tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2464995821911011282024-03-13T10:26:33.010-07:00Fire That Does Not BurnA collection of sermons from Shell Ridge Community ChurchJenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06165128217771179976noreply@blogger.comBlogger92125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-7702623896162319962013-05-01T14:39:00.002-07:002013-05-01T14:39:42.812-07:00What is He doing here? by Chris Shade
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">Do you like
a good cliffhanger? Do you like the anticipation of not knowing how the leading
characters are going to escape their sticky situation? Ugh! I hate them. They
stress me out. And it is always at these tense moments that television shows
opt to break for commercial. I remember being a big Dukes of Hazzard fan when I
was a kid. Any other Duke boys fans in the audience? They were always getting a
gun pointed at them, or having to make an impossible jump in the General Lee
(that was their supped up Dodge Duster). And right at the tensest moment, they
would freeze the frame and go to commercial. The absolute worst though is when
the show would be getting toward the end and the resolution was nowhere in
sight. The killer was nowhere close to being found. Or the kids were not going
to make it out of the cave in time. Or Brenda and Dylan were still on their way
to the prom. For a second you wonder how they are going to wrap it all up and
still have time for the closing credits. Then three simple words spell out your
answer...”to be continued...” Guess you will just have to come back next week. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">We are
going to see one of those “to be continued...” moments in our story today. But
first I have to fill you in on last week. If this were a TV show, it might go
something like: “Previously on <i>The Sermon</i>.”
We heard a story about a wonderful homecoming. It goes like this: A man had two
sons and the younger son wants his inheritance early. His father gives it to
him and he leaves. Soon after we find him penniless as he spent all of his
inheritance on loose living. He gets a lowly job feeding pigs. And as he sits
with filthy pigs wishing that he could eat their food, he comes to himself and
decides to return home and beg his father to hire him as a worker. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">But when
his father sees him coming, he runs out to meet him. He tells his servants to
put a robe on him, a ring on his finger, and sandals on his feet. He tells them
to kill the fattened calf and have a feast in his honor. For he says “This son
of mine was dead and now he is alive; he was lost and now he is found.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">Now we
could end it here. It certainly seems like a nice capper to the story. It is a
tale of extravagant welcome and forgiveness. It is a lesson for us as a people
and as a church of being warm and accepting. If you were here last week, you
heard that lesson. But there is more to the story. At the end of the episode if
you look past the party guests and out the window you would see a disgruntled
man standing in a field. The older son! What is his beef? Find out next week on
<i>The Sermon</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">Lucky for
you, next week is today. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">We pick up
right where we left off. The father goes out to the older son to plead with
him. The older son wastes no time with niceties or a respectful greeting to his
father. He starts right in. “Listen!” he says “For all these years I have been
working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you
have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my
friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property
with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">Essentially
the older son is saying, “What is HE doing here!?!” This is a bold statement.
The bile and judgment comes right through. The older brother is mad. But can
you really blame him? After all, he has a point, right? Why should this younger
brother get the king’s treatment? After all, he has done nothing but squander
everything that he has been given whereas the older son has been nothing but
faithful and true. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">To
understand why Jesus put this reaction in the parable we have to go back a bit.
Back before the sermon last week to look at the beginning of this chapter of
Luke. This parable comes as a capper to a trio of parables about finding lost
things. There is the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin,
and finally this one which could easily be called the parable of the lost son.
They are teachings about how much celebration there is in heaven when a sinner
is repentant and changes their sinful ways. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">These
parables are not being told out of the blue. They are all in response to the Pharisees.
Now who are the Pharisees? The Pharisees were powerful religious leaders that
were entrusted with the task of making sure all of the Jewish religious laws
were being followed. The text says that they were grumbling about Jesus eating
with quote “sinners” unquote. These sinners had not earned their space at the
table. They were unclean, not the blessed people, the ones that God truly loved
and admired. No. The Pharisees thought that the grace of God must be earned,
and they had earned it, not these sinners. If this Jesus, this Son of God,
should be eating with anyone, it should be them. In essence they felt like the
older son. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">This is
exactly why Jesus introduces the character of the older son into the story. It
would have been hard for Jesus to illustrate this concept of jealousy with
sheep or coins. But here we have an older son that is upset that his younger
brother is being doted on by his father after squandering his money. That is
something that hits home. This is quite obviously intended at the Pharisees who
are looking down their noses at Jesus and his merry band of sinners. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">The story
does not hide the idea that the two sons are opposite contrasts of one another.
The younger son does everything wrong. Everything about him is dirty, except...his
heart. His heart is humble. His heart is willing. He is filled with rediscovered
love for his father and for his family. He just wants to be a part of it, if
only in small way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">By contrast
his brother, the older one, does everything right. He is perfect in every way
except...his heart. His heart is full of hate and resentment. He resents his
father. He resents his father’s actions. And he clearly resents his brother,
the one who devoured his father’s property. In essence Jesus is claiming that hearts
of these Pharisees are no better than the sinners with whom he dines. In fact,
they might be worse. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">It is
likely that we have all felt like the older son at one point or another in our
lives. Perhaps you have resented others for the actions that they have taken.
Maybe you have felt unfairly treated or even hurt. Or you have wished that
others would just go away. Certainly this is the easy response. But this
parable gives us an alternative in the actions of the father. When the world
says to forget about others, this parable says to run to them with open arms.
When the world says that you should cut those people off, this parable says
that we should reach out with grace. When the world says that we should only
look out for ourselves, this parable says that we should be abundant with
forgiveness. Resentment will only breed isolation. But acceptance will foster
togetherness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">It is only
fitting then, that the father, the example of the love of God, should have one
more thing to say. “Son,” he says. “You are always with me, and all that is
mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother
of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"> There
are two important details about this response. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"> The
first is that the Greek word that we translate as “son” is teknon, which is a
very special word for son that denotes affection and intimacy. There is a great
deal of love in that word. There is a great deal of love that the father has
for his older son. He does not exchange malice for malice. He does not respond
with resentment, but with love. The same kind of love that he had extended
earlier to the younger son. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"> The
second detail is the equality in the statement. “You are always with me, and
all that is mine is yours.” Certainly we can read this as a monetary promise.
After all the older son remains such and will receive all that comes with that
title. But it is about more than money. Remember, this is a parable. The older
son is not just an older son, but a thinly veiled characterization of the
Pharisees. So when Jesus as the father says “All that I have is yours” what he
is saying is that the Pharisees are not going to be removed from their post,
but rather that the Kingdom of God is available to them. They can share in this
joy. They can be a part of all that God is doing in the world at that moment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;"> And
with that he repeats what he said earlier. What was dead has come to life. The
lost son, like the sheep and the coin before him has been found. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">And then,
the text ends. But I would argue that the story doesn’t. I think that there is
an invisible “to be continued...” at the end of this story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">The Bible
scholar Dr. Ken Bailey’s does too. Dr. Bailey analyzed this parable in
comparison to Hebrew story structure and concludes the parable cuts off too
early. To complete the structure there should be a final response from the older
brother, but there is none. Why? According to Dr. Bailey the last part was for
the Pharisees to fill in on their own. If the term “to be continued...” existed
in Jesus’ time, he might have directed it right at the Pharisees. Remember, it
was the Pharisees who looked down on Jesus for dining with sinners and the
unclean. But Jesus called them out. He uses the story to show the true nature
of their hearts in comparison to God’s love. The next move is on them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">So Jesus
leaves it up to the Pharisees. Do they want to continue to stand on the
outskirts looking in with disdain and judgment at this new thing that God is
doing? Or do they want to cast off their pride and join in the party? Whether
or not they do, God’s grace and love is still going to be abundant. To saints
and sinners alike. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">So in this
day, as we gather in this place, as we take part in this worship, the question
of response is not directed at the Pharisees, but rather directed at us. The
“to be continued...” phrase is aimed at our lives. How are we going to act? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">A few
months ago, we started asking these kinds of questions. Who is our neighbor?
How will we respond? What will get us talking? It is a tough process and one
that we certainly can not complete in twelve short summer weeks. But along this
process we have to ask ourselves, “What will our response be if and when we do
start making connections?” After all, we are not called to reach out to those
who are doing great, but rather those who, like the younger son, are in need of
a place to feel at home. And I will be honest: some of these people can make us
uncomfortable at first. So how will we respond? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">Will we be
like the father and give ourselves over to welcome and acceptance making this a
safe haven for the lost and the broken, for all of God’s children? Or will we be
like the Pharisees who prefer to have order and comfortability and keep things
the way that they have always been. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">Maybe a
better way to put it is, “What does your love look like?” Is like the father’s love
in the story or by parallel God’s love? Does it flow abundantly through you?
Does it overcome being wronged, being left, being forgotten? Does it seethe
with resentment or does it offer forgiveness? Does it lift others up or break
others down? Does it extend to the least of these? Does your love shine even in
times of embarrassment, awkwardness, and uncomfortably? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">So when we
check in again on the next episode, will we find yourself ourselves alone in
the field like the older son with only our pride and stubbornness to keep us
company or will we be inside, at the party, sitting at the table of grace?
Well, if Luke is correct, you know where Jesus will be, sitting down with a
loaf of bread in one hand and a sinner in the next, trying to figure out how to
make something of this community. People of God, people of love, go and do
likewise. Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-47801958120610159272013-05-01T14:38:00.001-07:002013-05-01T14:38:43.767-07:00Ooooh, the Humanity... by Chris Shade
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There are two kinds of people in the
comic book loving world. There are Superman people and there are Batman people.
What side are you on? If you are not sure let me give you a bit of back story. Superman
people love the super powers of their comic book hero. They like that he can
deflect bullets with his bare chest, that he can shoot heat rays out of his
eyes, and he can fly! He can fly! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Now Batman
people don’t go for all of that super power kind of stuff. See Batman is just a
regular human. He can’t fly. He can’t shoot lasers. He is not even that strong.
He is just your average guy, well, if your average guy was a highly intelligent
billionaire with an arsenal of weapons and decades of combat training. Okay, so
he is not all that average, but he is mortal; he is human. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Now
why am I telling you this? Well, I want to come right out and say it. I want to
confess on this day in this pulpit: I am a Batman person. I identify with the
character who gets his powers from within. I like the harsh reality that Batman has to face on a daily
basis and knowing he could die. In short, I like the humanity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> So,
it is with this kind of knowledge that I come to this story of the
Transfiguration that Nancy read for us this morning. I have to say that this
story always perturbed me. I have always felt that it is a bit out of place in
the grand narrative of Jesus. Here is why: Jesus is a guy who is walking the
earth, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, questioning authority...and then,
seemingly out of the blue, he takes a minute out of his day to walk up a
mountain and have a glorious apocalyptic moment with Elijah and Moses. It just
seems a bit out of place to me. But maybe it is because I am looking at it like
a Superman story and not a Batman story. Maybe I am missing the humanity that
is present in the story. So I invite you to come with me this morning and see
if we can find a place for us in the Transfiguration. If we find it, we might
just be prompted to utter the title of the sermon: Ohhhh, <i>(delivered like someone who came to a realization, not in anguish)</i>
the Humanity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Well
right off of the bat it says that Jesus went up to the mountain to pray. In
fact it was during his prayer that the Transfiguration happened. I can identify
with this – this need to get away, this need to go and just have a moment of
peace. Are you with me? How many times in your busy stressful day have you
thought, boy, I wish I could just get away. I wish I could take a trip to
someplace that is quiet, a place that is peaceful. Wouldn’t that be nice? Jesus
no doubt had many reasons to want to take a moment to himself. There were the
insistent crowds, the clueless disciples, and let’s not forget the powerful
authorities that wanted to kill him. Talk about stress. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> But
I don’t know if this is the best place to find the humanity in the story. After
all, Jesus was the son of God, so his prayer must have been on a whole other
level. When we pray, do we pray like Jesus? Can we pray like Jesus? We can
certainly pray as Jesus taught us, but is that the same? I mean he went up to a mountain top and
was surrounded by a cloud. Is that humanity? I am not sure. Perhaps we should
keep looking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Perhaps
there is humanity in the connection with the Creator. God’s presence was certainly
felt on that day. Even God’s voice came down and spoke. “This is my Son, Listen
to Him.” At it is God’s presence that brings about the transformation. It says
that Jesus’ face was changed and his clothes became a dazzling white. On the
surface this might sound like the toughest place in the story to find humanity,
what with all of the theatrics. But I do not think that it is impossible. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">At it’s
heart, the transfiguration is about change, and as humans, we have the capacity
for great change. We have the gift of choice and we can use that gift to make
remarkable changes in our lives and in our world. Maybe you have made the
transition from addiction to recovery. Maybe you have mended a relationship
that you though would never be reconciled. Maybe you have simply begun a new
exercise regime. Whatever the case, it is our capacity for change, for
transformation that makes us human. And it is the presence of God in this story
and in our lives that can inspire that change to happen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> But
if I am to be really honest, I think that our changes, no matter how
significant just don’t quite measure up to the power of this story. It says
that Jesus’ whole face changed. Even his clothes became new. In all of His
glory, I think that we lose a bit of the humanity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Perhaps
we are focusing too much on Jesus. Maybe we can find connections with other
characters in the story. Maybe the humanity lies in one of Jesus’ companions.
The scripture says that Jesus was joined by Moses and Elijah, not angels, but
humans. Humans that had struggles, humans that wanted to run from their
callings. Moses told God he was not worthy of the task God gave him. Elijah ran
away when things got too heated in his life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So, can we
see some humanity in these folks? Have you ever been in a situation that you
did not want to face? Have you feared failure, rejection, or the stresses of leadership?
Have you ever felt like staring God in the eye and just saying, “No.” Well then
you might identify with these two characters. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But to be
honest, they are clearly not in this story because of their human faults. They
are in this story because of what they accomplished. Both encountered God on a
mountain top, both went on to do great things for their people and both are revered.
They are the equivalent of Jewish super heroes: Moses representing the law and
Elijah representing the prophets, two pillars of Jewish faith and teaching. And
they show up in this story as a way to link Jesus’ life to theirs, to link a
traditional faith to a new revelation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So that
leaves us with Peter. Poor, naive Peter. He sees this miraculous event and
proclaims, “It is good to be up here. We should build some dwellings. Let’s
make three houses. One for you, Jesus, and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
Now we can certainly feel for Peter. I mean which of us would really know how
to handle that situation? Historical figures that have been dead for thousands
of years just show up one day on a mountain. What would you do? He was just
trying to be helpful. Now there is humanity here, but Peter’s character
definitely leaves something to be desired. Thankfully the story does not end
there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> At
the end of the day Jesus came down off of that mountain top. And do you know
what he did? He got to work. And this is where I think our best glimpse of
humanity lies. Jesus did not ascend into heaven on Elijah’s chariot. He did not
stay up on that mountain and set up camp. No, he came down. For though it is
His connection with God that makes Him divine, it is his connection with the earth
that makes Him human. So He comes back and He gets back to work. In the very
next story He heals a boy and restores a family. So maybe the humanity is not
on the mountain top, but in coming down off of the mountain and getting back to
work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Now, don’t
get me wrong. I think that mountain moments are crucial. They are essential in
our lives and in our work. Taking time to be alone. Taking time to pray. Being
available to have encounters with our God that renew us and change us: they all
vitally important. But we cannot stay there. Just as Jesus came down and got
back to work, so should we. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> And
what a load of work there is to do. I feel like we can have a wheel of issues
and just spin it and see what comes up. Take your pick. How about feeding the
hungry? According to the U.S. census, in 2011 over 6 million people in
California alone are below the poverty line. 6 million! That’s more than any
other state. And 1 in 5 <i>kids</i> live in
a household that struggles to put food on the table. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">You want
to talk environment? 2012 was the hottest year ever in the United States and
experts say that this decade is no doubt going to be the hottest. You hear
about the loss of crops, the wildlife being displaced, and don’t forget the
weather patterns like hurricane Sandy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">You can
take gun control, human trafficking, health reform, the prevalence of corporate
influence in our government. The list goes on and on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Now I am
not just here to spout doom and gloom and throw a bunch of statistics at you. I
am merely pointing out that there is work to do. A lot of work to do. And who
better to do it than us. What better time that now? And we have made progress.
This church has raised over $2000 for the Habitat for Humanity build in Walnut
Creek and we are sending five workers to give their time and talent to help
further. We contribute time, food, and money to our local food bank. The youth
collected $165 here last week. We inform ourselves about the issues and stay
informed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But there
is more work to be done and we can only stand up on the mountain for so long
before we have to follow the lead of Jesus and get back to work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Now you
know that I am a Batman person, right, but I found this story of Superman that
seems particularly appropriate to end on. It’s called Superman: Grounded. It
begins after a long series of events that lead the people of the U.S. to feel
like Superman has lost touch. He has been away for so long he no longer
understands what life is really like in their world. So Superman agrees to come
out of the skies and walk. He walks from one end of the country to the other.
He does not fly. He barely uses his powers. He just walks and sees what is
around him. He looks at the joy and tragedy of everyday life. In the end, he
finds his humanity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So I
invite you to do something this week. Take a walk. Not just a figurative walk
down from the mountain top but an actual walk. In your neighborhood. Investigate
your surroundings. See where the need is immediately around you. And if you
can’t find it, keep walking. Keep looking. For though our connection with God
may renew us and invigorate us, it is our connection to this earth that makes
us human. And the people said...Amen<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-72808545515191874572013-05-01T14:35:00.004-07:002013-05-01T14:37:14.620-07:00Where is my Manna? by Chris Shade<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>
<w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>
<w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables/>
<w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/>
</w:Compatibility>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="276">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Today we
are talking about finding grace in providence. But what is providence? Well
here are some quick facts about providence to help clarify. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Providence
is the capital of Rhode Island and is the 37<sup>th</sup> largest city in
America. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It is
known largely for its silverware and jewelry industry. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It was
ranked by Travel and Leisure in 2012 as the best food city in the U.S.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So if you
want to find grace, pack your bags, because it exactly <b>3065 miles</b> to Providence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Seriously
though, Providence RI is an important city in the history of the American
Baptists. Roger Williams, a Baptist, founded Providence and the oldest Baptist
church in America. He named it in honor of "God's merciful
Providence" which he believed was responsible for revealing such a
haven to him and his followers. And that is the kind of providence, God’s
merciful Providence, that we are talking about today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But I am
going to take you back before Roger Williams, before our parable even, all the
way back to the time of Joshua. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Imagine this: You are a member of
the Hebrew people thousands of years ago. You have left Egypt and are traveling
to the promised land. Every day is the same. You wake up and you go out and
collect manna. Now you are not quite sure what manna is. All that you know is
that it shows up every morning, it is tasty, it is nourishing, and oh yeah, it
comes from God. It is physical, touchable, palpable proof of God’s providence.
It is proof that God is caring from you and protecting you from starvation. And
every day is the same. You get up, you collect manna, you eat it, and you go to
bed. Every day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Until
one day. That fateful day. You get up, you go out, and there is no more manna.
You think to yourself, where is my manna? Has God abandoned me? Maybe my
neighbors have manna. So you go ask them. But they do not have manna either.
There isn’t any anywhere. Has God abandoned everyone? Where is the manna, you
wonder. You think back to previous days. Perhaps you all have done something to
anger God, to fall out of God’s favor. What could it be? You had just finished
celebrating the Passover, remembering the glorious deliverance from Egypt. You
celebrated by eating unleavened cakes to remind you of the food that your
ancestors ate when they left Egypt. They had to flee is such a hurry that they
did not have time to wait for the bread to rise. You also celebrated by eating
the produce that you had gotten from the land. Could that be it? Was God angry
that you helped yourself? Oh, how you long for some good ole fashioned manna. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> This
was the case of the Hebrews in the scripture that Emrys read for us today. It
is a bit of a strange isolated text thrown in the middle of Joshua between a
circumcision story and the battle of Jericho (no joke, I could not make this up
if I wanted to.) One day, the manna just stopped and the people ate from the
earth from then on. It makes one wonder if anyone felt slighted by God. After
all they had this very tangible, real physical proof of God’s providence and
then it vanished. I would not be surprised if some of the Hebrews felt
abandoned by God and felt a longing for God’s care. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> If
the Hebrew Scriptures are any indication, the Hebrew people have had a history
of longing for God’s presence. You need to look no further than the psalms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Psalm 63</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> that we
read together last week.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">You, God,
are my God, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 13.5pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">earnestly I seek you;<br />
I thirst for you,<br />
my whole being longs for you,<br />
in a dry and parched land<br />
where there is no water. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Psalm 42<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As a deer
longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This sense of longing is present
in the psalms and the prophets and carries into the time of Jesus. Jesus tells
the parable that we read this morning, not out of the blue, but because his
audience would understand the plight of the younger brother. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Like
the Hebrews who were blessed with manna, the younger brother in this story was
blessed as well. He never wanted for anything. But, he was curious. He wanted
to see what it was like in the big city. So he left. He wanted to live life to
the fullest and experience all that the world had to offer. Rich food. Strong
drink. The company of women. But pretty soon, his reliance on himself lost its
luster. Once the money was gone, the great life went with it. The rich food –
eaten; the strong drink – drunk; and the women – gone. He finds himself in the
lowest of the low: feeding pigs, unclean, sacrilegious pigs. He is hungry. He is
tired. He thought that he could do it on his own, but he came up short. And he
longs for the time when he was awash in providence. Like the Hebrews longing to
have back their manna, he longs for the time when he was under his father’s
care. His longing is all that fills his belly. He wants to go home. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> I
understand this journey. As a fresh faced 18 year-old I felt the call of the
big city. I moved from my modest house in the suburbs of San Jose to the Big
Apple, New York City...sight unseen...by myself. Though I did not have the same
kind of agenda as the brother in our story, I <i>was</i> young and naïve. I was foolish enough to think that I could
make this kind of jump on my own and that I did not need anyone. And like the
brother, I discovered that I was wrong. Now, I did not end up in squalor
feeding pigs, but I did end up feeling a sense of longing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It was not
that I did not love living in New York, because I did. And it was not that I
was simply homesick, though I was. No this longing was much deeper. Back in
California I had a church family and a support system, and religious practices
and closeness with God. And in New York I did not have that. I did not belong
to a church. I had left my spiritual disciplines at home in California. And I
missed it. I missed the closeness that I felt with God. I missed the blessing
of God’s providence, the feeling that God was caring for me and protecting me.
To use the metaphor from earlier, I missed the manna. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> So
one Sunday morning I left my apartment and took a walk. I had intended to walk
down about 20 blocks to a church I knew. I made it a block and a half when I
came across Madison Avenue Baptist Church. From the moment I sat down, I knew
that I was home. They welcomed me with open arms, with genuine kindness, and
with joy and laughter. I was home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> The
brother in our parable today had a similar experience. As he sat there in the
mud with the pigs feeling as low as a human can feel, he remembered that his
father’s workers fared better than he was doing now. Maybe he could go back and
convince his father to let him just work on the property. Maybe he could get
back a tiny portion of the life that he once knew. So he got up and left. And
as we all know, the father runs out to meet him. He hikes up his robe to move
faster, and when he gets to the younger brother he throws his arms around him.
He welcomes him gladly. The brother is home. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> At
this point we must question why is Jesus telling this parable? What does his
audience have to gain by hearing it? Well remember, this is the same crowd that
also has heard of the story of the manna being taken away. They have heard of
the psalms of longing. Not to mention, they have been overcome by the Romans.
They are defeated. They are occupied. They long for God’s presence with them,
for God’s protection. They long for God’s providence. Jesus is telling them
that God’s providence is there. It has always been there. All they need do is
look for it. And it is not just present. It is abundant. The parable says that
the father held a giant feast for the returned son. He killed the fattened
calf. He gave him a robe and a ring and made him a part of the family again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> (SLOWLY)
But what does this parable mean for us? Well, are we so different from the
audience of Jesus? Have you ever wanted to feel the presence and the providence
of God? Have you ever strayed from home spiritually? Gotten lost? Wondered if
God was still there? Have you ever felt the sense of longing that is present in
our stories today? Have you ever looked to the sky and wondered, where is my
manna?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> The
good news of the message today is that it is not too late. God’s presence,
God’s care, God’s providence is available to us. It is always available. And it
is abundant. Like the father, God waits for us to return with welcome and open
arms. Picture it like this: We are like trapeze artists swinging back and forth,
dangling upside down, wondering where to go next. If we would only look up, we
would see that God has been swinging in front of us this whole time, arms
outstretched, waiting for us to grab on. We only need to reach out, offer our
hand, and God will bring us home. And
the people sad Amen<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The hymn, Precious Lord, is one
that comes from the kind of place that we have been talking about this morning.
It is a hymn of longing and of need. And it speaks of God’s ever present grace.
As we enter into a time of prayer, let us sing together hymn number 472
Precious Lord, Take My Hand. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-58002874317188052472012-10-21T13:28:00.000-07:002012-10-23T13:29:13.910-07:00Grace in Ourselves, by Pastor Greg<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
If you know me very well, you know that I am a sucker for a good night sky ... a starry, starry night. There’s little I love more than laying on my back and watching the dark and silent sky ... and watching and waiting for those magical streaks of light ... tiny bits of space debris entering earth’s atmosphere and creating little blazing streaks against the speckled blackness of the night sky. Once I begin my vigil, it’s hard for me to give it up and go to bed until I’ve seen at least one meteor ... at least one “falling star”. It affirms something within me that needs affirming ... it jangles a note within that tells me that I am not alone in the midst of the enormity of space and time. I’ve noted the kinship I feel with the psalmist who said: “The heavens are telling the glory of God ...” The streaking lights in the heavens somehow let me know of God’s presence amidst the seeming emptiness of outer space ... and the vast stretches of <i>inner space</i>, as well. It’s only a hint, but it’s enough of a hint for me ... enough of a hint of God’s presence ... God’s love ... God’s grace.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
We’re talking about grace these first weeks of fall and here’s the working definition we’ve been using: <i>God’s “grace” is the living goodness of God’s being and God’s power and God’s love that is offered to the world and its people without cost, without condition, without limit.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
Frederick Buechner is a Christian writer and preacher who has meant a great deal to my faith and ministry over the years. He was a distant neighbor of mine in Vermont, though I’ve only met him once (in Berkeley, of all places). I like how Buechner describes grace. He says: “Grace is something you can never <u>get</u> but can only be <u>given</u>. There's no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth. A good sleep is grace and so are good dreams. Most tears are grace. The smell of rain is grace. Somebody loving you is grace. Loving somebody is grace.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
Buechner goes on to say: "A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace. There's <u>nothing</u> you have to do. There's nothing you <u>have</u> to do. There's nothing you have to <u>do</u>. The grace of God means something like: 'Here is your life. You might never have been, but you <u>are</u>, because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you.'</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica;">
"There's only one catch” Buechner finally says. “Like any other gift, the gift of grace can only be yours if you'll reach out and take it. Maybe being <u>able</u> to reach out and take it is a gift too.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
These first weeks of October are a time of considering our stewardship as Christians ... our loving and responsible care and use of all that has been given to us ... all that has been entrusted to us by the loving Creator of all that is and the giver of all good gifts. We have been guided this year by these intriguing words written by the author of First Peter who said to his readers that they were to serve as “good stewards of the manifold grace of God”. Stewards of God’s grace. Stewards of Grace.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
That’s us. That’s who we are. That’s what we do. It’s in our spiritual DNA ... it’s in the bloodstream of our faith. We are not only <i>called</i> to be “Stewards of Grace” ... we ARE Stewards of Grace. As children of God and followers of Jesus, it’s simply who we are. In other words, we are inheritors and vessels of God’s being and God’s power and God’s love. We contain these things ... these gifts ... this essential goodness. We may only be “earthen vessels” ... as St. Paul noted ... just “clay pots” with a few cracks ... but we are still being filled up constantly with God’s grace—if we aren’t too full of ourselves or too full of the debris of life and the world. If we are at all open to God’s goodness and grace, God will fill us to overflowing ... and that overflowing is for the world that God so loves.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
One of our members here likes to tell the story about the battered and leaky bucket that was carried by a young girl who trekked each day all the way down to the village water pump to gather the family water. At one time the bucket had been new and strong and carried its contents proudly and securely. But now the bucket was old, cracked and worn and leaked profusely. And it broke the bucket’s heart that each day’s trek to the water pump ended with only half of the precious liquid within ... much had dribbled out. One day the bucket cried out to the God of all beings and things in its weariness and frustration, and God said to the bucket, “Do you not notice the beautiful flowers that grow and bring color and joy to the girl that carries you and brings delight to her neighbors because of the water that trickles from you as she carries you home.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Sometimes simply “showing up” and being open to grace may be all that is asked of some of us, cracked pots and leaky buckets that we may be. God supplies the treasure ... we merely need to be open to its coming, its indwelling in order to be stewards of that treasure.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Two weeks ago we spoke of some of the ways God’s goodness and grace are at work through us in the world both far and near: Hands on mission projects of a variety of kinds ... walking and working for a variety of needs ... supporting missionaries with prayer and money ... extending ourselves to our homeless neighbors and some many others in need. God’s grace is given legs and wings through our “ditty bags” and our “dirty hands” and our “dollars and dimes”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
You may have noticed that this year’s “stewardship campaign” has come around a month early this year. It’s because during the weeks we’d normally hold the campaign, we’re going to be welcoming homeless families to our church who will make our sanctuary their home for the next two weeks. It’s one of the ways we dribble the grace that has been poured into us onto the dry ground that is all around us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Last week we talked about Grace in the Church ... there’s another cracked and leaky bucket if ever there was one. Sometimes it’s only the flaws of the foibled church that we can sense and see. And we’ll admit it’s true in many ways. However hallowed an identity the church may have—or think it has, it’s also a terribly “human” institution with all of the warts and scabs and scars that are a part of any other human gathering. And yet God still works wonders in and through the local church as some of our humble ministries will attest. And God’s grace is at work among us, seeking to bind us together in love, seeking to mend broken souls and torn relationships, seeking to fill the empty wells of being with blessings and peace, seeking to empower us as a people and a community.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
I’m thinking of particular occasions of grace in our church during the past summer and this fall ... occasions where we have paused in our busy-ness, and taken the time and the care to minister to the children among us ... particularly during Vacation Bible School and Logos. If you played a hands-on part in either of these wonderful ministries, you’ll know the grace that oozed and dribbled and showered down in abundance during these times working with our marvelous kids.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
This fall I am privileged to lead our Logos kids—our “Magic Penny” kids—in the part of the Logos day called “Worship Skills”. We learn about worship and practice readings and songs in preparation for Sunday mornings. And I must say: singing with these precious and beautiful parts of God’s creation is like bathing in grace. These young “earthen vessels” carry far more of God’s gentle and loving grace within than they may ever know. I may come to Worship Skills with bruises and burdens, but by the end of our time, as the kids sit in a closing circle with Sandy and offer up their joys and concerns in prayer, I feel like grace has taken a cleansing journey through me, the bruises partly mended and the burdens partly lifted.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
You see, God’s grace is not only at work in the world and in the church. God’s grace is also at work in us ... in me ... and in you. God’s grace is not just “for the world” and “for the church”, it is also for you and me. The psalmist reminds us that we are the sheep of God’s hand, the sheep of God’s care, the sheep of God’s tender keeping. God’s care and keeping offers to us release from our fears, healing for our hurts, and resurrection and rebirth from even our greatest failings. Our “Song of Grace” that we have been singing during these weeks of stewardship expresses God’s tender care of us each:</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i>Grace like a stream, flows gently on.</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i>Wash over me until my fear is gone.</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i>Gentle healing grace, show to me your face.</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i>Wash over me until my fear is gone.</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i>God of our hearts, burdened with care.</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i>Help us to feel your love in humble prayer.</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i>Gentle whisp’ring grace, flow within this place.</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i>Help us to feel your love in humble prayer.</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i>Gentle your touch, upon my soul,</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i>Mold all my being ‘til you’ve made me whole.</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i>Gentle saving grace, show upon my face.</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i>Mold all my being ‘til you’ve made me whole.</i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Dear friends, know and trust we are the sheep of God’s hand, the sheep of God’s care, the sheep of God’s tender keeping. We are the children of God’s good grace.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
I said earlier that I love to star-gaze and love to search for meteors ... that somehow the immensity of space, when streaked with bits of light, strangely warms me and reminds me of God’s presence and care: God’s grace. This morning I was up very, very early—even earlier than usual as there was a special occurrence in the sky that I didn’t want to miss. Each year the earth, in its solar orbit, passes through the extreme end of the tail of Halley’s Comet which won’t re-appear in its full glory until 2061. I’ll be 103. Some of you will be even older. <span style="font-family: Wingdings;">J</span> The resulting meteor shower is called the “Orionid Shower” because the entry point for the meteors is in the place where the constellation Orion hangs in the sky.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
I sat out in the back yard very early this morning under a beautifully starry night, a blanket over me and a cup of freshly brewed coffee in hand. A light breeze rustled the neighbor’s palm tree. And I watched as tiny streaks of light graced the dark sky. The Orionid meteors can occur anywhere in the sky, but if you trace the path of each meteor back, the paths all converge in one point near Orion’s belt—they all originate from the same place.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
I think it’s a marvelous metaphor for the grace of God ... grace manifest in so many places, in so many ways. Grace expressed beyond us and within us, grace worked out through us and sometimes in spite of us, grace sparkling brightly in times and places where all light seems to have dimmed and perhaps disappeared altogether. But <b><u>all</u></b> grace, <b><u>all</u></b> good gifts, <b><u>all</u></b> healing mercies and emerging hope originate from <b><u>one</u></b> place, <b><u>one</u></b> source and that is the loving heart of the Creator of All. And it is the night sky that hints at that loving heart, and it is also the children of Logos, and it also is your silent and supportive prayer, and it is also your gifts of time and energy and self and substance, among so many other things, that give me and gives us all life-giving and life-saving hints of the wideness of God’s mercy and the Amazing Grace and Goodness of the one who loves and cares for us all ... and even loves and cares for you ... and for me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
We have been loved and served and saved for a purpose: that we might manifest and make tangible and real the grace of God; that we might make tangible and real the <i>living goodness of God’s being and God’s power and God’s love that is offered to the world and its people without cost, without condition, without limit. </i>We have been loved and served and saved that might be Stewards of God’s Good and Amazing Grace.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Amen.</div>
Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-22007119224117886422012-10-14T13:26:00.000-07:002012-10-23T13:27:14.690-07:00Grace in the Church, by Pastor Greg<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Ann Lamott is a Bay Area native and a writer of both fiction as well as earthy essays on faith. She can be laugh out loud funny and she can move you to copious tears. She grew up in Marin County during a time when the phrase “only in Marin” came to be coined. It was the 60’s and early 70’s. It was a chaotic time to grow up when lives and values and families and children were sort of tossed in the air only to land God knows where. Lamott describes her coming to faith as less a leap than a series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place after another. As a child she possessed a belief in God that defied her arrogantly atheistic surroundings. Describing that child-like faith, she says: “I bowed my head and prayed, because I believed ... in someone listening, someone who heard. I do not understand how that came to be; I just know I always believed ....”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
A crash course through broken relationships and addictions left Lamott in a place of nearly suicidal desperation. She describes a dark afternoon where she felt at the end of her rope. A vestige of the old belief still clung to her, but she says: “I felt that the odds of my living long enough to get into heaven were almost nil. They couldn’t possibly take you in the shape I was in. I could no longer imagine how God could love me.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
In a moment of desperation, she went to a nearby church and spoke to the new pastor who struck her as being tenderhearted. When she poured out to him that she didn’t think God could possibly love her, broken and stained and tortured and suicidal as she was, he said: “God <i>has</i> to love you. That’s God’s job.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
It would be wonderful to report that in that one conversation Lamott was “wash-clean” and set free. But the path to new life and health and “salvation” is often not so easy ... so quick ... so painless. She was bumping around the bottom and the top was still a long ways off.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
It was the first of the glimmers of grace that began to penetrate her soul, her life, her brokenness. She says: “<u>Slowly</u> I came back to life. I’d been like one of those people Ezekiel comes upon in the valley of dry bones—people who had really given up, who were lifeless and without hope. But because of Ezekiel’s presence, breath comes upon them; spirit and kindness revive them.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Breath and spirit and kindness were reviving Anne Lamott, and they were coming to her through the breath and spirit and kindness of a skinny, white, middle-aged mediator of God’s grace. But she still had a long, long way to go.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
By tumbles and turns, she found herself in a church one day, so hung-over, she says that she could barely stand up for the songs. But she stayed until the end and says that the last song was so deep and raw and pure that she could not escape. She says it was as if the people were singing in between the notes, weeping and joyful at the same time. She says: “I felt like their voice or <i>something</i> was rocking me in its bosom, holding me like a scared kid, and I opened up to the feeling—and it washed over me.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
She went into recovery, she was baptized at the little church, she had a baby who was also baptized, and she lost her best friend to cancer. And throughout it all there was the steady and faithful presence of the little church that had offered grace to her in their words and songs and silences and actions. She says that she and her baby son, Sam, have missed church maybe ten times in twelve years. She describes the church as a wonderful old worn pair of pants. And it was home. Home. The pastor, who is still there, who became the perfect fit for that “old worn pair of pants of a home” told a story from her childhood. “When she was about seven, her best friend got lost one day. The little girl ran up and down the streets of the big town where they lived, but she couldn’t find a single landmark. She was very frightened. Finally a policeman stopped to help her. He put her in the passenger seat of his car, and they frove around until she finally saw her church. She pointed it out to the policeman, and then she told him firmly, “You could let me out now. This is my church, and I can always find my way home from here.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Lamott says: “And that is why I have stayed so close to mine – because no matter how bad I am feeling, how lost or lonely or frightened, when I see the faces of the people at my church, and hear their tawny voices, I can always find my way home.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
I don’t know if the Biblical writers of old struggled with addictions or hangovers or how to clean hair out of the hot tub, but I do know they knew what it felt like to be lost and lonely and frightened and in need of a home ... a home where grace was offered without cost or condition. Home, for the writers of our Bible, was the place where the dispenser of Grace could be found ... located ... leaned upon. Home was wherever God landed and dwelled among the people whom God loved and led through the wilderness and into the promised places.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
In the desert, God was found in the “tent of meeting” ... it was a portable, traveling temple of a fashion ... wherever the tent was, God was. Once the people settled in the promised land, however, a Temple of hewn stone was built and this became God’s home ... it was here that God dwelled amidst the “holy of holies.” But it was never a <i>comfortable</i> home for God ... it led the worshippers of God to think that God was somehow captive to the home ... restricted to that home ... limited to that home. It took the <i>destruction</i> of the Temple and the scattering of the people and exiles of many years and many kinds to teach the people that God’s truest home was not in a building of stone or a building of <u>any kind</u>. God’s throne was the trusting and humble human heart, and God’s dwelling was any place and time where trusting and humble human hearts gathered and worshiped and broke bread and shared the cup and did the work of God’s own Spirit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
This is the glimpse of the “home” of God that we see in the readings this morning from the book of Acts and the Epistle to the Colossians. We think of the church as being born at Pentecost: the coming of the Spirit of God that touched and filled the followers of Jesus and gathered them into a community of worship and mission. But the church was also filled with the Grace of the One who had called them together and empowered them to be the church. These passages from Acts and Colossians give evidence of that grace ... God’s grace that is to flow into and out of every gathering of believers, into and out of every time of worship, every time of fellowship, every time of working out the continuing ministry of Jesus and God’s work of Shalom.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<b><u>ACTS 2</u></b>: <i>All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<b><u>ACTS 4</u></b>: <i>Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and <b><u>great grace</u></b>was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
For the writer of Acts, the church is a community of “one heart and soul” ... a community of “glad and generous hearts ... a community of “goodwill” ... and a community of “great grace” and growth in spirit and numbers. And the reading from the letter to the church in Colossae gives flesh and garments to these bones:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<b><u>Colossians 3</u></b>: <i>As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God ... through him.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
For Anne Lamott, the church in which she found her life again fit profoundly the descriptions we have heard in Acts and Colossians. And if there is a single word that fit what flowed into and out of the New Testament Church and that “old worn pants of a church” in Marin City, the word is GRACE. Amazing grace. Grace that is unearned, unmerited, unconditional and unlimited. Grace upon grace and grace abounding.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Lamott tells a story that has always touched me and expresses well the grace that is rightly the possession and the gift of every church in every place and time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<i>One of our newer members, a man named Ken Nelson, is dying of AIDS, disintegrating before our very eyes. He came in a year ago with a Jewish woman who comes every week to be with us, although she does not believe in Jesus. Shortly after the man with AIDS started coming, his partner died of the disease. A few weeks later Ken told us that right after Brandon died, Jesus had slid into the hole in his heart that Brandon’s loss had left, and had been there ever since. Ken has a totally lopsided face, ravaged and emaciated, but when he smiles, he is radiant. He looks like God’s crazy nephew Phil. He says that he would gladly pay any price for what he has now, which is Jesus, and us.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<i>There’s a woman in the choir named Ranola, who is large and beautiful and jovial and black and a devout a can be, who has been a little standoffish toward Ken. She has always looked at him with confusion, when she looks at him at all. Or she looks at him sideways, as if she wouldn’t have to quite see him if she didn’t look at him head on. She was raised in the South by Baptists who taught her that his way of life—that he—was an abomination. It is hard for her to break through this. I think she and a few other women at church are, on the most visceral level, a little afraid of catching the disease. But Kenny has come to church almost every week for the last year, and won almost everyone over. He finally missed a few Sunday’s when he got too weak, and then a month ago he was back, weighing almost no pounds, his face even more lopsided, as if he’d had a stroke. Still, during the prayers of the people, he talked joyously of his life and his decline of grace and redemption, of how safe and happy he feels these days. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<i>So on this particular Sunday, for the first hymn, the so-called Morning hymn, we sang “Jacob’s Ladder”, which goes, “every rung goes higher, higher,” while ironically Kenny couldn’t even stand up. But he sang away sitting down, with the hymnal in his lap. And then when it came time for the second hymn, the Fellowship Hymn, we were to sing “His Eye is on the Sparrow.” The pianist was playing and the whole congregation had risen--only Ken remained seated, holding the hymnal in his lap—and we began to sing, “Why should I feel discouraged? Why do the shadows fall?” And Ranola watched Ken rather skeptically for a moment, and then her face began to melt and contort like his, and he went to his side and bent down to lift him up—lifted up this white rag doll, this scarecrow. She held him next to her, draped over and against her like a child while they sang. And it pierced me.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
God’s grace ... God’s grace ... through the earthen vessel that is the church and the individual members of the church ... God’s grace ... offered without cost ... without condition ... and without limit. God’s grace ... that can pierce us and make us whole and give us back the lives we thought we’d perhaps lost forever.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Let us be persons and a people of God’s grace ... for a church built on God’s grace, will always stand, will always serve, will always save, will always have the strength to sing: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a soul like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Amen.</div>
Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-71819750215393798912012-10-07T13:21:00.000-07:002012-10-23T13:22:04.439-07:00Grace in the World, by Pastor Greg<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Amazing grace how sweet the sound ...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Grace ... what is grace? It’s a word that gets bandied about a lot by people like us. And it’s a lively question for us this month as the <u>word</u> and the <u>notion</u>of grace are at the heart of our thinking about stewardship. Grace is at the heart what it means to offer <u>our all</u> in support of God’s good work in and around and beyond us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
So here’s a working definition of grace: <i>God’s “grace” is the living goodness of God’s being and God’s power and God’s love that is offered to the world and its people without cost, without condition, without limit. </i>(repeat)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Perhaps you can be thinking or searching for your own definition of grace in the days ahead.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
For Paul writing in his epistles—his letters to the churches, grace was all about “salvation”—God’s gift of an unbreakable bond created between the heart of a human being and the <u>heart of God</u> and the <u>eternity of God</u>. But grace and salvation are <u>not</u> to be thought of as some kind of private transaction in which you escape with your hide and “devil may care” about the hides around you. That modern saint, Dorothy Day, was fond of saying: “<u>None</u> are saved until <u>all</u> are saved.” If Christians are only concerned for saving their <u>own</u> skin, their own souls, only concerned with locking up their<u>own</u> “private path to heaven,” they’ve completely missed the wideness of God’s mercy, and the intended “all-ness” of God’s gift.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
And let’s give up the thinking that would suggest that “grace and salvation” are strictly “spiritual” matters ... concerned only with the spirit and the soul—the ephemeral and the eternal, but not the material or the physical. Grace and salvation are also interested in other matters like health and poverty and opportunity and oppression— Grace and salvation are also interested in the neighbor in need. When hunger causes your ribs to show, when disease stalks you and takes your children, when war robs you of your neighbors and your livelihood, it’s hard to care too much about the “eternal security” of your soul. And it’s equally hard to imagine that anyone calling themselves “Christian” could ignore the “neighbor’s” plight while yet thinking of themselves as “saved” and beneficiaries of the “grace of God.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
If “grace” is particular, it is also “universal”. If it is a gift intended for “me”, it is also a gift intended for “us” and the two are inseparable. God’s gift of life and grace and salvation—in the broadest, deepest and richest sense of those terms, is intended for one <u>and</u> for all. To hoard them, protect them, or privatize them is to destroy them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Martin Luther King, Jr.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<i>It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality. ... This is the way our universe is structured, this is its interrelated quality. We aren’t going to have peace on Earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
One of the things we feel we know to say about grace is that it comes to us through God’s gift of Jesus: God in the flesh, God incarnate, God upon this earth as one of us, uniquely human, yet divine. For us, Jesus is the way to God’s grace. So let’s combine that thought with the familiar words of the 16<sup>th</sup>century Spanish mystic, St. Teresa of Avila:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i>Christ has no body but yours,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i>No hands, no feet on earth but yours,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i>Yours are the eyes with which he looks in</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i>Compassion on this world,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i>Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i>Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Fellow “stewards of God’s grace”, we are partners in the “dispensing” and “enacting” of God’s grace. It is the <u>living out</u> of the interrelatedness and the mutuality of God’s grace for one and all, in tangible and compassionate action, that God’s grace becomes realized and made manifest.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Today is Worldwide Communion Sunday. This is a day when we symbolically break bread and share the cup with Christians the world over ... in every place and every condition. On this day of communion and grace, I would simply note three ways that we help dispense and enact God’s living and tangible grace in this world that God so loves.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<b><u>ONE</u></b>: Seafarer’s “ditty bags” ...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<b><u>TWO</u></b>: I’m thinking of the work that we support in Haiti ... and especially the work of our missionaries there, Nzunga Mabudiga and Kihomi Ngwemi, a husband and wife team who are natives to the Congo.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<i>Nzunga and Kihomi serve as a vital link between International Ministries and the Haitian Baptist Convention. Nzunga teaches theology at the Christian University of Northern Haiti, trains assistant professors in teaching and writing books, administers a scholarship program, and visits and preaches in churches. He also administers the "Kids for Kids" goat project that provides needed school and personal supplies for children and university students.</i><i>Kihomi works with families in the areas of counseling, family planning, and women's health issues. She also coordinates and advises the women's association of the Haitian Baptist Convention, representing women of all the Baptist denominations of Haiti at international conferences.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
Nzunga and Kihomi<i> </i>are also deeply concerned about the merciful medical ministry of the hospital we support in Limbe: “The Hospital of the Good Samaritan.” Several years ago we, as a church, gave a significant gift toward the purchase a new generator that would help supply the hospital with a reliable source of electricity so they wouldn’t have to rely only on the unreliable local power “grid”—if it could even be called that. It was a huge boost to the hospital’s care they offer to their neighbors in need.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<b><u>THREE</u></b>: Heifer ... a gift that keeps on giving (as opposed to guilt ... Keillor)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i>Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i>Yours are the eyes, you are his body.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i>Christ has no body now but yours,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i>No hands, no feet on earth but yours,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i>Yours are the eyes with which he looks</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i>compassion on this world.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i>Christ has no body now on earth but yours.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
At this time I invite us to begin to draw near to the table that is laden with rich hints of God’s goodness and grace: bread and the juice of grapes. The bread and the cup symbolize the world’s physical hunger and its satisfaction. We may not be able to “live by bread alone”, but without bread, we cannot live at all. The bread and the cup symbolize the sustenance and nutrition all beings need to live. And they also symbolize the deeper sustenance and nutrition without which we also have no real being: the sustenance of our souls, our hearts, our dreams, our spirits, our purpose, our living, our humanity. God is also concerned with these things and all things—with the “allness” of all people—and God promises to feed all who come together in love to this love feast with that which satisfies and fulfills our bodies and minds, hearts and spirits.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
So let us come and join together with the children of God’s heart the world over in partaking of this food, this meal, this grace.</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><i><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br clear="all" /></span></i></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<i> </i><i>Christ invites us all to this Holy Feast.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<i> As we gather this morning,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i> we remember our sisters and brothers</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i> from above and below the equator,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i> from the North and from Down Under,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i> from every time zone around the globe.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<i> As today's sunlight inches across land and sea</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<i> Christians gather to celebrate their place</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<i>in God's family.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<i> All are invited and all are welcome.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Helvetica; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6pt;">
<i> Come, for the meal is ready!</i></div>
Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-61732775925385050872012-07-15T15:36:00.000-07:002012-07-27T15:37:19.217-07:00Creating Diversity, by Chris<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">Let
me ask you something. What do a corpse flower, a blob fish and a star nosed
mole have in common? Well to answer that question we have to go back. Way back.
Way way way way back to the beginning. To creation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"> In
the beginning it says the earth was dark and formless, like the middle of the
ocean on a pitch black night. And God moved along the waters and saw that it
was very...dull. A Dark formless
void is not the most exciting place around. Why? Because it is all the same. So
God said, “Let there be light!” And there was light. Now suddenly the elements
had doubled. There was light and darkness. Twice as much as before. The first
dichotomy of the universe. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">It is interesting that this story
begins with the creation of light. Do you remember the story I told last year
about Jenny the Jellyfish. Jellyfish were the first creatures to develop a
sense of sight, and they did that by being able to distinguish light from dark.
It is the first, but the most primitive way to see the world. Light and Dark. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"> And
there was morning and there was evening, the first day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"> On
the second day, God was surveying the waters. God could see them better now
with all the light. Lots of waters. Miles and miles of water. It was calm and
peaceful. Never moving. Never going anywhere. And God saw that it was...dull.
Lifeless. This calm body of water was fine for a while (like a day maybe) but
then God came to realize that it just sat there. Boring. So God separated the
waters. God took the waters and created a dome that rose above the oceans below.
And God called this dome, sky. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"> Now
the Bible stops there, but we, with the benefit of science and history, can
read a bit deeper into the story. What God really created on the second day
was...anyone...weather. By separating the water, God created what we now call
an atmosphere. By making water vapor God created the clouds that move across
the sky. With the atmosphere there could now be wind to blow across the water.
Wind, which we use as one of the symbols of Spirit. By moving the water into
the sky, God also created rain which we use to symbolize cleansing, renewal,
and life-giving nourishment. And let’s not forget fog. If you are an East Bay
or San Francisco resident, fog is a constant companion this time of year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"> Water
separated. Weather created. And there was morning, and there was evening, the
second day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"> So
on the third day, you would think that God would be happy with everything. God
made tons of different kinds of water. But God looked at the clouds in the sky,
the sea swirling below and God thought, “It’s all just water. Sometimes its
light, sometimes is dark, but it is always just water. It is so insubstantial.
I need another element.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"> So,
the Bible says, God gathered all of the water into one place and made land
appear. A whole new element was created. Earth. Rock. Formed. Solid. Not like formless
water. This was something new. Something different. It is interesting to note
that the water was gathered and the land arose not to replace the water, but to
compliment it. And what a compliment it was. God did not create just one kind
of landscape. Oh no. There was much diversity. Giant rising mountains with deep
dank caves growing inside them. Large rolling hills, flat sweeping plains,
massive erupting volcanoes, and far reaching deserts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"> And
God looked upon this land and decided it needed a little decoration. Something
to, you know, spruce up the place. So God created “plants yielding seed of
every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it.” And
sure this included oak trees and apple trees and grape vines and the lovely
green grass in your yard. But it also included the corpse flower. </span><img align="left" height="158" hspace="9" src="file://localhost/Users/carine/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0clip_image002.png" v:shapes="_x0000_s1026" width="183" /><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">“What is a corpse flower?” you ask. “Known by its scientific
name, <b><i>Rafflesia arnoldii</i></b>, this parasitic plant has no
visible leaves, stems, or roots. But it does boast the world's largest single bloom
that can grow over three feet across and has a hole in the center that holds
six or seven quarts of water. It gets its name from its smell which reeks of,
you guessed it, rotting meat. But it is this smell which attracts insects that
it relies on to pollinate. Gardeners, you may want to consider this next
season. Just one of several amazing diverse plants. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"> If
the corpse plant does not do it for you (I personally find it fascinating) then
just think of all of the different kinds of fruit that you can taste at the
supermarket. Think of all of the color of flowers to see. Do you know that
there are over 100 species of roses alone? Truly God was getting this diversity
thing down. What stated as nothingness has now erupted into color. Land.
Vegetation. Diversity had sprung. And there was morning and there was evening
the third day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"> Fourth
Day. God looked away from the little blue dome for a second and into the
universe. Probably because all of those plants needed some time to grow. God
looked into space and decided that it needed some energy. And God said, ‘Let
there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and
let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be
lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was
so. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"> There
are two interesting things at work here. One is that God created something to
nurture life on Earth. The sun it says rules the day, while the moon rules the
night. They are reminders that God is taking care of us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"> Secondly,
God effectively creates a way to mark time. Debates about creation versus
evolution aside, it is amazing how much value this story gives to the creation
of time. A whole day. The sun and the moon are signs to mark the seasons, signs
to mark the days and the years. These are the first measurements, the first
markers of order in the universe. Another way that God takes care of us, but
giving us order.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"> And
there was morning and there was evening on the fourth day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"> So
fifth day we are back on earth. God saw that the earth was teeming with life.
Vegetation and fruits of all kinds. But then God took a look at the waters, and
saw that they had been neglected while all of this gardening was happening. The
land was beautifully decorated. By contrast the waters both on the bottom and
in the sky looked so empty and boring. So God filled them. God said, ‘Let the
waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the
earth across the dome of the sky.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">Now God was on a diversity kick. After
creating all of the strange, colorful and interesting plants, God turned that
same kind of attention onto the birds and fish. There are 10,000 different
species of birds. 10,000! Any bird watchers here? Have you made it to 10,000
yet?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<img align="left" height="190" hspace="9" src="file://localhost/Users/carine/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0clip_image004.png" v:shapes="_x0000_s1027" width="311" /><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">And there are fish of all kinds. Weird stuff too. If you
do not believe me, just go home and do a Google image search for weird fish. If
you do you might come across this guy, the blobfish. The blobfish are found off
the coasts of Australia and Tasmania. They live in deep ocean and are rarely
seen. To move, the blobfish spreads out its blob-like body and floats right
above the see floor. It needs neither oxygen nor muscle power to move. It eats
whatever floats into its mouth. It survives because it has no known predators.
I mean, would you want to eat this?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">So the blobfish, the 10,000 species of
birds, and the rest are all part of the wonderful creation that was morning and
evening on the fifth day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">On the sixth day, God must have gotten
up early. I imagine that God was up all night trying to think of all of the
ways that the great success with the air and ocean could be applied to land.
God probably looked at all of the vegetation and thought, “Wouldn’t it be great
if there was something or someone here to enjoy all of this?” So God got to
work. God created animals to appreciate the tallest trees. Here is a giraffe. Now
many think of a giraffe as a majestic animal. Personally I think it is a bit
goofy looking. But God made the giraffe to appreciate the tall trees. </span><img align="left" height="143" hspace="9" src="file://localhost/Users/carine/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0clip_image006.png" v:shapes="_x0000_s1028" width="111" /><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<img align="left" height="149" hspace="9" src="file://localhost/Users/carine/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0clip_image008.png" v:shapes="_x0000_s1030" width="225" /><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">However, God also made the star nosed mole. Whereas the
giraffe explores the high vegetation, the star nosed mole prefers the land
underground. Now you can see how it gets its name. But this odd looking feature
is extremely important in this creature’s underground habitat. In addition to
keeping dirt out of its nose, the mole’s 22 tentacles are extremely sensitive
to touch and to electrical impulses and allow the moles to find their
invertebrate prey without using sight. So after six days of creation God makes
something to live in and appreciate the darkness in the whole thing started. Fascinating.
</span><img align="left" height="95" hspace="9" src="file://localhost/Users/carine/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0clip_image010.png" v:shapes="_x0000_s1029" width="191" /><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">But after the mole and the giraffe and
all of the other land creature were made, God was still not done. Though God
had made everything in the world, there was nothing that could truly appreciate
creation and its scope the way that God does. So God decided to create humans.
God created them in God’s image. Now many people think that this means that God
looks like us. Others think that it means that humans have a soul like God
separating them from the other creatures. But you want to know what I think? I
think that it means that we are blessed with the ability to create. Now many
animals can create things; this is true. Just look at a spider’s web or a birds
nest and you can see evidence of this. But humans are the only creature with the
kind of tremendous foresight it takes to create murals, gardens or architecture.
We are the only ones that can think ahead to make something that will be used
and seen for generations to come. And it is with this ability to create that we
can appreciate creation. God gave us the blessing of being able to look at this
planet and be awestruck by its diversity. We can look on it and see that it is
good, the same way God saw that it was good. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">And there was evening and there was
morning the sixth day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">So how do we take this charge that is
given to us by our creator? How do we learn to appreciate diversity? Diversity
in our world? Diversity in each other? It reminds me of a joke. A violinist
gets into a cab in New York City and asks the cab driver, “Do you know how to
get to Carnegie Hall?” The cabbie responds, “Practice practice practice.” And
that is what we have to do. To fully appreciate others we have to practice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">So what keeps us from practicing? For
some it might be fear. Fear of difference can be a very powerful force. Just
ask anyone who fought for civil right in the 60’s, or any Muslim American in
the wake of 9/11 or anyone who identifies as gay, or transgendered, or any
other sexual minority that has faced persecution because of who they are. Fear
of what is different is only one step away from ridding the world of
difference. But that is the opposite of what we have learned in this beautiful
creation story. We are not creatures of destruction. We are creatures of
creation. We are not products of limited diversity. We are products of
flourishing diversity. It is time to start living like it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">Our outreach challenge this week is to
have a conversation with someone who comes from a different culture than you,
or has a different way of life than you live. I invite you to open your minds up to meeting new people,
seeing things in a different way, and being changed. I invite you this week to
appreciate this diversity in others the way that God appreciates the diversity
in all of creation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">I started this sermon with a question.
What do a corpse flower, a blobfish, and a star nosed mole have in common? The
answer is that they are all part of a diverse and wonderful creation. As am I.
As are you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">And the people said...Amen</span><img align="left" height="290" hspace="9" src="file://localhost/Users/carine/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0clip_image012.png" v:shapes="_x0000_s1031" width="406" /><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-87258197749061926292012-04-22T13:04:00.000-07:002012-05-10T13:06:46.063-07:00Easter Economics, by Chris Shade.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">I have to start this sermon with a confession. I love P.W.P. television
shows. Anyone know what these are? Well I will fill you in. P.W.P. stands for
people with problems. You may have seen these kinds of shows before. They
usually follow some person around for a given period of time and showcase their
particular issue. It can be anything from drugs to hoarding food or junk to eating
laundry detergent. But what is most fascinating about these shows to me is not
the actual problem. What’s
fascinating is the revelatory moment. This is the moment when the main person
discovers that he or she is in need of help. In that moment their perspective shifts
and a new life becomes possible. When it works they are able to put their old
ways behind them and move into a new future of change and happiness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">In a revelatory moment, one’s eyes are flown wide open. People become
like the blind man that Jesus healed. The scales that were once there blocking
the vision of the truth fall away. There are many stories like this in the
Bible. Though they might not have a strange addiction or crazy obsession, they
do have revelatory moments that change their lives forever. Think of how Moses
must have felt when God appeared to him in the burning bush. He could not just
walk away from that and pretend it did not happen. From then on his life was
forever changed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Yes there are many of these stories of revelatory moments in the Bible
and I would venture to guess that we could each come up with one in our own
lives. However, historically there is none that is so powerful and formative
for us as Christians as the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And as
powerful as it is for us, imagine how it must have been to those who walked and
talked with Jesus. Their simple lives became overwhelmed with the formative
power of this man and his teachings. Talk about a revelatory moment. Nothing
after would ever be the same. They were living in a new time. A new
consciousness. They were living in rapid change with a message to help steer it.
Starting to sound familiar yet? Are we not also in a rapidly changing
environment with a message to help shape it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">So they have their revelatory moment. They have witnessed the love that
could not be buried, and they have been tasked to spread it out into the world.
The question that remains before them is “How?” This brings us to our scripture
today. Acts 4:32-35... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> But...</span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Before we delve into this, it is important to see the context. Previous
to this passage, Peter and John had been arrested by the chief priests and the
elders for performing a healing. And you know it was miraculous because the
text is clear to point out the man was over 40 years old! When they were
questioned they made it clear that the healing was done in the name of Jesus.
The authorities wanted to punish them, but they couldn’t because all of the
people were so overjoyed at the miracle done on this impossibly sick man. So
they released Peter and John warning them not to speak to anyone in the name of
Jesus. Peter and John returned to their community and prayed for boldness to
continue speaking and healing in Jesus name. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">I mention this context because I want to make clear that the stakes were
very high. They had been arrested. They were being threatened. And perhaps
worst of all, they did not know what the future was going to hold for them.
Loyalty, togetherness, and faith were all they had. That and a few
possessions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Now the whole group of those
who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership
of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. <sup>33</sup>With
great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. <sup>34</sup>There was not a
needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and
brought the proceeds of what was sold. <sup>35</sup>They laid it at the
apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">At first this might sound like a simple lesson on sharing. After all sharing
is great. Isn’t sharing something that we try to instill in all of our kids?
Whether you are a parent, a teacher or a youth (or Logos) leader, sharing is
one of the fundamental lessons that we try to teach our children. After all,
nobody wants to raise spoiled selfish brats. Unfortunately, sometimes, we do a
better job of teaching it than we do acting it out. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Now, I am a big proponent of sharing. I love sharing. When Renee and I
go out to eat, we make sure to get something that the other person wants too so
that we can share. What’s more, I live in a community house, a house that was
so inspired by this passage that we try to live it day to day by sharing our
food, our living space, our personal lives, and our feelings. Yes even our
feelings. Once a week we get together and go around the room sharing what is
going on with us personally. We provide support for each other and
togetherness. Living in community is not always equal and it is not always
fair, but it is always shared. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">So yes, I love sharing. But this passage is about more than just sharing
a sushi roll over dinner or talking about feelings. Remember lives are at stake
here. I think taking this story and trying to tell it as a tale of economic
morality takes away the deeper lessons that are implicit. By stopping at money
we are only hitting the surface level. It would be like stating that Aesop’s
Fables are just a bunch of nice stories about animals. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">To find the real heart of this story, I think that we need to go back to
the revelatory experience of the apostles. Remember that they are in this new
time period. The old has passed away and they are living in the new. What was
important in the old life, freedom from occupation, gaining wealth and power,
being religiously obedient to the chief priests and elders has all become
secondary. In its place are the teachings of Jesus. The power of the
resurrection. Gaining equality. Healing the sick. Giving hope to the hopeless. Spreading a message of love and
forgiveness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">It certainly was not easy for these early believers. They realize early
on that if they are going to do this they are going to have to rely on two very
important things: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">faith</b> in God and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">unity</b> with each other. And I am talking
about a kind of grand encompassing unity. The kind of unity that the psalmist
wrote about in Psalm 133. This psalm has such a beautiful message. In it the
psalmist describes unity as something that is as precious as sacred oil. It is a unity that spreads like a flood
going all the way from Mount Hermon to Zion, which, for those of you not up on
your Biblical geography is a really, really long way. This unity is blessed, it
is abundant and it is sacred. This is what the apostles were trying to achieve.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">And to do that they had to give up a piece of themselves. Sure we can cite land and possessions
as what they gave up, but that is just a small indication of how the Spirit
moves them in this new life. They have seen the sacrifice that Jesus made and
seen what it takes to be committed to this new way of being. It takes giving up
a piece of themselves in order to make the greater whole strong. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">It is like links in a chain. If you have a bunch of separate links
unconnected then the chain is not going to be very effective. It is only by the
links giving up a bit of themselves and creating space, that they can be
connected to one another, and once together, the chain becomes strong. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">And this is where we enter the story. This is where we can see our place
in the tale. For we too are seeking a greater unity. What are you holding onto
today that is keeping you from achieving this great unity in your life? Unity
with your spouse, family, loved ones, or church? What is the space that you are
refusing to yield so that you can be a part of the chain? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Perhaps you are holding onto the need to be right. This can be a very
difficult one to let go. Being right is so great. But it is also alienating. If
you are right, and you know the kind of right I am talking about, then that
means that someone else is wrong, or at fault, or to blame. There is a marriage
therapy quote that says that you can be right or happy. Often you cannot be
both. How much could be achieved if you gave up the need to come out on top?
What kind of connection could you make if you did not have to be insistent on
being right.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Perhaps you are holding onto worry. Anyone ever worry, concern yourself
about something that has not even happened yet. Here’s a little poem for you...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">A bit of worry I suppose,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Will keep you up on your toes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">But too much and you will find,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">You will almost lose your mind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">Worries isolate
us. They put us in our head and keep us from trusting those around us to
support us. They can also get in the way of our relationship with God who we
believe loves and cares for us. For those of you who cannot let your worries
go, I invite you to do this little task. Carry a little book with you and any
time you are worried about something, write it in the book. At the end of the
week, look in the book and see how many of those things actually happened. I
predict that you will find that it is a very small percentage. What would
happen if you gave up some of these worries and united with those around you in
trust and support?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> Perhaps
you are holding onto grudges. Anyone have one of these? It is a great word that
sounds like what it is: a big muddy thing that is hard to move. It can also be
a great hindrance to unity. Marriages, families, friendships and even churches
break up because people hold onto resentments that they can never get past. After
all, anger is easy. Retribution is easy. But it is not fulfilling. In
retribution there is no closure, no peace. Any reader of Batman can tell you
that. Peace can only come through forgiveness. And this may be the hardest
thing on the list. Forgiveness is difficult. But it is also liberating and not
just for the one being forgiven, but for the one doing the forgiving as well.
If the whole human race could live with the practice of forgiveness, think of
how united we could be. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> So
today I ask you, do you feel the kind of unity that the psalmist was speaking
about all those years ago? If not, what’s holding you back? When the first
century believers posed this question, the most obvious answer was their
possessions. And we can choose to stop there. Or we can delve deeper and try to
understand what was really going on with them in this story. They were not just
giving up their stuff. They were giving up a piece of their lives. They gave of
themselves for love, for equality, and for unity. Those are the true economics
of Easter. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-47547940593951468422012-02-26T15:04:00.001-08:002012-03-20T17:05:40.951-07:00Wilderness Sermon, by Chris.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;text-indent: 36pt; "><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Anyone remember the days of radio? Do you remember the show Dragnet? It started out as a radio program and then moved to TV and the movies. The main character Joe Friday was a police detective and was famous for his catch phrase. Anyone remember it? “Just the Facts Ma’am.” That’s right, No embellishments. No opinions. Just the facts. I think that Mark, our gospel writer this morning, would have appreciated Joe Friday. Mark writes this gospel in a Dragnet sort of way. Just the facts. Quick clean. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;text-indent: 36pt; "><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">It starts with a Baptism. A humble quiet Jesus comes to his cousin, wild man John, and asks to be baptized. He then goes immediately into the wilderness for 40 days. He is tempted by Satan and waited on by angels. And at the end of the story he emerges and is ready to proclaim the good news, ready to bring about the kingdom of God. Quick simple. Just the facts. But if you are like me, it makes you wonder, what really happened in that wilderness? <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;text-indent: 36pt; "><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The wilderness story is the one that begins our Lenten season. And like Lent, we could look at this story in many different ways. We could see it as a solemn time of reflection. We could see it as a time of deprivation and suffering. But I like to think of it as adventure. And when I think of adventure, I start getting the John Williams music in my head. (cue music). For those of you who do not know, John Williams who turned 80 this year, is a composer who has written just about every adventure movie score in the modern era. Superman, Harry Potter, Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones and or course Star Wars. Basically, if you were going to have an adventure, you would want John Williams to write the music for it. When I hear it, I think of all of the great heroes that have had adventures before me. Heroes like Odysseus, Joan of Arc, and of course, Indiana Jones. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;text-indent: 36pt; "><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">If you have ever read Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, you will know that many heroes follow the same path, what they call the hero’s journey. See if you think this matches Jesus’ adventures in the wilderness. The hero leaves home, goes into a place that he or she has never been, encounters many trials, gets help from unexpected places, and returns changed. I think, using this formula, we might delve deeper into Mark’s story and find the adventure of Lent. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>The first stage of the hero’s journey is leaving home. Now home can be a literal home or it can be a figurative one. Most of the time it is both. Odysseus begins his journey on an island far away from the love of his family. Joan of Arc leaves her meager farm life to join the ranks of the French Army. And Indiana Jones is supposed to be a teacher, but you how often do you see him in a classroom. At the beginning of our scripture today it says that Jesus came from Nazareth which was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">his</i> home. He leaves his place of upbringing to come and be baptized. But not by a rabbi. He goes to this wild man John who has been living out in the middle of nowhere eating honey and locusts. It was at the very least unconventional. So Jesus leaves his literal home, and the home of convention. But he goes a step further. He leaves civilization entirely and goes out into the wilderness. Mark writes that the Spirit drove him there. Well, the Spirit could not have picked a place more un-homey place. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>This is the second phase of our hero’s journey, strange lands. The wilderness. Now some scholars think that the wilderness Jesus went to was a rocky region, but when I think of the wilderness I think of desert. Barren expansive desert like the one on the front of the bulletin. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the image of the wilderness. It is powerful and spiritual. The wilderness is a paradox. It is everything that is nothing. It is a place where people cannot be, and yet Jesus is there. It is a place that does not support life, and yet it fosters growth. It is special. That is why it is such a great image for the start of Lent. That is why it is such a good place to begin transformation. Think about it. In the wilderness there is no distraction. No development. There is silence. And there is also no judgment. No preconceived notion. No opinions. It is untouched. It simply is. On a spiritual level, this wilderness is a reflection of our inner selves. There is a place in us that seeks to do away with what has been built up. There is a place that seeks to put an end to judgment. An end to opinions, noise and clutter that fill up our souls. To get back to what is simple, what is purely ourselves. To simply be.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>The wilderness is a tough place, no doubt. But on some level it has to be. If it were fertile, if it were habitable, if it were easy, then it would cease to be special. It would become like every other place and it would lose its purpose. It must remain tough in order to be true.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Lent is similar. It may be challenging, but that is what makes it special, set apart from the rest of the year. Lent affords us the opportunity to take a reflective journey, to evaluate from where we have come, where we are, and where we hope to go. Perhaps today you are dealing with great stress. This time is an opportunity to sit with it and transform it. Perhaps you are holding onto great anger. This is a time to reflect on where that anger comes from, acknowledge it and let it go. Perhaps there are struggles and fears that perplex you and keep you up at night. Lent is a time to face those fears, and overcome them. That is what we mean by transformation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>As you may have noticed, time in the wilderness is not all quiet and easy. At no point in the story does it say that Jesus was on vacation. Quite the contrary. It says that he was tempted by Satan. As if the wilderness itself wasn’t enough.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>This takes us to the third part of the hero’s journey, trials. Without tests the hero cannot prove his worth. Odysseus had to resist temptation from the Sirens and take down the mighty Cyclops. Joan of Arc had to face the skepticism of her commanders not to mention the armies of the British. And Indiana Jones? Well, aside from a giant boulder chasing him, he has those pesky Nazis to deal with. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;text-indent: 36pt; "><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Jesus’s trial is the temptation by Satan. Now Luke and Matthew expand on the story with a bunch of details, but Mark keeps it simple. Just the facts ma’am. He simply says Jesus was tempted, which leaves us to wonder, what was so tempting? Was it the gift of cool satisfying water? Was it delectable morsels of delicious food? Certainly these would have been tempting after days living with nothing. But I think that something more crossed the exchange of Jesus and Satan. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;text-indent: 36pt; "><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I picture Jesus sitting alone in the rocky barren wilderness thinking about all that he was to accomplish. As his ministry unfolds before him, he starts to see the grandness of its scope and difficulty. All that he is to do and all that he is to be begins to appear insurmountable. Perhaps a bead of fearful sweat emits from his brow. And at the moment Satan appears with a great offer. Satan says to him, “Just forget about it. Give up. Nobody is making you do this. You really do not have to.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;text-indent: 36pt; "><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Have you ever faced this? I call it the give up voice. When something gets a bit uncomfortable or difficult it pipes up. “Hello? Yes, it is me, the voice of ease. What you are doing is too hard. Stop now, okay.” For some of us, Lent represents more than a time of reflection. It represents difficulty. It is hard to look at ourselves. It is hard to make the changes that we need to make in order to become the people we are meant to be. The give up voice says, “Ugh, forget this. Just wait until Easter when everything is cheery and white.” The journey through the wilderness and the journey through Lent is a time of talking back to that voice, telling it that we are going to go ahead and persevere. To create transformation, we have to begin with perseverance. That is the reaction Jesus has to Satan. He does not give up. He does not give in. That is what makes him the hero of the adventure. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;text-indent: 36pt; "><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Though we often associate the time in the wilderness as alone time, the text does mention that there is some company. It says that angels waited upon him. The fourth stage in our hero’s journey is one marked by spiritual helpers. Odysseus gets a boost from some of the gods like Athena who is his biggest fan, and Hermes who comes to get him off of the island. Joan of Arc famously had visions of Saints guiding her in France’s conquest. And Indiana Jones is aided by the magical and mysterious artifacts that he finds. Jesus has angels waiting on him. Again Mark is sparse in his description, but I think that this was more than just some heavenly room service. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;text-indent: 36pt; "><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Whatever the purpose of the angels, we can assume that they were caretakers. This is an encouraging detail because it reminds us that we are not completely alone on our spiritual journey. Though we must face our temptations and our trials ourselves, there is assistance to provide care and help if we need it. Angels are everywhere. This is obvious to anyone who has been through serious illness or grief in this church. It never ceases to warm my heart at the outpouring of support that people offer one another. Like angels in the desert they come, providing food, support, companionship, and even just a hug. There are angles in the face of adversity. Mark knew it, and I know it too. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;text-indent: 36pt; "><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Another detail worth mentioning is that the angels come after the temptation with Satan. Like in the hero’s journey, there are trials before there are helpers. The angels are not there to make everything easy. They are there to assist when things get too difficult. It says that they provide care, not answers. That is something only the hero can discover when they overcome the trials set before them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;text-indent: 36pt; "><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The last stage of the hero’s journey is the return. The hero does not stay on this journey forever. The tests and temptations result in a breakthrough that creates the person that they always knew that they could be. Like the butterfly that emerges from the cocoon, they return home to show their true self to the people that they left. Odysseus returns to his wife a changed man, Joan of Arc returns to stand trial as an empowered and invigorated woman, and Indiana Jones? Well, he begins his journey as an atheist, but does not end it that way. At the end of the Mark passage today, Jesus returns from the wilderness with a definitive proclamation, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near;<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=246499582191101128&postID=4754794059395146842"></a> repent, and believe in the good news.’<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=246499582191101128&postID=4754794059395146842"></a></i> Now, does this sound like someone who is trying to discover himself? No, of course not. This is not the same man that was quietly seeking Baptism from his cousin 40 days earlier. He has persevered through hardship. He has resisted the temptation to give up. He has been transformed. Before the people stands a fully realized person ready to begin his ministry and be an example to all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;text-indent: 36pt; "><span style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">For those of us take this journey into the wilderness there is great potential for transformation. How will you emerge from the end of Lent this year? Will you risk transformation? Will you venture into the wilderness and dare to look into yourself? Will you face your fears and your dreams with the potential to be what God truly wants you to be? If you do, I warn you it will not be easy. You will face demons and trials. You will face temptation. You will face the give up voice. But if you persevere, if you dare to adventure, then you will tap into great potential. You will see yourself as God sees you. You will be a person that you were born to be. You can be the hero. If you believe you can, say amen.</span></span><span style=" font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;font-size:16.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-46323660963914548722012-01-22T17:08:00.000-08:002012-03-20T17:59:22.409-07:00God is my rock, by Greg<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><b>Let us pray</b>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">A part of me is up in eastern Washington state today ... later today members of the church I grew up in, along with most of the members of my own family, will be gathering to celebrate the life of a man who was the father of my best friend during my teen years. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Skip Arnold was a Rhode Island native who drifted West like so many others. He and his wife Shirley set up shop in the valleys east of Spokane, joined a church, started a family, made a life. It was midway through that story, in the early 70’s, that my family moved to Spokane Valley, joined the American Baptist church there, and met the Arnold family. It wasn’t long before Skip Jr., or “Skippy” as we always knew him, was one of my closest friends. I cannot even fathom the number of days and hours we spent together at his home or mine. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Big Skip, as Skip Sr. was always known, was a short, heavy barrel of a man, with a big heart, but a clear mind and a quick tongue. You really wanted to stay on Big Skip’s <u>good side</u> if you, as a squirrely young teenager, didn’t want a swift quick on the <u>backside</u>. He was a good and loving man, but he knew right from wrong and he wasn’t a bit shy to let you know what side of that equation he thought you were on. After my own father, I believe it would be fair to say that Big Skip was the most influential man of my teenage years.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Big Skip married a good hearted Rhode Island girl named Shirley and she became like a mother to me. She was as loving, sweet and kind as Skip was brusque. Until just a couple of years ago, we would always receive a long, kindly, hand-written Christmas card from Shirley telling how they were and asking how we were. It was that dreaded lung disease, pulmonary fibrosis, that robbed Big Skip of Shirley two years ago and not long after that, Big Skip suffered a stroke that made him a virtual prisoner in his own body ... and only last week was he finally granted an eternal parole from that dreaded confinement.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I’ve been mingling thoughts, this week, of Big Skip and the Psalmist’s deep, deep words of faith ... and I find myself wondering if anyone ever thought to read Psalm 62 to Skip as he lay in his bed ... wondering ... wondering what lay ahead ... wondering what his life meant ... wondering what his soul stood on in that “time between times”. Did anyone read these words to Skip and if they did, could he identify with the psalmist and did he find comfort and hope in these words from the psalmist’s heart? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">For God alone my soul waits in silence,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>for my hope is from God. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">God alone is my rock and my salvation,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>my fortress; I shall not be shaken. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">On God rests my deliverance and my honor;<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>my mighty rock, my refuge is in God. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:18.0pt;background:white"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"> </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Skip was never a man of “flowery” faith ... he was a bull of a man who worked with his hands and his sweat and the strength of his broad back. As with so many families, Shirley was the more spiritually effusive of the two. Skip’s faith was sunk <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">deeper</i>, you might say ... buried deep in the bedrock of his person. It might help to know that Skip was a “driller and blaster” ... it was his vocation to operate mighty pneumatic drills that bored into solid rock where charges of dynamite could be planted so that a way could be made for roads. There probably aren’t many men alive, except for Skippy who is also a driller and blaster, who’ve worked their way into more acreage of solid rock than Big Skip. If ever there was a metaphor for the solid, grounding reality of the heart of the universe, a metaphor for God’s own being, it was “rock” and I think it was in that “rock” that Skip found his footing and his grounding. And I have to think that in these last few years when his earthly soul had little else in which to find joy or meaning, that the God who was in his soul’s bedrock never let him down, was a firm and reliable place to live and, finally, to die.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">On God rests my deliverance and my honor;<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>my mighty rock, my refuge is in God. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"> </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The potential deep comfort of these words to someone at the end of their rope seems obvious. When there is <u>nothing</u> left to hold on to, we can at least hold on to God ... and in that time between times we are graced to discover that <b><u>God is enough</u></b>. (HWS)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">If you are here this morning, it is because you have thus far been spared the horror and indignity of being bedridden and incapable of self-care. To one degree or another, we who are present today continue to enjoy a good measure of independence and health—all in all, life is still good.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">But we live in uncertain times in an uncertain world. And who among us will bet the family farm on that “uncertainty” changing in any foreseeable future? As long as this planet’s population keeps growing, and as long as this planet’s resources remain finite, and as long as this planet’s wealthier and more powerful inhabitants refuse to invest their best energies and thinking and resources in creating a world where children are no longer born into hunger and fear ... as long as these things remain true, uncertainty will be our truest certainty. That’s the world I was born into ... that’s the world I live in now.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">That is not to say that I have or we have given up on the world and given up our hope for the world. Not by a long, long shot. Not while I have breath and, I hope, not while you have breath. But it is to say that we perceive the world and our lives within it with few delusions, which is, I think, the healthiest and most honest way to live within the world ... if not the craziest. But we also live within the world as followers of Jesus, another clear-eyed soul who loved the world he lived in. And if we wish not to be crushed by the concerns of the world while working hopefully on behalf of the needs of the world ... well ... we’d better be grounded in some pretty solid stuff. We’d better know where to stand and on whom to stand.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">God alone is my rock and my salvation,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>my fortress; I shall not be shaken. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"> </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">So ... what are you standing on? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">What are you grounded in? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">What gives you strength? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">What gives you hope? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Where do you stand when storms come and storms blow? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">What is saving you now?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">What does it mean to bore down into the rock? What does it mean to be “anchored” in that which is undeniably deep and firm and trustworthy?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Last week we spoke of the din and distractions of the holiday season and so much of life that makes it hard to “hear” the still small voice that can whisper our true name and speak peace to our souls. It is a parallel thought to say that that same holiday season that also symbolizes materialism at its worst ... the avalanche of stuff that buries us ... preoccupies us ... impoverishes us ... and whets our appetites for even MORE stuff. It seems to me that the shallower the human soul and spirit gets, the greater the need for stuff to make up for the lack of depth and meaning that stuff just can’t provide. There is a hunger and anxiety that seems palpable in our world and in people who surround us that is easily exploited for a profit.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I was with my pastor friend, Katie Choy-Wong recently, and she told of her recent sabbatical travels to China, to the village from her family came to this country several generations ago. She said that the region where her family came from use to be all farms, nothing but farmland ... and now, she says, it is only factories as far as the eye can see ... factories that churn out the junk that you and I are so desperate to have. I know that when I get home, I’m going to hear a wail of woe and despair from my lifemate.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">At their worst, our human lives become littered on the surface with such a depth of debris and detritus and distractions that there’s little hope of finding anything solid underneath on which to stand. All this, you understand, from someone whose desktop, at its worse, can look like the county landfill.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">When the earth shakes us ... when changing life circumstances shake us ... when crumbling economies shake us ... when failure of family or friends shake us ... when our health or lack thereof shakes us ... where do you stand? Can you find the rock of your salvation? Have you got a firm place to put your feet ... and your faith?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">And if a thick layer of “stuff” can keep us from finding firm footing, from finding the rock of our salvation ... what does anxiety and fear about the future do for our rock-finding?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I am of the age when AARP starts stuffing your mailbox with their repulsive membership cards and come-ons for their magazine. Come on, I say, I still think of myself as a somewhat older, but still young, young adult. Retirement and all that that entails is still off on some impossibly far off horizon ... isn’t it? Isn’t it???<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Well OK ... so it isn’t. A recent evening found us sitting with Dana Murphy at a teacher’s retirement seminar ... at Ruth’s Chris steak house of all places—but it was a lovely dinner ... and hosted by an insurance company who wants to help you buy ... assurance ... freedom from anxiety and fear, right? ... <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">One of the most remarkable changes in our culture is the emergence of the whole world and culture of retirement. And it is, at its root, grounded in the specters of anxiety and uncertainty and fear. For those who will soon plunge headlong into retirement ... how much is enough? How long will I live? Have I saved enough? Will I have healthcare? Will I be a burden to my children? Will I be alone? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">There’s really something here terrifically at odds with what used to be conventional thinking about facing the future. Now we face the future with faith ... aaaaand a WHOLE LOT MORE ... <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Our whole culture is obsessed with “securing the future” ... selling our souls, nearly, to make sure we are comfortably and predictably ushered into our infirm years and, finally, into the grave. No shocks ... no surprises ... nothing but safety and security. I’m having trouble putting my finger on this, but there seems to be something almost nihilistic about this. It’s like slowly increasing the level of barbiturate until we gently fade from the scene. I think we should acknowledge that there is a whole massive industry whose sole purpose, nearly, is to <b><u>terrify</u></b> us with haunting visions of impoverished golden years where you are kept alive with food stamps and the E.R. room of the county hospital. “Dear friend,” the retirement counselor says to you with a heavy hand on your sagging shoulder, “no price is too high to avoid such a specter.” <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">But ... but ... <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">my hope is from God. <o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">God alone is my rock and my salvation,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>my fortress;</i><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I absolutely <u>know</u> that our stuff cannot give us life or save us ... and I <u>doubt</u> the ability of even the best “securities” portfolio to give us the security and peace that our souls most crave in uncertain times ... a security and peace that cannot be shaken by a shaky world economy. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">So ... what are you standing on? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">What are you grounded in? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">What gives you strength? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">What gives you hope? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Where do you stand when storms come and storms blow? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">What is saving you now?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">What does it mean to bore down into the rock? What does it mean to be “anchored” in that which is undeniably deep and firm and trustworthy?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Skippy—my friend Skip Jr.—said on the phone last night about his mom—who died two years ago—that she’d spent her whole life getting ready for the place he now imagines her in. That’s not an articulation or understanding of what’s beyond this life that <u>all</u> of us here would use or share—though some would ... but in this life while she lived it, that simple, sturdy, resilient faith of Shirley’s never failed her, never let her down, always upheld her even as her health failed and the end of her life on this earth drew near. And I trust and pray the same was true for Big Skip, may he rest in God’s good peace. Simple faith ... and .... simple trust.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">For God alone my soul waits in silence,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>for my hope is from God. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">God alone is my rock and my salvation,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>my fortress; I shall not be shaken. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">On God rests my deliverance and my honor;<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"> </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Perhaps it should be said that this sense of grounding ourselves in God’s bedrock is not for everyone ... perhaps not even everyone here—whether it is that we doubt the nature of the rock, or doubt ourselves to be able drill into it—our strength or our ability or our “faith”. Or perhaps such an understanding of God smacks of a simple-minded piety that you have spent the bulk of your adult life evolving beyond ... or fleeing. Maybe we’ve just become too sophisticated and urbane to do anything more than wistfully wish we still had our drills and the faithful courage to use them.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Perhaps we should turn the image around ... perhaps we are the nearly impenetrable rock and God is the gently dripping water that slowly bores God’s way into us ... if we will allow it ... if we will not shield ourselves from God. When I am hiking in the high sierra, one of the phenomena at which I most marvel is where water has run across the high mountainous granite slabs for eons ... carving straight and curving channels, sculpting circular bowls of all sizes, shaping and reshaping the solid bulk of the mountain. Time and persistence make the granite, to the patient water, like clay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And so it is for the one who will simply wait upon God ... for God to do with us and for us what God will do ... <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">For God alone my soul waits in silence,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>for my hope is from God. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">God alone is my rock and my salvation,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>my fortress; I shall not be shaken. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">On God rests my deliverance and my honor;<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"> </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">People of Shell Ridge, wait upon God ... trust in God ... be rooted and grounded in God even as God seeks to be rooted and grounded in you.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Amen.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-68101288337618988322012-01-15T17:46:00.000-08:002012-03-20T17:59:22.410-07:00Listening, by Greg<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">I have been enjoying introducing Alex to some of Puccini’s great Arias ... including “O Mio Babbino Caro” from one of his less well known operas. It is such an extraordinary thing to close your eyes and allow the passion of this almost painfully beautiful piece of music to cascade down upon your ears and your soul. I know very little about Puccini, but listening to his music almost feels like you’re looking through a window into his soul. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Alex is glad that we’re now listening to Puccini or Bach or anything besides the nearly non-stop onslaught of Christmas music that I’ve subjected my household to for the past couple of months.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">We have just come out of a season that is notable for, among other things, its sound ... the nearly non-stop din of seasonal music and bells ringing and general “hubbub”. One of the things I’ve always appreciated about this month ... the month of January ... is the quiet ... the cessation of sound ... the chance to still oneself and to ... simply listen. To this day, our New Year’s day worship of two weeks ago remains a gift for the calm and quiet worship we enjoyed together. During the closing guided meditation, we were told repeatedly to “smile and breathe” ... a simple, but effective spiritual practice.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">This past Monday and Tuesday I joined a group of my colleagues for a brief time of retreat ... the theme of the retreat was “Sabbath Keeping” and one of the important “duties”, if you will, of Sabbath Keeping is, simply, listening ... ceasing to speak and slowing your activities and opening up your mind and your heart and your soul to ... whatever is there to be heard. Several times during our retreat we simply sat in silence ... our eyes closed, our bodies relaxed, our minds relaxed, as well, and open ... open to whatever gifts might come to us when we cease activity and speaking for a time.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Our friend Trevor, who preached last Sunday, came out from snowy Vermont to join us at our Sabbath Keeping retreat, because he knows, as I know, that our ministry and our personal spirituality is deepest and most effective when we take time to pause and grow still and listen. After the retreat, Trevor took leave of us for a couple of days and drove to the coast. Wednesday, he told us, he made a “day of silence”, that is ... where he did not speak. He even carried a note with him that explained to people he might encounter that he was observing a day of silence. One young woman at a store said to Trevor, who was speaking again by the time he returned to our home, “I’d love to ask you about your day of silence ... but ... I guess that wouldn’t really work, would it.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">One of the potential hazards of being a human being is that we forget that communication is a two-way process ... we too often get the “speaking” part down, but forget that “listening” is the critical other half of the equation of communication. For as many years as I’ve performed marriages, I’ve always reminded soon-to-be-married couples of the sage advice of the wise old Stoic philosopher, Epictetus, who said “We have two ears and one mouth, so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Some of us were born as “chatty Kathy’s” and stilling our voices, for a time, does not come easily to us. But whether we are naturally chatty or not, learning to cease speaking and to listen remains a challenge for most of us. No less of a challenge is to turn off the noise and distractions to which we modern creatures seem almost addicted. It would be interesting to observe our neighbors in a number of places ... on the bus, on the street, in their homes ... and see how many have a compulsive need for sound or information ... see how many must have the television running, the ipod playing, the social network buzzing, the smart phone or the home computer chugging out its information. It might be our neighbors ... it might be us. Too often it is only when we lie down in exhaustion to sleep that we let go of these things and allow silence to envelope us.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Silence and stillness can help open what we might call “the ears of our souls” ... that is, while we are in a posture of receptiveness and listening, it is listening at a deeper level that we are seeking ... to deepen our listening opens us to hearing, finally, the gentle voice of God ... the heart of another person ... the world and its “hopes and fears” ... and even the voice of our own hearts.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">To “listen” to the voice of another isn’t simply to hear their words, but it is to seek to understand their heart and their purposes and their concerns. Listening is an act of “knowing” ... it is a communion of souls where the “other” becomes more deeply known to you.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Young Samuel, that we’ve heard about this morning in our scripture reading, models for us that simple receptivity to the voice of God. He keeps hearing his name called and once old Eli sets him straight about who’s doing the calling, Samuel demonstrates for us how to find communion with God: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is Samuel’s openness and willingness to wait for the voice of God and to listen to the heart of God that helps him play a critically important role in the life of the nation of Israel as a judge and a prophet. It is Samuel’s discernment of God’s heart that allows him to help Israel in the selection of its rulers ... first Saul ... and then David.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-9227015316141866652011-12-11T17:22:00.001-08:002012-03-20T17:59:22.410-07:00Voices of Healing, by Greg.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We sometimes will speak about “scars” that we have within ourselves ... that is, lingering evidence of wounds we have sustained in our living and loving. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I have some scars within ... some knotted and twisted “places” that you cannot actually see, but I can “feel” at times. I also have a pretty fair collection of scars on the outside ... I have scars that were inflicted upon me by doctors who needed to get inside my body and fix things.Other scars were accidentally self-inflicted ... you know the fascination boys have with sharp, dangerous things ... and fire ... and stuff that goes “bang!”. It’s a pure wonder that I’m alive and have nearly all my “parts”. But the thing about all of my scars that amazes me and is worth noting is that they are all evidence of <u>healing</u>. The scar is the symbol and the sign that my body has amazing powers of recovery and regeneration. And so it is with you ... and so it is with our earth and all of creation. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Broken things can become whole ... wounded things can heal ... empty things can be filled ... sadness can become joy ... uselessness can become new purpose ... loneliness can become belonging.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We live in a world where hurt and brokenness is all around us. Some of the hurt and brokenness is very personal ... very close. I ache to think of some of the sadness I know that has touched each one of us here. Who has not known loss ... disappointment ... emptiness ... failure? This week we received the annual Christmas photo and letter from my late best friend’s family. The photo of this dear, dear family shows three members, now, instead of four. Jan wept to see the photo. I did my weeping while writing these words. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We cannot escape the wounds and brokenness that come by virtue of being alive ... or by loving and caring for others ... or by the accidents that can sometimes befall us ... or by the occasional cruelties of others ... or sometimes by the enormous cruelties that are the part of unjust and oppressive systems.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">And yet, remarkably ... and we might even say “miraculously”, our inner and outer wounds and brokenness are most often graced by healing ... remarkable healing ... by the knitting together of broken bones and broken hearts ... the return of stability to our inner systems and balance to our ruptured emotions. We can know healing ... and restoration ... and renewal. And God’s grace and gentle love is a part of every healing ... every restoration ... every renewal.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We live in a universe where healing and renewal are a part of the natural process. And yet, we might say in this setting of faith, that at the very heart of this universe, we understand that the Spirit of our loving God conspires and works tirelessly to bring healing and wholeness to every heart and hearth and nation to where it is needed.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Healing is a mysterious blend of God’s divine Spirit and the natural powers of creation and our own modest efforts. And it is not always a “cure” that results from our efforts and nature’s influence and God’s “healing.” Sometimes the healing is an inner one that cannot yet stem the tide of illness or difficulty that has beset us. And in this life and this world where we know we are mortal, sometimes that is just the way it is. And yet in the wider circle of God’s love and care, and surrounded by loving community, let us be encouraged to find peace in that ... and great joy while we live and with each living breath we draw.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We have been standing at the threshold of the stable ... the edge of the manger for several weeks now ... like expectants parents waiting for the contractions to begin. But this “birth” that gets hinted at in Isaiah is more like a re-birth ... the conditions out of which this re-birth is occurring is not what we hope for ourselves or this world ... brokenheartedness ... captivity ... impoverishment. These are symptoms of things that have gone wrong ... symptoms of a body or a world in need of repair ... a new start ... a new life ... healing and restoral. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">For all of the difficulty that the “occupy” movement has had to find traction and a focused message, it is, at the heart, a cry that speaks of things that have gone wrong, a system in need of deep healing and change. It would also be fair to say that it’s not just the U.S. that needs an “occupy” movement, but the world as a whole.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Isaiah stands among people who have reoccupied the land of their ancestors, but can see no hope, no healing, no future ... all they can see are ruined buildings and ruined lives in need of restoration. They are a brokenhearted people in need of a fresh start and to these people Isaiah speaks God’s healing word: “The creator of this universe, whose breath shaped this earth and spoke life into existence, will heal and restore you. And this is “good news” for all people, all earth. The birth of Jesus is, for us, a grand fulfillment of Isaiah’s hopeful and healing words. God’s decisively entering into our lives and our world “from within” ... love encased in human flesh, the Spirit clothed in our human condition, and from within God’s healing and restoration comes, not in a great show of power, but on the wings of every breath and with every newborn baby’s cry. And this is the word and message of “Christmas” that is beneath every cry of “Merry Christmas” ... this is the word and message beneath and within our seasonal celebration. It is a word and message of hope and healing and new futures.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">And we are at the same time, people who need to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>hear</u></b> this the “good news” of this healing word ... and people who need to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>pronounce</u></b> the “good news” of this healing word. And so, while yet standing at the threshold, with seasonal bustle and twinkling lights and merry songs all around, we come into a time of prayer for healing ... healing of ourselves ... of nations ... of this earth.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We open ourselves to this time of hearing and speaking the healing heart of God by singing together: “Come and fill our hearts ...”. Let us sing together as we come together in prayer:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center; line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Come and fill our hearts with your peace.<br />You alone, O God are holy.<br />Come and fill our hearts with your peace.<br />Al-le-lu-u-u-u-ia!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-62766316049995796552011-12-04T17:19:00.000-08:002012-03-20T17:59:22.410-07:00Voices of Comfort, by Greg<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength, and our redeemer. Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><u>Sing</u>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Comfort Ye, comfort ye my people.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">As I drove to Berkeley on Thursday for a meeting, a hillside on the north side of Highway 24 in Lafayette caught the corner of my eye ... it was nearly completely white, as though snow was slowly drifting down and blanketing the ground. I turned my head and looked and it was, of course, not snow, but the slow, growing accumulation of small white memorials, mostly crosses, each marking the end of a life ... the end of a unique and brilliant and lovable and capable human being. Each memorial marker represents a whole universe of pain and loss for friends and family members of each service person who died in Afghanistan and Iraq. And for each white memorial marker, somewhere between 10 and 20 civilians have also died in those locations in this latest reminder of the awfulness of war and the utter futility of violent means to achieve peaceful ends. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><u>Sing</u>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Comfort Ye, comfort ye my people.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Another day and another drive. I was driving to work this past Tuesday morning in a dense fog. It was the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">literal</i> fog we had before the brisk winds cleared the fog and darned near everything else in its path. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I had just read an email telling about the death, on Thanksgiving Day, of Sarah Hammond, the 34 year old daughter of our dear friends from the Baptist Peace Fellowship, Steve and Mary Hammond. Steve and Mary are co-pastors of Peace Community Church in Oberlin, Ohio. At our first peace camp in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1999, we had met the Hammonds, including Sarah who was the oldest of their three daughters. You may remember that it was Steve Hammond’s words that helped catalyze Jan’s thinking about becoming a vegetarian. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Sarah had just earned her PhD in religion last year and was already a beloved professor at William and Mary College in Virginia. She was a deeply intelligent and compassionate and sensitive woman. And ... she had also battled inner demons of depression and despair all of her adult life. Steve and Mary wrote a few brief words to their friends and supportive community about their loss and their daughter’s struggle. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I had just read those words and was pondering them as I sat at the stop light in the fog waiting to turn on to La Casa Via ... and in one of those odd, ironic moments, the music I was listening to was a piano medley that combined “I’ll be home for Christmas” and the “Going Home” portion of Anton Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony. It was a moment of tender irony. “I’ll be home ... and ... I’m going <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">home</i>.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">These are Mary and Steve’s words:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">From Mary -- </b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Our beloved first born child, Sarah, passed away on Thanksgiving Day at the age of 34 after an utterly valiant decades long struggle with mental illness. Sarah, may you find the peace and rest with God that you could not find here on this earth. The God we trust holds you tight. </i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">From Steve -- </b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">That call from the police in [Virginia] today was one that we always feared would come. Sarah was such an amazing person. So giving. So thoughtful. So brilliant. She just couldn't believe how amazing she was, and grew tired of this long battle with the darkness. </i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I really believe that darkness Sarah knew everyday has been finally shattered by the light. And I am glad to trust her in the hands of the one who said "I am the resurrection and the life."<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Mary and I are so very grateful for all who accompanied Sarah on her journey. We got this far by faith, farther than, at times, we ever imagined she could make it. But her weary journey has come to its end. We often sing "Come and fill our hearts with your peace," at the Taize service. And it has always been my prayer for Sarah. Now that peace has come.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><u>Sing</u>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Comfort Ye, comfort ye my people.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">This past Monday—my day off and the only day of the week I actually get to read the paper, I opened up the morning paper and out fell two sections that, to my surprise, had no news on them to speak of—at least as we think of news. They were the “public announcements” section of the Contra Costa Times. They used to be the back part of another section, like the Business section, but apparently there are now so many “public announcements” to be made that it takes not one, but TWO WHOLE SECTIONS of newsprint to contain this fine, but wicked print. Two whole sections of “legal postings”—and they were, with only a few exceptions, announcements of what people ... families were about to lose ... about to be forced to return to the lending institutions from whom money had been borrowed <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>… two whole SECTIONS of foreclosures … two whole SECTIONS of misery … two whole SECTIONS of families’ lives being turned upside down ... two whole SECTIONS of moving trucks being packed, children being told that they must leave their neighborhoods and friends and classmates, two whole SECTIONS of credit ratings destroyed and futures being frazzled and threatened. Two whole sections of dislocation and misery and frustration and fear.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><u>Sing</u>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Comfort Ye, comfort ye my people.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Our sermon text this morning also speaks of dislocation and misery and frustration and fear. Isaiah’s words are written out of a time of exile ... a time when a good portion of the nation of Israel had been forcibly relocated to Babylon ... and with that forcible relocation, they had left behind EVERYTHING they knew and loved, EVERYTHING that gave their lives meaning ... they had left behind their homes and their Temple and, it seemed, their God and their very future. It was period of unspeakable bleakness and pain. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The people and their priests had no way to understand or interpret their exile except as a desolating punishment ... and as God’s “washing of the divine hands” of the once “chosen people” that God had, generations earlier, led out of bondage and into the promised land. But now that was a painfully distant and mocking memory. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">It was only after a great deal of time had passed that a new prophet, speaking in the tradition of the great prophet Isaiah, found his voice, took heart, and began to utter words of comfort and hope, words of mercy and healing.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><u>Sing</u>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Comfort Ye, comfort ye my people.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.<br />A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Isaiah sees with eyes of faith that dislocation and misery and frustration and fear are not the final word. On the horizon of faith, which is beyond the horizon of sight, Isaiah sees God’s return and the restoration of God’s people to their land, their homes, their Temple and their place near God’s own heart. What Isaiah sees is not to be hidden or held close, but proclaimed from high places:<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” God will feed God’s flock like a shepherd; God will gather the lambs in God’s arms, and carry them in God’s bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Isaiah’s word to Israel in exile is a also a word for us and for our world. You who have known the pain of loss and deep grief, you who have known dislocation and misery and frustration and fear ... know that these are not the final word, know that these are not the journey’s bitter end. On a horizon that is yet beyond our sight, a faint, but strengthening glow can be seen ... and it is a glow that portends healing and hope, mercy and forgiveness, reconciliation and return. It is a strengthening glow that speaks of the deep and abiding peace of God for all who have been in literal and figurative exile. It is a strengthening glow that hints at the love that is at the heart of all things, all creation ... love that will find new birth in our lives and on this good earth.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">May we ALL be graced and blessed with the eyes of faith that can see beyond our human knowing. May we ALL see together the hints of God’s promise to be birthed once more into this world and into these lives: our lives and our world.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom: 0cm;margin-left:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Amen.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16pt;"><a name="_GoBack"></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-51696684557046763402011-11-27T17:14:00.000-08:002012-03-20T17:59:22.410-07:00Voices of Anger, by Greg<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; ">·<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></span><!--[endif]-->May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength, and our redeemer. Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->How did you spend your Thanksgiving? Cooking? Relaxing? Nibbling? Watching the “Har-Bowl”? A surprising number of our fellow citizens decided that Thanksgiving was a good day for a campout in front of their big-box retailer. What an odd people we’ve become ... simply witness the modern phenomenon of “black Friday”—which itself is a pretty dreadful name. People camping out to get into the stores first. ... stabbings ... shootings ... stampedes ... a woman pepper spraying anyone who tried to get near the merchandise she’d claimed for herself. Is this simply an indication of our “bargain at any price” culture? Is it a reflection of the continued “de-volving” of our civilization and our sacred seasons? These and more, I suppose. So ... what’s it all about? Why do people do this? I suppose you could argue that it’s just an odd modern sport. But they seem to be in pursuit of ... something ... dashing from store to store, mall to mall, sale to sale. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->As we’ve heard this morning, Isaiah was certainly in pursuit of something ... he was in pursuit of a little loving and a little attention from an angry and indifferent God.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Indifference ... it’s the worst kind of relational offense ... do anything to me, just don’t ignore me. “What have you done for me lately?” seems to be Isaiah’s cry.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Things are in a very bad way for Isaiah and his people. It’s far worse than what nearly any one of us has known in our lifetime. The Babylonians had overrun the country, destroyed Jerusalem and Israel’s Temple, and hauled most of the population off into a bitter exile. It’s really hard to see how it could have been any worse for God’s “chosen people”. And God seems to have stood at the door of the family home and simply waved as his children are hauled off in chains. “Send a postcard.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Today’s words are likely written from the perspective of having returned from the Babylonian exile ... but returned to what? A flattened city and a non-existent Temple. And God ... well God simply seems absent ... God who acted so decisively at other critical times in Israel’s life—like the Exodus from Egypt ... like the journey through the Sinai wilderness. Now God seems moodily distant if God is even “there” at all.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Bailey White is a southern writer that used to read some of her work on NPR. She describes her elderly mother—“mama”—who gets sick of her children’s backbiting and bickering and decides to go camping, of all things, at the far edge of the family’s farm. At night, mama’s daughters could see the flickering light of her campfire as she persisted in her sanity break and her self-imposed exile from her <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">dingaling</i> daughters.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Sometimes I like to think of God as “mama” ... in Isaiah’s time and ours. God who has gotten sick of the bickering ... sick of the sordidness ... sick of the self-centeredness. “Fine,” she says in exasperated anger, “you stay in the house because I’m moving out for a while.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Maybe we can think of the early days of Advent as the time when we pause to consider that God may be angry with us—but not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">just</i> us ... a time when we might have to do, for a time, without cozy assurances of God’s presence ... a time when we might shout at the sky to rip open and reveal God, but God still remains hidden ... brooding.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->How do we understand God’s anger? Isaiah knew God as a divine parent who was angry at Israel’s failure to live out their chosenness ... failing to look and act like God’s chosen children ... failing to treat the unfortunate among them with compassion ... failing to acknowledge God and God’s gifts to them when times were good and for imagining that they were “self-made” and needed no one but themselves. At our best, we earthly parents become angry at our children for many of these same failings ...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>when they repeat mistakes ... sell themselves short ... fail to reach their potential ... fail to be honest with us or themselves ... fail to live according to the dictates of their highest selves. And, of course, we can get angry at ourselves for these very same things.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->But anger is scary ... many of us grew up with parents who had some anger buried within, but didn’t know how to handle their anger ... and it would sometimes explode out in frightening and unpredictable and even damaging ways. The sad truth is that many of us have internalized our parents’ anger and even found new anger of our own. Many of us are frightened and confused by our own anger we know to be within.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Harriet Goldhor Lerner is a psychologist and therapist who wrote several books some years ago that all start with the word: “Dance.” “The Dance of Intimacy” ... “The Dance of Anger”. “Dance” is a metaphor for our relationships with others and the important and necessary movements we must undertake in order to live in healthy and mutually satisfying relationships. And “anger” is one of the dances that we must not ignore or be unduly frightened by. We do well, Lerner says, to pay close and careful attention to anger—our anger and the anger of others. She says:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->“Anger is a signal, and one worth listening to. Our anger may be a message that we are being hurt, that our rights are being violated, that our needs or wants are not being adequately met, or simply that something is not right. Our anger may tell us that we are not addressing an important emotional issue in our lives, or that too much of our self - our beliefs, values, desires, or ambitions - is being compromised in a relationship. Our anger may be a signal that we are doing more and giving more than we can comfortably do or give. <u>Or our anger may warn us that others are doing too much for us, at the expense of our own competence and growth.</u> Just as physical pain tells us to take our hand off the hot stove, the pain of our anger preserves the very integrity of our self. Our anger can motivate us to say "no" to the ways in which we are defined by others and "yes" to the dictates of our inner self.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->We could have some very fruitful conversations about this description of what anger signals for us. But this morning I’d like to lift up the phrase: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">our anger may warn us that others are doing too much for us, at the expense of our own competence and growth. </i>I think it helps explain some of God’s seeming absence and marks an important step along the way as Israel matures from a “child” into an “adult”.<a name="_GoBack"></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Isaiah’s anguish and frustration at God’s seeming abandonment of the people illustrates painful lessons being learned by the people of Israel ... and they are lessons that indicate an evolving and changing relationship with God. For the once “chosen” people of God, it is that God will not be owned or contained or controlled by them. For a people who are accustomed to getting nearly everything we want, it might help us to be reminded that we don’t control God ... or “own” God ... and we don’t control or own the future, though we may try influence it.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Israel’s relationship with God is going through a necessary period of maturation and change ... if God at one time fed infant Israel by hand and effected “mighty acts” to protect the beloved chosen child, Israel is learning to understand that God increasingly comes into the world in a different way. If God once parted the waters and vanquished great armies, as the ancient stories told, God refuses to do so any longer. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Woody Allen has famously jested of God as being something of an “underachiever”. But you know I’ve just suddenly realized that it’s an understandable joke from someone whose fellow Jews were slaughtered by the millions in WWII. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Learn this, Israel: Divine <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>protection</u></b> is no longer a part of the bargain, it’s simply not in God’s being. But divine <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>support</u></b>, the profound undergirding of all that is and all that we are by the Spirit that animates all things ... that’s where Isaiah hard lessons are leading.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->The angry divine parent is saying to Israel, and I hope we’re listening in to this conversation: “grow up ... start taking responsibility for who you are ... for your behavior and decisions ... for your values and your faith ... and stop looking for a bailout every time the going gets<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>tough. Grow up and allow your sense of me and my presence in the world to evolve away from seeing me as a “strong-armed benevolent dictator” and toward a divine, compassionate being whose power is most fully expressed in “non-coercive love and suffering service” ... a divine compassionate being who dwells most fully among the suffering and the disadvantaged and oppressed ... <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Fingerprints of God</b>: Roy Larson, former religion writer for the Chicago Sun Times, has made a practice of examining the world for the fingerprints of God. Quoting Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, he said he was more likely to find God's fingerprints on a kitchen table than on a holy altar. "Supernatural splendor" is found in "ordinary acts". The place to look for "spiritual substance is in everyday existence", where even the most simple deeds can be "full of wonder". "Why is it, Rabbi", asked the student, "that no one nowadays sees God?" The reply, "People are not willing to look that low."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Advent is a season where we consider that God may be angry, like an angry, but loving parent. Advent is a season where we risk looking inward at our complexities including our own anger. Advent is the season when we learn to “look low” if we wish to see where God dwells. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Advent is a rich and challenging season in which we find ourselves suspended for a time in the tension between God’s judgment and God’s promise.</b><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-top:12.0pt;margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->But there is a final word of hope … remember we lit the candle of hope this morning? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">8 Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>we are the clay, and you are our potter;<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>we are all the work of your hand. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">9 Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>and do not remember iniquity forever.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:18.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"> Now consider, we are all your people.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:180%;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p> <!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-81017739258198192252011-11-13T12:53:00.001-08:002012-03-20T17:05:56.516-07:00Risk-taking mission and Service, by Greg<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">It was over a decade ago ... nearly two dozen of us piled into our heavily loaded vehicles and drove over five hundred miles south across the border into the teeming city of Tijuana. We pitched tents on the edge of an abandoned quarry and wondered what the days ahead would bring. None of us had ever done what we were about to do. That first evening, we lolled around the fire wondering if we’d taken leave of our senses. We had just put a lot of miles and money into a risky adventure during which we proposed building an entire house from the dirt up with our bare hands—no power tools allowed—in just four weeks. Oh wait ... no ... make that ... FOUR DAYS!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The next morning we drove what seemed an interminable distance out to a new neighborhood which still mostly resembled the level part of a mountainside that it had recently been. Our insides had been jostled into a froth by the rutted roads and now we stood in front of a small lot where a large jumble of building materials had been dumped. It felt to me like the first steps out of the hospital bearing our firstborn child ... a new and enormous responsibility matched up with a profound sense of inadequacy.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We unloaded our jumble of tools, buckled on our tool belts, tugged on fresh, pristine work gloves, looked at each other and realized there was no way around but “through”. We met the family we’d be working for--and with--and we hoped word hadn’t reached them that we were somewhat “virginal” in this endeavor, having never before built an “AMOR house”. But I’d guess that 21 people standing in one place festooned with brand new tools with their freshly gloved hands hanging limply by their sides might have been a give-away. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Soon, though, we remembered the guidelines and instructions we’d worked hard to acquaint ourselves with while planning the trip. Some of us began sorting lumber while others started leveling the 11 by 22 patch of dirt where the foundation would be poured. It was slow, dusty and dirty work ... and the temperature rose rapidly as the sun rose high in the sky. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">After a considerable time, we had leveled the building site and put our form boards in place for the slab foundation. With no cement truck in sight, we transformed ourselves into human cement mixers. According to a recipe, sand and gravel and cement were dried mixed in large flat tubs on the ground. Water was added and the hard work became harder still. Rarely used muscles began to ache and we began to despair that we’d finish the first day’s work before nightfall. The ground was so dry and the air so hot that the concrete threatened to set before we could work it. By mid-afternoon, we still seemed depressingly far from finishing the slab and workers were drooping with exhaustion. Frustration and despair hovered at the edges of our work party. We were accountants and teachers and students and retirees. We had soft hands and un-tempered muscles. Our minds were adapted for other work. What were we doing, for heaven’s sake, pretending we were skilled and work-hardened craftspeople?<a name="_GoBack"></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">But by God’s grace and the good humor of the family <u>with</u> and <u>for</u> whom we worked, we persevered and very late in the afternoon, the last ghastly tub of concrete had been mixed and added to a foundation that definitely seemed to favor <u>function</u> over <u>form</u>. It ‘tweren’t pretty, but it served the purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">That night back in camp we collapsed into our camp chairs around the fire almost too tired to trudge to the showers to wash the crud from our hair and skin. But the ache and the weariness was suffused with an awareness that was like an inner glow ... we had taken on a hard, risky ministry on behalf of people we’d never met ... and it felt to each one of us like the closest we’d ever been to walking in the servant footsteps of the one who had called us to that place and that work. As I have said many times, I’m not sure I’ve ever felt quite so alive and whole as in those times of simple, humble service on behalf of other members of God’s beloved family.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">“If you want to ‘save’ your life,” Jesus says, “you’ll best do so by ‘risking your life’ in my name.” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">my paraphrase</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">For three more days we toiled and by the end of that fourth day a simple, but safe and sturdy, home stood where once there had been only a bare patch of earth. For four days our sweat and tears had mingled with the building materials even as our lives had mingled with our new friends in Mexico. And as we made our way back “home”, we returned as changed people ... and we knew that something very important had happened on that worksite. We had “lived our faith” in ways that we are not always privileged to do. We had counted for something. We had stepped way outside of what was familiar and comfortable to serve someone in need. And we had done it in ways that felt very consistent with the person and the practice of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Christian mission and service has many, many faces. Depending on who you are, Jesus can lead you into compassionate mission and service nearly anywhere and nearly anytime. There’s almost no place Jesus won’t lead us ... if we are willing to follow. Wherever in God’s creation there is suffering or pain or need or oppression or violence or conflict there is a potential invitation to “come follow me.” Sometimes service and mission we offer can be ways that are perfectly compatible with who we are ... our interests and our training and our strength. And sometimes ... sometimes the call comes to offer beyond what we might think we are capable of offering. Sometimes the call comes with risks ... risks to our personal security ... risks to our livelihood ... risks to relationships ... risks to the cozy and comfortable lives we have worked so hard to build for ourselves. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">When Jan and I came out to California 20 years ago on my second visit prior to my being called as your pastor, we stayed in the apartment of a member of this church. The apartment was temporarily empty because this church member had heard and heeded a call to volunteer mission work in that place of enormous continuing need: Haiti. She was a nurse and her skills were desperately needed by our mission doctors at the L’Hospital le Bon Samaritaine (The Hospital of the Good Samaritan) ... she served for a season and then returned to us. And I’d like to think that her acceptance of her risky call to serve helped prepare us for future calls and challenges. It was her new husband’s teenage daughter who described her mission trip to Mexico with a Catholic youth group that inspired us and became our own call to risky ministry. And as I think more about it, I think she might have inspired someone else. Her step-son ... her husband’s other child, now a grown man and married, first fostered, then adopted three young children who needed a safe and loving home and needed to be in one home together. And they have found that safety and the love and that togetherness with Matt and Golden. And Matt and Golden are simply seeking to live out the selfless and risk-taking love that the one in whose name they follow modeled for them.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Jesus told a story about three slaves who were entrusted with fabulous wealth while their master departed on a long journey. And while two of the slaves decided to continue their master’s work as though he himself were about it, the third slave took the wealth he’d been given and buried it in the ground. When the master returned, finally, at the end of a long absence, the slaves were brought to account. The first two slaves had taken risks, yet doubled the master’s money to the master’s great joy and are taken fully into the master’s life and love and work. The third slave brings the wealth back to the master from the place he had buried it. He defends his actions by saying he knew how harsh and ruthless the master was and hands back all had been given to him—no less … but also no more. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">As Matthew retells Jesus’ story, it is near the end of Jesus’ life ... his “departure” is imminent and his “return” is beyond human knowing. The church that has formed in Jesus’ absence must consider what it looks like to live faithfully in the name and the manner of Jesus while Jesus is away. The needs of the world around them are enormous and they remember well that Jesus never shied away from need of any kind, but faced it and ministered compassionately to it with every resource he had—with heart, mind, soul and strength. The church in Matthew’s time knows that it has been given a treasure beyond any reckoning in the love and grace and lingering Spirit of Jesus the Christ. The treasure is in their hands and their hearts and the only question is: What will they do with that treasure? How will they spend it? What risks will they take with the treasure they have been given? Jesus’ parable is used by Matthew to make plain that possess the loving goodness and risk-taking mercy of Jesus and NOT risk it on behalf the world that God loves is a tragedy of the highest order.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We know this about that ancient time: that the safest thing to do with a treasure was to bury it. Once buried, all risk was completely minimized. Nothing ventured ... nothing lost. But there’s even one more thing to know about the action of the third servant. There is a rabbinic law that says that is you bury property right after you receive it, you are no longer <u>responsible</u> for it. The third servant has completed divested himself of his master’s property and work and interests. And the end result of caring only for himself and refusing to offer himself in any way for his master’s work is, it turns out, a life of separation and loneliness and regret and despair. It’s a self-selected bleak future he has created by his refusal to risk himself on behalf of anything larger than himself. As William Sloane Coffin said famously--and might well have said about this man: “There is no smaller package in the world than a man all wrapped up in himself.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">As a fellow preacher notes: “the greatest risk of all, it turns out, is not to risk anything, not to care deeply and profoundly enough about anything to invest deeply, to give your heart away and in the process risk everything. The greatest risk of all, it turns out, is to play it safe, to live cautiously and prudently.”<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Early in my ministry at Shell Ridge, I was visiting in the home of an elderly member of this church. She was becoming quite frail and had lived for quite some time with a serious physical handicap. As I walked through her kitchen, I stole a glance at her refrigerator. Our refrigerators seem to be the place where our life values and philosophy gets tacked up and displayed—along with photos of every living friend and relative. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">On Myrtle’s refrigerator, among the photos and tidbits of wisdom I noticed a yellowed scrap of paper occupying a prominent place. A title on the paper read: “Only a person who risks is free.” And here was what seemed particularly true and important to this frail soul who lived with a great deal of pain; here was the “life philosophy” that she put up as a reminder to herself every time she opened her refrigerator:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">To laugh is to risk appearing the fool,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">To reach out for another is to risk involvement.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">To place your ideas and your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">To love is to risk not being loved in return.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">To live is to risk dying.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">To hope is to risk despair.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">To try is to risk failure.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0cm; margin-left:36.0pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing does nothing. They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live. Chained by their certitudes, they are a slave; they have forfeited their freedom. Only a person who risks is free.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Like my elderly friend, only you know the ministries to which God calls you<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>... only you know your fullest and deepest capacities for love ... only you know your inner strength and the gifts you’ve been given to use. But you do know. We do know. And we know that the capacity to love and serve, and suffer if we must, is a great treasure for a world in need. And it is a treasure we are called to put to risk while we also put it to use.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Jesus says to us: “Do you want to live fully and become free?” Then be my servant ... be my slave ... love and serve as I loved and served. And in so doing, your love and your service and your very life will be a treasure beyond any reckoning. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Amen.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-39777306126496232942011-11-06T13:46:00.001-08:002012-03-20T17:06:11.778-07:00Let's Do Church, by Chris.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I want you to take a journey with me. If it helps you can close your eyes. I want to imagine yourself as an astronaut in orbit around the earth. You are free-floating in space tied only by a cord to the shuttle. As you look toward the Earth, you see nothing but blackness. Then suddenly a flood of sunlight comes tearing across the globe below you filling the Earth with color and amazement. In orbit you are travelling 16 times the speed of the rotation of the earth so sunrise happens at 16 times the speed it does when you’re on the ground. So in less than a minute the earth is lit. As you gaze down you can see everything, all of the good and all of the bad that is our planet. Astronauts often refer to this perspective as all encompassing and life changing. As you picture yourself looking down on this little blue ball, you might wonder, “Why are we here?”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>Now I want you to picture zooming in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Earth becomes closer and closer until all you can see is North America. Then it becomes even closer until all that you can see is California and the surrounding states. Closer still until you are in the Northern part. You see where I am going. Closer still until you are right above Walnut Creek, until you are right above the steeple of this church. Now zoom in closer and be right where you are. Sitting in this chair listening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And I want to ask that same question. Why are we here? Why are we here? Let me clarify. I don’t mean here in general like here on the Earth, but why are we here at Shell Ridge Community Church this morning? Why do we come to church at all?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>You might answer that it is for community. And that would be a very good answer. Community is important. Community sustains us and strengthens us. But we do not need to come to church to find community. We can find community at the gym, at a yoga studio, in a book club, with family and friends, with our neighbors, at a bar. We do not NEED church to have community. So why are we here?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>Perhaps you feel that church is the vehicle for doing good works: for helping the poor, feeding the hungry, fighting for peace and justice in the world. I think these are wonderful things, and I think that they are also essential in creating a world we can live in. But they also do not require church. You do not have to be a Christian to do good works. Thousands of non-profits have proven that. So I come back to the question, why are we here?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>What separates church from the social clubs? Or the social justice groups? What makes church, church? To answer simply, our faith. What separates us from all of the people doing similar work is the foundational beliefs we develop, the stories of believers that we share, the inspiration we gain from our scriptures and teachings. Church is a place where these things can be cultivated. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>For those of you who do not know, we are in the middle of a series of exploring the Five practices of Fruitful Congregations. We have covered being radically hospitable and having passionate worship, and today we speak of Intentional Faith Development. Those are three big loaded words. Tackling them is like trying to move a heavy dresser. It is too difficult to do all at once, so let’s do it piece by piece, one word at a time. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops:36.0pt 72.0pt center 234.0pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Intentional.<span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>As I wrote in the Ridge Runner this week, intentional is often used in the negative. For example how many of you have ever broken something in your parent’s house, or been a parent that has come home to a smashed lamp or vase? Inevitably the defense is, “But I didn’t mean to. We were just playing baseball/tackle football/Olympic wrestling in the living room. I didn’t mean to break the vase.” Or sometimes a partner or spouse can feel hurt because of the neglect of another. The defense there is often, “It was never my intention to hurt you.” In both cases the defense of intention comes of short. Not having bad intentions does not take the place of having good intentions. Not having bad intentions does not fix the vase or heal the hurt. The only way that this can be prevented is by being active, by taking the time to shape good intentions. And it is no different at church. Not intending for members to be neglected, not intending for worship to be lacking, not intending for visitors to feel unwelcome is not the same as being actively intentional. Church should be is a welcoming place that actively nurtures growth. Growth in both its membership and in faith.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>It is like playing basketball. Hanging back without intention is like playing defense. You might maintain the points that you have, you might prevent further trouble, but you are certainly not going to score. In order to do that you have to play offense. You have to take the ball and run with it. For a church to make gains, it has to play a little offense. It has to be intentional. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>What does that mean? The author of the Fruitful Practices, Robert Schnase says “Intentional refers to the deliberate effort, purposeful action toward an end, and high prioritization.” He highlights small group work, Christian education and formation, and Bible study. I would add to that developing a sense of calling and purpose. The passage that _______ read from Philippians highlights some more intentions. Intentional development means dwelling on whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, anything that is excellent and worthy of praise. Are we starting to see intention? This all means so much more than kicking back and having a cup of coffee (although that is certainly part of it). This implies goal-setting. Forward thinking. Planning. It takes more than just the seed. It takes the whole branch.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>Faith.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>Speaking of trees, I want to share why I chose oranges as our fruit today. Growing up I had an orange tree in my front yard. When my father moved from Maryland to California he thought that everyone out here had a swimming pool, and orange tree and a palm tree. It was the 70’s. So when he got out here, guess what he got first. Yep, a pool, and orange tree and a palm tree. Every year I would watch the first orange blossoms begin to bloom in the spring. You can see them on the cover of your bulletin. Then out of these beautiful flowers would emerge a tiny green orb about the size of a marble. Then over the summer I would watch these orbs grow and grow until finally they were the size of a baseball. Then their green hue would turn to yellow. And then around Christmas time, they would ripen into a wonderful orange. This is why my father dubbed it the self-trimming Christmas tree.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>I watched this process happen every year and every year it amazed me. Imagine telling a little kid that had never seen an orange tree before that this flower was going to turn into this fruit. It is an amazing and beautiful work of God and nature that cannot be overstated. And that is why I have chosen it today to represent faith. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>In looking at the development of the orange we can see how faith works. It starts with belief. Based on what we believe about plants, the sun, the weather, and so forth, we believe we know what should happen. We believe that an orange seed will grow an orange tree. We believe in the science behind the gestation of fruit. The other part is confidence. It takes more that just knowledge to have faith, it takes confidence. How do we have confidence in the orange tree? By taking care of it. By watering it, feeding it, pruning it, making sure that it gets plenty of sunshine and nutrients. Then we can have the confidence in its production. Belief plus confidence equals faith. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>The same is true for us as spiritual beings. It starts with belief. We all have beliefs. In fact we have a multitude of beliefs and we are presented with more every day. Beliefs about God, the world, the nature of humanity, the nature of Jesus, what is all means. Church should be a place where we can sort out our beliefs, talk with one another about them in a safe and open space. Share testimonies of life changing experiences, question each other and by extension question ourselves. If church becomes such a place, our beliefs can be shaped, molded, revisited and questioned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>All of this will go toward them being strengthened.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>We talk a lot about <u>having</u> faith. Just have faith, God will provide. Have faith, oranges will grow out of flowers. Have faith, the 49ers will win the Super Bowl this year. Just have faith. But to have faith, we have to have more than just belief. We have to have confidence, and like the orange tree, our spirituality needs care to have confidence. Faith I would argue is not something one can just have. It must be developed. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>Development.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>Development is what gives our beliefs the confidence that they need to be called faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As an example of a faith developing community we look today to the second chapter of Acts. The passage that ______ read happened just after Pentecost. Pentecost as you might remember is the time when wind and fire of the Spirit enveloped the room of the disciples. They were so moved by this flood of the Spirit that they took to the streets and began preaching. On one day alone they converted 3000 people. But not every day is Pentecost. Bursts of fire and inspiration can only happen so often. What do you do in the meantime? Let’s take a look at the scripture. Acts reads, “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=246499582191101128&postID=3977730612649623294"></a> to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=246499582191101128&postID=3977730612649623294"></a> and ate their food with glad and generous<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=246499582191101128&postID=3977730612649623294"></a> hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” Truly a sustaining and growing community. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>What is the message of development that we can take from this passage today? I think it simply comes down to sharing. It says firstly that they shared their possessions and goods giving to those in need. Now I could preach a whole other sermon on the necessity of sharing in this me-first greed-based culture, but I will spare you, for now. What I want to lift up is the priority of the community. Because they put the community first, above their own stuff, they were able to foster a real sense of togetherness. Energy that could have been spent hoarding and maintaining wealth went instead to their faith development.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>They also shared their time, time spent together in the temple as well as in their homes. I imagine they prayed together, told stories about this character Jesus that so recently left them, and helped each other make sense of all that they had seen. They were there for one another and they relied on each other. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>Lastly, it says that they broke bread together. This is a perfect symbol of the community that they were fostering. What is more essential for life than food? By sharing their food together, they were sharing their lives. Just as Jesus had done before them. Just as we do today in communion.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>This is how we develop, by sharing ourselves with each other - not just our bread, not just the cup, and not even just our money, but our lives, our beliefs, our faith. Through reading scripture, through lively discussion, through prayer. The task of developing our faith might be hard and daunting work, but with many hands the work is made lighter. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>There is a saying you hear in movies sometimes when they are trying to act all Hollywood. “Let’s do lunch.” Doing lunch is very big in LA. Well, I would charge us with the task, “Let’s do Church.” <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Let’s do Church in a way that moves us past Sunday morning and into the rest of the week.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Let’s do Church so that there is a sense of belonging and purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Let’s do Church in a way that makes us unafraid becoming changed, and unashamed of admitting it.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Let’s do Church in such as way that gives us excitement about who we are and who we are to become. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Let’s do Church intentionally, developing our faith through sharing with each other. And the people said, Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"> </span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">As we prepare for communion today we remember the disciples of 1<sup>st</sup> Century Palestine. We remember the covenants that they set up with each other. We also remember the covenant that Jesus made with His Apostles. When Jesus broke bread He did it to show how his life would be taken from him. He was trying to share this part of him with His followers. When the Disciples did it in their homes they were trying to show how their lives were to be shared in every way. When we do it today we do it as an act of welcome and of sharing. This table is open to all and you are invited to come as you are and share with one another the bread and the cup. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Let us pray. God, we know that you have called us here today as your followers. We come to you in many ways. We bring to you our regrets, our sorrow, our struggles, our joy, and our praise. We bring them all to this table and share them with you. Please let this time be one of receiving. Not just bread and a cup, but of a renewed sense of purpose, a new confidence in your grace and a new sense of togetherness. We pray in the name of He who gave us this practice, in Jesus’ name. Amen</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-35863679491764573372011-10-30T13:53:00.001-07:002012-03-20T17:06:24.609-07:00Finding our integrity, by Greg.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Here we are at the end of October, well into fall with winter not far off. Already Denver and New England have seen substantial snowfall and Occupy Wall Street is getting its first taste of winter weather. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Summer seems a distant memory, but I’m indulging for a moment in recollections of several occasions last summer when we watched summer waves crashing on the shore ... on the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and the Pacific. Even though I’m more a mountain person than an ocean person, I find there to be something utterly spellbinding about the constancy and the power of the ocean and its waves as they come to shore. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I’m thinking for a moment of how waves are formed ... that the rolling energy of the sea, which is nothing more than a bump and a swell in the open water, as it moves toward the upward slope of the shore, mounts up on the rising ocean bottom until it heaves itself onto the shoreline. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We are working at the end of Matthew’s gospel ... the 23<sup>rd</sup> of 28 chapters. It is, as we noted last week, the last week of Jesus’ life. His life is moving inexorably toward the limits of his time of earth. And even if no one else wants to acknowledge that fact, Jesus is keenly aware that his “life waters” are forming a cresting wave that is about to crash onto the shoreline of history. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">It seems to me that this is a fair explanation for the sharp “uptick” in the intensity of Jesus’ words and actions. Throughout Matthew’s gospel there was always great passion and intensity of purpose in Jesus, but in this last week, like a placid swell that is turning into a wave as it mounts the shore, Jesus words and actions are reaching a crescendo. Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem amidst shouting crowds ... he strides into the temple angrily and confronts religion that has turned itself into a seedy marketplace ... he curses a leafy fig tree that bears no fruit, and in so doing he is cursing the faith of his own upbringing and the leaders of that faith ... he tells story after confrontive story in public that judges and condemns the teachers and leaders and “calls them out” in a way that can only bring more trouble and shorten what is already a brief and tumultuous week. The strong, but placid swell of Jesus’ life and love and ministry is becoming a thunderous crashing wave.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">What is helpful to remember is that Jesus does not see himself as having come to take away the “bad, old religion” and replace it with a “new, good religion.” He says, in essence, that the “old religion” simply needs fulfilling and living out with integrity. It’s like the classic quote by G. K. Chesterton that “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.” In Matthew 5, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>abolish</u></b> but to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>fulfil</u></b>.” <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">In our Tuesday morning Bible study we have spoken of the “letter of the law” and the “spirit of the law” ... that there is a “spirit” and an “intention” that is implicit in the religious laws and codes ... the spirit of all of Israel’s religion was to draw Israel closer and closer to the God who <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>called them and loved and cared for them ... and in being drawn closer to God, they were to draw closer to one another in mutual care and concern. The greatest law or command of the religion of Israel, summarized in the Shema of Deuteronomy 6 was to love God with all of one’s heart and mind and soul and strength. And, Jesus said: Here is another one that is just like the greatest commandment and cannot be separated from it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love God ... love neighbor ... all the rest, as they say, is commentary.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">This is one of the reasons that I like being involved in Logos ... every Wednesday in the heart of my work week I get a simple, but powerful reminder of the heart of my faith: “Love God ... love neighbor.” And in simple ways we try to live out those two utterly basic commands ... as we play together ... as we interact with one another ... as we sing songs and learn stories of the Bible ... as we share a meal around the “family table” ... all the while trying to live out love of God and love of neighbor. Even as a pastor, I need it broken down that simply ... that plainly ... and that regularly.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">It is a simple truth, I think, that we people of faith need continual “care and feeding” ... we’re not like a kitchen gadget that we can “set and forget” ... we need reminders of who we are and who we are called to be ... we need continual reminders of the natural tendency to “drift” from our highest ideals and highest calling. There is a tendency to slowly allow words to become a substitute for action ... to speak well of our high ideals, but to not live out our high ideals ... to “talk the walk” without actually walking the walk.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Anyone who has ever gotten behind the wheel of a car knows that you can’t lock your steering wheel into one position as you drive down the road. The road turns, the wheels and the steering linkage shift slightly ... rigidly holding the wheel in one position means you’ll eventually drift off the road and crash. To avoid going off the road, the driver must continuously adjust the steering wheel ... sometimes in tiny increments and sometimes in dramatic hand over hand turns.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">This tendency to drift and this need for reminders is why we do the Purple Hand Pledge and the First Rule of Logos every Wednesday afternoon and evening when our kids gather ... and if you ever join us for Logos you’ll note that the adults share in reciting the pledges with the children ... each of us adults who is gathered there needs the reminders of these basic rules of conduct as much as any one of the children. “I will not use my hands or my words to harm myself or others.” “Everyone is to treat everyone else as a Child of God. No one has the right to treat anyone else as if they do not matter.” Love God. Love your neighbor.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We all need reminders of what is essential about life and faith, of where our priorities lie as people of God and followers of Jesus. And we all need encouragement to bring our lives and actions into alignment with truths we easily declare, but find more difficult to work out in our day to day lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">And it is in that “gap” between intention and action where Jesus’ frustrations burst forth ... Jesus rails against those who teach truthfully and well, but do not practice their own teachings ... and he rails against those who create burdens and obstacles that make lives that are already burdened and difficult even more burdensome ... and he rails against those who like the appearance of their faith more than the simple actions of their faith. The strong, but placid swell is becoming a thunderous, crashing wave.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Soon Jesus will ratchet it up even another notch, vehemently chastising the scribes and Pharisees as “blind guides”, “whitewashed tombs”, “snakes” and a “brood of vipers”. As someone has said: “No one wants to be at the other end of this pointed finger!”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Wise commentators caution us from too easily joining Jesus in his railing and fingerpointing ... “What a ROTTEN bunch those Pharisees were ...” ... as though people of our generation had graciously evolved beyond the sin of hypocrisy. As though our words and actions are in complete alignment ... as though our highest ideals have been completely fulfilled. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">John Dominic Crossan is one of the best known interpreters of the life of Jesus. He’s written several books that come remarkably close to acquainting us with the real person of Jesus of Nazareth who lived and ministered and died on a Roman cross some 2000 years ago. In the prologue of one of his books, Crossan imagines a conversation with Jesus that puts a fine point on the gap between intention and action:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">"I've read your book, Dominic," Crossan’s Jesus begins," and it's quite good. So you're now ready to live by my vision and join me in my program?" <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Crossan says: "I don't think I have the courage, Jesus, but I did describe it quite well, didn't I, and the method was especially good, wasn't it?" Ever the brilliant scholar, is John Dominic Crossan.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Jesus says: "Thank you, Dominic, for not falsifying the message to suite your own incapacity. That at least is something." <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">"Is it enough, Jesus?" <a name="_GoBack"></a><o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">"No, Dominic, it is not."<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><u>Matthew’s</u></i></b> Jesus fairly spits out these words: ‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced <u>without</u> neglecting the others. (Mt. 23:23)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><u>Matthew’s</u></i></b> Jesus spews venom at the Pharisees of his day, but we modern readers need to let some of the venom land on us ... and not just “us Christians” in this room ... but all people who fail to create a sturdy bridge between their noble and well-articulated ideals and the compassionate fulfillment of those ideals. In that failure we all are vulnerable to the “wince-worthy” charge of “hypocrites” ... <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I’ve spoken of my dear crusty saint of a friend to whom I was a pastor in my earliest years of ministry. Dear Frances Carter—her real name—used to love to tell of her encounters with people who defended their non-church going ways by complaining of all the hypocrites in the church ... to which Frances always shot back: “Well, there’s always room for one more.” And then she would cackle like a Halloween witch.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Yes ... there are hypocrites both inside and outside of God’s church ... hypocrites in every faith ... every walk of life. And if you want to sniff out some hypocrisy, go to where there are high ideals and yet a puzzling number of problems. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Along with you, I continue to puzzle over the extraordinary problem of homelessness in this nation. In three weeks of travel this summer on the other side of the Atlantic, I didn’t see as many homeless people as I can see in 3 minutes in San Francisco ... or Berkeley. And in three hours in our leafy, genteel ‘burbs, I can see more homeless folk than I’d be likely to see in three months in other similarly well-heeled parts of this world.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">In this nation, we think of ourselves as highly civilized, thoughtful, rational, kindly, generous, principled folk. But a stroll down Market Street or Telegraph Avenue tells us that our high-minded thoughts don’t translate neatly into kind-hearted actions. The number of people in this nation who dwell at the brink of poverty is horrific, to say nothing of those who’ve already fallen into that abyss ... and the number of families and children who have to throw themselves at the mercy of public hospitals to receive basic medical care is horrific. And I think that if you want to try to get to the heart of all of the “Occupy” protests, it is that the protests are aimed at this nation’s hypocrisy ... the wide and growing gap between intention and action ... the wide and growing gap between those with and those without ... without means ... without medical care ... without meaningful employment or opportunity.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">And I think that a case could be made that the unrest in the middle East that has been called the “Arab spring” is rooted in gaps like these ... and the urban riots that have torn apart European cities is rooted in gaps like these. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">When the burdens of life become too much to bear, what can you do but cry out? When conditions become too revolting, can revolution be far behind? <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I love modern civilization ... I love life as I experience it ... but I fear—as prophets of old and more modern prophets have feared—I fear a slow eating away at the foundations of civilization because we have not tended to the gap between our intentions and our actions. I fear the result of avoiding the gaps instead of dwelling and ministering in the gaps.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">While a growing number of folk are “occupying” public squares and street corners—I suppose you could say they’re “standing in the gap”, others are more quietly trying to experience the challenges that others face. In so doing, they will bring their faith into the gap where so many live and find new strength for building bridges across the gaps.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Religious leaders and members of Congress this week are getting a firsthand taste of what it’s like to eat on $4.50 a day as part of the “Food Stamp Challenge.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">In the challenge, participants try to live for a week on the average amount received by people who use food stamps, now known as the federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP).<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">“We do need to put ourselves sometimes in other people’s shoes so we can really feel what they have to go through every day,” said Donna Christensen, a Democrat who represents the U.S. Virgin Islands as a nonvoting delegate.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The Food Stamp Challenge is part of Fighting Poverty with Faith, an annual interfaith initiative endorsed by 50 national religious organizations.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">This year is a particularly critical one for the cause, faith leaders said, because Congress is considering significant cuts to the more than $64 billion program.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">On this past Thursday, religious and political leaders teamed up with current SNAP recipients to shop at a Safeway grocery store near Capitol Hill.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">One of them was one of my Facebook friends, the Rev. Peg Chemberlin, president of the National Council of Churches and a former adviser to the White House’s Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Several decades ago, unable to find a job after leaving a seminary program, Chemberlin signed up for food stamps. But she had forgotten what it was like to shop on such a tight budget.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“No soda, no magazines, no coffee,” said Chemberlin as she pushed her cart by each item. She tried not to look at the donuts, croissants and Doritos.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“Absolutely no specialty items,” she said.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Chemberlin shopped a 72 year old local resident whose only sources of income are Social Security payments and SNAP. As they shopped together, many difficult choices had to be made with such limited means available:<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Chemberlin said she wished the woman could have bought more fruits and vegetables, “because it’s clear she’s very oriented toward eating healthily, but we had to choose between fruits and vegetables and protein.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Our own Bay Area Representative, Barbara Lee, who once received food stamps as a single mother, says: “The health risks are terrible, when you look at sugar, sodium and fats in the foods you must buy on $4.50 a day.” <o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:54.0pt;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Since the beginning of the recession the number of those on SNAP nationally rose from 27 million to 44 million, and nearly half are children.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">And so, with such a meaningful opportunity to get in touch with those in such need as they prepare to enact laws that will have a profound effect on these folk, how many of the 485 members of congress have chosen to take the “Food Stamp Challenge”? All of ... eight members of Congress, all Democrats, have agreed to take the Food Stamp Challenge.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Dear friends, the God of Israel whose first name is love and whose last name is Shalom seeks to occupy our hearts and our lives and our churches and the public square in which we live and move. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">God wants to pitch God’s tent among us so that we hear again the call to love God and love neighbor. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">God wants to so fully occupy us and occupy all that God’s love and mercy and justice and hope can do nothing but pour forth from us and from all ... like divine waves rising out of the divine love and crashing on shores of injustice and greed and uncaring.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Let all who will, shrug off the burdensome name of “hypocrite”, and take on, instead, the bearable yoke of Christ’s own loving challenge: to be lovers of God and neighbor, and lovers of peace with justice.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:18.0pt;line-height:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Amen.</span><b style="font-size: 14pt; "><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></p> <!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-38065050844200812092011-10-23T13:24:00.000-07:002011-11-02T13:25:37.369-07:00Called to Fruitfulness : Radical Hospitality<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:none; mso-hyphenate:none; text-autospace:ideograph-other; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Lohit Hindi"; mso-ascii-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning:1.5pt; mso-fareast-language:ZH-CN;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">One of my favorite comedians is Brian Regan. He talks about the childhood horrors of daunting and complicated spelling rules. His teacher pulls him out of a daydream and asks him:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">"Brian, what's the “I” before “e” rule?"<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">"I before e... ALWAYS."<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">"What are you, an idiot, Brian?"<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">"Apparently."<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The teacher explains it to her drifty pupil:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">"”I” before “e” except after “c” and when sounding like “a” as in neighbor and weigh, and on weekends and holidays and all throughout May, and you'll always be wrong no matter what you say!"<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Regan says: "That's a hard rule. That's a— that's a rough rule."<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Hard rules and rough rules. I want to suggest that Jesus set the bar pretty high when it came to some rules. It’s common to think of Jesus as a carpenter ... his father, Joseph was a carpenter, and we sort of assume Jesus was, too. But if he was, he was also a farmer ... a gardener ... because he spoke frequently of farms and farmworkers ... of sowing seed and gathering the harvest. One particular event in Jesus’ life shows that he was a pretty hard-headed gardener ... a pretty “stern” gardener. There were some <u>hard rules</u> ... some <u>rough rules</u> for working in the “fields of the Lord.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Jesus entered Jerusalem in the event that we remember on Palm Sunday. It was the first day of the last week of his life. It’s now the following day in the morning. Jesus walked back into Jerusalem with his disciples. He was hungry and walked by a fig tree hoping to get some figs to eat. But where there should have been abundant fruit, there were only leaves. The tree had stopped bearing fruit ... and while it may have been a lovely tree, it no longer served the purpose for which it was intended. And so Jesus curses the tree and it instantly withers and dies. Now Jesus wasn’t being a gardening brute as much as he was making a statement, and the statement was this: “Bear fruit or go out of business.” Now be sure of this: the fig tree was not just a fig tree. For Jesus and his disciples, the tree symbolized the faith of Jesus’ upbringing ... and in his mind, that faith had stopped bearing fruit and had, in effect, put itself out of business. Jesus simply stated the obvious ... he named what was already true. The tree ... his faith ... had stopped bearing fruit and had effectively ceased to be in the business for which it was intended. These are “hard rules” ... they’re rough rules ... but they are “true” rules.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">For the next five weeks we will be engaged in all kinds of ways in learning some of the essentials of being a “fruitful congregation”. And one of the fundamental underpinnings of all we say and learn and do is that congregations ... churches that bear no fruit beyond themselves whatsoever are functionally dead ... like the leafy, but fruitless fig tree. These are “hard rules” ... they’re rough rules ... but they are “true” rules.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Now, I want to assure you that I don’t think the judgment of “fruitlessness” is one that can be applied to Shell Ridge Church. But it is always fair to ask about the quantity and the quality of the fruit we bear. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">At my home in my back yard is a peach tree and an apricot tree. One year about four summers ago they each bore so much fruit that some of the branches were literally torn from the tree by the weight of the fruit. Since that summer the sum total of fruit from both trees wouldn’t fill a small grocery bag. Those under-fruiting trees ought to be worried about their future. To the extent that we identify any under-fruiting tendencies in ourselves, we should be worried because the “natural law” of churches is that under-fruiting churches suffer and slowly die. It’s a hard rule ... it’s a rough rule ... but it’s a “true” rules.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Starting today and ending on Thanksgiving Sunday we will consider five practices of fruitful congregations. Congregations that are faithful in attending to these basic practices and deepening these practices will never have to worry about the quality and the quantity of the fruit they bear. The five practices are: radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service, and extravagant generosity. Let me say again: congregations that are faithful in attending to these basic practices and deepening these practices will never have to worry about the quality and the quantity of the fruit they bear. Each Sunday we will lift up one of these five practices. In sermon and song and even the commitments we are invited to make, we will bolster our fruitfulness. But it won’t end there as the church’s coordinating council and ministry teams and various church committees will also consider these practices and their profound implications for bearing fruit in the world around us. We’ve heard the hard rules, the rough rules ... here’s a good rule ... a generous rule: a church and its membership that takes these five practices quite seriously and weaves them into its life at every level can expect to thrive and grow and minister compassionately well beyond its walls and even beyond what might be thought possible. That’s a good rule ... that’s a generous rule.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"> </span></o:p></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">At this time, I invite you to take the apple out of your bulletin. Very likely it was hard to keep your apple IN your bulletin. That almost juicy red apple represents the first practice of fruitful congregations which is “radical hospitality.” What you’ll notice with this first practice is true of all of the practices. Something that most congregations might do modestly well is taken to the next level or well beyond the next level. Simple hospitality is something we do relatively well at Shell Ridge ... or so we might think. We have a fairly barrier free facility, we offer warm greetings and welcome to visitors, we sing songs like “Part of the Family”, we provide childcare and large print bulletins and even Sunday sermons carefully translated into other languages. That’s a little joke because Isabella knows that Google is the sermon translater and it does a crude enough job that she has to work even harder than you do to understand what the heck is being said from this pulpit on any given Sunday. So that’s a little of what hospitality is ... it is our sense of a warm and kindly welcome to any that might come our way. Now, even before we add the word “radical” though, we would do well to remember that that is OUR sense of our hospitality. We’d be wise to acknowledge that what we, who have been around a while, see and experience is sometimes almost completely unrelated to what a complete newcomer sees and experiences. For years the “curbside” views of this property and our buildings has been ... dismal. Landscaping in disarray ... tilting fences ... crumbling retaining walls ... peeling paint. Any of you here this morning who still think of yourselves as “new” came to us and joined with us in spite of that dismal “curb appeal” ... and we thank God that you did ... but imagine how many others have driven as far as the church driveway and then said ... hmm ... I wonder what the Unitarians are doing this Sunday?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The author of the book we’re using as our primary resource these five weeks says this about the message that something as simple and basic as our facilities say about us: “Facilities speak a message to people about what church members think of themselves, how importantly they take their mission, and how confidently they see the future of their church.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">It’s hard to practice even basic hospitality when the property and the buildings are scaring people away or making them wonder about the future of the congregation that worships here. Now be sure of it ... that’s an overstatement ... but I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say, at the other end of the spectrum, that the enormous amount of work that has been accomplished over the last five to six months speaks volumes about this congregation ... what we think of ourselves, how importantly we take our mission, and how confidently we see the future of our church.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Hospitality not only takes into account the kind of welcome that people receive when they come to us and our church, but the degree to which we are willing to take our faith and our church to them. Have I told you about my Vitamix blender that is changing my life? Did I mention to you what a spectacular book or movie or restaurant I recently read, watched or ate at? Many of us are natural evangelists and spectacular promoters when it comes to many things in life ... but when it comes to our church and our faith we can become very quiet. In the months ahead, with the help of our Outreach and Growth Ministry Team, we’ll be working to help all of us—including your pastor—to naturally “give away” our church ... and the grace and love and meaning and purpose that we find here together.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Simple hospitality should be a fundamental practice of any congregation already. But RADICAL hospitality means that hospitality gets worked into the bloodstream of everything we do together, every committee and team, every meeting and gathering, every public event, every conversation and decision. Think with me in your minds eye all of the new changes that have taken place on this property, not just over the last five-six months, but the last couple of years ... the refurbished classrooms, their new murals, the new roof, new landscaping, new retaining walls, etc., etc., etc. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Now ... imagine that we don’t stop with the physical property, but continue into all of the decisions we make and all of our practices as a church ... continue into everything we say and do as it relates to the new members we already have as well as the new members we haven’t met yet. How will that change what we do and how we do it? Radical hospitality is hospitality that goes deeper and deeper and deeper into our congregational bloodstream ... nothing we do will fail to consider the stranger who might yet be our friend and our companion in this glorious journey of life and faith and compassionate ministry.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">And now, in the Spirit of the call to “Be Fruitful”, let us take our apples representing our commitment to Radical Hospitality and “hang” them on our “Tree of Fruitfulness.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-bottom:10.0pt"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Amen.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:180%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-78491026737306532962011-10-16T13:35:00.000-07:002011-10-20T13:36:46.304-07:00The Church: Faithful and Bold in Times of Trial<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:none; mso-hyphenate:none; text-autospace:ideograph-other; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Lohit Hindi"; mso-ascii-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning:1.5pt; mso-fareast-language:ZH-CN;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The late Brazilian archbishop Dom Helder Camara said, quite famously: “When I give food to the poor, t</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">hey call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.</span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Has anyone been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">persecuted</i> lately? <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Persecution ... it’s one of those odd, old-fashioned Biblical words that doesn’t get a lot of use any more. It seems to come from a time when early Christians were being thrown to the lions by Roman empererors.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">But we know that the suffering and tribulations of the early church <u>were</u> very real ... until the time of Emperor Constantine in the 300’s, Christianity was thought of as a cult ... a nuisance at least, but possible a dangerous cult. And if the persecution of Christians within the Roman empire ended when Constantine converted to Christianity, we know that the persecution of Christians and other people of faith continues into this very day. Mosques and synagogues continue to suffer the indignities of vandalism or the pure crime of arson. The young white supremacist that was arrested in Yuba City in recent weeks was coming to California to see how many Jews he could kill.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Persecution is described as “the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. The most common forms are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms. The inflicting of suffering, harassment, isolation, imprisonment, <a name="_GoBack"></a>fear, or pain are all factors that may establish persecution.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Sometimes, persecution comes simply because of who we are … our “difference” … our unique culture, or ways of observing our faith. Muslim women wearing head-scarves or Sikh men in their turbans are likely to suffer verbal abuse or worse in places where these are not common.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">But sometimes, persecution comes about as a result of engaging in the struggle against injustice … speaking out against unjust systems … standing with the oppressed … aligning oneself with the poor and against those that make them that way. Even expressing your solidarity with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><u>others</u></i> who are persecuted can make you a target for persecution. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">In the 1990’s, a conflict was escalating among American Baptists, as well as most other Christian denominations, around the painfully delicate topic of human sexuality. The conflict centered around just who was worthy of a full place at Christ’s table. And the conflict was about those churches that offered a full place at Christ’s table without condemnation to all who came. It’s like what I heard one of the Glide Memorial Church pastors say once: “If God made you, we want you.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The region in which we belonged had other thoughts about the relative wideness of God’s mercy and decided to kick out four churches that took the wideness of God’s mercy a little too literally. If, as we’ve heard, persecution is, among other things, “The inflicting of suffering, harassment, isolation ...” well, this qualifies as persecution. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Now interestingly Shell Ridge was not among those kicked out ... we were flying a bit below the radar at that time and only “came out” as a welcoming and affirming congregation some years later. We were not silent in the struggle by any means, but our solidarity was limited to our voices and our presence. Only much later did we risk our membership in a region where we clearly no longer belonged.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Persecution comes in many degrees when one struggles against injustice. A child in elementary school who befriends an outcast may get ostracized by her classmates—a heavy cost at that tender age. But an Archbishop who stands up against his entire government as it oppresses and slaughters its own people will pay with his life. This is the story of martyred El Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. His is a story that has been told many times in many ways from this pulpit.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">It is interesting to note that for most of his career, Oscar Romero was a “go along to get along” kind of priest. He was fairly conservative and traditional. When Romero was chosen to be the new Archbishop of San Salvador, more progressive Catholics and friends of the campesinos were horrified. Campesinos are the working rural poor against whom the U.S. supported El Salvadoran government was waging a brutal war. The Catholic church in these kinds of conflicts too often sided with the powers that be ... they implicitly and sometimes explicitly supported the oppressive government.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">If Romero began that way, it was witnessing the assassination of one of his dearest friends that turned him around. Progressive Jesuit priest Rutilio Grande was helping to organize self-reliance groups among the campesinos when he was shot down by government death squads. Romero went to the little village to mourn his friend and he said: "When I looked at Rutilio lying there dead I thought, 'If they have killed him for doing what he did, then I too have to walk the same path'". This was only a month after Romero had been appointed archbishop.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Walking the same path for Archbishop Romero meant supporting the poor in their campaign for justice and fairness and an end to the violence against them. Walking the same path for Oscar Romero meant, as he surely knew when he spoke those words, receiving the same fate as his martyred friend. Just three years into his outspoken solidarity with the poor, Archbishop Oscar Romero was murdered while celebrating communion. Shot down as he lifted up the cup of Christ’s blood poured out for all. On the 30<sup>th</sup> anniversary of his death, just last year, the government formally apologized for its role in Romero’s martyrdom.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">In that time of bitter struggle in El Salvador, it wasn’t only the Catholic priests who were targets for persecution. One of the stories that has become interwoven into our own Shell Ridge stories is of Baptists in El Salvador who were also being bullied and threatened and persecuted because of their concern for the poor and their opposition to government sponsored oppression and violence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Gerson and Carlos Sanchez became a part of this congregation a half dozen or so years ago. And we learned that, like me, they are children of a Baptist minister ... this one a longtime pastor from San Salvador, the same city where Oscar Romero was archbishop. Pastor Carlos Sanchez Sr. has witnessed the struggle for basic human rights and has become aligned enough with that struggle so that he too became a target.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We are deeply privileged to be able to welcome Carlos and Gerson’s father among us today to speak a little about his own experience with persecution and what it means to live and minister with hope in the midst of difficulties that come our way as a result of commitments we have made. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Questions for Pastor Sanchez:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Introduction:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; ">The background and context for this conversation is this morning’s sermon-text from First Thessalonians where Paul praises the Thessalonian church for being an extraordinary light and example of the gospel in spite of the persecution they had faced and endured.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Calibri; ">I feel like I know enough (but not a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><u>lot</u></i></b>) about Primera Iglesia Bautista de San Salvador to believe that its experience--and your experience, Pastor Sanchez-- approximates the Thessalonian church in some ways. You and your congregation have been a bright light and example of the gospel of Christ in spite of the persecution you have faced and endured.<br /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Questions<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; ">Describe the circumstances of your “persecution” as a church and a pastor … How have you and your congregation persisted and flourished and stayed faithful in the midst of your challenges/persecution?<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; "><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="font-family: Calibri; ">What word(s) do the North American churches/Christians need to hear that grows out of today's text, your and your church's experience, and your perceptions of our world and its many needs? How might we live out the gospel message/example of Jesus more faithfully, fearlessly and fruitfully?<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">This morning we’ve been given an opportunity to hear a voice from beyond our walls … and beyond our borders. Persons and churches are always wise to hear and attend carefully to the loving observations of others. Even as we acknowledge the ways in which we participate in the slow birthing of God’s Shalom on earth, we know that more is needed and more is expected. It’s in our Christian DNA. It’s who are we and it’s what we are to be about.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We live in a culture which has a tendency to stifle and smother prophetic instincts and action. We live in a culture where we are encouraged at nearly every step to “go along to get along.” And in this culture where so many “small gods” capture the utter loyalty of so many, including many of us to a large degree, we have to work hard to overcome culture’s demands on us to not stand out—even if the need to stand out in the face of injustice is right before us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">And as true as it may be in our own time, it’s not a new truth. Early Christian father, St. Augustine said: "For evil to triumph, the good have only to remain silent." Shortly before his death, Martin Luther King echoed these words of Augustine when he wrote, "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people."<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">A dozen or so years ago we were privileged to have Alan Boesak preach at Micky Holmes’ ordination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Boesak is a South African pastor and one of the leading lights in the movement to dismantle apartheid and bring a new era of truth and reconciliation to South Africa. In his sermon Boesak spoke of the ultimate danger of any quietism and appalling silences that the modern church might be guilty of. Boesak said: "We will go before God to be judged, and God will ask us: 'Where are your wounds?' and we will say, 'We have no wounds.' And God will ask, 'Was nothing worth fighting for?'”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">As we watch the occupation of Wall Street and many other streets … as we observe the enormous inequities persist among this planet’s peoples … as we watch the degradation of our environment … as we consider the continuous struggle and mostly failure to create a just and lasting peace … it is worth looking in that proverbial mirror and asking ourselves: “Where are our wounds? And … what is worth fighting for?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">As we approach and enter our time of prayer, let us also be reminded of the joyous and redemptive communities of faith in Thessalonika of Paul’s time and in San Salvador in our time. The work of healing and peace not only does <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>not</u></b> need to be grim, joyless work by a grim, joyless people … it is that very work that can strip away our grimness and return joy where it has become a stranger to us. And the work of healing and peace, performed as we live and work and walk in the ways of Jesus, has the power to bring a deep and lasting joy to all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="Standard" style="margin-top:6.0pt;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:6.0pt; margin-left:0cm"><span style="font-family: Calibri; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Let us be called to this time of prayer and reflection as we sing together our call to prayer, “Santo, Santo, Santo” … </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-32193067791053633522011-10-09T17:26:00.000-07:002011-10-18T17:28:47.429-07:00Clothed in Christ, Clothed in Love<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> <w:usefelayout/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Lohit Hindi"; mso-ascii-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Droid Sans Fallback"; mso-hansi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Lohit Hindi"; mso-font-kerning:1.5pt; mso-fareast-language:ZH-CN;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">Over the past few weeks we've been bouncing back and forth between Paul's letter to the Philippians and Jesus' parables in Matthew 21 and 22. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">The heart of Paul's letter, you may recall, lifts up Jesus as the model of self-emptying, self-sacrificing servanthood. “Here is the one you are following and whom God has exalted,” Paul says …<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“keep being like him.” </span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">If Paul's letters offer warm, loving affirmation to the Christians in Philippi, Jesus' parables, which are addressed primarily to the religious authorities of his time and his faith, are anything but. In three consecutive parables, Jesus puts a sharp stick in the eyes of the chief priests and Pharisees. “You have had your chance,” Jesus says, “to welcome the new thing God is doing … and now someone else is going to get a chance … a whole LOT of someones.</span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">Today's parable is the final one in this series of three. Like the other two parables, it's an allegory that isn't too hard to figure out. A king, meaning God, is throwing a wedding banquet for his son. The wedding banquet is God's heavenly reign and the son is Jesus. Invitations had already been delivered and the slaves are sent to escort the honored guests to the celebration. Israel and its religious leaders are the honored guests who are expected to help celebrate the culmination of God's dream for creation in Jesus: God's love incarnate … God’s love in the flesh. But one after another, the guests make excuses and back out. In a final instance, the escorting slaves are mistreated and killed. In a fit of rage, the King orders the ungrateful guests killed and their city destroyed. Because it is Matthew, the gospel writer, who is adapting Jesus' parable—and perhaps expanding it from its original telling, this part of the allegory refers to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple—which was the center and heart of Israel and its faith. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">And it is, in fact, the destruction of the Temple and the holy city of Jerusalem that drives a huge wedge between Judaism and Christianity … the ancient, venerable faith and the younger upstart faith which had co-existed with reasonable peace for 40 years, now are set adrift from each other and the antagonism between the two now fully separate faiths becomes deadly. Increasingly, there was no middle ground between the two, and if you had a foot in each camp, you had to make a choice ... there was no room for “Mr. In-between.” Families and communities were divided in this deepening conflict. And the tension between Jesus and the religious authorities in Matthew’s gospel is a reflection of that tension.</span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">A large part of Matthew's overall message in his gospel is to convince his Jewish listeners that Jesus really is the fulfillment of the words of the prophets and stands squarely in the shoes of Israel's great deliverer, Moses. Another word that Matthew is seeking to communicate is that Israel's leaders and authorities have come to the end of the game. God is moving on … all that God needs to say and reveal has been said and revealed in Jesus … and it's a universal message of hope and welcome … and that's just not a message that the old guard of Israel are willing to embrace … or even CAN embrace.</span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">My vision, God seems to be saying, is an infinitely expandable vision … I mean to embrace all people, all creatures, all creation … I have shared this vision many times through many messengers, and, most fully of all, in this one Jesus who is of my own being. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">This is a vibrant new wine in a rigidly inflexible old wineskin. Every time we read parables that pit the new wine of Jesus against the old wineskins of his foes we should ask ourselves where we have become rigid and inflexible ... where we struggle to adapt to the new things that God continues to do around us and seek to do through us.</span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">We know that the brittle wineskins of many Protestant denominations have struggled to stretch to the limits of God’s own circle of welcome when it comes to welcoming and finally affirming people of all sexual orientations. When my parents were children, the church had the same struggles around people of different races and women in church leadership. When an institution as resistant to change as the U.S. military beats much of the Christian church to the punch with its repeal of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, you know the church risks the same judgment as the religion of Jesus’ upbringing. I don’t think God has given up on us ... but I’m sure that our reluctance to change through the years has made her a little grumpy.</span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">What seems to be at stake in this parable and much of Matthew’s gospel is, to use an old cliché I don’t think I’ve ever used before, that God’s chosen people have become God’s frozen people. They are frozen in a time and a mode where strict observance of the ancient minutiae of the law takes precedence over simple mercy and compassion and kindness. I don’t know that the Chief Priests and Pharisees, as individual human beings, were cruel people, but they were a part of a faith that had lost its breath ... that is, the living spirit of God’s own heart. Much of the Law of Ancient Israel was intended to define Israel over against their neighbors ... neighboring nations and faiths. By setting them apart, God could enter a covenant relationship with God’s own people and could shape them into a people of God’s own heart, God’s own spirit of Justice and Love. But you can see, in the dreams of the prophets, inklings that God’s heart could never be forever bound to only one people, only one nation, only one faith. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">Jesus’ parables are littered with characters who represent Israel’s refusal to share its table and its inheritance with the impure and the unworthy. The elder son in the parable of the prodigal son is a well-known example of this refusal. Sinners and foreigners and other unworthy newcomers are simply not welcome at the table of the faith of Jesus’ upbringing.</span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">And so, the expanding heart of God, unfortunately depicted rather violently in today’s parable, tears up the old guest list and throws open the heavenly wedding banquet to ALL ... all people of every possible kind ... the parable even goes so far as to note that “the good and the bad” alike are to be found in God’s wedding banquet. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">I would guess that a part of the reluctance of the “first invited” to come to the banquet was their suspicion that in God’s generosity, they would not be the only ones there. It’s a little like the old joke about the Catholics who’ve just gotten to heaven who are told to duck down while passing the wall where the Baptists are because the Baptists think they’re the only ones there. As I’ve heard Doug Holmes say many times, “we’re all going to be very surprised when we get to heaven and find out who’s there.”</span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">When we were in England and Wales this past summer, one of the recurring themes among native Brits was the “problem of immigration”. Nearly every conversation we had ended up with a grumble over the challenges England is experiencing with its immigrant populations. When we first arrived in London, we stayed way out in Wembley because we couldn’t find anything we could afford closer in. When we would share where we’d stayed with British folk, they would always look shocked and ask “Why?” Wembley, like many parts of greater London, is like a mini—or not so mini—United Nations. It’s a melting pot of the many immigrants who’ve found their way to that land of opportunity. Sadly, the towns we drove through as we left London, after a few days in Wembley, were torn apart by racial rioting only a few weeks after we’d been there. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">You can hear in the words and voices of established populations anywhere a yearning for “the good old days” ... simpler times when, in the immortal words of Archie Bunker, “girls were girls and men were men.” And minorities knew their place. And women could only dream about voting. And slave-owners were honest, god-fearing, upstanding citizens who made the best presidents.</span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">We could note with irony that this is “Columbus Day weekend” ... it was Columbus’ “discovery” of this land that soon would the natives of this land yearning for the good old days.</span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">But you can’t go back. People can’t be faulted, I suppose, for their selective memories of “the good old days”, but we not only know that they weren’t “good” for everybody, but we also know that once a circle of inclusion is expanded, it can rarely go back to its original shape ... nor should it.</span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">Wherever we find immigrant populations that are causing the natives to grumble, we might ask ourselves what conditions have caused the immigrants to seek new opportunities in new places. The long, painful shadow of colonialism is one of the lingering realities that have stunted the people and the economies of the old colonies. Old injustices and cruelties always pay a long, slow, lingering dividend and it’s too easy and not fair to be blind or indifferent to those old, and not entirely healed wounds and the lives that are still affected by them.</span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">In the past, our government has helped overthrow democratically elected leaders whose politics we didn’t like and in their place we propped up leaders who brutalized the poor and destroyed their ability to be free and self-sufficient. One way or another, this story has been repeated all over the planet since the time of Christopher Columbus and ever since ... ever since, the hens have been coming home to roost in the colonizing nations. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; ">So when a teacher struggles with his students who neither speak English nor whose family seems to “get” our passion for competitive education, it would be fair, and perhaps wise, for the teacher to “step back” just a bit and try for a moment to grasp the larger picture of why any civilization in this day and age will, by necessity, be a melting pot of cultures and languages and faiths. Why the poor will seek a better way of life among wealthier neighbors.</span><span style="line-height: 115%; "><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Grasping the larger picture will not make the challenges of immigration go away, but perhaps it will make us all a bit more patient with the challenges and a bit more determined to heal the wounds of the past and help create a world of more nearly equal opportunity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">In Jesus’ parable, there is a way in which those who finally accept the invitation and show up at the wedding banquet are those that grasp the larger picture of God’s ever-widening inclusion and generosity. The description of the guests as including both “good and bad” may be intended a bit ironically ... that those are their <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>old</u></b> designations placed upon them by others who judged them that way. Whether once thought of as good or bad, the guests in attendance are those whose lives reflect God’s “open banquet” policy. And they are those whose lives reflect the generous and merciful and kindly spirit of the one who invited them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">And we’ve long puzzled over the poor soul who shows up only to discover that he didn’t get the memo about the proper wedding attire. He is simply one of the old invitees who thought he could crash the heavenly wedding banquet without changing out of his old tattered robe of prejudices and hostilities. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Paul, who wrote this morning’s letter to the Philippians, was once a Pharisee of the highest order as likely was the old invitee who gets bounced from the banquet. But that was the old self that Paul left behind to follow and live into the likeness of the suffering servant, Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Paul understood well that the old skin of the old ways needed to be shed and the new skin or the new clothing of Christ needed to be put on. It was this new wedding-worthy robe that the speechless guest who had crashed the banquet had refused to put on. And by his refusal, he self-selected a place far from the colorful joy and warmth of God’s great feast for all people. And yet ... and yet I’d like to think that the story might go on to tell how God goes out into that darkness full of weeping and gnashing of teeth, and blesses and heals the unrepentant one and finally welcomes him and all like him into the great heavenly feast for all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Here, says Paul, the former Pharisee, here is the new garment, the new cloak, that attendees of God’s great banquet for all will wear. He writes these words to the Christians in the Colossian church:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:18.0pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, <u>clothe</u> yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Put on <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>that</u></b> outfit, that outfit of heavenly love, and wear it into the classroom ... and wear up to and over the Mexican border ... and wear it into the teeming suburbs of any European city ... and, finally, into the divine banquet whose music and dancing and feasting are a foretaste of heaven ... on earth ... according to the great, expanding heart of God whose name is LOVE.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Wear that garment of love, and the peace of Christ WILL rule in your hearts ... and you will be thankful. And all will be thankful.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Amen.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><a name="_GoBack"></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-64515747864613234862011-10-02T20:40:00.000-07:002011-10-17T20:41:33.502-07:00Fruitful vineyards<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">One of the great joys of any vacation—especially when you travel far from home—is getting to break bread in other parts of the world. One Sunday, when we were in a romantic corner on the island of Sicily, we found ourselves in a tiny English-speaking Anglican church where fewer than a dozen of us had gathered to practice the familiar rituals of our faith and share the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Breaking bread among strangers in unfamiliar places is a healthy practice for our humanity and our faith and is consistent with the intents of our practice of World Communion Sunday where we seek to understand our common identity with other members of the Christian family.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Learning to come around a common table with anyone who isn’t a part of our normal “inner circle” helps us to expand our sense of our common humanity with all of earth’s people. Sitting at a table of welcome and kindness and generosity—whether we are guests or hosts—can deepen our understanding of the need to serve each other and to share our lives and the things we have with those around us. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">“Table fellowship” is a term that is critical to understanding Jesus and his ministry and his values. It seems to me that there are things that can happen around a “dinner table” that can happen nowhere else. Thursday night we had our Worship Ministry Team meeting over a meal ... around a dinner table. We had lots of catching up to do and lots of business to discuss and cover, but we started with a meal and the fellowship that is natural when breaking bread together. Every meeting of SALT, our Social Action Leadership Team, begins with a light meal. My best staff meetings are always over breakfast of lunch—but especially breakfast. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Sociologists who specialize in studying families speak of the critical importance of not forsaking meals together as a family. It’s the place where our scattered lives are brought back together ... where the most honest sharing can occur ... where love and affection can be fed and rekindled.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">In our modern “Fast Food nation” culture, where a drive-through meal too often substitutes for a dinner table, we have a hard time understanding the full depth of meaning of “table fellowship” as practiced in the time of Jesus. The family table was utterly central to family life and the home in Jewish culture. And to break bread at a common table with others meant that you welcomed them fully into your life and your home ... it was a kind of “what’s mine is yours” kind of gesture. No walls or barriers or separation stood in the way any longer ... it was “communion” in the fullest sense of the word. Whoever was welcomed to your table or any table to which you were welcomed ... this was “family”. At the common table, there was a spirit of loving generosity and kindness and welcome that was more important than the food, even, absolutely essential to one’s life and wellbeing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We know that some of the harshest conflicts Jesus had with his opponents centered on his practice of eating with “sinners” ... outcasts of all kinds ... prostitutes and tax collectors among others. Proper religious folk of Jesus’ time wouldn’t have dared to pollute the common table with such folk ... keeping clear lines of separation ... clear boundaries ... was a critical part of one’s daily life and practice of faith. For Jesus, the sad fact was that the “proper practice of faith” was leading to a kind of spiritual “stinginess” and selfishness that divided people, one from another ... and a spiritual stinginess cannot help but lead to a material stinginess. Refusing to share at a common table, in many ways, symbolized a wider refusal to share at all. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We have this morning, as our focus text, another farm story ... another parable woven out of the common elements that the listeners to the story would understand. If Jesus were here and spoke in parables today, he would speak in the language of technology or modern investment principles or modern entertainment. “A man had two sons ... one of the sons came to him and said: “Father, you know I have long been a user of PC’s and windows-based computer platforms, but now I’d like to have my portion of the inheritance so I can purchase an Apple i-mac.” The parable ends there, because the father, played in this instance by Doug Holmes, freezes into a catatonic state from which he never returns.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Jesus speaks in the language of his listeners and tells of an absentee landlord who has handed over his vineyard to tenants who will do the farming, collect the produce and hand over a portion of what they harvest. It was a common practice and one that we could easily criticize because it was one of the means by which the richer got richer and kept the poor in their destitute condition. It’s possible that a story like this was originally told to entertain and satisfy poor listeners ... when the rich landowner tries to take the lion’s share of the harvest from the poor tenants, they rise up and resist and finally claim the land by killing the landowner’s son.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Jesus, however, isn’t telling the story to poor tenant farmers, but to the religious powerbrokers of his day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The listeners are the ones who have considerable control over the social economic order of the day. In many ways they help determine “who’s in and who’s out” ... who gets to come to the common table, and who gets pushed away. In such a system, the poor often remain that way or get even poorer. And the impure—by whatever means they’ve become that way—are separated from family and community and even their faith ... their God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Jesus story is commonly understood to be simple allegory ... and in his telling, the absent landowner is God, the vineyard is Israel and Judaism, the tenants are the religious leaders of Israel, the prophets of old are God’s messengers and representatives, and Jesus, himself, is the heir, last sent, killed and cast out. As a result of the tenant farmers’ boorish behavior and their violence to the landowner’s representatives, even great violence will be done to them ... the vineyard will be taken from them and given to more responsible tenants.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The allegory is a fairly simple one ... so simple, in fact, that the intended audience, Matthew tells us, gets the message. Matthew writes: “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they realized he was speaking about them.” It was this parable and the others that Jesus told that helped solidify the opposition to Jesus. And had not Jesus still enjoyed great popularity with the common folk who flocked to him, the religious leaders would have immediately had Jesus arrested.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">How do you respond when someone points out your faults? Do you ... thank them? Offer them a tip for their good service? Or do you call the police? Officer, this man is telling the painful and obvious truth and I want him ARRESTED. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The truth can hurt and when someone we don’t much like is the bearer of the truth, it can lead us to wish unpleasant things for that person. I doubt, though, that we’re a whole lot more kindly disposed to those we care for who yet speak painful truths to us. “Your drinking is threatening our relationship.” “Your anger scares me.” “You’re ignoring your children.” “That behavior is risky.” “You seem to love your job more than me.” “We never eat meals together any more.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">One commentator likened Jesus’ parables to a drill ... he says that “the intent of Jesus’ story is to drill down through layers of denial to the level of recognition ...”. We might say that Jesus’ parable is less like a drill and more like dynamite ... because there’s a lot of violence in the story ... not only are the tenants prone to violence toward any who would threaten their denial, but when Jesus asks his audience how they violent tenants should be dealt with by the absent vineyard, they respond—perhaps not surprisingly—with more violence. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">At the end of the story, Jesus asks the Chief Priests and Pharisees: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’” They said to Jesus, ‘He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.’”</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">It is, as Martin Luther King said so sadly: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Jesus says to these who seem to understand the truth of his words, but have not the spiritual moral will to change: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Now ... by the time Matthew wrote these words, weaving this story Jesus told into his gospel, the Chief Priests and Pharisees were relics from Jesus’ time ... and how much more so in our reading. If we are to “find ourselves” in Jesus’ parable—and this is the challenge of all parables and all scripture ... if we are to find ourselves in this story, then perhaps we do well to start at the end and ask ourselves: “What is the vineyard and are we being “fruitful”. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">To be faithful to this sermon and to this parable, you will of course, have to continue asking yourself these questions. You must allow the story to continue to linger within you and probe you. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">In a time when life is no less endangered and precarious than in Jesus’ own time, and in a time when the injustices of life are as plainly evident as in Jesus’ own time, we do well to ask ourselves about our own “stewardship” over the things with which we have been entrusted. This earth ... it’s natural resources ... it’s human resources—our brothers and sisters who share the planet with us ... our inheritances of life and substance from our families of upbringing ... even the gift of the air we breathe and the gift of each new day in which we are privileged to live. Each of these I’ve named and many more are the “vineyard” with which we have each been entrusted. And the plain truth of Jesus’ story is “use it wisely and generously or lose it.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">More of you than I can count or recall have recounted to me times in your doctor’s office where one bit or another of medical evidence has been for you a “wake up” call ... your blood pressure ... your weight ... your cholesterol level ... the condition of your liver. Your body is telling you: It’s time to listen to the message, time to wake up, time to change. Because if you don’t change, your body will return to the dust from which it came a lot sooner than you think or you’d like. Some of us heed these wake up messages ... and some of us don’t. The ball is certainly in our court when the truth is spoken to us. What does it take to get us to hear the truth? And what does it take for us to heed the truth and to discover the will to change?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The commentator who likened Jesus’ parables to a denial penetrating drill says that if you drill down through enough layers of denial, you may reach a new level of recognition and at that new level you can tap “a deep vein of contrition that can finally well up to water new life that is ‘fruitful’ in gospel terms.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Bad news that leads to good news. Hmm. That might be one way of saying it. You may remember that Alfred Nobel is the scientist for whom the Nobel peace prize is named. But the bad news for Alfred Nobel was that he read a premature obituary of his life that described him as a purveyor of death because he was inventor of dynamite. Seeing his life summed up so grimly made Nobel determine that he would “invent” something else for which he’d <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><u>rather</u></i> be known: a prize for those who were purveyors of life and peace. Bad news that leads to good news. Maybe so.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Now back to Sicily for a moment. The day after we worshipped in that little Anglican church, Jan and I went to tea with the priest that presided over the Lord’s Supper. John Price is his name. John had just retired from his parish in a town north of London. It is a town that struggles with every possible blight that any of our communities here might struggle with. For six years, John worked tirelessly to turn bad news into good news. His congregation was beset by the challenges of immigrant populations washing over the community ... and so they became a profoundly multi-cultural church, embracing the unfamiliar languages and customs of Christians from other parts of the world. When John assumed the leadership of his church, the church grounds had become severely overgrown and had become a haven for drug dealers and users. The cut back the overgrowth and cleaned up the grounds. Over 1500 hypodermic needles were collected amidst the clutter. Today the cleaned up grounds serves the community as does the church in new ways that it might never had envisioned had it not faced up to the bad news and determined to bring good news from it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">This earth and these lives and any abundance we might enjoy ... they are all extraordinary gifts ... and the word to us today is that they are not to be hoarded and defended and fought over, but are for us and for all to enjoy and share. The good news is that there is within us all—all of us here, all Christians, all people on this earth ... there is a vein of “God-given goodness” that can be tapped and that can rise up like waters of new life and new fruitfulness. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Let us give proof of that goodness by hearing and heeding the call to make of our lives and of this world a watered garden, a fruitful vineyard, and a table whose generosity and welcome knows no bounds. <b>Amen.</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 17pt;"><a name="_GoBack"></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-35252252338668128322011-09-25T10:34:00.000-07:002011-09-28T10:38:44.213-07:00Impersonate? Imitate? Participate?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Have you ever wondered WHO you really are? Do you look at that face that stares back at you in the mirror and wonder ... “Who am I?” What does it mean to be “me”?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The late Peter Sellers was the exquisitely talented actor of “Pink Panther” fame along many other movies. It was said that he entered into the many characters he played so completely that he largely lost sight of who <u>Peter Sellers</u> was ... he was an actor who portrayed other people ... and almost nothing more.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Who are you? What does it mean to be you?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">These are “existential” questions ... questions that ponder one’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><u>existence</u></i></b>, including one’s emotions and thoughts, decisions and actions, roles and responsibilities, the meaning and the purpose of one’s life. Somehow the word “existential” kept popping in conversations this summer. When we take time away from our ordinary duties and responsibilities, existential questions are bound to bubble to the surface of our consciousness.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">“Who am I?” What does it mean to be “me”? Who are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">you</i>? What does it mean to be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">you</i>? To ask questions like these means that we may not always be absolutely clear about who we are? They are fair questions for which we may not have easy answers. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The German martyr of World War II, Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, famously asked his own existential question while in residence at the Nazi concentration camp where he was later hanged for participating in a plot to assassinate Hitler. “Who am I?” he asked with a deep ache in his voice. Many around him saw him as strong and self-confident which was quite at odds with the frightened and lonely person he knew himself to be. He felt like a hypocrite and a weakling mocked by what he called his “lonely questions.” But what saved Bonhoeffer, ultimately, in his existential agony was knowing “whose” he was, knowing that all of his self and his life and his purpose and his meaning—and even his lonely questions—ALL of these were wrapped up in the infinitely larger reality of God’s own being to which Bonhoeffer belonged. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">It’s interesting to note that God’s own self-claims of identity stand in startling contrast to any existential mumbling or moodiness we might experience. You’ll remember that when God meets Moses at the burning bush and calls him to lead God’s people out of slavery, Moses asks God: “Who shall I say has sent me?” God says: “Tell them <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">I am who I am</i></b> has sent you.” Oooo-kaaay. Apparently God doesn’t lie awake at night lost in an existential funk. I suppose if you are, as Paul Tillich said, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">the ground of all being</i></b>, “I am” is all the calling card you need.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">It is the Apostle Paul who triggers this line of thinking with his words written in his love-letter to the Christians in Philippi. As with the God who called him, we rarely think of Paul as one who struggled with his self-identity or as being overly plagued with self-doubts. It was Paul’s ub<a name="_GoBack"></a>er-confidence in himself and his calling that was his great strength as well as a bone of contention for his opponents.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I have known people like Paul ... and when they get a bee in their bonnet ... when they become possessed with an idea OR the TRUTH, you’d best get out of the way if you don’t want their footprints on your back.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; ">No ... self-doubting was rarely a problem for Paul. And certainly if there was a time for self-doubting, it would have come during his own time of imprisonment, for it was from prison that Paul writes his letter to the Philippians. But unlike Dietrich Bonhoeffer, far from weakening his confidence, Paul’s imprisonment seems to have strengthened it. </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "> I want you to know, beloved,</span></i><a href=""><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><sup><span style="line-height: 115%; display: none; ">*</span></sup></i></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "> </span></i><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); ">Paul writes in the first chapter of Philippians, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel </i>... and his confidence while imprisoned has given confidence to others to proclaim the gospel “with greater boldness and without fear.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); ">When you read Paul’s letter to the Philippians, his deep love and affection for them is obvious. Even from a prison cell, he bubbles over them as one lover to another. The young church in Philippi has been one of Paul’s successes and it is due, in no small part, to their mutual love for each other. Paul begins his letter to the Philippians saying: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">I thank my God every time I remember you, </i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><sup><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(119, 119, 119); display: none; ">4</span></sup></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); ">constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you ... </span></i><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); ">Paul has planted a seed of the gospel in their midst and he continues to be amazed at its flourishing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">But even really good people and really good churches can have their struggles. It can’t ALL be “sweetness and light” ALL of the time. Honeymoons can’t last forever. Invariably a time comes when opinions can differ and equally good folk can stand on different sides on an issue. There is a small rift in the church in Philippi that Paul has caught wind of. It grieves Paul to think of there being disunity in his beloved church. And it worries him that the disunity will weaken their ministry and their witness.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">And so Paul does what any wise parent does for her or his child: he reminds them of who and whose they are.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Paul begins by reminding the people of what they already have: they find great strength and encouragement in their Christian faith, they share deeply the empowering Spirit of God, and they have great compassion and sympathy for one another that flows into the world beyond their community. These are things we would be happy to have people say about this community of faith ... about Shell Ridge. Strong faith ... deep Spirit ... compassionate ministry. That’s who you are, Paul tells them. You are these things already. Now, he implores them, “Be yourself.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); ">... make my joy complete:</span></i><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "> Paul tells them,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. </i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><sup><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(119, 119, 119); display: none; ">3</span></sup></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); ">Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><sup><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(119, 119, 119); display: none; ">4</span></sup></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); ">Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><sup><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(119, 119, 119); display: none; ">5</span></sup></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); ">Let the same mind be in you that was</span></i><a href=""><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><sup><span style="line-height: 115%; display: none; ">*</span></sup></i></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "> in ... </span></i><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); ">and here Paul comes to the heart of the matter. If REALLY you want to know who you are, he is saying, the One who has claimed you with an undying love and filled you with an unassailable hope, that One has modeled with his own being the lives you are to live and the selves you are to be. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">It is this point of his love-letter to the Philippians that Paul takes a poem or a hymn that is already well known to the Christians of that time and places it at the center of his letter ... he uses it to re-ground the Philippians in their faith and their self-identity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Paul exhorts them with the familiar hymn:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:36.0pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="color: rgb(1, 0, 0); ">Let the same mind be in you that was</span></i><a href=""><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><sup><span style="display: none; ">*</span></sup></i></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "> in Christ Jesus,<br /></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><sup><span style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); display: none; ">6</span></sup></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "> who, though he was in the form of God,<br /> did not regard equality with God<br /> as something to be exploited,<br /></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><sup><span style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); display: none; ">7</span></sup></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "> but emptied himself,<br /> taking the form of a slave,<br /> being born in human likeness.<br />And being found in human form,<br /></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><sup><span style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); display: none; ">8</span></sup></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "> he humbled himself<br /> and became obedient to the point of death—<br /> even death on a cross. <o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:36.0pt;line-height:16.8pt;background:white"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><sup><span style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); display: none; ">9</span></sup></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "> Therefore God also highly exalted him<br /> and gave him the name<br /> that is above every name,<br /></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><sup><span style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); display: none; ">10</span></sup></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "> so that at the name of Jesus<br /> every knee should bend,<br /> in heaven and on earth and under the earth,<br /></span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><sup><span style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); display: none; ">11</span></sup></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "> and every tongue should confess<br /> that Jesus Christ is Lord,<br /> to the glory of God ... <o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Jesus is God’s humble servant ... self-emptying ... refusing to grasp at power ... humbled, obedient and serving even to the point of death ... and then raised up and exalted by the Power beyond all power ... and it is this humble and serving one—not the warriors and self-exalters, but the humble and serving one who will ultimately claim the allegiance of all earth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Carlyle Marney was an old southern preacher whom I note from time to time. He spoke with a drawling, booming voice that was described as sounding like God’s ... only deeper. Willis knew Marney, I believe. Marney was smart and wise and compassionate. One of his special passions was for preachers like himself who needed to find their way back to the simple joy of ministry on behalf of the one we’ve just heard Paul describe with the hymn of the humble and self-emptying Christ. A well-known story about Carlyle Marney has him sitting with a group of pastors helping them out the kinks in their souls when an argument broke out. Even while serving the humble, self-emptying Jesus, preachers can be haughty and proud. The argument grew hotter and fiercer until Marney, who had sat silently until that point, said: “Friends ... friends ... do ... you ... love ... Jesus?” Do you love Jesus? It was all he had to say ... it was the only reminder he had to make ... to draw back into their midst the one who had been pushed out ... God’s humble servant ... self-emptying ... refusing to grasp at power ... humbled, obedient and serving even to the point of death ... and their model for Christian life and ministry.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Do you love Jesus? It’s Marney’s question ... it’s Paul’s question ... and I suppose it’s my question to you and to me. And at this point it’s neither my intention to get “heavily theological” nor “heavily evangelical” ... but simply to ask: Does the servant of God we know as Jesus draw you, compel you, move you, deepen you, touch you, change you? Do you love Jesus?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We often say that the simplest definition of what it means to be a Christian is “a follower of Jesus”. It’s hard to bind your soul to the soul of another—be it your life-mate or the person of Jesus—if LOVE is not a part of the equation. Paul would likely agree that as we love Jesus, so we move and follow and deepen our likeness of him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">For some of us it has been many years since we trolled our souls in the waters of baptism. And like the beloved subjects of Paul’s letter, we need the simplest of reminders of whom we love and who loves us. It is Jesus the Lord, Paul says, humbled and exalted, servant of God and the very bearer of God’s own name. Remember who you are, Paul says then and says to us now. Remember who you are.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Paul concludes this word of reminder and encouragement to the Philippians with an unusual phrase. And perhaps he offers it to his beloved friends lest they or anyone else get the wrong sense of what it means to be a Christian and a follower of Jesus. He says: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">H. Richard Niebuhr was a mid-20<sup>th</sup> century theologian and ethicist and brother to the more famous Reinhold Niebuhr. H. Richard Niebuhr was a very influential part of my own education and training as a pastor. A young evangelist once stopped H. Richard Niebuhr near the Yale campus where he taught and asked Niebuhr, “Are you saved?” “Yes,” the theologian thoughtfully replied. “When?” the evangelist pressed. “Every day,” replied Niebuhr.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">You mean ... you mean there’s more? We’re not through?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Hmm ... apparently this “once and done” version of Christianity isn’t Paul’s ... the version where “dipped and saved” gets ‘er done, the version where having muttered the right sinner’s prayer and bought your soul’s heavenly fire insurance ... you can go back to being the same miserable scoundrel Jesus saved. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">You’re not there yet, Paul seems to be saying. You’re on the way, the right path, but you haven’t arrived. You’re following in the right footsteps, but the journey continues.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I’m fond of quoting my dear friend and senior colleague James Chuck who like to say to people, for whom it’s true: “I like who you’re becoming.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">“I like who you are” Paul tells the Philippians. And I also like who you’re becoming. Now ... don’t stop ... don’t quit ... don’t step away from the path of the one who goes before you and beckons to you to keep following. I say these words to you and to us in the least “self-congratulatory” way possible: Shell Ridge friends: I like who you are. And I also like who you’re becoming. Now ... don’t stop ... don’t quit ... don’t step away from the path of the one who goes before you and beckons to you to keep following. Keep tending your souls ... keep deepening your being ... keep strengthening your service.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I lost a colleague recently who was a well-known and appreciated pastor. But it’s possible he was best known for something altogether different. He loved to impersonate Elvis. When the late Ted Keaton retired—Ted was a member of this church and a past president of our seminary in Berkeley, when Ted retired, my colleague put on a wild Elvis costume complete with rhinestones, bushy sideburns and white-rimmed sunglasses and crooned Elvis’ greatest hits to Ted’s great embarrassment ... and to everyone else’s enormous enjoyment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">As someone has noted, impersonators go to great pains to make people believe who they are not. Let us be very clear that Paul, in inviting us to be of the same mind as Jesus and to work out our salvation is not asking us to impersonate him. A better word that hits closer to Paul’s call is “imitate” ... striving to live up to the challenge of the person we look up to. Not impersonators of Christ, but imitators of Christ. Not a costume that we wear and words we only half-heartedly mouth, but seeking sincerely to live and work and speak and follow in the ways of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We might add one more word to this trajectory of words if we wanted to take a final step. It would be the word: “participate”. The words means to share in ... to be involved in ... to mingle one’s self in. To “participate in Christ” is to not simply follow and imitate, but to join yourself to Christ ... to join yourself to Christ’s work ... to join yourself to Christ’s peace. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Perhaps we’re not all the way there yet. But we’re on the way, the right path. We’re following in the right footsteps and the journey continues.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; color: rgb(1, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Later today, those among us who are able will “participate” in Christ as they join other participants in a walk of hope on behalf of many in our world in desperate need. The CROP walk is only one of many ways we can participate in Christ with body, mind and soul. But it is a step along the way from imitation to full participation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Shell Ridge friends, let me say it again: I like who you are. And I also like who you’re becoming. Now ... don’t stop ... don’t quit ... don’t step away from the path of the one who goes before you and beckons to you to keep following. Keep tending your souls ... keep deepening your being ... keep strengthening your service.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <span style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US"><br /> </span><!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-23668396925731397442011-09-18T10:37:00.000-07:002011-09-28T10:38:44.213-07:00Nice work... if you can get it.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I began my working life as a day laborer. It was the late-1960’s on the Olympic Peninsula in the drowsy Pacific Northwest. Each morning <a name="_GoBack"></a>an old rickety school bus would prowl the neighborhoods, picking up any child unlucky enough to lack an excuse to go to the berry fields where child labor laws seemed unknown. In my town, many children my age were summer produce pickers ... it was how we earned a little spending money—very little in my case. It was also how our parents got us out of their hair during the summer. It felt like punishment. I avoided it as often as I could. My heart wasn’t in it ... on one particularly memorable and deplorable day, I picked raspberries all day long and made a grand total of 67 cents. That’s somewhat less than a denarius which is the wage in this morning’s scripture which is reportedly what it took to feed one person for one day.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The day laborers of my summer childhoods were a modest help to the local farm economies of that time. But throughout history, whole economies have been built on the backs of the working poor, including their children. These working poor have been variously named, whether day laborers ... or indentured servants ... or slaves ... or sharecroppers ... or migrant workers. These are the folk who inhabit the lowest levels of any workforce. They are completely at the mercy of those who might hire them ... they are paid the most menial of wages ... they work in sub-standard conditions ... the work they perform is often backbreaking drudgery ... and all this to simply earn enough money to put a day’s food on the table.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Jesus’ parable about the workers in the vineyard does <u>not</u> seem to make its primary point about the plight of the working poor. It has another point to make as we’ll see. But I very much believe that the “homely” and rustic settings of many of Jesus’ stories cannot be too easily dismissed. We do well to not rush too quickly by the simple surroundings of the stories and some of the truths they can tell if we pause to watch and lean in to listen.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The secondary point of the story has to do with lifting out of obscurity these peasants who are not much better off than sparrows pecking at seeds in the dust. Every day is a monumental struggle to survive. Every day contains a belly-full of desperation. Every day one must exhaust oneself simply to earn enough bread to ease you on to the next grueling day. And there are scores upon scores of others just like you with whom you must compete for work and food. The system in which you operate, though it depends upon your life and your efforts, is utterly indifferent to you, for you are quickly and easily replaced. Your health and your strength, your relationships and your sanity are all compromised ... are, in fact, luxuries that many can never afford. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Presumably Jesus told this parable over and over ... enough times that it became embedded in the collective memories of his followers. And there must have been times when the listeners of the story would have momentarily paused to consider the humble actors who occupy the story’s stage, instead of forever looking past them to some deeper “spiritual truth.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Every culture has its invisible people ... those who dwell in the shadowy places of poverty. The great shock for many of us in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, after the shocking power of the storm, was the extraordinary poverty that was exposed and could not be ignored. Who knew, right? Some knew, but many more assumed such poverty could only be found in so-called “developing countries”. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">In India, the lowest caste of people were long known as the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><u>untouchables</u></i>. Actually, they were not a caste within the caste system per se, but were <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><u>below</u></i> the caste system. Like the lepers in Jesus’ time, they lived in the extreme margins and contact with them was to be avoided at all costs. Even though castes have been illegal since 1948, the reality of the caste system persists. It’s estimated that 160 million Indians today are considered “untouchables”. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Gandhi was among the first to give serious attention to the untouchables and to advocate for their rights and even bestowed upon them the name “Harijan” which means “children of God.” Following in the spirit of Gandhi, a humble Albanian nun by the name of Teresa made a practice of touching the untouchables and caring for them and kissing and holding them, finally, as they died.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">In telling his parable, Jesus brings us back to the humble day laborers again and again. And each visit reveals those whose plight is worse than the group before. Those who are hired in the morning may have a day of backbreaking labor ahead of them, but at least they know that at the end of the day they will eat, however simply. Each subsequent group that gets hired wonders if they’ll get hired at all until we finally come to the end of the day and the final group spells out their frustration and fears. The landowner asks them: “Why are you standing here <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">idle</i></b> all day?” We might hear in his question a sense of blame for their “idleness.” And they say in return and in their own miserable defense, “Because no one has hired us.” It’s a bleak response from a people with no prospects. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I have driven into the Home Depot parking lot on many an afternoon and I have seen our own local day laborers still waiting ... standing in a gloomy funk ... still waiting ... still wondering. If your language permitted it, you could approach them and ask: “Why are you standing here idle all day?” and the response would likely be, “Porque nadie nos ha contratado.” “Because no one has hired us.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We could say that it’s the lucky ones who’ve gotten to spend the day mucking out ditches ... stacking rocks ... laying pavers ... doing all nature of menial, difficult work that ... <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">somebody’s</i></b> got to do. And I suppose some would say that others are even luckier who don’t have to wait around building supply parking lots for work, but have regular jobs as janitors and dishwashers and gardeners and field workers. They’re the lucky ones ... right?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">It would seem to me that a compassionate reading of Jesus’ parable would insist that we do not rush through the story to its end, but pause to get to know the otherwise invisible characters who are yearning to be noticed and known and heard, who simply want a fair shake out of this life that we have in common where the roles we occupy could be so easily reversed and are ours only by virtue of the accident of our births. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">In a Labor Day Sunday sermon two weeks ago, I was reminded of the saying that some people are “born on third base and act as though they’d hit a triple.” And others ... many others come to the plate with two strikes already against them. Such is the difficult and inequitable game of life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Every time I go to Mexico to build a home ... or every time I have to participate in some particularly difficult and dirty job at home or here at a church work party ... I and others like me can often be heard to say: “Boy, I’m sure glad I don’t have to do THIS for a living.” Pity the poor souls who do ... and who barely eke out a living doing it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">When my older son, Jordan, began working as a waiter and would come home with stories of the unique difficulties of that line of work, I suddenly began to notice waiters. And around that time some of us were reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s seminal documentary, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Nickled and Dimed in America</i> which tells of the enormous difficulties of “making it” as a part of the service workforce. When you have children working in that workforce and when you read books like Ehrenreich’s, it becomes harder and harder to ignore and turn a blind eye and a cold heart to those who are bussing your tables and mowing your lawns and cleaning your restrooms. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">It is at the very center ... the very heart of Jesus’ parable that the least of the least come into view and into sharp focus. With the sun beginning to set and their stomachs rumbling loudly and their hope slipping away, they are given the universal lament of anyone who has ever been out of work: “No one will hire us.” “No one will hire me.” Jesus wants us not to pass by these unhired workers without seeing their faces and hearing their voices and sensing their need.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I suppose this could be a part of the sub-text of the movie, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The Help</i>, which is moving moviegoers these days to laughter and tears. Amidst the related themes of racism and sexism, are the indignities that get heaped upon the lower working classes, servers and servants, cooks and wet-nurses. The movie invites the viewer, as with the listeners of so many of Jesus’ parables, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>to see people as they really are, behind the starched aprons and culturally appointed roles and the old biases and blindness that can afflict us all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">And if we were to be painfully, brutally honest, in the midst of our new vision, we might say to the servers and servants and “day laborers” among us: “Thank you ... thank you for working at odd hours doing loathsome, backbreaking work at despicable wages so that I can enjoy clean restrooms, pleasant landscapes and fresh vegetables. Thank you.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Now it’s the end of the day in Jesus’ parable. The sun is setting, the tools have been put away, the hunger of the workers is keen. The workers file in to receive their modest pay. And in an unusual twist, the landowner makes those hired first <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>wait</u></b> while he pays those hired later. To the amazement of both the workers as well as the hearers of Jesus’ parable, those hired as the day was ending receive a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>full day’s wage</u></b>. And so it is with those hired before them all the way to the workers who were hired in the morning and spent the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>whole day</u></b> working in the fields.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">The amazement of the first-hired turns to anger and an acute sense of injustice. And it is at this point that the story ceases, really, to be about “day laborers”, for it would be a cruel storyteller, indeed, who would pit one unfortunate and powerless person against another to make a fine theological point. It is at this point that the setting shifts and we see that what is at the heart of Jesus’ message is the enormous and overwhelming generosity of God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">To claim that point, that message … does not in any way negate the implied point which I’ve taken up the lion’s share of this sermon making … that the worker deserves her or his pay … or, more widely: that EVERYONE deserves a decent job with a living wage and reasonable benefits for themselves and their dependents. And the bridge between the two points is that it is a crime against heaven and earth for people and societies who know better and whose faith has taught them better to allow the working poor to suffer or the unemployed poor to remain that way … if it is in our power to bring change where change is needed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Let’s come back to the reminder that the common understanding of a denarius is that it was enough to feed one person for one day. Can you imagine being an employer and having your late-starting employee come before you for her pay and saying, “I know very well that what I am about to pay you is a starvation wage … waaay less than what what it will take keep the wolves from your door … but … fair is fair … here you go and have a nice day.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Jesus’ parable hints broadly, but strongly at a God whose generosity is … frankly … ridiculous. This landowner/God won’t stay in business very long being “compassionately equitable” in that way. But heaven isn’t a corporation and the bottom line isn’t what matters most. Better to irritate the bean-counters than to knowingly send one away to suffer.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I don’t know if President Obama’s proposed jobs initiative or the coming proposal that the rich pay a fair share of their taxes … if either of these has any rootage in Jesus’ parable of the vineyard workers and the generous landowner. I kind of doubt it … at least not very directly. But more and better jobs with better benefits and an equitable sharing of the burdens of life and society are, at least, moving in the right direction. It moves us ever so slightly in affirmation of a phrase that a colleague uses when he says: “Everyone has enough, no one has too much.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">I’m not a politician or a creator of public policy … no one here is as far as I know. So the challenges that grow out of this parable for us may not be the same ones that should be heard by our elected representatives. For us, it may be that the best place to start is that wherever culture and society and traditional understandings have created a gulf or built a gap and allowed these to remain … perhaps our job is to build a bridge. Last week I gave a jump start to the truck of the Vietnamese woman who takes care of the yards in our neighborhood. You’d have thought she won the lottery. She thanked me with her hands pressed together and a small bow. We’re becoming friends in our own small way. For years the Russian women from next door have congregated in the Shell Ridge courtyard and every time I see them I rack my brain for the Russian greeting that best matches the time of day … dobra utra … doba dien … dobra vee-aitcher. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They’re always kind and gentle and smiling in their corrections of my mistakes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">At the restaurant … at the checkout counter … at Home Depot … in your neighborhood … in the classroom … among different nationalities and languages and faiths and varieties of ethnic dress and customs … among the varying socio-economic classes … in every setting where you are with someone who is not you and especially someone who is quite different than you … build a bridge … be a bridgebuilder and a straddler of gaps wherever they exist in the human family. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">We use the word “Shalom” a lot here on Shell Ridge … Shalom is a comprehensive peace marked by a compassionate and generous justice for all. Today’s parable hints at a world marked by Shalom. Shalom is probably less a place of precise arrival than it is a goal that can be steadily sought and slowly realized. In a world marked increasingly by Shalom, it will be increasingly true that “everyone has enough, and no one has too much.” No more <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><u>filthy rich</u></i></b> and no more <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><u>dirt poor</u></i></b>. And who are the creators of Shalom? The sons and the daughters of God, which is to say, ALL people … including YOU … including ME. It’s our job. It’s what we do. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">So fall in love with humanity all over again … stretch your wings and your boundaries. Mimic the best you can the ridiculous generosity of the God who gives life to one and all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Fall in love -- you won't regret it.<br />That's the best work of all -- if you can get it.<br />Oh that is nice work if you can get it.<br />And you can get it -- if you try.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Amen.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-3347011230168884472011-09-04T13:45:00.000-07:002011-09-12T13:49:16.915-07:00Dinner Hearts and Sneezers<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%">How many Jeopardy watchers do we have in the house?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Anyone watch Jeopardy? Well the title of the sermon today is a Jeopardy answer. Dinner, Hearts and Sneezers. Does anyone know the question? What do these have in common? Right they are all things that are blessed. (I cannot give it to you though because you did not put it in the form of a question.) We say blessings over our meals before eating them. If you are from the South or have a relative from there no doubt you have heard them use the expression, “Bless her Heart.” Usually this is done after some unpleasantries have been said about someone. “She’s dumb as a pole, bless her heart.” <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%">And sneezers. Anyone have a sneeze today. Did you get a blessing? According to the Internet which is never wrong the blessing of sneezers was mandated by Pope Gregory the Great (540-604 AD) who ascended to the Papacy just in time for the start of the plague of 590. To fight it, he called for litanies, processions and unceasing prayer. Because sneezing was thought of as a symptom of the plague, sneezers were immediately blessed in the hope that they would not subsequently develop the plague. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%">So 10 points for all those who go the Jeopardy question right today, but I have an even more pressing question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Are you blessed? Do you feel blessed? If you really think about it, it is not such an easy question to answer. For one thing, it assumes that we all have the same definition of what a blessing is. And that just may not be true. So maybe the best place we should start is by asking, What is a blessing?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%">Now the Bible here is full of blessings. In Genesis Abraham was considered blessed by God and was given livestock, wealth and the promise that his descendents will be like sands on the seashore too numerous to count. Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob. Jacob, who was so concerned about getting his father’s blessing that he tricked poor old Isaac out of giving it to his brother Esau. He comes away with all of the inheritance and family wealth. Jacob gives birth to Joseph who was also considered blessed by God even before his birth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He becomes one of the highest rulers in Egypt second only to the Pharaoh. There is king David and his son Solomon, who were look on favorably by God and fantastically wealthy to boot. Joseph, Abraham, Isaac, David, Solomon, all considered blessed with extraordinary riches. Even Job who faced unbelievably horrific trials comes out blessed in the end with twice what he originally had.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%">Are you starting to catch a theme? These Biblical characters are all considered blessed and all have great wealth. Their favor with God is easily measured in stuff: gold, cattle, and slaves. Riches. Possesions. And the biggest measuring stick of them all...land. When Moses led his people out of Egypt they crossed the desert for 40 years. The reward for their perseverance? A land flowing with milk and honey, Canaan. Given to them because they were blessed. Never mind that there were people already living there. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%">Blessings of land. Blessings of wealth. Maybe blessings are simply something given to the people by God. Some thing. If this is the case, then it becomes easy to see who is blessed and who isn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The rich and prosperous are blessed. Those who occupy the land are blessed. You might think that this is ancient thinking but it is alive and well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Known as the prosperity gospel it is a theology that is preached to justify the wealthy and entice the poor. But at what point does believing that “God will provide” become “God gave me a 12 million dollar house?” Now it is not bad or wrong to be thankful for what we have. But when possessions and things become the benchmark of being blessed, then something is wrong. When the disparity between the rich and the poor grows larger and larger then we need a new benchmark. A rich man once asked Jesus how to have eternal life. Jesus replied that to be perfect, he had to sell everything he owned. This was Jesus’ new benchmark. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%">So I ask you again. “Are you blessed?”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%">Possessions are not the only benchmark in the Bible for being blessed. When the Israelites were captured, they lost their wealth. They lost their land. And they cried out. The blessing that they sought was not only that they wanted their country back, but that they wanted to feel the presence of God. They wanted to believe that God was with them. God’s very presence was the blessing they sought. Just listen to the anxiety in Psalm 121.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where will my help come? </i>Imagine looking to the vastness of the hills and feeling that kind of emptiness. Where will my help come? The psalmist goes on, “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">My help comes from the Lord who made the heavens and the earth</i>.” This psalm ends with one of the most beautiful benedictions. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.</i> Doesn’t that make you feel blessed just reading it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%">So is God’s presence proof of being blessed? Because I have felt at times like the author of this psalm. I have looked to the hills and wondered from where my help would come. I remember one particular time. I was in high school and I was having a really hard time. I carried around a lot of guilt about who I was and who I was supposed to be. I was all mixed up and very frustrated. For a long time this made me really depressed which just added to my frustration. One night I prayed for personal peace. I said, “God I don’t want everything to be figured out. I don’t need to have all the answers. I just want to feel like I have some personal peace.” After praying I opened up a devotional book and do you know what that day’s devotion was titled? “Personal Peace.” Lest anyone think that God does not have a sense of humor. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%">It was a reminder that God was with me. Like the writer of the psalm, I realized that my help came from God. So are we blessed because God is with us? But isn’t God always with us? Don’t we believe in an omnipresent God? If this is the case then we should feel blessed all of the time. And maybe some of you do. But maybe some of you don’t. Maybe you fell like you could use a blessing. Maybe, like the Israelites that cried out for a Messiah, like the hungry who ask for food, like the sick that cry out for comfort, maybe merely knowing that you are blessed is not enough. Maybe you need a blessing.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%">So I ask you again. Are you blessed? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%">When Jesus climbed atop a mountain to speak to those that had gathered around him, he no doubt saw people in need. His people were a people that had been occupied, people that had lost their country to Rome. They were desperate people looking to him for something. In short they needed a blessing. And Jesus gave them one. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%"> ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%"> ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%"> ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%"> ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%"> ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%"> ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%"> ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:36.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%">Now each one of these blessings that we call the Beatitudes is a sermon in and of itself so I will leave that for another sermon series. But there are some things that I want to point out about this wonderful list as a whole. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height: 150%;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">1.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%">The list has a rewards system. For each condition there is a blessing that is given. But the rewards are not things like money and land. We have moved past all that. The rewards are states of being. Comfort. Mercy. Even the Kingdom of Heaven. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height: 150%;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">2.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%">This list is not about the powerful. It is not about the political leaders or the wealthy. It is about the lowly. The poor in spirit. The meek. It is about the making the last first. These are the people that need to hear this. Both then and now. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:36.0pt;text-indent:-18.0pt;line-height: 150%;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">3.<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:150%">Here is what is most remarkable about this list to me. Jesus does not say where these blessings come from. He does not say God blesses the meek or God blesses the pure in heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He just says Blessed are the meek and blessed are the pure in heart. Am I being too detailed? Is it obviously implied? Maybe. Or maybe the intent was that the blessings come from one another. If we look at the beatitudes in this way then we are not only the recipients of the blessings but the givers as well. As Barbara Brown Taylor writes we are the hands and feet of God. We are the ones who bestow God’s blessings here on earth. We are the ones to bestow mercy. We give the world to the meek. We are to stand up and declare that peacemakers are indeed the children of God. When we hunger and thirst for righteousness it is we who are creating a righteous world. My Lutheran housemate says that it is God’s work. Our hands. I like that God’s work our hands. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; line-height:150%"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; line-height:150%">So, maybe the question we should ask ourselves is not are we blessed? But rather are we blessing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Are you blessing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Start with dinner. Move on to sneezers. Along the way bless a few hearts. But then try to comfort someone who is mourning. Give mercy to the merciful. Lift up all those who strive for peace. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; line-height:150%"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:14.0pt; line-height:150%">If you truly want to see how blessed a world can be, then start by giving it some blessings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And God’s people said, Amen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-246499582191101128.post-7162849956496919552011-08-28T13:50:00.000-07:002011-09-12T13:52:50.504-07:00Putting yourself in the presence of God<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >By Karen DeWeese</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >The chicken or the egg?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >The chicken or the egg?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >The chicken or the egg?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>There is an often heard old question that goes: Which came first? The chicken or the egg?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The question is posed when we are confronted with a situation which calls for the determination of the causality or order of occurrence of two events or situations. So our question for today is: Which comes first? Being in God’s presence which prompts us to pray or praying and then feeling we are in God’s presence.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>And what sorts of things will elicit the feelings of God’s presence? One would hope glorious music or stained glass or a lofty sermon. However equally moving can be an awesome sunrise, or a mountain’s grandeur, or even more mundane things that cross our paths in our everyday life : the smell of a fresh baked loaf of bread, a tiny, furry kitten, a pile of colorful fall leaves. In a novel by Jennifer Chiaverini, titled THE ALOHA QUILT, the main character, Bonnie, is having her first taste of taro. Her hostess says“ they’re delicious, a bit like sweet potatoes. “. Bonnie takes a small serving and samples a small bite. She wondered if she would be able to find taro in a grocery store back in Pennsylvania. She had never noticed them before but she had not been looking for them. A lot about life had escaped her notice because she had not been looking. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In AN ALTAR IN THE WORLD, Barbara Brown Taylor says , “Prayer is waking up to the presence of God no matter where I am or what I am doing. When I am fully alert to whatever or whoever is right in front of me; when I am electrically aware of the tremendous gift of being alive; when I am able to give myself wholly to the moment I am in, then I am in prayer. Prayer is happening and it is not necessarily something that I am doing, God is happening, and I am lucky enough to know that I am in THE MIDST.” At those moments it is not only as if we were suddenly perceiving something in reality we had not perceived before, but as if ourselves were being perceived. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Prayer is more than my idea of prayer and some of what I actually do in my life may constitute genuine prayer.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Whether intentional, or simply by being in THE MOMENT, there are different prayers that are appropriate for the different times and stages in our lives. There is a prayer which I am certain we have all heard or perhaps even prayed as a child or taught <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>to our children or grandchildren. I learned this, literally, at the knees of my grandmother. When we would stay with her in the summertime, at night before going to bed, we would kneel beside the bed and pray,:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Now I lay me down to sleep<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I pray the Lord my soul to keep<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If I should die before I wake<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I pray the Lord my soul to take.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >This was followed by bless mommy and daddy and grandma and grandpa and the list went on and on as long as we could think of people that we wanted God to bless, though I suspect it was the more people we could name for God to bless, the longer we would avoid the inevitability of having to go to bed: especially difficult during the summer when it was still light out.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >There is a newer version of this children’s prayer:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >Now I lay me down to sleep<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >I pray the Lord my soul to keep<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >May God guard me through the night<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >And wake me with the morning light.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >I suspect this newer version is in wider usage because it is considered less scary though I don’t think it has adversely affected the many of us who grew up on the older version.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>As we grew a little older, prayers were learned in Sunday school, or a prayer thanking God for our daily food was prayed at the dinner table. Here at Shell Ridge, prayer and learning about the presence of God is an integral part of the Logos program for our children on Wednesday evenings.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Likewise, prayers and reverence to God are an important part of the scouting program. In Boy Scouts, one of the favorite prayers at mealtimes is called the Philmont Grace: named after the scouting ranch in New Mexico by that name. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >For food, for raiment<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >For life, for opportunity<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >For friendship and fellowship<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >We thank thee, O Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And lest we think that in a preteen’s mind prayers are only for meals, there is a very popular book by Judy Blume, published in 1970 titled ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Margaret, an 11 year old, has grown up in a non-religious home claiming to be non religious herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She does not doubt nor question God’s presence but is innately aware of his existence and presence. She calls on God on a regular basis with the typical worries and concerns of a pre-teen girl. She is in the 6<sup>th</sup> grade and her family has recently relocated to New Jersey. She wants to fit in with her new contemporaries and talks to God about her new community and school. Throughout is a theme of asking God to let her be and develop normally for her age. Another theme that runs throughout is the conflict and choice of a religion. Raised with no religious training as her mother is Christian and her father is Jewish, they have left it up to her to decide when she is “older”. With family conflicts that erupt, she prays and wishes that she’d been born one or the other. Even amidst her struggles, she is constantly aware of God’s presence and grateful for all she has been given.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>As we grow into adulthood, we become more aware of God’s presence as we explore the outdoor world of nature and all its wonders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Close your eyes for a minute and imagine you are sitting in the most beautiful or your most favorite out of doors spot. Now, listen to these words and envision the presence of God:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >God of grave nights,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >God of brave mornings,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >God of silent noon,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >Hear my salutation!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >For where the rapids rage white and scornful,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >I have passed safely, filled with wonder,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >Where the sweet ponds dream under willows,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >I have been swimming, filled with life.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >God of round hills,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >God of green valleys,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >God of clean springs,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >Hear my salutation!<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >Where the moose feeds, I have eaten berries,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >Where the moose drinks, I have drunk deep,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >When the storm crashed through broken heavens-<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >And under clear skies- I have known joy.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >God of great trees,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >God of wild grasses,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >God of little flowers,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >Hear my salutation! <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >For where the deer crops and the beaver plunges,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >Near the river I have pitched my tent,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >Where the pines cast aromatic needles<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >On a still floor, I have known peace.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >God of grave nights,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >God of brave mornings,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >God of silent moon,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >Hear my salutation!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Marguerite Wilkinson<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>We must envision the finished whole from this small segment before us. Isn’t that how we all try to understand the glory of God? We glimpse only the material world, one small facet of His creation and from this alone we attempt to comprehend the eternal world of the spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>In the scripture readings today, we are urged to seek his presence continually (Psalm 105: 4) and be constant in prayer. Joy and perseverance grow out of the wresting and being rooted in and growing from prayer. Prayer is of crucial significance in a relationship with God from the transformed life. In prayer we must be persistent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We must ask for a response and expect that God will respond in a way above and beyond our human experience with one another. <span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Our worship life centers, on this notion of prayer. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Ask and it will be given to you. Search and you will find. If this is our way, we had better be confident that we believe this. The answers to life’s difficult questions come in the context of a community that is willing to stake its life on the belief that prayers are answered and that God does respond to human need and suffering. It means to let God have access to our own hands and feet when they’re needed. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >Our worship life centers on this notion of prayer. The Lord’s Prayer is said in almost every house of Christian worship, every Sunday, all across our land. In each of these places worshippers believe that God will bring a kingdom that is peaceful, God will provide for our daily food, God will forgive our unbelief and God will shield us from trials that we can’t handle. Despite the diversity in our traditions and practices, this simple little prayer may be our most basic common denominator. Prayer isn’t for dummies. It’s for the faithful, who given power by the Spirit, and supported by their faith community, are willing to stake our lives on the belief that God will open the door when we knock. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Faithful prayer is habitual prayer, prayer that does not only occur during a crisis and does not end when a crisis is resolved. Faithful prayer is part and parcel of an ongoing relationship, a lifelong conversation, a prolonged attempt not to control God but to discern God’s presence and activity in all that befalls us- the good and the bad, the desired and the undesirable. Faithful prayer is first of all about finding and placing ourselves in God’s story, and God’s story is about the redemption of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>My prayers are too small if they focus on me, though it is important that our prayers are about our personal, individual needs and desires. Faithful prayer certainly may ask for healing, but it does not ask only for healing. It seeks wisdom to see how Christ is reflected in circumstances- and not just a triumphal Christ but a suffering Christ, a Christ who underwent pain and want before he attained glory. Faithful prayer asks not merely for healing but for patience and discernment and continuing faithfulness. Faithful prayer is work and not always immediately satisfying. God give me- God give us- the strength continue in the work of true prayer, the very work for which we were made. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Intercessory prayer is intertwined with and the heartbeat of the Christian community. It is the way Christians consciously bring others into God’s presence along with themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In prayer we see others as creatures loved by God and in need of God’s grace. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>in intercessory prayer one sees other people “in all their need, hardship and distress” and grants them the “same right we have received, namely, the right to stand before Christ and to share in Christ’s mercy.” In prayer, we put others in God’s hands. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He continues,” I can no longer condemn or hate other Christians for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble they cause me. In intercessory prayer the face that may have been strange and intolerable to me is transformed into the face of one for whom Christ died.” Prayer does work- on the individuals and communities who pray. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Barbara Brown Taylor poses the question, “ Is it right for me to ask God for particular outcomes, when God alone knows what is right? Isn’t the point of prayers to sharpen my hearing, not God’s? Are words necessary at all? Is emptying the mind of all thought a surer path to God than trying to turn my thoughts to God? ““Most of the people I know hunger for some evidence that God hears their prayers. Plenty of them would settle for a divine “no” as long as it were a clear one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I once had a pastor who said that God answers prayer sin four ways: Yes, NO, Wait and “You’ve got to be kidding.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" >Often we imagine and would like to think of a particular happening as an answer to prayer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When I was discerning my call to ministry, I had college prerequisites to be met before I could finish my bachelor’s program. One was passing the Junior English Placement Examination. As I drove home from the seminary one evening after a get acquainted meeting of the Conference on Ministry, I prayed that if I was meant to enter seminary and study for the ministry, that I would receive a passing grade on the exam as an indication that I was on the right path.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When I arrived home, I found in the days mail, the card from San Francisco State that indicated I had received a passing grade. In a passage in Taylor’s book, she relates the following. I tell God what want. I’m not smart enough or strong enough to do anything else, and besides, there’s no time. So I tell God what I want and I trust God to sort it out. “The next day I returned to the seminary to continue the conference. During the lunch hour I was sitting and talking with the student body president. Suddenly I literally felt someone rap me on the head and I heard the words spoken in my ear, “You’ve come home, this is where you belong.” Talk about God’s presence and an answer to prayer! <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%;font-size:100%;" ><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>In some of Taylor’s closing words she says,“ There are real things I can do, both in my body and in my mind, to put myself in the presence of God. God is not obliged to show up, but if God does, then I will be ready. At the same time, I am aware that prayer is more than something I do. The longer I practice prayer, the more I think it is something that is always happening, like a radio wave that carries music through the air whether I tune in to it or not. “<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style=" line-height:150%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span> </span>By opening ourselves to be willing to pray, we are giving ourselves the freedom to experience the presence of God. To be in the presence of God encourages and empowers us to pray. Prayer and presence go hand in hand and are very closely inseparable. Amen</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:7;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Carine Donzehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17219425582667739258noreply@blogger.com0