Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, October 19, 2025

‘Tis a gift to be simple ‘tis a gift to be free ‘tis a gift to come round where we ought to be and when we find ourselves in the place just right ‘twill be in the valley of love and delight. This well-known hymn comes from the Shaker tradition, a group of Christian ascetics founded in New England just before the Revolutionary War. Ann Lee— or Mother Ann, as the Shakers would call her— was born the daughter of a factory worker in Manchester England, In 1770, Ann had a vision of Jesus that changed her life. A Quaker, Ann told her story and her views to the Society of Friends in Manchester, and she was summarily rejected. Ann and those who adopted her views came to New England in 1774, and founded a community in the midst of the First Great Awakening. Her community practiced ecstatic dances, leading the worshipers to convulse in beatific rapture, and they became known as the Shaking Quakers, and later the Shakers. They were defined by their dancing, by belief in racial and gender equality, by the practice of celibacy, and by their craftsmanship. With her “hands to work and heart to God,” Mother Ann told the community to “Do all your work as if you had a thousand years to live, and as you would if you knew you would die tomorrow.” One writer of the time described the Shakers this way, “[their way of life] was simple, the way the gospel of Christ was simple.” When I read through the lectionary for this week, I couldn’t help but think of the Shakers and this hymn. I’ve hummed it all week. In II Kings, Namaan comes to see the prophet in Israel. He comes with an entourage, in robes and finery, at the invitation of a King. Namaan has leprosy, and he’s desperate for a cure. When he arrives at the gates of the prophet’s home, he isn’t met in kind. Instead of a red carpet and regal pageantry he’s met by a servant with a message. “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and you will be clean.” Namaan goes from state visit to a state of shock. Insulted and incredulous, Namaan turns the whole caravan around to head home instead of wading in the muddy Jordan seven times. But one of his servants approaches Namaan to ask why he won’t comply with such a simple request. When true simplicity is gained, to bow and to bend we will not be ashamed. Against his better judgement, Namaan complies, and to his great surprise, he is healed of his disease. Then he turns back again, bringing gifts and his gratitude to the prophet. To turn, turn then will be our delight, ‘til by turning, turning we come round right. We see a similar story in the Gospel. Ten lepers cry out, “Jesus, Master; have mercy on us!” Jesus tells them to go and show themselves to the priest. As they turn, they are healed, and off they go. But one of them, the foreigner, turns back again, making his way to Jesus and giving his thanks. ‘til by turning, turning we come round right. Namaan wanted something a little more flashy, something that looked like it was worth the trip, something to tell folks back home. He couldn’t accept that the healing he sought could be so simple. Or maybe, he couldn’t believe that something that had plagued him so long could be so easily discarded. The ten lepers in our Gospel, didn’t even dare approach Jesus. They yell their prayer over a distance, and Jesus yells his instructions back. Only the Samaritan now-former-leper turns back, covers the distance between them, and bows to show his gratitude. When true simplicity is gained, to bow and to bend we will not be ashamed. Like Namaan, the world we live in, the zeitgeist that haunts our media landscape and our newsfeeds and For You pages, seem too complicated, too urgent and important, too long endured to be washed away in muddy water. Surely our times are too sophisticated, too educated, too curated and wi-fi enabled to find the cure for what ails us in something so simple as the gospel of Jesus Christ. Long before the Shakers, as the Church and the Roman Empire began to merge into a single entity and newly empowered bishops began “wrangling over words” and jockeying for ecclesial power, mystics hoping for a simple way to follow Jesus walked into the deserts on the outskirts of the Empire and devoted themselves to solitude, to silence, and to prayer. Their prayer was derived from this very Gospel text— among many others— “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” This short prayer, easily memorized and often repeated, became a simple way to follow Jesus in a pre-literate culture, and has remained a primary spiritual devotion of Eastern Christians, both monastics and laity. Writing of this prayer, Swedish theologian Per-Olof Sjögren says, It is a summary of the whole gospel; God sent [the] son to be a redemption for the sins of [humanity]. [God] let him die and rise again so that today he lives and reigns eternally as Lord over the living and the dead. If we go through the Creed attentively and thoughtfully, we find a summary of the whole content of the Bible. Similarly, those who pray the Jesus Prayer thoughtfully find the same: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me. Every word is heavy with meaning. Every word gives the richest associations to those who know their Bible. Besides being a direct prayer to Jesus, it contains also teaching about him about his work of redemption his dignity as king, his deity, and his loving mercy. Mystics and mothers, monks and millworkers, priests and peasants have prayed this simple prayer. The repetition of it is one thing, but focused attention on it is another. Contemplation is the practice of sustained attention on the presence of God. To invoke the Name of Jesus is to acknowledge the presence of Jesus. When our attention wanders away, we are to turn again toward the ever-present Jesus. And when it wanders again, we turn again. ‘til by turning, turning, we come round right. Both the Shakers and the desert mystics knew that if they remained attached to, enthralled by, the overly complicated ways of empires they could not devote themselves to the simple way of Jesus. They did not see the gospel as a calling to change the world. They saw the gospel as a promise that they would be transformed by the simplicity of the way of Jesus. And Jesus would change the world. The reluctant obedience of Namaan transformed him and filled him with gratitude, turning his heart toward the God of Israel. The lepers’ obedience to Jesus’ instructions helped the Samaritan leper recognize mercy when he received it. Similarly, our faithfulness to the simple way of Jesus transforms us in mercy to be merciful in a merciless world. When we find our attention has been stolen by the constant barrage of our overly complicated world, turn again. When the simple way of Jesus seems too simple to be effective, turn to the water anyway. When the healing power of God’s mercy meets you on the road, let it stop you in your tracks and turn you back to Jesus. When others are wrangling over words, remember the whole of the gospel is summed up in this simple prayer— Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me— and let it turn your heart to the heart of God in Christ Jesus. We cannot be responsible for the whole world. But we can turn toward the gospel and turn toward our neighbor. We can turn toward Jesus. And when we find ourselves in the place just right, ‘twill be in the valley of Love and Delight. Amen.

There is a lot of suffering in the world right now. There is still war raging in Ukraine and threatening to spill over into NATO territory triggering WWIII. The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed tens of thousands, orchestrated food shortages, and has been condemned as genocide the world over. Decades, if not centuries, of social and political turmoil in Central and South America— as well as many other parts of the world— has driven desperate people from their homes to make a dangerous voyage, often on foot, through uninhabitable deserts and tropical forests, pleading safe passage from marauding gangs and larcenous ‘coyotes’ looking to profit from their desperation, all for the mere hope of a better life in the US. And now a government formed in our name has made a scapegoat of these people and is using gestapo tactics to harass and intimidate, to disappear and incarcerate them. Our outreach ministries here have centered around addressing widespread hunger, worsened by the pandemic, and the rising cost of food and housing. It might be easy to share Habakkuk’s frustration. “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrong-doing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack, and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous—therefore judgment comes forth perverted.” And yet, some take a different tack. Some look at all the violence, poverty, destruction, and tragedy, in the world and thank God that they have been spared. #Blessed. Trusting that they have escaped by their innocence, and that in the end, God will deliver believers from the ultimate destruction of all this anyway. Some look at the world and ask, Why do bad things happen to good people? Others look at the same world and their own lives and conclude that bad things don’t happen to good people. These other folks might pray like these apostles in our gospel reading. Give us more faith, make us more righteous, protect us even more from all the evil in the world. Both the stressed and the #Blessed believe that God has the power to transform the world, to end all suffering, to rescue and redeem. One person wonders what’s taking so long, and the other wants an extra helping. But the response that the scriptures give for both requests is the same. In our reading in Habakkuk, there is a mistranslation at the end of verse 4. In the original Hebrew that verse reads more like “the person of integrity will live because of their faithfulness.” The righteous do not live because of their faith but those with integrity live because of their fidelity. Their faithfulness to the law and the prophets creates the world they yearn for. In our Gospel reading Jesus responds to the request for more faith with a pair of parables. Faithfulness the size of a mustard seed has miraculous power, and you won’t get extra credit for obeying a commandment. Jesus’ responds, “Your fidelity is more than enough to impact the world around you; so, get busy.” Both Jesus’ response to these apostles and God’s response to Habakkuk remind me of a quote from Abdu’l-Bahá, the founder of the Baha’i faith. Abdu’l-Bahá said, “Sometimes I want to ask God why he allows poverty, famine, and injustice when he can do something about it, but I’m afraid he just might ask me the same question.” What good is our faith if it doesn’t make us more faithful? What good is our belief if our lives make the gospel unbelievable? What good is our trust if our neighbors can’t trust us? What good is our hope for salvation if it means the world’s destruction? God is standing in solidarity with the poor, with the hungry, with the victims of injustice and asking us, “What is taking you so long?” “How long, O Church, shall I cry out for help and you will not listen? Or cry ‘Violence!” and you will not save?” “Why do you make me see wrong-doing and look at trouble?” “When, O Church, will you live with integrity?” Christ has come to us in the person of the poor, the hungry, the vulnerable to ask us to give him something to eat, knowing that fidelity the size of a mustard seed can perform miracles, and there are no gold stars or merit badges for obeying the commandments. The issue was never our faith, but our faithfulness. We have the power and the invitation to be partners with God in remaking the world around us, in doing something about the poverty, famine, and injustice together. If we are #Blessed it is to be a #Blessing. At Christ’s table, we are all servers, unworthy of special praise because of the measure of our faith, which is itself a gift from God, but called by this faith to increase our faithfulness, our integrity, in grateful response to God’s faithfulness and integrity. Beloved, the good news is that we have the power and the invitation to join God in becoming the answer to our prayers. How long, O Church, will we put up with poverty, famine, and injustice when God has given us the power to do something about it? Amen.

Now I know the first day of fall was only Monday, but I’m already thinking about Christmas. Ebenezer Scrooge is a mean-spirited and selfish old man, who hates Christmas. He is very unkind to the people who work for him. One cold Christmas Eve, on his way home, he sees people taking donations for charity and he refuses to give anything. Then, when his nephew invites him to spend Christmas with him and his family, the only people who look past his old, grumpy demeanor, Scrooge still refuses. Eventually, Scrooge makes his way home and gets into bed. In his sleep, he is visited by the ghost of his old business partner Jacob Marley – and then three other ghosts – The first is the ghost of Christmas Past who takes him on a journey through Christmases from his past, through his unhappy childhood, and showing Scrooge himself as young man more in love with money than his own fiancée. Then the ghost of Christmas Present visits and Scrooge is whisked away to observe his clerk’s family. There outside their home, Scrooge can see Tiny Tim, a very ill child, who is still full of love and joy, even in the midst of so much heartache. This ghost also takes him to his nephew’s home to see the Christmas celebration he missed. The final ghost, the ghost of Christmas Future, absolutely terrifies Scrooge with visions of his own death. In today’s gospel there is a rich man who reminds me an awful lot of Scrooge. We don’t know this man’s name, though Church tradition would call him Dives. Jesus describes him living a lavish lifestyle, rich in food and friends. There is a gate around his estate to keep away the riffraff. He has the privilege to ignore anyone who might want to glom onto the lifestyle he lives … people like Lazarus – a beggar, who sits outside the rich man’s gate, who would give anything – anything – for just the scraps off the rich man’s table. Lazarus is covered in sores and adding insult to injury, even the wild dogs’ attempts at mercy, bring him more pain. Through this story, Jesus repeats a theme and gives us the metaphor of an ever-widening chasm, The chasm between those who sit in the seats of honor and those who sit in the lowly places, the chasm between those who can return a favor and those who cannot pay you back, the chasm between those who hoard wealth and those who sell their possessions to give to the poor, the chasm between those who by their dishonesty enslave people to their debts and those who are the victims of this system. And today that chasm grows wider and wider as a rich man ignores the poor man who sits just outside his gate. This chasm is wide, but not so wide that the two sides cannot see one another: See, despite the torment the rich man describes, there are no signs of remorse. He calls across the chasm begging the mercy he never gave, and once again expecting to be served by the very man he ignored at his gate, demanding some cool water. We don’t hear from Lazarus himself. Instead, Father Abraham does the speaking. Perhaps this is because Lazarus is finally at rest. But part of me wonders, would Lazarus have given the compassion he never received? Even so, Father Abraham does not oblige. The rich man has made his choices and is now reaping the consequences: and yet, these consequences inspire him to ask for satiation and intervention – cool water and a message to his family from the dead. Father Abraham ignores the rich man’s begging— pointing out that the rich man’s family has access to the same prophetic teaching that he and Lazarus had, teachings that are centered on caring for the widows and orphans, food for the hungry and clothing to the naked, whose central theology is compassion and mercy, doing justice, loving kindness, living humbly. Faith that is less about philosophy and belief, but embodied in faithful deeds. So many times, I think we get so caught up in what’s happening inside our own gates, that we walk right past those in greatest need. The church is very accustomed to hearing the plight of those who are hungry, naked, addicted, or often ignored by society. The church is used to, and in fact prides itself in, the work of feeding, clothing, and praying for those outside our gates. But then there are others that we overlook because their presence makes us uncomfortable— people right outside the gates we’ve fixed between our convenience and their pain, between our privilege and the injustice we perpetuate, between the systems we profit from and the plight of those exploited by those systems, between birthright citizenship and asylum. People who would give anything to have the scraps from this table, to dip their finger in the baptismal font to remember who and whose they are, to have their stories heard, their hearts mended, to become partners with us in making a better world. And I wonder if our pity, instead of our actions, feels like a dog licking their wounds, and less like the food that fills their stomach and or the community that fills their souls? As Lutherans this may be hard to hear. When someone even hints at works righteousness the inner Martin Luther rises up in protest. But sometimes we need to be reminded that it was Martin Luther also said, “God doesn’t need our good works, but our neighbor does.” After being visited by the ghosts of Christmas, Scrooge changed his life. He became a man full of compassion, not only generous with his wealth, but with his time and all that had been entrusted to him. And while this parable mimics the typical pattern of Luke, with justice for the poor and a strong warning for those who harbor wealth, it is also a parable of good news, because as inheritors of the gospel of Luke we have been given the gift of this story and the gift of time. This story is not a threat of conscious eternal torment for living an unjust life. This story is a promise that Justice is coming. It will bring grief for those who perpetuate and profit from injustice. And it will bring grace for those exploited and excluded by that injustice. Beloved, the good news for us this day is that this gift of time provides us the opportunity for repentance and hope, and the invitation to stand the middle of this chasm, to join Jesus in cruciform living, and by our faithful action. to show the world who God is and how God acts. This looks like living out our baptism by sharing our gifts with the world. It looks like stepping outside our gates and close the chasm now, to meet the poor and needy where they are, to learn their names and meet their needs. This looks like taking the meal from this altar and sharing it with the world through gifts of food for the hungry, hands outstretched to embrace the lonely, and words that remind people of their belovedness. This looks like taking the story of God’s radical love by becoming an advocate, an ally, and accomplice, by asking ourselves and God some hard questions, and living out the hard answers. People of God, we are not only called to hear this gospel story, but we are invited to live differently because of it! And when we join God in this work, through the grace of Jesus Christ, the chasm is filled, becoming a place where the wealthy and the poor, the named and the unnamed, the seen and the unseen, walk on level ground to the glory of God. May it be so. Amen.

There’s a silly game I used to play with my friends when I was younger – and many of you have likely played it too – it’s called: Would You Rather? Let’s play it. Would you rather eat a brownie or a piece of cake? Would you rather eat breakfast or dinner? Then this is the point where the game gets a bit more challenging. Would you rather eat an earthworm or a cockroach? Would you rather chew gum from under the pew or lick the bottom of a friend’s shoe? Now before everyone gets too nauseous we’ll stop because I think you get the idea … When I was younger the questions were silly and disgusting and, of course, as I got older, they sounded more like “Would you rather make out with [this person] or [that one]?” Now as an adult, this game isn’t as fun … Pastor Jennifer and I play all the time. Would you rather have chicken or beef for dinner? Would you rather eat at Cracker Barrel or Culvers? Would you rather grocery shop at Kroger or Publix? Trust me, there are no winners. In our gospel today, a manager plays a version of this game: Would I rather beg or cheat? The answer for the shrewd manager is that he would rather cheat. You see, this manager is in trouble. He has not only been charging interest on behalf of his master, but he has been adding his own fee as well and now he’s has been caught cooking the books. And unless something drastic changes he will soon be out at the gate begging like all the others he has been taking advantage of. So he devises a plan. He decides to cut out some of the interest. This does two things for him: 1. He will once again be in the good graces of his master when the master’s debtors are able to pay back their now smaller debts. 2. Even if he gets fired, he is now also in the good graces of his once defrauded neighbors, who might be more inclined to help him out. He thinks he’s pretty smart, avoiding potential poverty and disgrace. But his seeming generosity is merely the collateral damage of saving his own behind. He is not repentant. He is not ashamed. He’s not reformed. He’s cunning, shrewd, conniving. He’s found a new way to use people to his own advantage. In our first reading from Amos, the prophet relays the word of the Lord. “Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, ‘When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat’ The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.” God is not pleased with those who cheat, extort, and enslave their neighbors. The Apostle Paul give us the contrast: While there is none like our God, who is worthy to be praised from sun up to sundown, this God became a human, became our ransom, became debt cancelation for all. God chooses the side of the beggars, the poor and the needy, the bought and paid for, the broke and extorted, the trafficked and exploited. God is not too proud to stand with beggars to get down in the dust with the poor, to kneel in the ashes with the needy, and to give God’s own self to cancel our debts. Jesus becomes a beggar, choosing solidarity with our poverty to raise up the lowly and to call down the proud, because this is the path of discipleship, the path of transformation. Upon his death, a slip of paper was found in Martin Luther’s cloak. This slip contained his last words; “We are beggars, this is true.” Beloved, the path of discipleship calls us to make this true. We must become beggars. We must choose to stand in solidarity with the poor, with the needy, with the bought and paid for, with the broke and extorted, the trafficked and exploited. We must give up the idea that Church, faith, discipleship, is about saving our own behind, that we come here to be served or saved, rather than learning how to serve and save others. We must not be too proud to stand with beggars, to get down in the dust with the poor, to kneel in the ashes with the needy, and to give our very selves to embody God’s debt-canceling love. We start here in worship, where the sacraments remind us that we are indeed beggars before God. Each time we gather around the font, we dip our fingers in the water, making the sign of the cross on our forehead, asking God to remind us again and again that our debts are canceled. Each time we gather around the table, we put our hands into a beggar’s position and ask God to offer us a piece of Godself. And from this font and table we are raised up and sent out to serve our neighbors, to forgive our debtors as we have been forgiven, to give our money, to give our time, in service to those who find themselves in dust and ashes. So let us make Luther’s last words into a kind of prayer. “Lord, we are already beggars. Help us to live like this is true.” Amen.

How many of you remember where you were when John F. Kennedy was assassinated? If that was before your time, what about Robert F. Kennedy? Or the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? If that’s still before your time, How about the Challenger explosion? Or the Oklahoma City Bombing? Where were you on September 11, 2001? This week, a popular provocateur and political celebrity was assassinated, in broad daylight, at a public event, while speaking in front of thousands of people on a college campus in Utah. His gruesome murder was filmed, from multiple angles and varying distances, and immediately available to the world across every social media platform. Where once these graphic tragedies were shielded from our view by the censors of network news outlets and the scruples of newspaper editors, the internet has streamed the high-definition horrors directly to our hip pockets without edit for mass consumption. Children the world over have seen this video. My own son included. Gen Z will likely remember where they were, not when they heard the news, but when they saw the video of a high-velocity munition take the life of a public figure. And in our highly divided times, this event has been met with a mix of terror and celebration. Each side has been quick to blame the other. Partisans, ever the opportunists, have sought to exploit the spectacle to further their cause and grab for power. Blame is easy. Blame is a form of self-absolution, an adoption of victimhood to justify vengeance in the name of justice. In all three of our readings for this week, we see that there is a difference between taking the blame, and taking responsibility. Moses didn’t make a golden calf for the Hebrew people to worship, but he defended his people, staying God’s wrath, and sparing their lives. Moses didn’t take the blame, but he did accept responsibility. In 1 Timothy, “Paul” speaks of his ignorance as the cause of his blasphemy, persecution, hatred, and violence. And yet, as the recipient of mercy, he accepts responsibility and changes his life accordingly. In the Gospel of Luke, the Pharisees and scribes were complaining that Jesus had crossed the socio-political divide and was sharing his table with tax-collectors and sinners. Jesus tells two parables in answer. In the first, a sheep wanders off; it’s what sheep do. But the shepherd accepts responsibility and goes to find the sheep, bringing it back and celebrating. Similarly, a woman has lost a coin. Coins don’t just wander off. They can roll away and they can be easily obscured on the dirt floor of an ancient near-eastern home. So, the woman accepts responsibility and sweeps the whole house until she finds the coin. Then she celebrates its return. Most of us in this room aren’t to blame for the rhetoric, rancor, and polarization of this present age. But all of us are responsible. We didn’t create social media platforms and engineer algorithms to exacerbate our divisions, radicalize our thinking, monetize our engagement, and silo us into us-es and thems. But all of us are responsible. We are not to blame for the need of news media outlets to be profitable in order to exist and therefore, tailoring reporting and headlines to the presuppositions of their consumers. But all of us are responsible. Political violence is always wrong. Full. Stop. And it doesn’t matter which side is to blame, because we are all of us responsible for what comes next. Each of us is responsible for the media we consume, both the quantity and the quality. A good rule to follow should be that each day, you will spend no more time reading, watching, or listening to the news than you spend reading your Bible or praying. Further, understanding proper journalistic standards and practices, researching which reporters and outlets are using them, and limiting ourselves to only those reliable resources will protect us from being manipulated by propaganda, advertising, misinformation, and disinformation. Then, you need to build authentic, loving relationships with people with whom you disagree. You don’t have to fight them. You don’t have to best friends. But you don’t have to be enemies, either. Instead, see them as human, as susceptible as you are to bad information, and share your thoughts, feelings, and research with as much kindness and goodwill as possible. And lastly, if it is possible for you, consider a social media fast, if not an exodus. I walked away for Facebook and Instagram over a year ago and I have been a lot happier and clear-headed since. I know that is not possible for everyone, for various reasons— and some of you are receiving this very sermon on Facebook as I speak. But to the degree that you’re able to limit your consumption of social media, treat it like alcohol. Some of us will avoid it all together, and others will be able to consume sparingly and responsibly. If you find that you are not able to consume social media or any facet of the internet with sobriety, reach out to a mental health professional for help. We all have a share of the responsibility for changing the world around us. As Billy Joel sang almost 40 years ago, “We didn’t start the fire, No, we didn’t light it, but we tried to fight it.” The good news is that we do not do this work alone. God’s mercy and patience go with us, both as personal liberation and as the empowerment for our duty. We are not to blame, but by the call of discipleship, we are all responsible. Today, in addition to the 14 th Sunday after Pentecost, is the Feast of the Holy Cross. The Cross is a corrective lens for our perspective on reality, and the shape of discipleship. God in Christ was not to blame for sin, death, and the devil, but Jesus took responsibility on the cross, loving the world as it is, remaking the world as it should be, and calling and empowering us to participate in both the loving and remaking. I want to close by leading us through a time of prayer, focused on this perspective, calling us away from our allegiances to this kingdom of death and calling us to a new citizenship in the Kingdom-come-on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven….

Some of you may know my story, but for those unfamiliar with my journey out of fundamentalism and evangelicalism, I will recap briefly. I have shared here before that I grew up in a tiny Baptist denomination in Southern Appalachia. At around age 2, I began to spend every Saturday night at my grandmother’s house so that I could go to church with her on Sunday. She became a place of refuge for me over the course of my childhood, and so did the church. I met Jesus and I learned the faith in this church and in my grandmother’s home. By the time I started college, I had developed a deep love for the scriptures and took my faith very seriously, and as a result I began to question some of the things I had been taught. The Jesus I knew and the scriptures I read led me to very different conclusions that those of my church. When I stopped reading the Bible in the King James and started reading a modern translation these differences grew even broader, and eventually, my involvement with Campus Crusade, which they considered a heretical organization, became a breaking point, and the church where I learned the faith forced me to repent of my involvement and affirm that the King James Version as the only rule of faith and practice, or I was “not qualified to be a member” of the church. At the time, that choice seemed easy. Follow the Jesus I had come to know, even if it led me away for this church that had been family to me, or abandon my faith in this Jesus in order to keep a truncated and pernicious version of the faith. So, I resigned my membership, and began a long, meandering spiritual journey to find a tradition that resonated with the Jesus I had always known. Eventually, I landed in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. But I had not counted the cost. Some years later, while visiting my grandmother, who had continued to attend the church I left, we were having a conversation and, I don’t remember what brought it up, but I told her that I had discerned, through prayer, study, and reading the scripture, that I could no longer say the pledge of allegiance without violating my conscience— but that is a matter for another sermon. My grandmother was shocked. I had never seen her so disappointed in me before. This was also the catalyst for a conversation about many other ways that the things I had come to believe were a disappointment to her. I was shocked at how hurt she seemed. I was shocked at how hurt I felt. I had left her church with such hurt and righteous indignation that I had not considered how she had felt about my leaving. My study and conviction, my faith and my love for Jesus were a direct result of her teaching and example. I was still a Christian at all because of her, because of the way she embodied the faith, the way that she had introduced me to Jesus and not just handed me a Bible. My continued faith was an act of defiance against all I had been told I had to believe in order to be allowed to stay in the church, not an act of defiance against her. I couldn’t reconcile the Jesus I knew and this iteration of the faith that to me was taking the Name of Christ in vain. But in leaving, I hadn’t just left the church; I had left my grandmother. Where I had gone, she couldn’t follow. The cost of leaving was high, but the cost of staying was higher. I couldn’t keep Jesus and the only place of safety and comfort I had ever known. I can imagine that she felt like I had come to hate all she had tried to teach me, that in rejecting her church and its ideology, I had rejected something fundamental about her. I could see the heartbreak and confusion on her face, emotions I wasn’t aware of causing before, and certainly, had never intended. When I counted the cost of leaving, I hadn’t accounted for her grief. In the coming months, All Saints will begin to literally count the cost of building new ministries and rebuilding old ones. We will give an accounting of all the time, talent, and treasure we will need to invest to make sure that we are introducing this Jesus to our neighbors and to each other. We will ask, “Who isn’t here?” and we will find ways to invite and include our neighbors in our life of faith. And as we make this accounting, we will have to ask, Can we afford to build a ministry that is more inclusive, that doesn’t demand more of people than they can give in order to be included? Can we afford not to? Can we afford to give up our old ways of doing church, the habits and traditions that have shaped life together and given them meaning? Can we afford not to? Can we let go of outdated models of growth, membership, and engagement and meet people where they are? Can we afford not to? Can we afford to stop thinking of church as a destination at the end of the path toward faith and begin to think of faith itself as a journey and church as the rest areas along that path? Can we afford not to? Can we afford the time, energy, and money it will cost to examine every aspect of our beliefs, our practices, our politics, our preferences, our principles, and measure them by their faithfulness and effectiveness, measure them against Love? Can we afford not to? Moses asked the Israelites to choose life. Paul asked Philemon to choose love. Jesus asks us to choose the cross. There are other choices, but the question is not can we bear the cost of choosing life, love, and the cross. The question is whether we can afford to avoid choosing life, choosing love, choosing the cross. Choosing to grieve and let go of all the things we must leave behind in order to choose life, love, and the cross is the very substance of discipleship. Eventually, my grandmother and I reconciled, and we were able to talk about the scriptures, differences in interpretation, theological insight, and grow in mutual respect. I wouldn’t say I won a convert, but I don’t think she would say she lost a grandson, either. The cost of following this Jesus is often high. There is no discipleship that is not marked by the Cross. It will cost us home, family, security, time, money, even our very lives. But for every cross we bear there is a resurrection. God does not call us to faith to destroy us, any more than God calls us to faith to protect us from every discomfort. God calls us to choose life, and Jesus leads us to the cross. Discipleship, then, is the choice of the life that only comes after the cross, the life that is marked by scars and healing, not safety and health. Discipleship is the path of transformation, the path of life, death, and resurrection, the path that brings babies to a symbolic burial in baptism and celebrates our founder’s last meal, to promise us that death is not final, and discomfort cannot be avoided. The cost will be high, we will have to account for our discomfort, for our grief. But we can also account for the life that only comes after such discomfort and grief. The question is not can we afford to grow and change, to bear the discomfort or to grieve the losses that will come. The question is, Can we afford not to? Amen.

Food is a big part of what we do here. We are always gathering food or gathering around food. We make sandwiches and collect food for people struggle to eat. We are planning to offer a meal of bratwurst and hot dogs along with a free concert to share with our community. Even our worship culminates around a sacred meal. In today’s gospel Jesus finds himself invited to share a meal with a Pharisee. Just as a quick reminder, Pharisees are spiritual leaders in Judaism who often get a bad rap. These leaders were responsible for interpreting Torah, God’s law in the Holy Scriptures, and understanding God’s intentions for God’s people. For a while now, these religious leaders have been watching Jesus, curious and concerned about the way he interprets the law, who he accepts, and how he practices Sabbath. You see in Luke chapter 7 these leaders have witnessed a notorious woman anoint Jesus’ feet at a table. In Luke chapter 11, Jesus and his disciples have not properly washed themselves before eating at a table. And prior to this exchange today, Jesus has healed a dinner guest on the Sabbath. And the religious leaders, like these Pharisees, aren’t quite sure what to do with this. Jesus is very aware of the invitation he is accepting. Jesus knows that a dinner invitation in the first century, is not just a dinner invitation – it has strings attached. Dinner invitations were a measure of status. Tables were often arranged in u-shapes with a defined social order, with those seated in the middle being part of the upper class and those on the ends part of the lower class. And not only that, the table was a place of networking for male upper-class individuals who were expected to return the invitation back to their own tables. A dinner party was not just a dinner party, there were strict expectation. Nothing says “Party Time!!” quite like a list of inscrutable rules. But we’ve been watching Jesus ourselves. The Monday Bible study and the Lectionary have been following Jesus over this season after Pentecost as we wind our way through the gospel of Luke. We know that Jesus is not going to attend a dinner party and play by the rules. Jesus is mission minded. He’s always looking for a teachable moment. If he’s going to attend, he’s likely to expose the whole thing in order to reveal of the Kingdom of God. Recalling the Proverbs, to these experts in the scriptures, he says, don’t embarrass yourselves by choosing a seat of honor, assuming it belongs to you. Instead, chose the lower seat and assume that is your position so that if the time comes you will be honored when you’re asked to move up. Do you hear echoes of Mary’s song here? Earlier in the gospel of Luke, Mary sings, “God has looked down with favor on the lowly … God has scattered the proud … God has brought down the powerful from their places of power and lifted up the lowly … God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty …” But this is the opposite of how we have been trained to think. We live in a society that encourages us to learn the most, earn the most, own the most, be seen the most, and post the best version of ourselves on social media. In most of our lives, when we share a table, it is often a game of “one up,” of social and political power plays, comparing accomplishments and wealth. We judge ourselves and each other by our proximity to power, by our allegiance to a political ideology, or even a specific politician. We even judge our churches by how many people attend worship, how they set the table for worship, and by how formally or casually they approach God’s table. And all the while, God judges by a different metric, looking around for the people who have no proximity to power, for those who are missing from our tables. Beloved, who is missing? When we gather around our tables, who is not there? - Who is missing at the tables in our homes? - Who is missing at the tables in our social circles? - Who is missing at the tables in our neighborhoods? - Who is missing at the tables of our children’s cafeterias? The late Rachel Held Evans once wrote: “This is what God’s kingdom is like: A bunch of outcasts and oddballs gathered at a table, not because they are rich or worthy or good, but because they are hungry, because they said yes, and there’s always room for more!” And at God’s table all are welcome, There is a place for everyone! It doesn’t matter what your bank account says, what your relationship status is, what gifts you bring or what gifts you lack; whether you are young or old, there is a place for you around God’s table, in the midst of this meal of love. Beloved, when we gather here at God’s table, who is missing? The demographics of this part of the county say that on average, our neighbor is a 35yo person of color. And yet, our average parishioner is a white person twice that age? We do an excellent job of making sure our neighbors’ tables are filled with good food. But Jesus challenges us to find a way to share not only our food, but our table, to share our meal, and to share God’s meal, with those who don’t look like us, who don’t share our proximity to power, who don’t share our socio-economic status, who suffer in ways that make us uncomfortable, and whose experience challenges us to reexamine our understanding of the world. This is the very work and witness of Jesus, who set aside equality with God to stand, or sit, in solidarity with the human condition, with all its joys and sorrow, until life and death and everything in between is swallowed up in the very life of God. We are called to move beyond simply sharing our food to sharing our table and indeed, our very lives with those our social structure has pushed to the margins. As we move toward discerning where God is calling this congregation to invest our lives and our resources, we are beginning to reexamine and reimagine the ways we embody the kingdom of God in our community. In the coming months, we will be inviting you to take a seat at the table as we discern together where God is calling this congregation to engage our neighbors and to make a seat for them around this table. For some of us, that we mean that we will have to take a “lower place,” that we will have to put the needs of our neighbors ahead of our own preferences and comfort. It will call us to witness and to stand in solidarity with the suffering going on around us. It will call us to free our lives from the love of money and the status it brings, trusting God to be our provision as we work to provide for our neighbors. And we will not take on this work alone. God has promised that God will never leave us or forsake us, and that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So, let us come to this table trusting that it is Jesus himself who invites us to move up, and to move out, to invite others in. Amen.

When Zion was little, he was obsessed with lawnmowers. He pointed them out when we drove by someone mowing. He begged to stop at Home Depot so he could sit on one. He had his own toy versions of a push mower, trimmer, blower, and a John Deere riding mower. But there was one lawnmower he LOVED more than any other and it belonged to my father-in-law. This mower was a Kabota zero turn lawnmower And the reason I know the name brand was that every time we went to my in-law’s house – winter or summer, rain or shine, Zion would say, “I want to ride the Kabota.” In fact, he was so obsessed with my this lawnmower that for his 3 rd birthday all he wanted was a lawnmower cake that looked like PawPaw’s Kabota and we had to find a baker who could make it happen. But there was one day every week when no matter how much Zion begged, no matter how many tears fell, my father-in-law refused and that day was Sunday. For my father-in-law, my own grandfather, and many people I knew growing up, Sunday was the sabbath and this meant that any kind of work— or even the perception of work— was forbidden; unless, quoting from Deuteronomy, “your ox was in a ditch.” Sundays were sacred. They were for worship, lunch, naps, and televised sports. A Southern sabbath. But, ya know, despite sharing this experience with many a Southern family, it was always someone’s dad, grandpa, uncle, neighbor— but never someone’s mom, grandma, aunt. Seems this Southern Sabbath was made for men. All those Sunday morning pews crawling with monogrammed smocking and Buster Brown shoes were corralled by women. All those Sunday suppers were made by women. All those crisply ironed Monday morning shirts were starched by women. The sabbath might have been a day for resting from work, but only if you were getting paid for that work. While the fellas listening to this Gospel lesson might have wondered what Luke might mean when he speaks of a woman bent-over with a spirit of weakness, I would be the ladies listening don’t have to strain their imaginations too hard. We don’t know her name or where she comes from, but in our Gospel lesson this morning a woman, weary and bent over with a spirit of weakness, makes her way into the synagogue where Jesus is teaching. What the text hides from us in the mists of translation is that word here for “bent over” is used only one other place in scripture and there it means something closer to humiliation. Further, when the Gospels speak of oppressing spirits and demons, we should read this as a toxic relationship to something or someone. She bears in her body the weight and the weakness of a burden heaved upon her. She is bent not because she wants to avoid eye contact, or miss each morning’s sunrise, or forget what the stars look like, or never raise her face to the evening breeze, but because she has no other choice. While her fellow worshipers have arrived on time, she comes late. Jesus is teaching — most likely surrounded by a crowd – so who knows if she even notices him, bent over as she is? Luke tells us that by the time she encounters Jesus, she’s been crippled for eighteen years – almost two decades. According to the text, the woman doesn’t ask Jesus for help when she appears in the synagogue on this particular Sabbath. But Jesus sees her. And he stops preaching. Worship is put on hold. He calls her over and says the thing Jesus always says when he encounters the sick, the broken, the dying, the dead: “You are set free from your ailment.” Then, the Gospel tells us, Jesus “laid his hands on her, and immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.” “Immediately she stood up straight.” I wonder if we of this place or worship as a place where hunched over, humiliated, exhausted people are invited, encouraged, and empowered to “stand up straight.” Do we think of the Church as a place where people, maybe even ourselves— people who are bent under the weight of shame, judgment, invisibility, loneliness, false piety, condemnation, prejudice, legalism, and harmful theology can be embraced and restored? Do we believe that the Church is a place where Jesus still liberates people, transforms people, so that our full potential is realized? Do we have the courage to shift our focus from the worship we prefer to offer to the work of liberation God desires of us? Are we brave enough to invite others who are bent by the weight of oppression and systemic injustice to come and find healing, wholeness, and community? Will we let the praises of the liberated ones stand as a living sermon, to us and to the world? Or are we upset at the interruption? Unfortunately, the Gospel story itself offers some insight into these questions. As soon as Jesus frees this bent woman, a leader of the synagogue voices his frustration. Essentially, his angry criticism drowns out her joyful praise: “There are six days on which work ought to be done,” he tells the crowds, “come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” The leader protests because Jesus disrupts the regular Sabbath schedule of the synagogue and messes with the tradition. Worse, Jesus places a socially expendable, physically disabled, spiritually vulnerable woman at the center of the tradition. Jesus allows the woman's need to interrupt his own sermon, and welcomes her praise song even though it upends the synagogue's order of service. Now, to be clear, the leader of the synagogue is not a “bad guy.” This leader cares about right worship. Right belief. Right practice. He cares about honoring the Sabbath, obeying God’s laws, and upholding the faith-filled traditions of his spiritual community. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with any of these goals. His intentions are not evil, and his concerns are not without merit, but his myopia is akin to that of all those Southern men who can enjoy a sabbath rest because of the bent over women in their own lives. What the leader misses is the heart of the Sabbath, the heart of God’s law, the heart of the tradition the heart of liberation. As Walter Brueggeman writes in his book Sabbath as Resistance, “Worship that does not lead to neighborly compassion and justice cannot be faithful worship of YHWH.” This synagogue leader and all those Southern men are missing justice and compassion. The kind of justice and compassion that exceeds legalism every single time. The kind of justice and compassion that doesn’t cling to orthodoxy simply for orthodoxy’s sake. The kind of justice and compassion that consistently sees the broken body, the broken soul, the broken spirit — instead of seeing a broken commandment. This story — like so many Gospel stories — illustrates a fundamental truth about Jesus’ ministry and God’s inbreaking reign: timing, etiquette, propriety, and decorum are not important, but compassion, justice, and liberation are essential! In the same way Jesus embraced and liberated the bent over woman from the oppression she experienced, Jesus embraces and frees the synagogue leader, transforming his understanding of sabbath and God’s work within it. And the challenging but very good news for us this day, is that here in this place, within and around us, through the Spirit, God embraces and liberates each of us, releasing us from shame and oppression, fear and isolation, prejudice and judgment raising us up so that we can see the good news of God’s love, so that we can BE the good news of God’s love. As the Spirit of God liberates each of us we are called and empowered to go and liberate others, by following the Spirit into the places where bodies, spirits, and souls feel broken offering healing and restoration, dignity and transformation. This is what it means to keep the Sabbath holy, this is how we honor the command of God, this is what Isaiah tells us this morning brings delight to the Lord. So beloved, let us go forth and proclaim the wonderful things God has done and continues to do in us! Amen.

I’m not a math guy. I am grateful that there are people who love math, like the accountant we pay each year to file our taxes in my household with two clergypersons. I say here and now, there is no way I could file my own taxes and not end up in prison. I just don’t have the patience for math. I was one of those kids who used to make Christmas trees and lightning bolts out of the bubbles on the scantron sheets used to score our standardized tests. And I do not have the patience for puzzles either. I didn’t break it. I am NOT about to fix it. I will admit that my impatience is mostly a product of pathology. I have known I have ADHD since I was 8, and I tend to struggle with an intolerance for small time irritation. I do not see problem-solving as an exciting challenge, or a fun activity for a rainy afternoon, rather I experience it as a tedious annoyance, as a confining obligation. I do not possess the capacity to remain focused on tasks that do not provide a nearly instant result. I cannot buckle down and figure out which value goes on which line of which form, and certainly not under threat of federal penalties. And the same goes for sorting through tiny pieces of cardboard to reconstruct an image I can see on the lid of the box! I admire those folks who realize the toaster isn’t working and grab a toolbox, take the whole thing apart, and put it back together again in working order, instead of Doordashing a new one from Target. I admire these folks— and the accountants and puzzle-workers of the world— because I see in them something of the heart of God; the God who makes something out of nothing, who sees value where I see only garbage; the God who sees utility where I see futility. This is what God is always doing, fashioning something from nothing, or as the African American Church reminds us, God makes a way out of no way. In fact, God is existence itself; all things come from God, and all things are returning to God. Apart from God, nothing could exist. All of reality is part of the divine existence, the very life and love of God. And our God is one who enjoys tinkering. Our God is always taking things apart to put them back together. Our reading from Hebrews tells us that this is precisely the experience of that “great cloud of witnesses,” who “won strength out of weakness,” who “received their dead by resurrection,” who were saved by the faithfulness of a prostitute, and yet so many more were “stoned to death, were sawn in two, were killed by the sword; they went about…destitute, persecuted, tormented.” And the world was not worthy of them because God makes worth from worthlessness, meaning from meaninglessness, hope from hopelessness, purpose from purposelessness. When Jesus says he comes to bring division I think he means like halves of the Red Sea, dry ground for those escaping, and quicksand for those pursuing. When Jesus says he comes to bring division I think he means like nuclear fission, the very process that created the universe, and now gives us the power to end life as we know it. When Jesus says he comes to bring division I think he means like boundaries, like the difference between genealogy and kinship, between obligation and service. This division, is a picture of divine judgment. What we feared would be our undoing is only our remaking. Jesus came to bring division and fire, the fire of the Holy Spirit, the fire with which John the Baptist promised we would be baptized. What we feared would be a separation, what we feared would be a conflagration, God has made our salvation. The fire that Jesus brings is the radiance of the life and love of God at the heart of this reality, a life and a love so big that it encompasses this whole reality, with all its joys and woes, pains and promises, faith and fear. A life and love so big it includes both the cross and the resurrection, both sinners and saints. Our God is one who enjoys tinkering. Our God is one who has the patience to take this world apart, cell by cell, molecule by molecule, atom by atom, and put it all back together again in working order, instead of discarding this one and making a new one. Our God is one who can take all the broken pieces of our lives and take delight in placing them back together to recreate the image of God. Our God is a math guy, a lover of fine details, a puzzle worker, a toaster fixer. Our God is a sea-parting, way-making, rescuer, calling slaves to freedom and masters to their reckoning. Our God is the nuclear blast at the heart of an atom that commands worlds from nothing and breathes life into stardust. Our God is the definer of family, freeing us from unhealthy relationships and becoming our Parent, our Sibling, our Community when we must draw hard lines to save our sanity, to save our life. Our God has the patience to tinker with this world until it is fixed, until it returns to its original purpose. The judgement we feared is the salvation we hoped for. So let us trust God to make something from our nothings, our meaninglessness, our hopelessness, our purposelessness, and let us run with perseverance the race that is before us, looking to Jesus, the creation and completion of our faith, who trusted God to make something of the Cross, and calls us to trust God to make something of our suffering too. Amen.