Kin-dom Sermon
Edwards Church, Framingham 02/21/16
Dawn Sorensen
There’s this story about a professor who held up a picture of a bone with 28 incisions carved on it. “This is often considered to be man’s first calendar,” the professor explained. Then she said, “My question to you is thiswhat man needs to mark 28 days? I would suggest to you that this is woman’s first attempt at a calendar.”
Danish actor Sandi Toksviq said that sitting in that class in that moment changed her life. In that second, she stopped to question almost everything she had been taught about the past.
Why does the world see “man” when it should see “woman”? What does this mean about the way we see Godor the way we’ve been taught to see God?
When we talk about theology, mostly we are referring to the way we talk about God, for the word theology, when broken down, actually means Godtalk. One of the things seminary did for me was to help me understand how to talk about God in my own way. Just like the Danish actor, I was challenged to question all of those things that I had been taught about God. Questions like what does sin mean to you? Or how would we know safety and happiness if there was no suffering in the world?
While I can’t answer all the questions today, I can tell you that these questions led me to find an understanding of God that works well for me, even though it might be quite different from the understanding of God that others might have.
In a class called Systematic Theology, we learned that the work of theology is to interpret what it means to talk about God in today’s world, with all of today’s cultures and language and meaning. So, as you might imagine, that work comes with a whole lot of questions. Believe it or not, questioning our faith is a good thing. Questions lead us to search for meaning and understanding. Questions help us realize that a 28 day calendar might have been made by a woman, and that somewhere in the retelling of the story of the bone, the narrative got off-track.
Luckily, there are thousands of years of writings that we can draw upon to answer these questions. You’ve probably heard of some of the guys they call “The Church Fathers.” People like Saint Augustine, who shaped western Christianity with his ideas on things such as original sin and just war–or Saint Thomas Aquinas who wrote prolifically on the existence of God, and the meaning of life itself. Then, of course, there’s Martin Luther, and his ninety-five theses, as well as his belief in translating the bible into the language of the people. Some people might even call these early church leaders “Giants among Men” meaning that they transcend the average people of their time to become leaders. In this case, they became leaders within the church.
But I want to tell you a little bit about my giants. In 1895, Susan B. Anthony published The Woman’s Bible because she wanted to promote a radical theology that stressed self-development for women. In 1967, Mary Daly got a job at Boston College, during her tenure, she published eight books, and is now known as a foundational modern feminist theologian. Her radical views on men, both in the church and in her classes, caused much conflict throughout her 30 year career. It was a radical notion to the once all-male Catholic school for Daly to proclaim that God and our language for God should not be exclusively male, especially in the Bible. The Reverend Katie G. Cannon is the first African American woman to be ordained in the Presbyterian Church. She is a founder of womanist theology, which focuses theology on the perspectives and experiences of women of color. These women provided me a foundation, a place to start when I began to really understand God. They had already asked the questions I wanted to ask–Questions like “if God is seen as the great creator, even through the use of birth language, then why is it that God has historically been referred to only as God the Father?” Isn’t creation of new life generally seen as something that women do? Even though I may have felt the external world putting up a good fight telling me that I wasn’t worthy of a relationship with God because of my gender or because of my physical presentation, or because of whatever perceived sin of the day, these women spoke to my soul. These women proved it could be done. These women asked the hard questions. My giants overcame their oppressors because they trusted there was something worth fighting for.
Let’s explore one theologian in particular: Ada Maria IsasiDiaz created the sector of theology known as Mujerista Theology. Her thinking takes a little bit different approach to the idea of the kingdom of God. Let’s think about that word kingdom.
Isasi-Diaz reminds us that the word Kingdom implies that somewhere there’s a king, a ruler, a despot on high. Kings are only male not even the past 63 years of the English monarchy can pass that test! Kings lead patriarchies. Kings lead armies and armies have wars and wars result in death. When we speak of God’s kingdom coming, is this what we are asking for? Isasi-Diaz gives us another option. She introduces the idea of kin-dom. K-I-N-no G-DOM Kin-dom, implies that we are all kin as Christians. We are family, equally, in communion with God and all those Christian ancestors who went before us. Like Fran said in her Monday devotional–does God really want to be a king or a ruler or do we think God rejoices in our freedom–our freedom to hope, freedom to make our own choices, freedom to ask questions!
In today’s Gospel lesson, Martha refused to settle for the truth that seemed to be right in front of her. Her brother was dead. He had been dead for four days, but she didn’t accept it. Can you imagine the questions that might have run through Martha’s head over the course of those four days? Four days worth of questions is a lot of questions!
Some people might say that Mary, Martha and Lazarus are Jesus’ chosen family, his kinhe spends so much time and attention on them. In this scary time, Martha sends for Jesus but Jesus doesn’t come. Can you imagine her pacing,
pacing ….
where is he?
Where? Why is he not here yet?
How many times had she asked that question over the past four days? Her only brother had come down with a mysterious illness and nobody could help him. Nobody except their buddy, their close friend, their brother Jesus. Can you think of the thoughts that ran through her head? How many times had Jesus just held out his hand and the blind had seen or the lame had walked? If there was any hope at all for Lazarus, it would only come through Jesus. Even though, Martha had not specifically asked Jesus to come, she had sent word that Lazarus was ill.
But if Jesus really was the friend he said he was, he would come. Right? Martha had waited and Lazarus became more ill. She waited and Lazarus died. She waited and Lazarus was buried in the tomb.
Jesus healed the paralytic and he didn’t even know his name. Jesus healed the blind man who was just a face in the crowd. Surely he would come for Lazarus, his friend, whose table he had eaten at, whose roof he had slept under. That had to mean something to him, right? Maybe Martha had faith all along, but we humans tend to feel anxious, and questions fill our minds. Where was he? Did he really love them like he said he did? Would he use his power freely to help his friend, or was that just for strangers?
Then a murmur through the crowd came and she was already on her feet, the thought in her heart on her lips: “Jesus, if you had come, my brother would not have died.” Can you imagine the tone of betrayal in her voice, can you hear her broken heart?
How many times have we felt alone, left on our own, helpless and scared? How many times have we heard people say, “If God existed, this would not have happened?” This is when the understanding of Christian Kin-dom might be most important. How does our understanding of being being part of God’s web of connection–help us to feel less alone? When we really need each other, who shows up? Edwards Church is such an amazing example of this kindom. We fully live out what it means to be brothers and sisters in Christ. We have lots of love to give. Edwards Church has experienced some big events over the past few years. But you never stopped showing up for each other. Whether it was food or friendship, whether it was just a hand to hold or a shoulder to cry on, you counted on each other. We are a chosen family.
This church follows in the steps of Martha. Martha is our kin, too. Martha believes, even though she may never understand why it took Jesus four days to get to them. What she says next tells it all. “But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
“Jesus, I may not understand what you’ve done,
I may not be able to explain it,
I may not like it
but even now I still believe that you are capable of anything.”