Simple, But Dangerous - a sermon on Matthew 10:24-39

My sermon from June 22 on the Matthew text in which Jesus says, "Those who love mother or father more than me are not worthy of me" and "I have come to bring a sword". Challgening words.

“Simple, but Dangerous”

Sermon, Year A, Proper 7, June 22, 2014

Plymouth United Church of Christ, Eau Claire, WI

© Rev. David J. Huber

Focus Scripture: Matthew 10:24-39

These are some rather harsh sounding words from Jesus. Words that we might often offer in public discourse. Not that they are mean words, or vindictive, or insulting. But they are certainly challenging words. “Whoever loves mother or father more than me is not worthy of me,” and so on. “And I have come to set a man against father, to set a daughter against mother,” and so on.

Challenging words. And seemingly harsh words. They sound almost anti-family values. As though we are not supposed to like or love our family members. But I don’t think that is quite what Jesus is saying. I don’t think he is saying “Don’t love them”, and I don’t think he is saying, “My sole intent in coming to you is to cause disruption and division and once I’ve turned the world into chaos, then my job is finished.” That is not his intent, to disrupt and cause division. I think what he’s getting at here is just to offer some sense of reality. He is saying, “My message of love, my message of radical inclusion of others, of the outsiders, of the least of these... my message of love, if you live that out, if you follow my way, that will cause some tension and division in your families and in your community because not everyone is going to want to do that. It will be challenging to some people.”

And those early Christians, those early followers of Jesus before they were called Christians – they were called Followers of the Way or Jesus Followers – there was division in families and in the community. What they were doing did cause disruption and some stress. Those first followers of Jesus, and Jesus himself, were all Jewish. They came out of the Jewish tradition. And later on down the line, non-Jewish people started coming into the movement and being Jesus Followers as well. But those first ones were all Jewish. They came out of Judaism, and for the first 50-60 years or so after the resurrection, they were still worshiping in the synagogues with their Jewish brothers and sisters and families as well as gathering on Sundays for a meal and to remember the resurrection and talk about Jesus. But they had stayed in the synagogues for quite a while.

And that caused some tension. They weren’t really sure, “Are we Jewish, not Jewish? If Gentiles come in, do they need to become Jewish first and then become followers of Jesus?” And those that weren’t following Jesus at all were getting annoyed by the Jesus Followers coming into the synagogue. So it caused some tension. We know also that it caused tension in individual families in which some members became Jesus Followers while others did not. So there was the regular tension that one gets with family members holding to differing religious beliefs. There was also persecution happening of followers of Jesus, coming from Rome and also from some in the Jewish leadership. So there was some tension also just around safety issues. Family members saying, “We want you stop with this Jesus thing, because you are in danger. We don’t want you to have problems.”

So there was religious tension, tension about safety for the Jesus Followers, and caused tension in that wider community of the Jewish family. Especially once the Jesus Followers started bringing in Gentiles. Around the time that Matthew’s Gospel was written, around the year 80 which is about 50 years after the resurrection, is also about the time that the Jesus Movement started moving out of the synagogues and the split between Judaism and Christianity started to happen. The Gospel here is also reflecting some of that movement. That movement out of the synagogues also caused rifts and tensions in the families.

So at some level, Jesus is simply being realistic by warning that by following in his way, some people will be annoyed, challenged, or others from one’s family and community that don’t want one to do that.

It will cause some disruption. Not that disruption is the intent, but a side effect. For whatever reason, that message of “Love your neighbor” bothers some people. It will bother, and it does bother, some people. Still does today.

I think also in these words about loving mother or father or whoever more than Jesus not being worthy of Jesus, is a larger message. Not to not-love the family, but a warning about loving family more than one loves Jesus. Jesus will say later in Matthew’s Gospel, “Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me.” We are to see Jesus in each other. Some of what Jesus is saying here, then, is, “If you love your father or mother more than you love the other people around you, then you are not showing love to me. You are to love all people as much as you love those in your family, or your tribe, or your friends.”

That is a challenging message to a culture in which one’s first duty was to the family. Take care of your family first, then maybe your tribe, and then work up and out from there, eventually getting to neighbors. The commitment was to biological family first. So it was a challenging message that your non-biological neighbors are just as important.

Think of how God, in the Genesis story we read about Hagar and Ishmael being cast out out of the community. They were cast out by Abraham and Sarah, and yet God still includes them in the circle of of God’s promise and God’s family. They are still part of God’s world, even though others cast them out. Where is God? With the cast out and cast off just as much as anyone else.

We have as much responsibility to our neighbors as we do to our biological families. So love your mom and dad, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters. But also love Jesus just as much, and show your love for Jesus by loving your neighbors: the outsiders and all people. That’s how we show our love for Jesus, by how we love others. Include ALL in this Realm of God, that we’ve talked about a lot this year, especially during Lent. What is the Realm of God? What is God’s vision? One vision is a world in which all people are loved and respected.

I just spent a week at camp, and when I think of “What does God’s realm look like?” To me it looks a lot like a week of camp. The way that our camp is set up, the culture and community we create. A community in which we are respectful of one another. For the camp we had last week, we have had a couple girls with Downs Syndrome who have been part of the camp for a number of years as participants. And whenever we have group time, they are included. And when they speak, even though sometimes they are difficult to understand or might say something not related to what is going on (and they are not the only ones who often say things not related to what is happening), I am really impressed at how the other kids and adults listen to what they have to say. No one talks over them or tells them to be quiet, but they are listened to just as much as anyone else. That’s a God’s Realm kind of way of living. Or the way the older kids, in this camp with third through twelfth grade, invite the younger kids to sit at table with them at meals, or invite them to play games, take them on a canoe ride, be their buddy for swimming... the older and younger mixing together so well. That, I think, is what God envisions for us.

The camp is also a Music, Arts, Dance, and Drama camp, so lots of performances and art happening. And whenever someone performed, no matter how shaky or imperfect, or how well done, whenever someone performed they received a full round of applause and support and encouraged. A wonderful experience of inclusion. There is no reason that life could not be like that outside of camp or outside of church!

That is part of what Jesus is talking about here.

Loving one another. Love your family, and love everyone else just as much. Love your neighbor as you love yourself, or as you love those who are your friends or your family. Take the love for family and friends and expand that out beyond the confines of biology or similarity or geography or whatever we invent to separate. Expand it to include all of God’s creation.

Love Jesus by following in his way. Follow in his way by loving his people.

I think it really is as simple as that.

Amen.

Now that you have read the sermon, I offer you a chance to respond: how do you hear Jesus' words about not loving mother or father more than him? Or his other words from that passage? And what do you think of the final phrase, "it really is as simple as that."? Please comment!

July article for Plymouth's "Good News" newsletter

Dear friends and family of Plymouth,

I have just returned from a week of directing one of our summer camps, the Music Art Dance and Drama camp at Moon Beach. Four of our young people were also there, and we had a magnificent time! We are so blessed to have two amazing year-long camps/retreat-centers in our Conference. Thousands of youth and adults come closer to God and to one another at the many camps, retreats, workshops, and other gatherings that take place at Moon Beach and Pilgrim Center. Take a look at their offerings at http://www.ucci.org - you might find something that would interest you, with activities for children like summer camp, but also family camps for families of any size and ages (children not required); and activities year-round for adults like golfing, quilting, cooking, Wild Women, song writing, health and wellness, and retreats for those over 60. Part of Our Church's Wider Mission donations goes to support our camps, and through the Conference's generosity over the years we have updated them to be modern in amenities while maintaining a spiritual sense of peace and calm. 

I was also at our Conference's Annual Meeting, which is always a fun family reunion of a few hundred people from around the state. We voted for the Conference to be Open and Affirming, which was more a validation of how we have operated for the past 20 or so years than anything new. We also celebrated 20 years of our Lay Academy and the 200+ graduates, some of whom are now serving churches as licensed pastors, and most of whom are serving their congregations as dedicated and educated lay leaders. We heard reports from our search committees about thier processes in finding a permanent Conference Minister and two Associate Conference Ministers, which searches are ongoing, hopefully to be filled by next summer. And we had our usual excellent worship services, some other business (like passing a budget), and a lot of fellowship time as the gathered church. 

Here at Plymouth, we continue to work on our evangelism and outreach, with some new members to be added in the coming weeks. Our street ministry has been very busy, especially helping a few new mothers through their pregnancies and births, and also the many others of our brothers and sisters living on the streets who need food, water, clothing, rides to job interviews or help with finding work, and so on. We are doing some powerful ministry here in Eau Claire, thanks to our dedicated volunteers and many of you who have provided food, clothing, and money donations. We can always use extra money for gas - or better yet, gas cards, which will help Plymouth twice: our income from the scrip, plus the help to our street ministry.

Good things are going on for Plymouth and our denomination. You probably know someone who would love to join in on what we are doing - invite them! Lots of people are not in churches on Sundays, and a recent statistic I saw said that one reason they aren't there is because most of them have never been invited. 

Many blessings,

My response to local paper's question about the overturning of Wisconsin's anti-gay amendment

The question was "What are your thoughts on a judge's ruling effectively legalizing gay marriage in Wisconsin?"

I wrote: 

This ruling is a beautiful move for justice and equality. News of it came during the annual meeting of the Wisconsin Conference of the United Church of Christ, the denomination I am in. Our leaders interrupted a speaker to tell us. There was much rejoicing and joyful spontaneous singing of the Doxology! One of our Milwaukee pastors married his partner within minutes of the ruling and sent us pictures. We saw two happy grooms, whose relationship has lasted longer than many 'traditional' marriages, finally allowed the legal and social benefits of having their relationship validated by the state. My denomination has ordained, married, celebrated, and fought for rights of our LGBT brothers and sisters for decades. I am overjoyed that Wisconsin is moving FOWARD, joining other states (and my church) in recognizing basic human dignity by celebrating love, not putting unjust and hateful limits on it. May full legalization come soon!

"What about Herstory?" A sermon on Paul and the slave girl, abducted Nigerian girls, and the power of listening to story.

Today’s scripture lesson from Acts is the story of Paul, Silas, the writer of the Book of Acts (probably same guy who wrote the Gospel of Luke) and some others in Phillipi. They are beset by a slave girl with a spirit of prophecy, who after a couple days of haranguing our band of evangelists, annoys Paul so much he casts the spirit out of the girl. This upsets her owners because they relied on the income they received from her ability to see the future, and Paul and Silas end up in jail. While in jail, they sing hymns, and after an earthquake opens the bars to their cells, they refuse to escape. Instead, they tell their jailer about Jesus and he and his family are all converted and baptized.

In this sermon, I explore the question, “But what about the slave girl’s story?” and do that in dialogue with the abduction of the school girls in Nigeria (and the stories they all have), and our current inability in the U.S. to listen to one another’s stories and instead just shout at or demean one another, or think that if we disagree on one thing we ought not respect each other.

Some questions for you to answer in the comments section: Does telling your story or listening to others have power to you, or importance to you? How so? How is it valuable, if at all, to our social discourse and ability to live together as people? Feel free to answer those, or answer your own questions, or make your own observations. Thank you for reading, and God bless you in your faith journey.

“What About Herstory?”

Sermon, Year A, Easter 4, March 11, 2014

Plymouth United Church of Christ, Eau Claire, WI

© Rev. David J. Huber

Focus Scripture: Acts16:16-34

This passage from Acts I have read many times over the years. I was always really impressed by this incident in the jail, how the doors opened and Paul and the others stayed inside and didn’t try to escape. But I found this week in reading it something else has struck out at me. I found it difficult to read this story without focusing on the encounter with the slave girl. It caught my attention this week. Especially, I think, because of the abduction of the Nigerian girls. The girls abducted from their school The girls who were basically taken by Boko Haram who said thatthe girls’ crime was that they wanted to be educated.

So the connection between the two stories, the slave girl and these Nigerian girls, caught my attention. There are similarities between them. There is certainly a lack of respect shown to the girls in Nigeria. To abduct people because you think that you have power of them simply because you are a man and they are women or girls. There is also a lack of respect shown to the slave girl here in the Book of Acts. A lack of respect shown (or not shown) by a number of people. Paul doesn’t show respect for her or appreciate her. He sort of heals her. Maybe. He casts the spirit out of her, but we don’t know that she wanted to have it cast out of her. He just does it. And he doesn’t do it because he wants to make them better. He casts out the spirit because he is annoyed by her. He wants her to be quiet. That was the only motivation he had. And Paul doesn’t even speak to her. He speaks to the spirit. In a sense, he has violated her. Violated her being by doing this thing to her as though he had the power to do to her whatever he wants without having to ask permission first.

She has no say in the matter.

And then her owners are upset because they were making money off of her. She was a good source of income for them. And perhaps her customers are upset. So they’re upset. The magistrates are upset. Other people are upset. But in this whole passage the girl’s story never gets told. We don’t hear from her at all. No one speaks to her. She is ignored by Paul. She’s ignored by her owners. She’s ignored by the magistrates and others. She’s even ignored by the person who wrote this book. The writer didn’t feel a need to tell her story except to use her as a foil to set up this story about Paul, to get to this conclusion that ends with this wonderful conversion and baptism of the jailer and his family. Which is a great story! But where is her story?

I’d like to think that she has one. She must have had one. And even if we don’t know it, or get to read it or hear about it, God knows it. God knew her story. I think of those Nigerian girls who were abducted. They have names. They have stories. We don’t know their stories, but they have them.

We don’t often hear the stories of slaves, or the oppressed, or the people on the bottom of the social hierarchy. Even the Bible’s writers had their blind spots. They were products of their time. I’m not going to fault the writer here for not thinking much of a slave girl. Slavery was so common at the time, such a normal part of life, it wasn’t even really questioned as to whether it ought to exist. It just did. It was a part of life, nothing strange. So no fault for them being products of their time. We have evolved and come to think that slavery is not a good thing. But we do have that question, Why is this slave girl’s story not told?

There is nothing in the Bible that is anti-slavery. But we have come to accept a position over the years, most people around the world (though we know that slavery still exists – Jodi Emerson from Fierce Freedom spoke about it here in December) that slavery is bad. One thing I’ve found interesting about Fierce Freedom’s presence in town is how so many churches, that otherwise argue over many things, have come together on this. Liberal, conservative, Evangelical, mainline, Pentecostal, have come together on an anti-slavery position. We have, Jacob’s Well, Peace Lutheran, First Lutheran, Calvary Baptist, all claiming that slavery is evil. Perhaps this is a first step of finding some common ground to work together on those things we are in agreement on, even as we disagree on others. To come together, even if we disagree on some things.

I had another experience on Monday of this coming together. A couple gentleman down at the Senior Center have put together a series of lectures/classes called “The Faith of My Neighbors” about religions and religious issues. Tomorrow they are having a class on the difference between Sunnis, Shi’ites, and Kurds, and in a few weeks they’ll have a Hmong spiritual leader talking about Hmong animism/spirituality. This last Monday they invited me, and Roger Galstad from Grace Communion Church, to talk about science and religion because we have different perspectives. You might remember back in February I had an article in the religion section about faith and science, from a pro-science perspective. That same day, Roger had an article in the editorial page about the same topic, but from an anti-evolution and anti-climate change perspective, coming from his Biblical literalism. The two men at the Senior Center thought it would be interesting to have the two of us come and talk about this topic from our two perspectives. Not to try to convince anyone of our correctness, but to speak to our own stories. So Roger told his story, and I told mine. We disagreed. Disagreed quite a lot, really. But we agreed on certain things of faith: Easter, the empty tomb; Jesus as savior; God incarnate in Jesus; the command to love our neighbors. We had common ground there on the essentials of faith. But what was really interesting is what happened a few times while we were speaking, and after we were done. People were not impressed, overall, so much by what we said about science, or how we read the Bible, or biblical authority. They were impressed, they said, with how Roger and I spent an hour and a half sitting right next to each other and disagreeing on so much, and yet we never attacked one another, never belittled each other, said men things, denied the humanity of the other... we were quite civil. And I thought how sad that we are in such a time, with so much toxicity in our public dialogue among politicians, pundits, even churches, so much nastiness that people were surprised that two men would be civil to one another while they disagreed.

Wow! What a powerful moment that was, not even about science and religion, but that the two of us offered a model that you don’t have to hate each other just because you disagree on something. It’s not an all-or-nothing affair. You can hear each others’ stories and affirm one another even if we don’t agree with all of it. When we don’t let someone tell their story, or when we don’t listen when they do tell it, that’s a problem. Whether it’s politicians not listening to one another. Or some of the back and forth shouting we’ve had on the Confluence project here in Eau Claire. Other issues on a national level, like our long debates on homosexuality, abortion, the environment, corporate regulation, where it seems no real conversation is going on but it is just shouting back and forth. Then I think of how powerful the experience has been when we do listen to one another. Think of our own church tradition, how good it has been for us and for the world, once we started listening to the stories of women, and affirmed that women could have viable and important spiritual stories, or social stories. Or when we started listening to the stories of slaves. And when we started listening to the stories of African Americans during the 40s, 50s, and 60s during the Civil Rights movement. Listening to the stories of migrant workers. Or our LGBT brothers and sisters. Or like in our Street Ministry, listening to the stories of people who live on the streets, who struggle, who are having difficulty. To listen to their stories, to let them be told: that’s the power of the Church! That’s what the church is about and ought to be about! Lifting up the stories of those who are otherwise silenced, so that their stories can be heard. So they have a voice. To speak on their behalf, or hopefully find a way to let them speak. Even if we disagree. To hear each others’ truths.

And so I’m bothered by this story in Acts. She’s the pivot point in this story. She doesn’t make anything happen or set things in motion, but everything happens because of her. And she gets ignored like so many women, and so many others, even today get ignored. Get used for something and then are ignored. Like the Nigerian girls abducted for no reason other than that they thought they ought to have an education equal to the other half of the population. A thought which threatened some people. Simply because they thought they had a right to an education, that they had a right to life, they were abducted. As Boko Haram has said, they did so with plans to sell them into slavery as though they aren’t people with stories, but are just females, just girls, they don’t matter. Just objects, things to be used by men as tools or commodities to be bought and sold with no more than thought than you might trade in a car or rip up the old carpeting to replace it with new.

And so we lift up their stories here in the church. Many are lifting up the Nigerian girls today. And we lift up the story of this unnamed slave girl, who shows up in scripture, even though it tells us very little. We lift up their stories even though we don’t know much about them. To remind the world that they do have stories. As followers of Jesus, as Christians, we can say to them as God to says to us, that even if we don’t know them personally, “You matter. You are important to God, you are important to us, you are important to me because you are also God’s creation. You are God’s son or God’s daughter. You matter.”

And though we don’t know all their stories, we want their stories to be heard and to tell the world to listen to their stories. Listen to them, and say to them, “Though we know little of your story, we are in solidarity with you. We are in solidarity with you as we are with all people whose stories do not get to be told.”

Amen.

Boko Haram and abducting girls, and women's value in the world

My thoughts on the story out of Nigeria, which leads me to think of human trafficking in general, but also women's rights specifically, in response to this:

Fears for the fate of more than 200 Nigerian girls turned even more nightmarish Monday when the leader of the Islamist militant group that kidnapped them announced plans to sell them.

"I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah," a man claiming to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video first obtained by Agence France-Presse.

"There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women," he continued, according to a CNN translation from the local Hausa language.

Boko Haram is a terrorist group receiving training from al Qaeda affiliates, according to U.S. officials. Its name means "Western education is sin." In his nearly hourlong, rambling video, Shekau repeatedly called for Western education to end.

The selling or trading of any human being is an incredible evil. Selling or trading a human being simply because she's female and is therefore considered to be even less value than a "normal" human being, is a greater evil. Any faith, any political system, any social structure, any institution that cannot accept educated girls or women, or female leaders, or cannot offer equal access to all religious rites/rights/writings for women needs to die. Preferably to die only to the old ways and reborn in new ways, but if unwilling to do so, it just needs to die. Humanity - even in the Christian Church - lives too much in the binary, too little in the unity.

Obviously the folks at Boko Haram think differently than I do, and normally I entertain the thought that I might be wrong and the other person might be right. But not in this case. Sometimes lines have to be drawn, and that line is to drawn such that any thought that devalues human life, especially women, is outside the line. Sorry, Boko Haram, but you are horribly, dangerously, heinously, evilly wrong.

For more news, see this: http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/05/world/africa/nigeria-abducted-girls/

Doing a science and religion talk with a biblical literalist pastor who is anti-evolution

This morning I was a co-speaking at the Senior Center on the topic of religion and science with another pastor in town, Roger Galstad, a Biblical literalist who is definitely anti-evolution (though believes the earth, geology-speaking, to be 4.5 billions years old, and the universe to be whatever the scientists say it is) and a self-professed person who does not know science.

Back in February or early March, it just happened that we each had articles in the local newspaper on the same day: me from a pro-science "religion and science are not enemies" attitude, and his with a "religion and science may not be enemies, but an idea like evolution clearly violates a literal reading of Scripture so must be false, and also, climate change is false"* attitude. So, the organizer at the Senior Center thought it would be a good program to bring us both in to talk to their group of seniors, who are in the second week of a five-week program called "Faith of my neighbors".

Our hour and a half ended up not being very much about science and religion, but almost entirely about our (and other) different approaches of biblical interpretation and reading, and understanding of the writing, development, transmission, and canonization of the biblical texts.

Our time together was set up to be mostly a dialogue with the audience, a chance for each of us to present not the correctness of our interpretations, but to offer our crowd a view into two different ways of approaching the topic of science and religion: how Roger does it and how I do it. Not versus each other, not trying to "win" an argument, but just offering our own stories.

Roger went first with a chance to speak, and he mostly offered a series of scriptural prooftexting of why Christianity is right and, from that, how to understand the universe and science through scripture only. Which for him is (and I am reducing his thoughts to a short form, so it is not as nuanced as he offered) summed up with the statement that the Bible says Jesus created everything (John 1) [and that's a fair interpretation of the scripture], and that humanity is the pinnacle of creation more special than all other life forms to have dominion over all the created order, that we are some day to be judges over the angels, and that creation was done exactly as the Bible says it was, and that between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 is when Lucifer was booted out of heaven, and was sent to earth specifically later mess with humanity, once God got around to creating us. Galstad also has a way of exegeting Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 2 to be telling the same story without contradiction or variation, but I don't buy it. Thankfully, before he mentioned it today he had written about it - and I have that writing. But even after multiple readings, I still don't understand the hermeneutical aeronautics he did to get to the conclusion that they offer the same literal story.

He really didn't hit the topic of science very much. He was and is much more concerned with issues of salvation, and part of salvation is believing in Jesus, and part of believing in Jesus is taking scripture literally (except those parts that are clearly not meant to be taken literally, to quote him).

Then I spoke about my history of being fascinated with science, wanting to know how the universe works, studying science and engineering, and why I think that science and religion do not need to be enemies or at opposite ends with one another. In my prepared speech, I hit heavy on how the big issue, as I see it, isn't so much that science and religion are at odds with one another, but that the idea that they are at odds with one another is a manufactured controversy that really is rooted in difference of biblical/scriptural interpretation and divine revelation. Can God self-reveal only in the scripture handed to us, or in nature as well? I think so. Others, such as the Creation Science/ID camp, do not.

Most of the questions we took today really ended up being about interpretation and reading scripture. Not many questions about science per se, nor questions about evolution. I was surprised at how the questions kept coming back to how scripture is read and authority is found in/from it.

But, I'm so glad that is where the conversation went!

Roger and I sat next to each other the whole time, we disagreed with one another, and were honest about how we felt, with generosity and gentleness for the most part. Never did we accuse one another of being stupid, deficient, unchristian, unfaithful... we had a lot of compliments afterward about how we were so civil to one another. To which I said, "Well, we're brothers in Christ. However we might interpret our faith, we're created by God and we follow the same guy - there's gotta be some respect just in that."

And we also found that even though our paths to a particular faith claim might vary hugely, we often came to the same place - God as Creator of all; Jesus as the savior; God incarnate in Jesus; the importance of scripture. We differ on what some of those terms mean, and how we get there, and we each have faith claims that the other does not share at all, but ultimately we are in agreement on probably a lot more than we disagree with.

Whatever we said about science and religion, whatever we said about scriptural interpretation, whatever the purpose of today's session was, I think that what the people there heard most loudly is this: It's possible to speak one's truth AND to disagree with someone else's truth, without needing to win, dehumanize, or be mean.

It is that which I heard the most from people who were there who spoke to me afterward, and I found it surprising.

But given some of the nastiness in our political process and in our intra-Christian dialogue, perhaps I shouldn't be.

What do you think?


[* and yes, he did end his article by moving into a denial of climate change. I wish I could link to it, but the newspaper only keeps the articles online for a few days]

Intuitive, Recognizer, Fleshy, Scientist Thomas. A sermon for Easter 2.

The first Sunday after Easter (which is actually called the Second Sunday of Easter), we usually get the story of the disciple we call "Doubting Thomas", who doubted that Jesus had come back to life. In this sermon, I explore why Thomas might have wanted some fleshly proof of Jesus' resurrection, as we likely all would. What would you do if you heard that a loved one had come back to life? What would you want to do with that person?

“Intuitive, Recognizer, Fleshy, Scientist Thomas”

Sermon, Year A, Easter 2, April 27, 2014

Plymouth United Church of Christ, Eau Claire, WI

© Rev. David J. Huber

Focus Scripture: John 20:19-31 

Thomas touched Jesus. He touched Jesus! Touched the risen Jesus. The risen Jesus that mysteriously appeared in the room that they had locked themselves in. An extraordinary moment, I should think. Imagine being Thomas. You’ve watched your friend die. Watched him be crucified. You were there, or at least heard, about putting Jesus’ body into the tomb. Then you hgear from your friends a few days later that they have seen him. That he has risen! He’s been resurrected, and come back to life. You hear the news that he is now alive!

Then you get a chance to see him. To know that what you have heard is true. And you have a chance to touch him. To touch Jesus. Fleshy, incarnate, human Jesus. Imagine touching someone that you thought is dead. Someone that you know is dead.

There are times I have wished I could touch my parents again. Get a hug from my mom, taste her rhubarb pie again. To have a handshake from my dad again. I don’t know if there is an equivalent for women, but for males, many of us have that experience with our dads of shaking their hands many times over the years while growing up but there comes that one handshake that you can tell, you can feel, that dad is not shaking hands with a boy any more but shaking hands with a fellow man. I had that experience, and I would like to experience it again.

We are a fleshly people. We live in bodies. We are embodied. We touch one another. Hold hands while passing the peace. Hugging. We communicate through fleshly interaction. We can even communicate thoughts, ideas, hopes, and prayers that words themselves cannot express. The hand on the shoulder. The pat on the back. The handshake. The hug. Communicating things that words alone cannot do, or do as well.

Though even words, speech, is also a fleshy touchy kind of act. It’s a physical act. I speak and set the air in motion. The air moves toward you, touches your eardrum and sets it in motion. It then creates patterns in your brain that communicate my thoughts into your head. It is a physical act, speaking. This is probably why noise polution is so psychologically damaging, because it is forced touch. It is like being poked repeatedly by something you can’t stop or shut out. You can’t stop sound from coming in.

We are fleshy, touchy people. You may remember the old telephone ad: “Reach out and touch someone.” Touch them by phone.

To touch again a loved one. A friend who has moved away. The baby sitter we remember but haven’t seen since we were baby sat. Someone from your past, like a teacher or a mentor. Or a mother or father, wife or husband or lover, who has died. Who is no longer around to touch. But we don’t get to touch them again. Not if they have died.

Not if they have died. We don’t get to touch them again. But that desire is there. I have seen over the years of doing and being at funerals, many times a spouse giving a last kiss, touch of the forehead or hair or holding hands, that one last time before the undertaker closes the casket before the funeral. To touch one last time. One last touch before the tomb is sealed. To put body to body.

After my dad died, I remember talking to mom a few months later catching up with her, asking how she was doing. We got to talking about her times of grief and pain and what the daily routines were like. And she said that of all the ways that she missed my dad, of all the moments of pain that came up throughout the day of missing dad and realizing he’s not there, she said the most painful moment of every day was getting into bed alone. That, for her, was the hardest part of dad being dad. To not have someone else in the bed. The rest of the day felt more normal, but at bedtime it really came home to her that there was no body there.

So I am not going to blame Thomas here for wanting to touch Jesus. I’m not going to blame Thomas or call him names.

Because we all know that we do not get to touch again those who have died. And Thomas wants to touch his friend who has died who had come back. Of course he wants to touch him! I think we all would want to touch those that we were sure were dead. I would want to hold again my parents, relatives, friends who have died if they came back. Absolutely. Partly just to make sure they’re real, that I’m not hallucinating, but mostly to feel their flesh against my flesh again.

Doubting Thomas? Not at all. I think that’s an awful name to saddle him with through all these years. Doubting Thomas? I think we all would have been Doubting Insert Your Name Here.

We are fleshy beings. Thomas wants to touch. Even our sacraments are physical. The bread and the wine of Communion. Bread is physical. You can touch it. Break it. Hear it breaking. Taste it. Feel the texture. The wine makes sound as it pours. It has taste. The feel of the liquid in your mouth. It has a temperature, a feel. Baptism’s water is wet, touchable, it flows, it has a sound to it, a color, a smell, a shape.

So of course Thomas wants to touch and have some fleshly proof. That’s just goo science, too. To be a little skeptical. To say, “Well, let me test it with my senses. I don’t want to believe it just because you said it. I want to touch it, see it, feel it.” Maybe we could call him Scientific Thomas. “Let me embrace him one more time!” Friend Thomas. Thomas who says, “My Lord and my God.” Recognizer Thomas! He knows who Jesus is. The other disciples don’t make that connection between Jesus their friend, Jesus their Lord, Jesus the flesh, and Jesus the God. Thomas, though, makes the connection of them all being one. Intuitive Thomas! Good Thomas! Insightful Thomas! Faith Proclaiming Thomas!

Thank God for Thomas and for all the Thomases who ask that question, “Why should I believe you just because you say it is so?” Who want to trust with their senses as well. With their flesh. All those Thomases who by asking lead us to even greater truths, or more extraordinary truths, by refusing to settle for easy answers. Or settle for simple questions. Or to accept unexplored, unquestioned claims. Inquisitive Thomas!

John’s Gospel begins, the very first words of his Gospel, with “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Then a few verses later it says, “And the Word of God became flesh and lived among us.” That’s the beginning of the Gospel. And what we read today is the ending of the Gospel. Though there is actually some more after this, this story is the real ending of the Gospel. The words we read today, these words of Thomas, tie the Gospel together. The opening words are confirmed by Thomas, who refused to live by faith and not by sight. Thomas, who wanted to live by both faith and sight, and by demanding both he has the insight to roll away the stone on those first words of this Gospel and see their fulfillment in the resurrected Jesus as he says, “My Lord AND my God.”

“You are my Lord,” he says, “I see you are also my God. You are God made flesh dwelling among us.”

Incarnate, human, fleshy. Intimate, present, touchable God.

Amen.