Year C
1 Kings 19:15-16,19-21
Psalm 16
Galatians 5:1,13-25
Luke 9:51-62<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today’s Epistle and Gospel are about freedom and commitment\u2026 Paul writes that Christ has set us free for freedom\u2026 \u00a0and that we’re to use our freedom to become slaves to one another\u2026 and that if we’re led by the Spirit\u2026 then we’re freed from the Law\u2026\u00a0 and this seems kind of paradoxical\u2026 because in many ways\u2026 when we’re free\u2026 we have no constraints\u2026 \u00a0so how can we be slaves to one another\u2026\u00a0 and when we’re fully committed to something\u2026 we’re not free to make other choices\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And we want to be free\u2026 we don’t want anyone telling us what to do\u2026 impinging on our sense of agency\u2026 but there are still many things we do\u2026 and many things we may not do\u2026 which are decided by others\u2026 or by outdated laws or social convention\u2026 so in Christ\u2026 what are we freed from doing\u2026 and what are we free to do\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel\u2026 The Handmaid’s Tale\u2026 is a story which takes place in the Republic of Gilead\u2026 a totalitarian and theocratic state in what was formerly part of New England\u2026 and which was formed in the wake of declining fertility rates\u2026 the republic enslaves and forces fertile women to bear the children of the Republic’s elite\u2026 and in doing so\u2026 forbidding women many of the freedoms they enjoyed\u2026 at first\u2026 they are sent to the Red Center\u2026 where they are inculcated into Gilead\u2019s ideology\u2026 about how women should be subservient to men and be concerned with nothing more than bearing children\u2026 and being beaten when they resist\u2026 they are then assigned to the infertile families of Gilead’s elite\u2026 and renamed\u2026 the main character of Atwood’s novel is Offred\u2026 which is really Of Fred\u2026 indicating the man to whom she belongs\u2026 at least until she conceives and bears a child for him and his wife\u2026 and once a month… during The Ceremony\u2026 the Commander reads the Biblical passage in which God commands the man and woman to be fruitful and multiply\u2026 and Offred is then ritually raped\u2026 while his wife sits behind her\u2026 holding her down\u2026 both of them praying that Offred becomes pregnant and bears what in their minds\u2026 is the wife’s child\u2026 a child borne through violence\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And throughout history\u2026\u00a0 women have borne children\u2026\u00a0 and have aborted them\u2026\u00a0 and what has tied these two together\u2026\u00a0 is choice\u2026\u00a0 choosing to become a mother\u2026\u00a0 or choosing not to\u2026 or being forced to become one against one’s will\u2026 and in our public discourse\u2026\u00a0 as we have done with so many other issues\u2026\u00a0 we have reduced this highly complex\u2026\u00a0 moral\u2026\u00a0 medical\u2026\u00a0 and spiritual decision into two\u2026\u00a0 woefully inadequate sound bites\u2026\u00a0 pro-choice\u2026\u00a0 and pro-life\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The positions of the ELCA and The Episcopal Church on this matter are virtually identical\u2026 and Presiding Bp. Elizabeth Eaton reminds us that in church teaching\u2026 there are no exclusive rights in pregnancy\u2026 a pregnant woman does not have an exclusive right to abort a fetus at all points during the pregnancy\u2026 and a developing life does not have an exclusive right to be born\u2026 the concern for both the life of the woman and the developing life in her womb expresses a mutual commitment to life\u2026 this requires that we move beyond the usual pro-life vs. pro-choice language in discussing abortion\u2026 Eaton reminds us that this church does not support abortion as a normative form of birth control\u2026 but rather understands it as necessary in some morally responsible circumstances\u2026 that this church does not condone late-term abortions except in extreme circumstances which must be determined by the individuals and their medical caregivers\u2026 acknowledges that individuals and religious traditions hold divergent viewpoints over when life begins\u2026 and that these divergent views are not only scientific… but also biblical and cultural\u2026 and the ELCA’s social statement acknowledges these ethical ambiguities and holds that “the closer the life in the womb comes to full term\u2026 the more serious such [moral] issues become.” In other words\u2026 there are no easy answers\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his own statement supporting this decision\u2026 Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that\u2026 In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due-process precedents<\/em>\u2026 these precedents arise in part from the Fourteenth Amendment which affirmed equal protection under the law\u2026 and came about in response to issues faced by former slaves after the Civil War\u2026 and by turning this decision back to the states on Friday\u2026 women no longer have equal protection under the law\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And some due-process precedents which are now at risk\u2026 include the right of married couples to buy birth control (the 1965 decision in Griswold v. Connecticut)<\/em>\u2026 the prohibition of states from criminalizing consensual sex (the 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas)<\/em>\u2026 and the right of same-gender couples to marry (the 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges)<\/em>\u2026 interestingly\u2026 Justice Thomas… who’s married to a white woman\u2026 failed to include another substantive due-process case for possible review\u2026 the 1967 decision in Loving v. Virginia\u2026 which protects interracial marriage\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so I wonder\u2026 how do we reconcile the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade\u2026 motivated by a commitment to protect life\u2026 with its decision that very same day\u2026 to strike down a New York state law\u2026 which will make it easier to carry concealed weapons in the nation’s most populous city\u2026 thereby making it more likely that other lives will be lost\u2026 in one day\u2026 relaxing regulations on guns\u2026 and tightening regulations on women\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to Jerusalem\u2026 I came across a quote years ago by the German philosopher Goethe that has stuck with me\u2026 part of it says\u2026 Until one is committed\u2026 there is hesitancy\u2026 the chance to draw back\u2026 always ineffectiveness… it’s in the moment we definitely commit ourselves\u2026 that providence moves too\u2026<\/em> and the commitment which Jesus made in coming\u2026 was irrevocably tied to his leaving\u2026 and so with Jesus as our exemplar\u2026 what kind of commitments are we called to make\u2026 and do they incorporate our baptismal vows…<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the men said\u2026\u00a0 I will follow you wherever you <\/em>go… and Jesus’ response about foxes and birds is telling\u2026\u00a0 because those who follow Jesus\u2026 \u00a0will feel less “at home” with established conventions\u2026\u00a0 and will begin to see that\u2026 \u00a0if anyone is in Christ\u2026\u00a0 there is a new creation\u2026\u00a0 <\/em>in Luke 14:26\u2026\u00a0 Jesus said\u2026\u00a0 Whoever comes to me\u2026\u00a0 and does not love their family\u2026\u00a0 and yes\u2026\u00a0 even life itself\u2026\u00a0 less than they love me\u2026\u00a0 cannot be my disciple<\/em>\u2026\u00a0 so the man who said\u2026\u00a0 Let me first say goodbye to those at home<\/em>\u2026\u00a0 may have been on the fence about this commitment\u2026\u00a0 may have wanted to get his family’s approval\u2026 like Elisha may have\u2026\u00a0 but it’s our commitment\u2026\u00a0 made as best as we are able\u2026\u00a0 seeking permission reduces personal responsibility\u2026 because if things don’t work out\u2026 we always have someone to blame\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pastor Liv Larson Andrews\u2026 of Salem Lutheran Church writes\u2026 No one who [ fill in the blank ] is fit for the kingdom\u2026 Ouch<\/em>\u2026 this sentence has been completed by so many preachers and theologians over the centuries who have sought to define what is central to the practice of our faith\u2026 what does following Jesus look like\u2026 it\u2019s an essential question\u2026 but it has also been bent by hatred\u2026 and levied in harmful\u2026 even violent ways… to the detriment of the kingdom\u2026 that pain and hurt is [ still ] in the air when we read texts of judgment such as this\u2026 it’s true that sometimes a boundary needs to be set\u2026 but Jesus has the capacity to cross every boundary and work even among those with whom we can\u2019t keep fellowship\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n For freedom\u2026 Christ has set you free\u2026 and as we follow Jesus\u2026 as we move into this new freedom\u2026 which itself is free of the constraints we impose with our limited perspectives\u2026 as we figure out where we go from here\u2026 we must ask what frees us\u2026 and what constrains us\u2026 and what keeps us from setting our faces to Jerusalem\u2026 maybe not the way Jesus did\u2026 but from living into the Gospel as fully as we’re able\u2026 and allows each one of us to make the choices we feel best for us\u2026 instead of having them made for us\u2026 against our will… you see\u2026 peacemaking is about a revolution of love that is big enough to free us from imposing our ideologies on others\u2026 and free from ideologies which impinge on us\u2026 a love that can set both the oppressed and the oppressors free\u2026 Holy God\u2026 make it so\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year C 1 Kings 19:15-16,19-21 Psalm 16 Galatians 5:1,13-25 Luke 9:51-62 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 Today’s Epistle and Gospel are about freedom and commitment\u2026 Paul writes that Christ has set us free for freedom\u2026 \u00a0and that we’re to use our freedom to become slaves to one another\u2026 and that if we’re led by the Spirit\u2026 then we’re freed from the Law\u2026\u00a0 and this seems kind of paradoxical\u2026 because in many ways\u2026 when we’re free\u2026 we have no constraints\u2026 \u00a0so how can we be slaves to one another\u2026\u00a0 and when we’re fully committed to something\u2026 we’re not free to make other choices\u2026 And we want to be free\u2026 we don’t want anyone telling us what to do\u2026 impinging on our sense of agency\u2026 but there are still many things we do\u2026 and many things we may not do\u2026 which are decided by others\u2026 or by outdated laws or social convention\u2026 so in Christ\u2026 what are we freed from doing\u2026 and what are we free to do\u2026 Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel\u2026 The Handmaid’s Tale\u2026 is a story which takes place in the Republic of Gilead\u2026 a totalitarian and theocratic state in what was formerly part of New England\u2026 and which was formed in the wake of declining fertility rates\u2026 the republic enslaves and forces fertile women to bear the children of the Republic’s elite\u2026 and in doing so\u2026 forbidding women many of the freedoms they enjoyed\u2026 at first\u2026 they are sent to the Red Center\u2026 where they are inculcated into Gilead\u2019s ideology\u2026 about how women should be subservient to men and be concerned with nothing more than bearing children\u2026 and being beaten when they resist\u2026 they are then assigned to the infertile families of Gilead’s elite\u2026 and renamed\u2026 the main character of Atwood’s novel is Offred\u2026 which is really Of Fred\u2026 indicating the man to whom she belongs\u2026 at least until she conceives and bears a child for him and his wife\u2026 and once a month… during The Ceremony\u2026 the Commander reads the Biblical passage in which God commands the man and woman to be fruitful and multiply\u2026 and Offred is then ritually raped\u2026 while his wife sits behind her\u2026 holding her down\u2026 both of them praying that Offred becomes pregnant and bears what in their minds\u2026 is the wife’s child\u2026 a child borne through violence\u2026 And throughout history\u2026\u00a0 women have borne children\u2026\u00a0 and have aborted them\u2026\u00a0 and what has tied these two together\u2026\u00a0 is choice\u2026\u00a0 choosing to become a mother\u2026\u00a0 or choosing not to\u2026 or being forced to become one against one’s will\u2026 and in our public discourse\u2026\u00a0 as we have done with so many other issues\u2026\u00a0 we have reduced this highly complex\u2026\u00a0 moral\u2026\u00a0 medical\u2026\u00a0 and spiritual decision into two\u2026\u00a0 woefully inadequate sound bites\u2026\u00a0 pro-choice\u2026\u00a0 and pro-life\u2026 The positions of the ELCA and The Episcopal Church on this matter are virtually identical\u2026 and Presiding Bp. Elizabeth Eaton reminds us that in church teaching\u2026 there are no exclusive rights in pregnancy\u2026 a pregnant woman does not have an exclusive right to abort a fetus at all points during the pregnancy\u2026 and a developing life does not have an exclusive right to be born\u2026 the concern for both the life of the woman and the developing life in her womb expresses a mutual commitment to life\u2026 this requires that we move beyond the usual pro-life vs. pro-choice language in discussing abortion\u2026 Eaton reminds us that this church does not support abortion as a normative form of birth control\u2026 but rather understands it as necessary in some morally responsible circumstances\u2026 that this church does not condone late-term abortions except in extreme circumstances which must be determined by the individuals and their medical caregivers\u2026 acknowledges that individuals and religious traditions hold divergent viewpoints over when life begins\u2026 and that these divergent views are not only scientific… but also biblical and cultural\u2026 and the ELCA’s social statement acknowledges these ethical ambiguities and holds that “the closer the life in the womb comes to full term\u2026 the more serious such [moral] issues become.” In other words\u2026 there are no easy answers\u2026 In his own statement supporting this decision\u2026 Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that\u2026 In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due-process precedents\u2026 these precedents arise in part from the Fourteenth Amendment which affirmed equal protection under the law\u2026 and came about in response to issues faced by former slaves after the Civil War\u2026 and by turning this decision back to the states on Friday\u2026 women no longer have equal protection under the law\u2026 And some due-process precedents which are now at risk\u2026 include the right of married couples to buy birth control (the 1965 decision in Griswold v. Connecticut)\u2026 the prohibition of states from criminalizing consensual sex (the 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas)\u2026 and the right of same-gender couples to marry (the 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges)\u2026 interestingly\u2026 Justice Thomas… who’s married to a white woman\u2026 failed to include another substantive due-process case for possible review\u2026 the 1967 decision in Loving v. Virginia\u2026 which protects interracial marriage\u2026 And so I wonder\u2026 how do we reconcile the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade\u2026 motivated by a commitment to protect life\u2026 with its decision that very same day\u2026 to strike down a New York state law\u2026 which will make it easier to carry concealed weapons in the nation’s most populous city\u2026 thereby making it more likely that other lives will be lost\u2026 in one day\u2026 relaxing regulations on guns\u2026 and tightening regulations on women\u2026 When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to Jerusalem\u2026 I came across a quote years ago by the German philosopher Goethe that has stuck with me\u2026 part of it says\u2026 Until one is committed\u2026 there is hesitancy\u2026 the chance to draw back\u2026 always ineffectiveness… it’s in the moment we definitely commit ourselves\u2026 that providence moves too\u2026 and the commitment which Jesus made in coming\u2026 was irrevocably tied to his leaving\u2026 and so with Jesus as our exemplar\u2026 […]<\/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":[144,145,146],"class_list":["post-1681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-following-jesus","tag-kingdom-of-god","tag-living-the-gospel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1681","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=1681"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1685,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1681\/revisions\/1685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}