This is Our Father's World

Acts 17:22-31 (New Revised Standard Version)
22Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ 29Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”


When I was in high school I attended a religion class at church every Wednesday night. One night I asked the priest “How do we know there’s a God?” It’s not that I didn’t believe there was a God. I just wanted something I could hold on to. His answer was “You must just have faith.” When I told my father about it, he said if I was being taught by a Jesuit instead of a Franciscan I’d have gotten a better answer. His answer was to take me outside and walk with me around the yard. He pointed out the perfection of the leaves on the maple tree and the enticing aroma of the roses, and said “none of this could have happened by accident. There must be a God who created all this and put us in the middle of it.” From that time on, when I wanted to be really close to God, I went outside. I still do. In the mornings, really early, I go out on my little patio and sit with my bunny rabbit, surrounded by lots of potted plants. I know a lot of people who seek God in nature - who grope for God in places where the human presence is a little less overwhelming. If we think about it even for a minute, we know the truth of what Paul said to the people of Athens. God is not in shrines built by human hands. God is not in images of gold or silver or stone, images formed by the art and imagination of mortals. There are even places in the Old Testament where God says (and I’m seriously paraphrasing here) “When did I ask you to build me a temple? All I want from you is your love and obedience.”

Paul said, While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent. If the hand of God is indeed to be found in nature, then we know just from looking around us that it is truly time to repent our disobedience and our ignorance.

Regardless of the opinion of some of our political leaders, we know the world is sick and getting sicker, and that we have had a lot to do with that sickness. In large part because of global warming, the largest contributors to which are industrialized nations like the US, weather patterns are changing all over the earth. Our trash heaps will take hundreds or thousands of years to turn back into soil if they ever do, as so much of what we throw away can’t be absorbed into the earth. The air is so dirty that asthma and other lung diseases are epidemic. People are starving where there used to plenty. Bees are dying, and we don’t know why. But we know if they all die, the food situation is going to get critical. And while people in Haiti and Kenya and so many other places starve to death, Americans and Brits are dying in record numbers because of an epidemic of obesity. There is something seriously wrong with this picture. We all know these things – and we all feel a little helpless. What can we do to reverse this?

The answer seems simple. Recycle, conserve, find alternative power sources. Simple. Save water! Stop using Styrofoam! Not using Styrofoam is all good. Inconvenient, perhaps, but all good. Some people say we should stop using paper plates and cups too, so we can save trees. But that also means washing more dishes, using more water, adding more soap to the waste water that will have to be treated chemically. Of course, with melting ice caps we may soon have more water than we want, so maybe using more water is ok. Use corn and soybeans to create fuel for our cars and stuff. But that reduces the amount of corn and soy available for food products and makes the prices go up – a real crisis for those who depend on corn and soy products. Hmm, maybe rethink that one. Buy hybrid cars! Great! But they’re too expensive for most folks, and mostly Japanese. Use cloth bags instead of plastic or paper for our groceries and other purchases. Ok, nothing can be wrong with this! But have you ever lived near a cloth dying plant? I have. The air stinks and the chemicals in the air burn your eyes and lungs. And the “cloth” bags I’ve been getting in the grocery stores aren’t all cloth. Fresh and Easy bags are 100% cotton bags, Vons bags are 100% recycled materials, Food 4 Less bags are 100% polypropylene, an easily recycled plastic. All of them are made in China.

Why do I mention where things are made? Because everything is related to everything –
the dollar goes down, so China stops exporting rice to the US. The price of corn and rice goes up and our mission dollars can’t supply as much food to the starving we want to help, and as the weather patterns keep changing, the numbers of starving keeps going up. We buy fuel efficient Japanese cars because Detroit still wants to sell gas-hogs, and tens of thousands of people lose their jobs. Prices of all kinds of American products and services keep going up, so jobs are outsourced abroad, and tens of thousands more are unemployed. How do they eat the fruits and vegetables they need to be healthy when all they can afford is pasta?

Making the environmental changes that need to be made; addressing economic oppression in our country and elsewhere; even feeding the hungry are all really complicated and inter-related problems. Anything we do to address one problem affects something else, and not always in a good way. The thing is, we can do a good thing, but just because it’s a good thing doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right thing. How do we obey God’s commandment to care for the earth and love our neighbor when it seems like they conflict with each other? What’s a Christian to do?

I don’t have an easy answer. I doubt if anyone does. And, to be fair, I have deliberately chosen problematic solutions to make a point. Each one of us really can make a difference in some small way. As they say on the Treehugger commercials, if every person makes one small change it will make a huge difference. So turn off the water while you brush your teeth, use cloth bags, recycle, and change your light bulbs. And learn as much as you can – According to Paul, it is our ignorance that God needs us to repent of. Learn, so you can see where your efforts will make the most beneficial difference in the life of our planet. Because it’s not really ours, you know. We’ve just been given the job of taking care of it. This is our Father’s world.

Like a Child

What an blessed morning I have had! Early on my challenge was to prepare a memorial service for a physically and developmentally challenged woman who suffered a fatal heart attack last week. The majority of the mourners present were going to be her friends and room-mates from the several group homes she has lived in and the day program she participates in. I was faced with writing a message and prayers that would be true to the Gospel, to the celebration of her life and also accessible to those whose language skills in any language were minimal. I also had to prepare the bulletins in both English and Spanish so those who can read could participate in their own language. Thank God for my copy of the bilingual La Biblia de las Americas and BibleGateway.com. I was told to expect perhaps 40 people.

Maybe I should back up. Several years ago a non-profit group approached me about doing some work around our church. Their goal is to teach the developmentally challenged job skills and help them achieve self esteem by being productive. We thought this was a wonderful thing - a win/win ministry in which we got dusting, vacuuming and other indoor and outdoor tasks performed free of charge twice weekly, and the clients had an opportunity to develop job skills and self esteem. Our partnership over the last several years has grown so that now, when the administrators want to have a holiday party they can be fairly certain that we will make space available for them. Over the years I have gotten to know most of the job coaches, the administrators and a number of the clients fairly well. Tanya was one of those clients. When I learned last week that she had passed it seemed quite appropriate to offer to hold a memorial service at the church.

I was at the church at 9 am to set up the sanctuary for the 10 am service. Around 9:15 a dozen job coaches and clients from Tanya's day program had arrived bearing food and photo memory boards. Flowers, more food and more people started arriving, and it occurred to me I should probably have printed the 23rd Psalm and the Beatitudes in Tagalog as well as Spanish. By the time the service was to begin there were at least 80 people in the sanctuary.

There was a place in the service for statements of life. The administrators and job coaches and social workers and group home managers who had worked with Tanya spoke, many from prepared statements. All of them spoke of her innocence and love for everyone she ever met. All of them cried. And then the clients started to come up. Those with sufficient language skills said "She was my best friend. She was always nice to me." Some were only able to say "Tanya, I love you." One took a little while, standing at the pulpit with one hand in the air. Some in the congregation tried to help, shouting "Tanya es en cielo," but he persisted and was finally able to complete the sentence, "Tanya es con Dios."

Then it was my turn. Wiping the tears from my eyes I spoke of Tanya's child-like and constant offering of love, and her unfailing trust that everyone she met would be a friend. I reminded those present that Jesus said "Let the children come to me" and sang "Jesus Loves Me." The clients sang along with gusto. I encouraged everyone to try to be like Tanya, for we are all told we must be as little children if we want to enter the kingdom of heaven. And I dismissed the congregation with the charge to love each other the way Tanya and Jesus loved them.

I have never experienced anything like this before. Pray God that I will experience it again, and that I will remember to be like Tanya in the future.

Out from the tomb

It’s hard to write an Easter sermon before it’s actually Easter. As I journeyed through Holy Week in scripture I found it difficult to move past the events and emotions of each day to the glorious surprise that would greet the women when they went to properly prepare the body of Jesus as it lay in the tomb.

Imagine what that morning must have been like. The sun is just rising as the two Marys arrive. It’s the soonest they could go there without violating the Sabbath – what must Saturday have been like for them? Grieving and yet unable to do the things that help with grieving – unable to wash and anoint the body, unable to look at their teacher one last time. And so they arrive, tired and worn from the events of the week, emotionally exhausted, dreading the work ahead of them and yet filled with a great desire to perform this one last service for their master. When they arrive, there was a great earthquake! An angel of the Lord descended from heaven and rolled back the stone and sat upon it! His appearance was like lightening, his clothes as white as snow. His appearance was so unworldly that the guards, military men, fainted from fear! But apparently not the women, for the angel said “Do not be afraid.” If we needed any proof that this was, indeed, an angel, these words alone would let us know. Every time God’s messengers appear that’s the first thing they say “Do not be afraid,” and with good reason. If someone who shone so brightly it was hard to look at him suddenly appeared to me, accompanied by an earthquake, I’d be afraid!

And then his message. “You are looking for Jesus. He isn’t here. He is risen, as he said he would be. Come, look. Then go tell the others.”

Even now, on Easter day, it’s still hard to leave the place of the empty tomb. The temptation is to stay there, and look inside to make sure he’s really not there. To gather some sort of evidence to prove to the others he’s really gone. The temptation is to stay and talk about it, and wonder what to do next. I can imagine myself standing there saying “I know, we’ve been given directions by an angel of the Lord, but really Mary, what do you think happened here? How are we going to explain this? You know the others are never going to believe this!”

They do leave, of course, in great fear and joy. And on their way, they meet Jesus. And they fall to their knees, and grab hold of his feet, and worship him. Probably crying and laughing at the same time. Alternately asking incoherent questions and struck silent by the wonder of the morning’s experiences. And again they hear the words of God’s messengers, “Do not be afraid.” He tells them what the angel has already told them – Go and tell the disciples to meet me in Galilee.

Go back to where it all began, to the place where John was baptizing, to the place where the disciples were chosen, to the place where the water was changed to wine, to the place the first demons were cast out and the first sick were healed. Go, I will meet you there.

We know that Jesus would indeed meet the disciples there – that his ministry hadn’t ended yet. Rather, now would begin an intensive time of study. He would spend the next forty days teaching the disciples the things they needed to know to carry the Good News of God’s Kingdom out into the world. He could have taught them anywhere. But he deliberately took them back to the place where they had first become his followers.

Earlier this week, while trying to understand the message of Easter, I looked up the symbols we use to symbolize Easter. It was a long list including lilies, and eggs, and bunnies, and spring flowers – lots of things that indicate spring and new life. At the very bottom of the list was the butterfly. I found that kind of fascinating, because we’ve been using butterflies as our symbol these last couple of years. The butterfly is a symbol, not just of Easter, but Jesus as a whole. The caterpillar, earthbound and rather ordinary, indicates Jesus’ life, when he lived as an ordinary man for some thirty years. The chrysalis is his death and the time he spent in the tomb, a time when the preparations were being made for transformation. And the butterfly, so delicate and beautiful, but so strong it can ride out a hurricane, is the resurrected Christ.

Have you ever seen a butterfly when it first emerges from the chrysalis? It doesn’t burst out ready to fly. It comes out slowly, with great struggle. It comes out sort of wet and wrinkly and vulnerable and has to sit still for a while until it’s wings are dry and ready to spread.

This is where the disciples were in their transformation. They were changed, but not quite ready to fly yet. They had to go back to the beginning – to the beginning of a new life and a new understanding of the Word. Soon they would be ready to spread their wings and carry the Good News all across the world. But first, they had to prepare. They had to leave behind their old understandings and embrace the new.

What does it mean for us that the same instruction, “Go to Galilee. Jesus will meet you there.” is given twice in this short passage? We know something new was about to enter the world. Something so beautiful and amazing that it would spread across the entire world. But on Easter it wasn’t quite ready yet – the disciples weren’t ready yet.

Perhaps today it tells us to go back – back to the place where we first met Jesus. Back to our early excitement about his teachings, about the knowledge that through him we came to know God’s steadfast love, infinite compassion, and willing forgiveness. Back to that sense of awe and wonder that came when we first believed Jesus Loves Me – even Me!

On this Easter Sunday, let us go back to that beginning. Let us leave the empty tomb behind so we can spread our wings and begin life anew. So that we can shout hosanna with fervor and meaning – with tears and laughter – and let that shout ring out into the world. Christ is Risen! (Christ is Risen! Shout Hosanna! 222)

Boomerang Prayers

For the last month or so, I 've been signing off all the emails I send with the phrase "May your day be filled with unexpected blessings." Maybe it's because I've been seeing and saying that phrase so much, but lately I've been seeing so many blessings!

The other day I was in line at the McDonald's drive-thru. I'm there a lot - so much that I'm on first name basis with the woman at the payment window. I'd been so busy preparing for all the Holy Week events leading up to Easter and trying to get two weeks work done in advance so I can go on vacation with good conscience that I was feeling anxious and overwhelmed. As I waited for my change Patsy was reacting to the demanding customer ahead of me saying "How can anyone be unhappy during Holy Week? 2000 years ago our Lord was on his journey of love and redemption. There is so much to be joyful about!" I said to her, "Please pray that for me, Patsy. I'm so tired and there's so much more to do." When I pulled away she was already praying. What an unexpected blessing! As the day continued one blessing followed closely upon the next - a worship team member said she'd take care of worship while I was on vacation, a friend sent an email with Erma Bombeck's reminder to take our blessings where ever we find them.

I told my spiritual director about this and several other recent experiences with unexpected blessings. She said that my email prayers for others were acting like boomerangs coming back to bless me.

I plan to keep praying that prayer. If nothing else, it helps me recognize the unexpected blessings in the ordinary occurances of my day. May your day be filled with unexpected blessings.

Limping for Laurie

Wow! What a day it was! It was my first ever time participating in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure for Breast Cancer. The day started really early - I was at our team leader's house at 6:40 am so we could get to the Rose Bowl by 7:30. We met up with the other members of the Limpin' for Laurie Team - 19 adults and 2 small children! - and immediately started hitting all the info booths gathering much free pink merchandise. The local Oldie Goldie radio station was entertaining the crowd while we waited for the opening ceremony to honor the survivors. As all those women and 2 men paraded past the other thousands of us waiting to walk there was cheering and applause. A large group of young women from Zeta Tau Alpha sorority seemed to be everywhere, acting as cheerleaders for the walkers, carrying pink banners to escort the survivors, handing out bottles of water and generally making themselves invaluable. Two of my favorite personalities from CBS news were there to make introductions and start us off.

It seemed like we were there forever before we actually began to walk, but once we did all the waiting around didn't matter anymore. The Zeta Tau Alphas were stationed along the route to cheer us on, high fiving everyone who came within reach. Our group of 19 got split up somehow but the road was so filled with walkers that there was no stopping and waiting or turning around! We all kept encouraging each other to keep going and reminding each other why we were walking. OK, it was only 5K but I don't walk. I have bad feet and even standing long enough to preach hurts, but somehow walking with all those people for such a good reason energized me and made me more determined to make it the whole way.



When we reached the end there were crowds of people cheering and taking our pictures. It was good to feel important, but we all knew who the really important people were. They were Laurie, and Allyson, and Katherine, and Gayle, and Stasi and all the other survivors and victims of breast cancer. They were the reason we were there. And they're the reason I'll be there again next year.

Friday Five - Palms

And can you believe that in two days it will be Palm Sunday for Western Christians? Our Lent is almost over, while our Orthodox sisters and brothers, whose liturgical year follows the older Julian calendar, are just starting theirs.

To help you adjust--and enjoy the process--here's a Friday Five about time and transitions....

1. If you could travel to any historical time period, which would it be, and why?

Around the 6th century in Ireland to experience the leadership of women in the church as a thing that didn't make headlines, because it was the accepted way of being Church.

2. What futuristic/science fiction development would you most like to see?

Self-driving, solar powered cars! Good for the environment and auto accidents would be a thing of - well, the past.

3. Which do you enjoy more: remembering the past, or dreaming for the future?

Dreaming for the future while working toward it. I just know there are great things in the future for my congregation and I can visualize them clearly. It's just going to be a lot of work.

4. What do you find most memorable about this year's Lent?

A new sense of excitement about possibilities. The congregation is living through Lent in self-examination, knowing the present is bleak but joyfully anticipating their own resurrection in the not too distant future.

5. How will you spend your time during this upcoming Holy Week? What part do you look forward to most?

Really? I'll spend the week trying to get everything done for two weeks so I can go on vacation at 5 pm on Easter Sunday!

I really look forward to the Good Friday Prayer Vigil, when I will get to spend time alone in the sanctuary with God and not feel like I should be "doing" something.

A Week in the Life

A dramatic presentation of the final week in the life of the Christ.

Enter: Dancing, singing Hosana (tune from Superstar), carrying palms

He’s coming! Why are you sitting here? Come On! Jesus of Nazareth is coming! He’s entering the city anytime now. . . Oh - you need palms, here . . .

There’s another procession today of course. There always is at the beginning of Passover week. Pilate’s coming into the city today too. And the crowds will be lining the streets over there - but THEY won’t be happy. It’s such a formal procession - Pilate and the soldiers . I heard his wife was coming with him this time. Surprising, they don’t much like it here in Jerusalem. Of course, we don’t much like them either. All the power of Rome exemplified in that procession, and opposite that, Jesus, coming in humbly as the prophet said, with the power of God behind him

Things are going to change now, I tell you what. Jesus is coming! He’s the promised one, the messiah, the one who was prophesied to save us from oppression. I’ll betcha that by the end of Passover - by this time next week! - Pilate will be gone and Jesus will be sitting pretty in the governors palace!

“OK, you all stay there. He’ll be along soon. Blessed be the son of David, Blessed be the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosana! (dance out)

(Come back in singing “Were you there”)

He’s dead. I saw him die! How can that be? God, why did you let this happen? I guess we should have known. . . you just can’t defy the Temple and Rome the way he did without consequences. But we were so sure!

(tell story of the events of the week)
Monday - turning over the tables in the temple
Tuesday - beat the Scribes in debate, told us there are two great commandments that are most important to follow.
Wednesday, things started getting strange - dinner at the home of simon the leper. Woman with alabaster jar. Death prediction
Thursday - Passover meal, a betrayer! Arrest in the garden at Mount of Olives.
Friday - another procession, him on his way to be executed. Beaten and bloodied, so weak. Spikes nailed in his hands, people taunting and teasing him. Got so dark at noon time, Silent until the last moment. “My God, why have you forsaken me?” Centurian “This man is the son of god.” Joseph got permission to bury him. They put him in the tomb just as he came down from the cross, and that’s not right. We couldn’t do anything then, Sabbath was beginning. But after the Sabbath ends we’ll go clean and anoint him, prepare him properly.

We ran away last night, just as he said we would. He knows us so well. And we’ve all scattered, all his followers. We’re worried - the Romans might come after us. We’re going to meet later to talk about what to do next. But everything he taught me, everything he said tells me it’s not all over - not to give up. I don’t know what’s coming, but I know he devoted his life to me, to us, to all the people. So the best I can do now is devote myself to living the way he would want me to live - to follow the teachings he brought to us from God - to offer the gift of my life, my love, to God in honor of Jesus. Lord, Take my gifts and use them for your glory!

What happened to Tuesdays?

Every Sunday afternoon I say to myself, "Self, THIS week you're going to see what all those RevGals are doing with the lectionary this week." And then suddenly it's Wednesday. Once again, I have totally missed Tuesday Lectionary Leanings.

Yes, I can go look to see what everyone else is doing, but that's not the same as participating in the conversation. Tuesdays fill up so quickly, even when my calendar says I have the day free. "Free" only mean no appointments or meetings. It doesn't mean the phone won't ring, or the Sunday bulletin is ready, or the newsletter doesn't have to be put together, or the SouperBowl of Caring folks won't need me to fill out a survey NOW, or a member won't drop into the office to talk "for just a minute," or .....

Oh well. Next week for sure! :-)

Too Busy To Blog?

I know - what's that about? It's just the way life has been lately. I seem to be busy every second of the day. Lots of that time is spent writing, but not here. There's my personal stuff - a journal and scribbles for that book everyone seems to be busy writing. And then there's work stuff - worship bulletin, the newsletter, the church website, sermons and prayers. When I add all the admin work at church, personal meetings and appointments, and whatever chores I manage to take care of at home, there just doesn't seem to be any time left to spend here.

I seem to think of blogging as an extra - something I do when everything else is done but only if I have any creative thoughts left. There are so many things I could be sharing.

Like - Tuesday this week was Super Tuesday in our presidential campaign. Delhaven was a polling place and when I got there at 5:40 am to open up for the poll workers I really expected "the usual suspects" to show up. You know - the elderly ladies who are always there to help people cast their ballots. Much to my surprise and delight, the first volunteer to show up was a 17 year old high school senior. She isn't even old enough to vote, but she felt passionately enough about the election process to spend a 15 hour day volunteering! I thought she was an aberration until the 2nd volunteer walked in - an 18 year old college freshman!

Arriving home I emailed a lot of friends to let them know and all day I got responses from folks who had found the same difference in poll volunteers when they went to vote! This gives me so much hope for the future, after a couple of decades or so of young folks who didn't seem to have much interest in getting involved in the issues of the day.

Perhaps I should commit to putting those random observations and thoughts down here. Not daily, but whenever I am tempted to jot down random notes to use in future sermons and newsletter Pastor Pages. It's an idea - and blogging would be incorporated into what I already do instead of added on at the end. Hmm - maybe I'm not too busy to blog after all.

New Year's Resolutions Friday Five

Well it had to be didn't it, love them or hate them I bet you've been asked about New Year resolutions. So with no more fuss here is this weeks Friday Five;

1. Do you make New Year resolutions?
No. I make resolutions just for today. I can commit to doing a good thing for one day, not so sure about committing to anything for a whole year. Of course, the object of daily commitments is to remember to commit to the whatever every day.

2. Is this something you take seriously, or is it a bit of fun?
I'm really serious about making daily commitments.

3. Share one goal for 2008.
Firing up the congregation to start a recovery worship service

4. Money is no barrier, share one wild/ impossible dream for 2008
Buy a house in So Cal on a minister's salary. Almost did it this year, but financial reality got in the way. :-)

5. Someone wants to publish a story of your year in 2008, what will the title of that book be?
Change is Good

Twelve Prayers for Christmas

I received this lovely prayer from my Spiritual Companion and wanted to share it with everyone.

Twelve Prayers of Christmas
adapted from a poem by Brian Morgan

On the First Day of Christmas 

I pray for you joy in abundance, lots of laughter to make the spirit soar.


On the Second Day of Christmas

I pray for you a sigh when you need one, for a sigh clears the heart as a cough clears the throat. With a sigh comes acceptance of what we cannot change.


On the Third Day of Christmas

I pray for you tears when you need them, for tears clear the eyes to see the stars and cleanse the soul to let healing begin.


On the Fourth Day of Christmas

I pray for you serenity, a state of calm where world peace begins.


On the Fifth Day of Christmas

I pray for you wisdom, to choose wisely in every word and deed.


On the Sixth Day of Christmas

I pray for you patience in times of trouble.


On the Seventh Day of Christmas

I pray for you courage to face problems directly.


On the Eighth Day of Christmas

I pray for you compassion as you walk in the shoes of others.


On the Ninth Day of Christmas

I pray for you a willingness to work, for work turns dreams to reality.


On the Tenth Day of Christmas

I pray for you unwavering faith, for faith shapes hearts and minds, drawing us closer to the Source of Love.


On the Eleventh Day of Christmas

I pray for you a mind lit with hope, for hope determines our attitudes and our goals and creates our ideals.

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas
I pray for you a heart so full of love that everyday you want to give it away to those whose paths you cross.

A Meditation on Peace

Peace seems like a no-brainer at this time of year. The Christmas cards we send and receive talk about Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men. Sermons this week will all be about Peace, because this is Peace Sunday. But as I looked around at my friends and family and church members, and yes, even myself, I didn’t see a lot of peace going on. I did see frantic shopping and list-making and holiday planning. My calendar is jammed with church events and meetings and holiday parties. Where’s the Peace?

And then strange things began happening. Everything I picked up to read turned out to be about peace. Not just church stuff, but everything, even the novel I’m reading at night before I go to sleep. I’m helping to plan several regional church events, and the theme of each one revolves around inner peace, and reconciliation with God and with each other. Peace – or at least the idea of peace – has entered my life in a big way ever since I received the invitation to come here. I love it when God works that way in my life.

But all of this didn’t help me decide what to do when I came here, until I was sitting in my office and happened to look up and see a Christmas gift I received some years back sitting on a shelf. I decided I’d like to share the story attached to this gift with you all.

Story of the Lion and Lamb
Everyone has a favorite Christmas. For Emily, it happened when she was a little girl. It was the year a special lamb was born on Christmas Eve . . the same Christmas Eve a lion escaped from the Fletcher Brother's Circus. Emily and her brother, Bobby, had made many trips to the barn that night, making sure their new little lamb was safe and well. But their final visit changed them forever. To their surprise, they discovered their precious lamb nestled between the paws of a very large lion. Emily and Bobby stood motionless, panicked by the scene, until the lion spoke. "Please allow me to keep my friend warm this evening. We are both alone on this special night and need the comfort of one another."Then the lamb raised her head and said, "May peace be in everyone's heart."

On that starry Christmas Eve, so long ago, Emily and Bobby felt the real spirit of Christmas. They realized that nothing in the world could change it.

Emily and Bobby had discovered peace – real peace – the peace that comes when we are held close in the arms and heart of another.

This is the peace that surpasses all understanding, for it comes at unexpected times. It comes on days when the pain is so great we don't know if we can bear it - until someone comes and touches us with love. It comes in the long dark hours of the night, when we lay sleepless, wondering if the dawn will ever come - until we look out the window and see the glory of the full moon and the star-filled sky.

True Peace is not the temporary halt of hostilities on a planet where war is pretty much a constant. And not what we feel when we have a few minutes to sit and relax in between bursts of activity. And not what happens when we take a vacation and then fill every moment with so much activity that we are more worn out when we get back than when we left. But it is that feeling inside of us when, for one brief moment, we are neither angry, nor resentful, nor over-tired, nor worried, nor fearful.

Peace is found deep inside our hearts. When we are truly at peace, what is going on outside cannot affect us – just as a storm moving across the top of a lake cannot affect the calm of the waters in the depths of that lake. It comes to us through God - when we forgive an old hurt, we can know peace. When we turn all our troubles over to God, we can know peace. Because in those times when we are able to let God hold all our troubles and worries and resentments and fears – when we are able to truly love and forgive all of God’s children, even ourselves - in those times we know we are held closely in God’s heart, just as the lamb was held closely by the lion – and God’s peace fills our souls.

I’d like to share a poem by Kate Compston, a British Quaker and poet, which seems to me to be a pretty good How-To on achieving peace.

Web of peace
Peace is like a gossamer –
Vulnerable, yet indestructible:
Tear it, and it will be rewoven.
Peace does not despair.
Begin to weave a web of peace:
Start in the centre
And make peace with yourself
And your God.
Take the thread outwards
and build peace within your family, your community
- and in the circle of those you find it hard to like.
Then stretch your concern
Into all the world.
Weave a web of peace
And do not despair.
Love is the warp in the fabric of life:
Truth is the weft:
Care and integrity together –
Vulnerable
But ultimately
Indestructible.
Together,
They spell Peace.

Friday Five - Don't Call It A Comeback Edition

Parishioners pushing for carols before you digested your turkey?

Organist refusing to play Advent hymns because he/she already has them planned for Lessons & Carols?

Find yourself reading Luke and thinking of a variety of ways to tell Linus where to stick it? (Lights please.)

Then this quick and easy Friday Five is for you! And for those of you with a more positive attitude, have no fear. I am sure more sacred and reverent Friday Fives will follow.

Please tell us your least favorite/most annoying seasonal....
1) dessert/cookie/family food

FRUITCAKE!

2) beverage (seasonal beer, eggnog w/ way too much egg and not enough nog, etc...)

non-alchoholic sparkling cider - I don't drink so everyone I visit thinks this is the perfect choice to serve. I really don't like it, but feel like I have to be gracious . . .

3) tradition (church, family, other)

Christmas open house parties where I must make an appearance but really don't know anyone else. I'm just invited to what's really a work-related because I'm the hostess' pastor.

4) decoration

Two entries here -
Indoor decorations: Anything that sings hokey Christmas songs! Singing santas, singing reindeer. . .
Outdoor decorations: those lighted blow up giant plastic snow globes with Santa and reindeer on top.

5) gift (received or given)

Bath sets with gels, bubble bath, bath salts - all in fragrances that even the reindeer would turn up their noses at, usually received from folks who don't have any idea what else to give.

And yes, I have been guilty of this - my worst choice ever was to give a bath set to someone who had only a shower and no tub to use bath products in!

BONUS: SONG/CD that makes you want to tell the elves where to stick it.
Mom Got Run Over By A Reindeer

I know, I know.... pretty grumpy for November but why not get it out of our systems now so we are free to enjoy the rest of the festivities.

Innocence Lost, and Found Luke 19:1-10

Zacchaeus was a tax collector for the Roman Empire. While we may not be especially fond of IRS agents, the tax collectors of Jesus’ time were truly despised, and with good reason. Tax collectors were citizens of the Roman Empire selected for this “honor” by the Emperor or one of his governors. They were told exactly how much had to be collected, and they had to turn in the full amount of the tax due, regardless of whether all of it was actually paid to him. So if someone was unable to pay, the tax collector had to make up the difference out of his own pocket. Inability to pay the total due could result in the tax collector losing everything he owned, and might even result in being sold into slavery along with his family to make up the difference. Many tax collectors of the time dealt with that little problem by over-collecting from everyone, taking everything they could get from everyone they could get it from. They would turn in to the Empire the exact amount due and keep whatever overage they had managed to acquire. As a result, all tax collectors were assumed to be corrupt individuals, lining their pockets at the expense of others.

In our online discussion of this text yesterday, some of my preaching colleagues noted his description as a short man and assumed that a short man would naturally seek a profession in which he has power over others who are taller and stronger than he. Some looked at his name, which means innocence, and assumed it was planned irony on the part of the writer of Luke that this clearly corrupt person was named “Innocence.” Sort of like a prostitute being named Chastity. Others proposed that childhood teasing by his peers led the boy named Innocence into a life of theft and corruption as a tax collector. But nearly all of us started from the assumption that because Zacchaeus was a tax collector and rich, he therefore must be corrupt.

And then someone said “Yeah, this is all lots of fun. But if you look at the Greek you’ll see that we may be completely misjudging Zacchaeus.” Really? I looked it up, and sure enough, in the Greek Zacchaeus says literally “Behold, one-half of my possessions, Lord, to the poor I give. And if someone I defrauded of anything, I am paying back four times.” He speaks to Jesus in the present tense, not the future – these are the things he is already doing!

It looks like way too many of us made the same mistake the crowd made – assuming that Zacchaeus was the typical tax collector, ironically named Innocence. When perhaps he was not at all what they (and we) thought, and the name Innocence was deserved. In fact, when we compare the Greek to the translation we heard today, it seems as though the translators themselves were convinced of Zacchaeus’ corruption, and thus translated his words in future tense “Lord, I will give one-half my possessions to the poor. And I will make restitution of four times whatever I defrauded from anyone.” As if Zacchaeus is saying, “Now that you have accepted me, Lord, I will change and do good works.”

Instead, the literal translation leads me to believe that Zacchaeus was not corrupt as we think he must have been, and this is what he was telling Jesus. He wasn’t the thief everyone assumed he was. He was already giving to the poor, and making amends for his sins against others. He did not have to change what he was doing. But he did have to bring Jesus to his home that night, and he did have to stand up to face the neighbors who were badmouthing him once again.

Jesus recognizes him as a son of Abraham, obeying and even exceeding the requirements of the law. But Jesus says “I must stay at your house today.” Zacchaeus has already sought out Jesus, to hear the message he brought. But just listening will not be enough. He must accept Jesus into his house, his life, his heart, in order to be saved - in order to be healed. For while Zacchaeus means “Innocence,” Jesus means “God Heals.”

If he’s already Jewish, and he’s already doing all these good things, what does he need to be saved from? From the world! He needs to be healed from living with the bad opinion of his neighbors. From their assumptions, and apparently, from our assumptions as well. He needs to be healed from resentments he may harbor because of those bad opinions, and the bad treatment that would accompany them. He needs to be healed from the temptation to be like so many other tax collectors – because it would be easier and less scary to overtax those who could pay than worry about not having enough money for the Empire. And after all, why not? As long as everyone already believed he was like the others, why not? He needs to be healed from feeling less than the others, unaccepted and unacceptable. Jesus says “I must come stay with you” because Jesus knows how badly Zacchaeus needs to be healed, and accepted, and loved. Jesus knows that Zacchaeus feels he will never be accepted by his neighbors, and Jesus must stay with him so that he will know and be assured that he is loved by the One whose love is most important.

The story of Zacchaeus is the story of each one of us. Even the most well adjusted people have moments when they feel they simply aren’t enough – not smart enough or pretty enough or successful enough or thin enough or strong enough or tall enough or healthy enough or young enough or old enough . . . We spend our energy worrying about what the neighbors think and trying to do the things that will make us acceptable in their eyes. The story of Zacchaeus tells us that it doesn’t matter what the neighbors think. God loves us, and really, who else matters?

And as for that whole thing about not having enough or not being good enough which plagues so many of us . . . I received a story by email this week that I’d like to share:

The plane’s departure had been announced. A mother and daughter had only a few minutes left before the daughter had to board her flight. I couldn’t help but overhear their words, as, standing near the security gate, they hugged and the mother said, "I love you and I wish you enough". The daughter replied, "Mom, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough , too, Mom".

They kissed and the daughter left. The mother walked over to the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see she wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on her privacy but she welcomed me in by asking, "Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?". Yes, I have," I replied. "Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?". "I am old and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is - the next trip back will be for my funeral," she said.

"When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say, 'I wish you enough'. May I ask what that means?". She began to smile. "That's a wish that has been handed down from other generations My parents used to say it to everyone". She paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail and she smiled even more. "When we said , ' I wish you enough', we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them". Then turning toward me, she shared the following as if she were reciting it from memory.

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.
I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.

She then began to cry and walked away.

What a beautiful wish! The mother’s wish is God’s wish for each of us – that we should have enough, exactly what we need. And the daughter’s response is our response to God, “Your love is all I ever needed.” It is this assurance that Jesus brought to Zacchaeus: “You have God’s love, and that is all you need. Never mind what the neighbors think, never mind how the world perceives you. YOU are God’s beautiful, precious, beloved child, you receive from God exactly what you need, and you are loved exactly as you are.”

So let’s go out from this place today, assured that whatever we have and whatever we are, it is enough, and we are loved. And let’s tell this story of God’s love to everyone! For the story of Zacchaeus is the story of God’s love and acceptance of each and every one of God’s children – each and every one of us – no matter what the neighbors think! and that is the story I love to tell!

Hymn: I love to tell the story

Pumpkin/Apple Friday Five

Singing Owl says: All Hallows Eve (Halloween) is near. As a child, Halloween was one of my favorite holidays. We didn’t yet worry about razor blades in apples or popcorn balls or some of the other concerns people have with Halloween these days. Halloween was a chance to be mildly scared, and better yet, to dress up and pretend to be something we really weren’t. Let’s talk about that a bit, but then let’s add in some food ideas for this year. Where I live the leaves are falling, the temperature is chilly and pumpkins are for sale everywhere, along with many kids of apples. What's more, the "Holiday Season" will soon be upon us. ACK! I could use a new idea for dessert. So, here we go…

1. How did you celebrate this time of year when you were a child?
When I was under 11 we lived way out in the country so Trick or Treating wasn't easy. My parents would take us to a few houses but then we went to a big Halloween party one of the families nearby put on every year in their hay barn. We'd bob for apples and play many games, plus eat a lot! Apples, of course, were a staple in our goodie bags - everyone in farm country had apple trees. We grew pumpkins in our garden to make jack o'lanterns and pumpkin pies.

When I was 11 we moved to a suburb where we could (and did) go house to house, and we always said "Trick or Treat for Unicef", collecting coins for poor children around the world.

2. Do you and/or your family “celebrate” Halloween? Why or why not? And if you do, has it changed from what you used to do?
It seems like I am usually out of town on Halloween, but when I'm home I attend the Halloween party in my community and then wait for the little ones to come by the apartment for their goodies. Not nearly as much fun as trick or treating myself, but I do see some adorable little costumes. I don't see Unicef boxes anymore - did the schools stop doing that while I wasn't looking?

2. Candy apples: Do you prefer red cinnamon or caramel covered? Or something else?
I love the red cinnamon ones!

3. Pumpkins: Do you make Jack O’ Lanterns? Any ideas of what else to do with them?
I haven't made a jack o'lantern in years, but I have used pumpkins to make pumpkin pie, and kept cut-up pumpkin in the freezer to use in various stew recipes over the winter. Now that I live where there is no real winter, I don't make hearty winter stew as often.

4. Do you decorate your home for fall or Halloween? If so, what do you do? Bonus points for pictures.
I have a boxfull of fall/halloween decorations, but I don't decorate much anymore. It's harder to do in an apartment :-)

5. Do you like pretending to be something different? Does a costume bring our an alternate personality?
I LOVE dressing up! I've always enjoyed acting and Halloween and costume parties and, more recently, Renaissance Faires.

These days I dress up sometimes to preach from the point of view of someone else - and sometimes become that someone else more effectively than I'd planned! Last Palm/Passion Sunday I suddenly started crying when the character I was playing was telling about the crucifixion by singing "Were you there?" Luckily, my congregation decided to sing with me - totally unplanned, but it gave me time to compose myself.

Unchained Melody 1 Timothy 2:8-15

“8 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—that is my gospel, 9for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained.” Paul knew about chains, When he wrote this letter to Timothy he was quite literally in chains, held in a Roman prison. He could not go anywhere without his chains. And yet Paul knew that even though his body was chained, the message he carried wasn’t. The Word of God was loose in the world – the story of life and death and redemption. The Word of God is just too big, too wonderful, just too much for any earthly chain.

But we do try to chain up the word of God – we take the bits that we most agree with and use them to prove we’re right. Or we take bits and pieces from different books and put them together as if they are one story. Or we look at two similar stories and decide one is true and one isn’t.

We all know about using phrases from the Bible to prove a point – maybe we have all done it at one time or another. The problem with taking one sentence to make our point is that when we do that we are usually ignoring the context – we’re pulling that sentence out to stand alone, when nothing stands alone. When we do that we are using that statement to prove something that it may not have anything to do with at all. I could give examples of this proof-texting all day long, but here’s my favorite one: someone once told me to look at 2 Thessalonians 3:10 “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.” They insisted that this phrase was proof that there should be no welfare! Never mind that throughout the Bible, Old and New Testament, we are directed to support the widows and orphans and aliens, or even that the first recorded argument in the early church was over an apparent preference for one group of widows over another when distributing food and funds for their support – for this person, here was proof that God said everyone should be self-supporting.

It’s tempting to use the Bible to prove our point over against someone else’s point. During the 25 years that I was away from church I read the Bible a lot, mostly in order to find arguments to use against Christians. And it’s really tempting to do that very thing in my preaching – just use one sentence, out of context, and preach the truth of it even if the “truth” I choose has nothing to do with the real meaning of the text – like that verse from Thessalonians. Although one person saw it as proof the poor should never receive aid, read in context we see that Paul was really talking about how he and his fellow missionaries always worked to support themselves where ever they went, and didn’t ask the churches to support them, and that everyone serving the church who could work, should. If we READ the Bible, the whole thing, we will find that many of our favorite proof-texts really don’t mean what we think they mean. And perhaps we will become less willing to chain up God’s word and use it as a weapon to abuse others.

On Mondays we are studying the Gospel according to John. And as we read the part where Judas comes to the garden to betray Jesus, we noticed some differences from the Easter story we think we know. In John, Judas did NOT kiss Jesus. But in the story we all know, Judas kissed him, the sign of love turned into a sign of betrayal. So we had to go back to Matthew, Mark and Luke to examine the differences in the stories. In some, Peter struck off the ear of the temple servant, in some an unnamed disciple did it, in some Jesus healed the injured man, in others he didn’t. Then we noticed that the whole trial in the temple simply didn’t exist in John, although we all know that’s part of the Easter story. As we continued to make comparisons between the Gospels we discovered that in John, the last Supper didn’t happen at Passover, in the others it did. In John, Jesus’ ministry lasted some 3 years, in the others only one. In John, Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, in the others he didn’t. When Ton’Ee and I were in Texas, my sister-in-law took us to a beautiful church that had life-sized stations of the cross outside, with a path nearly a mile long that wound around past all the stations. As we walked the stations of the cross, I carried a Bible and as we reached each different station I would flip through the Gospels to find the one in which that event appears. They weren’t all in the same Gospel, and some weren’t even in the Bible (I already knew that, but my sister-in-law didn’t.), but they all combine to make one coherent story of Christ’s passion – his suffering and death and resurrection. The thing is, the Gospels weren’t written as one coherent story. They’re all different stories, intended to make different theological points.

And look at the Christmas story. In our Christmas pageants and in the music we use for the Hanging of the Greens, we have Mary being greeted by an angel, and Joseph being told to marry her even though she’s already pregnant We see Mary and Joseph going to Bethlehem for the census, shepherds being awakened by angels to go worship him, and magi showing up with gifts, even though these events don’t all happen in the same Gospels. We do have this tendency to take all the elements of the Gospel stories and put them together to make one, coherent story. It’s most obvious in our telling of the Easter and Christmas stories, but we do it other places too.

My personal favorite is the way we’ve merged the stories of the woman with the alabaster jar and the woman who washed Jesus’ feet and turned them all into one story starring Mary Magdalene as a prostitute. But if we READ these stories, one at a time, in context, we learn that not only is Mary Magdalene never named as a participant in any of these stories, she is not even a prostitute. Mary Magdalene is a woman who’d had a demon cast out of her who chose to follow Jesus after her healing. These stories each have a different woman in them, they each have a different emphasis and meaning. They are not the same story at all.

And then there’s the way we prefer one Biblical account of the same events over another.

Look at the book of Genesis:
In Chapter One God created man and woman at the same time, both made in God’s image. In Chapter Two God created man from the dust of the ground, then created woman from man’s rib, to be his helper. In Genesis there are two different stories about the creation of humanity, but we have chosen one to believe and use as the foundation for our society. If we don’t READ the Bible, we might not even know that first story exists.

Now look at the book of Joshua, one of the more disturbing books of the Hebrew Scriptures. God tells the Hebrew people to destroy every city in Canaan, and Joshua leads the Hebrews in doing just that. Then in Judges, after Joshua dies, the Hebrews move into Canaan and go to war against all the same cities again – cities where there shouldn’t be cities, or people to war against. And then, the Bible tells us “they did not drive the people out, but the Canaanites continued to live in that land.” In Judges, it seems as though the destruction in Joshua never happened. Two different stories about how the Hebrews ended up living in Israel, but we only know about the first one. As it happens, archeologists tend to agree with the account in Judges – there just isn’t any physical evidence of so many ancient cities being destroyed in the same time period.

Stories like Joshua, in which God insists that anyone in the way should be killed, turn a lot of people away from church – away from any contact with such a God. Why would anyone want to worship such a God – who created all humans but told his favorites to kill off anyone who wasn’t one of the chosen? Or one who placed one human above another, even though all were created in God’s image? We have chained up God’s Word, and God’s intention, and God’s design, and made them mean whatever we want them to mean.

And yet – if we look past Joshua into Judges, we discover God’s love and forgiveness. In Judges, over and over, the Hebrews disobeyed God – they turned to other gods, they ignored the plight of the poor, they abused the alien workers in their midst. Over and over their actions led them into trouble, they found themselves on the verge of being annihilated by other nations. And over and over, God forgave them. God let them start over.

And not just the Hebrews. We all know the story of Jonah – and we all pretty much get stuck on the whole “swallowed by a giant fish” part of it. We don’t think about the whole story. God told Jonah to go to Ninevah and tell the people there that if they don’t turn from their evil ways and worship God they would be destroyed. Jonah didn’t want to go, but he really didn’t have much choice in the matter. So he went, and he preached, and the people changed. And God forgave them. God exhibited love and mercy and compassion, not judgment and anger and punishment.

When I was in junior high I had a teacher who had us read the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament as literature and I fell in love with it. I discovered that the Bible is filled with wonderful stories and terrible stories. It has stories of romance and rejection, murder and punishment, cowardice and bravery, loyalty and betrayal, bad things happening to good people, and good things happening to bad people. It has boring parts – all those laws and all those lists of who begat whom - and it has exciting parts – wars and love stories. It’s filled with songs and poetry. It has really sexy stories and really horrific ones - there are stories in there I’d never read to children, because if they were movies they’d be rated PG17 or come with a warning about violence! The Bible isn’t just a history of the Hebrews. It’s the story of humanity. It tells us how people behave, and about relationship with God. If we read it carefully, we can see ourselves. If we read it carefully, we can see God.

If we only read bits and pieces, we only get bits and pieces of the whole story. We’d never read a novel in bits. If we did, the ending wouldn’t make sense. And students shouldn’t read text books in bits – there just might be a test question on the part we missed. So why, I wonder, do we read the Bible that way? All of the answers are in there – and so are all of the questions. Everything I need to know about how to be in relationship with other people and with God is in there someplace. But to find what I need to know, I have to read it. I have to study it. I have to understand the entire story.

When I read the Bible I discover a God powerful enough to create the universe with a word, and loving enough to create humanity in his own image. A God who loves us enough to let us go on our own way – even when that way is going to lead us into trouble – and forgiving enough to welcome us back with open arms when we realize our mistakes. A God who never says “I told you so” but rather says “I will not remember what you have done in the past.” Who shows us repeatedly that the greatest among us are not the wealthy and powerful, but those who devote themselves to serving their brothers and sisters. Who rejects no one who comes to God in love, to learn and serve. When I read the Bible, I hear God’s story – still speaking to us across millennia, across cultures, across traditions. I hear a melody, running through all the books of the Bible, sometimes loudly, sometimes so quietly we can barely hear it, singing God’s story of love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness. Let us read, and listen, and unchain that melody, and sing Alleluia! when we hear God’s story.


Hymn Alleluia! Hear God’s Story 330

How Do I Love Thee? 1 Timothy 2:1-7

Did you follow the news this week about the demonstrations in Jena, Louisiana? Here’s the story, briefly. There’s an oak tree at a high school in Jena which is the traditional hangout for the white students there. A black student asked the principal if black students were allowed to sit under the so-called White Tree, and of course, the answer was yes. That night nooses were hung in the tree by a group of white students and violence broke out pretty much immediately. There were several clashes between white and black students, culminating in the arrest of six black students for the beating of one white student. One of those students was convicted by an all white jury, but the conviction was overturned by a higher court which ruled he should have been charged as a juvenile, not as an adult.

The problem – no one was arrested for hanging the nooses in the tree, no white students were charged for their parts in other violent clashes, but six black teenagers were charged with attempted murder after what was essentially a schoolyard fight resulting in relatively minor injuries. The problem is it appears that in La Salle Parish there is one kind of justice for whites and one kind of justice for blacks. Personally, I’m finding it hard to believe that the district attorney in Louisiana couldn’t find anything to charge against the boys who hung the nooses, although that’s what he said when he insisted this case wasn’t about race. Anyplace else that action would have been considered a hate crime, just like painting swastikas on a synagogue. It’s impossible that anyone could have missed the significance of nooses under the circumstances. Instead of those boys being punished, the 100-year-old oak tree was cut down. I guess the school board decided “no tree, no problem”?

The news reports say this was the largest civil rights demonstration in decades. Busses full of college students traveled from all over, like they did during the civil rights marches at Selma, Montgomery and Little Rock. Tina Chatham of Georgia Southern University spoke for many of the students when she said: "It was a good chance to be part of something historic since I wasn't around for the civil rights movement. This is kind of the 21st century version of it,"
Wasn’t around for the Civil Rights Movement? Are not Civil Rights an ongoing struggle, a serious concern for anyone who seeks a world ruled by justice and compassion? Did she think it ended with the passage of the Civil Rights Act? Just because some laws were changed, that didn’t mean racism ended or that the struggle toward reconciliation ended. It just means racism became a tad bit less obvious. Long time activists like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and pretty much anybody who pays attention, know that things are only marginally better today than they were 40 years ago. Those leaders and all who care about justice still cry out to God, as the prophet Jeremiah cried out for the deliverance of the exiles in Babylon.

Jeremiah 8:21—22
21For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,

I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.

22Is there no balm in Gilead?

Is there no physician there?

Why then has the health of my poor people 
not been restored?


The Bible tells us that the people of Israel lost everything – their temple, their lands, their freedom – because the leaders did not, would not, care for those who needed their care – the widows, orphans, and aliens – the folks who had no power at all and no money and no one to stand up for them in times of trial. Instead of taking care of their people as the book of the Law directed them to, they focused on increasing their own power and wealth and status. This isn’t new – it’s been reality since the earliest days of humanity – the powerful always find ways to become more powerful, usually by using and abusing those who are less powerful. How do we change that? How do we move our leaders to seek justice with mercy?

Paul tells us, First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings should be made for everyone, 2for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. 3This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,

First of all, pray. Prayer is a powerful tool. In meetings of Regional and General Church Boards and committees there are frequent breaks for prayer, usually at times in the meeting where conflict or high feelings are most likely. Prayer can bring us together in times of conflict – at worst it gives us a moment to breathe, at best it helps us refocus and reminds us of our purpose in getting together. The best example of that I ever saw was at our General Assembly this past July when our moderator became our pastor at difficult times in the proceedings and took time from the agenda to lead us in prayer. It was the first Assembly I ever attended in which the halls after each session were peaceable – no one I heard was carrying on in anger because their position didn’t carry the day. Disappointment sometimes, but not anger. It was beautiful – and it was that way because of prayer.

Paul tells us for whom to pray – for everyone, for kings and for all who are in high positions. And he tells us how to pray for those people - in supplication, intercession and thanksgiving. So we pray not “God, punish those folks who don’t agree with me, who aren’t following your direction the way I think they should.” But “God, thank you for our leaders. Thank you for the work they do, and for their willingness to serve. I ask that you open their heats so they may at least hear other possibilities than the course they have set upon. And open mine as well, that I might come to understand their position.” And then, go forward and seek justice. Sit down with those you disagree with in peace and dignity, discussing the differences you have and coming to a place of agreement. Write letters, sign petitions, join demonstrations, speak your heart’s passion, donate money to the cause – do whatever it is you are able to do, whatever you are drawn to do for justice. But first, always, pray.

Prayer does bring change. Prayer first of all changes the one who prays. I’ve told you, I think, that I pray a gratitude list every day. And I give thanks not just for the things I like in my life, but also the things I don’t like. For the people I’m angry with, or who just will not agree with me on things I consider important, because they make me consider how to present my position in a way they will understand. For the cold I caught, because it makes me slow down. And when I pray this way, I find that I become more willing to see another’s position. When I pray this way, I become more willing to speak and act in love. And as I become more willing to listen, to understand, to come to agreement – I understand again just how powerful prayer can be. I understand just how much God loves us, to give us a tool that changes hearts and minds with so little effort.

When I first read this passage I thought of the sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

She wrote this love poem to her husband. But I suddenly heard it as a prayer – as words spoken to God. And as I read the words that way, I realized that when I speak of my love for God, I can more easily hear God’s response. And I heard the response in these words

How do I Love Thee? My child, let me count the ways.
I love you In all the ways I hear your prayer, and in all the ways I respond.
In all the ways I move you to hear and respond to the cries of those around you,
In the words of life taught by my Son,
In the gifts of healing found in those words.
For the words of love and forgiveness found there have always been the balm that heals all wounds.

When I pray for the power to love, the pain in my heart begins to heal, my anger begins to cool. When we cry out in pain, in anger, in frustration, “Is there no physician here? Is there no one to heal the wounded? God responds in love and compassion. God pours out love upon us, encourages us through the words of the Gospels to share that love throughout the world. And as the love spreads, like a healing salve on a wound, anger and hatred are healed.

My brothers and sisters, there is a physician for all the world’s ills, the Christ who was sent by God to teach us love. And in that healing power of love, There IS a balm in Gilead.

Hymn There is a Balm in Gilead

Friday Five - DeCluttering Edition

Sally of RevGalBlogPals poses a great set of questions for me, since I'm getting ready to move!

Making the most of our resources is important, I have been challenged this week by the amount of stuff we accumulate, I'd love to live a simpler lifestyle, it would be good for me, and for the environment I think...

With that in mind I bring you this Friday 5;

1. Are you a hoarder or a minimalist?
I'm a hoarder who wants to be a minimalist. I keep everything - even decades old electric bills! - but I'm constantly looking for ways to clear out the excess stuff in my house and office.

2. Name one important object ( could be an heirloom) that you will never part with.
I have a crucifix that was hung above the front door in every home my parents lived in for as long as I can remember.For me, this is the one thing that really says "This is my home." It is the first thing I hang up whenever I move.

3. What is the oldest item in your closet? Does it still fit???
I've been continously weeding out my closet the last few years. Every season I look at what I have and if I haven't worn it in two years out it goes. The oldest thing I have now is a 50's costume that I bought for a Hot Rod show back in the 1970s. It might fit, I'm not sure. How often does the occasion call for a skirt with a crinoline and an I Like Ike button?

4.Yard sales- love 'em or hate 'em ?
Love Them! And dread them. I try to drive past instead of stopping cause I know I can't stop at just one. :-)

5. Name a recycling habit you really want to get into.
Where I live right now the trash company sorts and recycles everything so I don't have to pay attention to which can I put things in. My new house is in a different area so I've have to re-learn how to sort out my trash again.

And for a bonus- well anything you want to add....
Moving is always my favorite opportunity to get rid of things I don't use, never liked, or got tired of. The big problem used to be "But what if Great Aunt Whatshername comes over and doesn't see the horrendous whatnot she gave me?" That's not a problem anymore with me living on the opposite coast from the rest of my family, but tell me - what do you do with dustcatching gifts from The Husband that merited a "Oh, it's just what I always wanted" Pack them away and eventually lose the box?

Lost and Found Luke 15:1-10

On Sunday evenings I like to watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. It’s a program on which a family in great need is selected to receive a completely new home, built on their existing property, to replace a house that’s pretty much falling down and otherwise unsafe. The people for whom these houses are built are not just in financial need, they are also people who genuinely deserve the help, people who dedicate their lives to helping others, sometimes despite rather serious physical handicaps. They’re often nominated by members of their community because of the good they do for other people while their own homes literally fall apart around. Hundreds of volunteers from the community come together with Ty Pennington and his team of designers and builders to demolish the existing home and then build a completely new home designed for that particular family in just one week, while the family is sent to Disney World or someplace for a vacation. Last Sunday Ty Pennington and his crew built a new home for the family of Jason Thomas.

Jason Thomas is one of the heroes of 9/11, an ex-Marine who spent the days following 9/11 working to save lives. Even though he was no longer on active duty, and even though his job had nothing to do with law enforcement or fire rescue, he immediately left his job and went to the Ground Zero to offer his help. He kept working for days, and long after most people thought there couldn’t possibly be anyone left alive, he just kept digging until two more men were freed from the wreckage. Because of his persistence, his refusal to give up, two New York Port Authority Policemen were rescued. Afterwards, he stayed and kept looking for more survivors, until finally he was told to go home, to let it go. There was no one else left. Those two policemen that he rescued were the last two people who came out alive. Do you remember the celebration when those last two were rescued? On the days following September 11th, Jason Thomas lived up to the motto of the Marine Corps – Semper Fi – Always Faithful. He would not give up.

In many ways, Jason’s story is like the story of the lost sheep, and the woman with the lost coin. Like the shepherd, he left everything behind to search for the lost. Like the woman, he left no corner untouched, searching diligently until he finally found what he was looking for.

The Lost Sheep and the Woman with the Lost Coin – we’ve heard these two stories so many times. We’ve wondered why a shepherd would leave a whole flock to chase one lost sheep. We may have been able to relate a little better to the woman with the lost coin – at least she probably had the other coins safely in her keeping while looking for the lost one. And then there’s the way the shepherd and the woman reacted to finding what was lost. I mean, normally if you lose a sheep, or a sum of money, or anything really important, you don’t throw a party to celebrate. You’re much more likely to keep it to yourself so nobody has to know you lost it in the first place!

When we look at these stories next to the story of Jason Thomas, maybe they make more sense. Most people didn’t just walk off the job and go downtown to dig through the rubble. Most people kept working, kept earning a living for their families, kept themselves safe. Yes – most people sent money or donated supplies or did something to help. And a lot of people from all over the country did go to do whatever they could. But most people didn’t go to the extreme effort he did. And of those who did go down to help with the rescue efforts, most had given up on finding anyone else alive long before Jason did.

If this man, who didn’t even know the people he was looking for, could be so dedicated to finding and saving them, how much more important must we be to God, who knows and loves each one of us. How much more faithful, even than a Marine, our God is, to offer forgiveness to anyone who admits their faults and asks for pardon.

Paul experienced this forgiveness personally, on the road to Damascus, and talks about it in his first letter to Timothy verses 12-17:
12 I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, 13even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. 16But 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. 17To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

What we always have to remember about Paul is that he wasn’t what the world would have seen as “lost.” He wasn’t a tax collector, or a drug addict, or an adulterer, or a thief, or anything like that. He was a righteous man, a faithfully practicing Jew, who believed he was doing right in chasing down and arresting or executing people he believed to be blaspheming against God. Although Jesus taught much that was in accord with what Paul believed, he also taught things that turned Paul’s world upside down! Paul didn’t understand how anything could be more important than obeying God’s laws. He didn’t understand how the Messiah could come as a wandering rabbi from Galilee. He didn’t even understand that God’s kingdom was not a physical place, but a state of being. Talk about finding one who was lost! Paul is the perfect example, way better than a sheep or a coin or even two policemen. For here was a man who didn’t understand that he was lost. Who believed that he was right and would not be open to any other point of view. But Jesus chased him down, pointed out his errors, forgave him, and welcomed him warmly into the family of Christ – even sent him to other believers that he might be healed physically as well as spiritually.

Paul wasn’t made perfect that day. He would continue to get angry and to fight with people who didn’t see things his way. But from then on, he would search his soul, confess his faults, and ask forgiveness. From then on, he would understand that Love is the foundation for God’s kingdom, and he would really try to be loving even to those who opposed him. We know these things, because he put them in writing, and those writings have survived even till today.

I think that if we have a predetermined idea of who the Lost are, we’re missing the big picture. The sheep was part of the flock, and wandered away. The coin was one of 10 that was somehow misplaced. The policemen were human beings who were in clear and present danger. Paul was a righteous man whose understanding of what was acceptable to God was inflexible. All of these were lost. All of these were part of something larger – they weren’t just random units that someone went looking for just to be looking.

Who, then, are the Lost? Who are the sheep and the coin of these parables? Who are these sinners God is seeking so diligently?

There are the obvious Lost – folks who don’t go to church at all – the ones we’re told we’re supposed to evangelize. Non-believers and drug addicts and alcoholics and criminals and homeless folks. People who are angry at God. People who believe they’re doomed to hell, so why bother. People who don’t seem to be part of anything - loners.

But there are a lot of other Lost ones.

The Lost are members of congregations who feel alienated or disconnected somehow. They may still show up, but their hearts aren’t in it anymore. The Lost are the folks who find their church’s theology unbearable, or see more ambition and power seeking behavior than they think ought to be happening in church, and so they wander off. The Lost are the ones who have been driven out of their church, because they have a drug problem or got divorced or came out of the closet, who feel rejected but who desperately want to be part of Christ’s family.

The Lost are Us. Whenever we find ourselves feeling less than, or not a part of, or rejected, or unwanted – we are the Lost. Whenever we find ourselves feeling better than, or needing to be in control, or angry because others question what we are doing - we are the Lost. Whenever we are doing anything that will separate us from God and from each other, we are Lost.

The Good News, my brothers and sisters, is that we don’t have to stay Lost. We can find our way back and join in that celebration, for the path back is easy enough to find.. God has sent Jesus as the Light to guide our way. Through Jesus, through walking the path that Jesus has shown us how to take, God’s amazing grace finds us and bring us back safely from any danger we may encounter. Amen.

Hymn Amazing Grace

I Will Follow Him Luke 14:25-33

Six years ago this week I was preparing my very first sermon for my very first ministerial position as student chaplain at a retirement community. It was National Grandparents Day, and the passage the lectionary gave me to preach was “hate your father and your mother.” NOT the message I wanted to have to preach on my first Sunday in a room full of grandparents and great-grandparents! I survived that encounter, and I learned a lot. Of course, that was sort of inevitable since I was working in a community full of retired ministers and missionaries and pastors wives, including Doug’s parents.

This is a difficult passage. First, let’s look at what it doesn’t say. Jesus says “hate your family”? How can this be when Jesus always said love everyone? This is easier to understand when you realize that he was using a teaching tool commonly used by rabbis of his time – hyperbole. Making a point by exaggerating it. Not hate, precisely. But rather, don’t allow ties to other people prevent you from discipleship. If you are called to travel – as missionaries are, for example – don’t let your family keep you from following that call. Remember, Jesus’ disciples at the time were asked to travel as missionaries, carrying very little, often gone from their families for long periods of time. If they had stayed at home because of family ties, the Good News of God’s Kingdom would not have gotten very far.

And what about giving away all your possessions, really? After all, Jesus was supported throughout his ministry by people who had possessions – homes and wealth and even his tomb. We’ve come to understand that it isn’t wealth by itself that he preached against. It was allowing the accumulation and possession of things to come between you and God.

And then there’s the bit about carrying your cross.

Often preachers using this passage talk about bearing the cross of personal, financial, emotional or physical problems without complaint, with faith that God will carry us through any difficulty. You’ve surely heard people say something like “Yes, I have constant pain from my arthritis, but it’s just the cross I have to bear.”That’s not really what this passage is about either.

More often this passage used to reckon up the cost of discipleship – what we must suffer and endure if we are truly Christian. We use examples of people like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dietrich Bonhoeffer – both great men, both spoke out and acted against oppression – racism in America and Nazism in Germany. They both walked forward faithfully through difficult and dangerous times, knowing that their very faithfulness could lead to their death. They both gave their lives for those who were oppressed, as Jesus did. That is a piece of the meaning of this passage.

This passage does tell us that Christ must come first in our lives. Following Christ, being a Disciple, means that we are first Christian, then whatever else – child, parent, partner, employee, citizen – whatever. The Cross that we carry is the Cross of being a Christian.

One of the Revgalblogpals asked “So what are you preaching this week – Jeremiah, or Paul or that heavy cross?” And it struck me that there was something wrong with this question. Think about it. Why is it we only seem to talk about the burdens involved in following Christ, and never about the JOY of carrying our cross?

Let me point out that Jesus’ very disciples, the ones who spent all their time, waking and eating and sleeping, in his company, the ones who listened to every word he spoke, weren’t able to follow him to the Cross. When he was arrested they panicked and ran, they hid themselves from the Romans and the Temple guards. And in the case of Simon Peter, denied even knowing Jesus. It wasn’t until later – after the resurrection – after their joyous reunion with Jesus – that they were able to truly follow him – to preach his message, to carry news of the resurrection and the life everywhere in the known world. They faced trouble – Yes. And Yes, they would later face persecution, imprisonment, even death. But they followed him, not as a burden they bore, but as a joyful vocation.

Think about the things you do joyfully – things you do because you can’t not do them.

The image this passage evokes most powerfully for me is the image of the young man who arrived at the doors of Father Flanagan’s Boys Town, with his younger brother across his shoulders, and saying, “He ain’t heavy Father. He’s my brother.” Carrying his brother was hard work, undoubtedly. But it was hard work he did with joy, knowing that at the end of the journey was warmth and safety for both of them. He did it because the most important thing in his life was the love he had for his brother.

Luciano Pavoratti is probably the only opera singer in history who was able to bring opera into the lives of people who typically wouldn’t ever hear it. Most opera singers wouldn’t have been caught dead singing pop music, or appearing in comedy films, and even on Saturday Night Live? He had a gift he joyfully shared with as many people as possible. In an interview he said “this isn’t work – this is what I do because I love it.” He had to work hard – practicing and traveling and taking care of his voice – but he couldn’t stop. To the end of his life he shared his gift with the world, because singing wasn’t his job – singing was who he was.

Teachers – the good ones - don’t become teachers because they’ll get rich doing it. They teach because they love to teach – because it is their vocation. Even when they retire they find ways to keep teaching. You should see Marsha talking about Alternative Christmas with our preschoolers. And Stasi teaching them crafts – these retired teachers continue teaching because it is what they love. They really can’t help themselves. They just kind of fall into teacher mode. Teachers everywhere work really hard, they may be driven crazy by paperwork and administrative stuff and in some places they are in real physical danger when they go to work. But they are teachers, all the time, because that is who they are.

And Ministers – I don’t know any retired ministers. I know a lot of ministers who no longer serve a congregation, or do any ministry for which they get paid, but they never quit being ministers. At Robin Run I watched ministers in their 80s and 90s spend all their time doing some kind of ministry. I know they spent quite a bit of effort helping a certain student chaplain learn what she was doing. A minister’s work isn’t easy. Some of what they do is difficult or emotionally painful or just aggravating, and in the case of missionaries it can be extremely dangerous. These folks serve joyfully to the end of their lives, because they can’t not serve. Being a minister isn’t a job. It is simply who they are.

Some of you know that I watch the occasional football game, and that I kind of like the Indianapolis Colts. When Tony Dungy arrived in Indianapolis to become the head coach of the Colts the very first thing he did, before he even looked for a house, was to look for a church. And this wasn’t something he tried to keep quiet – he brought it up at a news conference! According to an article in Christianity Today, he said that in his college football playing days he was a hotheaded jock, not a mature Christian by any means. But today he is a Christian first. He is very different, as head coach, than the stereotypical cursing, hard driving, abusive head coach. His understanding of how to treat his comes from his understanding of how Jesus would have him behave toward all persons. Apparently, treating football players with respect and love works pretty well. The Colts have a great reputation in Indianapolis and elsewhere – they work hard in the community to do good, they don’t make headlines for drug use or spousal abuse or fighting. And they do win football games.

That’s what Jesus calls us to be in this passage. First, follow him. First, be Christian. Then be whatever else we are. Be Christians in the same way that young man was a brother, Pavarotti was a singer, teachers teach and ministers minister. Be Christian because we can’t not be – because it is who we are. Like Tony Dungy, our Christianity should form the way we do our work, the way we treat other people, the way we act in every aspect of our lives.

Where ever we go in life, we need to go there as Christians, carrying the cross of God’s love, joyfully and with much praise and rejoicing. Where ever we go, we need to follow Jesus along our way. Where ever we go in life, we know we are not going alone, not as simply an individual, but as part of the body of Christ. And even if we’re not certain about the direction, we know there is one who can lead and guide us on our way, who goes before us, who has already shown us the way to go. Join me now in asking him for guidance.
Sing - Lead me, guide me.