RefuJesus

This sermon was heard at the Broadmoor Presbyterian Church in Shreveport, Louisiana on Sunday December 29, 2013, the 1st Sunday after Christmas. After listening to or reading the sermon, please checkout the notes and a brief commentary about this sermon please check out RefuJesus-The Commentary on the Fat Man blog.

Isaiah 63:7-9

Psalm 148

Hebrews 2:10-18

Matthew 2:13-23

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

Zlatko Haveric[1] came to the United States from Sarajevo about 20 years ago when he was 35 years old. In 1984 while in Sarajevo he graduated from medical school and began practicing medicine. It was the same year Sarajevo hosted the Winter Olympics. And if you remember those games, they were a sight to see.

The war in what we used to call Yugoslavia began eight years later in April 1992, but Haveric had heard talk and rumors of war before the first military hostilities began. He writes, “It started gradually. I mean something was in the air for many months.” Information wasn’t hard to come by; but it was difficult to find an unbiased source of information.

[Sigh] The more things change…

He wrote, “There was a complete confrontation of the opposing parties in the conflict, the ethnic factions. The propaganda spread by the media was fierce. Every program talked about the opposing parties; different versions of the news were coming from Zagreb, Belgrade, and Sarajevo from the three ethnic groups. So by the time the conflict started, the confusion and the division of ethnic groups was complete. Everything was ready for the war.”

As the hostilities evolved, he said that at first, he thought that it wasn’t completely obvious that war would break out. Then when it began, he figured it wouldn’t be like a “conflict between nations.” Then there was the hope that the “madness” as he called it wouldn’t last long, but the months dragged on longer than he expected. Then he thought the international community would come in and fend off the madness that was taking over the nation. This was when he sent his wife and toddler daughter to London.

Haveric stayed in Sarajevo for patriotic reasons, not so much for any specific faction of his splintering country, but for his country in general. It was more for the idea of his country at this point. A year after sending his family to safety, he decided it was time for him to go too.  It wasn’t a sudden decision. There wasn’t a specific event, a single straw that broke his camel’s back. In his words, the situation in his country was becoming absurd and it was time to rejoin his family in England, even if his own parents would not come with him.

Through the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, the UNHCR, he was able to get on a flight to Italy and secure the permits to join his family in London.

Even though he had been a doctor in Sarajevo for several years, Haveric had to secure a residency before he could practice medicine in England. In 1995 the family moved to Chicago where Haveric’s sister-in-law lives. His wife was able to secure work as a secretary in the US because she was fluent in English and Arabic, but Haveric had to pass US medical exams and secure another residency before he could practice medicine again. He had the skills, but his paperwork wasn’t in line with the American Medical Association.

Where he lives now there is no Bosnian community, but at least it’s an American suburb and not downtown Sarajevo or some migrant picker slum. Also, he’s doing better than his sister whose family lives in a German town on the Swiss border where things are not so good for refugees.

Here’s a harrowing if somewhat more anonymously presented story. Imagine if you will, a man with his wife who’s pregnant. They’ve spent the last week on the road. It’s chilly, it’s windy, there may be a hint of frost whipping in the air and for the most part they’re in the elements.

At the end of the week they’ve traveled a long way and when they arrive, the medical services she needs aren’t accessible. Services are available, but they’re denied; for no special reason they’re sent packing.

Nearly the moment they settle in what passes for a place, she gives birth. It seems like an easy delivery. Maybe it is easier than most births, but then again this narrative is being told by a guy and what do guys really know about the physical and emotional trauma of childbirth? In any event, the child is born without a doctor or a midwife. It had to be harrowing for her no matter how easy it seemed.

This was followed by a great commotion. Visitors bring gifts to the child, not the father, not the parents, to the child. There’s enough drama for an entire Broadway season happening in the ramshackle place he found for his family. Finally the visitors leave and there in what passes for peace and quiet. He’s finally able to get some sleep.

His rest is anything but peaceful though. His dreams are racked by violent images. His dreams warn him to leave and leave quickly for a place that isn’t friendly to his kind of people. So his wife has just given birth, she was the “hostess with the mostest,” and she gets the baby to sleep; now he is going to wake everyone up so they can pack up and take the family across the border to a place that isn’t particularly friendly to immigrants from their neck of the woods because “The Man” is coming to get them.

How long will they have to stay? The dream only says to stay until the next dream tells him to return, so God only knows. Literally, God only knows.

On the other side of the border, he’s a refugee, or worse an illegal alien. He has professional skills, skills that got him respect at home, but he isn’t home anymore. He’ll be lucky if he can find a place where he might luck into day labor.

His skin is the wrong color. His faith isn’t the right religion. He goes and he is displaced from all that he has and all that he knows. There may be camps for displaced persons when they get there. There might be a community of people like them. They probably live in ethnic ghettos, barrios, but at least it’s a place. It’s better than the alternative; it’s better than having no place, being homeless. He has his family, and that’s enough. That and the faith he has in his dreams. The faith he has in the source of his dreams.

He thanks God his family is safe. He knows where they are going it will be bad, and he knows if they stay where they are it will be worse. Like the old song goes: “If I go there will be trouble, and if I stay it will be double.”[2] The choice between “a rock and a hard place” would be better than this.

If this story sounds familiar, it’s because it’s my retelling of the Manger story, the Wise Men story, and the first part of our reading today with some unusual emphases. First, I took time to elaborately narrate the historical context of the flight to Egypt. Sure, we have often heard that Egypt was a treacherous place for an Israelite, but have we ever considered what that meant? We know going to Egypt was dangerous for the Jews, as if it’s any better today, but have we ever really taken a hard look at what that meant to Joseph’s young family?

I did one more thing, again quite intentionally; I loaded the language of this story with images that mean something to us today. Using words like refugee, illegal alien, ghetto, barrio, displaced person’s camp; things like that. These words mean a lot to us as Christians and as Americans. But have we ever associated these experiences with our Lord and his family? I know that as for me, I hadn’t thought of them in this context before I started work on this sermon.

Our Lord was a refugee, the RefuJesus.

So, does this make you feel uneasy? It makes me feel uneasy and I’m the one sharing it with you. Famed American preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick once said the purpose of the gospel is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. I think Fosdick would say RefuJesus certainly qualifies.

A few years ago there was an internet meme floating around that can help us understand this political and social situation. The meme is that if you went to Google Maps and asked for directions from Japan to China you’d get them. What made this an internet sensation was instruction number 42, “Jet ski across the Pacific Ocean, 782 km.” This is just stupid funny. Add to the funny that these two nations haven’t always been friendly and “Jet ski across the Pacific Ocean, 782 km” reaches a brand new level of silly. This doesn’t even answer the question about getting gas after the first couple of klicks.

Now you can get directions from Nazareth to Cairo using Google Maps, but it doesn’t tell you how many checkpoints you will pass through along the way. It doesn’t tell you if you will encounter difficulties crossing the Sinai, which has the only navigable highway from Israel to Egypt. It doesn’t tell you if you will be detained at the border if you have an Israeli passport or an Israeli stamp in any other passport. So like in Joseph’s time, you can get there from here, but our time is nothing like Joseph’s.

So almost immediately after the birth of Jesus, Joseph was told to take his family to Egypt. In scripture it’s a two verse narrative which moves us from “God says go” to “Joseph says ‘Let’s go’” to “Herod’s dead and this fulfills prophecy.” Only then does the text tell the story of Herod becoming very upset because he was outwitted by the Magi leading to what we call The Slaughter of the Innocents. Then we are reminded Herod died and then learn about Joseph’s next dream telling him to return to his nation.

Except for the Slaughter which includes narrative, prophecy, and poetry from Jeremiah; the text of our reading is the briefest of the brief. You could compose more narrative on Twitter.

On the whole though, we probably don’t dwell on the flight to Egypt because scripture doesn’t dwell on the flight to Egypt. It’s just one of those things, no big deal so we don’t take the time to unpack it.

But I have another idea why we don’t think much about the Holy Family’s stay in Egypt. It’s just a germ of an idea and I am speaking for myself, but maybe it applies to you too. No one ever asked me to think about this before. Honestly, not until I read the words of Yale Divinity School’s Thomas Troeger did this start to come together for me. He wrote, “According to Matthew, Jesus starts his childhood as a refugee: fleeing from Judea to Egypt, and finally from Judea to Galilee”[3]

This opened me to think of Jesus as a refugee. This opened me up to think of other refugee children. Like the children of Darfur who are crowed into camps displaced by civil war in the Sudan. It allowed me to think of the refugees who survived World War II, particularly the Jews. It allowed me to think of Vietnamese children from the 1970’s. It allowed me to think of Mexican and Central American children since the 1980’s; and Cambodians in the 1990’s.

This opened me to think of Joseph as an undocumented worker. It allowed me to see him as a dishwasher or busboy in restaurants all over America. It allowed me to see into the face of the Mexican men who wait outside Home Depot like it’s the public marketplace where men waited for work. It allowed me to think of Zlatko Haveric. This allowed me to think about the racial and ethnic lines that were crossed with the simple words “So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.”

This scripture invites us to look into the face of the immigrant and see the face of Christ.  It is too easy to see the refugee around us, the immigrant around us, and presume something crude, presume they have no skill. We can assume since they do not know our language and customs, or keep their own language and customs, that they are up to something. We can think all sorts of bad things about the immigrant, some of which may actually be valid, but when lumped into a single heap we paint with a brush that is far too broad for a delicate coat.

If we believe that God is the creator of all, if we believe that God is sovereign over all; we get to believe that the light of God shines on all God’s children. In each of us, especially the powerless immigrant, we can find the face of the baby Jesus staring back at us. We need to see the face of Jesus staring back.

These words allowed me to unpack the scripture in a bold and perhaps unorthodox way. It’s unsettling, it’s disturbing, but it’s not unbiblical. If you feel “afflicted” by my words Fosdick would say it’s because in this world you feel comfortable.

What a glorious week we have enjoyed. On Tuesday night we read the story of our dear Savior’s birth and celebrated in song. We brought the babe into our lives on that “Silent Night” and that is not where we stopped. We proclaimed his birth as the “Joy to the World!” We carried the light into the world and celebrated the wonder and the glory of the power that this small child brings all creation.

Then today we see a quick reversal of fortune. Joy leaves as terror comes to the door and the Holy Family pulls up stakes moving quickly and quietly, without a trace to a place where they could easily be “gone tomorrow.” In the 1990’s in Chile they called those people “the Disappeared.” In Egypt Joseph and his family easily could have become “the Disappeared.”

The nightmare doesn’t end either with the return to Israel as Joseph can’t return to the home of his fathers in Bethlehem. Herod is dead, but Archelaus, the next ruler, isn’t a ray of sunshine either. So Joseph moves his family to a backwater town in Galilee called Nazareth.

As is often so true, the words of Isaiah’s prophecy, words of God’s mercy remembered, foreshadow the acts or Christ to come:

I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord,

    the praiseworthy acts of the Lord,

because of all that the Lord has done for us,

    and the great favor to the house of Israel

that he has shown them according to his mercy,

    according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

For he said, “Surely they are my people,

    children who will not deal falsely”;

and he became their savior

     in all their distress.

It was no messenger or angel

    but his presence that saved them;

in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;

    he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

If there is a point Matthew is strong on it is this, the life of Jesus is the blessing of prophecy fulfilled. He is the long awaited Messiah. He is Emmanuel, God with us. He tells us that there is nothing we can face that our Lord hasn’t faced himself. There is no pain or suffering he himself hasn’t faced. In these trials and tribulations he is God and God is with us; and in God alone is our hope.

Remember always, God is with us and by God’s presence through the Son we are saved. So be alert because in the face of the weak, the poor, the infirm, the imprisoned and yes, as we see in today’s reading the refugee; in these people too we see the face of Christ.

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[1] Zlatko Haveric’s full story can be found at the United States for UNHCR (the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) website, http://www.unrefugees.org/site/c.lfIQKSOwFqG/b.4803767/k.9859/Zlatko_Haveric.htm, retrieved December 24, 2010.  I adjusted ages and time spans to fit 2013.

[2] The Clash, “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”

[3] Troeger, Thomas H., Feasting n the Word, Year A, Volume 1, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Editors.  Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, page 167.

Seeking the Better Things

This sermon was heard at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Longview, Texas on Sunday August 4, 2013, the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Later this month St. Andrew will call and install their new Interim Pastor so while I am still on the fill-in list, my season of frequent service to this congregation is coming to an end. Thanks be to God for their hospitality and generosity during this season.

Unfortunately this week there is only text, no audio or video.

Hosea 11:1-11

Psalm 107:1-9, 43

Colossians 3:1-11

Luke 12:13-21

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

I would like to begin by saying how much I enjoyed Tara Porr’s sermon from last week.[1] I particularly enjoyed how she reimagined Hosea’s proposal, if you can call it that, to Gomer. The way she took scripture and inflected it into the way we speak was marvelous. When she used Gomer’s voice to say “That’s so sweet!” I laughed. It was a wonderful way to take a whore-endous, whore-rific, whore-rible piece of scripture—puns intended—and replay it in a modern way.

But it was her skill with handling the symbolism of Hosea wedding a woman of many sexual partners symbolically representing our Faithful Lord’s wedding to a nation that takes many partners that was brilliant. Still, I can imagine her preparing that sermon, reading that passage and thinking to herself “how in the world does this preach?” because I felt the same way when I read these passages from Colossians and Luke.

She read from the densest use of the word “whore” found in scripture. I get to share “fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry)” and “anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth.” After reading these passages, when I say, “This is the Word of the Lord” I almost expect to hear the congregation reply “Really?” instead of “Amen.”

Paul tells Timothy that all scripture is good and beneficial for study and teaching, but these have an edge to them that point to many uncomfortable lessons.

Then Marie showed me an article from the Wall Street Journal blogs about the actor Ben Foster who is starring in a movie based on retired Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell’s memoir “Lone Survivor.” This book and its movie are based on one of his unit’s reconnaissance missions in the mountains of Afghanistan in 2005. Their objective was to kill or capture a Taliban leader. On missions like these in the wilderness of Afghanistan they would occasionally cross paths with local shepherds.

In a recent interview, Mr. Foster was asked about this scene. He replied, “The ancient question of war is do you kill a shepherd and save your own life and potentially endanger your people, or do you let him go? They decided to let them go, and these brave young men were hunted down.” [2]

Foster continues, “[Luttrell] was the lone survivor, and asked a man in this village to give him water. The law there is if you give a man water who asks for help in war, you’re taking him in as a family member and you must protect him to the death.” [3]

The reason I chose to tell this story is because I want us to consider our family. Who is our family? How do we welcome new members into our family? What does it mean to be a member of a family or more righteously this family? We’ll get back to that.

Our gospel reading opens with a definition of family which is gaining some traction these days, the family as an economic unit. In my 20’s I had a friend whose grandfather owned a large soybean farm in Kansas. This man and his wife had four children and after the parents’ death, each of them owned a quarter share in the farm. They had it all worked out, and the family as an economic unit was secure. They didn’t run into the trouble Luke’s gospel reports when Jesus had the brother screaming, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”

This man wanted his request heard, and knew how to fawn while asking it too. “Teacher,” other translations say “Rabbi,” in a word he appealed to our Lord’s earthly status and the traditions of the thousands of teachers who came before him. Maybe if he had thought of Jesus as Lord rather than as teacher he would have been better off. As important as the family as an economic unit is, Jesus did not take to the question well. Jesus flat out asked the man who he thought he was to make this decision.

Jesus adds to his lesson telling the man and all with ears to hear, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

The story that follows is one which stock brokers, insurance agents, and others who sell 401(k)’s don’t want us to hear.  In a nutshell we can plan all we want, but there will be a day; and that day could be tomorrow or it could be 100 years from now. Depending on our own resources and taking joy in stuff ultimately leads down the road to nowhere.

So, Jesus tells us to be on our guard against all kinds greed and then tells a story about a man who has a special place for all of the stuff his life has brought him. I’m not talking about his barns either, in truth I’m talking about his heart.

There is a phrase in that sentence that always gets the best of me. Jesus doesn’t warn us about financial greed alone. As for this man, his greed took root in more than just his possessions; it took root in eating, drinking, and merriment; everything his life can buy but nothing God provides. He warns the people about all kinds of greed. I could give you a litany of the sorts of greed that corrupts the lives of human beings, but the list would be long, the oration would be boring, and the recitation ultimately incomplete.

In the end, it is enough to know that Jesus warns the people about all kinds of greed, not the run of the mill garden variety financial kind. Then it’s Paul who takes that laundry list and names it something else, he calls all kinds of greed idolatry.

Now if there isn’t a more loaded word than idolatry I’d like you to share it with me. I’m not saying you can’t find one, I’m saying if you do I’d like to get prepared to be frightened. Simply put, Idolatry is putting anything, the idol, before God. A pastor friend from Colorado thought the NFL was the perfect American idol. His opinion came from the simple truth that in the Mountain Time zone games start at 11:00 AM. With worship starting at 10:30 folks didn’t get out until the end of the first quarter. If there was a potluck it would be halftime before fans got home.

So many people stayed home during football season that giving actually went down during those four months, longer if the home team made the playoffs. Considering this was during John Elway’s heyday on the reins of the Broncos, the playoffs were almost a foregone conclusion. Yes, my pastor made a pretty good argument for the NFL being an idol.

As for taking this to the “loaded idolatry” level let me finish saying “Texas high school football” and get out of the way. Considering Allen ISD just finished a $60 million facility, that’s not a sanctuary or a tabernacle, it’s a bloody cathedral to high school football.

Is it an idol? I don’t know the people well enough to know, but $60 million for a high school football stadium? If the Church of Jesus Christ had fundraising like that there would be no hunger in East Texas.

Paul begins this portion of his epistle to the Colossians saying, “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Paul is writing this to the saints in Colossae, he’s writing to believers, the church. I make this point because some translations don’t say “So if…” they say “Since…” Paul is not asking whether they have been raised with Christ or not. In a lovely turn of a rhetorical phrase he is saying that they are raised in Christ.

Since they are raised in Christ their minds should not be on the things of the earth. They should not be set on the idols we make with our own hands and worshiped like they mean something. They are called to be of a higher mind. They are called to live the life they have been freely given at great cost so that we may be with Christ in God.

We are to surrender fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and all forms of greed (which is all forms of idolatry) forsaking anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language. We are to be clothed with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

We are to live in Christ so that we may not only be able to seek the better things, but accept them and nurture them when we discern them.

So, what does this have to do with family? Let’s begin with who is in the family.

Paul covered this pretty well. There is no longer Greek or Jew—cultural identification and membership is considered moot.

As for circumcised and uncircumcised this relates to faith. As culture bears no more meaning; neither does religious affiliation.

As for barbarians and Scythians, the Barbarians (with a capital B) were Turks and the Scythians were Iranian. This could have meant “from west or east” as much as it could mean “vicious people” verses “more cultured vicious people.”

Slave and Free had to do with social status as well as economic status. It comes down to whether or not you have freedom on earth, you have freedom in Christ.

These differentiations are vitally important because in this day and time we have to beware of who we say doesn’t belong. Let us remember that after the “Slaughter of the Innocents” in Matthew's gospel comes the “Escape to Egypt.” Our Lord’s family arrived as strangers in a strange land. They had no visas or permits. The Lord told the Jews to stay out of Egypt so there would have been few kin folk when they arrived. Thank God for the gifts of the Magi or else they would have had no gold or other liquid assets when they arrived.

In short, our Lord was once a political refugee and an illegal alien. In Christ there is freedom for all. This is vitally important to our Lord today because while an infant he was once was a refugee, a prisoner to the power and politics of his time.

How do we welcome new members into our family? In a way, it’s not completely unlike how the Afghani man accepted Marcus Luttrell, with water. While they extended a cup of drinking water, we become family in the waters of our baptism. In this holy sacrament we are welcomed into the community which Christ has ordained to be his body. In these holy waters we are baptized and sealed by the spirit.

In the waters of our baptism we suffer the death that faces all who come into the chaos of water only to be received into new life as a member of the Christian community. We are welcomed in this messy, messy sacrament to join together in the messy lives we live together. It is this unity in Christ, as he too was baptized in the waters of new life, that we come together as family. Family where we defend each one’s dignity against the world that would love to see that new life crushed.

So what does it mean to be a part of this family? It means more than showing up once a week and touching base like a seven-day game of tag where you have to come once a week or “you’re it.”

It means we defend one another. This isn’t unlike the answer to the question “who is my neighbor.” A neighbor is someone who shows mercy, someone who makes a difference. But neighbors are largely a voluntary alliance. We don’t get to pick our family.

Family, in family there is love and respect and dignity even when your little sister bugs the living daylights out of you. Even when your brother borrows the car and doesn’t bother to put gas in it, family is still family. When the Session, Presbytery, or General Assembly votes don’t go as we believe they should, we are still family. Even when family leaves, we are still family. In this love, even in the midst of strife, in the waters of our baptism God’s peace is there.

This is where I share our joy. Nurtured by the food and drink of the Lord’s Supper we share the joy found in our Call to Worship. In the words of the 107^th Psalm, Let them give thanks for the mercy of God, for the wonders the LORD does for all people. For God satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. Whoever is wise will ponder these things, and consider well the mercies of the LORD. Halleluiah!

God satisfies the hungry heart with the better things. It’s up to us to seek them, nurture them, and share them with the world.

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[1] “When Words Aren’t Enough” based on Hosea 1:1-10. Miss Porr is a student at Princeton Seminary and about to start a yearlong internship in Groomsport, Northern Ireland. Godspeed and have a great year Tara.

[2] Chai, Barbara, “Ben Foster on how ‘Lone Survivor’ asks ancient questions of war.” http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/04/16/ben-foster-on-how-lone-survivor-asks-ancient-questions-of-war/, retrieved on July 31, 2013.

[3] I am reminded that Luttrell wrote in his book that he was offered tea instead of water. Foster’s recollection may be inaccurate, but it both is what he told Barbara Chai and works better with the end of the sermon.

Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood

This sermon was heard at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Longview, Texas on Sunday July 14, 2013, the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Amos 7:7-17

Psalm 82

Colossians 1:1-14

Luke 10:25-37

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

If you know the lyrics, sing along. If you don’t, then just hum. Nobody is going to mind.

It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood; it’s a beautiful day for a neighbor. 

Would you be mine? Could you be mine? 

It’s a neighborly day in this beauty wood; a neighborly day for a beauty. 

Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

I’ve always wanted to have a neighbor just like you.

 I’ve always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.

So, let’s make the most of this beautiful day; 

since we’re together we might as well say:

“Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won’t you be my neighbor?”

Won’t you please, won’t you please, please won’t you be my neighbor.[1]

New episodes of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” were shown on PBS stations from 1970 until 2001 and on National Educational Television two years before that. Reruns aren’t available on local stations, but they are through the PBS Kids web site.[2]

The show was characterized by its quiet simplicity and gentleness. Episodes did not have a plot, but they did have a theme. They consisted of Rogers speaking directly to viewers about various issues, taking the viewer on tours of factories, demonstrating experiments, crafts, and music, and interacting with his friends. The half-hour episodes were punctuated by a puppet segment chronicling occurrences in the “Neighborhood of Make-Believe.”

At the beginning of each episode, Mister Rogers enters his television studio house singing “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” He hangs up his suit jacket, puts on a zippered cardigan, then takes off his dress shoes to put on his sneakers. One of Rogers’ sweaters now hangs in the Smithsonian, a testament to the cultural influence of his simple daily ritual.

Rogers covered a broad range of topics over the years, and the series did not shy away from issues that other children’s programming avoided. In fact, Rogers endeared himself to many when, on March 23, 1970, he dealt with the death of one of his pet goldfish. The series also dealt with competition, divorce, and war. Rogers returned to the topic of anger regularly and focused on peaceful ways of dealing with angry feelings.[3]

All of this happened in the context of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, a mystical place where the imaginary fourth wall of the television screen magically disappeared for a half hour and we were all welcomed into a world of peace and grace.

Considering Mister Fred Rogers was a graduate of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and an ordained PC(USA) Minister, welcoming children into a world of peace and grace was his vocation as well as his passion.

So the expert in religious law came to test Jesus asking, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replies in true rabbinical fashion, asking a question when an answer is sought. “What is written in the Law?”

The lawyer answers this question by a perfect recitation from Leviticus and Deuteronomy[4] saying, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus affirms the lawyer’s answer saying, “Do this, and you will live.” The experts in the law commonly accepted that observance of the Torah was essential to inherit eternal life.[5] So when Jesus and the lawyer agree on this point, they share the truth of thousands of years of tradition.

But the lawyer’s questions are more than an academic or rabbinic exercise. He wants to justify himself. So he asks Jesus another question, “Who is my neighbor?” This is an important question, more important than we may suppose. What gets lost in the translation of Leviticus is that the original command to love the neighbor specifies “your kin” and “any of your people.”[6] So the lawyer wants to be justified that by helping his family, his people, and his nation he will inherit eternal life.

Then Jesus tells the legal expert a story and asks him another question, “So which of these three, the Priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan, do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”

The lawyer answers, “The one who showed him mercy was a neighbor.” This must have been difficult for the expert in the law. He knew it wasn’t his people, the Priest or the Levite, but he couldn’t push the name of his dreaded cousin past his lips. Instead he says, “The one who showed him mercy was a neighbor.”

Saying this, the lawyer, the expert in the law tells the world that being a neighbor is about more than just being kin or members of the same nation. It has to do with action and mercy.  Being a neighbor now means more than it did in Leviticus. Then Jesus gives him his charge, “Go, and do likewise.”

Jesus shares the vision of inheriting eternal life written in the Torah with the lawyer.  Then he shows him that the Living Torah, the person and the work and the word of Jesus Christ, expands the Torah given to Moses. Justification by the Torah now means that loving God and loving your neighbor are inseparable.[7] Being justified means more than just taking care of business as usual.

The hardest part about this story is that the holy men in the parable, the priest and the Levite, were doing what they were supposed to do. They were going to work. They were doing what was right in the name of the Law. They followed the rules and abided by the regulations approved by the General Assembly, er, the Presbytery, er, the law handed down to Moses. They did the right thing in the eyes of the law, but doing what was right was no longer enough in the eyes of God.

To the Greco-Roman world, the cradle of Western culture, mercy was a character flaw; the ideal was justice. Since mercy involves providing unearned help or relief, it was contrary to justice. This unearned relief, we call it grace.

Sociologist Rodney Stark put it this way. “The notion that the gods care how we treat one another would have been dismissed as patently absurd. This was the moral climate in which Christianity taught that mercy is one of the primary virtues—that a merciful God requires humans to be merciful. Moreover, the corollary that because God loves humanity, Christians may not please God unless they love one another was something entirely new.”[8]

Mercy is the new benchmark in justification. Mercy is the new benchmark in being a neighbor. Mercy has a place in the administration of justice in the Christ’s kingdom and only the Samaritan acted in accord with the living Torah.

Only the despised Samaritan showed love in an act of mercy. Only the loathed foreigner connected loving God and loving your neighbor as the way to being justified. Only the reviled outsider saw his brother left beaten on the side of the road. Only the detested alien saw the way to justification through mercy. Only the abhorred stranger showed the divinely required attitude we are to share with one another.

An ancient rabbi once asked his pupils how they could tell when the night had ended and the day was on its way back. “Could it be,” asked one student, “when you can see an animal in the distance and tell whether it is a sheep or a dog?” “No,” answered the Rabbi. “Could it be,” asked another, “when you look at a tree in the distance and tell whether it is a fig tree or a peach tree?” “No,” said the Rabbi. “Well, then what is it?” his pupils demanded. “It is when you look on someone’s face and can see… your brother. Because if you cannot do this, then no matter what time it is, it is still night.”[9]

In the past month, there has been quite a commotion about Mr. Rogers. The people at Fox News found a 2007 article by Jeffrey Zaslow from the Wall Street Journal titled, “Blame It on Mr. Rogers: Why Young Adults Feel So Entitled” [10] At the center of the article was LSU finance professor Don Chance who observed a “culture of excessive doting” in 21^st Century university students The article begins:

[The professor] says it dawned on him last spring.  The semester was ending, and as usual, students were making a pilgrimage to his office, asking for the extra points needed to lift their grades to A’s.

 “They felt entitled,” he recalls, “and it just hit me.  We can blame Mr. Rogers.”

Professor Chance notes Asian students, students who did not grow up with Mr. Rogers, accept “B’s and C’s as an indication that they must work harder, and that their elders assessed them accurately.” The article continues:

By contrast, American students often view lower grades as a reason to “hit you up for an A because they came to class and feel they worked hard,” says Prof. Chance. He wishes more parents would offer kids this perspective: “The world owes you nothing. You have to work and compete. If you want to be special, you'll have to prove it.”

If there is one thing I can agree with after working over ten years in higher education, it’s that there is a sense of entitlement among students. I have seen that sense of entitlement reinforced by some parents and grandparents who called to ask if there wasn’t any way I could give Junior one more chance. I don’t say that Professor Chance is wrong about that. I do say that his finger pointing is misdirected. I won’t say where it should be directed, but putting this on Mr. Rogers is wrong.

Looking at Mr. Rogers’ point of view, we need to remember that he was a Christian and a Presbyterian minister. He pastored children daily for over 40 years. He told children, the weakest members of any society, that in the eyes of God they are loved and have value. He told misfits they are loved. He told fat kids they are loved. He told bullied kids they are loved. He told poor kids they are loved. He told abused kids they are loved. Even if it is just in his neighborhood, they are loved.

He loves them. He is their neighbor. He invited children into that neighborhood daily not so that they could beg for grades from Professor Chance fifteen years later, but so that they could know grace and peace and mercy and love and hope. It’s true; this world isn’t looking to do them or anyone else any favors, but through Christ God offers us grace, peace, mercy, love, hope, and salvation. We are freely offered grace as a gift, not as payment for services rendered. If it were, it wouldn’t be grace. This is what Mr. Rogers offered his audience daily.

Gentleness, love, mercy, peace, grace; isn’t this what we want from our neighbors? It sure beats the scorn and ridicule, derision and division we see every day. We want people in our lives showing the fullness of God’s mercy to everyone, not just some.

We want to know what it is to receive divine mercy, God’s divine loving-kindness. We must realize that this mercy arises out of a mutual relationship one for another, not just as a winner-take-all justice the ancient Greeks favored.

If Professor Chance and Fox News want us to believe we have no value outside of what we can do for our economy and ourselves that is their business. It is after all the way of the world. On the whole though, I prefer to live a state of grace, a place where I know what is most important cannot be earned, it can only be given. A place where that grace is freely given, even if it’s just for 30 minutes a day with a man in a zip up cardigan.

Luke shows us the lawyer accepts Jesus’ revision of the Torah. He learns that the one who shows mercy like the Samaritan is the neighbor, not those who share family or heritage like the priest and the Levite. What might have started as a theological exercise between the lawyer and teacher becomes more when the Torah comes to life in Jesus Christ.

When the law comes to life, we can no longer answer these questions like we’re taking a college entrance exam. We now have to answer the questions with our hands even more than we do with our heads. Jesus commands us to be good neighbors; loving the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind, and with all our strength; and our neighbor as ourselves.  On this the words of the Law and the prophets hang.

This is our call, this is our vocation. It is no longer enough to do just what the written law tells us; now there is more. We are called to this new word of discipleship when Jesus charges the lawyer, “Go, and do likewise.” Or as Mr. Rogers once said:

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

Friends in Christ, Mr. Rogers tells us, Jesus tells us, those who help are our neighbors. So, let’s make the most of this beautiful day; since we’re together we might as well say: Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won’t you be my neighbor?

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[1] Rogers, Fred, “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”  Pittsburgh, PA: Family Communications, Inc., 1967.

[2] From the PBSKids.org websie retrieved July 12, 2013.

[3] Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Rogers%27_Neighborhood, retrieved July 8, 2010

[4] Leviticus 19:18, Deuteronomy 6:5

[5] “Adlet and Blink,” Commentary section, from Homiletics Online, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/printer_friendly_installment.asp?installment_id=930000347, accessed June 10, 2007.

[6] Cousar, Charles B., Gaventa, Beverly R., McCann, Jr., J. Clinton, Newsome, James D., Texts for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, YEAR C. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994, page 427. 

[7] Kittel, Gerhardt, “Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. vi, page 316

[8] Galloway, Paul, “How Jesus Won the West: Christianity became dominant because it offered better ideas and unexpected mercy,” The Lutheran, November 1998, 19.

[9] Thompson, Marjorie J. “Soul Feast” Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995, 127.

[10] Zaslow, Jeffrey, “Blame It on Mr. Rogers: Why Young Adults Feel So Entitled.” Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2007, retrieved July 12, 2013.

Ladies and Gentlemen and Children of All Ages

This sermon was heard at the Broadmoor Presbyterian Church in Shreveport, Louisiana on Sunday July 7, 2013, the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

2Kings 5:1-14

Psalm 30

Galatians 6:7-16

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

During last week’s sermon,[i]  the Reverend Freeman told a story about his grandfather the Reverend Freeman. Jim’s grandfather was a talented man. Among his many skills was the ability to ride his bicycle’s handlebars facing the back wheel, his feet pedaling backward to move the bike forward… while juggling. That must have been a sight. In the story, a member of the congregation loaned Grandpa Pastor Freeman a plot of land so that he could plant a garden. On the day he began to till the plot, everyone came out to watch him work the land.

Already having the title of today’s sermon in mind, my first thought was, “Ladies and gentlemen and children of all ages! Step right up! Step right up and see the Plowing Pastor! Can he plow a straight line while facing backward on the Tilling-Two-Wheeler-of-Death? Watch and see as he attempts to juggle the seed into the farrows!” and that’s when the high school band drum line kicks in to increase the tension until the cymbal crash and trumpet voluntary at the end of the stunt.

So that was just me, huh?[ii]

“Ladies and gentlemen and children of all ages…” Whenever we hear these words we know that something exciting is going to follow. This is the cry of the Ringmaster, the Master of Ceremonies under the big top who lures our attention to the center ring, drawing our attention to what’s important. In fact, the only reason the Ringmaster is important is to draw our attention to the main attraction.

This is what Paul is getting at in his letter to the Galatians. He’s trying to make sure that nobody gets suckered into the bad P. T. Barnum sideshow the Scribes and Pharisees are trying to get the church to buy. Our reading from the New Revised Standard Version is a very good translation of what Paul says; but the New Living Translation has fewer $5.00 words and better English sentence structure. This makes Paul’s intended message more transparent. Verses 12 and 13 read:

Those who are trying to force you to be circumcised want to look good to others. They don’t want to be persecuted for teaching that the cross of Christ alone can save. And even those who advocate circumcision don't keep the whole law themselves. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast about it and claim you as their disciples.

Paul is telling us these church leaders make lousy ringmasters. They aren’t drawing the Galatians to what’s important. Their evangelism is for their own benefit, not for the church. They are trying to sell a bill of goods they don’t keep because they can’t. They aren’t pointing to what’s in the center ring. They are trying to draw attention to themselves so their peers will think they’re big shots. Their goal is to bring people to themselves, not to Christ.

Paul even says that whether they are circumcised or not doesn’t matter to Jesus. It’s not the flesh that matters. Paul says what counts is whether or not they have been made a new creation. It’s not what we look like as much as what we become and what we do as a new creation that makes a difference to the Lord. It’s people who live as a new creation that truly come to know the peace and mercy of God.

Let me make this clear—I don’t think this can be said often enough—our salvation does not hinge on what we do. We are saved by grace through faith. What matters to God is that we are transformed and how we are transformed by our salvation. If our transformation is only skin deep, it won’t matter much to us, the world, or to God for that matter. If we aren’t transformed by our salvation, it’s like being a dried out piece of clay in the potter’s hand. The potter’s hand is the one place where clay can be made into something useful, but dried out it’s nothing more than a lump. As Paul says, we reap what we sow.

A tale of transformation is found in our gospel reading. Many of us know this reading well, the “Sending of the 70.” [iii] What we know is Jesus sends these believers out to all of the cities and places he intends to visit. These men who were sent are sent with a mission. They are sent with instructions, and some new rules.[iv] First and foremost, Jesus says pray. They are told to pray first then act.

Jesus sends them with two pieces of advice. He tells them it’s dangerous out there and travel light. As Jesus sends them he says, “Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.” Or in the words of Cat Stevens, “Hope you make a lot of nice friends out there/But just remember there’s a lot of bad and beware.”[v] Under those circumstances, this is good advice; when in danger, it is best not to be burdened by stuff.

These instructions also mean they will have to depend on the Lord for their provisions, and not their packing skills or wiles.

 

They are told when they enter a home to say “Peace to this house!” If the peace is shared, the peace will remain. They are told to stay and accept their hospitality. This way they rely on the Lord for their safety, their lodging, and their sustenance. They aren’t supposed to scope out town looking for a better offer. They are to rely on the Lord to show them where they are supposed to be so that they may do remarkable things.

 

If the peace is not shared, it will return to them. Then while leaving, they are to knock the dust from their feet in protest.

Then too, some of Jesus’ instructions will make them uncomfortable along the way because they aren’t all kosher. One is to greet no one along the way.

 For travelers in this time, greeting involves ceremony. When I lived in southeast Colorado it was traditional when driving down the street to wave to everyone. I was told if you didn’t wave to a neighbor when you passed them on the road then they wouldn’t talk to you again until after church on Sunday. Because your neighbor snubbed you at church, everyone would know you had snubbed your neighbor during the week. If you have a Facebook or Twitter account you know what that means for this century. In a time when greeting someone on the road could lead to an hours long ritual, Jesus tells his disciples to forego ritual and go.

The following command is given twice. When they enter a new town and its people welcome them, they are to eat what is set before them. This command can be difficult for a Jew who keeps a kosher table. Casting aside familiar dietary restrictions in favor of crawfish étouffée would be very difficult for them.

 

Jesus’ ministry was focused on the Jews, but he would be traveling through gentile cities too. Since his recon teams would be going there first, they had to be ready for what was ahead of them. So he gives new rules my earthly father would approve, eat what’s put in front of you and clean your plate.

Jesus’ final piece of advice, his last new rule is to deliver the one message of the coming of the Kingdom of God. He tells them to deliver this message whether facing acceptance or adversity. When they are welcomed into a new community they are to say, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”  When they are not welcomed they are to say, “The kingdom of God has come near.”

For those who know the peace of God, this will be a blessing, “The kingdom of God has come near to us.” For those who reject God’s peace, this is more a warning than a blessing.  It sounds like a holy version of “Wait ‘til your father gets home.”

When the circus comes to town there is a group that comes a day or two before the show to prepare for the arrival of the main caravan. They do the last minute publicity. They scout out laundromats, grocery stores, gas stations and other places that are important for a traveling show. Jesus sends the seventy to do the advance work and give a taste of what the kingdom of God is like.

Then after the seventy return to home base, they report their wonderful success and Jesus affirms them saying (again from the New Living Translation) “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning!” Then Jesus gives them the advice Paul gives the Galatians; don’t brag about what you’ve done. Don’t rejoice “that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

In this day and time we are called to be the next seventy, sent where our Lord sends us. In prayer we are to seek the way. We are to travel light and beware. We are to rely on God alone and eat what we are given. We are to offer God’s blessing… in one way or another. By the power of the Holy Spirit we are to point to God and God in Christ, not to ourselves. And in Christ, by Christ, and through Christ we are transformed, just like the original seventy 2,000 years ago.

We are to cry out, “Ladies and Gentlemen and Children of all ages! Step this way! Everyone’s welcome!” Then by the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ we may all come into God’s glorious presence where we may survey the wondrous cross together. This is what we have been sent to do.

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[i] Freeman, The Reverend James, “Of Chariots and Plows.” Heard at the Broadmoor Presbyterian Church, June 30, 2013, the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

[ii] I was prepared to say “Okay, so that wasn’t just me, nice” if the people had responded.

[iii] Or “the 72” depending upon your translation, but I preached that several years ago.

[iv] Culpepper, R. Alan. “The New Interpreter’s Bible.” “Luke” section.  Leander E. Keck, Senior New Testament Editor.  Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995, page 222.

[v] Stevens, Cat, “Wild World.”  Off of “Tea for the Tillerman.” 1970.