"Bring A +1!" sermon on golden calves and banquet feasts

On October 12, we had two compelling texts that on the surface one might not think relate to one another. Perhaps after reading this sermon, you will think otherwise. Or not. But, anyway, the important thing here is that in the parable of the wedding feast we have some folks who say "no" to the invitation to join in, and others who say "Yes" to the invitation. An invitation to God's great party. An invitation that is always addressed to "You and a +1". Even a "+ everyone else". Meaning that we are invited to God's amazing and uber-feasty banquet - but let us also extend that invitation to those around us, and not keep it to ourselves. Or perhaps another way, let us remind our neighbors that they also have received an invitation already, so maybe they'd like to open it up and respond? And tell them that you'll drive and pick them up. 

What do you think? How do you respond to these texts? Or how do you think they apply to your life, if at all?

Read the sermon below, or listen to it.

“Bring A +1!”

Sermon, Year A, Proper 23, October 12, 2014

Plymouth United Church of Christ, Eau Claire, WI

© Rev. David J. Huber

Focus Scripture: Exodus 32:1-14 (the golden calf) and Matthew 22:1-14 (Parable of theWedding Banquet) 

[NOTE: It would be helpful to read the two scripture passages first; or if you don't want to read, the recording includes a reading of both of the passages]

Golden calves, golden calves, golden calves.... everywhere, golden calves. What are you gonna do?

What are you gonna do?

Well, we could stop making them. Could stop building them.

They are not of much value. You can’t cook ‘em. Can’t eat ‘em. Can’t milk ‘em. They don’t make babies. You can’t put ‘em in front of a plow, these golden calves. There is no reason on God’s green earth to have them, but oh Lordy, they fill our shopping malls, and our cities, and our churches, our homes, our lives. They clutter our space, our mental and spiritual space, until we can scarcely move around them for fear of knocking one loose or being crushed by one, even as we admire them and adorn them with the hopes of our prayers and a tithe of our spirit, these golden calves.

What, ray tell, are your golden calves? What are the ones that you have made in your life? Maybe some that you’ve let go of. Maybe some that you hide in the closet thinking they are hidden, but you know they’re there. Or the ones that you think were gone, but are still lurking in the shadows.

What are your golden calves?

And what are the golden calves of the church?

And we do have them. We all have our golden calves. You are not evil or a bad person, apostate, irredeemable for having a golden calf. I’m sure we all have one, if not more. Organizations have them. Countries have them.

Especially if we think of our golden calves as a reversion back to comfortable ways. Or an escape from reality, whether those ways worked or not. Or taking an easy path instead of a difficult one, even if the easy path isn’t healthy or good for us and the difficult one is the one that leads to thriving and growth. Or in the face of strangeness or anxiety, to say “No” and go after something else that isn’t good for us. The golden calves are often the place of comfort. The place of avoiding what is really going on.

The Hebrew people are having that kind of experience as they make their golden calf. They have been slaves in Egypt. Everyone who is out there with Moses and Aaron had been a slave. Generations before them had been slaves, hundreds of years. They have a history of slavery, and now God and Moses have led them to freedom from slavery. That is a wonderful and a good thing to be free, but that freedom is new. It’s scary. Plus, their freedom out of slavery has brought them literally into a desert, into the wilderness. It has also brought them metaphorically into a wilderness of anxiety and newness. So they are free, but they are literally in a desert and wilderness. They lack food and water. Their routine has been disrupted. The old systems they could rely on are no longer there. They don’t know what is going on, they are afraid, they are anxious. However bad their slavery might have been, at least as slaves in Egypt they had homes. They had beds to sleep in, they had food, they had a daily routine. They will lament a number of times in the process through the wilderness saying things like, “At least in Egypt we had leeks and onions and meat.” So they are free, but they are afraid. So this need for comfort. Their need to reduce their anxiety is overwhelming their trust in the God that just rescued them, and their trust in Moses. It is overwhelming their trust in the promise that God had made to Abraham their ancestor hundreds of years before. Their fear is overwhelming that faith, that trust. It is understandable. Stress, anxiety, change – these can make us all forget who we are and revert to bad habits or take up new ones, or do other unhelpful things.

So they are calming their anxiety by creating this visible, tangible god: the golden calf. It was something they new. They would have seen these in Egypt. They were around, and would have been part of their life experience to see icons of gods, including statues of calves and bulls. They probably had even prayed to some of the idols and icons in Egypt. It is hard to imagine that in 400 years in Egypt they hadn’t adopted and adapted to some of the Egyptian religious practices. They certainly would have seen them.

So they go to the familiar. We all do it. To find comfort in one way or another. Have a stressful day, so we go home and have a lot of pie or eat a pile of mac and cheese instead of steamed broccoli or something else healthy. We go shopping to fill the emptiness in our lives with trinkets. Or dink or smoke or whatever to hide the pain with the golden calf of a pretend reality, at least for a moment to be someone else, to pretend to be somewhere else. Or a trauma happens and we cast out our reason and fill that space with the golden calf of terror at Ebola, ISIS, or child refugees coming up from Central America, gay marriage, or whatever it is. Whatever might drive us to an irrational fear.

The wilderness is a strange place. It is a place of anxiety. That’s why it’s called wilderness. It’s not tame. It’s not domesticated. We don’t have control over the wilderness. It can be a scary place to be in because it is new and different and anxiety-causing.

When I think of where the Church is, not just Plymouth or the UCC, but the world over, the Church also is going through a lot of change and is in a kind of wilderness. We are not entirely sure what is going to happen. We are coming into uncharted land, as the whole world itself is going through uncharted land. There have been so many changes in the last few decades, and the last century. The whole world is going through change as though we’ve all been pulled out of Egypt by something and told, “We’re going to some kind of … thing... over there. We’re not sure how we will get there. Not entirely sure where it is, or even what it looks like, or how we will know that we’ve gotten there.” But something has pulled us out and set us in the wilderness. Something is leading us in that direction. I think of the technological changes. What the Internet has done to bring the world together and make it a smaller place. Airline travel has made the world smaller. Business are working globally, and tied together globally. And technological changes, political changes, social changes. The times they are a’changin’. And that change is chaotic and fast. It’s a much faster pace of change than we as a species have ever experienced before. It causes anxiety and fear.

And the church is not immune to that, either.

I’ve talked about that in other sermons before. The Church is changing as the culture changes around it. Trying to figure out how we are to be the church in the 21^st century comes with the temptation to go back to the golden calves, or to build new ones. The golden calf of doing what we’ve been doing and expecting the same results. Or the golden calf of expecting the world to conform to be like we are instead of us going out into the world and seeing what the needs are and being the Church for them. Or going into the world and rebuild into God’s vision. Like Jesus’ has shown us in all these parables of what the realm of God looks like. Or the golden calf of the 1950s, or 40s, or 60s, or 1830s, 1620s, early 1500s.... whatever we might see as the Golden Age of the Church.

Or the Golden Calf of also forgetting one thing: that above else, we are the stewards of God’s story. Of remembering the story that we tell here on Sundays. The story of hope for the future and the vision of God’s realm. We are the stewards of God’s story, or at least in part we are stewards. We don’t have the whole story. Even though maybe we don’t know exactly where we are going, we know in part where we are going: the vision of God’s realm! Where we are going is to the great banquet, the wedding feast, God’s Great Party! The path is unclear. We aren’t sure where the path is, and we will probably have to change our clothes before we get there. Maybe need to change them a few times, and do so without knowing what that clothing is going to look like at at the end.

But we have the vision ahead of us that God invites to join in with.

And I would hate to be the one that says “No” to this invitation. I don’t want to be the person who says, “No”, and I don’t want us to be the church that says “No” to that invitation. Whether it be Plymouth or the Church worldwide. I don’t want to be the one that says, “No”. I want to be the one that says “Yes.” That says, “Yes! Take me out of Egypt! Even if I have to be in the wilderness for a while, let’s go. Let’s go to the party!”

God has invited us to join in, so let’s go. Let’s say “Yes!”

And we have said “Yes” here, at least partly. We have set out on the journey and are treading along, however unsurely as we try to figure this out. But we are moving forward, I think. We’ve made some changes. We are trying to new things. Think of our Street Ministry: we didn’t have that two years ago, but that has been very successful. Not only providing relief for people who are living on the streets, but it’s been really successful and important for those of us who have been serving in it and learned from it. It is causing ripples around town. We’ve had articles in the newspaper, and people are talking about homelessness here in Eau Claire. I think partly because we went downtown and started doing this ministry, and have invited others to come with us. We have made changes of me being more active and vocal in public, in organizations and groups. I’ve had to learn new ways of being a minister and of doing things. Being out there meeting people and networking. I didn’t network before. That word scared me. But it’s actually kind of fun, being out there and meeting people. But that’s meant less time for me in the office, and meant a change in my schedule, and me learning new things. That’s a wilderness for me as well. It’s been a good experience that has also provided some fruit. Some people have been invited in because of that.

We’ve made changes to worship.

We have made changes to being more invitational to people and groups using our space. We had the Chippewa Valley LGBT that started their Bingo nights here. We hosted them for a while. They are Pizza Plus now which works better for them. But imagine if we hadn’t said “Yes” to their request to start here, it might not have gotten off the ground. And now it is a good fundraiser for them.

So we have done this, making these changes, with the vision of God’s great party ahead of us. Moving toward it.

We can ask, What does that vision look like? We might not know exactly what it will be, but we certainly can know that the church of the future and the path that we are on is a way of living that is invitational. That is open. That is fun! Let’s have fun in church! There are lots of people out there who think that church is not fun. That’s because they haven’t been here to experience fun and laughter in worship and fellowship. It’s inclusive, oriented toward justice, diverse. It is a way of living that is willing to say, “Yes!” and very hesitant about saying, “No.” Much more willing to say “Yes”. Willing to experiment. Willing to stop doing what doesn’t work and try something else. A way of living that isn’t hidden under a bushel. A way that says, “Here we are. Here is what we are doing. Come join us. Come be part of this.” It’s a way of living, of being out where the people are and mee4ting their needs, being Jesus for them but also letting them be Jesus for us. I think that people who are not in the church have an awful lot to teach us about God. There is much that we can learn from them as well.

And it is not always easy. Wilderness journeys are never easy. But they are doable. Plus, we have God’s promise. God does not call people to do impossible things. God is the God of the possible. God does not ask us to do things that God knows we will fail at. God is the God of the possible, one step at a time.

And one step is the Halloween party we are having in two weeks. That’s a nice easy step. We have a Halloween party to invite people to. So bring yourself, but bring someone with you. It is much less scary to invite someone to a Halloween party (even though it is Halloween...) than to invite them to worship: “Come to the Halloween party, have some food, have fun, play some games, get to know us.” It’s a good safe place for others to get to know us.

We also have this other small step, a challenge that has been offered to us by my coach that I thought was a good one, and that our church growth group that was a good idea, is to have 40 people in worship consistent by the end of the year. That would be a wonderful thing. There is so much more sound and energy once we pass the 35 number. It’s a good number, and a doable number, especially if you invite someone. Bring someone with you. Be invitational.

And if you know someone who you think would appreciate an invitation, who has needs that we could meet or that you think would be wonderful in this congregation but you are timid or unsure about offering that invitation – and trust me, I understand that feeling; I was very timid about offering invitations, and still find it scary – but if you know someone, give me their name and email, Facebook, phone number, whatever contact information, and I will invite them. It is hard for me to believe that I am saying that. A year ago, that scared the heck out of me, to think about inviting someone. Because I didn’t want to be “That Guy”, that evangelist proselytizing guy. That’s way out of my comfort zone. A year ago, that really scared me. Now, I’m only slightly terrified to offer those invitations. But they work, those invitations do. So give me the name and number of someone, and I’ll contact them saying, “So and so from my church offered me your name. They thought you would be a good fit, or find a good home at Plymouth. Let’s have a coffee and talk” and invite them in from there.

Think of the parable that Jesus told here. It has a group of people that I have never heard a sermon about, or that we read about in the commentaries. I think they are the unsung heroes of this parables: the ones who are told to go out and invite people, and who say “yes” to that command and do indeed go out and offer the invitation. Sure, they were being commanded by the king to do that and didn’t really have an option, but still, they agreed to go. And look at this way: how is them being commanded by the king to go invite people any different than Jesus’ command to us to go invite people? Is not Jesus our king, in some sense? Hmmmm......

There is strength in invitation. It is a kind of compliment, too! To be invited to something is to be complimented. It is saying, “I like you enough to invite you to something that I am involved with, and that I find important.”

We who are the Church, we who are the holders of the story and the hosts of God’s great party, we do have a party and a banquet that goes on here. The feast that goes on at Plymouth in the way that we pray for one another, care for each other, the fellowship we have, the meals we share, the ministries that we do together and support each other in. We have a wonderful banquet here that I think many people would love to be a part of. They just have to be invited in. Extending that invitation and going bravely through that wilderness of fear and uncertainty, not falling to the temptations of the golden calves. Eagerly saying, “Yes!” to God’s invitation to join, and as we say “Yes!” to God’s invitation, to also bring a Plus One with us.

It can be done. I know it can be done.

Amen.

Jesus - unbelievable? Believable? Hmm......

In lieu of preaching this Sunday, I wrote this dramatic exploration of the Matthew passage. 

How do you answer the Priest's final question - are Jesus' words believable? He was, we must remember, completely unauthorized by the Powers that Be - which in part were the Priestly class, the Levites, the only one of the 12 tribes of Israel given authority via God's law given to Moses to be priests and to speak for God - to do what he did. 

The parables that the Jesus in this drama offers are parables that Jesus said, though I tried to make them a bit more contemporary and less male-centric, to be less patriarchal and less kyriarchal. 

Your dialogue is appreciated. 

Drama for September 28, 2014

Matthew 21:23-32

(c) 2014 Rev. David J. Huber

Used in worship in lieu of a sermon on 9/29/2014, original performance by Hannah Zehms (Priest) and Sandy Moore (Jesus). Read the drama, or listen to theperformance.

PERMISSIONS!!! - You are completely free to use this drama without charge, but YOU MUST give me credit as the author in any bulletins or powerpoints or whatever media you use to display/broadcast what you are doing. Such credit must include my name (Rev. David J. Huber) and a link to this specific blog post, a link to my church's website (http://www.pcucc.com), mention of my facebook page (RevDavidHuber) my twitter (@revdavidhuber) and my church's facebook page and twitter (PlymouthUnitedChurchOfChrist and @plymouthec). And if you could make a donation to my church's Street Ministry, that will be Very Much Appreciated! Not necessary, but appreciated. Like I said, usage is free. But we have a lot of homeless folks here who could se some help. 

Players:

    Jesus

    Chief Priest

Priest:

Unbelievable!

Just unbelievable. I’ve been the chief priest of this temple – God’s temple! The only temple!! - for decades, and now this Jesus guy is stirring up trouble.

Oh, he’s been here before. He’s spent most of time out in the country, but he’s come here a few times. I remember he came here when he was a child, couldn’t have been any more than twelve or thirteen years old. Wise for a child. Wiser than most adults, really! Wonderful insights into scripture. He was here for days talking with the priests and holding his own, asking questions, offering ideas. I thought he would go places. He would have made an excellent priest.

I was surprised that a twelve year old kid would come back for so many days, but I heard later it was because he didn’t bother to join his family when they left! (laughter) They traveled for two days before they realized he wasn’t with them, and had to come back to get him. But that gave more time to listen to him, to teach him and learn from him.

Sad, kind of, that he had to leave. If we could have kept him here, had a chance to train him properly... [trailing off in wistful thought]

Then he shows up again a couple years ago, out there with that Baptising madman. That John. Now he goes around a self-proclaimed prophet and teacher, people call him Rabbi. Rabbi of all things! He causes problems wherever he goes. Sure, he heals the sick, but … he hangs out with women! And he has a group of followers made of prostitutes, tax collectors, traitors to his people, even terrorists! Terrorists like Simon Peter! Many of them are unclean. Not proper for a good patriotic, faithful man. And his teachings!

Jesus:

If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.

Priest:

See?

Jesus:

I tell you, in God’s world, many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

Priest:

Craziness.

Jesus:

Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Priest:

Do you hear that?

Jesus:

What is God like? God is like a banker who was ready to foreclose on hundreds of people’s homes. They owed more money than they could earn in thousands of years. But instead of foreclosing on them, the banker forgave their loans and gave them ownership of their homes.

Priest:

See? See what I mean? Banks forgiving loans? Selling all you have to give to the poor? Hanging out with the tattooed people, the folks who to go bars, the gamblers, the people who don’t have citizenship cards?

And now he’s getting physical. When he and his followers arrived a couple days ago he came to the temple with a whip and threw over the tables of our money changers and the faithful men selling animals for sacrifices so that the people can worship.

Jesus:

My house shall be called a house of prayer;

but you are making it a den of robbers!

Priest:

His house?!

But, anyway, that was two days ago...

He’s teaching in the temple now. I’m going to go listen.

Jesus:

God’s world is like a mother who had a child who demanded all his inheritance from her. He took it and ran away and squandered it all, but the mother welcomed him back, forgiving his recklessness, throwing a huge party, she was so happy to be reunited with him again.

Priest:

[To Jesus] You have gone too far, sir! Who said you could teach these words? Who gave you authority to do these things? It certainly does not come from me or the temple.

Jesus:

Let me ask you a question. And then I will answer yours.

Priest:

Fine.

Jesus:

Did John’s baptism come from heaven, or was it just something he did on his own authority?

Priest:

[back to audience] I can’t answer that! See what I mean about his trickery and causing problems? Whichever way I answer, I lose. If I say that his authority came from heaven, then Jesus will ask me why I didn’t believe him.

I grow tired of the arguing. I wish these people would just go away!

But if I say that John was just another in a long line of crazy men who only think they speak for God, I know the people will rise up against me because they think he was a prophet! I’m stuck either way.

[sighing] And it’s Passover, there are thousands of visitors here, crowding the city and creating a tinderbox ready to go off at any moment. The Romans are breathing down my neck to keep things under control and make sure a riot doesn’t break out, while the terrorists – the zealots – are threatening to rise up against the Romans... and now this to deal with. There is no good way to answer this question.

[Pause a moment; then, to Jesus] I don’t know.

Jesus:

Then I won’t answer your question.

[Pause]

Think about this: There was a factory owner who had two children. He said to the oldest one, his daughter, “I need you to go work today and watch over the factory.” She said, “No. I don’t want to. I have other plans. Tell my brother to go.” So the father went to the son and said, “I need you to go to work today and watch over the factory.” He said, “Yes, sir, I will. I was going to go out today with a friend, but I’ll cancel and go to work.” And yet, when the father came later to the factory, his son was not there and had not been there. And his daughter, the one who had refused to go, was there working diligently.

So I ask you, which of the two children did the will of their father?

Priest:

The daughter. Even though she said she would not go, she did. Her actions are more important than her words.

Jesus:

And so I say to you that the prostitutes, the poor, the prisoners, all these people you say that I should not be with, they will go to God’s house before you do.

When our people were thirsty in the desert after being led to freedom from slavery under Egypt, God provided them water through the prophet Moses. Now the people are thirsty again, but this time thirsty for life and justice from you, from Rome, from every one keeping them down. As Moses provided water in the desert, I provide water to sooth the thirst of their oppression. Perhaps if you spent more time listening to them instead of talking to them, you would know.

John came to you, baptizing in the hope and love of God, and yet you did not believe him. But these people, these whom you scorn: the tax collectors, the terrorists, the people you try to hide behind barriers, or in projects away from your nice homes so you don’t have to see them, or enclose in fences, these people believed!

And even after you saw all this, you still have not changed your minds or your hearts.

The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

Priest:

[looks at Jesus in silence for a moment; then to audience] See? See what he says and does?! Outrageous! Disruptive!

Like I said, unbelievable!

You don’t believe him, do you? Do you?

What do you think?

[walk off stage]

God's Gifts - sermon from September 21, 2014. Parable of the Landowner.

Jesus has just had an encounter with a young rich man asking Jesus "How can I be perfect?" Jesus tells him that he (the young rich man) must sell all he owns and give it to the poor. The young man walks away, sad. We never know if he follows Jesus' instructions or not, but we do know that Jesus immediately launches into this parable in which he compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a landowner who pays all his workers a full day's wages, whether they started work in the morning or in the late afternoon. 

It will be helpful to read the scripture lesson first (available in the link just below).

What do you think of a "Kingdom of Heaven" as being like a landowner in which all are paid a day's wages? Would you like to see that manifest today in our world - and if so, what would that look like? Please offer your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below.

“God’s Gifts!”

Sermon, Year A, Proper 20, September 21, 2014

Plymouth United Church of Christ, Eau Claire, WI

© Rev. David J. Huber

Focus Scripture: Matthew20:1-16

God is a generous God. A God of giving. A God who is generous beyond what is sensible. In the benediction we will use the phrase “God’s strange generosity”. I used that in the Greetings today as well. God’s strange generosity. It is generosity at a level to which we often fear to trek. Which we are often afraid to achieve, or hesitant to strive for.

We hear about God’s generosity in this passage. I think we also hear Jesus talking subtly here about gratitude as well. But I am talking about gratitude today, but talking about God’s generosity. We read this parable last Lent when we had our Soup and Scripture series on Wednesday nights, when we were talking about parables of the Kingdom of Heaven (which is the phrase that the writer of Matthew’s Gospel uses), or Realm of God, Commonwealth of God, whatever you want to call it. So think of these parables as Jesus saying also, “This is what God is like. This is God’s vision of what a right and just way is of forming community. This is what a godly world looks like.”

In this one, it’s a community of generosity and abundance. Of enough for everyone. We live in a world of abundance. We often talk about scarcity and not enough resources, but it’s a world of abundance! There is enough for everyone. We just don’t distribute it as well as we could, or as well as we should. We live in a world of abundance because it is God’s world, and God is a God of abundance and generosity.

“I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you.” There is abundance in that phrase. There is enough for everyone. But also in this is not a call for excess. Or that prosperity belief. I think there is in this parable a kick in the teeth to the prosperity gospel. God doesn’t just keep heaping riches and wealth upon us at the expense of other people, or because we please God. But we are in a world of abundance. This is also a kick in the teeth of our American capitalist Protestant work ethic that says “Work, work, work, earn, earn, earn”, but God works on a mantra of “No, it’s about give! Give, give, give, be generous, give.”

We see it in the Exodus story that we read as well. God provides the meat and the manna. Provides enough for everyone. And only enough. Just enough. God doesn’t allow people to take too much, and doesn’t allow people to take too little. Those who take too much end up with their excess being spoiled. We didn’t read that far into the story, but those with excess manna wake up the next day to find that the excess has spoiled. “Worms in the Bread.” Those who take too little find that their jars are filled until they have enough. And the employer in the parable here offering a day’s wages. That’s enough money to exist for a day. To eat and maintain life for one day. He pays that to all the workers whether they worked a full day or a partial day. He gives them a full day’s wages regardless of how much they worked. Because no matter how much they worked, for them to survive for that day, they need a day’s wages. So they deserve to live for that day. God’s world is one in which no one goes hungry, no one is homeless, no one goes without, no one suffers from lack of resources. This is the God who, on the night before we crucified him, said “This is my body, given for you. This is my blood, shed for you.” That is not a god who withholds, but one who gives! Who gives far beyond what is sensible.

This generous God. God is a giving God. That’s God’s nature. Giving manna in the wilderness. Love and grace through Jesus. Giving us the Holy Spirit. And what God does in our daily lives. Making the corn, the wheat, the cranberries grow. Makes flowers grow and bloom and give us beauty. Makes the cattle give milk, and give birth to other cattle. All other animals giving birth. Giving children to us. All this generosity of God. And also in that generosity is that every 24 hours God gives us another gift: a new day. A brand new day. Morning has broken. It is a new day. A chance to start over. A new beginning. A new opportunity. The mistakes, failures, the pain of yesterday is all in the past. Let it go. God gives us a new day to become a new person. God gives us this gift of a new and fresh start with a chance to try something new or readjust our lives. We always have this new day. This new chance to embrace God’s gift of life. Abundant life. Grace and love.

And to know that God doesn’t care so much if we arrived very early and have put in a full day’s work and with our lives in order, living good and well. Or if we have come late to the field. Or even if we haven’t gotten that far yet. Wherever we are on our journey – came late, came early, haven’t started at all yet – God loves us all the same amount. God’s love for everyone is equal. God loves us equally. “I choose to give this last the same as I give to the first.”

It is a reward... well, let’s not say that. I don’t like the word “reward” because it implies that we’ve earned it, that we’ve done something to gain it... so let’s say, “God loves us equally, and that’s God’s gift. God’s gift.”

It is not our reward, it is God’s gift to us. That’s the radical nature of God’s love. God’s generous gift to us. God’s strange generosity is that we are loved as we are. Equally. And with all of creation. All that God has made, regardless of the awful things we have done, and also – and I think is the radical break with tradition that Jesus often makes, the bold step that Jesus makes – is also that God’s gift of love comes to us regardless of the wonderful things that we have done. Regardless of the awful things we’ve done, regardless of the wonderful things we’ve done, God loves us. Because God is generous. God’s love, manna from heaven, all that we have, the fruits and vegetables of the earth, the water that we drink, each new morning... is a gift! Not a reward, not a pay off, not a payment, not a salary, not a wage, not an enticement. Just... a gift. Because that’s who God is, and that’s how God is. God is generous, giving, loving.

A gift.

Today I woke up. What a gift! A chance to start over and let go of whatever pain we might have, or suffering, guilt, shame, whatever it is. Today, I woke up! What a gift.

Today is a new day. Morning has broken. Great it with hope. A tabula rasa, an empty page to begin again. “I choose to give to the last the same as I give to you.”

Amen.

God's Realm is Built Out Of Forgiveness

My sermon from Sunday, September 14. The scripture lesson from Genesis was Joseph forgiving his brothers, and the lesson from Matthew is Jesus answering Peter's question about how many times a person needs to forgive another. I touch on the importance of us offering forgiveness - especially to ourselves - but most of this sermon explores the idea that Jesus is also talking very much about what God is like. Jesus never tells us to do something or live in a way that is not being modeled already by God. 

What do you think of when you hear the word "forgive"? How forgiving do you think God is? Are there things that we can do that are unforgivable, either by another human, or perhaps even by God?

“God’s Realm is Built of Forgiveness”

Sermon, Year A, Proper 19, September 14, 2014

Plymouth United Church of Christ, Eau Claire, WI

© Rev. David J. Huber

Focus Scripture: Matthew18:21-35 

After reading this scripture lesson, which is definitely about forgiveness, I don’t want to go off in the direction of saying that this is all about how YOU have to offer forgiveness for everything. Although I do think forgiveness is a very good thing and is important for us to do. Part of our vocation as followers of Jesus is that we are to forgive. It is one of the more important things that we do, and I challenge you to be more forgiving. And often, forgiving has more to do not so much with releasing the burden from, say, someone who has hurt you. But forgiveness is good for the forgiver: to let go. To take the pain or anger or whatever out of our hearts and say, “I’m not going to live with that any more. I’m going to let that go and move on.”

But if there can be forgiveness with reconciliation, with a spouse, parent, child, co-worker, fellow church member... if there can be reconciliation than that’s even better. To come back into relationship is a wonderful thing. But sometimes that can’t happen. Someone has abused or hurt too much that maybe you don’t want to be in a relationship with that person any more. Or if the person who hurt you is dead and there can’t be reconciliation. Forgiveness is a way of saying, “I’m not going to live in the past any more. I’m not going to carry that baggage and let it rule or control my life any more.”

And especially so if the person that you need to forgive is yourself. To not live in the past. To let it go. God forgives you, so let it go.

There is that lesson in this scripture passage that I read. But what I am really thinking of today is not so much our own responsibility or our own call to be forgiving people. Sometimes to tell people that they ought to be more forgiving is a way of piling on guilt as well. It can be an unforgiving attitude.

What has hit me, and what I have been thinking of as I have read scripture this week, is this way of living that Jesus sets up here. Not just saying “YOU have to forgive”, but that Jesus is offering us a way of life. He sets up an incredibly radical rubric of a life based on forgiveness. Even just to say that you should forgive is a pretty radical kind of statement. We don’t like to talk about forgiveness in our greater society a whole lot. We like to talk about retribution, punishment, holding on to anger, being self-righteously right. So even if Jesus had said to forgive once, that would have been pretty radical. But he doesn’t say that. He doesn’t say forgive once. He doesn’t say to forgive twice. Or to forgive seven times. He says to forgive 77 times, or we could also translate it here as 7 times 70 times. Jesus says to forgive 77, or 7x70 times.

When Jesus is talking, whether it be forgiveness in this case, or feeding the hungry, or showing mercy, or serving the poor, or healing people. He’s not just saying what we HAVE to do. He’s not just saying, “YOU have to do this.” He’s setting up a vision, an example, he’s showing us, talking about the realm of God or the Commonwealth of God. He’s saying, “This is what God is like.” Not just something for us, that we have to do; but saying that this is what God is like. This is what God does. “And now that you have seen and heard what God is like, now the decision is up to you. How are you going to live? But I will set up this vision so you know what God looks like.”

So it isn’t just Jesus saying to us that to “get into heaven” or to be right with God you have to forgive X amount of times. The number that he picks here is not a specific number, but it’s a number that means “a lot.” The number he uses here is an exaggeration. He’s saying, “This is what God’s realm looks like. This is what God is like. God will forgive 77 times, or 7x70 times.” It’s a hyperbolic number, not an absolute number. Seven is a holy number. 77 a holy number, 7x70 a holy number. This is just a big number. We can read it as meaning “unlimited.”

What is God like? Unlimited forgiveness. More forgiveness than you think is reasonable. Way more than whatever you think might be reasonable. Way way way way way way way more than any of us might ever think is reasonable or sensible an amount to forgive. That’s how God forgives. That’s how loving God is. To go way, way beyond whatever we might think in our human thinking is sufficient and a good ending point. Whatever point we might think that we can go, “Well, you know, I gave it a shot, I forgave this many times and nothing has happened, nothing has changed.” Jesus is saying that’s not even a good beginning yet. God hasn’t even begun with that few times. God’s desire to forgive and to love is so beyond our imaginations.

And whatever God looks like, whatever God’s commonwealth looks like, then that is also to be the model for the Church. It is a model of what the Church ought to look like. Whether it is Plymouth, or the Church worldwide. It is what we ought to be about as well. To love and to forgive as much as what Jesus sets up here as a model of God’s vision. Our vocation as followers of Jesus is to create community that looks like God. To be god-like. And part of that community, you can see from these words of Jesus, is to be a community of unlimited and relentless and radical forgiveness. To be forgiving of one another. To invite people in to this community. To say to people who are beaten down by the world around them, invite them in, and let them experience and know a forgiving God. To let them know that however imperfect we are at forgiving, however imperfect we are at loving, God is not imperfect. “Come into our circle and know that you are forgiven, which means that you are loved and that you are beloved. Come and know that with God you are worthy. You are okay. You measure up.”

Our message to the world of love and mercy is born out partly through forgiveness. Through being forgiven. Our message entrusted to us to speak and live is that forgiveness is better than retribution. Forgiveness is better than violence. Forgiveness is better than hate. Forgiveness is better than just holding on to you anger or your hurt as though that makes you more righteous by not forgiving. By not letting that other person win. But as long as you hold on to that, they ARE winning! You’re life is not as full or good. Forgiveness is better than hurtful comments or dehumanizing speech, whether it is in real life, or on Facebook, on the comments section of an article on the web. There is no much non-forgiveness in the world. It’s hurting people. It’s hurting us as a species and as a world community.

Forgiveness is so important.

So maybe we can’t fix the worlds problems. We can’t make God’s realm appear at the end of the week or even by the end of the millennium. But we can live into the vision that Jesus showed us. The vision of God’s realm showering love and mercy. By being a community which values these virtues. By community meaning this church, Plymouth Church, which we are all part of. Being a community here in which people find forgiveness of one another’s mistakes and especially forgiveness for ourselves.

Sometimes it can be more difficult to forgive ourselves than to forgive someone else. To forgive our own mistakes, our own errors, than it is to forgive the hurts that others have done to us.

But know this: you ARE forgiven! You can let it go.

And we – the church – can be a respite from a world that says that we don’t measure up. That’s the message we hear from advertising all the time, and hear from other places, that we don’t measure up. We’re too fat or too thin. Or we have the wrong body shape, or we’re too obsessed with our body. Our homes aren’t clean enough, big enough, or we don’t live in the right neighborhood. We don’t send our kids to the right schools. We don’t wear the right clothes or drive the right car. All these messages about how we don’t measure up. So much telling us that we are not worthy.

All those toxic messages that we hear.

And in this frenzy of harsh messages that beat us down and that hammer our souls, we who are followers of Jesus have this message from Jesus that is the antidote to all the harshness. This message of what God is like. To say “Don’t judge by these human measures. Look at the world through God’s eyes.” A message to share with our neighbors, that we invite others to come here to hear and to experience. The message through Jesus that says, “You DO measure up! You ARE worthy! Whatever you have done, whatever you have failed to do, whoever you are, you are worthy! God loves you just as you are. In God’s realm you are loved and you are worth and you matter. You are made in God’s image and are holy, right, and good, and worthy of love. And even if you think you have done something that is unforgivable, it is forgiven, and you are forgiven. Seven times, seventy-seven times, seven times seventy times, and beyond. Because that’s who God is. And that’s how God acts toward us.”

Thanks be to God!

Amen.

I wrote a letter to friends on 9-11-01 after walking home

Letter to friends and family and the world 

This is a letter I sent to my friends on Tuesday, Sept. 11, after returning home from my long walk from the World Trade Center. 

To all my friends who have inquired already, and those who might be wondering about the events in NYC this terrible day, I send this note. I thank you for the many messages and phone calls you have offered to me and to my sister and to Yuki to find out if I was safe.

Coming home from the World Trade Center and finding so many emails and phone messages was a real delight, although as we know, the circumstances were not good. But rest assured, I did escape without injury.

I had always wondered just how long it would take to walk between work and 139th street where I live, and now I know: about 4 hours. Work is *not* within walking distance. I began work as normal this morning about 8:00 am in World Financial Center Building 3, which is across the street from the World Trade Center Tower 2, the first building to be hit by terrorists.

As we watched from our office window the flames and smoke pour out from that first strike in Tower 2, our thought was simply that a very unfortunate - but possible - accident had taken place. Fairly unworried, we sort of went back to be about our work, though many of us continued to watch CNBC on the many monitors that are placed around the trading floor, and which some poeple have on their TVs on their desks.

After the second plane hit, we realized it was intentional, and called for the evacuation of our building. Though we could see the damage fairly well through our windows, we still did not have a good sense of just how terrible it was. I left our building and headed north a block or two. As I was walking through a group people watching the towers, I heard the sudden intake of breath and horrified gasps. I turned around, and witnessed a person - a fellow human being - jumping out of a window from near the top of the tower. That was just the first jumper I was to see.

It was a sickening feeling, knowing that for those people, jumping was probably the most painless and hopeful way to die, as they were certainly trapped at the top with no hope of getting out. I think of those people's families, and shudder and recoil at this senseless murdering. I do not wish to ever be witness to such a thing again.

I soon came across Claire, a woman with whom I work, who needed to take the ferry across the river to get to New Jersey. We walked back to the Ferry, which is located on the other side of the building I work in, and has a full - and close - view of both towers. Thankfully, she managed to get onto the ferry and it left the dock just as the first building collapsed. It was an incredible sight - though it is diffuclt to describe something which is, ultimately, such a horrible thing. It was loud, it was scary, and created a cloud of debris and dust that went much higher than the 45 story building I work in. The crowd who were gathered there, including me, once we realized what was happening, ran like hell, and I don't mind saying that to you all. [Though I soon realized the danger of running in a crazy crowd, so stood off to the side].

I followed the advice of the police who were shouting constantly "Don't look, just go North!!!!!" I went North, and didn't look back, until I hit about 20th street. Being more than a mile away, I felt safe turning around to look. After a few seconds I was witness to the destruction of the second tower. That tower came down in two parts - first the top slid down, and when the dust cleared just enough to see an angled portion of the tower left, broken beams and metal sticking up like a building you might see in an "end of the world" movie, the angled part also slid down, with a mighty roar and another fantastic plume of smoke. I continued walking north, and did not rest too easy until I was north of the Empire State Building. Beginning at about 50th street (or as we New Yorkers would say, beginning in the 50s), life around me became more normal. People were gathered in parks, mothers and fathers were pushing their children in strollers, people ate at outside cafes. Of course, it only makes sense, but after coming from the chaos of the World Trade Center, it was surreal.

As I walked through the 60s and then the 70s, the amount of "normal life" increased, until perhaps about the high 70s, when one would have no idea, in watching people, that something had happened, though many people carried radios with them, and did have stunned looks about them. But there was no panic, no running, no crying, no police officials like I had been immersed in earlier in the morning. Still shaken, and occasioanlly realizing that I had just watched two buildings be destroyed, I moved into Riverside Park, to enjoy some quiet and some nature along the river. It was a horrible thing what happened today, and though I wasn't totally at ground zero, and managed to avoid any of the smoke and dust, watching those magnificent towers, those giant, tall, admittedly eye-stain-ugly late-60s architecture towers go down was stunning. Not stunning like a diamond, but stunning as in "I was stunned". I still am stunned.

I can barely comprehend these towers, which I have linked with NYC for so many years, are gone. And not just gone, but actually attacked with intent to destroy by people who have no value for life. To think of the loss of life, which must be in the thousands between the innocents on the airplanes, the innocents in the towers, and the fireman who were in the buildings trying to help people out when they collapsed.

I am not quite sure what to think of this event, or how to feel about it. It is one thing to watch disaster strike from afar; quite another to be in it, and to realize that it happened here in the US, where such things have not happened before. Random bombing and exloding is something for Isreal or Palestine, or London, Afghanistan, Africa or Europe. But not here. Not in the US. And certainly not in my workplace.

I am confused and still in shock, and have finally turned off the radio, as I couldn't take listening to the news any more.

My prayers go out to those who were trapped in the buildings, and trapped in the airplanes. My prayers go out to their families. My prayers also go out to those who did this, and those who would like to have done this. Though their act was evil incarnate, and they must be brought to justice swiftly and surely, and though we must do what is necessary to guarantee to the best of our ability that this not happen again, still our prayers must be with them, and especially with the rest of their cabal. Jesus certainly taught us to pray for our enemies and those who would do us harm. Pray for them, that they might come to know truth and peace.

And of course I pray for all of us, those of us who will spend much time wondering if we are safe, wherever we are. Always wondering.

I pray that you are all angry about this, but I pray that our anger be the anger of good toward evil, the anger that serves as our energy to drive us into constructive action, and not the senseless anger that cries merely for revenge and offers no real solution. Let us be angry! I'm angry as hell - they almost killed me, and they did kill a lot of innocents! Senselessly, brutally, for no reason that any human could comprehend. let us be outraged! Let us be righteously shocked! let us call for our leaders to swiftly destroy this evil wherever it is, and to eliminate it forever.

But let us also do so with hearts and mind open, and not be a mob that does not reflect on its actions, and that quashes evil with only more evil in the name of "good". Be a force for good, and pray for us and for our country that our actions will be done in mindfulness, with full understanding of what we are about to do, and not out of the mindlessness of a berserker who simply smashes and hacks at anything that gets in his way.

I do not know when I will be able to return to work. I do not even know how much, if any, damage my building suffered, though I imagine it lost the windows and is filled with with a thick coating of dust at the least. I heard on the radio that later this afternoon another building went down, though I doubt it was mine, since the Towers, if you look at one of the good cnn.com maps, has numerous smaller buildings immediately next to them. But who knows how much collateral damage might still happen in the next couple days.

I am praying for you all, and for us, and for this country, and for our world at this time.

Let us give thanks for what we have, and for those who escaped the clutches of violence.

I am grateful - very grateful - that I was led out of the violence unhurt and unscathed. And let us pray for God's presence to heal and to strengthen us, to unite us, and to bind us together in love and peace like the children of God that we all are, that war may no longer be known by any child or adult.

I leave you all with a fitting quote from a good friend of mine that my random quote generator popped up when I opened this email.

"In a land where ignorance is a virtue, the blind man is king" - Joe Raposo, Statesman and composer, August 27, 2001 

Blessings to you all,
David

Jesus eventually listened to himself – what if we did, too?

From Sunday, August 17 - continued fighting in Gaza, uproar in Missouri over the violent shooting death of an unarmed African-American youngster, and continued nastiness at the border between Mexico and the U.S. with the few tens of thousands of children who are hoping to reunited with families and, sadly, being abused - with some of those who are shouting and protesting and calling them names being self-avowed Christians. So in this story in which Jesus calls a Canaanite woman a dog, and she calls him on the carpet about it, we find some relation to today. And we find a Jesus who is also in process of learning, expanding his theology to be more generous and inclusive. At the end, I ask the question, "Who are the dogs of today?" Who do you think the dogs of today are?

“Jesus eventually listened to himself – what if we did, too?”

Sermon, Year A, Proper 15, August 17, 2014

Plymouth United Church of Christ, Eau Claire, WI

© Rev. David J. Huber

Focus Scripture: Matthew15:21-28 

One wonders – I wonder, anyway – Does Jesus ever listen to himself when he speaks? Does he pay attention to what he’s saying, or does it just come out?

I’m reminded of the show Family Guy, which some of you know. It’s a very funny, hilarious, animated show in which the main character, Peter Griffin is, well, stupid. He doesn’t track information at all well, and spouts nonsense all the time. Crazy political stuff, social stuff, stuff about religion. Whatever the topic, he speaks in nonsense in all the time. In one episode, after Peter has offered a particularly silly and nonsensical screed, one of his friends asks him, “Do you ever listen to yourself?” And Peter responds, “Eh, I tune in and out.”

I wonder, does Jesus listen to himself here?

He calls this woman a dog. That’s after ignoring her. At first he doesn’t respond to her or even acknowledge her presence. Then, when he does finally choose to notice, he calls her a dog and he shows no concern for her daughter.

This is not the touchy-feely cuddly kind of Jesus that makes us feel comfortable. The kind of Jesus that we may have been taught about in Sunday school or in other churches in which he always kind and compassionate, he’s never reactive, always calm and in control of the situation and in control of himself. And he’s just, gosh, so swell and super nice all the time. That’s not always the Jesus that’s in the Gospels. Jesus is not always just a touchy-feely nice guy that never changes his mind, or never needs to learn anything, because he’s perfect. That’s not always who Jesus is. Sometimes he’s kind of rude, cranky, human. This is a very human Jesus, I think, that we get in the passage here. A very human Jesus who is very much a product of his culture and who carries with him some of those unquestioned uncritically accepted biases that the culture puts on its citizens.

Jesus is being mean here. But culturally, what he’s doing, might be kind of typical. Others might not look at him as being particularly mean.

But I wonder, Does he listen to himself?

His reaction here is particularly surprising because of what has just happened before this, which we did not read. But in the passage right before this, Jesus is having a disagreement with the Pharisees and the the Scribes. They have questioned him because he hasn’t washed his hands properly before eating, and may be eating unclean food and eating with the wrong people that makes him unclean. Jesus responds to them, “It is not what goes in the mouth that makes one unclean; it’s what comes out.”

It’s what you say. The words that you use that can make you unclean. Not the food that goes in, but what you say.

So Jesus has just said that. And then he goes to Tyre and Sidon, another area of Israel, and he tells this foreign woman that she’s nothing but a dog.

It’s what comes out, Jesus.

As though he had not listened to his previous self here at all. This woman is also called a Canaanite which brings back some memories of the Canaanite people who had originally lived in that area. Lived, in fact, in the entire region of the Promised Land that the Hebrew people had taken. Think of Moses and the Exodus, leading the people through the wilderness for 40 years, then coming into the Promised Land that God had given them. Well, there were already people there. The Canaanites were already there. So the Hebrews come in and displace the Canaanites – such displacement mostly being done by killing them – but they didn’t get rid of all the Canaanites. Then they took the land and it became Israel. Then in the 6^th century as Babylon was attacking to conquer Israel, it was the Jewish/Hebrew people in the Tyre and Sidon area who were basically traitors and in collusion with the Babylonians to conquer Israel. They were basically traitors to their country and helped Babylon take it over. So calling this woman a Canaanite here is a remembrance of the people who were displaced as the Hebrews took the Promised Land, and a reminder of the betrayal So the rest of Judaism had some bad blood toward these people, even in Jesus’ time.

And that’s a battle that continues today. The fighting between Israel and Palestine is a remnant of this Jewish people versus Canaanite people battle that has been going for 3000-3500 years, arguing over whose land it really is, who God really gave that land to. It continues.

But for Jesus, the woman in this story was basically a bad person because of her ancestry and because of where she lives. And so of course Jesus calls her a dog. Once he finally decides to acknowledge her existence and admit that she’s there. Of course he calls her a dog: her ancestors 500-600 years ago helped betray Israel. Obviously she must carry the guilt for that because we don’t forgive people for what their ancestors did, they carry that guilt with them. Right? Isn’t that how we do things? The disciples totally understand that as well. They insist that she goes away. They are products of their culture, just as much as Jesus was. They insist that she go away. “She’s nothing, Jesus, she’s just a foreign woman. She’s not like us. She’s not one of us. And if she’s not one of us, not like us, then we owe her nothing. So pay her no mind.”

But, by God, she’s a mother with a sick child. She knows who Jesus is. She calls him Lord and Son of David. She is a mother of a sick child and she’s not afraid to tell Jesus that he’s wrong. She embarrasses him. She shames him, even. Uses his language against him. Says, basically, “You think I’m a dog? You think I’m a dog? Fine. I’ll play that role. If that is the role I have to play in order to heal my daughter, I will play that role. Whatever it takes to make my daughter better. I’ll do whatever you want. If you want me to be the dog, I’ll be the dog. But I want you to remember one thing: even dogs get to eat crumbs. Are you telling me that you are so lofty, and I am so lowly, that you can’t even give me a crumb? Even the cruelest master feeds his dogs.”

Now, she wasn’t there when Jesus was talking about how it is not what goes in the mouth but what comes out. She wasn’t there. She didn’t hear him say that. She doesn’t know that he said it. But by her response, she makes him listen to himself. She makes him hear his own words. She forces him to live by his own words. That’s a powerful moment.

He’s transformed by her faith. He learns. He changes his mind about her, and about who she is. And probably about all her people. Changes his mind in the direction of love and compassion.

Who are the dogs today? Those we might not want to give even a crumb? Who are the dogs today? Who are the dogs in your life? The children at the border with Mexico? Gays, lesbians, transgendered people? Immigrants? Palestinians? Africans suffering from Ebola? Or the Africans suffering from hunger or war? The people who live on the streets? Unarmed young African-American men? The Michael Browns of the world? People on death row? People who are asking for nothing more than a little bit of dignity by having access to health care and food for their family, who are very much like this woman who wants nothing more than health for her daughter? Who are the dogs for today?

Jesus is forced to listen to himself. This woman forced him to listen to himself and he did and he changed his mind and he changed his mind in the direction of love. This radical, reckless, costly love. Jesus listened to himself and changed his mind toward love.

What would happen if we listened to Jesus as well?

Amen.  

Reflections on suicide after Robin Williams' death/suicide and depression

Intro: I wrote this originally for the local newspaper, back in July of 2013. Today, August 12 of 2014, I am thinking of suicide (and mental illness) again because of Robin Williams' death two days ago, which appears to be suicide driven by deep depression. Since I am thinking of this again, I thought I would share this article with you. It is not so much about depression, but about how to respond to the tragedy that is suicide, and I poke a hole in that terrible platitude "God never gives you more than you can handle."


Probably more of us than not have been touched by suicide, either by our own attempt or that of someone we know. Suicide is increasing, particularly by returning soldiers (especially those facing difficulty accepting or finding mental health care) and gay teenagers literally bullied to death by classmates and some religious communities. And yet, suicide remains a largely taboo subject. Remember how we used to refer to cancer in hushed whispers as “the c-word”, hid developmentally disabled children in the attic, or called the gay couple “roommates”? As though if we don’t speak it, it doesn’t exist. But silence only gives it more power. Just as cancer research received public support only once we were willing to reduce the shame by saying the word, and people with disabilities and our LGBT brothers and sisters started achieving social (and churchly) acceptance only when we started speaking openly, perhaps speaking about suicide can better help prevent and overcome its pain.

You may have heard an adage that as unhelpful as it is old: “God never gives you more than you
can handle.” Unhelpful because, firstly, God does not inflict us with suffering. What God gives is
goodness and blessings. Not life-numbing pain.

Secondly, the fact of suicide also very obviously shows that some people DO have (but are not "given”) more than they can handle. Suicide comes from a place of deep suffering (depression, PTSD from war or sexual abuse, bullying, etc.) that is often kept hidden from others, and which most of us will never experience nor comprehend.

But lack of comprehension does not mean we cannot empathize with the suffering of the committer, and the suffering of their loved ones left with a lifetime of anger, shame, and wondering, Why? or, Did I fail somehow?

The answers to those two questions, by the way, are: We cannot possibly ever know, and No.

Especially we people of faith ought express compassion to eliminate the stigma and shame. Suicide is not an unforgivable sin. Those left behind need not feel shame. They certainly ought not be shamed. Who wants to hear from a cleric that a spouse or child who commits suicide is in hell? Some traditions even refuse to do funerals (or have them in their sanctuary) for people who have committed suicide. Where’s the compassion in that? I can imagine gods of our own invention being that evil, but the God of the Bible is loving and consoling that I imagine greets the sufferer with open arms and releases their pain. Shame is a too-prevalent evil in this world, but only because we are so easily allured by its narrative of self-righteousness. Is there a balm in Gilead? With God, always.

I have known people who committed suicide, and their deaths diminished me and those they left behind. But the shame put on survivors, or survivors put on themselves, is just as crippling.

Maybe worse.

And they have few outlets for their pain and anger.

Suicide has long been considered just a theological problem: call it a sin and leave it at that. But
that is as unhelpful as the above adage. Easy answers are rarely faithful. Suicide is mostly a
psychological issue, but is economic and political. We need affordable shame-free access to
mental health care. We need more vigilance in ensuring all our children are safe from bullies.
Our religious institutions need to be less bullying from their pulpits and more willing to greet
The Other with love. There is much we must, and which we can, do. But only if we talk about it.