Are You Ready for Trust?

Rev Alan Claassen
Psalm 37:1-9 Matthew 25:14-30
November 16, 2008

Last week-end we were blessed with a special guest. Ron Buford was here on Sunday morning to deliver a sermon that would inspire us, motivate us, and consecrate us, Ron Buford was here to help us to see that we have been entrusted with a unique ministry and mission as members and friends of First Congregational Church, Murphys, United Church
of Christ.
Where would you go if this church wasn’t here?
That was a question Ron asked us.
Where would go if this church wasn’t here?
And you know that this church, this community that welcomes you whoever and wherever you are on life’s journey, is here. Ron asked us to think about the people who do not know we are here.
Ron told us about his church in Cleveland that grew from 50 to 500 in ten years living and preaching the all-inclusive United Church of Christ’ message of unconditional love for everyone. He said that people who were new to the church all said the same thing. It was the same thing that people coming into UCC churches all over the country are saying.
I didn’t know a church like this existed.
Do people in Calaveras County, Tuolumne County know that we are here? How are they going to know? Because you invite them.
Each of you has been given a coin of the realm of the kin-dom of God. Are you going to keep it to yourself so it goes no further than you? Will you tell people who are already here how much you receive from this church? Or will you share give your coin of the realm of God’s inclusive away?
Ron asks good questions. Ron was here in worship on Sunday morning and he asked us, “Are You Ready for Success?” He also met with members of the Church Council on Saturday evening, and he asked us another question, “Are you ready to grow?” Are you really?
Churches are realizing that they cannot do what they did in the 1950s to provide a meaningful experience to the youth born at the turn of the 21st century. And churches are realizing that the longtime faithful members have wisdom to share and pains that need mending.
Are you ready to grow? Can you imagine what that would like? Can you turn a vague lament for something that is not here, into a clear vision of what you believe could be here?
Are you ready for trust? Are you ready to accept that you have been entrusted, whoever and wherever you are, with the ongoing creation of a community of faith that is based on an open, affirming, inquisitive, supportive, nurturing, Biblically and Scientifically literate understanding of God’s presence all creation?
When God calls to you can you echo back? Amen! Alleluia! Alright! Yes!
When Jesus our Christ calls you can you echo back? Master, where are you going?
And when Jesus says, “Come and see,” “come and see” me through the very events of your life, will you follow?
When the Holy Spirit says, may the goodness that is within you, in this moment, just as you are, whoever and wherever you are, may the goodness that is within you become real, growth in strength, heal the wound, create the next artwork that your life is, will you release yourself into the uplifting power of life?
In and through the very events of your life, as wonderful, confusing, or painful as they are, we are entrusted with one thing, the choice to grow in our relationship with God and neighbor.
Sometimes we grow by adding something new. Sometimes we grow by letting go of something familiar.
Pray enables to trust in God, as much as God already trusts in us.
All we need to do is ask for God’s guidance in the moment at hand and then listen.
God is still speaking.
Listen. And then do something!

Last Thursday at the Men’s Fellowship we watched a new DVD produced in honor or the 50th Anniversary of the United Church of Christ. It was a documentary of an extraordinary week-end when 12 active young adults in the United Church of Christ came together to discuss the future of the church.
There were some very interesting comments, as one would expect from a group of
20-somethings raised to love God and question authority.
One of the young men said, “I am NOT the hope of the UCC. Jesus Christ is the hope for the United Church of Christ.”
Someone else said that she didn’t need “clap-clap, praise music” in order to be engaged in worship. She challenged all people who attend church to ask themselves, “Where are you bored in church? Let’s ALL talk about that.”
One of the core themes of the conversations that occurred over that week-end of young adults was that the church needs to balance social action with spirituality. They saw so many church leaders who looked tired. They saw the need for everyone to be engaged in times of prayer, reflection, study so that we would have the spiritual energy and foundation to do the work we are called to do.
All work and no pray just didn’t cut it for these young adult leaders in the UCC.

I want to share with you two writings by that great novelist, Alice Walker. Both of them have to do with this question of being entrusted with a vision, living our lives in such a way that we show we are worthy of our calling as followers of the teachings of Jesus our Christ. Both of these quotes from Alice Walker, one short, one longer, help us tap into a power greater than ourselves to do the work that will bring ourselves to greatness.
She writes, “What I have noticed in my small world is that if I praise the wild flowers growing on the hill in front of my house, the following year they double in profusion and brilliance. The universe responds. What you ask of it, it gives. I remember I used to dismiss the bumper sticker, “Pray for Peace.” I realize now that I did not understand it, since I did not understand prayer; which I know now to be the active affirmation of our inseparableness from the divine.”
The second one is a letter that was forwarded to me by wife, Betsy, from a friend of hers. There are lots of letters and photographs flying around the Internet these days, not even two weeks after the historic election.
This is an
Open Letter to Barack Obama from Alice Walker
Nov. 5, 2008

Dear Brother Obama,

You have no idea, really, of how profound this moment is for us. I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance.

A primary responsibility that you do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters. And so on. One gathers that your family is large. We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and as white- haired as the building; we notice their wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no way to lead. Nor does your family deserve this fate.

One way of thinking about all this is: It is so bad now that there is no excuse not to relax. From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many people in the world really want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone.


I would further advise you not to take on other people's enemies. Most damage that others do to us is out of fear, humiliation and pain. Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess a certain religious or racial devotion. We must learn, actually, not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries, who are ourselves in disguise.

It is understood by all that you are commander in chief of the United States and are sworn to protect our beloved country; this we understand, completely. However, as my mother used to say, quoting a Bible with which I often fought, "hate the sin, but love the sinner." There must be no more crushing of whole communities, no more torture, no more dehumanizing as a means of ruling a people's spirit. This has already happened to people of color, poor people, women, children. We see where this leads, where it has led.
A good model of how to "work with the enemy" internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet. Because, finally, it is the soul that must be preserved, if one is to remain a credible leader. All else might be lost; but when the soul dies, the connection to earth, to peoples, to animals, to rivers, to mountain ranges, purple and majestic, also dies.
And your smile, with which we watch you do gracious battle with unjust characterizations, distortions and lies, is that expression of healthy self-worth, spirit and soul, that, kept happy and free and relaxed, can find an answering smile in all of us, lighting our way, and brightening the world. We are the ones we have been waiting for.
In Peace and Joy, Alice Walker
As the young adults said to us, we need to find the balance between prayer and action.
Let me close with these words from Ron Buford’s sermon. “We are not just another social club. This is a place of transformation where the Holy and ineffable God and things that are best and worst in each of us intersect. And we are transformed from weakness to strength, from darkness to light, from fear to hope, from hate to love, from limits to boundlessness. It is here, in places like this one, that God takes the boxes of our lives, opens them, and turns them into dance floors.”
This is a time for embracing, trusting that God will show us the steps to turn our mourning into dancing. May God’s love echo through us to all creation! Amen.

Are You Ready for a Blessing?

Are You Ready for A Blessing
Matthew 5: 1-12
Rev. Alan Claassen
November 2, 2008


Last Sunday, we reflected together on the response that Jesus gave to the question,
“Which commandment is greatest of them all?” Jesus responded by saying, ‘love God with everything that you’ve got and love your neighbor as yourself.”
As I thought about this response over the course of the last week, it seemed to me that to love God with everything that I’ve got, and to love my neighbor as I love myself, is to begin a conversation with God. In each moment, in each decision I have to make, in each observation, judgment, response I have for another person; in each moment where self-reflection comes into play, I can ask, “I am I giving all my heart, all my mind, all my strength and spirit to this moment?”
And rather than this being an overwhelming idea, it seemed to me that something is going on in that moment when we ask that question, have that conversation with God. It is to receive a moment of blessing, an awareness, a gift that God is also in that moment of self-reflection. When we engage God as a partner God is giving with a whole heart, whole awareness, whole strength, and wholly spirit.
There is in that moment of seeing ourselves as a reflection of God, that God sees God’s nature reflected in us.
It may be hard for us to imagine this. But that is exactly why we come to worship God, hear the Scriptures, sing the hymns, share our prayers, and receive communion together. Jesus knew completely what it is like to have an ongoing conversation with God and he shared that conversation, with his disciples. Jesus knew this presence of God so completely that he could see the improbable gift of blessing moments where we would think that we are down, out, cursed, forgotten, or given a challenge that is beyond our strength.
When we engage our whole lives in conversation with God, we bring a source of strength, insight, compassion, and courage into our lives. What would that sound like?
Matthew 5, verses 1-12. The opening words of the Sermon on the Mount as told in the Gospel of Matthew.
You have heard two readings of this passage already this morning. First in our call to worship and then from our morning scripture reading.
I would like to give us all another moment to immerse ourselves in these words from a holy conversation from Eugene Peterson’s translation of the Bible. His use of contemporary language and his own study of the meaning of the text can sometimes open provide us with new insights into Scripture.

“When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:

You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.

You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for.

You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.

You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.

Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.”

This is what can come of a sacred conversation with God, where we bring all of who we are, whoever and wherever we are, and listen to God who is still speaking, still loving, who is still creating this Universe.

Several years ago I heard a Fred Craddock, a preacher’s preacher, reflect on these passages, these Beatitudes. I remember that he observed that the blessings didn’t come at the end of sermon. The blessings didn’t come as a result of the hard work and discipline and service of the people. The blessings did not come as a reward for holiness. They were freely given.
He also observed that they didn’t fit our normal idea of when blessings should come to us. The people are told that they receive a blessing when they realize their need of God, when they are at the end of their rope, when they have lost someone or something that is precious to them, when they are called to speak a word that may bring them criticism from their community.
In moments of struggle, when we are faced with a moment of decision and response that calls for self-reflection,
and we turn it into a moment of God-reflection by asking, “Am I giving all my heart, mind, strength, and spirit to this moment?,
God responds with a blessing, “Be not afraid. I am with you always.”




What is God beginning in you now, through poverty, simplicity, loss, challenge, persecution, …
What is new in you in this moment?
Is there something that you need to let go of in order to receive the blessing of this moment where God is beginning something new?
Is the sacred conversation that is born out of self-reflection in a time of struggle going to reveal something new being born?
What is the meaning of resurrection for us at this time?
In you, individually.
In us, as a church?
In us, as a nation, as global citizens,
In us, as one species in an amazingly diverse and intricately woven creation of God?

Each of us has our own ongoing sacred conversation with God. We also have an ongoing conversation going on in this nation with the upcoming election. And we also have an ongoing conversation with the planet as the result of the economic meltdown that is taking place. The blessing in this moment, when it all seems to be falling down, is that we may be able to see the policies and practices of governments, financial institutions, and individuals caused that caused this crisis. And we may also be able to see that we have an opportunity to rebuild this nation based upon sustainable and environmentally conscience policies that will help us address the crisis of global warming which have avoided for so long.

Whether we are looking at our lives as individuals, or as a community, we can be engaged in a conversation with God that enables us to see where we move whole-heartedly.

A few weeks ago I summarized the message of the bible with three words, gratitude, humility and compassion. I think that I can summarize the beatitudes by saying
Blessed are those who know that they need God.
Blessed are those who know that our lives are the work of two wills, not one; God’s will and ours.
When we are engaged in an ongoing conversation with God, may we always be ready to listen for a blessing. And then be a blessing to others.
Let the people say:
Amen