Lectionary 25A
September 20, 2020
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Oxford, CT

Jonah 3:10-4:11
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it. But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city. The LORD God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” Then the LORD said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”

Matthew 20:1-16
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

I am the parent of an almost-four-year-old. Now, if you’ve ever parented, taught, cared for or been a preschooler, you may remember that at this age sharing is hard, emotions run high, and their brains, developmentally, understand that the world revolves entirely around them. This is a daily challenge in our household.

And while we try to parent with a lot of communication, we try to talk things out, sometimes that doesn’t always quite work as well as we want it to – well because we’re human and so is our child. I found myself again last week mediating a playground dispute in which my child threw mulch at another. There was a language barrier between us and the other family, all of us were tired, and I was trying not to scream. Instead I said something I have tried not to say, “Now, just say you’re sorry!” As if that magic word will make it all better. She managed a pretty convincing. “Uh…sorry…” And we wrapped things up and soon headed home. Maybe she was sorry, maybe she wasn’t. Maybe she understood something of what happened, maybe not. Maybe it made the other kid feel like something had been done about the injustice, maybe not. I certainly wish I had done more because “sorry” just doesn’t always cut it.

Which is why I think we need to give Jonah a break. Many of you might be more familiar with the part of the story where Jonah tries to run away from God’s call and gets swallowed by a big fish before he finally goes to preach to the city of Ninevah, pouting all the way. But what happens, much to everyone’s surprise except maybe God’s, the not-so-well-liked people of Ninevah say they’re sorry. To be sure they say it really, really thoroughly. I mean, even the animals put on sackcloth. But that’s not exactly enough is it?

So Jonah sits down to wait for God’s judgment. When God relents, Jonah gets angry. “I knew you were going to have mercy! That’s just like you! What right do you have?!” You’re like…you’re like…you’re like some landowner that pays everybody what they need to live no matter how much they worked!

But look at it from Jonah’s perspective. Ninevah is the seat of empire. Maybe most of the people in the city just go about their daily life and benefit from the exploits of the leaders and the army, but as an empire they have used violence and intimidation, exploitation and coercion to oppress other peoples for their own gain. Jonah’s own people have been recipients of that oppression. This and previous empires had upended their lives, taken them from their homes, forced to live for generations in a foreign land, enslaved them and killed them. Their response? I’m sorry. Maybe they meant it, maybe they just got scared and said what they needed to in order to get out of punishment. Either way it doesn’t undo what’s been done.  

            This is the fundamental challenge of being broken people, people who hurt one another, people who collectively can manifest evil in surprisingly creative ways. We cannot undo what we have done with simple words. Don’t get me wrong, when we confessed sins and I announced to you God’s forgiveness – that’s real. I believe that. God’s love cuts through whatever we’ve done. But the consequences of your sin and mine – both the little things we’ve done this week and the big ways we participate in the collective sins of the empire in which we live – the consequences of that have not been eliminated.  

            We live in a society built by enslaved people on land stolen from those who tended it better than we have. “I’m sorry” just doesn’t cut it. We are living through a pandemic that has made worse and been made worse by the inequities in our society and the lack of strong social bonds across our communities. The virus is no one’s fault, but our response says something about our communal failures. “I’m sorry” just doesn’t cut it. Despite a blessed, if brief and partial, reprieve with recent rain, the west is on fire, and our carelessness and failure to confront climate change isn’t solved by saying “I’m sorry.” The divisions in our political life that have prevented productive governance aren’t fixed by a quick “I’m sorry” across the aisle. 

            When we’re the one who’s done wrong we want to move quickly to resolution. We really do want to change, we really do want to do better – at least most of the time. We want to be relieved of the tension created within us from having done wrong. Or maybe we don’t think we have done anything wrong and want to maintain our image of ourselves as nice people who do good things. And so we want a quick resolution to move on. 

            And yet, when we have been wronged, most of us, I think, want some real change. We want effort to make things whole again equal to the level of harm that was done. We want someone to dig in and do the hard work of reconciliation. Not just an honest naming of what’s been done, though that’s a first step. But some tangible repair to what has been done. 

Take someone like Jonah. Sure he’s done his share of regrettable things, but he’s been shaped by his experience in the world as part of an oppressed people, a community that lives in fear, that has lost life and property and freedom at times as a result of these other people. Not only did he have to go tell them, but now he has to sit and watch them receive mercy. I wonder that he sits on the hill long enough to see whether this change of heart in Ninevah leads to a change in their way of life. Maybe he does have every right to be angry enough to die.

            The Ninevites have work to do. God’s mercy does not excuse them from living into their call to love and serve their neighbor with radical mercy. But God’s mercy is theirs. They are beloved children of God. I don’t think it’s fair, really. Just like the workers in the parable. Sure we all do things that are wrong, but big injustices need righting. And they do. But God does that by loving everyone into a new reality, a new reality the reorients our lives toward working for justice and peace in all the earth. 

            Which is a great blessing, because whether I realize it or not, I’m part of the problem. Someway or another all of us are part of those big problems. All of us are caught up in this crazy web of broken lives and a broken world. We have hard work to do. We cannot just say “I’m sorry” and move on. But sorry or not, God’s going to get us there by loving us into that new reality. Loving Jonah, loving Ninevah, loving people of every nation, every political party, loving every last creature, right down to loving you and loving me. 

            It’s kind of offensive when you really think about it. But it might just be the only way to find a just and lasting peace. 

-Pastor Steven Wilco

10th Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, August 9, 2020
Sermon for St. Andrew Lutheran Church, Bristol, CT

View the service, including the sermon, here: https://youtu.be/9k87_zsBnKI

²² Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. ²³ And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, ²⁴ but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land,^[d] for the wind was against them. ²⁵ And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. ²⁶ But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. ²⁷ But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

²⁸ Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” ²⁹ He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he noticed the strong wind,^[e] he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” ³¹ Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” ³² When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. ³³ And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” – Matthew 14:22-33

           Here in the ELCA New England Synod we like to say that we are a synod of experimentation. It sounds really good, doesn’t it? We could put it on a bumper sticker and pride ourselves on how innovative and cutting edge we are. We do new things! We reach new people! We are willing to take our rich traditions and reimagine them in a new way. 

            But when the synod rolled this out a few years ago, Bishop Hazelwood and others wisely made it a point not to talk about how great we are when we experiment. What we talked about, perhaps especially among pastors and lay leaders, was that doing lots of experimenting means experiencing a lot of failure. I read a column recently by medical researcher Eileen Parkes, who said, “Failure is something that all scientists experience – but its hard to tell, looking at our shiny conferences, polished presentations and glossy journals. Comfortable science is an oxymoron. If we want to make new discoveries, that means taking a leap in the dark – a leap we might not take if we are afraid to fail.”  I wonder that the same could be said of theology, specifically the lived theology of being church in the world – failure is something all people of faith experience; comfortable church is an oxymoron; if we want to make new discoveries, that means taking a leap and not fearing failure.

            Take the disciples in the boat in today’s gospel reading. Jesus sent them out across the Sea of Galilee – really more of a big lake than a sea, but one prone to sudden shifts of weather and hazardous storms. There are experienced fishermen among them, but typically they wouldn’t have been out in the dead of night as it appears they were when the storm begins to toss the boat. I imagine some of the disciples are trying to keep the boat steering into the waves so as not to get overwhelmed by the storm, some are awake with fear, others perhaps trying to rest before their turn on watch. 

            I imagine none of them want to be in the storm. They just want to be warm and dry and on land again. Can you relate? I feel in the midst of this pandemic that we’re stuck in a boat in the midst of a storm. We may have gotten in the boat, so to speak, quite willingly. Theoretically, we know that any journey has its risks whether it’s a trip down the block in our cars or a lifelong baptismal journey from font to grave. But when the storm does come, and surely this isn’t our first storm, it is overwhelming. Some of the time we’re just trying to sail the boat so that we don’t all suffer – balancing personal and public health with real needs for connection and engagement. Some of the time, just to get through, we’re going to take a rest so that we can get up again and keep going.

Then…there’s Peter. To tell you the truth, sometimes I’m not sympathetic to Peter who wants to try a new experiment in the midst of it. I feel too much responsibility to keep the boat going, too much juggling to stop and even notice Jesus coming, much less test out a cool party trick on the water.

            But it’s Peter who gets lifted up in this story. It’s Peter we remember. Most of us remember when we hear this story, both that Peter did actually take a few steps on the stormy water. And we remember that he began to question, fear, doubt and, as a result, he fell into that stormy water. Peter tried an experiment. People might say he stepped out in faith. I’d say more accurately he stepped out in doubt. And his experiment failed, at least in the ways we tend to measure success. I think we’d have called it a success if he’d walked all the way to Jesus, if he’d walked all the way to shore, if he’d done a little jig and gotten back on the boat. In short, we’d have called it a success if Peter were Jesus. 

            But Peter isn’t Jesus, and neither are we. Success for us is not in reaching God, in completing the task, or even in proving our faith in Jesus. Success, if we want to call it that, is stepping out in doubt, not fully trusting ourselves or our ever-trustworthy God. Being church, living the baptismal call, walking as disciples – sure there are some legitimate moments for keeping the boat going. God calls us to times of rest. But the heart of it, at least in this story, is the risky experiment that however long it succeeds or doesn’t succeed gives us the chance to see what Jesus can do in us and through us. 

            What does that look like for you? I wish I could tell you a five point plan to help your congregation step out of the boat. But a five-point-plan does not an experiment make. I can tell you about things that I’m seeing happening elsewhere as inspiration: 

            -Congregations across the synod are starting or adapting ministries for those facing economic hardship, poverty, and hunger – food pantries, community meals, meeting folks on the streets, supporting those who have lost jobs.  

            -Congregations have found creative ways to use their buildings – some even in COVID times – welcoming some groups that typically use church basements, but also art, music, theater, community organizing and more. Some – and this isn’t everyone’s call – have sold or are selling their buildings to follow their mission in a different way. That’s all stepping out of the boat. 

            -congregations, yours included, are adapting to online worship formats, figuring out how to connect across distance, and in doing so discovering newfound relationships, trying new ways of being and doing church. I know it came suddenly, it came by necessity, but it’s been steps out of the boat for many of us who hadn’t imagined so much online worship. 

            -you and several other congregations have done online at-home VBS – converting a decades-old event into on online tool to support faith formation at home – it’s a step out of the boat

            -I’m sure each of you has had to make shifts in how you live your life as a result of this pandemic and as a result of any number of other storms that have come your way.

            I’m wondering, what have you learned in those moments? Have you been surprised by your capacity for something you didn’t think possible? Have you been disappointed with results that sank in the storm? Have you been so filled with fear that you hoped you’d never have to do it again? Was it terrifying, exhilarating, tenuous, hopeful? 

            I wish that you all were here in front of me so that I could hear your responses. But we’ll all have to imagine some combination of the above and more. 

            But what I don’t have to imagine is the presence of Jesus. Because that’s the key to this whole story. It’s not possible for Peter to take the step at all without Jesus. It’s Jesus who scoops him up when his faith gives way to fear. It’s Jesus who comes out in the midst of the storm to meet all of us – not just Peter – right where we are, whatever we’re feeling, however we’re responding to the storm around us. It’s Jesus who transcends the internet platforms that are allowing us to worship safely together across space and time. It’s Jesus who walks with us in the hardest moments, the hardest choices, the daily challenges. It’s Jesus who makes it ok to risk, ok to fail. It’s Jesus who makes stepping out in doubt a possibility, who scoops us up in our failures to put us back in the boat and try again. 

            Jesus is here, with us now, walking to us in the storm. Inviting us to step out in doubt. And the community is here to step with you, together. We will not do it perfectly. Sometimes we’ll fail miserably. We will surely doubt. And no matter what, Jesus will be there, and that’s what it’s all about.

-Pastor Steven Wilco

8th Sunday after Pentecost
July 26, 2020

A sermon at Cross of Christ Lutheran Church in Waterbury, CT, a church in pastoral transition.

First Reading: 1 Kings 3:5-12

⁵At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask what I should give you.” ⁶And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. ⁷And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. ⁸And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. ⁹Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?”
¹⁰It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. ¹¹God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, ¹²I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you.”

Second Reading: Romans 8:26-39

²⁶The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. ²⁷And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
²⁸We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to God’s purpose. ²⁹For those whom God foreknew God also predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son of God, in order that the Son might be the firstborn within a large family. ³⁰And those whom God predestined God also called; and those whom God called God also justified; and those whom God justified God also glorified.
³¹What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³²The very Son of God was not withheld, but was given up for all of us, will God not along with the Son also give us everything else? ³³Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. ³⁵Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶As it is written, 
 “For your sake we are being killed all day long;
  we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through the one who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Gospel: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

³¹Jesus put before the crowd another parable: “The dominion of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in a field; ³²it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
³³Jesus told them another parable: “The dominion of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.
⁴⁴“The dominion of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
⁴⁵“Again, the dominion of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; ⁴⁶on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
⁴⁷“Again, the dominion of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; ⁴⁸when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. ⁴⁹So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous ⁵⁰and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
⁵¹“Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” ⁵²And Jesus said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the dominion of heaven is like a householder who brings out of the household treasure what is new and what is old.”

           I think maybe I’ve said the words “I don’t know” more in the last four months than I have in any previous period of simila7r length. 

When can we reopen? I don’t know. How should we reopen? I don’t know. How can we be the church in a pandemic? I have some ideas, but I don’t know all the answers. Will there be a supply pastor to cover our transition? We have a lot of transitions happening right now, I don’t know. Will there be a candidate for our congregation? I don’t know. When will this pandemic be over? I don’t know. How will we extricate ourselves from systemic racism? I’m committing to work at it daily, but I don’t know all the answers.

            I imagine some of you can relate. I know your dedicated council president has heard me say “I don’t know” to her probably more times than she’d like to have heard in your transition here at Cross of Christ. 

            So I was slightly surprised and very much comforted to read today’s scripture readings and hear those holy words: “I don’t know!” 

            Solomon, just a boy, faced with a troubled kingdom struggling with what it meant to be a faithful people. God invites him to ask for anything. And he stands there looking around, and despite his precocious words, one senses that he feels his own inadequacy for the task ahead. He makes his already wise ask for greater wisdom, but first he admits “I don’t know.” If it’s good enough for Solomon, well, maybe it’s good enough for us, too. 

            Centuries later Paul writes to the community in Rome, reminding them that all of us face moments when we cannot identify the thing that we most need to pray for. Our words fail, we question our own deep longings expressed as prayers, we are uncertain how to dream big and ask boldly, our pain takes our breath and our words away. “We do not knowhow to pray as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” It’s ok to say “We don’t know… 

            And we circle back to Jesus, sharing his wisdom with the disciples in the form of short but potent parables of mystery. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, like yeast hidden in dough, like a treasure hidden in a field, like a merchant in search of fine pearls, like a net thrown into the sea…do you understand all this?!” Jesus asks the attentive disciples.

            I have to imagine that the recorded response of the disciples is either a miraculous gift of the Spirit for wisdom or an editorialization on the part of the gospel writer who didn’t want to admit what they really said or what they all were thinking, which seems to me might very well have been “I don’t know.” Or maybe they answered not with a confident “yes!” but with a confused and hesitant “yeesss??”

            The truth is, that “I don’t know” is one of the most faithful responses there is. Besides its having integrity, more so than masking our doubt with confidence or than making up answers that sound good or make people feel better, saying “I don’t know” is a kind of recognition that we are not God. We are not the ones who have it all figured out. We are not the ones who carry the burden of saving each other, of saving the institution of the church, of saving the world of its many deeply rooted problems. 

            I’m here today in part because it’s a chance for me to get to know you a little bit as your new associate to the bishop – as much as we can with masks on staying six or more feet apart. But also more specifically to be with you as you think about what your congregation needs in its next pastor. What kind of leader will best help you to welcome all into safe, sacred relationship, as the Spirit works through [you] to embody God’s love and grace in the world? And, you can guess by this point that my response is “I don’t know.” 

            But what we’re going to do today after worship is to be in conversation together about that question. Idon’t know. And you, individually, don’t know. But in conversation I believe the Holy Spirit is at work and will be leading and guiding the conversation toward the next leader. You and I will hold that in prayer today and in the months ahead. We’ll keep our ears open. We’ll keep our minds open. I’ll be scouring the possibilities of leaders open or willing to consider a call. You’ll trust your call committee to do some of the nitty-gritty discernment work. But already buried in the field, already planted in the ground, already kneaded into the dough is the treasure of your new leader. We may not know, but God knows, and that’s always better than it being totally in our hands. 

            But…spoiler alert! That person doesn’t know all the answers either. But that person will be a partner with you in this adventure. In this pandemic messiness. In the hard work of figuring out what it means in practical next steps to welcome all into safe, sacred relationship, as the Spirit works through [you] to embody God’s love and grace in the world– I’m not going to let you forget your new WHY statement!

            I think Jesus tells so many parables that start with “The kingdom of God is like…” because even he can’t easily sum it up in human language. There is something about the world that God longs for, the world marked by surprise, by resurrection, by God revealed in the unexpected places, that we can’t yet imagine. It’s just beyond our capacity to grasp it. Even to start to glimpse it, we need to explore all the ways Jesus and others present us with snippets of that world without inequality, without viruses, without discord and conflict. A world with abundance and deep, abiding peace, and joy beyond our imaginations. 

            But here’s the thing. It’s not a kingdom that’s waiting for us in some distant future. It’s not a kingdom that appears only when every last piece of the puzzle is put together. It’s definitely not a kingdom that we have to know all the answers in order to find. It’s a kingdom that sneaks up on us around every corner, hidden in unexpected places, hidden in the midst even of suffering and loss. Not just in your next pastoral leader, but hidden all over, hidden often right there in plain sight, hidden, my dear friends, in you.

            So let’s take the next steps on that adventure of discovery. Let’s see what God has left in our path to surprise us with grace today, and tomorrow, and the next day. Let’s see where God is leading us, what God is doing for us, what God is doing with us. Because I don’t know all the answers, but I do trust the God who does. And when I can let go and accept the not knowing, it’s then I find myself most often surprised to see God’s grace already sprouting up in front of my eyes. 

-Pastor Steven Wilco

Sunday, June 7, 2020

The following is intended for others who identify as white or whose lived experience is primarily of white privilege. POC do not need to be present to my wrestling with issues of race. They need my and our support and genuine allyship. 

Yesterday, I carried my 3-year-old daughter in a Black Lives Matter march in our hometown. I had already participated in a community organizing rally in Hartford, where my work has me more rooted, and I have plans to do so again. Those are targeted actions designed to force specific movement forward. They are also largely driven by people of color. But I still wanted to participate locally where I live. In a lot of ways I’m over marches as a means for social change. I’m tired of peacefully holding signs, sending support into an echo chamber and then going home to the rest of my life. And also it felt like we needed to show up to support people of color in our own neighborhood, in a town that is nice enough on the surface and full of baked-in inequities and injustice.

The most poignant moment was part-way through the one-mile march to the local police station. We, the crowd, were following the invitation of the leaders (all people of color) to chant “Hands up! Don’t Shoot!” While we did that we held both hands in the air. This is the posture one is told to assume to show compliance with police. It’s the posture in which too many black and brown people have died. My three-year-old, despite my best efforts, didn’t really grasp the fullness of what we were doing there. But like any good three-year-old she copies the adults around her. She, too, put her hands up and joined in the chant.

As a parent I wanted to run, to get my child out of that moment, to protect her from the reality of the world a little longer. But I also knew in the moment that it’s the reality parents of black and brown children can’t turn off, can’t run away from. Though my daughter is Latinx, she presents as white and we, her adoptive parents, are both of European descent. She will experience the world largely as a white person (cue side-lecture about the arbitrariness of racial categories). She, like me, will be able to turn on and off her attention to race in the world. I pray (and work toward) the hope that she will work toward anti-racism as a way of life. To that end, she and I both needed to experience that moment.

She doesn’t understand the reality of death yet. She doesn’t understand what it means that George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Ahmuad Aubery had their breath taken away from them forever. But she’s learning already that the world is unfair. And now, not yet understanding it fully, has chanted “Hands up! Don’t Shoot!” with her hands in the air.

I wrestled with whether to go – could I manage my particularly squirmy kid on a hot afternoon, walking a mile down and back? With all the instigators of violence showing up to peaceful protests, with all the absolutely righteous and justifiable violence that people of color have used in response to their lives being cut down by the state, was it even safe to take my child, to take myself to the protest? Again, all questions I get to engage by choice, questions I can choose to ask or not ask, because I am white. But we needed to go. I know that too many in our community do not support the kind of radical anti-racist work our community and country need right now.

We walked past the police officers who were stoically blocking off the street for us. We stood and chanted in front of stoic officers peacefully and non-violently guarding the police station. I was grateful. I know they risk their lives in their work. I know that most of them want to do good in the world as people in the community and in their work. And at the heart of our protest, which they were enabling in some ways to take place, we were calling them out.

We were calling them out not as individuals – this is not about good cops and bad cops. We were calling out a system of policing that has failed to address the actual problems of our society. We have trained them in particular ways – yes even with de-escalation training, etc. – that view the world as a particular kind of problem with particular kinds of solutions – among them arrest, violence, incarceration, and even state-sponsored death. Of course there are good cops. Probably even most of them are “good cops.” But the system of policing in America is bad.

I know personally through my work as a pastor and my husband’s work in mental health care, that we drastically underfund mental health resources and evidence-based addiction treatment programs. I know from my 8 years of experience trying desperately to expand the tiny Restorative Justice Probation program in Hampshire County that many of the people who come through the program need addiction treatment, social supports, employment counseling, better medical care, and whole host of other services. What they mostly get is either slap on the wrist (these are mostly the white, educated, and/or wealthier folks) or a record that has landed or is likely to land them in prison, where we as a society will pay exorbitantly for them to be treated less than humanely with little support to rebuild their lives and often access to wider and more intense criminal network than they knew before. NONE of these social support programs are even close to adequately funded. And those who work in these programs often make very little money and receive few accolades and community support.

But do you know what gets more money every year in almost every community? The police department. Do you know who gets paraded out as heroes at every turn? The police. Yes. Let’s celebrate these folks who put their lives on their line for our communities. But let’s not pretend that the system is working.

Tonight, the Minneapolis City Council has announced a commitment to “Defund the Police.” A movement that is new to me, but makes a great deal of sense. This is not to underfund police departments, to leave them without safety gear, or to slash jobs of police officers, though, yes, some people will lose jobs in the process. It’s also not an announcement that tomorrow we’re going to try a grand social experiment where there are no police and we all just try to be nice. People are in their natures curved in on themselves, and even if we fixed all inequality there would still be those who cannot control impulses to harm. BUT, it does mean that we start taking a hard look at shifting some of that funding to other, more effective ways of combatting crime.

All this comes in the midst of the Christian celebration of Pentecost, where the Spirit of God – the breath of God – comes anew to the followers of Jesus. It’s also one in which flames and rushing wind appear in the midst of a bunch of people gathered in the street. When the officers took away George Floyd’s breath, they took away the breath of God. And that breath blew into the streets and started stirring things up, the way the Spirit of God in her awesome self often does.

I’ve thought about some of my favorite Bible passages in the midst of this, including Jesus’ reading of the scroll of Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
        to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
        to let the oppressed go free,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Yes. And what that sometimes looks like is Jesus throwing over the tables in the temple. It’s not a time to be nice. It’s not a time to ask for gradual changes one at a time, one community at a time, while black and brown lives hang in the balance. It’s time to throw over the tables and demand new life. Time to put away the old and resurrect something new.

I’m making a commitment to engage my local community – the community where I live and the community where my work keeps me engaged in organizing – in efforts to transform the system of policing and educate myself and others about ongoing systemic racism.

If you, too, want to read more, check out just this tiny sample of places to discover more:

https://www.embracerace.org

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gs1pC0XuiJK5ckppWm8BKpcrkzy98cOl/view

Specifically about policing:

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/05/871298161/police-unions-and-police-violence

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/defund-the-police-1007254/?fbclid=IwAR0DU__EgcZj12J30vDsbXzhqT4wlJN5wBk_eWLelclQsPSuT829_rZ6TBg

https://8cantwait.org/?fbclid=IwAR3WQNkvEukkqY7EpBbIG5sV1rgRgSRzOsvEHTDFxemExG53Lczc1yRpsOI

-Pastor Steven Wilco

Trinity Sunday 
June 7, 2020

This week I prepared an audio sermon for “Radio Church” at St. James Lutheran Church in Southbury, CT. You can listen to worship here: https://stjamesct.org/listen/

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:16-20

See also the first and second readings: Genesis 1:1-2:4a & 2 Corinthians 13:11-13

What’s your name?

A simple question, really. Often the very first thing we ask of someone we are meeting for the first time. And yet it’s a very intimate kind of question. Though we rarely ask one another about it, our names also frequently come with a story. Perhaps the story is nothing more than a name that sounded good to our parents. Often, though it’s a connection to a family member, a resonance with a Biblical character or other famous role model, or maybe a name that communicates a feeling or value – like Hope or Destiny. My own name echoes both my paternal grandfather and the biblical character known as the first martyr. Though my life has been very different from either of those, knowing that keeps me grounded, rooted in some small way, even when my path might be very different from theirs.

What’s your name?

Knowing someone’s name gives us some measure of control – to summon that person, to get that person’s attention in a crowd. A name allows us to connect and build relationships. Some married folk change their last names or modify them to demonstrate the new relationships. For folks striking out in a new identity, a name change allows them to live more fully into that new reality. The particular way in which we write our names becomes a way to enter into legal contracts.

What’s your name?

It’s a question we sometimes ask of God. It was Moses who asked it most clearly and directly, and God’s answer was a mysterious one. One that sounds in Hebrew a little bit like the breath of the Spirit we all celebrated last week and which hovers over the void at Creation’s beginning in today’s first reading. A name we often translate as “I am who I am.” Jesus echoes that “I am,” at least in John’s gospel. And it’s the name of God that brings to a conclusion the gospel of Matthew, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”

What’s your name?

At least one answer is – child of God. In the waters of baptism we receive the name of God. The words, like the water, are poured over our bodies whether newborn, child, youth, or adult. The name added to our own given names. We are called and claimed with that name. We receive the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit. And more than even that, the name of God pours over us rooting us in the complex and beautiful creation which emerged and continues to emerge from the creating, redeeming, sustaining God. We are not so much set apart but called more deeply into the beings we have been created to be along with all the human family and the fullness of creation.

What’s your name?

Sometimes I think we forget. Sometimes we forget because we’ve mistaken the institution of the church, the particular congregation we love, or a particular way of doing things as the core of our identity. It’s easy to do, and I know I’ve been guilty of exactly that – trusting something imperfect for my sense of identity, mistaking the church for the faith. But now all of us are in the midst of a pandemic that has largely stripped away the typical way we’ve done things. I don’t know how everyone at St. James is feeling about it, but across the church at least some folks are struggling with who they are when they can’t gather as they always have. On top of that you’re in a pastoral transition at St. James, and even though you’re in the hands of Pr. Sinnott, one of the most knowledgeable pastors when it comes to transitions, transitions are still hard – times when identity needs to be redefined and reassessed. But pandemic, transition, whatever shifts and changes come next, remember that your identity is rooted in the power of the one who created the earth, who redeems creation, and who breathes new life into the cosmos.

What’s your name?

Our name is not based in nationalism or white supremacy. Our name is not one that can be co-opted to legitimize violence and injustice. We bear the name of the fountain of living water, the rock who gave us birth, our light and our salvation. It’s a name rooted in the liberating journey from slavery to freedom, a name rooted in justice for the oppressed, a name rooted in upending death itself. It’s a name that continually calls us out of ourselves and into the world. It’s a name that calls us to “Go!” even in this time when we mostly can’t actually goanywhere. As humans we have always lived in communities where oppression and injustice exist, and our own age is no different. At the forefront of our news cycle these days is our country’s systemic racism, something totally antithetical to our identity as people washed in the name of the Trinity, yet something that consciously and unconsciously plays out in our communities, our nation, and even in our churches. Now, as always, our identity as people who bear the name of the resurrected one insists that we listen to the cries of those whose lives are at risk for the color of their skin. Our name demands that we engage the work of anti-racism in ourselves and our communities. It’s hard work, and we don’t do it alone. I know that already at St. James you have a strong partnership with the Naugatuck Valley Project, which among its many other important justice issues is also thinking about this one. And I’m sure there are many other ways that you are individually and together living out the calling of the one in whom you are baptized.

What’s your name?

A simple question, really, but one that can take a lifetime to come to terms with. Who are we and what is our story? What does it mean to be human in the midst of God’s wondrous creation? What does it mean to come to terms with our steadfast belovedness? What does it mean to live out God’s liberating life in the world? What does this identity mean for you at St. James as you engage this year in deep discernment around what is next for you? How do we do that as church – communities of broken people gathered around grace – in any time and place? God’s name is love, poured out for you, poured out over you, pouring out through you. And that makes it your name, too.

What’s your name?

Most of you I haven’t yet had the chance to meet, but if you’re reading or listening to this, I know your name. I know your name because it’s the name embedded in you by the one who created you. Your name is Beloved, a Child of God.

-Pastor Steven Wilco

 

 

 

 

May 13, 2020
Week of Easter 5

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to preach these days. But I recorded a brief reflection for Camp Calumet’s virtual Holden Evening Prayer which was shared online tonight. You can check out the whole service here. The text is shared below.

A reading from 2 Corinthians (4:6-12):

For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷ But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. ⁸ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰ always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. ¹¹ For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. ¹² So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Word of God, Word of Life.

 

It’s become cliché, but it’s true. These are strange times.

I don’t know how you’re doing, but every day just seems really hard right now.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot that’s good – my family and I are healthy and safe and reasonably secure, a privilege I know many don’t have on a good day, and even less so in this crisis.

Even though I’m not always very good at it, I really do try to pause and be grateful for all the good things – my daughter has the most joyful laugh and I have loved watching her learn to ride a scooter and a bike with training wheels in these last weeks. We’ve had some beautiful weather for walks and exercise outside.

There’s all the good being done by people on the front lines – nurses, doctors, patient care assistants, EMTs. And all the people we should have been celebrating all along…the grocery store workers and delivery people, pharmacy clerks and gas station attendants, food pantry volunteers and social workers. Thanks be to God for them all!

And maybe there are a few silver linings – some people are spending more time with their family or getting creative about connecting across distance. We’re learning to appreciate some things we previously took for granted.

People in congregations are learning new ways of being church together – I wish I had time to share all the stories of our congregations in New England finding new ways to serve their neighbor – making sure people have food and shelter and community and other essentials in this pandemic.

As true as ALL of those things are that I just named, as important as gratitude and joy and celebration all are, also…things are still really hard right now.

Looking on the bright side without acknowledging the pain and struggle that stand beside it would be false. It’s a struggle to get through these days, sheltered in place, grieving things we cannot do, longing for people we cannot see and hug. It’s especially hard for kids to understand, and I wish they didn’t have to understand.

We miss church. We miss singing together! We miss the community!

And as hard as all that is, people are dying. Not just from COVID, but from all manner of other things, now with the added burden of dying alone and the grieving unable to gather with their communities of support. And like almost every other crisis or disaster, it’s hitting our black and brown siblings even harder. It’s hitting people experiencing homelessness even harder. Domestic violence is on the rise.

The economic downturn hurts older folk and low-wage workers and immigrants harder. And the “normal” we are so eager to return to is a normal that has been built on the back of people we failed to treat with basic dignity.

All of this is true – that which is good and beautiful and that which is bad and even worse.

That’s why I come back again and again to this passage from 2^ndCorinthians. Because it doesn’t demand we live in one place or the other – in the joy orthe pain. It reminds me that the joy andthe pain are both very real. Both always stand together all the time in our world and in our lives.

We have this treasure in clay jars…the light of God in fragile and seemingly ordinary vessels. We carry in our bodies the life andthe death of Jesus. Each of us is easily broken; each of us bumps up against our limits; each of us some days just can’t hold it together. And always the light of God within us.

That’s what every Easter season, but maybe especially this year’s Easter season is about: telling the truth about life that stands alongside death. Like the resurrected Christ who still bears the wounds of crucifixion, we live as resurrection people even though our clay jar selves are breaking and dying. We live as resurrection people even though our lives have suddenly come crashing down around us. We live as resurrection people even though the world and its systems are terribly broken. We are afflicted but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed.

I want it to be one or the other. When I’m focused on the hard stuff, I easily get bogged down in all-or-nothing thinking, unable to celebrate the good. I lose sight of what God has done and is doing.

And the moments when the joy is in focus, I want to ignore the hard stuff. I want Easter without the wounds.

But always both together in us, both together in our world, both together held in God’s eternal loving embrace. Amen.

-Pastor Steven Wilco

Third Sunday in Lent
March 15, 2020

Hello online readers. Peace to you in these uncertain times. I’m not preaching as regularly in my new role, but I do get the privilege of doing so some weeks. Below find Sunday’s gospel reading and a video of my sermon at St. Paul Lutheran Church in East Longmeadow, MA. Thanks to Pr. Anne Strickert (videographer) and the people of St. Paul’s for hosting me.

So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’

Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am he,the one who is speaking to you.’

Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’ Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ They left the city and were on their way to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, “Four months more, then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.’

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. And many more believed because of his word.They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.’ -John 4:5-42

Third Sunday after Epiphany
January 26, 2020
On the occasion of my last Sunday as pastor of Christ the King, Windsor, CT

¹²Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. ¹³He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
 ¹⁵“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
  on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
 ¹⁶the people who sat in darkness
  have seen a great light,
 and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
  light has dawned.”
¹⁷From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
  ¹⁸As Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. ¹⁹And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for human beings.” ²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed Jesus. ²¹Going on from there, Jesus saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²²Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
  ²³Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the dominion of heaven and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. – Matthew 4:12-23

I am not a fisherman. I have been fishing exactly once, and I’m not even sure there were any fish in the pond where we spent all of about 30 minutes in a rickety rowboat. But one does pick up a few things about fishing, at least about first century fishing in Galilee, in the process of studying the Bible. Here are some things we think we know about the livelihood of Zebedee and his sons and the others who made their living fishing at the time of Jesus:

These are not rich folk. They eked out a bare bones subsistence in a couple of tiny villages, mostly forgotten by places with larger populations. Their boats were simple craft, not fashioned by mastercrafters and made of fairly low-quality materials.

As a result, they were pretty practical, adaptive, and resourceful. They mended their own nets. They fixed their own boats. They lived a life that was physically demanding and required them to be on their feet literally and figuratively. It was exhausting work in the harshness of the water and sun.

They fished with nets, a kind of fishing with very little finesse. Not unlike bigger fishing operations today they cast large nets down in the water and brought up whatever managed to be hanging out below their boats. They had preferred fish, surely – things that were better for eating than others – but they hauled it all up into their boats: good fish, bad fish, muck and junk. There was no means to be picky about what they were pulling in.

They were accustomed to small successes and exhausting failures. Sometimes, at least according to some of the Biblical narrative, they would fish all night – the best time to catch certain fish – and come up with nothing to show for their work. Other times they’d have an okay catch, enough to get by on through a few more days.

So Jesus comes to thesefishermen. Maybe these are folk who have been hanging around listening to Jesus’ early preaching and teaching in their spare time, or maybe it’s a miraculous kind of encounter that lifts them right up out of their life by Jesus’ charisma and call. But his words always intrigue me: “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”

I wonder that in modern times we think differently of the fishing metaphor since most of us don’t live in coastal fishing villages. Perhaps we imagine a recreational activity, the selective catching of particular kinds of fish, the use of bait and hooks. And sometimes we try to fish for people that way. Hoping we’ll find just the right people to round out our church, trying to draw them in and hook them, and taking up the work when we feel ready.

But the call of Jesus is a lot more like the kind of fishing that those first disciples knew backwards and forwards. It’s hardscrabble kind of work that requires a significant investment of time, self, energy, and strength. It takes a tough skin sometimes. It means a lot of days of failure and occasional successes. It requires being practical, adaptive, and resourceful. And it casts a broad net that brings together all manner of folk to be in community together. The work to which we are called as followers of Jesus is challenging.

It’s work we’ve tried, if always imperfectly, to do together for the last 18 months. Together we’ve tried new things, we’ve thought more deeply about who we are as a congregation, we’ve explored ways to start reaching out to the community. All the while we’ve carried on the work of being church together, a broad mix of people who all got caught up in this same net for a while. And now there’s a new call, one that feels a bit out of nowhere like Jesus walking up and snatching up some disciples from the fishing boats.

And I find myself thinking about Zebedee. We will hear more about his sons as they go on to ministry with Jesus, but we never hear more about Zebedee and the others who get left behind in their tiny fishing village. Now they’re short a few workers. They’ve got the same work to do and fewer people to do it. They miss the people they’ve shared work with, shared food with, shared their lives with. No choice in the matter, except to pick up and carry on. They are grieving in all its dimensions of sadness, denial, resignation, anger, and whatever else gets mixed up in all that, while still throwing down the nets day in, day out.

Perhaps you’re noticing a parallel that struck me – imagining, perhaps, that I’m the one called forth to something new and am leaving you, the people of Christ the King, behind. I’ve been sitting with that this week, these last several weeks, really. Worried about what my leaving does to those left behind. There’s a way in which that parallel holds some truth about this moment. You still have work to do – more work than before, in fact, and now fewer resources to do it. You are perhaps feeling grief whether over me or over where the congregation as a whole sits or people who may be leaving this community or grief over what once was in this place. While it does not change my sense of call to pick up and follow where as far as I can discern Jesus is asking me to go, I deeply regret the pain and challenge this call has created for you.

But, I don’t think that’s the whole picture. Holding onto the truth of the image of being left behind, I think there is space to hold in the other hand the view that you, people of Christ the King, are also ones being called into something new. You will not carry on as you have before. Jesus comes to you, in the midst of your daily hardscrabble work, and speaks a word of invitation to follow. A time of transition makes it more obvious, the new thing you’re called into will be easier to distinguish because there is a marker point on this journey, but that new call from Jesus would be there whether I stayed or went. Because the reality is that Jesus doesn’t just come call us up once to follow. Jesus keeps showing up and Jesus keeps calling with every new day, every new moment, every new endeavor. Jesus comes to you perhaps especially in this moment of transition and issues you a new call forward, to be disciples in a new way, in a new time.

We, all of us, are experiencing the disruption of Jesus walking into our lives and inviting us to follow into the next opportunity for ministry. My wish for you is that in the midst of being the ones left, you might also know the excitement of what God is calling you to next and the sense that all of us together are leaving behind what is safe and comfortable to use what we’ve learned, to build on the skills we’ve practiced, and employ them in a new way in a new adventure. I don’t know if it looks like a church growing in numbers and program…in all honesty the statistics for happening that aren’t stellar – pastoral transition or not. But I know that whatever form it takes that Jesus is stepping into your lives every day. Jesus is leading. Jesus is calling. Jesus is excited to work with you as you take the next steps.

It is hard work. It doesn’t always look like our definition of success. It wears us out some days. It forces us to toughen our skin and plow forward. But Jesus keeps stepping in, calling us through worship and community and service, welcoming all of us onto a new adventure with every new breath. Come, let us follow Jesus.

-Pastor Steven Wilco

 

2nd Sunday after Epiphany
January 19, 2020

²⁹John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰This is the one of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ ³¹I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” ³²And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. ³³I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
  ³⁵The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, ³⁶and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” ³⁷The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” ³⁹He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where Jesus was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. ⁴⁰One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). ⁴²He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter). – John 1:29-42

In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before 250,000 people gathered for the March on Washington in the midst of the civil rights movement, and he delivered what might be his most well-known speech, which contained these words:

“I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”

King was a brilliant orator, formed by the profound tradition of preaching in the black Baptist church. While some of his other writings are even more theologically rich, while some of his other writings more thoroughly articulate the pursuit of justice and the role of the church in that work, it is this speech that is most often quoted and remembered. In part it’s the beauty of the speech, in part it’s the timing and publicity of the moment in which it was delivered. But I think part of what captures our attention in King’s most famous speech is that he so clearly lays out a vision of what is not yet realized. This speech is captivating because he envisions for us what is not yet a reality. He says to the nation in 1963, and still today to us who continue to live in a world of profound racial and economic inequality, that there is a possibility of something different. “Look!” King cries out to us, “Look and see what is possible!”

It’s not unlike what John the Baptist cries in our gospel reading today. At this moment in the gospel Jesus is still basically unknown outside of his own community. His ministry has not yet begun. The possibility of the coming reign of God, the possibility of liberation, justice, freedom is just that – a possibility. There is not yet anything public that would indicate Jesus is poised to usher in something new. And yet, John the Baptist can see the possibility. He has a dream of sorts to see the reign of God become reality. And, like King, he doesn’t keep it to himself. He calls out, “Look! Here is the Lamb of God! Look! Here is the one who through forgiveness has the capacity to usher in a new reality!”

I marvel at his capacity, like King, to compel people to see this vision with him, his ability to draw people into the movement by helping them see what is possible, even when the present reality is so far from the future vision. He says, “Look!” and people do, some with enough curiosity to follow Jesus, to begin to join him in the earliest days of his ministry. Some of them are compelled enough to go and tell others, who in turn also begin to follow along. To be sure there are plenty who do not follow, who ignore the invitation to see what is possible or who perhaps are too distracted or too afraid to be among those taking the first steps toward the new reality. But in this moment, the movement begins, or rather a new phase of God’s movement in the world begins.

It’s Jesus who will ultimately do the saving work. It’s Jesus who will bear most clearly, most publicly the pain and suffering, the abuse and rebuke that often comes to those who take steps toward a vision of justice and peace. It is Jesus whose commitment to nonviolent resistance and forgiveness in the face of cruelty and injustice will usher in a new reality in which forgiveness is possible for us and for the world. Though the disciples, and Martin Luther King, Jr., and many others would follow the same path, it is Jesus who leads the work.

What comes into focus in this passage where John the Baptist calls out and the first disciples begin to invite others along for the journey, is that though Jesus does the saving work, we are invited first to see – to behold the vision, even when it is still far off. Then we are invited to be the ones who go out and point the way. Once we have seen, once we have experienced, if not the reality of God’s reign of justice, forgiveness, and peace, then at least the compelling vision of that possibility, then we get to go out into the world and point it out to others. We get to have the opportunity to say with boldness, “Look! Here is the Lamb of God! Look! Here is the beginning of the transformation of our world of pain, injustice, inequality, and fear into a world of love, forgiveness, grace, and peace.”

Now some of you are probably sitting there thinking, “But that’s not my gift, to be out front, talking, proclaiming, inviting.” And, yes, I hear you. One of the things the Forward team has been learning and reflecting on this past year is the way in which we all have different kinds of gifts and that all those different gifts are needed in the work of the church. Some have the capacity to see lots of possibilities for the future, others have the capacity to help us stay rooted in tradition, others help bridge the gap. Some people are the ones out there always inviting people to church, others are the ones quietly caring for neighbors in ways that point, perhaps without words, to the future reality that is possible. There are many ways to experience the vision and many ways to help point toward it in the world.

King was one famous face of a whole movement. He was gifted and particularly suited to be the public face of so many working for justice in different communities and in different arenas. There are other well-known leaders of the movement who don’t have the same name recognition of King: Ella Baker, Ralph Abernathy, Roy Wilkins, James Farmer, Dorothy Height, and many others. Many who put their time, energy, and lives down for the movement. No one of them the one to save the world, but each in their own way pointing to the vision, calling out to others “Look! See what is possible.”

Because once you’ve seen it, once you’ve had a taste of it, once you’ve really envisioned God’s future, one can’t help but be filled with overflowing excitement at the possibility. Each of us has had some kind of encounter with Jesus, some kind of encounter that draws us back here week after week. Some vision of what God has in mind to bring about in the resurrection kingdom. And each week we sing the words of John the Baptist, “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” as we prepare once again to receive the presence of Christ in bread and wine. And there we encounter God again. There we are commissioned again to go out into the world to be witnesses, to notice the signs of God at work bringing about justice, peace, and forgiveness. Whether it’s here in this church community or somewhere out there in the world, we get to participate as John the Baptist and as Jesus’ early disciples to say to others, “Look! The Lamb of God! Here there is forgiveness and peace! Come and see!” until the vision – the vision of John, the hope of Jesus, the dream of King, the hopes and dreams of all of us are gathered into the kingdom of God.

-Pastor Steven Wilco

 

 

Baptism of Our Lord
January 12, 2020

 ¹Ascribe to the | Lord, you gods,
  ascribe to the Lord glo- | ry and strength.
 ²Ascribe to the Lord the glory | due God’s name;
  worship the Lord in the beau- | ty of holiness.
 ³The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of | glory thunders;
  the Lord is upon the | mighty waters.
 ⁴The voice of the Lord is a pow- | erful voice;
  the voice of the Lord is a | voice of splendor. 
 ⁵The voice of the Lord breaks the | cedar trees;
  the Lord breaks the ce- | dars of Lebanon;
 ⁶the Lord makes Lebanon skip | like a calf,
  and Mount Hermon like a | young wild ox.
 ⁷The voice | of the Lord
  bursts forth in | lightning flashes.
 ⁸The voice of the Lord| shakes the wilderness;
  the Lord shakes the wilder- | ness of Kadesh. 
 ⁹The voice of the Lord makes the oak trees writhe and strips the | forests bare.
  And in the temple of the Lord all are | crying, “Glory!”
 ¹⁰The Lord sits enthroned a- | bove the flood;
  the Lord sits enthroned as king for- | evermore.
 ¹¹O Lord, give strength | to your people;
  give them, O Lord, the bless- | ings of peace.  – Psalm 29

¹³Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” ¹⁵but Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. ¹⁶And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” – Matthew 3:13-17

What does the voice of God sound like?

I wonder if the voice of God is musical – like the sound of a perfectly tuned symphony – resonating in multiple registers, many notes at the same time all producing together a harmonious song, sometimes shifting from loud to quiet, sometimes involving all the instruments at once and sometimes dropping down to a single solo instrument. Or is it more like the single soprano on my favorite Christmas album recorded in a cathedral, a strong, clear single note piercing the resonant air.

I wonder if the voice of God is the one we hear in nature. The sound of ocean waves, babbling brooks, waterfalls that rush with a deafening roar, rain pitter-pattering on the ground. Or the sound of birdsong, coyote howls, chirping squirrels, and even hissing snakes.

If the voice of God sounds like a human voice, then which one? Hollywood actors who have played or voiced God include Charlton Heston, Whoopi Goldberg, Alanis Morissette, Morgan Freeman, and Groucho Marx. Is God’s voice a booming bass, a soft and soothing alto? Is it shouting or just a whisper?

When bombs blast as they have in Iran and Iraq this week or when earthquakes shake foundations as they have all week long in Puerto Rico, or when wildfires rage as they do now in Australia, I wonder – is God’s voice louder than it all in order to reach the hurting ones with comfort and shout for peace and steady the ground? Or is God’s voice still and small, whispering under it all with words of steady love in the midst of chaos?

Sometimes I think the sound of God’s voice is more like pure, unbroken silence. The kind of silence that simultaneously invites and unsettles, which speaks without words and which holds more power sometimes than thousands of shouting voices.

The psalmist this morning speaks over and over again about the voice of the Lord. The voice of the Lord is powerful and full of splendor. The voice of the Lord breaks the mighty cedar trees, it bursts forth like lightening flashes. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness and make the oak trees writhe. The voice of God makes things happen.

We talk about the power of words in our world, and true, words are very powerful. But God’s voice is more than the power to communicate. God’s voice causes things to happen. The poem of creation in Genesis 1 says that God speaks the world into existence. The voice of God creates from nothing.

And it’s the voice of God that always strikes me when we read the story of Jesus’ baptism. Yes, the interaction with John and the dove and the being driven out into the wilderness. But every time, the voice of God: “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well-pleased.”

That voice, powerful and full of splendor: does it whisper those words so that everyone leans in to hear or do they boom from the heavens causing everyone to take a step back? How does Jesus feel in his body the sound of God’s voice in this moment?

Of all the things God might have spoken just then…instructions for what to do next, words of warning, a motivational speech, God speaks belovedness. God names Jesus as son and calls him beloved. I wonder that we forget that as we ponder what the voice of God sounds like.

Too often consciously or not, I imagine God’s voice speaking things like “Come on, get going, lots to get done!” or “You know you really shouldn’t have done that.”  Or “I need you to get this list of things done on my behalf.” But when God’s voice breaks open the heavens to speak, it’s not with any of those words, not warning or reprimand, instructions or motivational speeches. It’s with a message of belovedness.

Not that those words are all just warm and fuzzy. Jesus is about to embark on his ministry, one in which he will be argued with, ignored, chastised, misunderstood, threatened, and ultimately killed. He needs to be grounded in his belovedness to face all of that. He goes into ministry in a world that is very broken, full of hurting people and the need for peace and wholeness. If he’s going to do the work of justice-making and peace-building then he’s going to need to recognize his own belovedness and the ways in which that belovedness is spoken to others.

Sometimes it would be easier to hear instructions or warnings or even reprimands. Because something in us can make rational sense of those things. Something in us can choose to believe them or not, follow them or not. But love. Love spoken from God, the God who speaks things into existence. When the voice of God says that, there isn’t really any choice but to fall into it. The ways in which that love motivates us to the justice-making and peace-building work in the world is not so easily ignored.

And we do, siblings in Christ, hear that voice of God in our own baptisms. The voice of God that speaks creation into being also speaks belovedness into being for you. And God speaks it in whatever way you need to hear it now in whatever voice you need to hear ti. Yes, God also speaks words of call and words of challenge, words of direction and correction. But first God speaks your belovedness and names you as children of God.

It’s that belovedness that sustains us through all things, that belovedness that sustains us even through death. On Friday we laid to rest the ashes of Jill Johnson, a long-time member of this congregation who lived to be 99. That’s a lot of years – many years full of good things, but also struggle, pain, grief, loss, and challenges of all kinds. At her death as we do at every one in the church, we recalled God’s promise of baptism, the promise that sustains us through all the challenges of living and carries us forward into God’s loving arms in our dying, God’s promise of baptism that speaks belovedness into being for us.

It’s that word of belovedness that sustains this community week after week, year after year, through ups and downs, through every transition and change that comes along. It’s that belovedness that holds those in our extended community who are sick and in pain. It’s that belovedness that holds those who have lost lives and homes and loved ones this week from violence and natural disaster.  It’s that belovedness that is stronger than anything that comes to us, stronger even than death. That is what the voice of God speaks to you today. A voice powerful and full of splendor, a voice that shakes the cedar trees and bursts forth in lightning flashes. It shouts over the racket and whispers to your soul “You are my beloved, with you I am well pleased.”

-Pastor Steven Wilco