A Good Friday meditation preached at The Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on March 30, 2018.

Scripture reading (which you may wish to read prior):
John 19:13-30

We sometimes go through seasons
where it feels like everyone we know is suffering.
–That project at work is keeping a spouse up at night.
–A sister’s chemotherapy is making you lose your appetite as well.
–You hear of the death of someone at the middle school
And you hold you kid close,
all too aware of our inability to shield our loved ones from danger.

These moments weigh us down.

If its ok to share with you my own weight,
what broke me this week was news of the death of the Reverend Buddy Monahan.

Buddy served with me on the board of the Presbyterian Mission Agency
He was the interim pastor of a church in Odessa, Texas
Chair of the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns
of the denomination we call home, the Presbyterian Church USA
and a proud, full-blooded member of the Choctaw Nation
one of the first peoples of this land.

For a decade or so, Buddy was the chaplain of the Menaul School in Albuquerque
An important institution for the education and advancement of native peoples.
And he had almost a constant broad smile that could blind you.

News of his car crash came across social media on Tuesday,
Just a few hours after I had booked travel
for my final meeting of the board in April.
At 52, he left behind a congregation during holy week
A wife and three kids
Friends and colleagues who respected him beyond measure.

He is the second board member to die this year.

The other, Susan Osoinach, was a ruling elder, also from Texas
Who had been fighting cancer for a year. She died a month ago.
She taught French at a local high school
She read ordination exams for people who wanted to become ministers
And she chaired the power and privilege ministerial team for the board.

Susan was always sending me these quiet facebook messages like
“Thank you so much for wearing your robe and stole
at the executive order signing.
Thank you for standing up as a “man of the cloth.”
Thank you for taking a public stance as a Christian. Thank you.”

///
I’ve been thinking about friends and colleagues and fragility,
That’s what has weighed me down this week. [Read more…]

A sermon preached at The Kirk of Kansas City, Missouri, on March 25, 2018.

Scripture readings (which you may wish to read prior):
Psalm 118: 1-4, 19-29
and Mark 11:1-11

I’m not sure what book she was reading on the plane
during our family’s recent trip to California.
I missed that detail.[i]

But Brook told me a story from her book
that was just too perfect not to pass along.

It involved a preacher, and a congregation,
And a sermon series the preacher was sharing on various sins and vices
A surefire way to fill the pews, let me tell you.

And every week the preacher would give an assignment to the congregation
To prepare them for the next Sunday.

This time, the sermon was going to be on lying. A sermon on lying.
“All you need to do is read the 17^th Chapter of Mark,” he said.
“Read Mark 17 this week,
and you’ll be all ready to go for the sermon on Sunday.”

The week went by, as normal,
And next Sunday came about.
The good pastor climbed the pulpit
And prepared his papers to get ready to preach.

“The assignment last week was to read Mark chapter 17.
Did any of you have a chance to finish it?” he asked.

Not everyone raised their hands,
But several did, more than a few.

“Good,” he said, nodding gratefully at those with their hands in the air.
“Thank you. You can put your hands back down.
Mark only has 16 chapters. It’s the shortest of the Gospels.
We’re now well prepared to reflect on the subject of lying…”

///
We value truth telling here.

One might say that faith itself is the search for truth,
often truth about matters that, by their nature, are obscure
beyond the foundations
that we often need to tell truth from falsehood.

God is beyond our knowing, in a way,
Which complicates matters a great deal.
God is God, and is so much bigger than what humans can fully grasp.

So it is that the author of the letter to the Hebrews, famously,
Calls faith “the conviction of things not seen,
The assurance of things hoped for.”[ii]

And one of the particular reasons that we look to Jesus
Is because Jesus shows us who God is, what God is all about:
That God is Love. That God seeks Justice.
Jesus teaches us how to find our sense of purpose and meaning:
That we are to love God with all our heart and mind and strength
And that we are to love our neighbor and love ourselves.

These, we believe, are true.
They are the foundation of the kingdom of God
That Jesus is here to lead.
Living that way, believing that Jesus is the way
will save us, and give us life beyond measure.
This is what it means to say that the truth shall set us free.[iii]

///
We value truth telling here. [Read more…]