Thursday, August 27, 2009

A Soul Repair Shop

Psalm 84 John 15:10-12
August 23, 2009


In my sermon two weeks ago I reflected on the challenging Bible passage from Paul’s letter the church in Ephesus where he wrote,
“It’s OK to be angry, just don’t let the sun go down on your anger.”
I don’t know about you, but I kept thinking about that passage,
and did a little play on words with that phrase, “don’t let the sun go down on your anger.” Usually we take that to mean, address the problem quickly. Don’t hold onto your anger.
It takes far more energy that carry the burden of anger than it does to simply express it.
This is wise advice.
In playing with the words, I took, “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger,” to mean, don’t let the light go out on your anger.

Let the anger guide you to its source.

I have been preparing for the classes that I will be offering beginning next month.
One of those classes is called Compassionate Communication and it is based upon the work of Marshall Rosenberg. And so I have been reading the book for the course, Nonviolent Communication, A Language for Life.

The wisdom in that book is what made me see the passage from Ephesians in an unorthodox way, turning, Don’t let the sun go down on your anger to mean, don’t let the light go out on your anger. Let the anger guide you to its source.

Because in Marshall Rosenberg’s book we learn that behind every feeling there is a met or an unmet need.

If the feeling is a positive one, then a need or a value that you have is being met.

Behind every negative feeling, such as anger, there is an unmet need.
Follow that feeling to its source.

One of the scary things about anger, or many strong emotions, is that sometimes we don’t know their source.
We may know the person who is causing to be angry, but we don’t really know why.

Following the anger to its source within us, whether that is an unmet need, or an unconscious habit, can lead us to an understanding that will help us resolve our conflict with our neighbor by finding a way to get both of our needs met.

The work of Compassionate Communication that we will be studying this fall is that when we can move into a place of understanding our needs and the needs of the person or persons with whom we are in dialogue, we are more likely to deepen our relationship and find a solution that is mutually agreeable.

As we explore the source of our feelings we are also deepening our relationship with our self, our soul.
What am I feeling?
Where in my body am I feeling it?
Where is the feeling coming from?

Am I angry and not expressing it because of an internalized a pattern of behavior that I learned from my parents?

Am I sad and lost because I have lost something:
my job,
my spouse,
my physical abilities?

Am I angry because my identity is defined by my political or religious viewpoint and another point of view is an attack on my identity?

Following our feeling to their source in met or unmet needs may help us to re-evaluate what we really need.
Following our feelings to their source may in fact help us to re-evaluate a Source we really need.

There has been a common thread in conversations that I have had with people recently. That common thread was heard

In a conversation with a person who is slowly dying

In a conversation with a person recently retired

In a conversation with a person who felt that their values were attacked simply in hearing someone else expressing an opposing viewpoint.

The common thread through all of these conversations is,
“Who am I when my usual sense of identity is taken away?
When I am no longer identified by my employment,
my relationship with a spouse, my identification with a political party,
with a functioning body, who am I?

Whenever we face a time of transition in life, from youth to adulthood, from employment to unemployment, from health to sickness, from a familiar home to a new home, we often face a crisis of identity.
Who am I ………….now?

Now I don’t want to even try to offer anything that would take away the pain and struggle of transition. There is great wisdom in simply saying that the emptiness caused by transitions is difficult. There is no way around it. But I am wondering if there is a way through it.
And I am wondering, if I could find my most basic identity, my Source, in my relationship with God, with Christ, with the Holy Spirit, then would I be better able to find a way through the loss of identity that comes from my work, my family roles, my age, my health?
Wondering about all these things in light of today’s scripture reading, made me think of the church as a repair shop for the soul.
In Psalm 84 the temple, the resting place of God and sparrows nourishes the soul.
In the Gospel of John Jesus says that our connection with him connects us with God just the branches are connected to the vine. And we are invited to abide in this connection.
Dwelling in the temple and abiding in love nourishes the soul.

How does our church nourish the soul? What tools do we have in this repair shop for those times when are yearning for an identity in something eternal? One tool we have is ritual. In her book, Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, makes a wonderful statement about ritual after experiencing a ceremony of forgiveness.
“This is what rituals are for. We do ceremonies as human beings in order to create a safe resting place for our most complicated feelings of joy or trauma, so we don’t have to haul those feelings around with us forever, weighing us down. We all need such places of ritual safekeeping. If we bring the right earnestness to our ceremonies God will provide the grace. And that is why we all need God.” (pg 187)

In our church we have two sacraments, two rituals that we honor as doorways to God, openings to the sacred, two ceremonies for creating a safe resting place for God’s grace.
These two sacraments are baptism and communion.
Both Baptism and Communion take place in the midst of community.
They are not private events. They take place within a worship service.

In communion, in offering the bread to our neighbor in the pew we are imitating the love of Christ.

In our receiving the bread and the cup from our neighbor in the pew we are imitating the vulnerability of Christ.

We have love to offer. We have love to receive.

In baptism a similar thing happens. At whatever age a person is baptized, whether as an infant, child, or adult, they are welcomed in to a community connected by love.

A person is welcomed into an ancient story that has shaped us a people. A story that we reshape as we tell it, hear it, and live into it. A story that begins in creation, wanders in the wilderness, builds tribes, communities and nations. A story that sees how tribes, communities and nations can be built or destroyed depending upon how the care for the “least among us.”

A story of shepherds and saints, kings and rebels, the best and worst of humanity.

A story of mothers and children, brothers and sisters, fathers and prodigal sons.

And a story which has within it the constant invitation to choose life. To begin again. No matter what is ending, no matter how have come to this end, begin again. The story of resurrection is found throughout the Bible for God is always our Loving Companion Presence.
In baptism a person is welcomed into an ancient story and a local story;
a story of a denomination; Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, Disciples of Christ, United Church of Christ; and a story of a local church, First Congregational Church, Murphys.

A person is welcomed into the community as a gift from God to the community. The community welcomes each person baptized into the community as a complete and worthy human being.

For in that moment of baptism, in the holiness of the worship service, we uphold that aspect of the person, which is the real person
and the soul beyond their own self-doubt, their own actual or potential shortcomings.

In that moment of baptism as with communion we are welcomed with a radical hospitality that says whoever and wherever you are in journey, you are welcome here.

I was a part of a sacred conversation of Friday. It was the monthly meeting of the Committee on Ministry, which reviews candidates for ordination. Students seeking ordination in the United Church meet annually with the Committee on Ministry for support, guidance, and challenge as the Committee is charged with the responsibility of recommending this candidates for ordination.

One of these candidates said something very beautiful about the sacraments of baptism and communion. This candidate is in 50s. He had a very successful career in business, including owning his business.

He was used to being in control. He was used to being important because of his status.
He was used to people saying what they thought he wanted to hear.
He was used to people caring about what he had to say.

All of that went away when he followed the call to ministry. He was no longer important because of his identity as a business owner. And it had a profound impact on him.
He relaxed.
He accepted life as it came to him not as he wanted it to be. He paid more attention to his heart than to his head. He stopped analyzing and began paying attention to his feelings and the feelings of others.

And he came to wonder, what a Christian community would be like, if we could greet one another as we are greeted at our baptism,
“You are well loved.”
“You are worthy”
“You are a part of this perfectly imperfect community.”

And he came to wonder, what a Christian community would be like, if we could serve one another and be served by one another as we do when we share communion.
This bread that was broken for you and this cup that was emptied for you, we share with one another. In our sharing, in our giving and our receiving, we know Christ.
We abide in Christ.
In Psalm 84, the Psalmist remembers the temple and says, “Oh how lovely is your dwelling place.”
The interesting thing is that that Psalm may have been written long after the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. It may have been written during the time when the people of Jerusalem were in exile in Babylon.
And they were asking that question, “Who are when we are away from the land promised to us by God?”
In that time of exile, of loss, they found the eternal.

The temple is not a place, the temple is verb,
Jesus is not a set of doctrines to believe, he is a relationship in which we live.
Abide in me.
Abide in Christ as Christ abides in God.

Drink the living water, eat the bread that multiplies itself as it is used and broken and blessed.
Find your identity in God.
Seek first the kin-dom of God Jesus says.
We do find our identity in our work, in our family, in our health, in our political parties, in our nation.
But they all pass away.
In this sanctuary of place and time, our souls are repaired as we remember what is eternal,
And as we are given our lesson to practice for the week ahead,
Remember your baptism,
Remember your communion,
Offer welcome and self-giving love to one another.
Build the temple again.
It is within you when you give yourself to the Source of life.
Place your feelings in the holy container of the baptismal font, the plate of broken bread, the cup of self-giving love, and lean on Jesus, lean on your brother, lean on your sister.
And let them know that they can lean on you also. How lovely is this dwelling place.
Let those who love mercy and do justice say. Amen.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Prayer: 100 Foot Clearance

John 17: 6-19 I John 5:9-13
May 24, 2009

Let’s set the scene.
First of all we have the way that the authors of the Gospel and the Letters of John, and their community sees the world. Throughout the Gospel and the Letters we read of a cosmic drama that is played out in terms of pairs of opposites: light/darkness, spirit/flesh, above/below, of this world/not of this world.

Understanding itself as set squarely against a hostile environment, the Johannine community, believed that those within its circle lived in a realm or sphere of spiritual influence fundamentally opposed to that which lay at the heart of the world outside. In that broken world, Evil ruled; in their world, God ruled—and there was no middle ground or grey area.

Characters in the Gospel of John continually misunderstand Jesus, because he always speaks on the basis of the realm above, from which he comes, whereas they always think on the basis of the realm below.

With that as the author’s background we continue to set the scene of this morning’s scripture reading, the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John. These words are part of a prayer that Jesus offers after his last meal with his followers and just hours before his arrest and crucifixion.

The chapters 15-17 in the Gospel of John are called the Farewell Discourses which are set in the moment where Jesus and his disciples are together for the last time. This is the moment when Jesus is able to give his last instructions to his disciples, his final lecture to his students.

In a way, these words are Jesus' last will and testament.

After he concludes the instructions in chapter 16, he ends the meal with a prayer; a prayer for his disciples. Knowing that he is about to be crucified and that his vision, his knowledge, his connection with God will now have to be carried by his disciples, he prays for them.

It is not like the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane where he understandably prays for himself. In the Gospel of John he prays to God for his disciples and blesses them so that they may carry in the work that he has begun.

And though these words are in the form of a prayer of intercession, because they are requests from Jesus on behalf of his disciples, they have the weight & substance of Jesus' declaring the estate & his blessing that his followers will inherit after his death.

What Jesus wills to his disciples is:
· that Jesus is honored, glorified, in them (verse 10)
· that they are protected so that that may be one as God and Jesus are one (verse 11)
· that they are guarded even when they are lost (verse 12)
· that the joy of Jesus is made complete in them (verse 13)
· that they receive the mandate, the mission, the same purpose that Jesus had - they are sent into the world, created holy and complete, but broken with misuse and neglect, because God so loves the world that God created

Jesus prays for his disciples so that they may become
“Christ's body doing Christ's work with Christ's heart.” (David Ewart)
Jesus prays for his disciples so that they may know that
“Loving God leads to loving who God loves the way God loves.” (David Ewart)
Jesus prays for his disciples so that they may know that
“God has all the power that love has.” (David Ewart)

I wonder,
are we the descendants of those disciples.
Are we a part of that inheritance?

Do we want to be a part of that inheritance?

We may not want to rejoice too quickly and easily hearing that we are the benefactors of such an inheritance. Recall that in a few short hours, after sharing the meal with this disciples and offering this prayer on their behalf, Jesus' dedication to truth will end with him before Pilate, and then on a cross.

Whenever we are offered a blessing in the Bible, we might be tempted to run and hide - because a blessing never comes without a God-sized mission. And God-sized missions never come without a cost.
We do well to remember and confess that though we are called to be a holy people, a beloved community, sent to heal a broken world, we are ourselves, broken, prone to self-centeredness, fear and hopelessness.

On a week-end such as this, Memorial Day week-end, when we remember sacrifice in time of war, and the nobility of the cause of WW II in bringing and end to the Nazi regime, that war is always a sign of our brokenness. Because from a wider viewpoint of history we take a closer look at the way that WWI ended and see how it laid the seeds for the desperate situation in Germany that could support the rise of a person such as Hitler.

And even though we claimed victory in WW II we now also see the seeds for war were sown in the Middle East and eastern Europe when the treaties were signed. Even as we acknowledge and remember the sacrifice and of soldiers and civilians who endured the horror of WW II we confess that in many ways we are still fighting WWI and WW II.

We are still fighting.
We are still using war to end solve economic and social problems. We are still living in fear of the other, instead of trying to understand the economic and cultural causes of suffering. We are still relying on quick displays of force instead of finding sustainable ways of making peace even in the face of tyrants.

At the time of WW II it was right to pray for the destruction and replacement of the Nazi regime. But when will pray for the end of the cycle of violence and live our lives in such a way that shows we accept that inheritance offered by Jesus to his disciples?

“We live in a time in which many of our efforts to build a truly just, peaceful, and sustainable social order have seemed to fall flat and in which progressives often feel alienated because of the strength of regressive forces and discouraged because of the compromises made by progressives who do achieve power.

It is important, of course, to think horizontally—that is, to maintain historical hope which is at the very core of all that is good in the Bible.
But it is equally important to think vertically—and to remember that the good we can experience and do even in a broken world is of lasting value. [It is important to see] God as working in all things, luring the world toward the good.

It is important to see that it is possible for God to work within our perfectly imperfect lives, just as God did in the perfectly imperfect lives of the disciples.

Will we ever achieve just distribution of wealth and lasting peace in this world? Will we be able to save the earth from our own destructive lifestyles? No one knows. But to believe in God is to believe not only that God is working toward that end, and engaging us in the task, but also that every act of human kindness and every effort toward justice is retained forever in the heart of God. Whether performed in a whole or a broken world, our actions count.” (Russell Pregeant)

In today’s broken world there is so much information that wants us to convince of one thing: be afraid.

In today’s holy world there is another message: be alive.

When Jesus prayed for his disciples he knew God, and he knew that God created the world good, blessed, whole and holy.
When Jesus prayed for his disciples he knew God, and he knew what is possible when a human being centers his or her life in self-giving love for God and all that God loves in the way that God loves.
When Jesus prayed for his disciples he knew God, and he knew we need protection from the storms that threaten our homes, our communities, our world.
Jesus knew God completely and he prayed for us.


A life of prayer,

that is both communal and personal,
that is spoken both in words and in actions,
that is silent and patiently waits for the heart to open and the courage to act upon God’s guidance
that sees how God's work done God's way blesses us and all God’s creation

is the 100 foot clearance around our homes that will protect us from the storms within and the storms without that would separate us from our holy inheritance.

May this church be a place where every act of human kindness and every effort toward justice is a blessing for our community.

The community that we touch when we support the Heifer Project, and Habitat for Humanity
or teach our children and youth,
or contribute our time, talent and treasure to the ministries of this church and the United Church of Christ,
or dedicate ourselves to welcoming everyone no matter who they are or where they are on life’s journey into this community.

In all that we do may we remember that Jesus prayed for us and sent us into this world just as it is so that we might be echoes of God’s love for all creation.

Veni Sancte Spiritus. Come Holy Spirit Come.
It’s me, it’s you, it’s us, standing in the need of prayer.
Let’s stand and sing our hearts open.


Thanks to Russell Pregeant and David Ewart for many of the wonderful ideas in this sermon. I am just a tailor.

Russell Pregeant is Professor of Religion and Philosophy and Chaplain, Emeritus, at Curry College in Milton, MA, and Visiting Professor in New Testament at Andover Newton Theological School in Newton, MA.
www.processandfaith.org/lectionary/YearB/2008-2009/2009-05-24.shtml


David Ewart, is a United Church minister in Canada
www.davidewart.ca
www.holytextures.com

Leaping Christians

May 17, 2009
I John
John 15:9-17


Observations made while attending the Calaveras Frog Jump for the first time:

The novice jumpers, the young jumpers, gently caress their frogs, gently set them down on the pad, and then wait. The frog is thinking, this person likes me. I am going to stay with them. I am going to come back to them. I am never going to go far from them.

Eventually the novice is convinced by others to jump up and down, slam their hand on the floor, and shout. The frog makes an instinctual jump, but quickly remembers. I like this person. I am going back to the shade.

The serious jumpers handle their frogs very differently.
They just let their frogs hang there. Belly exposed to the sun, long legs dangling. Just lets them hang there. The frog is thinking, this person doesn’t like me. As soon as I can I am getting as far away from this person as I can.

And so soon as the serious jumper puts their frog down on that pad, they themselves are down, on all fours, like the frogs themselves, and they shout and pound the floor and jump right behind the frog.

And the frog? They are saying, I am out of here. I have got to get away from this person as far and as fast as I can.

While I was watching all of this, I couldn’t help but think of that Danish religious existentialist philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard.

I realize that not many of you were required to read Soren Kierkegaard as I was as a philosophy major in my undergraduate studies. So you might not know why I thought of Soren Kierkegaard while watching the constant failed attempts of frogs to escape from their tormentors. But I do believe that if I ever enter a frog in the Calaveras Frog-Jumping Contest I will name him "Soarin' Kierkegaard," in honor of the philosopher who wrote so eloquently about the leap to faith.

Soren Kierkegaard, the philosopher, not the frog, believed that there are limits to reason. We cannot make every action in our lives based upon knowing all the pros and cons, forecasting all the possibilities. This is especially true for a Christian, or a person following any spiritual path. Christianity is based upon the idea that Jesus can be both human and divine. This is doesn’t stand to reason. Christianity is based upon the idea that we can look at a symbol of death, the cross, and see life. This doesn’t stand to reason. And Christianity is based upon the idea that we, as individuals and as a society, can live our lives based upon compassion, forgiveness, humility, grace, sharing of goods so that there is no one in need. This does not stand to reason. It requires a leap to faith.

And yet, we believe, we trust, we know, that that this leap to faith, though it does not stand to reason, is not irrational, because we believe all of God is in all things. God is the Creator, and we are a part of God’s creation that includes sea turtles that navigate their way through thousands of miles of Pacific Ocean to return to their home.

God, is the Vine and we are the branches. When we connect with the source of creation, we will find many moments when reason is a our helper and guide. And we will also find something more, when we leap to faith. We will find moments of grace and love, forgiveness and purpose we will experience miracle and wonder, that cannot be explained by reason alone. They are a gift and our response is gratitude.

And as it turns out, there are ways to develop this ability to leap to faith. There are practices for trusting the leap, trusting the landing, that do not require fearing punishment, or someone shouting at us or slapping their hand on the stage behind us.

Would you like to know what they are?
Well you have already accomplished one this morning. You came to worship. You entered the door of the sanctuary. You chose to put yourself in this community devoted to God, to neighbor and to a healthy self.

Your coming through the doors of this Sanctuary are akin to Jesus entering the city of Jerusalem on Holy Week. You don’t really know what is going to be asked of you, but you do know that at some fundamental level you are going to be asked to go a little deeper and discover something new about yourself, about God, and about loving your neighbor.

Coming to worship is an excellent spiritual practice that helps us trust the leap to faith.

And then, after awhile, after you have been in worship for a few months you decide to step a little further into this community of faith leapers. You offer to be a Greeter, you show up on a Thursday night and join the choir, you attend a class, you offer to bake some cookies, you take the minister out to breakfast. (How did that get there?)

Or you begin reading the Bible, you begin your day with prayer and end your day with gratitude.
Or you make a new friend with whom you can share your true feelings. Or your find a partner who has the same concern for social justice that you do. You begin by walking through a door and then…

You hear words like we heard last week.
Perfect love casts out fear.
And your rational mind may hold up its defenses and say that’s impossible.
And yet there it is, in Scripture. Perfect love cast out fear. How can we leap to that?

Perfection is a limiting term, because it isn’t something we can achieve. But there is another way to understand that word perfection. We can look at as meaning complete, whole, living as intended, the lily in the field that doesn’t worry about beauty or tomorrow, it simply is.

This is something that we all desire. The spiritual view of the world says we can reach this sense of wholeness and peace through love. The materialistic view of the world says we can only reach this sense of wholeness and completeness through possessions and looking out for ourselves.

One of the things that is happening in our world today is that the materialistic worldview is collapsing on itself. The economic meltdown, the pollution of our water and rivers, global warming which is putting all of life at risk, are all signs of the failure of the materialistic viewpoint.

The spiritual view of the world says that we can have basic needs met, food, shelter, health, beauty, and purpose if seek love first, love of God, neighbor and self.

The spiritual view may one day win out when the broken world finally says, “Well we might as well try it. Our current way of doing things sure isn’t working.”

We as a society are kind of like those frogs, just hanging, dangling, knowing that our feet and bellies belong on the ground, but we don’t know where the ground is anymore.
The blessing, the resurrection that is potentially within this moment, is that we will see that our current economic and political systems based upon greed and self-centeredness, are dysfunctional and we will begin to work for more sustainable practices.

I want to look a little more at the phrase, perfected in love. Let’s assume that perfection means wholeness, completeness, acting as intended. Let’s also assume that love in this case means the willingness to extend oneself for the purpose of another’s spiritual growth.

Let’s assume that we have become perfected in love.
Now what happens to fear? Scripture says that perfect love casts out fear.
What does perfect love reel in, bring in? If perfect love casts out fear what does it bring in? Peace, acceptance, forgiveness, compassion, joy.

Complete love brings in peace, confidence, reconciliation, giving oneself way to someone else. Complete love brings in a sense of having all that I need, I don’t need anymore. This is enough. I am not going to get talked into buying something I do not need.

My joy, purpose, and meaning are all satisfied with what I have. In fact I have so much I am going to give it way. To the church rummage sale. The food bank. To the Heifer Project. To my next door neighbor. To my next pew neighbor.

And when I find myself in a place of not feeling peace, completeness, joy, purpose, I am still perfected, redirected in love. I am not going to be afraid. I am going to pray. I am going to ask for help. I am going to go for a hike in the Sierra. I am going to do a watercolor, sing a song, bake some brownies, call a friend. I am not afraid.

I am going to abide in love. I am going to remain in love. I am going to be healed in love. I am going to be patient in love. I am going to put some space around myself and see myself as God sees me, well-loved.

I am going to put some space around myself and see that person in need as God sees them, well-loved. I am going to put some space around my God-created-self and see that person, who is making me angry, as God sees them, with compassion, understanding and patience.

Trusting that from that place of complete compassion, true action is born. True peace is born. The kin-dom of heaven is born.
So praying for perfection in love, that is your birthright, perhaps forgotten but able to be remembered, is one way to leap into faith.

Another is given in this morning’s scripture.
John 15: 9-17
If you live in my instructions you will live remain in my love.
I have told you all this so you can be the source of my happiness.
Love each other as I have loved you.
No one can love to a greater extent than to give up life for friends.
I have called you friends, not slaves, I have let you know everything I know.
I chose you and I delegated you to go out and produce fruit.
You fruit will last because God will provide you with whatever you request in my name.
Love each other.

Worship, study, and living in compassion are all ways to leap to faith. But I encourage us all to remember that “Finally, and most important, transformation is not something we do, certainly not something we do by ourselves. It is God’s work. It is God who works transformation.

Getting a new heart, [leaping to faith], [being perfected in love], means opening ourselves to God, seeking God, turning to God, surrendering to God, and relying on God. I does not mean giving up responsibility, but it does mean surrendering our illusion of control. It means letting God be God for us.”
(Anthony Robinson, pg 79, Changing the Conversation)


Let me close with this proverb and a story.
First the proverb from Ghana
" If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."

Can a community of faith leap together? With God's help we can.

Let all people who do justice and love mercy say amen.

Enfolded By Love

I John 3:16-24
John 10:11-18n
May 3, 2009

The great German theologian of the 20th Century, Karl Barth said, that “there is no such thing as an individual Christian.”

What he meant when he said that is that Christianity isn’t a personal, save-me-get-me-into heaven, just-me-and-Jesus relationship but that of a community, a flock, watched over by the Good Shepherd.

Remembering the metaphor of seeing Jesus as the Good Shepherd helps me illustrate the meaning of this idea, that there is no such thing as an individual Christian.

Let me share with you this profound thought:
There is no “separate singular form of the word sheep.”
Now that’s profound. The word for one sheep or 100 sheep is ....sheep.

We are not separate from one another: “In our essence, our being is bound up with the entire flock: with people who break bread and recite prayers with us, with people who go to work and enjoy week-ends with us, with people who begin young and grow old with us.

To be a Christian is to be a person in community, a community that is founded not upon doctrinal unity, but upon God’s knowing us and being for us.
To be a Christian is to be a person in community, a community that is founded, not upon economic status, or political party affiliation, or sexual orientation, or ethnic identity, but upon God knowing us and shepherding us.

Now this is where things become more difficult, making room for one another in the fold of God’s love.

It seems like we ought to find it easy and even natural to relax into the warmth of God’s care, to move over and make room for everyone else. And yet we oftentimes have a hard time thinking about who’s in the flock, and who isn’t.

That can equate with who’s loved by God, and who isn’t…or at least, who isn’t loved by God quite as much, or in the same way, as we are.
And yet, it’s not up to us to decide who’s in or who’s out. The passage from the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus has “other sheep” elsewhere and that he intends to draw them in, too. The flock is growing. New people are coming in.

How will we welcome the stranger, invited into the community by the enfolding love of God?
So as comforting, even warm and fuzzy, as we’d like to think this image of the good shepherd is, it’s really quite unsettling. Jesus often unsettled his listeners, so he might as well unsettle us, too.

“The life of a shepherd was anything but picturesque. It was dangerous, risky, and menial. Shepherds were rough around the edges, spending time in the fields rather than in polite society. For Jesus to say, 'I am the good shepherd,’ would have been an affront to the religious elite and educated. The claim had an edge to it. A modern-day equivalent might be for Jesus to say, ‘I am the good migrant worker’”

We’d rather not talk about anything that might disturb the peace and quiet tranquility of our little flock, safely gathered behind our protective doors. It’s too much of a challenge to shine the light of the gospel on our communal decisions about the rights and the very lives of all God’s children in this community.

“Jesus did not exclude people based on the standards of the day….He embraced the outcast, the oppressed, and the overlooked.

The Gospel of John makes it clear that the work of gathering the flock belongs to Jesus and God – we are to provide a space where all are welcome. The community that John envisions is open and celebrates its diversity as a gift from God”

Like Jesus, we are to provide a space where all are welcome. The flock is open-ended, not closed. Jesus owns up to having “others” that he cares about, too, and remembering that, nurtures in us a whole new perspective on hospitality. It’s more than a warm welcome to worship and a cup of coffee downstairs afterward (although those are very good things).

Hospitality is difficult; it tests us. It calls, even pushes, us out to our growing edges. In Barbara Brown Taylor’s new book, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith, she reflects on “encountering others” as a spiritual practice, and she expands our understanding of hospitality:

“In biblical tradition, the practice of encounter shows up most often as the practice of hospitality, or philo-xenia. Take the word apart and you get philo, from one of the four Greek words for love, and xenia, for stranger.
Love of stranger, in other words,
which is about as counterintuitive as you can get.
For most of us, xenophobia – fear of stranger – comes much more naturally, but in that case scripture is unnatural. According to Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of Great Britain, ‘the Hebrew Bible in one verse commands, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” but in no fewer than 36 places commands us to “love the stranger.”

In many ways, we’re not living in the same situation as John’s early community, but we still have to consider this question of “the stranger” and of being loved by God, and what it means to be a flock together, sharing the goods God provides to us all, not just to some of us.

How can we read a question like “Who is ‘stranger’ for us?”, and hear about the Good Shepherd, and not think of those who feel outside the flock, who perhaps feel abandoned by their family or community, but who are loved by God the Good Shepherd nevertheless?

Last Sunday, when you all were worshiping here together, listening to a great sermon preached by Yolanda Randlett, another excellent anthem sung by our choir, and moving with a hip-swinging hula-hooping children’s moment led by Cynthia Restivo, I was sitting in the sun on a park bench in Stinson Beach, reading these words, written by Marianne Williamson, in her book Return to Love.

“Rather than accepting that we are the loving beings that God has created, we have arrogantly thought we could create ourselves, and then create God. Because we are angry and judgmental ,we have projected those characteristics onto God. We have made God in our image. But God remains who God has always been: the energy of unconditional love. The problem is that we have forgotten this, and so we have forgotten who we ourselves are.” (pg 20, Return to Love)

Well, I liked that, and I liked the feel of the sun on my face and hearing the children having fun and conflict in the playground, so I kept on reading.
“I had never realized that depending on God meant depending on love. I had heard it said that God is love, but it had never kicked in for me exactly what that meant. God is within me.”
When we choose to love, choose to allow our minds to be one with God, then our house is built on rock, then it is sturdy and strong and the storms cannot destroy it.” (pg. 18 Return to Love)

Each one of us, as human beings, are beloved by God. In this very room, there’s quite enough love to go around. In this very community, there’s quite enough love to go around. On this very planet, there’s quite enough love to go around.”

If we choose love, if we trust love, we expect love, if we give love. If we receive the love that is at the heart of the reading from the first Letter of John that we heard just a moment ago.

“We know love by this, that Jesus laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” I John 3: 16ff

It was almost time to leave the sunny bench and rejoin my musician friends but I wanted to read just a little more from Marianne Williamson,

“The love in one of us is the love in all of us.”

When love becomes empathy we see in the stranger the same need that we have. We all share the same needs, for shelter, for food, for purpose in our lives, for acceptance within our community. We may have different strategies for achieving those needs, but we all have the same needs.

Our needs are no different than those of a migrant worker wanting to provide food and shelter for his family, or a gay couple wanting acceptance within their community, or a man at the end of his life wanting to know his life had purpose beyond his days, or parents expecting the beginning of a new life and praying for a healthy baby.

Everyone one of us has the same basic needs. Each of us is carrying a great burden. Let us care for one another, as Christ was cared for us.
Each of us is suffering at sometime from spiritual amnesia, forgetting that God is the most real thing that there is within us, let us be sources of remembrance for one another.

There is no singular for the word sheep. And so it is with the word human. Our humanity is enriched when we see that we do hold all things in common.
Let us be human and marry our fortunes together.

Let us surrender our egos and in our daily prayers place our trust in the caring and guiding love of the Good shepherd so that all of our wants are satisfied and we are not afraid, and goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives, and strangers will become friends.

Let us remember, when reading the 23rd Psalm to emphasize the Lord is my shepherd before going on to the rest of the Psalm and hearing the promises.

Let our days begin and end with the affirmation, the Lord is my shepherd.
When anxiety, anger, fear begins to enter our mind, may we pause to remember those words that like a shepherd’s crook can return us to love. The Lord is my shepherd
Then with that pause to remember love, we can truly know and trust, we shall not want, we shall not fear, our soul is restored, we will eat at the table prepared for us by God and where everyone received an invitation to come. Everyone received the invitation. What we have to do is show up with an open heart.

May those who love mercy and seek connection say,
Amen

It’s Time for A Picnic

Ephesians 3:14-19 John 6: 1-21
July 26, 2009

Opening Song Bread and Roses

As we go marching, marching, in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses! Bread and Roses!

As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women's children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.

As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient call for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.

As we go marching, marching, we bring the greater days,
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life's glories: Bread and roses, bread and roses.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; bread and roses, bread and roses.

The feeding of the 5,000 is that only miracle story that appears in all four gospels. And as John’s gospel tells the story, it is one of the Signs that the power of God is made real in Jesus.

The community for whom this story was first written, would hear in it the story of Exodus, the liberation from slavery in Egypt and the journey through the wilderness, hungry and lost, looking for faith as much as they were looking for food and shelter.
It is story of humanity, singing and “crying their ancient call for bread.”
It is a story of humanity looking for a king who will lead them out slavery.
It is a story of the compassion of Jesus knowing that “hearts starve as well as bodies.”

It is a story of God’s blessing the little that we have in ways that are beyond our abilities to forecast or calculate.

This story is the only one that appears in all four Gospels. So it can be enlightening to ask the question, “How does John use this story? What is the context?” Our Gospel reading this morning begins with the words, “After this…” So we go to chapter 5 to learn that Jesus had been in Jerusalem, had healed a man on the Sabbath, which got him in big trouble with the religious authorities.

But Jesus, knowing God, knew that these religious leaders did not know the Scriptures as well as they thought they did. They had turned the Scriptures into what we might call information: facts, rules and regulations. They had lost the radiance of the scriptures. They had lost the understanding that scriptures are alive and point to God’s eternal presence that is always unfolding in new ways. They had put the Scriptures in a box and locked themselves within it.

So Jesus leaves Jerusalem and goes to the country, the other side of the Sea of Galilee, up to a mountain top. The wilderness. Away from the Temple. Away from the religious orthodox community. He is with disciples, praying, studying, and resting.

He sees from his mountain top post a crowd of people coming. After all, they had just seen him heal a man, on the Sabbath, and tell the so-called religious orthodox that they had no knowledge of God.

You know those beautiful golden rolling hills between along either side of HiWay 4 between Vallecito and Angels Camp. Remember them in spring time, all green.
Imagine Jesus and his disciples sitting on top of one of those hills. Seeing over 5,000 people coming towards them.

Jesus knows those people are hungry. For bread. For roses. For beauty. For health care.

Jesus looks at the hungry people and he looks at his disciples and thinks to himself, “This is a teachable moment. I wonder if my disciples have caught on yet to what I have been saying?” So he asks Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for the people to eat?”

Isn’t that one of the scariest moments in our lives? A classroom, surrounded by people we know, some of them friends, some of them smarter than we are, all of them looking at us when the teacher has called on us with a question. We didn’t have time to do our homework the night before. We try really quick to remember what the teacher said in the last lecture. And we haven’t go time to remember and we don’t want to say, “I dunno.”

So Philip says what seems to be a good and factual answer. “We don’t have enough money to buy bread for this crowd.”

Andrew, who has had a little more time to think while Philip pondered, has been looking around and notices a young boy with five barley loaves and two fish. He tells Jesus what they have on hand and he might have gotten an “A” for the day if he had stopped there but he keeps talking and reveals that he hasn’t quite got it yet. Which is OK. That is why Jesus wanted this to be a teachable moment.

Andrew asks, “But what is this, five barley loaves and two fish, among so many people?”
And then, … away from the Temple, …at a time when the Festival of Passover was near… At a time when the people remember their ancestors’ freedom from slavery and journey through the wilderness to freedom …At a time when the people are longing for freedom from the occupying Romans who are stealing their wealth and resources. …At a time when the people are longing for freedom from their religious orthodox leaders who are closing their hearts in restricted reading of Scriptures,

At that teachable moment Jesus turned the hillside into an altar,
He took the little that they had and turned it into manna from heaven,
He broke it, blessed it, and shared it.
And there was more than enough to go around.

Without faith there are no answers.

Without considering the needs of everyone, the right questions are not being asked.

God’s abundant love is for all creation, beginning at the bottom working up, not the other way around.

“What are our expectations for our shared life?
What hope do we have in spite of perceived shortage and scarcity?
Do we see our life together as "a venue for God's glory and mercy to break forth in the world," or "as a means to facilitate the congregation's survival as an organization"?

Have "our expectations and activities lost their prophetic edge"?
This is an especially pressing question during the current recession, bankrupt state governments, and debates over health care, when the temptation to concentrate on survival and maintenance might distract us from our true mission.
We're understandably worried about shrinking endowments and rising costs. However "The story [of the feeding of the 5,000] suggests that the focus of ministry is not simply what good people decide is reasonable to undertake in order to meet basic needs. Instead, ministry is about multiplying resources so that what might have been a social handout becomes a revelation of amazing grace"
(Yust, Feasting on the Word, UCC web page, S.A.M.U.E.L).

“John's Gospel is "all about knowledge as power," not the knowledge-as-information that inundates us, but "love's knowledge" which "multiplies the meager resources and makes a way forward when knowledge comes to its end.
….in the hands of Jesus, little can become much, the few can become the many, and the weak can become strong." Imagine, Johns suggests, God responding to our prayers for the world's needs with the question, "What do you have?"
( Cheryl Bridges, Feasting on the Word, UCC web page, S.A.M.U.E.L).

What do you have?
Take it. Break it open. Bless it. Share it.
Jesus saw the hungry people seeking bread care, he saw the sick people needing health care, he saw the frightened people needing soul care. Knowing God Jesus knew that trusting the bread of life can help us find resources that will help us find the bread for the body.
Trust in God affirms God’s power and presence in all creation.
Even when that begins with five barley loaves and two fish.

What Are You Longing For?
What do you have?
Take it, break it open, bless it, share it.

“ Jesus’ ministry was one of healing, bringing life to the dying, sight to the blind, wellness to the sick, and peace of mind to the troubled. Jesus’ witness was that abundant life includes physical, mental and spiritual wellness. The call upon us, is to make this vision a reality for all.

You are no doubt aware of the debate on health care reform currently taking place in the United States.

In spite of media reports to the contrary, it appears legislators are close to making health care reform happen. There is growing agreement about what a renewed health care system might include: people who like their coverage would keep it, people who are uninsured or lose their coverage would have an affordable option to purchase it, no one would be excluded because of pre-existing conditions, long-term costs would be reduced by streamlining paperwork and emphasizing patient-focused, preventive and wellness care.
The moral vision is there. The policy expertise is in place. It’s the political will that needs our support. Our legislators need our encouragement in the hard work of reform. I urge you, whichever of the possible
options you might support to contact your Senators and Representatives and ask them to achieve affordable, accessible, accountable, and inclusive health care this year.”
(Pastoral Letter, Rev Sharon Watkins,
General Minister and President,
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

I have made copies of information about the health care debate and placed them on the table in Fellowship Hall. I believe that we in the faith community can help lend our voices and support for this life giving legislation.

We need bread, and we need roses. The bread of life, the presence of God, revealed in Jesus, can help us find the bread for the body, even when it seems like we do not have enough to go around.
Take it, break it open, bless it, share it.
There is always enough of God who can help us find the always enough of us.
Let the people who love mercy and seek justice say, Amen.

Fight Without Hurting

August 9, 2009
Ephesians 4:25-5:2 John 6:24-35

Sing Teaching My Children to Protest written by me

I’m teaching my children to protest, they’re fighting ‘gainst me all the time.
I’m just getting them good and ready, to go walking down that protest line.

I’ve taught them to fight without hurting, use words tell the truth all the time
Learn freedom’s song, rise up singing, as we go walking down that protest line.

Star wars they know is a fiction, a shield can’t protect a frightened mind
They know that this small world needs loving, so we’re walking down that protest line.

They’ve learned to lay plants in the garden, seen the grace that grows through the vine.
And they know what will come of toxic water, so we’re walking down that protest line.

I’m taking my kids to the White House, but we won’t be tourists this time.
Democracy’s a word that we move-on, so we’re walking down that protest.

We’re walking down, singing down, dancing down, walking down that protest line.


This morning’s scripture reading from Ephesians reminded me of a line from that song,
“Taught them to fight without hurting, use words, tell the truth, do no harm.”
Fighting over possessions and desires is a frequent occurrence for children, all varieties of “that’s mine.”
And so we try to teach children to use words not fists or other implements of destruction.
And in the passage from Ephesians the reality of anger as a human emotion is accepted.
Yet there are limits placed on it.
“Be angry but do not sin.”
“Do not let the sun go down on your anger, it only makes room for evil to enter.”

So anger is a real and natural and sometimes very appropriate emotion.
The wider context of the song has to do with anger at social injustice; it’s OK to be angry at pollution and economic practices that are destroying our planet.

But how do we express our anger without sin?

But how to be angry and constructive?

How to be angry and build up the community of love?

How to stand our ground and at the same time acknowledge we are standing on holy ground within a beloved community?

How to communicate all our emotions, feelings, and needs as followers of Christ, who taught us to love our neighbor as our self, and to love God with all our mind, body, soul, and strength?

That is a lot of questions. And I don’t have an answer for a single one of them.
The passage from the Gospel of John that we read this morning, was the same one that was read last week, with the addition of one verse. Last week we ended with a question asked by the crowd following Jesus who were a part of the feeding of the five thousand.
The question they asked was, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”
Fortunately Jesus has an answer for them, and perhaps for us as well.
Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Believe in Jesus. But what does that mean? For some it means believing in doctrines about Jesus.
But another way to look at it is to change “believe in Jesus,” to “be-love in Jesus.”
As Jesus makes real the love of God, the awareness that we are all connected on an amazing planet filled with all that we need to sustain a healthy life,
we are called to make real the love of Christ in our neighborhood.

What we must do to perform the works of God?
What does it look like to “be-love in Jesus?”

The passage from Ephesians that was read this morning provides some excellent answers.
So even if I don’t have the answers to my questions I know where to find them?

I am going to read that passage again, if you want to read along with me you can find it in your pew Bibles.

Ephesians 4:25-5:2
So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.

Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.
Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy.

Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.
Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.


“Today's reading is a sketch (and a good one) of what it looks like if we say yes to God.
If we claim our identity in Christ, if we know ourselves as members of a body, how can we be at war with one another, outwardly or underneath the surface and behind one another's back?
If we truly belong to one another and to the Body of Christ, how can we, for example, hurt one another with angry words and actions? When we act out of anger, we hurt ourselves, in a very real sense, as the members of a body should not and would not hurt each other.
For Paul this kind of striving toward perfection was not exhausting but energizing, enabling him, in the beautiful and familiar words of Philippians 3:14, to "press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus."
The text invites us to do what comes unnaturally as a means to making it natural, or second nature" (Kate Huey, ucc.org)

Lord knows this is not easy. There would be some real debate over what our true nature is as human beings. Yet, we have chosen to be human beings who have decided to follow the teachings of Jesus. We have accepted a higher calling that calls us to care for ourselves, our neighbors, and God all in the same breath.
How I am treating you is how I am treating God.
How I am treating myself is how I am treating God.

I said earlier that I had no answers for that string of questions that I asked. Then offered some answers that scripture provides. And yet those answers ask new questions.
How do we use words that build up the community?

And how will do that in this coming year when we as a congregation study, discuss, and decide what it would mean for us to be an open and affirming congregation?
Are we able to fight without hurting for people who have been excluded from human community because of their gender, race, age, sexual orientation, religion, economic status, or physical limitations?

How will we study, discuss, and decide in a way that shows that we “be-love in Christ.”

This is where I have, maybe not an answer but a tool. Beginning next month we are going to offer a class on Compassionate Communication here at the church. This approach to communicating our feelings without blaming, judging, our hurting has been developed by Marshall Rosenberg.

The process, while simple to express in words, is actually transformative in practice.
It helps to make sense of some of the most challenging commandments that Jesus gave us, such as, “Do not Judge,” “Love your enemies,” “Bless those who persecute you.”
This process of communicating compassion developed by Marshall Rosenberg has been applied in families, workplaces, and between nations.

Compassionate Communication is one of the many approaches of conflict mediation which I believe all churches should be offering as much as we offer courses on the Bible. For me, it gives us a practical tool to make real the love of Christ.

It isn’t a matter of faith it is a matter of practice.
It isn’t a matter of wishful thinking, it is a discipline.

There will be information about this class in the upcoming church newsletter.

I believe that it will help us all fight without hurting, use words and do no harm.

And may we know what all children know, that this small world is made for loving.