The Road Less Travled

Acts 8:26-41

Ice breakers can be super fun, or super scary. I want to try one with you all very quickly this morning. Nothing too scary I hope. I want you to turn to the person closest to you and ask them this question “What is your favorite word?”

Now ask “What is your least favorite word?”

Believe it or not, these two words can tell a lot about a person. For example, my husband’s favorite word is Kentucky, his least favorite word is Paterno. And Yes, I know that’s not technically a word, but in our house it’s the closest we get to cursing! From those words you can guess he is a UK fan in a BIG way.

How about my favorite and least favorite words? That’s easy- my favorite word is yes, and my least favorite is no. It’s plain and simple. I like to hear yes almost as much as I like to say yes. I hate hearing the word no almost as much as I hate saying it. And perhaps that basic underlying pull of wanting to say yes and not hear no that draws me to the scripture for our sermon this morning, Acts 8:26-40. Read text

This is perhaps my favorite New Testament story that doesn’t have a woman as a character. It begins in the usual way. Most of our journey stories start out with a visit from a divine messenger, right? no, only me?

Philip is spoken to by an angle of the Lord, a messenger, and told to go from Jerusalem to Gaza down a wilderness road. When I hear the term wilderness in the Bible I tend to think desert. But this is not a desert area. There are trees and valleys and water. I think wilderness here has something to do with being off the beaten path. It is literally the road less traveled. Remember that phrase.

Philip, not scared in the least by the appearance of a heavenly messenger, heads out down the road. There he encounters something very unusual.

There is a chariot stopped on the side of the road and inside this chariot sits a man reading the Jewish scriptures. I’m guessing it was odd to pullover your chariot to read on the side of the road, but I don’t know much about social norms of the day when it came to reading materials.

Philip hears the Spirit telling him to go over to the chariot and join the man. And Philip does it! He doesn’t ask for a background check. He doesn’t let his potential embarrassment hold him back. He goes and is obedient- definitely walking the Road less traveled.

What makes this even more interesting is who is sitting in the chariot. It is an Ethiopian Eunuch.

These terms may need a little bit of unpacking. Ethiopia is a country on the continent of Africa, the horn of Africa to be more specific.  It is where modern humans are said to have originated. It also has a special place in the scriptures.

Isaiah contains references to Ethiopia. Let’s hear from chapter 18. It is an area that God has claimed, called out and said that he will bless. I’m guessing those words might have been the ones that first led the Ethiopian to begin the study of scripture.

He sits there, a stranger in a strange land, having come all the way from Ethiopia to worship God, literally on the road less traveled, continuing to read from the scriptures. I don’t know about you, but I feel like something happened to the man while he was in Jerusalem. You see, that ties into the fact that he was a eunuch.

A eunuch is a male who has been castrated. This happened frequently with young men who were going to be put into the service of a female at court. It was seen as a necessity to make sure that there was no question about the legitimacy of children born to a ruler or noble. It was a barbaric practice that existed for centuries in many different contexts.

Because of this he would not have been allowed in the court of men at the temple. Deuteronomy 23:1 says “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.”  And Leviticus 21:17-21 tells us that even if the person with such an apparent deformity, even if they are a part of the lineage of Aaron, will not be allowed into the assembly.

This Ethiopian Eunuch, head of the Queen’s treasury, has traveled a great distance to worship, only to be kept from the worship he desired. And so, he sits on the side of the road, reading once more the words of Isaiah. Seeking comfort, seeking guidance, hungry for the action of the spirit of God in his life.

God hears this foreign born, not fit for the temple, man and sends a servant of the living God to stand at his side. Yes, my friends, God hears the cries of the righteous and the unrighteous, from those the world sees as worthy and those the world sees as worthless. From the lips of those on the highway, and from the mouths of those taking the Road less traveled.

This man is a spiritual pilgrim who is seeking earnestly to understand. He is not in need materially- he runs the treasury of a nation! But he is as needy as anyone you’ve ever met. And what has kept him from the throne of grace? Not his social standing, not his spiritual education or piety. But his forbidden castration and perhaps his nationality.

It was the rules of man, not God, that kept him from the throne. His sexuality and his nationality didn’t keep him from seeking God, but they kept people from seeing the Holy image of God the father in him.

He has traveled the Road less taken in search of a relationship and been turned away by the gatekeepers. This has happened to far too many. There are people who will not darken the door of a church, even for a funeral or wedding because they have been so damaged by those who were supposed to offer aid. There are those who will never spend time with Christians because Christians are judgmental, hypocritical. .  you fill in the blanks. And we have taught them to see us this way. Just like the Ethiopian Eunuch was shown that he was not welcomed.

But God heard his cry in that wilderness space and sent Philip to his aid. Philip asks, “Do you understand what it is you are reading?” That seems so condescending to me. Of course, he knows what he is reading, he is reading it!! He’s literate, educated, reading in Hebrew for Pete’s sake Philip, get yourself together!

But I don’t really think it was a malicious statement. It was a sincere question. Do you understand the book of Isaiah that you are reading? A book filled with prophecy and promise. A book that in Chapter 56 verses 3-8 says “Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,
    “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”;
and do not let the eunuch say,
    “I am just a dry tree.”
4 For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,
    who choose the things that please me
    and hold fast my covenant,
5 I will give, in my house and within my walls,
    a monument and a name
    better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
    that shall not be cut off.

6 And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
    to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it,
    and hold fast my covenant—
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain,
    and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
    for all peoples.
8 Thus says the Lord God,
    who gathers the outcasts of Israel,
I will gather others to them
    besides those already gathered.

A book that offers hope to all, even to the Eunuch. He answers, with pleading eyes, “How can I understand if no one explains it to me?” This is what makes me think he wasn’t allowed in the temple. No one had taken the time to talk about the scriptures with him. They had refused, and he needed someone to help him understand this “strange warming of the heart.”

He invited Philip to join him in the chariot and together they read from Isaiah 53

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
⁸ By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
    Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people.

This man, sitting on the road less traveled is hoping that these words mean something. He has discerned from Philip a willing spirit authorized by God even to share the meaning of the scriptures. He holds on to the hope that this might actually be a person who can help him find what he seeks. Salvation, hope, healing.

Philip begins to speak and shares that the one spoken of is Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. He responds so well. But that should not surprise us. We always say God equips those God calls. And God has clearly called Philip to take this particular Road less traveled.

Philip teaches about Jesus’ love, grace, forgiveness, healing, death and resurrection. And It meets its most willing target. They pass by some water, we are not told if it was a lake, a pond, a river, a well. All we know is that there is water present and the Eunuch cries out “Look, here is water! What’s to prevent me from being baptized?”

What is to prevent him from being baptized? What is to prevent him from entering the covenantal relationship with God that Philip experienced? Apparently, nothing, because they pull the chariot over and go to the water right then and there.

What is it that keeps people from making professions of faith today? What keeps people from being a part of the covenant people of God? What keeps people from joining Church Street and Christ Church in their missions?

Perhaps, just perhaps it is us, and other Christians like us. Those who expect a lot out of other people. We expect them to dress right, to act right, to know the rules and etiquette, to know the language of the church, when they have never been a part of it before.

Perhaps its people like us who have spoken judgement instead of forgiveness, wrath instead of love, purity instead of submission.

Philip could have easily turned aside from this impure man, a stranger from another country. But instead he offered to sit beside him, not over him. He listened to his concerns and addressed them. He took the Road less traveled, the road of grace.

Immediately upon coming out of the water the spirit whisks Philip away to another land. The Eunuch celebrates, praising God and continues home. We are left to assume that while Philip and the Eunuch go their separate ways here, they both go with a purpose, to engage in Christian mission no matter the path they wonder down.

The road less traveled- that’s the one that makes all the difference. The word yes, in a world full of no’s, that’s what allows grace to infiltrate our hate filled hearts.

Let us be ones who choose the road less traveled. Let us seek out the lonely, the lost, the hurt, the battered and bruised. Let us trust that the Spirit will do the work. Let us rejoice when God is made known to anyone, man, woman, child, elderly, black, white, brown, straight, gay, poor or rich. Let’s take the road less traveled- the road of Grace, that leads us all back into the fold of God.

Wasteful Worship

John 12:1-11

Waste not want not. It’s a phrase most of us are familiar with. Depending on when you were born it may mean different things to you than to your neighbor. When I was growing up my mom used this term usually to refer to the food on our plates. When my grandmother was a young girl it would have been used to talk about flour sacks, tin foil, hose, pieces or wood or scrap metal, glass, etc. 

Waste is a very different concept for different people. My grandmother never used Ziploc bags for anything. She found their very existence wasteful. She had Tupperware, the good kind, and cloths to wrap food in. My Mom on the other hand loved plastic Ziploc bags. She had them in every size and style. She loved that they were disposable because it meant less time washing dishes. What was wasteful to my Grandmother signified freedom for my mom.

In today’s scripture we are told about a woman, named Mary, who uses a very extravagant gift on Jesus’ feet. No, she doesn’t give him a pedicure, she washes his feet with this costly perfume and the dries it with her hair.

While in our day and time this would be seen as odd, quirky, personal space invading behavior, it had completely different connotations in Jesus’ world. First, the disciples and Jesus are spending time in Bethany and Mary, Martha and Lazarus’ home. This is this same family that a chapter before has experienced the miraculous return from the dead of their brother. Jesus has been said to love these three. They are close to Jesus and he has reunited them. 

Here they sit at a meal together, reclining at the table. Martha is serving, and Lazarus sits with Jesus. In walks Mary with a pound of perfume made from pure nard. Judas tells us it is worth 300 denarii- 300 day’s wages. She takes this perfume and pours it all over Jesus’ feet. 

Have you ever been in a room where someone sprayed on perfume? It doesn’t take long for that scent to waft towards you, even in a room as large as this sanctuary. Scents are powerful. When I served as a hospital chaplain and later as a hospice chaplain, scents were forbidden because they could affect people in so many ways. Not only are people allergic or sensitive to them, scent is also one of the most powerful connections we have to memory. Just a hint of Oil of Olay original scent brings my Grandma into focus for me.

Here, a pound of the stuff is poured out. The smell would have overpowered the room. Everyone would have taken notice. No one could have ignored or not recognized that this was happening. What Mary did was not a private hidden act, but a public bold statement.

To add to her boldness, Mary dries Jesus’ feet with her hair. To do this, her hair would have had to have been uncovered, and more than likely loose. These things were not done in mixed company in those days. Women kept their heads covered. It was proper, dignified, required. Here, Mary uncovers her hair and drapes it over a man’s feet. And a man she is not married to or even related to! The horror. This was a huge huge social no no! This kind of thing wasn’t done. Period.

In other versions of this story people watching are amazed that this loose woman, a stereotype based on the loose hair, would dare to approach Jesus in such a manner, and that Jesus would allow it to occur. In John’s version no one seems shocked that Mary has unbound her hair, but they certainly take issue with the use of the perfume.

There are always the fiscally conservative among any group. People must keep an eye on the cost of things. Within most religious institutions there is a treasurer, perhaps a finance committee or even a Board of Trustees that is responsible for giving an accounting of funds received and funds used. In most cases this is an accountability issue. We want to make sure that funds and facilities are being used to their fullest potential. There is nothing wrong with that. We should be good stewards of what we are given to be stewards over. 

Judas was the treasure of the group. It makes sense that he would call this use of resources into question. Three hundred days wages was a lot of money. Nothing to laugh at. Of course, he would want to know why it was being, in his mind, waisted like this. 

John throws in the snide comment that Judas used to steal from the common purse and that’s why he was so interested in the value of the perfume. Could be truth, although none of the other Gospel writers tell us this about Judas. It could be character assassination, to keep Judas solidly in the betrayer category John seems fond of. 

So, there is Mary, sitting on the floor, wiping Jesus’ feet, her hair, hands, whole house covered in the scent of her worship. And there sits Judas judging her. 

Mary didn’t just stumble upon this costly perfume. This was the kind of perfume used to anoint the dead. It was used to keep the body from smelling. She had this perfume, not because she kept a store of such extravagant and expensive things. She had it because her brother was dead, had died, and it was needed. 

But, but she hadn’t had to use it for its intended purpose. Her brother Lazarus is alive! Sitting at the table with Jesus and the disciples, eating and drinking with them. Out of her extreme gratitude, an act of worship, she pours it out over Jesus’ feet. This extravagant, wasteful act is anything but wasted. 

Jesus holds her up as an example saying that this perfume was to anoint him for his burial, which would come in a few days’ time. Mary might not have known at that point that her gift would be one to and for a dying Jesus, but it was a gift of worship. 

Thursday night I went with Chrissy to the Winning Women gathering at Restoration church. Pastor Angela told a story at the beginning about a time she was speaking at a women’s event and she felt the Lord telling her to bring a rose for every woman in attendance. Her first thought was, that’s going to be expensive. But she did it. She bought dozens of roses and handed one out to every woman there. When she was done she had three left over. She felt pretty good about that. Then she heard the Spirit urging her to give all three of those roses to a woman seated near her. So, she did. The woman began to cry and left the auditorium. Years later she ran into this woman at the store. The woman recognized her. She called out to her to thank her for the roses. She said that she had never been given a flower in her entire 46 years of life and that those roses had shown her she was valued, special and loved.

Because of this encounter, Pastor Angela likes to give things away at the women’s meetings. I thought it was a very sweet story but put it out of my mind. Then another leader asked us to pick up our purses and prepare to be the first ones to bring an item to the front. 

Now, you all know I don’t carry a purse. Chrissy had already commented that I wasn’t going to win anything because I don’t carry a bag with me. The very first thing called out for was an expired drivers license. While I don’t carry a purse, I do carry a wallet. And in that wallet are two expired drivers license along with my current one. So, I went to the front to claim my prize. Pastor Angela was holding up a box filled with cooking things and I looked at it and reached in for the oven mitt and started to pull it out to take. Then she shook her head and said, “No honey, you get the whole basket.” 

They gave away at least 6 baskets or gifts, each beautiful, filled with goodies and extravagant. 

I’m sure there are some who might say these gifts are wasteful. They don’t take up an offering, the women who come all attend different churches. There is not a mention of regular worship times. But to this group these gifts are an act of worship. A way of sharing the love that they have received and continue to receive from God with others.

What is wasteful worship? I am sure, if we were to look closely we could find ways that others see our worship as wasteful. Perhaps in the time spent on praises and prayer requests could be better used, or the passing of the peace could be streamlined. But these things are not here just to take up time. They are a part of our worship. A time for connecting with God and with one another as God’s children.

To Judas, it was Mary’s worship, pouring out something that could be used in other ways onto feet, onto hair, onto the ground. Jesus doesn’t agree. 

And I’m sure Mary was reminded of the approval of her worship throughout that week, Holy week. The smell would have clung with her, to her hands, in her hair, as she watched Jesus walk the path to Calvary. As she watched him hang on the cross, the scent of her worship surrounded her. As she saw him laid in the tomb, the scent lingered. When she heard the good news of his resurrection, the scent turned from mourning to dancing. Her wasteful worship lingered as a witness of the power of Christ, yes even power over death.

Worship with a purpose is anything but wasteful. May our worship be extravagant, loving and overpowering so that it stays with us throughout the trials and suffering of our lives. May our worship bring witness to Jesus’ power, yes even the power of resurrection and new life.

When Jesus comes into your church

Mark 1:21-28

The Devil made me do it.

It’s a famous catch phrase from Flip Wilson, an icon in the comedy world. This phrase became a part of our American culture very quickly. When he talked of a woman buying a dress at the store, the third one that week, she used the excuse “The devil made me do it.” And we laughed.

It has become a very common theme in our thoughts, comedy, even children’s cartoons. You all remember the angle and devil siting on Tom or Jerry’s shoulders influencing their behavior? Would they listen to the saccharin sweet voice of the angel or the gruff fun-loving guy in red? And we laughed.

Because its easier to laugh at those things that make us uncomfortable. Because we deep down don’t want to admit that evil is real, that bad things happen to good people, that demons don’t always dress in red. To quote author Tucker Max “The devil doesn’t show up dressed in a red cape with pointy horns.  He comes as everything you’ve ever wished for.”

In our world, yes even in the world of the church, it is easier to poke fun at evil than to address its reality. We Presbyterians like to do things decently and in order, we don’t have time for this “supernatural stuff.” I remember discussing whether spirits/demons still existed with a fellow seminary student. He told me that demons or unclean spirits were just the way that ancient people dealt with things like epilepsy, cancer, migraine headache and mental illness. It was a catch all to explain the unexplained. After sitting there for a while I asked, “Then why does Jesus waste time talking to them?”

In the gospel of Mark Jesus spends a good deal of time dealing with these unclean spirits. Specifically casting them out of the people they have held captive.  And while I do believe that some of these instances are probable explained by some of our modern medical issues, that doesn’t make them any less real. And I think we still encounter them today.

In our scripture this morning, Jesus has gone into Capernaum and is teaching in the synagogue. Mark moves his narrative of Jesus along very quickly, with a heavy use of the word immediately. In Mark Jesus’ public ministry only lasts a year, so he keeps things a quick pace.

We are not given the details of his teaching, this teaching with authority. In Matthew and Luke, we get detailed notes on Jesus’ teachings, like the sermon on the mount and sermon on the plain, but Mark doesn’t take time to do that. Instead he tells us Jesus taught with authority. Then he shows us what that authority looked like.

Jesus is on the synagogue, the center of worship and faith for the local people of Israel. This is where they came to learn, to discuss, to worship, to celebrate, to mourn, to question. It was the place where the faithful gathered to hear the word of God interpreted and to seek guidance. Sound familiar?

It was the church, the local community of believers doing the best they could to follow the rules of the faith in a world oppressed by the romans and filled with all sorts of potholes. SO, the faithful gathered, in theory, to keep one another accountable, to encourage one another. But the leaders of the day had gone from encouragement to perfectionism. It had become a museum for saints instead of a hospital for sinners. It became a place to show how holy you were, instead of how holy God is.

I can’t imagine the wonder people would have felt to hear Jesus teaching, a new teaching, with authority. He wasn’t quoting the past leaders of the synagogue, or the great former priests. Instead he spoke with his own level of authority- interpreting the scriptures directly. If this was a shock, what happened next was unbelievable.

There amid the people of God, immediately, Mark says, there is a man with an unclean spirit that cries out "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God."

Take a step back. There is an unclean spirit possessed man chilling in the synagogue? Say what? There were so many rules and regulations about who could and who could not worship, where people could sit, or stand, how they washed their hands, feet, even whole selves, so how did a known demon possessed man get into the synagogue?

I read several commentaries about this lesson and without fail they said that someone with an unclean spirit, even a suspected demon possessed person, would have been ostracized. They would have been shunned, considered unclean. People, respectable people at least, would not associate with them. They speak as if this well-known demon possessed man just happened to sneak into the worship service without notice.

That doesn’t ring true to me, or to my reading of the scripture. I think something much different, and perhaps more disturbing is happening here.

The man is in the community, a part of the community. Possibly even an upstanding part of the community of faith. From the outside he looks pulled together, righteous even. But within him is an unclean spirit, a spirit contrary to the will and works of God. Faced with the real honest truth of the word of God he can no longer hide his possession. The unclean spirit is threatened and cries out "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God."

When Jesus shows up in church it is challenging. When Jesus shows up at church it is life changing. When Jesus shows up at church, even there he exposes the spirits that are contrary to the work and will of God.

Throughout the remainder of the Gospel of Mark Jesus will encounter unclean spirits, demons. He will call them out, he will cast them into the abyss or into the swine herds. He will not let the people of God to remain infected with these spirits. But the first one he calls out is in the house of worship. This is important to Mark, and important to us.

When Jesus comes into your church he comes to set you free. This is good news, but it is not always welcome news. The liberating power of Jesus rubs against the powers that be in such a way as to cause disruption, fear, and push back.

"What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God."

Have you come to destroy us? The answer is a resounding yes, and step by step in the Gospel of Mark Jesus goes about destroying any and all unclean spirits that come into his path, whether they be in the church, or in the political sphere, in homes or by tombs.

What does this have to do with us today? Plenty. You see there are still unclean spirits around today. And just like in Jesus’ day they are not always easy to spot. You don’t always find them in expected places. They lurk in places that from the outside appear healthy, clean, even good- like places of leadership and power, schools, capitals, and yes, even churches. They can hide because as a society we have reduced them to a joke, a punch line “The devil made me do it.” But let me assure you all, they are not a punch line, they are real.

They manifest in many different forms. I don’t think that any of us can look at the current addictions crisis in the USA and honestly think there is not something more than meets the eye. These are not isolated individuals who were born bad and therefor some how deserve the pain and anguish caused by addictions.

I hope that none of us can look at the increase in mass shootings and school shootings in this country and think there is nothing more than bad parenting and poor security at its roots.

I hope that in this city, where just this month, at least 4 people have been killed and 4 others wounded by gun violence, one of whom is a member at our sister church, Church Street, and think that there isn’t more going on then living on the wrong side of the tracks.

Institutional demons or racism, poverty, sexism, they are real. I believe at my core that they are not just policies and procedures that have become bad or harmful, but that at their root there is an unclean spirit, a spirit against God and the will and work of God.

Demons are personal as well. Individuals face demons, created by others, created by hate or loss or pain of course. But also, those with an honest to goodness spiritual component.

I know, its not something we talk about, but its real. Just look at this scripture.

Jesus, who just verses before is confirmed as being possessed by the Spirit of God comes into the place of worship and the Spirit of God is so powerful it causes the demon to cry out, to expose itself.

If I could talk to each of you, one on one, I could tell stories of encounters with unclean spirits, with demons. Those where I have witnessed the power of the holy spirit to cast them out. I could tell you of places where you walked in and knew something was not right. I can tell you of thin places, where the space between heaven and earth seemed to all but disappear.

And my guess is that many of you have these same stories, you just don’t talk about them in polite conversation because our modern world is somehow above all of that spiritual non-sense.

But here is the truth, and we will hear it a lot in the gospel of Mark, just like the line between sacred and secular doesn’t exist, everything every aspect of our lives is sacred. Likewise, every aspect of our lives is spiritual. We are not just flesh and bone, but spiritual beings. To deny that reality is to enter into a type of dualism that winds up denying the power of God all together.

As Ephesians 6 v 12 tells us “12 For our[b] struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

This new teaching with authority that Jesus brings about shook the foundations of not only the synagogue, not only the Roman empire, but the whole of the world. Its still shaking the powers that be, be they earthly or spiritual. The good news is that we know who wins, that the darkness cannot and will not put out the light of Christ. SO, let us carry that light with us into the darkest of places, casting out the demons, the unclean spirits, the things contrary to the work and will of God in Jesus name. Amen.