Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Scandal!



Scripture:       Numbers 11:4-30,   James 5:1-20     Mark 9:38-49

 

While I have a fairly solid record of non-pastoral employment, there have been some stretches in my past when I was between jobs.  When these happened, I was fairly energetic about sending out resumes and grabbing temp work and such – but occasionally I’d take a break and turn on daytime TV.  And oh, what an interesting world awaited me. Of course, there were the soap operas.  I turned on General Hospital and learned who Luke and Laura were, and in preparing for this sermon I checked Wikipedia, and lo and behold, it would appear those characters are still on the show, 35 years later.  I turned on the Peoples Court, and while Judge Wapner is now long gone from that show, the Peoples Court lives on with other judges, and has given birth to edgier, more confrontational TV court shows such as Judge Judy.  Frankly, if I had occasion to go to small claims court or traffic court, I’d rather not have my business broadcast on national television, but whatever.  And then there are the scandal shows –Povich, Springer.  Enough said.  Daytime TV, which could be used to educate, to enlighten, to ennoble, to lift people up, instead exists mostly to tell us that somehow, somewhere, no matter who we are, or to what depths we’ve sunk in our lives, there’s somebody somewhere whose life is a bigger mess than ours, and they’re willing to go on national TV to tell the world all about it.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus was speaking about scandal, though the word doesn’t appear in our English text.  Jesus speaks about stumbling blocks, things that cause us or others to stumble in our faith; he says, “"If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.”  The Greek word translated here as “put a stumbling block before” is “skandalizo” – and, yes, it’s the Greek word from which we get our word “scandal”.  So the text could be read, “If any of you does something to scandalize one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better that you had a millstone put around your neck and were thrown into the sea.”

The church is supposed to be a place in which faith is nurtured, not destroyed – because once someone loses their faith, it’s very hard for that person to regain faith, to regain trust.  As we grow in Christian maturity, our faith becomes more durable, and we can maintain our faith in God while also realizing that the church is made up of human beings who make mistakes, sometimes really bad mistakes, and who even sometimes do really awful things on purpose. But we have to come to maturity first, and if our faith is derailed early on, we’ll never reach that place of maturity. Many of the most vocal atheists, who express the most contempt for religious faith and the people who hold religious faith, may initially put forward very learned arguments for their position, but if we ask enough questions, we may find out that their childhood faith was demolished by someone they’d trusted – a nasty Sunday school teacher who embarrassed them in front of others, a priest or pastor who did something to hurt the families under his or her care, or a congregation which through their unloving behavior threatened rather than nourished their faith.  How many people who could have been effective evangelists for the good news of Jesus have instead become vocal opponents, because they couldn’t get past the limitations and the sins and the crimes of those who minister in Christ’s name.

What are the things that cause scandal?  Of course, the clergy abuse scandals have destroyed the faith of many – and while we may like to think it’s mostly a Catholic thing, it isn’t. Believe me, it isn’t. The UCC congregation of which I was a member in college, suffered greatly when a pastor who had served the church after I’d left college – who had by all accounts done good ministry in that congregation - had driven across state lines to engage in unlawful conduct with a minor, and been arrested.  The church was a strong, resilient congregation, and they’ve long since rebounded….but I happened to be on campus for an alumni event the weekend the announcement about the pastor was made, and I still remember the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, though I hadn’t been active in that congregation in more than ten years. How could something like that happen in a place where I’d always felt safe.  In fact, in the United Church of Christ and most mainline Protestant churches, clergy have to go through psychological/ vocational testing so that there is a level of assurance that the pastor doesn’t have issues with behavior or personality or mental health that would tear apart a congregation and destroy the faith of its members. United Church of Christ clergy in this area have to undergo what is called boundary training, to remind us that there are boundaries, involving but not limited to sexual behavior, that clergy should not cross with congregants. We have to do this every three years.  And Pennsylvania has recently mandated that not only clergy, but all volunteers who work with children, have to undergo periodic background checks.  It’s also recommended that where volunteers work with children, there should be two adults in the room at all times.  And yes, these are procedures that, as small as we are, we will need to implement here at Emanuel as well.  This is a case in which the church was unwilling to hold itself accountable, and so the state has stepped in.  Jesus said that, if a hand or foot causes us scandal, we should cut it off.  Nowadays, a better metaphor might be something like an infection or a tumor – it needs to be cut out immediately, lest it spread.  We in the church – mostly we the clergy - were unwilling to do that, and so the infection of clergy abuse spread, and it was left for the state to step in to cut out the infection, as often happens using a meat cleaver instead of a scalpel.  And so a burden has been placed on all of us, the innocent carrying a burden along with the guilty.

Sometimes we in the church have faulty vision, being unable to see ourselves as others see us.  Sometimes we are scandalized by things that those outside of the community don’t understand, and sometimes those outside the community are scandalized by things at which we don’t bat an eye.  In our Gospel reading, the disciples are apparently scandalized that someone outside their group was casting out demons in the name of Jesus.  “Hey, Jesus, there’s this guy casting out demons in your name, and he doesn’t have the secret handshake or the secret decoder ring or anything – so we tried to stop him.”  And Jesus tells the disciples not to do that – where the disciples saw a threat, Jesus saw a potential ally: “One who does a deed of power in my name will not later be able to speak evil against me. Whoever is not against us is for us.  Truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose their reward.”  And we can easily be scandalized by people who don’t follow our behaviors – those who have tattoos, those who drink, smoke, and chew, and date girls or guys who also do, who even may not get to church all that often, if at all – but who care about the poor, who care about those in prison, and in general share many of the priorities of the Gospel.  For us, sometimes the packaging of those outside the church gets in the way so much that we can’t be blessed by the gifts inside.

On the other hand, what are the things that cause people outside the church to lose faith, to laugh at the church?  Mostly it’s when we proclaim Jesus but don’t act like Jesus.  Many, perhaps most outside the church, at least in this country, have some acquaintance with the stories of Jesus as told in the Gospels.  They have heard of a Jesus who welcomed and ate with sinners, even notorious sinners, heard of a Jesus who divided loaves and fish to feed the multitudes free of charge, who healed the sick free of charge, even those with disfiguring, contagious diseases such as leprosy, a Jesus who preached about food for the hungry and recovery of sight for the blind, liberation for the captive and release for the prisoner – that would mean “letting people out of jail”; in short, a Jesus who loved and cared for the poor and marginalized, cared for those who were struggling.  Those outside the church know those stories, and they love them.  So they come to church, and find well-dressed people inside lovely buildings who don’t welcome sinners, who don’t care for the poor and the sick and instead cater to the wealthy, and who want to lock up more and more and more and more people in prison and throw away the key – and support politicians who want to write these priorities into law.  And there is what psychologists call “cognitive dissonance”….like the old Sesame Street song, “One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn’t belong”…..these church people say they follow the Jesus of the Gospels, but they’re nothing at all like the Jesus of the Gospels, not even the tiniest bit. They say they follow Jesus, but they’re not “Jesusy” – or as we’d say, Christlike. And then we respond to them by twisting some of Paul’s teachings to get ourselves off the hook, saying “Well, we’re justified by faith through grace, so we don’t actually have to act the slightest bit like Jesus, or do any of the things Jesus did, we just have to believe in Jesus and pray to Jesus.”  That’s a distorted, twisted view of Paul’s teachings – it’s what German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace”- but far too many Christians think that’s the real thing.  And then we wonder why people walk away from the church in disgust.  Jesus himself spoke harshly of those who say, “Lord, Lord,” but don’t do what Jesus taught.  Mahatma Gandhi famously said, “I like your Christ.  I do not like your Christians.  Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”  One of the reasons that Pope Francis is popular in a way that Pope Benedict never was, is that in Pope Francis, Christians and non-Christians alike see some measure of similarity between the words and actions of Francis and those of Jesus.  Of course, the tremendous wealth of the Roman Catholic church is itself a scandal to many – just as is the lesser but still over-the-top wealth of some Protestant churches and megachurches – but Francis has said that, if churches are unwilling to help the poor, they should be taxed.  So he’s even taking on that issue to some extent.  (Fortunately or unfortunately, Emanuel Church cannot be accused of sitting on top of vast reserves of wealth while the poor starve.)

Of course, nobody’s perfect.  Of course, when we mess up, there’s grace.  But people inside and outside the church do hear what we say and see what we do.  Our lives have more impact than we know.  Let’s make that impact for good.

After his words on scandals and dismemberment – and please, don’t literally go home and try to cut off your hand or foot; Jesus was speaking figuratively, so please don’t try this at home…..Jesus has some odd sayings about salt….especially that last saying, “Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”  That’s a saying common in Jesus time, but that hasn’t passed down to us.  Of course, salt is used as seasoning and preservative, and we as Christians are to be the salt of the earth – and so if we lose our saltiness, our distinctiveness, we’re of little use.  But salt was also used in sacrifices, and in covenants – part of concluding a covenant or agreement would involve eating food that had been salted – and so to “have salt among yourselves” meant to live in covenant with one another, to live in right relationship with one another, to be on good enough terms with one another that you can sit down to eat together without throwing things at one another.  And relationship is the key.  In America, we value our glorious individuality, but in the church, the emphasis is on “we” not “me”.  We are the body of Christ, not the dismembered limbs of Christ, and we need to behave in ways that build up and do not destroy the body.  It is usually when we’re pursuing our own agenda that we cause scandal, and so remembering that we are in relationship with others and that our behavior affects others may help us to avoid causing scandal.

May God grant that we have salt among ourselves, that we live not as individuals responsible only to ourselves, but as members of the community of faith, the body of Christ.  May our words and actions glorify God and strengthen the faith of all who come our way. Amen.



Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Emanuel September 2015 Newsletter - Pastor's Message



Dear Emanuel Members and Friends –

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.” (James 3:13-18)

“Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you suppose that it is for nothing that the scripture says, ‘God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us’? But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says,
       ‘God opposes the proud,  but gives grace to the humble.’
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” (James 4:1-10)

In September, our Epistle readings (the reading immediately preceding the Gospel reading, which generally is from one of the letters of Paul or Peter or John or one of the other apostles) comes from the letter of James.  By tradition, James was one of Jesus’ brothers, who became head of the church in Jerusalem.  In the book of Acts, he is presented as one who maintained traditional Jewish religious observance within the Jerusalem church, while granting Paul permission to preach the good news of Jesus to Gentiles without imposing Jewish observance on them.  The letter of James has generated controversy.  Martin Luther greatly disliked this letter because he felt it didn’t say enough about God’s grace, calling it “the epistle of straw”.  And yet in his use of phrases such as “the law of liberty,” James acknowledges that it is only by God’s grace that we are not only saved from sin, but saved to live in a way that is radically transformed and transformative.

The letter of James is brief (only five chapters) but powerful.  James touches on a variety of topics, including….

Wealth: “My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, ‘Have a seat here, please’, while to the one who is poor you say, ‘Stand there’, or, ‘Sit at my feet’, have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?  (James 2:1-7)

“Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts on a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.” (James 5:1-6)

The tongue:  So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.  How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. (James 3:5-10)

The importance of putting faith into action:  What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (James 2:14-17)

Judgmental Attitudes:  Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, speaks evil against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:11-12)

Prayer: Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest. (James 5:13-18)

Forgiveness:  “My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”  (James 5:19-20)

Endurance: “Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.” (James 5:7-11)


In today’s world, in which hundreds of people live in fantastic wealth while billions starve, in which hundreds of billions are spent each year on wars which destroy lives, the natural environment and infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.) of other countries while our own citizens go hungry, our own remaining national parks and natural treasures are laid waste by mining and drilling, and our own roads and bridges fall apart, in which lies and slander against individuals, families, communities, and nations posted on Facebook can “go viral” and circle the globe in a matter of minutes, in which we are prone to shoot first and ask questions later, quick to judge, condemn, and incarcerate but painfully slow to forgive and restore, in which we take for granted fast food, instant messaging, and instant gratification but have little endurance for the long haul, this letter from James has much to teach us.  May we read this letter as an invitation to accept God’s grace – a grace intended, not to lull us into smug complacency, but to spur us to words of caring and deeds of love for neighbor- all to the glory of God.

See you in church –


Pastor Dave     

All


Scripture:  Jeremiah 11:18-20   Psalm 1   James 4:1-17     Mark 9:30-37

 Happy 154th birthday Emanuel Church!  Our congregation actually began to come together in 1857, but we officially count our anniversaries from 1861.  Praise be to God for bringing Emanuel Church through over a century and a half – beginning during the Civil War, continuing through a depression and two World Wars, along with countless other local, national, and international events.  And not only has our church continued to witness to God’s grace in this neighborhood, but early in our history, Bethany Children’s Home was born from this church, and though it moved to Womelsdorf, out past Reading, PA, Bethany continues to do amazing ministry for children to this day.  Truly God is good, all the time – and over the long haul.


In our Gospel reading, Jesus is teaching his disciples.  And he didn’t have 150+ years to work with.  He knew he would soon be setting his face like flint toward Jerusalem, where a cross awaited.  Time was growing short, and so he had to be sure his disciples would be able to pass on his teachings.  And so we’re told that “they went on from there – “there” being Caesarea Philippi, where Peter had both declared that Jesus was the Messiah and totally misunderstood what kind of Messiah Jesus was – “and passed through Galilee.”   So Jesus was back on his home turf, but then we’re told that “He didn’t want anyone to know it, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.’  The message wasn’t sinking in, though:  Mark tells us, “They did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.”  And we’ve all been in that situation, the boss gives us instructions, or the teacher gives a lesson and his or her words are shooting right over our heads, but we don’t want to look stupid, so we smile and nod and look like we understand – and then, when the boss’s or teacher’s back is turned, we start asking each other, ‘ok, what did he say?’ And as likely as not, the person next to us shrugs and says, ‘I don’t know, I was hoping you got it.”  I guess it was just one of those days.

So the disciples didn’t understand what Jesus said, and they didn’t ask Jesus for a clarification, but they were talking nevertheless…..apparently Jesus could hear them chattering away behind him, and as voices became sharper and louder, Jesus didn’t like the direction of the conversation, what he could hear of it.  But he didn’t come down on them like a hammer, but instead asked, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 

All along the trip they were talking, louder and louder, but now they went silent – because they were embarrassed.    At Caesarea Philippi, Peter had declared Jesus to be the Messiah.  But as they had been walking from Caesarea Philippi to Capernaum – about 3 days’ journey on foot – we’re told that they’d been squabbling over which of them was the greatest – while during the whole journey Jesus was telling them he was going to be betrayed, arrested, and killed.  Imagine if I were to tell you – and please know this is only a sermon illustration, entirely disconnected from reality –  imagine if I were to tell you that I had knowledge that my sermons had gotten me on the wrong side of powerful people at City Hall, and that I fully expected someone to gun me down in cold blood before the year was out, and that even while I was telling you all this, you were arguing over who was going to be president of consistory next year….that may give you some small idea of how wildly inappropriate and disrespectful of Jesus the disciples’ conversation was.  Mark, with its unflattering portrayal of the twelve, has been called by some theological writers the “Gospel of the Stupid Disciples”, and at this moment, the disciples especially fit the description, and in their silence, seemingly they know it.

It must have been one of those moments when Jesus could barely restrain his impulse to strangle his disciples one by one.   But instead, he senses a teaching moment.  He sits down, calls the twelve, and says, “Whoever wants to be first of all must be last of all and servant of all.”  Then he grabbed a visual aid – in the form of a child, which he took in his arms – and says, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me, but the one who sent me.”

Awwwwww….to our ears, it’s a cuddly-wuddly image, Jesus welcoming the children.  We have such an image in this stained glass window over here.  Welcome a child, welcome Jesus…..and since we believe God sent Jesus, to welcome a child is to welcome the God who sent Jesus.  It may be hard for us in our day to imagine anyone taking offense at this, but believe it or not, in Jesus’ day, this would have been offensive if not laughable.  Children were not highly valued in Jesus’ day; it’s telling that servants and children are mentioned in the same few verses because children were on about the same level of disposability as servants.  Unlike today, there was little expectation that all of your children would reach adulthood – you certainly hoped at least one or two or a few might, but rarely all.  And in that culture, in an emergency, women and children came last, not first; in that culture, it was all about the guys.  We can count it as a success of the church that today children are valued so highly, and that we don’t take offense at Jesus’ words.  Maybe in 2000 years of existence, we the church actually did succeed in teach the world something.

But Jesus’ other statement to his disciples can still raise our hackles.  “Whoever wants to be first of all must be last of all and servant of all.”  What does it mean to be “last of all and servant of all”.   Words like “servant of all” sound great….until you actually get down to cases, and realize that “all” can include some people that we may not be comfortable hanging out with.  Jesus didn’t say “Whoever wants to be first must let at least one car ahead of them in merging traffic and must hold the door open for others when they feel like it.”  That’s nice, but not all that demanding.  But to be servant of all….that’s an undertaking.

“Servant of all”….what does that look like?  What does “all” look like.  Who’s included in “all”.  Is “all” only nice middle-class people, or is “all” literally “all”.  Many of you have seen news footage or seen video online this week about the homeless encampment at American and Cumberland Streets, organized by Cheri Honkala, whom spoke to our adult forum after church a few months ago. Cheri is head of the Poor Peoples Economic and Human Rights Campaign (ppehrc.org).  The encampment started with six families, with children and even infants, and as news spread, more came…..many more.  Full disclosure, I was at the camp the evening it was being set up, Monday evening, brought bread and jelly and water and ice……they’ve gotten a ton of donations since, but they had very little at the outset, and I read scripture and prayed with the group, anointed their foreheads with oil in preparation for what would surely lie ahead, for what did lie ahead and what has happened.  I came back Wednesday morning with more bread – both donations of bread purchased at the Conshohocken Italian Bakery – had to put in a plug for a business local to where I live – and to pray with them some more. Oh, and I dropped off some pictures of the Pope. By that point, the “Church of the Poor”, had been constructed, a small wooden chapel made of scrap wood, where people could pray.  Of course, none of that was on the news – unlike Cheri Honkala, who I must say enjoys the spotlight, I’m wildly camera-phobic, so I went when I knew no cameras would be present, and with all the cameras there now 24/7, I haven’t been back.

Of course, timed as it is for the Pope’s visit, to push some realities in front of the cameras that the city wants to hide, the encampment pushes a lot of peoples’ buttons,– if there’s one thing Cheri Honkala excels at, it’s pushing peoples’ buttons, it’s her superpower– and the reaction from many has been very predictable, and very harsh.  “Those people are just a bunch of smelly bums.  They should just get jobs.  Do they expect the city to just give away houses when I have to pay my mortgage.  That Cheri Honkala is nothing but a nasty loudmouthed poverty pimp. That so-called “Church of the Poor” is not a real church….do they have a tax exempt number?”…just a random sampling of comments I’ve read on Facebook.  (The answer to that last question is, of course the church doesn’t have its own tax exempt number – it’s just a temporary part of the encampment, which God willing will be temporary as well - but Cheri’s organization does have a fiscal sponsor with a valid tax exempt status, as do many tiny, poor, barebones community organizations without the resources to file the ongoing paperwork to be a 501c3 on their own.)  And then, when Cheri’s group talked about taking over abandoned homes owned by the city, the comment “I hope they all get arrested and tossed into jail where they belong.”

Jesus calls us to be “servant of all”.  The encampment holds up a mirror to us, showing us parts of ourselves that we don’t want to see, that we’re afraid to see – so we lash out in anger.  Some of us who study history may remember seeing old black and white photos of the Hooverville homeless encampments and Bonus Army of the 1930’s in DC, during the Great Depression….some of our longest time members may remember reading about Hoovervilles and the Bonus Army in the news…such encampments sheltered and fed hundreds of thousands of Americans during the Great Depression of the 1930’s, and Cheri’s encampment is very much like a small scale Hooverville.   But most of us haven’t seen such things in our lifetime, and we think of America as a country of compassion and generosity…that’s what our teachers taught us in grade school and in high school civics class, and that’s what our elders among us actually experienced in days gone by when as a country we were better at caring for our neighbors.  And if we ourselves are barely hanging on to our homes or apartments, as many of us are, the encampment gives us a terrifying vision of what it would mean to lose that, of where we might end up. Cheri’s encampment conflicts with our self-image of compassion and generosity, and reminds us that many are falling through our society’s once strong but now shredded safety net…there’s not nearly enough funding for emergency shelter and transitional housing, vacancies are few and far between, and what little exists rarely takes entire families – usually they may take the mom and kids but not the husband, or may try to take the kids away from the mom – and these families at the encampment want to stay together – which I think is commendable…we want families to stay together, yes?  Her use of the phrase “Church of the Poor” also pushes our buttons, forcing us to ask the question– what does it mean to be a church?  In our country churches are tax exempt, but did Jesus and his disciples form a 501c3? In the Biblical sense, does one need governmental blessing to be a church?   And beyond that, what does it mean to be a church – is it enough only to offer worship and sacraments, or do we have to help the poor?  For a church, is helping those less fortunate something we do for bonus points, or a core part of our mission?  These are significant theological questions. What does it mean to be church?  And Pope Francis himself has pushed the buttons of his followers, telling Catholic religious orders that if they’re not willing to shelter refugees, they should pay taxes.  He may make similar statements about all churches when he visits Philadelphia next week.  For some, them’s fightin’ words. 

The encampment also brings up the issue of who deserves to be helped.  “Those lazy bums should just get a job.”  Some in the encampment do work at day labor, the only work they can get, but it’s not enough, especially when you have to put up a security deposit and such up front to get an apartment.  Some are single moms with small children who couldn’t get a slot with city emergency housing, who don’t want to be separated from their children, but who may find it difficult to stock shelves at Walmart with an infant strapped to their chest.  And frankly, it’s hard to put on clean clothes and show up for work smelling nice when you’re sleeping in a park, or in a cemetery, or at Suburban Station – though many are forced to try to do so, too many.  It’s easy to condemn from a distance, though when we point a finger at someone, remember we have three pointing back at us.  To learn, we have to get up close.  As I said in last week’s sermon, it’s better to talk to people than about them, and so if the encampment is offensive, I’d encourage you to go there, actually talk to some people, rather than about them.  Hear their stories.  They won’t bite you, I promise.

We worship a God of grace.  The notion of people expecting to be just handed over houses to live in may offend our sensibilities.  But theologically, that is where we all are – every last one of us.  Remember Jesus’ words:  “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.  I go to prepare a place for you, so that where I am, there you may be also.”  The central teaching of the Christian faith – the reason most of us are here – is that Jesus is preparing mansions for us in the world to come, mansions that because of our sin we do not deserve, but are still given to us by God’s grace, mansions paid for by Christ’s blood.  That’s the promise.  That’s the promise.  We are quick to claim God’s grace for ourselves.  I pray that through the work of the Holy Spirit, we can learn to be less offended by God’s grace for other people, those we consider undeserving.  Remember Jesus’ parable about the workers who were hired at various times through the day, and at the end of the day, the one working one hour was paid the same as those who worked all day – and the master’s answer to those who grumbled at God’s unmerited grace:  “Are you envious because I am generous?”.  Remember the parable of the Prodigal Son, where the younger son who had squandered his inheritance on women and booze was welcomed home – and remember the Father’s answer to the grumbling of the elder brother:We had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found .” 

Why all this on Anniversary Sunday? Well, it was the lectionary text for the day.  Jesus said that “Whoever wants to be first of all must be last of all and servant of all.”  That’s true of people, and of churches as well.  To be a great church, we must be a caring church, a serving church.  Emanuel’s best moments as a church have been when we’ve helped others.   Across the wider United Church of Christ, probably the one thing our little church is remembered for is that Bethany Children’s Home started here.  It was when we opened ourselves up and gave ourselves to children widowed by the Civil War that our church made a name for ourselves, however small.  In welcoming children, we became a better church, a greater church.  On this Anniversary Sunday, I see this as the way forward, and this comes from Proverbs 11:25: “A generous person will be enriched, and one who gives water will receive water.”  That is to say, as we bless others, God will bless us.  As we serve others, God will sustain us.  As we bear fruit, God will continue to water and tend us, but the tree bearing no fruit is uprooted and thrown on the fire.  As the old camp song says, “we want to pass it on” – and we have to pass it on.  May God who has been Emanuel – God with us – for 154 years continue to bless Emanuel Church through many years and decades to come, that we may be a blessing to others.  Amen.