In the name of God,
in whom we live,
and move,
and have our being. Amen.
My husband Brandon and I
have been watching the show
Somebody, Somewhere
on Max.
We watched an episode this week
where a gay man who has been religious
is talking to another who still is.
The one still involved in the church
says, “Church is where you go
when you’re confused.”
They’re in small town Kansas,
so that’s a natural response.
He follows it up with
or you don’t go!
That’s a little more Pacific Northwest.
I don’t think there’s anything
much more confusing
than the death of a newborn.
This week a friend posted to his Instagram story
“It’s 2025. Why are we still getting sick?”
I replied
“Sin.”
Not that illness and death
are punishments for individual or group sins,
but that until the fullness of time
and Jesus’ return
sin and death are still a part of this world.
He’s a Lutheran pastor,
so he immediately agreed.
All religion,
Christian and beyond,
is an attempt to make sense
of things bigger than us.
Church is where you go
when you’re confused.
As Matthew is writing his gospel,
who is the greatest —
and general questions about rank,
power, and privilege —
persist in the church.
As Matthew is writing
to his predominantly Jewish church
he remembers this teaching from Jesus
that we’ve heard today.
At that time
the disciples came to Jesus and asked,
“Who is the greatest
in the kingdom of heaven?”
He called a child,
whom he put among them,
and said,
“Truly I tell you,
unless you change
and become like children,
you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Whoever becomes humble
like this child
is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Whoever welcomes one such child in my name
welcomes me.
Ruth was beautiful.
She was precious
and gorgeous.
She was the culmination
of so many hopes
and so much waiting.
In Jesus’ context
she would not have been treasured
because she couldn’t produce
economic value.
Women, slaves, and children
were all outcasts.
A criticism of the burgeoning Jesus movement
offered by the Right People
was that it was a religion
for women and slaves.
As the disciples ask Jesus
“Who is the greatest
in the kingdom of heaven?”
he answers
“This one,
this one who is fully dependent
on someone else.
“You have to change
and be humble
and not find your value
in what you make or earn
or what you wear or consume,
Your value in the reign of God
is a value that comes wholly from God.
Your placement in the kingdom of heaven,
is taking your place
depending solely on God.”
This teaching from Jesus
was as counter cultural in the first century
as it is in the twenty-first century.
As Jesus says
“Your placement in the kingdom of heaven,
is taking your place
depending solely on God”
today we face
that dependence.
Nothing we can do
can undo the tragedy
of Ruth’s death.
Max and Leah in their grief,
me in being their pastor,
have had to rely on God
and God’s people
to get to this day.
Church is where you go
when you’re confused.
All religion,
Christian and beyond,
is an attempt to make sense
of things bigger than us.
In the Christian story,
as Jesus elevates
those his society deemed worthless,
we make sense of things bigger than us
by trusting that this is not the end
and that God has not abandoned us
to our own devices.
Today we pray for Ruth
as she draws closer to God
as we acknowledge our grief.
Today we pray for Ruth
as we hope for the resurrection of all the dead
and seeing Ruth again
in the kingdom of heaven
that we not only glimpse now
but that has come down
as a new heaven
and a new earth.
Church is where you go
when you’re confused.
Having been baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection,
we make sense of the tragedies of this world;
we refuse to give in to despair and cynicism;
we hope for the consummation of the kingdom of heaven
because Christ is risen from the dead
trampling down death by death
and upon those in the tombs
bestowing life.
Having come through a watery grave ourselves
we come to the graves of our siblings in Christ
and make our Easter song,
“Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia”
knowing that those who survive us
will do the same.
There’s no way to explain
this tragedy.
It’s awful.
There’s nothing to say.
Through God’s love, though,
through God’s son Jesus
sent to redeem the whole of the cosmos,
this is not the end.
Not the end for us,
and not the end for Ruth.
Jesus says,
“Take care that you do not despise
one of these little ones;
for, I tell you,
in heaven their angels
continually see the face
of my Father in heaven.”
“For to your faithful people, O Lord,
life is changed, not ended;
and when our mortal body lies in death,
there is prepared for us
a dwelling place eternal in the heavens.”
Even at the grave we make our Easter song
“Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.”