Sermons from the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

What kind of Christians are we? Throughout Easter we've been focusing on these readings from the Book of Acts. We've been preaching from that space and we've been listening to these stories of the early church and the first believers and how they became the church.

And it's been a little bit uncomfortable for us, Episcopalians, because we're hearing stories of people going out and sharing their faith lives openly and actively with other people. And if there's any kind of Christians, we aren't, it's often those kinds of Christians. The kinds who are going out and making believers.

And I do get that, I'm one of us. I like to tease our people and myself even, but I get that. I get why we try to distance ourselves from that kind of evangelism. Because many of us have been raised up in a place where we were taught that a Christian's job is to believe exactly the right things and act exactly the right way so that we go to heaven when we die, instead of going to hell and burning eternally forever.

And therefore, when we see people who aren't part of the thing that we're a part of, we are taught to worry about them. They're not like us and that's a cause of concern for us, and for them. We're taught to hold people who believe things differently at a distance, to fear. And if we're charitable and loving in Christ's name, to work really hard to change their minds. We like to get people to believe what we believe and call that a conversion experience. This is what we're taught, not Episcopalians, Christians, like so many of us are taught to be like this.

This is a deeply unhealthy way of experiencing other people...

This sheet comes down. Peter sees all these animals that he's supposed to stay away from. And the voice from above from God says, Peter kill and eat. And Peter says, no, absolutely not. He thinks, you're testing me. I know this one. I don't get to eat those things.

Three times this happened. And three times Peter says, no, I know the rules. And God speaks from above and says ‘nothing that God has made clean is unclean.’ And again, we're not talking about God's scrubbing.

You have said, these things are not worthy of nourishment. They are not worthy of being presented as a sacrifice. Blessing is not in them, but I am telling you, there is blessing and nourishment and power here too. Don't lose sight of that. Don't miss what's right in front of you. That's easy enough for us.

As Christians and as Gentiles, we often take this reading simply to mean one or two things, perhaps. Now we get to eat bacon, cool, thanks God. But we have this issue as Christians, where we treat the dietary restrictions that are presented before us of God's people, we treat them as true as unthinkable.

We diminish the faithfulness of our Israelite ancestors and of people of contemporary society in our faith, in our lives. Now, many of our Jewish siblings and many siblings from other faiths across the world have very specific dietary restrictions...

...we now hear of another potential crisis and the overturning of protection for women's autonomy, and their health and reproductive decisions. There is a temptation for us to stand back because there are simply too many crises. There are too many things that seem to be falling apart and we may choose to stand back, particularly if we don't feel that we're going to be directly impacted by what's going on.

I hear that voice in myself sometimes. It's a voice to reassure me, it'll be okay, because I'm not being directly impacted. But immediately hearing that voice, I hear that other voice. That voice of Jesus reminding me that I am called to witness and serve, to love my neighbor as myself to strive for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every human being. I hear that voice.

And regardless of our age, our gender, our orientation, our race or ethnicity, our politics, we are called to walk a path of love together. We are called to do that. I am certain, we have many different views, some passionately held about the most recent issue regarding women's reproductive rights. We can talk personal views and experiences, religious beliefs, beliefs of various traditions. We can talk about science and laws and even politics. In this beloved community we can discuss and respect differing views.

What is central for me is a person's autonomy in making well-informed, compassionate, and prayerful choices for their own body and their own life circumstance. I believe that any human being identifying however they do, has the right to have their autonomy regarding their bodies; that autonomy protected.

I don't have a great story where Jesus knocked me down and blinded me and then said, get your act together, DeVaul. That didn't happen. But this Sunday, this year, I'm out there, I'm watching those folks and I'm standing with some of you and we're ringing bells and we're cheering people on. And I see the truth.

It's not like, ‘oh, this is a good thing, or, oh, what a wonderful day for our city,’ although those things are true. I'm literally seeing Christ run by me over and over and over again, Christ himself. Wearing a little funny pig hat and a bib and running along or speed walking right in front of me. That's Christ.

And then I look around and I got a bunch of my friends here, ringing bells and yelling, happy things at people and, oh my gosh, I'm surrounded by Christ. Why haven't I seen it? Did I have eyes to see Christ all around me? And then you'll never believe what happened? I rang a bell and I was cheering. And guess what for just a moment, guess who I got to be? Christ.

I got to embody the truth of who God is in this world. Just like you did, and just like they are. And for a moment, all of what we think about what's good and what's bad. All this stuff melted away. And I was in the presence of holiness.

God, doesn't knock Saul off the horse in order to make him a better person. He doesn't do it to try to teach him a lesson. This isn't a fable. This is a story of transformation. Saul goes from seeing people as threats and obstacles to seeing people as the very embodiment of Christ in the world.

So many folks are feeling isolated, lonely, even despair. Many are finding that the comfort they once might have found in a faith tradition, no longer works for them in the complexity, and with which they understand life today. So many are feeling threatened by actions being taken to curtail their rights, their freedoms.

And so many are experiencing the devastation of aggression of violence, even war. Bearing witness to following Jesus and becoming beloved community is needed now desperately, and we are called. I find a helpful reference point for me in terms of this question of witness is our baptismal covenant and the vows we make.

Will you continue in the apostles teaching and fellowship and the breaking of bread and prayers? Will you persevere in resisting evil and repent? Will you proclaim by word and example the good news of God and Christ? Will you seek to serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? Will you strive for justice and peace among all people respecting the dignity of every human being?

That's a beautiful ground from which we can begin to witness. And when we make those vows, we always say them, I will with God's help. I will with God's help because it is not easy, but we can with God’s help.

I'm a very cynical person. You don't know that. Cause I get up here and talk about love, which I believe in. But the power of love is something that has overcome me and has to fight daily with my cynicism. So for instance, you know, you'll meet people who have kids, or maybe they're a teacher that teaches and they go like, man, those kids teach me more than I'll ever teach them.

I'm like, well, that's not true. You taught them math. You’re way smarter. I get really cynical about this idea because I'm up here in my head thinking you have a set of information that you are imparting to these people. What I forget is how much we learn, how much we learned from people, not just sets of data, but what we learned from people by simply sharing life with them.

Other than the names of dinosaurs, my eight-year-old son has taught me nothing. Like I was, when I was in school, I have probably forgotten all the names of dinosaurs unless they were in the Jurassic Park movie, I still remember those. Except, he needs me to slow down sometimes and listen to him. I don't like to slow down; I want to go. He doesn't say, oh, father, I need you to slow down because you're moving at a pace that I can't handle, and I need you to work with me in a different way. That doesn't happen, but I love him. And so, I'm learning how to slow down and listen differently.

I'm learning because I'm willing to listen differently and listen to someone that I wasn't ready to learn from before. Who do we assume we know all about, and we don't need to learn from who are we not listening to? And I don't just mean listening to the words they have to say. Although that is part of it. I also mean who could be transforming our lives for love if only we’d let them. If the male disciples had just believed what the female disciples had said, their lives would have been transformed that much sooner.

What happened to Jesus is not far from us today. Innocent lives are lost in systems of domination and oppression again and again. Fear and mistrust breed, war and violence, and the impulse for domination and supremacy keep us separated from one another and from God.

The Passion of Jesus should not leave you today saying, oh, look at this terrible thing that happened thousands of years ago.

It should leave you searching for how and why humanity continues to walk this way today.

It should not leave you placing blame on them, the Jews who killed Jesus. It should find you searching for how you yourself participate in societies and structures that take the breath of life from the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized and the forsaken right now.

Palm Sunday has a way of allowing us to enter into the story, both as those who waved palms in joyous procession, along the way, and saying glory to God. And also, as those who shouted, crucify him, crucify him.

I am grateful year after year for this juxtaposition, because truly we are both. We today in many ways, simultaneously with our lives, honor God with songs of praise. And also vilify Christ who interrupts our systems of comfort and security.

In today's Gospel Mary's devotion to Jesus is seen and felt by all present.In the story, Judas’ devotion may be visible as well, but it is probably not a devotion of giving to the poor. It may be more to keeping the common purse and perhaps lining his own. So, how do we identify with this story? To what and whom are we devoted and how do we express that devotion? The word devotion just kept coming to me with this story. And I think it came to me even more so because I've witnessed so much devotion in recent weeks...

I was away in Florida with my family earlier this past week and witnessed again, my son Ryan's devotion to his dad. His dad lives in Chicago and he has significant physical and cognitive problems and he needs assistance at times throughout the day. My son lives in Utah, but he's practiced at keeping this communication. But we were all in Florida and this time his dad had gotten himself into a jam that he didn't know how to remedy...

So, of course, his first call is to his son and I witnessed Ryan by the pool in Florida, calmly and patiently walk him through possible options and try to help empower him as to how he might fix this himself. And from my side of overhearing the call, I could tell that he didn't feel able to do any of those things.

And so Ryan then very quickly shifted gears and made all the calls that were necessary to get the help that was needed in Chicago. In minutes, help with on the way. As I've shared before this devotion between father and son did not grow out of nothing, but out of years of calls and love expressed. The devotion, his father gave him so faithfully, has been returned with love and generosity beyond measure.

The Gospel today is drawing us back to one another and we know it, we know it. This is why our overwhelming sense, When we hear this story, our overwhelming feeling is of the magnificent love that runs towards us, even when we're not sure who we are and the beauty and the power of the story is that even though the sons don't know, they belong, the father never stops loving them.

Even when the two sons don't acknowledge each other, the father sees them both as beloved son. Even when both of them are completely incapable when neither of them are able to see each other or see their father or see themselves as in true and loving relationship, the father sees it and knows it and lives it and holds onto them when they can't hold onto him when they can't hold onto eachother.

This is the story of our God, the God who will not let go of us, the God who will not let us go, who will hold onto us and transform us and make us know our belonging and help us to see the power and the beauty of the belonging of all the people all around us. And if we have eyes to see it and ears to hear it, we will know our belongingness and we will allow ourselves to be transformed by God's love as we experience it in our hearts.

The other morning, I got into my nice dependable car, it's a Toyota, but it has leather seats. And I drove to the grocery store and I hit zero potholes on Paxton avenue and I rolled the windows down and I played some Louie Armstrong on the radio and I filled my car with gas, and I didn't even calculate how many miles I'm getting to the gallon these days. I rolled on over to that Kroger entrance. And it just so happened that the best parking spot in the whole lot was open right there waiting for me.

I mean, man, I must be living right? Then there were frappuccino samples at the Starbucks counter, right when I walked in the door, streams in the desert. I mean, seriously, you guys, am I a saint or something? ...

I love that Luke is there to let us wonder more deeply about what makes for good fruit. Because without the parable, it's easy to assume that we're the good guys and they're the bad guys and good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. And the world is really pretty black and white. And I like that narrative because it's so safe for me. It's safe for me to think like that.

Because things can get really messy in the Gospel. Things can get messy when I have to admit that my dad was friends with that salesman at the Toyota dealership and the potholes on Paxton avenue got fixed right after a rich guy made a call.

And I can feel like I totally get Louie Armstrong, even though I have never walked a day in this city with black skin.

Things can get messy when gas prices soar, and we have to contemplate our dependence on a non-renewable foreign source.

Things can get really messy when pure dumb luck got me that parking spot at Kroger, when a single mom with five kids and three jobs will never get that spot because she does not have the luxury of going to the grocery store at 2:00 PM on a Tuesday.

...if they can get him to see that even Herod wants him dead, maybe he'll finally get on the right side and be a Pharisee. Yeah. The Pharisees placed before Jesus, a binary, which one are you?

Are you one of us, are you one of them? Who are you? And Jesus with his very strong language rejects that binary. And we have to see that part of the reason Jesus is killed is, he rejects the binary that is put before him. Which side are you on? Pick a side. Are you one of the Pharisees? Are you one of the Herodians? Where are you on this? And Jesus chooses a third way.

He moves in a different direction. Now, Episcopalians, historically, we love this idea. We love the idea of Jesus choosing a third way. Oftentimes we love it because it allows us not to proclaim out loud what we actually think about things. We can stay neutral. Jesus didn't pick sides. Neither should I have to. This is bad theology and we've been practicing it for a long time. Jesus is not neutral.

We are not Jesus. We carried the Spirit within us and we may try always to follow the Holy Spirit's guidance, but we are human and fallible and with God's grace, forgiving and forgiven. What temptations might we encounter this Lenten season and how might we respond?..

Do we have new ways of being or doing that we want to lean into, and yet yield to the temptation of fear, resistance or self doubt? Do we witness the pain and suffering in the world and feel the temptation to withdrawal, to look away? We have temptations. We have options. Hopefully we pray and listen for guidance. Hopefully we seek always to follow the path of love, but we have temptations and options.

The people of Ukraine are facing gut-wrenching options, moment to moment. To fight to defend their freedom, their homes, their country, or to flee against the invasion, that's been violently and unjustly hoisted upon them. Options to try to salvage anything of all they have built, or to retreat for another opening. And not all have such options.

We are seeing such remarkable courage and devastating suffering amid, such unthinkable circumstances. Most of the people of the world, including some very brave souls in Russia are watching and feeling the limitations of their, of our options. Desiring to send clear signals of opposition and condemnation, with sanctions and demonstrations, seeking to provide humanitarian support, wanting to avoid any action that will exacerbate the situation and lead to more escalation.

...before Jesus knocked him off, his horse made him blind, gave him his sight back and woke him up to the reality of God and his life. We might say, oh, he used to be Jewish and now he's Christian. But what Paul's really struggling with is he used to be kind of awful to other people and now he's trying to center his life on love.

He used to believe that it was okay to hate and marginalize and even harm other people for believing the wrong thing. And he believed there was nothing more important than following the rules. And if we could all just get it together and follow the rules and have a pure religion and a pure culture and a pure society, if we could just do that, then maybe we'd see God's glory.

This is how Paul thought. And he's just been knocked down by the truth. The truth of Jesus Christ, which is that love is here and now found, present in the people around. And so he's struggling with that. He's struggling with his own past...

We were just trying to get to the end, of this pandemic. And now we're in the midst of really doing our best simply to pray and hope that we're not about to enter into a war. This is a scary time and a hard time to be a person. And I did not get any degrees in geopolitics and no matter how much time I spend on the internet, I seem still not to be. So, I'm not going to try to solve all that with a couple of nice words about how if we just loved each other, we could get along because I love a lot of people and it doesn't mean we all get along.

I will say this. I was raised during the cold war and I was raised to believe certain things about our enemies. I was raised to think of them in less than human. And if you are paying attention to all that's going on in Russia and Ukraine, one of the things that you can be aware of is that these Russian soldiers are being told things about Ukrainians that are not true about who they are as people, when we hide ourselves, unveil ourselves from the truth of who one another is, and we don't pay attention to the glory and the beauty in one another's humanity, everything breaks down.

Paul invites his church into thinking about the resurrection as something completely different. He doesn't say you go into the ground broken and are raised up fixed. He says, you go into the ground, a seed, like one that is planted. And when you're raised up, it's like something new, a new life, a new growth that is blossoming into being.

He compares this as Jesus did in his ministry. He compares this understanding of death and resurrection, not to something being broken down and then put back together not to something that was needed to be fixed and is finally fixed. Paul and Jesus, both described death and resurrection as a seed, going into the ground and being transformed into a plant.

Something that was becomes something new. Still has that essence of what was carried within the seed, just like you and I will bear the souls that have become immortal by the power of God. But to try to conceive of what we will be when we are raised up again. It's sort of like a seed, trying to understand what it'll look like after it comes back out of the ground, something completely new, something completely different is happening.

We talk about Martin Luther King Jr. now, as if it's obvious. He's this beloved figure that everyone points to. In fact, whenever there is strife in our time, we point to him, especially white people, point to him and say, why can't it be more like him. Except when he was doing what he was doing, guess what they called him? A radical and an extremist.

You may be familiar with the letter from Birmingham Jail that he wrote while in jail for protesting peacefully. You may not know that that letter was a response, much like all the great Epistles we read on Sundays, like Paul's letter is a response to his congregation in Corinth. Dr. King's letter was a response to a group of clergy in Alabama. Six clergy people signed that letter, two of them, Episcopal bishops. And they said, look, we're with you on principle, but let's not be unreasonable, shall we? The letter that they wrote was called, ‘A Call for Unity’.

I want to call for unity. I want us to be united. I want us to be on the same page. I don't want to be considered extreme. I'm scared of some of the extreme things we've seen happening in this country, they terrified me. But I'm convicted by the reality that people like us have so often been extreme about being reasonable and moderate and not been willing to be extremists for Jesus. And I don't mean going out and harming people in Jesus name. I mean, the way Dr. King said, if you want to call me an extremist, call me an extremist for love. May love be the truth of my life. And may it change the way that I live.

Listen to Dr. Mark Jefferson of the Virginia Theological Seminary deliver part 4 of a 4 part series on Sunday, February 6, at Church of the Redeemer.

This sermon is part of Rev. Dr. Mark Jefferson's 200 sermon series to commemorate the 200th anniversary of VTS.

Listen to Dr. Mark Jefferson of the Virginia Theological Seminary deliver part 2 of a 4 part series on Sunday, February 6, at Church of the Redeemer.

This sermon is part of Rev. Dr. Mark Jefferson's 200 sermon series to commemorate the 200th anniversary of VTS.

Listen to Dr. Mark Jefferson of the Virginia Theological Seminary deliver part 3 of a 4 part series on Sunday, February 6, at Church of the Redeemer.

This sermon is part of Rev. Dr. Mark Jefferson's 200 sermon series to commemorate the 200th anniversary of VTS.

Listen to Dr. Mark Jefferson of the Virginia Theological Seminary deliver part 1 of a 4 part series on Sunday, February 6, at Church of the Redeemer.

This sermon is part of Rev. Dr. Mark Jefferson's 200 sermon series to commemorate the 200th anniversary of VTS.

These continue to be unusual times. Times that disrupt our complacency and routine, even beyond the pandemic, which may be the greatest disruptor of all...We find disruption in the Gospel reading today from Luke when Jesus is at the synagogue. And he tells the people present that today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Those were the ending words on last week's reading of the Gospel, and they are the starting words here this week...the words that follow enraged the crowd. Jesus’ presence has been something that they marvel at. Didn’t they know him? Didn't they know his parents? And then his words that a prophet gets without honor in his own hometown, that puts it in a whole different place. And pretty soon they're trying to drive him out of the town over the cliff, total disruption. I can imagine that synagogue was a buzz for weeks and weeks if not months to come.