Let Us Go Over To the Other Side

Sermon for June 21, 2009
Scripture: Mark 4:35-41

You know Jesus can be difficult sometimes; just when we are settling in, getting comfortable here he comes telling us to go to the other side. We’ve had a long hard day. All we want to do is sit down to read the newspaper, have a refreshing drink, maybe watch some TV or a movie. Or if you were the disciples in Jesus time, maybe you were just about to relax on the shoreline and tell some fish stories about the day’s catch. And then you see that Jesus isn’t sitting down and he has that look in his eye. Finally he speaks and says, “Why are you getting comfortable, we need to go over to the other side.”

This isn’t the first time Jesus has told them to go over to the other side. In Matthew you may remember that he told the disciples to go over to the other side of the lake and he meets them halfway, walking on the water. Why can’t Jesus just relax, get comfortable on this side, the side we are already on?

In this particular scripture Jesus and his disciples had finished a very successful day of teaching and learning. They were on the Sea of Galilee, the kind of sea that could get very rough at nighttime or anytime. Most boats went around the lake,(it was really more like a lake) close to the shore, not across the lake. On the other side was foreign territory, the land of the Gerasenes—the place where Jesus drove out the demons from Legion into the swine who then hurtled down the bank into this same sea of Galilee.

The disciples were obedient and they all got into the boat. Knowing the threats as these local fishermen would have known, would you have gotten in the boat with Jesus? Do I go over to the other side when Jesus tells me to go? Or do I roll over and settle deeper into my comfort zone.
We know our side, the side where we are comfortable, where the risks are decreased. Yet Jesus is persistent. The first time he told me to go I was a teenager, very involved in church youth group. I thought about being a minister but it was just too scary. Not many women did that back in the 60’s. I wanted to get married and have children. I convinced myself that being a social worker made more sense; it would be just as good as being a minister. Maybe I would be a missionary social worker.

Getting back to the Bible story, we know that Jesus got in the boat with his disciples and quickly fell asleep in the back of the boat. A terrible storm came and they were so afraid. They woke Jesus up with a exclamation of blame, “Teacher do you not care that we are perishing?” You know the rest of the story, Jesus calms the storm and then it’s his turn to question, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”

Why won’t you go to seminary? Why won’t you go do missionary work in Africa? Why won’t you go back to school? Why won’t you read the scripture in church? Why won’t you go repair and build houses in New Orleans? What are you waiting for? What do you do with the rest of your life? Jesus says, Go! But I don’t have enough money; I don’t want to be so far away from my family. I’m too old! I’m too young! It’s so easy to think of excuses. It’s just too scary, too risky. That big storm may arise and then what would you do.

To the elders, I quote Fred Buechner, “ Keep going, Jesus says, because to keep going is to keep living and to stop going is to stop living in any way that much matters.” 1 Jesus says let us go over to the other side. Who knows how far it is to that foreign land or what awaits us when we get there if anything at all?

Where is our faith? Why do we have so much fear? Many of us fear current or potential suffering and pain, bad health, death of loved ones and of our own death. Some of us fear being alive without living. We fear loss and loneliness. In these days there are more things to fear than usual due to terrorism, economic troubles, and environmental damage. Some of us have the pain of broken relationships, alienation from family, concern about our children both young and old. Maybe we are hearing Jesus tell us to Go, and we are just too scared to go. We want to make the world a better place; we want to follow the words and actions of Jesus, but is the risk of a big storm just too much?

Faith is having trust in the company of Jesus Christ. It believes that the world can be transformed by love; that angry waves can be calmed, and no matter what comes your way, you are not alone. You may recall that our Gospels are filled with Jesus and angels saying, “Do not be afraid; peace be with you. This is not because there are no scary things in our world, yet they need not paralyze us. They need not stop us because we are not alone in the boat. Faith is about going to the other side, especially when we know that the odds are against us. It’s easy to get so comfortable that we don’t even hear Jesus telling us to Go over to the other side. However, I believe along with Fred Buechner that “Christ sleeps in the deepest selves of all of us, and whatever we do in whatever time we have left—whether that be 5, 10, 20 or 50 years, wherever we go we can call upon him and he will come awake within us, to give us courage, to give us hope, to show us, each one, our way.”

Harry Emerson Fosdick says:

Fear imprisons, faith liberates;
Fear paralyzes, faith empowers;
Fear
disheartens, faith encourages;
Fear sickens, faith heals;
Fear makes
useless, faith makes serviceable;
And, most of all, fear puts hopelessness
at the heart of all, while faith rejoices in God!

My prayer is that we will help each other to increase our faith so that when we hear the call to “Go over to the other side” we will be able to get in the boat, knowing that the Holy Spirit is with us to the end of time. Amen and Amen

1 Secrets in the Dark, p. 296.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS LIKE?

Sermon for June 14, 2009
Scripture: Sam. 15:34-16:13, Mark 4:26-34

Another mystery of our faith—the Kingdom of God! By now some of you may recognize the phrases, “is like” or “is as if” as undoubtedly leading us to parables, one of Jesus’ favorite teaching tools. Jesus was never without a story and he fit the stories to his audience, their experience in life and their maturity. I know there are some of you out there that also have a lot of good stories, lots of ideas. Today’s sermon is going to be a congregation participation sermon. I haven’t done one of these for a while. When I do, I always learn a lot and I hope you do to.

All of the gospels have many parables but the parable about God as the seed sower is only in Mark although the mustard seed is also in Matthew and Luke. Eugene Petersen in The Message translates the passage like this: “Then Jesus said, “God’s kingdom is like seed thrown on a field by a man who then goes to bed and forgets it. The seed sprouts and grows—he has no idea how it happens. The earth does it all without his help: first a green stem of grass, then a bud, then the ripened grain. When the grain is fully formed, he reaps—harvest time.”

What could this possibly mean? I’m sure most of you gardeners out there don’t just throw down seeds and forget them. Let’s look at the next parable: the mustard seed. The land I grew up on had lots of mustard plants. I really liked them. They usually were taller than the grass but never, as far as I know, did they grow into a big tree. Jesus is exaggerating to make his point. In the Middle East of Jesus’ time, the mustard plant was considered a weed. One of my references described it as a woody, fast growing and spreading, persistent nuisance. Maybe it’s a bit like our dandelions. Since I have so little grass I appreciate the dandelions, and I never have seen them grow as tall as they did this year. But what is Jesus’ point? What is the kingdom of God like?

I’m going to throw out some possibilities but I hope you will be thinking of your own answers. Could it be that the kingdom will grow without any effort from us? Maybe we don’t have to be concerned about evangelizing after all. If we look at our story from the Hebrew Bible lesson, we know that David certainly didn’t do anything to make God choose him. The youngest of the children in the family, he was out watching the sheep and Jesse, his father, didn’t even think about including him in the lineup of sons that Samuel wished to see as he hunted for the God-picked ruler of the nation. He was too young, and also slight of build and certainly not well regarded by his family. Who would choose him? Is the kingdom all about God’s grace?

Is the Kingdom a place, a plot of land somewhere? No, it has to be a vision of God and his son Jesus, a vision of what things will look like when they are as God wants them to be. What will that be like?

One more thought before I ask you to share your reflections. Some of you may remember that I grew up in Maine on Sebago Lake where my parents helped my grandmother run a tourist home. After my grandmother died, we became quite poor, as there was no will, and my mother had to divide up all the property with her two sisters. Not only did we lose our home and our many acres of woods and pastures, but also my parents lost their ability to earn a livelihood from the homestead. My favorite scripture found both in Matthew and Luke was: Be ye not anxious, consider the lilies of the fields and the birds of the air. They neither toil nor spin or sow nor reap yet they have all that they need. So do not worry as your heavenly Father will provide. Here too was that kingdom phrase, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be yours as well.” Mt. 6:33. So maybe the kingdom of God is a place where we do not have to be anxious. That first man just went to sleep and the seeds grew, he knew not how. So much of what we ponder about God and God’s world is a mystery for us.

Would some of you share what your thoughts and stories are on what is God’s kingdom?

To close I’d like to share with you a great mustard seed story, borrowed from Rev. Christina Berry: “Millard and Linda didn’t plan to stay longer than a couple of hours. They just wanted to see the place and hear the story. Truthfully, Millard just wanted to see what his pal Clarence had up his sleeve. See, Millard was a millionaire at age 29, And now, everything was coming apart. He should have been happy. But he was in poor health. Linda was saying she might leave him. The money wasn’t buying him any joy in life. So he went to see his friend Clarence. As it turned out, what Clarence had going was not up his sleeve, it was all over the place down there in rural South Georgia. It was Koinonia Farm, founded in 1942, as an interracial, intentional Christian community. There, people of all colors shared a simple life, committed to nonviolence, to justice, to following the teachings of Jesus.

From a small seed, Koinonia Farm grew, Clarence Jordan’s crazy idea of sharing in community as Christians, without regard to race or social class. It was a noxious weed, as far as its neighbors were concerned. They threatened the families of the farm. They bombed the produce stand – not once, but twice. They tried everything they could think of to make Koinonia Farms, and the people who lived there, go away. It was an affront to their way of life, and it would not go away. It stood over and against everything they held dear: private ownership, acquiring wealth, racial separation, and it would not go away.

Millard and Linda came for two hours and stayed for a month. After that visit, they put their marriage back together, gave away most of their wealth, and came up with the idea of “Habitat for Humanity.” Today, Habitat builds houses alongside people in need all around the world. From a small seed, a planned two-hour visit, a ministry of the kingdom grew. A tiny little seed, starting with a few houses in rural Georgia, flourished and grew and grew and grew, until it was everywhere, and it couldn’t be stopped.”

We don’t know how the tiniest of seeds becomes the greatest of all shrubs. In the same way, we never know how or when the still speaking GOD will use any of us or how God will use this church to bring about the Kingdom of God, whatever that may be. We’re called to observe whatever is our mustard seed and see where that crazy plant growing all over the place takes us. We don’t know where it is going to take us, but we know we aren’t going to be standing still! It just may take us to the Kingdom of God. The One who plants us, the One who calls us to grow like crazy, the One who makes all things new, has some big plans in mind for us! Amen and Amen

Mysteries of our Faith

Sermon for Trinity Sunday, 6-7-09
Scripture: John 3:1-17

There was an early father of our Christian faith named St.Augustine. This great theologian was so obsessed with the mystery of the Holy Trinity that he wrote 15 volumes on it. I want to tell you a story that some of you may have heard before. Augustine was at his wits' end, trying to understand this concept. One day he was walking on the sandy beach by the ocean. He was talking to himself about the Trinity: "One God, but three Persons. Three Persons--not three Gods but one God. What does it mean? How can it be explained? How can my mind take it in?" And so he was torturing his mind when he saw a young boy on the beach. He approached the boy to see what he was doing. The child had dug a small hole in the sand. With his hands the boy was carrying water from the ocean and was dumping it into the little hole. St. Augustine asked, "What are you doing, my child?" The child replied, "I want to put all of the water of the ocean into this hole." Once more St. Augustine asked, "But is it possible for all of the water of this great ocean to be contained in this little hole?" And the child asked him in return, "If the water of the ocean cannot be contained in this little hole, then how can the immensity of God be contained in your small head?" With that the child was gone.

If you were listening to the Children’s Story, you may be ahead of Augustine and have somewhat of an understanding of the Trinity. Let me say that the Trinity is not a concept that you will find in the Bible. It was in the 10th century that the church established this doctrine. The early Christians discovered that they simply could not speak of God without speaking of the three ways in which God had been revealed to them. The most familiar phrase is Father Son, and Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit although here are some others: Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer; Abba, Servant, Paraclete. An Indian, Raimundo Panikkar, keeping in mind the threefold experience at the heart of Hindu as well as Christian faith formulates it this way: Source, being, and return to being, which relates to God is above all, through all, and in all.i One that I like a lot is the Lover, the Beloved, and the Love. I do see God as a relational, dynamic, tri-personal mystery of love, a community of sorts. Those of you who have listened to my sermons for awhile know how important community is to me. So it’s not surprising that I would see in the Trinity this one God in a relationship mode with a Mother/Father, Creator, Christ our Savior and teacher, and the Holy Spirit our guide, relating to each other in holy community—a dynamic, three way love.

I like to use the metaphor of a dance, borrowed from Barbara Brown Zikmund. This dance is not rock and roll or hip-hop, where each person does his or her own moves, or ballroom dancing where two partners dance together. The dance I’m thinking of is more like the circle dance with each person of the Trinity joining hands together in a dance that has no beginning and no end, a dance where both the dance itself and each of the partners is eternal. No partner is greater than the other. Just like the metaphor of the human body for the Church, each partner has it’s own specific role as it moves in rhythm showing joy and love. This community of the Trinity is not static but ever moving, and it is moving right here today in this church and in each of our own beings.

Now what does any of this have to do with the Gospel reading of being born again? First of all, both the Trinity and being born again are great mysteries in our faith. In this passage we have Nicodemus going to pay a visit to Jesus. Nicodemus was a religious man of some note; in fact the scripture called him “the teacher”, not “a teacher”, pointing to his religious pre-eminence. Yet for all his pre-eminence, Nicodemus was missing something. There was an emptiness there, something was not quite right with him. He went by night to visit Jesus as it would not have been proper for such a man to be seen as interested in Jesus. Nicodemus expresses confusion, not unlike our own when we come upon something that does not fit with our preconceived notions of who God is. Who among us would not have questioned Jesus saying we had to be born again—at our age? The word Jesus speaks is that Nicodemus must be born "anothen"—a Greek word that can mean either "from above" or "anew." Maybe we should consider both words-- both a time of birth ("anew") and the place from which the new birth will come ("from above").ii Here we have a birth, generated by the Spirit, a transformation initiated by God and being proclaimed by Jesus. How’s that for an example of the Trinity? I wonder if some of us, whether baptized or not, could be waiting in these days after Pentecost for the coming of Spirit who will recreate us from above? Is it possible that we all may need to be born again in order to have our minds open to the newness of the Still Speaking God that never stops creating and surprising us. In these past five years have you been open to new things happening in this church—maybe a new way to consider race, refugees, women in prison, gay relationships, people from other countries and other faiths? Both individually and as a congregation, I believe the Spirit has been moving among us, giving us new birth.

Barbara Brown Zikmund says “When we worship a triune God we celebrate the love which flows in God’s eternal dance of togetherness, and which we know through Jesus Christ as Lord of the dance.”iii She further points out that in a Trinity where God is no longer seen as a solitary we can see a vision of a community where we are in mutual relationships, working together with shared responsibilities for justice and care.

As we prepare ourselves to celebrate Communion I invite all of you to come join in the dance. You and I, your families, your friends are all invited to come join the dance of unending joy. The Trinity circle breaks open and the Christ, the Spirit, and the heavenly Parent are still holding hands as they invite us to join in, to create an ever larger community as we become their partners in gathering up all of life to keep dancing the radical dance of justice and love. Please come and join in the dance. Amen.iv

i From Trinity and the Religious Experience of Mankind, used in Elizabeth A. Johnson’s She Who Is (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2001) 210.
ii New Proclamation B 2009, referenced in SAMUEL at the UCC sermon site.
iii “Trinity and Women’s Experience”, The Christian Century, April 15, 1987, pp.354-356.
iv Parts of today’s sermon were taken from previous Trinity sermons I have preached.

Up, Up and Away

Ascension Day Sermon for May 24, 2009
Scripture: Acts 1:1-11, Luke 24:44-53


This is the 7th and last Sunday in Easter for 2009. I had a choice of preaching on the scriptures for this Sunday or focusing on the Ascension of Jesus. This is my 6th Easter season and I have never preached on Ascension. I looked at the lectionary/sermon site of the national UCC and the only thing there are the scripture references—no sermon seeds, no stories to use, no references to articles. I then turned to another favorite site—the Center for Progressive Christianity--again no references or articles. What should I do? There are plenty of sermons from fundamentalists and evangelical churches on this topic but I doubted that these would be very helpful to me and they were not. Being only a month away from my wonderful, energizing Sabbatical, I decided to take on the challenge of sharing with you some of my thoughts about the Ascension in ways that make sense for me in the hopes that these words might be helpful in your own thinking.

Ascension Day comes 40 days after Easter. Luke, the author both of the Gospel Luke and of the Acts of the Apostles sets the scene in Bethany. He reminds the reader that after Jesus’ resurrection on the 3rd day, Jesus made many appearances to his disciples in the next 40 days. He spoke to them about the kingdom, he told them to remain in Jerusalem, waiting for the promise of God. He told them that just as John had baptized with water, they would soon be baptizing with the Holy Spirit. So when he had gathered them together in Bethany, the disciples asked if this were the time when the kingdom would be restored in Israel. Jesus responds that the timing is none of their business; it’s God’s business. He goes on to tell them that when the Holy Spirit comes to them, they will be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Next, while the disciples watched, Jesus, their beloved Lord, was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. Wow! What a shocker! Imagine us standing along side these men, these eleven disciples that had loved Jesus so much that they had left everything to follow him! I can imagine all or us would be standing there looking up with our mouths opened with amazed looks on our faces. Where is he? What happened? Can anyone see him? As we continue to stare with strange expressions on our faces and hearts pounding, two men in white robes (angels?) stood before us saying, “Why do you just stand there looking up at an empty sky? Snap out of it before you get a crick in your neck.1 There’s work to be done so get started.” (Now there was another part of the men’s speech: “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” I’m not about to try to explain what all that means. It may be part of the reason progressive Christians seldom preach on the Ascension. As you know I am not one that takes the Bible literally even though I believe its truths are much greater than the specific words used by scribes and translators who labored and still labor to bring us as accurate a picture as possible of something that was written down at least 25 years (in the case of Luke) after it happened.2 However, I believe it’s important not to miss the deep truths in the ascension scriptures, by getting hung up on trying to use scientific 21st century logic. For me the important part of the ascension is the spiritual part. If Jesus is no longer walking beside us here on the earth, then the Good News is that Jesus is now available to dwell within us as part of the Godhead, the Trinity. Yes he is still with us and can give us the strength to be his witnesses wherever we are or wherever we are being called.

Why do we tell this story? Pastor Wes Morgan says “the purpose of telling the story is twofold. First, to share that Jesus --our Savior -- did not simply fade away like some breath on the wind after the resurrection. Rather he is still in the world only now in the new body- a body called the church, the church that shares his mission of love and care. Second, telling the story reminds us that His form -- his substance-- his identity—are instead made one with the Father's -- and yet somehow remains unique …” I think that fits quite well with my sermon title of “Up, Up and Away Yet Still Here.”

It’s hard to have someone you love and maybe even depend on to leave you—even under the best of circumstances. We all know the pain—if not first hand—of losing loved ones by death or divorce. How many of you have said goodbye to a son or daughter as they left for college? I can remember how hard my mother cried when she and Dad drove me to the University of Maine, about 150 miles from home, probably 4 or 5 hours on the little country roads back in the 50’s. I also remember my mother’s story of how she wanted to go away to school, got accepted and was so homesick for her mother that she had to come back home, never to return. Now what does all this have to do with Ascension. Sometimes the greatest gift we can give our children is to let them go, in spite of the pain. Jesus had to leave his disciples. He had taught them well; he had loved them well; he had assured them that he would be close by, that the Holy Spirit would be their Advocate, an Advocate or Counselor that could lead them, inspire them, teach them. The Christ part of Jesus, that part that is divine, would be there for them and for us always. With the physical leadership of Jesus no longer there, the disciples would have to do it on their own—be witnesses in the world. So the important thing about the Ascension, was not Jesus’ physical absence but his spiritual nearness.

When Jesus was living amongst his followers, there were certain places where he could be found. His first sermon as recorded in Luke 4 was the Isaiah passage that says Jesus was sent to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind and to let the oppressed go free. He wasn’t found in fancy palaces or with the leaders of his day; he was found amongst the oppressed, those whose lives cried out for justice and peace. And now there is no one but us to do the work that Jesus began. I love the way Annie Dillard writes about this in her book, Holy the Firm: We can stand looking up into heaven or we can believe the promise of Jesus. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses.” …

Ascension Day is not a call to look up. It is to trust that Christ’s promise is down and in and around us. We are not alone—you and I who dance and climb, who run and get knocked down, we who lie on the grass or sit watching the late night news. We are not alone. The Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus surprises us at every turn, saying, “Guess who?” Guess who is being given the power by the Holy Spirit to be Christ’s witnesses in Deering, Hillsboro, Weare, and to places far away. Guess who is being called to teach Sunday School, to read scripture, to organize potlucks, to help at the Food Pantry, to build homes for those still homeless from Hurricane Katrina? Guess who is being called to use their talents of quilting, sewing, crafts, canning and so forth to prepare for the Church/Guild Fair? Guess who is needed to use their financial expertise and their building and gardening expertise to make of this church a viable, safe and attractive building? Maybe someone here will go back to school to become a minister. And I haven’t even begun talking about the gifts we have in this church in leadership, music, outreach, and hospitality!

We are not a perfect church, nor are we perfect people. The thing we have going for us is that power of the Holy Spirit if we only let the Spirit fill us and lead us. If we strongly believe in this power Jesus was talking about, we cannot be held back. We don’t have to wait for more members, more money—all we have to do is let that power of the Spirit bring us hope, bring us vision, and do what God is calling us to do. Sure we may get discouraged some times but if we remember to call on the risen Jesus that is as close as our hearts, we can overcome. God’s grace and love can bring us individually and as a church to new beginnings and maybe even new destinations.

Oh how they tried to keep Jesus down: the authorities, the Pharisees, even at times his family and his disciples. They used trickery, betrayal, violence, even death itself. But no one can keep Jesus down. He rose right off that cross and literally or symbolically—however you believe--resurrected and ascended. There are so many things that try to keep us down: poverty, illness, anger, uncertainty, lack of education, lack of friends and community. But I’m here to tell you that with the power that Jesus promised, no one can keep us down, not even ourselves. God’s love lifts us up, and the teachings of Jesus point us in directions that may surprise us. Jesus is with us until the end of time. There is nothing that will separate us from that love of Christ. I thank God that Jesus is the head of our church and has made us partners with him. I pray that we can all let that Holy Spirit that descends on Pentecost take us to new heights of giving and receiving blessings as we reach out as witnesses to Jesus. Amen

1Anna Murdock from Midrash online
2 This is based on the estimate that Jesus was 33 years old when crucified and the book of Luke was written between 59 and 62 CE.

The Eunuch and the Foreigner

Sermon for May 10, 2009 Easter 4B
Isaiah 56:3-8, Acts 8:26-40, 1 John 4 7-17

What long scripture readings today! Some of you may be thinking we’ll be here till noon time with Communion and all. It was quite common in India for the service to go a couple of hours. Don’t worry—I’ll make the sermon short and to the point.

The book of Acts shows how the disciples follow Jesus’ instructions to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you,” (MT. 28:19-20). By the time we meet Philip in Chapter 8, persecution has forced the early Christian community to leave the safe boundaries of the city of Jerusalem. The conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch, one of the first non-Hebrews baptized as a Christian, falls between the conversion of the Samaritans by Philip earlier in this chapter and then Peter’s preaching to the Gentiles in Chapter 10.

Who is this man? A foreigner from Ethiopia, a black-skinned African, a eunuch, a high official of the queen, her finance minister—the Ben Bernanke of Ethiopia. He does not fit the usual early descriptions of Africans as “ignorant”, “brutish,” “idle,” or “thievish”. He was reading the Bible, probably in Greek. He was a court official with a high rank. One of my commentators mentioned that it was not accidental for Luke to identify him as Ethiopian as his baptism was important in fulfilling Jesus’ promise that his disciples would be his witnesses not only in Jerusalem but “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:7).

Not only is this man an Ethiopian but he is also a eunuch, meaning he has been castrated. There are two kinds of eunuchs described in classical texts: those castrated from birth and those castrated after reaching physical manhood. Especially for those who are eunuchs from birth, their bodies took on feminine aspects, voices like a teenager, and bodies that were gangly or awkward. This man was probably middle aged due to his high court position.

He was being driven in a chariot and reading Isaiah as he went along on his way to worship in Jerusalem. As a eunuch he was an incomplete male and would have been excluded from any Jewish congregation because he could not have male heirs, yet he had a hunger for God. I wonder if he was thinking about himself as he read those words of Isaiah: “he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was denied justice and taken away, cut off from the land of the living” to paraphrase the scripture. And just as God does so many times, God intervened and had an angel direct Philip to go to exactly the place where he would encounter the eunuch and have the opportunity to help him understand the scripture. Philip jumped from the Isaiah passage, that many believe was predicting the Messiah’s coming, and went on to “evangelize”, to tell the good news of Jesus, the Christ. I wonder how far Philip read with him that day. I wonder if he read to the 56th chapter, the verses Betty read for us today. Here it says both the foreigner and the eunuchs who keep the Sabbath and hold fast to the covenant will be brought to God’s holy mountain and be made joyful in God’s house of prayer. Let me quote the last few lines of that passage: “for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcast of Israel. I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.”

Whatever Philip said, the eunuch heard the call of the Lord. Almost immediately the eunuch saw water on the desert road and asked to be baptized. Philip baptized him and then we are told the Spirit snatched Philip away and the eunuch saw him no more.

I am here to tell you this morning that God is Still Speaking. Just as God spoke to Isaiah, God speaks to us today. Both the eunuch and the foreigner were excluded in the Old Testament times. And I ask you who is being excluded today? How many African Americans are welcomed into some of our churches? How many gays and lesbians feel comfortable in many of our places of worship? What about truck drivers with pony tails and tattoos? Who else is the “other” in our communities? What about those with physical or mental disabilities? Those who have little or no money? If any of these folks came to DCC, would they be welcomed? I certainly hope so. Its progress to be an Open and Affirming Church that says we accept and even desire to welcome and affirm GLBT and others into every aspect of our life together. The true test is how we actually live out that commitment. Inclusivity is at the very heart of who God is. If you read about the disciples’ journey as they went out to witness to Jesus and the Good News, you will see that over and over again they had to be poked and prodded by the Holy Spirit to go past their comfort zones. It’s no different with us. We all have those places where our beliefs are ahead of what we are comfortable with in real time. We all have those old ways of thinking and doing that are hard to change.

In the letter of first John we are told that God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. An example that I have used before is appropriate to repeat on this Mother’s Day: Imagine the healthiest love possible of a mother for her child and multiply it many times and you have the Love that is God. God loved us so much that God sent his only son into the world to show us how to live. Now it is up to us to open our hearts and minds to love all of God’s children no matter how much of a challenge it may be. The hymn that we are about to sing is about the wideness in God’s mercy. How wide is wide? It’s wider than our hearts have ever stretched. How broad is the love of God? It is broader than our minds have ever stretched. That same Holy Spirit that sent an angel to Philip telling him to appear to the Ethiopian eunuch is present here today. That Spirit is calling to you and to me, calling us to reach out to others, to show them the Love that is God, and to invite them to walk the Way with us. May God bless us all as we keep trying to manifest God’s love to our hurting world. Amen and Amen.

Torn Apart and Filled with Love

Sermon for 1-11-2009
Scripture: Acts 19:1-7, Mark1:4-11

“No shepherds. No angels. No Magi. No star. No stable. Not a word about Mary and Joseph. Mark's story of Jesus begins at the river: "In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan." There's no list of ancestors. None of the cosmic wonder that opens John's Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." Mark's word is far more ordinary and direct" "In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan." Jesus entered the river with others to be washed in a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”1

We are so familiar with the first chapters of Matthew and Luke, filled with the Christmas stories. John’s Gospel is less familiar but we have heard the more metaphysical beginnings of Jesus as the Word and the light shining in the darkness. Mark gets right to Jesus’ baptism, filled with the drama of the heavens being torn apart and a Spirit descending on him like a dove. And then most amazing, the Word comes from God that Jesus is his son, the Beloved! It’s unclear as to whether or not this voice is a public or private voice. We don’t know if anyone else heard God’s voice or if it was heard only by Jesus. Did anyone else see the heavens torn apart or just Jesus? By the way, in Matthew and Luke it says the heavens are opened up, not torn apart. The word for torn apart in Mark comes from the Greek scizomevnou, meaning “to divide by use of force, split, divide, separate, tear apart…” the root for our word schizophrenic. It is not used again in Mark except at the time of Jesus’ death when he speaks of the veil of the Temple, being “torn in two, from top to bottom”2

For Mark’s Jesus, the world would never be the same again—the heavens would never be able to close up as tightly as before this happened. Barbara Lundblad in a sermon on this topic suggests that at this point Jesus begins to tear apart the pictures of whom the Messiah was suppose to be:

Tearing apart the social fabric that separated rich from poor.
Breaking
through hardness of heart to bring forth compassion.
Breaking through
rituals that had grown rigid or routine.
Tearing apart the chains that bound
some in the demon's power.
Tearing apart the notions of what it means to be
God's Beloved Son. 3

When Mark’s narrative continues, we are told that the Spirit immediately drove Jesus out into the wilderness. Those of us who know the story know that Jesus will be there for 40 days, being tempted by Satan. So there’s no doubt about this baptism leading Jesus to a new place.

Have you ever had a time in your life when your whole world changed? For some of our more evangelical church family, they may tell you it was the time when they were born again. For some of you that were baptized as adults, it might have been the time when you decided to be baptized. For most of us there are many moments, small and large that have impact on our life, that are defining moments. Maybe baptism itself, especially for those of us baptized as infants, should be thought of as not a once for all event but an invitation to constant growth.

Often it’s when we find a torn place in our lives that we can go forth in a new way, do a new thing. Maybe it is in those torn places that we can hear Jesus calling us. I always remember how the Chinese symbol for crisis is made up of two symbols: danger and opportunity. What are these torn places? A loss through death or divorce, a loss of function such as seeing, hearing, walking, or the ability to be independent are significant ones. Also, a relocation, both voluntary or involuntary, maybe my experience in India will be a torn place of change for me. It’s a radical change of some sort in your life.

In our Gospel lesson today there is another significant aspect that allows Jesus (and us) to be able to break away from the old and go on with the new and that is, knowing that we are loved. God tells Jesus that he is the Beloved, one in whom God is well pleased. Some of us are fortunate enough to have family that let us know in no uncertain way that we are loved. Others are not so fortunate. Henri Nouwen reminds us that in baptism God says, “All I want to say to you is: You are the beloved, and all I hope is that you can hear these words with all the tenderness and force that love can hold. My only desire is to make these words reverberate in every corner of your being… You are the beloved.” Whatever your situation, there is God’s love to inspire you, to comfort you, to give you confidence. I believe that one of the greatest duties of the church is to let the people know about God’s love. Can you imagine yourself as beloved? Can you imagine every woman, man, and child sitting here today as God’s beloved? What about your neighbors, those you work with, those you go to school with? If we each were to think about ourselves and each other as God’s beloved, do you think it would make a difference in our actions, how we treat each other, how we make laws and policies in our governments?

God comes to us through torn apart heavens and troubling waters. I love the Negro Spiritual, “Wade in the Water”, which is said to be a coded song telling the Negro slaves ways to escape to their freedom, covering their tracks and scent by entering the water. I wonder what it means for God to be troubling the waters in our life. Is troubled water a necessary part of our journey to be free?

Baptism is one of only two sacraments in the United Church of Christ. A sacrament means an outward and visible sign of an inward, spiritual grace given by God. When a baptism is performed, we are exhorted to remember our own baptism. Remembering helps us know who and whose we are; it reminds us that we are God’s beloved; it can help us find an equilibrium that is necessary when our heaven is torn apart or when God is “troublin’ the waters”. At this time I am going to walk up and down the aisles sprinkling you with water as a ritual for you to remember your own baptism, remember how you are God’s beloved sons and daughters. It’s also a way that I want to bless you as I leave for my Sabbatical to India. As the water is sprayed, please know that you are not only God’s beloved but that each of you is also very special to me. No matter where you are or where I am, may the water remind us of the Holy Spirit and of that special connection that we have. Amen!


1 Barbara Lundblad, “Torn apart Forever”, online sermon.
2 Mark 15:38-9)
3 Op.cit

A Light for All People

Epiphany Sunday, January 4, 2009
Scripture: Isaiah 60: 1-6 and Matthew 2: 2-12

Oh, star of wonder, star of night; guide us to thy perfect light.

Epiphany—a revelation, a manifestation of Divine Presence right in the midst of ordinary life! In the church year, Epiphany is twelve days after Christmas, January 6. Epiphany celebrates the visit to Jesus of the wise men from the East, often called the three kings or the Magi. The Greek word for the Magi really has nothing to do with kings “but designates a priestly class of Persian or Babylonian experts in the occult, such as astrology and the interpretation of dreams.” (New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 7, p. 140)

In Isaiah we have a prediction of camels from the East bringing gold and frankincense and praising the Lord. That scripture opens with a resounding call, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” The next verse describes thick darkness covering the earth and all its peoples, but then the light of the Lord shines forth, bringing all nations to the brightness of dawn. Epiphany is also used as a word referring to a sudden brightness that lights up our mind, gives us insights we never had before. It is definitely a gift. It may be something that comes to an individual or to whole community. It is like the bright light shining in the darkness. Light attracts, brings people together.

In the world of Isaiah there had been a number of prophecies, known to religious and pagans alike, about the possibility of a promised King. There was a belief that a special star would be the sign of the birth of this special person. Since the wise men were astrologers, it would be common for them to study the sky for signs of extraordinary events.

Today let’s look at the journey of the wise men to see what we can learn from it that might apply to us spreading the light in our world today. In the Gospel of Matthew we are given a time and place for this story. It was in Bethlehem of Judea in the time of King Herod, this King Herod ruled from 37-4 BCE. Now Herod was considered the King of the Jews so when he heard that another “King” had been born. He was indeed threatened. And the inquirers were not local folks but were from far away, from the East. They would be considered pagans or Gentiles as opposed to Jews, yet here they were, having come a very long distance to pay homage, to worship this King of the Jews. The fact that these wise men were from another nation and another religion, establishes in my mind how Jesus was for all people, all nations, all races, and so forth right from the very beginning. To reinforce that belief, we have the story in Luke where it is the Jewish shepherds in the fields around Bethlehem to whom the angels appear. The angels say, I am bringing you good news of great joy for ALL the people; to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” (2:10-11) These shepherds are as poor as the Magi are rich. Jesus is for all, rich or poor. Through God’s grace in the birth of Jesus, the dividing wall was broken down to create one new human family, all loved by God.

By now most of you know that I believe that God wants us all to be part of a loving, inclusive community. Most of us Christians have been taught that Jesus is the Way and the Truth and the Light—so far so good. For me, Jesus is definitely the way, the truth, and the light; however, I do not interpret the Bible literally as do our Fundamentalist and Evangelical brothers and sisters, who believe that only those that accept Jesus as their personal Savior will be saved and have eternal life as part of God’s family. Some of you have heard me express my affinity to Progressive Christianity, which talks about Jesus being the “Gate” to the realm of God for us as Christians, yet also recognizing the faithfulness of others who may use different names for the gateway to God’s realm. I believe it’s crucial that in our enthusiasm for including all people in God’s family and in our common life that we do not impose on them the necessity of becoming like us. Saying all of this brings me back to my sermon title of Jesus being the light for all people. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, black or white, young or old, gay or straight, Asian or African, Middle Eastern or American, the teachings and promises of Jesus are available to all. I further believe that it’s up to us to preach the gospel of Jesus at all times to all peoples and when necessary, to use words.

Looking at another meaning, Epiphany means to behold the world or one’s life in a new way. For me learning about the teachings of Progressive Christianity was an epiphany. It helped me blend my Christian faith with my worldview of inclusiveness. I have recently been reading a lot of the Hindu beliefs and rejoice when I learn that the Hindu religion teaches both tolerance and universal acceptance, teaching that all religions are equally worthy of respect. One of the authors I was reading says he is proud that he can honor the sanctity of other faiths without feeling he is betraying his own.1

Throughout this Advent and Christmas season, I have preached a lot about the suffering in the world; we had our own share of suffering in NH with those many hours without power, without light. Star of wonder, Star of Night,….Guide us to your perfect light. I think we appreciate light more than ever now. In the gospel of John, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” If we talk about the hope, joy, peace, and love of Christmas, and sing these joyous, blissful songs without seeing and helping with the terrible suffering and anguish in the world around us, the Christmas sentiments will indeed be only “pious platitudes” (Nettleson). We celebrate Christmas because we do live in a suffering world; and the One has come to bring us light, to give us life. Emmanuelle, God with us. My prayer for you and for me is that in this week and forward, we let Jesus’ light shine in us as we go into the world. We, too, can be the light in the world. Epiphany is about sending out those who have learned the good news to share it with all nations. Go Tell It On the Mountain that Jesus Christ is born. May we have the courage and the love to both recognize and follow where God calls, even if at times these places terrify and horrify us. May God bless us and help us. Amen

1Shashi Tharoor, The Elephant, the tiger, and the cell phone,2007.

Christmas Message (2008)

Christmas Eve, December 24, 2008
References: Rev. Ed Bacon, Christmas Eve 2006 and Sr. Joan Chittester

The wonderful Christmas stories are being read in many churches this night. The first two chapters of Matthew and Luke are the basis of our Christmas narrative. Each of these gospels presents a very different story. In Matthew, Joseph is the main character. Mary does not speak nor does she receive any revelation. There is no story of the birth itself, no stable, no manger, no angels or shepherds, all of these are in Luke. Tonight, however, I want to talk with you not about these details but about the meaning that lies beneath the stories. Beneath the story of the baby born in Bethlehem, beneath the story of the shepherds, the magi, the angels, the virgin mother, the no-room-in-the-inn—beneath all of these wondrous stories is this deep, deep life truth which tells us that the journey from fear and anxiety to joy and peace always goes through compassion and generosity for others. For the angels this night say that this news is to be good news for all people not just for me and mine, but for our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe, in South America, in homes here in America where parents have lost their jobs recently or have been without income for a long time. The baby born in Bethlehem is not only about peace in my heart and peace in my life. The Christmas story is about peace for all people—the people in Iraq and Afghanistan, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Sudan, (add other war zones) and in Jerusalem.

Odetta, the great folk singer that recently died, sang:

There’s fighting in the city where baby Jesus grew.
All in all the Prince of Peace we send a prayer to you.
Walking through Jerusalem I see the signs of war
Calling on the Prince of Peace to walk the streets once more.
Walking in Jerusalem just like the prince of Peace.
Praying for Jerusalem. May all the fighting cease.
O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem
Sweet little baby born in a stable
O Jerus’lem in the morning.

My friends, the message of Christmas is that you and I are given the vision of God, the one God who always in every age wants to become embodied anew—not in the daylight but in the deepest darkness of night. God wants to be born in you and me tonight—in the people who have heard the message of the angels that the one God is not just for our tribe but for everyone. We are the ones who have heard the angels say, “Fear not. Receive this love which will not only make you loving and lovely but will, if you say yes to it, work through everything you do in your life to make the whole world loving and lovely as well.” (Fr. Bacon)

There’s something very different about Christmas this year because of the economic recession. Suddenly, from one end of society to another, people are faced with an unusual vulnerability. For some, the fall down the economic ladder has been severe, for others, less dramatic. With less money available many people have had to find a new way to do Christmas, one that doesn’t depend on things. Maybe this Christmas will be one in which we learn again to focus on love rather than things. As Sister Joan Chittester says, “The parties will be smaller – and more intimate. The gifts will be more useful – and less disposable….In fact, it may actually become a “feast” again, rather than simply a shopper’s holiday.”

So let’s celebrate the feast where the central ingredient is the message that God will always seek human beings to be the bearers of the divine power, God’s power, that makes possible compassionate, inclusive, justice-seeking, peacemaking, forgiving, healing and reconciling love. The message is about a way to bring love and peace not just to me, not just to you, not just to our kind, not just to our religion, but to bring peace to all people, all nations, and the entire world. When you and I love like that, Christmas comes again not just for our families, not just for our hearts, not just for our church, not just for our religion but for the whole world.
So as we participate in this holy celebration, may your Christmas be—as Sister Joan says—“made merry by the gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh, of generosity and serenity and spirit, that this year will surely bring.” May joy and peace go with you tonight and continue throughout the year to come. Merry Christmas!