love of Jesus

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"Godspell, Grace, and Grumpy Christians" – Matthew 5:13-20

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Matthew 5:13-20

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

In 2013 I decided to return to the world of musical theater. Our local community theater in Paducah, Kentucky had announced their next production would be the revival of the 1970's iconic Steven Schwartz musical, Godspell. I auditioned and was selected to play the role of Jesus.

Godspell is a musical constructed around select stories from the gospel of Matthew (namely, several of Jesus’ parables) that culminates with Jesus’ crucifixion. The difficulty is that there’s no overarching narrative behind Godspell. It’s not a cohesive story, per se. Jesus simply shows up with some fun-loving friends, they each take turns singing and acting out these beautiful stories, and then Jesus is betrayed and killed. I suppose that is the beauty behind the production – it uniquely highlights the senselessness of the crucifixion. There’s no buildup or foreshadowing. Instead, stories of joy, forgiveness, morality, and faithfulness are met with unspeakable, inexplicable violence. 

The first act is particularly energetic and joyful. The song that concludes the first act is a high-energy song called, “You Are The Light of the World.” It’s a song that the cast sings together – a visual and auditory demonstration of the unity of Jesus and his disciples. The text is taken from Matthew’s account of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

For this song, our director instructed us to line up at the edge of the stage, so that we could be right next to the audience. Our director knew that the audience would be singing and clapping along to this song, so she decided to have the house lights turned on for this number so that we could see the audience and feed off their energy. 

Here's the song: 

!

I loved singing this song. It was loud and exciting, and we didn’t have to worry about any choreography, which I appreciated. We simply sang into a sea of smiling faces, many of whom were standing, singing, and clapping right with us…except for that one couple. 

I’m sure this happened every night of our show, but I only noticed it on the evening of our third performance. As the lights came up on the audience and we started singing, my eyes were immediately drawn to the man and woman who looked completely disengaged. All throughout the number I tried looking elsewhere and focusing on the people who were obviously enjoying themselves; but my attention kept coming back to this couple with the crossed arms and furrowed brows.

My response was to sing louder, move more energetically, and smile bigger. I wanted them to join in, feel moved, and share in our joy. But as we finished the number and walked off stage to applause, I looked back at the couple and saw they were still sitting, motionless, not joining in the applause. 

As a performer, their response bothered me. I immediately wondered what I had done wrong. What about the show were they not enjoying? What could I have done better? I dwelled on this issue throughout the intermission.

But I wasn’t only concerned on a performance level; I was also concerned on a pastoral level; because every time I performed in Godspell I was singing not only as an actor, but also as a Christian and a pastor. I was putting my heart and soul into proclaiming Jesus’ promise to each and every person in the audience that he or she was the light of the world. How could that good news alone not make this couple smile? 

That performance took place on a Saturday night, which meant I was back in church the next morning, once again proclaiming God’s promises, not to an audience in a theater but to the people in the pews at our little Lutheran church. Of course, leading worship and preaching wasn’t a performance. I wasn’t looking for my congregation to sing along with my sermon or respond with applause; but I do remember noticing several people who, throughout worship, kept their arms crossed, brows furrowed, and looked completely disengaged…just like the couple from the night before. 

The lyrics of the song from Godspell ran through my mind as I looked out on the congregation.

“You are the light of the world.
But if that light’s under a bushel, you’ve lost something kinda crucial.
You gotta stay bright to be the light of the world.
So let your light so shine before men,
so that they might know some kindness again.
We all need help to feel fine.”

Those combined experiences raised a question that I still think about today. What is it about today’s church that keeps us from smiling when we hear the radical good news that the God who created us means to make us instruments of peace? Why isn’t our gut reaction to sing along to God’s word and let the stories of scripture move our feet up and out of the pews and in the direction of the poor, outcast, and marginalized who desperately need the good news?

There are countless reasons why people within the church would react to Jesus’ life-giving promises with apprehension, distrust, or indifference. For one, most of us don’t think highly enough of ourselves to believe that God loves us. If we cannot grasp this truth, discipleship is impossible. 

Also, it is a fact that the life Jesus invites us to live is counter-intuitive and upside-down (a bizarro world, as Pastor Mark remarked last week): give up your life to save it, lead by serving, turn the other cheek when abused, beat swords into farming tools, find blessing by being a blessing, give to all who ask, forgive debts, speak truth to power, take up your cross, etc. 

There are many sensible reasons to reject the truth of Jesus, but watering down Jesus’ promises and instructions to better accommodate our limited knowledge, experiences, and prejudices is not an option. The light of the world isn’t on a dimmer switch; the light of God’s word shines so brightly that it exposes every corner and crevice where sin would hide. The salt of the earth is pure – it exists to preserve and enhance. The city on the hill is a beacon for all people to join in singing the praises of the God of all creation. 

Some people will refuse to join in. It is not possible to make others accept the truth and consequences of Jesus. But we keep singing. We keep striving to make the promises of scripture manifest in our world.

I pray that you would find Jesus’ words so convicting and energizing that you start tapping your toes and singing along. I pray that your fear would give way to the peace that passes all understanding. 

I pray that the global Christian church would be emboldened to keep singing the song of freedom for all people…that it would drown out the voices of fear and hate.

And I pray that we will keep shining the light into he dark places and preserve the truth of the gospel no matter what obstacles are thrown in its way. 

Amen.

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A Black and Blue (or is it White and Gold?) Christmas – Romans 2:1-8

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Romans 2:1-8

Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. You say, “We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.” Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. For he will repay according to each one’s deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.

There’s a beautiful quote that concludes the book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, where Harry says to Dumbledore, “‘Sir, there are some things I’d like to know, if you can tell me…things I want to know the truth about…’

‘The truth.’ Dumbledore sighed. ‘It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.’”

It seems to me that in this season of Advent, given the events unfolding in our world, we could use a reminder about the beauty and terror of the truth as well as our need to treat it with great caution.

For most of us, most of the time, we think about the concept of truth in black and white terms–a reduction into categories of right or wrong. We prefer to have a straight line differentiate the things that are true from the things that are not.

For most of us, most of the time, uncertainty is unsettling. We feel vulnerable when we can’t decide what is true and what is not. After all, the inability to differentiate between fantasy and reality is an indication of a mental disorder (or an indication that you are between 3 and 7 years old).

But get this. There’s a study reported by Time magazine back in 2011 that found “people’s ability to distinguish between what really happened and what was imagined may be determined by the presence of a fold at the front of the brain that develops late in pregnancy, and is missing entirely in 27% of people.” (http://healthland.time.com/2011/10/05/reality-check-why-some-brains-cant-tell-real-from-imagined/)

Just think about that. There’s a chance that over 1/4 of us here tonight can’t tell the difference between reality and our imagination. Now, before you come up with a list of people in your life you’re certain are missing this brain fold, think about what it would mean if it were true for you.

How does it make you feel to consider that your understanding of the truth might not be…true? How does it feel to be plunged into the grayness of not knowing–the area between the stark contrast of right and wrong. Well, actually, it doesn’t matter if you have that fold or not, because most of us spend more time in they grayness of not knowing than we care to admit to ourselves.

I feel like this happens to me a lot! My most recent experience happened just yesterday, when I went to the cardiology department at Hancock Regional for my every-decade echocardiogram. Twenty years ago my family doctor recognized my irregular heartbeat, ran some tests, and diagnosed me with mitral valve prolapse. I was told there was nothing to worry about, but that I should have follow-up tests every ten years to keep tabs on it.

Yesterday after the ultrasound, the technician said, “I should tell you that in my preliminary report to the cardiologist I’m going to note that I didn’t find any indication of mitral valve prolapse.” My eyebrows raised and my nose crinkled. He showed me on the images that the valve was working exactly as it should. He said he didn’t have any insight into what was causing my irregular heartbeat, but in his opinion my original mitral valve prolapse diagnosis was incorrect.

It’s a strange feeling to realize that something I believed about myself for the past twenty years just wasn’t true. So now I’m living in that world that exists in-between the polarities of certainty. It’s not mitral valve prolapse, but what is it?

That’s an innocent and simplistic example. But there are other examples where our black and white oversimplification is tearing our local and global society apart; and no easy solution seems within reach.

I’ll give you a chance to read this recently-published comic strip and I’ll keep it up as I identify a few of the contentious issues in our world today. (If you have trouble reading the text, click on the picture to see a larger version).

–Gun control vs. the right to buy and own whatever and however many guns you damn well please.

–The overwhelming scientific evidence that humans are contributing to catastrophic global warming vs. the conspiracy theory that it’s a farce created by liberals in order to destroy the American economy (or the belief that God wants to destroy the Earth and this is how it will happen).

–The idea that police use an unnecessary and unequal degree of lethal force in dealing with suspects of color vs. the idea that people of color are bringing it on themselves because they can’t get their act together and be decent citizens.

–The right of lesbian, gay, and transgender-identified people to marry their partners vs. a particular reading of one religious group’s scripture used to prohibit these people from marrying.

–The reality that all Muslims are not terrorists vs. the reality that many terrorists are Muslim.

–The idea that our country was founded on the principle of welcoming the stranger vs. the idea that we fear the stranger and how they will affect our way of life.

–The idea that the President of the United States of America, whomever that is, while being held accountable, should be treated with dignity and respect vs. the idea that the President is the one person responsible for all bad things happening in the world and is thus fair game for demeaning and hateful insults.

–The idea that the United States is a Christian nation and that all laws, practices, and traditions should serve to uphold the rights of Christians (or rather, a particular subset of the most vocal Christians) vs. the idea that the United States is a place where people are free to practice whatever religion (or lack thereof) to which they adhere.

These are just a issues which typically get framed in black and white, right and wrong, good and bad. You are welcome to stake a claim in either side of each argument. But just because you stake your claim on one side or another doesn’t mean it’s true.

Here’s another comic to remind us of that idea:

Now let’s jump from comic-strip theology to social media theology. Recall back in February when an image of a dress went viral because people couldn’t agree on something we consider a basic fact: the color of the dress.

What is the color of this dress?

I remember showing this picture to my wife and saying something like, “Can you believe some people think this dress is white and gold?” To which she replied, “It IS white and gold.” What followed was a heated exchange. She was challenging my understanding of color. She didn’t see colors correctly. She was so wrong I couldn’t even pretend to understand where she was coming from. And she felt the same way about me.

Our perception of a dress, an ugly dress nonetheless, created or exposed a difference between us that seemed foundational to our identities.

Fortunately we had the tools to mend any damage done due to our argument over the color of the dress. And also, fortunately, it was later revealed that the dress is, in fact, black and blue, which meant I was right all along. It’s nice to feel vindicated once in a while.

The point is that the differences in how we understand what is true in our world can easily drive us apart. When people disagree with us our first reaction is to dismiss them, belittle them, condemn them. Relationship in the midst of disagreement requires the hard work of empathy and relinquishing one’s ego.

Anne Lamott puts it best, “The opposite of faith is not doubt, it’s certainty.”

The color of the dress isn’t of any ultimate importance; however, the issues of death, oppression, injustice, anger, racism, and inequality–these things matter. And Jesus has something to say about each these issues.

In regards to every contentious issue with which we are called to contemplate and engage, we must begin with the truth of God as revealed through the Word–God’s son, Jesus Christ. The same God who, “proves his love for us in that while we were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

A parishioner recently told me that his opinion of a particular Bible Study at Cross of Grace as a place where people can say whatever they want and be heard without being condemned. I initially thought this was a great compliment dripping with grace. But then he continued, “I’ve heard people say some pretty racist stuff and no one challenges them.” That’s unsettling.

And yet, this quote from an Augsburg Fortress bible study guide by David L. Miller sums up the issue well, “The church is not a gathering of the like-minded bound together by friendship or ideological and political convictions. It is a shoulder-to-shoulder gathering of very diverse people who come to hear a common word, break a common bread, confess a common creed, offer mutual forgiveness, and be joined in a common heart with a common hope for the fulfillment of the mystery of God.”

We’re not all going to agree on everything. That can be as difficult as it can be beautiful, as I noticed when I arrived for my first interview at Cross of Grace two years ago and saw the sign by the road that said, “Conservatives and Liberals Worship Here.”

As Christians we are called to proclaim and practice the truth of God’s unconditional love and grace for all people and all creation. That’s our starting point. That’s the lens through which we are called to analyze all the contentious issues before us. That’s the line that tethers opposing views together in the midst of conflict. That’s the truth that will remain after all things have passed away. And that’s the truth that should be treated with caution in this time of Advent preparation, hope, joy, love, and peace.

So take a stand, choose a side, and stand up for your convictions; but keep your heart, mind, eyes, and ears open to those on the other side and make sure your convictions are rooted in the truth of the love and grace of Jesus Christ above all else.

Amen.