You Are Good Enough

April 22, 2018

John 10:11-18

 

I had an idea this week…

You know how we’ve been talking about reaching out into our community,

growing, and making new connections.

Some of that is of course marketing and social media.

 

So I had this idea…

What if we changed the name of our church?

What if…instead of “Good Shepherd Lutheran Church,”

we were “Great Shepherd Lutheran Church!”

Great idea, right?

 

It’s interesting that Jesus chooses the word ‘good.’

I am the good shepherd.

Not the great shepherd;

not the awesome shepherd;

not the extraordinary shepherd.

The good shepherd.

 

It’s important that he chooses that word,

because we are all called to be shepherds.

Later in the gospel of John he says:

Feed my lambs.

Tend my sheep.

Be my shepherd.

 

And if we had to be “great” shepherds or “extraordinary shepherds,”

we just wouldn’t even be able to start.

So what does a good shepherd do?

 

The Bible talks about bad shepherds…

In Ezekiel, the ‘wicked shepherd,’

fails to care for the poor and sick.

 

In 1523 Martin Luther wrote a sermon about this Bible reading,

and in fitting with his context when he was confronting the religious leaders of his day,

he said he knew some bad shepherds – the pope and bishops!

The reason he called them ‘bad shepherds,’

was because he said they were always telling people “do this” or “do that,”

but Jesus’ message wasn’t that you had to be or do something different to be loved by God,

but merely to “Come,” and see how much God already loves you.

God already loves you.

You are good enough.

 

In our culture, when we say someone or something is “good enough,”

it carries a connotation of mediocrity – who wants to be ‘just’ good enough?

 

But it is tremendously freeing to say with boldness that

“Good enough” is ‘good enough.’

 

Back in the 1950’s, British pediatrician DW Winnicott wrote about the ‘good enough’ mother.

(It was the 50’s – so caregivers were mothers for the most part –

today he probably would have written about the ‘good enough’ parent.)

 

He said a ‘good enough’ parent was one who cared for their child’s needs.

Who met their needs as an infant – fully and completely.

But, he said, that same parent as the child grows ought to fail sometimes.

If a child never experiences frustration,

they’ll never learn to adapt to a changing world.

In fact Winnicott said, perfection in a parent

is a sure path to really messing up your kids.

And so he advised not trying to be a perfect parent – but a ‘good enough’ parent.

 

So back to my earlier question…

If we don’t have to be the perfect shepherds, but a good shepherd…

what does a good shepherd – a ‘good enough’ shepherd do?

 

This text suggests a couple of things.

 

First of all, a good enough shepherd is self-giving.

Unlike a ‘hired hand’ for whom work is ‘just a job,’

a shepherd gives of themselves.

 

Perhaps Tammi Jo Shults’ name sounds familiar now…

She was the pilot of Southwest Flight 1380.

The flight lost part of its engine shortly after takeoff,

and Tammi Jo managed to the plane safely.

You can listen to the audio between her and the air traffic controller.

Her voice is calm –

“We have lost part of the engine.”

 

Then –

“A passenger has gone out.”

You can hear the anxiety in the air traffic controller’s voice –

“A passenger has gone out of the plane ???!!!”

He then asks her where on the runway she’d like to park.

She responds simply, “We’ll park next to the fire truck.”

Nerves of steel indeed.

 

But what I think is just as remarkable is what happens next.

After the landing, she doesn’t rush off the plane to try to contact her own family…

Instead she meets with each of the passengers on board.

And she makes a statement saying,

We were simply doing our job….but our hearts grieve for the family of the passenger who died.

 

It was never ‘simply a job’ though for Tammi Jo.

She was not a hired hand.

She was a shepherd – a good shepherd.

Certainly good enough.

A good enough shepherd is self-giving.

 

Jesus also says that a good enough shepherd makes room for others –

others who are not yet part of the fold.

 

Pope Francis made news this week.

 

Apparently the pope was visiting a parish on the outskirts of Rome.

When he travels, he invites questions from those who are listening,

and this time a young boy around 7-8 years old was invited to ask a question.

 

He came to the microphone,

but despite encouragement, was just too shy to ask his question.

So the pope motions the boy (whose name is Emmanuele) to come closer to him,

and to whisper the question into his ear.

 

Emmanuele walks up to the pope,

and the two are seen having a brief conversation

before the boy returns to his seat.

 

The pope then says,

“This is what Emmanuele and I talked about…

Emmanuele’s father died recently,

and he was an atheist.

And Emmanuele wanted to know if his father was in heaven….

 

 

I told Emmanuele that God has a dad’s heart.

(I don’t know Italian, but I think it was intentional that the pope used “dad” rather than father!)

And would God keep a child of his far from him?”

 

The pope asks the crowd again and again,

“Would God keep a child of his far from him?”

“Would God keep a child of his far from him?”

No. No.

 

Jesus says that there are other sheep who are not part of this fold,

and he will go out and bring them in too.

The pope spoke of the character of God

who makes room for others to join the fold.

Whereas some of us in the church create boundaries between us and them,

the good shepherd reveals the character of God which breaks down barriers…

whose sole desire is that all are close to him.

Not the perfect. Not the great. Not the extraordinary…but all are close to him.

 

You are not great – and that’s okay.

(Even Jesus isn’t a ‘great’ shepherd.)

You are good enough…

 

You are a good enough parent

even if you’ve never been a perfect parent.

 

You are a good enough student

even if you’ve been rejected by your 1^st or 2^nd or 10^th or 12^th choices of schools.

 

You are a good enough worker

even if you didn’t get that promotion or the job you wanted.

 

You may not be great…

but you are good enough.

You are good enough – just as you are.

 

Amen.

 

The Disabled God

Easter 4B: The Disabled God

Luke 24:36b-48

April 15, 2018

 

What would you do to prove that you’re alive?!

 

I hope I never have to do that myself…

but Charles Hubbard did.

 

A number of years ago, Charles got a letter from the Veterans Administration…

(actually his family got the letter).

It said that Charles had died and yet the VA had continued to send benefits,

so they needed to pay the money back.

 

Well, Charles had not died.

He was a victim of identity theft, and the person who’d called himself Charles Hubbard had died.

So Charles got all the documents he needed to prove that he was alive…

and sent them back to the VA.

 

The VA responded with another note…

“Thank you” it said.

And you can be expected to be returned to life again in about 8 months time…

8 months!

 

Jesus meets up with the disciples in this story from Luke’s gospel –

the disciples who know that Jesus has died.

When he arrives, they think he’s a ghost.

 

So Jesus has to prove to them that he’s not dead, he’s not a spirit,

but he’s alive!

 

It’s interesting what he doesn’t do…

He doesn’t say, “Listen to my voice…don’t you recognize it?”

He doesn’t say, “Look at my face…it’s me!”

 

No,..instead he suggests two more peculiar things.

 

First, he says,

“Have you got anything to eat?”

After all, ghosts don’t eat.

To prove that he’s alive to the disciples, Jesus wants to show them that he’s hungry,

and can eat.

 

Ghosts don’t eat.

(And I did a little research this week and discovered as best as I can tell,

that zombies don’t eat either.)

 

Eating is such a basic human need.

As my dad grew older and more frail, when I would ask him how he was doing, he’d respond,

“Up and taking nourishment!” – just the basics, the minimal of being alive.

 

Very often when I visit a hospital or nursing home,

one of my conversation questions is, “How’s the food?”

Food is important.

Eating is one of the needs of human life.

So Jesus like the teenager coming home and opening the fridge asks,

“Have you got anything to eat?”

 

The second thing Jesus does to prove he’s alive is that he

tells the disciples “Look at my hands and my feet.”

 

There’s a marvelous sermon by Barbara Brown Taylor about this text,

and she talks about how we recognize hands and feet.

She said imagine a post office with Wanted posters not of faces,

but of hands and feet.

 

There are some people that I think I could recognize

solely by looking at their hands.

Our hands tell stories about us….stories that our faces might hide.

 

My uncle was a mechanic,

and his hands have the grease marks that never have gone away.

 

Mr. Bender was a construction worker who worked on our house growing up.

My brother and I were always fascinated by his hands,

because part of his fourth finger was missing – from a table saw injury.

 

I have a callous on the inner part of my 3^rd finger

from gripping pens and pencils over the years.

There’s a birthmark on the back of my left hand,

and in the winter time, my knuckles usually have patches of dry skin.

 

Our hands reveal a lot about us.

 

Over the years the disciples would’ve seen Jesus – and his hands.

They would’ve watched his hands bless and break the bread and share it with people.

They would’ve seen him that time reach down and take some mud on his hands,

work it into a paste, and apply it to the eyes of a man who had been blind – and heal him.

They would’ve watched him touch a man with leprosy with his hands,

and maybe as he taught, he spoke waving his hands.

They would’ve known his hands well.

 

And probably they’d know his feet.

They’d know the tiredness of his feet from walking hundreds of miles around Galilee.

They’d remember seeing the woman from Bethany wash his feet,

and wipe it with her hair;

pouring perfumed ointment over his feet that last week.

 

So when Jesus says, “Look at my hands and feet,”

he knows the disciples will remember what they were like – what they did.

But also, he knows they will remember what happened to them…

they were still wounded, still scarred by the cross.

 

It’s rather remarkable that Jesus returns to the disiciples

showing his scarred hands and feet.

 

For Nancy Eisland, this very passage from the gospel of Luke

was hugely influential in her life as a person of faith and as a theologian.

The fact that Jesus showed up with scarred hands and feet

was enormously liberating.

 

Nancy, you see, was born with a bone disease.

By the time she was 13 she had had over 11 surgeries.

Over the years, she had canes and crutches, wheelchairs and scooters.

 

There was one thing she couldn’t quite explain, however….

She would get uncomfortable when people would comment,
“Aren’t you looking forward to heaven

when you will be able to walk again without crutches or a wheelchair?”

 

Frankly, Nancy did not want to be free of crutches or a wheelchair in heaven.

Her life of faith, her connection with God, her very identity was wrapped up

in all of who she was – disability included.

She commented that if she didn’t have crutches or a wheelchair in heaven,

she’s not sure she’d even know who she was!

 

So when Nancy discovered this passage from Luke –

when she saw that Jesus showed up to the disciples WITH his scars –

that his scars had not gone away,

then Nancy felt liberated.

She called this discovery  a discovery of the ‘disabled God’ –

God who could identify with her;

God who revealed godself in the wounded Christ;

God who showed up in the human Jesus who did not avoid suffering, but went through suffering just as she had.

She could have a connection with this God,

for whom injury was part of who he was.

This God understood disability.

 

Jesus said, “Look at my hands and my feet,” – and they were scarred.

 

At the end of our reading, Jesus says one thing more.

He says, “You are to be my witnesses.”

 

Jesus witnessed with his voice,

but he knew what his followers were really looking at –

they were looking at his hands and feet.

They were looking to see whether or not his words

matched what his hands were doing, what his feet were doing.

They knew it was him; they knew he was alive and not a ghost

because they recognized his hands and feet.

 

When our world is looking for Jesus,

they are looking at our hands and our feet too.

Where have we gone?

What have we been doing?

 

Amen.

Cynics Take Heart

Easter 2B – Cynics Take Heart!

John 20:19-31

April 8, 2018

 

“Cynics Take Heart!” is today’s sermon title.

Doubters, Questioners, Investigators, Skeptics…

Thomas is our saint!

 

There isn’t much about Thomas in the Bible…

his name means “twin” – but who was his twin?

Nowhere in the Bible does it mention the name of his twin –

many people believe that it’s because the twin to Thomas – is us!

We are the twin doubters, the twin skeptics, the twin cynics.

 

There’s another story about Thomas..

Earlier in the gospel of John,

Jesus’ disciples are afraid to go back to Judea –

the region where Jesus brought Lazarus out of the tomb,

resulting in anger and fear of the Jewish leaders – so they threaten to stone him.

 

Thomas on the other hand is all in!

“Let us all go that we might die with him!” Thomas says.

Thomas is bold, opinionated….

 

And afterwards, as the disciples disperse and travel to plant churches,

Thomas goes the furthest.

He heads east – far east – to India.

There are churches in India today which trace their lineage back to Thomas!

 

Thomas could be a twin to some of us – he’s a lot like us –

he likes to travel;

he’s passionate and opinionated;

he’s a skeptic;

and he’s alone.

 

In today’s reading we hear that the disicples are huddling all together,

frightened enough that they’ve kept the door locked.

They’re all there – that is except Thomas.

Thomas is missing.

 

Where was he?

Was he out trying to find a new job,

since it seemed that the thing he’d been doing for 3 years was now all over?

Was he out at some pub,

drowning his disappointment and sadness.

Or perhaps he just needed some time to himself

to sort things out.

 

For whatever reason, Thomas wasn’t there.

So he didn’t get to experience what the other disciples did.

He didn’t see Jesus and hear him say, “Peace be with you.”

 

Who could blame him for not believing the other disciples

when they said, “We have seen the Lord!”

Who could blame him for being skeptical –

he only asked to see what they were able to see.

 

Skepticism comes from experience.

As we get older we’ve had more times in which we’ve been deceived.

We get more cynical – we’re less likely to take on face value what someone else says.

Actually I saw a study this week said that on average,

cynicism grows after the age of 44.

(For those of you who are already cynical even though you’re not yet 44,

it just means you’ve had more experiences!)

 

Cynics take heart!

Thomas is our saint.

 

And he shows that skepticism can be healthy.

The word “skeptic” means ‘inquiry’ – someone who investigates, who researches.

Wisdom comes from discernment.

 

I wish that Mrs. Backey had been a bit more skeptical.

I wish she had investigated more, asked more questions, researched more….

 

Mrs. Backey was a woman in her late 70’s

who lived kitty corner from my grandmother on Waite St in Malden, MA,

a working class town outside of Boston.

 

Mrs. Backey was a maid.

It was said that she spent much of every day on her hands and knees scrubbing floors.

 

And she was frugal.

She saved every penny she could.

 

Well, one day there was a knock at her door.

When she answered she saw a man who looked rather official.

He was probably wearing a suit,

and maybe he even had a badge.

 

He told Mrs. Backey that he was from the FBI and he had some bad news for her.

He said that there was someone at her bank who was embezzling money,

and they weren’t sure yet who it was.

Until the FBI could solve the case,

they were recommending that everyone who had money in the bank,

withdraw it and let the FBI hold onto it for safekeeping.

 

Mrs. Backey did what the man said.

She withdrew her entire life savings from the bank and gave it to this stranger

whom she believed was from the FBI.

 

I wish Mrs. Backey were more skeptical.

I wish she asked more questions….

 

Cynics – take heart!

 

Notice what happens when Jesus returns to the house a week later.

He doesn’t scold Thomas for his questions..

instead he embraces them.

 

He tells Thomas to come and check it out –

see the marks of the nails in his hands,

and put his hand in his side.

 

Thomas doesn’t need to at this point.

He’s experienced enough.

He exclaims, “My Lord and my God!”

 

All of us have times in life when we’re more skeptical…

when we have more questions than answers;

when we’re feel more cynical.

 

All of us.

 

Even the most ‘saintly’ among us have had times – even decades of doubt.

You’ve likely heard about Mother Theresa.

 

After this saintly woman died,

her spiritual director published some of her letters which showed how deep her doubts went.

She wrote things like,

“The place of God in my soul is blank…” and

“There is no God in me…”

 

What do we do in these times of doubt?

We do what Mother Theresa did – we keep doing our best to act like Jesus.

Because when we act like Jesus, we might just see Jesus.

 

How about those of us who are at a time of spiritual highs?

What do we do?

We do the same – we too do our best to act like Jesus.

Because those around us, our friends in community, need to see our testimony –

not just in words, but in our actions.

By our actions, they might just see Jesus.

 

Cynics Take Heart!

Thomas is our saint!

 

Amen.

Living the Alleluias and the Broken Hallelujahs

April 1, 2018

Mark 16:1-8

 

“And they said nothing to anyone,

because they were afraid.”

 

Seriously?

That’s how our Easter gospel ends?

Jesus never appears…

No alleluias…

Fear and silence…that’s it.

 

No wonder later monks as they were transcribing the texts,

added their own ending…

They tried to tidy it up a bit.

Your Bible probably has these alternate endings in brackets…

Maybe labelled “shorter ending” and “longer ending.”

 

But most scholars agree…

Mark intended to end his gospel here:

“And they said nothing to anyone,

because they were afraid.”

 

Why?

Perhaps because Mark invites us to stand with the women –

to continue the story ourselves.

If they are afraid to tell – maybe we will.

The empty tomb is only a beginning to the resurrection story –

we live resurrection.

 

And sometimes living resurrection is in the midst of “Alleluias!!!”

And sometimes we live resurrection in the midst of a lot of ‘broken hallelujahs.’

 

Four stories.

Four stories of Alleluias and broken hallelujahs….

All about living resurrection.

 

Story number one: Leonard Cohen of course.

Cohen wrote the song “Hallelujah” and coined the phrase ‘broken hallelujahs.’

This song is now immensely popular;

It’s been covered over 100 times;

but it took 15 years to become famous –

and only after the artist who covered it vanished.

 

Cohen said that it took him 5 years to write the song.

He was talking to Bob Dylan one day,

and Dylan asked him how long it took to write “Hallelujah.”

Cohen was a little embarrassed that it had taken him 5 years,

so he said “Two – two years.”

And then Cohen asked Dylan how long it took him to write his most recent hit –

Dylan answered, “15 minutes.”……

 

Cohen said about his song that,

‘the song explains that there are many kinds of hallelujahs –

and the perfect hallelujahs and the broken hallelujahs have equal value.’

 

Easter is about living resurrection in all the alleluias – the perfect and the broken.

 

Story number 2: the UMBC Retreivers

The team has True Grit – a Chesapeake Bay retriever has a mascot.

It’s not known as a sports school.

It’ s known for science and technology…and chess…

The UMBC retrievers have won six national chess championships!

 

So when they made it to the NCAA basketball tournament, it was a big deal.

They’d last played in the tournament in 2008.

The Retreivers were seeded 16^th and they played the number one seed Virginia.

The odds were 1/135 against them.

In fact, there had NEVER been a time when the 16^th ranked team defeated the 1^st ranked team.

But the Retreivers won!

They won by 20 points! Alleluia!!!

 

Sports are well-known for those contests which show both

‘the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.’

 

An insightful commentator wrote after the game,

that he wondered what would be the legacy from this game.

For UMBC, it would be easy –

it was a time of celebration.

It’s not difficult to live resurrection in the midst of alleluias.

 

But this sportswriter said, the legacy of this game is far more important for the Virginia team.

What will they take from this game?

In the face of humiliating defeat,

in the brokennest of broken hallelujahs,

where would they go from here?

 

Living resurrection in all the alleluias,

means to live it in the broken ones as well.

 

Story Number 3: Linda Brown

 

In 1951, Linda Brown was a 3^rd grader at Monroe Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas.

She had a great group of neighborhood friends…

but they didn’t go to her school.

Linda walked six blocks and then took a bus to her school.

Her friends could walk to the neighborhood school – Sumner Elementary.

 

Linda’s father Oliver thought it made no sense for his daughter

to have to walk six blocks and then take a bus to school,

so he went to Sumner Elementary school and requested she be enrolled.

The school refused to enroll Linda at Sumner School.

 

It was 1951 and schools were segregated,

and Linda was black – Monroe Elementary School was the ‘black’ school.

Sumner Elementary was for the white students.

 

Oliver Brown and a group of other parents joined together

to present a legal case against the school system which refused to enroll his daughter

in her neighborhood school.

 

As we now know, the case made it all the way to the Supreme Court,

and in 1954 in a case named, “Brown vs. the Board of Education,”

segregation in schools was legally struck down.

Alleluia!

 

But….it turned out to be a broken hallelujah.

 

In 1978, Linda Brown had children of her own.

And they were in elementary school in Topeka.

Segregation was illegal.

Yet, in practice, her children were still attending segregated schools.

 

She and others mounted a challenge…

and this too went through the courts until the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal from the school system.

In 1993 (1993!), the schools were not only legally integrated,

but compelled to make changes so that they would be integrated in practice as well.

 

There are alleluias and broken hallelujahs..

 

Living resurrection means to live into the promise

that the work continues….sometimes what seems to be an alleluia is only the beginning –

resurrection continues the work –

as we mark the 50^th anniversary of MLK’s assassination this week,

we are reminded that the work may need to continue after we’re gone.

 

Story number 4: Three Women

 

Three women – and we know their names –

Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome –

go to the tomb and the body of Jesus is not there.

And they are afraid, and run away in fear and amazement.

They tell no one.

 

Their silence is waiting to be filled in by us –

in the way we live resurrection.

 

The life of faith is shaped by times of fear and amazement;

victory and defeat;

alleluias and broken hallelujahs.

 

How will we live resurrection in the midst of all the alleluias?

He is risen! He is not here!

What’s next for you?

 

Amen.