Who Are You?

Sermon for Lent 1C, February 25, 2007
Scripture: Deut. 26:1-11 and Luke 4:1-14a

Before I focus on today’s sermon topic, “Who are You?”, I want to talk a little bit about Lent, its origins and what it means today. There is quite a bit of controversy about when Lent began. There is no reference to Lent the Bible, and most religious historians seem to think it came into being after Christianity was legalized in the 3rd century. There is some evidence for various periods of fasting in the earlier church, especially the 40 hours between Good Friday and Easter. One interesting report[1] I read said that when the world did not end as Jesus himself had said it would, the followers stopped being so excited and expectant. They hung a wooden cross on their wall and settled back into their comfortable life styles. They decided there was no contradiction between being comfortable and being Christian. They no longer got arrested for championing the poor, they blended in; they no longer distinguished themselves by their great and bold love for one another. So the early church announced a season of Lent, the word taken from Lenten meaning Spring in order to inspire more boldness in Christians faith. The length of time—40 days (Sundays don’t count)—was chosen because of the 40 days of Israel wandering in the desert, the 40 days Moses spent on the mountain listening to God give him the commandments, and of course the 40 days in the wilderness that Luke describes in our Gospel reading today as the time that Jesus spent being tempted by the devil. In the early church, Lent was a time for fasting from both food and festivities and other types of repentance. It was the traditional time for converts to prepare for being accepted into membership on Easter day. Besides fasting, prayer and acts of justice, including almsgiving, were the traditional areas of emphasis. Today some Christians give up something they like—such as chocolate—or add a spiritual practice such as Bible Study or volunteer work, or more periods of prayer and meditation. My personal opinion is that we need to do whatever will help us be more fully aware of Christ’s suffering as well as how much we are loved.

Each Lent the Temptations story starts off our Sundays. All of us know what it is to enter the wilderness of temptation. Temptation is part and parcel of the human condition. There’s a story[2] told about an overweight businessman who decided it was time to shed his excess pounds. He took his new diet seriously, even changing his driving route to avoid his favorite bakery. One morning, however, he showed up at work with a gigantic coffee cake. Everyone in the office scolded him, but his smile remained nonetheless. "This is a special coffee cake," he explained. "I accidentally drove by the bakery this morning and there in the window was a host of goodies. I felt it was no accident, so I prayed, 'Lord, if you want me to have one of those delicious coffee cakes, let there be a parking spot open right in front.' And sure enough, the eighth time around the block, there it was!"

In our society the word temptation is often illustrated by something like the cartoon character, Sylvester the Cat with an angel on one shoulder and a little devil on the other or our fat business man trying to avoid the bakery. In each case there is a question of individual choice. To eat or not to eat! For Jesus I believe that each temptation the devil poised was a question for Jesus about who will he be. Right before the journey into the desert—which was encouraged not by the devil but the Holy Spirit—Jesus had been baptized and out of the heavens came the Holy Spirit in a form of a dove telling Jesus, “You are my son, the beloved.” I think his purpose of withdrawing to the wilderness was to give himself silence and space he needed for finding direction and purpose, to discern what God, his heavenly parent, wanted him to do. Okay, so he knew he was the son of God, but remember the pre-Easter Jesus was more human than divine. He was just beginning to figure out what it meant to be this special child of God. And then the devil started in on him, trying to get Jesus to forget his baptismal identity and to use his power first for personal comfort. Jesus was hungry and thirsty so the devil challenged him in the first temptation to turn the stone into bread. Remember he hadn’t eaten for 40 days. Can you imagine how exhausted as well as hungry he must have felt? We can all be tempted with immediate gratification, the quick fix, the easy answer. We can be tempted daily in the areas of greed and materialism, enlightenment, health and wealth. We want it now. We want God to speak to us now, to guide us now, to heal us now. It’s hard to be patient and do the hard work necessary to discover who we are and how to serve God with our whole heart and soul and mind.

Jesus’ second temptation puts political influence, power and wealth above loving God. Satan tells Jesus the whole world can be his if he will only bow down to the voice behind the principalities and powers. I wonder how many of us would like more of this kind of power and influence. Most of us know people, maybe even yourself, that have been tempted to go against their morals and ethics in order to get rich, or achieve power. The idols of prestige and power are not what God calls us to worship.

The third temptation was for fame, for the spectacular; surviving jumping from the pinnacle of the temple and being born up by the angels would certainly get Jesus some attention. We can all be tempted to seek God in the spectacular and not in the struggle and the suffering. To put this in other words, there’s always a temptation for us when we have certain gifts, or charismas to try to make a name for ourselves, rather than follow that famous Bible verse from Micah, to walk humbly with your God.

Jesus answered each temptation in a way that showed that his journey was to be that of a compassionate servant, not a rich, famous, and powerful conqueror. Remember the connection of temptation and making choices. Jesus chooses to trust God, to ascribe all power and majesty to God and to believe in a God who does not need to be tested. We need not judge others that choose differently or to criticize ourselves for our own unfortunate choices in the past. Instead let’s support each other as we struggle to discern what choices God is calling us to make.
My sisters and brothers, I challenge you to take a Lenten journey to discover on a deep level who you really are. Each of us has to figure out the particulars of who we are and what God is calling us to do; however, we all share with Jesus the promises of our baptism. You, Jim and Pasca are God’s children; you, Kay and Toby are God’s delight; you, Angela and Lee are God’s love. Many deny this reality of their Christian identity: worldly wealth and success is what many of us look for to measure our worth. Is there anyone here this morning that may be willing to make compromises; for example, taking a job that you hate or that you know is harmful to the world-- yet it pays so much money that you feel you need in order to live a life of privilege. Even though you are basically a good person, are there areas in your outer or inner life that you know are not what your loving God desires for you? What about instead of giving up chocolate for Lent, you resolve to get to know yourself better and work on figuring out any changes that you and God might want you to make. Do not be discouraged if you find some areas of weakness, some temptations that have overcome you. Remember none of us except for Jesus is perfect.

Let me throw out a few suggestions you might use if you’re interested in such a Lenten Journey. What about setting aside a time each day where you will spend a half hour or more in reflection and prayer? Look back at your day or yesterday and think about what brought you joy, anger, sadness. What did you do that pleased you? Have you been real, authentic? What embarrassed or shamed you? When did you feel most peaceful? Feel all your feelings, confess them to yourself and God. Listen to what others have said about you—you know that God speaks through other people. And here, I am more interested in your thinking about the positive things that have been said. It’s much more helpful to spend time on what feels right and good rather than dredge up a lot of negatives. Remember you are God’s beloved child. So read the Bible, reflect on the Scriptures and pray. Maybe you will want to write in a journal any insights or concerns that you have. Think about where you have felt excited, passionate, connected. If you feel you need some help with temptation or just figuring out who you are, reach out to someone. You know it’s always fine to give me a call.

In our Hebrew Bible reading today, the Israelites are reminded of who they are and where they come from. After a long period of suffering, being slaves in Egypt and a long wandering in the desert with many hardships—including famine, they are now in a land flowing with milk and honey. They are commanded to give the first fruits of the land to the house of the Lord, your God as a thanksgiving for all God has given to them. Part of figuring out who we are is looking at where we have come from. The history of the Hebrew people clearly illustrates God’s grace, God’s ever present concern. God is there for us just as he was in the days of the Hebrew Bible.
So I close by asking again, who are you and whose are you? Is God calling you to go in a different direction? Expect great things from both yourself and from God. Let me remind you of my favorite Fred Buechner’s quote, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.” May this Lenten journey be a way that we can all get clearer answers to these questions. Amen and amen.

[1] Barbara Brown Taylor, sermon online. [2] Jim Grant, Readers’ Digest.

Listen to Him

Transfiguration Sunday, February 18, 2007
Scripture: Exodus 34:29-35 and Luke 9: 38-43

Today is Transfiguration Sunday which marks the end of the season of Epiphany. Now just in case you might not know what these words mean, let me explain. Epiphany in the original Greek means “to shine upon”, to give light to. Epiphany Sunday is when we celebrate the Wise Men following the bright light of the star to bring them to the Christ child. Transfiguration which means change as in metamorphosis-- the caterpillar becoming a butterfly-- is also all about light shining. We heard the story in Exodus of Moses, coming down from the mountain after receiving the commandments from God. The skin of his face was shining so brightly that his people were afraid to come near him. He put a veil on his face except when he went to talk to the Lord. Whenever he was in the presence of God, his face shone.

Let me try to describe the setting of Transfiguration day. Jesus and his disciples have been surrounded by the crowds non-stop. Whenever they tried to get away, the crowds found them. Their ministry of healing and driving out demons has been quite successful, and more and more of the people want their help. They have had to feed 5000 men—with the women and children, they probably had to make fish sandwiches for close to 15000. When they finally get a break from the crowd, Jesus starts telling them about his upcoming great suffering, rejection, betrayal, and death (and maybe all this would happen to them also). So when they finally get a day off, Jesus asks them to go with him up a mountain to pray. Mathew and Mark as well as Luke have this Transfiguration story, but it’s only in Luke that the reason for going up the mountain is given as to pray. I can imagine in their weariness, the disciples might have felt resistant, wondering why they can’t pray right where they are instead of trekking up a mountain.. However, Peter, James, and John follow Jesus up the mountain. As Jesus prays, the disciples can hardly keep their eyes open. And then suddenly they are startled by a flash of radiance! Luke tells us that while Jesus was praying, his face changed and his clothes became dazzling white. But there’s more. There are two men talking to him about his departure, his exodus, to Jerusalem. (In Luke, Jerusalem is synonymous with arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection.) Then just as suddenly as the bright light came, a cloud overshadowed them and a voice said, “This is my Son, my Chosen, (or my Beloved); listen to him.” After the voice, Jesus was found alone. “And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.”

There’s another fancy word we could use to refer to these Gospel events, theophany. This means an appearance to a human being of God or any divine presence. These experiences are often exhilarating; it’s like a time out of time event where one sees or feels or is empowered in a way that shows how important and awesome life is. All mountaintop experiences are not as mystical or dramatic as the one described today. They can happen during a religious retreat, a marriage encounter, sitting outside during summer camp, walking on the beach, praying, experiencing the birth of your first child, falling in love. But always the feelings are powerful and not fully understandable. In our Gospel reading, God says, ‘This is my chosen, my beloved. Listen to him!’ What an incredibly intimate moment to be with Jesus as God calls him his own. This God is the still-speaking God that I referred to last week and that the UCC has as part of its theme.

Although these are not events that we can make happen; it does help if we are opened to them. Many Protestant mainliners see themselves as too rational to experience this type of event. Some of you listening may have had such an experience; others of you may not believe that any thing like this has or could happen. It has happened to me. Some of you probably remember my telling you of my experience in meditation about 8 years ago. I was at the end of a long, deep, dark night of the soul. I decided I would try to meditate for at least 5 minutes as silent meditation has always been difficult for me; yet it had also been deepening in my relationship to God during the times I was able to do it. I closed my eyes, and the next time I looked at a clock it was 30 minutes later, and I had tears running down my cheeks. I had physically felt myself being enfolded in the arms of God, held with great love. I didn’t hear words but it felt as if God had called me his beloved daughter and encouraged me to follow a journey to be an ordained minister, serving Jesus full time. This experience not only clarified and empowered me but also confirmed my faith and renewed my strength. Such experiences can do the same for you. We are all works in progress. The UCC identity campaign emphasizes that God is not finished with us yet. Never put a period where God has put a comma both as a church and as individuals.

If you have this glimpse of God, your life may be changed in a totally surprising way. How many of you really want to be changed by God? When you’ve been to the mountain top and go back down, you will be different. Maybe not all these changes will be welcomed. They certainly won’t all be comfortable. Talking about change, let me tell you a story about an old man and a frog. Once upon a time an old man was walking along a forest path when suddenly he hears something. Looking down, he sees a frog talking to him, “Hello, old man. If you will kiss me, I will turn into a beautiful princess and be yours.” The man picks up the frog and stuffs it into his pocket, continuing on his walk. The frog keeps screaming at him. Finally the old man stops and pulls the frog out of his pocket, “Old man, I don’t think you understand…if you give me just one kiss, I’ll turn into a beautiful princess and your every desire will be my purpose in life.” The old man finally replies, “No, I don’t think you understand. At my age I’d rather have a talking frog.”

Our experiences of being in the presence of God do not have to be dramatic. Many of you here may have had a theophany while being with a dying loved one, or when struggling with your own illness or great hardships. Then there may be some of you like another man in the forest who got lost deep in the woods. Later when he described his ordeal to his friends, he told them how in sheer despair, he had knelt down and cried out to God to help him. “Did God answer your prayer,” he was asked. “Oh no”, the man replied, “Before he could, a forest ranger appeared and showed me the way home.”

Transfiguration Sunday is our bridge between Epiphany and Lent. It is not an accident that this Sunday comes right before Ash Wednesday. There is a definite connection. The transfiguration is the prelude to the cross. Jesus’ trip down the mountain is the beginning of his fatal journey to Jerusalem. I would like us to think of Lent as the time that we come back down the mountain and get involved, really involved, in listening to Jesus and following him. The mountaintop can help strengthen us to go on this journey with Jesus. Lent is a time to do a little extra in practicing our faith, do things that will help open us up to be changed by the Holy Presence, for example set more time aside for prayer, meditation, reflection, and study. We have several devotional books for your use in the basket in Sherwood hall. You might like to take one of these to use daily in Lent. You might like to volunteer to visit our elderly and sick. You might want to get one or two other friends together for a weekly prayer group. Whatever you do, do it in the spirit of love and openness to change.

You too can have a mountaintop experience; maybe not when or where you expect it, but a good start is to “withdraw from the crowd”, take some time to pray, the kind of prayer where you let yourself listen, not just talk to God. Let God know that you are available for the Spirit to transform you, to make your face shine. Deering Community Church and I as your pastor are ready and waiting to nurture you and journey with you all the way to Easter. Remember that the Word of God shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Thanks be to God. Amen.

God’s Promises from Genesis to Revelation

The Bible and Science in Harmony
Sermon for Evolution Sunday, 2-11-2007
Genesis 1:1-5, 31and Revelations 21:1-4

Wow! Have I ever learned a lot these last couple of weeks since I decided to preach on the harmonious co-existence of science and the Bible! All of this started because I signed on to the Clergy Letter Project, started in 2004 by an Episcopal layperson, academic Mike Zimmerman, after a series of anti-evolution policies were passed by a school board in Grantsburg, WI. The letter, this year signed by over 10,500 clergy states in part:

“Within the community of Christian believers there are areas of dispute and disagreement, including the proper way to interpret Holy Scripture. While virtually all Christians take the Bible seriously and hold it to be authoritative in matters of faith and practice, the overwhelming majority do not read the Bible literally, as they would a science textbook. … Religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth. Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform hearts.

We the undersigned, Christian clergy from many different traditions, believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist. We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests. To reject this truth or to treat it as “one theory among others” is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children. … We urge school board members to preserve the integrity of the science curriculum by affirming the teaching of the theory of evolution as a core component of human knowledge. We ask that science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth.”

For the last two years, Zimmerman has been encouraging pastors to preach on the coexistence of science and religion—this year on the anniversary week of the 198th birthday of Charles Darwin. We know that the pastors in the more fundamentalist churches who believe in a literal reading of the Bible will not be among such a group. In what I say today, I mean no disrespect of Christians who believe differently than I do. I know there are folks here today that will not agree with me. At the same time I feel its important for me to add my voice to the side of the controversy that God has led me to believe in.

How many of you remember the Dr. Seuss book, Horton Hears a Who? As I was reminded, in that story no one believes that there are any Whos living on the speck of dust that Horton is protecting down in Whoville. Horton has them all yelling together, “We are here, we are here, we are HERE!” However, they can’t seem to make themselves heard. The scour the town to see if they can find anyone who is not joining in with their united voices. Do any of you remember—they find one shirker. And when that one shirker adds his voice to the collective yell, they are heard. So the Clergy Letter Project is along the same lines of the Who’s in Whoville. We hope at some point we can get enough voices led by their faith and their interpretation of God’s word, that the rest of the world will hear us.

I have learned from my recent readings that there are many different groups weighing in on this controversy from the most fundamentalist creationists to the proponents of Intelligent Design to the believers in the coexistence of science and religion to the atheistic materialists and several in between. The creationists believe that everything in the cosmos was created out of nothing at the same time, that the earth is less than 10,000 years old and that there is no common descent: apes and humans have separate ancestry. The liberals who believe in both evolution and the Bible also believe that God created the universe out of nothing—what some of you may have heard described as the Big Bang theory; however, we believe that once God created the cosmos/universe that it continued to grow and change. Darwin’s theory of evolution states that over millions of years, all living creatures came about by gradual modification from a common ancestor. In the Origen of the Species, published in 1859, he talks about natural selection and the survival of the fittest. There is a randomness in all of these modifications.

Ted Peters and Marty Hewlett, the two authors of the book that has been my main resource for this sermon, Can You Believe in God and Evolution? A guide for the Perplexed are a scientist (biology teacher) and a theologian, both with strong Christian faiths. They point out that the theory of evolution became wrapped in many layers of what they refer to as shrink wrap, that stuff that we often have to tear through to get to the product we have purchased. Many of these layers had nothing to do with the original theory and were things such as social Darwinism-which was connected to eugenics, a theory that describes improving the species, including humans, by breeding the most desired types and even sterilizing the undesirables, a theory that actually was used by Hitler in trying to create a super race. Others saw Darwinian evolution as a new religion and one of his followers even coined the word agnostic and recommended that all intellectuals should hold this doubting view of the existence of God. From that others were led to atheism and a disdain for religion. These authors point to all of this shrink wrapping as distorting what Darwin’s theory was all about. They are both believers in science as well as the Bible; they want all students to have the opportunity to learn about the scientific method and not be afraid of it destroying their faith in God. They, like the signers of the Clergy Letter Project, are concerned that Intelligent Design not be taught as science when in fact it is a philosophical view of the world, not a scientific model that can be both explanatory and predictive with the ability to have all kinds of experiments to see if it can be disproved if sufficient data so determine. I can well remember learning scientific method, setting up hypothesis and designs for testing. Intelligent Design came about because it was felt that there are things in the world, most notably life, that cannot be accounted for by known natural causes. These proponents say that living organisms are too complex to be explained by any natural process. Instead, the design inherent in organisms can be accounted for only by invoking a designer, and one who is extremely smart.

To help you to understand where I’m coming from and hopefully where I’m going, it’s necessary to explain the non-literal interpretation of the Bible. I believe that the Bible is based on truth; however, the words are not the exact meaning or exact description of what happened. First of all the Bible was based on oral tradition, stories told over and over again for many years before they were written. Once they were written down they were written in languages other than our own, languages that have many English words for the Arabic or Greek word. Plus the scripts were copied by hand originally with many mistakes. So this is just a beginning of why I cannot accept the Bible as the literal word of God. I see it more as a myth, myth meaning that words are used to describe a reality that cannot be described directly with our human language. One of the examples I like about myth is the phrase that is often used in some of the Native American folktales, “ I know that this is true, and some of it may have actually happened.” An example which is important in the creation story is the use of the word day. A non-literal interpretations sees day used to mark a chunk of time and what God does in that chunk of time. It doesn’t mean that it was 24 hours long or 1000 years long; myth is not interested in exact, literal details. “Instead, myth paints a picture using words to portray reality.” In religious talk we still speak of heaven above and earth below whey science has shown us that such directional terms don’t make sense. We still speak of the sun rising and setting even though we know it doesn’t really do that but seems to do so as the earth and other planets revolve around it. Both creationism and intelligent design misunderstand the mythic aspect of the book of Genesis by trying to ‘scientize’ that which was never meant to be scientific in the first place.

For another view of creation, I want to share with you a poem written in 1964 by one of our most esteemed scientists as well as a faithful member of this church, Glenn Price. Glenn as done a paraphrase on the some of the verses in the first chapter of the Gospel of John:
First I need to define a word he uses: “ylem: a chaotic dense, very hot mass of matter, the supposed original substance of the universe…” from World Book Encyclopedia.

“At time zero/ which marks the beginning of all time;/there was the ylem,/a nuclear condensate of the entire universe. /But the ylem was a chaotic and formless conglomerate because God had not yet touched it./ Then God brought his life and truth to the ylem,/ igniting a great cosmic explosion, /forming the elements in an instant, /and sending the galaxies hurtling into the infinite darkness. /There was nothing to impede them in their outward flight,/ for the darkness was void. / In a fleeting moment God had imparted light and life to the universe. / The universe that formed,/ and the life that emerged began with that act. /But man comprehended it not./
And God sent his son, Jesus Christ, /a paragon of truth and life, to dwell among men, /that we might behold and comprehend the glory and wisdom of God.”

Authors Peters and Hewlett say that God even before the Big Bang or Glen’s “cosmic explosion”, gave the world a future, in two ways—in the sense of openness and fulfillment. I would tend to agree with their conclusions that God gave us an openness that allows choice as well as randomness. This openness allows growth, self-organization and freedom, the possibility of becoming. I see this as a great gift that keeps on giving. It is what the UCC means when it says God is Still Speaking. God created the condition that made and still makes ongoing change possible. God’s direct act is the primary cause: God establishes the world and does not than leave us but remains with us in every way as that great divine Spirit. In Genesis 1:31, God saw everything that he had made, and, behold it was very good.” And then in the last book of our Bible, Revelations 21:1 we have: “I saw a new heaven and a new earth.” This goes along with God’s promise in Genesis that in the end everything would be “very good”. God is not finished with us yet. The world in which we live is still being created. I hope that I will see that day when God “will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.” (Rev. 21:4). Can you imagine such a world? That same power that brought the world into being out of nothing continues to sustain our world today.
God’s gift of the future allows evolution by providing openness to change and self-organization on one hand; on the other hand, God’s long term future is for all God’s creatures to live in harmony, for us all to be whole by God’s redeeming grace.

I hope you are less confused than before I started preaching. I don’t believe that theology should take the place of science or that science is the enemy of theology. Theology teaches us the whys of the world while science tells us more about the hows. As people of faith I encourage you to interpret the Bible in light of modern science, knowing that the best science and the best thinking about God and our Christian faith can go together. May we celebrate the One who is in and beyond science, in and beyond scripture, in and beyond us and all creation—the God who is greater even than intelligent design.[1]


[1] Rev. Jennifer Amy-Dressler, “Beyond Intelligent Design”, 2006 Evolution Sunday sermon.

ANNOINTED, GIFTED, AND SENT 1-21-07

Sermon for January 21, 2007
Scripture: Luke 4:14-21 and 1 Cor 12:12-31

Our Gospel reading today is Jesus’ first sermon or what some folks call his mission statement. The core of all his teachings and the reference for his ministry relate to these passages from the Temple scroll taken from the book of Isaiah. These words: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Lk 4:18-19). This is who Jesus was, the very core of his being. His ministry is not about fire and damnation; he doesn’t focus on being “born again”. His emphasis on that day as well as today is to care for the outcasts, the poor, the marginalized. And how would Jesus bring this good news? He would do it in many simple, day by day actions: befriending the tax collectors, the women, the lepers—the little people of his day. He listened to them; he ate with them; sometimes he healed them. Unfortunately for the integrity of our Christian churches, in many places the interpretation of this “good news” was bad news for the marginalized and the outcasts: for GLBT persons, for the people of color, for undocumented workers, for abused women, and so forth. To be good news it must meet the needs of the people. The Good News we share always needs to be related to the listener’s life. The gospel is God’s truth, God’s message, God’s action, God’s word for a particular person or group of people in a particular historical situation. For example, you don’t throw a drowning person a sandwich no matter how good that sandwich is, it won’t keep the person from drowning. Instead the downing person must be given a life jacket or have someone dive in to save him or her.

Who are the poor that Jesus is talking about? In the ancient Mediterranean culture and much of the social world of Luke/Acts, one’s status in the community was not so much a function of economics but depended on things like education, gender, family name, vocation, religious purity as well as economics.[1] So the designation of poor could mean more than just lacking means of subsistence. It also referred to low status; for Luke the wider meaning of diminished status was very important. In a holistic sense it referred to those who for any number of reasons relegated to positions outside of the “acceptable boundaries”—for example a woman who might be rich but was shunned because of her single status and gender. From the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus preached that even these “outsiders” were included in divine grace, included in the unconditional love of God; they too could be part of God’s family.

In this reading from Luke, there are two parts, each emphasized by different kinds of churches. The social gospel which challenges us to build communities with foundations of service influenced by peace and justice is what someone with my orientation would focus on. The other part, usually emphasized by more charismatic churches that focus more on the activity of the Holy Spirit, is equally important. They focus on the words about anointing, the sense of being grasped by the Spirit. I more frequently talk about being called; the evangelicals and Pentecostals use the word anointed. It means a heightening and focusing of God’s spirit in life transforming ways. “When God’s spirit “anoints” someone, …God touches that person in a special way, giving her or him a special gift of tongues, healing, discernment etc.”[2] We occasionally anoint people in this church with oil at healing services as a sign of God’s healing touch. Anointed touch can soothe, comfort, and transform. For me this anointing by the Spirit that Jesus refers to is like us being called to do the work that Jesus calls us to. We may not talk in tongues or create miraculous physical cures; however, I believe we are called to become communities of anointing, “called to touch our communities in the spirit of the healer Jesus”.[3]

Now maybe some of you are wondering what could you possibly be called to do to help transform the world. Let me tell you a story that I’m borrowing from Steve Goodier. This story is about a merchant in New York who sent a letter to a postmaster in a small, rural town in NH asking for a name of an honest lawyer to work on a collection case where a local man refused to pay for a shipment of this merchant’s goods. This was the postmaster’s reply: I am the postmaster of this village and received your letter. I am also an honest lawyer and ordinarily would be pleased to accept a case against a local debtor. In this case, however, I also happen to be the person you sold those crummy goods to. I received your demand to pay and refused to honor it. And if I were not, for the time being, substituting for the pastor of the local church, I would tell you just where to stick your claim.

Now most of us are not as multi-talented as this man; we can not do all things well. Even a man as gifted as Albert Einstein had his areas of weakness or insecurity. In 1948, he was offered the first presidency of the new nation of Israel and turned it down, saying, “I know little about the nature of people…And I am saddened and ashamed that I cannot accept the office. I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people.” In spite of all that Dr. Einstein knew about the nature of the universe, he recognized his limitations. He focused on what he did well.

Last week Margaret spoke to you about gifts. The last part of this chapter 12 written by Paul to the Corinthians continues with an emphasis on how we are all members of the body of Christ, just as in our physical body one member or part is not more important than another, neither are the gifts that each of you have. We each have one or more gifts which lead to a special function or role, eg. one of the Huggards’ gifts is in handling finances; however, that does not make them more important than Sam and Laura’s gifts of speaking up in the service to praise God and speak of their gratitude for their blessings aloud for all to hear. We are not asked as individuals to do everything, but to do those things we are best able to do. (Sometimes we ask folks to do something that is not compatible with their gifts and the result is not good; we often lose that person or it becomes obvious that they are not happy or feeling okay about that role.) We are asked to be members of a body, of Christ, and to play our part - not more, not less.
So if we can discern what our gifts are and answer God’s call, allow ourselves to be anointed by the Spirit of the Lord, we can then be sent out to do our ministry in the world, to share the Good News, especially to those that are on the outside, whether that is because of their economic poverty, their spiritual poverty, or for whatever reason leads to their being on the margin.
After reading the scroll and rolling it back up, Jesus says, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” I think this “today” brings us to the present time. It is today that we are to bring good news to the poor and release to the captives and so forth. Not tomorrow, but today. You know today is an extraordinary day; God is with you today. It is today that we are all being called into action. Just as the spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus, the spirit is on each of us. As Brian Stoffregan says, “We are called to be a radical community on this earth. We are called and empowered to work for the release of people who are bound—the rehabilitation of prisoners, the freeing of people wrapped in their shells of self-doubt and self-pity. We are called and empowered to work on behalf of the poor and the oppressed.”

Who needs our help around here? What about the elderly? Can you shovel snow or sand their ice? Can you visit the shut-ins and those in nursing homes? Can you work in the Food Pantry? You know every Sunday is Food donation day at this church. How often do you remember to bring something in? If you forget, what about putting some money in the basket? Can you tutor students who need extra help? What about being a mentor for a kid in a single parent family? Many of you recently helped with money or goods for our HIV/AIDS baskets for caretakers. Some of you may feel called to help by going to Back Bay Mission in Biloxi Mississippi or New Orleans to help rebuild what was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. What about supporting a child’s schooling in Nicaragua? I was so surprised to learn when I was there about how many kids can’t go to school because of what they have to pay for books and supplies as well as the uniform. Most everyone hear knows the many needs that our partners in Zimbabwe have. If you want to know how you can help, the Marcrofts or I can give you information. What about advocating for a higher minimum wage, or for equal rights for all people, including marriage for same gender couples? There is so much work to be done. As I’ve said before, none of us can do it all but each of us can do something. As always if you would like to talk with me for help in resources or discerning what God is calling you to do, I would be most delighted.We are in the part of the church year that is called Epiphany, the seven Sunday’s after Christmas or more specifically after Epiphany day on January 6th. The word Epiphany means according to De Jong “to behold the world or one's life in a new way, with new eyes. It is when something becomes clear to us in a way we have never seen or noticed before. New light can be shed on an old problem; a situation which has always been seen the same way suddenly becomes radiantly clear with a new meaning. A special door in the mind or spirit opens and suddenly we see things in a new light. An epiphany is both a revelation and a challenge because it forces us to change.” [4] That my dear friends is what I am wanting for all of you today—an in pouring of the Spirit anointing each of you to be transformed, able to recognize your gifts, and go from hear with both a clarity and a willingness to be and do what God is calling you to be and do.
[1] Brian Stoffregen, online sermon from Textweek for 1-21-06.
[2] Bruce Epperly in sermon referred to by Textweek for 1-21-07.
[3] Ibid.
[4] From Sermon Nuggets, on Textweek for 1-21-07.