Sanitizing Jesus

Have we over-sanitized ourselves, our children, our environment?  I don't know the answer, but I have suspicions.  In 1990 my good friend, Linda and I partnered together on a church trip to the Holy Land, ending up with the Passion Play in Oberammagau, Germany.  For 10 days, I delighted in trying new foods that captivated my senses - for the most part. I delighted in lox and hummus and herring - especially the vast array of Israeli breakfast food.  But something I ate didn't delight my stomach and my digestion was a serious problem on the 24 hour flight home.  The memories of watching folk line the airplane aisles for the bathroom caused as much anxiety as my actual physical symptoms.
While I'm grateful that I raised my children in the 20th century with homogenized milk, sanitary wipes, and all our immunizations, I also watch the rapid spread of hand/foot/mouth disease through the schools or the youth succumbing to travelers' disease in El Salvador with concern.  The recent research showing that infants living in a house with dogs were healthier and had fewer ear infections and needed fewer antibiotics raises the question that exposure to dirt and bacteria builds up babies' immune systems (Wall Street Journal, 7/9/12,p A2).
So, exactly what is Jesus getting at in Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23 when he criticizes the Pharisees and the Judean elite (who had access to water and money) for mandating ritual handwashing before meals?  Please understand that I'd never recommend not washing our own fruit before we eat it.  But Jesus sees that the Pharisees have made the laws (originally developed partially for sanitary reasons) that elevate ritual above God - as distractions from focusing on God.
So, Jesus responds to the Pharisees' challenge with:  "It's not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it's what you vomit - that's the real pollution." (E Peterson, The Message, Mark 7: 15)
Acknowledging that addictions to alcohol, drugs, cigarettes are an exception, I see that Jesus calls us to focus AWAY from the issue of sanitization and AWAY from elevating cherished traditions into hardened laws that separate us from God's heart.  Jesus also calls us AWAY from our focus on the devil as a metaphor for naming sin and evil as that which is only outside us.  Instead Jesus calls us to recognize, acknowledge, name, and repent from the hypocrisy that inhabits our hearts - our whole being - our total personhood.  Jesus names our polluted hearts as ones tempted toward or dominated by "obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness." (ibid, v 21)  Wherever  we present our superficial self as unblemished by sin, Jesus calls us to task for our hypocrisy.  Whenever we give lip service to purity and ritual, we fool ourselves and remain apart from God's holiness and God's forgiving love and mercy.  As Cynthia Campbell writes, "Beware when religious observance gets in the way of fulfilling the heart of the law, which is love of God and neighbor" ("ID Check," The Christian Century, 2006).
Let us look inside and measure our hearts (attitudes, thoughts, behaviors) by the standard Jesus sets as the highest:  Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley

Warriors' Weapons

I don't like guns.  Taking archery in college as a PE requirement is as close as I've come to holding a weapon.  I've never worn a bulletproof vest.  I've never been robbed or mugged.  I've only been in prison once to participate in Chuck Colson's Prison Ministry.  CSI is as close as I come to understanding the evil forces of crime.  So, Ephesians 6:10-20 is a challenge for me to understand how and why I would put on the whole armor of God.
But it's scripture.  It's the Word of God, so struggle I must, in my desire to be faithful.
It's helpful to understand the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes to keep me ready to proclaim the gospel of peace, and the shield of faith as protective gear against the cosmic and powerful forces of evil and sin both within me and swirling about me in the world.  I can vote for this kind of protection.  But the sword of the Spirit - the Word of God - is an offensive weapon, meant to get me up off the couch to do battle with injustice and oppression and all that imprisons people in states of poverty, hunger, uneducated, homelessness, vulnerable to crime or drugs or gangs.  If God is calling me - us - into battle the very real forces of violence, I'll need all the protection and power possible.
So, I'm intrigued with Topeka JUMP - Topeka Justice and Ministry Project as a community, congregational effort to tackle root causes of injustice specifically in Topeka.  I'm anxious to team up with my congregation and many other diverse congregations to re-think justice beyond responding to the symptoms of injustice.  As we examine our values of faith and our call to share God's good news with the world, we can claim God's power through careful and caring discernment.  As prophets or speakers of truth to power, we can call institutions to accountability for fairness, equality, and well being.
May we all be fed with God's truth that we may then use the sword of language and testimony to call for transformation.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Shelley

You Are What You Eat

I believe Jesus could have been a Weight Watchers fan.  With their slogan "Believe Because It Works" Jesus could promote the power of losing weight while being able to eat from unlimited power foods.  Jesus could be our faith pantry for life.  For the male disciples, Jesus could preach "Lose Like a Man" by eating anything - no special or required foods, and no forbidden ones either, through making smarter choices.  Quoting Charles Barkley, Jesus can encourage men to eat the food they like & "Lose like a guy who hates losing."  For their city-to-city treks through the Palestinian countryside, there's even a Weight Watchers exercise plan to build up the disciples' strength.  Because Jesus primarily preached to peasants, Jesus could promote budget-friendly meals.  For the Marthas of the world, Jesus could encourage quick meals or snacking-on-the-go, so that ALL could sit at his feet and absorb his life changing words of wisdom. (quotes and slogans from WeightWatchers.com - official website)

But for so many of us today, dieting is about withholding the pizza, doughnuts, and pasta.  So Jesus' encouragement to eat and chew on the bread of life - his flesh and blood - feels countercultural.  And cannibalistic!  In John 6: 51-58, Jesus proclaims "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man (Jesus) and drink his blood, you have no life in you." (John 6: 53b)  The entire pericope is graphic, repugnant to our sensibilities, shockingly hard to stomach and even harder to live out.  For Jesus wants to have ALL of us - nothing withheld from our participation in and our intimate relationship with the wholly human and wholly divine Son of God.

What do you hold back from giving your all to Jesus?  Would you rather consume the temptation to work so hard that your career credentials shine?  Would you choose the power to shop as a conspicuous consumptionist?  Would you choose the freedom of staying up late or sleeping in with online entertainment 24/7?  Are you tied up in knots with your obsession to diet off those last few pounds?  Are your savings accumulating for that perfect vacation or the perfect car?  Would you prefer to study the latest scholarship on Jesus or keep him as your spiritual, otherworldly, uncontaminated-by-the-world kind of God?  None of these alienate you from Jesus unless they have become your idols, so that Jesus shifts into 2nd, 3rd, or 10th place in your priorities.  How are we drawn to that which does not bring life?  What do we withhold from our relationship with Jesus?  How do we keep Jesus at a distance?

If we are what we eat, consider that Jesus wants us to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood as the path to eternal life.  I believe Jesus means the eternal life that we can experience here and now in our earthly experiences as Christ followers, as well as the eternal life with Jesus that follows death.  Jesus wants to assuage our hungers with his body, his blood, his everything, until we are filled with life.  How hungry do we have to be to allow Jesus into the innermost recesses of our veins and arteries that our hearts may be nourished?

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley

Transformation Through Teardrops

You shalt not:  sin - as in don't lie (even little white ones), don't steal, don't speak slander, don't be bitter, ......  Not very encouraging words from Paul, the possible author of Ephesians 4:25 -5:2 are they?  This passage feels like the Ten Commandments of the New Testament if we focus on the "shalt nots".  Instead, let's come at them from the perspective of the Trinity - God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit - and see what they've already done in our lives.  Through the waters of baptism, we're already incorporated into one another (verse 25). So sinning through word or action hurts our family - hurts our very selves.  Through the waters of baptism, we've been marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit for our day of redemption(verse 30).  In other words, we have the equipping power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to resist the temptations listed in the "shalt nots". God in Christ has already forgiven us (verse 32).  Having already been forgiven (and we alone know how much we need this forgiveness), we can respond to our own forgiveness by forgiving others.  God's forgiveness is our model for kindness and compassion toward others.  Out of our relationship to God as God's children, flow the behaviors that are characteristic of our God.  By imitating God behaviors (5:1) we practice what we are becoming.  "We live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." (5:2)

Each Sunday we watch the baptismal waters wash up into the light and spray down upon our upturned faces to remind us of all that God has already done for us.  When we cry in frustration of yet another time of criticizing others, acting out our bitterness, or letting our anger dictate our response, let our teardrops of sorrow wash us clean from such choices.  Instead let us welcome the wash of water down our cheeks remind us of the refreshment of God's grace, just as a cold shower in response to a hot summer day renews our energy for better choices.

May we continue to be watered with God's steadfast loving kindness.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley

Soul Food

What is your “soul food?” I’m not necessarily talking fried chicken or grits or any traditional Southern cuisine. It’s food that somehow, no matter how bad you feel, makes you feel just the tiniest better – tells you that it’s going to be okay. Many of you know some of my favorites – pizza, macaroni ‘n cheese, or those two together. Maybe your soul food that takes you back to a happy time, surrounded by people who love you, or to special occasions – my grandmother’s chocolate cake, my mom’s blonde brownies. It’s food that does more than providing nourishment to your body – it’s food that lifts up your heart and your soul.

Read Psalm 51:1-12 and John 6:24-35.

I see Psalm 51 as begging God for some soul food – help right our souls again, make our hearts clean. And Jesus offers us the bread of life – Himself – that would feed our soul forever. The crowds want a simple recipe for the bread – what should they do for the works of God? What sign will he give them? Will it be as good as Moses giving the people manna? Just tell us exactly what to do, give us black and white answers without any complexity.

Jesus instead offers them a more nourishing meal, with a seemingly simple recipe: believe in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. While the crowds were concerned with their stomachs and today, Jesus makes a proclamation for their hearts, souls, minds, and bodies, one that is everlasting.

So come, hear the stories about how the “soul food” the youth ate last week on their mission trip in South Dakota. Come, hear about Jesus unexpectedly showing up. Come, hear how Jesus is patient through our incomprehension. Come and dine on the music, the prayer, the Word, and the fellowship. Come, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Kate