Sermon March 21, 2010

“Rivers in the Desert and Perfumed Feet” Isaiah 43:16-21, Psalm 126, John 12:1-8 (selections)

“When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.”

Thus starts the song “It Is Well With My Soul,” which was written after personal tragedy. It took me a long time to hear the difference in the two lines, and realize they were two separate ideas:

Whether peace is with me, OR sorrow flows over me, I say “It is Well with my Soul.”

For our church family, we've had a lot of the second this week, with three deaths, tears and sorrow have been flowing. Because of that, I've made a choice to focus on the first in today's worship. We need the peace, and joy, and goodness. Luckily, the texts today – unlike the standard Lenten texts – feed us with what we need.

The Gospel lesson today is just a little bit different then the story as we sometimes hear it. The Gospel of John tells a story VERY similar to the synoptics, EXCEPT that it is Mary the sister of Lazarus who is anointing Jesus, and not a prostitute like it is in the synoptics. This is a woman who is consistently presented as knowing the right way to be with Jesus. She's the one who sat at his feet, and received praise for doing so. And now she is the one who understands that the best thing she can do is annoint him and bless him.

Footnotes in study Bibles let you know that 300 denarii was a year's wages for the average person in those times. The extravagance is outstanding. She basically pours a $20,000 container of perfume/moisturizer on his FEET and cleaned them with her hair. I'm not sure I can imagine a more profound action.

The Gospel of John, with its poetic imagery and profound language, intends to leave us SMELLING this story. Did you hear the line “The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume”?

Really, the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume as it interacted with the body of Jesus. The same perfume smells differently on different bodies, right? So we're lead to wonder, in this passage, about the fragrance of Christ. His body combined with expensive, pure, oily, essential perfume: filled the whole space with its scent. Sweet, intense, fragrance of the body of Christ. The perfume, then, becomes both itself and the symbol of the smell of Christ. That the most expensive of all oils, poured in great excess over him and combined with him creates the smell that approximates the true goodness of Christ.

I've been pondering this week, what I would associate as the smell of God. For me, the answer seems to be: water. Water, in theory, has no smell, but in function it does. The smell of the ocean is pungent. The smell of each river is distinct. Even streams have a smell. Somewhere in the goodness of the smell of moving water I find a connection to the smell of God.

That was one of the hard parts of living in the desert for me, there wasn't moving water anywhere to be found. Water in the desert is so very clearly the same thing as life in the desert. Where there are sprinklers in LA, the ground is dry pebbly sand, and nothing grows from it. (And the climate of LA is similar to the climate of Jerusalem.) In the winter, in LA, the rains fall, and the desert blooms. The water brings life where there seemed to be no life. But when the rain stops, the life goes back into hiding. And really, even the amazing bloom of the desert is stark in contrast to life here, with abundance of water. The amount of water in a place is in direct correlation to the amount of LIFE in a place. Water equals life.

So, when we hear in the Psalm and our Isaiah passage that God will bring RIVERS into the desert, we are hearing that God will transform the live-less land into a place of abundant life and profound goodness. There is no desert where there is a river. The desert stops being desert – and that's the promise God is making in the midst of the desert. It seems we come again to “when sorrows like sea billows roll.... it IS well with my soul.”

I was never very good at praying out in the desert. My throat would be parched and my skin burning and the sun would shine too brightly into my eyes. My friends who grew up in the desert were frustrated with me that I couldn't sink into the beauty of the starkness. I could see it, but it was always so unfamiliar to me that it made it harder to pray. It does, however, make it easy to connect with God as the living water, and to think about God as the drink that quenches all thirst.

And, again, since I can smell God in water, it becomes possible for me to consider the SMELL of the living water, and the joy that would come with that smell when truly thirsty in the desert. Even drinking in the SMELL of the water could fill a soul with hope, and fill in the places of fear and worry.

My brother and I took the hike of lifetime once. It was suggested to us that we go to Prarie Creek Redwood State Park and hike the James Irvine trail. That far up north CA is a totally different place. The redwoods themselves have a scent that is indescribably beautiful, if you ever have the chance, I'd encourage you to go see and smell them. The trail we hiked ran through the redwoods, down into “Fern Canyon”, out to the beach of the Pacific Ocean, and the back to the trailhead through more redwoods. The entire day was amazing. But today I want to talk about that Fern Canyon.

The state park website puts it this way:
Dim and quiet, wrapped in mist and silence, the redwoods roof a moist and mysterious world. Park trails meander over lush ground and the walker is treated to the cool feeling and fragrance of wood and water.

A couple beautiful “fern canyons” are found along the North Coast, but the Fern Canyon in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is undoubtedly the most awe-inspiring. Five-finger, deer, lady, sword, and chain ferns smother the precipitous walls of the canyon. Bright yellow monkeyflowers abound, as well as fairy lanterns, those creamy white, or greenish, bell-shaped flowers that hang in clusters. Ferns are descendants of an ancient group of plants which were much more numerous 200 million years ago. Ferns have roots and stems similar to flowering plants, but are considered to be a primitive form of plant life because they reproduce by spores, not seeds.

In Fern Canyon you hear water slowly dripping down stone walls, cushioned by vibrant green plants. The floor is pebbles, flat and easy to walk on. The Redwoods shoot high, starting at the top of the canyon walls and going on forever. It is so green you can't believe it with all the walls covered in ferns. (You don't get the color, but you get the coverage on the cover of your bulletin.) And the smell, that's what got me to remembering Fern Canyon this week. All at once you can smell the ferns – with their light, bright, vital scent, and the water, with its freshness and coolness, and the redwoods … that smell like … like wisdom, and the lightest waft of the ocean too, as its less than a mile away. The smell in that place, along with the beauty and peace that it inspired, lead me to say that Fern Canyon comes the closest in my life to smelling of God.

Our God is water in the desert. Our God fills our souls when nothing else is doing it. Our God offers us beauty for all of our senses, as reminders of God's own goodness. Go out from this place, my friends, and use all of your senses to let God fill up your souls.

Amen

Sermon March 14, 2010

“ Manna, Pig Pods, Feasts” Joshua 5:9-12, Luke 15:11b-32 3/14/10

For many of us the prodigal is such a familiar story that we tune it out. “Yeah, yeah, I know that one.” For the sake of hearing it anew, and maybe even a little bit differently, we're going to try it in modern times and with women:
There was baker, a woman in her late forties, who had two daughters, both of them worked with her in her two bakeries. The younger one said to her one day, “I'm sick of this and I'm sick of you. When you die, I'll get one of the bakeries. Sell it now and give me the money so I can live the life I want!” The mother did so, and the daughter went off far away, and wasted all the money just before a recession hit.
She found herself in dire straights, desperate, hurting, and degrading herself to make enough money to almost fill her belly. When she came to her senses, she decided to go home. She knew she wasn't going to be daughter to her mother anymore, but at least she could work in the bakery and have some dignity and a full belly. She prepared her words all the long journey home, “I've hurt you and I've hurt God. I'm no daughter of yours. But, I beg of you, let me just wash dishes and sweep floors under your watch.”
Her mother, though, heard she was coming, and ran out to meet her with arms open. She kissed her daughter and cried with joy. When the daughter tried to start her well-worked speech, the mother called to the bakery workers, “Find my daughter's chef jacket, and some better shoes. Get out cakes and cookies, and the good champagne in the back of the fridge! My daughter, who was dead to me, is home and alive! She was lost, but now she is found!
So the party began, but the older daughter, the one who had been loyal and faithful, couldn't just look the other way. She was sulking outside when her mother found her. The daughter said, “I've been here working and you've never given me a bag of cookies to take with me to a party, but when SHE comes back you empty out the whole display case for her! She's been off being a whore and you throw her a party!”
The mother was persistent though. “My daughter, you miss the point! You work by my side day by day, and all that is mine is in fact yours! You have the choice to take cookies whenever you wish! But right now we have to celebrate! Your sister was dead and now she's alive. We lost her, but now she's home again!”


There are three deep truths about forgiveness in this prodigal story. I would remind you that the word prodigal means excessive – and speaks both to the younger child's spending AND the parent's generosity! The younger child, in the midst of utter failure, and living a life that degrades, still struggles to turn around and go home. It doesn't even seem like an option until all of a sudden she sees herself and the situation she is in clearly. Once she lets herself see it, she also realizes that it isn't the way it has to be. She doesn't expect the forgiveness, that's clear in the story. But she realizes that whatever she's done, she doesn't have to live degraded forever. I like the phrasing “when she came to her senses.” Before there can be forgiveness, we have to realize what we've done and what impact it has had. That sudden awakening is the first step, and nothing can happen beyond it.

Secondly, the parent figure in this story is totally over the top with generosity. There is no doubt that this is a God-figure, willing to let the child have free will, and willing to accept the child back with unbelievable joy, and without imposing guilt. Few human parents could be so unconditionally generous. What an image it gives us of God! This parent-figure is so delighted to have the child alive and found that the child can't even speak the words of guilt and remorse. The parent already knows, and the forgiveness is running out to meet the child. How good it is to be a child of this kind of parent!

Finally, the older child speaks to us another truth. If you notice, the story leaves a cliff-hanger. Does the older child go into the party? Can she forgive? Can she rejoice? Does she hear her mother's statement that she and mother are one? Does she realize that staying home, working hard, and being part of the family IS part of her reward – that a life well lived is something her sister is jealous of? It is my guess that we aren't told because its our choice. We live this story over and over – in all the roles. But in the end, we have choices about how we play them.

I just finished reading Desmond Tutu's No Future Without Forgiveness. He tells the story of his work with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. The commission hear the stories of victims and perpetrators during decades of violence under the rule of apartheid. Many were kidnapped, tortured, raped, and killed – often never to be found during those years. The commission, however, did not punish. Instead, anyone willing to share the whole truth of what they had done was granted amnesty from future prosecution. Even the way this was carried was highly controversial, but the leaders of the government were some of the most prosecuted victims of apartheid, and they choose the way forward. They intentionally did not follow a Nuremberg trial model, which was not truly an option because there had not been a war with a victor. But, in any cause they were intending instead to build stable peace in a land where almost all were victims and very many were perpetrators. So punishing was not going to help – and it would probably keep the truth from coming out. They also intentionally chose not to ignore what had happened and bury it under the rug. They believed that damage had been done and to ignore it would mean that it would rise again later.

So, they set up ways to listen, they heard stories. People willing to say what they had done and ask forgiveness were granted amnesty. They found, to their astonishment, that more people were able to offer forgiveness (for terrible wrongs) then the number willing to ask.

The power to name what has been done is immense! It is like the moment when the younger child comes to her senses. To share the story, and say you are sorry, does make a real difference.

In South Africa, as well, there were monetary sums paid to the victims, recompense for their losses. The intention was not to buy it away, but acknowledge that it had been.

The whole book is a stance for restorative justice (rather than retributive). The country had lived escalating violence for decades, and they choose to step out of it, to speak of it, to forgive, to remember, and then to try to move forward.

Bishop Tutu offers these reflections:
“God does not give up on anyone, for God loved us from all eternity, God loves us now and God will always love us, all of us good and bad, forever and ever. His love will not let us go, for God's love for us, all of us, good and bad, is unchanging, is unchangable. Someone has said there is nothing I can do to make God love me more, for God loves me perfectly already. And wonderfully, there is nothing I can do to make God love me less. God loves me as I am to help me become all that I have it in me to become, and when I realize the deep love God has for me, I will strive for love's sake to do what pleases my Lover. Those who think this opens the door for moral laxity have obviously never been in love, for love is much more demanding than law. An exhausted mother, ready to drop dead into bed, will think nothing of sitting the whole night through by the bed of her sick child.”1
As God forgives, so are we to forgive. To forgive frees two people. One can move from being a victim to being a full human again, and another from perpetrator back to full human. Sometimes, genuinely, that is not so easy to do.

Tutu offers this real life story that comes to the same question as the Prodigal leaves us with. It is, however, not his story, its Simon Wiesnthals:
Simon Wiesenthal in the anthology The Sunflower, On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness, tells the story of how he was unable to forgive a Nazi soldier who asked to be forgiven. The soldier had been part of a group that rounded up a number of Jews, locked them up in a building, and proceed to set it alight, burning those inside to death. The soldier was now on his deathbed. His troubled conscious sought the relief that might come through unburdening himself, confessing his complicity and getting absolution from a Jew. Simon listened to his terrible story in silence. When the soldier had ended his narration, Simon left without uttering a word, certainly not one of forgiveness. He asks at the end of his account, “What would you have done?”


What would you have done?
And, more importantly, what will you do?

Amen

Sermon (March 7, 2010)

“Delight in Rich Food and Steadfast Love” Isaiah 55:1-9; Psalm 63; Luke 13:6-9

The young people of this congregation are very wise.

We discussed joy in confirmation class a few weeks ago, and they said that the shortest spurts of happiness come from material gifts, while the longest living joy comes from relationships. They understood, as well, that happiness is fleeting, but joy comes from within.

When I prepare funerals, I ask families to tell me what the person loved. Almost always the first answer is relational – spouse, children, family, friends, all of the above.... And then come the answers that are active: gardening, sports, some club, travel, cooking, etc. (Often sports affiliations also arise. Loving or hating the Yankees is, after all, identity forming – and very active!) Rarely, however, are more things listed than relationships and activities.

I've been wondering how my family, or friends, would answer for me. What would they say I love? I'm sure just about anyone could say people and skiing and Sky Lake, but beyond that its not fully clear. Our concept of what we love may be different than what others see of us. What we love is visible by what we DO, not just what we think about doing.

Hopefully what we DO, what we spend our time on and show our love for, are the bread and wine that truly feed us. That is, we seek to live so that the places we put our love may be the ones that feed our inner spring of joy. The book of Isaiah almost outdoes itself with the questions of 55:2: “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” Why DO we spend our time on activities that don't feed our souls? Why DO we spend money on things that won't feed any part of us?

Why would we do that, especially when God is prodding us toward the good choices, offering us the bread of life and the actions of wholeness. In fact, in this passage, food and wine and milk are free for the asking. What is needed is provided. God makes sure that life continues.

At first, the gospel might seem like a different story. Rather than free food, we see a fruit-tree that isn't giving fruit. And, may we remember, that nurturing a tree in the desert of Israel takes serious resources. Water is scarce, but the tree needs water! Fertile soil takes effort. The gardener doesn't want to give up on the tree that has been wasting resources though. Instead, the gardner wants to GIVE MORE to that tree – to bury it in manure and give it every chance it might have to bear fruit. Rather than blame the tree, the gardner seems to take blame on himself, for not giving it all it needs.

Really the nurture of the tree becomes the same as the abundant life-giving food of Isaiah. God desires good living for us - body and soul. This is familiar information. The 23rd Psalm makes it just as clear – that God is like the shepherd guiding sheep to still, drinkable water, and full, nurturing fields of green. Today's Psalm 63 says the same, but more clearly pointing out the feeding is not only physical, “My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips.”

We have already been fed at the communion table: God has given us the food and the drink to feed our bodies and souls. May the continual prodding of God keep you making decisions to stay full. May the love you have guide your relationships and actions. May you notice what fills you, and keep coming back for more. And, when things dry up and there is no fruit, may you be patient enough to let God the gardener try harder to care for you.

May you receive the gifts of rich food and steadfast love.

Amen

Sermon (February 21, 2010)

“Land and Shelter” Deuteronomy 26:1-11; Luke 4:1-13 2/21/10


The scriptural theme today is most clearly “temptation.” Deuteronomy, as always, is clear that once the people get out of the desert and into the promised land, they'll lose sight of God. The giving of tithes and the first produce of the land, along with the liturgical repetition that means, “I once was a foreigner in a foreign land, it is only by God's grace that I now can grow food on land God entrusts to me” is an attempt to resist temptation. Even in Hebrew Bible times, people were tempted to believe they'd gotten to a good place by their own doing, and could forget to thank God for God's help. Even back then, 4 thousand years ago, there was a temptation to forget God.

There are three named temptations in the Gospel lesson this morning. First, to transform stones into bread; second to have power over the whole world; third to test God.

After a long fast, there is reasonable fear. Mortality itself is faced. Additionally, there is hunger and pain and delusion. The temptation Jesus faced was to use his power to respond to the fear. That should sound more familiar than the temptation to make stones into bread! To use power to respond to fear. Now that's a common temptation in human life. We are so afraid of fear that we'll do just about anything to make it go away. Including, I'm convinced, keeping our lives busy and our ears full of gibberish to avoid having time to think (or pray.) When face to face with fear, we most often use our power to throw things at it, and or ignore it with all our might.

Jesus, instead, stayed face to face with the Tempter and the Temptation. Throughout this passage, take note, the temptations come from Scripture itself! Its always good to remember that the large themes of the Bible take precedence over any individual passage. There are many stories of God speaking to people through words/phrases/verses/stories from the Bible, and they have been great blessings. BUT, its easy to get pulled aside by a passage that seems to tell us what we want to hear. In the United Methodist tradition we learn to read scripture with our church tradition, all of our reason and logic, and the experiences we've had in life informing it. We try NOT to be pulled aside by one bit of Scripture. Like Jesus does, we can find responses in the Scripture itself to temptation. He responds to the Tempter from the same text that the Tempter tempts him.

So, he stays face to face with temptation, and says NO while looking at the temptation. He refuses us to use his power to reduce his body's fear of death. He maintains that life and death are not the most important thing. He asserts that God is more than bread, and God is what he needs, and God will provide – or not – and he'll stick with what he is given.

Temptation one: fear and responding to it with our own power, eliminated. Jesus faces down fear with God-trust.

Temptation two, to take over all the kingdoms of earth, is the temptation of power. For Jesus it is in the most extreme case. He is offered power over the whole world. Our power temptations tend to be a bit smaller in comparison. Sort of like, “I am tempted to have the power over the blue crayon” in comparison. But they're the same temptation. Do we take power that will harm people? Do we take what will harm ourselves? Do we take what isn't ours? Do we want to!?!?!?!

Or, can we respond as our life-example does, and say in the face of any temptation to be in power over others “All Power is God's. It is not mine to take.” Phew. Good for him on that one!

The final temptation, in a distorted way, is idolatry. Brueggmann has said that idolatry is an attempt to control God. He points out that when little idols are made, a person can move them around! Any form of trying to contain God into something smaller than God is (i.e. anything) or to be more controllable than God is (i.e. any control at all) is an extension of the idea of making a little idol to worship. That makes a WHOLE LOT of sense to me. In the third temptation, the Tempter suggests that Jesus fling himself off the tower because God will take care of him. That is, to fling himself off the tower with the expectation of what God's response will be. To jump, and thus MAKE GOD catch him. That is, to control God's action in the world!!!! To jump would be to try to control God. Controlling God, that's a form of idolatry. Jesus' answer is deceptively simple. He simply says its wrong to test God. But the underlying truth is that its wrong to try to control God. (We can ASK, but that's about it.)

Others have faced these temptations as well. In concentration camps during the Holocaust, people were being slowly killed off by starvation as well as everything else. There was not enough bread to survive. Yet, there were people in the camps who took their own bread and shared it with the more sick or more hungry. They choose not to focus on the fear of their own death, to focus on the goodness of every bite EVEN WHEN STARVING, but choose live on God and share their bread.

In occupied France at the same time, a group of French Protestants in a border village, chose to refuse the power offered to them. They were told to comply, to name the Jews among them, and to report any they met. In their faith conviction, they refused what protection they could have received by complying. Instead they worked quietly and quickly and saved THOUSANDS of Jewish children and adults. They paid prices too, the death of the child of their leader and others, and imprisonment for many. They were all threatened with death and destruction. They could have yielded, and taken the “kingdom” of peace. They refused, saying that only God had power over them, and only God would the yield to. They saved others at risk of themselves because they believed it was God's will, and they needed to follow God's power.

Like Jesus at the pinnacle of the temple refusing to test God, there are many who have chosen NOT to test God. Specifically I think of St. Francis, and Mother Teresa, and Sam Dixon (the UMCOR leader who died in Haiti). There is a temptation, in response to the pain of the world, and especially to extreme poverty, to TEST GOD by saying, “God will provide.” Yet people have chosen, over and over again, not to test God, but to offer themselves as Gods hands and feet and hearts in the world. They care for the uncared for and love the unloved and feed the unfed because they're not testing God to do it for them. They act for God, instead of asking God to act for them.

There are real temptations in life. We face them throughout our days. Many fit well into these categories: fear that motivates us to self-protect; power that tempts us towards self-importance; and idolatry that makes us try to control God. We are much like the people who have entered the land -we need the reminders that we are not alive or well by our own power. We need God to be our shelter. We seek God to counter our fear. We need God to be in control. We need to offer ourselves to God rather than ask God to act for us.

May we, as we face our Tempters, be brave enough to stand face to face and trust in God to guide us through.

Sermon (February 14, 2010)

"Shining" based on  Transfiguration – Exodus 34: 29-35, Luke 9:28-36

Moses comes off the mountain with his face shining. By the narratives in the Bible, Moses is the ONLY one who gets to speak face to face with God (whatever that means). However, the experience of being close to the Divine Presence changed him – physically even. The rest of the people, in fact, couldn't handle it. Being close to Moses when he'd been transformed by being close to God was too much for them. They made him cover his face so he wouldn't freak them out. My guess is that they didn't want to be reminded that profoundly of the mystery and power of God.

Peter, James and John had a similar experience. They were SLEEPING when it started, but were woken to a vision of Jesus shining with God's light, standing between Moses and Elijah. What a way to wake up! And, in addition to seeing the glory of God they also heard God's voice. Which, as the scripture says, terrified them. Peter had been on his understandable kick about “let's memorialize this moment” when the voice spoke with “This is my child, the beloved, listen to him!” Even Peter was stunned into silence.

Its intentional, in the Gospel, to mention that the disciples were sleeping. It is meant both as “sleeping” AND as “failing to be attentive to what God is doing.” The Gospels are often contrasting FULL LIFE with God to spiritual sleep-walking through life without seeing what God is doing. The disciples were, as it all started, not noticing what God was doing, but they woke up to it. And, yes, good job if you noticed it – this stands in contrast to the sleep FILLED night for them in the Garden of Gethsemane. This time they notice. That night they lose the battle.

The battle to stay awake to God's Presence and work in the world is one of the primary challenges of faith life. Just like its easy to forget how nice it is to move around freely until you twist and ankle, or how great it is to have opposable thumbs until one is hurt, or how much you really do love a family member until that person goes away for a week, or how much you have in life until you see a homeless person beg for pennies; its possible to tune out the extraordinary Presence of God.

Bruce Epperly, in the Process and Faith Lectionary for this week says that “the church is called to be a laboratory for spiritual experiences, a place where persons expect God to “show up” in their lives in life-changing ways.”¹ That is, we're not meant to take the experiences of Moses and Jesus as cool moments that show how faithful they are – we're supposed to follow in their footsteps, walk up to the mountaintop and open ourselves to God's presence like they did. And then watch and see what God does with us.

This leads us to some very important questions: where is your mountaintop? I've asked a lot of you that question, and many of you have great answers. I've even gotten to see some of the places. However, some are a bit less accessible at this time of year ;) Let me ask again, for those of you who haven't answered, and for those who know but may need to consider: Where is your mountaintop? That is, where is your holy place? That is, where can you go to let God change you from the inside out? I know of: a fishing pond. A fallen tree by a steam. The garden. Hilltops with views. A quiet place under the hickory trees. But it isn't always about place.

In the book “The Five Love Languages, “ Gary Chapman² suggests that each human being “speaks” one of 5 love languages. That language is the primary way that the person experiences love, and because of it, is the primary way that person tries to express love. His point is that each person in a partnered relationship needs to speak to their loved one in the language of the loved one – not the language they wish to receive in.

The 5 are: Being Present; Acts of Service, Words of Affirmation; Physical Touch; and Giving Gifts. It occurs to me that these are also a key to our Holy Places. For some, it will be place – probably those (like me) who respond most to BEING PRESENT. We just wanna hang out with God. Many of you tell me that you feel most connected to God when you are in service to the church – cleaning the pews or polishing the brass or teaching Sunday School. That should be an ah-ha about what you need to do when you need closeness to God. I suspect that people for whom love is best known in words of affirmation, worship is KEY to connecting to God. Perhaps writing poems to God, or a valentine, or just singing praise songs throughout the week helps. I'm not QUITE sure how those who speak physical touch best seek God, but I have a few guesses – perhaps there is something more positional for you in how you pray – like the vision I used to have lying in a church pew and thinking of myself as lying on God's lap for prayer. Also, perhaps, physical connection with others – a partner or a family member or a friend – or just holding a baby – is the best way to feel God's closeness. Finally, for those who know love through Gifts, perhaps giving your offering, or buying the flowers for the church, or donating to the trustees project, leaving some pens downstairs for the rest of us, or giving to the graduates each year, is important to your connection to God.

The key here is to remember that we aren't all the same, and that connecting to God takes on MANY forms. BUT – you are responsible for finding the ways that work for you and using them! And for finding the time to do so!

Now, my dear brother is the best skier in the family – sorry Mom and Dad. He operates under the theory that if you aren't falling while skiing, you aren't trying hard enough. And, because of that theory I'm convinced, he has pushed himself further and gotten better than I really even dream of. But we actually all keep his rule in mind on the mountains.

This week I stood in a glade at Jay Peak, on top of a mound of snow which was on top of a small tree trunk and looked down the mountain. To get off of that mound of snow was going to require a super tight turn that I was pretty sure I couldn't make that would land me going too fast for the next turn. And, to be honest, there wasn't any better way out of my situation. So, I took a breath (which is ALWAYS a form of prayer), and told myself, “OK. You are going to try this turn. And you are going to fall. And that's OK. You won't get hurt, you'll just fall.”

Now, before you think I'm being arrogant, I'll let you know that I had plenty of falls this week, and I have a bruise on the INSIDE of my upper arm from one of them to prove it. But, after that little pep talk to myself, I planted my pole, and took the turn. And I got it around without a problem and continued down the rest of the trail without a fall.

The fear of falling had stopped me in my tracks, but once I remembered that it wasn't such a bad thing if I did, I could continue on. And once I wasn't afraid of the fall, I didn't even have to do it – I was more able than I knew! Seek God with a willingness to risk – a willingness to fall! Because you never know when you'll be surprised at how close God is and how willing God is to shine through you!

It is scary to be face to face with God. And its hard to even seek God because closeness to God also brings you face to face with yourself. Those are the risks.

Knowing them, are you willing to risk to get closer to God?

That is, are you willing to really see yourself, and the world, and deep truth? Are you willing to take a class (Death and Resurrection) and see where it takes you? Are you willing to give up some time in service? Are you willing to come talk to me about forms of prayer that may get you out of a rut? Or to ask someone to be your prayer partner? Or to give more to Haiti because God's heart is broken with the people's pain? It won't hurt, at least not in the long run, but it will change you!! Are you willing to try new ways, seek old ways that worked, look for God in all you do?

And then, if you go to a holy place and find the time to tune in to God, are you open to the changes that may come? How might prayer move you to act in the world? How might more God in your being make you more loving, and thus worried for others? How does your spirituality impact your living?

Here we end– with the questions to answer, with the knowledge that God DOES change people into Shining out with love, and with the affirmation that you have to be willing to fall to move forward sometimes – ESPECIALLY in spiritual life. May you find space, time, and willingness to risk.

Amen

1Bruce G. Epperly, "February 14, 2010 
6th Sunday after Epiphany
 Transfiguration Sunday" http://www.processandfaith.org/lectionary/YearC/2009-2010/2010-02-14.shtml, accessed on 2/13/210

2Gary Chapman, Five Languages of Love. (Northfield Publishing, 1995).

Sermon (February 7, 2010)

“Here We Are – For Better or Worse”
Isaiah 6:1-8 and Luke 5:1-11


Our readings this week are both call stories. Which is church language for “a story in which God calls on someone, and that person's life is changed by responding.” These stories are particularly important, because they speak to us about how God has been heard in the past – which is meant to inform us about how God may be heard in the present.

God uses a lot of means of communication, and with all the ones in the Bible -and some of them are WEIRD – they're still just a small set of examples of God's work. We still learn a lot from them though.

Isaiah's call, by our best guess, happened when he was in worship at the Temple. He has a vision of God sitting on a throne, and the hem of the robe of the Lord is so big that it fills the whole Temple. A fabulous point here: God sometimes speaks during worship! Further, God speaks sometimes to just one of the people who are present, and in a unique way, and not always from the worship itself. This vision was Isaiah's alone. God spoke while Isaiah was present and seeking God, but others who were doing the same were not called that day.

A second point: it appears that experiences of God are awe-striking. Pretty much everyone in the Bible, when they get close to the Divine One, responds “AHHHHHHHH!!!! I'm not Good Enough!” Isaiah is no different. He responds that he is unclean. EVEN THOUGH he would have cleaned himself in order to enter the Temple. God's response, however, is to symbolically remove objections. The uncleanness is made clean. Isaiah doesn't get out of the work. And, once God has acted to both call and remove the barriers, THEN Isaiah speaks the words “Here I am, send me.” I rather like it that God does all the acting! We often sing the hymn, but its good to notice that Isaiah speaks his faith and his willingness – AFTER God has prepared him. We don't have to be ready for what hasn't happened yet, and we will be prepared for what we are asked to do. God isn't calling everyone to the same work, or at the same time, or even at the same rate. BUT, God is faithful to prepare us. Phew – that's some pressure off!

Peter's experience is VERY similar to Isaiah's. At first there is just frustration, then Jesus comes and there is a sign of God's power and goodness. Then, when Peter is overwhelmed by God's closeness, Peter also responds with his unworthiness, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" And the response is still the same as well. “Do not be afraid.” We humans apparently need to hear that a lot! But then, as well, the sinfulness is not a barrier. Jesus changes Peter's life by calling on him to leave the fish and seek out people. Its rather amusing really: The fisherman can't get any fish, so Jesus has him pull in a HUGE catch as a way to tell him that his fishing days are over. God's sense of humor, as per usual.

These call stories are profound, the men who experienced them had radically different lives afterward. Isaiah became a prophet – going around sharing God's desire for justice with the people as a full time “job.” Peter left all that he knew and followed Jesus. His house, his friends, his family, his profession, his possessions – they all stayed behind.

I suspect, although the Gospels don't mention it, that as hard as that seems, it was really a blessing for Peter. He was totally free! A fisherman who fished all night without a catch would be worrying about having enough for the family and for the market – worried about well being for that day and that week. But those worries were left behind. The care for the nets (which occupied a lot of the land time of fisherman) and the stability of the boat, and …. all the work that has to be done to maintain possessions got left behind as well.

I think about it sometimes. My car, which serves me so well to get me from one place to another, also has its own hold on me. I pay its insurance bill, and for gas, and maintenance. I always have thoughts in the back of my head about when I'll need to get gas, when it next needs an oil change, “was that a weird noise?”, and a mild fear that I'll get a flat. I've gotten a lot of inconvenient flats. That is, m car occupies a bit of worry and organizational space in my mind as well as taking some of my income to maintain. To be honest, all my possessions do! This may be more relevant to some people than others, but, for example, a new shirt can be pretty fun. But has it ever happened that a new shirt doesn't quite match any of your pants? And then you buy new pants? And then the pants are too long and you need other shoes? And then the shoes are perfect, but you need.....

Each possession comes with its own demands. I'm done harping on it, but I notice that Peter in leaving it all behind and following Jesus might well have been very blessed to walk away from having possessions. He isn't the only one who followed God that way, and he isn't the only one to be blessed by it. I will note that we we might all be happier if we had less things tying us down, but most of us are probably still not called to give it all away – at least not yet! Apparently, if God is going to ask that, God will at least prepare us and respond to our objections first!

In any case, God is calling people. The calls are to different things and in different ways, but they're around. I hope you'll be open to noticing when they happen in your life. Moreso, I hope you'll let go of any fear you have of what God might ask. It is true that God isn't afraid to ask beyond what we deem reasonable or easy, but its also true that God will prepare us for what we're asked to do. So there is no need to be afraid, and probably the only barrier to your call is your fear that keeps God away.

Like Peter was blessed to walk away from all he knew, and like that's really a very strange form of blessing, may God ask of you what is best for you – and may you be open to respond.

Amen

Sermon (January 31, 2010)

Scriptures: Jeremiah 1:4-10, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13


On twitter this week, I found a link to an article by one of the great professors I had in seminary. He was talking about the church of the 22nd century, and I realized with a start that everyone I know has been talking about the church of the 21st century as if it is the church of the future. It isn't! Its the church of the present. And I don't know about you, but I'm deeply invested in a church of the 22nd century. We've been passed a torch of 2000 years of Christian life, and its ours to pass to the next century. Yes, I'll be dead – most of you will be too, and if anyone here isn't, that person will be in their 90s.

That means we're talking about a church that we will not benefit from. Instead, we're talking about a church that will be the legacy of the one we have now. It will be unimaginably different. Much like the horse and buggy church of 1910 is different from the one we're in now. I know that some people would like to go back – remembering simpler days with all the churches in town full – but looking backward doesn't keep us in the present, much less the future.

An article in the New York Times recently pointed out that those of us in our 20s are technologically outdated already. And, I'll give to them – its true! I'd rather e-mail than text, and I don't know why anyone wants to send me a Facebook message instead of an e-mail. When I get messages from our teenagers, I often have to read them outloud, slowly, to figure out what all the abbreviations mean. (And I DO wish they'd just use words.) My 18 month old “niece” is at least as competent with an Iphone as I am (her parents have them), and probably more so. Technology is moving faster than it feels anyone can keep up with – if there is any good news, todays teenagers will be outdated even faster than I was! These changes are not minor in society either. Our whole lives are impacted by them!

Think, for a moment, about what church was like 100 years ago. In 1910, those who didn't walk here came by horse and buggy, right? People made CALLS in PERSON. I'm sure there was a telegraph here, I'm not sure if there were telephones commonly. There was no sound system – and I'm thinking there wasn't even electricity I know there was a coal stove that heated this building. Worship would not have included bulletins, as there was no way to copy them, and if the preacher used notes, HE wrote them by hand.

Today, people drive to church. When calls still happen, they happen by phone, and more often you just e-mail. Our church has a website, a facebook page or two, and just this week, a blog. When I'm away at a meeting (which I know happened less 100 years ago too), I can use my cell phone to check messages at the church, and I usually bring my computer to take notes.

In 2110, I can't imagine what it will be like. I just can't. At best I hope that people still gather, and don't just use the internet as a substitute. And don't get too high and mighty that “that'll never happen” - how many people do you know who aren't here but are watching worship on TV?

Believe it or not, I am on the scriptures today. Jeremiah is called by God to do God's work in the world, and has appropriate fears. God, however, will have none of it. The one who is called, is called, and God's power works through that person. Now, once we combine that with the fact that God calls EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US, we get back to this church of the 22nd century. How are you called to prepare for it? How is God using you?

I suspect that there are three major aspects to gifting the next century with a relevant church (because offering a cultural dinosaur is NOT the point). The first is to seek fulness of faith development in ourselves. Because if we aren't connected to God, we're useless! The second is to find the ways to share our faith – even amongst ourselves. When God acts in our lives, we are supposed to share it. Because once one person shares, another can see God acting as well. This is a whole lot of the point behind the Lenten Booklets. Third, and this may be the hardest of all, we have to be flexible! God is probably going to have to make some changes in churches if they're going to remain relevant and vibrant. Our faith ancestors COULD have refused to let electricity run into this building, and many tried to keep women out of the pulpit. But fights were fought and battles waged and the church changed.

We are now, in a time of great transition. Those of you over 40 probably like receiving information by snail mail best, right? I'd suspect that even if you have and use e-mail, if something is OFFICIAL or IMPORTANT, you still think it should come on letterhead, hand-signed by the person writing it. Some may disagree, and some will disagree with the following as well... those under 40 MOSTLY would rather just get the e-mail. The paper is a waste of resources, and then you have to figure out where you put and what to do with it. Our culture is changing SO Fast that at one time in history the primary way of communication is radically different for generations. And that's just one piece.

Which brings us, to 1st Corinthians. While people like to think that this is a sweet passage to read at weddings, its really written to a church in transition that was fighting amongst itself! One of the big fights in the Corinth church was about speaking in tongues – those who had the gift were perceived to be more important than others, and Paul spends a lot of time saying it isn't true. In the previous chapter he points out that whatever gift you have, you should use, and no one gift is sufficient without the others. He continues on that theme here, but pushes the people to consider how they are treating each other. His thesis, clearly, is that living out love is the most important part of Christian living. So, despite the poetic beauty of “Love is patient, Love is kind,” don't get distracting into thinking Love is weak or easy to understand!

There is that turn in verse 9, here again 9-12 “For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (NRSV)

Even the people we love, we DO know only in part. We even only know ourselves in part! God is the only one who knows us fully, and the only one who knows everyone else too! We do our best with the unknown, and trust in God who is good and all-knowing to guide us beyond. With maturity we can learn to respond to the unknown with flexibility and love. We can even disagree without malice!

You are ALL called to be seeking to live out God's love fully. This isn't the work of the pastor – its the work of all the people! You are CALLED to give to the next generations the chance to know God and live together as a church. We have NO idea where that's going. We are NOT able to do what needs to be done on our own. We cannot imagine what will be.

But God can. And God is trustworthy. So may we all open ourselves to God's work in us, to being more loving, and focusing on God's call for us, so that we together become more and more vibrant, open, loving, caring, relevant, and so that people who we will never know, who will live lives we will never understand, might someday worship in this space with great gratitude for our foresight and our faith.

May God move in us – HOWEVER God wishes.

Amen

God is Sweeter than a Honeycomb (Sermon from January 24th)

Texts: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10  •  Psalm 19   •  Luke 4:14-21  (Can be found here)

Yesterday morning I had a 9 AM meeting in Syracuse for the new Annual Conference, and so I set off at 7 AM. For the first 30 minutes of the drive, the sky was still colored from sunrise, and the lavender sky displayed over dark mountains and through shimmering tree limbs was more beautiful than I could take in. It was astounding. I turned due west in Columbus and the sun was a weird red/orange coloring everything in this strange light. The snow and the houses, even the trees were red for a few minutes. Then, even after the sky turned blue, and the sun was up, the deep deep cold had frosted every single bit of the trees and they kept on surprising me with their glistening beauty.

I found myself wondering how I can possibly spend so much of my time NOT attending to God's goodness. There I was driving to yet another meeting, and out of no where the INCREDIBLE beauty was everywhere. I think God is constantly trying to bless us with beauty in the world and in others, and we forget to notice most of the time. What a waste! Why worry when we can pay attention to blessing? Why fight when we can be awestruck by beauty?

Well, the meeting wasn't so great, and the worship was awful, but luckily I'd already been fed by beauty too intense for me to ignore it. And by the time I came home the sun was setting and the beauty was all around me once again. Based on Psalm 19, I think its been like this forever: creation sings God's glory, and when we're lucky, we notice and hear the song. The sky proclaims God's goodness. The sun and moon and stars shout with glory! Life with God is better than being rich. God's guidance is sweeter than honey – or sugarcane – or licorice or anything. God's laws are pure goodness. They're meant to limit us or make us guilty or lead us to judge others – they're meant to show us what good living is, how to be in relationship with each other, how to show our affection and gratitude toward God. Following God's laws creates a better life for everyone, it is very very good.

The Nehemiah passage this morning is one of the stories of the Bible when people really seem to NOTICE and ATTEND to the goodness of God's laws. Really, they seem as startled and delighted by the laws as I was by the sunrise yesterday, and having read them, I've been there too.

Nehemiah is a great story!  Nehemiah was the cup-bearer to the king of Persia, and if you remember, Persia was the land that captured Babylon.  And that's important because Babylon was the land that captured Israel!  The destroyed the walls of Jerusalem, tore down the temple (and put salt on it to keep life from ever springing forth with hope), and took all the leaders across the desert to captivity.  The people remaining were poor, illiterate, and unprotected.  Eventually, though, Persia captured Babylon and the leaders were able to return (or, at least, their grandchildren were).  But not everyone went.  Which is why Nehemiah was still in Persia when he heard that not all was well in Jerusalem.

So Nehemiah got permission from the King and went to Jerusalem with some supplies and convinced the people (not without some grumbling first) that if they each rebuilt the part of the wall outside their own home that they'd all be safe.  OF COURSE!  And it worked.  This passage comes after that.  They've rebuilt the wall and they are safe, and now they are gathering to hear the priest, Ezra, read what was probably an early version of the book of Deuteronomy.

 

This passage is great because NOT ONLY do the people suddenly take note of the goodness of the Law – not only do they listen to it and pay attention and get moved by it, but then they're told that the most appropriate response is not sadness that they haven't been fulfilled or guilt or worry – but JOY! The people are told to have a big feat and enjoy the good news that God gives GOOD laws. Seriously – they're told to drink the good wine and eat the good the food and have a party – and the only caveat (and this is why I love God so much) is that they're supposed to make sure everyone gets some! The poor, or the old, or the young, or anyone who for whatever reason can't make their own feast, is supposed to get invited to someone else's. Everyone gets to party – but EVERYONE is supposed to be included. God's law is perfect, and sweet!

We read, two weeks ago, the part of Isaiah that Jesus is reading in the Luke passage today. We hear it, in some form, in every communion liturgy we do. It is, in Isaiah, the role claimed by the prophet, and in the gospels, the purpose statement of Jesus' ministry.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

The words are so good, that you can almost miss the ending. “The year of the Lord's favor” is the Jubilee year. In the Torah, it is expected that every 7 years all debts are forgiven and people who sold themselves into slavery are released. Every 49 years, in addition to debts being forgiven, land sold is given back to the original owner. You can imagine then, since interest was also illegal by Torah – that if a person or family got in financial trouble, it didn't spiral on them. They might have to borrow money or sell their land – BUT they wouldn't lose the land forever, and if they couldn't pay the money back it would just be forgiven. (Yes, giving a loan would take on very different meaning.) And it all gets called “The year of the Lord's favor.” Isn't that interesting! The Lord is equalizing between rich and poor, the favor of God it towards everyone having what they need! The year when all is set back to the beginning state, when everyone has again, is the the year of the Lord's favor.

And then, we note, that JESUS says that's part of his ministry! We often miss that part! But, it does fit pretty well – sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed, release to the captives, and release from debt for the poor. It fits in with the rest. God isn't interested in a permanent lower class. Time and time again, from the start of Israel through the ministry of Jesus, through the ministry of the living Body of Christ, we've seen that people living by God's law – working together in community to care for everyone's need is living with God's favor – and it pulls people out of unsustainable life into thriving wholeness. Sometimes that means freedom from addiction, sometimes freedom from bad monetary policies, sometimes freedom from trying too hard to be loved. People in community where they know God's love, and their needs are met, are then able to keep other's needs met, and no one falls down. John Wesley's early Methodists were mostly the very very poor, but once they started working together they stopped being the poorest of the poor. God's favor has BIG impact. Release, freedom, sight, its GOOD NEWS.

It is way too easy to be pulled toward bad news. There is a lot of it. There is a lot even if we just talk about the needs in Haiti. And our hearts ARE to be broken for the pain and suffering of the world, so that we are moved to make a difference – to keep praying and giving and making health kits. But the darkness is never supposed to overcome us. We need to focus on the light, so that others are drawn with us toward God's goodness. The suffering will always be, and our hearts will always ache, but they will ALSO always be filled with God if we just let God in.

God's goodness is SO easy to see in creation, and in scripture, and in people. Its easy to notice it with our children, but I see it in each and every one of you, and in all the people I meet. If you pay attention, you find that God's goodness and gifts are uniquely displayed in every person. With many its so easy to see that it startles you how abundantly God gives gifts. With some its harder to find – perhaps in people who haven't been able to nurture their goodness, but it is findable. And its worth the search. When you are overwhelmed with the bad of the world, LOOK for God. I promise, God is right there, closer than you can imagine and better than you can explain. Let the sunrises and sunsets and giggles bring your attention to our God who is SOOOOOOOO good, and let your soul be full.

Amen.