Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

All my life I have heard the belief professed that “America is a Christian Nation.” I’ve heard politicians advertise their “Good Christian Values,” as attributes for their election.  And more recently I’ve heard over and over that our belief, our religion, Christianity itself is under attack… These sayings, this conviction, has always felt strange to me.  It’s not that I wouldn’t like it…. you know… to be a Christian nation. It’s just that the way it was said, it never felt right.  It never felt like these Christian values they represented were my Christian values.  They seemed restrictive, they seemed exclusive, they often seemed… well…. Unchristian.  And I never knew what to do with that.  So, I never said anything.  Because I was a Christian, and I felt as if I disagreed, if I challenged,  if I even questioned “The Christian Nation,” I would then be labeled an outsider and that part of my life, my Christian essence, would be stripped from me.  I became silent.  Or perhaps another term we could use, a coward.
But to everything there is a tipping point, there have actually been a lot recently in my life.  And when Jeff Sessions, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and the countless others used scripture to justify the treatment of undocumented immigrants, a line was drawn, and NEVER in my life has it been more clear where I must stand. 
My friends, today we have Jesus calming the sea.  And I’ve always thought it was about the faith of the Disciples, or the power of God, or even Jesus’ love of sleep (something the Christ has in common with my wife).  But as I was reading this week, with all these unsettling reports about what our government does to people who aren’t citizens, I began to see another theme as Jesus sailed out on that Galilean Sea. 
Jesus has always been a luminal revolutionary.  His Earthly ministry focused on the borders.  As one biblical professor says,  “He chooses to go to the marginal spaces, away from life’s regular patters: near a graveyard, at a deathbed, or hoisted atop Golgotha.  He situates himself at geographical boundary lands, like in wilderness, mountains tops.  He goes to sociopolitical borderlands, politically charged locations like a tax collector’s home, or the land outside of Jerusalem during Passover.”  This was Jesus’ ministry to go and walk that line drawn in the sand. 
The professor goes on to say, “life stands toe-to-toe with death at many of the borders in [the gospel of] Mark.  Some of the boundaries separate what’s holy from what defiles, and they keep outsiders away from insiders.  That’s how dividing lines work,” he notes, “they allow us to keep what is known on one side, and we banish whatever makes us fearful to the other side of the fence.” Does this sound familiar?!
Back to our story, Jesus has just finished teaching to the multitudes.  And it is getting dark, but rather than waiting for daybreak, when it is safer to travel, Jesus tells them, “we’re leaving now, we have to go to the other side.”  Jesus always needs to go to the other side.  You see, because people needed him across that sea.  If you look at the upcoming chapter in Mark, a demoniac was waiting to be healed, a girl needed to be restored to life, 5 thousand people needed to be fed.  His movement was too big for just one side.  So at the end of the day, this story is not about the ship wavering, the lack of faith of the disciples, or even the Power of God to control the sea.  This story is about a God whose mission will not be deterred. Nothing, is going to stop his ministry of healing, reconciliation, and Life.  No boundary, no border, fence, law, or even mighty storm can stop Christ’s unconditional love from being realized.
THIS, is how we make our stand. THIS is how we claim our Christian Nation. Recognizing that all boundaries that separate “the us from them” must be broken down.  That we must begin to see the other as a child of God, or at the very least, a human, with all the dignity and respect that that deserves.  If we want to be a Christian nation must begin the difficult task of truly dealing with immigration and citizenship.  We have this belief that there is not enough to go around.  That if we allow others into our special land, that it will some how be less special for us who were already here.  This is not, nor has it ever been a Christian way.  It is a product of our fear of scarcity, and Mediator, y’all know how I feel about scarcity.  Our Table, our altar, is in direct confrontation to anyone who would say that scarcity is how we should live our life.  Our altar instead, cries out that God provides in abundance, that there is room, there is bread, there is wine enough for all…. That is what Christ taught us.
So, we can’t continue to simply build our walls taller as if The Vatican is the example of a Godly city.  It was the prophet Isaiah who claimed, “You will call your walls salvation, and all your portals praise.”  God’s city is meant to be open, accessible, abundance for the poor, sanctuary for the weak.  And the good news, my friends, is that this is what we are at our best! What happened to that statue that inspired the world?  That offered a new way to show power and might, not through military strength, but through an embracing light.  What happened to that beautiful sonnet that defined our nation,
 
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
 
Imagine that. A nation that truly lives into these words.  I know it wont be easy.  It wont be popular.  People will fear that there is not enough for us all.  It will create much anxiety.  The people outside our borders are unknown, and we fear that which we do not know.  But, my friends we are not called to fear, we are called to act.  We are called to embrace and love.  We are called to reach out our hand across every boarder and to tear every wall down.  This is our call.  And brothers and sisters, like Jesus Christ our Savior against the storm… We will not be deterred.  Amen.