In Community - Interpreting the World and our Faith

Hermeneutics are the disciplines of interpretation, especially of sacred texts. The hermeneutic or interpretive responsibility I was taught encourages a collective discernment of what we are called to be and do for such a time as this. The basic way we do this is by simultaneously holding, perhaps literally and certainly figuratively, the Holy Scriptures in the one hand, and the newspaper in the other (Karl Barth). In that process of interpretation of our social context, the sacred texts of our faith, and the challenges we are facing as active members of our body politic, we also bring our opinions and feelings. There is, simply, no way around it.

I also ask that we continue to remain intentional and committed to this sabbatical journey, identifying the things and experiences we must release, receive, and return to. And I ask that we do so intentional and committedly because interpretation, hermeneutics, requires intention. For us to develop and practice disciplines of discernment and interpretation about what our faith compels us to be and do with and for the world, we must also commit to relationship for and with one another. A good life of faith is not the fulfillment of requirements. I think it would be right up St. Paul’s alley to say that attempt checking of a list to prove faithfulness will only reveal out shortcomings.

Please, bear with the following redundancy – to life a faithful life of faith one must commit to relationship, empathy, engagement, presence, listening. Many of us who have been Christians for many decades will have heard multiple sermons about the Good Samaritan. That parable, however, is just that. A parable. An object for the larger narrative of St. Luke’s account of the Gospel. The subject of the story is the lawyer who, after having heard about how Jesus sent 70 to places, he wanted to visit to share good news of peace and of the kingdom of heaven drawn near, asked Jesus about eternal life. Jesus’ response, in the form of two other questions, are fascinating. He first asks what is written in the law. And then he asks, “what do you read there?” Do you see what happens there? Jesus places the Holy Scriptures as the central reference for the response, AND he also brings in the often overseen and always inevitable reality, it is I who reads. And reading, as in any other discipline of learning, is never objective. Whether we realize it or not, we bring our full selves – including our contexts, our experiences, and our biases into the reading of the Holy Scriptures and our discernment of our witness. What I think Jesus does here is, both, recognize and invite us to bring our full selves – biases, experiences, and contexts – into the pursuit of the question about a faithful living of the faith.

The lesson tells us that the lawyer wanted to make things a bit more complicated, perhaps event get into the rhetorical or debate game. He asked Jesus who was his neighbor whom he was to love as himself. I leave the response of Jesus to your reading as found in the rest of the gospel lesson. I do want to say something about the term “neighbor” as it relates to our call today to discern our witness and interpret our faith. In Spanish the word for neighbor is “prójimo”. A transliteration of the term could be “proximate”. I think that the challenge Jesus wanted to give the lawyer of the lesson was a challenge in hermeneutics and engagement.

We should understand that we can release ourselves from the burden to achieve eternal life, and allow for us the opportunity to live. That we can live by embracing the challenge and the opportunity of interpreting the world and our faith, and to do so intentionally in community. And I think that is where “neighbor” comes in. We will be better served in our pursuit to live and to live abundantly by receiving our proximate. If interpreting our times and our faith is a discipline to be engaged in community, we must begin with those who are more approximate to us, our neighbors. We begin with and among ourselves. And think about it: As we engage with each other as our proximate, we each have proximates outside this community that each one of us will be compelled to engage in. And as we continue to live up to our interpretative and discerning call and challenge, we will have a bigger community to live out our faith and to pursue it faithfully and wholeheartedly.

May it be so. Amen.

Ahí Está Jesús

El domingo 15 de enero de 2023 tuve el singular privilegio de predicar en mi iglesia madre, la Primera Iglesia Bautista de Río Piedras (comenzando en el 28:35). El tema del sermón fue “Ahí Está Jesús” basado en la lección en el Evangelio según San Juan 1.29-37.

“Nuestro rol como seguidores de Jesús, de su ejemplo de presencia, cercanía, solidaridad, cotidianidad, y humanidad, no es que la gente venga a donde nosotros, ni mucho menos que la gente se convierta a nosotros... es preparar la mente y corazones de la gente para la inminencia de la presencia de Dios en la gente.”

Hace unos momentos tuvimos, como congregación, la hermosa  y singular oportunidad de conocer a un niño. El mismo fue  traído por sus padres para que recibiera una bendición en el  contexto del encuentro de adoración de esta comunidad de fe.  Es, en definitiva, un momento de oración. Pero el momento es  más que eso. A ese momento, en la tradición de esta  congregación, se le llama presentación. Cuando a mi sobrino  Benjamín se le dijo que venía a Puerto Rico para, entre otras  cosas, ir a la presentación de su primo, cuentan que su  respuesta fue rápida, y debo decir que llena de sentido y hasta  de sabiduría. Dice Cynthia que su respuesta fue, “mama, como  cuando en Lion King”. Presentar a la niñez es, ciertamente, un momento emotivo para la familia de la criatura, especialmente  para los padres. Pero como observó Benjamín, es mucho más  que eso. La presentación es un momento para la congregación.  Es una oportunidad muy particular para reevaluar nuestra  presteza y disposición a la función básica de la comunidad de  seguidores de Jesús. 

La lección del evangelio para esta mañana se encuentra en el  Evangelio según San Juan. De los cuatro evangelios, Juan es el  más peculiar. Permítanme ser franco con ustedes. Juan, el  evangelio, es más que peculiar. Yo le llamaría hasta extraño. A  Juan le está muy sin cuidado si el orden de su narrativa tiene  cohesión. Si decimos que los primeros tres evangelios, en su  hilvanar narraciones, tienen como propósito contar que fue lo  que hizo Jesús para explicar el porqué de las cosas que  sucedieron, podemos decir que Juan tiene como propósito exponer ideas en forma de enseñanzas para explicar quién es  Jesús y así dar sentido al porqué de las cosas que sucedieron.

La idea principal que busca Juan afirmar a través del evangelio  es que lo divino, lo eterno, ha irrumpido en lo mortal. En la  persona de Jesús, Dios se hace presente, cercano, solidario,  cotidiano, humano. Desde el principio del evangelio, Juan hace  esta afirmación. Y si es cierto que lo divino no solo se acerca a  lo humano, sino que habita, se mueve, y vive en nuestro  entorno y con nosotros está en el meollo del diario vivir,  entonces pudiéramos afirmar que por y a pesar,

• de que los huevos están casi literalmente a peseta,

• de que el costo de energía sigue subiendo,

• de que hay puentes de uso público en nuestro país rellenos con cartón,

• de que aún hay servidores públicos que los agarran con las  manos en la masa, 

• de que hay millones desplazados por guerras y crisis  político-económicas en la frontera mexica-estadounidense, en la frontera de Europa occidental, en el  sur asiático y a través del continente africano,

• de que a pesar que el 2022 fue el 6to año más caliente del planeta en récord, 

• de que el Alma Mater de muchos de nosotros está en precario por la intencionalidad de la clase política del país,

• a pesar de que el Paseo de Diego parecería que pisa y no  arranca,  

en esta mañana somos retados y animados por el testimonio de  Juan, evangelista, quien comienza su escrito con una buena  noticia: la acción divina “fue (hecha) carne, y habitó entre  nosotros (y vimos su gloria, [la mismísima gloria divina]), lleno  de gracia y de verdad.”

Justo después de semejante apertura a su evangelio, ya  andamos por el versículo 19 de Juan 1, varios líderes religiosos  y políticos de la colonia, en este caso la Palestina del siglo 1ro, se le acercaron a otro Juan, apellidado por la tradición como El  Bautista. Este Juan estaba a un lado del histórico Río Jordán,  anunciando que esa fuerza divina hecha ser humano estaba  entre la gente de aquella época, y que había que prepararse  para semejante presencia. Los agentes del orden público  colonial le preguntaron si él se consideraba profeta, pastor, o  tal vez Dios encarnado.

El escritor del evangelio no sugiere porque tanto interés del  gobierno colonial por Juan el Bautista, pero estudiosos del  texto bíblico y del momento histórico sugieren que el interés no  era religioso, sino político. Una experiencia o un mensaje que  atraiga al pueblo con esperanza puede causar que el pueblo se  ponga a analizar lo que está pasando, y a atreverse a articular  que la causa de los pesares y dificultades por las que se estén pasando no son culpa del pueblo, sino de políticos que, en vez  de estar entre el pueblo, hablar esperanza, y actuar solidaridad,  se gastan en ciclos de 4 años en posicionarse en el poder.  

“Nos toca practicar. Y es que la fe no se sabe. La fe se vive. La fe no se enseña. La fe se comparte.”

La mejor manera de cualquier político, en el siglo 1ro o en el  siglo 21, especialmente en una colonia, de mantenerse en el  poder, es controlando los recursos de esperanza, paz, justicia,  salud, y bienestar. El que venga un grupo de vecinos a  organizarse y a hacerse presente, cercano, solidario, cotidiano,  humano, y a organizar respuestas a las dificultades del diario  vivir, un grupo fuera del círculo político, es una afrenta al orden  político y religioso. Quienes viven en palacios de mármol pagos  con impuestos del pueblo que debieron ir a arreglar techos  quebrantados por temporales no les conviene un pueblo organizado fuera del sistema que ha sido creado. Y no nos quede ninguna duda. El sistema político y social que se nos ha  construido es uno que beneficia la competencia feroz,  construida sobre la marginación intencional y la despreocupación por el bienestar del prójimo. Juan el Bautista lo único que hizo fue ir al Río Jordán a clamar en el desierto, y a enderezar caminos para que todos puedan estar presente, cercano, solidario, y cotidiano junto a la divinidad que se había  acercado al mundo.

Juan el Bautista deja claro que él no es ninguna de las cosas que  las autoridades coloniales estaban buscando. Pero que nos  quede claro, de ninguna manera Juan el Bautista intentó  alejarse del propósito de su trabajo. Su propósito no era atraer  gente a donde él estaba, ni reunir a personas para que lo  apoyaran. Su ministerio, su llamado, era preparar la mente del pueblo que lo escuchaba para la inminente llegada de Dios  entre nosotros.

La lección de esta mañana la encontramos en el evangelio  según San Juan, capítulo 1, comenzando en el versículo 29: 

El siguiente día vio Juan a Jesús que venía a él, y dijo: He  aquí el Cordero de Dios, que quita el pecado del  mundo. Este es aquel de quien yo dije: Después de mí  viene un varón, el cual es antes de mí; porque era primero que yo. Y yo no le conocía; mas para que fuese manifestado a Israel, por esto vine yo bautizando con agua.

También dio Juan testimonio, diciendo: Vi al Espíritu que  descendía del cielo como paloma, y permaneció sobre él. Y  yo no le conocía; pero el que me envió a bautizar con  agua, aquel me dijo: Sobre quien veas descender el  Espíritu y que permanece sobre él, ese es el que bautiza  con el Espíritu Santo. Y yo le vi, y he dado testimonio de  que este es el Hijo de Dios. 

El siguiente día otra vez estaba Juan, y dos de sus  discípulos. Y mirando a Jesús que andaba por allí, dijo: He aquí el Cordero de Dios. Le oyeron hablar los dos  discípulos, y siguieron a Jesús. 

La buena noticia para nosotros, para Río Piedras, para nuestro  país y para el mundo entero en esta mañana es que Dios se hizo  ser humano, estuvo entre nosotros, y aún con nosotros está.  Ahora, el reto es seguir el ejemplo de Juan el Bautista. Nuestro rol como seguidores de Jesús, de su ejemplo de presencia, cercanía, solidaridad, cotidianidad, y humanidad, no es que la gente venga a donde nosotros, ni mucho menos que la gente se  convierta a nosotros. Nuestro rol, como el de Juan, es preparar la mente y corazones de la gente para la inminencia de la presencia de Dios en la gente.

Para poder hacer eso, tenemos que también estar  continuamente nuestra mente y corazones para que cuando Jesús vaya pasando por ahí, le podamos reconocer y decir lo  que Juan el Bautista, Ahí Está Jesús. 

• Hay que estar listos para poder decir Ahí Está Jesús en la reunión de vecinos del pueblo que les piden a ustedes  espacio para organizar comida, refugio, atención médica, y  tranquilidad para todos los que viven en el casco del  pueblo.  

• Hay que estar listos para decir Ahí Está Jesús en el Bori, en  el Paseo Bar, y en los helados de los chinos quienes  ofrecen espacios para que la gente se encuentre, se  conozca, comparta y se organice.

• Hay que estar listos para decir Ahí Está Jesús en cada  familia que puede esta noche dormir tranquilos y bien  refugiados por el techo nuevo que gente extraña, de miles  de millas de distancia, vinieron y les pusieron. 

• Hay que estar listos para decir Ahí está Jesús en la  Parroquia de El Pilar, en la Evangélica Unida de la Arzuaga,  en la Iglesia Cristo Sanador de la Robles, y aún en la  mezquita de la Calle Padre Colón. 

• Hay que estar listos para poder decir Ahí Está Jesús en el trabajo de hijas e hijos de esta congregaciones quienes  desde la sala de emergencia, el salón de clase, el lente fotográfico, el bizcocho para la fiesta, el volante de la guagua que busca niñas y niños de todo el pueblo, la  bitácora de contabilidad bien cuadrada, la asistencia legal, la hospitalidad de la sala de su hogar, y hasta en los  bombones en la guayabera del domingo, dan testimonio de que se puede ver y vivir con Jesús aquí, allá, y a través de todo Río Piedras y el Mundo. ¡Jesús Está Ahí!

En medio de todo eso, en el medio de la cuadra de la Ave  Constitución, Calle Roble, Calle Brumbaugh y el Paseo de Diego,  esta iglesia ha estado ahí reconociendo y apuntando a Jesús en  los momentos más gozosos y desastrosos que ha  experimentado esta comunidad. Tenemos experiencia de ver a  Jesús, pero nos toca seguir practicando. Porque las  circunstancias que nos tire la vida nos requieren, no descansar  en lo que hemos logrado en el pasado, sino en la capacidad que  tenemos para prepararnos para ver al Jesús que nos va a llegar  de manera nueva y buena para lo que tengamos que enfrentar.

Nos toca practicar. Y es que la fe no se sabe. La fe se vive. La fe no se enseña. La fe se comparte.

Esa práctica requiere compromiso e intencionalidad. Y hace un  rato practicamos ese compromiso con intencionalidad. Cuando  presentamos a Daniel André hace un rato, oramos y bendijimos a Daniel y a sus papás. Nos unimos al gozo que representa  Daniel para toda su familia. Pero como sugirió Benjamín en su  interpretación, también se nos presentó a Daniel André. Hace un rato conocimos formalmente al nene de Mari y de Gabo, y  nos comprometimos con él. Nos comprometimos con él a que  íbamos a mostrarle donde está Jesús, y a enseñarle a  reconocerlo. Y algún día, según el don de la gracia de nuestro  Señor, Daniel podrá conocer a Jesús, no porque se lo  atosigamos, sino porque fuimos fieles en señalarle a él y a  todos quienes nos rodean, en lo extraordinario y en lo ordinario, mira, ahí está Jesús. La gracia salvadora de Dios hará  el resto.

Nos toca preparar el camino. Nos toca discernir el momento  que nos ha tocado vivir. Seamos valientes. Cuando  reconozcamos a Jesús, dígalo, textéelo, socialícelo para que lo  vea todo el que le preste atención: Ahí Está Jesús.

Blessed Continuums, Woeful Binaries (video)

A lesson for the gospel of Luke (6.17-26, NRSV)

17 He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, 18 who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, 19 and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

20 Looking at his disciples, he said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now,
    for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.
22 Blessed are you when people hate you,
    when they exclude you and insult you
    and reject your name as evil,
        because of the Son of Man.

23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

24 “But woe to you who are rich,
    for you have already received your comfort.
25 Woe to you who are well fed now,
    for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
    for you will mourn and weep.
26 Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,
    for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

I find it quite unfortunate that the Greek verb “iato” on verse 19, from the infinitive “iaomai”, is translated to “healing.” It is done this way throughout the Gospels. I find it unfortunate because in all – Koine Greek, English and Spanish, my mother lounge – to heal, aiomai, sanar, means much more than being healed from some feeling of ailment in your body. The Gospel lesson speaks of power coming out of Jesus (I love the choice of words!) and healing everyone.

And notice that the “everyone” in that narrative was a large group of people that included his disciples, folks of the ethnic and religious group of Jesus, and people that were intentionally othered. A veritably diverse group of folks gathered in that leveled field to meet Jesus, listen to him, and touch him because they wanted to be encouraged and healed. I do not think that the power of God that emanated from Jesus simply healed anyone. It certainly did not heal in any way you or I have been conditioned to understand what being healed means. The systems that we occupy – the US version of representative government, social capitalism, and US Protestant religiosity – have devised concepts and ideas that reduce to binaries the way we relate to each other in community. One is either rich or poor, healthy or sick, fed or hungry, sheltered or homeless, abled or disabled, a cis-gender heterosexual or not, Christian or not, white or otherwise.

“...(many) believe that voting-in a diversity, equity, and inclusion policy, adding more diverse pictures to social media, and writing more inclusive words to our websites is all it takes to bend the long “arc of the moral universe… towards justice” (Martin Luther King, Jr.), expecting for that bending to happen swiftly and efficiently. ”

Notice not only the fact that these are binaries. Each one of those is articulated to make white, Protestant, wealthy, heteronormativity the standard of comparison. Supremacy and othering are the core, they are downright sins of our society and our time. To measure in binaries is an attempt at nothing but the destruction of that which is unknown willingly with the purpose to control and profit. I hope I don’t have to convince anyone reading this that the American social order and Church, all along the spectrum – from progressives to evangelicals, from reformists to conservatives – are part and parcel of the articulation of white supremacy and marginalization. It runs so deep that many in the majority, especially those in authority, believe that voting-in a diversity, equity, and inclusion policy, adding more diverse pictures to social media, and writing more inclusive words to our websites is all it takes to bend the long “arc of the moral universe… towards justice” (Martin Luther King, Jr.), expecting for that bending to happen swiftly and efficiently.

The gospel lesson is challenging our binary ways. I would say that the gospel goes into a full-on attack on the binaries that have normalized how we engage and are community. Verses 24 to 26 talk about how woeful it is for those who think themselves rich, well-fed, and praised. Think about it, in a world of binaries there is nowhere beyond wealth, stocked private pantries and refrigerators, and political capital. You could quantify greater accumulation, but there is really no growth. There are no real nuances in binaries.  

“...communities that live and work with and for the wellbeing of each other. It is through that work of diversity, solidarity, peace, and justice that the power of the divine will come out restoring the dignity of everyone, and encouraging the newness of self-determination, inclusion, and love...”

As we face the very real and seemingly unassailable political and social systems that perpetrate and perpetuate the violence of disenfranchisement, poverty, and marginalization, the gospel lesson is a veritable source of good news. The way Jesus articulates the blessings are an invitation to relationship, community engagement, and solidarity. Poverty, hunger, and weeping are met with a promise and invitation to a new political and social order that guarantees justice, nourishment, and gladness. The way to sustain the bending towards justice of the arc of the moral universe is with intentionality, solidarity, and community. And Jesus demonstrates just that in this lesson. Here and throughout his ministry, Jesus places himself often in vulnerable spaces, in situations where he engages with the unknown. His teachings and his actions emanate from this being with a community – be that his disciples, the multitude, or a smaller group of close friends. The opening of the lesson is revealing of what we, as followers of Jesus, should be putting ourselves in the middle of: gathering with the multitudes of those with whom we feel connected and of those whose othering narratives we have bought into. For it is in the gathering of the marginalized, the disenfranchised, and the poor where we will see and experience the power of Jesus manifested. The power that Jesus shared did not heal the way we think it did. The power of the world affirms ableist, heteronormative, capitalist, nationalist ways that bring destruction, degradation, sickness, hunger, and authoritarianism. The power of the world encourages those who can check as many boxes as possible in the checklist of binaries to do work for those who are poor and disenfranchised.

The power that came out of Jesus restored the very livelihoods of everyone that experienced it, creating a whole new community among those who moments before were strangers, others to each other. The gospel lesson is calling every person of good will, and summons the Church, to live into the hopes and opportunities of diversity, solidarity, peace, and justice. These are not accomplished through statements, bylaws, or policies. These are lived in communities that live and work with and for the wellbeing of each other. It is through that work of diversity, solidarity, peace, and justice that the power of the divine will come out restoring the dignity of everyone, and encouraging the newness of self-determination, inclusion, and love – a new community of folks who will suddenly find themselves restored, human beings made whole with and for each other.

To see and/or listen to the sermon shared with the

Presbyterian New England Congregational Church, please click here.

A Tall Order (video)

A Tall Order: Jesus Followers Called to be Imitators of God

this is based on a sermon shared with the First Presbyterian Church of Albany, August 8, 2021. You can access the video transmission of the sermon here, beginning in minute 16:35

Paul’s letter to the Christian communities in Ephesus is an exposition of how the redeeming power of Jesus – in the cross and in his resurrection – was the beginning of the gathering of a community of witnesses from all diversities. From such diversity, God has called forth an assembly – the Church – as co-workers in the building of the kingdom of Heaven on earth, as witnesses of God’s intention to redeem the world and to make it whole again. This community is a gathering of actors of the message and work of Jesus in and from every geography; every language and culture; every social space a person redeemed by the baptism of Jesus is found.

At the beginning of chapter 5 of the letter to the Ephesians there are two sentences that are at the same time captivating and daunting – “Therefore, imitate God like dearly loved children. Live your life with love, following the example of Christ…” (1) I don’t know about you, but this reads like a tall order. I wonder what Paul was thinking when he penned this down. Paul’s letters show that he was well aware of what was going on in the communities he would write letters to. Often, the letters Paul wrote were a call to theological or pastoral correction. They were also calls address the social, economic and/or political reality in the city or region he would correspond with. An effective religious and theological witness is related to the contextual challenges it lives in. What was this call to be imitators of God, to follow the example of Jesus, all about?

“Tolerance is not a Christian Value... The Church is called to solidarity.”

I think had a deeper emotional, perhaps social investment with the Christians in Ephesus. This letter was personal. Paul encourages the Christians in Ephesus to keep up the high level of enthusiasm knowing that they were called to be a community of followers of Jesus with people gathered from the whole known world. Unity was paramount, but so was the diversity of perspectives found in the diversity of people. This unity and diversity will prove essential for a witness to Jesus in one of the most politically and financially consequential cities in Asia Minor and the Roman Empire.

When I originally shared these thoughts the news was at best sobering, at worst full of angst. An independent report had found that Governor Cuomo, of New York, perpetrated sexual harassment while in office. The lack of leadership at all levels of government in the face of an increasing threat from new variants of the pandemic was frustrating and confusing. Hyper-individualism was on display by those calling for the cease of mask mandates. A year and a half into the pandemic there was still a lack of access to information and outreach about the vaccines in some communities - especially those with accents in their speech and with greater amounts of melanin in their skin. There was also news purporting a rebounding of the economy even when many people, including neighbors of ours, faced the real possibility of losing the safety of a roof, most of them over lack of clear directives about access to resources to remediate just that threat. I would have summarized the news for that week with this headline: “Some in the US live under the impression the economy and public health measures are working for them, while many in this country have yet to hear how these measures meant to aid them will reach them.”

The news is a good way to gauge the context we live in. Our context (and our experience of it) inevitably provides a lens through which to read Scripture and ponder its teachings for us today. Our experience of the faith, and the community with whom we worship (or not), is also another important filter for interpretation. I told the community with whom I first shared these thoughts that they should know themselves to be loved by God and by its leaders. I went further to say that not every religious community is made aware of how much they are loved and appreciated. That is also an important lens for scriptural interpretation and witness discernment.

Ephesians 4:25-5:2 inspired these thoughts. From the Common English Bible:

Therefore, after you have gotten rid of lying, Each of you must tell the truth to your neighbor because we are parts of each other in the same body. Be angry without sinning. Don’t let the sun set on your anger. Don’t provide an opportunity for the devil. Thieves should no longer steal. Instead, they should go to work, using their hands to do good so that they will have something to share with whoever is in need.

Don’t let any foul words come out of your mouth. Only say what is helpful when it is needed for building up the community so that it benefits those who hear what you say. Don’t make the Holy Spirit of God unhappy—you were sealed by him for the day of redemption. Put aside all bitterness, losing your temper, anger, shouting, and slander, along with every other evil. Be kind, compassionate, and forgiving to each other, in the same way God forgave you in Christ.

Therefore, imitate God like dearly loved children. Live your life with love, following the example of Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. He was a sacrificial offering that smelled sweet to God.

“Therefore, imitate God like dearly loved children. Live your life with love, following the example of (Jesus)…” That is a tall order, but one we are called to take on with courage. In the first century – as the Ephesian Church was facing the challenge of the economic power benefiting some and need was rampant among most – Paul calls the followers of Jesus to be imitators of God, to actively embody in word, action, and engagement what is the reaction to knowing that God wants to redeem the world. God is the followers of Jesus to actively embody in word, action, and engagement what is it that being redeemed by God can be in and for the world. That requires that we shed every layer of political, economic, social, and theological service to the status quo in our words, actions and engagements, and to put on the ways of Jesus as the Spirit has and will continue to inspire and empower us to.

Dialogue is not a Christian value. Dialogue is a lazy paradigm for engagement with diversity, one that reduces any encounter we might have with the world to a transaction that calls the world to accept Christ as Lord and Savior. The Church is called to conversation with the world. In conversation we will have the ability to simply be with and among the world learning about their yearns, hopes, pains, and aspirations while sharing the spiritual gifts of joy, peace, justice, and reconciliation. In conversation the world will get to know the community called out by Jesus because the Jesus community will be intentional and committed to stay in relationship with the world. In conversation with the world the Church will grow in awareness of the world, and hopefully in understanding. In conversation with the world, the Church will participate with the world in its challenges and turmoil. In conversation with the world, the Church will convert into an effective presence of Jesus in, with, and for the world. In conversation with the world, the Church may just be able to shine some light, share some flavor, be Jesus with and among the world. The Jesus we worship, the Jesus we serve did not call to a transactional relationship of acceptance. The Jesus we witness to the world opened himself, was made vulnerable, to be in conversation with the world so that he could be with and for the world in every profoundly struggling way in order for the world to gain knowledge of the love of God. That knowledge of the love of God, we believe, leads an experience of God which reveals in the mind and spirit of the believer the certainty that God’s intention is love, justice, peace, and reconciliation for all (and the whole created order).

Tolerance is not a Christian value. Tolerance is a lazy social and theological attitude that allows the tolerant to keep the understanding that the other is on the wrong side of everything. The Church is called to solidarity. Solidarity is, perhaps, the most vulnerable social, political, economic, and theological way of being. When one is in solidarity with the other, one opens oneself to live with, be with, be for the struggles and opportunities of the other. Solidarity even takes one step further. It opens engagement to an understanding that the struggle of the other is not only just, but the struggle of all. Solidarity is acknowledging, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr, that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” (2) That is solidarity. Tolerance is not only a lazy standard. It is not a social, cultural, political, philosophical, or theological value. The Church is called to be in solidarity. Persons of goodwill are not called to tolerance. They are called to solidarity.

It is in conversation and solidarity that one can understand, embrace, and enact Paul’s call to speak the truth. It is in conversation and solidarity that one can speak the truth in love, that is, with the intention for the wellbeing of everyone with whom one engages. It is in conversation and solidarity that one can recognize that there are far too many reasons, because of far too many circumstances, stemming from far too many contexts why one would feel angry.

Anger is a most human of feelings. Left to its own devices, and Paul says that much, anger will lead to sin. Period. However, living in a paradigm of conversation and solidarity, one can channel the energy of anger through a commitment to love and goodwill. And there is nothing individualistic about love and goodwill. If you love, if you have a sense of goodwill, you have a sense of community and of neighborhood. The commitment of anyone that operates in conversation and solidarity will be goodwill, the upbuilding and wellbeing of the community, of the whole community, as diverse and complicated as communities brought together are.

Say truth. Live truth, not only to and with those in church, or with those of a common theological, political or social persuasion. Speak truth to everyone who is a neighbor.

To be the Church is to speak, to inspire, to witness Jesus to everyone who is our neighbor for the sake of building up community. The church builds community by rejecting tolerance and practicing solidarity. The church builds community by rejecting dialogue and being in conversation and life together with the world we have been placed with and in service to.

The church is called to be community by recognizing the anger that is in us and around us, and by inviting all to use that energy to dismantle inequity and build for radical welcome and wellbeing.

The church is called to be community by choosing the more difficult and Spirit-empowered higher ethical ground – with kindness, compassion, and forgiveness. The church is called to realize that assuming that higher ethical ground is possible not because of our theological, social or political persuasion, but because we are also objects of God’s forgiveness, compassion, and kindness.

In word and deed, so help me God, I will continue to invite the Church to be with the world – the community God has called us to be in Jesus – a sacrifice worth God’s worship for it embodies love, justice, joy and reconciliation.

(1) - from the Common English Bible

(2) - from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

Individualism Is a Sin (video)

Individualism Is a Sin: Attention and Intention are Required

based on a sermon preached at the First Presbyterian Church of Albany, July 25, 2021. You can access the transmission of the sermon here, beginning in minute 17:17

The lesson from II Kings 4:42-44 (Common English Bible) inspired these thoughts:

A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God some bread from the early produce—twenty loaves of barley bread and fresh grain from his bag. Elisha said, “Give it to the people so they can eat.”

His servant said, “How can I feed one hundred men with this?”

Elisha said, “Give it to the people so they can eat! This is what the Lord says: ‘Eat and there will be leftovers.’”

So the servant gave the food to them. They ate and had leftovers, in agreement with the Lord’s word.

There was no shortage of news in the weeks preceding this sermon regarding social engagement and community responsibility. I had joined federal, state, and local officials reminding the parents and guardians of over 87% of minors throughout New York State that the Child Tax Credit was being disbursed in cash, and encouraging those who do not traditionally file taxes and who qualify to report themselves and their children in order to receive this significant albeit temporary cash support from the federal government.

The Schenectady Community Ministries, the organization I serve as CEO, was already 1/3 of its way into our summer meals program. For the past 27 years, SiCM has served free meals to school-aged children and youth throughout the city of Schenectady. During the pandemic summers of 2020 and 2021, regulations blanketed the whole city of Schenectady, and even areas in Rotterdam, Scotia and Niscayuna as areas of need, making children there eligible for these meals. During the summer of 2020 we served just shy of 60,000 meals. This year, the United Way estimated that we could hit close to 62,000 meals.

The day I shared this sermon I joined a press conference in Schenectady where community leaders gathered to call on our local hospital system to be transparent with the community as a large regional hospital system buys them up and community engagement has all but ceased in this process.

Gun violence became the focus of Albany’s local government narrative, including the murder of two persons in separate circumstances the Friday and Saturday preceding my sharing this sermon. Violence throughout the city was increasing, no question about it. And City Hall referred to this crucial situation of public safety and community stability as an issue of certain parts of the city that needed to be managed.

There were many other things I could have shared about Saratoga and Rensselaer counties. A quick read of local and regional newspapers, or having listened to local public radio would be enough to grasp the crisis we were in - a crisis of ability to engage as a larger society and to be responsible for each other in the community. The pandemic, of course, made everything worse. I am no expert in public health policy. However, generalized numbers of high vaccination rates in Schenectady and Albany counties, and in New York State continued to ignore very specific areas where vaccination rates roamed well under that generalized number, some well under half of eligible persons.

We need to pay attention to our response to all of these – individual, congregational, social, and political, especially if that response goes unchecked. Our initial responses to these, or to other news regarding public policy and public safety, are based on our biases. Most of us will have reacted considering how “they” are cause or victims of these circumstances. Maybe some of us even went as far as to think that these issues do not affect us – individually, as a congregation, in our social circle, or our political standing.

If this is your and/or my reaction, it’s ok. Our prejudices are set in our social and communal beings. There is no way to escape them. What we can do is decide how we will act upon them. A hallmark identity of U.S. American economic and socio-political structures is the obsessively committed encouragement of personal individualism in culture and society. Individualism, the U.S. American standard operating procedure, is core to how we live our social beings. Individualism drives many of us to social reactions that rationalize the pain, marginalization, and downright evil that others are suffering as “their” issue. We seek to make sense of the pain, suffering, and marginalization of others by believing the lie that accomplishment is a possibility with sacrificial personal effort. That rationalization often takes form in this way: “they” - that other that looks, sounds, lives, or earns differently from the individual or collective “I” - are going through “that situation” because “they” were not as socially, politically, financially, or theologically efficacious as the individual, yet often collective “I” is.

“I am tired of leading in this dissonant social space where individualism reigns on the one part, and the Spirit is leading us to embrace each other in reverent obedience.”

Individualism is what drives many of us and in this society to articulate constitutional freedoms as individual freedoms – rights that apply first and foremost to “me.” Individualism is what is drives the conversation about vaccination access, mask options versus mandates, pushing for an achievement of normalcy that is really a generalized yearn to go back to the future.

As a faith leader, I find myself living in a dissonant social space. I find nowhere in our Holy Scriptures a sanctioning of individualism. U.S. American Christianity, however, especially our Reformed branch of that Christianity, especially the branch that presumes (and often calls) itself to be more orthodox, has over 300 years of theological argumentation for individualism in society and salvation. I hope others find themselves in in a dissonate social space. I would go even a step further and join those that have articulated individualism, especially the U.S. American kind, a sin. Far from fostering a right relationship with God, individualism drives us as individuals, as a society, and as a culture away from God. Individualism drives us away from God’s most basic call to the Church in and through the example of Jesus – to love God with all that we are, and our neighbor as ourselves. That example goes hand in hand with the call to go share the good news of Jesus to the farthest corners of Albany and of the world. Individualism is nowhere in the message of Jesus. What is more – when directly confronted with his own cultural and religious biases, Jesus took a step back and corrected his action and message for the sake of that good news he embodied.

The lesson of II Kings, chapter, for, was a respite for me this week as I continue to inhabit the dissonate space between the social reality of individualism, and the contradictory call I find in the gospel. In just three verses, the lesson shows us four social commitments the prophet Elisha lived by, social commitments with profound theological repercussions – hospitality, doubt, solidarity, and provision.

We see hospitality in the generous gift brought by a Canaanite man to the prophet, a messenger of the religion of Israel. Hospitality is shown in bread and grains brought to the prophet – bread and grain from the first fruits, the best of the harvest. We see hospitality in the turning of a personal gift into the call for a feast for all that were present. Hospitality is about generosity, is about seeing and being with and for the other. Hospitality is about giving generously what has been received generously.

We see doubt in the reaction of the prophet’s servant to the order to share the gift. The gift was intended to be a generous, perhaps extravagant gift for one person. I’d be concerned with 100 people, perhaps around the time for a meal, wanting to eat and just enough food for a few. Doubt is one of the most human feelings and actions. Our social upbringing urges us to suppress doubt. This lesson, and the whole of the Scriptures, encourage the followers of Jesus to embrace doubt. No need to ignore it. Doubt is a part of who we fully are.

We see solidarity in the lesson in that this gift was given to a person of a different ethnicity – ethnicities that were pegged against each other for no other reason than the political control of the ruling class and theological sanctioning for political expediency of the religious class. Solidarity takes hospitality one step further – it demonstrates unconditional welcome. Solidarity takes generosity one step further, for it is about sharing what one has as if it wasn’t ours in the first place. Solidarity is about the courage to believe that if God says there is enough for everyone to eat, there is enough for everyone and then some.

And it is there that provision is seen in the text. When a people show hospitality, when a people learn to embrace doubt and other human feelings, when a people decide to pay attention and be intentional about how they live and move and have their being in society expressing solidarity, provision happens. Abundance happens when a people decide to obey reverently that most basic expectation of humans – to be respected, to be welcomed, to be included, to be sought out, to be seen for what each one of us is.

And here me well, I am talking about a people obeying reverently. The call is not for individuals. The call is to a people. Elisha was not leading a life of a personal relationship with God. Elisha was a godly man, but everything he said and did was for people, with people, and by people. Nowhere in this text does it say that those 20 loaves of bread magically multiplied into a feast. The only thing this text says is that bread and grain were gifted generously, that doubt was voiced, that solidarity was practiced, and provision happened because a people embraced who they were as a community of humans and decided to believe what the Lord had said through a messenger. They obeyed reverently because they believed that despite the appearance of some among them, despite what the amount of food might have seemed, despite any other doubt or social prejudice that might have existed, a people acted with attention and intention for the sake of each other, for the sake of community.

I confess that I am tired of leading in this dissonant social space where individualism reigns on the one part, and the Spirit is leading us to embrace each other in reverent obedience. To go up and against the forces of this world built on individualism, we will require attention and intention. But we have been gifted with all it takes. For hospitality, solidarity, and provision are all at our grasp because the Lord has said so. May we believe in the word of the Lord with attention and intention. May we obey reverently with attention and intention that most basic expectation of humans – to be respected, to be welcomed, to be included, to be sought out, to be seen for what each one of us is – a full expression of the image of God.

May it be so.
Amen.