Is it Finished?

Below is the text from Good Friday 2015 in which I participated in the Seven Last Words Sermon at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Atlanta, Georgia.

When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:30

It is finished.

What did these words mean to the friends and family of Jesus who were standing at the foot of his cross, witnessing his execution? Were the words comforting? Or were they confusing?

These were the last words of the man who said that he came to bring them life, yet he was dying.

It is finished.

All these many years later, these words of Jesus have become overly familiar to us.

We hear them every year as we walk through Holy Week. On Good Friday we remember an equivocal act of love, but on this day that we call good, there is also a tension with which we are called to wrestle or at the very least recognize:

I have been reading and re-reading these words .

It is finished.

It is finished.

But over these past few weeks, when I hear these words, I don’t hear them as a declaration, or a statement of affirmation.

I hear a question.

Is it finished?

Is it finished?

When we stigmatize mental health issues making people who live with mental illness and disabilities invisible, is it finished?

When the planet that humanity was given by the Creator to care for is in rapid degradation because our roles as caregivers are secondary to our roles as consumers, is it finished?

When children of God, freeze to death sleeping on the steps outside of a church because they weren't permitted inside, is it finished?

When violence is glorified in the name of rights, is it finished?

When we refer to people of other cultures, colors, religions, creeds, political persuasion, and sexual identities as those people, is it finished?

When Children of God fleeing war torn countries, or abject poverty, are labeled as illegal because they have the audacity to cross our borders and want what we all want for those that we love, is it finished?

When a nation whose people and leaders claim to worship the Prince of Peace wage war in the name of an Empire, is it finished?

When citizenship in an Empire is valued over citizenship in the Kingdom of God, is it finished?

When we justify our mistreatment and neglect of our neighbors by cherry picking scripture or by turning on the “news channel” of our choice thus allowing vitriol to sooth our collective consciousness, is it finished?

When young black men and women die at the hands of those meant to protect and serve, and those who protect and serve are demonized because they are all victims of a System that functions as if some human lives are more valuable than others, is it finished?

When slavery is as prevalent as it ever was... not only are children of god trafficked in the sex trade, but in this country there is a for profit prison industry that currently has 2 million individuals, mostly men of color, living behind bars, is it finished?

When lawmakers would make laws that allow for discrimination for and the legalization hate in the name of religious freedom and restoration? Is it finished?

When we make politics prophetic and ignore the words of  the prophets?

Word like those from the prophet Ezekiel:

This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.

Or the words of Jesus from the book of Matthew:

'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Or the words of Martin Luther from the Small Catechism as he explained the 5th commandment: Thou shalt not kill:

We should fear and love God that we may not hurt nor harm our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every bodily need [in every need and danger of life and body].

Is it finished?

We have come together to remember a man who was executed by the state. Yet, today, men and women are still executed by the state.  Their bodies are strapped to a table so the poison can be  pumped through their bodies until they are dead in the name of justice. I ask you...

Is it finished?

Hey Church: You Do You

I am not a millennial, but I do know a few of them. 
As I am about graduate from seminary, and I am a minister to young adults at the church where I serve, many of the relationships that I have formed over the past few years are with millennials. And I have to tell you that none of the millennials that I know - not even in passing conversation - have ever mentioned that any of the blogs that have been written about them and why they are leaving the Church hold any influence on them whatsoever.
So, we should probably stop talking about millennials like they're not in the room. It's like when you spell something in front of a toddler who you think doesn't know what you're saying, but they do. Guess what, y'all... Millennials can read and they're super savvy with social media. They’re on The Facebook, and they're on The Twitter, and all of those other Instagramy things, and whatever...my point is they can hear you! Perhaps we should talk to millennials instead of about them.

But what if the fact that millennials are leaving the Church is nothing that we can actually control? What if there is a new Reformation happening? I mean if you read Phyllis Tickles’ book The Great Emergence, apparently God has a garage sale about every 500 years. The last one that happened was THE Reformation (which happened 500 years ago, so we’re due) and the Church ended up looking a whole hell of a lot different than it had in the previous 500 years. And what if the Holy Spirit actually knows what's up and the Church is changing and instead of digging in our heels we could, I don't know, just go with it? So what if we don't have 5000 members, or 500, members in our churches anymore? What would it look like if we stopped making our church buildings, and the way we do worship, idols? What if the fact that millennials aren't going to church because it's just like the way that it has always been? Don’t most college aged people lag in attendance during their 20s? And what about the church being eternal and that whole thing about the Kingdom of God being forever and the gates of Hell not prevailing against it? ( I read that somewhere) No amount of ridiculous blogging is going to affect that in any way shape or form.

So please, for the love of the baby Jesus and all that is holy, stop with the incessant blogging about millennials! Because the truth is, people in every age demographic are finding the Church irrelevant and leaving.

So, Church I have some advice: It's like our mothers used to tell us, people will like you for who you are, or they won't. And that's ok. Just be yourself. So, let's continue to do what it is that God has called us to do. Let's stop trying to be cool, or not cool, or touting high church, or criticizing low church, or whatever for the sake of how we think it will FINALLY make millenials like us and want to be our best friends. And while we're at it, let's stop acting like we actually give a shit about millennials when what we really care about is our own job security (ahem, clergy) and maintaining the kind of church that we like.

We're running around like our hair is on fire, screaming DECLINE! Decline! Decline! Yet no one wants to do anything about decline as we seem more content to write articles about what's wrong with the Church...or more specifically what's wrong with the way someone else does church... or the way to get millennials to come to your church rather than actually engaging this demographic we feel is so crucial to the survival of the Church. Here's the truth: we don't want to change anything, so we'd rather point out what's wrong with millennials than look at our own stuff.

Maybe we could see what it is that the communities around our churches need that our churches can provide. And maybe, just maybe, that has nothing to do with millennials as much as it has to do with loving people for who they are. And maybe we should not just love millennials, but we should love Gen-Xers and we should love Baby Boomers, too. We should love octogenarians, and we should love babies. Maybe we should love our enemies, and we should love everybody with no strings attached instead of worrying about how to get people to come to our churches because that's not love... that's a mindset that that is all about preserving the museum...that's perpetuating a mindset that is all about us.

Ramblings of a Pub Theologian

This past Ash Wednesday I had the occasion to walk into a bar wearing my clerical collar.  I am not usually in the practice of doing such things, but I was between services and I needed to run to Manuel’s Tavern, in Poncey-Highlands to confirm the date and time for a night of Beer and Hymns.  Atlanta is a pretty cynical place, in spite of the fact that its full of conservatives and it’s the buckle of the Bible Belt; maybe these things are related.  Anyway, as I walked into Manuel’s I was accosted by a woman who grabbed me by my shoulders and began asking questions:

 “Are you a priest? Can you give me ashes? Wait! What are you doing here?” 

I was about to answer her when she said, “I am so far from God.” And then she stopped talking.  Though my fingers were stained black from administering ashes just a short time before, I had none to give her except those that were on my own forehead.  So, with my thumb I rubbed my forehead and then rubbed hers, and making the sign of the cross, I reminded her that she was dust and to dust she would return right there in the middle of the bar. It became holy ground. My new friend hadn't been to church in years, and didn't feel like she could go because she wasn't good enough.  She would not go to church, but she had no problem stopping a minister in a bar and asking for ashes.

I tell this story because the day after the first Beer and Hymns, I walked into school and was greeted by some of my fellow classmates. I am a seminarian in Atlanta. I was asked by one student how the evening went, but another wanted to know the point of the whole thing. Did we just sit around, sing, and get drunk? There have been a few people who have shared skeptical sentiments regarding the fact that most of my evangelism involves beer, and usually my response is something like, “Well, it’s good to be Lutheran”.  But, I don’t think a smart-alec response is really the way to go anymore.

Let’s be real with each other…

The Church as an Institution has messed up. There are people who would rather go to the dentist than walk through the doors of a Church. It doesn't matter how hip your minister of music happens to be, and it doesn't matter how cool your programming is, there are people who will never…ever…walk into your church.

 So, here’s what I propose: Let’s get out of the church! And while we’re at it, let’s stop doing church for ourselves.  By this I mean, let’s stop perpetuating the Institution for the sake of the Institution…and, ahem, clergy, our own employment security. Let’s stop looking at pie charts and bar graphs that toll the bells of decline and do something about it.  In fact, let’s burn the damn charts. Let’s stop referring to people who are outside the church as spiritual but not religious. Since when is religion a good thing anyway? And we should probably stop using dichotomies like outside/inside, it’s just another way of saying them and us.

So yes, my evangelism does involve beer. It also involves conversation, conversation around a table. If this doesn't seem like the right thing for you, don’t come. There’ll be more beer for the rest of us.

If this seems like your kind of thing, please join us.  We are a gathering of seekers, sinners, and saints. We bring our baggage and stand shoulder to shoulder with other people who share our same doubts, fears and religious PTSD, because some of us have experienced real trauma at the hands of the Church.  We don’t have it all figured it out, but singing and sharing a drink together seems like a good place to start. All are welcome, and means all!

Why My Grandmother Doesn't Need to Punch the Apostle Paul in the Mouth and Get Kicked out of Heaven

My grandmother, Georgia, is one of the great heroines of the Faith after which I try to pattern my life.  She loved God and people, and she was a true biblical feminist.  She used to say that when she got to Heaven, she was going to punch Paul slap in the mouth. Yes. That would be the Apostle Paul.  The guy who gets blamed for a lot of stuff including marginalizing women and homosexuals.

I recently finished a several week study on the passage found in 1 Timothy 5:3-16.  This passage talks about widows, old and young, and how they should be cared for by their families or other women, and what a real widow is, and how they should get married so they don't turn to Satan, and how they are idle gossips, and busybodies...If you're confused, there is a good reason.  No one knows exactly what is happening in this letter supposedly written by Paul giving the early Church a set of instructions regarding Church order.  But that's not what interests me in this passage.  What does interest me is the author's use of language in his set of instructions.  I won't bore you with all of the details of my research, but instead I want to lift up a pattern that I see happening in the 1 Timothy text that I think still happens today.  

How we understand the use of language in an argument is key to how we, as modern readers of the Bible, should understand 1 Timothy 5:3-16.  The side that takes possession of the language in a dispute can gain an unfair advantage. For example, calling an interpretation, feminist, infers a bias and thus an attempt to skew the argument. To label an interpretation as feminist demonstrates a microagression in regards to gender and makes the claim that the interpreter does not agree with the predominate point of view; in the case of 1 Timothy, a point of view that is historically patriarchal. Another example to consider is the phrase, high view of Scripture. This phrase was used by those who, during the Civil War era, claimed that the Bible supported their right to own slaves.  Those who did not hold the same point of view were labeled as those who held a low view of Scripture. This same argument is used today.  Recently, while listening to a lecture given by a visiting professor on Evangelical Tradition in the United States, I heard him describe Evangelical Christians, and those who hold a literal view of Scripture, as having a high view of Scripture.  Why are those who hold the belief that the Bible is the inspired word of God, rather than the literal word of God, considered to hold a lower view? Why do those who hold the high view claim to speak with such authority?
This literal understanding of Scripture has led to some of the most problematic issues that the Church faces today.  In 1972, the Reverend Eddie Fox, an ordained elder within the United Methodist Church, wrote a statement to be included in that denomination’s Book of Discipline regarding human sexuality.  He wrote that “homosexuality was not in keeping with Christian teaching.”  The words of  Reverend Fox have been, for the UMC, an authoritative statement that has limited, and excluded, people on the LGBTQ spectrum, not only from answering and living out a call as clergy, but also from the larger Church body.  Recent proposals to make changes to the Book of Discipline have brought further argument from Fox, “The UMC statement on human sexuality needs to be clear, concise and faithful to biblical teaching.  Leaving out that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching would be confusing, especially for members of the church outside of the United States.”  These statements still control the argument regarding human sexuality in the United Methodist Church, a debate which spilled over in the Fall semester of 2013 into the student body of Candler School of Theology as Fox was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award by the Candler Alumni Board. Letters were written to Dean Jan Love and a protest was held on the day of the awards ceremony. Many conversations were held in the halls and classrooms of Candler. Both sides of the argument were discussed and considered, but the side that preferred the statements written by the Revered Fox, the side that claimed to hold a biblical view in keeping with Christian teaching enjoyed preference within the debate. Those on the other side of the debate, especially those individuals on the LGBTQ spectrum felt as if their status as Christians, and even their humanity, were being questioned.

So, what meaning can the modern reader glean from this second-century text?  1 Timothy 5:3-16 is just as significant to the Church today as it was when is was written, for this reason: Today’s reader must ask questions of the biblical texts with which they engage and assess the role of authority with a critical eye, ear, and mind. This text is a part of an ugly history that has been used to control women; a history I know very well. As I child, I fell in love with the stories in the Bible.  I loved Noah, Moses, Jonah, and Jesus. I used to pretend that I was a minister.  I would stand in front of an imaginary congregation and preach, but growing up in a denomination that would not ordain women meant that I could tell these stories in a Sunday School class, not from a pulpit.  By the time I was a teen-ager, I still loved the Bible and it’s heroes, with one exception, the Apostle Paul.

While studying this text, I have thought a lot about my grandmother and other women like her; women who have been told they cannot serve in leadership roles within the Church because of passages from the Bible like those found in 1 Timothy.  Not only have I been thinking about the implications for women, but those who are on the LGBTQ spectrum, and anyone who has known discrimination because of irresponsible exegesis and biased interpretations. So, I write this blog as a letter to my younger self, to those who have known this special brand of discrimination, and to my grandmother.

Dear Grandma:
Before you go looking for Paul, I've got something to tell you...

Something About Mary

From Good Friday's Seven Last Words of Jesus.  This is my homily for word number 3, Behold Thy Mother.

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mothers sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.  When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman here is your son.”  Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
John 19:25b-27


As Protestants, I think, we have have lost some of who we understand Jesus to be because we don’t really talk about Mary.

Mary shows up at Christmas, in TV specials and maybe in a Christmas pageant,
very pregnant, and uncomfortable, riding a donkey looking for a place to have her baby.
She and Joseph find a stable,
the baby is born, angels sing,
there’s a star,
shepherds come,
wise men visit from the east,
somewhere in there, there is a little drummer boy,
finally the family flees for Egypt.
And then we don’t really talk much about Mary until the next Christmas; where she shows up pregnant…AGAIN,
riding that same donkey.
It all fits very neatly into our liturgy and then we move on.

I’m not really sure why this happens. At times, I have thought this was because talking about Mary and honoring her for being the mother of god was entirely too Catholic; for us Protestants, that’s big C.

But what if it’s something else?
What if we don’t talk about Mary because Mary makes us remember that  this whole story about Jesus is just really messy?
Because when we bring Mary back into the story we have to remember that Jesus was someone’s son, not just the son of God.

It was Mary who intimately knew Jesus. It was Mary who felt the pains as she labored in childbirth, and then in the moments after he was born counted his fingers and toes. Mary changed his diapers, and held his pudgy little hands as he learned to walk. She intuitively knew the difference in his cries; she knew if he was crying out in pain or in fear, knew if he was hungry, or cranky and just needed a nap.
In Luke’s Gospel, we read about how Mary’s heart raced in a panic when she and Joseph could not find him as they headed home from Jerusalem and then made a three day journey back to find Jesus sitting in the temple. For three days Mary did not know where her son was...
And then she hears him say to herself and Joseph that they should have known where he would be.
Now, Luke’s Gospel says that Mary and Joseph didn’t understand what he was saying to them, but as a parent, I have to tell you that I read between the lines here, and I think that Mary understood all to well what had happened and didn’t appreciate being worried by a smart-alec, teen aged boy. 

In the Gospel of Mark, we read about how some of Jesus’ family go to get Jesus while he is preaching because they though that he had lost his fool mind.  Was this because Mary had said to her sons, “I'm worried about Jesus, go get him”?

Back to the Gospel of John, it is at the wedding in Cana where Mary tells her son that they have run out of wine. She approached Jesus with expectation that he could fix the disaster of the  moment. She settles things with Jesus and then tells the servants, with a mother’s pride, “do what he tells you”.

Mary treasured in her heart those times of joy, but she also had recall of those moments that were painful.
And now, we read that she is standing near the cross watching the unthinkable happen because there is no other place she could possibly be.
The time that Jesus walked among humanity on earth may have only been around 33 years, but after Jesus dies, Mary is still his mother.

So, I think that, maybe we don’t talk all that much about Mary because she makes us feel uncomfortable. She reminds us that there are people who suffer.  That there are mothers who watch their children die.  She reminds us that there is injustice and that innocent people lose their lives.
In our culture we can separate ourselves from the suffering of other people, from the suffering happening in our world.  We can change the channel on the television or the radio, we can chose not to sit with people who are suffering, we can walk away.

In like fashion, 
We’ve sanitized the stories in the gospels: 
the birth the narrative, 
the crucifixion, 
and even the resurrection because they’re too messy and too painful. 

We would prefer to cast these messy stories in an angelic glow
 like some medieval painting,
everyone looks a little sad, but they’re all still pretty clean.
We would rather leave out details that make the stories real.
I think that Mary is one of those details.
Because it’s easier to think about the pregnant woman on a donkey waiting to have a child 
than a broken woman standing by a cross as she watched her son die the humiliating death of a criminal.

When we reclaim the story of Mary, we reclaim the humanity of Jesus. And as we reclaim the humanity of Jesus through the messiness that was his story, we reclaim the humanity of ourselves, and the humanity of other people. Amen.

Advent 2 Sermon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9CgPHR_wuc

A link to my Advent 2/Preaching Final sermon. Preached at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer on December 11, 2013.

A Letter to Dean Jan Love of Candler School of Theology Regarding the Distinguished Alumni Award that will be given to the Rev. Eddie Fox

The following is a letter that I sent to Dean Jan Love of Candler School of Theology regarding a Distinguished Alumni Award that will be given to the Rev. Eddie Fox of Tennessee on September 27th.  The Rev. Fox has been an outspoken opponent of the inclusion of homosexuals in the United Methodist Church.  

Dean Love:

I am writing to you as a concerned member of the Candler community, a future alumna of Candler School of Theology, and as an ally of the children of God who identify as LGBTQ .  I am saddened and disappointed to learn that a Distinguished Alumni Award will be given to the Rev. Eddie Fox, an individual who has chosen to stand against the inclusion of homosexuals in the United Methodist Church.  The decision by our institution to honor an individual who has been so vocal, and instrumental, in keeping those who have been marginalized away from the Church sends a disgraceful message of unwelcome to our past, present, and future students who identify as LGBTQ.

Dean Love, I ask that you and the board members responsible for this decision will consider, in addition to the above, the following:

For Candler students who will someday engage in parish ministry, how will this type of association reflect upon us as ministers of the Gospel to our congregations; congregations that will most surely include dear ones who have been turned away from the Lord's Table because of their sexuality? 

How will honoring Rev. Fox be perceived by future students who are considering Candler School of Theology?

Will Candler choose to honor someone who stands so defiantly against the inclusion of ALL God's CHILDREN in the body of Christ? 

I came to Candler because I believed that I would receive not only an excellent theological education, but because I believed that I would be part of a community that was working to repair the tears that have occurred in the fabric of Church.  By honoring the Rev. Fox as a distinguished alumni of Candler School of Theology we are not drawing the circle wider.   We are not working to repair the negative image earned by the Church so widely held in today's society. We are not opening hearts, minds, or doors. We are, once again, caving to pressure from those loudest of voices that perpetuate fear and exclusion. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this communication.  It is my hope that you, and those responsible for this decision, will choose to deliver the message of radical welcome that was exhibited by our Lord, and Savior, Jesus Christ by rescinding your decision to bestow this award.

God's Peace.

Karen Stephenson Slappey

"'In presenting the minority report, however, the Rev. Eddie Fox said that any United Methodist statement on human sexuality needs to be “clear, concise and faithful to biblical teaching. Leaving out the statement that homosexuality is 'incompatible with Christian teaching' would be confusing, especially for members of the church outside the United States, Fox said."
http://www.umc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lwL4KnN1LtH&b=3082929&content_id=%7B45E5D40C-0D18-46F7-B40B-BD2F0B9F528F%7D#.UjCgvcYsk1J

http://www.interpretermagazine.org/interior.asp?ptid=43&mid=13383

http://www.toledoblade.com/Religion/2004/05/05/Split-Methodists-affirm-stand-on-homosexuality.html