Recent Sermons

Sermon
Experiences vs. Expectations

Text
Romans 8: 26-39 NRSV

Church
First Christian Church – Charlotte

Date
30 July 2023

“The experiences we have should not shift our expectations of God. Nor do they shifts God’s expectations of us.”

I grew up in church but there was a period in my life for many reasons that I didn’t attend church and when I finally started to come back to my faith, I would listen to sermons and engage with various Bible studies but I couldn’t really figure out what I believed. I knew what I was taught in church, but I didn’t know what I believed. There were so many messages out there and I felt overwhelmed by the noise of it all And so i did what any millennial would do, and I whipped out my phone and I started a list in my notes app.

And at the top, I labeled it: everything I know about God. And over the next few years as I learned and spiritually developed I would add to this list, so that I wouldn’t forget what I knew to be true to myself versus the noise and theological opinions of others.

I recently returned to the list and the first fact I have about God is:

The best thing about us — the love in me and the second thing I wrote about God was: God is my friend. And as I prepped for this sermon, those two things kept clouding my head.

God is the best thing about us – the love in us *and* God is my friend.

“God is our friend.”

I want to be vulnerable with you for a moment and admit I felt nervous about this. I grappled with it day after day and yet, the only thing God gave me was, tell them I love am love and I am their friend.

And I thought, surely, it can’t be that simple.

I responded to God, I think they know you love them. And something responded back to me saying, tell them again.

So I come with three points.

Point 1. God loves us

Point 2. Nothing can separate us from that love.

Point 3. We have to work to make sure we don’t forget the first two

Point One: God Loves Us

Our text for today comes from a letter to the church in Rome from Paul reminding them that regardless of their circumstances, the reality is, God loves them.

I often stop to think about the reality that God created me. Idk exactly if God has a conscious that functions anything like ours, but I get overwhelmed when I consider that when making all of this, the entire world and all the galaxies and the supposed aliens the govt says are real, somewhere in there God stopped to think of me. That he said, I need John and Charlotte and specifically the good folks at FCC in my plans. I need them to do my good works. Oh, I get overcome when I consider that even for a moment my presence was considered by the one who’s seen it all. 

I named this sermon Experiences vs expectations Because I thought I was going to focus on the expectations we have of God versus the experiences we have with God.

But I realized Paul is talking about the expectations God has of us – It’s not about what we think we want from God, instead, it is that we have been called according to his plan. There is a reason that we exist, that we are gathering in this space, in this moment, it does have a divine purpose and I believe it is so we don’t forget God loves us. So much so that the scripture tells us he made a sacrifice that even Abraham didn’t complete.  he does things we can’t do, he does a step further than us.

God told me to tell you he loves them, that he’s got your back, your front, both your sides, he’s underneath, he’s looking overhead, he’s in the glove compartment, running through the pipes, He’s cleaning out the gutters,

God said, I’m pumping the gas, that I’m the well AND the water, that I have not left you, nor could I, you were designed with me in mind and that’s just the way it is.

Which brings me to point two:

Nothing could separate them or us from the love of God.

The Bible tells us the Holy Spirit is given to us, to be with us. We know the Holy Spirit is also Christ,  the one who is continuing to intercede on our behalf right this second, and we know Christ is also Lord, therefore we can understand the scripture telling us that God gave Godself to us so that we could always be near him.

And Paul confirms this telling the Romans “nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (2x)

I don’t think we can fully understand the magnitude of this as humans, but the kindness of God to know we are not perfect but to dwells in us nonetheless – it confirms for me the importance of each of us to his overall plan and good works.

We are more than a conquer – means the battle is already fixed. It doesn’t matter what cards are on the table, we are winning – the final score will always be in our favor because the final score is always to be made in Jesus’ image.

As we look around at all the famine and the heartache, as we pass out food week after week, and families still try and figure out how to live, take comfort that there’s a plan.

Take comfort in knowing that Jesus who told the Samaritan woman, I am, he still is!

Which leads me to my third and final point today:

We have to work to make sure we and others don’t forget this fact – that God is indeed still at work.

Someone asked me once: what is faith? And I think I gave them my best answer at the time, but recently I’ve come to understand faith as the space between our expectations and our experiences.

When I was working on that list I mentioned to you all, I thought God being my friend and the best part of me meant I would feel radically different. And don’t get me wrong I do have an inner peace only God can bring; however, I thought it meant my depression wouldn’t make me as sad, I thought I would have more wisdom than I do, I thought I wouldn’t feel as insecure, I thought salvation meant no more suffering. And I think this makes sense because it’s hard for our human brains to struggle to reconcile the Generosity of Grace with the depravity of this world.

I do not have comprehensive answers about why suffering happens, we can have philosophical and theological debates after service if you like, but I just want to remind us that the experiences we have in this city, in this State, on this planet,  should not shift our expectations of God. Nor does it shifts God’s expectations of us.

When Jesus told us “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the father’s hand.” He meant that. You’re in his hands and while all things are NOT good, they do work together for good.

The Holy Spirit is present whether we like it or not.

There is much bad that happens in this world, I don’t need to give you examples, you’re alive you have your own, but I hope to remind you, those bad things are pointing towards something else. 

I don’t mean a spiritual bypassing. I don’t want us to get in the habit of saying “Gods got a plan” every time something terrible happens. But what I do hope we remember as we go through things, we are not alone.

God he is our friend.

To the person watching this online who’s been groaning and hurting for some time, to the person who’s gonna hear this later, remember you are not alone.

I want you to know, the depression you feel,

the bills you can’t pay,

the relationship that seems unrepairable,

All those things might be true, but – it’s pointing you towards something else.

The task at hand is to maintain our faith enough to not our experiences of life, distort our expectations.

To remember that even with all this kerfuffle, God is present, and not only present, but at work.

He’s not absently setting in the back of the room, he’s near and active.

The kingdom of God is beyond this world but as the song lyrics say,

If you ever wonder what heaven looks like/it’s looking like me and you

And if you ever question what heaven sounds like/just let it fill the room

We know what a bit of heaven looks and sounds like because God dwells in each of us, we just have to stay attuned to this reality.

We are more than conquers, but we aren’t gonna win in the way this world says.

We don’t have to have a big house, or a nice car, we don’t have to be well known or well liked,

We simply have to do our best to sit in the salvation that’s already been given to us.

This has always been our purpose, and it always will be.

Let us not waste such a perfect gift.

Amen.

Sermon
Do You Know Your Bloodline?

Text
Romans 8: 26-39 NRSV

Church
Myers Park Baptist Church – Charlotte, NC

Date
02 July 2023

“Our measure of good cannot be against what is bad.”

Last week our very own superstar Carrie Veal and I do mean that y’all should really give her  flowers while she can appreciate them last week Carrie with much passion and immense vulnerability reminded us to rebuke the noisy messages of the world and instead come as we are. And as I said in that back pew and I heard Carrie say that right I literally heard her say John come as you are which is why I have my hat on here in the pulpit this morning right, but the first thing in that moment that popped in my head

was, who are we?      

Comes as we are, but who are we?

It’s 4th of July weekend and some of you may have had a BBQ yesterday or doing something after service today but anytime there’s a holiday like the 4th of July I can’t help but pause and think about my place in the world and the origins of this country and how we came to be. Over the last week I’ve pondered with great solemnity what does it mean for my individual self to be a part of this collective that is Myers park Baptist church, that is North Carolina, and the United States. And continuously I return to that question, who are we?

There’s a part of my story that begins here in the 1600s with a man also called John who came from England, helping to settle what was then-called the Delaware colony. By the time the American Revolution arrived he fought diligently and after helping to secure the win against his brothers from back home, John and his family migrated South to what was then the Carolina Province to expand their holdings. After a few prosperous generations not too far from where we are, one of his descendants, Uriah T. Blackshear ventured Southwest to help establish Sumter County, Alabama.

While in Alabama, he enslaved a man called Luke. Luke was 6 feet 4, around 250 pounds, a mechanic, he built houses, and was an architect too.

I like to imagine he had a head full of luscious hair as well. Uriah liked Luke so much he used him as ‘a stock Negro’  in hopes the future people he enslaved would be like him. Over his life, Luke fathered 56 children and was known as the GIANT BREEDER. Those who were there say, “he was brought and given to his young mistress in the same way you would give a mule or colt to a child.”

Even though their stories took place not too far from us, you’ve probably never heard of Luke or Uriah before, and this makes sense because their story was a common one. Their lives were the mundane reality of this country and there was nothing special about them that needed to be marked in the history books. And, yet, as I stand here now 6 generations removed from my great-grandfather Luke, knowing his story was the ordinary truth, I ask again, Who are we?

                                                                                

What does it mean to be an American, when America should not exist?

When the foundations of a country are destruction and death,

it means on a random Friday in June, a small group of people can decide colorblind ideology and queer discrimination are the law of the land. It means guns and corporations get more rights than people, and trans kids have to fight for basic healthcare.

Let me be clear,

when I say bloodline today, I do not mean literal genetics. While I recounted a bit of my ancestry to you, and it is true that Luke and his son Isom and his son John helped create me, the blood of the Blackshears that enslaved them also runs through my veins and I would no more claim to be British than I would to be a frog. Genetics do not make us, they do not define us or our trajectory, they do not determine our family, or who we are, but they do help to tell a story.

Instead, today when I speak of bloodline I mean the cultural norms of this nation that help construct who we are.

When colonization and enslavement are this country’s parents, Who are we?

When I asked this question – who are you? – to folks this week, most told me their identify categories –  I’m black, I’m a cis women, I’m straight, I’m American, and so on. And I started to wonder how do we get to a place of first describing ourselves as kind, as generous, as receptive, as encouraging, as understanding, as honest, and, so on.

I think we get there by questioning our bloodline. When we question our foundations in creative and nuanced, yet specific and clear ways, opaque statements about who we are and where we come from become insufficient. And it’s important to note, that in this moment of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ in the year 2023, there is no use for  timidness, or niceties.

Instead, we need an honest reckoning with who we are.

Asking ourselves, Are we as good at this Christian thing as we’d like to think?

You might be saying John that’s not me I’m not on the Supreme Court, but I’ve come to pick on us today and remind us, that this is our bloodline too.

We do not get to divorce ourselves from it and pretend we do participate in the chaos of the world. If any of us have figured out how to not be racist, if you have figured out how to not be sexist or transphobic, or fatphobic, then tell the rest of us your secret to success because there’s too much violence,

there’s too much death,

there’s too much unchristian like behavior in these streets and I for one am tired.

Instead, we must be honest about the values we embody simply because of where we live.

When we fight Christian nationalism do we only mean abolishing prisons and the police or do our cries extend to demands of decolonization and a full acknowledgement of the nearly 600 tribal nations still living, breathing, and thriving among us today? After we’ve changed God’s pronouns in service do we go out to make sure trans folx have housing, happiness, and something to eat? 

Who are we?

Let me be extremely clear, I’m not saying we are bad people. I think people are intrinsically good, but I also know we live in a world that makes love difficult. Typically love is described as a noun, a feeling based on our emotions, but psychiatrist M. Scott Peck classifies it as a verb, saying, love is “the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” He continues saying, “Love is as love does. Love is an act of will-namely, both an intention and an action. Will also implies choice. We do not have to love. We choose to love.” Who are we loving with good vibes only from a distance and who’s spiritual growth do we actually invest in? We must be honest about

• The parts of town we don’t go to,
  • the liturgical styles and customs we won’t embrace,
  • where we spend our money and time
  • and who we hang out with?

We must answer

• What are biases, pain, and insecurities that shape how we move or better yet how we stand still in certain spaces

If we are not careful, we will always be coerced to participate in that which is destroying us. The bloodline of this country has created a dysfunctional family eager for profit and greed.  And if someone hasn’t reminded you lately, let me tell you that money will never replace our need for community.

That a check cannot out perform a hug.

That a credit card can’t swipe away pain.

Money doesn’t know how to be vulnerable.

It cannot and will not save us.

We must get to a place where we desire Christ more than literal and metaphorical silver and gold.

And I know this can be hard. Carlos A. Rodriguez, the founder of Happy Givers reminds us, “Privilege will deceive you. It will minimize the pain of others. It will tell you that your opinion is more important than their humanity. It will make you feel righteous while you oppress and marginalize. And it will lie to you about how God sees your privilege.”

And that is the difficulty of fighting oppression, reminding them that it is systematic and not interpersonal. When it is expressed that all white people are racist, that all cis people are transphobic, all skinny people are fatphobic and so on and so forth, our defense mechanisms start to flare and we want to separate ourselves from that. It does not feel good to say, “it’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me.”

But, we must find a balance on one hand of self-acceptance, and the ability to show up as ourselves, while also being critical of who we are for the sake of personal and spiritual transformation.

We are at a critical junction in our existence where we will either create sustainable communities filled with love, justice, and integrity or we will simply die.   

I’m not trying to be dramatic this morning but that is where we are at. We must begin to radically care – radical as in our roots, our origins, our bloodline – we must begin to radically care for each other or the most vulnerable among us will continue to perish, while Christians like us come to sanctuaries like this one, asking why such things happen, like we don’t already know the answer.

The DNA of our country created the conditions under which we live today, but there is good news, saints. Really great news! When we know our bloodline, when we are honest about where we come from, we can find ourselves at the well with Jesus like the Samaritan women.

When we come to today’s verses, the Samaritan woman is minding her good ol’ business, just trying to get some di-hydrogen monoxide, and out of nowhere Jesus demands a drink. What I love about this story is that both the Samaritan women and Jesus know who are they. The woman knows she is a Samaritan, she knows what society thinks of her and what the world says she can and can’t do and that includes knowing the implications of giving this Jewish man any water.

But likewise, Jesus knew who he was!

The woman comes to learn that Jesus’ bloodline is more powerful than any cultural foundation that makes her who she thinks she is. And that he can sustain her thirst by creating in her an everlasting spring of gushing water.

Now, Ben, I went and looked up exactly what a Spring is. And a spring is a special place where underground water flows naturally to land surface. So a spring is the place where the water resides. And In order for this to happen you need both overflow – excess rain/ flooding to be absorbed into the ground, and then pressure to get it back to the surface.

Because of this process, springs often are a part of larger purification systems, helping create fertile ground and sustain headwaters of streams. Importantly, they provide clean drinking water to humans and animals and this is especially vital in dessert landscapes where water is scarce.

So if I’m understanding this correctly, that means that Jesus poured an overflow into the Samaritan woman – us, so that under the pressures of this bloodline, we could be sustainers of life.

Unfortunately, springs, like churches are declining and for some, the water that once was has evaporated completely. In our process of being honest it can feel like there’s nothing left but dust. But, I’m encouraging each of us today to remember the spring is just the place where the excess flows too.

That just like the Samaritan women, Jesus is calling us to participate in the overflow of what he is doing. That participation is not simply believing in the Messiah named Christ but going out like the woman does and repping for Christ so that others may also believe! We didn’t read it but later on her faith serves as a catalyst for others’ salvation.

Likewise, the action of our faith – should be the evidence of God’s grace. I’ll repeat that, the action of our faith – should be the evidence of God’s grace.

There is always evidence of a spring in its surroundings – especially one that is gushing!

There should be no doubt, Folks should know regardless of this country’s bloodline, what and whom we stand for.

And you might still be saying, John, have you seen them other folks. Have you seen what they do at that church round the way? John, compared to them, we ain’t so bad. And if you don’t take anything else from this message today, please take this:

Our measure of good cannot be against what is bad.

Our measure of Good cannot be against what is bad.

It’s reactionary and tiring.

Have you ever had a colleague or sibling or God forbid a partner bother and harass you constantly, and you find yourself continuing to respond and address it and before you know it, you’ve lost an hour, a day, a week, maybe more of your time putting energy into them. When we are constantly reacting it leaves us very little time to envision what our life will look like after liberation. When we are reacting trying to prove we are not like those Americans, those Christians, we miss an opportunity to set our own agenda.  Our direction becomes distraction and our spring is further eroded.

And I’m not saying disregard common sense, there is real violence that needs immediate addressing at times. However, our goal cannot and should not be to show we are above them. We don’t have to always prove that when they go low, we go higher. We already know the behavior of oppression is beneath us. Instead, our barometer for good has to be what is greater than us. It must be the example of Christ!

We’ll know our moral compass is aligned and our springs are full of water, when like Christ we are with those deemed unholy

– When we are spending our time with the woman at the well.

We know our morals are alright when we are with the sick and the poor and the shut in and the shut OUT.  

We know we are doing alright when we go into spaces and lay hands and command things to get up that the world has said are dead.

None of us are Jesus, but we better start acting like him. We have an example and there’s no reason to waste it.

He told the Samaritan woman, “I am.” He knew exactly who he was and what he had to offer. When we show up as ourselves in this and every other space, let us do so NOT with the residue of this world’s bloodline but with the full confidence of “I, am”

I am a child of God.

I am the one he gave his only begotten son for.

That if I believe in him, I shall not parish but have an everlasting source of life.

Saints, we have the blood, we have the water, the price of grace has already been paid for the work we’re called to do.

Let us be courageous and do it.

Amen.