are using one conceptual world to bring understanding to another conceptual world. You can probably imagine that bringing two conceptual worlds together is rather tricky business.

Consider how common it is in modern organizations to refer to work groups as “teams.” When we do, we are metaphorically drawing on certain aspects of our understanding of the world of competitive athletic teams to emphasize corresponding things in non-athletic organizational settings—things like working together for a clear goal. Or like recognizing that everyone has a unique and important role to play. Or like giving it your all and setting aside personal interests for the good of the whole team.

But you can’t easily limit the “connections” to just these things. There are many, many other aspects of competitive athletic teams that can be metaphorically connected to the work group, and at least some of those potential connections could be really problematic.

For example, some team “leaders” embrace the idea of being the “coach.” And if one is drawing on a football coach as the conceptual model, that can justify extremely top-down, fully autocratic leadership since football coaches typically call every play and expect absolute obedience and compliance, and they are in their right to pull players who aren’t performing as expected and to substitute those players with backups who will. It certainly isn’t inevitable, but the team metaphor can justify pretty high levels of leader abuse. Speaking of leader abuse, here is an extension of a leader metaphor I have heard…from a pastor. Actually, I’ve heard slightly different versions of this from two separate pastors—serving in completely different churches and denominations. Just for clarification—not in this church, and not by Mike.

I have been reminded by these two church leaders that, as pastors, they are “shepherds.” That sounds like a nice, biblical metaphor. But, I have been informed, ancient shepherds really weren’t the gentle and kind bucolic souls I might have imagined—guiding and protecting their fluffy flock. Nope. You know the “comforting rod and staff” from Psalm 23? Sure, they could be used for tender nudging or for fighting off predators. But, I have now been told by two church leaders, those shepherd tools often had to be used for some “tough love” on the sheep, who, don’t you know, tend to be stupid and disobedient, not knowing what is really good for them—maybe straying one time too often and, for its own protection, needing the shepherd to use the rod or staff, not to offer comfort, but to break the naughty sheep’s leg. Then the shepherd would carry that sheep over his shoulders while the leg healed, and the sheep learned an important lesson.

That famous painting of Jesus carrying a sheep on his shoulders. Yep.

At least, that is what I was told. I can’t begin to express how saddened I am that individuals who I believe to be sincere men of God somehow twisted this metaphor in such a dangerous way.

Tricky things, those metaphors.

So, what about Matthew 9 and 10, and the reference to the harvest?

I don’t know about you, but my experience with harvests is pretty much as a spectator. I grew up with an immense wheat field just on the other side of the alley behind my back yard and stretching to the western horizon. I saw plenty of harvests. Or at least I saw the results.

Mainly, I know the outcome of the harvest. The bread and fruit and vegetables that have ended up on my table. When I hear harvest, my mind tends to go to something like a painting of a cornucopia, overflowing with good things that were sown, grown, and gathered from a field, garden, or orchard.

It is pretty natural for me, when I read about the Lord’s harvest, to immediately think about the result. And perhaps it is also my history with faith traditions that identify as “evangelical” that leads me to look around at the kind of expansion and diversification I have been seeing here in this faith community and think, “Nice harvest!”

I’m sure Christ is delighted at what he sees happening here. But I don’t think Jesus’ call to “ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” is a call for me to hang out in the barn, admiring the crop. I don’t even think it is a call to go gather the crop and bring it into the barn. Those understandings are, at least in some ways, metaphorically consistent. But I don’t think they accurately reflect what Jesus seems to be doing with the metaphor.

If we look at Matthew 9 and 10, Jesus instructs his followers to ask the Lord to send “laborers into his harvest.” Into. Harvest, here, seems to be a place rather than an outcome. And Jesus’ reference to the harvest sets up his call for his followers to “go.” And they do go.

Matthew doesn’t offer anything specific about what happens when they come back. However, in Luke’s version of this story, he reports in chapter 9, verse 10 that “On 7 their return the apostles told Jesus all they had done.” It doesn’t say that they came back with the fruits of their harvest. They didn’t come back with a bunch of new disciples and followers of the way. They came back with reports indicating that, out there in that harvest, a lot was done.

There are plenty of other places in the gospels that, in fact, do draw attention to increases in the numbers of those joining the Christ-follower community. That is clearly a good thing. A blessing. But my caution here is that we not allow the blessing of a certain kind of growth to cause us to miss something in Jesus’ use of the harvest metaphor here in Matthew 9 and 10.

If Jesus’ words here are an invitation to us to join in the harvest, then the invitation is to “go.”

Go where? Wherever people are harassed and helpless. Wherever people are experiencing sickness and disease and death. Wherever people are hungry to hear the good news that heaven is near.

The thought of “going” can be a little scary, especially when we have such a nice barn with a such lovely crop to appreciate right here where we are. But, if you will allow it, let me play a little with this gospel story and metaphor, because I think there is a lot of comfort and good news here for the willing harvest worker.

First, for almost the entirety of Matthew 8 and 9, leading up to this call to go, we see example after example of Jesus engaged in harvest work. Miracle followed by miracle, healing after healing. Jesus leads the way and provides the model and example for us to follow. And, according to Matthew 10, verse 1, “Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.”

Jesus not only leads the way to the harvest and provides an example, he also provides the gifts and resources we need to do the harvest work. And did you notice that right in the middle of this scripture story, we suddenly shift to a listing of the twelve apostles’ names? In terms of narrative structure, that seems a bit odd. But what I see suggested by the gospel author here is that Jesus isn’t just making a blanket call for harvest workers. He is calling these individuals. By name. This suggests to me that the Lord of the harvest, too, knows us and calls us as unique individuals—and provides the particular gifts and resources each one of us needs.

Second, if Jesus is to be our harvest work example, then consider what motivated him. Was it a sense of duty? Responsibility? Obedience? No, it was “compassion.” Chapter 9, verse 36: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

If you wonder what harvest work you are being called to, I suggest you follow Jesus and be guided by your compassion. And I don’t think we should assume that joining the harvest necessarily means going to strange or foreign or distant places. I can’t imagine that Jesus’ instruction to go “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” reflected a prejudice or disregard for gentiles or Samaritans. Instead, here I see Jesus sending his followers into the world they know best—perhaps the place where their compassion would most naturally be prompted.

Third, and to conclude, the thought of harvest work may seem daunting. But, in truth, we are simply being asked to freely give what we have already freely been given. Chapter 10, verse 8: “You received without payment; give without payment.”

And what we have been given is the good news—the recognition that the kingdom of heaven has come near. The marvelous kingdom that Kay so aptly reflected on and illuminated for us last week. I think if you look around you right here, right now, you will see that it is most certainly true—the kingdom of heaven has come near.

Let us take this good news that we have been given, and that we experience here with each other, and bring it with us to share as we go as laborers in the Lord’s harvest.

Amen.

“Weakness and With-ness”

June 4, 2023 — Trinity Sunday

Matthew 28:16-20

Pastor Mike

This famous last scene in Matthew’s Gospel is commonly referred to as the Great Commission. It’s called that because it’s the moment when Jesus gave his disciples final instructions about who they were to be in the world and what they were to do. “Go,” he says. “And make more disciples by baptizing and teaching the nations.” Those commands – going, discipling, baptizing, teaching – they’ve have shaped the Church’s sense of itself. Our own denomination’s mission statement, for example (which you are reminded of every Sunday at the top of your bulletin), is “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” That language come right from these verses. From the time of the disciples until now, this ‘Great Commission’ has offered direction and meaning to God’s people. It’s a wonderful thing to live inside your purpose.

But wait a minute, let’s pump the breaks. Did I hear Matthew correctly? Did he say eleven doubting disciples? Yea, that’s what I thought. Eleven doubting disciples. They were the ‘Church’ who received that Great Commission.

Eleven doubting disciples. They started with twelve, but then they went down a man. And here they are doubting, even as they worship. Even as they experience the resurrected Jesus, they are not fully convinced that they can trust what they’re seeing. It’s one thing for Jesus to claim to possess all authority in heaven and on earth, and it’s one thing for him to give  his people a sense of purpose, but is this really the group he’s going to stick by and keep calling? These eleven doubting disciples? I suppose so! He neither seems fazed by their weakness, nor deterred by their doubt.

I’m personally drawn to anything the Bible has to say about doubt, because I find time and time again that, even as a pastor, I live with more questions than I do answers. So, I looked up this word for doubting and discovered something extremely helpful. This word only appears in one another place in the whole New Testament, and it happens to be at the center point of Matthew’s Gospel, the very Gospel we’re in this morning. It shows up in a story with lots of parallels to this one, the story of Jesus and Peter walking on water. I want to read that for us now:

Immediately he made the disciples get into a boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.

“Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ He said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and, beginning, to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’ (Matt. 14:22-33, NRSVUE)

There are many rabbit trails we could take comparing these two stories: they both mention mountains; they both involve water either explicitly or implicitly; they both begin with the disciples being separated from Jesus yet obedient to his command; they both resolve with Jesus reuniting with them or promising to be with them always. But I want to point out one major parallel: that faith and doubt can be held together when Jesus is present in his power. Presumably this was the moment when at least Peter participated in the power of God most profoundly – walking on water, for crying out loud – and he both believed and doubted at the same time. According to his faith, he found himself held up by the elements. According to his doubt, he found himself caught, held, and carried by Jesus. A doubting disciple.

Sometimes we doubt. Sometimes we think that our doubt disqualifies us from living in the power of our purpose. Sometimes we’re weaker than we’d like to be. Down a man, as it were – some part of us is not at full capacity. Sometimes, like Peter, we get going and then we notice the winds of the storm; we fell that there’s some resistance to what Jesus has called us to, and we start to sink. These are inescapable, human experiences: doubt, weakness, distress. Yet for some reason we get to thinking that we have to hold those experiences apart from our discipleship, apart from Jesus, apart from the with-ness of God, and figure them out before getting back into the game.

I wonder if Jesus has ever called you to something that you’ve held yourself back from because you had some doubts about who Jesus is in the first place, or you weren’t sure you were strong enough, or you knew there’d be some bumps in the road, some high-velocity winds. I wonder if Jesus once gave you a purpose, and you lived it for a while until the doubt or the weakness or the obstacle appeared, and you felt like you’d disqualified yourself from serving. I even wonder if any of you have had your purpose sabotaged by someone else, someone who told you that you needed to be better than you were before you could say Yes to Jesus. When we give up on ourselves or allow other voices to tell us what we’re worthy of, we forget that Jesus gave the Great Commission to a beleaguered, doubting Church. We forget that Peter did walk on water, and that Jesus’ question about his faith was asked in the moment of embrace.

Here's a question it’s always good for us to ask ourselves: What difference does the resurrection make in our lives? What difference does it make that Jesus rose from the dead? I ask because, when you hold up these two stories next to each other – one pre-resurrection and one post-resurrection, stories where the disciples are arguably experiencing Jesus at his most powerful, there’s still doubting, there’s still weakness, there are storms that assail the call. It sure doesn’t seem like the resurrection removes our doubt; it sure doesn’t seem like the resurrection replaces our weakness with superhuman strength; it doesn’t seem like the resurrection promises smooth sailing through the world. So what difference does it make?

Why does it matter that Jesus was more than a good teacher and more than a compelling prophet? Why does it matter that his rising is more than a symbol or even a story. Why does the Church confess that his resurrection was an event in the very body and life of Jesus of Nazareth? It’s a hard question, not easily answered. I know that when I ask it, I become painfully aware of my own doubts and weaknesses and all the obstacles I face to being a person of this kind of faith.

But let me suggest one possibility, gleaned from the story of Peter walking on the water. The resurrection matters because the very terrain has been transformed. What is the one certainty, the one unbreakable rule of biological life? Once born, it dies. What is the one political certainty of killing someone on the cross? That they are humiliated, and their power is extinguished. But Jesus broke these basic rules of life. He rose and is exalted, the Creator and Re-Creator. He changed the terms.

Death is the end of life, right? Wrong. Betrayal, executions, payoffs, and schemes can squash movements for love, right? Wrong. You step on water, and you sink, right? Wrong. You only have a handful of food so there’s no way you can feed the crowd, right? Wrong. Women can’t be credible witnesses, right? Wrong. I can’t be a true worshipper and a doubter, right? Wrong. I can’t live out my purpose from inside my weakness, right? Wrong.

The terrain has been transformed. Life with Jesus is like looking through a kaleidoscope; we think the pieces stack up one way, but he turns the dial and all of a sudden, they line of differently; new things are possible, and old rules are bent, broken, or transgressed. What Peter got to experience for a moment on the Sea was the new way of being in the world that Jesus achieved for all of us, for all time, through his rising. That’s the difference the resurrection makes. We may doubt, but Jesus is sure, so we can move forward through his confidence. We may be weak, but he is strong, so we can move forward through his strength. We may run up against winds and waves that scare us, but he is the Creator of heaven and earth.

When we give up ourselves or abandon our purpose, we are telling ourselves a story about our unworthiness. But with Jesus, the question is not are you or are you not worthy to live life in the abundance and joy of God’s mission, the question is rather, will you step out in faith?

Because here’s the thing: the only way to experience that the terrain has been transformed, the only way to experience the difference that the resurrection makes, the only way to discover that doubt and weakness are simply part of the greater story is to actually get out of the boat and start walking. It is in the going, the risking, the trusting, the baptizing, and the teaching, that all these mysteries become real to us. If you have ever put down a call until you’re surer and stronger, you won’t be at peace until you pick it back up again. It’s time to reclaim your call. It’s time to let the risen Christ take care of the certainty, the strength, and the way through the circumstances.

It’s the only condition for living in our purpose and taking up Jesus’ ‘Great Commission’: we must take that first step. Having not seen him yet, “the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them…” and all the rest fell into place from there. Peter got out of the boat and felt that something in him or in the water was different than it had been.

You know, we sometimes speak of the ‘Great Commission” as if it was a Ra-Ra locker-room pump-up talk. But I hear it now as a kind of plea: When we baptize and teach, we get to share with others the mystery that the rules of living and loving have been overhauled by the one risen from the dead. We get to be the ones who remind one another that we can all do things we never thought we could do, go places we never thought we would go, love people we never thought we’d love. We get to be people out in the world who live as if all things are possible, because Christ is with us. We get to help others pick up their abandoned dreams.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.