Pastor's blog

Susanna was brought here when she was 7 months old. She didn't know the place she was leaving and she didn't know where she was going. She only knew she was with her parents and that was good. In reality, she was leaving Mexico and coming to the United States of America. With no idea that she was outside the law, she went to school, she got good grades, and was encouraged by her counselors to apply for scholarships and loans to attend school. They were puzzled when she turned them down. An internship at a bank was also part of her high school education. They liked her so much that when she graduated they were going to hire her on the spot. They were puzzled when she refused. Since she didn't have a social security number, she knew her chances were slim and she didn't want to put her family in jeopardy. Despite her abilities, she waits tables to make money.

Rosa grew up here as well, but was born in Mexico. She fell in love and while she and her husband couldn't be legally married, they spent their lives together and had three children. All was well until one trip to the grocery store. Her husband dropped her off and never came back. She was now alone, illegal, and a single mother of three. Life was hard but she made it on her own. She would fall in love again with a man named Guillermo. He was nice at first, but more violent as their relationship went on. Still, he provided a steady factory income and kept food on the table. That was how it went until one trip to church. Guillermo decided to be baptized and, in this case, his sins were literally washed away. He owns his car. He owns his house. He is liked at his job. He doesn't abuse his wife or children anymore. However, his driver's license is about to expire and he won't be able to get a new one. It's going to make getting to work much more difficult if not impossible.

Harry Pangemanan came from Indonesia in 1993 on a tourist's visa. He was hired as a supervisor in New Jersey and given a driver's license and social security number. He and his wife and their children attended Highland Park Reformed Church. In January, he was detained because their documents were not up to date. People from the church visited him every day and his wife and children went when they could. Without notice, he was flown from a facility in New Jersey to a deportation site in Tacoma, WA; thousands of miles from his family. They have spent $20,000 on legal fees in preparation for the upcoming deportation hearings.

All of these stories take place in the immigration system here in the United States of America. When you consider James' story as he came here from Rwanda and the long list of other stories, it's clear that the system is not as smooth as it could be. But the point of the stories is to highlight the idea of a system. In people terms, a system is a group of people that interact for one reason or another. In a system, these people will hold a general set of beliefs and generally follow a set of rules and share common behaviors. There will also usually be physical structures that are associated with the system and serve as symbols. We talk about them all the time: the health care system, the education system, the prison system, the social service system, the financial system, you could even say that there is a Christian or religious system.

There are, after all, a group of people that get together for reasons having to do with the faith that they share. We might not see each other anywhere else, but almost every Sunday we see familiar faces. We also hold similar beliefs whether they be theological or social. We share in common behaviors: we sing, we stand, we sit, we drink coffee, we go to Sunday School, we serve. And, we do much of this in a physical structure with noticeable markings to tell people that this is a church; one piece within the Christian, religious system. In this church last week, we talked about advocating for moral leaders, for people who would be humble enough to serve people rather than their own prestige. This week we'll be considering what it means to advocate for more faithful systems, whether they be immigration or any other type. In fact, this is one way to look at Jesus' triumphal entry.

After all, Jerusalem was the center for just about every Jewish system that existed in the day especially those that were religious. At the center of that center was the temple where God's people from the surrounding area would flock many times a year to worship, to renew their covenants with God, to make sacrifices, and to celebrate God's covenant with them. Passover was approaching as Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a colt. As we know so well, he was hailed by the crowds as the king who was coming to restore Jerusalem and all of its systems to glory. "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!" Jesus' first peak at the temple was a quiet one and, no doubt, the anticipation of the people grew as he observed what was going on there: the sacrificial system at work.

That night something else was growing inside Jesus. Call it jealousy, call it anger, call it righteous indignation, whatever you call it, it led Jesus to Jerusalem again the next day and he visited the temple the next day as well. It would not be so quiet this time. He began to drive out of the temple those who were selling animals for sacrifice and those who were buying animals to make sacrifices. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. You can just hear the chaos of coins spilling all over the ground as the moneychangers race to pick up their profits, of animals on the loose, and people awestruck. Jesus' vigorous display completely dismantled the system of sacrifice.

By some accounts, it was a corrupt system. Some say the poor would have to pay extra, animals that traveled long distances were rarely approved so that you would have to buy in the temple which charged exorbitant rates. Mark says nothing about that. Regardless, Jesus seems enraged by the system as it has been put in place. Certainly, some of the same people who praised him were no in the temple to offer sacrifices in gratitude for him. But, he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. Some king he's turned out to be. The people were only following what had been prescribed for them in their Scriptures. They were there to renew their covenant with God and God's law said that they had to sacrifice. Sure it may have had its problems, but at least there was a system in place. What kind of sacrilege was Jesus bringing upon them?

Jesus was teaching them, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations. But you have made it a den of robbers." With these words, Jesus was joining the voices of Isaiah and Jeremiah and calling the people back to God. There were two problems with the system as Jesus saw it. First, there was only one nation represented. Since the time of Isaiah, God has meant to extend his promises to all who were willing to obey him. God desired that his house would be a house of prayer for all peoples. In Jesus' day, however, all other peoples could be considered unclean and unworthy of the temple. The system made them feel unwelcome. The second thing that angered Jesus was that the temple was used as a front for sinful living. People would oppress the alien and orphan and widow, they would steal, murder, or commit adultery and then come to the temple imagining they are safe. They thought that as along as they made a sacrifice, they could go on doing as they please. In reality, they were robbing God and one another.

With his words and with his actions, Jesus is saying that the religious system is broken. With his disruptive display and his teaching, Jesus was advocating that the system be changed so that it was more in line with God's desires for his people and for the world. Jesus was telling those who stuck around that God desired a relationship with people from all nations and was calling all people to stop robbing one another of the life God wants to give them. It's no different than Jesus' call to love God and love one another. The apostle Paul came up with a good word for this: grace.

Paul would see this as part of the mystery that had been veiled through the ages, but was now unveiled in Jesus Christ. Paul would see Jesus' words and actions as part of God's eternal plan to redeem the whole world. By God's grace, Paul was equipped and sent to bring this good news to the Gentile nations to tell them that they had become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus. Because of him, all people have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith. By grace we have been saved through faith. Jesus Christ is our peace. So, we have peace with God and peace with one another, not because God has been bought off, but because of grace.

Through this same grace, a new system has been put in place. Through this new system the wisdom of God's grace will be made known to all of the rulers and authorities on earth and in heaven. Through this new system, all the rich variety of what God had in mind since the foundation of the world will be made known to the world so that everyone can see it. There's a name for this new system: church. It's no coincidence that at the center of this new church system are two symbols which we call "means of grace." The baptismal font and the communion table are two ways that God conveys his grace to us as we gather in his house. The water of the font calls to mind the ways in which God graciously forgives our sins, graciously adopts us into the body of Christ, graciously sends the Holy Spirit to renew us daily, and will one day graciously resurrect us to eternal life. The bread and the cup of the communion table call to mind the gracious sacrifice that Christ offered so that we might share in his communion of grace with God, believing that this table is a foretaste of the eternal banquet that he has gone to graciously prepare for us.

Swimming in all this grace hardly makes sense to the rulers and authorities of the world and in the heavenly places. Most systems run on laws and regulations. Most systems are considered just if they stick to those laws and regulations. We usually don't know that there is a system until it doesn't work for us. I doubt any of us will know what it's like to flee our homes to save our lives as James' family had to, but we can certainly use actions to advocate for grace. Not many of us will know what it's like to miss a meeting and have to wait 45 days for coupons to buy food, but we can certainly use our voices to advocate for grace. Few of us will know what it means to leave friends and family to find work, but we can certainly teach ways to advocate for grace. More of us than before know what it means to live without medical insurance, but we can still find a way to advocate for grace. The wisdom of God says that truly just systems are those founded on and functioning with grace. Immigrants, single moms, the uninsured, the undereducated, and others might not fit within the law, but the church is called to make the wisdom of God known; to advocate for systems of grace.

Paul went to prison advocating for grace. When you question a system, you also question its leaders. When you advocate for a change in the system, you are often advocating for a change in leadership. When the chief priests and the scribes saw what Jesus did in the temple and heard what Jesus said, they also noticed how spellbound the crowd was. Grace is extremely attractive to those who need it and extremely dangerous to those who rely on laws. So, when Jesus and his disciples left that night, the leaders of the religious system began looking for a way to kill Jesus before he could take their power from them. Jesus would be beaten, mocked, and spit upon because he advocated for grace. Ultimately, Jesus was crucified so that each and every one of us could know grace. Jesus died so that each of you would know that God had a plan from the beginning of time to shower you with grace.

For this reason we bow our hearts before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. We pray that, according to the riches of God's glory, he may grant that we may be strengthened in our inner beings with power through God's Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, as we are being rooted and grounded in love. We pray that we may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length, and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to that same God, who by the power at work within us is able to do accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.