- March 10, 2024 Sermon
The Rev. Joseph Farnes
All Saints, Boise
Lent 4B
March 10, 2024
Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
This links the Gospel reading to the Old Testament reading from this morning. The bronze serpent was a sign of healing. It was a sign of death and destruction that instead became the power of life for the Israelites. The Israelites would be bitten by a serpent, and then they would look on the bronze serpent and find healing. And it wasn’t just in Israelite culture that we find the serpent as a medical symbol – the staff of Asclepius, the single snake wrapped around a staff, has been a symbol of healing and medicine for millennia. (This is different from the caduceus, the one with two serpents and wings – that’s actually the symbol for business and commerce, not medicine)
That’s an important thing to recall – sometimes we see the cross made into “just” a symbol, a symbol for this or that social or political movement. The cross, for us, *is* an expression of God’s healing, an expression of God’s power over death, an instrument of everlasting life. We look on the cross, and we should plant ourselves firmly right in front of Christ – a Christ who was born for all, who lived for all, who died for all, who rose triumphant for all.
We would do well to remember that the bronze serpent is later destroyed because it had become an idol. Either the cross is the loving life of Jesus Christ poured out for all, or it is no longer the true cross.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
John’s Gospel is a book of powerful imagery, contradictions, contrasts. It is not a neat and tidy book – none of the Gospels are, but the Gospel of John is less a story told like the other Gospels; John’s Gospel is more a poem that evokes and hints.
God loved the world – that is the starting point of our theology. God so loves the world. God so loves the world that God sends the Word, the Logos, God’s own self into the world. The Trinity is woven through in John’s Gospel.
“So that everyone who believes in him” – how often this beautiful phrase is stripped of meaning by dogma. In John’s Gospel, who believes and who does not? It is not so clear-cut as some may want it to be. Nicodemus, the person that Jesus is talking to in this Gospel passage, seems not to believe. He comes to Jesus in the dark of night because he doesn’t want to be seen talking to Jesus in the daylight. He seems not to believe. The very next chapter, Jesus will talk to the Samaritan woman by the well in the bright light of the noonday, and she believes, and brings her whole town to believe. The contrast is clear! Nicodemus, a wise Jewish man, does not understand Jesus, his fellow Jew. But the Samaritan woman, she understands Jesus. She believes. But John does not say this is the end of the story. Nicodemus speaks in defense of Jesus, and he helps anoint and bury Jesus. He seems to believe in his own way. There is room in the story for everyone.
Belief is not a black-or-white, yes-or-no way of thinking. Belief is not just how we feel in our heart. Belief is more – it is a way of life, an imperfect way of living that puts its trust in Jesus.
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Some Christians, sadly, act as if God really wants to condemn the world, that God’s waiting in the wings with a lawbook to catch us on a technicality. What kind of image of God is that!
God is not here to pass judgment – which is what the word “condemn” here means in Greek – but God sent God’s own self to save us. Salvation means healing, safety, restoring to life. Christ comes to us not to sit as judge but as a nurse, to bandage wounds, to take care of our brokenness, to comfort us in our pain. God has sent Jesus into the world to heal with his presence, to heal us and encourage us with his cross, and to bring us to the fullness of life and health. Imagine if we added an icon of “Jesus Christ the Nurse” to our collection of images!
Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Again, belief is not an act of thinking. Too much theology has been misled by that assumption. In years past, belief was all about thinking – having the right thoughts about Jesus and God, not being a heretic, saying the right thing to make sure you were “saved.” No.
And belief is not an act of feeling, either. The pendulum of Christianity has swung between thinking and feeling through the centuries. Were you saved if you went to a revival and tearfully confessed all your sins and went up to the altar to be “saved”? What happened when that feeling faded? Belief is more than feeling, either.
And thus not believing is more than thinking or feeling, either. People don’t believe in Jesus for a multitude of reasons – and so often it’s because we Christians have set a bad example of Christ.
And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
“And this is the judgment.” Do you want to know what the word “judgment” here is in Greek? It’s Krisis. This is the crisis – that light has come into the world, and it exposes everything. This is the judgment – that we know what is good and right, and we don’t do it. This is our condemnation – that we could love and nurse and care for the wounded and hurting, care for one another, care for the stranger, and we let the world go on the way it is.
The light has come into the world and shown us what is good and right, and it shows us what we keep preferring and doing.
But, again, I remind you: Christ has not come into the world to condemn it, judge it, incarcerate it or execute it. Jesus has come into the world to heal it with his life everlasting. And he calls you and me to do our best to heal, too. To be healed inside – to join in healing others – to join in healing a whole world.
We do not lift up the cross as a sign of triumph and power. We lift up the cross like a first aid tent, as a field hospital in a refugee camp. We lift up the cross as a sign of healing and hope for all the world. This is the sign that we can look upon and be healed, and this is the sign under which we bring healing to others, no matter who they are. Amen.
- March 3, 2024 Sermon
The Third Sunday in Lent, March 3, 2024
Anita Wallinger
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight Oh Lord My God and Redeemer
Sounds familiar? It comes from our Psalm today. It seems that a lot of what was read today is familiar, or is it? Sometimes we hear part of a reading and think it is the same as we remember and therefore can miss some of what the scriptures are saying.
Take the intro which is like what we hear in Psalm 19 but not exactly. Psalm 19 ends with either Oh Lord my ROCK and redeemer or Oh Lord my strength and my redeemer. So close but no cigars.
Now let’s look at our reading in Exodus today which is the Ten Commandments, not the Charleston Heston dramatic one but they are the Laws God gives. The only Laws God gives in person so to say. All the other laws were attributed to Moses. Laws on dress, ceremonies, sacrifices. The commandments are in our opening liturgy today and those found in three different versions in the Bible, Exodus 20;2-17, Deuteronomy 5: 6-21, and Exodus 34:11-26. They are also found in our BCP. What we said at the beginning of the service is different than what we found later in the BCP. They are even numbered different by RC tradition and Protestant tradition. But the spirit remains the same. The Ten Commandments talk of our relationship with God and with each other. God is addressed in the first four, and our relationship with each other, the last six. God is first and center. More important is that GOD gave the commandments unlike the 600+ laws which came much later and are attributed to Moses.
Cleansing of the temple is remarkably familiar and found in all 4 Gospels. BUT they are a little different also. The first difference is the Synoptic Gospels all have it happening at the end of His ministry. In John’s Gospel, the Cleansing of the Temple is at the very beginning of His ministry. John had a particularly good reason for this, though it is thought that the cleansing did happen at the end of Christ’s ministry. For it is so disruptive and challenging to the temple cult that the authorities would not have let him get away and the ministry would have ended before it truly began. John’s author puts it early because of symbolism and John is all about symbolism. The Wedding feast which we heard two weeks ago, shows God’s glory and the Cleansing shows His authority. This is according to what I read in The New Interpreters Bible commentary. John lets you have a quick glimpse of Jesus’s whole ministry upfront. He is not interested in following a timeline at this point.
What struck me is that this Jesus is not what we are used to. He is NOT meek or mild but a person of action. He deliberately makes a whip (all movies have him grabbing one) and uses it to drive the animals out. This deliberate making of the whip took time and shows a righteous anger. Not a sudden explosion of temper.
Then He lets them know whose authority He has, GODS authority for he is God’s Son, as indicated by his statement where He says, “my FATHER’S” house. HE CLAIMS authority. According to Connections, A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship, many commentaries’ stating that his anger is just evidence of the human side of him do not take in account of incarnation because this train of thought negates the incarnation. Jesus shows humanity in everything he does.
The temple authorities challenge him to show his authority in v 18 when they ask for a sign. Opps here is an echo to our reading in 1 Cor., when Paul says the Jews seek signs. Jesus really ignores their question and starting in v 19 he talks about the resurrection when he talks of the destruction of the temple, which really is him talking of his body and his death and in three days HE will raise the temple, namely, his body. John shows the Glory, Authority, and Resurrection all in the first two chapters.
Now Jesus was a good Jew. He was at the temple during Passover, but he is correcting the strict law followers. They are so engaged with the LAW and the Physical Temple they are forgetting the people. He is there to make them turn (another word for repent) and get back to GODS law and the relationships between people. Remember I said that the Ten Commandments were the laws directly given by GOD. Instead of strictly following the 600+ additional laws that are burdening the people Jesus wants the authorities to turn back to the laws God gave which are all about relationships and putting GOD in the Center of life instead of the Temple Building.
Can you see that in our world today? Some churches are so focused on the rules, separation, money, buildings instead of people. This is what turns many people away from organized churches because they think the churches are so focused on numbers in pew, pledges, my way, or the highway attitude. Therefore, they paint all the churches with the same brush. They see the organized religions as being more like the temple authorities. The term I am spiritual not religious is used. So how can we address this?
Our questionnaire for renewal works asked some really pointed questions. I hope you all had the opportunity to take the survey for the questions addressed where you and All Saints are now and where you and All Saints want to be. The one that grabbed me was asking if God was the center, the most important thing in my life? I know what I wanted to say but truly do I act like that?
How can I put God in the Center? Wasn’t that what Jesus was trying to get the temple authorities to do? Not make the temple the most important but to make GOD most important by the relationships with people. People are starving, feed them and not the temple coffers. Show love for God by loving all His people. What does this look like for All Saints? An example was our Shroventine’s celebration. We invited our friendship meal patrons and the Boy Scouts. Because of this the donation envelope was put aside. None of our guests were asked to donate or even knew where the envelope was. We fed them and weren’t there to ask for money. What does putting God in the Center of your life look like? Is it serving others, enriching your prayer life, taking formation classes, hosting coffee hour? I don’t know exactly how I can do this, but I want to try and if I fail to try again. We heard today during the preludes Be Thou My Vision, in the complete song, the third verse which is left out of our Hymnal contains the words, Thou and thou only first in my heart. Let’s put God in the Center. Amen.
- February 25, 2025 Sermon
The Rev. Joseph Farnes
All Saints, Boise
Lent 2B (or not 2B)
February 25, 2024
I want to know what Peter said to Jesus in that side conversation. Peter takes Jesus aside and starts to rebuke him. Peter. Rebukes. Jesus.
We can intuit a little bit of the conversation based on what Jesus said before and after it. Before the rebuke, Jesus has said that he will be rejected, killed, and resurrected. After the rebuke, Jesus says that those who want to be his followers better be ready to pick up their own crosses and follow him.
Jesus talks about his own suffering, and he talks about his disciples having their own struggle, too. I imagine that Peter must have said something that sounded a bit like “Jesus, how can you say that? It’s demoralizing! Your job as the Messiah is to beat Rome, be victorious! Stop being so defeatist and depressing! Be strong, win the battle, take your rightful place on an earthly throne!”
Peter, like a lot of us, want to be winners. We don’t like the thought of losing. We want to be successful. And if we can’t be the winner, we at least can be on the winning side, the best side. By proximity we’ll be winners!
It’s a very powerful feeling, you know. We want to belong, we want to be winners. Belonging and winning light up our brains. It’s a rush. Human beings are social creatures. Our brains are wired for socializing. We learn from others. We want to be belong to a group. Our brains are wired to win; we want to feel strong, capable, competent, the best. Some of us remember when we were kids and were very, very sore losers. Losing made us mad. Some of us learned to accept losing as part of life, but our brains still light up when we win.
Peter really, really wants to belong to the winning side, and Jesus is putting a real damper on that. Being faithful to the Gospel means sometimes being rejected. Being faithful to the Gospel sometimes means not winning; it means losing. Peter doesn’t want that. Peter wants to win. Peter wants to be on the winning team.
Jesus is not going to put up with that. “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
I’m not blaming Peter for it. I think it’s a mistake to blame and shame Peter for the stupid stuff he says sometimes. He’s honestly a stand-in for most of us. His humanness is part of our story.
Jesus is calling us to a greater humanness, though. He calls us to be ready to ask hard questions and to make hard decisions. He’s calling us to faith.
Not “faith” as in “a list of ideas about God.” That’s the worst way we use the word “faith”, as if our religion really just boiled down to correct ideas about God. I mean something more. Faith as in trust, a wholehearted trust. A trust that is willing to lose because it trusts ultimately in God. Faith that trusts that each of us belongs to God, that even if the whole world rejected you, a trust that God embraces you. Faith that trusts that there is more to life than a fear of death. A faith that is worth living for.
That’s the faith that Paul is commending to us. So often in the past, and so often even today, the idea is that Paul is just saying if we have the right faith in God, then all is well, that we’ll get what we want. We see that in prosperity “gospel” preachers who say that if you just have faith then poof, God will give money. We see that in some evangelical circles who say that if you just have faith then poof, God will forgive everything you ever do and so you can do whatever you want. We see that in Christian nationalist preachers and politicians who say that if you just have their kind of faith, then poof, God will put them in charge of the United States and make it their kind of Christian nation.
That’s not faith. That’s “I say one thing but really want another.” Do we have faith, or do we want God to give us money? Do we have faith, or do we want to do whatever we want? Do we have faith, or do we want power? Do we have faith, or is it money, or freedom, or power that we really, really trust deep down?
What is faith? Faith is that wholehearted, mostlyhearted, sometimes even fainthearted trust that God is love, God is life, and God sees us and cares for us completely, perfectly, and eternally. Faith says “No matter what happens, I trust in God.”
That trust, that faith moves mountains and changes hearts. That faith gives courage and life to Sarah and Abraham, to Paul, to countless disciples throughout the ages. Trust in God has helped people in crisis, people in addiction, people in oppressive circumstances. Trust in God has converted cold hearts into tender ones, trust in God has changed hateful hearts into warm ones, trust in God has encouraged fearful hearts into bold ones.
Even Peter learns what faith is. Eventually, Peter understands what faith is, and tradition tells us that Peter took up his cross and followed Christ literally. Tradition says that Peter was crucified upside down. Peter may not have been on the winning side, but he found his faith. He trusted in God with his life, with his death, with the meaning of his whole life. May we, too, find such faithful trust in God, now and forever. Amen.
- February 18, 2024 Sermon
The Rev. Joseph Farnes
Lent 1B
February 18, 2024
All Saints, Boise
Last Thursday, we had the first meeting of our RenewalWorks leadership team (speaking of which, did you fill out your spiritual life inventory?? Today is the last day. If you haven’t filled it out, you can get a paper copy from me and I will manually enter it in. But you have to do it today!)
The first meeting the group discussed their own spiritual journeys and what contributed to their spiritual growth. We talked about “catalysts” for spiritual growth – stuff that helps us to grow in our relationship with God. Things like being part of worship, praying at home, works of service, reading the Bible, all of that can help us grow in our relationship with God.
Something that popped up in the conversation, though, was the tension between individual spirituality and communal spirituality. Is the primary focus of spirituality what we do individually, or is the primary focus what we do as a community, as the church?
How do we think about spirituality? And what is the church’s role in all of it?
In our very individualistic culture, it can feel like the church is more like a store for spirituality. You go to the right church to get the right spiritual product for yourself. It can feel awfully transactional. I go, put my money in the plate, get fed a sermon, maybe go to a class, maybe help out with a ministry for the good feelings it gives me. We learn something, we take it home and practice it.
From this perspective, the church is competing with the spirituality aisle at the bookstore, competing with the gym, competing with endless options for spirituality. The church has to have the right product to sell, and it has to sell that product well. If the product doesn’t sell, then either we need to advertise it better or we need to change the product.
Makes it awfully hard to sell the season of Lent, you know. “Go off into the desert with Jesus! Have a fight with Satan! Walk the way of the Cross!” Those are very, very hard sells. No wonder a lot of your megachurches will sell you a happier message – and literally sell it to you. In that case, we’re not so much congregants as consumers of spirituality.
Spirituality is hard work, and it cannot be bought.
What makes the spirituality of the church different is that it’s not the church selling a product to a consumer. The church is not the hierarchy, the official organization on paper. The Church is the community gathered in the name of Christ.
We are the Church. We are the Body of Christ.
We as individuals gathered in one body. Many grains of wheat mixed into bread. Many grapes fermented together into wine. And yet, we do not lose our individuality in the process. Each person brings their personhood to the work of the community in this place.
Our spirituality is profoundly individual – my spiritual life with God is different from yours because I have a different personality, a different way of life, a different history than you. Differences show that Christ shows up in different ways throughout the world.
And our spirituality is profoundly communal – we gather as a community to pray together, and we gather to share a pattern of worship with other Christians in the world today and with other Christians throughout history, and we learn from one another, too. We grow together.
Our spirituality is baptismal, and our spirituality is Eucharistic.
When a person is baptized, they are the center of the action. This person, as they are, this person as they will grow to be, this person with their personality – this person is baptized. The Church gathers and rejoices and prays over this person. The Church celebrates that baptism has united this person with the Body of Christ. This person incorporated into Christ’s body.
They are individual, brought into the whole. Wherever that one person goes, so goes the Body of Christ. We always, always represent Christ and the Church. And so we each should work hard to do a really good job of that. All for one, and one for all.
When we gather for the Eucharist, we are bringing ourselves together in union with Christ to give thanks to God through the power of the Holy Spirit. We make a great offering of ourselves, our work, our bread and wine to God. And then this consecrated offering of bread and wine, the Body and Blood of Christ, is given back to us. A morsel of bread, a sip of wine – but each of us are invited to eat and to be transformed inwardly.
Our spirituality is individual, and it is communal. It is baptismal, and it is Eucharistic.
What you do individually to grow in love with God – it matters. It matters not just to you, but to the whole Church, too. Your gifts and graces strengthen and nourish the Church.
And what we do together to grow in love with God – it matters. It matters not just to the Church, but to you, too. We learn that we are loved, that we belong, and we learn how to love others more deeply, and we discover how much prayer matters.
When you are missing from worship or from our work together, it is deeply felt. It feels different. No one can take your place. You matter. And our community matters. It is a blessed, wonderful thing to be with such wonderful people: resilient, welcoming, compassionate, curious, occasionally silly in the best way. It is the work of God in you and me, and it is the work of God in us together.
Thanks be to God! Amen.
- February 11, 2024 Sermon
The Rev. Joseph Farnes
Transfiguration Sunday
February 11, 2024
Elijah and Elisha make this long journey together. They both know that soon Elijah will be taken away, but Elisha won’t let him go away alone. Elijah gently tries to give his apprentice prophet permission to go, but Elisha won’t let Elijah go. Elijah keeps telling Elisha, “God’s sent me just a little further on.” And Elisha says he will stay by Elijah’s side.
The companies of prophets come out and tell Elisha that Elijah will be taken away by God soon. And Elisha tells them that he knows, and that they should stay quiet.
In reading this passage, I’ve always felt that pang of grief in Elisha’s heart. He deeply cares for Elijah. He knows that he’s going to be with God – but that means Elijah is going to a place where Elisha will not be. Elisha will not see Elijah face-to-face anymore on this side of eternity.
Most times I have read this story, I’ve focused on Elisha’s dedication to Elijah. But what if we turn it around? Elijah knows what is ahead for him. He knows that God will be taking him away, and he’s ready.
But his apprentice, Elisha, is grieving this loss that is about to come. He knows Elisha is having a hard time letting go. It’s inevitable, and at best it’s being postponed. Each time Elisha promises he’ll accompany Elijah, Elijah adds the next step. “God’s sending me to Bethel. God’s sending me to Jericho. God’s sending me beyond the Jordan. God’s sending me far, far away, Elisha … you don’t have to follow.” But Elisha promises to follow Elijah all the way.
I imagine Elijah looking at Elisha with a soft smile. Elijah is ready, but Elisha is not. Elisha’s heart is breaking, and Elijah’s heart breaks for this apprentice prophet.
And when Elisha asks for a double-share of Elijah’s spirit, perhaps it’s asking for a double share of his inheritance, as was fitting for a first-born son. Elisha loves Elijah as if Elijah were his father – and he wants to know that Elijah loves him as a son. Elisha wants to be Elijah’s beloved son, the prophetic son of a great prophet.
But Elijah tells Elisha that this is not his call to make. If Elisha sees Elijah being taken up, then he has inherited that double-share of the prophetic spirit. Elijah loves Elisha with fatherly affection, but it is God that makes a prophet. A king’s son may eventually one day become a king, and back in that day a priest’s son may grow up to become a priest, but a prophet is solely by God’s call. Elijah is not beginning a dynasty of prophecy, and it is not his call to anoint a successor – if there is even to be a successor. A prophet is called by God, and God alone. A prophet like Elijah, or a prophet like Moses, is called by God.
We forget that Moses was also a prophet. In the usual interpretation of the Transfiguration story, Moses stands in for the Law and Elijah stands in for the Prophets, but both are described as prophets in the Bible. Moses saw God face-to-face, and Elijah was present with God in the silence on the mountain and was swept up by God in a chariot of flame. Prophets who not only spoke the words God has given them, but these two were prophets who had this intimate closeness with God. They are prophets and mystics.
And Moses and Elijah have deep tenderness. Mysticism does not deny the wonders and holiness of creation. Elijah has deep tenderness for Elisha, he knows Elisha’s grief. And Moses wishes that everyone were prophets, not just a select few, and his frustration and exhaustion for Israel’s repeated failures emerge from a heart that cares so much.
Jesus is Transfigured in glory, but it’s not about the glory. He is the beloved Son, he is God incarnate, he is the one that prophets have longed to see face-to-face. And like the prophets and mystics Moses and Elijah, his heart is tender toward us. Jesus will be journeying along now the way of Lent with us – and he knows where he has been sent. He has decided to walk the way of our pain and suffering, taking it into himself that we may not be alone. Jesus is going to Jerusalem, and to the cross on Golgotha, and to the tomb, and beyond.
So to return to Elijah and Elisha – maybe it wasn’t Elisha that was accompanying Elijah. Maybe it was Elijah who was accompanying Elisha, walking with his apprentice in his grief.
And maybe it’s not us accompanying Jesus in the way of the cross and the resurrection – it’s Jesus accompanying us as we walk this way.
Jesus and Elijah looking on us tenderly. They are aware that we know what’s ahead. They know our stumbling. They know how, in our best moments, we will follow them the long distance, even though we so often get distracted. In our daily lives we go to Jerusalem; we go through our daily lives with endless distraction and chaos. And we go to Golgotha; times of trial and pain that rip apart the world we know, and we feel so alone. And we go to the Tomb; as we will hear on Ash Wednesday, we all will one day die. And, we go beyond that – to a life that overcomes death.
And Jesus is accompanying us every step.
Maybe we should be asking Jesus for a double-share of his Spirit, to inherit the mantle upon his shoulders when he ascends, to be chosen to carry on Jesus’ ministry and prophecy and mystical prayer.
So yes, Lent is coming soon. We shall go like Elisha onward, to Jerusalem, and Golgotha, and the tomb and beyond. We shall see our Lord ascend into heaven, and then on Pentecost we inherit a wondrous share of the Spirit. On this mountain we have seen a marvelous miracle – and the journey ahead this marvelous miracle shall accompany us with deep tenderness.