What Is Your Name?

by Rev. Eric Folkerth and Dr. John Thornburg

I’m grateful to my friend John Thornburg for stepping in as preacher last Sunday. As you may have heard, we had livestream problems. That means some of you missed being able to hear John’s powerful message. The text was the troubling passage about a man healed by Jesus and a herd of pigs that rush off the side of a cliff.

Below is an extended excerpt, picking up John’s sermon at a point where he suggests what the text means for us.

It’s a very good word to us all in these days…EF

WHEN JESUS ASKS, “WHAT IS YOUR NAME?”
Dr. John Thornburg
KPUMC, June 19, 2022
Luke 8: 26-39

Now comes the turn in the story.  The news of the pigs’ death march reached the surrounding towns, and the people quickly gathered.  They found the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed, and calm.  Only four other individuals are named in the Gospels as sitting at Jesus’ feet.  It turns out that “What is your name?” was the right question to ask.  The possessed man heard Jesus asking, “Who are you when you are not oppressed?  What do you hope for?”  It turns out that the possessed man heard Jesus’ question as an expression of love.

This is not a story about demon possession.  This is a story about Jesus’ ability to look someone in the face as if no one else in the world is more important at that moment.  This is a story about how unconditional love sparked the healing process for a tortured man.  All the stuff about the pigs is the embellishment of an over-zealous Gospel writer who just wanted us to be excited about what happens when Jesus shows up.

This is the Jesus I love; the one who asks “What is your name?”  This is the Jesus who knows precisely who needs his presence.  This is the Jesus whose love changes everything; the Jesus who is the hope of our world.  The heroes and heroines of progressive Christianity, like Martin Luther King, Jr., Oscar Romero, Dorothy Day, Mother Theresa, and Desmond Tutu, have at least one thing in common; they looked to Jesus to provide the inspiration for their activism.  Jesus was their hero.

Jesus is our source and our strength, our beacon.  His challenging, searching questions to the disciples centuries ago are just as motivational and inspirational to us today if we will have this active dialogue with stories like this.  When we ask, “What was the look on Jesus’ face as he spoke to the tortured man?,” we are simultaneously asking, “What is the look on Jesus’ face as he speaks to me, and what is he saying, and to what is he calling me?”  It’s even better when we have this intense encounter with the Bible with others so we can grow together and encourage each other.

The Bible is a different document every time we open it, and every time we open it, it demands that we make a decision.  Is love of God and neighbor our sole aim, or are we in it for ourselves?  Did Jesus’ death and resurrection free us for joyful obedience to the way of love, or did it just assure us that we have a ticket to heaven?

Much is at stake.  Contrary to those whose voices dominate the airwaves, Jesus did not write the Second Amendment, and so it is our wonderful privilege and responsibility to acquaint people with stories like this one.  It’s time for us to narrate (and live out) the Sermon on the Mount to folks whose only recent reading has been about who they should be afraid of, who they should blame for America’s problems, and why God has chosen America to receive special favor.

“What is your name?”  It was Jesus’ question to the tortured man.  It’s Jesus’ question to us.  By what name do you want to be known?

Thoughts and Prayers...and Actions

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

Tuesday night I attended a town hall where members of our community came to share their concerns following the horrific school shooting in Uvalde. The gathering was at Rosemont Elementary where we have many students, alumni, and faculty.

It was attended by four of our area state representatives —including our local representatives Rafael Anchia and Jessica Gonzalez— as well as many leaders from DISD security and mental health professionals.

I was honored to pray as this event opened, and I will tell you about what I prayed in a moment.

But first, I want to talk about the parents we heard from that night. During the meeting, parent after parent expressed their concerns for their children. One of the themes that kept recurring is that for very *young* children and their parents, the pandemic, followed by this shooting, has truly traumatized our Oak Cliff families.

Families are still trying to find an elusive sense of “normal” and stability. Parents are wrestling with how much information to share with their young children about these horrific events. Local leaders —many of whom *truly do want to act* to change our laws in ways that will keep children safer— feel stymied by powerful forces that resist change.

As I mentioned, I prayed to open the event. But, before my prayer, I spoke about *what* I would pray and why. I told the crowd that after any number of mass shootings in America, leaders and politicians often call for “thoughts and prayers.”

But, as these shootings continue to happen with troubling frequency, it can feel frustrating to hear this call to prayer with little or no action that follows.

Therefore, I reminded them, and I’ll remind you now, that there are really two ways people can mean the phrase “Thoughts and Prayers.”

1. “Thoughts and Prayers” can be a wall to defend leaders against acting for change.
2. “Thoughts and Prayers” can be a desperate plea for spiritual comfort and help and a call for God’s presence as we do impossible things.

It’s within this second understanding that I prayed. And I thought I’d close this essay by sharing that prayer here:

Holy, Compassionate, and Just God,
Hear the prayers of our broken hearts.

Holy One, we know that you are able to bring new life out of heartbreak. Even when nothing is ever quite the same, when hearts overflow with grief, you are planting seeds of new life.

But God, we know that you need us to act…not just pray.

May our prayers lead us to LISTEN… to our mutual and individual concerns for our own children and for their safety.

May our prayers lead us to ACT… to stand up to powerful interests who seem to place their wishes ahead of the safety of our children.

May our prayers lead us to WISDOM…that we might not overreact in fear and by doing so, cause more anxiety.

Help us to find that challenging middle ground between responding to real threat and living in constant fear.

We pray for all the elected and appointed officials here today. We pray for all the beautiful staff and children of all our schools. We pray for the courage to stand up to the powerful who resist change. We pray for our own children. And we confess the fear we have for them and our helplessness to sometimes know how to encourage and dispel their fears.

In the midst of our confusion, help us to listen to each other as neighbors and friends…and move beyond words to action.

For if our prayers are merely words, we know that they are not acceptable to you, O God.

So give us courage…to listen…to change…to pray…to act.

In your holy name we pray all these things.

Amen.

An Open Letter

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

To the Pride Flag Vandal,
I don’t know who you are.
I don’t know your motivations.
I don’t know why you chose to cut down our KPUMC Pride Flag from the flagpole on our property.

But I thought I’d write you a short note today.

Please know that we, the members and staff of Kessler Park United Methodist, are praying for you. We can perhaps intuit from your actions that you disagree with our sincerely held religious belief about God’s love and acceptance of the LGBTQ community.

At KPUMC, we have heard the painful stories of our LGBTQ members and staff and how they have been shunned and rejected by other churches and sometimes by their families. Our experience is that we have been blessed by their ministry, their commitment to loving God and serving our North Oak Cliff neighborhood. Our LGBTQ members and friends strengthen our church. They are faithful Christians.

We believe with St Paul that “all are one in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We believe with Jesus that we are called to love and welcome all our neighbors.

That means the LGBTQ community…and it also means YOU. (Which is why our sign says “All Are Welcome.”)

Especially among young people, that sign and pride flag is a symbol of our embodied welcome to all God’s children.

So, please know that while the flag has now been vandalized 4-5 times (maybe by you? maybe by a series of vandals?), we have an endless supply ready to replace them.

And we will.

Because: we have the right to live in peace and to celebrate our sincerely held Christian values, through the leading of God’s Holy Spirit.

And I would gently remind you that Jesus’ “Golden Rule” calls us to respect your right to your beliefs and values, even as I am here asking you to respect ours.

So, I end as I began…assuring you that we will continue to pray for you, even as we continue to witness to God’s grace and love in the world for all God’s children.

Grace and Peace,

Rev. Eric Folkerth