in a new key

An older sermon on the annunciation

2011-12-17T10:27:00.004-06:00

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Thought I'd share an older sermon on the Annunciation - it's about 6 years old. It's based loosely on Luther's focus 'Mary said yes.' But as I went through commentaries on-line, I found a well-reasoned argument that 'it's not about Mary.' Now, both ways may be true. Here's my take on the Lutheran aspect.

In Advent, we discover themes that shape our identity. We have heard that we are the waiting people, between the incarnation and the promise of something more -
we are the wilderness people,
holding on to God’s words in a time and place that isn’t really open to knowing God.

And today, today we hear of a third Advent element - the giving and acceptance of call. We see, in Mary, the first believer, the open heart, the one who says Yes. Here then, is the whole message of Advent, that the people who wait, who live in the wilderness to be shaped as a people of holiness and godliness, are also given the call to embody God - and the opportunity to respond to that call.

We hear of Mary, not even really a woman. She’s betrothed, not married yet - probably pretty young (although I think 13 may be stretching it). We usually assume that she was pious, a good, trusting young woman, but honestly, we don’t know that. She could have been a tomboy, a rebellious teenager, resisting her appointed role. All we know is that she is the one to whom the angel came.

And that angel Gabriel came, and spoke to her and she was perplexed, puzzled, and dismayed - as most of us would be if an angel spoke such words to us. “Howdy, You’ve been selected, for a special mission of incredible significance - which, by the way, will ruin your reputation, change all your plans and cause you incredible heartbreak.”

And Mary said yes. “You will conceive a child - in a miracle - and that child will be the Son of God, and the King of David’s line.” and she said Yes. She said “Look, I’m God’s, let it be so.”

God entered humanity this way. Through Mary. Through creation. Through this one person - about whom we really know very little - except she said Yes. Mary was of the people who were waiting - waiting for a Messiah. And she would enter her own wilderness - the place where she alone knew the depth of joy and pain that this child would bring - Mary would ponder all these things in her heart.

And what is so wonderful about this story is that we are all Mary - we are all waiting in the wilderness for a Messiah - and we are those to whom God will offer a call - a mission - a job to do.

And that is exactly the point, the point of Advent - the point of all these stories. God acts through ordinary human beings like you and me, ordinary human beings that trust God enough to undertake extraordinary missions beyond their capabilities or imaginings.

God comes to us in creation - and God became creation - became human in this most loving act of “incarnation.” God always comes to us through creation. To us God comes through the water of baptism, through the bread and wine of the Holy Communion, through the hand of a loved one, or through the voice of a stranger. Mostly, God comes to us in ordinary ways, through ordinary people. This God uses us, ordinary people, to do his work now.

An author visited a monastery and greeted one of the monks with the words “Merry Christmas.” and he said to her “May Christ be born in you.” (Sue Monk Kidd) She pondered this, as Mary did, as we might. What might it mean that Christ be born in us?

That is the message of Advent - may Christ be born in us - may we become “Marys” in our time and place. It’s about an attitude: Look, here I am, let it be done to me, with me, in me, as you, God desire. If God’s desire is to make Christ real, to make Christ known - and he chooses us to do so - what shall we say?

We repeat these lessons, year after year, so that we can be asked, and ask ourselves - what must happen for that birth to take place? What must happen in us, in me, so that Christ may be born in us, in me? What must change - what must be given up or what must be found? What must enter into our hearts and what must be released? What must be shared and what must be nurtured, so that Christ may be born in us?

For Mary, the Mother of Jesus - at this point it was her own plan, her project, even her self-image - that had to be made subordinate to the will of the God. It was the adoption of an attitude of obedience, of trust and yes, a willingness to submit her expectations to the plan of God.

For us individually, it may be our desires to keep things secure and safe - to take the easy road. For the faith community of _______ I would suggest it is similar. Soon you will have the new _____ that God desires - you will no longer be in the interim time, you will no longer be holding your breath.

And, rather than see this new period as the time of setting out your own personal agendas - I challenge you to enter this time as the Virgin Mary did - with an open heart to hear the call, to accept the mission, to search out and be obedient to the will of God. The call is coming - in some way the call is here - in the needs and desires and lonely hearts all around us. Now it is for us to find the attitude of obedience, trust and seeking for the Holy Spirit that will allow us, with Mary, to say Yes.

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Unexpected Saints

2011-11-21T21:43:00.001-06:00

Unexpected Saints – Matthew 5:1=12, Revelation 7:9-17 “Gives self away”

In this time of instant communication we can be friends with anyone, anytime. We can follow the instant musing of – what’s his name – you know, that young guy who married and cheated on Demi Moore – now he has a tv series – oh yeah- how could I forget – Ashton Kutcher – you can friend and follow him. He’s made a career, it seems, at being the guy who will give you a glimpse of how the other half – other 1%? – lives.

We can live in our imaginations; we can invest our interest in other people, famous people. Marketers use our curiosity to drive us to their sites, like cattle, we are commodities. Watch and discuss Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, or whatever is the newest fad! Of course these celebrities are not in our world; of course we hope we are smarter than the marketers.

So how do we speak of saints in such a world? How do we speak of holiness when we are distracted and focused in commerce and media, bombarded by cultural and political and economic forces that would have us live in the here and now – only in the here and now, responding to whims, playing the game? How do think of ourselves as servants of God when we struggle with health issues, with decisions about family and life itself. What quality of life, of faith, of hope, of perseverance, links us with the ones who have gone before?

Jesus says: Blessed are you. He uses the truly ancient concept that God looks with love and honor upon those who follow him. To be blessed means there is a connection – between us and God. To bless something is to give it a sacred meaning. To bless a meal is to say that what you are doing is a holy thing. To bless a person, means that God’s holiness is to penetrate their very core and to make them holy. Jesus is not playing around when he pronounces, “Blessed are you.” He is offering a great gift. He is offering to his listeners a way of life by which they will be the blessed of God – the holy ones, the sanctified, the saints.

I gather from our lessons there are three elements to this saint-making process of God.

1. Set-apartness

2. Going through tribulation for the sake of that set-apartness.

3. Trusting God in midst of it all.

The first may be the hardest – to be blessed, to be a saint, to be sanctified – means to be set apart. It means to stand away from the shallow ways identity is shaped for us – to find our deepest identity, not in the nation, not in the culture, not in our education, not in our obligations, not even in our family – but to find our core identity in being a child of God.

To know, in our hearts, that we have a different call to life – I would almost describe it as to put the best old-fashioned values at the center of our lives. Listen – the best old fashioned values, like honoring the family into which you were born, and the family which you choose to create. Like serving in the greater world, not blindly, but seeking wisdom, honoring differences and respecting those who differ. Honoring the body through restraint and prudence. Sharing the wealth. Truly caring for your neighbor.

Say we ask what is needed in our neighborhood – and it’s afterschool programming. We can set ourselves apart, and live out our identity as servants, not just takers.

Second. Understand that being set-apart will be challenging. The forces of this world do not like those who don’t conform. The forces of this world will work against our seeking to serve– it can be as dramatic as ‘I don’t forgive and won’t forget what happened/didn’t happen’– it can be as subtle as the ‘I don’t want to go and help today!’ issue. Perhaps to be poor in spirit means not to carry grudges, not to remember past wrongs, and re-commit to the good of the community.

The forces of resistance are subtle, are seductive, and are everywhere – in the distractions of television, the internet and get rich quick, get healthy now, take care of yourself first. Mourn quickly and get back to work. Work a lot, hover over the children, and get priorities right – school, sports, family and then, maybe, sometimes, faith.

If our identity calls us to serve our neighbors – our real life neighbors – and our method of dong that is afterschool programming – then the subtle resistance is in the message – “someone else can lead, help, deal with it.” It is in saying “I’m tired of hearing about it already.” It is in wondering – when did I sign up for this – for this active service, for this getting out of myself?

That bring us back to the core question of our lives – whom do we trust? From where will we take our direction? From the society around us? From our own self-monitor (which is usually conditioned by those very same outside forces?) From a higher power – and where do we find that? Jesus calls those who are his sheep to listen to his voice. That’s key – it’s the voice of the Shepherd, found in our Scriptures. We trust our God.

Those who are blessed are set apart, and will know resistance, even persecution, but they will find their trust in God rewarded. They will be comforted, receive mercy, know God, be recognized as children of God. They will be part of the kingdom.

What is does it mean to take being a saint seriously in our time? Again and again, we are called to an older, realer form of life. More like the life of past generations – of the generations that built and nurtured this community into life.

Life that is lived in relationship with those around us – not with the media stars or escapist fiction – life that recognizes our deepest investment is our loved ones, our community and our faith. The promises that Jesus holds out in the list of blessings are not just for others – not just for those who have passed away, or those who are especially great in faith – for the Mother Theresas and the great reformers. These are promises for you and me, for everyday people, living everyday lives trying everyday projects – with extraordinary awareness.

We have been called out to be servants, set apart for his work – we must recognize that there will be ordeals, will be resistance, will be frustrations – and we trust and claim the promises that God offers.

About the Law

2011-11-21T21:37:00.002-06:00

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Proper 25A/Lect. 30A, October 23, 2011 – PLC, Matthew 22:34-46
‘About the Law’ – concentrating on the first half of our reading.

Jesus is at the end of his dialogues with his opponents – they have challenged him on all points of law and theology – shall we pay taxes to the emperor, who shall be married in the afterlife, what will be the place of the nation of Israel in God’s great plans. Jesus has answered with wit and wisdom and power – and astonished the crowds, and convinced those in power that he must be silenced.

By pulling together these two great scriptures from the Old Testament (Deut. and Leviticus) Jesus holds together two strands of law into one great whole of Love. Love God and Love Neighbor. He is not the first and will not be the last great teacher to do this. We hear similar exhortations from many, many traditions. So much that we think – ahh, the Golden Rule. Jesus does state it, earlier in Matthew 7 – do unto others as you would have them do to you.

My mother used to pull the Golden Rule on us. I’m sure she felt it was the best way to get some semblance of order in our big and let us say, personally diverse clan. I am between two brothers – Jimmy – 18 months older than I, and Peter, who is 3 years younger. When we were in elementary school we would get into battles – and sometimes my mother would come upon us and pull us apart – usually I was on the bottom of the pile, because they would gang upon me. “You know the Golden Rule – do unto others . . . Would you like it if Nancy hit you.” Jimmy would answer - “I can take it – so should she.”

That’s the great downfall of the Golden Rule by itself – it is really based on what one can endure, on what is expedient, on what is acceptable, what I can imagine. Its basis is loving the self – and self love can lack imagination. Self love can wear blinders. Jesus wants us to go farther – to think about the other person as a creation of God, beloved by God.

Look at the order of what Jesus says – and that will tell us all. The First commandment, and the greatest – is to Love God with all your heart, soul and mind. Love God with all the parts of you that are in the image of God. Love God with all the intellect, emotions and will you have. The word ‘love’ here is that wonderful scriptural concept of ‘agape’ – which combines affection and attention, will and action, adoration and trust.

Understand the "love" that is being called for is not emotion; it is not "liking," "getting along with," "desiring," or "feeling warm about." The "love" Jesus is talking about here is trust, loyalty, enduring devotion, being attached to. You may actually hate your neighbor, but you will still love them in the Biblical sense if you continue to act for their well-being, don't tell lies about them, and refuse to cut off your relationship with them.

Jesus goes beyond the Golden Rule when he connects it with Loving God – loving your neighbor (which can be hard, indeed) is the response to turning to God with your all. The Golden Rule is not enough, he says. First, one turns upward – acknowledging that self – which the Golden Rule depends upon – is created, loved, guided and judged by the Almighty.

In some ways he is speaking past his immediate hearers, to all those, who like us – find ourselves without law, without clear direction, without clear answers on how do we behave, how do we act, how do we love?

Loving your neighbor is good, but not enough. Jesus suggests that without love of God – a person cannot fully love their fellow human being. Turning toward God is primary – is the bedrock of any ethics, any morals, any choices made.

I said earlier that Jesus pulls together two strands – Love of God, and Love of Neighbor, but he slips in a third thread – at the end there – ‘on these hang all the law and the prophets.’ Yes, there are other laws besides the Law of loving God, the law of loving neighbor. There are particular rules established for good order, for care of each other, for protection. Now, In today’s world, we like to think anything goes – that love not only conquers all, love excuses all. Love excuses all sorts of bad behavior and injury to others. Listen to Jesus – he’s not going there. Three strands, not just two.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself and on that hangs all the law and the prophets – he does not say that by those two commandments all the law is dismissed, dissolved and moot.

The law of old – the law Jesus knew very well – was a law code that pointed out answers to questions of everyday life – what to wear, what to eat, etc. It seems strange to us, liberated as we are – that these things would ever be commanded. But remember – ‘on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets’ – on these two great commandments – hang all the decisions that we will make. We don’t have 613 little laws – but we do have the same issues of how we live, what choices we make, what elements of our environment become important.

For us today – it’s not about 613 individual prescriptions – but it is about a call to think about our lives and our choices with deliberation and concern for others.

You will hear and read much in the weeks and months to come, from your church leadership, and from people who are engaged in programs here at Peace Lutheran about ways you can act in love toward your neighbor. Some of the ways will be giving ways – giving financially to support our church budget – and giving out of special love for projects that are unique – our new doors, mailing off those Christmas child boxes, helping the Teachers Closet or K-Force. Love your neighbor through working with children at Sunday School or K-Force, through serving on your church leadership, through offering to God your voice at worship or on a service committee.

Some of you may think, in your heart, why doesn’t the church let us be – why do they ask so much? My walk with God is private, personal and not for anyone else to judge. And that is true, but as we are motivated by these words of Jesus – Love God, Love Neighbor, and with those two statements in mind - Think about your life – where else will you be as welcome to express your faith as with your church family? Where else will you find forgiveness when you fail to express love? And where else will you find the Savior, who will be your example of love incarnate?

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authority?

2011-09-24T13:40:00.002-05:00

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An untitled Sermon on Matthew 21:21-32

Proper 21- Lect. 26, September 24/25/26 – FE & PLC (Monday)
Matthew 21: 23-32 (Argument about Authority, two sons refuse)

A little Bible Study first. To understand what the scripture is telling us, we need to understand the culture and the politics swirling around this Jesus of Nazareth. Up to this point in the story of Jesus, we have heard of Jesus living and working in the hill country around the Sea of Galilee – he has been dealing – with some exceptions – with the people who live in such villages and towns. The local men and women, peasants, fisherman, some small traders, a few tax collectors – those who pressure the people for coins for the oppressing Romans.

Jesus had some contacts with the better educated, the better type of people – the head of the synagogue there, a Roman officer, and especially the men called Pharisees. In the villages these would be those who had more education, probably more land, so they were more comfortable. They were challenged by Jesus because they believed in keeping the law strictly, without gray areas.

Jesus had been working in the back country. His message was upsetting to some people – his powerful vision of the kingdom of God/heaven as present, near, accessible to the ordinary believing person, without going through Temple rituals or keeping every last tiny requirement of the expanded set of regulations – was deeply offensive to the believing Pharisee.

But the ultimate issue, the real trouble, the button-pushing offense was this: Jesus and his followers implied that Jesus himself was somehow connected to the Saving Work of God Almighty in a critical, exclusive and powerful way. Jesus was . . . even at this point in his ministry, the claim spread . . . Jesus was not only a charismatic traveling preacher, not only a great teacher, not only a Rabbi, but more – a divinely appointed prophet – no, more – the Messiah, the Chosen One, the anointed inheritor of David’s power as King, or in addition that he was the mysterious Son of Man bringing in the End of Days – and even whispered the non-Jewish idea that he was the Son of God –that God’s own exclusive divinity had been divided and rested in Jesus – the laborer from the village of Nazareth.

That is what we need to remember when we contemplate these tough passages. The day before this discussion - about authority and two sons who refused in different ways - Jesus had dropped the cloak of hidden-ness as just a traveling preacher.

He entered Jerusalem and his reputation ran before him – and the crowds proclaimed him King, Messiah, David’s heir – they gave a royal welcome – the streets sang. The people in power – the Pharisees of Jerusalem, the minders of the Temple, the Romans – looked on with surprise, perhaps horror.

Jesus entered the temple and in great anger turned over the tables of those who sold animals for the sacrifices. The sick who haunted the temple courts, yearning for healing, converged on him and received his blessing, and found their answer. The cry – Hosanna to the Son of David filled the temple – not only the streets – the cry Hosanna to the Son of David was heard in the temple, shaking the very stones and the very hearts of those in authority.

The next day he comes back to the Temple, and is teaching, and that is the context for this story. “By what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority?” These things – coming into Jerusalem like a king, turning over the tables in the outer courts like the Master of the Temple, healing directly by hand, without sacrifices, without the blessing of the priests, teaching as if he is a famous man – these things must be explained. These things are too defiant to be allowed.

Jesus is no longer hidden in the back country of Galilee. He is out there in front of all – peasants in the country and tenement dwellers in the city, soldiers and scribes, priests and governors.

“By what authority do you do these things?” The same authority that John the Baptist had. The Will of God.

He is fulfilling God’s will and he understands that his power comes from the same place that John’s baptism came from – the Will of God. God willed John’s baptism for repentance and the forgiveness of sins – that baptism also challenged the authority of the Temple. God wills Jesus’ ministry in the same way – to challenge the authority of Temple and Priest and Law. God wills that Jesus himself shall be the avenue to God’s kingdom – that this path Jesus is taking – this path, now of conflict and challenge, this path which now leads straight to the horrific death of the cross – this path shall be the way for the followers of God’s will. That was Jesus’ answer then, and it is the answer now.

To understand the will of God is the peculiar task of every citizen of the kingdom. To do the will of the FATHER is the duty of every child. And every child has the question asked of them – “Son, daughter, go and work in the vineyard today.” “By whose authority?” If you were ever an adolescent (most of us are past that age, praise be to God) you recognize this dynamic of defiance of authority, defiance of the parent, the eternal questioning: “why is his will to be dominant over mine?” Why is the will of the Father more important than what I want? Why should my freedom be constrained by the requests of my father?”

Is this resistance fear? Selfishness? Stubbornness? Sin? In the story of Jesus coming into the Temple it was all these things - all these things that lead to the last days, the arrest, the torture, the cross.

And for all of us – it is the same set of responses to that question – asked of us: “Go and work in the vineyard today.” And we are stubborn and selfish and certainly we say – oh, yes sir, but we do not go. We answer the question, in our hearts – by whose authority will our lives be run? By whose authority will our days be ordered? By whose authority will our choices be made?
By our own authority – we think. I choose how to spend my days and I don’t choose to be with the community at worship on Sunday. I choose to how to spend my money, and I don’t choose to support my faith community, much. I choose my friends, and how I spend my time, and how my morals are expressed in my life.

I am my own authority, we say. The book of God – well, it’s only advisory. The will of God – is unclear, but it probably is exactly like my will. The story of Jesus the Christ – it’s all about love and acceptance and being true to yourself – not about crosses and pain and sacrifice and work and honor. I am my own authority and I don’t really know what this vineyard is – I don’t know and really don’t care about the work of the kingdom. So the call to give falls on deaf ears. The call to teach is passed on to a very few. The call to worship is answered by absence. The call to leadership is denied.

By whose authority do you do these things, the Pharisees asked Jesus. John the Baptist came in righteousness and did the will of the Father – and called people to repentance. Did you notice? And Jesus came and called people to love and serve and sacrifice. Did you notice? By whose authority do you live?

(the call to the vineyard takes many shapes – the call to give support, the call to teach, the call to worship, the call to justice, the call the leadership.)

What do you think? A man had two sons – one gave lip service to the father’s will and authority, and never went to the vineyard and the other resisted at first, but bowed his head, and went and did what the father desired. Which one are you?
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parable of the vineyard workers

2011-09-16T10:45:00.002-05:00

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first thoughts - thinking about the parable of the vineyard workers - always a difficult one.

This story is always seen as metaphor, never as literal. Who would do this? What would it mean for us if we take it seriously, as literal ? Is the labor the work we do for the church, and the denarius our ticket into heaven? Is this an argument for socialism (I would love to preach that!) Preachers get hung up on the fairness issue, on the psychology of the individual who resents the late comers who get paid the same. Can this be preached without that discussion of fairness and rights and privilege?

Think differently – is this a parable about getting into heaven? Jesus says it is about the Kingdom of heaven, and the last sentence connects it to God’s gracious acceptance of the children and the poor. Could this be a parable about living in the community, about here and now? About gracious acceptance of each other for who we are, for what we can do, looking at each other with our quirks and faults and failures and seeing that God’s kingdom is among us?

Again and again – who you are in this life does not get you into heaven. Does not make you a citizen of the Kingdom of God. What you do – good deeds – does not get you there. Hearing the preaching gets you there. Accepting the invitation. Coming along on the vineyard express. Being part of the community of faith-work.

Parables can be negative examples. The ungrateful steward is one, here is another one.

I'm working in a hidden time of stress and anger, in a micro-climate of frustration and pending change. What is the good word?
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Live in the Daylight

2011-09-04T20:45:00.002-05:00

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(The story was found in this thoughtful post. It's by Rabbi Zoe Klein and is a reflection on her trip to Ghana)

Ancients used night and day as opposites – because they had to – because they would be immobilized in darkness – some things couldn’t get done, and some things were more likely to happen – bad things. Both in cities and in rural villages, privacy was rare. The level of private lives that we enjoy is truly a modern invention – unheard of in ancient days. Not only would your family know you what you do, but so would everyone else.

If you were grasping after money, people would know it. If you squandered your money in food and drink, that would get around. If you were a married man, and kept a mistress, that would be known. If you were slacking off at work, if you were cheating, if you were going after the latest fad in exotic eastern deities - well, it would come back on your community.

Those early Christian communities understood themselves as living in spots of light amidst darkness – true worship among false idols, taking care to respect and honor their bodies instead of wasting away in sexual immorality and drunkenness, learning to treat others with kindness as beloved children of the Father God – all the differences between this new faith in Christ Jesus that stood apart from the foolish chasing after the whims of this god or goddess, this deal or that patronage.

“See how they love each other” was the statement. See how their visible lives reflect what they believe – see how their choices outline that love that enriches their lives.

Live as if you are in broad daylight, says Paul. Live as if your life is visible – not only to God – but visible in the open marketplace, to your neighbors. Live Love, he says. Live as if Love – true love of neighbor – were not a theoretical concept – but Live Love because Love has been made real to you.

That is what makes Paul’s faith different from any other religion of that time or now – Live Love because Love has been made real for you. Put on Jesus Christ, put on the armor of light – that is your new garment of Love. That’s the garment for Daytime, for living in the daylight, the garment of loving the neighbor as yourself. Notice that Paul does not abandon the commandments of Old Time, the Old Testament, but, like Jesus, he takes them further – sees in them the continuity – Love your neighbor as yourself.

Paul is quoting Jesus here – he is so close to the original tradition, so close to the words of Jesus. As Christ loved – so are you to love. And that love is not hidden, cannot be hidden. In the transparent world of Paul and Jesus – acting out of true love of the neighbor will be a clear sign that something is different here – it will be like night and day. ‘See how they love each other.’

Even when the community is broken – as is suggested in Matthew 18, when the community is broken by individual sin – the community acts in love – sin is identified, named, and gently brought to light – in effect, echoing the greatest commandment – love your neighbor as yourself.

For this community. Every Christian community, carries the life and love of Christ within it. So it is promised, and so it must be – no one can escape that. Each individual puts on Jesus Christ, but the community in concert, when we live and work together – must be understood as the Body of Christ – where two or three are gathered – doesn’t just mean it’s good to gather together, but that we have an obligation to consider what we are doing together in the light and mission of Christ.

Live Love – for weeks now the wisdom from St. Paul has been about Love – about Agape – the kind of open, giving, love-for-others – that marks and makes the Christian community. We show this love in serving our neighbors – yes, the picnic, yes, the afterschool program (still looking for volunteers, I’m sure), yes, the provision of space for programs, yes, the education of our own children and youth, yes, worship – but we also will be known for our own lives – for we live in day-light – we live in the open, we live in the eyes of God and each other.

The beginning of the Talmud asks the question: “Until what time can you say the evening Shema? (The prayer for evening and night-time) Can you say it even until dawn?
And if so, how do we even know what time that is? How do we know when the night is over and the day has arrived?

This classic question leads to this classic story: In which students try to answer this question for the rabbi. One says:” Rebbe, night is over and day arrives, when you can see a house in the distance and determine if that’s your house or the house of your neighbor.”

Another student responded: “Night is over and day arrives when you can see an animal in the field and determine if it belongs to you or to your neighbor.”

Yet another student offered:” Night is over and day has arrived when you can a flower in the garden and distinguish its color.”

No, no, no thundered the Rebbe. Why must you see only in separations, only in distinctions, in determining what something is not. No. Night is over and day arrives when you look into the face of the person beside you and you can see that he is your brother, she is your sister, that person is your neighbor. That you belong to each other. You see that you are one. Then, and only then, will you know that night has ended and day has arrived.
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take a minute = the third question

2011-08-10T21:09:00.002-05:00

Third Question: What do you consider to be the big question or conundrum of your life?

oooooh.

Perpetual student, longing for serene and beautiful places, comfortable clothes, new stimuli (all those cities I visit but do not live in), fall and it's colors.

I think the big question is: what am I going to be when I grow up? I know I'm not finished yet. Were is the place of rest that is also the place of challenge?

take a minute

2011-08-09T20:04:00.002-05:00

From Metanoia:
PART ONE
take a minute and write down your responses to the following. No context ~ just whatever responses pop into your mind. Be as general or specific as you want, using as few words as possible.

1. Five colors.

2. Five cities.

3. Five landscapes.

4. Five interiors.

5. Five things you might wear.

1. Orange, yellow, green, bronze, sky blue
2. San Antonio, San Diego, Long Beach MS, Boston, Chicago
3. ocean, mountains, plains, Northwoods, shore of Lake Superior
4. chapel at college, Christ Church Green Bay, silo room at the Bridge, library at St. Anthony's, castle in my head
5. denim skirt, flats, cardigan sweater, glasses, bright socks

PART TWO
Next question: Within each of your groups, do you see commonalities?

Oh yes - my favorite color palate is fall
the cities are ones I have visited and enjoyed, but never lived in
the landscapes are beautiful for me
The interior spaces have been meaningful in my life
Those are my favorite clothes!

headache

2011-06-16T18:40:00.001-05:00

Carrying a headache all day

Is burden ripe to drop

Whole body into sleep

to each is given

2011-06-12T17:15:00.001-05:00

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Pentecost Day, Year A, 2011 – Acts 2, 1 Corinthians 12:3b- 13,
A story to start with: one day in a big city – the streets department comes by and systematically digs a hole in the terrace. The hole sits there until the end of the day, when a truck comes by and fills the hole up. This goes on street, by street, block by block, Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. One woman in the neighborhood notices this interesting pattern as she walks her dog. On Thursday, she stops one of the hole-digging workers and asks – what in world are you doing? Well – we’re on the urban beautification crew. What’s so beautiful about putting holes in the grass? Well, you see, the man who puts the trees in the holes is on vacation this week!

To each is given a gift – and that gift is important. At Pentecost we read this great story about the start of the church and think – wouldn’t it have been a wonderful thing to experience? Wouldn’t it have been a great time to hear all that great preaching, been caught up in the development of a new movement with its great hopes and expectations?

It’s always easy to look back and suggest there was a golden time that was so much better. I’m sure in the third century they looked back 50 years and said – those were the days. Sometimes I suspect that now in the 21th century we are dis-advantaged because we follow such a prosperous time in the church.

But, even in the 1st century – the church had its issues. It wasn’t all fiery ecstasy and preaching. By end of Acts 2 we have gatherings and organization. They were meeting for meals and prayers, and you can be sure that someone was complaining that they weren’t told what door to go in by. By Acts 4 we have trouble with the city officials, but also we learn that stewardship was becoming important within the community, and stewardship issues caused the first scandal. And by Acts chapter 6 we have clear evidence of church troubles and complaints, and establishment of systems to deal with that. Maybe there never really was a golden time when all was smooth and easy and everything turned on all cylinders.

Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church is written in the midst of these two elements – great excitement at the wonderful things God is doing by the Holy Spirit in the Name of Jesus – and great distress at the conflicts that have arisen in that very community of Jesus. Paul is speaking by and about the Spirit of Pentecost, and in a very deliberate way to his church and to all of us – says that it is the here-and-now – not the there-and-then, or the even by-and-by – where the Spirit of God is doing God’s work. Paul tells his church their energies should not be directed at creating factions based on who evangelized them, no, for that is in their pasts. It is how they treat each other now that is important.

In the church in Corinth, there were people who thought they were better than others – they had more significant talents, more wonderful gifts, more powerful expressions of the Spirit of God in them. They had groups that supported each other – I am one of Apollos’ converts – so, I have the gift of such and such! I am one of Paul’s converts, so I stand for this and that! Preaching is most important – no – speaking in tongues is most important – back and forth they went.

But Paul points the back, not to the gifts, but to the Giver. “No one can say: ‘Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.” That is where all the gifts begin. That is where all church organization begins. That is where we all begin in our lives of faith – as children being given a precious inheritance – the knowledge that Jesus Christ is our Lord. It’s a dramatic leveler. We all start at the same place in faith. “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him;” Small Catechism – Apostles Creed, 3rd article.

But starting in the same place does not mean we all have the same talents – that is also clear that Paul, and Jesus as well – recognized the beauty of the diversity of the followers, and saw that the Holy Spirit would bless us each with unique and significant powers. Yes, powers.

Pentecost is really a story about baptism of the Spirit, baptism into gifts and abilities. Baptism is not only about being named in the sight of God, and being claimed as a child of God, but also about being commissioned as a worker for God. And a worker does his or her work through the power he or she is given. In the Pentecost story we hear of gifts of speaking in other tongues, and perhaps also the gifts of preaching – but as we learned – the church developed so it needed more and different talents – stewardship, organization, communications, support, love, charity, cooking. To each is given . . . do we believe that? For the common Good . . . do we believe that?
Technology – numbers – friendship – speaking to strangers – steadiness – pray without ceasing – argumentation – delight in the movement of the body – music – calmness in stress – compassion for those who grieve – gift of teaching children.

Pentecost isn’t for looking backwards – not backwards to some golden age of the first century, when all was new and shiny – or backwards to the 1960s – when there were plenty of people to do everything. Paul warns us that basing our lives in anything other than the Life of the Holy Spirit in us today is wasteful. Remember that story I began with – what if the person whose gift is planting trees is always missing? Has the Spirit dwindled? I don’t think so – in the church the tree-planting person will be there – we, all of us, need to be open and supportive.

We are the new Pentecost people. We are new every day, in the life of the Spirit. We are the inheritors of the Holy Spirit here and down – and we can say and believe it: “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Let us open our hearts to that new wind of the Spirit, blowing through us and discover ways to give ourselves away for the common good.
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confirmation sermon

2011-06-03T13:37:00.002-05:00

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Easter 5A – Sunday May 22 – Confirmation– “Welcome”
1 Peter 2:2-10 (Living stones), John 14:1-14

Welcome! Welcome to the confirmation students who have come this whole way. Welcome to their families and friends who have come to see them step up and affirm their covenant of baptism. And Welcome to the rest of you. Maybe you didn’t realize what we were doing today – and that’s okay – in fact that’s wonderful. You are not here by accident – not at all. God desires this building to be full when we pray for these young people. Too often we forget that these kinds of moments – the baptisms, the confirmations, even the weddings and the funerals – are not just for the people who are doing them – but they are part of the life and breath of the whole church.

That’s what I’ll be speaking about today – the life and strength of the whole church. You see, kids – this day is “all about you” but it’s not all about you. You’ve done some work, hung in there in your Christian education – but you’ll be making your promises ‘by the grace of God.’
My understanding of the process of Confirmation education is that you students ‘try on’ the promises to see how they fit. We invite you to practice worship, fellowship, study, service and justice. We’ve asked you think about those things, how you will experience them in your life. Some of you fought that pretty hard, some of you found a wonderful insight.

Bless your hearts – we’ve asked you to try and try on the promises of baptism – and – you weren’t perfect. Here’s the big reveal – nobody is – I’m not perfect, they are not perfect, no one on earth does it perfectly as God desires.

That’s why, this day, this event isn’t about you at all – it’s about our beautiful God, our loving God. A God who takes even people, imperfect people like you and me – and offers us a place in his house. Yep, even folks who have messed up occasionally – who have frustrated the pastors in class, who have absolutely sat in stone silence in class and only answered us with jokes –

• folks who aren’t totally sure what we believe, (Do I believe this enough to be here?)
• folks who wonder if we’re good enough, (Not as good as – that!)
• folks who are pretty sure if someone knew their deepest hearts –

Well – God does know – and God does care – how we live, what we do, that we fix our eyes on him, our lives on his power to change us – even then, when we are weak God does not discard.
God believes you are one of the living stones.

The author of our second lesson – the lesson from the First letter of Peter – speaks of living stones. Living stones are useful stones, are stones that have strength and beauty for a building. The author invites, yes, invites each of us to “Come to Jesus Christ,” and submit ourselves to be built into a temple. Come and be used. Interesting, isn’t it, that we are make for a purpose – for use.

Christ is the cornerstone – the place where it all begins and ends – but we are the bricks, the stones, the substance of this Temple, spiritual house. All of us, each one of us, confirmation student or parent or regular worshiper or musician or stranger who wandered in today – each one of has a purpose.

Yes, each of us is supposed to be here because together, and only together do we make the great Temple of praise. Here we find out what we are supposed to be doing – what all this was about, kids – is that you are the living stones of the Temple of Jesus Christ. You are the living stones. The role of the living temple – is to tell - is to praise – is to exclaim the Great Work, to point out the joy of the Real Story of Jesus. That happens here in this hour, but because we are a spiritual house – we take our mission with us wherever we go – we are commissioned to be the house of the LORD everywhere, every day, every encounter.

What happens when a brick isn’t there? There will be a gap, an absence, a missing support. Something will not be right. Now, tomorrow, you might say – I don’t matter here – it does not matter if I come to church or not – it does not matter if I keep my promises to this project, this person, to church, to God. Now only God can really answer that.

But the scripture here and in the Gospel makes a promise about promises – Our God promises that mercy and hope and honor will come to those who keep their promise. “once you were not a people – now you are God’s people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

That’s what this is all about today – WE are called to be God’s Living stones, his Temple, his priesthood, his nation, his voice, because we have all received mercy, not because we finished some years of education, not because we’ve done the right thing, not because we were born a Lutheran or American or anything.

The mercy is that We have been introduced to Jesus and through him know the Father. Come to him, a living stone – and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
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neighbors

2011-06-03T13:30:00.002-05:00

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Good fences make good neighbors - is that the quote?

Our neighbor behind half the back yard put up a fence last year. They put it inside the property line and put the side with the supports outward. Black mark #1 - I was always taught it was neighborly to put the supports on the inside, so other people had the 'front' of the fence facing them.

#2 - then they did not mow outside the fence.

#3 - during the first big wind storm - one panel fell down - they put it back up - then it fell down again in the last windstorm. It's been at least two weeks, they haven't put it back up.

#4 - they aren't mowing.

I don't think anyone is living there. The garbage bin is surrounded by two-foot high grass (I can see it through the fallen down fence panel). There is no 'for sale sign' up. They are in the town - not the city. Not mowing the grass seems to be pretty common on the town side of things - I can see at least two other houses like that on that street.

Hmmm- maybe a call to the town offices might be in order.
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the good gate

2011-05-14T15:55:00.001-05:00

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Something different to post today. This is a partial sermon that I do not know how to end.

Easter 4A, May 15-16 - STALLED SERMON – DID NOT KNOW HOW TO END IT. NEEDED A STORY ABOUT HOW HEARING JESUS’ VOICE CONNECTED WITH ABUNDANT LIFE.

Psalm 23, John 10:1-10 – True shepherd/gate/ abundant life – it’s not about death –it’s about living now. It is polemical – it is part of an argument with ‘them’ – so it is compare and contrast. Jesus=true shepherd/true gate/true way. ‘Pharisees/false teachers = death/slaughter/restrictions/destruction.’ Abundant life is not – destruction, but excellent, superior, great in measure.

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I bless and love this Sunday and all the songs and sheepy imagery – but guess what – we aren’t sheep. We are a little smarter, and probably more confused than sheep. Our lives are probably more conflicted and noisy than Jesus makes the existence of sheep out to be. Our lives are full of life things, much more than eating and sleeping and growing wool. Our lives – oh my goodness – our lives are full of worry, and questions and gray areas. At some time, we fear death, and poverty and loneliness, we feel empty and angry and stuck. And we have times of joy and fulfillment as well. We are so much more complex than sheep.

That’s okay, because the point of all these ovine metaphors in the Bible isn’t sheep. The point is that we are in need of something – our existence, our human core, our best selves need to be connected to the bigger picture, to meaning, to the divine. We live, and we suffer, and we need to understand our lives and our suffering in a big picture. We need a way, a gate and a guide, a shepherd.

You see, the whole Good Shepherd discourse begins in the midst of miracle and separation. Maybe we forget that, or never knew it, because we see the Good Shepherd so naturally as the one who keeps us from pain, the hero, the fairy tale comforter. The image does appeal to children. But these passages are really for adults, for those of us who find ourselves lost in the middle of our lives, and for those who find ourselves full of grace and joy and miracle.

Yes, it’s both the loss of community and new beginnings. All these great words about the Good, True, Noble shepherd and his path, gate, way – this great promise of abundant life – begin with the consequences of miracle.

These words follow the great story of the man born blind, who discovers not only his physical sight, but his spiritual vision in Jesus. The man worships Jesus – because of that is separated from his family and community. Jesus is speaking to that man, and to his disciples, and to also all those who have opposed him. The man without community is beginning a new life – coming into a new community – and these words are intended to guide and warn him. And we are like him – now alive in Christ through his death and resurrection.

So Jesus says: I am the gate – the right way. I am the one to listen to.

The point of the Good Gate is the identity of Jesus and the relationship of Jesus to his followers. To say ‘I am the Gate’ is like saying “I am the way, the truth and the life’ – Jesus is making a claim that he, and he alone, opens the door to the Father, provides the living water, secures the abundant life. His voice is the One Voice of Life.

Jesus uses the image of the shepherd calling out his sheep as a model for the believer who will walk in the way of the Light of God – not turning right or left, not straying, but attending to the voice, on the right path.

We live a world full of static: Some time ago (May 28, 2009), USA Today reported the findings of a 2009 survey by Qwest Communications in which respondents were asked how long they could last before feeling “antsy” about checking E-mail, instant messaging, or other social networking sites. Of those surveyed, 47% said they couldn’t last more than an hour…46% said they could only make it one day…and the remaining 7% said they could probably go a week without checking in.

We live in a world full of competing voices. There is a whole industry devoted to making you and me loyal consumers of one brand or another. This industry – media consultants – takes aim at our need to belong, our confusion about the meaning of life, our intrinsic spiritual orientation and attempts to use that to develop ‘loyalty beyond reason’ (Frontline) and ‘brand communities’.

We live in a world where huge stakes rest on our loyality, our choices. My struggle – I want a Dyson Vacuum cleaner. I want the DC25 Animal Ball to be exact. I really want this. It’s not rational. Consumer Report has plenty of vacuum cleaners that perform better and are cheaper on their list. But I want the $550 Dyson, not the Kenmore, not the Hoover, and not the 150 dollar Eureka! Why is this? Branding. I’ve been brand-marked. I’ve been brand-influenced. This is a small and funny example, of course, but it’s real.

That’s how it works – it’s subtle, it’s subliminal, and it’s real. Other voices call to us, other voices obscure or contradict the voice of the Master. I can name many versions of this: the call to self-love that tells us that being happy is everything – the call to anxious security that warns us that generosity is foolish. You can name these voices as well – we once called them sin.

Jesus knows that – he says: Don’t listen to them! Don’t listen to the false shepherds, the hawkers of rules and fear – don’t listen to the siren songs of self-fulfillment and self-love. That’s what Jesus is saying – listen to my voice. There is the good life of the brand identity – and there is the True Good Life of abundance that Jesus is promising.

a very short Passion Sunday meditation

2011-04-20T07:49:00.001-05:00

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The story was read in chucks, with different voices reading each chunk. Everyone could be a story-teller.

PALM SUNDAY – PASSION SUNDAY MEDITATION –
AFTER READING OF THE CRUCIFIXION NARRATIVE

Why do we do this? Why do we insist on reading and hearing the whole, long story from beginning to end in one long service? I would say we do this so that we can know the truth.
The truth of the story of who Jesus is for us, the truth of his love for us, the truth that he stepped into the way of death, for us – is the story we need to hear. What happens between Palm Sunday and Easter morning is a tale often referred to, but not often experienced. This is the day, more than any other day in the calendar, when our emotions should be called up, when our imaginations fired up, our hearts touched.

Jesus did this for us. He entered the capital city at the center of a crowd. Yes, that crowd was foolish, that crowd was shallow and fickle. But look at Jesus – what would you say about him? I would say he was brave – for he understood this was the beginning of his death. Coming into the city, in this way, with hosannas and palms and shouts – was to assure his death. Jesus was brave for us.

And out of love he sat with his closest companions and offered a spiritual meal like no other. He offered himself in love. Jesus gave himself away for us. And yes, those disciples were shallow and fickle, and would run away – but look at Jesus – what would you say about him? I would say he was in love with each and every one of them – in love with them as they were.

And so it goes, with all the scenes of that terrible night and day. Jesus, in loving courage, steps up to take our place – ‘not my will, but thine be done,’ He says to God his Father. And so he goes through humiliation, pain, denial, desertion, torture – to die.

This is the truth – that the best one in the world – the most human Human, the most divine Divinity – went with courage and love through the some of worst human beings could do to each other – for the sake of all humanity – for all of us.

We tell this story because we need to hear the truth once more. The truth is = you are loved. Jesus is in love with you – and even if, we prove to be shallow and fickle – he waits for us to come back. He did all this for us – come and believe.

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sorry no tooth fairy

2011-04-14T14:08:00.001-05:00

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there is no tooth fairy.
or fix a flat fairy.
or put the dishes away fairy
or wash the dishes fairy

And it's not me.
MOM
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into the light

2011-04-04T21:52:00.001-05:00

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"with excuses to Sondheim - we will see 'Into the Woods' next week. Love that show.

Lent 4A, April 4/5, 2011 – “Into the Light” The man born blind – John 9

Ahh, another one of our long, long readings from the Gospel according to John. It’s a wonderful story, full of drama and development. The progress of the man-born-blind is amazing – from beggar to healed man to witness to confessor. At the beginning of the story he exists in darkness – and at the end he stands in the light of Jesus the Christ and worships the one who healed him.

Along the way – eyes are opening and closing among all sorts of people. Jesus refuses to attribute the man’s blindness to sin, probably startling the disciples. Instead he insists that this is a moment for God’s light to shine, to act. The theme of the whole story is how do people react when God’s light shines upon them? Do they, and do we – see? Or do we retreat back into darkness, into comfortable and safe places of rules and limitations? We learn about three ways of responding to the Light of the World.

The Pharisees cannot see this miracle for what it is – the work of God bringing light into the world – the presence of God as the light of the world - in the world. No, their eyes remain closed to the light, bounded by their own interpretation of sin and righteousness, their own fear for their control of religious things. They create their own darkness. All of us, except the greatest saints, I suspect, do this at times – we fear what change might bring – we cling to what has worked for us in the past. Do not condemn those Pharisees too quickly, for there may be a family resemblance.

The most poignant paragraph concerns the parents, I think – what confusion and fear they undergo! Finally, they retreat, for safety, into the dusk – not understanding what is happening to their son. Not understanding what would happen to them if they entered into the light.

Because coming into the light – experiencing the healing – the everyday elements of mud and spit and water changes everything for the man-born-blind. This nameless person – loses his identity, you see, loses his income, loses his parents, loses his place in the community, in the synagogue – but he receives everything – he learns to worship in Spirit and in Truth (from last week). He is set free for freedom’s sake – for the glory of God – and in the part of the story that is never told, he must become a disciple, a follower of Jesus, a student of the Master, a sheep of the flock, inheritor of the Kingdom of God.

Coming into the light may mean loss. Certainly loss of the comfortable rationalizations of sins – Someday I’ll do better, we say. Someday God will come first. Someday I’ll be ready for prayer, for service, for generosity. Someday God will be more important to me. Coming into the light may mean loss. Loss of sin – are we ready for that? Loss of distraction by the things of this world, loss of false directions, of false standards.

Coming into the light – means loss – and gain. That is the hope of this story – we gain so much when walk in the light. When we come to the water – as babies for the first time, or as adults remembering what God did for us (as adults witnessing this child being washed by God love) – we find a hint of what we gain –
Peace, and joy, and purpose.

We gain a chance to correct our mistakes, to step out in hope and faith, opportunities to do good, to serve, to care. We gain conviction that what we can do makes a difference. And finally, we gain hope that this life is not all there is – that we are part of a greater reality – a reality of light in the world, light that began with, yes, mud and spit and water and wine and bread and a cross and love.
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gleaning on the edge

2011-02-20T19:58:00.005-06:00

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A much, much shorter version of this sermon was preached today after the endowment committee gave away lots of money. It was a nice tie-in to the messy, foolish, openhanded community.

Seventh Sunday of Epiphany, 2011 – Matthew 5:38-48, Lev. 19:1-2, 9-18
“Gleaning on the Edge” –
When we went to Germany, we also wanted to see the part of Poland where my husband’s ancestors came from – what was once Greater Pomerania – now it’s Poland. Driving across north east Germany, we all commented how much it looked like Wisconsin. The fields were reasonably sized, with hedgerows of pine and other trees. There were sections of woods, there were occasional farm buildings. It looked like a hospitable land, homey, a good place to live. That all changed when we crossed the border into Poland. The same topography, the same hills and valleys, the same farmland, had been opened up by the communist agricultural system. The fields were massive, huge, endless. There were no edges with trees, no small woodlots, there were no old farmsteads – all had been taken away. There were no hiding places for deer, for foxes, for wild animals at all. The farmers lived in apartment buildings in tiny villages – cramped together while surrounded by all that vast landscape. All was devoted to production –and all was about production with no waste allowed.

I tell you this story because I was most struck this week not just by Jesus’ strong words about relations with our neighbors and our enemies, but by one little verse in the Old Testament Lesson – which gives us a new way of looking at the words of Moses and Jesus.

In Leviticus - which is a book that I know most of us would rather ignore – God puts forth detailed instructions for his people. God desires his people to be holy, as he is holy. God wants his people to be good, as he is good. Jesus interprets this – be ye perfect, as our heavenly father is perfect. Jesus’ words are based on this Hebrew Bible tradition – the Ten Commandments and the elaboration of them throughout history. Let’s not discard this Law too quickly. It was important to our Savior, it should be important to us, too.

Perfection, Goodness, Holiness. That seems like too much for us, doesn’t it? We want to hear that there are ways out of those kinds of expectations. We are sinners, we know, we are imperfect, we just not capable of that kind of perfection. Many of the commentators and preachers I read and hear try to explain away Jesus’ words, explain away Moses’ words – wave them away so we can go living as we want to. The basic message is – since it’s impossible to be perfect – why even try? Since we’re not born holy – let’s enshrine all our sins, all our weaknesses and say that Moses and Jesus really didn’t understand human existence – that Moses and Jesus are asking too much of us.

Human life is messy. It is. We love imperfectly. We make mistakes. We are greedy. We are selfish. We try to tie everything up into bundles and keep our stuff safe and we become territorial and emotional and we can hurt each other. And all those elements of our being – those are part of the great gap between us and God. So are Moses and Jesus asking too much of us? I think that’s the wrong question to dwell on – let’s look at what is being asked of us.

That’s where the image of gleaning comes in. Gleaning is exactly described right there in Leviticus 19:9 – when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edge of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes. You will leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God. Gleaning is a harvest practice . . . it means to leave behind wheat in the field, grapes on the vines, olives and apples on the trees.

Don’t be too neat when you garden. Remember the fields of Poland and the fields of Germany? There could be no gleaning from the fields of Poland – they were too aggressively cultivated, too neatly manicured. God wants his people to be messy harvesters. It has something to do with holiness, God says. I am holy – you shall be holy – and people of a holy God do this: they are messy harvesters. They are called to be messy at the harvest for the sake of others – for the poor, for those who are passing through, those who have no one else. They are called to be open-handed to the neighbor. They are called to be foolish – not playing politics and treating the rich any better than the poor.

Does that have to do with us, and that question – Are Moses and Jesus asking too much of us? I think it does. The Old Testament world, and the Old Testament laws, and Jesus’ world and Jesus’ words – love your neighbor, love your enemies, give your coat and your cloak, don’t hit back, give charity freely, lend openly – all that stuff is related to call of God to God’s people – be holy. Be a holy community.

Be a community – that’s the key. Gleaning – the process of sharing the harvest with those in need – is a community thing. God’s command to allow gleaning points all of us to remember that we are not put here just for ourselves. We are not put here to neatly tie up all the ends and be secure by ourselves, in ourselves. People need people – as the song says – and people interact in all sorts of ways – we are messy with each other. And that is part of being a living, holy - messy, open-handed, foolish community.

The call to live together underlies all of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. We hear those things that sound so tough – if someone takes from you your coat, give them your cloak also, hit on one cheek, turn the other. And if we are thinking of ourselves as solitary individuals, as only me, then, yes, this doesn’t make sense. But, Jesus isn’t thinking like that, like we are all alone, not at all. If you are forced to give your coat and your cloak away – then your neighbor, your community, will come to your aid. If you are being beaten up, then your community should step in to protect you.

Be a holy community, says God to Moses in the Hebrew Bible. Be a living community, says Jesus to the disciples and to us on the Sermon on the Mount. Go ahead, be messy around the ends. Be generous and kind, give to people who don’t deserve it. Don’t harvest to the edge of the field, but share with your neighbor and those who are in need. Watch out for those who are being battered on one cheek and the other, for those who have lost their coat and cloak, for those whose miles are longer and harder than yours. Be a community that loves the neighbor, that allows itself to be messy and open handed and foolish.

For Jesus himself was messy and open-handed, and foolish – and look what he did for us. Amen.
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the deal

2011-01-27T22:19:00.002-06:00

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here's the deal.

Life - is busy.

I've started to classes, both of which start with psycho-. Tells you something, no?
Psychopathology & Psychometrics. Pathology is on Thursday night. Metrics is on Saturday morning.

Psychometrics is the old testing and assessment class. My math and statistics are far, far behind me. This should be good.

And this week I accepted the role of chair of the 150th anniversary at Peace. We have enough money to pay the guest preachers and nothing else right now. I did not know this when I accepted the job. It will be an interesting year.

I'm not preaching as often, and that's okay. Life is busy. Things need to get done. I'm putting on my do-it hat and doing-it. Sometimes that makes me cranky. I will work on taking my time for prayer and mediation and exercise and eating right. Somewhere in there.

Anyone know someone with an Axis I diagnosis who is willing to be my interview subject?

Life goes on in the frozen north. But not as snowy as the north-east at least.
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in the world

2011-01-03T22:48:00.002-06:00

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Christmas 2 – Year A – John 1:1-18 –“in the World” – Jan 1

& 2.
He came into the world, and the world came into being through him, and the world knew him not. But to all who received him . . . he gave the power to be children of God.

Happy New Year! I hope you had a good New Year’s Eve – even if you’re the sort that celebrates with New York City at 11 pm, or even New Year’s Eve in Nova Scotia – that’s for those of us who go to bed at 10 pm. It’s interesting how this date has become a cultural phenomenon – it’s all about
retrospectives of films, tv, music, news stories – what was thought to be important – and about looking forward – the bit about resolutions – plans and dreams that are unlikely to be carried out.

And all this for what is an arbitrary date, really. It’s a remnant of the old pagan solstice as much as anything. Why do we bother to make New Year's resolutions in the first place? Why do we feel this need each January 1 to set new goals? We hear things like: It is up to each of us to maximize the potential of every moment. It becomes all up to us to transform ourselves. Most of the New Year’s stuff we are exposed to, is all about us, about our world of things, appearances, status – what important, or what the world thinks is important. There’s a New Year Theology in all this, you see, a theology that suggests that it’s all about us, right now, in the place and pace of the world –
that if God is – God isn’t really important.

So I want you recognize that we are being kind of countercultural, subversive, when we read and reflect upon these scriptures in this New Year frenzy. Let us ask the scriptures what is important and see what they say.

So, let’s be a little ornery, let’s not think about us, let’s take a new – old - perspective – Let’s think about the greatest story ever – the real news – the reality that makes all and any true resolutions of better behavior possible. Here is the BIG NEWS: God acted, we claim. God promised and God came through. God made his resolution, and God doesn’t fail.

God entered the world – not as a bolt of lightning, or as a superhuman hero, or as an idea of goodness – but the Word of God became flesh, and dwell among us. That first few lines of the Gospel of John tell us of divine origin of CREATION – that God’s power of creation was in this WORD.

And then – a connection – the ministry of the one who pointed the way – the Baptist – was the one who saw that the light – the WORD – was entering the world in a whole new way.

And so the WORD CAME TO THE WORLD – was in the world. He spread his tent, he built his house, he made a home with creation. That is the big story, that is the whole point of us being here – in this room, together on at this darkest time of the year.

One writer suggests a new kind of Christmas celebration – the Christmas pageant according to the Gospel of John. What would a Christmas pageant based on the gospel of John look like?

The church would be bare and dark; the chancel stripped of pulpit, chairs, candles, flowers, altar: everything that's usually up there. All you'd need is a small, insignificant table, on which would sit a single, unlit candle. There would be no lights on, no music, nothing happening.

The worshipers would file in and sit for a very long time, silent as a Quaker meeting. They would sit long enough to begin to feel uneasy at the silence and maybe even a little scared of the dark (childhood fears returning). At long last, a person would march solemnly in, and without a word,
light that single candle.

No one, of course, would seriously try to put on a Christmas pageant like that, based on John's gospel. But, having imagined it, we can see how different John's Christmas story is. No color, music, or pageantry -- just one blazing, incontrovertible truth, a single statement so profound that maybe the only way to appreciate it is to sit in utter darkness and watch the candle-lit shadows play across the ceiling. (Lean Thompson)

He came into the world, and the world came into being through him, and the world knew him not.
But to all who received him . . . he gave the power to be children of God.

How else would we understand the power of light in the darkness but to sit in darkness? Of WORD in the silence but to experience silence? Of God taking on flesh and blood and humanity except to honor our own humanity? That’s it. We are human, and God loves us so much he takes on own
substance to honor us, to lead us, to save us.

“he was in the world, and the world came into being through him, but the world knew him not.”

That’s the tragedy – the world continued on its way, assuming that the near past – the top ten lists of human achievements and human wars and human silliness really mean anything. That’s the sad business – that people continue to make resolutions, say – here are my intentions for good living and back them up with their own will power. For some of those people, it is successful, but for many of us . . . not so much.

So let’s look at the New Year in a new way. Let’s address it as not all about us – let’s start with the notion that it is God’s story that we live in – not that God makes a rare appearance in ours, but that we live in God’s story.

What do our resolutions look like then? I like a list of resolutions prepared by the Rev. Walter
Schoedel. He calls them ‘7-UPS for the New Year.’ So – resolutions in the Light of John 1.

The first is WAKE UP--Begin the day with the Lord. It is His day. Rejoice in it.

The second is DRESS-UP—This doesn’t mean fancy clothes, but about showing an attitude of gratitude. Put on a smile. Delight in the world, and let it show.

The third is SHUT-UP--Watch your tongue. Don't gossip. Say nice things. Learn to listen.

The fourth is STAND-UP--Take a stand for what you believe. Resist evil. Do good.

Five, LOOK-UP--Open your eyes to the Lord. After all, He is your only Savior.

Six, REACH-UP--Spend time in prayer with your adorations, confessions, thanksgivings and supplications to the Lord.

And finally, LIFT-UP--Be available to help those in need--serving, supporting, and sharing.

If you're going to make New Year's resolutions this year, let me suggest this list, a list that remembers that transformation starts with God, the creator and savior and Lord.
Once we realize that we live in God’s story, we begin to understand it’s not all about us, and not all up to us, but we can live in the promise that those who receive him, who believe in his Name are children of God. AMEN.
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poem

2010-12-30T13:18:00.002-06:00

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Break open the world with light and song!
A passionate song to that one king
whose throne, whose life so bright gems held
but wood and straw and dust beheld

A life like ours too short, too hard
and ever by injustice marred
from angel song to mother's tears
at last the hard road did appear

A manager born, a cross and grave
darkness upon all things alive
break open the world with light and sing
of great victory of our king
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on noticing

2010-12-04T14:48:00.003-06:00

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It's one of those Christmas/birthday seasons when I don't really need anything, and so I haven't offered the eagle any suggestions for gifts. I think we're going to buy some more furniture. Most of our stuff isn't new and never was new. We have a LOT of 'recycled' furniture. The dining room table and chairs come close to being antiques, because they belonged to my great aunt. We've had them since we were married, and they date from the 1950s. (So did the washing machine we got rid of last year.)

The big couch upstairs was a freebee from an estate. The upstairs recliner (which hasn't aged well) and the downstairs couch were from a used furniture store. Lots of things from our mothers. We did buy one recliner new, about 15 years ago. And various desks and stuff, usually cheap, and they show it. Our stereo system sits on an old sewing machine cabinet.

So the eagle wants a new cabinet for his cds - and he took me to the local cheap store and said - see - this is on sale! It was ugly. I said no. Now I'm looking for something better, better looking and better made. I'd love to buy local - but how does one find that kind of thing?

He turned to me and said, "I don't know how many women would go all these years without anything new." (aside from the stereotyping, I think it was a compliment.) "Well," I said, "I don't really notice."

Now I wonder, should I be noticing? I notice clutter, I notice broken things, but useful things are just there. I suspect I'm like my own mother in that regard.

What else do I not notice? What is in the background, accepted, but not paid attention to?
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red-green team and the blue side

2010-11-29T20:56:00.002-06:00

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The sermon from this weekend. I held up red & green and blue ribbon bows while I spoke. And I did find Luther quotes for both sides.

Advent 1A, November 28/29 “That Day and Hour” - Matthew 24:36-44

You know, it's that time of year. The church calls it Advent, and the world calls this is the time before Christmas. Those are two different orientations, you see. I’m going to call these two attitudes the Red/Green Team and the Blue Side. And these are balanced, I think, and we live, more or less, in both ways of life, some of us more, some of us less.

The Red-Green Team – those who live in the ‘Time before Christmas” find their world filled with stuff to do,
• plans to fulfill, things to buy or to make, places to go, people to see.
• These folks have no problem with hearing Christmas Music early, seeing decorations and spreading the delightful promises of the festival season early and often. Why can’t we sing Joy to the World?
• It is a time filled with doing and activity. Those are not bad things – we really try to think about what others might want, we become more generous and kind-hearted. I love the time before Christmas for its ability to stir even the least spiritual into an awareness of others, of giving to the less needy. Charity at the holidays is something we can be proud of.

Now on the church calendar, we call these 4 Sundays the time of Advent. This is where the Blue Side lives.
• The Blue side is all about waiting, listening, watching, keeping awake, becoming aware of silence and uncertainty.
• The Blue Side remembers there are old and seldom sung hymns just for this season. They are the O Come, O Come Emmanuel folks.
• It is less about doing, and more about listening, seeing, asking questions. Where is God today? What does God want? What does it mean that God became human, and was really present in this first century Jew we call Jesus?

These two attitudes are often looked at as opposites, as two things that can’t exist together, but today I see both of these orientations as having their own blessing as we live as the Advent people. Both orientations, the one that is busy and full of things to do, and the one that is quiet and attentive, both respond to the same hope, the same great news.

The hope is the one expressed in our scripture readings today – over and over again – that God will do a new thing, that the kingdom of God will be made real, that the city of God will be established, that the people of God will be safe, that all people will be gathered into God’s loving embrace.

We know that this movement of God, this new thing, began with the birth of Jesus long ago, and flowered in the life of Jesus and was testified in his death and resurrection – and we wait in hope for the next moment, that which was promised. That’s why we call this time ‘Advent’ (which is related to the word advance – this is time in advance of something). There are these strange images from the Bible and they tell us that in some way, God’s not done. God’s not done with us. God’s not done with the story.

So both the Red-Green Team and the Blue Side are working in this sense of hope, of expectation that something is going to happen, and we ought to be ready for it.

We do not know when God will complete the story of his love, his victory, his justice for all. But we know that we live in advance of it – we live in expectation, in hope, that both justice and judgment will come. Those two things – justice and judgment – are not opposed at all in the eyes of God. The kingdom of God is a place where peace is practiced, where all are called to the banquet, and no one goes hungry, no one is cold, no one is left alone. And those blessings are to come through God’s chosen people, through the grace and love and strength given by God. The story is not completed, but we play our part as this generation of those who must be prepared.

So listen to the lessons – They speak of the joy of salvation – of being God’s loved people and they speak of responsibility. They speak God’s actions, yes, but also of the expectations for God’s people. Isaiah calls the people of God to ‘walk in the light of the Lord!’ even though the complete victory of his vision is far away. Walk in the light - there is a way to live that is close to God’s intentions.

The apostle Paul has the same insight – that when we are living in the waiting time, we are living not just for ourselves, but for the hope that is in us. So he reminds his listeners to cling to honor, to seek to live well, remembering the better way that we have been taught.

And Jesus gives us this extraordinary reminder that life can be short, that encounters with God can come at any moment – we do not know the hour or the day. We might want to shrug off this passage, but it should re mind us that judgment will come, and in the Gospel of Matthew, judgment and justice lie side by side. Like the owner of the house, we should be always ready to respond – never thinking that tomorrow is soon enough for charity, that next year is soon enough for commitment. God doesn’t work that way. Now is the time.

Perhaps for each of us, whether we are on the Red-Green team or Blue Side of this season – we can take a lesson from pattern of the other.

For the busy Red-Green people – how do we listen for God’s hope beyond our own busy plans? The answer may be in those practices of quietness and mediation – in devotions and music and scripture reading that force us to take time away from planning and doing so that we are just present. Luther was asked how he fit everything into his busy life - well, I pray 2 hours a day, and if I'm really busy . . . I pray for 4 hours.

If you are like me, and make to do lists, we could put ‘PRAY’ at the top of our list. If you already do this – then you may already be leaning to the Blue Side, but for those of us who find ourselves full of tasks to do, our Advent challenge is to stop and listen, stop and contemplate, stop doing and start waiting.

For those Blue Side – we must realize that God has placed us in the world and called us to service now. So the question may be: how do we find our path of impacting and serving the world that God has placed in front of us? There is an old story about Martin Luther being asked what he would do if he were to discover that the world were coming to an end tomorrow. Luther’s response: “I would plant an apple tree.”

That’s a Red-Green response if ever there was one. It was Luther’s way, I suspect, of asserting that our calling is ever to trust in God’s faithfulness and to seek to be faithful followers of Jesus, day in and day out. Our calling is to embrace the sharp edge of expectant hope, to affirm that, even now, God may well be at work in the world around us.

So whether you identify with the Red-Green Team or the Blue Side, whether you desire to sing your Christmas Carols today or long to hear the rare and solemn ancient hymns of Advent – you are called to live in expectation that, yes, Christ is Coming, Christ is coming indeed.

day off? on?

2010-11-22T10:06:00.002-06:00

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I found a free day, and I don't know what to do with myself. Or rather - here is a day in which I don't need to go to the office at least - the first in 10 days - and it's hard to get moving. I have a list of things to do - shop for Thanksgiving, clean house, call back on church details (oh, that's work again), catch up on school - - but.

But. Something in me just wants to curl up and finish my Trollope book (I love Anthony Trollope! His insight into people! His dry wit! Despite the fact he's writing in and about the 1850s, I know these people, and know these places), drink tea and listen to music. Now that I have a funeral on Friday, that day is chopped up. Sorry Sara, I can't spend all day with you at home.

Some of you know I'm taking courses in counseling. For my current course I need to speak to someone who leads group counseling/support groups, and I've come up dry. Any suggestions?
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Christ the King Sunday

2010-11-20T20:28:00.003-06:00

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Christ the King C, 2010 – Nov. 20/21 – ‘End and Beginning’
Luke’s Passion
When did this start, this idea of the kingdom of God – this new thing that God does? We usually suggest it starts with the birth of Jesus – Christmas – that little babe. (The little babe, so few days old, has come to rifle Satan's fold) But in Colossians and in John – it is part of God’s imaginative hope when he made creation- these creatures, with imagination and language and reason – these ones who bear his image- these are the ones who might understand what it means to worship him. We are called to worship, from the beginning. And when we fall away, we – our flesh and blood and DNA - are still the vehicle for this miracle of incarnation. That’s where it starts – with being who we are, with being human.

Back up a few days from our Gospel story. We think the disciples, those who knew Jesus in his active ministry, who traveled with him, and listened to him daily – we think they had a pretty good idea of what Jesus was about. The stories we have received, however, show us otherwise. Those closest to Jesus misunderstood him, and showed themselves as ordinary folks who wasted their time debating who would be most honored.

Two of them, brothers James and John, came to Jesus and asked him to honor them by promising that they – James and John – would be the right-hand man and the left-hand man when Jesus came into his glory. Get this – they asked for the particular places of honor and power. They asked to be recognized above all the other ten intimates, above all the others who followed Jesus daily, above Jesus’ mother and Jesus own brother, above anyone else who would even join the movement. Let us be your lieutenant – your generals, your chosen men.

Jesus said to them: “you don’t know what you are asking. Will you follow where I am going to go? Will you do what I am going to do?” “Oh, yes, of course” And Jesus probably looked at them with love and shook his head – because he knew they would indeed be taking up the way of the cross, and that they had no idea of what was in store for them. “Indeed you will drink the cup that I drink, and you will go the way I go – but to guarantee that kind of honor you seek – it is not in my hands.”

The son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for all.

Now look were we are a few days later – Jesus is abandoned on the cross. James and John – well, they are not on his right and left hands. Those on his right and left hands are criminals, probably either highwaymen or revolutionaries foolish enough to get caught. All three are face the horrific execution of crucifixion. Let’s remember, Jesus was not the only one to suffer this way – not the only one to ‘take up his cross’ – it was a common practice in those cruel days.

This is the cup which Jesus must drink, the baptism he must be baptized by. This is what he asked James and John if they were willing to undergo. For James and John, this is the END – this is the end of the Jesus movement, this is the end of the hopes that through charisma, through teaching, through works of power and healing justice and righteousness might win. This is the end to the hopes that James and John or Peter or anyone might find themselves able to act with God’s Power and Might and Judgment.

This is the end of all that – all that expectation that the Reign of God, this Kingdom of Heaven was going to be a Nation, an Empire, a Government like any other Government.

The sign above Jesus head said “This is the King of the Jews” and at his right hand and his left hand were the scum of the earth. It was meant to be ironic, a claim that was so obviously untrue that no one would ever claim that title again. But Jesus, in the midst of his own agony, shows what a king truly is.

What is a King? A King is forgiving: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Extraordinary – those soldiers knew what they were doing – they were mocking the dying, they were benefiting from other’s pain, they were killing people. Jesus still asks that they be forgiven – for the complete generosity of his kingdom will include even those who are cruel, the enemy, the scoffers, the on-lookers.

What is a King? A king is gracious. So Jesus turns to the one who acknowledges his own guilt, defends Jesus, and attributes innocence to him, and Jesus promises grace. Jesus promises paradise, Jesus promises that this broken man will be with Jesus in Paradise.

What is a King? This cross is the moment of beginning of the kingdom of God. This cross is where we see what a King is and what a King does. How a King becomes not a King of the World, but a King of our soul, of our hearts. The cross is the end point of any dreams that following this Messiah would provide power and authority on earth. The cross is the beginning of a new thing, a new kind of kingdom.

And if we are not sure that this story is true – that this is the way that God will be working - God completes the drama, God provides the last act, has the last word – on Easter morning Jesus is seen alive and whole and complete. The King has returned, and the new way has truly begun.

The New Kingdom is an invitation to all of us – to see ourselves in the story. Who are we, where do we stand?

o Are we still like James and John, wondering what the reward on this earth is going to be? And if so, what happens when the reward is not forthcoming? Can we open our hearts to realize it isn’t about us, isn’t about what we think is important – that God is pointing to an internal, spiritual transformation that must precede the reformation of the world?

o Are we like those on-lookers, not so sure that this King has any real power over what really matters to us? What do we miss when we do not see that this King, this incarnated savior, is present for us always, showing a way of life that does powerfully shape what really matters to us?

o Are we like those thieves – caught up in our own pain? And then, even then, in pain – real pain – grief, illness, fear, anger, disappointment, frustration – do you see that there are two ways to respond to the presence of our broken King?

He’s there with us in our pain – and we can turn away or we can turn toward. Turn away: “Save yourself and us!” and when he does not save us in the way that we want, let bitterness overtake us. Or we can turn toward him – and do what the thief did: Worship him. See him in his truth. See what he went through, and why.

The New Kingdom is an invitation. To you and me, to know this King, to struggle with what he means for us, in the old language to conform our lives to his, to figure out how we live -
How we spend money, how we participate in all the uses of power in our lives,
How we love each other, how we treat each other.
The New Kingdom is an invitation to live in Christ Jesus, to embody this King – forgiving, gracious, and hopeful of Paradise.

Not a bad way to begin a new life – forgiving, gracious and hopeful of Paradise. Amen.

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On who we are to Christ the King

2010-11-19T09:49:00.004-06:00

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"Today I tell you you will be with me in Paradise"

Who is there in the kingdom?

The kingdom of those who have no other possession.

The kingdom that we enter (only) as we know we are dispossessed - leave behind the safety of possessions, leave behind the gratification of success, leave behind the conviction of health, security, 'okayness' - then and only then do we enter his kingdom - naked, solitary, ashamed - and honored.

Who will be there?

Bandits and thieves and failed revolutionaries, criminals who have been caught and humiliated, teenage prostitutes who cling to their pimps, the battered mother who loves and coddles her son, the fellow who bet it all on a great stock tip, the half-dead long-haired ex-con who can't get a job. And the banker and the lawyer and the priest and the lucky one who won the lottery.

When does this moment of the cross happen?

the cross moment happens every day - every day that life ends, or life begins.
Every day that joy is born and every day that joy is extinguished.
the cross moment is when we learn who we really are before the cosmos.
When we are small, or very big, or disappear - which is all the same.

Then we glimpse Paradise - not as a completed version of what we desire, but as the time we are fully known and will know fully.

Flannery O'Connor had it right. The Revelation is that all the Turpins - like me - who think they have it right, will only be on the way to Paradise when all is burned away. Entering the kingdom, on our way to Paradise, isn't anything like exaltation - it's life, burning through us, taking away, taking away, taking away.

I don't know how to preach this.
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Reformation Sunday

2010-11-02T16:08:00.002-05:00

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Reformation Sunday
“Slaves and Free” – JOHN 8:31-34

There were a lot of great things to see and hear in Germany. For each person, a trip like that holds particular memories. The City of Wittenberg is called one of the ‘LutherStadt” cities, recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site. There is a long mile street from Luther and Katie’s home to the Castle Church where Luther posted his 95 theses on the Eve of All Saints Day, October 31st. There is a short digression off the main street to St. Mary’s Church, which was the parish church for the city, the common church, the homely home for most of the people of Wittenberg. This was the church were Martin and Katie were married, where their children were baptized, where they made their spiritual home.

The church itself is nothing special. It is old, started in 1300 and finished a few years before Luther was born – and it has been re”muddled” many times, made modern in whatever fashion was in fashion, so the interior is not at all like the church of Martin and Katie’s days. Then there would have wood screens hiding the priest from the people. There would have been small chapels in the aisles for personal devotions. There would have been many statutes, many painted plaques remembering the gifts of the deceased. There would have been the smell of incense and the hovering sense of mystery – of the words of the Latin mass murmured far away from the worshiper, the raising of the host in its gilded holder. Only the priests would consume the wine, and only a few people would be considered holy enough to receive the bread. It was, after all, a medieval Catholic building.

But this is what grabbed me – here, in this place, this sanctuary, on Christmas Eve , the pastor of this church, who was named Johannes Bugenhagen, said the service in German, the language of the people, and offered communion to the people in bread and wine. In that place, for the first time in centuries, the people heard the words of the Holy Eucharist in their own language. In that place the mysteries were opened and while not less mysterious, all people, young and old, learned and illiterate, men and women, were invited into the mystery at the heart of our faith.

Jesus says: “if you continue in my word … you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” As Christians we struggle with this question – what does it mean to be free, to live in the truth, and in the converse, in what ways are we not free, are we still slaves? In the time of Luther and Bugenhagen, at that moment in St. Mary’s Church – the question of slave and free was deeply important.

The first slavery was the influence of false teaching – the notion that people could buy off the consequences of their sins without true repentance, confession and reformation of life. The established church would allow the viewing of relics to substitute for change in life, for responsibility. The objection to this is the beginning of Luther’s actions with the 95 statements.
But there was a deeper slavery, a more fundamental disease that existed then and now that Luther and his colleages struggled with. It was ignorance – ignorance of the depth and width of Jesus’ Word – of the whole intention of God’s plan and promise – the ignorance of the Gospel itself.

When Jesus says: “The truth will set you free” his listeners protest – wait , we are free, we are born free, we are not in slavery to anyone or anything. They are essentially saying – what do you mean – we are okay just as we are. “We are okay just as we are.”

Let that echo for a minute – We are okay just as we are. Does that sound familiar? That assertion – I’m okay – I don’t know about you, but I’m just fine – that attitude is the same 2000 years ago, and in Luther’s time, and in ours. It is an on-going stance of the human condition. Those who point it out get into trouble – Parent, don’t correct that behavior, because you won’t be your kids’ friend anymore. Ecologist – don’t remind us we are wasting the world’s resources, polluting the planet, changing the weather. Social reformer – don’t suggest that we can share the wealth, so that no one goes hungry. Pastor, don’t preach about sin, you’ll hurt someone’s feelings. Don’t ask for a commitment, because you’ll be going against culture, and only be disappointed.

And, if you read all of John chapter 8 – you’ll find that Jesus is in this exact situation – he is using the language of slaves to sin, and no one wants to hear him – they want to kill him.

“The truth will set you free.” is a message that was true in Jesus’ time and the time of the Reformation and in our time. And the people – all of us, we are no different – we reply with the same blind perspective. In some way we respond with ‘We are descendents of Abraham’ – “I’m okay just as I am”

When I spoke about the Christmas Eve service at St. Mary’s in Wittenberg I said that the mysteries were opened up and all were invited in. There is a mystery at the heart of every Christian worship service. It is the mystery of our freedom, our true identity in Christ as beloved Children of the Divine.

The heart of the Gospel will always be a mystery – but it doesn’t need to be an unknown. Jesus desires us to know his Word, know his Truth, to know him. When we suggest that we are okay just as we are – we don’t need to learn more, don’t need to change, don’t need to repent – we are fundamentally at odds with the Gospel. The Gospel is always about change, change in the heart, right here. It is always about recognizing that we are slaves, slaves to sin, we are a community of slaves, struggling to be free.

That’s strong language, but it’s the only kind of language that I can find that reflects how strongly the Gospel Word should touch us.

We figure as we go through life, we have to go it on our own – we have a problem, we figure we’ll fix ourselves – be it through buying indulgences, or psychotherapy without prayer, or making tons of money, or spending tons of money, or drugs to dull our panic attacks, or giving our body away to another because we think that will make us loved somehow – you can name the situation – we go it on our own and the fix is always temporary, partial. We can eat well, and feel empty, we can be intimate and be alone, we can come to church, and not hear a thing, not feel a thing.

There is a mystery that dwells at the heart of every worship service, a mystery that near to each one of us. It is not far away, and not difficult. It isn’t a secret. It is a mystery. It is that Jesus Christ took care of our slavery already. It is that the price was paid. The way out of prison is right here.
The race to be independently found worthy is over. We don’t have to be okay just as we are. We aren’t supposed to be okay just as we are. The Gospel is fundamentally about change. We are called to be better. We are called to be justified, make right, approved, blessed, identified as Children of God, better than anything we can do on our own.

The truth will set you free. Free to change. Free to turn away from unproductive habits, from self-satisfaction, from fruitless fixes that never last. Free from fear that you are faking it, free from always striving to present a good face.

Free for living – choosing healthy ways to relate to others, free for self-respect, free for compassion for others, free for worshiping in thanks and praise. Free from selfishness, ready to step out and give up a little for others, for God, for God’s mission.

500 years ago, the world was reminded that God’s Truth, the Word of Jesus, could not be purchased, was not to be held back, but was a treasure that could be, should be shared, opened, consumed and praised. Let us praise and worship and give thanks, that in Christ alone, we are free.
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a tale of two men

2010-09-01T08:05:00.002-05:00

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Proper 18C, September 5, 2004 St. James

Philemon 1-20, Luke 14:25-30

My husband knows I love the small things. Literally - I love little vases, little icons, little boxes. Somehow in the artistry of a small thing I can sense the wonder of the greater thing - the artist and his work.

That is why I tell stories - sometimes the smallest of incidents can tell us more than a wealth of data. I can bore you to tears with a lecture on the effects of the atonement on the life of the Christian Community, or I can tell you a story. Which would you rather hear?

So, there were two men - one was named “affectionate” and the other one “useful.”

The names fit them, for Affectionate had become a person of great love. This was not easy for him, to become a person of great love. It was hard, because in his time, men were not encouraged to be loving toward others. It was a time when there were very strict rules about who one spoke to and how, about who one ate with, who one could have as a friend.

Affectionate had had a life-transforming encounter, not that long ago. He had turned away from his old life, a life that, as far as we could tell, was involved in shallow relationships with many gods, to a life that involved acceptance of the love of One God. A man had come to his city, and preached about the saving life and death and resurrection of Jesus.

This apostle had convinced, convicted, Affectionate and his family, and they were baptized, and they believed.

Affectionate committed his life to Christ, and worshiped in the Name of Christ. In fact, he had offered his home for the meetings of the Christ-worshipers in his town.

And in this he was living up to his name - Affectionate.

But as a man of his time and place, Affectionate still had some blind spots. And one blind spot was the role of people of different classes - slaves and masters. Affectionate was of the class of the masters, and to him a slave was a slave, a thing, a piece of property, a something to do what it was told - not a person, not a soul, not human being to be free in Christ.

And Useful - remember Useful?, was his slave.

Useful was a good name for a slave, for a slave was first and foremost to be of use. To serve and to do his job and to be invisible. Which may be why, when the apostle first came and spoke to Affectionate and his family, when they all came to believe in Christ, why this slave still fought against his bonds, remained angry and did not know Christ in his heart.

Useful, perhaps dimly understanding that what his master said about forgiveness and new life and freedom did not match up with his actions, ran away. He stole from his master, and he ran away.

The existence of a runaway slave is dangerous. He could be caught at any time, by anyone, for a reward. He could be beaten, maimed, killed.

So where did Useful run? We don’t know for sure how he got there, but he ended up with the apostle. The Apostle who had preached about the saving work of Jesus Christ, who had converted and baptized his master and his master’s family. Useful ended up being useful to the Apostle, who was in prison. Maybe Useful ran errands for him, maybe he went to work and earned money to buy them both food and necessities.

The Apostle in prison and the runaway slave became close. Useful found his heart transformed in the love of Christ. He believed.

And time passed. The Apostle knew that this person, this man, whom he loved like a son, who shared his ministry, who worked side by side with him, who demonstrated the love of Christ in his life and work - was a wanted man, had committed a crime, had stolen, had run away from his master.

There was still this gap, this division, between Affectionate and Useful - between a slave and his master, between two men who had both been wronged. Affectionate would see Useful as a runaway and a thief, as someone who had hurt his pride, his pocketbook and his honor. Useful would always see Affectionate as the one who held him in bondage, who degraded and dehumanized him.

The Apostle knew that this grand canyon stood in the way of the Gospel. This estrangement meant than neither Affectionate nor Useful was truly free in Christ - they were still caught up in the past, in the anger, in the betrayal, in the memories of their life together. And as they were caught in these emotions and thoughts they could never be the apostles they were called to be.

So the Apostle wrote a letter and he sent Useful back to Affectionate with the letter. He did not ask that Useful repent - He did not ask that Affectionate apologize. He did something different in that letter, the letter that we still have, we still read. We read that letter today.

The Apostle said: My dear friend and brother, Affectionate, or Philemon, I love you. And I am I sending you someone who is now my very heart, my son, Useful. I know you have a history with him, but for the sake of the love you have for me, and for the love you have been given in Christ Jesus - love him.

The apostle refuses to take sides. He will not argue anyone’s case. He is not going to go over the past. He will not accuse Affectionate of being such a bad master that the slave risked his life to get away. He will not accuse the slave of being such a rebel that he sunk to theft. He stands between them, with his arm outstretched and his love around them both. And this is not a cheap plan - not just ‘forgive and forget’ - this is something much deeper and wiser.

This is the crucial thing, he takes up the cost of the reconciliation in himself. “if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.”

That is, welcome him not as a slave at all, but as an honored guest, the most honored one possible, the guest who brings the Good News of Christ. Do not hold the crime against Useful, rather assign the theft - the value of the gold or jewels, the humiliation, the anger, all the consequences of the crime - not to Useful, whom we know as Onesimus. No, assign them to Paul, the Apostle. Charge him with the crimes, he will take the punishment.

He stands between them like Christ - arms outstretched - outstretched in love, in embracing, outstretched on the cross. He stands between them as Christ, saying, between the lines, as Christ says in our Gospel - yes, this is costly, for both of you -

it is costly to give up anger,

it is costly to see someone who hurt you in a new light,

it is costly to put the Gospel before all else.

There is a cost to discipleship, there is a cost to following Christ. There is a cost to reconciliation. And as Onesimus and Philemon learn -

That cost is borne by Jesus Christ.

That cost is seen every week on the Altar.

That cost is learned every day in our hearts.

Be reconciled. Charge the cost of the crime to Christ, and be reconciled.

Be reconciled to one another, and so fulfill the love Christ has for you.

Amen.
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waiting

2010-07-08T10:13:00.002-05:00

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Summer is usually the time of fullness, of rest, of long lazy days and hours open to reading, crafts and projects. Time to get things done on my own schedule.

But now I'm waiting. Waiting on other people's issues - not able to blog, or speak, or reveal these issues. But now I wait. It's a stop and start process - a little today, then another date, then another. (And no, this isn't in any way, shape or form a work issue). (And it's not a health issue either).

And in the middle, in the interior mental space, such a desire to take action, to do something, to tell someone off, to clarify boundaries, to correct the situation. However, my inability to correct means something - that this is a situation that needs prayer, that need love.

I've prayed a lot - and nothing much changes. Prayer doesn't change the situation or the other person. Prayer only changes me. Right now, allows me to wait.
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things that drive me . . .

2010-07-02T10:27:00.002-05:00

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fill in the blank
I can't rest when . . .

I've lost my planner.
I have an overdue library book.

It's the second. I have an overdue library book and I can't for the life of me figure out where it has gone.

Boy, am I a goody-two-shoes!

it was there a month ago. and then it wasn't. I renewed it figuring it would show up. But it has not. There are only so many places that a book can hide. But there must be more places.

Just a tad obsessive, no?
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traveling light

2010-06-26T11:48:00.002-05:00

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I've been thinking ever since we saw 'Up in the Air' last week. I found the film moving because it was not inspirational. No happy ending. It's a very modern take on life, meaning and superficiality. Because it's not manipulative, it would be a great film for a deep discussion about what really matters.

This sermon comes out of that reflection, and out of spending time with this cranky Jesus. At the second service on Sunday, we don't have bulletins with the text in them - I'll have to slow down and ask folks to turn pages - we'll see how that will go. Such 'bible-study' sermons have been requested, this is the second one I've found a way to incorporate the request. My concern is that some people will appreciate the 'please turn to the Bible' part, but others will just tune out. Confirmation students always tune out when they hear that phrase, so I've discarded it from my teaching.

'Traveling light'
June 27, 2010, Proper 8 – Luke 9:51-62, Galatians 5:13-25

I wish I could show you a clip from a movie. This film is George Clooney’s “up in the air’ (not to be confused with ‘Up’) – it’s about a man whose life is perfectly stripped down to the essentials – he spends hours traveling for his job as a professional ax-man – he fires people for companies who don’t have the guts to do it themselves. He comes in – delivers the bad news – looks at them so sincerely and recites the appropriate script. Then he flies to the next job. He has a goal – to collect 10 million miles, to have the gold (not fake gold, real goal) frequent flier card. He has a complete system for getting around – everything has to fit into one carry-on suitcase. Clooney’s character, Ryan Bingham is lased-focused, so intent on living this life that he has nothing else.
He is saddled with a young woman – to show her the ropes. She is not traveling light – at her first airport check in – she appears dragging a huge, hard sided suitcase. Clooney’s character promptly makes her re-pack into a modern carry-all – and in the process they discard all her comforts – her extra outfits, her extra shoes and even her pillow. During the course of the film we see these two characters trying to figure out what is essential for their lives – what things, what dreams, even what emotions and relationships are necessary.

Jesus is doing the same thing in these passages. He’s on the final leg of his ministry – he knows this. He has turned toward Jerusalem – the city that stones the prophets and where he knows he will face his greatest trial. So he’s heading out. And he’s traveling light. He’s laser-focused on what is to come.

Say here, go the disciples, Jesus, these villagers dissed us – they would not welcome you – should we set them up for fire and pillage? (It is interesting that James and John would figure they had the ability to command fire from heaven – a bit of overkill, maybe?) And Jesus rebuked them – and when on. He’s not getting into that fight – he’s not about retribution for old animosities – he’s not starting up the argument between Jews and Samaritans – that’s an old battle – that’s behind him physically and mentally – that’s not what is important. Focus – Jerusalem – the coming moment.

And so on the march – Jesus, the twelve, and all the others, who love him and have formed a community, on the march. And they meet others, who are drawn by the message and signs and the wonders and the hope. “I will follow you” a man cries with fervor. “Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Throw away that pillow – something is going on that is not comfortable, not easy, not expected. This is not a trip in relaxed stages; this is not a quick trip to a Club Med – all inclusive, all the trimmings. This is a long walk – remember it’s done by walking, it’s carrying your own load, it’s being part of an army on the march.

And Jesus invites another – “You there – you long for this – come and follow me.” But family and responsibilities enter into the equation – into the response itself. Not yet, not now – maybe someday – when father, mother, boss, spouse, children, friends, society, - when the question “what do the others think of me?” doesn’t matter – then, then I can follow fully – be on the way – accept the hardships, be part of the fellowship. (Sigh)

Jesus answers: “let the dead bury their own dead. You are called to proclaim.” Not someday, but now. Not somewhere else, but here. And so it goes – “I only want to say farewell, to tie up loose ends.” And Jesus is not particularly pastoral, if you think being pastoral means being nice. He makes a judgment on who is FIT for the kingdom – for whose devotion, whose speed of response, whose focus makes the grade.

What are we to make of this? Jesus is focused – focused on his destination, on Jerusalem – he’s not letting anything get in his way – not old religious conflicts, not the hardship of the journey, not wistfulness for a golden age gone by or concern about the feelings of others. He’s like that laser – aimed in at one spot. And to be that way – he is releasing all those things. He’s traveling light. And in this story we are hearing, I think there’s a message for us.

We desire to be like Jesus. We desire to walk in the way. But we want this commitment on our own terms. We are like those men and women who come up to him in this snippet – I hear your invitation, I will follow you. And Jesus, Jesus, pushes even more – he’s got a full-on focus. It’s all for the kingdom. THAT’s where we have problems.

Our reading from Galatians 5 helps show the way. In this passage Paul draws a picture in light and dark, Spirit and flesh, right and wrong – yes, categories we want to deny these days – we live in the gray, we think. But look at Paul’s words at Galatians 5:19-21– the works of the flesh are obvious – and there’s a long list: the first three are about disastrous sexual conduct, the second pair are about turning our lives over to other consuming interests, then a long set of issues about living in anger, and finally using substances and parties to dull ourselves. And again, we have a warning that people who are living this way are not FIT for the kingdom of God.

So, there are ways of living that make us not fit for the kingdom of God. There are attitudes that Jesus doesn’t want to have on the road with him. If you put your hand to the plow and look back – if you want to travel with Jesus, Jesus is saying – travel light. Paul is saying ‘give up that which doesn’t satisfy, but only pulls you back into selfishness and war, turn away from all those things that confuse you, that eat at your peace of mind.’

And, he gives an alternative: living by the Spirit. (v. 22-25) The Spirit, which we don’t make, we don’t possess and we don’t control – the Spirit, which is all gift – moves in us to lighten our burden, to open our hearts, to teach us how to live. The Spirit of God – is what allows us to – yes – to put our hands to the plow and not look back. To not be so consumed with what others think of us that we can’t find our place on the journey road.

To not be sidetracked by old angers and fights. If anything is practical in these lessons – if there is a takeaway here--it is that to hold on to anger – “call down fire upon them,” to engage enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, dissensions, factions, envy (more words than any other in the list) – to hold on to anger, to be unforgiving, to be that person who will not work at finding a solution – is to have an attitude that is contrary to the kingdom of God. Look at the list of the fruits of the Spirit – these are qualities of letting go – letting go of anger, letting go of the need to be satisfied, yes, even letting go of the past. Crucifying part of ourselves – putting our hand to the plow and not looking back.

We don’t do it on our own. It’s the Spirit, and only the Spirit, that makes us FIT for the kingdom, for traveling light through this life. It’s the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of church and community, of study and friendship that pulls us into this journey, that supports us during this journey and that will guide us to the end of the journey. Ask that Spirit into your life – place those things that trouble you in front of it – and learn to travel light. Amen.
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off to see

2010-06-22T16:49:00.002-05:00

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Well, sometimes things go well. I won two tickets to the Wizard of Oz for Friday. We have such a long stretch of nothing special to do this summer - and now we have a treat!

Let's see. There's the Ren Faire in Bristol - still to be scheduled.
I have a couple of Saturday's off. That's about it.

Don't ya love the ministry?
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school of slowing down

2010-05-29T13:28:00.001-05:00

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I was just about ready to jump up and do stuff - vacuum, laundry, bills, print out the sermon, etc., etc., when I was joined by the cat. He possessed himself of my lap and purred. Slow down. It's okay. be loved.
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my sink runneth over

2010-05-08T12:41:00.001-05:00

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Yes, I am handy-woman! After months of living with a stuck bathroom sink stopper, I had enough energy and interest to get a pair of pliers, stick my head under there and figure out what was wrong.

I even went to the Re-store and found the right size pivot sticky-thing in the bin of various parts. And I replaced it. The sink leaks a little, but I'm pretty proud of myself. I can always just superglue the old cottage cheese container under the leak. (just kidding). Now I have to find plumber's tape, undo the connection, but the tape on and tighten it all up again.

Thank goodness for Google and diy sites.
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headsets

2010-05-05T09:34:00.002-05:00

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I don't get the handsoff headsets. I've been on the other side of this too often.
"You talkin' to me?"

That's all folks.
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finished finally

2010-05-02T19:01:00.003-05:00

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No, I'm not finished - just tired. The big 'rummage-bake-book-brat-auction' event for Haitian Earthquake relief is finished. We raised something in the thousands of dollars, full figures will arrive later in the week.

We had a great and huge crew of people working. Lots of folks gave three hours or so, and some real athletes spent days. I think I worked at least 30 hours in the last 4 days just one that, and about 10 hours on regular work. I'm just beat, but it was fun. I'm sure I'm in better shape now, with all the running from one end of the gym and inside and outside

I'm just sorry I didn't get many photos.

I preached today from notes, quite loosely, on love and aspagarus. Jesus commands love, which seems strange to us because we think of love as an emotion that cannot be forced, however Jesus was thinking of love as a deep consideration that comes from commitment between people.

When we moved here 10 years ago we were excited to find two aspargus plants, but they had been neglected. We regularly snap off the shoots, and the plants have yielded more. Aspargus takes commitment, and the more you harvest the more you get. But it takes years, and that's the kind of committed love Jesus was thinking of. Love that sticks it out for years, that knows that others laid the ground work, and believes that the more you harvest, the more love there will be.

And, to top it off, it's a beautiful, beautiful day. I hope to sleep well tonight.
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In Lazarus' house

2010-03-20T17:16:00.002-05:00

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Elements from a sermon on John 12

Let’s think about this for a minute. If we didn’t know what the author John tells us, if we didn’t know how the story continues through the next week of Jesus’ life – would we think so harshly of Judas’ comment? The mission to the poor – is this a bad thing?

I find a theme running deep through all the lessons of this Lent. It is not what we usually concentrate upon.
It is the theme of the one who stands outside not ready to be fully with Jesus.
It is the story of the interaction of Jesus and those close to him who don’t get it
– who are almost ready to accept his radical, impossible understanding of the grace of God – but who don’t or can’t quite come to embrace it.

We hear of Jesus mourning over the city of Jerusalem – wishing to cover them with his wings like a mother hen, and they will not. (2nd Lent) We have the tree for which the gardener pleads for time (3rd Lent). We hear about the younger, forgiven brother, and the elder brother, standing outside in the dark, looking in (4th Lent).

And now, this scene in Lazarus’ house – the party gathered of Jesus closest companions – probably the twelve, since Judas is present, but also Lazarus, back from the dead – Martha, the hostess, and Mary, the prophet of Jesus’ own death through her beautiful, extravagant, expensive gesture. All gathered at this moment of quiet before great things may happen. Jesus will enter Jerusalem the next morning.

He will be in the midst of the city that will reject him,
with the Pharisees he’s been reaching out to for three years,
in the Temple he has visited, studied and worshipped in his whole life – and which he knows will not stand.

And right there, while Mary uses burial ointment on his feet, washes his feet with her hair and her tears – prepares him for his burial – right there –
one of his own chosen still stands outside,
still lacks recognition of the great sacrifice about to be made –
still tries to control the events with criticism and righteousness.
He can’t come to understand what is going to happen to Jesus next –

That Jesus traded his life for that of his friend Lazarus –
because Lazarus was raised from the dead – Jesus must go to his death.
That despite, or because of the acclamation that will happen on the next day
– Jesus is not entering Jerusalem as a king to be crowned,
but as a hostage to Satan and death.

And there is love in each one of those stories – love for the outsider, love for the tree, for the wild children of the city, for the elder brother – even for Judas. There is love for the outsider, the hard case, the resister all the way to the end –
“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

And the lesson for us? It isn’t new. We have heard it before. It’s that we are saved by Christ alone, as St. Paul reminds us. All our own righteousness is rubbish, trash, worthless. That is what Mary of Bethany knew, and Judas did not. That graceful gift of forgiveness was what the younger son received, and the older brother was offered.

Judas and the Older Brother represent all our good works – our programs to help the poor, in essence are all those good things we do or desire to do. All that good stuff we want to be proud of – our mission trips, mission events, our pretty buildings, our numbers, our right-ness.

Remember all that St. Paul says about himself – all checkmarks on the good smart Jewish boy list? We all have lists like that – and Jesus looks at Mary of Bethany – who is totally outside the box – and approves her gesture of worship.

For that is what she does – she worships, and through worship she has included herself in the action of Christ’s cross.

Jesus goes to the cross to bring us closer to the Father’s heart,
to open a way for our hearts to worship in spirit and in truth.
He extends a hand to us, and to all who struggle with being good enough, right enough.
He extends a hand to us – and we are joined in worship of this act itself.

Worship first, and worship forever. Jesus goes to the cross for the sake of our hearts.
Our service to the poor will happen, our programs will continue, our good deeds will multiply when Jesus is first, when Jesus is Lamb, when Jesus has made us his own.

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prodigal

2010-03-12T11:07:00.002-06:00

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This Sunday's lection is the story of the two sons and the father. Remove the word prodigal to remove the usual associations - who is the runaway, who is the generous one, who is the keeper of the standards.

Given my family situation, this is a very hard parable to exegete and to preach upon. It's too close to home. Should parents really be like the father in this story - so ready to rejoice at the appearance of the lost one? Our son has been sleeping on the floor in the back bedroom. He wants a room of his own again. Is it grace to grant that? Or are we then approving his choices, and setting ourselves up for manipulation, and abuse, and disappointment?

Jesus often thinks in terms of the end times. This passage from Luke tends to be seen in the present time. If it is an end-time parable, does that make a difference? When the world is falling apart, when all the resources are gone, when their is a famine, and even one's terrible 'just-a-job' doesn't supply enough to live on - then return home, because home is where, when you go there, they have to take you in.

What are we, am I, missing in the concept of 'son-ness' that is restored to the wayward child, and affirmed in the stay-at-home? And through the arc of the parable, offered to the listeners? What is this 'son-ness' identity? It is acceptance, love, support, celebration. It is God's preferential option for the sinner - the full-out, messy, messed-up sinner - over the cautious and careful working brother. And yes, it feels wrong when put that way.

As parents, we aren't really playing the part of the father - though we feel the father's pain at the loss of his son - we are playing the part of the elder brother, because we can not forget. The Father forgets and lives in the moment - Now my son is home! Now let's party! Now! Not thinking about the past injuries or future complications. That's the end-time sneaking in - because if there is no future except the fullness of the reign of God - there isn't really any reason to worry about reparations for the past.

Elder brothers must plan and know and expect the worst. They remember the past, and think about the future. They live before the end of time, and expect tomorrow to come, and have learned that the past can predict the future. Trust is an issue that has a temporal dimension - and this brother doesn't trust that wayward one. The past will repeat. Hurt will happen. So forgiveness and celebration - how can they happen?

Only if the elders find the reflect the joy of the Father. Only if they accept the invitation to the party. What does that look like? To say, today we celebrate, and tomorrow doesn't matter? To live in the acceptance of this person, enjoy his presence, and ask for nothing?

I really wish I was not preaching Sunday.
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big question

2010-03-06T14:05:00.002-06:00

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Well, a reworked older one. This is one of those that needs to be preached carefully - lots of precisely chosen words, as my hubby says.

Lent 3C, - March 7, 2010 PLC – after March 14th, 2004
Luke 13:1-9

Jesus did not have access to the internet, or to newspapers or radio or television. But he certainly wasn’t isolated from the realities of his time. He could have had one of our newsmagazines open in front of him this week. Building collapsing,earthquakes and natural disasters, war and dangerous dictactors abound.

The stories we hear in Lent set us upon the road to learn two things: to learn who God is, and who we are. Here we have teaching on both fronts: We learn about God, we learn about ourselves.

When did you come to that point in your life that you sought for an answer to the Big Question? What disaster or personal sorrow got you to that point? The Big Question, of course, is WHY? Why do people suffer? Why have I been hurt? Even worse, why do people I love suffer? Or we may phrase it as: Why do those who seem innocent suffer? We empathize and ask this question even about strangers, about those caught in earthquakes, and about those we know, who struggle with illness and death so close to us.

In some way this is the human question - this is the question that makes us human, that defines our humanity as compassion, sympathy, empathy, love for the other. If we did not ask why, and if we could not express that distress that these situations create in our hearts - we would not be human. Or, let us call it compassion, for others, of our creation at the hands of a loving God. If we are distressed at the sufferings of others, we must be echoing something of our creator. When we submerge or deny our compassionate response - we then have lost something - some part of the image of God in ourselves.

We learn that the big question - the question we ask as soon as we come to that moment of realization – “why do people suffer?”is a God question and an us question.

The people who came to Jesus, with the example of Galileans who were killed by the Roman governor, apparently as they were offering their sacrifices to God, desired Jesus to make a judgment upon those Galileans. How do we deal with this Big Question?

There were three Biblical strategies to respond to suffering. The first was to assert that Bad Things happen to Bad People. This was the thought behind much of the prophetic writing - repent of your authentically evil ways in order to avert disaster. And when disaster would come - when the enemy would finally batter down the gates and destroy the city - then obviously, one worked backwards - it was in response to the evil in that city.

The problem with this way of thinking is: what about those who did repent? What about those who did not participate in the sins the prophets were decrying? What about the children, the poor, the widows? What about times when there is repentance and disaster still comes? No, this way of thinking leaves much to be desired.

The second way of answering the Big Question is Bad Things happen to Good People - and God is testing your faith in his sovereign might and mystery. We still use this one at times - but it can ring very hollow, when the evil that is experienced doesn’t teach anything, doesn’t enlighten us or anyone.

And then there is the third option: Bad things, and Good things, happen to everyone. It’s what you do with your life that counts.

When these folks came to Jesus and asked him - what is your judgment on these Galileans - killed by the Romans - did they deserve it? Jesus replies: “What? Do you think that we can tell, because they were killed because of politics, that these were worse sinners than anyone else? You know you can’t say that these men are worse sinners.” They were asking for Option 1) Bad things happen to Bad People.
“Here, I will give you another example - there were 18 men killed when the tower fell on them - were they greater sinners? Of course you would say no, because they were “innocent” of sin, it was an accident.” Now the expectation is that Jesus will offer Option 2) Bad Things happen to Good People, and that’s God’s will.

But Jesus, knowing that this question (Why do people suffer) is as much about our heart as it is about God’s will in the world - talks about Option 3 - Bad things (and good things) happen to everybody - it’s what you do with your life that counts. It’s who you are before God - no matter what happens to you, to your loved ones or in the world - that counts.

So, he says, twice: No, it is not that these were worse sinners than those who are still alive - what is critical is that you repent, because you will perish as they did - you will perish without repentance, you will perish without establishing your righteousness with God. For Jesus, that is the tragedy here, that is the warning to all who hear him.

So we hear of the unproductive fig tree with the impatient owner. Shall it be cut down immediately? Or shall it be granted the grace, the free gift, of time, time to become fruitful? Time to be cultivated, nurtured and loved into bearing the fruit it was meant to bear?

This where Jesus desires us to stand. When we hear the news of the day, we are not to deny our compassionate response to the world around us,
and not jump to immediate judgment on wickedness or goodness
- but we are to take what we learn to heart.
We are to understand that we are the fig tree - beloved of the gardener, who is Christ - who is ready to nurture us into bearing the fruit of God’s love. AMEN.
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spiritual reality

2010-03-06T13:50:00.001-06:00

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I’ve been talking a lot about ‘spiritual reality’ these days. I find it necessary to remind myself and others that we believe there is a reality to our spiritual lives, our spiritual needs and our spiritual existence. And understanding that that reality is real is in danger these days. You see, I believe that our cultural world really doesn’t know that we are spiritual being. We are physical being, fashionable beings, sport-fan beings. We are economic agents, consumer agents, and controllers of our health through exercise, diet and habits. We are acknowledge to have lives of the mind, to learn, to study and even to contemplate the universe, but not too seriously, please. We can be philosophers, but not spiritual.

But do we have spirit? Can there we any way we speak about spirit as a real dimension of our total being any more?

(We might ask - what is spirit? I am thinking about the connection with the divine being - in a good Lutheran framework - the part of me that relates to the law (is convicted of sin) and the part of me that embraces the good, great gift of grace (knowing I am loved in a profound way by the divine). So being a spiritual being recognizes that conscience is connected with something beyond or more than societal standards. So being a spiritual being recognizes that ‘self-esteem’ at the deepest level has more to do with the divine acceptance than familial, societal or cultural dynamics.)

The usual “I’m spiritual, but not religious” stance becomes pretty pale and anemic against the Biblical and churchly spirituality of the past. For myself, I know that I’m not just referring to the ‘spiritual’ values of peacefulness or serenity (or acceptance or ‘love’) when discussing Paul’s letter to the Corinthians with bible study. Paul is thinking and pressing for transformation, real changed behavior and hard choices to be made by that church. He sees the issues as ‘spiritual’ - important for salvation.

And for him, the only important arena is ‘spiritual’ - the arena of the right divine-connectedness. All those other dimension of life - sexual, economic, liturgical, judicial that he comments on are relativized by this concern for the ‘divine-connectedness.’
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2010-03-06T13:40:00.002-06:00

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I haven't posted much recently. Life seems to move so fast through the winter. That may be because I was busy, but it may also be a function of being in the winter mode. Winter mode is quieter, less reflective, internall more passive. When I went back to the journals I kept regularly in my teens and twenties - there would often be a hiatus between January and March. And in March my mind would pick up again. (to the side there is a picture of a maple syrup tap - that's me)

This year there has been additional worry with an illness in my extended family, staff changes and re-alignment.

And I started a new program toward my master's degree in counseling. It's at night and on weekends with some on-line options. For me a lot is review right now - but very interesting. I'm becoming more conscious of my own prejudices and habits. Today I have a 17 min. interview to transcribe and analyze, a 5 page paper to write and two chapters to read. But the term is going fast, and will be over at Easter. Then a short on-line course and back to real-life courses in summer, I hope.

I don't even know if I can finish the degree, which requires two terms of 20/hour/wk placement. Don't know how I'll pull that off.
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listening in the car

2010-02-17T22:16:00.002-06:00

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really enjoying 'Agent Zigzag" by Ben Mcintyre. Fascinating.

Loved Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson. She reads her own books and she is hilarious.

I'm only listening fun books during the commute.
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back again

2010-02-14T18:08:00.002-06:00

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I haven't blogged for a while - things have been fine, but busy. I am now a student in the Masters in Counseling program through Lakeland college. I admit I snuck in under the wire, without much thought about it, but one day in December I found myself thinking, I can do that.

Lakeland is located about 60 miles away, but operates a satellite campus right between work and home. There's nothing on tv anymore and I can only amuse myself with computer games and knitting so much. That's not the whole story, of course. And one would think I wasn't busy enough.

When the eagle and I took the Family-to-family course through NAMI last fall, we committed to freeing up our Thursday nights. The course was good, but even better was the fact I had said 'this is for me' and nothing (except wedding rehearsals) kept me from that class - I told the various councils and committees I just wasn't available.

(although I got teased today about being absent last Thursday - and for the one teasing - I think there was some bite).

And not being available didn 't hurt anyone and didn't hurt me, so I'm taking a Thursday night class and a Saturday morning class, and hoping I can keep up with the schoolwork when Lent starts. I'm taking 6 credits now, and want to take 2 credits on line after Easter. I'll take 6 credits in the summer, but skip fall since we're going to Germany.

I don't even know if I can finish this program, because they tend to have the same classes on the same night, and I don't get Wednesdays too free. Eventually I'll have to do a 20-hour/week practicum. Sabbatical anyone?

I believe it will help me work on my skills, my perceptions, challenge me and most importantly for me right now - give me an arena for thought outside of the congregation. (I'll never be outside the church!)
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that thing

2010-01-15T11:54:00.003-06:00

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You know the classic thing - write a letter and then put it away and do not send it?

It works.

Was up restless last night with the memory of being discounted in my head. Wrote it all down and saved it on the computer.

This morning - well, I really was whining. Not worth losing sleep over, really. And not the way I want to appear to anyone, not only the person to whom I directed the missive.

So it will stay between God and me.

God knows why I was so disturbed. And God certainly helped me not make a public fool of myself. I do that often enough.
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Great Expectations

2010-01-09T10:56:00.001-06:00

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The Baptism of the Lord C, January 9/10, 2010.
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 “Great Expectations”

You all know the story of the Cat in the Hat? It’s a terrible story, really, about these latch-key kids and an strange intruder with all sorts of strange ideas. The Cat’s idea of play gets wilder and wilder until the house is trashed, a mess, a horrible scene. The only sane voice is the fish – and when the fish talks to you – you know you are in trouble.

The fish reminds us that there will be a judgment, a reckoning , a taking stock of what we have been entrusted with. The children were trusted to be home alone – and now, now, Mother is coming – you can see her shoe through the window.

That was the terrible tension in the story, always for me. I always worried that the children would be caught and in trouble. Even when I knew how it ended.

It ends with Grace, because the Cat himself becomes the instrument of putting things back together.

I thought about this story, because we hear about ‘expectations’ in the Gospel lesson – we hear about the expectations that God is going to come – the Messiah is going to appear, much like Mother almost appears at the end of the Cat in the Hat.

Great Expectations – That’s what struck me when I read this story from the Gospel – the people had great expectations about John the Baptist and the coming actions of God. In their hearts they were questioning whether John was the Messiah. Interesting, they were convinced that the Messiah was coming – just not who the Messiah was or how it would happen.

So John, with all his strange behavior – living as a hermit in the wilderness, and for all his strange and harsh preaching about the judgment to come – John was in the running to be the Messiah.

That’s a great expectation, for sure. Could you be following the One, could repenting for your sins and getting baptized by John protect you from the coming wrath? John was pretty strong stuff, after all. But John the Baptizer had another role, another understanding of what he was there to do.

“I can baptize you with water – to mark your repentance – but someone else is coming, someone more powerful than I, with intentions to harvest the best – to test with fire and Spirit. “

Strong stuff. Winnowing and sifting, separating the chaff from the good grain. My husband, the old farm-boy – did you know that he grew up pushing cows around on an old-fashioned dairy farm? Ask him sometime about the old way of farming.

My husband commented that few people today would understand what winnowing was about. My research shows that winnowing the grain actually takes place inside the combine now – it is a hidden part of the process when that grain is taken into the machine and shaken.

In Jesus’ time it was a clear and obvious step in the process of getting good, clean grain. It was a necessary step, to move from the natural state of the wheat or barley – with its dried threads and covering – to first beat it – threshing or thrashing it, on a special threshing ground (the threshing floor), then throwing it up in the air for the lighter and looser waste to be blown away. It was hard, dusty and dirty – but necessary to get the good out.

That’s what John is promising – a process that will be dramatic in its rigor. Notice John is not saying this about himself – he is saying it about the One who is to come. He is saying it about the messiah of God. That one will be involved in a powerful movement with fire and wind and Holy Spirit.

It’s like the Mother coming back in the Cat in the Hat, you see – except I don’t think the Cat will magically correct everything that got messed up. The Mother will come, and that can make us anxious. John is about pointing the way to Jesus, and his vision is a difficult one.

So what is being winnowed and sifted and blow away?
Is it only the people of Israel – the people who are listening to John at the River Jordan?
Is it people in a group – some of whom will be cast out on the wind, and some who will be kept?
Or could it be that each one who comes to the water will face this process? Each one of us, could face this time of threshing, sifting, winnowing and removal of chaff?

If the Baptism of the Messiah – the one who is to come, is not just a moment in the life of a child – long ago for most of us - . If the baptism of the Messiah is really the start of our relationship with the Holy Spirit of God – then we should expect our lives to show it. Our expectations may not be about the end of the world – but we should have expectations that something will be different – in us.

John talks about a winnowing fork – a object that picks up the grain and tosses it high in the air, so that the lighter waste may blow away, and the good grain, which is heavy and meaty, falls to the ground.

Now some of you had had moments, even in the years I’ve been here, and certainly in the times before I came to work with you – when you’ve been tossed around by life. Maybe those are the times of threshing and winnowing by this Holy Spirit, the Spirit of honest love that comes to us in Baptism.

There have been times of stress and trial, times of doubt and grief, times of anxiety and times of repentance. There have been moments of hard decisions – of words that expressed our disappointments and struggles with each other – our families, loved ones, even the church.

There have also been, I’m sure, moments of joy and celebration – times when you felt you could commit to the best things in your life – to right relationships and honest work and excellent goals.

Are these the times when our chaff is blown away? Is this what John was telling us to expect?

Maybe these times, these hard times, these times of decisions, the times of celebration – are moments when the Holy Spirit – the spirit of fire and wind, the spirit of Jesus in love and in judgment – works most concretely in our lives.

I know, sometimes only when looking backwards, that the rough times, when I had the deepest struggles with other people, with myself and my dreams – is when the Holy Spirit was working in me to truly convict me of my sins, to point me in a new direction, to urge me to repair my relationship with God, and to start with a new attitude. And, in a lot of ways – that process never ends.

If the baptism of the Messiah is really the start of our relationship with the Holy Spirit of God – then we should expect our lives to show it. We are God’s children because he is our Father, and beloved of him – but like the children in the Cat in the Hat – we ought to be aware that he is also coming to ‘check us out’ – yes, to judge – and to make us more like him.

Great Expectations, indeed.
Great expectations of the Messiah – and of those who will follow that Messiah.

John’s words about the ‘One who is more powerful’ are frightening on the surface, but they are ultimately comforting, words of promise to those who trust and believe that Baptism is powerful event, an event extends to our whole lifetimes – birth and death and everything in between.

Welcome to water, fire and Spirit, says John, welcome to life, welcome to the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.

toward Sunday

2010-01-09T10:32:00.002-06:00

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I was struck by this part of the Working Preacher Blog by Roy Harrisville

John first replies to the expectations of the people by telling them that someone greater than he is coming. This message is shared by all three synoptic Gospels, but the reply concerning the threshing floor occurs only in Matthew and Luke. The Baptist mentions the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. Perhaps this is a reference to Pentecost in Acts 2. Perhaps it is a reference to Jesus' powerful life and teachings. The preacher may want to make the point that every baptism in the Lutheran church is a baptism of the Holy Spirit. That is why it is taken so seriously. It is a miracle each time it occurs.

The seriousness of baptism is made clear by the metaphor of the threshing floor. It is a discriminating rite. It is not an act that one may undergo lightly, but is linked to salvation in opposition to judgment. The Holy Spirit is not inclusive but excludes all unrighteousness and sin. Baptism is not a mere welcoming rite but a rite that signifies one's separation from evil. Any theology of judgment has fallen on hard times recently in favor of a softer and gentler message of peace and justice. But with justice comes judgment. It cannot be otherwise.

To ignore judgment leaves the preacher with no reason for preaching the gospel. It is not a matter of scaring people into heaven. It is a matter of revealing the need for salvation and why Jesus is so important. If he is only a common messiah who does what the people expect, then he is no use to us. But if, on the other hand, he is the Messiah who lays bare the pretenses and false expectations of the people and reveals their deep seated need for personal and inner transformation, then he is someone surprising and filled with ultimate and eternal meaning. For preachers to leave out the fire is to let go of the reason for the gospel and thereby cheapen the good news.

End of quote.

Now to get into the sermon in an accessible and coherent matter.

Cat in the Hat, here I come!
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food for thought

2010-01-08T15:22:00.003-06:00

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Just finished a thought provoking book, The Nurture Assumption, by Judith Harris. It proposes that parents are less influential on the personality and behavior of older children and adolescents than we tend to think (the 'assumption' of the title), and peer groups have more influence. Not that parents and adults have no influence on personality, but they have less power than the culture that children and adolescents share. And that culture is often coherent with the parent's culture, so kids turn out rather like their parents. But at times the culture of children and especially adolescents can be 'contrary' to parent's values - then we have the generational war.

She wrote this more than 10 years ago, and I certainly can see the generation gap growing in the last 10 years. This concept speaks to me on so many levels.

On the personal level, our son's choice of friends, which we didn't control, didn't intervene about, does seem to have done more to shape his current malaise than our values. He just didn't accept what we were showing/speaking/living out. He admits we weren't bad parents (at least when he's calm) and that we have shown him what it means to work hard, be brave during tough times and have a good relationship/marriage. He even says he wants those things for himself, but none of his friends or their families really are strong in those elements.

Harris suggests that the culture of the peers parents/'the neighborhood' has a lot to do with shifting values over generations. I think it is one of the pieces for DS's issues. Parents who act to control their children's friends, through careful attention to their schools, etc., are fighting a hard battle, but one that may pay off.

As an occasional teacher of adolescents, I found her analysis of 'groupness' very interesting. 'Groupness' is her term for the sense that individual have when they identify themselves as a group against some other group. For teens, the major overarching definition that they are not adults. Being 'not adult' means, even when they fall into smaller groups when they get together, they first recognize (sub-consciously, probably) a pressure to remain as a 'group' against the visible adults.

Ah - confirmation class. It IS us vs. them! People in the group that see themselves as the majority, but without power (confirmation students) will always desire to resist (as a group, not as individuals) the control of the group by the minority, more-powerful adults (confirmation teachers). Even learning, and accepting the values put forth by those adults (the curriculum and the behavorial standards) is resisted by the pressure of 'groupness.'

This is what I fear I have learned. In America, we no longer use adolescence as a period for 'training' to be an adult in any real sense - there is no real life connection/valid skills/importance for real life (to the kids) for much of what we teach (especially in the church) - we have lost them before we start. Basically, we've had a 'liberal arts' approach to religious learning (it's good for you, it's fun (it was for me!), it just has to be done, and this is nothing you'll need to apply in real life), when maybe we should have a tech school approach (you will need this skill, focus on productivity, go out and do). We aren't doing anything that matters for the group.

All this doesn't mean that individual cases may be different. Yes, some kids love this learning, find it significant, find Jesus, live spiritually, etc. But look around, for each one that sticks, how many others are lost?

I don't know if I have any answers, just more questions. This raises so many issues for me, in the church, in the larger culture, in so many of the stories I heard.

Continuing to ponder.
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God's autobiography

2010-01-04T08:32:00.002-06:00

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This is a early draft, I rearranged some paragraphs and improved the ending.

Christmas 2C, Jan. 3, 2010
John 1:1-14 “God’s Autobiography”

It's good to be here. It really is. As some of you know, the last time I preached here was on the Sunday before Christmas. I was fine during the first worship service and during the coffee hour before hand – I chatted with folks as we were setting up for Spirit of Hope, and all was well until I started the children's message, and then I started to feel – odd. Like the world was spinning and I was swaying with it. Like I was on a carnival ride – the ones that go around really fast. I don't like those rides. I could not stand up.

And all I could do was sit down and put my head down and close my eyes. Turns out I had an episode of vertigo – which is defined as a sensation of spinning and swaying. I'm all right now. But as I was recovering I had all sorts of people worried about me, and for that I'm grateful.

I also did some research on what could have caused the episode – and I learned more about the anatomy of the ear. There are three parts – the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. Something probably was off in my inner ear. It's an extremely complex and delicate instrument in there – tiny canals and openings and spiraling structures and teeny, weeny hairs measuring every movement.

I was reading and looking at picutres and I said to myself – there is no way, no way, that this came about randomly – just no way. This beautiful and delicate instrumentation is inside of me. And inside of you, inside of all of us.

That is what it means to be flesh, to be made of matter, and to be a thinking being – to not only have these amazing bodies, these masterpieces of biology, but to know we have them. To be conscious of them. To know we are part of this organism and that we are so much more. We are our bodies and we are spirit, soul and mind. We are our bodies, and we are groups, families, teams and communities. We are our bodies and we are living through time in stories, making meaning or finding meaning. We are our bodies, and we are what we leave behind, legacies, books, buildings, relationships, grandchildren.

And we are part of communities that honor that and work to fix and heal what is wrong. To live with being flesh is to be in wonder, and in despair, too – for these bodies are also frail, will eventually fail, will no longer sustain life. To be a thinking person is to know this – all this truth – about each one of us.

So we are told God entered flesh. We are told that God, who created everything, who worked out the design of the inner ear, who is eternal and everywhere – chose to 'pitch his tent' among the species who stays aware of life and death, who lives to struggle with meaning of our fleshly existence. God, Almighty, Magnificent, the Lord, limited Godself to one man, one time, one language, one culture, one story.

The Gospel of John sets up it's unique way of telling the story of Jesus this way: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God.
This Word – capital W Word – is eternal, is one with God, is God's Word. (As much as the speech you hear right now is my word, part of me, given to you – so God gave his WORD away)

This is the intention of God that made the world – this Word – this spoken desire – this is the heart of the Creator. Without the WORD – capital W – nothing was made, came into being, was created. It is because of the WORD – capital W – that we have life, that we breathe, speak, wonder and learn.

And this Word – this desire of God – became flesh, like us. Had an inner ear, like us. Had a name – Jesus. Ate, had friends, walked, talked, struggled and suffered. Like us. Faced conflict, cruelty, pain, like us. Died like us. And more. Because he was the Word of God- the heart of the creator – in his life, his death and in what happened after he died – he showed what God desires.

“Yes, Jesus is God's autobiography - Jesus, is the Revealer of God. He communicates to us the thoughts, feelings, and desires of God. Yet, he doesn't just talk about what goes on inside God -- he is God. His life reveals God. In order to know God, one needs to look to Jesus, to listen to Jesus, to try and understand Jesus." (Brian Stoffregen) The Word – Jesus - reveals the creator of all.

And in this revelation – this autobiography – this great story – we find our story has greater meaning. Because Jesus lived – because Jesus taught – because Jesus suffered and died – because he arose from the grave and showed that this life of flesh is not all we are – our lives can be different – can be richer, shaped and formed into lives lived for others.

So, what difference does it make? That this thing happened? That this miracle – God taking up flesh – having a body like ours – once at least. What difference does it make?
That Big became little – that Great became weak – that Power came to know death?

For me – it has always meant that I am not alone. In these bodies, in these lives, in these relationships we are not alone. We not only have each other- we have someone who knows us even better than our mothers, our spouses, our dearest friends. We have someone who knows what it was like to have made us, and to live like us, and to be us. And that someone cares enough to invite me into his family – to be his child.

12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

That's the difference. That the God who created this realm of matter out of love – and who desires love back – offers to this part of his creation- human beings – his story of love. His autobiography of love. And through believing - we are part of that story – part of that movement.

It's a fleshy movement. It's a movement of people, like you and me, acting out God's story in a world of flesh and bone, money and agriculture, power and greed and evil and good. It takes flesh when we meet together here, when we have committee meetings and do good deeds and study and argue together. When we grieve together, when we rejoice together, when we eat together.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.

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Blessed

2009-12-26T14:07:00.002-06:00

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This was not what was preached - exactly. The manuscript never got to church with me - so I jumped onto the Holy Spirit trampoline and bounced. It seemed to go well at the 8:00 a.m. service.
Of course, I never got to it at the 10:30 - I heard Retired Pastor Friend go "I was listening to the sermon at the early service and it went like this . . ."

Advent 4C, Dec. 20, 2009
Luke 1 - the visitation and Magnificat

“Blessed” We don’t use that word much - it’s not part of our everyday imagination. We think about those who have enough - who appear to be happy - as blessed. We are ‘blessed’ with children - when they are small. But when they are grown - some of us would say we are blessed with our progeny if those sons and daughters have done okay - it is hard to say we are blessed when the kid is out of work and living in the basement.

In some ways ‘blessed’ is also synonymous in America with luck and/or hard work. We are blessed to be healthy, to be white, to be Americans at all - to have all the benefits of our color and class and nation. America itself is called blessed - because we’ve had lots of resources to develop or exploit - because we’ve governed ourselves relatively freely and wisely over 200 years. So on a larger scale we are a blessed generation. Some understand themselves as blessed because they can look and see what they’ve accomplished, and they are satisfied.

But, but, there is always another side. - we may not think we are blessed - we have bad fortune, disappointments - our children turn do things differently than we would like - our good job disappears - our cherished institutions change. Our health gives way - the situation of a loved one becomes drastically different. Don’t feel quite as blessed, then, we don’t. And the world is uncomfortable with those who don’t seem to share in the good fortune, those who walk in darkness.

In our story we see two women meeting - they walk in light and approval, and they walk in the shadows of the world‘s disapproval. Many would have called Elizabeth blessed - after all, she has had her heart’s desire fulfilled - she’s now pregnant with her first child, although she’s getting up there in age. In her time and culture - she would be definitely be seen as blessed, as rewarded, as having God’s favor. So would her husband Zechariah, if he hadn’t been strangely quiet about the whole thing.

Mary, on the other hand - her situation is not quite as favorable. She’s still very young - she is only betrothed, not married, and she has this interesting story about being pregnant without knowing a man. She has rushed from her home, immediately after her vision of the angel Gabriel - and rushed to meet with the only person who might understand - her cousin Elizabeth, who has also been touched by God in a wonderful way.

This Gospel is the story of two miracles meeting for the first time. Both John and Jesus have now been conceived. John is more than six months along, we are told, and thus very capable of giving a swift kick or two to his mother, and Jesus has just been conceived. In fact, just prior to this text is the story in which Mary finds out about Elizabeth's pregnancy, and it is to rejoice with her kinswoman that she goes on this journey.
. . .

Mary is blessed - not because she’s had good luck, good favor, or good things are happening to her. She’s blessed because she’s heard the word of God - and believed it. And accepted it - she said yes - let it be to me the way you desire, God.

That is radically different from our usual way of talking. We usually say someone is blessed because of how their life has turned out. Not here - there is no judgment about God liking or not liking someone - about Good things happening to Good people, and when bad things happen - well. And that’s what we should be remembering in this season.

Mary’s state of being blessed, of being faithful - has nothing to do with human judgments upon her, and everything to do with the power of God. Here is the message in this story:
God is powerful - and that is true whether you have it all, or you have nothing. God is powerful and that is true whether you have smiling children at the Christmas tree, or a small and quiet day by yourself on Thursday.
God is powerful - and his power comes to each one who turns to him
- in joy and in sorrow,
in thanksgiving and in frustration,
in the best moments of our lives - and more significantly -

God’s power come to those who turn to him even when the world says they are not blessed.

Mary’s song makes this clear - he looks at the lowest down, the sad, the depressed, the poor, the helpless, the guilty, the have-nots - and they will receive blessing. While the British occupied India - Anglican priests were not to read or teach the Magnificat to the Indian people - it was too revolutionary. God’s word of power is revolutionary - it sets things upside down - it makes a poor teenager the mother of a king - and makes that king walk the most difficult road.

Elizabeth knew, rightly, that her cousin Mary was blessed - blessed for what was happening in and through her - even though the world couldn’t see that - and blessed for the faith Mary held in her heart.

When the world looks at us and thinks - unlucky, when the world looks and thinks - bad choices - when the world looks and thinks - there but for the grace of God go . . .
God looks and says . . . For you I was born. For you I came to Mary. For you this life was lived. To bless you - to offer to you solace in your grief and peace in your busy life - for you I am.

That is true blessing - knowing that God is powerful - thanks be to God.
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really, it was a good weekend. really

2009-12-21T10:31:00.003-06:00

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It really was a good weekend. I had Friday night by myself as the eagle rehearsed - and that was fine, because I tweaked my sermon about Mary and blessedness, and watched the last episode of Glee and went to bed content. I even finished cookies for the bake sale with plenty of time.

And Saturday morning I helped at church with the Christmas baskets, and hung around with some good people. And went home and got cleaned up and attended Lessons and Carols and went out for dinner with the Eagle. All was well.

All was well Sunday, too. Well, I felt a little groggier than usual since the cat woke me before the alarm. Got to church early, and the first service went fine. Even though I had forgotten the manuscript of the sermon at home - I did well jumping off the edge and the Holy Spirit did hold me up. The sermon was basically about 'blessing' being not about good fortune or good luck - and all of us are blessed at Christmas because Jesus was born for us - not because everything is all right - it's okay to be grieving or sad - and you are still blessed.

Good that my pastoral colleage was listening - good that I was partnering that day - because I fell apart at the 2nd service. Opening - was okay - music - good - prayers - fine. Call the children up for the children's message and . . .

The world started spinning. Dramatically. All at once. I managed to finish speaking to the children, say to my colleauge- "and now Pastor will read the message", sit down quickly and put my head down. First thought - 'fainting'. But I never passed out - I heard everything going on around me. I passed the mic to Pastor and whispered - tell him to go on! "Are you okay?" me: "no." Do you want us to: - find the paramedic that goes to church there - oh, yes. Couldn't find him or the either of the doctors. Call 911 - 'yes, please.' All this with my head down, eyes closed and breaking into a cold sweat.

I heard one of our guys sing a great solo. I was just hoping no one was paying any attention to the woman slumped at a table in front. Of course they were.

Finally, 911 came and I was carted off in front of everyone! Could not open my eyes or move at all. I was holding on to the gurney for dear life. Medicine helped stop the spinning in the ambulance. I was released after about one and a half hour.

Medicine seems to be keeping the vertigo down - I'm on a 8 hour dosing schedule more or less, but I'm concerned that it's only supressing the vertigo and it will come back at the end of the period. I do not feel okay yet, still tired and fuzzy and what I call 'woozy' - but it's not full-blown spinning.

Well, I am blessed - in ways I don't quite realize. Good, good spouse, co-workers, a comfortable house to recuperate in. Peace to all.
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saturday before Christmas

2009-12-19T13:38:00.003-06:00

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Okay - Tree #2 - is up and decorated in the simplest way possible - just lights and selected glass ornaments - no brass or gold or glass or theme or special colors - just the first ones we laid our hands on. And then I said - well, there, that's pretty and closed up the bins with the unused ornaments. And it is pretty. It's okay that the glass ornaments (which represent at least one a year since we've been married) aren't used this year. There will be other years, other trees. This year needs to be simple.

Still no card -writing and presents to the east coast not sent. Pro-Flowers is a great thing, but I need to get on it.

It's Saturday afternoon and I must polish the sermon - and be ready to go to John's concert at 4:00, have dinner, then will have some time after that.

Still need to get readers for the 7 p.m. service, maybe ushers. I think the other two are set.

But, as thing go, it seems managable.
Peace, Peace, Peace.
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musings for advent

2009-12-18T14:29:00.004-06:00

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I'm back to preaching again, after taking it easier the last two weeks - thanks Dan~!

At the same time Christmas is drawing near, with all its joy, the pastoral staff is walking with an extended family through the end stages of a tragedy, and I hear about others whose loved ones are moving into the end stages of life. Or moving into the place of needing more care. Or just moving out of the house, out of marriages. Or moving away from the church - my churches, because we just don't seem to give them what they want/need.

So the sermon title, picked on Monday is 'blessed' and I am pondering what it means to be blessed. In our common current use it means a little more than lucky - everything is going okay, good, excellent. We can be proud of our children, we have good jobs and trust we'll have them tomorrow, we have good health. So we are blessed.

And then, are the tragedy-ridden, the parents of disappointing kids, the unemployed, the sick - not blessed. Well, in common usage, yes, they are the 'unblessed.' It's very OT - deuteronomic system stuff we live with every day. So much so we don't even realize what we're saying, often. So much so that we don't realize the hurt the comes from this assumption - we hint that God has withdrawn his favor from those who suffer.

The expression 'to bless' must mean to pass judgment - really, it is to contextualize a situation and claim meaning for it - positive meaning. And once that sense has been accepted the opposite situation - to suffer - takes on the opposite meaning - to lack blessing (cursed).

Elizabeth saw it differently. She 'blesses' - says good about Mary - for she perceives that Mary has been touched by God. And she proclaims Mary 'blessed' - happy, for Mary has believed what was said to her. Elizabeth knows that God is acting here. That is cause for proclamation, for identifying that God does the blessing.

Blessed. So we are to remember, and be compassionate - that blessing isn't about removal from suffering, about good luck, or happy outcome. It's about proclamation that here - in this life, in this place, God is acting, God is. . .

God is in a pregnant teen and in a poor city in hills of a poor territory. God is with a little old pregnant lady and her temporarily mute husband (that must have been a long nine months). God is with a struggling oppressed community, a minority in the great empire. God is hanging out on the road, in the prisons, in the sick rooms, in the hospital beds. God is doing his blessing thing where his people see that he is acting . . . where compassion comes out, where tenderness is expressed, when violence is stopped, when forgiveness is real.

God blesses. We may judge for 'blessing' - but in eyes of faith - God's blesses. The maker of meaning is the source of any blessing - any good and gracious understanding of our lives.

For those who walk in tragedy - the judgment of blessing seems far, far away - impossible to compute, to realize, to utter. But here is the core of faith - the determination of 'blessed' isn't ours, it is God's. God is in that sickroom, with that wayward child, in the painful awareness of sin and grief and loss - and God determines the 'blessing.'

The hope of the lesson - walk with God, hang in there, trust - and you will find God. Blessing comes. He looks with favor upon the lowly - and blesses.
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One Tree is Up!

2009-12-15T21:59:00.000-06:00

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One Christmas Tree is up.
The little artificial one downstairs is lovely with golden Met. Museum stars, gold balls, red birds, balls and ribbons, a few white angels. White lights of course.

Who knows when the big one will go up? My dear husband has a concert on Saturday and rehearsals tonight and friday - Thursday may be the day for it going up and Sunday for decorating.

We just do it for ourselves, no kids in our lives.
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cozy tonight

2009-12-08T18:45:00.003-06:00

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It's my birthday and a blizzard at the same time. So the Eagle and I are squestered at home - I hope he is not called out to the hospitals. It is supposed to be getting quite nasty in the wee hours.

I'd love to 'watch' the blizzard - the blowing falling snow, but it's going to be the middle of night, not the time for visible weather. This will be a secret storm, hidden by darkness. We will wake to the changed world - drifted snow and heavy branches.

We will not fully understand or experience it, cozy as we are, in the house with limited windows and excellent insulation. Our comfort - perhaps it makes us shallow.

December afternoon a day after the first snowfall.

In all cities,
there is a moment, in December,
when the sun is low
and the light is slanting, soft.

When melt and cars and concrete
create a universal smell.
This is not beauty.
But it is real.

That we, humans, ride this tide of our own making
our permanently frozen ground,
our marred landscape
our padded feet not feeling
our swaddled bodies not aware
that the soft sun is crying:
breathe.

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advent of

2009-12-01T15:54:00.002-06:00

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Now that Thanksgiving is over, and the family room is painted, it's time for the big push. That is - the Advent season.

And I need to write a Jan. newsletter article, too. (We have early deadlines). Caroling parties, feeding people at potlucks, special visits, concerts, my birthday, all that falls in this season. I'm stepping back from preaching for a few weeks - so I can think about the Christmas eve stuff.

Have to send presents far away, and complete planning for the season after.

Christmas itself will be very quiet - just John and me and maybe the young man, if he condescends to come over. John and I like being together, that's a good thing.
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home

2009-11-20T09:42:00.005-06:00

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Well, day two of the 'whole week off'. Let's see what's been done on the list.

went to court with the YoungMan and he got off with a light fine for Disorderly Conduct. Unfortunately, my bail money from last week went to the fine. I'll never see it again.
Made appointments for YoungMan at doctor - now to get him to go, and ask about his on-going health issues
had mammogram, which was fine - HEY, what do ya mean, not yearly? Over my dead body. Sis found her cancer at her YEARLY mammo - and under the new guidelines she wouldn't have gone!
Last night of NAMI family-to-family. It was overall a good experience. Some of the sessions I could have done without (medication doesn't fix everything). But met some people with extraordinary courage and compassion. And realized we weren't in it alone. I was so grateful Aquila was able to come too.

still to do:

clean fridge, shop for weekend and Thanksgiving
call for appointments for dentist, passport, car repair, carpet cleaning
Get new driver's license. Try to get YoungMan to renew his, too.
Prepare downstairs for painting - move stuff, furniture, tape, drape - paint, etc. This is the biggest project on line.
shop for Christmas (some was done by internet yesterday , ya!)
Play with dyeing before I pack stuff away and out of the dining area
figure out what's going on with Thanksgiving day itself. MIL is in rehab, SIL will be alone, but YoungMan hasn't let us know what he will or won't do.
re-organize my study.
For work: connect with Christmas tree decorators. Review photos for PPT Dec. 6.
Read Edgar Sawtell.

Hmm - what about doing the fun stuff first?
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faithful witness

2009-11-14T14:55:00.002-06:00

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the rough draft of Sunday's sermon

Proper 28B, Nov 14,15, 16, 2009 – Mark 13:1-8 (Faithful Witness)
By Gracious Powers
1 By gracious pow'rs so wonderfully sheltered,
and confidently waiting come what may,
we know that God is with us night and morning,
and never fails to greet us each new day.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a brilliant young theologian, pastor and teacher when Hitler came to power in Germany. He struggled with the implications of what his nation was doing, and what the church should and could be in the face of such wrongs. You’ll find a translation of his poem – Von guten Machten – By Gracious Powers. The English-language church hasn’t yet found a tune that it sings well too, so today we’ll read it together.

Bonhoeffer had come down a long road to write this poem. It was probably written in 1944 – as some of our troops were marching toward Germany, as the battle of the bulge was happening on the German-French border, as the last long winter caused great pain in throughout the war-torn land. It was contained in a smuggled New Year’s letter to his mother and through her, to his many friends, colleages and his young fiancé.

Bonhoeffer had already been imprisoned for more than a year and a half, suspected of helping Jews leave the county, suspected of various violations of the security laws, suspected of avoiding the draft and money laundering. And all those things were true, by the way. Decisions had to be made – these things were done as part of the resistance to evil and the holding up of what was good and decent.

2 Yet is this heart by its old foe tormented,
still evil days bring burdens hard to bear;
oh, give our frightened souls the sure salvation
for which, O Lord, you taught us to prepare.

Think about it as he faces the kind of world Jesus speaks about – a world falling apart – Bonhoeffer turns to faith and trust in an almighty God. Jesus looked at the greatest building in his land – one of the great buildings of any time and place, really – and saw that it would come down – stone upon stone. Jesus saw that whatever humanity creates is perishable – like the grass in the field, as the psalm says. The great Temple, that so impresses the disciples – is only a creation, and does not hold the Creator, Jesus reminds us.

3 And when this cup you give is filled to brimming
with bitter suff'ring, hard to understand,
we take it thankfully and without trembling
out of so good and so beloved a hand.

Bonhoeffer had many opportunities to avoid the coming troubles. Because of his international connections – he was offered work and safe harbor in England, America and even in India – where he was invited to study with Gandhi. But he felt it was important to stick with his country – that if he sheltered somewhere else, he would never have the authority to participate in the restoration after the war. His family was there – his students, the young men studying to be pastors and his church was there. So he went back, from America in 1939, to be on the road, to drink the cup, to look evil in the eye.

“This is but the beginning” – but note Jesus does not say the beginning of the end – but the beginning of birth. God is active, even when we hear of wars and rumors of wars, of earthquakes and famines and new diseases. God is still in charge, even when the world is changing. God is bringing faith to birth, is bringing life to birth, is bringing truth to birth.

For there is always hope – in Bonhoeffer’s story – there is a love story. Out of the ruins of his career and family and hopes, in the midst of war, Dietrich asked a young woman to marry him, only three months before his arrest.

4 Yet when again in this same world you give us
the joy we had, the brightness of your sun,
we shall remember all the days we lived through
and our whole life shall then be yours alone.

There is a hope in this poem – the same kind of realistic hope that we find in our Gospel lesson. Stay fast, says the Gospel, watch and discern the truth in the midst of falsehood. Be wise and do not follow the quick and easy call of the self-appointed Messiahs. Follow the path that Jesus walked - understand that the Temples of this world – whatever buildings or organizations or institutions we know and love and participate in – are just that – Temples of this world.

They may be good and sturdy or they may be falling down – but they do not hold the divine power of God. They are but constructions. Our lives are held in the hand of the Almighty God – the one gracious power that wonderfully shelters us – come what may.

5 By gracious pow'rs so faithfully protected,
so quietly, so wonderfully near,
we live each day in hope, with you beside us,
and go with you through ev'ry coming year. AMEN.

Text: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906-1945; tr. Fred Pratt Green, 1903-2000
English text © 1974 Hope Publishing Company, Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Duplication in any form prohibited without permission or valid license from copyright administrator.

all saints struggle

2009-10-30T11:11:00.004-05:00

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The text for Sunday is John 11 - the great story of the raising of Lazarus. I'm struggling so that my sermon does not sound like a funeral sermon. This is the story I want read at my funeral, I know, but the day is a Sunday, is a day of celebration, a day of celebration of that which is yet unknown and a day of celebration for what is known.

So, for me, it's not just about what goes on after death. The gospel speaks to me of this life, this time, the work we are currently engaged in. I'm just having a hard time getting a handle on this point.

The work is: we bring a word of life. We say: Death is not the end. We say: transformation is possible - not by your own effort, but by living in the life of Christ. We say: this community is more than a human organization - it is the body of the Messiah, with the Messianic task to do.

So, we are saints through our participation - our attention to - the gifts of God. Gifts of sacrament, and word, and prayer, and shared work.

In this story Jesus does not raise Lazarus for the comfort of Mary and Martha (that's a tack I have taken in the past). When I look closely - Jesus is 'self-differentiated' from them and their grief. He is disturbed. He is not responding to their grief - he already knows what he is going to do. He weeps - but why? Are the on-lookers correct? He weeps, because he loved Lazarus? (But Jesus knows this grief is only for an few moments more) He weeps, because his friends Mary and Martha are weeping? He weeps, because no one believes in the glory he is about to reveal?

So this is for the glory of God. This is so that the crowd will believe that Jesus was sent by God.

Where does the speaker stand in this story? Am I presenting Mary or Martha's story - the grievers who become the incredible joyful (that is what my older sermon has done)? Shall I stand with the disciples, who have a little more, but not enough vision to comprehend what Jesus is going to do?

Or this time, let us stand with the crowd. The crowd has known sorrow, grief, death. The crowd has known life in all it's messy complications. Lets not diminish the spiritual need of the crowd. They are there, for the family, for tradition sake, for curiousity - it is, after all, 4 days after burial.

And Jesus is there for them. Jesus will do this thing for the sake of the crowd. That is exactly what he says. This is a public miracle.

And we are the crowd, who must struggle with the implications of this miracle. Some would have Jesus die. Some will follow. Some will always remember. And some will tell the story. So that all will know.

Tell the story.
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the path prayer

2009-10-20T17:43:00.002-05:00

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. AMEN.

(Thomas Merton)

Merton's prayer without the I

2009-10-20T14:15:00.001-05:00

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the rich woman

2009-10-10T08:43:00.006-05:00

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preliminary thoughts.

I'm listening to 'Lady Rochfort" on CD in the car. It's another re-telling of the Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn saga, this time with the emphasis on Anne's sister-in-law. There is a lot of 'perhaps she saw', 'she may have known', and other evasions of the historical type - it's not really that good a history.

However, the author spends a great deal of time on lavish descriptions of the extremely lavish lifestyle of these royals. You want pearls, jewels and cloth of gold, it apparently was everywhere. Lady Rochfort and her husband, not even born royals, slept in a bed with gold statin and cloth of gold, under embroideried coverlets, etc.

Queen Anne had everything she desired. Food, music, dancing, clothes, jewels, deference.

And for such a short time.

I thought of using this as a story in the sermon - it could be Anne Boleyn, Napoleon's Josephine, Alexandra of Russia - all these women who felt the best was their due, and who fell because they did not see farther than their own comfort and imperial dignity. But their stories are not controlled by their own actions - in most cases they become pawns in a game played by men. Alexandra, the most tragic of all those names, is the one caught up in the most politically charged drama - the one who paid for her lifestyle with her life. (Anne paid with her life, but not for her wealth per se. Josephine 'retired' to a comfortable place, much reduced in circumstances, but not uncomfortable, until she died of cancer)

I'm fascinated and horrified in equal measures. How in smaller scale do we replicate those dynamics? Who, then, can be saved?
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from kathleen Norris

2009-10-06T11:24:00.003-05:00

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Monks have always insisted that we can in fact think about our thoughts and feelings, and consider how to act on them.

Acedia and Me, p. 151

Sounds obvious, doesn't it. But how often . . . And in our lectionary right now - we hear about the use of wealth, about adultery, marriage and sin, about welcoming or not welcoming the child, the stranger.

This may be one of the most difficult elements of maturity to appreciate. Growing up means not being at the mercy of one's thoughts and feelings.
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blessings - a sermon

2009-10-02T09:45:00.001-05:00

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Proper 22B,

Our life is a little different now than in Jesus' day. We are moving at a faster pace, we are more likely to be dependent upon technology, and we seem to find it harder to be truly together - to connect with each other. We fear for our children at school, we wonder about the cruelty of circumstances, the awesome destruction of nature.

Our lives seem so far away from the time of Jesus that this Gospel lesson hits with a discordant clang - sounding out of tune and out of time. But let’s look at this lesson closer.

Jesus has been traveling, continuing to teach the growing crowds of people who followed him wherever he went spread. Jesus had healed the blind, deaf and lame; he had cast out demons and been transfigured in the presence of his disciples. And Jesus had taught and taught and taught some more. He had spoken with passion about the Kingdom of God, about the nature of sin, about the cost of discipleship.

He had spoken with love and joy and welcome to sinners, to all who recognized they had fallen short of their Creator’s ideals, with a message of hope, of repentance and new life. Again and again, Jesus had taught those who came to hear the lessons of God’s love for them, about God’s desire that men, women and children learn to live without fear, God’s desire that they become lamps through which divine love might shed light on all who knew them.

Over and over, as word of his teaching spread, the religious establishment stepped forward out of the crowds to trip Jesus up. “Teacher, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” Well, of course, they knew it was lawful - Moses had said it was. But they asked anyway.

Jesus turned the question back to them. “What did Moses command you?” “Well, Moses said it was okay, that a man could divorce his wife anytime he wanted to.” “Why?” asked Jesus “Why would Moses say that - knowing that in the creation stories God created Adam and Eve as equals, as partners and as the image of God in the world?” The religious authorities had no answer. Jesus refused to be tricked into betraying the will and desire of God in favor of the letter of the Law. “I’ll tell you why - because of your hardness of heart; because God knew that your sin would require this.” (Katherine Merrell Glenn)

The two parts of scripture - the story of Creation and the Law of Moses about divorce - are both from God - but they answer different questions about the relationship of humanity with God. God created Man and Woman to be together in harmony - and because of sin they often cannot stay together. Marriage and family life, like being a community of faith together - is hard work. And sometimes we fail.

That is reality - and that reality reminds us all - whatever our personal relationships - married or divorced, single or living in committed companionship - we are all sinful, all burdened with the hardness of heart that Jesus spoke of.

Remember the second part of the reading? Jesus is welcoming the children . There Jesus is reminding the disciples NOT to prevent those in need of healing from coming to him. AS we are all burdened with hardness of heart, all sinners in need of grace and mercy, all children dependent upon God's grace - this part of the passage should give us hope that in God - we, too, find the forgiveness and love that rebuilds us and makes us whole again.

For I believe it is in human relationships that we can discover God’s love (I stress this with the confirmation students as we study the 10 commandments – we are made to be in relationship) It is in the relationship between man and woman, yes, but also between father and son, mother and child, friend to friend, and yes, even pastor to people and fellow church member to stranger – that we discover ourselves, and that we uncover the will of God for his people.

A couple of years ago, you may remember the tragic shooting of the Amish children in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. Maybe like me, you too, were moved by the witness of the Amish who not only turned to care for each other of their community but who also spoke of the necessary care for the family of the criminal, of the murderer. A grandfather looks at the body of his granddaughter and says to his nephew - "we must not think evil of this man." (CNN)

They see that forgiveness - the acting out of forgiveness as an integral part of the Christian Discipleship, right up there with pacifism and simplicity. They say they will take food to the murderer's widow - knowing that the sharing of the table is a powerful symbol of forgiveness. They express, in community, the depth of the power to transform - that faith in God can bring.

Here, in our community, we symbolize that movement -
from hardness of heart, from the necessary reality of our human brokenness
- to forgiveness, to remake human bonds
- with the words and the bread and the wine. With the words of forgiveness and reconciliation - and with the action, of coming forward to receive this body, this blood, this holy presence of the One who forgives.

At almost all of our worship services we offer the “peace”- it most properly belongs after the confession and before the meal. It is in the action of saying "peace be with you" to your neighbor, to your family, to your enemy - that we enact the forgiveness God commands of us. Jesus asks us to reconcile with our brother or sisters before we come to give our gift, before we come to the table. (Matthew 5:23)

So when I say 'Peace be with you" and you reply - "also with you" - you acknowledge my humanity, and turn to your neighbor, and in Christ's name recognize and reconcile with that neighbor.

Our God knows us well, knows we have hard hearts, and offers us forgiveness and offers to teach us how to forgive.

In this way we remember that we pray to be forgiven our trespasses (sins) as we forgive those who trespass (sin) against us.

For we, too, are always invited back to the banquet at our father’s house, always offered the power of the washing of the water and the eating of the meal. We, too are the little ones, welcomed and blessed by the Son of God.

the dividing line - or real salt

2009-09-27T18:50:00.005-05:00

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Mark 9:38–50

Salt has not always been cheap. In the ancient world salt was a valuable and scarce commodity. It was used as currency in some countries even into modern times. Historically it was the basis of great empires, making many people rich, because it was not cheap at all. To get salt from the sea was a difficult enterprise, involving multiple ponds, each one more concentrated in salt than then next, then the final harvest, sifting, packing and transport. Lots of time, lots of labor, lots of places for traders to make money.

We might call it common salt, and use if prodigiously – too much for the sake of our health, but has been recognized at the ultimate necessity and luxury for ages.
During an invasion of Ethiopia, in the late 19th century, Italian soldiers found blocks of salt stored in bank vaults along with other familiar forms of currency

(I Love You More than Salt)An ancient king once asked his three daughters how much they loved him. One daughter said she loved him more than all the gold in the world. One said she loved him more than all the silver in the world. The youngest daughter said she loved him more than salt. The king was not pleased with this answer. But the cook overheard the conversation, so the next day he prepared a good meal for the king, but left out the salt. The food was so bland that the king couldn't eat it. Then he understood what his daughter meant. The cook understood the value of salt. (King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com )

So, Jesus was paying his disciples a compliment when he called them salt. He was doing it in the context of teaching on discipleship – The disciples were pointing out the healing actions of someone who wasn’t in their crowd – who hadn’t been following Jesus, who hadn’t made the kind of sacrifices they had made. And that person, that magician – he was using Jesus’ name! Yikes! Jesus’ name and reputation are such that others are cashing in on him! Stop him!

Jesus is calm in the middle of the disciples’ anxiety. (do you even notice that – Jesus does not get excited about those irritations that the disciples do? He gets excited about deeper, more profound issues – we’ll see that in this passage too.) Don’t get your knickers in a twist, he says – look – if that magician is using my name, and something good happens – he’ll be thinking about it for the rest of his life.

You guys – you disciples – you want to draw a dividing line between the inside and the outside. Some people are inside – us – and others are outside – them. For Jesus the line isn’t so clear – even those outside can do acts of mercy and grace and good. They can give a cup of water to the needy – they can recognize the name of Christ – and they will find their reward.

This is quite radical stuff, then and now. We want to be sure that we’re in the right part of heaven (the old story – why are there walls in heaven? Well, it’s so – fill in the blank about whichever exclusive religious tradition you want to poke fun at – Missouri Synod, Southern Baptists, who ever – doesn’t know that anyone else is there.) Radical stuff from Jesus – the dividing line isn’t were you want to put it, disciples.

The dividing line isn’t out there, between us and them – it’s right here. It’s right here in the heart. It’s right here in the life and actions of those inside the community of faith. It’s right at the point where your actions may cause someone else to stumble.

And for many of us, it’s not that foreign. The desire of the eye for a pretty thing – and we covet. The desire of the mouth for that which tastes good – and we are gluttons who don’t know when to stop. The desire of the foot to get out of this situation, and we’ve hurt those we love. The desire of the mind for a thrill, for a risk, for a gamble- and we’ve spent too much money at the casino, or in the store, or on the drink. The desire to get everything under control, and we’ve said one too many critical things to our spouse, our children, our co-workers, and created rifts that may never be overcome.

That’s the dividing line. That’s where we need to remember the gracious forgiveness of our God. That realization – that honest self-assessment – that’s the fire. For everyone will be salted with fire. I really struggled with understanding that one line – but I think it means this: Each one of us will struggle with what it means to be Jesus’ disciple. That will be our fire. That will be our spiritual work – to be corrected and modified and ‘salted.’ It is through fire we become the good, the pure, the useful and necessary – salt.

Jesus knows that salt that is too contaminated is useless – it is only good to be thrown away. The salt that is good – is the disciple who is working at his or her self – the salt that is salty is the salt that has come through the fire of self-examination, of returning to the baptismal grace and finding that growth is still possible.

There is another experiment to that can be done with salt – take a plain piece of grapefruit and eat it. It will be sour and maybe even bitter. Add one grain – one grain of salt – and eat another piece. It will be sweet.

Salt turns the sour sweet. Have salt in yourself – the word of the Lord, showing the right path – and peace be unto you.
Amen.
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acedia and me

2009-09-26T10:45:00.001-05:00

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I just can't get enthused about reading Acedia and Me.

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learning vs lecturing

2009-09-23T15:15:00.005-05:00

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I've been struggling with this for a while in various arenas. In the church, we have stuff we want to share - but in order to do that, we lecture. I was taught to lecture. When I go looking for curriculum to introduce families to baptism, for instance, I find books, videos, etc., that consist of telling others what the church wants to tell them. Martin Marty's book on Baptism - a User's guide was recommended. I read it. I returned it. I will never recommend it except for the exceptionally thoughtful person who already knows all the 'in' words and arguments of Christian history about Baptism.

I have young parents who are willing to give me an hour or so of their time to learn about Baptism. And so far, all I've been able to do is lecture. It's not working. I'm searching for another option.

I know Faith Inkubators has worked up a family support curriculum. Whenever I look at their stuff, I'm exhausted.

Now I'm working on my lesson for our students who will be confirmed in a few weeks. How do I open up conversation about worship & sabbath & communion? The Lutheran materials are so disappointing.

This is what I'm staring into space thinking about today.
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making faith real.

2009-09-20T15:37:00.003-05:00

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This was a difficult sermon to preach. I am not usually so personal. But my intention that it was not about me - but about 'us' and making faith real.

Sunday, Sept. 20, 2009, – Lect. 25, Proper 20, 16th after Pent.
James 3:13-4:3, 4:7-8a – what is wisdom? Mark 9:30-37 – first & last, welcome the child, prediction of the passion

Last week I did something stupid. I did not listen to the lessons – to all the good words of the epistle and Gospel and the good news that Pastor preached about the firey tongue and the right way to use it – and I was rude to T. in public. And I want to make my public apology. It was wrong.

I was convicted by the voice of James. Do you ever read the scriptures, and you start to hear the voice, the authentic word being spoken to you? For that is what we believe – these scriptures, these lessons, these books of wisdom, are here in our hands for our - teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, - that’s from the letter to Timothy. We can use scripture to give us a basis for looking at our lives and the world – (and as a side note, if we wish to use it to comment on things outside ourselves, such as the actions of our larger church body, we must also apply it to our own actions as well.) And the voice of James, stern and wise, spoke to me.

I made my apology to T. – but there is still lasting damage – and that continues my struggle with repentance these days. There is a story about St. Francis – it is about gossip, but it could be about any of the sins of the tongue – mean words, put-downs, shut-downs.

A woman went to St. Francis of Assisi and asked what she had to do to be forgiven for her gossiping. St. Francis told her to take feathers and place one at the doorstep of everyone she had spoken ill of in the town. She did so and returned to the wise saint. Francis told her to then go and retrieve all the feathers. When she attempted to do so, they were all gone. By that time the feathers were scattered all around town. Once again, she returned to St. Francis and told him about the feathers. He said to her: You wish to repent and be forgiven of your sin. Good. But the damage of your words is done and can not be taken back.

Oh, those feathers cannot be taken back. How many of us have had that sinking feeling – haven’t said something that can’t be taken back – that will ripple out, and not in a good way. That’s me – that’s me that James is talking about. You see, right after my ‘tongue fire’ – I immediately started to defend myself, even to myself. I did not want to listen to the scriptures, right there in front of me. I wanted to be right. I was in denial of my sin – I wanted to be right. “But, but, but, I was right, I had reasons.”

James says that our disputes begin because we covet what we don’t have. That doesn’t just mean physical objects – things are not at the heart of many of our disputes. What we covet, too often, is control, power, getting everything just right, having it my way.

And a lot of times, we have very good reasons for wanting things just so. But we let our desire to do things right take over, and we sin. We are not just control freaks, we are sinners. We hurt others. We impede the word of God. And it affects not just us, but many others – remember the feathers.
Look again at Jesus’ interactions with his disciples in today’s lesson. The disciples are arguing among themselves.

They were arguing about who was greatest! Who was the best – what, disciple? follower? I’m more humble than you? Ironic isn’t it. Really, I suspect they were arguing about who was right. Not really about righteousness in God’s eyes - but about which one of them was going to be in control. Who was right? That was just the problem I had.

And Jesus looks at them with sorrow. With sighing. With clarity that no, they don’t get it yet. And Jesus wants them to understand what the kingdom looks like,
that the kingdom, this process of living in God’s grace,
under God’s forgiveness, with God’s approval
– that the kingdom does not look like the human desire to be right.
To be the greatest, to be in control, remember what James says – is to covet what you don’t have. And that’s the core of this sin.

And Jesus, to make his point – takes the most wayward creature he can find – and says: This is what the kingdom looks like. At this point I realize that Jesus takes a little child – not because children are innocent, not because they are sweet, not because they are fragile – he points to the little child and says “Welcome him” because that child knows nothing about being the greatest, and nothing about being in control.

Can you tell that newborn to sleep through the night? Can you stop that toddler from putting that rock in his mouth? Can you stop that three year old from having the huge, shrieking, drop to the floor meltdown? Uh-un. A child is the loose cannon in our lives, the ultimate destroyer of our plans. A child can make all of us look ridiculous.

That is what the kingdom looks like. And we’ve missed it over and over again. One of our greatest sins, as I demonstrated through my stupid words last week, is that we think the kingdom is about adults being right, about our own desire to set everything up and make it go perfectly.

Jesus will have no ‘buts, I was right’ to excuse our rudeness, our disputes, our uncharitable treatment of our neighbor. The kingdom is not about being greatest, or about being righteous because of what we do, or about being right.

My newest friend is named Paulina and she is 4. I met her when I taught the pre-schoolers during Vacation Bible School this summer. Paulina sees me as her teacher, and she delights in me. She hugs me when she sees me and she wants to sit with me and talk to me and insisted I explore the church picnic with her. She thinks the world of me.

Jesus said, “Welcome the children”. It is not for her that he said that. She is full of light with me or without me. It is for me that Jesus said “Welcome the children.”

She is already bestows the grace of God when she accepts me. I am challenged by her eyes to be the person she thinks I am.
I am challenged by her affection to be a person who is motivated by love, not by the need to be right. I ask for the the grace to be the good person she thinks I am. That grace is in Jesus alone.

May we all learn to drop need to be right, the need to be the greatest so that Christ can work in us.

Saturday at last

2009-09-19T12:08:00.003-05:00

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Saturday at last, because it's been a full week. Some good things on the horizon - a lovely afternoon, the hard sermon is done. Hard for me personally, because I'm being vulnerable, but I don't want my message to be about me, but about how scripture works to convict and free all of us.

But still beautiful fall weather, so this p.m. I'll make a pear pie and trim the garden. Grill out. Tomorrow we've made a date to see the Harry Potter movie in the theater.

I have a strong desire to play with colors, so I'll organize all the drawing and painting things together today, and take some time to play. It's my newest form of personal expression and spirituality, I've decided.

The son has been in contact, after 2 1/2 weeks without answering my phone calls. I guess I'm forgiven. He's had bad eye inflammation and needed some home remedies. We will need to see how well Badger Care Plus works - I'm just grateful for that 'public option.'
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beautiful day, internal not so

2009-09-14T10:05:00.005-05:00

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We had a beautiful day for our church/neighborhood picnic. From what I saw and heard, the picnic was smooth, lots and lots of people got fed and lots and lots of kids played hard.

I did some stupid stuff in church, and since the lessons - about the tongue, and wisdom, from James, and being like a child, from Mark, convict me, will deal with that this week.

Sometimes I wonder -
Just exactly what does it take to retire at 55?

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too quiet

2009-09-08T12:19:00.003-05:00

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It's quiet. Too quiet. It's Tuesday morning and other people are working hard on their program starting. I see that I have about 4 different lesson preps, but none of them need to be done until next week. I'm not preaching this weekend.

The phone is quiet. It's beautiful outside and I'm considering going off to the library and hiding there. This is just too weird. I usually have more to do than I can put on a to-do list.

Goodness, maybe I'm supposed to study!
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a heart for mercy - Proper 18

2009-09-05T17:00:00.005-05:00

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A heart for mercy - Proper 18B, Sept. 6, 2009

(It’s the end of summer. It’s time to relax – that’s exactly what we find Jesus trying to do). After arguing with the Jewish intelligentsia about what constituted true religion - we find that Jesus has been traveling, and he’s hiding out in a non-Jewish city. Maybe he has friends there, and just wants to have a quiet afternoon on the terrace with a glass of wine and some olives and good conversation. Then, he’s interrupted. Again. This time it’s not a good Jewish person – not the leader of the synagogue, or a worthy grieving widow, or a faithful follower of the law.

This woman might have been an outsider, but somehow she had heard of Jesus – and for whatever reason – knowledge of what he had said and done, rumor, belief in magic - she sought him out. She saw God's power at work in Jesus, and so she asked him to help her daughter. But Jesus answered her in a shocking way. He said, "You must let the children have all they want first. It is not right to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." (Phillips)

But the woman challenges Jesus. Like the persistent neighbor, she will not leave "no" alone. She said, "Yes, Lord, I know, but even the dogs under the table eat what the children leave." I suspect there was silence then. A long pause. Then something changed - something clicked because Jesus said, "For saying that, you may go the demon has left your daughter." And the woman returned home and discovered that her daughter was well. Jesus had heeded her request.

That’s the first story – the second also takes place in a non-Jewish area, in the region of the Ten Cities founded by the Greeks and populated with all the diversity of the empire. Here Jesus is presented with a man who cannot hear, and cannot speak. With great compassion, he gives him hearing and speech. The news of this goes far and wide – it cannot be stopped.

We may be uncomfortable about how Jesus treats that woman – refusing help at first. If we think about what Jesus had just gone through – we can open up the story for ourselves at this point. Jesus had just had a conversation with the Pharisees in which he declared that is wasn’t what someone ate that made them ‘unclean’ – unwelcome in God’s sight, but it was what came from a person’s heart – the violations of the basic law of God: “fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

So on one day Jesus is claiming that it will not be slavish adherence to the traditions of old that will draw God’s approval – and by extension – the opposite must hold true – that a faithful, confessing heart will draw God’s mercy.

And now, before him stands one who has no claim of true and correct religious observance – but who is in need.

That’s the kicker. She’s in need. She has sought out Jesus, and kneels in front of him – without any claim to being part of the right religion, the right ethnic group, the right party, the right gender, social class, or even the friend of a friend. Her only claim is this – that the one she loves is in need. At this moment – even Jesus sees that the argument goes both ways – God’s gift flows to where it is needed.

God’s gift flows to where it is needed. Healing comes to the broken places, to the wounds, the scars. It is in those places – where our own efforts just don’t cut it – that the balm in Gilead works.
It is in, and for, the broken marriages,
in and for, the painful distance between a parent and child who is in the far country,
it is in, and for, the terrible news that cancer has a foothold,
it is in, and for, the failing eyes and body.

And whether we’ve kept the rules or not, whether we’ve been a pew warmer or council president, or a Christmas and Easter Christian – the healing flows to our need. Whether we’ve followed the laws to the letter or had much we are ashamed of - the heart of mercy – of Jesus’ mercy – is there for our need.

The healing is there – for those who are in need. It may not look like the healing from Isaiah – it may not look like the Lame leaping like deer, the Deaf Hearing symphonies, songs of joy from the voiceless – not always. But it will look like the actions that happened once Jesus healed. The man who received his hearing and his friends could not stop speaking about Jesus. He does all things well.

The healing may look a lot more like living with the brokenness in your life with a new attitude. The healing may look like working with your doctor to manage your condition. The healing may look a lot like drawing boundaries with that difficult person in your life – and knowing you are strong enough keep those promises.

The healing may look a lot like our brokenness, but with this difference – God knows. God loves. God supports. God works in us. In the broken places, we become strong. We find ways to sing for joy even when scarred, even if we aren’t perfectly robustly restored.

I love Jason Gray and his music – he’s that young man from Minnesota who had the concert here last year – and he now has a new album out. He talks – quite openly – about how God works through his weaknesses, through his brokenness, through his defects. Show video.

Like the man in our second story – Jason cannot stop speaking about the powerful love of God – and how that loving grace works through the broken places, through the weaknesses, through exactly that thing we struggle the most with.

Be opened, Jesus told the deaf man – and he was. And despite Jesus’ request not to speak about it – he had to, and his friends had to – and they told all around that ‘Jesus does all things well.” I suspect the Syrophoenician woman did too. He does all things well – his heart is full for grace and mercy – his love open to all who come in need. Amen.
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Glorious Blueberry Shawl

2009-09-01T15:33:00.003-05:00

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I started a new craft - dying yarn. And my first yarn was multicolored mohair. (Mohair was a mistake). But the colors were so pretty - very dark midnight blue, sapphire blue, sky blue, light sky blue, pale rose & rose.

Now I'm knitting it up in a simple pattern with BEADS!

Pictures forthcoming.
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blogging or not

2009-09-01T15:28:00.004-05:00

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I haven't kept up with the gratitude posts - mostly because I couldn't think of things when the page was blank.

The news from the Church-wide assembly bothered me a lot. I will be one of those conscience-bound pastors - not necessarily for the same reasons as others - and yes, it is affecting the local ministry in churches like mine.

I am still dealing with ego issues with staff at work. Crazy making conversations, being caught in the hall before worship for decisions, and then being told I was not helpful - in other words things are just about as difficult as they were at the beginning of the summer.

I have spent time in reflection about my ministry, and don't have clear resolution yet. The third-party colleague group I hoped to sign up for hasn't materialized. I'm still not gettting out of my shell and away from my desk enough.

And the fall/winter/spring schedule starts. The only clarity is that I have decided to take a class with NAMI on Thursday evenings and have cleared my calendar from anything but wedding rehearsals.

At least I can do that for myself.
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A sermon on John 6

2009-08-18T17:02:00.003-05:00

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Proper 15B, – John 6:51-58
Using As We Gather at Your Table (Carl P. Daw)

Listen to the first verse of 522 –
1 As we gather at your table, as we listen to your word, help us know, O God, your presence; let our hearts and minds be stirred. Nourish us with sacred story till we claim it as our own; teach us through this holy banquet how to make Love's vict'ry known.

As I was forming this message
I kept getting distracted. –you see, since we had VBS last week, and I had a funeral on Sunday – I didn’t get started early enough
Call this person about a baptism – she wasn’t in
And the mother I was trying to get last week finally got back to me
About a baptism
Which required me to schedule the baptismal meeting
Where I try to get families together and talk about what raising a child in the church is about.
So I must e-mail Christine and Carla and Joyce for calendars, and to reserve the room.
Which reminds me - create a new baptismal form.
And think about how the curriculum I’m using doesn’t work

Which made me think about the pre-marriage couple I was meeting, and that I had to get the video out and wonder at which building it would be better to meet with them.

And – oh, yes, - I’m trying to write a sermon about communion.
But it’s lunch time. And I have no money, but I can got to the ATM when I visit that lady who is in the hospital ICU. Let me look up Becky’s note from Friday to remind myself what she’s there for. And who she is related to.
On my way there I saw another e-mail about another issue and I needed to check . . . . . and maybe I should e-mail Tim even though it’s his day off. At it was only noon.

I’m not trying to impress you with all I have to do. What struck me was how much ‘community’ and ‘communion’ fit together. I’m busy doing that thing – making Love’ victory known. In fact, my funeral sermon last night, for a woman widowed last December, a mother and young grandmother – had the theme – LOVE Wins. Death does not win, Love wins.

2 Turn our worship into witness in the sacrament of life; send us forth to love and serve you, bringing peace where there is strife. Give us, Christ, your great compassion to forgive as you forgave; may we still behold your image in the world you died to save.

Here we learn about the connection between this meal we share in the church – and our going out to be Christ’s witnessing people.
Between communion and community.
Between being together in one place and becoming body together in spirit.
Between what we receive and what we learn we can give away.

All those things I talked about before, as well as the things you did today – at work, or as a volunteer, as a homeowner or however you spent your day – they are all elements of this ‘community’ that is made through communion.

We think of Luther as stressing the individual benefits of Holy Communion - forgiveness of sins, life and salvation, as the Small Catechism has it. But most of us do not realize that Luther had a fundamentally communal perspective on communion – one of my favorite quotes is this:

When you have partaken of this sacrament, therefore, or desire to partake of it, you must in turn share the misfortunes of the fellowship. . . Here your heart must go out in love and learn that this is a sacrament of love. As love and support are given you, you in turn must render love and support to Christ in his needy ones. You must feel with sorrow all the dishonor done to Christ in his holy Word, all the misery of Christendom, all the unjust suffering of the innocent, with which the world is everywhere filled to overflowing. You must fight, work, pray, and – if you cannot do more – have heartfelt sympathy. (M. Luther, The sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ.)

3 Gracious Spirit, help us summon other guests to share that feast where triumphant Love will welcome those who had been last and least. There no more will envy blind us nor will pride our peace destroy, as we join with saints and angels to repeat the sounding joy.

The whole point of our being people of the bread – those who spend Six weeks –SIX weeks – hearing bible lessons on the body of Christ – is that this part of the story – this language – is supposed to form us, mold us, draw us in. It’s pretty dramatic language after all – eat my flesh, drink my blood. Thanks, Jesus.

But listen to Jesus – he is trying by another way to speak of the mystery of abiding in him as he abides in the Father. It is about being so close to Jesus that we are part of him as he is part of the Father. It is about being Jesus here and now.

And that brings us back to the idea that communion creates community. Worship leads to service. Dwelling in the word leads to transformation of ourselves and the world. All the distractions and individual moments of my day, and your day as well
– come together in Christ, by Christ’s blessing,
– as the work of Christ done by his hands, feet, mouth, his body.

During this busy day I visited the ICU. And there one sister was standing by the bed of another. One distressed by illness, one healthy and attentive.

Who was Christ? I was the professional praying person, but really, Christ was already in that room. Christ was present in the care-giver, Christ was present in the sick and the needy. They were already Christ for each other.

Communion creates community.

Let's sing 'Blest Be the Tie that Binds.
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Gratitude - G

2009-08-18T16:58:00.002-05:00

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G. Green! I dream of sleeping in a green shaded tree house. Having a sage green meditation space. Don't wear much green, but I would say, right now, that's its my favorite color to have around me.

G. Gelato. Chocolate Gelato.

That's it for now folks.
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Gratitude - F

2009-08-15T14:44:00.002-05:00

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Well, I am grateful for Fridays. Of course, this week I worked hard on Friday - it was Vacation Bible School week and I was creating the worship service bulletin and PowerPoint. And teaching. And being on kitchen crew. It was a good week, great energy. I only wish we could have that energy and commitment emerge at other times of the year.

Friends, of course. Really good friends include my little sis, and ministry partner, and the Eagle.

Fudge. That's my food choice for the day. Something chocolate.
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Gratitude E

2009-08-11T11:05:00.002-05:00

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E. EEK! - what E things am I grateful for?

Engelberg. This is a tune name for a great big rolling cathedral tune that, along with the words, "We Know that Christ is Raised" kept me going during a dark time, waiting for the adoption.

We Know That Christ Is Raised

1 We know that Christ is raised and dies no more.
Embraced by death, he broke its fearful hold,
and our despair he turned to blazing joy.
Hallelujah!

2 We share by water in his saving death.
Reborn, we share with him an Easter life,
as living members of our Savior Christ.
Hallelujah!

3 The Father's splendor clothes the Son with life.
The Spirit's fission shakes the church of God.
Baptized, we live with God the Three in One.
Hallelujah!

4 A new creation comes to life and grows
as Christ's new body takes on flesh and blood.
The universe restored and whole will sing:
Hallelujah!

Text: John B. Geyer, b. 1932
Text © John B. Geyer

Duplication in any form prohibited without permission or valid license from copyright administrator.
Right now I can't find a good video of the music, which is what I am really grateful for.

Also, Eggs.

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Gratitude - D - a day late

2009-08-10T11:51:00.002-05:00

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D. Dreams - both the 'I wish I could do that' kind. I wish we could live in the country, I wish I could retire early, I wish we could travel all over the world - which may or may not come true, but also Dreams of the real sleep variety. My dreams have been interesting lately - not troubling, but full of detail, and rather fun.

D, Dioctore who can see you on short notice. I'm grateful for my eye doctor practice seeing me within the day for my vague -"I have something in my eye" complaint (which may be a herpes lesion, but may not be). They are good that way. So patitent with my peculiar visual problems> I feel well taken care of.

D, Doors. It's good to just shut out the rest of the world. So glad I don't work in the middle of many other people. I remember when I was doign all those vocational interests tests and one thing that came up was that I needed my own space and my own privacy.
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Gratitude - C

2009-08-08T09:53:00.003-05:00

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Gratitude for C things must start with that most noble and condescending of beasts, the Cat. I grew up around cats, usually multiples at once. I've know Snowball and Orbit, Sancho, Minnie and Imper. I have met , but not lived with the strange and half-wild Agatha, and of course, Ceasar the boneless wonder. Now we provide a home for his majesty the Terror of Bunnies.

I read that cats are not domesticated like dogs, they are still only one step away from their tree-dwelling wild ancestors. Getting along with people is not born into them, but part of 'cat-culture' - a mother cat inculcates the tolerance or favoring of people. Their presence with us is for their own benefit.

There is nothing as comforting as lying in a hammock with a purring, resting cat on one's lap.

Other C things include cotton - a delight in the summer, the stuff of loose clothing and contacts - my constant companions and frustration. Without the contacts my vision is poor, and - I will confess to my vanity- my appearance rather like a owl with thick glasses. Still the contacts, and the great doctor who guides my use, gets me to normal vision and sunglasses.

That's it for C.
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Gratitude - B

2009-08-07T11:56:00.002-05:00

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Humm - the first things that come to mind are foods I don't allow myself much anymore. Bacon. Butter. both of those are really, really good, but not good for me. However, you will find them in the refridgerator.

Bread. Good, hearty, crusty bread. Warm, fresh bread. The smell of baking bread.

Boys. I mean the little ones. There is a period, somewhere between ages 4 and 7, when boys are just delightful. They are curious and sturdy and still generous and open. These were our son's best years.

Yes, this is confessional. Bono. I just started replaying his music. It's good car music. It speaks to me.
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lots of bread

2009-08-06T11:16:00.003-05:00

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I'm using snippets from the same sermon for two Sundays this month. That's one of the advantages to preaching in a different place week to week.

Although - (looks over her shoulder) - I don't usually do that - I write new sermons every week!

I'm thinking about Jesus as 'bread of life' and as sign. A sign points to something - Jesus is both sign to God the Great, but also emblem in himself of sacrifice and model.

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What sign are we willing to believe? What does it mean to believe in the One God sent? How does our common communion here – make us a community of believers?

Part of the problem about believing the signs of God – believing in the One God sent – part of the problem is the one who believes. That is what this story reminds us. It’s not just about those foolish folk way back then. It’s about us. It’s about all those who mis-see, mis-hear, mis-read the wonders of God all around them.

It’s about all those who try to bargain with God – if You do this, then I’ll . . . . That’s about the opposite of trust- that’s when our relationship with God becomes an exchange. What can you do for me, God – what bread will you offer for my devotion?

But what Jesus speaks about is something totally different, totally not exchangeable – he offers what no one can buy – Himself. “I am the bread of life” he says, I am the food that endures, I am what satisfies, I am true bread from heaven, I am the sign.” He is the sign because he does it for us – he embodies for us the life that satisfies.

And the sign is pure grace – it is pure gift – it’s not because of any works we have done – it’s not because of our efforts, or our piety or our family or our prayers this day. It’s because God loves us.

It’s the work of God, through Jesus, through the Son’s passing through the Cross to the resurrection, that allows us to stand here and say YES, wash us in the living water, YES, give us the bread always. It’s not our work –
but the power of God in each other,
in the community of the church, the family, the friend, the pastor, the Word,
That is the way of Grace, the way we say sincerely say YES, give us this bread always.
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Gratitude - A

2009-08-06T10:55:00.003-05:00

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The daily gratitude post - the challenge is to post daily on each letter of the alphabet.

A. My maiden/now middle name starts with A. I was often first in line! I am grateful for the strong parts of the family, and for having worked through the painful parts.

A. Good, crisp apples. Especially Honey Crisps in the fall. Apple pie made at home, not so sweet.

A. Believe it or not - ANGER - it has been a 'issue' and a companion, but pointed to some deep healing that I needed. And even now, it is a signal that something needs attention.

A. Alternative Reality - the place for fantasies, novel reading, day-dreams, good science fiction on tv and speculative cosmological theologies. Some part of me walks there every day, I think.
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up & running

2009-07-27T15:51:00.004-05:00

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I haven't posted much this summer. There are various reasons for that.

I moved my office from one building to another. It feels odd and still awkward in the new place, around the staff that I used to see only a couple a times a week. Now I'm out of the conversations in the old place, and not in conversations in the new place.
We went on vacation right after that move. Vacation was great and I continue to work on my personal journal, casting out the line for my own vocational reality and personal peace.
We had to move our son out of his apartment - I am not paying rent any more. He had trashed the apartment, and it was a hard slog through that issue, both physically and emotionally.
We have been doing a sermon series at church, on purchased material, so I haven't had to write original sermons. There's enough there for another post, for sure.
I've been doing more Facebook.

The two identities that I have to work at now are Pastor and Parent. As parent - DS will be 21 soon, and we are girding up for cutting him free. He has so few skills, so few resources and no motivation. Of course I worry. But he also doesn't hear advice.

He has court on Wednesday, and at least I think he should cut his hair and find nice clothes to wear (and, no, don't take them from your dad's closet). But - this is what most parents don't understand - I can't tell him that. His response would be either: anger, silence, or mocking. Of the three, silence is the most typical these days. And, we are at fault after the fact, always. That's the borderline personality for you.

As pastor I am still trying to find my place, my emphasis, my 'thing'. I feel marginalized a lot - I'm not as visible as others, and not 'included.' (Dear God, I sound like a teenager!). But it struck me that there is freedom on the margins, and perhaps it isn't such a bad place to do ministry.

More on all of this later.
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a shared moment

2009-07-15T18:35:00.002-05:00

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Over dinner, I look into his eyes, he looks into mine.

I say - how are we going to get the trash bin out, since they poured the concrete for the driveway today?
He says - Out through the back door.
I say - I think it's too big for that.
He says - we could empty out all the bags, and pass the bin over the new concrete at the corner.
I say - very carefully.

Marriage. It's a wonderful thing.
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back from heaven

2009-07-13T17:01:00.003-05:00

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or Southwest Wisconsin, take your pick. Pretty close to the heaven I'm looking for.

Scandinavian designed tiny cottage on a hillside overlooking the rolling hills and valleys of the driftless region. Couldn't see lights or hear cars at night. I don't remember that last time that was true. Sat on the porch and read, or just stared. Cooked simple good food. Had fresh strawberries and local sweet corn at the same meal.

A few notes -

Aquila and I were both wounded - him from surgery, me from a fall down our outside stairs. It was okay to take care of ourselves.
Being out of cell phone range with lousy internet connections is a really good thing.
The DS was on his road trip and we were able to release him to his fate.
While going to the famous sights was okay, I could have skipped them - I was in such a mellow mood.
There are a lot of not-very-good novels out there. I had the bad luck to start two of them.
Serious conversations can be scary, but ours turned out all right.
I still have insomnia.

I did write about the question: what am I doing, what do I need to do? And I did get a little farther. But not that far. About two days of that heavy thinking is all I get in on any week, it seems.

Back to work today - will have funeral Wednesday, and I may need to run to hosp. within the hour. The usual. DS thought (misheard) that we were going to be backd on Monday, not Sunday, so he was all over the place. But he did help clean up. He only broke one door in a rage. Sigh. That is not okay.
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happy 4th

2009-07-04T11:26:00.003-05:00

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Just kicking back on the holiday. My sister is here on her laptop and the Eagle's on his computer downstairs. Just the typical american folks on the fourth?

We are too much in the world, it seems.

Am waiting for the DS to return from California alive and well. Did some mental hands off on his decision to go on the road trip, and we'll leave as soon as he returns and commits to cat care. Being hands off in his life and decision is easy in one way - I'm not going to his apartment to clean it while he's gone - but hard in other ways. The apartment WILL need cleaning before he leaves at the end of the month. I hope again hope that this road trip will clear his mind and get him focused. I don't know why I think that would be true, it's not be true before. Hands off means at least we don't fight.

I know another family, another son the same age, in ICU with a serious illness. I am grateful for my son's relative health and relative good nature these days. As DS would say: why do you have a problem with my choices?

Today is going to be overcast, but not rainy. We'll grill meat and eat well and maybe sit on the roof to watch fireworks. Problem with that is the whole slanted roof thing.

Too lazy to do any real projects - cleaning the garage does not appeal.

Vacation began yesterday. Let it be.
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true esp stories

2009-06-30T16:35:00.003-05:00

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My office manager swears this is true:

Parishioner: Why doesn't the church ever record my offering?
Office Manager: Oh dear. Do you know your envelope number?
Parishioner: I never use envelopes.
OM: Do you write a check, so we can copy your name and address?
P: No. I just put cash in the plate.

I know this one is true.

Parishioner: Did Mr. B.A. get named in the prayers on Sunday?
Me: No. I didn't know anything about B.A. What happened to him?
P: He was in a car accident. He's the brother of S.A., who was once council president, but he doesn't come to church here anymore.
Me: I'm sorry, I didn't know anything about it. Was Mr. B.A. a member?
P: Oh, no, this happened out of state.

I need to work on my mind-reading skills.
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prayer for the long day

2009-06-21T14:47:00.004-05:00

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A prayer for the long day

Birdsong never stops -
singing praise
Nature overcome with life expands
past its boundaries
Out, Out damn raspberries!
Gratitude is green
Green is everywhere
Too much life around at this moment
of maximum sun
Never too much You.
A mystic appreciation of You in all
green, growing, grassy, grasping life.
And I, called to be one through
green, with You - hesitate.

NK
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a weekend

2009-06-18T23:13:00.003-05:00

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I have a weekend - a real two days off. And my husband is home for the same two days. It's a miracle. Except for vacations, I can't remember when that last happened.

So, tomorrow, carpet cleaning, then go to the park by the big lake, since we have to be out of the house for the carpet to dry. Then maybe grilling out, or maybe eating out, and maybe find out if the outdoor concert which was cancelled tonight is still happening.

It will be nice.

Gotta remember that for most people, this is normal.
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long week

2009-06-16T17:35:00.003-05:00

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It's been a long week - week and a half. And I don't have anything profound to blog about. Just stuff.

Went through assembly without knitting (I had nothing at the right stage to transport). Did a lot of crosswords. Found presenters irritating, not inspiring. "Please turn to your neighbor and discuss what's wrong in your situation.' does not make for happy day. Rushed around for bad food, etc.

Pulled off Trinity week, and did the usual 20 hours in two days. Took the second half of Wednesday off to purchase stuff for the week of the convelescent.

Aquila's surgery went okay - hernia surgery and he had more to fix than they expected. Recovery is going slow. I don't think he'll be back with only a week off of work - or that he should go back that soon. However, he will feel guilty and like he should push himself. I think his co-workers might think about all the times he's covered for them. And no way should he be on call next Monday. He may not even be off the strong drugs and driving by then.

Lots of little things to think about - the day after surgery I had to get back to the office, and then had wedding day and then Sunday. And when does laundry get done, what can he cook for himself, can he even feed the cat?

As we were sitting in recovery I noticed I had a sore throat, which has blossomed into a full-blown cold. Today I'm walking around feeling the sleep waves creeping up on me - all I desire is to nap.

I know this isn't that interesting - my mind is mush.
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why trinity

2009-06-07T16:35:00.002-05:00

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This is a real live pretty much original sermon.

the story about the mom & daughter is from Max Lucado, I edited it a lot.
The idea about gravity is from Glenn McDonald on sermon.com used in another context.

HOLY TRINITY, YEAR B, JUNE 7, 2009, PLC
From slaves to heirs - Isaiah 6:1–8, Romans 8:12–17, John 3:1–17

Today’s lessons are about the great love God has for us.
We call that love, in its totality, the Trinity.
The Trinity is about love. It’s not about right belief, about doctrine – or why would it continue to be important for us today?
It’s not about right action – or we could never, ever work it out.
The Trinity is about right relationship – about love. It’s not so much, at first, that we love each other properly, but the Trinity is to open our eyes and minds to the great desire God has to love us – and for us to love him back.

“God so loved the world.” “Abba, Father.” Even in Isaiah – the wonderful, horrible vision of God in the temple is intended to begin a relationship of love. Isaiah sees the greatness and glory of the Almighty, so that he is aware of his sinfulness and unworthiness – then he is allowed to offer himself for God’s service – and cleansed and blessed in order to speak God’s words of love – God’s corrective words, indeed, but messages from God to God’s people – “I love you and want you back - come home.”

The Trinity is about relationship – about the relationship God has with Godself- as the theologians say – and more important for us – the relationship God has with God’s people.

Here is the thing – The relationship God desires to have with us – in its perfection, it is not simple, it is not a given. “What, must I return to my mother’s womb and be born again!” says Nicodemus. (Yes, Nicodemus, it’s that weird) That’s not something we can do on our own. On our own we are off doing our own thing, off in our own world – the world of desires, of flesh - this is the biblical understanding – we live by the law of self. That is what we are slaves to.

It’s like this - Have you ever been riding in an airplane and suddenly started wondering, "How in the world is this thing staying up in the air?" We can see that ultra-big plane that comes to the air show and wonder - how does that happen? Think about it: Planes are a great deal heavier than air. The law of gravity declares that whatever is heavier than air must be drawn directly toward the center of the earth, must stay on the ground. There is no amount of arm flapping that will make me fly.

The answer is to create wings! Bernoulli's Principle. Airplane wings are curved in such a way that air flows faster above the wing than beneath it. According to Bernoulli's principle, if water or air is flowing faster along one side of an object than the other, the pressure along that side will decrease, and force will be exerted toward the low-pressure side. That's what gives airplane wings their lift.

It took creativity to figure it out.

This is where it gets good – we are drawn down by our sin like gravity – we are there on the ground, unable to fly, because that is the way it is. That’s the slavery that the apostle Paul writes about – that’s the debt of sin, that’s the whole argument of the book of Romans. Yep, says Paul, we are pinned down to the ground by this condition. He says - I don't dow what I want to do, and I do do what I don't want to do. That is the reality of our state as human beings.

And only an incredible, remarkable, miraculous power will make any difference. Only a radically creative act on the part of God will save us. That creative act - that taking on our human nature in the incarnation, the coming of Jesus to us - gives us the wings to soar to become what God desires - allows us to come home.

And that is the why we must believe in the Trinity. The beauty of creation and the awesome holiness of the creator – the loving presence and saving work of Jesus – and the powerful inner and outer direction of the Holy Spirit – all three are necessary to bring us back home. To lift us off the ground, to defy gravity, to take those of us who are slaves to the world - And make us children, and heirs to something eternal.

That’s what the Trinity is about – it’s about our salvation – about a God who not only made the world, but spoke to it – who chose prophets then and now to speak words of correction and love. It’s about a God who so loved the world he became one with it – to understand her pain and to redeem the humble. It’s about a God blows through the world

A story of a runaway – from Max Lucado (as retold)
Imagine a poor village in the third world - imagine a pretty girl who thinks that her future lies in the big city. She slips away - maybe she's been led on by someone else. All her mother knows is that she is gone and that mother's heart is broken.
Knowing what happens to young, pretty girls with no connections or protection in the big city, the mother quickly gathers what money she has, sells what she needs to, and buys a round-trip ticket. And she buys one more thing to take with her.

In the city that mother goes to all the places that the young, the lost and the poor gather - the bars and clubs, the liquor stores and the laundrymats, the hotels and motels. And she visits and leaves something of herself behind at each place.

And sometime later, maybe days or weeks or even months - a girl comes down the stairs at a hotel, ashamed at what she's become and she sees something familar. She sees her mother's picture. That's what her mother spent all her money on - small pictures of herself to be placed all over the big city - each picture with one message on the back - "Come Home."

Max Lucado, No Wonder They Call Him the Savior, Multnomah Press, 1986, pp. 158-9.

That is what the Trinity is about – about a God who loves so much –
he places his photo where his lost children can see it
– in the beauty of the earth,
– in the true love of mother for child, of husband and wives
– in the witness of his people, in the push to open the doors and share the good,
– in the book of his stories, both old and new,
– in the generous acts of charity and love and justice, inspired by his Spirit, working always to redeem.
The photos of God, these hints of God’s Three in One character –
are all around us – to lift us up, to break the bonds and weight of sin -
To soften the hard heart
To forgive the guilty
To honor the forgotten
To comfort the sorrowful
To protect the joyful

Whatever you’ve done – please come home. You need not be a slave – you are a child, and an heir to the kingdom.
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too good not to blog

2009-06-04T18:53:00.003-05:00

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for all you coming to read the serious post about the doctrine of the Trinity.

Sorry.

Making dinner tonight, sauce with Italian sausage and good pasta. Put on good music. Ready to eat. DS arrives. "Hey, mom, I have an embarrassing question. What's going on with my penis?"

The information about Borderline Personality Disorder stresses that one shouldn't discount or disrespect the BP individual by laughing at them. right.

I said, I certainly don't know. He apparently zipped up the aforementioned body part, and now is concerned because there are owies where there were no owies before.

I said, wait until after dinner. (and several glasses of wine). I said, that's something you're going to have to go over with your father. Father looked at me and said - what? I said - it's probably jock itch. Father says - I've never had jock itch. I said, well, if it's round discrete sores, it may be an STD. If it's irregular and a rash, may be jock itch.

After dinner, and several glasses of wine, the decision is that DS should go to the doctor. He says - do I have to go alone? I say: "I'm not going to the clinic and say - my little boy has an owie on his pee-pee." I look up the free clinic, etc. I said - wait, let me get this written down for you. "No, I have to meet someone."

So he doesn't have the info.

I'm drinking more wine.

Oh, I love parenting.
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a preaching journey

2009-06-04T11:12:00.004-05:00

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This weekend is Holy Trinity. I don't like preaching on the Trinity. It's a doctrine - it's not a story. It's a doctrine that I don't understand very well, and I'm conscious that I'm getting one or another side of it wrong if I try to explain it.

And I'm not sure how interested anyone else is in that doctrine, even properly explained.

If folks in the pews had a dime for each time they've heard a preacher say: I can't explain it, but I'll try - they all could go out for brunch.

So, this week I'm approaching Trinity from a side angle. From the Romans text - "From Slaves to Heirs"

This is what I have so far:

Slaves or heirs? – Not a choice, as we usually think about it – children do not choose to be (they can choose not to be) – you find yourself in the position of heir, of son or daughter, of part of the family. You receive and identify, or you rebel and leave. Parents - can un-accept, disinherit - but that is the exception. Parents (most parents) find that love is present for the child as gift, the child as child.

The Pauline response to this is that we are 'adopted' as children, made heirs, because of God's love for us and Christ's work for us. God's love for us becomes love of a parent for a child, not merely the regard of a master for a slave.

(Interesting, most reflections on this passage are speaking of the choices of discipleship, even the Lutheran ones (!) - see the ELCA Daily Discipleship, or the stuff from Sermons.com)

My understanding, and I think it could be justified from Romans, says we are passively ushered into the state of salvation, and grow and live into it. Likewise with the language of being ‘born again’ – other traditions see that as a choice WE make. Lutherans understand it as a blessing God gives and that we receive as gift. All God, all gift, all grace.(And that's the Trinitiran connection - God the Parent is loving, God the Son is our brother, God the Wind is blows us to the direction of joy).

Here is the opening to say we can ‘leave’, we can ‘turn our faces away’ and let the powers of not-God catch our attention. What we control is our attention, our attitude, our receptivity. (?) God is constant in His love for us – we are not constant in our response to Him.

What makes this hard for me personally is that DS is choosing the away path. He is taking the way of the flesh, the hard road of choosing for himself to not cooperate with the 'systems' around him - not economic systems (doesn't want a job) nor moral (cheats, lies, smokes pot, steals) nor emotional (what his dad and I can offer) nor spiritual - 'nuff said. We adopted him, but he is in the process of un-parenting us.

And so the consequences catch up with him. The least of these is poverty. The worst - I don't want to speculate.

As a speaker I go for the promise, not to the condemnation. I see and I know the dark side of this argument.

What do I say on Sunday?
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13 ways to deal with me

2009-05-27T19:26:00.004-05:00

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Today I heard the old complaint "When you get short with me". It's old. Others have said it to me. So it must be true, at some level. But during this conversation these thoughts went through my head:

"What do you do that causes me to be short with you?"
"Why am I the one who has/is the problem?
"Why do I have to have the thick skin, infinite patience and deep understanding?"

So: 13 ways to deal with me:
1) Don't accost me when I walk in the door, or are heading out of the door to somewhere else, expecting a cordial decision. Let me get my coat off! Or understand that I'm supposed to be somewhere. Your bad planning is not my emergency.
2) Please get to the point.
3) Please get to the 2nd point in the same discussion.
4) Don't interrupt me when I'm in conversation with someone else. I'll extend the same courtesy to you. Ask me to get back to you. I will.
4b) I'll let one interruption pass. Two will tick me off.
5) I love to brainstorm and be creative. I can also give advice. I can also tell you what to do. Let me know what works for you this time.
6) Remember what I've told you, especially if you asked for the information/decision. And if you asked, let me know if you're not going to use it.
7) CYA is not a bad thing. Remind me of our decisions/conversations in writing.
8) Don't lie.
9) Be careful about dropping the ball. But at least clean up after yourself. Ask for help if you need it. There is usually a Plan B.
10) No surprises. No unpleasant surprises. Good ones are okay.
11) Ask me to reconsider if you think I'm flying off the handle. My high emotions (temper) has a half-life of about 3 hours.
12) Don't hold grudges about me. I usually move on (although trust may become an issue if we have a history). I spend time in prayer to understand others.
13) Even if it is unpleasant, let's talk face to face. Don't go behind my back. Talk to me (jsut not on the run).

So, it's onward and upward in the realm of human relations!
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a few extra days

2009-05-26T20:31:00.003-05:00

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A lovely couple of extra days. The Eagle had a test today so I ran him around.

Went out to get a new journal in order to have a space to explore the questions about shall I go or shall I stay? And if I stay, what shall I explore?

If I am having a three-year restlessness - I want to be delibrate about developing the next step, the next project, the next chapter. I've drifted before, and I've allowed others to determine how I spend my time. That's real common in the parish, I think.

Now I have the opportunity to write my own calendar - it's time to spend some time with myself and ask those questions.

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interesting sunday

2009-05-24T19:37:00.009-05:00

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I was out of town - on vacation in Chicago (very nice, saw the new Art Institute building, drank way too much wine with my lil sis) - until Saturday afternoon and wrote my sermon that afternoon. That is really late for me.

I'm not really happy with the sermon - but the final image came to me at the last minute, and I added pictures for the big screen. I liked the last part, so did others.

So here it is - with pictures.

Easter 7 B, May 24, 2009 – “An Identity to last” John 17:6–19

(An Identity to last – you are the person Jesus prayed FOR)

I teased D. about this Sunday’s topic. I wanted him to dress up like a king – march in with a crown and a purple cape (I’m not sure how I would have found one long enough) and have him knight our youngest worshippers. The king or queen alone can make a knight or a dame – That authority, to change the status of a person, rests only with those with the highest power and respect.

At that point – you have an additional identity – you are ennobled. Just like kings of old could nominate a follower for higher status – so Jesus calls out his disciples in at the end of his ministry. We are given an identity – and identity that lasts – we are called his friends. We are ‘his’ and because of that we are God’s. We are part of God’s family and we are part of God’s on-going mission.

This is the time of year when some people celebrate graduations – significant transitions that hold both excitement about a new future, and a poignant sense of goodbye. Completing high school or college or graduate school ushers the individual into being someone new – it is a moment of identity change. You can’t go back. In the same way those who participate in the military understand – once in, always changed.

And for the church – for the faithful, it should be the same. Once Jesus is real for you, once you have come to know the Lord, you are always changed. You have a new identity that will last – beyond all others – beyond death itself

We are God’s children, Jesus’ friends…and for us Jesus gave his life. And in John’s Gospel, Jesus, knowing what is to come, offers this prayer that we are allowed to overhear. It occurs right after Jesus’ last supper with his disciples. He has washed their feet and given them his last teaching for them. Now he prays to God.

His prayer is for those Jesus leaves behind. It is for those disciples who lived 2,000 years ago and for the believer today…you and me… we who live complicated and layered lives, who carry many titles and identities. Jesus prays for you and me – (1) to remain in him, (2) to be safe, (3) to be one, (4) to be transformed.

He prays that God will protect the believers from the evil one. Jesus sees the evil one as a real threat – should we not at least take notice of this?

We think we are strong, and smart, and too modern for such old-fashioned language – but maybe the evil one knows that and adapts to our blind spot. Lutherans believe that sin is real – but don’t forget, we also believe that we have a most powerful advocate – and can return daily to the miracle of the baptismal washing.

So Jesus prays that God will be with us in the world. Jesus then asks that the disciples will be one. And Jesus prays that we will have joy.

All these things are mixed together – it’s clear that the continuing presence of God is a gift, the grace of God, that will move in us to be united – to love each other – and that in process of being united we will find joy. Personally, I think we find this in worship – when we gather with a common purpose and learn to put ourselves aside for a short time, to focus on the One great Gift of God. Someone once said that singing is the only time on this side of heaven when many can occupy the same space.

Jesus’ final request is that we be sanctified in the truth.

Sanctification is a word we don’t use often. Remember, it means purified or made holy. This is not something Lutherans have been comfortable with in reference to ourselves, because we are usually focused on the reality of not being perfect before God. But here it is – in Jesus’ prayer – that we be set apart and shaped by the truth.

Last Sunday John and I finished watching Masterpiece Mystery, and since it was some time like 9:20 – we stayed to watch the next program. You know how PBS catches you that way. The program was about glass-blowing. A famous artist and designer called his friends together to re-create some of his most beautiful glass designs.

We were fascinated – these talented artisans took ordinary stuff – sand, chemicals, black wooden tools, simple iron tongs and snips, and pulled and manipulated and blew and even danced with the molten glass to create objects of stunning beauty. Out of ordinary stuff of life comes incredible beauty. There, I realized was a parable for our sanctification.

That is what Jesus desires for us, that we become things of beauty
– that our lives – the ordinary stuff of our lives
– the relationships, the stories, the work, the sleep, the time alone, the time together – the joys and the sorrows, the high celebrations and deep, deep sadness – all work together to make us more like Jesus – to set us apart , to make us fit for God.

This happens when we walk with God on a daily basis. We have to submit to the tools that he uses. It happens when we consciously turn toward God and accept God’s love. We turn our lives over to him as the stuff of his art.

It is the living life fully, with all its joys and sorrows, we open ourselves to God. In the process God transforms us – puts us into the furnace that is life, and dances with us to make us his own work of art.

May we all be protected from evil. May we truly love one another. May we have true joy! And may you be set apart -- sanctified – be a beautiful vessel in service of God. Amen.

Images are of Dale Chihuly Glass. The film was "Chilhuly in the HotShop" Watch it if you can - it's fascinating.
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reflection on sundays in may

2009-05-17T19:48:00.004-05:00

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Last Sunday was Mother's day and this Sunday was confirmation. This year I'm stuck in pensive reflection because of what we don't have. My son did make brunch and show up for dinner and he said happy Mother's day. But . . . it's not about his looks, but he looks like a street person. But . . . it's not about accomplishments, but he has no job and isn't looking for one. It's not about money, but we've been putting about 1/4 of his dad's income into his support. He's not in school. He's waiting for a court date.

Confirmation hurts because he was never confirmed. He was already in trouble with the law by 14. Sometimes fellow clergy have said: "I want to talk to your son - I'd like to get to know him." And I think they think they can 'reach him' - because, you know, they are so good with troubled young men. The only contact MP had with him was picking me up at the house a couple of years ago, at the end of one of his rages and hearing his profanity-laced diatribe at me. He hasn't suggested speaking to my son since.

Tonight I laid out two courses. One course is to connect with someone I know who is a former job coach. She has been supportive and not judgmental toward us. If he would do this and work the program, we would continue support. The other course is that I identify a time for him to vacate his apartment, move him into his car, and clean up the apartment so I'm not liable for damages.

He said: Okay, I'm leaving now.

Considering his history, I should be happy he didn't come at me in a rage. If he is borderline I should expect some kind of crisis now - we'll see. If he's sociopathic, he's work this offer to his own advantage. Do I think he's take it at face value and see it as the helping hand it's supposed to be?

Unfortunately, that's not been our experience.

These Sundays do not speak to heart.
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opening the door

2009-05-15T23:06:00.003-05:00

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I've always had some reservations about having friends from our churches. A few times, it's worked, but never lasted. Other times, the friends turned out to be folks who wanted something - wanted some level of influence, or an inside track to complain, or something like that.

Rarely have I found folks who just wanted to get to know me, or us as a couple.

We may have found that. We accepted an invite about two months ago. And returned the invite for folks to come here - and they did. And we had a great time, played games, spoke some about our son, and were honest, and did not feel shamed. It felt really good.

We did not speak of church at all. Like real people, we acknowledged our faith, we prayed over the meal, and mentioned faith now and then, but not the institution, not the issues, the stress, etc.

A lot of things felt right. They were willing to come by us - often these couple relationships fall apart because it's one-sided - we may invite, but they never invite back, or we have been invited, but they won't come to where we live.

Being honest about our son - yes, he was in treatment for AODA, & in the 'place up north' that people from this state know about - and there was no silence, or even 'oh, so sorry.' It just was accepted. That was huge.

So, a good evening. Yes. Praise God.
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little things

2009-05-06T15:12:00.004-05:00

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It's the little things.

It's the things I don't control.

I can only control how I respond.

It's having this conversation.

Confirmation Coordinator: "We had a pretty good year. I only wish we had some goals or some vision statement so we have a sense of the bigger picture of what we're doing. Parents don't seem to understand why we ask for what we ask."

Me: "Ah, when you started last summer I gave you a file with all the work from the task force that looked at that issue in 2007. There were all the notes, the final vision statement, the yearly goals and objectives and the 5 year plan. I also sent you the orientation PowerPoint with that same material on it to share with the parents."

Later that week: Confirmation Coordinator: "Oh, I can't find that yellow file, do you still have that material?"

And yesterday, when I looked on the computer - all my confirmation documents are gone. Just gone. Not there. Not in back-up either. I don't know what happened.

It's having this situation. Tonight I have to discuss faith statements with 4 high school students. I was told that student X had her statement in, and it was a good one. I said to student X last week - looking forward to seeing your statement and talking to you. Now I was told yesterday that student X doesn't have her paper in. MP said to me - I'll call. Today at staff, MP turns to Youth Director and says: "did you call?" Youth Director, who was at church with me until almost 9 last night. "No I didn't, but I texted them just now - 10:30 a.m."

I can only control how I respond.

I desire to give people a piece of my ear. But that would only make folks look at me as a shrew. I'm sitting tight until I can formulate how to respond.

How to say truth in love - "you ignored the materials I gave you, and the work that I and others had done on that very topic of vision and goals. I'm sorry you felt you weren't supported that way, but the materials were there for you."

"I'm disappointed there wasn't earlier and firmer followup with these statements. I counted on you to do what you had said. Between Monday morning and Tuesday bed-time I put in 21 hours, and you put in 7 - but I would have made the phone calls if you had asked."

And there are more troubling situations on the horizon. Sigh. the questions remain - how am i best to do the work?
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annoyance and maturity

2009-05-04T08:28:00.003-05:00

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Not responding out of annoyance is a sign of maturity.

Pastors are supposed to be mature.

So, don't express annoyance with the baptism family that just requested a complete schedule of who presides and who does music for 2 months, so they can get the pastor they want preaching and the music they like. At least they didn't ask for the schedule to be changed. Yet.

Especially when I am pretty sure I've never seen them at the type of service they claim to prefer.

Of course, I'm the pastor they are trying to avoid. (They are not explaining why - may be gender, may be style, may be pleasing other people.)

Mature adults do not let being annoyed dictate their actions.

Sooo, I'm going to calm down and deal with this later.

Did i say that all this has occured via e-mail? Sent very early this a.m. to forstall the phone call I promised to make?

Does it sound like there may be something else going on that isn't about me or about the church?

Hmm
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Sermon - Good shepherd & deep magic

2009-05-03T18:59:00.004-05:00

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A shorter than usual sermon, since the Gideons were speaking. (and our Gideon was - Excellent! Great stories, great delivery, passionate!) The sermon inspiration was "Tough Love" by Richard Moore, on-line at the Winderemere Centre in England)

Easter 4B, May 3, 2009
Acts 4:5–12, Psalm 23, 1 John 3:16–24, John 10:11–18

What a gift these lessons are! On this Sunday we think about our Great Shepherd. We are far from shepherds, and most of us far from sheep. The reality of this occupation in the time of Jesus was much different from our Sunday School story or the religious art we see. It wasn’t an image with clean feet and robes and a nicely trimmed beard. Shepherds were rough, mostly solitary, and fierce.

Fierce and tough. Look at what Jesus says. The shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Not that the shepherd just takes care of the sheep, not the shepherd just gets them fed and watered – this Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. This is how we know we are out of the realm of pretty pictures – out of the realm of typical occupational behavior. Most shepherds would NOT die for the flock – they would let that wolf take one or two.

No, this is more. This is a prediction of the Passion – pointing to the cross. This is pointing to the extraordinary events that would follow in the life of the disciples – Jesus would go to the cross, and he would be glorified. In the gospel of John glorification does not mean what we might think – It does not mean beams of light and power and angels bringing good news. In the gospel of John ‘glorification’ looks a lot like defeat. Glorification – the goal of Jesus life and ministry – looks a lot like death by execution. Death on the cross. 17For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.

Now the cross was not loved, not seen as a symbol of anything but pain. For centuries the cross was not part of Christian Art, was not painted or depicted, did not become part of jewelry. It was too painful. It was there, it was known about – but it was part of the mystery of what God has done – for us.

Because Jesus was a volunteer. He chose this path, and demonstrated God’s fierce love for his people. God acted – decisively – in love and power. That is what Jesus is pointing at. That is love.

"We know love when we see it" – and we see in Jesus, the Good Shepherd, doing more than providing, although he does that, doing more than comforting, although he does that – he saves – he gives away his life. He lays down his life.

And in the Gospel, this kind of love is transferred to those who believe. We are not just recipients of this love, we are to embody it ourselves. Love one another, as I have loved you. This fierce love, this powerful gift, is for you and me.

Love is tough. It is the sort of love that is embodied (literally) in the shepherd who provides for the sheep and protects them with his life against wild beasts. We know love, says the apostle John, when we see it - and we see it in Jesus laying down his life for us (v16). But that means that those of us who live because of that love ought to live by it.

In the same family of writers we hear: 16We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us — and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. 17How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
18Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.

In truth and action – think of the ways, the many ways we can love in truth and action – you heard about the work of the Gideons, still necessary – maybe even more necessary these days.

The first Sunday of the month is food ingathering day – but any day, every day, there are hungry people in our community. We are worried about the flu – but shouldn’t we be even more concerned about the children who are malnourished and needy? Should we not be thinking about ways to help families get health care coverage, to improve and correct the inequities in our rich society?

I have other sheep, says Jesus. Yes, he does, and we have been given a responsibility to learn fierce love, to extend the blessings we have received to them.

To be “in Jesus” and to have Jesus abiding “in us” means that we will be those who, having experienced God’s love in Christ, live it out

in world-transforming, community-shaping actions
that are the work of the same Spirit that was “abiding” in Jesus.
If we follow the Good Shepherd, we will be shepherds to others and to the world.

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I wonder how much of the power of the passage from the Gospel of John as been de-fanged by our seeing it relationship to Psalm 23. Look at what Jesus is saying - that's way beyond the shepherd of Psalm 23 - this is about more than safety and reward and comfort. This is about life and death and fighting off the wolves and letting the wolves kill the shepherd for the sake of the sheep.

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want" - The Good Shepherd will die for the sheep.
"he leads me, comforts me etc." - The Good's Shepherd's blood will save the sheep.

This is deep stuff.
Deep magic.
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