“IS THE LORD AMONG US OR NOT?”
Exodus 17:1-7
Faith United
February 24, 2008
In January of 2005,
we knew for sure that we had to move
The church that I was serving in Waverly, PA
had already asked me to leave
Actually, they insisted on it, as I remember
So as of January, 2005, we had no place to live
come June
We’d already decided that we were leaving that area
because after a couple of really bad experiences
we no longer trusted the Conference there
to appoint us
yet we had no place to go
We’d applied to other conferences in the region
and by Mid April of 2005,
we were told that none of them
had openings for a clergy couple
We had no idea what we were going to do
We were packing our boxes,
knowing that in mid-June
we were moving out of Waverly, PA
but we had no idea where we were moving TO
Very scary
because we literally had no prospects
and we’ve been told over many, many years
that it’s difficult to appoint clergy couples
Talk about a scary time!
I mean, sure, we were praying
that God would open something up
we were trying to trust that something good could happen
even that late in the season
BUT… the reality was,
we were scared
Circumstances didn’t look good
We’d been through enough bad times at that point
that it was hard to hope that there was a place for us
where we could all be happy
We knew that if worse came to worse
we could have moved in with my parents in Mississippi
for awhile
till we figured things out
but, realistically, I’m a bit old to move back in with my parents!
Have you ever been between things?
Have you ever been in the wilderness?
That in-between place?
Maybe something bad has happened
that has changed everything
and you trust that someday it’ll get better
but today is not that day
You lose a loved one
and your whole life changes
and it doesn’t feel like you can ever feel good again
You lose a job that you counted on to get you to retirement
and … well, now what?
You have to start over
at a time when you thought you’d be more secure
Whenever big changes happen
we’re disoriented
kind of wandering around
sometimes it feels like we’re not even wandering
in any particular direction
like we’re not even living
because everything we knew
everything we counted on
has changed
and nobody asked us if that was ok
It’s a terrible place to be
During that time where we packed boxes
not knowing where we’d be unpacking
or even if we WOULD be unpacking
I think Larry and I probably snapped at each other
a time or two
and we went for a lot of long walks
talked to God a lot
and said,
“Hey, what are you doing here?
We need a place to live.
We need a place to go.
We’re trying to trust that you won’t leave us alone
but it’s getting harder day by day…”
That went on for about 6 weeks,
maybe two months
of not knowing
of literally having no direction, no future
no hope
Sarah had made the comment somewhere along the way
that if she could live anywhere in the country,
she’d want to live in Nebraska,
where she was born
We had no idea she was a prophet
In late April of 2005,
we decided to do something crazy
we decided to email the Bishop of Nebraska
and ask her if there was any openings in Nebraska
that we realized it was really late to be asking
but we thought we’d give it a shot
We prayed, but I can’t say we really hoped
Two days later, we got a call from Carol Roettmer Brewer
saying that they didn’t know if they had anything
but they wanted to try to work something out
they wanted us!!
We waited another difficult week
not sleeping, praying, trying to hope against hope
Then William Williams called us
and said they’d like to move us to Gibbon
I had never heard of Gibbon,
but Larry remembered preaching here
for Jim Brewer
when Larry was a student pastor,
about 20 years ago
And the rest is becoming
quite the wonderful history ...
Is the Lord among us or not??
The Israelites wanted to know
It’s a good question
Have you ever wanted to ask that?
Is God with me or not?
Has God abandoned us?
The Israelites didn’t know happiness
they’d been slaves in Egypt forever
none of those living
had ever been free
They’d never known a life of freedom
never known joy
except little snippets here and there
perhaps at home at the end of the day
with their children
when no one was hovered over them with a whip
screaming at them like animals
And here Moses came
and got them out of Egypt
away from Pharoah
They weren’t slaves anymore
it was like a weird dream
when they remembered being trapped
by the edge of the sea
with Pharoah’s army right behind them
they knew it wouldn’t last
they knew it was too good to be true
so they’d expected then, to be captured
Instead,
Moses raised his staff into the air
and the sea opened up and gave them a way through
They’d been hungry in the desert
and God sent manna and quail
They’d come to a water hole
when they’d been so thirsty,
only to find that the water was bitter
and not fit to drink…
(Kind of like Gibbon water, eh?)
And yet Moses, with the help of God
had turned the bitter water into sweet, cold,
fresh, drinkable water
and their thirst was filled
But they’ve been wandering for a long time
with no end in sight
there was no sign that they would ever find a home
there was no signs
that they would even survive
much less get a life beyond this wilderness
They wanted to go back
They’re nuts!
They wanted to go back to Egypt!
Sure, they had been slaves, sure they were miserable
but they’re miserable now
at least back there they knew what to expect
at least they knew they’d be fed
that they had shelter
Out here, they had nothing
Out here, there was nothing to count on
nothing to hope for
nothing to look forward to
but more desert sand
more endless wandering
more uncertainty and instability
they must have felt like they were going to die out there
I know some of you have been there
maybe you’re there right now
will it ever get better?
will it ever hurt less?
Will I ever get back on my feet again
will I ever actually feel GOOD again?
Is the Lord among us or not?
I get annoyed with some of the televangelists out now
who make a lot of money on selling books
and packing auditoriums
and they’re telling us that if we’re having hard times
it’s only because we don’t trust the Lord enough
because if we’re right with the Lord
then everything else just works out
I don’t know where they got that idea
certainly not from the Bible
But people are easily convinced
that if they just had enough faith
than everything would get better
or if they had enough faith
they’d never struggle
or they’d never want for anything,
or nothing bad would ever happen
But throughout the Bible
throughout our world
we see that isn’t true
we live in a broken world
where bad things happen
and sometimes we’re just in the wrong place
at the wrong time
Is the Lord among us or not?
Does God abandon us when our world falls apart?
I wish sometimes that instead of asking me
if we’re on time with our apportionments
or asking me how many new members
we’ve brought in this last year
or how many people we have on Sunday morning,
I wish that the District Superintendent would ask me
is the Lord among your people or not?
How do you know?
I’ve seen God among us all the time
when people are hurting and struggling
I’ve seen you reach out to each other
and to others who don’t even have a church
I’ve seen you visit, write cards, give hugs
I’ve seen you want to learn more about God
and what God has to do with all of this
I’ve seen you share the joy of someone having a baby
or someone getting pregnant when they didn’t think they could
I’ve seen your prayer blankets on beds,
and in people’s houses all over the region
kept closeby, for the times they need to know
that God has not abandoned them
I’ve seen you shed tears of joy and sorrow
for yourselves and each other
I’ve seen your faces glow
I’ve seen your hearts break
and I’ve seen you get back up on your feet again
I’d say, yes, the Lord is most definitely among us
and that doesn’t mean at all
that our hearts haven’t been broken
or that things are always easy
God never promised that it would be easy
not as long as we live in this crazy world
where there’s war and disease
and poverty and racism
and all kinds of isms
that breed hatred and destruction
God never said to Moses,
hey, get a grip
tell those people they don’t have enough faith
so I’m going to hold out on them
No, the people were as we say at our house, they were ow-ey
Big time
they were at each other’s throats
they were figuring they were going to dry up and die
right there
and it was all Moses’ or God’s fault
for setting them free
God didn’t judge them for their panic
God had mercy and compassion on them
knowing that they didn’t even know what blessings looked like
even when they slapped them in the face
because all they’d known was hardship
it’s all they’d come to expect from life
They got to the point where their mouths were so dry
and their bodies ached so much
that they forgot about the parting of the Red Sea
they forgot that God rained down quail and manna
to feed them in the desert
all they knew was their debilitating thirst
and they wondered, can we trust God?
Is God trustworthy?
Is the Lord among us or not?
So God tells Moses,
take your staff again,
strike that rock
and water will come out of it
enough water,
plenty of water to quench their thirst
and get them going again
Sometimes that’s all we need
They still had a long road ahead of them
there were still more trials and struggles along the way
before they reached the Promised Land
but perhaps they learned to take one step at a time
one stage of the journey at a time
remembering how God gave them water in the desert before
and God can do it again
And they’d learn very well
that God never would forsake them
even when their faith wasn’t very strong
God doesn’t quit on us, when we run out of faith
in fact, that’s when we often see God at work the most
when we’ve run out of the ability to get by on our own
God will never leave us or forsake
never leave us to die alone in the wilderness
But God will get us through the desert
those places where we are disoriented and lost
because our lives have changed abruptly and dramatically
and we don’t even know what direction
to go toward
It was a tough road
getting here to Gibbon
you have no idea
and yet we tell people we’ve never felt more at home
more loved and welcomed
We couldn’t have known that in May of 2005
that our lives were about to open up
that all our wandering would finally get us home
to a place where we could know joy again
feel at home again
and unpack ALL the boxes this time
God will never leave you or forsake you
even when you are at your worst
even when your faith has all run out
God is still there, still with you
still among you
ready to take your hand and mine
and lead us home
Just one step at a time.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
It's Friday, But Easter's Coming
When I first met my husband Larry, I was in my first year of seminary and he was in his last. That spring semester, he was taking a "Death and Dying" class with a professor who was actually dying of cancer. Every morning at 9 a.m., I'd find Larry sitting in the student lounge with a cup of coffee, perusing one of his many Death and Dying books. Conversations with him and others who joined us often revolved around death, funerals, hospice, suffering, etc. All of this quickly earned him the nickname, "Dr. Death." He wasn't morose about it, he was passionate then, as he is now, about hospice and the incredible honesty and wisdom some people have when they know they're going to die soon. But most of us don't like to think about death, and especially in New Jersey, we didn't like to even acknowledge that death was a reality for us all. We ain't gonna get out of here alive-- but we don't want to TALK about it.
Then I move to, move away from, and then move back to, the Midwest. It's not uncommon for people in these small towns to well, have their arrangements taken care of ahead of time. I've seen gravestones in the cemetery for people who are still alive! To my Eastern-way-of-thinking, this was, at first, incredibly morbid and disturbing. But Midwesterners are very practical people. They see making arrangements ahead of time as being a way of making easier on those left behind. They apparently don't go through an Scrooge-like angst at the sight of their name on a gravestone; as if it's just a bed that's waiting for them for when they get tired.
I grew up with a healthy fear of death. Well, that is, when anybody actually TALKED about it, which wasn't often. Death was always a mysterious, ominous, taboo subject that was only whispered about, and only came up when someone actually died and you couldn't avoid the subject. Death happened to old people. And pets. Death was ugly.
I don't know why, after being a pastor for 18 years, that it is just coming to my attention that death gets a bad rap. I mean, we are all going to die, we can't get out of it. Seems to me, it'd be helpful to make peace with it. You know, "accept the things we cannot change..." It's just dawned on me recently, that if you read the Bible, which has a powerful influence on everybody's psyche, whether they read it or not, death is the ultimate enemy. In the Old Testament, death is a punishment. Don't touch that Ark! (as in the Ark of the Covenant, not Noah's yacht) If you do, well, bam, you're dead. Curse your parents, commit adultery if you're a woman (guys get off better), lie about how much you gave to God, bam, you're dead. Thousands of people die in the Old Testament. They are killed because they were evil or disobedient. Death in the Old Testament is equated with punishment, damnation, the ultimate foe. Jesus came to conquer death-- again, as if it were the last, worst enemy.
No wonder we have a warped image of death. In a way, it's easy for us to justify the killing of thousands of people if they're our enemies, a la Old Testament, and therefore take death lightly, as long as it's someone ELSE-- but then on the other hand, death is the final, darkest punishment. When someone dies too soon, we wonder, what did they ever do wrong? Or if a group of people die, often it is assumed that it's God's punishment. We have to make sense of it; even when it doesn't make sense. We have to make sense of those things that make no sense, even if our explanation makes no sense.
But as Christians, I think Jesus tried to make us see that death is NOT the ultimate foe. I'm not sure Jesus "conquered" death so much as went through it, to show us that it is NOT the ultimate foe. It's a part of life. Even if you go through the worst possible death you can imagine, like he did. Jesus died. And yet he did nothing to "deserve" it, it was not a punishment for something he did wrong. It was like he went through it as if to come out the other side to tell us, "see? it's not so bad..."
I watched a very dear friend of mine die recently of a horrible cancer (is there any other kind?). When I first knew she was going to die, I didn't think I could face it. I didn't think I could handle watching it happen. What was horrible, though, was not death. What was horrible was the illness, and the suffering it caused her. But she faced her coming death with enormous grace and courage, as if to tell me, and anyone else who cared to know it, that death isn't so bad. She only regretted that she was going to miss out on some fun stuff here, but she had a peaceful certainty that death itself wouldn't kill her. Hmmm. And for those moments, as I held her hand, and watched her breathing slow, I knew. I knew she was alright. Better than all of us, actually. And I knew that death isn't the enemy. It's only the enemy in the wrong hands. Death is very powerful, too powerful to be trusted into human hands. It's not ours to play with. But in God's hands, death is ok. It's just an ending, so that something much more beautiful can finally begin. It sucks for the people left behind, still scratching our heads, wanting certainty and answers, and missing the beautiful soul that just went to God. But for the one who gets to go, well, I can only imagine that it's the trip of a lifetime.
Easter is coming. I don't know if I could hang in there with the Bible if it didn't include the Resurrection. The Resurrection makes up for a lot of disturbing things in the Hebrew Testament. It's like hanging in there with a really disturbing book because you know it works out in the end, and the end makes the journey worth it. Easter is coming. Spring is coming. And that's what keeps me going.
Then I move to, move away from, and then move back to, the Midwest. It's not uncommon for people in these small towns to well, have their arrangements taken care of ahead of time. I've seen gravestones in the cemetery for people who are still alive! To my Eastern-way-of-thinking, this was, at first, incredibly morbid and disturbing. But Midwesterners are very practical people. They see making arrangements ahead of time as being a way of making easier on those left behind. They apparently don't go through an Scrooge-like angst at the sight of their name on a gravestone; as if it's just a bed that's waiting for them for when they get tired.
I grew up with a healthy fear of death. Well, that is, when anybody actually TALKED about it, which wasn't often. Death was always a mysterious, ominous, taboo subject that was only whispered about, and only came up when someone actually died and you couldn't avoid the subject. Death happened to old people. And pets. Death was ugly.
I don't know why, after being a pastor for 18 years, that it is just coming to my attention that death gets a bad rap. I mean, we are all going to die, we can't get out of it. Seems to me, it'd be helpful to make peace with it. You know, "accept the things we cannot change..." It's just dawned on me recently, that if you read the Bible, which has a powerful influence on everybody's psyche, whether they read it or not, death is the ultimate enemy. In the Old Testament, death is a punishment. Don't touch that Ark! (as in the Ark of the Covenant, not Noah's yacht) If you do, well, bam, you're dead. Curse your parents, commit adultery if you're a woman (guys get off better), lie about how much you gave to God, bam, you're dead. Thousands of people die in the Old Testament. They are killed because they were evil or disobedient. Death in the Old Testament is equated with punishment, damnation, the ultimate foe. Jesus came to conquer death-- again, as if it were the last, worst enemy.
No wonder we have a warped image of death. In a way, it's easy for us to justify the killing of thousands of people if they're our enemies, a la Old Testament, and therefore take death lightly, as long as it's someone ELSE-- but then on the other hand, death is the final, darkest punishment. When someone dies too soon, we wonder, what did they ever do wrong? Or if a group of people die, often it is assumed that it's God's punishment. We have to make sense of it; even when it doesn't make sense. We have to make sense of those things that make no sense, even if our explanation makes no sense.
But as Christians, I think Jesus tried to make us see that death is NOT the ultimate foe. I'm not sure Jesus "conquered" death so much as went through it, to show us that it is NOT the ultimate foe. It's a part of life. Even if you go through the worst possible death you can imagine, like he did. Jesus died. And yet he did nothing to "deserve" it, it was not a punishment for something he did wrong. It was like he went through it as if to come out the other side to tell us, "see? it's not so bad..."
I watched a very dear friend of mine die recently of a horrible cancer (is there any other kind?). When I first knew she was going to die, I didn't think I could face it. I didn't think I could handle watching it happen. What was horrible, though, was not death. What was horrible was the illness, and the suffering it caused her. But she faced her coming death with enormous grace and courage, as if to tell me, and anyone else who cared to know it, that death isn't so bad. She only regretted that she was going to miss out on some fun stuff here, but she had a peaceful certainty that death itself wouldn't kill her. Hmmm. And for those moments, as I held her hand, and watched her breathing slow, I knew. I knew she was alright. Better than all of us, actually. And I knew that death isn't the enemy. It's only the enemy in the wrong hands. Death is very powerful, too powerful to be trusted into human hands. It's not ours to play with. But in God's hands, death is ok. It's just an ending, so that something much more beautiful can finally begin. It sucks for the people left behind, still scratching our heads, wanting certainty and answers, and missing the beautiful soul that just went to God. But for the one who gets to go, well, I can only imagine that it's the trip of a lifetime.
Easter is coming. I don't know if I could hang in there with the Bible if it didn't include the Resurrection. The Resurrection makes up for a lot of disturbing things in the Hebrew Testament. It's like hanging in there with a really disturbing book because you know it works out in the end, and the end makes the journey worth it. Easter is coming. Spring is coming. And that's what keeps me going.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Can't Go Back to the Womb
“NICK AT NITE”
John 3:1-17
Faith United
February 17, 2008
I love stories, as you may have guessed by now
Stories are very powerful, in all forms
They can spark something alive in you
they can make you laugh or cry
they can make you understand
and they can also change your life
I love movies
Not all movies, of course
I’m very picky
I love movies with substance
movies that stay with you
maybe help you see things a little differently
I believe also, that like any good story,
God can speak through a movie
One of my all-time favorite movies
is “Dead Poets Society,” which came out in 1989
I graduated college in 1987
and for two years kind of wandered around
not knowing what to do with myself
I had a lot of jobs, typing and clerking
and made enough money to live on
Garth Brooks has a song that kind of sums up
what I felt during the late ‘80s
or my early twenties …
The song is “I’m Too Young To Feel This DARN Old”
At 22 and 23, I felt very old for my years
Looking back, I know that I was depressed
but no one wanted to use that word then
I grew up coloring inside the lines very carefully
I did everything as perfectly as possibly
because that was a big value in our family
especially being a preacher’s family
I was so good
I even went to a Christian college
and learned to speak their language
to say all the right things
so that I could fit in there
But at 23, I was tired and I felt old
Lots of things happened in 1989
but at the beginning of that summer
I was visiting a friend in Pittsburgh
when we went to go see “Dead Poets’ Society”
in the theatre
Dead Poets is one of Robin Williams’ best films
and maybe the first serious film he did
He plays a new teacher coming to teach at a very prominent
very prestigious boys’ prep school
in New England
The kids that attend that prep school are all from
very wealthy and successful families
and all of the boys are expected to go on from there
to Harvard or Yale
and to become doctors and lawyers
The school is founded on a long line of tradition and excellence
The boys wore coats and ties every day to class
Then this new teacher comes into this stuffy old place
named Mr. Keating
and he teaches poetry
Mr. Keating loves poetry
he loves it not just for reading, but for what it does to the soul
good poetry is something you take in to yourself
you can savor it, roll it around in your mouth
it can make you weep and laugh
it can enliven all your senses
Mr. Keating is very…. WEIRD
The boys are used to learning By the Book
and Mr. Keating demonstrates from the first day
that he is not one to color inside the lines
He shakes up their world
he gives them hope, he dares them to think about their dreams
he dares them to see beyond their books
to not only learn facts and figures and languages
but to learn how to truly LIVE life with passion
He stirs them up,
he gives them hope, he honors their dreams
he encourages them to listen to their deepest longings
Life is more than words on a printed page
and he dares them to take the time to dream
CARPE DIEM, is the most famous line from the movie
CARPE DIEM… which means in Latin, “Seize the Day.”
But one boy learned in a very tragic way
that the world doesn’t applaud you
when you chase after dreams
or when you color outside the lines
The world will try to squash your dreams
tell you they’re foolish and impractical
and the world will tell you to get back to the books
color carefully inside the lines
and do what is expected of you
even if it kills you inside
That movie shook me up
because I’d been coloring inside the lines all my life
doing what everyone expected me to do
and doing it as perfectly as I could
and yet at 23, I was depressed
Nicodemus colored very carefully inside the lines
and he was very successful for it
He was a Pharisee
a religious leader, highly respected,
reached the pinnacle of his profession in the community
he wore very fancy robes
he was a scholar, a leader, and he knew the law
He could recite God’s law inside and out
backwards and forwards
if the media tried to dig up some dirt on him
they’d be disappointed
he was squeaky clean
a pillar of the community
everybody knew his name
and hoped their children
would look up to him and aspire to his accomplishments
He was a part of the Establishment
The Beauracracy, we might call it
the People Who Ran Things
Who Made All the Decisions
and of course, the ones with all the money
to make things happen and to get in office
So, what was Nicodemus doing walking around at night
searching the campsites
for that troublemaker Jesus?
Nicodemus knew his friends would be appalled
that he was seeking out this man
but Nicodemus figured, well, if they found out,
he could just tell them, he wanted to learn more
he wanted to give this guy a chance to explain himself
to really know what the Establishment was dealing with
in this rebel preacher named Jesus
So Nicodemus came, carefully
at night, seeking out Jesus
Perhaps he had to ask around
ask people if they’d seen him and his friends
and where they were camping out
and he found him
Nicodemus respectfully approached Jesus at the campfire
He cleared his throat
and adjusted his robes as he sat down next to Jesus
Maybe they shook hands
“Teacher, Rabbi,” he said with all due respect,
“we know that you’re a teacher straight from God
No one could do all the God-pointing,
God –revealing acts you do if God weren’t in on it.”
Jesus looked at him and smiled
He knew that Nicodemus was saying what he thought he
should say, to get into conversation
Jesus knew that he was lying
He knew that the Pharisees did not believe
that Jesus was a teacher from God,
or that God had anything to do with
what Jesus was doing…
Maybe Nicodemus did, or was struggling with it
but Jesus knew that Nick’s friends did not share
his intrigue and curiosity
But he let it slide
Jesus said, “You’re right. Take it from me:
unless a person is born from above,
it’s not possible to see what I’m pointing to—
the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus cleared his throat
apparently they would skip all the niceties
and get to the meat of the conversation
Jesus was not one to beat around the bush
or make polite small talk
“Ok,” Nicodemus said,
“but how can anyone be born who has already been born
and grown up?
You can’t re-enter your mother’s womb
and be born again…
what are you talking about?”
Jesus said very politely but bluntly,
“You’re not listening.” and at first Nicodemus was taken aback
“Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to
this original creation—the wind hovering over the water creation
the invisible moving the visible,
a baptism, you might say, of new life
unless you go through that,
you can’t see or enter God’s kingdom.
Think about it,
when you look at a baby, you see a baby,
just a little body that you can look at and touch
but the person who takes shape within is formed
by something you can’t see or touch
the Spirit of God!
and that baby becomes a living spirit.”
Nicodemus’ mouth was hanging open
and when he noticed it, he shut it quickly
something in his heart was creaking open
something in his chest was fluttering
his pulse became a little quicker
Is this it? he wondered?
Is this what I’ve been hungering for?
Searching for in all those words on the page?
Is this that something more?
Maybe he shook his head to clear it
no, he was a respectable man
he couldn’t fall for this rebel’s preaching
he’d lose his job
he’d lose all the respect
he’d worked so hard to achieve
Jesus went on
“So don’t be surprised that I tell you that you have
to be born from above,
literally out of this world.
You know well enough
the wind blows this way and that
and you hear it rustling through the trees
you see the branches moving
but you have no idea where that wind comes from
or even where it’s going
Same way with the winds of the Spirit,
that’s the way it is when you’re born from above
by the wind of God, the spirit of God.”
Nicodemus felt a burning in his eyes
and an ache in his chest
He looked at his beautiful robes
the rings on his fingers
that all represented to him and to the community
the great success that he was
His reward for coloring inside the lines
doing what was expected of him
believing what he was told to believe
reading the words but never daring
to read between the lines
He saw Jesus in his cheap robe
probably handmade
he wore no rings, no symbols of status
he was living out here, outside
camping out with his friends
having no place to call his own
not having an office to go to
with his nameplate on the front
or his name on the door
and a great view of the city at the window
Nicodemus was torn
he knew Jesus was already in trouble
for stirring people up
he could only see it getting worse
People didn’t speak his language
they were afraid to color outside the lines
they were afraid of thinking and dreaming
and wondering
because that was all so unpredictable
unreliable
unpredictable, uncontrollable, you might say…. as the wind
Jesus smiled
“You’re a great teacher of Israel,
and yet you don’t know these basics?
Listen, I’m speaking of what I know from experience,
I’ve seen it, I’ve felt it, I give witness to what I have seen
with my own eyes…”
And Jesus talked of a God who loved this crazy world
in all its messiness
like a mother loves a two year old
despite himself
He said how God sent Jesus into the world
not to condemn it, not to destroy it
but to give us a chance at a different way of life
to give us life, to save the world
he came to put the world right again
Nicodemus stared at the fire
his heart was stirred, empowered, enlivened
like it had never been before
but what would it cost him to follow his heart?
To dare to dream, to imagine, to believe
to seek, and to ride the winds of God
and see where it would take him?
Nicodemus got up, brushed off his robes
and stared at Jesus
Jesus stared back, looking at him
as if he could see the struggle and inner turmoil
in Nicodemus’ heart
Nicodemus simply nodded and disappeared into the night again
“How can this be?” Nicodemus remembered asking Jesus
and that question burned in his mind
and never left him
“How can this be?” the question haunted him
It took his breath away, every time he remembered that night
that conversation
the look in Jesus eyes that could see right into Nicodemus
but didn’t judge him, didn’t dismiss him
but, well, it felt like he loved him
Jesus was daring Nicodemus to trust him
when all of Nick’s friends were already wanting to
get rid of Jesus
To trust him, to believe him,
to turn his whole way of thinking and believing upside down
to ride the winds of faith
instead of dogmatic certainty
instead of black and white law
Carpe Diem, Nicodemus
Jesus could have told him
Seize the Day…
Do something you’ve never done before
pick up a color of crayon that you’ve never colored with before
do something that seems totally out of character for you
but something that deep in your heart
would give you absolute joy
You must be born from above
in order to see the Kingdom of God, Jesus was saying
and Mr. Keating was telling those kids
you won’t see real life
unless you look at things from a different perspective
from a different angle
and see the same things in a whole new light
The boys at that New England prep school
saw quite painfully what happens to people in this world
that color outside the lines
that dare people to dream a different dream
to see brighter colors
and to ride the wind
wherever it may take them
and so did the disciples
so did Nicodemus
the next time we hear of Nicodemus
he comes with spices to anoint the body of Jesus
after Jesus was killed
found guilty, in fact, by Nicodemus’ own colleagues
The world doesn’t rejoice
when someone marches to a different drum
or sees beautiful colors where the rest of the world
sees black and white
the world doesn’t celebrate with you
when you learn to dance
instead of shuffle through life
people are afraid of different
the world is not kind to different
the world is not kind to passion and dreams
and believing in the unbelievable
They tried to kill Jesus
and Nicodemus came forward out of the shadows
and much to the horror of his friends
he took care of Jesus body
gave it the proper care of the dead
Nicodemus did the work that was normally
the work of women
we don’t know what happened after that
we do know, of course,
that the world couldn’t kill Jesus
couldn’t stop his spirit from being let loose on the world
and creating more passionate dreamers
who believed in the unpredictable, uncontrollable
winds of God
that seek to change the world
But enough people were there
enough people felt the winds change after that
there were enough dreamers left
to feel the radical shift of the wind
that morning when Jesus was missing from the tomb
And the reason we’re all still here
telling this story
is because there were many willing to color outside the lines
to see beyond what we can see and touch
to see beyond the laws of this physical world
and to believe that God can even raise the dead
and those are the people who are blessed enough
to see the Kingdom of God
To see the hints of it everywhere
just waiting to burst forth and blossom
Someone said once that in order to be a Christian
you had to be somewhat of a poet
To be able to see beyond words, to see beyond black and white
and see all the colors waiting to burst forth
out of a seemingly dead and dark world
that’s the Spirit of God
that cannot be controlled or contained
we are people born of water and the Spirit
born of the waters of baptism and the Spirit of God
who transforms physical bodies
into living spirits that will never die
but that will finally get to see the Kingdom of God
in all its fullness
if we’re willing to be born again
born not by the flesh
but of the spirit, a process that takes a lifetime
and can only be described
in good poetry
Ride the wind,
it’s a crazy ride,
and you’ll definitely be windswept
and tossed about a bit
but it’s a life that God calls all of us to live
feeling the changing winds against our faces
blowing right through our hearts
and leading us home
Carpe Diem
John 3:1-17
Faith United
February 17, 2008
I love stories, as you may have guessed by now
Stories are very powerful, in all forms
They can spark something alive in you
they can make you laugh or cry
they can make you understand
and they can also change your life
I love movies
Not all movies, of course
I’m very picky
I love movies with substance
movies that stay with you
maybe help you see things a little differently
I believe also, that like any good story,
God can speak through a movie
One of my all-time favorite movies
is “Dead Poets Society,” which came out in 1989
I graduated college in 1987
and for two years kind of wandered around
not knowing what to do with myself
I had a lot of jobs, typing and clerking
and made enough money to live on
Garth Brooks has a song that kind of sums up
what I felt during the late ‘80s
or my early twenties …
The song is “I’m Too Young To Feel This DARN Old”
At 22 and 23, I felt very old for my years
Looking back, I know that I was depressed
but no one wanted to use that word then
I grew up coloring inside the lines very carefully
I did everything as perfectly as possibly
because that was a big value in our family
especially being a preacher’s family
I was so good
I even went to a Christian college
and learned to speak their language
to say all the right things
so that I could fit in there
But at 23, I was tired and I felt old
Lots of things happened in 1989
but at the beginning of that summer
I was visiting a friend in Pittsburgh
when we went to go see “Dead Poets’ Society”
in the theatre
Dead Poets is one of Robin Williams’ best films
and maybe the first serious film he did
He plays a new teacher coming to teach at a very prominent
very prestigious boys’ prep school
in New England
The kids that attend that prep school are all from
very wealthy and successful families
and all of the boys are expected to go on from there
to Harvard or Yale
and to become doctors and lawyers
The school is founded on a long line of tradition and excellence
The boys wore coats and ties every day to class
Then this new teacher comes into this stuffy old place
named Mr. Keating
and he teaches poetry
Mr. Keating loves poetry
he loves it not just for reading, but for what it does to the soul
good poetry is something you take in to yourself
you can savor it, roll it around in your mouth
it can make you weep and laugh
it can enliven all your senses
Mr. Keating is very…. WEIRD
The boys are used to learning By the Book
and Mr. Keating demonstrates from the first day
that he is not one to color inside the lines
He shakes up their world
he gives them hope, he dares them to think about their dreams
he dares them to see beyond their books
to not only learn facts and figures and languages
but to learn how to truly LIVE life with passion
He stirs them up,
he gives them hope, he honors their dreams
he encourages them to listen to their deepest longings
Life is more than words on a printed page
and he dares them to take the time to dream
CARPE DIEM, is the most famous line from the movie
CARPE DIEM… which means in Latin, “Seize the Day.”
But one boy learned in a very tragic way
that the world doesn’t applaud you
when you chase after dreams
or when you color outside the lines
The world will try to squash your dreams
tell you they’re foolish and impractical
and the world will tell you to get back to the books
color carefully inside the lines
and do what is expected of you
even if it kills you inside
That movie shook me up
because I’d been coloring inside the lines all my life
doing what everyone expected me to do
and doing it as perfectly as I could
and yet at 23, I was depressed
Nicodemus colored very carefully inside the lines
and he was very successful for it
He was a Pharisee
a religious leader, highly respected,
reached the pinnacle of his profession in the community
he wore very fancy robes
he was a scholar, a leader, and he knew the law
He could recite God’s law inside and out
backwards and forwards
if the media tried to dig up some dirt on him
they’d be disappointed
he was squeaky clean
a pillar of the community
everybody knew his name
and hoped their children
would look up to him and aspire to his accomplishments
He was a part of the Establishment
The Beauracracy, we might call it
the People Who Ran Things
Who Made All the Decisions
and of course, the ones with all the money
to make things happen and to get in office
So, what was Nicodemus doing walking around at night
searching the campsites
for that troublemaker Jesus?
Nicodemus knew his friends would be appalled
that he was seeking out this man
but Nicodemus figured, well, if they found out,
he could just tell them, he wanted to learn more
he wanted to give this guy a chance to explain himself
to really know what the Establishment was dealing with
in this rebel preacher named Jesus
So Nicodemus came, carefully
at night, seeking out Jesus
Perhaps he had to ask around
ask people if they’d seen him and his friends
and where they were camping out
and he found him
Nicodemus respectfully approached Jesus at the campfire
He cleared his throat
and adjusted his robes as he sat down next to Jesus
Maybe they shook hands
“Teacher, Rabbi,” he said with all due respect,
“we know that you’re a teacher straight from God
No one could do all the God-pointing,
God –revealing acts you do if God weren’t in on it.”
Jesus looked at him and smiled
He knew that Nicodemus was saying what he thought he
should say, to get into conversation
Jesus knew that he was lying
He knew that the Pharisees did not believe
that Jesus was a teacher from God,
or that God had anything to do with
what Jesus was doing…
Maybe Nicodemus did, or was struggling with it
but Jesus knew that Nick’s friends did not share
his intrigue and curiosity
But he let it slide
Jesus said, “You’re right. Take it from me:
unless a person is born from above,
it’s not possible to see what I’m pointing to—
the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus cleared his throat
apparently they would skip all the niceties
and get to the meat of the conversation
Jesus was not one to beat around the bush
or make polite small talk
“Ok,” Nicodemus said,
“but how can anyone be born who has already been born
and grown up?
You can’t re-enter your mother’s womb
and be born again…
what are you talking about?”
Jesus said very politely but bluntly,
“You’re not listening.” and at first Nicodemus was taken aback
“Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to
this original creation—the wind hovering over the water creation
the invisible moving the visible,
a baptism, you might say, of new life
unless you go through that,
you can’t see or enter God’s kingdom.
Think about it,
when you look at a baby, you see a baby,
just a little body that you can look at and touch
but the person who takes shape within is formed
by something you can’t see or touch
the Spirit of God!
and that baby becomes a living spirit.”
Nicodemus’ mouth was hanging open
and when he noticed it, he shut it quickly
something in his heart was creaking open
something in his chest was fluttering
his pulse became a little quicker
Is this it? he wondered?
Is this what I’ve been hungering for?
Searching for in all those words on the page?
Is this that something more?
Maybe he shook his head to clear it
no, he was a respectable man
he couldn’t fall for this rebel’s preaching
he’d lose his job
he’d lose all the respect
he’d worked so hard to achieve
Jesus went on
“So don’t be surprised that I tell you that you have
to be born from above,
literally out of this world.
You know well enough
the wind blows this way and that
and you hear it rustling through the trees
you see the branches moving
but you have no idea where that wind comes from
or even where it’s going
Same way with the winds of the Spirit,
that’s the way it is when you’re born from above
by the wind of God, the spirit of God.”
Nicodemus felt a burning in his eyes
and an ache in his chest
He looked at his beautiful robes
the rings on his fingers
that all represented to him and to the community
the great success that he was
His reward for coloring inside the lines
doing what was expected of him
believing what he was told to believe
reading the words but never daring
to read between the lines
He saw Jesus in his cheap robe
probably handmade
he wore no rings, no symbols of status
he was living out here, outside
camping out with his friends
having no place to call his own
not having an office to go to
with his nameplate on the front
or his name on the door
and a great view of the city at the window
Nicodemus was torn
he knew Jesus was already in trouble
for stirring people up
he could only see it getting worse
People didn’t speak his language
they were afraid to color outside the lines
they were afraid of thinking and dreaming
and wondering
because that was all so unpredictable
unreliable
unpredictable, uncontrollable, you might say…. as the wind
Jesus smiled
“You’re a great teacher of Israel,
and yet you don’t know these basics?
Listen, I’m speaking of what I know from experience,
I’ve seen it, I’ve felt it, I give witness to what I have seen
with my own eyes…”
And Jesus talked of a God who loved this crazy world
in all its messiness
like a mother loves a two year old
despite himself
He said how God sent Jesus into the world
not to condemn it, not to destroy it
but to give us a chance at a different way of life
to give us life, to save the world
he came to put the world right again
Nicodemus stared at the fire
his heart was stirred, empowered, enlivened
like it had never been before
but what would it cost him to follow his heart?
To dare to dream, to imagine, to believe
to seek, and to ride the winds of God
and see where it would take him?
Nicodemus got up, brushed off his robes
and stared at Jesus
Jesus stared back, looking at him
as if he could see the struggle and inner turmoil
in Nicodemus’ heart
Nicodemus simply nodded and disappeared into the night again
“How can this be?” Nicodemus remembered asking Jesus
and that question burned in his mind
and never left him
“How can this be?” the question haunted him
It took his breath away, every time he remembered that night
that conversation
the look in Jesus eyes that could see right into Nicodemus
but didn’t judge him, didn’t dismiss him
but, well, it felt like he loved him
Jesus was daring Nicodemus to trust him
when all of Nick’s friends were already wanting to
get rid of Jesus
To trust him, to believe him,
to turn his whole way of thinking and believing upside down
to ride the winds of faith
instead of dogmatic certainty
instead of black and white law
Carpe Diem, Nicodemus
Jesus could have told him
Seize the Day…
Do something you’ve never done before
pick up a color of crayon that you’ve never colored with before
do something that seems totally out of character for you
but something that deep in your heart
would give you absolute joy
You must be born from above
in order to see the Kingdom of God, Jesus was saying
and Mr. Keating was telling those kids
you won’t see real life
unless you look at things from a different perspective
from a different angle
and see the same things in a whole new light
The boys at that New England prep school
saw quite painfully what happens to people in this world
that color outside the lines
that dare people to dream a different dream
to see brighter colors
and to ride the wind
wherever it may take them
and so did the disciples
so did Nicodemus
the next time we hear of Nicodemus
he comes with spices to anoint the body of Jesus
after Jesus was killed
found guilty, in fact, by Nicodemus’ own colleagues
The world doesn’t rejoice
when someone marches to a different drum
or sees beautiful colors where the rest of the world
sees black and white
the world doesn’t celebrate with you
when you learn to dance
instead of shuffle through life
people are afraid of different
the world is not kind to different
the world is not kind to passion and dreams
and believing in the unbelievable
They tried to kill Jesus
and Nicodemus came forward out of the shadows
and much to the horror of his friends
he took care of Jesus body
gave it the proper care of the dead
Nicodemus did the work that was normally
the work of women
we don’t know what happened after that
we do know, of course,
that the world couldn’t kill Jesus
couldn’t stop his spirit from being let loose on the world
and creating more passionate dreamers
who believed in the unpredictable, uncontrollable
winds of God
that seek to change the world
But enough people were there
enough people felt the winds change after that
there were enough dreamers left
to feel the radical shift of the wind
that morning when Jesus was missing from the tomb
And the reason we’re all still here
telling this story
is because there were many willing to color outside the lines
to see beyond what we can see and touch
to see beyond the laws of this physical world
and to believe that God can even raise the dead
and those are the people who are blessed enough
to see the Kingdom of God
To see the hints of it everywhere
just waiting to burst forth and blossom
Someone said once that in order to be a Christian
you had to be somewhat of a poet
To be able to see beyond words, to see beyond black and white
and see all the colors waiting to burst forth
out of a seemingly dead and dark world
that’s the Spirit of God
that cannot be controlled or contained
we are people born of water and the Spirit
born of the waters of baptism and the Spirit of God
who transforms physical bodies
into living spirits that will never die
but that will finally get to see the Kingdom of God
in all its fullness
if we’re willing to be born again
born not by the flesh
but of the spirit, a process that takes a lifetime
and can only be described
in good poetry
Ride the wind,
it’s a crazy ride,
and you’ll definitely be windswept
and tossed about a bit
but it’s a life that God calls all of us to live
feeling the changing winds against our faces
blowing right through our hearts
and leading us home
Carpe Diem
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Grace Upon Grace
“SAVED BY GRACE”
Ephesians 2:1-10 (Read from Eugene Petersen's The Message)
Faith United
February 10, 2008
Our Sunday night Women’s Bible Study group
is reading a book by Philip Yancey,
called, “What’s So Amazing About Grace?”
It’s a great book that I’d recommend to anyone
Especially since I find more and more
that when asked, people aren’t sure
what to say about grace
Our first response is usually
that grace is what we say before meals
which, of course, is true
but it is so much more than that!
Paul talks in big terms like being dead in sin
and now being made alive in Christ
and that God seeks to shower us with grace
There’s the basic Christian doctrine of being saved by grace
but what does that mean?
I don’t know about you,
but I’ve been saved by grace many, many times
Grace is not something you can define
so much as describe
and the best way to describe grace
is to tell stories
because it’s such a big word
that encompasses so many things
Frederick Buechner writes that
“Grace is something you can never get but only be given.
There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about
any more than you can deserve
the taste of raspberries and cream
or earn good looks
or bring about your own birth.
A good sleep is grace,
and so are good dreams.
Most tears are grace.
The smell of rain is grace.
Somebody loving you is grace.
Loving somebody is grace…
A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion
that people are saved by grace
There’s nothing you HAVE to do
There’s nothing you have to DO.”
The word grace means “gift.”
Grace is a gift from God,
and that is a basic doctrine in the Christian faith
We are saved by grace
but what does that mean?
I look back over my life
and I can tell you all my stories of pain
of grief, of hard stuff and challenges
I could make you feel really bad for me,
but then I look back, too,
and it’s very true
that “Grace has brought me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home…”
as the old hymn says
It’s absolutely true
I am here by grace
I am alive by grace
I am still hopeful
I can still love
I can forgive
I can go on
by God’s grace alone
Someone also said,
Everything is grace
Life is grace
You know that, if you’ve ever seen the birth
of a child
The first thing I think of when I think of grace
is the birth of my daughter
I can still remember her-- gray and slimy
looking up at me from on on top of my belly
crying her guts out --
she didn’t look that great
after all, she’d just been through
a tight spot, you might say!
But to me, she was the most beautiful thing I ever saw
I was pregnant with her
during a really tough year of ministry, my first year,
after which we had to move
but having a new life growing inside of me
kept giving me hope
and taking care of that new life
has gotten me through a lot
of tough days
She continues to give me grace upon grace
even at 13… !
Have you ever had a really good laugh?
I mean, the kind that comes up from your belly
and takes over your whole body?
And you just can’t stop?
Your stomach starts to hurt
and tears are rolling down your face
and your nose is running?
Isn’t it great?
Or has someone ever made you laugh
when you were in the midst of crying?
Now THAT is grace
Laughter-with-tears is a remarkable gift of grace
I can keep you here all day
with stories of grace from my own life
and I encourage you to think of those stories
think of those moments in your life
where you have been covered with grace
We didn’t do anything to deserve it
we can’t earn it
we can’t control it
we can’t get it exactly when we want it
it just comes
like that drenching rain
after too many days of drought
You know I love to sing
but I was so shy in high school
that every time I tried out for the choir
I choked
I was paralyzed
It wasn’t until my junior year of high school
that I even made it INTO the high school choir
but still couldn’t get a solo
My senior year of high school,
I tried out for the musical program
that was to be a musical revue
of several Broadway shows
I tried out for the part of Laurey
in “Oklahoma!”--
the part of Curly
was already given to the most popular guy
in our class
Class president,
class clown,
in the top five academically,
popular with all the girls
and president of the choir, too
he didn’t even to try out,
the part was given to him
Here I was, dork of the century
so scared I thought I was going to throw up
and I had to try out with two other girls
who were the top two sopranos
in the choir
and who ALWAYS got the solos
But to everyone’s shock,
mostly my own, I got the part
Before that, I had sung so quietly
that the choir director said
he didn’t know I could sing so well
I know he knew that by choosing me
he was risking me blowing it
he was risking me throwing up backstage
and never making it out front
he knew as well as I did
that I was so scared
I very well could have choked onstage
in front of 600 people
but he took that chance
and to me, that was gift
I almost DID throw up backstage
but I managed to get out there
and sing “Oh What a Beautiful Morning”
A friend of mine from the choir at church
met me afterwards with a dozen roses
I’ve savored that memory for all these years
as a gift of grace
and I wrote my high school choir director
just a few years ago
to tell him what he did for me
what a moment that was….
Fred Buechner went on to say,
“The grace of God means something like:
Here is your life.
You might never have been,
but you ARE because the party wouldn’t have been complete
without you
Here is the world
Beautiful and terrible things will happen
don’t be afraid
I am with you.
Nothing can ever separate us
It’s for you that I created the universe.
I love you.”
Grace changes us….
Grace is falling in love
finding that person who loves you back
for who you are
sometimes in SPITE of who you are
Grace is when you fall apart in front of someone
and they still love you
in fact, they hold you up
and hand you the tissue box
In the Bible,
it means that God loves us for who we are
that God sees past all the crap
all the shortcomings and mistakes
God sees past the short tempers
or the hardness of heart
and God looks at us
like a mother looks at her newborn baby,
gray and slimy on her chest,
screaming its head off,
and feels a love that simply cannot be put into words
THAT is grace
My earliest memory of grace
is when I was 8 years old
and I got to know a woman
who was my mother’s best friend
She had a way of making you feel like
you were the most important person
in the universe
And she made me feel like that throughout the years I was growing up
She hugged me a lot, played with my hair
held my face in her hands
and told me I was beautiful
even when I didn’t feel beautiful
She’s the one that made me sing for her
and convinced me I COULD sing
She’d look at me from across the dinner table
and I’d catch her staring at me
and she’d just smile
making me feel like she was simply
delighted with what she saw --
Oh, I hope you’ve had someone
look at you that way at least once in your life!
A lot of us have a hard time
having grace for ourselves
We might think that if people really knew us
they wouldn’t accept us very much,
they’d be appalled or disgusted
But the Bible tells us that God is never appalled
that God looks upon everything he created
including us
and says, “wow, that’s good.”
Anne Lamott wrote:
“Grace is the light or electricity or juice or breeze
that takes you from that isolated place
and puts you with others who are
as startled and embarrassed
and eventually as grateful as you are
to be there.”
Sometimes we can only receive grace
when we’ve lost everything
when there’s nothing left
all those walls have been torn down
and into the dark corner
where we may crouch in tears
light comes in and surrounds us,
fills us, warms us
and gives us the strength
to stand up again
Kathleen Norris writes
that maybe that’s one reason why we worship God
maybe we worship in order to respond
to that amazing thing called grace
because the only way to respond to grace
is to sing, to pray
to open our hands,
to hug our neighbor
to say… “wow, thanks.”
or to simply let the tears come to our eyes
We worship in response to grace
and I’d go so far as to say
that I’m here, in the ministry
as my own response to grace
to the grace upon grace that God has given me
showered me with in this life
and all I can do is try to share it
Grace doesn’t make any sense
we get it when we don’t deserve it
or as Larry likes to quote from somewhere,
“Grace is getting what we don’t deserve
and MERCY is NOT getting what we DO deserve.”
Maya Angelou, another one of my favorite writers,
wrote about the event
that brought her back into the arms of God:
She writes about a voice teacher who asked
her to simply read to him
“I was twenty-four, very erudite, very worldly,
He asked that I read from the book,
Lessons in Truth, a section which ended
with these words,….God loves me
I read the piece and closed the book
and the teacher said, ‘Read it again.’
I pointedly opened the book
and I sarcastically read, ‘God loves me.’
He said, ‘Again.’
After about the seventh repetition,” she says,
“I began to sense that there might be truth in that statement,
that there was a possibility that God really did
love me
me, Maya Angelou--
I suddenly began to cry at the grandness of it all
I knew that if God loved me,
then I could do great things,
learn anything, achieve anything
For what could stand against me with God,
since one person, any person with God,
constitutes the majority?
That knowledge humbles me,” she says,
“it melts my bones, closes my ears,
and makes my teeth rock loosely in their gums.
And it also liberates me.
I am a big bird winging over high mountains,
down into serene valleys.
I am ripples of waves on silver seas.
I’m a spring leaf trembling in anticipation…”
St. Paul writes to the Ephesian Church,
“Now God has us where he wants us,
with all the time in this world and the next
to shower grace and kindness upon us
in Christ Jesus…”
We’re here because the party wouldn’t be complete
without us….
THAT’S the good news
so what are you going to do about it??
Ephesians 2:1-10 (Read from Eugene Petersen's The Message)
Faith United
February 10, 2008
Our Sunday night Women’s Bible Study group
is reading a book by Philip Yancey,
called, “What’s So Amazing About Grace?”
It’s a great book that I’d recommend to anyone
Especially since I find more and more
that when asked, people aren’t sure
what to say about grace
Our first response is usually
that grace is what we say before meals
which, of course, is true
but it is so much more than that!
Paul talks in big terms like being dead in sin
and now being made alive in Christ
and that God seeks to shower us with grace
There’s the basic Christian doctrine of being saved by grace
but what does that mean?
I don’t know about you,
but I’ve been saved by grace many, many times
Grace is not something you can define
so much as describe
and the best way to describe grace
is to tell stories
because it’s such a big word
that encompasses so many things
Frederick Buechner writes that
“Grace is something you can never get but only be given.
There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about
any more than you can deserve
the taste of raspberries and cream
or earn good looks
or bring about your own birth.
A good sleep is grace,
and so are good dreams.
Most tears are grace.
The smell of rain is grace.
Somebody loving you is grace.
Loving somebody is grace…
A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion
that people are saved by grace
There’s nothing you HAVE to do
There’s nothing you have to DO.”
The word grace means “gift.”
Grace is a gift from God,
and that is a basic doctrine in the Christian faith
We are saved by grace
but what does that mean?
I look back over my life
and I can tell you all my stories of pain
of grief, of hard stuff and challenges
I could make you feel really bad for me,
but then I look back, too,
and it’s very true
that “Grace has brought me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home…”
as the old hymn says
It’s absolutely true
I am here by grace
I am alive by grace
I am still hopeful
I can still love
I can forgive
I can go on
by God’s grace alone
Someone also said,
Everything is grace
Life is grace
You know that, if you’ve ever seen the birth
of a child
The first thing I think of when I think of grace
is the birth of my daughter
I can still remember her-- gray and slimy
looking up at me from on on top of my belly
crying her guts out --
she didn’t look that great
after all, she’d just been through
a tight spot, you might say!
But to me, she was the most beautiful thing I ever saw
I was pregnant with her
during a really tough year of ministry, my first year,
after which we had to move
but having a new life growing inside of me
kept giving me hope
and taking care of that new life
has gotten me through a lot
of tough days
She continues to give me grace upon grace
even at 13… !
Have you ever had a really good laugh?
I mean, the kind that comes up from your belly
and takes over your whole body?
And you just can’t stop?
Your stomach starts to hurt
and tears are rolling down your face
and your nose is running?
Isn’t it great?
Or has someone ever made you laugh
when you were in the midst of crying?
Now THAT is grace
Laughter-with-tears is a remarkable gift of grace
I can keep you here all day
with stories of grace from my own life
and I encourage you to think of those stories
think of those moments in your life
where you have been covered with grace
We didn’t do anything to deserve it
we can’t earn it
we can’t control it
we can’t get it exactly when we want it
it just comes
like that drenching rain
after too many days of drought
You know I love to sing
but I was so shy in high school
that every time I tried out for the choir
I choked
I was paralyzed
It wasn’t until my junior year of high school
that I even made it INTO the high school choir
but still couldn’t get a solo
My senior year of high school,
I tried out for the musical program
that was to be a musical revue
of several Broadway shows
I tried out for the part of Laurey
in “Oklahoma!”--
the part of Curly
was already given to the most popular guy
in our class
Class president,
class clown,
in the top five academically,
popular with all the girls
and president of the choir, too
he didn’t even to try out,
the part was given to him
Here I was, dork of the century
so scared I thought I was going to throw up
and I had to try out with two other girls
who were the top two sopranos
in the choir
and who ALWAYS got the solos
But to everyone’s shock,
mostly my own, I got the part
Before that, I had sung so quietly
that the choir director said
he didn’t know I could sing so well
I know he knew that by choosing me
he was risking me blowing it
he was risking me throwing up backstage
and never making it out front
he knew as well as I did
that I was so scared
I very well could have choked onstage
in front of 600 people
but he took that chance
and to me, that was gift
I almost DID throw up backstage
but I managed to get out there
and sing “Oh What a Beautiful Morning”
A friend of mine from the choir at church
met me afterwards with a dozen roses
I’ve savored that memory for all these years
as a gift of grace
and I wrote my high school choir director
just a few years ago
to tell him what he did for me
what a moment that was….
Fred Buechner went on to say,
“The grace of God means something like:
Here is your life.
You might never have been,
but you ARE because the party wouldn’t have been complete
without you
Here is the world
Beautiful and terrible things will happen
don’t be afraid
I am with you.
Nothing can ever separate us
It’s for you that I created the universe.
I love you.”
Grace changes us….
Grace is falling in love
finding that person who loves you back
for who you are
sometimes in SPITE of who you are
Grace is when you fall apart in front of someone
and they still love you
in fact, they hold you up
and hand you the tissue box
In the Bible,
it means that God loves us for who we are
that God sees past all the crap
all the shortcomings and mistakes
God sees past the short tempers
or the hardness of heart
and God looks at us
like a mother looks at her newborn baby,
gray and slimy on her chest,
screaming its head off,
and feels a love that simply cannot be put into words
THAT is grace
My earliest memory of grace
is when I was 8 years old
and I got to know a woman
who was my mother’s best friend
She had a way of making you feel like
you were the most important person
in the universe
And she made me feel like that throughout the years I was growing up
She hugged me a lot, played with my hair
held my face in her hands
and told me I was beautiful
even when I didn’t feel beautiful
She’s the one that made me sing for her
and convinced me I COULD sing
She’d look at me from across the dinner table
and I’d catch her staring at me
and she’d just smile
making me feel like she was simply
delighted with what she saw --
Oh, I hope you’ve had someone
look at you that way at least once in your life!
A lot of us have a hard time
having grace for ourselves
We might think that if people really knew us
they wouldn’t accept us very much,
they’d be appalled or disgusted
But the Bible tells us that God is never appalled
that God looks upon everything he created
including us
and says, “wow, that’s good.”
Anne Lamott wrote:
“Grace is the light or electricity or juice or breeze
that takes you from that isolated place
and puts you with others who are
as startled and embarrassed
and eventually as grateful as you are
to be there.”
Sometimes we can only receive grace
when we’ve lost everything
when there’s nothing left
all those walls have been torn down
and into the dark corner
where we may crouch in tears
light comes in and surrounds us,
fills us, warms us
and gives us the strength
to stand up again
Kathleen Norris writes
that maybe that’s one reason why we worship God
maybe we worship in order to respond
to that amazing thing called grace
because the only way to respond to grace
is to sing, to pray
to open our hands,
to hug our neighbor
to say… “wow, thanks.”
or to simply let the tears come to our eyes
We worship in response to grace
and I’d go so far as to say
that I’m here, in the ministry
as my own response to grace
to the grace upon grace that God has given me
showered me with in this life
and all I can do is try to share it
Grace doesn’t make any sense
we get it when we don’t deserve it
or as Larry likes to quote from somewhere,
“Grace is getting what we don’t deserve
and MERCY is NOT getting what we DO deserve.”
Maya Angelou, another one of my favorite writers,
wrote about the event
that brought her back into the arms of God:
She writes about a voice teacher who asked
her to simply read to him
“I was twenty-four, very erudite, very worldly,
He asked that I read from the book,
Lessons in Truth, a section which ended
with these words,….God loves me
I read the piece and closed the book
and the teacher said, ‘Read it again.’
I pointedly opened the book
and I sarcastically read, ‘God loves me.’
He said, ‘Again.’
After about the seventh repetition,” she says,
“I began to sense that there might be truth in that statement,
that there was a possibility that God really did
love me
me, Maya Angelou--
I suddenly began to cry at the grandness of it all
I knew that if God loved me,
then I could do great things,
learn anything, achieve anything
For what could stand against me with God,
since one person, any person with God,
constitutes the majority?
That knowledge humbles me,” she says,
“it melts my bones, closes my ears,
and makes my teeth rock loosely in their gums.
And it also liberates me.
I am a big bird winging over high mountains,
down into serene valleys.
I am ripples of waves on silver seas.
I’m a spring leaf trembling in anticipation…”
St. Paul writes to the Ephesian Church,
“Now God has us where he wants us,
with all the time in this world and the next
to shower grace and kindness upon us
in Christ Jesus…”
We’re here because the party wouldn’t be complete
without us….
THAT’S the good news
so what are you going to do about it??
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Ashes to Ashes
“GET REAL”
Text: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Ash Wednesday Service
February 6, 2008
Lines from a poem by the 13th century Sufi mystic Rumi …
"Join the community of saints
And know the delight
Of your own soul.
Enter the ruins of your heart
And learn the meaning of humility….
Open your arms if you want the Beloved’s embrace."
Why do we do what we do?
Why do we get ashes smeared on our foreheads
and feel the winds change just a bit
as we enter this strange time called Lent?
I find it a bit amusing
that the businesses can’t keep their hands off of Lent, either
that steak places will run fish specials on Fridays
and Long John Silver’s does more business on Fridays
during Lent
Anything to make another buck, I suppose
So it’s even crazier that we’re talking about fasting
or “appetite denying disciplines”, as The Message puts it
fasting, doing without, sacrificing
giving to the poor, praying for others and for the world
all this in a world that is usually geared toward
as much consumption as possible
and getting us to consume as much as possible
so they can make more money
All this, purple and ashes,
talk of repentance and sacrifice
in the midst of a world where we’re always trying to get more
where we want more clothes, more cars
more toys, and for all of that, more money
Just a day after Super Tuesday
when politicians are spending millions of dollars
to get our vote
and New Orleans had the party of the year
I love the smell of a fireplace
or a campfire
I love after a campfire
the way you go to bed or your sleeping bag
and you smell like wood smoke and ash
and you wake up the next morning
with the smell in your hair
In the Bible, though,
ashes are related to sorrow and grieving
when Job had taken about all he could take
he sat down in ashes
and put them on his head
When the ancient Hebrews expressed their sorrow
over a death or a loss in battle
they would tear their clothes and put ashes on their heads
Or when they were sorry for something terrible that they did
they would heap ashes on their heads as a way of repentance
seeking forgiveness
I think of the ashes of 9/11
that covered people on the street,
covered cars, buildings, everything
We can still those images in our minds
of people walking around with that dark ash
in their hair, in their clothes
and I imagine that the people that survived that day
never forgot the feel of ash on their skin
So why would we voluntarily put ashes on our heads
here in church?
I also remember the first time my heart was broken
by a guy
I was 15
He was the one, I thought
we’d talked about getting married and moving to the Rockies
and listening to John Denver music
We wrote each other every day
we exchanged necklaces to bind our commitment
but it turns out he found someone else
I was so heartbroken
that I took all of his letters, all of his pictures
everything that reminded me of him
and put it in the fireplace
and burned it
It was somehow cathartic
to watch his image go up in flames
and be reduced to ash
I poked the ashes until they were completely out
all signs of embers nothing but black and gray ash
You understand, I wanted this dude gone
from my life and my memory!
We’ve seen the ruins of the Trade Towers
so much they’re imprinted on our minds
or the ruins of the government building in Oklahoma City
the ruined shell, the embers
When I went to Great Britain with my parents
in college,
we went to Coventry, England
and walked through the ruins of Coventry Cathedral
that was bombed by the Germans in the 40s
They left the shell of the once- majestic cathedral standing
still charred and broken, but still standing
and at the front of the ruins
where the altar would have been
was a cross made out of two charred beams
from the structure
at the bottom of the cross
was a new altar
into which was carved the words,
“Father, Forgive Them”
It was holy ground
I wasn’t alive during World War II, obviously
and yet I felt the sorrow of the atmosphere
the sense of loss, the sense of devastation
The ruins stand in the shadow of another, new cathedral
made in a much more modern design
with a tapestry from ceiling to floor
depicting Christ with angels bowing at his feet
One might wonder why they left the ugly charred remains
to spoil the landscape of what is now a beautiful new
monument to God
But I can’t help but think
that even in the midst of beauty and glory
in the midst of triumph and survival
there’s something in us that needs to remember
remember where we’ve come from
where we’ve been
and what we’ve left behind
And I think that’s what Lent is about
in this crazy world
where we spend billions of dollars to kill other people
or to vote someone into office
Where we spend untold millions
to play football
and buy advertisement space during that football game
while people a few doors down
are wondering how they’ll pay their heating bill
We need to remember, I think
that we’re not as strong as we think we are
we’re not infallible and indestructible
and we are not God
We need to remember
that we are only human
When God is mad at the first human beings
for disobeying him already,
and he tells them what’s in store for them
a life lacking in ease
and plenty
he tells them
“By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread
until you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
And from this
comes the traditional lines from the service of burial
“this body we commit to the ground,
earth to earth, ashes to ashes,
dust to dust.”
When we get the ashes smeared on our heads,
the words are spoken,
“Remember…”
Remember
Remember that you are dust
and to dust you shall return
Or “repent and believe the gospel.”
Whatever words are spoken,
the point of being sullied by the ashes
and wearing the mark of ashes
is to remember that we are only human
that we are mortal
in other words, that someday we will all die
Well, that’s depressing!
Who wants to do that?
Isn’t it just the Catholics that try to make you feel bad?
We thought Methodists were more upbeat!
As much as death is a part of our entertainment
we don’t talk about it
we don’t like to think about it
Back in Pennsylvania, where Larry and I served
it was unusual to have a funeral in the church
funerals were kept to the funeral homes
and most people just came to the visitation time
leaving the family to attend the funeral
It felt like back there
we were trying to keep death hidden
keep it away from ourselves
even children of family members
were often left out of the funeral service
lest it disturb them too much
yet as one who grew up back there
it occurred to me that hiding children from the reality of death
made them only more scared of it later on
We live in a world where not only do we consume
as much as we possibly can
and spend as much as we can
but we spend millions of dollars
on surgeries and products
to keep us looking young
to act as if we can and will live forever
Growing up we did not talk about death
even when we attended funerals of people we knew
we did not talk about the person after the funeral was over
There was a sense that you had to get on with it
move on,
as if your entire world had not just changed
The Bible tells us that we are dust
and to dust we shall return
and yet even in our modern day practices
we do all we can to keep the body from returning to the earth
We have concrete vaults
and caskets sealed against the elements
So why do we voluntarily do this ash thing?
It’s ridiculous, really,
and absurdly counter-cultural
But it goes along with the great drama of our faith
and its roots
A faith that was born out of the flooding of the earth
and its restoration
the parting of the red seas
thunder, lightning on the mountain
when God gave the Ten Commandments
the slaughtering of animals
and the distribution of their blood
to act out the cost of sin
penitent acts in the temple
to ask forgiveness
and to try to come clean
Some of it may sound barbaric to us now
but as humans, we’ve always had to DO something
to express our longing, our need for God
to express our love and commitment to God
Now, we’re a whole lot neater about it
we don’t tear our clothes and throw ashes upon our heads
when a loved one dies
though we probably still feel like it
We don’t slaughter animals
in sacrifice for our sins
but we do drink juice and talk about drinking the blood of Jesus
we eat bread and talk about eating his body
and millions of people all over the world
walked around today with ashes on their foreheads
looking a bit silly, if we’re honest
but you know what, it’s about time we were willing to look silly
willing to see ourselves for what we are
human
Jesus is telling his followers,
BE REAL
don’t get up on stage and flaunt your faithfulness
do good, serve others, give to the poor
but don’t put your name in the paper for it
do it in secret if you can
do it because it’s the right thing to do
and by doing it, you’ll be a more generous, compassionate
person
do it –in this case—because ultimately it does feel good
to be good
to please God,
to spread a little light and peace
even if everybody doesn’t know who did it
Lent is a time to take a moral inventory
oooo.. that sounds harsh
but it’s technically a time to take a good look at yourself
at your life so far
to see where you need to go from here
And for many of us,
the ashes are also a sign of mourning
grieving the things and people that we’ve lost
sitting among the ruins left behind by those losses
There’s no more awesome reminder of our own mortality
than the death of a loved one
My first sense of my own mortality
was when my childhood friend Donna died
at the age of 21
of some still unknown cause
I was scared to death, no pun intended,
on top of my grieving
to realize that at age 22 I wasn’t immune to death
at that time in my life
I had no language for that
no place to talk about that
and deal with that harsh reality and fear
We just didn’t talk about it
Ash Wednesday is a time to look inside
to realize that as God’s people,
if we’re going to live in the Light
we need to face the darkness too
All of Lent moves us closer
to the journey of Jesus
who knew that to be who he was
meant that he would die too soon
trusting that that would not be the end of his story
Lent reminds us that we are people
of an alternative society called the Church
who seek treasures that won’t be reduced to ashes
but treasures that will last forever
even longer than these bodies that
we temporarily occupy
It can be a sombering thought
but it’s also good news
we may be dust,
but we are God’s dust
We came from God, and it is to God
that we will return
because God brings amazing things
out of the stuff of this earth
We begin the journey of 40 days
with ashes
but we will move these weeks
from ashes to fire
the fire of resurrection and new life
the fire of God’s incomprehensible eternity
We bear the mark of ashes
grieving our losses
grieving the state of our world
and how far away we are from what God wants
grieving our thirst for destruction
while God hungers for new life
grieving our hatred
when God created us for love
grieving all those who are hungry
when God wants us all to have our fill
We begin the journey in ashes
trusting that we, like Jesus, will rise from those ashes
into new life that can never be destroyed
But to get there
we need to make some commitments
we need to keep our eyes on treasures
that we can’t necessarily see
We need to face our own darkness
and offer it up to God’s light for transfiguration
Ashes, you will find, are messy
they fall down your face
under your glasses
maybe tickle your nose
or even tumble onto your lips
Ashes are messy
but life is messy, too
The journey with Christ is not a journey about
keeping up appearances
because Ash Wednesday hits us between the eyes
and forces us to face our mortality
while also casting our lives
into the future resurrection
Remember that you are human
Be real
be… down to earth
remember that you are dust
GOD’S dust… and to that dust you shall return.
Text: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Ash Wednesday Service
February 6, 2008
Lines from a poem by the 13th century Sufi mystic Rumi …
"Join the community of saints
And know the delight
Of your own soul.
Enter the ruins of your heart
And learn the meaning of humility….
Open your arms if you want the Beloved’s embrace."
Why do we do what we do?
Why do we get ashes smeared on our foreheads
and feel the winds change just a bit
as we enter this strange time called Lent?
I find it a bit amusing
that the businesses can’t keep their hands off of Lent, either
that steak places will run fish specials on Fridays
and Long John Silver’s does more business on Fridays
during Lent
Anything to make another buck, I suppose
So it’s even crazier that we’re talking about fasting
or “appetite denying disciplines”, as The Message puts it
fasting, doing without, sacrificing
giving to the poor, praying for others and for the world
all this in a world that is usually geared toward
as much consumption as possible
and getting us to consume as much as possible
so they can make more money
All this, purple and ashes,
talk of repentance and sacrifice
in the midst of a world where we’re always trying to get more
where we want more clothes, more cars
more toys, and for all of that, more money
Just a day after Super Tuesday
when politicians are spending millions of dollars
to get our vote
and New Orleans had the party of the year
I love the smell of a fireplace
or a campfire
I love after a campfire
the way you go to bed or your sleeping bag
and you smell like wood smoke and ash
and you wake up the next morning
with the smell in your hair
In the Bible, though,
ashes are related to sorrow and grieving
when Job had taken about all he could take
he sat down in ashes
and put them on his head
When the ancient Hebrews expressed their sorrow
over a death or a loss in battle
they would tear their clothes and put ashes on their heads
Or when they were sorry for something terrible that they did
they would heap ashes on their heads as a way of repentance
seeking forgiveness
I think of the ashes of 9/11
that covered people on the street,
covered cars, buildings, everything
We can still those images in our minds
of people walking around with that dark ash
in their hair, in their clothes
and I imagine that the people that survived that day
never forgot the feel of ash on their skin
So why would we voluntarily put ashes on our heads
here in church?
I also remember the first time my heart was broken
by a guy
I was 15
He was the one, I thought
we’d talked about getting married and moving to the Rockies
and listening to John Denver music
We wrote each other every day
we exchanged necklaces to bind our commitment
but it turns out he found someone else
I was so heartbroken
that I took all of his letters, all of his pictures
everything that reminded me of him
and put it in the fireplace
and burned it
It was somehow cathartic
to watch his image go up in flames
and be reduced to ash
I poked the ashes until they were completely out
all signs of embers nothing but black and gray ash
You understand, I wanted this dude gone
from my life and my memory!
We’ve seen the ruins of the Trade Towers
so much they’re imprinted on our minds
or the ruins of the government building in Oklahoma City
the ruined shell, the embers
When I went to Great Britain with my parents
in college,
we went to Coventry, England
and walked through the ruins of Coventry Cathedral
that was bombed by the Germans in the 40s
They left the shell of the once- majestic cathedral standing
still charred and broken, but still standing
and at the front of the ruins
where the altar would have been
was a cross made out of two charred beams
from the structure
at the bottom of the cross
was a new altar
into which was carved the words,
“Father, Forgive Them”
It was holy ground
I wasn’t alive during World War II, obviously
and yet I felt the sorrow of the atmosphere
the sense of loss, the sense of devastation
The ruins stand in the shadow of another, new cathedral
made in a much more modern design
with a tapestry from ceiling to floor
depicting Christ with angels bowing at his feet
One might wonder why they left the ugly charred remains
to spoil the landscape of what is now a beautiful new
monument to God
But I can’t help but think
that even in the midst of beauty and glory
in the midst of triumph and survival
there’s something in us that needs to remember
remember where we’ve come from
where we’ve been
and what we’ve left behind
And I think that’s what Lent is about
in this crazy world
where we spend billions of dollars to kill other people
or to vote someone into office
Where we spend untold millions
to play football
and buy advertisement space during that football game
while people a few doors down
are wondering how they’ll pay their heating bill
We need to remember, I think
that we’re not as strong as we think we are
we’re not infallible and indestructible
and we are not God
We need to remember
that we are only human
When God is mad at the first human beings
for disobeying him already,
and he tells them what’s in store for them
a life lacking in ease
and plenty
he tells them
“By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread
until you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
And from this
comes the traditional lines from the service of burial
“this body we commit to the ground,
earth to earth, ashes to ashes,
dust to dust.”
When we get the ashes smeared on our heads,
the words are spoken,
“Remember…”
Remember
Remember that you are dust
and to dust you shall return
Or “repent and believe the gospel.”
Whatever words are spoken,
the point of being sullied by the ashes
and wearing the mark of ashes
is to remember that we are only human
that we are mortal
in other words, that someday we will all die
Well, that’s depressing!
Who wants to do that?
Isn’t it just the Catholics that try to make you feel bad?
We thought Methodists were more upbeat!
As much as death is a part of our entertainment
we don’t talk about it
we don’t like to think about it
Back in Pennsylvania, where Larry and I served
it was unusual to have a funeral in the church
funerals were kept to the funeral homes
and most people just came to the visitation time
leaving the family to attend the funeral
It felt like back there
we were trying to keep death hidden
keep it away from ourselves
even children of family members
were often left out of the funeral service
lest it disturb them too much
yet as one who grew up back there
it occurred to me that hiding children from the reality of death
made them only more scared of it later on
We live in a world where not only do we consume
as much as we possibly can
and spend as much as we can
but we spend millions of dollars
on surgeries and products
to keep us looking young
to act as if we can and will live forever
Growing up we did not talk about death
even when we attended funerals of people we knew
we did not talk about the person after the funeral was over
There was a sense that you had to get on with it
move on,
as if your entire world had not just changed
The Bible tells us that we are dust
and to dust we shall return
and yet even in our modern day practices
we do all we can to keep the body from returning to the earth
We have concrete vaults
and caskets sealed against the elements
So why do we voluntarily do this ash thing?
It’s ridiculous, really,
and absurdly counter-cultural
But it goes along with the great drama of our faith
and its roots
A faith that was born out of the flooding of the earth
and its restoration
the parting of the red seas
thunder, lightning on the mountain
when God gave the Ten Commandments
the slaughtering of animals
and the distribution of their blood
to act out the cost of sin
penitent acts in the temple
to ask forgiveness
and to try to come clean
Some of it may sound barbaric to us now
but as humans, we’ve always had to DO something
to express our longing, our need for God
to express our love and commitment to God
Now, we’re a whole lot neater about it
we don’t tear our clothes and throw ashes upon our heads
when a loved one dies
though we probably still feel like it
We don’t slaughter animals
in sacrifice for our sins
but we do drink juice and talk about drinking the blood of Jesus
we eat bread and talk about eating his body
and millions of people all over the world
walked around today with ashes on their foreheads
looking a bit silly, if we’re honest
but you know what, it’s about time we were willing to look silly
willing to see ourselves for what we are
human
Jesus is telling his followers,
BE REAL
don’t get up on stage and flaunt your faithfulness
do good, serve others, give to the poor
but don’t put your name in the paper for it
do it in secret if you can
do it because it’s the right thing to do
and by doing it, you’ll be a more generous, compassionate
person
do it –in this case—because ultimately it does feel good
to be good
to please God,
to spread a little light and peace
even if everybody doesn’t know who did it
Lent is a time to take a moral inventory
oooo.. that sounds harsh
but it’s technically a time to take a good look at yourself
at your life so far
to see where you need to go from here
And for many of us,
the ashes are also a sign of mourning
grieving the things and people that we’ve lost
sitting among the ruins left behind by those losses
There’s no more awesome reminder of our own mortality
than the death of a loved one
My first sense of my own mortality
was when my childhood friend Donna died
at the age of 21
of some still unknown cause
I was scared to death, no pun intended,
on top of my grieving
to realize that at age 22 I wasn’t immune to death
at that time in my life
I had no language for that
no place to talk about that
and deal with that harsh reality and fear
We just didn’t talk about it
Ash Wednesday is a time to look inside
to realize that as God’s people,
if we’re going to live in the Light
we need to face the darkness too
All of Lent moves us closer
to the journey of Jesus
who knew that to be who he was
meant that he would die too soon
trusting that that would not be the end of his story
Lent reminds us that we are people
of an alternative society called the Church
who seek treasures that won’t be reduced to ashes
but treasures that will last forever
even longer than these bodies that
we temporarily occupy
It can be a sombering thought
but it’s also good news
we may be dust,
but we are God’s dust
We came from God, and it is to God
that we will return
because God brings amazing things
out of the stuff of this earth
We begin the journey of 40 days
with ashes
but we will move these weeks
from ashes to fire
the fire of resurrection and new life
the fire of God’s incomprehensible eternity
We bear the mark of ashes
grieving our losses
grieving the state of our world
and how far away we are from what God wants
grieving our thirst for destruction
while God hungers for new life
grieving our hatred
when God created us for love
grieving all those who are hungry
when God wants us all to have our fill
We begin the journey in ashes
trusting that we, like Jesus, will rise from those ashes
into new life that can never be destroyed
But to get there
we need to make some commitments
we need to keep our eyes on treasures
that we can’t necessarily see
We need to face our own darkness
and offer it up to God’s light for transfiguration
Ashes, you will find, are messy
they fall down your face
under your glasses
maybe tickle your nose
or even tumble onto your lips
Ashes are messy
but life is messy, too
The journey with Christ is not a journey about
keeping up appearances
because Ash Wednesday hits us between the eyes
and forces us to face our mortality
while also casting our lives
into the future resurrection
Remember that you are human
Be real
be… down to earth
remember that you are dust
GOD’S dust… and to that dust you shall return.
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