Let's Talk about Fornication!

Hi everyone,

Wow... the lectionary provided us with some pretty choice passages this Sunday. What follows is my take on 1 Corinthians 6: 11-20. If you'd like to see video of the sermon, you can check it out soon on my congregation's website, Messiah Lutheran Church.

Wow, the geniuses who came up with the lectionary really served us up a doozy this week. We have two stories in 1 Samuel and the Gospel of Saint John about God calling disciples… and neither of which is particularly uplifting. The Samuel story is really problematic because it ends with God being pretty mean to poor old Eli. The story from John isn’t too bad, but it’s just kind of dry, no? But then, we got one really coming at us out of left field with the epistle reading… it’s Saint Paul writing to those bothersome Corinthians all about the loaded topic of fornicating! While I firmly believe there’s good news in all these readings my sisters and brothers, they definitely all take a great deal of unpacking to get there, and given that we probably need a little something to warm us up on such a cold winter’s morning, let’s just talk about the fornicating! I figure it’s probably been a couple months since I’ve gotten too controversial in one of my sermons, so why not give it a whirl.

Has anyone here ever heard of the Houses of Hillel and Shammai? Although I had heard a bit about Hillel cause most Jewish student centers on college campuses are named after him, I hadn’t really heard the full story myself about Hillel and Shammai until I got to seminary either, so don’t worry about it. That said though, it might be a little bit too history-nerdish, but try to remember about Hillel and Shammai, because their story can definitely go a long way in helping us figure out difficult ethical issues and sort through difficult Biblical passages as Christians. This is a bit of an oversimplification of their story, but essentially Hillel and Shammai were two competing Jewish sages who lived not long before the time of Christ. Now when these sages disagreed about important matters of Torah or Jewish law, they and their respective followers tended to hold two competing schools of thought. The Shammai folks generally tried to stick more to letter of the law, to do things exactly by the book, while the Hillel folks tended to spend a bit more time thinking about context, how a particular piece of Torah would be applied, the sort of spirit and intent behind what was written in the Scriptures.

The most famous practical example of these two ways of thinking was in a bit of an argument the Hillel and Shammai folks got into over white lies. Now according to the last part of Leviticus 19:11, you’re not supposed to lie: “you shall not lie to one another.” But what happens (and this is the exact example Hillel and Shammai got in an argument about by the way)… what happens if on her wedding day, a not particularly attractive bride asks you if she looks beautiful? Should you lie, be nice, and say she’s beautiful, or should follow the law exactly, and truthfully say, “have a blessed wedding day darling, but no, you are ugly!” Now the right course of action I think seems obvious to all of us, but the Shammai folks would disagree… tell her she’s ugly they’d say, stick to the law! Now the Hillel folks wouldn’t say the law isn’t helpful in this matter, not at all! In fact, in order to give proper respect to the law, think about it a little, what Leviticus 19:11 trying to get at, what’s the intent? What’s the Spirit of the law? In the end, Hillel famously said, “every bride is beautiful on her wedding day.”

During Christ’s time actually, the Shammai folks were more popular. As opposition to Roman domination grew, the more hardline approach of the Shammai folks was more appealing. Eventually though, taking the Shammai approach to foreign policy with the Roman Empire is partially what led to Jerusalem and especially the temple being destroyed around 70 CE. As Jewish leaders reconstituted themselves in the succeeding years, Shammai’s way of looking at things was largely thrown out… you must take one’s context into account when interpreting the law. The spirit of the law is what truly matters! In the end, the Hillel approach largely triumphed, and it grew into majorly influencing the beautiful faith of Judaism we know today (and Christianity too by the way).

So when you see these controversial, difficult Bible passages my sisters and brothers, whether they be in the Old or New Testament, remember this whole Hillel/ Shammai thing… prayerfully try to discern the spirit of the author’s writing, and indeed how the Holy Spirit is currently at work in the author’s writing, right now, in this day in age, in twenty-first century Schenectady or wherever you might find yourselves.

Now when thinking about all this fornicating business, and indeed all the other various types of sexually-related sins listed around it in 1 Corinthians, let’s keep our context in mind. As Christians we’re all members of a religious movement that hasn’t always gotten matters of gender and sexuality exactly right over the years. All the women who were kept out of the pulpit simply because of their gender. All the folks told to stay in horribly abusive marriages by their local priest. All the recent divorcees, who in the midst of crisis, at the time they needed the support of their faith communities the most, were shamed out of churches. Now I imagine we may have some different views in the congregation related to marriage equality, LGBT issues and the like, but wow, I’d hope we could all agree that things like what happened this past week, when a church in Colorado decided to cancel a young woman’s funeral fifteen minutes after it was supposed to begin because she was gay, I’d hope we could agree that things like that are well, far less than ideal and certainly not reflective of Christian love.

Unfortunately, although many of the congregations in our denomination and others have been improving in recent years, it’s our history as Christians and notable news stories like the one out of Colorado this past week that have made so many folks, and not just people of my generation, associate Christianity not with God or love or Jesus but with being uppity and mean about matters of sexuality. I’ve seen it with my own eyes a bunch of times… Christians talking all about how their “pure” but in the end pretty much just putting themselves over someone else by shaming people who wouldn’t fit their standards of “purity.” These sort of actions, this sort of shaming that takes place far too often in Christian circles in matters related to human sexuality, is in the end complete hogwash, and needs to be called out as such, for at least two reasons.

First, when we put ourselves over and above someone else, whether or not what that other person is doing is actually sinful, it’s all too easy for us to forget about our own things that need improvement. Second though, and even more importantly, we end up just looking silly like Shammai, calling someone ugly on their wedding day. Paul wrote all this business about not fornicating to a church in the first century that was rife with conflict. The text seems to suggest people were committing all sorts of sexual craziness because they thought they were freed by forgiveness in Christ to do whatever they pleased, and as would obviously happen, the Corinthians just ended up hurting each other. They were messing up their relationships with God and with one another. If you take the Hillel approach, and look at the spirit of what Paul is trying to say to the Corinthians, here’s where you start to find the good news! In our day and age, in a time when the church has screwed up issues related to sex for so long and so many people feel so unwelcome in Christian communities because of it, it’s not as much the sexuality that’s getting in the way of being in relationship with God and one another, it’s this over-zealous judgement and shaming that’s the real problem. That’s not to say we should go out and be like the Corinthians doing whatever we want, not at all, misusing the gift of sexual intimacy can really hurt people, but wow, in our context, that over-zealous judgement and shaming is what's really hurt people and truly getting in the way of far too many folks knowing the joy of Christian community.

When you look at the spirit of what Paul’s trying to say with all this fornicating stuff, in the end, he’s saying take Christ seriously. Take Christ seriously! Outside of gathering to hear the Scriptures publicly read, being baptized and celebrating communion (all actions which involve other people, by the way), the best way we can know Christ in this world is simply by seeing Him in the face of other people, oftentimes in the face of people where you would not expect Christ to be. Christ is breaking into your life each and every day! Take that seriously! If you’re part of a community where sexuality is getting in the way of seeing Christ in one another like in first century Corinth, sure, chill out a bit with the sexuality. If you’re part of a community where judgement and shaming is getting in the way of seeing Christ in one another, as it certainly is in many of today’s churches, chill out a bit with the judgement and shaming! Christ, my sisters and brothers, is constantly trying to break into our lives, to heal us, to save us, to liberate us, to make sure that we know we our loved, no matter what. Christ is trying to teach us something too by sometimes showing up in the faces of those we’d least expect it. And indeed, Christ has promised to do these things. And yes, our God in Christ is a God who keeps promises. Amen.

Dustin serves as pastor at Messiah Lutheran Church, a Spirit-filled church following Jesus Christ in Rotterdam, New York. An evangelist, urban gardener, mountain climber, community organizer, saint and sinner, he spends most of his professional time wrestling with God and proclaiming liberation in Christ. Otherwise, Dustin likes hiking, playing frisbee, hanging out with his fiancée Jessie, his amazing pup Willy Bear and pretending to know how to sing.

Bishop-elect Eaton on Morning Joe, The Dave Matthews Band and Liberating Love

So as many folks I speak regularly with know, I'm in the midst of writing my "approval essay," which means I'm desperately trying to finish the really long assignment (roughly twenty pages) that I have to write before going to a final interview with folks in New England where we'll discern whether or not I should be a pastor.

This year's prompts for the approval essay are all questions about "missional leadership." In less churchy language, this means leadership that inspires folks in churches to get out in the world, spread the gospel and help other folks out rather than sitting around arguing about what new furniture to buy, etc. Luckily, the prompt also states, "this theme is motivated by a desire for a deep and rich conversation about the church and its participation in God's mission." So, I figure it'd be pretty darn missional of me to share my writings thus far, in order to spark wider conversation outside of just the folks I'll be meeting with a couple months from now.  What follows is the second part of a three-part essay, and it's specifically about my core theological commitments and missional leadership.  I'd love to hear what you think!

The Gospel, the good news of God’s act of liberating love in Christ, is a free gift of God for everyone. The Gospel is a free gift of God for everyone, and thanks be to God for this core tenet of Lutheran theology! Yet, we must humbly admit that in many congregations, such a beautiful theological foundation simply doesn’t play out in Lutheran practice. I’m painfully reminded of this problem when I all too frequently see “Camp Calumet” listed as the religion of friends or former campers on Facebook rather than “Christianity.” Why is that our young people in New England seem to relate primarily to a place in the woods hours away from home rather than their local faith community (if they have one at all)? This isn’t just a problem with young folks either, of course... most of my friends a few years older than me, many of whom are now starting families, don’t really feel a need to go to Church or even baptize their newborn children.

Even before starting seminary really, but especially since witnessing a “Conversation with the Nones” (folks unaffiliated with an organized faith community), a forum which Bishop Jim Hazelwood organized at the New England Synod Assembly this past spring, I’ve been thinking deeply about these issues. While I’ve certainly not come to any definitive conclusions, I have a hunch the problem is not primarily the way we worship or that we’re not progressive enough or even that we’re not welcoming to visitors on a Sunday morning. No, my sisters and brothers, our problem is deeper than such concerns: guided by the Spirit, we must discern how to boldly proclaim the good news of the ever-moving Triune God in a 21st century world profoundly hungry for such good news. To put it another way, the Gospel has not changed, and neither has the unique insights of our Lutheran theological heritage, but folks are understandably asking different questions than their ancestors were five hundred years ago, we must address these questions.

For example, what follows is the concluding paragraph of a paper I wrote for a Lutheran Confessions course during my first year of seminary:

The gospel is important to Lutherans because faith proceeds from the gospel and it is through faith that we receive the forgiveness of sins on account of Christ. Brought to contrition by the law we are in turn compelled to the promise of the gospel. This promise is known through the Holy Spirit working in spoken Word and visible Word, the sacraments. The promise of the gospel brings comfort to the conscience, and therefore allows for faith. Through faith we are brought into union with Christ, who exchanges righteousness for our sins, justifying us before God. Justification frees our hearts to do good works out of love for God instead of fear, serving our neighbor freely as the part of the body of Christ.

From a theological perspective, I think did pretty well here... not to be overly suggestive, but its a paragraph a Candidacy Committee could be proud of! Yet, while I still absolutely, positively confess everything written in the paragraph above, I don’t think it would mean much to the folks unaffiliated with a faith community at synod assembly, and it sure isn’t a missional way of proclaiming the good news. Folks like those on stage at synod assembly, and in fact most people I know, seem a lot more interested in being part of a strong community, in having the space to grow and explore their relationship with the Divine without judgement, and simply trying to put food on the table while sending their kids to college.

So then, what’s the answer? How can we boldly proclaim the Gospel to folks in a way that speaks to their contemporary context while staying true to our Lutheran tradition? Interestingly enough, just this morning, on the MSNBC show Morning Joe, Bishop-elect Elizabeth Eaton laid it out extremely well:

“... and I really do hope to be a voice for the good news of the gospel... this business about grace that we’re loved and deeply cared for by a God who loves us. And because of that, that sets us free to love the world and be in service to the world.”

In only four minutes and twenty-two seconds, Bishop-elect Eaton boldly proclaimed the Gospel to folks across the country as they were watching Morning Joe, eating breakfast and starting their day. Furthermore, due the immense communicative power of what I like to think of as “printing press 2.0,” or social media, Bishop-elect Eaton’s interview went viral, proclaiming the Gospel to folks around the world. A number of my friends who have very little connection to the Lutheran church were even discussing the interview on Facebook and Twitter, and even more importantly in offline conversations, building community around the Gospel. In fact, two days after the airing of Bishop-elect Eaton’s interview (I’m now writing two days after I wrote the beginning of this paragraph), the clip is still the most watched video on the Morning Joe website.

This is absolutely amazing! What then about Bishop-elect Eaton’s message proved so powerful and resonated so strongly with our fellow Americans? If you look closely at the quote above, she paired two key concepts: love and freedom. The love of God in Christ frees us from our everyday, mundane lives into communion with the Holy Community and with one another, thereby allowing us to look upon our lives (and serve our neighbors through our given vocations) through the eyes of grace. The free gift of God in Christ, my sisters and brothers, is Christian freedom, a concept at the heart of the Lutheran theological tradition:

... a Christian lives not in himself, but in Christ and in his neighbor. Otherwise he is not a Christian. He lives in Christ through faith, in his neighbor through love. By faith he is caught up beyond himself into God. By love he descends beneath himself into his neighbor. Yet he always remains in God and in his love, as Christ says in John I [:51], “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." (Luther, Freedom of a Christian)

Not only is Christian freedom a central Lutheran message, but its also a message our world is profoundly hungry for. All too many Americans (if they’re lucky) have to get up morning after morning, sit in a long commute, only to then sit in a cubicle in front of a computer all day, all in order to barely put food on the table. As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, not only in America but around the world, an increasing number of folk face even greater oppression, whether it be from a corrupt government, disease, poverty, hunger, addiction, war or the bloat of their own extravagant wealth. At the same time, folks are more connected than ever before in one global, digital community; when we are inspired and when we are informed, we now have the ability to increasingly help bear each others burdens. Just talking about a loving God that cares for us and forgives us in such a unique situation is great, but it is not quite enough... we’ve been doing that in many churches for a while now.

We cannot just proclaim the love of God in Christ as some sort of warm fuzzy feeling we experience for an hour every Sunday morning that temporarily takes our pain away before we socialize over burned coffee. No! In doing so, we’re just ravaging God’s creation and wasting resources to heat, cool and maintain huge, comfortable but empty buildings where we deal out Marx’s “opiate of the masses,” (a drug we increasingly get paid less and less for). Such work is simply not sustainable, and even more importantly, its a waste of time. God’s love literally does something to us, it liberates us, it free us from the weight of whatever may oppress us into a new existence of discipleship in Christ:

The disciple is dragged out of his relative security into a life of absolute insecurity (that is, in truth, into the absolute security and safety of the fellowship of Jesus), from a life which is observable and calculable (it is, in fact, quite incalculable) into a life where everything is unobservable and fortuitous (that is, into one which is necessary and calculable), out of the realm of finite (which is in truth the infinite) into the realm of infinite possibilities (which is the one liberating reality). (Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship)

The life of discipleship is the one liberating reality, a realm of infinite possibilities, and this is profoundly good news! In this liberating reality, we’re freed to not just welcome in but in fact go out to folks like artists, activists, the LGBT community, singles and young people that the Church has turned away for far too long. In this liberating reality, we’re freed to discern with disciples how they can creatively engage with people of other faiths and with secular institutions to better serve their neighbors living in an increasingly pluralistic society. In this liberating reality, we’re freed to carefully and prayerfully move past our continued hangups around human sexuality while still being good stewards of the bodies and relationships that the Triune God has given us. In this liberating reality, we’re freed to embrace our theology of the cross and recognize that we don’t always have the answers. And in this liberating reality, we’re freed to actually step foot outside our church doors to boldly engage in Christian mission to our local communities and in our everyday lives.

How do we proclaim the good news of God’s act of liberating love in Christ to a world that’s so hungry for it yet increasingly doesn’t know what the heck we’re talking about? We simply follow Saint Paul’s example:

Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us (Acts 17: 22 - 27, NRSV).

Part of the reason Camp Calumet is so good at cultivating Christian community is that its counselors teach about the Triune God through the culturally sensitive lens of “an unknown god.” Almost everyone I meet, Christians, folks who are “spiritual,” and even most atheists, seem to think there’s something outside themselves, something that they usually wish they could connect with better, even if its just the human spirit. The Athenians, despite all their idols of silver and stone, knew there was something else, something they really couldn’t put their finger on, and it was through the “unknown God” that Paul teaches them of Christ.

We’re all searching and struggling, groping for at very least this “unknown God,” and even the most anti-church campers at Calumet (and there’s plenty of them) feel much the same way. The counselors then don’t use gimmicky Christian rappers or acoustic guitar songs about kissing boyfriend Jesus, but rather teach of Christ through things native to the campers’ culture, using the near-universal yearning for the “unknown God” as an entry point. Perhaps my most cherished example of sharing the good news in this manner is through evening devotionals or “devos,” where the counselor usually plays a song or shares a story, leads brief discussion and ends with Bible verse and prayer. One of my favorite songs I used to play for devos is “Don’t Feed the Pig” by Dave Matthews Band:



Through its eloquent talk of the power of liberating love and the wonder of being grounded in the present moment, “Pig” profoundly speaks to the universal yearning for the “unknown God” inside each and everyone one of us. While I certainly was not nearly as theologically versed back when I was a camp counselor, I’d usually play the song and explain how for me, Christ was that source of liberating love Dave Matthews was talking about. It led to some truly amazing conversations (I mostly worked with teenage campers), and it did so while proclaiming the Gospel in a missional way that strongly reflected our Lutheran theological tradition.

Preaching Video: Marriage Equality and Christ's Liberating Love

I realized yesterday I never posted this video of my sermon from a couple Sundays back, preached at Saint Peter's Church where I serve as Vicar on June 30th, 2013.  It's primarily on an appointed reading for the day, Galatians 5: 1, 13 -25, and the recent federal recognition of marriage equality.  Would love some feedback.

God's peace,
Dustin

Dustin currently serves as Vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.

Galatians 5 Sermon: Liberating Love vs. Hate and Intolerance

Hey friends! What follows is a sermon draft I just came up with for tomorrow at Saint Peter's Church where I serve as Vicar. It's primarily on an appointed reading for the day, Galatians 5: 1, 13 -25, and the recent federal recognition of marriage equality. Definitely needs some changes before tomorrow so I'd love to hear what you think.
 
If you’re a rabble-rousing sinner like me, if you’re someone known to get a bit rowdy, or someone that well… has a bit of flavor in any number of ways, and thanks be to God we have a bunch of those folks here at Saint Peter’s, part of today’s first reading from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Galatians probably didn’t sound like very good news at all… part of it might have bummed you out, angered you or even scared the heck out of ya. I’m specifically speaking about the part where Saint Paul condemns that nice long list of “desires of the flesh.” Desires of the flesh… for many folks such talk conjures up images of hate, images of judgment… images of times when our friends, our families and our own selves have gotten the message to feel inadequate or unwelcome because of who we are. And all too often, such messages of hate, such messages of judgment have come from the mouths of our fellow Christians.

Desires of the flesh… Perhaps you’ve had to sit and comfort a daughter or friend who’s made the difficult decision to exercise her God-given right to choose and then had to confront voices calling her a whore and fornicator on the way to a family planning center. Perhaps you or a loved one have had to deal with accusations of impurity or carousing because for any number of very legitimate reasons you live with a long-term committed partner before marriage. I know many of us were angered this past week when in the midst of celebrating the news of the federal recognition of marriage equality, as the tolling bells of advancing justice were ringing out loud across our country, our joy was interrupted by all sorts of people… politicians, pundits, and pastors especially, accusing the Supreme Court of going against the word of God.

At times, we can we respond to such messages of hate and judgment by shrugging it off or perhaps like Nancy Pelosi did this past week, we can easily reply, “Who cares.” But sometimes, we can’t, sometimes it’s not so easy… sometimes these messages, whether coming from our fellow Christians or from other polished and seemingly perfect individuals simply cut too deep. As Christians, they strike us at the core of who we know ourselves to be through faith as broken yet beautiful children of God. And that’s just for us Christians… for the increasing number of our sisters and brothers either born outside an organized faith community or painfully separated from one, such messages can hurt even more and certainly dissuade them from ever stepping foot inside a church, hearing the good news and knowing the joy of community in Christ.

So, what shall we do, what shall we say in this time and place, in a specific historical and cultural situation calling us to respond to hate and intolerance that is so frequently propagated in the name of God? First, I believe, we have to take stock of where we are as a society. Not even an hour after the Supreme Court released it’s ruling on the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, CNN brought Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council on air to give a “Christian perspective on the news.” Now, when you have the president of an anti-gay hate group representing the views of a diverse faith like Christianity to millions, it must be recognized that we have a long way to go. At the same time, we must also take stock of ourselves, our own biases and weaknesses, and create space to ask the difficult questions about how to name hate for what it is while still fully affirming those who propagate hate are just as much children of God as we are.

Next, we should celebrate our successes… in the past couple years we’ve seen a diverse group of folks from famous athletes to Jay-Z to even the President of the United States specifically cite their faith as a reason to affirm the rights of everyone across the rich diversity that is the gender spectrum in our world. And this past week, as marriage equality became federally recognized across our land, to cite the poetic summation of Martin Luther King, the long arc of the moral universe took a most powerful bend towards justice. That is absolutely amazing news, its absolutely amazing news folks… and as many of us gather to celebrate our freedom as Americans later this week, let us hold in our hearts that many of our sisters and brothers are more free now than ever before, and our whole society is the better for it.

But finally, the most important thing to keep in mind is that its not really about what you, or me or any other person for that matter is really doing to confront the forces of hate and intolerance at all… its about what Christ is doing… its about what Christ is doing in this time, in this place, in this city, and in this world… and that my sisters and brothers, is amazingly good news. For we know the compassionate work of God in Christ is not an act of intolerance, its not an act of judgment, but rather is an act of liberation, of freedom from all the powers of sin, of death and hate that may oppress us, and thus, an act of love. If one looks at Saint Paul’s Letter to the Galatians as a whole rather than just cherry picking that list of desires of the flesh, one realizes that in six short chapters it proclaims a message of Christ’s liberating love in the most profound of ways. You see, Paul wrote his letter in a cultural context much like our own…

Despite Paul’s earlier attempt to proclaim the liberating good news of God’s work in Christ, the Galatians had turned to a different “gospel,” to those who preached that following a strict interpretation of Mosaic Law was a necessary part of being a Christian, rather than living into the Spirit of God’s covenant with Israel as a gift. Paul boldly proclaims to the Galatians, “No folks… trying to get on God’s good side by following such a legalistic sense of piety doesn’t bring life… it kills you and it kills community! If you think you can score some brownie points with God by acting all polished and perfect… then what’s the point of God’s liberating work in Jesus at all? That path just leads to an inflated ego and a subsequent trampling on the hearts of others who we deem less pious.” Then, my sisters and brothers, Paul exclaims to the Galatians and to us as in this time, in this place, in this city, “By rising over the best attempt of those in power to stop His message of liberating love, by rising over the powers of sin and hate and death, Christ frees you from a need to be perfect, Christ frees you from yourself, Christ frees you and all people, into the hope of restored community with God and with one another.” Sure, sin is a very real thing, and Saint Paul lists those “sins of the flesh,” although perhaps we could update them… I don’t see sorcery being one of our major issues as of late, because neither he nor God wants us to hurt others or ourselves. Absolutely. But in the end, Saint Paul’s message, a saving message of God’s liberating love in Christ is that you don’t need to fit your own or anyone else’s definition of perfection. Rather folks, be your wonderful, broken yet beautiful selves. Do good things, make the world a better place, celebrate and share the good news of Christ’s liberating love throughout the world, but don’t do it out of a need to be perfect... Do it out of love for God and love for each other. Amen.

Dustin currently serves as Vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.

One Grand Collective Story - Easter C6 Sermon (in video)

What follows is video of the sermon I preached this past Sunday evening during Jazz Vespers at Saint Peter's Church where I currently serve as Vicar.  It's predominately on the appointed first reading for the day, Acts 16: 9 - 15.



God's peace,
Dustin 

Dustin currently serves as Vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.

Ordinary Folks Doing Extraordinary Things in Christ (Easter C6 Sermon)

What follows is the rough manuscript of the sermon I preached last night during Jazz Vespers at Saint Peter's Church (where I currently serve as Vicar).  It's predominately on the appointed first reading for the day, Acts 16: 9 - 15.  I'd love to hear what you think and expected video of the sermon out in the coming days.

So, I’m a really big fan of the Book of Acts. I’m a really big fan of the Book of Acts because it tells the story of ordinary folks led by the Spirit, doing extraordinary things in Christ… it tells the story of ordinary folks led by the Spirit, doing extraordinary things in Christ. And this evening’s part of the story, from Acts 16, very much follows that theme… it begins with Paul, Silas, Timothy and perhaps some other early Christians bumbling around in what we now know as the country of Turkey, trying to start new churches and largely failing… Paul had just experienced a falling out with his fellow apostle Barnabas as well, perhaps due to a rivalry between the two colleagues. Despite his previous life as a Pharisee, by this point in Acts Paul just seems like an ordinary sort of person, making ordinary human mistakes, getting into ordinary human arguments yet trying his best to spread the Gospel… the sort of person we find largely familiar to our own lives.

Luckily, God even works through ordinary folks like Paul and like you and like me though, and in this case the Spirit intercedes by leading the way for Paul in a vision, a vision of a Macedonian man pleading for help. Paul then faithfully crosses the Aegean Sea into Macedonia, into an area associated with the heights of Greek culture and learning, and through the life of this ordinary fellow God begins making the most extraordinary things happen in Christ. A few days after getting off the boat Paul meets and preaches to Lydia, a somewhat ordinary businesswoman, who after being baptized with all of her household invites Paul and his companions into her home, and prevailing upon them with her great hospitality. Eventually, this somewhat ordinary businesswoman named Lydia is lead by the Spirit to do a most extraordinary thing, creating and likely financing what would become one of the most vibrant and faithful of the early Christian communities.

My sisters and brothers, although the story of Lydia and Paul takes place nearly two thousand years ago in the Greek city of Philippi, the collective story of ordinary folks led by the Spirit, doing extraordinary things in Christ, does not end there. While there are a few chapters in between, I’ll skip ahead to talk about another part of the story, featuring another ordinary person, a member of Saint Peter’s Church in fact, a fellow named Wuigi Howard, who like Lydia and Paul before him, was led by the Spirit to do extraordinary things in Christ. When Charles Taylor invaded Nimba County and touched off the Liberian Civil War in December of 1989, Wuigi was a student at the University of Liberia in Monrovia, studying to be a teacher. As he prepared to graduate the following summer, war was engulfing the entire country, yet Wuigi took up teaching anyway. As the fighting took on deeper religious and tribal connotations and Muslims started killing Christians and vice-versa, the war eventually hit home for Wuigi when his mother was brutally beaten to death on her rice farm on February 15th, 1993. She was murdered not only because she was a Christian, but in fact a well-known Christian leader in her local community, and those who murdered her promised to do the same thing to her children. Despite the chaos all around him, Wuigi kept teaching, thereby doing the most extraordinary thing of giving hope to a new generation of young Liberians.

With only one brief reprieve the Liberian Civil War continued until 2003, leaving a quarter million people dead. Even after the war ended, religious violence continued, and on September 26, 2006, Wuigi’s oldest brother, Peter Howard, was murdered as well. Despite even the loss of his brother, Wuigi kept teaching. He even became principal of Saint Matthew’s Lutheran Church School. After being physically attacked and receiving numerous death threats himself, Wuigi had to make the hard decision to flee his native country, to cross the sea much like Paul and he eventually arrived in the City of New York on November 17th, 2007. The story doesn’t end there though, because while Saint Paul was called to do extraordinary things in a vision, Wuigi was called to do extraordinary things in a phonebook… in 2009 to be exact when looking when for a new church. As his church back home in Liberia was also named Saint Peter’s, our name stuck out to him, so Wuigi called us, spoke to our Senior Pastor, and has been blessing to our community ever since.

The story still doesn’t end there though because for over four years Wuigi has been seeking asylum status in the United States - his wartime enemies are still waiting for him back in Liberia. So this past Wednesday, when Wuigi had another in a long series of immigration hearings, five other ordinary folks, all members of Saint Peter’s Church, took what seemed like the rather ordinary action of accompanying him to court, sitting in the back of the room, praying for him and silently supporting him with their presence. And it was then my sisters and brothers, it was then that the Spirit moved to make yet another extraordinary thing happen… You see, Wuigi’s lawyer told the government representative, essentially a prosecutor, that Wuigi had five church members present with him. This seems to have encouraged the representative and immigration judge to fast-track Wuigi’s case. Instead of having his final hearing in 2014 or 2015 (that’s how long it usually takes in our broken immigration system), Wuigi will in all likelihood be granted asylum and become a permanent American resident this November. And while Wuigi has once again taken up the profession of teaching here in the city, he’s been teaching all of us here at Saint Peter’s as well, greatly strengthening our growing immigration advocacy program with his story and spirit.

So, why bother telling Wuigi’s story at all? Why bother telling Lydia’s story or Paul’s story? Quite simply put, the reason these stories are so important is because they’re all of our stories… they’re your stories and my stories, all part of the same grand collective story stretching from ancient Philippi to contemporary New York. A story of ordinary folks, led by the Spirit, doing extraordinary things in Christ. Amen.

Dustin currently serves as Vicar at the Lutheran Office for World Community and Saint Peter's Church in Manhattan, having recently completed his second year of a Masters of Divinity program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. While seeking ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, his focus is on the intersection between worship, service and justice in de-centralized faith communities unencumbered by a traditional church building. In his free time, Dustin likes playing frisbee, hiking and pretending to know how to sing.