“The Lord Watches over Strangers” (Psalm 146)

            The caravan!  The president of the most powerful nation on earth, the United States of America, mobilizes 5,200 soldiers to … our border.  Why station combat-ready troops at the border?  Who’s threatening to invade?  Poor Honduran and Mexican migrant farmers and migrant workers fleeing political oppression and debilitating unemployment.  Many in our country, the U.S.A., see these who want to come have some of the freedom we hold and have not earned but enjoy by virtue of birth, secured by our European ancestors’ invasion and conquest, and they call these immigrants “illegals,” or “foreigners,” or “strangers.” 

Many of the Americans who affix such negative labels to those in the ‘caravan’ would call themselves ‘Christians,’ evangelical Christians.  From the Greek root, ‘evangelical’ means one who spreads good news.  ‘Christian’ literally means ‘little Christ.’  Evangelical Christians among all the branches of Christian faith most ardently claim to live Biblically.  So these Americans wanting to abide by the dictates of scripture and to spread good news to the ‘least of these’ (Matthew 25:40) and to walk in the footsteps of Christ support the move to block the poor, the hungry, the homeless at the border of the land of the free and the home of the brave? 

Confronting weary, desperate refugees families with a show of military force doesn’t seem very brave or Christi.  What have we become?

The Bible’s got something for those refugees and migrants, and the Bible’s got something for powerful political leaders who refuse to welcome or help them.  Psalm 146:9, “The Lord watches over strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he will bring to ruin.”  Bible-reading, Bible-obeying, good news-telling, little Christ evangelicals, read this Psalm carefully, slowly, over and over (and Matthew 25:31-46 while you’re at it).

See the God this Psalm describes.  He is the one to trust, not princes (meaning earthly political leaders, whether monarchs, oligarchs, prime ministers, or presidents – 146:3).  We trust God.  “Happy are those whose help is God” (v.5).  He is creator of the universe (v.6).  A lot of evangelicals agree with this as they reject evolutionary biology and in the process willfully ignore the established conventions of science.  Evangelicals ignore science, blissfully declare belief in a creator, and then miss that the very same verse that asserts creation, Psalm 146:7, depicts God as giver of justice for the oppressed. 

Those in the ‘caravan’ were severely persecuted in their home countries.  They have had to use everything they have to travel harsh roads to finally arrive at the country that in the past has said “send me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door” (see the statue of liberty)!”  After their harrowing flight and exhausting journey, these people, the oppressed of Psalm 146, the ones God watches over, are met at Liberty’s door by Liberty’s army pointing Guns and tanks at them. 

What has happened to America?  What have we become?  And how in the name of the Holy God can any evangelical anywhere support such inhospitable policies?  Psalm 146:8-9.  “The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.  The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.  The Lord watches over strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow.”  Read these inspired, inerrant words again and again and again until they sink in.  In the news story dominating headlines, the story of the ‘caravan,’ and our nation’s furrowed-brow-response, God is on the side of the weary immigrants seeking safety and opportunity. 

Aren’t evangelicals supposed to be on the side God is on?

It sounds as if I have been beating up on evangelicals.  Nope.  I have been doing what evangelicals do because I am one.  I have turned to the Bible, specifically Matthew 25:31-36 and Psalm 146 (see also Isaiah 58:6; 61:1-2 & Luke 4:18-21 where Jesus said that in his coming the passages from Isaiah had come to fulfillment).  Like any evangelical, I want to be a Bible-reading, Bible-obeying, good news-telling Christ follower.  That is literally what an evangelical is. 

I have not beat up on evangelicals here.  I have renounced media that falsely depicts evangelical Christianity, and I renounce those who claim to be evangelical and then try to define it by political party affiliation and issues-based self-identification.  True evangelical Christianity takes its cues from scripture, and scripture defines God as being opposed to those in power and in support of those oppressed and afflicted.  This is who the God of the Bible is.  If this is who you trust, the Psalm says you’ll be happy.  If you’re opposed to welcoming the haggard poor in the caravan, you’re opposed to the God of the Bible.  That’s a faith statement, not a political one.

Unpatriotic Love of Country

Every year, as we, “we” being “we Americans,” get ready to celebrate our independence, I am faced with this task.  How do I express the Christian faith in and from the American context?  I am very much an American citizen and a resident of the United States, and I believe I always will be.  Furthermore, I hope I will be, at least up until the resurrection.  I love the United States of America and I love being an American.

I love being a Christian more.  And these two allegiances are not one in the same, nor are they in any way aligned.  America is not God’s chosen nation.  That’s Israel.  Up to the time of Christ, God’s self-revelation to the world came through Israel.  Israel and only Israel has been God’s chosen people.  When Christ came, God’s self-revelation narrowed to one Israelite – Jesus of Nazareth.  After his death and resurrection, non-Jews, Gentiles, were welcomed into the “people of God.”  Paul stresses this throughout his letters, it is the conclusion of the Jerusalem council (Acts 15), and is the focus of Romans 9-11.

Today, God’s people are all who come to faith in Jesus Christ.  Koreans, Chinese, Ethiopians, Mexicans, Canadians, Dominicans, Haitians, Americans, and all other tribes, languages, and nations; all who put their trust in Jesus are adopted as sons and daughters of God.  No passages makes this clearer than Revelation 7:9-10. 

A few American evangelicals have tried to make the case that America is God’s chosen nation. They have urged congregations in the United States to conform to the U.S. government’s dictates, pointing to passages like Romans 13:1 and 1 Peter 2:13 as Biblical injunctions to nationalistic conformity.  However, the pastors and leaders who offer such teachings, wedding faithfulness to American patriotism, ignore the fact that these words originally instructed a church that was a minority faith in the pagan Roman Empire.  These passages served as strategies for the nascent church’s survival in the face of persecution, and success in evangelistic endeavors. If we claim these passages as endorsements of American governmental authority then we have to accept that these scriptures endorsed the Roman emperor’s position and claims.  They most certainly did not. 

Christians died on crosses because they refused to comply with the emperor’s edicts.  They refused to say “Caesar is Lord.”  They insisted, “Jesus is Lord.”  Many first century Christians endured torture and died violent deaths because of this testimony.  No, Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 do not promote the Roman Empire nor do they conflate faith with American patriotism.  In the first century, the scriptures make it clear that to be faithful to Christ was to be at odds with the government because only one can be ultimate.  Christians say Jesus, not the government, is the ultimate – the ultimate authority, the only Savior, and the one definer of identity.

I know when I write or preach this way, many in the church do not like it.  They want to love America and love Jesus, and they want those things to go together.  My intent in this writing is not to make my readers/listeners uncomfortable.  That’s not my goal.  I’m not sitting here at my keyboard thinking, “This will make them squirm.”  My goal is to look into the Bible and then reveal its absolute truth.  That’s it. 

The absolute truth of the Word is God demands our full loyalty.  “Be perfect as your father in Heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).  We are Americans by birth or by naturalization.  We are Americans by experience, by worldview, and by location.  However, once we are “in Christ,” we are born again.  That changes everything.  From the time the Holy Spirit baptizes us, God defines every bit of our lives.  What worries me is how little Christians in American churches consider the claim of God on their lives.

Too many American Christians want their Christianity to conform to the lives they’ve already carved out.  They don’t want much to change when they turn to Jesus.  Becoming a Christian is insurance for the afterlife, it is a social-identifier, and it is something new they’re trying as a part of their life.  The New Testament has no place for such an anemic Christianity.  The first century Christians who died in lions’ jaws insisting “Jesus is Lord” would not recognize what passes for faith in some American churches today.  “Because you are lukewarm … I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:16).  Jesus has no taste for someone who plays at being a Christian while putting other loyalties ahead of God.

On July 4^th, I feel compelled to express love for America, and I do.  But, as a Christian, I also know that we have no choice.  On Independence Day, we must bear witness to our servitude.  First and foremost, we are not voters in a democracy.  That is a secondary identity for us. Our primary identity is as subjects in the Kingdom of God.  Eternally indentured to Christ, we have greater freedom than the bald eagle and stars and stripes could ever give.

We love America.  We pray for it.  We vote. We serve in the military. We serve by trying to make out country better, by helping the poor, by using ethics and honesty in business, by cleaning up our communities and caring for the environment, by paying our taxes, and by being friendly, hospitable neighbors.  Christians who put the Kingdom of God ahead of the United States are actually the very best American citizens because we work for the public good. We contribute to everyone’s thriving.  We seek cooperation instead of zero-sum game competition.  Our zeal for the Kingdom makes for a more open, diverse, America, a greatly strengthened America.

I don’t think this sounds patriotic.  Oh well.  I hope my love of my country comes through in these words.   Even more, I hope upon reading this, you will go to the pages of New Testament to see if my assertions have any merit.  I hope you will consider where your own loyalty lies. 

God of the New - Jeremiah 31:31-34

            “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of a Jacob!” 

God is a God of covenants.  There was a covenant with Noah after the flood.  Never again will I curse the ground because of humankind (Gen. 8:21).  Remember the covenant with Abraham. God tells him, I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.  … You shall be the ancestor of [many] nations (Gen. 17:2, 4).   Of course, there’s the covenant with Moses.  I hereby make a covenant.  Before all your people I will perform marvels, such as have not been performed in all the earth or in any nation (Exodus 34:10).  And let’s not forget the covenant with King David.  Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever (2 Samuel 7:16). 

The covenant is deeper than just some agreement and requires more of each party.  The covenant is more personal than a contract and more binding.  And when the covenant is with God, it can be trusted without reservation. 

Herein lies the problem when we turn to Jeremiah 31.  For starters, The Lord says the new covenant will be with the house of Israel and the house of Jacob.  Ancient Israel was comprised of 12 tribes – descendants of the 12 sons of Jacob.  The 10 northern tribes were taken into exile by the Assyrians in the 8^th century BC.  They intermarried with other nations the Assyrians had conquered and were essentially lost to history.  The only remnant in the land was a mixed race people – Jewish and other.  They lived in Samaria.  In the New Testament, Jesus has encounters with these Samaritans and even features a Samaritan in one of his most popular parables. 

How can God say he will make a new covenant with the house of Israel?  There is no more house of Israel.  Sure, God is God.  But, exile is exile.  Some problems are too big.  Aren’t they?

The remaining two tribes, the southern tribes make up the house of Judah and are the location of the city of Zion, Jerusalem.  In Jeremiah 31, these tribes have gone the way of their northern cousins.  They have been taken in exile and anticipate being lost. 

The walls of the city fell and Solomon’s amazing temple was completely destroyed in 587BC.  Walter Brueggemann writes, “Landed folks [Israel – even if it is just Judah, two of what was originally 12 tribes] – Landed folks want to cling to continuity and believe that old forms will continue.  But the wrenching of 587 and the discernment of the prophets [Jeremiah, 2^nd Isaiah, Ezekiel] are about discontinuity.  The land is really lost and history is really ended.”[i]

God told Noah he would never again curse the land.  The Babylonians have ravaged the land.  God told Abraham he would be the ancestor of many nations.  The one nation begun in Abraham’s name has been lost.  God told Moses he would do marvels unlike any ever seen, but that was 1500 years prior to this event, the crushing of the people.  When Babylon came and the walls fell, where were the marvels of God?  God told David, your kingdom shall be forever.  David’s descendant, Zedekiah was forced to watch as Babylonian soldiers executed his sons.  Then, after seeing that, they gouged out his eyes, so that the last thing he ever saw would be the death of his own children.  Then, the king was chained and dragged off to Babylon. 

See how each covenant ended?  What do those Jews in exile hear when they hear Jeremiah speak God’s word?  “The days are surely coming when I will make a new covenant.”  A covenant with a people – the house of Israel – that are no more.  What kind of covenant is that?  A covenant with the house of Judah in exile.  Can they still be the people of God while living in Babylon?  What do those exiles hear in this promise?  Do they dare believe it?  Do they dare hope?  Can they trust this covenant God?

Jeremiah does.  This exile has happened and the former covenants appear lost because God’s people have turned away from God.  This is not happening because Babylon or Assyria is stronger than God.  This is not happening because God is flippant.  God is not fickle.  What God promised to Noah and Moses and Abraham and David is as true as it ever was.  Jeremiah said it and I claim those promises today, October 16, 2016.  Under the midnight shadow of exile, Jeremiah trusts God and calls the people to see God at work even in this time of death.

I wonder if the discontent in America right now makes it hard to see God at work.  I wonder if our land is a long way on the path of entry into a time of death.  I couldn’t identify the number of different ways people in our country are divided, but I’ll discuss just one.  Keep in mind, this is one description among many; one example of how culture in America is shifting dramatically.

Until this century, America was led by white men.  At the end of the 20^th century, a few women, like Sandra Day O’Conner and a few African Americans, like Colin Powell and Andrew Young and Barbara Jordan broke into the leadership dominion of white men.  Still, white men owned the companies, got elected, and hammered the judges’ gavels. 

The hegemony, the domination of white men is ending.  Some people in our country are perfectly comfortable with this.  I am.  I am comfortable with women in positions of leadership and power – if they are qualified to be there.  And many are.  I am happy to yield authority to people of color if they merit having that authority. And many do.  Qualified leaders are found in both genders and in all races.  I welcome a culture shift that makes space for qualified leaders to have opportunities.

Some are terrified of it.  They feel like they are losing the America they thought was theirs.  In a sense, they are.  By the middle of this century, white people will not have a numerical majority in the United States.  By the time we are 2/3 of the way through this century, the largest group of American citizens will be Hispanic.  It is ludicrous to think we could reach back to the halcyon days of the 1950’s.  Those days were only idyllic for a segment of our population.  In the 2050’s, that segment will lack the power to enforce their will.  In 2016, our nation feels this shift happening.  Those who fear the shift will fight it.    

Crisis is defined as a turning point of a disease when an important change takes place, indicating either recovery or death.[ii]  In this crisis, can God be trusted?  For the people of Judah, when the crisis of 587 BC ended in exile, it felt like death.  But Jeremiah stood up and said, yes death, but after death, covenant.  Can the covenant God still be trusted?

We know this covenant God through Jesus, the crucified, resurrected one.  Jesus is where we meet this God, but Jesus ascended after the resurrection and left things in the hands of his church. The church is supposed to be the body of Christ on earth giving witness to God’s goodness and love and salvation.  We point a dying world to the God who saves.  But, we are full of broken, sinful people who snipe at one another.  The forces that divide American culture are as much inside the church, inside the body of Christ as they are outside it. 

God left things in the mouths of prophets and in the workings of imperfect churches?  Really God?  Can the covenant God be trusted?  Jeremiah says yes. 

I will make a new covenant says the Lord.  The next God says is it will not be like the old covenant, the one made in the wilderness.  Exile bore similarities to Egypt.  The people were slaves under Pharaoh, far from the land God promised to Abraham.  Now they’ve sinned and they are in a forced exile in Babylon, far from the land God promised to Abraham.  God gave Moses the power to lead the people east to Canaan.  Couldn’t God give Jeremiah or more likely Ezekiel the same power to lead the people west, back to the Promised Land?  No, Jeremiah says.  This is not going to be like the old covenant, the one they broke repeatedly.  There is no going back.  The Red Sea will not be parted for us again. 

The promises made in the covenants with Noah and Abraham and Moses and David – those promises will be kept.  But it won’t look like what we may have thought it would look like.  Read through the New Testament and then go through history from the days of the New Testament up to now. 

Many point to Revelation, the last book of the Bible, as an outline for God’s future plans.  At the end of Revelation, the faithful, those who are saved, are not gathered unto God in a new Garden of Eden.  We don’t go back to Eden. 

Church leadership literature sometimes calls the church to revert back to the way the church functioned in the 1^st century, in the decades immediately after the resurrection.  But, the New Testament reveals that the early church was full of conflict – conflict we don’t want.  Just as Revelation does not promise a return to Eden, it does not offer vision anything like the early church.

What we find in Revelation is something new because God is a God of the new.  This is why going forward with God is an act of faith.  Noah, got on that ark not knowing if he’d ever get off.  Abraham trusted God before he ever saw evidence of the covenant.  Moses led a nation into the desert and their best moments in the desert came when they had nothing and had to live in total dependence on God.  David’s best moments with God came when he was hiding in a cave from people who had armies bigger than his and who sought his life.  None of these great people in the history of the faith tried to retreat back to an earlier, greater time.  In the valley of the shadow of death, they trusted God with everything.  They were all in with God.

Jeremiah looks at exiled Judah – a people who feel completely lost and feel that they have lost everything and he invokes one of the matriarchs, Rachel, the favored wife of Jacob.  Jeremiah’s 31:15 says, “Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”  In Jeremiah, this poetry means that exile is the end of God’s people. The Gospel writer Matthew quotes this verse when he describes King Herod’s evil act of murdering all the toddlers in Bethlehem in an attempt to destroy Jesus.  Rachel is weeping for her children. 

Nothing should lessen the weight of the tragedy either in Matthew or Jeremiah.  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed nations and enslaved people in 587BC.  King Herod murdered children to keep hold of his fragile, fleeting power in the days of Jesus’ infancy.  God did not bring about either evil, but acted in both.  Our rebellion always leads to evil, and as our evil brings about death, God always brings about a new thing.

Jeremiah quotes God who says, the days are surely coming when I will make a new covenant.  This will even include the house of Israel who you thought was lost because God can bring new life even where there are only dead, dry bones.

A new covenant; and, says God, this will not be like the old covenant.  Promises to Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David will be kept, but it won’t look as we thought it would.  It will be new.  The new promises of God will look unlike anything we have ever imagined just as growing divisions will make our country look different than it looked previously.  But we are unafraid.  We know that who is in the white house or in the congress or on the Supreme Court does not determine who we are.  The resurrected Christ determines who we are. 

It’s a new covenant.  It’s not like the old.  We remember the past, but don’t long for it.  Yes remember, but no, don’t reach back.  Our God is a God of the new.  So then, what is the new, promised covenant?

I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  They shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest.  For I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more (31:33-34).

Included in the observation from Walter Brueggemann I shared at the beginning is that the prophetic message is about discontinuity.  Things won’t be as they were.  The world is changing and the prophet is the one who sees it ahead of everyone else and speaks it sometimes before people are ready to hear it.  One reality though never changes.  From Noah to Abraham to Moses to David to Jeremiah to the days of Jesus’ birth to the days of the early church to the experiences of God’s church throughout history up to our day and time as we strive to be God’s people in a time of dramatic and scary change, God delivers.  God saves.  God is present.  God heals.  God brings life out of death.

Rachel is weeping for her children.  God responds in Jeremiah 31:16, keep your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears for there is a reward for your work, says the Lord, [and] there is a hope for your future.  With knowledge of God planted in their hearts, they can point the world to Him whether they are in Babylon or in Egypt or in Jerusalem. 

With the Holy Spirit of God in us, planting God’s word in our hearts and making us new creations, we can count on God’s salvation today.  It’s not a future promise.  Salvation is a present reality that calls us to share Christ with the world however the world is, and draws us forward into the future, anticipating the day when the Kingdom comes in full. 

Can we trust the covenant God?  There is nothing else we can do for although we were born of this earth, born in sin, we have been born again, made new, called into a new covenant with the God of the new.  Amid the disorienting journey into death our culture is on, we followers of the Covenant God, proclaim life.  Jesus Christ is Lord and all who repent and turn to him can have salvation, life in his name.  No government, power, or temptation is able to threaten that promise.  We stand on it and from that we stand join Jeremiah as hope-announcers, proclaimers of good news.

AMEN

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[i] W. Brueggemann (1977), The Land, Fortress Press (Philadelphia), p.131.

[ii] https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1NHXL_enUS683US683&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=crisis

It's Hard to See Hope From Here (Jeremiah 32)

            The state of the world today has me adrift at sea, in a boat without an anchor, afloat in a thick fog.  I don’t know if I am miles from land, or if I am about to run onto rocks that will rip through the hull and send me to the depths.  I am frustrated, sad, uncertain, and exhausted. 

            Yet, there is another a deeper feeling, and my brokenness cannot silence.  There is a low hum that never quiets, never quits, that is always there reverberating in my soul.  It began at the cross and grew in tone and texture on Easter morning.  I am an Easter Christian following the resurrected Christ.

            We are an Easter congregation that has hope even on the darkest day.  On Friday, we know that Sunday’s coming.  It doesn’t mean we’re happy all the time.  And we do get broken.  Right now, I feel broken.  But the light emanating from the empty tomb is there.  The hum of the Holy Spirit is there. 

            A few weeks ago there was a pipe bomb in Manhattan.  And a man associated with ISIS stabbed nine people at a Minnesota shopping mall.  These are reminders.  Violence is always possible, in any community.  It is hard to have hope that this era of terrorism will pass.  A broad historical perspective suggests it will pass and be replaced by deadlier evils.  But standing in the thick of it, it feels like we’re just waiting, wondering if the next attack or mass shooting will happen in our town.  We must pray.  But sometimes even with prayer, it is hard to see hope from here.

            The pipe bomb incident and the mall stabbing were not actually what pushed me to depression.  It’s what came next.  First, I experienced something quite hopeful.  Heather, Angel Lee, Carlin and Enam, Beth Roberts, and I were in Atlanta two weeks ago for the New Baptist Covenant Summit of 2016.  Did you know there are over 60 different kinds of Baptists in America?  In 2008, former president Jimmy Carter tried bringing Baptists together.  He thought if he could promote unity among Baptists, then we Baptists could be agents of unity in America.

Many of the Baptist denominations are primarily African American.  So, bringing Baptists together is also bringing black and white people together.  In Atlanta we heard from many Christians, our brothers and sisters from across America who are black.  They told of the pain they have experienced living in America.  Some shares stories that are pretty intense, testimonies of blatant discrimination.  It was hard to hear, but all of us joined together to walk in these stories. 

Then, this past week, I traveled to Campbell Divinity School where our own Beth Roberts is alum and Heather Folliard is a current student.  Campbell is having a series of discussions this semester on race relations within the body of Christ.  How can Christians who are black, white, Arabic, Cherokee, Chinese, Mexican, Korean, Ethiopian – how can we all join together in showing the world what the love of God looks like by the way we love one another?  Students and professors at Campbell are discussing this all semester and they invited me to the join the conversation.  That’s hopeful. 

However, as we met in Buies Creek, North Carolina, at Campbell, Charlotte was burning because another African American man had been shot by police.  This was a few days after what happened in Tulsa. 

Make no mistake: sometimes white suspects get shot by police officers.  Sometime black suspects survive these encounters.  That is so.  But, the running narrative in America is a black person, especially a male, is more likely to be considered suspicious just because he’s black.  And public consciousness is less likely to be upset when an officer kills a black suspect.  It is as if the death of black men just isn’t big of a deal.    

Black men are afraid that a simple traffic stop might lead to death.  Black men have to live with a constant fear white men don’t have.  Before I was married, I was stopped by police quite often.  I had a lot of tickets.  Never, when I saw those blue lights in my rear view mirror did I think I might die.  Never!  Every time black men are pulled over they have to be hypervigilant and they fear that one wrong move could get them killed.  It is not fair that I am treated on way by the police, and a black man is treated another.

When I go to Campbell or to Atlanta and the New Baptist Covenant, I am filled with hope.  When I think about Terrence Crutcher dead in Tulsa, and Keith Scott dead in Charlotte, I struggle.  I want to inherit the dream cast by Dr. King.  I want an America free of racial hatred.  Right now, that seems light years away.  Right now, it is hard to see hope from here.

Someone I talked with this past week asked some powerful questions. 

·        Why aren't we all grieving for two men whose lives were cut short?

·        Why are we spending so much time pointing out how one "should" act instead of recognizing the loss of human beings created in God's image?

·        What does the Church look like when tragedy strikes and the church is broken open and poured out for the kingdom?

In the New Testament, more commentaries have been written on Romans than any other book.  The Apostle Paul says in Romans 12:15, “Weep with those who weep.”  Weeping in solidarity with one who is wounded is an act of discipleship.  At Lazarus’ funeral, Jesus wept for the pain of those he loved.  He knew he would raise Lazarus, but he wept out of his compassion for Mary as she wept.  As he rode into Jerusalem, he wept for the city lost in sin (Luke 19:41-44).  Weeping as an expression of God’s love is the right thing to in America right now. 

I don’t know if the deaths of Terrence Crutcher or Keith Scott happened because these men were black.  I don’t know.  But I know they are dead and they leave behind people who loved them.  I know God weeps when one of his children – one made in his image – is hurt.  If God is weeping, then I should too.  To align myself with God, I weep for these guys.

I also promote the expression #blacklivesmatter, and I do so because so many people in America act like black lives don’t matter.  Black people tend to get multiple year prison sentences for drug possession and drug sales.  White commit the same crimes at the same rate and end up getting 6 months and probation.  And there’s a ripple effect.  Many years in prison takes years from your life and no one seems to care. And you can’t get a job when you get out. 

In Atlanta, we were told about Dallas community where all the services – gas stations, grocery stories, banks – were gone from a certain low-income, black community.  Whites from a church in North Dallas in a wealthy community came to visit the poor community.  Churches from each community were in partnership.  The whites from the wealthy community were shocked that the only institutions open in the economically ravaged black community were payday lending institutions. 

And what about convictions.  In the cases of black young men killed by the police – Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice – there have been acquittals; no convictions.  .  A lot of black people feel like the system is stacked against them and they live in fear.  It shouldn’t be that way. 

#blacklivesmatter is not saying all police officers are racist or are bad or are out to get black people.  Most are honest, public servants.  All the police officers I know want to protect and service.  The stories of the many good things police officers do are never reported in the media.  We have to tell those stories. #bluelivesmatter.  We must appreciate, support, and love police officers.  Please hear me that. 

#blacklivesmatter is not saying all lives don’t matter.  Of course God loves all people.  The picture in heaven, which we as church hope to reflect, is a gathering of people from every race, tribe, language, and nation.  That multi-colored, multi-cultured image is found in Revelation 5 and then again in Revelation 7:9-10.  We don’t want HillSong to be a white church.  We don’t want HillSong to be a black church.  We want to be a Revelation 7 church.  And we’re on the way to that.

We have people from many cultures right here in our church family.  We are in relationship with two congregations that speak other languages, Karen and Spanish.  We reach for this diversity not for diversity’s sake but because we want our church to have fuller expression of who God is.  When we expand our vision of the body of Christ, we see more of God.

We now have a lot of black people at HillSong.  We say #blacklivesmatter because we want to stand with our members who are hurting.  When one of is injured all of us hurt.  This is us.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing the cross was coming, Jesus wept because sin leads to death. We join him there and with him, our Savior,  weep over sin and death.   

One more way to explain why it is so important for Christians to focus our love by standing in solidarity and saying #blacklivesmatter is the analogy of the house on fire.  At the fire station, the call comes in.  “We’ve got a house burning down on Elm Street.”  The firefighters DO NOT shrug their shoulders and say, “All houses matter.”  We know all houses matter.  They give their attention to the one that’s on fire.  In our church, we know all lives matter.  But right now, our black brothers and sisters feel like their house is on fire.  We – followers of Jesus of all races and colors (what a privilege we have to be in a diverse church) – we lead the call to wake America up and say that Jesus cares about people and because of that we love people who feel unloved right now.  #blacklivesmatter.

I look at my friends – my brothers and sisters in Christ; I say that; and I am filled with hope.  But, then, I talk to other Christians who don’t feel the same way.  I go on Facebook, I talk to people in person, and I hear many white Christian friends rail against the idea of #blacklivesmatter.  They gripe that all people who say that phrase are thugs and looters and criminals.  I hear Christians speaking damning words against the victims and against communities that are in pain.  Instead of the compassion of Christ, I hear judgment. 

Why would anyone oppose expressing love and offering help to hurting people?  And yet I hear Christians deny systemic racism.  I don’t know how it could be denied, but compassion gets kicked out of the conversation and is replaced with argument and anger and more pain.  In the midst of that, it’s hard.  It’s hard to see hope from here. 

This is where Jeremiah has something beautiful to offer because he found himself about as far away from hope as you could imagine.  He didn’t want to be a prophet, but God tells him that God had planned his life even before he was born (Jeremiah 1:5).  On career day Jeremiah’s classmates had their pick – Shepherd, Merchant, Torah Scholar, Farmer, Soldier.  They could fill out the career day form with their first, second, and third choice.  Jeremiah got a different form.  Jeremiah, you can be a prophet, a prophet, or a prophet. 

He hated it.  He says to God in Chapter 20, “you enticed me.  You overpowered me” (v.7).  In the Hebrew way of thinking, the verb used in Jeremiah 20:7 was the same one used to describe a rape.  In calling him to be a prophet, Jeremiah felt God had overwhelmed him.  But God was dealing with his people when they had sinned against him for generations.  God needed a prophet to speak a hard word and whether he liked it not, Jeremiah was that prophet. 

This all happens in the 6^th century BC.  Babylon is a major world power and by the time we come to Jeremiah 32, the capital of Judah, Jerusalem is surrounded by the Babylonian army.  They will break through soon.  Inside the walled city, Jeremiah, the reluctant prophet is in jail because of his prophecies.  The king has Jeremiah locked up.  The leaders at the palace ask him, “Why do you say, ‘Thus says the Lord: I am going to give this city into the hands of Babylon?’”  He’s been telling a truth they haven’t wanted to hear.  Their generations of turning away from God have led to God allowing them to fall into enemy hands.  But they didn’t want to hear it so they imprisoned Jeremiah when he said it. 

            For Jeremiah, the situation could not be worse.  The city is surrounded, and starving.  What will happen when the Babylonians finally break through?

Will the people be massacred?

Will they be enslaved, dragged to exile?

What will happen to the great city of Zion and to the temple Solomon built, one of the wonders of the ancient world?  It’s hard to see hope from there.  Very hard. 

At that moment, in the jail, once again, the word of the Lord came to him.   

“Buy a field at Anathoth from you cousin Hanamel.”  What Lord?  Say that again?  The great prophetic act you want me to perform is to buy a farm?  Um, hey God?  The Babylonians are all around.  I can’t even get to Anathoth. 

Right then, his cousin Hanamel arrives.  He’s a jail visitor’s pass.  Baruch, Jeremiah’s right hand man is there.  Baruch and Hanamel have brought witnesses and legal documents.

Jeremiah just stares at Hanamel.  “Let me guess? You want to sell me a field?” 

The description in Jeremiah 32 is unusually detailed.  All documents are officially signed.  All signatures are notarized.  Jeremiah instructs Baruch to put the parchments – deeds of sale – in a clay pot, the 6^th century BC version of a safety deposit box. 

Why does God speak this word to Jeremiah?  Buy a field?  Every field in Anathoth is going to belong to the Babylonians in a week.  But God tells him that what he has done is a sign of what God will do.  God says, “Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.  … I will bring upon them all the good fortune that I now promise.  … I will restore [them]” (32:15, 42, 44).  God says exile is coming and it will be bad.  But he also promises it will not be the end.  On the other side of the valley of the shadow of death is new life.  Shalom – the Hebrew idea of peace, wholeness, community, and right relationships - will come again to people who put their trust in the Lord.  In the midst of calamity, God tells Jeremiah to speak a word of hope.

I take courage from God’s promise to Jeremiah and the people in that desperate situation.  As I said, with the state of race relations in America, it is hard to see hope from here.  And for HillSong, that’s devastating because we’re talking about our church family.  Yet I see hope, and I think the best hope in our situation is God’s church.  We – the Body of Christ - weep with those who weep, we stand with those who feel they have no voice and no power, and we speak peace.  Acting as disciples, we go out of our way to love our neighbors and work for their flourishing. 

We Christ followers who comprise the Body of Christ work for our society’s good when we see those in pain, sit with them in their pain, listen to their stories without judgment, and sitting together recognize that we are all broken.  We help each other. That’s how we see hope from here and help others see it.  We love with our presence, our ears, our arms offering embrace, our actions, and our hearts.  Just as God promised Shalom would return when it seemed impossible, His eternal Kingdom will one day come in full and all good will be restored.  Until that day, we Christian gives signs of the Kingdom and participate in its coming by being Christ to all people and especially to those who feel like they are being burned. 

It is hard, no question.  Jeremiah knew it was hard, but God spoke to the difficulty direct.  “See, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too hard for me” (Jer. 32:27)?  Our society’s struggles are so massive and race relations are so broken, it seems the problems are utterly intractable and a solution seems impossible.  But we don’t look at the size of the problem.  We look and see God and we know nothing is impossible.   Nothing is too hard for God in Jeremiah’s time or ours.

We see hope because we know who God is.

We – the church – work for shalom in our community as we stand in a new and lasting covenant of love with each other and God.  We work for this because we know who God is.

We walk out of church arm-in-arm bonded together as brothers and sister, sons and daughter of God, determined to breathe life into our community by loving people and giving extra doses of blessing to those who hurt the most.  We go out to serve and love knowing God will bless our efforts. We able to do this because we know who God is.

Yes, hope can be hard to see, but we see it clearly. We see it because we know who God is and we know we are His. 

AMEN

All In (Luke 14)

Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 1, 2016

            A life spent following Jesus is a blessed life.  A person cannot have more joy, deeper meaning, richer love, or greater hope in any other life.  The life lived as Jesus’ disciple is the best life a person can have. 

Note the emphasis on following Jesus.  People can come every Sunday and not spend their lives striving to live in full submission and obedience to the Lord.  People can be baptized, but then turn away and not live under Jesus’ rule. 

The best life is the life of a disciple.  However, it is not the easiest life. 

A Middle Eastern man, “Musa” grew up in a Muslim home, but heard the gospel and put his faith in Jesus as Lord.  When Musa’s father found out, he threatened to kill him.  He kicked him out of the family’s home.  Musa has since tried to share the gospel with his sister, but when his father found out, he said to Musa, “I will slaughter you.”

            One of my best Christian friends was raised by parents who are committed Buddhists.  They tolerated his participation in church, but he always feared that if he were baptized, his parents would forbid him from bringing his younger siblings and cousins to church with him.

            Following Jesus costs. Maybe this is not the case in your family.  Maybe mom and dad and grandma and grandpa are all in the same church – three generations.  The day I was baptized 1981, at 11 years old, my relatives all came to celebrate.  An entire row in the congregation was filled with Tennants.  From an early age my parents taught me to follow and worship the Lord and they modeled this life.

            But some families are actively opposed to following Jesus.  If a son or daughter turns to Jesus, the family may kick that one out, or worse.  In Musa’s case, his father threatened to kill him.  A young person, even a young adult, should be able to turn to his father for support and protection.  Musa’s father wanted him dead. 

            In our country, we say “Christianity is under attack” because in December, store clerks say “Happy holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.”  We say it because our same sex marriages are a reality, and our society includes people from other religious background. 

Really?  Are we seriously pointing to things like this to make our case that Christianity is under attack? 

I have never heard anything so lame in all my life.  To use such examples as evidence of a threat is utterly spineless.  No one is telling me not to say “Merry Christmas.”  I don’t care if someone else says it or not.  Who someone else marries does not affect who I marry.  I have never had a gay person try to convert me away from heterosexuality.  And the presence of Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jews, Hindus, and Atheists does not weaken my faith.  If anything religious plurality strengthens my commitment to Christ because I have to know why I believe He is Lord and is the path to salvation. 

Musa knows what it is to be threatened for being a Christian.  Most American Christians do not.  Parents and bosses and friends do not threaten to slaughter us for our faith.  They might fire us or disown, although that is extraordinarily rare. 

When American Christians say they feel threatened, what they really mean is that as Christians they no longer feel like they are in the majority and they don’t like that feeling.  When American Christians cry out that they are threatened it is because they feel they have lost the power and privilege of being the controlling group in society.  They have lost hegemony, they feel.  It doesn’t feel good. 

But, why would minority status surprise us when Jesus told us the cost of discipleship?

²⁶ “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. ²⁷ Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

Following Jesus is the best life a person can have – no question about it.  But, wait!  I don’t want to hate my mom or dad.  They are two of the biggest supporters of my life as a Christian. 

Yet, Jesus says, “whoever does not hate father and mother … cannot be my disciple.”  We know he wasn’t looking for admirers.  Jesus had no interest in people acting as his fan club.  He wanted followers.  He lived and then said, “Look at how I live.  And you live that way.”

“I am bound to die on the cross.  You take up your cross and follow me.”  Luke 14 is a challenging collection of ideas and we must face this challenge if we are to truly become people who walk the way of Jesus.

Listen to the thoughts of a well-known Biblical preacher, Barbara Brown Taylor.    

She looks at Jesus words in Luke 14 and she says, “I have to conclude that [Jesus] would not have made a good [local church pastor.]  So much of the job depends on making it easy for people to come to church and rewarding for them to stay.  Talk to any of the church growth experts and they will tell you how important it is to create a safe, caring environment where people will believe their concerns will be heard and their needs be met.  The basic idea is to find out what people are looking for and to give it to them, so that they decide to stay put instead of continuing to shop for a church down the street” (Bread of Angels, p.46).

We embrace part of that statement at HillSong.  We promote a safe environment in which people can come to Jesus as they are, broken, confused, lost, uncertain, anxious.  Come to Jesus and receive love from his people. 

Where we resonate with Barbara Brown Taylor’s playful irony is the part about giving people what they want. Most the time, people, me included, don’t know what they want.  We offer to introduce people to Jesus.   Come just as you are and receive Jesus.  Give yourself to him in fully and He will make you a new creation. 

Come to Jesus, not to get saved, or to get found, or to be made whole.  That will happen, but come and reorient your life so that He is Lord in all things. 

But, “hate your father and mother?” Really?  In Jesus’ day, a rhetorical technique was to indicate a preference by holding two things side-by-side and then stating hatred for one and love for the other.  It was not hatred such as Hitler hated Jews.  It was not an evil, emotion-driven attitude.  It was a clear, unwavering choice. 

As cited in the examples above, Musa had to choose Jesus against his parents’ will.  In fact, his father became a mortal enemy.  My friend had to choose loyalty to Jesus over the approval of his Buddhist mother.  We know Jesus honored family relations.  The mother of his disciples, the brothers James and John, was also one his followers.  His own mother was one of his followers.  He did not despise family relations.  He simply and directly put them in their place.  Our families, our spouses, our closest ties fall in line after our devotion to Jesus. 

It helped me to go through Luke 14 and note the people who became his followers.  As the chapter opens, Jesus is a Sabbath Day house guest of a leading Pharisee.  All at the meal guests jockey for the best seat.  Jesus says when they are guests, they should humble themselves and sit in the lowest position.

When they host parties, they should invite people at the bottom of society’s standings.  They should invite “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” (14:13).  he would tell us to invite into our homes, the refugee, the mentally ill, the illegal immigrant, and homeless person.

Jesus then tells a parable about a wedding banquet in the Kingdom of God.  All the important people invited send regrets.  One has to check a new piece of land; another has to see the oxen he’s just bought; and a is couple on their honeymoon.  So the Lords call others in to fill the empty chairs: the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  Jesus also mentions drifters in the dark corners of society, people far from the mainstream. 

On the first Sunday of Lent, we talked about Jesus’ attraction to the least desirable of people.  He came for the poor, not the rich.  We saw this in Mark chapter 2, when Jesus called a tax collector to be a disciple and dined with prostitutes and sinners of all types.

In the disciple life, we welcome an endless stream of people who don’t look like what we might say a Sunday morning crowd looks like.  But that’s the way of Jesus, so we have to change our idea of what a Sunday morning crowd is.  Well, if we want Sundays at our church to be welcoming to Him, then we have to welcome and love who he welcomed and loved.

His priorities set ours.  If that happens, then we become a church that would be quite comfortable with him as pastor.  If our families or friends are shocked at the decisions we make that are out of step with materialist American culture but aligned with Jesus we aren’t surprised.  He said, we’d have to hate mom and dad.

We understand this doesn’t mean hate as an emotion.  It means we’re in the Gospel and so we walk the way of Jesus regardless of what mom or dad or husband or wife or friend think.  We invite those we love most to come to the cross with us.  But we go whether they come or not. 

That’s what it means to be all-in with Jesus.  There is no other way to be a Christian.  The only kind of Christ-follower is the extreme Christ-follower.  Any other way is just playing at Christianity. 

I end with a thought on when we do go all-in.  The Kingdom is a massive party – bigger than any wedding reception or inaugural ball.  The poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, the lost, the found, the brown, the yellow, the black, the white, you, me – we’re all there. 

But something has changed.  We’re in resurrected bodies, which cannot be blind.  Resurrected bodies cannot be lame or crippled.  We’ll call them “the healthy and the strong.”  Resurrected bodies cannot be addicts or junkies.  We’ll call them “the whole and the clean.” 

We’re with Jesus at God’s table.  We’re all beloved and all together.  Your mom.  My dad.  You.   Me.  We’re all there, in the Kingdom, with Jesus, at the Father’s Table. 

We live in blessed relationship with God now, tasked to be witnesses for the Gospel in the world today.  And we anticipate the table of God.  That is our destination when we are all-in.

AMEN