Election Reflection – Luke 21:5-19

Luke 21:5-19

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”

They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them.

“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

“But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.

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I felt like the lectionary laughed at me this week when I opened my Bible to see that the text for the day of our Building Fund campaign’s Commitment Sunday was this bit from Luke’s Gospel where Jesus warns the disciples about making too much of their temple. With all kinds of ideas about prayer vigils, campaign packets, building projects, mortgage payments, and financial commitments swimming around in my head, Jesus says, “As for these things that you see – these beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God - the day is coming when not one stone will be left upon another. All will be thrown down.”

Really, Jesus? Thanks for the help and the encouragement. Here we are trying to celebrate what we’ve built, how we’ve grown, and how we can invest more into it all, and Jesus shows up to remind us that – in the grand scheme of things – every bit of this is just waiting to become rocks and rubble.

So, maybe our investment is for naught. Maybe we shouldn’t bother. Maybe we’ve made more of this than we should.

But then I spent some time with a group of pastor friends of mine this week, for a continuing education sort of event, and we were asked by our presenter to share with one another what our particular communities would miss if our particular congregations didn’t exist within them. (And it made me think about this Gospel. What if it all really was “thrown down”… just gone … as Jesus suggests?)

Anyway, we said all sorts of things like, how much the community at-large uses our facilities…like how we host the only active Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in or around New Palestine, how we charter a Boy Scout pack which uses our space a few times a month, how we’re part of the safety/emergency reunification plan for Southern Hancock Schools, or how we may or may not have the best election site in our county, and that sort of thing.

And as I thought about Jesus and this Gospel, I thought, “Yeah. All of those very tangible, brick-and-mortar, building and space offerings, really would just go away if our facility, our building, our stones were to ever get ‘thrown down,’ as Jesus promises they will someday. That would stink – for us and for our community.”

But in addition to sharing all of those sorts of really practical, worldly things with my pals, the pastors, I thought of something else we would miss – and something that would be missed in our community – if Cross of Grace wasn’t here. And I’m praying, really praying hard these days, that this is still true the way I’ve experienced it in the past.

What would be missing in our community – and in our lives – if Cross of Grace wasn’t around … is a family of faith that is grounded in the grace of God to such a degree that we have found a way to live together and to do the work of God’s kingdom alongside one another, in spite of the many differences that exist among us.

And yes, the presidential election has shined a spotlight on that reality, in a big way, this week.

I got a phone call Thursday afternoon from one of you who had just had a conversation with a co-worker about why so many people – particularly minority groups of people – people of color, LGBTQ people, women, and such – were struggling with the result of this election. And one of our people was able to have a civil, faithful conversation with a co-worker of differing views that opened her colleague’s eyes to such a degree that he was speechless – literally had to leave the room and collect himself, what he’d heard was so new to him. He considered things he hadn’t before. He was surprised by things he hadn’t been surprised about before.

And our Partner in Mission called to let me know that that conversation made her realize what a gift it is to have been a part of our life together over the years, because we’ve engaged the kind of predicament our country now faces in a very real way before.

In 2009, when the ELCA made the choice to open itself more widely to the acceptance and inclusion of LGBTQ children of God, we walked a road together of hard conversations and holy learning and difficult decisions about the things we agree about, the things we disagree about, and about how much more meaningful the work of the kingdom we’re called to do together is, in spite of all that.

Those are conversations and that is a reality that just doesn’t happen in a lot of places – let alone Christian churches – in our day and age. And it can send some people running for the hills, or at least out of the room in a state of shock.

And because of our short history together, according to the Cross of Gracer I was talking to, it was going to be much more possible for her to show up to worship on Sunday morning and sit next to and sing alongside and pray with and get in line for communion behind any number of others who may very well have voted differently than she did on Tuesday.

And that means that what would be missing from our community and from our lives if Cross of Grace wasn’t around, is the very real presence and practice of God’s kingdom among us.

Don’t get me wrong. We have a lot to learn and there is so much work to do. And bearing the kingdom is as hard as it is holy. Just look at what Jesus promises his disciples in the rest of today’s Gospel – betrayal, arrest, hatred, even death.

But, what life in this congregation calls us to do in these days is to not live in our own, respective little bubbles – or “echo chambers” which seems to be the term du jour, these days – where we only hear what we want to hear; where we only see the news as it’s reported by our network of choice; where we only consider the one-sided views and ideas of the “friends” who fill our social media feeds; where we never have to challenge or be challenged by the differences that surround us in the real world.

No. By virtue of the gift and challenge of this community, we are called to live and to love our neighbor – even and perhaps, especially, those neighbors we would rather not.

Because we can’t change hearts and minds – and our hearts and minds can’t be changed – by the love of God unless or until we do the work of living with one another, even when it’s hard; forgiving one another when it seems impossible; loving our enemies, turning the other cheek, doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly… humbly… humbly with our God.

So let’s be patient with each other in the days ahead. Let’s not rush or dismiss or try to fix the grief and sadness, fear and betrayal some of us are feeling. Let’s not assume the worst about the motives of those who got our way this time around. And let’s do what God’s been calling believers to do ever since the day Jesus was milling around in the temple with his disciples:

Let’s use all of this as our opportunity to testify to what we know of God’s call and kingdom among us: to work for justice, to stand for peace, to repent and forgive, and to use every blessing at our disposal to bless the world around us with the same grace that covers us all.

That’s the kingdom of God alive and well in this place. And it’s what will matter - and it is what will last - long after all of this and all of us are turned to dust.

Amen

"Vines and Branches: The Low-Tech Outreach of the Church" – John 15:1-8

John 15:1-8

[Jesus said,] “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch from in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.

“Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them will bear much fruit because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

I’m a little worried about this seeming a bit cliché, because I suspect many of you have seen this, or other videos like it, before. And even if you haven’t, I suspect you’ve at least heard the message or the sentiment, right? That we’re too tied to our phones and our devices… That the connections we pretend are real, aren’t all they’re cracked up to be… That we’re missing out on so much and so many real relationships because we’re bound, in too many ways, to the phones and tablets and social media technologies that have changed the way we experience one another even and the world, itself.

Well, I’ve heard all of that stuff before, too. And, while I think it’s true in too many ways, the last thing I want to do is sound like that crotchety old-fogey, yelling at “the kids these days” to put down their phones and “get off of my lawn.” I’m not that old, yet. And I’m a big fan of my phone and Facebook and my Kindle and all the rest, for lots of reasons.

But I couldn’t read this Gospel this time around without thinking about what it means to “be connected” in our day and age – and about how dramatically that has changed since Jesus was around. And I kind of think Jesus was hip to all of this, in his own way back in the day, when he was talking about what it means for us to be branches, connected to the vine; and about how, apart from that vine – apart from each other, really – we can do nothing.

My point is, I think we kid ourselves about the value of our “connections” to one another and to the world around us, because we are easily tricked and manipulated – intentionally or not – by experiences that take place from the distance we put between ourselves. And technology is only one of the more obvious ways we create that distance it seems to me. I think we put distance between ourselves and others when we pick our political parties; when we refuse to forgive someone we love; when we ignore or deny the needs of others in the world; and even when we choose our churches, or stake a claim with our theology, some of the time.

There are all kinds of ways – known and unknown to us – that we build walls and that create distance and that keep us further apart from our brothers and sisters in this world than God ever intended for us to be.

And I think what Jesus is calling us to – just like he was calling those first disciples, back in the day – is a way of living and moving and being in the world that is counter-culturally different; that is diametrically opposed to; that is profoundly distinct from the way so much of the world finds itself living. And I think it’s one of the highest callings of the Church, in our day and age.

Because Jesus is calling us to abide. That’s the word he uses today, anyway. And if abide means (as my dictionary tells me it does) “to endure without yielding” or “to bear patiently,” or to “remain in a place,” that’s stuff that is really hard to do. And it’s something so many are missing in the world as they know it – the sense that anything or anyone can or will or does abide with them, in any real, meaningful, lasting way.

As cool as it is to carry around 12,000 songs in your pocket, nothing beats a live performance by your favorite musician. (Especially, if that means KISS, or the Indigo Girls, or Mumford and Sons, or Bruce Springsteen.) As convenient as it is to SKYPE your way through a business meeting, there’s nothing like a handshake to close the deal. As lovely as it is to FACE TIME with the grandkids, it will never compare to sitting on Grandpa’s lap or holding Grandma’s hand at the dinner table. As easy as it is to text or tweet our opinion about something, we never get the full story without looking into each others' eyes and hearing the voice of another.

And I hope we see the Church – that we experience Cross of Grace – as an antidote to all of this disconnection and distance. Here is a place where we are called to be connected, one to another, and all of us to the vine of God’s love and grace and mercy through Jesus Christ. We gather here to be fed and nourished and even pruned, from time to time – challenged and changed, I mean, even when that’s hard – by the worship and fellowship and teaching that finds us here.

This place means to be the root system from which the body of Christ that is you and me – grows and goes into the world. And I hope we all realize what a special blessing we have here. …

This place isn’t perfect – no church ever can be, being made up of people, such as they are. But Cross of Grace, as a church in this community, is a place of uncommon welcome and grace and acceptance and openness and hospitality that is unique and needed in our neck of the woods.

So, I realize that for too many of us, especially those of us who’ve been around Cross of Grace for awhile, another round of General Fund commitments and another pile of Time and Talent Sheets to be completed can feel like another way of going through the motions; another way of taking care of business; another way of being asked to “give this” or “do that” or add “one more thing” to our already busy, stretched-thin lives and wallets. But it really is about more than that.

I hope, as we make our commitments to the General Fund, as we make our offerings to worship and learn and serve around here, we see all of that as a commitment to abide in as many ways as this congregation does that in the world. Our presence here is a counter-cultural way of living and moving and breathing, every time we gather to do what we do:

to confess our sins, in community, and to receive our forgiveness;

to share the peace, in worship, with a handshake or a hug;

to touch the waters of baptism and to cross ourselves in celebration of what those promises mean for us;

to break and take the bread, to sip and swallow the wine of holy communion and receive, weekly, our fullness of our salvation;

and even to drop our commitment cards and our offerings into the offering plate, too.

All of that is the holy stuff of what it means to be the Church in the world; to make deliberate, faithful choices to be connected as the body of Christ; to be the abiding, real presence of God’s grace for the sake of a world – a world that may only receive and experience it, when we become like so many branches, reaching out – extending ourselves – to share what has first been shared with us in more ways than we can count.

Amen