Doubt Is In Style; Sermon from April 12, 2015

Acts 4:32-35

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

Psalm 133

How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord ordained his blessing, life forevermore.

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

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We find ourselves in the second week of Easter.  A week after the drama of the foot washing, betrayal, crucifixion and the mystery of the empty tomb… a week after our own festivities, after the celebration of Easter Sunday… a day without the Easter Trumpets and the Easter lilies…

And so we hear about Thomas, one of the 12.  “Doubting Thomas”, as he has been labeled through the centuries.  The truth is, Thomas was no different than any of the other 12 – except that he wasn’t there on that day, that first day, when the rest of the disciples were able to see.  He wasn’t any more of a doubter than anyone else.  But, ‘doubting Thomas’ provides us with a good opportunity for a lesson in faith. 

When you hear this text, do you get a visual for Thomas?  I don’t know about you, but for me, what arises is a stodgy, grumpy character…  arms crossed, frown firmly entrenched…

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” 

I guess this is always the ‘doubter’ image for me.  In my career as an organizer for liberal causes, you can imagine I see this a lot: the ‘doubter’. 

I saw it a lot during the health care reform fight, when sharing stories of people denied insurance due to pre-existing conditions.  Unless your family member had been there, you couldn’t fathom it.  Or when I talk about the need for higher minimum wage.  ...How hard it is to manage on $8.25 an hour.  ...How much better the economy would be if we insisted that all people to make a living wage.

People retreat into one of two camps; the camp of fear – “we can’t afford it” – or the camp of doubt:

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

We’ve all doubted…and we are comforted by Thomas’ courage in saying it out loud.

Doubt is in style, my friends.  Except these days, most doubt focuses on the need for compassion. We seem to be in an unprecedented age of second-guessing compassion – to the point of doubting people’s common humanity.

Rather than focusing on our own state, where the Governor recently approved $26 million in funding cuts for social services – including Illinois’ world class autism program on World Autism Day – while giving $100 million in corporate tax breaks; rather than focus on that - 

 Let’s go to Kansas.  Last week the news reported that the Kansas House and Senate have both approved a bill that will ban welfare recipientsfrom using their benefits in not only places like casinos but also movies and swimming pools.  In addition to where the money can be spent, the Kansas legislature has decided how much can be spent at one time. According to the article, “The legislation is chock full of rules for assistance recipients, including a $25 cap on daily ATM withdrawals designed to prohibit converting benefits for cash and thus being spent on items deemed improper.”  And to make sure the recipients don’t take these benefits for granted, the legislature has established a 3-year lifetime limit on benefits. 

Imagine being the children in a family whose breadwinners are between jobs and using TANF (which is Temporary Aid to Needy Families).  It’s summertime, it’s hot, and your friends are going to the pool…but your parents say ‘no’ without any explanation, because all they have left for the month is money on the TANF account.  Or your classmate has a birthday party at the movie theater, but you needed to put aside $15 from your check to be sure they could go, and that check went to pay rent. 

I once came across an internet debate where some anonymous person calculated an anonymous budget; I remember he said “I rent out a room for $365, so a person could find that housing” and used this budget, complete with a less-than-$100 medical policy, as evidence that minimum wage was high enough.  Perhaps he was right…as long as a minimum wage worker doesn’t have a birthday, or a holiday present to buy, or a car repair, or a medical scare.  These parameters are livable as long as they are temporary.  Unfortunately, that is not the situation for most minimum wage workers. 

I take this personally because for the last 6 months, I’ve been meeting with these people every day.  In this, Year 2 of the Affordable Care Act, providing enrollment assistance (which is my job) has been much more of a search for the proverbial needle in a haystack; finding those last few uninsured who didn’t take action last year because they didn’t need it, or didn’t understand it, or just plain couldn’t afford it.  And, in Joliet, Illinois, do you know who these people are?  Minimum wage workers.  Temp workers.  Warehouse workers. School bus drivers.  These people have so much stress in their daily lives.

Last week I met with a woman who works 38 hours a week at one job for $8.65 and hour, and has another job, 13 hours a week at $8.65… that’s over 50 hours a week to take home – after taxes – under $400. This woman pays $1200 in rent.

Another woman, a school bus driver with two autistic children, comes in barely above Medicaid when she does summer school driving.  That, for a HH of 3, by the way, is $27000) Since she was denied Medicaid last year but had required medical tests for her CDL license, she is now paying too much from last year’s medical debt ($30 to the doctor and $35 to the hospital each month) to afford the ACA insurance premium (not counting the deductibles).

I rarely meet a person who makes over 200% of the Federal Poverty Level – that’s around $23000 a year – but usually they are just over the Medicaid level of $1342 a month – which is where you land on minimum wage.  Since Joliet was once a manufacturing center, but that has died out - these are the only jobs available. 

The thing these people’s lives lack the most – besides money – is stability.  They start a job, it ends, they start another, but the hours aren’t regular and they can’t make plans for child care, or meals, or time with friends more than 1 week in advance.  Even worse, to get the assistance they desperately need often requires visiting the government agency for half a day during business hours.  The bus driver had to take a sick day– in a job where she’s only allowed 3 but given a black mark if she takes any – just to be told that she didn’t qualify for Medicaid.

And yet, we as a society continue to take success as the mark of morals and misfortune as a lack of discipline and hard work.  If we’ve had success, their financial crises must be a personal failing.  

The doubter says, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Doubting is a refuge.  Andrea Denney, my CTS classmate and a gifted preacher, proclaimed this once in preaching class on the same text; to doubt is to allow yourself to take refuge in your corner of fear and never have to make a courageous claim.  Doubt is a cop-out. Doubt allows us to be comfortable in our indecision, our inaction, or our lack of compassion.

It can be more comfortable To Doubt God than to proclaim faith;

         To Doubt Hope in our future takes less action than to believe in positive change;

                    It is unfortunately easier To Doubt the worth of others

                           And self-validating To doubt the necessity for compassion.

Doubt allows you to avoid being vulnerable.  It requires courage to proclaim faith.  It requires courage to proclaim hope in our common future.  It requires courage to put your love and trust in others.

Let’s not be mistaken; what Thomas did required courage; because to speak your doubt is to be open to belief.   But to codify your doubt in a set of laws is not courageous.

 The Acts scripture we read today describes the life of the early, early Christian communities.  Acts is the only book we have in the bible which details what happened after the first Easter – after Jesus was crucified.  The Apostles continued Jesus’ work.  We read about a community where all things are shared. Everything they owned was held in common. When one owns property, they sell it and distribute the proceeds.

We are told the People were of ‘one heart and soul’. And there was not a needy person among them.  And great grace was upon them all.  Great Grace. I believe that is what it is like when God breaks in and compassion overflows; Great Grace lives there. 

Is this not what Jesus spent all his ministry doing? Healing, giving, feeding, exhausting his bodily resources to answer every request and every doubt?  Jesus came to bring “good news to the poor” – not new rules.  

 This was a dangerous idea…and Jesus was a dangerous man.  Jesus was God’s compassion personified.  So great is God’s compassion that Jesus died for it.

And then, when he met with the 12, resurrected, he breathed on them and sent them to do likewise.  And sent us to do likewise.

In Kansas, when asked the rationale behind House Bill 2258, they said,

“We’re trying to make sure those benefits are used the way they were intended,”  said the Vice Chairman of the state Senate. “This is about prosperity. This is about having a great life.”  Another House Member said, "This is serious, good policy for the state of Kansas,"… "There's nothing better to get these people back on their feet than getting them a job and getting them back to work." 

Read between the lines, and that says “I don’t trust that they have the smarts, intention or discipline to find prosperity on their own."

In contrast, my mother volunteers with the non-profit CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) an organization that assigns volunteers to accompany children who are in the foster system.  CASA has a motto:  'Treat each person like they ARE already the person that you want them to BECOME.'  Isn’t that just like giving someone the benefit of the doubt?  Isn’t that a lot like how Jesus behaved?  What would our society look like if government treated people as if they were already the person they should be?

Jesus welcomed doubt.  In Our Gospel, Jesus says to Thomas, “Come.  Put your fingers on my hands.  Put your hand in my side. Touch and believe.”  And then take up courage and go out and do what needs to be done, for you are sent.  

 If our policy-makers had the same courage as Thomas, to put their hands in the work gloves and their feet in the work shoes of my clients in Joliet, and live awhile in their place…I believe their doubt would disappear, and we’d have laws lifted rather than added burdens.  That encouraged rather than chastised.  That treated people like a worthy adult, not a child you can’t trusted.

You are also sent, my friends.  As the ones ‘sent’ by Jesus’ breath, we can follow that rule – to treat each person like they are already the person you want them to become.  Trust their intentions as Jesus trusted Thomas’ intentions.  We’ve been touched by Jesus, and believe, and then we see it.

Amen. 

"A Resurrection People...?" Sermon from March 15, 2015

1 Corinthians 1:18-25
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart." Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

John 2:13-22
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me." The Jews then said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

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Last week our nation recognized the dubious ‘50^th anniversary’ of a nonviolent march across a bridge in Selma, Alabama.  And like the good social justice junkie that I am, I ran out to see the movie detailing this struggle when it opened back in January.  

One of the most surprising scenes for me – you know, for those of us who weren’t around to witness the events in real time – was the moment when Martin Luther King, Jr., standing with several hundred black people at the peak of the Edmund Pettis bridge, gazing down on a knot of police and volunteer militia intending to become a stumbling block…King knelt down to pray… and then turned around.  He simply turned around and led the people back to Selma.

I think I gasped out loud in that scene - it was so unexpected to see a failure of will.

At the top of that Bridge, with the certainty of bodily harm to the group weighing on his shoulders and thin hope for a federal injunction against the officers, King fills with doubt and turns around, confounding the crowd and handing a victory to his opponents.  In that moment, he couldn’t see beyond the present.  In the face of the vicious enforcers of the empire, he couldn’t find God’s vision.

This film crystalized for me how comradery, collaboration, and unity of purpose within that nucleus of black activists was so integral to seeing beyond the present.  When King was stymied by self-doubt, I’m certain he had to see through their eyes.

1:18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Both Martin Luther King and the Apostle Paul wrote public letters while jailed for opposing the powers that be with a message of God’s inclusive love.  Both used rhetorical flourishes, affirmations, flattery, logic and reason flattery to persuade their enemies and their friends.

Paul traveled throughout the Middle East, then under Roman control, setting up small communities of Christ-followers who lived contrary to prevailing traditions.  In these communities, all were welcome, whether male, female, married, single, young or old, rich or poor, elite or peasant.  But, as with all communal life, holding onto this noble idea was not without it’s challenges.  Paul would hear of their struggles, and correspond with letters that gently but firmly addressed the struggles.

In the Corinthian passage above, written in Greek, Paul asserts the cross is a ‘skandalon’; which is defined as a trap, snare, or any impediment causing one to stumble.  The definition also lists that it is figuratively applied to Jesus Christ, “whose person and career were so contrary to the expectations of the Jews concerning the Messiah, that they rejected him and by their obstinacy made shipwreck of their salvation."

See, the Jewish historical narrative – the Old Testament - had largely married the values of ‘empire’ with religious salvation. By empire, I’m referring to the means to hold power and influence in society; war-power, wealth, status, preferred race, and the traditions that reinforce the power structure.  Jesus lived during the time of the Roman Empire.  The US was founded by the British Empire, and many would say that we are in the era of the American Empire – although I might argue it’s closer to an Empire of Consumerism.

For Jewish lore, the coming messiah was expected to be a powerful, conquering King that would liberate the Jewish people from the Roman occupation, probably through war and similar oppressions, so they could re-establish their prominence as a people. Not re-order society – just re-establish the Israelites on top.  

The religious elite could not see beyond the present.  Not only was Jesus NOT a king, but he was an extremely poor laborer and – adding insult to injury – authoritatively anti-establishment. When he came on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, same as an estimated 2.7 million Jews who walk far distances for high holidays, he finds a system so embedded and invested in it’s own self-sustenance that it is no longer open to a revelation from God. Rather than respect religious status quo – the one place where Jews still had autonomy in the Roman Empire - he overturns the moneychangers and chases the merchants from the temple.

The scandal of the cross is that it was intended as intimidation, but failed.  The authorities clung to the trappings of empire tried to make an example of Jesus to dissuade his followers. Therefore, it is even more scandalous when those followers are not intimidated, but find strength in the ultimate weakness of death.  Paul says that talk of the cross – the ultimate symbol of shame, humiliation, and rejection - will strike nonbelievers as folly, but for believers it is the very power that is transforming their lives. Trust in God, faith in the future, joy in the moment.  This is what allows the early Christians to be a Resurrection People – this is what allows them to see beyond the rules of the empire and the boundaries of tradition to what seems impossible.  

Today is the 4^th Sunday of Lent. Lent is a time of reflection of where Empire has a hold on our lives.  Where does worry overtake joy?  Where does fear outrank love?  Where does our desire for security overpower our compassion for the other? Rather than 40 days of sugar withdrawal, can we challenge ourselves to face the areas of our lives where the pressures of the status quo, or the burdens of maintaining empire have taken root over joy…or grief…or compassion for our fellow human?  Are we clinging to the certainty of trust in God’s love and what we can do with it – or stressing over the requirements of status?  Are we a people married to the first century temple taxes and practices, or are we open to change and renewal in our institutions – in our churches – in our lives?  Are we willing to try to see beyond?

Over and again, Paul’s letters are filled with assurances of what’s possible if people cling to God’s love – cling to ‘the cross’ - rather than the old divisions of Empire (status, wealth, gender, race).   It’s present when we walk into the uncertainty of the unknown with the knowledge that we can trust God and let fears and anxiety go.

God is described as choosing “the things that are not,” or as the one who brings life out of death.  This is Paul’s way of talking about the creative and redemptive power of God that is at work among the Corinthians, bringing God’s own future into being at the very same time that “the things that are,” the social order of this world - are passing away, being wiped out, being made powerless.  Paul is describing a transitional process.

A few years ago I served St. Luke’sLutheran Church in Logan Square as a seminary intern.  This church I had first visited for Christmas caroling, years before I entered seminary, where we joyfully (and a little too gleefully thank to the spiked glug) cheered the local neighbors with our favorite songs. 

Like many city (and suburban) churches these days, the congregation struggled financially, but strove to be a force in the community.  The church was down to 12 families and sold the parish house in order to call Rev. Erik Christensen in 2000. They began renting and sharing the cavernous church structure for office space, Al-Anon meetings, local art residencies, social justice film series, health outreach, and theater groups.  The even put on a summer street festival called ‘the Boulevard Bash.’

I took note when St. Luke’s joined with 3 other neighborhood churches to hold an “Occupy Palm Sunday”.  After service, members of the congregation processed, while singing, to the circle park that marks the center of Logan Square.  There, they had a sort of ‘sit in’ to learn, listen, and support speakers on hunger, homelessness, health care disparity, and immigrants as a public display of faith in action.  I chose to serve this church because of this interest in a public faith.

In my conversations with Pastor Erik Christensen, we talked about the redevelopment he was attempting at the church.  Under Erik’s leadership, St. Luke’s endeavored to manifest God’s grace where it was currently present within the church, rather than strive with futility towards it’s former self.

Last month, St. Luke’s congregationvoted formally to sell their historic, 114-year old church building.  This was not without pain, grief, and discord in the congregation – of course.  For some, the building is church.  The familiarity and nostalgia is part of what makes worship meaningful.  But it’s also unsustainable.  St. Luke’s will continue to be a congregation, but with different décor.  It was the act of a congregation willing to ‘see beyond’ and take a chance on being a Resurrection People.

Pastor Erik was quoted in the local paper as saying,

“The question is how do we line up the assets with our vision for being a progressive public church in the neighborhood.  It’s beginning to become clear to us that it’s eating up more of our time and resources than makes sense as people who want to be focused more on relations with our neighbors than relations with our property.”

The congregation of St. Luke’s is trusting God to choose things that do not yet exist, but allied with God’s future, may come to be.  It’s a pathway full of doubt, but also full of the vibrancy of now rather than the anxiety of the status quo.   

Back in Selma, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. is in jail, heavy with grief for Jimmie Lee Jackson, the young protestor shot and killed by police; weighted down by complaints that he is ego-driven, and crushed with the reality of more physical violence that is almost certain for all the marchers.  He cannot see beyond that night. With a near-easy smile, his cell-mate and colleague Ralph Abernathy responds with something that seems to melt Martin’s worries away; Matthew 6:26;

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

As a resurrection people, we can trust in God to see beyond when we can’t.  And that’s what we need to do, because the possibilities within are God’s visions, not ours.

Amen and Amen.