Our Family Tree of Saints and Sinners

Pastors have the privilege of being invited to family gatherings.  Dr Delmer Chilton remembers the family reunion where a woman excitedly began a report on her family history.  Beginning in the 1700s, she went on and on and on, talking for more than an hour.  As she finally came to the end, she asked, "Did I leave anyone out?"  The bored kid next to Dr Chilton responded - under her breath - "Yeah, Adam and Eve!" (Rev Dr Delmer L Chilton, "Sermon for All Saints Day")

On All Saints Sunday, before we recite our Christian family tree, remembering the saints who've gone before us, we should clarify what we mean by a saint.  I especially like Frederick Buechner's definition of a saint:  "In his holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a pocket handkerchief.  These handkerchiefs are called saints." (F Buechner, "Beyond Words," Harper San Francisco, p352).

I remember sitting in my seminary New Testament class, when the professor would begin class with:  "Welcome Saints.  Let's get started."  I was jarred by being addressed as a saint because at the time I was wondering if I could survive the journey of seminary when I was plagued with doubts.  But I believe my professor was right.  Seminary students, professors, everyone sitting in a congregation - we're all saints because we're all grafted into God's family tree through our baptisms.  As adopted children of God we're sisters and brothers of Christ.  We've been marked with the sign of the cross on our foreheads and so we try to live into our adopted identities as holy ones (Greek for saints).  But we're only human, so if we adopt the moniker of saint (which I think is justifiable), we also should claim our status as sinners also.  Robert Louis Stevenson characterizes our status as: "The saints are the sinners who keep on going."

So, what is the witness of the communion of saints who have gone before us - that great cloud of witnesses who hover over and around us?  First, their witness is that we are part of a family - a family that began long before our present time and will continue long after us.  We have a place in this family. Second, God calls us to remember our own saintliness, our blessedness, and our holiness as a gift from God.  We're called to live into our saintliness.  Living into our saintliness means remembering the values and traditions of our ancestors and translating them into our rituals, our daily lives, and our care for ALL beloved children of God.  Third, we remember the promise of resurrection as we read about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11: 32-44) - a precursor or foreshadowing of Jesus' own resurrection available to us.  Lastly, Revelation 21: 1-6a describes the new heaven and the new earth, the holy city and the new Jerusalem.  This is God's kingdom being realized here on earth:  "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'See, the home of God is among mortals.  God will dwell with them; they will be God's peoples.'" (Rev 21: 3)  While we honor the saints who've gone before us, we sharpen our eyes for God's handkerchiefs living now among us.  For we are all part of the communion of saints past, present, and future.  Let us follow in these footsteps.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley

Mission Possible: Taste and See that the Lord is Good

"Get up.  Your faith has made you well," says Jesus to no-longer blind Bartimaeus.  What an extraordinary healing!  How did Bartimaeus make this happen?  Wrong question.  Miracles in the Bible point us to the healer - Jesus Christ.  When we focus on Jesus we see God revealed in the One who can bring us from darkness into light so that we become aware of what really matters in life and death.

Notice some details in this story in Mark 10: 46-52.  Sitting by the side of the road, Blind Bartimaeus is a blind beggar - ie. a man outside of any family support and unable to participate in any of the "normal" activities of family/town/culture.  Because he can't SEE Jesus, Bartimaeus is told that Jesus of Nazareth is walking past - ie. Jesus as identified by his home town means Jesus would be perceived as mere man, peasant of low status by virtue of his birth. But... Bartimaeus calls out to Jesus as "Son of David."  Somehow Bartimaeus knows Jesus to be the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed One destined to fulfill God's promise that King David's descendant would reign over Israel forever.  How does Bartimaeus know this about Jesus?  How do any of us KNOW OR SEE THIS TRUTH?

Some in the crowd urge Bartimaeus to be quiet.  I envision Archie Bunker saying to Edith in the tv show, "All in the Family":   "Stifle!"  But Bartimaeus won't be stifled or stopped.  He throws off his cloak - ie. his most treasured possession as a beggar which keeps him warm through the cold winter nights.  Just as Bartimaeus leaves his cherished treasure behind in the hope of healing, what are we willing to renounce to follow Jesus and beg for sight - for insight - for wisdom - for healing - for transformation?

Bartimaeus won't keep still as he springs to action.  Jesus stops for Bartimaeus and asks him, "What do you want me to do for you?"  Bartimaeus' response - "Let me see again" - understands that it is Jesus who has the authority and power to bring him his sight. Jesus responds to Bartimaeus' need, showing us that he, as God revealed, has the power to conquer our brokenness.  This is a testimony of hope - of trust in the ability of God to accomplish much more than all we can ask or imagine.

How do we respond to this good news?  First with praise, such as that from Psalm 34: 1-8:  "I will bless the Lord at all times.  God's praise shall continually be in my mouth...[We will] taste and see that the Lord is good."  Second, we respond with our behavior - our actions - our decisions.  In this time of being called to be good stewards of God's blessings already bestowed on us, we respond by pledging our treasured possessions, so that we too might be testimonies of hope to an unseeing world.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley

Mission POSSIBLE: God's Secret Agents

IF you wake up in the morning and faithfully lift up your prayers to God...
IF you take time for a morning devotional and then sit quietly waiting for God to speak...
IF you seize opportunities during your day to send shooting prayers to God...
IF you prepare for bed by reflecting on your day and turn to God in prayer...
Does your heart feel as if you're talking to a wall - a brick wall that doesn't let any light through the cracks - a high wall that keeps you in shadows - a wall that separates you from God and whatever God might choose to say to you?

Because these are common experiences for Christ followers, it may make Ephesians 3: 20-21 hard to swallow:  "Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen."

This is a doxological prayer - a prayer of thanksgiving.  What's powerful in this promise about God's abundance is that our prayers and our church aren't just another self-help project.  God is the agent - the primary actor in this prayer.  It's not a matter of becoming stronger and better Christ followers on our own.  But by letting (ie surrendering ourselves) Christ into our hearts, we allow Christ to change us.

And how Christ wishes to transform us is to call us (perhaps through our prayers; perhaps through another person; perhaps through worship or acts of mission; perhaps through a Mission Possible tape recorder) to be agents for God and partners with God.  As the hymn, "Called as Partners in Christ's Service" sings:  we're called to ministries of grace and we respond with deep commitment [trusting in] fresh new lines of faith to trace.

We commit ourselves to be God's agents by generously and trustingly offering our time, our talents/gifts, and most specifically in this season of our stewardship campaign, our treasures.  My question is:  If the voice on the Mission Possible tape recorder were to be God's voice issuing us our challenge...would we trust God enough to give joyously and abundantly of those treasures with which God has blessed us in the first place?

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley

Mission Possible: On a Mission From God

Last week in worship we saw through a clever video that Trinity has a mission…if we choose to accept it. But what is that mission? Who gives us the mission – and are we part of the Impossible Missions Force like in the TV series and movies Mission: Impossible? They are constantly given impossible missions, but they always find a way to make them possible. If we at Trinity accept our mission, will it actually be possible?

Read Mark 10:17-31 and 2 Corinthians 1:1-2.

Much like in the classic Blues Brothers movie, we at Trinity are on a mission from God.  

Just like Paul writes in 2 Corinthians, God has given us as Christ-followers a special mission. As we look at the Gospel message today, we might get the feeling that the mission is impossible.

A rich and faithful man approaches Jesus in a respectful way with a question that is on his heart. Because Jesus loves him, Jesus gives him a mission, a way that this rich man can be a participant in the kingdom of God. Jesus knows his obedient and faithful heart to the Jewish laws – so he asks the man to sell everything he has and give it to the poor.

While Christian tradition has always assumed that the man rejected the mission from Jesus, there is nothing in any of the Gospels to suggest that. We don't really know what his future looked like. All we know is the man went away sorrowful, grieving because he loved his possessions. Maybe he was sorrowful because he loved his possessions more than he loved God. Or maybe he was sorrowful because he knew that this was going to be a big change in the way he lived – no more nice dinners at the Rowhouse, no more KU basketball season tickets, no more shopping sprees in Kansas City. Maybe he was grieving his own self-centered way of living as he was taking the first step toward the kingdom of God.

We don’t know the end to the rich man’s story. But we hear in this Gospel a call to follow Jesus, a call to remove whatever blocks us from loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength – possessions, addictions, pop culture, our busy calendar. The Good News is that Jesus loves us enough to give us a mission. The Good News is that we can choose to accept that, and will be surrounded by sisters, brothers, and Jesus along that Way. How will you respond to God’s call to mission? What will the end of your story be? The Good News is that by the grace of God, we can take baby steps in the right direction, that we can trust in a God who makes the impossible possible, who turns little into much, who restores the sick to health, and who wants us to be partners in that mission. Thanks be to God!

Grace and peace,

Pastor Kate

Take it. Break It. Share It. Love It.

What comes to mind when you hear the Oregon Trail? Do you think of the trail of settlers that moved through Kansas in 1841? Do you think of the classic computer game (and now iPhone game?) Wherever your knowledge of the Oregon Trail originates, you probably know that it was not an easy journey. There were many challenges along the way, from the dangers of dysentery to finding food to broken wheels. They took the necessities from home, splitting things up in different wagons, sharing things with other families, and loving each other along the way.

With the struggles of the early American pioneers in mind, read Mark 10:13-16  and Hebrews 1:1-4,2:5-13.

The author of Hebrews says that Jesus is our Salvation Pioneer, that the one who is both fully human and fully divine, paved the way for us to follow. Jesus, being the imprint of God, could have taken a path that we couldn’t follow, or could have chosen to be ashamed of us as brothers and sisters.

Instead, Jesus as our Salvation Pioneer means that we are welcome and expected to join The Way – that we too can get close to perfection – which in this book means fulfilling the purpose to which we are called. In the midst of our hopeless world, we as Christians can have radical hope. We are empowered to live into our identity as Jesus’ brothers and sisters, who praise God alongside Jesus.

On this World Communion Sunday, we can rejoice in our calls as pioneers, as we follow along the trail that Jesus blazed, offering love and radical hospitality to our sisters and brothers around the world. We come together at the table, remembering that Jesus could have chosen a path purely of divine glory, but instead offered himself on the cross for us. We come to the table to take the bread and the cup, break it, share it, and love it, all because of the sacrifice that Jesus made and the sustenance that Jesus continues to offer us on our journey. Thanks be to God!

Grace and peace,

Pastor Kate