A sermon preached at Pleasant Ridge Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 26, 2018
at a meeting of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board.
Scripture readings (which you may wish to read prior):
Acts 8:26-40
and John 15:1-8
The Installation of Joe Morrow and Warren Lesane Jr. as Chair and Vice Chair of the PMA Board
We debated it some, as we were planning this service tonight
but as you can see
I brought my robe with me.
Jill Duffield, the editor of The Presbyterian Outlook
Wrote something interesting this week in the publication she oversees.
“The first time I put on a clerical robe,” she said,
I felt as if I were wearing a costume”.
She described how her robe, a gift from the congregation she served as an intern
Left her, at first, feeling small beneath its billowing sleeves
Something like a child wearing her father’s suit jacket…
I was glad she wrote this. I feel the same, truth be told.
Most of the time I get to put this on,
Not just the fabric, but the responsibility, the awe often engulfs me.
Do you ever feel that way, as you seek to serve Jesus?
This feeling dissipated, for her, over time:
“never exactly feeling comfortable” she said
“but eventually feeling less foolish…”
I was trying to explain my robe to the TSA agent this week
The agent who pulled the garment bag aside,
for a security check at the airport.
“Yeah, it’s a robe. I’m a pastor. Goes to the floor. Wear it while preaching
think of a judge or a professor at graduation or something…”
He raised his eyebrow at me,
this guy who knows a thing or two because he’s seen a thing or two.
He looked it over. He looked me over.
Saw the stoles. I brought a red one and a white one.
(I tried to explain those, too)
He examined the iPad that I accidentally left in the bag:
that’s what set this whole joyful interaction into motion
and he let me through.
Jill’s piece in The Outlook included this advice:
“This is my hope for you:
that you will never get too comfortable in the robe or role of pastor,
but that, week by week, visit by visit,
service by service,
you will feel less foolish, and more a fool for Christ.”[i]
Not too comfortable…
Nothing gets you uncomfortable quite like trying to explain your work-wear
to a stranger, to “authority” in an airport security line.
Week by week, visit by visit, service by service,
[May You] feel less foolish, and more a fool for Christ.
That’s wisdom not just for preachers. But for all of us.
It reminded me of my Easter Sunday sermon
On April Fool’s day, no less, where we reflected
on how the Apostle Paul once described the Resurrection Gospel
“we preach Christ, and him crucified!”
as either complete foolishness, on the one hand
or a stumbling block, on the other, by those who heard it.
Fear not, Paul testified:
God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom,
and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength…[ii]
Thanks be to God for that.
Oh, the things I do that people find foolish.
Is that how it is with you? In your life.
Whether your day job is that you’re a pastor,
or you’re a member of this congregation, and serve Christ in your daily context
Or you work and serve the particular denomination through which
We seek to give voice to our humble part
the global expression of the body of Christ,
God’s hands and feet for this hungry and hurting world.
What is it you do that people find foolish, but is your effort to be a fool for Christ?
///
Being a fool is one thing.
No one wants to look a fool.
Sometimes that’s just how it turns out.
When I told people, six years ago now,
that I was volunteering to put my name in for nomination
to the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board
more than one person might have suggested I was a fool.
I just wanted to serve the church
To help the church serve Jesus the best it could.
Meanwhile, many people who knew a thing or two
looked at me kind of funny.
To be honest, I get some of those same looks this very day.
I’m so glad I didn’t let that dissuade me.
On the one hand, I’ve built friendships and learned from some incredible people.
I’ve seen how the voice of a denomination can advocate for change
in the corridors of power in Washington DC
how the gifts of a church can feed the hungry with good food
and how ordinary people can embody the lasting and persistent grace of God
While wearing those awesome “Out of Chaos, Hope” Blue T-Shirts.
I’ve witnessed gifted theologians speak truth to power
And I’ve marveled at efforts to re-center people who have been on the margins
As an act of possibility for the church of God in the 21st Century.
The mission of a church that loves the world because it loves Jesus.
I wish people saw that mission as closely and as marvelously as I get to see it.
And on the other hand,
even experiencing no small amount of difficulty and stress and frustration
maybe the very things that caused those people to wonder
if I knew what I was getting myself into
David preached so eloquently about some of these the other day
even so, I’ve been able to do my small part, imperfectly,
to help elevate the good work of others
So that in all things the realm of God might be ever more real.
If not me, then who? That was the compelling whisper in my ear.
The still small voice as I felt the incredulity at what felt like a calling to serve.
If I’m not willing to do this foolish task, when I’m called to it, then who will?
Like all of you, I am here because I love Jesus.
because I heard Jesus call me here, and I followed. Like all of you.
It has been such a privilege, these past six years.
We all do this, in a more general sense, all the time in our life of faith:
You go, you serve, you do: even in the face of daunting odds
Challenging conversations
Unfounded assumptions
Or sage wisdom to turn and run.
You’re going to ask questions about gun violence in the middle of Kansas? You fool.
You’re going to send letters of compassion
to mosques targeted by forked tongued politicians? What folly.
You’re going to model a place where, gasp,
republicans and democrats and greens and libertarians can break bread together
good luck with that….
Week by week, visit by visit, service by service,
[May You] feel less foolish, and more a fool for Christ.
In a way not unlike the awesome power of donning a robe to preach
Or steeling the nerve to walk into a hospital room
to sit with a friend during chemotherapy
Or locking arms on the street to shout for the voiceless
There are some things we do just because we are listening
Listening for the movement of God to guide us forward
and care more about that than whether we seem foolish.
///
The promise of the Gospel is that we can find the strength to serve God this way
When God’s very self is there in the heart of it.
This reading from John is
part of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse.
Jesus is talking to friends, trying to help them understand the ordeal
they are about to go through.
I will not leave your orphaned, Jesus says.
I will leave you an advocate, the Holy Spirit,
who will remind you of what I have said to you.[iii]
Peace I give to you. Peace I leave with you.
I have said all of this to keep you from stumbling…[iv]
All of that is from Jesus’ farewell discourse in this section of John.
And then, in the middle of all that, is this allegory
Describing God the master viticulturist: the one who tends to grapes on the vine
The one who removes away the dross
Who prunes back the branches so that the fruit may increase all the more
The very God who grafts us to God’s work in Jesus Christ
So that we abide right there, in Jesus
Because God delights in Organic Wine…
Just a few verses later, John says
That all of this is so that we might experience Jesus’ joy
that our joy may be complete.
God desires our happiness, in our serving the world through Jesus the Christ.
///
I wonder if that’s one reason why John uses this allegory of grapes on the vine…
We don’t know all that much about ancient grape cultivation
And its natural cousin, the production of wine.
The earliest evidence dates back several thousand years,
as far back, maybe, as the Neolithic period, the later Stone age,
with the development of pottery
but certainly as far back as between 7000 and 4000 BCE
about the time from when archeologists have found
the first known remnants of human cultivation of wild grapes
wine presses, fermentation vats, jars and cups with wine residue.[v]
By the biblical period, vineyards, the grapes they produce, the wine made from them
We’re an important part of communal life.
Isaiah preceded John in describing God as a vinekeeper.[vi]
Amos predicted a Day of the Lord
When “new wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills,”
When God’s people will “plant vineyards and drink their wine.”[vii]
Wine is seen as a good gift from God.
It was quite important during Jesus’ day, too.
More than one commentator notes here Jesus’ first and maybe most beloved miracle
The wedding feast at Cana, converting jars of water into choice wine
So that the party might continue.
A few years ago, National Public Radio shared a lighthearted segment
About a class offered by the Boston Wine School called “What Would Jesus Drink”[viii]
Think an exploration of New Testament wine and cheese…
“This is [the kind of] cheese that Jesus might have eaten.
Its called Egyptian Roumy” said Jonathan Alsop, who led the class
“it was a cheese that was introduced to the Egyptians by the Romans.
It’s a sheep milk cheese…”
He opened a red blend from Lebanon.
“This is something that citizens in biblical times would not have been acquainted with —
the screw cap,” he jokes.
Ancient wine around this time was cloudy. It had a milky appearance.
Spices, herbs, even wood chips were common additives,
Masking flavors, preserving the wine
Sometimes serving medical purposes.
It was a major part of the Roman economy
It was nearly ubiquitous at meals.
Sometimes easier to get than clean, pure water.
Ancient writers, both biblical and worldly, caution about its abuse.
Certain vintages, apparently,
were beloved by Horace and completely rooted out by Nero.
And, of course,
the juice of the grape, fermented or not,
became an essential part of our Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
the transformation of a relatively ordinary fruit, the sweet, succulent grape
into an extraordinary gift of grace for the people of God.
///
It makes sense, then, for Jesus to use such an important metaphor
For his role in our life together.
I am the true vine. Says Jesus
[God] is the vine-grower
You are the branches.
Bear my fruit, so the world may enjoy even more of that good good wine…
The heart of the Christian understanding of our community together
Is found right there, at the Lord’s Supper, in the cup of life shared for all,
And in no small measure this bold statement
where Christ engrafts us together in him, the true vine.
We are the branches.
Every foolish endeavor that is ultimately about serving others, in Christ,
Binds us together. Gives us strength and courage.
Jesus is there. Thanks be to God.
///
This is an installation service,
and so in some small way this needs to be an installation sermon.
I’m not sure, Joe and Warren
Whether any one has taken you aside,
since you were elected Chair and Vice-Chair elect
of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board
And said to you, look man, really?
Really? Are you sure about all of this?
That’s your story to tell, not mine.
You know the call that you have heard.
But I’ve seen the passion in you, both of you, for the mission of God in the world
And a conviction that, no matter what our troubles in the PMA
And they are legitimate and concerning
and worth the attention the church is giving them
But no matter our troubles
God is at the center of our work here
As an agency
Beyond that, as a national church, all the agencies working together,
And as this congregation in the heart of Cincinnati, your ministry and mission,
As the people of God wherever two or three of us are gathered.
God is at the center of our work.
God is calling you to lead us over the next few years.
It may seem foolish. Others may not understand.
All I can say is that God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom,
and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength…
You can see that in the way the spirit moves where she will
In ways startling and unpredictable and always, always life giving.
You can see that on the wilderness road,
where Philip has been scattered by the zeal of Saul
sent down toward Gaza,
a time of utter chaos and disorder and confusion in the life of the church
and there he encounters an outsider, a royal official from Ethiopia
a eunuch!
Reading Isaiah no less,
and look, look at what God is doing
Philip and the official share of themselves,
Take time to sit together, to read scripture together,
To risk something for the sake of the Gospel
for Jesus Christ, and him Crucified
and faith is born anew
the waters of baptism are offered
To signify and seal the welcome God has already extended
To this new convert. Thanks be to God.
There goes Philip, a fool for Christ.
A calling for you, and for me.
Dear friends, as you begin your service leading this organization into an unknown future
I encourage you to bring wine with you on the wilderness road.
Jesus the true vine, you his branches
Apart from which you can do nothing
But bound with whom, you can do all things.
The fruit of the vine a gift
Meant for the glad hearts of the people of God.
///
Its not quite true, but Mother Teresa was credited once
With offering words of encouragement on the wall of her home for children in Calcutta.
They may not truly be her words, but
These are my words of encouragement to you
And also to us
As we go off on our own separate ways,
Our own commission to serve fresh in our minds upon your installation this night.
Here’s what it said:
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends
and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
///
Week by week, visit by visit, service by service,
[May You] feel less foolish, and more a fool for Christ.
May it be so. My friends.
For you, and for me, and for all of us.
Amen.
—
[i] Jill Duffield, “Letter to a Young Pastor” in The Presbyterian Outlook. http://pres-outlook.org/2018/04/letter-to-a-young-pastor/ (accessed 4/25/18)
[ii] I Corinthians 1:18-25
[iii] John 14:18, 26-27
[iv] John 16:1
[v] Drawn from the Wikipedia entry on “The History of Wine” found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_wine (accessed 4/26/18)
[vi] Isaiah 5:5-6
[vii] Amos 9:13-14
[viii] https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/12/25/372727808/what-would-jesus-drink-a-class-exploring-ancient-wines-asks (Accessed 4/26/18)
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