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Who is he?

9/27/2018

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By Rev. Kathy Itzin

In the middle of his ministry, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” I’ve always assumed that Jesus knew the answer to this. In the Mideast, in the time of Jesus though, people didn’t define themselves outside of community. Their relationships defined who they were.  If you were a woman you were a wife and mother, and if you were a man, you were a father and a shepherd or carpenter because your father was a shepherd or carpenter.  Last week we heard how the Syrophoenician (or Greek) woman helped Jesus broaden his idea of who he came to serve.  Because of what she said, he changed his mind from believing that he was sent to serve the Jews, to realizing that God’s purpose for him was much bigger than that. He was sent for the sake of everyone. Maybe he was also looking to his disciples for some clarification of his purpose.  
If so, they failed miserably.  They reported back that some people thought he was a reincarnation of John the Baptist (who had previously been killed), and others thought he was Elijah or one of the prophets risen from the dead.  Then Jesus asked, “Who do You say I am?” Good question!  Peter guessed.  The word’ Messiah’ in Hebrew means the same thing as ‘Christ’ in Greek.  In Jewish tradition, ‘Messiah’ was associated with an anointed king, a powerful royal king, who would free Israel from their oppressors. Marks’ Gospel was written between the years 60 and 70 CE and if you could imagine Jerusalem as a pot on the stove, it was about to boil over.  In the year 66 the Jews had revolted against Rome, and it looked like they were gaining some ground. But in the year 70, Rome destroyed both the city of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple, which everyone believed to be indestructible.  Mark was written right in the middle of that, and if Peter spoke these words to Jesus before he died, it was in the year 32.  The political situation was heating up, and to think that God was sending his Messiah to save the Jews would sound very appealing.
That’s when Jesus said, “Don’t tell that to anyone” and also “Get behind me, Satan!”  He couldn’t have disagreed more strongly.  That is not Jesus’ idea of a Messiah.  He isn’t one to come wrapped up in violence, strength, and revenge.
The United Church of Christ doesn’t spend a lot of ink defining Jesus for us.  Our Statement of Faith says, “In Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, our crucified and risen Savior, you have come to us and shared our common lot, conquering sin and death and reconciling the world to yourself.” (NCH p. 885, 2nd page). The Constitution of the United Church of Christ begins with “The United Church of Christ acknowledges as its sole Head, Jesus Christ, Son of God and Savior.  It acknowledges as kindred in Christ all who share in this confession.”  That’s it.
We leave it up to the individual to decide what that means to them.  We don’t have dogma, where we define what else someone needs to believe to be considered part of the United Church of Christ.  I find that wonderful!  It respects our individual brains, emotions and experiences to form pour own conception of what Jesus means for us. And that is exactly what Jesus asks here.  Who do you say that I am?
One thing that the United Church of Christ gives us, that I find very helpful is the statement, “God is still speaking!” Another is the ancient Christian belief that we are all The Body of Christ.  The whole world, including all of creation, is the Body of Christ.
Someone recently told me how shocked they were, in the 90’s when their priest or minister said to the congregation, “The Body of Christ has AIDS.” It brought her to a whole new level of understanding. What could we say today?  The Body of Christ is an Immigrant.  The Body of Christ is homeless.  The Body of Christ has Global Warming.
I read a letter to the editor the other day where a woman wrote about the homeless camp along the highway in S. Minneapolis where 350 people sleep every night surrounded by poverty, and dirty needles, but also a feeling of community.
She told how in 1847, during the height of the potato Famine in Ireland, (which the Irish called the Great Hunger), Native Americans from the impoverished Choctaw nation sent $170 to Ireland for relief from the famine.  Experts differ in what that amount would be today, but it is somewhere between $5,000 & $20,000.  This was just after the 4,000 Choctaw died during the Trail of Tears. She was struck by how one group of persecuted people who were displaced and killed sent this enormous amount of money to another far away in a land they couldn’t imagine. In Ireland today, in Cork County, there is a sculpture in a park made of nine 20 foot tall eagle feathers in the shape of a bowl. It is called “Kindred Spirits,’ and the Irish still tell the story. A few days ago, while visiting this homeless encampment, in which the majority of those living there are Native Americans, she watched as a group of Muslims, another group of hated Americans who had pooled their money at the Somali Cultural Institute brought food for the Native Americans. How is God still speaking here?  Where is the Body of Christ? Who do you say he is?
I play bass in a little folk group, and it just happens that everyone in it aside from me is Jewish. Last Tuesday was Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, and I was invited to attend the service at Adath Jeshurun because my friends were playing guitar and mandolin.  It was an absolutely beautiful service, and I was very moved by the music and the people.  But everyone who came had to present a large pink ticket at the door, to show that they were either a member, or an invited guest.  The woman in front of me was also a visitor, and she asked why they had to show a ticket. The friendly man collecting them said it was because it was the week of 9/11 and they are Jews.  There were several police cars, with officers standing by the doors of the synagogue.  We worship every Sunday without fear of anyone bombing our church or trying to kill us.  What would we say about the Body of Christ here? Christ lives with fear because he’s Jewish? Who do we say he is?
To not have Jesus defined for us in dogma is a wonderful gift.  And it is also a great responsibility. Because then the responsibility lies with us.  We need to identify him for ourselves.  Who do we think he is, and then, What does that mean for us?
If the Body of Christ is camping along a highway with two little kids and a disabled parent surrounded by poverty and violence, we need to do something. If the Body of Christ is afraid to go to church during the High Holy Days, because he’s Jewish, or afraid to walk down the street or drive a car because he’s Black, or an undocumented immigrant, that tells us something.  If the Body of Christ is experiencing the extinction of hundreds of species of insects, birds and plants, and if part of life itself is threatened because of Global Warming, God is Still Speaking to us.
And of course, God is also speaking in every act of kindness, of generosity, of compassion. Where in our lives is God still speaking?  Where do You see the Body of Christ?  Who do you say that he is?

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Jesus and the Greek Mother

9/27/2018

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By Rev. Kathy Itzin

I am reading a book by an Irish man who is gay and who works at a retreat center in N. Ireland.  He told a story about a time years ago when he attended a retreat to help gay and heterosexual Irish people come to terms with one another. Ireland wasn’t known at the time for being a hot spot of progressive Christian thought.
During this retreat, both groups of people were led through baby steps to get to know each other without fear or judgement.  One of the men introduced himself as “a Fundamentalist Christian” and Patrick, the author of the book thought it was odd that that’s how he chose to identify himself, especially at a retreat designed to help people be more comfortable with each other.  At the end of two days, the man who identified himself as a fundamentalist Christian said, “I have a question for the gay people in the room.  Since we met together yesterday, how many times have my words bruised you?”  Those were his exact words.
The gay people looked at each other, and felt awkward in the face of this man’s direct question. One gay man replied, “Ah, you’re grand, don’t worry about it.”  The man said, “No, please, I’m asking a question, and I want you to answer.  How many times, since we met together yesterday, have my words bruised you?’  A woman sitting close by began counting on her fingers as everyone watched.  She finished up on one hand, then started in with the other, and  in a quiet voice said, “I gave up after the first hour.”  It was a hard truth to talk about.
The man with the question then asked another. “Do you mean to say that every time you come to meet people like me, you have to be ready to feel insulted?” All the gay people in the room said, “Yes.” The man looked at them all and said, “I’m glad you told me this today. I learned something important.” (In the Shelter Padriag O’Tuama pp. 197-199)
Jesus appears in this story as either very rude, or at least lacking some compassion for the woman and her daughter. When he says, “Let the children be fed first, for it isn’t fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs,” some scholars say that ‘dogs’ should really be translated as ‘little dogs,’ which are cute, like puppies, but others say either way, a dog is a dog. In that time and culture, it’s still an insult.  What is he doing?  Is this the Jesus we know and love?
Yes, because we believe that Jesus was the Son of God, Divine, and also 100% human.  Sometimes we focus so much on the divine that we forget about the human. At the end of the story where Jesus was lost in the Jerusalem, and his parents finally found him in the temple listening to the teachers, the story ends with the line, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, in divine and in human favor.”
He increased in wisdom. His mind grew, just like his body grew. He wasn’t born knowing everything in the whole world. As a human, he was limited.  People have asked me, “Why did Jesus say that the mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds?”  It’s not. Many flower seeds, tomato seeds, even some grain like amaranth, is smaller than a mustard seed.  A mustard seed was the smallest seed he knew.
In Bible study one day, we were reading “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has lost it’s taste, how can it become salty again?” and Phil Momont, who was an engineer, said, “I never understood that passage. Salt isn’t a taste. It is an element, on the Periodic Table of the Elements. You can’t make it what it’s not. Salt can’t get unsalty.”  And he was right. But Jesus wasn’t an engineer!  He lived in a little town 2,000 years ago, and by our standards, he never traveled too far from home.
 
So, Jesus, the limited, human Jesus, even though he was the Son of God, in the early part of his ministry, thought he was only supposed to minister to the Jews, the Chosen Ones. Until now.
Now, this mother challenged him.  And just like the man who identified himself as a Fundamentalist Christian recognized the truth and allowed himself to be changed by it, broadened, so did Jesus.

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The Child

9/27/2018

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By Rev. Kathy Itzin

Jesus and his disciples are continuing to walk towards Jerusalem, which Jesus knows will eventually end in his suffering and death.  This is the second time he told his disciples about his death.  In last week’s reading, they had just left the town, and Jesus told how he would “undergo great suffering, be rejected by the elders, and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days, rise again.”  Peter, (the apostle that would become the leader of the church), ‘rebuked him.’ That’s when Jesus said, “Get behind me, Satan, because you are setting your mind on only human things,” not focusing on the bigger picture.  Peter was missing the point.
 
Today, Jesus repeats himself, again telling the disciples that he will suffer and be killed, and this time, the disciples were caught arguing about who was the most important.  Again, in the middle of Jesus’ terrible prediction, they were missing the boat. The big picture. The standards that we hold up to ourselves as measures of greatness, have nothing to do with reality.  What makes a person great?
 
Who knows what criteria the disciples were using to measure their greatness?  Who had left the best business at home, who had the biggest house, the most children, or the best reputation in town? Who had known Jesus longest?  Who had helped with the most miracles? Jesus upends their thinking, and holds up a little child, who in that day and age had absolutely no value other than that their parents loved them.
 
There were no laws to protect children, or to look out for their welfare.  They were the property of their father. Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be first must be last and a servant of all.”  Then he took a little child and held him, because legally a child was equal to a servant.  “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and a servant of all.”  If you help this child, serve this child, and people like this child: people without power, people who are vulnerable, people who have nothing; if you welcome them, and serve them, and treat them like they are somebody, then you are welcoming and serving me, and welcoming and serving God.
 
That would turn the world upside down!  What if we, as a country or world, actually did that?
What if we believed that greatness wasn’t about power, wealth, fame or social status, but instead we measured greatness by how much we share with others, take care of others, help and stand up for others? Our world would be very different.  I remember several years ago during election time, someone was running on a campaign based on cutting taxes. There was an ad that featured the picture of a baby crawling away from the camera.  The diaper had a big red target painted on it, and the slogan was something like, “Don’t target the children. Don’t target the vulnerable.”  The vulnerable are the easiest to target in any time of cutting costs, because of the fact that they Are vulnerable.  The cost cutters are banking on the fact that they don’t have a voice.  Children.  Immigrants.  Kids in special ed.  People with special needs. People who are poor or disabled.  They can’t speak for themselves, or if they can, their voice isn’t as loud as our.  But that’s why We jump in and ‘become their servant.”  You and I speak for them.
 
This week in Families Moving Forward there was a family with two teenage girls who were 14 and 16 and their father.  The youngest girl, the 14 year old, was very hard to understand because she had been born with a cleft palate.  Although it had been fixed as a baby, she needed more surgery and a plate, now that she was older.  I was visiting with her and her sister and she told me how she had recently had leukemia three times.  The chemo that she had initially been given didn’t work; it came back again.  The third time it came back, her brothers and sisters (some lived with the mother) had all been tested for a bone marrow transplant, and the 16 year old sister, the one who was with them, was a perfect match.  She had had the transplant, and now two years later, the 14 year old is still cancer free.  You are considered “cured” after 5 years. Her dad told me how the chemo had left her with a degenerative bone disease that sounded a lot like what my daughter had, after she was cured from leukemia. 
 
I was staying overnight, and later the girls asked me to come help them fill up their air mattress, which had lost a little air.  I helped and while I was there, the girl was sitting on her mattress and her dad asked if she could get up from it.  She said, “I think so, no problem,” and she reached over to the little bedside table and pushed herself up.  He asked, “Are you sure?” “Is it too hard to do?” and she answered, “No, I’m ok, I can do it.”  Then he told me how she had had a hip replacement because of the degenerative bone disease.
 
Later, I was reading the notes about each family that we help host, and discovered that she was most of the reason that the family was homeless.  Between the medical bills, and missing work because he was caring for her, the father lost his apartment.
 
I imagine that if Jesus was beside this family when the disciples were arguing, he would have taken this 14 year old, and said, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me, but the one who sent me.”  Then I thought, maybe he wouldn’t have chosen this girl.  Maybe he would have put his arm around the older 16 year old sister that gave her bone marrow, hoping that she could save her little sister’s life.
 
Then I thought, maybe he would have put his hand on the Father’s shoulder, and said, “Whoever welcomes a person such as this, welcomes me, and the one who sent me. “Maybe the Father is the one who is the ‘least’ in this picture, the one who lost everything to try to save his daughter.
 
 
Who is the greatest?  Who is the least?  Who is the one who serves them, who Are the ones who serve them? There are hundreds of people.  People who serve professionally; medical people, social workers, the person offering a job, voting for what matters, advocating for affordable housing and rights for the poor. Those who offer some clothes, food, or kindness. Who are the ones who serve people like them, the ones who seem to have nothing and no one?  We know who the servants are. They are us.

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The Bread of Life – The Body of Christ

9/27/2018

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By Rev. Kathy Itzin

Jesus offers us the Bread of Life.  He guarantees that he himself will provide the nourishment that we need for our life journeys, whatever happens to us.  We need different kinds of nourishment at different times in our lives.  We talked last week about how a mother’s milk for her infant actually changes depending upon the needs of the baby when it is born.  It contains more fat for low birthweight infants, and less fat for those who are heavier.  The Bread of Life is like that, it changes to meet our needs. When we are depressed or tired, our needs are different than when we are thankful or looking for guidance.
 
People tend to get stuck when they think about Jesus’ ‘flesh and blood.’  Did he just mean Communion, the Lord’s Supper? No, because that hadn’t even happened yet.  ‘Flesh and blood’ was a saying in Hebrew that meant the whole person; heart, mind, spirit, feelings, hopes, dreams, fears, concerns, everything.  The Whole Enchilada.
Jesus says that he gives his entire self to us, that he is part of us.  When Steven was baptized today, I prayed that the Holy Spirit live in Steven like it lives in us.  That is how Jesus lives in us. We don’t have pieces of his body here and here, but we have his spirit, what we call the Holy Spirit inside us, as part of us. And the Holy Spirit isn’t just a piece of Jesus, it’s the whole thing.  Your spirit is your personality; who you are, and the Holy Spirit is Jesus’ personality, all of him.
But an important thing to remember, is that Jesus isn’t just spirit. He’s not just like a ghost. Just before this story, is the story where he multiplied the loaves and fishes.  Do you know that story? Who can tell it?
Jesus cares just as much about our physical needs; what we need every day to live, as he does about our invisible needs. He gave the people food to eat, he healed their bodies and spirits, and he told them to share their clothes and food and houses with people who didn’t have any.  And on top of that, he told us to come to him when we have invisible needs, because he will give us what we need.
Jesus offers us his whole self, and he loves our whole self. That’s part of what he means when he said he is the Bread of Life.  He wants us to have whatever we need. 
We also can never separate ourselves from him.  Can you take the breakfast you had three days ago out of your body?  No, because it has already become part of your body.  It has given you energy for what you needed that day, and it has become part of who your whole body is.  Jesus, the Bread of Life, is like that too.  Because his Spirit is in us, he has become who we are.  We can’t separate ourselves from him.  We have already acted by his Spirit, done good things, acted or said things out of love, and we can’t take that back.  The Spirit is already part of our lives, and you can’t separate it from who we are.
 
And that’s part of this Whole Enchilada, Whole Body of Christ thing.  We can’t be separated from him, and he can’t be separated from us, and just like he cares about what we need in body, mind, emotions and spirit, he cares just as much about what another person needs.  So, what can we do about that?     “Love one another as I have loved you.”
 
We are the hands and feet of Jesus.  His Spirit acts through us in caring for the body, mind, emotions, and spirits of others.  That’s how God works a lot of the time.  And we have help.  We don’t have to do it alone. 
One of the first leaders of the church, Paul, said All of us are the Body of Jesus.  We all are different parts, with different jobs to help the body be healthy and keep growing.  Who do you think he meant by that?  The Body of Jesus? Is it just the people here, the people that we know? Or our families, or friends at school?
It’s the whole world.  All the people everywhere.  We all make up the Body of Jesus, the Body of Christ.  And even more than that, now we think that it’s the whole earth too; all the land, and trees and fish and animals and birds.  The Holy Spirit lives in everything, so in a way, it is All the Body of Jesus, part of God.
That’s why we need to take care of every little thing.  When a kind of animal or plant or butterfly disappears, we lose something that shows us something about God. Everything shows us something beautiful about God, something God wanted for us to be happy, and it’s important that we care for it well.

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Parkway United Church of Christ
3120 Washburn Ave N
Minneapolis, MN 55411
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