tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-353057832024-03-23T11:07:47.225-07:00JubileeMaria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.comBlogger137125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-5298262561267051112015-03-29T09:10:00.000-07:002015-03-29T17:46:26.686-07:00What's Next? Mark 15:1-47 <div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Mark 15:1-47 Common English Bible</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>15 At daybreak, the chief priests—with the elders, legal experts, and the whole Sanhedrin—formed a plan. They bound Jesus, led him away, and turned him over to Pilate. 2 Pilate questioned him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Jesus replied, “That’s what you say.” 3 The chief priests were accusing him of many things.</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>4 Pilate asked him again, “Aren’t you going to answer? What about all these accusations?” 5 But Jesus gave no more answers, so that Pilate marveled.</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>6 During the festival, Pilate released one prisoner to them, whomever they requested. 7 A man named Barabbas was locked up with the rebels who had committed murder during an uprising. 8 The crowd pushed forward and asked Pilate to release someone, as he regularly did. 9 Pilate answered them, “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” 10 He knew that the chief priests had handed him over because of jealousy. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas to them instead. 12 Pilate replied, “Then what do you want me to do with the one you call king of the Jews?”</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>13 They shouted back, “Crucify him!”</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>14 Pilate said to them, “Why? What wrong has he done?”</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>They shouted even louder, “Crucify him!”</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>15 Pilate wanted to satisfy the crowd, so he released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus whipped, then handed him over to be crucified.</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>16 The soldiers led Jesus away into the courtyard of the palace known as the governor’s headquarters,[a] and they called together the whole company of soldiers.[b] 17 They dressed him up in a purple robe and twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on him. 18 They saluted him, “Hey! King of the Jews!” 19 Again and again, they struck his head with a stick. They spit on him and knelt before him to honor him. 20 When they finished mocking him, they stripped him of the purple robe and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him out to crucify him. 21 Simon, a man from Cyrene, Alexander and Rufus’ father, was coming in from the countryside. They forced him to carry his cross.</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>22 They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means Skull Place. 23 They tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh, but he didn’t take it. 24 They crucified him. They divided up his clothes, drawing lots for them to determine who would take what. 25 It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. 26 The notice of the formal charge against him was written, “The king of the Jews.” 27 They crucified two outlaws with him, one on his right and one on his left.[c]</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>29 People walking by insulted him, shaking their heads and saying, “Ha! So you were going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, were you? 30 Save yourself and come down from that cross!”</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>31 In the same way, the chief priests were making fun of him among themselves, together with the legal experts. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself. 32 Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross. Then we’ll see and believe.” Even those who had been crucified with Jesus insulted him.</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>33 From noon until three in the afternoon the whole earth was dark. 34 At three, Jesus cried out with a loud shout, “Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani,” which means, “My God, my God, why have you left me?”</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>35 After hearing him, some standing there said, “Look! He’s calling Elijah!” 36 Someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, and put it on a pole. He offered it to Jesus to drink, saying, “Let’s see if Elijah will come to take him down.” 37 But Jesus let out a loud cry and died.</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>38 The curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 When the centurion, who stood facing Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “This man was certainly God’s Son.”</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>40 Some women were watching from a distance, including Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James (the younger one) and Joses, and Salome. 41 When Jesus was in Galilee, these women had followed and supported him, along with many other women who had come to Jerusalem with him.</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>42 Since it was late in the afternoon on Preparation Day, just before the Sabbath, 43 Joseph from Arimathea dared to approach Pilate and ask for Jesus’ body. (Joseph was a prominent council member who also eagerly anticipated the coming of God’s kingdom.) 44 Pilate wondered if Jesus was already dead. He called the centurion and asked him whether Jesus had already died. 45 When he learned from the centurion that Jesus was dead, Pilate gave the dead body to Joseph. 46 He bought a linen cloth, took Jesus down from the cross, wrapped him in the cloth, and laid him in a tomb that had been carved out of rock. He rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where he was buried.</i></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Imagine that we are there . . . in Jerusalem. We’ve watched Jesus enter the city. We’ve waved our palms and lined the street with them, singing hosannah, shouting and laughing - so excited that Jesus has come into Jerusalem. Surely now he will declare himself - he will rise up at the head of an angelic army and defeat Rome. Surely now everyone will recognize him! Forget Herod and Tiberius - <b>Jesus</b> is the true King of the Jews! </span></div>
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<span class="s1">And when the parade was over we all wandered off to have Passover dinner with our families. Life went on as usual for us. After all, we’re just folks. Jesus and his followers, they’ll be doing all that king-making stuff . . . We’ll be happy to celebrate when the time comes . . .</span></div>
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<span class="s1">and then . . . Wait . . .What??? He was arrested? He is a blasphemer? The Temple police have him? He’s been crucified? What happened? He’s dead??!! It’s over, then. Our hopes are dead with him. . . .</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Guess we just have to wait for the next Messiah to come along. . . because there have been dozens of them rise up in the last couple of decades. We must have been mistaken again. And most of us will give up, mourn a bit, mostly for ourselves, and go back to our pre-Jesus lives.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">What <b>we</b> don’t know . . . what no one seemed to know . . . even though he had <b>told</b> them . . . is that in a few days, he won’t be dead any more. He won’t be dead anymore and he will live for ever. But we don’t know that yet . . . we don’t understand at all.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">When I was in seminary in Indiana I had a classmate from Kenya. We walked to class together one snowy February day and I asked him what he was doing outside without a hat. He replied that he was toughening himself for the cold. He thought it was something he could get used to. I explained to him that he needed to cover his head because his body heat would escape quickly though his scalp and that wasn’t just uncomfortable, it was potentially deadly. There is no such thing as toughening yourself to withstand the cold. You simply have to cover up. We talked a bit about winter. He said, “I really just can’t get used to the way everything looks so dead here in the winter. At home, if we saw trees that looked like these do - no leaves, no green, nothing that even looks a little bit alive - we would cut it for firewood. Because clearly, it is dead.” So I explained Spring. And because we were in seminary it was really easy to make it a theological conversation, centering around the resurrection and our hope for new and eternal life. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I do understand that many of the people sitting in front of me here don’t know about winter snows and the hope that comes with tiny, seemingly suicidal crocus flowers breaking through the snow on the ground. We do have some trees here that lose their leaves in the winter. We do have some Spring blossoms, like flowering almond trees and nectarines. But that despair that strikes so many in mid-winter after months of grey skies, that really-hard-to-dismiss feeling that everything <b>is</b> dead and hopeless and it will never be Spring . . . that’s not part of our reality in Southern California. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Boxer is an adorable little dog who belongs to friends of mine. When I visit the first one to greet me at the door is almost always Boxer, wagging his entire body and holding a toy in his mouth. He loves to chase his toys so much that sometimes he could be distracted from whatever was on my dinner plate by a carefully timed toy-throw. Then, on St. Patrick’s Day I heard that Boxer had been rushed to the vet with a slipped disc. They tried a laser treatment but the prognosis was grim. Boxer was paralyzed from the waist down. He would never walk again without really expensive surgery! The vet thought it would be better to just put him to sleep so he wouldn’t suffer. My friends took him home to think and pray and try to figure out ways to pay for the surgery . . . They asked all of their friends on Facebook to pray for solutions. . . . and the strangest things began to happen. On March 19th my friend said, “He is paralyzed in his back legs and he still moves just as fast around the house, he still whines annoyingly to play with his ball, and he even wagged his tail when I got home!!!” One day he figured out a way to “walk” on his knees, then he learned to lock one of his legs and swing it around to “walk” better. Boxer doesn’t know he is broken. My friends are talking about maybe finding one of those little wheeled carts for him. He’s still broken, but his life isn’t over. It is simply different. He is a miracle. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I have long felt the power of the resurrection in this congregation. Even when it seems like everything is dying, when we don’t have enough money to do what we really would like to be able to do with our ministry, when we don’t have the bodies we need to do the work of the church that we would like to be able to do . . . I have felt the power of the resurrection. Like a crocus barely peeking its head through the snow . . . .when you see one you just sort of pray that the cold won’t kill it, that this one will survive to blossom. I’ve felt a little like Bullwinkle the Moose, who is trying once again to pull a rabbit out of his hat, saying “This time for sure!” I have felt that power moving and swirling, like the sap in trees as they get ready for that break in the weather.. . and then kind of flowing back, as if to say, “Not just yet.” </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Holy Week has begun. It is a week for reflection, for introspection, for looking forward to what comes next, for hope …. that incredible, hope-against-hope for a miracle kind of hope. It is a week to look toward the grave . . . and then beyond, beyond the grey skies, beyond the brokenness, beyond the sorrow and pain . . . to that new life we believe will come, that we have faith will come, because it always has come and it always will come . . . If we will trust in God to guide us.</span><br />
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Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-46191288543510559652012-04-29T08:02:00.000-07:002012-05-01T17:58:43.897-07:00Connected 1 John 3:16-24
<i>1 John 3:16-24 CEB
16 This is how we know love: Jesus laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 But if a person has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need and that person doesn’t care—how can the love of God remain in him?
18 Little children, let’s not love with words or speech but with action and truth. 19 This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and reassure our hearts in God’s presence.20 Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knows all things.21 Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence in relationship to God.22 We receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love each other as he commanded us. 24 The person who keeps his commandments remains in God and God remains in him; and this is how we know that he remains in us, because of the Spirit that he has given to us. </i><br />
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Today is Earth Stewardship Sunday. The other day someone asked me, “What’s the difference between Earth Day and Earth Stewardship Sunday?” Frankly, I don’t know. All I know for sure is that on my official Disciples worship planning calendar last Sunday was called Earth Day and this Sunday is called Earth Stewardship Sunday. Perhaps it’s that Earth Day is always April 22 so the fourth Sunday of April was simply chosen as the day we officially celebrate it in our worship services and this year Earth Day just happened to fall on a Sunday. Or perhaps it’s this way so preachers get to talk about the glories of God’s creation two weeks in a row. Either way, as Guillermo said in an email this week, “YAY! Green again!!”<br />
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I’m always happy when I have to chance to bring out the Tree of Life wall hanging.
I especially love the Celtic style tree of life, drawn with one unbroken line, a line with no beginning and no end through which everything connected to everything else. It is so perfectly representative of the way the world truly is. It’s perfectly representative of the way God is - God has always existed and will always exist, with no beginning and no end, and is the thing by which every thing and every creature in the universe is connected to each other. In the book of Job God reminds Job just exactly where all the good stuff Job had accumulated in his life came from, saying <i>“But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In [God's] hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being.</i>” (Job 12:7-10)<br />
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That unbroken line connecting everything to everything is also perfectly representative of the way the love of God is supposed to work. God loves us, we love God, and because we love God and God loves us we love all of God’s creatures in the same way as we love God and ourselves. Everyone loving and being loved. Everyone caring for and about each other. All problems solved, all injustice cured, all oppression ended, endangered animals saved from extinction, rain forests returned to their intended glory. No more hunger, no more dying, no more fighting, no more crying. Kum ba yah.<br />
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That’s the way the love of God is supposed to work. That’s what the kingdom looks like. We all know that just isn’t the way it is.<br />
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John reminds us here that loving means more than just expressing a feeling. <i>“Little children, let’s not love with words or speech but with action and truth. This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and reassure our hearts in God’s presence.”</i><br />
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Jesus laid his life down for us, we lay ours down for our brothers and sisters. God provided great bounty for us, we share that great bounty with our brothers and sisters.
We all know just how fruitful the earth is. If you don’t know, just plant some zucchini seeds. Before long you will have enough zucchini to feed the neighborhood. For some reason zucchini seem to be especially prolific and there’s really only so much you can do with squash. You will want to share this bounty with everyone you know. So, before long you’ll be bringing bags full of zucchini to church on Sunday mornings hoping people will want to take them home. You’ll be begging all your friends and neighbors to take some. People will start hiding when they see you carrying a bag. Seriously.<br />
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Unfortunately, not every place overproduces the way our backyards do. We know that parts of the world over-produce while other regions produce very little because of drought or war or some kind of plague affecting food crops. Even here in this country we know that many people, many children, go to bed hungry every night while others throw away enough leftover food to feed a family. Grocery stores toss out produce that’s just a bit past the “best by” date. During the depression, citrus farmers piled up their produce and burned all that fruit because they couldn’t sell it. Today farmers are paid not to grow certain crops. And yet, food banks around the country have closed because they simply can’t get the donations they need to continue feeding the hungry. This is not good stewardship of the earth. This is not the way God’s love is supposed to work.<br />
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It’s hard to reconcile over production and under nourishment going on in the same country at the same time, especially in a country that so many claim is a Christian country. If we were a Christian country in truth, a country governed by the rule of God’s love we wouldn’t have so many of our own citizens suffering from hunger and homelessness. “17 ... if a person has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need and that person doesn’t care—how can the love of God remain in him?”
It’s equally hard for me to understand how some of our leaders think it’s a good idea to cut medical benefits, food stamps and educational assistance for the poor while untaxed corporations are making truly obscene profits and the extremely wealthy pay income tax at a lower percentage rate than the people who work for them. I don’t object to profit. I applaud anyone who manages through hard work and dedication to improve their way of living. I just think it is more loving, more just to tax a corporation or a billionaire than to let children go hungry or die for lack of medical care.<br />
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When it comes to care of the earth, we humans have created a lot of environmental problems. Deserts are growing, water supplies are dwindling, crazy weather is everywhere. Much of this has to do with climate change, which is surely not entirely attributable to human action, but we do have to claim a part in it. Many of those same leaders are opposed to regulations that help stop air and water pollution, or protect endangered ecosystems and endangered animals, or keep our food supply safe, or really any kind of restrictive environmental laws, because those restrictions cut into profit. These leaders claim to believe that we can continue to abuse the earth as we will, and that the earth will heal itself. To them I would speak these words Ezekiel spoke to the leaders of Israel, <i>18 Is feeding in good pasture or drinking clear water such a trivial thing that you should trample and muddy what is left with your feet?</i> (Ezekiel 34:18) These laws, these regulations protecting and cleaning up our environment, are part of good stewardship of the earth.<br />
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This week one of those leaders was taken to task by the Roman Catholic Church, who said that the policies he promoted were not in keeping with his faith or with the teachings of the Church. He replied that he believed in God’s preferential option for the poor. He just didn’t believe it had anything to do with the way government works. This is one of the people who claims we live in a Christian country. He seems to believe that good stewardship means caring about money and people with money more than caring about the least of our brothers and sisters or the earth we live upon.<br />
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Caring for the earth and all its creatures.<br />
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Loving our brothers and sisters.
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These are the same thing.<br />
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We cannot separate one from the other.<br />
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These are part of the tree of life and the single unbroken line that connects them all is God, creator and sustainer of life. We cannot separate any part from any other part, because God cares about them all. Make no mistake, everything that exists belongs to God, not to us. Remember that bit from Job?<br />
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If we are to love God as God loves us, each of us will find a way to use our gifts and talents to care for God’s earth and God’s people. First, we will pray for guidance to see how we can best serve. And then we may find our place in actively working to clean up an empty lot, signing petitions, donating money to causes, campaigning for or against particular laws, letting our political representatives know how we feel. At the very least we should spend time researching the positions of politicians before elections, to make sure that each of us votes for the persons who best represent our positions and our beliefs. Those positions and beliefs will be different for each of us, but we have to keep in mind that, if we understand all of life as interconnected through God, then we will also understand that we cannot separate our religious beliefs and our political action.<br />
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Our God is an awesome God. The same God who separated the earth from the water, hung the lights in the sky, created all the creatures and breathed life into A’dam, that same God gave the earth and everything in it into the care of humanity. That same God spoke to us through Jesus Christ and continues to speak to us today in so many ways. If you would hear God, then go look at what God has done. Go outside and look north at the mountains. Look at the flowers right outside the door. Look at the child sitting near you. If you would hear God, feel the warmth of the sun flowing over you. Taste the cool of the water. God’s voice can be heard in everything that has been created - every creature, every star, every planet, every speck of dust, every breath of wind. God speaks to us through each of these, when we open our hearts to hear.<br />
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Let us go out from this place to love the world, in word and action and prayer. Let us go out giving thanks and praise to our Creator, the God of the fertile fields.Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-47847940574241588512012-04-01T07:16:00.000-07:002012-04-01T07:16:28.314-07:00What's Behind Door Number 3?This message is a lead-in to the congregational retreat and pot luck lunch we're having right after the Lord's Supper today. <br />
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John 12:12-16 Common English Bible (CEB)<br />
12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him. They shouted,<br />
“Hosanna! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessings on the king of Israel!”<br />
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,<br />
15 Don’t be afraid, Daughter Zion. Look! Your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.<br />
16 His disciples didn’t understand these things at first. After he was glorified, they remembered that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him.<br />
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Contestants on Let’s Make a Deal get to make choices - to gamble if you will. They have to decide which of two choices is better and they have NO CLUE what one of those choices is. They know what they have in their hand right that minute, maybe a computer or a beautiful necklace. Do they want to trade it for some unknown item behind one of the three doors on the stage? They might win a fabulous vacation or a New Car! or they might get a bucket of smelly dead fish. There’s no way to be sure. The contestant is dancing from one foot to the other. The audience is yelling out advice. The host is asking for a decision right now. Taking a deep breath, the contestant shouts out her choice. The host says, “Let’s see what’s behind Door Number Three!” and the door slowly opens on the prize. The contestant stands there, hands clasped, eyes wide, heart beating like a wild thing . . . <br />
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Jesus’ disciples didn’t know what lay ahead. Jesus had told them, but they really didn’t understand. They were expecting a glorious victory of the kind King David used to deliver! Rome cowed and defeated. Oppressors brought low. Liberation from the oppressors. They saw all the palm branches and they just knew that this is what it’s going to be like from now on. Their rabbi is being lauded as the Messiah! To be completely fair, Jesus had told them about things to come that were so far outside of their realm of understanding that it would have been a huge surprise if they did get it. The Son of Man would leave them for a time, but would return. A new kingdom would be established. The temple would be destroyed and restored in three days. Temple worship would be purified and returned to the way it used to be. They heard these things but they heard them according to the way the world was at that time, the way the world had always been. They had no idea that Jesus was talking about something completely new and different than the way they had always experienced the world. They saw the miracles he performed - driving out evil spirits, restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, health to the leper, providing food for multitudes - and they thought that these God-given powers would be used to transform the social political structure of the land. <br />
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Today they celebrate the triumphal entry into Jerusalem that the prophets wrote about. They are planning a meal, a passover meal to celebrate the liberation of the Hebrews from bondage in Egypt, expecting that this meal will also be a celebration of the very bright future they believe is ahead. But we know that in the next seven days their world will be turned upside down. They will find themselves lost and alone and frightened, hanging on to each other for dear life, not quite sure what just happened, asking each other, “How did we get to this place? Everything was going so well . . . .”<br />
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We are also looking ahead, with equal parts fear and hope. I’m not sure about the rest of you, but sometimes I look around and I only see who’s missing. I miss the saints and pillars of our congregation who have passed on. And while I know that this is a good thing for them, I’m not so sure about what it means for us. There are these things that we always used to do and now . . . who’s going to do them? Or are we even going to continue doing those things? On those days I wonder, “How did we get to this place? Everything was going so well . . .” Then I look around again and I see new faces, young faces, hope-filled faces, the faces of leaders, the faces of the future. I hear children laughing and crying and running around the sanctuary, and I take delight in all those sounds. <br />
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Today we will share a meal and engage in conversation about our dreams and making those dreams become reality. In this week that began with celebration, moved to deep despair and fear and ended with the resurrection, we look toward the future, poised to make choices that will determine who we are going forward, just as the disciples did. It feels almost as if we are standing on that stage, dancing from foot to foot, heart beating like a wild thing, wondering to ourselves, “What’s behind door number three?,” with the audience shouting out suggestions and Wayne Brady asking us to make a decision. Soon we will choose one of those doors, we will determine how we will serve God, how we will employ our tongues and talents going forward into the future. For now, let us sing.Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-45900684645400287862012-03-26T14:13:00.001-07:002012-03-26T14:24:11.471-07:00Forgiveness is the Main Event<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheDOyGxOyYeqcqHCZIxFZuWrJhhusJ1VWA8zH9VCs_jp1AtDoMaBEZ_whAKxthBv-W2eufRXj3obIivRCF-tENdAcu83mvMsuXqJWO9B1F7dh5csJ-Jfp2YjGRd-rUTvfWTqJc6w/s1600/25_Forgiveness_is_the_main_event_Jeremiah_31_31-40.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="150" width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheDOyGxOyYeqcqHCZIxFZuWrJhhusJ1VWA8zH9VCs_jp1AtDoMaBEZ_whAKxthBv-W2eufRXj3obIivRCF-tENdAcu83mvMsuXqJWO9B1F7dh5csJ-Jfp2YjGRd-rUTvfWTqJc6w/s200/25_Forgiveness_is_the_main_event_Jeremiah_31_31-40.jpeg" /></a></div><br />
Common English Bible (CEB)<br />
31 The time is coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 It won’t be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant with me even though I was their husband, declares the LORD. 33 No, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel after that time, declares the LORD. I will put my Instructions within them and engrave them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 They will no longer need to teach each other to say, “Know the LORD!” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD; for I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sins.<br />
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Jeremiah spoke these words to the people as together they struggled with the consequences of Israel’s disobedience to the law of God. The consequence was this - the overthrow and loss of their nation, the destruction of the Temple, the Ark of the Covenant and all the other sacred objects carried off to Babylon, along with the priests, the nobles and all the other leaders - anyone who those who were left behind might rally behind. The situation was not good. All they could see was a future in exile. All they could see was what they had lost. Jeremiah didn’t make it easy for them. He didn’t let them off the hook. He laid the blame for all of these things right at their feet for their disobedience. Then, he brought them the words of hope God had given him. He told them about the new covenant God would make with the people of Israel in time to come. <br />
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I will put my Instructions within them and engrave them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 They will no longer need to teach each other to say, “Know the LORD!” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord; <br />
If only. If only that was truly the case. If only we all acted as if God’s instructions were engraved on every heart from birth onwards. If only we all knew God in that way, and lived as if we knew that each and every other person also had God in their hearts. If only there was no need to teach our children to know God because they would see only loving obedience in all the people around them. <br />
<br />
If you follow political news at all you are probably aware of the battles raging right now over women’s health, care for the poor, who gets the right to vote and other critically important issues. I find it especially disturbing that Christianity is being used as a reason for divesting women and minorities of their hard won rights. If you follow the national news right now you will probably have seen stories on the young man in Florida who was executed on a residential Florida street for the crime of walking while being black. The outrage over his killing, however, isn’t just because the shooting appears to have been racially motivated, although that is certainly reason for outrage. The outcry is because the admitted shooter, a Neighborhood Watch volunteer, was not arrested or even taken in for questioning, and he was allowed to keep his gun. The admitted shooter told 911 that he thought the young man walking home from the mini-mart with a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea looked threatening because he was black and wearing a hoodie. He then told them he was following the young man and was told by the 911 operator not to do that. A few minutes later, Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old honor student visiting his father for the weekend, lay dead. George Zimmerman claimed self defense. <br />
TV personality Geraldo said that parents of young men of color should tell their sons not to ever wear a hoodie - that wearing a hoodie is what got Trayvon shot. Really? That’s right up there with claiming that short skirts and tight blue jeans cause rape. Today to protest that mind set, preachers all over the country are wearing hoodies. At the Ecumenical Advocacy event in DC a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea were placed on the communion table, and that too is happening in congregations across our land. Meanwhile, Black preachers are speaking out from their own life experience. <br />
Dr. Preston T. Adams, III, Pastor of Amazing Grace CC (DOC)) in Indianapolis said: “As we ponder and respond to the Trayvon Martin tragedy, I'd also like us to consider the following: In my hometown of Chicago, 60 people were shot over the past weekend. Many of them were kids and several died including a child under age 8. Where is the national outrage for this? In the city I call home now (Indianapolis), a 16 year old allegedly shot 5 other teens in a gang related incident downtown using a .40 caliber weapon. Where is the outrage over this? I agree that we should be outraged over the tragic death of Trayvon Martin, but it can't stop there”.<br />
<br />
Dr. Jack Sullivan, Regional Minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Pennsylvania said: “Twice in my adult life, while out engaging in ministry and service, and breaking no laws, I was stopped and questioned by law enforcement officers for no reason other than the color of my skin. One wonders where I would be today had I made a movement considered by those officers as suspicious. While the vast majority of officers and guards are fair and practice restraint, clearly many are misguided by racist stereotypes. Racial profiling is a clear and present societal danger that must be stopped.”<br />
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Racism, racial profiling, the hatred of the other caused by fear are all part of this tragedy. But I think that we need to consider that this is much more than a racial issue. It’s a human issue, a societal issue. The idea that any person can be killed by any other person because that other thinks they look threatening - the fact that there are laws supporting that - is just wrong. It frightens me that an independent group has offered a $10,000 reward for information on whereabouts of the shooter, whose family says is in hiding for fear of retribution. Because the law in Florida covering what constitutes self defense is so loose, I can easily imagine someone finding and shooting George Zimmerman in retribution, then claiming he looked threatening. <br />
I am reminded of the shooting in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. Do you remember that one? On October 2, 2006, a shooting occurred at the West Nickel Mines School, an Amish one-room schoolhouse in Lancaster County. Charles Roberts took hostages and shot ten girls aged 6–13, killing five of them, before committing turning the gun on himself in the schoolhouse. It was a horrific, brutal, terrifying event. <br />
<br />
And yet - On the day of the shooting, a grandfather of one of the murdered Amish girls was heard warning some young relatives not to hate the killer, saying, "We must not think evil of this man." Another Amish father noted, "He had a mother and a wife and a soul and now he's standing before a just God." A member of the Brethren community living near the Amish in Lancaster County, explained: "I don't think there's anybody here that wants to do anything but forgive and not only reach out to those who have suffered a loss in that way but to reach out to the family of the man who committed these acts."<br />
<br />
An Amish neighbor comforted the Roberts family hours after the shooting and extended forgiveness to them. Amish community members visited and comforted Roberts' widow, parents, and parents-in-law. One Amish man held Roberts' sobbing father in his arms, reportedly for as long as an hour, to comfort him. The Amish also set up a charitable fund for the family of the shooter. About 30 members of the Amish community attended Roberts' funeral, and Marie Roberts, the widow of the killer, was one of the few outsiders invited to the funeral of one of the victims.<br />
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It would be wrong to think that the Amish parents weren’t angry about what happened. I’m sure they were. It’s just that forgiveness and reconciliation are important parts of their faith. They did what they believe Jesus would want them to do: to forgive those who injured them and to offer comfort to others who were also hurt by the events of the day. It seems to me that the families of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania acted as if they do have God’s law written on their hearts. <br />
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And if Charles Roberts had lived to go to trial, I expect that the parents of the murdered girls would have done the same thing that Erricka Bridgeford did just a few days ago. She argued against the death penalty for her brother’s slayer, saying that justice for the 2007 murder of her brother won’t come by lethal injection. “It’s not justice to me to have another dead body in place of my brother’s dead body,” she said. <br />
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Some outside the Amish community were critical of this quick forgiveness, arguing that forgiveness is inappropriate when no remorse has been expressed, and that such an attitude runs the risk of denying the existence of evil. Really? I can’t find the place where it is written that there must be remorse before forgiveness can happen. Jesus said to forgive seventy times seven times, but doesn’t say anything about first find making sure the other is properly repentant before forgiving him. Forgiveness doesn’t really have anything to do with the person who sinned, rather, it is all about the person who is sinned against. Reconciliation is not about forgetting the past, rather it is about choosing to walk into the future together regardless of what has happened in the past. <br />
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Jeremiah gave the people comfort and hope when he told them that God was going to start over again with Israel, forming a new covenant to replace the one they had broken so many times in their history. They will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD; for I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sins. <br />
<br />
For God, forgiveness is the main event. God’s greatest desire and delight is to see us all reconcile ourselves with God. It is in this reconciliation that the world becomes new. That is what Easter is about. With the death of Jesus, sin is buried. With his resurrection, we are reborn, we are made new, we are changed, we have the law written on our hearts in the new covenant. This is what we celebrate every Sunday at the Lord’s Table; reconciliation between all of humanity and God. <br />
We come together at the Table in remembrance of the life and death and resurrection of the Christ. We come together at the Table to share the love of God. We come together at the Table to offer ourselves to God’s service. We come to share the Lord.<br />
<br />
<br />
Title of this message taken from a sermon by Gage Church, pastor of Congregational UCC in Ogden, UTMaria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-1458588099837693842011-12-12T09:06:00.000-08:002011-12-12T09:06:26.777-08:00Choose Joy! 3rd Sunday of Advent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDRbqdlYQsb5wNTJMZIkkZgLd3gXgi1YF1e3kewjp_OSs4lZSi5Mys4kED6lblGYU_Sny9rn66hPb5fu5baNuAnOHkOfqiiRjlxnFsVkJCdhn_ELzAYHIg-19b0yECZ6eir5-m4Q/s1600/imgres.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="151" width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDRbqdlYQsb5wNTJMZIkkZgLd3gXgi1YF1e3kewjp_OSs4lZSi5Mys4kED6lblGYU_Sny9rn66hPb5fu5baNuAnOHkOfqiiRjlxnFsVkJCdhn_ELzAYHIg-19b0yECZ6eir5-m4Q/s200/imgres.jpeg" /></a></div><i><br />
<b>Scripture Reading<br />
</b>Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 NRSV<br />
1 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion— to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory. 4 They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. <br />
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8 For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 9 Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed. 10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11 For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.</i><br />
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As I read this passage I tried to imagine what it might feel like to be a person in exile, still grieving the loss of my home and everything dear to me, knowing that my ancestors were among the leaders, the wealthiest, the 1% if you will and that therefore their actions or lack thereof were at least partly responsible for Israel ending up in this situation. I am convinced that if I had the chance they had I surely wouldn’t make the same mistakes. I feel forsaken by my God. Is God not paying attention to our pain, our suffering, our fears? Then I imagine that I have heard Isaiah, who was truly the voice crying out in the wilderness of exile and pain, proclaiming the year of the Lord’s Favor. I heard him calling upon me to be joyous, to exult in my God, for I am of Israel. I am of a people whom the Lord has blessed. <br />
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Frankly, if I am one of the exiles in Babylon, I don’t feel all that blessed. Mostly I feel tired of waiting for God to swoop in and rescue us. I mean, can’t he hear our cries? Can’t he see the suffering of his people? Always before God has sent someone to lead Israel out of whatever mess she’d gotten herself into, but it’s been a long long time in exile. There’s no indication of a leader rising from among the people. Yet here is the prophet saying “Rejoice! You are going to bring healing to your land and your people. God has promised this and it is going to happen – soon!” I want to believe him. I surely hope he’s right. It’s just that it has been a long time so I’m really not sure what there is to rejoice about. <br />
<br />
And yet, it happened just as Isaiah said it would. Cyrus the Great defeated Babylon, sent the exiles home and even helped rebuild the cities and the temple. From that time forward Cyrus was celebrated by Israel as a messiah, anointed of the Lord. <br />
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Six hundred or so years later the heavy foot of Rome is upon the land and has been for quite some time. Jesus has come and gone. He preached and died and was resurrected and arose into heaven, promising to return to us. The apostles told everyone that he was coming back, that he was coming into his kingdom, and that it would happen soon! Within the lifetimes of those who knew him. In the city of Thessalonica the people aren’t feeling very joyful. They’re tired of waiting. It’s been 20 years, half a lifetime since he ascended into heaven and he isn’t back yet. I imagine what it must have been like to be in that congregation, to be in the early church anywhere, wondering when Jesus will come, when the old ways will disappear and God’s kingdom will be established upon the earth. <br />
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Oh right. I really don’t have to imagine what that feels like, do I? Nearly 2,000 years have passed now. And still we wait. Each year we celebrate Advent – we wait. We tell ourselves he is coming! Emmanuel will come. The Messiah will come. It has been promised to us and we believe it is true. And yet we wonder, as did the church in Thessalonica, when is he coming? Can’t he hear the suffering? Can’t he see the pain of his people? When is he going to swoop in and save all of us?<br />
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Paul knew what the people were feeling. He felt it himself! He’d been so sure – they were all so sure that they would see Jesus return, coming down from the sky the very same way he left. But it’s been way longer than they expected. Paul starts to wonder if maybe they were mistaken in the way they interpreted Jesus’ words. Nevertheless, he knows his savior lives. He is confident that the kingdom of God will become a reality on the earth. <br />
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And so he tells the people, in his first letter to the Thessalonians, <i>“5:16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise the words of prophets, 21 but test everything; hold fast to what is good; 22 abstain from every form of evil. 23May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.”</i><br />
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Rejoice always! Not the easiest thing to do when life is not going well. The words of Psalm 137 keep coming back to me. How do we sing the songs of the Lord in a foreign land? How do we rejoice when we can see so much pain and suffering in the world; in Kenya and California, in Darfur and Detroit, in Bosnia and Boston. <br />
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Give thanks in all circumstances! Really, Paul? I mean, I can see giving thanks for the things I have that are good. I have a job. I can pay my bills. I have a home to live in. There is food on my table. I’m pretty healthy right now and I have health insurance. I have a loving husband. I have friends I care about and who care about me. I am part of a caring, giving, doing community here at Delhaven Christian Church. I can give thanks for these and many other blessings. But giving thanks in all circumstances? How would that work, exactly?<br />
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Let’s see. I had that inflamed joint and it hurt a lot! But it forced me to allow others to help me. OK, I can give thanks for the injury. Our church secretary bought a home in Santa Cruz and is moving there next weekend. This is wonderful and I am really happy for her, but it leaves the church without a secretary and we lack the funds to hire another. Looking for something to be thankful for . . . ah yes, at least one person has volunteered to spend time in the church office every week so there will be someone here to give food to the hungry. Volunteering gives people an opportunity to serve the way Jesus directed us to serve, so I am thankful for that. Clearly, in many cases there is something for which I can be thankful. <br />
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Sometimes, however, there are circumstances that don’t seem to have a positive side. I thought of so many examples of terrible things that exist in our world, but I don’t have to list them for you. You know what the world is like today. The exiles in Babylon asked Isaiah and the Christians in Thessalonica asked Paul and we also ask: How do we rejoice in suffering? How do we give thanks in the face of tragedy? In light of all the terrible things that are going on in our lives and in our world how do we continue to wait for the coming of the Lord? <br />
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and both of them answered saying, Rejoice! Give thanks! For the Lord is faithful. <br />
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That’s it. It’s not things for which we are to be thankful. We aren’t being asked to rejoice over the bad things in our lives or even in spite of them. We are being reminded to rejoice in the Lord! We are being directed to give thanks to God for the love, compassion and forgiveness he showers upon us even, especially when we have done absolutely nothing to deserve it. We are being told, again, that our focus is always to be on God first and foremost, before any other consideration. <br />
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Paul said to rejoice always, give thanks for everything, pray unceasingly for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you... . hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil. <br />
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It is not that we are to rejoice and be thankful about the circumstances we find ourselves in, but that we are to rejoice and be thankful for God in us. In every circumstance, in every event of our lives, no matter where we find ourselves or how we feel about what’s happening in our lives and in our world, rejoice in the Lord! Every moment of every day, remember that we serve a living savior who is with us every moment of every day, who we can rely on to help us hold on when we feel ourselves slipping, and be thankful. <br />
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I got to this point in my writing and all I could think of were the words to hymns. <br />
Joyful, joyful we adore thee, God of glory, Lord of Love. <br />
Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel has come to thee, O Israel. <br />
Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her king!<br />
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Paul said, do not quench the Spirit. <br />
Do not allow the world to drag your heart down into despair and sin. Rejoice! <br />
Rejoice, for ours is the God of love and light.<br />
Rejoice, for God in Christ is always with us. <br />
Rejoice, for God’s kingdom is coming. <br />
We don’t know when. <br />
We don’t know how. <br />
But we do know that we can loudly proclaim, <br />
Christians All Your Lord is ComingMaria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-67721395350205664732011-12-05T08:30:00.000-08:002011-12-12T09:11:58.336-08:00Is this the way it's supposed to be?<b>PEACE SUNDAY<br />
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</b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjePszrCWNXS0mQMQSvxjdLq2hWBtbkgGRiInT0pYYAjyYPwhVCBGKBvTXAyAyiEc1cN9NDJmU1EgAs63HfPXESeXYsvQVjNtU4WxXbJuYKIlFzPClOeE6efGRkkJvOo5VDiy6FeQ/s1600/4_Is_this_the_way_it%2525E2%252580%252599s_supposed_to_be_Isaiah_40-_1-11.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="150" width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjePszrCWNXS0mQMQSvxjdLq2hWBtbkgGRiInT0pYYAjyYPwhVCBGKBvTXAyAyiEc1cN9NDJmU1EgAs63HfPXESeXYsvQVjNtU4WxXbJuYKIlFzPClOeE6efGRkkJvOo5VDiy6FeQ/s200/4_Is_this_the_way_it%2525E2%252580%252599s_supposed_to_be_Isaiah_40-_1-11.jpeg" /></a></div><br />
<i><b>Isaiah 40:1-11 NRSV<br />
</b>1 Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." 6 A voice says, "Cry out!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever. 9 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!" 10 See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.<br />
</i><br />
<br />
In Bible Study this week we read chapters 22-24 in Exodus. Among many other things God told the people of Israel these things, which are re-stated over and over again throughout the Old Testament: 21Don't mistreat or oppress an immigrant, because you were once immigrants in the land of Egypt. 22Don't treat any widow orphan badly. 23If you do treat them badly and they cry out to me, you can be sure that I'll hear their cry. 24I'll be furious, and I'll kill you with the sword. Then your wives will be widows, and your children will be orphans. <br />
25If you lend money to my people who are poor among you, don't be a creditor and charge them interest. 26If you take a piece of clothing from someone as a security deposit, you should return it before the sun goes down. 27His clothing may well be his only blanket to cover himself. What else will that person have to sleep in? And if he cries out to me, I'll listen, because I'm compassionate. <br />
<br />
In those same passages it becomes clear that individuals can only prosper as long as the community is stable and working in balance. The laws allow for restitution, not retribution. There was no such thing as a giant lawsuit – the value of any item, injury or damage was known in advance. <br />
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In Exodus 22, in the middle of this list of laws and punishments God promises the people of Israel what sounds like the ultimate peace of heart. “25If you worship the LORD your God, the LORD will bless your bread and your water. I'll take sickness away from you, 26and no woman will miscarry or be infertile in your land. I'll let you live a full, long life.“ If you worship me, if you obey me, this is the peace of heart that will come again upon the people of Israel. Long healthy lives. Healthy babies and many of them. No enemies to worry about.<br />
<br />
But . . .the leaders of Israel ignored those laws and because they did, because greed and the lust for power replaced the kind of balanced community the laws provided for, the entire nation was lost. They didn’t simply suffer military defeat as they had every other time they’d “done what was evil in the sight of God.” This time their temple was destroyed, the crops were burned in the fields, all the wealth of the nation was taken away and the leadership – the nobles and priests – were taken away into captivity. Their children are taken away and raised as Babylonians. Those who were left behind had to scratch out a living as best they could, for the bulk of their wealth – their crops, their herds, the very fish from the waters of Israel – went to support their overlords. All went to Babylon.<br />
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Israel has been punished for their pride and their disobedience. They have lost far more than just their wealth and power, status and prestige. They have lost their homeland and their children. They fear the loss of their language, their culture, their very identity as a people. They had lost hope. Psalm 137 makes their feelings very clear, <br />
<br />
“By the rivers of Babylon—there we sat down and there we wept <br />
when we remembered Zion. <br />
On the willows there <br />
we hung up our harps. <br />
For there our captors asked us for songs, <br />
and our tormentors asked us for mirth, <br />
saying “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” <br />
How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” <br />
<br />
There was no peace in their hearts. <br />
<br />
And now God says to Isaiah, “Comfort my people. Tell them the time of their imprisonment is over. Tell them to have peace in their hearts. Tell them they need have no more worries or concerns.” They will be returned to their home. They will liberated, even as they were liberated from slavery in Egypt. They will be returned to the land promised to their ancestors.<br />
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In a recent Christian Century magazine, Bill Goettler, assistant dean of ministerial studies at Yale Divinity School and co-pastor of First Presbyterian Church of New Haven told a story about a homeless man he has known for a couple of years. Danny slept in the doorway of a local business, careful to leave before anyone arrived for work in the morning so he didn’t frighten them. He could be seen around town selling newspapers, washing windows and collecting things to recycle. He worked hard to get the few dollars he needed for food. Sometimes he’d come around to the church asking for a bus pass or a few dollars or some food. And whenever he saw Goettler, he’d say “Reverend, Is this the way it’s supposed to be?” <br />
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The short answer is NO! It’s not supposed to be this way. It’s only this way when the leaders forget in whose name they are leading, who put them in positions of power and trust. It’s only this way when society becomes unbalanced. When it becomes clear to everyone that “winning” is more important than fairness or compassion or mercy or what’s good for the community. When a candidate for president claims that people who are poor and jobless have only themselves to blame. When the most popular TV shows feature groups of people placed in a difficult environment and, rather than being told to create the best community they can, are encouraged to manipulate each other, to lie, cheat and steal in order to win a large sum of money. <br />
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There is no peace when people have no place to sleep, no job or hope of one, no way to support themselves or their families. There is no peace when the wealthy have the power of life and death over the poor. <br />
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When Israel behaved this way God paid attention. God promised Israel more than just peace of heart if they worshipped their Lord. God promised destruction if they oppressed the powerless among them. “23If you do treat them badly and they cry out to me, you can be sure that I'll hear their cry. 24I'll be furious, and I'll kill you with the sword. Then your wives will be widows, and your children will be orphans.”<br />
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I think God means it. And I think God’s promise to bring destruction upon those who oppress the powerless is beginning to come true here. Maybe destruction won’t come at the point of a sword but when I look at the news I am beginning to see an upswelling of rebellion against that lack of compassion and mercy that is a plague upon our nation. There’s the non-violent Occupy movement, of course, but there are other examples of civil disobedience that are as wonderful as they are unexpected.<br />
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In Atlanta this week, Chase Bank foreclosed upon a home and deputies were sent with a moving van and a writ of eviction. This is never an easy job for the police When they arrived and saw the homeowners they called their supervisor and said, “We’re not going to do this.” They could not in good conscience remove 103 year old Vida Lee Hall and her 83 year old daughter from the house they had called home for over 50 years. Their call was passed all the way up the chain of command to Sheriff Jackson, who backed them up in their refusal to obey the writ of eviction and called them back to their station. I first saw this story Wednesday on MSNBC, where Laurence O’Donnell said “Laws alone cannot make a Just society Laws must be tempered with mercy. We have a more just society because Sheriff Jackson of Atlanta followed his conscience instead of the law.” I think it is only right that Sheriff Jackson and his deputies chose to protect the powerless instead of serving the wealthy. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that those deputies went home that night with peace in their hearts. <br />
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Marine Corps Lance Corporal Scott Olson, a veteran of two tours in Iraq, appeared on the Rachel Maddow show on Thursday. You may know that he is the man who suffered a serious head injury at Occupy Oakland when the police were trying to move the protestors from their location. His story became the motivating force that reinvigorated the movement around the country and inspired even more people to actively participate. During that interview he said, “I want more than anything to see more people get involved. You can't effect change sitting at home. The occupy movement is about coming together and learning each others stories and creating community.”<br />
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And did you know that the Occupy movement is changing focus? As more cities are moving the Occupiers out of parks and other pubic spaces, people are now occupying properties where, for example, a single mother and her children are about to be evicted because, as in so many other cases, the bank wouldn’t negotiate her mortgage payments. Instead of occupying public property for all the 99%, they are occupying private property to help individual members of the community. This isn’t new. Communities did the same thing during the Great Depression, standing with their neighbors against the bankers. <br />
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When the people of Israel behaved as community, when they obeyed the laws that were intended to keep their society in balance, when they cared for the powerless among them with mercy and compassion, they had peace. Not just political and military peace, but peace that comes from within. When the people of Israel had this peace of heart, the kind of peace that is one of the blessings showered upon them by God, then they were free. <br />
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A friend of mine recently shared this quote from the Dalai Lama: “The basic foundation of humanity is compassion and love. This is why, if even a few individuals simply try to create mental peace and happiness within themselves and act responsibly and kind-heartedly towards others, they will have a positive influence in their community.”<br />
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Author and Holocaust Survivor Eli Wiesel said, “Peace is our gift to each other.”<br />
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The deputies in Georgia gave peace when they chose compassion over blind obedience to the law. The Occupiers seek peace by bringing international attention to the plight of the powerless, calling for the kind of economic justice that is rooted in compassion and mercy. As Christians we are required to love our neighbor, to bring that peace that surpasses all understanding into the lives we touch as we go about our daily business. This love, this peace-giving, is the form of worship that the prophet Micah declared God most desires of us, more than thousands of rams or rivers of oil or clouds of incense, but rather to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with our God. Blessed be the God of Israel!Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-48465094350755705352011-11-16T10:13:00.000-08:002011-11-16T10:13:39.913-08:00Gratitude MonthIt's November. In November people's thoughts tend to turn toward gratitude. We are, after all, about to indulge in America's annual Thanksgiving feast. This year I think I will do something really different. I will try to just enjoy the holiday instead of feeling compelled to explain about the genocidal nature of the first such officially declared thanksgiving feast and all the other Grinch-ish info that people don't really want to hear. I suspect that my friends and parishioners will be grateful. They probably feel they have heard it enough over the 20+ years of my marriage to a Navajo. :-) <br />
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One of my Facebook friends is asking all her friends to post something on her page that they are grateful for every single day. That's pretty cool. Many 12 Step meetings this month will focus on gratitude as the discussion topic. <br />
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I'm going to use Thanksgiving Sunday as opportunity to prepare a stewardship sermon while everyone's focus is on gratitude. I know. Pastors generally hate to preach on stewardship. Since I am not a volunteer pastor, it feels a bit self-serving to ask people for generous contributions to my salary. I know there's all that other stuff, the stuff that makes it possible for our church to serve the community. But still, it always does feel just a bit selfish, but ...<br />
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The thing is, I learned a long time ago that Gratitude is a verb - an action word. If I am grateful for the blessings in my life then I need to say Thank You in a concrete manner. Simply saying, "I'm thankful for rainbows" is not a true expression of gratitude. Showing my gratitude by sharing the beauty of a rainbow with someone else, on the other hand, shows my gratitude because that action brings joy into their day. It's not enough to say "I'm grateful we live in a beautiful world." A true act of gratitude for the beauty of the earth could take the form of recycling or saving water or planting a tree or whatever your choice might be. <br />
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Therefore, if I am grateful for the blessings I have received because of the things I have learned as a Christian then it is incumbent upon me to return those blessings in a tangible manner. If the church gave me safe shelter from a harsh world, even in the mere fact of welcoming me into the arms of the congregation on Sunday morning then I am going to want to express my gratitude by making sure the church is there to help someone else. <br />
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Likewise, if the lessons I have taken from the readings and messages and hymns have had a positive influence on my life; if I have learned how to be a better person by trying to live according to the example set for me by Jesus and all the saints of the church who have come before, then it is important that I share that Good News so that others can enjoy the same kind of blessings that I have received.<br />
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So this Sunday I will expand on Paul's expression of thanks to the church in Ephesus by preaching on faithful stewardship and generous giving as an inevitable expression of true gratitude for the blessings we daily receive. And my post today on my friend's Facebook page will be, "I am grateful that it is my job to teach others how to live in active gratitude for all the blessings we receive."Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-35520567657315629052011-09-22T13:25:00.000-07:002011-09-22T13:25:41.522-07:00A Communication EpiphanyOn this day after all hype over changes to Facebook I just want to share a recent insight, even an Aha Moment, about the way we communicate. First, a bit of background.<br />
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My congregation has produced a newsletter for the last 29 years or so. Every month upcoming events, prayer requests, church board minutes and a column written by the pastor would be carefully compiled, formatted, printed and mailed by the church secretary. During a secretary-free period a couple of years ago I took on the task and even after we found a new secretary I kept on gathering and formatting all the information for both the mail version and the newly developed website version. It was one of those "it's just easier to do it myself" situations. <br />
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Last summer I went on sabbatical. The board moderator took over my admin duties, one of which was producing the newsletter. Well, that just didn't happen. For three months no newsletter was printed or put on the website. When I returned it really surprised me to realize that no one seemed to miss it at all! We decided to just let it go.<br />
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For the past year we've been letting people know what's going on through announcements at the end of worship, email blasts, notices on the website, Facebook and even text messages. Phone calls were added to the mix when the news was really time sensitive. <br />
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At some point I began to notice that I missed seeing some folks at events that they had always attended in the past. I couldn't imagine what would keep them away. I began to realize that the missing folks were people who don't use the internet. I realized that not everyone is on Facebook or Google+ or Twitter. And just to be really clear, most of these folks are NOT elderly retired people who just never learned to use the internet, although there are a few of those. Some are people who have made a choice not to spend any portion of their home life attached to the machine. Some only use the internet for work. Some just simply cannot afford it.<br />
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That's when the epiphany came. I realized that just because it is new and up to date and the best/most efficient method of doing whatever doesn't mean it's the only way we should do that thing. There is/should be a place in between not changing because "That's the way we've always done it" and throwing out "the way we've always done it" just because it IS the old way. I had to realize that new isn't necessarily better and doesn't have to completely replace the old.<br />
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Certainly I'm not the first person to realize this. When the conversion of Gentiles began and circumcision was no longer required for baptism and membership in this new cult of Christianity Paul continued to remind the members of the new churches that the foundation of our faith is firmly rooted in the Abrahamic tradition. Just because the dietary restrictions weren't required of the new folks didn't mean that people who were accustomed to keeping the Law needed to give it up. He mentioned repeatedly that the old ways could and should exist alongside the new and directed both Jewish Christians and Greek Christians to accept the ways of the other even if they didn't follow those ways themselves. Christians today acknowledge that the Greek Testament builds upon the Hebrew and is equally important to informing our knowledge of God.<br />
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Our first newsletter in over a year will be going out this week. We'll keep doing all the very coolest and most up to date electronic and digital communication but we'll also make paper copies available to the folks who live alongside those of us obsessed with all things digital.Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-22070617945683472992011-08-27T22:21:00.000-07:002011-08-27T22:21:29.932-07:00Back to School SundayWisdom 6:12 – 19 (Common English Bible)<br />
<i>Wisdom is bright and unfading. She readily appears to those who love her. She’s found by those who keep seeking after her. She makes herself known even in advance to those who desire her with all their hearts. Someone who wakens before dawn to look for her will find her already sitting at the door. Taking wisdom to heart is the way to bring your thinking to maturity. The one who can’t sleep at night because he’s consumed with thinking about her will soon be free from worry.</i><br />
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<i>She herself goes about looking for those who are worthy of her. She graciously makes herself known to them as they travel. She comes to them in each of the ideas that they think. The real beginning of wisdom is to desire instruction with all your heart. Love for instruction expresses itself in careful reflection. If you love Wisdom, you will keep her laws. If you are attentive to her laws, you can be assured that you will live forever. If you live forever, you will be near to God.<br />
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The reading I used today comes from the Wisdom of Solomon, which is not found in many of the bibles we have at home. It is one of those books only found in study bibles (and Catholic and Orthodox bibles) in that section between the Old and New Testaments known as the apocrypha or deuterocanonical books. The bishops who decided which books should go into the Bible decided that these should available to students of the Bible because we can learn from them but that we shouldn’t consider them to be authoritative. <br />
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The Wisdom of Solomon is sort of a continuation of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. A large part of it is narrated by a person known as Wisdom and contains sayings about how to live with joy and obedience to God. We first meet Wisdom in Proverbs where she describe herself in this way:<br />
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<i>The LORD created me at the beginning of his way, before his deeds long in the past. <br />
I was formed in ancient times, at the beginning, before the earth was.<br />
When there were no watery depths, I was brought forth, <br />
when there were no springs with water. <br />
Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth; <br />
before God made the earth and the fields or the first of the dry land. <br />
I was there when he established the heavens, <br />
when he marked out the horizon on the deep sea, <br />
when he thickened the clouds above, <br />
when he secured the fountains of the deep, <br />
when he set a limit for the sea, so the water couldn't go beyond his command, <br />
when he marked out the earth's foundations.</i><br />
Common English Bible (2011-06-15). CEB Common English Bible with Apocrypha (Kindle Locations 28122-28143). <br />
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Just FYI, Wisdom is always referred to as a woman because the word meaning wisdom is feminine in Hebrew and Greek. English words, of course, don’t have gender. <br />
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This concludes the educational portion of the message.<br />
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I say that sort of tongue in cheek because as we all know education and wisdom are not the same thing. Today we celebrate the beginning of the school year, the beginning of a new season of education. The children will learn a lot this year. They’ll learn new things about words and numbers and science and maybe history and languages . . . and I don’t know what all. Their teachers will do their very best to teach them the things they need to know, the things the government and the school system say the children need to learn in order to pass the required tests. <br />
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I know that most teachers would much rather teach them how to think, how to reason their way through situations, how to think critically about problems and issues. Most teachers are be thrilled if in addition to teaching their students how to pass tests they also manage teach them to be moral and ethical and wise. <br />
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The real beginning of wisdom is to desire instruction with all your heart. Love for instruction expresses itself in careful reflection. . If you love Wisdom, you will keep her laws. If you are attentive to her laws, you can be assured that you will live forever. If you live forever, you will be near to God. <br />
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If you love wisdom you will keep her laws, you will live forever, you will be near to God. This sounds familiar. This is kingdom of heaven language. The one who loves Wisdom loves God, because Wisdom is of God. The one who loves Wisdom and therefore God, will do justice and love kindness, will show mercy and compassion, will care for the widow and orphan and everyone who has no one to protect them from the oppressor.<br />
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I know, I say these things all the time yet I don’t always say what loving the widow and the orphan and all the other powerless people really entails. <br />
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For the last two years we have been offering a program called the Treasure Box. A Treasure Box contains about 25 pounds of good quality frozen food at a very reasonable cost. It is supposed to feed a family of 4 for one week and an elderly person for an entire month. Unfortunately, Treasure Box has been losing so much money that they can’t continue to offer this service. The very last Treasure Boxes will be distributed in September. Most of our people were very upset to hear this – they simply don’t know what they’re going to do. Some have been sent to us by social workers or the school system. Many are retired or on disability. One has 6 foster kids and 3 of his own to feed. We feel terrible and we feel responsible to find a way to help these people. We’re going to see if we can get involved with a similar program between now and October so we can keep serving our neighbors. <br />
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One of the people who gets a Treasure Box every month is Garth, a very nice elderly man who has the kind of physical difficulties that make me think maybe he’s had a stroke. He was relieved to hear that we’re going to try to continue helping him. He’s terrified that the government is going to take away his Social Security and Medicare. He’s angry that the government doesn’t seem to care about people like him. <br />
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The Hebrew prophets told the government of their own times that if they didn’t care for the poor and powerless they would fall – and they did. Dr. Jeremiah Wright said the same thing to the U.S. government in his infamous “God damns America” sermon. He wasn’t alone in this kind of thinking. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was scheduled to preach a sermon titled “Why America May Go to Hell” the Sunday after his assassination. According to Dr. Cornel West of Princeton University in a recent NY Times article titled “Dr King Weeps From His Grave,” Dr. King said that his “dream of a more democratic America had become “a nightmare” owing to the persistence of “racism, poverty, militarism and materialism.” Dr. King called America a “sick society.”’ <br />
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Forty plus years later America is still sick and suffering from the causes of Dr. King’s nightmares. <br />
Racism: It isn’t dead, it’s just changed the way it works. Schools are more segregated today than they were in 1970. Racially based hate crimes are on the increase. The prison population is disproportionately comprised of young men of color. <br />
Poverty: The gap between the rich and poor is greater than it has ever been. Thanks to the greed of banks and multinational corporations more families – 2 parents plus children – are homeless now than at any time since the Great Depression and it doesn’t look like those numbers are going to decrease any time soon. <br />
Militarism: We are engaged in two wars, and have been at war for nearly ten years. You have all seen the news stories about the dire straits way too many military families are in while the military industrial complex reports record profit. <br />
Materialism: Corporations are people now – at least they are according to the Supreme Court and some candidates for the presidency. We are a nation living on plastic, bombarded with the temptation to buy online, on TV, on the phone and on impulse. A frighteningly large percentage of us are one pink slip or bad diagnosis away from financial disaster. I won’t even mention that lately some Americans have losing rights at a scary pace – union members and poor women and – <br />
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Do I need to point out that the people who suffer most as a result of racism and materialism and militarism and poverty are the widows and the orphans and the otherwise powerless? <br />
The very same people who have been denied justice from forever – <br />
the same ones that God specifically and repeatedly told the leaders to treat with justice and mercy and compassion or bad things would happen. <br />
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Yesterday Garth said he is afraid that if the government keeps taking away from the poor that people will take up arms, that there will be a violent uprising, a revolution. I believe a revolution is exactly what we need. According to Cornel West we need to make “a revolution in our priorities, a re-evaluation of our values, a reinvigoration of our public life and a fundamental transformation of our way of thinking and living that promotes a transfer of power from oligarchs and plutocrats to everyday people and ordinary citizens.”<br />
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There have been surveys lately that indicate the “religious right” believes church should have a larger role in politics. Well, I’m not part of the religious right, but I believe that too. <br />
I believe that the Church needs to stand up for the justice that is denied the poor, the widows, the orphans, the bullied and the powerless. <br />
I believe that we must sign petitions, march, register to vote and tell everyone around us to register to vote, write blogs and letters to the editor and letters to our elected officials. <br />
I believe we must stand with the Hebrew prophets and with Dr. King, and tell our government to love Wisdom and to love her laws, to love justice. <br />
I believe we need to remind them what happened to Israel and to Judah when the prophets were ignored – <br />
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and just to be clear, the prophets were not fussing over how to properly keep all the laws in Torah. They weren’t worried about written down rules and how to interpret them. They weren’t lawyers. Some of them weren’t very well educated. But they were lovers of Wisdom. They were prophets. Their job was to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. They were concerned for the poor, the hungry, the sick, the homeless. They preached that everybody, but especially the leaders of the nation, need to act with justice and mercy and compassion and love to all persons, but especially to the oppressed. <br />
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We need to do that. <br />
We need to do that because if we do not stand with the least of our brothers and sisters, we are not Christian. <br />
We need to do that because if we do not love even the most unlovable, <br />
we are not Christian. <br />
I don’t know what we would be, but we would not be Christian.<br />
We would most certainly not be lovers of Wisdom and of her laws.<br />
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Wisdom is bright and unfading. She readily appears to those who love her. She’s found by those who keep seeking after her. . . If you love Wisdom, you will keep her laws. If you are attentive to her laws, you can be assured that you will live forever. If you live forever, you will be near to God.<br />
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Let’s live forever. <br />
Let’s be near to God. <br />
Let’s seek Holy Wisdom. <br />
Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-45352731404893142612011-04-21T16:07:00.000-07:002011-04-21T16:09:12.421-07:00A Response to "Easter Shouldn't be a Big Deal"I read a blog the other day that said we shouldn't make a big deal about Easter. When I read the first line or so I was very disturbed because if not for Easter what would be the point? We wouldn't have a resurrection to build our faith around. We would have lots of excellent teachings to live by but . . .<br /><br />Then I read the rest of the blog. And I got the point. The blogger was talking about the whole visitor thing. It seems that some churches get a whole bunch of Christmas and Easter visitors. <br /><br />Some of those visitors don't know what to expect in church and get lost during the program, which is apparently funny to some. It further seems that members and even (gasp) preachers at those churches can be somewhat unfriendly about the whole Christmas and Easter thing. They say things like "Nice to see you here for a change,' which is not a comment geared to bring the visitor back next Sunday or even next Easter. <br /><br />In some congregations the service is totally unlike what a visitor is likely to find if they come on any other Sunday during the year. There are processions and plays and full orchestras. The folks who normally show up in jeans are in dresses and suits. The clergy are wearing their best vestments. Visitors may get lost in the shuffle or embarrassed by being made to stand up and introduce themselves. <br /><br />And some congregations have LOTS of opportunities to attend services on Easter. They have a special sunrise service and their regular morning service or two and maybe a special afternoon or evening service. I know this because the religious page in our local newspaper expands from 1 page to 3! <br /><br />We don't get a lot of visitors at Easter. We might have a few, but usually what we experience is that everyone who ever shows up during the year is pretty sure to show up on Easter. Some of our folks are once a month church folks and some are once every couple of months church folks. But on Easter everybody is here. We don't have any extra Easter Sunday services, just have our regular 10:30 a.m. service. Some years we have our choir concert on Palm Sunday and some years we have it on Easter. The same people who are always in the choir are in the choir. We always have an egg hunt after church and the kids find all the eggs so quickly that I have yet to watch the hunt happening. <br /><br />But I have to confess that when visitors come we do make them sign our visitor book and then stand up or at least sit and wave at the congregation when they are introduced. We warn them that this is going to happen, and I always make sure to invite them publicly for our after worship fellowship time. But then, we do that every Sunday to whatever visitors show up. It's not to embarrass them, it's to make them feel welcome. It's to help the rest of the folks remember they are visitors so they can help if the new folks seem to be lost at any point during the service. <br /><br />I especially love the Lord's Supper when we have visitors. Because when we have visitors I get to explain again why Disciples share this meal every Sunday and that everyone is welcome to partake. I get to give directions on how we do communion here so that no one has to feel left out. <br /><br />So - is Easter a big deal at our church? Absolutely! Even though we do things pretty much the same way at Easter as every other week, there's a good theological reason for that. You see, once upon a time somebody told me that we celebrate Easter EVERY Sunday and so every Sunday is a big deal. <br /><br />Happy Easter y'all.Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-89627642306225117062011-04-17T07:52:00.001-07:002011-04-17T07:52:59.648-07:00Palms or Passion?Matthew 21:1-11<br />1 When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, just say this, "The Lord needs them.' And he will send them immediately. " 4 This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, 5 "Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey." 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!" 10 When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, "Who is this?" 11 The crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee."<br /><br /><br />There has been a big battle among preachers this week over whether we should focus on Palm Sunday or treat this Sunday as Palm/Passion Sunday. In seminary I was taught that we really should do Palm and Passion together because many of our churches won’t have Good Friday services. And that means that for many we will go directly from Palm Sunday to Easter without ever having Jesus suffer on the cross. I was taught “Without the crucifixion there can be no resurrection.” Those were the same arguments I saw on line for doing the whole Passion today. While those in opposition spoke of rushing the season and living in the grief of Holy Saturday all this last week instead of letting the events progress as they actually did. Sort of like putting the Christmas decorations out before the kids had gotten home from Trick or Treating. <br /><br />Every year since I came to Delhaven we have celebrated Palm/Passion Sunday. Some years we have had our choir concert on Palm Sunday, so the music took us through the entire week including Easter celebrations. Some years I have preached and have taken us through the entire week up to Easter, forcing us all to struggle through the week with the image of Jesus, bloodied and broken, laying on the slab of rock inside Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb. One year I even did a dramatic presentation as one of the women who followed Jesus. <br /><br />My decision – and I like to bring you all along with me on these theological and liturgical decisions – is to do Palm Sunday this year. We’re going to be together on Thursday evening for supper and a Maundy Thursday service that Kate will be leading. And we will be praying all day, from noon to midnight, on Good Friday. Even though we may not all be in the same room at the same time during these events, we will be observing Holy Week in our homes and hearts, in our prayers and actions. This year for Palm Sunday we will stay in the day, lauding Jesus the rabbi from Nazareth as king, the way the crowd at the gate of Jerusalem did. We will take this opportunity to sing alleluias during Lent and forget for just a brief moment all the troubles that surround us. We will look to our king and believe that everything will be great almost immediately! – just as the crowd at the gate of Jerusalem did. <br /><br />Me, I LOVE palm Sunday. It’s all about hope for the future, maybe even more so than Christmas. Welcoming the king of kings into my life, my heart, my soul. Celebrating that he is entering the city. Like the crowd, having no idea what is going to come later in the week but after a lifetime of suffering and waiting – wow! Here he is! The last will be first and the humble will be made great. <br /><br />I was reading Ann Lamott’s “Plan B” this week and she says she just can’t deal with Good Friday. She is a resurrection kind of person. Well, me too. I think we have enough of Good Friday and Holy Saturday in our lives. We have enough pain and crucifixion and grieving and suffering and waiting for the other shoe to drop. Palm Sunday helps us get ready for the resurrection in a way that no other celebration can do – Palm Sunday leads us in that direction, even though the crowd didn’t quite have the right idea of how Jesus was to be King. <br /><br />In ancient times, the prosperity of the land was believed to be tied directly to the king. A good king, a righteous king, a king who loved his land and his people and cared first about their wellbeing, would rule a land that prospered. For example, the Pharaoh of Egypt in the days of Joseph was a good king because his people were well cared for despite the fact that there was a famine. He listened to Joseph’s interpretation of a prophetic dream. He prepared for the famine and made sure his people were fed throughout that long seven years. King Jehoaichin of Judah, on the other hand, was not a righteous king. He cared only for his own power, he disregarded the plight of the poor and ignored the prophets. The Babylonians carried him away along with the nobility and priests and all the wealth of the land. Now, we know that he wasn’t the first unrighteous king in the land. He was the last in a line of bad kings, kings who cared only for their own comfort and power, and who didn’t listen to the prophets who kept trying to bring them back to the ways of their God. In fact, from the time of Solomon onward, the Bible only tells us about one king who was righteous, who had the Temple re-dedicated, re-instituted the celebration of Passover and had the Law of Moses read aloud from the steps of the Temple. In his time things were looking up a bit. Alas, his descendents returned to the ways that displeased their God and so, eventually, they were overcome by might of Babylon. From that time until the time of Jesus there hadn’t been any really Good kings. In fact, the kings they had ruling them were mostly puppets of some empire or other. The people of the land were looking for a messiah, a king who would return them to the glory days of David and Solomon, when their nation had wealth and power and the respect of their neighbors, when all the poor and widows and orphans were cared for, when judges spoke with righteousness and didn’t always make decisions in favor of the most powerful. This is the king they welcomed into Jerusalem that day. This is the Messiah they proclaimed, laying their cloaks and palms in the street in front of him. <br /><br />Frankly, we sometimes have trouble understanding Jesus as King. Oh, we speak of him as Lord. We give him king-like titles. We sort of shake our heads at the poor, ignorant folks of his time who couldn’t understand what Jesus meant when he said his kingdom is not of this world. And we are quite sure that he is the King of Heaven. King of the Afterlife. But that’s not quite it either. He is the king who leads us into a world that is radically different from the world he, and we, inherited. He is the king who models how we, his people, are to live, just as any good king does. He is the king who could have described himself with these words from Isaiah 50:<br /><br />4 The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens— wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.<br />5 The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backward.<br />6 I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting.<br />7 The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame;<br /><br />What kind of king brags of having the tongue of a teacher? The kind who wants to lead his people into a new way of living. The kind who says to them, the way of the world is not the way of God. Let me show you how to live in God’s kingdom. The kind who says, it’s going to be hard, and there will be sacrifices made. But don’t worry, I’m going to show you how to live through even the worst of times. I’m going to show you how to love even the worst of people. <br /><br />As I get to this point I realize how very difficult it is to celebrate Palm Sunday without the Passion. Because you see, we know what comes next. We know that the adoring crowds will melt away, that even his followers will run and hide when he is taken from their midst.<br /><br />But we also know how he faced his trial. We know that when one of his followers pulled out a sword, Jesus made him put it away. We know that Jesus even healed the man he injured, a man who came to arrest him. We know that he spoke not a word in threat or anger even when he knew he was being wrongfully accused and tried in an illegal court. We know he gave his back to those who struck him and blamed no one for what he was enduring. <br /><br />We know . . . he was human. Which means that anything he could do, we can do. I know that when stuff happens, when tragedy comes into our lives, when oppression is looming large and we are called upon to be like Jesus, our first reaction might be “Well, yeah. But I am not Jesus. I can’t do what he did.” And maybe that’s true. But we can model ourselves after what he did, because he is our king, now and forever. He lived to teach us how to live, he died showing us how to face even the worst oppression and adversity, standing proudly for what we believe is right. Confronting evil with good, confronting violence with peace. As with anything else worthwhile that we learn how to do, living this way takes practice and dedication. It is difficult, but it is doable. <br /><br />Jesus is our king. He is not the Once and Future King. He is not a king who lived a long time ago and will come back someday to be king again. He is the King of the world. He is our king, day in and day out, in good times and evil. He is the king who came to teach us how to live in love and justice, to bring us close to God, to set us free from the tyranny of anger and oppression, to shower us with God’s grace. Let us celebrate our King, waving our palms like the crowd at the gates of Jerusalem, singing Hosanna and crying out Blessed be the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed be the God of Israel!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Blessed Be the God of Israel 135Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-36950885604138808172011-04-03T08:51:00.001-07:002011-04-03T08:51:47.604-07:00Seeing ClearlyEphesians 5:8-14<br />8 For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— 9 for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. 10 Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; 13 but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."<br /><br /><br />By this time of year many of the folks in the northern hemisphere are feeling as if winter will never end. It’s grey and gloomy outside and it seems as if spring will never arrive. Likewise by this time in Lent when so many of us are engaged in soul searching and self examination we may be feeling a little low and wondering why Easter is taking so long to arrive. So as I pondered the various passages offered by the lectionary for this fourth Sunday in Lent I was struck by the imagery of light and dark in this passage in Ephesians. “For once you were darkness but now in the Lord you are light.” <br /><br />Darkness. The Dark Side. We all know Dark is used as a metaphor for all the less desirable character traits, things like hatred, anger, greed and violence. We use it to describe fictional villains and real ones; black hatted cowboys, vampires, Darth Vader and Charles Manson. Dark is cold. It is the home of spooky shadows, mold, evil plots, secrets and conspiracies. Many children are afraid of the dark and even though we tell them there’s nothing to be afraid of, most of us are quick to turn on a light when we enter a room. We don’t like the dark very much.<br /><br />And then there is Light. Light is more than simply the opposite of the Dark. Light is everything that is warm and good and pure. When light shines the dark is chased away, evil is defeated. Vampires are destroyed, lies are exposed, ugliness is seen for what it truly is, children are comforted. Light is Luke Skywalker and Saint George the Dragon Slayer and Roy Rogers and Mother Theresa. Light is truth and justice and love, all the good things, all the blessings of life. We love the light. <br /><br />People who live in the light see the world differently. It’s way beyond glass half empty or half full. It’s looking for the good in situations, not the potential for trouble. It’s trusting. It’s deciding the world is a good place and behaving as if you believe that to be true. People who live in the light are willing to shine their light into the darkness, to stand up against evil and speak out for the right. People who live in the light live in God’s kingdom.<br /><br />Paul say to the church in Ephesus, “Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.” We may not always be able to do that well, but we can usually figure out what is not pleasing to God.<br /><br />You all know that I watch the news a lot. I watch for a couple of hours in the morning and then for another hour or two after dinner. When I can stay awake long enough I end the day checking out what the Comedy Channel does with whatever the rest of the media is reporting on. And yet somehow I entirely missed that Terry Jones, pastor of a small congregation in Florida, presided over a group of some 30 people who burned a copy of the Qur’an two weeks ago. You might remember that the last time Pastor Jones was in the news was just before September 11th, when he was threatening to burn a whole stack of Qur’ans. The president condemned this recent action and many Christian and interfaith groups in the US spoke out publicly against it. <br /><br />I’m quite sure that treating any other person or group of people with complete disrespect and hate-filled speech is not pleasing to the Lord. Jesus said “Love your neighbor” not “mistreat your neighbor”. Even if you are sufficiently ill-informed as to believe that all of Islam is the enemy – which it isn’t - Jesus also said “love your enemy.” <br /><br />I suppose I can be excused for not noticing the Qur’an burning at first. It didn’t get a lot of press in the US, what with the political budget stuff here and the earthquake and tsunami and nuclear plant problems in Japan and anti-government demonstrations in North Africa and the Middle East and a new war starting and all. We’ve had some really busy news cycles and I guess the media thought that since only 30 folks showed up and there were no demonstrators present maybe it could just sort of slide under the radar. Unfortunately, the rest of the world was paying attention. Particularly the parts of the world where they believe that America as a nation is anti-Islam. People in those parts of the world held demonstrations to let us know they were displeased. Things turned ugly in Afghanistan. Seven people were killed at a United Nations office building. According to the Associated press: several hundred demonstrators were peacefully protesting the purported [Qur’an] burning when the gathering suddenly turned violent. This violence in response to a hateful act is also not pleasing to the Lord. <br /><br />I was blessed to meet Noor-Malika Chisti, a Vice President of the Southern California Committee for a Parliament of World Religions and a member of the World Council of Muslims for Interfaith Relations at the Interfaith Peace March in Pomona last September. On Saturday Noor-Malika had this to say in response to that violence: The Prophet Mohammad, peace upon him, gave us the example of how to respond to ignorant and hateful language: show them something better. The killings of United Nations workers in Afghanistan by those who were protesting the burning of the Qur’an by Terry Jones is NOT what was modeled for us, nor taught to us in the Qur'an. <br /><br />According to Dr. Margaret Aymer of Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Paul is urging the church in Ephesus “to set boundaries and ethics for life together as a community of faith, boundaries that call community members to pursue goodness, justice (or righteousness) and truth. Part of that pursuit includes not only following truth, but truth-telling: exposing that which is false or secretive to community discernment.” (Dr. Margaret Aymer Commentary on 2nd Reading, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx)<br /><br />Silence in the face of evil is not pleasing to the Lord. Allowing any kind of darkness, any kind of hatred, any kind of evil to exist without speaking and acting against it is not pleasing to the Lord. In fact, when we stand silently by, when we say nothing in the face of evil, we ourselves are engaging in evil. We ourselves are living in the dark instead of living in the light. It is not enough to turn our back on the evil doer. It is necessary that we speak out against their actions. Especially when that evil doer is one of our own community – one of the body of Christ. Now we can say “Well, that guy who burned the Qur’an and that guy who shows up with his “God hates Fags” signs at military funerals, they’re not really Christian. If they were really Christian they’d act differently. They would get the whole concept of loving your neighbor.” But I say that if we simply turn our back, if we simply pretend that they are not one of us, if we don’t speak the truth in opposition to their behaviors we are allowing everyone else to believe we feel the same way they do. <br /><br />However, if we are to be children of the light, the one thing we cannot do is to treat them hatefully, the way they treat others. Even the harbingers of hate must be treated with love. They are also children of God, our neighbors, whom we are commanded to love and to forgive. We can speak about how Christ calls us to act without speaking evil about others. We can pray for God to open their hearts, we can condemn their acts, but somehow we must love the persons. That would be living in the light – and that would be very hard.<br /><br />Vienna Presbyterian Church in Virginia is moving from darkness to light. In 2005 their youth director was fired after being found guilty of sexually abusing a young girl in the church. Other girls came forward but the congregation didn’t want to know. They sort of blamed the victims and wanted to just let the whole thing go away quietly. So it festered quietly. In 2008 a new associate pastor was called who realized that light had to be shed on this evil in order for the church to heal. The church formed an abuse outreach ministry, the young women are receiving help and last year were finally able to tell their stories to the congregation. Last week Pastor Peter James stood before the congregation and preached the story of “the darkness that had been eating away at the church for nearly six years,” publicly apologizing to the young women sitting together in the back row of the church. Associate Pastor Jordan-Haas said “We really seek to change, institutionally and relationally, and that comes at a cost. There is still something hopeful here, and that brings me great relief. It is good when we bring darkness into the light.” (Josh White, “Vienna Presbyterian Church seeks forgiveness and redemption in wake of abuse scandal” The Washington Post April 2 )<br /><br />It is good when we bring darkness into the light. <br /><br />In our prayer this morning we asked God to “Open our eyes to Christ’s living presence.” <br />Christ is present when members of a church choose to “act differently: to tell the truth, to push for justice, to uphold goodness regardless of the norms of the society at large.” (Dr. Margaret Aymer Commentary on 2nd Reading, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx)<br /><br />Christ is present when we seek to shine the light of God into the darkness.<br />When Christ is present we can see clearly, we can stand and speak light into the dark.<br />Let us ask our Lord to open our eyes to Christ’s presence, that we may see.Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-74194816605014006502011-03-20T09:14:00.000-07:002011-03-20T09:16:38.276-07:00How Can This Be? John 3:1-17<span style="font-style:italic;"> John 3:1-17<br />Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." 3 Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." 4 Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" 5 Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, "You must be born from above.' 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." 9 Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" 10 Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11 "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17 "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.</span><br /><br /><br />This is Founders Day weekend. Friday and Saturday Chapman University hosted hundreds of Disciples and United Church of Christ folks and others who came to hear the words of Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong, Disciples historian Newell Williams, the great preacher Alvin Jackson and the very popular writer of spirituality Anne Lamotte. We enjoyed so much music, from an hour long concert by the Chapman Choir to wonderful performances in worship by the a cappella group Sound Check to a solo performance on marimba by Chapman student Soyon Cheon to Paul Svenson and the PSWR Regional Celebration Band. We got to catch up with folks we don’t see very often, congratulate friends on recent accomplishments, mingle with students and faculty from our Disciples related university and meet the new Dean of the Chapel. We celebrated the fact that the United Church of Christ is now also in an official covenant relationship with Chapman. This year we celebrated the 150 year anniversary of Disciples educational heritage culminating in what we now know as Chapman University. We came together to do what Disciples do – to learn and to teach and to sing and to share the love of our Lord with one another at the Table. <br /><br />I am a Disciple, a member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). I’m not a Disciple by virtue of having been brought up that way, like many of you, but because after having rejected church and the theology that I was taught in the church of my youth for 25 years I came to understand that I needed church. After 25 years of hating church and church people and reading the Bible in order to find ammunition to use against Christians, I discovered that I needed to become part of a community of people who believed in the god of love and compassion I had come to believe in. At the same time that I came to understand that, the pastor of a Disciples congregation came into my life. She prayed with me and comforted me and gave me assurance that I was welcome. She told me about the Disciples commitment to education, about the Disciples strong belief that each of us can and must read and study and come to understand scripture ourselves. I didn’t have to accept what the preacher said unquestioningly. I didn’t have to believe the Bible was handwritten by God. She told me that there is no creed I had to claim belief in before I could be accepted into a Disciples congregation. I didn’t have to believe exactly what everyone else here believed. She told me about Disciples congregations being congregational with no hierarchy to answer to, and weekly communion and believers baptism. She told me about the priesthood of all believers – that all Disciples are equally ministers of the Good News of Jesus Christ, that lay folks taught Bible studies and presided at the Table and took communion to shut-ins. I listened to all this and thought to myself, “Wow. Really? I can disagree with the preacher and the Bible study teacher? There’s no pope or cardinal or priest or nun to tell me what I have to think and believe? I like this place.” And so I started to show up. And the more I showed up the more I liked what I was learning. Before long I realized that God was speaking to me, that I was being called to the ministry. A year or so later I moved from South Florida to Southern California to attend Chapman University where I fell in love with learning. Perhaps the most important thing I learned at Chapman is that everything I know is subject to change. Sometimes I would hear something that flew in the face of everything I knew and believed, and I would say, “How can this be?” <br /><br />That’s where Nicodemus found himself in that night. He was an educated man, a Pharisee, a leader of the Jews. He knew Torah backwards and forwards, he knew his theology, he knew the history of his people, he knew the stormy story of their relationship with God. He knew as much about how the world works as anyone could at that time. He’d been hearing what Jesus preached and it was not what he was used to. Jesus was known for preaching the opposite of what popular wisdom claimed. And yet, what he was saying sounded true. He came to Jesus for clarification. We’re told he came at night and most interpret that to mean he was trying to hide his interest. I’m not quite convinced of that. It’s possible of course. Nicodemus was a prominent leader and a respected teacher. He may not have wanted his colleagues to know he was leaning toward what this man from Galilee was preaching. He may have come at night in order to keep from being seen. But night time was also the time when the crowds were gone. Fewer people were around Jesus at that time. He might more reasonably hope to get to talk to Jesus one on one at night. <br /><br />So he asked his questions. “"How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" 5 Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, "You must be born from above.' 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." <br /><br />This is where we get the belief that only people who are baptized are going to go to heaven. “no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” When we read scripture carefully, putting aside as much as possible everything we have been brought up to believe about what it says, we can come to realize, like Nicodemus did, that what Jesus is saying is not what we are used to hearing. We have to understand that our understanding of heaven is not the same thing as the kingdom of God. Throughout his ministry, Jesus was teaching about bringing God’s kingdom into existence on earth, so that the world would become a place where all persons are treated equally under the law, where folks with no one to look out for them would be cared for, where wars of conquest and oppression simply didn’t happen, where governments and the wealthy would care more about the people of the land than about their own power and comfort. It sounds like heaven, and it sounds a bit unrealistic. But it is what Jesus preached. “If you all will just do the things that God really directs you to do, if you will just love one another as much as you are loved. this is what the world will be like. If you do these things, if you follow the teachings I am giving you, you will bring about and live in the kingdom of God. But first you must repent of the way you are living, you must let the winds of change in and become a new person. In essence, you must be born again.” Baptism in Jesus’ time was not a symbol of membership in that exclusive club known as Christianity. There was no Christianity yet. Baptism was the act by which a person publicly demonstrated her willingness to give up her sins and character defects and her old way of living in order to embrace the Spirit of God and become a new person in God’s sight. <br /><br />When people have come up to me, you know, those folks who show up at the front door and ask “Have you been born again?”, frankly, I’ve never quite known how to answer them. Did I suddenly one day have a conversion experience that somehow can distinguish my lifelong Christianity into a new and different life in Christ? No. Have I been re-baptized to start over again? No. I’ve been taught that isn’t necessary, that I only have to be baptized once even though that happened when I was a baby. But – am I different today in what I believe about God and Christ and Church and how to live? Yes. Radically different. It didn’t happen all at once. It is a product of being willing to hear new things I don’t like with an open mind. It is a product of continuing to read and study and talk about scripture and history and other people’s ideas about what it might mean. It comes from learning more about myself, what my strengths and weaknesses are and a willingness to make changes in myself in order to be able to help bring about that kingdom Jesus kept preaching. And to do that openly, as the penitents in Jesus’ day did when they went to the Jordan river to receive the waters of repentance. The more I study and learn, the more my faith, my understanding of God and Jesus and theology and liturgy and dogma and all those other things keeps changing. That’s the biggest reason why I can’t use the same sermons I used last time these lectionary selections came around. I might not necessarily still believe exactly the same way I did when I preached them before. <br /><br />In one of his three lectures on Friday, Bishop John Shelby Spong suggested that instead of asking people to be born again that they might be as children, we should be calling them into maturity. I believe that is what we see Jesus doing here with Nicodemus. He said, “"Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11 "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony.” Jesus is saying to Nicodemus, “Grow up! Move past what you think you know and learn these new things that we are teaching.” While I was a student at Chapman I took a class on the Book of Revelation. On the first day of class then Dean of the Chapel Dr. Ron Farmer told us that both Martin Luther and John Calvin had wanted to leave this book out of the newly translated Bible. He began to discuss it as metaphor rather than as literal truth and one young man became very upset. He was expecting to be in a class where he would be taught about the absolute truth and accuracy of the prophecies it contained. He didn’t want to know about the history or the culture in which it was written. He didn’t want to know about the controversies that swirled around even including it in the first place or about other apocalyptic books that were left out of the Bible. He was unwilling to hear anything other than what he already believed, so he got up and walked out and never came back. It seems to me that young man made a choice that day to remain as a child in his understanding rather than taking the daring step of learning new things that might just help him grow in his faith. <br /><br /><br />We know that Nicodemus was changed by what he heard Jesus say. He stood up at Jesus’ trial in the Sanhedrin to protest what they were doing. He helped to prepare Jesus for the tomb after his crucifixion. He heard something new, questioned it, struggled with it, and eventually embraced it. He allowed the Spirit of God to change his heart and his mind. Let us commit to doing the same, to allowing the Spirit of God lead us in new directions even as Nicodemus and all the other disciples of Christ were led to new and greater understandings of what God desires of us. Let us move deeper into maturity in our faith. Let us turn to our Lord and say, “have thine own way, Lord.”Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-69602624113480548582011-03-08T09:32:00.000-08:002011-03-08T09:35:03.008-08:00Change is Good<span style="font-weight:bold;">Matthew 17:1-9</span><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." 5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be afraid." 8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. 9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, "Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."</span><br /><br /><br /><br />Can you imagine being on that mountaintop and seeing your teacher suddenly transfigured? “his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.” And then to have two of the greatest leaders of your religion appear. “Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.” Naturally, you would offer to get them whatever you could to make them comfortable. Um – hey, we can get you some tents so you can be sheltered from the night cold. And then you hear God’s voice – at least, you hear a voice speaking from behind a bright cloud. Who else could it be but God? Of course they were overcome by fear! It’s pretty easy to see that would be more than happy to comply when Jesus said “Don’t tell anyone.” They may not have even registered the “until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead” part until much later. <br /><br />Transfigured and meeting with Moses and Elijah. Wow. Moses. Chosen by God to help the Hebrews escape from their slavery in Egypt. With God’s direction and help he performed wonders – his staff turned into a snake, the sea was parted, the rock split and produced sweet water. He returned the Hebrews to worship of the One God, Yahweh, after generations of worshipping idols and false gods. He brought them the Law and he led them back to the land God had promised to Abraham. <br /><br />And Elijah. The last of the priests of Yahweh in a time of great persecution under King Ahaz and Queen Jezebel. Chosen by God to lead the Hebrews back to his worship. With God’s direction he performed wonders – lit the sacrificial fire when it was completely water soaked just by asking God to do so after the 400 priests of Baal had been unable to light their own. Brought the widow’s son back to life. Blessed her containers of flour and oil so they would never get empty. Was instrumental in the overthrow and death of the persecutors and the liberation of the people. Returned the Hebrews to the worship of the One God, Yahweh, after generations of their kings had turned away from God. <br /><br />Moses and Elijah transformed the people of Israel. Both of these great leaders liberated their people from actual slavery and from the worship of false gods. Both brought their people back to the worship of the One God, Yahweh, after generations of following false gods. They were great prophets and miracle workers and Jesus is standing in their company. Wow. I can’t even imagine what that must have been like for the disciples who were present that night. And I’m sure they talked about it among themselves, wondering just what this really meant. It surely made them more certain than ever that Jesus was the promised messiah. I wonder though, if they thought about what false gods Jesus might have been leading the people away from.<br /><br />We know, but then, we have the advantage of nearly 2,000 of scholars and theologians figuring it out for us. When right adherence to the law became more important than the God who gave the law it became a false God. When perfect performance of ritual became more important than the God those rituals were designed to worship, the ritual became a false god. Jesus liberated the people from slavery to and worship of book and ritual, away from the false belief that they were the only ones God loved. Jesus was leading the people away from the false god of law and ritual and back to worship of the One God, Yahweh.<br /><br />As many of you know I spent a lot of time with other clergy folks this week. Monday was my quarterly clergy renewal day at Disneyland with two other clergywomen. Wednesday I had lunch with Disciples clergy from Pomona, Hemet, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ontario. Both groups were talking about folks who think being Christian is just about showing up on Sunday morning. We know that this is the mindset that efforts like New Beginnings and New Church and all the very popular “missional church” programs are trying to eliminate. We complained about people who think they’re supposed to be entertained at worship which causes the folks planning and leading the service to hope that a little “edu-tainment” will be taking place. And we followed that conversation with a conversation about how to make Sunday worship more attractive, how to make Powerpoint presentations more interesting and how to dress up the outside of the building so more people will want to come inside. Does anyone else see the irony in the order of these topics? <br /><br />It is good when worship can be uplifting and moving and emotionally satisfying. When we leave saying “I really felt spirit filled today.” As long as we understand that what lifts you up might not do anything for me or for the person in the next pew. And it’s important to understand that there is no special attraction to trying a different style of worship just because it works someplace else. Sometimes it feels like we worship the act of worship, the rituals and traditions and music, rather than worshipping God. <br /><br />What we’re supposed to be doing here is not having a great emotionally uplifting experience, although that is always a plus. What is supposed to be happening here is 1) GOD is worshipped with all our devotion and 2) we are transformed. Not just made to feel good for the moment, but made to be different, to behave differently. To go out from this place as new people, each one of us priest and missionary to the world.<br /><br />At this time of year in places like New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro we have a really graphic example of what our transformation could look like. Right now it is Mardi Gras, it is time for Carnivale! Mardi Gras and Carnivale celebrations are time to engage in being self-indulgent. It is a time when to eat, drink and be merry is expected, even condoned by the church in those places. Floats and dancers with feathery, sparkly costumes fill the streets. There are feasts and parties. The bars are filled with local celebrants and tourists. But when the church bells toll midnight on Tuesday things change immediately! The beads and masks are put away – the streets are transformed from a place to party to a place of penance. At midnight the partiers leave and the penitents come out - in many cases they are the very same people. The dancers put away their costumes, the drinkers put away their glasses, and they parade the streets barefoot and praying. Some carry crosses. Some whip themselves until their backs and legs are bloody. Some simply walk and pray, asking God’s forgiveness for the sins they have committed throughout the past year. At dawn they will congregate at the churches, accepting their ashes. Committing themselves to atonement and change in year to come.<br /><br />Lent is a time for soul searching and transformation. It is the time when candidates for baptism looked within themselves for character flaws, for sins they regularly committed without even realizing they were doing wrong. <br /><br />And let us be clear about what baptism is about. It is not a miraculous bath that changes someone’s character. It is not that ritual without which one cannot get into heaven. It is an act of commitment on the part of the candidate to change, to follow Christ, to devote his life to being the person God created him to be. <br /><br />Even if we personally were not baptized at Easter, Lent is still a time to revisit that time of preparation for our own baptism. It is a time to give up luxuries and add spiritual practices. It is a time to get to know the person we are and strive to become the person God wants us to be. It is a time to become new in Christ, even as we did at our baptisms. It is time to prepare ourselves again even as we did for our baptism, with soul searching and coming to understand just exactly what we are giving up to be Christian. Not just chocolate or fast food or Kindle books. But self-indulgence of all kinds, anger, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, gluttony. It is a time to ask God to help us replace those sins with virtues – replacing greed with generosity, gluttony with moderation, pride with humility, and so on.<br /><br />Lent is a time to put aside a bit of time every day to spend in introspection, seeking those sins and character flaws and asking God to transform us, to replace them with something better, more Christlike. It is a time when we engage even more than usual in prayer and acts of giving. We may even find a new spiritual practice, some way to focus our minds and hearts on God and on our prayer life. For example, while on Sabbath Leave I discovered coloring books filled with mandalas similar to the one above titled Transfiguration. The act of coloring while focusing the meaning on the design brought calm and healing to my heart. Lent is a time to seek change, for change is good. As we each work to change ourselves, we also change the people we touch and the world around us, bringing them closer to God’s kingdom of love and justice.<br /><br />God said, “This is my Son, my beloved. With him I am well pleased, listen to him!” So let us do what he says. Let us be changed by his words even as he is changed on this mountaintop. Let us ask him to transform us.Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-70369740776534274242010-11-08T14:38:00.000-08:002010-11-08T14:39:56.499-08:00All the SaintsLuke 6:20-31 NRSV<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 "Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22 "Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. 24 "But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 "Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. "Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. 26 "Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets. 27 "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.</span><br /><br />OK, Can we just read that bit again – <span style="font-style:italic;"><br />“Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you.<br />Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you<br />If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also<br />From anyone who takes away your coat, do not withhold even your shirt<br />If anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.”</span><br /><br />Really? I mean, yes, I know this is what we are supposed to do as Christians, but honestly – Really?<br /><br />I think maybe it’s just a little harder to hear this following the truly poisonous election season we just survived. Not that we should ever think of people of different political parties or religious views as “the enemy” . . . it’s not like we were engaged in an actual war, exactly, although some of the rhetoric made it sound that way. It was just an election. And both parties were equally evil in the way they campaigned. I was sorely tempted not to vote for any of them - that’d show them, right? But then I remembered that it wouldn’t be the politicians who would suffer if I didn’t vote. It would be the environment and teachers and students and folks without jobs and folks without health insurance . . . So I voted. <br /><br />The enemy that Jesus was talking about was Rome – a real enemy who had taken over the land, collected extortionate taxes, abused and oppressed the people. The soldiers had no problem hitting someone randomly, because they were in the way or because it was Tuesday. They would often grab a passer by and force him to carry heavy burdens, the way they forced Simon to carry Jesus’ cross. They would take someone’s coat, not because they needed it, but just to deprive the owner of it. They were the ultimate bully. And Jesus was telling these folks, his countrymen and the people of Judah who were being oppressed to put up with it because ultimately the Romans weren’t the ones in charge of the world. God is. And God has a special love for the poor. <br /><br />The biggest problem with this passage is that it is this where Pie in the Sky theology comes from. Preachers told slaves, “yours will be the kingdom of heaven.” Even after the slaves were free they were told they same thing. This is what the oppressor in Christian countries always says to the oppressed. Put up with all kinds of indignities now and you will be rewarded after you die. But those preachers must only have preached from Matthew’s version of these words because they never seemed to get around to reading the next bits of Luke to the slave holders. <span style="font-style:italic;">“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 "Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. "Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.” </span>Because if the slave holders did hear those lines and they really were Christians, then surely they would have done some cringing and squirming in the pews. <br /><br />Picture it – the preacher speaking those blessing lines to the blacks up in the balcony and then turning to the whites in the front rows to read the woes. I figure if any preacher did do that, chances are good that he wouldn’t still have been preaching there the next week. <br /><br />Pie in the Sky preaching still goes on today. It’s hard to avoid that trap, really, with this passage. Because when I read these words I don’t think of myself as one of the rich, even though I know I’m not one of the poor. I don’t think of you as the rich, even though I know none of you are really poor. Ophelia is poor. She lives on what she gets from SSI and from recycling cans and bottles she finds on the streets and in trash cans. She rents rooms in strangers’ homes and is often victimized by the home owners or other renters. All she wants a place where she could sleep and keep what little stuff she has in safety. <br /><br />I started watching home design shows on HGTV to avoid political ads and became fascinated by the house hunter programs. I watch as folks buy huge vacation homes in the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. I watch as newlywed young couples who “need” at least 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, a finished basement and a big yard look for a house. I especially enjoyed watching one episode about a family who moved because Dad was called to be the minister of music at some big church. They found a lovely home with a bedroom for each of their four children, a master suite, an office, formal living and dining rooms, a family room, an eat in kitchen, and a finished basement where the dad could practice his music. And as I watch these programs I think about Ophelia and all the other families who show up here for food and a little counseling and wonder “What on earth do they need all that for?” and “How much are they paying that music minister anyway?” <br /><br />I read an article in the NY Times titled “Our Banana Republic” by Nicholas D. Kristof. In it he pointed out that in countries like Nicaragua, Guyana and Venezuela the richest 1% of the people take home 20% of the national income. The very rich are so much richer than the rest of the people that it boggles the mind. Then he said that in the US the richest 1% of the people take home 24% of the national income each year. The CEOs of America’s largest corporations earn 531 times what the average worker in those corporations earns. In our recent elections we kept seeing ads about CEOs who laid off thousands of workers and outsourced jobs while taking home millions of dollars. This disturbs me. I knew there was a gap but I didn’t know it was that extreme. I like to think about those folks, that top 1%, as “the rich” and me as “the poor.” <br /><br />But I know I’m one of the rich. I may not have much but I have way more than Ophelia. I don’t worry about where my next meal is coming from or whether my purse is safe while I’m taking a shower. I have a car and money for gas, she has a folding shopping cart and money for a bus pass. I’m not facing a cold winter without shelter like the folks in Pakistan or South Chicago. I can’t do much to make their lives better except work toward the kingdom, toward a world where mercy and compassion outweigh greed and hatred. <br /><br />That’s what the saints who came before us did. People like Deitrich Bonhoeffer who was executed for working against the oppression of the Nazi Party. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was assassinated while working for equal rights. Archbishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated while fighting against the government of El Salvador on behalf of the poor. All of these worked in opposition to Christians who held power over powerless and marginalized people. All stood up against Christians who used the Bible to justify what they were doing, even in some cases this particular passage. <br /><br />We don’t have to die like they did. We don’t have to give away 95% of our annual income, like Dennis Bakke and Bill Gates do. We do have to work toward the kingdom. And not the pie in the sky, we’ll be fine when we die by and by kind of kingdom. We are supposed to work toward the kingdom of God in the here and now. God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. We are supposed to help the helpless, give hope to the hopeless, feed the hungry, heal the sick, comfort the prisoner. Last week we talked about the ministries that all of us here pursue in our lives – ministries in which we serve God’s creation, and do those very things we are called by God to do. <br /><br />Today we lift up the saints of our congregation, both the living and the dead – the men and women who integrated this church long before it was the popular thing to do, who brought in new music and new understandings of doing God’s work in the world. Men and women who served in the NAACP to gain civil rights for all persons, marched with Cesar Chavez, voted to make this congregation Open and Affirming and to affirm the right of all Christians to worship God together, here in this place. We remember those folks whose dream founded Delhaven Community Center and those who believed it would be good for our community to open Delhaven preschool. We remember those saints. We speak our gratitude for the work they have done and the example they have set for us. And we look to the future, knowing that we cannot rest on Delhaven’s reputation as a social justice church. <br /><br />So what does the future hold for us? How do we live up to the rich history of Delhaven and her saints? What do we do about the homeless sleeping in our bushes? The hungry we have to turn away when we run out of food? The man who came into my office on Wednesday needing get medical care without money or insurance or a welfare card? What shall we do to gain the blessings promised to the poor and avoid the woes of the rich? <br /><br />Jesus said, “<span style="font-style:italic;">Do to others as you would have them do to you.</span>” May we look to the saints who came before us for inspiration and example, for ways to do to our neighbors as we would have others do to us in that situation, that we may be a community blest by their faith in Christ. (Hymn For all the Saints)Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-58866922094837560422010-10-10T07:35:00.000-07:002010-10-10T07:37:21.791-07:00On the EdgesLuke 17:11-19 (New Revised Standard Version)<br />11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" 14 When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 16 He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? 18 Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" 19 Then he said to him, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."<br /><br /><br />Since today’s Gospel story is about lepers and a Samaritan I decided to look up synonyms of those words. I wasn’t at all surprised to discover that the meanings of these words have changed a bit over the centuries since these stories were written down. According to Roget’s Thesaurus online lepers are considered to be pariah, untouchable, outcast, undesirable, persona non gratis, anathema . . in fact, just about every conceivable word for an undesirable person was listed, including bum and hobo.<br /><br />The definition of leprosy is a quite bit different today than it was in Jesus’ day. What we call leprosy today is Hansen’s disease, a serious bacterial disease that causes permanent damage to skin, nerves, limbs, and eyes. Contrary to popular belief, leprosy does not cause limbs to fall off but limbs can become numb and/or diseased as a result of this chronic condition. In biblical times, however, leprosy was a general term for a number of skin diseases and conditions. Generally speaking leprosy would be any condition that would change the color of skin due to disease or infection like acne or psoriasis. These conditions aren’t necessarily contagious or permanent, but do serve to set the sufferer apart. According to Leviticus, “The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled: and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean’ he shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.” (Leviticus 13:45-46) They weren’t particularly hated or feared. They were merely unclean, just as a woman who had just given birth was unclean until she presented herself at the temple with a sacrificial dove for ritual cleansing. <br /><br />But it doesn’t take much to draw the attention of bullies. It just takes a small difference to find yourself singled out. I drew their attention when the school year began in 6th grade. I was the new kid and I had a broken arm. Luckily, my suffering at their hands was brief. It only lasted as long as I wore a cast and sling, just as a leper’s would end when – if - their skin cleared up.<br /><br />It would, however, be a very bad thing if a leper tried to live within the camp, keeping his condition a secret. THAT could bring on some fairly extreme anger – that would be blatant disobedience of the law. It might even endanger his neighbors. Who knew whether he would try to give it to someone else? . . .<br /><br />Imagine what it might have been like for a 15 year old boy who’s trying to keep his difference a secret. Maybe his skin discoloration is someplace easily hidden, on his lower back perhaps, or under his loincloth. Imagine his terror of being discovered, of being cast out from his family, his friends, his community of faith for who knows how long. He’d have had no one to turn to, no one to assure him that God loved him no matter what, no one to console him or turn away his fear. Now imagine what he might have to endure if others discovered his sin – not just his disease but also the fact that he tried to keep it secret. <br /><br />Think about this boy, this terrified leper, and give him a name. Give him the name of one of those six young men who killed themselves in September. Give him the name of one of those young men who couldn’t live with the bullying, who couldn’t face any more of the rejection by their neighbors and their church. Give him the name of <br /><br />Billy Lucas, 15, who hung himself on September 9 <br />Cody Barker, 17, who killed himself on September 15. <br />Seth Walsh, 13, who hung himself on September 19 <br />Tyler Clementi, 18, who jumped off the GW bridge on September 22. <br />Asher Brown, 13, who shot himself in the head on September 23. <br />Raymond Chase, 19, who hung himself September 29<br /><br />Or give him the name of one of the thousands of bullied gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender children who haven’t yet been driven to such desperation. . .<br /><br />This story of the ten lepers is also about a Samaritan. In Roget’s thesaurus online the only definition was for “Good Samaritan” and the synonyms were Johnny-on-the-spot, boy scout, do-gooder, good neighbor, helping hand, humanitarian, none of which are the way 1st century Judeans would have described Samaritans. They would have used the words we use for leper and added words like enemy, heretic, unbeliever and been seriously hateful about the whole thing. <br /><br />You see, Samaritans were enemies of the very worst kind . . . family members and co-believers who had been through a split in the family that also split the church. If anything they were considered worse than Gentiles because during the reign of Solomon’s son Rehoboam they had left the rest of the family, divided the land, raised up their own kings and built their own temple. Samaritans in Judah – well, they might have been chased by children with stones or had some one set a dog on them. They could be refused service at a market or inn and most people wouldn’t even pay attention. <br /><br />So here we have ten lepers, nine Jews and one Samaritan traveling together, not fully accepted by each other but brought together because of a common problem. We know what that’s like. We’ve been through that a couple of times in the last several years. 9/11. Hurricane Katrina. The Gulf Oil spill. They’re traveling along the edges, living on the edges of society and the geographic edge of their two countries. <br /><br />And that’s where they meet Jesus. On the edge. It seems like that’s where he always was. Debating theology with respected scholars of the church and sharing a meal with the homeless on the street. Spending time with the respected and with the cast out. And not as one who just came by to visit, but as one who belongs. . . in both places. . . . on the edges.<br /><br />And so he healed the lepers and sent them on their way. Nine headed straight to the Temple and the priests so they could be blessed and return to their regular lives. One came back to thank him – the Samaritan. The outcast. The foreigner. <br /><br />Now, we know that the Samaritan couldn’t have gone to the Temple in Jerusalem, nor would he want to. But he could have gone home, been seen by his own priests and then rejoined his family amid much rejoicing. But instead he chose to come back, to fall at Jesus’ feet praising God and giving thanks. He came back to show his gratitude to the one who’d had mercy on him, the one who had given him back his life. <br /><br />Imagine that 15 year old boy again, and how his life might be if he lived in a community where he was shown mercy. A community that rejected not him, but those who mistreated him. A community that refused to look away when it heard reports of bullying but rather treated bullying like the crime it is. A community that refused to be quiet when religious and political leaders castigated and reviled him just because he was different. Imagine what it might be like if he lived in a community that gave him his life back. Imagine what it might be like to be that community.<br /><br />Bullying is everywhere. Geeks and smart kids and dumb kids and the fashionably challenged and Moslem kids and kids who look like they might be Moslem are bullied and Jewish kids and Christian kids. All these children and more are bullied and live in terror of the next school day. Kids lose their lunch money, watch their homework get trashed, and find themselves victims of beatings and the most horrific “practical jokes” every day. They feel like they have no where to turn. The schools don’t pay attention, their parents are often powerless, or worse, tell them to “man up”. And so some of them lose their lives. They commit suicide rather than continue to face the daily torment. If it’s that terrible for straight kids, imagine what it must be like for kids who are discovering themselves to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, who live in a country where hate crimes against homosexuals and transgendered persons are on the rise and whose perpetrators seem to be egged on by some religious and political leaders. Imagine being 13 or 15 or 17 or 19 and believing that it probably won’t ever get any better. . . . <br /><br />We must not be silent. We must not allow our children to be murdered by hatred. Do not doubt that is what has happened in the cases of these six gay boys in September and in the case of every child who commits suicide because of bullying. These children have been murdered as surely as if the bullies had personally pushed them off the bridge or used the rope, the gun, or the pills on them. These children have been murdered by the hatred of the bullies, and they have been murdered by our silence. Whenever, where ever we have heard of bullying and not spoken out, we have become part of the problem. <br /><br />As Christians, as followers of Jesus, we must be like him. We must reach out with mercy to those who live on the margins, on the edges of society. We must speak out against bullying and oppression of every kind and we must stand against those who preach hate. When Jesus said “Love your neighbor” he wasn’t talking about having a nice, warm passive feeling about them. He was talking about actively reaching out, loving, feeding, healing, saving our neighbor, our children, our enemy. The leper and the Samaritan. The bullied and the bully. <br /> Jesus came as savior of the world. He came to save the world and all the people in it from sin, from hatred, from oppression, from the pain we inflict upon one another. He came armed and armored with Love, the most powerful weapon of all. Let us go from this place using that mighty weapon. And they will know we are Christian by our love.Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-3971184045498018942010-09-12T13:36:00.000-07:002010-09-12T13:37:31.783-07:00Love WHO?<span style="font-style:italic;">Matthew 5:43-48<br />43 "You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.<br /><br /><br />The Holy Qur’an Chapter 49 Verse 11 & 13<br />11. O YOU who have attained faith! No men shall deride [other] men: it may well be that those [whom they deride] are better that themselves; and no women [shall deride other] women: it may well be that those [whom they deride] are better than themselves. And neither shall you defame one another, nor insult one another by [opprobrious] epithets; evil is all imputation of iniquity after [one has to] faith; and they who [become guilty thereof and] do not repent - it is they, they who are evildoers!<br />13. O mankind! We created You from a single (pair) Of a male and a female, And made you into Nations and tribes, that You may know each other (Not that you may despise Each other.) Verily, The most honoured of you In the sight of Allah Is (he who is) the most Righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge And is well-acquainted (with all things).</span><br /><br /><br />At the grocery market the other day I heard one employee say to another, “I’ll NEVER go to New Jersey. Those people are all crazy!” The other was defending the people of New Jersey because she has relatives there who aren’t crazy. Turns out the one had watched Jersey Shore and thought the folks on that “reality” show are typical. NOT!<br /><br />But that’s how we look at all kinds of groups, right? We are quick to assume that the most visible and audible are typical of the whole group. All Muslims are terrorists. All Christians are against equal rites. We know this isn’t true. This weekend in particular we will focus on the words of the song the choir just sang,<br />In peace may all earth’s people draw together, and hearts united learn to live as one.<br />O hear my prayer, o God of all the nations. Myself I give thee, let thy will be done.<br /><br />It has been an emotional week. On the early show Wednesday morning anchorman Harry Smith interviewed Pastor Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Center. After listening to Pastor Jones speaking about Islam as the enemy who must be kept from succeeding at world domination he asked whether the plan to burn 100 Korans on 9/11 was in keeping with Jesus’ instructions to love your enemies. He had to ask twice, even naming the two gospels the commandment is found in, before Pastor Jones would admit that, no, this is not a loving action and it did not obey Jesus’ direction. <br /><br />Just the threat of burning Korans led to international furor. There were anti-American demonstrations in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran – pretty much all countries with significant Islamic populations. The State Department issued travel warnings. Everyone from the Pope to the President, the leaders of the National Evangelical Association and the National Council of Churches, even General Petraeus begged him to cancel the event. He said he would only change his mind if he got a sign from God. And apparently he did. There’s a bit of a mystery around what really changed his mind, whether it was the conversation with the State Department or with a local Imam. The important thing is that he did change his mind and no books were burned in Gainesville.<br /><br />Over and over again the Gospel words that were quoted to him in an effort to change his mind were these words from Matthew. Even though it is not true that all of Islam is the enemy, that is what this pastor and so many other people believe, so these were the words chosen by Christians and Muslims alike that seemed most likely to change his mind. <br /><br />Whether they did or not and despite the fact that he didn’t burn any books, a lot of good actually came out of his threat. All over the country interfaith groups made plans to come together to pray for peace and read from the Qur’an and the Bible. Many Christian preachers, like me, chose a verse or two from the Qur’an to share with our congregations, words that sound a lot like the words we are accustomed to hearing. Most of us, again like me, had to turn to a Muslim friend for help in finding appropriate verses because we simply aren’t familiar enough with their Holy Book to choose well. I turned to Sherrel Johnson, who works for the Center for American Islamic Relations in Los Angeles and serves with me on Chapman University’s Interfaith Center Advisory Council. She responded to my request with a lovely long letter that tells Christians things she wished we knew about Islam. For those who are interested, that letter is on the Awareness Table and will be one of the things we look at in our 2nd Tuesday supper discussion this week. <br /> <br />I think perhaps my favorite of those verses she suggested I might use is this one, knowing that throughout the Qur’an Jews and Christians are called the People of the Book. It seems to describe the differences in the way we follow our respective religious traditions perfectly. <br /><br />The Holy Qur’an Chapter 5, Verse 48 “We have given the Book as an inheritance to those of Our servants whom We have chosen. Among them there are some who wrong their own souls, some (who) follow a middle course and some, by God’s leave, (who) excel in good deeds; which is the supreme virtue.”<br /><br />The danger, of course, in choosing a verse or two to share from the Qur’an is exactly the same as the danger of doing the same thing with the Bible. We all know that the Bible has been used over and over to justify the worst kind of behavior by people who consider themselves to be good Christians. The Bible has been used to justify slavery, the subjugation of women, the denial of equal rights to gay and lesbian couples. The Qur’an has been used in just the same way. Likewise, the enemies of Islam are quick to choose the most inflammatory passages and say “This is what Islam is all about,” just as the enemies of Christianity use selected verses from the Bible. <br /><br />It has been a war of words this week, a war in which both sides were using the Bible to make their points. In response to being told to love his enemy Pastor Jones likened his actions to Jesus turning over the tables in the temple courtyard – righteous anger against evil. The problem with that comparison is that Jesus’ anger was directed at those who were messing with HIS faith, with the right worship of God and leading followers away from the path of love and forgiveness – NOT against the followers of another religion altogether. In fact, those who are standing against Pastor Jones could much more easily see themselves following the tradition of Jesus in the Temple courtyard. <br /><br />These words from Matthew are so much more pointed than the commandment to love the neighbor. It’s easy to pick and choose who are neighbors are, after all., no matter how many times the example of the Good Samaritan is quoted. But here Jesus says, “If you love those who love you, what reward do you have? If you only greet your brothers and sisters what more are you doing than others?” Harsh words! We pointed them at Pastor Jones like a gun. And I stood there with them, saying “Yeah, Pastor Jones. Read this!”<br /><br />Then I read a quote by Soren Kierkegaard. “When you read God's Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, ''It is talking to me, and about me.'' <br /><br />Ouch. <br /><br />It’s easy for me to stand here and say that in my opinion Pastor Jones is as much a terrorist as Timothy McVeigh or Osama Bin Laden. What’s hard for me to do is love him. And yet that’s exactly what I am called to do. Love him as I love myself. Recognize that his sins are forgivable, just as mine and yours are. Recognize that he is a beloved child of God and whether or not I believe him to be misguided, I am required to give him the same respect that I wish to be given. <br /><br />I have spent the better part of the week angry that a person who called himself Christian would behave in such a hateful manner. This isn’t new, of course. I get angry every time I see Christians using Jesus, the Prince of Peace, the Lord of Love, to justify being hateful. There are times when I think of these as the enemy and feel justified in my anger, just as Jesus was justified in the Temple courtyard. I have to tell you, it stung when Pastor Jones used that same passage to justify his actions. Because I realized that in my enmity for those who use my religion to oppress I was doing exactly the same thing he was. And of course that made me even more angry. But now I was angry less at him than at myself, because now I had to look at my behavior and my lack of love.<br /><br />We allow our fear of things that are different to keep us from getting to know the stranger. We use skin color, nationality, religious differences and language barriers to keep us apart. We allow our fear of things that are different to fuel our hatred of the other. But Jesus calls us to come together, regardless of our differences. Jesus calls on us to love not just the neighbor, but also the enemy, the stranger. Jesus calls on us to sit as he did and eat with the persons we previously considered to be beneath us. To forgive all others, as God forgives us, because God forgives us. The true enemy is not the other, but that sinfulness dwelling within us causing us to fear and hate that which is different. <br /><br /> Let us Pray, using Paul’s words from 1 Timothy 1:12-17 <br />12 I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, 13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. 16 But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. 17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.<br /><br />When we go from this place today let us go remembering that all of us are God’s children. Let us go out remembering that we are all loved by our Creator, who calls upon us to love each other as brothers and sisters, regardless of religion, culture, nation, or race.<br /><br /><br /><br />hymn Diverse in Culture Nation Race 485Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-60702038324963142642010-09-11T14:57:00.000-07:002010-09-11T15:02:36.820-07:00What Christians should know about Islam<span style="font-style:italic;">Below is a letter from a Moslem friend who works with the Center for American Islamic Relations in response to my request for suggested readings from the Qur'an. May it be helpful to any who read it. Maria</span><br /><br /><br />Dear Maria:<br /> <br />Thank you so much for your warm Ramadan greetings and for your very kind words of support. It deeply touches my soul to know of your trust and respect – I guess I would call that true friendship : - ) We have been blessed with much support from people of many different beliefs – including even atheists! Freedom of worship is what our nation was founded upon, and many are realizing that to tread on one faith’s beliefs is trampling America’s, 1st Amendment rights. We are so very grateful for people like you who are willing to stand for justice for ALL, not just some.<br /> <br />What I would really like our Christian sisters and brothers to know is that:<br /> <br />Islam is not a new religion, but the same truth that God revealed through all His prophets to every people. For a fifth of the world's population, Islam is both a religion and a complete way of life. Muslims follow a religion of peace, mercy, and forgiveness, and the majority have nothing to do with the extremely grave events which have come to be associated with their faith.<br /> <br />I would also want them to know that in order ones self “Muslim” (one who submits to God and the root word for peace), they must believe in the following: Muslims believe in One, Unique, Incomparable God; in the Angels created by Him; in the prophets through whom His revelations were brought to mankind; in the Day of Judgment and individual accountability for actions; in God's complete authority over human destiny and in life after death. Muslims believe in a chain of prophets starting with Adam and including Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job, Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, Elias, Jonah, John the Baptist, and Jesus, peace be upon them all. And that God's final message to mankind, a reconfirmation of the eternal message and a summing-up of all that has gone before was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad through Gabriel. <br /> <br />I would also want them to know that our roots, together with Judaism and Christianity, go back to the prophet and patriarch Abraham, and their three prophets are directly descended from his sons, with Muhammad coming from the elder son Ishmael, and Moses and Jesus from the younger son Isaac. Abraham established the settlement which today is the city of Makkah, and built the Ka’bah toward which all Muslims turn when they pray. Additionally, Many Christians are surprised to know that Muslims love and revere Jesus as one of the major Prophets, and believe that he will return as a sign of the “Day of Judgment”. Muslims also believe in his birth from the Virgin Mary – who has a whole chapter dedicated to her, as well as the Prophet Joseph and others. (Of course Muslims do not believe in the divinity of Jesus – which is our major difference).<br /><br />For further information about Islam, a very reliable source (which Muslim and those of other faiths use as well) is www.islamicity.com As you may guess there is a lot of “junk” out there about Islam – so it is good to be sure you refer to reliable sources. One of the most frequent ways that Islamophobes vilify the Qur’an is to take the verses out of context. <br /><br />Some points of information are: Below are some “meanings of the Holy Qur’an. We only call it the Holy Qur’an when it is written or recited in the original Arabic, as we believe it was reveal by God to the Prophet Muhammad, through the Angel Gabriel. The Qur’an has been explained in almost every language and by many different “translators” of the Arabic meaning. The one who translates from the original Arabic is only as good as his understanding of Arabic, the language to which he is translating and the understanding of the context and religion altogether. Not a simple or easy task. So . . . in order to always be sure that the Qur’an is never altered or change it is only considered such in its original revealed language, Arabic. There are several acknowledged and generally accepted translators of the Qur’an – and none of them is perfect – only the original is considered perfect is it is from God. Of course, non-Arabic speakers rely upon the accepted scholars for study – however, we do learn our formal daily five prayers in Arabic to keep them pure from alteration or corruption. Supplication to God is accepted of course any time and in any language as it is a very personal relationship.<br /><br />When the Qur’an talks about believers, it is referring to those who believe in the One, Almighty Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. Allah is the Arabic word for God. Arabic speaking Christians and Jews use the word Allah. What I like about this word “Allah” is that it has no gender, nothing can be greater than, or comparable to it, nor higher than it. In the Qur’an, Christians and Jews are referred to as “the people of the Book”, referring to the original revealed scriptures (Torah, Gospel etc.)<br /><br />OK – so following are some verses from the Qur’an that we used last year in our CAIR program booklet to help those of other faiths know something about what the Qur’an says.<br /><br />The Holy Qur’an<br />Chapter 49, Verses 10-13<br />“10. All believers are but brethren. Hence, [whenever they are at odds,] make peace between your two brethren, and remain conscious of God, so that you might be graced with His mercy.<br /> <br />11. O YOU who have attained faith! No men shall deride [other] men: it may well be that those [whom they deride] are better that themselves; and no women [shall deride other] women: it may well be that those [whom they deride] are better than themselves. And neither shall you defame one another, nor insult one another by [opprobrious] epithets; evil is all imputation of iniquity after [one has to] faith; and they who [become guilty thereof and] do not repent - it is they, they who are evildoers!<br /> <br />12. O Believers! Avoid suspicion as much (as possible): for suspicion in some cases is a sin: and spy not on each other behind their backs. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? No, you would hate it. But fear Allah. Allah is Most Forgiving and Most Merciful.<br /> <br />13. O Mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may recognize each other (and not despise each other). Verily, the most honored among you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. And God has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).”<br /> <br />The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 5, Verse 48<br />“We have given the Book as an inheritance to those of Our servants whom We have chosen. Among them there are some who wrong their own souls, some (who) follow a middle course and some, by God’s leave, (who) excel in good deeds; which is the supreme virtue.”<br /> <br />The Holy Qur'an, Chapter 59, Verses 18-19<br />“God will never change the condition of a people until they change that which is within themselves.”<br /> <br />The Holy Qur’an, Chapter 14, Verses 24-25<br />"Do you not observe how Allah strikes a similitude between a good word and a good tree, whose roots are firmly grounded and whose branches reach skywards. It provides its benefit throughout all the periods Allah assigned for it. Allah provides such parables so that perchance you may reflect."<br /> <br /># # #<br />I know that is probably way more that what you wanted, however, I think you can understand that it is difficult to share ones belief in one or two lines. I sincerely hope that I have been helpful to you. Since I am not a scholar, I pray that if I have made any mistakes in conveying this information, that first Allah and then you will forgive me.<br /><br />Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or if there is any other way I may be of service. <br /><br />May God’s peace and blessings be upon you and your family.<br />With respect and in friendship,<br /><br />SherrelMaria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-39018283184541538932010-09-06T11:31:00.000-07:002010-09-06T12:58:28.409-07:00Back from Sabbatical<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigF39imU4UZuaWCHbQn6cLIxNlpJammZTV7qaVsranuI9B-JCBWqAYG9d0FkiskjF2Q_zeeRUvhNNpDWq0t2vyTIKzkqpS7bpdkFK9ZEn9HvOBItwnWPqgAOa-ZDFSXsBRQSUT_w/s1600/welcome+back.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 130px; height: 98px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigF39imU4UZuaWCHbQn6cLIxNlpJammZTV7qaVsranuI9B-JCBWqAYG9d0FkiskjF2Q_zeeRUvhNNpDWq0t2vyTIKzkqpS7bpdkFK9ZEn9HvOBItwnWPqgAOa-ZDFSXsBRQSUT_w/s400/welcome+back.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5513872072748988978" /></a><br /><br /><br />I have been on Sabbath Leave all summer following the instructions I received from my congregation to engage in rest, restoration and re-energizing. As I keep telling people, I spent most of June sleeping, July dealing with and recovering from a relatively minor surgery, and August preparing for Re-Entry. By the time I returned on September 1st I was SO ready to get back that I showed up in my office at 7 am! Not surprisingly, everything went just fine while I was gone. Three members had shared my workload; one preaching, one doing pastoral care and one taking care of whatever administrative duties the church secretary couldn't handle herself. I did learn that some things simply hadn't happened and now we get to decide whether those things are really necessary. <br /><br />Walking into the Sanctuary on Sunday morning felt like coming home. Standing in the narthex and looking toward the Table I couldn't help but sigh one of those great big "ahhhhhh good" sighs. Standing in the pulpit to share the prayer concerns and celebrations of my flock, singing the response to the Scripture reading, wandering up the center aisle during the message - it all just felt so right. (My sermon felt a bit disjointed but I really expected that. I knew there was way more I wanted to say than there would be time for.) Standing at the Table, sharing the Feast of Love, holding hands with everyone in the closing circle . . . it all felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be. And as if all that wasn't enough, after worship I was showered with hugs and kisses and presented with a huge chocolate cake.<br /><br />Any doubts I may have had about where I belong or what I should be doing in that burned out daze before my Sabbath Leave began were gone. This feels too right not to be what God called me to do with my life.<br /><br />Still, some things can be expected to change now that I've had some time to prayerfully consider what brought me to such an exhausted state. I will take two days off each week instead of one. Part of what made me crazy before sabbatical was that except for Sundays I have felt much more like an administrator than a pastor. Once I walked into the office that was it - I was stuck there all day no matter what I had hoped to do with my time. So nowyes""> I will dedicate one day every week to visitation and one to studying/writing. That means only two days a week will be spent in the office. Of course, it is a given that "man proposes, God disposes." My plans will run into obstacles; meetings and conferences will happen on visitation days and days off, and so on. But still, now that I know just how important these things are and will continue to be, it will be a priority to make sure they happen, so that I may better serve God.<br /><br />It is such a blessing to be back!Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-57436409956475442492010-05-09T06:58:00.000-07:002010-05-09T07:01:09.860-07:00Lydia, a Mother of the Church<span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Acts 16:9-15</span><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">9 During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." 10 When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. 11 We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. 13 On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. 14 A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. 15 When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home." And she prevailed upon us</span>.<br /> <br /><br />Paul is very possibly the most controversial character in the New Testament. We know of some of modern controversies over him – Paul’s words about slavery, the place of women, the household codes and homosexuality have been used to oppress members of minority groups for centuries. Works by Feminists, African Americans, Gay/Lesbian, and other theologians look closely at Paul, rejecting a great deal of what he says on such topics as being totally conditioned by the cultural constraints of the time and by his own education in Jewish law. Historians and theologians alike look at the body of letters attributed to Paul and see significant differences in both writing style and message, which indicates that Paul didn’t write everything with his name on it. The modern controversy over Paul’s writings and their position of importance in the church are not likely to end any time soon.<br /><br />We may not be as familiar with how controversial he was during his lifetime<br /> He was first a persecutor of followers of Jesus then a convert<br />No one wanted to trust him. <br />Ananais didn’t want to go to help him even after the Lord spoke to him personally and told him to go!<br />Saul/Paul spent time with the disciples in Damascus preaching and his conversion upset some of the Jews so much there was even a plot to kill him, but he escaped.<br />He went to Jerusalem, and none of the disciples wanted anything to do with him. <br />Except Barnabas.<br /><br />The apostles and elders weren’t sure what to do with him.<br />He was certainly passionate, his conversion was unquestionably real.<br />But he was so controversial. . .<br />They decided to send him out of Jerusalem. <br />They sent him to Tarsus, his home town, where there was a sizable Jewish community.<br />He could preach the Good News there. <br />We know he was to become the apostle to the Gentiles.<br />But at first the idea of converting the Gentiles was problematic.<br /><br />You’ll remember, I hope, the controversy over Peter baptizing Cornelius and his family without first circumcising the males. <br />Peter had to return to Jerusalem and convince the other apostles and leaders of the church, describing the vision God had sent, before they would accept that Gentiles could have the baptism of repentance without first becoming Jews.<br />But he did, and that cleared the way for Paul’s mission to the Gentiles.<br /><br />Barnabas had gone to Antioch where a great many Gentiles had heard the good news and turned to the Lord. Desiring some help in that work he went to Tarsus for Paul and brought him back to Antioch.<br /><br />There was still controversy over whether circumcision and obedience to the Law was required. Barnabas and Paul had to return to Jerusalem and defend their work, getting a ruling in writing from the church leaders on what would be required of Gentile converts. He and Barnabas set out again but argue and go their separate ways, Barnabas with John Mark and Paul with Silas, each carrying copies of the ruling they had received from the apostles and elders had reached in Jerusalem.<br /><br />According to the story it was God’s will that Paul go into Europe carrying the Good News to the Gentiles. Setting out on the journey Paul tries twice to head into Asia, but the author of Acts tells us that both time he is forbidden to go there by the Holy Spirit. Instead he has a vision of a man in Macedonia (northern Greece) begging him to come there. And so the stage is set for Paul’s trip to Philippi, his meeting with Lydia and his first conversion in Europe. <br /><br /> In Philippi there is, apparently, no synagogue. Jews gather outside the gates for Sabbath worship. Paul goes out to the place where he imagines there be a place where Jews gather to pray and sits down to speak with the women who are gathered there. Immediately we notice something odd. Men and women worship separately as a matter of course yet Paul sits down, in the position of a teacher, with the women. The women. Not what you’d expect of an evangelist coming into town. Nevertheless, that’s what he did, and while sitting and teaching the women of Philippi his words touch the heart of a woman called Lydia.<br /><br />The few lines about Lydia tell us so much about her. Her name and place of birth tell us she is Greek. She is a dealer in purple cloth, a merchant who deals in a particular luxury item and therefore she is well off financially, a person of status in the community. Because she is identified in this way it is also clear that she is the head of her household, financially independent. Indeed, we will learn that her household, family members and servants, are with her at the riverside. She is a follower of God, not a Jew but a seeker. A woman whose heart is already open to the possibilities of what God can accomplish. This is the woman sitting there, receptive, when Paul begins to teach. His words reach into her heart, she is converted and baptized, along with her household.<br /><br />All these things are good, but it is what happens next that makes Lydia a mother of the Church. She says “If you have found me to be faithful in the Lord, come and stay at my home.” She opens her home to Paul and Silas. It is where they will stay throughout their visit. It will be the first of the many house churches to be founded by Paul. It will be the place where the church in Philippi is based and she will be one of its leaders. <br /><br />Lydia, seeing that Paul and Silas were strangers in the city, immediately offered hospitality. She saw something that needed to be done and did it. She saw an opportunity to serve God’s people and immediately took that opportunity. She didn’t spend time wondering if it was the right thing to do, or waiting to see if someone else would step forward first to give Paul and Silas a place to stay. Her heart was open to possibilities. She experienced a resurrection of the spirit – from seeker to leader of the church in a very short time. <br /><br />The great thing about the early church is that there wasn’t anyone around to say “Well, when they’ve been part of the congregation a little longer we’ll let them have some little responsibility.” In so many congregations today the long time members have a hard time letting the newer folks actually do anything. I am grateful that my experience in the church was more like Lydia’s. When I first started attending Treasure Coast Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 1993 I hadn’t been to church in about 25 years. The pastor made opportunities available to me. She asked me to give the children’s sermon and teach Vacation Bible School. She didn’t let me sit in the pew just listening but quickly included me in the work of the church. And she wasn’t the only one to make me feel that I was part of the congregation. Someone sitting in front of me one of the first Sundays I attended suggested I might join the choir. Which is so much better than if they had suggested I sing more quietly. ☺ And of course you all know the rest of the story. Because my heart was open to the words and actions of the faithful at Treasure Coast Christian Church I experienced resurrection of the spirit. Because of their loving care I became able to hear God’s call to the ministry. It was just 10 short years after joining that congregation that I came here as your pastor. <br /><br />Paul carried the Good News of Jesus Christ equally to men and women, Gentile and Jew. In his letters he identifies more women leaders by name. Lydia is just the first. Rhoda, Tabitha, Eunice, Syntyche, Priscilla, Pheobe . . . these women will be leaders of the congregations in their cities. These women, faithful and worthy, will open their hearts and their homes to the Gospel message and to the followers of Jesus Christ. These women, these mothers of the church would be preachers and teachers, evangelists, strong workers in the mission field, gaining converts to the faith through their faithfulness in word and deed. <br /><br />Paul carried the Good News to everyone without prejudice. He frequently had to defend his actions to others who thought he should have stricter requirements about who he let in and who he let lead, but the fact of the matter is, he carried the Good News to anyone and everyone with ears to hear. And so many, Gentiles and Jews, slaves and free, men and women, gay and straight, of all races and cultures and languages, experienced a resurrection of the Spirit like Lydia did, like I did when I finally heard Christ’s message of God’s love for all people. The congregations established in Paul’s time were the perfect example of what church could and should be today - open to all who want to experience God’s love and carry that love outside into the world we live in, diverse in Culture, Nation and Race. Let us be that church.Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-19963041046045824582010-04-27T14:39:00.000-07:002010-04-27T14:48:37.205-07:00Comment Moderation EnabledI know. I hate leaving comments on blogs just to told that it wouldn't show up until someone has decided whether or not my comment is appropriate. I was sure I would never subject my readers to such a thing. <br /><br />After all, the people who read this blog are probably alot like me, and why wouldn't everyone approve of <span style="font-weight:bold;">my</span> comments? I spend time over them, worrying that each word is properly placed, that it says what I want it to say. There is always a chance that I will be misunderstood, but I make every effort to be polite and tactful, especially if I disagree with what is being said either in the blog itself or in one of the comments. <br /><br />And yet - I have enabled Comment Moderation. Not because I found comments that I didn't agree with. Rather, because I found comments that were pornographic in nature. I know my dearly loved regular readers would never do such a thing, but I'd rather you weren't exposed to them either. <br /><br />And so, when you leave a comment from now on I will get an email asking me to approve it. :-( <br />Sorry, my friends.Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-32246340138264555862010-04-26T14:35:00.000-07:002010-04-26T14:36:17.520-07:00Called to ResurrectionActs 9:36-42 (New Revised Standard)<br />36 Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. 37 At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. 38 Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, "Please come to us without delay." 39 So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them. 40 Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, "Tabitha, get up." Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. 41 He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. 42 This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. <br /><br />Resurrection! It is the Fourth Sunday of Easter. We are still so excited over the resurrection! And we remain excited over the smaller miracles God provides every day. At this time of year they are still new, still fresh in our minds. The 23rd Psalm, the best known and best loved of all the psalms tells us of God’s constant presence and comfort no matter what is going on in our lives. The Acts of the Apostles tells us a new story of resurrection – Dorcas is brought back to life by Peter. Dorcas was a good woman, a woman of means, a woman who was able and willing to give of her bounty for the benefit of others who had less in the way of material blessings. A woman who dedicated her wealth and time to caring for those who had no one else to care for them. A woman who served God and believed in Jesus as the Messiah.<br /><br />Resurrection! Just three weeks ago we celebrated the resurrection of Christ. The sanctuary was filled with flowers and our voices were raised in triumphant song. Our prayers, everything we did on Easter was a celebration Jesus was definitely dead. He died a horrible death on the cross. He was laid in the tomb and then . . . . he was raised by the power of God. Now we are given the story of Tabitha. She is definitely dead, laid out in her house. And she is raised from death, brought back to life by the power of God with Peter as God’s instrument.<br /><br />You need to know that I was all set to preach on Earth Stewardship as I always do on this Sunday. I had my Celtic tree of life all ready to hang as I always do. I had a focus for the sermon.<br /><br />And then I read the lectionary passages on an Earth Stewardship Sunday sermon starter site. (Say that 3 times fast!) And even though they had really good ideas for sermons, I read the passage on Dorcas, and I considered some conversations I’ve had and some articles I’ve read while on vacation and I got angry. And I need to share that anger with you. Because there are some people who think Delhaven is dead, or at the very least dying – beyond hope.<br /><br />Delhaven – dead? Not yet, not quite. I know – I see y’all looking around here on a Sunday morning. Wondering where everyone is. Wondering just how long we can keep going. I see you looking for a glimmer of hope. That’s why we get so happy when we hear babies crying and children fussing in the pews. Children mean new life. Children mean a future. I need to tell you something true. I need you to believe me when I tell you this. We are not dead. We are still here. We are strong and willing to do whatever it takes to bring new life back into our pews. I’ve heard you say that – and I believe it. <br /><br />In the annual report for our Yearbook I am asked for a lot of numbers. I’m asked for the number of official members – people who have deliberately joined the congregation, coming up front here at the invitation and accepting the right hand of Christian Fellowship, getting their name in the big black book in the church office. If your name is in the book and you have neither died nor informed us officially that you have joined another congregation, you’re a member no matter how long it is since we last saw or heard from you. If your name isn’t in the book – well, as far as the Yearbook is concerned, you don’t count. Even if you have been showing up every week for decades – if you never came forward to officially join the church you don’t count. First I write down what that number was last year, then what it is this year.<br /><br />Then I’m asked to list the number of new members and whether they came by transfer of membership, affirmation or baptism. <br /><br />I’m asked for the number of those members who actually participate in the life of the congregation by attendance or donation. And this is defined as anyone whose name is in the book and who has shown up or given money at least ONCE during the calendar year. Even if they live in another state and attend another church regularly. <br />This is NOT my definition of participating! <br /><br />Finally, I’m asked for the average Sunday worship attendance. This is the only number for which I am allowed to count un-baptized children and one time visitors and folks who show up every week but have never officially joined the congregation. This is also the only number I really care about. <br /><br />I am never asked for how many left the church and why. So there is no explanation offered if our numbers show we had 4 new people join but we have 6 less total members than last year. The denomination doesn’t seem to care if people moved out of state or died or went to another congregation or why. Only in how many new people have become official members of the congregation and how. Only if our membership numbers are growing and by how much.<br /><br />I want you to know that I reject this method of determining membership in this community. I believe that if you are showing up, doing something to support the work of the church and carrying the Good News of God’s love when you go out of here, then you are part of this community. <br /><br />The denomination seems to carry that same lack of caring into our 2020 Vision. Our goal, set in the year 2000, is to be able to report 1000 new Disciples congregations by the year 2020. And we are well more than halfway to that goal is half the time allotted. This is wonderful!<br /><br />But we don’t seem to be able to get an answer to the question, “But how many have closed?” How do we reconcile total congregations today against total congregations in 2000? How many closed their doors and how many left over a controversial General Assembly? And even, how many of those new churches are flourishing after 5 or 10 years? We keep hearing about the new congregations that have grown into the thousands but little if anything about small but mighty congregations. It’s almost as if New and Mega are the only model anyone is interested in.<br /><br />Our denomination seems to believe that small congregations living in large church buildings really need to close their doors and let their building go to a new church start. I have been told that we will not receive help from denomination or region to start a 2nd worship service or 2nd congregation here unless we make it a completely separate church, with it’s own budget and bylaws. They won’t help with training us, they won’t help in any way. We are on our own in this matter. And they believe we are doomed unless we follow their direction.<br /><br />I REJECT THIS WAY OF THINKING!<br /><br />We Disciples are a resurrection church. <br />We focus on the Risen Christ. <br />We believe that in Christ death is defeated. <br />We believe that as long as there is life there is hope. <br />We believe that through the power of God Jesus was raised from the dead, <br />and Lazarus and Dorcas<br /><br />So why do we believe that a congregation that isn’t even dead yet can’t rise again? <br />Do we deny our theology when it comes up against a real world “business model?” <br />Do we believe the Spirit is impotent? <br /><br />Because all those churches started in Israel and Greece and all over the Middle East and even into Rome itself weren’t started because people had a plan for how to start new churches. They started because people were on fire for Christ. Because people had a passion for serving God and they could not HELP but share it with others. Because people went out into their neighborhoods helping even strangers, feeding the hungry, visiting the prisoner, healing the sick, and the neighbors responded with curiosity. “Who ARE these people?” they asked. “Let’s go see what they are all about.” THAT’s how the word of God was spread in the 1st and 2nd centuries. There was no plan, no 2020 vision, no anyone deciding which congregational model was “right” or which little box any particular congregation fitted into on some graph.<br /><br />God raised Dorcas from death. Peter prayed and God’s Spirit entered back into her. She opened her eyes, he told her to get up, he gave her his hand. And the news spread around the neighborhood, Dorcas was dead and she was brought back to life by the power of God. And many people believed in the Lord. <br /><br />I believe that we are being called to enter into a time of prayer. Last year in our retreat we designated a year of prayer, but we had no focus for that prayer. I believe it is time to focus that prayer and I would ask that each of you pray for discernment asking “where do we go from here?”. We have been doing this a little. We did it in our Lenten Suppers. We will continue in our 2nd Tuesdays beginning in May. And I believe we are been moving toward a new light and life as a body. <br /><br />But now I call upon this congregation to make the summer of 2010 a time of intentional prayer for Delhaven with our focus being Resurrection. <br />I call upon each of you to spend the summer pondering and praying on what the Resurrection means. Personally. In your own life. And in the life of the congregation.<br /><br />I call upon each of you to pray for the Spirit of God to enter into the body. <br /><br />I call upon each of you to focus upon one thing and one thing only every day <br /><br />Christ is Risen! <br /><br />Christ is Risen! <br /><br />Christ is Risen!Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-30766357017884593742010-04-07T11:02:00.000-07:002010-04-07T11:37:51.118-07:00The Last WordAt lunch a few weeks ago one of my friends was texting with her daughter. Every so often she would make an exasperated noise, text furiously and then put her phone down. After doing this several times she exclaimed, "She ALWAYS has to get the last word! No matter what I say to end the conversation she has to make some response." <br /><br />I chose not to point out the fact that she was busy doing the same thing. Every time her daughter tried to end the conversation she typed a response. I made this decision because I am frequently guilty of the same thing and I really hate having to point out my character defects to myself. I'm not sure, but I think maybe a lot of people are guilty of this. And most of us won't think of it as a problem until someone else points it out. We are simply being polite, we think, or perhaps we simply don't want the conversation to end.<br /><br />Think back to those phone conversations with a romantic interest, maybe in junior high or high school. Did you or did you not engage in the time honored battle over who was going to hang up first? "You hang up first." "No, you hang up first." <br /><br />Those of us of a certain age were no doubt taught that it was horribly rude not to reply if someone wrote us a letter so it has become ingrained in us to respond to any correspondence. (Letter: Correspondence similar to an email except that it is handwritten on actual paper and delivered to your home by the postal service.) <br /><br />Email may have been the beginning of widespread complaints about someone needing to have the last word in correspondence. I must say that I get very frustrated when I email someone about some important event or necessary task and they don't respond. No response means I don't know whether they even received the email so I don't know whether they are up to date on whatever we are doing or not. Because this frustrates me I try to make sure I don't frustrate others by lack of response, and that could be interpreted as me needing to have the last word. I don't think so, but someone else might.<br /><br />Texting, however, has created new issues. Not everyone has unlimited texting on their calling plan. Therefore, conversing with someone who always wants to have the last word can be not just annoying but expensive. (I have to remember that so I am not guilty of the electronic equivalent of "no, you hang up first" with my friends whose texting plan may not be as generous as mine.)<br /><br />Blogging brings its own difficulties. Do I respond to every comment on my blogs or not? Do I assume that whatever someone is saying that seems to disagree with my opinion is in fact an argumentative statement or is it simply them taking the opportunity to air their own views. That's what the blogosphere is for, right? So I don't always have to respond, right? Mind you, this isn't usually a problem as I don't get many comments on my blogs. Of course, if people don't respond then I don't know if anyone is even reading what I've written. (Yes, you may read that last line in a whiney tone of voice.)<br /><br />And let's not even talk about the conversations that result from some Facebook status updates. :D <br /><br />Luckily, I am neither Dear Abby nor Miss Manners. I don't get to make the decision about what constitutes a proper conversational ending and response as opposed to trying to get the last word in other peoples' conversations. I just get to try to make the appropriate decision in my own interactions with people.Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-67376933359754711002010-03-14T06:29:00.000-07:002010-03-14T06:31:22.596-07:00Wednesday of Holy Week Mark 14:1-111 It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; 2 for they said, "Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people." <br />3 While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. 4 But some were there who said to one another in anger, "Why was the ointment wasted in this way? 5 For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor." And they scolded her. 6 But Jesus said, "Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. 7 For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. 8 She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. 9 Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her." <br />10 Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. 11 When they heard it, they were greatly pleased, and promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.<br /> <br /><br /><br />We have been spending Sundays in Lent following the Gospel of Mark through Holy Week, using a book titled The Last Week by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan as our guide along the journey. This week we are looking at the events of Wednesday.<br /><br />The chief priests were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. They knew they couldn’t do it during the Passover festival or the people would riot, because Jesus was extremely popular. Everywhere he went the crowds gathered – when he entered the city crowds laid palms at his feet. When he turned over the moneychangers tables in the temple on Monday the crowd was there to admire him. Tuesdays crowd was very pleased by his confounding of the priests and Pharisees and scribes and Sadducees, they were spellbound by his teachings. So they couldn’t take the chance of arresting him while the crowds were present or they might riot, and if they rioted the Romans would retaliate, people would be injured and killed, the Temple leadership could lose their positions or even their lives. I know we have learned to think of the crowds of Jews as being opposed to Jesus when Pilate is asking what to do with him, but right here, in this passage, it is clear that the crowds were with Jesus and against the Temple leadership. And the Temple leaders give up. Unless they can find some way to arrest and try Jesus in secret, they can’t move against him.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Jesus is frustrated with his disciples. Throughout his gospel Mark keeps telling us about ways the disciples are just not getting it at all. Jesus has now prophesied his own death three times, first in Chapter 8, then in Chapter 9 and finally in Chapter 10. In each case he refers to himself as the Son of Man, speaks of his betrayal and death and of his resurrection three days after he is killed. But the disciples don’t understand what he means. Even after three prophesies he catches them arguing over who will be closest to him when he comes to power. I can just imagine Jesus shaking his head over his disciples’ lack of understanding. <br /><br />As they sit at the table a woman comes in and anoints him with very rare and expensive ointment, pouring it out onto his head. We don’t know who she is. She isn’t named or described in any way. And it is really important that we not confuse her with the Mary of John’s gospel or the sinful woman of Luke’s gospel. It’s important that we see her just as Mark portrays her here – an unnamed woman who is part of the company who follow Jesus. Jesus lifts her up and claims she will be remembered and celebrated where ever believers gather together. <br /><br />And why is this? Because she, not the disciples, is the first believer. She is the first one to realize what his prophecies mean and so she pours out upon his head this costly ointment – preparing his body for the grave. For Mark, she is the first Christian. Even before Easter, before Jesus’ appearances to the disciples after his resurrection, this woman believed.<br /><br />Not only was she the first who believed, the first of his many followers on the way who really got what he was trying to tell them. She was also the first to model the kind of leadership he was trying to teach them. She led the others in belief and also in service. We’re going to come back to the woman in a minute. <br /><br />Judas went to the priests. Mark doesn’t tell us why Judas decides to betray Jesus. Historians have lots of theories and other gospels talk about Judas’ motive. But Mark doesn’t. Mark is sort of a “just the facts” gospel. It was both the first gospel written and the shortest. The stories are fairly brief and unembellished. What we know from Mark is simply that Judas, one of the Twelve, decided to betray Jesus. He went to the Temple leadership and offered to find a way for them to arrest Jesus without the crowds knowing about it, and they offered to pay him. They were, of course, delighted to have an insider willing to betray his rabbi. Judas’ action will fulfill the prophecy of betrayal and arrest.<br /><br />I wouldn’t have noticed this contrast between Judas and the woman without Borg and Crossan pointing it out. I mean, I’ve always loved this woman’s story, but I’ve always focused on how it foreshadowed the crucifixion, or how we are to understand that statement “the poor will always be with you.” It never occurred to me to look at this woman alongside of Judas, one of the Twelve. But that’s what Mark intended for us to do – to look at the woman in the context of discipleship and belief and leadership. She understands what Jesus is teaching better than any of the Twelve, who still don’t understand Jesus’ prophecies or the idea that leaders must first be servants. She does. She is the perfect disciple in contrast with Judas who is the worst possible disciple. <br /><br />This unnamed woman, this perfect disciple, models for us what it means to be a leader. Her faith led her to follow Jesus’ teachings far better than those of Jesus’ followers whose names we do know. At Delhaven we understand that one of the many ways we can follow Jesus is to serve the poor, to feed the hungry, to make education available for those who have little or nothing to spend on education. A number of us will be walking in the Church World Service CROP walk later today and the money we raise will help care for the poor and dispossessed around the world. Serving others is how we serve God. It is how we show our love for our brothers and sisters as we have been commanded to do.<br /><br />And how special is it that this passage be the one we read on Girl Scout Sunday? We all know that Girl Scouting teaches girls to lead through service. One way that we experience their leadership is in their dedication to keeping Delhaven’s food pantry supplied so that we may serve our neighbors. Girl Scouts earn badges and other awards for so many different forms of service and caring for others that listing them all would take way too long. Former Girl Scouts lead their grateful nation in every conceivable occupation; soldiers and astronauts and teachers and religious leaders, even our Secretary of State was a Girl Scout. <br /><br />Today we have celebrated five young women whose faith has led them to serve others. Each one has spend the better part of the last year working toward the religious award she received today, an award designed by her own faith tradition to help her grow in her faith through serving. (The girls will each say something about their religious award project and how it serves the community.)<br /><br />Like the woman who anointed Jesus, each one of these young women knows that it is through serving others that we best serve God and our community. Each one knows that the very best leaders are those who are dedicated first to serving, like Jesus. <br /><br />When we go from this place today, let us keep this unnamed woman in our hearts. Let us seek to be like her, the perfect disciple, faithful and willing to serve without waiting to be asked.Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35305783.post-15427035322220232492010-03-07T06:30:00.001-08:002010-03-07T06:30:59.985-08:00Tuesday of Holy Week II Mark 12:28-13:37All day long on this very busy Tuesday Jesus is engaged in confrontation. The priests, Pharisees, and scribes and even the Sadducees have been bombarding Jesus with theological questions in both hypothetical situations and very real, politically charged situations. All day long Jesus has been confounding them, telling parables that point out their failings and cleverly evading their attempts to discredit him. And somewhere in the middle of the day a scribe, an educated man employed by the priests or Pharisees, asks a question and agrees with Jesus’ answer. There is no confrontation, no test, no effort to make Jesus look bad or to incriminate himself. This is the only such situation all day. <br /><br />Even though I know the story, just as you all know this story, this really is something I hadn’t noticed until Borg and Crossan pointed it out. Probably because I usually look at manageable pieces of the Gospel – a chapter or a short passage selected by the lectionary committee for preachers. I usually don’t look at the entire day the way Borg and Crossan do in their book The Last Week. But when we do look at the entire day we see something way bigger and much more radical than the juxtaposition of two passages into the commandments that Christians quote in every possible situation; Deuteronomy 6:5-6 “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength: and Leviticus 19:18 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” <br /><br />And look – the scribe not only agrees with Jesus but adds another statement that sounds like what we’ve heard from prophets like Micah. He says “You are right teacher . . this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” This educated man who served the Temple stood in front of the Temple and said love of God and neighbor is more important than the Temple and what happens inside it. <br /><br />What does all this mean, exactly? That is, what does that mean when we look at it in relation to the confrontations and teachings of the entire day? <br /><br />For one thing it means that not all the Jewish scholars and leaders agreed theologically or politically. I know, we tend to believe that all the priests and Pharisees and scribes and nobles were opposed to Jesus. That would be because not much attention is given to folks who agreed with Jesus, only to those who disagreed. Just as in John’s Gospel, where he often speaks against “the Jews” but is actually only referring to those who opposed and persecuted the Christ followers some 60 years later when that Gospel was being written. This probably shouldn’t surprise us, really. How many times have we heard people say all Christians believe this or act that way or whatever and we get frustrated because we don’t believe that or act like that or whatever. Just as not all Christians have agreed from the beginning of the movement, so too not all Jews agreed in Jesus’ time – or now or any other time for that matter. This passage serves to remind us to avoid stereotyping folks, for here is one example of a member of the ruling elite who agrees with Jesus’ teachings. <br /><br />But Jesus’ long day doesn’t stop there. Even though no one dares question him any further, he goes on to attack some of the most dearly held traditions of the time. He wants to know why the scribes teach that the Messiah is the son of David when David spoke of the Messiah as Lord? You usually don’t call your son Lord, he said, but David calls the Messiah in the psalms. Jesus rejects the tradition that the Messiah would be a military and political leader like David. He goes on to attack the practice of some scribes of foreclosing on loans made to widows, leaving them homeless and destitute with no one to stand up for them or care for them, even though treatment of the widow is the primary test of whether or not justice is being practiced in the land. He follows this with the story of the widow putting everything she has into the temple treasury, encouraged by the religious leaders to give her all to the service God while those who have much more just give a small portion of their wealth. <br /><br />And when his disciples admire the great stone buildings of the temple, he predicts their destruction. It is a fact that the destruction of the Temple would have been pretty easy for almost anyone living at the time to predict. Rebellion was in the air in Judah. Bands of rebels and bandits lived in the hills waiting for the right time to strike against Rome. Fear of a large rebellion that would trigger Roman retaliation was one of the primary reasons the leadership in Jerusalem were so afraid of Jesus’ popularity. And we must keep in mind that this gospel was written after the great rebellion of 66 ce took place, after the Roman retaliation and conquest of Judah, after the Roman troops had offered a sacrifice to Caesar in the Temple in just the same way that Emperor Antiochus Epiphanes had some two centuries earlier and then, torn the Temple down. After, in fact, most of the things predicted here took place. Jesus tells his followers that when these things happen they must not let themselves be drawn into the war, not even in defense of home or family. They must not be part of the violence, for to do so would make them part of the problem instead of part of the kingdom. And after all those things, then would come the end of days with the arrival of the Son of Man. <br /><br />Mark, Matthew, Paul and other early Christian leaders believed that Jesus would return soon – next month, a year from now, in their lifetimes for sure. It didn’t happen, at least it didn’t happen in the way they way expected. But it is certain that Jesus came into the world, his message scattered to the four corners of the earth even as the Jews themselves were scattered after the Roman conquest of their land. It is certain that what was begun in Jesus will triumph, that one day God’s justice, compassion and mercy will rule the world in the place of the greed and power hungry machinations of the powers and principalities. It is what all Christians are called to teach and to do – to love each other as we love ourselves. We are the ones left in charge while our Lord is on a journey – we are the ones who are supposed to spread the Word and the love throughout the world.<br /><br />Jesus said to the scribe, “you are not far from the kingdom of God.” He was close because he believed what he was saying, that love of God and neighbor was more important than Temple practice. But he wasn’t quite there because he wasn’t living what he believed. <br /><br />What does it mean to live what we believe? What does it mean to love God? It means always putting God first. Giving God what belongs to God, ourselves. We belong to God and not to Caesar. This is really radical, because if God is Lord then the other lords - the Caesars and Emperors and Presidents and Queens and Kings - are not. They may have power over our bodies. They may have power over our money, or over where we can live or work. But we don’t belong to those powers. We belong to God. We answer to God first. <br /><br />And what does it mean to love the neighbor? To love one’s neighbor as we love ourselves means that all the differences society would place between us really don’t exist – there is no Greek or Jew, no male or female, no slave or free, no rich or poor, no straight or gay, no righteous or sinner, no friend or enemy. There are just people, all our neighbors, all beloved children of God, equally valued in the eyes of God. Let us go and love one another. Let everyone know we are Christian by our love.Maria Tafoyahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13920977030140327974noreply@blogger.com1