6 Pentecost C July 21, 2019
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie Hutson
Genesis 18: 1-15 + Psalm 15 + Colossians 1: 15-28 +
Luke 10: 38-42
Beloved, grace, mercy, and peace are yours from the God who creates, Jesus who saves, and the Holy Spirit who sustains us. Amen.
When it’s the intern’s final Sunday on internship it’s hard not to preach a sappy sermon about how much we’ll miss them…even though when that time comes, we surely will. It’s hard not to preach a sermon that sounds more like a funeral sermon as we give thanks for all of the gifts they have brought to this place, but that doesn’t feel quite right either, and there you are, living and breathing and in the flesh. And it’s hard not to just string together a series of stories from your internship….stories of Honey Buckets and fire extinguishers and carpool karaoke and really awful internship retreats and really good internship retreats and Holden Village and protest marches and PRIDE Parades and confirmation classes where the stubbornness of one unruly kid from another congregation met with the stubbornness of one intern. Final Score: Intern: 1. Unruly kid: 0.
And those are great stories and we’ll enjoy them and tell them and remember them together for a long time. But they do not make a sermon. So, we’re going to do what preachers are supposed to do and look at the Scripture texts for today. The Scriptures are a living, breathing Word from God and the Word of God. They speak to us new every morning. It’s why good preachers don’t recycle sermons. Because they just don’t fit a second time around.
In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, which was our second reading today, Paul offers the believers in Colossae a reminder about how he became a minister of the Gospel of Christ: through the commission God gave him, to preach the word in its fullness. But you know, preaching the word takes ALL of us. It takes the preacher and the community gathered to hear it. Our words alone do not make a sermon. They are only words until they are heard and received and taken to heart by the community. This doesn’t mean that the community will always agree with the words they hear, but even so….even so….the words create conversation and consternation and they compel us….all of us to consider what our role is in the Body of Christ. To consider the call of the Gospel to each one of us. To live our lives as people who follow Jesus, which should both give us hope and cause us to tremble.
Paul also talks about that hope in his letter to the Colossians. His advice to them is good advice to all of us, and especially to an intern who will soon find themselves ordained in this holy work. Paul says “Never let yourselves drift away from the hope promised by the Good News.”
Never let yourselves drift away. Drift away. Not be suddenly swept away, or pulled away at the last minute. But drift away. This is the danger…this drifting away from the Good News. We drift in favor of lots of other options.
We choose to keep the peace rather than speak out for justice. Especially if it involves family or friends or our congregation. We don’t want to rock the boat, so we drift away from Jesus’ call to us that we must speak truth to power and we must use our voices for those whose voices are not heard or valued or listened to. Vicar Laura has been a constant and unwavering example of the courage it takes to do this. She has reminded us in word and in action that what we do and what we say reflect on how we understand our calls as disciples of Jesus.
We drift away from the Good News when we think that just because an issue or an injustice doesn’t directly affect us, personally, it is not our concern. I could again cite Vicar Laura’s bold leadership. And I think about Mary Walter’s work in Oaxaca and about all of you who support our neighbors at Compass Broadview and who provide food for the sack lunches we hand out every day. That is engaged and faithful discipleship.
Of course Paul isn’t the only voice we hear from this morning. We also hear the story of Mary and Martha, which for maybe the entirety of Church history has been used to pit women against one another. We’ve most often read this story as a polarization of women’s roles. We are either busy like Martha or we are sitting at Jesus’ feet, like Mary. One or the other. Mary has chosen the better part. But why can’t we take this reading as an example of how to have open, honest conversation in the church? Of how to say what we are experiencing and what we need and why we might feel left out or overworked or judged. Why not take this story as a model of making our stories known rather than drifting away from our life together as community? Meister Eckhart, the German theologian, has another take on this story, one that is likely more faithful than the bickering women view. Eckhart believes Mary is at the beginning of her spiritual journey, still learning all that she can about Jesus. And rather than harshly judging Martha’s busy-ness, he suggests that, as one farther along in her journey, she is comfortable enough to manage the busy work of serving Jesus. And this is also good news for soon to be pastors….because if you’ve learned nothing else, you’ve surely learned that if a necessary task or chore isn’t done by anyone else….well, that Masters in Divinity won’t keep you from making coffee….or pruning a shrub until it’s unrecognizable, or moving chairs and tables around endlessly.
In this story of Mary and Martha, we learn that once we truly know Jesus, we won’t actually just sit at his feet…instead we will be moved to answer the call to action on behalf of the Gospel in this broken world.
And them there’s the Genesis story….oh it’s so good. It offers all of us, but especially our departing intern, great lessons and reminders. The first lesson is one that I always take from this reading. If you meet holy visitors along the way….and if we are paying attention, we all meet them….and if you offer those holy visitors food…..fix it yourself. Abraham graciously says to the three visitors he encounters at the oak grove “Let me bring you a little food” and then runs off and tells Sarah: “Quick! Bake up some bread!!” (Looks at Laura) Don’t be like Abraham.
There’s a lot we could take from this whole story. But here’s what I want you, Laura, and you Kate….and well, all of us together, to remember about ministry. (Long pause)
Well, before I get to that, let me say this: working for the Gospel, being a disciple of Jesus the Christ….it wasn’t that long ago when it was fairly easy, or at least it seemed so. Almost everybody went to church. Almost everybody believed in Christianity as some sort of moral code that would keep them out of trouble and that seemed like a good thing. But now, a lot of folks don’t come to worship because the hypocrisy seems staggering. When “Christians” are persecuting others and letting kids sit in cages and letting refugees fleeing for their lives die at our borders….well, people smell that stink miles and miles away. And we have to call it out or we risk becoming the drifters Paul was describing earlier.
It’s hard work. It is. Day in and day out….it is hard work. But it is holy work and it is the work you, Laura, will promise before God that you WILL do, even as you ask God to help you.
But here’s what I hope you’ll take away from the Genesis story today. God is going to drop some absolutely ridiculous sounding ideas….some outrageous propositions…right into your lap. They might look something like having a child when you are long past child bearing age or building affordable housing. And I hope that when God calls you to those preposterous things….I hope you will laugh. Just like Sarah, who when she heard the holy visitors tell Abraham that she’d have a child she laughed to herself. Laugh in delight. Laugh in awe. Laugh at the sheer audacity of God to keep using us….flawed creatures all….over and over again. And then, listen for God’s response. When Sarah laughed, God asked “Is anything too extraordinary for God to do?”
Is anything too extraordinary for God to do?
To take a soccer playing, Jeff Gordon loving, mischievious, queer child of God and turn her into a justice seeking, march organizing, bold preaching ….pastor……
Is anything too extraordinary for God to do?
Just ask chuckling Sarah, who gave birth to a child the very next year.
Thanks be to God and let the Church say…Amen.