Author: The Rev. Jason A Burns

I grew up in Turners Falls, MA and is a graduate of Turners Falls High School. I attended college at UMass Amherst where I received both a Bachelors in History and a Masters of Education. My home parish was St. Andrew’s in Turners Falls, which has since merged with St. James in Greenfield to become Saints James and Andrew. I discerned a call to ordained ministry around 2002, but had no idea what to do with the call so I pushed it aside, but finally answered it in 2016. After attending the Province 1 School for Deacons, I was ordained to the Holy Order of Deacons in March 2020, just a week before the entire country was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I am a high school history teacher by day and my diaconal ministry focuses on supporting teens and young adults in their growth and learning as well as in preventing suicide. I am passionate about removing the stigma which surrounds mental illness, which is directly linked to suicide, for several reasons. The first being my own struggles with mental illness, which often keeps me from engaging with people right away, but with a little bit of time you won’t be able to get me to stop talking. The second reason is the people I have known who have ended their lives because they did not receive the treatment they needed. I do not hide my own struggle because I want to model how important it is to be open about who God made us to be.

Awakening to New Life: Jesus’ Invitation to Change

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Why do we gather, year after year, to retell the same story? We all know how this ends. Jesus was executed on a cross, he was clearly dead and then he wasn’t. We all know what this means, right? It means that if we believe in Jesus then we will also get to be alive after we die and until that happens, we just need to limp along through life and do our best to be good people. The end.

Today the cross is seen as a symbol of forgiveness, redemption, resurrection and even comfort and our adoration of the cross is not misplaced, but I fear that we have lost the most important part of its meaning. In the first century it was ultimate symbol of a painful death. It was a very painful tool of execution, yet we don’t view it that way, which is unfortunate because as Bonhoeffer said “When Christ calls a man, he calls him to come and die.” Which is not a very inviting message, yet it’s true. It is true because important things have a cost, love requires us to sacrifice a part of ourselves for the benefit of another person; taking the time we need to regenerate after a long day requires that we put aside the to-do list even if it means something important has to wait; living in a committed relationship or raising children requires that we give up some of our desires and habits; and living a God centered life requires us to give up parts of ourselves because the love and joy of Easter, of resurrection, of new life requires that we die, but not just any death, not a peaceful in our sleep death after a lifetime of good living kind of death. It requires a hard death, a death that will involve some pain and fear and even anger. A death that requires us to willingly suffer the very real pain and raw emotions we know will come when we give ourselves over to it. The kind of death we would experience if we were hung from a cross, the kind of death Jesus had.

The reason we need to tell the same story every year is because we very quickly forget that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is not only about the simplified cycle of passive belief in God so many people think it is. It isn’t only about getting to go to heaven, which isn’t even what people think it is anyway. It isn’t only about being resurrected after we die. It is about having a new life now. If the life of Jesus was about life after actual death, then why would he have spent three years healing the sick, and telling parables that are so abstract and mystical that we learn something new about ourselves every time we hear them?

Reducing our faith to the belief that Jesus died for our sins so that we can go to heaven is not wrong, but it also isn’t the whole truth. Jesus invites us to die to this world every day with the knowledge that new life is not only possible, but guaranteed. The Gospels are filled with examples of how Jesus helped people receive new life. He helped countless people walk, and see, and stand, and speak, he helped people feel whole and if that is not new life then I don’t know what is; but in order for these miracles to happen a very specific things had to occur, they had to be willing to give up the life that they knew before they could have a new life.

New life can look like many things, we all know it can literally mean life after death, that is the obvious definition, but also not likely what Bonhoeffer was referring to when he spoke of Christ’s invitation to death. The invitation to death is an invitation to have a change of heart, it is an invitation to change how we view and approach the world. It is an invitation to die to selfishness, to approach every person with the assumption that their intentions are good and trust that they too desire peace; to approach every situation with the assumption that a positive outcome is possible, most especially when it feels like the intentions behind the situation are rooted in selfishness and even evil. This is not an easy ask, allowing yourself to trust other people, to assume that their intentions are good even when their actions indicate otherwise; to trust that the systems we have made to facilitate our interactions, while flawed, are infused with God’s love and that the people who work within those systems want to do what is best to be good people even if the work they’re doing appears contrary to what we would call good. Even when we don’t believe that God is at work in other people, we have to trust that they are, we have to trust that the Holy Spirit is at work in everyone and by loving them, and trusting them, and praying for them, they too will choose death and allow the Holy Spirit to take control.

The miracle of Easter is not just that we receive new life after physical death, it is that we can receive new life now, we can be free from the control of the fear, and anxiety, and sadness that grips us; but to be free of these things we must first choose to face the cause of them because unless we do, death is not possible and neither is new life. Facing the things that cause us anxiety and fear and sadness is painful, but from pain comes new life.

We retell the same story, year after year, not to remind us that we will receive new life after death, but to remind us of the possibility and the reality of receiving new life now; but it is only possible if we first allow our need for control to die and begin assuming that good exists in all people because it does. If we do not believe that people can change, if we do not believe that we can change, then it is a sign that we do not trust God; that we do not believe that new life possible and we are not ready or willing to turn ourselves over to death. Accepting Christ’s invitation to death requires that we do the spiritual work that is necessary to become better people, it requires that we engage with scripture, learn from it, take it to heart, and allow it to guide our thinking and decision making to the point that seeing the potential for good in people and in situations becomes second nature, not because every person is a good person, but because everyone has the capability to be a good person if given the chance and we give them that chance when we believe they are capable and trust that they will not betray us. Sometimes this means that we will be hurt, sometimes it means that events will unfold in unhelpful or painful ways, but that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because accepting death and new life is not about living a perfectly peaceful life, it is about living a different life, a life that is countercultural, a life that puts the needs of others, telling the truth, and trusting both God and humanity ahead of what we think is best. Jesus often put the needs of the people he ministered to ahead of himself, he always told the truth, and he most certainly trusted God and humanity. He trusted that God would not abandon him and he trusted that humanity has the capability to follow his lead, accept death, and in doing so help God restore creation to its intended purpose. Amen.

We need to be countercultural, Jesus was

Published on by The Rev. Jason A Burns1 Comment

Sermon preached at the Ordination of Jaclyn Mayo

It would be hard to deny the prevalence of individualism in American culture, it is not unique to The United States, but it is generally defined differently here than in other places. For nearly two centuries’ Americans have drawn a direct connection between individual liberty and the belief that hard-work will achieve greatness. As technology has advanced, especially in the last twenty years, there has been a shift in our culture that has significantly changed how we interact with each other. It is a shift that is not entirely explainable, at least not yet, but what is becoming clear is that the American Dream, the idea that hard work can and will lead to success is not only alive and well, it has been heightened by an unwritten set of rules that require unfettered competition with everyone and everything, including social interactions. The subliminal pressure to be number one, to be the top-rated employee, to be the straight A student, to be the highest performing athlete is not only real, it is damaging to our health. The number of young adults, aged 18-25, who have reported feelings of anxiety has more than doubled in the past twenty years. My own students tell me that even though their parents do not pressure them directly to perform at their best, they feel pressured to do so. They fear that if they don’t stretch themselves to their limits that they will have no future, and the saddest thing for me is that I rarely see any joy in their eyes, I rarely see anything except their ambition to get ahead of everyone else so that they can go to college and make lots of money so that they can afford to live.

            While our culture has certainly shifted, I am also aware fact that little has actually changed since the first century. Paul told the Philippians to do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, which means that you have a baseless sense of superiority. What is the American dream if not selfish ambition wrapped in a bow of empty conceit? Now before you get your pitchforks, I am not saying that the idea of hard work leading to success is wrong or bad because it isn’t; the issue is that we have placed our sights on the wrong prize. As Christians we claim to desire humility, and love, and peace; yet the second our ideas are challenged on Facebook or Instagram or whatever technology we turn to, our inner tiger comes out and whether we reply or not, we get riled up because what we believe and what we want has been threatened. That, my friends, is the rearing of the empty conceit we all thought, just a moment ago, doesn’t apply to us.

            Paul tells us that God emptied themself of all their power and took the form of a servant, a servant that is to this day revered as one of the most influential persons to have ever lived and not just by his followers. According to Luke, that very servant told his followers that “the greatest among you must become like the youngest and the leader like one who serves.” So here we have God, in the form of Jesus, telling their followers that when they achieve greatness, of any kind, that it is then time to set aside your own greatness and “humbly regard others as better than yourself”.

            It is of course easy for me to stand here and say that we all need to be humble, that we all need to act like servants. We all know that there just isn’t enough time in the day. There just isn’t time to volunteer at the soup kitchen, or to drop off those extra blankets we never use; there just isn’t time to plan a bible study, or give Alice a ride to the doctor; there just isn’t time do anything except work hard so that we have enough money to pay the rent, to make sure that we meet the deadline at work, to run our kids to ten different events that they don’t even want to do. The phrase “there isn’t time” is a fallacy and it is evidence that we all participate in the culture that values rabid individualism and competition over community and the only reason there isn’t time for things is because we refuse to change our behavior.

            The amazing thing about the life of Jesus is that he was the person we all want to be, and even though he has given us everything we need to lead a countercultural life, because that is what Christianity is, countercultural, we fail at it time and time again. We just can’t let go of the rat race, we can’t step out of our own way, we can’t bring ourselves to put others first, not even when we purposefully try to do so. For example, when do we volunteer? When do we protest for what is right? When do we stop working on the big work project? When do we write a letter or an email or make a call to a friend just to say hey, how are you? When we have time, that’s when.

            Jackie, today you are continuing a journey that began before you were born. You are choosing to accept a mantle of leadership that asks you to be countercultural and I am not going to sugarcoat the fact that this mantle is heavy. Choosing to live an ordered life, a life based on scripture, and prayer, and love, and humility while also bearing the burdens that come with wearing a collar is life changing. While you may not feel different after today because you are still the person God made you to be, you are still you, you are the deacon God wants in their church; how other people see you and interact with you will be different and that will change you because that is how it all works. The perceptions of others change who we are, it is our own fear that others might think we are unsuccessful or lazy to fuel our work ethic and allow our ambition to guide our life decisions instead of turning to the thing that we all know to be true, which is that we really want nothing more than to be loved. The role of a deacon is truly undefinable; yeah, we have our prayer book definition and every deacon in this room can tell you the song and dance about having one foot in the church and one foot in the world, but that doesn’t come close to truly describing who deacons are, it simply gives us parameters for our work. There will be times when you will be called upon to be a pillar of strength and it will feel like you are holding the weight of the entire world on your shoulders. There will also be times when you will want to burn it all down and just before you light the match realize that if you do it, if you do burn it all down, you will in fact be burning yourself down right along with it, which brings me back to how I started this long diatribe of randomness.

            Jesus has asked us to be countercultural, he has asked us to step back from the rat race and try, just try, to approach life from a perspective of love and doing so requires humility and it requires that we stop making excuses about time and energy. I actually believe that sharing God’s love with each other is quite simple, what isn’t simple is setting aside the parts of ourselves that want to win the race at all costs so that we can be sure that our future is secure. Humility requires risk and we don’t like risk. It is far easier to just run the race to win and suffer the consequences than it is to slow our pace and invite God and our neighbor to run with us. The American love affair with hard work is not wrong in principle, but let’s make sure that the hard work is the kind of work we should be doing in the first place. Let’s work on things like love, and prayer, and humility, and empathy, and God forbid compassion. What’s the point of being first, if itmeans you are all alone? God emptied themself of power, they humbled themself to the point of death by execution so that we could understand that a different way is possible. Being a Christian is hard work, it is transformative, it is life giving, but only if we are willing to trust God enough to run a different race, a race that will still involve pain, and anxiety, and even death; but also, a race that guarantees, by the resurrection, that everyone crosses the finish line, so be countercultural, and in humility regard others as better than yourself. Amen.

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God doesn’t test us

Published on by The Rev. Jason A Burns1 Comment

Paul says “he was tested by what he suffered”. This is an important phrase, likely a phrase most of us would overlook while reading or immediately bring to mind Jonah or even Job, it certainly did for me. It caught my attention for two reasons, first because I had recently had a conversation, with a former student, about whether God tests us, but also because of my belief that an emerging ministry of mine is the reclaiming of our spiritual heritage as Christians. I want us to reclaim our vocabulary, I want us to stop dumbing down our faith and pretending that being a Christian is simple, that it only requires a passing belief in God, as if generally doing the right thing means we go to heaven when we die or if we follow all the rules as spelled out in the bible, we are good to go. Those versions of Christianity can be likened to our childhood beliefs about various mystical creatures, the ones that bring you presents for being a good little boy or girl. Those versions of Christianity are passive in nature, they are designed for one thing and one thing only, making people feel good!

            What I find strange is that the people who push feel good Christianity also push the idea that God tests us to make sure that we are true believers; my question is: if God is all loving why would they test us? That sounds like an abusive relationship to me, the kind where a partner runs their finger along the top of a door jamb to make sure they are clean and if not, look out. That’s not love, it’s control and it is the same as telling the faithful that they need to follow the rules or God will smite them. God does not test us; God does not cause us to struggle; God only creates and loves, and any story, any rule, any interpretation that indicates otherwise is just wrong. 

             You might be thinking that your deacon has gone off the deep end, but let me give you some context. Many Americans, many of our neighbors, are scared right now. Many are wondering if we are being tested by God, and you of course already know how I feel about that idea. So, if God is not testing us, then why does it feel like so many things are going wrong and how can we rely on God if they never seem do anything? Or for that matter, why should we? In short, God is never the source of anything that harms. In the story of Jonah, the classic God tests the faithful story, God simply asked Jonah to be his prophet and Jonah runs away. The way it is written it makes it sound like God then punishes Jonah until he repents, but that doesn’t make any sense. No one repents because they are punished, they repent because they genuinely feel sorry for what they did. What really happened is Jonah realized his error and then trusted that God would help. God did not trick Jonah into doing this, God did not send a storm to threaten Jonah’s life so he would repent, the storm just happened and it was Jonah’s realization that he had been rejected God that saved him. To put it another way, like Jesus, Jonah was tested by what he suffered. Jonah was afraid of what God asked him to do, so he ran away and in running away bad things happened to him, but in the end, God remained with him and saved him.

            The other classic story of testing is the story of Job. Job had bad things happen to him, and he remained faithful to God throughout and in the end, because of his patience and trust in God, all that he lost was returned to him. Jesus didn’t run away and very bad things happened to him, and in the end, God remained with him and not only saved him, but gave him new life.

            My takeaway from all of these contradictory stories is that whether we follow all the rules or not, bad things are going to happen and while it may feel like a test at times, I can promise you that it is not God who is administering the test, it is you. In the story of Job, it is the devil or Satan who is behind the horrible things affecting Job, and in the letter to the Hebrews Paul says that Jesus became flesh so that he could destroy the one who controls death, namely the devil. I am assuming that upon hearing the term devil or Satan we have all conjured an image of a red skinned pyromaniac with horns and furry legs, but that is not at all what Paul or the author of Job is referring to. The term devil comes from the Greek word diabolos, which means accuser or slanderer. To me, this changes things considerably, it means that in the story of Job it is slander and accusations that lead to his suffering and it is God who restores him and ends his suffering. It means that it was Jonah’s fear of doing what God asked that causes him to almost perish in a storm and it was God who saved him. It means that Jesus was tested by the accusations and slander of people who refused to accept what he was saying that led to his death, and it was God who restored him to life.

            You see, what this means is that we are the devils. We are the ones who accuse each other and slander each other. We are the ones who test each other, by making up rules, rules we know full well are impossible to follow and that truly have nothing to do with God. It is our need for a sense of control that causes us to be devils, we think that if we can point out the flaws in other people it somehow shows that we are more faithful, that we are in the right; but that is a fallacy my friends. The only test we have to pass is the one where we refuse to take the test, which is what Jesus did. He didn’t fight the accusers, he didn’t correct the slanderers, he let them have their say, he let them cast their stones, he even let them kill him. Why? Because he trusted God. He had faith that God would not betray him, even in death, and he was right. Which is why Paul tells us that “because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.” We’re the ones being tested now, we are the ones who have been asked to love our neighbor unconditionally, whether we like them is an entirely different story. We are the ones who need to have mercy on the people who harm us and our loved ones, not because it is “the right things to do”, but because it is what it means to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus. The test is simple, will we continue to fall into the trap of playing by human rules or will follow Jesus’s lead and refuse to play, trusting that God is on our side?

            I am by no means implying that this is easy. It is not easy to watch others hate, or demean, or dismiss entire groups of people. It is not easy to listen as countless people, people who claim to be Christians, throw insults at anyone and anything that dares to think or act differently than they do. It is not easy to admit that we do the same, we do the same every time we dismiss them, every time we dismiss their beliefs.

            I am sure several of you are asking yourself, right now, but how can I not dismiss or refute hatred when I hear it? To that I say, I never said don’t. We should absolutely reject hatred, misinformation, and cruelty. What we can’t do, is dismiss the people spreading those things, because if we dismiss them, if we assume that their beliefs are all that they are, then we have failed our own test. We have failed to follow the path Jesus laid before us, the path of peace and love.

            “Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.” But he can only help us if we are willing to accept the help.