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Well Just Bless His Heart!

  • I started wondering out loud this week - what would be the thing that would make this church so angry that it'd want to launch me off a cliff?
    • This isn't just me feeling myself now that I'm installed
    • Nor is it some kind of personal challenge I nor you expect to undertake.
    • Call it a thought exercise.
    • In the last 15 months, it's not like we've shied away from different topics - even pre-installation
      • Political Issues - SJPC even asked that I preach sermons on Christians in government!
      • Race
      • GLBTQ+ Issues
      • COVID Issues
      • Building, etc.
  • From the inside out
    • There's a transition here between the two parts of Luke 4 that might open the question up for us
      • We are set within the synagogue in the first half of the text.
      • We are also in home turf of everyone - Jesus, the people.
      • And for a long time this week, I wanted to ask the question "how can we live a mission so scandalous it is enraging," but the truth is, it's not really all that scandalous.
        • Hebrew texts are replete with caring for the widow, orphan.
        • Cities of refuge helped the prisoner go free
        • Sabbath rest, etc etc. These are all parts of the story of the people in church with Jesus this day.
        • It's not like these are bad people as far as we can tell.
    • "Is not this Joseph's son?"
      • I wonder if this could be heard as the ancient equivalent of "well, bless his heart!"
      • "like chicken and waffles - it can be sweet, it can be spicy and it's perfect for any situation"
      • Southern Living has an article about it! With four variations of the phrase, it helps us poor northerners suss out what we're hearing AND an appropriate response:
        • A conspiratorial ‘bless his/her heart' is often spoken in a whisper. It's not spoken to the proverbial blessed heart. It's spoken to a friend or neighbor about the blessed heart. Usually, if the phrase is uttered to you in conversation about someone not present—or present, but out of earshot—the appropriate response is a smile, and perhaps a chuckle if you agree.
        • I believe though, that one thing unmentioned in the Southern Living article directly is that "bless x's heart" is meant to be a conclusion to the topic, to the thought.
        • A good "well, bless his heart" keeps the perceived foolishness at an arm's length
    • Jesus doesn't stop. In fact, Jesus pushes them harder.
      • He pushes on their sense of comfort - that the words heard from the pews aren't just a pleasantry for their benefit, but has a far more expansive reach - right out into the world.
      • I've been down here long enough to know that you don't press past "bless his heart" or someone's bound to stop being sweet.
      • And that's precisely what happens.
      • Notice too - still words form the text, still interpretation, but now it isn't just a pleasantry from a low-risk, low-impact neighbor boy who speaks well on Saturdays.
  • So, let's go back to our initial thought exercise. Let's say - for the sake of argument, I said the following from the pulpit:
    • That the idea of a bill that forbids history being taught on account of someone's feelings - as is proposed by the Florida Legislature - is antithetical to the gospel - LITERALLY this week's text, and should be resisted by any church who is reading the text honestly;
    • That southern mainline churches, who have a long history of active racism and passive inattention to the needs of non-white people, should be taking the lead now to engage in the difficult work of continued healing;
    • That churches who speak boldly about loving everyone but limit their inclusion in the full rights and benefits of membership in the church are hypocritically obfuscating the gospel through claims of purity of orthodoxy and should be challenged, and that we will not and cannot do the same simply to satisfy those in the pews;
    • How sad it is that somehow, not even three years into a once in a lifetime epidemic we've all but lost our sense of loving thy neighbor in order to preserve self-centered freedoms, and;
    • That while it's understandable that difficult things have happened at SJPC, to continue to be angry about issues that have passed years ago is going to hurt both the person and the church - and that it may be time to grieve and move on.
    • Hypothetically speaking, of course, this may finally raise your ire. But the truth is, it's not much different than what I've said up to this point - just simply adding some direct shape and pointing it directly from beyond the walls today to outside of the moment. There's not really a way to say "well, bless his heart" because it's transgressed the boundaries of a stable relationship: in other words, it wouldn't be any longer just the nice Yankee pastor that talks a little too quick, but it's be someone with something to say.
  • It's at this point we ought to stop and consider the texts around today's gospel, which all center around love - Jeremiah being known, and the familiar passage in I Cor
    • Enduring, gentle (humane, sympathetic), not arrogant, not provoked, doesn't keep score, celebrates the right and the true.
    • These passages should be cautionary for both those in the pews and the one in the pulpit. The truth should not be unnecessarily provocative, nor should it be received angrily. It is real love - an arresting kind of love - that binds us to another.
    • I've no doubt Jesus loved those in the synagogue that day, but also loved everyone out of it, too. And based on his ministry, it is those on the outside who needed his love - just as the prodigal is celebrated because of his return, yet not at the expense of the one who stayed, we must seek those on the margins and arrest our own sense of indignation, lest we throw Jesus off the cliff - or worse, not, and allow him to wander away from our midst.
  • What ought we do, then?
    • If there is any place that should be able to wrestle with difficult things in unvarnished love, it should be the church of Jesus Christ.
    • We should wrestle with things that should enrage us, but be arrested by love that is patient, kind.
    • We're willing to listen to the prophets who have been tasked with turning things upside down.
    • And, should we fail to avoid our deeper rage, let us pray both that the cliff is small, and that there is means of egress to slip out unharmed to continue ministry.
    • But the very worst we may do is to end simply at "bless his heart." Should we be tempted, we miss out on the depth of Christ's ministry coming later, and we leave him just as the neighbor boy down the street.