6 Pentecost C/Proper 8C/Ordinary 13C June 26, 2016
Luther Memorial Church Pride Sunday
The Rev. Julie G. Hutson
1 Kings 19: 15-16, 19-21 + Galatians 5: 1, 13-25 + Luke 9: 51-62
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Way back many years ago, when many of us, but not all of us, were growing up ourselves….or when some of us were raising children…..there was a children’s television show called “Romper Room.” How many of you remember watching or seeing this show? Romper Room, like most programming geared toward children, was designed, not only to keep your toddlers and pre-schoolers entertained long enough that you might be able to grab a shower or a few minutes to yourself….but it was also designed to teach the wee ones something in the process.
What I remember most of all were these bees, you know of the buzz-buzz variety. There were“Do bees” and “Don’t bees”. And goodness knows, boys and girls, you did NOT want to be considered a “Don’t bee!”
There was a song about this concept, of course. It’s children’s programming after all. And the good news is that you can still find the song on You Tube. Just ask Bruce – he had to listen to it with me as I was preparing for this sermon. I know you all think that sermon preparation is highly intellectual work….and it is…but sometimes it involves listening to songs on You Tube.
Now the song was designed to teach and ingrain these ideas of “Do Bee” and “Don’t Bee” into the hearts and minds of the little kiddos. Sometimes it’s easier to remember things when they are set to music, at least for certain kinds of learners.
In the middle part of the song, there was a list of behaviors for “Do Bees” and “Don’t Bees”.
Do be a sidewalk player. Don’t be a street player.
Do be a car sitter. Don’t be a car stander.
Do be a plate cleaner. Don’t be a food fussy.
Do be a play safe. Don’t be a match touch-er.
In today’s second reading, Paul is writing to the church at Galatia. Those early believers were having an argument over whether or not the men among them need to be circumcised. Paul is attempting to outline for them what is actually needful in being a follower of Jesus Christ.
Within the texts Paul sets out his list of Don’t Bees, if you will. And what a list it is. Recently a colleague of mine and I were discussing whether any among us, especially ourselves, could say that we had avoided every item on Paul’s list of bad behaviors. “Aha!” I said “Sorcery! I’ve never practiced sorcery!” “Ever crossed your fingers?” she asked “Or stepped over a crack so you wouldn’t break your mother’s back?”
Pauls’ Don’t Bee list is long, but certainly not exhaustive. Maybe he was listing the undesirable behaviors he was witnessing in the community at Galatia. Or maybe he was listing qualities that were closer to his own heart and his own struggles.
I know that if I am honest with myself I can also list qualities that are not life giving…to me or to those around me. They are my own personal “Don’t Bees” or my own works of the flesh. They are what keep me from living fully into what Christ calls me to. They are what keep me from kin-dom living.
Considering our own “Don’t Bee” lists is not intended as an exercise in punishment or guilt. Even Paul didn’t intend it that way, and goodness knows he could point out guilty behaviors when he wanted to.
What Paul is inviting the Galatians to consider is how they are to live and be in community as they live in the freedom they have in Christ. Paul is acknowledging that there are many works of the flesh that will work against strong community….against loving relationships….against justice….against peace.
Somehow, as a national community, we have allowed the voices that speaks against loving our neighbors to have a lot of time on the stage. Voices that speaks against everything that the Gospel of Jesus Christ teaches and calls us to. Voices that stirs up within the collective fear and apprehension and selfish ambition. Voices that hold some as right and some as wrong.
Ultimately, those voices of division do more than just divide. With fear stirred up within hearts and with misplaced righteousness, violence against neighbors is unleashed instead of love. With fear instead of love our black brothers and sisters were beaten back from bridges and dragged away from lunch counters. With fear instead of love women were kept from voting and kept from having the same rights as men. With fear instead of love a young man walked into a nightclub and killed 49 people and wounded 53 others because of their sexuality. And lest we think that this does not happen here or that there is not still work to do….we hold in our hearts every dark skinned brother or sister who has been killed by police or unfettered “security guards” in the past five years and the numbers are staggering. And we read that even today women make 71 cents for every dollar a man makes….doing the exact same work. And just this week, right here in our city, a young trans person was beaten and with every punch thrown, was mocked and ridiculed for being exactly who they are, fearfully and wonderfully made.
The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.
It’s Paul’s Do-Bee list to the Galatians. It’s not a bad list for us either, but it’s certainly not a complete list. We could add other qualities that make us better neighbors. Laughter. Non-judgment. Grace.
Paul is not offering this Do-Bee/Don’t Bee list to the Galatians, or to us, as a definitive way of making life better. For all of his flaws, I feel certain that Paul knew well that we would always fall short. In fact, in Romans he said as much “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”
Living up to Paul’s list or to the Romper Room list is impossible. The beginning of the Romper Room song just sets every little child who takes it to heart up for failure. “I always do what’s right. I never do anything wrong. “ No wonder we’ve become a nation that can only see in us vs them language. And in doing so we are in danger of missing the wideness of the kingdom of God, in its great and glorious beauty.
Today hundreds of Lutherans and many many hundreds of Christians will march in the PRIDE Parade. Some march because they are members of the LGTBQ community. Some march because they are allies. But all of us….regardless of whether we are wearing clerical collars or feather boas and nothing else….all of us march because we believe that the kingdom of God is formed, not of our own desires, but for the well being and the welfare of our neighbors. It’s about neighbor love. Love for all people. Gospel love.
This was the point Paul was trying to make to the Galatians today. We have been set free in Christ, not as an opportunity for self indulgence, Paul writes, but through love….through love….we become slaves to one another. We put aside our own fears….our own need to be right….our own need to be the dominant race or gender and we love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
Of course, this is where it gets hard….this is the difficult truth….that until we love ourselves with something like the generous love of God….we will continue to struggle to love our neighbor.
I’m going to erase that Do Bee song from the soundtrack of life and replace it with another song from another children’s show. Maybe then, when I meet a neighbor who sparks some long held fear or prejudice within me, a better tune will hum in my heart.
People of God, look around at the vast beauty of all that God has made….of each person God has placed in our path…find the beauty….look!
It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor, would you be mine? Could you be mine? It’s a neighborly day in this beauty wood and neighborly day for a beauty could you be mine? Would you be mine? I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you! I’ve always wanted to live in this neighborhood with you. So let’s make the most of this beautiful day…since we’re together we might as well say….would you be mine, could you be mine, won’t you be my neighbor?