What We’re Not Giving Up
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus the Messiah, the one who holds all things together—and brings all people together in unity and love.
I promise I won’t make a habit of this, even though this makes twice already this year.
What follows is the text of my sermon from Sunday. It kicks off the series we’ll be in through Lent, and introduces the idea that some practices and habits are just too important to let anyone dismiss them or limit them—even when it’s our government doing it.
I invite you to read it and wrestle with it. We’re in challenging times these days, and we need to be diligent about living and representing our faith in Christ.
Blessings to you as we journey together through this season of Lent,
Pastor John
How’s Lent going for everyone? I found a website that offered some general ideas for what to give up for Lent.
Give up certain social media sites.
Sleep without a pillow
Wake up without hitting the snooze button
Shower without hot (with only lukewarm) water
Give up coffee (this is NOT recommended)
And of course, Country Living magazine, everyone’s go-to source for Lent ideas, has an article called “32 Ideas for What to Give Up for Lent.”
It’s not a great list for developing spiritual depth, but it’s practical.
Commenting on Social Media
Road Rage
Skipping the Gym
Playing video games
Swearing
Maybe it’s not such a bad list after all.
Entering into a season of reflection and repentance can be more meaningful when we deprive ourselves of something. This year I’m going to turn that on its head.
Yeah, there are things that all of us probably ought to give up, but this year more than others, I think there are some precious ideas—some very important words and phrases—that we should hold on to.
So this year for our Lenten series, we’re going to reflect on some ideas and practices as Christians that we are not giving up.
Here’s my inspiration. The current administration in Washington is ordering the removal of certain words and phrases from publication on US government websites. Here are a few examples:
Accessibility, Activism, Anti-racist, Belonging, Climate, Community, Culture, Cultural heritage, Cultural Sensitivity, Dignity, Empathy, Empowerment, Equality, Equal Opportunity, Female, History, Historic, Historically, Immigrants, Inclusion, Multicultural, Racial Equity, Respect, Sense of Community, Social Justice
Seriously. If you don’t believe me, this story was first reported by Texas Public Radio, and a longer and more detailed account was in the New York Times last week.
I’m doing my best to stay calm here, but I’m so angry that my biggest fear today isn’t that some people will disagree—I mean, go ahead and make your case that the American government shouldn’t say things like Community or Dignity or Female.
No, I just need to get through these next few messages without swearing—that’s my biggest fear. On the rest, I think I’m on pretty solid ground.
For this season of Lent, I am politely pushing back on the idea that these ideas are harmful for Americans, and in particular for American Christians.
Some of these words are central to our faith, and to the way we’re commanded to live our faith with each other and in public. Over the next few weeks we’re going to look at some of these words and phrases, and what scripture has to say about them.
In the process we’re going to affirm that in fact no—we won’t be giving them up for Lent or at any time in this or any other year.
We’re going to start with a bang, with three words that drive some people crazy—that lead some people to lie and cheat and manipulate, just because they don’t want to lose their power or influence.
Of course, I’m talking about subversive words like diversity, equity and inclusion.
Diversity is the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds.
Equity is the quality of being fair and impartial.
Inclusion is the practice or policy of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized.
Such scary words—they make some powerful people sweat and shake and act like children.
You may know them as DEI.
DEI is very prominently on the list of banned words on government publications, both individually and as a set.
That’s a problem, because diversity, equity and inclusion are at the heart of our text this morning.
Read Acts 6:1-7
In our story, Christian converts from all over the world are gathered in Jerusalem.
The argument in our text is among a group of widows—of Jewish converts to the Christian faith.
There were two kinds of Jewish converts at the time this story happened.
In the 1st century, just like now, more Jews lived outside of the region we call Israel/Palestine than live in it. In Jerusalem at any given time, some of the Jews from Greek speaking areas would be living or visiting there. These are the Hellenistic Jewish Christians in the passage.
So they’re all mixed together. The early church had Jewish converts from the area around Jerusalem—they had the most privileged place, and they were suspicious of outsiders. Those are the Hebraic Jews.
The Hellenistic Jews were the Greek-speaking Christians from the outer ethnic groups outside of Judea. They were the foreigners—they were second-class members of the early church.
Let’s walk through the story again.
1In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews[a] among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
We might look back on the early days of the church and think:
Wow—I wish we could go back and be just like them.
We pretty much got our wish on that one.
Even in those early days there was discrimination in the church.
The Hebrew-speaking widows were getting more support than the Greek speakers.
2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”
I love this part. The leaders of the church didn’t want to get bogged down in the details of serving food and “waiting on tables.” So they decided to form a committee—people full of the Holy Spirit.
Actually, they decided to form the first group of Deacons. They’re not called Deacons in the story, but the work of sharing resources and providing food and helping people in need—that’s called deaconing in the story. When the Twelve said they didn’t want to wait on tables, the literal translation is that they didn’t want to deacon the tables.
So everyone seemed happy about the resolution to the problem. Here’s what Luke says next.
5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
Here’s where we get to the key moment in the story.
Here’s where we see how the early church tried to right a wrong.
Here’s where the first diversity, equity and inclusion program comes in.
The Hebrew speaking group has all the power,
and it’s the Greek speakers who feel like they’re getting shortchanged.
So what do they do?
They choose seven Greek speakers to distribute the resources fairly.
Every one of those seven names are Greek, and not Hebrew.
That’s right, in an argument over the unjust treatment of Greek Jewish converts to Christian faith, the apostles chose representatives from the group who had the grievance to resolve things.
Wait, what? That sounds exactly like a DEI plan.
You mean that’s in the Bible?
It’s not some lefty woke liberal socialist plot to ruin the early church?
No, it was a way not only to distribute food and other resources fairly, but also to make sure that the team overseeing the distribution was over-represented by the very people who had a grievance.
And did it work? Or did this early DEI project ruin the church? Hardly.
Listen to what Luke says—this is the result of establishing a program to make sure that provisions were shared fairly.
7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
Whaddya know?
See what I mean? Why would we give that up?
This season of Lent is going to be so much fun.
What do we learn from this text?
First: Even in the miraculous beginnings of the church, the problem of prejudice and fear of the other was there. It’s like it’s hardwired into us to mistreat people who are different to us.
That’s why the miraculous origins of the church are important for us.
It’s the Holy Spirit that reaches into our individual hearts and changes us.
It’s the Holy Spirit that does the same thing in our collective heart as the church.
Second: It’s also a reminder that the church is at its best when it welcomes and celebrates and shares with people who are different from us. We are at our most whole, when every person—every person created in the image of God, is welcome to join and serve and thrive here.
And finally, we move into that holy experience of Lent when we surrender some of our ownership and leadership to the people we want to reach. That may be the hardest lesson here—just because some of us were here first, doesn’t mean this place is always going to be ours.
Being the church means looking for where God is working, and joining in. We should always be reaching out, welcoming, including, and learning from those who aren’t like us in race or ethnicity, in gender or class or lifestyle, or even in in age.
Our commitment to diversity and equity and inclusion are at the heart of who we are as Christians, and they’re at the heart of what we should be able to expect from our government and our society. Yeah, it can be done poorly, but that’s no excuse for not trying at all.
Let’s review what we learned in this text:
Diversity is the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds.
Equity is the quality of being fair and impartial.
Inclusion is the practice or policy of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized.
Here’s why that’s important right now.
Here’s what it means for us during this special season.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is being misrepresented by our government right now.
People who use and abuse the name of Jesus are preaching something that goes directly against the message of the gospel as we see it in the real, flesh and blood word of God.
Instead of hearing that we should worship God and love our neighbors, we’re hearing that God is there for us to manipulate, and to heck with any neighbors we don’t like.
That’s a lie—it’s a perversion of the truth.
And we’re not surrendering to it.
We’re not giving up diversity, equity or inclusion, not during Lent or at any other time.
To give those up would be to give up some of the distinguishing marks from the very first days of the church.
To give those up would be giving up our identity as people who look to Jesus as the model for our lives—not any king or CEO or president or political party.
And that’s something we’re never giving up.
Next week we’re hear about another dangerous word that we’re not going to surrender: Community.
Let’s pray together.