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"How Do You Pray" Sermon by Rev Fred Kinsey

7/29/2019

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Readings for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost, July 28, 2019

  • Hosea 1:2-10 and Psalm 85  
  • Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)  
  • Luke 11:1-13

"How Do You Pray, by Pastor Fred
How do you pray?  What God, do you pray to? 
 
My mother told me more than once that she wished I could have met my grandfather, her father, because, she told me, he was such an amazing person.  He started the Boston Human Society for the Cruelty of Animals.  He also taught, and was the Superintendent of the Sunday School, at the same church in Milwaukee I later was Confirmed at.  Unfortunately, he died suddenly, when my mom was in college, years before I was born. 
 
Once when she was telling me this same story about how she wished I could have known my grandfather, she also offered up this.  Every night before bed, he got down on his knees to pray.  It was obviously an image that moved her deeply. 
 
I have read that Alexander Hamilton, and other Founding Fathers and Mothers, also got down on their knees to pray.  Perhaps it was a tradition that lasted many generations.  I don’t know of anyone who still does, but we all know it as a form of piety and faith, that shows respect to God. 
 
In the Gospels, people often fall down at Jesus’ feet, for example, when they ask to be healed, showing a posture of prayerful worship. 
 
How do you pray? 
 
It is testimony to how far we have come, I suppose, that we now allow for prayer to be, in some sense, our own faithful actions that we do out of lovingkindness, and for justice in the world.  Helping the homeless, or protesting the lack of clean water, are often considered enacted prayers, through our doing. 
 
Yet, when the Disciples see Jesus in prayer, ‘in a certain place,’ Luke doesn’t tell us what posture his prayer takes.  They wait nicely until he had finished, before they ask Jesus to teach them to pray.  After all, it dawns on them, John the Baptist taught his disciples!  So, what’s our prayer going to be?!  How and what, will their prayer be, as followers of Jesus?
 
Apparently Jesus is ready, at the drop of this hat, to instruct them.  He doesn’t say to fall down at his feet.  But he does begin by addressing who he wants his Disciples to pray to, that is, to “Abba!”  Or, in our translation, “Father.”  ‘Abba’ is the Aramaic word for father, or perhaps closer to, ‘daddy.’  The Apostle Paul uses ‘Abba’ in his letters to the Galatians, and the Roman churches, both times in the context of prayer, as well.  So it seems to have been a Jesus-tradition, that stuck! 
 
We pray to God, who is like a familiar, and good parent, to us – our motherly father.  But at the same time, we pray to the holy one, the one who is our creator God, the name above all names – “hallowed be your name.” 
 
And finally, we ask for God’s kingdom to come.  In Luke’s version of Jesus’ prayer, it is just that simple – “Abba, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.”  In this third petition, there is a gap between this kingdom we live in, and God’s kingdom, and so the prayer Jesus teaches us, sets our minds on the peace and justice we all desire, and the mission God calls us to, to enact it.
 
How do we pray?  We pray with both familiarity, and deep reverence, to our God.  Jesus didn’t tell us what posture of prayer to take.  Luke doesn’t presume to either.  When ‘Jesus was praying in a certain place,’ – Was he on his knees? Standing with arms outstretched? Or leading people in a march that God’s kingdom come!? 
 
The main thing is having, the confidence and humility, the courage and the faith, to acknowledge that God is, almighty, and at hand, and God is ruler of the realm and kingdom we pray for. 
 
In the crazy parable that follows, Jesus emphasizes the shameless way the man acts, in assuming his request for bread in the middle of the night, will be answered!  “Imagine what would happen if you went to a friend in the middle of the night and said, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. An old friend traveling through just showed up, and I don’t have a thing on hand.’ The friend answers from his bed, ‘Don’t bother me. The door’s locked, my children are all down for the night; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ But let me tell you,” says Jesus, “even if he won’t get up because he’s a friend, at least because of his [shamelessness] he will get up and get you whatever you need.” 
 
It takes a courageous faith in God to be asking, like this, and it presumes that God is in a close and familiar relationship with us, the petitioners. 
 
So, if that’s how we pray, what is the God that we pray to? 
 
Can we simply ask anything and we’ll receive it?  Knock on any door we like, and it will be opened to us?  If we pray hard enough, will God make us rich?  Will our cancer magically disappear?  Will our enemies be vanquished by morning?  What about the gift of free will?
 
The 2nd half of the Lord’s Prayer turns from naming God, to naming what our needs are.  Just three things: 1) “Give us each day our daily bread.”  Again, in faith, we boldly ask each day that we have enough to eat.  “We,” not just “me,” shaping the way we value food, knowing that in this world, it is said that we have enough food to feed everyone on the planet – but because of the inequity of distribution, most of the world is malnourished or even starving.  ‘Daily bread’ is a huge, and continuing concern, both practically and spiritually, that we pray for. 
 
Secondly, “forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”  You can’t have one without the other, Jesus tells us.  It is not transactional, or quid pro quo, but ‘forgiving and being forgiven’ is one, unified, mystical journey we undertake every day, as we seek God’s kingdom to come.   
 
Jesus asks us, to pray for the food that sustains everyone everyday, and for a discipline of forgiveness – because that’s the kind of God, God is.  These are the things that bring the kingdom of God closer – and the spiritual practices, that give us the freedom to be God’s children, in the image of God.  Prayers for our own personal enrichment at the expense of others – sometimes known as The Prayer of Jabez – do not fit into the coming kingdom of God, but instead can only lead us into “the time of trial,” that we pray to be delivered from.
 
This weekend is the 100th Anniversary of the so-called, Chicago “Race-Riots” of 1919, when after a very hot week in July that summer, some white men brutally killed a black teenager while swimming off a Lake Michigan beach, only because he crossed some unwritten line of segregation.  Tensions were high amongst the fearful white communities, and oppressed communities of color, 100 years ago.  And when Police were called in – who didn’t arrest the killers, but instead arrested some from the, understandably outraged African American community – all hell broke loose!   I’m starting to wonder how far we’ve come, since then?!
 
No doubt many of those white folk were raised in Christian homes, and perhaps still identified that way, maybe even went to church.  But, what kind of God did they pray to?!  Was it the God who is our holy other, the God who at the same time is our Abba, our good and benevolent parent?  God does not divide us up against each other, or elevate one people over another! 
 
And so finally, let’s let the words of the great theologian, The Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman, who was both a Mystic, and served as spiritual advisor to Dr. King, and others in the movement, wash over us:
 
“The human spirit has two fundamental demands that must be met relative to God,” wrote Pastor Thurman. “First, [God] must be vast, limitless, transcendent, all-comprehensive, so that there is no thing that is outside the wide reaches of His apprehension. The second demand is that [God] be personal and intimate. [We] must have a sense of being cared for, of not being alone and stranded in the universe...” he said.
 
This, is the God we pray to, in the Lord’s Prayer, which then shapes us into the children of God.  Lord, teach us to pray.  That we may hallow your name, and live our lives for your kingdom, which is coming with love and justice for all.  
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"Servants Serve" sermon by Rev Fred Kinsey

7/9/2019

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Readings for 4th Sunday after Pentecost, July 7, 2019
  • 2 Kings 5:1-14 and Psalm 30  
  • Galatians 6:(1-6), 7-16  
  • Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Servants Serve, Pastor Fred sermon
I was in my late teens when I discovered Bob Dylan, who fast became one of my musical and cultural hero’s.  He’s had a wide and eclectic career, changing his styles, bands and persona numerous times.  But one of the least anticipated changes, was his late 1970’s turn to Evangelical Christianity.  He had never really said much, or explored his own Jewish heritage, so for his followers, Bob, being Born Again, was a shocker. 
 
The hit on his 1st of 3 Christian albums was, ‘Gotta Serve Somebody.’  And many of his fans just couldn’t swallow the kind of religious obedience he seemed to be singing about:
You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls
But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes
Indeed you're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody
 
We all serve somebody – though most Americans don’t like to admit it.  Do you know who you serve?
 
In our 1st Reading, Naaman, the Commander of the entire Syrian forces, is ‘highly esteemed,’ a heavy weight champion of the world.  His only flaw is that he has a skin blanch disease.  Not leprosy exactly, but one of the many skin diseases listed as ‘unclean’ that ostracized you from the community.  Naaman, because of his high status, was seemingly able to have retained his command.  But none-the-less, he didn’t escape feeling stigmatized. 
 
And as a Commander, God gave him victory over Israel, 1st Kings tells us, though Naaman doesn’t know it was the God of Israel who enabled it. 
 
And in that victory, as routinely happend, in war, Naaman’s forces captured many Israeli’s, and they were pressed into service as slaves.  One of the ‘young Israeli girls’ was assigned to Naaman’s house, and one day, she sort of casually remarks to Naaman’s wife that, wouldn’t it be wonderful if my Master – that is, Naaman – might make a little visit to the Prophet in Israel across the border, because I’m sure he could cure the disease of his skin blanch. 
 
Well, apparently his wife tells Naaman at dinner that very night, because the next thing you know, Naaman is off to his master, the king, to share the good news.  And the king of Syria was all for it, even writing a personal letter of recommendation, to the King of Israel, for Naaman to take with him.  And just for good measure, Naaman takes a big bundle of silver and gold as gifts, as well as 10 suits of fine tailored clothes! 
 
Okay, so far, we know – Naaman is a highly regarded Commander.  And the only one he serves is the king.  But the subversive, underlying truth is, without his servant girl, the young Jewish woman, Naaman wouldn’t have been going on this journey at all, in hopes of healing his unclean status! 
 
So, once in Israel, Naaman delivers the King of Syria’s letter to the King of Israel, which was an extra, and nearly disastrous step, in the process, that the servant girl certainly hadn’t recommended.  For the king of Syria – who serves, and is accountable to no one – has completely misread the situation.  He wrote, “When you get this letter, you’ll know that I’ve personally sent my servant Naaman to you – Heal him of his skin disease!”  But the king of Israel is not the healer!  And he interprets the letter as a trap, a military threat.  After all, there is Naaman the Commander in his chariot, at his doorstep, who had just recently conquered them! Has he come to break the truce and ravage them again?! 
 
The king of Israel is so upset he rends his garments, tears his robe in half, a sign of public grief, that would spread quickly.  And thank goodness, Elisha is among those who get the message! 
 
‘Don’t be upset, send Naaman to me,’ says the healer!  ‘I’ll show him there’s a prophet in Israel!’  And you can just imagine the servant girl back in Syria beginning to smile!
 
So Naaman takes his fancy chariot, and all his gifts, and heads up to see Elisha.  But when he arrives at his gate, Elisha isn’t there.  He had sent out one of his servants to deliver his message, to simply go and dip 7 times, in the barely running, trick-ly Jordan River.  Your skin will be healed and you’ll be as good as new,” the messenger said, on behalf of Elisha.
 
But for the highly decorated Commander, this is a slap in the face.  He expects Elisha to greet him in person, and to perform the miracle for him, by waving his hand over the place of the skin blanch.  Naaman expects to be served, and is incensed that he should be asked to bathe in the puny little Jordan, when he could just as easily had stayed home and immersed himself in the far finer, and much more mighty rivers, of Syria. 
 
Once again, it takes a servant, or two, to keep the healing of Naaman on track!  He is actually stomping off in a tantrum, and his servants have to run to catch him.  But they are able to reason with him, that if the Prophet Elisha had asked him to do something much more difficult, more impressive, he would have done it, right?!  So why not do this relatively simple thing, give it a try?  If it doesn’t work, you can keep going on your way back home.  But maybe it will, and then you’ll be healed! 
 
And miraculously, Naaman goes down to the Jordan, washes 7 times, and is made clean.  And his skin is restored, it says, like ‘the flesh of a young lad,’ which is a phrase in Hebrew that closely echo’s the description of, ‘the young servant girl,’ who got this whole mission started!  There is now a kinship between them.
 
And it’s a sign, that signals a switch that goes off in Naaman.  He changes, from prideful Commander, to a much more humble servant.  If you read the rest of the chapter, you’d find out that Naaman goes back to Elisha.  This time walking right up to his house, and stands before him now in a respectful way.  And like the 1 out of 10 Lepers who is thankful, in Jesus’ parable, Naaman expresses his heartfelt thanks, and now pledges his faith and obedience, to the one God of Israel. 
 
And it seems truly appropriate now, that he should humbly offer his gifts of silver, gold, and fine linens, in thanksgiving.  But Elisha is not transactional about his gift of healing.  He won’t, and can’t, accept gifts of value, of this world.  That’s not how the Grace of God works! 
 
God’s love and grace are a free gift.  Your life is a gift.  Your health is a gift.  Making things whole and well, is what God is all about. 
 
We can serve that.  But we can’t buy it.  We can become servants of the one God, which means loving-sacrifice will be involved, for it means we can no longer lord it over others.  We cannot be masters of others, or retain a special privilege at the expense of others, if we are servants, servants of the God of all creation. 
 
“Your gunna have to serve somebody!  You may be the heavyweight champion of the world, You may be Naaman, or a socialite with a long string of pearls, But you're gonna have to serve somebody.” 
 
And it’s the servants, in the story of Naaman, who model the life of faith –
and, well – a life of service, for us!  Who do we serve? 
 
For when we are obedient in service to our LORD, we honor and respect the kingdom and realm of God.  And that makes us equals and respectful of one another in the realm of God that begins right now.  A life of service is not a humiliation, but opens up to us, our true and full humanity, which fulfills our Godly call and mission. 
 
Let’s not pretend we don’t serve somebody, and thereby serve only our short term interests, at the expense of others.  Let’s serve the living, triune God, the creator of heaven and earth, who (in Christ Jesus) has come to save and heal the whole world.  

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"Marching with Pride," Sermon by Rev Fred Kinsey

7/2/2019

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Readings for Third Sunday after Pentecost, June 30, 2019

  • 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14 and Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20  
  • Galatians 5:1, 13-25  
  • Luke 9:51-62

"Marching with Pride," Pastor Kinsey
"When the days drew near for [Jesus] to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him.”
 
The last time I went and marched with the Chicago Coalition of Welcoming Churches in the Pride Parade, I barely made it on time!  
 
Rushing there after worship, I set my face to go on the Red Line.  I had no messengers to go ahead of me, but I had advance knowledge, and street coordinates, as to where to join the line-up that would step off at 12noon.  So I pushed my way through the joyous crowds, excitedly anticipating the parade’s start, and just made it before they closed-up the barricades! 
 
I found the Chicago Coalition of Welcoming Churches pick-up truck, with all the Church signs, and I grabbed our Unity Lutheran one before he closed the tailgate.  I greeted our ECT Pastors, Monte, Michael and Emily, Pastors from Broadway United Methodist, the Rabbi from Mishkan Chicago, and all the rest.  And we set our faces forward, stepping off toward our prophetic goal of showing our radical welcome and inclusion of all people.  Forward, was the way into a new future, where no one was ex-cluded.  Where all were made free to live as God had created them! 
 
This year’s ‘Honorary Pride Parade Marshall’ is newly elected Mayor Lori Lightfoot, herself a ‘visible sign’ of this inclusive movement.  Lori is the product of so much hard work over the last 50 years, since Stonewall.  From targeted community of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer, who were beaten and arrested by police in NY in 1969; through the AIDS crisis of the 80’s and 90’s, to greater acceptance and finally Marriage Equality in 2015, astounding progress has been made.  Mayor Lightfoot, who has said, that when she was in her 20’s she was afraid to ‘come out,’ partly because she wasn’t sure her own parents would accept her, is now the first openly lesbian Mayor of Chicago, married to her wife Amy, who have a daughter Vivian (which you couildn’t help but know, if you saw her campaign commercials!). 
 
!No time to look back, though, as transgender communities, and lgbtq people of color, have not yet found the same full inclusion!  The road ahead will no doubt include yet more sacrifice and setbacks, death and resurrection, before all are welcome. 
 
"When the days drew near for [Jesus] to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him.”
 
This concerted push to Jerusalem in Luke’s gospel, is the midpoint of the story, and a turning point for the mission of Jesus.  Literally, the phrase means, Jesus ‘hardened his face to go to Jerusalem.’ 
 
The movement Jesus has been building in rural northern Galilee has grown to the point that he has messengers to send ahead of him.  Jesus and the disciples travel within a network of friendship and hospitality.  They often stay and rest with companions like Mary and Martha, or with welcoming relatives like Peter's mother-in-law and Zacchaeus the tax collector.  They rely on a web of relationships, creating caring communities as they march toward Jerusalem.
 
The ‘messengers’ go into lots of towns to check out the lay of the land, but Jesus can’t go to all of them.  And when he bypasses a certain village of Samaritans, the Disciples think he’s deliberately trying to send a message to their age-old cross-town rivals.  For Samaritans only worship in the hill country, at Mt Gerizim, not in Jerusalem. 
 
“Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” they asked Jesus?  It’s not just a rhetorical question!  This is exactly what the prophet Elijah did in 2 Kings chapter 1, when the foreign king refused to recognize Israel’s God as the true God – which was Elijah’s last act before being taken up to heaven by a whirlwind.  Elijah had set his face to pass his mantle on to his protégé, Elisha, before going to God.
 
And this parallel to Elijah’s story is so strong, that some ancient Lukan texts add the phrase, “as Elijah did,” – so the whole verse would be, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them,” – “as Elijah did?” 
 
Luke creates this elaborate parallel, not only to show how Jesus is like Elijah, but also to reveal that Jesus handles Divine Retribution in a totally different way.  Jesus ‘turns toward the Disciples James and John, and rebukes them for this!’  And again, some ancient texts added another verse here, perhaps ‘the best verse Jesus never spoke’ – “you do not know, of what spirit you are, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy souls but to save them.”  (http://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/proper_8c/)
 

So this passage is about the Disciples failure, and their hatefulness.  It can be seen as the failure of any, and all of us, whenever we try to divide the world up into ‘us and them’, ‘who’s in and who’s out.’  As bitter cross-town rivals, the Samaritans were the, “them.”  And James and John embody this failure and hate in their violent attitude. 
 
How often do we depend on the world bending to our desires of eliminating our enemies?!  Do we set our faces toward our own narrow victory, to winning at the expense of others we’ve deemed expendable?  Jesus rebukes that – and continues on toward Jerusalem, preaching love of enemies, and preparing to take on our sin – leaving us a legacy we’re still trying to live up to. 
 
In the Pride Parade line-up, once you get in, you have to keep moving forward!  Lots of people behind you are depending on it!  The Parade keeps moving forward until it reaches its goal, its ‘Jerusalem.’  And you don’t stop, not even ‘to call down fire’ on the anti-gay protestors along the way! 
 
At the conclusion of our Gospel reading, someone along the way to Jerusalem said to Jesus, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”  “Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’” 
 
‘Jesus has hardened his face to go to Jerusalem,’ and to be a follower, required an equal commitment.  No looking back!  It sounds harsh, “Let the dead bury their own dead,” but the bookend passages of this Reading are clear.  Setting one’s face toward Jerusalem is the mission – and, don’t look back. 
 
Temptations to abandon this journey will abound.  For us, there is an endless list of things we plan and hope to do before doing the things that God has called us to.  Phone calls to return, friends and relatives to see.  Let me do this and this, and then I will get to that.  Even Jesus prays in his hour of need, ‘let this Cup pass from me.’  (cf. https://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2016-06/more-intense-follow-me)
 
But the kingdom of God is ahead.  It isn’t found in sentimental journeys of self-pity and perceived past greatness.  Jesus is going on his Jerusalem journey because ‘the days drew near for him to be taken up,’ as Luke says.  ‘Taken up,’ includes his suffering, his death, his resurrection and ascension.  You can’t have one without the other.
 
We can’t afford to look back or divert our attention from the kingdom, God is calling us to.  Midway on our life journeys’, we begin to realize our time is limited too.  We’re all on journey’s – sometimes under pressure, other times in parades, some of us privileged, others, still excluded from the justice and love of the kingdom of God. 
 
But it’s never too late to follow Jesus, who has ‘hardened his face to go to Jerusalem.’  Let us be ready to join in on that journey, that parade and march, focused on moving forward, toward Christ’s life-giving goal of sacrifice, love and inclusion for all – building communities of faith, today, and always!  
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