The Voice of Truth

“The Voice of Truth”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

August 10, 2014

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Romans 10:5-15

Matthew 14:22-33

         It may be August, but this week, A Charlie Brown Christmas from 1965 came to mind for me. Has everyone seen it before? There is a scene where Charlie Brown goes to see Lucy for “psychiatric help” at a booth she has set up. Lucy requests five cents in payment- in advance of course. Then, she begins trying to diagnose him. She says,

“Lucy: Are you afraid of responsibility? If you are, then you have hypengyophobia.

Charlie Brown: I don't think that's quite it.

Lucy: How about cats? If you're afraid of cats, you have ailurophasia.

Charlie Brown: Well, sort of, but I'm not sure.

Lucy: Are you afraid of staircases? If you are, then you have climacaphobia. Maybe you have thalassophobia. This is fear of the ocean, or gephyrobia, which is the fear of crossing bridges. Or maybe you have pantophobia. Do you think you have pantophobia?

Charlie Brown: What's pantophobia?

Lucy: The fear of everything.

Charlie Brown: THAT'S IT!”

Does anyone here have a phobia? I have a fear of heights and a fear of complete darkness. Anyone else?

In today’s Gospel reading, it may seem that as Lucy may suggest, that Peter has thalassophobia- fear of the ocean. But no, it was not the fear of the ocean or even aquaphobia- the fear of water or drowning that was the problem. I don’t want to belittle the reality of phobias because they are very real for people. They cause real trauma in peoples lives. I am not a psychiatric professional, so please don’t take anything I say today as psychiatric advice. But there is spiritual truth in the way that phobias are treated professionally. A common treatment is called Prolonged Exposure Therapy. In this therapy, people are slowly exposed to the thing they are afraid of over time. So if you have arachnophobia (the fear of spiders), a therapist may bring you a tiny spider in a cage. Over weeks or months, s/he would work you up to a tarantula to pet.

Again, I am not a psychiatric professional, but I would unofficially diagnose Peter with a fear of trusting people (unofficially known as pistanthrophobia). So maybe Peter needed an exercise in trust. It was very late at night, between 3 and 6am when Jesus came down from his prayers on the mountain and found the boat with the disciples far from land. A storm was brewing and the winds had picked up. So like you do, he walked on top of the water toward the boat. Hold on… what? I know Jesus is called the Son of God and all, but walking on water? That’s just showing off! What ever happened to humility? He couldn’t have waited until the storm let up and the disciples sailed back to shore?

People have put theories out about how Jesus walked on water, from the density of the water in that particular sea to using reeds on his feet to walk across. They miss the point completely. I don’t care if Jesus literally walked on water or not. A magic trick is not going to make me believe the gospel. But the truth behind this story does.

Jesus had sent the disciples ahead of him, just as the risen Christ would later send the disciples out into the world without his bodily presence. Inevitably, things around them became difficult. We have some storms in our lives, amen? We even name those storms after our exes: Tropical Storm Trina, Hurricane Henry, Tornado Trudy… The winds pick up and your life starts to rock back and forth. The electric bill hits the left side, the mortgage payment hits the right side, the wave of health problems washes over the port, the rain of depression falls down on you from the sky. You’re in the midst of it and think, “Am I on Noah’s Ark??”

Life can sometimes feel this way, overwhelmed by everything around us. But Jesus comes in the midst of the storm to deliver us. When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water, they were now not only afraid of the storm, but also afraid of the ghost coming toward them. But Jesus gives them the affirmation they need: “Take courage, it’s me; don’t be afraid.” In the midst of our storms, Christ comes to us in the form of other people. It may be a friend or family member, a true psychiatric professional, or even a stranger. Their words may not calm the storm around you, but their words and presence give you enough courage to reach out for help.

The next part of the story is where it gets tricky. It wasn’t Jesus’ idea for Peter to try walking on water. Peter gets that bright idea himself. So he starts walking out on the water, but as soon as he notices how bad the storm is, he starts sinking. It’s actually kind of comical. Jesus had given Simon the name “Peter” (Petros), meaning “rock” or “stone” in Greek. So as rocks do, Peter sank. Sometimes we step out in faith, either giving ourselves too much responsibility or giving God too much responsibility. We can’t bear the storm alone, so we need God to help us through. But we also can’t sit back doing nothing and allow God to do all the work. Our faith journey is a two-way connection; it is a relationship. We co-create our lives with God.

Peter cries out for help and of course Jesus pulls him back up. Jesus then asks the question, “Why did you doubt?” The word for doubt here in Greek is “distazo,” meaning “indecisive.” So Jesus is asking, “Why can’t you make a decision?” Peter does not give an answer in the text. They return to the boat and the winds stop. The scripture leaves us with the same question: “Why can’t you make a decision?” Why can’t you decide to be happy? Why can’t you decide to be your best self? Why can’t you decide to stop worrying and start trusting that the storm will indeed end?

A Course In Miracles says this (5:III:19): “When [humanity] made the ego, God placed in [each person] the call to joy. This call is so strong that ego always dissolves at its sound. This why you can choose to listen to two voices within you. One you made yourself and that one is not of God. But the other is given you by God Who asks you only listen to it. The Holy Spirit is in you in a very literal sense. [Hers] is the Voice that calls you back to where you were before and will be again.”

Within our storms of struggle, the ego has a lot to say. It may say, “I’ll never make it through this. All of this is too much for me to bear. I deserve this punishment. I need someone to blame for this. Where is God now? I must be weak to be tossed like this.” But as the Course teaches us, the ego is not the only voice we hear. The Presence of Christ, as on the raging sea, is with us through the Holy Spirit within.

The Course continues (24-25), “The Voice for God is always quiet because it speaks for peace. Yet peace is stronger than war because it heals. War is division, not increase. No one gains from strife… The Holy Spirit is your Guide in choosing. [Spirit] is the part of your mind which always speaks for the right choice because [Spirit] speaks for God. [Spirit] is your remaining communication with God, which you can interrupt but cannot destroy.”  Remember that question Jesus asked Peter: “Why can’t you make a decision?” Here we find the answer. We too often listen to the ego instead of listening to the Spirit. We are taught from a young age that to mature and grow up, we need to be independent. We need to do things on our own. “Suck it up; you’re a big boy. Get over it; you’re a big girl.” We hold on to that mentality for life, forgetting that God calls us to be interdependent with others and with God.

We can’t face this world of illusions alone. Some of our troubles are real and others are just in our minds, but even the illusions seem very real to us. So we need the Voice of God in each other and the Voice of God within ourselves to silence the ego and heal our lives. A verse from our passage from Paul’s Letter to the church in Rome reminds us what we need to do in the midst of the storm: “Everyone who calls on the name of God shall be saved.” It doesn’t matter what the trouble is. Just call on the Voice of Truth within and trust that it will deliver you to inner peace and joy.

And also don’t forget- when your winds die down, someone else’s are still raging. As the Apostle Paul says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” So don’t hide this truth like something that can be stolen from you. Spread the good news: the storm will end, God is here, and wherever God is, all is well. And so it is. Amen.

Wrestling With God

“Wrestling with God”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

August 3, 2014

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Genesis 32:22-31

Matthew 14:13-21

         They wrestled through the night, their bodies clinging close. Two men, divided only by sweat and tears. Neither would let go. They meant too much to each other. Perhaps they feared losing each other. And so they clung until the sun rose. One of them was even injured in the roughness of the wrestling. But he still did not let go. The sun rose and for the first time they saw each other in the light of day. The injured one told the other that he would not let him go unless he told him he was a good man. And so he did, and they parted ways.

         This homoerotic story is from the book of Genesis. Jacob is making his way with his family to a new life over the Jabbok river- a river that means “pouring out” in Hebrew. Jacob is distressed about his life, about the upcoming reunion with his brother Esau whom he had seriously wronged in the past. He doubted what he was doing with his life. So he finds himself wrestling with God in the middle of the night. The scripture does not tell us until the end of the story that it was God he was wrestling. The text tells us that it was a man and then somehow God, and Jewish tradition tells us it was an angel. But regardless of whatever it was, Jacob had some inner wrestling to do.

         Jacob had stolen his brother Esau’s birthright from their father. He knew it was not his to have. So he had to get a blessing of his own. He would not let go of the Divine until he got his blessing. The definition of “blessing” is to call something “good.” Jacob needed affirmation from God that he was indeed a good person. In the wrestling, Jacob is injured at the hip. Legend says he walked with a limp for the rest of his life. Jewish tradition said that no one could see the face of God and live. But the sun came up and Jacob saw the Peniel- the face of God. So he called that place Peniel.

         We have all had our own wrestles with God. We ask God why bad things happen in the world. We ask God why bad things happen to us when we have not done much wrong. We ask God what the meaning of this life is. And most times, God leads us to live in the questions rather than giving easy answers. That is what our faith is about- living the questions.

         When Jacob wrestled with God, God changed his name to Israel. Jacob means “heel-holder” because he held his twin brother’s heel as they were born. The name Jacob signified who he used to be- someone defined by others, a follower, not a leader. His new name, Israel, means, “God struggled.” This name would be a reminder for him and for the nation of Jewish people named after him that God struggled to show Israel and his people their infinite worth and goodness.

Transgender people often go through a process of changing their names. The old name represents a person that was not fully integrated, someone defined by others by a sex assigned at birth. The new name represents claiming a new life of authenticity. Trans folks of faith often wrestle with God, asking, “Why was I born with this body?” On the other side of the struggle, we in MCC affirm trans people as blessed children of God. We have a beautiful tradition of baptizing them with their new names even if they have been baptized before with a former name. Struggling with God is in MCC’s DNA, but we are a stubborn people and we will not let go without a blessing!

         I think I can safely assume that all of us here have literally wrestled through the night with another person. In our lovemaking, we leave our hearts open and vulnerable. We cling to each other to show our love, or at least to show another affection and make an intimate connection. And when the sun rises, we look over to our bedmate and see the imago dei- the image of God. We may choose to see just another human face, but the reality is that the face of God has bed head and sleep dirt and morning breath. Our consensual lovemaking is not dirty, perverted, sick, or sinful. Rather, it is a holy encounter. In accepting each other’s bodies, we bless them; we call them “good.” We see the face of God… and live.

         The scriptures do not tell us if Jesus ever had sex, but they do tell us that Jesus wrestled with God too. At the beginning of the reading from the Gospel of Matthew today, we immediately hear that Jesus withdraws when he hears that John the Baptist had been beheaded. Jesus had likely grown up with and studied with John in the desert before his public ministry. John was the one who baptized Jesus. John “prepared the way” for Jesus to be Deliverance for the people. And now he was gone, suddenly, just like that.

         Jesus must have been distraught. He may have asked God, “Why did you let my friend get executed?” So instead of reacting violently, he isolated himself. He needed some alone time. But as soon as people heard where Jesus was, they went to him. Instead of sending them away, Jesus redirects his energy with compassion by healing the sick.

         Then evening came and it was dinnertime. By then, thousands are said to have gathered. But not everyone thought to bring dinner. So Jesus demonstrates the power of choosing family by dividing and sharing bread and fish with everyone. It was a miracle because everyone was fed and there were even leftovers. But remember, miracles are not magic; they are changes in perception from fear to love. So the Jews and Gentiles who were afraid to eat with each other were given permission to make one big banquet. When everyone shared what they had in a great lakeside potluck supper, everyone was full. The loving act of sharing and eating together was the true miracle. This event was a snapshot of the Commonwealth of God, a new way of relating to the stranger.

         The Jews present had to wrestle with their understanding of God. They had been taught that Jews were God’s only chosen people and that they should not associate with non-Jews. But Jesus demonstrated that God’s blessing is open to all, that all are truly “good.” In the words of the 23^rd Psalm, “You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies.” But instead of preparing the banquet of bread and fish for just the Jews, he also prepared it for those who were supposed to be enemies. It is that act of transcending boundaries that is at the heart of the Gospel.

The Good News is that we all wrestle with God, and if we hold on long enough, we will be blessed. Jacob would not stop wrestling with God until he knew his inherent goodness. The crowds needed the same affirmation from Jesus. They needed physical food, but they also longed for spiritual food. We too must not let go until we know deep within our hearts and minds that we are blessed. When we wrestle with God, we don’t disrespect God; rather we honor God. So go ahead and wrestle through the darkness. The sun will always rise in the morning. Amen.

Unexpected Findings

“Unexpected Findings”

Homily for MCC New Haven

July 27, 2014

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Romans 8:26-39

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-46

This past week, I had the great opportunity of co-leading the MCC Young Adult Gathering in St. Louis, Missouri. A group of young adults (ages 18 to 35) from around the world gathered for a time of creative worship, inspiring discussion, learning, bonding, doing a service project together, and dreaming for the future. We did a powerful exercise together where we looked into ourselves to discern our current “spiritual location” as well as how God is calling each of us to serve. We received the gift of centering our lives in our common call that we have as the present and future of our denomination.

At times we wonder about our relevance in a world where the meaning of religious experience is constantly changing and where LGBT culture often dismisses anything called “church.” What I experienced at the young adult gathering reminded me of the bright future that we hold. We are not a large denomination. Our churches do not fill stadiums. But like the mustard seed, what comes from our presence and ministry in the world is larger than we can imagine. The smallest seed turns into a large mustard herb.

Jesus spoke often in the Gospels about the Kingdom (Commonwealth, Realm, Dominion) of God. He was not talking about a far-off place where we would someday go if we were good (like parents telling kids they can go to Disney World if they’re good enough). Yes, Jesus did talk about eternal life after death. As Christians, we believe that our loved ones have gone on to live in the fullness of God’s presence. The whole company of heaven watches over us day and night. But the Commonwealth of God is not the afterlife. Rather, it is heaven on earth. Jesus was concerned about spreading the Good News that it is indeed possible to (in the words of Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins) “have peace without going to pieces”. For Jesus, despair was not an option. After all, a life of despair is not really a life at all.

Do you or those you know ever have times when you feel like there is nothing left for you to do or be in this life? I know I have my times of doubt when I feel “stuck.” Sometimes I can only see what’s right in front of my face. I lose imagination on what wonderful things lay ahead on the path. Jesus gives us reason to keep moving forward. He says that the Commonwealth of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. Upon finding the treasure, a man sells all that he has and buys the field. Upon finding the purpose of God in your life, all else falls to the wayside. Nothing else matters because this reason for living has been found. Jesus also spoke about a merchant who found one pearl of great value. He sold everything he had to buy it. Again, for this one gift of being able to live the Gospel, everything else loses importance.

The problem we face with this image is that some choose to be so hyper-religious that they forget that the Gospel is about loving and compassionate community. We too often forget that the Gospel (like the Sabbath) is for the people and is in fact the people. We are the living Gospel, each a priceless pearl. The irony of the search for truth is that the treasure of truth was within us all along. We look high and low outside of ourselves for some meaning when God is always right where we are.

The Apostle Paul preached the same message. The Christ-followers of Rome were discouraged because the Empire was trying to eliminate them. Perhaps they fell into despair, wondering what they were even fighting for anymore. So Paul sends them some encouraging words. The eighth chapter of Romans is one of my favorite chapters in the entire Bible. Paul writes that the Spirit of God helps us to center in the Divine Presence when we feel weak. God’s breath sneaks through the cracks of the closed doors of our hearts and blows out the stale air. Sometimes the only prayer we can muster is a groan or a sigh. That wordless expression is God’s Spirit moving within us to foster connection again. The result, Paul says, is that things will start working together for us. We are called for God’s purpose of love, and it is in remembering that truth that we begin to live again.

And when we lift our heads again and see the troubles of the world, we do not need to fear or worry. Because if God is for us, who can be against us? Some take this passage to mean that Christians are supposed to be spiritual soldiers, fighting for so-called “morality” and fighting against people of other faiths. Quite to the contrary, if God is for those of us struggling on the margins of society to live out lives of God’s love, then oppression cannot take us down. Paul says, “I am convinced…” Not “I think… probably… um… that…” No- Paul is convinced that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God. If there’s anything that I would encourage you to be absolutely convinced of, it is that right where you are, God is, and God loves you unconditionally.

Can racism or sexism separate us from the love of God? NO! Can heterosupremacy or homophobia or transphobia separate us from the love of God? NO! Can poverty and violence? NO! Can being hurt or deserted by loved ones? NO! No Matter what happens to us in this life, absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God. Even your own mistakes and loveless acts cannot separate you from God’s permeating love. God never withdraws love from us. If we don’t feel it, it’s because of the barriers our egos have put up in order to feel in control.

The question we are left with is what we are willing to give up in order to allow God to lead us into our individual callings and into our calling together as Beloved Community. Can you give up worry about your life and about the church? Can you give up resentment toward people? Can you give up the story you have always told yourself about how life should be?

It is time to break down the barriers to the future. We have the tools, we have the hope, and we have the passion. We no longer affirm the presence of negativity, stress, or worry in our lives. They are not treasures to be valued. The true treasures are a strong love for God and yourself, which is lived out in community. We think we are just a small mustard seed of a community, but trust God that God is extending our branches out as a home for sojourners. And so it is. Amen.

Wholly, Fully, Live

 “Wholly, Fully, Live.”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

April 27, 2014

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Psalm 16

John 20:19-31

Faith… is NOT the opposite of doubt. If faith has an opposite, it is non-belief, but why set belief and non-belief against each other? Faith is a continuum, and it cannot be quantified. We cannot measure one person’s faith over another’s. Doubt is a healthy part of a life of faith. If we never doubt, we are foolishly following whatever brand of faith we subscribe to. If you remember the atrocities of cults such as Heaven’s Gate and Jim Jones’ The People’s Temple in Jonestown, you know what I mean. The Christian life consists of much more than following a charismatic leader. It has much to do with using the brain that God gave you.

The disciple Thomas has had a bad rap for a long time. Modern interpreters of today’s Gospel passage have labeled Thomas as “Doubting Thomas,” though the Gospels never label him as such. The word for “doubt” in Greek is not found in this passage. Yes, Thomas required feeling Jesus’ hands and side in order to believe that he had been resurrected and to believe that what Jesus had preached was true. But wouldn’t you?

Thomas was tardy to the party and missed out on Jesus’ visit to the other disciples, but Jesus made the extra effort to visit him personally so that he might believe. (Remember, when Mary told the other disciples that she had seen Jesus, none of them believed her). Jesus did not shame Thomas for not believing. He simply gave the message, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” That one line reaches out to everyone in every time and place to make the message clear: you do not have to feel my body to know my Spirit. “Blessed are those who have not seen” does not mean, “Blessed are those with ‘blind faith’.” Rather, Jesus message is, “Blessed are those who will know me by my Spirit.”

Today’s Gospel message is like an early Pentecost. Luke writes in the Book of Acts about the day of Pentecost when the Christ-followers were gathered in the Upper Room and experience the Holy Spirit like the rush of a mighty wind and tongues of fire above their heads. That’s the way Luke described it. John, on the other hand, describes it as we heard today. The risen Christ breaths on those present and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Imagine being one of those present on that day, taking a deep breath and being filled with Unconditional Love, Grace, and Peace.

That was not a one-time event, frozen in history. We do not have to experience a vision of Jesus in order to breathe in that breath. We just have to be willing to do the inner work required to clear the clutter and allow Spirit to make a home within. Yesterday, I took the plastic off of my windows and opened them after a long winter and allowed the fresh breeze to enter my home. The stale air left and fresh air blew through. Take a minute to think of what stale air you may be keeping in your spirit. What does not belong in your life in this season of new beginnings? What feelings are overdue to let go of?

Jesus’ disciples were locked up tight in a room in fear when Jesus appeared to them. They were in the closet! They were afraid of the religious authorities and thought they would live better hiding away to live a more private faith. But Jesus, even beyond the grave, comes and gives them exactly what they need to come out of the closet. He says simply, “Peace be with you,” in Hebrew, “Shalom Aleichem,” “Wellbeing Be Upon You.” Those simple words gave them the courage to leave that stuffy closet and enter the world again with the Good News.

You don’t have to be gay, bisexual, or transgender to come out of the closet. Life is full of closets! I have never been in a house with just one closet. There are many things we carry shame about unnecessarily. To name a few: being in recovery, being bisexual when you can easily pass for the cleaner categories of gay or straight, health statuses, family histories, relationship histories, job histories, and the list goes on. I’m not saying that we should put all of our dirty laundry out in public. I know that far too many people do that on social media like Facebook! What I am saying is that if we do not fully own who we are and who we have come to be through our life experiences, the shame will keep the Holy Spirit from making a home in our beings.

I’m talking about those “old tapes” that play in our heads. “If I had kept a better diet, I wouldn’t have diabetes,” “If I had stayed away from those people, I would not have become addicted to that drug,” “If I had been a better partner, the relationship would not have ended,” “If I hadn’t wasted my money, I wouldn’t be in debt,” “If I had used a condom, I wouldn’t have HIV,” “If I had come out earlier in life, I would have had a better experience.” We all have regrets, whether large or small. But in the words of the great musical RENT, “Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.”

I don’t think it’s news to anyone here, but you can’t change the past. Sometimes we have the wonderful opportunity to allow God to reform our futures from our regrets, but there is no such thing as time travel. The past is past, but the future has infinite possibilities! Turn the “what if” of the past into the “what if” of the future. “What if I lived a life of gratitude, living joy each day?,” “What if I went back to school and started doing what I always wanted to do in life?,” “What if I love myself enough that I will allow someone else to love me too?,” “What if I saw myself as God sees me: perfect, whole, and complete?”

Do you see the change in perception? Old patterns and cycles of pain do not need to continue. Nothing needs to bind you. Those chains? They aren’t real! They are a mirage, an illusion. That angry God you have heard about? He doesn’t exist. Those labels people put on you that you hate so much? They wash right off with the healing water of the Spirit.

On her most recent album, Rev. Delores Berry recorded an old gospel hymn from the Baptist tradition called “Old Time Religion.” It goes “Give me that old time religion… it’s good enough for me.” But Delores said, “I have come to realize, it’s not good enough for me!” So she changed the words and recorded, “Don’t give me that old time religion… it’s NOT good enough for me!” The old time religion is what had the disciples afraid and huddled together in that room. It wasn’t good enough for them, so Jesus liberated them from it. The same applies to us today. Whatever religious hang-ups you have that offend your spirit: let them go! Jesus gives you permission!

Without doubt like Thomas, we can’t have a living faith. Everything that I say on Sundays, I fully expect you to analyze with your God-given brain. And that goes for everything else you listen to and read as well, even and especially in your Bible. If something offends your spirit, take the time to look into it. Chew on it. If you swallow it and it doesn’t sit right, regurgitate it like a cow and chew it again! Don’t thoughtlessly swallow information and expect it to do you good.

Faith is about trust. It is an intimate and holy act. When we are intimate with lovers, we take our clothes off. We show our bodies in vulnerability. We show all of our beautiful scars, sags, wrinkles, and bumps. We also take the doors off of our closets to reveal their contents (and you know we like to pack those closets full!). Our souls stand vulnerable before those we love. That is trust. And just like Jesus, we invite those we love to touch our wounds. Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side.” Authentic loving relationship requires us to say the same to those closest to us. “Touch my wounds. See how I have been wounded.” The ego response would be, “Don’t touch me. You’ll never know what I’ve been through.”

Ironically, in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas (not found in our Bibles), Jesus says, “When you undress without being ashamed, and you take your clothes and put them under your feet as little children and tramp on them, then you shall see the Son of the Living One and you shall not fear.” Jesus was the perfect, living example of Abundant Life for the disciples, and he is the same for us. Now, don’t go walking down Temple Street naked—You’ll get arrested. But when it comes to sharing our lives with our families of choice and when it comes to sharing our faith with those who need liberation, some vulnerability is required. And until we own our full selves, warts and all, we keep ourselves from those infinite possibilities.

Today, the risen Christ stands before us. And just as God breathed life over the waters of the deep and breathed life into the first creatures in the beginning, and just as God breathed life into the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision, and just as the risen Christ breathed the Holy Spirit on the disciples long ago, God breathes a breath of fresh air on us today. The wind is blowing. We cannot see where it comes from or where it goes, but we know it is there because we feel it. Take a deep breath and experience the fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. They are God’s free gifts for us today. What a blessing! Amen.

Resurrection Celebration!

“Resurrection Celebration!”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

April 20, 2014

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Henri Nouwen, Our Greatest Gift

“The resurrection does not solve our problems about dying and death. It is not the happy ending to our life's struggle, nor is it the big surprise that God has kept in store for us. No, the resurrection is the expression of God's faithfulness to Jesus and to all God's children. Through the resurrection, God has said to Jesus, "You are indeed my beloved Son, and my love is everlasting," and to us God has said, "You indeed are my beloved children, and my love is everlasting." The resurrection is God's way of revealing to us that nothing that belongs to God will ever go to waste. What belongs to God will never get lost.”

John 20:1-18

         My mother just turned 65 years old in March. She recently told me that in her office, they installed defribulators in her office. She said, “They must think we’re all a bunch of old coots!” I’m glad that life-saving devices are available to save my mother’s life should she have a heart attack, but it makes me wonder about Jesus. I know for sure that these devices were not available to the disciples to resuscitate Jesus after his crucifixion. According to the gospels, Jesus had been publicly executed by the extremely cruel means of nailing his hands and feet to two beams of wood, essentially suffocating him by gravity. It was not an easy death. It was the difficult death the Romans used to show the occupied population that Rome had absolute control. Remember that as Jesus entered Jerusalem on the day we call “Palm Sunday,” numerous people were being crucified on outside of the city walls as a sign to all that anyone who opposed the Roman Empire would face the same fate.

         Jesus spent his last days with the ones he loved, his own family of choice. His father Joseph had disappeared from the story after his birth, so either he had died or he had left the family because of the shame of Jesus’ public ministry. His devout mother Mary remained as a disciple through his life. How many queer folks know this to be true in our lives? Family members just leave the picture. Jesus transcended gender. Maybe that made his father Joseph desert him, just as our patriarchal culture calls fathers to desert their “sissy” sons. I don’t want to make assumptions, but we will never know.

         Either way, Jesus met with his family of choice in the Upper Room for what we know as the “Last Supper.” It is the meal that we remember every week as we celebrate Holy Communion. It was not as Leonardo da Vinci depicted it in the 1490s. There were women there. It was a group of subversive peasant Jews that followed Jesus to the end. They were friends, lovers, family. They knew that Jesus was in trouble, and yet they were there. Can we say the same of ourselves? Can we say that we can sit next to Christ at the Communion Table and accept his call to love each other unconditionally regardless of whom he chooses to invite? And even further, can we say that we would stay awake while Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, or as a recent cartoon showed, will we be busy texting, emailing, and following social media?

         Can we stop fighting with our spouses while Jesus prays? Can we stop focusing on making money while Jesus prays? Can we stop looking at our smart phones while Jesus prays? How are we asleep like the disciples in the garden? Since unlike the disciples we know what soon happened, how can we be truly awake for him?

         Ultimately, we know that Jesus was arrested, beaten, and crucified. He did not have an easy death. The gospels tell us that his body was placed in a rich man’s gave, but his plight would be to be thrown into a communal peasant grave where vultures would pick at his flesh. His body would have been thrown into the dump to disintegrate unceremoniously. After all, he was not the actual King of the Jews, he was a rebel leader of some peasants.

         But God saw differently. God had sent this Child into the world to be the savior, the liberator, the one who would raise the consciousness of the people of Israel. God did not wish for the Chosen One to die a terrible death. God did not require a bloody sacrifice. Rather, God chose a beautiful, passionate child to face Empire as no one had faced it before. The Jewish people had had enough. They had endured oppression for too many generations. And Jesus, Yeshua of Nazareth chose to live out the Gospel that he had been given. Jesus knew from a young age that he had a message to preach. It didn’t officially start until he was thirty years old, but he held the Gospel inside him. And when it came time, he let the Gospel loose. He preached, he healed, and he performed miracles.

         It was certainly not the message that the people expected. The people expected him to preach against the Empire in a way that would start a rebellion. But Jesus was not about violence. He was about non-violent resistance. That is why he led non-violent residence until his public execution.

         The same crowd that shouted “Hosanna,” meaning  “Help us, save us,” came to shout “Crucify him!” Is that not our world today? If someone does not help us in the way we expect him or her to, we call for their demise. We want salvation on our own terms. We think we know what we need, but we really don’t. We think we need a feeding miracle, but all we need is generosity. We think we need healing miracles, but what we need is fair health care. We think we need Jesus of Nazareth to be here in the flesh, to come again. But what we haven’t realized is that he already has.

         Jesus rose again one the third day. His beaten and bloody body was not resuscitated like someone in our modern world on an operating table. No one took an electric eel and pressed it to his chest like in a Flintstones cartoon. Rather, Jesus lived on as the Risen Christ because the Gospel lived on. Jesus had loved his followers back to new life, into a higher consciousness that had yet to be experienced. The people had been bound by oppression under legalism, but Jesus spoiled the system. Jesus had made a mess of religion, and the piece of art that he created was beautiful.

         We continue to contribute to that piece of art to this day. Many want to freeze moments in the past, portraying biblical events as Hallmark moments somehow filled with clean, proper, Stepford, white folks… in the Middle East. Well if they can see themselves in the Gospel narrative, so can we! We can see a lesbian couple showing up to the empty grave and clinging to each other in fright. We can imagine Jesus’ Beloved Disciple as a man who couldn’t bear to look for his lover’s hate crime-beaten body when he gets to the morgue. We can even imagine the crucified Christ as a young Black man crucified by police brutality and yet risen in the hearts of strong people of faith in his community.

         Retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong writes in Eternal Life, A New Vision, “Our question is not, Did Jesus rise from the dead? but, What was it that these gospel writers were trying to convey? What did “experiencing Jesus alive” mean to them?” A resuscitated body doesn’t mean much on a grand scale. But a resurrected life means everything. When a crushed spirit rises again to take on a life of joy, that is resurrection. When someone lost in addiction fights their way to a new life of sobriety, that is resurrection. When a religious bigot chooses God’s unconditional love over xenophobic fear, that is resurrection.

         There is no need to debate whether Jesus’ body was literally brought back to life or not. That has no consequence on our lives today. What matters is that in the words of Bishop Spong, “The meaning of God was forever altered because Jesus, by sheer force of his being, had imprinted his humanity onto the definition of the divine. The external God had been discovered at the heart of the human… The presence of the holy that they had found in Jesus they now discovered in themselves.” Can we believe that today? Can we stop thinking of ourselves as evil sinners long enough to see that a spark of God lives within us?

         Finding that spark within is no threat to God. God never intended for people to think that She was somewhere far away, above the clouds. Perhaps that was the original sin, that people would dare to think that we are separate from the Creator. But Jesus turned that wrong thinking upside-down, slaying the ego and resurrecting the highest Self.

         A Course in Miracles gives us an illustration. We have our hands open before us with an item in each hand: a crown of thorns and a lily. Both of them are gifts. Each day, we have the decision of giving to the world the thorns of suffering or the lily of unconditional love and resurrection power. Many confuse the two, thinking that giving thorns will somehow teach people to love. But to God, only the lily is the perfect gift. Even if you don’t have a dime to your name, you can always give the gift of resurrection. And in the giving, maybe just maybe you will receive resurrection in return. Amen.

God Sees The Heart

“God Sees The Heart”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

March 30, 2014

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

1 Samuel 16:1-13

John 9:1-41

ACIM: “Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense, everything that comes from love is a miracle… Miracles are natural. When they do not occur, something has gone wrong.”

         Miracles are happening all around us every day! Every act of love is a miracle. Normalcy to us is being able to walk down the street without fear of harm. That’s a pretty good start since many people around the world do not have that luxury. News channels focus on the ab-normal, the extra-ordinary. They tell us about car accidents, shootings, drug busts, and outrageous things celebrities have done. (News has turned into such a tabloid!) They also sometimes highlight so-called “acts of charity” when people go “out of their way” to help others.

I saw a story this week about a police officer that wasn’t particularly busy. He saw a kid throwing a football in the air to himself, so he got out of his car and tossed the ball with the kid. I think this story is very sweet, but it shouldn’t be so extraordinary to make the news. Why is that so out of the ordinary? Remember, miracles occur naturally as expressions of love.

         Especially around the holidays, I see stories on the news about churches and organizations feeding families with turkeys for Thanksgiving or hams for Christmas. That is wonderful work that they are doing and I greatly appreciate and support it. But would the greater miracle not be for the gap between the richest of the rich and the other 99% of the population to close? It’s unfortunate when one individual shows lack of love to another, but it is catastrophic when a nation’s government and richest citizens show a lack of love to the rest of the population. Systemic sin is much greater than individual sin.

         The man blind from birth that we heard about from the Gospel of John today lived in a divided society too. He was a beggar on the street. Everyone knew him by face, but not even the Gospel of John gives the poor man a name. He was just, “that blind guy who begs.” The blind man did not ask to be healed, but Jesus approached him anyway. The disciples asked Jesus whether the blind man or his parents had sinned to make him blind. It was a common understanding in ancient times that sin caused disability.

In the Book of Numbers in the Torah, (14:18), it reads, “I, the Lord, am not easily angered, and I show great love and faithfulness and forgive sin and rebellion. Yet I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents.” So I have migraines because my great, great grandfather sinned?? I really can’t accept that kind of logic. The only sins of the parents that could harm a child before birth are if the mother drank or used drugs during the pregnancy. But I highly doubt that is what the disciples were asking about.

Either way, Jesus does not agree with that logic either. He says plainly that neither the man nor his parents sinned to make him blind. But I have issue with what Jesus says next. He says that the man was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. So let me get this right… God made this poor man blind from birth so that however many years later, Jesus could use him as proof that he comes from God… Yeah I’m not buying that logic either.

The God that I worship does not make people disabled or send plagues of disease. According to certain televangelists, God sent AIDS as a punishment to gay men. I can’t believe that for a second. As a person with a basic understanding of modern science, I know that disability and disease have causes that are just part of the natural world. In the womb, the eyes of the man born blind did not develop. That’s it, end of story.

So did Jesus actually do something supernatural by spitting in the dirt and putting it on the man’s eyes? I don’t know. Frankly, it doesn’t matter to me. Blind people live out full lives with the use of their other senses and most don’t seek out pity for their disability. What really matters is what this story can teach us. The answer lies in the best line of our reading from 1 Samuel: “For the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

It’s unfortunate that John decided to use the metaphor of blindness and sight to teach this, but it’s what we have to work with. But before we dive into the metaphor, let’s first hear from a blind Christian theologian about this passage. John Hull wrote an article titled, “Open Letter From a Blind Disciple to a Sighted Savior.” In it, he writes, “In the eighth chapter of this your fourth gospel you say that you are the light of the world and that the one who follows you will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life (Jn. 8:12) but, my Lord, I walk in darkness every day and have done so for twenty years.  Yes, I know that you only meant it metaphorically, but it is not very nice to be regarded as a metaphor of sin and unbelief.  Sometimes the metaphor is so graphic, that I can't help feeling a twinge of pain.” Can you imagine your weaknesses being used as metaphors for sin? What if your clinical depression was compared to a mind filled with evil? What if your bad knee was made a metaphor for not walking well with God? What if your cancer was used as a symbol for wrongdoing in the body of Christ? They are easy metaphors to go to because we understand our weaknesses, but they certainly do not make us feel any better about them.

Inclusive language is not about not hurting people’s feelings. It is about demonstrating with our language that we truly believe all people are created in the image and likeness of God. That is why in MCC, we change the words in Amazing Grace from “was blind but now I see” to “was bound but now I’m free.”

In 1994, Nancy Eiesland wrote the book, “Disabled God.” The point of her work was to show that all people, including those we label as “disabled” are “imperfectly perfect” reflections of God. She points out that no matter healthy you are now, you can become disabled at any time. Instead of categorizing people as “abled” and “disabled,” she rather uses the labels “temporarily abled” and “disabled.” I remember how actor Christopher Reeve played Superman, the superhuman come to save the day. Ironically, the actor fell from a horse, broke his neck, and lived the rest of his life as a quadriplegic. These bodies of ours are resilient, but they are also incredibly fragile. God didn’t push Christopher off of the horse. He just fell. And that’s the messy stuff of life.

Humans try so hard to clean up life, to fix everything. Much of what we have figured out we can do through technology is wonderful. We have found cures and treatments to diseases. Thank God for that. But regardless of how hard we try, we have to accept that life is not neat and tidy. Many things will not go our way. Accidents happen. Life happens. Shit happens… But that is no reason to live in fear. Living with caution is common sense; living in fear is just senseless.

The true miracle of the encounter between Jesus and the man born blind was what happened in the blind man’s heart. Living as an outcast of society, perhaps he had doubted his worth. No one would let him work, so maybe he felt he had nothing to contribute to his community. But Jesus showed him otherwise. Regardless of the state of the man’s physical eyes, abundant life in Jesus was still available to him. In the beloved community Jesus was building, those whose disabilities were welcomed with open arms. A life of joy really was possible for him. The miracle was the man’s shift in perception from accepting the lies told to him to receiving the truth of his sacred value.

These final words from the blind theologian John Hull really touched me. He says, “What I want is inner healing, the healing that comes from acceptance, from inclusion, from the breaking down of barriers through mutual understanding, for an acceptance of different worlds, of different kinds of human life.” We each have our own worldview, our own perspective, our own understanding of the world. That’s just the beauty of God’s diverse creation. But Jesus calls us to perceive one thing in common: each fraction of a second, each holy instant, miracles are happening all around us. Pay close attention. God will make you smile. Amen.

Thirsty?

“Thirsty?”

Sermon for MCC New Haven

March 23, 2014

Rev. Brian Hutchison, M.Div.

Exodus 17:1-7

John 4:5-24

         Good morning church! I don’t know about you, but I’m thirsty! You look thirsty too! Somebody say, “I’m thirsty!” Jesus was thirsty when he got to the Samaritan city called Sychar. The name “Sychar” was a pejorative term the Jewish people used against the Samaritans. It means “liar” or “drunkard.” So Jesus went to the city of drunkards to get a drink… of water that is.

         A Samaritan woman met Jesus at the well and Jesus asked her for a drink. She must have gasped! It was against the law for a man to address a woman and it was highly taboo for a Jew to address a Samaritan. Remember, Samaritans were a sect of Jews that were left in Israel during the Babylonian Exile. The Samaritans had built their own temple on Mt. Gerizim and claimed it to be the only place to worship, not the main temple in Jerusalem. When the Jewish people returned from Babylonia, they brought with them new teachings about the Torah that the Samaritans reject to this day.

         The Samaritans call themselves “Guardians/Keepers of the Torah.” Jews in ancient times called them the pejorative term “cuthim” referring to the city of Kutha in Iran. They were essentially saying, “These people are not Jewish. They claim to be descendents of Abraham, but they intermarried with other races, so they are not part of us.”

         When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, he did not care about rules of segregation. He saw the woman as a child of God, an heir of God’s promises, even if she was a Samaritan. Not only did Jesus speak to her; he asked to drink from her cup. Her lips were not unclean to him.

         Jesus takes the opportunity to teach her the message of the Gospel. Jesus tells her about a “living water” that will quench thirst forever. She takes him literally and asks where she can find this magical water so she doesn’t have to keep going to the well. Jesus responds with a sort of “word of knowledge.” Has anyone ever told you things about your life that they never would have known? These people have a special gift. The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus had this gift. Jesus asks her to bring her husband to him. She responds that she does not have a husband. Jesus then says, “I know you don’t have a husband. You’ve had five husbands and the man you’re with now is not your husband.” Now this sounds like what we call in the drag community “throwing shade” or “reading.” This catty practice is done to show the other person their faults. For example, I could ask my friend Trisha, “Girl, who put on your makeup, an orangutan?” But of course I wouldn’t do that because she always looks perfect…

         Contrary to popular belief, Jesus was not talking down to the Samaritan woman. He was not calling her a slut for having had five husbands. No one knows why she had had five husbands but it was likely because they had died or dismissed her for some reason. Her story was not one of shame, but rather of misfortune. She had been tossed around as property and by now the man who she was with would not even take her as his wife. So Jesus showed her compassion, not judgment.

         He tells her something that would be considered blasphemy to both the Jews and the Samaritans. He says that soon, people will not worship in any temple. Instead, they will worship “in spirit and in truth.” Keep in mind, the Jews had destroyed the Samaritan temple in 128 BCE and it would not be rebuilt until after the Gospels were written in 135 CE. The Jewish temple in Jerusalem had been rebuilt since the Babylonian Exile, but it would soon be destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 CE, four decades after Jesus’ death.

         By saying that true worship is “in spirit and in truth” was affirming God’s omnipresence, that God is everywhere, so everywhere is where God should be worshipped. Jesus sought to unite, not divide. The Samaritans and Jews had been long divided and Jesus saw the reasons for division as petty. Also remember that Jesus was not trying to start a new religion. He was a Jewish rabbi who taught the truths of his own tradition, focusing on the God of Love that he knew and loved.

But what came to be known as Christianity through the efforts of Jesus’ disciples initially became a unifying faith. The apostle Paul preached to pagans throughout the Mediterranean region, converting them- not to the strict Judaism of his upbringing, but rather to a new faith in the truths of Jesus called the Christ. Early Christ-followers worshipped with the assurance that God’s Spirit was among them. They worshipped in Spirit, affirming the truth they had come to know. We too continue the long tradition of worship in spirit and in truth.

         Like Jesus, we are called to meet the “other” at the water cooler, at the pub, at the gas station, and in the church with a nonjudgmental attitude and a spirit of coexistence. Who is the Samaritan in our society? Perhaps it is the Muslim, the Sikh, the Hindu, or the Wiccan. Perhaps it’s the drug addict, the alcoholic, the sex worker, or the homeless. Or perhaps it’s the queer person in our midst that does not want to assimilate to heterosexual standards of gender and sexuality. Many of us are taught from childhood to identify the “other,” the “stranger” and to stay away from them. But this is not the way of Jesus. Jesus was a friend to all.

         According to the Gospel of John, Jesus made a follower out of the Samaritan woman at the well and she in turn brought others to follow Jesus. As Christians, Jesus’ Great Commission calls us to make disciples of all peoples. In the time of the Crusades, the commission was taken to mean that everyone who does not convert is to be slaughtered. We have come a long way since then, but that mentality still lingers. Around the world, people still kill in the name of Jesus.  And in the U.S., non-Christians are still very cautious of Christians who attempt to convert or “save” them. I know I’m pretty annoyed when a Jehovah’s Witness or a Mormon wakes me up on a Saturday morning!

         But that does not mean that we should not share our faith. A general guideline that I use for sharing faith is to only talk about what my faith means to me. I have my own testimony about what my faith has done for me in my life and I’m sure you have one too. In some churches, testimony is practiced regularly. In many other churches, it has fallen out of importance. In MCC, let’s never forget the power of testimony. Over four decades of ministry in MCC, we have fallen back on the notion that we will grow naturally by people coming to us after they have been wounded by other churches. This phenomenon still occurs, but we cannot rely on it. There are plenty of “spiritual but not religious” people out there who could benefit by joining in spiritual community with us. We do not tell people what they need to believe in order to earn a ticket to heaven or buy “fire insurance” from hell. We simply worship in spirit and in truth: teaching the Gospel of Unconditional Love that Jesus taught and basking in the presence of the Holy Spirit that we feel in our lives.

         Since religion has been given such a bad reputation, many people live in a spiritually barren desert. Remember that Moses led the Israelites through the desert… and they were thirsty! Someone say, “Thirsty!” The wilderness they were in was called “Sin.” That is not referring to sin as we know it, as in “error.” Rather, the desert of Sin was actually called Pelusium, which meant “clay.” So the dirt was probably clay with no water or vegetation. So the people complained to Moses, saying, “Why in the world did you bring us out here to die of thirst?? We’re thirsty! Give us water!” So Moses prayed and God told him, “Go to the rock at Horeb (“dried up ground”) and strike it with the staph you struck the Nile with.” So he did, and water gushed out for the people to drink. Moses called the place Massah, which means “trials and temptations” and Mirebah, which means “quarreling and strife.”

         Folks, the people in the desert are thirsty! There is plenty of quarreling and strife out there. People are thirsty for something else. There must be another way… and there is! Our own special brand of Christianity or anyone else’s is not the Living Water. The Living Water that Jesus spoke of can spring out of nowhere, just as it did in that dry desert long ago. You don’t need Moses’ staph to make the water flow. You don’t need some special incantation. All we need is a sincere desire to quench the thirst of our siblings in the human family.

         Don’t judge people’s resistance to anything called “spiritual.” They have every reason to be skeptical. Don’t ever tell anyone “I have something you don’t” or “You need Jesus.” Just live your life in such a way that the Living Water flows from your very being. And maybe, just maybe, someone will take a drink. And maybe, just maybe, someone will follow you back to this well we call MCC to share their cup with us. And maybe they’ll share their water with you too. Are you thirsty? I know I am. Drink deep with me. Amen.