\u00a0Year C
\u00a0Genesis 45:3-11, 15
\u00a0Psalm 37:1-12, 41-42
\u00a01 Corinthians 15:35-38,42-50
\u00a0Luke 6:27-38
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026\u00a0 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Author Annie Lamott\u2026 said… You can safely assume\u2026 that you’ve created God in your own image\u2026 when it turns out\u2026 that God hates all the same people\u2026 that you do<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so what is it within us\u2026 that creates hate\u2026 is it genetically passed down\u2026 does it come not from original blessing\u2026 but from original sin\u2026 does it come from how we were raised\u2026 does it rise up out of fear of the Other\u2026 does it have to be spoken directly to us\u2026 or can it be something as subtle as a parent’s eyebrows that are raised\u2026 or eyes that are rolled\u2026 in response to something that’s just been said or seen on TV\u2026 does it come about because of who our parents associate with\u2026 and who they don’t\u2026 it’s a fascinating process which forms us\u2026 by what we take in\u2026 and by what we reject\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joseph’s brothers rejected him\u2026 they got rid of him\u2026 sold him into slavery\u2026 but no sooner does Joseph remind his brothers of their great sin\u2026 that he renounced retribution\u2026 and kissed all his brothers and wept upon them\u2026 and he interprets as blessing\u2026 the events that have overtaken the House of Israel\u2026 just as he had interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams\u2026 now Joseph’s experience was very real and very painful\u2026 but it was not the last word\u2026 his last word was a word of life\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our reading from 1 Corinthians reminds us in pretty stark terms\u2026 that we cannot rise to imperishable life\u2026 until the perishable within us dies\u2026 and that we don’t sow the imperishability that is yet to come\u2026 but we sow the perishability which no longer serves us well\u2026 and so it makes sense that we can’t hold on to boundedness\u2026 and expect also to be able to trust God fully and fall into boundlessness\u2026 so it’s not just flesh and blood that can’t inherit the kingdom of God\u2026 it’s myopic thinking and theology as well\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But tragically\u2026 we’re the centuries-old inheritors of this kind of myopic thinking and theology\u2026 and much of it started with a Papal Bull\u2026 or edict\u2026 issued on May 4, 1493 by Pope Alexander VI\u2026 it came to be knowns as the Doctrine of Discovery\u2026 and it mapped out Spain\u2019s strategy to ensure its exclusive right to the lands discovered by Columbus the previous year\u2026 and it effectively gave Spain a monopoly on the lands in the New World\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But more egregious\u2026 much more egregious\u2026 it stated that any land not inhabited by Christians was able to be claimed and exploited\u2026 by Christian rulers\u2026 and it declared that\u2026 the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and increased and spread everywhere\u2026 and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith<\/em>\u2026 it became the basis of all European claims in the Americas\u2026 including the slave trade\u2026 and served as the foundation for the United States\u2019 embrace of western expansion\u2026 for example\u2026 it was advanced by the United States’ Supreme Court in the 1823 case of Johnson v. McIntosh\u2026 Chief Justice Marshall\u2019s opinion in the unanimous decision held that this “discovery”\u2026 gave European nations an absolute right to New World lands<\/em>\u2026 in essence\u2026 Native Americans had only a right of occupancy… which could then also be abolished\u2026 and then there’s the church’s own history\u2026 participating in and benefitting from slavery\u2026 for which both of our denominations have made formal apologies\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do to others as you would have them do to you\u2026 be merciful just as your Father is merciful\u2026 do not judge and you will not be judged\u2026<\/em> injunctions against impinging on the dignity and the rights of others\u2026 which we have yet to do well\u2026 and the final line in today’s Gospel\u2026 for the measure you give will be the measure you get back<\/em>\u2026 and this final one\u2026 echoes the message in Galatians 6:7\u2026 Do not be deceived\u2026 you reap whatever you sow<\/em>\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s because when we respond to hate\u2026 with more hate\u2026 we simply end up feeding the hate\u2026 but love can lessen it\u2026 if we are steeled enough to turn the other cheek\u2026 we give our abuser the chance to empty themself of their anger without feeding into it\u2026 and if we judge\u2026 we give those we judge motivation to judge us in return\u2026 and the same thing is true about all the other behaviors which Jesus calls us into\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it sounds crazy\u2026 doesn’t it\u2026 it’s SO not the way of the world\u2026 certainly not the way things are going on the eastern border of Ukraine\u2026 but we can choose to diffuse the negativity\u2026 as Joseph did\u2026 you see\u2026 Jesus is encouraging us in God’s ways\u2026 and we will choose whether or not to follow them\u2026 and yes\u2026 it may be that while we’re diffusing\u2026 diffusing\u2026 and diffusing some more\u2026 someone else will see us as weak\u2026 and take advantage of us\u2026 or harm us\u2026 or even kill us\u2026 but we have three choices\u2026 we can choose to advance\u2026 we can remain where we are\u2026 or we can retreat\u2026 and all of those choices have consequences\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Jesus’ instructions and the choices we make can be difficult enough to embrace in good times\u2026 and maybe the uncertainty and the stress and the grief and the trauma of the pandemic has made it more difficult for us to behave in gracious and forgiving ways\u2026 many of us are struggling to maintain our patience and perspective and respond with offers of help\u2026 because those who would never have acted out in public\u2026 or threatened someone at a school board meeting\u2026 or punched someone on an airplane\u2026 can almost not help themselves\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n This pandemic has cost us so much\u2026 we have lost so much\u2026 that our nerves are frayed\u2026 our tempers are short\u2026 and we may well have created notions of what’s right and what’s wrong in our own image\u2026 we may have taken what’s normal for us\u2026 and made it normative\u2026 determinative for everyone else\u2026 and the cacophony of voices is so loud\u2026 that it’s become difficult to hear the whispers of the Holy Spirit inviting us into a new normal\u2026 to let the physical and spiritual seed husks in which we’re contained\u2026 die and fall away\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the Gospel’s first line catches my attention\u2026 I say to you that listen\u2026<\/em> Jesus knows that not everyone will want to\u2026 or be able to listen\u2026 and even if\u2026 every person alive began to listen tonight right after dinner\u2026 even if every person began to listen\u2026 and then began to act\u2026 it would still take decades\u2026 or maybe even centuries\u2026 to repair our social systems\u2026 and to right every wrong\u2026 and heal every broken heart\u2026 and be reconciled with each other\u2026 but we have choices\u2026 we can retreat from this work\u2026 we can stand idly by\u2026 or we can move towards it\u2026 and begin to do it\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And our theological imaginations might help us\u2026 if we imagine that God created all of the world’s systems on which we depend\u2026 things like healthcare\u2026 and transportation\u2026 and education\u2026 and manufacturing\u2026 and energy\u2026 and one of the outcomes was that there were no social injustices\u2026 then the intent of our El malei Rachamim<\/em>\u2026 our All Merciful God\u2026 would be realized\u2026 and what I think is telling\u2026 is that the Hebrew word for mercy\u2026 is a sister to the Hebrew word for womb\u2026 which is itself\u2026 a place of protection and mercy\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then we could express Annie Lamott’s sentiment in a slightly different way\u2026 You can safely assume\u2026 that God’s image is fully reflected in you\u2026 when it turns out that you love\u2026 all the same people who God loves<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0Year C\u00a0Genesis 45:3-11, 15\u00a0Psalm 37:1-12, 41-42\u00a01 Corinthians 15:35-38,42-50\u00a0Luke 6:27-38 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026\u00a0 speak your truth\u2026 Author Annie Lamott\u2026 said… You can safely assume\u2026 that you’ve created God in your own image\u2026 when it turns out\u2026 that God hates all the same people\u2026 that you do\u2026 And so what is it within us\u2026 that creates hate\u2026 is it genetically passed down\u2026 does it come not from original blessing\u2026 but from original sin\u2026 does it come from how we were raised\u2026 does it rise up out of fear of the Other\u2026 does it have to be spoken directly to us\u2026 or can it be something as subtle as a parent’s eyebrows that are raised\u2026 or eyes that are rolled\u2026 in response to something that’s just been said or seen on TV\u2026 does it come about because of who our parents associate with\u2026 and who they don’t\u2026 it’s a fascinating process which forms us\u2026 by what we take in\u2026 and by what we reject\u2026 Joseph’s brothers rejected him\u2026 they got rid of him\u2026 sold him into slavery\u2026 but no sooner does Joseph remind his brothers of their great sin\u2026 that he renounced retribution\u2026 and kissed all his brothers and wept upon them\u2026 and he interprets as blessing\u2026 the events that have overtaken the House of Israel\u2026 just as he had interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams\u2026 now Joseph’s experience was very real and very painful\u2026 but it was not the last word\u2026 his last word was a word of life\u2026 Our reading from 1 Corinthians reminds us in pretty stark terms\u2026 that we cannot rise to imperishable life\u2026 until the perishable within us dies\u2026 and that we don’t sow the imperishability that is yet to come\u2026 but we sow the perishability which no longer serves us well\u2026 and so it makes sense that we can’t hold on to boundedness\u2026 and expect also to be able to trust God fully and fall into boundlessness\u2026 so it’s not just flesh and blood that can’t inherit the kingdom of God\u2026 it’s myopic thinking and theology as well\u2026 But tragically\u2026 we’re the centuries-old inheritors of this kind of myopic thinking and theology\u2026 and much of it started with a Papal Bull\u2026 or edict\u2026 issued on May 4, 1493 by Pope Alexander VI\u2026 it came to be knowns as the Doctrine of Discovery\u2026 and it mapped out Spain\u2019s strategy to ensure its exclusive right to the lands discovered by Columbus the previous year\u2026 and it effectively gave Spain a monopoly on the lands in the New World\u2026 But more egregious\u2026 much more egregious\u2026 it stated that any land not inhabited by Christians was able to be claimed and exploited\u2026 by Christian rulers\u2026 and it declared that\u2026 the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and increased and spread everywhere\u2026 and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith\u2026 it became the basis of all European claims in the Americas\u2026 including the slave trade\u2026 and served as the foundation for the United States\u2019 embrace of western expansion\u2026 for example\u2026 it was advanced by the United States’ Supreme Court in the 1823 case of Johnson v. McIntosh\u2026 Chief Justice Marshall\u2019s opinion in the unanimous decision held that this “discovery”\u2026 gave European nations an absolute right to New World lands\u2026 in essence\u2026 Native Americans had only a right of occupancy… which could then also be abolished\u2026 and then there’s the church’s own history\u2026 participating in and benefitting from slavery\u2026 for which both of our denominations have made formal apologies\u2026 Do to others as you would have them do to you\u2026 be merciful just as your Father is merciful\u2026 do not judge and you will not be judged\u2026 injunctions against impinging on the dignity and the rights of others\u2026 which we have yet to do well\u2026 and the final line in today’s Gospel\u2026 for the measure you give will be the measure you get back\u2026 and this final one\u2026 echoes the message in Galatians 6:7\u2026 Do not be deceived\u2026 you reap whatever you sow\u2026 That’s because when we respond to hate\u2026 with more hate\u2026 we simply end up feeding the hate\u2026 but love can lessen it\u2026 if we are steeled enough to turn the other cheek\u2026 we give our abuser the chance to empty themself of their anger without feeding into it\u2026 and if we judge\u2026 we give those we judge motivation to judge us in return\u2026 and the same thing is true about all the other behaviors which Jesus calls us into\u2026 But it sounds crazy\u2026 doesn’t it\u2026 it’s SO not the way of the world\u2026 certainly not the way things are going on the eastern border of Ukraine\u2026 but we can choose to diffuse the negativity\u2026 as Joseph did\u2026 you see\u2026 Jesus is encouraging us in God’s ways\u2026 and we will choose whether or not to follow them\u2026 and yes\u2026 it may be that while we’re diffusing\u2026 diffusing\u2026 and diffusing some more\u2026 someone else will see us as weak\u2026 and take advantage of us\u2026 or harm us\u2026 or even kill us\u2026 but we have three choices\u2026 we can choose to advance\u2026 we can remain where we are\u2026 or we can retreat\u2026 and all of those choices have consequences\u2026 But Jesus’ instructions and the choices we make can be difficult enough to embrace in good times\u2026 and maybe the uncertainty and the stress and the grief and the trauma of the pandemic has made it more difficult for us to behave in gracious and forgiving ways\u2026 many of us are struggling to maintain our patience and perspective and respond with offers of help\u2026 because those who would never have acted out in public\u2026 or threatened someone at a school board meeting\u2026 or punched someone on an airplane\u2026 can almost not help themselves\u2026 This pandemic has cost us so much\u2026 we have lost so much\u2026 that our nerves are frayed\u2026 our tempers are short\u2026 and we may well have created notions of what’s right and what’s wrong in our own image\u2026 we may have taken what’s normal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[78,76,77,79],"class_list":["post-1519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-all-merciful-god","tag-doctrine-of-discovery","tag-golden-rule","tag-love-as-god-loves"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1520,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519\/revisions\/1520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}