Rev Fran: Teresa of Avila

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Sunday, October 15, 2017

"Dressing Up for the Banquet". A sermon from Littlefield Presbyterian Church on Matthew 22:1-14 for Bread for the World Sunday

"Dressing Up for the Banquet"

Matthew 22:1-14; Isaiah 58:1-12

“This is the good news of Jesus Christ!”

Is it? Is that what you heard in the gospel lesson? Good news?

This is a difficult parable to hear…and difficult to understand and interpret. We spent some time studying this parable at Evangelism Committee meeting a few days ago, knowing it was the lectionary passage for Sunday. After we heard it, someone looked at me and said, “Good luck!”

Some of the commentaries I consulted this week describe this passage as a “bizarre little story”[1] and “one strange parable.” Some scholars suggest that Matthew may have combined several parables into one, which may explain why the story seems disjointed.

The wedding party in the story begins as custom in that culture dictates. A first invitation notice had gone out-- a kind of “Save the date!” that has become common again in our time. Then, when the banquet is ready, the host’s servants go out to summon the guests to come. That’s when things start to fall apart.

First, the invited guests seem to treat the invitation as a joke and refuse to come. Some of the invitees even assault and kill the king’s servants. What happens in these verses is troubling. And so, I wondered: Does this sound like Jesus talking in these verses? I don’t think so.

So, it makes sense to me that many biblical scholars think that the original parable that Jesus told can be seen by deleting verses 6-7 and that Matthew or his source added the extra verses--the ones about how the invitees seized the king’s slaves and killed them and how the enraged king destroyed the murderers and burned their city--to turn Jesus’ parable into an allegory of Christian history.

Tom Long suggests that the implausible details-- like people killing other people and a military action that destroys the city over a rejected party invitation-- highlight the fact that Matthew intends this story to be read as an allegory, and that his first readers would have known how to decode the details.[2]

At the close of the first part of the story, we have a symbolic picture of Matthew’s church. His readers could have recognized themselves in the story, gathered at the banquet as last-minute replacements, both “good and bad” people.

The story gets puzzling again when a wedding guest shows up dressed inappropriately for a wedding celebration at the palace. The king reacts harshly. “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?”

If you think about it-- if the guest wasn’t expecting to attend a fancy party when he left in the morning to work in the field or tend his shop-- he wouldn’t have packed a wedding robe. But, again, this isn’t an ordinary story, but an allegory, and the wedding robe stands for something else.

John Calvin, in his commentary on this text, suggests that two passages from the apostle Paul help to explain the meaning. In Romans 13:14 we read that we must “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” and in Galatians 3:27 that because we are baptized into Christ, we are clothed with Christ.”

The wedding garment is a symbol for putting on the baptismal garment of Christ… being attired in the new self, created in God’s own likeness… clothing oneself with the compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience of one who belongs to the kingdom of God.[3]

So, what’s going on in this strange parable? More importantly: what was Matthew’s-- and Jesus’-- main point?

I think it’s mainly about responding to an invitation. More importantly, it’s about how we respond. The parable reminds us that being a part of the Christian community should make a discernible difference in who we are and how we live.

We know Jesus’ invitation into the reign of God. All are invited. But that invitation requires us to do something. It requires us to put Jesus’ words into action. You need to come to the feast and wear the right garment-- clothed with Christ-- to show that you’ve accepted the invitation.[4]

What does that look like?

We find one answer three chapters later, in the 25^th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. There Jesus tells us how we will be judged. It depends on how we treat the “least” of his brothers and sisters. Do we feed the hungry? Clothe the naked? Welcome the stranger? As we do it unto the “least” of these, we do it unto Jesus.

Bread for the World Sunday is an opportunity to join others in praying for those who struggle with hunger and food insecurity-- and to re-dedicate ourselves to efforts that help end hunger. Our prayerful work to end hunger is a response to the Gospel’s invitation to take part in the banquet of God’s mercy and abundance that is ours through Jesus Christ.

Our prayers are especially urgent at this time. South Sudan is suffering from a devastating famine, and famine threatens Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen. Drought is spreading throughout other parts of Africa. Humanitarian assistance and long-term solutions to hunger are more important than ever.

            Bread for the World reminds us that nearly 16 million children in the United States, in one of the richest countries in the world — that’s almost one in five — live in households that struggle to put food on the table. Many of these children have parents who have jobs and work hard, but whose wages aren’t high enough to cover the high costs of rent, transportation, and utilities — and daily meals.
            So, our federal government’s feeding programs serve as a lifeline for vulnerable children and families. Because children are hit especially hard by the effects of hunger and malnutrition, nutrition programs aimed at children are particularly important. A healthy start in life — even before a child is born — pays off for years, in terms of intellectual development --not only for individual children and families, but for communities and our nation as a whole.
            Only one out of every 20 grocery bags that feed people who are hungry come from church food pantries and other private charities.   Federal nutrition programs, from school meals to SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), provide the rest.   Our government’s child nutrition programs serve millions of children each year.

Locally, and in the short term, we are helping to alleviate hunger when we give to the Presbyterian Hunger Program through our Two Cents a Meal or Cents-ability offering… when we support Church World Service…when we support the mission of the Open Door or Focus Hope or volunteer at Gleaners or support Blessings in a Backpack.

But we also need to work on the systemic causes of hunger. For a lot of us, hunger and poverty seem overwhelming. We don’t have to do it alone.

Bread for the World is a faith-based education and advocacy organization that I’ve belonged to for some years. The reason I personally support Bread for the World is because they have a remarkable record of helping to win passage of bipartisan legislation that addresses hunger. As a result of this advocacy, children in the United States receive vital nutrition. Emergency food reaches refugees from famine and conflict in Africa and elsewhere. Agricultural development is enabling hungry people in various parts of the world to grow enough food to feed their families.

If you want to help Bread for the World with this important, persistent advocacy work, you are invited to give them a donation. Or you could commit yourself to sending letters to your elected representatives in Congress. I’ll post a link on the church Facebook page and send one in an email to help you do this advocacy work, if you feel led to do so.

It took me between five and ten minutes to personalize the form letter at the website, which was then automatically sent to my congressional representatives. It’s a small thing, but it’s important. It’s a way to act prayerfully and faithfully.

As Teresa of Avila famously put it, "Christ has no body now on earth but yours… no hands but yours… no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which God’s compassion will look upon the world. Yours are the feet with which God will go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which God will bless others now."

When we put on Christ, we are called to serve—to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world. When we respond to Christ’s call and work together, we can help to change the conditions and the policies that allow hunger to persist.

We are called to share our bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into our house… to care for basic needs of those who are marginalized.

Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God promises us that we will not have to do this alone. When we call, the LORD will answer. When we cry for help, God will say, “Here I am.”[5] If we remove the yoke, the speaking of evil, if we offer our food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, Then our light shall rise in the darkness.

This is a blessed promise and vision:

The LORD will guide you continually,

and satisfy your needs in parched places…

you shall be like a watered garden,

like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt…

you shall be called the repairer of the breach.

the restorer of streets to live in.

So be it! Amen!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

October 15, 2017

[1] Lance Pape, at Working Preacher. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2204

[2] Thomas G. Long, Matthew. (Westminster John Knox Press, 1997), p. 246.

[3] Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10-12;

[4] James Martin, SJ, “Will You Accept Jesus’ Invitation?” A reflection on Matthew 22:1-14, in Bread for the World Sunday 2017. http://www.bread.org/sites/default/files/bread-for-the-world-sunday-2017-guide.pdf

[5] Isaiah 58

Sunday, October 16, 2016

"The Power of Persistence." A sermon on Luke 8:1-8 and Isaiah 58, on Bread for the World Sunday. (With some reflections on the campaign season)

"The Power of Persistence"

Luke 18:1-8; Isaiah 58

Our faith tells us that God is merciful, loving, and powerful. But the injustice and suffering we see all around us challenge that conviction.

As Matthew Skinner suggests, “The system is rigged. It always has been.”[1] And so, as Skinner points out, people of faith have been complainers.

“Justice never prevails,” the prophet Habakkuk complained to God. Job lamented why God remained silent and apparently indifferent while he suffered: “I call aloud, but there is no justice.” [Habakkuk 1:4]

Describing the abuses perpetrated by those who wield power, the prophet Micah said, “Their hands are skilled to do evil; the official and the judge ask for a bribe, and the powerful dictate what they desire. Thus they pervert justice.” [Micah 7:3]

People of faith complain—not because we’re whiney or grumpy. When we complain about injustice, we’re insisting on a different world. We remember that God created the world and called it good…and intends goodness. We ache to see God’s intentions for human flourishing become realities. So we keep doing what we can to help our hopes become a reality.

In the gospel lesson we just heard, Jesus tells a parable about a widow who refuses to put up with an unjust system. Luke says the parable is about the disciples’ need to pray always and not to lose heart.

“In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’”

For a while this unjust judge refused, but later he said to himself, “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.”

This widow uses the resources she has: her voice and her persistence. In time, her continuing advocacy for justice eventually gets results.

Jesus said, “Will not God grant justice to God’s chosen ones who pray day and night?”

In her society, the widow in the parable would have been marginalized and powerless, but she did what she could: she prayed always, persistently. Rather than wishing passively for things to be better, she advocates actively for justice, in her commitment to do what she can to work for a better world.

Jesus tells about the persistent actions of this widow to show us what Christians are called to do. Our Christian faith invites us to channel our frustrations with the brokenness of our society into prayer, and then into prayerful action. Our faith calls us into advocacy that demands a response from God and from our society. As people of faith, as individuals and communities, we are called to advocate for justice from those who have the power to grant it. This advocacy uses whatever tools are available. Whatever it takes to get the system to change, even if sometimes it’s only a little.

Right now we’re in the midst of the ugliest political campaign I can remember. I know many of us are very troubled by the lack of civility and how the mud-slinging has distracted us from the kind of serious discussion of important issues of vital importance to our nation. It’s hard not to feel hopeless at times about the polarization in our nation.

Elections are pivotal moments, with outcomes that will last into the future, and there’s a lot of anxiety around this. All the drama and debate and rhetoric could distract us from our basic calling as followers of Jesus.

In the midst of all this, we need to remember that there is no perfect candidate. No one person can solve all the problems. So it’s good news that we aren’t electing a Messiah—because we already have our Messiah: Jesus Christ, whom alone we worship and follow.

All of the candidates have shown us who they are and what their strengths and weaknesses are. So we need to pray for discernment, that we may use our votes to support the candidate who is best equipped to lead our nation through this time of great change and challenge.

No matter who wins the election on November 8, we know that we are beloved children of God. We know that God is good, all the time. We know that God continues to call us to embody God’s love in the world, and to work for justice and peace, to be repairers of the breach, the restorers of our communities and our nation. We are called to work to promote the well-being of our neighbors and especially those who are denied justice. This is true now, and it will be true on November 9 and the days that follow.

Now and every day we are called to be a servant church. When we are most faithfully being the servant church, we’re feeding the hungry, calling on the sick and visiting the home-bound. We’re serving those in the community who are needy and hurting, through friendship and practical kinds of help. We’re standing with those who are marginalized, and with victims of violence and assault. When we’re being the servant church, we share in Christ’s ministry in the world by generously supporting the mission of the church with our tithes and offerings.

And—something I’ve been thinking a lot about the past few weeks—we’re being a servant church when we work to build bridges of understanding, when we work to bring about reconciliation. I hope we’ll be praying about this in the days leading up to the election and following. This congregation has committed itself to peacemaking. So how can we build bridges that cross partisan divisions and work toward healing?

Now and every day, we are called to care for those in need. Today has been designated as Bread for the World Sunday. Yesterday was World Food Day.

We who have plenty to eat are reminded that many people don’t, and that many of those who are hungry or food insecure are children.

            Bread for the World reminds us that nearly 16 million children in the United States, in one of the richest countries in the world — that’s almost one in five — live in households that struggle to put food on the table. Many of these children have parents who have jobs and work hard, but whose wages aren’t high enough to cover the high costs of rent, transportation, and utilities — and daily meals.
            So our federal government’s feeding programs serve as a lifeline for vulnerable children and families. Because children are hit especially hard by the effects of hunger and malnutrition, nutrition programs aimed at children are particularly important.
            A healthy start in life — even before a child is born — pays off for years, in terms of intellectual development --not only for individual children and families, but for communities and our nation as a whole.
            Only one out of every 20 grocery bags that feed people who are hungry come from church food pantries and other private charities.   Federal nutrition programs, from school meals to SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), provide the rest.   Our government’s child nutrition programs serve millions of children each year.

Locally, and in the short term, we are helping to alleviate hunger when we give to the Presbyterian Hunger Program through our Two Cents a Meal offering… when we support Church World Service…when we support the mission of the Open Door or Focus Hope or volunteer at Gleaners.

But we also need to work on the systemic causes of hunger. For a lot of us, hunger and poverty seem overwhelming. But we don’t have to do it alone.

Bread for the World is a faith-based education and advocacy organization that I’ve belonged to for some years. The reason I personally support Bread for the World is because they have a remarkable record of helping win passage of bipartisan legislation that addresses hunger. As a result of this advocacy, children in the United States receive vital nutrition. Emergency food reaches refugees from famine and conflict in Africa. Agricultural development is enabling hungry people in various parts of the world to grow enough food to feed their families.

If you want to help Bread for the World with this important, persistent advocacy work, you are invited to give them a donation. Or you could commit yourself to sending letters to your elected representatives in Congress. I’ll post a link on the church Facebook page and send one in an email to help you do this advocacy work if you feel led to do so.

We are called to serve—to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world.

When we respond to Christ’s call and work together, we can help to change the conditions and the policies that allow hunger to persist.

We are called to share our bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into our house… to care for basic needs of those who are marginalized.

Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God promises us that we will not have to do this alone. When we call, the LORD will answer. When we cry for help, God will say, “Here I am.”[2]

If we remove the yoke, the speaking of evil, if we offer our food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,

Then our light shall rise in the darkness.

This is a blessed promise and vision:

The LORD will guide you continually,

and satisfy your needs in parched places…

you shall be like a watered garden,

like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt…

you shall be called the repairer of the breach..

the restorer of streets to live in.

So be it! Amen!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

October 16, 2016

Here's a link to Bread for the World. You are invited to contribute to their Offering of Letters to advocate with Congressional representatives to end hunger, with an emphasis on women and young children.

https://secure3.convio.net/bread/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=310&_ga=1.61618218.703944482.1475094274

[1] http://www.onscripture.com/no-justice-no-peace

[2] Isaiah 58

Sunday, August 30, 2015

"Where's Your Heart?" A sermon on Mark 7:1-23 and James 1, preached August 30 at Littlefield Presbyterian Church.

How should we worship God? The controversy in today’s gospel lesson centers around the questions of what worship is and what religion is about. The people of Israel had been told “You shall be a holy people, consecrated to God.” The Scribes and Pharisees took this commandment very seriously.

When the religious leaders asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples observe the tradition of the elders?” they were speaking of the interpretations and amendments that had developed over the years... literally thousands of rules which regulated every possible human situation.

The laws concerning ritual cleanliness and dietary restrictions were a part of this “tradition of the Elders.” In the eyes of the Pharisees and the scribes, failure to practice this ritual of ceremonial cleanliness wasn’t a matter of poor personal hygiene or bad manners. It was a matter of life and death, because ritual washing was their way of trying to make themselves clean and acceptable in the sight of God.

When they asked Jesus why his disciples didn’t live according to the tradition of the Elders, he answered by quoting the prophet Isaiah’s message from God: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” He told them that they were passing off human ideas as God’s commandments.

Now, the Pharisees were people who took their religion very seriously. I believe they sincerely wanted to serve God faithfully. They tried very hard to be acceptable in God’s eyes. But they were looking for lists of rules and regulations and for rituals that would give them certainty in their religious lives.

“Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders?”

Let’s back up a minute and remember the context of this encounter. Just before Mark tells how Jesus fed 5,000 people… and walked on the water… and healed the sick.

The Kingdom of God is breaking out around them, and the Pharisees don’t seem to notice. The sick are being healed. The hungry are being fed. Good news is being preached to the poor. These are the things that Isaiah had prophesied that would be signs of the coming of the Messiah, but the Pharisees and scribes want to talk about hand washing and tradition.

An event had broken into the midst of time and space that was truly a moment of GRACE. Not only couldn’t the Pharisees and scribes see it-- but kept asking the wrong QUESTIONS. They’re asking, “How can we protect our tradition? How can we get folk to do things our way?

Too often in the church, we ask the wrong questions. “How do we keep everybody happy?” “How do we avoid conflict?” “How do we recruit new members?” “How will we survive?” “How do we make everybody follow our rules?”

In the meantime, there are people inside and outside the church--people with broken hearts… broken dreams… and broken lives. People who are lonely. People who need to be restored to community. People who need to be fed…and healed…and loved.

Now, the process of spiritual growth is hard. Sometimes it can be downright scary. So it’s no wonder that sometimes we, like the Pharisees, feel safer clinging to rules or traditions or familiar ways of doing things.

I believe each of us has a longing somewhere, deep within ourselves—a longing to grow closer to God. But, at times, each of us also has to fight against our own resistance to growth. It’s a human tendency to cling to the old ways of doing things and our old ways of looking at the world—to take the easy path…or at least the path that’s most familiar.

Jesus accused the religious authorities of being “hypocrites.” The Greek word Mark uses for hypocrite has a revealing history. It literally means an actor—a person who acts out a set dialog or script.

In accusing the Pharisees of being hypocrites, Jesus was inviting them to put down the mask of outward appearances. In giving them a list of things that can defile people, things which come from within, Jesus was challenging them to examine their own hearts honestly, and to pay attention to what’s really important. We have been set apart as a holy people for a holy purpose: to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

It’s much easier to point a finger at the sins of others than to look inward at the things that can defile. Yet today’s gospel lesson makes it clear that we need to pay attention to where our hearts are.

But what does that look like?

In the epistle lesson we heard today, James fleshes out Jesus’ summary of the Law and giving some specific ways we need to live into “the perfect law of liberty.”

If we are to love our neighbors, then we need to be engaged with them, relating to them, and caring for them. That long list of vices Jesus quotes defile us because they all divide us-- from God and from each other, our neighbors.

What does it mean for us to be holy, and "undefiled"? James offers an interesting definition in his letter: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for widows and orphans in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."[1] James teaches that religious practice is judged on what we do. Widows and orphans were the most vulnerable members of ancient societies; they had no means of support, no means of getting any, and no one to look out for them. Caring for them means to attend to the needs of the poorest of the poor, those whom nobody else cares about or feels responsible for. That is true religion, true holy conduct. That is what we have been set apart to do.

            We know God partly through our traditions. But we worship the one true God, the God of ever-ongoing creation… and new possibilities.   God overcomes sin and death with new life.
            Jesus came proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is near, calling people to repent, to change.    If we believe Jesus when he says the Kingdom of God is here, if we follow Jesus in our actions, then we need to prayerfully consider how some of our traditions might exclude new people who might otherwise find this a nurturing faith-home.   How might we need to change some traditions so that we can reach out with wider arms to more people who need to know God’s love? What do we need to hang onto, and what do we need to give up, to move further into the new life God calls us into?
            In Jesus Christ, we have the perfect example of a person who is holy and whole. The gospels tell us that Jesus went about preaching good news to the poor and release to the captives. He taught by word and deed. He blessed the children. He healed the sick and ministered to the brokenhearted. He ate with outcasts…forgave sinners…and called all to repent and believe the good news of God’s love and forgiveness.

The world tries to set limits on what we believe is possible and sets boundaries that set us apart from “them.” But Christ came breaking down the dividing walls and showing us that there is no such thing as a hopeless case. There is nobody outside the circle of God’s love. In Christ, there are no “others”—only neighbors. Because God loves our neighbors, we are commanded to love them too.

I like the way one of my colleagues puts it: Our hands are made clean and holy, not by washing them, but by getting them dirty. Our hands have been set apart to reach out into the dirtiness of the world’s injustices and impurities on Christ’s behalf, to touch with compassion those considered untouchable or unclean by our social mores, cultural divisions, or political commitments. [2]

            God has fully revealed God’s love for us in Jesus. In response to that love, God wants us our love in return. We are called to worship God through our total devotion…and through our ministry to all God’s children in need, as we love as Christ loves. God’s way is a tradition of self-giving love.
            So… in the midst of the daily struggles and questions we face every day, may our hearts be in the right place. May our hearts become more and more open to God’s love and life.
            Amen.

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

August 30, 2015

[1] James 1:27

[2] I’m indebted here to the Rev. J. C. Austin, in “Dirtiness is next to Godliness,” (Madison Avenue Pulpit, 2003), a sermon posted at www.goodpreacher.com