Who is this whole thing FOR, anyhow?

an ordination sermon for the unordinary Jeff Chu

What I love about this picture:that Jeff needed something to stand on - and if you look at the pulpit - I needed this whole other thing taped on top of the pulpit so I could see my manuscript. We all need a little help.

Watch a video of the ordination of Jeff Chu HERE (sermon starts at 48:30)

I love this man like a brother, so when

Jeff Chu 朱天慧

asked if I would preach at his ordination April 6, 2024 at Old First Reformed Church in Brooklyn, NY I said yes.

He chose real bangers for the readings:
Isaiah 61:1-6

Psalm 116

Romans 8:33-39

John 21:1-14

Who is this for?

This is the day the lord has made and I don’t know about you all but I WILL rejoice and be glad in it.
Amen?

But also…one could be forgiven for thinking, man, kinda a weird time to sign on to this church thing.

I mean, I haven’t read every Pew research study that has come out recently, and sorry to be a such a bummer, but I’m pretty sure Mainline Protestantism isn’t exactly what they call a “growth industry” in America right now, Jeff.

You really could have gone into something more promising like cyber security (but let’s be honest, you do have a degree from seminary which is basically like having a degree from Hogwarts, outside the “wizarding world” no one cares that you know all about the magic.)

Even so, here you are about to be ordained to the office of word and sacrament in the Reformed Church of America at a time when, if our denominations were publicly traded companies, our stock would not be doing well.

It is, as my mom Peggy would say, an “interesting choice”.

A choice that frankly, may seem a bit foolish from the outside.

Which is maybe why I struggled a bit with what to say today. Wondering about our relevance in an increasingly secular society.

Wondering if we as a church are in palliative care and pretending we’re not.

Wondering what it means to be confessing our faith in Jesus while selling off more church buildings than we are building new ones.

And then on Sunday I realized it doesn’t matter.

So, here’s what happened:

It’s Easter Sunday and I am worshipping inside the Denver women’s prison, and during one of the songs, my mind wanders to today’s sermon as it has many times in the last month. The band is playing and I am staring distractedly at our altar, a square plastic table which each Sunday is adorned with hand-me-downs from churches that have closed.

I stare at the cheap faded yellow satin on the table in front of me; janky frayed letters sewn on it’s front spell out alleluia.

“God knows what decade that was made” I think to myself  “maybe the 60s when it and whatever the now defunct congregation who donated it was still full and shiny”

And then I realize that surrounding me are 175 women in prison greens singing:

If you've got pain, he's a pain taker.
If you feel lost, he's a way maker.
If you need freedom or saving, he's a prison-shaking savior
If you've got chains, he's a chain breaker.

Which is when I remember that this thing has never been about power and institutions and property. It’s never been for the proud. It’s always been about God uplifting the humble and feeding the hungry and forgiving the sinner.

Afterall,

Jesus said he came for the sick and not the well.

So when church ended and our congregation went back to their units and I was buzzed through a series of security doors - and went back to my home, I immediately read all of our texts for today again, for like the hundredth time, but now I am looking for one thing: who this thing is for.

And church,  here are the categories of people that are mentioned in the readings we just heard and who God is for them:

Our God, my friends, is

Good news. For who?  for the oppressed

A binding. For who? for the broken hearted.

Liberty for the captive.

Release for the imprisoned.

Comfort for the bereaved.

Our God is a garland for those who sit in ashes.

A listening ear to supplicants.

A mighty name to call upon in distress.

A protector of the simple.

An intercessor for the condemned.

An un-separatable love for the persecuted and afflicted.

And breakfast for guys who aren’t very good at fishing.

What I mean to say, is that the Gospel will be preached and the sacraments will be offered for as long as this world breaks our hearts. For as long as there is sin, there will be forgiveness of sin. For as long as there is hunger, there will be the bread of life. Because this is who it is for.

No wonder in a country that worships private property and rugged individualism, that the church has so often held our hand up and said a polite “no thank you, we got this” to the provision and help of the almighty.  Because it is a humbling thing to have a God who is so mighty to save. So mighty to provide, so mighty to forgive. It can even sound offensive because it reveals our need and our want.

In fact, there are those who believe that the good news about the Christian faith is really that with excellent enough discipleship you can progressively sanctify yourself into the position of hardly ever needing to call upon God’s name, never really needing grace.

That kind of religion works for some folks, and bless them.

But also, they have their pastors.

But to others, to we who struggle with ever having felt loved, and we who sat alone every day at middle school lunch tables, to we who can’t stop hurting and can’t stop hurting other people. To we with painful secrets and we who have never been in the center and who are desperate to be seen but also just want to hide I ask:

is there not still a balm in Gilead?

Is there not still a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul? A Gospel balm to heal the soul sick with addiction, sick with despair? Sick with obsessive self-interest? A Gospel balm to heal the soul sick from abuse and neglect, a captive soul sick from oppression and endlessly buying things that the algorithmic overlords sell us on Instagram, sick with false promises of a sick culture telling us lies about our bodies and other people and the what will “make us happy” Is there not still a balm in Gilead?

Look man, The you deserve a break today deep fried culture of the self-obsessed isn’t as satisfying as it says it is. I mean, not for me.

And Jeff, I have tried reaching for the hem of other garments, and none have stopped my bleeding.

So when I was trying to figure out what to say from this pulpit today, all I could come up with is this:

Lord, to whom shall we go – YOU have the words of eternal life.

So yeah, to the world this day all seems a bit foolish.

But from what I know about God, it makes all the sense in the world that you are called to vow your life to the grace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Not despite who you are but because of it.

We know from scripture that God seems to have a preference for messengers who would have a difficult time making it through the ordination process of most denominations these days - stark raving prophets and former demoniacs and tax collectors and rank fishermen, and penitent soldiers and “certain women” - and yet somehow the church has convinced itself that it’s pastors must first and foremost be nothing like the ones who sang on the original cast recording of the Gospel.

Yet in our Gospel reading for today, let’s not forget that the first thing Jesus says to Peter and the other disciples is

“children you have no fish do you?”

Our Lord knew them not by what they had, but by what they lacked.

Jesus knew them by their need for him …and the same is true today.

So, in a minute there will be a lot of questions asked about doctrine and belief, and that is not unimportant,

but please remember that the operative question as it pertained to the grilled fish and bread Jesus had prepared for his friends that morning was not “do you believe this is breakfast?”, it was “do you hunger?”

See, I wonder if, a few verses later when Jesus asks do you love me three times to the one who had denied him three times and peter says yes lord and jesus responds then feed my sheep. . . I wonder if perhaps that was the first ordination.

In him there is not one category of people who teach and one who need to learn. There is not one category of people who heal and one who need wholeness. There is not one category of people who minister and one who need care. There is just one category: hungry sinners in need of a savior.

So when he asks we who also have denied we need him, do you love me and at our ordinations we say yes Lord and he says then feed my sheep, I know this for sure: he is putting us in the category of the hungry and himself in the category of bread. Every Single Time.

So, when, in a moment you will be commended to not neglect the gift that is in you. Know this:  You have so many gifts. A searing intellect, a tender heart, a beautiful sensitivity, not to mention you’re a heck of a writer and one of the best cooks I know….But maybe the gift in you that should not be neglected isn’t your strengths, the gift is your need, your lack, your hunger. Your weakness in which God’s strength is perfected.

So my sweet friend, do not neglect the need you yourself have for the gospel of Jesus.

For as long as you need it, God will equip you to proclaim it.  Amen.

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Me and Jeff at the Why Christian Conference in SF 2019