Skip to content
First United Methodist Church Schenectady
  • Lenten Photo Show
  • About Us
    • Meet the Pastor
    • Committees
    • Contact Us
    • Calendar
    • Our Building
    • The Pipe Organ
    • FAQs
    • Wedding Guidelines
  • Worship
    • Sermons
    • Online Worship
  • Ministries
    • Music Ministries
    • Children’s Ministries
    • Volunteer In Mission
    • Carl Lecture Series
  • Give Back
    • Electronic Giving
  • Events
    • Family Faith Formation
Sermons

“Calm Seas” based on 1 Samuel 17:32-49 and Mark 4:35-41

  • June 24, 2018February 15, 2020
  • by Sara Baron

In
seminary, I learned that the calming of the sea narrative was one of
many that was meant to one-up a story about the Greco-Roman gods and
goddesses. Specifically, in Aeneid,
the god Neptune calms the waters that had been raised in a wind
storm.  I thought
that was really interesting.  I also thought it was sort of
irrelevant to faith.

As
the years have gone on, I’ve revised my opinion.  I still think a
competition of “my God is better than your god” is silly, but I
have come to suspect that significantly more is going on.  There were
a whole lot of Greco-Roman gods and goddess, and they were said to do
a lot of things.  Thus, I suspect there was intentionality in the
choices of which stories of Greco-Roman gods and goddesses were
one-upped.  It is similar to when stories in the Hebrew Bible are
adaptations of stories told by their Ancient Near East neighbors.
Both the choice of the which stories to adapt AND the adaptions made
tell a lot about how our ancestors in faith understood God!

In
Aeneid, as the protagonists ships sail from Troy to Italy, the
goddess queen tells the god of wind to send a storm to capsize their
ships and prevent them from their task.  The god Neptune feels
infringed upon, as he is the god of the sea, and decides to calm the
storm.  The story in Aeneid  sounds like this:

[Neptune]
spoke, and swiftlier than his word subdued
the
swelling of the floods; dispersed afar
th’
assembled clouds, and brought back light to heaven.
Cymothoe
then and Triton, with huge toil,
thrust
down the vessels from the sharp-edged reef;
while,
with the trident, the great god’s own hand
assists
the task; then, from the sand-strewn shore
out-ebbing
far, he calms the whole wide sea,
and
glides light-wheeled along the crested foam.
As
when, with not unwonted tumult, roars
in
some vast city a rebellious mob,
and
base-born passions in its bosom burn,
till
rocks and blazing torches fill the air
(rage
never lacks for arms)—if haply then
some
wise man comes, whose reverend looks attest
a
life to duty given, swift silence falls;
all
ears are turned attentive; and he sways
with
clear and soothing speech the people’s will.
So
ceased the sea’s uproar, when its grave Sire
looked
o’er th’ expanse, and, riding on in light,
flung
free rein to his winged obedient car.  (Aeneid
book 1:142-156)

So
what does it mean that the early Christian community chose to adapt
stories about gods calming storms into a story about Jesus calming
the storm?  And what else does our particular story seem to be
communicating to us?

There
are some similarities – Neptune spoke and the result was immediate.
The wind started the storm.  There were multiple boats involved.
Overall, it is a similar enough story to be clear that there is a
connection.  There are some differences too, there are helpers for
Neptune, and Neptune’s own life wasn’t threatened by the storm.  I
find it potentially notable that Neptune’s actions were motivated by
a sense of being infringed upon.  The ancient Greek and Roman gods
and goddesses had their own spheres of influence.  Perhaps part of
the point is that YHWH, and thus Jesus, had no need for such jealousy
about spheres of influence because there is no competition and there
is no end to their spheres.  

This
also fits with the many ways that stories are adaptations of the
stories of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses- the point is not that
Jesus was better than ONE of them, but rather that he was better than
ALL of them.  In the Gospel narrative, the storm was simply a part of
nature (not the work of another deity).  Furthermore, in this story
Jesus is leaving Galilee and thus leaving the lands of the people who
knew YHWH, and yet his influence remains.  Jesus is not just powerful
in one small region of the world – his sphere of influence is not
limited.  Thus, in adapting this story the Gospel writer is able to
claim that Jesus is more powerful than the forces of nature itself.
Thus, a theological turn on an older and well known story.  

It
turns out this story is especially interesting because it seems to
both adapt and retell Hebrew Bible stories and Greco-Roman ones.  We
remember the story of Moses leading the people out of Egypt, and
controlling the waters.  One scholar explains the similarities:

Paralleling
Mark 4:35-41, with darkness looming on the horizon Jesus and his
disciples set sail.  Later that night, they encounter a furious
storm on the Sea of Galilee.
At this critical moment Jesus is
found sleeping on a cushion and his disciples are in a state of
terror as the waves begin to break over their boats.  They
awaken Jesus and cry out, “Teacher, don’t you care if we perish?”
(Mk 4:36).  There is harmony here in all the Synoptic
narratives, but the next detail sets Mark apart from the others when
he tells us specifically what Jesus said to the wind and waves,
“Peace! Be still!” (Mk 4:39).

Returning
to Exodus 14, Moses is pressed for answers as the tension mounts and
the future of the children of Israel hangs in the balance.  With the
crowds pressing him, he exclaims, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and
you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring
you today.  The Egyptians you see today you will never see
again.  The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still”
(Ex 14:13-14).

With
both Jesus calming the storm and Moses calming the Israelites, we
have two nearly identical moments involving imminent doom that is
tranquilized by the words “Quiet, be still” or “Peace be
still.”1

We
start in this story on the seashore,
and the crowds have gathered to hear Jesus teach.  Crowds were a
little bit dangerous to Jesus.  They put a target on his back in the
Roman Empire, and yet they seemed to emerge anywhere he went.  Jesus
was always trying to satisfy the people AND get away from the crowds.
So, in characteristic style, he decided to leave the crowd that had
gathered.  To me it sounds a bit desperate, especially when getting
in the boats and going to the other side meant leaving Galilee and
thus leaving the Jewish homeland.  Perhaps that’s part of the
metaphor.  Maybe the disciples were stormy about where they were
headed, but Jesus was calm.  Perhaps they were all stormy, because of
Jesus being worried about the crowds.

Now,
I’m not sure what to make of the idea that Jesus can sleep through a
ranging windstorm, of the sort that would sink boats with crashing
waves, but then again he had taught all day, and after just once
worship service I take a nap I call the pastor’s-coma.  So maybe it
was just that?  Or maybe it is just that Jesus can keep calm and
focused when no one else can?  Or perhaps their panic was not his, as
he trusted all would be well?  I’m not sure.

They
wake him up saying, “Teacher, do you not care that we are
perishing?”  Do you hear how human this is?  It doesn’t sound like
Neptune, it doesn’t even sound like Moses.  Jesus, the human, was
sleeping, and had to be roused.  His followers were terrified and he
hadn’t even noticed!  They were horrified he wasn’t helping – I
suspect they might have expected him to participate in bailing!

Now,
when you hear this story, do you imagine it like a movie in your
mind?  If so, how does it sound when Jesus “rebukes the wind”?
Does he actually yell at the wind?  Does he just motion?  Is he
annoyed?  Or parental? Is the wind touching him until he rebukes it,
or is he excluded from it the whole time?  Is he standing, sitting,
or still reclined on that cushion?  Are the words “Peace! Be
still!” repeated for the wind and the sea, or just the sea, or are
his words for the wind not recorded?  

I
don’t know what it means to rebuke the wind.  But the wind and the
sea are said to go from roiling and threatening death to a “dead
calm.”  Similarly though, both the storm and the people are settled
by the action!  The storm isn’t just raging on the waters, the storm
has entered the hearts of the people and they are terrified.

The
people are not calmed as easily as the storm though.  While the fear
of death from drowning has passed, their shock at what had happened
seemed to replace it.  In this story at least, calming the sea with
words is not considered normal, and the supernatural isn’t considered
the way of the world.  They were awed, which has a tinge of “scared”
to it.  They were attentive to him and terrified by him.  Jesus,
meanwhile seems not to understand why they were scared in the first
place, nor afterward.  It is not the most empathetic story told about
Jesus.

So
why did they choose to tell a story about Jesus calming the storm?
One option is because he did so, but even if he did it raises the
question of why this story made the cut to be in the gospels while
others did not.  As always with the Bible, my suspicion is that the
stories that kept being told and retold were the ones with great
metaphorical value and insight.  In this case, the story tells us
that the storms of life will come, but God is more powerful than they
are.  It is a story that encourages us to trust God, and trust in
Jesus’s power as well.  Since human life comes with a lot of
metaphorical storms, there is a lot of value in a narrative that
tells us they won’t overcome us.  

This
explanation also makes sense of the story of David and Goliath that
is presented to us in the Hebrew Bible lesson offered us today.  In
many ways, it is a very similar story.  Death, which was the
reasonably assumed outcome from facing a gigantic and successful
warrior, was avoided and even overcome with God on David’s side.
Both stories are told to remind us that God can overcome adversity,
and what looks doomed to humans may not be to God.

With
Jesus, with God, calm seas are possible.  We aren’t doomed to live in
fear.  We can even be freed from fear, to live in trust.  Its pretty
good news, this adaption of an ancient story.  Thanks be to God.
Amen

1Exodus
Muses: Jesus as a Type of Moses Calming
Storms & Drowning Legions  First
Published JCF Newsletter April 2012   By Jon “Yoni” Gerrish
http://www.jerusalemcornerstone.org/resources/articles_main-page/calming-storms-drowning-legions

Rev. Sara E. Baron

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305

Pronouns: she/her/hers

http://fumcschenectady.org/

https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

Sermons

“Not Seen, Not Forgotten” based on 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13 and…

  • June 17, 2018February 15, 2020
  • by Sara Baron

It must have been about a decade ago, more or less. I was jogging one evening, around dusk. It was a really beautiful evening, the sky had transformed into one of those dark yet vivid shades of blue that always delights me. The temperature was just right – I was neither hot nor cold. I’m not sure how it happened, but I got thinking about floating in a body of water that was also neither hot nor cold, but just right. Just easy floating in comfortable water.

Then I started considering how easy it is to move your body when you are floating in water. A flick of the wrist can shift you around. As I thought of that, I realized that in this envisioned body of water, there was a teeny tiny current. It was so small that a flick of my wrist could keep me from being moved by it, but it was enough that it could guide my way.

That was it. I had a conception of a warm, safe body of water with a tiny current that I could float in, and either allow the current to move me, or not, with great ease. It felt like a lot more though. It felt like a vision of wonder and grace that was a gift from the Divine. I experienced it as a reminder that I had the freedom to easily follow through with my own will, that God would not overpower me. And a reminder that there was guidance available to me, a path that I could let myself be led on if I choose. I need not be aimless if I wish to allow the current to lead. The balance of guidance and freedom co-existing together was powerful.

It was a relief to think about my relationship with God, my life decisions, and even my life itself as FLOATING. I have sometimes had a tendency to think of them more as a swim race across the English Channel. In this vision the floating was good. It was not only good because it was easy, although it was easy. It was also all that was asked of me. I could float where I wanted, or float along as the current lead me, but the current was too slow and gentle for me to find it swimming. All I had to do was float. And even then either choice was OK.

(The few times that I’ve had visions that I think are of/from the Divine I’ve noticed that the God I experience is profoundly nonjudgmental and supportive.)

All in all, for me, that vision reminds me of the experience of Centering Prayer. Centering Prayer is prayer based on the name of God, YHWH, which means something like “I am” “I am who I am” “I will be who I will be”. It is a prayer of BEING, rather than a prayer of doing, or thinking. It is silent prayer, but not just silent on the outside. Centering prayer is prayer that is silent on the inside too. It is simply BEING, along with the “Great I AM.” So much of life is about doing, or speaking, or listening. It is active, engaged, intentional. Centering prayer is like floating on the warm, mostly still waters of God’s care, and just enjoying being alive.

Or, at least, it is when it works. It can be really hard to be silent on the inside, and then it doesn’t feel at all like that when you are trying and failing.

The parables in the gospels seem to tell a similar story. They speak of God’s mysterious actions, ones that humans wouldn’t be able to replicate. We can sow seeds, the gospel says, but we can’t control if they germinate or not. We might as well go to sleep and let God do God’s mysterious things. Soil, water, sun, and air work their magic on the the seed, all giving gifts no human can offer. After all that, the human can cut it down and enjoy the grain. But the human can’t make the grain. (This was true in the time of Jesus, let’s give it to him.)

We also can’t always predict how things will go. “The mustard seed was a common metaphor in Palestine for ‘the smallest thing.’ The plant could grow as tall as a house, and birds seemed to love its little black seeds.”1 The people knew about the disparity between seed size and plant size, talked about it. In the gospel, it is used to indicate how vibrant and abundant God’s work in the kindom is. What appears small and insignificant to human eyes is plenty to change a landscape and an eco-system.

God is at work in building the kindom. God can make big things happen out of a tiny start! God’s work is mysterious and happens out of our sight, and yet we can see the fruits of God’s labor and with it we are fed and nurtured. God is invested in building the kindom and God is capable of doing it. The planted seed is no longer seen, but is not forgotten as it germinates and grows.

But, this raises some significant questions. Another commentator names them this way:

“One suspects that the early Christian communities were often as puzzled by this parabolic presentation of the kingdom as we are. These two parables that Mark stitches together have generated may theological interpretations over the centuries. Does the kingdom come slowly, over the long haul? Should we understand the harvest in due season as the future event of the eschatological time? Are we to believe that God is in control of the growth and harvest, despite the evidences of the way the world is?”2

Another commentator offered a great explanation of the words themseves.

“Hē basileia tou theou, found fourteen times in the Gospel of Mark and usually translated ‘the kingdom of God’ or ‘the dominion of God’ is an ancient metaphor not easily translated into today’s culture. In the first century CE, power and dominion belonged to Caesar. Early Christians preached that Caesar’s domination had been overtaken by the domination of God. This was an in-your-face radical claim defining insiders not by Caesar’s proclamation, but by relationship to the community that followed Jesus. (cf. Mark 3:31-35) In various twenty-first century cultures, the claim of radical inclusion is seeking expression in terms reflecting the egalitarian relationship of God’s beloved community. To that end, we translate hē basileia tou theou as ‘the kin-dom of God.’”3

So, then God’s beloved community comes into being mysteriously, with God’s effort, and is able to grow big and strong even from humble beginnings. It is as if the beloved community itself is a gift from God for God’s people. Then, as a part of the beloved community we are able to share that love – and it doesn’t always have to be difficult – and sharing love is building the kindom. I know sometimes it is difficult, and that’s good too. But it doesn’t ALWAYS have to be difficult! It is OK to float along in the current of God’s love. It is OK, sometimes, to just be.

Now, in the Hebrew Bible story, God also acts in mysterious and unexpected ways. The first of which is when text clearly states that God changes God’s mind! 15:34 b, “for YHWH regretted making him ruler over Israel.” (Inclusive Bible Translation) I think it is helpful to notice when the Bible says God changes God’s own mind, it reminds us that we are allowed to also! As I was taught in Process Theology, it also indicates that God is responsive to us! What we do in the world impacts God’s own being, and God has to change and response to the realities that we have created.

The story goes onto say that Samuel thinks he knows what God is going to do next! Samuel is sent to make a king from one of Jesse’s sons, and Samuel figures it will be the oldest one, especially when he sees that the oldest one is tall and handsome. Samuel is terribly human in that way, assuming that stature and beauty have to do with competence and blessing. Samuel is said to be rebuked by God, who does NOT care about those things. Although, I have to admit, later in the passage David is described quite exuberantly as handsome, which sort of undermines the message.

In any case, all of Jesse’s sons were present, except one. The final one was the youngest, doing the task usually assigned to the youngest son, the one least likely to become the head of the family. He was herding the sheep. His father didn’t choose to call for him, to join them at the feast. David had work to do, and he was doing it. But one by one, Samuel assessed that none of the older brothers had been chosen to be king. Finally he had to ask if there were any more sons, and then David was called for.

David hadn’t been seen at the party, Samuel didn’t know him, his family wasn’t paying any attention to him. He wasn’t seen, but he wasn’t forgotten by God either. David in this story is presented as being a lot like that mustard seed – small and forgettable, almost invisible, and yet capable of greatness. God’s work in David is also presented as being like God’s work in seeds planted underground, God transforming what is possible into what is.

The story of David is of God choosing the unexpected one. The parables of Jesus are of God’s mysterious power. These are stories of God at work, NOT of humans at work. I tend to like to emphasize what we are able to do in the world, how we are able to transform the world with God’s love, how God is able to work with and through us. Those are true things. But they aren’t the only true things. It is also true that God works when we least expect it, in the places and people we least expect to be open to it. God’s mysterious work is a source of hope. Not everything is on our shoulders. Not everything good is hard. Sometimes it is OK to just float and trust in God’s love and guidance. Thanks be to God. Amen

1Nibs Stroupe “Homelitcial Perspective on Mark 4:26-34” found in Feasting on the Word Year B, Volume 3 edited by Barbara Brown Taylor and David Bartlett (Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville Kentucky, 2009)143.

2Don E. Saliers “Pastoral Perspective on Mark 4:26-34” found in Feasting on the Word Year B, Volume 3 edited by Barbara Brown Taylor and David Bartlett (Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville Kentucky, 2009)142.

3Judith Hoch Wray, “Exegetical Perspective on Mark 4:26-34” found in Feasting on the Word Year B, Volume 3 edited by Barbara Brown Taylor and David Bartlett (Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville Kentucky, 2009)141.

–

Rev. Sara E. Baron

 First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 

Pronouns: she/her/hers

http://fumcschenectady.org/

https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

Sermons

“The Will of God” based on 1 Samuel 8:4-20…

  • June 10, 2018February 15, 2020
  • by Sara Baron

https://workcollaboratively.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/wc_needs-feelings-inventory.pdf

In
the gospel today, Jesus said that anyone who does the will of God is
his mother, brother, or sister.  He defines his family by those who
do God’s will.  Jesus also taught us that our God is a God of love,
which is the starting point for knowing God’s will.  Jesus reminded
us of the great commandments. “Love
the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind”
and “Love
your neighbor as yourself.”  

I’ve
had some very helpful nudgings from this congregation recently.  Many
of them have been in your consistent reminders to take care of myself
since my knee injury, and collectively you’ve seemed to know that I
would need a lot of those reminders.  Being patient with my body
isn’t easy for me.

There
were two more nudgings as well.  One of you asked if I could say more
to  acknowledge the pain people have and struggle with.  That
certainly felt important.   Then came another call, asking me if I
could preach about self-love.  

I’ve
concluded that the Spirit herself has been at work in all of this.
Self-love is a very exciting topic to speak about!  I’ve spent most
of my continued education time during my years as your pastor working
on this for myself, and I think I’ve learned a few things that might
be of use.  Yet, this is also a nerve wracking topic to talk about,
both because it requires great vulnerability and because it is a
tender topic with which I might accidentally do harm.

Nevertheless,
it is time to talk about loving ourselves.  When we say
“Love your neighbor as yourself,” we tend to
ignore the implicit assumption that we love ourselves contained in
the rule.  To prepare for this sermon I asked on Facebook and through
some emails for people to offer definitions of love.  I told them it
was for preaching, I did not share that I was going to preach about
loving ourselves!  

The
answers were, of course, amazing.  A lot of the responses reflected
careful consideration followed by a conclusion that defining love is
very difficult  and perhaps impossible.  I got wished “good luck”
rather a lot!  Some tried to find the words anyway, and I think
you’ll find them useful for reflection.  In order not to distract
you, I’m going to offer some of your definitions words without
attributing them.  

  • Love
    is more of an action than anything else. For example, I find making
    the bed in the morning a complete waste of time, my husband loves to
    come home to a made bed, when I make the bed, I do it for him
    because I know it will make him happy, that’s love.
  • The
    glue of the Trinity, spilling over into creation.
  • I
    feel that love is a choice. It stems from a feeling, but it is a
    solid, daily choice.
  • the
    movement of goodness itself…
  • Spirit
    is Love and Love is Spirit
  • Companionship;  Communication;   Accepting
    each others thoughts and feelings; Reaching
    a hand in church; In
    the middle of the night reaching out to touch
  • love
    cannot be defined because a definition automatically puts boundaries
    and love is not bounded

One
can give examples of the affects of love on both the lover and the
object of that love (animate or inanimate) and the effects of
love-Love casts out fear

Finally,
one among you shared a set of profound thoughts, which I cannot
summarize or shorten without weakening it:

Love
can mean many things  depending on the context.
I
think you mean love as it involves people or spirit rather than
things like ice cream or sports.

With
regard to people, love
is a state of unlimited commitment where
two people or even in some cases like a pet dog
become
so in sync with one’s feelings that the object
of love is an extension of the person and
foibles are overlooked or forgiven.

Then
there is spiritual love =the love of God or Jesus which is our rock
of support -it is often recognized in retrospect like in the
expression `If not for the love of God  I would have suffered’.
When one recovers from a traumatic experience or accident  one
is grateful for the love of the Divine.
I
know that  scientists and
engineers
are often tagged as  non-believers unless some measurement standard 
can document the cause of an event.  I don’t agree – there’s more
than mortals can conjure up that is involved.  
So
these are my ramblings – I’ll be interested in the views of others
and
remain
thankful
for all the love I have experienced.

Another
among you has since reminded me to tell you that love is so powerful
as to be very dangerous.  Since I was reminded of that I’ve been
trying figure out if that applies to self love or not.  It seems to
me that romantic love is far more dangerous than self love, but then
again that the world as we know it would fall apart if we were good
at self love.  (At least, the US economy would!)   So perhaps self
love is quite dangerous as well.  

Now,
the logical among you (and there are plenty of you!) are going to
wish that at this point I’d offer a definition of self-love, despite
the fact that I’ve just shown you by example how very hard it is to
define love at all.  I’m going to give this my best shot.  Self-love
is “loving yourself as you’d love your neighbor.”  Or, perhaps it
might be better for some of us to say “loving yourself as you’d
want a dearly loved one to be able to love themselves.”  I say this
because most people I know are far kinder to their loved ones than
themselves.  We speak to ourselves in ways we’d never permit
ourselves to speak to anyone else.  

There
are 4 girls in this world I consider my nieces, including one who is
biologically my niece.  The two oldest are old enough to sometimes be
terribly hard on themselves, and life has sometimes given me the
chance to have heart-to-heart talks with them when they’re in the
midst of self-blame.  Because of my deep love for them and because of
the training I’ve had in listening, I’ve sometimes been able to help
them translate their own self-criticisms.  It turns out that “I’m
an idiot” usually means something else entirely, for instance, “I’m
feeling frustrated that I can’t find my long underwear, and I’m
afraid it is a fundamental flaw in my humanity that I could have lost
them.”  Once translated, it becomes much easier to think together
about whether or not misplaced long underwear are really such an
enormous failure.

Now,
clearly, misplacing one’s long underwear does not an idiot make.  We
all have the capacity to assure a beloved child of that.  I’m less
confident about our ability to remember that when dealing with
ourselves.  We jump from a small infraction of our ideals to an
enormous overstatement of our failures.  We keep the self-criticism
tightly wound inside, most of us keep it so tightly wound that we try
to pretend it away even to ourselves.  

The
jump from small infraction to utter failure is the work of an
internal “self-critic.”  We all have them.  These are parts of
ourselves that manage to jump to strong, universal, and nasty
criticisms at lightspeed.  They sound like this:  “I’m lazy.”
“No one really likes me.” “I’m stupid.” “I’m selfish.”
“Everything is wrong and it is all my fault.”  “I’m going to
fail.”  “I’m fat.” “I’m going to get fired.”  “I’m ugly.”
“I’m unlovable.”  “I don’t deserve to be here.”   Most of us
have a lot of them, and they’re powerful.  While they all sound more
or less alike, each of us have our own set with their own  particular
refrains.  Self-critics within say things we’d never allow others to
say to us – and would never say to others – and they say them
regularly.

The
most shocking thing I’ve learned this decade is that self-critics are
TRYING TO HELP us.  They’re just really, really bad at it.  They
actually want to protect and support us, but they have bad
communication skills.  They think yelling at us and shaming us will
motivate us to do better.  Instead, it can cripple us at times, it
keeps us afraid, and it doesn’t give us any sense of freedom.
However, it is possible to learn how to TRANSLATE the criticism!
Under the ugly words is a loving intention, and if you listen to that
self-critic the way you might listen to a beloved niece, you can find
it.  The best part is that once you hear the loving-intention
underneath the criticism, the critic often stops yelling and gives
you some peace!

Listening
to our self-critics is terrifying.  However, in my experience, it is
more frightening to contemplate than to do.  Because the self-critic
always has a loving intention, and because that loving-intention
hasn’t usually been heard, it is actually sort of lovely!  It is far
worse to hear the criticisms regularly yelled from within than it is
to hear the loving-intention!

One
of the harshest critics I’ve had in my life used to tell me quite
often that I was “too much.”  This was extended to include, “too
loud, too big, and too pushy.”  I heard it MANY times a day.  With
the guidance of a loving teacher, I was able to hear beneath it.  The
self-critic was still feeling the pain of being an unpopular
elementary school student, and was trying to help me control myself
in ways that might make me more like-able.  The self-critic hadn’t
meant to hurt me!  It really did want to help, it was just scared!
Once I heard the loving-intention, it toned down. I still hear from
her once in a while, but only in fairly extreme circumstances (when
maybe I should be keeping my mouth shut after all!).  Even then, the
bite that once sought to control me isn’t there anymore.  

There
is a quote I’ve always loved, “Love me when I least deserve it
because that’s when I really need it.”  This applies to others when
they’re not able to behave well, and it applies to ourselves when
we’re not able to behave well, and it applies to our self-critics!
, Now, I don’t want to send you off to face your self-critics
without a bit more guidance.  If you are ready to live without quite
as much internal yelling, then I suggest a few things.  It helps a
lot to write things down.  “I’m too much” was a terrifying,
almost heart-stopping thing to hear inside myself, but in black and
white on paper it looked a lot smaller.  If you have a person you
trust, they are often quite helpful in working on translating with
you.  (Including your pastor.)  The process takes some time, so be
patient with yourself.  It may sound silly, but it requires actually
listening to the self-critic in order to get to the loving intention.
And, as loud and hurtful as self-critics can be, they’re also sorta
shy. This is a good time to remind you of the “feelings and needs”
list found here: https://workcollaboratively.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/wc_needs-feelings-inventory.pdf.  It helps to remember that we
all have needs, the needs are universal, needs do not make us weak –
AND most self-critics are trying to help us meet a need!!  A very
difficult to internalize reminder:  we can actually get along without
self-critics.  They are not the only reason we get anything done, we
are able to function and even thrive without internal yellers.  

I
started this conversation with the precious moments I’ve had when
I’ve been able to help translate my niece’s fears.  I started that
way on purpose.  Our inner critics are a lot like hurting children,
and they respond best to patient, gentle, loving attention; and they
sometimes need some affirmation that we know they’re hurting before
they can trust us to work with them.  The ways we seek to help
children when they’re hurting are the same skills we can use to be
more loving to ourselves.

Doing
the work to love ourselves is a part of God’s will.  If God loves us,
then God doesn’t want us spoken to in hurtful and abusive ways.
Thus, the time it takes to find the loving-intention is time well
spent.  Furthermore, love itself is a cool thing.  Every time it
stretches out in a new direction, it expands its capacity.  As we
love others more, we can love ourselves more.  As we love ourselves
more, we can love God more.   As we love God more, we can love others
and ourselves more.

Love
is the will of God.

Including,
self-love.

May
we do God’s will.  Amen

–

Rev. Sara E. Baron

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305

Pronouns: she/her/hers

http://fumcschenectady.org/

https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

June 10, 2018

Sermons

“Sent” based on Isaiah 6:1-8 and John 3:1-17

  • May 27, 2018February 15, 2020
  • by Sara Baron

Rev. Sara E. BaronFirst United Methodist Church of Schenectady603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305Pronouns: she/her/hershttp://fumcschenectady.org/When
I was 7, my friend Becca was in a church that focused on “being
saved.”  As far as I understood it, “being saved” involved
taking a teacher from her Sunday School into the church library,
proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and praying a specific
prayer.  This, apparently, was not to be done too early or one might
not believe it with one’s whole heart, but should be done as soon
as possible so as to ensure eternal salvation.

Becca
was very excited that she had been saved and frequently asked me if I
had been. I always answered no.  This answer always resulted in a
long lecture about why I should “be saved.”  The lecture, in
turn, irritated me.  One day I had a brilliant revelation… although
I had never “been saved” in Becca’s definition, I believed that
Jesus loved me just as I was.  I didn’t think that there were
specific hoops to jump through in order for God to accept me.  So,
the next time Becca asked me if I was saved I said yes!  I wasn’t
saved in her world view, but I was in mine.

Becca’s
understanding of being saved is a part of our Christian tradition.
So was mine.  In the years since, my perspective has gained more
knowledge and nuance. I now know that salvation is about God’s work
towards healing and wholeness in the world.  I’ve come to believe
that God desires “salvation for all of creation” which isn’t
about afterlife at all, but about the kindom coming to earth.  I’ve
also learned a lot more about how things were in Jesus’ day.  Still,
as a whole, I’m at a peace with my 7 year old decision to answer as I
did.

In
the time of Jesus, most people believed that when you died, you
ceased to exist – from dust to dust in those days meant no
afterlife and no eternal soul.  In the Greeco-Roman religion that was
dominate in the lands that surrounded Jesus,  the gods
were immortal – and people became immortal only when they were
promoted to god-status because of an extraordinary life.  The
Sadducees, who were the ruling party in Judaism, utterly denied the
possibility of afterlife.  Neither in Jesus’ immediate community
nor in his world at large was afterlife considered a real
possibility.

Early
Christianity was novel in that its followers believed that they could
become immortal.  Or, to name it in the Greco-Roman context, the
followers of Jesus all became “little gods”. They were immortal,
something true only of gods and goddesses.  This was a very strong
statement – people who followed Jesus became like the gods of the
world that surrounded them!

Today,
many people consider heaven and hell to be contrasting opposites.  At
that time, the alternative to joyful eternal live was not hell.  It
was “perishing.” That is, if you followed Jesus, you gained
eternal life.  If you didn’t follow Jesus, you ceased to exist at
the end of your life.  That’s where this passage ends… with the
well known John 3:16-17.  “‘For God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not
perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not
send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that
the world might be saved through him.”  

Thus,
the claim is made that those who believe in Jesus will gain eternal
life.  My 7-year old friend Becca believed that there were specific
rules to guide what constituted “belief in Jesus.”
Understandings of afterlife have developed since the time of Jesus,
nothing stays stagnant! Early Christianity opened the door to eternal
life – instead of saying that only “gods” could live forever,
there was an affirmation of common people and our value.  

While
are are thinking about that, let’s look more closely at the beginning
of this text.   Nicodemus is named as a Pharisee, a group that gained
most of its power after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70
BCE, and a group that was open to afterlife in some form or another.
(Not the way people today think of it though.)  Nicodemus, as a
Pharisee, being in power at the time of Jesus is exactly the kind of
historically questionable stuff that reminds us to take John
metaphorically..  Anyway, according to John,  this guy comes to Jesus
… at night.  Why at night?  So he couldn’t be seen!  Its really
kind of a funny story, even to start out… we have one of the
highest ranking officials in Israel sneaking around under the cloak
of darkness in order to meet with Jesus.  

He
gets to Jesus and starts the conversation by complimenting him.
Unfortunately for Nicodemus, he isn’t as smart as he thinks he is.
He doesn’t “get it.”  He ALMOST “gets it.”  He wants to
learn from Jesus, which is why he has come to Jesus.  But he is still
afraid of what others will think of him or do to him, and that’s
why he comes at night.  In addition, he bases his faith on “signs.”
That is, he thinks Jesus is connected to God because Jesus is able
to perform miracles.  Believing in Jesus because of his miracles is a
BIG no-no in the Gospel of John.  The faithful are supposed to
believe because they believe, not because of the powers that Jesus
has to do miracles.  So Nicodemus says, “Teacher, we know that you
come from God because of what you can do…”  And right there, as
John tells it, Jesus knows that Nicodemus wasn’t convinced to
follow him fully, yet.  

Jesus
begins to teach… and he says… LISTEN CAREFULLY!…he says “No
one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”
And Nicodemus says, “How can anyone be born again
after having grown old?”  Did you hear that?

Jesus
says “born from above” and Nicodemus says “born again.”  How
did he confuse that?  Well, he wasn’t that ridiculous actually…
in Greek the word for “again” and “from above” is the same
word.  Jesus is talking about the deep meaning of being born from
above, which is “from God”1
and Nicodemus is understanding the superficial meaning – born
again.  Nicodemus is being presented as foolish, or at least because
he didn’t have full faith he was too foolish to understand Jesus.
The image of a grown man re-entering the womb is meant to be funny.
It is meant to be as ridiculous as it sounds, because it is making
fun of the misunderstanding.   Being born again is NOT AT ALL what
Jesus is talking about.  Being born again is the MISUNDERSTANDING
that Nicodemus pulls out.

Being
born “from above” is having a spiritual birth.  That could be
seen as something that all people have – as all people ahave
spirits – or as an eye-opening event that occurs when individuals
connect with God.  It would make some sense, given the rest of Jesus’
teaching to think of being born “from above” as being connected
to God and therefore committed to building the kindom.  Being born
from above is to live as God would have a person live, to share love,
to exude compassion, to see a better world.  To be born from above,
then, is to live the prayer, “your kingdom come on earth as it is
in heaven.”

This
is a Gospel reading with many opportunities for misunderstanding.  It
is one I am tempted to avoid, simply to not have to deal with them.
However, being informed about our scriptures and how they has been
used to do harm, and what they actually mean is part of what we need
to know to bring healing.  Luckily, this passage has a lot of gems as
well as a history of being used badly.  Verse 8 reads, The
wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do
not know where it comes from or where it goes.  So it is with
everyone who is born of the Spirit.
There is a double meaning here – the wind is at once the Wind and
the Spirit of God.  We do not know the beginning of the wind or of
God, but we are able to watch what the Spirit of God does in the
world. This is one of my favorite descriptors of the Spirit.  If the
Spirit is truly the Spirit of Love (I think that’s fair) then it
reminds us that the demands of love can take us in rather unexpected
directions!Some
of the ancients thought of the wind as God’s breath.2
I suspect some of us moderns do too, at least in particular moments.
It has times when it is a potent metaphor.  

The
passage continues though, in a rather weird turn.  As another
commentator puts it, “The overlap of
crucifixion and exaltation conveyed by v. 14 is crucial to Johannine
soteriology because the Fourth Evangelist understands Jesus’s
crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension as one continuous event.”3
So, when the metaphor is drawn to “lifting up” it isn’t just
about Jesus’ death but about the end of his life and the beginning of
the life of the believers as the Body of Christ. (If you don’t know
the Moses reference, I promise, you don’t want to.  It won’t help.)  

Finally,
this text turns to one of the more abused verses in the Bible.  It
is actually good news, no matter how it has been used to abuse others
in Bible bashing.  The
good news is:  “God loves the world SO MUCH that God
seeks to heal it in every way God can.”
In the words of a wise commentator,
“what if we are all called to “join in the creation of a
community in which God’s love was regarded as not being in short
supply, open only to those who have seen and confessed Jesus as the
Christ, but rather as poured out upon the entire world?”4

Taken
in continuity with John 3:17, “Indeed,
God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in
order that the world might be saved through him,” while remembering
that the first meaning in the Bible of salvation is healing, we get
to:  “God loves the world SO MUCH
that…that God keeps moving creation to wholeness AND  God pushes
and prods us in hope that we’ll learn deeper love.  Nothing can
separate us from the love of God… because God loves the world THAT
much.”

Do
you ever wonder what it means to say that “God loves the world”?
It is startlingly unequivocal.  It isn’t, “God loves the good
people.”  Or, “God loves it when things are going right.”  It
isn’t even, “God loves the world, but hates the brokenness.”
John 3:16 claims God loves the world.  God gives gifts to the world.
God seeks healing and wholeness for the world.  And the world isn’t
just humanity, it is all of creation.


God
LOVES the world.  

For
me, that’s a bit of a relief.  It reminds me that God’s love isn’t
contingent on us getting it right, love is already a part of it all.
It is a reminder that we can’t mess it up.  Love is the starting
point of all creation, it has a power nothing else can match.  For
me, at least, gratitude for this reality is what motivates me to work
with God for the building of the kindom.  But it starts with love.
God loves the world.  Unlike my childhood friend, I think there is a
full stop there, no conditions.

God
loves the world and all the beings in it.  As.  They.  Are.
Salvation is a gift God willingly  offers to us all.

Thanks
be to God.  Amen


1Ernst
Haenchen John 1: A Commentary on the Gospel of John, Chapters 1-6
(Hermeneia: a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible) (Vol
1) (Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, January 1, 1988).

2
 Raymond E. Brown Gospel According
to John.
Anchor Bible.  (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966-70.)

3
Gail R.O’Day,   “The Gospel of John: Introduction, Comentary,
and Reflections.”  In New
Interpreter’s Bible,
vol. 9.  (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995).

4Ibid.

Rev. Sara E. Baron

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305

Pronouns: she/her/hers

http://fumcschenectady.org/

Sermons

“Resonance” based on Genesis 11:1-9 and Acts 2:1-15

  • May 20, 2018February 15, 2020
  • by Sara Baron

I have a lot of questions about Pentecost. I wonder what “divided tongues as of fire” might be trying to explain. I’m curious how a bunch of men from Galilee with the two or three languages they likely spoke could communicate effectively with people who spoke many other languages. I wonder what other names and words they used to try to describe the Spirit, and what the Spirit meant to them them, a number of years before the church created the concept of “Trinity.” Moreso than with most stories, I can’t tell what the kernel of it really is, what likely happened that day that they’re telling about with such passion.

There are a few things I can make good guesses on from Acts 2. It seems to be a story that is told to reverse of the Tower of Babel story. In doing so, it suggests that God has the power to connect us. It speaks of the power and mystery of the Holy Spirit, and explains that the Spirit is able to connect people across seemingly impossible barriers. Beyond that, I’m not really sure what it means, but I find those two pieces worthy of attention.

Let’s look at the Tower of Babel story, to make sense of my claim that Pentecost “undoes” it. The story is set in Babylon, and seems to make reference to the temples of Babylon to their god Marduk. Those temples were ziggurats, sort of rectangular towers with ramps. They are look like segmented pyramids. They were made of bricks, and could easily be called towers.

Ancient Israel’s history with Babylon is complex. Babylon was located in one of the early centers of human civilization, Mesopotamia. According to Genesis, Abraham himself left that area when he came to find the Promised Land, and the patriarchs’ spouses also came from there. So, it was a motherland to ancient Israel perhaps similar to how Great Britain is motherland to the USA (even though many of us don’t have British ancestry). Like the complicated history we have with Great Britain, so too did Israel and Babylon. Babylon defeated Judah in 587/586 BCE after an extended siege, destroyed the temple and the city gates, and took the leaders into exile as slaves in Babylon.

I believe, that the Hebrew Bible itself was written during and immediately after the exile. The stories, commands, and prophecies were usually much older, but they came into their current form at that time. They were both told and edited to answer the question “why did this happen to us?” alternatively phrased, “If our God is powerful, how did we get defeated (by Babylon)?”

In the story of the Tower of Babel, the story ends calling the tower “babel” which in Hebrew is “balal” which means “to confuse.” I think the story aims to diminish the power of Babylon by demeaning their temples, and at the same time tries to give an answer to a big human question: “why can’t we understand each other?”

It is a good and big question. It is much larger than even confusion about why various human languages exist, or why language itself keeps changing. Even when we speak the same language, it can be VERY DIFFICULT to understand each other. In this story, the confusion is said to be a punishment to limit humankind. It is funny though, isn’t it, that the diverse and wonderful cultures and languages of the world are perceived as a punishment?

Sometimes the challenges to communicate and understand each other are really frustrating. I guess they could reasonably be seen as a punishment. The ways that we as humans feel disconnected from each other feels wrong. Furthermore, we often feel incapable of changing it.

I can sense in the Tower of Babel story a quest to understand the human condition. The Pentecost story in Acts, by inverting the Tower of Babel story, says that the Holy Spirit changes the human condition that keeps us separate from each other and unable to understand one another! Even better, in the Pentecost story, the vast diversity of human language continues to exist, it just ceases to be a barrier.

The more I thought about this story this week, the less I was distracted by the “whys” and “hows” of it, and the more I found myself thinking about that mystery of the Spirit. The story says that the Spirit came and changed everything, connected them to each other, and made possible what had seemed impossible. That is, it says the Spirit is a Spirit of connection.

One of my all time favorite books is “A General Theory of Love” written by Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, and Richard Lannon, all of whom were professors of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine at the time they wrote it. It is a book about love and human connection, from the perspective of brain science. They spend a lot of time explaining the function of part of the human brain that we share with other mammals: the limbic brain. The limbic brain is the brain that connects. Because of it, mammals are inherently social, and we impact each other, deeply. As they say, “A mammal can detect the internal state of another mammal and adjust its own physiology to match the situation—a change in turn sensed by the other, who likewise adjusts.”1 That’s pretty amazing.

We mammals have the capacity for “limbic resonance—a symphony of mutual exchange and internal adaptation whereby two mammals become attuned to each other’s inner states.”2 Not only can we do it, it is our normal and constant state! General Theory of Love explains, “So familiar and expected is the neural attunement of limbic resonance that people find its absence disturbing. Scrutinize the eyes of a shark or a sunbathing salamander and you get back no answering echo, no flicker of recognition, nothing. The vacuity behind those glances sends a chill down the mammalian spine.”3 Among humans, “Because limbic states can leap between minds, feelings are contagious, while notions are not.”4 Feelings are contagious! We do know this, when someone in a terrible mood walks into a room, we all feel it. The same happens with someone in a great mood. It happens on more subtle scales too. This may even explain some of why we get so much out of worship – we are able to build on each other’s good feelings and joy in seeing each other.

Of course, while we are able to connect to all mammals, but we only form attachments to some. They say, “It is attachment that makes familiarity trump worth. A golden retriever thrills only to his owner. He is amiably and helplessly indifferent to passersby who may be kinder, fonder of walks, quicker with treats—he does not, he cannot value them. Everyone is in the same limbic boat as those patient, expectant dogs.”5This is, in part, because bodies aren’t as stand alone as we think! We as humans can’t function alone. They say, “Most people assume that the body they inhabit is self-regulating— that their own physiologic balance occurs within a closed loop.”6 However, “The mammalian nervous system depends for its neurophysiologic stability on a system of interactive coordination, wherein steadiness comes from synchronization with nearby attachment figures.”7 Or, to put it another way, “But because human physiology is (at least in part) an open-loop arrangement, an individual does not direct all of his own functions. A second person transmits regulatory information that can alter hormone levels, cardiovascular function, sleep rhythms, immune function, and more—inside the body of the first.”8 Given this information, they say human “Stability means finding people who regulate you well and staying near them,” and “This necessary intermingling of physiologies makes relatedness and communal living the center of human life.”9

This mammalian attachment stuff applies to partners, to parents and children, to friends and neighbors, and even to church community. Also, as most of us know from experience, it applies to pets. General Theory of Love says, “Somehow the attachment architecture is general enough that a human being and a dog can both fit within the realm of what each considers a valid partner. And the two can engage in limbic regulation: they spend time near each other and miss each other; they will read some of each other’s emotional cues; each will find the presence of the other soothing and comforting; each will tune and regulate the physiology of the other.”10

Now this information has some serious implications for our lives! We need other mammals who help us regulate well. We can’t function on our own!! General Theory of Love says, “Being well regulated in relatedness is the deeply gratifying state that people seek ceaselessly in romance, religions, and cults; in husbands and wives, pets, softball teams, bowling leagues, and a thousand other features of human life driven by the thirst for sustaining affiliations.”11 Now, that makes sense, huh? But!!! They continue, “Some cultures encourage emotional health; others do not. Some, including modern America, promote activities and attitudes directly antithetical to fulfillment.”12 They also tell us why: “The simple equations of love. Like this: relationships live on time.”13 They say, “A culture versed in the workings of emotional life would encourage and promote the activities that sustain health —togetherness with one’s partner and children; homes, families, and communities of connectedness. Such a society would guide its inhabitants to the joy that can be found at the heart of attachment.”14

Isn’t it fun when scientists use their own methods, words, and theories and then come around to something that sounds remarkably like the kin-dom of God? Also, it is very good to have reminders to seek out those mammals we love and savor the time we have to be near them!

I want to expand their theory a little bit though. They talk about mammalian limbic resonance, and I am hoping we can consider the capacity for resonance to be one of the functions of the Spirit. After all, God is love; and God is the one in whom we live and move and have our beings. I think power and wonder of attachment and connection is a part of the mysterious loving power of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, I think it is worth considering the Divine as…. mammal-like. At least as far as we could consider the Divine to be another being with whom we share love and intimacy, whose capacity to form attachments with us and resonance with us would be an additional source of health and joy! And, we’re told, relationships thrive on TIME. That would indicate that spending some time aware of the wonder of the Presence of the Divine and attending to it might be a very good use of time.

The Spirit resonates. Perhaps we could say that the Spirit IS resonance, and that’s how all mammalian connection is possible! The Spirit helps us connect, to bring us joy, health, and fulfillment. We can also seek resonance directly with the Spirit. Our brains are already designed to do it, to seek connection through resonance. Through the Spirit we are connected to all that is, and more. Resonance is a language we all speak, and it requires no translation. Perhaps that’s a part of the Pentecost miracle. Thanks be to God. Amen  

1Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, Richard Lannon, A General Theory of Love (New York: Vintage Books, 2000) page 60.

261.

361.

462.

5158.

682.

782.

882.

984.

1096.

11155.

12189.

13202.

14206.

–

Rev. Sara E. Baron

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305

Pronouns: she/her/hers

http://fumcschenectady.org/

https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

May 20, 2018

Sermons

“Without a Doubt” based on John 20:19-31

  • April 23, 2018February 15, 2020
  • by Sara Baron

Being a teenager in 2018, I have the opportunity to encounter people of all different levels of belief–whether that be through school or through various church activities. In both church and school I have met people my age who are struggling to grasp the teachings of whatever faith background they come from. I can’t speak for all of them, though I think that this question of belief is a product of the age in which we live. I think that many of my peers are wary of putting their trust in anything that they are not certain of. And can you blame them? In a time such as this, with people shouting “Fake News” at both legitimate and illegitimate news sources, it’s not easy to distinguish the voices that one can trust. That alone has led to many an existential crisis in people I’ve encountered. Add to that the political figures coming on TV and giving conflicting accounts of the “facts,” and the stars and moguls who have been facing slews of sexual assault and harassment allegations, and the reason for this lack of public trust becomes clearer and clearer.

But it doesn’t end with the media and the politicians. Many people I’ve talked to reject the whole idea of faith because of what they have seen so called people of faith doing in the world. They see people in both Church and State exploiting a Tradition of love and justice for their own personal gains. They see so-called people of faith turn a blind eye to the immorality of political leaders when it suits their agenda. They see that, and that is the image that many today associate with the Church. They cannot imagine that God is just or loving or accepting because that is not what the world has shown them.

It is difficult to imagine such a world as is described in the passage from Acts because that is the opposite of what we see in the world. I look around at where we are as humans, and we are not living into the vision that God has for the world. If we take Acts 4 as the vision for God’s Kindom, the ideal world, that is not what we see. I would say that what we see is quite the opposite, in fact. The passage speaks of a world without greed, a world in which every possession is held in common. It speaks of a world in which every need is satisfied. Why? Because their wealth, the capital, the means of production, are distributed on the basis of need. Not based on where you were born. Not based on the color of your skin. Not based on gender, or age, or who your parents are or who you love. Based on what you need. This is a world in which people take care of each other.

So, why is this so hard to believe? Perhaps it is because we are all Thomas, waiting for that visible proof, that wound we can touch to make us believe that God’s world is possible. But is it really so bad to be a Thomas? Yes, he questioned the accounts of the other disciples, but could you really blame him? Between Peter denying Jesus and Judas overtly betraying him, not to mention the Roman authorities who had just arrested and executed one of his closest friends, how could Thomas know who to trust? In a lot of ways, Thomas is just like all of us. Aren’t we all looking for something solid, a starting place? Aren’t we looking for some little glimmer of hope that this world that God envisions is not only possible but will happen? Even the most devout disciples look for that assurance. Even the most faithful amongst us looks for that sign of a worthwhile investment. Because that’s what it is to be a disciple of Jesus. It takes time. It takes people. It takes speaking out despite the consequences. It takes money, and yes, sometimes it takes your life.

But perhaps the most difficult part of being a follower of Jesus is that there isn’t always that tangible guarantee. There’s no promise of money or fame. Being a follower means suffering with those who suffer. It means resisting oppressors. It means working tirelessly to bring our reality in line with God’s reality. A reality in which no one has more or less. A reality in which no one starves. No one is left out. No one fears for their life, or their safety, or the safety of their children. A reality without fear. I think that’s the hardest part to believe for so many people today. We are surrounded by violence, in our schools, our places of work, our places of worship. Afraid to leave the house and the safety of like-minded people. Our doubt fuels our fears, making us like the disciples who cowered in that house. But there’s one disciple who wasn’t hiding with the rest. Thomas. Famous for the doubt that he had. We seem to overlook, however, that he wasn’t in the house where the disciples were hiding. Now, there could be any number of reasons as to why he wasn’t there, but I find it more than plausible that he was out in the world trying to do some good–in spite of the fear that confined the other ten disciples to that house. But even if he was just out grabbing a snack or visiting his mother, he left the house in spite of his fear. Any introvert here knows how challenging even that can be. But Thomas gets past the fear and does things. That alone is commendable. Thomas doesn’t let fear control his life. He pushes past it and lets his life go on.

For many, a life without fear is the hardest concept to grasp. Because the world sells us fear by the ton. Fear is what drives military spending, and discrimination, and war, and corporate greed, and personal greed. This is what the world looks like. Fear, everywhere you turn. People causing fear, and exploiting fear, and doubt, an unbelief to create chaos and to destroy any hope of trust or faith.

It is this fear that controls our lives, that keeps us locked in the house, afraid to speak out. It is this fear that closes our borders and our minds and our hearts. Fear is what isolates us from the rest of God’s world–fear is what prevents us from living into God’s reality. What I believe is one of the most significant parts of this Gospel passage is that despite the disciples locking themselves away, Jesus still enters.

Jesus cannot be kept out by any barrier–whether it be physical or mental. Christ cannot be kept out by fear. He is bigger than that. Where those in power use fear to divide us and to keep us under their control, Christ breaks through that fear and helps us to push out of the confines of the house and into the world.

But the question still remains: how? For all those struggling to find that reason to believe in the future that God envisions for us, there is one. Jesus. He is the proof, the symbol of hope. He is the sign that the world as it is now is not as good as it gets. He is the evidence that love is more powerful than death, and that God is more powerful than fear. Because it is only through Christ that we can overcome our fears and make God’s reality our own. And we can only do this by letting go of the material possessions that we hold dearest and following the example of Jesus and the apostles. We are called to take care of one another as children of God. That takes rejecting the way that the world works. That means rejecting the political and economic systems that lead to the inherent discrimination and disenfranchisement of women, minorities, and anyone that is different. It means rejecting a system that turns a profit by pitting individuals against one another using fear as an incentive to abandon fellow human beings. Because these systems are exploitative. These systems force us to dehumanize each other. These systems force us to compete rather than cooperate. These systems are obstacles along the path to God’s reality. It is our job to have hope, and to be the hope, for the world. It is our responsibility to be Christ’s body and, in doing so, to be the proof that God’s reality is possible.

There is no one I can think of who better embodies the resistance of fear or the rejection of these systems than my younger sibling. My sibling has been through a lot in the last year, starting at a point of crippling anxiety. They were only comfortable around a few people, preferring to keep to themself. However, about a year ago they felt so secure in themself that they came out as being non binary. They were feeling confident enough the be their own authentic self. Their new, authentic life has really helped them to become even less anxious all the time. In fact, they are so secure in their identity that they have become something of an advocate, both for themself and others like them. They are even advocating for more inclusive policy changes on the Conference level. They’ve come such a long way from their former anxious self. They’ve gone from anxiety to authenticity to advocacy, breaking out of the house and into the world.

We are people of faith. We have the responsibility, if we truly are followers of Christ and believers in God, to be the reason the people believe. We need to show the world the transformative love of Jesus, the transformative love that will bring about God’s reality. All we need to do is break through our fears and our doubts and and live fully into the community of believers that God intends for us. Maybe then, everyone will have something to believe in. Amen.

Sam Smith

April 8, 2018

Sermons

“Tender Compassion”based on Psalm 23 and John 10:11-18

  • April 22, 2018February 15, 2020
  • by Sara Baron

We need good images for God, preferably many of them. The ways we think about the Holy One impact our theology, our prayer life, and even who we seek to become. I think we are lucky that today’s scriptures center on a beautiful image of the Divine, and give us a chance to contemplate the implications of it.

The comparison of humans to sheep and their leaders to shepherds was a pretty obvious metaphor for the pre-industrial, agricultural lands of ancient Israel. Sheep were everywhere, and they have some remarkably human tendencies. (I am told my last name is Polish for sheep, except that there is another words that is more commonly used for sheep. Baron is special word for stupid sheep. So, yes, sheep with human tendencies…) It could be tempting to consider the metaphor of God as shepherd as outdated, but I think it is worthy of serious attention. To get there though, we have to consider ourselves as sheep. It mostly works.

Take, for example, how flocks of sheep like to be led: “Cows are herded from the rear with shouts and prods from cowboys. But that does not work with sheep. If you stand behind sheep making noises, they will just run around behind you. They actually prefer to be led. Cows can be pushed; sheep must be led. Sheep will not going anywhere that someone else – their trusted shepherd – does not go first, to show them that everything is all right.”1 By my personal experience with humans, myself included, this applies to us also. We aren’t big fans of being pushed, prodded, or shouted at. We prefer to be led, and most especially like being lead by example.

As one scholar put it:

“In the agrarian culture of ancient Israel, before fences contained grazing livestock, shepherds were essential guardians of economic capital. The Israelite marketplace and sacrificial rites required sheep for wool, milk, and for those who could afford it, meat. In the daily life of the shepherd, however, these fluffy creatures could be at turns affectionate, stubborn, stupid, aimless, passive, easily startled, and always hungry. Sheep are prone to wander off and become easily vulnerable. Foxes, wolves, and jackals knew this. A shepherd, therefore, needed to be strong but not overpowering. If the shepherd came on too forcefully the flock would scatter and run away. If the shepherd was too gentle or inattentive, ovine passivity and distraction would bring a host of troubles.”2

Sheep are inherently dependent on shepherds. They’re vulnerable by themselves. Predators want to hurt them, they wander off and lose their way, they can’t heal themselves without help when they get hurt. At the same time, shepherds are also dependent on sheep! The sheep are the shepherd’s work, and livelihood, their companions, and the source of much of what the shepherd needs. A sheep and their shepherd are interdependent.

God as shepherd is a common image in the Bible. In Ezekiel 34 the prophet condemns the kings of Judah for failing to be good shepherds, and says that they’ve done so badly that God is going to take over directly. The condemnation is interesting because of what specific issues are named.

“Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep were scattered, they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill; my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with no one to search or seek for them.” (Ezekiel 34:2-6)

So that’s what BAD shepherding looks like. The comes the contrast.

For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.  …I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak”. (Ezekiel 34:11, 14-16b)

While kings were supposed to act like good shepherds, they usually failed. They forgot to take care of the people and focused on their own needs. Yet, God is the best shepherd– exactly the sort of shepherd the people need. God is strong enough to keep them safe, and gentle enough not to scare them off. It is within this regular metaphor of the people as sheep in need of a good shepherd that both the 23rd Psalm and the Gospel reading emerge.

The 23rd Psalm is the best known metaphor of God as the good shepherd, caring for the needs of the sheep. The Psalm comes from a personal perspective, the speaker is an individual who is well cared for by the shepherd, even though the shepherd is responsible for the whole flock. The Psalmist’s needs are all cared for by the shepherd: for food, rest, and even beauty in the green pastures; for safety, comfort, and thirst by the still waters; for restoration of the soul itself – for healing from the inside out – for solace. But it doesn’t even end there! The shepherd who leads the sheep, leads them down good paths so they know where to go to be safe and well. The Psalmist asserts that even the shadowed and frightening places of life aren’t scary with the shepherd leading them. Then comes a line I’ve often ignored, “ your rod and your staff– they comfort me.” A scholar writes, “The rod and staff, the shepherd’s instruments of prodding, directing, and defending, are ever present.”3

For the most part, the metaphor of God as Good Shepherd gets dropped at this point in the Psalm, because even more needs to be said and it requires human imagery. The Psalmist feels safe with God even when other people are attacking, and has their needs cared for even then. The table is set, by God, for food to be eaten. God offers hospitality, and abundance – the cup overflows with goodness. Before this tiny little poem is over though, it offers STILL more goodness. Goodness and mercy “shall follow me” – goodness and mercy are are the essence of God. Goodness is sort of circularly defined with God, and mercy is one of the most consistent descriptors of God in the Bible. Mercy is compassion (or forgiveness) shown to a person whom it is within one’s power (or right) to punish or harm. God’s presence with the Psalmist is expressed with the powerful, “goodness and mercy shall follow me.”

The 23rd Psalm is a truly spectacular poem, with excellent theology. Particularly in the midst of upheaval, it is good to remember that God is our Good Shepherd. The Gospel extends and expands the shepherd metaphor. It may be useful to remember that the Gospel of John was written several generations after the death of Jesus, and the human tendency to make meaning out of events had time to work its magic on this speech of Jesus’.

“I am the good shepherd” is one of the many “I am” statements of John, in this case it speaks of a role that clarifies the connection between Jesus and God. Uniquely, this passage contrasts the shepherd with the hired hard. That may sound a bit like the condemnation of the kings from Ezekiel, but has its own flavor. The shepherd’s life is interdependent with that of the sheep, but the hired hand is not, and that impacts the care they give!

In John we hear, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.” Sheep know and come to their shepherd’s voice. It is a very intimate relationship, yet another reason it is a good metaphor for our relationship to God! Then comes something that doesn’t work in the same way with real shepherds and sheep, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” We are told AGAIN, as we have been many times before, that God’s love doesn’t have the boundaries we’d expect. The flock that we are a part of isn’t the only one, and we should be expecting God to keep on expanding the flock until all are included.

Some of this is a bit uncomfortable for me, as one of the most common descriptions of the work I’m call to is “pastor” which is a reflection of clergy as following in the way of the good shepherd. Given the strength of the metaphor, it feels over extended to use it to refer to human clergy people, who are always more sheep than shepherd, no matter how hard we try. However, I suppose the reminders to be tender and compassionate the way that God is tender and compassionate is never out of line.

The 23rd Psalm really does wonderful work with the balance between the individual and the communal. God, the God who is OUR shepherd, is also MY shepherd. The one who cares for the flock, and indeed all the flocks, is also caring for me. And that one is trustworthy, I can relax in the shepherd’s care. That one is also tender, I can trust that the shepherd will find me when I’m lost, care for me when I’m injured, cajole me when I’m scared, and reconnect me with the flock when I stray away. The shepherd is a strong and tender caregiver, and the Lord is my and our shepherd.  And, God has those metaphorical rod and staff to prod, direct, and defend us!!

John’s Good Shepherd passage adds even more to this stunning imagery of God. It invites us to consider deep intimacy with God, to consider what God’s “voice” sounds like and if we are tuned into it. It continues the interdependence between the sheep and the shepherd, between God and God’s people, and invites us to see each other as fellow members of God’s flock.

Our God is like a good shepherd, who takes care of the sheep – both individually and collectively. Our God is a Good Shepherd, tender and compassionate. Thanks be to God for God’s good care, and for the opportunity to learn of the Divine in this imagery. Amen

Sermon Talkback Questions

What part of the care of the sheep in Psalm 23 are you needing most? (to lie down in green pastures, to be led beside still waters, to restore my soul, to be led on the right path)

Is the image of God as shepherd still something that resonates today? Why or why not?

What other images might serve in similar ways, and connect more to our lives?

What parts of the imagery of God as shepherd help you connect with God?

Are there parts that don’t?

Are there entirely other images or names for God that help you connect with good theology and a loving God?

Who are the sheep of other folds?

What ways do you seek to tune yourself to God’s voice so that “my own know me”?

1Nancy R. Blakley, “Pastoral Perspective on John 10:11-18” in “Feasting on the Word Year B Volume 2” edited by Barbara Brown Taylor and David Bartlett (Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville Kentucky, 2008) page 450.

2Kent M. French “Exegetical Perspective on Psalm 23” in “Feasting on the Word Year B Volume 2” edited by Barbara Brown Taylor and David Bartlett (Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville Kentucky, 2008) page 437.

3French, 439.

–

Rev. Sara E. Baron

 First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 

Pronouns: she/her/hers

http://fumcschenectady.org/

https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

Sermons

“Finding Peace” based on Psalm 4 and Luke 24:36b-48

  • April 15, 2018February 15, 2020
  • by Sara Baron

It seems possible to me that most of us missed a lot of what was going on the Psalm in the first reading, and all the scholars I’ve read have offered a lot of insight into it that I didn’t get on my own. So I’m going to try ruining the beautiful poetry for the sake of clarity. (This is my gift to the world, I make things clear but less pretty.):

God, answer me! I trust you will. After all, you are excellent.
Also, you have before.
When I was feeling crowded in with no space to move,
you made abundant space for me.
Because of that experience, I trust to ask you again:
have mercy on me and hear me.
I need you, because PEOPLE are not excellent right now.
People are after me, trying to take away my reputation, my name, my family honor.
They want to shame me!

O people, how long will you lie about me?
You should remember that I follow God’s ways,
and God listens when I pray.

Instead of lying and shaming others when you are hurting,
spend some time in quiet, in contemplation, in prayer.
God will listen to you, too. You aren’t alone.
Trust in God.

Of course, some say that there is no goodness in the world, no God-ness.
But I remember the blessing,
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make God’s face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up God’s countenance upon you, and give you peace.

You, O God have given me so much more joy
than those who have food and drink in abundance.
Because of my connection to you,
I will sleep peacefully tonight, despite what the people say about me.
You, O God lead me to sanctuaries for rest and recovery.
That’s the experience I get, even from this brief prayer.

The psalmist finds ways through fear through remembering God’s spaciousness, through finding empathy for her accusers, and through remembering God’s trustworthiness. I love that in the Psalm we are taken along for the ride with her – entering into her hope for what God can offer, entering into her dismay at the struggles she is finding in life, entering into the wisdom she finds within, and then entering with her into the rest she finds in remembering that God is with her and she’s OK.

(Btw, I have no way to know the Psalmist’s gender. One of the scholars I read this week simply used the feminine for the author, and I thought it was a good exercise to derive the fullness of humanity from the female pronoun, so I followed that person’s lead.)

It has been said that the Psalms are God’s favorite book of the Bible, because the rest of the Bible is primarily concerned with what God is saying to the people, but the Psalms are about what people are saying to God. The full range of human emotion is found in them, often to rather uncomfortable degrees. In this Psalm we hear the anxiety of being hemmed in, particularly by people who want to harm us. We also hear the witness of a person who has known God’s loving grace. She informs those who seem ready to harm her of the goodness she’s found in her relationship with God, and it almost seems that in reminding them, she is reminded that God is the one whose steadfast love endures forever.

The Psalms always remind me that emotions are OK, and that STRONG emotions are OK, that God is big enough to deal with us as we are, be that anxious, sad, angry, or even numb. In this case, I think the Psalmist was most of all afraid, and that is very similar to how the disciples are presented as feeling in the Luke reading today. Luke says they were, “startled and terrified” when Jesus appeared and spoke words of comfort and assurance to them. This seems reasonable to me! Once Jesus had assured the disciples, and their fear had lessened, he took the time to teach them. It seems like there is a good life lesson in that. Frightened people aren’t able to absorb new information, so taking the time to connect with someone and calm their fears seems imperative to any form of teaching!

Then he gives them a new undertaking. Those who had been his students and companions were now to be “witnesses.” They had seen his ministry, and his life, death, and resurrection, and they were supposed to start talking about it. The final command to the disciples in the Luke version we read today that says, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” I think the awesome part here is that it is “to be proclaimed in his name to ALL NATIONS.”

Jesus spend his ministry teaching repentance and forgiveness of sins. That was the core of his message, as a means to open people to the kindom of God. It is always important to consider what sins he was talking about though! Life wasn’t what God had planned for the people, the vision of the Torah wasn’t the way of life anymore. The communities weren’t caring for each other, and the vulnerable were slipping through the cracks. Life wasn’t focused on God, or on God’s ways of justice. To say that the witnesses were to take the message to all the world is to say that the whole world could be transformed from violence to nonviolence; from fear to hope; from selfish ambition to communal joy! The WHOLE WORLD could be healed and become the kindom.

But first, he had to deal with their fears. They needed to be seeped in hope to offer this message! Whether it be like Jesus working patiently with the disciples, or like the Psalmist working through her own fear by remembering God and instructing others in God’s grace, there are ways through fear to hope. May we find them when we need them. Amen

–

Rev. Sara E. Baron 

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 

Pronouns: she/her/hers

http://fumcschenectady.org/

https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

Sermons

“Life, Death, and Resurrection“ based on Isaiah 25:6-9 and Mark…

  • April 1, 2018February 15, 2020
  • by Sara Baron

When I was a little girl, 8 years old I think, my family adopted a calico cat we named Marble Cake. We adopted her from the Humane Society, and she was beautiful. She was a little bit wild! The first time I held her, she extended her claws and exited by walking down my back. My parents thought she’d been mistreated earlier in her life, and assured us that if we were kind to her she would settle down.

The thing is, they were right. She changed in the matter of months. She was sweet and cuddly, a wonderful lap cat, and a fantastic companion for 18 years! Looking back on that moment when she settled into our lives, I’m especially grateful for my parents’ wisdom. Marble Cake needed to be able to establish her boundaries and have them be respected, so that the love we wanted to give her could break through. If we had ignored her, she wouldn’t have experienced love. If we had violated her boundaries, she never would have come to trust us. Worst of all, if we had fought back when – acting in fear- she hurt us, there would have been escalating violence.

I suspect that the story I just shared is particularly obvious to most of you. Hurting mammals respond with fear and fear often comes out as aggression. And any mammal who has been hurt needs consistent, gentle, loving care; and when it comes, miraculous changes occur. The irony is that human beings forget that we too are mammals, and we too need consistent, gentle, loving care. This forgetting causes problems on both the personal and the societal scale.

I want to look at the ways this plays out on the societal level. Let’s think for a moment about a group who is seen as a threat. This happens often enough! In fact, in the time of Jesus, the Jesus movement itself was seen as a threat. Conversely, from the perspective of the Jesus movement, the domination system of the Roman Empire was a threat!

Each of them responded VERY differently to the perceived threat though. The Roman Empire and its Roman appointed Jerusalem leaders worked the way most societies do throughout time. They decided to eliminate the threat, silence it, stop it. More concretely, they decided to kill Jesus to prevent the movement from continuing. Even though the Jesus movement was a nonviolent one, they stopped it violently. This is the most common way that the world works 🙁

Within the Jesus movement, those in power and authority were also a threat! The Jesus movement compromised primarily Galilean peasants whose lives were already threatened by the ways money flowed to the top in the domination system with didn’t leave enough for everyone to survive. They were further threatened when the Jerusalem leaders got scared of them. Jesus wasn’t trying to eliminate anyone though, he wasn’t even thinking of them as threats or as enemies. This is the man who taught love of enemies. Jesus was trying to change the system so that everyone benefitted, INCLUDING those who were currently oppressors.  His nonviolent movement was aimed at the commonwealth of God where everyone can thrive. Now, of course, the oppressed are the most harmed in any system of oppression, BUT the oppressors are always also dehumanized by their participation in the system. Jesus was trying to bring a fuller life and a deeper humanity to all people, he was trying to bless the oppressors.

Reflecting back on Marble Cake, the Empire hit back when the cats claws came out, and Jesus loved the cat. Sometimes this is easier to see closer to our lives today. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote,

To our most bitter opponents we say: “We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.1

Rev. Dr. King and his followers acted like Jesus and his followers. They followed the path of nonviolence that transforms violence itself with the power of love. It is not an easy path, but it is a transformative one.

The world in the time of Jesus, as it was before him and as it has been after him, tended towards the ways of violence, oppression, and domination. There is a contrast between the ways the world most often has worked and the ways God would have the world work. And the primary difference is that the world uses violence to uphold inequity while God calls us to nonviolence and profound equity. (As people normalized to a capitalistic system, this should be squirmy.)

Jesus threatened the domination system of his day, in many ways. He offered free healing, which upset the economic systems dependent on gaining wealth from people’s illness. He taught everyone who came to him, which flagrantly defied the rules of social order (most particularly that only men were worthy of studying God). His teachings illuminated the injustices of the world around him. He spoke in ways that called out those who benefited from oppressing others, including in his own faith tradition. Additionally, he engaged in nonviolent direct action against the injustices of the Roman-Appointed Temple and the Roman-Controlled Passover celebrations. Worse yet, he was profoundly popular with the masses who were rekindling the power of their own faith tradition to find hope, connection, and reasons to challenge the way things were.

So, the Roman appointed Jerusalem leaders killed him. Yet, he maintained his commitment to nonviolence. He didn’t fight back, he didn’t flee, nor did he accept that what was being done was acceptable. He was killed, but he remained nonviolent and committed to God and God’s vision. He didn’t let the threat of violence, and the fear it induces, change his path.

This becomes particularly significant today. Marcus Borg said, “Easter is God’s YES to the World’s NO.” The World, with its preference for systems of domination and oppression, killed Jesus. The threat of violence became the punishment of death, and the world’s strongest commendation. But it failed.

Violence couldn’t force Jesus to comply, or conform, or even fight back and become a part of itself. Violence was powerless against Jesus! Death was powerless against Jesus, because they couldn’t change him or stop him! Because Jesus was able to face violence with nonviolence and disrupt its power, we know that we can too.2

Furthermore, the reason the Empire used violence against Jesus was to stop the Jesus movement. In that, it radically failed. Initially, their tactics worked. Peter was too afraid to claim Jesus, even after he’d followed him to find out what was happening. The disciples stayed away while he was crucified. (Exception being the female disciples who seem to have been there the whole time, although to be fair to the males, I don’t think they were seen as a threat and therefore weren’t threatened in the same ways. Likely they were mostly invisible to those who killed Jesus.)

So, the tactics of violence to induce fear worked BUT only temporarily. Then SOMETHING happened and changed things. Those same disciples who had denied Jesus and disappeared into the night became the leaders of the continuing Jesus movement and were unstoppable by the threat of violence from that point onward. All of the (remaining, male) disciples remained nonviolent while they were killed by the violence of the Empire. Whatever it was that changed the disciples from fear to fearlessness, from allowing violence to impact their actions to being impervious to violence, that’s what we call resurrection.

And it is our inheritance today. Jesus had a commitment to nonviolence, one that refused to be changed by the threat of violence. His disciples learned it. Today we celebrate it, and in our lives we are able to claim it! We are, today, the Body of Christ continuing his work and his legacy, and that requires that we use his means to seek his ends. To be followers in the way of Jesus “requires the unconditional and unilateral renunciation of violence.”3 Without that, we would easily fall into the other methods of fear, retribution, and fighting violence with violence. And Rev. Dr. King so clearly told us, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”4

The system of domination, oppression, and violence killed Jesus, but failed to stop his movement. God and Jesus can’t be stopped even by death! The Jesus movement got stronger.  God’s work in the world built strength!

Mark tells us all this with only an empty tomb. In this earliest of gospels, all we get is the already fearless women, the suggestion of resurrection through a messenger, the hope for the disciples, and the fear that ends it all. This is the original ending of the Gospel of Mark and it is strikingly abrupt. “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” The end 😉 Scholars think the ending is intended to motivate action, that the listener would think “well, if the women didn’t tell, I have to” and/or “if they were afraid, I can overcome my fear and participate in the resurrection that they’re missing!”

To live out God’s nonviolence, is to live out God’s love, and is to live the kindom of God in the now. Some of this living is in celebrating, and that’s our particular work today! We are to see, name, and celebrate. We see, name, and celebrate nonviolence, the kindom, and resurrection. It is all around us, when we are looking. It is in the decrease in worldwide poverty and hunger, but also in the loving way our breakfast volunteers greet our breakfast guests. It is in the work of UMCOR, but also in the loving greetings shared as people enter the church. It is in the long, hard, work to change the norms and laws of society for the better but also in laughter between strangers.

Nonviolence, its expansive love, and its incredible power have changed the world and will change the world. Their power is seen in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus AND in his followers throughout time. May it be seen in us, in the strength of our love, and in the clarity of our commitment to follow his ways of nonviolence. May it be seen as we celebrate the resurrection and the reminder that violence cannot stop the love of our God. Amen

1Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “On Loving Your Enemies” found athttps://www.onfaith.co/onfaith/2015/01/19/martin-luther-king-jr-on-loving-your-enemies/35907 on March 29, 2018.

2Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination (Fortress Press: 1993 it seems), 141.

3Walter Wink, 149.

4King (same sermon on “Loving Your Enemies”)

–

Rev. Sara E. Baron

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305

Pronouns: she/her/hers

http://fumcschenectady.org/

https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

Sermons

“A Hope-filled Crowd”based on Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29, Mark 11:1-11(…

  • March 25, 2018February 15, 2020
  • by Sara Baron

One of the most repeated myths about Jesus’ death is that the crowd who celebrated him on Palm Sunday turned on him and demanded his death on Good Friday. This one isn’t true at all, and its repetition keeps us from seeing clearly what did happen in the last week of Jesus’ life. It has been useful to those who want claim that humans are fickle, and crowd mentality is dangerous, to claim that the same crowd changed sides, but that isn’t reflective of the story we’ve read.

Instead, the crowds remained incredibly excited about Jesus and loyal to him. Their presence and their fidelity to him was the largest part of his threat to the empire. I mean, he also engaged in two really emphatic demonstrations of nonviolent resistance, but no one would have cared if he hadn’t done so with many, many people watching.

In fact, throughout the end of Mark, we’re told repeatedly that the authorities were trying to figure out how to take out Jesus without creating a riot by crowds faithful to him.

11:18 “And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching.” 11:32 “they were afraid of the crowd, for all regarded John as truly a prophet.” 12: 12 ”they wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowd. So they left him and went away.” 14:1b-2 “The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; for they said, ‘Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.‘”

John Dominic Crossan in God and Empire, suggests that the Good Friday crowd wasn’t really a crowd at all, but rather 9-10 people who were advocating for Barabbas, likely his followers. They weren’t the same people, and there weren’t many of them.

Throughout the Gospel of Mark there are tensions with crowds. Jesus keeps attracting crowds, and then tries to get away from them!! When he can’t, he teaches them, heals them, feeds them, then he tries to get away again. In Mark, the crowds are seen as a little bit dangerous, because they feed into the fear the authorities have that Jesus is going to start a violent revolution. The tension is ALWAYS there.

Of course, Jesus wasn’t going to start a VIOLENT revolution, he was starting a nonviolent one, but the difference didn’t end up mattering. Jesus was killed by the Roman Empire on the charges of inciting a violent revolt, EVEN THOUGH he’d only engaged in nonviolent actions. (Two notable ones: Palm Sunday and then on Monday the Temple Cleansing.) It seems that the fear the authorities had of the crowds and their power made the difference between violent revolution and nonviolent action less important to the authorities. They were too scared to pay attention to their own laws.

So, why were so many people following Jesus? What was it that was so attractive about him, or so irresistible? From what I can tell from the stories about him, his teaching was certainly mind-blowing, after all we’ve been struggling with it for 2000 years without coming to many answers. He also seems to have been a good healer. But those two pieces don’t quite explain the power he has in the stories about him. They don’t explain why the crowds were SO passionate for him that they protected him. They don’t explain why people were willing to walk away from the lives they’d known just to follow him.

I think he must have been profoundly rooted in God’s own love, AND very charismatic, AND incredibly empathetic, AND insanely insightful while also clear spoken, AND profoundly gifted at knowing what people needed and finding ways to fulfill it. The sort of live changing experiences people had with him, instantaneously, are really shocking. So is the story of Palm Sunday.

The story says that the crowd showed up at an anti-Imperial procession, that functionally named Jesus King, while shouting King-supporting phrases that were blasphemy and sedition in the Roman Empire, WHILE waving the national symbol (Palm Branches) of Israel, AND they laid their cloaks on the road in front of him. The Jesus Seminar thinks this is an expression of early Christian imagination, rather than historical memory. Historically speaking, at best, they think Jesus MIGHT have ridden into Jerusalem on a donkey as a symbolic act. That seems very likely, and it may be helpful for some among us to keep that in mind (and for others to ignore completely).1

For those of you who have heard me preach on Palm Sunday before, you may remember that it is said to happen just before the celebration of the Jewish Passover. The Passover is the celebration of God’s actions to free the Hebrew people from slavery and give them new life together, eventually in the Promised Land. This central story of Judaism is of a God who cares about the oppressed and acts to free them.

Thus, the Roman Empire which had colonized the Jewish homeland, got a little nervous around the Passover celebration, all the more so because 200,000 people came to Jerusalem to celebrate it, swelling the city that usually had 40,000 residents. Thus, before the Passover began, the representative of the Empire entered the city through a formal processional with full military might on display. This wasn’t subtle, at all! It was a direct threat of violence, should any revolts or riots break out. The Empire was there to remind the people that they’d be crushed if they attempted to reenact their history of being freed from oppression.

People at the Roman procession yelled, “Hail Caesar, son of God; Praise be to the Savior who brought the Roman Peace; Caesar is Lord….” Those were the shouts appropriate to the Empire. And, that’s what makes the shouts said to happen at the Jesus parade so significant. They defied the power of Rome. They were blaspheming against the Empire, and doing so while seeking God’s help in overthrowing it! They also shouted “Hosanna”, a contraction of the Hebrew phrase “save, we pray.” The word, which we use as praise and adoration, to the people yelling it as Jesus rode the colt, literally meant ‘save’. Thus it meant “Hosanna!” Be our savior! Rescue us! Deliver us from our enemies! You are like the great King David! You come in the name of the Lord to bring us salvation from above!2 They were speaking to YHWH, in Hebrew, seeking salvation from the Roman Empire.3

Jerusalem wasn’t just the capital city of the former Jewish empire, according to Crossan “it was a capital city where religion and violence – conservative religion and imperial oppression – had become serenely complicit.”4 Jesus choose it as a place for his demonstrations because it was the center of this complicity with violence. Crossan says, “Jesus went to Jerusalem because that was where his deliberate double demonstrations against both imperial justice and religious collaboration had to be made. … It was a protest from the legal and prophetic heart of Judaism against Jewish religious cooperation with Roman Imperial Control.”5

The day after this peaceful, but POWERFUL, protest (Palm Sunday), Jesus went into the Temple and had another peaceful and POWERFUL protest. Crossan writes, “In Mark’s story, attention is focused on the demonstrations as twin aspects of the same nonviolent protest. … Each is quite deliberate. Each takes place at an entrance – into the City and into the Temple. Together, and in the name of God, these demonstrations are a protest against any collaboration between religious authority and imperial violence.”6

In all of this, the crowds stayed with him. Whatever it was that attracted them to begin with, there was substance under it that kept them there when things started getting dangerous. It is one thing to listen to a teacher in some field in Galilee and glean hope that life could be better than it is now. It is quite another thing to follow a leader who is protesting the Empire that has military might that has never been seen before, and to keep him safe with your sheer numbers. What kept them there?

In part, I suspect the crowds stayed because life outside of the Jesus movement was hopeless, and Jesus offered real and substantive hope for a different life -if not for those who followed him, then for the ones who came after them. Maybe the Spirit was there too, and the people could feel God at work, and wanted to be a part of it. Maybe the energy of the crowd was empowering and uplifting as few things were. Still though, I think Jesus just offered something no one else did – he saw them, he loved them, he wanted good for them, and he taught them how to work together to change the world so things could get better. People need to be part of something more than themselves, and the beaten down Jewish people KNEW in their hearts and in their bodies that there was more goodness in life than they were getting to experience. They knew God and God’s vision for them, and that the domination and oppression system wasn’t God’s will at all! In addition, I think Jesus’ love of them made it possible to see their own worth and to live it!

I ask about that crowd, because I think as later followers of Jesus it is worth wondering why we follow him too! While the disciples were all killed by the Empire for continuing the work of Jesus, for most of us there is much less of a cost in following. At the same time, there are a whole lot more distractions to following Jesus than there ever have been before. There are ways to numb ourselves out to the pains of life, options ranging from the simple distractions of smart phones, YouTube, and TV to the terrifyingly common addictive substances that pervade our society. There are other ways to “build community” and feel connected: sports teams, political groups, non-profit boards, game nights, and the list goes on. Following Jesus isn’t the easiest option. It calls us out of comfort zones, it prods us to love God’s people even when they drive us NUTS, it asks a lot of us.

It also gives a lot back. Following Jesus gives us an alternative vision: one where all of the people on the planet are God’s beloved children (not commodities and means of profit-building); one where there is incredibly important work to do together – building the kindom of God (not just individuals fighting to make it through day by day) ; one where there is hope for a truly good system of life together (not just Band-Aids on mostly broken systems); one where the nonviolent power of connection and community dominates (not violence or the threat of violence); one where HOPE dominates (not fear). It still sends shivers down my spine, how different God’s vision for the world is from how the world is at the moment, and the idea that God is working through us to make the vision into reality. May we join that hope filled crowd around Jesus, the ones following his vision, the ones making it possible for his work to continue, the ones who trust in his way. Amen

1Robert W. Funk and The Jesus Seminar, The Acts of Jesus (USA -HarperSanFransicso: Polebridge Press, 1998) 230.

2 From http://www.processandfaith.org/lectionary/YearA/2004-2005/2005-03-20.shtml, Commentary by Rick Marshall, accessed on March 16, 2008.

3Marcus Borg and John Dominc Crossan, The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Final Days in Jerusalem (Harper Collins: 2006)

4John Dominic Crossan God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now(USA: HarperOne, 2007), 131.

5Crossan, 131-132.

6Crossan, 134.

–

Rev. Sara E. Baron

 First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 

Pronouns: she/her/hers

http://fumcschenectady.org/

https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

March 25. 2-18

Posts pagination

1 … 25 26 27 28 29 … 34
  • First United Methodist Church
  • 603 State Street
  • Schenectady, NY 12305
  • phone: 518-374-4403
  • alt: 518-374-4404
  • email: fumcschenectady@yahoo.com
  • facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady
  • bluesky: @fumcschenectady.bluesky.social
Theme by Colorlib Powered by WordPress