Forgive Them

John 20:19-23 Common English Bible (CEB) 

19 It was still the first day of the week. That evening, while the disciples were behind closed doors because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. When the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with joy. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you don’t forgive them, they aren’t forgiven.”

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Today is Pentecost.  Traditionally here at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Selma, California, the sanctuary is draped in red and flame colors.  There is an amazing “Pentecost Band” - last year it was like a small orchestra!  It’s a big deal!  AND it is my very favorite church celebration, bar none.  Wind and flames, and speaking foreign languages.  Crowds of people listening and thousands being converted by Peter’s preaching!  Plus I get to wear my beautiful red stole, which usually only comes out of my closet once a year.    

Also traditionally, the reading for today comes from the second chapter of Acts.  And you know,   I am sorry, but I just could not do it.  I mean, that reading begins “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.”  and later in the reading, after the Spirit had come, “at this sound the crowd gathered . .”   Y’know?  I just couldn’t.  Because we can’t do those things.  

We can’t all gather in one place. 

We can’t be part of a large crowd of worshippers.

Not yet.

Today’s gospel reading takes place on Easter, in the evening.  It starts with a story we all know - The disciples were hiding behind closed doors, Jesus came and stood among them, showed them his wounds, and they celebrated.  Then, John tells us, Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into them.

This is so very different from the way Luke reported that the disciples received the Holy Spirit.  Luke tells the story of a great spectacle!  A very visible, very memorable event with amazing preaching and special effects.  A story that has us commemorating the coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples in big way nearly 2,000 years later - with music and balloons and fiery colors and everybody wearing red and sometimes cake!  

But John tells us it was a much more subdued occurrence.  No crowds.  No wind.  No flames.  No preaching.  No baptism of thousands.  Jesus simply breathed upon them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  

And then he gave them the power to forgive sins, the same power he had, the power he used to heal people.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell the story of Jesus saying to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven,” and that man was immediately healed!  Healing comes from forgiveness. 

Many of my colleagues are preaching on the Acts passage today.  The images they are using are not of 1st century Jerusalem, but of the fires in Minneapolis last night. And Atlanta.  And Oakland.  And Portland.  And New York City.  And LA.  They are speaking about a nation on fire with anger and pain over the murder of George Floyd, a black man, by a police officer who was white.  They may name a long list of African Americans  who have been killed by police officers for the crime of being black such as Breonna Taylor of Louisville and Eric Garner of New York.  They may quote a statement made by (someone whose name I cannot remember) who said in a radio interview, “When a city erupts in flame and destruction like Minneapolis has, the spark is always police brutality, but the tinder is hunger, and poverty, and hopelessness.  The tinder is racism.”  They will almost certainly quote Martin Luther King, Jr. who, 53 years ago said, “A riot is the language of the unheard.”  

But I am preaching on today’s Gospel reading.  I am preaching on forgiveness.  Because Jesus to his disciples, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you don’t forgive them, they aren’t forgiven.”  

And it seems to me that we have been forgiving the sin of racism for far too long, while we have chosen not to forgive persons of color for being persons of color.  And while that might sound overly simplistic, it’s kind of meant to.  I know, not all white people are overtly racist. Not all police are brutal. Not all Christians, not all men, not all women.  We all know that.  It goes without saying.  The Not All arguments are pretty much beside the point whenever they are brought up.  They are a distraction and unhelpful.  Much like responding to “Black Lives Matter” with “All Lives Matter.”  Yes.  But also no.  Because if Black Lives don’t matter, or matter less than other lives, then no lives matter.   If a Black child and a White child are both kidnapped, which one gets the news coverage?  Which parents are on the TV news tearfully begging the kidnapper to please bring their child home?   If I walk into a department store at the same time as a person of color, which one of us does the security guard watch?   

We have a long history of seeing the other as somehow less human, less deserving, less worthy of good stuff, and then, of blaming the other for all the ills of society.   And when they complain about how they are treated, we don’t believe them.   When they point to examples of racism, we don’t see it.   It is not our experience.  And the very fact I can talk about us and them, and y’all know who I mean kind of makes my point.  

Maybe you’re tired of hearing about it.  Maybe you’re wondering why they can’t just get over what happened in the past - slavery and Jim Crow and reservations and small pox blankets and the internment camps.   And I get it.  I do.  I spent 25 years in an interracial marriage, a marriage that was illegal not all that long ago.  Every day of those 25 years I listened to a litany of White People’s sins.  Every day I listened to that anger - that impotent rage - over his specific daily experiences with racism, and the historic rmistreatment of his people because of their race, and the systemic racism that pervades our society.   And I really got tired of it.  But I heard what he had to say.  I learned to watch to see the things that had been invisible to me.  I know that I will never completely understand, the daily, lived experience of a person of color.  And I know that it is my responsibility, as a white person and a Christian, to stand against racism in every form.  To point it out at every opportunity.  To root it out of myself.

I watched a news conference the other day with the civic leaders in Minneapolis.  I saw Mayor Jacob Fry in tears over the violence and rage in the city he loves.   I heard Police Chief Arradondo’s assurances that investigation into the actions of the other three police officers involved were ongoing.  I heard City Council member Andrea Jenkins open her remarks by singing the first lines of Amazing Grace.  I heard her call racism a public health issue. 

And it is.  We are all of us living in a strange place, sheltering in place, trying to figure out how to safely start everything back up again, fearful, some of us, about whether we will survive the virus when we catch it.  Some of us, though, have a better chance than others.  I have running water in my house.  I can wash my hands as often as I like.  I can easily self isolate.  I can have Amazon deliver masks to my house.  And food.  And whatever else I want. There’s a hospital a mile away.  On the Navajo Nation, 30% of the homes do NOT have running water.  Multiple generations living in one small house is the norm.  Available health care is extremely limited.  43% of the people live below the poverty rate.  And the rate of infection and death from Covid19 is the highest in the US.  Not just the Navajo and other Native people are suffering higher rates of infection, though .  African American, Asian, and Hispanic communities also have much higher rates of infection and death than the White population.  NOT because Covid19 somehow prefers non-white persons, but because the rates of poverty in those populations is so much higher.   Racism is a public heath issue.  

If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you don’t forgive them, they aren’t forgiven.” Forgiveness is healing, after all.  And Jesus came to heal the world.   But one component of forgiveness is repentance.  If there is no repentance, true forgiveness - healing - doesn’t happen.   We need to stop forgiving, excusing, ignoring racism.  We need to stop accepting it as just the way things are, or as something beyond our ability to do anything about.  We need to recognize it, reject it, work against it.  Point it out when we see it.  Know that each of us can make a difference, if each of us work toward repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation.  Understand that the anger you hear is not against you personally, probably, but rather against all who will stand by and allow evil to stand unchallenged. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing - like those three police officers who watched George Floyd struggling to breathe and did nothing.  Doing nothing makes us complicit - it makes us part of the problem instead of the solution.  Let us be part of the solution. Let us change the world, as the disciples of Christ did after receiving the Holy Spirit.

On this Pentecost Day, may we receive the Holy Spirit, so that we may be changed as significantly as were the disciples when Jesus breathed on them.  

On this Pentecost Day, may the Holy Spirit fill our hearts with love for all others, so that we may call the sinner to repentance, and forgive.  

May our eyes be opened to see our own sin, our own need for healing, 

and may we come to desire more than anything reconciliation with God and with all of our siblings, of every nation and race.  

May we remember that Jesus blessed us, through the disciples, saying “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.” 

May we go forth, and carry the Good News of forgiveness and healing to all the earth.

Whatcha lookin' at?

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Scripture:  Acts 1:6-14 Common English Bible (CEB). 

6 As a result, those who had gathered together asked Jesus, “Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now?”

7 Jesus replied, “It isn’t for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority. 8 Rather, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

9 After Jesus said these things, as they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going away and as they were staring toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood next to them. 11 They said, “Galileans, why are you standing here, looking toward heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you saw him go into heaven.”

12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem—a sabbath day’s journey away. 13 When they entered the city, they went to the upstairs room where they were staying. Peter, John, James, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James, Alphaeus’ son; Simon the zealot; and Judas, James’ son— 14 all were united in their devotion to prayer, along with some women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

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One of the first assignments Dr. Earl Babbie gave us in Sociology 101 was to go out among people and do something that went against society’s norms.  Something that challenged behavior that was customary.  (He also specified that it had to be something that was lawful and would not get us in trouble with the campus police.)   While we were doing that anti-social thing, we were to observe the reactions of the people around us.  We all came back with stories about people looking at us funny, or moving away from us, or asking why we were doing whatever it was.  One of the most popular was to stand in an elevator facing the back. That tends to make people really uncomfortable.  They will stand as far away from you as possible.  The student who walked around campus picking up trash was asked if he was being punished for some infraction by having to do this.  (That was sad!)   One student stood in the middle of the Sunken Lawn looking up.  It wasn’t long before she had gathered a crowd of other people, also looking up, trying to figure out what she was looking at.  A blimp?  A plane? Superman?  Given our close proximity to Disneyland, it really could have been almost anything.   Not to mention our film school.  Much strange behavior on campus could be directly attributed to film and theater students.  But she was just looking up, acting outside of the norm, to see what would happen.    All of us reported some kind of reaction.  No one’s anti-social behavior went unnoticed. 

The disciples were looking up into the sky at the spot where they had last seen Jesus before he disappeared into the cloud.  To a bystander, they were doing this for no apparent reason.   They did not have planes or blimps or Disneyland to explain their behavior.  Two men in white robes suddenly appeared, asking why they were looking up.  Kind of like, “Ok folks, show’s over. Nothing to see here. Move along.”  And so they went back to Jerusalem to wait, as Jesus had directed them.  Verse 4 tells us that “While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father.”   So, having been brought back to earth as it were by these two messengers from God, they went back to Jerusalem, which really wasn’t far from where they were.  We are told the Mount of Olives is a Sabbath day’s journey from Jerusalem, or a little under half a mile.  A Sabbath day’s journey is the distance Jews were permitted to travel on the Sabbath, as under the Law of Moses travel was considered work.  (Exodus 16:27-30).  So, close.   

So the disciples went back to Jerusalem to wait.  They waited in the upper room where they had been staying.   And while they waited, they were united in their devotion to prayer - and selected a twelfth disciple, as we discussed last Sunday.  You know, I was kind of fascinated by the idea that all of the people named in this passage - eleven disciples, Mary, the mother of Jesus and other women, and Jesus’ brothers - all of them were gathered in an upper room in someone’s house.  The houses in Judea and Galilee, in all of Palestine, were quite small by our standards.  The roof often doubled as a room, an upper room if you will, a place to gather, eat, even bathe. I was thinking that had to be a pretty big room (or roof) for there to be space for everyone.  And then I remembered that we are kind of spoiled by having of lots of space to live in.  Whether we live alone, or with a partner or some roommates, or even in a house where three generations live together, we still have a lot more space than many very poor people around the world and even in this country, who might live with three generations in a room or two.  The Navajo, for example.  Immigrant families such as the Haitian community in Florida.  The very poor, including African American and LatinX families in our cities.  The one bedroom house next door to where I was living in Fort Pierce, Florida, had at least ten people living there. (And yes, that was against the law, but it was what they could afford, and no one was going to turn them in.)  This reality is the primary reason that Covid19 is hitting those communities so hard in our country.   

Anyway, the disciples gathered in that space to wait, devoting themselves to prayer. Luke tells us that during this time they were continually in the temple blessing God. (Luke 24:53)  They had a lot to wrap their minds around and to pray about while they waited.  Jesus, who they had known as a perfectly normal human man, had died, come back from death, and then rose up into the sky before their very eyes - transformed and transfigured, human and divine.  They had witnessed impossible things.   Jesus had told them they were to be his witnesses - they were to preach the kingdom of God as he did - in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.   And they had seen what happened to Jesus when he preached these things. They had seen what resulted from his speaking out against the status quo, against the powerful.   They knew that they would be challenging the norms of their entire society, going against what everybody else thought and did.  Carrying the Good News would make them targets of the establishment just as Jesus had been, just as all the prophets of old had been.  The disciples would take on the role of those who historically brought God’s Word to the people - the Word that comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.  

It won’t be long before the Holy Spirit comes to them in wind and flame.  It won’t be long before they start performing wonders, and healings.  It won’t be long before things they preach and teach get the attention of the priests and the Levites - and not in a good way.  It won’t be long before Steven becomes the first martyr.  It won’t be long before persecution begins, because the powerful do not like it when the powerless speak against them.  But they will  continue to preach the Good News, to bring freedom to the captive, and healing to the sick at heart.  They will go out into their communities to feed the hungry.  

In the years to come, both and Peter and Paul will caution the believers to adhere to the laws of the land, (except the ones about worshipping the emperor, of course) to submit to the authority of the established government.   And indeed, Jesus himself did nothing to threaten Roman authority.  There was that whole “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” thing when the question of paying taxes came up.  The things Jesus and his followers preached did, however, threaten the religious authorities of their day.  How often did Jesus challenge the religious lawyers, the Pharisees and Sadducees, to pay more attention to the spirit of the Law than the letter of the Law.   If someone is ill on the Sabbath, don’t wait until the next day if it is in your power to heal them now.  If someone is caught in adultery, let the sinless among you cast the first stone - don’t judge lest you be judged.  If people are hungry on the Sabbath, let them be fed.  Don’t let the letter of the Law prevent you from loving your neighbor, from reaching out to help the person in need, from doing everything in your power to make life better for the other, even the person you dislike or disagree with.   The entirety of the law and the words of the prophets, Jesus said, hang on two commandments: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

The disciples praying and waiting in that upper room do not know what lies ahead for them, precisely.  But they do know that the road forward will be filled with challenges.  We are in a similar situation.  We do not know what lies ahead for us, precisely.   We know that we have choices to consider and decisions to make.  We may want to do what “everybody else” is doing.  We may be anxious to return to as close a semblance of what it used to be like as possible.  We may be filled with concern for the vulnerable among us.   As we go forward, let us do what the disciples did.  Look to the ascended Jesus, who now sits at God’s right hand, that we may do as he would have us do.  Devote ourselves to prayer and to blessing God.  And follow the Law of love, to love God with all our being, and to love the neighbor as we love ourselves.   

Amen.   

(note:  The stained glass window pictured is in my office at First Christian Church in Selma, CA)

God's Offspring

Acts 17:22-31 Common English Bible (CEB)

22 Paul stood up in the middle of the council on Mars Hill and said, “People of Athens, I see that you are very religious in every way. 23 As I was walking through town and carefully observing your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: ‘To an unknown God.’ What you worship as unknown, I now proclaim to you. 24 God, who made the world and everything in it, is Lord of heaven and earth. He doesn’t live in temples made with human hands. 25 Nor is God served by human hands, as though he needed something, since he is the one who gives life, breath, and everything else. 26 From one person God created every human nation to live on the whole earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God made the nations so they would seek him, perhaps even reach out to him and find him. In fact, God isn’t far away from any of us. 28 In God we live, move, and exist. As some of your own poets said, ‘We are his offspring.’

29 “Therefore, as God’s offspring, we have no need to imagine that the divine being is like a gold, silver, or stone image made by human skill and thought. 30 God overlooks ignorance of these things in times past, but now directs everyone everywhere to change their hearts and lives. 31 This is because God has set a day when he intends to judge the world justly by a man he has appointed. God has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.

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Message:  God’s Offspring

Paul was in Athens.  Gods were a pretty big deal in Athens.  It was a city positively filled with temples to the twelve main gods and dozens of lesser gods whom the Greeks worshipped, but especially Athena, because Athens was her city.  Ancient writers tell us that in addition to all of those, there was also a temple  specifically dedicated to An Unknown God, and very often Athenians would swear "in the name of the Unknown God.”  Altars to an unknown god were found in Temples dedicated to other Greek gods even in Rome.  If we were in the sanctuary right now, there would be a photograph on the screen of  an altar found in Rome dedicated to the unknown god. 

There’s not a lot written about this Unknown God except that altars dedicated to the Unknown God were common.  There is no real description of this god.  It could be that they were a bit concerned that they might have missed a god and chose this way to avoid possibly offending a god they didn’t know.  Because gods, as it turns out, were rather easily offended.  Each of the Greek gods had a particular aspect of nature or human life that they were in charge of.  Athena was, among other things, goddess of wisdom.  Ares was god of war.  Aphrodite, goddess of love and fertility.  In return for devotion and sacrifices from their worshippers, they might grant prayers.  Or they might not.  They were kind of fickle, and judgmental, and conniving, and greedy, and lustful, and jealous.  They were quick to anger, severe in their punishments.  They played favorites with humans, and they squabbled like children.  They were, in short, reflections of humans in pretty much every way.  It’s no accident that the statues in their temples looked like humans.  

That unknown god attracted Paul’s attention for a number of reasons.  It wasn’t represented by a statue of a human or animal.  There was a minor temple with a simple altar dedicated “To an unknown god.”  So Paul, a classically educated man, could persuasively quote Greek poets and philosophers in his presentation to the Athenians of the unknown god as simply the way in which the Greeks had been searching for the God he could now proclaim to them.  Kind of like, “You all have been worshipping the God of Abraham all along, you just didn’t know who you were worshipping.  And that’s ok.  You didn’t know any better. You are God’s offspring. And,” he said, “God overlooks ignorance of these things in times past, but now directs everyone everywhere to change their hearts and lives.”

He speaks from experience.  I am always blown away by Paul’s complete turn-around from his life before Christ met him on the road to Damascus.  Paul, who was once almost rabid in his insistence upon adherence to the Law, who chased down followers of Jesus for their blasphemy so they could be imprisoned and even executed, who is still mistrusted by the Christ followers in Jerusalem because of that, now tells the Greeks in Athens that they, too, are God’s children.  And beloved.  Greeks, Gentiles, with whom Saul wouldn’t even have sat at the table with for a meal. Wouldn’t even walk inside their home because they were not Jews, because they were outsiders, unclean even.   And now, he says, in Christ they are also God’s offspring.  They are also worthy.  Forgiveness and salvation are offered to them, too.  Just as forgiveness was extended to him, the persecutor, by the God of grace.  

The Unknown God.  When I first started attending 12-Step meetings, I did not recognize the God they were talking about.  That God was nothing at all like the God I had been taught about my whole life.  My God, the one I had worshipped, was judgmental and vengeful and jealous, a little bit fickle, definitely played favorites, hated lots of people and groups of people, was easily offended, quick to anger and severe in his punishments.  A lot like people, actually.  . . . 

I could never quite reconcile that God with my understanding of Jesus . . .  

I rejected that God, and therefore believed I was going to hell.

But then I started learning about this Unknown God they talked about in my meetings.  That God - or Higher Power, since I didn’t want to use the God word - was compassionate, merciful, understanding, forgiving, loving.  Did not expect perfect adherence to some impossible standard.  Firm but fair.  Gave second chances - and third, and fourth, or 70x7 or as many as it took.  Did I say forgiving?  Cared about what happened to me. Only wanted the best for all of us, and was sad when we did things to hurt ourselves or others.  Loved everyone.  Could take my burdens from me if I only asked. They told me things like, “God loves you and there is nothing you can do about it”.  This God I did not know or understand loved me.  Me. 

As I came to believe in that God, that previously Unknown God, I began to understand that what I had been taught to believe about God was wrong.      

So Paul, who had been preaching in Athens and had been brought before the city council to explain himself, was happy to tell them about Jesus.  He understood Greek culture and religion, he had studied the philosophers and the art of rhetoric, was doing pretty well when saying the Unknown God is actually the God he is proclaiming.  Things may have gotten a little uncomfortable when he told them that “You are God’s offspring. And God forgives your previous ignorance, but expects you to change your hearts and lives now.” because Athenians pride themselves on their intelligence and education.  Being told they were ignorant may not have been well received, especially when Paul got to the part about Jesus being resurrected.  Some ridiculed him at that point.  And. . .did I mention that gods were a pretty big deal in Athens?  A significant industry in Athens was making statues of gold, silver and stone representing the gods, especially Athena.  So there was an issue with Paul saying, “we have no need to imagine  that the divine being is like a gold, silver, or stone image made by human skill and thought.”  This was upsetting to some people, especially the artisans.  

Having heard all of these things that Paul said, some of these well educated, rational people in the council ridiculed him, and some said they wanted to learn more.  Truly, that’s all any teacher wants, is for listeners to want to learn more.  

When we teach people about God - and we all teach people about God - it’s kind of important for us to know what God we are talking about.  The judgmental God I grew up with, or the loving God who had previously been unknown to me.  The God who only accepts certain people - the people of Israel, for example - or the God who welcomes even the Greeks, the Samaritans, the Romans, male, female, slave, free, all persons.   Because I can tell you that many of the people who learn about God learn about that first one, as I did, and reject that first one, as I did, but don’t have anyone to teach them about the one who had been unknown to me, the loving, forgiving, compassionate, merciful God.    The one who seems to fit better with Jesus, who is much more likely to have sent Jesus to tell us about God’s love and forgiveness and to offer salvation to the entire world   Not just to some people or perfect people.  But to all people.  All the nations.   

And all that God, our God, Creator and sustainer of everything, all that God wants is for us to believe, and accept his love, and change our hearts and lives, so that everyone can see for themselves how great is our God.  Amen.

The 12th Apostle

Scripture.  Acts 1:15-26. Common English Bible. 

15 During this time, the family of believers was a company of about one hundred twenty persons. Peter stood among them and said, 16 “Brothers and sisters, the scripture that the Holy Spirit announced beforehand through David had to be fulfilled. This was the scripture concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus. 17 This happened even though he was one of us and received a share of this ministry.” (18 In fact, he bought a field with the payment he received for his injustice. Falling headfirst, he burst open in the middle and all his intestines spilled out. 19 This became known to everyone living in Jerusalem, so they called that field in their own language Hakeldama, or “Field of Blood.”) 20 “It is written in the Psalms scroll,

Let his home become deserted and let there be no one living in it;

and

Give his position of leadership to another.

21 “Therefore, we must select one of those who have accompanied us during the whole time the Lord Jesus lived among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day when Jesus was taken from us. This person must become along with us a witness to his resurrection.” 23 So they nominated two: Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias.

24 They prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s deepest thoughts and desires. Show us clearly which one you have chosen from among these two 25 to take the place of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.”  26 When they cast lots, the lot fell on Matthias. He was added to the eleven apostles.

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Blessings to you on this Mother’s Day under Quarantine. I don’t often remember my dreams but I had a dream last night that it was Mother’s Day, we had a special choir performance and a string quartet.  The sanctuary was full to overflowing and every available space was filled with flowers.  I awoke equally excited and terrified. You see, In some congregations the Mothers Day sermon ranks right up there with the Easter sermon.  Because of this, preachers tend to approach it with some trepidation.  This will be my 16th Mother’s Day Sermon, and perhaps my most difficult, because we are under quarantine.  Mind you, Mother’s Day is never easy for me.  I am not a mother, and for many years that was hard to live with.  People would try to make me feel better by saying, oh but Pastor, you mother the whole congregation.  Yeah, no.  That really doesn’t help.  But therapy did, so there’s that.  Every Mother’s Day I think about all the people who didn’t have a mother or whose mother was nowhere close to being a shining example of motherhood, who maybe ended up in the foster care system.  I think of those whose mother is gone and who miss her terribly, especially today.   I know this is a hard day for for all of these . . .  But that does not keep us from celebrating today with joy and gratitude for all the mothers who have raised families the best they knew how, who loved and are loved.  Since we can’t give out flowers to everyone in person I tried to get some red, white and pink carnations to decorate my little sermonizing spot here, but I was unsuccessful.  We’ll just have to make do with fake Easter lilies.  

Today’s scripture reading has nothing at all to do with mothers or mothering, and I can’t make it.  Believe me, I tried.  This passage is about selecting the right leader.  I would like to note that some commentaries leave out verses 18-20 about Judas’ death, in part because they are just icky and for some reason people like to read around the icky parts.  And, since these verses are parenthetical and are really sort of an aside, I suppose that they were felt to be irrelevant.  Further, these verses differ pretty significantly from the version of Judas’ death we find in Matthew 27:3-10, which is that Judas refused the money, he went out and hanged himself, the Temple priests bought the land he killed himself on with the money he refused, and used the field for the burial of foreigners.  This, Matthew tells us, was in fulfillment of the prophecy spoken by Jeremiah, not according the the Psalms as Peter says here.  And we very much like to try to avoid dealing with differences in Scripture.   I mean, we can deal with minor differences . . . things like whether Jesus cursed the fig tree before or after he turned over the moneychangers’ tables, exactly how many people were fed with a few fish and some bread, and which of the persons who are named in various Gospels as being selected by Jesus to be his disciples are the real deal, cause there are considerably more than 12 individual names.  This passage actually might help us understand that last one, because clearly there were more than The Twelve with Jesus from the beginning or that wouldn’t be one of the job requirements to be the new Twelfth.  

How do we deal with these differences?  Scholars will tell you that each of the Gospel writers was addressing a particular audience, and that the stories they told were adapted to fit their audience.  So it isn’t the case that one version of the story is right or wrong.  It is simply that different emphases are important to different groups of people.  Mark spoke to Gentile Christians, predominantly Romans, who didn’t know Scripture but understood power very well.  So Mark’s Gospel is sort of bare bones, just the facts kind of stories emphasizing Jesus’ power and the source of that power.  Luke was a well educated Greek speaking to Gentile Christians throughout the Roman Empire, telling the stories in a way that focused on Jesus’ mission to the entire world, with little or no distinction made between Jews and Gentiles.   Matthew addressed Jewish Christians living in and around Palestine, and is deeply rooted in Jewish culture and belief.  These three, who told mostly the same stories, told them in a way that would best engage their primary audience, which makes perfect sense.  Each of us, when we tell a story, will tell it a bit differently each time depending on who we are telling it to.  

Anyway, selecting a new leader.  Choosing a leader can a daunting task.  Anyone who has ever served on a search committee will attest to that.  It seems the process has grown considerably more complicated in the last 2,000 years.  There was one job requirement for Judas’ replacement, that the person had been with them from the day Jesus was baptized until the day of the resurrection.  They wouldn’t need references, because they’d been spending all of their time together.  Education and previous employment didn’t matter anymore than such things had mattered when Jesus chose the original Twelve.  The applicants didn’t need to prepare a resume listing all their accomplishments, because all that mattered was that they were part of that group who had walked together, eaten together, prayed together, fussed and argued with each other, and followed Jesus for his entire ministry.  

Likewise the job description sounded much simpler than they are today.  The person selected must become a witness to Jesus’ resurrection along with the remaining eleven.  There was no list of duties or responsibilities, nothing about performance reviews or giving notice.  Little did any of them know where that very simple job description would take them.  They will travel to the very ends of the earth preaching the Good News and establishing an entirely new religion. They will begin to develop a new theology, a new understanding of God through Jesus.  They will be called upon to make decisions about who can become a Christian, about circumcision and dietary laws.   Their preaching will be welcomed with open arms and make many new converts.  And they will face persecution, imprisonment, and execution because of their preaching.   Talk about “other duties as required!”    

Out of 120 persons gathered that day, two were nominated as being best suited to take on this work.  The final decision of who would be the new Twelfth disciple was left up to God.  They prayed and they cast lots, which was a common way of breaking ties or picking answers in the Hebrew Scriptures, like drawing straws or rolling dice.  Matthais was chosen.  There could be no hard feelings or resentment as everyone would have been certain that the choice was not due to personal popularity or any political reasons, but rather God’s will.  After the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost this method of selection would be left behind.   

Earlier this week I downloaded a book from the Alban Institute on congregational leadership titled How to lead when you don’t know where you are going: leading in a liminal season.  Liminal is a word to describe a time of transition, a between time, a time that is neither one thing nor the other. It is like the time between finishing your last class and walking across the stage to get your diploma.  You are no longer a student, but you are not yet a graduate.  For those who are scheduled to  graduate this year, this liminal time is even more uncomfortable than usual. 

This is the place the disciples found themselves.   They have spent forty days learning everything they needed to know from the Risen Christ. They have seen Jesus ascend to the heavens.  And now they are in Jerusalem, waiting for the Holy Spirit to come as Jesus had promised.  They had no idea what that meant, but they were waiting.   The Twelve, who will be the leaders of this movement, are no better informed than the other 100+ believers.  They knew they would receive power from the Holy Spirit, and that Jesus had charged them to be his witnesses “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”.  But what that would look like, how their lives would change after - they had no idea. They don’t even know exactly how long they will have to wait before the Holy Spirit comes.  They are going to have to figure it all out as they go along.   

It seems to me that pretty much describes where we right now, because if ever we were in a liminal season - a time of transition - this would be that time.  We’ve seen changes and transitions before, but none of us have ever seen anything quite like our current situation.   We are in much the same position as the disciples were.  We don’t know what lies ahead.  We know we have decisions to make.  Lots of people are discussing how to make those decisions, and publishing guidelines and potential the best practices for going forward.  I have been bombarded with links to blogs and articles and studies and lots of conflicting opinions that are supposed to help us figure out what to do next.  

And I keep circling back to this place, the place where the disciples were in those days between Jesus ascending to heaven and the Holy Spirit arriving at Pentecost. . .  that liminal place - that transitional place - that neither one thing nor the other place.

By the way, that book on leadership in a liminal time doesn’t really live up to the coolness of its title.  Like so many other books on congregational leadership it begins with the premise that most congregations don’t have a clearly stated mission, and therefore flounder around trying to figure out just who they are until they have no choice but to close their doors.   The author then describes how some congregations she worked with as a consultant were able to completely re-invent themselves and become vibrant, thriving, growing congregations.   There will be parts that are helpful going forward, and other parts that are not, because those congregations were not facing the possibility that their communities would be changed in some very significant ways.   They knew what their world looked like.  Our world is changing.  

What the disciples knew for sure - and what we know for sure - is that God is in charge.  They depended upon God to make the choice between Justus and Matthais.  They depended upon God to send the Holy Spirit when the time was right.  They didn’t know what to do next anymore than we do right now, but they were content to wait as long as it took, because they knew whatever came next would happen in God’s time.   

What came next for those 120+ believers was a completely new reality - the beginning of a very new thing, a thing that had not been seen before.  They would experience an inpouring of the Spirit that would enable them to speak in ways that touched the hearts of their listeners.  They will be receive the power to carry out their mission, to carry the Good News to the ends of the earth.  But for now, they wait to see what happens next.   They wait, and they trust in God.  As we do.   We know, as they did,  that no matter what comes next for us, God will be in charge. 

Just as they gathered as one community of faith, so do we even though we are all in separate places.  Just as they called upon God to lead them to the right choices, so do we.  May we continue to depend on God to lead us, and direct us in the doing of his will for us.   Amen