A rare ‘scripted’ sermon from the “grand finale” Delaware-Maryland Synod Assembly worship. The readings (I reference all 3 readings in the sermon) are 2 Timothy 1:3-14, Psalm 139:1-14, and John 17:9-23 and start at 9:58 with my sermon right after.
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In the Texas and California neighborhoods where she raised my father, people often called my grandmother a witch. They’d hear her casting spells in Creole over a stewpot simmering mysterious ingredients.
Papa Nou ki nan sièl,
ké non ou jouinn tout réspè,
ké règn ou vini,
ké volonté ou akonpli ,
sou té a tankou nan sièl.
Ban nou jod a pin chak jou nou,
padonnin nou péché nou,
tankou nou padonnin moun ki ofansé nou.
Pa minnin nou nan tentasion,
min délivré nou an-ba malin an.
Amen.
Sometimes, when her Englisher kin were with her, she would say the words in English for us to learn.
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day, our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
Timothy worships the God of his ancestors. Without shame or apology. As do I.
Remembering that Jesus came to women. To Brown people. To the poor. To social outsiders. He was known, like his apostles, by multiple names or titles or simply called after what he was. Teacher. Healer. The ways of Jesus were integrated into many sacred practices, embraced by countless cultures who he went to meet where they were, celebrating their practices, eating and resting in their homes, calling them by name. Jesus called the disciples to do the same, to expand their understanding of ways and spaces God could work and who God could work through. Where cultural understanding and marketing materials were still catching up, God’s people could be reached through miracles (power) and the embrace of sacred community (love).
Jesus’ grace came BEFORE the ages began. Before divisions. Before colonization gave us race and binary gender. Ethiopia has the oldest Christian churches, not Rome or Germany. Tradition and scripture hold that a Eunuch, a gender outsider, planted the first church there. Trust in that grace, greater than what we can earn, a gift beyond our logic and learning to understand, grew through miracles and loving community. A combination that calls for bravery and vulnerability.
I’m often asked how I, as Creole Black, a descendant of people enslaved through the justification of a papal bull, and queer, embrace Christianity? Because I too have witnessed the power and been held and healed in the sacred community that showed up for the woman at the well, for the Magdalene, for spiritual seekers forbidden to speak the names of their childhood gods but who knew power and love when it showed up. Because Psalm 139 healed me as a little lost and confused kid in youth group and puberty at the same time. I learned grace. Now I have the ability to pray with fierce hope (with overwhelm) and compassion (with fatigue). I can be vulnerable and brave.
We can’t talk about prayer today, in any language, without considering our Gospel, John 17, often called the High Priestly Prayer because in a wildly extravagant display of love, Jesus prays not only for himself, but also his disciples, and all future believers.
John 17 is a unique opportunity to see the nature and heart of Jesus. In this prayer, Jesus touches on many of the themes developed in John’s Gospel: God’s glory, Jesus and his followers being sent into challenging and foreign places with intention, the necessity of a trusting belief, understanding of a global community, and love being the center and the overarching connection between all things. Many of the same concerns of Grandmere’s prayer, commonly called the Lord’s Prayer, are also here in this prayer. A direct plea to God for protection from the evil one. For the world to know God, just as Jesus already does. A God of infinite love, the ability to work miracles and do the impossible, a God of power greater than even the wars and divides of the fearful world.
“There is no voice which has ever been heard, either in heaven or in earth, more exalted, more holy, more fruitful, more sublime, than the prayer offered up by the Son to God Himself.” (Melanchthon)
So as Jesus bears his heart of hearts to God, what does he pray for his apostles, for US?
Pray for unity and actively pursue harmony within the body of Christ.
That we deepen our knowledge and relationship with God.
That we pray for others and intercede for their needs.
That we sanctify ourselves in the truth of God’s word.
That we trust in Jesus’ love and intercession for us.
“Glorify me so I can bring glory to you. Protect them from the clutches of that deceiver charmer, the evil one. Protect hearts and faith. Protect the ones Jesus claimed. The marginalized ones. The vulnerable. The outsiders. Give then Unity for community. Sanctification for mission.
Joy.”
Genuine, desperate, I have nowhere else to turn prayer often reveals a person’s innermost being. Countless enslaved and excluded and oppressed people found their resistance and resilience in prayer. Countless unhouse and addicted and abused and afraid people still do. We take it to God when we have no other place to go. Jesus does the same time and time again in the gospels. And those prayers are especially holy, especially sacred. When we give up our own power to let God’s power do the impossible in our government, our families, our bodies, our lives. When we release the us and them of our constructed communities and hierarchies of virtue that prevent us from the full richness of God’s fully inclusive community. We NEED each other’s prayers. Wisdom. Cultural practices. Language and ways of communicating. Ways we have found to survive when there didn’t seem like there was a way. We need each other. So I pray you can receive this. From my queer, Black, woman, unhoused child of a single mother body filled with love and here only by miracle.
Bondye pwoteje ou.
Bondye siveye ou
Bondye akonpanye ou nan lavi ou
Bondye ka fè tout bagay lòm paka fè
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May God protect you.
May God watch over you.
May God go with you in your life.
God can do everything that man cannot do
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