"The room is suddenly still and when you'd almost bet you could hear yourself sweat... he walks in..." (Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show)
I thought it'd be fun. To see Neil Diamond in concert again. I mean, he is getting older, how many more opportunities will I have before he gets too tired to tour? I've loved him for 31 years. His music is a major part of the soundtrack of my life, beginning at 12 years old. Neil Diamond: Live at the Greek, TV special. 1977.
I fought alot with my brother Stan, the youngest of my three brothers, because he was closest in age to me. But the thing that connected me and Stan was music. He loved music, and had a wide variety of record albums in his collection. He spent hours in his room, listening. Savoring. He was picky, too, in his tastes. It had to be quality.
Stan also had a way of finding music to fit the person. So in one of his more generous, less annoying-brother moments, he suggested I watch The Live at the Greek Concert. He thought I might like Neil Diamond. He even watched it with me.
Ohmygosh. I was mesmerized. Maybe it was Neil Diamond's drama and intensity. Even if I didn't know what "Holly Holy" meant, Neil sang it with such drama that you believed it meant something really deep and important. He's a poet. Like me. He was intense. Like me. He was passionate. His music became my own expression through my teenage years...."I've got an emptiness deep inside, and I've tried, but it won't let me go..." (I Am I Said)
So I thought it'd be fun to see him in concert. I'd gone to see him with my parents (nobody else my age would dare be seen at a Neil Diamond concert in 1982), and he was AWESOME. Dad had to leave the stadium a few times to adjust the cotton in his ears, but I was euphoric. 1982. 26 years ago.
I'm 43 years old now. I have a lot of musical interests-- still a lot of "old men" in the repertoire-- but Neil has always been up there all these years.
I went with a few girlfriends, and a busload of people. I was one of the younger ones on the bus, but I was heartened to see a few teenage boys in the crowd.
I knew I was excited. I just didn't know how.
When Neil came out on the stage, I audibly gasped. Ohmygosh. I felt like a little girl, or a half-crazed-in-love 17 year old adolescent all over again. I was surprised at the spontaneous thrill that went through me, and before I could think about it, I was DANCING, clapping, singing, screaming. It was nuts. The music, music I knew by heart, word for word, from hours and hours of listening alone in my room while writing poems of adolescent angst.. it was wonderful. For two hours, I lost all inhibition, all self-consciousness of being 43 years old and how to act. This was NEIL. 26 years later, he was just as good.
"Eyes black as coal, and when he lifts his face, every ear in the place.. is on him.."
I bumped my friend next to me, dancing, singing, screaming, waving my fists in the air, singing along, and let myself be carried up on the waves of the music of my life. Music that gave me joy when I felt sorrow. Music that expressed lonliness that I couldn't put into words myself. Songs sung blue, that made me feel better, more connected, more alive. Though it sounds cliche, it was like coming home. Remembering who I am, remembering my basic love of words, music, passion and the power of it all put together. Ohmygosh, for two hours I was in another world of such intense joy, fun, and intensity, I thought I'd never land again. And that was ok. It was Neil.
He played my whole life for me.. I could attach memories to songs, to years, right up to the present. I remembered the importance of that music. How often it was a lifeline, a sermon, a release. I wondered what it felt to have that much power, to know that millions of people knew words that you wrote, by heart, could sing them back to you in a stadium of 15,000 people. What a rush! He can't possibly know each story in that stadium, and the many others he'll be visiting. The stories like mine, of how music, HIS music, shaped a poet's heart and words and gave her hope and life. So many stories in that room, that night. Why we were there. What we brought, what we took away from it. What that one life on that stage meant to each of us, and the gifts that he gave us. That night and throughout many years.
It was good for my soul. Good for my heart. A Nestea plunge for my spirit, after a very harsh year. Remember the music. The music is always there. The music goes on, long past the lives that create it, and add to the ongoing eternal stream of it. Someday Neil will be too old to belt out his classics for two solid hours, night after night, city after city, across the world. But we won't forget. The music will still go on. Younger ones, like my own daughter, will find joy and passion in the same music, and wish she could hear it live. That's a gift. When someone with heart and soul comes along and adds their notes to the song that goes on.
Thanks Neil, for inspiring me to write, to rise above pain and put it to music. Thanks for the soundtrack of my life. Thanks for the music.
Play on, Man.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
“THE PROMISE LAND”
Genesis 28:10-19a
Faith United
July 20, 2008
Have you ever made a bargain with God?
We see it all the time on TV
God, if you’ll just do this for me,
I promise I’ll…. I’ll go to church
or send money to the Red Cross
or… or… I’ll just be a really good person…
I’m sure I’ve done it,
I think everybody has
Sometimes, though, the bargain goes the other way
If God doesn’t answer someone’s prayer
then the bargainer gives up on God completely
I’ve come to think it’s pretty manipulative
to bargain with God
First of all, God never says yes to the bargain
and yet we still hold him to it
because surely God wants to give us everything we want, right?
And if we don’t get what we want,
well, we’re not very nice sometimes
But you know, when you’re really desperate,
you do things that you never thought you’d do
When someone is sick
and you would do anything to make them well
When someone is dying
and you’d give your own life to spare theirs
When a son or daughter goes off to war
you’d give anything to make sure they came home safely
One of my professors in seminary
once told the story of when his daughter was little
and he was tucking her in at night
He read her a story
and then as he finished,
he said she lay there with her arms outstretched
a slight smile on her face
and her eyes closed
He said her name out loud to see if she was still awake
and she said, with her eyes still closed,
“Shh, Daddy, I’m melting like an ice cube…”
And he said what a beautiful image that was
of falling… asleep
Melting
Falling asleep, he said,
is a vulnerable thing to do
because you have no control over what happens to you
while you’re asleep
It takes trust to let go, to melt, into sleep
You’re at the mercy of your dreams
you’re at the mercy of the person entrusted to take care of you
Falling asleep, melting, is like just letting go
and saying, “it’s ok, I’m ok, the world is ok for now
I can go to sleep…”
She trusted her Daddy to take care of things while she slept ….
Jacob is one of my favorite Old Testament characters
I’m not exactly sure why
because most of the time he was a real jerk
His very name, Jacob, means “striver, hustler, supplanter…”
He was one of the twins born to Rebekah
Even when Jacob and his brother Esau were in the womb
they were making their mother miserable
fighting to be the first one out
because the first born child
received a special blessing
They were making her so miserable
that Rebekah asked to die rather than to go on like this
with these wrestling babies in her womb!
God said to her that two nations were in her womb,
two peoples butting heads
and one will overpower the other, finally
the older will serve the younger
So, really, from before he was born,
God has promised to bless the younger,
which turned out to be Jacob
When the twins were born,
Esau came out first
but Jacob had a hold of Esau’s heel
and so he was named Jacob, which also means “heel”
Jacob was always trying to get ahead
Esau was a big, hairy strong guy
He was always picked first for the team at school
He was the star athlete
Esau was his father’s favorite
and Jacob knew it
Esau was born having it made
as the first born son of Isaac
Everything came easily to him
Jacob had to work extra hard
to get what he wanted, to get his father’s attention
because he was kind of scrawny
maybe the other kids called him a wimp
and couldn’t understand how he could be the twin brother
of that big burly guy Esau….
Jacob, if anything,
would have been voted Class clown in high school
he was the prankster, the conniver
the sneak
Always figuring out how to get ahead,
to get one over on someone else
especially his own brother who didn’t seem to appreciate
how good he had it
So Jacob learned to manipulate his way through life
When Esau came home from the fields hungry,
Jacob said he’d only give him some food he was cooking
if Esau handed over his birthright
Well, Esau was big in brawn, and not too swift in the head
so he said, sure, whatever, I’m starving to death,
what do I need a birthright for?
So Jacob fed him, pretty pleased with himself
But it really wasn’t up to either of them
who received the birthright,
legally it went to Esau as the firstborn
So when their father Isaac lay dying,
Jacob’s mother worked with Jacob to fool Isaac
into blessing Jacob instead
Close to death, Isaac couldn’t see clearly at all
So Rebekah dressed Jacob up
covered him in animal skins
so that he would be hairy
when Isaac touched him
and would therefore believe he was Esau
And so the plan worked,
Isaac blessed Jacob instead, with the blessing of the firstborn
giving him everything
Of course, when Esau found out about it,
he turned into the Incredible Hulk … well, not literally
but he was really mad
So mad his parents thought he would kill his younger brother Jacob
So they sent him away
to go stay with his Uncle for awhile
until Esau’s rage calmed down
They thought maybe it would be a few weeks,
and it turned out to be many years ….
And so Jacob is on the run
from his big brother
the one who got everything so easily
Jacob could never live up to Esau in his father’s eyes
He would never had all that Esau had
and it burned him
He worked so hard to get what he didn’t deserve
he seemed to believe that if he just worked hard enough
or did things just right
he could get everything he wanted
He could get his father’s love
he could get his father’s blessing
he could manipulate and get whatever he needed
But now he’s a fugitive on the run
He may have gotten his father’s blessing
but it didn’t mean much, now
as he’s running for his life
Finally, after traveling a long time
after looking back, checking every angle
to make sure Esau was not on his tail
he was exhausted
and made camp at Haran
He put a stone at his head
for protection
and lay down to sleep
Maybe he was leery of laying down
in case Esau was lurking about
but finally he had no choice
He was so tired,
he just melted into a deep sleep
from sheer exhaustion
He had the weirdest dream
He dreamed of a stairway to heaven
starting on the earth and reaching up into the skies
and on that stairway were angels
some were going up the stairway
and others were coming down
he’d probably seen stairways just like it
on his travels
for at that time, there were divided stone staircases
leading from the city down to the city’s water source
one side for going up and one side for going down
so the stairway in his dream was probably like
one he’d seen along the way
In the dream,
God… yeah, God The God…
was standing right next to him
it doesn’t say what God looked like
If he was an old bearded man with long white robes
or if he looked more like George Burns
or maybe Morgan Freeman
But somehow, in the dream,
God was standing next to him
and saying to him, as if it were a normal thing to do
to have a conversation with God,
“I am God,” he said, (just in case Jacob hadn’t recognized him, I guess),
“I’m the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac
I’m giving you the ground on which you are sleeping
I’m giving it to you and to your descendents
Your descendents will be like the dust of the earth
they’ll stretch from East to West and from North to South
All the families of the earth will bless themselves in you
and your descendents
Yes
I will stay with you, I will protect you wherever you are
and I’ll bring you back to this very ground
I’ll stick with you until I’ve done everything I promised you.”
Whoa.
Jacob woke up,
and at first he didn’t move
he looked around to see if God was still standing
next to him, but saw nothing
He was a little shaky
and everything felt different
everything looked different
though he couldn’t explain it
He looked around at the land he laid on
and he said, “God is in this place, God is here… truly
I didn’t even know it!”
And as one can imagine, he was terrified
I mean, it’s not everyday you come face to face with God
I imagine it might be a little intimidating
“Incredible,” he whispered, looking around at the beauty
of the early morning
“Wonderful. Holy…. this is God’s House,
This is the Gate of Heaven.”
He was terrified and exhilarated all at once
He got up and rolled the stone at his head
so that it was standing upright
he took some oil out of his pouch
some oil that his mother had given him
and poured it on the stone, consecrating it
as an altar to God
And he named the place, “Beth-el”
which means, “God’s house”
But Jacob didn’t have a major transformation that day
he still had a very long way to go
Before he left, he said out loud,
“If God stands by me and protects me on this journey
if God keeps me in food and clothing
and brings me back in one piece to my father’s house
THIS God will be my God…”
Even then, Jacob is still making a deal
Even then, he makes promises that are conditional
upon God’s behavior toward him
If you do what I want, God, then I’ll worship you
but if not, the deal’s off
He still had a lot to learn
Jacob still believed that he could control his destiny
he still believed that getting what he wanted and needed
depended entirely on him and what he achieved
He thought he was in control
He missed the point
that God came to him when he was most vulnerable
when he was asleep
and therefore defenseless
when he couldn’t interrupt God
or contradict him
He could’ve learned then
that God has always wanted to bless him
that God told his mother that Jacob would be blessed
and yet all his life he fought for that blessing
not knowing that it was a gift
and you can’t earn a gift
Jacob believed that nothing would happen
unless he made it happen
and yet if you read his whole story
he really messed things up for a long time
trying to be the one in control
Trying to make deals
to get ahead
trying to climb that ladder to heaven
and yet he kept falling off
If only he’d stop trying so hard
he’d discover that God wanted to bless him all along
and all he had to do was open his arms
and let go
To trust
like a child falling asleep in her parent’s arms
trusting that they will not drop her
but that they will care for her
and give her what she needs even in sleep
Do you dream?
Do you have dreams?
Maybe, like me, you’ve had dreams that didn’t come true
maybe you tried climbing the ladder to what you thought
would be heaven
but you just couldn’t get there
you kept falling off
and you didn’t understand why God didn’t give you
what you thought you needed in order to be happy
Maybe, like me, you’ve learned time and time again
that you’re not the one in control
and that we don’t always understand what’s going on
and we can’t always see the good
in the place where we are
God wanted to bless Jacob all along
Jacob didn’t have to work so hard to make that happen
God would bless him
but that blessing would be a gift,
it’s not something Jacob could achieve on his own
or manipulate
this time, he wasn’t in control
he had to give that up,
surrender, open his arms
and let God take over
Jacob would have to trust
that God knew what he was doing
and I assure you, that was really, really hard
But even when he was thickest in the head
Jacob had that dream to remember
where God promised to give him everything he needed
God promised to never leave him
no matter what happened
Jacob would not be alone
And so Jacob, through all his striving
and losing and learning and stumbling
and rising again
he remembered that Dream that God gave him
silly and simple as it might have seemed to others
he never forgot that dream
We have dreams all along the way
but the only dreams that last
are the ones that God gives us
We may dream of climbing that ladder
only to find ourselves stuck
no matter what we do, no matter how hard we try
We may dream of getting that blessing we long for
of proving ourselves
of achieving something important
of making enough money to keep from worrying
But the only good dreams come from God
the only good dreams are a gift
and not something we can control
Finding that person who will love you for better for worse,
for richer for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
till death parts you
The dream of being able to see beauty all around you
in the people near you
the dream of finding joy in your work
of having a friend who will stick with you through it all
good and bad
when you’re at your best and even at your worst
God is most able to get to us
when all our defenses are down
when we’ve reached bottom and we've given up
being able to do it on our own
or in the middle of the night
when it seems like we come face to face
with everything we’ve been able to run from
during the day
Jacob didn’t get what he deserved
He was a liar, a cheat, a manipulator, and a deceiver
he didn’t get what he deserved
he got a blessing instead
one he couldn’t have ever gotten on his own
Yet God never gives up on him
and God makes him a blessing
forever
The God of Abraham, Isaac and JACOB….
The God who works best when we let go
trust enough to fall into his arms
and make us into the people he would have us to be
People who walk on this earth
but can catch glimpses of heaven
people who see something beyond
what is right in front of our eyes
people who dream of something outrageously better
more beautiful,
and seemingly impossible
People who dream God’s dreams…..
Genesis 28:10-19a
Faith United
July 20, 2008
Have you ever made a bargain with God?
We see it all the time on TV
God, if you’ll just do this for me,
I promise I’ll…. I’ll go to church
or send money to the Red Cross
or… or… I’ll just be a really good person…
I’m sure I’ve done it,
I think everybody has
Sometimes, though, the bargain goes the other way
If God doesn’t answer someone’s prayer
then the bargainer gives up on God completely
I’ve come to think it’s pretty manipulative
to bargain with God
First of all, God never says yes to the bargain
and yet we still hold him to it
because surely God wants to give us everything we want, right?
And if we don’t get what we want,
well, we’re not very nice sometimes
But you know, when you’re really desperate,
you do things that you never thought you’d do
When someone is sick
and you would do anything to make them well
When someone is dying
and you’d give your own life to spare theirs
When a son or daughter goes off to war
you’d give anything to make sure they came home safely
One of my professors in seminary
once told the story of when his daughter was little
and he was tucking her in at night
He read her a story
and then as he finished,
he said she lay there with her arms outstretched
a slight smile on her face
and her eyes closed
He said her name out loud to see if she was still awake
and she said, with her eyes still closed,
“Shh, Daddy, I’m melting like an ice cube…”
And he said what a beautiful image that was
of falling… asleep
Melting
Falling asleep, he said,
is a vulnerable thing to do
because you have no control over what happens to you
while you’re asleep
It takes trust to let go, to melt, into sleep
You’re at the mercy of your dreams
you’re at the mercy of the person entrusted to take care of you
Falling asleep, melting, is like just letting go
and saying, “it’s ok, I’m ok, the world is ok for now
I can go to sleep…”
She trusted her Daddy to take care of things while she slept ….
Jacob is one of my favorite Old Testament characters
I’m not exactly sure why
because most of the time he was a real jerk
His very name, Jacob, means “striver, hustler, supplanter…”
He was one of the twins born to Rebekah
Even when Jacob and his brother Esau were in the womb
they were making their mother miserable
fighting to be the first one out
because the first born child
received a special blessing
They were making her so miserable
that Rebekah asked to die rather than to go on like this
with these wrestling babies in her womb!
God said to her that two nations were in her womb,
two peoples butting heads
and one will overpower the other, finally
the older will serve the younger
So, really, from before he was born,
God has promised to bless the younger,
which turned out to be Jacob
When the twins were born,
Esau came out first
but Jacob had a hold of Esau’s heel
and so he was named Jacob, which also means “heel”
Jacob was always trying to get ahead
Esau was a big, hairy strong guy
He was always picked first for the team at school
He was the star athlete
Esau was his father’s favorite
and Jacob knew it
Esau was born having it made
as the first born son of Isaac
Everything came easily to him
Jacob had to work extra hard
to get what he wanted, to get his father’s attention
because he was kind of scrawny
maybe the other kids called him a wimp
and couldn’t understand how he could be the twin brother
of that big burly guy Esau….
Jacob, if anything,
would have been voted Class clown in high school
he was the prankster, the conniver
the sneak
Always figuring out how to get ahead,
to get one over on someone else
especially his own brother who didn’t seem to appreciate
how good he had it
So Jacob learned to manipulate his way through life
When Esau came home from the fields hungry,
Jacob said he’d only give him some food he was cooking
if Esau handed over his birthright
Well, Esau was big in brawn, and not too swift in the head
so he said, sure, whatever, I’m starving to death,
what do I need a birthright for?
So Jacob fed him, pretty pleased with himself
But it really wasn’t up to either of them
who received the birthright,
legally it went to Esau as the firstborn
So when their father Isaac lay dying,
Jacob’s mother worked with Jacob to fool Isaac
into blessing Jacob instead
Close to death, Isaac couldn’t see clearly at all
So Rebekah dressed Jacob up
covered him in animal skins
so that he would be hairy
when Isaac touched him
and would therefore believe he was Esau
And so the plan worked,
Isaac blessed Jacob instead, with the blessing of the firstborn
giving him everything
Of course, when Esau found out about it,
he turned into the Incredible Hulk … well, not literally
but he was really mad
So mad his parents thought he would kill his younger brother Jacob
So they sent him away
to go stay with his Uncle for awhile
until Esau’s rage calmed down
They thought maybe it would be a few weeks,
and it turned out to be many years ….
And so Jacob is on the run
from his big brother
the one who got everything so easily
Jacob could never live up to Esau in his father’s eyes
He would never had all that Esau had
and it burned him
He worked so hard to get what he didn’t deserve
he seemed to believe that if he just worked hard enough
or did things just right
he could get everything he wanted
He could get his father’s love
he could get his father’s blessing
he could manipulate and get whatever he needed
But now he’s a fugitive on the run
He may have gotten his father’s blessing
but it didn’t mean much, now
as he’s running for his life
Finally, after traveling a long time
after looking back, checking every angle
to make sure Esau was not on his tail
he was exhausted
and made camp at Haran
He put a stone at his head
for protection
and lay down to sleep
Maybe he was leery of laying down
in case Esau was lurking about
but finally he had no choice
He was so tired,
he just melted into a deep sleep
from sheer exhaustion
He had the weirdest dream
He dreamed of a stairway to heaven
starting on the earth and reaching up into the skies
and on that stairway were angels
some were going up the stairway
and others were coming down
he’d probably seen stairways just like it
on his travels
for at that time, there were divided stone staircases
leading from the city down to the city’s water source
one side for going up and one side for going down
so the stairway in his dream was probably like
one he’d seen along the way
In the dream,
God… yeah, God The God…
was standing right next to him
it doesn’t say what God looked like
If he was an old bearded man with long white robes
or if he looked more like George Burns
or maybe Morgan Freeman
But somehow, in the dream,
God was standing next to him
and saying to him, as if it were a normal thing to do
to have a conversation with God,
“I am God,” he said, (just in case Jacob hadn’t recognized him, I guess),
“I’m the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac
I’m giving you the ground on which you are sleeping
I’m giving it to you and to your descendents
Your descendents will be like the dust of the earth
they’ll stretch from East to West and from North to South
All the families of the earth will bless themselves in you
and your descendents
Yes
I will stay with you, I will protect you wherever you are
and I’ll bring you back to this very ground
I’ll stick with you until I’ve done everything I promised you.”
Whoa.
Jacob woke up,
and at first he didn’t move
he looked around to see if God was still standing
next to him, but saw nothing
He was a little shaky
and everything felt different
everything looked different
though he couldn’t explain it
He looked around at the land he laid on
and he said, “God is in this place, God is here… truly
I didn’t even know it!”
And as one can imagine, he was terrified
I mean, it’s not everyday you come face to face with God
I imagine it might be a little intimidating
“Incredible,” he whispered, looking around at the beauty
of the early morning
“Wonderful. Holy…. this is God’s House,
This is the Gate of Heaven.”
He was terrified and exhilarated all at once
He got up and rolled the stone at his head
so that it was standing upright
he took some oil out of his pouch
some oil that his mother had given him
and poured it on the stone, consecrating it
as an altar to God
And he named the place, “Beth-el”
which means, “God’s house”
But Jacob didn’t have a major transformation that day
he still had a very long way to go
Before he left, he said out loud,
“If God stands by me and protects me on this journey
if God keeps me in food and clothing
and brings me back in one piece to my father’s house
THIS God will be my God…”
Even then, Jacob is still making a deal
Even then, he makes promises that are conditional
upon God’s behavior toward him
If you do what I want, God, then I’ll worship you
but if not, the deal’s off
He still had a lot to learn
Jacob still believed that he could control his destiny
he still believed that getting what he wanted and needed
depended entirely on him and what he achieved
He thought he was in control
He missed the point
that God came to him when he was most vulnerable
when he was asleep
and therefore defenseless
when he couldn’t interrupt God
or contradict him
He could’ve learned then
that God has always wanted to bless him
that God told his mother that Jacob would be blessed
and yet all his life he fought for that blessing
not knowing that it was a gift
and you can’t earn a gift
Jacob believed that nothing would happen
unless he made it happen
and yet if you read his whole story
he really messed things up for a long time
trying to be the one in control
Trying to make deals
to get ahead
trying to climb that ladder to heaven
and yet he kept falling off
If only he’d stop trying so hard
he’d discover that God wanted to bless him all along
and all he had to do was open his arms
and let go
To trust
like a child falling asleep in her parent’s arms
trusting that they will not drop her
but that they will care for her
and give her what she needs even in sleep
Do you dream?
Do you have dreams?
Maybe, like me, you’ve had dreams that didn’t come true
maybe you tried climbing the ladder to what you thought
would be heaven
but you just couldn’t get there
you kept falling off
and you didn’t understand why God didn’t give you
what you thought you needed in order to be happy
Maybe, like me, you’ve learned time and time again
that you’re not the one in control
and that we don’t always understand what’s going on
and we can’t always see the good
in the place where we are
God wanted to bless Jacob all along
Jacob didn’t have to work so hard to make that happen
God would bless him
but that blessing would be a gift,
it’s not something Jacob could achieve on his own
or manipulate
this time, he wasn’t in control
he had to give that up,
surrender, open his arms
and let God take over
Jacob would have to trust
that God knew what he was doing
and I assure you, that was really, really hard
But even when he was thickest in the head
Jacob had that dream to remember
where God promised to give him everything he needed
God promised to never leave him
no matter what happened
Jacob would not be alone
And so Jacob, through all his striving
and losing and learning and stumbling
and rising again
he remembered that Dream that God gave him
silly and simple as it might have seemed to others
he never forgot that dream
We have dreams all along the way
but the only dreams that last
are the ones that God gives us
We may dream of climbing that ladder
only to find ourselves stuck
no matter what we do, no matter how hard we try
We may dream of getting that blessing we long for
of proving ourselves
of achieving something important
of making enough money to keep from worrying
But the only good dreams come from God
the only good dreams are a gift
and not something we can control
Finding that person who will love you for better for worse,
for richer for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
till death parts you
The dream of being able to see beauty all around you
in the people near you
the dream of finding joy in your work
of having a friend who will stick with you through it all
good and bad
when you’re at your best and even at your worst
God is most able to get to us
when all our defenses are down
when we’ve reached bottom and we've given up
being able to do it on our own
or in the middle of the night
when it seems like we come face to face
with everything we’ve been able to run from
during the day
Jacob didn’t get what he deserved
He was a liar, a cheat, a manipulator, and a deceiver
he didn’t get what he deserved
he got a blessing instead
one he couldn’t have ever gotten on his own
Yet God never gives up on him
and God makes him a blessing
forever
The God of Abraham, Isaac and JACOB….
The God who works best when we let go
trust enough to fall into his arms
and make us into the people he would have us to be
People who walk on this earth
but can catch glimpses of heaven
people who see something beyond
what is right in front of our eyes
people who dream of something outrageously better
more beautiful,
and seemingly impossible
People who dream God’s dreams…..
Sunday, July 13, 2008
You Are The Seed That Will Grow A New Sprout
“SEEDS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH”
Text: Matthew 13:1-9
Faith United
July 13, 2008
Growing up in New Jersey
these stories and parables made absolutely no sense to me
I had no point of reference
Our lives were so far removed from growing and planting
and sowing and reaping
It was as other-worldly as all the Bible stories
that took place in deserts of the Middle East
stories of people who wore robes and sandals
whose houses were made out of mud
and whose streets were all dirt
I couldn’t relate much to Jesus’ stories at all
but I liked all the Flannel graph pictures in Sunday School
and maps of far-off places
that I could only imagine
Places far removed from my blacktop streets
and concrete sidewalks
and the highway in front of my house
` that was always busy
A lot of people are far removed from Jesus’ stories
they have no clue
but now, in Nebraska
I know a little more about planting and reaping
I know that the idea of a farmer going out
with a sack of seeds
and just throwing them all over the place
on dirt and sand and rock
and occasionally good, rich soil
was an incredible waste of seed
I mean, now I don’t know a lot about farming
but I do know that we have machines
that plants seeds in a particular place
in a particular row of soil
that has been fertilized and treated with nutrients
to help the seeds grow
One afternoon, Jesus walked out his front door
and looked out over the sea
He sat there for awhile
until people discovered him
and disrupted his peace
So much so, that he climbed into a boat
and pushed out into the water
to keep them from invading his personal space
He sat in the back of the boat
looking out over the crowds that had followed him
to the shore
the boat occasionally rocked on the small waves of the water
that were made by other boats
And he just talked
He talked their language
language that they understood
He didn’t give a theological lecture
on practical theology and doctrines of the faith
Instead, he gave them dreams and poems
He gave them images of God’s Kingdom
something far beyond their comprehension
but he described it with images as familiar to them
as the crops in their own fields
"Look out your back window,"
he could have said
"at the things you see everyday
and yet, do you really see them?"
We look out now at the fields of corn growing
maybe the farmers of those fields see the hard work
the worry and the sweat and the re-planting
and all the stress of sowing seeds
in tornado country
but I love to see the corn
it seems so magnificent
beautiful,
waving in the wind
growing visibly day by day
It looks like a miracle
Yeah, you know more than I do
all the work and sweat and hard labor
that went into making those plants grow
but even with that,
it is a miracle
that we can plant seeds in the ground
and they something happens down in that invisible place
in the darkness of soil
that is miraculous
It gets beaten down by hail
and by wind
farmers worry about too much rain or too little
Sowing seeds is a vulnerable thing
we can’t control what happens to those seeds
when we put them in the ground
Maybe those of you who are farmers
often ask yourselves,
why do we do this?
It’s a hard life,
and there’s so much beyond your control
You can fertilize, prepare the ground,
irrigate, do everything you’re supposed to do
and one storm, as you well know,
can ruin all your hard work
Anybody sitting on the beach that day
might have poked his or her neighbor
and said, 'this guy doesn’t know anything about planting
any fool knows you don’t just go out there
and haphazardly throw seeds here and there
and expect a respectable harvest
Anybody would know that you have to find the good soil
you don’t plant on rocks
you make sure there’s enough water
What is this guy talking about?'
I’ve read a lot of sermons on this passage
that say this parable is all about soil
good soil or bad soil
dry and rocky soil
or good, fresh, moist soil
that is good for planting
And I know that sometimes I’m better than at other times
Some days I’m dry
and nothing seems to get through to me
sometimes anything good that comes at me
bumps up against hard and sharp things
in my spirit
that keep the good from growing
Other times I am rich and receptive
to good things
and they blossom and grow and expand
Other days start out good
and hopeful and beautiful
but then something or someone comes along
and chokes the goodness out of it
ruins it
stomps on it, tears it out of the soil
or just sprays toxic chemicals onto it
and I can feel it disintegrate
It’s easy to assume that it’s all about me and you
But Jesus wasn’t talking to individual people
There were all kinds of people in that crowd on that beach
They didn’t have a single mentality
they were coming with their different
frames of reference
and therefore getting something different
out of all that Jesus said
Jesus had a tendency not to speak directly
or just get right to the point
and I hate it when people read his parables
and say, ok, now the POINT of this parable is
this and this and this
because if Jesus only had one point
he could have just stated it
but instead, he told them stories that were rich and full
so that people could come away with all different perspectives
getting out of it what they needed to know and learn
depending on who they were
Jesus’ parables were not just boring, yawning lectures
he used words to tease his audience to think
his words sparked other words
his images gave birth to all kinds of other images
He made you think
he made you participate in the lesson
He threw those stories out there
and let them, lets us, chew on them
think about them
and watch them unfold again and again
He threw out words into the gathering crowds
like a sower throwing seeds onto the ground
some couldn’t care less who he was, what he said
others came, thirsty, open, empty, receptive
to the quenching nature of his voice
Some came angry and all tied up
and like weeds in a garden or field
their anger and bitterness and brokenness
choked the life out of Jesus words before they could even land
But that didn’t stop him
He just kept giving, and talking, and pouring out
words—generous, life-giving words
knowing that a lot of the words would fall on deaf ears
or some would shrivel up in the heat of the community
or be crushed underfoot
The parable of the sower
is not about good or bad soil
but it’s a story about the generosity
the extravagant generosity of the sower himself
He scatters seeds to the winds,
trusting those winds to take those seeds where they need to go
He knows, as Jesus describes it,
that some of the seed will be wasted
but that doesn’t keep him from planting them and sharing them
He knows some of the seed will shrivel up in the heat
and die of thirst
but still he scatters them
According to Jesus’ story, only about ¼ of all those seeds
will take root,
blossom into something worthwhile
and rich and beautiful
and they will grow and produce fruits
and become something much bigger
that the tiny seeds that left the sower’s hands
The seed goes everywhere
The sower doesn’t worry about who will receive it,
how many will truly get it,
or even if all of them in the crowd
are qualified to receive the gift
He just throws it out there for all everywhere
Because it’s not about us,
it’s about him
The sower is always confidant that there will be enough
and more to go around
Which makes me think of how so much of our lives
are governed by the fear
that there won’t be enough
Don’t we sometimes act and live as though
we are afraid that we won’t have enough?
Isn’t that why we sometimes hoard our stash?
Why we sometimes fight to keep others from having the blessings
that we have?
Because if THEY have it, maybe there won’t be enough
for us, too?
We take so much for granted
We’re so used to things being available to us
that we don’t pay attention to the whole process
of how things came to be
If you take a seed, and look at it
any kind of seed
it’s beyond comprehension
how that little tiny seed
is so full of life
Hidden away in its tininess
yet something so tiny will someday
with the right conditions and nurture,
grow into something beautiful
something nourishing and filling
something life-giving
A tiny seed is a very powerful thing
I think Jesus told parables
and stories
to sow seeds in us
If he just gave us everything we needed
and we didn’t have to participate in its growth and nurture
pretty soon we’d just put it on the shelf
and let it die
But he just gives us what we need to get started
he gives us the opportunity
to know the absolute joy and satisfaction
of helping to make something grow
Of working with HIM to create beautiful things
Jesus himself is a parable
We can’t sum him up in a bunch of words
God knows we’ve tried
For centuries, people would convene to try to reduce
the wonder and majesty of all that Jesus is
into a set of principles that we can carry in our pockets
and recite without thinking
But Jesus won’t be confined
I’m learning a lot
call it midlife, whatever
Most of my life has been contained in the world of the church
as a kid, teenager, young adult and whatever I am now
I’ve seen most of the world all those years
within the confines of the church
and sometimes, because I’m a pastor
people tend to want to keep me there
they’ll only talk about certain things
and avoid other subjects
but over the last few years
I’ve learned how important it is to see the rest of the picture
To step outside my box
and think, and see, and imagine from another angle
It’s easy, not just for me, but for anyone
who has spent any amount of years in the church
to use the church as sanctuary from the world
but really, the church is supposed to be a big seed-sowing machine
we’re not supposed to hoard our treasures and gifts here
among ourselves
we’re not supposed to set all those boundaries
between who’s in and who’s out
who’s allowed, and who’s not
We’re supposed to get out there into the world
and sow seeds
scatter them all over the place
Seeds that will blossom and grow
with the Spirit of God
in ways that are beyond our comprehension
We come here to get stocked up on supplies
to be filled up
not to keep our church life
separate from the rest of our lives
but to give the food we need
to get out there and share our resources, our blessings
with the world
with people who don’t speak our language
who don’t know all the code words
or secret handshakes and manners of church life
What seeds do we sow?
If we’re empty, we can’t sow anything
if we’re bitter and stuck in anger and resentment
and spend all our energy on hoarding
than we will only shrivel up and die
in the heat of the sun
But if we open our hands, our hearts,
our arms
to receive the extravagant generosity of God
so that we can leave here
and spread it around wherever we go
there will be more light out there
We all know that when one or two people
get a bug up their butt
and pick fights or arguments
or find everything to complain about
that sows abundant seeds of pain, of discord,
and misery
that is as powerful as any relentless,
life sucking weed
but then we know there’s those people
who can light up a room when they enter
who can share a word of grace
who can exude peace
who can bring people together again
who were previously at each other’s throats
and it spreads like a sweet aroma through the room
and seeps out into the hallways
If we as a church hoard all of good stuff to ourselves
and focus on self-preservation
we won’t be any good to anyone
much less to God
We live in a world
that is always trying to intensify our fears
trying to convince us that we can lose everything
if we don’t hoard it
If we don’t fight
if we don’t shut others out
if we don’t build walls
We are too often motivated by fear of never having enough
when the Sower himself tells us
there is more than enough for everyone
and God chooses to scatter it all over, with reckless abandonment
so that everyone gets a chance to participate
To give light, to give warmth,
to nurture growing life and love and God’s extravagant generosity
Look out your back window
pay attention when you walk out the door
everywhere there are signs of the divine at work
images of God’s overwhelming generosity
And all of it can speak to us of our purpose on this earth
Look at Jesus
look at him again and again
don’t ever think that you have the story down
because Jesus is always moving on ahead of us
opening new doors, making new pathways
planting seeds of new miracles
that he wants us to water and feed
Look again, ask another question,
look at Jesus from another angle
he won’t stay where we can sum him up
but keeps laying a trail of seeds behind him
for us to follow
so that we may discover
the unending beauty and
potential of the life he gives us...
Text: Matthew 13:1-9
Faith United
July 13, 2008
Growing up in New Jersey
these stories and parables made absolutely no sense to me
I had no point of reference
Our lives were so far removed from growing and planting
and sowing and reaping
It was as other-worldly as all the Bible stories
that took place in deserts of the Middle East
stories of people who wore robes and sandals
whose houses were made out of mud
and whose streets were all dirt
I couldn’t relate much to Jesus’ stories at all
but I liked all the Flannel graph pictures in Sunday School
and maps of far-off places
that I could only imagine
Places far removed from my blacktop streets
and concrete sidewalks
and the highway in front of my house
` that was always busy
A lot of people are far removed from Jesus’ stories
they have no clue
but now, in Nebraska
I know a little more about planting and reaping
I know that the idea of a farmer going out
with a sack of seeds
and just throwing them all over the place
on dirt and sand and rock
and occasionally good, rich soil
was an incredible waste of seed
I mean, now I don’t know a lot about farming
but I do know that we have machines
that plants seeds in a particular place
in a particular row of soil
that has been fertilized and treated with nutrients
to help the seeds grow
One afternoon, Jesus walked out his front door
and looked out over the sea
He sat there for awhile
until people discovered him
and disrupted his peace
So much so, that he climbed into a boat
and pushed out into the water
to keep them from invading his personal space
He sat in the back of the boat
looking out over the crowds that had followed him
to the shore
the boat occasionally rocked on the small waves of the water
that were made by other boats
And he just talked
He talked their language
language that they understood
He didn’t give a theological lecture
on practical theology and doctrines of the faith
Instead, he gave them dreams and poems
He gave them images of God’s Kingdom
something far beyond their comprehension
but he described it with images as familiar to them
as the crops in their own fields
"Look out your back window,"
he could have said
"at the things you see everyday
and yet, do you really see them?"
We look out now at the fields of corn growing
maybe the farmers of those fields see the hard work
the worry and the sweat and the re-planting
and all the stress of sowing seeds
in tornado country
but I love to see the corn
it seems so magnificent
beautiful,
waving in the wind
growing visibly day by day
It looks like a miracle
Yeah, you know more than I do
all the work and sweat and hard labor
that went into making those plants grow
but even with that,
it is a miracle
that we can plant seeds in the ground
and they something happens down in that invisible place
in the darkness of soil
that is miraculous
It gets beaten down by hail
and by wind
farmers worry about too much rain or too little
Sowing seeds is a vulnerable thing
we can’t control what happens to those seeds
when we put them in the ground
Maybe those of you who are farmers
often ask yourselves,
why do we do this?
It’s a hard life,
and there’s so much beyond your control
You can fertilize, prepare the ground,
irrigate, do everything you’re supposed to do
and one storm, as you well know,
can ruin all your hard work
Anybody sitting on the beach that day
might have poked his or her neighbor
and said, 'this guy doesn’t know anything about planting
any fool knows you don’t just go out there
and haphazardly throw seeds here and there
and expect a respectable harvest
Anybody would know that you have to find the good soil
you don’t plant on rocks
you make sure there’s enough water
What is this guy talking about?'
I’ve read a lot of sermons on this passage
that say this parable is all about soil
good soil or bad soil
dry and rocky soil
or good, fresh, moist soil
that is good for planting
And I know that sometimes I’m better than at other times
Some days I’m dry
and nothing seems to get through to me
sometimes anything good that comes at me
bumps up against hard and sharp things
in my spirit
that keep the good from growing
Other times I am rich and receptive
to good things
and they blossom and grow and expand
Other days start out good
and hopeful and beautiful
but then something or someone comes along
and chokes the goodness out of it
ruins it
stomps on it, tears it out of the soil
or just sprays toxic chemicals onto it
and I can feel it disintegrate
It’s easy to assume that it’s all about me and you
But Jesus wasn’t talking to individual people
There were all kinds of people in that crowd on that beach
They didn’t have a single mentality
they were coming with their different
frames of reference
and therefore getting something different
out of all that Jesus said
Jesus had a tendency not to speak directly
or just get right to the point
and I hate it when people read his parables
and say, ok, now the POINT of this parable is
this and this and this
because if Jesus only had one point
he could have just stated it
but instead, he told them stories that were rich and full
so that people could come away with all different perspectives
getting out of it what they needed to know and learn
depending on who they were
Jesus’ parables were not just boring, yawning lectures
he used words to tease his audience to think
his words sparked other words
his images gave birth to all kinds of other images
He made you think
he made you participate in the lesson
He threw those stories out there
and let them, lets us, chew on them
think about them
and watch them unfold again and again
He threw out words into the gathering crowds
like a sower throwing seeds onto the ground
some couldn’t care less who he was, what he said
others came, thirsty, open, empty, receptive
to the quenching nature of his voice
Some came angry and all tied up
and like weeds in a garden or field
their anger and bitterness and brokenness
choked the life out of Jesus words before they could even land
But that didn’t stop him
He just kept giving, and talking, and pouring out
words—generous, life-giving words
knowing that a lot of the words would fall on deaf ears
or some would shrivel up in the heat of the community
or be crushed underfoot
The parable of the sower
is not about good or bad soil
but it’s a story about the generosity
the extravagant generosity of the sower himself
He scatters seeds to the winds,
trusting those winds to take those seeds where they need to go
He knows, as Jesus describes it,
that some of the seed will be wasted
but that doesn’t keep him from planting them and sharing them
He knows some of the seed will shrivel up in the heat
and die of thirst
but still he scatters them
According to Jesus’ story, only about ¼ of all those seeds
will take root,
blossom into something worthwhile
and rich and beautiful
and they will grow and produce fruits
and become something much bigger
that the tiny seeds that left the sower’s hands
The seed goes everywhere
The sower doesn’t worry about who will receive it,
how many will truly get it,
or even if all of them in the crowd
are qualified to receive the gift
He just throws it out there for all everywhere
Because it’s not about us,
it’s about him
The sower is always confidant that there will be enough
and more to go around
Which makes me think of how so much of our lives
are governed by the fear
that there won’t be enough
Don’t we sometimes act and live as though
we are afraid that we won’t have enough?
Isn’t that why we sometimes hoard our stash?
Why we sometimes fight to keep others from having the blessings
that we have?
Because if THEY have it, maybe there won’t be enough
for us, too?
We take so much for granted
We’re so used to things being available to us
that we don’t pay attention to the whole process
of how things came to be
If you take a seed, and look at it
any kind of seed
it’s beyond comprehension
how that little tiny seed
is so full of life
Hidden away in its tininess
yet something so tiny will someday
with the right conditions and nurture,
grow into something beautiful
something nourishing and filling
something life-giving
A tiny seed is a very powerful thing
I think Jesus told parables
and stories
to sow seeds in us
If he just gave us everything we needed
and we didn’t have to participate in its growth and nurture
pretty soon we’d just put it on the shelf
and let it die
But he just gives us what we need to get started
he gives us the opportunity
to know the absolute joy and satisfaction
of helping to make something grow
Of working with HIM to create beautiful things
Jesus himself is a parable
We can’t sum him up in a bunch of words
God knows we’ve tried
For centuries, people would convene to try to reduce
the wonder and majesty of all that Jesus is
into a set of principles that we can carry in our pockets
and recite without thinking
But Jesus won’t be confined
I’m learning a lot
call it midlife, whatever
Most of my life has been contained in the world of the church
as a kid, teenager, young adult and whatever I am now
I’ve seen most of the world all those years
within the confines of the church
and sometimes, because I’m a pastor
people tend to want to keep me there
they’ll only talk about certain things
and avoid other subjects
but over the last few years
I’ve learned how important it is to see the rest of the picture
To step outside my box
and think, and see, and imagine from another angle
It’s easy, not just for me, but for anyone
who has spent any amount of years in the church
to use the church as sanctuary from the world
but really, the church is supposed to be a big seed-sowing machine
we’re not supposed to hoard our treasures and gifts here
among ourselves
we’re not supposed to set all those boundaries
between who’s in and who’s out
who’s allowed, and who’s not
We’re supposed to get out there into the world
and sow seeds
scatter them all over the place
Seeds that will blossom and grow
with the Spirit of God
in ways that are beyond our comprehension
We come here to get stocked up on supplies
to be filled up
not to keep our church life
separate from the rest of our lives
but to give the food we need
to get out there and share our resources, our blessings
with the world
with people who don’t speak our language
who don’t know all the code words
or secret handshakes and manners of church life
What seeds do we sow?
If we’re empty, we can’t sow anything
if we’re bitter and stuck in anger and resentment
and spend all our energy on hoarding
than we will only shrivel up and die
in the heat of the sun
But if we open our hands, our hearts,
our arms
to receive the extravagant generosity of God
so that we can leave here
and spread it around wherever we go
there will be more light out there
We all know that when one or two people
get a bug up their butt
and pick fights or arguments
or find everything to complain about
that sows abundant seeds of pain, of discord,
and misery
that is as powerful as any relentless,
life sucking weed
but then we know there’s those people
who can light up a room when they enter
who can share a word of grace
who can exude peace
who can bring people together again
who were previously at each other’s throats
and it spreads like a sweet aroma through the room
and seeps out into the hallways
If we as a church hoard all of good stuff to ourselves
and focus on self-preservation
we won’t be any good to anyone
much less to God
We live in a world
that is always trying to intensify our fears
trying to convince us that we can lose everything
if we don’t hoard it
If we don’t fight
if we don’t shut others out
if we don’t build walls
We are too often motivated by fear of never having enough
when the Sower himself tells us
there is more than enough for everyone
and God chooses to scatter it all over, with reckless abandonment
so that everyone gets a chance to participate
To give light, to give warmth,
to nurture growing life and love and God’s extravagant generosity
Look out your back window
pay attention when you walk out the door
everywhere there are signs of the divine at work
images of God’s overwhelming generosity
And all of it can speak to us of our purpose on this earth
Look at Jesus
look at him again and again
don’t ever think that you have the story down
because Jesus is always moving on ahead of us
opening new doors, making new pathways
planting seeds of new miracles
that he wants us to water and feed
Look again, ask another question,
look at Jesus from another angle
he won’t stay where we can sum him up
but keeps laying a trail of seeds behind him
for us to follow
so that we may discover
the unending beauty and
potential of the life he gives us...
Sunday, July 6, 2008
And The Truth Shall Set You Free...
“WE SHALL BE FREE”
Text: John 8:31-36
Faith United
July 6, 2008
I’ve been in the church
since conception,
since I was listening to hymns
through my mother’s belly button
so I know the language
of the Church very well
and all the special code words of the United Methodist Church
like UMW, SPRC, UMM, UMCOR
but I also know the Christian dialect
as well as I know English
There are words and phrases in our vocabulary
that we take for granted
words that we repeat again and again
like the pass word into a clubhouse
but we rarely think about their meaning
because we take their meaning for granted
and we do that as citizens too
This is the weekend where we celebrate our country’s birthday
and we celebrate freedom
We’re thankful for our freedom
We celebrate the ones who have fought for that freedom
But do you ever stop and think
what does freedom mean?
What IS it?
What is freedom?
What are we celebrating? Do we know?
What do we mean when we say the word freedom?
Freedom of speech?
Freedom of religion?
Freedom to vote in a democracy?
Freedom to own property,
get an education, pursue a career?
What is the freedom that we are willing to die for?
I looked up freedom
and there is no single definition --
in fact, on dictionary.com
I found 20 different meanings for freedom
It’s one of those words that means different things
to different people
Just like “truth”
Jesus said to his people
“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples,
and you shall know the truth
and the truth shall set you free.”
What truth?
Did anyone ask?
I’d want to know… Jesus, what will set me free?
What is the truth?
Later, when Jesus was brought before Pontius Pilate
as Pilate tried to figure out
what this man did so wrong
that people wanted him to die
Pilate asked Jesus, “are you a king?”
And Jesus said, “You say that I am a king.
For this I was born and for this I came into the world,
to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
And Pilate asked the question
that was never really answered
“What is truth?”
The question just hung in the air
Jesus didn’t answer him
And so the question hung in the silence
What is truth?
I looked up the word truth
and the first thing that it said
was that there is no single definition
that scholars can agree on
No one can agree on what truth means
but there are 15 definitions
in the dictionary
so they gave it a good try
What truth was Jesus talking about?
What truth was he born to testify?
What were all those sermons for?
All that teaching to the crowds
in the cities and in the countryside
What was Jesus testifying to? and for?
Someone might say, well, the truth is that Jesus died for our sins
so that we can be free
Ok, what does that mean?
Free from what?
If I’m sounding like the devil’s advocate here
it’s because I’m finding more and more
that fewer and fewer people know the code words
know the language
that I’ve known since I was a fetus
And so we can’t just say the words
we have to say what we mean
we have to say what those words mean to us
How those words
those old, old words, give our lives meaning and hope
I’ve always told Sarah to tell me the truth
she knows that one of the worst things she can do
is lie to me
I don’t like being lied to
Even if the truth hurts or I don’t like it
I prefer the harsh truth rather than a lie
The people that Jesus was talking to
had been life-long Jews
they knew the language, too,
since they were in the womb
So they didn’t like him coming along
and trying to teach them something new
“And you shall know the truth and the truth will make you free.”
Well, they said, “we don’t need to be free…
we are descendents of Abraham,
and have never been slaves to anyone…”
Whoa… excuse me?
Never been slaves to anyone?
First of all, at that time, the Jews were living in a land
occupied by the Romans
the Romans were running their country
making all the rules
inflicting punishments, keeping the Jews in line
The Jews’ country was being occupied
by a foreign power
They’ve never been slaves to anyone?
What about the 400 years that their ancestors
were slaves in Egypt??
Hello?
They were descendents of Abraham THEN,
but for 4 centuries, they were slaves to the Egyptians
owned like property
forced to do back-breaking labor every day
Have you ever met someone who was in serious denial?
We’ve never been slaves…
when in fact, most of their history
was defined by slavery and oppression
What would it cost them to tell the truth
the truth that Jesus already knew?
He was a Jew, too
Any good Jew knew their history
knew that their people had been slaves for centuries
had been a conquered people again and again
Sometimes the truth is terrifying, isn’t it?
What do we say-- “no news is good news”?
We’d rather not know the truth
even if we have a good inkling of it
As long as we don’t know, or don’t admit it,
then we don’t have to do anything about it
We don’t have to deal with it
but if we know the truth,
we have to respond
and sometimes that is just too frightening
Most families have secrets
that they don’t tell
that they try to forget themselves
as if forgetting will make it go away
For a people who live with so much freedom
we sure do bind ourselves up, don’t we?
Sometimes we don’t want to be free
We don’t want to know or to tell the truth
because if people reject that,
then what else do we have?
Truth is scary
Freedom can be terrifying
It might demand something of us
that we don’t feel capable of giving
Former President Bill Clinton tells of his first meeting ever
with Nelson Mandela
after he’d become the leader of South Africa
Clinton said to him,
“When you were released from prison, Mr. Mandela,
I woke my daughter up at 3 in the morning
I wanted her to see this historic event
As you marched from the cellblock across the yard
to the gate of the prison,
the camera focused on your face.
I have never seen such anger, and even hatred
in any man as was expressed on your face
at that time.
That’s not the Nelson Mandela I know today
what was that about?” he asked
Mandela answered,
“I’m surprised that you saw that,
and I regret that the cameras caught it on tape.
As I walked across that courtyard that day
I thought to myself,
they’ve taken everything from you that matters.
your cause is dead
Your family is gone
Your friends have been killed
Now they’re releasing you, but there’s nothing left for you
out there…
“And,” he said, “then I sensed an inner voice
saying to me, ‘Nelson! For 27 years
you were their prisoner,
but you were always a free man!
Don’t allow them to make you into a free man,
only to turn you into their prisoner!”
Mandela felt he was faced with a choice
He could be bitter and angry
for all those years of imprisonment
and really, in that way, he’d never be free
He realized that even after everything
that he’d been through,
in order for him to live in freedom
he had to forgive, to let it go….
We are a people of great freedom,
and yet, we are still enslaved in so many ways
What is it that enslaves us?
Secrets?
Something that happened a long time ago
that we can’t talk about?
And yet it eats at us all the time…
Or is it just not being able to be ourselves?
To live truthfully, openly,
risking rejection, risking the people we love
turning away in disgust?
‘If they only knew me, really…’
And I’m not advocating us all going out
and writing Tell-All books
to exploit pain and sorrow for profit
I’m talking about allowing God to set us free
God offers us so much freedom
and yet we so often choose bondage
The Jews were slaves for much of their history
they knew slavery,
they knew bondage,
they knew sorrow and despair
And so, at the time of Jesus,
even as they were no longer slaves
but still living under Roman rule
they denied any sense of slavery, any bondage
when in fact, they were bound to the law
They used the laws of God
to bind themselves up, to bind up others
to keep others out, and to define who was in
Their relationship with God
was supposed to set them free
and yet time and time again, they used it to bind themselves
and others up
Do we do that?
Are we ever bound up in our religion?
Do we ever use it to deny ourselves joy?
Do deny ourselves freedom and beauty?
Do we withhold ourselves
from the people that love us the most
because we’re afraid that if they knew the whole truth
they’d turn away?
Sometimes they do
and maybe that’s why we don’t trust in the truth anymore
But we celebrate Freedom
freedom that is very costly in so many ways
freedom that throughout history
has cost human lives
yet even as we celebrate freedom
we continue to live in bondage
whether it’s external or internal
as if we don’t trust ourselves or trust each other, or even God
We all have those things inside of us that we struggle against
We all have those things inside of us
that we’re sure are too ugly to share
that people who know us would be shocked if they knew
And Jesus says,
“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples
and you will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free.”
God knows you better than anyone
and yet God never turns away
no matter what
We might turn away from God
because we think that God would be so disappointed
in us --and yet we can’t keep secrets from God
Jesus is speaking to people
who use the many gifts of God to torture themselves
with guilt, with obsessive-compulsive behavior
because for a people who are so used to being enslaved,
freedom can be terrifying --
all that wide open space
with endless possibilities
yikes!
“Everyone who belongs to the truth
listens to my voice,” Jesus told Pilate
“For this I was born, and for this I came into the world
to testify to the truth…”
Jesus embodies truth
and with Pontius Piliate we might say,
“Ok, but what is truth?”
And this weekend, every year
I want to ask, “what is freedom?”
It would be lovely
if Jesus would just hand us the answers
simple and clear
THIS is the truth, and he hands it over
But he never lets us get off that easy
He’s given us a lifetime
to learn
a lifetime to listen, to see,
to look closer, to relate to all kinds of people
to get hurt and to learn to forgive
to suffer loss and come through the other side
He’s given us a lifetime to unwrap the truth
and we do that by living with him
living in relationship to him
who embodies truth
he came into the world
to testify with his whole life and being
what is truth
and so we are invited on that journey with him
To let go, to open our clenched fists
to consider that we DON’T have all the answers
that we DON’T know everything
but are willing to learn
We are invited into a life of love
and that is never dull
it’s never perfectly smooth or predictable
in fact, it can be absolutely terrifying
but Jesus says he’s with us always
He faced Pontius Pilate, who had the power to release him
he could have proved himself in that moment
he could have shown all his credentials
“do you know who I am?” he could have said
“If you knew who I am, you wouldn’t dare have me killed,”
he could have said,
he could have saved his own life
Instead, he didn’t say a word
What is truth?
Truth was standing right before Pilate
in all its fullness,
in love that would lay down his very life
for the world
Love that was so powerful
that it would transcend death
and bring life that cannot be finally vanquished
We have a lot of freedom as Americans
that make us very fortunate
but I don’t believe any of us are truly free
we are bound up in so many ways
The gospel group, the Blind Boys of Alabama
have a song that says,
“none of us are free if one of us is chained.”
And of course, that contemporary prophet Garth Brooks
says that we will be free
when all of our brothers and sisters on the earth are free
“When the last child cries for a crust of bread,
when the last man dies for just words that he said
when there’s shelter over the poorest head
we shall be free…
When the last thing we notice is the color of skin
and the first thing we look for is the beauty within
when the skies and the oceans are clean again
we shall be free…
When we’re free to love anyone we choose
when this worlds big enough for all different views
when we all can worship from our own kind of pews
then we shall be free…
When money talks for the very last time
and nobody walks a step behind
when there’s only one race, and that’s humankind
then we shall be free…”
We’re not free
But we’re getting there
we just need to get out of our own way
and let God set us free
again and again
Let God work
in your life and in the lives of those around you
get out of the way
This weekend we celebrate freedom
let’s live the rest of the year living out that freedom
and trusting in the truth that God offers in Jesus Christ
and whether it’s in this lifetime
or in some distant future
that we’ll only see from the vantage point of eternity
We will be free
God doesn’t give up
and God won’t stop till everyone finds their place
at the table….
Text: John 8:31-36
Faith United
July 6, 2008
I’ve been in the church
since conception,
since I was listening to hymns
through my mother’s belly button
so I know the language
of the Church very well
and all the special code words of the United Methodist Church
like UMW, SPRC, UMM, UMCOR
but I also know the Christian dialect
as well as I know English
There are words and phrases in our vocabulary
that we take for granted
words that we repeat again and again
like the pass word into a clubhouse
but we rarely think about their meaning
because we take their meaning for granted
and we do that as citizens too
This is the weekend where we celebrate our country’s birthday
and we celebrate freedom
We’re thankful for our freedom
We celebrate the ones who have fought for that freedom
But do you ever stop and think
what does freedom mean?
What IS it?
What is freedom?
What are we celebrating? Do we know?
What do we mean when we say the word freedom?
Freedom of speech?
Freedom of religion?
Freedom to vote in a democracy?
Freedom to own property,
get an education, pursue a career?
What is the freedom that we are willing to die for?
I looked up freedom
and there is no single definition --
in fact, on dictionary.com
I found 20 different meanings for freedom
It’s one of those words that means different things
to different people
Just like “truth”
Jesus said to his people
“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples,
and you shall know the truth
and the truth shall set you free.”
What truth?
Did anyone ask?
I’d want to know… Jesus, what will set me free?
What is the truth?
Later, when Jesus was brought before Pontius Pilate
as Pilate tried to figure out
what this man did so wrong
that people wanted him to die
Pilate asked Jesus, “are you a king?”
And Jesus said, “You say that I am a king.
For this I was born and for this I came into the world,
to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
And Pilate asked the question
that was never really answered
“What is truth?”
The question just hung in the air
Jesus didn’t answer him
And so the question hung in the silence
What is truth?
I looked up the word truth
and the first thing that it said
was that there is no single definition
that scholars can agree on
No one can agree on what truth means
but there are 15 definitions
in the dictionary
so they gave it a good try
What truth was Jesus talking about?
What truth was he born to testify?
What were all those sermons for?
All that teaching to the crowds
in the cities and in the countryside
What was Jesus testifying to? and for?
Someone might say, well, the truth is that Jesus died for our sins
so that we can be free
Ok, what does that mean?
Free from what?
If I’m sounding like the devil’s advocate here
it’s because I’m finding more and more
that fewer and fewer people know the code words
know the language
that I’ve known since I was a fetus
And so we can’t just say the words
we have to say what we mean
we have to say what those words mean to us
How those words
those old, old words, give our lives meaning and hope
I’ve always told Sarah to tell me the truth
she knows that one of the worst things she can do
is lie to me
I don’t like being lied to
Even if the truth hurts or I don’t like it
I prefer the harsh truth rather than a lie
The people that Jesus was talking to
had been life-long Jews
they knew the language, too,
since they were in the womb
So they didn’t like him coming along
and trying to teach them something new
“And you shall know the truth and the truth will make you free.”
Well, they said, “we don’t need to be free…
we are descendents of Abraham,
and have never been slaves to anyone…”
Whoa… excuse me?
Never been slaves to anyone?
First of all, at that time, the Jews were living in a land
occupied by the Romans
the Romans were running their country
making all the rules
inflicting punishments, keeping the Jews in line
The Jews’ country was being occupied
by a foreign power
They’ve never been slaves to anyone?
What about the 400 years that their ancestors
were slaves in Egypt??
Hello?
They were descendents of Abraham THEN,
but for 4 centuries, they were slaves to the Egyptians
owned like property
forced to do back-breaking labor every day
Have you ever met someone who was in serious denial?
We’ve never been slaves…
when in fact, most of their history
was defined by slavery and oppression
What would it cost them to tell the truth
the truth that Jesus already knew?
He was a Jew, too
Any good Jew knew their history
knew that their people had been slaves for centuries
had been a conquered people again and again
Sometimes the truth is terrifying, isn’t it?
What do we say-- “no news is good news”?
We’d rather not know the truth
even if we have a good inkling of it
As long as we don’t know, or don’t admit it,
then we don’t have to do anything about it
We don’t have to deal with it
but if we know the truth,
we have to respond
and sometimes that is just too frightening
Most families have secrets
that they don’t tell
that they try to forget themselves
as if forgetting will make it go away
For a people who live with so much freedom
we sure do bind ourselves up, don’t we?
Sometimes we don’t want to be free
We don’t want to know or to tell the truth
because if people reject that,
then what else do we have?
Truth is scary
Freedom can be terrifying
It might demand something of us
that we don’t feel capable of giving
Former President Bill Clinton tells of his first meeting ever
with Nelson Mandela
after he’d become the leader of South Africa
Clinton said to him,
“When you were released from prison, Mr. Mandela,
I woke my daughter up at 3 in the morning
I wanted her to see this historic event
As you marched from the cellblock across the yard
to the gate of the prison,
the camera focused on your face.
I have never seen such anger, and even hatred
in any man as was expressed on your face
at that time.
That’s not the Nelson Mandela I know today
what was that about?” he asked
Mandela answered,
“I’m surprised that you saw that,
and I regret that the cameras caught it on tape.
As I walked across that courtyard that day
I thought to myself,
they’ve taken everything from you that matters.
your cause is dead
Your family is gone
Your friends have been killed
Now they’re releasing you, but there’s nothing left for you
out there…
“And,” he said, “then I sensed an inner voice
saying to me, ‘Nelson! For 27 years
you were their prisoner,
but you were always a free man!
Don’t allow them to make you into a free man,
only to turn you into their prisoner!”
Mandela felt he was faced with a choice
He could be bitter and angry
for all those years of imprisonment
and really, in that way, he’d never be free
He realized that even after everything
that he’d been through,
in order for him to live in freedom
he had to forgive, to let it go….
We are a people of great freedom,
and yet, we are still enslaved in so many ways
What is it that enslaves us?
Secrets?
Something that happened a long time ago
that we can’t talk about?
And yet it eats at us all the time…
Or is it just not being able to be ourselves?
To live truthfully, openly,
risking rejection, risking the people we love
turning away in disgust?
‘If they only knew me, really…’
And I’m not advocating us all going out
and writing Tell-All books
to exploit pain and sorrow for profit
I’m talking about allowing God to set us free
God offers us so much freedom
and yet we so often choose bondage
The Jews were slaves for much of their history
they knew slavery,
they knew bondage,
they knew sorrow and despair
And so, at the time of Jesus,
even as they were no longer slaves
but still living under Roman rule
they denied any sense of slavery, any bondage
when in fact, they were bound to the law
They used the laws of God
to bind themselves up, to bind up others
to keep others out, and to define who was in
Their relationship with God
was supposed to set them free
and yet time and time again, they used it to bind themselves
and others up
Do we do that?
Are we ever bound up in our religion?
Do we ever use it to deny ourselves joy?
Do deny ourselves freedom and beauty?
Do we withhold ourselves
from the people that love us the most
because we’re afraid that if they knew the whole truth
they’d turn away?
Sometimes they do
and maybe that’s why we don’t trust in the truth anymore
But we celebrate Freedom
freedom that is very costly in so many ways
freedom that throughout history
has cost human lives
yet even as we celebrate freedom
we continue to live in bondage
whether it’s external or internal
as if we don’t trust ourselves or trust each other, or even God
We all have those things inside of us that we struggle against
We all have those things inside of us
that we’re sure are too ugly to share
that people who know us would be shocked if they knew
And Jesus says,
“If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples
and you will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free.”
God knows you better than anyone
and yet God never turns away
no matter what
We might turn away from God
because we think that God would be so disappointed
in us --and yet we can’t keep secrets from God
Jesus is speaking to people
who use the many gifts of God to torture themselves
with guilt, with obsessive-compulsive behavior
because for a people who are so used to being enslaved,
freedom can be terrifying --
all that wide open space
with endless possibilities
yikes!
“Everyone who belongs to the truth
listens to my voice,” Jesus told Pilate
“For this I was born, and for this I came into the world
to testify to the truth…”
Jesus embodies truth
and with Pontius Piliate we might say,
“Ok, but what is truth?”
And this weekend, every year
I want to ask, “what is freedom?”
It would be lovely
if Jesus would just hand us the answers
simple and clear
THIS is the truth, and he hands it over
But he never lets us get off that easy
He’s given us a lifetime
to learn
a lifetime to listen, to see,
to look closer, to relate to all kinds of people
to get hurt and to learn to forgive
to suffer loss and come through the other side
He’s given us a lifetime to unwrap the truth
and we do that by living with him
living in relationship to him
who embodies truth
he came into the world
to testify with his whole life and being
what is truth
and so we are invited on that journey with him
To let go, to open our clenched fists
to consider that we DON’T have all the answers
that we DON’T know everything
but are willing to learn
We are invited into a life of love
and that is never dull
it’s never perfectly smooth or predictable
in fact, it can be absolutely terrifying
but Jesus says he’s with us always
He faced Pontius Pilate, who had the power to release him
he could have proved himself in that moment
he could have shown all his credentials
“do you know who I am?” he could have said
“If you knew who I am, you wouldn’t dare have me killed,”
he could have said,
he could have saved his own life
Instead, he didn’t say a word
What is truth?
Truth was standing right before Pilate
in all its fullness,
in love that would lay down his very life
for the world
Love that was so powerful
that it would transcend death
and bring life that cannot be finally vanquished
We have a lot of freedom as Americans
that make us very fortunate
but I don’t believe any of us are truly free
we are bound up in so many ways
The gospel group, the Blind Boys of Alabama
have a song that says,
“none of us are free if one of us is chained.”
And of course, that contemporary prophet Garth Brooks
says that we will be free
when all of our brothers and sisters on the earth are free
“When the last child cries for a crust of bread,
when the last man dies for just words that he said
when there’s shelter over the poorest head
we shall be free…
When the last thing we notice is the color of skin
and the first thing we look for is the beauty within
when the skies and the oceans are clean again
we shall be free…
When we’re free to love anyone we choose
when this worlds big enough for all different views
when we all can worship from our own kind of pews
then we shall be free…
When money talks for the very last time
and nobody walks a step behind
when there’s only one race, and that’s humankind
then we shall be free…”
We’re not free
But we’re getting there
we just need to get out of our own way
and let God set us free
again and again
Let God work
in your life and in the lives of those around you
get out of the way
This weekend we celebrate freedom
let’s live the rest of the year living out that freedom
and trusting in the truth that God offers in Jesus Christ
and whether it’s in this lifetime
or in some distant future
that we’ll only see from the vantage point of eternity
We will be free
God doesn’t give up
and God won’t stop till everyone finds their place
at the table….
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