Fresh Fruits of the Spirit - 2020

Pentecost is finally here.  The celebration of the Spirit of God, the focus on the third person of the Trinity in whom we might have a stronger sense of living and moving and having our being; or you may also not know what in the world folks are talking about when they say they feel the Spirit move.  This Covidtide has demanded from us some fresh fruits of the Spirit. Here is my list.  What other fresh fruits of the spirit might you include for this time?

If you scroll a long long way you might find last year's fruits.  A few of these have changed, not because they are not fruits of the Spirit (maybe) but because they don't suit the best practices of now, or, take much more of a conversation to agree on. 

Whatever fruits you are seeing, or missing, I pray that the Spirit of God is with you this day, bringing you comfort, energy and courage.

Never Normal Anyways

I haven’t been comfortable with the word normal for a long time, And now I really don’t know what to do with it. I like bumper stickers that say 'normal is boring'. Or posters that say 'weird is a side effect of awesome'. I verbally dance around the word normal, often choosing conventional instead. Even the most conventional of my close friends are not very ‘normal’, and some might consider the adjective an insult. For most of my life the use of the word normal has been on a downward trend in books, but months into this upsetting era of pandemic and red zones, normal seems to be one of the most wished-for ideas, a word used like it is magic. Even some of the most funky folks I know are embracing nostalgia while naming our loneliness and losses and grief in one word: normal.

You might have noticed that I am making choices about our lessons to shorten the time of the service. Some of you may feel like we have all the time in the world, but I trust that there is good experience behind the time segments of the broadcast industry. More importantly, however, is looking ahead to being able to offer a modified and strictly organized and as safe as possible option of in-person communion services: which will need to be quite brief. So early this week I glanced at the readings and I saw the words Noah and baptism, and without really reading and chose 1 Peter (over the Acts of the Apostles lesson with Paul at th Aeropagus). 

It feels like a Great Flood kind of time, but it also doesn’t. Everything is storms of information and loss. We are a zoo’s worth of emotions inside of us and a rainbow of external experiences right now. But outside the world looks, normal. Grass keeps growing and bunnies chase, and there isn’t a disaster like a watery flood at our doors. Except that there is - and isn’t as obvious as a torrent. So the discord between the view outside of boring, and the feelings from our tossed hearts and grieving minds - the incongruence is making our seasick feeling even worse. So we cling to the wishes and balmy magic of the word normal. 

The first letter of Peter. It is a weird text. It is a beautiful Greek, which raises some logical curiosities. It makes arguments and advocates for ideas that are coloring outside the lines of what became normal in Christian doctrine. In our bulletin our lesson today is two paragraphs. The commentary was five pages long in a big book! The Noah connection with baptism is classic and almost unexamined, but the analogy here is odd if you think about it too much. The power isn’t in the details, but in the almost Jungian imagery. The whole letter is trying to work out what it means to be outside of normal, to be a resident alien, to face slander and lies, and not retaliate. How do we keep our whole lives aligned with Jesus’ commands to love as we are loved, when we feel so far from safe? 

1 Peter is pastoring at a distance and despite its detailed complexities and out of stepness, the focus is very potent to us right now: how do we hold fast to Jesus’ promises? How do we practice the common good in this bizarre storm of suffering and confusion and grief and distancing and denial - under sunny skies? Furthermore, this paragraph urges us to not idolize the previous norms. For the original audience, this meant whatever was found in the local idol practices. These previous ways only feed the denial of our deep anxiety and discomfort. The commendation here is that it is Jesus’ servant leadership that is our strength in this chaos. His death and resurrection are the victory over confusion and evil. 

At the top of this lesson is the directive: do what is right - follow the commands of Jesus - especially when it is hard. In this, we will find blessing, not saccrine escapism or numb glee - but Christ's peace, which is connected centered gladness. This promise has held true for a long time, it has been tested before and found to be verifiable. It can meet this era of grief and weirdness. Follow the directions of Jesus. Love. Serve. Adapt. 

We have been baptized into Christ’s life, and death, and resurrection. We are people who have promised to move beyond our comfort zone and brave the strange and the unknown. Jesus is with us in learning unexpected new ways to strive for wholeness and peace. Yes - we feel strange because we are stuck in an ark when the rains have stopped. It isn’t normal. Much of what we thought was normal might lay in our wake: and it will be ultimately alright, if not in the way we had expected. We can lament all that we left behind and lean lovingly into the adaptations of today and tomorrow. The Spirit is with us in this. Advocating for the best of us, and brooding over these and chaotic waters with divine love and energy. 

This time is difficult - and the message of 1 Peter for us today is that our places of pain are the places of grace where we learn anew how fiercely we are held by God.  This is where we learn that we are not finished, we are not alone, that we are still changing, and the church is too. Maybe weird is the new normal. And just maybe, weird has always been normal for disciples of Jesus Christ.

CCRP

DioPA

Easter 6 RCL A

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Acts of the Pioneers

In this part of the US (SE Pennsylvania) things get named revolutionary, colonial, patriot, liberty. I lived for many years in Oregon and Washington and out there a lot of the same kind of things get named pioneer (also Lewis and Clark).  There are of course historical reasons for that difference. Today we heard a small slice from the text named Acts of the Apostles. Which is a creative storytelling of the memories of a pioneer movement in a revolutionary time in the life of the world.

Acts of the Apostles is full of action tremendous highs and devastating lows as it explores the revolutionary impact of Jesus's resurrection. It is much more about pioneers than it's about revolution, but then it's probably fair to say that most pioneers a revolutionary. It also wrestles with theodicy: Why is there evil in a good creation? Specifically what happens when the good news of the Jesus movement encounters hard-heartedness, enemies, Evil, and destruction. If this good news changes everything for good, then why are witnesses like Stephen martyred by their kinsman?

You may have noticed, that the primary time we hear from Acts of the Apostles is in Easter season when it displaces our usual Old Testament reading. This is of note with today’s lesson because it is the Christian relationship with the Hebrew scriptures that Stephen is talking about when he gets in trouble. He is one of the first deacons, he was called to take the good news out into the world both in word and in the distribution of food. He is also as far as we know the first Christian martyr. From our brief lesson, You may be left wondering why was Stephen stoned to death? (The lesson doesn't tell.)

Earlier in the Acts of the Apostles, we were told that Stephen is full of the Holy Spirit, and he defends the word of God with wisdom. Stephen is a Greek name and it seems that he was a person who is hereditarily Jewish but born and raised in the diaspora - scattered communities elsewhere in the Mediterranean region. He may have come back to Jerusalem to be closer to its roots, and it is there that he encounters I presume, Jesus himself, and becomes a disciple of this one who he believes is the Messiah. Most Jewish people in that ancient spread out diaspora had learned how to practice their faith far removed from access to the Temple. Stephen's argument is building on this - connecting the pre-temple era with the divine presence of Jesus. 

He celebrating the ways of worship in the wilderness with Moses with the Spirit moving through the tent with flexibility and mobility. He says this tent life with God this is the same as the new creation they have encountered in Jesus the Messiah the Christ. A temple built by human hands isn't necessary he argues. God's activity is not bound by place or by time and God's judgment of humanity is based on are our obedience to God’s commands to safeguard the last the least and the lost. Some prophets have advocated similar things (and may have died for their prophetic speech), this isn’t a new idea, but also not coloring inside the lines. And the response of the authorities and his not-Jesus-following brethren is outrage and fear and panic and anger, so much that it becomes a mob which stones and kills Stephen. 

It is this death which strikes such fear in his community that many of them leave Jerusalem they had to escape to the north and began what becomes the pioneer story of the Jesus movement. This devastating blow moves us into a life-giving, liberating mission to all. Acts of the Apostles is not a victory performance. It's a marathon with celebrations and devastation and loving-kindness and confusion and righteousness and amazing growth. I think the lesson from Acts of the Apostles for us right now at this time is that the grief and the joys will come like waves as we ride through different 'landscapes', or new 'weather systems'. These changes are going to be a part of our life on this journey. This is a pioneer time, it is like a trek all the way across North America, not by plane or train, but by horse and wooden wheels. It will be long and complicated. 

Looking ahead to this truth and way of life is important. The death toll should scare us It should throw our hearts to the ground. It should put our masks on and keep us at home as much as possible. It should call us to be in prayer and study more, to empower us to demonstrate the love of Jesus in the shadows of injustice. This storm of grief is real and we shouldn’t pretend it is sunshine. However, in the same moment, I hope we feel the tender mothering wing of Christ around us. And then never forget to look way back and see how far we have come. We are resilient and we meet the challenges! The millenias of people that came before us have survived incredible difficulty and strangeness with almost none of the advantages we have.. and they figured it out. We have so much to be thankful for and we will create life together beyond this pandemic. Even when parts of what we loved in the past will be no longer. 

Remember - everything we know about God's creation is that it is constantly changing it has always been changing and with tears and in laughter, we can continue to listen and learn together-apart to serve forever with Christ. The witness of the Acts of the Apostles Is that we are called by the Spirit of God To not get stuck, to brave all the days with love and adaptation. This week may we know the wise faith of Saint Stephen, the candid courage of the revolutionaries and patient commitment of the pioneers.

CCRP

DioPA

Easter 5 RCL A