Saugatuck Congregational Church
©Rev. Alison J. Buttrick Patton
July 5, 2015
Scriptures: Ezekiel 2:1-15 and Mark 6:1-13
We stood up on our feet a lot during General Synod – the bi-annual, national gathering of the United Church of Christ that I just attended in Cleveland, OH. We rose to our feet when word reached us that the Supreme Court had just affirmed the right of lesbian and gay couples to legally marry. Some folks stood on the front steps of City Hall, gathered around a rainbow banner. Others stood up to witness the exchange of covenant promises by same-gender couples who got married in the days following the decision.
We rose to our feet in response to powerful words spoken by our preachers and keynote speakers, including syndicated columnist Connie Shultz, who reminded us that the United Church of Christ has been the first to step out on matters of justice and inclusion again and again over the course of our history –ordaining the first woman and the first out gay man; founding a school for the deaf; fighting media blackouts during the Civil Rights movement; exposing environmental racism … the list goes on and on.
We stood up on our feet and walked to the headquarters of the Cleveland Indians, to deliver nearly 3,000 signatures urging owners to change a name that has disparaged our Native American sisters and brothers. We stood outside and bowed our heads as Rev. Louie Bluecoat lead us in prayer.
We also stood and prayed together for lives lost in Charleston, for Black churches that continue to burn (devastating no matter what the cause, as we know firsthand), and for this country still riven by racism.
We stood to honor our ecumenical and international partners – embodied reminder that we do not stand alone; we live out our faith in partnership with faithful folks in other traditions and in other parts of the world.
We stood up on our feet a lot at General Synod.
Back home, I can still feel the power of the Church through the soles of my feet. I feel it in the aching of my quads. The United Church of Christ is a church that has always taken stands, stood up, walked the walk. Not perfectly. We are a work in progress. But today I am inspired by the thousands of folks who are illustrating, every day, that faith is a matter of the feet.
Jesus himself went places, walking, until his feet were covered in dust; then he sent his own disciples out two-by-two. In the book of Mark, in particular, you have a sense that Jesus was always on the go. There was an urgency to his mission. No sooner did he work a miracle, or banish a demon or heal someone, than he was on his way to the next town. The Gospel text we read this morning begins, “He left that place and came to his hometown.” Halfway through the scene, Jesus moved on again, and “went about among the villages teaching.” The verses conclude with instructions about what the disciples should do each time they leave a place. Coming and going – that’s the way Jesus exercised his faith.
This is good to remember: because once in a while, maybe too often, we get a little stuck. Physically stuck. Also creatively and theologically stuck. In one place. With one group of folks. In one routine. Maybe we even sit in the same pew, week after week (I’ve done that, too!). When I entered Seminary, I attended a retreat for new students. Our facilitator handed out paper then asked us to divide the page into four sections and draw four pictures in response to the questions: Where do you come from? Where are you going? What do you need? And what gets in your way?
I still remember the drawings I created. Under, ‘What gets in your way?’ I drew a big, cushy arm chair – symbol of a settled life. I knew then as I know now, that inertia is a powerful force; that objects at rest tend to stay at rest. And we tend to keep doing what we’ve always done. We are creatures of habit. As Charles Duhigg observes (in his fascinating book The Power of Habit), habits, by definition, are those practices that no longer require us to think. A habit is hardwired in the basal ganglia, so anything we do out of habit skips the pre-frontal cortex (where decisions are made) altogether. You don’t have to think about how to park your car in the garage, or make your morning cup of coffee or choose your pew.
This is good, when the habits we have formed are life giving (an exercise routine, or taking our vitamins or writing thank-you notes, for example). One less decision frees up creative space in our brains for the important stuff. (I once heard that President Obama wears the same color suit every day for just that reason). But some things in our lives and communities need to change. So long as our dependence on fossil fuels continues to deplete our eco-system; so long as young men of color are more likely to get shot or imprisoned than enrolled in college; so long as doing nothing contributes to the continued suffering of whole communities …We’ve got holy work to do – And that means getting our move on!
Now, some of that work belongs to God – mending, redeeming, restoring – but God calls on us to help out. “Stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you,” God said to Ezekiel. And “Go out, two by two,” Jesus said to his disciples. Even in worship, you might hear me say, “Let us stand, on our feet or in our hearts.” That means it’s time to stretch, time to move our bodies, time to fill our lungs with a little spirit air, sing a song or pass the peace. In worship we act out the life of faith. And the life of faith requires that we get up on our feet.
Standing up gets the blood moving, gets our hearts pumping, gets that spirit-air circulating through and among us. It also changes the view. What you see is determined by where you stand. It’s true in worship; it’s also true out in the world. If we spend all our time with other white folks, for example, it’s going to be a whole lot harder to recognize the impact of racism on our black and brown sisters and brothers. One of the buttons handed out at General Synod read, “If you don’t think racism exists, you are white.” Where you stand, determines what you see.
If I’ve never had a conversation with a family striving to raise a transgender child with love and acceptance, than how can I know what struggles they encounter, what they need, or fear, or celebrate about that particular journey? If I’ve never faced persecution because of my religion or race or gender identity, then what is it that I need to learn?
Faith requires that we move around, listen deeply, hear those stories. Then it requires that we take a stand. Sounds political, you may say. Which stand? You may ask. Well, we start by viewing each story through the lens of the gospel; we ask: What needs healing here? Who is vulnerable? Where are love and life denied? We look to Jesus as our guide: and notice that he spent a whole lot of time hanging out with the outcasts, a whole lot of time calling out those in power. And before him, an entire Jewish faith was built on the conviction that God expects us to attend to the orphan, the widow and the stranger. In the words of the prophet Micah: “What does the Lord require of you? To seek justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.” (6:8)
As a side note: Over the course of 24 hours at Synod, I met 5 pastors who are starting up new churches. And two of them took as their inspiration that verse in Micah: Chapter 6, verse 8. One of the churches is called 6:8. The other is called Rebel and Divine. Its tag line is “doing justice, practicing kindness and walking with God.” These churches were founded by clergy under the age of 40, and I think they’re onto something. When you start a new church, you’ve got to ask, “Why?” “What’s so important about church?” The 6:8 website actually has a page labeled, “Why church?” They are answering that question by returning to the words of the prophets. They understand that Church needs to engage heart, hands and feet, because we are called by God to be a force in the world – a force for justice; a force for kindness.
Jesus gathered those disciples to equip them, and then sent them out and gave them authority. This, of course, is terrifying: the prospect that we have authority to speak on God’s behalf, to exercise authority like Jesus did, to address and banish demons; to heal and to bless, this is daunting indeed. But that IS what we’re called to do. Ours is NOT an armchair faith.
So we listen deeply, seek out those different perspectives, lift it all up to God and then wait for God to say, “O mortal, stand up on your feet…I am sending you to the people of Westport…” Be assured, we do not do this alone. As with Ezekiel (and so many others) before us, it is the Spirit that enters us and sets us on our feet, until it’s no longer about us – how comfortable we feel, but rather about God working through us. We’ll know it’s happening, when we feel that holy power through the soles of our feet. Then surely those we meet will know that there’s been a prophet among them!
Scriptures
Ezekiel 2:1-5 – New Revised Standard Version
He said to me: O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you. 2And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. 3He said to me, Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. 4The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord God.” 5Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.
Mark 6:1-13 – New Revised Standard Version
He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! 3Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” 5And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6And he was amazed at their unbelief.
Then he went about among the villages teaching. 7He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; 9but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. 10He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. 11If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. 13They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.