Welcome

Pentecost 17B, 9/20/15
Mark 9:30-37

God of gentleness, wisdom and understanding, help us listen to your word and do the things to which you guide us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Over the past several months, we’ve been watching a new building going up across the street. The apartments in that building are now available for rent, and that means we’ve got a whole bunch of new neighbors either already living there or getting ready to move in.

We need to be prepared to welcome these people to the neighborhood, and welcome them if they ever choose to walk through our doors.

It’s just the good neighborly thing to do.

Our congregation’s leaders have been brainstorming ideas of how to make the residents of these new apartments feel welcome both in our neighborhood and in our church building.

When we welcome new neighbors like this, there’s a level of equality assumed.

We’re both in this neighborhood, so we have something in common, so let’s start there and build on it.

This is a critically important ministry, and I hope that we keep brainstorming and following through on our ideas about hospitality to our new neighbors.

It is important to be able to welcome newcomers to the area – to get to know other people in our community, to build new relationships, and find new ways of partnering with one another.

That’s what we do with our neighborhood church partners, and with our mission congregation in El Salvador.

We have built ongoing, mutual relationships with those communities, and our relationships with one another help define who we are.

These relationships are good, but you know, they’re not the only way to be in relationship with other people.

There are other ways to be welcoming.

Whether it’s a connection with a new neighbor, or a partnership with another faith community, sometimes a ministry of welcome is lopsided.

Sometimes that lopsidedness is intentional.

Yesterday my cousin was driving through Starbucks for her morning coffee. When she got up to the window, she was surprised to learn that her Saturday caffeine fix had been paid for by the person in front of her!

The only way she could pay back the stranger for their kindness was to pay for the coffee of the next person in line.

In other words, she couldn’t pay back the person who paid for her coffee at all. He or she would never know how my cousin responded.

But in response to the grace that she had received, she chose to do the same thing for the next customer, and so she paid for their order. And she will never know what their response was.

It’s lopsided.

It’s grace.

It’s true hospitality.

This is the kind of welcome that Jesus is talking about in today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark.

When we welcome someone without the expectation of receiving something from them, we are assigning that person inherent value as a human being.

We are telling that person,    you matter to me,    whether I matter to you or not.

You have value simply because you are a child of God.

You don’t have to do anything or act a certain way – you have value, just by being you.

Jesus took a little child in his arms, and he said to his disciples, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."

That child couldn’t do anything for Jesus.

By showing love to that child, Jesus did absolutely nothing to advance his standing or reputation – it wasn’t like today when politicians have to kiss babies to gain popularity – kids at that time were seen as less than human until they grew up enough to be contributing members of society.

But Jesus gave value to that child by recognizing her as a child of God.

And whoever welcomes a child like that, welcomes God into their midst.

The take-home lesson today for the disciples, and for us, is to value the least important people in society.

Welcome people who the world says don’t matter at all.

Recognize – and help them recognize – that they also were created in the image of God, and our understanding of God is not complete without them.

Value people who are unwelcomed – a small refugee child trying to flee to safety with his family.

Value people who are persecuted – a teenage boy whose hobby is to invent things, but who is arrested when he brings those genius inventions to school.

Value people who are victimized – a young woman who was attacked, raped, and left for dead a week ago on a bike path not far from here.

Value those who are invisible to society – the homeless people who continue to get pushed further from our vision as rules are enforced that shrink the number of places they are allowed to sit or sleep or spend their time.

Value people who are marginalized – the elderly church member I visited last week who is just bored, because her body and her eyes don’t work the way they used to, she can’t get around, she can’t do anything to help remind her of the child of God she was created to be.

Following Jesus’ instruction, our job is to show that woman that she does still have value as a child of God.

And so do those homeless people, and the woman who was attacked, and the teenage inventor, and the refugee child. 

When we welcome these people into our hearts, our lives, and our building, we are welcoming the creator of the universe, Godself.

For whoever welcomes one of the least of these welcomes Jesus, and whoever welcomes Jesus welcomes the one who sent him.

One of my colleagues has a story about her family during the Great Depression.

They were a farming family, with 10 children, living in Texas, near a railroad line.

Often, the father of the family would encounter men who were riding the rails, looking for a place to stay for the night. He would invite these strangers home, and they’d find some way to stretch the stew to feed another mouth, and the stranger would stay in the barn for the night.

Obviously, with 10 kids, there wasn’t a spare bed or couch in the house.

This man acted in faith that God tells us to welcome even the least important person in society to be part of our family.

This is the point of the story in today’s Gospel reading.

So how do we welcome the powerless, the forgotten, the least?

How can we show the refugee, the teenage boy, the young woman, the homeless people, and the homebound members that they are still valuable to us and our community?

I’ve been having conversations with the folks who come here on Thursdays looking for assistance, and with Ann, who is our office volunteer on Thursday mornings and gets to meet all these people.

Folks who are unemployed, underemployed, homeless or housing insecure, know that we are sometimes able to give out gift cards to the local grocery store. When we have the money in the pastor’s emergency fund, we give out these cards on Thursdays.

Sometimes the folks who come for assistance have some really deep insights to share with us.

When you have a prepaid cell phone with limited minutes, for example, it doesn’t do you any good to call 211, which will keep you on hold and just give you more phone numbers for other places to call to ask for help.

One of the more practical issues that these folks have brought to our attention is the fact that homeless people have a need for storage space. Even though they don’t own much, if they’re able to obtain a winter coat, it would be great to have someplace to store that coat during the summer until the weather turns cold and they need it every day.

Do you have a spare room in your house? Would you be willing to let a homeless person store their belongings there?

I know, it’s a huge step outside of our comfort zone. But that is the kind of welcoming that Jesus expects from us.

Will you advocate for our government to take in refugees? Will you speak out against racism? Will you protest violent crimes and support organizations that help survivors of sexual assault?

Can you help a homebound member get to worship, and sit with her, and help her follow along with worship when she cannot read the bulletin?

This is how we show people that we value them as children of God.

Not because we expect something in return, but because they can’t give us anything back – and Jesus tells us to honor them anyway.

Whether it’s our new neighbors in the apartments across the street, or a refugee from a continent away, or a local woman assaulted in our own neighborhood, or a homeless person we’ve never seen before – when we welcome these beloved children of God, we welcome Jesus into our midst.

And may Jesus, who taught us and showed us and convinced us of the need to welcome others, give us the courage and means to do so, in his name. Amen.

Complicated

Pentecost 16B, 9/13/15
Mark 8:27-38

God of Peter and Andrew, Mary and Martha, guide us as you guided the first disciples. Help us to know you better, and give us the strength and courage to follow where you lead. Show us the best way to be your followers in this day and age. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.  

People are complicated. Aren’t they? It’s impossible to describe any human being with just a single adjective. We all have endearing qualities and we all do things that drive people crazy.

If you don’t believe that, just ask your loved ones – they’ll tell you.

People are complicated.

Take Bill Cosby, for example.

He broke countless stereotypes and was a great role model for a generation of young Americans. He made people’s lives better by making them laugh.

But according to recent allegations, he was also apparently an adulterer. He may have assaulted and even raped a few dozen women.

People are complicated.

If you were in worship about a month and a half ago, you heard me preach on the apostle Paul. In my opinion, Paul was both the best thing and the worst thing to happen to Christianity.

Because of the writings of Paul, Christians over the years have been able to justify slavery and sexism and homophobia.

But without Paul, Christianity would never have expanded past a small handful of followers of Jesus gathered in Jerusalem.

People are complicated.

Take Peter in today’s reading from Mark.

When Jesus asks, “who do you say that I am?” Peter responds enthusiastically, in faith, with a strong answer about the power of Jesus.

“You are the Messiah!” he boldly proclaims.

Peter recognizes Jesus as God’s chosen one, the person who will restore wholeness to the people of God.

Peter is right.

But Peter doesn’t completely understand what being the Messiah will entail.

Jesus starts to tell the disciples what the role of the Messiah actually will be. Jesus says he’ll have to suffer and die, and Peter doesn’t like it. He pulls Jesus aside and says “dude, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Those things will never happen to you.”

And Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind on human things, not on divine things.”

From faithful follower to the tool of the devil in a few short verses. What happened? How could Peter be both so right, and so wrong?

Peter is complicated, and so is his relationship with Jesus.

Peter went on to become the leader of the church in Jerusalem. He is the one who stood in front of huge crowds on the day of Pentecost and announced the arrival of the Holy Spirit among God’s people.

Peter also denied knowing Jesus immediately before the crucifixion. He tried to talk Jesus out of dying for our sins – tried to thwart the very purpose for which Jesus had come to earth.

Peter was a faithful follower, but he wasn’t perfect.

Faithful, but not perfect.

Do you know the feeling?

There can be a lot of pressure in society to behave or believe in certain ways.

How should a person of faith respond to current events, to stress, to the needs of loved ones, to job changes, to the media?

What would Jesus do?

We want to do the right thing, we might feel a need to be perfect, because if we aren’t, then we get accused of hypocrisy.

We try to be faithful in our actions. But it’s hard to get everything right.

Here’s something to consider.

Jesus is complicated, too.

Jesus is human and divine,         son of God and son of man,       alpha and omega,      beginning and end.

Jesus isn’t this monolithic unchanging person whose every action can be predicted and anticipated.

In last week’s Gospel lesson, we heard Jesus change his mind.

A woman came to Jesus asking for healing. He said no.

And she said, come on, you can do better than that. I know that there’s enough grace to go around.

And he said, wow, you’re right.

The woman’s request made Jesus change his mind, and he did end up performing the healing she had asked for.

Jesus is complicated.

Peter’s mistake came in thinking that he knew Jesus completely.

He got part of the question right – who do you say that I am?
You are the Messiah.

And so Peter assumed that he knew everything about Jesus, because he knew this one big important thing.

But Peter was wrong.

Peter thought – as did most Jews around the turn of the millennium – that the Messiah would be a political hero who would take over Israel, throw out the occupying military forces, and restore a united kingdom like the one that had existed under king David.

         Jesus had other ideas.

Jesus knew that the true, deep need of people wasn’t for a military hero.

Our need was for a spiritual hero, someone who could reach into the very essence of our beings and say, “you matter. You are worthy. You were created in the image of God. You are not perfect, but God loves you anyway. So keep on trying to be the person who God created you to be.”

Jesus is the kind of Messiah who can save us not just from the powers and principalities of the world around us, but from the powers and voices within ourselves that hold us back from living full, rich, abundant lives.

Because people are complicated.

You are complicated.

And Jesus gets it.

So Jesus is the kind of Messiah who can respond to every level of need and insecurity and doubt that we carry with us.

         Jesus can help us be faithful, even when we aren’t perfect.

When Peter said to Jesus, “you don’t need to suffer and die,” Jesus scolded him, because Peter had stopped getting to know Jesus.

Peter had learned just enough about Jesus to think that he knew him, and then he didn’t try to grow the relationship any further.

But there’s always more to learn about another person.

There’s always more to learn about Jesus.

And so Peter had to be put in his place, so that he would go back and try to build up the relationship again. Peter needed to be told, “you don’t understand it all. Keep on learning.”

There’s a quote that I like – I can’t remember where I first heard it – but it goes like this:

A god you could understand would be less than yourself.

In other words, God will never be fully understood by humans. And that’s a good thing. Because if we ever understood all there was to know about God, well then, we would be greater than God. And if that happened, then in essence, there would be no God at all.

A god you could understand would be less than yourself.

Jesus was fully human.

He was complicated and complex, he had personality quirks and endearing traits, just like everyone here.

Jesus was fully divine.

Jesus was the embodiment of God. There are some things about Jesus that no human will ever completely comprehend.

So the best that we can do is to keep following Jesus.

We can engage in relationship with this strange human-divine Messiah and try to grow closer to God in the process.

Jesus tells us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow.

In practical terms, this means we leave our assumptions behind.

Unlike Peter, we don’t tell Jesus what to do, and we don’t tell God where to go.

         Our job is to follow, not to lead.

If we step out ahead of Jesus, we might hear those words, get behind me, Satan!

They are words of caution. Don’t get ahead of Jesus.

Instead, learn how to follow.

Learn how to trust that God will lead us along the right pathways.

It isn’t simple.

And it isn’t easy.

And we are bound to make mistakes along the way.

But that’s OK. You know, God was able to use Peter for some pretty amazing things, even after today’s argument with Jesus.

Peter learned how to follow.

People are complicated.

Jesus is complicated.

And following Jesus is complicated.

The life of discipleship is not a straight trajectory but a windy path.

By listening to Jesus, by building up our relationship with God, and by continually seeking to learn more about faith, we can stay on that path even on the hairpin curves. That is the life of faith to which Jesus calls Peter today, and that is the life of faith that Jesus will lead us down.

May God, who has given us ears to hear this call, give us the will to follow. Amen.