Category: Michael D
To live consciously
This morning I had the honor to say a few words at a congregation’s celebration of their graduating high school seniors. Though it has been a while since I graduated from high school (early 1980’s) I have memories of the Senior’s Lunch that Central Christian Church in Waco, TX hosted. Somewhere I have the bible and concordance that was I received as a gift. Sometimes these kinds of gatherings feel like just another thing to attend or make happen, but these are good moments in congregational life. Here is the text of my remarks this morning.
Think about what you saw.
The next time you see injustice
The next time you witness hatred
The next time you hear about genocide1
Think about what you saw.
That is good advice at any transition in life. It is a poignant reminder for you and all of us. The world in which you have grown up is full of moments: complex, brutal, and beautiful. If Shakespeare is right and “all the world’s a stage,” you are finishing up an off-Broadway performance called “high school.” That musical or play contained all the ingredients of a big Broadway production. With the help of family, friends, your church, the teachings of Jesus, and your faith, you’ve prepared for the next role: adulthood. As you take a bow and exit the high school stage, I trust you will remember and think about what you saw and learned from minor players, lead performances, parables and prayer that have helped shape your character. Many labored to set you on a path that only you can walk, sometimes into the spotlight, but most often it is a supporting role.
Rev. Dr. Fred Craddock was one of the greatest preachers of the 20th Century, and he was a Disciples minister. He spoke with Chi Rho & CYF youth at our General Assembly in Portland back in 2005. He was asked if he had a favorite verse of scripture to which he replied, “No, but I do have favorite hymns. I’m not much of a singer, but music helps shape memories. Some of the old hymns really help me get through life. They tell a story about where I was when I sang it. Hymns help tell the Christian story.” One of his favorite hymns was, “O God Our Help in Ages Past.” You’ve had lots of experiences in this church, on youth group trips, mission trips, and lock-ins. The melody of your favorite hymn or praise song will go with you into adulthood and help you remember the foundation of faith you were gifted in this congregation.
In these next weeks you will hear many words of wisdom, cliche’ about success, and living a meaningful life. And like you heard me say many times on IAS, “smile” and always be aware of your surroundings. So, here are a few pithy quotes about success.
“We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.”
Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook)
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou (Author/Poet)
“Do one thing every day that scares you.”
Eleanor Roosevelt (First Lady of The US , 1933 – 1945)
“Your dad and I raised you the best we could. We know, that you know, right from wrong. We know you will not go off and embarrass our family, but you are going to embarrass yourself from time to time. That’s becoming an adult.”
Yvonne (Michael’s mother. August 1983)
“It is our choices, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
J.K Rowling (Billionaire Author)
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa (Philanthropist/Charity Worker)
I witnessed an example of Mother Teresa’s wisdom this month. My companion, Lisa, and I usually go on holiday (vacation) during Holy week. The Saturday before Palm Sunday, April 8, we were trying to fly from Tulsa to Fort Lauderdale. On Palm Sunday we were boarding a cruise ship. Trying to fly that Saturday because Delta was still dealing with lots of cancellations that began on Wednesday of that week when storms shut down the Atlanta airport for a couple of hours. Delta had lots of headaches for seven days trying to move passengers and the crews to fly the planes.
By mid-afternoon, Lisa arrived in Atlanta and I was waiting for my connection in Charlotte. At the far end of terminal B there are six American gates. All of them swarming with people watching for a place to sit or watching the screens at each gate roll through the stand by list. I walked up and noticed that my flight at gate B13 had 30 names on the stand by list. I moved closer to the boarding area and could hear a voice over the buzz of the waiting swarm. A tall man’s voice echoed off the wall behind the gate agent. “I must get on this flight. You cannot make me wait any longer. Get a supervisor right now. I’m not taking this anymore. I cannot believe Delta didn’t make these arrangements.” There are another fifteen people waiting their turn with the agent whose voice was low enough not to be heard, though his face was flush. I wondered when security would arrive.
A woman, maybe five foot-five, approached from the seating area. Standing next to the tall man at the gate desk she spoke clearly to be heard over the buzz. “Please stop yelling. I’ve been waiting like you. We all have. I have a seat on this flight. I’m going to see a family member in the hospital in Fort Lauderdale, but I can wait if you need to get there that bad. What I’m saying is you can have my seat.” The tall man looked down at her. His shoulders dropped. He breathed deeply. The gate agent has this stunned look of disbelief as he whispers something into the phone, then hangs it up.
The tall man, looks at the gate agent and then the woman. “That’s not necessary. I’m sorry.” He turns and walks away, but the woman doesn’t let him off that easy. She follows him through the maze of standing people into the chair area across the room. His wife moves a backpack so he can sit. The two kids are deep into their screens. The woman bends over to speak. The swarm remained in their own worlds and the buzz of people block out the words spoken between them. I looked away so not to intrude. When the flight is called I looked back and she had already said here goodbye. I didn’t see her on my plane, but she must have been there somewhere.
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
The book, This is Water, ends with these words:
It is unimaginably hard to do this — to live consciously, adultly, day in and day out. Which means another cliche’ is true: Your education really is the job of a lifetime, and it commences — now.2
Stay curious. Read a variety of authors and subjects. Find friends that are different from you, listen, study different points of view. Continually rekindle the spark of God that is within you. Some verse from Maya Angelou’s, A Brave and Startling Truth, is a good reminder that you are a gift.
A Brave And Startling Truth3
Maya Angelou
We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth
When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear
When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.
Notes
1. United States Holocaust Museum: www.ushmm.org
2. David Foster Wallace, This is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occassion, about Living a Compassionate Life. Little, Brow, and Company (New York) 2009. 135-37.
3. Maya Angelou, A Brave And Startling Truth. June 1995.
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-brave-and-startling-truth/
My Friend Thomas
The traditional Lectionary reading for the first Sunday after Easter is a story from the Gospel of John about Thomas (called the twin). Many years ago I wrote a version of this sermon and it continues to develop. This is how it was presented today.
Scripture Text: John 20:19-31
Shall we pray together. Open our ears and our hearts, O God, that our words and our meditations will be acceptable to You, who creates, who redeems, and sustains all of creation; and our lives. Amen.
A couple of weeks after Easter a minister was speaking to a group of second graders about the resurrection of Jesus when one student asked, “What did Jesus say when he came out of the grave?” The minister explained that the gospels have a lot of details, but really not much about what Jesus said when he came out of the grave. And the hand of one little boy shot up. “I know what he said. Ta Da!!!!”
In our calendar it has been a week since the events of Easter. In John’s gospel time has past since Mary Magdalene and the other women shared what they experienced. Peter has run to the tomb and back. Just like Mary said, it was empty. What did that mean? What does that mean today? The disciples have kept a low profile in their community. The other gospels tell us that some have gone back to the lives they knew before meeting Jesus of Nazareth. It is what some of us do when we are grieving — stay busy, try to go back to the familiar, or after the crowds and family leave, hide at home. If it were not for Mary Magdalene, the disciple whom Jesus loved, and a few nameless others there would be no resurrection story. Even though they spoke, few listened and even less believed. Though Jesus was a martyr for some, the stories about his miracles and him rising from the dead were greatly exaggerated. Even those closest to him were quiet, in doubt that Jesus was who they claimed him to be. The gospel narratives tell us that Jesus made cameo appearances to different people after his death because people didn’t remember, didn’t believe, could not believe it. Even with the appearances, people didn’t recognize Jesus until he made it obvious before their eyes.
What does the word, doubt, mean? There is a general acceptance that as a verb doubt means something or someone is questionable, or distrusted, or feared. As a noun doubt means something like a feeling of uncertainty about the truth, reality, or nature of something or someone. I think it is the motivation that creates doubt that makes all the difference. In our culture doubt and cynicism have become synonymous verbs that fuel a political culture and tribal mentality that impugns the character or principles of those with whom we disagree or distrust. Instead of dialogue about our different interpretative lens or ideological approach to basic facts, principles, or rules that hold humanity together, and challenge humanity, this cynical doubt has created its own facts, counter narrative of rules and principles that must reign and cannot be questioned. Cannot be doubted. That cynical doubt has found its way into all kinds of religious life; and into the pews of every expression of Christianity.
Can you imagine how our world would treat one who claimed to have returned from the dead? How would we know or recognize the presence of Jesus in our midst? Many Christians would like to think that we would meet Jesus at Church, and there are some claiming that THEIR church is THE place, the ONLY place, where Jesus will make his grand reentry into our historical context. Is that consistent with the Jesus of Nazareth we know from the gospels? My guess is we might read about the return of Jesus on the front page of one of those magazines in the rack at the check-out lane. The headline:
Man claims to be Christ and has risen from the dead. Says he feels fine.
Maybe the story would make it to one of the 24hr cable news channels.
- In the Situation Room: people who were raised from the dead and lived to tell about it.
- Welcome to Hardball — tonight members of the clergy debate the second coming in response to the man claiming to be Jesus Christ.
- Next on Fox and Friends, the man claiming to be the second coming of Christ discusses socialism and taxes.
Stories would show up on the Internet at Breitbart, Drudge, DailyKos, HuffingtonPost, and Pathoes. Media Matters would cover how the media covered it. There would be stories on Facebook and Twitter from sources no one has heard of, but seem compelling, maybe even credible.
When Mary Magdalene and the other women tell the disciples about seeing Jesus the gospels show us a mixed response. In Luke we are told, “But they did not believe the women because their words seemed to them like nonsense.” In Mark the women fled the tomb and told no one because they were afraid. Matthew does not tell us about their encounter with the disciples, and in the gospel of John the disciples do not respond to Mary’s witness at all. Then there is this story about my friend Thomas. “Unless I touch the nail prints in his hands, I will not believe.”
A friend told me a story about how she asked her four year old daughter to get a can of soup from the pantry. The daughter replied, “But mom it’s scary and dark in the pantry.” “You don’t have to be afraid.” came her mother’s calm reply. “Jesus is always with you. Even in the pantry.” The girl thought for a moment. Walked to the pantry, opened the door and called out, “Jesus if you’re in there could you hand me a can of soup.”
The disciples are hidden away, behind locked doors, and Jesus came and stood among them. It had to have been an overwhelming, exciting, fear-filled, doubt-filled moment. Jesus tells the disciples, in that room and this one, that they are to continue the ministry that he began. The gospel writer picks up the symbolism of the breath of God and Jesus exhales the Holy Spirit on the disciples in that room and in this one. Then Jesus gives the disciples a responsibility that I would rather leave to God’s wisdom, “If you forgive anyone their sin it is forgiven, and if you do not forgive them they are not forgiven.” Had I been there I might have said, “Umm, pardon me? Really? Isn’t that just common sense?” I would have gotten lost in my own thoughts.
I doubt Jesus ever said those words with the doctrinal intent that orthodox Christianity has applied them. To me it sounds like Jesus is providing his ID, proving he is who he claimed to be by helping the disciples in that room and in this one, remember those teaching stories that create doubt.
- Forgive seventy times seven?
- Love God and your neighbor as yourself. All the commandments are based on these two?
- Pray for my enemies and those that persecute me?
- The last will be first and the first last?
Where is Thomas while all of this is going on? Why wasn’t he with the disciples? Did he dare wander Jerusalem and risk being seen or being identified as a disciple of Jesus? We don’t know. Thomas is generally thought of in a negative way, the great doubter of the risen Jesus. Christian tradition tends to forget that the rest of the disciples didn’t believe until they saw Jesus as well. For some reason Thomas has gotten a bad rap through out the centuries. “Don’t be a doubting Thomas.” I heard this phrase from my mother more than once when I was a child. To hear her tell it I was the king of, “but why” as a child. For some reason Christian tradition equates doubt with having weak or little faith. But why? Our lives are immersed in skepticism, doubt, and we hold some of these to be very important. Christianity teaches us to love and respect all humanity, but we teach children not to talk to strangers. We doubt a stranger could have our best interest in mind, and usually, we are suspicious if someone we don’t know wants to help us. There is that little voice, you know the one that asks, “What is this person hoping to gain from helping me or take by appearing to help me?” I doubt he is just a good Samaritan. We use doubt as a layer of protection.
Maybe Thomas, our Twin, has gotten a bad reputation because we want to believe that when you meet the risen Jesus life becomes more clear, more certain, less conflicted, and choices become easier. For some, maybe it does, but what I’ve experienced in my years of living is that following Jesus makes living more complicated.
Blogging about this text, Nancy Rockwell writes, “What Thomas is asking for is proof that Jesus is not just alive, but still loves. Because what would be the point, if Jesus had come back angry?” I embrace the skepticism of my friend Thomas as a positive quality.
Don’t misunderstand. I am not suggesting question for questioning sake or to respond to every answer with a child’s cadence, “but why?” Believers, if you can’t have doubts with those who are closest to you within the community of faith, where can you have healthy doubt? What is reasonable doubt when applied to Jesus and to God? What I’ve discovered over the years is that voicing doubt in front of people requires trust.
The first disciples asked questions about their religious traditions, about the symbols, the laws, and from those questions about what was important, the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth was resurrected to become the Christ of faith. Healthy doubt has kept the Church alive and relevant for a long time. I am convinced that people don’t doubt their faith, they ask questions about their belief. Faith, it seems to me, is the experience that draws a person to God. It is a grounding experience, of hope or love or acceptance or awe or something else. Faith is that DNA instinct to feel inspiration or connected to the source of being, to God, however one wishes to name God. I don’t think that can be lost. Thomas shows us that it can be misplaced or forgotten or ignored or hidden, but not lost.
In working out our beliefs we give meaning and explanation to our faith experience. When we have doubts or ask questions, we are engaged in the growing process. It is a necessary experience more than once in life. One of the best and most frightening moments in life is when one’s experience and beliefs conflict. It is then when one asks, “Do my beliefs make sense? Not, do my beliefs make me feel better about myself or the way I live. But, given all that I have experienced and learned do my beliefs make sense?”
Christian tradition and Church history are riddled with doubt. The Jerusalem Council and Paul argued over what the Gentiles must do to be consider, “Christian.” In 325 CE the Council at Nicea tried to end doubt through the establishment of official Christian belief in the form of the Nicene Creed. Martin Luther nailed pages to a door refuting official Christian belief and practice in his time. Our denomination was birthed out of the doubt that creeds unite, and communion is meant only for those that agree with the creed. When the Church has no more challenges for itself, or for the followers of Jesus, or for culture, it becomes a salt that has lost its taste, set in its ways, co-opted by culture, and it does not provide a relevant witness to the world.
Some Christians are looking for empirical proof, an existential guarantee, or a theological certainty; and what Jesus offers, what the Christ of faith offers, is presence. Presence with an abundance of grace. Presence that lives as if the kindom of God is at hand. Presence that embraces, connects and speaks truth to power. When Jesus appeared Thomas’ doubt was transformed to courage, and words of witness to the power of God. “Have you believed because you have seen?”
Each time we worship and serve together pentecost moments can happen that bring about reconciliation and transformation. That is different than winning. Who has to walk through that door to transform your doubt into courage? Maybe it’s safer to ask Jesus to hand you a can of soup.
Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in the gospels. They are written on your heart. Blessed are you who have not seen, but believe.