Readings for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 22, 2020

• Psalm 23  
• Ephesians 5:8-14  
• John 9:1-41

My Favorite Thing about Sheep, sermon by Pastor Fred Kinsey
​I want to reflect with you on the 23rd Psalm this morning.  Normally, I would have chosen this gospel reading, perhaps my favorite story in John, of the man born blind.  But, this has not been a normal week!
 
The 23rd Psalm is everyone’s, most favorite Psalm – so beautiful, so comforting, so simple and direct.  It seems like divine intervention, that we have won in lectionary lottery, and been dealt Psalm 23 today! 
 
So then, sheep!  For me – when I think about it – the thing I like most about sheep is – wool sweaters!  Right?!  I’ve been wearing my favorite Marino Wool sweater almost all winter.  It’s so thin and sheer, and yet it’s so amazingly warm.  I love it!  And, it’s basic black, which is perfect for me.  So, thank you, Marino Sheep! 
 
But the 23rd Psalm isn’t about what we, or I, like about the sheep, but it’s all about imagining, we are the sheep, and God is our Good Shepherd.  David – who came from a family of sheep herders – is credited with writing this Psalm, and imagining he is part of the flock, he doesn’t just talk about God, but talks to God.  It’s personal for him.  “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want.” 
 
The thing about sheep is, they are not the sharpest tool in the shed in the animal kingdom!  Basically they love to graze – to eat all day.  And the reason sheep need a shepherd is because, on their own, they’ll ‘nibble themselves lost!’ James Howell  With their heads to the ground, they follow the greenest and most delicious grass wherever it goes.  And, they were known for walking off a cliff’s edge into a ravine, or wandering too far from the flock, where wolves might cash in their meal of mutton Groupon! 
 
Dog walkers today can use leashes, but with 50 or a 100 sheep, that’s not possible for Shepherds.  They used a rod or a staff to keep all of them together in safety – which David says, comforts me.  “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. The LORD makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters.”  David imagines himself beyond wanting, and beyond danger, because his Good Shepherd provides the perfect space, green pastures and cool still waters, for him.  It’s all good! 
 
And so, it’s in times such as these – the past couple of weeks that have been anything but serene, green pastures – that we need the comfort of the 23rd Psalm.  As we came closer and closer to the Governor’s decision, to Shelter in Place, and stay home, I don’t know about you, but I felt more and more anxiety about how to handle it all.  I’ve always worked at home at least one day a week.  But seeing everything shut down, and for me, changing the whole way we do worship and meeting together, put me on the ravine’s edge.
 
I know some, if not all of you, have had similar reactions and feelings.  There are so many unknowns!  This has never happened before!  How do we get our food now without having any human contact?  How do we negotiate the grocery store?  Or order out from the local restaurant?  How do we work from home?  How do we share our new home office with our partner or spouse – what are the boundaries?  How do we stay in touch with our friends and family while we can’t be with them in person?  Do I have to sanitize my own home? – is my food safe to eat?  How long will this last?  What if I’m laid off and will soon have no paycheck coming in?  Maybe this coronavirus really isn’t that contagious, as some suggest? 
 
Or just, how do I work this Zoom meeting??!!
 
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”  Even “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for You are with me…” 
 
If we haven’t quite yet - for this is still the beginning - I think we’ll come to see that in this confined and cocooned life, shuttered in place, cooped up with our feelings of insecurity and the unknown, God will become more real than ever.  In the depths of our despair, in this shadowy valley, God will enter thru the liminal crags of our yearning, our prayers, our wants.  
 
We desire the LORD to be our Good Shepherd.  What, or who else, can satisfy our deepest longings, wants, and desires?  Cut off from the marketplace – where we can never quite satisfy our wants anyway – we have time and space now to ask God once again to be our Good Shepherd.  To come and guide our lives, completely, always. 
 
So maybe this is a time to reassess what is most valuable in our lives – the things we surround ourselves with, both tangible and beyond our grasp.  “He leads me on pathways of justice,” David concludes.  And in the end, the road of our deepest desire is always to go home.  To return to what is the greatest comfort of our hopes and dreams, or, to have a second chance to right the wrongs, of home. 
 
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” 
 
For me, I hope, going home will be something like feeling surrounded by all my friends and family, and snuggling in my sheer warm Marino wool sweater/blanket – with an overflowing cup of wine – and the LORD as my Shepherd. 
 
In Psalm 23, these are the things God desires for us, even today, in the very presence of this enemy, this coronavirus, this shadow of death threatening to take away our green pastures and still waters. 
 
The Good Shepherd has herded us inside for now.  But, sheltered in place, we can still comfort one another with the promise that goodness and mercy wins.  Let us look forward to dwelling together on the other side of this pandemic.  And let us continue to faithfully trust in our Good Shepherd, whose rod and staff comforts us, and brings us home.  

Readings for the Third Sunday in Lent, March 15, 2020

• Exodus 17:1-7 
• Psalm 95 
• Romans 5:1-11 
• John 4:5-42

"Social Distancing," Rev. Fred Kinsey
Are Jesus and the woman at the well practicing social distancing?!  Jesus, for his part, stays behind at the well all by himself while his disciples trudge into town to get some lunch.  And the woman who comes to draw water – who remains nameless in this story – comes in the heat of mid-day, when she knows no one else will be coming.  She expects to be alone.  All the others will come early in the morning, or late in the afternoon. 
 
No doubt, Jesus and the woman, kept their distance at the well.  But their social distancing was not due to any Coronavirus outbreak.  Neither did they have leprosy, which by the laws of Leviticus demanded the shunned lepers shout out “unclean, unclean!” when approaching others, to warn them to keep their distance. 
 
We know, of course, there was a social distancing of men and women, in public places.  But in this story, most importantly, is the separation, and distancing, of Jews and Samaritans.  Ever since the death of King Solomon (10C BC) – when the kingdom of Israel split in two, and Samaritans no longer recognized Jerusalem as the capital, but worshiped on their own holy mountain, at She-chem, or what’s called here, Sychar – their social distancing hardened into a begrudging rift!  Jews considered Samaritans apostates, and they each became fierce cross-town rivals.  It only grew worse after the Exile to Babylon and Israel’s return in the 500’s, because the Samaritans had been able to hide out and stay in the hilly region of Samaria.  They didn’t suffer, Exile.  So by the time of Jesus in the 1st C. they were so rigidly separate, that John says matter-of-factly, “Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.” 
 
So like most Jews, Jesus and his family and clan, took the easier route along the Jordan valley, skirting Samaria, when traveling back and forth from Jerusalem to Galilee.  But not Jesus and his disciples!  They deliberately cut through Samaria, as if to provoke this encounter. 
 
So there Jesus sat, by the well, and as soon as the Samaritan woman appeared, he bids her ‘Give me a drink!’ – a gender, social distancing, no-no.  I hope he said please, but that’s probably just me!  You can tell by her response, though, that her biggest surprise is that he, a Jew, should even address her, a Samaritan!  Because of course, that bridge is closed.  But Jesus is not concerned about dead laws and customs that don’t serve God.  “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’” Jesus replies, “you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 
 
Unfazed and curious now, she replies, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep.  Where do you get that living water?”  And then she shows him she knows her stuff, “Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?”  Though they share the same scriptures, the strength of the Samaritan interpretation, is the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
 
No, not at all, says Jesus.  What I’m saying is, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 
 
I think that would have knocked my socks off, and right then and there, I would have fallen down and worshiped him!  But the woman’s not yet convinced, and she decides to call his bluff!  “Sir, give me this water, so that I many never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” 
 
But that leaves her caught in a kind of either/or bind.  ‘Water is life, and life is water!’  We need both: real tangible clean and delicious water to drink from the well.  And, the spiritual water that bubbles up from the life of Jesus.
 
To get to his point, Jesus changes the subject.  “Go, call your husband, and come back.”  She only says, “I have no husband,” perhaps distrustful where this is going.  And Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying , ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband…”  Aaha, says the woman, back on track, “I see that you are a prophet.”  And she continues challenging their differences between Jewish and Samaritan beliefs, noting that although she’s impressed he’s a prophet, they unfortunately worship separately at different locations – Shechem and Jerusalem – and who are either of them to change that?! 
 
But Jesus’ answer would have scandalized, both Samaritans, and Jews.  “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  …But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth…” 
 
“I know that Messiah is coming,” who is called Christ, said the woman.  “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.”  It seems to be dawning on her now.  But to make it crystal clear, Jesus reveals that, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” 
 
Just then the disciples came back, astonished he was speaking with a Samaritan woman.  They don’t know the half of it!  But, at least they manage to hold their tongues from saying the derogatory and demeaning things on their minds, about her.
 
The woman leaves her water jar by the well, and turns to hurry back to the city.  Immediately she said to those in town, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”  And her testimony was so moving that they all joined her to go back and meet this Jesus.  And when they arrived at Jacob’s well, Jesus was talking to his disciples about ‘fields that were ripe for harvesting.’ 
 
“So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked Jesus to stay with them; and he stayed [in Sychar] two days.  And many more believed,” concluding for themselves now, that, “we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.” 
 
Once again, the disciples don’t come off especially good in this story!  Maybe as Deacon’s who do the grocery shopping, but the true evangelists here, are the enemy-Samaritans, the woman and her followers, whose lives are turned around and who become enthusiastic followers of Jesus. 
 
The woman at the well was the key to unlock this door.  She’s not only an evangelist, but a wonderful debating partner with Jesus!  She doesn’t give up or give in, but contributes and learns, through it all.  She leaves her old life behind, which is symbolized so well by forgetting her bucket at the well, which she no longer needs.  She has found the water that will truly quench her thirst, and has been baptized with the deep well-water that will save her life.  No more does she have to be, one more faithless man’s property, in a series of loveless marriages.  She has fallen in love with the Messiah who is called Christ. 
 
Perhaps, for the first time, she has found her true vocation in spreading the good news.  What if that’s what we all have found, those of us who believe, and who gather in Christ’s name?  Here, we find our true calling.  Here, and when we are Sent out into the world to put our faith into action, we are our most fulfilled selves. 
 
As Liz Goodman says, “…Imagine the church as a place where people who don’t fit their type, find a place for realizing their potential.  Imagine [church] as a people among whom each can find good purpose for power that is otherwise ill-fitting.  The church can’t be a context for conformity.  To follow Christ is to tap into some deep truth ourselves and to cultivate its growth, a process by which is built up, the beloved community of God’s reign.”
 
Perhaps we are a people who have already, felt, social distancing in our lives, long before COVID-19 arrived.  Perhaps we have more importantly found our good health and deepest love through this humble assembly, being baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, that has saved us, and made us one. 
 
So, let us go out – be Sent forth – to share the good news of this deep, deep, spring of water gushing up to life in the new age!  

Readings for First Sunday in Lent, March 1, 2020

• Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7  
• Psalm 32  
• Romans 5:12-19  
• Matthew 4:1-11

"The Devil Doesn't Come in Red Leotards," sermon by Pastor Fred
The best Halloween costume in our family growing up was, the Devil!  I mean, it was elaborate for its time, which was admittedly, some time ago.  Long before scary video games.  Long before the Joker came to life on the screen, back when Marvel Super Heroes were only available in comic book form! 
 
I don’t know where my mom got the Devil costume, but, it was so good, it was the only Halloween costume all of us kids took turns wearing.  It was a first-generation rubber mask, truly scary with its devilish horns.  And the full body costume was a fire-y red.  It even had a long tail to the suit, and a pitchfork that you carried. 
 
When my little brother was probably not even 10 years old, and I had the suit on getting ready for trick or treating, I scared the living stuffing’s out of him, when we met suddenly on the stairway!  He ran the other direction, screaming and balling, and afraid for years after that.  Which, of course, I felt bad about! 
 
No one really believes in the Devil like that, anymore – do they?  The Devil doesn’t come in red leotards carrying a pitchfork! 
 
The author of our Lutheran Sundays and Seasons resource wrote, “This Lent we are called to expunge the fantastical images of the devil from our minds and think seriously about the real presence of evil in our world. We know firsthand about the sin that caused, causes, and will cause suffering to us, our loved ones, our neighbors, our global communities, and creation itself.  Sin is real; suffering is real; evil is real; indeed, the devil is real.  This oppressive, tangible reality is as real as the air we breathe—felt but not always seen.  Greed, envy, rage, hatred, war, discrimination, and apathy are just some of the ways the devil’s forces wreak havoc upon us. These forces have one goal and one goal only: to turn us away from the will of God.” (Sundays & Seasons)
 
Every year on the first Sunday of Lent, we hear from one of the Synoptic Gospel Temptation-of-Jesus stories.  But what strikes me today in this Temptation by the Devil, from the gospel of Matthew’s account is: We are both like Jesus, and not like Jesus.
 
Certainly we are like Jesus when, after fasting for a long time, he is famished.  Most of us, I dare say, don’t go without our “3 squares” every day.  I remember the days when it seemed like, I could eat as much as I wanted and never gain a pound – and I never missed a meal!  So fasting can challenge our normal order, and perception of comfort, and taking for granted the good things we have.  The meaning and value of food on the table can become much deeper, and clearer.  Maybe some of you have fasted before.  Maybe some grew up poor and didn’t have enough, or like more and more students, even college athletes on scholarship, you have been food-insecure and survived on Ramen noodles or gone without meals sometimes.  Jesus knew hunger too, he was completely human in that way, but leaned into his belief that God’s word was more nourishing even, than daily bread. 
 
Jesus was human like us, in that he was subject to the laws of nature too.  Jumping off the top of a large building like the Temple, or a very high mountain, would be certain death.  God has created us mind, body and spirit, and given us this awesome and ‘very good’ physical world.  And God has formed boundaries for us that are meant to be life-giving, though they sometimes seem restrictive or unfair.  We may be tempted toward speeding down the highway, especially after a drink or two, to prove our – I don’t know what, more than human capacity, glorifying ourselves in some way – but of course, that can end badly, for you, or someone else.  Jesus decided not to jump – leaning into the laws of nature God set up for the world, and letting the Devil know, us followers will too. 
 
But we are also, not like Jesus.  We cannot fast for 40 days and 40 nights, I’m guessing.  We cannot turn stones into loaves of bread, as the Devil assumed the Son of God could.  We cannot command God’s angels to bear us up, if we’re bunging jumping and the cable snaps.  We cannot glimpse, even half the kingdoms of the world that the Devil showed to Jesus.  Though in our humanness we are certainly tempted to indulge in some of the ones we have seen – the love of money, the priveledge of popularity and white supremacy, the lure to eat-drink-and-be merry, for tomorrow we die! 
 
As Gil Bailie put it so well, “…the story of the wilderness temptations shows, the essence of [Jesus].  His triumph over demonic snares in the wilderness, [which] was a triumph over the glamour of [imitating the Devil], …an achievement made possible, not by Jesus’ strength of will, but by the superior strength of another [imitative] desire: the desire “to do his Father’s will,” to become the image and likeness of the One in whose image and likeness he knew himself to have been made.” (Violence Unveiled p. 207)
 
We are like Jesus – and, we are not like Jesus.  We are only human, not divine.  But we are made in God’s image, which is another way of saying, we have the same desire of Jesus’ more perfect obedience to God.  We can and do lean into our desire to imitate Jesus, who imitates God.  And the more we do, not just individually, but collectively, together as the ecclesia, the church and community of followers, the more we fulfill the justice and peace of the kingdom and realm of God, and the more we bring that kingdom on earth, as well as it is in heaven. 
 
Because the Devil is real, real in our temptation away from God’s will – and not just pious individual temptations to commit individual sins, for those can be used to pit us against each other for the benefit of the powerful and exploitation of the kingdoms of this world – but the Devil is real, as the power tempting us all to live in those ‘kingdoms of the world’ in ‘collective sin,’ like racism and sexism, like the love of money and excesses of Capitalism, like ill-begotten and unfettered power and the false holiness of war. 
 
The Devil doesn’t come in red leotards, we know, but is subtle, more than overt.  Evil often comes as temptations we already desire!  We see it in the gospel story 3 times: 1) Jesus is hungry – the Devil is prepared to step in and offer a quick fix, bread, that you can purchase right here on the corner from the PayDay Lender, at 400% APR.  2) And the devil knows that Jesus loves the Temple and wants to reform a corrupt religion – wouldn’t doing amazing tricks like being saved from a high-wire act gain him so many more followers?  If you but take the first step, the devil is ready to assist!  3) And Jesus, the Son of God, has been preaching the good news of the kingdom and realm of God arriving in his very person.  So, how about I give you all the kingdoms of the world, if you but worship me, says the devil! 
 
Diablos is there to give us everything we want – the easy way, in a moment.  Follow me, he says, I know some shortcuts!  Tired of all the rules of the world God has made for us?  The devil has an array of kingdoms of this world, more glitzy and attractive, free for indulging your libertarian self-pleasure.  
 
But the more the devil wins, the deeper in debt we become, like a millstone hung around our necks.  ‘Here, come up to this mountaintop and let me show you all the oil fields around the globe.  I’ll give you them all to burn up for energy, to build homes and cities and nations, and make a handful of you rich beyond your wildest dreams, Diablos said.  And now, with our addiction to oil, we are on the brink of a global climate crisis. 
 
But if we say, with Jesus, we will “worship the Lord our God, and serve God only,” we will be able to truly see, and follow in a new direction.  A life-giving direction.  Then, the devil will leave us, and suddenly angels will come and wait on us, begin to bind up our wounds, and open our eyes.  A change is gunna come!  The world is about to turn!  If we live by the grace of God.
 
As Lenny Duncan says, we are in the midst of a theological crisis, more than an economic or social crisis.  So first, we have to realize, and believe, that we are like Jesus, and, we’re not like Jesus – both at the same time.  Then, we will be able to laugh at all our temptations!  And we will begin to desire the kingdom of heaven. 
 
We are created in the image of God.  And God is working for our redemption already.  ?What did we promise in our baptism, but ‘to renounce all the forces that defy God, all the powers of this world that rebel against God, all the ways of sin that draw us from God?’  So, let us deepen our journey these 40 days, as followers of Jesus, who is God’s anointed one.