Are You Sure?
When I was a teenager, I was tough, I learned how to walk the streets of NYC at age 12, taking the Long Island railroad, getting on a subway to lower Manhattan, walking four blocks all for a one-hour acting class, and then back again. I learned how to put on an air of defensiveness that served me, in that context at that time. As I grew that persona also served to protect me emotionally from some of the turmoil I was exposed to at home and at school. I had developed a tough inner and outer exterior and I was protected. But when I entered college as an acting student, this no longer served because it was keeping me stuck in one place. Unless I had planned on playing one role, and one role only, that of a tough girl, which would have been a difficult sell, because tough doesn’t go very well with my face, I wouldn’t have made it through the program. So I had to let the defenses go, accepting them as no longer serving, but harming, getting in the way of vulnerability, dependency, getting in the way of healthy relationships, getting in the way of being able to say, I’m scared, or I love you, or I need you. Those are some of the best things we can say in a relationship with God. But instead, we get stuck in ways of understanding that no longer serve…We get stuck in understandings that keep us feeling secure, especially when we take a who’s in and who’s out approach. That is a false security, and it lives predominantly in the fundamentalist churches that seem to flourish, because if you want to feel safe in an unsure, unpredictable world, then true religion into a shield and an after net, and you’ve got followers, and you’re safe because you’re in.
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We do this same thing, in part, with our understandings of scripture. Today’s scripture is a good example of misunderstandings, based on years of interpretations that people don’t rethink, evaluate and ask whether the old ways of thinking are no longer serving. And rather then just omit it, as the lectionary folks did with Peter, (Vs 18-Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh.) but look at it, see it in it’s context, and agree that we have grown and evolved as a society, thanks be to God. We no longer condone slavery, and we were wrong ever to do so and we missed that one line of scripture to oppress slaves and condone an unforgivable treatment of African Americans in this country. When we do deal with it, own it, seek forgiveness around it, we help to make sure we never do that again. And it helps us to ask whether we are continuing to do so in other ways, more subtle perhaps. Talk about it, understand the ways we were wrong so that we never miss the most centralized message of Christianity, which is God’s love and inclusion for all people.
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On your Bulletin cover…God’s answer to Moses, when asked who God is.
I am, I become, I create- For a long time, it’s been misinterpreted as God saying I am what I am. Because that’s easier to understand. It’s definitive, it’s even a little dismissive. To say I become, or I create is to accept a God who is not fixed in time or space, not fixed to one understanding, one theology, one interpretation, because God is still becoming, and as part of God’s creation, we are still becoming…That’s
As part of the reformed church, we say we are reformed and always reforming. That makes me proud as a Presbyterian, as part of the reformed church. It allows for God to work in us and around us, allowing us to grow and change and not fixate on something that was once understood one way, served us, back when, but no longer serves today. That may include understandings we held in the 50’s, 60’s 70’s or even yesterday.
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Today’s reading from John’s gospel is a good example of this when understood in ways that no longer serve us- and Jefferey Gallagher writer form the Christian century sums this up beautifully-
The real problem is the sheepfold we started with. While theologians and clergy are playing the who’s who game, another audience hears this text and focuses on the sheepfold. A sheepfold can do only two things: hold something in or keep something out.
Now, those sitting in their pews, religiously, on Sunday morning may love the image this conjures. They’re in the sheepfold, grazing on the lush green grasses, following the sound of the shepherd’s voice, being led beside still waters, and protected when they leave the fold to journey through those dark valleys to their next grazing spot. What could be more serene? Say the 23rd Psalm, sing “God Will Take Care of You,” and the service is complete.
But there’s a new young woman in worship on Sunday. She slips in shyly, beneath the “All Are Welcome” banner, and makes her way to the balcony, hoping not to be noticed. She’s really not sure why she’s here, but deep down she is hoping maybe there’s a word she can hear that will help her deal with the alienation she has felt from the church since she came out to her family years ago. She, too, is fixated on that sheepfold. There are sheep inside, she thinks, and I’m not one of them. And there’s a barrier to getting in—the church wants to keep me out. I’m not good enough; I haven’t been faithful enough. God doesn’t love me for who I am. The sheepfold will never be for me because I’m the one the gate is intended to keep out. So she slips out before the benediction, as quickly as she entered, realizing, once again, that the church is not the place for her.
In John’s context, his intention seems clear: make a relationship with Jesus something to be coveted. Make those Jews who may still be wondering about Jesus start to believe in him. Make the gentiles see that there’s something here for them as well. But today this attempt at getting people into the sheepfold often feels more like an attempt to keep other people out. To the LGBTQ community, to the single mother, to the divorced father, to the teenager battling depression, to the young family whose car isn’t nearly as fancy as the ones parked next to it, to the couple who have never been to church before—the sheepfold feels exclusive, unattainable, unwelcoming. This is the real problem with the text.
… it’s the location crisis: From where do we hear this text? Inside the church, it feels inclusive and loving; outside the church, it feels exclusive and marginalizing. That’s a problem. It’s not the message Jesus was trying to give then, and it’s not a message the church can afford to give people now.
So tear down the sheepfold, remove the gate, do away with the gatekeeper. Allow the sheep to roam freely in the world and let God be the Good Shepherd of the psalm, roaming with all the sheep, chasing after them with goodness and mercy flowing everywhere. Or at least show a gate that doesn’t close anymore. And then hope that the young woman in the balcony is listening.
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Now, why is this so important? Because we are embarking together on growing the church, correct? We’ve placed mission/vision value statements, many of you have agreed to help by sitting on a committee, others all help in supporting those committees behind the scenes, and we will do things together, and invite others in….But there’s a far more meaningful way to invite others int the church, and into the love of God, and into the sheepfold-And it begins by understanding this book, and these scriptures, in a way that never shuts down the conversation, but keeps it open and growing and becoming something that invites everyone to the table. It means understanding what you learn here, in Bible study, in our Friday morning group, in your reading, in what you’re watching, and allowing it to permeate so deeply that you’re able to see it directly affecting the choices you make in your relationships, in your home, socially, religiously and yes, even politically.
And we as a societal whole have lost the ability to converse calmly and respectfully and instead we have a tendency to shut down conversations when we take positions that make us feel safe and secure at the expense of someone else. If you don’t believe me, open the morning paper, or go on Facebook.
We are all of us theologians. That is we all have ideas of how we relate to God, things we tell ourselves that comfort us, see us through, ideas about God and Christ that we may have learned as a child and that way of thinking worked so we repeat it, but we’ve never stopped to ask whether that understanding still serves as a productive and healthy way of understanding. Are we holding on to something that worked once, but is now harming us rather than helping us?
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Finally, I want to leave you with a quote and short video from a group called The Work of The People- These are the professional theologians and they are in your Pastor’s educated opinion, the cream of the crop. Many I have quoted, many I have read, one I have met, and others I’d like to. I’m sharing it with you as a taste of how to hear and listen and understand talking about God so that God's love and inclusion are central to our understanding as theologians.
EUCHARISTICAL: Growing by Receiving - A TWOTP Retrospective Film & Discussion Guide
"Everything I have learned was received by sitting at the table with people who remind me time and again that I'm not a powerless combatant trying to win (regardless of the cost), but an empowered co-creator contributing to the soil of life while surrendering as an embedded seed willing to grow…We just have to be still and quick to listen and receive what's being given. Learning to receive what comes over time relieves us of the urge to take. That's how a person goes from combatant to co-creationist. It's not a cop-out. We actually grow by receiving. It's the way it's supposed to be. It’s Eucharistical." - Travis Reed, The Work of the People