Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 The Ten Commandments (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)
 20 Then God spoke all these words,
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3 you shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
7 “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female slave, ox, donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
18 When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid[b] and trembled and stood at a distance 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”
20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.”

     When is the last time you went to Sunday School? If you haven't been to Sunday School in a while, tell me what Sunday School was like for you when you did go regularly. If you've been to Sunday School recently, what is something you did together? As many of you know, we have great Sunday School teachers, who usually cover three of four Sundays a month during the school year. A few years ago, in order to lighten their load a bit and make space for them to work on Confirmation, we began an experiment with intentionally intergenerational worship on the first Sunday of the month. As time as gone on, it's clear that our kids prioritize attending church on Sunday School days. So, we're going to try something new today: Sunday School for everyone!

     Instead of a sermon today, we'll do one of our Sunday School lessons together. It was created by Illustrated Ministry and it's part of a curriculum called "Mini Revolutions." The title of the curriculum comes the metaphor of the cycles of the Christian year. As they say, the pattern we follow in church of holidays and colors and special celebrations around the year is a lot like the revolution of the earth around the sun. We begin our revolution in Advent and move through Christmas and Epiphany in Lent and Easter and Pentecost then through ordinary time back to Advent again. As they say in the Illustrated Ministry materials, time doesn't just move forward, it returns to cycles of new life and also the end of things. When we go through a short lesson together, with an introduction to what they call "micropractices," they encourage us to begin a cycle of what they call "noticing, implementing, and reflecting." They say, "Great change begins with small movements." So, let's see what movement we might notice in our lesson today.
​
*For the rest of our sermon time, we did a Sunday School lesson about the values our church shares that we've learned from parts of our tradition, like the Ten Commandments. We talked about how they are, at heart, about two things: loving God and loving neighbor. We'll have another Sunday School for Everyone on the first Sunday of November. 

Philippians 2:1-13 Imitating Christ’s Humility (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)
 
If, then, there is any comfort in Christ, any consolation from love, any partnership in the Spirit, any tender affection and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death- even death on a cross.
 
Therefore God exalted him even more highly and gave him the name that is above every other name, so that at the name given to Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
 
Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence but much more now in my absence, work on your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

     Philippians was written from prison. Lest we forget that Christianity wasn’t always the majority religion or even a respectable one, or that Paul often found himself on the wrong side of powerful people. When I read this letter, written from a terrible Roman prison, I am put in mind of a time when I heard the activist and musician Bernice Johnson Reagon speaking about her time as a young adult fighting for civil rights. I heard her speak at an event for the Highlander Folk Center, a training ground for many civil rights activists.

     A faithful Christian, raised in church, music had been a central pillar of her life. She once wrote, “My history was wrapped carefully for me by my fore-parents in the songs of the church, the work fields, and the blues. Ever since this discovery, I've been trying to find myself, using the first music I've ever known as a basic foundation for my search for truth." When she found herself arrested by segregationist police, she and her colleagues would sing in jail to keep their spirits up. At the event where I heard her speak, she talked about her jail songs and said, “you better figure out your songs, too.” She said if you are committed to faithful justice, you will often find yourself on the wrong side of powerful people. And, if you are a Christian, your faith can be part of what sustains you in that moment.

     Paul seems to have drawn on a hymn in prison as well. According to a commentary about today’s reading by Noelle Damico, the middle of our reading, from verse 6 through 11, Paul is citing an early Christian hymn. As he sat in prison, he remembered Christ’s imprisonment by Rome. As he wrote to his friends in the church in Philippi, trying to help them manage their own challenges, he reminded them of Jesus the Prisoner... of Jesus the Condemned. Jesus was never outside of their suffering. He was with them, showing them how allegiance to his mission wouldn’t promise them an easy life. It would, however, be a meaningful one.

     It’s not totally clear, according to Carolyn Osiek’s notes on Philippians, what is going on in their congregation. She says they appear to be going through some kind of oppression in their broader community. Philippi was a large city in Macedonia on one of the major Roman roads connecting the Eastern part of the empire to the Macedonia coast in Greece. It was also a port city. When it was founded, according to Acts 16:11-13, it was the westernmost Christian church, though the church would continue to expand westward. Osiek also makes it clear that when we read Philippians, we’re reading correspondence between Paul and a community for which he has great affection. This isn’t like the Corinthians, who he argued with all the time. These are dear friends who are worried about him, worried enough to send someone to prison to check on him. Their friend must have shared what was happening with Paul, and he began to worry about them as well. He wants to encourage them, even as he himself is not sure his own life will be preserved.

     In order to weather whatever opposition they are facing, Paul thinks they need to work on their relationship with each other. In maintaining good connections within the Body of Christ, they could better support each other in the days ahead. To bolster them in the face of a dangerous empire, he spoke of a song that they all knew. Osiek says that it was possibly part of the baptismal liturgy that each of them would have participated in as they welcomed new people into the Body of Christ. This hymn was part of the connective tissue of the body of Christ.

     Paul wrote, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death- even death on a cross.” In his commentary on this text, Timonthy Adkins-Jones says that a “deep partnership is necessary to manage suffering.” For Paul, this partnership is built around dedication to Christ and modeled on Christ’s own self-sacrificing behavior. According to Adkins-Jones, it will be Christ-like humility and selflessness that will be their “anchor” in the storm.

     American Christianity is often presented in individual terms. But, that is not how Paul presented following Christ, nor was it how he practiced his faith. He had co-workers that he risked his safety alongside. He built networks of connection across the Roman empire. He even maintained relationships with people he didn’t always like very much, because he was their brother. They were in covenant together and would figure out how to follow Christ together. Adkins-Jones points out that this communal sense of faith can help us get away from ideas that God has abandoned us when we suffer and instead calls us to community as that helps us live out our faith regardless of what trials we are facing.

     For Paul, the obedience demanded by faith in Christ was not obedience to the powers and the principalities of the world. Paul got into too much trouble to be read as being obedient to Rome. In her commentary, Damico points out that Paul isn’t even asking his friends to be obedient to his particular teaching. Instead, he writes of obedience as allegiance to God, which, interns, means a commitment to love and justice. Damico calls this a “dangerous loyalty” that may end up demanding that you go up against the powerful of this world when their demands run counter to the demands of God. In Rome, crucifixion was often a punishment for sedition. Paul is writing something quite scandalous with the words “every knee should bend.” In Rome, you bowed to Caesar and Caesar’s emissaries. In the kindom of God, that honor is reserved for Christ.

     I thought of Dr. Reagon’s Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee colleague John Lewis when I read this line from Dr. Damico’s commentary: “Paul makes clear that obedience to Christ brings on trouble.” It puts me in mind of Lewis’ phrase “Good trouble.” Adkins-Jones describes the church as a place where Christ is the “shared center” that guides us through the conflicts we inevitably will have. Our response to Christ’s saving grace in our lives is an on-going commitment to showing up for each other in all moments of fear and trembling.

     “God is at work in you” is a generous statement to those who might be struggling, isn’t it? God is at work in you even in this moment of challenge. God will help you to do what you are called to do, especially in the midst of opposition. The end result may not look like success to some. After all, Paul and Jesus both ended up suffering deeply. The kind of faith that Paul is encouraging his friends to live is one that has the capacity to reshape their whole lives. It is what Adkins-Jones calls “an on-going practice,” not simply one statement you make at one point in your life. It is the song you sing in prison. It is the words you write for the people you love. It is the care you offer in the midst of deeply uncaring times. May our songs keep us brave and may our work keep us together. Will you sing with me: Up Over My Head....

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
​Carolyn Osiek's notes on Philippians in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)
About Bernice Johnson Reagon: https://folkways.si.edu/bernice-johnson-reagon-civil-rights-song-leader/african-american-struggle-protest-folk/music/article/smithsonian
Noelle Damico, "Proper 21," Preaching God's Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary, Year A featuring 22 New Holy Days for Justice (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013)
Timothy Adkins-Jones: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/the-christ-hymn/commentary-on-philippians-21-13-10
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Jonah 3:10-4:11
3:10When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it.
4:1But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.
4:2He prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning, for I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment.
4:3And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live."
4:4And the LORD said, "Is it right for you to be angry?"
4:5Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.
4:6The LORD God appointed a bush and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort, so Jonah was very happy about the bush.
4:7But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered.
4:8When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, "It is better for me to die than to live."
4:9But God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?" And he said, "Yes, angry enough to die."
4:10Then the LORD said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night.
4:11And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also many animals?"

                                                                                                  +++++++

     “I wasn't able to lay my hands on it while I was working on my sermon, but every so often a post about Jonah will come across my social media feed. It says something like, "next time you feel like everything is terrible, and you want to die, take a lesson from Jonah, and go find somewhere to take a nap in the shade. It will help." There may have also been something about a snack, but I don't see that in the Bible story, so I might have made that part up. You get the gist though, I'm sure. It's a funny post about a Bible story that uses humor to teach us something about mercy and callings and getting things wrong.

     In her notes on Jonah, Mary Joan Lynn Weith talks about how the book of Jonah is different from other prophetic books, in part because it is so intentionally funny. Weith outlines all of the funniest stuff in the whole book: Jonah skipping town because he didn't want to prophesy to the Ninevites, the slapstick humor of him sleeping through a violent storm while the sailors around him are petrified, Jonah getting swallowed by a big fish and living in that fish for three days, and animals being required to wearing mourning clothes to make amends to God. It's really silly, and the media inspired by this story is often silly.

     I tried to find some Jonah hymns for worship today and most of what I found was funny songs for kids' Sunday School classes. Our Prelude was one of them: "God said 'Go’" by littledrummergirlmusic, written by Gary Kennaugh & Sue Green. The first line is:

"God said 'Go'
Jonah said 'no'
then he ran away
It wasn't his wish to be swallowed by a fish
but he stayed there for three days."

There's also a pretty great VeggieTales song called "Jonah was a Prophet" featuring this chorus,

“Jonah was a prophet Oo-ooh!
But he really never got it. Sad but true!
And if you watch him, you can spot it
A-doodley-doo! He did not get the point!”

The singing vegetables are right. He didn't get the point. In fact, he really didn't want to do the job God wanted him to do. He's the only prophet I can think of who is disappointed when the people he's sent to preach to actually repent. He really wanted them to suffer, but God had other plans.

     We missed the first part of the story in our reading today, so it's probably worthwhile to have a little recap. God says, "Go." Jonah says, "no," then he ran away. His getaway was stalled by a storm. He did do one thing right in the storm. He realized it was probably happening because God was annoyed with him, so he gave the sailors permission to throw him off the boat. They were good guys and tried not to, at first, but eventually tossed him overboard for their own safety. That's when he gets swallowed.

     He prays this big, long prayer to get out of the fish, making all kinds of promises to God. God told the fish to let him loose, and the fish vomited him up on dry land. In her commentary, Weith calls Jonah "recalcitrant," which seems like a tame way to describe a man who had to be swallowed by a fish to learn how to do what was asked of him. It took being in that fish three days for him to do what God says. It's a funny story, but I bet you are also thinking about the people you know who are "three days in a fish" stubborn.

     Why, you might ask, is Jonah trying to avoid this job? He doesn't like the people of Ninevah. Historians note that Ninevah was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. I've talked before about how ancient Israel had been split into two kingdoms at one point: Samaria to the North and Judah to the South. In her commentary on this text, Lisa Wolfe notes that Assyria destroyed Samaria in 722 BCE and came back to attack Judah, specifically Jerusalem in 701 BCE. She also shared that Assyrians were known to be particularly brutal in war: skinning captives alive, impaling people on stakes, and leading captives away by attaching them to each other by tethers tied to nose rings. The first people who heard this story would have known that history, and may have even sympathized with Jonah. They probably didn't want to go to Ninevah, either!

     Ninevah was so big that it would take three days to cross on foot. Jonah, finally convinced to do what God wanted, walked through the city shouting, "Forty days more, and Ninevah shall be overthrown!" While the Bible is full of people who ignore and sometimes kill prophets, surprisingly, the people of Ninevah listen to Jonah. They believe him. From the king down to the animals in the street, they all start getting their acts together. The king's decree says, "All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands." The king's hope is that if God sees them fasting and repenting, then God will be merciful towards them. It should be noted: this isn't even their God. But, their hearts have been convicted and they are going to try to change.

     In the first verses of our reading for the day, God sees them trying and God changes God's mind about destroying them. God in Jonah is not the "unmoved mover." God is willing to be changed, which is a valuable less of its own. You'd think that this outcome would be pretty exciting for a prophet. Well, it wasn't for Jonah.

     My Hebrew Bible professor Neal Walls has a commentary where he points out that Jonah is, by all rights and measures, is "the most successful of all Hebrew prophets." He manages to convert an entire ship of sailors, which is a pretty good amount of people, and the entire huge city of Ninevah, a city known for wickedness. And, yet, Jonah is so angry about the outcome of this prophesying trip. It is because Jonah was not measuring success by repentance. He was measuring it by punishment.

     I have heard more than one commenter point out that some Christians like the idea of hell and end times theology specifically because they want to see their enemies suffer. Jonah is similarly afflicted, and, as Walls points out, ends up hurling words like "merciful," "slow to anger," and "abounding in love"   like insults. "I knew you couldn't go through with it! That's why I didn't want to come on this mission in the first place!" He basically says, "I would rather die than watch you have mercy on them." God is completely surprised by this response.

     Then, Jonah marches out of the city in a huff and builds himself a pouting hut in which to wait while God to come to God's senses. God is merciful here, too, making sure that Jonah has shade. But, while being merciful, God needed to teach Jonah another lesson. This time God will use a worm to eat the shade tree rather than a big fish. Poor Jonah. Already bitter, but now even more petulant without the shade, Jonah says, "It is better for me to die than to live." God, he's dramatic.

     God asks Jonah, "Is it right for you to be mad that the plant was destroyed?" Jonah says, "Yes, angry enough to die." Then God says, "You're concerned about this bush, that you didn't have to work for or grow; it just showed up overnight and perished another night. And, should I not be concerned about Ninevah, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"

     This is where the book of Jonah stops. We don't know Jonah's response to God's expression for love for the formerly hateful people. This story isn't about God's special relationship with one nation. Instead, it is an affirmation of a universal belovedness of all people and animals. Every person has access to amend-making and repentance. And, this God is not high and far away and untouched. Instead, God, the one powerful enough to call up storms and send fish to eat whole humans, is vulnerable enough to be moved by the actions of a remorseful people. As Christopher Davis says in his commentary, "Every person who chooses to repent and to walk and work in righteousness is invited into relationship with God. That’s because God is a God of relationship." That means that for us, when we are called to work with God in this world, we might have to work with people we don't like very much.

     What does it mean for us to follow a God who gives oppressors the opportunity to repent? What does it mean for us to follow a God who knows how to work with our stubbornness to make a message clear? What does it mean for us to affirm that the God we follow can be changed by witnessing good faith efforts to do better? Might we ourselves be willing to offer a little more mercy if God can? Davis points out in his commentary: by the standards God had already set forth, God would have had the right to destroy Ninevah. God opted not to when it was clear that the Ninevites would opt for relationship instead. Inspired by our grouchy prophet, the repentant city, and our merciful God, let us be ready to witness real change in people and in nations. Mercy can bring about change. And, the world will be better for it.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Mary Joan Winn Leith's notes on Jonah in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)
Lisa Wolfe: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-25/commentary-on-jonah-310-411-4
Neal Walls: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-25/commentary-on-jonah-310-411-5
​Christopher Davis: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-25/commentary-on-jonah-310-41-11
Funny Jonah songs and memes:  
-Cat vs Whale: https://www.instagram.com/p/DaTY3qqT36B/ 
-Jonah walking into Ninevah: https://www.instagram.com/reels/C7nWKAEsPKY/ 
-Get In Loser, We’re Doing God’s Will: https://www.instagram.com/p/DYDsJuAN26l/ 
-God said, "Go": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-4jZdPPpZg 
-Veggietales "Jonah was a Prophet": https://youtu.be/2qLhAdA5ZXI?feature=shared 
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​Matthew 18:21-35  (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)
Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if my brother or sister sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him, and, as he could not pay, the lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him by the throat he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

     Thank you for worshiping with us today, the day we celebrate the founding of our church on September 4th, 1776. Our church is, as far as I have read, the second Christian church to be founded in what is now Kennebec, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, Franklin, and Oxford counties. Only the French-founded Catholic mission church that was destroyed in the massacre in Norridgewock predated us. Members of this church supported the abolition and temperance movements. We've supported Church World Service for at least as long as the longest-term members of our church have been around. Our longest serving pastor founded the first Church School in Maine and this church started a great program Fun After School program in the late-2000's. It outgrew us, and we passed it along to the school district. Members of this church have been to Honduras and have hosted our siblings in Christ from the Evangelical and Reformed Church of Honduras when they visited here.

     Over the years, this church has fed countless people pie and fish chowder, and knitted so many hats, scarves, and mittens. We've marched in protests together and snowshoed together on winter nights. And we make so much music together. Between our choir and our intergenerational church band, the Red Rug Revival, and our summer folks who offer up musical gifts while they are here in person with us, under the guidance of our fearless music leader Rosalea Kimball, we regularly demonstrate that you don't have to be a big church to sing and play faithful music. We've even been able to take the music on the road to Living Water Association meetings, where band members have played, and to the Maine Conference Annual Meeting, where Rosalea and choir members have led music and been a part of the pick-up choir for worship.

     Not everything has been easy or good or without conflict. There was a big, and apparently nasty, fight with the town about funding in the 1800's. Our longest serving pastor was eventually pushed to ask to be dismissed by people who couldn't put up with his staunch abolitionism anymore. At least twice there have been conversations about whether this church should merge with another. It took us ten years after the creation of the United Church of Christ to actually join, and some people were unhappy enough with the vote that they left the congregation. That's just the big conflicts! There’re the everyday ones, too: disagreements about Sunday School curricula, organizing style, and what we're going to do about any manner of issues with the building.

     As I said in my sermon last Sunday: there are fights in every church because every church is made of people, and people are good at fighting. That's why Jesus gave his friends instructions about how to fight better... fight with integrity and according to our shared values... fights that make space for harm to be named and people who face their accusers... fights with ways to make amends and offer forgiveness. When I thought about today's scripture on forgiveness and learning the lesson of mercy, I remembered a story that I first heard eight years ago and I think about often. It's about when our first church building was built.
The Europeans who first moved to this part of Wabanaki territory did not immediately start a church, which was unusual in the Massachusetts colony of the time. In many cases, in order to start a town, you had to start a church. That did not happen in Winthrop, though the town did set aside funds to hire preachers to come with some regularity. According to Everett Stackpole’s 1925 history of Winthrop, there was concern about the “declining morals” and “prevalence of impiety and vice” without the guidance of a church. Eventually, our church was founded in 1776. It took us a while to get a pastor, and it took us a while to get a building.

     It was challenging to keep a settled pastor. One died less than two years into his ministry. After his death, the church went 17 years without their own pastor, though they hired supply preachers regularly. As for the building, while money had been set aside for a church building, from the very first town meeting in 1771, there was no straightforward process for getting one built. There were a couple meeting houses planned and started, and eventually used for worship, even when incomplete. Baptists, Quakers, and Methodist began to move to this area as well. Rev. Thurston's hiring in the early 1800's began a time of steady, consistent vitality in our congregation. With more consistent leadership, I think it was easier, eventually, to build a fully functioning church building.

     I first heard this story about our building eight years ago, from my colleague Maggie Edmondson. It stuck in my brain, largely because I know that our church and the Friends Meeting get along quite well. But we didn't always. In 1824, our congregation planned a church raising. Like a barn raising, a church raising involves inviting the whole community to help do the work. Our church invited everyone to come help... everyone except for the Quakers. As Laurence Bagley said in his chapter on the religious history of Winthrop, "Hostility to the Society of Friends was a Puritan custom of long standing." Conflict between Congregationalists and Quakers started in England and traveled with early colonizers to this continent.

     It was really bad for a while in Massachusetts during the 1600s. Like, whippings, imprisonment, banishments, and public executions bad. I read an article by Carla Gardina Pestana who outlined many of the ways these two groups found each other spiritually lacking. For a group like early Congregationalists with a theological investment in orderliness, social hierarchies, and sustained labor as expressions of faithfulness, the Quakers, with their reliance on direct revelation from God, adherence to social practices that leveled hierarchies, and their willingness to be disruptive in order to communicate their religious message, were a threat to what they were trying to build on this land that they took from someone else. Mind you: the Quakers were not dangerous. But, the Congregationalists treated them as though they were.
Now, 1824 was not 1656. Both religious communities, led by the Spirit, had changed and adapted, so the tension was not the same in Winthrop as it had been almost 200 years earlier in Boston. Nevertheless, there was little love lost between them. The Congregationalists were definitely not going to invite them to help build the church. This lack of grace would eventually seem a blessing to the Friends.

     I have read Rev. Thurston's account of the accident that followed. It was terrible. There was an issue with the support of one of the beams the men were working on. The beam broke. Thirty to forty men fell twenty-six feet. I broke my ankle in two places and dislocated my elbow falling from five. You can imagine the injuries these men suffered. Three of them died. Rev. Thomas Newman Lord, who was raised in our church and preached at our 100th anniversary service, said of the day, "I was an eyewitness of that scene, and shall never forget it." He noted that the congregation was so traumatized that, when gathering for one of the men's funerals, they worried the old meeting house they were in might crumble as had the scaffolding. They nearly stampeded to get out to safety when someone thought they heard a crack in the floor. Fortunately, the building was safe and the pastor and leaders were able to regain calm and finish the service.

     Before the building was finished in 1825, there would be a second structural collapse, though with no fatalities. I read in both a 1925 history of Winthrop and a 1971 history of Winthrop that some Quakers might have "seen the hand of God raised in retribution" against the Congregational church in these two accidents. I am not sure if they have that as a direct quote from a member of the meeting or if it's more subtext. If you know the history of angst between our denominations, it might not surprise you that someone could have bad feelings in the wake of such an accident. But, if you know our two local congregations as they exist in this moment, you might find this animosity surprising. Because, now, we worship under the same roof.

     Two hundred more years has meant that our congregations share a building and pool our money to help neighbors who are financially struggling. We have fellowship together pretty regularly and have shared songs and prayers. The meeting gave a graduating senior from our church an award for his earth stewardship on his family's historical farm. I don't think our ancestors could have imagined this relationship in 1825. I also don't think there was some big apology or amend-making that drew us together. Begley argues that influential non-sectarian Missionary societies and Quaker Charles Bailey's Praying Band and revival meetings might have paved the way for more amicable ecumenical relationships. I also wonder if our shared commitments to justice helped, too.

    Not all kinds of mercy takes 400 years to come to fruition. Most mercy, amend-making, and forgiveness happens little by little, often with some effort. That's probably why Jesus said to forgive 77 times. Each act of forgiveness can become a building block to a more loving relationship. Each act of mercy from which we benefit can be the inspiration for an act of mercy we share with another. Forgiveness might take some time. Jesus said to do it anyway. The Spirit may just work in ways you couldn't begin to imagine.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Everett Stackpole's History of Winthrop Maine with Genealogical Notes, from 1925: https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1175&context=me_collection
Jon Von Rohr, The Shaping of American Congregationalism 1620-1957 (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1992)
Laurence Bagley's chapter "Religion in Early Winthrop," Winthrop 1771-1971, Charles Foster, ed.: https://dn710102.ca.archive.org/0/items/winthrop1771197100love/winthrop1771197100love.pdf
Carla Cardina Pestana, "The City Upon a Hill Under Siege: The Puritan Perception of the Quaker Threat to Massachusetts Bay, 1656-1661," The New England Quarterly Vol. 56, No. 3 (Sep, 1983), pp. 323-353, accessed through JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/stable/365396
Our church's centennial celebration booklet, complete with the text of various letters from former pastors and Rev. Lord's address: https://digitalmaine.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=wccucc_books

Matthew 18:15-20 Reproving Another Who Sins (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)
 
“If your brother or sister sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If you are listened to, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If that person refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a gentile and a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

     As I began my research for this sermon, I found a couple articles with great subtitles that I think are worth sharing. Dr. Eric Barreto has a commentary on this text with the first line: “Churches are full of troublesome people.” Dr. Audrey West has an article about this scripture with this first line: “Whenever two or more are gathered … it can be really hard to get along.” They are saying something that many of us who have been a part of churches for a while know to be true: People in churches fight. There’s never been a time when people in churches haven’t fought with each other, because fighting is a thing humans do. Some people are very good at it.

     While there is certainly unhealthy fighting... fighting that is abusive, mean-spirited, manipulative, and dangerous... conflict itself, isn’t always a problem. Well-intentioned, good-hearted, and thoughtful people disagree, often about important things.  Our goal in building any healthy relationships really shouldn’t be to strive for no conflicts. It should be to have conflicts that contribute to the health of our community, serve the aims of love and justice, and reflect the best of our values.

     In going through some of our digitized historical records this week, I came upon a booklet printed in honor of our 100th anniversary in 1876. It was printed at Rev. Thurston’s son’s print shop in Portland. Within the booklet is guest preacher and Winthrop native Rev. Thomas Newman Lord’s Centennial Address. One thing I appreciate about Rev. Lord is that he was both loving and truthful, so far as I can tell, about not just the celebrations of this church, but the challenges.

     Lord spoke of “three trials of the church” beyond the comings and goings of clergy. These conflicts were significant enough to shape the trajectory of the church, and in some cases, the town, for a very long time. All were during Rev. Thurston’s long ministry. The first was a conflict about money that I don’t fully understand. It seems that there were funds set aside to support the town calling a minister. At the time the fund was created, it appears to have been created to support finding a Congregational pastor. Eventually, as other denominations became established, they, too, wanted to have some of the funds. There was at least one lawsuit and even attempts to change legislation that are all described more fully in Everett Stackpole’s 1925 history of Winthrop that I will attempt to describe in this sermon.

     Eventually, to stop the fighting among neighbors, the church voted to tell the town council that, while money was ours, we would give it to the town for the school fund.  Even this act was greeted with a backbiting response from some on the council, whose official acceptance of the fund came with reiteration that it wasn’t only this church’s money to begin with and that the church, insisting that it was, was the problem in the first place. The whole ordeal sounds really messy and really disheartening... not the kind of conflict that is generative at all.

     The other two trials are more familiar to me. They are the arguments about temperance and slavery. Early Congregationalists imbibed as much rum as anybody else, but, in the 1800’s, many began to embrace the temperance movement. Their distrust of alcohol came from, in part, observing violence and neglect in families where people struggled with alcoholism. Rev. Thurston stopped drinking himself, and I believe pushed for using grape juice with communion, which is how we practice to this day. He tried to get the whole church to agree not to drink anymore, going so far as to intentionally preach on the text, “Wo [e] to the drunkards of Ephraim.” While many disagreed with him, eventually, the church would agree to embrace temperance. I do wonder how many people still had a little brandy at home for “medicinal purposes.”

     And, finally, he was a passionate campaigner against slavery, a moral question that would eventually drive our nation to war and split some entire denominations into pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions. I hope that none of us in this room will be tempted to say, when describing pro-slavery beliefs, that “it was simply a different time.” Many people in that era, including our pastor and members of this church knew that chattel slavery was wrong. Of Thurston, Lord said, “The pastor at this time was far in advance of his ministerial brethren on this subject.” Plenty of clergy, as well as lay Christians, chose slavery, and the economic system that relied on it, over the kind of neighbor love that Jesus demanded.

     While the church as a whole supported Thurston in his missionary work towards dismantling slavery, the people who supported owning humans and the people who were afraid to dismantle slavery with the radical quickness that was merited, worked together to push Thurston out. Technically, according to Lord, Thurston asked for a dismissal. But, that is only because they made it too hard to continue to pastor here. But, the moral question did not leave with Thurston. The next three pastors, Rev. Sawyer, Rev. Bowker, and Rev. Noble all had to attend to it during their time here as pastor. It is a wonder that the conflict at the heart of the Civil War did also not split this church in two. Churches have split over far less important, and less morally clear, issues.

     In my reading, I also spent some time reading the church manual from 1896. It includes articles of faith and covenant as well as by-laws to guide the church’s government and discipline. I was not at all surprised to see today’s reading explicitly named in the section on church discipline. Among the Duties of the church and its members is an instruction to address conflict in ways that reflect their religious values. The manual reads, “Any member having cause of complaint against another, should immediately seek to have it removed in a Christian manner-Matt. 18th chap., 15th and 16th verses, being our guide, especially in cases of personal offence.” Our church isn’t alone in using these scriptures to guide our fights. Jesus gave these instructions to the disciples so that they would have a process to allowed them to fight more faithfully. Just because people are troublesome, that doesn’t mean we can’t learn to do better.

     I see versions of the practice Jesus described being utilized at all levels of church. They are usually at the forefront of my mind as some of the best practices in addressing conflict here in this church. They also guide committees on ministry on the association level, and the work of our conference ministers and conference. 

     Even though other practices for addressing conflict are useful, in returning to these scriptures in particular, we are reminded of the commitments Jesus had when developing relationships and how those commitments should guide our behavior in community. In these instructions to people in conflict, Jesus is, as Audrey West describes in her commentary, encouraging the church to be a place that cultivates honest conversation and does not allow harmful behavior to go unaddressed. West notes that the verses preceding our reading are about protecting “little ones.” The basic assumption of this process of conflict mediation is that care is central to the act. We should care enough to listen when someone says we’ve harmed them. And, we should accompany someone in solidarity if harm cannot be rectified in an initial one-on-one conversation.

     Recalcitrance in the face of harm is not rewarded. Instead, there is a risk of being cast from community if one is not willing to make amends. Our old order for church discipline provided a process for hearing complaints, allowing someone to speak up for themselves, and for assuring that majority vote was necessary for any disciplinary process. While I know that these kinds of processes are used for harm all the time (one only has to listen to testimonies of survivors of church abuse to hear today’s reading evoked to do the harm it was intended to stop), in a healthy congregation, a process like this that requires what West calls “hearing and listening at every step” can go a long way towards creating a model for conflict resolution that is ultimately faithful and generative.

     We as a nation are in a season of conflict in which the loving and relational scaffolding that could help it feel constructive and useful has largely been dismantled in order to favor a few powerful people. This, however, isn’t the first time this church has been operating in the midst of arguments that seem intractable and are definitely unwieldy and often mean-spirited. We were not unchanged by those conflicts and will not be unchanged by the conflicts of this era. Perhaps one step to help us move forward to re-examine our faithful guidance, like today’s scripture, to remind us of Jesus’ own commitment to protecting the vulnerable and naming harm. Following the example of Christ and our forebears, may we fight for what is meaningful and just. May we fight with our commitment to care firmly in mind. May we fight better than many are fighting right now, so that love and justice are bound together on this earth.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Records of our 100th anniversary: https://digitalmaine.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=wccucc_books
Audrey West: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-23/commentary-on-matthew-1815-20
Eric Barreto: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-23/commentary-on-matthew-1815-20-5
Everett Stackpole's History of Winthrop, Maine, with Geneological Notes: https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/me_collection/175/
​1896 Church Manual: https://digitalmaine.com/wccucc_books/1/

Romans 12:9-21 Marks of the True Christian (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal; be ardent in spirit; serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; pursue hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” Instead, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. 

     Starting this last week and continuing for about ten days, school will be starting for many people in our church. Who here has started school already this week? And, who begins next week? Anybody after Labor Day? I think some of our college students and staffers have already started back. Back to school usually comes with some feelings, right? What kind of feelings can come up as we get ready for school to start? Even if you’ve been done with school for a long time, what feelings do you remember?

     The thing about starting school is that you’re gonna do it with feelings! You probably don’t even have to try to have the feelings or make them visible in your face or in how you act. They just show up and sometimes do want they want whether we like it or not. One of the things we can learn to do is pay attention to our feelings and how our bodies want to react to them. Sometimes how our bodies want to feel the feelings is fine and good! Crying, laughing, jumping up and down, shouting, squishing up into a little ball... all of those things are ok to do in the right space. Sometimes, though, we feel like we want to hurt someone or do things that might hurt ourselves. That’s a less helpful way for feelings to come out.

     I mention all this stuff about feelings and how we act on them because our scripture reading for the day is about how to let what is in our hearts shape how we act. The apostle Paul, who wrote what Sharon read for us today in a letter to a church in Rome, was trying to help them figure how to live in the world in a way that best reflected their feelings toward Jesus. Paul followed Jesus’ teaching: If you love Jesus, you behave in loving ways towards other people.

     Who can remember some of the ways that Paul described how a Christian should behave in the world?  (invite people to paraphrase the following):
12:9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good;
12:10 Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.
12:11 Do not lag in zeal; be ardent in spirit; serve the Lord.
12:12 Rejoice in hope; be patient in afflictions, persevere in prayer.
12:13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; pursue hospitality to strangers.
12:14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.
12:16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.
12:17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.
12:18 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
12:19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord."
12:20 Instead, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads."
12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

     None of us are perfect and act exactly like Paul thinks Christians should act all the time. Sometimes, we’re mean. Sometimes, we get scared and let the fear make us forget what’s most important. Sometimes, we encounter something new and don’t know what to do with it yet. Especially in times of tension and change, we can slip out of the behavior that represents how we want to live in the world. As I was thinking about today’s scripture, I remembered a story about a kiddo who had a hard day at school once. Since we’re talking about making the best of the school year, it seemed like a good time to share it with you all again.

     This is a true story. It happened to a woman named Dolly Parton when she was a little girl. Dolly would grow up to be a songwriter, singer, actress, and businesswoman who shared a lot of money to help other people and animals. She died this week. She wrote her first songs when she was five years old and learned to play the guitar when she was seven. She sometimes wrote stories about real things that happened to her. One of them was called “Coat of Many Colors.” It is one of her favorite songs that she ever wrote. A few years ago, Dolly worked with an illustrator named Brooke Boynton-Hughes to turn her song into a book. And I am going to read that to you.

(You can buy the book here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/coat-of-many-colors-10th-anniversary-edition-dolly-parton/74f2b85486ad6cf2?ean=9798217140640&bkshp-astro=t)  

(you can read the lyrics to the song here: https://genius.com/Dolly-parton-coat-of-many-colors-lyrics )

     So, remembering our Bible story from today and the story Dolly shared about her childhood, do we think that the kids at school who made fun of Dolly were acting like Paul said Christians should act? Some of these kids went to church with Dolly, by the way. And most of them went to some kind of church in the community. Right! Paul never told Christians to be mean to people who wore different clothes or who didn’t have money for new clothes. In fact, he said to help people when they need it. That’s probably why someone gave Dolly’s mom the old pieces of cloth to begin with: To help her have enough fabric to make clothes for her kids. Dolly’s classmates could have been nice like that person was, but they weren’t.

     What are some things that Dolly’s classmates could have said that were more in line with how Paul thought Christians should treat their neighbors? (Wait for responses) Those are all great ideas! Also, I want to point out that Dolly tried to teach them about gratitude and beauty when they were mean to her. That sounds like something Paul would have appreciated. I hope she talked with her teacher about it, too, though. If lots of people are picking on you, an adult should be there for support and to make them stop. One of her friends might have tried to stand up for her, too.

     I hope everyone has a good beginning of the school year. And, if you already started school and it hasn’t been great, I hope that it gets better. I gave this sermon the name “Once more, with feeling” because everyone who is going back to school is trying school again, but in a new year. I hope the feeling you can start with is love- love from God and your church, love from your family and friends, and care from your school. I also hope that you can start with excitement and joy. If worry or dread pops up, like they do sometimes, I hope you have someone you can talk about those feelings with. I can be one of those people, and so can other people here at church. That’s part of being church: taking care of each other in the midst of challenges in life. That’s another thing Paul said. Our church will also offer a blessing today to help show the love we know God has for you and we have for you. May the harmony we share today be carried with you into your school. And may you have the support you need so that this school year is a success.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Dolly Parton, Coat of Many Colors, illustrated by Brooke Boynton-Hughes (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 2016)
Lyrics to "Coat of Many Colors": https://genius.com/Dolly-parton-coat-of-many-colors-lyrics
Nancy Lammers Gross: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-22/commentary-on-romans-129-21-7
​Illustrated Ministry's Backpack tags and liturgy: https://store.illustratedministry.com/collections/backpack-tags/products/you-and-me-were-neighbors-backpack-tags
​

Exodus 1:8-2:10 The Israelites Are Oppressed (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)
Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians subjected the Israelites to hard servitude and made their lives bitter with hard servitude in mortar and bricks and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them.
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and allowed the boys to live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”
Birth and Youth of Moses
Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.
The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it.  When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

     Today’s reading is about an insecure, powerful man who becomes a danger to refugees. Israelites, also called Hebrews in this part of the Bible, have been in Egypt for a while. They are integrated into the community as neighbors. They came to Egypt as climate refugees fleeing a famine. Joseph, who had ended up in a place of power, despite his brothers’ attempts to destroy him, had opted to use his power to save the people who had wanted him gone. We should remember how Joseph chose mercy and care rather than retribution. He was able to save his family. Within the narrative, the descendants of Israel, the man, begin to become known not just as one family, but as a nation. That national identity is deeply shaped by living under and then escaping an insecure, powerful man who controls a nation capable of great violence.

     In her notes on the book of Exodus, Judith Sanderson talks about God’s purposes in liberating Israel. They are primarily relational. God will claim these people as God’s own (ch 6 vs 7). God will set them aside as a unique nation with particular relationship to God (19:5-6). God will also commit to dwell among them (29.46). The foundation of the covenant that will later be agreed upon in the wilderness is these acts of liberation and connection. According to Sanderson, because God offered liberation, the people will be expected to act in a particular way in response. Religious law and communal practice will be a response to the liberative acts described in the stories we call Exodus. Liberation begins in the actions of competent, dedicated women responding to actions of the violent, powerful man.

     In her book called Womanist Midrash, Dr. Wil Gafney notes that while undoubtedly countless women are among the Israelites, Exodus only names a handful of them. The first two are in our reading for today: Shifrah and Puah, the midwives. “Midwives are uniquely built for chaos,” is one of my favorite lines in Dr. Kimberly Russaw’s commentary on this text. “Midwives are uniquely built for chaos.” This might go for anyone who works in labor and delivery. Anything can happen at the hours leading up to, during, and the time shortly after birth. It is no small thing to carry life into the world. It is dangerous. It is exciting. It is hard, and it can be beautiful. The people who train to support those who are pregnant and the little ones they bring into this world train for chaos. They train for the harrowing and the awe-inspiring. They don’t usually train to cause harm, which is what the Pharoah demands of them.

     The disobedience of these two midwives likely feels familiar to any of us who are acquainted with people who have chosen not to comply with wicked demands. Within the story, we have a counter example to them: the taskmasters or overseers Pharoah appoints. In her commentary on this text, Mary Alice Mulligan points out how they clearly go along with the new oppressive treatment of the Israelites, apparently without question. Verse 13 says, “The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites.” This whole story could have been different had people chosen not to be cruel to their neighbors. We have seen what happens when neighbors opt for love and organizing over cruelty and fear-mongering. It’s powerful. It is too bad that the overseers opted to abandon the Israelites. We don’t have to make choices like they did.

     In her commentary, Russaw wrote, “Pharaoh commands the two who wake up every morning prepared to craft birth announcements to write obituaries.” Their orders are so clearly antithetical to their calling and training that, even with danger at hand, they disobey the ruler. They let the boys live and come up with a wild explanation that the Pharaoh believes (because he is foolish). “These Hebrew women are strong and get their babies born before we can even get there!” It appears that his order was to happen secretly, so the parents didn’t know what was happening. Dispatching a child that has been born would have gotten them more attention that Pharoah initially wanted. Their quick assessment of the kind of story that would work on him bought them time to save more kids and also have their own children.

     Those who use power for control will not always stop when initial attempts are thwarted. Once the midwives outsmart him, he shifts tactics and demands all Egyptians partake in violence, commanding people to throw any Hebrew babies that they learn are boys into the Nile. He wants to implicate not just an overseer class, but an entire nation in violence. Again, he found everyday people willing to do violence against their neighbors. Again, imagine how the story could have been different had the people stood up for their neighbors... had they come up with a smart plan... had they hidden children... had they helped people escape... had they joined up with the Hebrews and together overthrown the Pharoah. The story shows a majority populace largely willing to do harm in a way that I’ve seen several scholars describe as genocidal.

     While stories of the tactics of survival of oppressed people are not always shared outside of their circles of care for safety reasons, one story of the women in one family’s brilliance becomes a vital part of the history of the Hebrew people. A man and a woman marry and conceived a child. We learn in chapter 6 that their names are Amran and Jochebed, though they are unnamed in today’s scripture. Jochebed would go to extraordinary lengths to save her son. Dr. Gafney, in Womanist Midrash, notes that within her very name is a connection to her God. The first syllable, “yo” is the same as the beginning of the Hebrew word for their God. Gafney says that her name means something like “the honor or weightiness of God.” Given that she is a descendant of the refugees, born in Egypt, she has likely watched, in real time, the change of treatment of her people. What she saw and experienced made her committed to living a life beyond that which Pharoah planned for her.

     She opted to bear children, even under the shadow of violence. Her daughter Miriam, introduced in 2.4 and named in 15.2, would grow up seeing adults constructing meaningful lives despite the hatred from Pharoah. She would be inspired to help her mother save her baby brother born after common Egyptians were ordered to kill Hebrew baby boys. First, she hides and cares for the baby for three months. Can you imagine hiding a whole baby successfully for that long? Babies are so loud! But she does it successfully. But, she can’t hide him forever.

     Scripture does not tell us that she knew that someone would find the baby and take care of him. We could imagine that she knew that the Pharoah’s daughter frequented this part of the river. Or, maybe she knew of Egyptians who’d had mercy on babies they’d found. Wil Gafney points out that there had been a well-known story of a hero king of Assyria who was said to have been placed in a basket in the river by his own mother. He survived to become a leader. Whatever her inspiration or justification, Jochebed put the baby in a basket and Miriam kept an eye on him from a distance.

    Pharoah’s daughter is kinder than her father. She found a baby and opted to care for him, even though he was Hebrew and her father had ordered her to harm him. Miriam, smart as can be, pops out of the reeds where she’d been hiding and offers to find her a Hebrew woman to nurse the child. In this moment, Jochebed is restored to her son. We don’t know how long she had with him. Nursing can go on for a while- four, five, or six years. Did she get all of that time with him?  We don’t know if anyone but Jochebed and Miriam knew what their connection truly was.  We don’t even know what Amran thought about this. No men play any part in this story of salvation. Eventually, Jochebed turns her son, who is called Moses, over the princess to be raised as young prince, grandson of the murderous Pharoah.

     We don’t know when Moses learned the truth of his ancestry. Maybe he carried it with him from childhood. Kids can tell us the truth about who they are from a young age, if we listen. Jochebed could have worked every day to make sure he knew as much as he could soak up by her side.  Or, maybe his adopted mother told him the truth when she felt he was ready. We know she’s brave. Maybe she was that kind of brave. Or, maybe he heard it through gossip and conjecture. After all, the princess’s attendants saw him be drawn out of the water. However he comes to know this truth about himself, it will shape his whole life. It will become the foundation of his calling as an adult.

     When we read this story, it’s clear who the heroes are, and it’s clear that we are supposed to act like them. When told to do harm, they show us the correct response: let the vulnerable live. Do not follow wicked rules. Do not be a tool for the hateful. Use all of your wit and wisdom to outsmart the evil systems that surround you. When governments turn to fear-mongering to prop up their power, this story reminds us that 1) wicked and unserious leaders have been doing that for a long time and 2) it is possible to survive in spite of them. May we be the Midwives, the Mothers, and the Big Sisters who take the first steps towards God’s Liberation.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
​Sara M. Koenig: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-21/commentary-on-exodus-18-210-2
Kimberly Russaw: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-21/commentary-on-exodus-18-210
Wil Gafney, Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of Torah and the Throne. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017.
Judith Sanderson’s notes on Matthew in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocrypha, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)
Mary Alice Mulligan, “Proper 16,” Preaching God’s Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary, Year A featuring 22 New Holy Days for Justice (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013)

Matthew 15:10-28 Things That Defile (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)
 
Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand:  it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach and goes out into the sewer? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”

​Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that moment.

    Last week, we talked about how Jesus seemed to be testing the disciples to see what they would do without him being physically with him. It was a hard test. It took everything they had, but they made it through the night, Peter’s water-walking escapades notwithstanding. At the end of the ordeal, they found themselves saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” Something had changed within them overnight, and it made their faith stronger.

     In a commentary on last week’s text, Mitzi Smith notes that Jesus had changed within the story, too. I didn’t talk about her commentary last week, but it seems important to bring up this week. When talking about Matthew 14:22-33, Dr. Smith points out that Jesus’ time in the mountains at the beginning of the story is worth paying attention to. Though this story is not specific about what he does there, if his pattern for this time in the wilderness holds true, he likely spent the time there in prayer and away from the crowds who needed his help. It is after this time away, that the story tells us that Jesus’ power in manifest in dramatic ways in the story.

     First, he walks on water towards his friends. Remember, they think he’s a ghost. And, after Jesus and the disciples get to land, and the crowds find him, we learn that it is possible to simply touch his cloak and be healed. That is no small amount of power. Dr. Smith says, “After his time of self-care, Jesus is empowered from his head to the sole of his water-walking feet and at the fringe of his garment (14:34-36).” Smith notes while there are earlier stories of people touching Jesus’ clothes for healing, at this point, it hasn’t happened since chapter 9: 20-21.

     In that story, a desperate and faithful woman secretly reached out for Jesus in hopes that just touching him will heal her from years of constant bleeding. It worked. The people in chapter 14 are doing something similar, though they don’t feel like they have to hide their actions from Jesus. They feel empowered enough to reach right out. Healing comes through a rested and powerful Christ meeting faithful and empowered people who trust that his healing will be shared easily. That background sets the scene for today’s reading.
Today’s reading isn’t always preached all together. I could have had our reading simply read the argument between Jesus and the Pharisees in verses 10-20 or read only chapter 21 to chapter 28, the story of a new empowered woman looking to Jesus for healing. It is easy to split this chapter here based on who is interacting with Jesus and what they are talking about. I think when I’ve preached on this story before, I’ve just talked about the woman. This week, I’m glad I read about the argument with the Pharisees first because I think it helps explain some of Jesus’ initial reaction to the Canaanite woman and why their interaction is so powerful.

     According to Anderw Overman, verses 10-20 are part of a longer conversation about Jewish religious law. Jesus and the Pharisees both thought it was important to follow Jewish religious law as a sign of one’s covenant with God. As you know, few people argue more fiercely than people who both love something and disagree about it. Jesus (and many other Jewish people) argued that it was most important to honor the spirit intended behind the religious law, not just the exact wording. In the first part of chapter 15, they are talking about laws governing ritual purity, specifically around handwashing, and laws about food.

     Ultimately, Jesus’ foundational argument is that the thing that demonstrates most clearly your commitment to God is not exacting attention to purity rituals and food, but instead are your words and behaviors. Whatever goes into the mouth can be released to the sewer. Whatever comes out of the mouth comes from the heart. If that which is your heart is good, your words and actions with usually be good. If evil intent is in your heart, your words and deeds will spread that out into the world. “These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.” He never says not to follow the purity codes. He does say do not argue about who is following them perfectly. That is not the most important part of their shared faith. Increasing the love and justice in the world is.

     Jesus says all of that and then proceeds to deny a faithful person healing because they don’t follow purity laws. That’s basically what happens in the next part of the story. Jesus left Jerusalem and the conversation with the Pharisees and has an encounter with a Canaanite woman in Tyre and Sidon, in Syria. The author of Matthew notes that she is Canaanite, according to Eunjung Lim in her commentary on this text, as a kind of shorthand to say “these people aren’t really supposed to be talking to each other because of ethnic, religious, and gender differences.” She is a member of Israel’s ancient enemy nation. She does not keep ritual purity codes. And, she is a woman who not related to Jesus or his disciples. Jesus has been taught his whole life not to hang out with the likes of her.

     This woman, however, like the bleeding woman before her and the empowered people Jesus met after the boat incident, is faithful. She is confident Jesus can heal her daughter. She also likely knows that he’s not supposed to spend time with her. She doesn’t care. She knows he can make things right. So, she approaches him with the greatest respect she can: “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” In her commentary on chapter 15, Mitzi Smith points on that in calling Jesus “Son of David,” this woman might not just be describing Jesus’ Jewishness and identity as Messiah. She might also be reminding him that three of David’s ancestors were Canaanite women: Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth. These are also Jesus’ ancestors. In calling him “lord,” it is also an acknowledgement of his role as teacher and healer. And, she names clearly the suffering of her loved one. This action on its own is often enough to drive Jesus into action.

     It is not this time. In fact, he is deeply unkind to her in his response. This woman, who has demonstrated faith and respect for covenant in her works an action, the thing Jesus has said is most import in the argument right before this, is denied care because of her identity as one outside of religious covenant, a covenant which is made visible, in part, by keeping purity codes and eating food in a particular way. His disciples told him to run her off. He said to her face, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” She said, again, “Lord, help me.” He said, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” He called her and her suffering child a dog.

     Thank God this woman, like Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth, is faithful and brave. She’s gonna help her daughter. With that love in her heart, she puts these words into the world, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” In that moment, Jesus is changed. In that moment, he decided to practice what he had been preaching. He sees her for what she is: a powerful example of living a life rooted in love and keeping promises. And, this is basically what he has told his disciples to be. “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” While we don’t see the daughter in any of the story, the narrator tells us that she is instantly healed.

     Jesus is not the only one who has been caught not living up to his stated morals, or, at the very least, thinking too narrowly about his mission. He can actually offer love, healing, and connection beyond his own religious community. His own family line was an example of people who disrupted what Dr. Lim calls “entrenched social divisions.” Perhaps he just needed to be reminded that love and justice are needed in the whole world. May we be so quick to change our minds when shown that we aren’t practicing what we preach. And, when leaders we trust aren’t living up to their promises, may we be as bold as this woman in reminding them that grace is best shared with all who need it. Let us know that God means more for us than merely crumbs. May our actions and our words demonstrate our faith in that promise.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Mitzi Smith on Matthew 14:22-33: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-19/commentary-on-matthew-1422-33
Mitzi Smith on Matthew 15:10-28: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-20/commentary-on-matthew-1510-20-21-28-4
J. Andrew Overman's note on Matthew in the The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)
​Eunyung Lim: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-20/commentary-on-matthew-1510-20-21-28-7

Matthew 14:22-33 Jesus Walks on the Water (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

Immediately he made the disciples get into a boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

     On a recent Friday night, I accidently called and woke up a Catholic priest at 10:30 pm. Now, I did not mean to call the priest directly, nor have I ever actually met this particular priest. I was just trying to help one of my oldest friends in the world verify that said priest had actually planned to officiate her mother’s funeral two days later. It turns out that I, a pastor, have had a lot more experience planning funerals than most non-clergy that I know. I wasn’t able to travel to Knoxville for the funeral because it was the same weekend we were leaving for Montreal, so I was trying to use my pastoral experience as best as I could to offer guidance and care from afar.

     What I was trying to do that late on a Friday was find out if the priest had left an emergency or weekend number on the church office voicemail. I don’t know if you know that we clergy do that sometimes, but we do. I’ve called a lot of pastors in my life, so I knew that. I decided to call the church office and listen to the message to see what it said. Well, in case you ever need to call Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Knoxville, Tennessee in order to listen to the office answering machine, I would like to tell that you should not call them at 10:30 pm. Because, unlike our church, where you would reach the voicemail at that time of time, the pastors of that church have the office phone forwarded to their personal cell. They will politely and drowsily answer a call that comes that late. And, you will have to figure out what to say to that tired man.
I fumbled at first, professionally and personally embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you would answer. It is not an emergency, and I can call back tomorrow.” He kindly said, “Can I help you?” I decided to press on: “I am a friend of Pat Davenport’s family and I’m trying to help them finalize her arrangements.” He sleepily informed me that the associate pastor of the church was going to her graveside service. I said thank you and that her daughter would likely call with more logistic information on Saturday, and thanked him, again. He said “God bless you” and hung up the phone. I was left with the sense that he was kind and a good pastor.

     I left a voice note for Jennie explaining what happened, which was followed by a phone call (we are both night owls, unlike her mom’s priest). She laughed so hard about what had happened. As did her husband, who sent me a text, calling me “legendary.” Her sister appreciated the confirmation that they would, indeed, have a priest to bury their mom. She and the church admin talked more details on Saturday at a normal time of day. As Tasha and I began our travels, I learned that the senior pastor, who’d I’d woken up, officiated the funeral on Sunday, and the associate, the graveside on Monday. They were good pastors to my friends. And, I got to help my friends laugh a little at a very hard time even though I was so far away.

     In his commentary on this text, Arthur Van Seters talks about this portion of Matthew as giving us a view of the disciples evolving in their ministry. He reminds us that the original audience for this Gospel was a particular congregation that was being targeted for persecution. The author tells Jesus’ story in such a way to inspire them to persevere in the midst of hardship. Even Jesus’ direction to the disciples to get in the boat and go to the other side of the water might be considered its own test of their training and skills. As Van Seters says, “What would it be like for the disciples to venture out on their own?” Would they do the thing Jesus asked of them? How would they handle something unexpected?

     I bet that you’ve had your own deep end experiences... times when you have ostensibly got the skills to handle something, but it’s been thrust upon you in a way that you maybe didn’t expect or weren’t sure you could handle. My first on-call as a chaplain resident was the weekend that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. They brought some evacuees up from Louisiana to Knoxville, and since it was the weekend, I was the only chaplain in the whole big hospital that was also the main level 1 trauma center for the region. I did have back up if I needed it, and my supervisor came by to help me organize some clothing donations for the evacuees. That being said, though, for those 24 hours, it was mostly just me providing pastoral care for evacuees plus all of our regular patients.

     Zina Jaque, in her commentary on this text, talks about the boat adventure that Jesus compelled his friends to go on this way. “Jesus did not give the disciples a choice. He put them in that boat the way a teacher puts a test on your desk. You did not ask for it. You may not be ready for it. But it is here, and you are going to take it.” Take a moment to think about your deep end experiences. Did you feel confident that you had the skills? Did you feel like you had back up? Did you feel ready?

     To be fair to Jesus, some bad stuff had happened just before this story. A feckless and foolish king had killed his cousin John. John’s disciples had had to bury him and were still trying to figure out their next steps. While Jesus was still in mourning, he found himself surrounded by crowds of people needing help. The first story after John’s death is Jesus having compassion on these crowds of hungry people and feeding them. It’s the second of two stories about Jesus taking a little bit of food and using it to feed thousands of people. It is interesting that in that story, Jesus’ disciples are sure they don’t have enough to help everyone, and Jesus reminds them that they do. They have enough and more!

     Maybe that’s why he sent them across the water, especially in the wake of watching John’s disciples try to figure out what to do without him. Jesus knew that his disciples still needed to gain some confidence and experience. What happens when he goes out to greet them on the water is far more shocking that a priest answering a phone call at 10:30 at night.

     “It’s a ghost!” That’s what they say when they see him atop the water. This is actually a reasonable response from the disciples. It is reasonable to be afraid, especially if you’ve been stuck in a storm on the water all night and then also are maybe seeing your wholly human friend walk on water like some weird little lizard. Jesus, wholly divine, tells them, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter very much wants to not be afraid. And, he tries to take heart. And, he got scared anyway because he was doing something impossible in a terrifying situation.

     Thank God, like me and like you, he had back up. Jesus offered him a hand and kept him from sinking. Jesus’ next words can sound like a castigation, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Maybe it is, at least a little. But, maybe it’s also, “you could have done this,” or even “you didn’t have to do this, and when you tried, you got in over your head.” Jacque offers up that second interpretation in her commentary. Peter had tried to test Jesus back and wasn’t prepared for it. You see, Jesus had told them to go out into the boat. He hadn’t told them to walk on water. Peter decided to do that on his own. That, it turns out, was beyond his skills and training. He needed Jesus to help him out.

     Though they were terrified, the disciples in the boat had managed to survive the storm. They were also pretty relieved when it stopped when Peter and Jesus climbed back in the boat. It is at this moment that everyone who stayed in the boat says for the first time in the Gospel of Matthew, according to Zina Jaque, “Truly you are the Son of God.” Jacque also notes that this phrase is only spoken once more in this gospel: at the foot of the cross, by the centurion. For Jacque, these confessions are connected because the events that inspired them are connected. Each is a hardship Jesus compelled his followers to go through. Each has a miracle they don’t understand. I believe that making it through the first, helped them get through the second. And, I hope that the centurion was as inspired to live differently as the disciples were after their deep end experience.

     In a challenging season, I imagine that many of us will see ourselves in the disciples here, trying to do what Jesus said to do, but realizing that it’s really hard.... maybe even doing more than is asked of us and getting in over our heads. May we remember that a moment may be difficult, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t exactly where Christ compelled us to go. And, may we ask for back up when we’ve tried something beyond our capacity. When, we’re asked, “Can I help you,” let us be brave enough to say yes, and press on to what we were called to do in the first place. In so doing, we will help the people we love and strangers alike.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:

Arthur Van Seters notes on Proper 14 in Preaching God's Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary, Year A featuring 22 New Holy Days for Justice (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013)

Zina Jaque: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-19/commentary-on-matthew-1422-33-7

J. Andrew Overman's note on Matthew in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)

Genesis 32:22-31 Jacob Wrestles at Peniel (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)
The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.

Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed.”

hen Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

     Tasha and I spent a week in Montreal and every day I walked to get a croissant for breakfast, usually pan au chocolat. It was glorious. I was usually greeted by one of two styles of kind people: someone who heard my accent and offered to switch to English or someone who slowed down their French to help me understand. This is not the first time I have traveled to a place where I am not fluent in the most common language, but it is always good to be reminded that there are many ways to encourage communication and welcome people who speak a different language than you. I also know that I was a tourist in a touristy area of a province where there is long and on-going tension around language, cultural heritage, and political sovereignty.  Decisions about when and if to speak English are more complex than having an impulse to simply and kindly help someone buy food from you. When I read about Jacob’s wrestling in our scripture for today, I think about Montreal, and the wrestling I was a part of in my brief visit there.

     I won’t pretend that I’ve become an expert on Montreal or Quebec after spending a week there. There are people in this church with family histories in Quebec who know far more than I do from their own lived experience. But, I saw some things in the city that I thought were interesting, especially knowing that in our own country, we are in the midst of significant tension about how to tell the history of a place and whose stories get told. Montreal is known as a city with a vibrant art scene and beautiful public art. In 2017, during the Montreal’s 375th anniversary celebration, the city unveiled a project called Cité Mémoire. It is a series of interactive projections around the city. If you have the app with the map on your phone, you can walk to the areas where the projections have been installed and use your phone to start the video which is displayed on a wall of a building. They projections are huge and hard to miss.

     I didn’t learn about the project until late in our trip after seeing a projection near where we stayed in Old Montreal. We rounded the corner while taking our dog Mikey on his last walk for night and saw a haunting image on the wall ahead of us. White figures with shadowed faces, including a child, are hovering over and pointing accusatorily at a terrified looking adult Black woman. As the white figures fade and flames begin to lick up the walls, the woman begins to run for her life.  As she runs, the image shifts and becomes a Black man, a baseball player, running hard between bases.

     A bit of internet searching helped me to learn who these people were. The woman is Marie-Josèphe Angélique, an enslaved woman tried and convicted in 1734 after being accused of setting a fire that burned a hospital and 45 homes. She maintained her innocence through her conviction until authorities began the torture prescribed as punishment. She, like many people, confessed in the midst of unspeakable pain. She was hanged and her remains burned, ashes scattered as a warning.

     I read in one article that, originally, her story was the only story in this part of the project and the film had more about her trial. However, at some point, by 2021, the artists had shortened it and added a connection to the ballplayer, Jackie Robinson to the visual narrative. Robinson played for the Montreal Royals, a farm team of the Brooklyn Dodgers. His first game was April 18th, 1946. The Dodgers sent him to the Royals to prepare for eventually playing in Brooklyn. Robinson, who would go on to be the first Black player in the major leagues, and his wife Rachel spoke of his time in Montreal largely positively from what I’ve read.

     Robinson faced persistent, hateful racism, especially from opposing fans in away games. But, Montreal largely embraced him as a player, and his family found a safe apartment to rent and good neighbors who supported them as they had their first child. The Montreal fans were excited to see how good Robinson was, and Black fans from other cities came to watch him play.  When Robinson wasn’t allowed to stay in the team hotel in three games of a championship series that took place in Jim Crow Kentucky, Montreal fans were angry about how poorly he was treated. Eventually, Mrs. Robinson would describe their year in Montreal as “almost blissful.” Though 15 of the 16 baseball clubs in Major League Baseball voted to prevent him from joining the Dodgers, the commissioner over-rode the vote. Robinson was allowed to begin playing with the Dodgers three days shy of a year from his debut in Montreal.

     I can understand the impulse to pair one pretty horrifying story from Montreal’s past with one far more celebratory. Of course, we’d want to see the progression of the ethos of the city, moving from an unfair trial of a captive Black woman to a protective celebration of a Black man over the course of 190 years. And, I also wonder, given that the original projection is right in the middle of bars and restaurants full of revelers nearly every night of the summer, maybe some people thought that the terror of the original piece was “bringing down the vibe” of a joyous part of the city. This is the challenge of the public memorial.

     How does one tell the hardest truths of a place while also speaking about that which is gracious and good? I think about this when I talk about the American Missionary Association. Our own Rev. Thurston co-founded it. I graduated from a wonderful school founded by AMA. They also ran terrible, violent residential schools and misappropriated funds raised by the Fisk University Jubilee Singers. This is part of my history that I wrestle with. It’s probably not the reason why my hip hurts sometimes, but it does weigh on me.

     I know from experience that telling a more complex story about a place, a person, an organization is challenging. We shouldn’t discount the fact that we may be changed by choosing to tell the story differently. Jacob was changed with his wrestling. His persistence garnered him a new name and an injury that changed how he moved through the world. He was so affected by what had happened to him, by the effort and effect of the wrestling, that he even gave the site of the wrestling a name, Penuel, “For I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved." I don’t know exactly what you are wrestling with right now, but I also know that there’s no shortage of things to be sorted out at this moment. Maybe this art that I’ve shared can serve as one example of what I think is a useful and good struggle. May you have the resilience you need to find your way to blessing on the other side. And, may you hang on as long as you need to to get the name that will carry you forth with God.

Resources consulted to write the sermon:
about Marie-Josèphe Angélique:

• https://canadianmysteries.ca/sites/angelique/accueil/indexen.html
• https://wams.nyhistory.org/life-story/marie-josephe-angelique/
• https://lejeuneinstitute.ca/marie-joseph-angelique-a-symbol-of-resistance-and-freedom/
• https://www.mcgill.ca/race-space/article/reading-group-contributions/placing-angelique

Jackie Robinson: https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/jackie-robinson-and-the-montreal-royals
Cité Mémoire:

• https://www.montrealenhistoires.com/en/cite_memoire_montreal/
• https://www.montrealenhistoires.com/archives_en/