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A String Around Your Finger

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The String Around Your Finger
Rev. Christa Fuller Burns

Faith Presbyterian Church
John 14:18-34 – May 27, 2018

As you can imagine, this leave-taking is a nostalgic time for me and I find myself doing a lot of remembering. In fact, most of the sermon on June 10th will be about things I remember, things they did not teach us in seminary. As it is Memorial Day, it seems appropriate to think about remembering. I’ve always been ambivalent, as you know, about acknowledging civil holidays in worship. However, since there seems to be so much collective amnesia in our country today, Memorial Day takes on an added importance.

After all, the idea of commemorating, of memorializing our experiences is a very Biblical idea. Simply put, God wants us to remember. And if it were not enough that God wants us to remember, we should point out that there are dire consequences for forgetting what God wants us to remember. It could be argued that Eve simply forgot God’s instructions about what to eat and what not to eat and it did not go well. God tells Jacob to make an altar in Bethel so that he would remember how God was with him when he ran away from his brother Esau. When the Israelites escaped slavery in Egypt, God instructed them to keep the Passover as a remembrance of their time of slavery and how God delivered them. One of the ten commandments is that we should “remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy”. (Ex.20:8) When the Israelites forgot the ten commandments, when they built that golden calf, God is not pleased. God tells Moses to go down there and remind those people who it was who brought them out of Egypt. God wants to wipe them out.

The disciples, we know, were a forgetful lot. Peter, the rock on whom Jesus says the church will be built, had a case of amnesia when asked if he knew Jesus on that night before his crucifixion. You wonder if Jesus knew all about our case of collective amnesia. In John’s Gospel, before he is arrested, Jesus gives his friends a long goodbye speech in which he tells them that if they love him, they will keep his commandments. In other words, it they love him, they will remember what he taught them. And, Jesus says, I am not going to leave you orphaned. I am going to send an advocate, the Spirit, who will “remind” you of everything I have taught you. It is almost as if Jesus knows they are going to forget so he is going to send the Holy Spirit to remind them to get off their duffs and get busy. I hadn’t thought about the Holy Spirit that way – as sent to us so we would remember.

The fact is, we are a forgetful people. We are like the elderly couple who worry that they are losing their memories. On one of their doctor’s visits the couple asks the doctor what they can do. The doctor suggests that, perhaps, it would help if they wrote themselves notes to remember. One night the couple is watching TV and the husband says he’s going to the kitchen – can he get his wife anything? Sure, she says, can you get me a bowl of ice cream? Glad to. Don’t forget, will you? I won’t forget. Do you need to write it down? No. I will remember. Oh, and if there are any strawberries left, can you put some on top? Sure. Don’t forget. Shall I write it down? I won’t forget. Oh and maybe some whipped cream. OK. Don’t forget. I won’t forget. Ice cream. Strawberries. And whipped cream. Don’t forget. The  husband disappears into the kitchen and is gone for a suspiciously long time. When he comes back he is carrying a plate of bacon and eggs. When he sets it down in front of his wife, she asks, “Did you forget the toast?”

When I hear a lot of the debate these days over supposedly Christian teachings, I wonder if people have forgotten what Jesus actually taught. Of course, it is possible people don’t know what Jesus said in the first place! I think it is more likely that people have simply chosen what to remember and what to forget. A group of prominent faith leaders have composed a document entitled: “Reclaiming Jesus: A Confession of Faith in a Time of Crisis”.   The statement is a list of affirmations that remind us of who Jesus is and what Jesus taught. For example; “We believe how we treat the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the sick, and the prisoner is how we treat Christ himself.” In other words, do we remember how Jesus said: Blessed are the poor –they will inherit the earth?

“We believe that truth is morally central to our personal and public lives”. In other words, do we remember how Jesus said, You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) More on that next week.

“We believe that Christ’s way of leadership is servanthood, not domination. We support democracy, not because we believe in human perfection, but because we do not.” In other words, do we remember how Jesus said, “He who must be first of all must first be a servant of all”

One more: “We believe Jesus when he tells us to go into all nations making disciples. Our churches and our nations are part of an international community whose interests always surpass national boundaries. We in turn should love and serve the world and all its inhabitants rather than to see first narrow nationalistic prerogatives.” In other words, do we remember how Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember (remember), I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  (Matt.28:19-20) By the way, the entire statement is posted on our Facebook page and copies of it are in the narthex.

We are a forgetful people. I believe we need Memorial Days…not to have a day off with hot dogs and hamburgers. In fact, maybe Memorial Day should be in church. Maybe we need a time in which to collectively remember those who died in service to our country and why. As South Korea and North Korea are so much in the news today, do we even know who so many lives were lost in the Korean War? 5.7 million – most of them Korean. Do we know why? Our former custodian, John Ward, fought in the Korean War and I remember his disappointment that his country did not seem to remember that war. In fact, the potential for a summit to resolve the nuclear weapon issue reminds us that the Korean War is not really over. An armistice was signed in 1953 which ended active fighting. If there ever is a summit, perhaps there could be a formal end to the war.

We were talking about the passage for this morning in our Bible Study last week and one of the African American members in our group said that she is appalled that the younger generation of African American youth do not want to remember the Jim Crow laws in this country, not to mention the lynchings that occurred during that time in our history. It doesn’t affect them – or so they think.

As Christians, as believers we have an obligation to remember. God requires us to remember.

I came across recently the observations of a Rabbi who addresses our shared propensity for forgetting. What can we do, he asks? What can we do to be more mindful people? The first suggestion he has for us comes from the Jewish tradition of wearing fringes, a tradition that originates in the book of Numbers: “The Lord said to Moses: ‘Speak to the Israelites, and tell them to makes fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put a blue cord on the fringe at each corner. You have the fringe so that, when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them….” (15:37-39). I suppose wearing blue fringes is sort of like tying a string around your fingers – wearing something that reminds you to remember.

Another suggestion Rabbi Markus offers as a help for remembering is to remember together. Being together helps us remember. (A String Around Your Finger, David Markus, My Jewish Learning, June 11, 2015)

I will be going to a family reunion this summer. Whenever my cousins and my siblings are together we share our memories of growing up and it is always stunning to me that we don’t remember the same things and the things we do remember we remember differently!

Faith Church is a memory bank. Some people remember things others don’t. Some people remember things one way, some another. Somehow when we all get together the truth about the past comes alive.

On this Memorial Day, I suggest we tie a blue string around our finger so that we remember…those who died so that we could be free and, most of all, the one who said; If you love me you will remember what I taught you.”

Unfinished Business

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Unfinished Business
Rev. Christa Fuller Burns

Faith Presbyterian Church
Philippians 1:1-18 – May 6 2018

A letter from Christa, a servant of Jesus Christ, to all those in Baltimore, specifically those at Faith Church, who are God’s people.

First of all, when Paul wrote a letter to his folk in Philippi, he addressed it to the saints in Philippi. The translation you heard this morning translates saints as those “who are God’s people in Christ Jesus”. Now, you may automatically assume that “you who are God’s people” means saints but I am not taking that for granted especially since in his letters to the church in Corinth, for example, he says “ to the church in Corinth”, which may or may not include some saints. In his letter to Philippi, there is no ambiguity: “To all the saints in Christ Jesus”. We know Paul had a special deal for the people in Philippi. He was especially close to the Philippian church. In his mind, they were all saints.

So, too, I want to address my letter to all the saints because that is how I see the people of Faith – all – all of you are saints.

So, to all the saints at Faith:

May the grace and peace from God and from Jesus Christ be with you.

I know this greeting runs the risk of sounding like “Yo, how ya doin’?” or my standard “blessings” but I think we should take a moment and think about what it means to tell someone that you wish God’s peace and grace for them. It occurs to me that we might take this kind of greeting for granted. I wonder if, even though we know a person is full up with all manner of anxiety and conflict, simply speaking those words – grace and peace be with you – has power. Just speaking those words brings at least a portion of them into reality. I was out for my morning walk last week especially early and I passed the apartment building I always pass on the way. A man came out carrying a small suit case. Shortly thereafter a woman came out who was very pregnant. I stopped and asked, because I am nosy, “Are you on the way to the hospital? Yes, she said. Hopkins. I said something so simple to me, “Blessings to you” at which point the woman was visibly touched. I could have said grace and peace be with you – simply speaking those words brings them into reality. So. Wherever you are this morning, whatever burden you are carrying, whatever hurt you feel deep in your heart, whatever you are fearful of – May grace and peace be with you.

I want you to know how thankful I am for you. Another way of saying that is “I am thankful for you every time I remember you in my prayers. I remember Garrison Keillor in one of his Lake Wobegon stories telling about, as a small boy, the Sunday dinners at his grandparents’ house and how important it was to him to hear his grandfather mention him by name in prayer. We’ve had many debates over the years about how we do the prayers on Sunday morning but isn’t it important to lift people up in prayer by naming them?

I admit, I probably do not pray as much as I should, at least in the way people think you should pray. I do not kneel every night by my bed and talk to God (first of all, I do not kneel for much of anything anymore). I figure there are lots of ways to pray. Sometimes I pray when I’m driving around. Sometimes I pray when I can’t decide what to do. Sometimes I pray at baseball games – something like, since Friday was May 4th, Star Wars day – May the force be with you. Sometimes I pray and I say “just relax – it’s all going to be okay”.

Back to my letter: I want you to know how much you are in my thoughts and, I admit, worries. I want you to know how much you are in my prayers and when I think about you I am full of joy because of the way you have been partners with me in ministry. When I think about all the worship we’ve led together, all the meetings, all the decisions, all the budgets, all the meals, all the marches, all the working in the community, all the times we’ve been in communion with each other around this table – I am thankful for you.

And, I am convinced that God will enable you to complete the job of being church together. No. We haven’t done everything we’d hoped to. No. We haven’t welcomed our community through our doors in the numbers like we wanted. I still hope we can pull off a new sound system and an updated personnel policy before I leave. We still have unfinished projects. There will always be unfinished projects. There is, in fact, unfinished business. And, I know, you feel uncertain and perhaps anxious about what the future will bring. But that’s OK because I am confident that God will use you to complete the work of the church of Jesus Christ on Loch Raven Boulevard. No matter where I am, you will always be my partners in God’s grace. Isn’t that a beautiful idea? I will keep you in my heart and together we will still be working for the same end, the same gospel, the same Jesus. We will continue to be partners in God’s grace.

This is my prayer: that your love might become even more and more rich and that you will continue to grow in knowledge and understanding of what it means to follow Christ. I pray that, in the days and years ahead, you will be able to decide what is really important because a lot of the stuff the church does isn’t all that important. Our trips to Cuba have helped me to see what is important. Our sister churches in Cuba have no hymnals, no detailed budgets, no personnel policies. Our sister churches don’t even have pastors! What is important? Worship that is alive and vibrant and daring and prophetic and that has integrity is important. Your relationships are important – the care you give each other when there is hurt or joy or need. Our children are important. May they always feel empowered and at home in this church. Witnessing is important. I know a lot of you feel you have no voice. I was at the baseball game last week and saw an acquaintance and when I told her I was retiring, she said, Oh you should come to our church! You’d love it!  She was witnessing. That is all you have to do sometimes – extend an invitation.

I say all the time, there is not any other church like Faith. I know I am bragging (Paul did say certain types of boasting are OK) but it’s true. We are diverse in every way but we are also committed to taking the gospel of justice to those places that sorely need it. Our little church raised close to $3000 for DACA applications. I’m proud of that. We were among the first churches to have partnerships in Cuba. Because we were committed to Gay Pride, St. Matthews joined us and now we have close to 40 congregations who march together. We’ve used our voices and our money to stand for inclusive love and the rights of all people. Paul says there is fruit in righteousness. Let’s consider that sentence: “I pray that you then be filled with the fruit of righteousness: “Filled” means not only completed but brought to maturity; perfected. Scholars tell us that “the idea is not only spatial but moral and spiritual” (Thurston and Ryan, Philippians and Philemon). The term “Fruits of righteousness” comes from the Hebrew scriptures. In Proverbs 11:30 we read: The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, but violence takes lives away.” And in Amos, we read: “But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood…” (6:13). Justice is righteousness. So, I pray that you will be full of righteousness!

Brothers and sisters – well, I just have to point out that Paul, in his letter, specifically refers to brothers and sisters indicating the importance women had in his church and ours. Brothers and sisters, my retirement is actually going to mean growth for this congregation! While I am not in prison like Paul was when he wrote his letter to the church in Philippi, I know that my departure will be hard if for no other reason than the questions it raises: Who will come to see me when I am in the hospital? Who will bury me? Who will marry me? What will happen to the budget? What will happen to our membership? We have to listen to Paul, then, when he says this transition will actually advance the gospel.   We have to trust Paul when he implies that change can be the occasion for growth. Paul says this: “Most of the brothers and sisters have had more confidence through the Lord to speak the word boldly and bravely because of my jail time.

What do I think about this? Just this: since Christ is proclaimed in every possible way, especially in those times of transition, I am glad and I will continue to be glad!