Sermon for June 19th 2016 entitled: ENOUGH !!!!!

 Sermon for June 19th 2016 - ENOUGH !!!!!

This past week as I wrestled with the horrific events in Orlando and struggled to make sense of them by pausing to pray, reflect and meditate in a place of silence before the presence of The Holy, akin to that described in our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures describing Elijah encountering God’s presence in the sheer silence … I found myself recalling a poem by Ann Weems I have and will continue to use frequently … As I struggled, not so much to make sense out of the events of Orlando, but to find a faithful and faith-filled response to the tragic deaths of young men and women who were targeted simply because of their sexuality, I was drawn to these words:

FEED MY SHEEP – Ann Weems

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”

There were no conditions:
Least of all, Feed my sheep if they deserve it.
Feed my sheep if you feel like it.
Feed my sheep if you have any leftovers.
Feed my sheep if the mood strikes you.

if the economy’s OK . . .
if you’re not too busy . . .

No conditions . . just, “Feed my sheep.”

Could it be that God’s Kingdom will come when each lamb is fed?

We who have agreed to keep covenant are called to feed the sheep

even when it means the grazing will be done on our own front lawns.

Three simple words – “feed my sheep”

Three words that call us to action – that challenge us to live our faith.

But as we’ve witnessed over the last week since the shootings in Orlando, it is not unfortunately how the world tends to see us … it is not how the Church is viewed, nor how we may even see the Church ourselves. All too often the church expresses its faith in less than faithful ways … Last night, I was deeply disturbed to find a video clip of a pastor from a church in Orlando calling on his flock to NOT pray for the families of the victims of the shooting, but he expressed thanks that the shooting happened and with his congregational support said that it was too bad more weren’t shot, AND that it was the will of God that they were shot and that God wants ALL gay and lesbian people dead … too often – THAT hate-mongering is the voice of the Church …

Add to that that this past week, our televised comedians offered reflections that we by far more faithful than many offered by voices within the Church.

Thankfully though, some churches spoke up and spoke out in voices trembling with deep heartfelt grief, including The Rt Rev Jordan Cantwell offered the words: “If there is a word of hope to be uttered in the face of such tragedy, this is it: When we stand together in defiance of hatred, we are stronger and we are safer. No act of violence can strip us of our humanity – particularly when we respond to homophobia, transphobia and Islamophobia with love.”

I’ve watched as colleagues across this United Church of ours have wrestled with the pain and grief the shooting has stirred … from lighting candles, to draping the communion table in rainbows – they have spoken words of love and compassion and inclusion in the face of unspeakable hate … and they are not alone in speaking out …  

One comedian – Trae Croder, the Liberal RedNeck offered a challenge to the Church writ large that we should take seriously as we wrestle with the phobias that run rampant in our society AND OUR COMMUNITY. In a video posted online Croder , with some pretty raw language observes that the heinous hate crime that happened in Orlando is what happens when zealous hate mascarading as faith is allowed to go unchecked. He challenges ALL OF US to take this seriously – to take the things we believe that stigmatize and marginalize Gays, Lesbians, Transgendered and bi-sexual people – “the archaic lunacy” as he describes it – that involves owning slaves, subjecating women and other things that have no place in civilized society and chuck it on the ideological scrap heap once and for all …

It’s a vivid and accurate reminder that we MUST decide whether we take our faith seriously, and how that gets expressed … today, perhaps like never before we are being challenged to chose love or hate as we live out our faith … we’re really good collectively at saying “jesus said …” and offering things he never actually said, when we should be taking seriously the things he ACTUALLY said.

For example – let’s play for a moment … Jesus said we are to love our neighbours and he ALSO said “let he without sin cast the first stone …”

Let the one without sin cast the first stone … hmmm … shall we do a review of what constitutes sin in the Jewish faith that he was speaking within?

 Well … let’s consider these things that were sins … you have a rock in your hand, and you can throw it IF YOU ARE WITHOUT SIN … you have sinned if you have done any of the following:

Left the town boundary on a Sunday

Taken God’s name in vain

Disrespected or cursed your parents

Really really wished you had something your neighbour has

Withheld food, clothing or sex from your spouse

(Remember: these are from the 613 prohibitions in the Jewish Torah)

Let money to someone poorer than you rather than just giving it

Charged any kind of interest on a loan to ANYONE

Cursed, ridiculed or called down the Prime Minister or Premier or ANY world leader

Failed to rest on the Sabbath

Have you ever eaten a cheeseburger? Pizza with meat AND cheese?

Bacon? Pork? Ham? Shrimp? Lobster? Oysters? Crab? Mussels? Octopus or Squid?

Sorry, ALL of those are sinful and forbidden food …

Have you ever gossiped?

Borne a grudge?

Shaved your beard?

Gotten a tattoo?

Done anything that has ridiculed or embarrassed another?

Do you tithe? Apparently to NOT tithe everything is a sin … funny how we skip that one quite A LOT … and quickly …

Ever visit a medium or play with a ouji board? It’s a sin to attempt to contact or communicate with the dead …

Do you wear mixed cloth? Polyester blends (which may be a sin for other reasons …) or cotton blends? Or wool blends? We are to wear ONLY natural fibres without blending linen or cotton or wool … so no nylon, polyester, or any other synthetic fibres …

Oh and I discovered reviewing the 613 torah prohibitions that carp is edible, and okay, but most seafoods like scallops and sushi are ‘not so much …”

The list goes on and on and on … it covers all manner of sexual behaviour like sleeping with a woman’s son’s daughter … a widow’s daughter and so on … it has a single almost passing mention of men lying with men … and quite a lot to say about behaviours and actions in and around worship and service before God … one reference to men lying down with men, and DOZENS about how we are treat the poor and marginalized, how we are to conduct ourselves at worship, and what we should do about property and wealth …

Yet, we cherry pick about three or four prohibitions and completely and utterly ignore the other 610 …

We also over look that the Bible is okay with some other stuff that we’re not – things like slavery, capital punishment, corporeal punishment, treating women as property, denying women, children, minorities, refugees and homeless people of their rights and a number of other things we no longer see as civilized or humane …

AND THAT’S THE POINT

Perspectives change and faith is a dynamic thing based on certain unalienable truths, the most essential and central being the three words Jesus spoke: love thy neighbour – that’s it. No conditions, no terms and limiting definitions, just love thy neighbour …

It’s kind of like the poem I began with – feed my sheep – love thy neighbour … just do it – no conditions!!

Instead of focusing on the nuance of the 613 sins and trying to find a way to avoid or even get around them, we are to focus forward on how we live the IMPORTANT teachings instead.

Instead of focusing on the sins, we are to focus on Grace and how that love is poured forth in abundance.

This past week, I was reading a book on the theology of the Social Gospel and realized that the heart of the theology undergirding the Social Gospel is a call to simplify our faith into action …

If we meet someone who is cold, we comfort them and bring them care, compassion and warmth.

If we meet someone who is hungry, we feed them.

If we meet someone who is wounded, we don’t wonder how it happened, and what we can do to prevent it happen to others, we tend their wounds and comfort them …

If we meet someone who is a victim of unspeakable violence, we don’t start pointing figures and clouding the issue by politicizing and distracting everyone from the real issue. Instead we tend to their wounds and care for them and stand up against the violence they have endured …

The social gospel calls us to act …

The book itself points out that Theologians and preachers have a tendency to make complex issues of faith, Instead of focusing on the practical, they pontificate grandly … while the solution is actually quite simple.

As I read the book on the social gospel, I thought of a passage in the Barbara Kingsolver book The Poisonwood Bible, where the missionary in Africa is approached by the tribal chieftain of the village where he is sharing his ministry.

The chief tells the missionary he needs to stop doing baptisms of the people.

The missionary puffs himself up in righteous indignation and says “that’s impossible! This is about the salvation of the people … they were born in sin and need to be redeemed by the blood of Christ and brought into the family by the act of Baptism …” he goes on and on and offers a theological rationale for continuing the baptism …

The chief says “no no, it has nothing to do with any of that … there are crocodiles in the river and they eat people … stop doing baptisms there”

The horrors of the events at Disney World not withstanding this past week, That’s the point within the church … too often we overlook the practical and focus on the superfluous … Today the world is saying to people of faith who exclude, fear and even hate LGBT people that they need to stop focusing on the superfluous and instead focus on the practical … Jesus said Love thy neighbour … no conditions … no frivolous terms  

In the face of the unspeakable violence that unfolded at Orlando and that is perpetuated EVERYTIME someone speaks words of hate couched in religious faith, we are called to say ENOUGH …

Enough of the exclusion and bigotry

Enough of the hypocritical judgement

Enough of the misreading of scripture to put asterixes on the call to love thy neighbour

Enough of allowing ignorance, fear and hatred towards gays, lesbians, transgendered, minorities, refugees, first people, disabled, or any one who doesn’t fit the norm …

ENOUGH of hiding our faith and letting the bullies and ignorant hicks speak out painting us with a horrendous and hatefilled brush …

It’s time to step up and LIVE WHAT JESUS really said. It’s times to choose actively to express our FAITH in love … Love NOT hate hidden in religious niceties …

What did Jesus say … as a Jesus scholar what we can with certainty say he likely really said is a very short paragraph … we did say “love your neighbour” … he did say “let he with no sin cast the first stone” … he did say “your sins are forgiven” … he did say “your faith has made you whole” … and he likely did say “Feed my sheep.”

I don’t know about you … but that is enough for me to get busy living out my faith in the world … in the quiet reflection that comes when we grapple with suffering and grief, we have an opportunity like Elijah, to listen to the whisper of the still small voice and respond differently …

Love thy Neighbour …

Let’s go and show the world what love really means.

Thanks be to God … Let us pray …