John 3:1-17

1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jewish people. 2 Nicodemus came to Jesus by night and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ 3 Jesus answered Nicodemus, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the reign of God without being born from above.” 4 Nicodemus said to Jesus, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the dominion of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 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.”

9 Nicodemus said to Jesus, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered Nicodemus, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
  11 “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of humanity. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of humanity be lifted up, 15 that whoever trusts in the Son may have life everlasting.
  16 “For God loved the world in this way, that God gave the Son, the only begotten one, so that everyone who trusts in the Son may not perish but may have life everlasting.
  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 the Son.”

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Please pray with me this morning, church:

Holy Mystery,

You invite us to join with you.

You call us to bear your divine image.

And to see and serve that 

Same divine image in our neighbors.

Strengthen us for this work.

Come alongside us.

Use our hands, feet, and heart.

Amen.

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I’m not a particularly good dancer.

Now, to my credit, I never really tried to learn and I’ve never taken a class. Some of our members decided to take up ballroom dancing in their retirement years, and I think that’s a great idea. Finding new hobbies, discovering ways to keep the body moving and that little spark kindled. I enjoy watching good dancing and complex body movement is certainly impressive to me, I just, you know, haven’t learned up to this point.

And it wasn’t even part of, like, the societal culture when I was growing up. I mean, my junior high and high school dances were in the late 90s, we didn’t have the jitterbug or the lindy hop. Our music basically had 2 speeds, fast and slow, and the dancing was pretty much jumping up and down with your hands in the air for the fast songs, and the suuuuper-awkward sway back and forth for the slow songs. Maybe you remember the ones—guys’ hands on their dance partner’s hips, but not too low…ladies’ hands on their partners’ shoulders, maybe even around their neck if they were super close. But always an appropriate distance between the 2…6-12 inches at school dances. Leave room for Jesus, we always joked. Now I was also a church kid and went to my fair share of church youth gatherings with dances, and there, apparently, the Holy Spirit needed at least 18 inches or 2 whole feet depending on the chaperone.

But it was always this awkward side-to-side sway.

Which is why I am not a very good dancer. Not a lot of practice.

But, like at weddings and stuff, I try, and I have fun. And I’m always good for a wisecrack or a joke in your ear. That’s my go-to move for diffusing situations when I feel uncomfortable or out of my element…humor. Always has been.

For any of you serious dancers, you’ll know that it’s super important that you trust your dance partner. Trust is one of these foundational things to relationships, and especially if you’re flinging and flipping someone around a dance floor, trust is paramount.

You also need to be certain that you’re having fun. Don’t get so caught up in the competition or the mechanics of it that you forget to have a good time.

Holy Trinity Sunday is one of those feast days when the church can get caught up in the mechanics and forget to have fun.

The Feast of the Holy Trinity is a relatively recent festival in the church calendar and it’s the one major feast when the church commemorates a doctrine, rather than an event. I’ll just go ahead and say it, hard-nosed and immovable orthodoxy looks good on no one.

Here’s the thing, good theology is important and y’all know I love my good and right order, but doctrine for the sake of being doctrinal is just another box that we foolishly and futilely try to cram God into. A colleague said this week, “Pay attention and beware when your pastor starts their sermon with ‘The Holy Trinity is like…’ because you’re about to hear a really good heresy.”

So often we come, like Nicodemus, seeking knowledge about God, and we get disappointed at our inability to understand. When what we need, and what Jesus offers Nicodemus, is a way to perceive God, an invitation to open our eyes, to look and see and be aware of what God is doing. And through perception, becoming aware of what God is already doing and where God is already active.

So often we end up trying to know about God, instead of striving to simply know God.

Father Richard Rohr is a Franciscan brother who lives in New Mexico and he describes the relationships of the Trinity—between God the Creator, the Son, and Holy Spirit—as a dance. He describes a series of relationships that are grounded in trust and intimate love, that don’t overpower one another, but that move and work together, always for the purpose of advancing God’s vision and hope for the world. And of course, because Father Rohr is a Franciscan, this relationship, this give-and-take is full of fun and humor and is playful.

And Father Rohr frequently lifts up the oft-neglected fourth member of the Trinity—never mind that we don’t call it the Quadinity—but that we, humanity, are part of this dance and are invited into this dance, as well.

Paul lifts this up in Romans, “It is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.” Through Christ, we have been invited to the dance floor. And the good news is, we don’t need to know how to dance, we don’t need to know the steps. God’s got the lead. Our role is to trust.

Through Christ, we have been joined to God and God’s work for the sake and the betterment of the world.

If we are children of God, then we are heirs of God. And if we are heirs of God, then we are joint-heirs with Christ…heirs of God’s promise of restoration and renewal…heirs of God’s promise of the resurrection of all things…and joined to Christ in that work of restoration and healing and renewal. Yours are the hands and feet and heart through which God accomplishes God’s work in the world.

It’s not just a tag line for our denomination, the ELCA, it’s a theological statement. “God’s work. Our hands.”

We are not mere spectators of this work of the Trinity, you are participants.

We’ve had to do a lot of deft dancing over these past 14 months. From trying to navigate the shut-down and stay-at-home orders, to working out how to adapt worship to virtual platforms, to begin the process of resuming in-person worship at our Lakeside Chapel, to now figuring out the logistics of worship in the Sanctuary…we’ve had to lean hard into these relationships of trust and well-being.

I believe we were called to care deeply for the well-being and health and safety of those around us and in our community. I mean, that’s just the Gospel message 101. And when we’re at our best, I think we do that well. But I’ve got to be honest with you, church, these past 14 months have me wondering how well we’ve been paying attention.

As I said last week, if I plug up my ears and am so hyper-focused on me and what I want and what’s right in front of me, I think we misunderstand the call of the Holy Spirit that urges us to turn our care and concern outward to our neighbor…even at the expense of ourselves. As Paul will say elsewhere in the New Testament, in Philippians, “Look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Regard others as better than yourselves.”

We have to trust this dance we find ourselves in with one another. We must be willing to make sacrifices for our neighbor’s well-being, whether it means serving them and loving them, or simply continuing to wear a mask for now until the most vulnerable among us are able to also be protected.

Maybe even more than ever—in what I’m calling these “in-between times”…when we’re bone-tired of the pandemic, but we have a little bit more ways to go until the most vulnerable are also safe—maybe more than ever, we have to lean hard in our trust of one another, willing to awkwardly dance while we try and get it right.

But as I said, the good news is, we don’t have to know the steps.

We just have to trust God’s lead.

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

[Jesus said,] 26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from God, the Spirit of truth who comes from God, the Spirit will testify on my behalf. 27 You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.
 16:4b “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5 But now I am going to the One who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is for your benefit that I go away, because if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send the Spirit to you. 8 And having come, the Advocate will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because the world does not trust in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to God and you will see me no longer; 11 about judgment, because the rulers of this world have been condemned.
  12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, you will be guided into all the truth; for the Spirit will not speak on the Spirit’s own authority, but will speak whatever the Spirit hears, and will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 The Spirit will glorify me, taking what is mine and declaring it to you. 15 All that God has is mine. For this reason I said that the Spirit will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

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Please pray with me this morning, church:

Rushing Spirit,

Stir in us. Move in and among us.

Unstop our ears.

And help us to listen.

Help us pay attention to

The ways you are calling us.

And move us to respond.

Guide us. And sustain us.

Amen.

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Good morning, church. It’s so wonderful to be with you on this Pentecost Sunday.

More than any other time of year, Pentecost is when we explicitly focus on the Holy Spirit rushing in and drawing people together across lines of difference, and we explore what it means to live as people who are knit together across our differences and propelled out into the world to be the forces of loving change in a world that often gets hung up on these differences.

Different is certainly a perfect word to describe what we’ve collectively experienced over the past 14 months. You might have a few choice other words to describe them, maybe a few four-letter ones…but different is certainly what it’s felt like trying to be the church over these past months—different or whatever the opposite of the way we’ve done things before is.

This pandemic has thrust us, has thrust the church, light-years beyond the way we’ve done things before. We are different because of this pandemic.

I’m preaching this morning and coming to y’all from the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. I’ve been on vacation this past week, our first time away in 18 months, and while I probably could have preached from the pulpit for our prerecorded worship service, the backdrop just seemed too perfect to pass up. (I mean…are you kidding…?!?? Just try not to be too distracted for the rest of the sermon…)

But this sermon preached from Tennessee, to wherever you find yourself this morning, actually highlights something that I think is a really important takeaway for me from the past more than a year…the Holy Spirit has a way of working through seemingly impossible circumstances to continue to draw us together as God’s people, across space and time and distances, continues to speak a word for us to hear, and continues calling us out and beyond from where we are into who and where God is calling us.

The Spirit is moving and calling and guiding us…if we have ears to hear.

“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”

“Amazed and astonished, those gathered asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? So how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?’…‘In our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’”

“They were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’”

What incredible witness or testimony might we be missing or closing our ears to because we’re failing to recognize it as the movement and language of the Holy Spirit?

Whenever I want to particularly focus on something, whenever I’d like to be uninterrupted, and whenever I’d like to be free from outside distractions, I have this ritual I do. I go over to my bag and pull out my headphones. I connect them to my phone, and open up the third folder on the top row of the second page of my phone, and open the first app in that folder.

Many of you probably have a similar habit. I’m sure a lot of you like to listen to music when you’re trying to focus, whether it’s classical or pop or metal… I’m a weird one. I find when I listen to music, I’m much too tempted to sing along or pay too close attention to the lyrics…it’s more of a distraction than a help. I pump my ears with white noise. I know…weirdo…

One of the things I would sometimes do before the pandemic is go read or write at Starbucks. I like the smell of roasted beans and I happen to think their coffee’s pretty good. The thing about Starbucks, though, is that a lot of other people like Starbucks, too, so there’s usually a lot to be distracted by. So I’d find a place in a corner, pop in the headphones, pipe in the static noise, and get to work.

But this is not necessarily a helpful posture if I want to listen to what someone might be saying to me, or be more attentive to the world and the people around me.

I can’t be so hyper-focused on me and what’s in front of me and what I have to do if I want to be able to hear and pay attention to what the people around me, my literal neighbors, are saying to me as we’re engaging in conversation.

If I want to hear what’s being said, I can’t plug my ears and drown out those sounds. I have to listen, engage in conversation, cultivate relationships, hear what’s being said, understand what’s being expressed, and then find my place within that concern and formulate my posture within the response.

We can’t hear what’s being asked of us and respond in the ways we’re being called with our ears plugged, drowning out other voices, and hyper-focused on me and what’s in front of me.

In order to hear the urging of the Spirit and follow where we’re being called, we must listen with open ears and hearts turned outward toward the needs of others and their well-being.

For 14 months we’ve had to trust that the Holy Spirit is indeed active and moving and drawing us together across time and space, from the relative safety of our homes to slowly starting to dip our toes back into whatever this new normal is. And we must continue to trust in that same movement of the Spirit, maybe even more so now. Look, things are improving, things are getting better…but there are still many parts of the world being ravaged by this virus…even here at home, the most vulnerable among us don’t have a vaccine approved for them yet. We must continue to be the church that cares for the most vulnerable…and not only that cares for them, but we must be a church that centers their needs, that makes sacrifices for what we want, or how we wish things would be so that those that are most vulnerable can experience God’s goodness and the abundant life of the Spirit just as freely and safely and unhindered as the rest of us who are fortunate enough to have received our vaccine. And that might mean that things continue to look different for a time.

And that’s ok.

One thing we’ve learned over the past more than a year is that we can be ok with different. We can learn from different. We can let different teach us. And maybe we learn that we are blessed by different.

And church, we must not lose sight of what we’ve learned over this past more than a year.

We’ve heard the word of God in new and unique ways. And we must continue to explore what that means for us as a community of faith going forward from here. How will we engage those who have found a welcoming and affirming virtual community during this time? How will we invite people to hear and experience God’s radically inclusive love from wherever they find themselves, whether here in Missouri City and Sugar Land, or in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, or across this country, or even across the globe?

We have an opportunity, church, to continue being moved and shaped and led by the Holy Spirit. We can continue inviting new voices among us, so that we would learn from them. We can continue working toward God’s magnificent vision of a beautiful diversity where differences aren’t treated suspiciously, but rather invited and welcomed and celebrated and affirmed and centered.

Unplug your ears, church.

Listen to the marvelous cacophony the Spirit is speaking.

Be blown about by the rushing movement of the Spirit.

And be stirred to lend your own voice to that chorus of voices.

Unable to contain your witness of where God’s mighty acts have changed and transformed your life.

It’s a witness our world needs to hear.

It’s a witness we need to hear.

John 15:9-17

[Jesus said:] 9 “As God has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept God’s commandments and abide in God’s love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
  12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from God. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that God will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

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Please pray with me this morning, church:

Loving God,

You call us to abide—to dwell—in you.

Most days, rest is the furthest thing from our minds

Although we’d probably admit we’re weary.

Re-root us in your love.

Make us produce the good fruit of love

For the sake of our neighbor.

Amen.

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You are what you eat. Right?

Like many of you, I’d heard this before, growing up. And I think this statement, coupled with the urban legend that somehow things could take root in your stomach and actually grow inside you is why I had an irrational fear of watermelon-seed-spitting contests.

Like, what if I swallowed one?!

I don’t have space for a watermelon in there!

Still to this day there are certain things I won’t eat, because it’s true, our stomachs have an easier time digesting some things than others.

I’ve been paying much closer attention to what I eat over the last year, and there are absolutely things that add value to ourselves and our bodies, and things that don’t. The problem is, it’s usually the things that don’t add a lot of value that taste the best, right? They have to make up for their lack of value with other ways of making you want and crave and desire those things.

We’re talking about nutrition, right? Things that add value, and things that don’t, maybe even things that take value away.

But beyond just food, there are other parts of our lives—things we think, things we do, things we say, postures or attitudes we adopt—there are certain things or postures or habits that add value…and things that do not…and things that even subtract value.

These are things that might feel good, might taste good, initially…they give you that immediate sense of satisfaction or gratification…but they’re not sustaining, they don’t build up over the long term…in many ways, they’re detrimental to your overall self. Lutheran pastor and author, the Reverend Nadia Bolz-Weber has a wonderful way of describing these things we say and do, if you can abide a little potty humor…these things, she says, “…feel good for a minute…but only in the way peeing in my pants feels warm for a minute. And now it’s cold and wet and it smells bad and I’m embarrassed.”

These are feelings and attitudes of self-righteousness, false piety, vindictiveness, jealousy, revenge, hatred and bigotry, moral superiority, these pervasive feelings that my individual liberties supersede the common good or what’s best for my neighbor… These things we say and do, church…these postures and attitudes that don’t add value to our lives, and even remove value, they may feel good for a moment, they may taste good for a moment…but that feeling is fleeting and they quickly begin to tear you down. They eat at you from the inside.

And this is what I think is helpful to understand about all this stuff to do with fruit from the Gospel of John, and especially from John 15 that we’ve been in for 2 weeks now. This is part of what I think it means to be attached to the vine and to bear good fruit. Because when you abide in the vine, you bear good fruit. You can’t help it, it’s just what you do. German mystic, theologian, and incredible preacher Meister Eckhart wrote that a plum brings forth plums not by an act of will, but because it is its nature to do so. So, too, will we, the body of Christ…gathered around Christ, sharing in Christ’s death and resurrection, and allowing Christ to flow into all our branches and the branches of this body…so, too, will we produce what we must because it is our nature to do so: Godly fruits of compassion, peace, mercy, justice, and love.

When you are connected to the vine, you produce and bear that which you are connected to.

And it really makes me wonder what the heck we’re connected to these days.

I mean, you read the news and headlines and your social media feeds and Twitter and Facebook…and…there’s a lot of stuff out there. There’s a lot of hurt, a lot of pain…a lot of anger…a lot of fear…coming out. It feels so divided. If you’re not with me, you’re against me…and not only are you against me, but you’re my enemy. And the ways that we talk to one another…hatred, and skepticism, and name-calling, and hurtful things, and meanness…

I mean, what the heck are we actually rooted in that’s producing all of this? What are we actually consuming that’s producing this fruit?

I have to wonder if we’re truly rooted in Christ. Or if we just say that we are.

The fruit we bear is a direct reflection of what we’re rooted in.

What are you abiding in? What do you dwell in?

Jesus says, “Abide in me, abide in my love.” Those that abide in Christ bear good fruit because it’s their nature to do so; those that aren’t, don’t.

Take stock of your fruit, church.

Are they Godly fruits…the fruits of the Spirit…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control…? Or are they something else…some other kind of…bitter fruit?

But even if the fruit appears good, inspect it even more closely. If one of your fruits is love, how well does it compare to the kind of love Jesus is describing? Is it sacrificial love? Is it a love that would lay down your life for someone else?

“This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.”

“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.”

“No greater love has someone than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Is this a tremendously difficult ask of those who follow Jesus? Yes.

Is Jesus speaking metaphorically here? Absolutely not.

We like to romanticize Jesus and talk about how laying down one’s life is giving some of yourself or what you have so that others would have, things like volunteering and maybe giving to a non-profit that rescues sea urchins, but Jesus really is talking about laying down your life for someone else.

It’s Jesus’ path.

It’s the way of the cross.

It’s the path that we are called to as followers of Christ.

Who would you die for?

Who would you give up your life for?

Church, until we truly recognize our neighbors as beloved image-bearers of God’s divine face and worthy of us laying down our life, I think we must be honest that we’re only practicing Christ’s teachings in part.

Those who want to keep their life will lose it. And those who give up their life for my sake and for the sake of Gospel will find it, right?

What does it mean to give up your life for the sake of the Gospel?

“Love one another, as I have loved you.”

It’s not difficult, it’s just demanding.

Loving means truly giving of yourself. Not just volunteering or giving your time and energy. And look, those are important, but love looks behind the needs of the person in front of you, the person you’re serving. Love is taking a vested interest in the well-being of your neighbor. Love asks why they’re standing in front of you, why are they in need at this particular time. Love is interested in the conditions that led to the need for you to give of your time and energy and resource. The Reverend Doctor Cornel West says, “Justice is what love looks like in public.”

Love is interested in justice.

Love seeks the best for the one being loved.

Even if that means giving up something of yourself.

That’s a lesson that I don’t think we’ve learned very well this year. I think we struggle greatly when the cost to me of loving my neighbor means that I have to give something up.

It hurts me to think how we’ve misunderstood Jesus. Or how we’ve heard Jesus and understood what Jesus was saying but decided that the cost of love, the cost to my own feelings or preferences or desires, outweigh the needs of my neighbor.

The good news, though, church, is that we’ve got an opportunity to re-root ourselves. We can take stock of the fruit we’re producing, hold it up to the kind of fruit we’re expected to produce being attached to the vine of Christ, and be re-attached to the vine that produces good and tasteful fruit.

I ended up preaching an unintentional series on evangelism in this season of Easter, and if I would have had that kind of forethought, I would have made a nice graphic and put some language around the theme, and really made it a series. Instead what I hope you’ve heard over the past 6 weeks is that we have an opportunity as we’re making our way through and, with God’s help, out of this pandemic. We have an opportunity to be resurrected and transformed and to reshape who we were into who we are being called to be. God is calling us into our neighborhoods, to truly invest ourselves in the lives of our neighbors, to invite them to join you in this work of making our world just a bit more reflective of God’s vision. As a community of faith, we have an opportunity to examine how we’re doing things, and to invite folks to be transformed by the same power of the Gospel.

Like our story from Acts, we just might be surprised at where the Holy Spirit shows up.

In fact, I’m counting on it.

That’s good fruit that adds value to the body and builds the body up.

John 15:1-8

[Jesus said:] 1 “I am the true vine, and God is the vinegrower. 2 God removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit God prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

8 God is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

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Please pray with me this morning, church:

Loving God,

Make us to bear good fruit.

Prune away in us that which

Prevents us from proclaiming your love.

Open our hearts and ears to receive

Your incredible Gospel message of

Compassion and love and belonging.

Help us to hear and internalize that

Good news from whomever it might come.

Amen.

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We’re not supposed to have favorites.

In seminary, they even tell us, “We know it’s hard…but you can’t have favorites. You just can’t, because your parishioners will probably resent you.”

Well, I heard the advice of my seminary professors…I did. But I do have to confess to you, my siblings in Christ, that I, your Pastor…I do have a favorite…

I do have a favorite sacrament…and it’s not the Eucharist…

I know……I’d ask your forgiveness, but the truth is, I’m not repentant…

Yes, my favorite of our 2 sacraments, as held by the Confessions of the Lutheran Church, is baptism. You probably could have guessed that by now, what with my splashing around and asperging and spraying water everywhere during non-pandemic times, but I do feel the need to be upfront with you again, and tell you again, that against the sage advice of my seminary professors, I do have a favorite sacrament, and it’s baptism.

And our story from Acts that we heard this morning is a huge reason why.

But first, a brief theology lesson, a little Lutheran catechism, for you this morning. A lot of you, most of you, maybe even all of you…were taught like I was, that baptism is necessary for salvation. I take issue with this interpretation. I would call it an incorrect interpretation.

Yes, it’s true that Luther, in the Lutheran Confessions lists salvation as an outcome of baptism, but I think it’s a misunderstanding to say that baptism is necessary for salvation. Because if our salvation is dependent on whether or not we’re baptized, then our salvation becomes dependent on us, and not on God. And this is at odds with what Lutherans believe about salvation. Salvation is God’s gift to us, given to us as grace, given to us in spite of our sinfulness and the ways we separate ourselves from God and from one another, grace given to you through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Salvation is God’s action, not ours. We’re saved because of what God did, and what God does, not because of what we do.

Baptism isn’t an insurance policy. Baptism is an invitation into consequential Christian community.

Baptism is an exchange of promises between us and God, and between the baptized person and the community that receives them. We make promises to draw near to God and strive to live closely to how God calls us to live and to strive to continue learning more about this Christian life of faith to which we are called. As a church, a community of faith, we make promises to the baptized person to walk alongside them and help them in keeping these promises. We make promises to the parents of young ones that we’ll support them as they shoulder the bulk of keeping these promises, and we promise to support them in this work.

Baptism is a series of promises made between members of a community of faith.

Baptism is belonging.

Back to our verses from Acts 8. It’s no wonder, then, that this person, when they hear from Philip about Jesus of Nazareth and the good news of the Gospel, it’s no wonder that their immediate response is, “Look! Here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?!?”

Nothing, dear one…absolutely nothing.

Oh that the Gospel would grab hold of all of us like that…

But I want to unpack what this story’s about and why it’s so mind-bendingly scandalous. Your bible says, “Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship.”

Ok, so, it’s important to know that this person is from Ethiopia…Africa…an ethnic outsider on their way to Jerusalem. This person had come to Jerusalem to worship. Ok…so, Jewish…? Maybe…? But maybe not… What is important is that this person was not yet a Christ-believer, so from the context of the first Christ-believing communities that we’ve been talking about in Acts, this person was a religious outsider. This person was also a court official, high ranking, in charge of the queen’s treasury. This person had power and influence and an enormous amount of responsibility.

Now the eunuch piece…so, you need to know that in the 1st century and for many centuries after, “eunuch” was a blanket term that didn’t just mean someone who had their sexual organs altered. “Eunuch” was a term, often pejorative, for someone whose physical outsides, particularly their sexual organs, fell outside of what was considered societal norms. But “eunuch” could have also referred to people of different gender identities or sexual orientations. A gender or sexual outsider.

My friend and colleague Pastor Ashley Dellagiacoma, Pastor of Kindred+ in Montrose and who’s preached in this pulpit before said it this way, and I think it’s perfect: “The reason these folks were especially common in royal courts and given positions of such power was that all of that access and power and influence could be a substantial threat in a royal court system, especially if that person was also male, and especially if they were to be entrusted with access to powerful women. So powerful households would employ people that they perceived to be incapable of exerting sexual power…incapable of producing heirs to challenge the status quo.

The word “eunuch” can refer to a castrated man, but it also had a broader definition in ancient times that could include homosexual men or intersex folks. A eunuch can be someone whose genitalia does not match the societal expectations or is altered in some way, either because they were born that way or because they were subjected to sexual violence by the empire. It can also be someone whose gender expression does not match societal expectations, what we might identity as trans, or non-binary, or queer.

Biblical eunuchs can represent a number of sexual and/or gender identities that were foolishly thought to be dismissible. I say foolishly because the Bible has several stories of eunuchs who turn that assumption into opportunities for the glory of God.”

This is where we find this person today. The story of an outsider, in every sense of the word, using their story as an opportunity to glorify God.

The Bible is full of archetypes. Distressed heroes, rescued travelers, redeemed souls, sinful and broken yet restored humans… What the author of Acts calls this eunuch from Ethiopia is the archetype for the marginalized and outsider. This is someone who existed on the very edges of every societal class.

And it’s this person who receives the Gospel with such joy that nothing will prevent them from being baptized.

Would your witness or testimony have that effect, church? Would your story about where God has shown up in your life compel someone to throw off all abandon and run toward the nearest body of water asking to be baptized?

This is someone who had every reason to be distrustful, skeptical, resentful, even fearful of anyone coming in the name of someone in power, whether religious or imperial power, but especially the church…this is someone who could be killed for simply existing…and yet, their experience of the good news of God’s incredible love for them is so overwhelming, they leap to the nearest water they can find.

In the Gospel, they heard something about their worth. They heard something true about their belonging.

In recent weeks, in the latest rounds of culture wars, lawmakers from numerous states have taken aim at trans folks, particularly trans youth, over their decisions about their identity and their access to healthcare. I want to be exceptionally clear, any attempt to deny someone their humanity—their personhood—is an affront, is blasphemy, is antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Full stop.

One more time.

Any attempt to deny someone their humanity—their personhood—is an affront, is blasphemy, is antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This conversation is especially important for churches and for those who call themselves Christian. The church has historically been and in many ways, continues to be openly hostile and even hateful toward the LGBTQIA2+ community. Folks in this community have zero reason to trust the church or give any attention to what Christians have to say. And you may wonder what is the point of being clear and explicit, and it may feel cumbersome to you, and maybe it feels like a lot, and you might not think it’s important, and you might wonder why I go to such great lengths to be clear and explicit in continuing to lift up and name the folks who identify with this acronym—LGBTQIA2+……church, it is because these are people. These are identities. This is about belonging, and a place to feel welcome and to belong. Being clear and explicit in order to specifically name their identity…that matters. And if you’re wondering whether or not it matters, ask them. And it is literally the absolute least I could do as someone who stands in a position of power in an institution that has historically and to this day, in many ways, still oppresses and marginalizes those who identify as part of this community.

A disciple is known by their fruit.

What fruit are you bearing, church?

The fruit you bear is demonstrative of the vine you’re attached to. Are you bearing the fruit of love and inclusion and compassion and mercy and repentance and gentleness and peace…? Or is your fruitless than reflective of the God of scripture? Hatred and vitriol and divisiveness and self-righteousness and hurtfulness…?

If you abide…if you dwell…in Christ…you will bear good and tasteful fruit. Any branch that doesn’t will be pruned. So let’s be clear, we’re not the ones doing the pruning, church. We’re not the ones determining whether the fruit is good or not. God is the vine-grower.  Your job, Christian, is to bear fruit. So bear good fruit, disciple.

Continuing with our theme over the past few weeks, what an opportunity to say something true and beautiful and meaningful about the Gospel truth of God’s incredible love for all people…especially the ones considered to be outsiders and on the margins…especially those marginalized for their sexual or gender identity.

As we begin to make our way out of this pandemic, church, I’ve noted before and I’ll note it again, things are going to look very different. We’ll be presented with an opportunity to explore something new about ourselves, to learn something new about ourselves. In many ways, we’re being given an opportunity to restart, to be resurrected. It’s an opportunity to take a good, hard look at who we are, and what we’re about. To take a good look around our community of faith, to take a good, hard look around our neighborhood, and to ask the kinds of questions that seek to discover how our community of faith might be more reflective of our neighborhood.

What an opportunity to say something true and beautiful and meaningful about the Gospel truth of God’s incredible love for all people…especially the ones considered to be outsiders and on the margins.

What will your witness be, church?

What gifts and passions and energies might they bring to enrich our community?

Or to change up the context a little bit…so often we characterize ourselves as the saviors, right? We’re Philip climbing into the chariot and opening the scriptures, we’re the ones bringing the good news, we’re the ones doing the baptizing……but what if we’re more like this eunuch…? What if we’re the ones eagerly awaiting to hear something true and beautiful and meaningful about God’s incredible love from those that have been historically and continuously oppressed and marginalized?

What Gospel might they tell us?

What witness will they give?

What gifts and passions and energies might we learn from them?

It’s all about belonging.

It’s all about a place where people can be fully who they are, and hear that who they are is deeply loved and cared for and affirmed and celebrated by God. And not just by God, but is also deeply loved and cared for and affirmed and celebrated by those of us who call ourselves Christian.

Look, communion’s important, I get it. And I do love the Eucharist.

But I think you’d be hard-pressed to find something more consequential, more meaningful…than belonging.

Belonging to a vine that bears good fruit.

Sustaining, nourishing, delicious…good fruit.

That’s a vineyard I’d like to belong to.

That’s a vineyard I could invite others to.

John 10:11-18

[Jesus said:] 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 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. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

—————

Please pray with me this morning, church:

Loving God,

You know us. And you shepherd us.

You care for us. And you give us life.

Help us to be caretakers.

Of our world. And of each other.

Help us enfold one another in your love.

Amen.

—————

What’s your witness?

What is your testimony?

When you think about it, what would you say, when someone asked you about your faith? What would you tell them about your relationship with God?

These past couple of weeks, I’ve spent the bulk of my sermons talking about witnessing, or testifying, or evangelizing. This is one of the things we’re called to do as disciples and followers of the crucified and risen Christ…not only to carry that faith for ourselves but to carry it “to all nations,” as we heard last week, “to the ends of the earth,” as we’ll hear in a few weeks.

Your words matter. So what will you say? And how will you say it?

I had a really nice beginning of a sermon started where I was going to tell you a little bit about how to start thinking about doing this, and what this kind of sharing and testimony sounds like…but then I was leaving the church office and going to lunch, and as I was pulling out of our parking lot and driving past our outdoor chapel as anyone has to do when they’re leaving our campus, I looked out, as I always do, and saw someone sitting in our chapel, facing the altar and the cross, looking out toward the lake.

And it was so striking to me.

But this is not an unusual occurrence. In fact, I think you should know that our chapel probably sees visitors almost every week, maybe as many as 5-10 folks a week given I’m not up here much in the evenings or on the weekends. This space, in and of itself, is a witness.

I think our chapel is a testimony to a need we see in our neighborhood…and truthfully, I think it’s a need we would probably easily identify in our world as a whole.

We need a quiet place. We need a place that focuses our attention…that focuses us…on the cross, on God, on God’s gift to a world groaning in pain from destruction. We need places to be reminded of God’s creative beauty. We need places that draw us along still waters and set us down in lush verdant meadows. We need places that remind us that the shepherd deeply cares for us, the sheep.

I was struck because this person had taken time out of the middle of their day to sit quietly and focus themselves.

And that’s not something we do often. And especially in a time like this when things feel so out of control or beyond control, a reminder to sit and breathe and be…is a welcome balm for a weary soul.

When I start to think about beginning the process of crawling our way out of this pandemic…I get anxious. I get anxious because I’m a planner, I like to know or be able to project what something’s going to look like. And at least if I can’t project, I like to be able to give my best guess. The thing is, I don’t know what is coming out of the past 13 months is going to look like for us, church.

I think it’ll be slow. I think it’ll be a process, maybe even an arduous one.

I think we’ll need to be consistent practitioners of the same patience and grace we’re shown consistently by God.

I meant what I said a couple of weeks ago, whatever we’ll be on the other side of this won’t be what we were before. I told a member earlier this week, “If we don’t come out of this having made some significant changes or trying some way out there new things, I think we’ll have missed an incredible opportunity.” We need to allow ourselves to be transformed, we need to be open to the new thing God is trying to do…we need resurrection, church.

And I need your help to do it.

I need your ideas. I need your way-out-of-left-field, might-just-be-a-little-too-far-fetched, might-go-well-might-completely-fall-apart ideas for what our ministry here in this place, here at New Hope looks like, sounds like, looks like, feels like going forward.

What new ministry do we need to partner with? Tell me.

What community organization needs our time and energy? Tell me.

What sheep are yearning to hear how much the shepherd cares for them? What sheep are missing from the fold but are needing to hear about the self-sacrificial love of the shepherd? What sheep are longing to hear the shepherd’s voice?

What neighbors need to hear the Gospel message of God’s overwhelming and incredible love for them?

Don’t tell me, tell them!

I’m serious, people—your neighbors—are starving for good news. Feed them!

Evangelism is hard, I get it. But go with me for a minute…think about your favorite restaurant.

What do you love about that place? What’s your favorite thing to order? What’s the atmosphere like? When’s the best time to go? Who’s the best server? Is it the food, is it the location, is it the ambiance…? I bet it’s all of that…and more.

We give our friends restaurant recommendations all the time…what about your church, what about your community of faith…what about your family here…?

What do you love about it? What makes New Hope special? What have you found at New Hope that you haven’t been able to find anywhere else? What are the people like? What about the atmosphere? What do you love about where people spend their time and energy? What’s your favorite ministry to support?

These really aren’t rhetorical questions, I’d really be curious to know. If you want to pause this service and grab a pencil and paper and write down what you think, I think that’d be a great idea.

Because I think your answers to these questions matter.

When someone’s having a rough time…when they’re going through some things…when they’re feeling exhausted…when they ask you where you find the energy to keep volunteering or giving of yourself while we’re still going through a pandemic…when they ask you about your heart and care and concern for others and for your neighbors and for people you’ve never even met…when people ask you about your causes of justice, and how can you possibly continue to stay hopeful in the midst of so much hurt and pain and things going wrong in the world…what are you going to say?

What will you tell them?

What will your witness be?

What will your testimony be?

Evangelism doesn’t have to be overbearing, it just has to be honest. What do you love? Where do you find comfort? What gives your spirit peace?

“I have other sheep that don’t yet belong to this fold, I must bring them in also.”

Jesus is the shepherd, but the shepherd doesn’t make more sheep, the sheep lead other sheep.

But this shepherd is different, y’all. This shepherd cares for the sheep. This shepherd protects the sheep, doesn’t run away at the first sign of danger. This shepherd gives his life—the Greek word is psuche—better translated as “breath”…this shepherd gives his breath to those that are breathless, those that are having their breath taken from them, or taken away.

This shepherd lays down his life, in order that the sheep would experience expansive and full and abundant life.

We won’t be what we were before on the other side of this pandemic. With God’s help, we’ll be something different, something new. With God’s help, we’ll be something resurrected.

And I can’t stop thinking about those sheep that aren’t yet here. What wisdom might they bring? What fullness, what passions and energy might they bring?

And who will invite them?

Evangelism doesn’t have to be hard. It just has to be honest.

Sometimes it’s something as simple as noticing someone experiencing God’s presence…and asking them how they’re doing.

Maybe that will spark a conversation that will be a balm for your own soul, too.