"Hope in Troubled Times"

Luke 18:9-14

In late October, a lot of people are celebrating Halloween.  But in the church, many Christians are more focused on Reformation Day. 

Five hundred and two years ago, on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and theology professor in the university town of Wittenberg, published his Ninety-Five Theses by nailing them to the door of the Castle Church.  In those days, the church door served as kind of a community bulletin board. 

The 95 Theses were in the form of an invitation to debate about traditional church doctrine and practice, that, in Luther’s mind, needed to be re-examined and reformed.  Luther was advocating for reform within the Roman Catholic church, but before it was over Luther would be excommunicated from the church and branded an outlaw by the Holy Roman Emperor.

As John Buchanan describes it, “violence ensued, wars were fought, martyrs on both sides were tortured and executed.  Luther’s followers and their churches were called ‘Lutherans’ in derision, but during the next century large portions of northern Germany, France, the Netherlands, Hungary, all the way to the Italian Alps and the Scottish Highlands, separated from Rome and organized themselves into Reformed churches.”[1]

            Five hundred plus years later, as we commemorate Luther and the Ninety-Five Theses, it’s a good time to remember that the Protestant Reformation was a development that took place slowly, over time, and that it was and is an ongoing process. 

            As a former representative of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches has written, “Luther and Calvin did not just fall from Heaven. Other people had worked the same field, and people at that time were aware of earlier reformers.” By earlier reformers, he was referring to Waldensians, Hussites, the Czech Brethren, and others.”

            So, with this in mind, I think it’s a good thing to observe “Reformation Sunday” in late October, but to focus on what Jean Calvin called “the many resurrections of the church,” which include the earlier reformers, and Luther and Calvin and Knox, and other examples of the Spirit’s reforming, rejuvenating work in the church throughout history and to our present time.

            The gospel lesson we heard today is a brief and straightforward parable Jesus told his disciples. Earlier in the 18^th chapter of Luke, Jesus had told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. In this parable, a widow kept going to an un-just judge “who neither feared God nor had respect for people.” Eventually, because the widow persisted and kept coming back to the unjust judge, he said, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”[2]

            Jesus said to his disciples, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to God’s chosen ones who cry out day and night? Will God delay long in helping them?  I tell you, God will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

            That’s the context for the parable we heard today, which Jesus told to “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and who regarded others with contempt.”

            “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.”

            But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

            Jesus said, “I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

"Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart,” wrote James Baldwin, “for his purity, by definition, is unassailable.”  

Such people clothe themselves in religion while creating hell for others. They see everything but their truest selves. They hide their vulnerabilities and practice spiritual dishonesty about their own shortcomings.

Jesus is addressing a crowd of people who “trust in themselves,” but who really can’t see themselves. They can point to the flaws in others and avoid seeing their own shortcomings and sins.

This parable gives us a window into this particular Pharisee’s mentality, through the words of his prayer. He embraces the insider-outsider politics of institutional religion. His public prayer creates a firewall between him and those who are “other.”

When Luke says Jesus’ listeners “regarded others with contempt,” the Greek word for contempt suggests treating other people as nothing.  This kind of spirituality lets people pursue their idea of holiness and morality, while they treat those they see as “other” as sinful or unworthy or without value.

As the Rev. Willie Francois III writes, this culture of false perfection betrays the truth of the gospel: “that God loves us with our scars of disobedience, markers of mistakes, and wounds of worry. Such a culture creates myriad communities of throwaways, of people perceived as disposable.

Even churches consecrate categories by which they effectively label people disposable. When we fail to see ourselves as we are, we tragically fix our eyes on others—and we live with spiritual blinders on. This derails our journey to wholeness and transformation.”[3]

            The Pharisee in the parable isn’t guilty of any of the specific things he names—but there are many other sins he wasn’t willing to name. The tax collector avoids narrating a long list of his own virtues or sins to God, but he names his condition:  he confesses that he’s a sinner, and he pleads for mercy.

We live in a tumultuous time—a time of great change and polarization and anxiety— in the world and in the church. But it isn’t the first time. 

 The Scottish reformer John Knox felt compelled to leave the British Isles after the Roman Catholic Mary Tudor rose to the English throne in 1553.  Eventually he joined a fellowship of religious refugees from across Europe who had thronged to Geneva, Switzerland.

            Geneva’s most famous resident, the French lawyer and humanist John Calvin, was himself a Geneva immigrant.  Calvin helped create an atmosphere in Geneva that was welcoming to outsiders. They established a hospital for refugees, as well as an academy for their education. Knox ministered to a congregation of English-speaking refugees.

            John Knox marveled at his time in Geneva, calling it ‘the most perfect school of Christ that ever was in the earth since the days of the apostles.’”

            Calvin’s emphasis on placing full trust in God, as opposed to any earthly ruler, aimed to infuse life in Geneva with gratitude and faith   and to ease the anxieties of a people living in an age of plague, war, and dislocation.  For Calvin and for Knox, growing in trust of God and love for God enlarged a community’s ability to respond to God’s call to love and service-- no matter where its residents came from.

Five hundred years after the Protestant Reformation, we’re living in a difficult and challenging time to be the church. 

            We need to re-learn how to love and recognize the image of God in one another.  We need to learn how to live more and more fully as beloved children of God… and become more and more fully the Beloved Community. 

And nations, like individuals and the church, struggle to look in the moral mirror.  At the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama said, “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.” That’s a historical fact about the White House and our national capitol building—one that’s often relegated to a footnote or simply omitted. Yet many found the statement to be controversial. The institution of slavery funded the greatness of America—and more than 150 years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the American check still bounces.

Long ago, biblical prophets like Jeremiah expressed the national need for repentance. The nation needs mercy. For over 400 years, black people have been dehumanized in America—from the trafficking of African persons from their native lands through years of slavery, Jim Crow, Black Codes and predatory sharecropping, unchecked lynching, red-lining and residential segregation, mass incarceration, under-education, mass criminalization, and police violence.  

The church also needs mercy for the ways it supported the institution of slavery and structural racism and poverty or failed to resist them…for the Doctrine of Discovery which the ways it gave permission, even encouraged colonialization and the genocide of indigenous peoples.

Reverend Francois challenges all Americans when he says, “To change—to be redeemed—America has to actually look at itself. We have to stand squarely in front of the moral mirror, beat our chests, name our sins, and be justified.

On Reformation Sunday, we are reminded that we are justified by God’s grace, through faith.

The question of the day is:  how shall we live, in response to God’s gracious gift?  That’s where sanctification comes in. “Sanctification” is a theological word for how we grow in the Christian life, as we are taught and led further into the truth and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

            Sanctification is a life-long process, as we are gradually freed from our fears and doubts and brokenness-- to love and serve God and our neighbors as Christ does. As we grow in Christian faith, we open ourselves to be surprised and transformed by God’s word.  

            One sign of growing in the Christian life is maturing in love for and solidarity with all of God’s children-- especially with those who are poor and marginalized and those who are different…those we see as “other.”

The early Protestants believed that they were not only creating a new church-- but they were creating a new world, one that would resemble more fully God’s desire for humanity.   The original Protestant impulse was to resist powers of worldly dominion and domination, in favor of the power of God’s spirit to transform human hearts and society.  They felt a deep discomfort and discontent with the status quo.   They knew things were not right, and they set out to change the world.   

Today, we live in troubling times—a time of great change and anxiety, in the church and in the world. In 2019, the world groans under flame of wildfires and floods caused by global warming, as families are left shattered by sprays of bullets and the devastation of war, in this time of broken human relationships and extreme political partisanship and structural racism and poverty and corruption in governments. Things are not right.  But I believe God is working to do new things in our time.

I believe we are living in a prophetic time—a time of new reformation.   I believe that God is working to create a new church, in and through us.  I believe that God wants to use us as instruments of justice and reconciliation in our communities… in our nation… and in the world.

I give thanks that “we’ve come this far by faith”—that we’ve been hearing a new word from God over the past few decades about human sexuality and some of the other things that have consumed so much of our energy and focus in the church.  I give thanks that this seems to be freeing the church to focus on structural racism and poverty and other forms of injustice.  I give thanks that we have been gifted with strong and faithful and diverse leaders in our national Presbyterian church and the ecumenical and interfaith communities who are leading us to act more faithfully and more boldly. 

            I give thanks for the prophetic witness of Bishop William Barber and the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis and other leaders of the Poor People’s Campaign around the country as they work to bring about justice for all.  I give thanks for Rabbi Alana Alpert and the Detroit Jews for Justice and their work for water justice in Detroit and their work with the Poor People’s Campaign.  I think that part of this new time of re-formation is how we’re learning to work together as ecumenical and interfaith community.

            Two weeks ago, we gathered in this sanctuary to celebrate 100 years of mission and ministry at St. John’s.  The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson reminded us of the way things are changing in the Brief church and in our society and said we are living in a prophetic time.  The mission field is here around us, and we have work to do.

            This week, especially, we have mourned the passing and given thanks for a prophet of our times, the very Honorable Congressman Elijah Cummings, and we have been inspired by the witness of this man of faith and humility…integrity and courage and compassion.  

I was moved to hear that Congressman Cummings quoted a poem by Benjamin Mays during his very first speech on the U.S. House of Representatives floor on April 25, 1996 while noting that he recited that poem up to 20 times a day:

“I have only just a minute. Only 60 seconds in it.
 Forced upon me, can’t refuse it. Didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it.
But it’s up to me to use it. I must suffer if I lose it.
Give account if I abuse it.
Just a tiny minute, but eternity is in it.”

Elijah Cummings was living with a serious, life-threatening illness. But he was passionate about working for justice. He lived with a sense of urgency, conscious about being effective with every minute he was given.  His life can inspire and challenge us.

We are living in a time of new reformation. God is working to create a new church and a new world, and wants to use us as instruments of justice and reconciliation in the world.

So—on this Reformation Sunday and in the coming days, as we look around at the world and see things that are not right, let us be praying that we may respond to the challenges of our time with courage and hope.

   In the words of our Presbyterian “Brief Statement of Faith:” “In a broken and fearful world, the Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in Church and culture, to hear the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.”[4]

Thanks be to God!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Guest Preacher

St. John Presbyterian Church

Detroit, Michigan

October 27, 2019

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[1] John M. Buchanan, “Values Worth Fighting For,” at his blog Hold to the Good. https://jmbpastor.wordpress.com/2017/10/16/values-worth-fighting-for/

[2] Luke 18:1-5

[3] Willie Dwayne Francois III, at https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2016-09/october-23-30th-sunday-ordinary-time

[4] “A Brief Statement of Faith,” 1990. Book of Confessions of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

A Meditation on the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King

            April 4, 1968.   For those of us who are old enough to remember, that day is indelibly etched in our memories. I was a sophomore in college, at West Chester State, near Philadelphia--  a kid from rural Pennsylvania. We didn’t have the internet, and I didn’t even have a TV at school, so we didn’t have the amount of information available to us that we take for granted today.

            But I remember exactly where I was when I heard that Dr. King had been killed. A friend showed up at my part-time job at a community center and told me, and he offered me a ride back to campus.  I have vivid memories of being part of an ecumenical community memorial service a few days later. I had been inspired by what I knew about Dr. King, and I remember the despair I felt when he was assassinated.

            For a long time, a lot of people have had a tendency to freeze the memory of Martin Luther King in August of 1963, at the time of his “I have a dream speech.”  A lot of people have appropriated-- or misappropriated his words to promote their own agendas.

            If we are to honor Dr. King’s legacy, we need to recognize how the events of the last few years of his life had impacted him. On Christmas Eve 1967, a few months before he died, he told his congregation at Ebenezer Baptist Church that the first time he saw the dream turn into a nightmare was just a few weeks after the March on Washington, in September of 1963, “when four beautiful, unoffending, innocent Negro girls were murdered in a church in Birmingham, Alabama.” He went on, “ I watched that dream turn into a nightmare as I moved through the ghettos of the nation and saw my black brothers and sisters perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity, and saw the nation doing nothing to grapple with the Negroes’ problem of poverty. I saw that dream turn into a nightmare as I watched my black brothers and sisters in the midst of anger and understandable outrage, in the midst of their hurt, in the midst of their disappointment, turn to misguided riots to try to solve that problem. I saw that dream turn into a nightmare as I watched the war in Vietnam escalating, and as I saw so-called military advisers, 16,000 strong, turn into fighting soldiers until today over 500,000 American boys are fighting on Asian soil.”[1]

Dr. King comforted the families of those little girls and preached their funerals, and struggled with the fact that the church was bombed partly because it had been a focal point for Birmingham’s community in the struggle he had led just months before.[3]

Dr. King was going through a rapid transformation from a civil rights leader to a human rights activist. He came to see himself as an advocate for the poor and oppressed wherever they were.  He began working to bring together people of all races and parts of the country, anyone who was impacted by poverty and injustice.  His focus had broadened to social and economic justice for all and demanding workers’ rights, environmental justice, antiwar activism.

In December 1967, Dr. King announced a Poor People’s March on Washington he was organizing to demand better jobs, better homes, better education--better lives than the ones they were living.

During this time, in the eyes of many, Dr. King was seen as a “communist dupe,” “troublemaker,” ‘traitor,” or “naïve, because he was challenging the status quo and opposing the Vietnam War and speaking out against the triple evils of materialism and systemic poverty, of militarism, and racism.  He had become unpopular and discouraged. Even some people close to him were telling him that it was wrong for him to take on economic injustice.

A few months before his death, Dr. King said, “the movement for social change has entered a time of temptation to despair.  He had his struggles and was tempted to walk away. But he stayed steadfast in his commitment to work to confront the power structure and injustice.[2]

I have to admit that off and on I struggle with discouragement.   It’s hard to stay energized and focused over the years.  

Soon after I moved to Detroit, our Detroit Presbytery formed an Anti-Racism Team, and a diverse group of around 20 of us began the hard work of becoming a team and learning and strategizing together to address systemic racism. Some of our members were old enough and engaged enough that they had marched with Dr. King. In one of our early sessions, one of the laments we heard expressed was: “Back in the sixties, we thought we would have made more progress by now!”

That was twenty years ago. Since then, we’ve gone through a time when a lot of people were talking for a while about how we were living in a post-racial society. But it’s obvious that’s not where we are. The work is not done.

This fiftieth anniversary year is bringing people together to re-focus and re-group. This is not a time for us to be satisfied with talk about being kind to one another-- although I’m certainly in favor of kindness.

I agree with the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners, who often has challenging words for white people and said earlier today, “Without confession of the sin of white racism, white supremacy, white privilege, people who call themselves white Christians will never be free.” He said that white Christians must confess the sins of colonialism and racism, “including in the highest levels of power….”  “Confession must lead to action….[because] racism is more than individual behavior, and repentance is more than saying ‘you’re sorry.’”[3]

It gives me hope that religious activists from a wide range of faith communities have came together today in our nation’s capital and Memphis and other cities to re-commit themselves to carry on the work of dismantling systemic racism.

It gives me hope that a growing number of people from faith communities, organized labor and other activists are coming together to be part of a new Poor People’s Campaign, beginning on the day after Mother’s Day.

As the Rev. William Barber II, one of the directors of the Poor People’s Campaign, said earlier today: “We cannot be those who merely love the tombs of the prophets. We do not celebrate assassinations and killings of our prophets. We find the place they fell. We reach down in the blood. We pick up the baton, and carry it forward. And we must.”[4]

            Dr. Martin Luther King continues to inspire us today.  In his last sermon, in Memphis, on the night before he was killed, Dr. King said, “We’ve got to say to the nation: We know how it’s coming out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.

            So let us be caught up with that which is right. Let us be willing to sacrifice for it, and work together for a moral renewal in our nation!  Let us pick up the baton and carry it forward!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

April 4, 2018

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[1] http://www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2017/12/martin-luther-king-jrs-christmas-sermon-peace-still-prophetic-50-years-later.html

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/king-was-unpopular-and-demoralized-before-he-died-he-pressed-on-anyway/2018/04/03/06f9f1d0-345b-11e8-8bdd-cdb33a5eef83_story.html?utm_term=.07a76718439e

[3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/04/04/on-the-anniversary-of-martin-luther-kings-death-faith-groups-sharpen-their-focus-on-systemic-racism/?utm_term=.cfb0a8c24d0f

[4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/04/04/on-the-anniversary-of-martin-luther-kings-death-faith-groups-sharpen-their-focus-on-systemic-racism/?utm_term=.cfb0a8c24d0f

"No One In Need Among You." A sermon from Littlefield Presbyterian Church on March 18, 2018 (5th Sunday in Lent)

"No One In Need Among You"

Matthew 26:1-13; Deuteronomy 15:1-11

            “The poor you will always have with you.”  These words of Jesus have often been interpreted to mean that Jesus believed poverty is inevitable.  Some people see poverty as an individual issue. Some believe that poverty is a matter of individual sin or moral failure-- that people are poor because they don’t work hard enough… or have made bad choices. 

            “The poor you will always have with you.” This is one of the most influential passages on poverty in the Bible. So, we need to figure out what Jesus meant.  

            A group of us have been reading the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis’ book, Always With Us? as our Lenten study on Tuesday evenings. Liz, who is a Presbyterian minister, has devoted her career to studying poverty and what the Bible teaches about it. She is currently co-director, with Rev. William Barber, of the Poor People’s Campaign.

            In her book, Liz seeks to show that--far from giving Christian reason to ignore calls for economic justice, the gospel lesson we heard today actually makes “one of the strongest statements of the biblical mandate to end poverty.”[1] She says the passage has been twisted out of context to justify the belief that poverty as inevitable. 

            The story we heard today comes just a few paragraphs after the parable of the Last Judgment in Matthew 25, where Jesus states that when it comes to feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and visiting those in prison, “just as you did it to the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” So, I think Liz is right when she suggests that this makes it unlikely that Jesus’ words in Matthew 26 should be interpreted as a lack of concern for the poor.

            “The poor you will always have with you.”  Jesus’ response to the disciples alludes to Deuteronomy 15:1-11, which is one of the most liberating passages in the Hebrew Scriptures. It recalls the Hebrew Shabbat, meaning “rest” or “day of rest,” and especially shemittah, meaning year of remission-- remission of commercial debts and remission of slaves.[2]

            “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts…. There need be no poor people among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, if only you fully obey the LORD by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today….

            “If there is among you anyone in need…do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your needy neighbor.  Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need…do not show ill will toward the needy… and give them nothing….”

            “Since there will always be some in need…I therefore command you to open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land…to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.”[3]

            In other words, if God’s will were being fully obeyed, there would be no poverty. But until that time comes, there will continue to be poor people, and the law must remain in place.

            The sabbatical year, or shemittah, is mentioned several other times in the Bible. For example, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Jeremiah: “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I myself made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying, “Every seventh year each of you must set free any Hebrews who have been sold to you and have served you six years; you must set them free from your service.” But our ancestors did not listen to me or incline their ears to me. You yourselves recently repented and did what was right in my sight by proclaiming liberty to one another, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name; but then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back your slaves, whom you had set free….”  And the LORD gave Jeremiah a word of judgment and punishment to those who committed these injustices.[4]

            The Sabbath-- the rest required by God in order to worship God and to protect life and ensure material well-being is one of the earliest laws in the Bible, and it is a consistent theme.

            In that time, people could be sold into slavery or the might be forced to sell themselves into slavery to settle debts. God commanded the people of Israel to build into their social structures ways for people to have a fresh start. Under God’s rule, the society and economy get a re-set, because God is good and just and promises abundance. When God’s will is being done, it is not acceptable for people to be trapped in generational poverty or slavery.

            The Torah teaches us that it is important that everyone have a rest--everyone, including slaves, animals. Even the land must have a period of lying fallow. It teaches that piety and economic practice are all part of how we worship God. The way to worship God is to structure society around everyone’s needs. God’s intention with the laws and commandments is to eliminate poverty and inequality on earth.[5] This is about a way of living with shalom justice at the center, a model for right relationship with humanity and God.

            This is in direct contrast to the values of the Empire.  Roman lords were not interested in the well-being, prosperity, and rest of their subjects except to compel more work from them.

            Liz Theoharis suggests that when Jesus is understood to be “Lord of the Sabbath” in Matthew 12, the title emphasizes that he is on the side of the poor. He is a leader who represents the popular struggles of the poor. He values the lives and livelihoods of the other poor subjects of the Roman Empire and believes they deserve rest and justice.

            Jesus is also focused on renewing Israel’s covenant with God. In his teaching, he shows that the way to honor God is to structure society around the needs of everyone. Rest and economic justice are consistent themes in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus and his followers were looking for systemic solutions to poverty and dispossession and found them in the prophetic tradition of their faith.  

           

            Will the poor always be with us? Is it possible that poverty could be eliminated? Or is it an inevitable social problem that we need to manage through charitable action? These are important questions for our faith, and they’re moral questions for our society.

            As long as we fall short as a society of living in full obedience to the God of love and abundance and justice, we will have the poor with us. And so, we will continue to need soup kitchens and food pantries and homeless shelters and other ways of alleviating the suffering and need of the poor.

            But, as people of faith and hope, we pray the prayer our Savior taught us, saying, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” I don’t think any of us believes that there are people going hungry or sleeping in boxes on a sidewalk in heaven.  So, we need to keep asking ourselves, “What is the world like, if God’s will is being done?” And we need to live into that vision.

            Fifty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. declared in his famous speech “A Time to Break Silence” that, “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”

            When we look around, when we hear the facts of poverty, it can feel overwhelming.

            The federal poverty threshold is $12,140 for individuals and $25,100 for a family of four. One in seven people in the United States live below the federal poverty threshold. That’s 13.9% of the population, or 44.7 million. According to this federal threshold, a single adult making $12,141 is not poor, though they are considered “low income.”

            Over half of all children in our nation are poor or low income. Half of all children will qualify for food stamps before they turn 20, including 9 out of 10 African-American children.

            In Michigan, one in five children and one in six women live in poverty, and 38,725 veterans live below the poverty line. One in Seven households struggle to put food on the table.[6]

            The wealthiest 1 percent of American households own 40 percent of the country’s wealth, which is more than at any time in the past fifty years. [7]

           

            Like the people following Jesus, the people who were gathered at Simon the Leper’s house in Bethany a few days before Jesus was executed by the Roman Empire, we may wonder if there’s reason for hope.

            Jesus came proclaiming the “good news” that everyone is created in the image of God and has worth and dignity. He and his disciples had been demonstrating this good news through sharing meals and conversations with people who were poor and marginalized.  Jesus was a teacher…leader…prophet…and ruler of a growing revolutionary social movement of the poor that practiced and proclaimed God’s coming reign of abundance, dignity, and justice for all.[8]

            This movement was understood by the ruling elite to be in opposition to the Roman Empire and to the parts of the religious establishment that cooperated with the occupying forces. They understood Jesus’ condemnation of the practices and people that exploit and exclude the common people as a threat to the status quo, and they were plotting to get rid of him.

            This is the background for what was happening in Bethany when the unnamed woman anoints Jesus with a very expensive ointment.  The anointing is a turning point in Matthew’s Gospel. The Hebrew word for “Messiah” means “anointed one.  As kings were anointed by prophets, so this anointing is a sign that Jesus is ruler of God’s Kingdom.  The anointing also anticipates Jesus’ death and burial.

            Jesus was betrayed, unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition, and crucified. But the story doesn’t end with death.  On the third day, Jesus was raised from the dead, showing that God’s powerful love is stronger than sin and death.  

            Jesus promised his disciples that he wouldn’t leave them alone, that the Holy Spirit would be with them to guide and empower them to carry on his mission.

            In Luke’s account of the early church, we hear that those who welcomed the gospel and received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers.  All who believed were together and had all things in common. They would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people.[9]

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s death and of the Poor People’s Campaign, through which Dr. King was working to unite diverse groups impacted by poverty and injustice. The campaign was carried out that spring and summer after Dr. King’s death.[10]

            Fifty years later, the work is not done. 

Can we say we believe in the in-breaking of God’s kingdom in the world, if we don’t commit ourselves to bringing it to people who lack basics like safe water to drink, adequate shelter, good education, health care, and a chance to have a place at the table in our society?

As the people of God, we are called to share the good news of God’s love with all the people God loves. We’re called to help the world recognize the miracle of grace and abundance that is offered to all people in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

We don’t have to do it alone. The good news is that in this broken and fearful world, the Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in Church and culture, to hear the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.

            In gratitude to God, empowered by the Spirit, we strive to Christ in our daily lives, even as we watch for God’s new heaven and new earth, praying, “Come, Lord Jesus!”[11]

            May it be so!

            Amen!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

March 18, 2018

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[1] Liz Theoharis, Always With Us? What Jesus Really Said about the Poor. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2017.

[2] Theoharis, Kindle edition, Location 1501 / 31%

[3] Deuteronomy 15

[4] Jeremiah 34:13-22.  See also Exodus 23:10-11; Leviticus 25:1-7; Nehemiah 10:32; 2 Chronicles 36:20-21.

[5] Theoharis, Kindle Edition, Loc 1510 / 31%.

[6] http://files.bread.org/state-fact-sheets/Michigan.pdf?_ga=2.100469150.144643367.1521340701-1994407132.1521340701

[7] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/06/the-richest-1-percent-now-owns-more-of-the-countrys-wealth-than-at-any-time-in-the-past-50-years/?utm_term=.d07cc579089f

[8] Theoharis, Kindle edition, Loc 3045 / 64%.

[9] Acts 2:42-47; See also Acts 4:32

[10] For more information, please see: https://poorpeoplescampaign.org/

[11] “A Brief Statement of Faith” of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1990.

 

"What Is This?" A Sermon on Mark 1:21-28 from Littlefield Presbyterian Church on the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

"What Is This?"

Mark 1:21-28

What an exciting day it was at the Capernaum synagogue!  Mark tells us that the people were astounded at Jesus’ teaching, for he taught them as one with authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”

            But Jesus rebuked him, commanding the unclean spirit to be silent and come out of him. The unclean spirit came out of the man, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice.

            The people were amazed, and kept asking, “What is this? A new teaching--with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”

            Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never witnessed a dramatic exorcism like the ones we read about in the Bible. Talk about evil and demons and unclean spirits sounds strange to us. But when we pay attention to the daily news, it’s hard to deny that evil is pervasive. Many of us long for God to intervene, to bring light and wholeness.

            Where do you find yourself in the gospel story today? With the people who are ready to be astounded and amazed at what new things God is doing in the world?  Or with the people who are comfortable with the status quo…or who are afraid of change and want Jesus to leave the neighborhood?

            What happens in the Capernaum synagogue develops into the conflict that’s a major theme throughout Mark’s gospel.  In the 11^th chapter of Mark—and also Matthew 21-- the religious establishment-- the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders come to Jesus after he cleanses the Temple, demand to know:  "By what authority are you doing these things?  Who gave you this authority to do them?" What we have here is a matter of authority, in Jesus' time and, I believe, in our own time as well.  

            There has always been a danger that we will use the scriptures to confirm what we already think...  and that we will hear only what we want to hear.   

            Many Germans once found in the Bible justification for slaughtering millions of Jews or at least justification not to resist the Nazi regime’s actions.  Because they wanted to keep their human property, many American Christians once argued from the Bible that it is right to buy and sell human beings as if they were animals. 

            Mean-spirited people tend to find a mean God in the Bible.  Comfortable, privileged people usually find that the Bible supports social and political conservatism that won’t interfere with their power and privilege.  Poor, exploited people may find that the Bible supports social and political reform or revolution.

            So, what is to keep us from simply using the Bible to give authority to our own agendas and prejudices?  What is to prevent us from using the Bible as a pious excuse for refusing to face the radical claims the living God makes on every area of our lives, here and now?

            In our Reformed tradition, one of the essential beliefs of our faith is a recognition of the human tendency to make idols and to oppress those who have less power than we do.  The positive part of that belief is our belief that we are called by God to work to transform society by seeking justice and living in obedience to the Word of God.

            This is a time of great turmoil in the world and in Christ's church.   During another time of turmoil, Martin Luther and John Calvin and other reformers challenged the religious establishment of their times and brought about the Protestant Reformation.   Later, abolitionists challenged the status quo in a church that tolerated or actively supported the institution of slavery.  The traditional view of women's role in the church was challenged when we were permitted to be ordained as elders, deacons, and ministers of the word and sacrament.

            None of these changes were comfortable.   Change is hard...  and painful.  Sometimes it's hard to discern God's will for us, as individuals or as the church, in the midst of complex, divisive issues.   People who advocated for the changes were seen as “fanatical"...   "immoral"... "subversive"… or heretical.

            The God we worship is not a tame God.  If we aren’t continually astounded and amazed by Jesus’ authority, we may be missing something important. We need to be praying about this.

            Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, came proclaiming the good news of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent--change-- and believe in the good news.

            The scribes and others we hear about in the gospel who resisted Jesus and his message weren't bad people.  But they didn't know what to do with Jesus when he came proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God, telling people to repent-- to change-- and trust in the good news.  They couldn’t imagine another way of living faithfully in the world. They had a hard time trusting in what Jesus said about how he came to bring us a life of abundance, where everyone can have enough if we all share. So, whenever Jesus challenged the status quo, they questioned his authority.  Some wanted him to go away and leave things the way they were.

             

            As followers of Jesus Christ, we confess that Jesus is Lord of our life.   We're called to trust in Jesus.  We're invited to continually be amazed at the truth and grace and freedom we find in his teaching...  and his power to even cast out unclean spirits.

              Over the past 2,000 plus years Christians have continually needed to ask in every new time, place, and situation, “What is the living Lord saying and doing, here and now?  What do we need to say and do in order to be faithful and obedient in our time and place?"

           

One of the reasons the church exists is to speak and act consistently with God’s character and purpose—like Jesus did. In today’s lesson about Jesus and the unclean spirit, Jesus doesn’t make compromises with evil.  He acts to defeat evil so people can be set free for new life.  He sets them free from what possesses them. He heals them of what ails them.

Jesus’ authority did not come from military power or wealth or social standing.  His authority is from God, who has the ability to deliver and to heal, to convict and to forgive, to cleanse and to raise from the dead.

There’s an urgency in Mark’s gospel to recognize that Jesus makes a claim on our lives. Christ calls us to work together, in partnership with him, to confront and overcome the harmful and destructive forces in our lives and in the world around us.

As you may know, our Engage Book Group read the Rev. William Barber’s book, The Third Reconstruction,[1] a while ago and were challenged by it.  Some of us have gone to hear Rev. Barber speak, and some of us have been praying about how we might be part of the new Poor Peoples Campaign, which will be forty days of action from Mother’s Day to the Summer Solstice.

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s death and of the Poor People’s Campaign, through which Dr. King was working to unite diverse groups impacted by poverty and injustice. The campaign was carried out that spring and summer after Dr. King’s death.[2]

            Fifty years later, the work is not done.  The four evils that the new Poor Peoples Campaign is taking on are four interlocking issues: systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, and ecological devastation. This national movement is working to bring together interfaith clergy, community leaders, and faith-based and community groups.

Can we say we believe in the in-breaking of God’s kingdom in the world if we don’t commit ourselves to bringing it to the people for whom God’s kingdom has been denied- so far-- people who lack basics like safe water to drink, adequate shelter, good education, health care, and a chance to have a place at the table in our society?

As the people of God, we are called to share the good news of God’s love with all the people God loves. We’re called to help the world recognize the miracle of grace and abundance that is offered to all people in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We don’t have to do it alone.

            The good news is that in this broken and fearful world, the Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in Church and culture, to hear the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.

            In gratitude to God, empowered by the Spirit, we strive to Christ in our daily lives, even as we watch for God’s new heaven and new earth, praying, “Come, Lord Jesus!”[3]

            May it be so!

            Amen!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

January 28, 2018

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[1] Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and William Barber II, The Third Reconstruction: How a Moral Movement Is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear (Beacon Press, 2016).

[2] For more information, please see: https://poorpeoplescampaign.org/

[3] “A Brief Statement of Faith” of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1990.