2-26-06 Sermon by Pastor Barbara Currie

“LISTEN TO HIM”: FROM TRANSFIGURATION TO TRANSFORMATION
Scripture: 2 Kings 2:1-12 and Mark 9:2-8

Today we celebrate Transfiguration Sunday, a bridge between Epiphany, the season of the year that we have been worshipping in, and Lent, which begins next week on Ash Wednesday. The word itself means change or metamorphosis, most commonly remembered in terms of the ugly caterpillar that becomes a butterfly. And in case you have forgotten what epiphany means it is a sudden realization, often thought of as an intuitive leap of understanding, also a manifestation of the divine. Epiphany Sunday is the Sunday closest to January 6, usually the Sunday before. It is the celebration of the bright light, the star of the East, the visit of the Magi with their gifts for Jesus and it also sometimes coincides with or comes just before the baptism of Jesus. Both at the baptism and at the Transfiguration a voice of God announces that Jesus is his beloved son. The scripture describing the Transfiguration follows with the words, “Listen to him.” The stories in both the Old and New Testaments today are stories of visions, times when ordinary people saw extraordinary things as they carried on their God journey. Right now I want to warn you that this is one of those participatory sermons. There will be a time when I will stop and ask if any of you would be willing to describe an extraordinary experience you have had on your spiritual journey.

Let’s first take a look at Elijah and Elisha. Elijah was a prophet that had been called a trouble maker by kings as he persevered in preaching the wisdom of God. We are told it’s time for him to leave this world and that Elisha is a worthy replacement. Elijah is one of those figures in the Bible that is immediately taken up into the heavens. In order for Elisha to inherit Elijah’s spirit, a double portion of his spirit, he has to focus on Elijah’s ascendancy. All of the description of chariots and horses are visions used for the purpose of making it clear that Elisha has the ability to concentrate and focus enough so that he will indeed be the one to replace his mentor in leading their people.

I’m not sure how you would define or describe visions. I liked one writer’s description as moments of truth, when there is no fog and no haze and no trees and not obstructions, and deeper still—when you can see your God-given destiny. One of the most famous descriptions of a vision that I am reminded of as we think of the mountaintop in our transfiguration story today is that of Martin Luther King, Jr—his vision on the mountaintop. Remember, he says “I have beeeen to the mountain. I have seeeen the Promised Land.” His vision was a beloved community where black and whites will live and work together. He believed strongly in this vision and was willing to give his life for it. Now I don’t know if he actually saw this vision of the promised land or if it was what he imagined in his mind. It doesn’t really matter how the vision comes to us; it can propel us to action. Visions can help us see the possibilities in life, to see past the obstructions. Visions are indeed moments of truth. They can lead us to a moment of transfiguration and we can become transformed.

Now most of you know that I’ve just come back from California. There are a lot of folks out there that want a transformation on the outside. While I was there the wife of a dear friend just went under the knife—a six hour operation—to make her face look more youthful. Hollywood is filled with people that transform themselves, often changing their names at the same time: Frances Gum changed her image and became Judy Garland, Archibald Leach became Cary Grant, and Marion Morrison became John Wayne to name a few. Same kind of name changes happened in the Bible: Abram became Abraham; Sarai became Sarah, Jacob became Israel, and Saul became Paul.

The three disciples that accompanied Jesus to the mountaintop saw him transfigured; was it the same as a vision. I think so. This vision had both visual and audio effects. Jesus’ clothes became dazzling white and the disciples saw Elijah and Moses standing with him. For me the most important part is the voice of God telling them to “Listen to him.”

How to we listen to Jesus? How do we hear him? How have you heard him? Before I go to the congregation for some of your answers, let me share some of my thoughts and experiences. I do believe that Jesus speaks through the Bible, especially in the Gospels. I don’t believe he said every word but that the general principles written there as his words are something for us to listen to.

I believe we can see Jesus, especially the divine Christ part in other people. It doesn’t need to be a saint or famous preacher. I believe that an ordinary friend is often used to speak or act Christ’s message to us. I don’t know how many of you have seen a new baby being born. I was fortunate to have my first child my natural child birth and until this day, there is nothing to compare with seeing life come into the world. Many of you have heard the story of my having a long dark night of the soul and finally deciding to try to meditate, to pray silently. I decided I would at least try 5 minutes of silently opening myself to God. During that time I physically felt God holding me and assuring me that I had a purpose. It was soon after that I decided to go to seminary to become a minister. What about you in the congregation? Was there ever a time that you felt God or Jesus speaking to you in a vision or an experience? Some folks have these experiences and never share it—for different reasons. Some think others will think they are crazy, hallucinating, becoming a religious nut. Many folks just don’t think others would believe them. If any of you feel comfortable sharing your experiences now, that would be wonderful.

Sharing time

When we listen to Jesus, especially in what he says to us in the Gospel, there’s no way that we can deny our need to help others. There’s a Vietnamese folk tale that I want to share with you that differentiates between heaven and hell. In hell, everyone is given an abundance of food, set before them, but the only thing they have to feed themselves with are chopsticks a yard long; therefore, the food never reaches their mouths. In heaven, the image is exactly the same in terms of the abundance of food and the yard long chopsticks. But in heaven, the people use their chopsticks to feed one another.

God’s voice on the mountain says listen to him. Jesus doesn’t accept the offer to have temples built on the mountain but leads the disciples down to the people; people possessed by demons, suffering from illnesses, those that are without enough to eat, to the powers and principalities of the Roman government, the tax collectors, the scribes, and the prostitutes. Why did he do so? Joan Chittester, a Benedictine nun and author of some of my favorite books, says that “real religion is not about building temples and keeping shrines. Real religion is about healing hurts, speaking for and being with the poor, the helpless, the voiceless and the forgotten who are at the silent bottom of every pinnacle, every hierarchy and every system in both state and church.”[1] The people at the bottom wait to be healed, wait for jobs, wait for food and shelter, wait for education, wait for dignity and recognition.

Real religion is not about transcending life but transforming life. Transfiguration leads us back down the mountain, thankful for the splendid mountaintop moments to console us when it’s rough down below. If we listen to Jesus, we will turn the world upside down, be the people of the Beatitudes, do works of mercy, even do miracles.

Once upon a time a group of disciples asked an elder, “Does your God work miracles?” The elder said, “Well it all depends on what you mean by a miracle. Some people say it’s a miracle that God does the will of the people. We say, it’s a miracle when people do the will of God.”[2] As we enter the Lenten season, let us prepare ourselves to do the work of God. Thinking back to the Vietnamese folk tale, let us remember that a single act of compassion can transform hell into heaven. It is up to us to take the mountaintop experiences to comfort and console us and to lead us on to transform the world one step at a time. Thanks be to God for God’s grace and love. Amen.

[1] Online at http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/chittister_3508.htm

[2] Ibid.

2-19-06 SERMON BY PASTOR BARBARA

FORGIVENESS AND HEALING
Scripture: Isa. 43:18-25 and Mark 2:1-12

In our Gospel reading today we are told that Jesus is at home in Capernaum. We are only in the second chapter of Mark and already Jesus has driven out an unclean spirit from a man in the synagogue, healed Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, followed by healing many who were sick and with demons. Then last Sunday Jesus healed the leper who came to him. We know that he told the leper to not tell anyone, probably because he was getting tired of doing so much healing, being surrounded by such big crowds. Of course the leper was so excited that he couldn’t keep from sharing the news so told all he came in contact with. So I can imagine that Jesus might have been hoping to get some rest by going home. (By the way most scholars believe he lived with Peter and his family, not a house by himself.) But word gets around quickly in this city by the sea. There was no chance for any rest for Jesus. The scripture says that there were so many people gathered that there was no room even at the outside of the house. It is in this setting that four friends bring a paralytic man, lying on a mat . Upon seeing the crowd, these men were so determined to present their friend to Jesus that they would not stop at the barriers presented. In Palestinian design the roof consisted of crossbeams covered with thatch and hardened mud.[1] So these four friends simply dug through this mud. Do you have any friends like these? These friends possessed two important attributes: they were willing to advocate for one who couldn’t advocate for himself, and they found some creative ways to get past what seemed to be insurmountable obstacles. Jesus sees their actions in persevering as having faith. The Greek word used here for faith is pistis; it is a word when used in conjunction with miracles in Mark that seems to imply perseverance—overcoming obstacles in order to get to Jesus. This same word is used when Jesus criticizes his disciples for being afraid on the stormy sea; it is used when he talks to the hemorrhaging woman about her faith and when the blind beggar keeps calling to Jesus in spite of the others telling him to shut up. Ben Witherington in the The Gospel of Mark says this about the faith of these friends: “They dared to do the difficult, the dangerous, the controversial in order to bring their friend into the presence of Jesus.” (p.115). I wonder how many of us would have that much determination to bring the troubled people we know to church.

Now we are never told specifically why these friends bring the man to church but a good guess would be that they want him healed from his paralysis. However, before doing anything about healing the man, Jesus addressed the man with an affectionate term, Child or my child, or as in the NRSV, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” The Greek word used here is only used at other times when addressing his disciples. It seems to indicate that Jesus is declaring this man to be part of his family.

What do Jesus’ words have to do with healing or in connecting the man’s paralysis to his sins? In those days as I have mentioned several times before, there was a belief that suffering or illnesses were the direct result of one’s sins. In other places in the gospels such as in John 9, Jesus has made clear that he does not believe that an individual’s problems are a result of his sin. In this case the man appears to remain paralyzed after Jesus forgives his sins which would seem to be saying that his relationship with God is not dependent upon his health or illness. So “Jesus, by forgiving first, without any healing, is attacking the common belief that sin caused his paralysis”.[2] Forgiveness may not be necessary to cure our illness; however, I believe that both forgiving and being forgiven is the medicine that heals us on the deepest level of our being. I believe that the paralyzed man and we can experience a reality of God’s transformative gift of love when we accept that we are forgiven, regardless of any physical illness that may remain. Saint Ignatius in the opening of his Spiritual Exercises says something that I want to quote about reframing our priorities: “In everyday life… we must hold ourselves in balance before all created gifts ... We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a deeper response to our life in God. Our only desire and our one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads to God's deepening [God's] life in me."[3] I pray for this deepening of God in you and in me. I want it more than anything and I pray that this deepening, or what I usually call closeness, is something that you also want.
At this point I want to shift to talking about the power of forgiveness when we are the ones doing the forgiving. Last June Neill and I went to a Peace Conference at the Bruderhoff community in NY convened by Johann Christoph Arnold of that community. Arnold spoke about the power of forgiveness in conflicts big and small. He talked about the saying of Alan Paton, a South African author who wrote that “there is a hard law…When a deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive.” Having worked for many years as a therapist to women suffering from incest, I came to believe the validity of this statement. Another quote I’m reminded of here is a Chinese Proverb that warns, “Whoever opts for revenge, should dig two graves.” We’ve certainly seen the truth of that since 9/11 and the tremendous numbers of deaths that have resulted as we decided to seek vengeance instead of responding with forgiveness and persevering for peace with justice.

At the Peace Conference there were two speakers that had a lot to forgive: Steven McDonald and Bud Welch. Steven McDonald, was a police detective in New York. One day in the summer of 1986, Steven was questioning three young suspects in Central Park when one of them shot him multiple times. Steven was left paralyzed from the neck down, and dependent on a ventilator. He had been married less than a year, and his wife was pregnant with their first child. A devout Catholic, Steven decided to forgive his assailant. It wasn’t easy—in fact, he had to struggle for weeks, if not months, to overcome his anger. But as he later explained, “The only thing worse than a bullet in my spine would have been revenge.” Three years ago Steven and Johann Arnold started visiting high school assemblies and other places to speak about the power of forgivenss. In fact he has now made it his life’s work to promote nonviolent conflict resolution in his city’s troubled schools.

The other person was Bud Welch, the owner of a gas station whose daughter was one of the 168 people killed in the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995. Like Steven, Bud struggled to overcome his anger, especially at the man who killed his daughter: Timothy McVeigh. Along the way, he met McVeigh’s family and realized that Tim too is one of God’s children. In the years since that meeting, Bud has become an outspoken opponent of the death penalty in America. He says that forgiving is “not something you just wake up one morning and decide to do. I still have moments of rage. But you have to work through your anger and your hatred as long as it’s there.”
One of the most amazing prayers of forgiveness came to me from a transcript of a talk Johann Cristoph Arnold gave at an international peace conference in Milan, Italy in 2004. This prayer was found at a Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck written on a piece of old wrapping paper: “Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted upon us. Remember rather the fruits we brought, thanks to this suffering: our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart that has grown out to this. And when they come to judgment, let all the fruits we have borne be their forgiveness.” Isn’t that one of the most amazing, grace filled prayers you have ever heard? It makes me realize how important it is for us to pray for all involved in the current wars tearing our world apart. Let us pray for and forgive those we do not agree with, those we feel have good intentions as well as those that seem to us to have evil intentions. Let us pray for the ability to forgive our enemies as well as our leaders. If the prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps, if Steve McDonald and Bud Welch can pray for those who have caused them so much suffering, let us be compassionate and courageous enough to also pray for all. Arnold reminds us of Martin King, Jr’s words, “The judgment of God is upon our world. And unless we learn to live together as brothers and sisters, we will perish together as fools.”

In our OT reading Isaiah presents God as listing the sins of the Israelites and saying that God will blot out all these sins, not for the sake of the people but for God’s own sake. God will not even remember their sins. God says it is time to forget the things of old and do a new thing. This new thing is salvation for the exiles, making a way through the wilderness and rivers in the desert. God does this not because of any goodness of the people deserving good treatment, but because God is redeeming the exiles, leading them to celebration and praise. For me this is similar to our forgiving those that have done things to cause us to suffer. We forgive because we can not live whole lives as long as we are holding grudges, as long as we are hating, as long as we feel the need for punishment of vengeance. We also forgive because as followers of Jesus, we have been told to do so.

We should never forget that on any given Sunday, there are undoubtedly people here in our congregation that are carrying heavy burdens. Some of this pain may be related to health of self or others, grief for loss, concern for the welfare of loved ones in many different circumstances. However, some of these burdens are burdens of guilt. Where else is a better place for a ‘recovery group’ than right here at church. We are the community of God’s transformative love and forgiveness. Nothing that has happened in the past is as powerful as the possibility for love and kindness in this moment. So much more the reason for us to persevere in bringing others to church so they may know this love, this forgiving, this healing. How do we get this forgiveness in church? For some the confession of sin and the reassurance of forgiveness may make a difference. For others the Lord’s prayer one Sunday will not be a mindless recitation but a real thing when we pray, forgive our sins or debts as we forgive our debtors. Some Sunday someone may here in the Lord’s Supper, that they may come as they are, part of the broken world to receive God’s mercy and love. It may be that one of you will say a word at coffee hour that shows how glad you are to see the person and they will feel part of our community. There are so many ways that we can be part of the healing and forgiving process. Thanks be to God. Let us remember that we are Gods eyes, ears, mouth, arms, legs, etc in this world of pain. Use us God to spread your love. Amen.
[1] Harper Collins Study Bible.
[2] Sermon online by Brian Stoffregen
[3] Taken from an online sermon by Douglas R. Loving

2-12-06 Sermon by Pastor Barbara Currie

DO YOU CHOOSE TO BE A RUNNER FOR JUSTICE?
Scripture: 2 Kings 5:1-14, Psalm 30, Mark 1:40-45

How in the world can I put together a sermon for Racial Justice Sunday and include the scriptures that were read this morning? How am I going to connect the healing of Naaman, the healing of the leper, and Jesus’ answer to the leper. “I do choose” and still end this sermon in less than 12 minutes? Let us pray: O Lord, what a challenge you give me today. Let me decrease and you increase, O God. I can’t do it without you. Bless all of us, guide my words and the listening of the congregation so that we may all be better able to do your holy will. Amen

In both our Old and New Testament readings we encounter a man with a skin disease. In these olden days all such diseases were lumped together in the category of leprosy. These folks were considered unclean and had specific rules to set them apart such as wearing torn clothing and shouting at anyone that came close to them, “Unclean, unclean”. You can find all these rules written down in the book of Leviticus. Today leprosy is called Hansen’s disease, and there are treatments that keep the disease from progressing. As late as the middle of the 20th century, people who were suspected of having the disease were banished from society. On the island of Molokai in Hawaii about 8,000 residents of the state were forced into exile since 1865 when King Kamehameha V instituted a law called an "Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy." Those suspected of having leprosy had to be secluded on land that was set apart. The law remained in effect until 1969. Father Damien of the RC church ministered to these people and died there himself after catching the disease (one of my sources said that of the 1000 plus visitors at the colony, Fa. Damien was the only one to get leprosy). So obviously, these scriptures are talking about a condition that caused great stigma for the people so affected or infected.

In the Hebrew Bible we heard about Naaman, a commander of a King’s army, who had a skin disease. Being a commander, he was well connected, and was given a letter from his King to present to the King of Israel to tell of his worthiness to be healed. We know that when the great prophet, Elisha, doesn’t even come out to examine Naaman, but just sends word for him to go bathe seven times in the Jordan to cure his skin disease, Naaman was angry, insulted and offended. He had expected a great ‘to do’, a big show, maybe some fireworks or something dramatic. This type of person reminds me of that story about the man that was stranded on his rooftop because of a flood. He keeps praying for God to save him. Person after person comes by in rowboats and helicopters, offering help. The rooftop man refuses their offers, telling them that God is going to save him. Finally the water rises over his head, and he dies. When he gets to heaven he complains to God, “I prayed and prayed and you didn’t save me.” And God answers, “I sent two rowboats and two helicopters, and you wouldn’t get into any of them.”
Now in the second healing, the leper recognizes Jesus as the man that has been performing miracles and comes humbly to him, kneeling in front of him and begging him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” And then Jesus does an extraordinary thing, he reaches out and touches this leper, the untouchables of that day, and says, “I do choose. Be made clean.” We are told that immediately his leprosy is cured. Jesus told the leper to keep quiet about the miracle, and in keeping with the custom of the time, instructed him to go show himself to the priest as Moses’ Law commanded, and the priest would give him permission to reenter the community. We know that the leper was so overjoyed that he couldn’t keep his mouth shut and went about telling everyone the good news of Jesus.

Have you ever been considered an outcast by others? Lepers were so considered. Their social stigma was great. No one wanted them near them and certainly would not touch them. It reminds me of the days of segregation of the black and white races: separate bathrooms, drinking fountains. I remember a black psychiatrist friend, Dr. Dudley, a brilliant man. He was not allowed to go into the library in his southern town but could request that books be given him through a back door. He ended up getting an award for having read the most books of any patron of that library! More examples: No matter how hot it was the black children were not allowed to go to the public pools or beaches except for occasional segregated times. If blacks did swim in a pool, it would be closed down, drained and disinfected before being used again by whites. Before the Civil Rights Movement it was not uncommon for a white shop keeper to throw a black customer’s change on the counter rather then to touch their hands. There were even situations in non-segregated churches where blacks were denied the Sacraments or were required to wait until all the whites had been served before they could approach the altar. When I met my first husband, Roland Luckett, an African American from Jackson, Mississippi, it was the summer of 1961. We met in Maine where I was part of the local staff and he was part of an American Friends group all working at an institution for the mentally retarded. We married in 1964. By that time many changes had taken part in the legal aspects of segregation; however, there was still a great deal of prejudice, and Roland was very frightened of some terrible bodily harm happening because of us being together. This was a time when most southern states still had a law on their books forbidding marriages of blacks and whites. The first time we went to visit his family in Mississippi; he carried a gun in the baby’s diaper bag.

When we moved to Los Angeles in 1966, there was still tremendous discrimination towards blacks in housing. After being denied consideration for several apartments we looked at together, we worked with the Urban League in bringing suits against places that would say there was nothing available when we applied together and then white only folks would go back to the same place and be given an application to complete. As the years pass, discrimination decreased in official ways, but we have only to look at Hurricane Katrina to see the ways people are separated---be it my class or race. How many of the blacks left behind in New Orleans were poor, and how many of them were poor because of a continued atmosphere of prejudice and lack of opportunity due to their race?On this Racial Justice Sunday we can choose to be a “runner” for justice or to keep on doing whatever we have been doing. Being a runner for justice means first of all that we must love one another as God loves each of God’s children, whether that child is American or Mexican, white or brown, disfigured by leprosy or suffering from HIV/AIDS, straight or gay, Muslim or Jew. If you choose to run this race for justice you may be called to sacrifice some material gain to make sure others don’t go without what they need. Because I believe that if we are runners for racial and social justice we have to participate in the radical redistribution of the earth’s wealth. And I hate to think about this, but in this part of being a runner for justice, it’s not the time to criticize the World Bank, the IMF, or George Bush, but it’s time for me to start looking at my own investments, getting rid of some stocks that support the rich getting richer while the poor are deprived of opportunity. One of the lectures that impacted me most down in Mexico was by Ched Myers, looking at what he calls Sabbath Economics, using a significant portion of your investment dollars to help fight poverty here and around the world by investing in communities. It has to begin with me and with us. If any of you want to know more about his philosophy, I’ll share the material for you.

I can’t leave this sermon without spending some time talking about one of my greatest heroes, Martin Luther King, Jr. In King’s last years he was focusing more and more on the need to stop the war and eradicate poverty. He had a chapter in Where Do We Go From Here, Chaos or Community?[1] on “The World House”, where he calls us to (among other things) to transcend tribe, race, class, nation, and religion. “We must rapidly shift from a thing-oriented society to a people-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”[2] He says our values must change so that we “resist social injustice and resolve conflicts in the spirit of love embodied in the philosophy and methods of nonviolence.”[3] He says we are called upon to be Good Samaritans but that true compassion is more than giving to the poor; the whole Jericho Road, or any edifice producing the begging needs restructuring and transforming. He believed that America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can and should lead the way in this revolution of values. A nation that year after year spends more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death, according to King. (Flash forward to White House Budget 2006.) King says there is nothing but shortsightedness to prevent us from guaranteeing an annual minimum—and livable—income for every American family. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war.

In those days the great fear was communism as today’s fear is terrorism. So if we substitute the words we have this from King:
“This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against ["terrorism"]. War is not the answer. We must seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity, and injustice which are the fertile soil in which the seed of terrorism grows and develops. A genuine revolution of values means that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to humanity as a whole. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all people. Love is the key that unlocks the door… We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or to bow before the altar of retaliation.”[4]

So my brothers and sisters, we all have choices to make. Jesus had a choice whether or not to heal the leper. He could conform to the morals and mores, the laws and rules of his time and leave the leper to his suffering and stigma. In the end Jesus gave his whole life out of his love and his willingness to be part of the answer. King was also willing to choose to speak up for all the poor, for all the nations. In this way he could be much more effective than just advocating for African Americans. This was much more threatening for the powers to be and may have led to his assassination. So what choice will you make? Will you choose to be a runner for justice? May our faith guide us all, and may we feel the presence of the Holy Spirit as we make our choice. Amen



[1] Boston: Beacon Press, 1968
[2] Online at http://www.theworldhouse.org/whsummary.html
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.

January 29, 2006 Knowledge Puffs Up

KNOWLEDGE PUFFS UP, BUT LOVE BUILDS UP
1 Corinthians 8:1-13

For four days this past week I spent intimate intense time with some of the most knowledgeable men and women I have ever known. They were experts in aspects of theology, non-violence, ecology, and economics. This conference was called, “Developing Hearts that Yearn for Justice, sponsored by a group called Third World Opportunities, headed by a retired Lutheran minister, George Johnson. There were 160 of us living in a shelter with migrants, sleeping 8 to a room with bunk beds and one bathroom, just on the other side of our border in Tijuana, Mexico. It was quite an experience from many points of view, some of which I will share with you at another time. Today I want to focus on knowledge and love with reflections on my experience in Mexico.
In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he states that knowledge puffs up and love builds up. In this passage Paul was dealing with Jesus’ followers in Corinth in the first century, talking about what should be done about the food sacrificed to idols. In those days many religions existed, and many of these faiths involved the sacrifice of animals and other foods to various gods and goddesses. There were various rules; in some cases the officials of the temple might eat the food. In most traditions, including the Israelite one, the food offered to the gods was the food the priests lived on or that food could also be sold in the market to raise money to support the temple. In fact it may have been difficult to get meat that had not been used in sacrifices. So for the Christians in Corinth who did not believe in these idols, it made sense to say, “Let’s eat the food.” Paul says that eating the food is not important; the point he’s making is that out of love for both believers and non-believers, he will not do anything that would cause others to go against their conscience, their beliefs. In verse 13 he says, “Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.” For Paul any knowledge, any freedom that we have belongs in a context of responsibility and love. A few chapters later in the famous love chapter Paul goes on to say, “and if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” 1 Cor 13:2. Our relations to God and to people are inseparable for Paul. Those who love God also love their neighbors. In other words, Paul does believe that we are “our brother’s keeper”. We are responsible for how our actions affect those around us.
Let me give you a couple of examples: I knew someone who very much enjoyed sunbathing at nude beaches. After he became a pastor, he discontinued the practice: not because he felt there was anything wrong with it for him, but he did not want to do anything that might bring problems for his congregation. Another example might be the insensitive use of alcohol around folks that were struggling with not drinking. To illustrate putting love before knowledge let me tell you a true story about a croquet game. There were some missionaries in the Philippines who invited their Agta Negrito neighbors to play the game with them. They explained the rules and started them out with a mallet and a ball. As the game progressed the opportunity came for one of the local players to take advantage of another by knocking the ball out of the court. As one of the missionaries explained the procedure, his advice clearly puzzled his Negrito friend. “Why would I want to knock his ball out of the court?” The missionary responded, “So you will be the one to win.” The short-statured man, clad only in a loincloth, shook his head in bewilderment. His civilized neighbor was suggesting something absurdly uncivil to his culture. Competition is generally ruled out in a hunting/gathering society, where people survive, not by competing with one another, but by working together. The game continued but nobody followed the missionary’s advice. When a player successfully got through all the wickets, the game was not over for him. He went back and helped his fellows. And finally, when the last wicket was played, the “team” (everyone) shouted happily “we won, we won! (Illustrations Unlimited p. 123). Out of love, the missionaries suspended the rules of crochet to be in harmony with their local friends.
In my experience of the speakers at the social justice conference, most of them seemed to have great knowledge, yet they interacted with the rest of us day by day with such great humility. Our last speaker particularly struck me, the Rev. Maria Martinez, from Puerto Rico, Lutheran Bishop of the Caribbean area, the first Latina woman bishop of any denomination. She walked slowly to the speaker’s podium, using a cane. She proceeded to tell us how she led an ecumenical protest against the US Navy who was doing nuclear tests on the small island of Vieques. These protests resulted in the Navy leaving the island in May of 2003 after 60 years of inhabiting 70 % of the island and leaving a legacy of toxic pollution that natives blame for the high cancer rate—26%. Bishop Maria went on to tell us how she had lost her leg to cancer as a teenager and how in spite of her high academic scores, her father discouraged her from going on to college, assuring her that he would take care of her. She advanced to her position with a lot of knowledge but her love of God and love for her people definitely were the main factors in leading and sustaining her. She reminded me so much of Paul’s saying in 2 Cor. 12:9 that “my strength is made perfect in weakness”. She accepted her disability and became strong in her ability to lead her flock. She equated her Bishop’s crook with her cane. Her presence and her words brought me to tears as I sensed that here was a woman with great knowledge, great wisdom, and most of all great courage and love.

In our own Deering church we are about to have our Annual Meeting after the service. My wish and prayer is that during this meeting where some hard issues need to be looked at, that we will use both our knowledge and our love. When we put love first, we are aware of others. When we put love first, we prioritize the community over the individual. When we put love first, we speak truth in love. When we put love first, relationships are more important than rules. When we put love first, we build up the whole community of Christ. When we put love first, we speak up with what’s in our hearts and on our minds. When we put love first, compassion and understanding will come before being right and getting others to do things our way. Sisters and brothers in Christ, I love this church and pray that God will guide us as we carry out the business of the church, remembering always that this is God’s church, and we are all God’s children, bound together by God’s unconditional love. Amen!