August 7, 2022
What if the Church is Always Trying to Come to us From the Future? Rev. Patricia Wagner Scripture: Luke 11: 1-13 I am coming out of COVID, It first took my voicebox, so I sounded like Barry White, That was almost two weeks ago, the fever is long gone, and I’m not COVID positive anymore, and I couldn’t give this virus to you if I tried, but my ears feel full, and is head is buzzing, and its hard to think. So, my pondering this week has been with plugged ears and slowed mind, and I keep coming back to that healing story where Jesus puts his fingers in the ears of a deaf man and says, “Ephatha!” Be opened! And thinking: That’s what I need, and then wondering: maybe that’s what we all need maybe that’s the whole deal for me, for you, for this whole wonderous thing that is the church. I attended a wonderful lecture at Chautauqua, by a Jewish theologian and rabbi named Shaul Magid, who talked about how our religious communities are rooted in our history, our ancient stories and rituals and buildings, give religion authority. Think: How many businesses have opened and closed on this street in the last 100 years? How many empires have come and gone in the last 2000? and the church stands We have survived a lot learned a lot, hurt some, helped a lot: universities began by Christians, hospitals, too, so much wonderous, transformative work in the world. But our long history can also be a weight. The culture is always moving, scientific breakthroughs are expanding our knowledge and technology is endlessly connecting us. Identity and family life in evolving in interesting and often liberating ways, but also, in ways that are really challenging. And in here, in our institutions, things don’t change as fast as out there. because we carry this weight of history around us. And there are people who get frustrated at how intransigent we seem to be, how incremental our change, how big our reach into laws and mores. They would like to be part of a community that gives hope and meaning and connection to ultimate reality, but They see our minds as closed and our ears stopped, and our theology irrelevant to their lives. So, find their identity and belonging and a sense of purpose in other places. Meanwhile there have always been minds and hearts on the inside of the church, the synagogue, the mosque, people that know our intrinsic goodness and say: What if there is something to this challenge? What if God is in it? What if it’s the spirit of Christ that is calling us to a better homeland. a new creation? When that makes us nervous we call those challenges heresy, worldly, Give me that old time religion, we might sing and there is goodness in the old, too. But listen to what this letter to Hebrews says about our ancestors: who struggled with tremendous change: Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen? If our ancestors had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. 1 6 But as it is, they desire a better homeland” What happens when we, as persons, as the church, ask the the spirit of the Risen Christ to some how put their fingers in our ears and say Ephatha, Be opened and to pray, as Jesus taught us: Let your kingdom come. What would we look like? What would the church of the Risen Christ be like? I’ve spent time this summer learning from Fr. Greg Boyle who has spent 30 years in L.A. creating a community of faith and hope for generational gang members caught up in that violence to the body and spirit. It may not appear so on the outside, but there is a longing in these people, these brothers and sister, the same that is in you and that was in our ancestors for another homeland, one, full of grace, that is calling to them Those who respond to the invitation from Father Greg to join Homeboy Industries are given the dignity of work, and therapy and community, given freedom to be vulnerable to their own deep pain Rather than return to the land they left behind, they lay down the weight of their history for a better land. And something happens. In response to each, small, loving act , they begin to move, little by little, from their small selves to their true selves. it is, in every sense, the church, the word made flesh. Once, Father Boyle was to get an award at a Catholic University in San Francisco. but wasn’t able to go to the ceremony, so he invited one of the Homeboys named Pasqual Pena to accept it on his behalf. Pasqual was overjoyed. Oh, and you will also have to give an acceptance speech Oh no, I’m not going to do that. Just write out a little thing to say. I’m too scared. Pasqual gets there, its standing room only, “…and accepting the award for Fr. Greg is Pasqual Pena…”. and he had this little piece of lined paper and he was trembling, and he shares his story, and ends by saying: “Because Fr. Boyle at Homeboy industries believed in me, I decided to believe in myself and the best way I can think of paying him back is by changing my life and that’s exactly what I did.” And now people are standing up and applauding and crying and goes on for a long while. and he says, to the person next to him. Damn, they are sure clapping a lot for Fr. Greg. No, they are clapping for you. Na ah! Yeah... they are clapping for you. When we witness someone claiming the new homeland, and see and hear the transformation: the goodness, the joy that brings, we weep with relief that the promises are true. Ephatha, says Jesus, be opened, he says to us Your kingdom come, we say to God The God of the unfolding, expanding universe believes in us, in you, in us together. The Creator of all time and space all matter, dark and light has poured Christ’s spirit out into us, and invites us to be the church a community of boundless compassion for all the earth The church of the Risen Christ, the new homeland, is always coming to us from the future, We can turn back to the land we’ve left behind. or we can allow our smaller selves to become our truer selves, our narrow church for an even wider church, our amazing history for an even greater, cosmic story, expansive in love and mercy, where holiness is everywhere even in us. And who wouldn’t want to be part of that! Be open, says Jesus to us. Your kingdom come, O God, we pray. and the people say. Amen.
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7 W Henderson Rd
Columbus, OH 43214 (614) 262-1163 |
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Parking
The Maple Grove parking lot on the south side of the church which is accessed from Aldrich Road, the first street south of Henderson Road.
The Maple Grove parking lot on the south side of the church which is accessed from Aldrich Road, the first street south of Henderson Road.