Dancing with Jesus

How do we travel our Christian lives? Many of us think of it as a long walk with Jesus. Others of us imagine a race, the image that Paul frequently used when he wrote the letters that are now in the New Testament. But what if our lives are more like a dance than a walk or a race? That is one of the images that I explore in this sermon.

Pretend, for just a moment, that you and I are competing in a foot race. We’re at the starting line. What do you focus on? You don’t focus on me; this is your race. You don’t focus on the pain that you’ll probably experience during the race when your lungs start to burn and your muscles cry out for relief. No, your focus is on the finish line! Even if you aren’t sure you’ll win, you want to put in your best effort and finish that race with dignity and courage. Paul uses that image of an athlete over and over again in his letters to early Christian churches. Most of you are familiar with what he said in the second letter to Timothy when he neared the end of his life: “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:6-8). But in the text from Acts that I just read, Paul isn’t yet nearing the end of his life. He is still in the middle of that race and looking ahead to the finish line. “I just want to finish,” he says. “I don’t know what is going to happen to me when I get to Jerusalem, and I want to be able to do my best regardless of what I might have to endure.”

I doubt if Paul was an athlete himself. We have mosaic pictures of Paul from the first century; and if we can trust them, he was a short, stumpy, balding little man. That’s not my image of an athlete; but I’ll bet that he admired those athletes just like I admire Olympic gymnasts. I have no hope of ever being an Olympic gymnast (or an Olympic anything), but I really admire what they are able to do! Foot races were a very popular sporting events in ancient Greece, and I’ll bet that Paul admired those athletes. I’ve often wondered what kind of race Paul had in mind when he talked about running the race. There are all kinds of races, you know. The most famous ones today are Olympic events. The shortest Olympic races are sprints. The shortest sprint is only 100 meters, less than the length of a football field. The record for that race is held by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, who ran it in less than 10 seconds! On the other end of the spectrum is the marathon, requiring a run of over 26 miles. The fastest distance runners can complete it in just over 2 hours. Which kind of race was Paul talking about? In Paul’s time, the most famous race was the stadion, which was just over 200 meters in length. The longest was the dolichos, which covered a distance of about 3 miles. I doubt very much if Paul was talking about the sprint. The Christian life is, after all, a very long haul! It takes perseverance, courage, and lots of training to be able to run the race well. I’m betting that Paul was thinking about that 3-mile race which is much longer and more difficult than a sprint! I don’t know about you, but I think that the Christian life is much more like a marathon than a sprint!

But Paul’s image, as helpful as it is, has some limitations. Is our Christian life always a straight-line race across a well-defined route with a clearly-marked goal? I recently read an essay that suggested that a life of faith is less like a race than it is like a dance. That got my attention; and I started thinking about the dance marathons that were held in the 1920s and 30s. Some of you may never have heard about them. These dance marathons were called “endurance dances,” and the goal was to dance longer than all the other couples. These competitions lasted anywhere from several hours to a couple of weeks! In shorter competitions, dancers were disqualified if they fell asleep, but they were permitted to leave the dance floor briefly to use the restroom, to take medication, or to change clothes. For longer events, dancers competed in teams so that they could catch a little bit of sleep during the competition. The music was varied, so the dancers had to be ready to do a variety of dances: the foxtrot, the waltz, or maybe the tango. It was fun; but it was also a long, difficult event.

Is a life of faith like that dance? I think it is. I’m not rejecting Paul’s image of a race; but I think that picturing our lives as a dance is useful, too. To begin with, we never know where our lives will go. Races are run over a defined course; and the runner just runs on the track or follows the signposts. I’ll bet that your life hasn’t been quite that straightforward! We may start out in our younger days confident of where we’ll be in 20 years; but after those 20 years have passed, that isn’t where we are at all. Job interviewers frequently ask, “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” I have to smile at that question. My answer, after almost a lifetime of twists and turns, is “How the heck do I know?” We all know that life is unpredictable. We have certainly seen that during the past few months. All the things that we thought we could count on – sporting events; graduation ceremonies; gathering with friends; going to church on Sunday morning; even, in some cases, a job – all those things melted away, and we were left standing like deer in the headlights wondering, “What in the world do I do now?” To say that we never saw it coming was an understatement! When you’re running a race, you know what’s coming and you train to prepare for it. But in those dance marathons, the participants never knew what the music would be. It might start out as a nice, easy two-step, then turn into a waltz, and then change to a tango. The dancers had to change their steps to adapt to the music. Sometimes they danced in one direction, then in another, even sideways, all following the music that was playing at the time. Does that sound like your life? We sometimes joke that life is three steps forward and two steps back; but that’s frequently not as much of a joke as we would like it to be! In fact, it describes a dance! I’m not always running forwards on an easy track or an obvious course. In fact, that’s almost never what I'm doing. That’s why life is so difficult; we can’t count on our plans working out. Do you remember what Forrest Gump said? “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get.” Isn’t that the truth!

But here’s the good news! When athletes run a race, they run all by themselves; but we aren’t dancing all by ourselves! We have a partner in our dance; and that partner is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the very best partner to have in this dance called life, because Jesus understands not only the music of the dance and the steps of the dance; he understands us, too! Jesus knows how to change our dance steps when the music changes suddenly; and he will lead us in the steps that are best for both the music and for our own ability. He won’t ask us to do the Charleston or the Lindy Hop if we only know how to do a simple two-step. He will guide us around obstacles on the dance floor if we will follow his lead. He will whirl with us joyfully when we are full of energy, and help us to stay on our feet when we are exhausted. And when it is so difficult that we just want to give up, he will encourage us, helping us to keep dancing. Life is, indeed, very much like a dance marathon; and I hope that you always trust in your partner to lead you in the steps that are right for the music, and right for you. That’s what he wants to do. He’s standing on the dance floor right now, inviting you to join him in the dance of life. Why don’t you take him up on his invitation? He’s the best partner that you’ll ever have!

Freed!

This weekend, we celebrate Juneteenth, the day when slaves in Texas found out that they were free. We white Christians can celebrate it, too, not only in solidarity with African-American brothers and sisters, but because Jesus tells us the very same thing! Read on to find out why I say that.

“Have you heard the news?! Have you heard the news?!” We prick up our ears when someone says that! “Have you heard the news?!” When you hear that, you know that some good news is on the way! Someone might have just become engaged. Someone might have found out that they will be welcoming a new child into their family – or a new grandchild. Or someone is coming home from the hospital after a long, difficult stay. Whatever it is, “Have you heard the news?!” almost always means that you have something to celebrate. Just 155 years ago last Friday, the slaves who lived in Galveston, Texas must have said that over and over and over again. “Have you heard the news?!” Their news was much more exciting than an engagement or a pregnancy, though. The news that they shared over and over again was that they were free; and that the Union soldiers who had just landed on Galveston Island were going to make sure that they were treated as the free people that they were!

I want to give you a little history about that day just in case it isn’t familiar to you. It would be an understatement to say that life in Texas during the Civil War was unpleasant. Slaveholders from the deep South fled to Texas to avoid the carnage of the war, and they took their slaves with them. Texas soon became famous for its lawlessness, especially its treatment of the black slaves who had been brought there by their owners. Union Army General Philip Sheridan once commented, “If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent Texas and live in Hell.” In June of 1865, Union General Gordon Granger landed on Galveston Island with 2,000 troops. He was appalled to find that 2½ years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and more than 2 months after Confederate General Robert E. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, slaves were still being held in Galveston. A group of black Union soldiers under his command approached him and said bluntly, “Either you do something about this or we will.” A few days later, on June 19^th – on what we now call Juneteenth – General Granger stood on the porch of a local mansion and read five General Orders that were issued by the federal government. The third of those orders began, “"The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free." Those orders were read in three locations around the city and published in the local newspaper; but they were most effectively spread by word of mouth. “Have you heard the news?! We’re FREE!” Men threw their hats in the air, women danced, and complete strangers embraced. People who had enjoyed no choice in what their work would be, where they would live, or even who they would marry were now able to go wherever they wanted, choose their own occupations, and even buy land of their own. And on June 19 of the next year, people celebrated again; but this time, they celebrated the anniversary of their freedom.

Freedom is no small thing! I celebrate when I finally pay off my car and have a few hundred extra dollars each month. I can only begin to imagine the celebrations of slaves who were given back not a few hundred dollars, but their very lives! Of course, the legal freedom that those former slaves had wasn’t realized to its fullest the moment that Union troops arrived in town. Their former owners resented their freedom, and did everything that they could to make their lives more difficult. You all know what happened in the years following 1865: segregation, Jim Crow laws, the KKK, lynching, bombings, shootings… and much of it is still going on today. It’s true that segregation and Jim Crow laws are now illegal; but African-Americans are still mistrusted and marginalized by many in the white community. Although they are legally free, in many respects they still feel like slaves.

That last statement applies to us Christians, too. Although we are legally free, in many respects we still feel like slaves. Oh, you probably don’t think much about it, but it’s absolutely true. But even though Christ freed us from sin and death by his death and resurrection, all too often we live like we are still slaves. That has been true ever since the very beginnings of the Christian Church. Paul wrote to his congregation in Galatia (Galatians 5:1) reminding them, “Christ has set us free for freedom! Don’t go back to slavery!” Paul was talking about the slavery of the Jewish law, with all its rules and regulations. We Christians don’t worry about the Jewish law today; but Paul’s advice still applies to us. We are slaves to all kinds of things that dictate how we live our lives: things like fear of the future, the thirst for revenge, the greed for things and for power, and intolerance towards our fellow human beings. But Jesus doesn’t want us to be slaves to anything! Jesus came to set us free from everything that holds us prisoner. In the very first sermon that he gave, Jesus quoted Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord… has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:16-21) Freedom is what Jesus is all about. In his sermon, Jesus was saying ““in accordance with a proclamation by the creator of the universe, all slaves are free!” By his death and resurrection, Jesus has already set us free to live our lives the way that God wants us to live them. The trouble is, though, that all too often, we don’t live like we’re free. Those former slaves back in Texas may have been legally free, but their society treated them like they were still slaves. We are free, too; but our society insists that we behave like slaves.

Let’s look at an example, just in case you’re not sure what I’m talking about. I want to focus on the prejudice that keeps all of us in slavery. Prejudice claims that you already know things that you don’t know at all! The word itself tells us what it is: “pre”-“judge.” Prejudice assures us that we don’t have to listen to people or reach out to them, we already know that they are lazy or stupid or evil. Prejudice is the opinionated cousin who ruins Thanksgiving dinner with his sweeping statements of condemnation against all kinds of people he doesn’t like. And to make things worse, he brings his brothers and sisters along with him: intolerance, fear, and anger. The four of them combine to make our lives worse than Texas during the Civil War!

Now, some of you may be thinking that you don’t have any prejudices. Sure you do; we all do. I know I do, and I try my best to keep an open mind and an open heart! But our society does its best to close my mind and harden my heart against people who aren’t just like I am. The prejudice du jour is, of course, racism: the conviction that African-Americans always behave a certain way. Regardless of how you feel about the Black Lives Matter movement, it has begun an important and long-overdue conversation about how whites are racist and what we can do about it. But let’s focus on some other prejudices that many of us carry. Are you a Republican? How do you feel about Democrats? On the other hand, if you are a Democrat, how do you feel about Republicans? Our country is polarized right now to the point that many of us not just disagree with those of another political party, we are prejudiced against them. Remember those three siblings of prejudice: intolerance, fear, and anger? Do you feel any of those against the folks across the aisle? Yeah, I thought so. It’s a terrible way to live, folks! And how do you feel about people who rely on welfare to live? Are they lazy moochers who just sit at home eating Doritos and watching TV instead of looking for a job while they spend our hard-earned money? That’s prejudice, too, folks! There are as many reasons to need welfare as there are people using it; but if we have already decided that welfare recipients are lazy cheats, we don’t listen to anything that they have to say.

We all hold prejudices of one kind or another, every one of us; and they cripple not only the lives of the people we have prejudged, but our own lives, as well. Jesus wants to set us free from all that. Jesus wants to free us from the anger that we feel when someone expresses a different political opinion than the one we hold. Jesus wants to free us from the fear that we feel when we approach a group of African-American youth laughing loudly while they walk together on the sidewalk. Jesus wants to free us from the intolerance of low-income families who live in public housing, closing our hearts to their very real needs. The love of Jesus has no place for that! Jesus has set us free so that we can live the richest, fullest lives possible – lives full of forgiveness, reconciliation, and love! Prejudice and its brothers and sisters intolerance, fear, and anger won’t let those things in. When prejudice gets a foothold in our lives, it wants to take over!

On this Juneteenth weekend, maybe we could celebrate the freedom that Jesus has given to all of us – the freedom to love, to listen, and to forgive. Maybe we could start to root out all the old, stale prejudices from our lives. Maybe we could reach out to someone who is very different than we are and listen to their experiences instead of insisting that they listen to ours. Many of you remember when, on a June day 33 years ago, President Ronald Reagan stood just 100 yards away from the concrete barrier that divided East and West Berlin and demanded, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Jesus asks the same thing of us. He wants us to tear down the wall that we have built between people who are like us and people who aren’t like us. He wants us to tear down the wall of prejudice that separates us. And when we do that, friends, all of us will finally be free!

Salt and Light

Who are we called to be as Jesus' followers? Certainly loving, compassionate folks; but beyond that... what are we supposed to be DOING? Jesus' comment that we are salt and light is a clue. That's what I examine in this sermon.

I have visited Russia three times now, and two of those visits were fairly long ones. During my first trip there, I became acquainted with the two-headed eagle, a symbol of the Russian people. What exactly that symbolism is depends on who you ask, but one common interpretation is that one head of the eagle looks towards the past, while the other looks towards the future. Certainly Russia is a country with deep roots in its long history even while it is moving into the novelty of the future. The text that I just read from the gospel of Matthew does something of the same thing (Matthew 5:13-16). It affirms the value of the past even while it offers advice for moving into the future. While these two short verses about salt and light are frequently interpreted separately, I am convinced that Jesus meant for us to understand them together. So let’s take a closer look at them.

Jesus begins by telling us that those who follow him are the salt of the earth. These days, we use salt for flavoring. Anyone who has ever eaten food with no salt knows that it can be pretty bland! I seldom buy the cans of food that proclaim “no salt added,” even though I know it’s healthier for me, because the food just doesn’t taste as good! In Jesus’ day, though, salt was a preservative; and one that was absolutely necessary. People 2000 years ago didn’t have canned food, refrigerators, or Hostess Twinkies that I’m told will keep for years in the pantry. What they did have, though, was salt; and salt was the preservative that kept foods safe to eat during the long periods of time when fresh food was unavailable. That gives a new twist to Jesus’ claim that his followers are “the salt of the earth.” Jesus is asking us to preserve what is valuable for the future! Of course, not everything is worth preserving. In fact, some things are not only not worth preserving, they should be thrown out with the trash! Some of those things are easy to identify. Religious wars, slavery, discrimination against ethnic minorities – we all know that we need to get rid of those! But other judgements aren’t so easy to make. What wisdom that was offered in the past do we keep? What systems of government? What social customs? Many familiar customs worked fine in the past, but don’t work so well right now. We need to look carefully and critically at our history to determine not only what was right and wrong, but also to determine what is still useful; and what was, ultimately, a dead end. We need to sift through the past as carefully as archaeologists sift through the soil at an excavation site.

Every archaeological dig has a sifter – or two or three! The archaeologist who is removing the dirt will pour it onto a screen. At a large dig, those screens can be as big as a screen door! Most of the dirt will fall through the screen, while the larger items remain on top of the screen. Rocks are easy to pick out; and most of them are thrown away. Other things, though, that had been hidden in the dirt are worth keeping: a pottery shard, a fragment of glass, maybe even a small piece of jewelry. Those things would never be found if someone didn’t work hard to discover them. As Jesus calls us to preserve what is good, we, too, should be carefully sifting through the past to discern what is worth keeping and what should be discarded. It’s not an easy process, nor is it quick; but it is absolutely necessary if we want to move into the future preserving what is valuable. But how, you may ask, do we discern what is worthwhile? The prophet Micah told us that answer over 2500 years ago: “God has told you humans what is good! What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

Look to the past and preserve what is worth keeping. That’s the first part of the teaching that Jesus offered to his followers; and if that part has to do with the past, the second part has to do with the future. “You are the light of the world,” Jesus said. “Don’t hide your light or use it only for yourself. Set it up where others can see it, too!” We don’t need a light to illuminate the past; we know what happened there! Oh, we may have to sift for quite a while to find what has been hidden, but it will come out eventually. But the future? We need a whole lot of light to get there safely! Some people will say that we are groping in the dark as we move into the future; but I don’t think that’s so. We have the light of Jesus Christ to guide us: the light of justice; the light of mercy; the light of humility; and the light of love; and that light will never be extinguished. Remember what the gospel of John says: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will never overcome it.” (1:5)

Now, it’s true that the light of the gospel is sometimes dim. When we stand up for justice, mercy, and love, we feel like we’re holding up a candle in the pitch blackness of a cave! But let’s imagine those candles for just a moment. In particular, let’s remember the candles that we light on Christmas Eve. The sanctuary is pitch black, and the only light is the Christ candle newly lighted on the altar. As we sing “Silent Night,” we each light our own little candle. When the song is over, the church is filled with the light of all those candles! When we each light our little lights and set them where they can be seen, they offer more light than we would imagine. Now, you may be thinking, “But I don’t have the answers to the problems of the world! How can I hold up a light?” Relax; none of us have those answers – at least, not the details. Those will appear as we struggle together to emerge into the full light of justice, compassion, and love. Only God knows the details! We do know, though, where the light is leading us: towards a world where everyone is loved and cared for, where sharing is more powerful than greed, and where mercy is the heart of justice. When we reflect the light of Christ, our little candles are powerful indeed! Salt and light: that’s who we are, friends, as Christians. Be salty and bright as we move into the future!