Tributaries

Circulating Love

2010-06-01T08:18:00.000-07:00

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 John 16:12-15
May 30, 2010 Alan Claassen

Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter.
It seems like years since it’s been clear.
Until Friday.
Here came the sun!
And as George Harrison wrote so many years ago, It’s all right.

And so on Friday, Betsy and I,
as well as my father and our son, who are visiting from out of town,
went to Yosemite Valley.

As we all know, Yosemite Valley is a sacred place.
It inspires reflection, humility, joy, and gratitude.
It also inspires deep questions, such as the one I asked Betsy,
while were looking up at one the waterfalls,
water cascading over the cliff hundreds of feet above us.

I asked, “When does a river know that it is about to become a waterfall?”
To which Betsy quickly replied, “Too late!”
And then she took the question to another level by asking,
“When do the fish know, that their river is about to become a waterfall?”
We didn’t have an answer for that one.
Though I did have this image of a trout, going the edge of the cliff,
Aggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

Maybe that’s why fishes mouths are so big,
it comes from years of evolutionary adapting
to going over rivers-become-waterfalls.

Yosemite Valley is a sacred place.
It inspires deep questions like that,
and humility, wonder, and awe,
and wisdom for questions like...

“What do I do when my life suddenly changes
from stream to waterfall?”
Will I become a stream again,
or has life forever changed?”

All four of us enjoyed our day in the sacred Yosemite Valley,
but unknown to the rest of my family,
I was also working.
What better place to do sermon preparation than Yosemite Valley?
Especially when we have such a passage
as the one today from Proverbs
that imagines Wisdom
by the side of God delighting,
as each moment of creation,
The seas, the fountains, the springs of water,
the heavens and the horizon
the hills and the horizon
were each born.

So as my family and I walked through Yosemite Valley,
Got baptized by the mist of the dispersed water
At the foot of Bridal Veil Falls;
Watched children play with sticks and rocks
along the bank of the river,
Saw the dogwoods in bloom,
A wedding about to begin on the beautiful grounds of the Awahnee Hotel
I was thinking about today,
Which in the church calendar year is Trinity Sunday,
The day when we are asked to contemplate the mysterious relationship
Between God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
Thinking about the river,
That becomes waterfall,
That becomes river again on a new level.
Gave me a new way to think about the Trinity.

But to share with you why a waterfall made me think of the Trinity,
I need to share with you what Huston Smith,
The great teacher of Comparative Religions,
Had to say about the Trinity.

Huston Smith’s understanding of the Trinity,
Is in fact the title of today’s sermon, namely,
Circulation of love.

Huston Smith’s image of the nature of God
as described in the Trinity,
is the inseparable circulation of love,
that flows from God, to the Holy Spirit, to Jesus.

In his book, Why Religion Matters Huston Smith
writes about the nature of light as described by quantum physics,
where light can be both particle and wave,
can be in two places at once without dividing itself.

He notes
1) that being both particle and wave is outside of the normal way that we understand the realm of space and time,
AND 2) how fitting it is that light is a universal image for God.

And then Huston Smith says,
as different is the language of quantum physics
from our normal language for describing
our day-to-day existence,
so is the language of the spirit,
the language of the world’s religions,
different from the words and concepts
we use to describe our normal existence.

And both explanations are real. Are true.
Newtonian Physics is true, with limited applications,
as is quantum physics,
as is the wisdom of Proverbs,
as is the teaching of Jesus when we he said
consider the lilies of the field.

Just like space and time and energy are inseparable,
God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus are inseparable,
Not because they are special individually,
But because their relationship to one another is their essential quality.

Does this help you see why I saw an image of the Trinity
While watching a waterfall in Yosemite Valley?

Let me share with you another thought on the Trinity
that was in the back of mind as we were walking the Yosemite Valley on Friday.

This is from a book entitled The Wisdom Jesus, by Cynthia Bourgeault.
In the chapter entitled, The Path of Self-Emptying Love,
She shares this wonderful image of the Trinity.

She imagines a great waterwheel of a grain mill, with three buckets,
Going round and round,
Constantly overspilling into one another.
And as they do so, the mill turns,
and the energy of love,
Becomes manifest and accessible. (pg 71)

This intercirculation of love is reveals
God’s innermost nature
through a continuous round dance of self-emptying. (pg 72)

On the great watermill of the Trinity,
The statement, God is love, brings itself into reality.

And that reality is best understood, as always giving oneself away,
Always, letting go and letting be.

As the waterwheel turns and the buckets filled with water empty themselves,
Their water fills the bucket below them,
And the waterwheel turns.

My bucket is filled with love and I empty it into yours,
God says to creation.
Let there be light.
And it is good.

My bucket is filled with love and and I empty into yours,
Jesus says to humanity from the cross,
Let there be peace.
And it is good.

My bucket is filled with love,
The Holy Spirit says to the lost disciples,
Let there be community, and it is Good.

Do you see the Trinity in the waterfall now?
God as complete unknowable mystery is the Yosemite Valley.

God as when we name God is the river before it becomes waterfall,
High above the Valley floor.

Jesus the Christ is the complete act of trust in God,
Self-emptying love, to bring love to the valley floor.

The Holy Spirit is the water become river again,
Nourishing the meadow,
And the animals,
Providing a place of joy for the children,
And place for the fish to relax.

And do you see how this image of the Trinity also becomes for us
a way to prayer our way into an answer to the question
I asked earlier in this sermon,
“What do I do when my life suddenly changes
from stream to waterfall?”
Will I become a stream again,
or has life forever changed?”

The great novelist Alice Walker provides an answer to this question
when she describes the circulation of love this way…
“What I have noticed in my small world
is that if I praise the wild flowers growing on the hill in front of my house,
the following year they double in profusion and brilliance.
The universe responds.

What you ask of it, it gives.

I remember I used to dismiss the bumper sticker, “Pray for Peace.”
I realize now that I did not understand it,
since I did not understand prayer;
which I know now to be the active affirmation of our inseparableness from the divine.”

Prayer is a force of energy just as real as gravity, light,
or the breath of God hovering over the waters
at the beginning of creation.

Prayer is taking all of the random energy
that is everywhere and everywhen
present in the universe and focusing it one particular spot, or person.

Our concern for a person, or a nation, or a church
focuses the love of God into a particular point,
and says, let there be light.

We cannot know or direct the outcome of this loving energy focused on one place.
But we can join our love and with God’s love and keep the love circulating.

We can empty our water bucket,
Filled with love, and regret and brokenness, fear and confusion,
Trusting that we will be filled again,
Trusting that our life,
Will once again be one that nourishes others.

This is promise that Jesus offered to his disciples
that was our Gospel reading for this morning, when he said,

“I have much more to tell you,
but you can’t bear it now.
When the Spirit of truth comes,
She will guide you in all truth.” (John 16:12)

This is the faith of the water-falling, self-emptying love of God
There is a truth that we cannot now bear or understand,
Alone.
But we are not alone.

The promise that Jesus offers,
Is that Wisdom will come,
That guidance will come,
And will move out of that winter that lasted too long,

That will move from that not-knowing-what-was-next that lasted too long,

That will move out of that feeling of helplessness that lasted too long and say,

Here come the sun, it’s alright.

Let the people say, it’s alright.

The Love That Remains

2010-04-05T13:26:00.000-07:00

Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010
John 20:1-18

I went looking for God this morning.

I went looking for God in the transformation of darkness into sunrise.

And cold into warmth.

I went looking for God in a plate of pancakes and eggs
and eating with friends and strangers.

I have been looking for God a lot in the past 40 plus days.

Looking for God when a small group of people sat in a circle and shared prayers
and a willingness to remember that we come from dust and stardust
and to dust and star dust we will return.

I went looking for God with a small group who ate soup together
and shared stories of meeting God in nature and
meeting God in pain and
meeting God in the act of creating and transforming mud into art.

I went looking for God in the heartbreak of Good Friday
and the grieving silence of Holy Saturday.

Ever since Lent began 46 days ago, I have been looking for God,
looking for resurrection.

The first time I experienced Easter
was during the Children’s Moment 6 weeks ago.
I said to the young ones that I went looking for God this morning.

And the clues to use in looking for God
were to find something that filled me awe, wonder, gratitude.

And I showed them a branch of a tree.
No leaves yet, no blossoms,
just the tiniest evidence of a bud,
that was weeks away from blossoming.

I said to the young ones, this is where I found God this morning.

So I asked them, “How do you think I could see God in this branch with no leaves or blossoms?”

What in this branch would make me feel awe, wonder and gratitude?

First response: Awesome in the buds knowing that they are about to become flowers.
Second response: I wonder where you found the branch?
Third response: Thankful that the tree is there in the first place.

Well, that was when I saw God again that morning.
Because that third response,
grateful that there is anything here at all,
is something that Albert Einstein said.
There I was sitting on the floor of the church on a Sunday morning surrounded by budding geniuses.

So I told them that.
I told them that I was in awe of their responses.
I told them that I wondered what they were going to blossom into.
I told them that I was grateful to be with them.

Thinking back on it, I wish I had said, you must have awesome parents.
And I felt myself get a little choked up then, thinking back on that children’s moment.

I felt myself wanting to walk out the church with them while everyone is singing.
Go now in peace, go now in peace, may the joy of love surround you, everywhere you go.

Thinking back on this moment as I was preparing
for this sermon made me realize something that I had always feared as a parent had actually happened.
My children were gone.
Not dead.
Just grown up.
They no longer run and jump on our bed in the morning to wake up Betsy and me.
They no longer run to greet us at the door when we come home.
They grew up.
And I miss their being children.

And then I wondered,
What remains constant as they grow up,
through childhood through youthhood, to adulthood?

What remains is the way that we raised them.
The love that we gave to them
The confidence, the dreams, the support,
As best as we were able to give.
As best as we are able to forgive and receive forgiveness.

And that brings me to this morning, Easter morning.
What remains after Good Friday?
What remains after Jesus is gone?

The love is what remains.

Just as the love for the child remains in the adult
So the love of Jesus, remains.

The love that Jesus shared in his teachings and healings remains.
The love remains with the disciples, the children of God.

The love remains so that we become co-creators with our children,
with our church friends, with our community,
In raising another generation of young ones who will look for God.

We can look for God…
In awe, wonder, gratitude,
In Silence, letting go, grieving
In Creativity, imagination and celebration
In Transformation, building communities of compassion.

And all the while I have been looking for God
I have to remember the one of the messages of Easter
is that we don’t recognize resurrection when it is happening.

We think we are looking at the Gardener and it is actually the messiah.

We think we that we are looking at the end of our hopes and fears of all our years and we are actually looking at the beginning of a new stage of our life journey.

We think we are looking at rejection and it turns out to be an invitation to a party we didn’t plan.

We think we are looking at failure and it is actually God’s way of getting our attention.

Wake up! Get up! Get going!

God loves us and there is nothing we can do about it.
Love, once given and received, is eternal.
Love remains. God loves us and there is nothing we can do about it.
Except for share it with others and
Keep looking for God in the morning, in the afternoon, and the evening.

Stand in Hope

2009-11-30T11:03:00.000-08:00

Jeremiah 33:14-16 Luke 21:25-36
November 29, 2009

Do you remember those signboard cartoons, often found in the NY Times? …a man is walking down a busy street, with a signboard announcing that the end of the world is coming soon. The end is near.I remember seeing one that is a better fit for today’s scripture readings which said,

“The world is not going to come to end, you are just going to have to cope.”

Apocalyptic writings, whether found on signboards, in movies such as 2012, or in scriptures such as found in today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke, always have a strange mixture in them. Is this end of time scenario a good thing or a bad thing?

What exactly is coming to an end? What is about to begin? Who is in power and gets to decide?

Where is the sign of hope in writing a doomsday scenario that imagines everything that we know being destroyed?

And what in heaven’s name is it doing here, on the first Sunday of Advent? The first Sunday of the New Year? The first Sunday when begin anticipating the coming of the Christ child into the world?

That’s what we are going to explore this morning.

The Latin root of Advent is a word that means, “coming.” Advent thus means “toward the coming.” Advent is preparation for the coming of Jesus to the world—then in the past; now in the present; and … later, in the future.” (Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan The Last Christmas 231)

Advent is remembering the past, so we can reframe the present, so that we can re-imagine the future.

“Advent is a reliving in the present of ancient Israel’s hope and yearning that is expressed in that favorite advent hymn that the choir sang this morning.
O come, O come, Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.” (The Last Christmas)

We look at so many lives today and see humanity in a time of exile, captive, mourning, lonely, longing. And in looking at the Scriptures in the Old Testament, we remember the great new insights into the nature of the divine-human connection that were born out of that suffering and we wonder what is being born now that gives us hope?

And so the first reading for the season of advent is a open-eyed and honest looking at how things are in the our world, in the world today.
Violence in our cities, escalation of war, and the realities of global warming are familiar to s all.

In the Gospel reading from Luke for this morning we have a passage is easily categorized as apocalyptic. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, in their book, The First Christmas, refer to this as the Great Divine Clean-up. It is not that the world is coming to an end, it is that corrupt, greedy, and violent practices are unraveling and coming to an end. We hope.

As we read the Bible we see that this yearning for God to come into our lives and help us begin again has always been a part of the human consciousness. It goes back a thousand years before the birth of Jesus and continues in the hearts of many today.

“The Old Testament cycle begins with creation and ends with the renovation of the world into a commonwealth of shalom, a place of justice and peace. This is a very large promise for which the promised land of Canaan is mere foreshadowing, a sort of down payment. This enlarged promise is not just to Jews, but to everyone. Also, according to some of the most lyrical passages in the Hebrew scriptures, it includes the whole creation, the plants and animals, the seas and stars. This means that one way to see the mystery of [evolution] is to view it as an unfinished narrative, a work in progress. It can be seen as a process in which the new, the surprising, and the unexpected constantly emerge. It means we live in a world whose potential is yet to be fulfilled.” (Harvey Cox, The Future of Faith)

Mahatma Gandhi, the peaceful revolutionary, who led India to freedom from the British Empire was once asked, what he thought of Western Civilization. He replied, “I think it would be a good idea.”

It has been a good idea, which we understand, as a promise. A promise given to us by God.
We can visualize a world where peace and justice live together, where nations will beat their swords into plowshares.
We can imagine such a world
and then
we read the daily newspaper.
Or we get on-line and read the NY Times.

And we see a world that seems to be coming apart, again.

We see a world where the idea of affordable health care coverage seems like a strange idea, but the continual expensive reliance on military weapons to bring about peace makes sense.

We see a world where the greedy are rewarded with legislation in Congress that just fills their bank accounts while the unemployment rises and people are losing their homes.

We see a world where we have to wonder and pray will the nations gathering in Copenhagen agree on the sacrifices and commitments required to restore the health of the planet?

On this first Sunday in the beautiful season of Advent, the end of the world scenarios, set the context for a world in need a Savior.
It is almost like the first step of a twelve step program in Alcoholics Anonymous. We are called to admit that we are powerless over the mess that we are in. And in that honesty the potential for a new force of energy and healing is released, anticipated, prayed for, received.

If things were all going fine in the world, in our lives, why would be waiting for the Messiah?

And what does Jesus say to us today as we face this world that is so out of balance?
Jesus says, “When you see these things, do not cower in fear, for your transformation is drawing near.”

Your transformation is drawing near.
It is good to remember that the Gospel of Luke was written 10 to 15 years after the Romans had destroyed the Temple and 50 years after Jesus walked this earth. For the early Christians this destruction of the most sacred site must have seemed cataclysmic.
Luke is writing his Gospel for a people who knew suffering and were looking for something to give them hope.
Advent teaches us that in the darkest places of human oppression, the pain of hunger, and political distress that God’s reign is among us. “Do not be caught off-guard by the fear-filled tides of history,” Jesus warned.
“But be mindful, praying for strength, that you may escape the fears that roil the earth, and may stand with God” (Luke 21:36).

Earlier this month the UCC Clergy of northern California gathered at San Damiano Retreat Center in Danville. It is a beautiful retreat Franciscan Retreat Center. It is a peaceful place, with a labyrinth set in the middle of an abundant garden.

This year’s guest speaker was Diana Butler-Bass, who has written several books which give hope to mainline churches that are committed to progressive Christian values. One of her books, Christianity for the Rest of Us tells the story of moderate and progressive mainline Protestant congregations - and how they found new vitality through spiritual practices and deeper meaning by pursuing God's hope for transformation in the world.

Diana Butler-Bass is a sociologist, historian, and inspiring theologian. She sees signs of hope for churches such as ours all around the country who commit themselves to deepening the spiritual practices of compassion, hospitality, and social justice as the primary function of the church.

I mention her at this moment because she finds in this morning’s scripture passage an invitation to a spiritual practice that may deepen our experience of Advent.

She focuses on the passage, “But be mindful, praying for strength, that you may escape the fears that roil the earth, and may stand with God” (Luke 21:36).

“1. Be mindful (paying attention to what is really going on around one self's, a congregation, and society; being discerning; listening);
2. Pray for the real situation, for wisdom, for courage, for risk, the Spirit's involvement in one's actions; and
3. Standing firm by having confidence in God, your own discernment, convictions, and passions. Not to be shaken by resistance and push-back.” (Diana Butler-Bass, www.beatitudessociety.org)

This is an answer to the question posed earlier in this sermon, “Why does Advent begin with such a seemingly dark scenario?”

The signboard I referred to earlier said the world is not going to come an end, you are just going to have to cope.
The message of Advent is that we can do more than cope, we can hope.

Diana Butler-Bass has given us more than an answer, she has also given us a spiritual practice for Advent, so that we may prepare deeply for the coming of Christ into our lives.

Be mindful, pay attention to what is really going on, just notice it;
Pray, for what you see, and for what God sees;
Stand in hope, stand in trust of God’s presence in life.

Jim Wallis, has a wonderful quote that speaks to this. “Hope, in spite of the evidence, and watch the evidence change.”

Hope is a powerful force that is not based upon our best wishes or intentions, it based upon a mindful, prayerful, confident standing with God.

1600 years earlier Saint Augustine said something else that is related to the meaning of Advent, when he said, “God without us, will not; we without God, cannot.

Advent and Christmas is not about being rescued, it is about transformation based upon the teachings of compassion, extravagant hospitality and social justice.

Advent is a time of being mindful that some paths we have been on, as individuals and as societies are not working.
Advent is a time of praying that the human and the divine will work in harmony with one another.
Advent is a time of standing in hope, seeing clearly and not despairing.
Advent is a time of being a people who choose to stand and sing, even in times such as these,
Hope, peace, love, and joy to the world,
the Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King.
Let every heart prepare him room.
And heaven and nature sing.
And heaven and nature sing.
And heaven, and humanity, and nature sing.”
Stand with a signboard that says, The world is not going to come to an end, because Christ is coming into the world I choose to:
have hope,
make peace,
share love,
and be joy.

Let the people say, Amen

Come In, Come In Whoever You Are

2009-11-15T15:23:00.000-08:00

I Corinthians 12: 4-26
Rev. Alan Claassen November 15, 2009

Please pray with me:
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (I Cor. 13: 1-3) O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, come from the grace of your love. Amen.

What a blessing it is for this church to have a storyteller, C.R., as a member of our church.
And what a blessing that C. was the liturgist for this Sunday, so that she could bring all of her storytelling skills to the reading of this morning’s scripture.

I hope to further enrich our experience of this scripture passage where the Apostle Paul compares the church to a body, where the diversity of the parts of the body enriches the work of the entire body.

Last Thursday our Bible study class completed the study called Listening to Scripture. In that class we learned six strategies for exploring the meaning of the books of the Bible for the original author and audience.
Then with that understanding, to explore the variety of meanings that the Bible has for us today.
We discovered that knowing the historical setting of the text, the literary context, and original meaning of words and phrases might provide us with a completely different meaning of a particular passage than the one we might have, just reading the verses on face value.

Last Thursday we applied this approach to a passage from the 1st Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, the same letter that Cynthia read from this morning.

What was going on in this early Christian church in Corinth that gave rise to this letter?
In this early Christian community there was a diverse mixture of peoples, theologies, cultures, levels of wealth, poverty, and social standing.
And they were being challenged by Paul to find a new unity in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
It was difficult. There was conflict. There was grace.

The Romans in 146 BCE had destroyed the city of Corinth. It was rebuilt in 44BCE as a colony to which Roman authorities sent their surplus population such as recently freed slaves, displaced peasants, and army veterans.
Corinth was a seaport, and it quickly developed into a busy hub of east-west trade in Roman Empire. Corinth was also the site of a religious community that worshipped Aphrodite.

There was a synagogue in Corinth, which Paul visited in 50 or 51CE. He met the leaders of the synagogue, including Priscilla and her husband, Aquila.

Paul stayed in Corinth for 18 months, organizing and teaching in the small house churches of Corinth. Periodically these house churches would gather as a whole assembly to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, which in the early Christian church was more like our potluck dinners than our service of Holy Communion.
The people of Corinth were greatly influenced by Hellenistic culture, which placed great emphasis on status. The fact that Priscilla’s name is most often cited before her husband’s may to point to the fact that she came from a wealthier family than Aquila, and therefore had a higher standing, even though she was a woman.
Possibly under the influence of Gnostic religions, “the Corinthian Christians attached great importance to the acquisition and display of special religious knowledge, and so tended to equate spirituality with possession of the more spectacular kinds of gifts, such as speaking in tongues, prophesying, understanding all mysteries and knowledge.”

Paul did not commend these practices.
Paul taught that as Christians, our source of wisdom is in the cross, which most people will think of as foolishness.
Speaking in tongues, knowledge of secret mysteries, and power to move mountains, all amount to nothing.
What is most important that type of love which is received as a gift from God.

This gift from God, symbolized in the cross, reminds us to lay aside all claims of status and superiority over others.
The distinctions of male and female, rich or poor, Gentile or Jew, are secondary to the true life and freedom that comes from receiving God’s love and celebrating our common humanity.

In the passage that the class studied last week, we learned that wealthy members of the community were abusing the Lord’s Supper in those large gatherings of the small house churches that I spoke of earlier.
The wealthy of the community provided much of the food that was shared at a common meal, and since they paid the bills, and often arrived at the large assembly site before the working class and hungry folk could, the wealthy thought that they could go ahead and eat, drink, and be merry before the others arrived.

For the poor folk this Lord’s Supper was literally their daily bread.
Paul had harsh words for the community members who claimed a privileged status, not just because of their selfishness, but because in denying their brother and sister a place at the table they were denying Jesus.
They had lost the purpose of celebrating the Lord’s Supper, which was to remember the self-giving love of Jesus, on behalf of humanity, on behalf of all people.
They were still caught up in lording over their neighbor instead of loving them.

That same theme is found in this morning’s scripture reading, which is found in Chapter 12.
There is no hierarchy in the Christian community. The richness of our unity as the Body of Christ is in our diversity. The foot and the elbow need one another. The heart and the head need one another. The ear and mouth need one another.

The Apostle Paul had a very difficult job in Corinth. He had to speak the truth in love to a culture that was based upon status and tell them that true knowledge, salvation and freedom, come from self-giving love.

Paul wanted to convince these early Greek, Roman, Jewish, rich and poor followers of the way of Jesus, that understanding the holy mystery of God comes from opening ones heart to the love of God and affirming that others, different than you, are also well loved.

Paul had to tell the Christians of Corinth that they had to let go of the knowledge that was handed down to them, and understand something that was radically new.
Paul had to write more than one letter to the Corinthians.

Paul, in his love for the people of Corinth knew that change is never easy, and yet, he was confident, that he could show them a still, better way. This better way is described in Chapter 13, which I will read as the Pastoral Prayer this morning.

In our final class last week, we students of the Bible were given the task of moving from asking what a text meant to the original author and audience, to asking what the passage might mean for us today. It is not there is one meaning of any text. But when we understand the original meaning of the passage, it helps us to form clearer questions for our own time and situation.
Let me share with you one application that I see in this morning’s scripture reading. Remembering that we all see through a glass dimly I do not say that this is the only way to understand the passage. But I do see a way of approaching the Open and Affirming process through the wisdom that is offered in this passage.

But first a story.

One of my favorite games as a child was hide and seek. I loved playing it as a child, as a high schooler, and I love it still. Though I can’t fit or get into the some of the hiding places I used to.

As a child I remember that magical moment at the end of a hide and seek game, when the person who is “it” has given up on finding everyone and calls out in a loud voice, “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
Or, “Ollie, Ollie Ox and free.”
And then like lost children, like successful pirates, like masterminds of small spaces, the lost who hadn’t been found came out with beaming smiles on their faces.

I wonder what would have happened to those friends of ours, hiding in that seemingly perfect hiding place, if someone hadn’t cried out to the neighborhood, to the park, to the forest, to the community, “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
Everyone may have gone to his or her comfortable homes, while those in hiding would stay stuck, wondering, is it safe to come out now?
Have they forgotten me? Is this a trap to capture me?
Have they all gone and left me here alone? When is it safe? Where is it safe to come out of hiding?
The person doesn’t know unless they hear, while still in their hiding place, “Come out, come out wherever you are.”

I believe that there are individuals and there are families waiting to hear that cry, so that they can know, before they enter the doors of this sanctuary, that they are welcome here.

We as a community are being asked to consider what it would mean to be a church that proclaims to the community something that would seem like foolishness to many. What would it mean for us to call out that we are open and affirming of all people, no matter their sexual orientation or their gender, their age, their religious perspective, their race, their economic statues, or their physical or mental abilities?

That is what the Open and Affirming process is all about. Knowing what we as a community truly believe so that we as a community can act together of one accord, one heart and mind, as we welcome new members into the life of this diverse community.

I believe that there can be for us a great benefit in an open, honest, and compassionate process of sharing information, feelings, experiences that comes from engaging the open and affirming process, regardless of the outcome.
In fact, the way that we engage one another in this process may be the most significant outcome.

I believe that there can be for us a great benefit, as a congregation, to trust one another, and to trust the Holy Spirit, as we walk this journey together.

I believe that there can be for us a great benefit, as a congregation to let go of status, and to re-examine long held beliefs that we were taught by our culture but go against the grain of the Gospel.

I believe that there can be for us a great benefit, as we listen, compassionately, to one another’s observations, feelings, needs and requests.

I believe that there can be for us a great benefit, as a congregation, to see that the love that Christ shared expanded the circle of who is included in the kin-dom of heaven, and by the grace of God, it includes us.

What we will learn together in this process, regardless of the final outcome, that no one can know at this time, can be for us a time to deepen our experience of what it means to be the Body of Christ together.
As we respect the differences of each part of the body, may we remember that the head of the body is Jesus.
May we remember to look to Jesus, who gave his life for whole body of humanity, as we learn together what the Bible says, what science says, what each part of the body is saying.
May our words, our thoughts, and our actions come from the grace of Christ’s self-giving love for all of humanity.
Let the people who stand by these words say... Amen
__________________________________________________________________
Resource for background material on Corinth was taken from Harper Collins Bible Dictionary, Paul Achtemeier, General Editor, Harper One, 1996

We Are Who We Adore

2009-10-26T07:06:00.000-07:00

Job 42:1-6, 10-17 Mark 10:46-52

Please pray with me:
From the cowardice that does not face the truth
From the laziness that accepts half-truths
And from the arrogance that thinks it knows the whole truth
Lord, deliver me. Amen

In Portland there is a famous bookstore that fills an entire city block. Powell’s Books. Old and new books on four floors covering every category you can imagine.
Once while checking out of Powell’s Books with another armful of books, which I hope to read some day, I saw a collection of magnets with witty sayings on them. One in particular got my attention. It simply said, “Don’t make me come down there.” God.
Today we will be completing our study of a man who got God to come down here, Job.
For any here not familiar with the Book of Job, it is a fictional narrative about a man who was inflicted with sores all over is body, who loses his wife, family, and home. He has three friends who counsel that he must have done something wrong to offend God and he should confess his sins. But Job, was a good man, so he refused to confess for something he did not do. He argues with his friends’ conventional wisdom. and through expressing his grief and his anger Job comes to have a first hand experience of God.

In my sermon two weeks ago I spoke about Job’s lament as an act of faith in God. I said that,in spite of experiencing the “heaviness” of God’s hand, in spite of wishing to vanish into darkness, Job clings to God as the One who can be reasoned with; as one who can hear whatever we have to say, whether in anger of fear or grief, as the one who can offer an answer.

When Job is finally finished with chapters and chapters of lament, and argument and self-defense and angry questions, God speaks out of the whirlwind, with a dizzying rush of questions. But the intent of God’s question are to provide Job with an insight that will go beyond the limits of Job’s previous understanding of God and life and suffering.
Two weeks ago I said that I would share with the response that God gave to Job. And true my word, here it is, in verses selected from Chapters 39-41 of Job.
Job got God to come down and this is what God, a voice in the whirlwind said,
Job, I have heard your questions. I have some of my own for you.

4‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

8‘Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?—
11 and said, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stopped”?

19‘Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness,

24What is the way to the place where the light is distributed,
or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?

25‘Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain,
and a way for the thunderbolt,
26to bring rain on a land where no one lives,
on the desert, which is empty of human life,

28‘Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew?

31‘Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion?

36Who has put wisdom in the inward parts,*
or given understanding to the mind?*
37Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?

Mighty heady questions, aren’t they. Can you imagine having these on a final exam?

Then God goes on to name the animals and how they are cared for. The raven, mountain goat, wild mule and ox, ostrich, horse, hawk, eagle, crocodile and hippo are each identified.

God goes on to name the great mythical sea creature Leviathan, symbol of chaos, being overtaken by order, form, and beauty. In the time and place that the book of Job was written, the majority of people believed that Leviathan was a god. But God who is speaking to Job encompasses all of life’s energies; including chaos.

When speaking of the land creature Behemoth, God says, “Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you.”

Through all of these verses lifting up the wonders and realities of creation
God is saying, “Job, I heard your question.”
As I made Behemoth, and I made you.
As I made the oceans that sometimes flood the shorelines, I made you.
As I made the great Sierra Nevada Mountain range with volcanoes and earthquakes and massive amounts of land forces meeting in one place, turning over and over, pushing higher and higher, and created Yosemite Valley, I created you.
As I made the basic elements of the universe from the intense heat of a dying supernovae, I made you.
Do you see all the beauty that is all around you? And the death and the sorrow?
Job I made the eyes that you see all of those things with.
Job I made your heart which breaks when you lose someone you love.

Job the way that life is, is exactly what it takes, to make life what it is.

"Death is the mother of beauty."(Wallace Stevens, Sunday Morning)

Would you avoid death, Job?
Would you really want to create a world without it?

And then gets a little cheeky and says something like,

Next time a universe is going to be created I will remember to give you a call and let you be in charge.
In the meantime, live with this one.

Live with life, Job. As it is in this moment, live with it.
This is holy ground Job.
This is a sanctuary Job, true to life. Be true to life, Job.

You need help? There is help.
You have questions? Ask them in the right places and the right time and answers will come.
Live life, with all that you have got. With humility, compassion, gratitude and in community.

How does Job respond after hearing these words from God, describing the creation of universe?

Job says,
"I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you; I despise myself and I repent in dust in ashes." (Job 42:5-6)

Through the questioning, debating, arguing, with God, and then the listening to God, Job sees God clearly, he wants to turn around, his old self is in ashes.

He doesn’t give up, he gives in, to God.
Surrendering into God Job is ready to live life with eyes wide open.
Job no longer desires to make the world in his image.
Job is ready to go a new direction,
and give his complete attention to God’s image revealed in creation.

And how does God respond to Job now?
As God does time and time again in the Hebrew Bible and in the New Testament. God responds with mercy.

As in the story from the Gospel of Mark that we heard read this morning, The blind beggar calls out from the crowd, “Son of David have mercy on me.”
Jesus calls Bartimaeus.
The crowd around Bartimaeus says, “Take heart, he is calling you.”
“Take heart, he is calling you.”
God did not cause Bartimaeus’ blindness, any more that God caused the Loma Prieta earthquake. But in the way the earth is made, earthquakes happen. Blindness happens. And mercy happens.

“Jesus is “another wave of mercy, the kind of mercy that God has been doing all through the Hebrew Bible….waves and waves of mercy, because God’s mercy is given continually in the world and has made all things new.”
Here, at the end of a long journey full of healing and teaching, at the edge of what is to come – suffering, death, and resurrection – we remember that Jesus “gave his life as a continuing act of mercy.
“Mercy, is that strange transformative reach
from a center of strength
to a center of need that changes everything and makes all things new.”
(Inscribing the Text: Sermons and Prayers of Walter Brueggemann).

And …”Grace is the mysterious strength
that God lends human beings
who commit themselves to the work of transformation.”
(Anthony B. Robinson Changing the Conversation)

Job learns that…
“God is not a hypothesis or a good idea, but a power in the universe who turns what was, into what will be.” (Inscribing the Text: Sermons and Prayers of Walter Brueggemann).

Bartimaeus believes that mercy is passing by and calls out. The crowd says, “Take heart, he is calling you. Mercy is calling you.”
Bartimaeus is brought before Jesus who asks, “What do you want me to do for you?”
Bartimaeus is responsible for asking for what he needs.
Jesus does not presume to know.
Jesus does not fix what he believes needs fixing, Jesus asks Bartimaeus to name it.

Bartimaeus replies to Jesus, “Teacher, let me see again.”
And his sight is restored.
Just as Job, who had been operating only on a hearsay understanding of God, now sees God.
God, let me see again.
Lord, have mercy on me.

Job and Bartimaeus were surrounded by friends who told them to be quiet.
But Job and Bartimaeus knew their need, they called out, and they received mercy.

“Those who received mercy are formed into a new community.
That would be us, in the church, a community of people who have received mercy and now have the opportunity, the responsibility, the call, to extend mercy to all of God’s children in need.” (Breuggeman)

Job got God to come down.
And God got Job to look around
to see that our love of God and compassion for our neighbor eases the suffering the world and restores the balance that we need to move with grace and mercy.

Bartimaeus got Jesus to stop.
And Jesus got Bartimaeus
to trust that his giving into Jesus would enable him to see the road that leads to healing.

I invite us, one and all, to take whatever burden we are carrying, for ourselves, for our community, or for our world, and take a good look around at the world, as it is. And ask God all the questions that you want to, wait for an answer, receive the new insight in humility, and then trust that mercy and grace will surely follow you all of your days.

And then do whatever you can to continue to build and grow this transforming community of faith where God’s love echoes through us to all creation.
Let the people say,
Amen

The Strength That Empowers Us

2009-10-17T20:19:00.000-07:00

Psalm 19 Mark 5: 24-34
March 15, 2009
Rev Alan Claassen

Did you know that going to church is good for your health? Faculty at Duke University did a study and they found that:
1) People who attend church regularly are hospitalized less often than people who never or rarely participate in church services
2) People who pray and read the Bible have lower blood pressure
3) People who attend religious services have stronger immune systems than their less religious counterparts.
So it’s healthy to come to church. Research proves it.
And there’s no Waiting Room.
So if you are looking to improve your health this morning, you’ve come to the right place.
The Gospel reading this morning tells of a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years. “A long succession of physicians had treated her, and treated her badly, taking all her money and leaving her worse off than before…” (The Message, Eugene Peterson)
“She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in crowd and touched his cloak.”
Unlike Bartimaeus in our scripture reading from two weeks ago,
the blind beggar who called out from the crowd,
“Jesus, Son of David have mercy,”
this woman, whose name we do not know,
“moved toward Jesus silently, secretively, and in shame.
She had reason for her silence. As a bleeding person, she was considered by the orthodox to be unclean, contaminated, and untouchable.
For twelve years she had not been embraced or touched, even by her family.
As she walked down the street, people carefully moved aside, …” (Miracle, pg39 Wuellner)
Flora Wuellner, in her book, Miracle, sees in this woman a pain deeper than the chronic illness and loss of resources, namely, loneliness and a sense of shame. “It is hard not to internalize what others think of us. [The woman] probably thought of herself as unworthy and unclean.
How could she possibly believe that Jesus would deliberately touch her or encourage her to touch him?
If others saw her touching Jesus, they would consider him contaminated also, unfit to do God’s work until he had been purified. Jesus was on his way to the dying daughter of Jairus, an important man in the community.
If by her touch [the woman] prevented this, she would be blamed. She might be cast out of the community altogether.
Hers was a silent cry for a secret healing—a quick, shamed, touch on the outer garment. She hoped no one would notice, especially not Jesus.” (Miracle, pg 40, Wuellner)

This connection between the woman’s faith inspired by belief in Jesus fascinates me. When the woman reaches out to touch Jesus, he feels the spirit go out our him, he calls out who touched me, he sees the woman, hears her story, and says,
“Your faith has made you well.”
There are two active participants in this story, Jesus, a man who completely embodied the life-giving love of God and a woman who completely embodied desire for healing and faith that just the cloak of Jesus could heal her.

And even though I can only humbly approach this story at that level of mystery and grace, not really being able to understand it, I want to remember it.
I want us to remember for those in moments in our lives of not knowing where to turn.
When our own power is gone, when we feel like all eyes upon us a critical,
when we feel like everything in our lives is telling us to withdraw within ourselves
we have available to us the invitation to reach out to another source of power, the healing presence of God.
In that moment our prayer may simply be:
God, please send me guidance,
the open heart to receive it
and the courage to act upon it.

We may only be given the courage to move silently in the direction of silence. There are many good things that begin in silence. But don’t be surprised when healing comes and the light shines on the darkness. And don’t surprised in how good that will feel.

When the woman is brought out of her closet of shame by Jesus asking, “Who touched my cloak, the woman identifies herself. She became visible to the entire community.
The invisible takes center stage.
What will happen?
Her hemorrhaging has already been healed.
Then Jesus to woman, “Your faith has made you well.”
In that pronouncement she is restored with her community. She is different than she was. She is healed. She is no longer the untouchable that she was before. She is no longer to be seen.
She no longer assumes that she will be greeted with judgmental stares or rejection.
She receives more than just the healing of her illness; she is also reunited with her community.
Jesus restores her health and announces to the community that she is well.
This connection between healing and community is the one that I find compelling.
Because for a moment I take seriously the statement that we make about ourselves that we, the church, are the body of Christ.
I ask myself how we can live our lives as a faith community that would encourage someone to reach out to us in hopes of healing, friendship, and affirmation.

The woman who had been suffering physically and emotionally for twelve years needed more than bodily healing.
“She needed also to hear Jesus tell her openly,
in front of everyone,
that she was a worthy, faithful person.

[Jesus] called her daughter. Only in this particular story does Jesus refer to a woman as daughter. How deeply she must have needed that word of intimacy and respect. With his tenderness and peace, Jesus gave her not only bodily healing but also a deeper healing of her heart and spirit.

The community members need to see and to hear that God’s love excluded no one. They needed to learn that compassionate mercy matters for more than rules. They needed to hear that it is not God’s will that for anyone to remain sick, drained, lonely, uncomforted.

As Jesus challenged the ancient cruel laws he was revealing to them, to us, what God’s kin-dom really is.” (Miracle, pg 45, Wuellner)

This year, for this church’s observance of Lent, many of us wrote on pieces of cloth, the places in our own lives that are in need of healing, body, mind, and spirit. Those pieces of cloth, which we touched, our draped around the cross.
We touch the outer garment of Jesus’ cloak, and we wrap our places of need, brokenness, and separation, around the cross trusting that this is a place of healing, of strength beyond our own and yet within our reach.
What shall we reach out for?
The Holy Healing Spirit that was in Jesus and through Jesus for that woman who touched his cloak, is still within reach.
Somehow, in ways that no one can explain, we are able to touch the garment of the risen Christ, just as that woman touched the robe Jesus was wearing.
To make this seeming impossibility more real for us, Jesus gave us each other in this community of faith.
We bring ourselves, as we are, and as we want to become to this sacred place. We ask to be guided on the level path.
We asked to overcome fear and judgment and give ourselves to love. We are given an opportunity to be with Christ Jesus who knows our goodness and wants us to step forward, in love, for whatever life brings us next.

I said at the beginning of the sermon that church is good for your health.
Well rather than telling you take two aspirin and stay in bed,
I am going to give you one prayer and a way to remember it.
Say these words while doing the corresponding action:
God, please send me guidance, (Make eyeglasses over eyes)
the open heart to receive it (Place hands over heart, then open)
and the courage to act upon it. (Quickly extend hands directly forward)

Let the people, who love mercy and seek justice say,
Amen

___________________________________________________________________________

The Message, The New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs, Eugene Peterson, Navpress, Colorado Springs

Miracle, When Christ Touches Our Deepest Need, Flora Slosson Wuellner, Upper Room Books, Nashville

We Are Who We Entrust

2009-10-17T20:10:00.000-07:00

Job 23:1-9, 16-17 Mark 10:17-31
Rev. Alan Claassen October 11, 2009

We are in our second week of our Annual Stewardship Campaign. This year’s campaign is a little unusual as it based on a song and a dance, the Hokey Pokey. The focus line of the song that is the key to the campaign is, Put Your Whole Selves In.
You begin the dance by warming up slowly: right hand, shake it all about, left hand, shake it all about, right and left leg, front side, back side, warming up slowly until you are ready to put our whole self in, shake it all about, and then turn it all around.
What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about? What if the journey of our lives is to see, that each moment of our lives, tears and joys, successes and failures, is always turning us around until we see what it is really all about?
Like whirling dervishes we are spun around and around by the circumstances and choices of our lives.

What keeps us from getting dizzy and falling down?

On each Sunday of this five week Stewardship campaign we are focusing on one way in which we live and grow together as a community of faith. We began last week with the word connecting.
Today’s focus is on Learning.

And I want to suggest to you that what keeps from getting dizzy and falling down with all the twists and turns of life is Wisdom.
And I want to suggest to you this morning that the Book of Job is an excellent source of Wisdom, even though today’s passage, taken out of context, might make you doubt that claim.

In our adult Bible study, Listening to Scriptures, we are learning that knowing the context of the author of a book helps us understand the text so much better. We are learning to ask such questions as,
“When was this book written?”
“What, if anything, do we know about the author or authors of the book of the Bible that we are reading?”
“What do we know about the community that the author was writing to?”
“What literary form is being used? Is this passage history, myth, poetry, parable, part of a worship service or ceremony?”

Bob gave us some context for the reading from Job this morning. I want to add a little more to what Bob said, because I love the Book of Job.

So some context. When was the Book of Job written?
During the time of Jewish exile. In the 6th century before Christ the great ancient civilization of Babylon was rising and it swallowed up Israel. As a means for controlling this province the victorious army took all the significant leaders of the Southern Kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem to Babylon.
And the exiled leaders were treated well. They were allowed to live together, and worship together.
But these 50 years of exile was a very challenging time. They had equated their connection with God in relation to the promised land.
Now that they were in exile, where did that leave them in relation to God? Had God abandoned them? Could they maintain the covenant while living in a strange land? Were the gods of the Babylonians more powerful than their God? Many questions came up for the Jewish people at this time. That is the historical context for the Book of Job.

What is the literary form of the Book Job? Two answers to this question.
“There is a body of literature in the Hebrew Bible that stands apart. It is often referred to as “wisdom literature,” and has little to do with Israel’s distinctive sacred history or the prophets’ call for return to the covenant. Books like Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and the Psalms fit here. And because it raises philosophical questions of God’s justice, … so does the Book of Job.” (pg 95, Understanding the Bible, John A. Buehrens)
Wisdom literature both advises us on what it takes to live the good life, as well as questioning the assumptions of our best made plans and formulas.
The Book of Job calls into question the assumption that if you do the right thing you will be rewarded, and the corollary, if your life is going miserably, then you must have done something wrong to deserve punishment.
The Book of Job, was asking the question that the Judean exiles must have wondered, “What did I do, what did my innocent children do, to deserve this?” Centuries later this question is still being asked and Rabbi Harold Kushner is famous for addressing this question in his popular book,
“Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?”

Which brings me to the second answer to the question, “What is the literary form of the Book of Job?” The particular passage that was read today is a lament.

“Lament is one of the most important, and often most neglected, forms of prayer in Hebrew Scriptures. Nearly one third of the Psalms are laments. The responses of Job to his three self-righteous friends are laments.

“Laments are protests and complaints raised in times of need or crisis, whether of individuals or community. One reason for their neglect comes in the manner the laments address God. These are not polite, soothing words, rendered in timid submission to God. The emotions are on the surface and God is sometimes depicted, as in Job 23, with images that are not easy to hear.
“God’s hand is heavy… the Almighty has terrified me.”
“Psalm 22 begins with some of the most devastating words of any lament, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Laments cut across the grain of culture and religion, that doesn’t want to hear distressing things. Those who raise laments are counseled, as Job was by his friends, to stop saying such words.

“The fault must be yours Job. Be quiet.”
Taken out of its historical and literary context, this lament of Job may appear to be a denial of faith or avoidance of relationship with God.

But quietness in this case is not faith. Lament is faith.
Why?
Because it keeps the dialogue with God alive.
Lament does not throw hands up in the air and walk away unheard.
Lament hangs on to God, pleading and protesting in hope of a response to the need or crisis that overwhelms.
In spite of experiencing the “heaviness” of God’s hand, in spite of wishing to vanish into darkness, Job clings to God as the One who can be reasoned with; as the one who can offer an answer.

And though he could not have known it at the time of his lamentations, God is going to provide Job with an answer that will bring an abiding connection with eternal life, no matter what the outward appearances, wealth or poverty are.

And that leads to the one of the most characteristic and surprising elements of lament in Hebrew Scriptures. Once the protests have been sounded, once the rawness of the complaint has been laid open, lament typically ends in trust and in hope of God’s action.
And there also comes a deeper sense of wisdom, of understanding the limits of one’s previous understanding of the situation at hand. A new insight is awakened in our heart of hearts.
What comes of Job’s lament? We will discuss that in two weeks. Of course, if you can’t wait that long for the answer, you can always read the Book of Job.

Or hear this words from a man of great faith who endured great suffering, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said, “Let us remember that there is a great benign power in the universe whose name is God, and God is able to make a way out of now way, and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. This is our hope for becoming a better people. This is our mandate for seeking to make a better world.”

Though not as noble or historic I hear a similar faithfulness in the words of Jack Williams, a songwriter from South Carolina, who wrote a song of lament in remembrance of the disappeared cotton fields that he remembered as a young boy.
Cotton, high cotton. The more I see the less I know.
The well runs deeper than the bucket goes.
Swing high, swing low. High cotton.

The well runs deeper than the bucket goes.
The well runs deeper than our lamentations, our limitations, our mistakes, our anger. Even though we may be at the end of our rope that doesn’t mean that the well is empty. We may just need a longer rope, a deeper understanding. Wisdom.
The way to learn what you need to get your bucket deeper into the well is to put your whole self into your community that centers itself in God’s unconditional love.

As with the lawyer who asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replies, keep the commandments and care for the poor with everything that you’ve got.

Today’s word is learning. What part of your life is asking a question that this community of faith might be able to answer? What wisdom do we seem to have a grasp on here that we believe would benefit our community?
Our beliefs are initially informed by what we are taught and we thank God for our teachers. But we are transformed by our experiences. Wisdom comes from being shaken up, turned around, and then hearing, from the whirlwind, God calling our name, saying,
“You are my beloved. I have been by your side all the time. Let me show you something you seem to have missed that is front of your eyes.”
And in sharing with one another, our deepest questions in ways that are honest, open, and safe, we will uncover the wisdom that we have been entrusted with, by the grace of God.
And that my friends, is what it’s all about.

Let the people say, Amen.

Hearts Open Slowly

2009-09-08T07:02:00.000-07:00

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23 Mark 7:24-37
September 6, 2009 Rev. Alan Claassen

Please pray with me:
From the cowardice that does not face the truth
From the laziness that accepts half-truths
And from the arrogance that thinks it knows the whole truth
Lord, deliver me. Amen

Last week, while over 75 of us worshiped at White Pines Lake,
sharing music, the beauty of nature and the sacrament of baptism,
5 members of our congregation, led by F. Messer, shared in prayer together.
I would like to read one of the prayers that they shared together.
This is a prayer written by the saint, Mister Rogers:
At the center of the universe is a loving heart
That continues to beat
And that wants the best for every person.
Anything we can do to help foster
The intellect and spiritual and emotional growth
Of our fellow human beings,
That is our job.
Those of us who have this particular vision
Must continue against all odds.
Life is for service.

As I prepare sermons and share in dialogue and ministry with this congregation in the year ahead,
I will remember that this is my job,
to help foster your intellect,
and your spiritual and the emotional growth.
It’s your job too.
This is love.
As I speak what is true for me I will listen to you with an open heart.
That is what Christ calls me, and each one of us to do, to bring the kin-dom of heaven a little closer to earth, the right place for love.

This week's scripture passage, from the Gospel of Mark
is about listening well and speaking clearly.
In light one of the classes that we will be offering this fall,
we could say this morning’s gospel reading is about
Compassionate Communication.
Though it didn’t start out that way.

Listen again to the exchange between Jesus and the pagan mother,
which often makes us uncomfortable when we read it.
The Gentile woman hears that Jesus, whom she must have heard about,
has left his homeland, crossed the borders, and come into her territory.
She begs Jesus to cast the demons out of her daughter.
Jesus replies, “Let the children (of Israel) be fed first,
for it is not fair to take the children’s food
and throw it to the dogs.”

The woman, who has just been called a dog by Jesus,
uses a little compassionate communication,
and replies to the riddle Jesus has posed
with an answer that shows a lot of cleverness and love.
“Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
Jesus responds to her compassion and cleverness and tells her to go home,
her daughter is healed.

If we simply gloss over the apparent uncharacteristic rudeness of Jesus
and the to-be-expected healing of the woman’s daughter
we may miss this intention of the Gospel writer and its meaning for us today.
How, we might ask, can Jesus, our loving and tender Savior,
tell a desperate mother that she and her little girl are "dogs"?
Our discomfort with Jesus' humanity and his perspective as a faithful Jew,
trips us up on this exchange, even though things turn out well in the end.
But if we look closer,
using the tools of contemporary Biblical scholarship
that we will be studying in another class we are offering this fall,
we can find another way to approach the meaning of this passage
for the community that the Gospel of Mark was first written for,
as well as a possible meaning for us today.
Could this story in fact be a great turning point in the Gospel of Mark?

It is always good to remember that the Gospels were written 50 -70 years after Jesus died.
They were each written in a particular community
that was still in process of transitioning from a Jewish community into a Christian one.
They each had particular questions to answer that influenced the stories that were told
and the way that they were told.

Could the struggles of the early church, which produced this narrative,
be evident in the tension it expresses and resolves?
They had to answer the question, “Do we welcome Gentiles into the church?”
Do we welcome women into positions of authority in the church?
Is God’s love for everyone?
Just before Jesus left the crowds of Galilee
for the hoped for seclusion of the Gentile lands,
he had shocked the religious authorities by declaring all foods clean
and by focusing instead on what lives in our hearts.
Whether he wanted to or not, he encountered a tenacious, determined mother
in search of healing for her little girl,
a woman who would not be turned away from the table of God's grace,
even if all she got was the crumbs that fell to the floor.

She used her wits in a culture that valued riddles for figuring things out,
and she won both the argument
and the healing she had requested of this teacher from another religion
and another land.
The heart of Jesus is touched, even moved in new directions,
by love,
the love of a mother for her child,
that is at the heart of God's own love.
Something deep inside Jesus remembers and recognizes this.
We might even say that something in Jesus' heart and mind is "opened up" by this love.

Borders were crossed,
boundaries broken down,
hearts were opened,
and so was the Christian mission,
as Gentiles and women
embraced the good news of the gospel,
and were welcomed into the Christian community
Just as Jesus declared all foods clean, then,
he declared all people "clean," acceptable, included at the table.
Is Mark I writing this story this way, saying to his fledgling Christian community,
“If Jesus can expand his boundaries of who is acceptable, can we?

The second story relates another kind of opening.
Friends brought a deaf man with a speech impediment to Jesus.
Jesus touched the man’s ears,
Touched the man’s tongue,
Looked up to heaven and said the eph-phatha! (Be opened)
Eph-phatha is an Aramaic word, and aramaic was the native tongue of Jesus and those among whom he ministered.

The multiple layers of the Aramaic word, eph-phatha are interesting in this story.
On one level it simply means opening, such as opening the man’s ear passages.
On another level, it addresses the fears that are stopping us from becoming who we are.
The healed man is able to speak plainly after his ears were opened and his tongue was released.
It is good to remember the connection between listening and speaking.

For the church to become a place where hearts are allowed to open slowly
it is also good to remember to have an ongoing dialogue with God.
To speak your need for guidance and then to listen…….
In other words, to be in prayer with God on a daily basis.

I personally don’t see how it is possible to do the work of fostering
the intellectual, spiritual and emotional growth
of our fellow human beings
without that listening and speaking,
humble asking and courageous responding,
dialogue with God.

I don’t see how we can do any of this without prayer.

Prayer that directs our attention to God, to Jesus, to the Holy Spirit
That touches our deafness,
our inability to speak,
our frightened place
With love, not judgment.
With prayer that opens the heart slowly.

May our time of holy communion this morning be a time be a prayer
where we hear the word and feel the touch of the compassionate healer,
Jesus of Nazareth, the one whom we call Christ.
May our time of sharing the pieces of the bread broken open for us
and the cup emptied for us
be a time of remembering both our need and our strength,
our need for one another and for God,
who is the loving heart at the center of the universe
who wants the best for everyone.

Let the people say,
Amen.

For the Biblical interpretation of the Gospel of Mark passage I thank Kate Huey in her article that can be found in the worship section of ucc.org

A Soul Repair Shop

2009-08-27T23:55:00.000-07:00

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

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

Let the anger guide you to its source.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In a conversation with a person who is slowly dying

In a conversation with a person recently retired

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Prayer: 100 Foot Clearance

2009-08-14T06:19:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do we want to be a part of that inheritance?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A life of prayer,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leaping Christians

2009-08-14T06:07:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enfolded By Love

2009-08-14T05:58:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May those who love mercy and seek connection say,
Amen

It’s Time for A Picnic

2009-08-14T05:48:00.000-07:00

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

Opening Song Bread and Roses

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Without faith there are no answers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fight Without Hurting

2009-08-14T05:27:00.000-07:00

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

Sing Teaching My Children to Protest written by me

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But how do we express our anger without sin?

But how to be angry and constructive?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Evolution Sunday

2009-02-15T21:10:00.000-08:00

Willing Light
Evolution Sunday
Psalm 8 John 15:1-12
February 15, 2009
Rev Alan Claassen

On Friday morning I had saved some time to begin writing this sermon. I was doing a little reading, enjoying my coffee, listening to the rain, and then the sound stopped. It was snowing. In Murphys. And it kept snowing. And I thought I had better park my car down at the bottom of the hill we live on in case it kept snowing.
By the time I got all bundled up warm, got the car to the bottom of the hill, and was walking back up to the house, the world had changed. Snow everywhere, so beautiful that carpet of white simplifying everything.
It was spell-binding, mesmerizing. Filling the sky and laying down a sheet of white over the manzanita, and branches of the pine trees, and the hillside. I came back in side and opened the Bible to Psalm 8.
“When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you set in place---what is humanity that you should be mindful of us?”
I could say an emphatic yes to all of that.
And then the power went out. I realized that I had no wood in the house and I had better get a fire going. So back on the warm clothes and gloves, gathering wood in the falling snow. And when that was all done I just had to go for a walk.
I remembered building snowmen and snow forts with our children when they were young. I remembered the joy in the household when two school students and one schoolteacher listened to the radio or watched TV and to learn that our school was among the list for closures or a late start.!
It’s a snow day!
And back inside I went again and returned to Psalm 8 and its imagined dialogue with God.
What is humanity that you should be mindful of us?
You have made us, in your image.
What is humanity that you, O Creator, are thinking about us?
And made us responsible for the work of your hands, all sheep and oxen, yes, even the beasts of the fields, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea and whatever swims the path of the seas?
And then I found myself entering that dialogue.
How are we handling that responsibility of caring for the earth? Considering the reality of climate change, world hunger, the ongoing reality of war and violence, are we revealing that we are just a little less than God? Are we behaving in God’s image.
Do we need to adjust our vision of just who God is, who we are, and our relationship with Creation?
What would have happened in the course of human events if the Psalmist had instead said,
“Who are you O God that we are mindful of you?”
What would be the condition of the planet today if the Psalmist had instead written,
“You, have given us, the ability to respond to the work of your hands, as if were actually touching your hands. O God.”
What would have become of us if, instead of believing that we have dominion over nature, we could see that nature is our domain, our home, and that we are intimately connected with all life, human and non-human, mineral and water, air and soil. And that all of those forms of life are all in God and God is in all them?
What if we changed our image of God as being distant from us, on top of a mountain, or in some distant heaven, but instead, in each and every molecule, and in the connection between all elements, creatures, and forces in the Universe?
What if our God-likeness was not expressed in power over nature, but instead in knowledge of nature?
And what would happen if we saw that the ability to
observe nature,
ask questions,
develop theories,
test predictions,
extrapolate backwards to beginning of time and space,
were accepted as gifts from God?
When we consider the Universe Story, the story of the 14.5 billion years of the ongoing creation of the all life and culture as our new Creation Story we have entered into the possibility of experiencing that we, born of the Universe, are now the Universe reflecting back on itself.
When we look through the Hubble telescope and see the beautiful nebulae giving birth to stars, we are the eyes of God, looking at the creation of God.
And scientists are able to tell much of this story of the ongoing creation of the Universe. It is a story that cannot define the first moment, but it can chart beginning after beginning. There is in the Universe Story a beautiful mixture of mystery and knowledge that invokes wonder, gratitude and humility.
This discovery of beginning again and again was an obstacle for scientists along the way. Centuries ago people read the Creation Story in Genesis and thought that it was meant to be history rather than a meaningful narrative.
Charles Darwin, whose 200th birthday is celebrated by many this year is not the only scientist who ran into this difficulty.
Tycho Brahe was an astronomer living in Denmark in the 16th century. He was an astronomer before the invention of the telescope. He was a careful observer of the night sky. He knew the stars of the night sky by observation and memory.
One night Tycho Brahe saw shining in the night sky a star he had never seen before. And this star wasn’t only new, it was brighter than Venus. Tycho studied this star for months, every night it appeared, until one day it was gone, never to return. His book on the star is called De Nova Stella, the new star, and eversince then these surprisingly bright and brief stars have been called novas, new things, and the really big ones are called super novas.
Later scientists would learn that the explosion of a supernova are what create and disperse the elements, oxygen, carbon, magnesium, iron and many others that are essential life as we know it on planet earth.
However, when Tycho Brahe announced his discovery of new star, ministers did not run to their pulpits to celebrate the abundance of energy released into the Universe.
They called Tycho Brahe a heretic. Like Galileo and so many other scientists, Brahe was branded an enemy of the church for suggesting what was then a most radical idea: that the Universe is always changing, moving, evolving, exploding, and growing.
For these ministers, a literal reading of the Book of Genesis was there preferred source of understanding how the Universe was created. To go against that interpretation was to go against God.
And yet, evidence of God’s creation was all around them, They were walking it, breathing it, eating it, being it. But their theology got in the way.

In the 17th Century another scientist ran into a similar problem. His name was Nicolaus Steno and he is considered by some to be the founder of geology. At the time people had no understanding of fossils. And they believed that the creation of the earth was a one time event, everything made just the way that it was for all time. So when they saw, what we would call sea shells, on a mountain top, they imagined that these “stones” somehow appeared in the rock that surrounded them. They could not imagine that was in their day a mountain, had been underneath a sea or a lake centuries earlier.
Nicolaus Steno was first an expert in the dissection of animals and human cadavers at a time when the inner workings of the human body were not well known. He made many anatomical discoveries. And he was also interested in what were then called tongue-stones, the shells that appeared in mountaintops.
One day he had the fortune of being asked to dissect a large shark. In doing so he notice that the shark’s teeth were amazingly similar to objects he found lodged in the mountain rocks he had been excavating.
Eventually Steno published his findings and theories that described what we now know as sedimentary rock, built up layer by layer over centureis at the bottom of lakes and sea beds. The soft mud became the resting place for shells and sharks teeth, then hardened over centuries, and then uplifted, turned and twisted, separated by rivers, and broken apart by earthquakes. And even though Nicolaus Steno himself later became a Catholic Bishop his work called into question the prevailing idea of the centuries. “There was do science of the earth’s history at the time because the earth was not considered to even have a history. People had a history; not things, not nature. For an orthodox Christian, each part of the world had been created by divine fiat, more or less in its present form. There was no point in asking how mountains or valleys formed. They had just been created.”
If someone allowed that there had, in fact, been a few changes since Creation, these were seen as inherently chaotic. Changes could only mean the decay of God’s original perfect Creation.” (The Seashell on the Mountaintop, Alan Cutler, page 13.)
Charles Darwin is not the only scientist responsible for the teaching of evolution. He had predecessors going back at least two hundred years before him. And his book, The Origin of Species, was not about the beginning of life itself, but an explanation of how there could be so many animals, so closely related. Did God have to get back to the drawing board each time a new species came on earth? Or was there something inherent in the processes of life itself that allowed life to change, to experiment, to adapt to new circumstances, to be creative?
One of the amazing things about Darwin’s discovery is that he did not publish Origin of the Species until several years after his trip on the HMS Beagle and his time in the Galapogas Islands. It was not until another scientist came up with a similar theory that Darwin revealed his own research.
Fear of speaking of the truth because it would offend the locals stopped Darwin from publishing his work.
The reason for this Sunday being designated as Evolution Sunday by over 1,000 churches and 400 synagogues comes from a concern that so fundamentalist Christians, bless their hearts, are frightened of evolution and do not want it taught in public schools. This very issue just came before a school Board in Texas and fortunately was defeated.
Churches and synagogues around the country are saying that science and religion to not have to be enemies, that a description of the ongoing creation of the Universe does not diminish the role of God for those of us know God as real.
We Christians can celebrate that the book of Genesis, though not historical, is none the less insightful, in that it saw that Creation is an ongoing process, where light and dark make a day, and everything is related to everything else.
The gift of the Universe Story is that in it we have the story of the heavens and our relationship to them. We are a part of a wonderfully intricate web of creation. And we need to realize quickly that it is a lack of humility to believe that we have dominion over the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. They are our brothers and sisters.

Who ARE you God, that you are mindful of us?
May our minds be filled with knowledge and wonder of you.

NB The section on Tycho Brahe taken from a sermon by Rev. Deborah Streeter, entitled, “God and Supernovas,” and included in a resource packet created by the United Church of Christ called, “Creationism, the Church, and the Public School. Published in 1992

A Well-Lighted Pathway

2009-01-27T15:27:00.000-08:00

A Well-Lighted Pathway
Jonah 1-5, 10 Mark 1:14-20
Rev. Alan Claassen January 25th, 2009

I have a confession to make.
I have preacher envy.
I want to be Rev. Lowery,
the minister who gave the benediction at President Obama's Inauguration.

It was a serious moment. It was a reflective moment.

He began his benediction by quoting from that great African-American national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” invoking the memory of the civil rights struggle. And then the tone shifted, though the message didn’t. It was the core message of the entire inauguration, namely that every one is welcome at this table; red, brown, yellow, black or white, we are all precious in God’s sight. And in that change of tone he moved President Obama, he moved him from all the appropriate solemnity of the moment, from carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. He moved President Obama from eyes closed in prayer, to eyes open, and smiling and looking at 2 million people smiling at him.

All of sudden something had changed and people were smiling, knowing that the task at hand is daunting, but somehow believing we are going to make it together.

I want to be Rev. Lowery.
And I realize that the only way I could ever hope to come close to the blessed wisdom of that preacher is through prayer.

Let us pray;

From the cowardice the does not face the truth
From the laziness that accepts half truths
From the arrogance that thinks it knows the whole truth.
Lord, deliver me

On this Sunday, when our Congregational Meeting follows worship, when we will approve our budget for this year, it is good to remember Ron Buford. Ron Buford was our guest preacher, our Consecrating Steward on the day when we offered our pledges of time, talent, and treasure for the continued ministries of this church. On that day when we offered our commitments for the future, which became a significant benchmark for what the Budget Committee could imagine for the year ahead, Ron called upon us to claim and proclaim what is unique in the history of this congregation and the United Church of Christ. He challenged us to be ready for success, because he believes that there are people looking for we have to offer: a way of being Christian that welcomes us whoever and wherever we are on life’s journey.

This past week Ron Buford wrote one of the daily devotionals that is a ministry of the national level of the United Church of Christ. This on-line/e-mail devotional is an excellent way to add a prayer to your daily spiritual practice as well as connecting with United Church of Christ ministers from around the country. If you would like to know more about this and you have an e-mail address let me know. Or go to ucc.org

Ron chose to write a devotion based upon a passage from the Bible, from the Prophet Jeremiah, chapter 20, verse 9

“then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”
Here is Ron’s reflection on that passage:
“On a beautiful Kaua'i beach, en-tranced by ocean and sunset with five male friends and almost no one else around, a beautiful young woman runs to us, screaming. Internally flipping into rescue mode, I think something must be wrong. But this young woman's crisis is a happy one. "I just got engaged!" she exclaims, having run from a lone man 350 feet away, now looking in our direction and somewhat perplexed.

Her buoyant overflow of love and joy still rescues me. As long as I live, I will never forget the reflection of fire and joy in her eyes, as if from fire shut up in her bones. Nor will I forget the look of pride from her fiancé. Her joy, his pride, and our need to experience it--all connected by one authentically unrestrained, generous, and joy-filled act.

Sometimes love can also be that way when you can think you are done with it. But it comes again, like fire. "I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot." When I feel that way, I think of the look in her eyes.

As great as it can be to be in love, our love of God has the power to be so much greater as we pursue it with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. It can sometimes feel consuming.

It can sweep us off our feet. It can change our world overnight.”

As great as it can be to be in love, our love of God has the power to be so much greater…

It can change our world overnight.

We find in the Gospel of Mark the same kind of enthusiasm. If you were to read it at one sitting you would notice that the word most often used is the word, “and.” Mark is telling the story of Jesus with the same enthusiasm and sense of urgency as that newly engaged young woman on the beach in Kauai.

First this happened, and then this, and then that, and then he said this, and then he did that, and then….
In the first chapter of Mark, "Jesus sweeps through Galilee and takes it by storm….the underlying sense is that God is on the march in the ministry of Jesus".

Which brings us to this morning’s passage from the Gospel of Mark.
Reading from The Message, Eugene Petersen’s translation of the Bible.

Passing along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw Simon and his brother Andrew net-fishing. Fishing was their regular work. Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you.
I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions. They dropped their nets and followed.

A dozen yards or so down the beach, he saw the brothers James and John, Zebedee’s sons. They were in the boat, mending their fishnets. Right off, he made them the same offer.
Immediately, they left their father Zebedee, the boat, and the fired hands, and followed.

This just does not make sense. Where is the flow chart on this project?

Mark doesn’t give us any explanation. Any background. Any motivation. He just gives us, God, and a man, Jesus, who surrendered himself and was baptized in the Jordan River and received the God’s spirit, looking like a dove, and hearing a voice saying, You are my beloved.

This same Spirit pushed Jesus into the wilderness where he was tested and cared for.
And walking along the shoreline of Lake Galilee he called out, the Spirit called out four men, and they surrendered all that they had, their livelihood, their family, their home and they followed Jesus.

This doesn’t make sense. This is Spirit made. What made the disciples follow Jesus? More importantly, what calls us to follow? And what must we surrender?

Every first Wednesday of the month about 30 people gather here in this Sanctuary for a time of prayer, a time of chanting, a time for silence. This form of music and prayer comes to us from a spiritual community founded in Taize, France by a Catholic priest named, Brother Roger. Listen to what Brother Roger wrote about this moment that the fishermen experienced when Jesus called them to leave their nets and boats.

“Without looking back, you want to follow Christ:
remember that you cannot walk in Christ’s footsteps and at the same time follow yourself. Christ is the way leading you irresistibly to a life of sharing.
The Gospel calls you to leave all things behind.
But leaving yourself behind is not a matter of self-destruction;
it means choosing God as your first love.”

This is exactly what I discovered for myself this past week as I continued to try to understand what it means to surrender my way to God’s way.
I was thinking that Jesus did not surrender himself into nothing.
He surrendered himself to John the Baptist’s strong arms as he was lowered into the Jordan. He surrendered himself to the water, which when we relax, when we trust, will hold us up. He surrendered himself to God.

Surrendering to God is choosing God as our first love. When we begin our day, continue our day, end our day, surrendering to God’s love, God fills us up with energy, strength, a hope that overflows to others. Even fishermen.

It is not a matter of how great or wise we are. Especially in comparison to others, Like Rev. Lowery. The call is to live the little bit of the Gospel that we have grasped. Proclaim it! Trust it. Light fire on earth like a young woman running down the beach shouting, “I’m engaged!”

Get engaged with Christ! Follow the teachings. Say your prayers. Love your neighbors. Love your enemies, nothing upsets them more. The pathway is clear. Take it.

I was thinking about closing with a verse from Lift Every Voice and Sing, but that would just be copying Rev. Lowery. One of the things I have to let go of is envy.
If you would like to read the words it is on page 593 in our hymnals.
Instead I would like to close with this poem, called “Sometimes” by Sheenah Pugh. It speaks to this Spirit-made moment where God seems to be rushing through the countryside, stirring things up, beginning a new thing, creating a new world, calling us to give ourselves to love.

Sometimes
Sheenah Pugh

“Sometimes things don’t go, after all from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost, green thrives; the crops don’t fail,
sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.
A people sometime will step back from war, elect an honest man;
decide they care enough, that they can’t leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.
Sometimes our best efforts do not go amiss; sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow that seemed hard frozen;
may it happen for you.”

May it happen for you. May it happen for our nation, all nations, all peoples, all creation.
Let all who do justice and love mercy say Amen!

The Light of Surrender

2009-01-13T10:34:00.000-08:00

The Light of Surrender
Mark 1:4-11
Rev Alan Claassen
January 11, 2009

When did Jesus have his first full experience of the presence of God?
When did Jesus become, ‘the son of God?”
Where did Jesus learn all that he knew about Jewish scripture and wisdom?
Who was his teacher?
When did he receive his call to be a preacher, a healer, a prophet, the messiah?
Each of the great figures of the Jewish tradition had experiences of God that called them to begin their work on God’s behalf.
Moses saw a bush that burned without being consumed and from the bush heard the voice of God speaking to him.
The authority with which the prophets speak comes from their direct experience of God. In a cave on a mountainside Elijah heard God not in wind or storm but in a “still, small voice.”
Isaiah call to be a prophet began with a vision, “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty, attended by two angels who said to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.”
And for Ezekiel he had a vision where “the heavens were opened and I saw a visions of God.” And later Ezekiel says that he had the experience that the “Spirit of the Lord fell upon me.”
Even in the time of Jesus there Jewish charismatic leaders such as Hanina ben Dosa who heard God’s voice from heaven saying, “The whole universe is sustained on account of my son, Hanina.”
There were many charismatic leaders a the time of Jesus, and one of them, known as John the Baptist, may well be the answer to the question, “Who taught Jesus about the Scriptures and how to pray, how to become immersed in the reality of God.
2

This morning we heard a reading from the Gospel of Mark. You may already know that Mark was the first gospel that was written. In the gospel of Mark there are no birth narratives, no angels, no shepherds, no Mary, Joseph, no manger, no wise men. There is John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness, baptizing people, calling them to repentance.
Those wonderful characters that we love to read and sing about at Christmas come to us from two other Gospels; some from Matthew and some from Luke.
And this wonderful story, which contemporary Biblical scholarship does not see as historical accounts, can influence how we might first answer the question I asked earlier, “When did Jesus first experience God?”
“According to the stories of his birth in Matthew and Luke, in which Jesus was conceived by the Spirit of God, God was in “Jesus” from his beginning.” (Jesus, Marcus Borg, pg 137)
And if we read the Gospel of John, Jesus was with God at the beginning of time, and so first experienced God with the very creation of the univers.
With the Gospel of Mark we come a little closer to seeing Jesus from a historical point of view. And many contemporary scholars believe we also have an answer to the question,
“Who was Jesus’ teacher?” Many believe it was in fact John the Baptist.
John the Baptist was an important figure in first century Judaism. In fact, he still has a small of followers to this very day. And the Jewish historian of the time, Josephus, gives more space to John than he does to Jesus in his book, Antiquities.
What can we learn about Jesus by looking at John the Baptist?
John dressed like Elijah, the great prophet of the Jewish Bible.
And John created, in the wilderness, by the Jordan River, a new seat of authority, that was a direct affront to the priests in the temple. There were many leaders like John, who had many disciples, who met together in the wilderness, who were critical both of the Temple priests in Jerusalem and the Roman authorities and culture that ruled their land and indeed all the Mediterranean in what we know as the Pax Romana.
“John subverted the temple’s role as mediator of access to God by proclaiming a means of forgiveness—repentance and baptism—that bypassed the temple.” (Jesus, Marcus Borg, pg 118)
John was an anti-temple prophet. And he publicly criticized the political leader of the land, Herod Antipas, and as a result was arrested and executed.
John and his followers were like many people at the time. They objected to the occupying Roman army and they objected to their own Jewish religious leaders who were cooperating with the Romans in order to keep their own powering place.
John’s baptism was both spiritual and political at the same time.
In the Gospel of Mark we are introduced first to John the Baptist and his mission, “John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism for the repentance of sins.” (Mark 1:4)
The word “repentance” meant something quite different in the time of the John the Baptist that it came to mean in Christianity where it came to mean “being sorry, remorseful, or penitent for one’s sins…It was associated with return from exile; to repent is to return, to follow the “way of the Lord” that leads from exile to the promised land.” (Jesus, Borg, pg 118)
That is why John the Baptist is preaching and baptizing in the Jordan River. Centuries earlier Joshua completed the journey begun by Moses when he led the Hebrew people into the promised land. They had to cross the Jordan River to enter the land of milk and honey.
The River Jordan is chilly and wide and it is deeply meaningful in the self-understanding of the Jewish people.
For John the Baptist and so many other prophetic communities of the time, the religious leaders of the day had abandoned the covenant. And the people had followed.
John the Baptist was renewing the Covenant, by calling people to return to their promise to God.

And in the act of baptizing people in the Jordan River John took a common purification rite of ritual washing for purification before entering the temple into an act of initiation for a band of followers who were going to re-enter the Promised Land remembering the promise made by Moses to faithful to the commandments of loving God and neighbor.
And Jesus was a follower of John’s. There is no way of knowing how long Jesus might have been with John the Baptist in the wilderness. We do know that the first story of Jesus as an adult is with John at the Jordan River and when he begins his public ministry he preaches the same message as John’s. Repent, return, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
And in this story of John and Jesus we also have a possible answer to my first question, “When did Jesus first experience the reality of God?”
As told in the Gospel of Mark, “In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”
Like Ezekiel six centuries earlier Jesus saw the heavens opened as if they were torn apart.
And the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice, “With you I am well pleased, My Beloved Son.”
“…the story of Jesus’s vision at this baptism places him in the Spirit-filled stream of Judaism.” (Jesus, Borg, 122)
And the fact that this baptism was performed by John, who may well have been Jesus’ teacher and mentor, places Jesus within the circle of many at the time who believed it was time for a change in Jerusalem.
From his own unique gifts as a human being, from his study with John, and from his vision at this own baptism, Jesus experienced the real presence of God.
Our visions of God are not likely to be as profound as the one the Jesus experienced. But there is something in the act of baptism that is a vitally important aspect of the spiritual life for all of us. And that is the act of surrendering.
The first act of Jesus life as an adult as reported in the Gospel of Mark is to surrender. Thinking of baptism as a symbol of returning to a God centered, to a Spirit Centered life, rather than a self-centered life, the act of trusting someone who will support you as you go under the water and come back out of it again is an act of surrendering. It is surrendering control, it is surrendering having to be in charge, it is surrendering having to be right. It is an act of humility and trust and somehow it is an act of freedom that brings a force greater than ourselves into play.
I was working with a Spiritual Director up in Portland. I would visit with her on a monthly basis, share with her what was going on in my life, where my moments of joy and my moments of struggle were and how I was responding to them. One day after I had shared my story she asked me, “Are you ever going to let God do anything in your life?”
More recently I was working with a Life Coach here in Murphys, which as it turns out has a lot in common with a Spiritual Director. Once again, I was sharing my moments of joy and frustrations and my attempts at trying to figure things out. The Life Coach warned me to be careful of my attempts to figure things out. It might just be another vain attempt on my part to be in control.
If we don’t surrender, on a spiritual level, if we are not practicing gratitude, humility, and compassion where can God enter our life?
Jesus, the great teacher of the way of the Spirit, began his own ministry with an act of surrendering.
As we continue to follow the ministry of Jesus over the next few months, leading up to Easter, we will see the act of surrendering in all its power.
I would like to close with the words of Brother Roger who founded the Taize community in France.
Hear these words from Brother Roger, Founder of the Taize Community in France.
"Without looking back, you want to follow Christ: remember that you cannot walk in Christ's footsteps and at the same follow yourself. He is the way, a way leading you irresistibly to a simple life, a life of sharing.
"Following Christ means choosing God as your first love. Simplify in order to live intensely, in the present moment: you will discover the joy of being alive, so closley linked to joy in the living God." Parable of Community Brother Roger

Light is Returning

2009-01-05T15:04:00.000-08:00

Light is Returning
Isaiah 60:1-6 Matthew 2:1-12
Rev Alan Claassen
January 4, 2009

Children’s Moment: Shared Betsy’s Christmas present. A GPS. Said the magi had a GPS too: God Positioning Star.

I have been thinking about these three wise men all week. Leaving home, following a prediction, traveling through unknown lands, asking questions along the way. And as they got close to their destination they even sought the counsel of a King. King Herod.
As it turns out, King Herod is a little threatened by this announcement from foreigners that a new and great leader is about to be born in his territory. So he asks that three magi to come back to him once they have found this Messiah so that he can pay homage to him.
Once the magi have visited Jesus themselves and experience an epiphany, a manifestation of God in the form of the Christ child they see life very differently and being warned in a dream they do not go back to King Herod, but instead went home another way.
That is such a wonderfully rich phrase, going home by another way.
Approximately 50 years later the Apostle Paul will write to the community of followers of The Way in Corinth the beautiful letter that includes the well known verses,
“If I speak in the tongues of men and angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
Love is patient and kind…
Love does not insist on its own way…
It does not rejoice in the wrong, but rejoices in the right…
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Faith, hope and love abide; but the greatest of these is love.
In the verse that immediately proceeds these verses Paul wrote, “And I will show you a still more excellent way.”
Another way back home. Another way to live. A journey of a lifetime.
Each Sunday morning our worship begins with the words, Whoever and wherever you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.
Thinking about the three magi this past week, I have been thinking where this journey is actually taking us. Where are we going? What is our guiding star? What keeps us focused and together, respecting our differences, both in needs and viewpoints, and moving forward as a progressive Christian church for Calaveras and Tuolumne counties?
And then I took a journey myself.
On New Year’s Day I flew to Portland, Oregon with our son, Cody. He was on route back to the Seattle area for his next semester of college. I decided to go with him to pick up our daughter, Lauryn’s car that had been left behind in Vancouver Washington in the snow storms that hit the northwest the week before Christmas.
So on Friday I began the journey from Vancouver, Washington to Murphys. A drive that I have only done once and that was on Labor Day of 2007 when Betsy and I drove it together.
The drive went better than I expected, given the rainstorms that passed through Portland the evening that I arrived, and the snow that was on the ground when I woke up, and the forecast of snow on the Siskiyou Pass. I made good time. Such good time that I decided to take an alternate path once I reached Red Bluff. I has stopped at a rest area, looked at a map and saw a route that would take me through Chico, Oroville, and eventually to HiWay 49. I decided to go another way.
And it was wonderful. The radio was playing a favorite guitar concerto by Rodriguez, the sun was setting through the clouds and the orchards north of Chico. It was very beautiful.
Then my daughter, Lauryn called me and asked if I could pick her up at the Dublin Bart Station and bring her to Murphys so she could get her car back.
Always ready to jump on an offer for a visit from one of our children I said yes.
I imagined a route. Keep going south on HiWay 99 until I reached I-80, get over to the 5 south to Manteca and west on 580 to Dublin.
And that was when I remembered I had Betsy’s new GPS in the car with my. Cody had taught me how to use it. So I turned it on. It figured out my current location. I entered the Dublin Bart as my destination and it gave me a route.
Not one I expected. It wanted me to take 113. I didn’t know 113. What kind of road was it? Where did it go? What was it like to travel at night? But it said that it was the quickest way to go and so I followed.
And it is a dark and lonely road at night. And it seemed to take forever before I finally reached HiWay 505. And it had been so long since I had driven 80 from Sacramento or Davis to the Bay Area that I couldn’t figure out where it was taking me.
But still I followed. At this point in time it had to be a quicker route than getting on the 5 all the way to 580.
And so there I was on I-80 heading for the Bay Area wondering how I was going to get to Dublin.
And then I remembered 680 drops down at Fairfield. I was going to make it after all.
I eventually arrived at the Dublin Bart station just 8 minutes after Lauryn arrived herself.
Thanks to the GPS.
And thinking about the three magi, trusting a prediction and a star, I thought about the trust that is necessary to begin a journey that takes us home by another way.

However and whenever it is that God speaks to us, we have a question to answer. Are we willing to go where God is leading us? Are we willing to believe that through the events of our lives God is leading us? Which star are we following?

This morning we celebrate communion together. And there is guidance for us in this sacred meal. For this bread is broken to be shared that compassion might increase among us. And the grapes are pressed down so that the juice of life is released and poured into a cup so that love might increase among us.

The gift that we have been have been given shows a way of moving away from fear, guilt, and shame and into a way that of giving and receiving with compassion.

This gift of God’s nature is for the salvation and healing of the world. Not just for some of us but for all of us. Through this sacred feast of Holy Communion we are made into the body of Christ, the beloved community.
This table is symbolic of the vision, the north star, the gives us our bearings, through the tears and joys, confusion and clarity, hopes and disappointments of being alive. In sharing the bread and the cup this morning we see one another as fellow travelers on the journey of another way; the way that feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, and sets free the captive. The way of peace that Jesus taught and that someday we will learn and trust and put into practice on our lives.

This sacred table is an epiphany, a manifestation of God’s love for all creation.
It was given to us by Jesus to remind us of what brings light into this world.
Light is returning. Light, returns us, directs us, guides us back home.
The Sermon title was taken from a song written for the winter solstice, the time when the light of the day begins to increase and the darkness decreases, a perfect time to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Light is returning even though this is the darkest hour.
No one can hold back the dawn.
Let’s keep it burning, let’s keep the light of hope alive
Make safe our journey through the storm.

And from the first hymn that we sang this morning,
Star of wonder, star of light…still proceeding…guide us with the perfect light.
May we take time each day to turn on our God Positioning Star that connects earth with heaven, so we always know how to get back home, so that we will not feel lost even when we are going home by another way, so that we will make our choices, and choose our words, based upon gratitude, humility, and compassion.
Whoever we are and wherever we are on lives journey let us choose the way that takes us to our joy of giving and receiving compassionately.
And let the people say:
Amen

Where Are You, God?

2008-12-01T13:48:00.000-08:00

Psalm 80:1-7 Mark 13:24-37
Rev. Alan Claassen
November 30, 2008

Please pray with me.
"From the cowardice the does not face the truth
From the laziness that accepts half truths
From the arrogance that thinks it knows the whole truth.
Lord, deliver me."

There’s a moment in one of the Winnie the Pooh stories where Piglet is stranded in the middle of a fast flowing river precariously balancing on a plank as he heads for a waterfall. Owl is flying overhead and counsels Piglet to be brave.
Piglet responds, “It’s hard being brave when you are so small.
Imagine a time, remember a time, think of the time you are in right now. Helpless in the face of something that is shaking all your security, feeling small in the face of something much bigger than you are. And you have been praying and finally you feel like saying, like the Psalmist in today’s reading:

Whatsamatta, God! We are in trouble here! Don't you care!
Where are you, God! Can't you hear us!
Say something, God! Wake up! Do something!
God, help us! Save us! Please!
Help me get up, I just need to get up and get through the door.

Do you know the story of the disciples were in a boat with Jesus on the Sea of Galilee. They had started their journey in the evening, so it was dark or getting darker. There is nothing more peaceful than a boat on the water.

It was quiet out there, away from the crowds. The waves slapped against the side of the boat in a steady, soothing rhythm. The oars added their soft cadence.

All in all, it was a wonderful counterpoint to the hustle and bustle of the day. Jesus, sitting on a cushion in the stern, fell asleep. He must have been tired. It had been quite a day.

But then the wind began to blow. That little sea was famous for its sudden storms, and this one came out of nowhere. It blew and it blew, and the waves smashed into the boat. The disciples panicked.

But nobody who has ever been caught in a storm in a small boat, far from shore, will be surprised. There are very few places where one is more helpless and more alone than in a small boat in a storm. The wind blows˜ and the rain falls˜ and the waves smash into the boat. Worse than that, the waves wash into the boat.

The sailor caught in such a storm has much to do:
˜If the boat gets sideways to the waves, the waves will flip it over, so the sailor must keep the boat facing into the waves.

˜The sailor must also bail the water out of the boat. With any luck, the sailor will be able to bail the water out faster than the waves bring it in.

˜And, of course, the sailor must try to stay in the boat. That sounds simple, doesn't it, but it isn't simple at all. Trying to keep one's footing, or even one's seat in a small boat at sea in a storm is a full-time job itself.
Trying to keep your footing during a time of change, controversy, or financial crisis can also be as challenging.

Have you ever been caught in a big storm in a small boat?

Some events in our life make us seem small. Sometimes events in our life can seem like we are out in the middle of a lake or sea and the waves are crashing all around us. It may be an illness, or a loss, or a sense of something left undone. It may be coming face to face with reality that things just aren’t going according to our best-laid plans. We know that “It’s hard being brave when you are so small.”

The disciples, including the fishermen among them, were just as afraid as any of us would be. The fishermen were afraid, because they knew. They knew how much danger they were in.

And through it all, Jesus slept. There he was on his comfortable cushion in the stern of the boat sleeping through everything. How could he sleep! That was pretty amazing in itself. You would have thought that the rough ride would have awakened him. But there he was, fast asleep

That was almost as upsetting to the disciples as the storm. Jesus was their leader, and right now they needed some leadership. They wanted him awake and alert. They wanted him to take command of the situation, to help them to get organized. It was frightening to think that their leader would sleep through such a crisis.

They woke him. They said, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" Whatsamatta, Jesus! Don't you see what's happening! Don't you understand the danger we are in! Don't you care! Where are you, Jesus?

We left our homes and our jobs to follow you. We put a lot of our trust in you. Look how great things were going. You were healing people. People were coming to you to hear you preach. All of those people we left back on the shoreline. Now this storm is threatening to kill us all, and you are blissfully asleep in the back of the boat! Wake up! Take charge! Do your job! Save us!

We all feel like that at times, and sometimes we feel like that most of the time.

And yet, part of what this story is about is,
that instead of rushing to communicate our panic to God,
we should allow God to communicate calm to us" (Luccock, 710).

In her book, Two-Part Invention, author, Madeleine L'Engle talks about her husband's illness. They had just learned that it was much worse than they had originally expected. The cancer had spread. He would have to undergo surgery and chemotherapy. The prognosis was uncertain at best. It was one of those moments when we say, "God, help us! Save us! Please!"

Madeleine tells of her devotions on the evening of the day that they received the bad news. She read the Psalm for the day, Psalm 22. It read, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" These are the same words that Jesus cried from the cross.

Of reading that verse on that day she says, "Exquisitely painful timing. The psalmist's words. Jesus' words. I feel anguished. I feel that I have been kicked in the stomach and the wind knocked out of me. My spirit hurts."

And yet she was grateful for those words, because hearing them as they had come from Jesus' mouth made it all right that they had come from her own. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

When the disciples woke Jesus, they said, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" Jesus didn't answer them directly, but turned instead to the wind and the sea saying, "Peace, be still!"

I believe those words were also meant for the disciples. "Peace, be still!" That was what those disciples needed to hear.

They needed the world around them to be peaceful and still, but they needed even more to be at peace within themselves. When our world is coming unglued, we need to hear Jesus say, "Peace, be still!" As much as we need him to calm the storms around us, we need even more for him to calm the storms within us. "Peace, be still."

We need a prayer and meditation practice that begins and ends our days in the peace of Christ. Instead of rushing to communicate our panic to God, we should allow God to communicate calm to us"

Madeleine L'Engle's husband died. It didn't happen suddenly. She had to watch as he declined day by day, and then he died. She felt empty, and she was full of grief. It was a confusing and terrible time.
Then someone told her a story of an Episcopal Bishop who had lost his wife and child in a tragic accident. The bishop said to his people, "I have been all the way to the bottom.
And I found that it is solid."

In the worst storm of her life, all the way at the bottom of her life, Jesus said to Madeleine L'Engle, "Peace, be still!" And she put down her feet. And it was solid!
Jesus comes to us in the storms of our lives. When the wind and the waves threaten to undo us, we cry, "Do you not care that we are perishing!" And Jesus says to us, "Peace, be still!" He calls us to trust, to put our fear down, to discover that the love of God is solid!
What storm are you in right now? What seems like insurmountable odds against your hard- to-be-brave small self. Turn your eyes for a moment from the storm to the Captain of the vessel. Speak to whomever you choose when you are in prayer, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Big Love, and share what is on your heart.

And then wait for the pause
and hear the call,
"Peace, be still!" And keeping your trust focused on Life that is eternal, put your feet down, and discover that it is solid!

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote,
The wise person in the storm prays to God,
not for safety from danger,
but for deliverance from fear.
It is the storm within which endangers him,
not the storm without.

There are moments when we pray for a miracle to end the storm. There are many more moments when we pray for the faith and courage that helps us ride the storm, helps us find a way to calm the sea and the wind, to calm the fear and anxiety.

May we in our prayers for this church, in our prayers for one another, and in our prayers for our nation and this planet, face whatever it is that is making us feel small,
not alone,
but with our inner resources,
the resources of one another,
and of course, our connection with the Spirit of the Living God which will guide us through this storm until we reach the other side, safely.
The blessing that comes with the Season of Advent, the source of hope that is burning in the candle that was lit this morning, is that we will see a deeper course of truth opening before us. When we ask God for deliverance a way through the wilderness will be revealed.
When we remember with gratitude, the times when God has already been a source of increasing our courage in our lives, a deeper strength will be made available to us.
When our own way has run it’s course and we cry out, like the Psalmist, “Restore us, O Holy One, let your face shine upon us, teach us to love,” a renewed courage and creativity to do what has to be done will help us find a God’s way through the storm.
Where is God?
Wherever and whenever we let God in.

Amen

Are You Ready for Trust?

2008-11-17T10:33:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

Dear Brother Obama,

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

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

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

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

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

Are You Ready for a Blessing?

2008-11-03T09:18:00.000-08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Be the Message

2008-10-26T14:51:00.000-07:00

October 26, 2008
Rev. Alan Claassen
Matthew 22:34-40

The scribe asked Jesus, "Which commandment is the first of all?"
Unlike the Pharisees whom we discussed last week, who tried to trick Jesus with the question, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?”
there is no indication that the scribe in this week’s reading was trying to trap Jesus.
In their deep affection for the law, the scribes continually examined it from all sides as a jeweler would examine the facets of a precious diamond, always hoping to discover a treasure.
Working with 613 commandments, they would sometimes focus on one, dividing it into scores of rules tailored to particular situations. Coming from the other direction, they would try to summarize the whole of the law in one commandment or verse.
Thus Micah says, "…what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8).
Rabbi Hillel, asked to summarize the law while standing on one leg, had responded, "What you don’t want done to you, don’t do to your neighbor.
The Scribe is asking Jesus, the Rabbi, looking over all 613 commandments, which is most important?
Jesus replies, Love God with everything you have got. Love your neighbor as yourself.
This summarizes all the law and all the prophets.

The Greek word that is used in the Bible for love in this commandment is agape. It is love of all creation. It is love for humanity. It is love that goes beyond partnership and family. And it is more than affection or positive feelings.

When Jesus says that we are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, he is telling us to love God with all that we are and to demonstrate that love, make it real, act on it.
Jesus is also challenging us to love God with the gifts and opportunities that are uniquely ours.
Members of this church recently received a letter for this year’s Stewardship Campaign. Besides for the card that asks you to make a financial commitment to the church, there was also a Time and Talent form, that lists tasks in the church that are an opportunity for you love God with the gifts that are yours uniquely.

I am so excited with the new members who have joined the church today, and those who will be joining soon. They are new neighbors who have just moved into the neighborhood. They have seen something in this neighborhood that makes them feel at home, something that makes them feel loved, accepted, welcomed as they are and called to become something new.
These new neighbors, just by being here, just by being who they are, are going to shake up the neighborhood with their gifts. Evidence of this can be seen in the current make-up of the Stewardship Board which includes three new members and, who in concert with the other members have put together a creative Consecrating Stewardship Campaign. Who would have thought a Stewardship Board could be a place of creativity and enthusiasm?
And you, the current members of this church, are going to shake up the new members with your gifts that are a part of a 144 year old history that has made this a unique congregation in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties.
There’s going to be a whole lot of shaking going on.
And what a blessing, what an opening of a new way of seeing our lives if we consider that this is God’s love echoing through us to all creation.
What I first came here, just over a year ago, I asked the question, “What in God’s name is going on here at First Congregational Church, Murphys, United Church of Christ.
There’s a whole lot of shaking going on.
Christ calls us to keep our balance with all this shaking going on with these two great commandments; love God with all that you are, and love your neighbor as yourself
The person who loves God but does not love neighbor is gravely deficient. In fact, the First Letter of John tell us that "Those who say, 'I love God,' and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also" (1 John 4:20-21).
That is very tough language, given the difficulties that many of us have with particular family members or church members. Jesus expands the requirement by his definition of neighbor in the parable of the Good Samaritan. For Jewish people, living at the time of Jesus, there was no such thing as a good Samaritan and certainly no one was expected to love them. Except for the ones, like Jesus, who remember and believe as it says in Genesis 1:27, “Humankind was created as God’s reflection: in the divine image God created them;…”

Love for neighbor can fall into sentimentalism or selective love, unless it is grounded in love for God. Love of God is the first commandment, not the second. Love of God is the foundation upon which all the other commandments depend.

The United Church of Christ is a denomination where the tents of hope are wide, the table of extravagant welcome is long, and the invitation to partnership is extended to all people. We don’t decide who is neighbor and who is not. God’s love echoes through us to all creation includes all people regardless of age, gender, race, sexual orientation, physical disabilities, political party, or how we vote in the upcoming election.
When the election is over we will need to quickly set aside ideas of winners and losers, we will need to remember that we are Christians, Americans, global citizens, in a word, neighbors.
It isn’t easy. That’s why the first commandment is to love God.

Eric Hoffer, the longshoreman-philosopher, says, "It is easier to love humanity than to love your neighbor." In other words, it is easier to love the world than to love the guy next door. It is easier to love our neighbors in theory than it is in practice.

We are called to Be the message. Love God with all you’ve got. Love neighbor as you would love yourself.

G.K. Chesterton put it this way: "The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are the same people." Loving neighbors can be difficult, but loving neighbors can also be very powerful. Love changes lives.

We are called to Be the message. Love God with all you’ve got. Love neighbor as you would love yourself.

Mother Teresa said, "Prayer in action is love. Love in action is service." Love is not a concept or a peaceful easy feeling. Love is a decision, it is a commitment born of a vision, baptized by the holy Spirit to a lifetime of learning to grow in compassion.

In our offerings of time, talents, and treasure we unite our commitment, our vision and our love for this dwelling place of God.

Let me share a story with you about love in action. It’s a simple one.
I saw a story on Bill Moyers Journal on Friday evening. Filmmaker and music lover was walking down his hometown Santa Monica beach one day when he heard a street musician playing, Stand By Me. He was stopped in his tracks. He listened until the song was done and march Johnson asked the musician if he would mind being recorded and filmed performing that song. The musician said that would be fine.

That began a project of Marc Johnson taking that film and recording around the world to street musicians who added their harmonies, the instruments, their images to this film. Stand By Me, went walking all around the world, including to the poorest section of South Africa. When the local musicians came out to play, women and children came out of their homes, and out of their despair and began dancing, and singing. Stand By Me.
Marc talked with these people in this village and his heart went out to them. He asked a local bass player, “What do you need?” The man said, “We need a music school so our children can learn to play the music.”
Proceeds from the film that will include other songs than Stand By Me will go to the creation of schools of music all around the world. Playing for Change will change communities. Loving God, with all your heart, strength, mind and spirit will change communities. Loving your neighbor as yourself will change, YOU.

Thomas Merton wrote, “We do not exist for ourselves (as the center of the universe), and it is only when we are fully convinced of this fact that we begin to love ourselves properly and thus also love others. What do I mean by loving others properly? I mean, first of all, desiring to live, accepting life as a very great gift and a great good, not because of what it gives us, but because of what it enables us to give others.

Remember your baptism, your rebirth in the Spirit of the Living God.
Remember that we were wonderfully made in the God’s reflection.
Let our actions been a sign in the neighborhood that love makes a family, mutual respect makes a family, and forgiveness makes a family.

Be the message. Love God, love neighbor, love yourself.

Let the messengers say.
Amen

Live The Message

2008-10-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

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!

Let It Begin With Me

2008-09-22T07:50:00.001-07:00

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.

Love First

2008-09-15T07:59:00.000-07:00

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.

Fulfillment

2008-08-21T16:37:00.000-07:00

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.

The Word is Love

2008-07-13T20:27:00.000-07:00

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.

I Am A Wright Brother

2008-05-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

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.”

Spread the Love

2008-05-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

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

Yes, It's Possible: An Easter Sermon

2008-03-24T06:46:00.000-07:00

Yes, It’s Possible
Easter Sermon
March 23, 2008
Rev. Alan Claassen

I have three resurrection stories that I want to share with you this morning.
You decide if you think they are possible, or not. The stories come from a bus driver, a dear friend of Jesus, and a woman in an airport.

A middle-aged school bus driver won the praise of her local police department because she had remained calm when a deranged man took her bus full of mentally ill handicapped children hostage.
When asked by reporters how she managed to talk the man out of using the gun he was waving in he air she said,
“I pray a lot.”
Her answer to the reporter’s was not, “I prayed a lot.”
She said I pray a lot.
In other words she wasn’t asking God to intervene at that moment in her life, God had already intervened in her life and was present even before she stepped on the bus that morning.
It makes me think of Jesus and how, I believe, that he was raised from the dead even before he was crucified.
Christian tradition teaches the trust that faith depends on, is learned in practicing it, both through the discipline of prayer and through trying it out in our daily lives. This is something that this bus driver knew.
The bus driver was immersed in God because she prays a lot. She was abiding in Christ. She was in touch with a place of peace in the midst of crisis.
Just as Jesus abided in God, because he prayed a lot. Not asking for anything in particular to happen, but instead having a living relationship with God, so that in complete trust he could say to God, while deep in anguish and in prayer, “Thy will be done.”

That story came from a book by Kathleen Norris, called Amazing Grace.
Kathleen Norris had a life changing experience when she spent some time in a Benedictine monastery and learned this kind of praying from the monks. From one Benedictine friend, a gentle, thoughtful man who had been in constant physical pain for years and then confined to a wheel chair she learned how he prayed.
From him, Kathleen Norris learned that prayer is not asking for what you think you want but asking to be changed in ways you can’t imagine.

How do we live into the resurrection, not as an after life experience, but as a this life experience?
How can we be raised from the fear of death, the death that comes from fear, fear of failure, the fear of conflict, fear of being lost without knowing our way home. How can we live our lives in a way that are now beyond our imagination?
Which brings us to our second story.
As the Gospel reading this morning said, Mary went looking for Jesus in the tomb. Wrong place.
When she found the tomb empty she began to weep. As she was crying she looked into the tomb and saw two angels. They said to her, “Why are you weeping?” “Because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him.”
And then she turned around. We need to remember that this phrase “to turn around” is significant in the Bible. To turn around is another way of saying, look at life another way, look at life from the point of view of your neighbor, look at life from the point of view of the stranger, look at life from God’s point of view
When she turned and saw Jesus she didn’t recognize him. She thought he was the gardener.
First Jesus said to her, “Whom do you seek?”
Very interesting first words to hear from the Risen Christ. Especially when you remember the first words that Jesus speaks in the Gospel of John.
The day after Jesus was baptized he was walking near John the Baptist and two of John’s disciples, Peter and Andrew. John calls out saying, “Behold the Lamb of God.” The disciples then left John and began walking behind Jesus. Jesus saw them and said, “What do you seek?” They want to know where Jesus is staying.
They want to know the same thing that Mary wants to know standing beside the empty tomb.
Where is Jesus? Where is he going? Where has he gone?
To the disciples, Peter and Andrew Jesus said, “Come and see.” And then Jesus took them on a journey like they have never been on before. A journey of healing and teaching and loneliness and great crowds of people.
Jesus answered their question with a lifetime.
Mary was a part of that journey with Jesus and the disciples but she didn’t recognize Jesus until he said her name.
The one that we seek is the one who knows who we are. The one that we seek is the one who created us. The one that we seek is not limited to a particular time or place. The one that we seek knows that we get consumed by jealousies, fears, regrets over mistakes we have made. The one that we seek knows that we hurt sometimes. Knows that we face moments of crisis sometimes. The one that we seek is the one who says, “When you were a child I loved you, it was I who taught you to walk, it was I who lifted you as a little child to my cheek, it was I who fed you.
No matter what you do, no matter what happens to you, no matter who you hang around with, no matter who you lose, I know who you are really, and I love you.
And when Mary hears this from Jesus, when she is recognized, then she recognizes Jesus. The one we seek, is also seeking us, to show us who we are, most truly.

The “Come and see,” at the beginning of the Gospel has now turned into “Go and tell.” The invitation to see the presence of God becomes the desire to tell others what you have seen. Even if it is all a mystery, that we cannot explain how it happened to us, how we came to a deeper trust in God’s presence.
But we know how to love. We know what kind of world we want to live in. And we have an insight onto what kind of world God wants us to live in.
Jesus referred to it often as the kingdom of heaven. Not as a place we go to after we die, but a place that we pray for and work toward, on earth as it is in heaven. A place where we work and pray for reconciliation. A place where we are not afraid. A place all basic needs are met because we share what we have with one another. A place where we can respond to a crisis as the bus driver did --no fear, no-violence, but instead a calm strength that came from a life of prayer and service to others.
To me, this is what Easter is all about, when we let God raise us up to a new understanding of what is possible for humanity, if we would only support one another in living out the commandment that Jesus gave to his disciples, that we love one another.
I have one more story to tell you about this daily resurrection I am talking about. It comes to us from an American author, from Texas, She writes books for children, high school students, and adults. Her mother is American and her father is Palestinian. Her name is Naomi Shihab Nye and the title of this story is Gate 4-A

“Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal, after learning my flight had been detained four hours, I heard an announcement: “If anyone in the vicinity of Gate 4-A understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately.”
Well – one pauses these days.
Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there. An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly.
“Help,” said the Flight Service Person. “Talk to her. What is her problem? We told her the flight was going to be late and she did this.”
I stooped to put my arm around the woman and spoke to her haltingly in Arabic.
The minute she heard any words she knew, however poorly used, she stopped crying. It turned out that she thought the flight had been cancelled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for major medical treatment the next day.
I said, “You’re fine, you’ll get there, who is picking you up? Let’s call him.” We called her son and I spoke with him in English. I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and would ride next to her.

She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for fun. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her? This all took up about two hours. She was laughing a lot by then.
Telling about her life, patting my knee, answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies – little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts – out of her bag – and was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a sacrament.
The traveler from Argentina, the mom from California, the lovely woman from Laredo – we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There is no better cookie. And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers and two little girls from our flight ran around serving us all apple juice and they were covered with powdered sugar too.
And I noticed my new best friend – by now we were holding hands – had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.
And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, this is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in this gate – once the crying of confusion stopped – seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women too. This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.
This is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in this gate, or on this earth, afraid of any other person.
Is it possible?
Yes! If we carry within our hearts the teachings of Jesus like a plant that keeps us rooted in God.
Will there be resistance and struggle?
Yes! As there was for Jesus.
Will there be others who will carry on the hopeful work, the prayerful practice and dedicated service that Jesus called his disciples to carry on?
The answer is yes! And --- that would be us.
When our believing in Jesus becomes the be-loving of Jesus we become the original blessing that God intended us to be.
This happened in the garden that Mary entered on Sunday morning.
This happened to Naomi Shihab Nye at Gate-4 in the Albuquerque Airport.
This happened to the fearless bus driver.

This can still happen anywhere.
All is not lost.
Christ is risen. Christ is risen in- deed!

The source for the story by Naomi Shihab Nye is a wonderful web site: www.gratefulness.org

Peace is the Way

2008-02-01T20:44:00.000-08:00

Peace is the Way
Isaiah 11:1-9 John 29:29-42
Alan Claassen January 19, 2008

JB didn’t get what he wanted for Christmas. Jesus wasn’t the powerful, wipe out all the bad guys type of Messiah he thought God was sending.
JB had good reason to expect something, he just forgot that it was going to come from something small. Something as small a new shoot that grows from a fallen tree.
That’s where it all begins, with God’s eternally creative spirit. It cannot be stopped. It is genetically wired into creation.
John the Baptist knew this. He lived very close to creation. And undoubtedly he knew his prophets, including this very passage we just heard read this morning. And he also could see evidence all around him, in the actions of the Romans, and his own religious leaders, that the intentions of God were not being carried out.
And so he gave these most amazing, upsetting, impolite, set of speeches and performed the symbolically rich act of purifying people in the Jordan River, in nature, rather than in the corrupted Temple, and he told everyone that something is big is going to come and wipe away all the bad and lift up the good.
And this is exactly what Jesus did not do.
John didn’t get what he wanted; a powerful new ruler who would annihilate all evil.
Because the fact is that Jesus did not have coercive power. Jesus did not have financial or military power. In the ways of the world Jesus was incredibly poor and weak. And it is so helpful, I believe, to remember this, when trying to make sense of what Jesus said.
I want to talk about this power that Jesus had, this power that I want to call lamb-power, in light of today’s passage from Isaiah.
Isaiah
The Wolf and the lamb lay down together.
This is very good news for the wolf.

2
I can imagine a wolf family sitting around the breakfast table eating breakfast and reading the morning paper.
Headline reads, Prophet Isaiah says, Lambs and wolves to lay down together.
Papa wolf says, “Great news family. No more hunting.”
“According to this Isaiah guy the lambs are just going to come and lay down with us, when they do, we’ll eat them.”
The lamb and the wolf laying down together means some basic so-called laws of nature are going to have to be changed. Or else we have some very well-fed wolves on our hands.
And if you read on in the passage, not only are the wolves going to be well fed, but the lions are going to become vegetarian? What was Isaiah thinking?
This is ridiculous naive pie-in-the sky garden-of-Eden thinking that won’t get us anywhere.
And what is the Papa Lamb thinking as he reads the same headlines?
The situation in Jesus’ time was that Israel was the lamb and Roman empire was the wolf, and a great number of the religious authorities, to save their own hides, wore the wolves clothing.
Jesus came onto the scene, a tender branch, a shoot from a once and mighty family, but without any power, and began talking about the power of the lamb.
Let me tell you what I mean.
Part of the problem we have in understanding Jesus is that we read the lamb’s teaching from the point of view of the wolf, and we think it is naive, idealistic, not helpful.
Jesus’ teaching on nonviolence have been perverted into injunctions to passive non-resistance, which is the very opposite of active non-violence.
Reading from the new Scholars Bible, Jesus said, “Don’t react violently against the one who is evil.” The meaning is clear: don’t react in kind, don’t mirror your enemy, don’t turn into the very thing you hate. Jesus is telling us to resist evil, non-violently.

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Many years later there was a Christian organization in this country that understood this injunction to resist non-violently. The Fellowship of Reconciliation devised a non-violent plan when they sent the Freedom Riders to the south, to sit, black and white together, in restaurants, and then to sit together black and white in jails, and there to refuse bail. To stand with strength and say we will not be humiliated. And we will not resist violently. We will bring the pain ourselves in an act of courage that is meant to awaken a nation and heal the curse of racism.
That’s lamb power.
Gandhi had lamb power. He couldn’t violently oppose the British, though many of his countrymen were trying.
ML King had lamb power. He couldn’t violently oppose the racism in this country, though many of his countrymen were trying that method.
Nelson Mandela had lamb power and the whole world took part in the non-violent revolution that took place in South Africa.
Each of those leaders used great force to achieve their goals, but they didn’t use violence.
But what do we as a nation do in our relations with other nations that can be in keeping with the wisdom and teaching of the Bible?
We need to balance the wolf and the lamb.
The first section of the Isaiah passage describes this.
It describes how the king shall act and the results of his reign.
The future king would resemble David’s son Solomon, renowned for the wisdom of his judgments. No “appearance” or “hearsay” would mar his ability to judge, instead, he would go to the heart of any matter brought before him. He would not rule by deceit.
The poor would find in him a friend, and the ruthless an enemy. So strong would this ideal king be that the justice he meted out, and his “faithfulness” to God’s law, would be as readily seen as the royal sash he wore in public to signify his authority.
Being filled and guided by the spirit of God this ruler will act on behalf of the poor, the weak. In other words, the wolf cares for the lamb to have a world of peace.

4
The wolf acting alone can think that power is all that is needed. He can fool himself into thinking, “I can have my way and not ask any tough questions or be responsible to other nations or to the law or the earth itself because I have all the power.”
But it will not last.
The wolf and the lamb in balance with one another, can create a situation where evil is stopped in its track because there is justice in the land.
The wolf and the lamb in balance with one another realize that my well-being cannot be at the expense of another’s basic needs.
The wolf and the lamb in balance with one another. The only way for that to happen is for both of them to be well fed.
I can give you an example from US history when the wolf did lie down with the lamb.
I wonder if any of you can remember these words of advice from a senior U.S. military officer and statesman recommending how the people of the United States should deal with a part of the world torn by war, poverty, disease, and hunger:

"...it is of vast importance that our people reach some general understanding of what the complications really are, rather than react from a passion or a prejudice or an emotion of the moment....It is virtually impossible at this distance merely by reading, or listening, or even seeing photographs or motion pictures, to grasp at all the real significance of the situation. And yet the whole world of the future hangs on a proper judgment."

The speaker was General George C. Marshall, outlining the Marshall Plan in an address at Harvard University on June 5, 1947. Surveying the wrecked economies of Europe, Marshall noted the "possibilities of disturbances arising as a result of the desperation of the people concerned." He said that there could be "no political stability and no assured peace" without economic security, and that U.S. policy was "directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.

5
As Marshall's words so plainly suggest, stopping the terrorism that exists in our day will should include a much more ambitious campaign, one in which the rich countries approach the appalling inequities of the world with the same boldness and determination that the United States brought to bear in Europe under the Marshall Plan.
The United States and the other industrial nations should launch a global "Marshall Plan" to provide everyone on earth with a decent standard of living.
We can already hear the cries of people claiming that such a global plan would "cost too much." But let's look at the numbers.
A 1998 report by the United Nations Development Programm estimated the annual cost to achieve universal access to a number of basic social services in all developing countries:
$9 billion would provide water and sanitation for all; $12 billion would cover reproductive health for all women; $13 billion would give every person on Earth basic health and nutrition; and $6 billion would provide basic education for all. 40 billion dollars in all.

Too much? Military expenditures by all nations? $780 billion each year.
(Source Dick Bell and Michael Renner, World Watch Institute)

What would it sound like for a President to think like this? Well, I can tell you, here are some words actually said by a former President of the United States.

“There is no way in which a country can satisfy the craving for absolute security, but it can easily bankrupt itself morally and economically in attempting to reach that goal through arms alone.”
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.”
"There can be no enduring peace for any nation while other nations suffer privation, oppression, and a sense of injustice and despair. In our modern world, it is madness to suppose that there could be an island of tranquility and prosperity in a sea of wretchedness and frustration." Dwight D.Eisenhower

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This is the kind of thinking and acting that plants the seeds of peace and thinks for generations and generations not just for today. This is the kind of thinking and action that has a chance of resisting evil without becoming evil.
And as we know this is the kind of connections that Martin Luther King was making in the years that followed his I have a dream speech, namely that the end of war, the end of poverty, the end of racism are linked together.

This is the wolf and the lamb acting together. This isn’t idealism, this is spiritual, practical, earth-friendly, and the intention of creation that was planted in us by God.

What can we do, in the part of the world that we can touch, that will convince the wolf of his need to change his diet?
In my January newsletter column I made a couple of suggestions for what we can do to bring peace into our lives. One of those suggestions was to read a book called, Non-Violent Communication, A Way of Life, written by Marshall Rosenberg.
This book describes and teaches non-violent communication and it is filled with stories of when Marshall Rosenbergy has applied these tools himself in conflicts that range from parents trying to get their children to clean their rooms to resolving conflicts between warring tribes in Africa. I would like to share with you a story that comes from the book that I would describe as lamb power.

See pg 13-14, Non-Violent Communication- A Way of Life, by Marshall Rosenberg

Using the tools of non-violent communication, which in this case meant listening to another human being’s pain without judgment but with compassion, Marshall Rosenberg was able to move this enemy into a host, and they shared a sacred meal together, a Jew and a Muslim.
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There were men who were followers of John the Baptist who left John and caught up with Jesus who was on the move, making the road of peace by walking it. Jesus turned, looked over his shoulder at the disciples, and asked “What are you looking for?”
“What are you looking for?”
Can you imagine what it would feel like to have Jesus ask you, “What are you looking for?”
The men replied:
“Where do you live, Jesus?”
“Come and see,” was the reply.
To see where Jesus lives we need to walk the path of justice and peace.
We need to follow in love.
We need to trust that when we walk together we have a strength far beyond our imaginations.
And when we use that strength, not for ourselves, but to heal the fractures in the world, then we become stronger still.
Even when are in prison we are free.
Even if we die the truth lives on.
We learn by following. We learn by acting, doing, resisting without violence.
We make the road to peace by walking in peace, peace is the way.

As Martin Luther King Jr would say years later, “ Let us be those creative dissenters who will call our beloved country to a higher destiny, to a new plateau of compassion, to a more noble expression of humaneness.”
One cannot doubt that Martin Luther King Jr., like Jesus, was baptized in the spirit and was alive past the point of death. And that spirit gave him the courage to speak the truth, with the power of a lamb who has made friends with the wolf next door.

I wonder where Jesus is living, today?
I wonder where the power of Christian love, peace and social justice is most powerfully present in our world today?
Do we need to know what that would look like?
Jesus, rising from the Jordan River, from the blessing of God, found some men standing by the side of the road, and he said to them, Come and See.
And over the centuries some men and some women have seen power of non-violence. And Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was one of them, because his eyes saw the glory of the coming of the Lord, and he saw the spirit of the Lord coming right at him,
and our country, his beloved country, was changed forever.
What is Jesus inviting you to Come and See today?
How would you answer Jesus, “What are you looking for?”
And how will that change your life?
How will it change the life of a stranger?
Or the wolf next door.

The Way of the Wise

2008-01-07T06:15:00.000-08:00

The Way of the Wise
Isaiah 60:1-6 Matthew 2:1-12
Rev. Alan Claassen
January 6, 2007

Good morning. I am one of the men that visited the newborn baby Jesus when he as lying in a manger. I am also one the men wise enough not to go back to King Herod as he had instructed us to do. Once I saw Jesus I saw a new authority that deserved my deepest allegiance.
I am here this morning to clear up a misconception that has developed of the years since I first saw the baby Jesus. I also want to share some things that I and other wise men and women have been thinking about over the last century. We like to stay current.

So first, the misconception: I am not a king, my two friends were not kings. I know that you all just sang the chorus from the song, We Three Kings. I know the song has a wonderful melody, and I love the words of the chorus just as much as you,

Star of wonder, star of light,
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us with thy perfect light.

I would have no problem with the song if the words were about the wisdom of the stars... but we were not kings. We were magi, astrologers, star-watchers, and wise men from the east. Over time the stories got a bit expanded and people wrote hymns calling us kings and so it goes.
The significance of our being there, as the gospel writer, Matthew, rightly understood it, was that we came from a long way away, from a different country, from a different culture, from a different way of thinking, to see this who this star was guiding us towards.

We came from Persia, Babylon, and the place where the ancestors of Jesus, were exiled hundreds of years before. Our ancestors were affected by their ideas and we also had a hope for someone who would come and set the world back on its proper course. ; a course that is in line with the universe, in line with the stars, in line with creation.

Our being there said, and still says, something about Jesus, something about God. Which is, that God is not the property of any one nation, any one people, any one culture. This was an entirely new way of thinking about God. It's a way of thinking about God that seems to be forgotten quite often, it's a way of thinking about God that seems hard to understand.
And it's not because it's a difficult concept; it's because it's just such an other way of thinking from others that we also get taught as we grow up. This is the way that Jesus would later teach his followers when he grew up.
Jesus says in his society there is a new way for people to live:
You show wisdom by trusting people
You handle leadership by serving
You handle offenders by forgiving
You handle money by sharing
you handle enemies by loving

In fact you have a new attitude toward everything, everybody. Toward nature, toward the place you live, toward women and men, toward the poor, toward every single living thing.

Now this isn't the way of the world at large is it? In fact if you start talking about trusting people and serving people and forgiving, sharing, and loving people you're likely to be considered foolish,....or dangerous.

And you know that's what happened to us. To us wise guys I mean. We were so profoundly moved and changed by seeing a vision of God in the form of a human baby that we understood why this new child was a threat to King Herod. So we didn't go back to him as we said we would when we first came into town. We went home by another way. Another way. Being a disciple of Christ means looking for and following another way. Sometimes this requires a lot of imagination; sometimes it just takes freeing up your God given common sense.
And so we have been traveling the world ever since that day, passing along the story of being guided by a light to the village of Bethlehem, to see the perfect light of a child. And that light is still proceeding, and that brings me to other thing that I wanted to share with you this morning.
When we sent to see that Baby Jesus two thousand years ago we were guided by a light and a prediction, a hope, of the birth of someone who be a light for all humanity. Do you all know what's going on in science these days? The scientists of your day are actually looking at the birth of stars and galaxies!
And they are looking at nothing, emptiness. When they use those tools they have nowadays to look at atoms and into atoms the physicists are seeing elementary particles fluctuate in and out of existence. Elementary particles, leap into existence and then leap out. A proton emerges suddenly- where did it come from? Who made it? How did it sneak into reality all of a sudden? Particles come out of nothingness. That's the way the universe works. That's the way it worked in the beginning. Physicists are just seeing this now but it's the way that the spiritually wise have always seen the universe.
We three wise men, from the Orient were, ahead of our time.
May I recite a quote familiar to you all? In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. The God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light."

Scientists from a couple of hundred years ago wanted to reduce the universe to a machine that followed certain logical rules. Well to a great extent it does. But now they are also seeing the mystery of the universe and consequently seeing the universe and the earth as a living entity that is held together by mutual attraction, which we can either call gravity or we can call allurement or we can call love.
May I recite a verse from a hymn? "Bless be the tie that binds." That is true not just for communities but for all of creation. God’s blessing ties everything in the universe together.

Please excuse me for going on so long about these scientific discoveries, but I just love talking about stars. The elements, such as carbon and iron that were made in the explosions of supernovas billions of years ago are what make us, and the earth, and just about everything we know. We are stardust. We wise men knew that centuries ago. But thanks to the discoveries of modern science you all have seen it with your own eyes.
Thank God for Evolution.
But I hope that you see that when we begin our thoughts with the way of creation it has a profound affect upon how we view our world, our little place. And remember that this is the perspective that Jesus taught from.
There are many indications that Humanity has forgotten its connection with creation because we have so many ways in which we can destroy it. Whether it's the slow destruction of pollution or the mismanagement of limited resources or the immediate destruction that we can inflict with our weapons we have come upon a power that we do not seem to know how to control. Our ability to destroy has made some members of the human community aware of our need for healing and living our lives in another way.
When we don't realize the source of our life we stumble in confusion and sorrow. But when we realize where we came from, we become naturally tolerant, amused, and kind-hearted as a grandmother, dignified as a king. Immersed in the wonder of God we can deal with whatever life brings us. For our strength, our wisdom comes from God.

Another way: We came to see Jesus as the Prince of Peace not of a nation but of all creation. And how does this prince rule his kingdom? Just as the Psalmist sang in Psalm 72: His power is felt as naturally as the rain that nourishes the earth. He does not stand with the powerful but with the poor and the needy. He comes to the aid of those who have no helper. His people are precious to him.

It's as if, like those elementary particles that come out of nowhere, there is someone or something that comes to our aid when we are knocked down. We are in a period in history where there is great potential for uniting the parts of ourselves that have been separated, such as science and religion, such as men and women, such as people of different cultures.
But sad to say, what was true in 2,000 years ago is still true today; this way of partnership with God, the stars and humanity is a threat to those who would rule by domination over others. This way of peace is still a threat to some kings and presidents. But you have also had visionary leaders, such as Nelson Mandela and Vaclav Havel who understood that there is an other way to lead, based upon truth and reconciliation. As far as I can see it, that is the light that is still proceeding. That is the light that will not be overcome by darkness, not matter how strong the darkness might appear.
I'll leave you with one last thought. I hope that you consider it wise.
Another wise man, his name was, ... let me see, Caspar, Bathalsar, Melchior, that’s me!, …Galileo, Copernicus,..Einstein, that’s it! Einstein had a theory of relativity that's hard for a lot of people to understand.
Well Melchior’s Theory of Relativity is easy to understand, and it is, simply, that everything is related. We are all relatives. We are all made of the same stuff. We all came from that moment when God said, "Let there be light.” You can't separate us from each other, human from nature, body from mind and spirit, poor from rich, Muslim from Christian.
So many of our problems come from believing that we are separate from God. When you see God in the face of a baby all notions of separation just go away.
So when your intended route seems to be taking a turn for the worse; take a word from the wise; try another way.
I know that isn’t easy, in fact I wouldn’t suggest trying it by yourself.
My two buddies and I, we are still proceeding on that journey. Making our choices based upon the vision of a star, the vision of the kingdom of heaven. Sometimes it’s all a question of who are you following. Are you following in love? If you are then you will learn and understand the mystery of life and learn what you are meant to do and be. (Howard Thurman/Jim Strathdee, I Am the Light of the World)

Think of your life as a gift that you take to God, the one who gave us the gift of life in the beginning. Everything we do is giving gifts back to God.
Each one of us can choose right now to go another way. It’s not the way of the crowd. It is, what Jesus called the narrow way. When we make that choice, be ready for some elementary particle to pop out of nowhere and say,
I care about you. I will walk with you if you will walk with me.
Come; follow the star, the light of the world.
In my journeys I have discovered you don’t need to look to the stars to see bright lights shining, you just need to look into someone’s eyes and see the magnificence of the universe.
Well, being a wise man, I know when it is time to stop talking, and that time is now.

People Get Ready

2007-12-03T06:12:00.000-08:00

People Get Ready
Isaiah 2:1-5 Matthew 24:36-44
December 2, 2007 Alan Claassen
First Sunday of Advent

My family celebrated Thanksgiving at our favorite place in the Columbia River Gorge, Skamania Lodge. It is a grand place with a fantastic view of the river, a large stone fireplace, and excellent food. Our memories in that place go back to when our children were in grade school. One year our daughter, Lauryn, even wore her Halloween costume, which happened to be a Pilgrim outfit, to the Thanksgiving Dinner.
I am always amazed and yet not surprised that every time we travel in the Gorge we hear the sound of trains, the whistles, the roll of the iron wheels along the tracks, and the serpentine of cars connecting east to west, west to east.
And thinking of trains reminds of a line from Will Rogers, a story from Oliver Wendell Holmes, and a song. And fortunately for me they all tie in with Advent.
Will Rogers’ line:
“Even if you are on the right track, if you are not moving, you are going to get run over.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes’ story.
As Justice Holmes saw the train conductor approaching asking for passengers’ tickets, he began to search his pockets for his own train ticket. By the time the conductor got to his seat, Justice Holmes he was quite flustered saying, “I am sorry, Mr. Conductor, but I can’t seem to find my ticket.”
“Oh, Justice Holmes, that’s quite alright. I can trust you.”
To which Justice Holmes replied,” I appreciate your trust, Mr. Conductor, but you see the problem is, without that train ticket, I don’t know where I am going. My destination is printed on the ticket.”
And the song?
People get ready, there’s a train a’coming. Don’t need no ticket, you just thank the Lord.”

2
Christmas, like a train, is approaching, is a’coming. The journey we take to get to Christmas is the Season of Advent. The literal meaning of Advent is “toward the coming.”
What is coming?
Which track are we on this year? How are we going to balance
the switching back and forth from the sacred to the commercial dimensions,
switching back and forth from the joyful and the sad dimensions,
switching back and forth from the desire for peace in a time of war and the never ending and never resolved desire for peace in the Middle east,
switching back and forth between the Biblical call to wait for the Lord, and the commercial call to buy it all now.
Do we know ahead of time what our destination is, and can we stay on track through all the temptations and opportunities that this season presents to us?
Are we moving forward on the track or are we going to get run over by the huge machinery of media advertising telling us how concerned they are about retailers having a good year, as if it’s our patriotic duty to go buy things.

To put all of that in a positive light,
this is the season of ever-increasing light,
as we gather each Sunday of this season, light another candle, seeking God’s kingdom first, we choose a destination that places us by a manger, a mother, and an anticipated Messiah. With that destination in mind we can keep moving on the right track, we can make this a time of continuing the gratitude that helps us rest in the grace of the world.
Let that be our prayer and our intention as we begin this season.
But I want to get back to that anticipated Messiah.
A few years ago I was teaching Comparative Religions at Clackamas Community College. One day we had a young Oregon State Student as our guest speaker. His long-range plan was to become a rabbi, and it was very interesting to hear what he had to say.

3
One of the new concepts I found most interesting was the idea of tikkun olam, the earth in balance. An imagined time when the entire world will be in a state of peace and justice.
We need not look to any distant past to see a time when the earth was so out of balance and in need of divine intervention as these days we are living in now.
From this young pre-rabbinical student I learned there are two ideas related to the anticipation of the coming of the Messiah and this tikkun olam or earth in balance, this peaceable kingdom.
One is that the Messiah will make the peaceable kingdom happen.
The other is that the Messiah will come when we have achieved it, arriving saying, “At last, you got it. You did it.”
Well, who’s it going to be, God or us?
O Come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, ransom captive Palestine, captive Darfur, captive Afghanistan, captive United States of America
O Come, O come Desire of nations, bind in one the hearts of all humankind.
Bid thou our sad divisions cease and be thyself our King of peace.
This, this is the destination of this hopeful train. Have we forgotten where we are going? Do we, like Justice Holmes need to look at our ticket again?
Well, how would we act if we really thought the Messiah was going to come at any moment? Wouldn’t we clean up our act? Heavens, we clean up our house when we have company coming over, what would we do if we thought the Messiah was coming to dinner? Wouldn’t we treat one another as we want to be treated? Even in our disagreements? Is the anticipation of the Messiah enough to cause us to radically evaluate our choices, actions, and intentions? If only we could get enough people to anticipate and change at the same time, what a glorious world this would be.
If only I could live me life, keep my life on the track whose destination is the peaceable kingdom, the earth in balance, if only I could beat the life-denying swords of my life into plowshares that turn over the soil to plant seeds of new life.
Who is it going to be, God or me? How can I make it God and Me?

4

People get ready, there’s a train a’coming. Don’t need no ticket. Just Thank the Lord.
And get on board.
This is what Advent is for me. It is a time of switching back and forth from the tracks of already and not yet, of ultimate dependence and humble responsibility, of worrying about what I am going to give, and just being grateful for what I have been given.
Jesus has come, we know what he said and did, we know we what are supposed to do, and we know the program. And yet, we look around and see the violence and the injustice and we know this is not the destination God had in mind.
Globally we are on the wrong track. And so we long for something different than what we see. How will lay down our weapons, our fears, our ignorance and find solutions to end hunger and homelessness? Is that a dream like a child wishing for a shiny red bike?
Advent is a time for asking, deeply asking, what is it that we long for?
Advent is a time of asking, “What are we waiting for?”
And the question has a couple of meanings depending where the emphasis is placed.
What are we waiting for?
Just listen to some of the passages from the Book of Isaiah that are read and heard during the season of Advent.
Isaiah 2: 1-5: waiting for peace with the call to learn war no more.
Isaiah 11: 1-10: waiting for an ideal King who will rule with justice and equity for the poor
Isaiah 40: 1-11: waiting for a way to end the exile and return home and find joy again
Isaiah 61: 1-11: waiting for the Spirit of God’s anointed one who will bring good news to the poor, bind up the broken-hearted, proclaim liberty to the captives and release to prisoners.
If this is what we are waiting for it will greatly influence the decisions we make.

5
What are waiting for? We are on the right track, but let’s get moving! Let’s get on Christ’s Express and fill Santa’s sack for the poor. Let’s share our wealth with others. Let’s make peace. Let’s be compassion. “Don’t have a cow, buy one!” “Kick that consumer habit buy a little bunny rabbit.” (For the Heifer Project) Whatever you can do, do it now. Boldness has hope in it.
Advent is a time of living out the wise saying,
“Act as if everything depends on you, pray as if everything depends on God.”

I want to commend you for coming to this station this morning.
It is a most amazing thing that you all are doing by simply being here this morning.
Waiting. Hoping. Singing. Praying. Taking action to bring the peaceable kingdom a little closer to home
You know, and you desire something sacred about this time of year. Even though this is the darkest hour, you see and desire to be, the returning light, because nothing can hold back the dawn. You affirm in the place, in this season your hope for humanity.
You have your seats on the Advent train.
This journey is going to take us by some most amazing and incredible sights.
The anticipation of God being with us and eradicating all injustice.
The prophets warning that when we mistreat the poor we break the covenant we made with God.
The vision of the lion laying down with the lamb,
the angelic visits to a pregnant-peasant-girl, to an old couple,
to shepherds.
In the midst of poverty, God chooses to be born.
And for us it begins today, with the Lord’s Supper. The Great Thanksgiving. The Great Gratitude.
As we come to the table of grace in the world I would like to ask you to think about this. It is something written by a friend of a friend of mine, Esther Armstrong.
6
“This year I am struggling. This year I am troubled. For I believe that this season of Advent is calling me into that which feels absurd, impossible, and even dangerous.
This year...
I am not waiting for the baby Jesus, though that would be a lot more comfortable and safer. But baby Jesus has already been born. He grew up, died, and is risen.
I am not waiting for the Kingdom of God to come, though it would be easier if waiting was all that is asked of me. But it isn’t.
This year...
The Kingdom of God is waiting for me, and I suspect for you, to take on more fully the character of Jesus.
This means I will: Voluntarily relinquish my need to control and my sense of entitlement.
Let go and be delivered of my insatiable appetite for more and my need for security.
I will seek to
Bring justice to all nations
Live in harmony with all God’s creation,
Set the captives free,
Shine a light in the darkness
Put my life on the line for peace.
This year...
The kingdom of God is waiting for me, and all God’s people, to be non-violent, forgiving, honest, humble, compassionate, and loving.
God is waiting.
And so this Advent I will pray for courage to “live” Jesus, while I hold onto the promises that God has come, God will come again, God will bring deliverance and justice, and the world will be born anew through God’s people.”
And so we say to Will Rogers, we are on the right track and we are moving.
And we say to Oliver Wendell Holmes, we know the destination.
7
And we sing along with Curtis Mayfield, People get ready, there’s a train a’coming.
Don’t need no ticket, you just jump on board.
And our Advent train is going to make a lot of stops this season:
it began when the little elves of the church began decorating our sanctuary,
and it will continue through our worship services and the lighting of our Advent Candles,
this afternoon’s workshop when we will decorate the Christmas tree and sing carols,
ringing the Bell for Peace on Wednesday,
next Sunday’s focus on empowering people around the world to care for themselves through the work of the Heifer Project,
caroling for our homebound members next Sunday evening,
listening the beautiful music that the Choir will present on the third Sunday of Advent, hearing the children present to us a Christmas Story produced by our own resident storyteller, Cynthia Restivo, on the fourth Sunday of Advent,
and I hear that we may be having a special guest on Christmas Eve.
We have received word that one of the shepherds who was watching his flocks by night is going to be visiting us THIS Christmas Eve.
People get ready there is a train a coming.
Don’t need no ticket, just Thank the Lord.
What are we waiting for?
Let’s sing!
Come, thou long expected Jesus.

The Practice of Gratitude

2007-11-19T09:38:00.000-08:00

Practicing Gratitude
Isaiah 65:17-25 Matthew 6:25-33
November 18, 2007
Rev. Alan Claassen

Many years ago I had to quit watching the TV show ER. I was really hooked on the life and death drama, the sub-plots of the characters, the cool background music, and the fascination with the techniques of modern medicine as played out in the emergency room of a hospital.
But I had to quit watching, because it seemed an absurd way to end the day; just before going to bed, watching a super-charged, 10 plots going-on-at-once show that often left me emotionally drained. So I just quit watching.

But I admit that I came back for a short time a few years ago when Alan Alda, that former hero of MASH, was a guest actor on the show.

The character that Alan Alda played on ER was a highly skilled, experienced, and caring doctor who was unfortunately suffering loss of memory due to the early stages of Alzheimers.
During the first episode in which Alan Alda appeared I was incredibly delighted when he recited one of my favorite poems. written by Wendell Berry, a poet, essayist, Christian, and Kentucky farmer. I couldn’t believe my ears when the character Alan Alda was playing, said, from memory, the first line, the second line, all the way through to the end of this poem that sometimes when I hear it I feel like I should stand up.
Would you like to hear it?
It’s called, “The Peace of Wild Things.” By Wendell Berry.
Please Remain seated

When despair for the world grows in me,
and I wake in the night at the least sound,
in fear of what my life and my children’s life may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water,
and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

What I like about that poem is that Wendell Berry takes me to a place where I can be reminded of the beauty of the world. The life of the world. It doesn’t feel like the poet, Wendell Berry, is escaping problems, avoiding despair. It feels like he is taking an action that opens him up to receive the grace of God. And that gives him courage to return to his children and not to respond out of fear, but instead to respond from a creative and compassionate place.

“I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water. For a moment I rest in the grace of the world and am free.” This poem directs our attention towards a source of grace, courage, healing.

And in this moment of grace there arises a sense of gratitude for a larger life, a wider affection. In a moment of fear and despair, Wendell Berry took an action, a simple action in a powerful place.
“I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water...”
But in that simple action new life, hope, power, and healing were found.

I think of this as having an attitude of grace. Taking a stand, positioning oneself to receive the love of God.

It is a place where we can trust silence. It is a place where we can touch a deeper understanding of what it means to be a human being called to compassion.

It’s just a moment. “For a moment I rest in the grace of the world and am free.”
I don’t have the sense from the poem that this freedom is one of escape or denial of what caused him to fear for his children’s lives. I have the sense that Wendell Berry recognized that is fears were causing him to wake in the night in he least sound. He had lost his sense of trust in the world. Where to regain it?

The simple act of lying down where the wood drake rests, the act of writing the poem that shares this moment with others, this moment of rest, returned him to a sense of trust in the world. In fact, it returned him to the world itself.

It’s only for a moment. You experience this moment of grace and then you go back and you have to deal with all of those things that sent you out into the woods in the first place. You think, the first thing I need to do is take everybody out to where the wood drake rests, but it isn’t that easy is it?

You have to bring the day-blind stars who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief back to the people who you live with, work with, go to church with, everybody.

I would like to share another poem with you that speaks of this attitude of grace. This is by the poet, William Stafford. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to meet William Stafford when I first moved to the wet Northwest. At the time I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t know he had been poet laureate of Oregon. I didn’t know he had been a conscientious objector in WW II, or that he taught at Lewis and Clark College. I just knew that was easy to be with and that everybody liked him.

This poem was commissioned by the US Forest Service and appears with others at selected viewpoints along the Methow River in the northern Cascades in Washington. So imagine you are driving along a road in the Cascades, you pull over to look at a beautiful valley, and you find this poem.

A Valley Like this
“Sometimes you look at an empty valley like this, and suddenly the air is filled with snow.
That is the way the whole world happened-there was nothing, and then...
But maybe sometime, you will look out and even
the mountains are gone, the world become nothing again.
What can a person do to bring back the world?
We have to watch it and then look at each other.
Together hold it close and carefully save it, like a bubble that can disappear
if we don’t watch out.
Please think about this as you go on. Breath in the world.
Hold out your hands to it. When mornings and evenings
roll along, watch how they open and close, how they
invite you to this long party that your life is.”

“Please think about this as you go on.” Remember this moment in the Cascades. Remember the stillness of the water when you return back home.

That poem was given to me by a friend, Ray Gatchalian. Ray was a firefighter in Oakland. Ray also traveled the world giving motivational speeches, reading poetry, and making a difference in his own community by tacking the issues of racism and drug abuse.
And putting out fires.

He gave me this poem when I asked him if he had any thoughts on he subject of gratitude. I must admit that I was surprised when Ray answered that for him, at that moment of his life, a practice of gratitude was the most significant, most powerful of all spiritual practices. He had studied and worked with many spiritual practices, meditation, yoga, and he found that the practice of saying 100 gratitudes a day was the most rewarding.

100 gratitudes a day! How could one possibly think of 100 things to be thankful for in one day. As I reflected on this I quickly realized how many grumps I do a day. How many ungratitudes I do a day. How many times I wish that such and such had happened. How many times I wished I had something I don’t. How many times I wished I could be somewhere I am not.

I realized that living with 100 grumps a day makes it impossible to stand where I am. When ever I am wishing that the world be something different than it is, then I am not present in the world.

And this is exactly what Ray said happened for him. That rather than creating some sort of unreal world, the practice of 100 gratitudes a day actually helped him get into the present, into where he actually was at the moment. It helped to see that the present is always full, whereas thinking of things in the past that haven’t gone right is limited and limiting.

Nevertheless it still is a challenging practice. You have to turn off the grump voice and turn on the grace voice with in yourself.

I recently received an e-mail from a friend that would give you an idea of what it might look like to practice 100 gratitudes a day.

I am thankful for: the mess to clean after a party because it means I have been surrounded by friends, the taxes I pay because it means I am employed, the lady behind me church who sings off-key because it means I can hear, the spot at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking, a lawn that needs mowing and gutters that need cleaning because it means I have a home, the alarm that goes off early in the morning because it means I am alive!

An attitude of grace as a spiritual practice enables us to see things as they are fully, honestly, with an awareness that with all of the events set before us we are still called to choose life. And to take actions that help others choose life.

An attitude of grace moves us fear to trust; from being judgmental of ourselves, or others, to being compassionate; from hurting to healing, from losing energy to gaining creative power, from despair to freedom.

It begins in a simple act. Going to where the wood drake rests. Stopping the car, getting out, and marveling at the beauty of the valley. Turning ones life from grump to gracious. Finding a way to feed someone who is hungry, visit someone who is locked up.

In his poem William Stafford asks, “What can we do to bring back the world?”
What can a person do to bring back hope, clarity, acceptance of the present and energy for the future?

We can look at each other and hold together that community of life affirming
love that knows compassion, honesty and forgiveness. We can celebrate simple gifts even as we mourn together the heartaches. We can hold out our hands to one another to heal the cuts and bruises that are a part of life. We can do the hard work of bringing the grace of the world into the grit of our daily life.

And when we orient ourselves to life in gratitude we open ourselves to receive God’s love which will enlighten the eyes of our heart. In this is the experience of the living Christ who guides us to care for others so that they might for a time rest in the grace of the world and be free.

And today, Jesus draws our attention to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. For a moment. For a moment, rest in the grace of the world, and be free. The experience of God’s presence in creation can bring us to a place of gratitude that can heal us, inspire us, bring us to a place of restoring what has been lost, overcoming despair.

I had such an experience yesterday.

Several people have recommended that I take a hike, … around Alpine Lake.
So in the amazing sunlight of yesterday afternoon, I took by dog, Coco, my camera, a bottle of water and Snickers candy bar and headed up Hiway 4.

Well I assume you have all been there so I don’t have to tell you how beautiful it is. How relaxing. How easy it is to be in a place of gratitude, of resting in the grace of the world, as you take in the beauty of the lake, a fisherman catching a fish, people of all ages, and other dogs, all of them friendly walking around the lake. I even saw an eagle perched on top of a scraggly tree.

What was most amazing was when I was coming back down Hiway 4, filled with the beauty of Alpine Lake, filled with the wonder that comes from being in the Sierras, and grateful for a wider perspective of life and the resulting sense of joy, calmness, and presence of God that I experienced, I felt that I had a new perspective on my own life. I could see things differently.

So there I was driving down Hiway 4 and the beauty continued. As I was approaching a turn in the road I was enjoying this stand of trees that looked like they had been arranged by an artist. There was one tall sequoia on the left, and then a variety of other heights and varieties of trees that completed this perfect picture. Here is the amazing part.

Someone else must have had the same sort of epiphany some time earlier that I was having yesterday. They must have that the same mixture of beauty, and grace, and gratitude and insight that I was having. Why do I say this? Because the person had had time to make a sign. I don’t know how long it had been there. It looked pretty new.

It had a yellow background, it was attached to a tall wooden post, black lettering, square shaped but turned on its side like a diamond. Whoever it was didn’t have enough room to write out the entire sentence that would explain their revelation so they just wrote three letters...

I-C-Y

I see why.

I see why Jesus called us to consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air as a way of knowing what it means to live in the kingdom of God, the kin-dom of God while we are alive.
I see why the poet Wendell Berry was able to overcome the fear for his children’s lives by becoming a child again resting in the grace of the world.

I see why my friend, Ray Gathlian was able to gain strength to work against racism in Oakland by practicing saying gratitudes all day and night long.

I see why the prophet Isaiah was able to speak the God’s word of hope to a fallen nation, “for I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.” (67:17)

I see why the stories of the Bible are all about resurrection. “God delights in taking bad news and creating good from it, Crisis calls forth creativity, Breakdowns lead to breakthroughs, wandering in the wilderness is followed by entering the promised land, Good Fridays are followed by Easter Sundays." (from Michael Dowd's new book, Thank God for Evolution)

I-C-Y I must pay attention to the road that I am on at all times, it is always filled with invitations to what is holy and healing. And each invitation to health and holiness, whether it be a place of beauty or a place of pain, is potentially a place of gratitude. We can see the world from God’s point of view. We can rest in the grace of the world.
And for this, we can be eternally grateful, for a moment.
Like this one, here, now, and always.

The Incentive of Love

2007-11-06T20:59:00.000-08:00

Scriptures: Exodus Philipians 2:1-11
September 30, 2007

Now where were we?
Garrison Keilor opens his weekly monologue on his radio show, A Prairie Home Companion by saying, “It’s been a quiet week on Lake Wobegon.”
Considering the Exodus story that we are learning and living I feel like saying, “It’s been a week of miracles and complaining in the wilderness”
But I kind of like, “Now where were we?”

Now where were we?
Last Sunday we were asking questions in the wilderness. And I said things like, “What we learn in the wilderness we take with us into the promised land.” And “Moses was able to see things that others couldn’t, like the bread of heaven, simply because he was full of trust and the people were full of anxiety.” And I also said that “Trust is a active verb, an activating verb, it should make us want to move.”
I came across a quote this week that I wish I had had last week. The quote is,
“You can’t steer a parked car.” Trust is an activating verb. Let’s get moving.
And that reminded me of an old quote from the great Will Rogers, spinner of ropes and spinner of yarns who said, “Even if you are on the right track you still are going to run over if you are not moving.”
Trust is an activating Verb.
But where are we going? We understand the worries of those people that Moses was trying to lead through the wilderness. Are we going to survive this in between time where we are strangers in a strange land? Is God with us in the wilderness just like we experienced God back home?
And since we can understand their worries I suggested that The Exodus story can be a guide for us if we see that these people were in a wilderness discovering new blessings in the midst of hunger and thirst just like we are today. The wilderness may be a new job or no job. It may be the call to leave something secure and known into something never tried before. It may be a congregation and a new Minister getting to know one another. It may be spending a perfectly beautiful day in the Sierras attending a Planning Retreat like 28 members of this church did yesterday. Whatever that wilderness is The Exodus story can be a guide for us.
What did we learn last week from the Exodus story? It’s alright in the wilderness to have questions, to be hungry and thirsty. The story tells us to direct our questions to God. When we call out, when we question, God responds. When we are full of anxiety, but don’t cry out, it’s a sign that we have lost hope that there is anyone who will respond. To cry out to God is a sign of hope not despair.
It is OK to ask questions, such as “What is this? Is it safe? Will I die of hunger or thirst? Will we lose members if take a controversial stand? Why have you brought me here? Part of the answer to these questions is in trusting that God is providing bread and water, guidance and new life, in ways that are unexpected, and at first mysterious.
What we learn about trusting God shapes how we will experience the promised land. How we learn to trust one another forms how we will experience promised land. And likewise what you all learned about yourselves as a church in the interim time is essential to entering the beginning of our life together in partnership-ministry as we live into the mission of this church.
That is some of what I have learned so far in this Exodus story. What did you learn about yourselves during the past two years? I don’t know yet all that you learned. I know one thing. You found out that there are styles of ministry different than that of Rev. John Randlett’s and that is a good thing. Rev. Steve Shepherd’s style and approach to ministry was different than John’s and the building is still standing, the programs continued to meet people’s needs, and new ministries were.
As one who has served many churches as an Interim I have always found it to be a time of growth and vitality, fresh perspectives, and new ideas and new people. One misconception that people often have of the Interim time is that it is a doldrum time, a time when the church is on hold, a time when no one joins the church. Well that hasn’t been my experience.
You have been having some very cool visitors attending worship here in the past couple of years and since I have been here. What has been my experience is that people do begin coming to church during the Interim time. They don’t know you have an Interim when they walk in the door. There is just something they heard about the United Church of Christ, maybe from the news, maybe from the God is Still Speaking ad on TV. Maybe they heard something about the amazing mission trip that our Youth Group took to Costa Rica. Or maybe they met someone on the golf course.
Or maybe one of you invited them!!!
Who knows?
But do you know what kind of visitors stick around during an interim time or when a new minister arrives and things are kind of confused and up in the air. They are people who like to be welcomed. AND they are pioneers, early adopters, cultural creatives, adventurers, people who don’t need to have everything all in place but are ready to try something new. As long as they can feel a sense of loving spirit that cares for them and welcomes them, as long as they find a church that is authentic in its thinking and loving in its service to the community, they are ready to jump on board.
But don’t take my word for it. Go talk to one of our visitors and see if what I say isn’t true. This church has some very cool visitors. And it has very interesting members. My first experience was when I met the Search Committee. What a crazy bunch that was. Just what I was looking for.
In August, in the small group meetings, I had the opportunity to hear your stories, what you value about this church, what challenges you have lived through, and what wishes you have for this church.
Let me share with some of what I learned. I shared this yesterday at the Planning Retreat, and I would like all of you to hear this. What are some of things that you most appreciate about this church?
Everyone is welcome
Progressive message
Caring support and friendship
How comfortable the children and youth are in this church
The quality of the worship service, especially the great music
We’re different -- open, accepting, and religiously present in today’s world
Our outreach to the community through programs such as the Heifer Project, Habitat for Humanity, and Caring Kids
And last but not least, two of my favorite statements to come out of the small group meetings,
We are strong because we have survived and
Laughter is abundant.
That is something that I now know about you, namely, what you value, why you are here.
And I also learned from those small group meetings what some of the challenges have been for this congregation and what wishes you have. Both the challenges and the wishes are doorways to the promised land, if you base your life on trust not fear.
How do we bring together this all together during this wilderness time, transition time, time of new beginnings. This trusting in God, trusting our questions, trusting one another and welcoming cool visitors with new visions, and this litany of values, challenges to face, and dreams to achieve.
Well, that is what yesterday, the Planning Retreat was all about. And I have good news. We have a plan! and we are not retreating! We are going forward. We are moving through the wilderness, learning its lessons, and keeping our eyes on the promise of the peaceable kingdom.
Our guide through yesterday’s wilderness was not Moses, it was Bob Henning, who did a masterful job of gathering ideas and keeping us on task and on time.
But thinking of today’s passage when Moses got water from a stone we could have used Moses yesterday, because when we got to our meeting room up at Forest Meadows we discovered that the water line was broken so we had no water for coffee, tea or restrooms.
There were many good ideas and commitments made for the coming year. Without going into specifics I can say that I perceived a real sense of hope and enthusiasm for the future of this church, as we looked for procedures and programs that would help this church be ready and set to grow! You will begin to see evidence of the yesterday’s planning in upcoming Council and Board Meetings, the Nugget, and events throughout the next year.
Which reminds me, if you ever want to attend a Council meeting, or a Board meeting, just to see what is going on, or to share an idea, you are always welcome. The calendar lets you know when those meetings are taking place.
One thing that I would like to draw your attention to this morning is this passage from Paul to the church in Philippi and now to the church in Murphys, California
“So, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive in love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”
You have been witnesses to that affection and sympathy here in this church.
Can I get an Amen!
Looking to the interests of others is something that members of this church are good at. And that is such a great encouragement to me and should be to you as we begin this wilderness journey time. It is right out of the passage from Paul’s letter to Philippi, Murphys, and surrounding areas.
Reading from a translation of the Bible known as The Message this time, “Be energetic,…That energy is God’s energy deep within you, God’s self willing and working at what brings God pleasure.”
What excites me is, that given your strong foundation, I wonder what is going to happen next here at this United Church of Christ Congregation in Murphys, California. What are we going to be called to say and do together? What gifts and visions are about to find a home in this place? How are we going to take care of this corner of the garden we have been given and make it a better place for more people. What structure will enable you to get the highest level of involvement of the membership of this church in the ministry of this church?
I don’t know the answer to those questions. Remembering the bumper sticker that says, “All who wander are not lost” I say let us trust this energy that God has placed within us and let us step forward and each day do the next right thing. Let us remember that God hears us when we are hungry and thirsty and that we would do well not to give into anxiety but instead give into trust. Let us remember the words of Paul, that we are to seek a deep-spirited friendship with one other, helping each other to get ahead. How counter-cultural is that?
I am honored to be among you at this time. I anticipate learning a lot from you. I hope to share with your what I have learned from other churches that have been my teachers. And most of all, I seek to be open to the Spirit that hovers over my chaos and gives me direction, purpose and meaning. A church is fundamentally a safe place for everyone to work out their own healing transformation for the good of all life.

I want to close with something seemingly very far afield from anything I have been talking about so far. I dedicate it to all each of you, who at one time were a visitor and walked through that front door for the first time.

The Rodeo at the Mendocino County Fair.
Barrel Horse racers. Little girl bouncing up and down.
The announcer calling the event yells out as the young girl rounds the third and final barrel before heading for the the straightaway,
"Don’t you dare weaken!"

We are all little children riding on the back of a big horse that turns sharp, runs hard, and knows the way back home. To God’s loving embrace.

Do You Want to Be Well?

2007-11-06T20:57:00.000-08:00

Scripture:John 5: 1-9
October 21, 2007

Last Sunday we began looking at the healing stories in the gospels by reviewing the story of the blind man by the side of the road, and the question that Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you? From that story we learned:
The importance of taking responsibility for our health even if the crowd seems against us;
That healing begins when we accurately name where it is that we are in need of healing.
We also learned that there is a connection between a healthy community and a healthy self. A healthy community is in which people feel safe to share what is going on with them, good or bad, without blame or judgement.
In this story of the blind man by the side of the road we saw not only a healing of the man we also saw a transformation of the community. When the blind man first called to Jesus for help the crowd told him to shut up. When Jesus responded to the blind man’s cries, the community changed their approach to the blind man. They became part of his support team, saying, take heart, rise up he is calling you.
Part of the meaning of this story, for me, is to see that Jesus is not just wanting to heal individuals, he is wants to heal communities.
Now, I want to pause here for a moment, before considering the man who had been lying by the pool waiting for the waters to stir. He’s been waiting 38 years, he can wait another couple of minutes.
Several of us, about 20 in all, are studying a book by former Oregon State University professor, Marcus Borg, entitled, The Heart of Christianity. In this book we are introduced to a way of taking the Bible seriously, but not literally. We are invited to see the Bible as a product of historical communities communicating their response to God. In some portions of the Bible we find history remembered, in other portions we find history interpreted through story. Though these stories are not factually true, there is truth in them. The question that Marcus Borg wants us to consider is not whether or not they happened, but instead what do they mean?
So, with the story of the blind beggar by the side of the road and the man lying by the pool of healing waters, we can look at these verses as we would literature. We can place ourselves in the narrative imagining that we are the blind man, and asking such questions as, “What does it feel like to blind, to be cut off from what everyone else is able to do?” We can also ask, “What does it feel like to call out for help and be told to keep quiet?” And we can ask what gave the man courage to call out to Jesus and what on earth did Jesus mean when he said the man’s faith had healed him?’
Now, if you are still with me, are you still with me? I want you to try something else on with this way of exploring the Bible as metaphor, as story. This is an approach I am learning in a class that I am taking from two retired Jesuit priests over in Sonora.
We have the story of the blind man and the crowd and Jesus. Imagine for a moment that the crowd is not other people, but is in fact, the voices in the blind man’s mind that say to himself, don’t speak up, don’t say what’s going on, don’t call attention to yourself, don’t pay attention to what you are actually feeling.
The two Jesuits, Fr. Pete Campbell and Fr. Ed MacMahon, have a simple and graphic way of portraying this.
Oftentimes, when something is going wrong with us, we are hurting somewhere, we are tired, or angry, or our stomach hurts or our heart is racing, we push it away from ourselves. We deny it. We ignore it. We blame ourselves or someone else for the pain and we push it away.
And there are many ways that we push it away. In the class we are learning ways of creating a new habit in our lives that enables us to embrace lovingly that which is causing us pain, discomfort, illness.
How do we do that? That is where Jesus comes into the story. Not as a knight on a shiny white stallion come to take all of our cares away, but instead as a caring companion, an affection teacher who will sit beside us without judgment or blame.
The presence of this caring companion who offers us love unconditionally breaks through the habit we have built up over the years of not truly listening to ourselves, trusting ourselves, seeing ourselves as perfectly imperfect children of God.
Let me give you a little example of this practice of working with a caring companion or affection teacher. One morning I woke up really early, too early, my mind filled with a long list of things I needed to do. I couldn’t go back to sleep. I wondered if I should put on some coffee and just get working. I tossed and turned some more kind of willing myself to be awake. But then I remembered this practice of just simply noticing what I was feeling without judgment or blame, without pushing it away, but instead imagining accepting, noticing, what I was feeling and embracing it like a loving parent might hold a child who has fallen and scraped her knee.
When I did this that way too early in the morning, morning, I realized, I am tired.
And suddenly my body became very heavy. My mind stopped racing with a thousand to do’s and I just let myself relax.
Jesus as healer, as caring companion, as affection teacher, wants us to really feel what is going on inside of us because he knows what is there past on the other side of exhaustion, pain, anxiety. Jesus knows that on the other side of fear there is trust, there is clarity, there is wholeness. Jesus wants the goodness that is within us to become real. He wants to be present with us so that our faith, our trust, our faithfulness, our vision of our essential goodness to heal us.
Pause………..
Are you still with me?
Can you hear me now?

What can we learn about healing from the story of the man by the pool at Bethesda. In Jerusalem there was a pool by one of the gates. By this pool lay people with all sorts of physical disabilities. They believed that whenever the watered stirred, it was stirred by an angel, and the first person who stepped in the waters after it had been stirred would be healed.
This man had been by the pool for 38 years. When Jesus saw him and he knew that he had been lying there for a long time he said to him, "Do you want to be healed? Do you want to be well? The man responds by saying, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I trying to get into the water another steps down before me.
Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your pallet, and walk."
Now what strikes me about this passage is the question that Jesus asks the man. "Do you want to be healed?" "Do you want to be well?" It’s like the question Jesus asked in the story of last week’s sermon, why did Jesus ask a blind man, “what do you want me to do for you?”
Why does Jesus ask this man, “Do you want to be well?”
The man had lost his power, had lost his faith. Had for so long been unable to move that he forgot what it felt like.
One of the steps of healing that is required is the desire to be well. And that desire needs to be so strong that it breaks through all our years of excuses, fears, laziness, pain that we would rather not face. Jesus as caring companion, as affection teacher in asking, “Do you want to be well? is giving the man an invitation to heal.
This question, "Do you want to be healed” is an invitation to health. It also makes us have to look at what stops us from achieving health.
Healing means change. Healing requires a recognition that the present path isn't working. We have been going in the wrong direction? Who likes to acknowledge that? Healing means giving ourselves to trust rather than to fear or judgement. It is what the experience of grace is all about. When the time is right to get up on out of that pool, Jesus is ready to call us out.
A few summers ago I went on a rafting trip with some middle school kids. It was organized by a Christian rafting group and so we had a lot of lessons while going down the river. None of us would admit it but we were all a bit frightened going over the rapids. This fear made us very attentive to our guide. We knew that he knew more than we did. He knew the raft, he knew the river, and we believed that he had our lives in his hands. I have never witnessed such an obedient group of middle school students before. Our need for his guidance, our ability to learn quickly, and his ability to teach turned the fear into fun.
As we approached one set of rapids he asked us to close our eyes. And even though we got knocked about we kept our eyes closed and for three of us the most amazing thing happened - we were not as frightened going through the rough water with our eyes closed as we had been going through them with our eyes open. In other words, we were making the situation more frightening than it actually was.
We gave ourselves to trust rather than to fear, and our fears went away. It's enough to make you believe that what Jesus says is true, is worth trying.
It is important to remember that it is God who does the healing, we can place ourselves in the light of God but we are not the healers. When I was on the raft trip I needed to learn that I would be OK if I trusted the guide and the water and that I would enjoy myself much more if I loosened my muscles instead of tightening them for the entire ride.
Do you want to be well? Do you want to trust God? Do you want to be healed?
After Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be well and heard that the man had no one help him get into the healing pool, Jesus said, “ Rise, take up your bed and walk.”
This man had lived with this illness for 38 years. He had believed that healing would come from the stirring waters. Instead healing was being offered freely by this many who was just walking by. This man walking in the light of God.
No sign of faith other than incredible patience. Do you want to be well?
Rise, take up your bed and walk.
Did he feel something change in his legs? Or was the change in his heart?

Every Sunday we come to this pool of potential healing that we call worship.
Did you come for a healing this morning? Did you come to increase your sense of well-being and trust in God? We come to worship and Jesus asks us, Do you want to be well? If you do there are some things that you can do. Rise, take up your pallet, let what was your sign of weakness now be your sign of strength.
What was your sign of weakness will become a source of strength and knowledge and healing for others.
Health becomes a new habit and the body resists change even when we know it needs it. Our image of ourselves can actually be like a prison. Our habitual way of doing things can be like the prison but our caring companion is ready to bust us out of jail.
But there is a voice that the man by the pool heard, “Rise, take up your stretcher and walk.”
There was a voice that the blind man by the road heard, “Rise up, he is calling you.”
Health means taking responsibility for the next step of your life.
First Congregational Church Murphys UCC is being asked the same question that this crippled man in the pool was asking. Do you want to be well? Do you want to be a healthy church walking in the light of God?
If so, there are going to have be some changes. No more lying around the pool for one thing.
The other one is a little trickier I think. Can we clearly assess what needs to be done to enable this church to grow, each of us offering the little piece that we can.
Then rise, take up your pallet and walk
Say Yes, I have the skills and the vision that will help this church share its extravagant welcome to a wider circle of people seeking a progressive Christian community. Yes I believe that this church can be a part of the healing of the fractures of this world. Yes I believe that this church can be a place of celebration, and teaching, and worship and the arts, and stewards of this acre of God’s grace. Yes I believe, like Carroll Lang did that we need a new delivery system to get the message of an earth-loving, peace-loving, people-loving church out into the community.

And yes, we will stop beating ourselves up for being who we are, and will instead, with the help of our caring companion, Jesus, embrace ourselves with kindness and compassion, knowing that his unconditional love will enable us to see with a clearer vision and walk with renewed strength in the direction of peace and well-being.
First Congregational Murphys, United Church of Christ, Do you want to be well? I am hearing YES!
And may each of us hear God’s voice calling us to speak, to lead, to love, and then to walk in the grace of world.
Let the people say. Amen

What Do You Want Me To Do For You?

2007-11-06T20:55:00.000-08:00

Scripture: Mark 10: 46-52
October 14, 2007

Keith Miller, in his book, The Scent of Love, shared a story about a man named Jack whose life and family were changed at a church week-end retreat that Keith Miller was leading.
Jack owned his own company after having been in the military for a number of years, and he stood like a tough marine sergeant. Keith Miller confessed that when he first saw Jack he thought to himself, "I hope this man doesn't want to see me after hours on this retreat. He seems hostile.”
Jack's wife was also at the retreat, and she told Keith Miller that when Jack came home from work that he was usually so angry that she was afraid that one of their four children was likely to get smacked, so she would send the kids out into the backyard whenever he came home.
Sometime during that week-end retreat Jack heard what was being said about how God can change the direction of a person's life, and at the end of the conference he said he wanted to see if he could make that change. He talked with someone who suggested a few things he might do, to begin learning to live with love and not judgment.
The person suggested that Jack not tell anybody about his decision, that he just be quiet and kind of ease into his new way of living. He was asked to start by praying, reading the Bible, and trying to show his family how much he loved them.
A month later Jack came back to the retreat leaders and shared what had happened. After the first week his 12 year old son knocked on Jack's study door one night and said, "Can I come in and talk to you?" His son had been in real trouble. He was always by himself at school. He never played with other kids, he had almost no friends, and he had been caught stealing. Jack could not remember his son ever having knocked on his study door before that night so he said, "Sure son come in."
His son came in and said, "Uh, Dad, uh, what's happened to you?"
Jack was very embarrassed. He was a tough guy, and he didn't know how to talk about what had been going on with him since the retreat.

2
Jack said, "Well, son, I just... well, I don't know how to live my life very well, and I....heard some people say that if I prayed, and read the Bible, and tried to give you guys love instead of grief, somehow, Jesus or God, would help me learn what was making me so angry all the time. Somehow by doing these things, well things might go better for all of us."
After a long silence his son said, "Dad...do you suppose I could try this too?"
Jack stood up from his chair, they looked at each other and then hugged each other, which they hadn't done in years. And that night, Jack said his boy started being happy.

A week later Jack had to leave their small town and go to New York City on a business trip. His son had never liked to meet him at the plane when he got home from his trips. When Jack appeared from the boarding gate area his son ran up and said breathlessly, "Dad!" and hugged him and buried his face in his Dad's chest. Then he looked up said, "I'm so glad to see you." And then he said, "Daddy, do you know what God's done?"
Jack said, "No, what son?"
And his son said with a look of amazement on his face, "Dad, God's changed every kid in my class."
Pause
Over the next 4 Sundays I will be looking at the healing stories of Jesus as told in the Gospels. We actually began last week with the feeding of the five thousand story. Though not often thought of as a healing story, for me, the feeding of the five thousand does indicate a healing among the community of people gathered on that hillside, as well as a healing for the disciples who were looking for a way to care for to care for the crowd.
The reason that I began with the wonderful story of Jack and his son is that I want us to have a broad notion of what healing means. Sometimes we limit ourselves to thinking of healing in terms of physical healing. I want us to think of healing in such a way that includes the healing our spirits, our souls, so that besides for praying for broken bones we are also praying for broken relationships, praying for people to have a high sense of self-esteem, praying not just for an end to sickness but also a increase in health and well-being.
2
The healing that took place in the feeding of the five thousand was that Jesus was able to cure the people of only thinking of themselves and instead offering what they had so that everyone had what they needed.
So over the next four weeks we will be looking at the healings that occurred in the presence of Jesus. We will find more than just a list of miracles. We will find what it means to go through a change in our life that also changes our family, our class, our church, and our community.
Jack's son said, “God's changed the whole class." Of course, it was Jack's son who had changed. That inner change, that healing caused him to see his classmates differently, and that change in one individual may in fact have led to a healthier classroom.
Jack himself had changed because at the retreat he had seen people freely giving love and he wanted some of that for himself. He felt safe to call out for help and he felt some confidence that there would be a response.
As we look at the healing stories in the Gospels, one of the interesting things to think about is the relationship between community and healing. How does our community help or hinder our physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health?
There are certain traps that churches can easily fall into that make them unhealthy communities.
There is the danger of falling into a way of thinking that says: if a person has doubts or fears then they have no faith. There is the danger that sometimes sets in and says: don't let anyone know how you are really feeling. There is the danger of worrying about what others think we should be doing. There is the danger of keeping your thoughts to yourself.
Health depends on being in a community that enables you to feel safe enough to speak your mind, your soul, your heart in a way that is loving and respectful.
How did the community in passage from the Gospel of Mark do in creating a safe place for healing?
A blind man was sitting by the side of the road and he heard a big crowd. He asked what it was and he was told that Jesus was passing by. He immediately cried out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."
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And what did the crowd do? Maybe they said, “Why should he stop for you? We don't expect him to stop for us. You don't see any of us trying to get his attention. We are content to just watch him go by so, be quiet"
So the blind man by the side of the road has a choice, does he listen to these people who are telling him to shut up, or does he listen to his inner voice that tells him that the possibility for healing is walking by.
He shouts even more loudly, "Son of David have mercy on me."
You can just imagine the cold stares from the people in the front row.
What happened to those cold stares when Jesus stopped? What did those people think when Jesus called .... for the blind man.
It says in the scriptures that they all gave praise to God.
All the silent ones are now praising the one who spoke up.

We know from the story that the blind man was changed, he recovered his sight. I wonder if the people standing on the side of the road were also changed? Just a moment earlier they called this man's screaming, noise, but Jesus called it faith.
Just a moment earlier this man was stuck on the side of the road having to ask people who was passing by, but now he is a part of the procession.
What about those people who wanted to keep him quiet and are now said to be praising God. What thoughts do they go home with?
I like to think that they were changed as well. I like to think that they also had their sight restored. I like to think that they were able to translate their praise of God into compassion and mercy for each other. That they might think twice about shutting down someone who is expressing their need or their pain.
I even hope that they would be able to understand when someone cries out not only for personal needs but also when a person cries out against injustice. A person who is sharing something that is wrong needs to feel heard, trusted. If that is lost and the person shuts themselves down then even greater harm can take place.

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What about calling out for a change in one’s local community, in one’s family, in one’s own church? Do we feel safe to call out that it is time for a change? That something is not right? Or has there been a lot of roadside silence?
If so, is it time to learn from this blind beggar that if is healing is passing by, if wisdom is passing by, if insight and intuition is passing by, then call out to it. Trust it. Be healed in the crying out and come forward.
Story of President John Thomas and Linda Jaramillo and the Peace Pledges
Where is healing to be found for this world? When someone has the courage to cry out. Son of humanity, have mercy on me.
This simple little story of a blind man sitting by the side of the road reveals to us so much about healing if we put ourselves and our situation into the story.
The blind man is isolated from the rest of the community. But he has heard that there is this man Jesus who is a healer. He hears that he is passing by. He can’t see him so he is compelled to call out. He has to risk embarrassment. He has to risk standing out in the crowd. Then the crowd tells him to be quiet. Why do you think your special? We all have our problems, you don’t see us calling out do you? What stops us from crying out for healing or calling out for justice?
But this blind beggar thinks he is worth something. He believes that Jesus has something, And he calls out even louder. Son of David, have mercy on me.
Jesus stops. And tells the crowd to call him.
And now the crowd says, “Take heart, stand up; he is calling you.”
What a wonderful sequence of words.
Take heart. This thing that has surrounded you with fear and darkness, there is some hope, that it might come to an end.
Stand up. No longer sitting by the side of the road, a nobody, a victim, you are now the center of attention and people are rooting for you. Not judging you.
He is calling you. He is calling you.
Can you believe that? Sometimes risking making a fool of yourself pays off.

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Sometimes knowing your need and expressing it is the beginning of healing, freedom.
The man stands up, and Jesus says, “What do you want me to do for you?”
And Jesus says, what do you want me to do for you.?
Puzzling question.
Everybody could see the man was blind. Jesus knew he was blind.
Why did Jesus ask, “What do you want me to do for you?”
One possibility is that we have to name the illness in order for healing to happen. In order for healing to take place we need to be able to identify the source of the affliction. Sometimes it’s not so easy to name what is going on in ourselves, or in others.
Sometimes we just see the symptoms. We see a person who is blinded by anger, blinded by fear, blinded by prejudice. How to name what is really going on? We have to ask, “What do you want me to do for you?” How can I help?...rather than judge or assume we know what is going on with ourselves or with others.
When Jesus asks the man, what do you want me to do for you? the man responds, “I want my sight back. I want to see where I am going. I want to be able to join the procession.
What would you say, if Jesus asked you, “What do you want me to do for you?”
What would say if this man of wisdom, compassion, and unending affection asked you. “What do you want me to do for you?”
Take heart, stand up, he is calling you, asking you, inviting you, comforting you, supporting you in your courageous work of healing yourself, your community.
Jack, the man in the story I told earlier had an answer. How would you answer that question from Jesus? What do you want me to do for you?
I want my sight. I want my trust. I want acceptance for what is next for me. I want to know how to respond with honesty and without violence when I am hurt, or when I see injustice. I want to stop having to be in control all the time. I want to be able to follow.
Jesus has a puzzling response. He says to the blind man, “Go your faith has made you well.” Did Jesus cure the man’s blindness, or did the man’s faith cure his blindness?

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And what the sign of the man’s faith? The crying out? The stepping forward? One of the reasons why we are taking several weeks for the healing stories is because that is not an easy question to answer.
In fact it may be easier to answer with our feet, with our bodies, rather than with heads. The answer may simply be in the willingness to dive into the divine, to be immersed, to move from the side of the road to being on the path.
Tell the story of the Prayer group and the bell ringing and the couple from Seattle passing by our church for prayer vigil, and the monthly prayer vigil.
Take heart, stand up, he is calling you.
I spoke earlier of traps that churches sometimes fall into. According to Scott Peck, who has written many books on community building, one of those traps is the desire to heal, to fix, to convert others. We are more likely to create a safe place for healing if instead of trying to fix others, we confess our own brokenness or blindness. Because we soon find out that we are all wounded. That we all suffer from some sort of blindness. That we are all in need of healing. That we are all perfectly imperfect. That we are all in need of being embraced by God’s love. That we all need immersion in the healing waters. Can we create a safe place for people to be who they are, with different beliefs, different struggles, different gifts?
Can we give each other the freedom to say, I can't see, I am lost, I am angry.
Can we give each other a safe place to share when someone has hurt us?
It’s not easy. It’s not the way of the crowd. But we have to do something first.
Something in Jesus gave the blind man the courage to call out through the crowd.
Jesus, the one whom God annointed with the Holy spirit, at his baptism in the Jordan River, provided the sense of safety, of affirmation, of love, that enabled the blind beggar to expect a healing. To not listen to the voices saying shut up, but instead hearing the voice that said go on.
And we also are annointed to be a church, a sacred shelter, to provide a sense of safety, of openness and affirmation, dedicating ourselves to the highest in human values.

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We are this: when we seek first the kingdom of God. Quietly, through prayer, reading the sacred texts, and loving one another.
Take heart, stand up, he is calling you.
May this call give us the courage to speak up for the healing that we need; remind us that healing is not something we can do alone; make it a little easier for us to drop our defenses so that we can receive the love God has for us and shows through us.
How would you respond if you heard Jesus say, “What do you want me to do for you? Jack’s son answered that question and the whole class changed.
May it be so with us.

What is This Among So Many

2007-11-06T20:47:00.000-08:00

Scriptures: 2 Timothy 1:1-7 John 6:1-13
October 7, 2007

A large crowd of people had come to hear Jesus. The disciples, Andrew and Philip, realized that if they were going to feed these people they were going to need more food.
Jesus asked, "How much have you got?"
Just then a young boy, let's call him Daniel, is seen walking toward Andrew.
So while Jesus is questioning Philip, Andrew is looking around and sees this boy with some food.
What is Jesus asking Philip? “How are we to buy bread so these people may eat?” Jesus is setting Philip up. He knows that there is no way that they can buy bread for all of these people. He knows the answer is not in purchasing bread. He knows that the source of the food is going to come from somewhere unexpected. He knows the Exodus story, the same one we have been reviewing the past two weeks.
One of the themes one discovers in the Exodus story is that when we trust that we are cared for by God we need to expect the unexpected. We need to let go of our normal solutions to problems, such as feeding large numbers of people, and be open to new solutions.
So Jesus is asking Philip, “Philip? How are we going to feed all of these people?” It’s the same question that Moses had to answer in the wilderness. How could Jesus get the disciples to look at the people themselves, not as separate individuals, each looking out for themselves, but instead as a community, as neighbors, each looking out for one another.
Meanwhile Andrew notices this young boy. And here is what I imagine happened...
Now you see young Daniel had been asked by his mother to go to the store. It was near time for the great Jewish Festival, the Passover, and Daniel's mother had invited the entire family over for dinner. She was so busy getting the house ready that she didn't have time to go to the fish market or the bakery, so she gave her son enough money and told him to go to the store and buy some bread and some fish.
She said, "If they have any salmon just get one, otherwise get two trout. And don't get cinnamon bread like you did the last time, I need 5 barley loaves.
So off Daniel went. First to the fish market. He left there quickly for the warm sweet smell of the bakery. Then with his heavy load he headed back for home. On his way he noticed a huge crowd of people gathered on the hillside. He knew that he should go straight home but his curiosity got the better of him.
He walked up the hill, worked his way through the forest of bony knees and then found himself right hear some men talking about having to feed all of these people. He heard them say they didn't have enough money to buy enough bread. Daniel didn't know how much they needed, but he knew what he had.
He thought about his mother and the company that was going to come that night and then he thought about all of those people on the hillside and he decided to walk up to the men.
What called young Daniel forward? A young child on the edge of a crowd, and then in the center of a crowd and hearing they needed what he had. He didn't know if it was enough, but he offered what he had.
Andrew saw him and said to Jesus, "There's a boy here."
Daniel pulled on Andrew's cloak and said, "Daniel."
Andrew said, "Daniel is here and he had five barley loaves and two trout."
"They were out of salmon." whispered Daniel
But what is this among so many?
What is this? manna from heaven? water from the rock? desire born in some people hearts to work for justice, care for a sick friend, pray for a loved one, work for peace in the world?
What is this among so many?
Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, and there was enough to feed everybody. In fact, there were twelve baskets of bread left over. Daniel went home with some of the leftovers and told his mother, "Mom, you won't believe what a good deal I got!"

What is this among so many? This is the question of the disciples. This is our question. It is our question as we as individuals seek to meet the challenges of our lives. It is the question we ask as a church, a small church, in a quickly growing area.
What is this among so many? It is what we have, it is where we are, it is how we are feeling, it is the questions that we are asking, it is the desire for reconciliation in our hearts, it is the gifts we have to share, it is the place where Jesus is ready to begin.
This offering of the young boy, 5 loaves for five thousand people, is the offering that the churches offer to the world on this Sunday, World Communion Sunday. Is it enough? Can the table we have set today, which is similar to tables set all over the world make any difference in the problems of today's world? Can this table and all of its global partners have any effect on the relations between nations, relations between husbands and wives, relations between parents and children? Can this table have anything to say to the problem of world hunger?
What is this among so many?
Little Daniel, didn't ask if what he had was enough, he simply offered what he had.
What this is, is the bread of life broken for you and the cup of life poured out for you and I believe it can make all of the difference in the world because I believe that peace begins with me, with each of us, and healing begins with me, and each of us, and the suffering in the world is sometimes due to individuals who have never been loved, have been broken and never put back together.
Communion puts us back together.

I believe this bread and this cup can make a difference in the world because the world is tightly interconnected- what happens in one country effects all others. What happens in one individual effects so many others- and today all over the world people are taking communion, are hearing the lifegiving word and remembering to give thanks for all that has been received.
I believe this bread and this cup can mean so much to so many because by taking it into our lives we are a part of the resurrection- we are a part of the reality of the Risen Christ- we are a part of a people who are committed to the vision of the kingdom of heaven.
I believe this bread and cup can make a difference in the world because even though we recognize that peace begins with each of us, we are not the only actors in this drama called history. There is a spirit among us, there is a God who created us and there is the word that became flesh and lived with us just long enough that we can never lose hope in our world, in our church, in ourselves.

Let me share a very different kind of story. It's about a truck driver traveling across Interstate 80, and this truck driver was mean, he was exhausted, and he was hungry. He pulled into a little diner and he said to the waitress behind the counter, "What I want is a piece of apple pie and a kind word."
The waitress got him the apple pie and then she became quiet. The truck driver looked up longingly and said, "And the kind word?" She leaned over and whispered in his ear, "If I were you, I wouldn't eat the apple pie."
The world is waiting for a kind word. A True word. And on this day the word we give to the world is communion.
As the world is waiting for a kind word, God has something to say to all of us. God is saying, "I know that I am asking a lot of you. But you must see that though I am concerned for your well-being, I care for everyone's life. I want to see an entire world in communion. And to do that I need you. I need your help. I have never acted alone before, I can't act alone now. I needed Abraham & Sarah, Mary and Jesus, and Daniel and the disciples

and I'm calling you. But I have something for you. Something that will feed you if you let it, something that will renew you if you'll accept forgiveness, something that will nourish you if you are ready for love, something that will give you so much that you'll have some left over to share with one another.
Before you go out into the world, the world that needs to hear a kind word, I want you to be fed. My kind word to you is, if I were you, I would eat this bread, and drink this cup and know that what I have asked of you can and will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Each of you is a loaf of bread. Like those 5 loaves blessed by Jesus I bless you.
That is what God is saying to us.
There were many loaves of bread left over on that day. Daniel got just a few of them. I imagine that those loaves have been shared and passed around and multiplied all over the world and all over the centuries to this very day and this very spot. Imagine you are part of the crowd, not of 5,000, not of 5 million, but of an infinite number of people who have received the healing and forgiving word of life.
Come through the crowd. Offer what you have. Touch the love of God and receive the hope and the healing that you require. Receive the strength and the courage you are looking for.
What is this among so many? This cup and this load of bread. This bread and cup. This church and its people. Each one of us.
Today the word that we offer to the world is communion. And the gift that we have for the world is our Neighbors in Need Offering.
The gifts that we give to today, no matter the individual size are gathered into one large fund of compassion that supports projects all around the country. I was curious as to what kind of projects are actually funded so I went to the United Church of Christ web page, and looked up the list of agencies Neighbors in Need contributed to past year. And I found one called, Peace in the Hood.
In 2006, as part of the Faith of Our Fathers Peace Campaign, the IMANI PEACE PLEDGE has been established to engage youth to commit to non-violence and to encourage others to do the same. The reasoning is based on the proven fact that their fathers as youth were able to bring peace to the city of Philadelphia and the youth of today can do the same.
These fathers, who now are seeing their sons involved in gangs, remembered when they were young boys back in 1974 and they were able, to bring an end to gang warfare in their neighborhoods. One key tool in the “No Gang War In’74” campaign was the IMANI PACT, which was a contractual agreement between each gang member and the community that they would not fight and because they kept their word the gang warfare virtually ended.
Neighbors in Need is supporting Peace in the Hood to bring peace to the city of brotherly love.
One-third of the offering undergirds the work of the Council for American Indian Ministry (CAIM), including much-needed financial support for 20 American Indian congregations in the UCC.
Thinking about Jesus on that hillside filled with hungry people. The miracle, for me, was not in the miraculous creation of fish and bread; it was in the miraculous creation of enabling people to see themselves as neighbors in need and neighbors in blessing. The miracle was in his ability to share his vision with others, namely, to see the people, not in terms of how little they had, but instead on how much they had, if only they would stop seeing themselves as alone and instead would see themselves as intimately and intricately connected. He moved them from fear to trust, from division to community, from individuals to neighbors.
I have seen that in you, First Congregational Church, Murphys, UCC. You have been given a gift. Something given to you by God to carry with you, like Daniel and the five barley loaves and two fish. You have offered what you have, not asking if it is enough, but in gladness. In your support of the youth mission trip to Costa Rica, in support of Habitat for Humanity, the Heifer Project, and the operating budget of your church, in volunteering at everything from the Applecake booth, to the Fashion Show, to the Parish Care Board and Ministries, I have seen your Daniel like dedication. Through you and through churches around the world,the feeding of the 5,000 goes on today.
You a part of the miracle.
And may you continue to be, in familiar and in unexpected ways.
Let the people say,
Amen.