“IN THE EYES OF A CHILD”
Luke 2:21-40
Faith United
December 28, 2008
When Sarah was a baby in Tilden, Nebraska
we took her faithfully to the Catholic Church basement
in Norfolk to get her immunizations
One of those times, we weren’t able to get to the scheduled day
at the Catholic Church,
So we had to take her to some community building
in a remote part of Norfolk where we’d never been
It wasn’t the nicest part of town
in fact, it was quite the opposite
it was a very old building on the “other” side of town
It was crammed with all kinds of people
most of whom didn’t speak any English…
We took our seats among the mass of mothers and children --
across the aisle, we saw a woman who was there
with her grandchildren, of which she had many
She was holding an infant, while all around her children were climbing,
playing, chattering, and running back and forth
It was pretty chaotic and noisy, and there was a variety of smells there too
We blamed that on a room full of babies…
Sarah, being a baby,
started to cry one of those crying spells that never seem to stop
We tried everything, but she screamed,
her face was all red, she kept kicking,
her whole body seemed upset….
I walked with her, pacing back and forth,
bouncing her, humming to her, putting her on my shoulder
laying her in my arms, singing into her ear…. nothing worked
Larry and I passed her back and forth,
but nothing would make her stop crying
Suddenly I heard a yell--
actually it didn’t sound like words to me,
but excited noises
Startled, I whirled around and saw the old Hispanic woman
reaching out her arms toward me, shaking her hands insistently
exclaiming something in Spanish quite energetically
She motioned one of her granddaughters toward me
the little girl approached me and simply said, “She wants your baby…”
Oh, really…
My first instinct was panic, of course,
I wasn’t too comfortable in my surroundings to begin with--
and the old woman nodded, gesturing insistently
that I give her my baby
I looked around, looking for a way to escape,
but we did have to get the shots
and the place was packed with people
The old woman grunted again, loudly, shaking her hands at me
like why wasn’t I just doing what she told me to do??
and the girl said again, “she wants to hold your baby…”
Against my better instincts, I thought at the time,
I made my way over to this stranger, this old woman
and handed my screaming child into her arms
Immediately the woman’s face brightened up into a toothless smile
as she held Sarah gently in her arms
She began to sing to her,
in Spanish, softly, so softly I could hardly hear her above the noise
And in the midst of that noisy, crowded place,
she acted as if it was only her and my child in the world
Sarah stopped crying and stared into the old woman’s eyes
as she sang to her,
until her eyelids began to droop and she fell asleep
The old woman kept singing for a little while, rocking Sarah in her arms
and then she just looked up at me and grinned again
without a word, she nodded to me
got up slowly from her chair,
and gently placed my sleeping child back into my arms
She sat back down in her chair and pulled one of her own grandchildren
into her lap
she smiled and nodded at me as if I’d already said “thank you”
I was astonished…
for a moment the room seemed quiet,
or at least I didn’t notice the noise and the chaos
I was embarrassed at my own panic and mistrust of the old woman
I nodded back at her and simply said, “gracias”
but she was already yelling at one of the children near her…
I think of that day when I read this story
I can imagine a little bit of what Mary might have felt
coming all the way to Jerusalem
for the ritual of purification and of dedicating her child to God
Coming out of her quiet little town
into the big city, still scared and a little bit shaken
at all the uncertainties of being a mother for the first time
Moses’ law commanded that the mother go through a period of isolation
after giving birth,
and then after a certain period of time,
she was to present herself to the priests
make an offering to God
to be declared clean again
The law stated that every firstborn male
was to be designated as holy to the Lord…
It was their tradition, like our baptism
something you did, something that was expected
There was even a clause in the law
that allowed for poor people to make their humble offerings
Those who couldn’t afford a lamb
could bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons…
So they ventured into Jerusalem with their little boy
sticking close to each other,
a little awed by the crowds, and protective of their child
They saw the temple, and came forward to the outer courts,
looking for the proper authorities
to whom they could make their humble offering…
Before they were inside the court, they were startled --
by an old man who seemingly accosted them
he didn’t even seem to know that Mary and Joseph were there
his eyes were shining, and his face was bright with joy
He wasn’t dressed like a priest
or he wasn’t well-kept, so they knew he wasn’t a leader
but without asking permission,
he simply took Jesus right out of Mary’s arms before she could protest
I can imagine her panic, who is this man
and what is he doing with my child??
He was very, very old
His long white hair was wiry
His hands were very wrinkled,
you could see the skin hanging off of his bony fingers
That old, wrinkly, blue-veined skin looked so odd
against the new skin of Mary’s baby
On the one hand,
He looked to be right at death’s door,
on the other hand, there such fire in his eyes
a joy, a life, a passion that seemed so young, so hopeful…
in that moment, he had much more energy
than Mary felt in her tired body
Mary tried to reach out to take him back,
but Joseph put his hand on her arm
to stop her,
and put his finger to his lips and smiled
as if he knew that something special was happening
the old man seemed to dance where he was
to a music that only he could hear
but when they listened closely, he was humming softly
Mary looked around self-consciously,
but in the temple courts in Jerusalem
there were so many people,
such a disturbance went unnoticed
Was the old man crazy?
Was he suffering dementia?
His eyes were closed as he clutched the baby to his chest
praising God, and swaying to his own music…
Suddenly he opened his eyes
and he looked toward the skies
and he began to speak toward the heavens
while also gazing back down into the child’s face
“Master,” he said, “now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel…”
Mary just stared at the old man
The last six weeks had been so ordinary
so typical, just getting to know her baby
knowing his quirks, his schedule
Losing sleep from frequent feedings during the night
Hardly sleeping herself, as she listened closely to his breathing
always making sure he was still breathing….
It had been six weeks
since anything extraordinary had happened
since strangers acted so…. strangely…
around her child…
The shepherds, their story that night,
the smells, the animals, crazy stories
about angels and heavenly hosts
it all seemed so long ago…
she wondered if it all really happened
or if it was just a dream….
What was the old man saying? What did it mean?
The old man blessed the child
with his thin, wrinkled, claw-like hands
and for the first time he looked at Mary
His light-filled eyes narrowed and grew darker
the joy in his face seemed to melt away
he swallowed as if he had terrible news
“This child,” he said solemnly,
“this child is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel,
and is to be a sign that will be opposed
so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed…
and a sword will pierce your own soul, too..”
Mary gasped
and was frightened by the sudden darkness in the man’s face
But just as suddenly the old man’s eyes softened again
as he stroked the baby’s chin, then his cheek
It wasn’t the kind of thing you’d want to hear
about your child
The words didn’t feel like a blessing
the words were confusing
her son would make people face themselves?
face truths that they didn’t want to face?
He’d cause strife? Division?
But what about what the angel Gabriel had said to her
in that dream…
that he would be special,
the one that her people had been waiting for?
Deep down we all know
that babies are a wonderful blessing and gift,
but they also cause us pain
Besides the screaming, the loss of sleep
and the worry they cause,
They cause us pain just by the fact that we love them so intensely
our hearts are made vulnerable in a unique way
when it comes to loving our children…
They’ll grow up to make mistakes of their own
they’ll choose paths we may not agree with
there will come a time that they will have to find their own way
and we just have to pray that we gave them everything we could
Whenever you love someone, whenever you give your heart over
to another,
there is always the risk that they will break it…
But we know what Simeon is talking about
we know what Mary can’t know yet
and it’s best that she doesn’t
We know the rest of the story
we know that Mary will bear the awful burden
of having to bury her own child
We know that when he grows up,
He will claim a difficult calling
and leave his mother to worry daily about his sanity and safety
We know the bad news that comes with the good news
that for the promise to be fulfilled,
this child will suffer
and consequently break his mother’s heart
For as long we live in this crazy world,
things are not one-sided
Jesus is the incarnation of God himself
the incarnation of pure holiness,
of deity, of the goodness of God
In the face of that goodness and holiness,
all things and all people are revealed for what they really are
and it’s not always pretty
we’re not always ready to deal with truth
Jesus is the Truth
and the Truth is not always welcome
The truth that Simeon had to share
was unpleasant
He would have preferred to just bless the child
to give glory to God and celebrate
but he was called to tell the whole story
that to be the bearer of truth,
the incarnation of holiness and righteousness
This child will scare, offend and anger many people
who don’t want the truth revealed
This tiny, 6 week old baby has a difficult calling
already this child bears the weight of the world
and so his mother’s heart will bear it too
But though we know the rest of the story,
we also know the end of it, as well
that nothing will be able to hold this child back
not even death itself
And his mother’s grief will once again
burst into rejoicing
her tears will become joy in the morning
It was enough for Simeon to see the baby’s face
Just a baby,
a speechless newcomer to the world
The story will not unfold for many years yet
long after Simeon’s own life ended
This is just a glimpse of the future
a hint of what was to come
But for Simeon it was enough….
enough to make his life complete…
While Mary clutched her child with relief
staring at the back of the old man
as he disappeared into the crowd,
There was a woman
suddenly beside her,
Anna-- very wrinkled, and very old
Many would say that she was just waiting out her days
that she had nothing to offer
She’d lived a lonely life,
a long life full of loss and grief
They felt sorry for her, all alone
And yet on this day,
she, too, saw through the ordinary to the holy
and she praised God like a crazy woman
and told all who cared to listen that the redemption of Israel
had come…in this child
It’s crazy,
She just got a glimpse
so much could happen between now and when the child was grown
but she saw the potential in that baby’s face
She, like Simeon, touched the future
and she would end up telling everyone about this baby
that she only saw for a few minutes
and yet would spend the rest of her days celebrating…
It was a holy interruption
Mary and Joseph were just coming to fulfill the Church law
to do the appropriate rituals expected of the church
And in the midst of it they experienced the Spirit of God
the profound, surprising, sometimes scary Spirit
The Spirit that disrupts, challenges, and haunts our lives --
At first, it was frightening, confusing-- this interruption
yet it turned out to be a blessing,
a story they would share with Jesus when he was older
Words that Mary would keep in the scrapbook of her heart
A memory, a moment that they’d remember as they fell asleep
a memory they’d think about when they doubted
or were afraid for their son….
The name Simeon means “to hear”
and the name “Anna” means “grace,” or even, “the face of God”
Do we ever expect to see the face of God
in our daily lives?
Out there, in the rituals of our day,
the sometimes boring schedules we keep?
Simeon didn’t seek out the face of the Messiah
in the church building,
but he found him on the street
out among the people
in the midst of real life….
Do we look for the face of God out there?
Do we keep our eyes open for a holy interruption?
Do we expect to be surprised?
To experience something new amidst the familiar?
In the faces of people we see every day?
In the face of someone at the nursing home,
in the hospital,
in the grocery store, or on the street?
Simeon and Anna were two very old people,
Just a part of the scenery at the temple
quiet, yet very faithful
full of greater wisdom than anyone suspected
They didn’t stand out,
they weren’t famous until that moment late in their lives
and even then, it was just for a moment….
And when the moment came,
they cried out in prophecy
of who this tiny, ordinary looking baby
from a poor family
would grow up to be…
and that was enough
Simeon didn’t need to know the rest of the story
to see the rest of Jesus’ life unfold
It was enough to see his infant face
the fulfillment of the promise
the warm weight of the future in his arms
Now, he could die in peace,
knowing, seeing for himself,
that the world was in good hands
and his faith had not been in vain…
For he had the enviable pleasure of holding the Christ Child in his arms
feeling his warmth,
seeing the future in his eyes…
So don’t be afraid--,
We don’t know what we’ll see in ourselves
if we get close to Jesus, if we take him seriously
if we commit our lives to him
We may discover things about ourselves and our world
that are disturbing, because Jesus always reveals the Truth
no matter how difficult it is to bear
And yet in his eyes, we will also see the light of eternity,
God’s future, God’s hope and promise for the world
It’s always risky, it often opens our heart to deep and passionate love
that makes us vulnerable…
but don’t be afraid…to take Jesus into your arms…
For he will reveal the truth…
and the truth… will set us free…..
Sunday, December 28, 2008
A Baby Changes Everything
"A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING"
Luke 2
Faith United
December 24, 2008
My first year out of seminary in 1993
was a terrible year
I was serving my first appointment
which consisted of three churches
all pretty far apart
My churches were mad at me because I wasn't living in their parsonage
so they were pretty unpleasant
from the very beginning
I wondered a lot why I even chose this profession!!
It was a very discouraging first year
One thing after another
it seemed like I was always putting out fires
dealing with unpleasant people all the time
But In the fall of that year,
I got pregnant (on purpose)
It didn't make the congregations any nicer
but every day I sensed that new life growing inside of me
and that gave me hope
It gave me reason to keep going, to keep trying
not for myself, but for the life inside of me
Many of you have heard the story
of how Sarah was supposed to be born AFTER we moved
to Tilden
but she decided to come early
and so Sarah was born three days before we moved
Now the people in Tilden were mad already
because we were bringing changes to their parish
right at the beginning
we were making their three-church charge
into a four -church charge and adding a UCC church to the mix
This was the Conference's idea,
but the churches didn't care whose idea it was
We heard they were angry
But you know,
we came into Tilden
with a three-day old baby
and somehow the people's anger was dissipated
There's something about a baby
Part of it, I was told later,
was that all the women of the parish were so impressed
that I was rugged enough to give birth
and move three days later
that they had to give me credit,
that I must be someone worth giving a chance to
There's something about a baby
All those angry parishioners who didn't want any changes
and some who threatened to leave the parish
many of them came to our house
bearing gifts of food and baby clothes
and even stayed to watch Sarah
so I could take a nap amidst the boxes
And in the weeks to come
church members signed up to take turns holding Sarah
during church while I preached
There's something about a baby…
The other day, I heard a woman talking about why so many bad things
happen around Christmas
Bad things are happening all the time, of course
but somehow it seems unjust when they happen
around Christmas
I went to see Kassidy Kenning in the hospital the other day
Kassidy is the newborn daughter of Tag and Sandy Kenning
and it was such a relief to just sit and look at the baby
while the wind was howling ungodly temperatures outside
and crazy people were storming Walmart
for the perfect gift
for a moment, all was calm, and all was bright
I remember in 2007, a hard year for our church
I remember the day I was with Sharon Gard
when she passed away
and a day later I was holding Brooke Sell
who had just entered the world
on the same day that Sharon left it
There's something about a baby …
Or the end of last year, when Chris and Adam Miller
announced that they were expecting
this news coming just a couple of weeks
after we lost Lee Boelter and Karen Trindle
By that time, we were all ready for a little new life…
Life and death, death and life,
what comes around goes around
and with God, it's not a straight line
that ends with death
but it's a circle, life and death and life again
all turning, changing, always renewing, always starting again…
There's just something about a baby …
It was a dark time, a hopeless time
people were in despair
they were afraid and anxious
always wondering what bad news would come that day
The government was unpredictable
never in touch with the needs of the people
as if they even cared about those people
and now this silly decree
this foolish order from the government
to count all the people in their jurisdiction
causing thousands of people to travel
overcrowding inns, causing unnecessary expense and stress
hardship on the poor
it was unjust and cruel for many
It was a dark time
a time of unrest
a time of violence and tension in the world
life was difficult for many
And so, it seemed, the whole world was on the road those days
for fear of being arrested if they didn't comply,
or worse,
because the authorities seemed to have no regard
for human life
It was a dark time
People were weary, hopeless, afraid
And then there was Mary and Joseph
coming into the overcrowded town of Bethlehem
nobody paying attention to them
they were just two more faces in a faceless crowd
Everybody was tense, rude, weary
Vying for the last room in the inn
No room for a pregnant woman and her husband
Sorry
Then the shepherds out in the field
who didn't have much of a life themselves
they just watched sheep
they lived with sheep, they ate with sheep
It was just another night for them
nothing special
they didn't have to travel
people knew where to find them….
They were away from the chaos in town
and they preferred it that way
they didn't go into town much at all anyway, ever
they were never welcome
people were always steering a wide circle around them
because they were pretty ripe
But then, it was out in the field,
away from the craziness in town
out in the darkness of the fields
where a strange man approached the shepherds
"do not be afraid," the angel said
as the shepherds raised their rods to fight off the stranger
"do not be afraid, I bring you great news, news of great joy!"
Joy was not something they experienced out there in the fields
Joy was not something they ever expected to experience
But they weren't so different than the townsfolk in that regard
Joy was a commodity then
Joy was not a regular part of their hard lives
Joy was rare, a fairy tale
"I bring you good news of great joy for all the people--"
and this stranger told them of a baby
a baby they'd want to meet
a baby born in a cave in town
amidst the animals, laying in a feeding trough
And then for a moment
the whole sky was filled with these angels, singing
singing so beautiful, it was unearthly
it was not human… it was beyond words
and the shepherds fell back
and stared, gaped at the sight…
And they went
they entered the chaos of town,
they followed their guts
and found the cave,
they apologetically entered the cave
shouting their story ahead of them,
"don't be afraid!" they said to Mary
who instinctively covered up her newborn child
and shielded him with her arms
"don't be afraid!" they said,
"but we gotta tell you something!"
and behind them, other curious townsfolk
had followed these guys to the cave
perhaps they'd been out looking for a drink
or just walking to think, to walk off the tension of the crowds
and they heard it
the good news
the wild story of the shepherds
and many of them moved forward,
cautiously, shyly
and saw him
There's just something about a baby…
The sight of the baby made them smile
Nobody even noticed the smell of cow manure
or the body odor of the shepherds
as they just looked upon the scrunched
but beautiful face of that little baby
born in the midst of the chaos and tension
born in the midst of the darkness and fears outside
Mary forgot to be self-conscious
about how she must have looked
or how exhausted and sore she must have felt
when she heard the crazy story of the shepherds
and watched the faces of the townspeople
who were out looking for a miracle
There's just something about a baby
A baby changes everything
a baby disrupts our lives
turns them topsy turvy
A baby born to a teenage unwed mother
is not always good news
it changes the future
often limits the future
it changes the relationships in a family
it causes some to turn away
and brings the stronger forward with unconditional love
Sometimes it makes for lifelong rejection
A teenage couple who were in love
are suddenly faced with an overwhelming responsibility
sometimes, all too often, they can't live up to it
A baby changes everything
There are couples who can't have babies
no matter how much they try,
something in their bodies betray them
and sometimes relationships are broken
because of the tension and disappointment
A baby changes everything
In a world of death and sickness
of ongoing war and economic uncertainty
in a world of family tensions
and enduring grief over many losses
In a world of lost jobs
and hospital stays and bills that don't get paid
Christmas still comes
families get together
some of them love it, some of them hate it
but we get together
and we come here
we turn out the lights and remember the darkness
all over the world
it's not hard to forget the darkness
because so many things keep reminding us
but for tonight, just for tonight
we willingly sit in the darkness
and we light our candles
and we use the light of each other's candles
to light our own
we help the little kids beside us light their flame
and we all sing into the darkness
"all is calm, all is bright…"
We do this no matter what shape we're in
we do this no matter what awaits us out there again
we do this whether our hearts are broken
or bursting with joy
We light the candle because we believe
that the darkness will not overcome this light
that no matter how dark it gets
there will always be the light of the candle,
the one that reminds us of Jesus
We sing, we hug, we give, we love,
we keep lighting candles
all because of this night
all because of one birth centuries ago
and we look into the face of the babies in our lives
and we smile
because there's just something about a baby
new life in the midst of death
new life in the midst of darkness
new life in the midst of broken hearts
A baby changes everything
it reminds us that we can always begin again
that we can keep praying for peace
while we hear the soundtracks of war
It's a baby that gives us hope tonight
a baby that will grow and blossom
whose light will only grow brighter and more brilliant
a baby who hears our prayers even now
and assures us the circle is not complete
until the Light of the world comes to stay forever
and the darkness will be vanquished
and the weapons of war will finally be put down
all because of this baby
we light our candles, knowing that we have entered the story now
and the story goes on
giving us our own parts to play
our own light to shine
stars in our eyes
and heavenly music sustaining our hearts
Sing tonight
for peace
for tonight, all is calm and all is bright
and will be again someday…. forever
Luke 2
Faith United
December 24, 2008
My first year out of seminary in 1993
was a terrible year
I was serving my first appointment
which consisted of three churches
all pretty far apart
My churches were mad at me because I wasn't living in their parsonage
so they were pretty unpleasant
from the very beginning
I wondered a lot why I even chose this profession!!
It was a very discouraging first year
One thing after another
it seemed like I was always putting out fires
dealing with unpleasant people all the time
But In the fall of that year,
I got pregnant (on purpose)
It didn't make the congregations any nicer
but every day I sensed that new life growing inside of me
and that gave me hope
It gave me reason to keep going, to keep trying
not for myself, but for the life inside of me
Many of you have heard the story
of how Sarah was supposed to be born AFTER we moved
to Tilden
but she decided to come early
and so Sarah was born three days before we moved
Now the people in Tilden were mad already
because we were bringing changes to their parish
right at the beginning
we were making their three-church charge
into a four -church charge and adding a UCC church to the mix
This was the Conference's idea,
but the churches didn't care whose idea it was
We heard they were angry
But you know,
we came into Tilden
with a three-day old baby
and somehow the people's anger was dissipated
There's something about a baby
Part of it, I was told later,
was that all the women of the parish were so impressed
that I was rugged enough to give birth
and move three days later
that they had to give me credit,
that I must be someone worth giving a chance to
There's something about a baby
All those angry parishioners who didn't want any changes
and some who threatened to leave the parish
many of them came to our house
bearing gifts of food and baby clothes
and even stayed to watch Sarah
so I could take a nap amidst the boxes
And in the weeks to come
church members signed up to take turns holding Sarah
during church while I preached
There's something about a baby…
The other day, I heard a woman talking about why so many bad things
happen around Christmas
Bad things are happening all the time, of course
but somehow it seems unjust when they happen
around Christmas
I went to see Kassidy Kenning in the hospital the other day
Kassidy is the newborn daughter of Tag and Sandy Kenning
and it was such a relief to just sit and look at the baby
while the wind was howling ungodly temperatures outside
and crazy people were storming Walmart
for the perfect gift
for a moment, all was calm, and all was bright
I remember in 2007, a hard year for our church
I remember the day I was with Sharon Gard
when she passed away
and a day later I was holding Brooke Sell
who had just entered the world
on the same day that Sharon left it
There's something about a baby …
Or the end of last year, when Chris and Adam Miller
announced that they were expecting
this news coming just a couple of weeks
after we lost Lee Boelter and Karen Trindle
By that time, we were all ready for a little new life…
Life and death, death and life,
what comes around goes around
and with God, it's not a straight line
that ends with death
but it's a circle, life and death and life again
all turning, changing, always renewing, always starting again…
There's just something about a baby …
It was a dark time, a hopeless time
people were in despair
they were afraid and anxious
always wondering what bad news would come that day
The government was unpredictable
never in touch with the needs of the people
as if they even cared about those people
and now this silly decree
this foolish order from the government
to count all the people in their jurisdiction
causing thousands of people to travel
overcrowding inns, causing unnecessary expense and stress
hardship on the poor
it was unjust and cruel for many
It was a dark time
a time of unrest
a time of violence and tension in the world
life was difficult for many
And so, it seemed, the whole world was on the road those days
for fear of being arrested if they didn't comply,
or worse,
because the authorities seemed to have no regard
for human life
It was a dark time
People were weary, hopeless, afraid
And then there was Mary and Joseph
coming into the overcrowded town of Bethlehem
nobody paying attention to them
they were just two more faces in a faceless crowd
Everybody was tense, rude, weary
Vying for the last room in the inn
No room for a pregnant woman and her husband
Sorry
Then the shepherds out in the field
who didn't have much of a life themselves
they just watched sheep
they lived with sheep, they ate with sheep
It was just another night for them
nothing special
they didn't have to travel
people knew where to find them….
They were away from the chaos in town
and they preferred it that way
they didn't go into town much at all anyway, ever
they were never welcome
people were always steering a wide circle around them
because they were pretty ripe
But then, it was out in the field,
away from the craziness in town
out in the darkness of the fields
where a strange man approached the shepherds
"do not be afraid," the angel said
as the shepherds raised their rods to fight off the stranger
"do not be afraid, I bring you great news, news of great joy!"
Joy was not something they experienced out there in the fields
Joy was not something they ever expected to experience
But they weren't so different than the townsfolk in that regard
Joy was a commodity then
Joy was not a regular part of their hard lives
Joy was rare, a fairy tale
"I bring you good news of great joy for all the people--"
and this stranger told them of a baby
a baby they'd want to meet
a baby born in a cave in town
amidst the animals, laying in a feeding trough
And then for a moment
the whole sky was filled with these angels, singing
singing so beautiful, it was unearthly
it was not human… it was beyond words
and the shepherds fell back
and stared, gaped at the sight…
And they went
they entered the chaos of town,
they followed their guts
and found the cave,
they apologetically entered the cave
shouting their story ahead of them,
"don't be afraid!" they said to Mary
who instinctively covered up her newborn child
and shielded him with her arms
"don't be afraid!" they said,
"but we gotta tell you something!"
and behind them, other curious townsfolk
had followed these guys to the cave
perhaps they'd been out looking for a drink
or just walking to think, to walk off the tension of the crowds
and they heard it
the good news
the wild story of the shepherds
and many of them moved forward,
cautiously, shyly
and saw him
There's just something about a baby…
The sight of the baby made them smile
Nobody even noticed the smell of cow manure
or the body odor of the shepherds
as they just looked upon the scrunched
but beautiful face of that little baby
born in the midst of the chaos and tension
born in the midst of the darkness and fears outside
Mary forgot to be self-conscious
about how she must have looked
or how exhausted and sore she must have felt
when she heard the crazy story of the shepherds
and watched the faces of the townspeople
who were out looking for a miracle
There's just something about a baby
A baby changes everything
a baby disrupts our lives
turns them topsy turvy
A baby born to a teenage unwed mother
is not always good news
it changes the future
often limits the future
it changes the relationships in a family
it causes some to turn away
and brings the stronger forward with unconditional love
Sometimes it makes for lifelong rejection
A teenage couple who were in love
are suddenly faced with an overwhelming responsibility
sometimes, all too often, they can't live up to it
A baby changes everything
There are couples who can't have babies
no matter how much they try,
something in their bodies betray them
and sometimes relationships are broken
because of the tension and disappointment
A baby changes everything
In a world of death and sickness
of ongoing war and economic uncertainty
in a world of family tensions
and enduring grief over many losses
In a world of lost jobs
and hospital stays and bills that don't get paid
Christmas still comes
families get together
some of them love it, some of them hate it
but we get together
and we come here
we turn out the lights and remember the darkness
all over the world
it's not hard to forget the darkness
because so many things keep reminding us
but for tonight, just for tonight
we willingly sit in the darkness
and we light our candles
and we use the light of each other's candles
to light our own
we help the little kids beside us light their flame
and we all sing into the darkness
"all is calm, all is bright…"
We do this no matter what shape we're in
we do this no matter what awaits us out there again
we do this whether our hearts are broken
or bursting with joy
We light the candle because we believe
that the darkness will not overcome this light
that no matter how dark it gets
there will always be the light of the candle,
the one that reminds us of Jesus
We sing, we hug, we give, we love,
we keep lighting candles
all because of this night
all because of one birth centuries ago
and we look into the face of the babies in our lives
and we smile
because there's just something about a baby
new life in the midst of death
new life in the midst of darkness
new life in the midst of broken hearts
A baby changes everything
it reminds us that we can always begin again
that we can keep praying for peace
while we hear the soundtracks of war
It's a baby that gives us hope tonight
a baby that will grow and blossom
whose light will only grow brighter and more brilliant
a baby who hears our prayers even now
and assures us the circle is not complete
until the Light of the world comes to stay forever
and the darkness will be vanquished
and the weapons of war will finally be put down
all because of this baby
we light our candles, knowing that we have entered the story now
and the story goes on
giving us our own parts to play
our own light to shine
stars in our eyes
and heavenly music sustaining our hearts
Sing tonight
for peace
for tonight, all is calm and all is bright
and will be again someday…. forever
Monday, December 22, 2008
Mary: Not Just For Christmas Anymore
“BEARERS OF GOOD NEWS”
Text: Luke 1:26-38
Faith United
December 21, 2008
When I was little my favorite show was “Little House on the Prairie”
I watched it faithfully
and felt like I grew up with the Ingalls family
Even though I loved the show,
I hated Laura Ingalls
I didn’t admit this out loud
but she was just too good to be true
Whenever she did make mistakes, like punching Nellie Olson
on the playground
she always learned a lesson
and gave a little speech at the end
that was just way too wise for a girl her age
I didn’t fall for it
Mostly, I think, because I couldn’t live up to her example
I wanted to be like her, but I couldn’t be that good
Everybody loved Laura
All the adults in the story wished their kids could be as good as Laura
Just once I wanted her to really mess up
but she never did
And her family was also too good to be true
Truth be told, I wanted to be a part of the Ingalls family
even though I knew that Laura and I would never get along
But they were always happy
when they were unhappy, it wasn’t for very long
and then they cried and hugged
and everything was wonderful again
Everybody loved each other
everybody got along,
except Nellie, of course, but everybody hated her anyway,
and everybody was always pretty happy
Any crisis that came up was always taken care of
usually by Charles Ingalls
who tended to be the superman of Walnut Grove
Charles, or Pa, could take care of any problem, it seemed
and it always got teared up when he looked at his daughters
It was all too good to be true, nobody could live up to that
but it was a good show
And I tend to think of Mary that way, don’t you?
I mean, who can live up to Mary?
What do you think of when you think of Mary?
A statue in someone’s yard, with a blue robe
and her head covered,
a hand peacefully extended, reaching out to bless
the squirrels that run through the yard?
Or a Christmas card picture
where her face is glowing with holiness
and even though she had just given birth,
her hair is perfect, her makeup is not smeared
and she’s not even sweating….?
After Christmas, we Protestants don’t pay any attention to Mary
we might think of her again when Jesus dies
because we know how awful that must have been
But in the 30-some years between his birth and his death,
we don’t pay too much attention to Mary…
Who can relate?
I don’t know about you, but I rarely glow …
and I guarantee you, that if I had to give birth in a barn
full of animals in a strange town
because of some stupid decree by the government
I wouldn’t be feeling too holy
much less looking holy….
We sometimes accuse Catholics of thinking too much of Mary
while at the same time, Protestants hardly pay any attention to her at all
Which is a shame, because really,
she is a major player
No Mary, No Jesus….
If she said to that angel that night
“No way, I don’t know what you’re talking about
but if you don’t get out of here right away
I’m going to scream….”
Yeah, if she said that,
there’d be no Jesus
I know, if she had said no, God would have probably had a contingency plan
but we’ll never know that, will we?
I don’t think we really know what to do with Mary,
this too-good-to-be-true Mary
We’ve whitewashed her, I think
we’ve forgotten she was human
we’ve forgotten she was a teenager!!
We’ve forgotten, I think, that she lived on the poor side of town
where other folks didn’t go if they had to
She lived in Nazareth,
and as someone would say many years later,
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Mary was just a kid
I believe she was just an ordinary teenager
whatever that was in those days…
dreaming of being married someday
because she figured that was the way things went
she wouldn’t have much of a choice
Her parents would have worried about her choices
since being poor, there wasn’t much they could offer someone
seeking to marry her
They were nobody
Nobody spectacular,
nobody impressive
nobody that anybody gave a second glance to
Just people living their lives in a quiet corner
of some Podunk town
minding their own business
just trying to live a good life
and be faithful to God
Mary may have been a little precocious
she may have been smarter than other people her age
maybe, maybe not
But I think we’ve made her so unbelievable
that nobody can relate to her
so we just push her off into our box of Christmas decorations,
pull her out once a year
and put her safely away again for another 11 months
Church traditions vary on Mary
The Catholic tradition insists that she was a perpetual virgin
that she never slept with a man
and that the brothers and sisters of Jesus
that are referred to in the Gospels
were really his cousins
Protestants like us, don’t really think about it
nor do we really care if she was a normal human being
and conceived children with her husband
but all those glowing pictures of her
usually blue eyed with light brown hair or even blond hair
give us a vision of someone we can’t relate to
Too good to be true
But this middle eastern teenage girl,
who probably didn’t walk around with a halo of light on her head
or rosy cheeks and blue eyes,
was just hanging out in her bedroom one night
when this weird looking guy suddenly appears
I would imagine her first thought was how did he get in
and what would her parents say if they caught him there?
They’d never believe her that she didn’t know how he got in!
Anyway, while she’s thinking about this,
he says some weird things…
“Don’t be afraid, Mary, for God is impressed with you!”
Right…
And while he rambles on about the Son of the Most High God
and the throne of David,
I imagine she’s looking for a way to get around him
and run screaming from the room…
“Mary??” the man asks her, trying to refocus her attention
“How??” is all she can say…
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you….”
Well, what do you say to that?
Maybe she was so curious by now, that she calmed down
and stopped looking for an empty space to run through….
The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you….
I do remember back in seminary,
talking about the traditions surrounding the story
what is known as the Immaculate Conception
How was Jesus conceived?
For centuries,
theologians have thought about just how this came about
because they just can’t let it go
they want the details
how did this work?
and in the early church traditions,
there were some who seriously suggested
that the Holy Spirit entered Mary’s ear
when the Angel Gabriel whispered to her
that she would conceive
and that through her ear,
the Holy Spirit somehow got from there to her womb
and created Jesus…
So Mary was impregnated through her ear
I trust that this theory came about long before anyone
had much of a clue about anything
when it came to where babies come from…
The Church has always had a bit of a hard time
dealing with the mechanics of reproduction….
Fortunately, the through-the-ear theory didn’t last….
The Holy Spirit will come upon you…
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…
These words are similar to the words at the very beginning of the Bible
when the earth was a formless void
and the darkness covered the deep
It said a wind or the spirit of God
swept over the face of the waters….
and creation began….
There was nothing, and then because of the wind of God
there was something
just a little spark, a little something
that grew and grew and unfolded into creation…
And so, it would seem
the Holy Spirit, again, is creating something new
something miraculous, something world-changing,
something too unbelievable for words
Only this time, God is using a human being
to bring forth the good news of God
God is using the body of a woman
as a temple of the Holy Spirit
as a natural, beautiful instrument of creation
to initiate the drama of salvation and hope
Not too shabby, huh?
Mary is just an ordinary human being used by God
to bring about extraordinary things
She didn’t glow anymore than the normal pregnant woman might glow
She wasn’t holier than holy
she was human and strong and wise beyond her years,
perhaps
But she didn’t disintegrate
when she is confronted by God in the form of a man
and told she would be blessed
She would be blessed with having a child out of wedlock
who would later be executed as a criminal
Fortunately, she didn’t get the whole story that night
when she was suppressing the urge to scream for help
If she knew what all was ahead of her
in the even that she said “yes,”
none of us would blame her for refusing the blessing
I like Mary
I’ve been paying more and more attention to her
through the years
as a woman of profound strength
She’s the first disciple of the child in her womb
She is an example of faith acted out in response
to the words of God
She would suffer a whole lot before the story is over
She would suffer humiliation, grief, powerlessness
being widowed at a young age
not knowing who exactly her oldest son was
Never knowing where he was, really
or what he was getting into
She watched him cross the line again and again
he always seemed to look for trouble
It made her heart nervous all the time
And then she suffered the worst humiliation of all
watching her son die as a common criminal
knowing he was innocent
feeling like God had abandoned them all
and turned his back on the whole world
How would she feel about God after that?
How could she trust God after that?
She, of all people, had a right to shake her fists at God
and complain that he’d not kept his side of the deal….
What did she expect, I wonder?
When her belly started to bloat over the coming weeks?
When she started to feel that sensation of a living person
growing inside of her?
What did she expect?
What do we expect?
I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately
how often it is our expectations that get us in trouble
We expect God to give us what we want
We expect, I think, that if we’re good, then God will give us a good life
free of tragedy, maybe
free of pain
We expect God to take care of all the horrible things in the world
What do we expect of other people?
Sometimes, I think, we have ideas of what other people should do
what they should be,
how they should act
and if they don’t, we get mad
Others should know what we need, and offer it
They should know why we’re mad and they should apologize
At Christmas, I think much of the sadness and depression that occurs
is because of expectations
We see images on TV of people who are happy because it’s Christmas
or families that all get along and are thrilled to be together
no problems, no fights, no resentments
And on TV, everyone has enough money to buy everything they want
they have perfectly decorated homes
lots of food, really nice clothing
and the people kind of glow around the table
But that’s not real life
and when real life doesn’t live up to our expectations,
we can cause ourselves a whole lot of grief
What do we expect?
I love Mary
because she’s real and she was alive
and she suffered deep, deep grief
and lived to tell about it
She experienced profound miracles in her life
but that didn’t shield her from experiencing the very real pain
that life often brings
I bet she got disappointed with God a lot over the years
as she worried over her son who wouldn’t let her keep an eye on him
who went and got himself killed
when it really could have been avoided
I bet at the foot of that Cross her hair wasn’t perfect
her makeup probably ran
as she wailed in grief at the horror and injustice
of the death of her innocent son
and I bet, too, that maybe she finally did glow just a little bit
when she experienced that last miracle that we know of
when her son showed up at the door
looking just as much alive and beautiful as ever
I bet if someone got to interview her in her old age
after the rest of the town went on with their lives
and forgot how special she was
I bet she would have said she had a good life
filled with it’s share of pain and grief and horror
but even as she contemplated her own inevitable death
she would take with her those memories
of the things that were just too good to be true
That strange night when an angel appeared to her
and her life was changed
when God chose to use her body as a landscape of creation
that would shake up the world
and never let it go
Meister Eckhart, a theologian that lived in the 14th century
once wrote that all of us are meant to be mothers of God
now, I guess some of you guys might not like that image
but I get his point
All of us, are meant to be bearers of good news
landscapes of creation
temples of God in which God can do crazy things, really
in which God gives us a choice
about whether or not we want to smuggle God into the world
inside our own bodies,
just like Mary did
What we expect
has a lot of power in what happens in our lives
Do we expect to see miracles happen?
Do we expect to be bearers of such miracles, wonderful good news?
Co-creators of God’s grace in the world?
Do we expect that we can be that special
or that surely it’s reserved for someone else more holy
someone that glows,
someone whose hair is always perfect?
This Christmas, look into the candlelight
and remember the Light of The World that just keeps coming
that flame that dances before our own eyes
teasing us, calling us to join in
and be bearers of light
be agents of miracles
to be quiet messengers
of a profound new creation
that is already unfolding as we speak and live
Text: Luke 1:26-38
Faith United
December 21, 2008
When I was little my favorite show was “Little House on the Prairie”
I watched it faithfully
and felt like I grew up with the Ingalls family
Even though I loved the show,
I hated Laura Ingalls
I didn’t admit this out loud
but she was just too good to be true
Whenever she did make mistakes, like punching Nellie Olson
on the playground
she always learned a lesson
and gave a little speech at the end
that was just way too wise for a girl her age
I didn’t fall for it
Mostly, I think, because I couldn’t live up to her example
I wanted to be like her, but I couldn’t be that good
Everybody loved Laura
All the adults in the story wished their kids could be as good as Laura
Just once I wanted her to really mess up
but she never did
And her family was also too good to be true
Truth be told, I wanted to be a part of the Ingalls family
even though I knew that Laura and I would never get along
But they were always happy
when they were unhappy, it wasn’t for very long
and then they cried and hugged
and everything was wonderful again
Everybody loved each other
everybody got along,
except Nellie, of course, but everybody hated her anyway,
and everybody was always pretty happy
Any crisis that came up was always taken care of
usually by Charles Ingalls
who tended to be the superman of Walnut Grove
Charles, or Pa, could take care of any problem, it seemed
and it always got teared up when he looked at his daughters
It was all too good to be true, nobody could live up to that
but it was a good show
And I tend to think of Mary that way, don’t you?
I mean, who can live up to Mary?
What do you think of when you think of Mary?
A statue in someone’s yard, with a blue robe
and her head covered,
a hand peacefully extended, reaching out to bless
the squirrels that run through the yard?
Or a Christmas card picture
where her face is glowing with holiness
and even though she had just given birth,
her hair is perfect, her makeup is not smeared
and she’s not even sweating….?
After Christmas, we Protestants don’t pay any attention to Mary
we might think of her again when Jesus dies
because we know how awful that must have been
But in the 30-some years between his birth and his death,
we don’t pay too much attention to Mary…
Who can relate?
I don’t know about you, but I rarely glow …
and I guarantee you, that if I had to give birth in a barn
full of animals in a strange town
because of some stupid decree by the government
I wouldn’t be feeling too holy
much less looking holy….
We sometimes accuse Catholics of thinking too much of Mary
while at the same time, Protestants hardly pay any attention to her at all
Which is a shame, because really,
she is a major player
No Mary, No Jesus….
If she said to that angel that night
“No way, I don’t know what you’re talking about
but if you don’t get out of here right away
I’m going to scream….”
Yeah, if she said that,
there’d be no Jesus
I know, if she had said no, God would have probably had a contingency plan
but we’ll never know that, will we?
I don’t think we really know what to do with Mary,
this too-good-to-be-true Mary
We’ve whitewashed her, I think
we’ve forgotten she was human
we’ve forgotten she was a teenager!!
We’ve forgotten, I think, that she lived on the poor side of town
where other folks didn’t go if they had to
She lived in Nazareth,
and as someone would say many years later,
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Mary was just a kid
I believe she was just an ordinary teenager
whatever that was in those days…
dreaming of being married someday
because she figured that was the way things went
she wouldn’t have much of a choice
Her parents would have worried about her choices
since being poor, there wasn’t much they could offer someone
seeking to marry her
They were nobody
Nobody spectacular,
nobody impressive
nobody that anybody gave a second glance to
Just people living their lives in a quiet corner
of some Podunk town
minding their own business
just trying to live a good life
and be faithful to God
Mary may have been a little precocious
she may have been smarter than other people her age
maybe, maybe not
But I think we’ve made her so unbelievable
that nobody can relate to her
so we just push her off into our box of Christmas decorations,
pull her out once a year
and put her safely away again for another 11 months
Church traditions vary on Mary
The Catholic tradition insists that she was a perpetual virgin
that she never slept with a man
and that the brothers and sisters of Jesus
that are referred to in the Gospels
were really his cousins
Protestants like us, don’t really think about it
nor do we really care if she was a normal human being
and conceived children with her husband
but all those glowing pictures of her
usually blue eyed with light brown hair or even blond hair
give us a vision of someone we can’t relate to
Too good to be true
But this middle eastern teenage girl,
who probably didn’t walk around with a halo of light on her head
or rosy cheeks and blue eyes,
was just hanging out in her bedroom one night
when this weird looking guy suddenly appears
I would imagine her first thought was how did he get in
and what would her parents say if they caught him there?
They’d never believe her that she didn’t know how he got in!
Anyway, while she’s thinking about this,
he says some weird things…
“Don’t be afraid, Mary, for God is impressed with you!”
Right…
And while he rambles on about the Son of the Most High God
and the throne of David,
I imagine she’s looking for a way to get around him
and run screaming from the room…
“Mary??” the man asks her, trying to refocus her attention
“How??” is all she can say…
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you….”
Well, what do you say to that?
Maybe she was so curious by now, that she calmed down
and stopped looking for an empty space to run through….
The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you….
I do remember back in seminary,
talking about the traditions surrounding the story
what is known as the Immaculate Conception
How was Jesus conceived?
For centuries,
theologians have thought about just how this came about
because they just can’t let it go
they want the details
how did this work?
and in the early church traditions,
there were some who seriously suggested
that the Holy Spirit entered Mary’s ear
when the Angel Gabriel whispered to her
that she would conceive
and that through her ear,
the Holy Spirit somehow got from there to her womb
and created Jesus…
So Mary was impregnated through her ear
I trust that this theory came about long before anyone
had much of a clue about anything
when it came to where babies come from…
The Church has always had a bit of a hard time
dealing with the mechanics of reproduction….
Fortunately, the through-the-ear theory didn’t last….
The Holy Spirit will come upon you…
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…
These words are similar to the words at the very beginning of the Bible
when the earth was a formless void
and the darkness covered the deep
It said a wind or the spirit of God
swept over the face of the waters….
and creation began….
There was nothing, and then because of the wind of God
there was something
just a little spark, a little something
that grew and grew and unfolded into creation…
And so, it would seem
the Holy Spirit, again, is creating something new
something miraculous, something world-changing,
something too unbelievable for words
Only this time, God is using a human being
to bring forth the good news of God
God is using the body of a woman
as a temple of the Holy Spirit
as a natural, beautiful instrument of creation
to initiate the drama of salvation and hope
Not too shabby, huh?
Mary is just an ordinary human being used by God
to bring about extraordinary things
She didn’t glow anymore than the normal pregnant woman might glow
She wasn’t holier than holy
she was human and strong and wise beyond her years,
perhaps
But she didn’t disintegrate
when she is confronted by God in the form of a man
and told she would be blessed
She would be blessed with having a child out of wedlock
who would later be executed as a criminal
Fortunately, she didn’t get the whole story that night
when she was suppressing the urge to scream for help
If she knew what all was ahead of her
in the even that she said “yes,”
none of us would blame her for refusing the blessing
I like Mary
I’ve been paying more and more attention to her
through the years
as a woman of profound strength
She’s the first disciple of the child in her womb
She is an example of faith acted out in response
to the words of God
She would suffer a whole lot before the story is over
She would suffer humiliation, grief, powerlessness
being widowed at a young age
not knowing who exactly her oldest son was
Never knowing where he was, really
or what he was getting into
She watched him cross the line again and again
he always seemed to look for trouble
It made her heart nervous all the time
And then she suffered the worst humiliation of all
watching her son die as a common criminal
knowing he was innocent
feeling like God had abandoned them all
and turned his back on the whole world
How would she feel about God after that?
How could she trust God after that?
She, of all people, had a right to shake her fists at God
and complain that he’d not kept his side of the deal….
What did she expect, I wonder?
When her belly started to bloat over the coming weeks?
When she started to feel that sensation of a living person
growing inside of her?
What did she expect?
What do we expect?
I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately
how often it is our expectations that get us in trouble
We expect God to give us what we want
We expect, I think, that if we’re good, then God will give us a good life
free of tragedy, maybe
free of pain
We expect God to take care of all the horrible things in the world
What do we expect of other people?
Sometimes, I think, we have ideas of what other people should do
what they should be,
how they should act
and if they don’t, we get mad
Others should know what we need, and offer it
They should know why we’re mad and they should apologize
At Christmas, I think much of the sadness and depression that occurs
is because of expectations
We see images on TV of people who are happy because it’s Christmas
or families that all get along and are thrilled to be together
no problems, no fights, no resentments
And on TV, everyone has enough money to buy everything they want
they have perfectly decorated homes
lots of food, really nice clothing
and the people kind of glow around the table
But that’s not real life
and when real life doesn’t live up to our expectations,
we can cause ourselves a whole lot of grief
What do we expect?
I love Mary
because she’s real and she was alive
and she suffered deep, deep grief
and lived to tell about it
She experienced profound miracles in her life
but that didn’t shield her from experiencing the very real pain
that life often brings
I bet she got disappointed with God a lot over the years
as she worried over her son who wouldn’t let her keep an eye on him
who went and got himself killed
when it really could have been avoided
I bet at the foot of that Cross her hair wasn’t perfect
her makeup probably ran
as she wailed in grief at the horror and injustice
of the death of her innocent son
and I bet, too, that maybe she finally did glow just a little bit
when she experienced that last miracle that we know of
when her son showed up at the door
looking just as much alive and beautiful as ever
I bet if someone got to interview her in her old age
after the rest of the town went on with their lives
and forgot how special she was
I bet she would have said she had a good life
filled with it’s share of pain and grief and horror
but even as she contemplated her own inevitable death
she would take with her those memories
of the things that were just too good to be true
That strange night when an angel appeared to her
and her life was changed
when God chose to use her body as a landscape of creation
that would shake up the world
and never let it go
Meister Eckhart, a theologian that lived in the 14th century
once wrote that all of us are meant to be mothers of God
now, I guess some of you guys might not like that image
but I get his point
All of us, are meant to be bearers of good news
landscapes of creation
temples of God in which God can do crazy things, really
in which God gives us a choice
about whether or not we want to smuggle God into the world
inside our own bodies,
just like Mary did
What we expect
has a lot of power in what happens in our lives
Do we expect to see miracles happen?
Do we expect to be bearers of such miracles, wonderful good news?
Co-creators of God’s grace in the world?
Do we expect that we can be that special
or that surely it’s reserved for someone else more holy
someone that glows,
someone whose hair is always perfect?
This Christmas, look into the candlelight
and remember the Light of The World that just keeps coming
that flame that dances before our own eyes
teasing us, calling us to join in
and be bearers of light
be agents of miracles
to be quiet messengers
of a profound new creation
that is already unfolding as we speak and live
Monday, December 1, 2008
Garden to Garden
"THE FUTURE IS PEACE"
Isaiah 55:1-13
Faith United
November 30, 2008
I've been thinking a lot this week about hope
We start the season Advent today,
and Advent is about Hope
So I was thinking about all the things that give us hope
the things we rely on, the people we rely on
I stopped at McDonald's yesterday to get a coffee
and I read the headline on the Omaha World Herald
which said:
"Shoppers Provide Reason For Hope"
I found that intriguing
so I looked closer
beneath the headline was a picture of a mob of people
rushing through the doors of Nebraska Furniture Mart
the picture was blurry
as people were literally running into the store
and I remembered just having heard
about the young man in Manhattan that was trampled to death
by shoppers at WalMart on Friday morning
and all the others who were injured
I looked at the headline again to make sure it really said
what I thought it said:
"Shoppers Provide Reason for Hope"
and I laughed out loud
I wondered-- what kind of hope do they provide?
I realize, of course, that the more shoppers shop
the better the economy
the better the economy, the happier the people
but here was an image of crazy people sprinting into a store
before the sun came up
while others in Manhattan did the same thing
and in the process killed an employee
All for a flat screen TV..
This is hope?
The image did not fill me with hope at all
It kind of depressed me, actually….
What do we hope in?
what do we turn to for security?
Sure, we can say quite piously that we hope in God
and in the good news of Jesus Christ
but what do our actions say about us?
As they say, you know, actions speak louder than words
When we are afraid, what gives us hope?
What do we reach for?
When we are in despair, what do we reach out to
to fill that despair?
In America, it would seem that we hope in things, in toys
we hope in having the strongest military power
we hope in guns
we get afraid, we buy a gun
we hope in the stock market
we put all our hopes in one person
and if that person lets us down,
we don't respond well
"Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread?
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?..."
Isaiah asks us…
"Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
delight yourselves in rich food…
listen so that you might live…"
In the article in the Omaha World Herald,
it says that people who have maxed out their credit cards
and have exhausted their lines of credit
are now turning to cash …
This is hope?
That people who are crushed by debt
are still spending that which they don't really have?
On things that don't ultimately satisfy?
On things that are not bread?
What do you hope in?
What gives you real hope?
Or do you even have hope?
I saw the book title many weeks ago,
"The Audacity of Hope"
and that phrase has stayed with me
The AUDACITY of hope
I looked up the word audacity
and it means "shameless boldness, daring…"
In other words, who are we to hope?
What right do we have to have hope
in a world that seems to have gone crazy?
Too often, we steal each other's hope
if someone has hope, we tend to think them naïve
clueless, they don't have all the facts
But we have no right to take away anybody's elses' hope
because sometimes that's all anyone ever has
without hope, we are dead
Jim Wallis said, "Hope is believing despite the evidence
and then watching the evidence change…"
Joan Chittister says
that hope is a choice
we can't choose what happens to us,
but we can choose how we respond to what happens
She writes that memories can be the seedbed of hope
we can look back on how God has worked in our lives
in the past,
how God got us through a terrible tragedy
and then we use that to believe God will do it again
God, she says, has blessed the world with good things,
but all of them take working at…
relationships need work and attention,
beautiful flowers or vegetables don't grow on their own…
we need to till the soil, pull the weeds, water the ground ….
Children need nurturing and guidance and love
food needs to be prepared,
nothing happens without our involvement
Hope takes life on its own terms
Life happens, death happens
now what are we going to do about it?
We can curl up and suck our thumbs and say poor, poor me
or we can get up off our butts and face the darkness with faith
we can light a match, carry a light into the dark
and keep going ….
That takes a certain kind of audacity…
shameless boldness
to stand up to the dark, and light a candle
Even when we're terrified of the dark--
because we are a people of faith,
we walk into that darkness that terrifies us
knowing that the light of Christ goes with us
This message was given to the Israelites
when they were in exile in Babylon
they'd been captured, Jerusalem, their holy city destroyed
Everything that made them who they were had been taken from them
all they had was what was inside of them
and the Prophet Isaiah is saying to them,
don't give up,
don't forget who brought you this far
Just because evil and darkness happen
that doesn't mean that God is longer faithful
and we are still a people in exile
WE DON'T BELONG HERE
We're living in a world that works by different rules
and we have to always keep in mind who we are
who God is, and what God wants
that means that we don't play by the rules of the kingdom
in which we are bound for now
Because we follow a savior that told us
not to return evil for evil
not to take an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
because all that only ends in death and devastation
The psalmists wrote during the Babylonian exile
about singing the Lord's song in a foreign land
The people had hung up their instruments
on the willow trees
and stopped singing
because they were captured by the enemy
They lost their song
they lost the music
and so they began to lose their very souls
But the prophet is saying, don't give up your song
the song inside of you
that gives you hope and light
that gives you the audacity to go on
Sing your song in the dark….
sing when you don't even feel like singing
sing to remember who you are
and to whom you belong
Sing to remember who will finally deliver us all
and bring us home
I don't know how it started,
but at some point, I started singing at the bedside of people
who were dying
I didn't want to, someone just asked me to once
and so I kept on doing it
It's hard to sing when you're crying
it's hard to sing when your heart is broken
it's hard to sing when a life is literally slipping away from you
right before your eyes
but since I started doing it, it's felt like God reminds me then
that the best time to sing is when we don't feel like it
Because singing the songs of faith
remind us what will get us through
Singing reminds us who we are and where we really come from
Frederick Buechner writes about whistling in the dark
bringing music where there is none
bringing a small light into the dark to move us forward
These are scary times
with the economy the way it is
wars going on and on and on
with no end in sight
people dying in the doorway of WalMart
over a flat screen TV?
It is very risky to hope
it is so much easier to join in with the crowd
and say, yeah, it's all hopeless,
we're all doomed
it's the end of the world as we know it…
It's scary when people act crazy
it's even scarier when people act crazy
and own weapons
We've learned FEAR well
ever since 9/11 FEAR has been a very popular commodity
and we all jump on board
Fear motivates us to do and say crazy things
Fear makes us justify nasty and evil things
Fear makes otherwise good people into monsters
Fear makes us forget who we are
Fear shows us up and reveals to us what we really believe
Do we really believe all this God-stuff?
That God will deliver?
That God has the last word?
That God has hope for our world,
for all God's people?
Then why are we so quick to believe a lie?
Why are we so quick to jump on the bandwagon
and lose ourselves in the chaos?
Why is it so easy for us to say we believe in the God of hope
and yet act like a people of darkness??
We can't see the work of the Holy Spirit
in our lives or in our world
if we allow ourselves to be consumed by fear
and madness….
The prophet Isaiah says that God has a plan
and it's not OUR plan
The Bible begins in hope
and ends in hope
there's a whole lotta mess and pain in between
but we begin and end in HOPE
But hope is not easy
We've been hurt, all of us have
We've lost a lot
We've suffered various tragedies
various traumas
and it's easy to switch into self-preservation
Maybe we don't expect much anymore
because we've had our hearts shattered
It's easier to lay low and expect very little or nothing at all
to NOT hope in anything good
so we won't be disappointed yet again
But Isaiah says that God has a plan
Come, he says, he invites us to the Banquet, the feast
telling us that God's grace is free
Come and drink, you who are thirsty,
come and eat, you who are hungry, starving
And aren't we all??
WHY???
WHY do we spend our money and energy on things that
don't' fill us?
WHY do we go after things that not only do not satisfy
but things that can even destroy us??
Come, Isaiah says,
Come and eat what is good,
delight yourselves in rich food
Listen…. that you might LIVE
We think we know what's going on
we get all worked up
we easily fall into a mob spirit sometimes
or we react to life out of our emptiness
out of our desperate hunger and thirst
and often say and do things that are not of God
and are certainly not Christ-like
God' s thoughts are not our thoughts,
and God's ways are not our ways
God is not who we make him out to be
We have only clues to who God is
and to act like we know the entire mystery of God
is dangerous and arrogant
The Twelves steps begin with admitting we are powerless
over whatever it is that makes us sick
The second step is to come to believe that a power greater than ourselves
can restore us to sanity
Isaiah seems to believe that God CAN and indeed WILL
restore us all to sanity
We are insane-- there is no doubt about that, is there?
And we know, time and time again,
that when we try to do it ourselves
when we try to bring sanity to ourselves
on our own power
we royally mess it up
and bring more chaos, more darkness into the world
Turn it over to God,
all of it
Your despair, your grief, your fears, your doubt,
your insanity
God is the only one who can and will restore us to sanity
The story of the Bible, the story of creation and redemption
begins in a lush garden
and it ends in a lush garden
Restoration, renewal, resurrection
All of creation will be redeemed
All of it will be renewed and refreshed
All the world will praise the Lord
all of creation will be healed
That is our hope, that is our destiny
In the meantime, we hope in what we cannot see
we know that God has gotten us through before
and God will get us through again
In the meantime, we will sing into the darkness
even when our hearts are breaking
even when our voices are shaking
We will pray to have our eyes opened
so that we can SEE differently,
so that we can SEE sacredly, hopefully
SEE the light in the midst of the dark
See the flowers in the midst of the tiny seed
SEE the huge tree in a tiny acorn
SEE the potential and power in a newborn baby
SEE the peace that will finally reign
after all the weapons are put down
after the smoke has cleared
after all the mothers have wept for their children
after it seemed like no end was in sight
Look carefully
Look prayerfully
and look yet again
Look for signs of life and hope and eternity all around you
No matter what happens
Even when your eyes are full of tears
keep your eyes open
Keep your heart open
Resist the control of darkness and hate and destruction
in words or actions
Let your lives speak of hope
let your lives tell the gospel
let your lives be a crazy, hopeful, dancing sermon
to the hope we have in Jesus Christ
that nothing can every destroy
no human or institution or human force
can take away
It is our God-given destiny
We are people of the Garden
of the New Jerusalem
of the Kingdom of God
that is a kingdom of peace
and endurance and everlasting hope and faith
So, come,
all who are thirsty,
all who are so empty and hungry
there is bread for us all
and Living Water
from a well that never runs dry….
EVERYONE… .is invited.
Isaiah 55:1-13
Faith United
November 30, 2008
I've been thinking a lot this week about hope
We start the season Advent today,
and Advent is about Hope
So I was thinking about all the things that give us hope
the things we rely on, the people we rely on
I stopped at McDonald's yesterday to get a coffee
and I read the headline on the Omaha World Herald
which said:
"Shoppers Provide Reason For Hope"
I found that intriguing
so I looked closer
beneath the headline was a picture of a mob of people
rushing through the doors of Nebraska Furniture Mart
the picture was blurry
as people were literally running into the store
and I remembered just having heard
about the young man in Manhattan that was trampled to death
by shoppers at WalMart on Friday morning
and all the others who were injured
I looked at the headline again to make sure it really said
what I thought it said:
"Shoppers Provide Reason for Hope"
and I laughed out loud
I wondered-- what kind of hope do they provide?
I realize, of course, that the more shoppers shop
the better the economy
the better the economy, the happier the people
but here was an image of crazy people sprinting into a store
before the sun came up
while others in Manhattan did the same thing
and in the process killed an employee
All for a flat screen TV..
This is hope?
The image did not fill me with hope at all
It kind of depressed me, actually….
What do we hope in?
what do we turn to for security?
Sure, we can say quite piously that we hope in God
and in the good news of Jesus Christ
but what do our actions say about us?
As they say, you know, actions speak louder than words
When we are afraid, what gives us hope?
What do we reach for?
When we are in despair, what do we reach out to
to fill that despair?
In America, it would seem that we hope in things, in toys
we hope in having the strongest military power
we hope in guns
we get afraid, we buy a gun
we hope in the stock market
we put all our hopes in one person
and if that person lets us down,
we don't respond well
"Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread?
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?..."
Isaiah asks us…
"Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
delight yourselves in rich food…
listen so that you might live…"
In the article in the Omaha World Herald,
it says that people who have maxed out their credit cards
and have exhausted their lines of credit
are now turning to cash …
This is hope?
That people who are crushed by debt
are still spending that which they don't really have?
On things that don't ultimately satisfy?
On things that are not bread?
What do you hope in?
What gives you real hope?
Or do you even have hope?
I saw the book title many weeks ago,
"The Audacity of Hope"
and that phrase has stayed with me
The AUDACITY of hope
I looked up the word audacity
and it means "shameless boldness, daring…"
In other words, who are we to hope?
What right do we have to have hope
in a world that seems to have gone crazy?
Too often, we steal each other's hope
if someone has hope, we tend to think them naïve
clueless, they don't have all the facts
But we have no right to take away anybody's elses' hope
because sometimes that's all anyone ever has
without hope, we are dead
Jim Wallis said, "Hope is believing despite the evidence
and then watching the evidence change…"
Joan Chittister says
that hope is a choice
we can't choose what happens to us,
but we can choose how we respond to what happens
She writes that memories can be the seedbed of hope
we can look back on how God has worked in our lives
in the past,
how God got us through a terrible tragedy
and then we use that to believe God will do it again
God, she says, has blessed the world with good things,
but all of them take working at…
relationships need work and attention,
beautiful flowers or vegetables don't grow on their own…
we need to till the soil, pull the weeds, water the ground ….
Children need nurturing and guidance and love
food needs to be prepared,
nothing happens without our involvement
Hope takes life on its own terms
Life happens, death happens
now what are we going to do about it?
We can curl up and suck our thumbs and say poor, poor me
or we can get up off our butts and face the darkness with faith
we can light a match, carry a light into the dark
and keep going ….
That takes a certain kind of audacity…
shameless boldness
to stand up to the dark, and light a candle
Even when we're terrified of the dark--
because we are a people of faith,
we walk into that darkness that terrifies us
knowing that the light of Christ goes with us
This message was given to the Israelites
when they were in exile in Babylon
they'd been captured, Jerusalem, their holy city destroyed
Everything that made them who they were had been taken from them
all they had was what was inside of them
and the Prophet Isaiah is saying to them,
don't give up,
don't forget who brought you this far
Just because evil and darkness happen
that doesn't mean that God is longer faithful
and we are still a people in exile
WE DON'T BELONG HERE
We're living in a world that works by different rules
and we have to always keep in mind who we are
who God is, and what God wants
that means that we don't play by the rules of the kingdom
in which we are bound for now
Because we follow a savior that told us
not to return evil for evil
not to take an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
because all that only ends in death and devastation
The psalmists wrote during the Babylonian exile
about singing the Lord's song in a foreign land
The people had hung up their instruments
on the willow trees
and stopped singing
because they were captured by the enemy
They lost their song
they lost the music
and so they began to lose their very souls
But the prophet is saying, don't give up your song
the song inside of you
that gives you hope and light
that gives you the audacity to go on
Sing your song in the dark….
sing when you don't even feel like singing
sing to remember who you are
and to whom you belong
Sing to remember who will finally deliver us all
and bring us home
I don't know how it started,
but at some point, I started singing at the bedside of people
who were dying
I didn't want to, someone just asked me to once
and so I kept on doing it
It's hard to sing when you're crying
it's hard to sing when your heart is broken
it's hard to sing when a life is literally slipping away from you
right before your eyes
but since I started doing it, it's felt like God reminds me then
that the best time to sing is when we don't feel like it
Because singing the songs of faith
remind us what will get us through
Singing reminds us who we are and where we really come from
Frederick Buechner writes about whistling in the dark
bringing music where there is none
bringing a small light into the dark to move us forward
These are scary times
with the economy the way it is
wars going on and on and on
with no end in sight
people dying in the doorway of WalMart
over a flat screen TV?
It is very risky to hope
it is so much easier to join in with the crowd
and say, yeah, it's all hopeless,
we're all doomed
it's the end of the world as we know it…
It's scary when people act crazy
it's even scarier when people act crazy
and own weapons
We've learned FEAR well
ever since 9/11 FEAR has been a very popular commodity
and we all jump on board
Fear motivates us to do and say crazy things
Fear makes us justify nasty and evil things
Fear makes otherwise good people into monsters
Fear makes us forget who we are
Fear shows us up and reveals to us what we really believe
Do we really believe all this God-stuff?
That God will deliver?
That God has the last word?
That God has hope for our world,
for all God's people?
Then why are we so quick to believe a lie?
Why are we so quick to jump on the bandwagon
and lose ourselves in the chaos?
Why is it so easy for us to say we believe in the God of hope
and yet act like a people of darkness??
We can't see the work of the Holy Spirit
in our lives or in our world
if we allow ourselves to be consumed by fear
and madness….
The prophet Isaiah says that God has a plan
and it's not OUR plan
The Bible begins in hope
and ends in hope
there's a whole lotta mess and pain in between
but we begin and end in HOPE
But hope is not easy
We've been hurt, all of us have
We've lost a lot
We've suffered various tragedies
various traumas
and it's easy to switch into self-preservation
Maybe we don't expect much anymore
because we've had our hearts shattered
It's easier to lay low and expect very little or nothing at all
to NOT hope in anything good
so we won't be disappointed yet again
But Isaiah says that God has a plan
Come, he says, he invites us to the Banquet, the feast
telling us that God's grace is free
Come and drink, you who are thirsty,
come and eat, you who are hungry, starving
And aren't we all??
WHY???
WHY do we spend our money and energy on things that
don't' fill us?
WHY do we go after things that not only do not satisfy
but things that can even destroy us??
Come, Isaiah says,
Come and eat what is good,
delight yourselves in rich food
Listen…. that you might LIVE
We think we know what's going on
we get all worked up
we easily fall into a mob spirit sometimes
or we react to life out of our emptiness
out of our desperate hunger and thirst
and often say and do things that are not of God
and are certainly not Christ-like
God' s thoughts are not our thoughts,
and God's ways are not our ways
God is not who we make him out to be
We have only clues to who God is
and to act like we know the entire mystery of God
is dangerous and arrogant
The Twelves steps begin with admitting we are powerless
over whatever it is that makes us sick
The second step is to come to believe that a power greater than ourselves
can restore us to sanity
Isaiah seems to believe that God CAN and indeed WILL
restore us all to sanity
We are insane-- there is no doubt about that, is there?
And we know, time and time again,
that when we try to do it ourselves
when we try to bring sanity to ourselves
on our own power
we royally mess it up
and bring more chaos, more darkness into the world
Turn it over to God,
all of it
Your despair, your grief, your fears, your doubt,
your insanity
God is the only one who can and will restore us to sanity
The story of the Bible, the story of creation and redemption
begins in a lush garden
and it ends in a lush garden
Restoration, renewal, resurrection
All of creation will be redeemed
All of it will be renewed and refreshed
All the world will praise the Lord
all of creation will be healed
That is our hope, that is our destiny
In the meantime, we hope in what we cannot see
we know that God has gotten us through before
and God will get us through again
In the meantime, we will sing into the darkness
even when our hearts are breaking
even when our voices are shaking
We will pray to have our eyes opened
so that we can SEE differently,
so that we can SEE sacredly, hopefully
SEE the light in the midst of the dark
See the flowers in the midst of the tiny seed
SEE the huge tree in a tiny acorn
SEE the potential and power in a newborn baby
SEE the peace that will finally reign
after all the weapons are put down
after the smoke has cleared
after all the mothers have wept for their children
after it seemed like no end was in sight
Look carefully
Look prayerfully
and look yet again
Look for signs of life and hope and eternity all around you
No matter what happens
Even when your eyes are full of tears
keep your eyes open
Keep your heart open
Resist the control of darkness and hate and destruction
in words or actions
Let your lives speak of hope
let your lives tell the gospel
let your lives be a crazy, hopeful, dancing sermon
to the hope we have in Jesus Christ
that nothing can every destroy
no human or institution or human force
can take away
It is our God-given destiny
We are people of the Garden
of the New Jerusalem
of the Kingdom of God
that is a kingdom of peace
and endurance and everlasting hope and faith
So, come,
all who are thirsty,
all who are so empty and hungry
there is bread for us all
and Living Water
from a well that never runs dry….
EVERYONE… .is invited.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Dreaming God's Dreams
I had a dream.
I know it's sounds cliche, but it's true. I had a dream. I was 24 years old, knocked over by the Spirit of God, who turned my life upside down. I was fairly sheltered, having been raised in a pastor's house all my life. You might say I was cloistered. I had little idea of what the rest of the world was like-- what people who DIDN'T go to church were like. I assumed they were "bad" people.
I had a dream. The intensity of God's Spirit in my life in 1989 knocked me out of my comfort zone completely, and I ended up envisioning myself as a preacher. It was an absurd vision, really. I was horribly, painfully shy. I didn't take any risks. I stayed within the confines of what was "normal" and acceptable. It took the Freight Train-like hit of the Holy Spirit to knock my feet out of the cement-- and I went to seminary.
I had a dream. I went to seminary for four years, two different schools: Drew University Theological School and St. Paul School of Theology. At both places I discovered that I did, in fact, have a brain, and I could think intelligent thoughts, and that people whom I respected thought I had gifts for ministry. It was a terrifying four years, as I was pushed, pulled, knocked around and occasionally stood on the hill with my fist in the air. That Masters of Divinity was hard-won; spiritually, emotionally, as well as intellectually.
And I emerged, a little bruised, with a dream. A dream that I could make changes. That I could -- if not change the world-- change a little bit of it. I dreamed I could help transform lives, stir people up and make them fall in love with Jesus and make them want to change the world for him too. I dreamed I could make people care about those that were different from them, about those who had so little in this world, and who were getting a raw deal. I dreamed I could teach people the things that Jesus taught and the things that he demanded of his disciples/followers. Yeah, for awhile, I also dreamed I'd serve that Big Church and have my name known around the denomination, but mostly I dreamed of Making a Difference.
I've been preaching for 18 years, as of June 10th of this year. I love to preach. I love to wrestle with Scripture, to question it and get others to think. Hopefully. I love caring for people, being there for people when their loved ones are dying, I love baptizing babies and celebrating their place in God's Kingdom.
But I don't know if I have a dream anymore. I dream of God's Kingdom coming; a time when people will stop shooting each other and hating each other. I dream when everyone can live in peace and without fear. I dream of a time when all people will have enough to eat, can work at meaningful work; free of addictions and oppression. I dream of a time when nobody is more important than anyone else, and nobody is treated like garbage. I dream of a day when people can't even remember what it is like to be mean.
But I don't think I dream of making much of a difference in the world. I've seen too much. I've seen too many people that really don't want to think, don't want to learn, don't want to be challenged, and don't have a passion to get out there and work for Jesus. I no longer think, really, that I can make people care, or follow Jesus with great passion, or that I can stir up COMpassion. A lot of people seem more concerned about their own place in heaven, and don't worry too much about the many and very real hells that other people suffer every day on this earth. Call me cynical. Call me tired. I've seen really good, passionate people die too young, while others who don't care keep going and keep spreading misery.
I still dream God's dream, but I tend to wonder now, what is my place in it? What, if anything, does the Church have to do with God's dream? Or will God's dream be carried out by the least likely people, the grass-roots level folks? Is the Church too tied up with money and power struggles and self-preservation to really play a part in God's dream? I don't know. But I do know that I can't make people care if they don't want to care. I can't really get anyone to do anything they don't want to do-- even if it's something Jesus would do. I don't know if we can get people to care what Jesus wants from us; I've been trying for a long time. I just don't know.
But I'm not going to give up dreaming...
I know it's sounds cliche, but it's true. I had a dream. I was 24 years old, knocked over by the Spirit of God, who turned my life upside down. I was fairly sheltered, having been raised in a pastor's house all my life. You might say I was cloistered. I had little idea of what the rest of the world was like-- what people who DIDN'T go to church were like. I assumed they were "bad" people.
I had a dream. The intensity of God's Spirit in my life in 1989 knocked me out of my comfort zone completely, and I ended up envisioning myself as a preacher. It was an absurd vision, really. I was horribly, painfully shy. I didn't take any risks. I stayed within the confines of what was "normal" and acceptable. It took the Freight Train-like hit of the Holy Spirit to knock my feet out of the cement-- and I went to seminary.
I had a dream. I went to seminary for four years, two different schools: Drew University Theological School and St. Paul School of Theology. At both places I discovered that I did, in fact, have a brain, and I could think intelligent thoughts, and that people whom I respected thought I had gifts for ministry. It was a terrifying four years, as I was pushed, pulled, knocked around and occasionally stood on the hill with my fist in the air. That Masters of Divinity was hard-won; spiritually, emotionally, as well as intellectually.
And I emerged, a little bruised, with a dream. A dream that I could make changes. That I could -- if not change the world-- change a little bit of it. I dreamed I could help transform lives, stir people up and make them fall in love with Jesus and make them want to change the world for him too. I dreamed I could make people care about those that were different from them, about those who had so little in this world, and who were getting a raw deal. I dreamed I could teach people the things that Jesus taught and the things that he demanded of his disciples/followers. Yeah, for awhile, I also dreamed I'd serve that Big Church and have my name known around the denomination, but mostly I dreamed of Making a Difference.
I've been preaching for 18 years, as of June 10th of this year. I love to preach. I love to wrestle with Scripture, to question it and get others to think. Hopefully. I love caring for people, being there for people when their loved ones are dying, I love baptizing babies and celebrating their place in God's Kingdom.
But I don't know if I have a dream anymore. I dream of God's Kingdom coming; a time when people will stop shooting each other and hating each other. I dream when everyone can live in peace and without fear. I dream of a time when all people will have enough to eat, can work at meaningful work; free of addictions and oppression. I dream of a time when nobody is more important than anyone else, and nobody is treated like garbage. I dream of a day when people can't even remember what it is like to be mean.
But I don't think I dream of making much of a difference in the world. I've seen too much. I've seen too many people that really don't want to think, don't want to learn, don't want to be challenged, and don't have a passion to get out there and work for Jesus. I no longer think, really, that I can make people care, or follow Jesus with great passion, or that I can stir up COMpassion. A lot of people seem more concerned about their own place in heaven, and don't worry too much about the many and very real hells that other people suffer every day on this earth. Call me cynical. Call me tired. I've seen really good, passionate people die too young, while others who don't care keep going and keep spreading misery.
I still dream God's dream, but I tend to wonder now, what is my place in it? What, if anything, does the Church have to do with God's dream? Or will God's dream be carried out by the least likely people, the grass-roots level folks? Is the Church too tied up with money and power struggles and self-preservation to really play a part in God's dream? I don't know. But I do know that I can't make people care if they don't want to care. I can't really get anyone to do anything they don't want to do-- even if it's something Jesus would do. I don't know if we can get people to care what Jesus wants from us; I've been trying for a long time. I just don't know.
But I'm not going to give up dreaming...
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
"ANY DREAM WILL DO"
Text: Matthew 25:14-30
Faith United
November 16, 2009
I had to do some research for a Theatre class I'm taking
for an oral presentation
The subject of the presentation is
the influence of the Church on medieval theatre
And what I've found is just more than a little bit disturbing
I love theatre
I love live theatre
especially when it's done well
I can enjoy a musical at UNK
just as much as a Broadway production in Omaha
But back in the Dark Ages
The church was very influential in getting rid of live theatre
completely
The Church had a lot more power back then, of course
and used that power to literally BAN certain things in society
So the Church got rid of theatre in the Dark Ages
because they could
Some of it, mind you, had gone a little too far
which is often the case,
we take a good thing and ruin by taking it to extremes
Humankind historically has had a little trouble with BALANCE
We tend to think in terms of All or Nothing
So theatre, with the exception of traveling minstrels and jugglers,
etc., was banned by order of the Church
How it came back in the Middle Ages
was ironically, through the Church
The Church was seeking to teach the Bible to people who couldn't read
and the best way, they found,
was through drama
They already had the seeds of drama in the liturgies of the church
which tells the stories of Creation, the Fall, Sin, etc.,
and finally the beginning of Redemption through Jesus
So they used drama to act it all out,
act out the Bible,
to help people not only hear the stories for themselves
but to remember them by seeing them played out
sometimes they inserted some comedy to keep it interesting,
but if you've ever read the Old Testament,
there's plenty of comedy in there
plenty of absurd behaviors
And out of that, the theatre began to be born again--
no pun intended
and the dramas eventually went out into the streets
to entertain the masses
Eventually, of course, theatre again took on a life of its own
and sometimes told stories that the Church didn't want told
and eventually, the Church disowned the theatre
sometimes even insisting on censorship
I say all of this,
because once again, I am disappointed to see
that throughout history, the Church has had a reputation
for spoiling parties
It seems that the Church doesn't like …. FUN, JOY, GOOD FEELINGS
If you start feeling good, stop!!
get a hold of yourself, slap yourself and never do it again
I had a friend in college
well, she wasn't really my friend, but she thought she was
she wouldn't leave me alone
she was one of the ones who felt that it was her personal calling from God
to convert me away from the Satanic influences of United Methodism
Our sophomore year, she became a Resident Assistant
She really enjoyed that job!
She would go all throughout the dorm floors,
looking for evildoers
You may remember me mentioning that dancing was against the rules
at this Christian college
and of course having a member of the opposite sex
in your room was a no-no
There were designated days called Open Dorm
when we could guys come and visit us
but then we had to leave the door to our room open
and the only other stipulation was that both of you had to
have both feet on the floor
Didn't matter what you did with each other
as long as you had both feet on the floor…
That was kind of a school joke for most of us
But Jennifer, my R.A. was always walking around
with a notebook, like a police officer, ready to write you up
for the slightest indiscretion
One day I had to do an oral presentation in my history of Psychology class
and I was doing the presentation in character
as a 19th century psychologist who smoked a cigar
so I bought a cigar and burned off the end of it
Jennifer wrote me up for having tobacco in my apartment
Another time I had a small gathering for a club I was a part of
and I made Crème De Menthe brownies
and Jennifer wrote me up for having liquer
I never got the sense that Jennifer got any joy at all out of her
relationship with God… call me crazy
She was really big on hell… and she shared it
I've heard or read a lot of sermons on this passage
that I just don't agree with
Some preachers use the passage to say hey!
God has given you talents to use
and you need to use them, share them
and God wants you to sign up for a committee
to spread your talent!
Other sermons use this as a stewardship campaign
it's all about money and investing
God has blessed you with money
and so God says, give it up!
put it in the offering plate
and God will be pleased….
But neither of those really make much sense to me
or they do, but they just don't stir me to action
The preacher wants you to sign up for a committee
or give much needed money for the budget
and so he gets God to make you do it!!
I don’t think that's it…
Jesus told this story not long before he was going to die
He knew he was going to die
He knew he'd made a lot of people mad
He knew that some powerful people believed
he was in fact, not the Son of God,
but more an enemy of God
But we don't do that anymore, do we?
If we disagree with someone in leadership
we don't start spreading vicious rumors
about them that could get 'em killed
by fanatics
Y'know, like they're an Arab, or a Muslim
or worse, they're a Satanist...
Anyway, Jesus is about to get killed, and he knows his time is short
He knows, too, that whatever happens to his ministry
the message that he came to deliver, to teach,
he knows that message is now going to be
in the hands of his disciples
If I were him, I'd be pretty worried…
But he has to make sure that they get it
that they get HIM… .who he is, why he came
what he came to teach
so they can spread that Good News
and little by little work with God
in transforming the world….
And as usual, he tells stories
This one, about a man who goes away for awhile
and entrusts his slaves with his property
He's a very rich man
he must have an awful lot of trust
in his slaves
either that, or he's just plain crazy for leaving
Before he went away, he divided the property up
not equally, mind you,
but he gave 5 talents to one,
2 talents to the other
and just one talent to the third
Talents were forms of money
that were worth 15 years of wages for the average worker
One talent, 15 years of minimum wage
That's a lot of money to put in the hands of someone
who isn't used to having that kind of money available
The man had to be more than just a little bit crazy
But as it turns out, his slaves were honest
better than that, they increased his wealth
The first two slaves doubled his money
We don't know how they did it
but either they were very shrewd
or just very lucky
The third guy kind of freaked out
The master gave him one talent
15 years worth of wages
put it in his hands
It freaked him out
we don't know why, exactly
maybe he didn't trust himself
maybe he knew that he could be tempted by that wealth
and run off with it
maybe he knew he could easily just spend it all, squander it
and leave the master with nothing
he could just imagine the consequences of that!
He'd be whipped, brutally tortured, and die a painful death, he was sure
He knew his master to be a harsh man…
Why did he do this to him?
Why did he let him have that money?
It was almost cruel to tempt him that way
So the slave did the best thing, apparently, that he knew to do
He dug a deep, deep hole and buried the money
But that wasn't enough
He watched over that hole, day and night, night and day
checking again and again
to see if someone had disturbed the soil
to see if there was any evidence that someone had dug it up
When the master returned, he called for an accounting of his wealth
he wanted to know what they did with it
The first two were thrilled to report that they'd made him
an even wealthier man
He was thrilled!
He told them, now that they'd proven themselves as trustworthy
over a few things
now they would be in charge of many things!
Well done, good and trustworthy servants, he said
and I bet they felt so good
He was beaming with joy
The third man approached him
dragging a muddy sack
his eyes were a bit bloodshot
his face looked a little strained
from lack of sleep
"M..master," he said, "I know you to be a harsh man,
and so I was afraid, and so I went and hid your money in the ground.
Here, you have what is yours…."
He laid the money at his master's feet and bowed,
backing away, still wringing his hands
WHAT???? the master was furious
He let the guy have it, called him worthless, lazy, even wicked
and he said, throw him into the outer darkness
where there is only weeping and gnashing of teeth..
And at the end of the story,
Jesus said, "For to all those who have,
more will be given, and they will have an abundance
but to those who have nothing, even what they have
will be taken away…."
Well, what does that mean?
That's the way things are now, I thought Jesus loved the poor!
In fact, in the next story he tells,
he says that we will see his face
in the face of the poor
the weak, those who need mercy and grace from us
and if we turn away the poor, we essentially turn away from Jesus…
So what' s this about?
Well, I've always identified well with that pitiful third slave
What was his problem, anyway??
He was afraid, he said so himself, he was terrified
The master put this magnificent gift in his hands
and by doing so, essentially said, 'you are awesome,
I trust you with my very life and livelihood
and the guy was just a slave
Have you ever received a gift that was just too heavy??
One that was so remarkable
that you uttered those ridiculous words,
"Oh, I can't accept this…."
It doesn't have to be a piece of jewelry
it can be a friendship, a relationship
I think when we truly fall in love,
we have that sense, that, wow, this is too good
I'm not worthy of this
and we are humbled
and some people do push away the gift
The third slave was horribly afraid of the gift
No, no, he said, I can't do this
I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy
I will blow it… and then I will be punished
and so he buried it in the ground
to make sure he didn't screw it up
to make sure he kept control over it
His greatest fears were revealed in that moment
that he was handed that gift
He was afraid of failing
He was afraid of being punished
He was afraid he wasn't trustworthy
So he punished himself before anyone else could
He buried it, buried the magnificent gift
deep in the ground
and then worried, paced, stewed
that even that was enough
He essentially buried his life in that hole
He put everything into that hole
And it makes me think that we are all often like that third slave
We don't know what to do with gift
We don't trust God with adventure or uncertainty
We build rigid boundaries around the Gift
we try to keep it under control
Some people are afraid of losing God
and so we try to keep God within strict boundaries
little boxes that we can understand,
black and white, good or evil, either/or
Heaven or hell, and nothing in between
But trying to protect God is way out of our league
And trying to protect God is not TRUSTING God
The third slave's tragedy
was anyone's tragedy
Whenever we bury the richest treasure we have
we do that by not becoming the person we might have been
by not taking a leap of faith
but not allowing ourselves joy in our love life with God
And so we, too, can cast ourselves into that outer darkness
where there is only weeping and gnashing of teeth
for that is the natural consequence of burying your most
beautiful and sacred treasure
Your body may keep on living,
but your soul is buried, your life is buried
and you are utterly alone
To all those who have, more will be given,
and to those who have nothing, even what they have
will be taken away ….
When we bury our treasures that come from God
we don't grow;
in fact, we shrink more and more
and our light grows ever dimmer
What is Jesus trying to say?
Don't let your light go out in this world
don't use my words for death instead of life
don't hole up in your self-dug graves
and bury the treasure that I am giving you now
The Church historically has a well-earned reputation
of stomping out anything that brings joy, freedom of expression
and absolute fun….
Oh it still goes on…
we still hear of Christians trying to ban this or that
in an effort to keep out all evil
We still hear of Christians bringing judgment and damnation
to an otherwise exhilarating event
In this election it was not about who you voted for and why
but I heard too many people making it about heaven or hell
Christians making other Christians feel evil
for voting for the other guy
Why are we here?
Why do we come here?
Is it just another burden that we bear?
Something we do out of guilt, something
to win points with God?
Do we come because that's what good people do?
They go to church?
Do we come to put in our time?
Check it off for the rest of the week?
Or do we come to be transformed?
Do we come because we find joy here?
Do we come because this is family?
That we have a sense that God has given us a remarkable gift
leaving the future of the Kingdom of God
in our shaky, all-too-human hands?
Do we come, because we remember who we are, truly,
when we are here?
Do we come out of a sense of obligation
or have we opened up our lives
to the extravagant transformation of the Gospel
and to a life of adventure in Jesus Christ?
Do we bury our greatest treasures in the ground
only to spend our time and energy running in mad circles
over things that will not finally last??
I hope you haven't lost that sense of gift
I hope you don't bury that gift in the ground
or up on the highest shelf in your storage room
and wonder why you've lost all sense of joy in living….
The gift is ours, the gift given from a dying friend
who promises that he will live again
and that when he does see us again
that life can be so extraordinary, adventurous,
radically joyous beyond our human comprehension
Choose life--
Text: Matthew 25:14-30
Faith United
November 16, 2009
I had to do some research for a Theatre class I'm taking
for an oral presentation
The subject of the presentation is
the influence of the Church on medieval theatre
And what I've found is just more than a little bit disturbing
I love theatre
I love live theatre
especially when it's done well
I can enjoy a musical at UNK
just as much as a Broadway production in Omaha
But back in the Dark Ages
The church was very influential in getting rid of live theatre
completely
The Church had a lot more power back then, of course
and used that power to literally BAN certain things in society
So the Church got rid of theatre in the Dark Ages
because they could
Some of it, mind you, had gone a little too far
which is often the case,
we take a good thing and ruin by taking it to extremes
Humankind historically has had a little trouble with BALANCE
We tend to think in terms of All or Nothing
So theatre, with the exception of traveling minstrels and jugglers,
etc., was banned by order of the Church
How it came back in the Middle Ages
was ironically, through the Church
The Church was seeking to teach the Bible to people who couldn't read
and the best way, they found,
was through drama
They already had the seeds of drama in the liturgies of the church
which tells the stories of Creation, the Fall, Sin, etc.,
and finally the beginning of Redemption through Jesus
So they used drama to act it all out,
act out the Bible,
to help people not only hear the stories for themselves
but to remember them by seeing them played out
sometimes they inserted some comedy to keep it interesting,
but if you've ever read the Old Testament,
there's plenty of comedy in there
plenty of absurd behaviors
And out of that, the theatre began to be born again--
no pun intended
and the dramas eventually went out into the streets
to entertain the masses
Eventually, of course, theatre again took on a life of its own
and sometimes told stories that the Church didn't want told
and eventually, the Church disowned the theatre
sometimes even insisting on censorship
I say all of this,
because once again, I am disappointed to see
that throughout history, the Church has had a reputation
for spoiling parties
It seems that the Church doesn't like …. FUN, JOY, GOOD FEELINGS
If you start feeling good, stop!!
get a hold of yourself, slap yourself and never do it again
I had a friend in college
well, she wasn't really my friend, but she thought she was
she wouldn't leave me alone
she was one of the ones who felt that it was her personal calling from God
to convert me away from the Satanic influences of United Methodism
Our sophomore year, she became a Resident Assistant
She really enjoyed that job!
She would go all throughout the dorm floors,
looking for evildoers
You may remember me mentioning that dancing was against the rules
at this Christian college
and of course having a member of the opposite sex
in your room was a no-no
There were designated days called Open Dorm
when we could guys come and visit us
but then we had to leave the door to our room open
and the only other stipulation was that both of you had to
have both feet on the floor
Didn't matter what you did with each other
as long as you had both feet on the floor…
That was kind of a school joke for most of us
But Jennifer, my R.A. was always walking around
with a notebook, like a police officer, ready to write you up
for the slightest indiscretion
One day I had to do an oral presentation in my history of Psychology class
and I was doing the presentation in character
as a 19th century psychologist who smoked a cigar
so I bought a cigar and burned off the end of it
Jennifer wrote me up for having tobacco in my apartment
Another time I had a small gathering for a club I was a part of
and I made Crème De Menthe brownies
and Jennifer wrote me up for having liquer
I never got the sense that Jennifer got any joy at all out of her
relationship with God… call me crazy
She was really big on hell… and she shared it
I've heard or read a lot of sermons on this passage
that I just don't agree with
Some preachers use the passage to say hey!
God has given you talents to use
and you need to use them, share them
and God wants you to sign up for a committee
to spread your talent!
Other sermons use this as a stewardship campaign
it's all about money and investing
God has blessed you with money
and so God says, give it up!
put it in the offering plate
and God will be pleased….
But neither of those really make much sense to me
or they do, but they just don't stir me to action
The preacher wants you to sign up for a committee
or give much needed money for the budget
and so he gets God to make you do it!!
I don’t think that's it…
Jesus told this story not long before he was going to die
He knew he was going to die
He knew he'd made a lot of people mad
He knew that some powerful people believed
he was in fact, not the Son of God,
but more an enemy of God
But we don't do that anymore, do we?
If we disagree with someone in leadership
we don't start spreading vicious rumors
about them that could get 'em killed
by fanatics
Y'know, like they're an Arab, or a Muslim
or worse, they're a Satanist...
Anyway, Jesus is about to get killed, and he knows his time is short
He knows, too, that whatever happens to his ministry
the message that he came to deliver, to teach,
he knows that message is now going to be
in the hands of his disciples
If I were him, I'd be pretty worried…
But he has to make sure that they get it
that they get HIM… .who he is, why he came
what he came to teach
so they can spread that Good News
and little by little work with God
in transforming the world….
And as usual, he tells stories
This one, about a man who goes away for awhile
and entrusts his slaves with his property
He's a very rich man
he must have an awful lot of trust
in his slaves
either that, or he's just plain crazy for leaving
Before he went away, he divided the property up
not equally, mind you,
but he gave 5 talents to one,
2 talents to the other
and just one talent to the third
Talents were forms of money
that were worth 15 years of wages for the average worker
One talent, 15 years of minimum wage
That's a lot of money to put in the hands of someone
who isn't used to having that kind of money available
The man had to be more than just a little bit crazy
But as it turns out, his slaves were honest
better than that, they increased his wealth
The first two slaves doubled his money
We don't know how they did it
but either they were very shrewd
or just very lucky
The third guy kind of freaked out
The master gave him one talent
15 years worth of wages
put it in his hands
It freaked him out
we don't know why, exactly
maybe he didn't trust himself
maybe he knew that he could be tempted by that wealth
and run off with it
maybe he knew he could easily just spend it all, squander it
and leave the master with nothing
he could just imagine the consequences of that!
He'd be whipped, brutally tortured, and die a painful death, he was sure
He knew his master to be a harsh man…
Why did he do this to him?
Why did he let him have that money?
It was almost cruel to tempt him that way
So the slave did the best thing, apparently, that he knew to do
He dug a deep, deep hole and buried the money
But that wasn't enough
He watched over that hole, day and night, night and day
checking again and again
to see if someone had disturbed the soil
to see if there was any evidence that someone had dug it up
When the master returned, he called for an accounting of his wealth
he wanted to know what they did with it
The first two were thrilled to report that they'd made him
an even wealthier man
He was thrilled!
He told them, now that they'd proven themselves as trustworthy
over a few things
now they would be in charge of many things!
Well done, good and trustworthy servants, he said
and I bet they felt so good
He was beaming with joy
The third man approached him
dragging a muddy sack
his eyes were a bit bloodshot
his face looked a little strained
from lack of sleep
"M..master," he said, "I know you to be a harsh man,
and so I was afraid, and so I went and hid your money in the ground.
Here, you have what is yours…."
He laid the money at his master's feet and bowed,
backing away, still wringing his hands
WHAT???? the master was furious
He let the guy have it, called him worthless, lazy, even wicked
and he said, throw him into the outer darkness
where there is only weeping and gnashing of teeth..
And at the end of the story,
Jesus said, "For to all those who have,
more will be given, and they will have an abundance
but to those who have nothing, even what they have
will be taken away…."
Well, what does that mean?
That's the way things are now, I thought Jesus loved the poor!
In fact, in the next story he tells,
he says that we will see his face
in the face of the poor
the weak, those who need mercy and grace from us
and if we turn away the poor, we essentially turn away from Jesus…
So what' s this about?
Well, I've always identified well with that pitiful third slave
What was his problem, anyway??
He was afraid, he said so himself, he was terrified
The master put this magnificent gift in his hands
and by doing so, essentially said, 'you are awesome,
I trust you with my very life and livelihood
and the guy was just a slave
Have you ever received a gift that was just too heavy??
One that was so remarkable
that you uttered those ridiculous words,
"Oh, I can't accept this…."
It doesn't have to be a piece of jewelry
it can be a friendship, a relationship
I think when we truly fall in love,
we have that sense, that, wow, this is too good
I'm not worthy of this
and we are humbled
and some people do push away the gift
The third slave was horribly afraid of the gift
No, no, he said, I can't do this
I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy
I will blow it… and then I will be punished
and so he buried it in the ground
to make sure he didn't screw it up
to make sure he kept control over it
His greatest fears were revealed in that moment
that he was handed that gift
He was afraid of failing
He was afraid of being punished
He was afraid he wasn't trustworthy
So he punished himself before anyone else could
He buried it, buried the magnificent gift
deep in the ground
and then worried, paced, stewed
that even that was enough
He essentially buried his life in that hole
He put everything into that hole
And it makes me think that we are all often like that third slave
We don't know what to do with gift
We don't trust God with adventure or uncertainty
We build rigid boundaries around the Gift
we try to keep it under control
Some people are afraid of losing God
and so we try to keep God within strict boundaries
little boxes that we can understand,
black and white, good or evil, either/or
Heaven or hell, and nothing in between
But trying to protect God is way out of our league
And trying to protect God is not TRUSTING God
The third slave's tragedy
was anyone's tragedy
Whenever we bury the richest treasure we have
we do that by not becoming the person we might have been
by not taking a leap of faith
but not allowing ourselves joy in our love life with God
And so we, too, can cast ourselves into that outer darkness
where there is only weeping and gnashing of teeth
for that is the natural consequence of burying your most
beautiful and sacred treasure
Your body may keep on living,
but your soul is buried, your life is buried
and you are utterly alone
To all those who have, more will be given,
and to those who have nothing, even what they have
will be taken away ….
When we bury our treasures that come from God
we don't grow;
in fact, we shrink more and more
and our light grows ever dimmer
What is Jesus trying to say?
Don't let your light go out in this world
don't use my words for death instead of life
don't hole up in your self-dug graves
and bury the treasure that I am giving you now
The Church historically has a well-earned reputation
of stomping out anything that brings joy, freedom of expression
and absolute fun….
Oh it still goes on…
we still hear of Christians trying to ban this or that
in an effort to keep out all evil
We still hear of Christians bringing judgment and damnation
to an otherwise exhilarating event
In this election it was not about who you voted for and why
but I heard too many people making it about heaven or hell
Christians making other Christians feel evil
for voting for the other guy
Why are we here?
Why do we come here?
Is it just another burden that we bear?
Something we do out of guilt, something
to win points with God?
Do we come because that's what good people do?
They go to church?
Do we come to put in our time?
Check it off for the rest of the week?
Or do we come to be transformed?
Do we come because we find joy here?
Do we come because this is family?
That we have a sense that God has given us a remarkable gift
leaving the future of the Kingdom of God
in our shaky, all-too-human hands?
Do we come, because we remember who we are, truly,
when we are here?
Do we come out of a sense of obligation
or have we opened up our lives
to the extravagant transformation of the Gospel
and to a life of adventure in Jesus Christ?
Do we bury our greatest treasures in the ground
only to spend our time and energy running in mad circles
over things that will not finally last??
I hope you haven't lost that sense of gift
I hope you don't bury that gift in the ground
or up on the highest shelf in your storage room
and wonder why you've lost all sense of joy in living….
The gift is ours, the gift given from a dying friend
who promises that he will live again
and that when he does see us again
that life can be so extraordinary, adventurous,
radically joyous beyond our human comprehension
Choose life--
Friday, November 14, 2008
Living the Beloved Life
"BE A REBEL"
Romans 12:9-21
Faith United
November 9, 2008
In the story of "The Count of Monte Cristo,"
Dantes is a young idealistic man who is in love
He's very naïve about the world
but you can't help but like him
He believes in fairness, honesty, and love
He's a man of God
but he's accused of being overzealous in the God thing
and his friends often think he's just unrealistic
maybe he is
But because of his honesty and trustworthiness
he is made captain of the ship
where he'd once been second mate
Now he has the chance to have everything he wants
`he can afford to marry the woman he adores, Mercedes,
and literally be captain of his own ship
Unfortunately, his best friend Mondego
is insanely jealous of Dantes and his sudden good fortune
so jealous that he seeks to destroy him
He sets him up and collaborates with others to accuse him of treason
There is no trial,
he is simply arrested and taken to a prison
isolated on its own island
He's lost his life, everything he dreamed of
and it was his best friend whom he trusted with his life
who did it to him
He spends 13 years in the prison Chateau D'if
in a small square cell
where he's given a bucket to relieve himself in
and just one bowl of soup a day
On arriving at Chateau d'if, he is brutally whipped
to keep him in line
and on each year-anniversary
he receives a whipping so severe
he can't get up
He has a lot of time to do nothing but think
alone with himself
and in those years of just sitting and thinking
he grows more and more bitter
he thinks over and over about what was done to him
how his best friend framed him
how the love of his life forgot him so abruptly
and married his best friend
He didn't know that Mercedes was immediately told
that Dantes was executed for his treason
In the middle of his imprisonment
a fellow prisoner shows up in Dantes' cell
Abba Farias
He'd been digging his way out to escape
for several years
and his digging led him not to freedom
at the outer wall
but led him to dig right into Dantes cell
Dantes and the old man became friends
through a plan to keep digging
and to work together to escape to the outer wall
which led to the ocean
Dantes called the old man "Priest"
because he was a man from a religious order
who'd also been wrongly accused
but Priest was different from Dantes
he still believed in God, trusted God
and didn't allow the bitterness of 8 years of wrongful imprisonment
to change him
As they dug, Priest taught Dantes all kinds of things
He taught him to read, first
then he taught him philosophy, economics,
politics, literally gave him a well-rounded education
He even taught to fight with a sword
with the promise that if Dantes was ever freed
he would only use his fighting for justice and not for revenge
Dantes only became more and more bitter
and told Priest freely of his desire to get out and seek revenge
on those who destroyed his life
They dug for about 5 years, and saw evidence that they were close
to the surface
when the tunnel collapsed on Priest and despite getting out
he died
Before he died, he made Dantes promise him
to use his gifts only for good
Dantes promised, just because he loved the old man
but he didn't give up his thirst for revenge
Dantes finally managed to escape
when they came for the old man's body
The old man had left him a map
that led to a buried treasure on another island
Through a series of adventures and manipulations
Dantes attains the treasure
which is of unending worth
and therefore gives him power
and he begins to unravel his plans
for revenge upon all who ever wronged him
He'd once been naïve,
too trusting, almost unrealistically good
and pure of heart
Now he was cold, unfeeling and bitter
he wasn't moved by the sight of death and blood anymore
he no longer believed in God,
but only in human justice
He had every opportunity to ruin the lives
of those who had ruined his
he didn't want to kill them
he wanted them to live and to suffer as he had
He managed to ruin those lives
to destroy them slowly, painfully,
and leave them with nothing
as they had done to him
but it was never enough
He found Mercedes, again, once the love of his life
but he felt nothing for her
because his thirst for revenge
replaced every other feeling in his heart
He was cold and unmoved
But it was her love for him
that finally transformed him
that finally got through to his heart
that reminded him who he really was
that made him see that he didn't want to be
like the others who had attempted to destroy him
They had inevitably destroyed themselves
in their jealousy and lust
But Mercedes made Dantes see
that he was still himself
and didn't have to lose himself in his bitterness
He was transformed by her love, finally
And he bought the island and prison of Chateau d'if
shut it down as a prison
he returned there to show Mercedes
where he'd lived all those years
and also to say goodbye to Priest
and to renew his promise to use all his gifts for good
as a gift to the old man's memory …
All of us understand bitterness
none of us would really blame Dantes
for getting out and being so ticked off and bitter
that he'd want to destroy his enemies
people he had trusted
None of us would blame him for thinking himself naïve
for ever trusting at all
I remember when Nelson Mandela got out of prison
after 27 years
I was in seminary at the time
and I remember thinking, what will he do?
How can he go on with his life
after losing that many years in prison?
How can he even be healthy? Mentally? Emotionally?
And yet he went on to be the president of South Africa
Silly me
I was a toddler in the 60s
but I see clips of Martin Luther King, jr.
and read his sermons and writings
and I wonder how he went on
after having his house bombed
or after those four little girls were killed by a bomb
in Sunday School
He knew they were going to kill him
how did he go on?
What made him keep going on in the face of all that hostility
and certain violence?
Gandhi, instructed his followers to not retaliate
in the face of violence
to stand against getting hit
to never raise a fist to fight back
He once said,
"An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
will only leave the world blind and toothless.."
Gandhi wasn't a Christian,
He was a Hindu,
and yet much of what he did
and much of how he lived his life
was deeply influenced by the teachings of Jesus Christ
And HIS teachings informed Martin Luther King, Jr.
But it's unrealistic!!
This turn the other cheek stuff
this don't return evil for evil
surely Jesus didn't mean that literally
St. Paul thought he did
He wrote,
"Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep
Live in harmony with one another
Do not repay evil for evil but take thought for what is noble
in the sight of all..
Beloved, he says, do not avenge yourselves, but leave
room for the wrath of God…'
In other words, it is only God's right to avenge evil
if that's what God chooses
When we seek revenge, we are playing God
For it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord…"
Vengeance is only God's choice
Do not be overcome by evil, be overcome evil with good."
That's unrealistic, isn't it?
I mean, yeah, I'm a Christian
but when somebody hurts me, I want to hurt them back
that turn the other cheek stuff is not possible
We all understand that…
Why did Jesus even say that?
Nikita Khruschev once said,
"The difference between Christianity and Communism is great.
When someone strikes you on the face
you turn the other cheek
If you strike me on the face
I'll hit you so hard your head will fall off."
Sigmund Freud wrote:
"One must forgive one's enemies --but not before
they have been hanged."
We might chuckle, but deep down, I think we agree
When someone messes with us, we want to mess back
How many people do you know that have just grown old and bitter?
They are not happy
They recite to you and to anyone who will listen
the wrongs that have been done to them
and they nurse that hurt
until it makes them ugly
It's easy to play the victim
to believe that the world or even God is out to get us
when things go bad
We like songs like "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue"
you mess with America, dude, we'll mess with you
we'll wipe you out…
That is accepted
that will win us a place at the bar
among friends
Not trying to follow Jesus--
and I don't mean just believing in Jesus and going to church
faith is not a noun, it's a verb
We can't just comfortably claim our future in heaven
and act like we never met the man Jesus
or heard a word that he said
Christians talk about being persecuted in this current nation
as if that's a bad thing --
as if we're supposed to be the most popular
as if everyone is supposed to agree with us
Jesus stayed true to his own teachings
that came from God
that got him killed
Those teachings got King and Gandhi killed
and they always knew that was a possibility
St. Paul says "Let love be genuine.
Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good,
love one another with mutual affection
outdo one another in showing honor.
Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit
serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in spirit
Contribute to the needs of the saints
extend hospitality to strangers."
You don't need to be a Mother Teresa or King or Gandhi
to follow Christ
It's hard enough following Christ
in our everyday lives
I've already just this past week
the comment about President elect Obama:
"well, he won't last
The Klan will get him, we don't have to worry."
This was someone who would turn around
and tell you they go to church every Sunday
I would venture to say
that going to church hasn't done a thing for this person
You can hate, you can be bitter
you can conform to the rest of the world
you can speak evil, spread gossip
and act righteous
but don't do it while claiming the name of Jesus
Today we have a gift
We are invited again
to witness the baptism of another one of God's children
She's innocent
she's wide open
Abbie is relying on you and me and her parents
to teach her about faith in Jesus
just as all the other kids in our church do
They're looking to us
to see why any of us bother to come here
why we bother to talk about Jesus
and whether it makes a difference at all in the world
If we act like the rest of the world
then it doesn't make a difference at all
We're wasting our time
Sure, we want to have friends
we don't want them to think we're naïve
or stupid or soft
we want to fit in
just as much as we did in middle school
We don't want people to get mad at us
or to get angry at us
or to think we're just high and mighty
but we belong to Christ
and that's what Abbie reminds us of today
We are lifting her up today
as God's newest child
We're celebrating that she is claimed --
was claimed before she was born --
to be a child of God
we're celebrating that God chose to create her here
among us
and her baptism, like anyone elses'
is a chance for us to remember that we are forever marked
by that water as well
we are forever chosen to be God's beloved
and as God's beloved, we represent the parent
we represent the Family
What we do and who we become
is a reflection on the family, the kingdom to which we belong
It's hard to be different
it's hard to be a people of peace
in a world so bent on hate and revenge
It's hard to love and speak peace
when those closest to us are joining in the bitterest conversations
and speaking frightening words of hate
Today, we remember that we are responsible for all our children
all the children that pass through this church
and through our lives
what will we teach them?
What will they see in us?
What will they learn?
You and I and Abbie, and all our precious children
are beloved, baptized children of the Creator through Jesus Christ
We're already marked as different
we already stand out in a crowd
when we speak, when we are in the midst of debate
when we are out there
imagine turning around and seeing Jesus
what is doing?
Is he weeping?
Or is he smiling?
Jesus would rather die
than betray the Creator of the universe
Jesus would rather die
than forget who he is, and his calling to embody the Spirit of God
Today Abbie is the one who is told by God
"You are my beloved, with you I am well pleased."
The same words heard at our baptism
We all belong to God --
we are all beloved….
Romans 12:9-21
Faith United
November 9, 2008
In the story of "The Count of Monte Cristo,"
Dantes is a young idealistic man who is in love
He's very naïve about the world
but you can't help but like him
He believes in fairness, honesty, and love
He's a man of God
but he's accused of being overzealous in the God thing
and his friends often think he's just unrealistic
maybe he is
But because of his honesty and trustworthiness
he is made captain of the ship
where he'd once been second mate
Now he has the chance to have everything he wants
`he can afford to marry the woman he adores, Mercedes,
and literally be captain of his own ship
Unfortunately, his best friend Mondego
is insanely jealous of Dantes and his sudden good fortune
so jealous that he seeks to destroy him
He sets him up and collaborates with others to accuse him of treason
There is no trial,
he is simply arrested and taken to a prison
isolated on its own island
He's lost his life, everything he dreamed of
and it was his best friend whom he trusted with his life
who did it to him
He spends 13 years in the prison Chateau D'if
in a small square cell
where he's given a bucket to relieve himself in
and just one bowl of soup a day
On arriving at Chateau d'if, he is brutally whipped
to keep him in line
and on each year-anniversary
he receives a whipping so severe
he can't get up
He has a lot of time to do nothing but think
alone with himself
and in those years of just sitting and thinking
he grows more and more bitter
he thinks over and over about what was done to him
how his best friend framed him
how the love of his life forgot him so abruptly
and married his best friend
He didn't know that Mercedes was immediately told
that Dantes was executed for his treason
In the middle of his imprisonment
a fellow prisoner shows up in Dantes' cell
Abba Farias
He'd been digging his way out to escape
for several years
and his digging led him not to freedom
at the outer wall
but led him to dig right into Dantes cell
Dantes and the old man became friends
through a plan to keep digging
and to work together to escape to the outer wall
which led to the ocean
Dantes called the old man "Priest"
because he was a man from a religious order
who'd also been wrongly accused
but Priest was different from Dantes
he still believed in God, trusted God
and didn't allow the bitterness of 8 years of wrongful imprisonment
to change him
As they dug, Priest taught Dantes all kinds of things
He taught him to read, first
then he taught him philosophy, economics,
politics, literally gave him a well-rounded education
He even taught to fight with a sword
with the promise that if Dantes was ever freed
he would only use his fighting for justice and not for revenge
Dantes only became more and more bitter
and told Priest freely of his desire to get out and seek revenge
on those who destroyed his life
They dug for about 5 years, and saw evidence that they were close
to the surface
when the tunnel collapsed on Priest and despite getting out
he died
Before he died, he made Dantes promise him
to use his gifts only for good
Dantes promised, just because he loved the old man
but he didn't give up his thirst for revenge
Dantes finally managed to escape
when they came for the old man's body
The old man had left him a map
that led to a buried treasure on another island
Through a series of adventures and manipulations
Dantes attains the treasure
which is of unending worth
and therefore gives him power
and he begins to unravel his plans
for revenge upon all who ever wronged him
He'd once been naïve,
too trusting, almost unrealistically good
and pure of heart
Now he was cold, unfeeling and bitter
he wasn't moved by the sight of death and blood anymore
he no longer believed in God,
but only in human justice
He had every opportunity to ruin the lives
of those who had ruined his
he didn't want to kill them
he wanted them to live and to suffer as he had
He managed to ruin those lives
to destroy them slowly, painfully,
and leave them with nothing
as they had done to him
but it was never enough
He found Mercedes, again, once the love of his life
but he felt nothing for her
because his thirst for revenge
replaced every other feeling in his heart
He was cold and unmoved
But it was her love for him
that finally transformed him
that finally got through to his heart
that reminded him who he really was
that made him see that he didn't want to be
like the others who had attempted to destroy him
They had inevitably destroyed themselves
in their jealousy and lust
But Mercedes made Dantes see
that he was still himself
and didn't have to lose himself in his bitterness
He was transformed by her love, finally
And he bought the island and prison of Chateau d'if
shut it down as a prison
he returned there to show Mercedes
where he'd lived all those years
and also to say goodbye to Priest
and to renew his promise to use all his gifts for good
as a gift to the old man's memory …
All of us understand bitterness
none of us would really blame Dantes
for getting out and being so ticked off and bitter
that he'd want to destroy his enemies
people he had trusted
None of us would blame him for thinking himself naïve
for ever trusting at all
I remember when Nelson Mandela got out of prison
after 27 years
I was in seminary at the time
and I remember thinking, what will he do?
How can he go on with his life
after losing that many years in prison?
How can he even be healthy? Mentally? Emotionally?
And yet he went on to be the president of South Africa
Silly me
I was a toddler in the 60s
but I see clips of Martin Luther King, jr.
and read his sermons and writings
and I wonder how he went on
after having his house bombed
or after those four little girls were killed by a bomb
in Sunday School
He knew they were going to kill him
how did he go on?
What made him keep going on in the face of all that hostility
and certain violence?
Gandhi, instructed his followers to not retaliate
in the face of violence
to stand against getting hit
to never raise a fist to fight back
He once said,
"An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
will only leave the world blind and toothless.."
Gandhi wasn't a Christian,
He was a Hindu,
and yet much of what he did
and much of how he lived his life
was deeply influenced by the teachings of Jesus Christ
And HIS teachings informed Martin Luther King, Jr.
But it's unrealistic!!
This turn the other cheek stuff
this don't return evil for evil
surely Jesus didn't mean that literally
St. Paul thought he did
He wrote,
"Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep
Live in harmony with one another
Do not repay evil for evil but take thought for what is noble
in the sight of all..
Beloved, he says, do not avenge yourselves, but leave
room for the wrath of God…'
In other words, it is only God's right to avenge evil
if that's what God chooses
When we seek revenge, we are playing God
For it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord…"
Vengeance is only God's choice
Do not be overcome by evil, be overcome evil with good."
That's unrealistic, isn't it?
I mean, yeah, I'm a Christian
but when somebody hurts me, I want to hurt them back
that turn the other cheek stuff is not possible
We all understand that…
Why did Jesus even say that?
Nikita Khruschev once said,
"The difference between Christianity and Communism is great.
When someone strikes you on the face
you turn the other cheek
If you strike me on the face
I'll hit you so hard your head will fall off."
Sigmund Freud wrote:
"One must forgive one's enemies --but not before
they have been hanged."
We might chuckle, but deep down, I think we agree
When someone messes with us, we want to mess back
How many people do you know that have just grown old and bitter?
They are not happy
They recite to you and to anyone who will listen
the wrongs that have been done to them
and they nurse that hurt
until it makes them ugly
It's easy to play the victim
to believe that the world or even God is out to get us
when things go bad
We like songs like "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue"
you mess with America, dude, we'll mess with you
we'll wipe you out…
That is accepted
that will win us a place at the bar
among friends
Not trying to follow Jesus--
and I don't mean just believing in Jesus and going to church
faith is not a noun, it's a verb
We can't just comfortably claim our future in heaven
and act like we never met the man Jesus
or heard a word that he said
Christians talk about being persecuted in this current nation
as if that's a bad thing --
as if we're supposed to be the most popular
as if everyone is supposed to agree with us
Jesus stayed true to his own teachings
that came from God
that got him killed
Those teachings got King and Gandhi killed
and they always knew that was a possibility
St. Paul says "Let love be genuine.
Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good,
love one another with mutual affection
outdo one another in showing honor.
Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit
serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in spirit
Contribute to the needs of the saints
extend hospitality to strangers."
You don't need to be a Mother Teresa or King or Gandhi
to follow Christ
It's hard enough following Christ
in our everyday lives
I've already just this past week
the comment about President elect Obama:
"well, he won't last
The Klan will get him, we don't have to worry."
This was someone who would turn around
and tell you they go to church every Sunday
I would venture to say
that going to church hasn't done a thing for this person
You can hate, you can be bitter
you can conform to the rest of the world
you can speak evil, spread gossip
and act righteous
but don't do it while claiming the name of Jesus
Today we have a gift
We are invited again
to witness the baptism of another one of God's children
She's innocent
she's wide open
Abbie is relying on you and me and her parents
to teach her about faith in Jesus
just as all the other kids in our church do
They're looking to us
to see why any of us bother to come here
why we bother to talk about Jesus
and whether it makes a difference at all in the world
If we act like the rest of the world
then it doesn't make a difference at all
We're wasting our time
Sure, we want to have friends
we don't want them to think we're naïve
or stupid or soft
we want to fit in
just as much as we did in middle school
We don't want people to get mad at us
or to get angry at us
or to think we're just high and mighty
but we belong to Christ
and that's what Abbie reminds us of today
We are lifting her up today
as God's newest child
We're celebrating that she is claimed --
was claimed before she was born --
to be a child of God
we're celebrating that God chose to create her here
among us
and her baptism, like anyone elses'
is a chance for us to remember that we are forever marked
by that water as well
we are forever chosen to be God's beloved
and as God's beloved, we represent the parent
we represent the Family
What we do and who we become
is a reflection on the family, the kingdom to which we belong
It's hard to be different
it's hard to be a people of peace
in a world so bent on hate and revenge
It's hard to love and speak peace
when those closest to us are joining in the bitterest conversations
and speaking frightening words of hate
Today, we remember that we are responsible for all our children
all the children that pass through this church
and through our lives
what will we teach them?
What will they see in us?
What will they learn?
You and I and Abbie, and all our precious children
are beloved, baptized children of the Creator through Jesus Christ
We're already marked as different
we already stand out in a crowd
when we speak, when we are in the midst of debate
when we are out there
imagine turning around and seeing Jesus
what is doing?
Is he weeping?
Or is he smiling?
Jesus would rather die
than betray the Creator of the universe
Jesus would rather die
than forget who he is, and his calling to embody the Spirit of God
Today Abbie is the one who is told by God
"You are my beloved, with you I am well pleased."
The same words heard at our baptism
We all belong to God --
we are all beloved….
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
The Company of Heaven
“FOREVER”
Psalm 23
Faith United
November 2, 2008
In October of 2001, I went on a spiritual retreat
at a place called Kirkridge, in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania
I had registered for the retreat before September
because I was already going through some painful things
in my own life
And then September 11th happened
There were about 15-20 of us on that retreat
that was led by a woman named Flora Slosson Wuellner
All of us were still shaken when we gathered that weekend
Have you ever felt completely washed out?
You’ve cried so much, you’re just raw
and shaky, trembly in body and spirit
Physically you barely have the energy to walk
much less face the day
That’s how I arrived at Kirkridge that October weekend
One afternoon, the retreat leader sent us off by ourselves
she instructed us to simply walk
and pray to be open to what glimpses of heaven
God was giving us
I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do
and of course I wanted to do it just right
but nonetheless, I ventured off into the woods
on the side of the mountain
In the woods of Pennsylvania,
you often find yourself engulfed in trees
you look up and there is a ceiling of trees
like a natural cathedral
I walked over rocks and logs
deep into the woods
and I came upon a little area
that someone had cleared
There was a big rock
and on the rock were small offerings
a little pile of stones
some beautiful fall leaves
a pine cone
it seemed as if someone had made that rock
an altar, and put on that altar little offerings of beauty
They’d placed a couple of larger stones near the altar
that were arranged as if someone had sat on them
to worship at their primitive altar
I was surrounded by trees
and there was just enough of a break between the branches
above me to allow the sun and blue sky
to appear and shine on me as if a spotlight
Someone had stopped here in the woods
moved by the natural beauty of God’s own cathedral
and built an altar to say thank you
There were many moments like that for me that weekend
moments that served as a balm to my soul
and to others as we all returned and shared our experiences
out there alone with God in the woods
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me….”
All of us knew that we’d return on Monday to a harsh world
that was bent on revenge
we knew that the world was about to explode wide open
in the wake of the attacks
but for a moment, we could all find rest for our souls
a balm in Gilead, to refresh us and strengthen us
for the dark valleys we would return to
Times like that for me are times that I feel like
I’m standing on the border between heaven and earth
Times when heaven feels so close you can almost touch it
like you get just a glimpse of the glory
enough to whet your appetite and keep you searching
and believing
no matter what chaos is happening around you
We don’t talk about heaven much
and I don’t even like to use the word heaven
because it has too much baggage with it
I prefer to talk about Eternity
On the side of that mountain amidst the many colors of Pennsylvania
in the fall
the harsh images of the burning trade towers
were just a dark moment in time
and for moments at a time, some of us could see
the Bigger Picture
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
-- and we all knew that much more death was coming….
“I will fear no evil, for thou art with me…”
We don’t talk about Eternity much
except when someone dies
and it’s a matter of life and death, literally
and yet in the Church, all of our rituals point to the hope of eternity
We didn’t talk about death much when I was growing up
it was part of the culture, though,
back East, people can live comfortably in denial of death
Here, in the rural Midwest, life and death is all around you
a part of your everyday lives
in the land, in the livestock, in the crops,
in farm life, and in the unpredictability of the weather
and its impact on your lives
But still, we try not to talk about death much
and so we don’t talk about eternity
unless of course we’re figuring out who goes where in the end
Maybe we don’t talk about it
because even with the good news of eternity
it’s still a major unknown
a vast, mysterious, endless mystery
that we can’t begin to comprehend
but I think if we remembered every day
that we are standing on the border between the now and the not-yet
between earth and heaven
then that might give us some perspective
When we talk of heaven or eternity,
we think of people in white clothes, walking on clouds
with a bright light behind them
Or of course there’s the angels with harps
Maybe even a yellow brick road of pure gold
Hollywood has affected us more than we know…
Jesus didn’t tell us a whole lot about eternity
but I think that’s because he knew we couldn’t understand
how can you describe timelessness to people
bound in time?
How do you express everlasting life
to a people in live in a world haunted and bullied by death?
He told us, ‘don’t worry,’ there is a place for us in God’s eternity
a place especially prepared for you and me
a home like we’ve never known
He basically said, trust me on this
He told the thief on the cross,
“today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Paradise
Eternity
We try not to think about it too much
but when someone we love dies
it becomes imperative that we know something
that we believe
we have to know that our loved ones are ok
that we will see them again
and yet no one can give us definite answers
only glimpses, only poetry
that calls us to believe and trust in something we can’t comprehend
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord …. FOREVER.”
The Hebrew word for Follow actually means “pursue”
goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life
and then I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever….
Goodness and mercy are in pursuit of us
Look at your life
look at times when you can see now,
that love was pursuing you and you didn’t know it
Goodness and mercy in hot pursuit …
and then there are those times where you were caught off guard
and they found you, tackled you, embraced you
I believe those times are times when God
is trying to give us a glimpse of eternity
of the beauty we can know now,
that is only a shadow of what we will know and live forever
Why should we think of eternity now, when we’re healthy or young
or not planning on dying anytime soon?
I think knowing that we are children of eternity
puts perspective on our lives right now
In our communion liturgy, we say,
“And so, with your people on earth,
and all the company of heaven
we praise your name and join their unending hymn…
“Holy, Holy, holy, Lord, God of power and might…”
We’re saying in that, that we are singing God’s praise right now
not only with the people here with us
but with all the company of heaven
and we are joining their unending hymn…
We are singing with the company of heaven…
To be a Christian, is to be a part of the company of heaven
even when our feet are stuck in the mud of earth
This relationship goes on and on and on for all eternity
even now, even when we’re separated by the thin veil
that exists between heaven and earth
To live our lives on that boundary
to remember that we’ve got one foot on earth
and the other foot in eternity
reminds us that whatever we face here
whatever the world is going through
it’s just a moment in history, a small dot in the course of eternity
and that there is no time that we are without the presence of that eternal God
Moving around as much as I have
I don’t have friendships that have spanned a long history of years
except ONE
I’ve known my friend Ed, whom I consider a lifelong mentor,
I’ve known Ed for 28 years now
Ed’s letters are always a gift of grace and have been
since I was a teenager
Several years ago, he ended one of his letters
with the words, “I give thanks for the special relationship
which you, God and I have had for years, and which we will continue
to have into eternity…”
I was struck with those words
and have never forgotten them
and they gave me a new perspective
on the connections we have with one another on this earth
as live in the shadow of eternity
We can literally be friends forever,
when we’re connected through God
I believe our most treasured, beautiful moments of life
are just foretastes, samples, of eternity
foretastes of what it’s like to be blessed forever
In Christianity, heaven is often referred to as a banquet
we do like food, don’t we?
But I think, too, the image of the heavenly banquet
is more an image of the fellowship of all believers
of all God’s precious children
gathered together,
We’ll all speak the same language
whatever heaven-language is…
we’ll all be bound together in love
and grace and mercy, and won’t be broken by differences
or culture or personality
there will be peace that we can’t even begin to comprehend
There are moments, like me finding that altar in the woods
moments when we know for sure that there is MORE
more than we can see, more than we can imagine
and sometimes that more can only be expressed in poetry,
in music, and in art
because mere words are too limited
“I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever…”
is a statement of faith
And of course the details will be fuzzy until we get there
We get so bogged down by reality, but THIS reality
so filled with fear and paranoia
so angry and broken sometimes
that it’s hard to believe in something we can’t see
or understand
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross spent her life and career
studying death and grief
she worked with thousands and thousands of people
who shared their experiences with her
She tells the story of a 12 year old girl who came back
from a near-death experience
she was afraid to tell her parents what a beautiful experience
dying in a car accident was for her
She finally had to talk about it, though
and she told her father how beautiful dying was for her
and how she didn’t want to come back
In fact, she said, not only did she experience light and openheartedness
but she had met someone who said he was her brother
who told her she was going to be just fine
“He loved me so much,” she said, “and loved you and Mom, too..
“How could I have seen someone who said he was my brother
when I don’t have a brother?”
Her father began to cry and told her,
“You did have a brother, but he died before you were born,
we wanted to tell you when you got older.”
Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians,
“Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face.”
Willa Cather once wrote:”
“The miracles of the Church seem to me to rest not so much
upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near
to us from afar,
but upon our perceptions being made finer,
so that for a moment our eyes can see
and our ears can hear what there is about us always…”
Again, I grew up in a place where you never saw death
it was reserved for hospitals
it was always somewhere else
because, really, no one wanted to see it, to face it
But I think that when you walk to the edge of this life with someone
you have the gift of getting a glimpse of eternity
“yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me….”
I’ve never been so involved in the whole experience of death
as I was with my friend Karen
Usually I’m called in at the last minute
or usually not even called until it’s over
and I have the funeral
Many times it’s someone I don’t know well
Or someone who died suddenly, not knowing it was coming
But Karen and I got to talk a lot
conversations you just don’t have with most people
She wasn’t afraid, and so I was less afraid
She said she knew that God was waiting
Walking through that with her, gave me courage
gave me a whole new perspective on death and eternity
It was like she just had to go somewhere else
she didn’t want to leave any of us
but she learned to accept that she had to
One day, during the last week of her life
She was strangely enthusiastic
She looked out her window at the lake
She marveled at all the gifts that she’d been given in her life
she marveled at her family, her friends, the lake, her home,
She told me about a commercial where a little boy
just threw up his hands and said enthusiastically,
“it’s all beautiful!”
And she said to me, about her own life, “it’s all beautiful…!”
and she smiled
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me….”
She could see then, how goodness and mercy had pursued her all her life
and she was grateful
The night she died was the least scary of all the days
I spent with her,
and it was holy
It was ok
I could know in my bones that death wasn’t so bad
and that the connections we make through love
are connections that will never end
relationships that will go on through eternity
just like Ed said
Life and death, birth, all of it is in God’s hands
The day that Abbie Miller was born,
I got to see her before her mother did
Adam and I stood in whatever room that was
where she was laying under the warming lights
and I held her little hand and stroked her arms and face
marveling again at the beauty of new life
and giving thanks that she was born at a time
when we all needed a little new life among us
and for a moment, I got an overwhelming image in my mind
of Karen talking to Abbie before she came to us
and of Karen telling Abbie what wonderful parents
she was going to have
because that’s just something Karen would do…
and because I believe that in eternity there is no time
and what seems like forever to us is just a second in eternity
Today we remember that we are part of the company of heaven
that they are not that faraway
that we stand on the boundary between heaven and earth
and we are holy
and when we sing or weep or laugh or give praise to God
we do it right along with those whom we love
who we can’t see right now
but can trust are tasting the everlasting beauty
and relentless mercy and goodness
that pursues us all
And it’s all beautiful….
Psalm 23
Faith United
November 2, 2008
In October of 2001, I went on a spiritual retreat
at a place called Kirkridge, in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania
I had registered for the retreat before September
because I was already going through some painful things
in my own life
And then September 11th happened
There were about 15-20 of us on that retreat
that was led by a woman named Flora Slosson Wuellner
All of us were still shaken when we gathered that weekend
Have you ever felt completely washed out?
You’ve cried so much, you’re just raw
and shaky, trembly in body and spirit
Physically you barely have the energy to walk
much less face the day
That’s how I arrived at Kirkridge that October weekend
One afternoon, the retreat leader sent us off by ourselves
she instructed us to simply walk
and pray to be open to what glimpses of heaven
God was giving us
I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do
and of course I wanted to do it just right
but nonetheless, I ventured off into the woods
on the side of the mountain
In the woods of Pennsylvania,
you often find yourself engulfed in trees
you look up and there is a ceiling of trees
like a natural cathedral
I walked over rocks and logs
deep into the woods
and I came upon a little area
that someone had cleared
There was a big rock
and on the rock were small offerings
a little pile of stones
some beautiful fall leaves
a pine cone
it seemed as if someone had made that rock
an altar, and put on that altar little offerings of beauty
They’d placed a couple of larger stones near the altar
that were arranged as if someone had sat on them
to worship at their primitive altar
I was surrounded by trees
and there was just enough of a break between the branches
above me to allow the sun and blue sky
to appear and shine on me as if a spotlight
Someone had stopped here in the woods
moved by the natural beauty of God’s own cathedral
and built an altar to say thank you
There were many moments like that for me that weekend
moments that served as a balm to my soul
and to others as we all returned and shared our experiences
out there alone with God in the woods
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me….”
All of us knew that we’d return on Monday to a harsh world
that was bent on revenge
we knew that the world was about to explode wide open
in the wake of the attacks
but for a moment, we could all find rest for our souls
a balm in Gilead, to refresh us and strengthen us
for the dark valleys we would return to
Times like that for me are times that I feel like
I’m standing on the border between heaven and earth
Times when heaven feels so close you can almost touch it
like you get just a glimpse of the glory
enough to whet your appetite and keep you searching
and believing
no matter what chaos is happening around you
We don’t talk about heaven much
and I don’t even like to use the word heaven
because it has too much baggage with it
I prefer to talk about Eternity
On the side of that mountain amidst the many colors of Pennsylvania
in the fall
the harsh images of the burning trade towers
were just a dark moment in time
and for moments at a time, some of us could see
the Bigger Picture
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
-- and we all knew that much more death was coming….
“I will fear no evil, for thou art with me…”
We don’t talk about Eternity much
except when someone dies
and it’s a matter of life and death, literally
and yet in the Church, all of our rituals point to the hope of eternity
We didn’t talk about death much when I was growing up
it was part of the culture, though,
back East, people can live comfortably in denial of death
Here, in the rural Midwest, life and death is all around you
a part of your everyday lives
in the land, in the livestock, in the crops,
in farm life, and in the unpredictability of the weather
and its impact on your lives
But still, we try not to talk about death much
and so we don’t talk about eternity
unless of course we’re figuring out who goes where in the end
Maybe we don’t talk about it
because even with the good news of eternity
it’s still a major unknown
a vast, mysterious, endless mystery
that we can’t begin to comprehend
but I think if we remembered every day
that we are standing on the border between the now and the not-yet
between earth and heaven
then that might give us some perspective
When we talk of heaven or eternity,
we think of people in white clothes, walking on clouds
with a bright light behind them
Or of course there’s the angels with harps
Maybe even a yellow brick road of pure gold
Hollywood has affected us more than we know…
Jesus didn’t tell us a whole lot about eternity
but I think that’s because he knew we couldn’t understand
how can you describe timelessness to people
bound in time?
How do you express everlasting life
to a people in live in a world haunted and bullied by death?
He told us, ‘don’t worry,’ there is a place for us in God’s eternity
a place especially prepared for you and me
a home like we’ve never known
He basically said, trust me on this
He told the thief on the cross,
“today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Paradise
Eternity
We try not to think about it too much
but when someone we love dies
it becomes imperative that we know something
that we believe
we have to know that our loved ones are ok
that we will see them again
and yet no one can give us definite answers
only glimpses, only poetry
that calls us to believe and trust in something we can’t comprehend
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord …. FOREVER.”
The Hebrew word for Follow actually means “pursue”
goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life
and then I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever….
Goodness and mercy are in pursuit of us
Look at your life
look at times when you can see now,
that love was pursuing you and you didn’t know it
Goodness and mercy in hot pursuit …
and then there are those times where you were caught off guard
and they found you, tackled you, embraced you
I believe those times are times when God
is trying to give us a glimpse of eternity
of the beauty we can know now,
that is only a shadow of what we will know and live forever
Why should we think of eternity now, when we’re healthy or young
or not planning on dying anytime soon?
I think knowing that we are children of eternity
puts perspective on our lives right now
In our communion liturgy, we say,
“And so, with your people on earth,
and all the company of heaven
we praise your name and join their unending hymn…
“Holy, Holy, holy, Lord, God of power and might…”
We’re saying in that, that we are singing God’s praise right now
not only with the people here with us
but with all the company of heaven
and we are joining their unending hymn…
We are singing with the company of heaven…
To be a Christian, is to be a part of the company of heaven
even when our feet are stuck in the mud of earth
This relationship goes on and on and on for all eternity
even now, even when we’re separated by the thin veil
that exists between heaven and earth
To live our lives on that boundary
to remember that we’ve got one foot on earth
and the other foot in eternity
reminds us that whatever we face here
whatever the world is going through
it’s just a moment in history, a small dot in the course of eternity
and that there is no time that we are without the presence of that eternal God
Moving around as much as I have
I don’t have friendships that have spanned a long history of years
except ONE
I’ve known my friend Ed, whom I consider a lifelong mentor,
I’ve known Ed for 28 years now
Ed’s letters are always a gift of grace and have been
since I was a teenager
Several years ago, he ended one of his letters
with the words, “I give thanks for the special relationship
which you, God and I have had for years, and which we will continue
to have into eternity…”
I was struck with those words
and have never forgotten them
and they gave me a new perspective
on the connections we have with one another on this earth
as live in the shadow of eternity
We can literally be friends forever,
when we’re connected through God
I believe our most treasured, beautiful moments of life
are just foretastes, samples, of eternity
foretastes of what it’s like to be blessed forever
In Christianity, heaven is often referred to as a banquet
we do like food, don’t we?
But I think, too, the image of the heavenly banquet
is more an image of the fellowship of all believers
of all God’s precious children
gathered together,
We’ll all speak the same language
whatever heaven-language is…
we’ll all be bound together in love
and grace and mercy, and won’t be broken by differences
or culture or personality
there will be peace that we can’t even begin to comprehend
There are moments, like me finding that altar in the woods
moments when we know for sure that there is MORE
more than we can see, more than we can imagine
and sometimes that more can only be expressed in poetry,
in music, and in art
because mere words are too limited
“I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever…”
is a statement of faith
And of course the details will be fuzzy until we get there
We get so bogged down by reality, but THIS reality
so filled with fear and paranoia
so angry and broken sometimes
that it’s hard to believe in something we can’t see
or understand
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross spent her life and career
studying death and grief
she worked with thousands and thousands of people
who shared their experiences with her
She tells the story of a 12 year old girl who came back
from a near-death experience
she was afraid to tell her parents what a beautiful experience
dying in a car accident was for her
She finally had to talk about it, though
and she told her father how beautiful dying was for her
and how she didn’t want to come back
In fact, she said, not only did she experience light and openheartedness
but she had met someone who said he was her brother
who told her she was going to be just fine
“He loved me so much,” she said, “and loved you and Mom, too..
“How could I have seen someone who said he was my brother
when I don’t have a brother?”
Her father began to cry and told her,
“You did have a brother, but he died before you were born,
we wanted to tell you when you got older.”
Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians,
“Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face.”
Willa Cather once wrote:”
“The miracles of the Church seem to me to rest not so much
upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near
to us from afar,
but upon our perceptions being made finer,
so that for a moment our eyes can see
and our ears can hear what there is about us always…”
Again, I grew up in a place where you never saw death
it was reserved for hospitals
it was always somewhere else
because, really, no one wanted to see it, to face it
But I think that when you walk to the edge of this life with someone
you have the gift of getting a glimpse of eternity
“yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me….”
I’ve never been so involved in the whole experience of death
as I was with my friend Karen
Usually I’m called in at the last minute
or usually not even called until it’s over
and I have the funeral
Many times it’s someone I don’t know well
Or someone who died suddenly, not knowing it was coming
But Karen and I got to talk a lot
conversations you just don’t have with most people
She wasn’t afraid, and so I was less afraid
She said she knew that God was waiting
Walking through that with her, gave me courage
gave me a whole new perspective on death and eternity
It was like she just had to go somewhere else
she didn’t want to leave any of us
but she learned to accept that she had to
One day, during the last week of her life
She was strangely enthusiastic
She looked out her window at the lake
She marveled at all the gifts that she’d been given in her life
she marveled at her family, her friends, the lake, her home,
She told me about a commercial where a little boy
just threw up his hands and said enthusiastically,
“it’s all beautiful!”
And she said to me, about her own life, “it’s all beautiful…!”
and she smiled
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me….”
She could see then, how goodness and mercy had pursued her all her life
and she was grateful
The night she died was the least scary of all the days
I spent with her,
and it was holy
It was ok
I could know in my bones that death wasn’t so bad
and that the connections we make through love
are connections that will never end
relationships that will go on through eternity
just like Ed said
Life and death, birth, all of it is in God’s hands
The day that Abbie Miller was born,
I got to see her before her mother did
Adam and I stood in whatever room that was
where she was laying under the warming lights
and I held her little hand and stroked her arms and face
marveling again at the beauty of new life
and giving thanks that she was born at a time
when we all needed a little new life among us
and for a moment, I got an overwhelming image in my mind
of Karen talking to Abbie before she came to us
and of Karen telling Abbie what wonderful parents
she was going to have
because that’s just something Karen would do…
and because I believe that in eternity there is no time
and what seems like forever to us is just a second in eternity
Today we remember that we are part of the company of heaven
that they are not that faraway
that we stand on the boundary between heaven and earth
and we are holy
and when we sing or weep or laugh or give praise to God
we do it right along with those whom we love
who we can’t see right now
but can trust are tasting the everlasting beauty
and relentless mercy and goodness
that pursues us all
And it’s all beautiful….
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