Come and See

This was my seventh time preaching at Bemidji United Methodist, thankfully two weeks in a row. I liked being able to reference the sermon I had just preached the previous week. One day I'll be able to do that more often. One day.

Gospel: John 1:29-42



Grace and Peace to you from God our Creator, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, Amen

Today's Gospel is one of those TV episode lessons, where it starts off with a recap of information you already know, just maybe forgot some of the details. "Last time on the Story of John the Baptist”... And then goes on to tell a different story with keeping the context of the previous story in your mind. In the Gospel of John, there is no play by play of Jesus' baptism as there was in last week's Gospel lesson. It's just a, when this happened… kinda thing. And then it moves on to the main story.

In this era of movies and shows, there seems to be a theme of sequels and remakes and adaptations with an air of, “remember when this happened?” With the never ending saga of Star Wars coming to a momentary close, the Marvel Cinematic Universe moving on from their 22nd movie, Star Trek seeing a resurgence with a new show debuting this week, Disney remaking all kinds of their movies into live-action movies, James Bond comes back this spring, and everything that makes a ton of money at the box office are these types of movies. So studios pump them out.

And movies are a great escape from the goings on of present realities, until you start to unravel that certain characters seem similar to current political figures. Certain situations seem similar to current events. Certain realities seem very similar to current realities.

And pretty soon, the movie or show that you’re watching comes into a little more focus. The point of the story, after you get settled and reacquainted with that information that you already knew, comes to fruition. Suddenly the Star Trek movie about going back in time to save the present, turns into an environmental movie about saving the whales. Or the Star Wars movie (but let’s face it, pretty much every Star Wars movie) ends up being how the world powers that want control get overturned by people from all corners of the known universe when they form together a resistance to eventually win the day.

Or when the Gospel writer explains John the Baptizer’s role in Jesus’ baptism, and then suddenly the lesson becomes a story about Jesus calling the first disciples. “Come and See” Jesus says. As an invitation to the disciples in that moment, but also to the reader. What’s this story all about? Who is this Jesus anyway? “Come and See” Jesus says.

Last week, I preached about our Christian identity being rooted in the waters of baptism. How our Christian identity informs our calling in life, and how refugees are our neighbors no matter their religion or race. And maybe we could do something about the question to be home to refugees in this county.

In the time since then and now, it seems a federal judge made the executive order asking that counties make this decision about refugees, temporarily blocked. A federal judge in Texas ruled, because of a petition of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. For now, maybe the vote in Beltrami County won't matter in the practical, but the question brought our broken humanity into the light. The sin of racism still permeates the decision.  Racism continues to permeate this community.

Whether or not this decision becomes pointless or not, it opened the discussion in this community, and put a national spotlight on the county.

Today's Gospel lesson takes the event of Jesus' baptism to the back, but keeps it there in the context. It reminds you that the baptism happened and why, and then it moves into the practical. Jesus calls the first disciples and says, "Come and See".

This is what I am asking all of us to do. Keep the knowledge that Jesus was baptized, called beloved, and from that we understand our own Christian identity. But then move from the discussion of identity, to what we do about it. To, "come and see".

As Christians, we are called to love one another as God loves us. To spread the Love Grace and Mercy that was bestowed on us all. Just as the old camp song goes, yes they'll know we are Christians by our love.

Yesterday, people across the country and here in Bemidji marched in the Women's March to bring awareness to issues and realities affecting women and femmes of all origins. In a month, there'll be a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's March in Bemidji to bring community awareness to the number of native women who are missing and murdered every year across the United States and Canada. There are a number of community projects that help the area's homeless population, as well as the food shelf and the meals that are provided here and other places around town.

In this time after Epiphany, we celebrate light and the increasing daylight in the northern hemisphere. We also acknowledge the pieces of our world that aren't as bright, the shadows that we'd rather not worry about. The marches help bring awareness to those shadows in our world, and the community projects help bring light to those shadows.

And we wouldn't have the light without knowing that the shadows are there. We wouldn't have the spark of justice to light under our feet without being aware of the shadows. Without the community discussion surrounding refugees being brought into the open by the vote on January 7th, some of us wouldn't have thought to have that discussion in this community.

Without the brave civil rights leaders like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gaining national attention by marching in Washington DC and Selma, Alabama- who knows if landmark legislation like the Civil Rights Act would have been passed when they were. Without women marching for civil rights 100 years ago, without the Stonewall Riots 50 years ago…

Without brave leaders shining a light on society's shadows, standing up and fighting for the rights of other people, we wouldn't have the brilliance of today's diversity. And yet, there's still much more to do.

Without fighting for water resources at Standing Rock, and now up here with Line 3, oil will continue to leak into our water sources and our precious lakes and rivers. Fighting for renewable resources helps promote life for all living things because again, we are all connected by water.

Marches, demonstrations, and protests all shine a light on our current realities and we wouldn't be here without the hard work and struggles of those who came before us. When Jesus says "Come and see" to the disciples, Christ doesn't mean that we just become casual observers in our faith. "Come and See" that Jesus reached out to those on the margins of society. "Come and See" that Jesus lived a life of Love, Grace and Mercy and spread it to all in need through feeding, healing, clothing the ones who needed it; by teaching and preaching to all those that would hear. "Come and See" the Savior who lived a life of service, died on a cross, and rose again and saves us all from our own shadows of our lives. Through the Grace, Love and Mercy that God bestows on us all, that we may in turn spread to all our neighbors.

Together, our calling to "Come and See" is our vocation. However you feel called to live out the call to "Come and See" in your own life, in your own career, we are all called to love our neighbors and follow these words of our Savior.

In the movies and shows of these days that start with an introduction of previously known information, then move on to the main story and problem that feel like current realities, and end with a nice culmination with the protagonists hopefully winning the day. Sometimes they leave with a cliffhanger… In some of the better Star Trek episodes, they ended with humor, so that the troubles that happened in the episode seem better with a joke to send you on your way. In the case of this Gospel lesson, it ends with a look into the future that Jesus healed all that Jesus and the disciples came across in the land of Galilee. And the end of the Gospel of John has the best ending. And if you don't know what that ending is, or want to remind yourself of what that is… I'll leave you with a tease to say, "go and see". Because when we're not sure of what comes next, sometimes, we just need to "Come and See".

Until next time, friends...

Amen.

Water

This is my sixth sermon preached at Bemidji United Methodist, on 1/12/20. This sermon was for the Baptism of Our Lord Sunday, and came on the heels of local news that went national-
(https://time.com/5761225/beltrami-county-minnesota-bans-refugee-resettlement/). I felt called to respond to the news, especially when mere blocks from where it happened.

Gospel: Matthew 3:13-17


Grace and Peace to you from God our Loving Creator and from Jesus the Beloved, with whom God is well pleased, Amen

On the brink of war, communities splitting over identities, and Pastor Rob asks me to preach on this, the Baptism of Our Lord Sunday. Happy New Year, eh?

For this is the context in which we live. A nation’s weary eyes, always looking at the next big thing to come across the bottom half of the TV, or across their news feed, or the latest conversation over coffee… This week, Bemidji and Beltrami County entered that same national conversation. And not for the best of reasons. Not for reasons that bring us here, under the shadow of the cross.

The cross that unites all who are called and claimed by the One who was nailed to it. The One who was baptized by John the Baptizer in the Jordan River, and called and claimed and named Beloved by God.

For in this common identity, in which we are claimed with a baptism through water and the Holy Spirit, we are called to love one another, and see the Beloved One in the faces of our neighbors.

The three Beltrami County Commissioners who voted for denying refugee resettlement on Tuesday night forgot that. And honestly, we all forget it sometimes. I forget it sometimes. But I don’t have official power over a county. I sometimes forget it when decisions are made about me that have everything to do with who I am as a human being, and not so much with my theology or ministry. I don’t have official powers over a county, but I do know what it’s like for my humanity to be discounted. To be legislated against.

I am not a refugee, but I have listened to them. Taught them Math, English and History. They taught me about Islam, Somalia, and a little about life as a recent immigrant in Saint Cloud. I am not an immigrant, but my father’s grandparents were. My younger brother’s parents-in-law are. I have worked alongside both documented and undocumented immigrants, with the fear of deportation very present in their minds.

Regardless of their documentation, their place of origin, their religion or their race - they are human beings and no less deserving of Christ’s love, and our love and understanding. Last week, Pastor Rob talked about fear of the other, and how if we’re walking on a sidewalk and see someone coming toward us, especially if they are of a different race than we are, that we can sometimes feel more fearful than if we were alone or if the person was of the same race as us. That’s called unconscious bias. It’s acting on or feeling something based on racist stereotypes that are buried in our broken humanity. This can manifest in fear of passing someone on the sidewalk, or fear in allowing the possibility of welcoming refugees to Beltrami County. 
  
This recent meeting was not the first, nor the last instance of racism deployed legislatively in this town. But maybe this very public display of racism can awaken us all to our own implicit and unconscious bias in our own lives.

By claiming our identity in the waters of baptism, we not only connect ourselves to Jesus' baptism in the Jordan but also everyone who has been baptized. In the new movie, Frozen II, there's a delightful snowman named Olaf that loves telling the story of water, and how water has memory, and has gone through a few people and fish before it touches our lips… but the story of interconnectedness is woven throughout the movie. For context, it’s also about intercultural relationships, in a metaphorical version of the Sami and Scandinavian peoples.

The connection that we all share, that the delightful snowman Olaf was connecting, is water. Water connects all living things, and we are all connected through the water. Today's Gospel lesson is more than the beginning of Jesus' ministry and where we get our sacrament of baptism from… but also the point where God proclaims for all that they are well pleased with their beloved child. Baptism is the point when God claims us all and says that we are loved and pleasing in her sight.

We can claim our Christian identity through the waters of baptism, but we cannot use that identity for reasons to dehumanize others of other faiths, or engage in war for our Christan identity. This area has a history of using faith as a reason to dehumanize, in the not-so-far-off history of Native boarding schools. With the inherent racism mixed with religiosity present in such realities… When a lack of infrastructure is used as a reason to deny hypothetical refugees, but not new housing developments or businesses… When a county commissioner uses the word ‘invasive’ in an email when describing refugees…

I was born and earned my undergrad degree in Saint Cloud, the second most populous area for Somali immigrants in Minnesota. I worked at an after-school program for Somali children and youth from Kindergarten through senior high. I was teaching 17yr olds addition and subtraction because for 16 years they lived in a refugee camp in Kenya, just eking out a living to survive. You want to hear an example of unconscious bias? I asked a friend to come with me for my interview for the job because I didn’t feel safe going alone.

We don’t learn until we either read, or experience these things for ourselves. Without my experience at the La Cruz Community Center in Saint Cloud or living on the poor side of Huntington Beach, California for a year, I don’t know if I would feel the way I do about immigration.

I think the Beltrami County Commissioners that voted against refugee resettlement should spend time listening to actual refugees, and learning from them.

Faith is more than baptism. Faith is learning from one another, even and especially from those that don't share our faith. Faith is living out our baptismal promises, and actively engaging the world around us in that faith.

The Muslim Somali immigrants had to have tremendous faith to persevere as long as they have. To have their faith questioned and ridiculed on a daily basis, but still remain ardent in that faith. The Orthodox Jews in New York had daily attacks during Hanukkah, and still persevere and hold onto their faith.

Our Christian identity is embedded in the waters of baptism, in Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan. But how, in this world of impending war, shifting denominations, and with national attention on our community - how do we live out our Christian identity? How can we stand united?

We can stand united believing in and worshiping a God that was, is, and will be even after all the lights go out. That this God that created, creates and will create- bestowed on humanity an only child. A lonely child born in an unlikely place, to unlikely parents, and surrounded by unlikely people. An unlikely child that grew up, was baptized in the river Jordan, gathered friends and broke boundaries to serve the marginalized and under-served. Jesus the Christ lived a life in service to others, bestowing Grace Love and Mercy to all. Through the work of the Holy Trinity, we are all bestowed this Grace, Love, and Mercy so that we may go out into the world to proclaim this good news and live out this truth for our neighbors.

I believe this denomination’s call to live out faith in a policy of Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors is a strong way to live out faith, and it’s evident to most anyone that walks through these open doors.

I don't know what the future holds for the larger church, but I have faith that this congregation will continue living out that call past the next conference and beyond. Beltrami County will weather this storm. If anything else, we as a community can vote this spring for caucus and this November for the general election, and live out our American identity.

Most of all, I think we all can work better at joining together on projects in the community. Together, with other churches in the area, we could continue the conversation of refugee resettlement, if only to better educate the community. We could explore providing housing for even the current situation. Improving the infrastructure that was complained about. Continue building relationships with the many cultures already present in the community. United in our Christian identity, we can live out God's call to love our neighbor, and make our community better for all of us. Even for those that have yet to join it.

You are God's beloved. Remember your baptism, as we remember the Lord's.

Amen.