Foundry UMC DC: Sunday Sermons

Spirit…Power - May 17th, 2021

Spirit…Power

A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC, May 16, 2021, Ascension Sunday. “Give Me a Word” series.

    Text: Acts 1:1-11

It’s a time of transition. Things have been painful—lots of injustice, death, grief, confusion, and fear. And then hope appears—concrete reason for hope appears!

That’s our story! It’s our story right now as we turn the corner from this past 14 months of multiple pandemics and begin to receive information allowing us to begin mobilizing activities that have been off-limits for so long. It’s also the story we receive today in scripture. 

The followers of Jesus have been through it! They experienced so many highs and lows on the journey with Jesus. They watched as he was humiliated and killed. They thought he was going to be the one to sit on the throne of David in Jerusalem, to fulfill a promise to restore Israel’s political power—to free the people from colonial, imperial subjugation. And those hopes seemed to die along with Jesus who’d inspired, taught, encouraged, empowered and mobilized a whole movement. But then, hope reappears! Jesus is back, resurrected, and, as it says in Acts 1:3, presents himself alive and speaks about the kindom of God for 40 days. 

Notice that even after all this has transpired, the people were still singularly focused on what they’d always been focused on: “Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” Another way to say it—are you going to finally give us back what we lost, the old way of being? They were looking back and looking only at their own tribe, their own people. They seem to have missed Jesus’ consistent focus not on the restored kingdom of Israel but rather the vision and practice of the Kindom of God. Jesus doesn’t give them much of an answer to their specific question, but instead gives them this word: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) Short hand for this: You your call is to be a witness to EVERYBODY, whether or not you like them, trust them, or even know them.

Now, if I’d been in that group, I would have had lots of questions. // And I would have been out of luck. Because just then, a fog, a cloud rolls in (the presence of God often shows up in clouds) and Jesus is lifted out of their sight. He’s gone. Again. And there are no clear answers. Just Jesus’s direction to wait on Holy Spirit. Just wait for the promise: Spirit…power…

The disciples’ hope gets interrupted by the unforeseen complication of Jesus’ leaving and the aggravating reality that things are NOT going be as they were in the past, that the future is yet uncertain, and that they—Jesus’ followers—are gonna have to figure out what to do on the other side of waiting.

No wonder they didn’t know where to focus. No wonder they needed to be reminded by the mystery men in white to come back down to earth. Because all that stuff is difficult to deal with. And, wow, does it feel resonant with where we are as a congregation and people of faith in this moment. 

First of all, we’re tired. We’ve been through a lot—some of us more than others, but all of us have been through it. Our emotional, physical, and spiritual reservoirs are low. Patience is likely thin. Many of us are languishing. Some of us are depressed or experiencing high anxiety. Many are grieving losses of family and friends due to COVID or other causes—most of whom we’ve been unable to memorialize and celebrate in traditional ways. We’re faced with a politicized public health crisis that has complicated our ability to trust official communications. And I could go on and on with the varieties of experiences that contribute to the challenging state of our collective mental and emotional health in this present moment. 

And now: HOPE!  We are hearing that masks can come off if we’re vaccinated and religious communities can gather without restrictions on numbers and on it goes. 

It is absolutely understandable that many of us are singularly focused on getting back to church, getting back to the old, familiar ways of gathering, and worshipping. What’s to stop us? 

I realized this past week that the shift in message and guidance feels a bit like whiplash—from high alert and multiple safety protocols, to no holds barred. I will admit that, as a leader, it is pretty disorienting. I’ve been trying to stay grounded in the values that have guided us so well through the pandemic—prioritizing health and safety, following the science, and discerning what it means in each phase of the pandemic to love God and neighbor.

To that last point, here are several things for us to keep in mind. We know that there are some who’ve been vaccinated for months while others have yet to be able to get vaccinated. And, as will be true in any human community, there are a variety of levels of risk tolerance or aversion among us. Some folk are finding it very anxiety producing to re-engage after the relative quiet and stillness of the past year, others were ready to fling themselves into the crowded human spaces months ago. All this to say, it’s important to remember that how we are feeling or needing is not necessarily how others are feeling or needing. 

Another thing to consider is that some things will be different as we return to in-person worship. And much of what, exactly, will be different is still up in the air because plans are not yet finalized around all the details. Believe it or not, there are so many details to consider, discern, and plan for.

And, since we have valued keeping everyone protected, our staff, committee chairs, outside contractors, and the like have not been in the building except in highly limited ways and only to assure that our beloved spaces were OK over the better part of the year. So at this point, there are some repairs and systems that need care prior to our full return—both for safety and to support a robust hybrid—that is, in-person and digital, Foundry community.

It may be difficult for some of us to imagine—because it’s not readily perceived— just how critically important and significant the call is to set some new priorities that celebrate and connect with our growing digital community whose presence blesses our worship and ministry from places all over the country and world. 

Just as with the original disciples in our text, what for some may be a “hope high” gets interrupted by Jesus’ uttering the word, “wait”—and his unwillingness to look back to an old, limited vision but instead saying, “witness” beyond your well-known community. And we, like the first disciples, are confronted with the aggravating reality that things are NOT going be exactly as they were in the past, that the future is yet uncertain, and that, on the other side of waiting, we are gonna have to figure out what to do and how and when to do it. 

And all of this from a place of depletion.

Except Jesus is never one to leave us without help. The promise is that Spirit will give us power to do what we are called to do! And this is our WORD for today: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you!”

Spirit will give us power to be patient with one another.

Spirit will give us power to think beyond our own comfort or needs as we try to love our neighbor.

Spirit will give us power to confess and to forgive one another when the stress, exhaustion, and struggle leads us to miss the mark.

Spirit will give us power to be creative and careful and efficient in our re-entry plans.

Spirit will give us power to be open-minded about changes in our shared life that are required for the next season.

Spirit will give us power to pitch in to help with emerging needs as we re-engage in person.

Spirit will give us power to support one another in our various places of pain and struggle.

Spirit will give us power to be gentle with ourselves when we mess up or feel negative or afraid or unmotivated.

Spirit will give us power to witness in old and in new ways to the power of resurrection life, the power of God’s saving, new life-giving love, the power of Jesus’ embrace that draws the circle ever wider.

A wider circle, as we know full well at Foundry, doesn’t mean that we lose our place, it simply means that we get to share life with even more members of the Beloved clan. Spirit gives us power to do that! Thanks be to Jesus for the promise. Thanks be to God for this Foundry community in which—through every change and challenge—we get to do the hard, holy work of loving God, loving each other, and changing the world.

https://foundryumc.org/

Friends - May 9th, 2021

Friends May 9, 2021
Rev. Dr. Kelly Grimes
Associate Pastor and Director of Hospitality and Congregational Care

John 15:9-17
“15:9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.

15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

15:11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 15:12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
15:13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
15:14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.

15:15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.

15:16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.

15:17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.” 

 

Kelly: GREETINGS FRIENDS!! On this day, I acknowledge the one who I call Mother, Susan Grimes, Daughter of Artie Mae. For those of you who are just tuning in, you’ll find links for fully engaging in our service in our Facebook and YouTube comments or on our website www.foundryumc.org. If you are in need ASL interpretation, we invite you to join us at www.foundryumc.org/asl.

"In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it. – Marianne Williamson
We continue in Jesus’s farewell speech to those whom he loves. Last week we talked about vines and branches connectivity and how the connectivity was god’s plan that we should move into beloved community. Jesus continues this discussion by calling on the listeners to abide and keep. “15:9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 15:11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. Abiding is best described as staying in a place Long enough to soak it in. Jesus wants us to do just that in his love. To be covered and surrounded by it that it is our main focus. There’s an iconic picture of Muhammad Ali as he is preparing for his next boxing match. He is submerged in water and he is in a boxer’s stance. He is not fighting the water he is not attempting to tell the water what to do. He is simply abiding in the water. If you can abide in something, it stands to reason that it’s very nature is too big for any of us to control. That’s this love that God offers to us. It can be shared but it cannot be controlled by humanity. And it’s not the warm and fuzzy ideas of love but it is “agape” love. It is God’s love. It’s important that we set the tone for what does love looks like because we can treat it like it’s a vacation - only on special occasions, only at certain times, and only for a certain span of time.

The people of the Christian community near the end of the first century CE that, in addition to growing oppression by the Roman Empire, was experiencing serious conflict with the Jewish synagogue is the context in which this message is given. We cannot separate the context from the message. And so, they are political and community implications for this call to love. Some would say that politics has nothing to do with the message Jesus is offering us today. Let me remind you that the person speaking, namely Jesus, was resurrected from his political assassination based on the attempt to control oppressed people. And so how we care for those who are oppressed in 2021 is directly connected with that. How we vote, what are community state and national budgets pay for, who we exclude from receiving justice, what we teach our children about the institutions in our country and our world. Because as followers of Christ, this was a call to love is the very core of the community. Abiding in the love Jesus offers us is at the core of what will be able to community for us. 1 John 4:16b, 19, “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.... We love because he first loved us.” No shade to warm and fuzzy love. Jesus is calling us to go deeper than that.

It’s the love that will make everywhere we look be through the eyes of this love we are surrounded and covered by. It is like your skin on your body – covering everything.
It sounds easy doesn’t it? The love that God gives to Jesus, Jesus gives to us. Sounds great wonderful terrific! Will take it! Thanks Jesus! Now here comes the hard part: the command that will cause us to go from just receiving to giving. The command that will cause us to have to think of others and not just ourselves. We have to love one another as Jesus loves us.

15:12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 15:13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
15:14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
Oh good grief Jesus! We were doing great! That’s great agape love that you have received you have shared with us. And now you’re calling us to share that same love with each other? And there are no other parameters for who gets to receive that love? When you say one another, exactly who are we talking about? Now may be easy to respond, “everyone!”. Of course, Jesus means everyone. They are times when it looks easy and sometimes it’s very hard. In the question that I always propose to myself and I propose to you is, “When it’s time to live in the hardest of circumstances are we quick to erase certain people from the list of everyone?”

What, then, does it mean for us today to be Christ’s friends? Bonhoeffer states it this way: “The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes, the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us”.

15:15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.
15:16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 15:17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

I have a younger brother. His name is Alan. We are nearly 10 months apart. When we were little the night before December 25 we will always charge to go to bed because our chimney would be occupied by someone who would come to do things that would make us happy on December 25. One year I heard one of my parental’s attempting to assemble something on December 24 a peek through the door and realized the true givers of the gifts. My day I was trying to put together my Barbie dream house. Upon this Epiphany, I went right to my brother and shared this new information that I had regarding this season. Some people may say, oh you spoiled it for your brother. I like to look at it as sharing the wealth of information so that we’re all on the same page.

Jesus has shown us who the giver of the gift are. Because he sees us as friends. If we see ourselves Jesus’ servants, we may be attempting to avoid the greater mutuality that Christ seeks with us as his friends. In other words, there may be something in us that says I don’t want to know, I don’t want to see what you see. I want to take the gifts without the responsibility.

And for us living in a culture that celebrates self-autonomy and choice, these words may call us back to an awareness of God’s initiative in seeking us out, gathering us into a community, and sending us into the world.
“If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African Proverb

We’ve got miles to go, friends! Let’s go together. Let us pray... Dear God, Thank you for your love!

https://foundryumc.org/

Abide - May 2nd, 2021

Abide

A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC, May 2, 2021, the fifth Sunday of Easter.

    Text: John 15:1-8

Her name was Grace.  She was one of the first folks I met as I arrived with my friends in the small village in Tamil Nadu, South India. Though I imagine Grace may very well have died long ago, I’ve thought of her often as I take in the horrific headlines and images from the toll COVID is taking in India right now. In the caste system of India, Grace was an “untouchable.”  She was poor, her skin a deep ebony, and she was literally “out-caste”—out of the caste system…beneath it. Grace also had the unhappy circumstance of being unmarried; her family had no money for a dowry and, as a result, Grace was destined to be on her own, with little or no support from anyone else.  But we learned as we talked with her—in broken English—that she made a way for herself by doing sewing for folks in the village. She shared her home, a ten by ten foot cement dwelling, with six other family members.

In 1994, our Liberation Theology seminar group from Yale Divinity School went to this village to experience an Indian community that was predominantly Christian—a rarity in a country that was at least at that time only 2-3% Christian (and this one was also a community of “untouchables” or “Dalits”).  We were planning to stay overnight in the church building that was on the small dirt square of the community. But late in the day, after we had worshiped at an evening Bible Study, Grace approached me with an astonishing offer. This woman who barely had enough to feed and care for herself, invited me into her home. She invited me to stay with her for the night. And so I did. She gave me tea and shared stories of her life. And that night, I slept on the hard dirt floor of that ten by ten room, with 7 other people and a chicken. In the morning, Grace boiled water (a rare and precious commodity!) for me so that I could brush my teeth. I don’t know that I’ve ever received such an invitation before or since or experienced such sacrificial hospitality and care.  

Grace invited me into her home, into her life. And as I left, she called me “sister.”

Today, Jesus invites us into his life. Jesus says, “Abide in me.”

We learn today that Jesus is like a vine, green, full of life, reaching down into the depths of the earth and soaring upward toward the light of the sun. Jesus is like a vine and we are like branches of the vine. When connected to that strong, green, vital stem, we flourish and grow. We produce fruit. But we know that the branches only bear fruit because they receive nourishment through the stem, through the vine.  If they are cut off from that source of life and strength, they grow dry and lifeless; they die; they produce no fruit. And sometimes, branches need to be pruned—things need to be let go, cleared out, in order for that branch to produce fruit at its full capacity.

This powerful image teaches us about what it means to abide in Jesus Christ.  “Abide” is not a word that we hear that often these days.  And because of that; some modern translations of scripture choose to use other words instead.  But this word “abide” is a great word, a rich word.  To “abide” means more than to “be with,” it also means to “stand with,” to be “faithful to,” to “stand firm,” and “never to leave.” And in the image of the vine and the branches, we hear Jesus’ words to us as an invitation. “Abide in me” and receive everything you need for life and for growth and for fruitfulness. Stand with me, be faithful to me, never leave me, because, if you do, you will cut yourself off from the gracious gifts of God that are your source for strength and life. Stay connected to me, trusting my life-giving support and love even in the midst of change, when you need to let things go.

While it is our choice whether to accept this invitation to stay connected and receive grace and life in Christ—we also learn today that Jesus invites us to do what he is already doing for us.  Jesus says, “Abide in me as I abide in you.”  (“We love because God first loved us.”)  Everything we do in relationship with Christ is a response to what Christ has already done or offered to us.  Jesus “abides” in you…Jesus stands with you, in solidarity with your every struggle or suffering; Jesus is faithful to you even when you have lost faith in yourself, others, or God; Jesus will never leave you, even when you turn your back. This is the grace of God. It is nothing that we deserve because of who we are or what we have accomplished. It is just given to us free, this love of God. You didn’t make the first move—God did. And God has invited you to share the bounty, the beauty, the fruitfulness of life in Christ. In United Methodist circles, we talk about the grace of God that is present and active in our lives even before we know anything of God as “prevenient grace.”  This is the grace of God present and active in our lives before—or even if we never!—“confess that Jesus is the Son of God.” (1 Jn. 4:15) Prevenient grace is Holy Spirit nudging and working in our hearts and minds and relationships to encourage us to receive the invitation to life in Christ and all that flows from that life.  

Sometimes, in the course of human life things happen that lead people to disconnect—even to renounce their faith, to renounce God. Jesus doesn’t say such a choice will have no consequence—all our choices have consequences and to deliberately cut ourselves off from the source of life and love will be harmful to us. How could it not be? We can renounce the sacraments, teachings, and relationships of intentional Christian community or just take these things for granted and go through the motions as though they didn’t mean anything. We can choose to do all in our power to ignore or deny God and God’s gifts. But the promise Jesus makes is that grace abides with us no matter what. You may choose not to believe in God, but God believes in you and has chosen to love you. God loves you and there’s nothing you can do about it. It won’t change. Ever.

This word comes right on time this week—at least for me. Some of you will have tuned in for this past Wednesday’s FB Live in which I talked about “languishing”—the mental state that hangs out in between flourishing and depression. Languishing is what I have labeled in this season being “COVID fine,” namely doing alright but not really at full capacity. It dulls motivation, disrupts the ability to focus, and increases the odds you’ll not get as much work done without really pushing. I am personally feeling this right now—even as I give thanks that full on depression hasn’t set in, which for me is always a possibility. I know that not all of us have been able to keep depression and anxiety at bay. A reminder for us today as we enter this mental health awareness month: there is help available for you. It is not a moral failure to admit that you need help. We all need help most of the time in one way or another. If you need resources, do not hesitate to reach out to any of your pastors and we will do all we can to help you find the support you need.

While not everyone will be struggling with mental health, I do observe that most people I know both in and out of Foundry are in a pretty volatile place emotionally. The past year with all its pandemics is catching up with all of us in one way or another. And today, we receive this word from Jesus: abide. It is a simple word, an always needed reminder, that the source of our life, flourishing, capacity to bear the fruits of love, compassion, patience, and justice is found in God. Whatever we are feeling, facing, fearing… Christ abides in us, is available right now to give us grace sufficient for every need. All we have to do is stay united with Jesus, in relationship, in solidarity, in faithfulness and love. Abide in Christ as Christ abides in you.

Twenty-seven years ago, as I left that village in South India, I was embraced by Grace. Her love and hospitality and sacrificial giving will forever be for me symbols of the free gifts of God. I didn’t do anything to deserve her attention, her trust, her love, her floorspace. She just offered it all, freely. Grace invited me into her home, into her life. And as I left, she embraced me as family; she called me “sister.” Today, Jesus invites us into his life. Jesus says, “Abide in me.”  And we are embraced by grace. And we are called “children of God,” “siblings in the Beloved clan,” those who are sent into the world to embrace other members of God’s family with the amazing grace of Jesus Christ, and—together—to create a human family in which poverty, skin color, tribe, or faith tradition no longer allows a sibling to be out-caste or “untouchable,” a community in which all needs are met and all know themselves to be truly Beloved.

Prayer: Generous God, thank you for your amazing grace given to us in Jesus. Help us remain united with Jesus through every challenge, change, and pruning season; sustain and renew us, that we might produce the fruits of love, justice, compassion, and care that will nourish others and truly serve your beautiful, broken world. Amen.

https://foundryumc.org/

Less Than Zero with Guest Rev. Jenny Phillips - April 25th, 2021

Foundry UMC Earth Day 2021

The Reverend Jenny Phillips is Senior Technical Advisor for Environmental Sustainability at Global Ministries in Atlanta, GA. Her work integrates sustainability practices into every aspect of mission. She has a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York and is an ordained elder from the Pacific Northwest Conference of The United Methodist Church. 

Sermon Text:

Matthew 25:14-30

Less than Zero 

Please pray with me: Creator God, all of creation sings your praise. Open our hearts that we may hear your call to protect all that you have made. Amen.

I’m so very happy to be here with you today. As Ginger shared, I serve at Global Ministries, which is the worldwide mission and development agency of The United Methodist Church. Global Ministries supports more than 200 missionaries, and has personnel, projects and partners in 115 countries. As a part of Global Ministries, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), is the global humanitarian aid and development arm of The United Methodist Church.  

Much of the work of contemporary mission focuses on addressing problems caused by the broken relationship between God, humans and the earth. We support sustainable agriculture in places that are food insecure and that have histories of conflict and oppression. We provide healthcare in places with deep infrastructure challenges. We provide services for people experiencing forced migration from their homelands. We respond to disaster and support recovery in places hardest hit by weather events exacerbated by climate change. We seek to alleviate suffering. 

Our creation story says that human suffering is rooted in the distorted relationship between God, humans and the earth. In Genesis, God offers the first humans food from an abundant garden. God says they can have as much as they could possibly want to eat from the garden of Eden. But God also sets a boundary. God says to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 

Well, you know what they do. They cross the boundary God sets--a boundary meant to limit their consumption of the earth’s resources. In doing so, they break our relationship with God. Now pay attention here. That first rupture in relationship, that SIN is not just any kind of sin. It is the sin of overconsumption. God tells them to eat their fill and they say great, thanks very much, and now I’ll have what’s over there. They take more than they need. They take more than God wanted them to have.

Then, even as they are cast out from the garden, their children learn that natural resources are a source of power among humans. They raise generations of humans obsessed with controlling food and land and lives, even as the earth cries out when their blood is spilled and their habitats are ransacked. The shards of colonialism and plunder and racism are embedded in the lattice of our spiritual DNA.

Those of us who are white come from people who have leaned way too hard into that aspect of our spiritual histories. We have built our communities and our wealth and even our churches on the backs of Black people, Indigenous people and People of Color. And we have built our communities and our wealth and our churches on the groaning lands and seas of ravaged ecosystems worldwide. Some of us here today benefit from the fruits of that exploitation. And now we are resistant to breaking the cycle, lest it cost us our places in the world as we know it.

 

But of course, the world as we know it is no Eden. Colonialism left generations of many humans and other creatures poorer, sicker, and weaker. Then exploitation of people and the earth went into hyperdrive with industrialization. And with industrialization came human-induced climate change.

 

Let me take a detour here to tell you how climate change works. When we look up at the sky, it appears to be a limitless expanse. But between us and outer space is a thin blanket of gasses surrounding the planet. This is called the atmosphere. One of the things that the atmosphere does is stabilize earth’s temperature. 

The sun sends energy to the earth in the form of light.

The earth absorbs the energy, but some of that energy is radiated back in the form of heat.

Some of the heat escapes through the atmosphere, but some of it stays in.

As we add more gasses to the atmosphere--we call them greenhouse gasses, more heat gets trapped. The gasses thicken our atmospheric blanket. Just like when you put a thicker blanket on your bed, you get warmer, as we thicken the atmospheric blanket, global temperatures increase. And as temperatures increase, that destabilizes weather systems, leading to the changing weather patterns and extreme weather events we are experiencing more frequently today.

In the DC area, this means hotter summers. Scientists project the number of heat wave days in your area will increase from 10 per year to 60 per year by 2050. Heavy downpours will increase as well, leading to more inland flooding. And on the coast, we expect between 2 and six feet of sea level rise this century.

These changes are creating crises in low-income and high-income communities alike, but like with so many challenges, it is low-income communities and communities of color that suffer the most. This deepens the need for humanitarian intervention. We must ensure that our short-term interventions contribute to long-term environmental health. We have much to do when it comes to addressing the environmental impacts of ministry. We are only just beginning to understand the ways in which we have contributed to the suffering of future generations through practices like building structures without thought to energy efficiency, relying on diesel generators in places with limited energy access, and investing our assets in companies that contribute to the harm. The more we learn, the clearer it is that we must transform the ways we do ministry.

The Global Ministries Theology of Mission says that God’s mission begins with the act of creation and ends with the shared redemption of all creatures and all of creation. This means that Christian mission must begin and end with the mandate to ensure the flourishing of all creation, including both human and nonhuman life. This is why we must address eco-recklessness in our ministries. Eco-recklessness functions in ways that resemble other systems of oppression, maintaining a status quo that privileges certain types of power, behavior, and practices. It pits humans against creation, pretending as though one has no need of the other, or as though it were possible to meet the needs of one without ensuring the health of the other. It affirms the theologically distorted view that God gave humans limitless power to dominate over and consume the resources of the earth at any cost.

While examples of individual eco-heroism and creation-friendly initiatives abound, formal and informal structures of church institutions exhibit eco-recklessness at every level. Not just agencies, but all of us. We need to stop using environmental initiatives as one-off projects to celebrate on Earth Day and start recognizing them as life-saving strategies that are necessary to create a healthy, just world. Given the clear scientific consensus that human activity is the primary driver of climate change (NASA 2020b), it is reckless for churches to dump greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere through their ministries without regard for their impacts.

 

Now what would Jesus say about all of this? He doesn’t talk about climate change. But he does talk about resources. While Genesis contains the story of our broken relationship with creation, Jesus presents an alternate vision in an unexpected place--a story known to many as the Parable of the Talents. This story, like other parables, is an allegory--a story with a concealed meaning. Many people immediately assume that this parable should be interpreted as a teaching on how to manage financial resources. Indeed, the version of the text we heard from the Inclusive Bible today refers to not talents, but dollars. Others suggest that the talents symbolize our literal talents--in other words, our gifts and our skills that should be used to support God’s realm.

 

But what if we considered a third possibility: that the talents represent not economic resources, but rather ecological resources that God has placed in our care. Perhaps in this story, the wealthy landowner is God, the owner of all of creation, leaving us each with access to varying levels of resources. God gives us these resources to manage for a while. And if we fail to ensure that they flourish under our care, there will be a lot of suffering.

 

This perspective is consistent with the passage that follows, the one in which Jesus says that those who feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked and care for the sick are the ones who will inherit God’s kingdom. We can only help the most vulnerable among us flourish when all of creation flourishes. We can’t feed the hungry without affordable food. We can’t give drink to the thirsty without clean water. We aren’t going to welcome the stranger if we feel like we have to compete with her over scarce resources. And by the way, Jesus ends that passage with another promise of suffering for those who do not heed. I think that means he’s serious.

Well, I have some good news. Many of us who manage resources on behalf of the United Methodist Church have decided to get serious too. 11 United Methodist agencies, including Global Ministries, announced on Earth Day that we have committed to work together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to support a just and equitable transition to renewable energy that builds resilient and flourishing communities. The heart of the commitment is this: We pledge to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 across ministries, facilities, operations and investments and to leverage the gifts of our connection putting equity and justice at the center as we build a net-zero emission economy by 2050.

 

I really want you to hear this. We’re going to eliminate emissions across ministries, facilities, operations, and investments. And we’re going to do it in a way that ensures equity and justice.

 

This is a serious commitment to systemic change. The agencies that are making this commitment are involved with stewarding the global physical, financial, social educational, historical and political infrastructure of the UMC. We are making plans to radically transform our stewardship to ensure that we aren’t contributing to suffering around the world in our efforts to alleviate it. We believe the changes we make in the next 10, 20 and 30 years will reverberate throughout the denomination and will impact people and ecosystems globally.

 

To be clear, we have made this commitment not because we know how to do it, but because we know who we are called to be. 

There is no map for this journey. So we’re starting with questions. Some of the questions we’re asking at Global Ministries include: What does this commitment mean all that travel we do when we’re engaged in work around the world? What does it mean for our disaster response work in places where power grids are destroyed and diesel generators are the norm? What does it mean for our health clinics in low-income places around the world that rely on kerosene lamps because they don’t have electricity? What tools, strategies and technologies do we need, and how will we pay for them?

 

These are questions that we are pretty uncomfortable asking because many of the answers necessarily require significant changes to how we do our work. What we’re saying with our commitment is that it’s time for our agency to face the uncomfortable truths that come with measuring our impact and tolerate the discomfort we feel over the next few decades as we figure out how to ensure our ministries contribute to the flourishing of people and creation in the present and in the future. We have quite a bit of hope this is possible, because we’re working with our partner agencies to leverage each other’s resources and wisdom to support one another. And we are already engaged in pilot projects to help us learn how to do this work better. We’re sending vaccine refrigerators powered by solar panels to health clinics in Liberia and solarizing a hospital in Congo. We’re doing energy studies on health clinics in West Africa. We’re looking at strategies for displacing diesel generators with renewable energy in many contexts where we work. We’re doing the work in our own office as well, with basics like making sure the thermostats are set at the most energy efficient levels possible. And we’re discerning how to measure our current emissions across ministries so we can evaluate our efforts to reduce them.

Scripture suggests that our consumption drives people out of the garden and away from God. Science confirms that it leads to wailing and gnashing of teeth. Ensures hardship through Heat. Drought. Fire. Floods. Super storms. Forced migration. For many vulnerable communities, life as they knew it is already over. If the way we respond to need undermines the flourishing of God’s creation, then we are simply contributing to the suffering we are trying to alleviate. We must do ministry in ways that ensure the impact of the short term good we are doing is actually greater than the footprint we leave behind.

 

I can’t help but read in the Parable of the Talents that even a commitment to net-zero emissions isn’t enough. It’s simply maintaining the status quo. Jesus would have us ensure that not only do we maintain the resources with which God has entrusted us, but also ensure that they flourish. Not simply stop harming God’s creation, but also start restoring it. 

 

What would it look like for The United Methodist Church to be a leader in the restoration and flourishing of God’s creation? Perhaps our churches would look more like a new building that recently opened at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The Kendeda Building for Innovative and Sustainable Design at Georgia Tech was certified as a Living Building this week. This means that it is a regenerative building. With emissions that are less than zero. It doesn’t just harm the environment, it also contributes to its health. It generates excess energy and drinking water for use on other parts of the campus. It is at least 60% more energy efficient than comparable campus buildings. The project included habitat restoration. The property grows food and native plants and is home to honeybees. Friends, these are strategies we can incorporate into our buildings, our properties, our mission and ministries. 

 

What creation most needs from Christians right now is for us to figure out how to tolerate the horrible discomfort that comes with recognizing our brokenness and the ways it has become institutionalized in systems that fail to account for the costs of waste and pollution and destruction. Because it’s only when we can tolerate looking directly at our hypocrisies and our failings that we can confess, repent and call for the collective social, economic and political change that the world needs in order to move toward sustainability.

The change must be systemic. While examples of individual eco-heroism and creation-friendly initiatives abound, formal and informal structures of the church--even the local church--exhibit eco-recklessness at every level. It is reckless for churches to dump greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere through their facilities and operations and ministries without taking action to sequester or offset those emissions because they exacerbate SO MUCH SUFFERING. 

 

Look. I know we don’t mean to cause harm. And I know that acknowledging the harm is upsetting and overwhelming. But starting to tell the truth about it is actually kind of liberating. And when you start to look at strategies for making your operations and ministries efficient and regenerative, it’s pretty exciting. 

 

The practices that lead to change are going to look different for everyone. You’ve got to look at the ways in which you’re investing your resources--your time, your energy, your money, your wisdom, your spirit--into helping the world flourish. And you’ve got to look at the ways in which your investments are causing grave harm to God’s creation and consider how new ways of doing ministry can contribute to justice for all God’s people and all of God’s creation. 

This Earth Day Sunday, I ask you to pray for our agencies and support us as we begin this systemic change. And I ask that you begin to consider ways in which Foundry could do even more than you already do to express your commitment to justice, wholeness and flourishing for all God’s people AND all God’s creation. I’m excited for your kids Earth Day totes and I’m excited for your Going Green program. I also believe that you have it in you to do much more. I believe Foundry can be a church that ensures the flourishing of the resources with which it has been entrusted. Not just mitigating harm but cultivating life. That you can be a church to whom the Great Landowner says, Well Done! You are good and faithful workers! Come and share in my joy.

https://foundryumc.org/

 

Have you anything here to eat? - April 18th, 2021

Have you anything here to eat?

A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli with Foundry UMC, April 18, 2021, Third Sunday of Easter, “Give Me A Word” series.

            Text: Luke 24:36a-48

“The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.” This line from Native American poet, Joy Harjo, came to mind as I pondered Jesus’ question in our text today: “Have you anything here to eat?” As a member of my Bible Study said this week, these words are so wonderfully human. 

The Jesus we meet today has been through so much—life, friendship, struggle, suffering, death on the cross, time in the tomb, and resurrection. He has walked the seven mile stretch from Jerusalem to Emmaus and shared a meal with some disciples who only recognize him when they’ve all sat down at the table to share a meal. 

Jesus promptly disappears from that table—and while off camera—he appears to Simon Peter. (Lk 24:34) And then, in our text today, Jesus shows up among the disciples in Jerusalem who are busy sharing stories of these encounters.

They were literally talking about having seen Jesus alive and yet, in this moment, they still can’t perceive who is with them. There might be any number of reasons for this—things happening too fast, emotional whiplash, being caught by surprise, seeing someone you’re not expecting in a time or place or way that is out of the ordinary… But whatever the case, Jesus makes very clear that he is really there, no mere apparition. He’s there in the flesh. Just as in the story last week from John, Jesus invites them to see and to touch the wounds in his flesh. And, oh, by the way, do y’all have anything around here to eat? 

Evidently, ushering in a whole new world makes a person hungry! Or perhaps, in his wisdom, Jesus realizes that, as in Emmaus, the way to open eyes and minds is to share a meal together. Isn’t this also wonderfully human? Not only sharing a meal with others, but talking about food helps us know and understand one another in deep ways. It opens up conversations about culture and values and family rituals. Who has the best BBQ? What is appropriately applied to grits? Where can you find the best tamales or dim sum or bulgogi or fried chicken or jollof rice or palm butter? Is lettuce technically “food?” Food is so elemental and formational in our lives. In so many ways “the world begins at a kitchen table”—or its cultural equivalent. Jesus did, in fact, show up at table after table and showed how to make a feast for thousands out of a bagged lunch. Food is key. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised to hear Jesus ask, “Have you anything here to eat?”

It’s the question that sticks out of the story in a way that I can’t help but believe is intentional. It seems that resurrection life is not only a head trip or a spiritual experience in some disembodied way. It seems that resurrection life is not something that is experienced only in the hereafter when we have shaken off “this mortal coil.” We so often think of resurrection as only about what happens after physical death. And certainly the life with God and loved ones that awaits and the assurance that we need not be afraid of death are beautiful parts of the resurrection promise.

Yet in our story today Jesus reveals that resurrection life is also experienced in this world and is connected to bodies, to the needs of bodies, to the human lives and everyday concerns of bodies. Flesh and bone need care, need food. Consistently, the Jesus revealed in Luke is clear that the hunger and thirst in the world is not for righteousness, sustenance, and peace only in the next life but for those good gifts in this one. 

Remember it’s in Luke where we find Jesus’s first recorded sermon. He took as his text the words of Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
        to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
        to let the oppressed go free,

 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Lk 4:18-19)

//  Please understand, I know Jesus said that thing in the wilderness about how “One does not live by bread alone.” (Lk 4:4) (I often debate Jesus on this point. I’m with Oprah. I love bread.) I am not suggesting that resurrection is only a physical experience. I’m simply amplifying the author of Luke who clearly stresses that God not only has the power to bring new life into this created world and into our own very human lives but is determined to use it.

And this resurrection power—the recreative power of God’s love—is at work in Jesus from the beginning. It’s there in his first sermon proclaiming fulfillment of liberation for the oppressed and restoration of health and economic justice—new life! Resurrection power is at work every time Jesus noticed the ones that others ignored, listened to the ones others shut down, welcomed the ones that others excluded, received the care of the ones others denied, touched the ones others avoided, ate with the ones others called “sinners.” Resurrection power—life-giving power—new creation power—was at work in Jesus’s life on both sides of the grave. 

We tend to focus on how what we do in this life will get us our resurrection ticket. Jesus encourages us to focus on how what is freely given in the resurrection affects what we do in this life. Notice that in our text Jesus doesn’t speak to the disciples about their life beyond the created world, but gives direction for their witness in the created world. 

Jesus reminds them of what he has said and what they have witnessed: 

They were there for the whole story—they experienced Jesus’s love and grace and wisdom and healing power. And they saw Jesus die a martyr’s death, an innocent victim of state violence. They know what happened. Jesus didn’t run. Didn’t get angry. Didn’t resist arrest. He turned toward those who’d decided he was the enemy with open hands and arms outstretched. He had truly done nothing wrong and, in solidarity and in peace he suffered the blows that the poor, oppressed, and victimized have suffered since the beginning. 

And now he stands before them again, a hungry, wounded savior asking, “What do you have here that will care for my body?” And in this, Jesus gently guides his disciples, then and now, toward caring for every hungry, wounded, victimized, oppressed body. Let this be your witness. Let this be part of your proclamation of “repentance and forgiveness of sins” (24:47)… Because the world failed Jesus. We didn’t get it right. But God’s unfailing love and the sacred resistance that is God’s refusal to abandon us, God’s stubborn belief in our capacity to change—is what Jesus confirms when he shows up on the far side of the tomb. We’ve been forgiven our failure and are invited to repent—to do it differently now, to change. 

Again and again, we are offered this grace, we are freely offered the broken body of Jesus… to perceive, to receive. If we are faithful, we will be witnesses not just to the story of Jesus, but also to the ongoing realities in our world for which we need to repent, the places of struggle, suffering, and pain our living Lord calls us to address with love and courage. In perceiving and receiving the risen, wounded Jesus, allow your hearts to be broken open so that love pours forth in concrete new-life making ways: nourishing food, accessible healthcare, safe working conditions, living wages, restorative justice, and dignity and care for bodies of all kinds. Suffering, hungry, wounded, neglected bodies all around us come asking, “Have you anything here to eat?”

This past week, police killed 20 year old Daunte Wright and 13 year old Adam Toledo while the trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer charged with the murder of George Floyd, is underway. I cannot help but perceive Daunte, Adam, George, Breonna, Sandra, Ahmaud, Tamir, and a host of other victims of violences of every kind appearing among the disciples of Jesus and saying, “Look at me. Touch my wounds. Do you have anything here that can care for my body? Do you have anything that can give my body life? Can you do better next time?” The resurrection reveals to us more than a future promise for ourselves, it reveals to us a present call to healing, feeding, and justice.

Today we encounter the risen Jesus who extends to us love and friendship and mercy, who embodies the promise that God’s love is stronger than sin and death and who gives us this word for our contemplation and action: Do you have anything here to eat? 

Consider: another chance, new vision, new possibility, new freedom, new hope, a whole new world begins at a table with Jesus. Joy Harjo’s poem is not, as far as I know, meant to describe this particular table. But that’s what I receive when she says:

At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and remorse. We give thanks.

Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.

May the world end as we now know it…while we eat together and discover the whole new world God’s always had in store…

https://foundryumc.org/