Bound

Rev. Wesley Menke

20 February 2022 

7th Sun After Epiphany

Well there was some sad news recently. The ELCA youth gathering is canceled this summer. We are a part of the ELCA. The ELCA means Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Some people say, “Elka,” and others say, “E.L.C.A.” We are the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States. The youth gathering typically happens every three years and regularly draws at least 30,000 people for about a week during the summer in large metropolitan centers with adequate hotel and convention accommodations. The youth gathering is the largest thing that we do, outpacing by far our church wide assemblies. For many high school Lutherans  attending the youth gathering is a rite of passage and one that multiple generations of families share. In the 60’s musicians like Pete Seeger and pastors such as Martin Luther King Junior were noted speakers, and controversial at their times. In fact, one of the traditions of the youth gathering is to gently push the envelope a little bit.

I attended a youth gathering called River of Hope in 1997. It was a good experience, and it was an interesting experience. I remember checking into our hotel and taking an elevator up to our floor. When we got off the elevator some boys had duct taped the button down on the ice maker and a huge pile of ice was filling up the hallway. That was kind of crazy. You bring together tens of thousands of teenagers and there will be some shenanigans. But for the most part we behaved ourselves and it was a very powerful experience that can shape and mold a young person in very positive ways. 

I led youth groups to youth gathering in 2003 to San Antonio, then 2006 and 2009 in New Orleans. The youth gatherings in New Orleans were particularly meaningful because of the devastation that was caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. At the time there was overwhelming pressure to cancel the youth gathering. Imagine all of those thousands of parents sending their children to New Orleans after everything that had been witnessed on TV. But in one of its finer moments the Lutherans doubled down and said, we will not cancel, we will go to New Orleans and do a gathering unlike any we’ve done before. We went and worked, and cleaned, served, painted, and planted. And as one of our finer moments of ecumenism the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod did the exact same thing. There was so much service activity in New Orleans following Katrina that when I went there some New Orleanians from a Lutheran congregation said that it felt like immediately after the hurricane hit Lutherans in Minnesota got in their cars and drove down to help, showing up just days later, and staying for a long time.

Then three years later we all went back and did it again. Many teen-agers petitioned to come as servant corps young adult volunteers because they didn’t want to miss out. It was highly unusual to have the youth gathering be in the same spot twice in a row. But we had a purpose, so we did it. 

So 2021 was supposed to be in the Twin cities. It was rescheduled because of Covid to 2022. And just this past couple of weeks, news was released that it would be canceled in 2022 as well. What a contrast to 15 years ago. Then we decided to take the risk in order to serve a higher purpose. This time around we choose to avoid the risk. For the record, I understand and I agree with the decision. The difference is that now gathering itself is the risk. It doesn’t matter where. 15 years ago we were able to go to a particular place and help churches that had been flooded. Today all of the churches have experienced devastation. We are now the ones who need to be helped, and we are like this in every town, city, state, country, all over the world. 

The theme was going to be, “Boundless: God beyond measure.” I agree that we cannot mesure God, but I wonder if this might be an opportunity to reconsider the theme, “Boundless.” I don’t know if we want to describe God or God’s love as “Boundless.” I’d like to tell you why; so please read or listen to find out why.

Ironically the gathering was canceled by the Corona Virus which is itself boundless. The very nature of a pandemic is that it knows no bounds, and does not respect them. It passes through and around tragically well. Because of it, we have all had to increase our boundaries with distances, masking, and isolating. In fact, boundaries are essential and necessary for justice and safety to exist. For Christians it all comes down to Jesus. Was Jesus boundless or not?

Jesus was bound. He lived a finite number of days, and then died like any other human would do under the same circumstances. The theology of the cross is a bounded theology. Jesus is literally bound to the cross. Kenosis is the pouring of God’s immeasurable and transcendent love and power into the incarnation, a weak and vulnerable body. 

Being bound or bounded also has ethical implications. For example, the personal space of children and youth should be a protected place. Adults should see and respect the boundaries of children. One of the things that pastors and youth leaders have to do is undergo boundary training in order to protect children.

In the book of Genesis, Joseph was a unique child. He would dream and tell fantastical stories while his brothers labored in fields. They sold him into slavery. Would you believe me if I told you that Joseph came from a dysfunctional family? How did his brothers feel when they realized that the manager of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself, was their brother? Their whole family was on the brink of starvation, and now their very own brother is in command of the vast storehouse of grain. They were not joyous, they were dismayed. Why? They fear that Joseph will retaliate in their moment of weakness and vulnerability. Does he? Joseph does not, he responds to their cruelty with forgiveness and love. Joseph also responds with boundaries. 

Joseph invites his family to Goshen, a region of Egypt that was suitable for shepherding and livestock agriculture. In the long term, however, little by little the Hebrew people become enslaved with the rest of the Egyptians as the drought and famine drag on. The rulers of Egypt capitalize, literally, on the people’s desperation. They seize all animals, land, and property and people’s freedom itself in exchange for grain. After Joseph died, and a new Pharaoh came to power things got even worse, because the Hebrew people became an oppressed servant class. So you can understand why the brothers felt dismayed when they saw that Joseph was the manager of Egypt. They felt in their stomachs what was in store for them. They who had sold their brother into slavery would become slaves themselves. 

Jesus said do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Judge not, lest ye be judged. He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword. You reap what you sew. Others have said similarly: what goes around comes around. The categorical imperative according to Immanuel Kant. An eye for an eye until the whole world is blind said Gandhi. The point is: what kind of a world do you want to live in? Work righteousness, the great satanic lie, would have you tricked into thinking that the dysfunctional patterns of families will continue forever and cannot be changed. Jesus offers an alternative. You are saved by grace through faith. God sends rain to both the righteous and the unrighteous. By God’s grace, you can actually change yourself, grow as a person, and your families can too.

Jesus’ instruction of the disciples in Luke chapter six, the sermon on the plain, is a lesson on boundaries, and the long term effects of our actions. Turn the other cheek. This is an instruction about non-violence and creating an ethical boundary advocating for non-violence, but it is even more than that. Jesus teaches to put boundaries around any type of aggressive behavior of retaliation. Some people call this pacifism, but it is not passive. It requires tremendous will-power, restraint, and emotional will-power. It has been called, “non-violent resistance,” and it is the path of Jesus: to work for positive change without violence. Jesus gave his life for us by following this path. If he hadn’t been willing to respect boundaries, then he wouldn’t have died for our sins. If anyone didn’t have to have boundaries it would be God and Jesus. But Jesus takes on boundaries in order to save us from our sins. He dies on the cross for us, and to protect us, to put a boundary on death, sin, and the devil. 

In the reading from 1 Corinthians 15 this week Paul talks even more about resurrection. He says that it’s spiritual. He compares our bodies to seeds, and our resurrected bodies to be like plants. This is interesting because the Gospels give an account of a more corporeal resurrection where Jesus eats fish, and has a scar in his side that Thomas can touch. So it’s got to be both. He has a Spiritual Body. There’s still a body, not a ghost, but it’s a spiritual body. The point is, faced with the boundary of our own mortality, God provides eternal life. Now in this case you can see how God does move boundaries. God crosses the boundary between death and life. In other situations there are artificial boundaries that separate people for no good reason based on social constructs. Jesus crossed these boundaries focusing his ministry on Samaritans, Romans, tax-collectors, prostitutes, etc. In sum, when I think about Jesus, I don’t see a person who disregards all boundaries and does whatever he pleases. I don’t see someone who just goes along with the status quo either. Rather, I see a friend, who prayerfully discerns where and what he will do. I see the God-man who sometimes pushes the envelope and disrupts the social order. Other times he humbly endures abuse without retaliation. Jesus Christ is able to all of this because of a profound trust in God’s grace.