October 23, 2016 Guest Preacher, Jason McClaughry

Build your house on the rock

To my children:

While you are fast asleep, I lay awake. This is often the case on nights when I am overcome by a complex web of thoughts. In the stillness and darkness of midnight I read, listen, think….worry. I think about you, your mother, family and friends. I think about tomorrow. How will you navigate this beautiful, but often chaotic world we live in? What will you build your life upon? Who will you build it with?

I am encouraged by my Faith. You will not go it alone. Everybody joins a team in this life. You are born into your first one. As life goes on, you will join other teams, some through friendship, some through romance, and some through neighborhoods, schools, churches. There’s a role that you must play on the team, and it will affect you as you affect it. All your teams will have decidedly different fates. Some of your teams will win, some will lose. Some or your teams will achieve their expectations, some will not. Some of your teams will be remembered for their greatness, some will not. But none of your teams will be considered a failure if the contributors make a total effort to do the best that of which they are capable and remain true to principles. Ultimately, the dividend of your team will be the complete peace of mind gained in knowing you did everything within your power, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually to bring forth your full potential.

You and your team will need a solid foundation, founded on Faith and constructed upon the Rock, Jesus Christ. Even with a firm foundation, at times it will be tempting to yield to the pressures of life and become the person others would have you to be. So clearly define your common set of principles and remain true to them. Let me share with you four of my most closely held principles, selected with meticulous care and consideration following a variety of experiences in my life. Let me share with you about the principles of Love, Unity, Honor, and Courage.

Love

To be good teammates in life, you will need to learn to truly love one another. What do I mean when I say love?  The word has multiple meanings, and it may be a bit confusing. A familiar usage of love would include things like a strong affection for another or a warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion to someone. But I am thinking about love in the sense of “Christian love”; an unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another. Jesus tells us in the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Both the Old and New Testament tell us to not love with words and emotions, but with actions. We need to share with those in need, whether that need is for food, water, lodging, clothing, healing, or friendship. The love demonstrated in the parable of the Good Samaritan shows that “Christian love” is not emotional love, but a response to someone who is in need. And no one loves us more than God, for John 3:16 tells us that “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. Since God made the ultimate of sacrifices and Jesus laid down his only life for us, we must be willing to lay down our lives for our brothers. Christ's total love and sacrifices for us motivates our evangelism and compels us to become ambassadors for Christ, spreading this good news to all that will hear.

I have seen many examples of Christian love in my life. My first coaches, in the form of my parents, showed me love in the highest form, consistently placing the needs of others above their own. They have, by example, portrayed a deep devotion to one another and their community for a lifetime. I have witnessed them helping an unknown somebody so they could get where they were going or in exceptional times welcoming a stranger in need, into our house, in the middle of the night. As a volunteer fireman, my father selflessly devoted more than 50 years of his life to his community, rising at all hours to respond to those in need. Most importantly my early coaches have been friends and examples to all whom they have encountered.

Unity

Fundamental to your team success will be unity. Without unity, you will simply be a loosely connected set of participants, likely bound to quickly go your separate ways. However, a team conducted with the choreography of unity and performing in concert with others is a wonderful thing. Team unit has an inherent way or magnifying and multiplying the performance of the individual. In this way, the group of players becomes more than a team – they can and will become a force. John Wooden, legendary basketball coach for the UCLA Bruins, when asked late in life about what he saw as the key to team unity, remarked elegantly – “Love for one another; consideration for everyone”.

The Bible places an extraordinary emphasis on the value of “unity”, but how will you achieve it? The secret to unity originates with how you view yourselves within the team and how you view your teammates. Ephesians 4: 2-3 tells us to be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  A team filled with such people cannot help but have peace, unity, and harmony. The truly humble person sees his own faults in light of the perfections of Christ; he does not seek to see the faults of others.  A team full of such people enjoying their “common salvation” will be unified in carrying on the mission of 

Christ.

Your church team is full of individuals who have a variable set of backgrounds, uniqueness, and personalities. Even as part of the Christian body, they do not all think alike or even perform identical ministries. Such profound individualism could be counter to team unity. However one of the things I appreciate about your Church team, of which there are an abundance of things, is their ability to unite behind a number of causes. They do this together, in spite of individuality and the numerous things that could serve as divides. Most crucially this group has a common binder. The team’s common unity comes from a Faith in Jesus Christ and a belief that he spread the Gospel during his time on earth, died on the cross, and on the third day was resurrected. So the team is unified in this Faith, working to spread the Gospel of Jesus, and often gathering to celebrate this common purpose triumphantly around the Communion table. The team is a beautiful example of centering on common purpose of unity, in spite of outside influences that place a higher value on apparent differences.

Honor

When outsiders talk about your team, will they say you conduct yourselves with honor?  Do you deserve their courtesy, respect, and reverence? Honor, in the form of praise and adoration, is often conferred upon those of wisdom and intelligence, those with wealth, political clout, power, and celebrity status.  Such honor is fleeting, so don’t buy into the hype; fortunes are won and lost, reputations will be damaged and destroyed. True honor is living a life, infused with Spiritual humility, and based more upon esteem for our fellow man rather than ourselves. Romans 12:10 tells you to be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. When you learn the greatness of God you will learn the futility of trying to make yourself great.

Our Founding Fathers clearly understood and followed this Biblical understanding of honor. In 1776, the signers of our  Declaration of Independence, in citing abusive policies and foreign rule, recited the details of those conditions and offered a remedy for them. Interestingly in the final section of the final sentence, the founders stated “we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”  The word honor was singled out as sacred. To the founders, their lives and fortunes were not sacred; in the face of overwhelming power, they apparently realized that the only thing likely to endure an armed rebellion, if it came to that, would be their ideals, beliefs and faith. When they added sacred to the wording, they were letting go and committing their lives to God and each other completely, knowing that He would ultimately be their judge. This was not something they did lightly.

Courage

It could be argued that the most basic challenge to your practice of Faith is to overcome fear and remain faithful, to remain true to your convictions and commitments, even when doing so leads to frustration or pain or embarrassment – even when it leads to persecution. What will it take for you and your team to remain faithful and adhere to your principles of love, unity, and honor? It will take an abundance of courage underlain by a sense of boldness and confidence.  Faith will provide you with the discipline, confidence, and courage, to move forward in spite of your fears and obstacles that will fall in your way. Your faith will reaffirms to you that God is ultimately in control of your lives.

God is clear about fear and courage. Psalm 23 reinforces the concept where David writes Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.  We will at times struggle through excessive trials; more than a man can handle alone. Fear not, have courage. God’s power will see you through. In 2 Corinthians 12:8 Jesus tells you that My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. God doesn’t simply command courage with no reason behind it. Instead He says “fear not”. God Himself, His nature, and His perfect plans allow you to set aside fear and move forward with courage and conviction. The key in Christian life is not trying to be strong in yourself, but rather letting God’s power and strength fill and empower you through the inevitable difficulties of life and our Gospel Ministry.

There are different types of courage, ranging from physical strength and endurance to mental stamina and innovation. No story, no person more perfectly exemplifies the virtue of courage to encourage men than that of Jesus Christ. Within his brief lifespan Jesus stood up and defeated Satan when tempted in the Wilderness; he continued to evangelize in spite of murderous plots against him; he stood up to the false teachings of the Jewish elites and corrupt economic powers; he stood up against mobs that were against him; he overcame anguish and accepted the Father’s will, knowing full well the physical hardship he would soon face; he stood up to the Romans; he endured torture and persecution courageously even though he had many chances to recant and yield the beliefs of his Gospel. Ultimately he accepted death on the cross, making an infinite sacrifice of his life for the sins of all mankind. In the face of this horrible end, Jesus courageously told his followers in John 15:13 “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”.

Conclusion

When I was young man, my mother gave me a book of poems to let me know that the world was a better place because I was part of the team. The following poem is one of my favorites from the book. I hope it will be one of yours as well, providing guidance and inspiration as you join all the different teams in your life. The poem is entitled:

How can you measure the value of a man.

The measure of a man is not found in the things he owns,

or what he has saved for retirement

or even his accomplishments

The true measure of a man is found in his faith and his heart.

Its found in the friends who stand by him.

the strength he displays under pressure,

the sensitivity he unashamedly expresses,

and his willingness to reveal vulnerability,

even at the risk of being hurt.

And its found in the truth of his words,

The genuineness of his life,

His unselfish actions,

And the values he lives by.

In the Bible you will find the bedrock principles upon which to build a lifelong foundation of Faith. If you catch a vision of the work that God is doing in the world, and the role he has given you to play in it, you will be given a purpose big enough to be worthy of your commitment to love, unity, honor, and courage. You can have faith that our God has acted, our God is acting, and our God will act in times to come.

October 16, 2016 Luke 2:21, & 25-38

After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child;
and he was called Jesus,
the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon;
this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit rested on him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.
Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple;
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus,
to do for him what was customary under the law,
Simeon took the child in his arms and praised God, saying,

“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about Jesus.
Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary,
“This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.
She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four.
She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day.
At that moment she came,
and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all
who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

****
This scripture began as seventeen verses and as I weekly do in sermon preparation, I wrote down each word by hand. By the time I got to Anna my hand was already sore and I wondered how necessary she was. Simeon steals the show taking the babe in his arms, praising God and blessing the parents. Without closer look, Anna can seem like an after thought, but I always feel bad about omitting women from a scripture passage, especially those who are named. There aren’t many of them, and Anna is called a prophet, the title right in front of her name. Its probably something we ought to hear more and so I kept her, and this Sunday, God called me to preach her, to preach Anna, to preach about women, about the ways they are often ignored, sidelined, and suffer abuse, to preach Anna, and her counter example of prophesy, of inclusion, faithfulness and strength. God also called me to call preach Simeon, what it looks like to be a man, righteous and devout, to preach Simeon, who holds a child in his arms, who praises God, and who gives a blessing. It seems in our national discourse we have forgotten the type of language and character that is redemptive, as Christians we have forgotten our focus on being a people of God.

And you would think that a Pastor’s Group would be one place where we remembered but even there I have witnessed locker room conversations. When I first began attending the Thursday morning gathering, Pastor Garth of the Agape Church and Pastor Lenny of the Nazarene welcomed me. They mentored me during my tumultuous first year of ministry; they shared stories of their own, let me cry and weekly sent me off with prayer. They were men like Simeon, men who could hold my vulnerability like Simeon held the child in his arms. Yet they treated me as an equal, often reassuring my calling to the pastorate in a town where I was the only full time female minister. As time passed, I grew busy and less in need of the weekly support, but would return to the Thursday gatherings to remain in contact with the Lenny and Garth and other pastors.

The group grew, three-fold at least though I was still the only female. Walking toward the meeting room in the back of the church, I would be so conscious of the sound of my feet walking down the hall. I didn’t want to click heels, I didn’t want my femininity to be the thing which preceded me. I didn’t want to be noticed before I could see what being noticed looked like. I was so quiet they never heard me coming, and they would sometimes remark as such. It made sense with so many of them they could no longer hear because what was once a place of prayer turned more like a political debate. Raised voices and interrupting filled the space, as did proof-texting-rhetorical-questions like, “What does Judges 8.43 say?” leaving the answerer to inadvertently support the speaker’s case by recalling the verse, or feel inadequate for not having memorized it. I would watch the sparing, sometimes for the entirety of an hour, and leave renewed in the assurance our gender and theological differences rather than revitalized for ministry with the community. I don’t know how long I lasted on this particular morning. Maybe Lenny noticed me and asked what I thought, but more than likely, I burned out,
“Do you guys know how you are speaking to each other - raised voices, debating, interrupting, a battle of wits without much compassion of your hearts.”
“This is how men who are close friend’s talk to each other,” some defended. Others mansplained that it was like sports and, “locker room conversation,” they said.
Clearly, I wasn’t welcomed in that men’s locker room - of bullying pastors rolling up wet towels. My feet had to remain quiet to be there and I was done. I have never been back, but as left that day, it was the first time I felt proud, a women like Anna, a prophet, who spoke to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem? Not the status quo, where the political arena is the temple of our nation and it’s locker rooms their chancel.

And I wish it was just locker room talk, if talk was all it ever was it would be less, but instead there are women for whom these things have happened, be they Monica Lewinsky or victims of Trump, or myself. I say victims of Trump because what is more disturbing than what is said in that video is what happened at its end. Having already objectified, and some might say threatened, the woman who has come to interview them, the two men get out of the van, and they each ask for a hug from the woman for the other man. She is there to interview them. She is there to do her job but they have made her job to put her body against theirs, with cameras rolling and the joke on her.

The other week I was out going to listen to music, and I saw a good friend of mine. He is engaged to another good friend of mine, and like many boyfriends and husbands of friends he gets a little big brotherly about who I date and how I’m treated. I always feel like he’s on my team. He also is kind of a giant Teddy Bear in football player size. So when I gave giant hug he picked me up and spun me around and I laughed. It was big brotherly, in the same way I have watched him dance with his nieces or that Simeon might have lifted up Jesus in his arms. But then my friend asked for me to give his friend a hug. Immediately, I became conscious of my body, what I was wearing, and how uncomfortable I felt. It felt like being set up, like there had been some discussion about me prior that I wasn’t in on. Did the friend think I was cute, or had they talked about my body as I had walked toward them? Maybe it was unintentional, but either way, it felt like I was a commodity, “I don’t know him that well.” I said apologetically and there was an awkward silence until I quickly excused myself inside the restaurant. I thought of when Maddy Irvine was a very little girl, and when she was saying hello or goodbye, her mom Melissa would say could give a hug, a high-five, or a handshake. My favorite were the jumping, dancing hugs where both people jumped or danced and then gave each other a big hug, but like my friend who picked me up, those were special occasions reserved for both knowing someone well and both feeling joyful. After church, Maddy was more likely to give a high five, and I wish I had been taught that option when I was little. I still remember Mr. Gannon’s whiskers itching and tickling my skin when as a kid my parents had me give him and his wife a hug and kiss before we left. It wasn’t sketchy, or at least it didn’t mean to be, but I wish I had ingrained in me another option, an option of choice. Maddy will grow up knowing she can be Anna, she can be a prophet, or whatever she wants, and Alex her brother will have seen the same. It wont mean that on exiting the church, he will give a handshake and she a hug. They will know that people like Siemon are just as likely to hold baby as Annas are to be prophets, and how will that change the redemption of our Jerusalem, this discourse of our nation?

Maybe, they won’t have people tell them they are too pretty to be a pastor, insinuating not only that pastors can’t be pretty, but that there are occupations for pretty girls and this is not one of them. Maybe, they won’t do a funeral and have some weird man come up to them and thank them for dressing like a woman, in a long professional skirt, as if how they dressed was the mark of their calling rather than the service they just did which declared the Lord’s presence in all of life, like Anna, the prophet, did when the Christ child was born. Maybe they will be more like former children of the church, Kate and Danny who fought fires together. Kate recalls,

“I asked him and one of our co-workers what they were doing and if they needed help and the co-worker said ‘man-stuff’ and I said, “What?’ And he said “We’re doing man-stuff,” and Danny stopped and stared at him and said, “Really?” and lit into him about how that wasn’t cool at all.”
Danny could have joined with his co-worker and ignored Kate but I think Danny is like Simeon. Danny is a man who who is righteous and devout, and who knows that God can work through Kate just as well as him. Bring treated equally meant even more Kate coming from someone in her church family.

This is why, I think it’s important to keep the Annas and Simeons in the text, so we can hear the redeeming prophesy of women, and the righteousness of men. So we can hear them from this ancient scripture, and likewise from our youth today.

October 9, 2016 Luke 17. 11-19

Notes: Skin Disease not just leproacy

Priests are the ones who declare people clean and unclean.

Luke 17:11–19                                                                                                                             

On the way to Jerusalem

Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 

As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. 

Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, 

“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 

When he saw them, he said to them, 

“Go and show yourselves to the priests.” 

And as they went, they were made clean. 

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, 

turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 

He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. 

And he was a Samaritan. 

Then Jesus asked, 

“Were not ten made clean? 

But the other nine, where are they? 

Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 

Then he said to him, 

“Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

SERMON (PASTOR)

The same system

When you have been deeply welcomed you are unbelievably grateful.

I imagine the ten lepers, and I always wonder how old they were when the priests first deemed them unclean. Did they develop bad acne in their early teens and were sent to live in the leper colony or did they have eczema since childhood and their parents covered their legs until the child was found out and shunned. Were they older and moles began to mark their skin and the life they knew was taken away because people didn’t understand that they were harmless and uncontagious. 

Who was the priest who first deemed them unclean, and did the lepers remember his name? What was the feeling when someone’s skin cleared and the priests allowed the leper to be roam free? Was it relief, triumph, trepidation? Did they return to visit risking contagion for relationship or were they too afraid of those who were once their outcast band? 

What's it like to be unable to touch or be touched by another person? What was it like to walk on the outside of the streets and be ignored? What was like to see Jesus, and have to keep their distance? I imagine they yelled mighty loud to this one whom they had heard might make them clean. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” As if they internalized they had done something wrong. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” They chorus out, louder still, until he sees them. “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” 

I assume they felt dismissed, another prophet, keeping them on the outside. His first word, “Go,” instead of, “Come,” let me look, never breaking the social shunning code of you over there and me here. The prophet’s second phrase, that they show themselves to the ones with the power to proclaim them still dirty. As if instead of healing, they needed to be reminded of their station. Another prophet, failing, these ailments unable to disappear with words alone, instead their occurrence and disappearance as unpredictable as a change in weather.

These lepers had been shunned like this before, and so they walk on, on the sides of the streets where they know the corners where the dirt meets each structure’s edge. Yet, walking they start to notice it on one another. Their pox scabbing, scaring, and clearing. Their acne shrinking and disappearing, their rosacea reducing to just a the flush of hot weather, they begin to talk and tell each other, and see it on themselves, and they know they have been cured, and to go to the priests now means they will be deemed clean and allowed to be free. I imagine their pace quickening, their voices loudening, their dreams rushing of whom they will first embrace, of where they will be allowed to go. I don’t know if I would be the one to turn back and postpone such long held dreams, I don’t blame them for rushing on to the thing they have longed for, rushing from the place of oppressed outcast to welcome home. But one did.

One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. 

Then Jesus asked, 

“Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 

And as if answering his own question Jesus said to the healed man, 

“Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” 

The nine ran to be proclaimed healed and clean by the same people, in the same system that had deemed them unclean. The nine ran to the authority of the priests, but this one, this one, turned back. In his turning back, he was not just healed but also made well. He was cured of the system itself, no longer tethered to the authority of the synagogue, but instead to the authority of gratitude. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And it is this deep thankfulness that changes the way we live. It is when someone sees you and with grace heals you, seeing your completeness, sometimes without your knowing, until later someone says you are changing or you have changed, and you see for yourself. You can go on, most of us do, but sometimes if we turn back, like the lepers,  with thanks we can live into the ways our faith has made us well. 

Jesus says to the healed man, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” Get up and go a different way. I don’t think he goes to the synagogue. I think he goes around expressing that gratitude that has made him completely well. And I hope we do the same.   

October 2, 2016 World Communion Sunday

Luke 17.5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, 

“Increase our faith!” 

The Lord replied, 

“If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 

‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. 

“Who among you would say to your slave

 who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 

‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? 

Would you not rather say to him, 

‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; 

later you may eat and drink’? 

Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 

So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 

‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”

SERMON

Upon first hearing, the scripture sounds like the slave comes back from a giant day of work, plowing in the field and tending sheep and then is commanded to serve their master dinner. The slave is doing what they ought, what they were told. But Jesus makes another suggestion. “Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? It is like the benevolent parking ticket God but way bigger. Jesus is asking who in the power position of master would reverse the roles and become the slave or servant?

Jesus continues to those who would identify as the masters, “Would you not rather say to the slave, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? This is the normal top-down mentality to which the master subscribes. “Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded?” No, I imagine them responding. 

Jesus asks, to those who are the powerless position of the salve, “So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’” My hope is that the slaves answer, No. we are not worthless, we do these things because we are commanded without choice. That they are the ones who know that slavery is no one’s place. If this is the case, then I think Jesus is aligning with them, giving them a nod that says, I am with you and I know your masters need the lesson here. But unfortunately, I think history also confirms that there are ways that once someone or someone’s people or gender or group, are enslaved they tend to buy into an identity of lesser than, or even worthlessness. Perhaps to these Jesus is preaching the same parable as he is to the masters. 

I think Jesus knows that both sides are most likely stuck in their ways, of powerful and powerless. But if we know anything about Jesus, it is that he came to turn over these tables and welcome everyone to the table.

At the beginning of the passage, the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Faith that has the strength to uproot and turn over and welcome is the faith Jesus asks of us.  

The slave, you remember, has plowed the field and tended the sheep. Comparatively, it wouldn’t take much physically for the master to serve. Yet, it would take an uprooting, a turning over, of culture and oppressive systems for the slave to be served by the master. It would be a welcome to the table of unfathomable measure. This is Jesus’ challenge. In Greek Mythology, the mulberry tree represents forbidden love requiring death. For there to be love between a slave and master would mean the death of the system all together. It would begin to erase the lines of slave and master, powerful and powerless. Moreover, it would mean that acts of service are done by choice instead of command. It would mean serving is the commodity rather than power. It would mean that a foolish welcome was the base of all actions. 

I look over at this table, dressed with cloths from all over the world, and I wonder who we might struggle to serve at that table, immigrants, refugees, Secretary Clinton, Donald Trump, Putin, Kim Jon-Un, the one percent, the ninety-nine, the black sheep of your family, the person to which we no longer speak, that person that you hope now shops at the other grocery store, or would be that part of ourselves that we deem unworthy. Who would be the most radical for us to serve? And I want us to imagine as the plates are passed, that having communion with them or those parts of ourselves this day, because Jesus was that radical but Jesus didn’t do it by command. He did it by grace. He is the master who chose to serve. 

Likewise, if you ask Lynn or Larry why they served at Open Door feeding middle school kids or Backpack sending students home with food, it boils down to feeling grace and serving out of that feeling. If you listened to Kourtney’s sermon last week she talked about the grace she felt being included as a youth in this congregation. She has felt that radical welcome and serves from that place. You are the church that feeds people, and there is a radical welcome in doing so, and you do it from a place of grace. 

I think about this pulpit, and that grace is the only reason I am here. Because like Jesus, you have extended grace to me, like when I was twenty-eight and wanted to be a pastor and you gave me a chance and said you would be teachers, or when I was twenty-nine got divorced and you sent more cards than I have ever received, or when I moved the flags out of the sanctuary and you didn’t move me out with them, or the times I got beyond frustrated during session meetings and you loved me anyway, or how I have been late so often that the youth jovially call it Katy-time, or when I’ve preached sermons that made no sense and you come back the next Sunday, or others that rubbed you the wrong way and you say I gave you something to think about, or, or, or, I may be the one ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament, meaning I get to preach, baptize and serve communion, but the only reason I am here is not because of that title but because of your grace, you, like Jesus have welcomed me to the table. It is from that grace I serve you. I do it not from a position of power but of humility, it’s probably the reason I get teary most Communion Sundays. 

Especially on this one, today on World Communion Sunday I imagine the radical grace and welcome of Jesus extending from this table to our pews, where we take the bread in unity, and from this church to other churches in town which may hold those people for whom we have hard time inviting, out to the streets and homes where our welcome feeds weekend meals to students whose name we do not know, out across our country to people with different views and different lives, out to various countries whose people in Jesus’ eyes should all be welcomed to this table, to be fed with grace. If you imagine it, our one small piece of bread, like mustard seed, but out across the world it is mulberry tree uprooted and planted by grace.