06-16-2024 Steven Marsh – Just Say No To Economic Injustice

Series: “Jesus’ Message: You Are A Participant In the Dream”

“Just Say No To Economic Injustice”

1 Samuel 15:34-16:13

Mark 4:26-34

The good news of Jesus is that no one should be oppressed by economic injustice.

What does economic injustice look like? According to author Anshu Siripurapu writing for the Council on Foreign Relations,

Income and wealth inequality is higher in the United States than in almost any other developed country, and it is rising. There are large wealth and income gaps across racial groups, which many experts attribute to the country’s legacy of slavery and racist economic policies. Proposals to reduce inequality include a more progressive income tax, a higher minimum wage, and expanded educational opportunities.[1]

Consider the following examples of economic injustice as found in Matthew Desmond’s new book Poverty by America:

1. Wages rose slowly for the poorest Americans

Since 1979, the bottom 90% of income earners in the U.S. experienced annual earnings gains of only 24%, Desmond writes, while the wages of the top 1% of earners more than doubled. His findings are based on data from a number of sources, including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Pew Research Center.

Looking at inflation-adjusted earnings, ordinary workers have seen their pay tick up just 0.3% a year for several decades, Desmond writes. “Astonishingly, the real wages for many Americans today are roughly what they were 40 years ago.”

2. More government aid for the financially comfortable

In 2020, the federal government spent $53 billion on direct housing assistance for the needy. That same year, it shelled out over $193 billion on homeowner subsidies such as the home mortgage interest deduction. Desmond analyzed tax data from a number of sources, including the Office of Management and Budget.

“Most families who enjoy those subsidies have six-figure incomes and are white,” Desmond writes. “Poor families lucky enough to live in government-owned apartments often have to deal with mold and even lead paint, while rich families are claiming the mortgage interest deduction on first and second homes.”

3. 1 in 18 live in ‘deep poverty’

In his book, Desmond, analyzing data from the U.S. Census Bureau and other sources, reports that 1 in 18 people in the U.S. live in what’s considered “deep poverty,” or what he calls “a subterranean level of scarcity.”

In 2020, this category included people who make less than $6,380 a year, or families of four living on less than $13,100. In 2020, almost 18 million people in America lived in these conditions, including some 5 million children.

Desmond writes, “There is growing evidence that America harbors a hard bottom layer of deprivation, a kind of extreme poverty once thought to exist only in faraway places of bare feet and swollen bellies.”

4. Racial wealth gap is as large as in the ’60s

Looking at the work of other authors and Federal Reserve data, Desmond found that the racial wealth gap is as wide today as it was more than five decades ago.

In 2019, the median white household had a net worth of $188,200, compared with $24,100 for the median Black household.

Again Desmond notes, “Our legacy of systematically denying Black people access to the nation’s land and riches has been passed from generation to generation.”

5. Overdraft fees mostly paid by the poor

In 2019, the largest U.S. banks charged Americans $11.68 billion in overdraft fees.

Just 9% of those account holders paid the lion’s share, 84%, of those charges — customers who carried an average balance of less than $350.[2]

Economic injustice is complicated and a divisive subject to engage. However, as followers of Jesus we must engage it for the sake of God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven. What guidance can we receive from 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13 and

Mark 4:26-34 regarding economic injustice?

1 Samuel 15:34-16:13

  • Saul was appointed by Samuel.
  • Saul increasingly became more deranged and incompetent. His leadership was filled with bad decisions, bad luck, and predictable fate.
  • Saul had difficulty admitting his sin. He was insecure, fearful, jealous, controlling, and greedy.
  • Saul was obsessed with establishing his greatness. He exploited the people by forbidding them to eat, rest, or tend to their own needs until the victory in war was certain. Saul did not serve the people. He expected the people to serve him.
  • David, the youngest son of Jesse, not Jesse’s oldest son Eliab, was selected as king. It was David’s heart that impressed God, not his appearance.
  • God intervenes and restores. “Out with the old” and “in with the new.”

Mark 4:26-34 

  • Why does Jesus teach in parables? To keep us in the process of engaging the work of planting seeds of good news and hope and listening well to those around us. The goal is not the solution, but the process of engagement.
  • Spiritual understanding requires revisiting the Biblical text and the text in people’s lives time and time again.
  • Spiritual understanding requires avoiding the simplistic and delving into the depth of the questions.
  • Spiritual understanding avoids legalism as a response.
  • Spiritual understanding fosters growth. It does not create it.
  • Spiritual understanding leads to the conclusion of seeing the kingdom of God as a community of fellowship and connection as opposed to the empire of Nero.[3]

With the anointing of David as king, God ushers in a new era of restoration and renewal for the people of God and humanity. Spiritual understanding leads to a way of being rooted in love and justice. Recall these paragraphs in Martin Luther King’s speech, “I Have a Dream”:

…I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice…

In the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus spreads seeds of good news and hope through your words and deeds. Be patient. Use your ears and eyes. Do not wring your hands. Participate with God in discerning diligence and experience the unexpected and continual unfolding commonwealth-growing givens.[4] Participate in fulfilling the dream. Amen.

This sermon was preached on the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, 16 June 2024

by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh at Grace Presbyterian Church

in the Great Room and Sanctuary in Wichita, Kansas.

Copyright © 2024

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

[1]On the Council on Foreign Relations website cfr.org dated April  20, 2022.

[2]Matthew Desmond, Poverty, By America (New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2023).

[3]In the three paragraphs of textual analysis above, I have benefited from the thinking of Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, J. Scott Hudgins, Eunjoo Mary Kim, Scot McKnight, Dan R. Dick, William Greenway, and David J. Schlafer in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year B, Volume 3 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2020), 72-75, 75-77, 78-80, 81-83, 83-84, 85-87 and 87-88.

[4]Adapted from William Greenway in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year B, Volume 3, 87.

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06-09-2024 Steven Marsh – Advocacy In The Holy Spirit

“Jesus’ Message: You Are God’s Presence”

“Advocacy In The Spirit”

1 Samuel 8:4-11, 16-20

Mark 3:20-35

The good news of Jesus is that we do not need to be held captive by “the powers and principalities” of darkness. My friends, we live in a wonderful time in history right now. Yes, you have good news to share with people who are held captive by the powers of darkness rooted in ethnicity, patriarchy, wealth, division, gender identity, and war. These powers are dark in they are not just. Consider the following illustration of the powers of darkness that cause chaos:

While elaborating on loving one’s neighbor, apologist Michael Ramsden spoke of a colleague who while in Asia asked his audience to close their eyes and imagine peace. After a few seconds the audience was invited to share their mental pictures of peace. One person described a field with flowers and beautiful trees. Another person spoke of snow-capped mountains and an incredible alpine landscape. Still another described the scene of a beautiful, still lake. After everyone described their mental picture of peace there was one thing common in them all—there were no people in them. Ramsden commented, “Isn’t it interesting, when asked to imagine peace the first thing we do is to eliminate everyone else.”[1]

Like the audience imagining “peace,” we too see the locus of the chaos residing in others. We too shut people out in order to have peace.

The chaos others cause can make us angry. For example, it is not just for one group to believe they are superior to another “simply because of skin color or cultural heritage;” to use the power of patriarchy stating that “men should dominate women;” to motivate through the power of wealth, “which roars at us that money gives us life;” to foster through the power of division, “which promotes the binary conclusion of those who are ‘in’ and those who are ‘out’;” to exclude through the power of acknowledging and recognizing only one gender identity, “which claims that any gender identity other than being biologically male or female is not human;” or to flaunt the power of war which asserts that “weapons and killing bring about peace and harmony.”[2]

So much of the conflict in America now revolves around race, patriarchy, wealth, division, gender identity, and war. And people on both sides are angry. When anger takes root, we run the risk of committing blasphemy as followers of Jesus. What is blasphemy? Blasphemy is “Expressing through speech or writing that which is impious, mocking, or contemptuous toward God.”[3] Anger holds us captive with an unforgiving disposition, and behavior. What is forgiveness? Forgiveness is “pardoning or remitting sinful offenses. It restores a good relationship with God, others, or self after sin or alienation.”[4]

In Mark 3:20-35, Jesus entered a house, quite randomly, and a great crowd gathered outside. The scene must have been chaotic. Jesus’ family heard about the chaos, went to encourage and protect Jesus, but the people had concluded that he was out of his mind. Concluding that Jesus was “out of his mind”, is another way of saying, Jesus had an evil spirit. In Jesus’ time mental instability was generally attributed to demonic activity. The charges of the family and of the teachers of the law are designed to stop Jesus from continuing his activity. Jesus was charged with being demon possessed. They called him Beelzebub, which is a euphemism for the Devil.

In response, Jesus addresses the logic of the law of contradiction. He states what was self-evident: if Satan attacks himself, eventually there will be no more Satan left and he would become powerless. But this is not so, Jesus has power. The law of contradiction states that a person or institution cannot be divided against itself. Charged with possession by an evil spirit, Jesus claims to be working not with evil spirits, but with the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in Mark 3:28-29, “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” So, what is the unforgiveable sin? Not believing in God. [5]

At Grace, we aspire to be followers of Jesus who are about remembering, telling, and living the way of Jesus. We want to be the best Jesus someone sees. As followers of Jesus, we worship God not race; God not patriarchy; God not wealth; God not division; God not gender identity; God not war. As followers of Jesus, we are to demonstrate Jesus Christ to the world. In the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus spreads seeds of good news through your words and deeds.

As followers of Jesus, our lives parallel life as it was in the time of the reading in 1 Samuel 8:4-11, 16-20. The elders of Israel were losing confidence and faith in their governmental institutions. Fear and anxiety were at a high level. Samuel was growing old and neither of his sons had the moral or religious leadership of their father. So, the people clamored for what all other nations had, a king. The people thought a king would unify the people, provide a hierarchical structure to enforce the rule of law, and efficiently organize a military to defend Israel against other nations. There is something wrong in human nature that is only rectified in and through Jesus Christ. As John Rollefson notes, “It is not that the imago dei has been erased from our DNA but that deep within ourselves we are not fully what we are meant to be and, what is more, we know it.”[6]

Human choices have real consequences. And more often than not, they reveal who we really are. As Christians, the Holy Spirit advocates for us to take a counter-cultural perspective, one which rejects the transforming of familial love into a kinship loyalty. A kinship loyalty promotes exclusivist ethnic, doctrinal, and nationalist appeals. Familial love, a powerful fellowship with God and others rejects any exclusivist appeal.

In Christ, you are forgiven. Be awakened to God’s grace for yourself and others. You can live, right now, forgiving. Share in word and deed the good news that fellowship with God and one another advocates for the vanquishing of the powers of darkness rooted in exclusivist appeals to ethnicity, patriarchy, wealth, division, gender identity, and war. Amen. 

This sermon was preached on the Third Sunday after Pentecost, 9 June 2024

by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh at Grace Presbyterian Church

in the Great Room and Sanctuary in Wichita, Kansas.

Copyright © 2024

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

[1]Provided by Van Morris in Michael Ramsden’s article “Is Christianity a Matter of Convenience?” (July 29, 2015) as found on www.keswickministries.org.

[2]Some ideas adapted from Nibs Stroupe in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 3 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 119.

[3]Donald K. McKim, Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), 31.

[4]Ibid., 107.

[5]In the two paragraphs of textual analysis above, I have benefited from the thinking of Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, J. Scott Hudgins, Eunjoo Mary Kim, Scot McKnight, Dan R. Dick, William Greenway, and David J. Schlafer in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year B, Volume 3 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2020), 54-57, 57-58, 59-61, 62-64, 64-66, 67-69 and 69-71.

[6]John Rollefson in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 3, 102.

 

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05-26-2024 Steven Marsh – Trinity Sunday

Series: “Jesus’ Message: You Are God’s Presence”

“Filled With The Holy Spirit”

Isaiah 6:1-8

John 3:1-17

True north differs from magnetic north, which varies from place to place due to local magnetic anomalies. A magnetic compass almost never shows true north. To find true north from a magnetic compass you have to know the local magnetic variation and how it is varying over time. Finding true north is essential for accurate navigation. Hence the metaphor. In life’s journey we are often uncertain where we stand, where we are going and what is the right path for us personally. Knowing our true north would enable us to follow the right path.[1]

In the winter of 1968, Brennan Manning lived in a cave in the Zaragosa Desert in Spain. The cave was six thousand feet above the sea, and he never saw another human face or heard a human voice apart from Sunday mornings when a Franciscan brother would bring him food, water, and kerosene for his lamp. Brennan Manning in The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus writes, “On the night of December 13, 1968, I heard Jesus say, ‘For love of you I left my Father’s side. I came to you who ran from me, who fled me, who did not want to hear my name. For love of you I was covered with spit, punched, and beaten, and fixed to the wood of the cross.’”[2] What a statement of God’s love for us and how resting in that love gives us true north direction, through the Holy Spirit, for our lives.

Isaiah saw God and heard the seraphs cry out “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty.” God had a vision for humanity…for Isaiah. King Uzziah had been a godly man until the latter years of his reign. He lost direction for his life and that of the kingdom. Following King Uzziah’s death, God gave Isaiah a vision for his life and the lives of the people of God. Isaiah was created in the image of God. The Holy Spirit resides in the image of God. Isaiah cried out to God, “Woe to me!” Isaiah confessed his sin to God. Self-awareness is not negative. A seraph came to him, touched his lips with a burning coal, declared to Isaiah that his guilt had been taken away, and that atonement had been made for his sin. God then asked, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Isaiah responded, “Here am I; send me!”

John 3 addresses one’s recognition of being filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit that is with us in the image of God. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is the beginning of conversion or what in John 3 is called being born again. Wayne Grudem defines born again as “the scriptural term referring to God’s work of regeneration by which he imparts new spiritual life to us.”[3] Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council came to Jesus by night. He said to Jesus in John 3:2-3, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God. Jesus answered him. ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born from above.’” Nicodemus responded immediately to Jesus’ statement in John 3:4-6, “How can anyone be born having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Sensing Nicodemus’ urgency Jesus replied, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.” By being born of the Spirit, we are a new creation. We receive this new life from the Spirit by faith. Jesus does not condemn us, but gives us life. Being born again is rooted in God’s love for God’s creation, not condemnation. God freely chose to love you and me, despite our sinful condition. It is by no merit of our own that caused God to love us. God freely chose to love you and me, despite our sinful condition. Being born of the Spirit negates death having the last word. Being filled with the Holy Spirit means we have freedom to love God and one another creating community that does not hold on to the spirit of this world.[4]

On this Trinity Sunday, let us not forget that God dwells within us. God is fully engaged as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of our lives…all of life…in all ways and at all times. Again, Manning writes,

How long have you been a Christian? How long have you been living in the Spirit? Do you know what it is to love Jesus Christ? Do you know what it is to have your love unsatisfied, endured in loneliness, and ready to burst your restless, ravenous heart? Do you know what it is to have the pain taken away, the hole filled up, to reach out and embrace this sacred Man and say sincerely, “I cannot let you go. In good times and bad, victory and defeat, my life has no meaning without you.” If this experience has not illuminated your life with its brilliance, then regardless of age, disposition, or state of life, you do not understand what it means to be a Christian.[5]

God’s eternal being as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is present in the world bringing about salvation through you. Wherever we see works of love, peace, and justice, we know God is at work. For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn, but to save.[6]

Like Nicodemus, be born again. The Holy Spirit is the Christian’s true north. Self-awareness is the beginning of clarifying true north for one’s life. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is necessary for accurate navigation in one’s life. Living in the Spirit, you are connected to God and others. Jesus loves you. Know God’s love for you. Rest in it. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit leads you to discern true north. Alleluia, Amen.

This sermon was preached on Trinity Sunday, 26 May 2024 by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh

at Grace Presbyterian Church in the Great Room and Sanctuary in Wichita, Kansas.

Copyright © 2024

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

[1]Webster’s Online.

[2]Brennan Manning, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus (New York City, New York: HarperCollins, 2005), 173.

[3]Wayne Grudem, Bible Doctrine (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999), 480.

[4]In the two paragraphs of textual analysis above, I have benefited from the thinking of J. Clinton McCann Jr., Robert A. Ratcliff, Joel Marcus Lemon, Erica A. Knisely, Claudio Carvalhaes, Renata Furst and Susan K. Olson in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year B, Volume 3 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2020), 2-4, 4-6, 7-9, 10- 11, 12-13, 14-16 and 16-18.

[5]Brennan Manning, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus, 174.

[6]Some ideas in this paragraph are gleaned from Donald K. McKim and Kristen Emery Saldine in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 3 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 26-31.

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05-19-2024 Steven Marsh – Pentecost 2024

Series: “Jesus’ Message: You Are God’s Presence”

“The Holy Spirit”

Acts 2:17, 21

an excerpt from Brennan Manning, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus (New York City, New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005), 166-167.

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

The better you know yourself, you will make better choices.[1] There’s a story about choices and it goes like this:

A burglar broke into a house one night. He shined his flashlight around, looking for valuables when a voice in the dark said, “Jesus knows you’re here.” He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off, and froze. When he heard nothing more, he shook his head and continued. Just as he pulled the stereo out, so he could disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he heard “Jesus is watching you.” Startled, he shined his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice. Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot. “Did you say that?” he hissed at the parrot. “Yes”, the parrot confessed, then squawked, “I’m just trying to warn you that he’s watching you.” The burglar relaxed. “Warn me, huh? Who in the world are you?” “Moses,” replied the bird. “Moses?” the burglar laughed. “What kind of people would name a bird Moses?” “The kind of people who would name a Rottweiler Jesus.”[2]

Being known by God and knowing God is the key to knowing yourself. And thus, better decision making when presented with a choice.

At the time of our reading from the Acts of the Apostles, a celebration was upon Jerusalem, one which took place every year, fifty days after Passover, the “Feast of Weeks.” The “Feast of Weeks” was the offering of barley sheaf. The people would gather at the temple to thank God for the harvest. During the “Feast of Weeks” the disciples were gathered along with all devout Jews who had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  The Holy Spirit was poured out on all humanity just as Jesus promised. All who were gathered were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues. Peter preached the good news. Many began to follow Jesus. The Church began. As Emmanuel Y. Lartey, Professor of Pastoral Theology, Care and Counseling at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, notes, “The community of Christ’s faithful people will be connected to God and one another by the Spirit’s work of guiding, leading, revealing, and reminding…Through the enabling presence of the Spirit, every need for care and support we have in all of life’s difficult and painful circumstances can be met.”[3]

[4]

Christians renamed the “Feast of Weeks,” Pentecost. Pentecost occurs fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection. The Church observes Pentecost, because of the miracle of God’s Spirit being poured out upon all humanity. The Spirit leads us into all the truth. The way we know truth is through the miracle of the Spirit called forgiveness. Through the forgiveness we receive from God, in and through Jesus Christ, and others…the forgiveness we give others and ourselves…truth sets us free. Brennan Manning in The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus writes,

We cannot possess the mind of Christ until we recognize ourselves as forgiven enemies of God and in like manner extend forgiveness and reconciliation to our own enemies. Jesus Christ crucified is not merely a heroic example to the church; he is the power of God, a living force transforming our lives through his Word: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).[5]

Receive forgiveness. Forgive others.

Choose belief not disbelief. You are known by God and can know God. The Holy Spirit is God living with us. Believe that the Holy Spirit is before you, above you, behind you, beneath you, beside you, and inside you. Call on Jesus and be saved. Believe and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Amen.

This sermon was preached on the Pentecost, 19 May 2024 by

the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and Sanctuary

at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas.

Copyright © 2024

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

 

[1]Idea gleaned from Gregg Braden, The Turning Point (Carlsbad, California: Hay House, Inc., 2014), 15.

[2]Taken from “Timeline Photos” on Facebook, April 27, 2013.

[3]Emmanuel Y. Lartey in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 3 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 24.

[4]In the four paragraphs of textual analysis above, I have benefited from the thinking of Warren Carter, Wendy Farley, David Gambrell, Christopher T. Holmes, Mark F. Sturgess, Lance B. Pape, and Jason Byassee in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year B, Volume 2 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2020), 297-299, 299-301, 302-303, 304-306, 306-307, 308-310, and 310-311.

[5]Brennan Manning, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus (New York City, New York: HarperCollins, 2005), 166-167.

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05-12-20241 Steve Marsh- Being a Builder of Bridges

Series: “Jesus’ Message: You Are The Conduit”

“Being A Builder of Bridges”

Psalm 1

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

John 17:6-19

In my life, I’ve struggled with ambition. Oh, ambition is important, but when it controls many of one’s moves, it’s dangerous. At times in my career, who I knew, what church I served, and how successful I was were compelling validators of me in my ministry. My self-importance became controlling, pride was deeply rooted, and “image management” ruled the day. My sense of self was not effective at building bridges. In fact, I was pretty good at making sure I was the only person on the Island. I was determined to be self-sufficient.

Psalm 1, Acts 1:15-17, 21-26, and John 17:6-19 lead us to this conclusion. “Like the foundation in a house, the keel in a ship, and the heart in a body”[1] keeps the house, ship, and body functioning properly, so your relationship with God keeps you becoming more like Jesus. Doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God matter.

In Psalm 1, one of the Lectionary texts for today that was not read this morning, the Hebrew word “Torah” is translated “law.” The word “law,” however, does not capture the full meaning of Torah. The word “Torah” comes from the verb “to teach.” With that etymology, Torah implies the practice of instruction. Instruction captures a relationship between teacher and pupil. To be a bridge builder, one must be in relationship with God and under the instruction of God. God is our teacher. We are God’s pupils. As trees are in relationship with “streams of water” and prosper, so will the people of God prosper as they are in relationship with God. According to Psalm 1, the wicked have yet to experience their salvation. Therein lays the urgency of our relationship with God and being under the instruction of God. We are to love others. Why? Psalm 1:6 reads, “…the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” Loving others, then, provides an opportunity for the wicked to be encountered by God and just perhaps turn away from “wickedness” and turn to righteousness. Therein lies the possibility of a bridge being built between you and the other person.

In Acts 1:15-17, 21-26, the disciples are regrouping after Jesus’ ascension. They are still fearful, yet a bit more confident and “down one.” Judas had hanged himself. And so, they tended to their organization from a leadership perspective. The disciples were mindful of their ancestral roots…the twelve tribes of Israel…the twelve sons of Jacob. After hearing Peter’s sermon, the 120 members of the community of faith recommended Matthias and Justus to replace Judas. They cast lots. Casting lots was a method used by the Jews of the Old Testament and by Christian disciples prior to Pentecost to determine the will of God. Lots could be sticks with markings or stones with symbols that were thrown into a small area and then the result was interpreted.[2] Matthias was selected. He was not well-known. We do not hear anything else about Matthias, this new disciple, in the New Testament. Barbara K. Lindblad, Associate Professor of Preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, writes, “…we can be grateful for the witness of those who are so little known.”[3]

John 17:6-19 unequivocally states that the Father loves the world and sent the Son into the world to save the world not condemn it. And the church is sent into the world to do likewise; love, not condemn. Jesus says in John 17:6, 15-16, 18, “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they kept your word…. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one…. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” The Father sent the Son into the world. Jesus lived the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus sent his disciples then, sends them now, and will send them tomorrow into the world to remember, tell, and live the way of Jesus. Jesus’ message is radical. It challenges humans in their ways. Religion, law, and culture all challenge the way of Jesus. Jesus calls his followers to become holy, make all the world holy, and to be so much like him that no one would see life anywhere but in Jesus.[4]

How easy it is to have disdain for the seeming “nobody’s” in our midst. Richard Lischer in his book Open Secrets: A Spiritual Journey through a Country Church, writes about his coming to terms with having a PhD in theology and being bitter about being assigned to a small rural church in the middle of no-where. Lischer notes that in his first sermon he quoted James Joyce, Heidegger, Camus, and Walker Percy. Looking back on that first sermon and over the course of his tenure, Rev. Lischer realized that he failed to honor the ordinary people of faith who sat in the pews. There were the times they helped one another put up hay before the rains came, grieved when a neighbor lost his farm, and together, walked the fields every April, blessing the seeds before planting them. These are all signs of “church” that were worthy of mention in the Sunday homily.[5]

Often, we lose the roll of the dice, just like Justus. I imagine, Justus continued to love Jesus and share his testimony with others. Often when I lose the roll of the dice, I stew in self-pity. How could I be overlooked, as if the rolling of the dice had any objective reality? Brennan Manning in The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus writes,

The heart of God is Jesus’s hiding place, a strong protective space where God is near, where connection is renewed, where trust, love, and self-awareness never die but are continually rekindled. In times of opposition, rejection, hatred, and danger, Jesus retreats to that hiding place where he is loved. So essential is this connection that Jesus encourages his disciples to take up the same practice of rest and respite.[6]

We, too, must go to that “hiding place”, the heart of God, for rest, respite, and renewal. And then reengage the world with the good news of Jesus for eternal and abundant life.

Our everyday life occurrences are opportunities to be “church.” Stuff happens my friends, but the testimony of God’s love for us and others goes on. That is bridge building. The work of “Justice, together”, is an opportunity for each one of us to be bridgebuilders. Let’s build bridges my friends. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia, Amen.

This sermon was preached on the Seventh Sunday of Easter, 12 May 2024 by

the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and Sanctuary

at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas.

Copyright © 2024

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

[1]Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Old Testament VII, Psalms 1-150, ed. Craig A. Blaising and Carmen S. Hardin (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 2.

[2]This definition of “casting lots” was adapted from the Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry website, carm.org.

[3]Barbara K. Lundblad in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 2, 529.

[4]In the four paragraphs of textual analysis above, I have benefited from the thinking of Warren Carter, Wendy Farley, David Gambrell, Christopher T. Holmes, Mark F. Sturgess, Lance B. Pape, and Jason Byassee in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year B, Volume 2 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2020), 297-299, 299-301, 302-303, 304-306, 306-307, 308-310, and 310-311.

[5]Some ideas in this paragraph adapted from Richard Lischer, Open Secrets: A Spiritual Journey through a Country Church (New York: Doubleday, 2001), 75.

[6]Brennan Manning, The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus (New York City, New York: HarperCollins, 2005), 123-124.

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