No title Sermon

The title of my meditation today is “No.” This is a No title sermon. No is one of the first words we learn as children. Why? Well the world is a dangerous place and the people around us are trying to protect us. No, don’t touch that hot stove. No, don’t run out into the street. No you can’t eat candy for dinner. And children learn to say No back. Working in a toy store I hear No a lot, especially when it is time to leave. There are many different kinds of No. There is the casual, No. You hear the parent say, “C’mon its time to go.” “No,” the kid replies as if the say is equal. Sometimes you get the curt, “No.” Strong. Defiant. Like a rock. And once in a while if you are really lucky and it is close to nap time or mealtime you get the long pronounced whiny, “Noooooooo,” which is usually followed by a full blown melt down.

Yes, kids in a toy store have no trouble saying no. But as we age, yes becomes much more popular. People love hearing yes. Just imagine the toy store parents asking their kids, “Are you ready to leave?” and receiving a resounding “Yes.” I guarantee you will have happy parents there. Yes makes for happy bosses, friends, co-workers, pastors, people asking for money, people asking for time. Yes is polite, whereas No is such a rude word.

But can we reclaim the No? As many of us read in Altar in the World this week, one way of reclaiming the No is by observing the Sabbath. Now observing the Sabbath means so much more than coming to church on Sunday. Though it is good to worship and partake in community, taking Sabbath is so much more. For starters it is a whole day. A day of saying No to the obligations of the world and taking the time for yourself and for God.
There are three points of Sabbath. The first is rest. You have to rest. God wants you to rest. In fact there is Biblical precedent for it. Genesis 2 begins, And on the seventh day God finished the work that God had done, and rested on the seventh day from all the work that had been done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that was done in creation. God does two things here. God rests and blesses the day and hallows it. This is the first thing in the Bible that is hallowed. Before this everything was good, but the day of rest was hallowed. I find it interesting that these two things, the resting and the blessing are inseparable. So if it helps, you can think of resting as a holy practice. It was so holy in fact that it was made into one of the 10 Commandments.

Another way of looking at this story is from a historical perspective. The creation story was written by a culture centuries ago that clearly valued rest. For whatever reason rest from the week’s work was important. In fact rest was so valuable that when they told the creation story to one another, they depict God resting. Their God was not at war with other gods, murdering his siblings, but resting peacefully. Rest achieves the value of being a Godly act.

Does rest retain that same value today? Do we honor the commandment? In modern society where stores are open 24/7, where a thousand channels of television bombards us without end, where people working 2 and 3 jobs to feed their families are common, where is Sabbath? Where is rest? One might think that it is gone, that the concept of Sabbath is an ancient idea whose time has past. But I disagree. I think that because it has lost so much value by the world’s (or at least American) standards, it is even more important that we try to reclaim its value. Take back the importance of rest. Make it more important than constant work. And one of the only ways that we can do that is through practice. By practicing Sabbath, we give it the value that it deserves. We honor its holiness.

After rest comes rejuvenation. This is the 2^nd aspect of Sabbath, rejuvenation. When I lived in New York, I worked out with my neighbor, Johnny, who as it happens was a former bodybuilder. Anyone who trains professionally will tell you that you cannot work out every muscle every day. It will never get stronger that way. You need to give it time to rest and recuperate. It is during that time that the muscle rebuilds. You know you get that good soreness. Just like physical muscles in a workout, our spiritual muscles need time to rest and rejuvenate as well. This is a function of Sabbath.

At first this can be quite tough. One thing that can happen is what I call activity withdrawal. People who thrive on speed and work find it hard to take time for themselves. They cannot sit without feeling guilty, feeling like they don’t deserve this time of rest, feeling like they have to take care of that one last thing. Maybe you can relate. Maybe you have suffered from activity withdrawal. In these times it is helpful to remember that this time is mandated by God. It is a gift that we are not only invited to use, but ordered to use. And the benefits of rejuvenation more than make up for the time that is “lost.”

But sitting by ourselves and with God can have other difficulties as well. Have you ever been in a car with a pile of stuff precariously balanced in the back seat? As long as you are maintaining a constant speed everything is fine. However, if something happens and you have to slam on the brakes, everything comes crashing down on you. Stopping everything in our lives can be a very similar experience. Busyness and constant motion has a way of keeping things at bay. But when we stop, when we take that Sabbath time to reflect, years of baggage can come crashing down. And it can be painful. It can leave us with sore spiritual muscles.

This process can be like a relationship. Oftentimes in some of my relationships, there have been problems or things that I have been neglecting, but they go unnoticed because there is just so much to do. Then when there is a break, or a time of rest, those issues come to the forefront. Like the junk from the backseat. Sometimes they caused an end to that relationship. But other times they provided an opportunity. Those issues gave me pause. They gave me something to think about, a way of reflecting on the relationship. And after sitting with the issues, and dealing with them, the relationship became stronger. Rejuvenated.

The same process can work with our relationship with God and our spiritual selves. When we first take a break, there might be some stuff that cascades from the back seat. It might be hard to address. But it also might give us that opportunity for reflection and growth and rejuvenation. Scripture can be very helpful during this time. There is wisdom there that has been gathered over ages by people reflecting on these notions. They can bring us comfort by assuring us that God is with us. We can flip to a proverb and meditate on the wisdom within. Or read a psalm and see the trust in God that it promotes. We can look to the life of Jesus and as a way of being mindful about out own lives. Birds of air/Lillies of the field. Filled with the wisdom and assurance of the scriptures, we can come out of Sabbath not just rested, but rejuvenated as well.

One of the reasons that I loved working out with Johnny was that he had been there before. At the front of his small gym were three pictures of him from his days of bodybuilding competition. He knew the process of building muscle. He knew that it required times of rest. And he respected those days. Respect. This is our third aspect of Sabbath. One of the results of our taking Sabbath is that we will come to respect that day, not just for ourselves, but for everyone.

In the second scripture that Kay read for us Isaiah is blasting some of the leaders for their abuse of the Sabbath. His claim is that they are pious and believe that they are following the Sabbath because they pray to God and then they wonder why God does not see them. Isaiah has no problem spelling it out. He tells them that they have lost respect for what the Sabbath truly means. He speaks for God saying, you think that this is the kind of Sabbath I care about? No way. You fill your own needs and oppress your workers. No, I want the kind where you clothe the naked, feed the poor, and let the oppressed go free. In short, he is saying that Sabbath is about respect. Respect for the Sabbath means respect for one another. This kind of respect is what the Sabbath is all about.

Laws that were written around the Sabbath idea were intended to promote respect and equality for one another. First among people. No one was permitted to work on the Sabbath. This rule was not meant to limit people from working when they wanted to, but to limit masters from making their servants work. It was intended as a protection against the powerful. And it did not stop at just work. The forgiveness of debts was also a part of Sabbath law. Again the intent was to prevent the powerful from taking too much advantage of the meager. In modern times when the ideal is to get ahead by any means necessary, valuing respect and equality is a revolutionary alternative.

Similar laws were written for the land. Every 7 years the land was to lay fallow so that it too could rest and recuperate. Any farmers out there? You know about crop rotation? As you might know, crops steal nutrients from the soil. Every few years it is good to plant nothing so that the land can revive itself and regain those nutrients. Again this is a law meant to limit the powerful landowners from abusing their land. Today as we bombard the planet with factories, pollution, over-farming, over-fishing, over-logging, and just plain overuse, we would be wise to look at the philosophy of the Sabbath and give the land some respect. This does not mean that we have to stop everything altogether, but at least let’s give the planet a bit of a Sabbath. Let it just be for a while.

Rest Rejuvenation Respect. 3 R’s that I invite you to think about in choosing time for your own Sabbath.

Though in this modern world, we may not all take our Sabbath at the same time, we can all respect each other’s need for Sabbath. We can learn to see the word “No” in a positive light. We should not longer be afraid to stand up a say no. Because No means that we will not work ourselves to the point of nervous breakdowns and heart attacks. No means that we will not put unnecessary demands on those around us. No means that we will not allow consumerism to run our lives. No means that we do not have to destroy more trees for catalogs. No means that we will not farm the land until it is unfit to grow anything. No means that we will not patronize places that treat their workers unfairly. And finally No means that we will not let our spiritual needs go unfulfilled. No means rest. No means rejuvenation. And No means respect. Amen

Who are the people in your community?

Earlier today Rick asked us a question, “Who is my community?” It is a good question and it reminds me of the children’s program Sesame Street. Specifically, the song, “Who are the people in you neighborhood?” Do you remember this song? Sing it with me if you know it. Who are the people in your neighborhood? In your neighborhood, in your neigh-bor-hood. Yes who are the people in your neighborhood? They’re the people that you meet when you’re walking down the street. They’re the people that you meet each day. When Sesame Street would do this song they would have Muppets dressed as occupations such as a Letter Carrier, fire fighter, baker (that one was my favorite). But they also touched on some of the not so obvious people in your neighborhood. Like a newsperson or a plumber. One time they even had neighborhood people of Israel (the miller, blacksmith and olive crusher). The idea of the song was to make kids comfortable with their community. If the kids had a better understanding of their neighbors, there would be more trust and less intimidation.

Of course adults never have this problem, right? We are comfortable around everyone in our neighborhood and even know everybody by name. Right? Maybe. But if you are like me, it is hard to meet and know the people that deliver your mail, check your meter, ring you up at the grocery store. It can take years and years of effort to become that comfortable. It can take time to get out of ourselves.

Our Altar in the World practices this summer have all been about getting out of ourselves. Today we turn that same kind of attention to people. The people in our neighborhood. In our community.

Encountering Others. That is what we are talking about today. Can we give the same kind of deep focus and attention to others in our lives that we can give to our spiritual practices like reading scripture, tending our gardens, or walking in the woods?

What I find remarkable about encountering others is that it is what the early church of Peter and Paul was based on. That and free health care. That’s right. FREE HEALTH CARE! Or “healing” if you want to be Biblical about it. That takes us into chapter 3 of Acts. On the surface this looks like a pretty standard healing story. A man who had been crippled all of his life was healed by Peter in the name of Jesus Christ. But let’s dig a bit further. There are three points that I want to make about this story. The first point is that a collective has greater strength than the individual. This healing was not the work of one man, but of a community that sought equality.

At the end of chapter 2 of Acts, there is a little passage that connects the Pentecost story (the story of the birth of the church) to the story we are reading today. It begins on verse 44 and reads, ⁴⁴All who believed were together and had all things in common; ⁴⁵they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. A remarkable thing: to sell all of your possessions and have fair and equal distribution of goods. This is the first step that Peter and the apostles take in becoming a new kind of community. They must first diminish the importance that they place on themselves. For they come to realize that it is not them as individuals that makes the gospel important. It is not them as individuals that will bring forth the kingdom of God. It is not through their individual gain that they will usher in a new way of life, but as something greater: as a collective, as a community.

It sounds peculiar certainly. Why would anyone want to do this? Well, to that question, I say look at the redwoods. Redwood trees are the tallest trees in the world, but interestingly they are unable to grow alone. They must grow in groups. The reason that they trees grow so tall is that their root systems are shallow and wide and intertwined with the roots of the trees around them. Each giant redwood is supported by all the other redwoods surrounding it. What more is when they die they sprout out new saplings from their roots so the next generation will stay connected. So even though on the surface they may look like individual trees, at their roots they are an indecipherable community. Strong. Connected.

The healing in our story today was not the work of an individual. Peter shows no self-importance nor claims responsibility for this healing. He gives all credit to the power of God and faith in the name of Jesus. This faith is the root system at the base of the tree that is Peter. It is a faith that is intertwined with his community and with God. With this selfless mindset it is no wonder that he and John see the man. They see him not as cripple deserving of his plight, but as a part of their community (as a person in their neighborhood) that they can help.

For the second point that I want to make we have to look at one of the details in the story. Reading from verse 2: “And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. ³When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. ⁴Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, ‘Look at us.’ ⁵And he fixed his attention on them expecting to receive something from them.” Imagine this man. Lame from birth. Probably hungry. All day he watches devout religious people coming and going, with their mind on temple business. Not on him. How many times had people passed by this man at the gate and ignored him? And then strolls by Peter and John. They not only stop to help, but the writer of Acts puts in a very interesting detail. It says they look at him with intent. Not with scorn. Not with judgment. Not even with dismissal, but with intent. And then they say, “Look at us.” And he fixes his attention on them. And there is a moment, a brief but important moment. If you look intently at this verse long enough you can find it. It is in the blank space between verses 5 and 6. Peter and John look at the man intently. He looks at them expectantly. And then there it is. The connection. The spark. The moment of seeing each other. Really seeing each other. Have you ever done this? Have you ever seen someone in this way? Really seen them?

And what do Peter and John see? The verse does not say. Maybe desperation. Maybe they saw years of pain and turmoil written there. The kind that comes from years of pleading for money and food. Or perhaps they saw tremendous amounts of hope and faith in this man. Whatever it was that they saw in this man’s eyes, it was profound. So profound in fact that they tell him, “in the name of Jesus Christ stand up and walk.”

Now the story could have been told without this exchange of gazes. Peter and John could have just walked up to the man and healed him. God’s power in Jesus name revealed. Done. Was this detail really necessary? I think so. Because I think that the healing was not as important as the recognition. And that is my second point about this story. To be in community with one another, we have to be able to see one another for who they are and have them see us for who we are. This is not an easy task. In fact it can be a downright scary one. Barbara Brown Taylor acknowledges this. She claims that when we care for others as intensively as we care for ourselves, it is akin to becoming that person, and that means losing yourself if only for a moment. She claims that this may be the only true spiritual discipline there is. We have a different name for it. We call it The Golden Rule, loving one another as we love ourselves.

The third point that I want to make is a simple one and it is this. Seeing one another. Really seeing one another not with our eyes but with our souls can have profound transformative effects. Certainly this man’s life was transformed by his healing, but it stretches far beyond that one act. As the story continues we learn that word spreads that something miraculous has happened. The man comes into the temple walking and leaping and praising God, and he can no longer be ignored. His transformation then has a contagious effect. The people that saw him were amazed. They too were transformed. This healing then becomes a catalyst for Peter’s message. And Peter begins to preach. He talks about faith. He talks about new life. Transforming others. And he keeps talking until the priests and the Sadducees throw him in jail for fear of what this talk can do. This is the power that transformation can have.

And this kind of transformation can have profound effects today. Imagine the way that advertising and industry would be transformed if people less concerned with the way that they saw themselves. Imagine the way the health care industry would transform if people were intent on taking care of one another. Imagine how many hungry could be served if food at every level of distribution was shared in addition to being sold.

And on a personal level imagine how many lives you could change in one day if you did as Peter and John did and practiced seeing those around you not with the intent to change them but with the intent to see who they really were. To view them as people in your community. To be of help. Then real transformation can happen.

Those of you who have been watching the news this weekend no doubt have seen the horrific massacre that happened in Oslo, Norway in the name of Christianity. This is a by-product of individualism...of thinking that division and opposition is the true calling of the gospel. To that I say this. Unless opposing groups, Muslims/Christians, Republicans/Democrats, The Right/The Left. Unless we can learn how to see one another, truly see one another then there will not be peace. Self interest will reign and there will continue to be violence. But if we can look upon one another as Peter and John looked upon the man at the gate then transformation will be possible. If we are able to see one another as people of our community, then unity can begin to be formed. Bridges can be built, and peace will be found. How can we start? It begins with a look. It begins with recognition. It begins with acknowledging the people in our neighborhood. People of God, it begins with us. And the people said Amen.

The power of words / the words of power

One of things that I love about our summer devotional book, An Altar in the World, is its strive towards simplicity. The author Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “My life depends on engaging the most ordinary physical activities with the most exquisite attention I can give them.” When I read this, I cannot help but think of sunrises. I remember as a youth staying up at an all-nighter that ended with watching the sunrise on the beach in Santa Cruz. It was a beautiful sight. Shafts of light mixed with shots of color. It was static and yet it was ever changing. Concepts like Awareness. The presence of God. Being filled with the Spirit, Concepts that always seemed a bit abstract, started to much sense. You could almost hear singer Nina Simone singing in the background. It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life, for me and I’m feeling good. It was truly an altar in my world.

And to think, this happens every day. Every day the sun creeps over the ocean’s horizon. And it has been doing this for years bringing it with it new dawns and new days. Today I want to talk to you about two very specific sunrises.

Our first sunrise begins long ago in the time of Noah. A few years after the flood the people of the land had settled in a place called Shinar. But God, who in this story is called Yahweh did not want them settling. Yahweh told them to branch out and repopulate the earth.

But they did not listen to Yahweh. Instead they had the brilliant idea to build a tower. “Why go out when we can go up,” they thought. “Why rest here on the land like lowly servants, when we can live like gods. Let us build a tower to the heavens.” They sought power. They sought for their own individual satisfaction, their personal gratification. And so they built bricks. And mortor. And more bricks. And more mortar. Days of labor went into the tower. Countless resources used to build brick after brick. Higher and higher, more and more, bigger and bigger. It could never get large enough. Billions and billions. Trillions and trillions.

Where was Yahweh? Perhaps Yahweh figured that they would grow tired of the endeavor. Maybe they would look around and see all that they were neglecting in building this opulent tower. But finally Yahweh could bear it no longer, and in the dark of night Yahweh made a move.

The sunrise that next morning was probably very similar to the one before it. The sun making its sleepy slow crawl over the horizon shooting burst of awake into the eyes of the sleeping workers. Now, imagine you are one of these tower workers. You get to the job site and begin working. You are making bricks or mixing up mortar and doing your thing. One of your fellow workers walks by and greets you in friendly tone, but you can’t quite make out what they are saying. It seems a bit strange but you think nothing of it and go back to work. Making bricks, mixing mortar. A bit off in the distance you can hear some commotion. Again it is a bit concerning, but you keep working. The commotion seems to be getting louder and happening from multiple directions. Then the foreman comes over frantically pointing and shouting at you. That is nothing new, but what is odd is the words coming out of his mouth. You can’t understand any of them. It all sounds like gibberish. You try to tell him to calm down. You are having trouble understanding him. You speak very slowly and calmly, but this only seems to infuriate him even more. He grabs one of the bricks you just made and smashes it right in front of you. Well, now he has gone too far. You stand up and try to talk some sense into him, but it is no use. The whole situation is senseless. Finally he gives up on you and walks away.

You look around at other stations and see the same thing happening all over. People are arguing. Bricks are being smashed. People are storming off. They don’t even care where they go. They’re just scattering. You can’t say that you blame them. Everyone seems crazy. Well you are certainly not going to sit here and build by yourself. And since there is nothing else going on in Shinar, you head home, find some people that you can understand, get your stuff and leave. As you head off to a foreign land, you and your friends talk about what a bunch of babblers everyone is back there. And that dumb tower. The tower of babblers, you call it. Later people would call it the Tower of Babel and even later Babylon.....Here ends the story of our first sunrise.

The second sunrise story comes many years after the first. There has been great progression. The earth has been filled, cities have sprung up, kings and prophets have come and gone, but the sunrise remains the same. It brings with it signs of new beginnings, new light, and new days. On this particular day, the day of Pentecost, it brings with it something else, the anointing of the Holy Spirit. For on this sunrise, on this day, a promise made by Jesus to his followers was about to be fulfilled.

The scripture starts in the upper room. Acts chapter one gives a roll call which includes the disciples, certain women including Mary, Jesus’ mother, his brothers, and other followers. The scripture does not say why they were there or what they were doing but whatever it is, it does not last long. As promised the heavens begin to rumble. There is a brief moment of anticipation as the rumbling builds. Pretty soon the sound fills the entire room. And with the sound comes fire. Fire that fills the followers with so much passion that it appears as tongues on their heads. This is the Holy Spirit that was promised. And the Spirit brought with it a gift. They begin speaking in other languages. At that moment, it all clicked for Jesus’ followers. They were not meant to sit up in the room. They were meant to go out into the four corners of the world. They were meant to spread good news to all that would hear it. That is why the Spirit blessed them with language.

So they go downstairs and do just that. Some in the crowd recognized this gift. They were amazed. They saw the power of God in these people. Others sneered saying, “They are drunk with wine.” And then Peter gives what is one of my favorite lines in the whole Bible. He stands up in front of the crowds and says, “People of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning.” He might have then said, “The bars are not even open yet. We cannot even get mimosas until brunch which does not start until 11:00. So no, we are not drunk.” No one could argue with his iron clad logic.

Answering the drunk question, Peter continues and tells them what their true mission is his morning. He tells them of the prophet Joel and how Joel spoke of a time when both young and old, man and woman, slave and free would rise up with prophetic voices and proclaim the Lord’s glorious day. This new day has come. They are there to tell them good news. They are there to tell them about Jesus, about resurrection, about new life. They are there to usher in a new kingdom where earthly power has no place. He speaks the words of David who says, “You have made known to me the ways of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.” Peter cannot stop talking. And people cannot stop listening. The crowd gathers and multiplies. It grows ever larger and ever stronger. Three thousand people came to believe that day. They put their old selfish and sinful ways behind them and followed a new path, a path that changed the course of history. Thus ends the second sunrise story.

Here we have two sunrise stories. It is no accident that there are distinct similarities. The author of Acts is clearly making allusions to the well known Tower of Babel story. But the goal of the Pentecost story is not to retell the Tower of Babel story but to reverse it. To tell a new story. For example in the Tower of Babel story, language is a source of confusion. But at Pentecost language leads to miraculous understanding. In Babel Yahweh is on high. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit dwells among the people. In Babel the focus was on the individual. How powerful can I get? At Pentecost the focus was on others. How can we serve our world? At Babel the people are scattered. At Pentecost people come together. Overall what I think that the author of Luke is trying to tell us is that the good news of Jesus is a story that transcends the division of language. Furthermore it transcends many divisions. Since the days of Babel, we have done a good job at dividing and populating the earth. In fact we have gone a bit too far. We have built walls, formed countries, made dividing lines and raised armies to keep those lines divided. Peter’s message about the life of Jesus was given to bring people back together. To break down divisions. The chapter ends with the followers selling their possessions and sharing bread and fellowship with one another.

This is a lesson that speaks to us today as much as it did to the people back then. We still have walls, divisions, and even Towers of Babel. Is not the recent financial crisis an example of a group of individuals building a tower of wealth for themselves no matter the cost to others?

When there is tower building, when there is a desire for power, words become very important. The power that one seeks is directly affected by the words that one speaks. Words are used to control and manipulate. Financial deals are carefully constructed amalgamations of words and legal contracts. Political careers are made and lost on the words that are used in speeches. Leaders rise up by the words that they use to inspire and incite their followers.

By contrast when empathy is sought ahead of power then language becomes less necessary. There is still a need for understanding but intention and care take the place of having the right words. I offer the testimony of Sarah Oughton of the Red Cross. After devastating floods in Pakistan, she went to help. Even though she did not speak the language, she was still able to offer first aid training to many of the local volunteers. As she puts it, first aid transcends any language barrier.

I offer the testimony of Mexico Mission people. On ten different occasions this church has gone to Mexico to aid in the building of a house for a family. Though there are some language difficulties, there is still a great intention to help. That intention is felt by the families. It is greater than any words that we could speak.

I offer one last testimony and that is of the hospital chaplains. I have many friends (Nancy Smith is one of them) who are serving as chaplains doing the very difficult work of meeting people in times of sickness and great weakness. Often there is a language barrier but sometimes they find that words are not even necessary. If there is a sincerity of purpose, a willingness to be present, and genuine empathy, then care can be given. People will feel it. That is the power of the Spirit.

Where does that leave us? As I see it we have two options. We can be Babblers, people that constantly drive for higher and higher places. Better pay grades, more expensive cars, power, control, and the greatest satisfaction of all: to be right. We can fight about words and what they mean. Or we can be people of the Pentecost, filled with the Holy Spirit. If we choose the latter, if we choose to be people of the Pentecost then our intention is not to go up but to go out. To go out into the world to mend what is broken. To give care where there is suffering. To bring hope where there is despair. To find altars in our world. As people of the Pentecost we focus on sharing not accumulation. Words will take a back seat to intentions, which are on the needs of others and not the desires of ourselves.

People of Shell Ridge, today brings a new sunrise. Today brings the power of the Spirit. The fire that cannot be quenched. May it fill you so that you can go out and make the world a better place. Because this world needs outward bound people. This world needs the care and compassion that you can bring. Simply put this world needs a Pentecost people. This world needs you. Amen?

Left to God

1 Corinthians 13: The Gift of Love

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Some 18 years ago, Katy, you were a babe in your parents’ arms and ... I was a young pastor, still quite new at Shell Ridge. We hadn’t met yet, but we would before long. And now jump into that marvelous and terrifying time machine and zoom forward nearly two decades and ... shazaaam, kaboom ... here we are. You’re a beautiful young woman—an adult ... and tomorrow you’ll complete this first enormous stage of your journey of becoming.

Graduation from High School is something we pay a lot of attention to, but it isn’t only because you’ve completed a baker’s dozen years of schooling—which in itself is an accomplishment worth celebrating. High school graduation symbolizes your transition into early adulthood. Up until this point we could get away with calling you a child or a youth. Now that way of thinking is reserved for only your mom ... and maybe your dad. And your grandma, of course. For everyone else, you have served notice that your childhood is in your rear-view mirror ... though don’t forget that “objects in your rear-view mirror are closer than they appear.” You’ve reached a time in your life when you can begin to make the Apostle Paul’s words your own: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.

This is not to say, and I hope Paul would agree, that you bid farewell to the child within. I’ve joked with Corinne Mason as long as I’ve known her that she is a 16 year old dwelling in a gracefully aging body. (A recent tumble has Corinne wondering about the “gracefully” part.) Keep the child within alive ... your sense of wonder and hope and possibility. Even as you consider what it means to put an end to childish ways, don’t become too cynical, don’t give up too easily on the world or those around you, don’t forget what was like to ride your first bike or kick your first soccer ball. Don’t forget what it felt like to be safe and secure in mom’s or dad’s arms or what it feels like to lie on your back in the grass and watch the clouds drift by. Don’t forget what it felt like when in your young heart you really believed that love could conquer all ... that God’s love and human love really could create a world where peace and justice and harmony could be achieved and all of earth’s people could live “happily ever after”. Don’t forget these “childish” things ... keep that child and its hope and dreams and ideals alive ... somewhere.

But putting an end to childish ways.

First thing: There’s two things you need to do as you enter adulthood: learn to drink coffee if you don’t already—Peets coffee, preferably ... and learn to read the New York Times as you drink your coffee. That pretty much sums up my advice to you, Katy.

If you’re already reading the Times, you’ll have noticed a column by David Brooks, one of the New York Times’ regular columnists and a pretty wise guy. Now admittedly, David Brooks’ column was about college graduates getting ready to enter the world—which is to say, getting ready to move back in with mom and dad and spend the next several years looking for a job. But I think Brooks has some important things to say that may be even better heard as you prepare to enter college.

Brooks says that the lives of young folk of your age and generation have been “perversely structured.” He says: “This year's graduates are members of the most supervised generation in American history. Through their childhoods and teenage years, they have been monitored, tutored, coached and honed to an unprecedented degree.” Katy, can I hear an “Amen.” But, he goes on to say—and better to hear and understand these words before you enter St. Mary’s than as you leave: Yet upon graduation they will enter a world that is unprecedentedly wide open and unstructured.

Even as you learn to replace your loving parents and supervise yourself, it is, I think, good to become early aware that your best laid plans will only be partly adequate for the future you will enter some four or five years from now. Being well-grounded as a human being and flexible as you enter the future will serve you well in the midst of this rapidly changing world to which we must all continue to creatively adapt.

Brooks also says that as much as we have been nurtured to think that we are at the center of the universe—that it’s all about YOU ... and all about ME ... as we emerge from childhood, we do well to early learn the simple truth that in most of the ways that matter, it’s NOT all about you or me. In the midst of all of the mantras of “expressive individualism” that tell us to “follow our bliss” and “march to our own drummer”, there are “sacred commitments” that are demanded of us: relationships to which we are called to commit, communities that call us to become responsible members, needs of a world that are well beyond our own inner cloistered worlds of self and self-fulfillment.

Brooks says that real truth that is nearly hidden by the gospel of self-fulfillment is that our real, deepest, truest selves are most often called out and expressed in the response to some demand from beyond us that has been placed upon us ... he says: Most people don't form a self and then lead a life. They are called by a problem, and the self is constructed gradually by a calling.

Think of Moses wandering aimlessly in the desert herding sheep until God calls from a burning bush. God calls Moses to leave the leave the sheep behind and lead God’s people out of slavery—which had not been on Moses’ “I just want to find myself” agenda. And is that call that defines Moses for the remainder of his days ... it makes Moses MOSES.

David Brooks, closes his column saying: Today's grads enter a cultural climate that preaches the self as the center of a life. But, of course, as they age, they'll discover that the tasks of a life are at the center. Fulfillment is a byproduct of how people engage their tasks, and can't be pursued directly. Most of us are egotistical and most are self-concerned most of the time, but it's nonetheless true that life comes to a point only in those moments when the self dissolves into some [greater] task. The purpose in life is not to find yourself. It's to lose yourself.

Who does David Brooks think he is ... Jesus? Remember Jesus saying: “... those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

OK, Katy ... it’s fair for you to say to me: “Hey, enough already ... I haven’t even flunked my first class in college, yet. Preach that sermon to me in four years ... or maybe five!” Fair enough. But let me say that a part of your emergence into adulthood and putting away the ways of childhood is for you to let us go and for us to let you go. And this is no easy task for there have been nearly two decades of creating ties that bind, being directed where you should go, told what you should think and value and how you should view the world. And to be sure, these are not bad things ... these are the loving lessons and relationships of childhood. And now it is time to take the training wheels off of your bicycle of your self and your soul, and peddle off into the world. It is time to begin to snip away at the many, many gossamer threads that bind you to this time and place and the many people you love—and who love you. It’s time for us all to begin to practice a little “benign neglect”.

You should know by now, Katy, that my favorite poet is Robert Frost. Robert Frost takes a lot of the imagery for his poems from the natural world of field and farm—but he applies what he observes to the human being and the challenges of being human. This is a poem entitled: “Goodbye and Keep Cold”. It’s about an orchard of fruit saplings that fare best with a little “benign neglect”. That too much care and concern, and too protective of instincts might actually be harmful to the orchard and their latent fruitfulness. And as I read the poem, I not only think of you and your need to separate in whole and healthy ways from your family of upbringing and your faith family, but I also think of my relationship to this church and it to me as I prepare to depart for several months.

This saying good-bye on the edge of the dark

And cold to an orchard so young in the bark

Reminds me of all that can happen to harm

An orchard away at the end of the farm

All winter, cut off by a hill from the house.

I don't want it girdled by rabbit and mouse,

I don't want it dreamily nibbled for browse

By deer, and I don't want it budded by grouse.

(If certain it wouldn't be idle to call

I'd summon grouse, rabbit, and deer to the wall

And warn them away with a stick for a gun.)

I don't want it stirred by the heat of the sun.

(We made it secure against being, I hope,

By setting it out on a northerly slope.)

No orchard's the worse for the wintriest storm;

But one thing about it, it mustn't get warm.

"How often already you've had to be told,

Keep cold, young orchard. Good-bye and keep cold.

Dread fifty above more than fifty below."

I have to be gone for a season or so.

My business awhile is with different trees,

Less carefully nourished, less fruitful than these,

And such as is done to their wood with an axe--

Maples and birches and tamaracks.

I wish I could promise to lie in the night

And think of an orchard's arboreal plight

When slowly (and nobody comes with a light)

Its heart sinks lower under the sod.

But something has to be left to God.

Katy, did you ever raise butterflies in school? ... you know, where your teacher brings in the chrysalis where the monarch caterpillar has seemingly created a tomb for itself ... and then, wonder of wonders, it breaks forth from the tomb and is released as a beautiful butterfly? It’s a real Easter moment, in some ways, and it’s the kind of transformation we hope for every child that we have been privileged to love and nurture and watch as she and he has grown wings and prepares to fly ... away ... but not far away we naturally hope.

If you observed the emergence of the butterfly from its cocoon carefully, you’ll remember that there’s a time when the butterfly seems to get stuck and you fear that is has gotten trapped and needs your help to emerge from its cocoon—that it can’t do it on its own. One person, observing the struggles of the emerging butterfly, did reach in and helped the butterfly from its cocoon and then noticed that the butterfly’s wings remained shrunken and misshapen and it was unable to fly. What the kindly person didn’t know ... couldn’t know ... was that it is precisely the struggle to free itself from its cocoon that pumps the fluids into the butterfly’s wings to help make them full and strong and capable of flight. It was assisting when assistance wasn’t needed or helpful that doomed the butterfly to flightlessness.

The author, Alan Paton, was wiser than the kindly soul who would help butterflies. He writes:

I see my son wearing long trousers; I tremble at this. I see he goes forward confidently, he does not know so fully his own gentleness. Go forward, eager and reverent child. See here, I begin to take my hands away from you. I shall see you walk carelessly on the edge of the precipice, but if you wish, you shall hear no word come out of me. My whole soul will be sick with apprehension, but I shall not disobey you. Life sees you coming, she sees you come with assurance toward her. She lies in wait for you. She cannot but hurt you. Yet go forward. Go forward. I hold the bandages and the ointment ready. And if you would go elsewhere and lie alone with your wounds, I shall not intrude upon you. If you would seek the help of some other person, I will not come forcing myself upon you. If you should fall into sin, innocent one, that is the way of this pilgrimage. Struggle against it, not for one fraction of a moment concede its dominion. It will occasion you grief and sorrow, it will torment you. But hate not God, nor turn from Him in shame or self-reproach. He has seen many such, and His compassion is as great as His creation. Be tempted and fall and return. Return and be tempted and fall, a thousand times a thousand, even to a thousand thousand. For out of this tribulation there comes a peace, deep in the soul and surer than any dream.

This, is, I think is clear, not just a graduation sermon to Katy, but a graduation sermon of life to us all. The need to let go in so many ways, at so many stages of our lives. Letting go of childhood so adulthood can come. Letting go of our children so they may emerge into adulthood as whole, capable beings ... and themselves. Letting go of certain of life’s illusions that we can seen life and ourselves more clearly, more helpfully. Letting of the need to “not struggle”, but it is often the struggles that most clearly define us and, in the end, the bring us the peace and the joy and the happiness that are so elusive when we pursue them.

So ... Katie ... so Shell Ridge ... “goodbye and keep cold” ... a little benign neglect might be just what we all need. Something has to be left to God. And out of any tribulations that might be ahead, as surely as those we’ve already known, I pray that there will come to you and to us all, a peace, deep in the soul and surer than any dream.

Let us pray:

God it is so hard to let our children go,

To life ... to suffering ... to you.

It’s hard to leave our friends alone

To work out their own problems.

Help us to trust more, and interfere less.

And so we give them and each other over to you, God.

Bend down to them, take care of them, give good things to them.

And in your time and in the uniqueness of their being, bring to them meaning and joy, wholeness and peace.

Amen.

--Adapted from a prayer by Robert Raines in “Creative Brooding”

House rules

What does it mean to be a Christian? This is a very good question. What does it mean to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus? I believe that is what Jesus was trying to answer on his sermon on the mount. What does it mean to be a Christian?

Before I get into that, I want to talk about Monopoly...the board game. How many of you are familiar with this game, the original. Answer me this: “What happens when you land on Free Parking?” “It depends”, right? If you are playing by the written rules, nothing. But we played different. We used to put $500 in the middle of the board, the Free Parking Fund, and add to that all of the fines, taxes and fees that would usually go in the bank. Then if you landed on Free Parking, jackpot. How many other people played this way? A few? Many? Most of you? When I was growing up, this was so common that if I went to a friend’s house and we broke out Monopoly, it would always have to warrant a discussion about Free Parking. What were the house rules?

What does it mean to be a Christian? Maybe it is as simple as following the house rules. Jesus lays out a bunch of them, but today we are going to focus on two. The first is a two parter: turn the other cheek and love your enemies. Easy right? Sure. I don’t think that we will have any problem keeping that one. Right? Riiiiight.

Jesus starts this off by saying that “You have heard, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I tell you to turn the other cheek,” which if you think about it gives access to your other eye and more teeth. This is interesting because Jesus is reciting rules and making a change. Kinda changing the rules about Free Parking. Jesus wanted to make his own house rules. See, way way back in the time of Moses and the lawmakers, this rule (an eye for an eye) was intended as a deterrent for just doing whatever you wanted without consequence. It was intended to create order and justice. But by the time of Jesus, he saw it as justifying an endless cycle of animosity. You attacked me so I will attack you which makes you feel justified in attacking me again. On and on it goes. Jesus offers a way to break that cycle.

Breaking the cycle. Loving enemies. At first brush it may seem completely unnatural. After all they are enemies, right? It reminds me of a scene in Finding Nemo. Have any of you seen this movie? It is about a clown fish named Marlin who loses his son, Nemo, and traverses the ocean to find him. Along the way he encounters a group of sharks: mortal enemies in the truest sense of the term. Large terrifying enemies with sharp teeth. But these are not any old sharks. No, these sharks are in an abstinence group wherein they have agreed not to eat any other fish. “Fish are friends, not food,” they chant. We laugh because of the absurdity of the situation. It is so unnatural. It makes me wonder how many people laughed at Jesus when he told them that they were to love their enemies.

Who are the sharks in our lives? What would it mean to love our enemies, to see them differently? To see them as vegetarian sharks? What would it mean to look at the richest of the rich, not with scorn and disdain, but with love? What would it mean for the rich to look at the poor with care and sympathy.

What would love look like to love our domestic enemies, our criminal population? Instead of building more prisons and packing them to capacity, what would it look like to approach that cycle with care, and true compassion? What if we took our eye for an eye justice system and looked deeper? Looked for root causes. We may be able to create true justice with opportunities for education, equality and development.

What would it mean to turn the other cheek if we were attacked as a country? To not respond with retaliation and violence but with attempt at understanding. Perhaps even aid. Could we break the cycle of war? Even justified war. Next week we will hear from a whole group of peacemakers who are looking to break that cycle. Those who have the courage and willingness to turn the other cheek.

What does it mean to be a Christian? Love your enemies. Turn the other cheek. Maybe a crazy idea, but then Jesus then goes on to talk about some other crazy ideas. “If anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.” What the what?!? Okay I can understand going the extra mile to help someone, but the cloak thing? That is like saying if someone sues you for the shirt off of your back, toss in your pants as well. Craziness! It is tempting here to talk about the legal system and Jesus’ issues with the establishment, but what I really think that he was talking about was attachment, particularly our attachment to stuff. The youth and I have been talking about stuff a lot lately. This week in particular we have been talking about why we are so covetous towards stuff, why we feel we need it for happiness.

It reminds me of Mr. Mom. How many of you remember the movie, Mr. Mom? It was an 80’s movie where a husband and wife that reverse roles. She goes to work. He manages the house. One of his kids, the 3 year old has a blanket that he loves, his wubbie. He carries it around everywhere. It is literally a security blanket. Maybe you had one of these when you were a kid, or had a kid with something like this. It is old, stained, has holes. You try to clean it, but it always just looks ratty. And yet the kid cannot give it up. After a heart to heart with the dad the kids realizes that his attachment to the blanket is holding him back. He is not going to be able to grow up as long as he is dragging his wubbie around. It takes great strength and courage, but he finally lets it go.

What are you holding onto? To be clear, I am not talking about stuff that we need. I am talking about attachment. Not so much as economics as MEconomics What are you holding onto that is keeping you from growing? Is some thing that you value getting in the way of connecting with another? Let it go. Many of you know Srini who comes used to visit us and now lives in LA. He had this detachment mentality. He said that when he goes shopping, he sees everything as just one more thing that you have to clean.

Jesus had a similar mentality. He said give it up. Don’t worry about it. Let attachment be someone else’s problem. What if we really followed this rule? I mean, wars are fought both in the home and beyond over stuff. I want it so you cannot have it. This is my stuff, not your stuff. Imagine how different our economic structure would be if we bought what we needed and gave to those in need. Abandoned houses for the homeless. Abundant food going to the hungry.

What does it mean to be a Christian? Follow the house rules. Love your enemies. Lose your attachment. There are plenty of others. A whole book in fact. But instead of talking about more of the rules, I want to spend a bit of time talking about the house. Paul, gives the Corinthians a great metaphor. He writes, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” Paul is writing to the early church at Corinth, a church that was in turmoil. It was full of bickering and one-upmanship. And Paul writes them to try and create some reconciliation. He is trying to tell them that they have a great opportunity here. They have a remarkable starting point, a foundation laid in Jesus. This same Jesus that said all of these revolutionary things, that came up with all of these remarkable rules. They had the opportunity to create something great. But it was up to them to build it. Using all of their talents and gifts, brick by brick they were building a temple. They were at the threshold of changing the world and creating something anew.

Paul’s words still resound with us today. Though 2000 years removed, we are, I believe at another threshold of change. We are still building that temple. Recently I know that we have felt some setbacks with the Ministry Center not being able to be built. There was disappointment. Perhaps hurt. We are still recovering from that. But let us not forget the words of Paul that we are God’s temple and God dwells in us. Each of us is a center of ministry with the bold charge to go into the world and build something.

And why do Jesus’ and Paul’s words still ring true? Because we still live in a world that is full of war and injustice, bickering and disjointedness. Full of the same cycles that they were trying to break all those years ago. You can almost hear them saying...

Break the cycle of answering violence with more violence. Build a cycle of peace. Break the cycle of buying stuff for happiness only to see that happiness dwindle. Build a cycle of detachment. Break the cycle of taking from one another. Build a cycle of giving to one another. Break the cycle of endlessly worrying about yourselves. Build a cycle of lifting each other up.

Like the church of Corinth before us, we are at a verge of change, a threshold of potential. But we do not enter this change empty handed. We have rules to live by. Guidance to a better world. You ask me what does it mean to be a Christian, what it means to be a temple of God? I ask you what are your house rules?

One house, many rooms

John 14:1-7

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe* in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?* And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know* my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’

John 3:16-17

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

The Last Time

This could be the last time I awake

This could be the last breath that I take

This could be the last time that I pray

This could be the day I fly away

This could be the last time I sing a song

This could be the day I say so long

This could be the last meal that I eat

This could be the last beat my heart beats

But I can't place such a bet

So I won't just sit and fret

Until I'm gone

This could be the last day my eyes see

This could be the last day you see me

This could be the last night in my bed

This could be the last thought in my head

I won't cast my life to the wind

I'll treasure as much as I can

While I can, I can

Though I may be gone before too long

As long as I am here I'll sing this song

This could be the last time

This could be the last time

This could be the last time...

Well, here we are. Did you have any doubts? Did you wonder at any time in the past few days or weeks if Harold Camping of Family Ministries radio just might know something you didn’t? If you lived close enough to the Hayward Fault and felt yesterday evening’s minor shaking, would you have had momentary second thoughts?

So, the end of the world as we know it did not happen ... as far as we know, everyone who started the morning on this earth ended the day on this earth. The Rapture, which some understand to be the pre-judgment sparing of the faithful, if it is ever to occur, did not happen yesterday.

It was, however, quite the truly weird day outside of the Family Ministry headquarters. Joining some of the faithful who gathered to be raptured were Christians who called Camping a false prophet ... there was a woman dressed as an angel passing out free tickets to the other side ... Santa Claus was there pouring free koolaid ... I believe everyone who drank it survived ... there was a man from Minnesota passing out free cans of beer ... and a young man from Sacramento who would pass for Jesus nearly anywhere in the world was there to add a certain note of authenticity to day that almost ran away with weirdness.

“Of that day and of that hour” it says in the gospel of Mark, “no one knows—not the angels, not Jesus, but God alone. So be alert ... stay awake.”

For as long as I can remember ... possibly even going back as far as the early 80’s, I have been bumping into Harold Camping on the television and radio ... as I scrolled through the channels or turned the knob through the stations, I encountered his droll face and low monotone voice so often that they became familiar to me. I never lingered long ... our understanding of God and the Universe and reality was so profoundly different that there didn’t seem to be any point in having a silent, one-sided argument that he couldn’t win and I couldn’t lose. But the little I did hear made it clear that he was among those who was absolutely certain that the Bible was a riddle to be deciphered and if it could be deciphered properly, then God’s hidden timeline for the universe could be teased out.

17 years ago his study and calculations indicated that the earth would end then ... and then ... well, then, as yesterday, the sun came up ... the world went about its business ... the sun set ... and another day. Sort of like the ancient story of creation ... evening and morning ... morning and evening ... and God saw that it was good. And God rested.

When I was a pastor in Vermont, I learned that our little corner of the world had been the epicenter of another failed prediction of the world’s end. William Miller was a Baptist minister who had actually grown up in my little village of East Poultney. As an adult, he moved a few miles west to New York State where he served as a pastor. In the 1830’s he became convinced that the time of Jesus’ 2^nd Coming or “2^nd Advent” was approaching. He began to spread his word and a world-wide movement of anticipation came into being. The movement took on Miller’s name and were known as “Millerites”. William Miller started spreading his message in the rural areas of New York and New England, but by the end of the decade in the major cities of the East, he proved to steadily increasing audiences of Protestants from many denominations that the end of the world was almost at hand. By 1843, probably over one million people had attended the Millerites various camp meetings, and between 50,000 and 100,000 of these were persuaded to bring their earthly affairs to an end by October 22, 1844 -- the date ultimately announced as the day the saints would be translated to the New Jerusalem while the world perished in fire beneath them.

October 22, 1844 was a day very much like May 21, 2011 ... the sun rose ... the sun set ... as it did the next day and the next.

The failure in Miller’s time was known as “the Great Disappointment” ... it was a shattering failure for tens ... maybe even hundreds of thousands of believers. Three groups emerged from the ruins of Millers failed predictions, one of those being the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

And so it goes.

The hope and belief in the end of the world and the return of Jesus in judgment and glory is as old as the faith. The early Christians, with plenty of encouragement from Paul, believed they were living in the last days ... they utterly believed that Jesus would return in their generation. In Paul’s early letters, you can sense the immediacy of that belief.

In 1^st Thessalonians 4, Paul tells the Christians there: “For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord for ever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

But in 2^nd Thessalonians, as the faithful begin to die without seeing the second coming, Paul—or someone writing in the spirit of Paul—writes now to counter some of the confusion and disappointment regarding the delay of Jesus’ return. This letter, as well as other writings of Paul, addresses the tendency to “put off life” ... because if Jesus is coming soon, why bother with the mundane details of life? Already in Paul’s time amidst the first generation of Christians, adjustments to expectations and reassessments of how to live while waiting were going on. Some people in Paul’s time quit working and gave up their responsibilities in the confidence that trivialities like that didn’t matter.

I find myself wondering what all of those un-raptured folk in their RV’s are doing who’ve been driving around for months spreading the word. They gave up their jobs and sold their homes and put it all on the line. I suppose you’ve got to at least admire that they gave it their all ... but I wonder what they’re doing this morning? Camped in a Walmart parking lot somewhere, I suppose, wondering if their friends and family and former employers will welcome them back.

I think it’s worth naming the implications of a “second coming” as both Paul and Harold Camping seemed to understand it. There is a savageness and a disregard for much of God’s human family that I think we should find extraordinarily disturbing. Paul’s writings speak of “punishment of eternal destruction” for those who do not confess Jesus or live by his commands. In a recent interview, Harold Camping was asked to estimate the number of people who would be spared the mayhem and destruction of God’s judgment and he guessed around 200 million. Now that’s not a small number and it’s certainly a good deal larger than the 144,000 hinted at in Revelations and claimed by some, including the Jehovah’s Witnesses who come knocking at our doors.

But doing the math on either scenario leaves about 7 billion souls heading for, in Paul’s and Camping’s words—but not mine, to eternal destruction. Endless suffering and punishment.

Now I don’t believe that ... and I don’t think it’s hard to understand that those who do believe and espouse words and ideas like that are dangerous to life on this planet. It is to say, these folk, that in God’s economy, nearly the entirety of God’s human family is unworthy and expendable ... even loathsome.

These loathsome and expendable souls would include those whose loyalty was offered to someone other than Jesus as well as those who lived and died in ignorance of Jesus. People of other faiths and people of insufficient faith and people of no faith ... all consignable to fires of everlasting damnation.

Wow ... I didn’t think I’d ever say those words in a sermon. One of my favorite religious cartoons is of a pastor standing in front of a long dressing mirror with a giant Bible perched in his hand and he’s practicing the word “Brimstone!”.

Until I breathe my last breath, whenever that is, I will bet my life and faith on a different understanding of God and God’s love.

I have a startlingly clear memory, as I’ve noted a time or two, from my childhood that has shaped my life profoundly since. I was 10 or 11 ... I was riding my bike with a friend near my home ... and I guess as we flew along we were engaged in some pretty hot and heavy theological discussions because it suddenly occurred to me as we rode and talked that I absolutely, flatly rejected any understanding that people were “going to hell” just because they didn’t believe in Jesus as we did. It was as clear to me as a bolt of lightning and as startling as a thunderclap. And every subsequent occasion in my life when I have been faced with choosing an understanding of God based on a punishing judgment or embracing grace, I have chosen ... claimed ... grace. That moment of clarity has informed my understanding of people of other faiths and people of no faith ... it has informed my understanding of race ... and gender ... and sexual orientation ... and any other area where we are tempted to draw lines of division and exclusion and judgment.

“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy ...” claims the hymn that I grew up singing, “like the wideness of the sea.” And what is likely the first verse of the Bible I ever heard and learned declares that God so loved the world that God gave dearly of God’s self so that the world might not end in punishment and destruction, but in mercy and salvation.

It is absolutely true that if you want to squeeze the blood of judgment and condemnation out of the Bible, you absolutely can. Hate-mongering preachers have been doing it for nearly two thousand years. As with many other written works, the Bible can be easily shaped to serve the needs of a whole host of pre-existing biases. Let’s understand, in this “Bible as Literature” moment, that the Bible was created by the contributions of an uncountable number of people over thousands of years, and edited by scores more over still great periods of time. The thoughts and understandings of the writers and editors varied as times and needs and circumstances varied. And what we have ended up with is not a scientific textbook, or a magical book of hidden riddles, but a sacred work of extraordinary variety and depth and range of experience and understanding. And in that sacred work, our Bible of Jewish and Christian writings, we can discern a long arc understanding of the being and desires of God ... and it may be an arc that begins with God as a savage and jealous God who destroys Israel’s enemies, but it is an arc that even before we enter the Christian scriptures, as with the hopeful prophecies of Isaiah, is already showing bold evidence of God’s great dream of Shalom ... peace with justice for all people and all creation. And these prophecies and the great bold hope of the ancient prophets comes to fullness and fruition in the person and work and great Spirit of Jesus. And the arc of God’s movement from judgment to grace that is made manifest in Jesus is an arc that cannot turn back, but can only go forward seeking to make ever more manifest the saving and grace laden goodness of God’s love for all.

Dear friends, this world of God’s imagining and God’s embracing is, as we know, also a world full of pain. I believe in a God who yearns to embrace this world in hope and mercy and grace ... I believe in a God who hopes for the healing of body and spirit of all persons ... I believe in a God who will never give up on any one soul any more than God will give up on creation.

So ... back to yesterday for a final moment. I wonder how many babies were born yesterday ... I wonder how many babies were born on the so-called “day of judgment”. Here’s my take on it ... I hold to that statement that says: “Babies are God’s way of saying “The world should go on.” I trust that a normal number of babies were born yesterday. Therefore I believe, and I believe God believes ... our world should go on.

Jesus said: “In my Father’s house there are many rooms” ... it’s a BIG house ... and there’s a LOT of rooms ... about 7.2 billion rooms by current estimations.

Yes, I believe the world should go on.

So be it.

Amen.