Tuesday, April 8, 2025

A Year-Long Journey Through the Sermon on the Mount: Week 13


Chapter 13 – Salt and Light

 

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything but is thrown out and trampled under foot. You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.” (Matt 5:13-14)

 

For me as clergy, examining this verse from my theological perspective, I take that statement to mean Jesus is passing us the torch, telling us to pick up where he left off in caring for God’s creation. Jesus is our light, then, now, and forever, and we are to follow him faithfully. God named Jesus the light of the world, and now Jesus is naming us the light of the world.

 

For me as a transgender person, looking at the same statement from a personal point of view, Jesus is telling me to be a light to others, to be a beacon to those out there wondering if they can be transgender and still keep their Christian faith. My call to follow Jesus is one of transparency, of being completely open and honest about myself as a way to make the unknown familiar and to create a stepping stone to reconciliation.

 

For too long, the church as a whole has asked those of us who are transgender and non-binary to put our lights under a bowl, to keep ourselves hidden away as if we were a dirty secret. My hope is that if I put my light on its stand and let it shine, then others will gain the courage to put their light on its stand as well. It’s as Charles E Moore says, “[Jesus’s] concern is not that his followers get more involved in the world, but that they don’t become like the world and lose their true identity. He wants his followers to remain true to who they are…Be who you are, wherever you are, no matter what.” (p. 75-76)

 

I pray that, one day, differences will be celebrated instead of tolerated, and that no one will feel the slam of the church door in their face. We are all God’s creation, and we deserve to be seen.

Thursday, April 3, 2025

Unexpected Love: A Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

Photo by Fulvio Ciccolo on Unsplash

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, for you are our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

 

Jesus has been on an emotional roller coaster these last few days. He finds out that his best friend is dying and arrives four days too late. He is overcome with grief and screams loud enough to wake the dead, literally. Even for God’s son that must have been taxing on Jesus’ body and spirit.

 

After performing this miracle, Jesus knew that his time of being relatively under the radar of the Romans was coming to an end.

 

A huge crowd has gathered at Bethany to see Jesus and Lazarus and the Romans are not liking it one bit. The chief priests begin to ploy Jesus’ death. Jesus has traded his life for the life of his friend.

 

By raising Lazarus from the dead Jesus has graduated from a slight nuisance to a serious threat. His days are numbered and he knows it. When he arrives at his friends’ house in Bethany, they can see it on his face.

 

As with the last time Jesus was in Bethany, Martha waited on him while Mary sat at his side. Jesus was happy to eat and drink in the company of friends, likely trying to forget about what is to come, even if only for a moment.

 

Emotionally and physically spent, Jesus takes solace in the company of his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. They care for him, shutting out the world for this one night at least.

 

Then something beautiful happened. Something so unexpected and so special that it has become one of our most beloved stories.

It happened right before the Passover, in this lovely little house that is a safe place for Jesus.

 

Mary takes a pound of expensive perfume that would cost a years’ wages, lets her hair fall, and begins to wash the feet of Jesus. She is weeping, kissing Jesus’ feet, anointing his feet with the perfume as a gesture of deepest love, and drying his feet with her long hair.

 

In the middle of this tender and emotional scene, a spoilsport by the name of Judas, the keeper of the money purse, the man who sold Jesus to the Pharisees for 30 pieces of silver, grumbles that the gesture being made by Mary is a waste of money and the perfume should have been sold and given to the poor.

 

Jesus defends Mary by declaring that she is to be left alone because she is anointing him for his burial.

 

Isn’t that a beautiful story? Many of the actions in this short little story are unexpected.

 

It was unexpected that someone would use such a costly amount of perfume to clean someone’s feet.

 

It was unexpected that Jesus would dampen the mood by talking about his death.

 

And it was unexpected that he would engage in an argument over dinner with one of his disciples.

 

At the centre of it is Mary. From a previous story, we remember that Mary was complimented by Jesus for sitting at his feet and listening to him. After her brother had died, she was the one who ran out to Jesus and wept at his feet.

 

Mary was the listener, the emotional one, and the sensitive soul.

 

The way that Mary cares for Jesus in this story is quite unexpected in many ways. As everyone in the room watches her, she does four remarkable things in a row.

 

In a radical departure from appropriate custom, she let her hair down, her hair that had been tightly braided around her head. Women’s loose hair was perceived as being sensual by men in Galilean culture, as it is still true in some segments of present-day society.

 

Then she pours perfume on Jesus’ feet, a product usually reserved for anointing kings and new priests and then only on their head. And this wasn’t just any old perfume. No, this was perfume worth 300 denarii, valued at 300 days of labour. It was expensive.

 

Mary’s gesture with her expensive perfume appears as an exaggerated expression of hospitality.  At formal dinner parties, when guests reclined at table, and feet which had walked through the filthy streets were not hidden under the table, a slave would wash their feet; only, this household had no slave to do it.

 

In that time and place, it was taboo for a man to be touched by a woman. Normally a woman would only touch her husband and children, and only in private. But here Mary rubs Jesus’ feet in front of everyone. She doesn’t have a slave, so she did the job herself.

 

She wipes the perfume off with her hair, an inexplicable and bizarre act that was also a most loving and tender gesture, so intimate that it made everyone in the room feel uncomfortable.

 

Why does she do all of this? We know that Mary loves Jesus but was she so moved that she would make all sorts of cultural faux-pas?

 

Well, yes, in fact, she does love him that much. Mary’s act of devotion is such an ‘in the moment’ act of utter devotion.

 

As a household with connections to Jerusalem, Mary would have had inside information as to what was about to happen to Jesus, that plans were underway to arrest and execute him.

 

She would also know that crucifixion would be the method of choice by the Romans as their intention is to kill belief in Jesus as well as any further movement by his followers.

 

And she would be fully aware that this form of death does not allow for a proper burial with proper anointing of the body. Often the bodies of the crucified were left on the cross for the birds and animals to eat the flesh, with the remains later thrown into a pit.

 

Mary knew that Jesus was destined for something of singular significance, and she took it upon herself to prepare his body for it in the most extravagant way.

 

It is Jesus alone that Mary attends to, and she takes it up a notch by anointing instead of washing — and not his head or his body, but his feet.

 

Any act of anointing (of the head or the body) acknowledges and affirms something about the person being anointed.

 

Feet, in Hebrew culture, were the body’s means of taking action, of proceeding with intent; thus, in anointing Jesus’ feet, Mary open-heartedly affirms Jesus’ campaign.

 

Judas, by contrast, has serious doubts about Jesus’ campaign, and cannot imagine why it should be affirmed in such a categorical way.

 

But Jesus knew why. Mary was anointing Jesus for his burial.

 

Everything around Mary in this story is full of significance. Judas, the betrayer of Jesus, strongly argued against what Mary was doing for Jesus.

 

The flask of nard was from the funeral for Lazarus.

 

A freshly vacated tomb still smelling of burial spices was out in the yard waiting for a new occupant.

 

Mary could have anointed Jesus’ head and proclaimed him a king. He was already known as the king of the Jews after all.

 

But instead she fell at Jesus’ feet as if she knew something that others didn’t. She knew he was about to die so she dropped to her knees and poured perfume on his feet.  Only dead men had their feet anointed. To Jesus, this was a sign from God that his time was up.

 

Jesus traded his life for that of Lazarus and Mary was anointing him for his burial.

 

In contrast to Judas’ disloyalty and dishonesty, Mary overrides cultural norms to show a shocking intimacy of loyalty, trust, and love towards Jesus.

 

And Jesus defends her actions, declaring that her special affection for him was good and appropriate, no matter what Judas or anyone else had to say about it.

 

Jesus loved what Mary did for him. Not because she anointed his feet with expensive perfume or dried his feet with her hair, but because all of these simple gestures were symbols that she truly loved Jesus in a deep way.

 

For Jesus, women are more than sexual objects and child-rearing machines. That’s why Jesus does not have a problem with being touched by women, seeing them with their hair down, with women talking to men or being active with their bodies and alive in their senses. In short, in the Reign of God women are equal at the intellectual level, at the salary level, and at all levels.                          

 

We all know that God works in mysterious ways. God also loves to do the unexpected with, for, and through unexpected people.

 

Sarah wasn’t expected to have children and yet founded a dynasty.

 

Moses wasn’t expected to lead the Israelites to freedom.

 

The shepherd boy David was never expected to be king.

 

People expected the Messiah to look like King David. Instead, they got a carpenter born to a young virgin.

 

The crowds who followed Jesus expected him to throw out the Romans. Instead, the Romans crucified Jesus.

 

Jesus’ followers thought his death meant the end when really it was only the beginning.

 

So, who’s next? Who is the next unexpected person God will work through?

 

Is it me? Is it you? Look to your left and right. Is it one of them?

 

God is about to use any one of us at any time for anything.

 

Maybe your neighbor needs some extra care or a listening ear. Or maybe a child needs help resisting peer pressure at school.

 

We won’t know until it happens. All we know is that God is regularly in the business of surprising us with where God shows up, whom God uses, and what God accomplishes.

 

Sarah was chosen and she said yes.

 

Moses was chosen and he said yes.

 

David was chosen and he said yes.

 

Mary was chosen and she said yes.

 

If you are chosen, what will be your answer?

 

The circumstances surrounding and the events occurring during Mary’s anointment of Jesus is symbolic and yet unexpected.

 

As we approach Good Friday, Jesus’ death is foreshadowed by his anointing by Mary, the sister of Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead.

 

Mary may have been the only disciple in the room who truly comprehended what was to come in the next days. As she anoints his feet, clearly she is foreshadowing what custom would soon entail.

 

While Mary saved that pound of pure nard for the day of Jesus' burial, she anointed him while he was still alive. Mary anointed Jesus for continued love and service. And for sacrifice.

           

As she lovingly prepares him for death, then finally for burial, she grieves openly and shares in his suffering.

 

Jesus traded his life for that of his best friend, Lazarus. And it was Lazarus’ sister who anoints Jesus for his burial.

 

Judas is uncomfortable with Mary’s display of devotion. Where Mary gives, Judas hoards. Where Mary sacrifices financially, Judas seeks self-benefit.

 

And yet, what Judas critiques as waste is, in fact, the greatest gift that Mary can give. Not expensive perfume or money but the offering of her very life, stripped of all masks, given in service to Christ.

 

Can we say we could be as Mary? Can we give everything we have to God? Can we be God’s unexpected person through which God accomplishes awesome things?

 

Only you can answer that for yourself.

 

Amen.





Resources
pulpitfiction.com
katebowler.com

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

A Year-Long Journey Through the Sermon on the Mount: Week 12


Chapter 12 – Persecution

 

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:10)

 

As popular a religion it is now, being Christian wasn’t always so easy. The first followers of Christ were persecuted, prosecuted, and executed for worshiping someone other than Caesar, for following the teachings of someone outside the empire, and for believing that Jesus had risen from the dead bringing in a new age.

 

In our society here in North America, Christianity is at the top of the social, political, and cultural hierarchy. Our federal holidays are based on Christian tradition. It wasn’t that long ago school days began with the Lord’s Prayer. Only recently Sundays stopped being the one day everything was closed – stores, businesses, etc – on the expectation that everyone was going to church. We are no longer persecuted for being Christian. So, what does Matthew 5:10 have to do with us, you might ask.

 

Popular Christianity seems to be moving away from Jesus’ teachings at an alarming rate. Caring for the poor, having empathy for the stranger, and bringing mercy to the oppressed are considered aspects of “woke” culture rather than the basis of the Christian faith. We confess our sins and ask forgiveness on Sunday while not doing the work of repentance from Monday to Saturday. We preach helping the poor and caring for our neighbour while also calling for the end of social services and gender-affirming medical care.

 

In this week’s chapter, Gene Davenport states, “To ignore the call to bear witness in the midst of the darkness is to allow the darkness to go unchallenged, unresisted.” He also says, “The Gospel calls disciples to insert themselves into the darkness as bearers of the light.” So maybe Christians are being persecuted after all, because those Christians who continue to care for the marginalized, stand up for human rights, and call out injustices are being called woke, leftish, socialist, and, incredibly, anti-Christian.

 

Jesus calls us to challenge and resist the darkness, to be bearers of light. Not for self-gains, but to create a world where everyone has the right to live peacefully as themselves and as a community. Just as in the beginning of his ministry and of his followers’ declarations of the Gospel following his resurrection, we must be willing to risk persecution as we continue the work of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ – that we are called to love God and love neighbour as God loves us; that we are called to protect the innocent and the vulnerable; and that we are called to stand up against injustice.

 

It's worth the risk.

Wednesday, March 26, 2025

A Review of the Book "In The Dark We Forget" by Sandra SG Wong


Title
: In The Dark We Forget
Author: Sandra SG Wong
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Year: 2022
349 pages

From the Back: When a woman wakes up with amnesia beside a mountain highway, confused and alone, she fights to regain her identity, only to learn that her parents have disappeared - not long after her mother bought a winning $47 million lottery ticket.
    As her memories painfully resurface and the police uncover details of her parents' mysterious disappearance, Cleo Li finds herself under increasing suspicion. Even with the unwavering support of her brother, she can't quite reconcile her fears with reality or keep the harrowing nightmares at bay.
    As Cleo delves deeper for the truth, she cannot escape the nagging sense that maybe the person she should be afraid of...is herself.

Personal Thoughts: This book has all the makings for an excellent thriller. The main character, Cleo, has amnesia and could be either victim or suspect. Pages filled with suspenseful interactions with investigators and people she doesn't remember. A mystery working itself out chapter by chapter, quickly becoming a page-turner. And then it ends, completely and utterly underwhelmingly. By the end of the book, everything was predictable and I didn't feel like there was anything that got truly wrapped up. It was an ending, yes, but I was expecting so much more as I was reading through the story. It felt like the author ran out of ideas of where to take the story and copped out for a simple finale. I wouldn't necessarily say don't read it, most of the book was really good, but just don't be surprised when you get the final chapter and suddenly it's just over.

Monday, March 24, 2025

A Year-Long Journey Through the Sermon on the Mount: Week 11


Chapter 11 – Peacemaking

 

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Matt 5:9)

 

I’ve always thought myself to be a peacekeeper. I dislike arguments, or when people are fighting. Conflict makes me uncomfortable. I has once considered joining the military, but I couldn’t imagine firing a gun at anyone or being shot at, for that matter. Besides all of that, God’s commandments to us are based on love – love God and love your neighbour. Well how can you love your neighbour while also fighting with them?

 

According to John Dear, when Jesus calls us to be peacemakers, he means that “we cannot support war, participate in war, pay for war, promote war, or wage war. A peacemaker works to end war and create peace.” (63) While I don’t disagree with this notion of a peacemaker, and that overall nothing good comes from war, there are reasons to fight back – against oppression, against racism, against, homophobia and transphobia, against anything that puts a person as less than another person.

 

The second half of this beatitude states that peacemakers will be children of God. We are all children of God, and we all deserve space in this world. But does rolling over and taking what’s handed to us bring us closer to being children of God? By declaring oneself to be a pacifist and not willing to fight back, doesn’t that take away from loving the neighbour?

 

Again, I say, nothing good comes from war. But a peacemaker shouldn’t be seen as someone who stand idly by while God’s creation is destroyed. A peacemaker is someone willing to stand up for their fellow human being, to fight for their right to exist, and to come to their defense when being attacked. Does this resistance need to be violent? No, but too often a peacemaker is viewed as someone unwilling to go into battle for their neighbour.

 

I think it’s time we reenvisioned what it means to be a peacemaker.

Friday, March 21, 2025

Believe and Repent: A Sermon for the Third Sunday in Lent


May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, for you are our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

 

We often feel as if we are waiting for God. Waiting for God to come. Waiting for God to act. Waiting for God to do something. Just waiting. Waiting for something! Maybe just waiting for a sign – for a sign from God.

 

The people Jesus is talking to this morning have just asked him about a sign. Just a few verses previously, they have asked him how to interpret the times they are living in. What is God really up to? He just looks at them and says: “You have no difficulty knowing that when you see the sign of clouds that it is going to rain. And you have no difficulty knowing that when you feel the sign of the south wind that it is going to get hot. How can you not know what is going on? God's reign is breaking into this world – and you can't see it? Watch for it!”

 

So, then the people think for a moment and say: "Okay: how about when those Galileans were killed by Pilate: Is that a sign of God's punishing them for their sins? Is that how God works? Is that how God rules in this world, through powerful, evil tyrants punishing people? Is that how God deals with human sinfulness and waywardness?"

 

I can picture Jesus just shaking his head and saying something like, “Of course that’s not what I’m talking about!” But it would have been natural for those people following Jesus – and it is natural for us – to think that God is at work in the world punishing the sinful and rewarding the good. When we're confronted by bad news, it is always tempting to wonder, "Why is God doing this to me?" or "Why is God doing this to a person I love?" It’s difficult to pick up a newspaper or turn on the television without encountering vivid and often excruciating details of the latest tragedy that has befallen innocent victims. “Why has this terrible thing happened to such innocent people?” we often ask.

 

Those Galileans must have done something to deserve to be killed, right?

That person who got diagnosed with cancer – it’s all part of God’s plan, right?

There’s a divine purpose to these terrible things are happening in the world, right?

 

But this isn’t God's work. This isn’t God's punishment for sin. Jesus implies we are all wayward, we are all missing the mark with our lives in some way, so really if that is the way God really works, we should all be punished all of the time in the same way those Galileans were.

 

Life is beautiful, unpredictable, and fragile. Having good things happen doesn’t mean you are any more blessed by God than others. And more bad things happening doesn’t mean God intends for you to suffer. Jesus tells us that punishment is not a sign of God's inbreaking reign.

 

The truth is that the Galileans died because of a corrupt Empire that ruled through violence and intimidation. The truth is that some people get cancer and some don’t. So then, if it’s not blessings and punishment, what is a sign that God is reigning?

 

As usual, Jesus tells a story. There was an orchard owner who became impatient with a fig tree in his orchard; it was bearing no fruit. So, he ordered the gardener to cut it down. "Sir," says the gardener, "let it alone. Let's care for the tree and treat it well and give it one more year to produce some fruit." There, says Jesus: there is the clue to interpreting the present time.

 

We need to believe in second chances, that we are all given, by God, the grace of a second chance to become what we were created to be: lovers of God, lovers of our neighbours, lovers of justice, and caretakers of creation. This is the good news! This is the sign of God's activity in the world: mercy, patience, and grace! In this season of Lent, we are called to face our mortality and brokenness, called to repent. Perhaps we might also hear the good news that God is calling us to a deep mercy which brings new life where none could be previously found.

 

In Jesus' view, grace is expressed in the gift God extends to us to change, to repent, to have a change of heart, to change the direction of our lives, to return to the Lord, so that we are travelling in the same direction God is travelling. We all need to repent, to change, to become the loving people God intends us to be, to turn towards God who is creating, sustaining, and reclaiming the world.

 

Our sinfulness will lead to death not because God is a punishing God but simply because that is the way of things: sinfulness is damaging to ourselves, damaging to one another, and damaging to creation. So, God extends us grace, waits for us to change, and continues to nurture our change by simply loving us as we are: sometimes barren, sometimes broken people.

 

We think that we are the ones waiting for God. But it turns out, God is the one patiently waiting for us: waiting for us to turn, to change, and to have a change of heart and a change of direction. Waiting for us to produce good loving fruit from being lovingly nurtured. Waiting for us to produce fruit that is nurturing for others.

 

In the story, in our translation, the gardener says to the owner, "Let [the tree] alone." But what he actually says in Greek is, "Forgive it." The word Jesus uses in the story here is exactly the same word he will use later in Luke's Gospel when, from the cross, he looks down at those who have put him there, and says, "Forgive them, Father."

 

Forgiveness is the expression of grace in the gift of time to allow the other to change. Extend to them the grace of time to change, to bear good fruit. The story is about grace expressed in the gift of time. But the story is also about fertilizing that barren tree with love and care. There is waiting and patience, for sure, but there is also active tending and loving. God is at work. God is always working. And God is at work, even now, through you.

 

If you want to know how God is active in the world, do not look to violence and tragedy – look to God's work in bringing about healing, and justice, and reconciliation. Those are the real signs of the times. That is how God is bringing about God's rule of love and justice and peace in the world. And all God asks of us is to repent, to turn away from harm and suffering and back to God, who loves us and cares for us more deeply than we can ever know. God does not wish to see us harmed, which is why God calls us to a repentant life.

 

Let us pray, in the words of Saint Francis, who had much to say about a repentant spiritual life:

 

Lord, make us instruments of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let us sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is discord, union;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and

it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

 

Amen.






Resources
katebowler.com
pulpitfiction.com
Reverend Michael Kurtz, First Lutheran, Winnipeg