Getting to the Heart of Things February 16th, 2020 Scripture: Matthew 5:21-37 When I sat down to write my sermon on Friday morning, the irony of the timing of this week’s gospel reading occurred to me. It was Valentine’s Day and I was about to write a sermon on Jesus’ teaching on what is in the heart. This teaching concerns romantic relationships gone wrong. It concerns a topic that flies in the face of our idealized romanticism of Valentine’s Day. It is adultery. It is as well that we remember the context of this teaching and look back on the last few weeks’ readings. Each one came from consecutive passages of Matthew’s gospel, as Jesus begins his famous Sermon on the Mount. They concern the way that the community will look, when Jesus’ followers live as though the Kingdom of Heaven is already here. And they hinge on Jesus’ pronouncement that he has not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law. In light of our Hebrew Bible reading for today we can understand that it was important for Jesus to be clear about this. It was important that the people knew he did not intend to abolish the law. The Jewish people who listened to his teachings had been steeped in the tradition of the God’s covenant of presence and protection. The law was the gift of that covenant. The law was to be loved and obeyed, so that the people of Israel would live long, happy and whole lives in the land God had given. Years later, after the law is given and yet broken many times, the prophet Jeremiah tells the people that God says God will “put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Problems arise, though, when the law becomes a set of rigid rules. You know the expression “rules were made to be broken.” When rules are rigid, we look for loopholes, exceptions and workarounds. Jesus’ teaching today brings us back to a place where the law is not a set of rules. He reminds his hearers that obeying the law is really matter of the heart. It is a sign of their covenantal relationship with God. It is the foundation of their community. The section of the teaching we read today concerns adultery. Jesus names a subject that is deeply uncomfortable for us. It is something that is usually not named. It’s most often held in secret or shame because it concerns the desires of our hearts, including the darkest corners. Jesus reminds his followers that in ancient times, they had heard it said, “You shall not commit adultery.” Then Jesus says “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” He speaks about what is going on beneath the surface. He speaks to all of us about our covetousness of others for our own gratification. And in this example it is not a pretty picture. Jesus is not speaking of the attraction we feel, passing a beautiful person in the street. He is speaking of “looking with lust.” That is, leering. He is speaking of humiliating stares, childish snickers and catcalls. He is speaking of something every woman has experienced. He’s speaking of locker room banter. He’s speaking of pseudo massage parlors in strip malls. He is talking about objectification, looking on another person, another beloved child of God as an object for gratification. Objectification has repercussions. Sex trafficking, slavery and other abuses are a result of seeing people as objects. The rule, “you can look but you can’t touch” encourages objectification all the more. Jesus warns against leering, because it is adultery of the heart. It hurts partner of the one who is looking elsewhere. It hurts the individual who is being leered at. And it does spiritual harm to the one who is doing the leering. When leering becomes the norm of behavior, most often for boys and men, it hurts the community. It means there are places where vulnerable women cannot go without feeling uncomfortable. Boys are not born this way, but they are harmed when they are led to believe that this is the right way to be a man. In our culture, messaging comes through the media: advertising, music, movies and the internet. It comes from the people we admire, in sports and culture. Our young people are particular susceptible to messaging that objectifies particular bodies. Our environment that objectifies women and girls, also objectifies men and boys. A “real man” is understood to be a different kind of object: one without feelings or sensitivities. The expression “man up” means to disregard feelings, to act tough. In some circles, boys use homophobic slurs about other boys who seem “less than” real men. They insult men by calling them the names of female body parts. They are made ashamed of their own feelings and so they stop talking about them. Boys train themselves not to cry, because that would be a shameful thing for them to do. Women also participate in objectification when they indulge in slut shaming. They objectify other women as temptresses. They criticize the clothes they wear, the way they act and the places they go. They talk about both public figures and women they know in terms of how fat or thin they are. They observe that one should go on a diet, and that another diets too much. It is criticism they would never direct toward men. Researcher and author, Peggy Orenstein, has written books both about “Girls and Sex “and “Boys and Sex.” In a recent interview she said: “When I was doing the girl book, the kind of core issue with girls was that they were being cut off from their bodies and not understanding their bodies' response and their needs and their limits and their desires. With boys, it felt like they were being cut off from their hearts." [1] This makes me wonder about Jesus’ solution to the sin of adultery in the heart. He uses the hyperbole – extreme exaggeration – to propose what must be done. If your right hand is leading you to sin tear it out, if your right hand is causing you to sin, cut it off. This makes no sense taken literally, because of course it is not our eye or our hand that cause us to sin. It is what is going on inside our hearts that counts. Orenstein’s conclusion that girls are being cut off from their bodies and boys are being cut off from their hearts is an interesting counter to Jesus’ teaching. Or at least, to what we often assume Jesus is saying. As Orenstein says, the culture of objectification is cutting boys off from their hearts. Perhaps that is the way it works for all of us. Jesus does not really mean for us, or anyone else, to tear out our eyes or cut off our hands. And I am convinced he means for us not to cut off, but to reconnect with our hearts. This may mean doing some cutting out of other things. Perhaps you sometimes hang out with groups who subtly practice leering or slut shaming. You know what I mean, the whispered innuendo from a guy friend addressed in the direction of a woman’s behind. Or perhaps it is a remark about another man, who may or may not be gay … muttered to make the both of you feel like real men. Or you are with your group of women friends, out for a drink. Someone feigns shock and outrage at younger woman’s outfit. You join in, because you want to belong to the group. And yet you know you wish you had the confidence and courage to pull off that outfit when you were that age. What would it look like to reconnect with your heart in these situations? Maybe to say, “Hey, I know I’ve gone along with this before, but let’s remember that woman is her own person. She has feelings and probably wouldn’t appreciate backhanded remarks about her behind, any more than I would.” Or, perhaps to own up that, “Yes, I think she looks great! I would have worn that outfit when I was fifteen too. I’m so glad when I see a girl who dresses to please herself instead of her inner critic.” In the end, though, these things are externals. Reconnecting with our hearts means reconnecting with the people we love and those who love us. It means reconnecting with God opening our hearts to expose any shame we are feeling. King David of the Hebrew Bible is a larger than life character. When he is found out for his own lust, adultery, rape and murder, he is said to have written psalm 51. The psalm cries out to God saying, “create in me a clean heart, Oh God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” This story from antiquity is true for us today. The work of loving as God loves begins with reconnecting with our hearts. And this is work we can only do with God’s help. In recent years, I have been working on reconnecting with my heart. It is slow progress. I’m reluctant to do it, because it opens me to feelings that are hard. There is a lot of regret in there, for missed opportunities. There’s regret for the times when I could have said “I love you” and did not. For times when I could have spoken up against a culture of objectification and did not. For times when I did not articulate my feelings and struggles, and so my loved ones felt shut out and confused. Our Bible teaching for today has reminded me that this process is a vital part of my faith journey. Reconnecting with our hearts means reconnecting with those we love, and who love us. It means reconnecting with our community, and with the church, our community of faith. And it means reconnecting with God. May we live, not by the rules, looking for loopholes and workarounds. Instead may we live into our covenant of love, taught to us by Jesus. May we have the courage to do the long slow work of reconnecting with our hearts, and so we will finally be reconnected with God. To help us in that process, here is a meditation from Steve Garnaas Holmes: Valentine My Dearest, every bit of beauty you see today Is my gift to you. You are the joy in my heart, my delight and my hope. I can't take my eyes off you. I desire your beauty, yet I gladly share you with the world. No matter where you are I hold you close. I will never abandon you, never test or trick you, never compromise my love for you. No evil you could do can dim my love for you. I am the joy that sees you into being, that hears you into who you are. My heart beats in you. I love you, and I am grateful for you. Please be mine. Love, God [2] May all God’s people say Amen. [1] https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/07/794182826/boys-sex-reveals-that-young-men-feel-cut-off-from-their-hearts [2] https://www.unfoldinglight.net/reflections/l3lld2w45r6ryx69zhn8pyrap6bh6e
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Being the Salt Preached on February 9th, 2020 at Wollaston Congregational Church Scripture: Matthew 5:13-20 This past week I’ve been thinking a lot about salt. It’s not a topic I generally pay much attention to. But I’ve been thinking about how our attitude toward salt has changed in recent history. We have been told that salt is something to avoid. We all know there we should not have too much salt, sodium chloride, in our diets. And yet salt has a vital role in our lives and in our world. Salt is necessary for human and animal life. It is also available in very small quantities in the natural world, and so we are adapted to crave salt. Salt is vital to any chef’s kitchen. Just a small sprinkling can transform a bland dish into something flavorful. In our gospel reading this morning, we heard an excerpt from the Jesus’ sermon on the mount as recorded by Matthew. This sermon is central to Jesus’ teaching. Last week we heard from the introductory section of the sermon, what is known as the Beatitudes. This week we hear from the section where Jesus relates to Jewish law or Torah. Jesus makes it clear that he has not come to change the law. Not even the tiniest letter, or the smallest accent on a letter. Rather he had come to fulfill, or clarify, the law. Jesus has already proclaimed the good news that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Now he makes a powerful connection between God’s covenant with Israel, the Torah, and the disciple community. The covenant and the Torah, were and still remain most precious in Judaism. Salt was seen as a symbol of the covenant and Torah. Both salt and Torah are precious and necessary for life. Jesus proclaims to the crowds who are following him “You are the salt of the earth …” In this teaching, Jesus speaks about the scribes and the Pharisees. He tells the followers that they are to exceed them in righteousness. These are groups that would be familiar to Matthew’s readers. Matthew writes at a time when the Jewish followers of Jesus were in conflict with other Jewish groups. Matthew’s gospel first appeared during the last days of the city of Jerusalem, as Jesus’ generation knew it. The temple has been destroyed by the Romans. The Jews are determined to remain faithful to the one-God of the covenant. This conflicts with the Rome’s insistence on loyalty to the empire. The Romans are bearing down on them and the Jews are becoming more desperate and fearful. There is rivalry between different groups, including the Pharisees and the followers of Jesus. Matthew’s gospel illustrates this factionalism by caricaturing the other groups. The group known as the Sadducees maintained the temple in Jerusalem before its destruction. They were known as temple elites. They collaborated with the Romans during the occupation, attempting to maintain peace. The poor Jewish people who suffered under the Roman rule must have felt contempt for the Sadducees. They were lining their own pockets and taking care of their own families by pleasing the Romans. Their goal was to preserve the temple, but what were they for the downtrodden Jews? The Pharisees, on the other hand were split on the issue of the Roman occupiers. Some were zealots, who were determined to take up their swords and fight their Roman enemies. They were a small group, but they were going to fight to the end. Other Pharisees realized that little Israel was no match for the Roman Empire. And so they led their communities in the direction of preserving their cultural and religious identity. They reminded the people they were set apart by God, who called them to covenantal righteousness by avoiding sin. They hunkered down in their section of the city, the ghetto, practicing private Torah study and prayer. They were trying to preserve their own traditions and way of life until the coming of God’s reign. As the walls of the city and temple tumbled around them they expected the end times to arrive very soon. And so, Jesus preaches in the midst of this tension. At the beginning of the sermon he has proclaimed the good news, that the kingdom of heaven is already in their midst. The people have no need to hunker down and wait, it is here. And yet, Jesus does not encourage his followers to take up the sword, like the zealots. He does not even encourage them to hate or resist the Romans. In this sermon, which is central to the whole gospel, Jesus tells the crowds that they are to love even their enemies, and pray for the ones who persecute them. Jesus proposes and sort of middle way. He begins with this proclamation for the community, “You are the salt of the earth….” In light of the kingdom of heaven among them already, this is how they function. This is their role. We live in a very different world from that of the early Christians. There has been 2,000 years of cultural and church history since those times. And yet we are also living in a time where we are trying to figure out our place in the world, as followers of Christ. We are asking “how are we to be the salt of the earth?” The time when the culture and the Church were one and the same is over, at least here in Quincy Massachusetts. Mainline churches and denominations like ours are getting smaller. We have lost power and influence. In many ways we are becoming more distinct from the mainline culture. We get blank looks when we mention church and Sunday morning worship to our neighbors and coworkers. The members of groups who use our building see this place primarily as school, yoga or dance studio, Alcoholics Anonymous, or club meeting place. And perhaps all of this is not a bad thing. Christians and churches who are indistinct from the culture have lost their saltiness. When we are blended in, we do not add any zest or flavor. And still, as in Jesus’ time with the different Jewish groups, there are factions and there is infighting in the Church. There are Christian groups who collaborate with the dominant culture. The language they use is that of citizenship, service, and country. The signs and symbols of the church do not look much different from civic symbols. This is not bad. It’s just no longer the church of Jesus Christ because it has become the church of the culture. Other Christian groups perceive the culture as an external enemy. They believe there is a war on Christianity. They have their own understanding of sin and purity. They have created spiritual ghettos where they focus on private Bible study and prayer. Some are mega-churches, others occupy church buildings vacated by mainline denominations. They anxiously recruit others by dealing in fear. They warn those outside their group that the end times are coming and they’d better get in. Then there are other groups who are zealous for the faith. They use fighting language. They see enemies in those who hold different ethical views from themselves over issues like abortion or the environment. They see enemies in those who are in same-sex unions, or do not believe the same things they believe. They are ready to fight for Christ, forgetting that Jesus clearly instructed them not to fight their enemies but to love them. And then there are those who have hunkered down and clung to their traditions even when they are not working. They hope to draw others into their group, but this is not a true evangelical effort. It is more of a last attempt at survival. We may look at groups like the Amish and the Mennonites, who eschew modern technology and new styles of clothing. What about ourselves? Are we clinging to a tradition, without really grappling with what it means to be the salt of the earth? We know that Christian groups in the United States have factionalized along partisan political lines. The groups who perceive a war on Christianity have aligned with the right. And, groups like the United Church of Christ, who proclaim a welcome for LGBTQIA+ people, and who lift up Jesus’ teaching on caring for the poor and the outcast, have aligned with the left. And yet our tumultuous political times are upsetting all that. In the wake of the Presidential Impeachment I believe Christian groups are being called to unify under Jesus Christ. We are being reminded that makes us distinct from partisan affiliation. We are to become more like salt in the mix. This past week, the officers of United Church of Christ issued a statement on the impeachment trial. They began by asking the question: “What kind of America will we be?” This is a question for the culture. The letter says that “It is not the call of the church to alienate those who have become increasingly entrenched in public discourse designed to divide us into warring camps of left and right, red and blue, or black and white.” And it goes on to deal with matters of the truth, and how the truth will ultimately rise. I’ll leave you to read it for yourself. The concluding paragraph speaks of what the church is to be, in these times. The officers say “The church must summon the moral courage to anchor ourselves in the unifying call of scripture that reminds us, although we have many differing parts, we are one body whose strength does not lie to the right of us or to the left of us, but rather in the midst of us. “In the midst of us is strength. In the midst of us is hope. In the midst of us is memory …” [1] I would add, “in the midst of us is Jesus Christ.” This is how we are salt, not only in the United Church of Christ, or in the United States, but the Church in the world. Because in the midst of us is Jesus Christ. Let’s remind ourselves that a little salt transforms the whole dish. And so we are left with the question: how are will we be salt this coming week and in the weeks to come? Will we sprinkle a little salt of kindness in the midst of our coworkers, our team, or our class? Will we sprinkle salt of listening into the political discourse, by engaging in that forum and allowing our faith to inform our opinions? Will we sprinkle salt hope in our communities, counseling patience and love, when our neighbors get anxious about the enemies they perceive? And in the coming months, Wollaston Congregational Church, we will grapple with how we, this local church, will be salt in these times. Distinct, rather than blended in … engaged, not separated from … neither collaborators with, nor enemies of … the culture. Zesty and flavorful in worship and in service. Many all God’s people say Amen [1] https://www.ucc.org/news_commentary_ucc_officers_what_kind_of_america_will_we_be_02052020 Just Mercy Preached on February 2nd, 2020 At Wollaston Congregational Church Scriptures: Micah 6:1-8, Matthew 5:1-12 Usually our weekly sermon focuses on one of the scriptures for the week. Often that is the Gospel passage alone. But today is a rare occasion when the readings for the day come together to inform the sermon. Not only that, the theme we are going to talk about today, Just Mercy, is the title of a movie currently showing in theaters. Our reading from the Hebrew scriptures for today, from the prophet Micah, asks the question familiar to many of us today: “what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” This question is part of a larger argument, in which the prophet stands between God and the people of Israel. The passage imitates the style of a courtroom indictment, in which God accuses the people of transgression. They were entrusted with God’s covenant, the promise of God’s presence and protection. But they have not kept their part of the bargain. They have not been mindful of the poor. The urban elites pretend to be religious, but exploit the vulnerable members of their community, especially women and children. They show no mercy. Micah contrasts their religious acts of making grand offerings and sacrifices to God with what God really wants of them: Justice, loving kindness, a humble walk with God. This is God’s call to the whole community. In our gospel reading from Matthew today, we hear of Jesus’ first teaching. Jesus has called the disciples and begun to heal the sick. Now he begins to teach. He addresses his followers from a mountainside, for what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. He has already told them that the kingdom of God is at hand. Now he shows them how to live into the kingdom. They can take the side of God’s reign, instead of the side of the greater culture, in their case this is the Roman Empire. Jesus tells them that we see God’s reign in the places where we see peacemakers, the merciful, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. These people live as though the reign is already here, and they will recognize the kingdom for what it is when it comes to fruition. A word that repeats in this passage is usually translated as “blessed”. Blessed are the poor in spirit … and so on. But, the translation blessed does not fully express what is conveyed here. Truly, this word really has no one English equivalent. A more accurate translation might be honored. Honored are those who mourn, honored are the meek …. honored are the peacemakers, the merciful and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. The qualities of those who are honored are consistent with Micah’s pronouncement. They are qualities of justice and mercy, merciful justice or just mercy. When a community is founded on these qualities, there is a foretaste of God’s reign. “Just Mercy” is a recently released movie. Full disclosure – I have not yet seen it. But I listened to an interview with Bryan Stevenson, the author of the book “Just Mercy” on the NPR show, Fresh Air, broadcast on Martin Luther King Day. I was prompted by the interview to begin reading Bryan Stevenson’s book. The movie, Just Mercy, tells the story of Stevenson’s work as a lawyer, defending Walter McMillian, who is incarcerated on death row in Georgia, wrongly accused of murder. Stevenson is a black American who grew up in a poor rural racially segregated settlement in Delaware. In 1983, he was a first year student at Harvard Law School. During that first year he worried that he had made the wrong choice. He grew disillusioned. “The courses seemed esoteric and disconnected from the race and poverty issues that motivated [him].” [1] Then, while Stevenson was doing a summer internship with the South Prisoners Defense Committee in Georgia, he was sent to visit a condemned man on death row. This visit gave him a renewed sense of purpose. He says “the distance [from the people I would represent] during my first year of law school made me feel lost. Proximity to the condemned, to people unfairly judged; that is what guided me back to something that felt like home.” [2] In 1989 Stevenson founded the organization Equal Justice Initiative. EJI is a nonprofit that “provides legal representation to people who've been illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced or abused in state jails and prisons.” EJI has obtained mercy for 135 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row. They’ve won reprieves for hundreds of others who were wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced. [3] Stevenson spent over 20 years advocating in the courts. But about 10 years ago he realized that the justice system was changing. The political environment had become divisive and more hostile toward the people he was defending. He saw a direct line between the history of slavery, lynching and segregation of black Americans and current day mass incarceration. He saw the disproportionate number of black American men in prison and on death row as the result of America not dealing with the history of slavery. Stevenson had visited other countries, such as South Africa, Rwanda and Germany. And he noticed that these places had confronted and acknowledged the shameful parts of their history. He noticed that in Germany swastikas were outlawed, whereas in many parts of the US the confederate flag is still displayed. All German school children are taken to the Holocaust Museum. And in Berlin, the former homes of Jewish families who were taken away to concentration camps are marked with commemorative stones. The German people talk about the painful and shameful history of the Holocaust because they want to be sure they never repeat it. I was able to observe a very powerful example of Germany confronting their past when I served as a student chaplain at the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center in Roslindale. The larger Hebrew Seniorlife organization works with a German organization called Action Reconciliation. This group sends young German students around the world to immerse in different Jewish communities. Many young German students spend a year abroad through Action Reconciliation before they begin university. At the Hebrew Rehab Center I worked with one of these students. She stayed with a Jewish family and worked in the center, interacting with residents, bringing them in their wheelchairs to concerts and activities. The residents loved this sweet young woman. For some of the more elderly Jewish residents – possibly even Holocaust survivors – this was the first time they had a positive relationship with a German person. This same experience is replicated all over the United States and around the world, as German students travel to meet the Jewish communities that were impacted by the Holocaust. Having seen what was happening in these other countries, Stevenson was convinced that speaking of our racist history and educating America was a necessary step for just mercy. And so the Equal Justice Initiative created a museum and a memorial in Montgomery, Alabama. The Legacy Museum “dramatizes racial injustice from enslavement to mass incarceration … The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, is dedicated to the memory of enslaved people and African-Americans terrorized by lynching, racial segregation and Jim Crow.” [4] The museum and memorial are situated on the site of a former slave warehouse and the auction space where enslaved people were sold. Volunteers at the Legacy Museum are invited to go out to the sites of lynchings and collect quantities of soil in jars. There are hundreds of these jars on display in the museum, each with the name of the victim and date the event: Sam Davenport, Lexington Alabama, January 14th 1909 Elizabeth Lawrence, Birmingham AL, July 5th 1933 Unknown, Selma Al, December 12th 1893. [5] Bryan Stevenson sees practice this as redemptive and restorative. Our ministry partner, City Mission, is sponsoring a pilgrimage to the Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Justice this coming April. You are invited to go! Reading and hearing about Bryan Stevenson’s work has caused me to reflect on my time living in the United States. In 1987 my husband and I arrived in Boston from England and made our home in Cambridge. When we attended church we used the Harvard Law School parking. We were completely oblivious to the fact that a student like Bryan Stevenson was preparing a career seeking reprieves for death row prisoners. I had read “To Kill a Mocking Bird,” by Harper Lee and “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou before I came to the US. I thought these books told of long-ago history of segregation and Jim Crow. When an American friend told me that America struggled with racism because they hadn’t gotten over slavery, I thought he was joking. It all seemed so long ago. At the same time, I did not think about the Holocaust survivors who were in our midst at that time. When I walked around Brookline on a Saturday, I noticed the Jewish people walking to temple. But I did not think much about how immigrants from Germany had resettled and found some measure of peace and security after World War II. I needed to listen to Jesus’ teaching a little more closely. To look where he was pointing, when he talked about the blessed or the honored in our midst, because there is the kingdom of God. Church, Just Mercy is an elusive quality, and yet it is there if we are perceptive enough to find it. I am left wondering what it looks like for us, here in Wollaston. Do we go or send students to immerse with the communities of color of the south, worshiping in their churches and serving their elders. Or could we do that here in our own city? Will we participate in “Courageous Conversations Toward Racial Justice” events that are taking place in Milton, and more recently in Quincy? I would love for us have a group outing to Alabama to see the Legacy Museum and Justice Memorial for ourselves, but I doubt that will happen. What can happen, is that we can create a space where God’s justice and mercy, God’s merciful justice, just mercy, may be cultivated and ushered in. May all God’s people say, Amen [1] Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (New York: Spiegel and Grau, 2014), 4. [2] Ibid., 14 [3] https://www.npr.org/transcripts/796234496 [4] Ibid. [5] https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/museum |
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