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| St. Paul on the Areopagus |
Back in my home congregation in Long
Beach, California way back in the day, there was this really nice family, the
Shireys. The Shireys, Ken and Marge and their two sons Mark and Paul, were
regular Sunday morning fixtures at St. Luke’s Lutheran. I’ve written before
about Mark[i], a totally brilliant man
and, quite possibly, the weirdest dude I’ve ever known (and I’ve known some
weird dudes!). His brother Paul was quiet and more reserved, but also pretty
darn smart.
You might imagine that having two
genius boys in one household might be a recipe for sibling rivalry, but this wasn’t
the case with the Shirey boys. The story, as I heard it, was once when they
were very young, Mark and Paul got ready for an all-out, down-and-dirty fist
fight as brothers are sometimes wont to do. This pugilistic attempt at
fraternal bloodletting had barely gotten underway when the boys noticed their mother
was watching them. Marge was horrified, and, rather than scolding the two combatants,
she just started to cry. The boys were struck to the heart. They immediately
declared a truce, apologized to their mom for their behavior, and—as far as I
know—never fought again.
Never underestimate the influence
of a mom.
In the Gospel Lesson appointed in
the RCL for Easter 6, Year A (John 14:15-21) Jesus sounds for all the world
like a stereo-typical Jewish mother. “If you love me,” he says, “you’ll keep my
commandments.” (Using a little guilt there, Jesus?) If you think about
it, you’d never want to hurt or betray someone if you really loved them. The
Shirey boys’ love for their mother stopped their squabbling and brought them to
a place of obedience. So, our love for Jesus and our knowledge that our selfish
disobedience wounds the heart of God should put the brakes on our natural
inclination to act like jerks. If it doesn’t, just think what your mom would
say if she saw you doing that thing or saying that thing you were taught not to
do or say!
Our moms, whether living or
deceased, have a way of staying with us. There’s always a grain of our
upbringing planted in our hearts, and we are never without it. In our Gospel
Lesson, Jesus promises his beloved friends (and us too) that we will never be
without him. He will not leave us orphaned, he says, as he gives us a
basic lesson in understanding the Holy Trinity. It’s like this: Jesus is in
God. God is in Jesus. Jesus is in us, so God is in us, too.
I may not be the world’s best
Confirmation teacher. The sad part about that job is I can’t give anyone faith.
I wish I could, but in reality, I can only give my young students information.
Real faith comes from God’s Holy Spirit. The Spirit can call us through the
written Gospel, but I think she’s most effective when she calls us through the
Gospel witnessed in a life lived with piety, honesty, and love. Nothing is a
more powerful witness than the love of someone who loves the Lord.
But what if that witness isn’t
there? I think what we’re looking at now with Gen-Z is the first generation raised
without any religious background at all. Gen-X and Millennial parents may have
abandoned the Church because it was simply assumed a religious tradition would
be important to them because it had been important to their parents or
grandparents. Going to church was “the right thing to do.” But that was not a
sufficient enough reason for them to pursue religious observance. They needed
mentoring in the faith. They needed more open dialogue. They needed safety to
question. Basically, they needed more than we in the Church were willing or
prepared to give them.
But there’s good news. Young people
coming of age now are a generation of seekers. They may not know anything about
the Christian faith, but that means they don’t carry the baggage of
preconceived ideas. They’re like the Athenians in the First Lesson (Acts
17:22-31) of whom Paul says, “I see how extremely spiritual you are in every
way.” They’re willing to listen and learn a little something about the “unknown
God.”
Since this message will be
delivered on Mother’s Day, I’ll point out that there are now some wonderful
women’s voices[ii]
articulating the faith for a new generation of curious young adults who are
looking for something authentic and meaningful. But possibly the most
influential voice is still that of your own mother. How did she show you the
Gospel? What did her faith mean to her? If your mom’s still alive, you might
want to have a chat with her about her spiritual life. If you are a mom,
you might want to have a talk with your kids about their spiritual life.
It might be a nice way to celebrate the day.
Thanks for reading this week. Happy
Mother’s Day, and may God bless your witness!
[ii] Off
the tip of my head, I’m thinking of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah
Mullally. She’s the first woman to head the Worldwide Anglican Communion, and
she and Pope Leo seem to be getting on famously. Bishop Marianne Budde,
Episcopal Bishop of Washington, DC, has been another voice raised for people on
the margins. The outrageous Nadia Bolz-Weber has been named the ELCA’s
first-ever “Pastor of Public Proclamation, articulating the Gospel for a new generation
and lifting up those left outside the church doors. Professor Elaine Pagels of
Princeton University is one of the most authoritative voices about the origins
of our scriptures and the writings of the Early Church. I also recommend the
writings of the late Rachel Held Evans, a contemporary writer taken from us way
too soon, but someone who really understood the current generations’ longing
for authentic faith. There are other women writers and scholars I like too, but
I mention these five because they’re all mothers and it’s Mother’s Day.
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