Sermon Text 6.8.25 “Messaging Today!”

LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
2601 54th Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33712 on the Gulf of Mexico On land originally inhabited by the Tocabaga 727-867-7961
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The Gospel by Gen Z was loaned to me by someone in the congregation.  I took a look at it and had no idea what was going on, so I put it aside.  A few weeks ago, my husband, Jeff, was waiting for me as I packed up to go home on a Sunday after church, and he picked up the book in my office and began reading it out loud.  Jeff has a Master of Divinity degree as well as a Doctor of Ministry degree.  He said to me, I have no idea what this is talking about.  I said, I don’t understand it either.  

And there you have it.  If this rendering of the gospel reaches some people, beautiful.  The gospel is supposed to be accessible to everyone as we heard today in the Pentecost story.  But here is the deal:  If I can’t understand the Gen Z version of the gospels, even something as basic as the beatitudes, then very likely there are people who have no idea what a church like ours is about and what is going on here.  Who don’t know anything about the gospel as we share it.  And the sad part is, coming to church might not help them very much because of this understanding gap.  If I can’t understand the Gen Z gospel, even though it is meant to be in fun, then it is very likely that someone from Gen Z coming to church may have no idea what we are talking about here.  

Let’s remember that the nones, not the Catholic sisters but those who have no religious affiliation of any kind, the nones are growing in this country.  They are  28% percent of the population.  No religions affiliation. [https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2024/01/24/religious-nones-in-america-who-they-are-and-what-they-believe/]  They may never have set foot in a church except maybe for a wedding or a funeral, and maybe not even then.  

So, I am thinking about a none coming to church.  And hearing a reference to the crucifixion, say.  Ok.  They may have seen a picture of Jesus hanging on a cross and know that that is the crucifixion.  They may have encountered this image in an art museum.  But what is crucifixion?  Yes, it is Jesus dying on the cross.  But will people know that this was a form of capital punishment?  That Jesus died by capital punishment?  Will they know that crucifixion was the sentence given by the Romans to those accused of being traitors to the Roman Empire?  Will they know that many people were crucified, not just Jesus and the two thieves mentioned in one of the gospels?  

Christianity is based on stories about Jesus, a first century Jewish man.  Being killed on a cross.  As a traitor against the government.  Wrongly accused.  A victim of capital punishment.  Now we suddenly have a kind of revolutionary figure in Jesus.

Then maybe this Gen Z person who is a none hears the word resurrection.  Oh yes.  There is that Christian belief that Jesus came back from the dead.  And then went to heaven.  Wherever that is.  And that he welcomes people who believe in him to spend eternity with him in bliss.  

This is a basic, cultural understanding that many of the nones may have been exposed to.  But it is so bare.  The power of Divine Love in Jesus was so strong that it kept going after his body was killed.  His followers were filled with the power of his spirit and continued to share his teachings of other-centered love.  When someone who is a none hears resurrection, they probably don’t hear all that.  

People in the first century who heard the teachings of the disciples after Jesus’ death, they knew what crucifixion was.  They knew it was capital punishment meted out to those who were guilty of treason.  A person in the first century was familiar with the idea of life after death.  This was common in near eastern religions of the time.  There were other religions with other figures who were thought of as coming back from the dead.  Including figures in the Roman hierarchy.  This was a perception commonly associated with an important figure.  These things were not singular and unique to Christianity as they seem to us today.  These key concepts to our Christian belief system had much more of a context in the first century.  

Also very common was the idea of appeasing the gods, keeping them happy.  So the classic view of Jesus dying for our sins to appease God, to make things right with God, this transactional understanding of the crucifixion and the resurrection, this fit into the cultures of the first century.  

Let’s jump to today.  There are all these nones.  Thousands of nones in our country.  There are churches in other countries sending missionaries to the United States to teach people about Christianity and invite them to follow Jesus.  Well, they see the statistics of how many unchurched there are.  

In the Pentecost story, somehow, some way, all the people in the Jewish community from all over the world heard a word about God’s saving love in their own tongue.  In language they could understand.  In a way they could access.  With not only words but concepts and implications they could find meaningful and life giving. 

And in the church today?  I believe part of the reason there are so many nones is because much of the church with its archaic language and concepts no longer communicates the radical, inclusive, universal love and grace at the heart of reality.  Fundamentally, that was the message of Jesus.  All beloved.  All.  Beloved.  All provided for.  

This week, the most prominent Biblical scholar and theologian of the United Church of Christ died at 92 years old.  Now, if anyone was trying to convey the word of God, the heart of the gospel, in words, it was Walter Brueggemann.  He wrote over 100 books during his life, and countless articles and essays, and he gave innumerable speeches.  I heard him speak many times.  He was a good friend of my father.  Cathy Giesey’s husband, Jim, was a devotee of Walter Brueggemann.  

In an article written in 2022, Brueggemann had this to say about the church:  

“The Christian movement has been so domesticated by the force of empire that much of its testimony simply echoes and reiterates dominant socio­economic practice. As the church has settled for such domestication, it has become a champion of the kind of charity that remains safely inside the assumptions of confiscatory economics. Such anemic practice provides neither energy nor courage for engagement in a neighborly economy, which requires both radi­cal critique of our systemic economic arrangements and emancipated imagination about an alternative practice.

“As our society grows more frightened and more repressive, the church is faced with an urgent call for truth telling—concerning both the exposure of our predatory economic system, which produces and sustains poverty through cheap labor, and the articulation of an alternative way that will yield neighborly abundance. But as long as the church is in unthinking collusion with dominant economic assumptions, this hard and transformative truth is unlikely to be spoken aloud.”  [Quoted by Elizabeth Palmer in The Christian Century Newsletter, Books Worth Reading, 6/5/25, https://mailchi.mp/christiancentury/bwr_2025-05-19001388?e=4292cd2b37]

Friends, these are hard words to hear on Pentecost, when we think of the story of the brave, unrelenting disciples preaching the radical love of God, to people in all circumstances from all cultures and risking their lives by doing so.  Using words they could all understand.  Letting everyone know, whatever their tribe, ethnic background, whatever their gender or identity, whatever their relationship status, and whatever their station in society and their economic situation, all are loved.  Beyond measure.  And our job as human beings, created in the image of God is to take care of each other and to take care of the earth.  To love one another.  That is the message the church has been given to share.  And it is a message that has been largely suppressed. 

So, friends, we are in a country populated by people who are lonely.  The church has a response to that.  Community.  We are in a context with people who are scientific rationalists and find no meaning or comfort in the superstitious, magical thinking that they associate with the church.  We have a message for them.  We are in a time when, sadly, horrifically, poverty is growing.  Houselessness is growing.  Having two jobs to get by is a norm.  And do these people find any good news in the church?  Not much.  Poor people come to church and feel judged and less than.  Maybe they get some food from a church food bank.  But do they hear good news about an alternative reality where all contribute and all are taken care of and everyone has enough?  There are others who feel marginalized and sidelined today.  Maybe because of their past.  Or their identity.  Or their relationship status.  Do they hear love and support and welcome from the church?  Probably not.  And there are suburban families, nice folks, and they are wondering why they bother.  What is it all about?  All this business and struggle?  They feel alienated and lost.  And do they find hope and direction in the church?  Probably not.  And there are many who are extremely financially successful, and they are clearly lost when it comes to morals and values.  And we see this paraded in the news day after day after day.  Well, is the church on their radar?  Is the church saying anything relevant to their situation?  Not that they can hear.

I’m telling you, the need is there.  For the past two weeks, the church ran an ad on Craig’s List for someone to work part time in the church office.  Among those I spoke with and interviewed, most of them were really looking for a church not a job.  They said they had read our website.  They didn’t know there was a church like this.  One candidate told me that they were trying to get their light back after a series of bad relationships.  Well, come to church!

But people who are nones, or not already church inclined, don’t see this in the church. They are hungry for meaningful community where everyone matters but everyone does not agree.  And there is new life and hope that is unexpected, unsolicited, and undeserved.  And it leaves us amazed.  Astonished.  And even perplexed.  This is what we have in church.  And we need to find ways to communicate who we are and what we are about so that those who are unchurched and alienated from church can hear.  In their language.  

The word for listen used in this story from Acts, the word listen means, “let me place the word of God into your ears.”  This is our calling as a church.  To place the word of God into the ears of those who need it and there are many, all around us.  

So, there is so much need for the gospel, the good news, the life giving word of unconditional love that leads one to find meaning as part of community devoted to the well being of the whole, the common good.  But can people hear this word from us?  This precious word that has been entrusted to us?  The gospel?

On our first family trip to Mexico, our soon to be 30 year old son, Malcolm, was a young ‘un.  So, in the US, that means that they get in free to museums and things like that.  When we went to visit something of cultural interest and there was a fee, we would ask if there was a fee for the child.  The nino.  Es libre?  We would ask.  As we bought tickets for Jeff and me, and our older kids, Sterling and Angela, we would ask if Malcolm was libre.  Libre is the word for free in Spanish.  We got some strange looks.  Puzzled.  Usually we did not have to pay for him.  But there were always these weird reactions to our question.  Finally a Mexican person who knew English explained the issue to us.  We were asking, is Malcolm libre?  Libre means free, like not a prisoner, not a slave.  Free.  The word for free, as in no charge for something, is gratis.  When there is no fee, then you go in gratis.  For free.  Gratis.  Of course.  Two words for free.  Libre.  And gratis.  We were using the wrong word.  And so there was misunderstanding.  

Friends, we find life-giving community here.  We find our spirits soar in service to the least and the lost.  We have come to know that helping others is life-giving for us.  We have found family and joy in this community.  There are so many around us languishing.  The nones, yes.  But so many others.  Who feel alienated.  Separated from society.  And from their highest good.  And so many who feel afraid and lost.  Friends, we don’t have all the answers, but we do know that love will see us through.  As it saw the disciples through the most harrowing experience of their lives:  the wrongful death of their beloved teacher and friend, by capital punishment as an enemy of the state.  The experience of his presence among them after he had died.  Their desperate fear for their own lives.  And the life-giving, energizing, freeing experience of the Spirit of the God of Love that launched them from hiding in a back room to preaching in the streets.  

As a church, as a pastor, may we remain committed to new expressions of the gospel that are life giving for people today and tomorrow.  The world depends on it.

Amen.  

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.