Put On Your Marching Shoes!

Church, it’s time to put your marching shoes on!

This Sunday, after we celebrate the triumphal entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem with waving palm branches, we’re going to celebrate unity, empowerment, and family in the streets of Dallas with waving American flags.

After worship, we’re going to make our way to Guadalupe Cathedral in downtown, where we will join the Dallas Mega-March 2017, which starts promptly at 2 pm. The march will end in a rally at Dallas City Hall, and will feature speakers including Martin Luther King III, Danny Glover, Jamie Foxx, and others

I would love to see a KPUMC presence at the march, because this event celebrates the values and principles which our church community holds dear. In general, the Mega-March is meant as a statement that the people of Dallas are united against hate, discrimination, and inequality.

According to event organizers, it is “time to speak up for the voices that often go unheard; time to beat hate with love; time to fight for the generations to come; time to show that our community is unified.”

Specifically, the march will resist three recent developments in the country: aggressive immigration enforcement efforts; the Muslim travel ban; and rising hate crimes. Each of these developments harms our communities and demands a response from faith communities.

Most of us don’t personally suffer the effects of these developments. None of us face deportation; none of us likely have had think about altering our travel plans because of executive orders; and few of us worry about hate crimes.

But just because we don’t suffer, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t march. As the body of Jesus Christ in the world, we need to be present in the streets on Sunday. We need to march in solidarity with those who face these present realities. We must rally around them as brothers and sisters of God’s world, seeking their shalom, and demanding justice. 

This is who we are, or at least, who we must become.

That has been the point of my Lent devotionals. A church which does not pursue justice on behalf of society’s most vulnerable people does not really worship the true God, no matter what it does or says on Sunday morning. People who fast and pray in the most pious ways but live dishonest and unjust lives do not really know God.

Let’s put the truth of what we celebrate on Sunday morning in worship, song, and prayer into practice on Sunday afternoon! Let’s march!

Transitions

by Matt Bell

Spring is always a busy time for students — tests, exams, final papers, and the like. This semester however is a little bit different for me. Because, by the great grace of the Lord God Almighty, I will graduate on May 20th! 

Paige and I were looking at a list of things that cause stress and “finishing school” was one of them. Along with buying a house — which we are also doing! If all goes well, we will move in sometime this week! 

So times are busy and strange for the Bell family. Internship responsibilities and paperwork for Perkins is ramping up and I’m also studying for a content exam in 7th-12th grade Social Studies. If I pass this content exam, then I’m eligible for teacher training and then hirable by various school districts. 

“But I thought Matt was going to stay at KPUMC until he gets ordained and then gets his own church?” Well, not quite. 

Since day one in seminary I was that one student who had a complicated answer to the seemingly simple question, “Why are you here?” Most students answered something like, “I want to be ordained and seminary is on the checklist of things to do on the way to ordination.” I typically answered that question like this, “I’m open to being ordained, I really am, but if that call isn’t for me I really don’t want to pick up that phone. I’m really interested in the intersection of religion and public schools. I had a world religions course in college and I just think everyone should know about religion and the best way to do that is to teach about and raise awareness of religion in public schools.” Upon hearing that, the questioners nod their head and scrunch up their noses mouthing, “Okay…” 

I came to seminary, Dallas, and KPUMC with this goal on my mind. I view jumping into education as my ministry environment and so have craved all the skills and knowledge one gets being in seminary and working at a church. And, let me tell you, I got what I came for. Perkins is a great seminary and KPUMC is a great church. I’ve learned about myself, the world, people, and God in ways I could not have imagined before arriving and I am so eternally grateful for this. My experiences will be carried into whatever job I hold next and beyond. 

I’m excited, nervous, scared, and hopeful about these upcoming months and anticipate a lot of change in my personal and professional life. Even after I leave KPUMC in August I won’t be far because the house we’ve found is about 15 minutes south. So whatever school I end up teaching in you’ll still be seeing us around ☺!  But first I need to finish this degree!

The Longest Week

If you haven’t noticed, the Scriptures chosen for Lent’s sermons are all drawn from the last couple of days of Jesus’ life. On the first Sunday of Lent, I spoke about the Last Supper, and last Sunday, I preached on Jesus’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane as the disciples slumbered. This week, the Scripture covers the moment of Jesus’ arrest (Luke 22:39-46).

I think it’s important to spend as much time as possible on the passion (which means “suffering”) and crucifixion of Jesus, because the bulk of the gospels are consumed with these events. In fact, a New Testament scholar once described a gospel as a “passion narrative with an extended introduction.” 

The point is that the passion and crucifixion of Jesus deserve a good deal of our time and attention. Lent is the perfect time to do that. In fact, it was designed to force us into a time of reflection upon these events and determine what they mean to our faith.

It means a number of different things to me, but in this space I simply want to highlight the vital and significant fact that Jesus suffered.

If the incarnation is true, if Jesus really was God incarnate, then it is highly significant that he suffered. Traditional Christian orthodoxy holds that Jesus was “fully divine and fully human.” If this is correct, then it means that, whatever divine characteristics he might have had, he was also very much flesh and blood. He didn’t get a break from the pain, from the shame and embarrassment, from the horror of what unfolded around him. He didn’t know everything that was going to happen to him; the prayer in the garden reveals that he was afraid and anxious. 

The reason that this is important to me is because it means that Jesus and I are connected by human suffering. Neither of us are exempt from the world’s worst. I feel a sense of solidarity with Jesus in this matter. And not only me, but all of those who suffer, all of the world’s people who feel alone or hopeless or afraid.

Taking the doctrine of incarnation one step further, this means that God understands my suffering. When I experience fear, I can trust that God empathizes with that emotion. When I experience pain, I know that God has been in pain. 

And this means that the God we worship is not an impersonal, abstract, or vague notion. It means that God has entered the human situation and chosen to be on our side. God is with us, not against us.

Everybody hurts in a different way, but the story of Jesus’ passion ties all our suffering together. Lent teaches us that our suffering is not meaningless or vain, but that it will be turned into glorious victory on Easter Sunday.