From Stumbling Blocks To Starting Blocks

Mark 9:38-50

While speaking to a joint meeting of our nation’s Congress about humanity’s response to hatred and violence needing to be that of hope and healing and of peace and justice, Pope Francis says that in order to move forward with promoting the well-being of individuals and people as a whole we must move “as one, in a renewed spirit of fraternity and solidarity, cooperating generously for the common good.” He then went on to say that “the challenges facing us today call for a renewal of that spirit of cooperation” while we, “support one another, with respect for our differences and our convictions of conscience.”

And then Pope Francis said something which has been with me since the words were spoken. He said that “Politics is, instead, an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good: that of a community which sacrifices particular interests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life.”

It wasn’t the part about what politics is and should be that captivated me; it was his proclamation of what the common good was: a community which sacrifices particular interests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life. I couldn’t have said it better, because that’s exactly what we’re called to do. We are called as people, regardless of who we are and where we find ourselves on the journey of life, to let go of our individual wants in order to share with all people, regardless of who they are or where on life’s journey they find themselves, the things which God has ensured us from the beginning of creation, which as the Constitution of this great country states are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The only way to do this, to ensure all people can live with these same freedoms, is to remove the stumbling blocks we place in front of them and which hinder others from knowing the love and peace of the one God. If our words and actions hinder someone from living life to its fullest, we are placing stumbling blocks in their path. If our words and actions are hindering someone from enjoying the same freedoms we enjoy, we are placing stumbling blocks in their path. If our words and actions hinder someone from pursuing that which brings pure happiness into their lives, we are placing stumbling blocks in their paths.

It’s these stumbling blocks which Jesus is talking about in today’s passage that he says causes others to trip and fall into sin. Sin is the words and actions which cause us to separate our relationships from one another, from ourselves, from creation, and from God. Some of those stumbling blocks can be small, like choosing not to recycle. Others can be large like denying someone a seat in a diner because of their skin color or denying two people a life together as family because they are gay.
It’s the example, if not admonition, of the stumbling blocks that Jesus uses to show how we need to come together as one in order to reconcile ourselves under the one love of God.

Our passage from today is a continuation of last week’s intimate moment with Jesus and his disciples. Jesus is in his sanctuary and adopted home of Capernaum and while teaching who it is that we, his followers, should consider the greatest of society he brings to the center of those gathered a child, symbolizing that it is to them, the least among us, that we should give the place of greatness.

Jesus is still holding that child in the center of his gathered disciples when one of them, John, says that there was a man who was using Jesus’ name to perform miracles. He goes on to say that they tried to stop him because that man was not one of them.

That phrase, the one John uses as a reason to stop someone from doing good in the name of Jesus, is still being used to this day. How many times have we heard in recent weeks, months, or years that people must be stopped from doing what is right, such as sitting at the counter of a diner, because that person isn’t one of us; they are different and therefore must not be allowed the same freedoms that we have. John’s words help Jesus to realize that even his disciples still place stumbling blocks before people.

Jesus’ reply must have shocked his disciples, as well as the readers of Mark’s Gospel. “Don’t stop him”, he says. “Don’t stop him because if he is doing good deeds in my name he is a part of us.” You see, it was highly irregular for someone to use the name of a prophet or Rabbi as part of their teachings or healings unless that person was an approved member of the prophet or Rabbi’s community.

Jesus is asking his followers not to hinder the teachings of any who use his name to make the lives of others better, because by simply wanting to make someone’s life better by using Jesus’ name that person is automatically a part of the community.

So, with the child still in their midst, Jesus once again recognizes a teaching moment and says in a way as to make it very clear, that “whoever causes these little ones who believe in me to trip and fall into sin, it would be better for them to have a huge stone hung around their necks and to be thrown into the lake.”

Wow, stern words from a man of peace, wouldn’t you say?

But he doesn’t stop there. We are then privy to a very detailed description of what we should do if we somehow cause others to sin, to break their relationships. Descriptions which include disembodiment and a reference to Isaiah 66:24 about places where the fire never goes out and worms never die. We are told that being such a hindrance will get us cast into geena, which would be known by the readers of Mark as a place south of Jerusalem, where human sacrifices were burned in the name of pagan gods during the time of the prophet Jeremiah; a place for the cursed and wicked alike.

But, the point the Gospel of Mark is trying to have Jesus make is not that of everlasting suffering in this world or the next. The point Jesus is trying to make is that we need to remove whatever stumbling blocks we place in front of others which obstruct their journey towards reconciliation with self, others, creation, and God.

After learning of my journey towards a better relationship with God, people often ask me how I was able to change my heart when it came to certain social issues, especially the issue of same sex relationships. I’m honest when I tell them that I grew up in a culture that spoke out against such things, and how that teaching had handed me a stumbling block to place in front of people.

However, that kind of teaching never felt comfortable to me so I slowly moved away from the church. As much as I tried to change my heart, I found it very difficult only because of my attachment to society norms and its rules. Over time, though, I found ways to wear down that which separated me from my brother and sisters who found themselves on the outside of communities. Mostly through being a part of the United Church of Christ was I able to more openly understand what God is inviting us all to do.

However, coming back to church and rekindling my relationship with God was not the beginning of my change of heart. That happened years before, not too long after my divorce to my first wife.

I was having one of those difficult nights. Thinking about my failed marriage, work was extra stressful, and I just needed a place to hide and escape for a while. On my way home I saw a hole-in-the-wall bar on the outskirts of Chinatown. I immediately thought that was the place I needed to be; nobody I knew would ever go into such a place.

I walked in and took a seat at the bar. I ordered a beer and began mindlessly watching the television. The one thing I noticed about that place was how comfortable I immediately felt as I walked in. Maybe it was because I absolutely knew nobody would find me there, giving me a sense of being in a sanctuary of sorts; maybe.

The bartender was really friendly. I remember him being a bigger man, possibly about 6 feet tall and over 300 pounds. We talked about nothing, which is normal bar chit-chat. He asked how my day was; I told him it was ok. He asked what brought me there; I told him I was looking for a place to get away from things. I began talking about the stresses of work, to which he told me he understood. It was honestly as though we were already friends and was just catching up on each other’s day.

I asked for a second beer, which he gave to me “on the house”. I thanked him as he stepped out from behind the bar to check on the other people sitting at tables. I continued watching the television as I sipped my drink, feeling much more relaxed than when I first came in.

Another customer walked in and took a seat at the bar close to me. He said hello and introduced himself; I did the same. The bartender seemed to know this man as he immediately got out a beer and gave it to him. The man said thanks and they talked a bit about work. Again, bar chit-chat. Except that in a normal bar, at least those I was used to at that time, the idle conversation between a bartender and his customer was considered private conversation. Not in this place, as I was invited to contribute.

We began talking about other things – family, marriage, breakups – things I wouldn’t normally discuss with strangers, except I didn’t feel like a stranger in that place. I felt welcomed, included, and maybe most importantly I felt as though I was a part of their community. There was nothing in or about that place which hindered my abilities to be in relationship with those around me; even if those relationships were new.

During a break in our conversation I sat back, now completely at ease with my surroundings, and took a look around. Imagine my surprise to see people of the same gender cuddling around the room. The bartender must have recognized the look on my face because he asked if I knew I was in a gay bar. I said no, and he suddenly got this sad look on his face. I also noticed the man sitting next to me move back a little.

I felt stumbling blocks going up, and I didn’t like that feeling. So I said, practically amazing myself, “But I can still stay here even though I’m straight, I hope.” My new friends laughed and the stumbling blocks had turned into starting blocks. Over the months to come, when my dealing with the emotions and self-doubt which usually accompanies divorce was at its highest, I had friends with whom I could help me along my journey; friends who just happened to be gay but who loved me for who I was anyway.

Before that moment in the bar, I admit I was uncomfortable being around people from the LGBT community. In that moment at the bar I became a part of the LGBT community. I had removed the things which hindered the ability for others to be in relationship with me. I had removed the things which caused others to stumble and fall as they, too, tried to be in relationship with me.

It was the complete and unconditional acceptance of others which allowed my heart and mind to open to new ideas and new possibilities to be in God’s love. It is this same kind of love we are called to as followers of Christ.

Jesus places a person of no significance in the midst of those who follow him and tells them that unless we find a way to bring those whom we have pushed to the outside of society into being a part of our communities, we won’t find the happiness and joy we so desperately seek. We are called by our Christ to find a way to live as one people, under the one love of God.

In his conversations this past week, Pope Francis said much the same thing as he spoke about religious freedoms around the world. Yesterday, as he spoke to a crowd in Philadelphia’s Independence hall he said, "In this place which is symbolic of the American way, I would like to reflect with you on the right to religious freedom. It is a fundamental right which shapes the way we interact socially and personally with our neighbors whose religious views differ from our own." He then went on to say, “Religious freedom certainly means the right to worship God, individually and in community, as our consciences dictate. But religious freedom also goes along with places of worship and the private sphere of individuals and families."

What he was saying is that religious freedoms do not mean that only one religion has the right to pursue happiness and to live in the same liberties as others. Religious freedoms allow for all religions to worship God, the one God, in the way that best fits their personal choices. I have said this before, and I will say it again: I am a Christian. My salvation and hopes for an afterlife in God’s home goes firmly through Jesus Christ. I have no doubts that Jesus Christ is my personal savior and that because I center my life on his teachings I live a life filled with peace of mind and peace of heart. But that does not give me the right to proclaim that someone else’s belief doesn’t invite them into that same peace.

On Friday, Ann and I watched the prayer service from Ground Zero in New York City. We watched as men and women of different faiths spoke about peace and reconciliation. One by one adherents to the Jewish faith, Sikhs, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians stood and read from their individual doctrines. They spoke about how peace comes from their belief in a higher power and how that same peace is meant to be shared and returned. It was extremely touching for us as we watched people with diverse ideas and ideologies come together for one common purpose and with one common message: peace.

Then Pope Francis stood to give his homily. He talked about how religion can be used by extremists as well as everyday people to divide the common good of all people. He talked about how religious intolerance can be the cause of a lot of the violence happening around the world and in our nation. In that homily he also said something that absolutely blew us away. He said, “For all our differences and disagreements, we can live in a world of peace. In opposing every attempt to create a rigid uniformity, we can and must build unity on the basis of our diversity of languages, cultures and religions, and lift our voices against everything which would stand in the way of such unity. Together we are called to say “no” to every attempt to impose uniformity and “yes” to a diversity accepted and reconciled.

Please listen to those words again. Together we are called to say “no” to every attempt to impose uniformity, to make us all the same, and say “yes” to a diversity accepted and reconciled, to accepting us as we are and where we are on life’s journey.

Jesus’ message is the same. We are called to remove that which causes others to fall, which causes other not to be able to unconditionally belong to our communities. And we are called to do so simply by loving the least of them in the exact same way God loves us. Because, as the Pope so eloquently put it, “[True acceptance] can only happen if we uproot from our hearts all feelings of hatred, vengeance and resentment.” As Jesus puts it, only if we remove the stumbling blocks and turn them into starting blocks can we find true peace.

God is with us all.  Amen.

Being The First To Welcome The Last

Mark 9:30-37

Once again we find ourselves in the Gospel of Mark. I don’t know how you feel about it, but I’m truly enjoying the journey Mark is taking us on. We’ve been told stories about the life and teachings of Jesus which have brought true insight as to where I find myself in my relationship with God, and I hope it’s done the same for you.

Before we delve into today’s story, I thought I’d take a little time to remind us about the settings against which Mark was written. Mark comes to us in the midst of chaos for the Judean and Christian people. The Jewish people have begun a revolt against the Roman Empire and the Emperor Nero will have nothing of it, persecuting all who speak out or act against the Empire.

He has also decided that the Christian movement, which by the mid-1st century has really begun to flourish, also needs to be stopped. An internal war centered on Jerusalem is erupting and the result will be the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. The author of Mark doesn’t know this, but I’m sure he can sense that the people for whom he is writing understand that their lives are being turned upside down; possibly once again facing a dispersion of their people across the lands.

Mark’s intent for the “Good News” he feels compelled to relay is to unify the people under one God, through the stories of Jesus’ life example and teachings. He intends to do this by showing how Jesus is the true Messiah, the one chosen by God to lead God’s people out of oppression. It’s not the oppression of being under the rule of the Roman Empire Mark seeks to help people understand, however, it’s the oppression society has placed on themselves by following antiquated laws which separate the people from one another and from God.

Mark tries to make the point that in order to fully live out God’s calling to us as human beings, we need to find a way to put aside that which divides us and find a way to take care of those who are in need of care the most – mainly those who are pushed outside the mainstream of civilization and into the fringes of community. Mark also reminds us that the focus of all we do needs to be placed on God, through Jesus Christ.

Last week we traveled with Jesus and his disciples to what is called the gateway of Mark’s Gospel. It is that place where Peter on the one hand publicly proclaims Jesus as the Christ, the chosen one, and on the other hand tries to stop Jesus from fulfilling his calling. When we left them, Jesus had pushed Peter aside and told everyone else that if they want to follow him the road ahead won’t be easy. In fact, they have to be willing to give their lives follow Jesus.

Today we find ourselves on the other side of that gate. In the passages before the one we heard today we are witness to the transfiguration of Jesus Christ, where Peter and James and John are witness to a very beautiful and intense transformation. By this show of flash and style Mark is signaling that from here on things are
going to be different.

That event is soon followed by the healing of a child who is described as a boy possessed by demons. An interesting note – Jesus only heals 3 children in the Gospel of Mark; this boy and 2 girls before him. Another interesting note, this boy is the second to last person Jesus heals in Mark. Yes, things sure are changing in the life of Jesus after he passes through that gate.

What we’re also invited to in the story of the healing of the possessed boy is how the crowds for which Mark is famous, those crowds who for the most part represent us, are becoming more aggressive. They run after Jesus, close in on him, become demanding of his healing abilities, and surround Jesus day and night.

Which brings us to today’s passage. Jesus has returned to his adopted home of Capernaum from the areas surrounding Caesarea Philippi, a distance of just under 30 miles. Capernaum is described by archaeologists as a small fishing village, most likely inhabited by no more than 1500 people and is located on the northern banks of the Sea of Galilee. This is where Jesus makes his home as well as the center of his ministry. His travels go from and back to the town of Capernaum.

What the readers of Mark would have understood more than all of this is that Capernaum was considered a safe haven, never having been occupied by the Roman Empire in the days Mark was written, and therefore not susceptible to the chaos of Mark’s intended audience. Jesus’ adopted home town would be seen by the first century readers as a place of refuge and safety.

So Jesus returns to his sanctuary, his place of refuge, and decides to have some quiet time with his disciples. However, the disciples have been arguing amongst themselves about something and Jesus feels the need to get the argument into the open.

It would seem that some of the disciples were in disagreement as to which one of them was the greatest. Mark doesn’t tell us what they measuring their greatness against, but the disciples must have felt that they had a right, if you will, to see which one of them was better than the other.

Jesus then does what Jesus does so well: he turns their time together into a teaching moment.

In the days of Jesus, children were not considered members of society. They served no purpose except to learn the trade of their father if they were a boy or learn how to be a wife, mother, and caretaker of the home if they were girls. There were no laws which protected the child in case his or her parent’s died, except for the first-born son who would inherit his father’s property.


The people of 1st Century Jerusalem saw no value in their children, not in the way we do today. Today we see our children as the future of our world. It’s in our children we invest as good an education as we can. We empower our children and do our best to ensure they have a great chance at success in whatever they decide to do. It’s in our children we place all hope for a better world, and we do that by leaving them with more opportunities than the ones we were left by our parents.

This was not the view of children for the communities in which Jesus lived and ministered. Yes, children had the unwavering love of their parents, but they had no better an opportunity than did their parents.

So when Jesus takes one of these children and places him in the middle of those gathered and says to his disciples that it is to the children of the world we need to show hospitality, he is going against all of the conventions and norms of society.

Our passage, in its English translation, uses the word “welcome” to describe what the disciples are being asked to do with their children. The Greek word being used is dechomai,  and when being used to refer to something which is being taught is defined as to receive favorably, to embrace, to make one’s own, or more to the point in today’s passage, not to reject.

Jesus is using this moment, when the disciples are arguing over which of them is the best, to teach them that it is the least of those among us who should be given the place of greatness and who should be embraced as an integral part of society, instead of being rejected. In doing so we embrace our Christ in the same way, and by extension we embrace God as well.

For the past 2 or 3 weeks I’ve been watching the reaction from around the world to the Syrian refugee situation. I’ve watched, as I’m sure some of you have, as the people from the war-torn country fled their bleak situations in hope for a better life away from their homeland. In a way I’m reminded of the plight of the Judean-Christian people in 1st Century Jerusalem as they were being persecuted and chased from their homeland. I can imagine the same chaotic scenes happening to the people for whom Mark was written and the people fleeing from Syria.

I first began to notice the refugee situation when in late August I heard the news story of 71 people who were found dead in the back of a delivery truck which was abandoned on the side of the road close to the border of Hungary. These people had hired smugglers to take them from their situation in Syria and over the border with hopes of finding a better life for themselves and their families. Unfortunately they fell short as they were left to suffocate in the back of that delivery truck, trapped like cattle and unable to escape.

Among the dead were 59 men, 8 women, and 4 children.

This was in no way an isolated event. For weeks before that particular story made it to the news, tens of thousands of people have made that same journey. They found themselves packed into the back of delivery trucks, sometimes with as many as 90 or more others crammed in there with them. They were transported to the shores along the Turkish coast and put into tiny rubber dinghies, with no personal items except the hope that they will make it to Greece and find a way to enter the European Union.

Then Greece shut down their borders. So these sojourners had to find other ways to find hope, resorting to hiring smugglers to get them over the border into Hungary. And now Hungary is closing their borders.

How I viewed the plight of the Syrian people took a sharp turn a little more than 2 weeks ago, and until this week I didn’t know quite how God was calling me to action in respect to their situation. That call became clear after reading this week’s passage.

On September 2nd a rubber boat carrying 23 Syrian nationals left the shores of Turkey’s peninsula and headed towards Greece. They had been in the open sea for no more than 4 minutes when a large wave capsized the boat, tossing all 23 aboard into the rough waters.

Among those in the boat was a Kurdish family; Abdullah and his wife Rehan along with their children, 5 year old Galip and 3 year old Aylan. As the family discussed taking this trip, which would have eventually taken them to Canada where other family members were waiting for them, Rehan told Abdullah she was afraid to make the trip because she didn’t know how to swim. Among the lifeless bodies which washed ashore were those of Rehan and her 2 children.

This story in and of itself really doesn’t highlight anything that hasn’t been happening in the region for several weeks, if not months. But it’s what came out of this particular incident that asks for us to pay closer attention.

This time there were pictures taken while the bodies were being recovered from the shoreline and it’s the picture of 3 year old Aylan that really jump-started the recognition of what these Syrian people are going through. Before the picture went viral, the Syrian refugee crisis was just something that was happening across the world. After the picture went viral, the rest of the world, including America, took notice and cried out for the world leaders to do something. If nothing else to find a way to take in everyone’s fair share of refugees who are trying to escape the persecution of their people and are being dispersed from their homeland.

That picture is one I’m sure you’ve seen. It is that of a rescue worker carrying the lifeless body of 3 year old Aylan. In the photo, the boy is being carried away by a policeman. The policeman is cradling Aylan in his latex-covered hands while the boy’s tiny feet dangle below the policeman’s waist. A closer look reveals that one of the Velcro straps on his sneakers has come undone.

I listened to an interview on National Public radio where the person being interviewed said that he couldn’t stop focusing on that shoe. He kept thinking about how he would have to help his son tighten those same kind of Velcro straps, and how it would always seem to come loose during the day. All he could think about was that this boy, this 3 year old who had no choice but to follow his family into what ended up being the final moments of his much too young life, needed someone to be his voice. This young child needed someone to tell his story as well as the story of others like him.

Jesus reached for a little child, placed him among the Twelve, and embraced him. Then he said, “Whoever welcomes one of these children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me isn’t actually welcoming me but rather the one who sent me.”

God is always with us.  Amen.

Breaking Through

Mark 8:27-38

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but we’ve been on a journey through the Gospel of Mark over these past few weeks. It is a journey which has not only taught us things about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, but maybe has also taught us a few things about ourselves and where we currently stand on the path towards building our relationships with our neighbor, our selves, and our God.

Two weeks ago we were introduced to an historical explanation of when and why the Deuteronomical laws were written. We listened to the story of King Josiah’s rebirth of the covenants which the people of Israel had made with God. We heard how the laws found in Deuteronomy were meant to reunite a people who had been oppressed by the Assyrian Empire and forced to worship a pagan god by a succession of kings for close to 80 years.

Along the way through this historical teaching we followed Jesus as he consistently broke those same laws written 700 years before his days. He ate with people who didn’t wash hands, and for doing so he was belittled. Yet, Jesus’ response was not one of submission or being sorry, Jesus’ reaction was to recite the words of the prophet Isaiah to remind those who were condemning him that they were being hypocrites.

To Jesus, it would seem that the temple elite had forgotten what the true intent of the law had been: to unite all people under one God. The temple elite lived, and expected everyone else to live, under a very stringent interpretation of the laws, when in fact the laws themselves, while important, are not what the focus is supposed to be on. Rather, the focus is supposed to be on living in such a way as to take care of one another through mutual respect of personhood and property, while never forgetting the God who is at the center of the reason for all existence.

Last week we followed Jesus as he continued to break the laws set forth in his days by healing outside the set norms for doing such things. If we remember, only the priests could perform such miracles, and those miracles had to be done following very rigid protocols.

We were introduced to how the Gospel of Mark had Jesus trying very hard to keep secret who he was and what he was doing. We followed Jesus as he quietly did the work of God through compassionate and intimate evangelism. We came to understand that although Jesus didn’t follow the rules of his day all the time, he did follow the rules of God by taking care of his neighbor through the love of God.

As quiet as Jesus had hoped to keep his secret, he could not contain the famous crowds of Mark, those crowds who represent us. So as Jesus traveled his path and did the work of God in his unique way, the people could not hold back from telling the stories of how there was a man of God who could make the deaf hear and bring speech to those who could not talk. This was Mark’s way of showing us a different way of evangelizing by having us tell everyone we know and all whose paths cross ours of the wonderful things God has done in our lives.

We also learned that the path we’re traveling is one that God has called us to be on, and sometimes just as Jesus had to go against the set norms of his day, we do as well. We heard of how our denomination, The United Church of Christ, stood side by side with the oppressed, on what was called the right side of justice, even though we haven’t always stood on the right side of society. Yet, the passage of history has shown that in the end the unconditional acceptance of God’s love always seems to win.

Today we find ourselves in a place that may not feel comfortable to all, just as it didn’t for Jesus’ closest disciple. Today, we hear of a story which places Peter in the crossroads, having to make what is probably the biggest decision of his life.

Before we see what happens at that crossroad, though, let’s take a look at what got him there.

In the time of Jesus, Caesarea Philippi was by all accounts a very large Roman city and as was the custom of many large Roman cities the people who lived in and around them worshiped pagan gods. In fact, these people would build shrines to the many gods they worshiped and place statues which represented these gods within their shrines.

It is very possible, then, that as the readers of Mark in the first century imagined Jesus and his followers walking through the villages which surrounded Caesarea Philippi they would see them walking down a road or street that had many of these shrines erected in front of people’s homes or places of business. To these people, those shrines and their idols would have been second nature, this is something they would have been used to seeing and walking among many times in their lives, just as you and I might walk down a busy street in Chinatown and not notice all the storefront windows displaying their roasted pigs.

It’s in this setting Jesus decides to hold a particularly thought-provoking conversation with his disciples. As they walk along those shrine-lined streets Jesus attentively asks, “Who do the people say I am?” To which the answers are varied prophets from their past and recent histories.

It’s at this point in the story I imagine Jesus pausing, causing his disciples to stop in their tracks as well. As they stand there I can see his face, filled with curiosity as he asks them, “What about you? Who do you say that I am?”

It’s this moment in the story where I can see Peter taking in his surroundings, maybe actually noticing for the first time the shrines and their many idols. Then, as he gazes once again at the great Rabbi he says, almost with silent amazement in his voice, “You are the Christ.”

Luke’s version of this story has Peter saying that Jesus is the “Christ sent from God” and Matthew’s version of this story has Peter answering that Jesus is the “Christ, the Son of the living God”, which is actually my favorite response, but they all have the same meaning: Peter is recognizing, maybe for the first time, that Jesus is the one who is chosen and sent by God to live among them and to finally free them from their oppressions.

Peter has come to the realization that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one who walks with us and who shares in life’s trials and joys with us. Peter recognizes that Jesus is not someone to put on display in a shrine.

Perhaps it’s because of this recognition, the one that the Messiah has finally come, that Peter does what he does next; he tries to stop Jesus from all that talk about being persecuted and suffering and being rejected and killed. After all, what kind of talk is that from the one who is supposed to free their people from the oppression of the Roman Empire?

But Jesus will have nothing of it and pushes Peter aside and, here’s what the point of this whole thing is, openly and publicly denounces Peter as someone who opposes him and pushes him aside. My friends, Mark has brought us to a place where Peter, the one who just proclaimed Jesus as the Christ, is now standing at a crossroad.

This chapter of Mark, the 8th chapter, is right in the middle of Mark’s story. This event, where Jesus pushes Peter aside and very publicly declares that if you want to follow him the road ahead won’t be easy, is what many scholars call the gateway of Mark’s Gospel. This is the place where we go from a ministry of Jesus that was safe and quiet for the most part, to one that is public and will draw a lot of attention, not only from the temple elite, but also from the Roman government.

This is the place where Jesus tells his followers that they are either with him or not, but he has a call from God and he must fulfill that call. And that call will mean that Jesus and all those who follow him will share in the same persecutions, sufferings, rejections, and maybe death. But it will also mean that in the end they will be resurrected in a new life, a life in God.

14 years ago this past Friday, America witnessed what some have described as the single most devastating attack on United States soil in the modern era. I remember that morning vividly. My alarm clock went off, waking me for another day of work. One of the first things I did was turn on the television to watch the local morning news; my brain still not fully awake, mainly because I haven’t had any coffee yet.

I remember thinking I was watching some kind of movie and just how vivid and realistic the special effects were. Just as the fog of my newly awakened brain began to lift, and the voices of Matt Lauer and Katie Couric became clearer, I began to realize that what I was watching wasn’t a movie. What I was witnessing was the aftermath of a horrific event.

The first thing I did was wake up Ann, mumbling to her in a voice that was incoherent and panicked at the same time that the World Trade Center in New York City had been attacked. She leaped out of bed and we both sat in front of the TV, trying to make sense of what was going on.

We watched as the dust from the toppled towers covered streets, neighboring buildings, and the people who were trapped in the city and her varied underground tunnels. We watched as some people stood in silent disbelief while others stumbled around trying desperately to reconnect to some semblance of rational thought.

Then, as though someone had said it was time to move forward, we watched as hundreds of people swarmed to the mountainous piles of concrete and metal. These people began the daunting task of trying to clear the mess and look for survivors. A closer look at these brave souls showed us something amazing – these weren’t trained professionals in rescue and recovery, these were everyday people just like you and me.

As time went on and the rest of America began getting back to as normal a life as possible, the seemingly ever-present droves of volunteers at ground zero grew larger and larger. People came from all around the country to offer what little they had to offer. Some of these volunteers were professionals like doctors and nurses. Some of them were professionals of a different kind such as heavy equipment operators or experts in demolition and excavation.

But, for the most part, those who gave of their time and talents were people who literally had no idea what they were doing; they only knew that they had to be there. They had felt the need to travel across the country and do something, anything. To be honest, if I had the means in those days I would have gone there as well.

What I felt was a definite calling, and that calling was to face uncertainty, maybe even personal suffering, in order to better the situation of people I didn’t even know – maybe even of people who wouldn’t care that I was there. But what others would think of me or do to me wasn’t what was important. What was important was that I could become a presence in someone else’s life to somehow make that life a little better.

Although I couldn’t travel to New York City, I soon found ways to offer my presence to those around me here in Hawaii. A lot of the youth I worked with had difficulty understanding what was going on. A lot of the people in my daily life had difficulty expressing their thoughts and feelings about what was happening. I found a way to simply be a presence for these people and to help them through their difficulties.

This is what we are called to do as followers of Christ: to find a way to be a presence for those who need us. Jesus found himself at a crossroads, knowing fully well that what he had to do, what he was called to do, would cause him to suffer many things. In a way, Peter also stood in those same crossroads in the knowledge that what he was being asked to do would most likely cause him to suffer, but Peter wasn’t quite ready to take that step.

The question for us is are we?

Are we ready to follow our Christ into the unknown? Can we say that the way of Jesus is the way we have chosen to live our lives? Can we commit to take up the cross, to bear the things that will bring us rejection by those around us and cause us suffering, and follow the teachings of God’s chosen one; Jesus Christ?

The path ahead won’t be easy. Jesus teaches us that sometimes we have to go against the norms of society and not always follow a strict adherence to antiquated rules. Jesus teaches us that sometimes we have to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves and to be the voice of the voiceless. Jesus teaches us that the most important things in life is that we find a way to love one another, find a way to love ourselves, and above all place God in the center of our lives.

We are called to go beyond the crossroads that cause us to sit still and to be to others as Christ is to us.

God is with us all. Amen.

Breaking The Silence

Isaiah 35:4-7a, Mark 7:31-37

A couple of years ago I helped facilitate a conference for United Church of Christ Seminarians. It was an interesting conference, one where no pre-
 planning was done except to plan that we will have topics of interest suggested by the attendees, followed by breakout sessions where nobody would really be in charge. The concept was new at the time, and since then many organizations have adopted what is now called a non-conference style.

One of the more remarkable things which came out of this non-conference is that we filled 2 and a half days with a total of 20 breakout sessions, all of which came after the initial gathering where the attendees, Seminarians of the United Church of Christ, were invited to write on a few sheets of poster paper what they wanted to talk about. The topics for our breakouts varied from “learning how to keep a church’s non-profit status” to “how do we deal with church conflict” to “how can we have a more online presence for our shut-ins” to “how can we recognize when professional burnout is coming”.

My co-facilitator and I sat in as many of these outbreaks that we could, listening and participating in the deep, and sometimes personal, conversations. I can honestly say that the United Church of Christ has some very good Seminarians out there, each of them ready to face whatever God brings their way.

After the final breakout was done and the leaders of the conference gathered to debrief, we each had stories which we thought were important enough to share. As we shared our stories there was one which really stood out above them all.

A common theme had developed during the 3 days those UCC Seminarians were together; as a denomination we do a terrible job at letting people know what we stand for. In other words, we are inadequate Evangelists for the truths which our denomination represents.

One of our Seminarians told a story of how he was taught in the church of his childhood that being gay was a sin whose path would only land him in the fires of eternal abomination. As a young man, he attended one of those programs that promised to remove the gay from his humanness, which horribly failed at what it set out to do. He told us that he was basically mentally and physically persecuted until he no longer felt the need to be in a same-gender relationship. He came out of that program celibate, but still held onto the knowledge he was gay.

Because he wasn’t allowed to openly share his love with a partner of his choice, his life became meaningless to the point where drugs, alcohol, and promiscuity became his only escape, and therefore became the norm of his existence. After all, he told us, if there is a God who loves everyone except him, why bother trying to live a good life.

As he continued his story he told us that one day he woke up from one of his drunken and drugged induced binges and knew, absolutely knew, his life had to have meaning; and that meant he needed God in his life. So he went on an intentional search for a church in which he would be accepted. He said he found churches which proclaimed complete acceptance, only to find out after attending for a few weeks that they really weren’t. Those churches still had an underpinning and behind the scenes whispering that would cause him to deny the person he is, as well as begin his new church relationship with a set of mistruths.

He kept seeking and on one Sunday he walked into a United Church of Christ. He listened to a message about unconditional acceptance by God and met people who truly accepted him for the person he was. He knew without a doubt he was being held in the loving arms of God. What this man said next is what we felt was the single most important thing that came out of our non-conference – he was upset at the fact that he had to go through physical and mental pain and suffering before finding a church filled with this kind of love. He was upset that the United Church of Christ didn’t do a better job at Evangelizing

After reading this week’s passages I’ve thought a lot about this young man and how his words helped us to develop the idea of Progressive Evangelism, which we shared with some of the National UCC leaders.

Progressive Christianity is defined as a contemporary religion characterized by a willingness to question tradition in an acceptance of human diversity. There is a strong emphasis on social justice for the poor and the oppressed as well as an environmental stewardship of the Earth. Progressive Christians strive to live Jesus’ instruction to love one another by following his teachings through focusing on compassion in promoting justice, mercy, and tolerance. Progressive Christians work towards solving those societal issues through social and political activism. The United Church of Christ is a Progressive Christian denomination.

Evangelism is defined as the spreading of one’s religious beliefs through personal witness and public action. In other words, to evangelize is to tell others how God is working in your lives either with your words or through your actions or a combination of both.

I see the words of Jesus as that of a first century Progressive Evangelist. Jesus questioned tradition. Jesus accepted human diversities with a strong emphasis on social justice for the oppressed and the poor. Jesus focused on promoting justice, mercy, and tolerance through compassion. Jesus did all of that through social and political activism. Yes, without a doubt Jesus was a Progressive. Should it be a surprise, then, that the book of Mark tells a story that is meant to show how Evangelism was meant to be.

We see in our passage 2 distinct ways of sharing how God is working in our lives. The first is by Jesus. We see that instead of being bombarded by the usual crowds he is approached by a few men. This is Mark’s way of introducing to us that what is about to follow is meant to be personal. While the crowds are still present, the interaction between Jesus and the men is meant to be intimate.

While alone with Jesus, the men bring to him another man who is deaf and who could hardly speak.  We’re not told if this man is a relative or a friend, Mark doesn’t seem to be concerned with the finer points of storytelling, but we do see that Jesus furthers the intimacy by removing this man to a private place. Here he does something rather descriptive; he plugs the man’s ears with his fingers and spits on his tongue. This action, combined with the words commanding the man to “open up”, immediately causes the man to be able to hear and speak clearly.

Jesus is breaking many of the laws of his days by performing this act of healing. No one is supposed to heal outside the temple and under the proper and approved conditions. In fact, no one is supposed to be doing any kind of healing unless they are duly ordained by God through the temple priests, and it is a given that someone like Jesus, someone who consistently goes against the expected norm of his religion and society as a whole, would never be ordained to do such healings.

Yet, Jesus shows us his willingness to question and defy tradition in order to place the acceptance of human diversity through compassionate mercy above oppression. Jesus is a Progressive Evangelist and has done his work in the intimate privacy that is between one’s self and their God.

Jesus has done his part to bring the news of God’s ever-present love into the world, and now it’s the people’s turn. So, how do the people respond? They respond with overwhelming eagerness. Which is sometimes how the love of God needs to be shared? Sometimes our lives are so drastically changed by the knowledge that we have a God who accepts us regardless of who we are that we can’t help but tell everyone we meet.

I’ve met with a few of you about my journey and how I’ve come to my unique relationship with God through Jesus. I’ve told you about where my life was heading before I made the decision to once again put God at the center of my life, and how through my relationship with Jesus I met a God who has helped me to stand before you and say, without a doubt, that Jesus Christ is my savior, and without him in my life I would not be in this world.

What some of you may not know is how the United Church of Christ has played a huge part in me being where I am now. It is through the UCC that I was able to ask the questions which challenged my faith. It was through the UCC I discovered a God who welcomed these questions and struggled alongside me until I found the truths which today bring me peace and joy in life. It is through the Progressive Evangelism of the United Church of Christ that I know, absolutely and forever, that God is a God who is in my life as much as I dedicate that life to God.

This God is the same God of which Isaiah proclaims we should let the entire world know when things seem to be at their worst. When the United Church of Christ stood against slavery while this country was deeply divided on the issue, it was because we were united in our Progressive Christianity. When the United Church of Christ ordained and called America’s first woman pastor at a time when women’s rights were unheard of, it was because of our Progressive Christianity. When the United Church of Christ stood side by side with the LGBT community by ordaining this country’s first openly gay minister in the 1970’s as well as by being the first mainline denomination to affirm equal rights in marriage 8 years ago, it was because of our Progressive Christianity.

I submit to you, my friends, that it’s through Progressive Evangelism the prophetic voice that is ours to speak will open the eyes of the blind, clear the ears of the deaf, cause the lame to leap like deer, and make sing out the tongue of the speechless. We, brothers and sisters, are called by God to be united and uniting in God’s love, and to spread the good news that God lives on in our lives today.  We are to say with complete conviction that God is still speaking.

Our denomination is one which has always stood on the right side of justice, even though we haven’t always stood on the right side of society. We have always been the one to listen to those directly affected by the issues and find a way to be Christian and to let others know what being Christian is. It’s time for this church, Ewa Community Church, United Church of Christ, to become the Progressive Evangelists God visions us to be.

So, my friends, I ask you to follow Christ Jesus and do as he did – be open to new ideas, put into practice new ways, and share how God has changed, and continues to change, your life.

God is with us all.  Amen

Breaking The Law

Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9, Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21a

One of the main reasons I enjoy following the lectionary for my preaching schedule, is that it forces me to struggle with what God is trying to say through those particular stories within the assigned passages. If you’re not familiar with the lectionary, it’s a 3-year listing of different bible passages which most churches and ministers use to plan their worship services. Sometimes the passages contrast each other, and sometimes they complement each other. Sometimes, like today’s scripture from the Old and New Testament, the passages lead into one another.

I think that in order to better understand today’s correlation between these two stories, we need to take a look at why Deuteronomy was written. 21st Century theologian and well-respected author, Allan Boesak, reminds us that the entire bible is written as humankind’s response to God’s work in the lives of the Jewish and Christian people while they were either under the oppressive rule of another empire or had just come out of such oppression. In the Old Testament those Empires included the Assyrians, Babylonians, and the Persians. In the New Testament it was the Romans.

This fact helps us to recognize how and why the bible is written using the language and imagery it does. When the authors write stories which say “God is the greatest of all gods,” it’s in response to having other gods forced on them, responding with stories that show how their god is better than the gods of their oppressors. When the authors write, “God has turned God’s back on us,” it’s in response to the times when they are forced out of their lands and therefore unable to see God in their temples. Then, like in today’s reference to the laws in Deuteronomy, the authors are finding a way to unify, and keep united, a nation of people who have been literally dispersed across the world.

The Deuteronomical laws were written in order for the Jewish people to be able to live as one people, under one God, unified by a common set of laws. The laws themselves, while important, are not what the focus is supposed to be on. Rather, the focus is supposed to be on living in such a way as to take care of one another through mutual respect of personhood and property, while never forgetting the God who is at the center of the reason they still exist as a people. It is on the intent of the laws which our passage from Deuteronomy asks the people of Judah to focus. 

The stories of the Hebrew people told in the historical books of the bible are interesting, to put it mildly. While some of those stories only give us a surface understanding of what life for the people of Israel were and how their kings ruled, other stories give detailed accounts of bloody battles fought with courage, strength, and determination. Today I want to point out just a brief account of what happened leading up to what is known as the Deuteronomical reformation of Josiah’s reign.

King Josiah became king of Judah at the age of 8, taking over from his grandfather and father’s reign of 77 years during which the worship of Yahweh was replaced with the pagan religion of the Assyrians and the worship of Baal. Josiah’s great-grandfather, Hezekiah, tried desperately to reform and hold together the covenant made between Yahweh and his people, but in the end could not overcome the influences of the Assyrians. 

However, Josiah took the throne at a time when the Assyrians were all but defeated and held no more influence in that part of the Middle East. So, in the eighteenth year of his reign, Josiah made a decision that it was finally time to renovate the temple in Jerusalem to rid the symbols of power laid by those who worshiped a different god. He asked the high priest to count all of the money in the temple treasury in order that they would know how much they had with which to purchase the materials necessary to tear down the altars and statues which currently occupied the temple.

In the process of looking for all of the temple’s wealth, the high priest makes a discovery which he calls the “Book of Law”. Old Testament scholars believe those writings to be what we see in Deuteronomy 12-26; a listing of the covenants made between Moses and the Hebrew people. After hearing the words written in this book, Josiah gathered all the people of Judah and read them the same words, declaring that they would now follow the words of this book of law and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now, let me clarify something – the laws found in this book were meant to do a few very specific things: to condemn the paganism of Josiah’s grandfather and father, centralize worship in Jerusalem, and warn the people as to an unswerving loyalty to the covenants to God alone. In other words, the newfound book of the law would be used by Josiah to help him once again unify the Jewish people under one God.

Now we fast forward to the time of Jesus. As does happen in the passage of time, the purpose of Josiah’s reformation got lost in translation. Instead of unifying all of God’s people under one God, the laws were being used to separate those whom the temple elite considered unworthy of being in God’s presence. These people were what the priests, scribes, and Pharisees of the New Testament called unclean.

If we remember, Mark was written during a time when Christians were being heavily persecuted. The Emperor Nero had declared the absolute elimination of all Christians while Rome found itself fighting a Jewish uprising. Jerusalem was yet again under siege and on its way to destruction. 

The Gospel of Mark, then, is written in response to what is currently happening to the Judean-Christian people; they are being chased from their ancestral home as has happened many times in their history. The Gospel of Mark is meant to be something these Christians can focus on as their lives are disrupted. It is Mark’s way of providing a central focus for Christians, just as it was Josiah’s way to make the Book of the Covenant the central focus for the Jewish people almost 700 years before.  

The difference between what Josiah did and what Mark proposes is this: it’s not the law in which God’s people should put their focus; it is the life and teachings of Jesus Christ we now must put at the center of our lives.

In today’s passage from Mark we see how Jesus is being condemned for allowing his disciples to eat their meals without first washing their hands. While I agree that something like this might be unsanitary, I really wouldn’t call it a crime. But, according to the laws being observed in Jesus’ time one had to wash their hands before eating. A law is a law. After all, it is the laws of Moses which has kept God’s people together for all these centuries, right?

Jesus is quick with his rebuttal. He says, “Isaiah really knew what he was talking about when he prophesied about you hypocrites.” Is it by chance Jesus quotes Isaiah? Not at all. You see, it was Isaiah who prophesied during Josiah’s great grandfather’s reign in Judah and it was Isaiah who prophesied Josiah’s eventual kingship and restoration of the people’s focus on God in their lives.

Jesus is reminding the temple elite, while teaching the infamous crowds of Mark‘s Gospel, that the intent of the laws were to unify people under one God. By quoting Isaiah’s warning that, “You ignore God’s commandment while holding on to rules created by humans and handed down to you,” Jesus reminds the temple elite, and those crowds, that they have forgotten the intent of God’s laws – to love God with every fiber of their being and to love one another and our selves in the same way.

Last year, Kapolei High School began a GSA Club. GSA stands for Gay-Straight Alliance. It’s a club for those who are struggling with finding a place where they can be accepted for the choices they make in their personal lifestyles and for those who support them. It’s a club that prides themselves on being a safe space where those who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Straight or Transgendered can come and know, absolutely know, that they will be amongst people who accept them for the person they are, not for the people society labels them to be.

I was honored when they asked me to be their club advisor. We started the club with a small group and as the year went on we grew, finding more and more people who joined our group not because they identified as LGBT, but because they knew they could be in a place free of judgment.

I have been asked to be their club advisor again this year. Those in the club know I’m an ordained minister, and they also know that doesn’t mean anything as to my abilities to be their advisor. In fact, it’s because I’m a minister that the members of this club like having me as an advisor.

The other day I was talking to one of our girls who identifies as a transgendered male. I mentioned our club and asked her to stop in and see if it might be something she would want to join, mentioning that being in a club looks good on college applications. She said she would think about it. 

What I didn’t notice is that sitting close by were two other girls, one with whom I developed a good relationship with last year and another I’ve just begun getting to know. As I went back to my little desk area I could hear them whispering, “Ask him. No you ask him. I don’t have to ask him, I already know.” It was kind of funny and made me smile.

I sat on my chair and looked at the two girls asking them what they were talking about. The one who didn’t yet know me well began the conversation slowly. She wanted to know about the club, what kind of stuff we did and who was invited. I told her we mostly just met every other week to talk about any issues the club members might be going through either at school or at home. I told her we’re just getting started and we hope to do some outings this year, maybe to the movies or something like that.

I then told her that all people were invited. I can still see the look of puzzlement on her face when she mumbled her next words. “But,” she softly and shyly said, “How can you be the advisor for this club if you’re an ordained minister?”

I looked over at the other girl, who only smiled widely because she knows what my views are on the rules some Christians put on ourselves. I replied, as gently as I could, that it was a struggle for me to come to the place where I am now in my beliefs, and I know that for a lot of Christians the struggle continues. We’ve been taught for so long that there is only one way to be a Christian, and if we don’t follow that way we’ll find ourselves suffering the worst afterlife anyone can imagine.

She opened up a little more and talked about how her parents were those kinds of church-goers, the kind that condemn a lot of people because of the laws in the bible. I told her that was ok, for them, because that’s where they find their comfort in God; that it was a strict adherence to the laws which helped them get through their faith. She then told me she stopped going to church because she had a difficult time with the hate towards people who were considered outsiders, or to use the language of Mark, unclean. 

Instead of continuing the conversation down this path, I felt God nudging me to talk about the first time I was led to look at the bible in a different way. I mentioned that a lot of what some people see as the definition of how relationships are supposed to be come from the story of creation found in Genesis 1 and 2 – the creation of man and woman as life partners. 

I continued by asking them to take a look at the story most used, the one in Genesis 2 and how God decides that Adam needed a helper as a partner. God, in God’s intimate compassion for the man, tried to find a partner that could help man through life’s journeys. Unfortunately none was found through co-creation, or the creation of something outside of man. Instead, God finds a way to make a partner for man creating one from within man himself. For this man, for this particular image of God, the partner that was created from his own bone and flesh was a woman, who he would take as his life partner.

Then I mentioned to her that as we moved through my Old Testament classes in Seminary, I was taught that Genesis was most likely written down in its current form some time during the 5th or 6th Century BCE, a time when the Jewish people were being exiled from their land and forced to disperse and settle in lands far from one another. I then told her that it would make sense that in a time when the Hebrew people were in trouble of losing their culture, a verse or two would be added to their creation story to ensure the procreation of their people, hence the verses about a man leaving his family and clinging to his wife. 

At its root, creation of man and woman really has nothing to do with marriage, and more to do with God’s love for humanity that a suitable partner for mankind is found in order that we all have someone with whom we can share our life’s journey.

They both sat there in complete silence until one of them asked, “Why don’t they teach this in all churches?” To which my answer was I don’t know. But it’s something I teach, and it’s something I hope people would at least be willing to listen to and have a discussion about. They both looked at each other and said, “That’s the kind of church I want to go to.”

Sometimes we allow the rules which man has passed down to get in the way of truly living by the intent of the laws which the reformers of Josiah’s time meant to teach us; the laws which allow us to live in such a way as to take care of one another through mutual respect of personhood and property, while never forgetting the God who is at the center of the reason we still exist as a people.

It is in these laws, the laws which require us to find a way to bring all people together, that God asks us to live. So, respect one another’s choices, seek to understand rather than condemn, and in the end if common ground can’t be found, love unconditionally anyway. 

God is with us all.  Amen.