Recent Sermons by Rev. Michele

A Living Faith

2009-06-21T21:18:00.002-05:00

June 21, 2009
Third Sunday after Pentecost
Father's Day Sunday
Text: Mark 4: 35-41
It was December 1982 when Bill and I were given a book by friends who welcomed us to our new home in Bangkok ,Thailand. The book was Mai Pen Rai. Translated in English, the words mean "never, never mind." It was a book about the experience of Carol Hollinger who moved to this Southeast Asian country with her husband and young daughter to make their home among a new people, new language and very new culture.

I smile when I read her writing. Not only have I experienced some of what she writes but I think we all have had some kind of similar experience. She writes, "One evening as we were expecting ten people to dinner within the hour, Uthai announced pleasantly that both water and electricity had vanished." Or, when she writes, "the air conditioner was installed, they sealed us in with glass, and since the bedroom had no insulation, when the electricity failed we found ourselves inhabiting something very similar to an oven." (Mai Pen Rai, Carol Hollinger, 13)

Much of Carol's writing is about the journey. It was a journey that presented her with all sorts of unexpected events to make sense of in her life. I begin this morning by asking us to think about our journey; our life and what has unfolded as the years have gone by.

The primary image in the gospel is a journey. Jesus is on a journey. Jesus invites a group of ordinary people to travel with him. We believe that the invitation is also to us. The Spirit of God invites us to be Jesus' disciples on a journey.

On one particular day on this journey with Jesus, Mark records a crossing of the sea so Jesus can get a break from his teaching and the press of people around him. What happens as the disciples cross the sea? It was a time when they desperately needed a break; it was simply a boat ride to the other side. But, that was when these disciples learned that the journey, the simple boat ride, is never what we expect.

Carol Hollinger found herself deflated, purposeless and frightened on her journey as she followed her husband's government service job to Thailand. She had read books, taken courses, and thought she was prepared for her meeting with this new people and new country, but she was fiercely unprepared for what life brought.

What happens to us on our journey when we encounter tragedy, death, disappointment, illness or some such storm that comes upon us quickly?

A great storm came upon the disciples on this crossing and they feared they would drown. The irony is that Jesus was asleep through this storm and had to be awakened. This prompted their question of whether or not Jesus cared that they were about die. "Do you not care? We are going down!" are the words recorded in Mark. (vs 39)

"God, do you care about our suffering?" "Do you care if I am drowning?" These are central questions for people of faith. That makes this gospel lesson constantly relevant to our lives. We might want to assume that being committed to the Christian life will shield us from difficulties and the storms in life. But, of course, we know this is not the case. Jesus never promised his disciples smooth sailing! There is no exemption from bad storms.

But, there is the assurance through this wonderful story that Jesus cares. There is the message that God in Christ can still the raging storm. Our God can rebuke the wind and the waves when it is dark and all hope seems lost.

Humanly speaking, I believe that Jesus must have been terrified. He was terrified yet he was able to give assurance and comfort that there would be quiet and calm. His action was remembered. "Quiet now! Be calm!" he said to the wind and sea. And the wind dropped, and all was calm again.

"Why were you so frightened?" Jesus asked his friends after the storm. All they could do was look at each other in awe and amazement and ask "Who can this be?"

Sometimes this is what we expect our parents to say to us. Even when they are frightened themselves, we expect them to give us comfort and reassurance that all will be well. On this Father's day, we think of relationships that nurture and calm us in the middle of our storms and we pray that, as far as humanly possible, our parents or others who care for us in this way, will teach us that it is our God who rebuke the wind and the waves when it is dark and all hope seems lost.

Why? Because God does care for us, whatever our situation in life, and God wants us to find comfort and strength for our journey.

The famous quotation about parenting children says, "Wise parents can give children only two things: roots and wings." Wise parents know that they can only do so much for their children and then their children have to take the next steps. The part the parents do, though, is very important.

I once talked with an older man who told me about his childhood. He had endured a difficult relationship with an emotionally distant and demanding father. This man agonized over what happened years ago. He said he never measured up, in his estimation. Whatever he did, it was not good enough. Though he constantly tried to please his father, he was put down.
The man carried a desperate wish that he could have somehow pleased his father, somehow gained his approval, somehow known his love. But, it was not to be. The man said to me, "It does not matter how old we get. The wounded parts inside us are always very young." (Adapted from Pulpit Resource, June 2006, p 43)

Yes, the wounded parts of our lives are very young. That's why good parenting is key for the emotional and spiritual stability of our children. The opportunities that parents have are not to be taken for granted or wasted. Jesus took the opportunities God gave him to teach his disciples about God's constant love and protection even when they thought there was no more hope.
God really does seek to give us both roots and wings through healthy families and healthy congregations. (Merle Jordan, Reclaiming Your Story, pp 37-38) There is something greater than the human measure of what that means. Storms can test us and help us realize that God has given us the wonderful gift of faith to pass on from generation to generation to help us become strong and resilient in the midst of troubled waters. What a gift, this living faith!

As we read last week in 2 Corinthians 5: 6-10, the Apostle Paul was no stranger to difficulties and hardship. He offered an insight and key: "The love of Christ urges us on.... We walk by faith not by sight.... If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!"

We walk by faith not always knowing "why" but knowing "how." We walk with lots of questions and, sometimes, few answers to those questions.

Frederick Buechner reminds us that Gertrude Stein (American writer and great catalyst for the development of modern art and literature) on her deathbed, being wheeled into the operating room for stomach surgery, is said to have asked, "What is the answer?" Then, after a long silence, "What is the question?" (Listening to Your Life, Frederick Buechner, 98)

It is our questions that probably matter most when we live in the middle of the storm. The questions matter because they lead us to remember that God does care. A living faith is knowing that God will see us through the storm and help us live creatively within whatever situation we are in. God's love, mercy, and compassion will be experienced when we turn to God to question and depend on God to save us.

Carol Hollinger learned to say in the Thai language, "mai pen rai" -- it will be okay. When the storm came and the world she knew was falling apart, she learned from experience what this phrase meant: flexibility, openness, and ability to ask questions and learn something new. She learned from the poorest of the poor, the stranger who resented her Western habits and her international friends who struggled with their deep seated superiority. She learned to listen, she learned to compromise, and she learned about herself.

Even though this book, Mai Pen Rai, was not about a Christian journey per se, it is about a journey of a woman who could ask the questions. There is something about listening to the experience of others that helps us to formulate our own questions. Carol Hollinger died suddenly and prematurely not long after her return from Thailand and the publication of this book Mai Pen Rai. How was Carol to know that she would be teaching us this morning about openness to God's Spirit in the middle of storm?

We don't know about what life will bring on a calm day or a stormy one. We don't know what impact our responses will have on others who see us go through the storm. But we do know that God, our heavenly Father, will bless our openness to listen, to trust, to step out, to be adaptable, and to be receptive to what God can teach us about God's Spirit moving in our chaos. How desperately God wants us to let the questions formed in the middle of a storm lead us to living faith and fuller trust in the One who can center us and bring us peace.

Jesus does not promise us smooth sailing. What he does promise is God's compassionate, merciful presence in the middle of the storm. We'll probably be like the disciples of our story and say, "Who can this be? Even the wind and sea obey him." (vs 41)

When your storms come, may the question and the answer invite you to greater faith and greater trust. When your storms come, may God be with you, save you and give you peace. Amen.

The Birthing of the Spirit

2009-05-31T20:36:00.000-05:00

May 31, 2009
Pentecost
Sermon: The Birthing of the Spirit
Text: Acts 2: 1-21

My daughter knows me well. I've always enjoyed travel and the experience of new places, new people, and new adventure. She gave me a book one Mother's day entitled, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. It is advertised as a Traveler's "Life" list. What I like best is the first page of the book.

On this first page there's an anonymous quote that reads, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the places and moments that take our breath away." (1,000 Places to See Before You Die, Patricia Schultz, 2003) What places and moments take your breath away?

At a recent meeting of the Clergy of the Northeast Association Meeting we were discussing this scripture lesson from Acts. What does it mean, the birthday of the church, and discussion pursued.

We decided Pentecost was that kind of day, it "took the breath away." It was a day when ears awoke and eyes were opened in a new way. You can almost describe it as a day God was reaching down, speaking to the people, and enabling them to reach up and speak to God.

The chief text for Pentecost comes from Acts 2. Reading the whole chapter helps us know why "Jews from every nation under heaven" were gathered to celebrate new life, first fruits. Something they did every year.

First, they remembered Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with God's new revelation. Second, they came to offer the early fruit of the harvest back to God. In the Feast of Firstfruits, Jews made a religious declaration that the harvest belonged to God. They came together to say, "our time, our possessions, our life belong to God."

This was expected in their gathering and their worship. What was not expected, we read in Acts, was that in some new way, God, Ruach, Spirit, moved creatively over their diversity. With their many languages and ways of seeing the world, the Spirit brought them a "new day." We interpret it as the birthday of the church, or the gift of the Spirit to the gathering of those who were to call themselves the new Jerusalem.

Whatever the nuances of the interpretation, Pentecost for us as Christians is about the birthing of the Spirit. It is about renewal of our vows to be faithful to our baptismal covenant to belong, totally, to Christ. It is about our willingness to be "born from above" again and again in God's spirit.

It is about the church being willing to become new as well.
That's why we remember that Peter quotes from the prophet Joel,
"I will show wonders in the heaven above,
and signs on the earth beneath,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke:
the sun shall be turned into darkness
and the moon into blood,
before the day of the Lord comes,
the great and manifest day."

Peter looks into the heart of the believers' experience on that day and sees something new being born among them. We interpret this new beginning as the early church movement to form Christian communities that would have a distinct meaning and purpose.

Yes, it was a time of uncertainty and fear and confusion. We could even use the words, terror, death, and death-dealing. Yet, it is confirmed that "The Spirit comes when the light is almost gone---the sun darkened and the moon like blood." (Christian Century, May 3, 2005, 21) It was not an easy time then for new movements as it is never an easy time in our "comfort" zones as established churches but the call is still present to pay attention to the "birthing" of the Spirit.

In our clergy group discussion we tried to talk about what this means for the life of the church, the birthday of the church. Our discussion turned, almost naturally, to occasions in our lives when this has happened on a personal level. We turned to the times we've experienced new birth among us.

Many people talked about the birth of their children and witnessing this new life coming into the world. We know that when a new life comes into a family, things change. Schedules are no longer as predictable.

Rev. Art Wille, our leader, talked about a time when one of his parishioners, a shepherd, invited him to observe the birth of a new baby lamb. Art said he grew up in the city so being present for a birth was new experience. He said the birth of the lamb was not what he expected. First it was a breach birth and the process was not easy, in fact, it was very messy, in his words. Everyone around the table, especially the women, agreed that pain, messiness, risk, anxiety, difficulty was part of the birth experience as well as the joy and anticipation.

The birthing of the early church certainly had its parallel. The birthing of the local churches where we belong have their history of "messiness." We all know that working in and through the church has its joys and struggles. It has its days of knowing what to expect and days of encountering the unexpected. It has its days of loving the old and protecting the familiar and its days when we know the "old, comfortable" traditions no longer speak to the present generations of Christians. It has its days of messiness and disorder; that is clear in scripture.
We ask ourselves what we do with this? How do we
come expecting "new life," "new birth," in our church today? Do we really have energy to go there? An article written on "Praying Your Church to Life" in one of our UCC journals for church renewal speaks of 10 strategies for bringing church back to life.

I'll share one that certainly fits with our message. It suggests: Pray in concert with the call and mission of your church. Go back and read the history. Why was your church called into existence? What scriptures are on the pulpit, on windows, on quilts, in display cases, on the doorposts? What was its original mission? What is its founding statement of faith? Renewal always involves restoration and completion of what God began.

If that is our starting place, we ask, "What did God begin here at Immanuel and what will our mission be?"

Pentecost Sunday is a day when we can expect the birthing of the Spirit again in our lives. We experience God's grace poured out upon Claire reminding us of God's call and promise to belong to Christ in baptism. We will celebrate the sacrament of the Lord's Supper because, we again, want to be renewed in our promise to belong, totally, to God.

And, my friends, if that is the meaning of the sacrament for you this morning and the story of Pentecost moves you, there will be new birth and a new resolve in you.

Let hope come again. Let commitment to faith be renewed. Let a new spark be ignited within your soul for God. Let a new language be articulated by your soul. Allow God's Spirit birth a new experience in you. Mark this place and moment and let God take your breath away. Amen.

Worship

2009-05-03T14:53:00.000-05:00

May 3, 2009
Fourth Sunday of Easter

Sermon: Worship
Texts: 1 John 3:16-24, John 10:11-18
Offered at Immanuel UCC by Pam Hodgson, Licensed Minister

Before I start to talk about what is worship, I want to thank Robert and Violet for choosing such wonderful hymns to help us praise and worship God. Our songs and our words, even our quiet time with God help us to be more aware of God's presence. Our call to worship is a call for us to be attentive. God is waiting for us. God is already present in this scared space, just as God in Christ is present in any place that we can go. In this time that we set aside to gather as a community, we are fortified as the Body of Christ to take God's Good News out into a world that badly needs hope and compassion.

This morning's call to worship reaches back to our Hebrew roots. It is based on the 95th Psalm. The Psalms are a collection of prayers and songs to and about God. There are 150 Psalms and within them every human emotion is captured. People crying out to God in great distress and in great joy. Pleas for help, mercy, and forgiveness. Offerings of praise and expressions of thanksgiving to their Creator, Deliverer, Redeemer and Friend. Confessions of fear. Accounts of remembrance of God's deliverance in the past. Words of hope for the future. Although the Psalms are 1000s of years old, they still speak to us today. While the context of our human existence has changed, it has not changed what it means to be human and our God, the hope of ancient Israel and our hope, has not changed. The Psalms point us in the right direction as we think about worship. There is nothing that we can not take to God. No messes in our lives are too big. Whatever heartache or disappointment we might experience, God in Christ has gone before.

For our edification, I offer some classic definitions of worship:

Martin Luther - "That nothing else be done in [worship] than our dear Lord Himself talk to us through his holy word and we, in turn, talk to him in prayer and song of praise." In other words, worship has two elements, revelation and response, both empowered by the Holy Spirit.

John Calvin wrote "What is the design of the preaching of the Word, the sacraments, the holy assemblies and the whole external government of the church, but that we may be united to God?" Calvin suggests that purpose of worship is union with God.

For Archbishop Thomas Cranmer the purpose of worship is the "setting forth of God's honor or glory, and to the reducing of the people to a most perfect and godly living." In today's language - the purpose of worship is to glorify God and set human life in order.

From Pope Pius X - Worship is for "the glory of God and the sanctification and edification of the faithful." The message here is that the primary focus of worship is on God and the one result is the up building of the community.

For a quote that is close to home, I share from Immanuel's constitution: "It shall be the purpose of this church to worship God, to rightly preach the Word of God, to celebrate the Holy Sacraments; to render loving service towards humanity; and strive for righteousness, justice and peace."
We can think of worship in two levels. On one level we gather for communal worship. That is what we are doing right now. In the larger picture, we worship by how we live our lives. Our actions show our allegiance. In communal worship we are nourished and build up for the larger purpose of being sent out to serve. Our lesson from 1 John reminds us that we are to serve and love in truth and action. We read that, "we obey his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us."
We are commanded to love one another. From our reading from the gospel of John we see Jesus' servant leadership example. Christ is the good shepherd who risks all and sacrifices all for the flock. Christ is love in action. Christ loves the flock and constantly invites others into the flock to experience grace. What can we offer or give to our God who gives it all? Through empowerment by the Holy Spirit, we worship by following Christ's example.
Our worship service is a dialog. The litany or the words that we use in our worship have a call and response nature. God comes to us in grace and the people say "thanks". God comes to us in revelation and the people say "Amen - let it be so". The root meaning of litany is the work of the people performed for the service of others. The Reformation recaptured the people's role in the litany. The congregation is not a passive spectator during our worship service. Rather, in a reflection of the priesthood of believers, the congregation participates actively. Our worship isn't confined to what we do within these doors. Worship in the larger sense is how we live our lives; what we choose as priorities and how we act on them. Worship in a more narrow sense is a community gathering at a specific time to be open to God's revelation and to respond in praise and service.

Marva Dawn in Reaching Out without Dumbing Down writes that "liturgy [should] be thought provoking and edifying. It should stir up new thoughts about God - new insights into God's character, which will result in a transformation of our character." (P. 249) Worship should change us, transform us. That is a big job. This is one of the reasons that we return to communal worship week after week.

We also return each week to practice getting it right. The world that we live in does not get it right. Anyone who opens a newspaper can read about how the world gets it wrong. The first question from the Westminster Catechism which is the Presbyterian Catechism is "what is the chief end of man?" The answer is "to glorify God and enjoy God forever." God is not gloried by assaults on God's good creation.

This last week we read of people taking lives both of others and their own. And we wonder how can we allow people to become so unwhole that they make these choices. I suspect that the majority of us here were touched in some way by one of the recent suicides. I know that culturally, we aren't very good about showing emotion which creates a huge barrier for talking about how we feel or asking for help when situations become to big to handle.

At Immanuel, we are blessed to have a pastor who has a doctorate in counseling and is a certified pastoral counselor. I don't know that we are taking advantage of this good gift that God has provided for us. I hope that we do. I hope that we can support and encourage each other. And I hope that we can take our compassion to others outside of Immanuel. Sometimes, being a non-judgmental listener can go a long way. Gentle encouragement can go further than a bunch of "you shoulds". Many times the thought of calling a professional for help is beyond what the broken can do. An offer to be with someone in the posture of support while they call a professional to set up a consultation can be a bridge to the road of healing and wholeness. We can be attentive to the needs of others and we can make a difference in their lives.

After reading about the suicide at North, I worry about our kids - both the youth of Immanuel and of the community. I see Immanuel as a congregation that treasurers and loves its children and youth. Yet we can't seem to get much momentum going with our youth program. Immanuel could be a soft place to land for our youth when life gets turbulent, but I am not sure that our youth are connected enough to recognize this. A strong youth program, could reach into the community - Immanuel could be a haven for other youth - we have enough love here to adopt more of God's children. I am not sure how we can get this done. Earlier in this last week, a number of us met to talk about Immanuel's youth ministry. And we don't have it figured out, yet. However, I would rather try to figure out how to do this than try to figure out why a 17 year old would shot himself in a school parking lot. I ask for your prayers and ideas and involvement as we try to minister to youth.

We come to worship for many reasons. To honor and praise God. To say thank you. To teach and learn and be open to revelation. To talk & listen to God in prayer. To lay our burdens down before God. To ask for forgiveness and experience grace. To show support for others in the community and to be supported. Some times our participation in our worship service will comfort us and some times it will shake us up. But our worship doesn't end when we leave this property. What we do here should form and transform us to live lives of service, gratitude and praise. May it be so. Amen. Amen.

Spiritual Disciplines and the Stewardship of our Lives

2009-04-02T09:54:00.000-05:00

April 1, 2009---Mid Week Lenten Worship
Joint Worship of St John's United Church of Christ and
Immanuel United Church of Christ
Theme: Spiritual Disciplines and the Stewardship of our Lives
Focus: Shaping Communities
Text: Matthew 5:38-45

Our previous themes during the mid-week services have focused on these subject areas:
Forgiveness, Stewardship-Money, Hospitality, Witness-Personal Testimony, and, tonight, Shaping Communities. The skit "The History of Hatred Through Time" turns our attention toward how we address hatred. History shows us that hatred does not solve our problems; it only creates problems. Why do we still turn to forms of hatred for solving our problems. Are we aware of the dangers today? Let's look at some of our words, attitudes and actions and what they have done to who we are today.

What about words?
Recently Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, following the Obama administration policy, announced that we have abandoned the use of the phrase "global war on terror." Why? It is felt that at the highest levels of our government and relationships to the world that our language matters. We are still combating terrorism; no doubt, but we are careful with our language. Does this matter? Does language matter?

What about attitudes?
I remember when I was a delegate to a synod meeting with the Massachusetts Conference delegation back in 2001, Synod 23. We were in Kansas City, Missouri, for this meeting. It was a wonderful meeting to attend because we had UCC delegates and Disciples of Christ delegates meeting together. As you remember the Christian Church or Disciples of Christ is the closest partner we have in ministry as we share our Global Ministries Board and other common interests. So, we had lots of people at this meeting.

Near the Convention center where we met there was a park with benches and free space. Who dominated this space? A group led by a man named Fred Phelps. They shouted obscenities at UCC and Disciples convention delegates telling us about the evils of homosexuality and where we were all going after death because of our positions on how we accept and treat one another.

My daughter, Martha, then age 13, went with me to this meeting. She attended the youth portion of the meeting while I was in the UCC/Disciples general meeting. She was most disturbed by the rantings of this group, the expressions on their faces, the banners they flew; we passed them to enter the convention building and you could see them face to face. They were unrelenting in their shouting to passers by and criticism of the openness and extravagant welcome of our denominations to people of all walks of life, especially those of varying sexual orientations. What was stressed by our leadership of our UCC was how to respond to the Phelps delegation. Our attitudes mattered!

We did not engage them; we walked quietly by them in a spirit of prayer. Those were our instructions and it was certainly a "discipline" not to engage and shout back. We did not return hate for hate, or accusation for accusation. We tried approach them with a Christian attitude. Do attitudes matter?

What about actions?
In recent months we have seen some extreme violence perpetrated upon the church at worship. Fred Winters, age 45, was preaching on March 8 at the First Baptist Church of Maryville, Illinois. A 27 year old man shot him in the chest and Fred died from the gun shot wound. The 27 year old stabbed himself.

In February, a man stunned a group of tourists at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Ca, when he fatally shot himself at the foot of a cross in the Cathedral.

Last July, a man, with an apparent grudge against liberals, opened fire inside a Knoxville, Tennessee, Unitarian Universalist church, killing two and wounding six.

Last November at a church in Clifton, New Jersey, a man allegedly shot and killed his estranged wife, as well as a worshiper who rushed to her aid.

Congregations strive to be welcoming to strangers. With this round of violence, the big question is how they can be welcoming and have a safe, secure environment for worshippers. Church security is becoming more and more of an issue.
(Christian Century, 4-7-09, p 14)

What actions shall we, in our churches, take toward those who would perpetrate violence in our most vulnerable places, our worship spaces? Ushers with firearms? Local police guarding the doors? What do we do?
Do our actions matter?

If we look at life through the eyes of history, as the skit, "The History of Hatred Through Time" suggests, we may learn something about the patterns and structures of hate and prejudice that have brought us to our modern day situations. Hatred, bigotry, jealousy, the quest for power, for economic superiority, solving conflict with violence, simple differences of opinion must be addressed. How are they addressed by us as Christians wanting to follow the teachings of Jesus?

What did Jesus say about all of this? An eye for eye and a tooth for tooth...revenge?
No, he said it used to be that people said, 'an eye for eye and tooth for a tooth, but I tell you, don't resist evil. (KJV -- "resist not evil")

Clarence Jordan translated it this way in the Cotton Patch Version of Matthew and John ( pg 25) "I'm telling you, never respond with evil. Instead, if somebody slaps you on your right cheek, offer him the other one. And if anybody wants to drag you into court and take away your shirt, let him have your undershirt. If somebody makes you go a mile for him, go two miles.....Another thing you've always heard is, 'Love your own group and hate the hostile outsider.' But I'm telling you, love the outsiders and pray for those who try to do you in, so that you might be sons (children) of your spiritual Father."

So, this seems pretty clear doesn't it? Jesus taught his disciples and teaches us that there are constructive ways to deal with our anger, our prejudice, our jealousy, our big and little conflicts in life. I hear him say, "Don't turn away from them but do something constructive with them." What do you hear? What is our response when we've been wronged or we know another has been wronged?

We've seen some good responses illustrated in numerous ways through the eyes of history. I like to turn to the responses that tell me something about the way Christ would respond.

I continue to turn to the example of those who led the Civil Rights movement in the 60's to find my inspiration. As many of you know, I grew up in the South and I was in the middle of the controversies that layered daily life in that tumultuous time. I was young, pretty much told my opinions didn't matter because I did not understand, but I knew deep within myself that my opinions did matter. And, I did understand what the gospels said, very clearly. And, I happened to agree with the movement, the other side, not the side of many of the adults who were supposed to my Christian role models.

How could one not agree with the movement that had a pledge one would sign saying,
1. Meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus.
2. Remember always that the nonviolent movement in Birmingham seeks justice and reconciliation--not victory.
3. Walk and talk in the manner of love, for God is love.
4. Pray daily to be used by God in order that all may free.
5. Sacrifice personal wishes in order that all might be free.
6. Observe with both friend and foe the ordinary rules of courtesy.
7. Seek to perform regular service for others and for the world.
8. Refrain from violence of fist, tongue, or heart.
9. Strive to be in good spiritual and bodily health.
10. Follow the directions of the movement and of the captain of the demonstration.

This pledge was to be signed, with address and sent to the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. (Martin Luther King, Why We Can't Wait, p 65)

This pledge, is still to me, one way we can deal constructively with the terror, the violence, the hatred, the prejudice, the conflicts that will always be part of our lives. It is the way Jesus taught us to respond.

It is not easy and sometimes we must ask, what is the first step?

I suggest tonight in this service that listening may be a first step. Listening leads to openness and a desire to know more. It leads to shaping a community where people care that others are suffering. It leads to the virtue of Christian compassion that we want to mark our lives. It always leads to action of some kind.

Tonight, we share a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the book Life Together that will help us in our time of reflection. "The first service one owes to others in the community involves listening to them. Just as our love for God begins with listening to God's Word, the beginning of love for other Christians is learning to listen to them. God's love for us is shown by the fact that God no only gives us God's Word, but also lends us God's ear. We do God's work for our brothers and sisters when we learn to listen to them."

What are you hearing from your congregation? What are you hearing from your communities? What are you hearing from your own "inner voice" about shaping a world
where hatred is addressed with the love of Christ, the promise of God's way?

Let us listen and let us care and let us decide with our words, attitudes and actions that we are disciples of Christ and shall live in the light and truth of God's revelation. "Happy are those who make peace, for they will be known as children of God. Happy are those who have suffered persecution for the cause of goodness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs."

Amen.

Courage to Step with Jesus

2009-03-08T21:02:00.004-05:00

March 8, 2009
The Second Sunday in Lent

Sermon:
Courage to Step with Jesus

Texts:
Genesis 17: 1-7, 15-16; Romans 4: 13-25; Mark 8: 31-38

Katie and Jim spent months preparing for their
wedding. During the ceremony, they
planned to recite their vows---without any prompting from the pastor.

When the day arrived, they stood face to face in the
garden, and Jim was so nervous that he accidentally omitted some of this
lines. Nevertheless, Katie
responded with her vows and they were pronounced husband and wife.

When the pastor greeted them in the receiving line, Katie
jokingly asked him if their union was legal. "After all,"
she said laughing, "Jim flubbed his lines."style="mso-spacerun: yes"> "You're
fine," their pastor replied
reassuringly. But as he walked away,
he called back, "Just don't get sick!"

The humor in this story underscores the seriousness, in a
light way, about the meaning of covenant.
Our lessons today ask us to think about the meaning of covenant.

To covenant is to pledge one's trust and faithfulness to
another. To covenant is tostyle="mso-spacerun: yes"> promise to be in a committed, caring
relationship. Covenants are promises made between people; the intention is for
the covenant to be taken very seriously and to be owned by both in an equal
way. And, so, the marriage
covenant goes like this, "I promise to love and sustain you in the
covenant of marriage, from this day forward, in sickness and in health, in
plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, as long as we both shall
live."

The covenant is a serious commitment. We understand what
it means to be in covenant with each other but what about with God?

The covenant we read about in the book Genesis prompts us
to ask, "What about a covenant with God?" The story of Abraham and Sarah is about God choosing
to be in a close, committed relationship to the Hebrew people.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> God chooses Abraham and Sarah, Semites
of about 8th century BCE, who at God's command, have abandoned their home in
Mesopotamia and journeyed to the land of Canann.

From that aged couple, God will bring forth a son named Isaac. From an unlikely birth, God will set out to make a people, a
new community, that knows how to live faithfully under God's rule of justice,
righteousness and peace.
From some intimate encounter with the Divine, Abraham will hear from God
this message "I make this covenant and I make it with you."style="mso-spacerun: yes"> (17:4)

There has always been a desire by human beings to know
their God or gods as it was common the ancient world. There was a desire to be in communication with a God who
cared about us personally. So, we
always have in tension this wonderful transcendent God, beyond us and one we'll
never know fully, and our God who is as close to us as our breathing.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> For Abraham, there was this moment of
knowing the relationship of God and the promise to be near and close.style="mso-spacerun: yes">

The Genesis story sets the tone for the lessons we hear
in the rest of the scriptures. Truly, the promise of love and intimacy
from our Creator was not just the promise to past generations but is the
promise that moves us to be here this morning as people of faith.

The Hebrew
hymn of praise we sang in the beginning of our worship conveys that message
doesn't it? "The God of
Abraham praise, all praises to God's name, who was and is and is to be, forever
the same! The one eternal God,
before what now appears, the First, the Last: beyond all thought through timeless years!" (New
Century Hymnal, p 24)

Yes, so, first we begin with covenant or a promise to
belong to God. "God is beyond
all thought through timeless years" as the hymn goes, yet, I believe it is
possible to hear God say to us personally as God said to old Abraham, "I
make this covenant and I make it with you." This promise is real, it is mutual and it should be
very serious just as any other covenant we make with another person is very
serious and binding.

The second question I want to ask is "What happens
in our covenant relationship? In any covenant made there is the relative
uncertainty of entering an
uncharted course. We may be like
the little boy overheard praying one evening, "Lord, if you can't make me
a better boy, don't worry about it.
I'm having a real good time like I am."

There is the uncharted course. To set out on any journey
requires faith, doesn't it? We don't know what is ahead but we do need to
believe that we can make the journey and arrive at our destinationstyle="mso-spacerun: yes"> I would think that there is always the
hope that God will make us better than we are. As Paul puts it in
Romans 4: 13-25, the Christian faith amounts to "hoping against hope."

Perhaps that is why Frederick Buechner said that Lent is
a time to ask what it means to be oneself. The promise of belonging to God and being in relationship
may mean a freedom this Lenten season to listen for an understanding of
oneself. Maybe God can help us
with self-definition. God can help
us ask, "Who am I and who can I be made in God's image?"style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Or, we may ask, "What
is my potential for being the best person I can be?"

During Lent, these are some of the questions we ask.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> When people "give something up for
Lent" it is suppose to help them to ask these questions about self-growth
and development in God's spirit and way.

The questions help us pay attention to how we order our
lives. We may need to curb a habit that endangers our health and the health of
those we live with. We may need to
cultivate a more rhythmic pattern of prayer or bring the scriptures into
clearer focus in our every day lives.
We may need to take some time we hoard so tight for our leisure or work
and lavish it on our families or friends.
We may need to respond to needs in our community of those who are in
need for food, housing or clothing.
All of these questions can help us to ask what it means to be oneself
and be in relationship to a loving God.

Writer Reynolds Price, struck down by a crippling disease
at mid-life, advises similarly afflicted persons to get out of themselves and
into the needs of others. In
losing ourselves in service to others, we rise above our smothering
self-concern and self-pity, says Price.
In reflecting upon his own experience of illness, Price says he wishes
that he had opened himself up to service to others sooner during his illness:

Surely I should have forced myself to move outward from
the menacing house far sooner than I did.
Though I couldn't drive.......I might at least have ridden with my
friend to her regular stints at a
homeless shelter in the town or I could have made peanut butter
sandwiches...(Reynolds Price, A Whole New Life, 188-189)

For Price, listening and understanding himself meant
admitting a change he needed to make for his life with God to have more meaning
and purpose.

My closing question becomes, in terms of relationship to
God in Christ, "What teaching of Jesus offers us a meaning of covenant and
intimate relationship with God?"

The answer is in our text from Mark 8, "And Jesus
said, 'If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up
their cross and follow me. For
those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life
for my sake, will save it.'"

In other words, find courage to step with Jesus, to step
into the way of the cross.
The "cross" is not some personal problem you have, some
difficulty in your life. Rather,
the "cross" is something you bear because you follow Jesus.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> The cross is thrust on your back
because you are walking with Jesus, the suffering servant,style="mso-spacerun: yes"> the crucified one.

Maybe you have heard it preached, "If you follow
Jesus things will go better in your marriage." Or, "If you come to church, your worries will be
lifted."

Those things may happen, but today's gospel, implies that
we are to follow Jesus, not because things will go better for us, but because
Jesus is the way to God.

With Jesus we learn to look upon ourselves and value our
lives, not in terms of what we can possess or control, but in terms of what we
can embody. We embody our values,
our honesty, our ability to admit our mistakes, our desire to ask for
forgiveness, and to look out for the welfare and well-being of another.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> We value people and thestyle="mso-spacerun: yes"> relationships that enrich life.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> We cling to relationships that nurture
our growth into full personhood. Beware
when you find yourself in relationship for what you can get out of another and gain for selfish
reasons.

Christ gives us the resources to be compassionate, honest
and free to love. What a different
world this would be if we, as followers of the way of Christ, would look upon
each person we meet remembering the covenant that we have made to be Christ's
disciples.

What a different world this would be if we prayed the
prayer in the litany of Holy Communion of our United Presbyterian friends:

"Forgive us God for turning our churches into
private clubs; for
loving familiar hymns and religious feelings more than we love You; for pasting
stained glass on our eyes and our ears to shut out the cry of the hungry and
hurt of the world."

Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "Most Christians are
thermometers that record or register the temperature of majority opinion, not
thermostats that transform and regulate the temperature of society."

Oh, how we long to be those thermostats!style="mso-spacerun: yes"> How we long in our relationship to God
to hope against all hope! How we
long to step out of a disfigured God-forsaken world and step into God's power
to transform and transfigure the world
so it looks like what God intended it to be.

We have difficulty like the Apostle Peter, for thinking
in terms of "human things" rather than "divine
things." But Jesus comes to
rearrange our thinking about God.
We think of God as exalted, high, lifted up, hermetically sealed off
from the tug an pull of human pain and human evil. Jesus says that is "human thinking."

It is human to want to win. Jesus speak of loss.
It is human to want to gain the whole world. Yet, Jesus demonstrates another way.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> It is human to be satisfied to register
the temperature of the majority opinion.
Jesus implores us to be like thermostats, transforming and regulating the
temperature of society.

We learn from the story of Abraham of faith there is for
us a "courage-in-spite-of."
This courage called Abraham to risk his future and walk by faith.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Most people try to hide from
anxiety by conforming to the world.
The courageous individual risks either despair or faith by facing the
truth of existence and defying the world. (Dictionary of Pastoral Care,
241) Can we, too, have Abraham's
courage to let our faith lead us to face the truth of our existence and defy
the world? Is this the way of the
cross for Christians?

My friends, may our covenant to belong to Christ be our
call to continue our Lenten journey.
Lent is a time to take the time to let the power of our faith story take
hold of us. A time to let the events
get up and walk around us, a time to intensify our living unto Christ.

In closing, let us take with us the words of John Moffitt
as we continue to cherish and nurture the gift of covenant to be in
relationship to a loving God and follow Christ, each moment, each day.

To look at anything

If you would know that thing,

You must look at it long:

To look at this green and say

'I have seen spring in these

woods,' will not do---you must

be the thing you see:

You must be the dark snakes of stems and ferny plumes of
leaves.

You must enter in

to the small silences between the leaves.

You must take your time and touch the very peace

they issue from
(Courage to Dare, 51)

You must step out ---risk---have courage---and step into
the new covenant. Jesus has
offered us the way of the cross that leads to life. We know that is where we belong, in step with Jesus, not
fully understanding, and only gradually comprehending.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> "You must enter in to the small
silences between the leaves. You
must take your time and touch the very peace they issue from."

We treasure this time to take about our covenant to
belong to God. Let us close with
the prayer that has helped all of us in some way to have courage to step with
Jesus.

The Serenity Prayer

"God, give us grace to accept with serenity the
things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be
changed, and wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."style="mso-spacerun:
yes">

Reinhold Niebuhr

Source of Strength

2009-02-08T19:28:00.002-06:00

February 8, 2009, Year B, 5th Sunday after Epiphany
Sermon: Source of Strength
Texts: Isaiah 40: 21-31, Mark 1: 29-39

Isaiah 40:31 "But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."

I just returned from a meeting in Orlando, Florida, designed for those who are engaged in professional pastoral and spiritual care - it was called Summit '09 a Spiritual Care Collaborative. I appreciate the opportunity to be away for this time of study and renewal.

I was in this conference with people of different Christian traditions and different faith traditions who value and promote the common goal of human wholeness in our communities. Being with others from different ministry settings, reminded me of our commonalities and our differences. Gratefully, our differences enhance our life together of service; they do not contradict.

The theme for this conference matches well with our scripture lessons. The theme of the meeting was "Health and Hope: The Hard Reality of Living Intentionally in a Village of Care."
From my point of view, the theme matches what we try to do every week here at Immanuel.

We all care deeply for our health and we have come to know and believe that health is more than physical well being and the absence of disease. Health is having all aspects of ourselves --physical, mental, spiritual--cared for. That is where the hard reality sets in. It takes intentionality for us to care for all aspects of self; it doesn't usually happen by accident.

That's why this beautiful passage from Isaiah is a treasure with encouragement to never give up our hope in the Source of Strength, the Eternal God, always there for us. It is encouragement to pursue the gifts of God for our needs. This lesson may seem to address the "spiritual" side of our well-being but I believe it also addresses the physical and psychological states of our wellness.
These words written by an author we call "Second Isaiah," is the prophet who addresses this need for the lives of the people with whom he shares a faith journey. What can his words mean for us? Remember the first verses of Isaiah 40? "Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that she has served her term, that the penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins." The people of Israel have had very hard lives of exile and oppression; they wonder if God has forgotten them. We, too, who have had hard lives and trying circumstances need to know that God has not forgotten us.

Today's lesson beginning with Isaiah 40:21 calls the people to remember that God has always been with them, even in the most painful, difficult moments. These are words of hope but they are not new words. They are reminders of what they already know. God is their Source of Strength. God is a faithful God.

It seems that we, living in our time, also need this reminder of what we already know. When we are in situations of grief, loss, despair, physical pain and we, too, need to know that God intends to bring us healing just as God brought healing through the work of Christ in the stories of the New Testament.
We see in Mark that Jesus cared for the well-being of those he encountered. Whatever the need, spiritual, physical or psychological, Jesus touched people in some way that we call "healing."

I believe he turned them toward what they already knew but needed to experience again...like a reminder...so they'd be focused and intentional in doing their part for their healing. Maybe, we need reminders. Maybe, we need to be called into relationship our Source of Strength for reassurance and hope for the future.

Ours is a God who invites us into conversation, who welcomes our questions, who holds us accountable and even expects us to hold God accountable. Ours is a God who asks us not to follow blindly, but to engage our faith, and that means engaging both our confidence and our lack of confidence. Ours is a God who offers us strength for whatever we face, for we are to be a people of health and hope. (Biblical Preaching Journal, Winter 2006, p16)

Isn't this the hard reality of living intentionally in a village of care? I think it is. We need reminders to do our part in our relationship to God, our Source of Strength. That means turning to our scripture and taking its wisdom, comfort and projection of hope with intentionality. I try to do this on a daily basis but I will not do it unless I have a desire to do it. I'm grateful that God helps me do what I can even when I'm at my weakest point.

We can help ourselves when we remember what God has in mind for God's beloved children. This truth always comes home to me as I read this passage from Isaiah and remember a sermon preached long ago on the efficacy of these words.

When Bill and I were students at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, we were inspired by many wonderful sermons but particularly, the preaching of Rev. John Claypool at Crescent Hill Baptist Church. Rev. Claypool and his wife had a most difficult journey with the death of their 8 year old daughter, Laura Lue. During this period, John let the congregation know his inner struggles with his own faith and need for God to be present with him in his deepest pain. For John, preaching faithfully meant the struggle and the resolve (hard work of intentionality) to let God be with him in the "stretch of darkness."

In a book of his sermons, Rev. Claypool tells us about his daughter, Laura Lue, "She was a bright, exuberant child, full of life and joy that sprang up as she finished the second grade, and participated in two recitals in one day-a Suzuki violin performance on Saturday morning, and a ballet recital that evening. The next day, she seemed tired, and we attributed it to hyperactivity. But she stayed tired, and then her ankle began to swell." They took her to the hospital and did lots of tests. The words "acute leukemia" was the diagnosis and her nine month treatment began.

John preached many sermons through those months of her illness but the one that stood out for me was the one he preached on this passage from Isaiah. The reality of the terminal illness for Laura Lue and her death was the exile for John and his wife. It was a "stretch of darkness" when the bottom dropped out and John could not go on as he had in getting a job done or solving a problem.

He says, there was no room "to run and not be weary." It was even hard for him "to walk and not faint." He felt like the exiles who had fallen on hard times and were separated from their hopes and dreams. He kept coming back to the picture of God painted by Isaiah as one who was present in every moment of suffering and pain; God, the Shepherd who cared tenderly for all the flock.

John says that by God's grace he felt he received most needful gifts of all. God gave him patience, endurance and the strength to "walk and not faint." As most of you in the congregation know, this is been my prayer for my journey in these last months of my husband's (Bill's) illness and death. I have been blessed by your patience, encouragement, compassion and strength. I have known the truth of God's abiding presence in finding the energy to walk and not faint.

You have had the same experience in your own personal lives as you have had your losses, pain and suffering. How we pray God will continue to be our Source of Strength for whatever our need for healing and health. How we thank God for reminders that God is with us through every "stretch of darkness."

John ends his sermon on Isaiah 40, saying "And who knows, if I am willing to accept these gifts, and just hang in there, and not cop out, maybe the day will come that Laura Lue and I can run again and not be weary, and that we may soar some day, and rise up with wings as eagles! But until then, to walk and not faint, that is enough. O God, that is enough! (Claypool, John, Tracks of a Fellow Struggler; How to Handle Grief, pp 57-58)

And, for us, O God, Source of Strength, may that be enough, may that be enough. May God be with you to give blessing, health, hope and strength. Amen.

Note: My husband, Bill Brigham, died on November 23, 2008. My children and I continue to be grateful for your prayers for us as we adjust to life without his presence. I am grateful for your support during a most difficult time.

The Baptism of Christ

2009-01-11T20:45:00.001-06:00

January 11, 2009 The Baptism of Christ

Sermon: Called to be God's Beloved

Texts: Genesis 1: 1-5 and Mark 1: 4-11

Here we are in the beginning of a new year, celebrating the inauguration of new President of our United States, and feeling high hopes we will have better news about the movement of our economy toward recovery.     The story of the beginning of all creation, God hovering over the waters bringing forth life, is the story of a new beginning. What can our text help us to say about these beginnings?

"In the beginning.....God" Doesn't this message give you goose bumps all over. The Bible is filled with many beautiful images of God as our Creator but passage is more elegantly constructed and no story more compelling to believe as we look toward what "new" things God can do among us. What about this story, our creation story?

What do you believe about it? The question reminds me of the story of the little boy who came home from church with his family and was asked what he learned in Sunday School that day. He said, "The teacher told us about the children of Israel escaping from Egypt, and when they came to the Red Sea they pumped up their inflatable boats so they could get away from Pharaoh's soldiers."

"Now wait a minute," said his Dad. "Is that the way it really happened?"

The little boy replied: "If I told it the way the teacher did, you would never believe it." (from Alex A. Sternberger, "Laughlines" Presbyterians Today, 9/97, 5)

He's right, we have hard time with these ancient texts and the images of God's creative power at work. We want to read them literally, and that, potentially, loses all the punch.

We are aware that people still interpret this "beginning" very literally and use this passage as a proof text for explaining exactly how our world came to be. Believing the story fully as it is described becomes a testing ground for orthodox belief and an elimination of any other challenge to explain how the world began.

When the Kansas State Board of Education a few years ago to remove "evolution" from the state science standards for public school students,

we became more aware of the growing belief that the creation story in Genesis is, for some people, about facts---scientific facts.

But, more of us lean toward the words of Karl Barth. He said, writing to his grandniece, "Has no one explained to you in your seminar, that one can as little compare the biblical creation story and a scientific theory like that of evolution as one can compare, shall we say, an organ to a vacuum cleaner?"   (Geoffrey Bromiley, Karl Bath Letters 1961-68, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1981, 184)

The creation stories are not about facts but they are statements of faith. * The Genesis creation is to be received as a faith statement. It asserts that there is more to life than facts alone. This text is not to be read and believed literally but to evoke in us a response.

I believe that is what the earliest writers were looking for. Many scholars believe, the biblical Creation account was written during the Babylonian captivity of the Jews (that would have been around 458 B.C.E.)   It was written as a response to the Babylonian creation account.

For the Babylonians, the god Anu was also the sky. The goddess Ki was the earth. Shamash was the sun. Sin was the moon. All of nature was composed of various gods to be worshipped.   The creation of the universe that the Israelite's produced had this one message, "Yes the universe was created, but by ONE God, Our God, the only true and living God. All these other things you worship are just inanimate objects in nature which our God created."

In the Babylonian account of creation, there were multiple gods in control for a chaotic universe. But in Genesis there is one God, named Elohim, the God of Israel. In the Babylonian creation there is a cosmic sea goddess who must be vanquished in order to create the world. But, in our Genesis reading, there is only God's Spirit hovering like a restless wind made by beating wings over the deep abyss of swirling water.

In a creative way, with the raw material of "the deep," clearly, God rules. God is not crazed by confusion, nor disturbed by material that seems disordered or disjointed. God moves confidently from chaos to creativity, making something radically good out of the raw material of the primordial deep.

In the beginning, the Spirit of God hovered over the waters and brought forth life. One of my favorite things to do is to walk on the beach; it could be by the ocean, by an inland sea, by a lake, or by a pond. It doesn't matter. It's the power of the waters, the deep waters, waters full of life and possibility that stir my thought and responses to the Creator. I'm sure I'm not alone, as I hear many of you talk about being drawn to live in places where you can experience the beauty and power of the water close at hand. Even where I grew up in South Mississippi, a walk down to the fish pond meant time alone with God, a time to be quiet and awed by the movement of nature.    It was a place for me to sort things out and get perspective.   It is still a place to pray, to ponder, to grieve and to be thankful.

Our enjoyment, our appreciation, our respect, our fear for any part of nature, God's good creation, is part of this story of on-going creation. From these experiences come our statements of faith. We read again from Genesis, "In the beginning.....God." It says that there is more to our life than facts alone. The poet's question in exile was not "How was it created?" but "Who creates?" It was not "What was the process?" but "What was the purpose?"

When we walk on that beach and enjoy the closeness we feel to God through the beauty of nature, we know that we are remembering the God who creates and gives our lives purpose and new meaning, age to age. We are celebrating the closeness we feel to the awesome, living presence of a loving God when we allow ourselves to be held and called "Beloved." Our Good News each Sunday is that there is more to life than facts alone.

The Spirit of God hovers over humanity and brings forth the church.    In baptism, we ask "who am I" and the answer comes as it did to Jesus, the Christ, you are God's beloved child. Next week, we will baptize Harry Schroeder in worship. It will be an opportunity to remember that baptism says, not only, that we are called and named but that we are royalty, daughters and sons of the Most High God. In times of doubt, inner turmoil, hopelessness, or confusion, the message of baptism "you belong to God" will sustain and bring some new creation out of chaos.

At baptism we are given the name "Christian." That name, at whatever age received, is a gift. It is unearned, unmerited. The name calls us to live the in the way of Christ. The Confirmation youth sang many times at our retreat back in November, "They'll know we are Christians by our love." Will they take this message with them as they embrace what it means to carry that name? Will they know, that wherever they are or whatever they do or whatever they become, God will embrace them as God's beloved? I hope if they get the message that this fact will never change!

Baptism says that we are called to be God's beloved-to belong to God.

Whatever chaos that is part of our lives, with God's help and presence, we can confront it. From the beginning, our God confronts death and changes it into life. In the deep waters of life, God is with us. In the fires of life, God is with us.

In times of great doubt, when struggling through his dark nights of the soul, Martin Luther would sometimes touch his forehead and say to himself, "Martin, be calm, you are baptized."

For us as individuals and as a community, we would do well to touch our foreheads where the sign and seal of baptism was made and remember our baptism.    Baptism reminds us that we are embraced by our God who is not crazed by confusion, nor disturbed by material that seems disordered or disjointed. God moves confidently from chaos to creativity, making something radically good out of the raw material of the "deep waters."

We can do many things with scientific knowledge including proving the existence of prehistoric humans. We can do much with our technology, our petri dishes, our advanced mathematics and biological systems.

But, it is people of faith who are capable of loving their enemies. It is people of faith who believe a peace can be brokered in the most vicious circumstances. People of faith cannot prove that God created the universe but they can live a statement of faith that confirms the creative existence of a loving, compassionate God.

Truly, baptism is our gift and the Christian message for all of us this new year is that the church does not rest as long as even ONE of God's children is in misery, hungry, naked, oppressed, persecuted or lost.   We do not rest as long as any institution, government, or person seeks to warp or distort God's royal image in any of God's children.

Friends, may we all remember that our identity has been given in a name----the name from the beginning of all creation is "You are my beloved children with whom I am well pleased. You are baptized."   And, be thankful, for this is who you are and you are not alone. Amen.

*Note:

There are two creation stories found in the book of Genesis. The first account is in Genesis one, our lesson for this sermon. It focuses on the entire universe and the created order which takes six days to accomplish.

The second story begins in Chapter 2, verse 4 and it includes the story of heaven and earth, the Garden of Eden, and the genealogies that follow. Most of us know these two stories and blend them together just as we would blend the birth narratives of the baby Jesus to get our Christmas story. From these stories, we formulate our faith statements.

Christmas Day

2008-12-25T20:05:00.002-06:00

10 a.m. Worship at Immanuel United Church of Christ
Christmas Day Meditation
December 25, 2008
Texts: Psalm 98, Luke 2:4-14, John 1: 1-14

This year as I was getting out some Christmas decorations, it was more difficult than other years. The decorations brought back memories of past Christmases, places we've lived and people we've known. I felt a mixture of joy and sadness and a gratitude for memories.

One particular decoration stands out for me with meaning. It was given to our family way back in our pastorate in Walpole, MA. I think about it every year because it has a story. This gift was a "welcome" gift from a couple at the Union Congregational church in East Walpole, Mass., back in 1993.

We were at the church when the gift was given. It was a busy time at church so I laid it on a table and was going to take it into my office later. I didn't realize until it was too late that I had set it down near the large collection of gifts for the City Mission Society in Boston. You guessed it; my little gift was loaded with the entire collection of gifts for the City Mission Society and delivered to Lincoln, a town where the big warehouse stored all the gifts of the churches in the large metro Boston area.

My heart was broken because I really wanted this lovely "creche." I had already started to have meaning for me because it was a welcome gift and represented the friendship and love of my new parishioners. I decided that I would go search for that gift in Lincoln, Mass., where the collection center was located.

Of course, when I went to this collection center, they called "the barn," I discovered the chance of finding this one small gift was not very good. Eleanor, who had given me the gift, searched "the barn" with me for about 45 minutes. We were about ready to give up and there it was in the little corner of this great barn with thousands of gifts.

Needless to say, this little "crèche" has become part of our family. Martha was about four years old when we moved to Walpole, so I don't think she remembers a Christmas without it as the center of our home decorations. Of course, when I see it, I think of all the wonderful people I met in that church and other churches were we've been members and shared our family life.

And, now, this morning, I ask that we think about our own treasured decorations, lost and found or shared with others, the gifts, wanted or unwanted we've received and the joys and sadness we've endured. For all these memories and days on this earth, we give thanks for the gift of life and the ties that bind us together as friends in Christ.. We gave thanks that Christmas is a time to remember our stories, the people who have shaped us, the faith that sustains us through whatever we face in our lives.

All of our Advent preparations have helped us to come to this day, Christmas, to say "yes" to continued living of the Light of Christ. in our daily lives. The metaphors of feasting, greetings, greens, lights, and gift -giving, are ways to express an awakened commitment to live the good news of Christ's transforming love throughout the year.

May our own memories as well as the words of scripture and words of other Christians keep us centered in the meaning of the day.....
The Venerable Bede of the 8th century expressed it this way, "Christ is the Morning Star, who, when the night of this world is past, gives to his saints the promise of the light of life, and opens everlasting day."

I John 1:5-5b,7 read, "God is light; in him there is no darkness. If we walk in light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

And for further meditation, let us hear a prayer written by the well-known Swiss Reformed theologian, Karl Barth:
O Lord, our God, thou didst desire to dwell not only in heaven but also with us on earth, to be not only exalted and great, but like us lowly and small, not only to rule, but to serve us, not only to be God for eternity, but to be born, to live and to die for us.

In thy dear Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, Thou hast given us no less than thine own self so that we might belong wholly to thee. This concerns us all, although no one of us has earned it. What remains then for us but to be amazed, to rejoice, to be thankful, to hold fast to that which thou has done for us?

We beseech thee, grant that this may become reality among us and in all at this hour. Grant that in honorable, open and willing prayer and in song, speaking, and hearing we may become a true Christmas congregation, and in great hunger may experience the true communion of the Lord's Supper. Amen.

And finally, receive this closing Benediction from Rev. John Hammond....
Child of Bethlehem-house of bread; Man of Jerusalem-city of peace; you have loved us without limit or condition; in our greatness and in our misery, in our folly and in our virtue; may your had be always upon us and may your heart be within us so that we too may be come bread and peace for one another. (John Hammond, OSB) Amen.
(Resource used: A Christmas Sourcebbook, c1984)

A Call to a Place of New Beginnings

2008-12-07T21:09:00.004-06:00

December 7, 2008, The Second Sunday of Advent
Texts: Isaiah 40: 1-11; Mark 1:1-8

In George Bernard Shaw's play, Back to Methuselah, the Serpent in the story says to Eve in the Garden of Eden, "you see things and say "Why?" But I dream things that never were and say, "Why Not?" This is a popular quote from the play because Shaw, writing literature in the 1920s, wanted change for his people and a better life.

John the Baptist, the main character in our Advent lesson never said these words but he could have. He had a profound sense of the disparity between the way things are and the way they ought to be. He wanted a better life for his people and for them to know that faithfulness to God and their promises to belong to God would matter.

I believe that, we, too, want a better life. We want our spiritual lives to matter and for God to be with us through whatever comes in this life with its variety of challenges and uncertainties. If we stay with John the Baptist for while during Advent, we may get some tips. It is true as someone has said that "advent pilgrims on the way to the manger must pass through the desert where John is preaching."

And, what is John preaching in the desert? John is preaching about metanoia; a word that means "repentance." It means a literal "turning around." It means a reckoning with what we need to know about the past so we can "turn around" our future. When we repent, we sincerely decide to let God's power shape us in new ways. We step into a place of new beginnings when we allow transformation to a life that only God can give.

This season give yourself that gift of time. Allow yourself to reflect on how you spend your time, your money, and your energy. Charles Dickens' novel, A Christmas Carol, will always be a favorite story at this time of the year because, in a sense, it is a beautiful story about this time we seek, "advent" time.

Recall that Ebenezer Scrooge experiences time personified in the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. When the ghosts depart, Scrooge has only one question. He asks, "What time is it?"

He runs to the window and calls down to a boy in the street. "What's today?" To the shocked ears of the little boy, Ebenezer needs to know the time. He tells him, "It's Christmas day."

Dickens writes, "Yes, the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his own. Best and happiest of all, the time before him was his own to make amends in." The gift of Advent is the gift of time for us to begin something new in our lives.

Repentance is not a word, then, intended to scare us away from our Christmas enjoyment. It is intended to draw us closer to a true Christian celebration of the "good news" that God-is-with-us. It is intended to help us renew our connection with the God who, in the words of our scripture from Isaiah, "tends his flock like a shepherd....gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart."

The message from our faith encourages us to not see things as they are but as they ought to be. The good news is that God will help us to reflect, review and make decisions that will enhance and strengthen our resolve to live the Christian life with integrity and new commitment to Christ's way of peace for our families, for our church, for our nation and for our world.

On this anniversary of the Pearl Harbor Raid, December 7, 1941,
we remember the time when we, as a country, were abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant. Our hearts are heavy as we remember and grieve those who died in this attack and so many others that came in that long war. Our hearts are heavy as we remember those who continue to die in combat or terror attacks like the one in India recently. How deeply we feel Christ's call to bring peace to our world and let God's light shine through us.

Lighting a candle for peace reminds us of that call to Christ's peace, not as the world gives, but as God gives through Christ.

We affirm our belief that peace, biblical peace, Christian peace, has never been simply an external condition, as much as we appreciate this gift. Christ's peace is internal. It is an attitude, it is an inheritance, it is a way of life. Christ's peace always asks about the way things ought to be. What can we do, members of Immanuel, to bring about this peace in our world today?

We ponder this question as we allow ourselves the time, Advent time, to prepare our hearts and lives for the way of the Lord. May our waiting and our watching, always be part of our lives as Christians. And may we remember, as T.S. Eliot aptly put it, "The desert is not remote place in the Southern tropics; the desert is in the heart." God be with as you ask not "why" but "why not?"

A Calling God

2008-10-19T14:00:00.001-05:00

October 19, 2008

Twenty -Third Sunday after Pentecost

Sermon:
A Calling God

Texts: Exodus 33: 12-23, I Thessalonians 1: 1-10, Matthew 22: 15-22

The story is told that a mother asked her very young daughter what the lesson was in church since she was not able to attend. The little girl told her mother that the minister said, “Don’t be scared, you’ll get your quilt.” The mom was perplexed, needless to say. She asked the minister what she taught the children that Sunday so she could get some clarification. Oh, she said, I taught the children the meaning of “Be not afraid, thy comforter is coming.”

What do we hear in our church that sends us forth with images of the divine? Today, we have opportunity to speak of images of God that comfort, call, and engage us to experience life in the presence of the divine.

When we sing “Bring Many Names” shortly in our service, we’ll be using language to try to address the ways we speak of God Is God a strong mother God, a warm father God, an old, aching God, a young, growing God, a great, living God?

However we image God, we remember that God is a “calling God.” God wants us to experience God’s loving, holy presence in our lives.

In I Thessalonians, one of the earliest writings we have in the New Testament, Paul tells the people they are chosen by God. Why? He has seen this “chosenness” demonstrated in their lives because of the power of the Holy Spirit. He sees what they have done as remarkable! They have turned from certain “idols” or “other gods” so that they could serve a living and true God. Yes, God is a great, living God.

What did Paul see? I imagine a loving community of people who joined their hearts together to claim worship, study, compassion for others as a high priority in the midst of a busy, frightening world. What do you imagine?

The passage from Matthew this morning has a similar invitation for our imaginations. Jesus is being questioned about allegiances. Everyone knew that the Romans imposed heavy taxes on property and crop yields of the Jewish people. They were victims of the Roman occupation forces and taxes were a huge burden. No one wanted to pay unfair taxes yet who would risk complaining to the Roman authorities?

Their worry, I imagine, occupied lots of their time and was a constant source of tension. It must have been sort of like what is going on around the world right now with the economic woes hitting us hard. We get consumed with the present needs that can eat away at our very souls.

Jesus was asked to make a comment on paying these taxes. It was an easy trap for those who wanted him to get himself in trouble with Rome, so what did he do? He asked for a coin. On the drachma was the stamped image of Emperor Tiberius. Since the coin is stamped with Caesar’s image, Jesus said, “Give it to Caesar.” To further his point, he said, “Give to God what belongs to God.”

Jesus did not tell the people what belonged to God and what belonged to the government. They knew and he knew.

It’s like our experience. We know what is important in life when we stop and think about it. We believe faith is part of our everyday experience but, we get caught up in the everyday worries or pleasures or comforts forget to include God in those thoughts. Worship brings us back to remember that belong to God about all other gods in this world. We are “stamped” with God’s image and belong exclusively to the Eternal One.

Unfortunately, we forget that life is brief and we lose something very dear when we let opportunities for developing a deeper relationship with God slip by us.

It is in the Hebrew Scripture lesson today that we see very clearly how much we need to pay attention to God who calls us to be in relationship. The people thought they would be happy with a substitute god. Before this verse 12 of Exodus 33, Moses has gone up on Mt Sinai to receive the tablets of law. While Moses was gone the people, grew restless in his absence and sought some way to relieve their anxiety.

They collected their jewelry and melted it down to make the golden calf. Perhaps it was not an alternative god they were creating, but it was a symbol for the God who seemed preoccupied on the mountain with Moses. Whatever it was, God was angry upon the discovery of what the people had done.

God threatened to withdraw from the people of Israel
as a sign of judgment. But, God did not leave them completely. God promised to send an angel before them into the Promised Land. That should be enough, right? An angel will be with you, a symbol of my presence.

Hearing this report the people went into mourning. They felt the loss of God’s presence. Have you ever felt the absence of God in your life? Have you known a time when you felt God’s presence was far away? If so, you’ll know how the people of long ago were feeling.

This is the background for the text. In verse 12, Moses is asking God to reconsider. Moses, begs…”Show me your glory, I pray.” Moses begs for a promise of God’s presence and a glimpse of God’s glory.

God arranges for Moses to stand in a hollow place in the rock. God will cover Moses with a hand and race by. Moses will be permitted to see God’s back in passing. Do we really imagine that a human being can wear God down and bring about a change in the divine mind? Or, that God actually has a “back” so that a human being might be privileged, under certain conditions, to see this part of God?

No, God teaches us in this story that substitute gods just won’t work. God is God and no one object or image can take God’s place. God calls us to a depth of faith that helps us to know the “great, living God” as a God who wants us as much as we want God. This language, these images, help us claim a truth.

There is a yearning, a thirst, for this God that we come grateful for this morning. Our scripture speaks in simple language to make a profound point. There is no substitute for God. Your experience has taught you this as you have remembered how faith has sustained you in your time of need A faith that has depth and meaning is what God desires for us, so God calls us to name God and know God as much as we can with our limited human capacity.

Friends, God is calling us to pay attention and name God’s power in our lives just as the early church did in Thessalonica. What a privilege we have to put God first in everything. To give to Caesar what is Caesars and give to God what is Gods. And, maybe we can echo these words of Rev. Coffin, in our lives as we do.

“I believe the power of God is lodged in the very marrow of our substance and is pressing, constantly pressing, for release in order to permeate every fiber of our being. And the demand is not for self-denial, as it is so often preached, but rather for self-discovery and self-realization, which includes the commitment to God that is the final fulfillment of human life.” St Paul said that God searches our inmost being and “The kingdom of God consists not in words but in power.” (Credo, William Sloane Coffin, p 122)

God is a calling God. We are people made in God’s image and pray we will glimpse God’s glory once more and be empowered for our journey in Christ’s name. Amen.

Passing on God's Good Gifts

2008-08-03T09:24:00.000-05:00

August 3, 2008 Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Texts: Genesis 32: 22-31, Matthew 14: 13-21
Sermon: Passing on God's Good Gifts

As I read today's texts, particularly, these from Genesis and Matthew, I am reminded of the holiness of time and remembering life changing moments that helped me see things, activities, people in a different way. Think with me about your own "ah-ha" experiences in life that has helped you learn about who you want to be and how you want to be known.

In 2003, I spent time with study group of theology students and pastors in Volos, Greece. We were there to learn about Orthodox spirituality from Orthodox Christians at Nea Anchialos near Volos. The Ecumenical Institute of Bossey was the organizer of this seminar.

Volos is north of Athens on the Aegean Sea coast. After the meeting I wanted to go to Thessaloniki north of Volos. I wanted to visit this place where early Christian churches were reported as meeting and thriving in their growth; the Apostle Paul wrote letters to these churches and we read them today in our churches. In fact, when you visit the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki, you see three rooms of artifacts from the Early Christian period with exhibitions related to Early Christian churches, Early Christian towns and Christian cemeteries (4th-7th centuries).

Early in the morning, I caught a bus from our retreat center to the town center of Volos. I bought my bus ticket and set out to find the bus to Volos that went to Thessaloniki. This was my first challenge. There were about 25 buses lined up ready to go in every direction in Greece and beyond; of course, the signs were in Greek on the buses and I had to find the right bus quickly before it pulled away from the gate. Thank goodness, the little Greek I knew from my seminary days came in handy.

I just made it to the right bus and found my assigned seat when I realized in my haste I had not packed any food or drink for the long journey. Well, I could make it and be okay, I was sure. Usually these regional buses stopped at rest areas with little shops, I learned later, so I was not worried.

I sat next to an older woman dressed in black; she looked very tired, thin and sad. As we started the journey, I began talking with this woman and learned that she had returned from visiting family members. They were mourning the death of her husband who died a few weeks earlier. She was traveling back to her home in Thessaloniki. To complicate her life, she was suffering from swollen feet and ankles.

When it was around lunch time, we did stop and people got off the bus to buy food and stretch their legs. This woman got off the bus, selected her food, went to pay for her food and could not find her wallet. She was already distraught but was more distraught when she could not find her wallet. I was in the line to buy food as well and saw what was happening. I told her that I would go to the bus and look for the wallet. I did and found the wallet under the seat where she was sitting; it must have fallen out of her bag.

Anyway, she was very thankful and happy that I had helped her and we went back to our seat on the bus. Everyone began eating the food they had purchased as we started our journey again. As I got out my little granola bar, all I really wanted, this dear Greek woman told me to put it away. She spread a feast of cheese, crackers, sweets, and other Greek delights in front of me and insisted I share her food.

Even after we arrived in Thessaloniki that afternoon, she told me that we could ride together in a taxi to my hotel and then she would go to her home. Again, she insisted that she pay for the taxi and thanked me for helping her.

There are some moments in life and experiences that stand out and we remember them vividly, the many details and strange occurrences. The preciousness and remembrance of those moments in time cannot be erased. I remember this story in my travels because of the generous sharing of food and openness of this woman to talk to me and take me under her wing.

For me, it was nice to have a companion since I was traveling alone but the experience was not without my own personal struggle. The struggle was not only the challenge of getting on the right bus but this dear Greek woman, my travel companion, did not speak much English. In fact, English was her 5th language. She spoke Greek, of course, and much better French, Spanish and German than her 5th language, English.

Her conversation to me was quite a mix of these languages; I must admit, my head was spinning as we arrived in Thessaloniki and I left the taxi for my hotel. But, obviously, this was a bus trip I'll never forget.

In those "I remember" moments, our life in the here-and-now space seems to stop and we recognize the holiness of time. We understand in a new way the gift of God to know this world, its people, its lessons, and our own humanity that ties us to one another. What experience has come to mind for you? What "I remember when" moment has helped you get perspective on your life and God's world?

Hopefully, our lessons, have triggered some "ah-ha" experience and preciousness of a moment for you. Each of us has a personal time-stopping moment that cannot be erased and learn something about ourselves each time we stop and remember.

The reason we read scripture is go to glean from the experience of the people from ancient times who had a gift to pass to us of their "moment" with the divine. The particular stories in our Bible like the feeding of the multitudes by Jesus and the disciples with only a little bit of food is one. And, the story of Jacob, wrestling with the Angel in his sleep is another.

These stories lead us to wrestle with the meaning of life and who we are sons and daughters made in God's image. They help us to identify our purpose for being and renew our commitment to let God's will unfold for us in how we perceive our lives and our future. What shall we pass on regarding God's gifts to us in our precious time on this earth? How shall be known to others?

Let's talk about this a moment by looking at the story of Jacob. Naming has always been an important part of the Jewish faith. When we read this story of Jacob, sometimes known as the trickster much of his life, we see a person who must come to terms with his character, his inner being, his deceptions, his "get ahead" whatever the cost. Remember Jacob is the twin son of Isaac and Rebekah. (see ending of chapter 25 of Genesis to recall the story).

Even before Jacob was born (so the tradition goes), he was not satisfied that his twin Esau, would be born before him. When the birth happened, Jacob was hanging onto the heel of his brother, trying to get out first. Later, he colludes with his mother to steal his brother's birthright and tricks his father-n-law, Laban, out of sheep.

In today's lesson, Jacob has decided to meet his brother who had sworn to kill him and make peace. (Genesis 27: 41-42 "Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him ...the time to mourn my father will soon be here then I will kill my brother Jacob.") You see why Jacob is worried. The night before he meets him, he wants to be alone. Was this another one of Jacob's schemes? He sends his wives and children ahead of him to protect himself, fearing his brother's anger. You may be asking, "Would he really try to bait his brother, banking on Esau's generous spirit that he would not harm women and children so that Jacob could ease his way back?" Jacob, called trickster, has been given this name for a reason.

The night before the meeting, Jacob wrestles with the Angel. At this point, we have an "I remember when" moment for Jacob. For that Angel, we identify as God, would not let him face the future without a struggle and that meant being honest with himself. What a great gift that God would in this dream confront him and make him stop in that moment and ask, "Who are you, Jacob?" "What have you done with your life?"

God asked Jacob, "What is your name?" God is not asking what others called him, his label or his title. God was asking, "Who are you, really?" In this moment, an "I remember" moment, Jacob had a reality check. He took hold of the moment and asked God to let him change and give him a blessing of support in this new person he wanted to be. Through this story we learn about the holiness of time. We learn about moments in life when God comes to us to let us look in the mirror, struggle, if need be, and change for the good.

What happened to Jacob? His name changed and his heart changed with it. It changed from Jacob, "the one who grabs by the heel" to Israel "the one who struggles with God." The naming, the blessing, was a symbol of the struggle. Not struggle in a negative sense but in a positive new way. It was an opportunity to be honest with himself, the messiness of his life, and allow God to help him change.

He would not forget that night, that struggle. A symbol of remembrance is tagged onto the story itself. Jacob would have a limp and the admonition of the faithful was not to eat thigh meat. It was a time to mark the moment. We read in 32:31 "Jacob named the place Peniel" Why? "Because I have seen God face to face and I have survived."

I believe one of our deepest yearnings in life is to know God and receive God's blessing. Our yearning, in some way, is to see God face to face and not only survive but thrive. We do this by honestly facing ourselves and being grateful for the good gifts we have. We are showered with God's mercy and grace daily and have moments that teach us to stop and be grateful for an opportunity to pass on to future generations a trust and faithfulness in God, our Creator. It is important to also share our stories of struggle and what we have learned from our past mistakes.

How do we do this? How do we always remain open to what God can teach us through all the moments we are given in this brief life?

From my own experience on the bus ride in Greece, I learned, again, about the trust of strangers, of God's generosity through others, of breaking bread with those from a different culture, language or Christian (or other faith) tradition. I learned that even when I feel like a stranger or uncertain about my destination, God is with me, teaching me how to treasure the moments of struggle, uncertainty or new experience.

For the future, how can we pause and allow the "holiness of time" provide meaning for our existence?

May we all be open to how God can change us, give us a new name, a new life or new opportunity. May we be open to the wrestling and struggle of what God can do with us through the ordinary experiences that come to us in our daily lives? May we mark the moment of encounter with God, openness to see the face of God, and pass on the good gifts that come from knowing and being in God's presence? May it be so? Amen.

What is My Calling?

2008-06-16T10:11:00.000-05:00

June 15, 2008 The Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
Text: Matthew 9: 35 - 10:8 (9-23)
Sermon: What Is My Calling?

It's Father's Day, a day to recognize the "calling" of fathers to their vocation to be present for their children and families, and to be models of living and teaching the faith to their children.

Chris Gardiner who wrote The Pursuit of Happiness says that what he remembers most from his experience of his single dad struggling in the early 1980s was not the ability of his dad to provide financial security. He said, what he remembers most, is that whenever he looked up, his dad was there. It wasn't the size of the bank account, it was his dad's presence. The dad who is constant and loving is the dad he remembers. (Newsweek , June 2, 2008, p 19, "A Father has his Say")

A wonderful way to begin our Father's day remembrance! Today we come thankful for our fathers, those living and those who have passed from this life into life eternal. Not all of us here this morning have had the experience of the good earthly father, a father loving, present and generous with time and mercy. Yet, we can all affirm the love of our eternal Father, and the desire for us to be embraced by this loving Father-God in all our life. We can expect the teaching of scripture to turn us toward what it means to be a loving father (or parent) and always a person who lives out the call to be a disciple in word and deed.

When I think of a good father, I remember my own wonderful father (Paul Rigney Rogers) and my husband, Bill, who is a terrific father. Bill was one to tell stories to our children. He'd spin a wonderful adventure and they would look forward to the next episode. In addition to spinning tales, he liked to read them their favorite stories. One story came to mind as I read our scripture and thought of its application today.

Remember Wally Piper's story of The Little Engine That Could? It is an inspirational story of motivation and the power of positive thinking. In this well-loved classic, a little train carrying oodles of toys to all of the good boys and girls, is confronted with a towering, seemingly impassable mountain.

As nicely as they ask, the toys cannot convince the Shiny New Engine or the Big Strong Engine--far too impressed with themselves--to say anything but "I can not. I can not." It is left up to the Little Blue Engine to overcome insurmountable odds and pull the train to the other side. The Little Engine That Could rallies with the mantra "I think I can--I think I can" and then moves into a joyful, "I know I can, I know I can."

In Christian terms, we may interpret the story to have the positive encouragement we need to be the "little blue engine that could." With God's power helping us to climb the hills of life, as fathers, mothers, graduates, disciples of Christ, we can be more than just "thinkers" and people with good intentions.

We can realize it is not on our own strength that we climb the mountains of life. God will help us with whatever circumstance we have to climb and pass through the trails of life. God will help us so we can help others. That is what the commission to be Christ's disciples is about.

Jesus' call was to ordinary people of his day (fathers, mothers, sons and daughters) to share something of the compassion of God in whatever way they could. Jesus took a common occurrence in life and showed how that could happen in an extra-ordinary way.

For Jesus, it was about a renewal and recall of God's promise. Therefore, Jesus' call was to a renewal movement within Judaism. First century Judaism spoke primarily of the holiness of God but Jesus redirected their thinking to focus upon the compassion of God.

You hear it all through scripture. Matthew 9:35-38: "Jesus went about, saw the crowds, and had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." Do we need a renewal movement within Christianity today? Do we need to focus less on judgment and more on compassion?

As Christians, my understanding from reading the text, is that our starting place is not to be in judgment of others, or be satisfied with our "right belief." Our starting place, our reason for being, is to have the identity as compassionate people in Christ's service. Honestly, we don't always know where this will lead. We proclaim we are people gifted by the grace of God with blessings not earned but bestowed by a gracious Creator. How are we telling God we are grateful? What opportunities do we have to speak a word for God, to make choice that would reflect God's view, or share a life that will demonstrate God's intention for humanity.

Friends it starts right where we are. It starts in our families, in our congregations, in our schools, in our workplaces. We are commissioned to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons just as the early disciples were. It is a great compliment, isn't it that we are included in God's own ongoing mission?

Do we have a personal call to do the same? Yes, as fathers, you have that call. As graduates, you have that call. As church members who value the name Christian, we have that call. Think of the blessings you have been given; the choices you have to give back in some way.

Many years have passed since a man named Clarence Jordan lived out his call to give back. Jordan received his degree in agriculture from the University of Georgia and wanted to use his knowledge of scientific farming "to seek to conserve the soil, God's holy earth." (Website, A Brief History of Koinonia)
He was known as a farmer and as a brilliant teacher and preacher. He received his doctorate in New Testament Greek from Southern Seminary in Louisville Kentucky.

It is said that he penned his translations of the New Testament gospels from the original Greek (like the passage we read this morning) into the Georgia vernacular in a small wooden building nestled in one of the farms' pecan orchards in the building known as " Clarence's Shack."

What is significant for us is what Clarence and his wife Florence and another couple, Martin and Mabel England, did with this call of Christ to share life in rural Georgia in the 1940s. The vision was to offer training to African American ministers living in the area. What developed was an interracial community where blacks and whites could live and work together in a spirit of partnership.

There's lot of talk these days about race in our United States and current attitudes post Civil Rights Days. Our history helps us be glad we have made steps toward more understanding and support of our desire to live in a spirit of partnership. Recently, in our own denomination, The United Church of Christ, we are asked to talk about our commitment to being brothers and sisters in Christ across the racial divides. Is it relevant that we do this so many years after the Civil Rights movement?

We take inspiration from the movement long ago to live God's compassion. Go to the Koinonia web site and you'll read:
Koinonia is a Christian farm community founded in 1942 by Clarence & Florence Jordan and Martin & Mabel England. Home of the Cotton Patch Gospel, birthplace of Habitat for Humanity, Jubilee Partners, Prison Jail Project, Fuller Center for Housing and other ministries. Still growing pecans and peanuts, welcoming visitors, and living the "demonstration plot for the Kingdom of God".

Friends, today we count it a great privilege that we are still called to live the "demonstration plot for the Kingdom of God"? It started with a belief that Christ calls us to discipleship; people at Koinonia would say, "radical discipleship."

Jesus wanted his disciples to do what he had done: proclaim the nearness of the reign of heaven, cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.

The story of Koinonia Farms lives on. You can visit this place and see for yourself. Our story at Immanuel United Church of Christ lives on here, doesn't it? Our story lives in the lives of the members of this church, the fathers and mothers of this church, the confirmands who come through our doors, the graduates who stay and leave and become part of some congregation where they will find ties that bind. May that's right here for their lifetime. We know we must stay relevant and make difference. We must talk and pray and do and pray some more.

Truly, wherever we are part of Christian community we pray we are part of a movement toward radical discipleship to transform some corner of our community. We don't have to go far to heal the sick, to raise the dead, to cleanse the lepers or to cast out demons. We do have to remember the message of Jesus. "You have received without payment; give without payment." I think that means it happens where we are.

When Jesus saw the crowds he had compassion. When Jesus saw crowd, he saw faces. As we go forth to see faces in our families, in our local church and wider church, in our schools, in our workplaces and homes, may we remember our call to be Christ's compassionate disciples.

May we go as St Francis of Assisi instructed: "At all times preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words." May we be called, again and again, to live on this "demonstration plot of the Kingdom of God." May God give us vision and hope.

Amen.

Pastoral Prayer
Gracious Father, we begin our prayers of intercession today with gratitude for the gift of life. We thank you for your tender interest in everything about us-our health, our happiness, our behavior, our fulfillment as persons. We are grateful that your revelation to us is of the tender, loving father.
Bless all fathers who are here today and we pray that you will grant them a sense of the importance in our lives and the lives of our children. We know that earthly fathers aren't as perfect as you...sometimes they ignore us or abuse us or behave shamelessly. Our hearts grieve for those who have not had the experience of a loving earthly father because of war, disease or poor choices. May they know your comfort and your care as a divine Heavenly Father, always present and always full of compassion.
As we pray for fathers, our families, our loved ones, we remember those who are in need today. Many suffer losses from recent floods and disasters close to home. Be with those who are cleaning up and salvaging what they can to begin anew.
We lift our prayers for all who suffer illness or anxiety of any kind; for those who endure hardship and privation; for those who struggle with hard decisions, for those caught in a web of violence and despair. Many today are hearing bad news in terms of a loss of job or financial security. Show your hope, your light, your wisdom and comfort, we pray.
Finally, we ask you to bless our graduates...walk with them wherever they go and teach them to live reverently and joyfully, respecting the need of others and sharing with them the wealth of their backgrounds and abilities.
Enable us all to pause with a sense of humility before the ever-moving river of time and to remember that you alone do not change but are always the God of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father of mercy, in whom we live and move and have our being. Amen.

Keep Playing, May 4, 2008

2008-05-04T16:53:00.000-05:00

May 4, 2008
May 4, 2008
Seventh Sunday of Easter
Sermon: Keep Playing
Texts: Acts 1: 6-14; John 17: 1-11

This morning our scriptures focus on what it means to be a community of believers, something like a family. The people who followed Jesus and believed his teaching, long after his death, remembered his words and experienced his presence when they were together. They tried to give voice to the mystery of Christ's real presence with them as people bound together like a family. What were they saying?

Think about their daily lives. Throughout scripture we read of people, people living daily life in relationships and finding meaning in the day to day routines they share. As we anticipate next Sunday being Mother's day, we know there is a reason for recognizing those who have given much to help us through life; sometimes people are biological mothers, they are mothers who have adopted us as children and given us their full love and devotion, or they are mothers who have "spiritual" children because they have been our teachers, mentors, sponsors, guides.

We celebrate people who are like our family, especially in the church. Immanuel is one of those churches where you'll meet lots of people related to one another; you can be witnesses to me about what that means from generation to generation. I know a little of what that is like because my parents tell me I'm related to everybody in Covington County, Mississippi, where they and their ancestors settled. But, I know my daughter, active in the Westwood Hills UCC Church in Westwood, CA, rarely meets people in her church related to one another except by church membership.

Whoever is in our churches we like to understand ourselves as a sort of "family." But, family life and responsibility has its demands. You know some of the challenges from your own stories in family life.

A pastor from North Baltimore, Ohio, said that the quickest way for a mother to get her children's attention was to sit down and look comfortable. (Holy Humor) Another bit of humor comes from The Family Circus cartoon depicting the older brother listening to his younger brother saying his evening prayers. The older brother responds upon listening, "I'm tellin' Mommy. You're goin' over her head."

We, as sisters and brothers in the family of God, celebrate our call to be God's people and to find God through the wonders of family living! We are glad we can pray and go over Mommy's head. The popular disco song of the famous Sisters Sledge says, "We Are Family." We are those related by marriage or remarriage, blood or adoption. We are single persons, persons living alone, people living with those outside their kinship families.

In celebrating families, we celebrate God's love and the way we know God's love through the human family. Jesus' prayer for us was a prayer for oneness "Holy Father, protect them in your name so that they may be one, as we are one." John 17:11

The prayer of Jesus is not just a sweet piece of liturgy for our emblem of our United Church of Christ; it is a radical prayer and asks for some radical thinking about how we become "family" across rigid lines that can potentially divide us. That's why we keep in front of us that image of Christ praying and we keep this prayer on our symbol of our denomination. Often in our church buildings we have that picture of Jesus kneeling to pray, many times his posture of prayer is of one looking up toward the heavens. Jesus is praying to God, his Father. Sometimes, we even say God, his mother. The image here is God as a loving mother or father; it is God as a loving parent. Maybe you did not grow up with a loving parent but I imagine that you know what a parent's love should be by God's standard, don't you?

These are human terms to help us understand that the nature of God is love. The nature of life in the church should also be built around a relationship of mutual love and trust. Luke 15 is one of the most beautiful chapters in the Bible because the story of the lost son illustrates an image of God as a loving parent. Scripture presents images that are masculine and feminine to help us feel the closeness of God's love...like a parent God reaches out to embrace us; in the same way, God's divine Spirit is above, beyond, never bound to mere mortal language.

That means, dear followers of the Christ here at Immanuel, we pay attention to the spiritual life and the opportunities we have to grow as God's family.
Much in the news lately has been the criticism of a certain Christian layperson's relationship to his pastor. Some of you have asked me my thoughts on such matters. I think the place to begin in response to this question is from the point of view of those who are church family and how we view the dynamics of congregational life.

Recently, Martin Marty, writing in his "M.E.M.O." Column in the May 6, 2008 issue of the Christian Century Magazine helps me express my view. He writes referring to some recent church controversy at Trinity UCC, Chicago, regarding retired pastor, Rev. Wright....... "the experts on the subject have been as far as I can tell, media personnel who never go to church, do not know what sermons are for, and have not experienced lively congregational participation; people who value fidelity very little and church hopping and sermon shopping very highly; those who have political stakes in their judgment; and people who pay no attention to the contexts of messages."

The scripture from the Sermon on the Mount is pretty clear for me (Matthew 7: 1-5) "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged." The passage is about looking at ourselves honestly and openly before pointing to others who have problems. The reason we become members of the church, the family of God, is to help us with the nitty, gritty day to day needs that arise in our individual and collective spiritual lives and the needs of those who are crying out around us, near and far, for someone to care.

We've had good counsel from our scripture from I Peter these last two Sundays on ways we can be a faith community that stays well and strong. Peter tells those who were part of his church family to be firm in their faith and depend upon God. He says, "Be sober, be watchful and God will restore, establish and strengthen you." In other words, Jesus may be saying to us, "draw closer and be my family, even with all your flaws!"

God is the parent who encourages and prays we will not lose heart, whatever it is that comes our way. We will turn to God and to each other for help. We must remember, too, that people of the early centuries of the formation of the church lived in difficult times.

These promises were for people who needed a word of hope for their struggling congregations just as we need a word of hope for ours. These promises were for people encountering oppression and facing little hope for survival in their interpretation of a radical call to love and accept, equally, all families. In first century, as today, the stereotypes and accepted cultural definitions of family could be oppressive and exclusive. The threats, the limits, the stress on people who wanted to express the Spirit's teaching were subject to constant ridicule.

Christian communities were to be different according to Paul and other early Christian leaders. The gathering of Christians signifies a naming and claiming of the many forms of God's grace in daily life. (See In Search of Paul, Crossan and Reed)

We think about this call to be one, Jesus' prayer, and ask how we are doing with our oneness. Does that song "we are family" apply to all of us? Is Jesus prayer for all people or just a few?

It is important in the church, I believe, that we stay aware of the efforts being made on many fronts to address issues that we know our Lord would care about deeply for all of us to be a church family and a human family, addressing practical needs around health care, food production, education, access to clean water, and essential infrastructure to support impoverished towns and villages.

We are still on the way through the 15 year United Nations Millennium Project aimed at cutting global poverty by 50 percent that started at the turn of the century, the year 2000. What will we look like in the year 2015? Unfortunately, the news is still not very good. Right here in Sheboygan County, just a few months ago, we were getting the news that the food pantries were in dire need of help. We know of the food shortages near and far away; we hear about them on news every day. What is going on?

We must be attentive to what our efforts are to be the "human family" by caring about ways we can combat poverty, hunger, lack of education, high child and maternal mortality rates and HIV/AIDS? The insert in the bulletin (Global Ministries Mission Moment) helps us remember our own UCC /Disciples partners through Global Ministries as we read about the message of Nomvula Shale.

I did not meet Nomvula when I visited South Africa as a Global Mission Volunteer in 2005, but I did meet others, pastors and church members, in Johannesburg churches tell me exactly what is printed in that story. We want to support our brothers and sisters who are communicating a very important message about HIV/AIDS in the need to be vocal and stay with the community for support and healing. Sub-Saharan Africa remains by far the worst affected region in our world. By being local family in the church here, we are helping our church family there. I have met these pastors and church members of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa. I know their pleas and so I pass it on to you. I have visited orphanages where most of the infants waiting for adoption, if they survive, are HIV positive in neighboring Lesotho. The call of Christ, the word of Christ, is a call for oneness.

Last week, on May 1, our church calendars had us remember Ascension Day.
The doctrine of the Ascension of Christ is about oneness. Traditionally we think of ascension in literal terms; Jesus lifted vertically into the clouds. It has been visualized in really great paintings and a fine casting of prayers and incense in services of worship.

But what does the passage we read for Ascension Day, Ephesians 1:15-23, really mean? "God has put all things under his feet and has made him (Christ) the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." (Verses 22-23) What is the family of faith's understanding of the power of the risen Christ?

Yes, Ascension Day, is to remind us to stop and become the people God wants us to be. The message from the reading about Ascension in Acts has a similar thrust. You will receive power, you will be my witnesses, and you will be one, like a family when you come together.

We come this morning giving thanks for families and being aware of the challenges of our own personal connection to families and connection to the needs of our world family. The church is a place where we can come from a variety of backgrounds and know that there are human networks, there are church networks that support and sustain us and our desire to follow the teaching of the early church, "be sober, be watchful and God will restore, establish and strengthen you." The church is a place where our hearts, minds, dollars, and prayers are working!

Thank you for all you do to be a family of faith in this place; thank you for your time, talents and treasure to support who we are and who we want to be. Thank you for your covenant to be a UCC family through your contributions to our wider church through our Our Church's Wider Mission. Thank you for the attitudes, desire and wonderful intentions I have experienced here to work together and never be ashamed of having this wonderful experience of being one, an answer to Jesus' prayer.

I close with an illustration that is, for me, a way to express the dependence on God for whatever small efforts we make to be good Christians, good mothers and fathers, good examples for our youth and children, good friends to one another and a good family of faith....not always dependent on our own abilities but on what God can do with what we have.

The great Polish concert pianist, Paderewski, was performing and a mother decided to take her young son to hear him play. Perhaps this would encourage him in his beginning efforts to learn the piano. After they had arrived in the great concert hall and had taken their seats, the mother spotted a friend and went over to say hello. Before long, the young boy was out of his seat exploring the fascinating environment of the concert hall. He eventually found his way to and through a door marked, "No Admittance."

When the houselights dimmed, the mother made her way back to her seat only to discover that her son was nowhere to be found. As she frantically began her search, the hall went dark, the stage curtains parted and spotlights highlighted the elegant Steinway piano at center stage.

And there, to her relief and horror, sat her son on the piano's bench, seemingly oblivious to his situation, completely absorbed in his effort to pick his way through "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."

Then, the great piano master made his grand entrance onto the stage. Instead of a burst of applause, there was the collective gasp and then silence...and the sound of a child plucking his way through "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." There was an awkward moment as he took in the scene. Then, without hesitation, he moved to the piano and took his seat beside the boy, who was still plucking away. Paderewski whispered to the boy, "Keep playing."

The audience sat in stunned silence as Paderewski reached his left arm around behind the boy, reached out to his right and began playing behind and alongside, creating a masterpiece out of child's play. (Biblical Preaching Journal, May 8, 2005, p.20)

Picking out "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is sometimes all we can do in witness to what it means to be God's family. We fumble and do our best. But play we must.

And play we will when we remember that we are not alone. There is One who has promised to come alongside us and who will never leave us. There is One who keeps playing and praying that we will be one. Thanks be to God for restoration, strength and the assurance of God's mercy. Jesus said, "I will be with you always, to the end of the age." Amen

Eat, Pray and Build

2008-04-20T14:00:00.000-05:00

April 20,2008
The Fifth Sunday of Easter
Sermon: Eat, Pray and Build
Texts: I Peter 2: 2-10, John 14: 1-7

Today is a wonderful day for celebrating life with the baptism of Samuel Paul and all that is involved in the rhythms of life. We are aware that our Jewish friends celebrated the first night of Passover last night and for them it was a celebration of life and never forgetting that this blessing was gift from God, just as Samuel is a gift from God.

Listen to this wonderful poem that begins to tell us what that might be about:
A rabbi scattered hope like seeds
beneath a desert sky;
He knew in every waking plant
a sacred force would rise
to break the ground, to reach for life,
to search with leaf and root,
and draw the strength of earth and sky
to bear the promised fruit.

The rabbi saw the desert bloom,
the Eden of his prayer:
a garden ripe with hope and life
and also ripe for care.
"So come," he says, "my friends, with me
to tend, to sing, to plod:
the Earth cries out to celebrate
the greening love of God."
(by Michael Hudson, Episcopal Priest, Alive Now, Sept/Oct 2002, p 64)

Greening is about process, rhythm, patience, fortitude, what else? It is about hope. If there is anything we learn from the letters of Peter, it is hope. If there is any message from the gospel reading, John 14, that resonates with all of the letters from the early church faith, it the hope and promise of Jesus to be with us and never leave us. The poem reminds us that a garden is blooming ripe with hope and life and the poem invites us to tend, to sing, to plod. It is invitation to be attentive to the rhythm of life; eat, pray and build around God's greening in your life.

We are grateful for these encouraging letters from teachers of the early church and we ask what message is there for us in these letters. Let's start by remembering that the letters, Peter, James, John and Jude, are tractlike messages written to fellow Christians in their time. Today we have letters written from leaders in our churches that are similar. These letters, different from the letters Paul wrote that were more specifically addressed to individual churches are persons, were general and could have a message to all Christians.

So, we find that the letter of James may address works, the letters of John address love, the letters of Jude address pure faith and the letters of Peter address hope. They all address our need to belong to Christ, for the church to be a spiritual temple, for the church to be God's people in word and deed.

Aren't we glad we had people who wrote letters so long ago and some copies survived so we could learn about what the early church was like and the problems they had to cope with in their faith communities.

Recently, I was going through some letters and files, getting them ready for my ongoing scrapbook projects, and I found a letter my Dad had written to my young son Paul when he was about five year old. We lived far away in Bangkok, Thailand, so we had to depend on written correspondence for most of our communication. No email for us at that time although we did lots of audio taping and sent tapes back and forth.

The reason for this letter was that my mom and dad had just been to visit us in Thailand and my dad wanted to report to Paul that he had stopped smoking. He said, "Now I have stopped smoking Paul and remember our agreement. If I stopped smoking you would stop throwing temper tantrums."

This letter brought back lots of emotions for me; I had forgotten my son threw temper tantrums and forgotten when my dad stopped smoking. Letters have a wonderful way of helping us to remember what has shaped us and made us the people we are. I've got to remember to share that letter with my 28 year old son n.....he'd really appreciate it knowing that his grandfather took time to write and give him words of wisdom. These words of I Peter can help us remember what shapes us and helps us to be the best Christian community we can be.

Letters are treasures; they cross the boundaries of time and place like nothing else. The great Swiss Reformed Protestant theologian Karl Barth wrote letters to French Protestants during the Nazi occupation in France. They were messages of comfort, assurance, exhortation and sympathy that crossed battle lines and gave all Christians a sense of unity in their faith, hope, love and good works. (p 86, "I Peter" Interpreter's Bible Commentary)

So, friends, if there is any message you take for your reading these general letters from Peter, take the word "hope." In our rhythm of life, our eating, praying, building, Christ is our hope. The greening of God within us means we are making something, working toward something, becoming something special. Whatever it is that keeps you away from God and God's church, let it go. Remember that if you are to grow, you must be fed.

Yes, grace is a free gift of God, but as Peter tells us, it is also something we develop and grow. "Like newborn babies, long for pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation." Paul said it in a different way: Philippians 3:14, "Press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

Here in the poem I read earlier is the reminder of the "sacred force that rises to break the ground and reach for life."

"A rabbi scattered hope like seeds
beneath a desert sky;
He knew in every waking plant
a sacred force would rise
to break the ground, to reach for life,
to search with leaf and root,
and draw the strength of earth and sky
to bear the promised fruit."

We know that our responsibility to each other is just this...planting seeds of hope. Why do we have programming, worship, opportunities at our church for all ages, not just for children? Because we want to provide the spiritual nurture and care that we all need to grow in Christ. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (for goodness, for the kindness of our Lord) for they shall be filled.

Our families nurture this desire to taste the kindness of God. Parents pledge to bring their children into the life of the church. Why? To develop a rhythm, a routine, a commitment to growth in God's Spirit of being together and talking about things of the Spirit. They allow other Christians to teach their children and live with their children in the pathways of Christ. It is a great gift for parents to fulfill the pledges to their children they have made at baptism.

It is not just about the ritual, the morals, the system of philosophy or the obligation, it is about coming to know the living God. That bring us to the second part of the teaching from our reading from I Peter. It is the teaching about the role of the church.

Certainly, we know that the church is to be a genuine community of living disciples of Christ. Christianity comes to us through the Christian community. There is no disembodied Christianity. It is a social faith for it embodies itself in a unique and organic community of fellow believers.

That's why it is important to be connected to the church if you are a Christian. As Peter describes, Christ is the living cornerstone and we are the living stones that build our lives around the person of Christ. Our covenant with God through Christ is the same as it was in Peter's day.

Christians are not perfect but they people who strive to possess the qualities of the Christian life. We believe our spiritual house will be what God wants if we remember to focus on our faith in Christ, not just each other or the world in which we live.

That means we constantly put emphasis on these things:
Attitude, Prayers, Joy and Witness. That's another sermon but suffice it to say that when we claim "we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people," we mean that we are serious about the function of the church.

We are serious about our growth and the greening of God within. From 1903-1908, German lyric poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote a series of remarkable responses to a young, would-be poet on poetry and on surviving as a sensitive observer in a harsh world. We still read them today because they reflect what we feel we want for ourselves in our own relationship to the world, to the church, to God.

In the first letter he says, "I want to advise you to keep growing quietly and seriously throughout your whole development; you cannot disturb it more rudely than by looking outward and expecting from outside replies to questions that only your inmost feeling in your most hushed hour can perhaps answer." (p 18, Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet)

Surely, Christianity comes to us through the nurture of the Christian church that teaches us how to be the people of God. As we are reminded today, it starts with our parents, our sponsors, our family, the church, the people of God.

Once a young student of Karl Barth asked him to sum up what was most important about his life's work and theology in just a few words. The question was posed with gasps from the audience. Is this possible, they were thinking?

Barth just thought for a moment and then smiled, "Yes, in the words of a song my mother used to sing me, 'Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.'"

The hope we share in our life together in Christian community is hope for the greening of God, for eating, praying, building a community rich in the Spirit of God to nurture each other.
"The rabbi saw the desert bloom,
the Eden of his prayer:
a garden ripe with hope and life
and also ripe for care.
"So come," he says, "my friends, with me
to tend, to sing, to plod:
the Earth cries out to celebrate
the greening love of God."
May it be so, Amen.

Being a Disciple

2008-03-18T11:55:00.001-05:00

March 16, 2008 Palm Sunday/Confirmation Sunday
Sermon: Being a Disciple
Texts: Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29, Matthew 21: 1-11

Today is Palm Sunday and we begin with the parade! There's a parade of welcome to Jesus as a pilgrim coming into the city of Jerusalem to worship. By Jesus' day, Psalm 118 was used as a standard greeting to pilgrims coming to Jerusalem for the festivals. "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." It's like our greeters on Sunday morning welcoming people to church. Every Sunday we have a parade of sorts right here in our church.

But, our parade on Palm Sunday is a little different. It's a special day that helps us to begin our journey toward recalling the events of Jesus' life and what we call Holy Week. Special parades still abound today that mark a time of the year or a time in your life that has led you to a deeper truth. Can you remember a parade that marked a time in your life?

When I was very young, my parents took me to a parade in our small Southern Arizona town of Wilcox. It was big event when Rex Allen rode into town with his trusted side kick on their beautiful horses and wearing shiny leather saddles. My mother tells me that Rex Allen was born and raised in Wilcox desert and, although he became a star in his time, he never forgot where he came from. She said that Rex Allen never forgot that as a child he was helped by the local residents to go to Tucson to receive desperately needed eye surgery. When he returned to Wilcox there was a parade, a great barn dance, square dance, and a friendly Rex Allen who got off his horse to greet the home town people. That's about all I remember but the story is kept alive because of a parade.

In the early 80's I had another day to remember, it was a parade of sorts. The setting was a local Roman Catholic Church near downtown Miami, Florida. In that time, I knew the city well. I was on staff of Central Baptist Church in Miami as the youth minister and I taught English to Speakers of Other Languages at the Miami Dade Community College across the street from the church. Like I said, I knew the downtown area and had seen a few parades there but nothing like this one.

The sun was going down, the day becoming cooler and more tolerable, and the people were beginning to come out for life in the city. Many people on this day were flooding into the church. The pews were packed, there were people standing in the aisles and as the processional began, we all leaned toward the center aisle to get a glimpse of her. She was small, wrapped loosely in her white habit, and showed a serious but sincere demeanor.

The people assisting her up the stairs moved around to find the wooden box for her stand on at the pulpit so we could see her. She seemed small and frail yet giant like in her ability to draw a crowd to her words and her person.

Pilgrims had come from many corners downtown Miami to see and hear Mother Teresa of Calcutta talk to us about our commitment to Jesus. She was there to open a shelter for battered women and there were many people who supported her efforts. But, she was also there to ask people to look deeper into their reasons for welcoming her. She had some deeper truth to address in addition to the need to build and counsel and support battered women.

She was intent on asking Christians to take seriously their commitment to Jesus. For me, Mother Teresa, even as a Catholic sister, was my role model. I followed her life and her teachings and in my home today are her words that guide my prayers. She said, "Never let anything so fill you with sorrow that you forget the joy of Christ Risen." There is much in life that fills us with sorrow. It was Mother Teresa who inspired me to be the best I could be in my role as a local minister in a Baptist Church, as a teacher at the Miami Dade Community College, as an activist in the in the National Organization for Women advocating for the passage of the equal rights amendment. Commitment to Jesus meant equal rights, fair treatment, and care for those oppressed.

I don't think that has changed today. So, I advocate strongly for those who feel they must lobby for fair treatment and civil rights, whatever they are. My commitment to follow Jesus means I must speak out even when I'm told that I should be silent. What about you, has someone helped you to take your commitment to follow Jesus seriously? Has your commitment to follow Jesus helped you advocate for someone who needs you?

When I have opportunity, I like to speak clearly about what commitment to Jesus means to me because, I believe, it must start with our personal words from a personal faith. We hope our youth who are confirmed today will understand the invitation to live a life committed to our Christian values and stand firm for what their faith teaches them. We hope they will feel that their faith call them to speak clearly about what commitment to Jesus means for their lives.

For all of us who call ourselves "Christian," it is a time to commit ourselves to be voices for truth, justice, compassion and love for all people. We are not to be silent in our Christian churches. If we fall silent, we will miss the opportunity to speak as the Christ would insist we speak.

The disciples on some occasions were guilty in the days of Jesus' suffering for not speaking out. How dismal was Peter when he denied commitment to Jesus not once but three times. Luke's gospel tells us that if the disciples were to fall silent, "the stones would shout out."

God's truth needs our voices and our hearts to be committed to take action where we know we can take action. In 1932, a very tense year, Dietrich Bonhoeffer taught a group of fifty boys in the confirmation class of Zion Church in a slum section of Berlin, "Behind all the slogans and catchwords of ecclesiastical controversy, necessary though they are, there arises a more determined quest for him who is the sole object of it all, for Jesus Christ himself. What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us today? How can he help us to be good Christians in the modern world? In the last resort, what we want to know is not, what would this or that man, or this or that church, have of us, but what Jesus Christ himself wants of us." (The Steps of Bonhoeffer, Bailey and Gilbert, p. 47)

Commitment to Jesus is sharing a vision of what we want the world to be. In Bonhoeffer's day it was a world of terror and destruction. The question of commitment to Jesus became a threatening question. How grateful we are to live in a country where we have the freedom of
worship, of dissent, of expression. We value our church as a place to raise issues and struggle together with what we read in the newspaper and hear on nightly news. Coming together in the church is the place where we find others of like mind who know that primarily, wherever we stand on issues, that our hearts are given to Jesus.

That's the whole point of Palm Sunday, my friends. Jesus came to challenge people about what they believed about God and how they followed through on making this truth part of their own. Jesus did not come to the world as a conquering hero, as a politician or a general. He did not come waving political flags, he did not come as a local revolutionary, a national freedom fighter, flashing a sword, swaggering in might and power.

No, he came lowly and riding a donkey; he came as a suffering servant. He came to be God's Word made flesh, speaking peace, non-violence and a continual call to commitment be God's blessing to the world. At his last supper, Jesus wanted those around him who would carry on his name and accept his ministry as their own and take responsibility for it, risks and all.

Did they take him seriously? No. Was he dismissed? Yes. Jesus will say to Pilate according to the Gospel of John (18:36), "My kingdom is not from this world." The people of Jesus' day misunderstood the true nature of Jesus' kingship. Friends, I hope we don't miss the nature of Jesus' kingship.

Jesus is king but a king of peace, not war. Jesus is king when we take every ounce of who we are and let deeper truth permeate our being because we have been in God's presence. We will be better parents, spouses, community organizers, church members, and citizens when we let peace reign in our lives. I'm not talking about only about peace that relates to our national security.

I'm talking about peace in our relationships and peace in our dealings with others. I'm talking about peace in the life of the church. Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of truth, compassion and mercy. Peace is working out our conflict with holy creativity and believing that God's Spirit guides, not toward separation, but toward unity of people in their worship and genuine positive regard for human, plant and animal life.

Henri Nouwen, who taught us much about the spiritual life, wrote, "As I walk the long, painful journey toward the cross, I must pause on the way to wash my neighbors' feet. As I kneel before my brothers and sisters, wash their feet, and look into their eyes, I discover that it is because of my brothers and sisters who walk with me that I can make the journey at all." (Walk with Jesus , Henri J. M. Nouwen)

Last week we heard our five youth who desire to be confirmed today give their statements of faith. Today, they promise before us to be a disciples of Christ. We pray that we will be their sisters and brothers on this journey, being disciples together in faithful love and service of the God in Christ we love and worship. May God journey with us this Palm Sunday toward the cross and may we be committed to being disciples with others who call upon the Christ to be with us in life and death. Truly, may we be Christ's forever and, daily, experience a deeper faith. Amen.

Emailing: Serm 2-10-08 A Window on the World

2008-02-20T10:36:00.000-06:00

Hi Kari

Here's that sermon that could be put on our web site. I'm trying to give at least one a month. Thanks

Michele

The message is ready to be sent with the following file or link attachments:
Serm 2-10-08 A Window on the World

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2008-02-10T15:51:00.001-06:00

February 10, 2008
The First Sunday in Lent
Sermon: A Window to the World
Texts: Genesis 2: 15-17, 3: 1-7, Matthew 4: 1-11

This first Sunday in Lent is our opportunity to retell the story of God's love for us from the beginning. We do this with two themes.

The first is creation. God, in God's wisdom, created the heavens and the earth and it was very good. The words of the first chapters of the Bible set the stage for our window to the world. The prologue to understanding God is appreciating God's goodness in giving us this earth with its majesty and miracles.

I'll never forget the clear, warm, dark summer evenings when my mother insisted we haul out the blankets and quilts so we could lie on our backs on the front lawn to gaze up at the star studded nights. There was a great planetarium right outside our window and all we had to do was stop and look. Our hymn this morning, "Praise the Lord! Ye heavens adore Him" expresses this awe we feel when we look around us and appreciate the beauty of our natural world.

We can't read this story of Adam and Eve without knowing that the story was written to transcend human time boundaries. The word Adam in Hebrew means human being and the word Eve means life. The ancient Hebrew story of creation was not just a story that took place long ago and far away. The story was not just in a Middle Eastern garden.

The text is our context; it was written for here and now. It was written for those of us who walk the shores of the Great Lakes; plow the fields of Sheboygan County, or wake up to a few more inches of clean white snow on a brisk winter Wisconsin day. God created the heavens and the earth and it was very good.

This brings me to the second point of the sermon. It is the subject of sin, the heart of the study today. We ponder our human condition in this Season of Lent so that we can ask why we have sinned. We ask why we would deliberately choose to follow a way of life that takes us away from God to that which can possess and destroy us.
God has given us this good earth, placed us as care takers with God of all creation. Our work is sacred. Nature, God and humankind are in harmony in Genesis 1 and 2. In chapter 3 that which was very good gets spoiled and becomes that which is bad. The garden, Eden, the place of delight, became the wilderness.

What went wrong? Well, there was this wily serpent with a slippery question, two bites from forbidden fruit and shame for eating that which God strictly forbade. There were these protests of "don't fence me in," "nobody tells me what to do," and "it's a free country, isn't it?" Fortunately or unfortunately we know the answer for why we are in the wilderness.

Perhaps that is what Arthur Miller so wanted his readers and admirers to grasp in his writing. A few years ago, we remembered the great writer of the plays that influenced us over the years. Ed Siegel wrote in 2005, around February 10 when Arthur Miller died, "theatergoers have not turned to Mr. Miller as a historian of the American century but as a chronicler of the American soul: souls in torment (the brothers in "The Price") and souls on ice (Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman"), but mostly souls in conflict (the Proctors in "The Crucible"), trying to do the right thing while weighted down with all the forces that would have them do the practical thing." (Boston Globe, 2-12-05, B5)

Arthur Miller captures some reality for us. We struggle with how we measure personal success and failure, we resonate with the difficulties that families have in their everyday life, we all hope in dismal situations that a ray of light will remain after darkness has closed in. Miller helped us hang on to the "ray of light" but let us be in touch with the personal struggles.

The Creation story in Genesis is a pull back to all our personal struggles. Miller brought it out for us in ways that were compelling in his writing on World War II, the Holocaust, McCarthyism, and consumerism in our day. As Miller's plays had that glow of redemption we hope we find as much in the ancient texts from our faith.

Do we hear this morning the Voice of God, our Maker, reminding us that paradise is freedom within God given limits? Do we hear the Voice of God reminding us that paradise is the blessing of co-partnering, co-creating with God? It is receiving life from God through "the window" of creation not looking at creation strictly from the consumer point of view. We have a responsibility, a part in the deciding how our lives will be shaped.

The struggle for Jesus apart in the wilderness was how to deal with human temptation to privatize religion, to use salvation for a personal gain. The devil in Greek, is diabolos, "the one who separates" you for your purpose, who distracts you, who singles you out, either for failing in faithfulness or to tempt you into failure. Jesus recognized the temptations for what they were, things that would separate him from God. The temptations became his window to the world so that he could have God's wisdom to make the right choices.

How grateful we are for that window to the world that helps us in our days of protest and struggle and obstinacies. I will always be grateful for the education I received many years ago by certain professors at my Southern Baptist seminary in Louisville Kentucky who taught me how to think about the church critically and the world progressively. Yes, I studied Hebrew, Greek, New Testament, the Hebrew Scripture, Pastoral Care and Counseling, Church Administration, Christian Education. All of these and the one that stands out for me this morning when I read Genesis and Matthew is the course in Christian ethics.

My Christian Ethics professor was Glen Stassen. People knew him because his father was former governor of Minnesota, Harold Stassen. Glen Stassen established his own following by making his students uncomfortable. He knew we were students who did not just drop out of the sky into his classroom. We had our biased histories and so he required that we learn about the nuclear arms race, that we study Joseph Fletcher's lifeboat ethics, and we read the book For Whites Only to claim and examine our racist attitudes. He gave us a window to see the world as we had never done before.

We went from naive goodness to responsibility and critical thinking about our faith. He taught us about a big world with many ways to think about the world. He taught us to ask how our Christian belief would translate into Christian practice. It was the best training any student could have had for leading churches to study, pray, think, and believe that our story is not about me or about you. Our story is a collective journey to see the world transformed the way we know God intends.

In paradise, we recognize the God-given gift to nurture our children and give them their communal stories that will shape their church life and public life. In paradise the poor meet the privileged so there is connection and recognition.

In paradise, the church in the world understands that the reign of God, like an early shoot from a hidden seed, like the glow of redemption at the rim of the pit, is breaking out in all the dark, anonymous corners of creation.

We must start where we are with our particular histories and backgrounds. We do not drop down where we are into this place and time without a past, a reference point, a history. So we shall, as Martin Luther King, Jr., suggested, have to repent in this generation, not so much for the evil deeds of the wicked people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.

Good people, people of God's good creation, let us remember that Lent can be a time when we are deeply formed in the image of Christ. Anticipate it; look forward to time away to look for that window to understand your world.

Maggie Ross writes, "No one can take you into the desert. You must find the path yourself. Plunge into your loneliness, your hunger, your thirst. In the desert you will be purified and tempted; God will speak to your heart and angels will come and minister to you." (Seasons of Death and Life)

As Thomas Merton said, "The cross, with which the ashes were traced upon us, is the sign of Christ's victory over death." We sing and celebrate all creation this day because it is our window to God; it is, indeed, God's kingdom not yet and even now. May it be so in our belonging to our eternal, loving God, our window on the world? Amen.

Letting Our Light Shine

2008-01-13T14:12:00.000-06:00

January 13, 2008
First Sunday After Epiphany
The Baptism of Christ
Sermon: Letting Our Light Shine
Texts: Isaiah 42: 1-9, Matthew 3: 13-17

A few years ago, I read a story of a pastor from an urban area taking her 11 year old son on a trip into the Grand Canyon. It is a grand story, an Epiphany story, a story that helps us prepare our hearts for the significance of Jesus' baptism and his invitation for discipleship.

First Pastor Heidi (Transfiguration Lutheran Church, New York) talked about the documents she had to sign before they could even begin the descent into the Grand Canyon with her 20 year old mule, Blackjack At the orientation, warnings were repeated that were in the documents.

"If you are afraid of heights, have recently had open heart surgery or are prone to whining-get out now and get your money back. If you are not willing to hit the thick-skinned mule with your crop in order to keep him within a yard of the next mule-get out now and get your money back.

"If you are not willing to drink your water on command and get hosed down halfway through to prevent heat exhaustion and dehydration-get out now and get your money back. If the switchback turns, where you will find yourself hanging over a 6,000-foot drop, will make you dizzy or upset-get out now and get your money back." (Christian Century 12-12-01, p4

The mule ride that Pastor Heidi took gave her opportunity to speak about what it was like to ride a mule down into the Canyon. She was, of course, thinking of Mary riding to Bethlehem when she wrote her article. But, as I read it again, and pondered its meaning, I felt drawn to the parallels of the journey we begin with baptism in the Christian life.
Do you think we really understand what is involved when we say "yes" to baptism and begin the journey of the Christian life? Do we understand the depth of our commitment when we are confirmed and become adult members of the church?

Matthew's account of Jesus' baptism leads us to recognize the importance of the event of baptism in the life Jesus. When Jesus came to John at the Jordan it was not a spur of the moment impulse; he came in order to be baptized. It was his intention; it was planned; it was public.

It was thought through because Jesus embraced the righteousness of God and believed it was God's purpose for all people. I believe that Jesus remembered the words of Isaiah and took seriously the scriptural role for Israel, the chosen people. The text said they were to be a light to the nations and the means through which God will redeem the world. For Jesus, being baptized was an act of faithfulness to the vision God had given through God's people. He took the words and promise of God to lead and do something new in his life seriously.

It is our belief in the Christian tradition that baptism with water is a sign and symbol of God's grace and is a call to us to find an identity as God's beloved children. The moment of the naming in baptism, whether as an infant or an adult, is a holy moment. The moment is holy because we have made a commitment to be faithful to the will of God and act accordingly.

This holy moment reminds us that, in a sense, none of us has a name, an identity until the church tells us who we are. In baptism, the church says, "you are someone to whom a name has been given-you belong to Christ." You are called to a higher righteousness, to God's goodness, to God's justice and to God's mercy and compassion.

Sometimes I wonder if the Christian life is like Pastor Heidi's experience of riding the mule into the Grand Canyon. Do we wish we had stopped and studied the admonitions a little closer before embarking on this difficult, treacherous journey with numerous risks? We have high expectations for those who carry the name "Christian," don't we?

This conversation makes me remember stories of those expectations. One of the stories is the account of the clergyman who reported, just after September 11, of a New Yorker who noticed his clerical collar and stopped and asked him on the street these questions, "Where is God in the death and devastation that struck on 9-11? Where is the church in these events?"

Or, I remember visiting in a nursing home back in the Boston area a few years ago and being approached by an estranged church member who demanded an answer as to why God would punish the patients who were suffering from numerous physical and psychological conditions. "Where is God, where is the church in this suffering?" she asked.

When these tough questions come to us, do we flee from the questions and join those who have lost sight of the mission of the church? Do we stand firm and try to respond the best we are able with the little "lights" we carry?

I hope we are able to say that the church is where it has always been, witnessing to Jesus' message that God is love, feeding the hungry, giving sanctuary to the weary, tending to the sick, and comforting those who mourn. As those who have said "yes" to the journey to walk the Christian life, we say, as tough as this journey is through life, we witness to a crucified God who suffers with us all to the very end of our darkest, most desperate moments.

The old spiritual says it all: "You Can't be a Beacon if Your Life Don't Shine." Christianity, perhaps more than any other religion, depends on the testimony of the people. Ours is a faith that relies on witnesses to tell speak the feelings deep in the heart that have arisen from the passion of the Spirit.

For Martin Luther King, for Rosa Parks, for all those we can name today who have led the way for our communities to be transformed by the power of the non-violent gospel, it was about feeling God in the heart and knowing it's passion in life.

We remember those who were active in the civil rights movement around this time of celebrating the birth of Martin Luther King because many took a treacherous journey. It is good to recall Dr. King's life and stories he told in his own words to give us an account of the risks.

Out of school and pastoring the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, Martin Luther King, Jr., we learn that he was given a "crash course" in following the radical Jesus. It was a tired, 42 year old African-American seamstress named Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat on the bus that hurled him right into the middle of what became the Montgomery bus boycott.

The boycott had been in progress for more than a year and King, chosen to be its leader and principal spokesperson, was fearful, tired and frustrated. He knew he was called, he felt right about where he was and what he was doing but, oh, how his faith was being tried.

One night while trying to sleep he received a telephone call which threatened his life and the lives of his family. Not wanting to wake or alarm his wife, Dr. King went to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee, thinking it would calm his nerves.

When the coffee didn't ease the overwhelming feeling of helplessness, King fell down on his knees and prayed, "Lord, I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and.....I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I've come to the point where I can't face it alone." (Strength to Love, pg 113)

It was at that moment of loneliness, despair and hopelessness that Martin felt a response come back. He said he heard a voice on the inside say, "Martin, stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth. God will be at your side forever." (ibid.)

We are called to be counted among the righteous who will not shy away from the mandate to do justice and to discuss the nature of justice. We are not to fear dialogue on important issues around homosexuality, stem cell research, or peaceful resolutions to difficult conflict in international affairs.

And while on this treacherous, risky journey of Christian discipleship, we are to remember the promise of the guide. Jesus speaks to us, "I know this path. I have gone before you. Just listen to me. You'll make it." It's the words of the Psalmist (46), "God is our shelter and our strength, ever ready to help in time of trouble." (Jerusalem Bible)

When Pastor Heidi concluded her Grand Canyon journey, she gave us these words of hope: "Midway on the journey we came to a plateau. Spring flowers studded the desert plain spread before us. There were yellow starbursts inside white primroses, magenta blooms of beavertail cactus, pale orange petals on the mariposa lilies fluttering in the wind, and ruddy stalks of Indian paintbrush---each one magnifying the Lord and echoing around the canyon walls."

Our journey as disciples of Christ will take us to the desert plateau's that will help us remember that God's hope is in the lives we lead and the ways we carry the Christ light into the world. May our lives magnify the Lord, may they echo words of hope and light around the canyon walls. Amen.