"Not Alone" (Luke 9:28-36)

 ◧ Last Tuesday, the sun was out, and the weather was so nice and relatively warm… and I thought that I would ride my bike to church, as I often do when the weather is nice…except that when I woke up, I felt tired. 

I had slept well during the night. But still: I was tired!

The truth is, I’ve been tired for a while now. Tired in a way that I can’t tell if the exhaustion is physical, or mental. (Anyone else feeling extra tired lately? Just worn down?)

Lots of people in our community have been fighting colds, flu, COVID… so there are viruses going around, which means our bodies are working extra hard to stay healthy. Making sure your body gets the sleep it needs helps you maintain the energy needed to stay healthy. 

Then there’s the exhaustion that comes from keeping up with each day’s bombardment of news. The attacks on so many people’s rights, and the sheer lack of compassion and mercy and care being shown to people by those in positions of power…

…knowing that I as pastor and we as a church need to “up our game” when it comes to caring for those who are most vulnerable to these ongoing attacks…

That’s exhausting, too.

On Tuesday, the problem for me was that I couldn’t tell if what I was feeling was mainly the physical exhaustion or the mental exhaustion. If it was mental exhaustion, then a bike ride to church would be just what I needed. But if it was physical exhaustion, then a bike ride to church would be just what I did not need.

Sometimes, it’s hard to know just how to best take good care of oneself.

And yet, it’s more important now, than ever, to take good care of ourselves, to be gentle with ourselves. And it’s more important than ever to also take good care of each other, and to be gentle with one another. Everyone is going through these tough times together.

I ended up not riding my bike to church last Tuesday; but I did take a break and go for a midday walk, to get some sunshine. And on that walk I thought about my sermon from last week, in which I talked about prayer, and about how Jesus often went off by himself to pray, to the wilderness, to the mountain, to spend time alone with God.

That was an act of self-care. Jesus needed those times of prayer, to care for his own physical and mental health, his own spiritual and emotional health. He knew he needed those times of solitude with God, to draw upon God’s strength, so that he could do the task and fulfill the mission that God had set before him.

In today’s scripture, Jesus once again goes off to pray. Like he did on at least one previous occasion, he goes up a mountain to pray.

◧ But this time, he doesn’t go alone.

This time, Jesus takes with him Peter, James, and John. This time, he needs others with him, to be with him, to pray with him, to help him access the strength he needs…

And he does this again, later, in the Garden of Gethsemane… he goes out to pray, and he brings along Peter, James, and John…

They weren’t always the best companions. In Gethsemane, they kept falling asleep. And here, on the mountain where Jesus was transfigured, they were confused and terrified. 

Jesus got frustrated with them, and may have even wondered if it was worth it, to keep these disciples around, to keep them close, and involved in everything. Getting them involved in the task of ministry, helping him carry out his mission—sometimes it just seemed like it would be easier if he did it all himself.

We’ve all felt that way, right? Sometimes, it takes more effort to organize and equip those who are willing to help you. Sometimes, it really seems that it would be easier to do it all by yourself.

Yet, Jesus knew that he couldn’t do it all by himself. He needed his disciples. He needed his companions.

I’m reminded of one of our scriptures that we read last summer at Camp Walter Scott: the story of Jethro and Moses. 

Moses was doing everything by himself. (Do you remember that?) It just seemed easier to him, even though it was wearing him out. But then Moses’s father-in-law Jethro came and saw what Moses was doing, and Jethro said to Moses: “What you are doing is not good.”

And Jethro convinced Moses to allow others to help him and work with him; to help carry the load.

We can’t do it alone. We may think we can, but we can’t. And we need more Jethros in the world, telling us that going it alone, trying to do everything by ourselves, is not good. We need others to help us, to walk with us, to pray with us, to lead with us, to help carry our burdens… to just be present, to be our companions, our friends, to ease the emotional burden of just being human on this planet.

The problem for many is that, in our society, it’s hard to find good companions and friends. Ours is the most individualistic society in the history of the world. And, even worse, it’s hard to recognize our need for companionship and friendship. It’s hard to recognize the isolation we experience, or admit the loneliness we feel.

And for many people today, the exhaustion they feel is actually a symptom of loneliness.

◧ Last week I read a book by Brene Brown called Dare to Lead. In one section of that book, she talks about Air Force Colonel DeDe Halfhill. I want to share part of that story with you…

One day, Colonel Halfhill was talking to a group of airmen, and she saw how tired they were. She asked them, “How many of you are tired?” The whole group raised their hands.

Thinking quickly, Colonel Halfhill remembered something she had recently read, about how sometimes, exhaustion is a symptom of loneliness. 

So she asked her group a second question: “How many of you are lonely?” Nearly half the group raised their hands, which surprised her. 

Loneliness is quite a raw emotion, and she wasn’t expecting so many to admit to experiencing it. She wasn’t quite sure what to do or say. She wasn’t a therapist, equipped to deal with such raw emotion. 

Colonel Halfhill thought about the high rates of suicide in the military, and realized that high suicide rates are probably related to the high level of loneliness. And Colonel Halfhill realized that she and other leaders in the military weren’t helping.

Colonel Halfhill said: “If I ask you if you’re tired and you say yes, I'm probably going to tell you to go get some rest. But if the real problem is that you’re lonely, I’m sending you away from what you need, off by yourself, which exacerbates the problem…Sometimes [people] just want to know that one person cares… We as leaders need to know how to do that…”

It took courage for Colonel Halfhill to ask the question, and it took courage for the people to raise their hands. Because we aren’t comfortable talking about loneliness. We’re more comfortable talking about “tired.” 

Yet, in the military, loneliness is real, and more people in the military die from suicide than die in combat. (I know this personally: I once had to do a funeral for a friend who died by suicide while in the military.)

Colonel Halfhill decided to do some research. She found a copy of the very first Air Force manual on leadership from 1948. That manual said things like: “You have to understand how your men will feel.” The manual emphasized  feelings over 100 times. It also talked about confidence, fear, belonging, kindness, mercy, friendliness, compassion, and even love—”what it means as a leader to love your men.”

By contrast, the most recent Air Force manual on leadership, written in 2011, doesn’t talk about feelings, or love, or anything like that. It's all about “tactical, operational, and strategic leadership,” but it doesn’t talk about feelings or emotions.

And let me tell you, this is NOT the time to NOT be talking about such things, given how lonely so many people feel.

◧ Two years ago, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy began sounding the alarm on loneliness. Half of all adults, and 81% of young adults, say they feel lonely. Loneliness increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death. 

Many people try to numb their loneliness through addictions to alcohol, drugs, porn, pleasure, perfectionism, work, social media scrolling, food, money, gambling, or shopping.

Murthy wrote that “Given the profound consequences of loneliness and isolation, we have an opportunity, and an obligation, to make the same investments in addressing social connection that we have made in addressing tobacco use, obesity, and the addiction crisis.”

To decrease loneliness, Murthy said, we need to focus on ◧ relationships, service, and community. 

Relationships, service, and community.

These three things—relationships, service, and community—help us make connections that will decrease loneliness and increase our sense of wholeness.

As it turns out, these three things—relationships, service, and community—are three things that churches like ours are well-equipped for.

If you are involved in a church—and especially if you are involved in a ministry team or small group—you are in a much better position to deal with and decrease the level of loneliness in your life. 

I’ve been saying since the start of this year that a church like ours is exactly what the world needs right now, and exactly what we need… and this is just one more reason why.

Like us, Jesus–being human–needed companionship. He needed friendships. He needed relationships. He needed an antidote to the loneliness that creeps in when one tries to go it alone. 

And that, I think, is one reason why he brought Peter, James, and John with him up the mountain that day.

We all need each other. Christians have always met together to worship, to break bread, to pray for one another and for the world, and to hear the gospel. 

We gather together, because we need each other. We need the opportunity to develop true, authentic relationships with one another, and with God.

Some of you have heard me talk about the word religion… Some people don’t like that word. They say they are “spiritual, but not religious.” And I get what they are trying to say.

◧ But the word religion comes from the prefix ‘re’ and the word ‘ligio.’  The word ‘ligio,’ like the word ‘ligament,’ refers to that which connects, that which holds things together.  So ‘re-ligio’ means to re-connect, to put back together.

True religion, then, is that which reconnects us to God and to one another. True religion is a rebuilding of relationships, and a tearing down of the walls that divide. True religion helps us overcome our isolation and loneliness.

◧ And worship—well, what we do in worship is called “liturgy.” And liturgy is a word that literally means “the work of the people.” Because to worship, you need a community. You need people.

Our worship is given shape and form by the liturgy. In some churches, like the Roman Catholic church or the Episcopal church, the liturgy is very rigid and formal. In our congregation, the liturgy is a little more relaxed and informal.

Liturgy includes all that we do in worship. It refers to the shape of the worship itself. The prayers, the readings, the hymns, and the words spoken at the table… they’re all part of the liturgy.

And since "liturgy" means "the work of the people,” the people are required to work. Worship is participatory. We’re all singing together, we’re all praying together, we’re all participating in the Lord’s Supper together.

Psalm 133 says: “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!” At least eight other times in the book of psalms, it talks about praising God in the midst of the great congregation. 

We need each other. We can’t do any of this alone.

As I always say: your presence here is a blessing, to me, and to those around you. And I know that you will be blessed, as well, by being a part of the great congregation.

Uncontained Truth (Luke 9:28-36)

 Do you know who this is?...

Dr. George Fishbeck was the weatherman for Eyewitness news back when I was a child. One way I satisfied my childhood curiosity was by watching Eyewitness News - and I especially enjoyed watching Dr. George. 

Watching became a sort of daily ritual for me - my evening liturgy. It started when Jerry Dunphy said,  “From the desert to the sea, and to all of southern California, good evening…” 

But Dr. George was my favorite. He explained everything so well. I still remember him getting all excited one day because the temperature that day was 82, and if you flip those two numbers around, you get 28, and 82 degrees fahrenheit is 28 degrees celsius, and that’s an easy way to remember it. 

My sisters still tease me about how much I liked watching Dr. George.

Do you know who this is?...

I wasn’t as interested in political news stories. I was a child, and politics was boring; just people talking about stuff I didn’t understand. 

But I paid enough attention to know that the mayor of Los Angeles was a man named Tom Bradley, and I learned to recognize his face when it appeared.

Tom Bradley had been the mayor of L.A. since I was two, and he would remain the mayor until the year I graduated from college. So it seemed perfectly normal that he was the mayor of L.A., because that was all I knew. It was only ever his face that appeared on the TV screen when local politics were talked about.

I didn’t really know much about him, other than that he was the mayor of L.A.  I didn’t know (for example) that his parents were sharecroppers... I didn’t know that restaurants and department stores in the city where he would one day be mayor refused to serve him... I didn’t know that, when he was elected, he was the first and only Black mayor of L.A., and only the second Black mayor of any major U.S. city... 

I didn’t know any of that. All I knew was that L.A. had a Black mayor, and had always had a Black mayor (as far as I knew), and that this was perfectly normal.

It wasn’t until later, when I started to learn more about things that had been hidden from me - the things I was never taught - that I wondered about the challenges he must have had to overcome.

To be clear, the neighborhood I grew up in didn’t have a lot of Black people. My friends in school were mostly white and Mexican and Asian, but not Black. 

I did have a Black algebra teacher in middle school, but again, nothing ever taught me to wonder about the challenges she probably had to overcome. In fact, I was led to believe that all those challenges and struggles were things of the past.

It wasn’t until college that I started to learn that things weren’t quite as resolved as I thought they were. And I had some friends who helped. 

One, a Black student who was involved in campus ministry like I was, asked if I wanted to be his roommate our sophomore year, and I said yes. He was very patient with my ignorance.

Another friend grew up in South Central L.A., and attended All Peoples Christian Church. I really didn’t think there was that much difference between his experiences growing up, and my roommate’s experiences growing up, and my experiences growing up… Although, when my friend from South Central invited me to spend the weekend with him at his home, I admit I was a little nervous. 

Then, in my junior year of college, the 1992 riots took place, and issues of race arose on campus and in the community in a new way. 

When these friends started talking about their experiences - I was startled. When they talked about the racism they experienced, every day of their lives, I wondered if they were exaggerating. Suddenly, they seemed like different people to me.

But it’s not that they had become different. It’s that they felt compelled to share what life was really like for them. They were allowing me to see the truth about them and about society - a truth I hadn’t been aware of.

And having the truth revealed to you like that can be a tough pill to swallow. I mostly kept my mouth shut and listened, which was good, but inside I felt defensive. Defensive, and afraid - afraid that what they were saying about the world we live in was still true.

That fear, that defensiveness - I wonder if that’s similar to what Peter, James, and John experienced up on the mountain, when Jesus was transfigured, when they saw him in a new light, as if for the first time… 

A transfiguration is a revealing, a revelation. A transfiguration is when one’s outer appearance suddenly changes to more accurately reflect one’s inner truth, who you are on the inside. Maybe it’s who you’ve always been, or maybe it’s that who you are on the inside has changed as well.

But suddenly, your outside is changed so that your inner truth is revealed.

Peter, James, and John thought they knew who Jesus was. He was a man who, they thought, was going to deliver the Jewish people from Roman oppression. He was also a person who seemed to have a great understanding of God and faith and the Jewish scriptures, so that many even called him “rabbi.” 

But when his true identity was revealed to them at the transfiguration, and they realized that he was even more than they knew… their response was fear.

This was a man who was able to summon Moses and Elijah, two great prophets from times long ago, to stand beside him on a mountaintop!... to bring them from the distant past - many generations ago - to the present moment!

This was a man on whom the presence of God descended, in the form of a cloud; a man whom God’s own voice speaks to and about, declaring him to be God’s own son!

It was all too much to take in… just like the truth about what Black people in this country continue to experience was almost too much for me to take in.

Peter, James, and John were overwhelmed, and they tried to contain this truth. They tried to package it, frame it, in a way that they could accept. 

That, I think, is the symbolism of Peter’s offer to erect three dwellings. He wanted to contain and control what was going on. He wanted to minimize it. He wanted to put some walls around it.

In the same way, there is a strong temptation for people like me to contain and control and manipulate the truth when truth is revealed to us. We want to make the history of our country and the history of race racism in our country more palatable, more acceptable. We want to build a dwelling in which that truth can be contained, and perhaps even hidden away.

Because if we don’t hide the truth in a dwelling of our own making, then we have to admit that the truth is that racial oppression has been a part of this country’s history from day one. Black people’s ancestors were brought to this country as slaves, and Black people’s status as less than fully human was inscribed into our constitution.

The effects of slavery and Jim Crow continue to play out in our society today. The struggles and obstacles still exist.

And we’re still trying to hide that truth in dwellings that we erect. Teachers who want to teach the truth about race in our country are being censored by white parents who accuse them of making them feel uncomfortable. 

We see racism at work today in the lack of accountability for police violence directed at African-Americans, and in the stripping away of voting rights. 

When schools need to close, or when freeways need to be built, or when industry needs a place to dump their pollution, these things all affect Black communities more than they affect white communities.

But, let’s not bring that up. Let’s not teach it to our children. Let’s build a tent, a dwelling, and stick the truth inside, so we don’t have to look at it.

And while we’re at it, let’s also throw into those dwellings all the stories about how indigenous people were also enslaved in this country, and how our government tried to exterminate them through acts of genocide. “Extermination” is, in fact, a word that was used frequently in the newspapers of California to describe government policies regarding the indigenous people of this state.

But let’s not bring that up. Let’s not teach it to our children. Let’s build a tent, a dwelling, and stick that ugly truth inside, so we don’t have to look at it. So that we don’t have to feel uncomfortable.

That’s the argument of the people who don’t want us teaching critical race theory to our children.

But despite their attempts to hide or deny the truth, the truth cannot be contained or hidden away. 

And in Black History Month, we acknowledge the struggles, we speak the truth… and we also celebrate the accomplishments…. 

…of people like Tom Bradley.

…of people like my middle-school algebra teacher.

…of people like our own Bobbie Smith.

…of people like our own Disciples of Christ General Minister, Terri Hord Owens. 

And so many other Black Americans, who have endured racism and oppression and who have persevered and have lived out their truth, and who have made a positive difference in our society.

I don’t think Peter, James, and John were ever the same, after that day they witnessed Jesus transfigured on the mountaintop. Not only did they now understand him in a new way, they also understood themselves in a new way. The truth had changed them.

And, if we allow it, the truth will change us as well. The truth will transform us.

And we can no longer be silent about the things we have seen, the stories we’ve heard, the truth we’ve come to know.

And when we pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth, we understand that God’s kingdom is a kingdom of justice, a kingdom where Black lives do matter, a kingdom where votes of Black citizens are not suppressed, a kingdom where Black boys can walk down the street with no more fear than any other boys in their community.

And together, we will work for that kingdom, and with the Spirit’s help, we will keep on working for that kingdom, until the day it becomes a reality.

Sermon: "Your Money or Your Life" (Luke 9: 18-27)

Our worship leaders do a wonderful job. Nine of you are currently on the official rotation, and a few others of you fill in from time to time. Each of you brings to worship your own unique flavor, and though you may not realize it, that adds tremendously to our worship experience.

I have heard from one of our worship leaders – with whom I happen to be a little more intimately acquainted – that it’s really not that hard… except for the stewardship moment. That’s the only challenging part about the whole thing, she said; coming up with something to say to invite people to give to the morning offering.

Well, I decided we should work on that. Over a month ago, I turned to our elders, the spiritual leaders of the church, and asked if they would each write one or more articles on stewardship that I could share in the newsletter, and that they could use as their stewardship moment when they themselves serve as worship leaders. And I know that many who have been elders in the past have much wisdom to share, so I included them. That’s fifteen people in all.

A week went by. I sent out a reminder email, and another week went by. Then another. The first two articles were then submitted, three weeks after my invitation. They are great articles, very different from one another, reflecting the diversity of background and theology that make us the congregation that we are. I can’t wait for you to read them.

I’m still waiting for the other thirteen. I know they’ll come in time. I have faith! It’s just taking a little longer than I thought.

I get it though. Talking about stewardship usually means talking about money, and we’re not comfortable talking about money. People already give so generously to the church; do we really want to ask them to give more?

Part of the challenge comes from how we think about money.

Normally, when we talk about money, we talk about what to do with it: how to get it, spend it, invest it, save it. But what is money?

Back in 1992, a successful Wall Street financial analyst named Joe Dominguez, and his partner, Vicki Robin, wrote a book called Your Money or Your Life. One of the things they did in that book was ponder the question: “What is money?”

They wrote that our first response to this question might be to pull out some dollar bills, hold them up, and say, “Here. This is money.” But what can you do with those dollar bills? You can’t eat them. You can’t wear them. In many places in the world you can’t even buy anything with them. They’re just pieces of paper.

So: What is money?

Should we say that “money is security?” Having lots of money can protect you from all kinds of things. But Dominguez and Robin ask: “If you were a courier walking through downtown Chicago at night with a briefcase filled with money handcuffed to your wrist, would you feel secure? If money were truly security, you would.”

Well, what about power? Is money power? Does money give you power?

One of the most powerful people the world has ever seen was Gandhi. Yet when Gandhi died, he had less than ten possessions, including a watch, spectacles, sandals and an eating bowl. He didn’t own a house or a car. And what about Jesus? He didn’t have much money, either, yet look at his power.

So. What is money?

Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin invite us to look at money in a whole new way. Think of it this way, they said. Each person on earth is given so many hours of precious life. We don’t know exactly how many hours of life we are given, but we know it is limited.

If you have a job, what happens? You go to work, and you trade some of those hours of life in exchange for a paycheck, right? You say to your boss, “I’ll give you eight hours of my life’s energy today,” and if you earn, say, $15 an hour, the boss says “OK, in exchange for your life’s energy, I’ll give you $15 an hour, or $120 for 8 hours work.”

So at the end of the day you have $120. That $120 is equal to eight hours of your life energy. Right? You gave eight hours of your life energy to the boss, and the boss gave you $120 in return; $15 in exchange for every hour of life energy you gave.

So, the definition of money is this: “Money is something we trade our life energy for.”

Now, as I said, we have a limited amount of life energy. Someone my age can expect to have about 280,000 hours of life left – 279,999 by the end of this worship – but of course a lot of those hours will be spent sleeping and eating and other types of body maintenance, so the actual number of hours I have left that I can exchange for money is a lot less.

Most of us would agree that life is precious, a precious gift from God. We shouldn’t waste one single hour of our life energy. All those hours will be gone before we know it. I don’t know about you, but I want to make them count.

So let’s say I have $120 in my pocket. (Wishful thinking, right?) That’s the equivalent of 8 hours of life energy.

And let’s say I walk by a store and I see something for sale that costs exactly $120. Do I buy it? Is that item in the store window worth eight hours of my precious life energy? Is that item for sale worth the sacrifice of eight hours of my life?

Do you see how every dollar you spend is so much more than just money? Do you see how it’s really your life that you are spending? Every dollar you have, you gave up your life energy for. Maybe you gave up that life energy last week. If you are retired, you might have given up that life energy years ago.

Maybe you’re saying to yourself, “But it was my spouse who worked; I stayed at home.” OK, it’s your spouse’s life energy that you are spending. But if your spouse had a job and you stayed home, you probably did more than your share of housework so that your spouse could devote more life energy into earning money, which means your life energy still helped make it possible for you to have the money you have.

Unless you’ve won the lottery, your money is your life energy.

This puts a new perspective on things, doesn’t it?

Jesus said: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.” In other words, when it comes to how you use your life energy, follow the way of Jesus. His life energy was given over to doing God’s will. And since money is life energy, how we spend money shows whether or not we are following Jesus. Every time we spend money, we are sacrificing our life, our life energy. The question is, what are you sacrificing your life for? Is your life energy being sacrificed for cable bills and upgraded appliances and property maintenance? If you are going to sacrifice your life energy, don’t you want it to be for something more than that, something greater?

Jesus said: “Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” Again, since money is life energy, anything Jesus says about how to live also applies to how we spend. Are you willing to spend your life and your money for the sake of Christ and his kingdom? Or do you seek to save it and use it only for yourself?

Jesus said: “What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?” You exchange your life energy for money. If you spend your life energy and your money on luxuries that benefit only you, haven’t you exchanged your very life for selfish pleasures? That’s called “making a deal with the devil.”

But if you spend your life energy and your money on things which help not only you but those around you find wholeness, won’t you gain so much more than material pleasures could ever give you?

God’s command to give, to be generous, is as much for our own benefit as it is for anyone else’s. When your life energy becomes money which is then used to do good in the world, you experience a kind of satisfaction that is deeper than any other satisfaction or joy. You become spiritually whole, knowing that the sacrifice of your life energy has made a difference in the world.

There’s a basketball player named Steph Curry. I don’t follow sports much, but maybe you’ve heard of him. I hear he’s pretty good – best shooter in NBA history, or something like that.

When he was named MVP a week and a half ago, the distinction came with a brand new SUV. Curry donated that new SUV to an organization that helps homeless youth. He knew that the joy and satisfaction he would get from giving his new car away would be greater than the joy and satisfaction he would get from owning it.

It really is a blessing to give. It is a blessing to have the opportunity to share our gifts with the church. And God’s command to give, to tithe ten percent of our income, is a blessing in disguise. It doesn’t sound like a blessing. It sounds like a burden. But as Jesus says, those who willingly lose their life by sacrificing it in this way will find their life renewed and restored. They will be made whole.

No person of faith ever gave to the church and then felt buyer’s remorse. No one has ever regretted it. Because they know that their life energy which has been converted into money is then converted into the healing and salvation of the world. They know that their life energy has not been given in vain. It has been given to God, for the sake of the world God has made. And they are filled with joy.

"Bury the Dead" (Luke 9: 51-62)

Earlier this month, I was invited by Kelli of the Long Beach Sunday Farmers’ Market to set up a table at the market and let people know about events happening here at Bixby Knolls Christian Church. Since the market takes place on Sundays, I recruited Ginger to staff the table one Sunday, and Margo volunteered to do it the next Sunday. They greeted folks and passed out flyers in the morning, and I took over after worship.
It was surprisingly enjoyable. I say that, because, as you know, I’m quite introverted. Yet it was with genuine cheer that I smiled and greeted folks with a friendly “good afternoon” during my shift. I know that Margo enjoyed it as well. She volunteered to return the following week, but you know, as pastor, I just can’t bring myself to asking someone to miss worship two weeks in a row. It just doesn’t seem right.

Anyway, we were there the first two Sundays of June, and on the 2nd of those two Sundays, I felt that I was really hitting my stride. I was in the zone! Until a person walked by with a t-shirt that, for a moment, shocked me into silence.

The shirt had two words on it, written in large letters. All I’ll say about the first word is that it had four letters. The second word was the word “religion.”

For a moment, I wondered whether this person would be offended or get angry with a friendly “good afternoon” coming from a church representative. For a moment, I pondered this. As an introvert, it often takes me a moment or two to figure out if I should say anything, and what I should say. And once I figure that out, it takes a moment to transfer the thought into actual speech.

Or, as I like to put it, an introvert like me – unlike

extroverts – prefers to think before he speaks.

So it wasn’t until after the man with the t-shirt was gone that I realized that I wasn't nearly as offended by what the shirt said as one might think. After all, in my sermons lately I've been saying that the way of Jesus is actually bigger than any religion. I know that much of the New Testament was, in fact, an effort to expand the Jesus movement beyond the religion within which it had its origins. The writings of the apostle Paul, in particular, have as a major theme the idea that one did not have to be a Jew in order to be a follower of Jesus. The way of Jesus is bigger than that.

Nevertheless, the way of Jesus did develop into its own religion -- Christianity -- which developed a set doctrine. Then the religion of Christianity tried to live out that doctrine in ways that weren't always Christ-like. Over the centuries, Christianity became known as the religion of the Crusades, the Inquisition, witch hunts, persecution of non-believers, excommunication and imprisonment of scientific seekers of truth. More recently, Christianity has aligned itself with those who believe in preemptive war, economic policies that favor the rich, pro-life advocacy that does not concern itself with those who are already born, and judgment and persecution of homosexuals and others.

Christianity has a history of seeing those who did not fit into the traditional, mainstream Christian box, and has repeatedly, in various ways, commanded fire to come down from heaven and consume them.

For some reason, the temptation to do so has always been with us. The Samaritans were not like the Jews. They worshiped differently. They spoke with an accent. They did things their own unique way. And

they and the Jews hated each other.

When Jesus’ disciples entered a village of Samaritans, they said to Jesus, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” Elijah had done something like that once, and the disciples were all too eager to use the power that Elijah accessed on the Samaritans.

Jesus, of course, rebuked the disciples. That wasn’t his way. And yet, Christianity has been trying to throw people in the fire ever since.

The more I thought about such things, there at the farmers’ market, the more I was tempted to see if I could acquire one of those t-shirts for myself.

I once heard or read about some Christians who set up a confession booth at a public place. I don't remember exactly where they placed their booth. I think it might have been at a pride festival somewhere, but it’s also possible that it was at a farmers' market.

They set up their confession booth, but instead of inviting people into the booth to confess their sins, they invited people into the booth so that they – the people running the booth – could confess their sins and the sins of Christianity, and ask for forgiveness.

Certainly the many times Christians have prayed for fire to come down from heaven and consume those they don’t like have got to be at the top of the list of sins that need to be confessed.

After Jesus rebuked the disciples, they went on to another village. As they were traveling on their way – you know, a lot happens “on the way” in scripture. I wasn’t able to check this particular verse out, but usually, when it says something like “along the road,” a more literal translation is “on the way,” which is a deliberate phrase that is repeated often in scripture to emphasize that following Jesus isn’t just agreeing to a set of beliefs, but following him on the way, living one’s whole life according to the way of Jesus.

Anyway, as they were traveling on the way, they met several people who wanted to join them … on the way. But the way of Jesus is not as easy as one might think. One would-be follower said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have their nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

To another, Jesus said, “Follow me.”

But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead.” I’ll say more about that in a moment.

A third person said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me say farewell to those at home.”

Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

These three responses of Jesus are all harsh, but none is more harsh than the second response: “Let the dead bury their own dead.” This man’s father has just died! No obligation is more important for a Jewish person than the obligation to make sure the body of one’s father is properly buried after death.

It’s a shocking statement, and yet, according to Marcus Borg, it is also a brilliant one-liner that grabbed people’s attention, and one that Jesus most likely spoke more than once, to emphasize the commitment required to follow the way of Jesus.

What exactly did Jesus mean by this statement? Well, Marcus Borg says that, obviously, Jesus was talking about people who were physically alive, because only someone who was physically alive could bury someone who was dead. A person who is physically, literally dead cannot go grab a shovel and start digging.

In that sense, then, the people Jesus is talking about are the living dead. They are alive, but without life. Jesus is saying that it is possible to live like that, that many people do, that it is, in fact, quite easy to live like that.

If Jesus was here, walking around and speaking to 21st century Americans, he might say let the dead churches bury the dead churches. So many churches are so busy trying to preserve their life, but in doing so, they are already dead. They are so focused on their own survival, that they aren’t doing anything for the kingdom of God. If you mention those churches to others in their communities, you’ll probably hear people respond with surprise, and say things like, “I thought that church closed down years ago.”

That is, in fact, an actual comment spoken regarding one church in our region, before it began to take seriously its commitment to reaching out to the community.

After all, Jesus also said that those who seek to save their lives will lose them, but those who lose their life for his sake and for the sake of the gospel will find their life restored. If all our efforts go into saving our life, saving our church, then we are already dead. But if we are willing to take a risk, to dare to do something big, something that risks sacrificing the church itself for the sake of others and for the sake of the gospel, then we will find our life restored.

Church historian and scholar Justo González has another take on Jesus’ “let the dead bury their own dead” comment. In his book Mañana, he has a whole chapter entitled “Let Dead Gods Bury Their Dead.” He begins the chapter by mentioning the uproar that was raised some years ago over the phrase “God is dead.” Some of you may remember that.

González then asks who or what this God is, whose existence we either affirm or deny. Some gods, he says, are better dead than alive. He says that “Humankind did not lose a great deal when Huitzilopochtli and his cohorts lost their power to require human sacrifices, or when the crocodiles of the Nile lost their divinity. The death of many gods has meant life for countless human beings...”

So if someone says that God is dead, or if someone walks around wearing a t-shirt that says, well, you know… perhaps we should ask just what god they are talking about, or what religion they are talking about. If they are talking about a god who is judgmental, a god who rains fire down upon people, consuming them – if they are talking about a religion that sucks the life out of people, denying them a life of wholeness – then I’m all for the death of those gods and those religions. In fact, I’ll do what I can to help kill those gods and those religions.

Not your usual statement from a peace-loving, pastor, I know. But if the death of these false gods means life for humanity, then I’m all for it. Because the way of Jesus has nothing to do with the way of death. The way of Jesus overcomes the way of death. The way of Jesus is about life. And, as followers of the way of Jesus, the work we do should also be about life.

The Message Bible even paraphrases Jesus’ “let the dead bury the dead” statement this way: “Your business is life, not death.”

I think that’s what it boils down to. Jesus came so that all people might have life, and have it abundantly. It is a life of wholeness. It’s the life to which we are all called to be part of. It’s the life which we are called to share with the world.

Worship: Practicing for Life (Luke 9:28-36)

In June 1996, I spent nearly two weeks at Dzilth-na-o-dith-hle. That's the name of a small Navajo town centered around a boarding school and a health center in northwest New Mexico. I was an adult counselor with a group of 53 youth and adults from various Disciples congregations in Indiana.
We drove for two days, spending a night in Okalahoma City on the way, and arrived at Dzilth-na-o-dith-hle late on a Tuesday evening. We were greeted and welcomed by Johnny Henderson, who ran the dorm at the school and who served as our host for our stay. His first words to us were, "the Navajo don't have a religion. We have a way of life."
Prior to the trip, I had done quite a bit of research in preparation for both the trip and my course. What Johnny told us confirmed what I had read. I had read that it is difficult to find Native American words for "religion." I had read that the Navajo would not recognize the dichotomy that exists in our culture between what is spiritual and what is material. And, I had read that "the Navajo Way" means the totality of life, both spiritual and material. There is no separating the two.
However, despite my preparation and despite Johnny's comment to us, I became frustrated in the days that followed. I knew that when I got back to Indiana, that report would be waiting for me; but so far, I was finding it hard to learn about and experience Navajo religion.
Then, about halfway through our stay, it dawned on me: everything that I had experienced so far on the trip was related to Navajo spirituality. I had not recognized it as such, because I was searching for a separate component of Navajo culture that would fit the concept of religion with which I was familiar. This, despite my research, and despite Johnny Henderson's comments that first night, all of which should have prepared me for this realization. I was, in fact, surrounded by--and immersed in--Navajo spirituality, and I didn't even realize it.
What I had been looking for was a system of belief, because that's how my religion, Christianity, had been defined to me. I had been told that Christians are people who believe certain things. Believe this, believe that,... and you're a Christian.
Navajo religion, on the other hand, is not a system of belief. It is, as Johnny said, a way of life. It cannot be separated from other aspects of life, because it encompasses everything.

There is a deep spiritual hunger among people today; but what most people are looking for is not a system of belief. They're looking for a way of life, one that gives life meaning and purpose; a way of life that connects them to the universe and to the creator.
And so they are looking to Native American spirituality. They are looking to Buddhism as well; books on Buddhism just fly off the bookstore shelves these days. In their search for faith as a way of life, they're not looking to Christianity, because in many ways, Christianity has lost its way.
In Christianity, they see arguments over beliefs, but very little Christian living. They hear a lot of people speaking against this or that, but very few people living for anything.
It wasn't always so. You may know that the earliest Christians were called "followers of the way." For them, Christianity wasn't just a system of beliefs; it was a way of life. Christianity wasn't just what they believed in; it was how they lived. It was who they were.
And to help them follow the way of Christianity, they engaged in a number of practices. Some of these practices are a part of many lives today, but others have all but disappeared. They include: worship, fasting, Bible study, prayer, sabbath, service, tithing, and observance of the liturgical year.
Why have Christians engaged in these practices throughout history? They do it for the same reason athletes train. They do it for the same reason that musicians practice. It takes effort to become what you want to be. It takes work. Do you want to be a better Christian? Do you want to grow in faith? Do you want to live a life of meaning, a life of wholeness, a life of abundance, the life that God wants you to live? If so, then you need to train for it. And practices help.
When I was in eleventh grade, I felt my first earthquake. It happened during my first period American Literature class. As soon as my classmates and I felt the ground begin to shake, we knew what to do: immediately, we crawled under our desks and covered our heads, as we had practiced in our drills.
Not long after that, I felt my second earthquake. This one happened in the middle of the night. I was in bed, but when the shaking woke me up, I lay there, unsure of what to do. Actually, I knew that I should probably find my way under a table or desk or to a doorframe. But I had never practiced what to do at home in an earthquake, and laying there, in bed, frightened, I could not get my body to move. I knew what I should od, but I had not practiced doing it, and when the critical moment came, I found that I could not do it.
In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell chronicled the lives of several people who were masters at what they did. He analyzed the lives of star atheletes, premier violinists, and even Bill Gates. He wondered what led them to succeed, to excel, to be the best in the world at what they do.
The answer, he discovered, was practice. Each of them had spent approximately 10,000 hours practicing their craft before they became masters at it. That's a lot of practicing. If you somehow managed to practice four hours every day, seven days a week, with no days off, it would take almost seven years to reach 10,000 hours.
Needless to say, the things these people did was more than just a hobby. It was more than something they did on the weekends. It was their life. The athletes that are now gathered in Vancouver for the Winter Olympics: training isn't a part of their lives. To be an Olympian, training is your life.
In the same way, following Christ isn't a part of the lives of Christians; following Christ is their way of life.
The ancient practices of our faith are designed to help make faith a way of life. And when faith becomes a way of life, life becomes whole, abundant, filled with meaning--just the way God intended it to be.
Not everyone wants faith to be their way of life; some people are perfectly content with compartmentalizing it, dividing their life into what is holy and what is not; dividing their soul, if you will. Others want faith to be their way of life, but they don't want to work for it.
Well, it doesn't work that way. Faith requires practice; another word for practice is discipline, which, of course, is related to the word disciple.
Many of the practices you can do by yourself: prayer, fasting, tithing. You don't need to organize a group of people together to do these things. In fact, it is often better to do these things privately, at least most of the time.
But one of these spiritual practices is not like that. One of these practices requires two or three people, at least, to gather together. That practice is worship.
Three of the disciples were with Jesus when he was transfigured. Jesus was God's son. You'd think he could have gone up on the mountain alone. You'd think he wouldn't need help to do any of the things he did. And yet, he was frequently taking two or three or twelve disciples with him wherever he went.
On that mountaintop, God was revealed in Jesus in a very powerful way. On that mountaintop, that group of disciples worshiped. Then they came down from the mountain and began serving those in need, which, some would say, is an even more authentic form of worship.
I know--and you probably do, too--people who believe in God, good people, people who may even pray to God, but who don't go to church; people who are content to practice their religion on their own, in their own way.
Well, imagine a violinist who practiced every day--perhaps even four hours every day--but who never had a teacher. Imagine a violinist who played the violin every day, but never had the chance to practice or play with an orchestra.
Imagine a hockey player who practiced shooting the puck over and over for hours on end. If your team ever needed someone to take a penalty shot, or if you found yourself in a shoot-out, he'd be your man! But put him into the game, and he wouldn't be able to pass, and God help him when the opposing team comes after him.
To worship, you need a community.
Our worship is given shape and form by the liturgy. In some churches, like the Roman Catholic church or the Episcopal church, the liturgy is very rigid and formal. In our congregation, the liturgy is more relaxed and informal.
Liturgy includes all that we do in worship. It refers to the shape of the worship itself. The prayers, the call to worship, the readings and the responses are all a part of the liturgy.
The word "liturgy" literally means "the work of the people." Worship is work. It requires the participation of everyone present. Unlike some of the other spiritual practices, it requires that we bring ourselves to a specific place at a specific time, whether or not that place and time are convenient for us.
Worship requires preparation. We need to get ourselves ready to come to worship. Some people like to meditate or pray before they come, to prepare their hearts and minds for worship. And certainly, those who lead us in worship take time to prepare.
In worship, we get to practice some of the most important qualities of a Christian way of life: love; hospitality; sharing peace with one another. We greet one another, we welcome strangers, we pray for one another.
This is our training for life. We practice it here, much like a hockey player practices passing and scoring, much like school children practice ducking under their desks. We practice love, hospitality, and sharing peace here in worship so that we will be able to practice love, hospitality and sharing peace the rest of the week.
And then, just as the disciples came down from the mountain and began serving those in need, so are we sent out from this place of worship, to do the work God calls us to do; the work that some would say is an even more authentic form of worship.