Good Shepherd,
Berkeley 6/29/14
Our Gospel passage follows the sending out of the twelve
apostles, with many instructions and warnings. Cast out unclean spirits, says
Jesus, cure every disease, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, He doesn’t ask
much. But Jesus also warns, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of
the Samaritans. Go, rather, only to the lost tribe of Israel.”
I am sending you, he says, like sheep into the midst of
wolves. It seems the disciples are being sent out into a very bad neighborhood
indeed.
Then comes the good news: Jesus talks a lot about welcoming.
He says: “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes
the one who sent me.” He goes on to say, that whoever offers even a cup of cold
water to the disciple, (one of these little ones, he calls them) will never
lose their reward.” God will be with them.
Our Old Testament passage is one of the most disturbing and
puzzling of them all. Here, a little one is offered not water, but fire. Abraham
is instructed by God to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac. As the story
progresses, the son seems to be happily accompanying his father, carrying the
wood obediently on his back, only asking finally where the lamb is that they
are to sacrifice. We cannot know if Abraham betrayed any emotion when he simply
says, “God will provide the lamb.”
Like the twelve disciples, we here at Good Shepherd, have
been sent out. Like Jesus, the Holy Spirit blasted us out into the wilderness
for a forced discernment, just after our baptism of fire. And like Abraham, a
great sacrifice has been asked of us. We
had been very comfortable in a gorgeous interior space for a very long time. But
that dear space was sacrificed. We were forced into a long exile- an exile
during which we worshiped in the same place as the great weekly Friday lunch gathering
of our brothers and sisters of the outside world, of every tribe.
These guests are not from the tribe of Israel, although many
could be identified as lost sheep. We had to begin to notice that our church
community was fed in the building on Sunday at 11:00 and the neighborhood was
fed at 12:00 on Fridays. But as I have noted, our Episcopal force field lowered
to unprecedented levels, and some of the Friday guests and their friends even began
to join us on Sundays.
We were sent out. Out of our comfort zone- out to a new place
where we saw who we really were. And even more than simply worshipping in our
parish hall, we were sent out to be the church outside, not just welcoming from
the inside.
Even just by worshipping here in the parish hall, we were
suddenly sent out into the neighborhood, and the neighborhood welcomed us.
I went on another Night Walk Against Gun Violence week before
last. This one was based out of McGee Ave Baptist Church. We literally went out into the neighborhood,
as this community of Good Shepherd, with so many others did last October, and
we, too were hardily welcomed. As we gathered in a circle of prayer at the spot
where yet another person had been shot, a woman came running out of her house
in her bare feet, towing her two young sons along, just to tell us how grateful
she was that we cared about the neighborhood. One young man even followed us
back into the church. At the debriefing afterwards, there were three African
American speakers- three Abrahams who are not willing to sacrifice any more
Isaacs. The first one, Pastor Michael Smith, told a story about a conversation
he had with a person he kindly referred to as a “street pharmacist.” He asked
the man, “How is it that you get the trust of these young people? Why do they
come to you for solutions?”
The dope dealer (my less compassionate term) said to him, “When
the kids go to school in the morning at 8:00AM I am there. When they get out of
school and come home at 3:00 I am there. When they sneak out of their houses at
11:00PM to meet up or get snacks I am there.” Then he looked at Pastor Smith
and said, “Where are you?”-
He had a point. We have an epidemic of sacrificed Isaacs in
our neighborhood and in our city. No one has listened hard enough to hear God
saying, no- stop the sacrifice- do no harm to these children. Sacrifice
something else!
We here at Good Shepherd have indeed had our own sacrifice. A
great loss of something very dear to us. One of the first things we were sent
out to do was to take care of each other, and this we have done marvelously
well. To me, this closeness we have achieved, this caring for one another shows
us that we will not meet with more sacrifice if we continue to open our circle.
Because we are sent out all together. So it could be that the only thing that
was really sacrificed was our loneliness, our distance from our brothers and
out sisters who were so close at hand.
When we come back to our Jerusalem after our long exile, we
will see that though the exterior of our beloved church is just the same, the
inside will be different. To me it would not make sense to be sent out and then
return to exactly the same place. -Our Gospel passage speaks of welcome, and I
believe that we are called to make room for more of our brothers and sisters,
and to make our church more accessible to everyone.
When the flooring was first being repaired, we discovered
that the original floor was almost 100% level, with just a small raised altar
at the very front where the priest celebrated with his (and I do mean his) back
to the congregation.
We are restoring the level floor, but adding a movable raised
platform that can be placed anywhere in the space. It will be the most flexible
interior possible. It will be much more navigable for all abilities, and it
will put the emphasis on welcoming community.
The other great change is the chairs. We will have one
hundred new and beautiful chairs which will seat more people, be much more
accessible and comfortable, and allow more welcoming worship styles. We even
have a few raised chairs to welcome those with ailing knees and hips. We will
be able to express the welcoming circle we share at the Eucharist by forming
worship in the round if we want. We will never be the same people as we were before
we were sent out, and our space will never be the same either.
We have been sent out. With whatever gifts we have or do not
have, we have been sent out to heal the sick, to heal each other, to bring life
to those who seem dead, and to take care of the little ones. But most of all, we
are sent to bring the church to the lost sheep of every tribe and nation,
including our own. Amen
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