Live The Message
Exodus 33:12-23 Matthew 22:15-22
October 19, 2008
Rev. Alan Claassen
Jesus had a way of seeing things that was different from most of us.
He could look at a mustard seed and see the kin-dom of God.
He could look at lilies of the field and see an example of trusting in God.
He could look at his own disciples’ fears of not having enough and in five loaves of bread, two fish, and a prayer to God Jesus could make a way to feed a multitude.
He could look at a man ignored on the side of the road because of his blindness and Jesus could see that man back into sight and back into his community.
And in the passage that was read this morning from the Gospel according to Matthew Jesus could see a trick question. More than this he could see the false choices that the religious and political leaders were presenting to him and to all the people.
The choice between Caesar and God is a false choice. Just as it false to believe that we have to choose between jobs and the environment. Just as it false to say that we have to choose between prisons or more schools. Just as it false that have to choose between responsible fiscal management and making a profit. Just as it is a false choice that have to choose to allow our nation to be a leader among industrialized nations in selling weapons but way behind the pack when it comes to investing in our children’s future through education or health care.
Jesus was able to see the false choice because of his deep love and commitment to God. And it is good to remember that this love was informed by the knowledge that Jesus had of his tradition, which included the prophets: Amos, Jeremiah, and Isaiah.
Quoting Jim Wallis, in his book, The Soul of Politics, “The biblical prophets encourage us to be suspicious of concentrations of wealth and power; to mistrust ideological rationales that justify subordinating people to causes; and especially to become sensitive to the poor, the disenfranchised, the stranger, and the outsider.” (pg 38-40)
Jesus knew what the prophets taught and so he turned the trick question into an opportunity to see what is most fundamental in life, what has the deepest source of strength, and what is most needed by people to realize their intimate connection with one another and all God’s creation.
The question put to Jesus by the religious and political authorities was, “Rabbi, teacher, we know that you’re honest and teach God’s way sincerely. You court no one’s favor and don’t act out of respect for important people. Give us your opinion, then, in this case, “Is it lawful to pay tax to the Roman Emperor Caesar, or not?”
It is important to see the set-up in the question, when those who posed the question were trying to butter up Jesus. They were setting up a false choice in question. They implied, that to give all one’s attention to God means that we shouldn’t care the affairs of humanity. And this was very important -- as the setting of the story – the country in which Jesus was living—was an occupied territory. Rome was the occupier and the Jewish religion was only allowed to continue it practices if it kept itself within the confines of the temple. Don’t mix religion and politics. It’s alright if you feed the poor, Jesus, but don’t start asking any questions about the conditions of a society that creates poverty in the first place.
But this was a false choice for Jesus because he knew, from the prophets, that love of God and love of neighbor are not able to separated and that even kings are accountable to law of the Covenant.
And so Jesus, replied to the question, in his kind, sweet, don’t want to upset anyone manner, saying,
“You hypocrites.”
Even when we allow Jesus to vent a little frustration by calling the hypocrites out for what they are, he does still love and he still works for their transformation by posing a question. “Whose face is on the coin you use to pay taxes?”
They look and see Caesar’s face and Jesus says, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s.”
And those of the trick question, those trapped within the realm of false choices walked away amazed. Maybe the seed of transformation was placed within them. Maybe one of them later showed up at a house church meeting of the followers of Jesus, seeking to remember to call of the Covenant.
Whose face is on the coin we use to pay our taxes? I am thinking of the faces of former Presidents who are on the face of our coins and I wish instead that there were a child’s face on those coins. Or a mother’s face. Or the face of student who attends a school of 1200 students in a building designed for 800.
Whose face is on the coin when we decide where to spend it, give it, invest it, share it?
Remembering the call of the Covenant where do we as a nation choose to place our coins? Jim Wallis, the author of The Soul of Politics, which I quoted earlier, said that our country is in need of a spiritual renewal that is based on social justice, compassion, and community.
I remember the words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. who said, “All that evil requires to prosper is that good men and women do nothing.”
I remember our own United Church of Christ, which sponsored a nationwide conference a few years ago on Freedom of Conscience and the rise of the Religious Right.
One of the papers that came out of that Conference says, “ When political power is exercised in the cause of love, care, and compassion, it deserves our respect and support, not cynical indifference. When political power is not used toward these aims it is the church’s calling to hold accountable those who would use power and authority for selfish ends, to do violence, and to divide human communities.”
(Freedom of Conscience and the Radical Religious Right
Office for Church and Society, Board of Homeland Ministries)
This Sunday is a special day in many churches and faith communities. This day is being celebrated around the country as Children’s Sabbath Day. This is a day for faith communities to take a good look at how we are caring for our children and grandchildren.
It is a day for us to lift up the historical values of health care and public education that our church so vigorously supported, as we were a part of the building of this nation.
And so I remember the words and work of Marian Wright Edelman, Director of the Children’s Defense Fund. It was her organization that first created the Vision Statement, “Leave No Child Behind.” For Marian Wright Edelman this is more than a slogan, it is a call to put our coins in the places where the need is greatest for the health and well-being of our nation’s children.
She writes:
“We must convey in earnest the importance of participating in the civic life of the community, state, and nation. Democracy is not a spectator sport.
Indeed, the religious community must lead the way in taking a stand for children to bring their needs before the conscience of the nation.
We have come to a moral crossroads in our nation, one at which we have to decide whether or not to stand up for children. Will we take the path of least resistance, or selfish indifference, or the road less traveled?
As Christians we called to be relentless in our pursuit of social justice, resolute in our efforts, and renewed in our spirits.
We must live by the Word and keep walking down the road to justice. So use your walking stick, your wheelchair, or your own two feet to stand for children and keep moving on down that road.”
Living the Word, the Message means wanting and working for the same thing that Jesus wanted and worked for—a universal community of peace, compassion, and justice sustained by the experience of a loving God.
Living the message means making the connection between the love of God and love of neighbor.
Living the message means thinking seriously about where you are going to place your coins.
For me, all things belong to God first of all. Whether I decide to place my coins in the hands of a local grocery store clerk, in paying taxes as a citizen of a great nation, in making a contribution to my church or favorite non-profit organization, I am always first rendering unto God what belongs to God. Every choice is a sacred choice.
We live the message of God’s love and compassion when we vote, when we contribute, when we pay our monthly bills. Everything we have, in time, talent, and treasure comes from God, and we live the message when we consciously choose to give what we have received back to God through healthy, life-giving choices.
Marian Wright Edelman once said, “I may not be able to be a great leader, I may not be able to move mountains, but I can take a stand for children.”
So I encourage everyone to vote. Vote with your coins. Vote with your ballots. Live the message of compassion with the conscious awareness that all of God is in all places. When we quiet our anxieties we can listen and hear music over our heads.
Because there is a God somewhere, right here, right now. Let’s sing the message!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Let It Begin With Me
Rev. Alan Claassen
Romans 12:9-23 Matthew 16 21-28
September 21, 2008
Children’s message: a story attributed to St. Francis. It was the story a village that was being terrorized by a wolf. St. Francis is said to have struck up a deal with the wolf. The wolf would stop eating the pets and little children of the village if the townspeople would simply leave a bowl of food out on their doorsteps for the wolf to eat each night. St. Francis’ plan worked.
I have another wolf tale for you this morning, called…
The Wolves Within.....
An old grandfather told this story to his grandson who came in to him with anger at a friend who had done him an injustice, "Let me tell you a story,” said the grandfather.
"I too, at times, have felt a great hate for those who have taken so much with no sorrow for what they do; but hate wears you down and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking a poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times."
He continued, "It is as if there are two wolves inside me; one is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offense when no offense was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way. But..... the other wolf...... Ah! The littlest thing will send him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all of the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger, for his anger will change nothing."
"Sometimes it is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit."
The boy looked intently into his grandfather's eyes and asked, "Which one wins, Grandfather?"
The grandfather smiled and quietly said, "The one I feed."
This morning’s passage from Romans is about choosing which wolf within us we are going to feed. Feed with our thoughts, habits, actions.
This morning’s Gospel passage is about the inherent difficulty that may well arise within our world when we say that we have chosen the path of non-violence, and non-violent resistance. For Jesus himself paid the ultimate sacrifice, giving away his very life, by proclaiming that we should love our enemies and not seek to destroy them.
Which wolf do we feed with our thoughts, habits, and actions?
The one that is good and does no harm, lives in harmony with all around him, and does not take offense when no offense was intended or
... the wolf who fights everyone, all of the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger, for his anger will change nothing."
The one we feed is the one who wins.
Paul makes it very clear in Romans which one we are to feed. "Let love be genuine. Bless those who persecute you, repay no one evil for evil, and never avenge yourselves." Nothing could be clearer than what is listed in these verses.
There are those in our world today, in our American religious and political spheres today that claim to people of Christian values. They seemed to have skipped this passage.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. For evil response to evil only creates more evil. It make take years or decades but and violent response to evil brings about more evil.
But that wolf within that is quick to temper, quickly says that non-violence is wimpy, can’t work, and the poor need to find their own way out trouble, they found there own way into it. And we ourselves may read this passage and simply say, out of the kindness of our best hearts, it just can’t be done. It’s too difficult, I may get hurt.
And in a way that is correct. It is too difficult, to do alone. It is impossible if we only have the tools of our “do-it-yourself,” greedy culture. But Paul is speaking from the vantage point of one whose ego is no longer the center of his awareness. Through his mystical vision on the road to Damascus, and the tending of the followers of Christ who baptized him and care for him, Paul became one who spoke with the mind of Christ. The one who taught reconciliation, forgiveness, non-judgment, and non-violence.
Which brings to mind for me the story of a woman that we all know.
We all know Rosa Parks; the African-American woman who participated in the bus boycott organized by a young preacher, Martin Luther King Jr. We all know that Rosa parks refused to go the back of the bus. She refused to participate any longer in the culture of domination that told her and her people that she was inferior.
We all know about Rosa Parks. But do you know what helped Rosa Parks, stay put at the front of the bus? Do you know about the Citizenship Schools founded by Miles Horton?
Well, I didn’t until just a few years ago. Miles Horton was a white man who went to the hills of Tennessee, in a poor rural part of that country near the North Carolina state line.
And he found people who did not know how to participate in their own government. They did not know their rights as citizens of this country. Without education democracy cannot survive. So he taught the people.
He began this work in the 1930s. By the 1950s he was holding classes and workshops where white folks and black folks were study together. Two of his students were,
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks.
Rosa Parks gained her self-acceptance and lived the dream of all people living together through her participation in these schools, which included all races studying together. She got to practice the beloved community in this citizenship school and then take it out into the world.
I think that is how the Apostle Paul saw what he was doing in building those first communities that followed the way of Christ. He was trying to create places of safety and support, worship and prayer and service where people could experience a vision of something that they could take out into the world. He was creating communities that fed the better nature of our humanity.
Now we all know that Rosa Parks had to go through a lot of threats and misrepresentation. This is carrying her cross as is said in the reading from the Gospel according to Matthew. Carrying her cross. Not hiding it. Not staring at it. Not running from it. Carrying it. Moving forward. Being pulled forward. Why? Because she belonged to a vision of the beloved community that she had seen with her own eyes. Just as Paul belonged to Christ, the one that helped him see the world with new eyes.
One of the things that I most appreciate from the Romans passage is the verse,
“Hate what is evil, love what is good.” I can be angry but I must temper how I may express my anger. The “wolves within” story said it well, “He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way.”
The right way is a very powerful way and it is a way that breaks the cycle of violence without getting rolled over and playing dead. It means speaking out against those who take more than they need at the expense of the poor. It means sometimes getting in trouble for doing the right thing, even to the point of risking security, comfort, and life itself.
There is one other verse in the passage from Romans that I want to lift out before closing this sermon.
“If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all.”
So far as it depends upon you.”
I am reminded of a quote from the Dalai Lama.
He said that each one of us should ask ourselves this question,
“What can I do to preserve the beauty and wonder of the world, and,
What can I do to eliminate the anger and hatred in the world,
in that part of the world which I touch?
What can I do to preserve the beauty and eliminate the anger and its root causes
in that part of the world which I touch?
This statement encourages us to ask and to affirm, what can I touch? Not what can’t I touch, but what I can touch? It empowers us into action rather than the despair of being overwhelmed. It asks us to be clear about that which does depend on us. I think it also encourages us to allow ourselves to depend on others sometimes, too.
Our sphere of influence begins right here, and within in our homes, and at the check out stand and coffee shop.
As members of the United Church of Christ our touch reaches around the country and world through the offerings that we give to special offerings such as Neighbors in Need, which is coming up in a few weeks.
Our touch reaches out to families who have no homes as we places our coins in the simple cardboard boxes provided by Habitat for Humanity. And our sense of compassion and call for restraint is awakened when we follow that Habitat for Humanity calendar and see how richly blessed we are.
And in this election year our touch extends all the way to the County Supervisors, Congress and the White House.
What can I do to preserve the beauty and eliminate the anger and its root causes
in that part of the world which I touch?
Today is the International Day of Peace which was founded by the United Nations in 1981. In 2002 the General Assembly officially declared September 21 as the permanent date for the International Day of Peace.
By creating the International Day of Peace, the UN devoted itself to worldwide peace and encouraged all of mankind to work in cooperation for this goal. During the discussion of the U.N. Resolution that established the International Day of Peace, it was suggested that:
"Peace Day should be devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples…This day will serve as a reminder to all peoples that our organization, with all its limitations, is a living instrument in the service of peace and should serve all of us here within the organization as a constantly pealing bell reminding us that our permanent commitment, above all interests or differences of any kind, is to peace."
International Day of Peace is also a Day of Ceasefire – personal or political. Take this opportunity to make peace in your own relationships as well as impact the larger conflicts of our time. Declare a personal ceasefire with someone, some group, and some candidate in the world that you can touch. Imagine what a whole Day of Ceasefire would mean to humankind.
Imagine a world.
In this passage from Romans, Paul has some words of advice for us that will help us feed the good wolf. As Eugene Peterson translates it in The Message, “Love from the center of who you are, don’t fake it. Don’t burn out: keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be inventive in hospitality. Surprise your enemies with goodness.”
We are enabled to do this through worship, prayer, study, and service. Don’t try this at home if you are trying it alone. Let God help. Give God something to do, by trusting the incarnation of the Holy Word in Jesus Christ. Let us, explore the possibility, so far as it depends upon us, to live peace, to love genuinely, to hold fast to what is good.
And may both wolves within us, learn how to get along.
Romans 12:9-23 Matthew 16 21-28
September 21, 2008
Children’s message: a story attributed to St. Francis. It was the story a village that was being terrorized by a wolf. St. Francis is said to have struck up a deal with the wolf. The wolf would stop eating the pets and little children of the village if the townspeople would simply leave a bowl of food out on their doorsteps for the wolf to eat each night. St. Francis’ plan worked.
I have another wolf tale for you this morning, called…
The Wolves Within.....
An old grandfather told this story to his grandson who came in to him with anger at a friend who had done him an injustice, "Let me tell you a story,” said the grandfather.
"I too, at times, have felt a great hate for those who have taken so much with no sorrow for what they do; but hate wears you down and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking a poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times."
He continued, "It is as if there are two wolves inside me; one is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offense when no offense was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way. But..... the other wolf...... Ah! The littlest thing will send him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all of the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger, for his anger will change nothing."
"Sometimes it is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit."
The boy looked intently into his grandfather's eyes and asked, "Which one wins, Grandfather?"
The grandfather smiled and quietly said, "The one I feed."
This morning’s passage from Romans is about choosing which wolf within us we are going to feed. Feed with our thoughts, habits, actions.
This morning’s Gospel passage is about the inherent difficulty that may well arise within our world when we say that we have chosen the path of non-violence, and non-violent resistance. For Jesus himself paid the ultimate sacrifice, giving away his very life, by proclaiming that we should love our enemies and not seek to destroy them.
Which wolf do we feed with our thoughts, habits, and actions?
The one that is good and does no harm, lives in harmony with all around him, and does not take offense when no offense was intended or
... the wolf who fights everyone, all of the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger, for his anger will change nothing."
The one we feed is the one who wins.
Paul makes it very clear in Romans which one we are to feed. "Let love be genuine. Bless those who persecute you, repay no one evil for evil, and never avenge yourselves." Nothing could be clearer than what is listed in these verses.
There are those in our world today, in our American religious and political spheres today that claim to people of Christian values. They seemed to have skipped this passage.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. For evil response to evil only creates more evil. It make take years or decades but and violent response to evil brings about more evil.
But that wolf within that is quick to temper, quickly says that non-violence is wimpy, can’t work, and the poor need to find their own way out trouble, they found there own way into it. And we ourselves may read this passage and simply say, out of the kindness of our best hearts, it just can’t be done. It’s too difficult, I may get hurt.
And in a way that is correct. It is too difficult, to do alone. It is impossible if we only have the tools of our “do-it-yourself,” greedy culture. But Paul is speaking from the vantage point of one whose ego is no longer the center of his awareness. Through his mystical vision on the road to Damascus, and the tending of the followers of Christ who baptized him and care for him, Paul became one who spoke with the mind of Christ. The one who taught reconciliation, forgiveness, non-judgment, and non-violence.
Which brings to mind for me the story of a woman that we all know.
We all know Rosa Parks; the African-American woman who participated in the bus boycott organized by a young preacher, Martin Luther King Jr. We all know that Rosa parks refused to go the back of the bus. She refused to participate any longer in the culture of domination that told her and her people that she was inferior.
We all know about Rosa Parks. But do you know what helped Rosa Parks, stay put at the front of the bus? Do you know about the Citizenship Schools founded by Miles Horton?
Well, I didn’t until just a few years ago. Miles Horton was a white man who went to the hills of Tennessee, in a poor rural part of that country near the North Carolina state line.
And he found people who did not know how to participate in their own government. They did not know their rights as citizens of this country. Without education democracy cannot survive. So he taught the people.
He began this work in the 1930s. By the 1950s he was holding classes and workshops where white folks and black folks were study together. Two of his students were,
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks.
Rosa Parks gained her self-acceptance and lived the dream of all people living together through her participation in these schools, which included all races studying together. She got to practice the beloved community in this citizenship school and then take it out into the world.
I think that is how the Apostle Paul saw what he was doing in building those first communities that followed the way of Christ. He was trying to create places of safety and support, worship and prayer and service where people could experience a vision of something that they could take out into the world. He was creating communities that fed the better nature of our humanity.
Now we all know that Rosa Parks had to go through a lot of threats and misrepresentation. This is carrying her cross as is said in the reading from the Gospel according to Matthew. Carrying her cross. Not hiding it. Not staring at it. Not running from it. Carrying it. Moving forward. Being pulled forward. Why? Because she belonged to a vision of the beloved community that she had seen with her own eyes. Just as Paul belonged to Christ, the one that helped him see the world with new eyes.
One of the things that I most appreciate from the Romans passage is the verse,
“Hate what is evil, love what is good.” I can be angry but I must temper how I may express my anger. The “wolves within” story said it well, “He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way.”
The right way is a very powerful way and it is a way that breaks the cycle of violence without getting rolled over and playing dead. It means speaking out against those who take more than they need at the expense of the poor. It means sometimes getting in trouble for doing the right thing, even to the point of risking security, comfort, and life itself.
There is one other verse in the passage from Romans that I want to lift out before closing this sermon.
“If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all.”
So far as it depends upon you.”
I am reminded of a quote from the Dalai Lama.
He said that each one of us should ask ourselves this question,
“What can I do to preserve the beauty and wonder of the world, and,
What can I do to eliminate the anger and hatred in the world,
in that part of the world which I touch?
What can I do to preserve the beauty and eliminate the anger and its root causes
in that part of the world which I touch?
This statement encourages us to ask and to affirm, what can I touch? Not what can’t I touch, but what I can touch? It empowers us into action rather than the despair of being overwhelmed. It asks us to be clear about that which does depend on us. I think it also encourages us to allow ourselves to depend on others sometimes, too.
Our sphere of influence begins right here, and within in our homes, and at the check out stand and coffee shop.
As members of the United Church of Christ our touch reaches around the country and world through the offerings that we give to special offerings such as Neighbors in Need, which is coming up in a few weeks.
Our touch reaches out to families who have no homes as we places our coins in the simple cardboard boxes provided by Habitat for Humanity. And our sense of compassion and call for restraint is awakened when we follow that Habitat for Humanity calendar and see how richly blessed we are.
And in this election year our touch extends all the way to the County Supervisors, Congress and the White House.
What can I do to preserve the beauty and eliminate the anger and its root causes
in that part of the world which I touch?
Today is the International Day of Peace which was founded by the United Nations in 1981. In 2002 the General Assembly officially declared September 21 as the permanent date for the International Day of Peace.
By creating the International Day of Peace, the UN devoted itself to worldwide peace and encouraged all of mankind to work in cooperation for this goal. During the discussion of the U.N. Resolution that established the International Day of Peace, it was suggested that:
"Peace Day should be devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples…This day will serve as a reminder to all peoples that our organization, with all its limitations, is a living instrument in the service of peace and should serve all of us here within the organization as a constantly pealing bell reminding us that our permanent commitment, above all interests or differences of any kind, is to peace."
International Day of Peace is also a Day of Ceasefire – personal or political. Take this opportunity to make peace in your own relationships as well as impact the larger conflicts of our time. Declare a personal ceasefire with someone, some group, and some candidate in the world that you can touch. Imagine what a whole Day of Ceasefire would mean to humankind.
Imagine a world.
In this passage from Romans, Paul has some words of advice for us that will help us feed the good wolf. As Eugene Peterson translates it in The Message, “Love from the center of who you are, don’t fake it. Don’t burn out: keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be inventive in hospitality. Surprise your enemies with goodness.”
We are enabled to do this through worship, prayer, study, and service. Don’t try this at home if you are trying it alone. Let God help. Give God something to do, by trusting the incarnation of the Holy Word in Jesus Christ. Let us, explore the possibility, so far as it depends upon us, to live peace, to love genuinely, to hold fast to what is good.
And may both wolves within us, learn how to get along.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Love First
Love First
Romans 14:1-12 Matthew 18:15-22
September 14, 2008
Rev. Alan Claassen
Before I forget, and before I get started on this morning’s sermon, I want to ask you all to do me a favor. Don’t recycle this morning’s bulletin. And don’t throw it away. I am asking you to take it home and look up and read the two Bible passages for this morning.
And don’t just read them once. Read them once a day.
And don’t just read them. Practice. See the events of the week through the lens of these words. And maybe find yourself thinking at some given moment, in the choices you make in your relationships with others, with yourself, and with God, here is a moment where you can practice some wisdom, some truth, some value that you have found for yourself in the words, in the Spirit, of these scriptures.
I am making this request for two reasons.
1) I can’t say all that I want to say about these two passages.
2) My life will be better if you practice the wisdom that is in these scriptures. Your life will be too. In fact the life of the entire community of this church, this town, this county, this nation, this earth and this heaven, will be better if we follow the better way to live that these two passages reveal to us.
And I promise that I will do you the same favor of living into these passages as best as I can also.
What is in this morning’s scripture?
What did you hear when they were read?
Allow me to tell you the little that I can about what I hear.
Last Saturday 26 of us gathered for the Annual Planning Retreat. As I was preparing for the day,
reading over the statements that many of you wrote during worship on the last two Sundays in August
in response to the questions, “What do you love about this church?” and
“What goals would you like to see discussed at the retreat?”…
an simple song, a chant came to my mind. It was one of the first songs I learned when I first entered the Pacific School of Religion.
Christ takes form in a band of persons, Christ takes form in the midst of the world.
Christ takes form in a band of persons, Alleluia.
Christ takes form in a band, of persons. And so we sang that song to get the day started on the track of listening to one another.
We shared what we love about this church:
reminds me, prods me, encourages me to think and act in Christian love;
people are inspired with the spirit of service
our extravagant welcome
in the midst of people who may differ we are one in God’s love.
We took some time to try to create a Vision Statement for this church that wrap all that we do in less than 10 words. That is still a work in progress for the Vitality Team, but one statement that came from that exercise that I remember was simply, “Respond to God’s love!”
Then we got together in groups of threes and more to share what goals we see for the church in the year ahead that match watch we love about this church now with the vision that we have for this church.
The statements that were written by you in worship included:
increase active membership
get the message of love and acceptance out to our neighbors
be reconcilers in the community, local and global
develop study of our faith and how our faith can relate to the changing world
show why it is important to become open and affirming
Then we had lunch and we remembered something we love about this church, we have great cooks among us!
After lunch we broke out into four groups, each with the three goals we had agreed were the ones to focus on for the year ahead and come up with objectives that would realize those goals.
On a bookshelf in Fellowship Hall you will find a summary of the goals and the objectives that were the result of a band of persons searching for Christ’s form among us. We ended the day by forming a circle and answering a different kind of a question, which was, “Where did you see God in something that you saw or shared today?’
What I remember most vividly from that time of sharing was that people saw God in being able to speak freely and listen attentively to one another.
The sharing of what we love, the crafting of a vision statement, the lifting up of goals and objectives, were important, but if Christ is going to take form in a band, of persons, we need to have a community where we can speak freely and listen attentively to one another.
Which brings me to the importance of why this morning’s scripture readings are so important, and why they will make my life easier, your life easier, the church’s life easier, if we take these words to heart and put them in the soles of our shoes. In other words, walk the talk.
Paul, as a result of his mystical vision of Christ on the road to Damascus, was given, what he called “the mind of Christ.” And his task as a missionary around the eastern side of the Mediterranean was to create communities, churches, that took on the mind of Christ. For Paul this did not mean that everyone thought the same way. Paul called on the people to practice extravagant welcome right from the start.
At the beginning of chapter 14, (The Message)
A person who has been around for awhile might be convinced that he can eat anything on the table, while another, with a different background, might assume all Christians should be vegetarians and eat accordingly. But since both are guests at Christ’s table, wouldn’t it be terribly rude if they fell to criticizing what the other ate or didn’t eat?”
Which reminds of a story that comes from a UCC church in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Pastor Eric Elnes was in conversation with a member of his church one day, and this person, this member of the band, said, “I am tired of saying what we are against, I want to say what we are for.”
So Eric pondered that thought for a few days when all of sudden he had this crazy idea, “Christ takes form”
It was so crazy that he shared it with the church moderator just so he could hear how crazy it was and stop thinking about it. He shared the idea of inviting members of his progressive Christian church to walk with him across the United States, across New Mexico, Texas, Missouri, and all the way to Washington DC telling everyone that they met what they were for, and doing it all in the name of Jesus.
The Moderator said, “Great idea!”
And so 20 people began what was called Crosswalk. And they traveled across America with the central ideas of the United Church of Christ. And they stopped in a churches of all sorts along the way. And they were welcomed and prayed for all along the way.
They came to a town in Hereford, Texas. Big cattle growing country. And they began telling their story about loving Jesus and being open and affirming of all the people regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or age, and the people welcomed them into their church and big picnic.
They did have one question, “We don’t care what you think about homosexuality, are any of you vegetarians?”
And even vegetarians were welcome with big salads and beans.
Reading from Paul again,
“God, after all, invited them to the table. Do you have any business crossing people off of God’s guest list or interfering with God’s welcome?”
I want to acknowledge the difficult challenge that is being presented here. I know that I am not talking about something that is easy for any of us to do. I say this because of what comes a few verses later in this chapter.
Paul lays out a very difficult challenge for us, but when we perceive and live its truth, our lives will be easier and our relationships will be based upon trust.
Chapter 14: 13ff (The Message)
“So let’s agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other.
Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don’t impose it on others. You’re fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. But if you’re not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways that are inconsistent with what you believe, some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them, then know that you are out of line.”
The challenge for living in Christian community is to find a way of balancing not passing judgment on others, and at the same time, not letting what you think of as a good thing, be spoken of as being evil.”
Which brings to my mind so many of the famous verses written by Paul.
“The good that I want to do, I cannot do, and the things that I don’t want to do, I end up doing.”
And the most familiar of all, the so called love passage from Corinthians 13.
“Love is patient, love is kind. Love is not jealous, it does not put on airs, and it is not snobbish; it is never rude or self-seeking; it is not prone to anger, not does it brood over injuries. Love does not rejoice in what is wrong, but rejoices in the truth. There is no end to love’s forbearance, to its trust, its hope, its power to endure.” (The Inclusive Bible)
And this also brings to my mind the vital importance of the passage that we heard from the Gospel according to Matthew.
Peter asks Jesus, how many times must I forgive. Is 7 enough?
Jesus responds by saying, 7 times 70.
To have the mind of Christ is to live a practice of letting go of the need to be in control, the need to be right, the need to be good, and instead move into a way of life that is built upon freely speaking and attentively listening to God, to yourself, to the ones you trust with your life.
The point is to honor God and express our love and devotion to God. Put love first and other things may not loom so large.”
The Vitality Team who designed and led this year’s Planning Retreat will continue to work on a Vision Statement for this church. The Council, Boards. Committees, and Teams will continue to realize that goals that came out of the Planning retreat.
I encourage you to pick up a copy of these goals and objectives in a document on a bookshelf by our library in Fellowship.
And I encourage to take this community building project personally. Because it will make my life so much easier. And yours also.
Romans 14:1-12 Matthew 18:15-22
September 14, 2008
Rev. Alan Claassen
Before I forget, and before I get started on this morning’s sermon, I want to ask you all to do me a favor. Don’t recycle this morning’s bulletin. And don’t throw it away. I am asking you to take it home and look up and read the two Bible passages for this morning.
And don’t just read them once. Read them once a day.
And don’t just read them. Practice. See the events of the week through the lens of these words. And maybe find yourself thinking at some given moment, in the choices you make in your relationships with others, with yourself, and with God, here is a moment where you can practice some wisdom, some truth, some value that you have found for yourself in the words, in the Spirit, of these scriptures.
I am making this request for two reasons.
1) I can’t say all that I want to say about these two passages.
2) My life will be better if you practice the wisdom that is in these scriptures. Your life will be too. In fact the life of the entire community of this church, this town, this county, this nation, this earth and this heaven, will be better if we follow the better way to live that these two passages reveal to us.
And I promise that I will do you the same favor of living into these passages as best as I can also.
What is in this morning’s scripture?
What did you hear when they were read?
Allow me to tell you the little that I can about what I hear.
Last Saturday 26 of us gathered for the Annual Planning Retreat. As I was preparing for the day,
reading over the statements that many of you wrote during worship on the last two Sundays in August
in response to the questions, “What do you love about this church?” and
“What goals would you like to see discussed at the retreat?”…
an simple song, a chant came to my mind. It was one of the first songs I learned when I first entered the Pacific School of Religion.
Christ takes form in a band of persons, Christ takes form in the midst of the world.
Christ takes form in a band of persons, Alleluia.
Christ takes form in a band, of persons. And so we sang that song to get the day started on the track of listening to one another.
We shared what we love about this church:
reminds me, prods me, encourages me to think and act in Christian love;
people are inspired with the spirit of service
our extravagant welcome
in the midst of people who may differ we are one in God’s love.
We took some time to try to create a Vision Statement for this church that wrap all that we do in less than 10 words. That is still a work in progress for the Vitality Team, but one statement that came from that exercise that I remember was simply, “Respond to God’s love!”
Then we got together in groups of threes and more to share what goals we see for the church in the year ahead that match watch we love about this church now with the vision that we have for this church.
The statements that were written by you in worship included:
increase active membership
get the message of love and acceptance out to our neighbors
be reconcilers in the community, local and global
develop study of our faith and how our faith can relate to the changing world
show why it is important to become open and affirming
Then we had lunch and we remembered something we love about this church, we have great cooks among us!
After lunch we broke out into four groups, each with the three goals we had agreed were the ones to focus on for the year ahead and come up with objectives that would realize those goals.
On a bookshelf in Fellowship Hall you will find a summary of the goals and the objectives that were the result of a band of persons searching for Christ’s form among us. We ended the day by forming a circle and answering a different kind of a question, which was, “Where did you see God in something that you saw or shared today?’
What I remember most vividly from that time of sharing was that people saw God in being able to speak freely and listen attentively to one another.
The sharing of what we love, the crafting of a vision statement, the lifting up of goals and objectives, were important, but if Christ is going to take form in a band, of persons, we need to have a community where we can speak freely and listen attentively to one another.
Which brings me to the importance of why this morning’s scripture readings are so important, and why they will make my life easier, your life easier, the church’s life easier, if we take these words to heart and put them in the soles of our shoes. In other words, walk the talk.
Paul, as a result of his mystical vision of Christ on the road to Damascus, was given, what he called “the mind of Christ.” And his task as a missionary around the eastern side of the Mediterranean was to create communities, churches, that took on the mind of Christ. For Paul this did not mean that everyone thought the same way. Paul called on the people to practice extravagant welcome right from the start.
At the beginning of chapter 14, (The Message)
A person who has been around for awhile might be convinced that he can eat anything on the table, while another, with a different background, might assume all Christians should be vegetarians and eat accordingly. But since both are guests at Christ’s table, wouldn’t it be terribly rude if they fell to criticizing what the other ate or didn’t eat?”
Which reminds of a story that comes from a UCC church in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Pastor Eric Elnes was in conversation with a member of his church one day, and this person, this member of the band, said, “I am tired of saying what we are against, I want to say what we are for.”
So Eric pondered that thought for a few days when all of sudden he had this crazy idea, “Christ takes form”
It was so crazy that he shared it with the church moderator just so he could hear how crazy it was and stop thinking about it. He shared the idea of inviting members of his progressive Christian church to walk with him across the United States, across New Mexico, Texas, Missouri, and all the way to Washington DC telling everyone that they met what they were for, and doing it all in the name of Jesus.
The Moderator said, “Great idea!”
And so 20 people began what was called Crosswalk. And they traveled across America with the central ideas of the United Church of Christ. And they stopped in a churches of all sorts along the way. And they were welcomed and prayed for all along the way.
They came to a town in Hereford, Texas. Big cattle growing country. And they began telling their story about loving Jesus and being open and affirming of all the people regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or age, and the people welcomed them into their church and big picnic.
They did have one question, “We don’t care what you think about homosexuality, are any of you vegetarians?”
And even vegetarians were welcome with big salads and beans.
Reading from Paul again,
“God, after all, invited them to the table. Do you have any business crossing people off of God’s guest list or interfering with God’s welcome?”
I want to acknowledge the difficult challenge that is being presented here. I know that I am not talking about something that is easy for any of us to do. I say this because of what comes a few verses later in this chapter.
Paul lays out a very difficult challenge for us, but when we perceive and live its truth, our lives will be easier and our relationships will be based upon trust.
Chapter 14: 13ff (The Message)
“So let’s agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other.
Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don’t impose it on others. You’re fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. But if you’re not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways that are inconsistent with what you believe, some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them, then know that you are out of line.”
The challenge for living in Christian community is to find a way of balancing not passing judgment on others, and at the same time, not letting what you think of as a good thing, be spoken of as being evil.”
Which brings to my mind so many of the famous verses written by Paul.
“The good that I want to do, I cannot do, and the things that I don’t want to do, I end up doing.”
And the most familiar of all, the so called love passage from Corinthians 13.
“Love is patient, love is kind. Love is not jealous, it does not put on airs, and it is not snobbish; it is never rude or self-seeking; it is not prone to anger, not does it brood over injuries. Love does not rejoice in what is wrong, but rejoices in the truth. There is no end to love’s forbearance, to its trust, its hope, its power to endure.” (The Inclusive Bible)
And this also brings to my mind the vital importance of the passage that we heard from the Gospel according to Matthew.
Peter asks Jesus, how many times must I forgive. Is 7 enough?
Jesus responds by saying, 7 times 70.
To have the mind of Christ is to live a practice of letting go of the need to be in control, the need to be right, the need to be good, and instead move into a way of life that is built upon freely speaking and attentively listening to God, to yourself, to the ones you trust with your life.
The point is to honor God and express our love and devotion to God. Put love first and other things may not loom so large.”
The Vitality Team who designed and led this year’s Planning Retreat will continue to work on a Vision Statement for this church. The Council, Boards. Committees, and Teams will continue to realize that goals that came out of the Planning retreat.
I encourage you to pick up a copy of these goals and objectives in a document on a bookshelf by our library in Fellowship.
And I encourage to take this community building project personally. Because it will make my life so much easier. And yours also.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Fulfillment
Fulfillment
Reading the Prophets Again for the First Time
Micah 6:1-8 Luke 4:14-24
August 17, 2008
Rev. Alan Claassen
My first class at the Pacific School of Religion was Old Testament taught by Dr. Herb Otwell, may he rest in peace. I have already shared a little about Professor Otwell with you in this summer series on Marcus Borg’s book, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, Taking the Bible Seriously But Not Literally. I shared with you how stories about how strict, how tough, how demanding he was reached us new students almost as soon as we walked on the quad of the campus. And I shared with you how I found all those frightening stories to be true, but only half of the story, because Professor Herb Otwell was also the most inspirational, well-informed, and passionate teachers that I had while in seminary.
I have already told you about Herb Otwell. Today I want to tell you something about the classroom in which the brilliant lectures were held. It was a long room, holding up to 60 students. Windows facing the west on one side and a long wall on the east side. On that wall was a simple drawing of the ancient near east. And on that map were written these words, both in Hebrew and English.,
“What does the Lord require of you?
Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.”
Those words were written by the Prophet Micah, one of the so-called Twelve Minor Prophets.
The ancient Hebrew people were freed from slavery by God. They were led by Moses through the wilderness and in their years of wandering, as the story is told, their law codes were developed. Their laws helped them become a people. Their laws created a culture and ways to be holy in relation to God, their neighbor, and the land.
One thing that unified all the law codes was their memory of being slaves in Egypt, strangers in a strange land, foreigners, and sojourners. Their law codes put into their memories that they would always care for others as they had been cared for by God. They were commanded to give special treatment to the poor, the widow, the least among them.
Micah put this all together with these words that I read every Tuesday and Thursday morning for my first year of study.
What does the Lord require of you?
Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.
This quote comes from chapter 6:8.
In light of what I have been sharing with you the pats two weeks of this summer Chatauqua on Marcus Borg’s, Reading the Bible Again, it is interesting to read a passage that appears earlier in the 6th chapter. Micah is speaking on behalf of God who has a question for the God’s people.
“O my people what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Give me an answer!
For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from slavery; and I sent Moses to lead you, and Aaron, and Miriam!”
Why is God asking such a question?
Remember last week when I shared the word, “covenant” with you? How out of the affirmation that God is Creator of the Universe, and Creator of Humanity which God gave the particular task of choosing goodness and caring for the integrity of creation, God established a Covenant with the people saying, I will be your God, I will provide for you, I will care for you, and I ask something of you in return.
Last week I said that what God asks of humanity is that we show compassion for others and conduct ourselves with restraint out of a sense of responsibility.
And that this compassion and restraint comes directly from the affirmation that life is a gift to us,
and community is a gift to us,
and freedom is a gift to us.
And the right response to this abundance, to this human family, to this unique place that hold in creation, is, compassion and restraint.
Remembering all of that, and then knowing what happened next in the lives of the people as they made their home in promised land, will explain why God would ask a question such as, “Have you forgotten all that I have done for you and little that I have asked of you?”
As the ancient people of Israel came into the promised land they eventually developed a tribal confederacy, each tribe being rules by a chief or what was called, a judge. It is interesting to note that there were male as well as female judges.
Eventually the tribes wanted to have a king. And as the story is told God was not happy with this desire for a king. Why do you need a king, you have me? I have given you all you need to live, why do you need a king?
The people cry out for a king and God begrudgingly grants their request, as the story is told. But the kings are to remember the covenant. Care for the least among you. Care for the widow, care for the sojourner, the traveler, the poor. Show compassion and restraint.
And this is not what happened. In this ancient civilization, “the social systems (comprising economic, political, religious, and social structures) were controlled by elites of power and wealth to serve their own interests. This type of society began to develop with Israel with the emergence of the monarchy around 1000 BC. By the time of Solomon, Israel’s third king, the major features of the ancient domination system were in place: a politics of oppression centered in monarchical authority; an economics of exploitation centered in the monarchy and aristocracy; and a religion of legitimacy centered in the temple built by Solomon in Jerusalem.” (127)
“…by the time the classical prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, began to speak in the eighth century, Israel and Judah had become miniature versions of the ancient domination system that had enslaved their ancestors in Egypt. The victims (the majority of the population) were Israelites, of course, but now the elites at the top were also Israelites. Egypt had been established in Israel.” (127)
And the prophets, whether they were Major or Minor, all had angry words for the rulers who were exploiting the poor to make themselves rich. The kings and merchants had “deformed Israel, changing her from the exodus vision of an alternative community living under the lordship of God to just another kingdom living under the lordship of a native pharaoh.
The prophets were “prosecuting a covenant lawsuit on behalf of God against Israel.”
Listen to some of the words of these ancient prophets speaking on behalf of God and on behalf of the poor, the widow, the elderly, the sojourner, the common person.
Listen to the prophet Amos, whose words had a transformative, life-changing impact on Marcus Borg when he first read them while college.
“Thus says the Lord,
“For three transgressions of Israel and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell those who have done no wrong for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample the heads of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way. You oppress the poor and crush the needy. You trample on the poor and take from them taxes of grain. You trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land.”
Those words from Amos are mild compared to these,
“Thus says the Lord,
I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings, and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of your fatted animals, I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to your harps.
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.
It isn’t that worshipping God is a bad thing. It is wrong only if that is the only thing we are doing we keeping our side of the covenant. And it isn’t enough to care for the poor that are cast aside by the oppressive ruler or system. The prophets are calling for a critique of the social structures themselves. They are calling for social justice.
“Social justice is concerned with the structures of society and their results. Because it is results oriented, it discerns whether the structures of society are just in their effects. Do they produce a large impoverished class or result in a more equitable distribution of resources? Do they benefit some at the expense of many or serve all equally? Do they produce conflict or peace? Do they destroy or nourish a future?” (128)
When I was putting this series together and writing about it in the Nugget, our church newsletter, I put a question under the heading for each Sunday’s theme for the sermon. I am especially proud of the question that I wrote for the prophets,
“Why are the prophets so angry and so hopeful.”
The prophets, whose writings span two centuries, were blessed and cursed to be living in challenging times. They were called by God to speak the truth to power, with power at a time when the rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer. They lived during a time when the monarchies fell under their own weight of greed and oppression. They lived during a time when the officially sanctioned prophets of the Temple who provided divine sanction for the all that the governments were doing were saying, “Peace, Peace, when there was no peace.
The prophets had to speak the word of God to a people who lived during a time of occupation when their God-promised land was overrun by the nations of Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon. The prophets had to speak the word of the Lord when the ruling elites of Jerusalem and Israel were taken away from their God-promised land to live for almost three generations in exile.
The prophets were angry because they believed that all of this calamity was a direct result of the rulers and the wealthy of Israel who had abandoned the Covenant with God to compassion for others and conduct themselves with restraint out of a sense of responsibility. A sense of responsibility to the whole body, the whole society, the whole world.
But herein lies the source of the prophet’s hope. Instead of seeing the exile as a time when God had abandoned the people, the prophets new task in Babylon, and back home in Jerusalem was to tell the people that God is incapable of going back on the promise to fulfill the vision that was planted at the first moment of creation.
Micah gave voice to that vision when he said,
“God shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Micah 4:3)
And in the Book of Isaiah, beginning at 40th chapter and following we hear a new voice. It is such a new voice that contemporary biblical scholarship refers to these chapters as Second Isaiah, believing that the author is different that the one who wrote the first 40 chapters. Second Isaiah was writing from Babylon, during the time of exile and during the time of return home to Israel.
His task, also born out his experience of the presence of God, was to give his people hope, strength, courage to return home and see it again for the first time.
There are so many beautiful passages to choose from Second Isaiah. I selected Isaiah 43:15-19 because the language spoken to a people discouraged, broken, homeless, and called to return home, reminds the people of God’s presence in the creation of the universe, the exodus from slavery, and the Covenant of compassion and restraint that made them into a nation. These words are:
“Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished like a wick. Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
“The solution for exiles is, of course, a journey of return, a way or path through the wilderness. Both Judaism and Christianity are about a “way.” Indeed, the word “repent,” so central to the Christian tradition, has its roots in the Jewish story of exile. To repent does not mean to feel really bad about sins; rather, it means to embark upon a path of return. The journey begins in exile, and the destination is a return, to life!, in the presence of God.”
This way of life includes many spiritual practices. It includes worship, prayer and singing! It includes education for all ages. It includes a commitment of our God-given resources to build a God-given community of faith. It calls for caring kids, caring young-timers and old-timers. And it calls for service, which not only cares for the least among us, but also calls some, not all of us, but some of us, to prophetic witness to call the principalities and powers to account when they care more for themselves than the community. The path brings the earth into balance love of God, love of neighbor, and love of self.
One of the reasons why I am a minister in the United Church of Christ is because the UCC and its forebearers; the Congregational and Christian Church and the Evangelical and Reformed Church, have a long history of making and living the connection between the presence of God and the call for social justice.
We were the first denomination to ordain an African-American man, Reverend Lemuel Haynes, the first to ordain a woman, Rev. Antoinette Brown, the first to ordain a gay man,
Rev. William R. Johnson. Our ancestors were deeply involved in the abolitionist movement of the 1830s and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Members of our church stopped a General Synod meeting flew out to Cochella Valley to support Cesar Chavez and the farm-workers who were striking for a fair wage.
I could go on. I love to tell the story.
But there is only thing that I want to say at this point.
Not everyone is called to be a prophet. Not everyone is called to be engaged in social justice work. Not everyone is called to push the frontiers of social change to end oppression.
I just want you to see that when people of faith are engaged in this work, its source is not some democratic socialistic pinko commie leftist propaganda agenda.
How do we know these things to be the call of God?
The Bible Tells Me So.
You can find it the book of Exodus, the book of Isaiah, Amos, and Micah.
You can find it in the Gospel of Luke when Jesus says in his hometown synagogue,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. The Lord has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Today this words are fulfilled in your hearing”
There is a saying in the United Church of Christ. To believe is to care. To care is to do.
What is that the Lord requires of us? Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.
Let these words be fulfilled not only in our hearing but also in our doing, in whatever way calls us forward on this day, which the Lord has made. Let the people say: Amen.
Reading the Prophets Again for the First Time
Micah 6:1-8 Luke 4:14-24
August 17, 2008
Rev. Alan Claassen
My first class at the Pacific School of Religion was Old Testament taught by Dr. Herb Otwell, may he rest in peace. I have already shared a little about Professor Otwell with you in this summer series on Marcus Borg’s book, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, Taking the Bible Seriously But Not Literally. I shared with you how stories about how strict, how tough, how demanding he was reached us new students almost as soon as we walked on the quad of the campus. And I shared with you how I found all those frightening stories to be true, but only half of the story, because Professor Herb Otwell was also the most inspirational, well-informed, and passionate teachers that I had while in seminary.
I have already told you about Herb Otwell. Today I want to tell you something about the classroom in which the brilliant lectures were held. It was a long room, holding up to 60 students. Windows facing the west on one side and a long wall on the east side. On that wall was a simple drawing of the ancient near east. And on that map were written these words, both in Hebrew and English.,
“What does the Lord require of you?
Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.”
Those words were written by the Prophet Micah, one of the so-called Twelve Minor Prophets.
The ancient Hebrew people were freed from slavery by God. They were led by Moses through the wilderness and in their years of wandering, as the story is told, their law codes were developed. Their laws helped them become a people. Their laws created a culture and ways to be holy in relation to God, their neighbor, and the land.
One thing that unified all the law codes was their memory of being slaves in Egypt, strangers in a strange land, foreigners, and sojourners. Their law codes put into their memories that they would always care for others as they had been cared for by God. They were commanded to give special treatment to the poor, the widow, the least among them.
Micah put this all together with these words that I read every Tuesday and Thursday morning for my first year of study.
What does the Lord require of you?
Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.
This quote comes from chapter 6:8.
In light of what I have been sharing with you the pats two weeks of this summer Chatauqua on Marcus Borg’s, Reading the Bible Again, it is interesting to read a passage that appears earlier in the 6th chapter. Micah is speaking on behalf of God who has a question for the God’s people.
“O my people what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Give me an answer!
For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from slavery; and I sent Moses to lead you, and Aaron, and Miriam!”
Why is God asking such a question?
Remember last week when I shared the word, “covenant” with you? How out of the affirmation that God is Creator of the Universe, and Creator of Humanity which God gave the particular task of choosing goodness and caring for the integrity of creation, God established a Covenant with the people saying, I will be your God, I will provide for you, I will care for you, and I ask something of you in return.
Last week I said that what God asks of humanity is that we show compassion for others and conduct ourselves with restraint out of a sense of responsibility.
And that this compassion and restraint comes directly from the affirmation that life is a gift to us,
and community is a gift to us,
and freedom is a gift to us.
And the right response to this abundance, to this human family, to this unique place that hold in creation, is, compassion and restraint.
Remembering all of that, and then knowing what happened next in the lives of the people as they made their home in promised land, will explain why God would ask a question such as, “Have you forgotten all that I have done for you and little that I have asked of you?”
As the ancient people of Israel came into the promised land they eventually developed a tribal confederacy, each tribe being rules by a chief or what was called, a judge. It is interesting to note that there were male as well as female judges.
Eventually the tribes wanted to have a king. And as the story is told God was not happy with this desire for a king. Why do you need a king, you have me? I have given you all you need to live, why do you need a king?
The people cry out for a king and God begrudgingly grants their request, as the story is told. But the kings are to remember the covenant. Care for the least among you. Care for the widow, care for the sojourner, the traveler, the poor. Show compassion and restraint.
And this is not what happened. In this ancient civilization, “the social systems (comprising economic, political, religious, and social structures) were controlled by elites of power and wealth to serve their own interests. This type of society began to develop with Israel with the emergence of the monarchy around 1000 BC. By the time of Solomon, Israel’s third king, the major features of the ancient domination system were in place: a politics of oppression centered in monarchical authority; an economics of exploitation centered in the monarchy and aristocracy; and a religion of legitimacy centered in the temple built by Solomon in Jerusalem.” (127)
“…by the time the classical prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, began to speak in the eighth century, Israel and Judah had become miniature versions of the ancient domination system that had enslaved their ancestors in Egypt. The victims (the majority of the population) were Israelites, of course, but now the elites at the top were also Israelites. Egypt had been established in Israel.” (127)
And the prophets, whether they were Major or Minor, all had angry words for the rulers who were exploiting the poor to make themselves rich. The kings and merchants had “deformed Israel, changing her from the exodus vision of an alternative community living under the lordship of God to just another kingdom living under the lordship of a native pharaoh.
The prophets were “prosecuting a covenant lawsuit on behalf of God against Israel.”
Listen to some of the words of these ancient prophets speaking on behalf of God and on behalf of the poor, the widow, the elderly, the sojourner, the common person.
Listen to the prophet Amos, whose words had a transformative, life-changing impact on Marcus Borg when he first read them while college.
“Thus says the Lord,
“For three transgressions of Israel and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell those who have done no wrong for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample the heads of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way. You oppress the poor and crush the needy. You trample on the poor and take from them taxes of grain. You trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land.”
Those words from Amos are mild compared to these,
“Thus says the Lord,
I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings, and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of your fatted animals, I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to your harps.
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.
It isn’t that worshipping God is a bad thing. It is wrong only if that is the only thing we are doing we keeping our side of the covenant. And it isn’t enough to care for the poor that are cast aside by the oppressive ruler or system. The prophets are calling for a critique of the social structures themselves. They are calling for social justice.
“Social justice is concerned with the structures of society and their results. Because it is results oriented, it discerns whether the structures of society are just in their effects. Do they produce a large impoverished class or result in a more equitable distribution of resources? Do they benefit some at the expense of many or serve all equally? Do they produce conflict or peace? Do they destroy or nourish a future?” (128)
When I was putting this series together and writing about it in the Nugget, our church newsletter, I put a question under the heading for each Sunday’s theme for the sermon. I am especially proud of the question that I wrote for the prophets,
“Why are the prophets so angry and so hopeful.”
The prophets, whose writings span two centuries, were blessed and cursed to be living in challenging times. They were called by God to speak the truth to power, with power at a time when the rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer. They lived during a time when the monarchies fell under their own weight of greed and oppression. They lived during a time when the officially sanctioned prophets of the Temple who provided divine sanction for the all that the governments were doing were saying, “Peace, Peace, when there was no peace.
The prophets had to speak the word of God to a people who lived during a time of occupation when their God-promised land was overrun by the nations of Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon. The prophets had to speak the word of the Lord when the ruling elites of Jerusalem and Israel were taken away from their God-promised land to live for almost three generations in exile.
The prophets were angry because they believed that all of this calamity was a direct result of the rulers and the wealthy of Israel who had abandoned the Covenant with God to compassion for others and conduct themselves with restraint out of a sense of responsibility. A sense of responsibility to the whole body, the whole society, the whole world.
But herein lies the source of the prophet’s hope. Instead of seeing the exile as a time when God had abandoned the people, the prophets new task in Babylon, and back home in Jerusalem was to tell the people that God is incapable of going back on the promise to fulfill the vision that was planted at the first moment of creation.
Micah gave voice to that vision when he said,
“God shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Micah 4:3)
And in the Book of Isaiah, beginning at 40th chapter and following we hear a new voice. It is such a new voice that contemporary biblical scholarship refers to these chapters as Second Isaiah, believing that the author is different that the one who wrote the first 40 chapters. Second Isaiah was writing from Babylon, during the time of exile and during the time of return home to Israel.
His task, also born out his experience of the presence of God, was to give his people hope, strength, courage to return home and see it again for the first time.
There are so many beautiful passages to choose from Second Isaiah. I selected Isaiah 43:15-19 because the language spoken to a people discouraged, broken, homeless, and called to return home, reminds the people of God’s presence in the creation of the universe, the exodus from slavery, and the Covenant of compassion and restraint that made them into a nation. These words are:
“Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished like a wick. Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
“The solution for exiles is, of course, a journey of return, a way or path through the wilderness. Both Judaism and Christianity are about a “way.” Indeed, the word “repent,” so central to the Christian tradition, has its roots in the Jewish story of exile. To repent does not mean to feel really bad about sins; rather, it means to embark upon a path of return. The journey begins in exile, and the destination is a return, to life!, in the presence of God.”
This way of life includes many spiritual practices. It includes worship, prayer and singing! It includes education for all ages. It includes a commitment of our God-given resources to build a God-given community of faith. It calls for caring kids, caring young-timers and old-timers. And it calls for service, which not only cares for the least among us, but also calls some, not all of us, but some of us, to prophetic witness to call the principalities and powers to account when they care more for themselves than the community. The path brings the earth into balance love of God, love of neighbor, and love of self.
One of the reasons why I am a minister in the United Church of Christ is because the UCC and its forebearers; the Congregational and Christian Church and the Evangelical and Reformed Church, have a long history of making and living the connection between the presence of God and the call for social justice.
We were the first denomination to ordain an African-American man, Reverend Lemuel Haynes, the first to ordain a woman, Rev. Antoinette Brown, the first to ordain a gay man,
Rev. William R. Johnson. Our ancestors were deeply involved in the abolitionist movement of the 1830s and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Members of our church stopped a General Synod meeting flew out to Cochella Valley to support Cesar Chavez and the farm-workers who were striking for a fair wage.
I could go on. I love to tell the story.
But there is only thing that I want to say at this point.
Not everyone is called to be a prophet. Not everyone is called to be engaged in social justice work. Not everyone is called to push the frontiers of social change to end oppression.
I just want you to see that when people of faith are engaged in this work, its source is not some democratic socialistic pinko commie leftist propaganda agenda.
How do we know these things to be the call of God?
The Bible Tells Me So.
You can find it the book of Exodus, the book of Isaiah, Amos, and Micah.
You can find it in the Gospel of Luke when Jesus says in his hometown synagogue,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. The Lord has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Today this words are fulfilled in your hearing”
There is a saying in the United Church of Christ. To believe is to care. To care is to do.
What is that the Lord requires of us? Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.
Let these words be fulfilled not only in our hearing but also in our doing, in whatever way calls us forward on this day, which the Lord has made. Let the people say: Amen.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The Word is Love
The Word is Love
Rev. Alan Claassen
Psalm 119:105-112 Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
July 13, 2008
Prayer before Sermon
Gracious God, May more light and truth break forth in our lives today from your Holy Word in ways that transform us and influence the world around us. Amen.
Can you tell I’m excited?
I am excited. And remembering my sermons back in May, I might even say that I am enthused this morning. It’s summertime, the time of the summer vacation, cross country trip,to see relatives or cross continent trips to see some foreign country such as Italy, the Netherlands or Costa Rica.
But the trip I am enthusiastic about is not back to Tulsa, Oklahoma or Amsterdam.
I am thinking about this journey that I have decided to lead us on this summer. This journey that begins in Genesis and ends in Revelation. This journey that will be filled with stories to tell when we get back home. In fact, that is one of the main stories of the Bible, leaving home, living away from home, living in a strange land and making it feel like back home, seeing our land as our home, and seeing strangers as our own family.
There will be stories about creation and creativity, there will be stories of being lost and found in the wilderness, of corruption and courage, there will be stories of wise men and women and children, there will be stories of dying and living.
Can you see why I am excited?
Now I am know that some of you are thinking that you have been to these places before. You know these stories. But I am not worried about you. You know that these stories are worth seeing again. You might say that you will be seeing them again for the first time.
You know that as you open up these stories they open you up, they open up your heart, your strength, your soul. No, I am not so worried about you all.
I am concerned that some of you might need persuading that this is a journey worthy of our excitement. And I understand that. And so does our tour guide, Marcus Borg, who has written our travel itinerary.
And so let me take just a moment to talk to you folks who are not persuaded that the Bible is not the best place to go on a summer vacation.
Marcus Borg sees three reasons why the Bible, at least as it was taught to most of us when we were growing up, is no longer persuasive.
One of the reasons is because “We are aware of the world’s religions in a way that most people have not been for most of human history. We are now global citizens. Either through the Television series by Joseph Campbell or Huston Smith, or just meeting some of our neighbors we are coming to some level of familiarity with the world’s religions and wisdom traditions. And so many find the exclusivist claims of Christian tradition impossible to accept. Some of us know that there are others ways to God than the way that Jesus taught. And if the Bible is used to say there is only one way then some of us are likely to go another way.
A second reason why some find the Bible no longer persuasive is that we are aware of the influences of cultural relativity; “that how people think is shaped by the time and place in which they live, as well as by their social and economic class. Our concepts, images, language, knowledge, beliefs, are all profoundly shaped by culture.” And so when the Bible is used to say that the ideas of some middle eastern men are true for all time and all people some people are likely to go look elsewhere for meaning and truth.
A third reason that people have been turned off rather than excited about reading the Bible is that we are modern people, influenced by science. Much of what we know to be true is based upon knowledge gained through experimentation and not revelation. And so when the Bible is used to give scientific explanations for the creation of the universe we are likely to say, “You must be kidding.”
The sad thing is that many people leave the church not knowing that the church has been living quite well with this knowledge of the wisdom of the world’s religions, the influence of cultural relativity, and the gifts of science for decades. In fact, applying the techniques of what in seminary is called “historical criticism” has brought the Bible back into play for many people. When the Bible is not taken literally, but is taken seriously, as a way to transcend our self-centered egos and see ourselves, our neighbors, and our planets from the perspective of our God-centered selves we experience the charity, compassion, loving-kindness that is the core of all the world’s religions.
My own father is the perfect example of this. Both my Mom and Dad were active in church when I was growing up. They taught the college age group at church when I was in grade school. They were loving kind people. But my Dad always, trained as a lawyer, also felt a little disconnected from what was often taught in church. A few years ago I began sharing with my Dad some of the books that I was excited about, including books written by Marcus Borg.
After he read a few of them he was upset. He asked me, with an equal measure of frustration and disbelief, “Why didn’t you ministers tell us about this 25 years ago?”
I noticed a similar experience last Fall when a small group of us studied Marcus Borg’s book, The Heart of Christianity.” Several in the class commented that the ideas that Borg was sharing were ideas that they had already, or questions that they had already been asking, but that they didn’t know it was OK.
Now the gift of a scientific approach to reading the Bible has given us a new appreciation for how the Bible came into being. Rather than thinking that it was written by God and is so holy that we cannot touch it, the results of approaching the Bible as a historian, a cultural anthropologist, a linguist, enables us to see the human beings who wrote the Bible. It enables us to see what made the Bible sacred, what gives it authority, what makes it a sacrament, a bridge between us and God that carries us to the promised land of compassion, tolerance, and caring for the earth.
So I hope that I have persuaded some of you reluctant ones to go on this journey with the rest of us. And if I made those of you were already excited, a little nervous, remember one the core ideas that you learned from your study of the Bible. Be not afraid.
Now I would like every to listen to this. What does it mean to refer to the Bible as sacred Scipture. We say that the Bible is the Holy Word. We say that the Bible is the word of God. But we don’t say that God wrote the Bible. Another way to say that is that Bible is not the words of God, it is the word of God.
“The Bible is a collection of divinely inspired written clues that by the power of the Holy Spirit reveal mysteries about God's nature and intent to real people. It was written by real people struggling to understand "God," --real people who became holy reflections and human witnesses of Divine intention.” (Ron Bufford)
As your tour guide let me share with you the first interesting fact of this journey. It took a long time for the Bible to be considered sacred. “The first five books of the Hebrew Bible, which we commonly refer to as the Old Testament, were regarded as sacred by the Jewish community around 400 years before Christ. But some of the writings and stories in those first five books of the Bible are approximately 4,000 years old.
The second part of the Hebrew Bible, the Prophets achieved sacred status by about 200BC. And the third part, the Writings, which include the Psalms, Proverbs, and Job became considered as sacred by the community 100 years after the birth of Christ.
For the 27 books of the New Testament the process took about three centuries. Though most of the books of the New Testament were written by the year 100 the first list that mentions all 27 of them as having special status is from the year 367.” Pg 29
The Bible became sacred, not because it was thought to be written by God, not by its origin, but because over time people treated certain documents differently in study and in worship.
This gives us an awesome responsibility. What is sacred for us in the Bible? On what basis can we say that a passage is no longer meaningful for us today? Can we just pick and choose which passages we like and leave out the rest? How do we decide?
There are certain sections of the Bible that we no longer consider as valid for our time.
Many of us enjoy eating pork and shellfish. Why did the Jewish community write into its laws and Scriptures that the eating of shellfish is an abomination?
According to the Book of Timothy in the New Testament some in the early church thought women had no place in the church. Women were not allowed to speak. Certainly not be lay leaders, or serve communion. I am sure there are many in this sanctuary who remember a time, not so long ago, when women did not serve in worship. How did we come to the conclusion that we could disregard this section from Timothy?
The women told us to.
In our class sessions on the book reading the Bible again for the First Time we have the benefit of short guest lectures by Marcus Borg on DVDs. In the presentation we heard last week Borg said that Adult Theological Education is the most pressing need in the church today.
The Bible shapes us, is our foundational document, our moral compass. And so it is vitally important that we know, both how it was written and what it means for us today. It is a living word, not a dead one. And that even though we are not to take it literally, we are to take it seriously, if we are to call ourselves Christian. Being a human document written in response to God we are called in our day to let it be a bridge between us and God. But all bridges need inspecting. There are some planks that need to be replaced. The plank that says women are inferior is one that in most, but not all, churches has been removed.
So we are almost ready to get begin our journey into the stories and the history of the Bible. In fact, the one thing remaining before we depart is to understand that in our journey we will be seeing history and story, fact and metaphor, two ways of telling the truth of God’s presence in our lives, the reality of love.
I am excited to be at the beginning of this journey. I have done a few sermon series in my ministry but never one on the Bible in 9 weeks. I am excited to see what is familiar, and I am looking forward to making connections I have never made before. After last week’s sermon someone came up to me after church and said that they were going to go home and read their Bible. Now that made me feel real good.
This coming Wednesday evening some of us will be discussing a book written by Eckhart Tolle called a New Heaven. I recently learned that Mr Tolle took the first name of Eckhart after discovering an entirely new approach to Christianity through the writings of the 12th Century monk, Meister Eckhart. A New Heaven is filled with Biblical references and through Eckhart Tolle we are invited to read the Bible again for the first time.
Meister Eckhart said that every creature is a word of God. I’d like to close with this poem by Meister Eckhart. I’d like to dedicate this to Clarissa, Murphys’ town burro..
LOVE DOES THAT
All day long a little burro labors, sometimes
with heavy loads on her back and sometimes just with worries
about things that bother only
burros.
And worries, as we know, can be more exhausting
than physical labor.
Once in a while a kind monk comes
to her stable and brings
a pear, but more
than that,
he looks into the burro's eyes and touches her ears
and for a few seconds the burro is free
and even seems to laugh,
because love does
that.
Love Frees.
~ Meister Eckhart ~
That’s what the Bible tells me.
Love frees.
Blessed be the gospel that unbinds
our hearts and sets us
as a community
free.
Rev. Alan Claassen
Psalm 119:105-112 Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
July 13, 2008
Prayer before Sermon
Gracious God, May more light and truth break forth in our lives today from your Holy Word in ways that transform us and influence the world around us. Amen.
Can you tell I’m excited?
I am excited. And remembering my sermons back in May, I might even say that I am enthused this morning. It’s summertime, the time of the summer vacation, cross country trip,to see relatives or cross continent trips to see some foreign country such as Italy, the Netherlands or Costa Rica.
But the trip I am enthusiastic about is not back to Tulsa, Oklahoma or Amsterdam.
I am thinking about this journey that I have decided to lead us on this summer. This journey that begins in Genesis and ends in Revelation. This journey that will be filled with stories to tell when we get back home. In fact, that is one of the main stories of the Bible, leaving home, living away from home, living in a strange land and making it feel like back home, seeing our land as our home, and seeing strangers as our own family.
There will be stories about creation and creativity, there will be stories of being lost and found in the wilderness, of corruption and courage, there will be stories of wise men and women and children, there will be stories of dying and living.
Can you see why I am excited?
Now I am know that some of you are thinking that you have been to these places before. You know these stories. But I am not worried about you. You know that these stories are worth seeing again. You might say that you will be seeing them again for the first time.
You know that as you open up these stories they open you up, they open up your heart, your strength, your soul. No, I am not so worried about you all.
I am concerned that some of you might need persuading that this is a journey worthy of our excitement. And I understand that. And so does our tour guide, Marcus Borg, who has written our travel itinerary.
And so let me take just a moment to talk to you folks who are not persuaded that the Bible is not the best place to go on a summer vacation.
Marcus Borg sees three reasons why the Bible, at least as it was taught to most of us when we were growing up, is no longer persuasive.
One of the reasons is because “We are aware of the world’s religions in a way that most people have not been for most of human history. We are now global citizens. Either through the Television series by Joseph Campbell or Huston Smith, or just meeting some of our neighbors we are coming to some level of familiarity with the world’s religions and wisdom traditions. And so many find the exclusivist claims of Christian tradition impossible to accept. Some of us know that there are others ways to God than the way that Jesus taught. And if the Bible is used to say there is only one way then some of us are likely to go another way.
A second reason why some find the Bible no longer persuasive is that we are aware of the influences of cultural relativity; “that how people think is shaped by the time and place in which they live, as well as by their social and economic class. Our concepts, images, language, knowledge, beliefs, are all profoundly shaped by culture.” And so when the Bible is used to say that the ideas of some middle eastern men are true for all time and all people some people are likely to go look elsewhere for meaning and truth.
A third reason that people have been turned off rather than excited about reading the Bible is that we are modern people, influenced by science. Much of what we know to be true is based upon knowledge gained through experimentation and not revelation. And so when the Bible is used to give scientific explanations for the creation of the universe we are likely to say, “You must be kidding.”
The sad thing is that many people leave the church not knowing that the church has been living quite well with this knowledge of the wisdom of the world’s religions, the influence of cultural relativity, and the gifts of science for decades. In fact, applying the techniques of what in seminary is called “historical criticism” has brought the Bible back into play for many people. When the Bible is not taken literally, but is taken seriously, as a way to transcend our self-centered egos and see ourselves, our neighbors, and our planets from the perspective of our God-centered selves we experience the charity, compassion, loving-kindness that is the core of all the world’s religions.
My own father is the perfect example of this. Both my Mom and Dad were active in church when I was growing up. They taught the college age group at church when I was in grade school. They were loving kind people. But my Dad always, trained as a lawyer, also felt a little disconnected from what was often taught in church. A few years ago I began sharing with my Dad some of the books that I was excited about, including books written by Marcus Borg.
After he read a few of them he was upset. He asked me, with an equal measure of frustration and disbelief, “Why didn’t you ministers tell us about this 25 years ago?”
I noticed a similar experience last Fall when a small group of us studied Marcus Borg’s book, The Heart of Christianity.” Several in the class commented that the ideas that Borg was sharing were ideas that they had already, or questions that they had already been asking, but that they didn’t know it was OK.
Now the gift of a scientific approach to reading the Bible has given us a new appreciation for how the Bible came into being. Rather than thinking that it was written by God and is so holy that we cannot touch it, the results of approaching the Bible as a historian, a cultural anthropologist, a linguist, enables us to see the human beings who wrote the Bible. It enables us to see what made the Bible sacred, what gives it authority, what makes it a sacrament, a bridge between us and God that carries us to the promised land of compassion, tolerance, and caring for the earth.
So I hope that I have persuaded some of you reluctant ones to go on this journey with the rest of us. And if I made those of you were already excited, a little nervous, remember one the core ideas that you learned from your study of the Bible. Be not afraid.
Now I would like every to listen to this. What does it mean to refer to the Bible as sacred Scipture. We say that the Bible is the Holy Word. We say that the Bible is the word of God. But we don’t say that God wrote the Bible. Another way to say that is that Bible is not the words of God, it is the word of God.
“The Bible is a collection of divinely inspired written clues that by the power of the Holy Spirit reveal mysteries about God's nature and intent to real people. It was written by real people struggling to understand "God," --real people who became holy reflections and human witnesses of Divine intention.” (Ron Bufford)
As your tour guide let me share with you the first interesting fact of this journey. It took a long time for the Bible to be considered sacred. “The first five books of the Hebrew Bible, which we commonly refer to as the Old Testament, were regarded as sacred by the Jewish community around 400 years before Christ. But some of the writings and stories in those first five books of the Bible are approximately 4,000 years old.
The second part of the Hebrew Bible, the Prophets achieved sacred status by about 200BC. And the third part, the Writings, which include the Psalms, Proverbs, and Job became considered as sacred by the community 100 years after the birth of Christ.
For the 27 books of the New Testament the process took about three centuries. Though most of the books of the New Testament were written by the year 100 the first list that mentions all 27 of them as having special status is from the year 367.” Pg 29
The Bible became sacred, not because it was thought to be written by God, not by its origin, but because over time people treated certain documents differently in study and in worship.
This gives us an awesome responsibility. What is sacred for us in the Bible? On what basis can we say that a passage is no longer meaningful for us today? Can we just pick and choose which passages we like and leave out the rest? How do we decide?
There are certain sections of the Bible that we no longer consider as valid for our time.
Many of us enjoy eating pork and shellfish. Why did the Jewish community write into its laws and Scriptures that the eating of shellfish is an abomination?
According to the Book of Timothy in the New Testament some in the early church thought women had no place in the church. Women were not allowed to speak. Certainly not be lay leaders, or serve communion. I am sure there are many in this sanctuary who remember a time, not so long ago, when women did not serve in worship. How did we come to the conclusion that we could disregard this section from Timothy?
The women told us to.
In our class sessions on the book reading the Bible again for the First Time we have the benefit of short guest lectures by Marcus Borg on DVDs. In the presentation we heard last week Borg said that Adult Theological Education is the most pressing need in the church today.
The Bible shapes us, is our foundational document, our moral compass. And so it is vitally important that we know, both how it was written and what it means for us today. It is a living word, not a dead one. And that even though we are not to take it literally, we are to take it seriously, if we are to call ourselves Christian. Being a human document written in response to God we are called in our day to let it be a bridge between us and God. But all bridges need inspecting. There are some planks that need to be replaced. The plank that says women are inferior is one that in most, but not all, churches has been removed.
So we are almost ready to get begin our journey into the stories and the history of the Bible. In fact, the one thing remaining before we depart is to understand that in our journey we will be seeing history and story, fact and metaphor, two ways of telling the truth of God’s presence in our lives, the reality of love.
I am excited to be at the beginning of this journey. I have done a few sermon series in my ministry but never one on the Bible in 9 weeks. I am excited to see what is familiar, and I am looking forward to making connections I have never made before. After last week’s sermon someone came up to me after church and said that they were going to go home and read their Bible. Now that made me feel real good.
This coming Wednesday evening some of us will be discussing a book written by Eckhart Tolle called a New Heaven. I recently learned that Mr Tolle took the first name of Eckhart after discovering an entirely new approach to Christianity through the writings of the 12th Century monk, Meister Eckhart. A New Heaven is filled with Biblical references and through Eckhart Tolle we are invited to read the Bible again for the first time.
Meister Eckhart said that every creature is a word of God. I’d like to close with this poem by Meister Eckhart. I’d like to dedicate this to Clarissa, Murphys’ town burro..
LOVE DOES THAT
All day long a little burro labors, sometimes
with heavy loads on her back and sometimes just with worries
about things that bother only
burros.
And worries, as we know, can be more exhausting
than physical labor.
Once in a while a kind monk comes
to her stable and brings
a pear, but more
than that,
he looks into the burro's eyes and touches her ears
and for a few seconds the burro is free
and even seems to laugh,
because love does
that.
Love Frees.
~ Meister Eckhart ~
That’s what the Bible tells me.
Love frees.
Blessed be the gospel that unbinds
our hearts and sets us
as a community
free.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
I Am A Wright Brother
A Wright Brother
Rev. Alan Claassen
March 30, 2008
In response to the treatment of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Trinity UCC in Chicago.
Written before the interview with Bill Moyers
and the appearance before the National Press Club
It is has been a quiet week on Lake U.C.C.
Actually I have been so busy with Holy Week and the lecture by Michael Dowd that I have not had time to watch TV, see the repeated soundbites of Rev. Jeremiah Wright damning America or hearing Barack Obama’s speech on racism. But I have had time to do a little research on our ucc.org web page and I would like to share with you what I learned from others about my colleague and our brother in Christ, Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the church that he built from 87 members to over 1,000 members.
J. Bennett Guess March 14, 2008
“In the wake of misleading attacks on its mission and ministry, Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ is being lauded by United Church of Christ leaders across the nation for the integrity of its worship, the breadth of its community involvement and the depth of its commitment to social justice.
Located in the heart of Chicago's impoverished Southside, Trinity UCC's vast array of ministries include career development and college placement, tutorial and computer services, health care and support groups, domestic violence programs, pastoral care and counseling, bereavement services, drug and alcohol recovery, prison ministry, financial counseling and credit union, housing and economic development, dozens of choral, instrumental and dance groups, and diverse programming for all ages, including youth and senior citizens.”
The Rev. Steve Gray, the UCC's Indiana-Kentucky Conference Minister, describes Trinity UCC as a "jewel."
"It's everything a Christian community is supposed to be," says Gray, who has been working with Trinity UCC for the past three years to develop a new UCC congregation in Gary, Ind. "Trinity has given well over $100,000 in support of its partnership with us, and in 15 months of regular meetings with Jeremiah Wright, we always found him to be a man of gracious hospitality, humor, generosity, who paid attention to detail but also a man who does not call attention to himself."
Gray, a member of First Congregational UCC in Indianapolis, has worshiped several times at Trinity UCC and is most impressed by the overflowing sense of welcome it extends to visitors.
"When you're Euro-American, the people [at Trinity UCC] are so exceedingly gracious, warm and welcoming. They hug you and say, 'Welcome to our church!'"
The Rev. Bennie Whiten, retired Massachusetts Conference Minister who prior served for 15 years as associate director of Chicago's Community Renewal Society, says, Whiten, a member of Pilgrim UCC in Oak Park, Ill., is especially taken with Trinity UCC's commitment to the need and importance of quality theological education. More than 60 members of Trinity UCC are currently enrolled in seminary and pursuing masters-level degrees. Moreover, the congregation pays for students' tuition costs.
"They firmly believe in the UCC's commitment to an educated, seminary-trained clergy," Whiten said, "and they have probably had more people feeling the call to ministry than any other church in the denomination."
The Rev. Susan Thistlethwaite, president and professor of theology at UCC-related Chicago Theological Seminary
"Another thing I really appreciate about Trinity is that its ministries are always directed both inward, toward the congregation itself, and also outward in supporting other congregations ecumenically and supporting community organizations that are dedicated to lifting up the wider society," Thistlethwaite says. "We have had so many fine students come through Chicago Theological Seminary who were helped to discern their call to ministry through this church's dedication to serving the wider church."
The Rev. Kenneth L. Samuel, pastor of Victory UCC in Stone Mountain, Ga.,
While Trinity UCC is the denomination's largest congregation, Samuel's 5,300-member church is the UCC's second largest. Founded in 1987, it joined the UCC in 2004.
"Trinity was really one of the churches that inspired me to want to affiliate with the United Church of Christ," Samuel said. "My church was originally National Baptist and Southern Baptist, but it was the critical-thinking that [Trinity] brought to this work, the justice work, that helped me to want to become a part of the denomination. I have no regrets about that."
Carol Brown, national president of United Black Christians and a member of Cleveland's Mt. Zion UCC for more than 50 years, describes Trinity UCC as "the flagship church of the United Church of Christ."
"I think it's very interesting that a minority group within a denomination can have the largest church, support the most ministries and give the largest number of OCWM [mission] dollars," Brown says. "That speaks well for us as an accepting, open and affirming denomination. Especially, as a justice-oriented church, [Trinity UCC] sets a standard for all the denomination that all are welcome."
The Rev. Dr. John P. Gardner is senior minister of Plymouth Congregational Church of Fort Wayne, United Church of Christ, Fort Wayne.
How ironic that a pastor and congregation which, for forty-five years, has cast its lot with a predominantly white denomination, participating fully in its wider church life and contributing generously to it, would be accused of racial exclusion and a failure to reach for racial reconciliation.”
m
By JEFFREY WEISS / The Dallas Morning News
“More than two dozen well-known black preachers and scholars, in Dallas for a long-planned conference, offered unequivocal support Friday for one of their number who was not there.
“The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, now world-famous as the former pastor and spiritual mentor of presidential candidate Barack Obama, was to be the guest of honor at the Black Church Summit held by Brite Divinity School. Amid the recent controversy about some of his sermons, Dr. Wright decided not to attend, but the summit started Friday as scheduled.”
Most of the event was not open to the media, but several of the scholars and preachers spoke at a news conference. They said that Dr. Wright's sermons fit into a long-standing black tradition of prophetic preaching – one that the Rev. Martin Luther King also emerged from.
Dr. Stacey Floyd-Thomas, director of the black church studies program at Brite, said that the controversy over Dr. Wright's sermons is an indication of how little many whites know about what happens routinely at many black churches.
"It's news to you," she said. "Black America has long known about the tradition of religious formation within mainline white congregations. Now, for the very first time in history, mainline America, white America is finding out something about its black church."
“Mr. Wright has been cited by Mr. Obama as his longtime pastor and spiritual mentor. In the last couple of weeks, parts of some of Mr. Wright's sermons have been repeatedly rebroadcast. In the sound bites, he attacks the Iraq war, says that AIDS was produced by the U.S. government and calls for God's condemnation of the U.S. for its policies on illegal drugs.”
But that needs to be set into the context of preachers like Dr. King, who once called America "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today," Dr. Floyd-Thomas said. And he had been scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled "Why America May Go to Hell" on the Sunday after he was assassinated in 1968, she added.
That is some of what I read at ucc.org. Here is what I read in the gospel of John this week.
“When it was evening of that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the authorities, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his wounded hands, his wounded side.”
And Jesus said to his disciples. As God has sent me, so I send you. When he said this he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
The healing begins and peace enters our hearts when we forgive one another the sins of our frightened forefathers who taught us to fear someone because they were different than us; whether the difference was race, gender, sexual orientation, culture, age, nationality, political party, or denomination.
The healing begins and peace enters into our communities when we move from the safety of our familiar homes and move out into the wider world and see how the other half lives, to walk a mile in their shoes.
The healing begins and peace enters our world when receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit that unites all of humanity with all of creation and with the understanding that peace and reconciliation can only come through our commitment to:
Sacrifice – Sacrifice that is spiritual; that is courageous and steadfast in its willingness to endure great hardship for others. Service to Others – Service that is predicated on empowering others; engendering self-help, self-determination, and self-sufficiency versus charity.
Acceptance of all People – An essential ingredient for success in organizing diverse forces to achieve social change, create community, and actualize democracy is the acceptance of all people; an absolutely indispensable necessity to the well-being of this country.
By the way, those three commitments to Sacrifice, Service, and Acceptance come from the Core Values of Non-violence of Cesar Chavez, who birthday was today. Happy birthday Cesar Chavez. Another prophet like Jeremiah Wright whose complaint about what is wrong in our society and his commitment to the foundational values of this nation caused him to do something …right.
Also, in the Gospel reading for today we read that Thomas needed to touch the wounds of Jesus in order to believe that he was the risen Christ. The wound that we in America need to touch is the wound of racism, that in spite of all the distance we have come, including a black American, possibly becoming the next President, too many Americans of color are treated as second-class citizens in this great nation. It is not an excuse for violence or victimhood, but it is an illness that needs to be treated with peace, with honesty, with forgiveness and reconciliation.
Finally, as a sign of life coming out of death, the United Church of Christ is currently raising funds to buy a full page ad in the New York Times to explain to the nation who we are as a nation and what we truly stand for.
In the meantime, you can be a part of this work by simply telling one another what you know and love about this church where it is said, every Sunday, “No matter who you are and where you on life’s journey, you are welcome here.”
Rev. Alan Claassen
March 30, 2008
In response to the treatment of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Trinity UCC in Chicago.
Written before the interview with Bill Moyers
and the appearance before the National Press Club
It is has been a quiet week on Lake U.C.C.
Actually I have been so busy with Holy Week and the lecture by Michael Dowd that I have not had time to watch TV, see the repeated soundbites of Rev. Jeremiah Wright damning America or hearing Barack Obama’s speech on racism. But I have had time to do a little research on our ucc.org web page and I would like to share with you what I learned from others about my colleague and our brother in Christ, Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the church that he built from 87 members to over 1,000 members.
J. Bennett Guess March 14, 2008
“In the wake of misleading attacks on its mission and ministry, Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ is being lauded by United Church of Christ leaders across the nation for the integrity of its worship, the breadth of its community involvement and the depth of its commitment to social justice.
Located in the heart of Chicago's impoverished Southside, Trinity UCC's vast array of ministries include career development and college placement, tutorial and computer services, health care and support groups, domestic violence programs, pastoral care and counseling, bereavement services, drug and alcohol recovery, prison ministry, financial counseling and credit union, housing and economic development, dozens of choral, instrumental and dance groups, and diverse programming for all ages, including youth and senior citizens.”
The Rev. Steve Gray, the UCC's Indiana-Kentucky Conference Minister, describes Trinity UCC as a "jewel."
"It's everything a Christian community is supposed to be," says Gray, who has been working with Trinity UCC for the past three years to develop a new UCC congregation in Gary, Ind. "Trinity has given well over $100,000 in support of its partnership with us, and in 15 months of regular meetings with Jeremiah Wright, we always found him to be a man of gracious hospitality, humor, generosity, who paid attention to detail but also a man who does not call attention to himself."
Gray, a member of First Congregational UCC in Indianapolis, has worshiped several times at Trinity UCC and is most impressed by the overflowing sense of welcome it extends to visitors.
"When you're Euro-American, the people [at Trinity UCC] are so exceedingly gracious, warm and welcoming. They hug you and say, 'Welcome to our church!'"
The Rev. Bennie Whiten, retired Massachusetts Conference Minister who prior served for 15 years as associate director of Chicago's Community Renewal Society, says, Whiten, a member of Pilgrim UCC in Oak Park, Ill., is especially taken with Trinity UCC's commitment to the need and importance of quality theological education. More than 60 members of Trinity UCC are currently enrolled in seminary and pursuing masters-level degrees. Moreover, the congregation pays for students' tuition costs.
"They firmly believe in the UCC's commitment to an educated, seminary-trained clergy," Whiten said, "and they have probably had more people feeling the call to ministry than any other church in the denomination."
The Rev. Susan Thistlethwaite, president and professor of theology at UCC-related Chicago Theological Seminary
"Another thing I really appreciate about Trinity is that its ministries are always directed both inward, toward the congregation itself, and also outward in supporting other congregations ecumenically and supporting community organizations that are dedicated to lifting up the wider society," Thistlethwaite says. "We have had so many fine students come through Chicago Theological Seminary who were helped to discern their call to ministry through this church's dedication to serving the wider church."
The Rev. Kenneth L. Samuel, pastor of Victory UCC in Stone Mountain, Ga.,
While Trinity UCC is the denomination's largest congregation, Samuel's 5,300-member church is the UCC's second largest. Founded in 1987, it joined the UCC in 2004.
"Trinity was really one of the churches that inspired me to want to affiliate with the United Church of Christ," Samuel said. "My church was originally National Baptist and Southern Baptist, but it was the critical-thinking that [Trinity] brought to this work, the justice work, that helped me to want to become a part of the denomination. I have no regrets about that."
Carol Brown, national president of United Black Christians and a member of Cleveland's Mt. Zion UCC for more than 50 years, describes Trinity UCC as "the flagship church of the United Church of Christ."
"I think it's very interesting that a minority group within a denomination can have the largest church, support the most ministries and give the largest number of OCWM [mission] dollars," Brown says. "That speaks well for us as an accepting, open and affirming denomination. Especially, as a justice-oriented church, [Trinity UCC] sets a standard for all the denomination that all are welcome."
The Rev. Dr. John P. Gardner is senior minister of Plymouth Congregational Church of Fort Wayne, United Church of Christ, Fort Wayne.
How ironic that a pastor and congregation which, for forty-five years, has cast its lot with a predominantly white denomination, participating fully in its wider church life and contributing generously to it, would be accused of racial exclusion and a failure to reach for racial reconciliation.”
m
By JEFFREY WEISS / The Dallas Morning News
“More than two dozen well-known black preachers and scholars, in Dallas for a long-planned conference, offered unequivocal support Friday for one of their number who was not there.
“The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, now world-famous as the former pastor and spiritual mentor of presidential candidate Barack Obama, was to be the guest of honor at the Black Church Summit held by Brite Divinity School. Amid the recent controversy about some of his sermons, Dr. Wright decided not to attend, but the summit started Friday as scheduled.”
Most of the event was not open to the media, but several of the scholars and preachers spoke at a news conference. They said that Dr. Wright's sermons fit into a long-standing black tradition of prophetic preaching – one that the Rev. Martin Luther King also emerged from.
Dr. Stacey Floyd-Thomas, director of the black church studies program at Brite, said that the controversy over Dr. Wright's sermons is an indication of how little many whites know about what happens routinely at many black churches.
"It's news to you," she said. "Black America has long known about the tradition of religious formation within mainline white congregations. Now, for the very first time in history, mainline America, white America is finding out something about its black church."
“Mr. Wright has been cited by Mr. Obama as his longtime pastor and spiritual mentor. In the last couple of weeks, parts of some of Mr. Wright's sermons have been repeatedly rebroadcast. In the sound bites, he attacks the Iraq war, says that AIDS was produced by the U.S. government and calls for God's condemnation of the U.S. for its policies on illegal drugs.”
But that needs to be set into the context of preachers like Dr. King, who once called America "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today," Dr. Floyd-Thomas said. And he had been scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled "Why America May Go to Hell" on the Sunday after he was assassinated in 1968, she added.
That is some of what I read at ucc.org. Here is what I read in the gospel of John this week.
“When it was evening of that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the authorities, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his wounded hands, his wounded side.”
And Jesus said to his disciples. As God has sent me, so I send you. When he said this he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
The healing begins and peace enters our hearts when we forgive one another the sins of our frightened forefathers who taught us to fear someone because they were different than us; whether the difference was race, gender, sexual orientation, culture, age, nationality, political party, or denomination.
The healing begins and peace enters into our communities when we move from the safety of our familiar homes and move out into the wider world and see how the other half lives, to walk a mile in their shoes.
The healing begins and peace enters our world when receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit that unites all of humanity with all of creation and with the understanding that peace and reconciliation can only come through our commitment to:
Sacrifice – Sacrifice that is spiritual; that is courageous and steadfast in its willingness to endure great hardship for others. Service to Others – Service that is predicated on empowering others; engendering self-help, self-determination, and self-sufficiency versus charity.
Acceptance of all People – An essential ingredient for success in organizing diverse forces to achieve social change, create community, and actualize democracy is the acceptance of all people; an absolutely indispensable necessity to the well-being of this country.
By the way, those three commitments to Sacrifice, Service, and Acceptance come from the Core Values of Non-violence of Cesar Chavez, who birthday was today. Happy birthday Cesar Chavez. Another prophet like Jeremiah Wright whose complaint about what is wrong in our society and his commitment to the foundational values of this nation caused him to do something …right.
Also, in the Gospel reading for today we read that Thomas needed to touch the wounds of Jesus in order to believe that he was the risen Christ. The wound that we in America need to touch is the wound of racism, that in spite of all the distance we have come, including a black American, possibly becoming the next President, too many Americans of color are treated as second-class citizens in this great nation. It is not an excuse for violence or victimhood, but it is an illness that needs to be treated with peace, with honesty, with forgiveness and reconciliation.
Finally, as a sign of life coming out of death, the United Church of Christ is currently raising funds to buy a full page ad in the New York Times to explain to the nation who we are as a nation and what we truly stand for.
In the meantime, you can be a part of this work by simply telling one another what you know and love about this church where it is said, every Sunday, “No matter who you are and where you on life’s journey, you are welcome here.”
Spread the Love
Spread the Love
Rev. Alan Claassen
Pentecost Sunday May 11, 2008
Acts 2: 1-13 John 4: 7-21
Four weeks ago I began a sermon series on the “E” word. Acknowledging that many people are uncomfortable with the idea of evangelism, I suggested that our “E” word be “Enthusiasm.” Which is a perfectly good replacement of a word, because enthusiasm comes from the Greek words , en theos, en-god-ed.
The source of actions, the source of our mission in life, in church, in work, in family, in retirement, is God. Our enthusiasm comes from experiencing being loved by God.
Beginning in the love of God, we see that our mission is to bring more kindness, love and honesty into every action and choice that we make. When we practice the presence of God in our actions and choices we begin to deepen our experience of God, our trust in God, and we also deepen our knowledge of ourselves. We gain in self-confidence as we gain in God confidence.
We realize what it means to be called children of God, as in said in the first letter of John, we are called children of God because that is what we are.
We are children of God, when we love one another. We abide in God when we abide in active love for our fellow human beings and for all of God’s creation. So the mission of the church is not to get more more people to join the church. The mission of the church is not to convert or to save others.
The mission of the church is that we become a spiritual community, abiding in God, seeking to live lives of compassion for one another and for our community. Where our actions are grounded in, planted in, nourished in God. And so we can grow in love, with confidence, in faith. The mission of the church is to receive God’s love for us so that we create a spiritual home where we feel safe and en-God-ed.
Now, today, in this final sermon in the enthusiasm series, we focus our attention on the third part of our mission, which is to
exercise that Talent which you particularly came to Earth to use,
in those places which God has caused to appeal to you the most,
for the purposes which God most needs to have done in the world.
So far we have been talking about the mission that we all share, grounded in the presence of God we make the world a better place. The third part of the mission is to ask where you are particularly called to be God’s active verb of love in the world.
We affirm in the church why Jesus came to earth, to be God’s word of love to humanity and to restore our broken relationship with God.
Well God had a reason for sending each one of us to Earth too. Can we remember what that reason was? What if we thought of people like Carroll Lang for a moment and thought about this, it wasn’t that he was that extraordinary, he just had a good memory, he remembered why God put him on this Earth.
Carroll’s purpose was to push the earth with his bulldozer and to people with challenging questions.
We all have a reason for being here. We just suffer from amnesia.
Let these words of Psalm 139 help remind you,
“For you formed my inward being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You, for you are to be reverenced and adored. Your mysteries fill me wonder! More than I know myself do you know me; my essence was not hidden from You, when I was being formed in secret intricately fashioned from the elements of the earth.”
Remember?
Let these words of Jesus from the Gospel of John help remind you,
“As the Father has loved me, so I love have loved you; abide in my love. Keep my commandments, and you will in abide in my love, just as I have kept my father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”
Ringing any bells, yet?
Let these words from the first letter of John remind help remind you,
“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as Jesus is, so re we in this world. There is no fear in love...”
We love because God loved us first.”
There is our source and our mission, because John goes on to connect the love and the commandment to love.
We cannot say that we love God if we are not bringing more kindness, more truth, more gratitude, more love into the world.
Now that we are reminded of our purpose as disciples of Christ, what is our particular mission, in the place that God has caused to appeal to us the most, for the purposes which God most needs to have done in the world?
“God has written this into our hearts, first in the talents given to us and secondly in the guidance given to us in our hearts.” “Even as an anthropologist can examine ancient inscriptions, and divine from them the daily life of a long lost people, so we by examining our talents and our heart can more often than we dream divine the will of the Living God.”
(pg 43, Richard Bolles, "Your Mission in Life.")
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
Where?
Let these words from the great writer, Frederick Buechner, guide us.
“ There are different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than the voice of society, or the hyper-critical ego, or self-interest. By and large a good rule for finding out is this:
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” (pg 48, Richard Bolles, "Your Mission in Life")
In other words, abiding in the love of God, who knows you better than you know yourself, how can you bring more love, kindness, truth, beauty, gratitude into the world and have a good time doing it?
To be connected to de-vine of God’s love and having complete joy.
The place that God calls you to is that place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.
The world hungers for a kind word. The world hungers for a kind heart. The world hungers for a kind teacher. The world hungers for a well played soccer game. The world hungers for a beautifully stitched quilt. The world hungers for a sharpened pencil, good food, justice, a loving home, a repaired fence, a painted house. The world hungers for happiness and compassion in times of grief.
The world hungers for peace based upon economic justice not brute force.
Our mission, is where we meet God in confidence and joy. Our mission is where we remember what God fashioned us to do.
Remembering I think is the difficult trick.
Remembering why we are here. And then remembering what we remembered.
I have so many times made great self-discoveries only to have forgotten them a few weeks later. Then coming back to my old notes, journals, or sermons, and saying, “Oh I already knew that, how could I forget.”
Some missions that we embark on require diligent attention because the goal is not achieved in a day, but it is achieved by daly practice and remembering.
And I see in the passage from the letter of John to helpful suggestions for our spiritual practice, for our enthusiasm campaign, in which we seek to make this church and our lives a place where God’s love is experienced.
It’s in verses 19 and 20 of the fourth chapter of John’s letter.
First, We love because God first loved us.
Secondly, Those who say, “I love God” and hate their brothers and sisters are liars.”
To help us stay the course we need to begin and end the day in prayerful rememberance of God’s love. What we focus our attention on we become. If we focus our attention on God’s love and grace and desire for all of creation then we can hep make that real.
The first step of our mission is to be grounded in the presence of God.
How else can we do that without daily prayer or medititation. Done in whatever way suits you best. There are many different approaches to prayer, the approach doesn’t matter as much as the fact we each decide to begin and end the day in dialogue with a love and power greater than ourselves. Approaches to prayer include reading scripture or it may be walking in nature or it may be listening to music. It may be silence or reading devotional literature. Regardless of the path chosen, the central meditation is, God’s love is in me.
The second source of remembrance is to keep the commandment to love one another. Our love is known in our actions, our compassion for those less fortunate than ourselves. It is also known in being aware of our feelings when we are angry or feeling hateful to someone else. To remember God’s self-giving and forgiving love as we seek to let go of our hatred and find the source of love as best we are able with guidance of the strength of the Holy Spirit.
When we engage in acts of love for our brothers and sisters, and we do this from a place of remembering God’s love, we begin to take risks. And in taking risks, in moving out of our comfort zones, we begin to experience God’s love.
In praying and in loving, we know God’s love.
In loving and praying, we gain the strength and confidence that is beyond our own imagination.
In loving and praying, we see a course of our lives that brings joy to humanity and to ourselves.
When we pray as if everything depends on God, and act as if everything depends on us, we are getting at the heart of this mission.
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
Where can I be of service and be joyful?
What form of prayer is right for me in the morning and in the evening?
Who do I know that needs the kindness that God has given me the gift to offer? How can I bring my prayer life into the world and show my brother or sister a little bit of love, a little bit of God?
God is love. and we love because God loved us first.
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
God loves us into loving one another. No force of will. Self-giving, self-sacrificing love. As Jesus said, I gave my life because it was mine to give. We were each given a life to give.
And as Jesus also said, If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love, my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete.
Connected to God, doing what were called to do, no matter big or small, doing what brings us more happiness and the world more kindness,
that is something to be enthused about.
To be spiritually borne is to remember why God brought you here to life.
How will you choose to pray?
How will you choose to love your brother and sister?
How will your great desire help serve the needs of this church, which seeks to meet the needs of this community?
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.
I think that there is a need for a spiritual community where people are encouraged to make a personal connection with God that gives them the confidence to serve humanity.
A community centered around the words,
“Do this in remembrance of me.”
Pentecost is the moment when we realize, when we make real, that we are called to Spread the Love that God placed on this earth in Jesus Christ.
Are you ready to be the First Congregational Church of Murphys, United Church of Christ?
Are you ready to be yourself in this community?
Let the people say,
Amen
Rev. Alan Claassen
Pentecost Sunday May 11, 2008
Acts 2: 1-13 John 4: 7-21
Four weeks ago I began a sermon series on the “E” word. Acknowledging that many people are uncomfortable with the idea of evangelism, I suggested that our “E” word be “Enthusiasm.” Which is a perfectly good replacement of a word, because enthusiasm comes from the Greek words , en theos, en-god-ed.
The source of actions, the source of our mission in life, in church, in work, in family, in retirement, is God. Our enthusiasm comes from experiencing being loved by God.
Beginning in the love of God, we see that our mission is to bring more kindness, love and honesty into every action and choice that we make. When we practice the presence of God in our actions and choices we begin to deepen our experience of God, our trust in God, and we also deepen our knowledge of ourselves. We gain in self-confidence as we gain in God confidence.
We realize what it means to be called children of God, as in said in the first letter of John, we are called children of God because that is what we are.
We are children of God, when we love one another. We abide in God when we abide in active love for our fellow human beings and for all of God’s creation. So the mission of the church is not to get more more people to join the church. The mission of the church is not to convert or to save others.
The mission of the church is that we become a spiritual community, abiding in God, seeking to live lives of compassion for one another and for our community. Where our actions are grounded in, planted in, nourished in God. And so we can grow in love, with confidence, in faith. The mission of the church is to receive God’s love for us so that we create a spiritual home where we feel safe and en-God-ed.
Now, today, in this final sermon in the enthusiasm series, we focus our attention on the third part of our mission, which is to
exercise that Talent which you particularly came to Earth to use,
in those places which God has caused to appeal to you the most,
for the purposes which God most needs to have done in the world.
So far we have been talking about the mission that we all share, grounded in the presence of God we make the world a better place. The third part of the mission is to ask where you are particularly called to be God’s active verb of love in the world.
We affirm in the church why Jesus came to earth, to be God’s word of love to humanity and to restore our broken relationship with God.
Well God had a reason for sending each one of us to Earth too. Can we remember what that reason was? What if we thought of people like Carroll Lang for a moment and thought about this, it wasn’t that he was that extraordinary, he just had a good memory, he remembered why God put him on this Earth.
Carroll’s purpose was to push the earth with his bulldozer and to people with challenging questions.
We all have a reason for being here. We just suffer from amnesia.
Let these words of Psalm 139 help remind you,
“For you formed my inward being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You, for you are to be reverenced and adored. Your mysteries fill me wonder! More than I know myself do you know me; my essence was not hidden from You, when I was being formed in secret intricately fashioned from the elements of the earth.”
Remember?
Let these words of Jesus from the Gospel of John help remind you,
“As the Father has loved me, so I love have loved you; abide in my love. Keep my commandments, and you will in abide in my love, just as I have kept my father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”
Ringing any bells, yet?
Let these words from the first letter of John remind help remind you,
“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as Jesus is, so re we in this world. There is no fear in love...”
We love because God loved us first.”
There is our source and our mission, because John goes on to connect the love and the commandment to love.
We cannot say that we love God if we are not bringing more kindness, more truth, more gratitude, more love into the world.
Now that we are reminded of our purpose as disciples of Christ, what is our particular mission, in the place that God has caused to appeal to us the most, for the purposes which God most needs to have done in the world?
“God has written this into our hearts, first in the talents given to us and secondly in the guidance given to us in our hearts.” “Even as an anthropologist can examine ancient inscriptions, and divine from them the daily life of a long lost people, so we by examining our talents and our heart can more often than we dream divine the will of the Living God.”
(pg 43, Richard Bolles, "Your Mission in Life.")
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
Where?
Let these words from the great writer, Frederick Buechner, guide us.
“ There are different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than the voice of society, or the hyper-critical ego, or self-interest. By and large a good rule for finding out is this:
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” (pg 48, Richard Bolles, "Your Mission in Life")
In other words, abiding in the love of God, who knows you better than you know yourself, how can you bring more love, kindness, truth, beauty, gratitude into the world and have a good time doing it?
To be connected to de-vine of God’s love and having complete joy.
The place that God calls you to is that place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.
The world hungers for a kind word. The world hungers for a kind heart. The world hungers for a kind teacher. The world hungers for a well played soccer game. The world hungers for a beautifully stitched quilt. The world hungers for a sharpened pencil, good food, justice, a loving home, a repaired fence, a painted house. The world hungers for happiness and compassion in times of grief.
The world hungers for peace based upon economic justice not brute force.
Our mission, is where we meet God in confidence and joy. Our mission is where we remember what God fashioned us to do.
Remembering I think is the difficult trick.
Remembering why we are here. And then remembering what we remembered.
I have so many times made great self-discoveries only to have forgotten them a few weeks later. Then coming back to my old notes, journals, or sermons, and saying, “Oh I already knew that, how could I forget.”
Some missions that we embark on require diligent attention because the goal is not achieved in a day, but it is achieved by daly practice and remembering.
And I see in the passage from the letter of John to helpful suggestions for our spiritual practice, for our enthusiasm campaign, in which we seek to make this church and our lives a place where God’s love is experienced.
It’s in verses 19 and 20 of the fourth chapter of John’s letter.
First, We love because God first loved us.
Secondly, Those who say, “I love God” and hate their brothers and sisters are liars.”
To help us stay the course we need to begin and end the day in prayerful rememberance of God’s love. What we focus our attention on we become. If we focus our attention on God’s love and grace and desire for all of creation then we can hep make that real.
The first step of our mission is to be grounded in the presence of God.
How else can we do that without daily prayer or medititation. Done in whatever way suits you best. There are many different approaches to prayer, the approach doesn’t matter as much as the fact we each decide to begin and end the day in dialogue with a love and power greater than ourselves. Approaches to prayer include reading scripture or it may be walking in nature or it may be listening to music. It may be silence or reading devotional literature. Regardless of the path chosen, the central meditation is, God’s love is in me.
The second source of remembrance is to keep the commandment to love one another. Our love is known in our actions, our compassion for those less fortunate than ourselves. It is also known in being aware of our feelings when we are angry or feeling hateful to someone else. To remember God’s self-giving and forgiving love as we seek to let go of our hatred and find the source of love as best we are able with guidance of the strength of the Holy Spirit.
When we engage in acts of love for our brothers and sisters, and we do this from a place of remembering God’s love, we begin to take risks. And in taking risks, in moving out of our comfort zones, we begin to experience God’s love.
In praying and in loving, we know God’s love.
In loving and praying, we gain the strength and confidence that is beyond our own imagination.
In loving and praying, we see a course of our lives that brings joy to humanity and to ourselves.
When we pray as if everything depends on God, and act as if everything depends on us, we are getting at the heart of this mission.
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
Where can I be of service and be joyful?
What form of prayer is right for me in the morning and in the evening?
Who do I know that needs the kindness that God has given me the gift to offer? How can I bring my prayer life into the world and show my brother or sister a little bit of love, a little bit of God?
God is love. and we love because God loved us first.
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
God loves us into loving one another. No force of will. Self-giving, self-sacrificing love. As Jesus said, I gave my life because it was mine to give. We were each given a life to give.
And as Jesus also said, If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love, my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete.
Connected to God, doing what were called to do, no matter big or small, doing what brings us more happiness and the world more kindness,
that is something to be enthused about.
To be spiritually borne is to remember why God brought you here to life.
How will you choose to pray?
How will you choose to love your brother and sister?
How will your great desire help serve the needs of this church, which seeks to meet the needs of this community?
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.
I think that there is a need for a spiritual community where people are encouraged to make a personal connection with God that gives them the confidence to serve humanity.
A community centered around the words,
“Do this in remembrance of me.”
Pentecost is the moment when we realize, when we make real, that we are called to Spread the Love that God placed on this earth in Jesus Christ.
Are you ready to be the First Congregational Church of Murphys, United Church of Christ?
Are you ready to be yourself in this community?
Let the people say,
Amen
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