Category: Uncategorized

Still With You

On By J. Barrett LeeIn lectio divina, Uncategorized1 Comment

Lectio divina on the gospel from Easter 6, year C

I have said these things to you while I am still with you.

When it comes to discussing religion in the public sphere, I’ve noticed that most conversations tend to drift toward the theoretical content of particular traditions. I get tripped up over the yea or nay related to specific doctrines of the faith:

Can one prove the existence of God? What is the nature of the afterlife? Do miracles happen? Is one religion inherently superior to another?

These questions are not unimportant, but I do myself a disservice when my discourse never moves beyond them. All theology is an attempt, on the part of human beings, to put into words the experience of the Sacred. Religious traditions have emerged around those expressions that have been most helpful to the life of a particular community. We preserve these expressions and pass them on to future generations, in hopes that our descendants won’t have to “reinvent the wheel,” spiritually speaking, and may even achieve greater things in the life of faith, accomplishments of which we ourselves are incapable.

But we should be careful to remember that these expressions are secondary. Jesus says “these things” (the content of his message) to his disciples “while I am still with you.” Experience precedes expression. And all Scriptures, Sacraments, doctrines, and rituals are meant to usher me into my own experience of the Sacred. If I miss that, I have missed the point entirely.

Prayer

God, open my ears to hear your message; open my eyes to see you in the world around me; open my hands to receive and to share; open my heart to be your home. Amen.

Not Mine

On By J. Barrett LeeIn lectio divina, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Lectio divina on the gospel from Easter 6, year C

Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

We live in a consumerist society where the core value is possession. It’s all about my money, my property, my rights, my family, my country, my religion. Everything is mine, mine, mine.

I find it remarkable that Jesus eschews possession of his own words in this sentence. He says, “the word that you hear is not mine.” He is content to let truth be truth. He has no ego to bruise. He is free.

What is even more remarkable: by letting go of the need to possess and the need to be right (which is just another form of possession), Jesus is able to speak with a far deeper and more lasting authority than all the other voices that vie for our attention in the marketplace of ideas. The words he speaks are the very Word of God.

Prayer

God, help me become silent and let go of my need to be right, that I may hear and speak your Word. Amen.

Keep My Word

On By J. Barrett LeeIn lectio divina, Uncategorized1 Comment

Lectio Divina on the gospel reading for Easter 6, year C

Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

Whenever kids are playing marbles or some other game “for keeps,” it means that the stakes are high because this game matters. To “keep” something is to treasure and protect something as one’s own. Jesus invites me to do so with his “word.” This could mean many things on multiple levels.

Most directly, it means to follow his commandments, which are summed up quite succinctly in his farewell discourse: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

More abstractly, I think of Christ’s “word” as referring to the Scriptures themselves. How do I “keep” them? I once gave a Bible to a young friend at his graduation from high school. I told him, “You might not be very interested in it right now, but I want you to keep this Bible in a drawer somewhere. It is still a part of you. The day may come when you need to reach out for some kind of hope, comfort, or inspiration. When that happens, I want you to have this close by.”

I have no illusions that this person suddenly became passionate about biblical studies, but I do hope that he continues to keep that Bible somewhere, even if it is just stuffed into the back of a sock drawer.

In my own life, I am keenly aware of my daily failure to “keep [Christ’s] word” in the first, more specific, sense of following his commandments. Just ask my family and they will tell you.

But in the second sense, I do slightly better. Through the practices of the Daily Office and weekly Eucharist, I “keep the word” by regularly sitting with the Scriptures. Sometimes, the words just bounce right off my ears, but then there are days when something sneaks through my defenses and stays with me a while. I keep coming back, in hopes that today might be one of those days.

In the words of a former mentor, “I don’t read the Bible for what I get out of it; I read it for what it gets into me.”

Prayer

God, help me to keep your word today. Amen.

True North

On By J. Barrett LeeIn Sermon, Uncategorized1 Comment

Today’s sermon from North Presbyterian Church.

Click here to read the biblical passage.

Do you ever feel afraid that your life is going nowhere? Like maybe you’re all alone in this world and the universe is just a meaningless series of random accidents?

It’s a pretty common fear, actually. Human beings have achieved more, built more, and learned more in the past five centuries than we had in the preceding five millennia. In the span of the twentieth century alone, we invented flight, mass produced automobiles, cured diseases, split the atom, landed on the moon, and created the internet. I don’t mean to turn my nose up at the great pyramids of Giza, but even the most powerful Egyptian Pharaoh never fathomed the wonder of looking at cat pictures on Instagram.

There can be no question that we humans have pushed the boundaries of information and technology far beyond what our ancestors could have dreamed. One would think that, somewhere in this vast ocean of data we have collected, we must have surely discovered the secret to a happy and meaningful life. Sadly, the opposite seems to be true.

Our insatiable thirst for knowledge, while helpful in many respects, has had the unfortunate side-effect of eroding our shared sense of meaning. Other cultures, including our own before the modern era, have typically relied on traditional mythologies and religious rituals to help them weave the scattered fragments of their lives together into a unified whole. The cultural story helped people make sense of their individual stories. We, in twenty-first century North America, don’t have the benefit of a single cultural story that imbues our lives with meaning from womb to tomb. We are, as Walker Percy wrote, “lost in the cosmos.” We are adrift in a sea of information without any navigational tools to guide the way home. Under these circumstances, it is quite understandable for people to be afraid that their life is going nowhere and they are all alone in a random, meaningless universe.

But we Christians do not exist under those circumstances. We believe ourselves to be part of a unifying story that weaves the tattered fragments of life, the universe, and everything into a single tapestry that gets longer and longer each day as our individual threads are added to it.

The place where we find this story, this finely woven tapestry, is in the pages of the Bible. The Bible is not just a book; it is a library. It is a collection of legends, poems, memories, and letters that, when taken together, tell the story of our communal relationship with God through the ages. The Bible tells the Church’s family story. And in today’s reading from the book of Revelation, we get a powerful preview of how our family story ends. And here’s the funny thing: it ends in the same way that it began.

The very first book of the Bible is Genesis, which begins:

“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”

Compare that with the following from today’s reading, which appears at the end of Revelation (the last book of the Bible):

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”

The story begins with the creation of “the heavens and the earth” and ends with “a new heaven and a new earth.” St. John, the author of revelation, did this deliberately. He wants to show us that God’s creation of the world was not a one-time event; it is ongoing. The universe is still in the process of becoming what God intends it to be. In other words, God is not done with us yet.

Next, he tells us, “the sea was no more.” Why is that? Does God have something against the ocean itself? No. This is another parallel image from the first chapter of Genesis. In Genesis, immediately after the heavens and the earth, the very next thing we hear about is the sea. It says, “the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”

For the ancient Israelites, “the sea” was a symbol of chaos and destruction. They believed it was the home of a monster called Leviathan, a creature so powerful and dangerous that only God could tame it. The sea, with its tsunamis and hurricanes, symbolically represented those forces of nature that threaten to undo the fragile project of human civilization. But God, they believed, was in the process of bringing order to chaos.

For the rest of the first chapter of Genesis, we read about God shaping the earth around the primordial ocean by the power of the Word. God speaks forth light, sky, land, and life. These things emerge out of the sea at God’s command.

Fast forward to today’s reading from Revelation 21 and we witness the completion of that work as John tells us, “the sea was no more.” God has finally tamed the destructive power of chaos, once and for all.

John goes on to describe what this looks like in great detail:

“See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”

If we were to keep reading into the next chapter of Revelation, we would get a detailed description of this city:

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”

As for the inhabitants of this city, John writes:

“The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.”

And then, just to drive the point home even farther, that God’s ongoing work of creation from Genesis to Revelation constitutes one, unified story, we hear the voice from the throne say, “See, I am making all things new…I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”

God’s vision for the end of history is a garden city with open gates, a thriving, multicultural community of healing and peace.

What John is giving us in this lavish image is a vision of where our lives are going. We are not going nowhere; we are not all alone in a universe that just popped into existence as a random accident. We were meant to be here; we are part of God’s story. John gives us a preview of this story’s end so that we will not lose hope or abandon the faith in the meantime. “Stay with me,” he says in effect, “because I promise this is all going somewhere.”

I think we need to hear that good news today. In this life, when things don’t always work out according to our plans, we humans desperately want to believe that there is some kind of master plan somewhere. We are looking for order in the chaos. We are listening for God to speak into the darkness of our lives, “Let there be light.” The good news for us today is that God is indeed present and active, speaking light into darkness and shaping chaos into beauty. The story of God’s creation is ongoing and we are called to trust in it.

We don’t know the details of how and when this story will reach its climax and dénouement. Contrary to the popular opinions of some Christians, the book of Revelation is not road map for the end of the world; it is a compass pointing us toward the beginning of a new world.

Our task, as the Church, is to not give in to those demonic voices of cynicism and despair that tempt us to wonder whether our life is going nowhere. Our calling is to trust this vision of the multicultural garden city, take our place in God’s unfolding story, and follow the compass as it points us in the direction of True North.

The way will certainly be long and hard, but the destination is worth it. Keep going, and know that your life is not going nowhere and you do not walk alone. The author of the letter to the Hebrews writes of the saints of old:

“All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.’

And God has prepared a place in that city for you, too. Keep going, and I’ll see you at home.

Flipping the Script

On By J. Barrett LeeIn Sermon, Uncategorized1 Comment

Today’s sermon from North Presbyterian, Kalamazoo.

Click here for the scripture reading.

I got to do some traveling this week with a team that’s doing some research for our presbytery’s camping ministry. One of the places we visited, in addition to being a Christian summer camp, is also a wildlife refuge for injured animals.

As a staff member was showing us around, she introduced us to a male duck and told us that he is “fully imprinted.” Not being very knowledgeable about animals, I had to ask what that meant. She said that many animals, shortly after birth or hatching, form an identity bond with the first creature that cares for them (whatever the species). In this case, the duck in question was hatched and cared for by humans, not other ducks.

“So,” I then asked, “does that mean this duck thinks he’s a human?”

The staff member replied, “Yes, he does.” That’s what “fully imprinted” means.

I find this idea terribly fascinating: this duck had an early experience with humans, and that experience continues to shape his sense of identity today. Of course, he’s still a duck and not a human. He looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck… he’s a duck! But in his little duck brain, he looks at us and thinks to himself, “I am one of you.”

It’s not all that different for us humans, either. We, no less than that duck, have a tendency to build our idea of who we are based on past experiences. In this morning’s first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles, St. Peter meets a group of people who have done just that.

They were a community of widows living in the Israeli city of Joppa, on the coast. Widows in that culture were extremely vulnerable to poverty and exploitation, especially if they didn’t have living (male) relatives to take them in. The early Christian church became well-known for supporting these women and incorporating them into the life of the community. In the context of the church, these vulnerable women were able to band together, support one another, and take an active role in the ministry of the church. Some scholars speculate that this community of widows might have even served as a basis for the ministry of nuns and convents, which would appear much later in history.

The event that has prompted Peter’s visit to this community of widows is the death of one of their own. A woman named Tabitha, well-known as a seamstress, had become ill and died suddenly. Peter was invited to come and pay his respects.

What I find most fascinating about the story up to this point is that these widows form a community that has been brought together by their common experience of grief. Each of them has lost someone important to them, most likely a husband. They all know full-well what it means to say goodbye to a loved one. And here they are again: brought together by grief, and saying goodbye to one of their own.

Just like that duck I met this week, their past experiences (of grief and loss) has shaped the way they see themselves today. And this new experience (of losing Tabitha) only serves to confirm their sense of identity (as “losers”). They have come to see themselves as “the ones who lose people.”

Now, enter the Apostle Peter.

Peter was staying in the nearby town of Lydda and was invited to come and pay his respects after Tabitha died. Like most pastoral visits to bereaved people, Peter visits with the community and hears stories about Tabitha’s accomplishments. The biblical text doesn’t say, but maybe he brought a casserole? And, of course, like all pastors do on bereavement visits, he prayed.

And that’s when things got really interesting.

The text tells us that Peter “turned to the body and said, “Tabitha, get up.” Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive.”

Through Peter, God has flipped the script for this community of widows. Experience had taught them to identify as “losers,” brought together by their common experience of death, but that’s not who they are anymore. Their identity is now rooted in something far deeper than death. As St. Paul says I his letter to the Colossians, their identity “is hidden in Christ with God.” They are Christians. They are the baptized. They are the ones who have passed through the waters of death and have been raised to new life in Christ by the power of the Spirit. That is who they are now, and nothing in all creation, not even the power of death itself, is able to shake them loose from that identity. This is the truth that Peter has come to proclaim to Tabitha’s companions.

It is also the truth that Christ is proclaiming to us today, through this text of scripture. Who we are is not confined to the sum of our parts or the sum of our past experiences. Like the women in this story, we too are the baptized, whose “life is hidden with Christ in God.”

This truth flies in the face of everything the world throws at us in this life.

This American culture we live in brainwashes us to identify with our money and our possessions, whether we are rich or poor. It also tempts us to identify with our accomplishments in life, be they many or few. But that is not who we are, as Christians. God tells us in the scriptures:

“I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

That is who we are.

The people around us might try to pigeonhole, scapegoat, or oppress us because of our race, ethnicity, social class, national origin, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Some of us are excluded or made to feel less-than because of these things about ourselves that we did not choose and cannot change. They call us names that I dare not repeat in church because that is not who we are, as Christians. God tells us in the scriptures:

“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

That is who we are.

Past experience might tell us that we are “losers,” who will never fit in, and will never amount to anything in this life. But that is not who we are, as Christians. God tells us in the scriptures:

“I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”

That is who we are.

Past experience might tell us that we are unlovable, but God tells us, as God told Jesus at his baptism:

“You are my Son (or Daughter), the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Just like Peter with Tabitha’s companions, Christ stands among us today in Word and Sacrament, bringing new life where we had given up hope. We can no longer afford to identify ourselves with our past experiences, like that duck at the nature center. We have to find our identity with who we really are in Christ.

We are the baptized: those who have passed through the waters of death and been reborn to life in the Spirit. The waters of baptism have washed away every other name or label that we might be tempted to identify with. Now, there is only Christ. Paul writes, in Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Through the sacrament of baptism, you have become the hands and feet of Jesus in this world. Baptism is not just a rite of initiation into church membership; it is also an ordination to ministry. Once we have realized the significance of our baptismal identity in Christ, we are sent out into the midst of the culture we live in. We are sent to expose the cultural lies that trick people into identifying with anything other than who we are in Christ.

Now, I want to ask you a serious question: Can we believe this for ourselves, as Christians? Can we believe it for ourselves, as the Church?

This is a challenging time to be a Christian in this culture. Most denominations and congregations, ourselves included, are facing a steep decline in membership, participation, and financial support. Many, like us, are facing the loss of our buildings and full-time clergy. The temptation for us, at this point in our shared experience, is to identify with these peripheral things. One video we watched in our Tuesday afternoon Bible study called them “the 3 B’s: Buildings, Budgets, and Behinds.” If those things are how we measure success, then we are no different from the culture around us. We are like the community of widows in Acts: huddled together around our shared experience of loss; pining after the good old days.

But the truth is that we are not those things. The truth, in this Easter season, is that Christ is risen and living among us today, breathing new life into us, flipping the script, and unraveling the twisted knots of death, so that we can begin to find our identity, not with our past experiences or present circumstances, but with Christ and Christ’s mission in the world.

And Christ’s mission is ever and always the same:

To proclaim to the ends of the earth, in word and deed, the good news that “I love you, and God loves you, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Be blessed and be a blessing.

Aperetif

On By J. Barrett LeeIn poetry, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Lookout Mountain, Alabama
Second Tuesday in Easter 2016

They tell me i died
in a head-on collision.

i was southbound;
it was waiting.

i saw life
flash before my eyes,
not just mine.

Green and Purple,
white and red,
drawing me in
and up
and out.

i press it to my tongue,
and bite down hard.
Bone of my bone,
flesh of my flesh,
within me
and without,
myself
and other.

Foretaste
of what is
to come.

Spinning
end over end,
inebriated,
bits flying off
in every direction.
It’s okay,
it wasn’t mine.
Just a rental.

Whose blood is this?
It’s everywhere.
Gets into my eyes
so i can’t see.

All of this,
could have been
nothing:
particles gathered,
clumped dust,
but You
stretched out Your hands,
spoke the word,

and everything happened.

Easter Vigil Sermon

On By J. Barrett LeeIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Many thanks to Fr. Randall and the people of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, who invited me to preach tonight at their Easter Vigil.

The text is Luke 24:1-12.

My seven-year-old had her first crisis of faith at an early age. It happened a couple of years ago, just after our family moved to Michigan, when she found out that the little girl next door didn’t believe in God. This possibility had never occurred to her before. She asked my wife and me, “Is God real or just pretend?” After some deliberation, she decided that things she could see are real, while things she could not see are pretend, so God must be pretend.

At first, I thought, “Hey, I’ve got this! I used to teach philosophy, my daughter is very bright, and kids are rational creatures, after all (I know: Rookie Mistake). So, I set to work with my finest reasonable arguments for the existence of God, but none of them worked on this precocious five-year-old.

My wife and I were not particularly worried about our kindergartner’s burgeoning atheism. As clergy, we understand that faith is a journey that looks different for each person that undertakes it. As believers in the ancient Christian doctrine of apokatastasis (Gk. ‘Universal Reconciliation’), we believe that God finds a way to reach every heart, each in its own way, in God’s own time.

But we had also made a promise, at her baptism, to raise her in the Christian faith, in hopes that she, at her confirmation, would one day make those promises her own. So, we continued to take her to church each Sunday and practice our daily devotions at home.

One night, as we finished reciting the Apostles’ Creed, my daughter asked about that one line: “I believe… in the resurrection of the body”. And I told her that the Christian Church has always taught that, one day, Jesus will return to earth and each and every person who has ever lived will rise from the dead, just like Jesus did on Easter.

She replied, “What?!!! You mean, some day I’M GOING TO RISE FROM THE DEAD TOO?!!!”

I said, “Yes, that’s what Christians believe.”

She said, “Oh my goodness! That’s AMAZING!!! I had no idea! EVERYBODY should know about this!”

Where my finely-tuned, well-reasoned arguments had failed, the gospel story itself had succeeded. And that’s the most amazing thing about this conversation.

Faith, in today’s world, has come to mean “belief in a series of propositions that cannot be proved by rational means.” Faith, so we’re told, is by its very nature opposed to reason and doubt. Faith, so we’re told, is about accepting that certain implausible events happened two thousand years ago. That’s what faith is, according to radical skeptics on the one hand and radical fundamentalists on the other. But that is not how most Christians have understood or practiced their faith over the last two thousand years.

For us, faith is a story. It is a story that has been unfolding since the beginning of time and is still unfolding today. It is the story which we find in ourselves and it is the story in which we find ourselves. Faith is a story of new life and transformation. It changes everything. That’s the vision of Christian faith that has brought us together to celebrate tonight.

We heard the major points of this story tonight as they were laid down in the Torah and the prophets of ancient Judaism. We listened to the witness and the commentary of Christ’s apostles as they struggled to make sense of the life-changing transformation they had just undergone. We listened to the words of Luke’s gospel, where the evangelist tries to explain that which defies all explanation.

When I listen to the words of tonight’s gospel reading, I cannot help but relate to St. Mary Magdalene and St. Peter. For them, the first experience of the resurrected Christ was not one of certainty or elation at the fulfillment of prophecy. The text of Luke’s gospel tells us they were perplexed, terrified, and amazed. Even the angel’s announcement begins with a question: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

For Peter, faith began with what seemed to him “an idle tale,” told by Mary Magdalene and her companions. He rejected the absurdity of it outright, as well he should, but something kept gnawing at him inside. I think it must have, because he “got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.”

This is what Christian faith is. It is not knowledge, in the factual sense. It is not certainty about doctrinal propositions handed down infallibly from ancient times. Faith, in the Christian sense, is perplexing; it is terrifying; it is amazing, as we heard tonight from the first witnesses of Christ’s resurrection. Faith is a question. Faith is a hunch, and that hunch changes everything.

We desperately need that kind of faith in this day and age. We need a faith that believes enough to doubt and doubts enough to “doubt even its doubts,” in the words of the Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick.

You and I live in a society where we are inundated with a relentless onslaught of guarantees and certainties from advertising slogans, political campaigns, and religious ideologies. And each time one promise collapses under its own weight and proves itself to be a lie, another one is waiting to jump up and take its place. Each ideological idol promises to give us the world, if only we will bow down and worship its golden image. Faith, in this context, is the ability to question these promises, doubt these certainties, and refuse to bend the knee to anything less than the mystery of God’s own self.

This faith, the faith of the Church, is freedom from tyranny and idolatry. This faith is not preserved in unchangeable dogmas, but is passed down as a story told in poetry and prophecy, in water and oil and light, in bread and wine. This story is ongoing: unfolding and expanding over the ages, surprising us as it grows in us and we grow in it.

This is the story that brings us tonight to the empty tomb where, with Mary and Peter, we begin our encounter with the living Christ, not with a shout of certainty, but with the angel’s question, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

You and I are invited tonight, to take our place next to our brother Peter as we stoop down and squint into the mysterious darkness of the empty tomb, uncertain of what we will find there, but curious enough to come and see for ourselves.

Friends, welcome to the empty tomb. Welcome to the faith of the Church. Welcome to the unfolding story and the ongoing journey. I dare you tonight to walk with us on this journey, to believe enough to doubt, and to doubt enough to question your doubts. I dare you to be perplexed, terrified, and amazed. I dare you to allow yourself to be embraced by the mystery that causes this world’s exclamation points to bow down into question marks before its grandeur.

Friends, this is the faith of the Church. Welcome to the story that is more inspiring and more informative than any dogmatic or rational argument. Welcome to the journey that never ends. Welcome to the empty tomb.

Worship: What Is It Good For?

On By J. Barrett LeeIn Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The text for this week’s sermon is John 12:1-8.

I love that 70s song by Edwin Starr that goes:

“WAR! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!”

I think that’s a great question to ask: What is it good for?

It’s a question I think we could easily ask of ourselves, simply by changing the first word:

Church… Faith… Prayer… Worship… What is it good for?

There are many who have asked that very question over the centuries, and not a few of them have come back with the same answer: Absolutely nothing!

Historically, one well-known philosopher who asked that question (and came up with the same answer) is Karl Marx, who co-wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848. He wrote, quite famously:

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”

Years later, the Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin expanded on Marx’s idea by saying:

“Those who toil and live in want all their lives are taught by religion to be submissive and patient while here on earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward. But those who live by the labour of others are taught by religion to practise charity while on earth, thus offering them a very cheap way of justifying their entire existence as exploiters and selling them at a moderate price tickets to well-being in heaven. Religion is opium for the people. Religion is a sort of spiritual booze, in which the slaves of capital drown their human image, their demand for a life more or less worthy of man.”

More recently, a group of three, young, Christian pastors have written a book called Never Pray Again: Lift Your Head, Unfold Your Hands, and Get To Work. In this book, they say:

For many people, Christian discipleship is sleepwalking. We inhabit a world of dreams and imagination, of theology and interpretation, of jargon and tradition. Worship services follow the same pattern week after week, and we can just coast through. Christian leaders can, and do, phone it in. We stand, we sit, some of us kneel, we turn to face the cross, we bow our heads, we take a morsel of bread and a sip from a cup, and we proclaim our work done.

Now, what each of these authors is trying to say is that any religion, any church, or any spiritual practice that does not lead humanity toward a transformed world is good for absolutely nothing. That kind of religion is like a drug: it makes people feel good by numbing them to the pain of the world. People use that kind of faith as an escape. It’s a drug and it’s good for absolutely nothing. Marx and Lenin would say that it’s better to have no faith at all. And I agree with them… to a point.

To all of the above authors, I would say, “Yes, but..”

I would say “Yes” to Marx and Lenin because the kind of religion we learn from Jesus, the prophets, and the apostles is firmly based in God’s desire for a world that has been transformed for good. Nowhere in orthodox Christian theology do we find the notion that God doesn’t care about this world.

Instead, we hear God say through the prophet Amos:

I hate, I despise your festivals,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals
I will not look upon.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

In other words, God is sick and tired of their religion and wants them to work for justice instead. This is a profoundly biblical idea. Likewise, God says through the prophet Isaiah:

Announce to my people their rebellion,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet day after day they seek me
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments,
they delight to draw near to God.
“Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,
and oppress all your workers.
Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
will not make your voice heard on high.

In the Epistle of James in the New Testament, the apostle writes:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

So, this is where I say “Yes” to Lenin and Marx. If our Christian faith is just a way for us to escape the pain of life instead of working to make this world a better place, then our faith is just a drug that’s good for absolutely nothing. Better to have no faith at all, than that kind of faith.

However, my “Yes” to Marx and Lenin is not unqualified. It’s a “Yes, but…”

Yes, “faith without works is dead,” but empty escapism is not all there is to Christianity. As we have already observed, the core message of both Testaments in the Bible is the God who is “making all things new” in Christ. God’s dream is for “a new heaven and a new earth” and God has invited you and I to help make that dream come true by living our lives as “the hands and feet of Jesus” on earth today. The fact that some Christians have distorted or forgotten that fact does not negate its truth one iota. The solution to bad Christianity is not no Christianity, but better Christianity. That’s where Marx and Lenin go wrong.

In this morning’s gospel, Mary of Bethany, that wonderful mother of all contemplative saints, performs an extravagant act of beauty and service for Jesus. The text tells us she “took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” We soon find out that this perfume was worth almost a year’s salary for the average working person.

Judas Iscariot, ever the practical Marxist, laments, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (NOTE: Of course, we also learn in the next sentence that Judas’ motive for saying this was somewhat less than pure.)

Judas saw Mary’s act of worship as nothing more than a giant waste of resources. Many critics continue to accuse Christians of the same thing today.

Why do we get up and go to church on Sunday? Wouldn’t it be better to spend that time volunteering at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter? Why wake up early for prayer and Bible study before work? Do we think our prayers will magically come true like wishes upon a star? Why practice Christian spirituality at all? Why not just work hard as an activist, fighting for peace and justice? Like Mary’s anointing of Jesus, isn’t it all just a big waste of precious resources?

I would say no, it’s not a waste, and here’s why:

The biblical text tells us that, after Mary had broken open this expensive jar and anointed Jesus with its contents, “The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”

In other words, the act of worship transformed the place where it happened and, by extension, the people who witnessed it. Even Judas was affected.

In the same way, our worship transforms us. It empowers us to do the work of being the hands and feet of Jesus in the world. Without being taught by the Word of God in Scripture, it never would have occurred to us to look for the presence of Christ in “the least of these” and serve them as if they were Christ himself (as indeed they are, as Christ said). Without being fed by the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, it never would have occurred to us that our broken and suffering neighbors are actually our brothers and sisters, fellow members of the Body of Christ, who eat from the same bread and drink from the same cup as us. Without the experience of dying and rising with Christ in the Sacrament of Baptism, we would not have the courage to face death and risk our lives for the sake of what we believe is right. But we have all these lessons because we have received them through the symbols, myths, and rituals of the Christian tradition. These tools shape us, so that we can then go out and shape the world. Without them, many of us would be utterly incapable of making a positive difference.

That’s what St. Mary of Bethany understood and the Communists didn’t. Worship makes a difference. Marx and Lenin were right that faith is worthless if it doesn’t make a difference in way we live our lives in this world. But they were also wrong, because the Spirit-filled worship of God in Word and Sacrament has the power to transform us from the inside out and then send us out into the world, where we can be agents of transformation in the revolutionary coming of the kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven.

Letter to Kalamazoo City Commission from the Christian Clergy

On By J. Barrett LeeIn Uncategorized3 Comments

February 1, 2016

Dear Mayor Hopewell, Vice-Mayor Cooney, and City Commissioners of Kalamazoo:

The moral imperative to welcome refugees, migrant workers, and other strangers in need can be found throughout the pages of the Bible. In the book of Genesis, God called the patriarch Abraham, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” Several generations later, severe famine forced Abraham’s descendants to relocate to the land of Egypt. While they were initially welcomed into that country, Abraham’s descendants were eventually labeled as a threat to national security by a racist government that subjected them to policies of forced labor and genocide.

In response to these crimes against humanity, God raised up Moses as a liberator, who led the people of Israel to a new life in a land of freedom. Along the way, God gave the Israelites a new command to ensure that the atrocities of Egypt would never be repeated by Abraham’s descendants. God said, “You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 23:9)

In the New Testament, Jesus Christ continues this ethical tradition in his teaching:

Jesus said, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
His followers asked, “Lord, when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you?”
Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:31-46)

Based on these and many other passages of sacred scripture, we the clergy of Kalamazoo believe it is our bounden Christian duty to open the doors of our community to offer hospitality and assistance to these our fellow human beings. They are now arriving on the shores this country, fleeing death by violence or starvation. They come to us from many directions, bringing with them a brilliant rainbow of many different languages, skin tones, cultural traditions, and religious beliefs. They come asking only that we acknowledge their inalienable right to exist.

Sadly, there are many voices at work in this country and in the state of Michigan who would use this humanitarian crisis as an opportunity to garner power for themselves. They use the same slanderous political tactics employed by Pharaoh in the book of Exodus. They manipulate the fears of the general populace with the specter of terrorism. Their xenophobia and lust for power has led them to blatant disregard for the lives of fellow human beings in need.

As Christians, we call upon the leadership of Kalamazoo to resist these lies, heeding instead the cry of the poor and the biblical command: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18; Mark 12:31)

Congregations stand ready to work together in sponsoring, welcoming, and assisting refugee families of all ethnic and religious backgrounds. We need the support of this city’s leadership in order to fulfill our Christian calling and honor the inclusive values that make our city, state, and country so great. We strongly urge the City Commission of Kalamazoo to adopt the attached resolution.

Sincerely,

The Rev. J. Barrett Lee, Presbyterian Church (USA)

The Rev. Nathan Dannison, United Church of Christ

The Rev. Sarah Schmidt-Lee, Presbyterian Church (USA)

The Rev. Andrew Tengwall, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The Rev. Matt Weiler, United Methodist Church

Pastor Strick Strickland, Sr., Second Baptist Church

The Rev. Dr. Randall Warren, The Episcopal Church

The Rev. Mary VanAndel, Presbyterian Church (USA)

The Rev. Dr. Seth Weeldreyer, Presbyterian Church (USA)

The Rev. Elizabeth Candido, Presbyterian Church (USA)

The Rev. Sara Dorrien-Christians, Presbyterian Church (USA)

The Rev. Dr. John Best, Presbyterian Church (USA)

The Rev. Ruth Moerdyk, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

The Rev. Kurt Kremlick, Presbyterian Church (USA)

The Rev. Nelson Lumm, Presbyterian Church (USA)

The Rev. Kathleen Robertson King, Presbyterian Church (USA)

The Rev. David Moffett-Moore, United Church of Christ

The Rev. Bob Bond, Metropolitan Community Church

The Rev. Lawrence Farris, Presbyterian Church (USA)

The Rev. David Nichols, American Baptist Churches

RESOLUTION AFFIRMING THAT THE CITY OF KALAMAZOO
IS A WELCOMING COMMUNITY AND RESPECTS THE INNATE DIGNITY OF ALL PEOPLE

January 2016

WHEREAS, the City of Kalamazoo community remembers, honors, and values our immigrant and migrant roots, and embraces the values of family, faith, and hard work; and,

WHEREAS, the City of Kalamazoo has long been home to immigrants from around the world, who come seeking opportunity, stability, prosperity, and a better life for their families. The City of Kalamazoo is home to many immigrants who come from regions such as the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. The city’s diverse communities consist of first and second generation immigrants as well as African-Americans who have historically migrated from the southern United States; and,

WHEREAS, the Welcoming Kalamazoo initiative aims to build cooperation, respect, and compassion among all in our community, including immigrants and non-immigrants alike; endeavors to create an atmosphere in which international students, immigrants, and refugees have increased opportunities to integrate into the social fabric of their adopted hometowns; and seeks to embrace diversity while retaining unique cultural identities; and,

WHEREAS, the City of Kalamazoo community has long been recognized as a hospitable and welcoming place, where people, families, and institutions thrive and the contributions of all are celebrated and valued. Residents of the City of Kalamazoo live up to our highest American values of acceptance and equality, and treat newcomers with decency and respect, creating a vibrant community for all to live in; and,

WHEREAS, the City of Kalamazoo community is committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and global city and will continue to provide a neighborly and welcoming atmosphere, where all are respected and accepted. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT

RESOLVED, by the Kalamazoo City Commission on [DATE] that the City of Kalamazoo is affirmed as a place where all foreign-born and native-born Americans can live, work, and play together; share in each other’s customs and ideals, and appreciate and promote cultural diversity.

We urge residents and stakeholders of the City of Kalamazoo community to join with the efforts and spirit of the Welcoming Michigan initiative and join in lifting up the City of Kalamazoo as a welcoming environment for all.

This Welcoming Resolution is put forth and supported by:

Members of the Welcoming Michigan Kalamazoo Leadership Committee

Eliminating Racism & Claiming/Celebrating Equality (ERACCE)

The mission of ERACCE is to dismantle systemic racism and build antiracist multicultural diversity within Southwest Michigan institutions by providing education, networking, technical assistance and supportive resources to the region.

FAIR FOOD MATTERS

The mission of Fair Food Matters is to improve access to healthy, local food by educating, connecting, and empowering the Kalamazoo community.

Hispanic American Council

The Hispanic American Council is a nonprofit community organization established to advocate for the well-being of the Hispanic population in Southwest Michigan.

Welcoming Michigan

Welcoming Michigan is a statewide initiative of the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center working to promote mutual respect and cooperation between foreign-born and U.S.-born Americans.

Fellow Community Partners

It is NOT Okay

On By J. Barrett LeeIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

“I can no longer hide behind the flag of “I don’t want to be political”; rather I have to state the obvious and say, “This is not about politics. This is about human decency and I, for the sake of my children and all future generations who are seeing these things, must say, ‘I am not okay with this because this is NOT okay.’”

Christina Embree's avatarr e F o c u s

I’m sure by this point you’ve seen the video. The one of the young African-American woman being removed from a presidential campaign rally in Louisville, being pushed and prodded by numerous campaign supporters while others pummel her with insults or capture the whole incident on their phone. Not one person, not one, steps in and says, “Hey now, this is a human being. Show a little respect for the human race.”  Not one defends. Not one speaks out. Not one.

And I’ve refrained from posting anything about this here because I didn’t want this blog to be political. I’ve kept this place free from politics and campaigns and opinion on government and court decisions and I was determined to do so, until today.

Because today, I realized, THIS IS NOT POLITICAL. 

It’s not about politics. It’s about humanity.

As I watched that girl get pushed and shoved all I could think was…

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