Do Not Be Afraid

Matthew 10:24-39

June 22^, 2014

When I was young I was afraid of the dark.

I was very little I was sure that someone or something

was going to be there if I couldn’t see what was going on.

Gremlins or another person, I’m not sure what,

but I slept with a light on for a long long time.

I’m sure most people have something like this in their childhood.

An irrational fear of something.

From the moment we’re born, we learn to fear

it seems to be an inherent trait in people.

Sometimes we outgrow our fears,

but sometimes we grow into our fears.

As we get older, our fears become more complicated,

not necessarily less irrational, just more complicated.

Now we, might not be afraid of monsters hiding in the dark,

but we’re still afraid of those people out there,

that we’ve never met, that we label as monsters:

Once upon a time it was communists

now it’s Muslims that we label as terrorists,

immigrants that we assume are all criminals

or taking away our jobs. Generic “Bad people.”

Those people out there who are going to step in and

take away the life that I know and love.

Ghandi said wisely,

“Fear is the enemy. We think it’s hate, but it’s fear.”

Fear is the directing force of many of our lives,

whether we know it or not.

Politicians know the power of fear and how it

prompts people to vote certain ways,

How people are more comfortable with inactivity

than with any kind of change, even if it’s good.

Fear often guides our personal lives too.

Some people ride that “what if” train to insanity

worrying about the future:

What if I lose my job, what if I’m robbed or assaulted,

what if I get an illness, what if something happens to my family.

Or the more persistent fears,

What if I make a fool of myself, what if I don’t succeed,

what if it turns out I’m wrong.

Fear can be debilitating and isolating.

Fear can control our actions.

It can, and has, stopped all of us from doing what we need to do.

Today Jesus is in the middle

Jesus Les Envoie

of giving a pep talk to his disciples.

He is sending them out in pairs into the world to teach and heal

and cast out demons -- all that stuff that Jesus has been doing.

Generally when someone gives a pep talk,

the thesis of the pep talk is

“everything will be fine, it will turn out great.”

But not Jesus.

First of all in the verses before,

remember Jesus takes away all their defenses,

money, an extra cloak, extra shoes, food.
They enter the world completely vulnerable to whatever is out there.

And then Jesus tells them the world out there isn’t safe.

He tells them that they’re go as “sheep in the midst of wolves,”

they will face anger, arrests, beatings,

persecution, and death,

And if they do it right, they will even lose

their families in the process.

It’s almost a list of what people fear most.

 

But then Jesus says,

as he says so many times in the gospels,

“do not be afraid.”

Actually he says it three times in today’s reading.

Jesus does not promise a bed of roses.

Jesus doesn’t promise

a clear path without conflict or trouble.

But Jesus wants us to go through that path any way.

Fear is the death of discipleship.

The world is rough out there.

Sharing the gospel with others takes risk,

helping the marginalized takes risk.

Welcoming all people,

Demanding justice, working for peace,

can be risky.

Lots of people who have done the work of Jesus

are faced with all kinds of resistance,

debates, arguments, challenges, protests

in some cases, even threats of death.

If the disciples gave into their fears,

if we give into our fears,

where would the gospel be?

Where would the marginalized, the outcast,

the downtrodden be?

Daniel Berrigan, who was a priest

who led many peace protests in the 60’s and 70’s

“If you want to follow Jesus,

you’d better look good on wood.”

 Jesus says: “Do not fear those who

kill the body but cannot kill the soul”

If we know that whatever happens and whatever

fate befalls us that in the very end,

we will always be safe with Jesus

then what do we have to fear?

As Paul wrote to the Romans,

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

We say this at funerals to remind ourselves that

even if the worst tragedy happens,

we will still be united with

Jesus and be safe with God,

What ever we fear cannot truly harm us.

In other words, we know the end of the story.

Have you ever read the end of the book,

or watched the end of a movie before the rest?

If you know the main characters survive,

and are living happily together and the bad guys are gone,

then the middle of the movie becomes a lot less stressful.

We know the end of our story.

We end up safely in God’s care.

When we are confident the story will end

we don’t have spend our life afraid of what happens

in the middle of the story.

Jesus offers us new life

and Jesus wants us to live that life fully

Not living in fear of what could hurt us,

or take away what we have,

Not afraid of what might or might not be

but knowing whatever happens,

God is with us and we will be with God.

Jesus says,

“Those who find their life will lose it,

and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

When the disciples faced their fear

and did what they needed to do anyway,

then they found their life in Christ.

The life that Jesus has given us is waiting for us.

Do not be afraid.

The Community of God

Matthew 28:16-20

Trinity Sunday

June 15, 2014

What do you think of

when you hear the word community?

The word community is one of those words that can

have a couple of meanings

The differences are subtle, but they’re different.

When we hear community,

we might think of neighborhoods or cities,

people in schools, or even churches.

They use the word a lot in the news I’ve noticed.

The dictionary says that community is

a group of people living in the same area,

or having the same interests or identity.

But it’s more than that, it’s it?

Just because something is called a community

doesn’t mean that it’s a Community. With a capital C.

Community with a capital C brings along

images of more than just people who live

on the same street or share an interest.

It brings images of people who support,

and of love one another.

It talks of shared respect,

being mutually accountable to one another

helping each other.

Having love for each other that then spills out and

includes others.

There is a lot of talk about community these days.

Mostly , I think, because we feel that it’s slipping away

It’s something that some of us remember from the past,

or seen it in the movies, or read about it

or heard about it from others,

but over time, Community with a capital C has become scarce.

We don’t easily form Communities here in the US

we don’t rely on it, we don’t seem to need it.

So for most people, it doesn’t exist.

Lots of things have taken away our Communities

There’s technology which is giving us wider spread communities

but without human contact or responsibility.

We’re more self sufficient and so we don’t need it–

when we’re richer, we don’t have to rely on others,

And I think we’re more afraid of people

so we don’t want to let people into our lives.

In some ways it’s easier not to be part of a Community

of any kind. To just be responsible for yourself and your business.

It’s just simpler to be alone with family, a few friends.

Some say that religious institutions like ours

are the last reliable place

to potentially find Community in our culture.

Not that all churches form a Community with a capital C.

But churches and other religious institutions are the last

group who even have the potential for real Community.

As a culture, Americans have been shying away

from being part of a Community with a capital C.

But at the same time, we long for it.

People talk about it, we dream about it.

There are countless articles written about it.

“Community” is the marketing buzzword

when talking about those who are thirty five and younger.

We might not have it, we might not know how to make it,

but we want it, we are drawn to it.

I think that is, because we are created –

the earth, the sea and stars, plants, animals

and humans -- we are all created by a God

who in God’s self is a community.

Today, we are celebrating Trinity Sunday.

A Sunday when some pastors and Sunday School teachers

have tried to explain a doctrine that is basically unexplainable.

Where we talk about how we worship one God

but three different beings.

I will not be doing that for you today.

The Holy Trinity
Sankt Lambrecht, 1430

But I will tell you the significance of the Trinity.

It tells us that the nature of God is Community – with a capital C.

Three separate individuals -- not just one, not just a couple,

but three - that together make up one.

Individual parts, but one body.

To be part of a Community -

to be in relationships that stretch beyond family and

selected friends - is in our DNA, it’s part of us.

The world would love us to be separate,

to not trust or rely on anyone else.

And sometimes it seems like the world is winning.

But Community is part of God,

and therefore Community is part of us.

In the Gospel reading for today,

we hear Jesus’ last words in Matthew.

It’s Easter morning and Jesus has told the women

to tell the disciples to meet him in Galilee.

The disciples find him on a mountain and he gives them

these instructions, “make disciples of all nations.”

Simply put, make a community for yourselves

out of the whole world, make a Community.

Now some have taken this command

that to mean that we should convert every person

to our culture and our religion by force if necessary.

And sometimes its hard to look at it any other way.

But that’s how humanity has taken it in the wrong direction.

What I hear Jesus saying to us is

Gather people that are different than you,

the same as you, people that you don’t know.

Meet them and talk to them gather around

the worship of Jesus. Learn to love one another

and care for one another. Form a Community.

Individual parts, but one body. 

Father Son and Holy Spirit

Creator, redeemer and sustainer

God eternal, God in flesh, God in inspiration.

God in us, God for us, God through us.

However you want to say it,

We love and worship a God that works in relationship.

An equal relationship, sharing the pain, the glory

the sorrow and the joy equally.

The work of any one rests on the other two.

Any one would be less without the other.

God in the Trinity.

And the Community in the Trinity,

that is the Community we imitate.

That is what churches are:

Not hothouses to grow theologians in,

not a place to send your kids and grand kids to

so that they can learn morals.

But a place where we all go to learn how to live together.

A place of Community, imitating the God that we worship.

And Jesus said where two or three are gathered in my name --

Where there is an effort to form this love,

this Community with a capital C –

we know that God will be there among us.

God's Vision

Acts 2:1-12

June 5, 2014

Pentecost

Pentecost.

The first day of the church as we know it.

Now we might think that it was a festive occasion.

But really, the disciples must have been terrified.

Wind, flames, speaking and understanding different languages.

And when we come to church, we basically know how it will go.

We know there will be prayers and songs,

we know the pastor will get up and say something,

Some of us even know the liturgy by heart.

But this was the first time for the disciples.

They had no hymnal to refer to

they had no instructions book

No mission statement or constitution.

no years of tradition.

This was the first time for the disciples.

Now these disciples had been with Jesus,

heard him talk, spent time with him,

eaten with him, had their feet washed by him.

They had seen him arrested and killed,

and raised from the dead.

And for 40 days since the resurrection,

Jesus had been roaming around with them

visiting them and encouraging them.

But still, even in their last moment with Jesus on earth

they didn’t seem like they

completely understood the arrangement.

Right before he ascends they say to Jesus:

“Lord, is this the time when YOU

will restore the kingdom to Israel?”

What great things will YOU be doing now, Jesus?

How will YOU wow us in these last days?”

No, no, no, Jesus tells them, you’ve got it wrong.

MY job is done.

“YOU will receive power now

The Holy Spirit will come upon YOU.
YOU will be my witnesses in Jerusalem

and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”
YOU will be the ones to carry on my church,

YOU will finish the work that I’ve begun.

This is YOUR job now.

And just to make sure that they understood

that it was THEIR work now,

Jesus ascended up, into the clouds

and left them. Alone.

How could Jesus do that?

How could Jesus leave the church in the hands

of these people with no instructions or guide book,

with no leadership seminar, no seminary class?

And these 11 people ?! -

- Their assumed leader was, Peter, the same one who

had denied Jesus in fear.

- James and John the ones who were jockeying

for position arguing over which one was the greatest.

- There was Thomas who wouldn’t believe that Christ had risen.

- Jesus left the church in the hands of the same ones who didn’t believe that Jesus could feed the people in the field,

- The ones who tried to push the children away from Jesus.

- The ones who accused Mary after she anointed Jesus.

On that day, God gave Jesus ministry to people like that.

To people like us.

People who are egotistical, insecure, cynical, tired,

burnt out, who tried to hard and didn’t try hard enough

God gave the church to regular people like us

and for better or worse,

they made something that we are still part of today.

It would be impressive enough if you just noticed the

length of time that it’s lasted.
But we are still reading scripture, praying, being moved and inspired by the same stories. We are still surprised, lit on fire, motivated to baptize and make disciples

help strangers and to work for justice in our communities.

Still after all this time.

Maybe one of those disciples

had us in mind that day.

Maybe in one of those dreams that that the Holy Spirit inspired

that day of Pentecost, maybe one of them thought:

I want a group of people that follows Jesus

to be in a city like Columbus, OH 2000 years from now,

to welcome everyone and have school

and a ministry in Swahili and a food pantry.

That dream would seem impossible then.

But here we are.

That’s how dreams are.

On that day, God declares,

I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams

So what dreams are we dreaming?

What visions are we envisioning.

What can we see the church being and doing and becoming?

I will ask you to share that in our meeting after worship.

For right now, just pray for God to

fill us with the spirit, to give us

visions and dreams and to tell you what God wants from us.

God still expects great things out of us.

God has chosen this church, in this time and place

God has chosen us to get that job done that Jesus started.

This is not just Jesus’s work any more.

This is our work.

And we can have confidence in the Spirit

that has brought us to this place.

Look around you today.

This is the church that Jesus imagined and is still imagining.

This is the church that the Spirit is still working on.

This is God’s vision.