Powerless Fear - Matthew 10 - Proper 7A

Powerless Fear

Tony E Hansen

Sermon based upon Genesis 21: 8-21; Psalm 86 and Matthew 10: 24-39

Opening prayer 

Happy Fathers Day 

People have often tried to use the Scriptures to defend ways of thinking that come off a bit distorted. I have heard a number of content creators that try to assert that being attacked for their religious thought ought to be regarded as holy. When they do, they often land on texts like these as the basis. 

“Whoever doesn’t take up the cross and follow me is not worthy…”

For there is cost to be a believer and follower of Jesus, but what is it that drives that cost. What drives worth ? Fear and pain or something else entirely?

Fear surrounds the story in Genesis with the story of Hagar and Ishmael being cast out.  Sarah fears what could be of Ishmael, and then that fear follows Hagar and Ishmael on their journey into the unknown. 

Beloved, we come to faith in many ways. Just because I say I have faith, doesn’t really work, especially when I am holding onto fear. 

Although fear is sometimes a necessary survival instinct. Much negativity arise when we choose to fear, and then lean into that fear to divide, to harm, or to exclude. Hate and anger are surely to follow - by those inflicting and by those being targeted. Sarah and Abraham had reasons for what they did, but the result is cruel. 

There has to be many emotions going through Hagar and Ishmael as the water ran out. Can you blame them? She was made to bear Abraham’s child and then when Sarah gets anxious, they get tossed out. No “thank you” - just out!

Hagar prays, probably much like the psalm “Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my cry of supplication.” Have you ever made prayers like this?

Yet, God is there, assures Hagar and blesses her and Ishmael. 

I submit that God has a story for you too - even when you think you can’t go any further -  when it feels there is no place to turn  - and you have just had it. God has an amazing way of showing up and assuring.

Where do you need God today?

The vision of the cross is essential here. “Whoever does not take up the cross … is not worthy…” 

This isn’t a badge of courage or even just a symbol from which we hide behind. Interestingly, the cross doesn’t care about your religion or your contribution to society. It is an instrument of execution, of power over people; and torture for many who don’t get along with the social and political elite. It is used to project judgment, subjugation and exclusion because crucifixion happens outside of town as a demonstration.

At the same time, Jesus repeatedly says, “do not be afraid” because fear (the chosen kind) doesn’t welcome and doesn’t love. It compels negativity.  Jesus doesn’t want you, however, to be shackled to despair and misery. 

We pray, “In my day of trouble I call upon you…”

The cross is a metaphor of discipleship that reminds us that we have work to do. It reminds us where we lay our faith while assuring us that we have worth  - precisely because a broken world has tried to remove that worth and silence us.

Then, we pivot the display of the cross away from fear and subjugation. 

The cross is power of the powerless because this represents us, the oppressed, the coerced and the marginalized. This cross is our struggle and our pain.  It is where we lay our concerns and find respite. We take back power and find liberation. We take an instrument of destruction and mold into hope and the holy possible.

Beyond the metaphor, we are then to embody that holy possible in our faith, not to divide or give up, but instead - welcome and love. There will always be adversity and suffering, but our being does not need to stay there. There is possible, and God is showing you a way. 

We will find character and fortitude in love and our embodied welcome. 

We are on a journey and we may feel helpless and alone at times - but we are never alone. We may feel that we have been cast out and perhaps spit upon, but there is a horizon for us, waiting to be explored and God inspired.

We were created by love to love and witness love in others. That is not always easy, especially when the world knocks us down or casts us out. Yet holy love is what’s in you and precisely for you to find true strength.  

The cross is there for all, not just those who are powerless. The cross is for us who toil and who have sorrow to remember there is hope.  That means you too!

Lean into your faith, lean on the cross and find strength.

When we do find that strength, the Spirit around the cross, then, is there when we celebrate and find victory. 

That is truly transformational and phenomenal. From an instrument of death and dystopia into possible and Spirit.

Lift up your prayers! Cry to the Lord, and be answered, be healed.

Thanks be To God, Amen

Your Mission - Matthew 9 - Proper 6 Year A

Your Mission

Tony E Hansen

Sermon based upon Matthew 9:35-10:8, Psalm 100

Opening prayer

Happy Pride in Des Moines

“The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.” Jesus is making a point here that there is something of a crisis here because people are in need of help. People are being picked on preyed upon. They need leadership -  true shepherds.

There are plenty of people who have long been ignored, excluded, or outright beaten by the systems, even by the ones that are supposed to be the caretakers, (e.g. churches or government.) 

On this weekend of celebration in Des Moines, we are reminded how many, including myself, in that crowd who have been ignored, excluded, beaten and also those who were murdered (sign of cross) for simply being who God made us to be. 

There are many people in the world not just among the queer community, but those of different race, heritage, religions, and occupations that have been marginalized and victims of violence simply because they were born in a different part of the world or neighborhood or with a different gender. 

There are many in the world who are sick and those considered “unclean,” with no one ever going to help them or be with them. We see many on the streets with signs asking for help. We can see people fading away because the nursing home doesn’t have enough help for all of the people there. 

Where are you? What do you do?

There is a vacuum because this is a system that prides itself on care for the self - calling it individualism. “One pulls oneself up by the bootstraps.” For people are just fooling themselves to think there is help being doled out.  

Thus, we must learn to be self sufficient. 

That would be nice if there was a real chance for everyone to rise.  

Yet, we know the system doesn’t work like that. It is purposefully built to praise the go-getters and the entrepreneurs who win no matter the costs to people or creation. It rewards people for getting status, via large contracts, lavish gifts, wealth and capability - and perhaps even more so when they take advantage of people or reduce others. 

This system fires hundreds when a governor is only months away from being out of office. 

That system creates the disadvantaged so that there is someone or some people to prey, to take advantage and cast blame. 

After all, once you reach that status, you can take part in exclusive clubs, golf courses and restaurants. If someone is complaining about your status, they need to shut their mouth and do the work to get here. Then, those who made it will put plenty of obstacles to keep people from rising, like fences, walls, redistricting and propaganda. Then, you don’t have to care what your neighbor is doing or if they are struggling because you made it, you don’t see it and blessings be with you there. 

Then, leadership praise this thinking and try to get us all to, literally, buy into it or be shamed for not.

That is the broken system. That is the system in which Jesus calls the disciples to be ones who take only what they wear and expect no monetary wealth in return for their work. Even there, Jesus wants us to find the lost because even the ones who think they made it have been duped by a broken system.

Jesus sends out the disciples with this specific mission, not one of money or notoriety. Go to the places where people are lost and hurting. Tend to them to whatever ails them, physical, mental, and spiritual. 

There is a way here to be present, to evangelize, to tend, and not be rude. 

Go to a house, and if they don’t want you, simply leave and shake off the dust. Move on to the next place.

You will see evidence of the broken system. It may threaten you, but we are to fear not, for the Spirit is with you for this mission. 

In this mission, have faith that God will provide and you will see God in the welcome you receive. You will find God working and healing. You will see the face of God in people and the Spirit guiding you. 

You do not go condemning or pointing fingers. You do the restoration and caring that has long been forgotten and absent from the system. You bring that peace, forgiveness and love with you and be gracious to all you encounter, for people deserve the best, not just rhetoric and fancy clothes.

There you will find grateful welcomes and desires to be free and to be whole with the community.  By the grace of God, there is the possible. There is hope. There is love.

That doesn’t need status, although a proclamation it is - for the kingdom is near. God is here for you and for me. God is that love, that hope and forgiveness.

That mission isn’t just for the twelve but also for you and me to bring forth into this world because people weren’t just hurting then. They are hurting now and need to see God’s love through us. 

There will always be people who doubt and those who abuse, but our mission is to rise above the noise to bring a shoulder, bring justice and care for our neighbors regardless of where they are on their journeys. We don’t need all of the answers because we don’t.

Be the mission of love, forgiveness, and hope, especially to those who need it.

This mission is leadership of love not shame. 

If you need it, know you can find God near you and with you. Let peace be with you. Be healed for God loves you and welcomes you.

Thanks Be to God, Amen.

Experience New Life - Matthew 9 - Proper 10 Year A

Experience New Life

Tony E Hansen

Sermon based upon Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26, Hosea 5:15-6:6, Psalm 50

Jesus crossed the sea and has now come to town.  Crowds are forming and people are being brought forward. 

Matthew, the tax collector, is told “follow me”. He is called.  

Long before I went to seminary or got into ministry, I somehow understood there was a path to do something - someone calling. 

This is where I picked my confirmation name of Matthew. (In the Catholic tradition, one picks a name that is used to call them in confirmation. With that name, you are anointed by the bishop in sacrament to receive the Holy Spirit - Pentecost.) 

Protestant do this as a rite rather than a sacrament, but one essentially affirms their baptism, although some go further and do a baptism during a confirmation. 

Both do something strikingly similar in affirming faith. Many will ask not only the students but the whole congregation to affirm their faith by renewing baptismal promises.

What are we affirming? 

Faith is a word, but more. It is a concept and one with significant weight in our world. To say I have faith in you is to say I trust you. To say I have faith, the religious kind, is to invoke a following and discipleship. 

We talked a bit about the creed last week for Trinity Sunday, and will visit more of that.

To summarize, I, in my faith, affirm that I am deeply spiritual and looking for all of the ways that God speaks to us with great care, forgiveness and love.

In the Gospel story, this is happening in real time versus us professing after the events we know. In these events, there are at least four people:

Matthew, the tax collector.

A woman who has been suffering for years has courage to merely touch.

A leader who daughter is apparently dead

And there are the observers (both those hem-and-haw and those who are amazed.)

I want us to look at the first two. 

A tax collector has many entanglements that people associate to them: tax from oppressive regimes, manipulation and deception. Are they part of the problem (perhaps well-deserved reputation), somehow “trapped” in this situation or trying to do good in a world that pushes them or even false labels them?  

Why does Jesus call Matthew? Why call?

Jesus sees someone for all of the flaws they could be and all of the casting that people have done. Jesus sees Matthew and calls him.

It doesn’t matter what people conjure and imagine; Jesus offers mercy and does with intention. Matthew, “those who are sick”, is called out of that life and into new life. Matthew, without objection, follows and they go have dinner.

People are watching and asking doing the grunts-and-whys complaining.

Jesus response: “I am not here for those think they have it all figured out with perfect dress or correct associations. I am here for those who have  been left out, taunted or refused.”

Then, someone comes in and cries that his daughter is dead. Jesus goes to heal.

This next part of the lesson is powerful.

On the way, a woman, who thanks to purity laws, can’t go get or ask for help. She is left alone by a system designed to push out women for false ideas about cleanliness and purity. She may not think she can ask for help like the leader just a moment ago. She could be thinking what if he yells at me for even touching him (or worse).

But she does. She reaches into that heart of hers; she finds faith and courage to reach out for help - for just a chance. She put all of herself into this.

No one else is helping her these days, and she is likely quite lonely because of this. She may ask and she may get denied, but rather the Spirit guides her in this moment. 

The Spirit works. Jesus is right there. God is here.

For all of the people who were tossed out of congregations; 

For all of the people who couldn’t step foot into a religious space; 

For all of the ones, like me, who heard the grunts-and-whys complaints or experienced real violence;

For us who felt the weight of being ostracized for being who we are; 

For us who had to adapt to a world that rejected us;

this story is for us. 

Jesus not only calls Matthew into new life. This woman is given an opportunity to try something. We are all give opportunities when we think about it, but it is up to us to make the most of that. 

We could cower away and go on living in yucky continuing with self-loathing even. What opportunity is before you and how can God help?  

This woman is given a blessing for her effort - her courage - her faith. Jesus blesses her for her faith. “Your faith has made you well.” Jesus affirms that faith with no caveats or expectations.

Where is your courage to reach out? Where is your faith that life is something for us to live rather than a muddled, isolated existence?

Jesus heals when we reach out or when we contemplate life. Jesus gives you and I permission to be who we are - no matter where we are on life’s journey. 

You and I who are sinners; we are loved. Jesus calls us, calls me, calls you, into something much bigger than broken isolation and rejection.  

God blesses us and sends the Spirit to be with us in these moments so that we can be strong. We don’t have to feel lost. We can find opportunities, we can find purpose and we can be a part of this greater kingdom today. 

Find the Spirit right there with you, listen, reach out, and be blessed for your courage. Experience new life.

Thanks be to God, Amen.

Power of a Story - Genesis 1 - Trinity Sunday Year A

The Power of a Story

Tony E Hansen

Sermon based upon Matthew 28: 16-20; Genesis 1:1-2:4a, Psalm 8, 2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Happy Trinity Sunday! 

“Be restored, listen to appeal, agree with one another; live in peace; and the love of God and peace be with you… The grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God and communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

The Trinity is a foundational doctrine of the Church: the sign of the cross or Apostles Creed. God, Christ and the Spirit are present in us and with us.

Jesus sends the disciples into world to baptize in the sign of the cross; as worshippers and doubters. Wonder what that feels like? 

When we doubt, we are reminded that Jesus will be with us always until the end of ages.

In Genesis, “in the beginning…”  We have this story of creation. We know it is a story because no one was around to record it except our Creator.

Yet it is a powerful story.

“Earth was chaos and darkness…A wind from God swept over the face of the waters…” 

God breathes light, water, day and life into that chaos and here we are.  

God was in the chaos and the breath of calm. Chaos is a part of that creation. 

Formless turns into something. 

For each that was, now becomes. 

For all that ever was, chaos has a chance to be calm today. 

God was there in the chaos. 

God brought peace, 

God is here to bring you peace. 

God is with you and in you. 

“Let us make humans in our image according to our likeness…” God made us, “in the image of God.” 

I have said this regarding the “I am” statements of John’s Gospel. That Jesus gives us permission to find and discover the divine living in each of us.  

That is a recognition for us to discover; for us to commune and to understand. When we do, we discover peace in ways that are uniquely intimate to us with personal ways to leverage that relationship. 

Church can help you (also synagogues, temples, mosques and quiet places): These many facets and images of the living and breathing God.

As abstract as the wide heavens and the universe, we can wonder where God is and what God is doing. Yet here and now, we have a distinct capability to make that phone call to God - to commune with God: that Spirit, that lives near and within us.

In the story of Genesis - once humans were created alongside all the other living creatures of the Earth, we were tasked with something. That something is a more than just a job but an embodiment. 

We are reminded that this whole creation and everything in it - is a part of God as part of that creation. 

With that in mind, God tasks people to manage this creation. We are given the skills and stewardship of this beautiful creation. 

Our relationship to the creation is uniquely divine, and there is still plenty chaos. My relationship is perhaps bit different than yours, but relationships exist nonetheless. 

In the chaos that still pervades throughout, we can find peace. 

There in the midsts of chaos, 

there is the divine. 

There is hope; 

there is love; 

there is peace.

With the Genesis story, we are reminded also to take hold, stop and breathe. 

Look around. 

See the wonderful and amazing work. 

That rest is just as important as the work. For if we only work, we never truly recognize what has been accomplished, and we forget that rest is holy and blessed. 

Rest is holy and blessed, perhaps especially, for the single parent with multiple jobs and kids to feed or the workaholic that “cannot” stop. 

One of the reasons why I enjoy bicycling is in that ride (hot or cold), I witness truth in creation: creatures, trees, sky and even rain or storms.

Put away the chats, tweets, and scrolling. Help those around us also rest. 

You are here in this creation: a part of this creation. You can live with peace and love of God within you. Share that. 

Blissful.

The divine is with us always and will be through the ages. 

Let us remember our solemn and holy duty is to take care of this creation and our relationship with the divine creation using the divine love that has been given to us. Let us remember that rest is holy for everyone - not just me and my family.

When we do this, we see and witness the power of a story. That power is far more than AI, bullets and armies. This supersedes disagreements or faiths - although it is faith in of itself. It is more than parliaments or human governments because this power, that faith, is rooted in love and creation. 

It is the divine way. 

When we do and teach as Jesus commands, to love God and to love one another as God has loved us, we find no fault and no reason to quarrel, but we do find friends and family in the whole world and everything that is around us. 

When we understand that all are created in the image of God, we worship and may still have doubts. 

When we understand that all are created in the divine, then our understanding of the world takes on a different image - a potentially scary image and at the same time, a very peaceful image. Much like any of us who become parents: the realization of a child in your care. 

Like those who become parents to pets, (farmers know this well): the realization of God’s creature(s) in your midsts - in your care. 

Our task becomes apparent and real. 

…Like anyone who cares because Someone cared for us first and that Someone always has. That Someone will always care. 

“And God saw everything… and indeed, it was very good” and so should we. 

In the name of the Creator, Christ and Holy Spirit.

"live in peace" and go forth. Amen.