“Don’t Look Back!”

July 7, 2024: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.

Well, it is really good to be back from General Convention and here in this pulpit again. I missed you’all!

Gee – did I miss anything? Did anything happen these past few weeks– you know, in the country, in our church? Maybe just a few things, right?

But before we go there, I want to just remind folks about something we heard earlier in the second letter of St. Paul to the church in Corinth (and no, that isn’t called “Two Corinthians” – anyone who ever went to church knows that).

In the epistle, St. Paul reflects on having been given a thorn in the flesh…by Satan no less…which he continues to bear with great pain. He then writes “Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”

“Power is made perfect in weakness.”

Now, I want to make it very clear that St. Paul is NOT saying that anyone who is oppressed, or abused, should just put up with it in the name of Jesus. What on earth could folks be thinking about when they say such a thing (and they do)? The Jesus I know, the Jesus in my heart, would never ever want any child of God to suffer.

No, that isn’t what is going on here. However, we can better understand what St. Paul is telling us by going to the gospel passage from Mark we also heard today.

After being rejected by his hometown, Jesus sends his followers out in pairs, and telling them not to take anything with them – no money, or extra provisions. They are to go from village to village, and stay with whomever welcomes them, as they proclaim the good news.

Now, why on earth would Jesus do that? Why would he send them out without even a credit card or a backpack with a change of clothes?

Well, for one thing, traveling this way makes them vulnerable. They must rely upon the kindness and compassion of strangers. If they are to have a place to rest their head or get a meal, they must also enter into the life setting of others. Then, and only then, are they able to really share the good news.

If only Christians would understand this today.

There have been things going on these past few weeks in our country and in the church. Across this nation a few days ago, we celebrated our Independence Day. A few weeks ago we celebrated Juneteenth, another day of Independence. The previous weekend was the conclusion of Pride month. All of these are moments of liberation, of freedom for the oppressed who suffered under the yoke of the tyranny of the powerful.

These past few weeks also brought news of Louisiana legislating the display of Hebrew scriptures – specifically the so called “Ten Commandments,” in the classrooms of school children. I am not sure which version of this covenant between the Jewish people and God they are referring to, the one from Exodus or the one from Deuteronomy – and I bet they couldn’t answer that either. And, not only is it to be displayed, but it must be in large type on something the size of a poster. Hopefully it is also in the original language of Hebrew, but something tells me that these errant so-called Christians think this came down with Moses from Mount Sinai written in English, preferably that of the era of King James I (or the VI, if you are Scottish).

And we certainly cannot forget what the Supreme Court has done – for one thing: creating a monarchy – a King or Queen with immunity for things done during their term of office as President. The founders of our democratic republic must be turning over in their graves. As we know from history, absolute power of this kind always brings with it tyranny over the most vulnerable among us.

And what is ironic, and truly horrifying, is that these folks, the people on the Supreme Court who made this decision, and the people in Louisiana, self-identify as Christians – as followers of Jesus!

Folks, we have work to do. We have so much work to do.

Because sadly these headline grabbing folks who claim to be followers of Jesus have lost their way.

We know from just this gospel passage that we are not meant as followers of Jesus to seek power, or to instill power in others so that they may thwart justice.

And most especially, we are not meant to force the good news on others – demanding that they listen.

These folks in Louisiana, in an attempt to return to their proverbial hometown, the comfort zone of Christian majorities and filled churches on Sunday, have become the very ones who reject the Christ in their midst.

Jesus in this passage from Mark is very clear – we are sent by him into the world, NOT to dominate, not to nationalize, not to change people to be just like us. We are sent to go to where others are, to seek them out, to live in their context, to know them and let them know us.

Some might say – didn’t Jesus tell his disciples to condemn anyone who rejected the gospel? That isn’t what Jesus was saying at all. He sends his followers out to be the guests of others, and that is a place of vulnerability. For anyone to not welcome the stranger was to reject the law of God. That was the sin of Sodom, as the Matthew version of this story suggests. So Jesus told them to condemn their lack of hospitality to them, and move on.

You know, maybe these folks need to read the entire bible, not just their favorite parts, because there were other commands of God, some from those same books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. In fact, over a hundred of them make it clear that God demands that we welcome the stranger. And who is the stranger? Those who are not like us, those who are vulnerable, those who need us to help them. Today those strangers would be the immigrant or refugee, the homeless, the addicted, the poor, the marginalized and oppressed.

Jesus knew these laws to welcome the stranger, as did his disciples. So no, Jesus was not telling them to condemn their unwillingness to be a follower of Jesus, but their unwillingness to take in the vulnerable, the stranger in their midst.

So, to the folks in Louisiana as well as those who made the Supreme Court decision – we must make it absolutely clear, that as followers of Jesus, we aren’t meant to have power, but have authority.

Authority to speak truth to those with power.

Authority to heal by the grace of God.

Authority to cast out the demons of hate.

And, like Jesus, we aren’t meant to return to our hometowns either.

No, I don’t mean you can’t go visit family or attend a school reunion. But the church needs to guard against its own propensity to look backward to where we came from, not forward to where Jesus is sending us now. We are not meant to yearn for days gone by – for the comfort food of home – the home of yesterday – when pews were filled and budgets were ample.

No. Jesus, in his trip back to his old stompin’ grounds, realized that you can never go back. So he sends his followers out into the world – to places unknown – not as conquerors, but as servants – his servants. If only we had heeded this gospel in days past when our missionary work was misguided and colonialist.

But while we can’t change our past, we can change our future.

We are here today, and Jesus is sending us out too!

He sends us to be an example of what the church should be: Not a people who tell others what to believe, but as those who listen and, rooted in Christ’s love, share the good news by our lives.

Jesus sends us out not condemn, but to shake the dust of hate, bitterness, and division from our feet and proclaim that being unwilling to welcome the stranger, to care for the vulnerable among us, that goes against the law of God.

And that is what your church is doing, and why there was much Good News coming out of General Convention. One event I helped put together was on the work of the committee on which I serve – the Executive Council Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility. At Convention, we celebrated 50+ years of putting our treasure where our heart is by our ethical investing and advocacy through proxy resolutions at shareholder meetings. This might not sound like much, except that it had a direct impact on apartheid in South Africa, on human rights around the world, on the use of fossil fuels, the use of weapons of mass destruction, and more. (For a video on this work, see this link: https://www.episcopalchurch.org/video/the-ccsr-story/ )

At General Convention, we elected our next Presiding Bishop and others to positions of church leadership. We once again made our prayer book marriage rights more inclusive. We condemned both Hamas and the destruction of the Palestinian people. We marched in the streets against gun violence and listened to the voices of young people who suffer under the shadow of it. We lamented our role in the tragedies that took place at Indigenous boarding schools, and so much more. We also “reexamined [our] clergy disciplinary canons while agreeing to consider how lay leaders might be disciplined for wrongdoing, and supported changes in the structures of seven of [our] dioceses,”[1]as we seek to meet the needs of today, rather than of days gone by.

There were other decisions coming out of General Convention that I think were shrouded in the sense of being forward thinking, but I believe were misguided. Things like what happened years ago when the structure of the church was reduced to be more fleet and flexible, when what it did, unintentionally I believe, was limit the number of participants in church governance.

One of those concerns the consecration of our new Presiding Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe, who decided to scale the service down to a small one in the chapel at the Church Center in New York, rather than having it at our cathedral, Washington National Cathedral, in DC. This will eliminate a great many who could normally attend in-person. Yes, either place could livestream it, and it will be, but we are a church born from the incarnational presence of God – the Word made flesh. Physical presence matters. God knew that, why do we struggle to understand it? Participation by livestreaming is not the same thing. Not to mention the evangelism opportunity lost by not having the larger service in such a public sphere. Again, a decision that, on the surface, looks cool, new, and forward thinking, but I believe is retreating into oneself for comfort, or to make a statement, rather than stepping boldly forward into the future Christ is calling the church.

All this to say that while we strive to follow Jesus, we will sometimes make mistakes – because we are not him, we are fully human, and we are vulnerable, and hopefully that will keep us humble for the work we need to do.

Still, on the whole, we are a church on the move – not trying to go back to what once was – but yearning to go where Jesus needs us now.

And so folks, this is an exciting time to be an Episcopalian – a part of this branch of the Jesus movement!

Because we are NOT trying to turn schools for children into church recruitment centers – we are lifting up the voice of children to help build and guide the future of the church!

We are NOT using our baptismal authority to force others to be just like us – we are opening our doors to welcome in the stranger and going out from those same doors in humility to offer nothing less than our service to others and our listening hearts.

We are NOT saying God hates whomever we want to hate – but instead we choose love – because as our Presiding Bishop said at the revival early on in the Convention, in front of more than 2,000 people – “choose love because love can save us.”

Love can save us.

God’s love.

It is the only thing that ever has.

It is the only thing that can.

So don’t look back – look forward!

Don’t hope for what once was – rejoice in what is about to be!

Jesus is sending us – sending you – out into the world.

Grab your staff, put on your sandals and follow the Holy Spirit wherever she leads you.

Because you will cast out demons of hate – by the unconditional love of Jesus.

You will heal people – by the grace of God.

And by your work, the church, you, the entire world, will be saved.

Amen.