Sermons from the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

This sheet comes down. Peter sees all these animals that he's supposed to stay away from. And the voice from above from God says, Peter kill and eat. And Peter says, no, absolutely not. He thinks, you're testing me. I know this one. I don't get to eat those things.

Three times this happened. And three times Peter says, no, I know the rules. And God speaks from above and says 'nothing that God has made clean is unclean.' And again, we're not talking about God's scrubbing.

You have said, these things are not worthy of nourishment. They are not worthy of being presented as a sacrifice. Blessing is not in them, but I am telling you, there is blessing and nourishment and power here too. Don't lose sight of that. Don't miss what's right in front of you. That's easy enough for us.

As Christians and as Gentiles, we often take this reading simply to mean one or two things, perhaps. Now we get to eat bacon, cool, thanks God. But we have this issue as Christians, where we treat the dietary restrictions that are presented before us of God's people, we treat them as true as unthinkable.

We diminish the faithfulness of our Israelite ancestors and of people of contemporary society in our faith, in our lives. Now, many of our Jewish siblings and many siblings from other faiths across the world have very specific dietary restrictions...

...we now hear of another potential crisis

and the overturning of protection for women's autonomy, and their health and

reproductive decisions. There is a temptation for us to stand back because

there are simply too many crises. There are too many things that seem to be

falling apart and we may choose to stand back, particularly if we don't feel

that we're going to be directly impacted by what's going on.

I hear that voice in myself sometimes. It's a voice to

reassure me, it'll be okay, because I'm not being directly impacted. But

immediately hearing that voice, I hear that other voice. That voice of Jesus

reminding me that I am called to witness and serve, to love my neighbor as

myself to strive for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every

human being. I hear that voice.

And regardless of our age, our gender, our orientation, our

race or ethnicity, our politics, we are called to walk a path of love together.

We are called to do that. I am certain, we have many different views, some

passionately held about the most recent issue regarding women's reproductive

rights. We can talk personal views and experiences, religious beliefs, beliefs

of various traditions. We can talk about science and laws and even politics. In

this beloved community we can discuss and respect differing views.

What is central for me is a person's autonomy in making

well-informed, compassionate, and prayerful choices for their own body and

their own life circumstance. I believe that any human being identifying however

they do, has the right to have their autonomy regarding their bodies; that

autonomy protected.

I don't have a great story where Jesus knocked me down and

blinded me and then said, get your act together, DeVaul. That didn't happen.

But this Sunday, this year, I'm out there, I'm watching those folks and I'm

standing with some of you and we're ringing bells and we're cheering people on.

And I see the truth.

It's not like, 'oh, this is a good thing, or, oh, what a

wonderful day for our city,' although those things are true. I'm literally

seeing Christ run by me over and over and over again, Christ himself. Wearing a

little funny pig hat and a bib and running along or speed walking right in

front of me. That's Christ.

And then I look around and I got a bunch of my friends here,

ringing bells and yelling, happy things at people and, oh my gosh, I'm

surrounded by Christ. Why haven't I seen it? Did I have eyes to see Christ all

around me? And then you'll never believe what happened? I rang a bell and I was

cheering. And guess what for just a moment, guess who I got to be? Christ.

I got to embody the truth of who God is in this world. Just

like you did, and just like they are. And for a moment, all of what we think

about what's good and what's bad. All this stuff melted away. And I was in the

presence of holiness.

God, doesn't knock Saul off the horse in order to make him a

better person. He doesn't do it to try to teach him a lesson. This isn't a

fable. This is a story of transformation. Saul goes from seeing people as

threats and obstacles to seeing people as the very embodiment of Christ in the

world.

So many folks are feeling isolated, lonely, even despair. Many are finding that the comfort they once might have found in a faith tradition, no longer works for them in the complexity, and with which they understand life today. So many are feeling threatened by actions being taken to curtail their rights, their freedoms.

And so many are experiencing the devastation of aggression of violence, even war. Bearing witness to following Jesus and becoming beloved community is needed now desperately, and we are called. I find a helpful reference point for me in terms of this question of witness is our baptismal covenant and the vows we make.

Will you continue in the apostles teaching and fellowship and the breaking of bread and prayers? Will you persevere in resisting evil and repent? Will you proclaim by word and example the good news of God and Christ? Will you seek to serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? Will you strive for justice and peace among all people respecting the dignity of every human being?

That's a beautiful ground from which we can begin to witness. And when we make those vows, we always say them, I will with God's help. I will with God's help because it is not easy, but we can with God's help.

I'm a very cynical person. You don't know that. Cause I get

up here and talk about love, which I believe in. But the power of love is

something that has overcome me and has to fight daily with my cynicism. So for

instance, you know, you'll meet people who have kids, or maybe they're a

teacher that teaches and they go like, man, those kids teach me more than I'll

ever teach them.

I'm like, well, that's not true. You taught them math. You're

way smarter. I get really cynical about this idea because I'm up here in my

head thinking you have a set of information that you are imparting to these

people. What I forget is how much we learn, how much we learned from people,

not just sets of data, but what we learned from people by simply sharing life

with them.

Other than the names of dinosaurs, my eight-year-old son has

taught me nothing. Like I was, when I was in school, I have probably forgotten

all the names of dinosaurs unless they were in the Jurassic Park movie, I still

remember those. Except, he needs me to slow down sometimes and listen to him. I

don't like to slow down; I want to go. He doesn't say, oh, father, I need you

to slow down because you're moving at a pace that I can't handle, and I need you

to work with me in a different way. That doesn't happen, but I love him. And so,

I'm learning how to slow down and listen differently.

I'm learning because I'm willing to listen differently and

listen to someone that I wasn't ready to learn from before. Who do we assume we

know all about, and we don't need to learn from who are we not listening to?

And I don't just mean listening to the words they have to say. Although that is

part of it. I also mean who could be transforming our lives for love if only we'd

let them. If the male disciples had just believed what the female disciples had

said, their lives would have been transformed that much sooner.

What happened to Jesus is not far from us today. Innocent

lives are lost in systems of domination and oppression again and again. Fear

and mistrust breed, war and violence, and the impulse for domination and

supremacy keep us separated from one another and from God.

The Passion of Jesus should not leave you today saying, oh,

look at this terrible thing that happened thousands of years ago.

It should leave you searching for how and why humanity

continues to walk this way today.

It should not leave you placing blame on them, the Jews who

killed Jesus. It should find you searching for how you yourself participate in

societies and structures that take the breath of life from the poor, the

oppressed, the marginalized and the forsaken right now.

Palm Sunday has a way of allowing us to enter into the

story, both as those who waved palms in joyous procession, along the way, and

saying glory to God. And also, as those who shouted, crucify him, crucify him.

I am grateful year after year for this juxtaposition,

because truly we are both. We today in many ways, simultaneously with our

lives, honor God with songs of praise. And also vilify Christ who interrupts

our systems of comfort and security.

In today's Gospel Mary's devotion to Jesus is seen and felt by all present.In the story, Judas' devotion may be visible as well, but it is probably not a devotion of giving to the poor. It may be more to keeping the common purse and perhaps lining his own. So, how do we identify with this story? To what and whom are we devoted and how do we express that devotion? The word devotion just kept coming to me with this story. And I think it came to me even more so because I've witnessed so much devotion in recent weeks...

I was away in Florida with my family earlier this past

week and witnessed again, my son Ryan's devotion to his dad. His dad lives in Chicago and he has significant physical and

cognitive problems and he needs assistance at times throughout the day. My son

lives in Utah, but he's practiced at keeping this communication. But we were

all in Florida and this time his dad had gotten himself into a jam that he

didn't know how to remedy...

So, of course, his first call is to his son and I witnessed Ryan by the pool in Florida, calmly and patiently walk him through possible options and try to help empower him as to how he might fix this himself. And from my side of overhearing the call, I could tell that he didn't feel able to do any of those things.

And so Ryan then very quickly shifted gears and made all the

calls that were necessary to get the help that was needed in Chicago. In minutes, help with on the way. As I've shared before this devotion between

father and son did not grow out of nothing, but out of years of calls and love

expressed. The devotion, his father gave him so faithfully, has been returned with love and generosity beyond measure.

The Gospel today is drawing us back to one another and we know it, we know it. This is why our overwhelming sense, When we hear this story, our overwhelming feeling is of the magnificent love that runs towards us, even when we're not sure who we are and the beauty and the power of the story is that even though the sons don't know, they belong, the father never stops loving them.

Even when the two sons don't acknowledge each other, the father sees them both as beloved son. Even when both of them are completely incapable when neither of them are able to see each other or see their father or see themselves as in true and loving relationship, the father sees it and knows it and lives it and holds onto them when they can't hold onto him when they can't hold onto eachother.

This is the story of our God, the God who will not let go of us, the God who will not let us go, who will hold onto us and transform us and make us know our belonging and help us to see the power and the beauty of the belonging of all the people all around us. And if we have eyes to see it and ears to hear it, we will know our belongingness and we will allow ourselves to be transformed by God's love as we experience it in our hearts.

The other morning, I

got into my nice dependable car, it's a Toyota, but it has leather seats. And I

drove to the grocery store and I hit zero potholes on Paxton avenue and I

rolled the windows down and I played some Louie Armstrong on the radio and I

filled my car with gas, and I didn't even calculate how many miles I'm getting to

the gallon these days. I rolled on over to that Kroger entrance. And

it just so happened that the best parking spot in the whole lot was open right

there waiting for me.

I mean, man, I must be living right? Then there were frappuccino samples at the Starbucks counter, right when I walked in the door, streams in the desert. I mean, seriously, you guys, am I a saint or something? ...

I love that Luke is there to let us wonder more deeply about

what makes for good fruit. Because without the parable, it's easy to assume

that we're the good guys and they're the bad guys and good things happen to

good people and bad things happen to bad people. And the world is really pretty

black and white. And I like that narrative because it's so safe for me. It's

safe for me to think like that.

Because things can get really messy in the Gospel. Things

can get messy when I have to admit that my dad was friends with that salesman

at the Toyota dealership and the potholes on Paxton avenue got fixed right

after a rich guy made a call.

And I can feel like I totally get Louie Armstrong, even

though I have never walked a day in this city with black skin.

Things can get messy when gas prices soar, and we have to

contemplate our dependence on a non-renewable foreign source.

Things can get really messy when pure dumb luck got me that

parking spot at Kroger, when a single mom with five kids and three jobs will

never get that spot because she does not have the luxury of going to the

grocery store at 2:00 PM on a Tuesday.

...if they can get him

to see that even Herod wants him dead, maybe he'll finally get on the right

side and be a Pharisee. Yeah. The Pharisees placed before Jesus, a binary, which

one are you?

Are you one of us, are you one of them? Who are you? And

Jesus with his very strong language rejects that binary. And we have to see

that part of the reason Jesus is killed is, he rejects the binary that is put

before him. Which side are you on? Pick a side. Are you one of the Pharisees?

Are you one of the Herodians? Where are you on this? And Jesus chooses a third

way.

He moves in a different direction. Now, Episcopalians,

historically, we love this idea. We love the idea of Jesus choosing a third

way. Oftentimes we love it because it allows us not to proclaim out loud what

we actually think about things. We can stay neutral. Jesus didn't pick sides.

Neither should I have to. This is bad theology and we've been practicing it for

a long time. Jesus is not neutral.