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Easter People in a Good Friday World

"Easter People in a Good Friday World"

The Easter Sermon preached by Don Portwood on April 12, 2009 as Lyndale Church worshiped for the first time (without Salem Church) in our new meeting space at Intermedia Arts.

Mark 16:1-8
When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.
And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the
entrance to the tomb?”

When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.

As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them,

“Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you
will see him, just as he told you.”

So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
###

The sun had risen, slowly like something was holding it back. The women had gathered even earlier with the spices they needed to anoint the body. Someone had to do it. The men had all fled or gone into hiding. But those women were already thinking ahead. Wondering how in heavens name they would move that stone from the entrance to the tomb. Could they do it together…would they need others…or a pole and lever to get it moved.

Perhaps it was the early rays of that sun crawling slowly above the eastern horizon that illuminated the tomb…and the stone…now rolled back. And inside - in the cool, dank, shadowed cave…not the body of the one they loved…not the body of the one they had learned from, followed, seen die a horrible death, removed from the cross…not Jesus…..but a young man in a white robe…sitting on the right side of the tomb.

“Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his
disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you”.

So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Now What?

Happy Easter to you too. That’s how Mark’s gospel ends. That’s our Easter story for this morning. Why would Mark leave that ending in there? His gospel was written years
after that Easter morning. Was the end of the scroll worn off and lost…so that a second century writer added the ending that no one thinks is original.

Does verse 8 end or begin the story?
Now what?
What a great Bulletin Cover.
No appearance in this story…just an announcement. Now What? What happens? What do we do? What should we think?

Based on what those women had experienced the week before, seeing Jesus betrayed, arrested…and killed by the religious and political powers dominating their land at the
time, they had every reason to fear for themselves, for what in heaven’s name was going on…and run…run in terror and run in wonder…and remain silent.

But our vantage point is 2000 years later…we know verse 8 begins the story or at least continues it. We’ve read and experienced…known intellectually and at a deep body level
what this story is trying to tell.

That it took a while for people to experience Jesus’ resurrection. We’ve been raised on this story…seen it happen in people around us, lived through crucifixion and resurrection
ourselves. Life over death. The tomb was empty…Jesus present with them in a way they could only explain through the metaphors of their day…resurrection. Jesus is risen!

And through the language of their day…Jesus is Lord..not Caesar, not the emperor or queen or president or governor. Jesus is Lord. That’s a radical political confession.

And love is stronger than death, justice stronger than injustice …the arc of history bends toward justice and we know whose finger is pressing on the arc. The good Friday crucifixion of Jesus, the domination powers of religion and government – all the crucifixions of oppression and disease, violence and injustice --all are now seen through new eyes…vindicated by the God of love and compassion…they are not the final word.
Those women, silent on that first day of the week, remained silent no longer and with that small band of followers of Jesus…transformed themselves and transformed their world – for over the next days and weeks and months, they discovered in a new way that Love is stronger than death.

That the one who was crucified, was still present with them, providing courage in the struggle for justice and peace…his presence in trial and rejoicing – and eternal life in his realm which has no end....alleluia!

Now What?
What a great bulletin cover. How appropriate for us to. We’ve had a 5-6 year goal/dream/plan to be free of the building that had been our home for 85 years on 31st &
Aldrich. Lovely, but unsustainable. Beautiful, but always grabbing our energy..and sucking it into tuckpointing, replacing the roof, windows, boiler, parking lot, fuel.

Now What?
Now what for Lyndale Church...our second Sunday in this building...our first Sunday worshiping by ourselves. Now What?

Yesterday I received an email – a poem really from Doug Malchow, who headed up the move out of the building. Joyce led the organization of our history materials. They spent the last 3 months almost living at old Lyndale. I didn’t ask for permission to read the email…because Joyce wanted a surprise on Easter..and this might be it.

9:44 Saturday morning--Doug and Joyce are sitting at the table eating hot-crossed buns and mango.
The car is still in the garage and not packed with boxes and tools.
The computer is not spitting out a new inventory list.
The cell phone is not turned on!
Joyce is calm!
Doug is calm!
Is it really done??
OK so what do we do
on a "free" Saturday.
Reprogram!
Rethink!

And so we will - reprogram, rethink. Aware that at times of huge change like leaving that building - our tendency (like those women at the tomb in Mark’s story) - is to run away in fear and keep silent. But we also know that something bigger is moving us, calling us, challenging and loving us.

Moving us courageously into life and death…into the tomb and the injustice….into the Good
Friday worlds we all live in, worlds with death of loved ones and disease, injustice and inequality, homelessness and violence, war and inhumane immigration policies. Where life is not fair, hearts are broken and lives are shattered.

Reprogram and rethink….that’s what we’re always called to do as the church of Jesus Christ. That’s what we’ve been doing for 125 years as Lyndale Church in the Lyn/Lake
neighborhood.

But we do it from our perspective as Easter People…people on this side of the resurrection – who know that death/oppression/injustice are not the final word. That Jesus lives, life reigns, love is stronger than fear or death or oppression.

We can’t be quiet, say nothing to anyone. We have a story to tell and too many people are looking for a church that tells it the way we do. We have no big building on 31st &
Aldrich with signs out front saying we are Open and Affirming and a Just Peace Church any more, that we favor marriage equality and want more Iowas and Vermonts. We can not be
quiet. There is too much work that needs to be done to transform our selves and our world. We cannot be silent. The only way people will find out we’re worshiping here on
Sunday mornings is the internet. And YOU. You saying something about this faithful little band of followers meeting in the building at 2822 Lyndale with the murals and
graffiti until our new space is ready at 28th & Lyndale.

You might mention to them that the front of the building has a resurrection scene on it…designed by the kids and teachers from Waite House Neighbor Center who were on the 35 W bridge on August 1, 2007 that fell into the Mississippi River. “Build bridges”, it says, “not fences”. We’re sharing space with other people who are practicing resurrection…using
art for healing and breaking down the walls that divide us.

There are Easter people on the loose….be of good courage. Death/oppression/injustice is
not the final word. Emmanuel, God is with us. Life reigns. Love is stronger. It’s a new day. Everyday is a new day. Practice Resurrection.

Soul Time - sermon by Don Portwood

Matthew 4:1-11
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.' But he answered, 'It is written,
"One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." '
Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, 'If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,
"He will command his angels concerning you",
and "On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone." '
Jesus said to him, 'Again it is written, "Do not put the Sovereign your God to the test." '
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
’Worship the Sovereign your God, and serve only God.’”
Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

SOUL TIME
Ash Wednesday began the season of Lent.
Lent is the 40 days before Easter, not counting Sundays.
It has always been seen as a preparation for Easter.
The name Lent comes from the word lengthen…as the days lengthen in the northern hemisphere, but that’s not what lent is about.
There is nothing said about lent in the Bible. It’s a practice of the early church.

I learned in seminary that lent was the traditional time the early church took in new disciples or new members.
They had a discipleship program that went on during lent, then the new disciples were baptized on Easter.
It became a time of renewal for the entire church, as the older disciples also went through the same process with the new ones and so for them, lent was a time of renewal.
The UCC website quotes a sermon by Barbara Brown Taylor, “Lenten Discipline," in which she gives a wonderful description of how Lent came to be.
“Many years after Jesus had not returned as quickly as expected,
church folks "decided there was no contradiction between being comfortable
and being Christian, and before long it was hard to pick them out from among the population at large.
They no longer distinguished themselves by their bold love for one another.
They did not get arrested for championing the poor. They blended in.
They avoided extremes.
They decided to be nice instead of holy and God moaned out loud.

The church dug deep into its faith story, recalling the time (always with the number forty involved) that Israel, Elijah, and Jesus each spent in the desert, wandering and suffering, longing and learning: hungry and lonely.

"So the church announced a season of Lent…an invitation to a springtime of the soul," Taylor writes, "Forty days to cleanse the system and open the eyes to what remains when all comfort is gone…to remember what it is like to live by the grace of God alone and not by what we can supply ourselves."

Then as now, folks had their "pacifiers," as Taylor calls them, all the things and ways that we keep ourselves from feeling what it means to be human, even if that means being in pain or being afraid.

Our pacifiers can convince us that we don't really need God.
In fact, Taylor believes that just about all of us struggle with an addiction, "anything we use to fill the empty place inside of us that belongs to God alone.

That hollowness we sometimes feel is not a sign of something gone wrong.
It is the holy of holies inside of us, the uncluttered room of the Sovereign our God. Nothing on earth can fill it, but that does not stop us from trying.”

So here’s this story of Jesus, just beginning his ministry,
baptized in the Jordan by John.
He hears those wonderful words that we all need to hear too,
“You are my beloved child with you I am well pleased”,
and what does God’s Spirit do? Leads him into the wilderness.

For 40 days he fasts and prays….hungry and alone.
It’s there Jesus wrestles with who he is and how he will carry that ministry out…
is it about himself or others? Will he use special tricks? Who really is he serving?

Whether there was a devil tempting Jesus or not….
this story makes a lot more sense for my spiritual growth,
if I understand it as being the devil inside him, his shadow side.

What do I mean by shadow?

The Shadow, is a psychological term introduced by the late Swiss psychiatrist, Dr. Carl Jung. It is everything in us that is:
unconscious,
repressed,
undeveloped
and denied.

The Shadow is an archetype.
It’s a collectively unconscious idea, pattern or thought present in everyone. Everyone has a Shadow. Yes, probably even Jesus too.
This is not something that one or two people have, or just bad people.
We all have a Shadow.

And spiritual mystics or psychologists have always said
a confrontation with the Shadow is essential for self awareness for growth,
for living faithfully.
We cannot learn about ourselves if we do not learn about our Shadow.
That I believe is what this story of Jesus in the wilderness is about.

The Season of Lent then is Soul Time.
It’s the season, 40 days, to ask that that old Quaker question,
How is it with my soul? How is it with your soul?

Lent is this soul time set aside by the early church for renewal and growth,
for doing the hard work of being Christian and human:
loving and caring for self, others and God.

Though our wilderness or desert times may come, not just during Lent,
but as issues arise around
1) relationships we have or don’t have,
2) issues of family,
3) health,
4) aging,
5) work or not working,
6) friends and community,
7) the church.
8) you fill in the blank.

Lent is Soul Time, “A time of looking in - to see how we are…
how it is with our soul.
Not how is the face we show to the world, but how it is with our soul,
that soul that only we know and often repress.

Lent is the season to become aware of and look at our shadow,
our anxieties, fears, recognizing the draw it has, the power over us.

It’s a hard time of trusting God, relying on God
and sitting with the loneliness, hunger, grief, desires,
difficult stuff we usually try and stuff back down with
food, tv, shopping, staying busy, drinking… whatever our pacifier might be.

That’s hard to do. Many of you know the loss my family experienced this summer with the death of our two day old grandson. My son Ben had come home from Spain to be with his brother for the birth. Ben has studied meditation. He let me know there were times his brother Matt was in grief and pain, and Ben would say, “Sit with it. Sit down, face into it. Sit in silence with it. Don’t give in to getting busy, doing something, playing music, making music. Sit with it.”

Those are words for us too, “Sit with it.
Don’t give into that feeling that leads you to that bag of processed unhealthy food, the x rated website, that decision to stay home rather than serving at Simpson or signing up for Families Moving Forward,
all the other pacifiers: tv, shopping, drinking, that we use to cut the pain.”

Sit with that feeling. Surround yourself with those words,
“I am God’s beloved Child, with whom God is pleased”. Dialogue with that feeling of love and that feeling of hunger, loneliness, fear, anger, anxiety.

If we don’t deal with out own shadow, it has a way of coming out.
Look at the people in your life who annoy you, irritate you, "push your buttons" causing you to move into judgment.
In actuality we may be reacting to our own self-projections.
It would be too horrifying to hate a part of ourselves,
so it is easier and safer to negate a trait in ourselves and project it on another.
If that wasn’t the case, often we could just observe some experiences
and not get so caught up in them. We would not be taking things so personally.

Facing into your shadows allows you to ask the question, "Why am I triggered here?” How does this relate to me?"

We project our stuff as individuals and we do this as a nation.
It’s probably part of what’s happening in this nation with fear of muslims or islamo facists or undocumented workers.
Our fear is projected onto others in a way that triggers a much bigger reaction than may be rational.

It takes courage to accept the possibility
that we may have these negative traits in common with people we dislike
and even more courage to spend time in the wilderness or dessert
of our unconscious dealing faithfully, lovingly with them.

But the people who drive us crazy can be out best teachers
and if we can identify that part within us, own it,
and then allow ourselves to disengage from it,
we can move into self-acceptance and acceptance of the other.

Two important suggestions:
1) Come at your shadow from that foundation of love…you are God’s beloved child…all of you is loved, even the parts you can’t admit to yourself, let alone anyone else. You’ve got to love your shadow to health, not repress or hate it.
2) remember in this process it’s difficult to do this by yourself. Shadow work is hard work. Call me, call a friend…Let me, let them know you’re working on some tough stuff and you want someone to check in…or be able to be called when it tough going.

Lent’s not just about giving up meat and eating fish, it’s 40 days of soultime, in the wilderness and desert:
A time to dialogue lovingly with your self and your shadow self.

So turn off the tv, the music, the political pundits…face into the shadow, the anxiety, the voices that you hate…
and you will discover, like Jesus,
that the end result makes you more loving, more transformed, more healed, more able to minister in this world.

And you discover your own ministering angels.
And that these shadows of fear and anxiety,
we think of as those horrible parts of us,
can transform into their own angels of light within us.
May it be so.

While It Was Still Dark

PASTOR’S COLUMN
Don Portwood
Don Portwood

In the other three gospel accounts of the Easter story, Mary Magdalene is the first woman mentioned, along with other women, who go to the tomb early in the morning to anoint Jesus dead body with spices. This morning in John’s gospel, it’s only Mary Magdalene, going alone (with no spices)…. early in the morning…. to the tomb, while it was still dark.

She’s unaware yet, that love is stronger than death…but she heads out anyway, early in the morning, while it was still dark, dark outside and dark inside, no street lights to guide her way, the sun waiting below the horizon, not even the morning glow of hope to accompany here.

She was alone. Alone in the darkness with her grief and loss,
her fears and anger. Her teacher, her master, her Jesus, her hope had been killed crucified by the religious authorities and the empire. But on she walked, while it was still dark
to the graveyard, to the cave, to the place they had placed Jesus’ crucified body, to be near, to be close to where his body was;
in the dark, in the shock and grief,
by the grave, in her pain and anger and tears.

While it was still dark. Isn’t that about where we start this morning?
As a nation in the dark, in grief, in anger, in shock?

Still fighting a war founded on lies
after 5 years, hundreds of thousands of deaths, soldiers and civilians wounded, disabled, losing limbs,
experiencing life changing head traumas from the explosions
of cars and IED’s and people.

Led by an administration whose dreams of empire still try to tell us
That this war has been a successful endeavor, though the financial cost of this war, 12 billion dollars a month
is affecting every facet of life in this nation, especially for those who aren’t rich, who haven’t benefited by an economy and policies tilted in favor of the rich. While it was still dark.
Lights go out in home after home,
in a tidal wave of home foreclosures whose root cause is the deregulation of the banking industry.

While it was still dark, our lazy media, anxious for any news in the 6 week lull
before the next democratic primary in Pennsylvania, pounce on a few words out of the millions of a UCC preacher in Chicago, accusing him of hate speech and hating white people.
This is the same Pastor – who when asked before a worship service
to greet 10 German Christians who were visiting Trinity Church that morning, not only greeted them, but spoke and prayed with them in German, then during the service, introduced them to the rest of the church, again speaking to them in German and then had the choir
change one of their anthems and sing God’s praise in German (Wunderbar, Sie Nommen Wunderbar! Wonderful, Your name is Wonderful).
Tears came to some of the guests' eyes. Radical hospitality. That is a different reality from the characterization of the church and pastor as hateful or separatist.
But while it is still dark, this brother in Christ gets demonized without ever taking the time to look at what he said or why he may have said it.

While it was still dark. My list could go on and on. That’s when Mary and you and I and the religious authorities and administration and media start out this morning.

And it’s still dark when Mary gets to the tomb. She can’t see much,
but she can see or feel that the stone
that covered the opening to that cave that held the body of the one she loved has been moved from the mouth of the cave.

And she knows either by intuition or by touch that Jesus body isn’t in the cave, that someone’s done something with it. So she’s returns home, in the dark, in the pain, in the grief and shock and anger to tell somebody who maybe can do something.

She probably ran to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them,
'They have taken the Sovereign out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.'
Scared and angry. How much more of this do we have to take?
How much longer do we have to tolerate this craziness?
Why would they do that? To him? To us?

######

Thank God for this next section of scripture. It’s almost as if John put some comic relief into the story
to break up the intensity for his reader.
“Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb.
The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter
and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there,
but he did not go in.

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb.
He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.”

This section reminds me of an old episode from Seinfeld where Jerry runs into one of his old high-school classmates, someone Jerry beat in a race their senior year of school.
That’s all the guy wants to talk about, the race and how Jerry starting running before the gun went off.

In this morning’s scripture, you can just see John and Peter leaving together and running toward the tomb. John is faster and just happens to point out that he reached the tomb first. John looks in to the tomb. The darkness has begun to scatter now and the long rays from the eastern horizon are beginning to brighten the darkness of the cave. “John bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.”
Because by now, Peter, has arrived.
He wasn’t the fastest runner, but by the time this gospel was written,
he was the head of the church and so he needed to have the privilege
of entering the tomb first. “Then Simon Peter came, following him (probably breathing pretty hard),
and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.
“Then the other disciple, John himself, who reached the tomb first
(mentioning this for the third time), also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”

What a great interlude. A foot race. A winner. Peter enters the tomb first,
sees the grave clothes rolled up separately, but no body of Jesus.
He sees, but doesn’t believe.
Then out of respect for Peter, John enters behind Peter. He sees the same thing as Peter and believes. It’s unclear what he believes, but he believed something; “for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” Then the disciples returned to their homes. And we know nothing! We’re still in the dark.

But this story isn’t about John and Peter, it’s about Mary, so after that historical and comic interlude to let Peter enter the tomb first, we get back to Mary, who is back at the opening of the tomb. We don’t know whether she ran with Peter and John to get back there, or against her better judgment walked the painful walk of grief, one foot in front of the other, until she arrived back at the graveside. Aware this time that Jesus body wouldn’t be there.

Peter and John returned to their homes. Why didn’t Mary? What was it that allowed her to hang in there, by the empty tomb? What mustard seed of faith or faithfulness or love or fortitude kept her there by that empty grave while Peter and John went home?

Peter saw, but didn’t believe. John saw and believed something. Mary saw the same thing and hung in there, persevered in the grief.
“But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’
She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Sovereign, and I do not know where they have laid him.’”

Maybe it was to have been her last look in the tomb before she turned to go back home. One last look,
one final memory to imprint on her brain that would last her a lifetime. This is the last place I saw him. So in the midst of the tears, she bent over to look into the tomb. Only
this time it wasn’t empty, but full of a strange presence, two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. Speaking to her they asked her why she was weeping. She didn’t say, “Because Jesus has been crucified”.
She said, “Because I expected his body here this morning, but someone’s taken it away. I just wanted to be near him, close to him and now I can’t even to that”.

“When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there,
but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’”

Mary hung in there through the pain, the confusion, the anger and shock, the grief covered with tears. Stayed longer than anyone else at the graveside and now is asked a second time by someone she doesn’t recognize, “Woman why are you weeping?” And again her response is simply, “Just tell me where his body is and I’ll deal with it. I’ll deal with it.” But this time, the unrecognized one says her name, “Mary”.

#######
Mary didn’t see and believe, she heard and believed! Heard her name said in a way that only he could say it, had said it before, with love and grace, strength and challenge. Said her name in a way that brought out the best in her,
the love in her, the grace in her, the compassion in her. And she knew now - deep within her, that it was the Teacher in her presence. “Rabbouni!”

But now he wasn’t just there for her, not for her alone to hold and cling to, but for the world. Jesus said to her, “‘Do not hold on to me,
because I have not yet ascended to the Father/Mother. But go to my brothers and sisters and say to them,
‘I am ascending to the one who created me, to the one who created you, to my God and your God.’”

This time I’m pretty sure that Mary ran, with feet that never touched the ground, having heard, having seen, knowing now that, though love is what got Jesus killed by the principalities and the powers,
they don’t have the final word. For love is stronger than death! Knowing now that though love is what got Jesus killed by the principalities and the powers,
they don’t have the final word,
for love is stronger than death!

The light that shone that morning into the darkness of her grief, the darkness of the grace, the darkness of our nation, that light can never be overcome.
Mary ran home with a new song, a new heart, a new purpose and a new trust that nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God,
known to us in Christ Jesus our Sovereign, neither height nor depth nor principalities nor powers, nor war, nor foreclosures, nor death nor life,
nor anything in all creation. “She ran and announced to the disciples,
‘I have seen the Sovereign’;
and she told them that he had said these things to her.” And so must we!

(Your name here) __________, run home with a new song, a new heart,
a new purpose and a new trust that nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Sovereign, neither height nor depth nor principalities nor powers, nor war, nor foreclosure,
nor death, nor life, nor anything in all creation. Jesus has called us by name and sent us to share what we have seen and heard and know. Love is stronger than death! Tell others! Hang in there through the grief, the pain,
the war, the economy, the craziness
and live what you’ve seen and heard.

Do not fear the darkness! Be healed!
Love your enemies! Change the world!
Love is stronger than death, forever!

“We’ve Been Here Before”

The sermon preached by Don Portwood at the Farewell to the Building Service on March 22,
2009

Psalm 107:1-5, 17-22
Give thanks for YHWH’s goodness; God's love endures forever! Let those be the words of YHWH’s redeemed, those redeemed from the oppressor’s clutches, Those brought home from foreign lands, from east and west, from northern lands and southern seas. Some lost their way in the wilderness, in the wasteland, not knowing how to reach an inhabited town; They were hungry and thirsty, and their courage was running low.

Some were fools who suffered because of their rebellion, because of their own sins, until they were so sick, nearly at death’s door, that food became repugnant. Then they called to YHWH in their trouble and God rescued them from their sufferings, sending a word to heal them, and snatching them for the Pit. Let them thank YHWH for this great love, for the marvels done for all people. Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and recount
what God has done in joyful song.

Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

This morning, I’m taking the positive approach, practicing the AA “living as if”, as if the building is going to close on March 31st. Everything about this long process has
been a matter of discernment and trusting God – but then, that’s much of the history of Lyndale Church for our 125 years. Most of the history you’ll hear was written by
Lawrence Cattron.

When the street car line running on 31st street connected downtown Minneapolis with Lake Calhoun, city dwellers, bound for a days outing to the lake, began to realize that the suburbs of Lake and Lyndale might not be such a bad place to live. Where fields and pastures had been, housing was springing up and the Congregational Home Missionary
Society saw an opportunity for a new church. The closest Congregational Churches were Plymouth at Nicollet and 8th St. and Park Avenue at Franklin.A portable chapel was erected on the ne or nw corner (we’ve seen both written) of Lake and Lyndale and Lyndale Church unofficially began with the first service held on May 18th 1884. On July 16th, 31 people became charter members of the new Lyndale Congregational Church.

Before that first summer was over, they realized that chapel wasn’t working for their ministry and that a larger place of meeting would soon be necessary. On September 5,
1884 a committee was appointed to select a site for and to plan a new church building on the corner of Lake and Aldrich, one block west.

By October 3rd, 1884 a new chapel had been finished at Lake and Aldrich and 4 years later, on June 3rd, 1888 the new Lyndale Church building, costing $17,000 and including a
gym and swimming pool was dedicated. Bill’s Imported Foodsis now on that corner.

5 years later the congregation was called on to deepen their trust through a trying time. The debt for the new building was heavy and, with the country in the clutches of a wide-spread depression in 1893 (you don’t hear much about that depression), the out-look began to appear hopeless.

Cattron writes, “Then came an experience that inspired the Church to renewed efforts and impressed upon its members forever the priceless value of Christian solidarity and good will. Sister churches from all parts of the city – together with The Congregational Church Building Society – came to Lyndale’s aid with generous financial assistance and made it possible for her life and work to continue in the community.

Lyndale Church was later able to repay these kindnesses in some measure by cooperating in the establishment of Lynnhurst and Linden Hills Congregational Churches further South.”

By 1918 with the mortgage paid off , Rev. Bunger back from World War I and the congregation continuing to grow, there came again the realization that their building on
Lake and Aldrich was not meeting their ministry needs. There seemed to be enough interest and enthusiasm, and also wealth enough in membership to warrant a drive for
funds to build a larger church on the lots which Lyndale Church owned at 31st Street and Aldrich Ave. S., one block south.

About $85,000 in pledges was raised, enough to initiate the project, and 4 years later, ground was broken on Oct. 22, 1922. This building was completed at a cost of $135,000
and was dedicated on Sunday, January 20, 1924. (85 years ago, last January 20.) Members and friends gathered at the old church for a prayer, and then, led by three charter members, formed a procession to the new church, where the new coal boiler provided warmth in the lovely sanctuary, which was very welcome on such a bitterly cold morning.

Taking off on the words of the psalmist, people over the past 85 years have gathered “from east and west, north and south” in this building, to be baptized, taught the love
of God, confirmed, received into membership, received the sacrament of communion, heard the good news of the gospel preached, had their relationships joined in marriage and
blessing ceremonies, and been buried from this beautiful sanctuary.

And that’s just the church. Others have used this building for a myriad of reasons…all of whom often sense the love and acceptance that this place has provided so many people
in the community.

Standing on the edge of selling this building I think it’s important for us to remember that, “We’ve been here before”. At least three times we’ve discerned that the building we are in doesn’t fit with our current ministry. This time recognizing not that we need more room, but that in order to be a sustainable congregation into the future, we need less room, less space, less beautiful ceiling to heat.

We’ve been here before. We copied an early picture of this building in the bulletin. Take a look at it. What do you see?

The belfry of our previous building on the right. We’ve been here before. We’ve moved
before.

And so after many meetings, prayers and discernment, this congregation voted to leave this building…partner with Salem Lutheran Church and develop a sustainable ministry
center just two blocks north of where we originally started 125 years ago. And here we are, the 4th Sunday of lent, preparing…preparing for Easter, preparing for moving,
waiting together.

In 1985 we did our first Easter Vigil, a service of waiting for the Resurrection. And while we wait we remember the entire Biblical drama from creation to Revelation. As was
said at the Annual Meeting in January, we’re not doing an Easter Vigil this year. We are living the Easter Vigil. Waiting together, practicing community, trust and
non-attachment and carrying on our ministries of hospitality through Families Moving Forward and Simpson Shelter and Human Immigration Reform.

All that in the midst of packing and sorting and tossing and teaching and worshiping.

In this time we’ve also been remembering. It has been a 3 ½ month long vigil since the purchase agreement was signed. There’s been a crew of people in the history room nearly every Saturday going through what we display, what we store, what we give to the Minnesota Historical Society. Trying to figure out who those people are in that picture.

This time of waiting has also been a time of remembering that we have been here before. That those 31 charter members were real people…with real concerns for Lyndale Church, with difficult decision they too had to make about where best they could minister into God’s future.

Lent is a perfect time to be going through this as a congregation. For we are reminded in various gospel stories, that even if Jesus knew what was coming as he journeyed to Jerusalem, his disciples didn’t know what was going on. Didn’t know what was coming. They simply trusted the one who walked with them, the one whom they followed.

And so do we. We walk faithfully – in the midst of uncertainty. Will this building sale close on March 31st or not…or April 31st or not? We’re all practicing living with trust in the midst of uncertainty. Not a bad this to practice at church – for this time we are living in is it?

Two weeks ago we had a forum with Salem Church on how we were doing with all this transition and Paul Wharton from Salem asked the gathered, “What will you miss the most”.
People mentioned, the big east window, the south window with the light streaming in, the wood in the ceiling, but then Kathryn Lee said, “I will miss looking at that pew over there and remembering that’s where Ray and Catherine Myers sat, or that pew over there and remember that’s where Dan Rothenberg sat, or that pew over there and remembering
that’s where Fern Smith and Peggie Corlette sat”. And let me add that pew over there where Ernie and Ann Larson sat, and Bumps and Gertie Swanstrom. And one of the elderly angels from Salem raised his hand and said, “but they are now part of the great cloud of witnesses that are cheering us on”. Wow! They still have the best seats in the house.

I have to tell you the story that happened this morning. While cleaning out my office this week I found a gift certificate that Ariel Lopez gave to Lyndale Church, probably 10 years ago. A $15 gift certificate from Lunds. I needed to buy lemonade for the coffee hour this afternoon, so I thought I’d try and use that gift certificate and say that Ariel Lopez provided the drinks. I went to Lunds and bought 10 cans of lemonade
for $1.39/can. Then I picked out two organic lemons, to slice up and make the bowl look pretty. I gave the check-out person the gift certificate and she said, “This is old, I’m not sure we can take this. A man behind her said, “I haven’t seen one of those in a long time. They called over the manager who heard my story about Ariel being a member of Lyndale Church and it was our farewell to the building celebration today and we hoped to move into Intermedia Arts by April 1st. They let me use the certificate.

It was only as I was driving to the church that it hit me. 10 cans of lemonade at $1.39/can and two lemons at $1.49/lb and the total came to exactly $15.00. I could have picked any two other lemons that weighed a little less or a little more and it would have cost a few cents less or more. Ariel was not only in the great cloud of witnesses. She was buying the lemonade and lemons for the party using her $15 gift certificate. No more and no less. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.

In the 125th year of Lyndale Church, let us press with vigor on, moving forward in whatever new or old ways God has for us, in this neighborhood around Lake and Lyndale,
trusting in the God of the psalmist and the God of all, who gathers people from north and south, from east and west….who’s steadfast love endures - not just for the 85 years of this building…or the 125 years this congregation has ministered in this neighborhood, but
forever!

$2 69 a Gallon and Rising, Hallelujah - sermon by Don Portwood

$2.69 A GALLON AND RISING, HALLELUJAH?

Pastor Don Portwood
August 21, 2005

Three years ago, on August 25, 2002 I preached a sermon using these same scriptures Pam just read. The sermon centered around a conversation with my son Matt I'd had earlier in the week in which he suggested that Barb and I buy some land up north. He would help build a cabin, add a wood stove, composting toilet and grow a big garden. Why? A number of people he knew in his life, including a young Dr, had or were planning on moving to the woods. The Dr. said, “I don't know if you've heard, but in the next 10 years
we'll run out of gas and oil, the climate will change dramatically, water will become more saline.” Matt wanted us to have a safe place to go.

That sermon concluded with a confessional statement about me offering my whole self to trying to live a life in the city that cares for this earth, seeks peace and not war, and creates new ways of doing things that reverses what we are doing to our planet and ourselves. I could do that by clinging to the rock from which we were hewn. Because of the three year lectionary cycle, those same scriptures from Isaiah and Romans returned for today. And this morning I'm preaching about something mentioned only in passing when I quoted that doctor 3 years ago. She said to my son, “I don't know if you've heard, but in the next 10 years we'll run out of gas and oil.”

It’s three years later and I paid $2.69 a gallon to fill up my car last week. Finally, gas prices are getting our attention! It's three years later and it's my other son Ben, who is now giving me books and articles to read and waking me up to an issue that so far has been kept out of the mainstream press.

It’s three years later and I'm struggling with Ben moving to Switzerland in the next couple months to 1) be close to his girlfriend and 2) find a job on an organic farm. He wants to develop skills in farming because he thinks it will be necessary to have those skills in the next few years. Why? He believes increasing oil costs caused by decreasing supplies will cause an economic collapse and a huge depression in the U.S. and many parts of the world.

Today I'm going to talk briefly about a scary issue and longer about what gives me hope. The scary issue: the end of cheap oil. If you drive a car, you're aware of how the price of gas has been rising. But the mainstream media covers it in the most superficial way. CNN did a poll about whether it would affect you financially. Duh.

Yesterday's StarTribune article, “Big Rides Still Hot” said, “But even as consumers appear all a-splutter about gasoline prices, they're still buying big, thirsty vehicles.” You have to dig deeper or read between the lines to see what else is going on if you only read the mainstream papers or watch TV. Wednesday's New York Times, “Economy shows signs of strain from oil prices.”

Finally, this morning's New York Times Magazine cover article is “The Beginning of the End of Oil?” According to writer Jim Hightower, “No president has really been serious about conservation and renewable energy, but Jimmy Carter at least made a symbolic statement in the 1970s by having some solar panels installed on the White House roof.” They only lasted until Ronald Reagan defeated Carter. One of his first acts in office was to order those solar panels taken down and junked. These past 35 years, like oil junkies with an endless supply, we've thought little about conserving oil, about whether our lifestyles were sustainable over time. Instead, we have continued to use more and more oil; build bigger cars that get worse miles per gallon than 30 years ago and build huge homes further out on productive farm land for our smaller families.

We've probably gone to war to maintain our addiction to oil and added to climate changes, to the point that even Republican Senators like John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine, were shocked by the effects of global warming on a on a recent trip to Alaska.

How bleak is the future? Are we at the peak of oil production worldwide and from now on, it will only get more expensive? Are we facing economic collapse in the next 3 months, 3 years, 10 years as oil prices increase and the economy shuts down hard? Are we living in a time when as Isaiah said, “the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live on it will die like gnats?”

When I mentioned to the Faith and Fellowship Group on Thursday what I was preaching on, Darryl Moses offered me his August copy of National Geographic, “After Oil: Powering the Future” and Scientific America’s
September issue, “Crossroads for Planet Earth.” The headline reads, “The human race is at a unique turning point. Will we choose to create the best of all possible worlds?”

That headline immediately reminded me of a quote in the Star Tribune on Wednesday by Woody Allen. It's from his 1980 book, Side Effects and a chapter entitled, “My Speech to the Graduates.”

“More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”

I didn't feel as bad as Woody Allen humorously portrayed, but hearing about running out of oil is scary and overwhelming. It's not just cars, it's food, plastic, cooking, lights, our whole lifestyle. So having briefly given you some of the bad news and offering you a lot more information you can look up on your own through books and web sites, (thanks to Gary Hoover for the list) I want to share some balancing news that helps us live faithfully into whatever future we are creating with God. First, a reminder to put faith before fear. We know how the story ultimately ends. That's the whole point of Isaiah's scripture this morning. Listen for God's good news in the book of Isaiah:

Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek Yahweh. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for Abraham was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many. For Yahweh will comfort Zion; will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of God; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. Listen to me, my people, and give heed to me, my nation; for a teaching will go out from me, and my justice for a light to the peoples.
I will bring near my deliverance swiftly, my salvation has gone out and my arms will rule the peoples; the coastlands wait for me, and for my arm they hope. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live on it will die like gnats; but my salvation will be forever, and my deliverance will never be ended. I

My salvation will be forever, and my deliverance will never be ended. God is faithful, no matter what. That's good news, the rock, from which we were hewn -- that we cling to and sing about. That's good news that helps us to trust -- through the fear, beyond the fear, in spite of the fear.

Faith, trust, over fear. That's why the UCC passed resolutions both at our Conference in June in Minnesota (that we joined in submitting) and at General Synod in Atlanta in July about how important it is for the church, the people of faith – “to provide guidance for stewardship of God's creation during the coming period of declining fossil fuels. In so doing the Church may pr ovide hope and support faith for those who have suffered in poverty, as well as those who fear change in their materialistic lifestyles.”

Every book, every article, everything I've read and heard says, the first step in doing anything about oil depletion issues is to become aware of what's happening with the oil supply and the environment; to wake up, get our heads out of the sand, overcome the denial and resistance we have to facing what may be coming. And for many, that requires offering hope, whether it's us singing “How Can I Keep from Singing, or joining Bob Marley in singing, “Everything's gonna be all right.”

A spiritual practice for me, for us - practice putting trust in God over fear. Then know that people are already working to bring about change. In our own congregation, Gary Hoover, peddling his trike and witnessing to this for years. Jim Hightower’s “May Hightower Low Down,” which I mentioned earlier, writes about what the city of Austin Texas is doing to promote gas/hybrid/plug in cars.

In the Scientific American, author Amory Lovins writes that energy efficiency will give us time to make changes. He talks about what corporations are already doing to cut energy usage and improve production. And that if we begin working together, we can be oil free by the middle of the century. He writes that China has made it illegal in 2008 to sell many inefficient U.S. cars there. “If American automakers do not innovate quickly enough, in another decade you may well be driving a super-efficient Chinese-made car. A million U.S. jobs hang in the balance.”

Lovins ends his hopeful article by saying, “this technology-driven convergence of business, environmental and security interests holds out the promise of a fairer, richer and safer world.” The National Geographic Darryl gave me talks about what Denmark and the Netherlands, Germany and Spain are doing with solar and wind power. Denmark gets 20% of their electricity from wind power. Spain has a new law that every new house built
has to have solar panels.

Author, Richard Heinberg, who wrote “The Party's Over” which I read this spring and preached about in June, has written a new book entitled, Power Down: options and actions for a post carbon world. Heinberg doesn't encourage people to go off into the woods and become self sufficient. He encourages people to build community where they are; make stronger connections with people around you. In a way, he's saying what Paul was saying to those Christians in Rome. We are members one of another, we have gifts that differ, so use your God given gifts, use your passions for speaking out, for caring, for teaching and proclaiming, use your compassion, use who you are to strengthen your community: the church, the neighborhood, the city, the important connections between cities and farmland.

It is important to recognize that we ourselves and others around us have a lot of resistance to waking up, looking at this head on and making changes in our lifestyle. It's easier to stay in denial. In fact, that's where we are encouraged to remain by the media and government. Or we think there may be easy answers from technology that someone else will take care of.

We've all got a lot going on in our lives.

But as the people of God, our faith sustains us and calls us to live faithfully into the future - to look beyond the superficiality of rising gas prices and become part of a movement - a grassroots movement that grows to a tipping point to get the attention of whom ever is in the White House over the next decade. Individuals, corporations, universities, private companies are working on this. Imagine, as Thomas Friedman did in an article last December, if the U.S. government got behind ending our oil dependence. It could be our generation’s moon shot: a crash science initiative for alternative energy and conservation to make America energy-independent in 10 years, like the governments of Denmark and Spain are working towards.

So I end this sermon on these two scriptures this year with more urgency than three years ago and with an invitation to:
1) continue to learn about this (we'll talk about it this fall in Adult C.E.),
2) talk about it when you can to whomever you can,
3) pick up extra “Gas Prices Too High?” flyers and give them to people at the gas pump, at school and work.
4) Do what you can to raise grassroots awareness to the point where the power of all Americans is working to provide a soft landing for this nation and the world. We can't wait for this president or any president.
It starts with you and me waking up, paying attention, reading what we can, telling other people, acting on what we're learning and changing our own lifestyles.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, trusting the mercies of God, to join with others in presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Using the gifts we've been given to change this
nation and change our unsustainable lifestyles. Imagine that. May it be so.

A Prophetic Witness - sermon by Don Portwood on Palm-Passion Sunday 2006

The Gospel According to Mark 11:1-11
When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find
tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it.

If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' just say this, 'The Sovereign needs it and will send it back here immediately.'" They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, some of the bystanders said to them, "What are you doing,
untying the colt?" They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it.
Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it.

Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields.

Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Sovereign! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!"

Then Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

"A Prophetic Witness"
The sermon preached by Don Portwood, Pastor at Lyndale United Church of Christ on Palm/Passion Sunday, April 9, 2006.

This is such a well loved image of Jesus. Every year, Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a colt to the sound of people shouting, "Hosanna, save us". Palms waving or being placed before him on the road. Great scene, but why did Jesus, with forethought, enter Jerusalem this way?

Like other prophets of his Jewish tradition, Jesus was acting out his message by performing a symbolic act. Last week we talked about the "new covenant of the heart" about which the prophet Jeremiah spoke. Of all Hebrew prophets, Jeremiah was known for his prophetic, symbolic acts -
dashing a potter's flask to the ground in front of city leaders and declaring that God would destroy the city in a similar way; or buying land in a Jerusalem under siege by the army of Babylon, in order to witness to God's hope and future for the people of Israel.

Jesus followed in this prophet tradition. Three weeks ago we talked about Jesus' cleansing of the temple, dramatically turning over the tables of the money-changers. This was a prophetic act against the politics of holiness at that time that had become oppressive - and was used as a way to separate the people of God.

Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, the way he chose to enter, was also a prophetic witness. A symbolic act. Marcus Borg in his book, Jesus A New Vision, writes "Jerusalem always had a garrison of Roman troops come into Jerusalem during major festivals to cope with the throngs of Jewish pilgrims. So in this season of Passover, Roman troops arrived at Jerusalem from the west in a procession led by the Roman governor, accompanied by all the trappings of imperial power."

So, where did Jesus enter Jerusalem? From the east - possibly on the same day as the troops. Not on a stallion covered with battle gear, symbolizing great power and intimidating the gathered crowd. According to Mark, Jesus
deliberately made arrangements to enter the city on a donkey's colt.

What was Jesus' message, why would he ride into Jerusalem at this time and in this way? He was enacting a passage from the prophet Zechariah, who spoke of a king of peace riding "on a colt, the foal of an ass." It wasn't that Jesus was trying to fulfill this prophecy, rather, he used this
familiar symbol from his tradition in order to say that the kingdom of which he spoke was a kingdom of peace, not war, of love not domination.

What we've come to call Palm Sunday - Jesus' entry into Jerusalem -is an act of prophetic witness for society to move in another way, the way of peace.

In our own Jerusalem, the center of power and domination in Minnesota is the state capitol. We have all seen the nearly daily maneuvers and attempts that some, also caught up in the politics of holiness, are demanding - changing our state constitution by a vote of the people to define marriage
as a union only between one man and one woman. With no legal equivalents.

Unlike previous state and national constitutional amendments intended to expand and protect the rights of individuals, this constitutional amendment is intended to deny rights to a minority.

Last summer, appropriately enough on July 4th, the General Synod of the United Church of Christ passed a resolution in Support of Equal marriage Rights for All. That resolution affirmed equal marriage rights for couples regardless of gender and declared "that the government should not interfere with couples regardless of gender who choose to marry and share fully and equally in the rights, responsibilities and commitment of legally recognized
marriage." In essence, the General Synod resolution supports same-gender marriage.

This resolution also called upon all settings of the UCC to engage in serious, respectful, and prayerful discussion of the covenantal relationship of marriage and equal marriage rights for all couples, regardless of gender, and after prayerful biblical, theological, and historical study, to consider adopting Wedding Policies that do not discriminate against couples based on gender.

Marriage is such an important institution in our society. Look at the passions these discussions have generated in this nation. Because marriage is not only about love, but about providing a secure place to raise children, about care giving rights, property, economics. When I sign a
civil marriage license, for opposite gender couples, I sign over, more than 1100 rights and privileges that are written into law for those couples. When the state grants those rights to heterosexuals, that's heterosexual privilege. When the state denies those rights to same-gendered couples that is injustice.

I have come to believe that no matter what the state says, "What God has joined together, let no one put usunder," so for me the very essence of marriage is about two persons, committing to loving one another for as long as they both shall live. I want that for same gender couples, too.

I cannot continue to discriminate against people in our own congregation and community. Once I have officiated at four weddings this summer that I've already agreed to perform, I will perform no more civil marriages for opposite gender couples, but only religious marriages for same and opposite
gender couples alike, until the state of Minnesota recognizes the loving commitment of all couples.

That means I will no longer be an agent of the state of Minnesota. I will no longer participate in the perpetuation of a system of injustice and oppression. Today, that is the only way to treat all couples equally.

I recognize there is nothing exceptional or abnormal about giving opposite gender couples the rights conferred by a civil marriage. That is the way it has always been. That is also the way domination systems behave. Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan even call this system of domination "the normalcy of civilization," that clashed profoundly with the passion of Jesus and clashes with all who seek to live with Christ's Spirit guiding them.

My decision is a prophetic witness, a symbolic act, in the midst of the debate in St. Paul and our nation calling other pastors to get out of the business of the state. Other pastors in Minnesota and in the United Church of Christ have also chosen to stop signing civil marriage licenses. I hope
more pastors will in the future.

We as a congregation have also engaged in serious, respectful, and prayerful discussion of the covenantal relationship of marriage and equal marriage rights for all couples regardless of gender as General Synod called us to
do.

We had a 6 week adult Education class led by John Gustav-Wrathall, and three forums the past two weeks for the congregation to discuss their questions, concerns and thoughts. And so.

After prayerful biblical, theological, and historical study, we meet following worship, as a congregation to consider adopting Wedding Policies that do not discriminate against couples based on gender.

The Stewardship Council of Lyndale Church is recommending to us that as a Church we affirm equal marriage rights for couples regardless of gender and endorse marriage policies that do not discriminate against couples. If that
vote is positive, effective today, Lyndale Church would no longer provide a place for civil marriages, only religious marriages for all couples, same or opposite gender.

Our congregational vote is also a prophetic witness; of greater value, I believe, than mine. For it is a congregation, a people of faith, not just one pastor, saying "We will no longer participate in this oppressive system
of discrimination." I'm not sure how many congregations in Minnesota, or the country have made this witness. Mayflower Church is discussing it and will be voting in May. The Council for the Unitarian Universalist Church in
White Bear Lake, along with their pastor have made this decision. So we're out in front in this prophetic witness. And need not be surprised if the forces of injustice and dominance rear their holiness heads in fear and lash
out. It's been known to happen. Today is called Palm/Passion Sunday for a reason.

But you may also be thinking, "Will this make any difference?" I said in the question and answer portion of the newsletter that "affirming the Stewardship Council's recommendation would be a prophetic witness in support
of marriage equality for all caring, committed couples in the midst of heated debate in our state.

It will be a prophetic witness to the larger community outside our walls.

It won't tear down the "dividing wall of hostility" that presently exists.

It will loosen another brick.

That image of the dividing wall of hostility comes from the letter to the Ephesians, chapter 2. On this Palm Passion Sunday, as Jesus rides into the hostility of Jerusalem on a symbol of peace, a colt, a prophetic witness of what can be...hear too that message of peace from Ephesians:

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end.

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to God.

So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a
holy temple in the Sovereign; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."

May our prophetic witness this day..continue Jesus ministry of breaking down the dividing wall of hostility; loosening it brick by brick. And bringing God's people, all people together in peace and love. A dwelling place of God in the Spirit. May it be so.

Another World is Possible: Another Us is necessary

1Corinthians 12:26
Revelations 21:1-6

May 2, 2010

Rev. Loren McGrail

Some people want to keep a gospel so disembodied that it doesn’t get involved at all in the world it must save. Christ is now in history. Christ is in the womb of the people. Christ is now bringing about the new heaven and new earth.
Archbishop Oscar Romero, Dec. 3, 1978

It is Immigrant Rights Sunday in our denomination. It’s also a time to lift up workers---their contributions and struggles. It is a time to dance around maypoles and celebrate the greening again of our fragile earth. It is a time to celebrate revolution in Mexico. And it is a time to mourn, to lament, to weep out loud, to make powerful statements like the one Rev. Linda Jaramillo made a few days ago about Arizona’s new immigration legislation. She said “this law is nothing less than a modern day Jim Crow law” then calling the work for immigrant rights the “contemporary civil rights struggle.”
This sentiment was certainly evident yesterday across our nation as people took to the streets to reclaim their rights, their dignity, and their right to be seen as human beings. The streets of our nation were full of people marching, praying with their legs as the late great Abraham Heshel used to say. As we walked the long walk from Martin Luther King Park down to the Convention Center, there was one chant in particular that took hold of me and continues to haunt me this morning because I think it has something to say about these lectionary passages, about our life together as Christians, about how we work together to make a new world. The chant goes like this, “Obama, eschucha, estamos en la lucha.” It’s catchy. It rhymes and it has multiple meanings depending where you put the emphasis. “Obama, listen, we are in the struggle.” “Obama, listen, we are in the struggle.” “Obama, listen, we are in the struggle.” And so the question is, who is in the struggle? Are we in it together? If not, is this a threat or an invitation? Can it be both?
And so I go back to our texts: “An injury to one is an injury to all.” “If one member suffers, all suffer with it.” We are in the struggle together, caught in the same interrelated web of life, “an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny”, said the late Martin Luther King, Jr. What is happening to our immigrant brothers and sisters in Arizona affects us here in Minnesota. The same 287g contract that gives Sheriff Arpagio his power to racially profile people is the same 287g contract here that allows our highway patrol to pull people over and check their status. Before we demonize Arizona let us take the log out of our own eye. Racial profiling is racial profiling and it is a social sin no matter where or how it occurs.
Yet this Senate Bill 1070 goes a bit further and makes it illegal for anyone including family to be in the company of an undocumented person” To be in the company of? Like out walking with your family? Like going to school? Going to work? Like taking communion at your church?
This means that churches like Good Shepherd UCC in Sahuarita are in danger of breaking the law for providing humanitarian aid to migrants. It means that to love your neighbor is illegal in Arizona or as Jim Wallis, from Sojourners, put it, “ It will force us to disobey Jesus and his gospel and we will not comply.”
“We will not comply.” Another world is possible, a new heaven and a new earth are possible not only because we can imagine it but because we have the God given power to embody it. We embody it because God has made his home amongst us, inside us, all of us--- black and white and brown alike. No human being is illegal in this kin-dom. “Eschucha. estamos en la lucha together.’ So the question today is how do we not comply? And is this our only choice?
For this I turn to another time in history when a certain class of people were targeted and asked to show their documents, to Nazi Germany. During this time period a number of churches began to see that the Nazi supported German-Christian movement espoused beliefs that they felt were contrary to their understanding of Christ. They met in Barman, Germany and drew up a document that stated that they rejected the subordination of the church to the state. They were known as Confessing churches and one of the main theologians who helped draft this document was Dietrich Bonhoefer. Bonhoefer was a German Lutheran who started an underground seminary and wrote many books including a book on the Cost of Discipleship and essays about the relationship of the church to the state. In his essay. No Rusty Swords, he outlined three ways the church can act towards the state. I think these three ways are still applicable today especially for those of us who do not see heaven and earth as separate realms or who feel the call to action in helping to build a new Jerusalem, a Beloved Community.
The first way is hold the state accountable to itself. It can ask whether its actions are legitimate and in accordance with its own moral and ethical principles; its own statutes, its own values. Is it living up to its responsibilities?
The church does this by reminding the state through things like letter writing campaigns, congressional visits, or even May 1st demonstrations. When we sent our postcards over the Christmas holiday to our senators asking for comprehensive reform we were reminding our senators and the administration to make good on their promise to fix this broken system. When we send a letter to our senators next week to ask them to ask the Obama administration for the suspension of enforcement activities during the taking of the census we are asking the state to be accountable to its own responsibility to get an accurate count.
The second way is to help or aid victims of the state-- “To do good to all people.” Our newly developed Visitation Project at Ramsey County Adult Detention Center seeks to offer emotional support to detainees who are often lonely and isolated as they await their court or deportation hearing. Training people to become visitors is one way we can alleviate some of their suffering. Good Shepherd’s efforts to provide humanitarian aid falls into this category too. “Eschucha, when the church is forbidden to give aid to people in need it forces the church to disobey its own moral laws. This is one of the reasons why Wallis calls the church to non-compliance.
The third way is not just to bandage the victims under the wheel but to put a spoke in the wheel, to stop it from running over people. We do this through resistance and direct action. We do this when the state is failing its function of creating law and order by either too many laws or too little laws or when a group is being deprived of their rights. This is what is called the “confessional situation”. It is a time to say no to certain acts of our government, to obeying unjust laws. King called this moment when “silence betrays us.” The confessing moment needs more than statements or words; it needs our bodies on the line. There is no middle ground.
The abuse and mistreatment of immigrants in our country has been a part of our nation’s history from the beginning and from time to time it is even written into our laws like the guest worker program of the 1930’s called the braceros program. This program provided laborers for the fields with little to no rights. As the name brazenly declares we were only interested in their labor, their arms, not their personhood. Boycotts and other forms of direct action became and continue to be active ways people resist the exploitation of laborers and support their organizing campaigns.
In response to the new law in Arizona, UCC Pastor Randy Mayer pledged religious resistance to the law saying, “We will resist ---our churches, sanctuaries and sacred spaces will continue to be open to all people—at all times. We will not be asking for papers at our doors.” In a letter to President Obama and other officials, the Southwest conference of the UCC promised political non-compliance and fiscal action including the moving of the conference’s annual gathering out of Arizona.
“Eschucha, estamos en la lucha” To work towards making another world possible, to give birth to a new heaven and new earth, we must begin by seeing ourselves included in the struggle, in the suffering. We must accept that we are loved and saved already. We must see the Christ light in all we call “other”. A larger more inclusive definition of who is “us” is necessary for another world to become possible. Another U.S. is possible only if there is a transformed us. Let it be so and let it begin with us.

From Your Country - sermon by John Gustav-Wrathall

FROM YOUR COUNTRY
Sermon preached at Lyndale United Church of Christ
By John Gustav-Wrathall
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Texts
Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121
Romans 4:1-5,13-17
It is August 2006, and Göran and I are visiting my parents in Utah. It's Sunday, and I am attending Church with my parents at the local Mormon ward. This is a happy time for me. I am happy to be attending Church with my parents again for the first time in over twenty years as a believing, testimony-bearing (if gay and excommunicated) Latter-day Saint. And they are happy to have me there with them. My mother holds my hand. I am enjoying the hymns and the prayers, and imbibing the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit. In that stillness and peace and happiness, the Spirit speaks to me very clearly and distinctly. What it says surprises me, it causes me to squirm a bit. The Spirit says, “You need to open yourself up to the possibility of having children in your life.” I think about it for a moment. Göran and I have discussed the possibility of adoption, but ultimately decided against it because we did not feel financially capable. But clearly and undeniably now the Spirit is telling me I should open myself up to this. “I'm not sure how we can do this,” I reply, “but OK.” If that was what God was asking of me, I would do it.

So now fast forward to February 2007, about a year ago. I receive an email from Mary Peterson, a formerly Mormon friend I was introduced to by Audrey Benson. Mary is a social worker with a foster care agency. In the email she says, “Have you and Göran ever considered the possibility of becoming foster parents?” Six months earlier, I would have replied to her email by explaining why Göran and I are not really capable of taking on this kind of responsibility. But the experience I had at my parents' Church the previous August comes freshly to mind, and I reply, “Let's meet and talk about it.” After sending the email, I announce to Göran that we are meeting with my social worker friend to talk about becoming foster parents. He's in shock. He can't believe I'm saying what he's just heard me say. This is what he has always wanted.

So now fast forward again to December 2007, when we meet our foster son Glen for the first time. We can see how nervous he is as he enters our home with his social worker. His body language is defensive and cautious. He looks worried. As we talk, gradually he begins to open up. Soon his relaxed body language and the smile on his face tells the whole story. And as we are speaking, a picture is forming in my own mind. He is perfect for us, and we are perfect for him. We are going to be a family. And by the end of the meeting, when I suggest to Glen that he can take some time to think about whether he'd like to do a trial visit with us, he says, “I don't need to think about it.”

OK, now fast forward one last time to Saturday, February 9. A week ago last Saturday. Snow is flying thick. A winter storm warning has been issued. But Göran and Glen and I are in a rental car and I am at the wheel, driving to Rochester, Minnesota to meet with Glen's mother. Sometimes I have to slow down to ten miles an hour when gusts of wind reduce visibility to almost nothing. The drive is nerve wracking, but eventually we make it safely to the neutral ground of Apache Mall in Rochester. The meeting with Glen's mom in the food court at the mall is brief. There are moments of tension, but the conversation generally stays positive. Afterwards, Glen says, “I think she liked you.” We drive on to Lanesboro, to the home where Glen grew up, to pick up some of his possessions. We enter through theback door into the kitchen. As soon as we enter, Glen looks around and then he freezes. He looks at me and at Göran, and then suddenly he begins to weep. We both wrap our arms around him and cry with him. “You've come a long way,” we tell him, and those words are comforting to all of us.

Glen has come a long way, and so have Göran and I. A year and a half ago, I could not have imagined my life what it is now. We have more structure: set bed times and more sit-down meals. I have an early work schedule: rise at 5:20 a.m., at work by 7:00 a.m., home by 4:00 p.m. so I can be there around the time Glen gets home from school. Göran and I attend foster parent meetings and workshops (we started doing that even before Glen arrived). And we do lots of things as a family now, which means Göran and I do things we've never done before. I went to my first Marilyn Manson concert a week ago last Friday. I still have a little bit of black nail polish on my cuticles to prove it!

But those are only the things on the surface that are different. There are things beneath the surface. There is the knowledge deep in my bones that there is a reason why we are together as a family. There are things that Glen needs to know that he can only learn from me, from Göran, from us, from our relationship. There are things I, that Göran, that we need to know that we can only learn from Glen. You see, he has already taught us some tremendous lessons about love and faith and courage, just by being who he is and by overcoming the trials he has had to overcome.

And I look back over my life, and I remember that moment when the Spirit spoke to me so clearly that I sat up and took notice and was startled, was surprised by what it said. And I said Yes, OK, I'll do it. And my life has taken a different course and is completely changed, and is infinitely better and richer and more amazing because of it. I would not trade this opportunity of having Glen for a foster son for anything. If I had only known what this would mean for us, on the other hand, I would have traded almost anything for this opportunity. There is almost no sacrifice now that isn't worth making for him, for him to be part of our family.

#

I love that the lectionary, purposely I assume, brings together these two texts for today – from Genesis chapter 12 and from Romans chapter 4. In Romans Paul is discussing the nature of faith, and he illustrates the point he is trying to make about faith by invoking the example of Abraham. This text is a very important text for Protestant theologians, because of the way it contrasts faith in Christ versus the faith in the works of the Law. And the classic Protestant way to read this text is to say: We cannot be saved by works of the Law, by obeying rules and commandments and ordinances. We are saved by trusting in the justification that comes through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We are saved by trusting in the free gift of salvation that Christ gives us if we only believe in him. That's the classic Protestant way to read that text. But if we read the text that way, then we also tend to read the Abraham story within this text as a metaphor.

That seems like a particularly dry way to read this text, if you ask me, particularly when you contrast it
with the original text Paul harks back to: the story of Abraham as recounted in Genesis. What if, instead of reading the Abraham text on Paul, we read Paul on the Abraham text? The tale in Genesis gives us an account of faith that is primal and powerful. It tells us a story of direct and immediate interaction between God and Abraham. God tells Abraham (or at this point in the story, his name is still Abram, for we are at the beginning of a story which leads to a transformation of Abram into Abraham): “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.” God pairs this commandment with a promised blessing: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Abraham's response according to Genesis? “So Abram went as the Lord had told him.”

The nature of this bond or this covenant between God and Abraham is primal. God speaks to Abraham. Abraham listens and responds to God. There is no intermediary here of law or tradition, no book of scripture or past divinations which Abraham here interprets in order to deduce God's intention for him. God speaks to him and he responds.
This is, for me, the central significance of the story of the test of Abraham and Isaac. God tells Abraham: “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon a mountain which I will tell you of.” The text says simply, “Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his mount, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and cut the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him” (Genesis 22:2-3). This is a terrifying story. It caused Søren Kierkegaard to have nightmares. It's caused me to have nightmares. Here is an instance of God giving Abraham a commandment that seems contrary to everything we recognize as humanly decent: parental
love, compassion and mercy, not to mention religion, justice, morality or law. Yet God commands and Abraham obeys. Abraham does not even take the time to try to argue or bargain with God, as he does when God sends angels to announce the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18). He prepares his mount and gathers the firewood and goes.

The affirmation of decency and morality comes at the end of the story. God sends an angel to stay Abraham's hand and provide a lamb as a substitute offering. So what we are left with is the primacy of the covenant, of the bond between Abraham and God. Of course we affirm the value of life and love, of the bonds of family that link spouses to each other and parents to children. Of course human sacrifice is an abomination to God. But what this story tells us is that the bond, the relationship with God assumes primacy. It exists prior to law and it supersedes law (and everything else).

So when we read Pauline theology on this text, we get not some dry forensic account of how belief the atonement can save us. What we are being told, I think, is that in and through Christ, all of us, including Abraham, relate directly to God, not through the intermediary of law or tradition or doctrine or belief. Here faith describes not the mechanism by which we are saved, but our relationship with God. Here, faith has nothing to do with intellectual assent. It means simply trust. A willingness to hand over everything we own and everything we are to God. A willingness to listen to God, and if God asks, to go from our country and our kindred and our parents' house to the land that God will show us.

And we won't discern God's will for us by reading the scriptures, by reading about God's will for his people in the past. We won't learn God's will for us by studying Church history. We won't learn it by rolling dice or picking Tarot cards or reading tea leaves. For this we must address ourselves directly to God in prayer, and we must learn to listen.

#

I am teaching a class in American Religious History at United Theological Seminary. This past Thursday, we began to discuss a text I've assigned, a book about the Second Great Awakening, that great period of religious revival in America from about 1790 to 1830 or so. The book, The Democratization of American Christianity by Nathan Hatch, describes how ordinary Americans during this period believed themselves to be in the midst of an unprecedented outpouring of the Holy Spirit, an outpouring which overwhelmed the boundaries of traditional religious authority and decorum. Ordinary, common people saw visions, received revelation, and believed themselves endowed directly by God with power from on high. Preachers and communities that encouraged direct communion with the divine – Methodist, Baptist, Mormon and “Christian” (we know them as “Disciples,” and they form a major stream that contributed to the U.C.C.) – transformed the American economic, social and political landscape. They empowered ordinary people to believe in and claim the full promise of American democracy.

Discussion of this text led to interesting comparisons between the time of the Second Great Awakening and our own time. My students expressed deep frustration, a sense that the society we live in is stagnating. We face profound, terrifying challenges – economic, environmental, social, and political – any one of which might threaten global disaster, possibly within our life times. And yet the society we live in seems incapable of organizing or uniting to deal with these problems. Instead we are at war with each other over which problems are more pressing and over how to solve them.

I was particularly moved by one 26-year-old student who spoke very personally about the general sense of hopelessness that seems to be prevalent in his generation and in the generation coming up after him, a sense that the problems we face are just too colossal for us, that it will take some kind of general break-down or catastrophe to wake people up to the seriousness of what is happening. Young people are either just tuning out and ignoring what is happening, or they are getting overwhelmed with a sense of hopelessness. I've certainly seen both of these attitudes in the teenage kids we are closely acquainted
with.

And yet, our generation also seems cut off from the source of power that moved the generation of the Second Great Awakening to transform their society, because we have lost our faith in God, and correspondingly, our belief that we even have a chance of challenging the great transnational corporate military industrial complex that is destroying our environment and ravaging the peoples of the earth with war and reducing us to helpless cogs in a heartless machine.

My students expressed hopelessness, but oddly I came away from our class oddly at peace, strangely hopeful. Because I know that the answer is as near to us as the ground. All we have to do is muster the courage and the humility to kneel.

#

Faith in God does not provide us with simplistic answers to the problems we must face in life, either individually or collectively. When God said to Abraham, “Go from your country,” God didn't give Abraham a road map, only a promise to eventually show him. God didn't abrogate the necessity of traveling hundreds of miles on foot, or alleviate the inconvenience of separating from family or giving up possessions, nor banish the dangers inherent in passing through strange or hostile territory. God can only offer us the assurance that if we do what is necessary, we will end up where we need to go. That is powerful. That alone has given me the courage to keep going, even when things don't work out the way I like. But it still doesn't make things easy.

Also, I don't want to minimize the potential danger inherent in mistaking impulse or prejudice or fear for the voice of the Spirit. The Spirit speaks to us in a unique voice, unlike anything else, but we must learn to listen to it and recognize it. The Spirit may reveal things to us that are surprising, but it won't reveal to us things that can't be born out and established over time. It is OK to doubt. It is OK to prove things, to test things, to seek out information, to think and take our time to test whether a revelation we feel we have received is real. But eventually, there also comes a time where we need to take the leap of faith, where we need to accept that we can't progress unless we move forward without necessarily knowing how everything will work out in the end. We have to remember, when there are other voices screaming in our ears trying to distract us, that we need to gird our ourselves to stay true to the still, small voice. There are times when listening simply boils down to sacrifice and trust.

My family is living proof to me of the power that comes into our lives when we open ourselves up, when we listen, and when we trust. Each morning of this new life I'm living, I wake up and find proofs of each of our willingness to change, to grow, to make sacrifices, to do things we once thought we couldn't do. Every day, Göran and I watch Glen facing hard choices of his own, and making right choices, maturing and growing to adulthood, and becoming a splendid, amazing human being in the process. Göran and I are in awe of him and we love him and are so incredibly grateful for him. And I think, my life is happier now than it ever has been before, happier than I ever, even as recently as a year ago, imagined it could possibly be. And I think, this is only the beginning, if I am willing to stay on this path, if we are willing to continue in this path together.

I pray for each and every one of us. I pray for the Spirit to be poured out upon us individually and collectively, as a Church, as a community, as a people, as a nation, as a whole world under God. I pray for us to listen and to trust.

In the name of Jesus Christ, the one in whom this gift of new life is given to us,

Amen.

God Criticizes God's Own People - sermon by Ko Koyama

Jeremiah 7:1-7, 24-26
Luke 18:9-14

sermon by Ko Koyama
August 7, 2005

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Exactly 60 years ago, at 8:15 in the morning of August 6, 1945, the Japanese city of Hiroshima was incinerated by a nuclear bomb. The bomb, nicknamed “Little Boy” exploded 570 meters above the ground creating a fireball 100 meters in diameter with a temperature at its center of 300.000 degrees Celsius. Instantly the city became a land of death and destruction. 140.000 people perished. Three days later, on August 9th, the city of Nagasaki suffered the same fate. 80.000 perished.

This happened when I was 15 years old. My generation is now fast disappearing. Since I survived several carpet bombings of Tokyo in 1945, on this 60th year anniversary of human tragedy, I have prepared a few words for this morning.

I was baptized into the Christian faith – the religion of the enemy of my country! – during the WWII. Very soon I noticed a curious contrast between our Japanese gods and the God of the Bible. The Japanese gods never criticized or warned Japanese people. “You are ok,” they told us. “Do whatever you desire to do. Invade China? Fine, go ahead!” In contrast, the God of the Bible says;

I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day; yet they did not listen to me, or pay attention, but they stiffened their necks. They did worse than their ancestors did.”

This God calls God’s own people a stiff necked people!” Stubborn, unthinking, unyielding even when you are wrong! Now read this in the Book of Exodus, how God, in anger, cries against God’s People:

Say to the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, and I will decide what to do to you’ (33:5).

This contrast comes to me as powerfully today as it did 60 years ago. Dear sisters and brothers, it is far better to have a God who criticizes you and warns you when you “oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood” than to have God who simply agrees with you. The “yes-man” God will bring ruination upon nations.

War starts in the inflated delusion of the human mind. Here is my Japanese experience: The simple but extremely toxic idea that “Japan is a special nation, not like others, excellent in morality, a righteous nation governed by a divine emperor” – that is to say, the delusion that “Japan is exceptional” - destroyed Japan. For 60 years this theme has come back to me from time to time. The God of the Bible warns and judges the self-serving arrogance that believes “we are exceptional.” We hear in Jesus’ parable “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector!” This is not a prayer. This is propaganda.

When the American B29s began, night after night, to invade the Japanese sky, our Japanese rulers propagandized; “Believe in Japanese military might and trust in the protection of our gods!” Tokyo is safe. Tokyo is not an ordinary city. In it is “the palace of the divine emperor, the palace of the divine emperor, the palace of the divine emperor!” Soon, before our very eyes, the 66 major Japanese cities, including Tokyo, were reduced to ashes. Japan did not know that the security of a nation, as Jeremiah told his people, is to be found in taking care of the weaker members of the community; the alien, the orphan and the widow (7:5-7). Japan did not do this, and was destroyed.

Suddenly the doomsday fireball came down upon the fully populated cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This fireball is a human copy of the great fireball called the Sun. On August 6, 1945, 60 years ago, humanity actually stepped into the unimaginable possibility of cosmic super-violence. We, the species called human on the third planet of the solar system, are now capable to obliterate all living beings upon the earth. When Hiroshima/Nagasaki was nuclear bombed, symbolically the whole world was bombed. Every bomb used against others is ultimately a bomb exploded upon ourselves. How dedicated we are to destroy ourselves! Since Hiroshima, war is not about this nation against that nation. It is we, all of humanity, against our own good. The army of the “righteous Japanese empire” destroyed 300.000 Chinese civilians in November 1937 in what is now called the Rape of Nanjing. Japan’s enemy was its own violence.

The opposite of the delusion that “we are exceptional” is “we wish to share.” Sharing creates the international community. Let us read from the Book of Isaiah:

On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. On that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage” (19:23-25).

This was a surprising proclamation, because Assyria and Egypt were Israel’s predatory neighbors.

For us, the Communion is the ultimate symbol of sharing. Here all are welcome. There are no tests or requirements. You do not have to be one of us or like us. You do not have to think or believe as we do. We are all God’s beloved people. This invitation creates open intercultural and international highways. Blessing is not monopolized, but shared. We are freed from the delusion that “We are ok. You are not ok.”

+++

(The New York Times, August 3,2005, Ill Will Rising Between China and Japanese: Japanese lawmakers on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a resolution that plays down this country’s militarist policies in World War II, less than two weeks before ceremonies takes place across Asia marking the 60th anniversary of the war’s end on Aug.15. Though expressing “regret” for the wartime past, the resolution omitted the references to “invasion” and “colonial rule” that were in the version passed on the 50th anniversary. The action will most likely be seen by China and Japan’s other Asian neighbors as further proof of growing nationalism here.)

In 'a mayus,' Head Toward Emmaus - sermon by Don Portwood

"IN 'A MAYUS,' HEAD TOWARD EMMAUS"
Co-Pastor Don Portwood
April 17, 2005

Luke 24:13-35

I want to first thank Ko Koyama for mentioning to me last Sunday that yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Bonhoeffer was a 39 year old Lutheran pastor in Germany. In the early morning of April 9, 1945 as he was led out to be hung, he whispered to another prisoner, "This is the end. For me, the beginning of life." He was ordered stripped. Naked under the scaffold - he knelt one last time to pray. Five minutes later he was dead; executed for being part of a plot to assassinate Hitler and overthrow the Nazi regime. 21 days later, April 30,
1945, Hitler committed suicide. Seven days later Germany surrendered.

Earlier in the week, as I worked on this sermon, I was focused mostly on his final words. But there are some similarities in his life that I want us to be aware of too. Much of what I say about Bonhoeffer came from an address by Michael Moeller of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, on the 50th anniversary of Bonhoeffer's death in 1995.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born on February 4, 1906, in eastern Germany, now part of Poland. His father was a professor at the University of Berlin, while his mother home-schooled the children. Around the age of fourteen, he
began to study theology, and at twenty-one, he graduated with honors from Tubingen University. Bonhoeffer preached in several churches in the following years.

In 1933, Adolph Hitler was elected chancellor. Many of Bonhoeffer's contemporaries were theologians and pastors who believed that Hitler and the Nazis would bring about a new era in Germany. Speaking out against the part the churches were playing with the Nazis evoked passionate opposition in a nation caught up in nationalism.

Moeller writes (remember this is 10 years ago he's writing), "Political developments happened very fast in the first five months of Nazi rule in Germany. One could call the Nazi takeover a masterpiece, a textbook example
of a revolutionary movement's successful exploitation of an unstable and con fused situation to consolidate its power."

He gives a brief chronology:
January 30, 1933 -- Hitler was sworn in as chancellor of Germany.
February 27, 1933 -- The Reichstag, German Parliament building was set on fire. (by the communists) (you might compare to our Sept 11, 2001)
February 28, 1933 - Hitler had the aging president declare a State of Emergency (abolishing most of the human rights provisions of the Weimar republic)
March 23, 1933 - less than a month later, the Enabling Act, entitled, The Law to Remedy the Misery of the People and the Country, passed, transferring legislative power to the Executive. (might compare it to our patriot act,
or the possible attempt coming in the Senate to stop the filibuster rules, or the attack on the judiciary from many following the Terri Schiavo decisions.)
April 7, 1933 -- Law to Harmonize the State Governments and National Authority enacted. Federal structure dissolved, civil servants could be dismissed if they were not Aryan or supportive of the Nazis.

In bringing about these sweeping changes, the Nazi party and the Nazi government enjoyed broad public support. The church was no exception. Everybody expected a radical change after the confusing and chaotic end of the twenties and Germany's terrible economic crisis. People hoped for a
resurrection of Germany as a power in Europe and the world. With Nazi rule it seemed that after years of depression national pride was finally possible again. Family values were reasserted against the permissive decadence of the Weimar republic. (You might compare it to sexual minorities or gay marriage being scapegoated as the cause of the failure of marriage, so the constitution must be changed). Law and order were restored after a period of rising crime. Moeller continues, "We know that these programs sell well when people are frightened and uncertain about the future." (Remember, Moeller wrote this in 1995.)

That's the situation Bonhoeffer was in. Originally his struggle was only in the church. But at some point, after the war had begun in 1939 and Germany had overrun France and other countries, through his brother-in-law, he began
working with a group of Germans on a plot to overthrow the Nazi regime. For Bonhoeffer to join the resistance was not only a political, but a faith decision and involved an intense inner struggle with his pacifism. The coup
included an attempt to assassinate Hitler.
The first coup attempt in March of 1943 failed. Two weeks later Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested. From his prison cell he wrote this poem, entitled, "Who Am I?"

Who am I? They often tell me I would step from my cell's confinement calmly, cheerfully, firmly, like a squire from his country-house.
Who am I? They often tell me I would talk to my warden freely and friendly
and clearly, as though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me I would bear the days of misfortune equably, smilingly, proudly, like one accustomed to win.
Am I then really all that which other men tell of, or am I only what I know of myself, restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage, struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat, yearning
for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
trembling with anger at despotisms and petty humiliation,
tossing in expectation of great events,
powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making, faint and ready to say farewell to it all.
Who am I? This or the other? Am I one person today, and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others, and before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine.

Two years after his arrest, April 9, 1945, Flossenburg in Bavaria, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, on his way to be hung, whispers to another prisoner "This is the end. For me, the beginning of life." What allowed Dietrich Bonhoeffer to
live the faithful life he lived and die the death he did, trusting that his end, was the beginning of life?

# # #

I quote from an article in last Monday's New York Times,

"In the final hours of his life, Pope John Paul II lay in a wide, white-blanketed bed in a sun-filled bedroom, serene, (visitors said), in the expectation that he soon
would be in heaven."
"He was not at all holding on to life," said Cardinal
Achille Silvestrini, one of the last people to see the pope on the day of his death. "He was ready to trust himself to God." Interviews with visitors to the pope's bedside and official Vatican reports portray him as tranquil and comfortable in the face of death. What allowed John Paul II to be serene in the face of death, not clinging to life?

# # #

For a possible answer to my questions, we need a little change of pace, take a breath. Look at this morning's scripture. Our reading is the story of two disciples leaving Jerusalem, heading toward Emmaus. What can we tell about their state of mind?
Afraid - leaving Jerusalem,
Sad -- the gospel mentions they looked sad.
Discouraged and probably angry. We had hopes that Jesus was the one to redeem Israel.
Amazed, hopeful - women's story of angels saying Jesus was alive.

Their state of mind is where today's sermon title came from. That mix of feelings, fear, sad, discouraged, angry, amazed, hopeful..I'd say they were a mess, or with a little southern accent, in "a mayus." In "a mayus" on the way to Emmaus. And in this strange story, Jesus journeys with them. They don't recognize him. He opens the scriptures to them. As night approaches they get to a village and ask him to stay. At table, Jesus breaks bread, their eyes are opened, they recognize him, and he disappears.

Saturday I had another 10 minutes of sermon material about what Bishop John Shelby Spong writes about resurrection appearances. It is extremely enlightening and helpful in understanding our faith in Christ grew. If you want a copy, let me know and I'll email or copy it for you.

But whether you see this Emmaus story as happening 3 days after Jesus crucifixion or over the next 3 decades, which many scholars believe...there is a truth in it. That, I believe, is what allowed Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Pope
John Paul to live their lives and face their death with courage and serenity.

The Emmaus story is about a journeying Jesus who journeys with two disappointed, frightened disciples. He doesn't say, look it's me, it's all going to be OK, he journeys with them. Finds out where they are at. They gain a new understanding.and when they recognize him, he disappears.

I see this Emmaus Story as Luke trying to articulate a spiritual experience. John Gustav-Wrathall talked in his sermon last week about having had some spiritual
experiences, but not of the risen Christ.

I've had just a few of what I would call spiritual experiences, but if I was to put it in a pattern it would fit with this story.

They've come often -- times when I'm in a mess or on my way to Emmaus. When I've been frightened, discouraged, angry. In a difficult time in my relationship with my wife and 4 years ago when I had cancer. In a hard time, a presence came to me of love and grace. That changed my perspective, taught me something. Not a presence I recognized as Jesus, but as God. And such a wonderful feeling, feeling of being warmed inside, loved, heard, it brought me to tears. I wanted to keep feeling that way, but of course, like Jesus in this story, the presence disappears..can't be called forth or held down.

This journeying Christ, risen presence.embodiment of God and God's love is what I believe Dietrich Bonhoeffer knew in his life that allowed him to say on April 9, 1945, "This is the end, for me the Beginning," and live his life of faithfulness, knowing who he belonged to. This journeying Christ, risen presence, embodiment of God and God's love was the rock the pope was clinging to, so he didn't have to cling to life in the face of death.

# # #

I had worked on this sermon earlier in the week and had the sermon title for Vic to do the bulletin on Thursday morning. I enjoyed the play on words, but the last phrase doesn't really capture today where my sermon concludes...because I don't believe there is any formula to "call out" a spiritual experience.

All you can do is keep moving faithfully ahead, breaking bread together with friends and strangers, with an openness to one who may journey with you.

# # #

Tuesday evening the 4th Foundation meets with another developer about putting church and housing on this site..a week later we'll meet again with Salem Lutheran and Simpson Methodist to talk about the possibility of
partnering with each other.

I guarantee you that moving into the future, thinking out 15 years, figuring out where the Spirit is moving us, there
will be times of discouragement in this church, times of hopelessness and fear, besides amazement and hope. There will be times when it feels like we're in a mess. That's the time we take a collective breath. Continue breaking break as friends and strangers, and trust that we don't journey alone.

And one more thing. For those who can see similarities between this country and Germany where Bonhoeffer lived during his life, see the passion of people caught up in nationalism, militarism, moves to change the way we
govern ourselves, moves to change the constitution of our state and nation...we do face times of discouragement...these are frightening times as well as amazing and hopeful times that we are called to live in today.

As we all seek to live faithful lives to God in this nation, may we know the courage of Dietrich Bonhoeffer - as well as the presence of the one who journeys with us. Today and forever.

In Stages to Our promised Land- One Accord, One Mind, One Sustainable Building - sermon by Don Portwood

Based on Exodus 17:1-7 and Philippians 2:1-13

# # # # #

In the story Vicki read from the book of Exodus, you heard how the Congregation of the Israelites, now free from the slavery and oppression they had experienced in Egypt, left the wilderness of Sin and headed into the desert, journeying by stages, on their way to the promised land.

In a way, we, the Lyndale congregation, are journeying by stages toward, not a promised land, but at least a building that doesn't enslave, oppress and drain us. And We've been journeying by stages. Starting with a circle forum 4 years ago to talk about how this building is helping us in our mission. We then formed a discernment taskforce that helped us discern what our options might be. They brought the congregation to the point of imagining tearing this beautiful sanctuary and building down and replacing it with a smaller sustainable church and housing on this site.

The next stage has been the 4th Foundation Committee, named because if we build another building, it will be the 4th structural foundation this congregation has had, starting in 1884 with a small chapel at Lake and Lyndale, our 2nd building at Lake and Aldrich, and our present 82 year old building at Aldrich and 31st Street.

Over the past two years the 4th foundation task force has met with 4 developers, listened, learned, waited, looked at numbers and had conversations with other churches, moving the congregation at our Annual Meeting last year to include partnering with another church as an option to consider.

Especially over the last few months, the task force has shared much of the data we've gathered in the newsletter. There will be another update in the October newsletter.

September 15th, the Stewardship Council voted to begin a feasibility study with two non-profit developers, Augustana and Common Bond. They proposed a 3 month feasibility study that would look at neighborhood demographics, retail and housing needs, city zoning and financial issues in order to determine the feasibility of:

1) a multi-use building on our 31st and Aldrich site with a church space solely for Lyndale UCC; or

2) combining resources with other church clients of these same developers (primarily Salem) to create a housing/retail/church center project that would be constructed on not one but two nearby neighborhood locations.

If they find that nothing is feasible, we incur no costs. If at the end of the study it's feasible to move ahead with the developers, and we decide to do that, the cost of the study, will be absorbed in the project. If we choose not to go with them, we then incur a $5,000 - $7,500 cost for the study. Because the Stewardship Council can only authorize the spending of up to $5,000 without congregational approval, it is necessary for the congregation to vote on the possibility of spending the remaining $2,500 if needed, at a congregational meeting coming up on October 9th.
For the Congregation of the Israelites, getting out of Egypt was only the beginning of a difficult journey. Entering the wilderness of Shur they found only bitter water they could not drink, and in the wilderness of Sin they found no food until God provided quail and manna. In today's scripture, at Reph'idim, an oasis in the Negev or Sinai desert, there is no water at all; the well has run dry. It's tough going and the people quarrel and find fault with Moses, saying, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst."

We are about to enter a new stage in our journey. One that I expect will be much more difficult than our previous stages. In the next weeks and month, discernment and conversation about our future, moves out of the 4th
foundation and Stewardship Council, and into the congregation. We have hard discussions ahead of us. To date, we've had near unanimity in decisions we've made. Things have been pretty clear.

I know many of you have questions about possible options. Can we grow the congregation, stay in this building and re-use it in a new way? Can we build something on this site that will be more sustainable? Do we want to partner with another church in our neighborhood? The stage we're entering will be more difficult because how we answer those questions and make those decisions lie at the core of our being, our values and dreams, who we are and who we want to be. As one of the developers said, "In your upcoming discussions, you will be balancing money, desires and mission". Those are emotion laden, passionate topics that we care all care about, what this may cost us financially, what we really want in our hearts, how this fits with the mission of Lyndale, can any housing be affordable?

So my word this morning is a word to prepare us for what may be coming. And in my role as Pastor I offer some suggestions as we head into this next stage.
1) Recognize we don't and we won't start off agreeing (this is a hard time for conflict avoiders or recovering conflict avoiders like myself)
2) Have your voice, get everything out on the table. Say what you're thinking so it can be heard and reacted to. No one is a mind reader, it's ok to find and have your voice.
3) Practice generosity with one another. Think the best first with another person. Often times when we disagree with someone, we think they may be attacking us personally, when they are simply stating their point. So practice generosity, don't jump to conclusions, check things out with people.
4) Remember that we can love one another and disagree. Push back on one another, feel the others strength and still clasp hands in prayer together at the end of the conversation or meeting. The opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy. Be glad people care enough to have their voice, encourage people to have their voice. I'm worried more about people who disappear saying, "Lyndale church is having some disagreements, I'll find another place". My friends this is what church is, a community living
out the cost and joy of discipleship, struggling together to discern God's will for us. This is an exciting time for Lyndale Church.
5) And listen to how God is still speaking to us today, from Phillipians, Paul writes, "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others." We may disagree on what that may look like, but it is a call to act with humility toward one another, in fact, as Paul say, let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. May that be our intention.

To show what that looks like Paul adds an early Christian hymn to portray Christ's humility, "who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Sovereign, to the glory of God the Creator.”

With the mind of Christ, Paul says, in that humility and faithfulness, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

I am preparing us to expect some fear and trembling as we work out our building salvation, but I also know we'll work and play and pray our way through this next stage in our journey. There may even be times you find yourself asking, like the Israelites in the desert, "Is God among us or not?" Having served this congregation for 25 years in December, I know and trust that what looks hard, as a rock, can bring forth with living water, and live giving grace.

I know and trust that if there is any encouragement in Christ, consolation from love, sharing in the Spirit, compassion and sympathy, we'll find it among ourselves at Lyndale as we work and pray and play through this.

I know and trust that it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and intend to find your voice and speak with humility and love and work for God's good pleasure.

I know and trust that we are on a journey which will bring this community not only to a sustainable building, but in getting there, to a place of being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
*********

When I looked up the word "accord" in the dictionary, I found it meant “To conform or agree; bring into harmony, to be in agreement unity or harmony.” It's not easy, but we can do it, especially, if in on struggle, we rely on the key of C (Christ).

I close with the prayer the discernment task force said before each meeting, that I hope will become our prayer as a congregation:

As a member of Christ's body, we are willing to:
Earnest seek God's intention for the Church,
Humbly recognize our limitations and sinfulness,
Pray patiently about the issue at hand,
Genuinely care for each person's words, feelings and non-verbal expressions,
Recognize and release preconceived perceptions,
Be open to new insights, feelings, and points of view.
Be responsible for my feelings, words, and actions.

May it be so. Amen

Intimate Conversations

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial."

And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.' And he answers from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.' I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

"So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

Huh– blockages to intimate PERSISTANT…keep praying, keep asking, keep talking and listening.. conversation with God

Ugh- lady ? how’d that feel? Be aware of it….tradition…gut… Lady wouldn’t feel so foreign if we used that feminie language like the catholics…Lady of Heaven. How about the father language?

Aha – Sue Monk Kidd’s story….quotes

Yeah – growing in love, faith, diversity of knowing and talking with God

Whee – God is still speaking…Jesus, teach us how to pray….that we may have intimate conversations that open us to our deepest self. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Sophia, may we ask pray persistently for healing and justice, and continue to be that in the hallowed name of our mother/father God.

One morning, though, I tried to get talkative with God, to talk to “him” about the things in my journal, the fed-up feeling, the realization that a new way of being a woman wanted to be born in me. I got nowhere. I kept wondering how “he “ was going to understand this distinctly feminine experience. I tried briefly to imagine a God like me. God as female. But it was such a foreign notion.

Now with the wisdom of hindsight, I can look back and understand what I could not really see that as a woman I was severed from something deep inside myself, something purely and powerfully feminine. Steeped in a faith tradition that men had named, shaped, and directed.

A young girl learns Bible stories in which vital women are generally absent, in the background, or devoid of power. She learns that men go on quests, encounter God and change history, while women support and wait for them. She hears sermons where traditional (nonthreatening) feminine roles are lifted up as God’s ideal. A girl is likely to see only a few women in the higher echelons of church power. And what does a girl who is forming her identity, do with all the scriptures admonishing women to submission and silence? Having them “explained away” as the product of an ancient time does not entirely erase her unease. She also experiences herself missing from pronouns in scripture, hymns and prayers. And most of all, as long as God “himself” is exclusively male, she will experience the otherness, the lessness of herself; all the pious talk in the world about females being equal to males will fail to compute in the deeper places inside her.

To name is to define and shape reality. For eons women have accepted male naming as a given, especially in the spiritual realm. The fact is, for a long time now men have been naming the world, God, sacred reality, and even women from their own masculine perspective and experience and then calling it universal experience. As feminist culture critic Elizabeth Dodson Gray points out, this naming tended to benefit men’s needs and concerns and in lots of cases to oppress women.

I realized that over the long course of church history, Mary had been the closest thing Christianity had to an archetype of the Feminine Divine. For many she filled the vacuum in the divine image and came to represent the feminine “side”. She was referred to as Queen of Heaven, Lady All Holy, Sovereign Mistress of the World.

I was in a religion that celebrated fatherhood and sonship. I was in an institution created by men and for men. As de Beauvior put it, religion had given men a God like themselves—a God exclusively male in imagery, which legitimized and sealed their power. How fortunate for men, that their sovereign authority had been vested in them by the Supreme Being.

Patriarchal hierarchy, Theologian Anne E. Carr relates that this hierarchy issues forth in a whole series of “unequal power relations; God as father rules over the world, holy fathers rule over the church, clergy fathers over laity, males over females, husbands over wives and children, men over the created world. The pattern even extends to our relationship to nature and how countries seek dominance over each other.

One rain-soaked weekend when the children were off with friends and Sandy was away for a conference, I read practically nonstop, making a breathtaking discovery. I found that within early Christian history there had been two traditions regarding women. The first we could call the revolutionary tradition which included Jesus’ “feminist and egalitarian intent and practice. This tradition, preaching a gospel of liberation and mutuality, treated women as equals. Evidence exists that Christian women carried out priestly functions—teaching, baptizing, and blessing the Eucharist—on a par with men. But soon another tradition asserted itself, the patriarchal tradition with its anti-female, body-negating spirituality, insisting on the dominant cultural taboos and sanctions concerning women. This tradition, which had started long before Christianity, viewed women as naturally inferior and as the property of men, associating women with matter, flesh, evil, and sin. For a while these two traditions, the revolutionary and the patriarchal, clashed, but soon the revolutionary tradition was stamped out, sealing an interpretation of women as inferior that has continued to this day.

I was aware that Jewish and Christian theologians point out that God is genderless. The ultimate ground of being the Divine One, is neither male nor female. In the Bible God names God saying I am that I am. The Absolute Being simply is. The question then occurred to me: Well, if that’s so if the Divine is ultimately formless and genderless, what’s the big deal? Why all this bother?

The bother is because we have no other way of speaking about the Absolute. We NEED forms and images. Without them we have no way of relating to the Divine. Symbol and image create a universal spiritual language. It’s the language the soul understands. And yet—and here was the crux- the images that have pervaded our speech, thought, and feeling about the Divine have told us the Divine is exclusively male. They have told us there is only one form and that form is masculine. Indeed, the image, language, and metaphor of God as male has been used so exclusively, for so long (about five thousand years) that some people seem to believe God really is male.

As I spilled these thoughts across the pages in my journal, I recalled a story a women had told about her six-year old daughter. The child, freshly home from Sunday school, was reporting to her mother what she’d learned that day about God. Over and over she referred to God as “he”. Her mother asked, “Why do you say, “He, “Ashley?” “Because God is a man, Mommy.”

But why is God a man?” Ashley thought a moment. “I guess because God thought that was the best thing to be.”
There’s something infinitely sad about little girls who grow up understanding (usually unconsciously) that if God is male, it ‘s because male is the most valuable thing to be. The belief resonates in a thousand hidden ways in their lives. It slowly cripples girl children, and it cripples female adults.

That day with these weighty thoughts spinning in my head, I reaffirmed to myself the deep, formless, indescribable nature of the Divine. But I also affirmed the human need for forms, for dances or images that express the Divine. And I realized that if we were going to meet that need without being idolatrous, and do I t in an egalitarian and just way, we must recover a Divine Feminine.

The fear of and resistance to feminine images goes deep.

I remember the time I discussed this fear and resistance with a minister who was genuinely interested in creating inclusiveness in his church. He thought we should forgo recovering Divine Feminine images and move directly toward abstract, androgynous images, we should neuter the language and symbol of the Divine. He said we should use only the word God, not Father or he or his. (And this is confessional for me, because when pushed, as I was 15 years ago, that’s what I said.)

“But the word God does not register in us as neuter.” I said, “Technically it may not imply any particular gender, but what registers and functions in the mind is male.”

As McFague says, androgynous terms only “conceal androcentric and male assumptions behind the abstraction.” How many times had I heard someone say, “God is not male. He is spirit”?

The minister looked at me “Then where does that leave us?”

“I think it leaves us in the position of finding ways to speak of the Divine equally in female as well as male terms” I said.

He looked at me with alarm and dismay as his own ambivalence about the feminine surfaced. “Oh dear,” he said.

The “oh dear” reaction is common. It’s the uh-oh-what-will-they- think? How can it be done? questions that surface inside.

But that day in my study, I came to a new sense of the urgency and importance behind it. I felt in my bones how crucial it was, “oh dear’ response or not.

Jesus Alive - sermon by John Gustav-Wrathall

"JESUS ALIVE"
preached by Lyndale UCC member John Gustav-Wrathall as part of our lay preaching ministry
April 3, 2005

Lectionary texts:
Acts 2:14a, 22-32
1 Peter 1:3-9
John 20:19-31

All of today's lectionary texts, in Acts, 1 Peter and John, relate to the problem of doubt and belief in relation to the resurrection. Namely, do we believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? The more I reflected on the texts, the more strongly I felt
that I could neither do the texts justice, nor do justice to the faith and experience of the earliest Christians, nor be particularly honest if I satisfied myself to reflect on the resurrection in some metaphorical sense without addressing the question that the texts
themselves demand: Did Jesus rise from the dead in some real, physical, literal sense, and if so, what does it mean to us?

A reflection on the nature and meaning of the resurrection of Jesus needs to begin with the acknowledgment that without the resurrection, the Christian faith could not exist. If Christians had only the teachings of Jesus, it seems unlikely that we should be anything but progressive Jews, since most of what Jesus taught was anticipated by
prophets like Isaiah and Amos, and by Jewish teachers like Hillel. Nor does the Christian faith exist because of Jesus' death. For in a real sense, the death of Jesus negated the most fervent hopes of his earliest followers. The witness of Jesus' rising again after his death
was and is the heart of the faith that claims Jesus' name. It was around the witnesses of Jesus' resurrection that the earliest Christian communities gathered. It was in the interpretation of Jesus' resurrection that the theology which we think of as distinctly Christian developed.

Although much has been made of "the traditions of the empty tomb," the stories that have most captured the faith and hope of Christians over the centuries are the stories that explicitly tell of a living, flesh-and-blood Christ walking with, talking to, touching, eating and drinking with, and teaching his disciples.

The New Testament contains numerous accounts of appearances of Christ: to the two Marys and the eleven apostles in Matthew chapter 28; to Mary Magdalene, to the two disciples on the road, and to the eleven in Mark chapter 16; on the road to Emmaus and to the eleven in Luke chapter 24; to Mary Magdalene, to the ten disciples gathered in a room, and then to "doubting" Thomas, in John chapter 20; to seven disciples in the fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee in John chapter 21; and to "the 500" and to James, mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

Some church historians have attributed Christianity's phenomenal success in the first and second centuries to the fact that the early Christian apostles could offer personal eye witnesses of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Early Christians apparently
believed that such an eye-witness of Jesus' resurrection was a prerequisite for being an apostle. When a new apostle was appointed to take the place of Judas, as recorded in Acts chapter one, the other disciples deliberately chose from among those "who have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us... to be a witness with us of his resurrection."

Though Paul was not among those who knew Jesus in mortal life, his primary claim to be numbered among the apostles was his own eye witness of the resurrected Jesus in the
blinding light on the road to Damascus, the story of which is told in Acts chapter 9, and which Paul frequently cited to justify his ministry.

The tradition in which I was raised, Mormonism, was founded by a man who claimed to have seen the living Christ in the flesh, and is led by a prophet and twelve apostles who were, even in these latter days, supposed to have been eye witnesses of the living, bodily resurrection
of Christ.[1]

I grew up a few miles away from the "Sacred Grove" in
Palmyra, New York, where Joseph Smith claimed to have encountered the living Jesus. In my own personal journey of faith since leaving the Mormon Church, I was touched at a critical juncture by an Episcopal priest who had had his own Damascus-road-like encounter. The Reverend David Works told me how Jesus appeared to him in a blinding light in a
jail cell, convincing him to give his life to God. His testimony literally helped save my life, by giving me hope in the universality and immediacy of God's grace. David Works always used to tell me how the Christian faith was nothing without its witness of the "bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

And yet, despite this insistence on a physical eye witness of the resurrected Jesus that lies so close to the heart of Christian faith, the next thing it is necessary to acknowledge is that the vast majority of Christians -- all but a unique handful -- must live their faith with no such eye witness. I have had many mystical experiences in my life, some quite dramatic. But I have never seen the resurrected Jesus. I assume that most folks here today have not either, though I don't deny the possibility. What faith most of us have must make do without such a personal eye witness.

It is to this central reality of Christian faith that all of today's lectionary texts are addressed. The Acts 2 text provides a model of how faith comes into being through someone else's witness. In this text, Peter tells the "men of Israel" of Jesus, whom "God raised up, whereof we [apostles] all are witnesses."[2] Confronted with this eye witness testimony, the text continues, "Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said... 'Men and brethren, what shall we do?'" Peter's answer? "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the
name of Jesus Christ." "And they that gladly received his word were baptized."

While the Acts text models the use of the resurrection witness as a missionary tool, the 1 Peter text explains the nature of faith. Because faith is grounded in the unseen, it will naturally be tested. So Peter encourages the saints by reminding them of the joy their faith brings
them, even though "now for a season... ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations." Today's 1 Peter text reminds the faithful of the preciousness of their faith in the "appearing of Jesus Christ: whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." [Emphasis is mine.]

The third text, in John, specifically addresses the problem of doubt. Growing up in a community where faith was the norm, we tended to view Thomas as the misfit apostle, the one who couldn't believe, the apostle of little faith. But in fairness to Thomas, he was the only one of the eleven apostles who didn't actually get to see Jesus in the first place! Most of the new testament accounts portray announcements of Jesus' resurrection encountering skepticism. In reality, doubt is the norm. It is the condition of the world. And this story is meant to
model an unconventional response to doubt. "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed," says Jesus.

The writer of John drives this point home to us the readers by concluding the story: "But these are written,
that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name." [Emphasis is mine.] The purpose of the story, as Elaine Pagels describes so eloquently in Beyond Belief, is to teach Christians to rely not on one's own personal witness, but on the witness of others.[3]

This is the nature of faith for the vast majority of Christians in the world: the affirmation of the mystery of Jesus' resurrection as literal truth, as something real that took place, that had eye witnesses, that was documented. And the simultaneous affirmation that we must hold to this mystery without having witnessed it ourselves. That we must take it on faith.

Like many in this congregation, I struggle with this kind of affirmation. I have learned to be deeply mistrustful of individuals who make claims of authority based on some mysterious unseen for which I must take their word in order to be saved. It is not that I, in principle, have trouble believing in something miraculous. Just because
modern science can't explain the resurrection doesn't mean that it didn't happen. The problem I have is not the what, it's the where we go from there. The problem I have is that so many Christians take that belief to dark, violent places.

Like Thomas, I want to see. But unlike Thomas, it is not the prints in the hands and the feet, the scar in the side that I want to see and touch. It is not the physical body of Jesus that I need to see. Show me the grace that flows from your belief, and I too will believe. Show me that belief in the resurrection must lead us to greater love and and more unconditional compassion. Show me that it is not exclusive, that it does not demean those who are different, or those who cannot or will not believe. Show me that it is not authoritarian, that it does not require me to leave my brain at the door of the church, that it does not make me a bigot. Show me that it doesn't make me feel like I need to amend the constitution to keep somebody else from having rights. Show me the signs and I will believe. Not the signs of the nails, but the signs of true grace and compassion.

Mysteries such as the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead are in their very nature unbelievable. They draw us out of ourselves because we do not have the resources or knowledge in ourselves to comprehend or hold them. We might say this type of faith disempowers the believer, it
decenters us. To embrace this kind of faith means trying to hold things that are beyond our grasp.

To conservative Christians, a believer being disempowered and decentered is a good thing. They will say, there is no power in ourselves, only in God. We should be decentered in relation to God. But the problem is that a decentered believer is so easily abused and manipulated, so easily turned into a pawn of someone else's agenda, so easily engaged into crusades that spread pain, death and destruction instead of life and love. Too often, believing without seeing turns into believing in spite of seeing. We see this in the current war against scientific truth that is being waged in schools and legislatures across our nation. We see the fruit of this kind of faith in gay and lesbian people being denied full civil rights, or even
brutalized and murdered; in abortion clinics being bombed; in planes being highjacked and flown into the World Trade Center.

In his book Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer documents how devout Mormons are more likely to be duped by con artists than other Americans, partly because of their tendency to believe, especially when someone knows the right catch phrases and triggers to use. He also documents strings of brutal kidnappings and murders committed in the 1970s and 1980s by fundamentalist Mormons who were not crazy, but who simply believed that God had commanded them to take the lives of unbelievers.

Liberal Christians do not have those kinds of problems. We don't surrender our minds or our souls very easily to charlatans or to wild mysticism. But we have immunized ourselves by demystifying the mysteries and demanding a faith that is believable. We're not sure those "eye witness" accounts of the resurrection described in the
Bible are so much eye witness accounts as parables of the church or of the renewal of our souls. We don't deny the resurrection, but we don't make belief in it a requirement. In fact we cringe at any requirement to believe in the unbelievable. And yet, this leaves us incapable of moving beyond or outside of ourselves. It encourages us to remain safely within the realm of what we think is possible. And this becomes true of how far we are willing to go even for those things we are sure of. It puts limits on how much we are willing to sacrifice to move the world away from the mundane probable and closer to the divine possible.

But a more important problem with demanding a faith that is believable, is that not all things which are real are believable. The problem with demanding a faith in which you can remain centered within yourself is that life is constantly decentering us. Thinking that we can grasp or
hold all things within ourselves is at best an illusion. Why is it that so many of us naturally turn to God in times of crisis? Why is it that prayers so naturally fall from so many of our lips when we are facing some catastrophic loss? Because crises knock us off of our center. They remind us that we cannot cope on our own, that we do not have the resources in ourselves. We are incomplete. Whatever our spiritual center is, it is not in here, inside of us. So it must be somewhere out there, outside.

Close friends have often asked me why I remain in the church. I struggle with faith. I'm not sure belief in God is healthy. And yet, here I am in a church community that I have been a part of for more than ten years, preaching about the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

I am here, in Lyndale Church, in part because in those moments when I recognize that I am not my own spiritual center, when I recognize that I cannot contain all the great truths in myself, when I recognize that truth surpasses me, I need you. In the passing of the peace, in the reading of scripture, in the preaching, in the beautiful stained glass windows where I sometimes lose myself in contemplation during the preaching, in the music, in the choir singing, in the dance and movement, in the prayers of the people, in the communion to which all
are welcome there are opportunities to find a divine center that is not just in me and me alone.

In this church's witness for justice, in our marching in the Gay Pride parade, in our hospitality through Families
Moving Forward, we have an opportunity to find a center that is not just me and me alone. I am not sure if it is enough, but we have to start our path first by embracing the opportunities we have.

So what about the mystery of the resurrection? I don't know. I cannot deny it, because I don't know enough to say that it cannot have happened. The writers of Acts and 1 Peter and John all affirm that there were witnesses who saw it, and in a very real sense we exist as a Christian community on the strength of that alone. But all I can say is that if there were eye-witnesses I was not -- I am not -- one of them. And without the eye witness, without the proof, I am not sure I should believe. In this I am not asking any more than Thomas, and maybe that makes me less blessed than those who can believe without proof. But I
believe that we have the right to demand an eye-witness, for if belief in the witness of others is at the heart of our faith, the eye-witness itself is at the heart of the heart of our faith. We should not let anyone make us think less of ourselves for insisting on it.

To this I must add that the example of most people who are blessed "to believe and not see" is not encouraging to me. Throughout my life, those people who have been most consistently loving, who have been most able to open up to me unconditionally, those who have most concretely
demonstrated compassion for others with no strings attached are people who have serious reservations about God; who find organized religion difficult to stomache; who are atheists or agnostics or doubters or are indifferent to religion. Those who have been most obnnoxious, most judgmental, most cruel and hateful and intolerant, most insensitive, most incapable of listening or understanding or opening up are also the most believing and the most devout. I certainly know many who believe
devoutly in the great mysteries and who have kindness in their hearts, but I have always sensed there are limits. There is only so much kindness, only so much love, only so much compassion. It only goes so far. Especially if you are somehow outside the boundaries of what they believe God permits; for example, if you are a gay man like me. In
general I have found that you have to be without religious devotion to forget about the limits and just love, plainly and unconditionally.

I believe our calling is to love first and ask questions later. Our faith needs to open us up, not close us off. It needs to invite us to step out and to surpass limits, not stay confined within them. It needs to invite us into fellowship, not leave us alone in ourselves. If we need to doubt in order to live that kind of love, so be it.

This is how I believe in the resurrection. I let my heart be open with love, with faith. Just open. Like Thomas, I am waiting to see.

Amen.

Notes

1. See Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power (Salt
Lake City: Signature Books, 1997), pp. 1-6.

2. The text begins with Peter standing up "with the Eleven." (Acts
2:1.) This is significant in that it emphasizes how Peter's sermon is
grounded on this unified testimony of all the officially designated
witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

3. Elaine Pagels, Beyond Belief: the Secret Gospel of St. Thomas (New
York: Random House, 2003).

LOVE IS THE ANSWER

This is the last Sunday of Epiphany, (the season when the light is revealed to the world, starting with the Star of Bethlehem). It’s also the Sunday before lent…which means it is transfiguration Sunday. When Jesus went up the mountain, was transfigured and talked with Moses and Elijah. If we had more time it would be interesting to see how the Luke account differs from the accounts in Matthew and Mark, both in what Luke added and deleted. It helps you realized each gospel writer was writing to a specific audience and tells the story in a different way to make their point, theologically or thematically.
Traditional Christianity sees this scene as a glimpse of the God nature of the divine Jesus when the kabod, (glory or inner being) or presence and light of God, is seen in and around Jesus as he is praying. God was often portrayed in ancient Israel as being surrounded/enveloped in light, unapproachable to humans. And orthodox faith teaches that this scene represents the transference of the glory of God to the person of Jesus as the messianic one. Luke also seems to use it as a foreshadowing of the upcoming passion and resurrection story. Only in Luke are the disciples asleep (like at the garden of Gethsemane the night he was arrested) and the words, “And behold, two men”…are the exact words Luke uses on Easter morning at the empty tomb…behold two men stood by them…in dazzling apparel.
Even when Jesus and the disciples come down the mountain and meet the boy with seizures and Jesus heals him, Luke says…all were astonished at the majesty of God. We can assume they mean God, the creator…but could also mean this divine Jesus God.
Jesus talks with Moses and Elijah…representatives of the law and the prophets….and in fact Jesus…portrayed in the gospels as the new Moses….talks with the old Moses of the exodus story, about what? Jesus departure….which in Greek is exodus and how his way of embodying God’s love…would lead to his death in Jerusalem.
Like Peter…wondering what to do with this information and suggesting building a booth for Moses, Elijah and Jesus….I’ve often thought – what do I do with this information? How does one preach this? If your understanding of Jesus is different from orthodox Christianity, what do you preach? What does this have to do with us today?
The faith and fellowship group has been reading Bishop John Shelby Spong’s new book, Eternal Life: A New Vision, in which he talks way too briefly about his new vision of life, consciousness, Jesus and eternal life. He writes that he’d like someone to do more work on his new understanding of Jesus. Not as some half divine half human being…not as some God/Human creation…but as a fully human one. “Jesus was a human life so deeply lived, a human life through which love flowed without barrier or interception, a being so courageously present that he was open to the ultimate ground of all being. He had stepped from self-consciousness into a universal consciousness that brings us into a profound oneness with all there he. He had become one with God”.
So Jesus is fully human, enlightened or awakened, in Buddhist terms, a master in Qi Gong terms. Spong writes, “John’s mystical approach to Jesus shouts the reality that we share in the life of God, just as Jesus did. We share in the being of God, just as Jesus did. Does that mean that our consciousness shares in the consciousness of God? I think it does, and as we become more deeply and fully conscious, we move from the being of survival to the being of love and we participate in and reveal the reality of God”. Spong and the mystics say this is who Jesus is…this is who Jesus reminds us we can be….this is who we are called to be as fully human”. And Jesus also calls us to live that way of life, that way of love.
Not stay on the mountain, but come down to that place where people really live, where little boys have seizures and need healing. That’s the kind of love we learn from Jesus.
Because it’s transfiguration Sunday and I wasn’t sure what to say…I started working on this sermon last Monday morning. I did a lot of research trying to understand what it meant and might mean to us. And I went to bed Monday night with all that information going around in my head having made a ton of notes that morning. Tuesday morning I woke up at 4am with a jumble of thought going around in my head….thinking about Jesus aglow on the mountain…about coming down the mountain and showing that love…by healing the boy with epilepsy and then I thought about a meditation Barb does, it’s a Qi Gong meditation led by Master Linn, a local Qi Gong master….in which he has people imagine a little ball of light in the very center of their being, behind your belly button….and as part of the meditation you imagine that ball of light getting bigger and bigger both inside your body and outside your body….and I thought, maybe Jesus as an enlightened master, was able to “activiate” his energy body…or show his aura…to use another term you may have heard. Or since we are all simply made up of energy, some way, the disciples saw Jesus’ energy body glowing as he was praying.
So there I am at 4 a.m. on Tuesday morning, lying in bed…trying to make sense of all that, the light around or in Jesus, the call to love and heal and how could I help us catch a glimpse, like the disciples did of the power and glory and call that we all our capable of….as we live our fully human and fully loving lives.
Boom – the words to a song came into my head…light of the world, shine on me. Love is the answer. I laid there thinking, I need to look it up the rest of the words to that chorus. I was sure it was by Seals and Croft. Having gotten that far on the sermon, I was able to go back to sleep. I got up later, went to you tube and looked up this song by Seals and Croft. Not there. Instead I found out it was written by Todd Rundgren for his band Utopia in 1977, whom I didn’t know. But then I found out that the version I was remembering was covered, not by Seals and Croft, but by England Dan and John Ford Coley. Another minute of research and I found out that England Dan is Dan Seals, brother of Jim Seals of Seals and Croft. So rather than saying any more, I want us to stand up…and sing as much as you can of this song….along with the music that will be playing. Because as well as I could put it together, Todd Rundgren in writing this is saying what I wanted to say…it’s about listening to Jesus as one who bears the light and reminds us we bear it too, in love….in love….always in love. I’ve changed the words very slightly to have the light shine in us out…rather than just on us. If Luke can change Mark and Matthew’s gospel to fit his theology, I can change Todd Rundgren’s song to fit my theology.
Notice too in the chorus, the words “set us free” – doesn’t that have something to do with exodus?
So stand and sing where you can…or listen….to the word of God for today…as it comes to us through Todd Rundgren as sung by England Dan Seals and John Ford Coley…and all of us.

*HYMN Love Is The Answer
(Written by Todd Rundgren 1977 for Utopia)
as covered by England Dan and John Ford Coley (1979)
with a few minimal word changes.

Name your price
A ticket to paradise
I can't stay here any more
And I've looked high and low
I've been from shore to shore to shore
If there's a short cut I'd have found it
But there is no easy way around it.

Light of the world, shine in me
Love is the answer
Shine in us all
Set us free
Love is the answer

Who knows why?
Someday we all must die
We're all homeless boys and girls
And we are never heard
It's such a lonely lonely lonely world
People turn their heads and walk on by
Tell me is it worth just another try?

Light of the world, shine in me
Love is the answer
Shine in us all
Set us free
Love is the answer

And we, are we alive
Or just a dying planet?
What are the chances?
Ask the one in your heart for the answers

And when you feel afraid
Love one another
When you've lost your way
Love one another
And when you're all alone
Love one another
And when you're far from home
Love one another
And when you're down and out
Love one another
And when your hopes run out
Love one another
And when you need a friend
Love one another
And when you feel the end
Love, we got to love, we got to love one another

Light of the world, shine in me
Love is the answer
Shine in us all
Set us free
Love is the answer

Light of the world, shine in me
Love is the answer
Shine in us all
Set us free
Love is the answer

Lessons on Forgiveness and Doubt

The Sermon preached by Diane Peterson on March 30, 2008

Peace be with you. As God has sent me, I am sending you. And with that Jesus breathed on them and said, Recieve the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone their sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.

Jesus bestows the power of forgiveness on the disciples. Sounds easy enough, but it is not…forgiveness can be a daunting, difficult undertaking. As I did research for this sermon, I found some advice on forgiveness in one of my books, “Women Who Run with the Wolves” by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. In the book Estes talks about four stages of forgiveness.

After someone or some event has caused you pain, the first stage is to forego or to leave it alone. Estes encourages taking a break from thinking about the person or event for awhile. Leaving thoughts of the event alone for awhile will help you detach from the issue. It sometimes can be easy to hang on to an issue instead of leaving it alone. Sometimes I even feed the issue instead of leaving it alone. Feeding an issue only serves to give it life. Detaching and letting go…not feeding an issue…can help the issue lose some weight.

The second stage of forgiveness is to forebear-to abstain from punishing. To forebear is to, in Estes words, “refrain from punitive uttering, muttering, from acting resentful, hostile.” She encourages patience and practicing generosity in order to abstain from punishing. Estes goes on to say “this does not mean to go blind or dead and lose self-protective vigilance. It means to give a bit of grace to the situation and see how that assists.”

Stage three is to forget-to aver from memory, to refuse to dwell. She is not suggesting a complete erasure of the memory, but instead a letting go of the emotions surrounding the memory. So again, suggesting letting go…not feeding the memory…and instead creating some new experiences with new memories.

The last stage of forgiveness according to Estes is to forgive-to abandon the debt, to make a conscious decision to cease to harbor resentment.
…to make a conscious decision to cease to harbor resentment…

Again, this all sounds simple enough, but forgiveness is difficult. I have struggled with forgiveness over the years. One person I have recently struggled to forgive is my Dad’s significant other. The story is too long and complicated to tell in this short time and really doesn’t matter anyway. Just know that some of her actions prompted reactions in me ranging from hurt to rage. So let’s walk through the stages laid out by Estes and how I went through the stages.

Stage 1, leave it alone. …a, no…it was more of a keep the memories fresh by rehashing them regularly.
Stage 2, refrain from uttering, muttering and acting resentful. Again, no…I did not follow her plan. Instead I fed the hurt and anger.
Stage 3, let go of the emotions. Of course this was another no. I instead held them tight and sometimes even increased the flame under the emotions.

This had all been going on over the last year and a half or so. Around New Years of this year I finally started to wake up and realize that if I didn’t work on forgiving her that my hurt and anger were going to eat away at me. Hanah More said it well, “A Christian will find it cheaper to pardon than to resent. Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred and the waste of spirit.” I did not want to continue to waste my spirit…it was time to let go. I started thinking about her less, decreased my uttering and muttering and then started to let go of some of the emotion. The last thing I did was to sit down one morning and reflect quietly on letting go. I then wrote on a piece of paper that I was going to let go. I lit one of those candles that come in a jar and put the piece of paper in the flame and watched the words slowly burn away. That was the start of my freedom. ….Forgiveness….

The other focus of the reading today is the one it is most famous for…doubt. Many churches today teach that to doubt is to lack faith. I disagree and think doubt is a healthy and necessary part of life. Doubt is much better than the blind faith many churches encourage. To me, blind faith equals lack of growth because if you believe your way is THE truth, there is no reason to study or learn from others.

As I researched doubt to find others views, I found a story on NPR’s Speaking of Faith that was about doubt. Jennifer Hecht, author of The History of Doubt, was interviewed. From her I learned doubt has been around for many years…long before Doubting Thomas. Ancient Greek philosophers gave us words we still use today regarding doubt. Two words they gave us are cynicism and skepticism. In Ancient Greece the word cynic meant dog. Cynics encouraged life to be lived as a dog lives. They encouraged the rejection of the human world. They doubted the importance of gaining power and things.
Skepticism started with the thought that the mind was not meant to know things-to be able to find truths. A little later it grew into a study of probabilities. They argued that they could be convinced by each philosophy when they held the book in their hand. That led them to question that if each philosophy could convince them, how could any one philosophy hold real truth? The original meaning and thought behind both cynicism and skepticism has been changed. Now when one speaks of cynicism or skepticism, it is typical to mean something closer to a dismissal of everything. A dismissal of everything can be paralyzing-hard to accomplish much if you can’t trust in anything.

So where do I stand on this continuum between paralyzing doubt and blind faith? As I prepared for this sermon I was caught in paralyzing doubt. I read the scriptures my first thought was oh no, the doubting Thomas story! I will never be able to come up with something new and fresh around that story! My thoughts became consumed with doubts which made it difficult to have a peaceful mind open to new learning and thoughts. To break past that I called Don to talk things through and then I decided I just had to push through and made myself just start writing. It still took awhile, but I finally got past my paralyzing doubt.

I have also experienced the other end of the continuum. I experienced blind faith of science starting in middle school and continuing through high school. I saw church as a place filled with hypocrites and felt that science had all the answers. I remember that thought process starting to change in high school as I observed a group of fellow students. They had morning Bible studies at school and as I watched them come out of the room I saw something in their faces and the way were interacting that made me think that perhaps I was missing something. Since high school I have been all over the continuum of doubt, but I try to stay away from the far edges and stick closer to the middle where there is faithful doubt.

In my study of doubt, I found an article written by Sean Gilbert, a minister with Uniting Church in Australia. He had this to say about faithful doubt: “According to the post-Easter Story, what was at stake for Thomas-and now for the contemporary church-is not a pure and watertight belief system, but a radically open heart and mind. An openness that gives rise to and sustains the spiritual virtues of inclusion, trust, wonderment and respect.” These virtues are at the core of faithful doubt.

Over the years of struggling with my doubts and beliefs, I sometimes have felt like giving up the struggle because it seems too difficult. I have never been sorry that I kept up the struggle though because getting through the struggle opens my heart and mind to new thoughts and ideas. And as Gilbert states, on open heart and mind give rise to inclusion, trust, wonderment and respect. I want these virtues so I continue to doubt…a faithful doubt.

Whether you choose to believe or to doubt the reading today about Jesus rising from the dead and appearing to his disciples, the lessons within the reading are worthy of study. We learn we are to forgive and to have faithful doubt.

Forgiveness and doubt—go forth and use them wisely.

New Consciousness, New Pentecost

May 2009 PASTOR’S COLUMN
Don Portwood

J. Philip Newell, author of the new book, Christ of the Celts: The Healing of Creation, spoke at a number of Twin City venues in May about Celtic Christian Spirituality. He
writes, “There is a longing for peace deep within the human soul today. It is a yearning within us and between us in the most important relationships of our lives. It is a
yearning among us as nations and as an entire earth community. It does not belong exclusively to the Christian soul or the Muslim soul or the Jewish soul. It belongs to
the human soul. And it is cause for great hope. But how do we serve it? How do we set it free for the healing of our lives and world?” Newell says this new consciousness
blowing through the world is a 2nd Pentecost; people waking up to the realization that we are all one, one with each other, one with other religions, one with creation, one with God. Listening for the heartbeat of God in all creation, listening to our deeper selves, we become aware of that yearning for oneness, for love, for wholeness. We’re realizing it is not something we can have in isolation. The wellness and wholeness of our selves,
depends on the wellness and wholeness of all: people, nations, creation.

Newell is aware of the challenges to this new consciousness. “Yet ranged against this longing for peace are some of the most threatening forces that history has seen. These are forces of fear and fragmentation. And they are wedded to the mightiest political powers and religious fundamentalisms of the world today.”

He also has a challenge for the Christian Church. “There is widespread disillusionment within the Christian household today. And by Christian household I am not referring solely to those who attend church. I am including the much vaster number of us who have grown up in Christian families or Christian cultures and who choose to have little to do with the church. There is despair about much of what Christianity has to offer. So many of its teachings and practices seem either irrelevant to the deepest yearnings of the human soul or flatly opposed to them. Why? Is it not in part because we have been
taught to distrust our deepest yearnings rather than to see them as sacred? And is it not also because we have been given the impression that Christ comes to subdue or deny
our deepest desires rather than to nurture and heal them?”

A new Pentecost Spirit is blowing through our world today (not a surprise to UCC’ers - “God is Still Speaking”). So listening to Philip Newell and pondering our upcoming
Pentecost celebration on May 31st, I realized what an opportunity we at Lyndale have. Pentecost is the celebration of the birthday of the church. The Spirit was poured out at Pentecost on disciples who began to speak in many languages. One Spirit, many languages. And the church was born, grew and changed the world.

We practice a lot of what Philip Newell spoke about. Not a surprise, since I first attended a conference with him in Pennsylvania in 1993 or 1994. We are still discovering
ways to put into practice the spirituality of inclusiveness, oneness, listening to our deepest sacred longings. But, how do we connect beyond superficial ways to one another? How do people looking for community break into the Lyndale community? How do we practice and teach the practices that nurture our whole lives…when too often we are so busy we don’t have time to really show up?

We’ve been meeting at Intermedia Arts for two months now. We’re beginning to adjust to the space. It’s been a big change, for children and adults alike. But we’re adjusting.
In this Pentecost and summer season we have the opportunity to continue to think about, pray about, move about what is being birthed in us. How the change we’re experiencing on
a local level is connected to the enormous changes, shifts, stirring throughout the world, stirring up very frightened reactions.

Because if we are one, we are going to have to change how we relate to the earth, other religions, other nations. Deeper than all the things that separate us that longing for oneness and peace is creating a new Pentecost….One spirit speaking through many languages.

In the midst of the change we are experiencing locally and the changes we all experience living in this day comes one question asked in many different ways for you/us to
ponder/pray about/listen for/ reflect on/move with.

1)What would make Lyndale Church more relevant in your life, offer more wholeness, vitality, community, service, compassion?
2)How could your spiritual journey be strengthened, deepened, joy-filled, transformative, nurturing, challenging?
3)What can you imagine might awaken and transform you as we all awaken to our deeper yearnings and crys?
4)Is there anything that you would find more helpful: spiritual direction, pastoral counseling, phone calls from members, Lyndale blogging conversations, knowing about
opportunities to serve through Families Moving Forward, Simpson Shelter, Workers Interfaith Network, Humane Immigration Reform, individual or group spiritual practices, bible study, book study, meditation groups, yoga?
5)What would assist your awakening, growth and dealing with change?
a)in worship on Sunday
b)Before or after worship on Sundays
c)During the week
6)What would have to be happening at Lyndale that was so contagious you couldn’t help but invite those who have given up on the church to check out this faith community?
7)What would make your worship/church/spiritual practice experience more spirited, meaningful, relevant?
8)What would feed you more deeply at the table we set? What would open you to the mystery that we are and live?

Like the early church we are in the beginning of something new. I seek your counsel are these many questions that are one question. So does the Congregational Life Committee
that has been in discussions about how to deepen community in the midst of difficult times in our world.

This season of Pentecost can be a season of formation and re-formation. Our time in the wilderness can be a time of growth, discovery, deepening, wholeness.

Not an 'ic,' Not an 'ist,' Not an 'utheran' - sermon by Andrea Lawrence

In July of 1955, just a few weeks shy of my fourth birthday, my parents took their bite of the American dream and bought their first house at 1417 Amelia, Royal Oak, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Our neighborhood featured houses in style A, a two bedroom bungalow, or style B, a three bedroom ranch, each painted in muted Eisenhower-era pastels. No garages, no grass yet and one spindly sapling in each front yard. Dads went to work, moms stayed home and all these houses were teeming with children.

It didn’t take long, that first summer on Amelia Street, to learn all about our new playmates because we knew the important questions to ask. How old are you? When will you start school? Do you have brothers and sisters? By the end of that summer we also knew who had a television, whose mom always kept a pitcher of koolaid in the fridge, who could ride a bike. But these distinctions weren’t terribly important. We had our particular friends but everyone played with pretty much everyone else; every day adventurous and new.

It wasn’t until first grade that some differences became noticeable. For the first time we didn’t all go to Mark Twain Elementary. Several of my friends put on uniforms and went to Guardian Angels and to catechism class every Saturday. Yes, these were the mysterious Catholic kids and I wondered, if they are Catholic, what am I? I asked my mother and she told me, “We belong to St Paul’s United Church of Christ.” Oh yeah. I kind of knew that’s where we went every Sunday. And that information was satisfactory only for as long as it took to repeat my mother’s answer to my best friend, Ellen. She looked at me, with all the superiority of being born Lutheran, and asked, “What’s that?” I didn’t know what to say so I went back to my mother for clarification. She told me something about a merger, which went right over my head; that we were Christians and Protestants, but we weren’t Lutheran, like the Wabers, or Methodists, like the Williamses.

This seemed to tell me more about what I wasn’t than what I was and was rather bewildering for a 6 year old. But I grasped the one sure thing my mother said and, for the next few years, whenever I was asked what I was, would mumble, “We are Protestants,” and quickly change the subject. It obviously was not good to be too specific.

By seventh grade I was spending my Saturday mornings in confirmation class and the need to belong was strong upon me. I learned more about the merger of the Evangelical and Reformed and the Congregational Church which formed the United Church of Christ. I memorized questions and answers from my catechism. I learned Bible verses. As I prepared to become a full member of St. Paul’s, I also began to have doubts about where I fit in. In the insecurity of adolescence, I was getting tired of belonging to a denomination no one had ever heard of. Our church, the closest United Church of Christ, was two suburbs to the east, in another county, it may as well have been in another world. None of my friends had so much as driven past it. It was different. It was other. And I was aching to go to church with the same kids I went to school with.

Then one Saturday I thought I saw an answer to a prayer. There, just blocks from where I would attend high school, was First Congregational Church of Royal Oak. Now being Congregational might not be as common as being an “ic’ or and “ist” but it definitely sounded like something someone might have heard of and I thought I had found salvation! Obviously my parents had never noticed it! “Mom, look. A Congregational church, right here in Royal Oak. Near our house! We can go there.”

To my dismay, I learned that day that not all Congregational churches merged to make United Churches. I wasn’t sure what difference that made but, apparently, not to merge was very, very bad. Like my E&R grandparents, we were a merger family. My hopes were dashed just as quickly as they were born and on Palm Sunday in 1965 I became a confirmed member of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ. Still indefinable to my friends. But when I was asked what I was I started to say, “It’s sorta like Congregational.”

In high school my world expanded beyond my neighborhood and in addition to the Catholics and Lutherans and Methodists I grew up with, I was making friends Presbyterians and Episcopalians. I didn’t have a clue what those were beyond their Protestantism but it seemed to me that being an “erian” or “alian” could be almost as good as being as “ic”or an “ist.” At least it was a “something” and in my senior year I told my family I would be attending the Presbyterian church with my friend Janet from school. Finally I would belong. Whatever I expected, I did not find it there. The church was enormous and overwhelming, I didn’t see anyone else I knew well, the service unfamiliar, the sung responses all wrong. After a few desperate weeks I was back at St Paul’s, not sure where I truly belonged, not sure what I truly was, but hungry for the familiarity. And now, when I was asked what I was, I would preface my response with, “Well, you know, we Protestants, we are really all the same.”

College was more, more “ics,” more “ists,” more everything. I met my first Unitarians and oh how I wished that we in the United Church of Christ had claimed that name for ourselves. I had friends who were Christian Scientists. Buddhists. Agnostics. Atheists. In my freshman year, my roommate Edie was Greek Orthodox, my roommate Debby Jewish, my roommate Helena very Catholic and then there was me who was …something. In those turbulent years of searching, questioning and coming into adulthood, who I was spiritually became more and more muddled and by the end of my college years I stopped claiming to be much of anything at all. And so I remained for many years. The next two decades were marked with long periods of spiritual emptiness interspersed with short bouts of passionate church attendance. But it didn’t seem to matter. I could hear the voice of God calling, but it seemed so remote. I didn’t know where to find God, in nature, in church, in my family. I married. I divorced. I lost my grandmother who for many years seemed my only link to the church. I was yearning for connection but belonged nowhere and despaired of ever finding a place to fit in. To be something. To answer the question of who I was.

By the time I walked into Lyndale in February of 1995 it had become less important to have answers than to find a safe place to ask the questions. I knew I needed the intimacy of a small congregation, I wanted the authenticity of a city church and I remembered a red brick UCC on 31st and Aldrich from when I had lived in the Whittier neighborhood. I came in the door, was greeted by Ray Meyers, and timidly took a seat back in the Betty Schrader zone and prayed to find a home. I noticed we had gone from being trespassers to being debtors but I could live with that. Mary Vanderford first passed the peace to me. People seemed to really like each other. For the next few months I dipped my toes in the Lyndale pool and stepped back out a few times but by October I was here for good. The questions are not all answered. But the need for belonging has been fulfilled. And, as I’ve become secure in that, how I feel about that one haunting question has changed.

You see, I no longer want to be an “ic” or an “ist.” I’m no longer envious of the “erians” and the “alians.” I no longer want to be easily defined. I am a member of the United Church of Christ. The UCC. And even though we are now the “people of the comma” that’s really only a starting point. The reality is so much more. And now when someone asks, “What’s that?” it’s very satisfying to say, “Well, let me tell you.”

Let me tell you what it means to be a Just Peace Church, as we wrestle with issues of racism, poverty, homelessness, accessibility, the environment.

Let me tell you what it means to be an Open and Affirming Church, as we deal with issues of inclusion, reconciliation, ordination, marriage.

Let me tell you about a congregation that affirms the assured voices of its clergy and the passionate voices of its laypeople.

Let me tell you that you don’t have to agree with me to be welcomed into these pews with love.

Let me tell you that our journey will be richer with you as a companion.

Let me tell you that we are not perfect and we don’t expect you to be either.

Let me tell you that we sometimes get it wrong.

Let me tell you we’ll try to do better.

It seems appropriate somehow that as the Minnesota Conference considers what it means to be the United Church of Christ in the state of Minnesota in 2006, so we at Lyndale Church pause to reflect what it means to be this congregation, in this neighborhood, at this time as well. We’ve made some brave decisions and change is coming. We are not quite sure how we’re going arrive at our destination and we have unexpected fellow travelers. But with trust in God, faith in each other, and courage in the face of difficult questions, I believe we will bring ourselves safely home.

May it be so. Amen.

Palm Sunday 2005 - sermon by Don Portwood

"THE WAY OF LOVE"
Co-Pastor Don Portwood
March 20, 2005

It's palm/passion Sunday. And this year the story is told from Matthew's gospel. It's told in different ways by Mark and Luke..they all agree Jesus rode into Jerusalem, but in Mark they are waving leafy branches, in Luke,
they are laying their cloaks on the ground.and here in Matthew they are both spreading their garments on the ground and cutting branches from the trees
and spreading them on the ground. Matthew also provides us with this odd scene as he reads the scripture too literally, quoting Zechariah 9:9,

"Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." That's a poetic form of repetition, which Matthew took a little too literally. So he has the
disciples bringing Jesus the donkey and the colt, and put their garments on them, and he sat thereon.

But no matter how Jesus rode into town, the real question is, "What could possibly have possessed Jesus to head into Jerusalem?"

Jerusalem was the seat of religious and political power in Israel. He knew what he faced in Jerusalem, entering the belly of the beast, he knew what happened to criminals, heretics, he knew what the "keepers of the law"
did to silence people. According to Matthew's gospel Jesus first started talking about crucifixion and the cross in chpt. 16.

"From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and be killed, and on the third day be raised." He talked of taking
up your own cross and following him.

"So what could possibly have possessed Jesus to head into
Jerusalem?"

The spirit of God. The way of love.
Jesus knew who he was.
Jesus knew who God was calling him to be.
He was willing to do what it takes to be faithful to that call. He knew where the way of love would lead.

Some even see in Jesus, another Passover sacrifice, a lamb led to the slaughter..

But I believe Jesus, filled with the Spirit of God was simply being faithful to the way of love.

******************

It's palm/passion Sunday. And this year the story is told from Matthew's gospel. Most years when I preach on palm/passion Sunday and in the last years, I've stressed the passion part of passion Sunday. I think it was to
make sure people were aware of the rest of the story, what happens on Thursday and Friday between Palm Sunday and Easter. We'll have services on both those evenings to continue the story, Thursday in the fellowship hall,
and Friday here in the sanctuary with Minnehaha and SOL Spirit of the Lakes Churches. If you're not out of town or ill, be there to here more about the way of love.

In previous years, when working Palm/Passion sermons I've always imagined Jesus with his eyes so focused on what was ahead, that he didn't really pay much attention to the cheering crowd around him. He entered Jerusalem
stoically. That image comes from the Hebrew scripture that is often used on Palm Sunday, from Isaiah 50, where Isaiah is talking about God's suffering
servant.

In chapter 7, the suffering servant says, "For God helps me; therefore I have not been confounded; therefore I have set my face like a flint."

That's why I've often seen Jesus as riding in humbly, but with a far away look, indifferent or unaffected by the cheers of "Hosanna, blessed is the one in comes in God's name".

Ah, but I've learned from one of you over the years.
And this year.I imagined Jesus not just hearing the cheers, or acknowledging them with a wave of the hand, like the pope, but dancing to the shouts, to the song and leading the people in the dance.

Perhaps dance came to mind this year, because Guron danced so beautifully last week, or because we're having a folk dance after worship this afternoon, or from the Faith & Fellowship Group. We're reading the Secret Gospel of Thomas, by Elaine Pagels, in which she mentions another Gnostic gospel not in our Bible, The Acts of John. In that gospel, after the last supper on Thursday of Holy Week, instead of washing the disciples feet, Jesus leads the disciples in a dance.

And so our Jesus, in our triumphal entry, came in dancing and twirling, leading us in the dance with him. Lord of the dance.

We've had a processional entry in previous years, where we've waved palms and tried to sing a hymn, but this year I thought we needed a little Ray Charles and Gladys Knight singing Stevie Wonder's hit, Heaven Help Us All.

I wanted us to experience Jesus dancing into Jerusalem.
Dancing in the face of oppression.

Dancing in the face of death.

Dancing the way of love, because Jesus knew who he was and who God was calling him to be and he was willing to do what it takes to be faithful to that call, to dance the way of love.

But Jesus wasn't just dancing on our behalf..but inviting us into the dance, too.

Which raises the question for you, What's the entry into Jerusalem you are facing? What Jerusalem are you already struggling in? Where are you stirred up?
Where are you dancing in the face of Jerusalem,
in the face of death, oppression, depression, despair.

It wasn't by mistake that I chose Heaven Help Us All for us to dance to in our processional entry. Because I believe it's true. We both need Heaven's help..and by the grace of God, God is here to help us in our dances of love,
healing, re-connection, life out of death. So Heaven helps us and Jesus leads us in the dance of love in the privacy of our homes, or Jesus leads us in dance, silent candlelit dance around Lake Harriet, in the quiet of a sanctuary, or in the sign-filled witness to the two - year
anniversary of the war in Iraq this week. Dance as political resistance.

Pharisees of today in Jerusalem's in every state and Washington, D.C. - are making their plans, lining up the votes to add an amendment to the Constitution to keep the state from recognizing the love between two men or two women. We're talking about the way people love.

Even against the odds, against the literalists and the haters, Jesus leads us in the dance to heal, dance to resist...dance to be together..dance to celebrate the ultimate triumph, and reign of God.the way of love and
faithfulness to how God is trying to pour love into the world.

Heaven help us all to keep dancing the way of love. in the face of hatred, oppression, depression, despair. That's a dance everyone needs to know. Heaven help us all.

Radical Hospitality

Genesis 18:1-15
Rev. Loren McGrail
April 20, 2008

The Hebrew Bible tells us: “The strangers who sojourn with you shall be to you as the natives among you, and you shall love them as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt (Leviticus 19: 33-34)

In the New Testament, Jesus tells us to welcome the stranger for “what you do to the least of my brethren you do unto me” (Mathew 25:40)

The Qur’an tells us that we should “serve God…and do good to…orphans, those in need, neighbors who are near, neighbors who are strangers, the companion by your side, the wayfarer that you meet, and those who have nothing. (4:36)

The Hindu scripture Taitiriya Upanishad tells us: “The guest is a representative of God.”

Diverse faith traditions teach us to welcome our brothers and sisters with love and compassion. Bienveindos companeros y companeras. brothers and sisters in Christ. In the traditions shaped by the Bible, offering hospitality is a moral imperative. There is an expectation that God’s people are people who will welcome the stranger. The hospitality imperative emerges from knowing the hospitality that God has shown us. Just as God protected the people of Israel, God insists on proper care for resident foreigners, treating them like citizens. God’s people will be a people whose just hospitality flows from gratitude and from God’s past care and from their own painful memories of refugee life.

In the Hebrew Scriptures there are many examples and exhortations about how we are to treat the stranger but it is the story of Abraham and Sara that we just heard where the practice of hospitality is most clearly described as an experience of transformation, of mutual gift giving. Abraham’s warm welcome to the three men who visited the tent is a wonderful example of how strange ones, the guests, may bear gifts and may indeed be holy ones. The three turn out to be angels who have come to give a blessing, the good news that Sara will indeed be a mother after all and there will be descendants. To offer hospitality means to welcome something new, unfamiliar, and unknown into our world.

Hospitality not only welcomes strangers but also recognizes their holiness and receives their blessings. In Greek the word xeno means stranger, guest, and host. We make one another guests or hosts by how we treat one another. Jesus was not the host at the table of the sinners, tax collectors, or prostitutes. He let himself be loved by those who had become strangers relative to the religious communities of his day. He accepted their invitation. Jesus, Lord God of Hosts, was and is also the perfect guest, the welcomed stranger.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, for I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, for I was a stranger and you took me in. (Mathew 25: 34-35)

This is a call to let ourselves be invited or chosen to share God’s hospitality with others. Catholic theologian Joan Chittister, in writing about Benedictine Spirituality, reminds us that to become whole ourselves we must learn to “Let the other in, if for no other reason than to stretch our own vision, to take responsibility for the world by giving it our own abundance, to make the world safe by guarding its people ourselves.”

This is the hospitality of the heart and it begins here with us when we accept that we are all wanderers in exile, all sojourners or peligrinos, as the Celtic Christians say. And we are all invited into the tent, all welcome at the table or in God’s Beloved Community.

Like Chittister, I believe that hospitality of the heart could change American politics, that it could make a world of potential friends rather than a world of probable enemies. It certainly could help us reform how we treat the strangers among us, our immigrant brothers and sisters, our migrant and undocumented workers. This hospitality of the heart must be at the center of our peace and justice work, especially when it comes to immigration reform.

This hospitality of the heart would help us to understand and support the cry, “No human being is illegal” because we would understand that we are all made in the image of God and that all workers have value.

This hospitality of the heart would urge us to ask our media, like the Pioneer Press, to stop using words like “Illegal aliens” when talking about our immigrant brothers and sisters.

This hospitality of the heart would help us to see that capital can exploit people only after it has successfully dehumanized them, criminalized them.

It would help us understand that when immigrant workers’ wages and working conditions are depressed so are all workers.

It would enable us to join in when they shout, “Injury to one is injury to all.” We are all members of the body of Christ and all members are important and necessary.

Hospitality of the heart would help us to reject legislation for guest workers because it denies workers’ their rights to organize, because it sees people in terms of their parts, “braceros.”

Hospitality of the heart would encourage us to support the Dream Act for not only the sake of immigrant children’s right to education but for the sake of all of our futures.

Hospitality of the heart would demand that we work to put a halt to free trade agreements that push people out of their homes and countries because they can no longer make a living.

Hospitality of the heart would demand that we stop paying for the militarization of our border which forces people to cross the desert and sometimes die when all they wanted to do was make a living.

Hospitality of the heart is also a form of resistance. It aligns us with God’s preferential option for the poor, “opcion preferencial por los pobres”. It calls upon us to become living sanctuaries for God’s abundance, protection, and love. In the Book of Numbers, local shrines and whole cities functioned as places of refuge for people who had committed a crime especially manslaughter, killing without intent. The sanctuary provided a break in the cycle of vengeance. The religious community offered a sacred space until a person could get a fair hearing.

During WWII in France, the small village of Chambon became a city of refuge for Jews fleeing the Nazi persecution. Its citizens took risks and suffered persecution themselves as they sheltered and helped thousands of Jews.

In the 1980s, during Regan’s Regime, when death squads were killing Catholic leaders and lay leaders in Central America, refugees started to come to the US to escape persecution. They asked for political asylum and were denied because they were not fleeing communist countries. Cities and churches took pledges to protect these people in an act of solidarity. People were sheltered literally in churches and spoke out about their experiences often behind masks to protect their identities.
I know that many of you here were part of this movement now called the Old Sanctuary Movement.

Today, all across our country there is a revitalization of this concept of offering sanctuary. The New Sanctuary Movement is an interfaith movement that seeks to provide prophetic hospitality for undocumented immigrants caught in our broken immigration system. Its main focus is to make visible people who are caught in the system so that we can begin to see them not as faceless border crossers but as children of God, people with dignity and rights. And when they are ripped apart by raids and deportations, we see them as the suffering strangers within our gates in need of sanctuary. In Minnesota, the Workers Interfaith Network is coordinating this movement, a group our church is already working with on worker issues. It is my hope that next week, during our last adult education session, we will explore in more depth becoming a solidarity church in this growing network.

“The sanctuary as sanctuary celebrates the sovereignty of God in history and our lives, marking the limit of civil authority” says the theologian and activist, Bill Wylie-Kellerman. It is an act of resistance that draws a line in the sand; it says no to the powers and principalities, and yes to the hospitality of the heart. It is a form of extravagant welcome.

I close with this reading from Ephesians 2: 18-22 as a reminder that this call is a call to not only open our sanctuaries but to become living sanctuaries:
So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself, being chief cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you are also built for the dwelling place for God in Spirit.

The Least of These - sermon by Diane Peterson

A couple of weeks ago I attended the mindfulness retreat that a few others from Lyndale attended. It was a wonderful experience. One of my favorite parts was when we broke into small groups in the afternoon to talk about our experience. We were told we needed to put our hands in prayer position and then bow to the rest of the small group to signal we wished to talk. The rest of the group was then to put their hands in prayer position and bow back to us to signify that they were ready to listen. When we were done speaking the same thing was to occur, the speaker would bow and then the rest of the group would bow back, acknowledging they had received the message. I thought that was such a beautiful and respectful way to have a thoughtful discussion. It was as if when the speaker was ready to speak they were saying here is my heart and the others were saying, we are ready to receive your heart. I’d like to try that now. [bow with hands in prayer position and the congregation bows back]

Have you ever been one of the least of these? The story from Matthew today focuses on the importance of giving to the least of these. Today I want to look at this reading a little differently. I want to focus on the least of these, or the receiving end of the story. I think people don’t think often about the importance of receiving. Just think, if there were no one to receive, there would be no gift…no giving. Maybe we don’t like to talk about receiving because it is so difficult for some of us to be on the receiving end. I know it is difficult for me to be on the receiving end. I grew up in a family that took care of itself. I learned early on that being strong and independent was a good thing. I also learned growing up that giving was important. Church regularly encourages giving, and rightly so…but I think something is missing if we only encourage giving.

As I grew, I started to see the benefit of receiving, but the importance didn’t really hit home until I was diagnosed with breast cancer in May of 2004. My first instinct, after the initial shock of the diagnosis, was to tell all our friends and family. I wanted to make sure my family, Scott and the kids, had support as I went through treatment. The support that was given by those I told ended up also being given to me. It wasn’t long, and many of the people I had told started to give me things. Some of them were tangible gifts such as a book with inspiring stories in it, a prayer shawl, lotion. There were also offers to cook meals and drive me to treatments if needed. These were the most difficult to receive, I think because of my upbringing…do things for yourself…be strong. Gifts that were not as difficult for me to receive were prayers, kind words and hugs…the touch from the hugs was the best medicine I got during that time…I think the most healing.

I think the reason I was able to receive the prayers and hugs more easily can be explained by my vulnerability. During the time after my diagnosis and during the treatment I felt very vulnerable. It was this vulnerability…the emptiness, or being drained of some of my strength… that led to me being open to receive the prayers and hugs. I opened my heart and received these gifts with open arms. The gifts filled me and healed me. If I had not been willing to receive the gifts of love so freely being given I believe I would have had a much more difficult battle with my cancer. The outpouring of love rocked my world and changed how I think about receiving. I decided that receiving does not mean you are weak, but that you are courageous. It was interesting that one of my nieces shared part of a poem with my during my battle that said exactly that. The excerpt is from a poem by David L Griffith.

It takes strength to feel a friend’s pain,
It takes courage to feel your own pain

It takes strength to hide your own pains,
It takes courage to show them

It takes strength to stand alone
It takes courage to lean on another

It takes strength to love
It takes courage to be loved

It takes strength to survive
It takes courage to live.

Receiving the love that was given was receiving God’s love, for God is in each one of us. I felt God’s love to my very core, as I never had before.
I share this story with you not to brag about how courageous I was in facing cancer, because if you told me I was courageous, I would likely deny it and tell you that those that have to go through chemotherapy are the survivors who are truly strong and courageous because theirs is a much more difficult battle. I tell you the story because I don’t want you to wait until you have some big battle to find out receiving God’s love, in whatever shape or form, is transforming.

So, what does all this mean to me now that my life is “back to normal”? I didn’t want to lose the lesson I had learned but it is easy, even after such a life-changing event, to fall back into the business of life. We all get busy with our families, our work, our daily chores, keeping up with the news and politics, going to church, volunteering…not to mention sometimes getting caught up in worry, anxiety or fear. All these things can fill our days and take our attention away from God.

I think that the reading from Matthew speaks to this. On the surface…if looked at literally…it would seem that it is being suggested that we can not get to heaven unless we give to the hungry and thirsty, cloth those who don’t have clothes…but looking deeper, I think this story speaks to needs each of us has. We may be looking for some surface gift such as a better job or bigger house, but what we are looking for on a deeper level is a relationship with God. God…our bread of life who feeds us when we are hungry and is our living water …gives us drink when we are thirsty…if we are open to receive. If we are busy with daily life, busy looking for that better job or bigger house, we might miss God’s love. We search for earthly things when we really long for God. God is always with us, we only need to be quiet…to become one of the least of these…to be open to receive. When we hunger and thirst for God and become one of the least of these…if we then receive God…it is then that we will have heaven here on earth.

I wrote a poem before I had cancer, before I had my aha moment about the importance of receiving. The poem was written after a meeting I had at work to prepare for a celebration. The meeting turned into a holy moment with the giving and receiving that took place. God was being shared and there was heaven on earth. I titled it Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow because even though it is a small poem, it felt like it needed a big title to hold the power of the feeling it contained for me.

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow

Brothers and sisters filled with spirit
share from the heart
and bring a certain holy intimacy
to this ordinary space.
The blessings come pouring
drenching me with joy.

[Bow with hands in prayer position and congregation bows back.]

The UCC - We're 50 Years BOLD - sermon by Don Portwood

We are 50 Years Bold

50 years ago, in 1957 two men shook hands in the Music Hall in Cleveland Ohio, symbolically bringing together two denominations to form the United Church of Christ. Today we celebrate our 50th birthday as a denomination.

But why preach this today rather than next week? Chance to look at our history as a church…with encouragement (if you have a computer and internet access) to spend just a little time next week watching some of the webcast of the General Synod meeting in Hartford. There’s a schedule of what’s happening in your bulletin.
My hope is that something in this sermon will peak your interest to see what’s happening in our denomination today.

Though we are 50 years bold today, our history goes back before that. Quoting from Everett C. Parker,

“From the earliest days of Christianity, every church has subscribed to Paul’s declaration in his letter to the Galatians that we are all one in Christ. Yet, beginning with the split between Constantinople and Rome, Christian bodies, world-wide, have seriously guarded their independence from each other, based upon their forms of government. Governance by bishops has been common since New Testament times. Reformed churches have opted for presbyteries of ministers and elders drawn from a district’s churches. Only a few denominations, especially Congregationalists and Baptists, have governed themselves democratically, with the power to own church property, to call and dismiss ministers, and to adopt articles of faith and forms of worship lodged in each local church.

In the last century, a number of church mergers occurred in the United States. The Methodist and Presbyterian churches, North and South, re-united, ending a split caused by the slavery issue. Congregationalists united with frontier Christians, who cherished the same local church freedom, in 1931. Perhaps the most significant merger was the 1934 union of the mostly German Reformed Church in the U.S., and the Evangelical Synod of North America, established by German refugees from the Thirty Years War, which formed the Evangelical and Reformed Church. But this too, was a union of like and like.

So, 50 years ago, it was truly a unique demonstration of Christ brotherhood and sisterhood when Fred Hoskins and James Wagner enthusiastically reached out to each other in the handshake that birthed the United Church of Christ. Their act was unique, also, because it was the first time since World War I that two leading American bodies, one of German, the other of British background, joined hands in respect and devotion.”

The United Church of Christ – made up of the Congregational Christian churches that merged in 1931 – with the Evangelical and Reformed Churches that merged in 1934.
And Lyndale Church, founded in 1884 – was from the congregational stream of the United Church of Christ.

But just a minute, sure it’s our birthday, but why is this so important….looking back…why preach an entire sermon on it?

Because looking back at who we are….always gives us an idea where we’re going. We are a wonderful and exasperating amalgam of denominations with a rich history, one that has taken stands early and often on justice issues. We need to remember that. People need to know that. On the UCC Website is a list of UCC “Firsts”. This blend of four traditions, Congregational, Christ, Evangelical, and Reformed each have left a mark on U.S. religious and political history. Here are some of our “firsts”.
1620: Pilgrims seek spiritual freedom

Seeking spiritual freedom, forbears of the United Church of Christ prepare to leave Europe for the New World. Later generations know them as the Pilgrims. Their pastor, John Robinson, urges them as they depart to keep their minds and hearts open to new ways. God, he says, "has yet more light and truth to break forth out of his holy Word."
1700: An early stand against slavery

Congregationalists are among the first Americans to take a stand against slavery. The Rev. Samuel Sewall writes the first anti-slavery pamphlet in America, "The Selling of Joseph." Sewall lays the foundation for the abolitionist movement that comes more than a century later.
1773: First act of civil disobedience

Five thousand angry colonists gather in the Old South Meeting House to demand repeal of an unjust tax on tea. Their protest inspires the first act of civil disobedience in U.S. history—the "Boston Tea Party."
1773: First published African American poet

A young member of the Old South congregation, Phillis Wheatley, becomes the first published African American author. "Poems on Various Subjects" is a sensation, and Wheatley gains her freedom from slavery soon after. Modern African American poet Alice Walker says of her: "[She] kept alive, in so many of our ancestors, the notion of song."
1777: Reformed congregation saves the Liberty Bell

The British occupy Philadelphia—seat of the rebellious Continental Congress—and plan to melt down the Liberty Bell to manufacture cannons. But the Bell has disappeared. It is safely hidden under the floorboards of Old Zion Reformed Church in Allentown.
1785: First ordained African American pastor

Lemuel Haynes is the first African American ordained by a Protestant denomination. He becomes a world-renowned preacher and writer.
1839: A defining moment for abolitionist movement

Enslaved Africans break their chains and seize control of the schooner Amistad. Their freedom is short-lived, and they are held in a Connecticut jail while the ship's owners sue to have them returned as property. The case becomes a defining moment for the movement to abolish slavery. Congregationalists and other Christians organize a campaign to free the captives. The Supreme Court rules the captives are not property, and the Africans regain their freedom.

1840: First united church in U.S. history

A meeting of pastors in Missouri forms the first united church in U.S. history—the Evangelical Synod. It unites two Protestant traditions that have been separated for centuries: Lutheran and Reformed. The Evangelicals believe in the power of tradition, but also in spiritual freedom. "Rigid ceremony and strong condemnation of others are terrible things to me," one of them writes.
1846: First integrated anti-slavery society

The Amistad case is a spur to the conscience of Congregationalists who believe no human being should be a slave. In 1846 Lewis Tappan, one of the Amistad organizers, organizes the American Missionary Association—the first anti-slavery society in the U.S. with multiracial leadership.
1853: First woman pastor

Antoinette Brown is the first woman since New Testament times ordained as a Christian minister, and perhaps the first woman in history elected to serve a Christian congregation as pastor. At her ordination a friend, Methodist minister Luther Lee, defends "a woman's right to preach the Gospel." He quotes the New Testament: "There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
1897: Social Gospel movement denounces economic oppression

Congregationalist Washington Gladden is one of the first leaders of the Social Gospel movement—which takes literally the commandment of Jesus to "love your neighbor as yourself." Social Gospel preachers denounce injustice and the exploitation of the poor.
1943: The 'Serenity Prayer'

Evangelical and Reformed theologian Reinhold Niebuhr preaches a sermon that introduces the world to the now famous Serenity Prayer: "God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."
1957: Spiritual and ethnic traditions unite

The United Church of Christ is born when the Evangelical and Reformed Church unites with the Congregational Christian Churches. The new community embraces a rich variety of spiritual traditions and embraces believers of African, Asian, Pacific, Latin American, Native American and European descent.
1959: Historic ruling that airwaves are public property

Southern television stations impose a news blackout on the growing civil rights movement, and Martin Luther King Jr. asks the UCC to intervene. Everett Parker of the UCC's Office of Communication organizes churches and wins in Federal court a ruling that the airwaves are public, not private property. The decision leads to a proliferation of people of color in television studios and newsrooms.
1972: Ordination of first openly gay minister

The UCC's Golden Gate Association ordains the first openly gay person as a minister in a mainline Protestant denomination: the Rev. William R. Johnson. In the following three decades, General Synod urges equal rights for homosexual citizens and calls on congregations to welcome gay, lesbian and bisexual members.
1973: Civil rights activists freed

The Wilmington Ten—ten civil rights activists—are charged with the arson of a white-owned grocery store in Wilmington, N.C. One of them is Benjamin Chavis, a social justice worker sent by the UCC to Wilmington to help the African American community overcome racial intolerance and intimidation. Convinced that the charges are false, the UCC's General Synod and raises more than $1 million to pay for bail. Chavis spends four and a half years in prison but is freed when his conviction is overturned. The UCC recovers its bail—with interest.

1976: First African American leader of an integrated denomination

General Synod elects the Rev. Joseph H. Evans president of the United Church of Christ. He becomes the first African American leader of a racially integrated mainline church in the United States.
1995: Singing a new song

The United Church of Christ publishes The New Century Hymnal—the only hymnal released by a Christian church that honors in equal measure both male and female images of God. Although its poetry is contemporary, its theology is traditional
2006: Lyndale United Church of Christ becomes the first congregation in Minnesota to vote for Marriage Equality, allowing only blessing ceremonies for same and opposite gender couples on their property.
2010: Lyndale United Church of Christ, partnered for nearly 5 years with Salem Lutheran Church, becomes the first United Church of Christ in the Lyn Lake area to move into a re-modeled green friendly ministry center with Salem, in Salem’s historic sanctuary.

Looking back at who we are….always gives us an idea where we’re going. We are a wonderful and exasperating amalgam of denominations with a rich history. We need to remember that. People need to know that. God is still speaking. We can too.

To help us speak that others may know, I’ve arranged for each of you to have a “party favor”. They’ll be passed out now. A fun reminder that we have a story to tell…that people may be longing to hear. Let me read you the first section as they’re passed on…then read the rest after worship. [Read first section.]

Let people know about Lyndale Church and the United Church of Christ. We are 50 Years Bold……be bold, let our light shine.

We Are Our Sister and Brother's Keeper - sermon by Chester O'Gorman

“We Are Our Sister and Brother’s Keeper”
Micah 6:6-8; John 3:14-17; Hebrews 9:11-14, 24-28
Preached by Chester O’Gorman, member of Lyndale UCC, March 25, 2007

I have a little story to offer ya’ll this morning that I hope will help us digest this scripture. Carlos is a 7 year-old boy who lives in a rural mountain community of Guatemala. He and his family work a small plot of land. They live in poverty, but grow enough to feed themselves and sell a little. Of the 80,000 acres of arable land only 5,000 is farmed by the community. 75,000 acres belongs to 1 of the 20 families in Guatemala who own nearly 70% of the farmable land. They use 40,000 acres to grow cash crops: bananas, coffee, and sugar – which are sold in foreign markets. The other 35,000 acres is unused – so as to control market prices.

When Carlos turned 12, things worsened. Free trade agreements opened up the economy, which promoted more big business and the addition of new cash crops. Furthermore, gold was found in the mountains. The remaining 35,000 acres was mined by its owner, in conjunction with foreign mining corporations. Less than 1% of the profits got funneled back into Carlos’s community. With added pollution, more noise, and an increase in mudslides, life got harder for Carlos and his people. Now at 17 Carlos, having no opportunity for formal education, joined a semi-militant leftist group that advocates land seizures; the group is growing increasingly popular, and hostile. His hate for capitalism is eclipsed only by his hate for its greatest advocate, the US.

Carlos is aware of the US’s systematic takeover and exploitation of South American economies. He’s also well-aware of its military’s direct involvement in political coups, as well as its indirect involvement through organizations like the School of the Americas – all for the purpose of securing its economic interest.

Sadly, Carlos’s situation is common around the world. An aggressive form of liberalized capitalism has impoverished and continues to impoverish billions. It is promoted and sustained by us to our benefit – and most of those who suffer, rightly look at us in anger.

We mostly ignore this problem, anesthetizing ourselves with entertainment and drugs – and our government, under some guise, fights it for us whenever its ugliness threatens us. It seems few people seriously considered the message Bin Laden was communicating on 9/11. We’ve completely demonized him: He and his movement are evil; they hate our liberties and our freedom; they are nothing but zealot religious fanatics. Really?

I’m not condoning his actions; he was wrong. But is he really the monster we’ve made him? Some ancient cultures would ritually turn those they sacrificed into monsters with ceremony and masks before killing them. Is Bin Laden evil incarnate? Does he really hate all notions of liberty and human flourishing? Is he really the embodiment of evil in our world? When he was fighting communism with us, he was surely a freedom fighter.

Bin Laden hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. What do these represent? The center of our world’s capitalism and the strongest military machine ever known – which does the bidding of our economic system. From the perspective of people like Carlos can these symbols be anything but idols of evil? Furthermore, what of our popular culture that has spread along with our economic and military might? Most of it kinda of disgusts me. If democracy and freedom means endless greed, the sexual exploitation of women, a proliferation of crude and mindless entertainment that endorses oppression of all sorts, and the eroding of morality in favor of relativism – I would oppose it, too. Obviously, the face of pop culture distorts American culture, but it is what many people see, and many do indeed suffer from its effects.

If our economic and military machines are fundamentally responsible for creating so many disasters, which shapes those we call “enemy”, how can we blame them? When we demonize those who harm us, we literally create a demon. We project all the evil on them, and thereby root all causes for their behavior in themselves, diverting attention from us. Scapegoating conceals our role, our responsibility for their actions.

In other words, we’re saying: We are not at all to blame, so we need not change anything. Our social and economic system is just fine; our greedy, racist and complacent lifestyle is okay; we are guiltless, and we need not suffer any hardship in changing our unjust ways. Bin Laden and Carlos are evil; they’re to blame. They should be punished.

Let me offer another story. This one we know. It’s the tale of Jesus of Nazareth. He came and told the corrupt leadership in Jerusalem and the Romans – the main perpetrators – that the exploitation and suffering of the poor was wrong, that it opposed God’s will. He pointed out their destructive hypocrisy, and indicated that change was necessary. Though Jesus suffered for His faith that God showed favor to the poor and oppressed, He persisted. When His movement garnered enough support to potentially cause an effect, the Roman leaders squashed His movement. As we see in the gospels, Jesus is offered up under false pretenses. He’s called a blasphemer and demonized. He’s put to death for His rage against an unjust and heartless system.

Unlike many others, Jesus didn’t run, nor take up arms. He willingly confronted the liars, thereby depriving them of any obvious reason to kill Him. He fully embodied the Spirit of God and maintained love for His enemies. In Luke’s account, He even forgave them. He let everyone see the tapestry of lies they had to spin in order to condemn Him to death. And He was, indeed, remembered as innocent – completely blameless in the God’s eyes.

So why did Jesus die? Yes, I can affirm He died for the forgiveness of sins, but this is revelation, and insight after the fact. He died first because a privileged few wanted to maintain a corrupt social system primarily out of fear of change – marked, of course, by greed. He became a scapegoat, the posterboy for everything that was wrong in Rome.

If Christ crucified is totally blameless, if His words and actions are true, who’s at fault? Who can we blame so we can remove them, and thereby solve our problems? Would killing all Romans have worked? Will killing Bin Laden solve our problems?

The revelation of God in Christ crucified is a terrifying image of what happens when our reaction to fear and violence is to blame others – and perceive ourselves as righteous. The broken body and blood of our savior calls us to look with eyes of innocence, love and forgiveness when we see people – not blame. The broken body and blood reflects the brokenness of relationships in our world and demands that we look upon ourselves and our systems, which shatter relationships. The revelation of God in Christ crucified reveals to us that sin and evil are not yours or mine, his or hers: They’re ours.

We all own a part of sin and evil – and in fact, the more we try to control evil and justify sinful means, the more evil owns us. The broken body and blood point to only one remedy that can lead to wholeness. Ironically, the message was proclaimed from the beginning: Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand!

In social systems founded on violence that rely upon blaming others to justify themselves – the innocent victim is Christ, undeniable true revelation. If Jesus is to be our sacrifice, He must be our last sacrifice. His innocent self-giving reveals that systems and people that must scapegoat, oppress, and kill merely for their flourishing are liars. They don’t even try to meet the standards they espouse; and according to Micah, they certainly fall short of God’s. When we take in His body and blood, we’re taking in this revelation and vowing to make it a part of ourselves – with a vision towards communal wholeness in which scapegoating is obsolete. It‘s a failure that Christians confess Christ, yet still so often need an innocent body, broken and bloody, before we’re moved to compassion and repentance for our hypocrisy and sins. It seems we require innocent victims, over and over again, to atone for our sins, not God. And even then, some hearts only grow harder.

To take away the sins of the world for the sake of atonement or reconciliation is no supernatural act: It’s living by the truth that we’re all interconnected. To shirk off our responsibility for the sins of our brothers and sisters is to live a lie, to play blame games; and in reality, the option to ignore this responsibility is only open to a privileged few. The person of color simply doesn’t have a choice to live in a society free of racism. When we ask Jesus to take away the sins of the world and have mercy on us, we’re praying to God to be imbued with the same Spirit that filled His being. It’s a request for His loving courage of spirit to manifest itself in us and in the world around us – because we recognize that gentleness of Spirit as the way, the truth and the life.

Love NEVER accepts abuse. The call of Christ to stand firmly in love in the face of evil is not a call simply to endure suffering. That’s truly sacrificing oneself FOR evil: That permits it. Again, Christ is the last sacrifice; he has turned the system that needs sacrifices on its head – saying, “No more to my brothers and sisters!” We’re called to endure evil and take the sins of others upon ourselves under one condition: We only ever do so for the sake of realizing God’s justice and reconciliation as much as possible – now, and more fully in the future. We’re not masochists, but we’re charged to love our enemies; and even if tragic action is absolutely necessary, we must nevertheless condemn our own evil ways and beg God’s forgiveness. Christ tragically reveals that the price for living God’s love and justice in a world full of evil…can never cheap.

Our oppressed brothers and sisters pay too much already everyday when, in the name of Christ, they toil in low-wage jobs and sweatshops so we can have cheap goods, live without healthcare so we may turn a profit, tolerate our racism so we can continue to have the best jobs and schools. They endure this unjust situation mostly without violent revolt, even though it seems they have every reason to revolt. They look forward to a day when their Christian love finally moves us to honor them as brothers and sisters of God. I say let’s prove Jesus right and let their love transform us. But this change to live more fully in God’s love is costly – most especially for we privileged few, those who have. To make our world holy, what of yourself will you surrender for the glory of God?

Welcome NOW a New Heaven and a New Earth - sermon by Fred Smith

“May we find the ever living God of all within us and among us, there and here, then and now and then again.”
John 13:34-35, Acts 11:2-12, 18, Revelation 21:1-5a

"Welcome, NOW, to a new heaven and a new earth"

sermon preached by Fred Smith, May 6, 2007

Authoritative sources, that is Mom and Dad, told me that the word “liturgy” means “the work of the people.” With twelve minutes to consider three texts this morning we have our work cut out for us. Six Sundays out from Easter, the lectionary offers us three texts for our celebration that build on and hopefully clarify each other. Let’s look at them in the sequence that Andrea read them, arguably the order in which they were written.

Our first is from the Gospel of John. According to John, Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” Seems simple enough but given that the statement is about nineteen hundred years old it might be worthwhile to ask what John might have meant. He uses the verb three times in the two sentences: “love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” Allright. We get it. Love is the point.

Here and in much of what follows this morning, I rely on John Dominic Crossan who was introduced last Thursday at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in downtown Minneapolis as “the leading scholar today of the historical Jesus.” Crossan tells us that the Greek word agape, usually translated as “love” is more accurately, historically, translated as “share.” Crossan writes, “The New Testament agape, which we translate as ‘love’ and often interpret as charity, is best translated as ‘sharing,’ as a commitment to share the goods of this world as belonging to God and not ourselves….” To love means to share with each other what God has created.

The early communities did this most graphically in a common meal, a meal they called agape. It was a real meal, a pot-luck. Everyone brought what they could and shared with everyone else. All were welcome. All were fed. And all were satisfied. Well, not quite in every situation. This brings us to our second reading about Peter’s strange dream.

Peter, in a trance, sees something like a sheet with all kinds of different animals in it and a voice telling him to get up, kill something, and eat it. Peter protests saying that he’s never eaten anything that’s unclean. And the voice answers, “What God has made, you must not call unclean.” As we know with Peter from other incidents, everything has to happen three times which it does in this story also. Peter finally wakes up from his dream and three strangers, foreigners appear and ask him to come with them. Peter realizes what the dream is about. In the words of the text, he must not “make a distinction between them and us…God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”

What Peter was struggling with in his dream was a religiously imposed restriction. Before his dream, Peter and many others in the early communities believed that one had to observe all the Jewish rites and rituals before one could become a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. In hindsight, we can ask the question in these terms: Is it more important to worship in the right way, in the right place, at the right time, with the right people or to share unconditionally with everyone? Or, for this morning, who should be invited to the agape meal? Even if it took three times, Peter finally got it that everyone was invited without precondition into God’s new order. Peter swallowed his pride, admitted he had been wrong, and joined the apostle Paul’s unconditioned invitation to the way of sharing.

Paul talked about this a lot in his New Testament letters. He reminded the Ephesians that Jesus “is our peace” and Jesus “has broken down the dividing wall…the hostility between us” Jews and Gentiles, today between us Christians and Muslims (2:14). Or in probably the earliest letter we have of Paul’s, Galatians, speaking specifically about those who have been baptized into the community of followers of Jesus, Paul wrote, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female.” And surely we might add today, “there is no longer Black and White, Red or Brown, straight or gay, transgender or bisexual, owner or tenant, rich or poor.” We are all welcomed, with all our differing abilities and gifts. “For,” as Paul concluded, ”all of you are one in…Jesus.” It is precisely this commitment to radical equality, according to Crossan, that was the distinguishing mark of the early community. As Tertullian exclaimed when the church was less than two hundred years old, “How these Christians share with one another!”

It is into a community committed to this equality that we will welcome today Shannon MacKenzie George Voelkel. We will welcome her and we will recommit ourselves to accepting, in Paul’s words, that in Jesus all the dividing walls of status and privilege, domination and submission, hostility and hierarchy are gone. And then we will gather, all of us welcomed, with Shannon, Maggie and Rebecca for at least a symbolic agape, a feast of sharing, a sign of that new creation where all are welcome, all are fed, and all are satisfied. In the words of John of the Apocalypse, we will gather as “a new heaven and a new earth.”

Paul wrote to the Corinthians. “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation…everything has become new.”(5:17) Paul ended his letter to the Galatians by underlining the lesson of Peter’s dream that religious barriers are meaningless but “a new creation is everything.” When Jesus said, “the new order of God is at hand” Paul took Jesus literally as in “at hand” meaning “hear and now.” Here and now around this table we will signify, testify, recommit with our presence to being a new creation, “a new heaven and a new earth.”

But outside these walls the world moves in a different direction. For over one hundred years, from 1865 to 1970, each new generation of Americans could, at least statistically, look forward to a better standard of living -- higher levels of education, better health care, rising family incomes, better housing. Yes, there were bumps along the way, in 1877, in the 1930s, but the trend lines were consistently upward. In 1970 this stopped; the trend lines leveled off and have begun to decline. Our children and grandchildren are the first two generations in a century who cannot, statistically, anticipate an improved standard of living. Instead, the few are getting immensely richer while the many are sinking. For more than thirty years now we have measured progress by the extent to which we have added to the excess of those who already have too much rather than by our ability to provide enough for those who have too little, to borrow from Franklin Roosevelt. Rather than sharing, even as a national and especially as a global system, we are increasingly hoarding. This brings us to our third scripture reading from the Apocalypse of John.

John’s Apocalypse would have us believe that God will forcibly impose with a bloody avenging sword a new heaven and earth. John’s Apocalypse presents a god whose angels bring plagues and blood everywhere to “drain the cup of the fury of God’s wrath.” John’s is an unrelievedly bloody version of an old answer to the pain and suffering of an aggrieved, persecuted community. John’s is a political version of the same God that Janet talked about, and rejected, last week. A God that somehow intervenes, defying all known laws of the natural world and raises people from the dead. The apocalyptic God as cosmic avenger is a belief born out of Israel’s experience with exile in Babylon when all the people except the old and infirm were driven from Israel and Judah and forced to survive in the kingdom of their oppressors. It is a belief rekindled by the political troubles of the Jewish people with the Roman empire in first century Palestine. And rekindled again by John’s apocalypse to help the pain of the Christian communities persecuted throughout Asia. And on and on down to today and those who call – from the East and West, in English and Arabic -- on an avenging God to rescue them from the evils of secularism. This is not a new vision. It is, in fact, the same use of military power and physical violence that sustains the current world order of increasing inequality. It is a vision that promises peace but relies on war, that talks of justice but imposes only order by violence.

Such a view is biblical. But what does it have to do with the commandment to share with everyone as Jesus has shared with us? What does it have to do with the Jesus who said love your enemies and do good to those who persecute you? who said “if any one would sue you and take your coat, let that person have your cloak as well”? the Jesus who talks of a God who makes the sun shine on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust? who insists that we take what we have, even if it’s only five loaves and two fish and feed everyone at hand even if its five thousand people?

Here is where we find the newness of the good news. When Jesus said the new order of God is at hand he was not pointing to a future apocalypse but the demonstrated reality of a new way to justice and peace. A new creation of peace achieved through sharing without distinction or discrimination. A new creation of justice achieved around a table where all are welcomed, all are fed, and all are satisfied. Welcome, Shannon, and all of us, NOW to a new heaven and a new earth. Amen.

Why I'm UCC, or Thomas, John, and Benedict XVI - sermon by Don Portwood

Co-Pastor Don Portwood
April 24, 2005

While working on the sermon I decided to put the readings in the midst of the sermon rather than at that beginning, so let's begin with prayer.

Gracious God, keep us open to your Holy Spirit moving in us this morning,
to your widening love,
to the variety of ways we can discover you:
through Jesus the Christ,
through Scripture,
through seeking your light within us and outside us. Amen.

There's an old joke that says "UCC" stands for "Unitarians Considering Christ." The older I've gotten, the more that joke seems like a truth to me. With John's gospel reading you'll hear in a minute and the Faith and Fellowship group concluded a study of Elaine Pagels' book, Beyond Belief, the Secret Gospel of Thomas, it was a perfect time to "consider Christ."

I also decided to preach today's sermon because many of us struggle with who Jesus is. Is that true for you? And when many of us end up believing that Jesus wasn't divine or wasn't God, we wonder then, if we Unitarians are Christian. Don't we have to believe Jesus is God, God in three persons blessed trinity, like we sang in our first hymn?

You may be surprised to discover, like I was, that this question many of us are asking is the same question the church has been struggling with since Jesus. About Jesus, Episcopal Bishop and author, John Shelby Spong says, "Remember, first comes the experience, then comes the explanation."

First, people experienced Jesus, his life, death and presence after death, then came the explanations. And there were many explanations that came months, years, decades, hundreds of years after Jesus. So I've felt relief, that the struggle I've had in understanding Jesus, is similar to many faithful Christians who lived 100, 200, 300 years after Jesus.

In this sermon I'm going to give you some old and new history that Pagels' book sheds light on.

Let first, I put two questions before you that I hope to provide some answers to. Both questions are raised by John's gospel in our reading this morning.

1) Is belief in Jesus, the only way to God?

2) Is Jesus the same as, equal to God the Father/Mother?

John's gospel, differing from Matthew, Mark and Luke's gospels, would answer yes to both questions. That's orthodox Christianity. Believe differently, you may be called a heretic, a liberal, not biblically sound or a religious relativist.

But some "new history" has changed what we know about the early church. It came through the discovery of an urn of texts from the beginning of the Christian era, unearthed near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt in 1945. Researchers have discovered that early Christianity was much more complex
and diverse than the "official" versions of Christian history. One of the texts discovered in Nag Hammadi is called the Gospel of Thomas. Elaine Pagels believes one of the reasons the gospel of John was written was to
oppose the gospel of Thomas.

So listen as Donna reads first from John, about Jesus being the only way to God and equal to God, then from a hidden gospel discovered 60 years ago, the gospel of Thomas.

John 14:1-7
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In God's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Sovereign, we do not know where you
are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father/Mother except through me. If you know me, you will know my Mother/Father also. From now on you do know God and have seen God."

Thomas 1:70 & 77,
Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you will destroy you."

Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all. From me all came forth, and to me all extends. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there".

# # # # #

In other parts of John and in Thomas, both gospel writers believe that Jesus is God's own light - in human form. But they end up in two different places.

John identifies Jesus with the light that came into being "in the beginning" and that's what made Jesus unique - God's only begotten son. John calls Jesus the "Light of all humanity," and believes that Jesus alone
brings divine light to a world in darkness. In our scripture this morning Jesus says in response to Thomas saying we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to God, but by me." John says we can experience God only through the divine light embodied in Jesus.

Certain passages in the gospel of Thomas, written at the same time as the gospel of John, but discovered in 1945, draw a different conclusion. For Thomas, the divine light Jesus embodied, is shared by humanity since we are
all made "in the image of God." In the gospel of Thomas, Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all. From me all came forth, and to me all extends. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone,
and you will find me there".

"If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you will destroy you." So what mystics in both Judaism and Christianity have been saying for centuries - we find in Thomas a thousand years earlier, "that the 'image or light of God' is hidden within everyone, although most people remain unaware
of its presence." This quote from the gospel of Thomas was from our Call to Worship, Jesus saying, "The Kingdom is inside you and outside you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you
are children of the living God."

John says, we find the light by looking to Jesus, by only believing in Jesus, God's one of a kind, unique child. Thomas says, we can find the light by looking inside, to discover God's light within.

Thomas and John are both explanations of who Jesus is, written perhaps a hundred years after Jesus. But rather than seeing them as two ways to discover God and know God's presence on earth, Pagels says, "they became rival explanations, for by claiming that Jesus alone embodies the divine light, John challenges Thomas's claim that this light, may be present in everyone. John's views, of course, prevailed, and have shaped Christian thought ever since."

Remember again, first is the experience of Jesus, then the explanations. Because, for John, Jesus becomes the one we must believe in, John is not concerned about offering ethical teachings, like Matthew, Mark and Luke. You find no sermon on the mount, no words of how we must live in God's kingdom. He is primarily concerned that people believe that Jesus is God, the light of God, equal to God. It's not following Jesus that's important, it's believing in Jesus. John says it himself, "but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name."

How did John's gospel win out over Thomas? Pagels says it was due primarily to the church leader Irenaeus, around 200, as well as certain Christians in Asia Minor and Rome. Irenaeus championed John's gospel as the greatest
gospel of the four and saw it's promotion as the way to unite diverse Christians living under persecution by the Roman Empire.

Irenaeus took on what he called heretics. Heresy means choice, people who were choosing different explanations. Irenaeus took on the people who refused to acknowledge how utterly unique Jesus was. Irenaeus said, Jesus is not just the light sent by God, but God's word, so that when you read - that the Word, or the Lord, spoke to Moses or Abraham or the prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures, that was Jesus, God's word, speaking to them. Or in John this morning, Jesus says, "If you had known me, you would have known God also; henceforth you know God and have seen God."

In order to promote his reading of the gospel of John and his view of Jesus, Irenaeus called upon fellow believers to judge and excommunicate heretics and destroy any that disagreed with Jesus absolute uniqueness. Move forward
in time 100 years.

This battled in the early church continued until 312 when the Roman Emperor Constantine became a Christian. The horrible persecution of Christians ended. Amnesty was declared and confiscated property was to be returned to
Christians throughout the empire. But in many churches there were rival factions still explaining Jesus in different ways. Constantine specified that privileges applied only to those he called "ministers of the lawful
and most holy catholic religion". But who were they?

To answer that question and unify the church, a decade later, in 325 Emperor Constantine called Bishops from churches throughout the empire to meet at his expense at Nicaea in Turkey. They were to come up with a formula that
would join together a world-wide communion of Christians in one catholic and apostolic church. So the question was who was that holy and catholic church? Catholic means universal.

Even in 325, there where were still bishops, churches, Christians debating whether Jesus was divine, was of one being with God. Many said that belief was not found in the scriptures, nor in Christian tradition - Jesus was
divine, but not in the same way as God the Mother/Father. The other group said Jesus was essentially no different from God, of one being with, the Father/Mother.

We know which side had the majority. The document and wording that won became known as the Nicene Creed. A majority of bishops signed it. Some bishops refused to sign it. It became the official doctrine that all
Christians henceforth had to accept in order to participate in the only church recognized by the emperor-the "catholic church".

I invite you to read the Nicene Creed together, not as a doctrine you have to believe, but to hear what it says, page 883 in the hymnal.

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
who has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

# # # # #

Nearly 50 years after this creed was accepted, many Christians still looked not just to Jesus, but to the light within to seek God. They continued to read books and gospels outside the prescribed canon that two hundred years earlier, Irenaeus had denounced. So in 367, the Bishop of Alexandria, Athanasius, issued an Easter letter in which he demanded that Egyptian monks destroy all such writings, except for those he specifically listed as
"acceptable". That list makes us virtually all of our present "New Testament". But someone - perhaps monks at the monastery nearby, gathered dozens of the books Athanasius wanted to burn, removed them from the monastery library, and sealed them in a heavy, six-foot jar, intending to hide them. They were buried on a nearby hillside near Nag Hammadi. They remained hidden until an Egyptian villager stumbled upon them sixteen hundred years later.

Now we can read for ourselves, some of the writings that Irenaeus detested, Athanasius banned and discover for ourselves how early Christianity was much more diverse and broad than we have been taught.

What I came to realize in reading Beyond Belief, was how similar the debates, discussions and arguments taking place 1700 years ago are to today. While mystics still seek God through intuition, reflection, creative
imagination, by looking inward -- others say, Jesus is the only way, the only truth, the only life and while they humbly say that are not adding or subtracting anything from the Bible, they themselves become guardians of the
truth, God's own authority for interpreting the scriptures as they see it.

You hear that when Christian fundamentalists argue against gay marriage. You get a hint of it from now Pope Benedict the 16th, whom the Spirit may be working on.

In last Wednesday's Star Tribune, reporters Sharon Schmickle and Rene Sanchez wrote, "A declaration that then Bishop Ratzinger issued in 2000 as prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith expressed
"sincere respect" for other religions but also attacked 'religious relativism which leads to the belief that one religion is as good as another.' He said,
'If it is true that the followers of other religions can receive divine grace, it is also certain that objectively speaking they are in a gravely deficient situation in comparison with those who in the church, have the fullness of the means of salvation,' Ratzinger said in the document, which called non-Catholic Christian bodies, 'defective.'"

I'm UCC not just because I'm a unitarian considering Christ, but because I also seek to follow what Jesus said, hear God's still speaking word today and discern where that Spirit of God, that light of Christ, is moving
within me and within the Church and outside the Church - in Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, quantum physicists, and the world.

I'm UCC because we are not a creedal church. We don't make you sign on the bottom line that you believe everything in the Nicene Creed. We are a covenantal church, joined together in covenant, "agreeing to walk
together in the way of Jesus Christ, made known and to be made known to us."

I'm UCC because I believe the love of God and God's unpredictable Holy Spirit keeps meeting us on the margins of life, keeps breaking down the walls that we've erected to divide us; keeps popping us out of the boxes we've created to explain God; keeps widening our vision of truth and grace - that doctrines and explanations have narrowed tighter and tighter.

So my invitation to you in this sermon is to stay open to the Holy Spirit in yourself,
to God's widening love,
to the variety of ways we can discover God:
through Jesus the Christ,
through Scripture,
through seeking God's light within us and outside us
so that ultimately,
we all discover that there is NO scripture,
NO doctrine, NO one way...we put our trust in
but only God and God alone. Amen.

“Discipleship Will Be Difficult”

Ist Reaction to this scripture
Playfulness with it?
Take it apart
Plan what it’s going to be like….
Decisions that have disagreed with your family?
Suffer in the name of faithfulness, belief?
Renounce all you have, sell your possession, practice non attachment
Big crowds….don’t get caught up in excitement, following Jesus is difficult.
Conclusion: Good News?
What would you end up with for a sermon title?

Theme: “Discipleship Will Be Difficult”
Text: Luke 14:25-33
Date: September 19, 2004
Pentecost 16

Luke 14:25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
At this point in his ministry, great crowds traveled along with Jesus wherever he went. There was something exiting and magnetic about this Jesus of Nazareth. The authority with which he taught and the power of God at his beck and call, drew multitudes to him. But on this particular day, like any other day, not everyone traveling with Jesus was there for the same reason. Some were hoping for healing. Some were political activists looking for a liberator. Some were merely curious, as people tend to be when some new movement arises.
But some, some considered themselves Jesus’ followers, his disciples. I’m not speaking here about the Twelve disciples that Jesus had chosen. I’m speaking about a much larger group outside of the Twelve (See, for example, Luke 6:13,17,20). Exactly what they believed about Jesus is not clear. But in some sense they had committed themselves to being students and followers of Jesus. They considered themselves disciples. Still others in the great crowds that followed Jesus on this day were thinking about becoming his disciples.
So Jesus turned to these great crowds and told them, in no uncertain terms, what being his disciple involves. He did this with three conditional “cannot” statements.
• “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
• “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”
• “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”
From the time Jesus first spoke these words until now, they have been considered among the “hard” sayings of Jesus: those difficult to understand. When they have heard or read these words of Jesus, many Christians have just ignored them, because they don’t know what to do with them.
On the surface, in these three statements, it seems that Jesus is going out of his way to repel disciples, not make them. “If you don’t hate your family and yourself, you can’t be my disciple.” “If you don’t carry your cross like a condemned criminal you can’t be disciple.” “If you don’t give up all your possessions, you can’t be my disciple.” This doesn’t sound like a winning formula for church growth. What is Jesus up to here with these words that seem to defy common sense? Why does he say this and what does it mean for us? Let’s look more closely at the text to get to the bottom of it.
First, Jesus says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” How shocking this must have been to those who first heard him. How shocking to us.
From the time of the Sixteenth Century Reformation, there has been an important rule of Biblical interpretation that “Scripture interprets Scripture.” In other words, when you come upon a difficult-to-understand passage, before you turn to a learned commentary or your own reason, you look for another passage that treats the same subject, but one that is clearer, and use it to interpret the difficult-to-understand one. Scripture interprets Scripture assumes, by the way, that the Bible is a unified whole, because it has one divine author, the Holy Spirit. Therefore the Bible cannot contradict itself, even if it appears to.
How does “Scripture interprets Scripture” help us here? This way: If Jesus truly means for us to “hate” our families and selves in the conventional sense, then it contradicts many other clear teachings of Scripture about hate. Such as 1 John 3:15, “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” Such as 1 John 4:20, “If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” In addition, this hate saying of Jesus would contradict the many commands to love, such as, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39) and “"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:43-44). So unless Scripture contradicts itself, Jesus cannot mean “hate” in the conventional sense.
Fortunately, there is another passage in which Jesus speaks on the same subject, and clarifies this hate passage. In Matthew 10 our Lord says: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (10:37-38). When Jesus says whoever does not hate his family and self cannot be my disciple, he doesn’t mean that we should not love them in any sense. Of course we are to love them! Marriage and family are good gifts of God! He means that we should never love our relatives or ourselves more than Him; For then we would loving the creature rather than the Creator and committing idolatry. For those who would be disciples of Jesus Christ, love for Jesus must come first. Loyalty to Jesus must come first. Obedience to Jesus must come first. So when even the dearest family wants you to something that is the opposite of what Jesus wants for you, you must remain faithful to Jesus, not the family member.
So what Jesus is doing here in Luke 14, is warning those who want to be his disciples, telling them that the life of a disciple will be difficult. They will be put in situations where their own flesh and blood will oppose their faith or tempt them to disobey Jesus. As Jesus says elsewhere, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law” (Luke 12:51-53). Indeed, it will get even worse, as the end draws near: “And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death” (Mark 13:12).
To have one’s own family or one’s own flesh oppose our faith is one of the severest trials. At such a time the temptation is great to compromise our faith in order to make our family happy. But to do this is to love our families more than Jesus. And one cannot be a disciple if one does such a thing.
Second, Jesus says, “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” This also must have shocked the great crowds. After all, unlike us, many of them may have witnessed what Jesus here described: a condemned criminal bearing his own cross through the streets of a town out to the place of crucifixion. Only the most vile felons were had to carry their crosses. Why on earth would Jesus say that they too had to do this?
But of course, Jesus didn’t mean that each of them must carry a literal cross to a literal crucifixion. Here the word “cross” takes on a new meaning. It means “suffering.” To “bear one’s own cross” means to be willing to suffer for the sake of Jesus.
For many who followed Jesus, they sensed that a new age was dawning. The kingdom of God was at hand. But they wrongly understood that to mean that victory, peace, and prosperity would be theirs. Some new Christians make the same mistake today.
Here Jesus sets them straight. He is saying, “You do not understand. The life of a disciple is a life of suffering. It will be difficult. And if you are not prepared for this you will fall away. You will be persecuted because of me, and suffer loss because of me (See Luke 8:13; John 16:33; Acts 14:22; 1 Thessalonians 3:3-5; 2 Timothy 3:12). At that point you will have a choice. You can remain faithful to me or you can be unfaithful to make the cross go away. You can shut up rather than openly share your faith, be silent rather than speak of Jesus, go along with the crowd, rather than obey Jesus. You can compromise the truth instead of standing up for the truth of God’s Word. To do any of these things, to compromise or become silent or go along with the crowd rather than confess, speak, and live the life Christ has called us to, is to drop the cross instead up carrying it. But if you refuse to carry the cross of suffering you cannot be my disciple.”
Third, our Lord says, “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” It is well known that many Christians have chosen to take this literally. They have taken vows of poverty and have entered monasteries or convents. But a crass literal understanding of this passage would contradict other passages in God’s Word.
For example, when Zacchaeus gave half of his possessions to the poor, Jesus did not rebuke him and command him to give all his possessions away. Jesus rejoiced and called him a son of Abraham (Luke 19). There were wealthy people among the first Christians and the apostles never commanded them to give all of their wealth away. Instead they say, “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.” (1 Tim 6:17-18). It is not money that is evil, but the “love of money that is a root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). It is the love of money and mammon, loving it more than Jesus, that Jesus warns about here in the severest of terms.
When Jesus says that we cannot be his disciples unless we give up our possessions, he means we must be willing to give up all our possessions if need be; or if it comes down to a choice between being faithful to Jesus, on the one hand, or keeping our possessions, on the other, disciples must give up the possessions. Otherwise they commit idolatry and cease to be disciples.
So why did Jesus utter these three hard sayings, so shocking to ancient and modern listeners? He intended, in the strongest possible terms, to prepare his disciples. Prepare them for what? To prepare them for the reality that a being a disciple of Jesus will be difficult--and they will be tempted to give up.
The two parables that Jesus tells in our texts emphasizes this need for disciples to prepare. The man who wants to build a tower must count the cost to make sure he has enough to finish the job. The king who is going to war must first count his troops and resources to make sure he can win the battle. In both parables the message is clear: Those who begin a major endeavor need to be prepared to see it through to the finish. Our Lord is telling us that being a disciple is a major endeavor. Disciples need to be prepared to see it through to the finish.
Throughout our lives we will be tempted to quit when suffering threatens us. Throughout our lives as disciples we will have to choose. Will I choose what Jesus wants even it means suffering and rejection? Or will I side with my unbelieving family in order to escape suffering and rejection? Will I remain faithful to Jesus only when times are good? Or will I remain a faithful disciple, when people reject or hate or shun me because of what I believe? Will I carry the cross when called to do so? Or will I drop it?
Jesus knew that he needed to prepare his disciples, for he knows what is in man. He knows that every one of us has a powerful inborn desire to be liked and loved by everyone; to be happy and prosperous; to enjoy pleasure, rest, fun. Because of this we have the tendency to avoid anything that might make people dislike us, to drop the cross and run away from suffering, and to be faithful to Jesus unless such faithfulness results in some sort of loss--loss of reputation or possessions of family.
But why must the life of discipleship be so difficult? Why so many temptations, trials, and traps? First, because Satan is, as Scripture says, the god of this world (2 Co 4:4); and the entire unbelieving world lies in his power (1 John 5:19). As Revelation 12 says,
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world- he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!"
Satan knows his fate. That he is already conquered by the death and resurrection of Christ. He knows that his time is short until Christ returns. Therefore, in his intense anger, his goal is to keep as many people from becoming disciples as possible, and causing those who are disciples to become unfaithful and lose their saving faith in Jesus.
Victory comes, says this text in Revelation, in two ways. First disciples conquered Satan “by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” In other words, they remained faithful. They didn’t love their lives even unto death. They put Jesus first, even if meant that family disliked them, enemies persecuted them, and loss of property and even death pursued them.
Yet far more importantly than their faithfulness was the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. The disciples “conquered him by the blood of the Lamb.” The Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world by shedding his blood at Golgotha’s cross. It is this that defeated Satan. For by that shed blood, all sins and failings are forgiven to those who believe the Gospel. Including the sin of unfaithfulness. Including failing to love Jesus more than family or self; including the failure to willingly carry the cross of suffering, or the failure put Jesus before our possessions.
Yet this sweet forgiveness through the blood of the Lamb should not inspire laziness and lukewarmness. It should inspire us to strive more than ever to put faithful to Jesus above and ahead of everything and everyone else; even if it means rejection; even if it means suffering; even if it means loss. Amen.
Pastor Richard P. Bucher, Th.D
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church
Lexington, KY

A New Thing - Sermon by Don Portwood

Isaiah 7:10-16
Again the Sovereign spoke to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign of the Sovereign your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put God to the test.” Then Isaiah said: ‘Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore God will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.”

Mat 1:1
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Mat 1:2
Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
Mat 1:3
and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,
Mat 1:4
and Ram the father of Ammin'adab, and Ammin'adab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon,
Mat 1:5
and Salmon the father of Bo'az by Rahab, and Bo'az the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,
Mat 1:6
and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uri'ah,
Mat 1:7
and Solomon the father of Rehobo'am, and Rehobo'am the father of Abi'jah, and Abi'jah the father of Asa,
Mat 1:8
and Asa the father of Jehosh'aphat, and Jehosh'aphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzzi'ah,
Mat 1:9
and Uzzi'ah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezeki'ah,
Mat 1:10
and Hezeki'ah the father of Manas'seh, and Manas'seh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josi'ah,
Mat 1:11
and Josi'ah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
Mat 1:12
And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoni'ah was the father of She-al'ti-el, and She-al'ti-el the father of Zerub'babel,
Mat 1:13
and Zerub'babel the father of Abi'ud, and Abi'ud the father of Eli'akim, and Eli'akim the father of Azor,
Mat 1:14
and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eli'ud,
Mat 1:15
and Eli'ud the father of Elea'zar, and Elea'zar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob,
Mat 1:16
and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
Mat 1:17
So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

Matthew 1:18-25

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Sovereign appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Sovereign through the prophet:
‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel’,
which means, ‘God is with us.’ When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Sovereign commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

“A New Thing”, December 23, 2007 Lyndale United Church of Christ by Don Portwood, with many thanks for the research and words of Archbishop John Shelby Spong.

It’s the 4th Sunday of advent, the day before Christmas Eve. And the lectionary readings are two scriptures, one from the prophet Isaiah written 800 years before the birth of Jesus…and one from Matthew, written 90 years after the birth of Jesus.

If we were one of those big churches, this morning we might have a living nativity scene set up outside and we could go back in time to Bethlehem and see people dressed up like Mary and Joseph and worship and adore the baby Jesus, pet the donkeys and greet the shepherds and wise men.

But no, instead we have a lectionary reading from Isaiah and Matthew that I have to deal with. We don’t take the Bible literally at Lyndale Church, so I always research the scriptures and prayerfully try to discern what the truth is for us from the scriptures.

If we were fundamentalist Christians, this scripture from Matthew would be used to prove that Jesus was the divine son of God…look it’s right there, born of a virgin. God is the father, Mary is the mother through the Holy Spirit…a fulfillment of the scripture from Isaiah. The virgin birth is one of the pillars of fundamentalism. Couldn’t be any plainer, if you think Matthew was writing history and not poetry. But Matthew may have been writing something more than even poetry.

Tomorrow night’s Christmas Eve meditation is entitled, “Don’t try to figure it all out”. But today, thanks to the work of Bishop John Shelby Spong, former Bishop in the Episcopal Church, whose research and words I’m using fully and gratefully today, we are going to spend some time trying to figure out why Matthew may have told this story.

To begin: How many of the 4 gospels talk about Jesus birth? Which ones? Which is first?
The two stories that tell us of Jesus' birth are dramatic and interpretive stories that were clearly never intended by Matthew and Luke to be read as history.
The story of a virgin birth for Jesus entered Christianity through Matthew around the 9th decade. So around 90 years after Jesus’ birth.

Since Matthew is the source of the story of Jesus' miraculous birth, it’s important to notice how he introduces this idea. Yet almost no one ever bothers to read the first 17 verses of Matthew's opening chapter, which is his introduction to the virgin narrative.
We’re much more familiar with the words: "When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly."

Note the hint of scandal there. Joseph, unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.

But Matthew addresses this scandal by having an angel appear to Joseph in a dream to tell him that the child did not result from unfaithfulness, but was the work of the Holy Spirit. The story goes on to confirm this conviction with miraculous signs. (A star in the East, wise one’s come to worship the newborn child). But the sign is Matthew’s claim that this birth was foretold by the prophet Isaiah. Which scholars know to be both inaccurate and based on a mis-translation.

Matthew based his story on our Hebrew text for this morning from Isaiah. But he quoted the Septuagint. The Septuagint is the name given to the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures. The Septuagint has its origin in Alexandria, Egypt and was translated between 300-200 BC. It was widely used among Hellenistic Jews, because many Jews spread throughout the empire were beginning to lose their Hebrew language. The Septuagint was also a source of the Hebrew scriptures for early Christians during the first few centuries AD.

So Matthew is quoting the Greek translation of Isaiah that said, "Behold a Virgin will conceive and bring forth a child." If Matthew had read the Hebrew original instead of a Greek translation, he would have discovered that the word "virgin" was not present anywhere in that text. In Hebrew, the prophet Isaiah wrote, "Look, the young woman is with child."

This text was written as part of a sign that the prophet Isaiah was giving to the King of Judah, King Ahaz, in the 8th century BC to convince him that the armies of Syria and the Northern Kingdom, that were at that moment besieging Jerusalem, would not conquer Jerusalem.
Isaiah's words were designed to give assurance to King Ahaz about the continuation of his kingdom. It did not refer to an event that would occur 800 years later.
So that’s the inaccuracy in the text that Dan read this morning. But, those first 17 verses of chapter one, what about them? Perhaps one reason Matthew's opening verses are seldom noticed or read is that they are the "who begat whom" verses, which are among the most boring parts of the Bible. Matthew traces Jesus' genealogy through 42 generations from Abraham to the moment of his birth. If I started to read them, your eyes would immediately glaze over.

Yet, Bishop Spong says, it is here, that Matthew gives us the clues we need to understand his purpose in creating the story of Jesus' miraculous birth. To understand these clues, however, requires a knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures. So let’s take a look. Would you open your Bibles to the first chapter of Matthew? Look at the insert.

Matthew seeks to show in this genealogy that Jesus was first, the descendant of Abraham, the father of the Jewish Nation; and second that Jesus was the descendant of David and thus heir apparent to the Jewish throne; and third that he was the son of God through the virginal conception.

Yet after taking us on this long genealogical journey through this long line of kingly figures Matthew finally reaches Joseph… whom he calls "the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus," only to indicate by Jesus’ virgin birth story that Joseph had nothing to do with Jesus bloodlines at all!

Beyond that, however, this list of Jesus’ family line is unusual for a second reason.

Can you pick it out? I’ve given you a bold clue. Four women are included by name and are designated as part of Jesus' ancestry. Women were valued so little in this patriarchal world that it was rare indeed for them to have merited a mention at all.

The next thing that makes these women so unusual is that every one of them was somehow “sexually tainted”.
The four women’s names were, in order of their appearance in the biblical story: Tamar (tay’ mer), Rahab, Ruth, and finally a woman that Matthew called simply "the wife of Uriah the Hittite," but we know her from the biblical story as Bathsheba, who was later the wife of David and the mother of King Solomon, who was David's successor.
You can read the stories of each of these women for yourself. Tamar played the role of a prostitute, to seduce her father-in-law into what would have been called an incestuous relationship in that day [Gen.38].
Rahab is known as "the harlot" who helped the spies of Joshua, when they entered Jericho by stealth, to search out the land of Canaan prior to its conquest by the Jews [Joshua 2].

Ruth, a Moabite, was the widowed daughter-in-law of Naomi, who used a distant kinship and the heavy drinking of Boaz to place him into a situation where marriage was his only viable alternative [Ruth 2-4].

Bathsheba was the woman whom David spotted bathing on the rooftop, and after sending for her, impregnated her in an adulterous relationship [2 Sam. 11, 12]. Then to cover his crime, David ordered his military captain to place Bathsheba's husband Uriah at the most dangerous spot in the battle so that he would be struck dead, freeing David to claim his widow for the royal harem.

What was Matthew suggesting about the ancestry of Jesus as he traced it back to Abraham?
What was he seeking to accomplish when he said that Jesus' bloodlines had journeyed through incest, prostitution, seduction and adultery?
What was he trying to tell his original readers when he stated that among the mothers who produced the physical line that led to Jesus were Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba?

Remember, this is the narrative which Matthew used to introduce the story of Jesus' conception without the benefit of a human father. It is small wonder that these opening verses in Matthew's Gospel have been generally ignored by the traditional voices of Christian history. They clearly did not like the association.

Since Matthew is the one who introduced the virgin birth story to the Christian tradition, one has to wonder what it was that compelled him to do so. What was his motive? Traditional Christians like to say that Matthew told this virgin birth story because this is the way Jesus was born. That answer, however, fails to account for the fact that neither Paul, who wrote between 50 and 64, nor Mark, who wrote in the early 70s give any evidence of ever having heard stories of Jesus' miraculous birth.

Paul says only two things about Jesus' origins. First, that Jesus was "born of a woman, born under the law [Gal.4:4]," and second that he was "descended from David, according to the flesh [Rom.1:3]." There is no hint of a supernatural birth in either reference.

Mark has no birth story and explains Jesus' uniqueness by writing that at his baptism God poured the Holy Spirit on him [Mark 1: 1-11]. Later Mark records a reference to Jesus' mother, which is hardly flattering. In this episode Jesus' mother seems to believe him to be out of his mind and so she goes to get him [Mark 3:21-35]. That is hardly the behavior of one who knew herself to be the virgin mother of a divine child, whose nature had been communicated to her prior to his birth by a heavenly messenger. Clearly Mark was not aware of the existence of a miraculous birth story. It simply had not yet become part of the Christian tradition in the early 70’s.
So we return to our original questions: What caused the story of a miraculous birth by way of a virgin to grow up around Jesus of Nazareth? What was the need that Matthew felt to which the story of the virgin birth seemed to speak?

Spong gives two possibilities; one that is clear and simple, the other more shadowy and complex. The simple answer was that virgin births were a primary, indeed almost a commonplace, way by which ancient people acknowledged the greatness of a particular human life. People in that era understood little about the reproductive process. They had no concept of genetic codes, egg cells, or zygotes. When a larger than life figure crossed their horizon, they explained that greatness with stories about divine origins and heavenly parents. Among figures of the ancient world who were said to have been the products of a virgin birth were Plato, Alexander the Great, Romulus and Remus, Indra, in Tibet, Mithra in Persia, and the Buddha. It was their way of saying, "we have met something in this life that is beyond the boundaries of the human capacity."

The shadowy and complex possibility lies in the supposed need of the early church to cover up what may have been a scandal surrounding Jesus birth. That shouldn’t come as a surprise since clearly there was a scandal associated with his death.

Earlier Christians had to confront the charge that the messiah had to be a mighty victorious warrior, he could not be a crucified man who had been hung on a tree. No one could claim that Jesus was the "one who was to come" until they dealt with his death on a tree, which they did by identifying the death of Jesus with the death of the Paschal Lamb of the Passover and with the slaughtered Lamb of God in the liturgy of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The "scandal of his death" was turned into the heart of the gospel and the passion narrative was created to interpret that death as fulfilling the will of God.
Could there have also been a scandal associated with his birth that needed to be explained or covered? Hints of this possibility appear hidden inside the gospel tradition if one knows how to look for them.

In Mark, for example, Jesus' critics refer to Him as "the carpenter, the son of Mary [Mk.6:3]." To call a grown man the son of a woman was, in Jewish society, to raise questions of his paternity. Matthew clearly understood the insulting quality of these remarks since he edited them when he copied this story from Mark into his Gospel [see Mt. 13:55]. Matthew has this critic refer to Jesus as "the carpenter's son, whose mother is called Mary." Matthew also portrays Joseph as responding to the reality of a scandal, by planning to put Mary "away quietly."
Finally in John, the crowd is reported to have shouted at Jesus, "we were not born of fornication [John. 8:41]." Is there not an implicit charge being made in this text that Jesus was?

Scholars can clearly document today that the earliest critics of the Jesus movement sought to discredit him with the claim that he had been an illegitimate child. And since the gospels of Matthew and Luke would have been circulating for 5 – 15 years by the time the Gospel of John was written, it’s a surprise then to see in Johns gospel twice, in 1:45 and 6:42 Jesus referred to as “the son of Joseph”.

Spong asks why it has not occurred to us to ask whether Matthew might be using this introduction to his narrative about Jesus' birth to a virgin - to counter the rumors, abroad at that time, that the birth of Jesus was itself tainted by scandal. Think about the fact that the story of Jesus' "virgin birth" is introduced by Matthew who traces Jesus' genealogy and proclaims that the line that produced this Holy Child ran through the incest between Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar, the prostitution of Rahab the Harlot, the seduction of Boaz by Ruth and the adultery of David with Bathsheba. Then he tells us that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is pregnant prior to her marriage to Joseph and that Joseph is prepared to put her away.
Matthew has taken great pains in these opening verses of his gospel to argue that the divine plans of God are not thwarted by incest, prostitution, seduction or adultery. God can act through all human distortions and when God acts the human circumstances do not matter.
When we note these Jewish references in the stories of Jesus' birth, it becomes clear that Matthew (and Luke) were not writing history.

No, Jesus was not born of a virgin. But Like Matthew and all the gospel writers, when we understand who he is, we know and can understand the poetry and the motive in Matthew’s story. When we understand who he came from, it can widen our vision of who God chooses to work through, yes even tainted women, yes even people like you and me. God doesn’t choose people to work through because they are good and righteous and holy, God chooses them because God can work through anyone and everyone.

And we can understand anew, that the whole creation, the stars and the angels of heaven were said to have rejoiced that such a life could emerge from our humanity.
As we prepare to celebrate the birth of the One through whom countless millions have experienced new beginnings, new life, liberation and salvation, can we also join with Matthew in honoring Jesus….in whom God has done a new thing, visiting God's people, with healing, mercy, grace, forgiveness and new life, God with Us. Emmanuel.

The Way of The Way - sermon by Don Portwood

Acts 9:1-6,(7-20)
Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of Jesus, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ He asked, ‘Who are you?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’ The men who were travelling with Saul stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Sovereign said to him in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ He answered, ‘Here I am, Lord.’ ‘Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision, a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.’

But Ananias answered, ‘Sovereign, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.’ But the Sovereign said to him, ‘Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.’ So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother Saul, the Sovereign Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.
For several days Saul was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’

THE WAY OF THE WAY
The sermon preached at Lyndale Church April 22, 2007 by Don Portwood, Pastor Lyndale United Church of Christ.

Parts of this sermon come from the chapter entitled "Born Again" from Marcus Borg's book The Heart of Christianity.

Blinded by the light
revved up like a deuce
Another runner in the night

We all know the story of Saul, knocked off his high horse and blinded by the light
Led by the hand to Damascus where Ananias prays for him. He’s filled with the Holy spirit, his sight returns and within days he’s preaching in the synagogues. Saul the persecutor becomes Saul the evangelist.

What caught my attention this week were the two little words The Way, early in the scripture that Dan read. “Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Sovereign, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to THE WAY, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”

The Way is an early name for Christianity, for Jewish Christians who followed Jesus.
Paul is going to Damascus to persecute people of the way and on the way he experiences the way and becomes one of the way, proclaiming the way.

What is the way of the way? Marcus Borg, in his book The Heart of Christianity, simplifies it for us.

The Way of the Way? – dying and rising experiences, big ones and small.

Saul’s was big. Knocked off his horse, blinded by the light, in Damascus he receives the Holy Spirit, dies to his old identity as Saul the persecutor and rises a new creation, Saul the evangelist.

That is the way of the way….dying and rising, dying to an old identity, rising to a new identity, centered in the Spirit of God.

“Dying and rising” or “being born again” are images for the process of personal transformation that’s at the center of the Christian life. To be born again involves death and resurrection. It means dying to an old way of being and being born into a new way of being; dying to an old identity and being born into a new identity—a way of being and an identity centered in the sacred, in Spirit, in Christ, in God.
Throughout the Christian scriptures, death and resurrection, dying and rising are metaphors for personal transformation.

Dying and rising with Christ is found in the four gospels and Paul’s letters. “Take up your cross and follow me”. It is the way of Jesus. It is the way of the Christian community. Paul writes in Romans 6, “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of God, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Paul’s shorthand phrase for that process is being “in Christ” or “in the Spirit”. The result of being “in Christ” is a new way of being and a new identity, a new creation.

To the Corinthians he wrote, “So if anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation: everything old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

And it’s not only a personal transformation, but a communal one as well, for as Paul wrote to the Galatians, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. The result: There is no longer Jew or Gentile, there is not longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Imagine how that changed the community, when all are one in Christ.

The gospel of John also used this imagery. In fact, for Borg, it’s the key to understanding the verse in John often used as the basis of Christian exclusivism: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to God except through me.”

In John, just as Jesus is the “Word made flesh” so he is “the way” made flesh, the path embodied in a life. The key question then becomes: What is “the way” that Jesus incarnates? What is “the way” that Jesus is? For John, as for the Christian scriptures generally, “the way” embodied in Jesus is the path of dying and rising.

Dying and rising is the only way to God. Christian exclusivism understands this verse to mean that you must be a Christian, know about Jesus and believe certain things about Jesus in order to be saved. But “the way” John speaks of is not about believing doctrines about Jesus, rather, “the way” is the path of death and resurrection as the way to rebirth in God.

According to John, this is the only way…..and, as Borg suggests in a minute, it is “the way” spoken of by all the major religions of the world.

And what is the symbol of this Way, this dying and rising? The Cross.

“If any of you would come after me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” The Church used the cross as the symbol for this dying and rising. But in the process taught us that what needs to die is our self….deny yourself, do it for Jesus, for the church, for others. That way of understanding has been used to encourage the repression of the self and it’s legitimate desires.

Oppressed people in society and in the family, have often been told to put their own selves last, out of obedience to God. Understood this way, the message of the cross becomes an instrument of oppressive authority and self-denial.

But the cross is our means of liberation and reconnection. It is not about the subjugation of the self, but about a new self. And so Borg uses the term “old” and
”new” identity and way of being. The way of the cross involves dying to an “old identity” and rising into a “new identity”, dying to “an old way of being” and being raised “to a new way of being”, one centered in God.

It’s what the good news of the gospel is all about. I once was lost, but now I’m found. I used to be hooked on, controlled by --- fill in the blank, drugs, alcohol, sex, anger, money - all the damaging things we can be enslaved too. Then the hand of Jesus touched me and now I am no longer the same.

There are powerful stories of God’s Spirit working in your lives - or the lives of others you may have only heard about.

But for many of us, our lives haven’t been that dramatic. And we mostly deal with what Borg calls the process of self-consciousness and socialization.

As we grow from a baby to a child, we become self-conscious…self aware…recognizing we are different from others around us. That leads to feelings of self-centeredness, estrangement, exile. We have all experienced this. Moreover, it cannot be avoided; it is utterly necessary.

The process of separation and self-concern is intensified by the process of growing up. Called “socialization” this process involves internalizing within the self the central “messages” of one’s upbringing. It includes language, a worldview, an understanding of what is real and possible, and includes messages about who we are and what we should be like: parental messages, cultural messages, and for many of us religious messages.

By the time we are in early adolescence, perhaps earlier, our sense of who we are is increasingly the product of culture. We feel okay or not okay about ourselves to the extent that we measure up to the messages we have internalized. Borg writes that in in our culture, these messages center around the three A’s of: Appearance, Achievement, and Affluence.
For the adolescence it comes out as: Am I ok, am I cool enough, in with my friends, do I look good, either with the right clothes or the coolest piercings?

In adulthood the issue of attractiveness continues, but then we add issues of achievement and affluence and also issues of intimacy, sensitivity, and caring. Am I enough? Am I good enough? Smart enough? Rich enough? Capable enough?

Throughout this process, we fall farther into the world of separation and alienation, comparison and judgment—of self and of others. We live our lives in relation to what Thomas Keating calls, “the false self” the self created and received by culture. Or to use language from author Frederick Buechner, we live our lives from the outside in rather than from the inside out.

The biblical version is that we are created in the image of God, but we choose false Gods to trust, live our lives outside of paradise, “east of Eden” in a world of estrangement and self-preoccupation. Worry-filled, grasping, sometimes victim, sometimes oppressor. That’s the false self that needs to die, that’s why we need to be born again, return from our exile, recover our true self, begin the path of living our lives from the inside out rather than from the outside in.

To be born again involves dying to the false self, to that identity, to that way of being, that is so worried about appearance, achievement, affluence, and to be born into an identity centered in the Spirit, in Christ, in God. “Riches I need not, nor life’s empty praise, you, my inheritance, now and always.”

This experience of the Way can be big, sudden and dramatic and like Saul on the road to Damascus. Like Paul we can be knocked off our high horse by health issues, work issues, relational issues, well just about any issues. Because if we all start out worshiping false Gods, then at some point we often realize the “security blanket” we’ve been clinging to, doesn’t provide the security it once did. The author Robert Short calls that discovery, “that we’ve been clinging to a false God”, HELL.

For the majority of us, dying and rising doesn’t happen like Paul in a single intense experience. It’s more gradual and incremental. Dying to an old identity and being born into a new identity, dying to an old way of being and living into a new way of being, is a process that continues through a lifetime.

This process is at the heart, not only of Christianity, but of the other enduring religions of the world.

Judaism speaks of the Way as a new heart, a self centered in God.
One of the meanings of the word “Islam” is “surrender” - to surrender one’s life to God by radically centering in God.
At the heart of the Buddhist path is “letting go”.
It’s in the Tao te Ching. “If you want to become full, let yourself be empty; if you want to be reborn, let yourself die.”

The Way of the Way is the work of the Spirit. Whether it happens suddenly or gradually, we can’t make it happen, either by strong desire and determination or by learning and believing the right beliefs.

But we can midwife the process. This is the purpose of spirituality: to help birth the new self and nourish the new life.
Spirituality combines awareness, intention, and practice.
Borg defines it as “becoming conscious of and intentional about a deepening relationship with God”.
1) Becoming conscious of a relationship with God that already exists whether we are aware of it or not.
2) Becoming intentional about our relationship with God, paying attention to the relationship through practice, corporate and individual practice, worship, community, prayer, dance, meditation, days of mindfulness.
3) so that we have an ever deepening relationship with God…a relationship that transforms us – marks us - with freedom, joy, peace and love.

Freedom from the voices of all the “would be bosses” of our lives,
the joy of the exuberant, passionate life,
the peace of reconnection to what is, the peace that passes all understanding, that no storm can shake;
and love—the love of God for us and the love of God in us.

Dying and being raised to new life, being born again, is about living from the inside out….having God’s loving, grace filled spirit fill you and liberate you from those damned voices of society, culture, family and church – that criticize us and others – harshly, relentlessly, ungracefully on:

how you should be, how you should look, how much you should make,
how successful you should be.

Living your life, not from the outside in…but from the inside out….is discovering or re-discovering, not just once, but again and again, deeper within you - God’s spirit of wisdom, love and grace.

The muslim poet, Hafiz has written, “There is only one reason we have followed God into this world: to encourage laughter, freedom, dance and love. In ourselves and for others.

Most of us go through our lives without ever being literally knocked off our horses and blinded by a light. Most of us go from day to day, year to year, sometimes searching, sometimes convinced, but rarely experiencing dramatic revelations that change the course of our lives, let alone the life of the church, as the experience of
Saul did.

Whether we are blinded by the light, we still receive the same grace filled invitation in the situations, especially the hard spots in our lives that Saul received on his way to Damascus, to release our false Gods and transform our hearts to God’s way of loving.

Soul Thirst - sermon by Don Portwood

February 24
John 4:5-42
So Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar,
near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well.
It was about noon.
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink'.
(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, 'How is it that you, a Jew,
ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?'
(Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God,
and who it is that is saying to you, "Give me a drink", you would have asked him,
and he would have given you living water.
' The woman said to him, 'Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep.
Where do you get that living water?
Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well,
and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?'
Jesus said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.
The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.' The woman said to him, 'Sir, give me this water,
so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.'

Jesus said to her, 'Go, call your husband, and come back.'
The woman answered him, 'I have no husband.'
Jesus said to her, 'You are right in saying, "I have no husband";
for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.
What you have said is true!'
The woman said to him, 'Sir, I see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain,
but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.'
Jesus said to her, 'Woman, believe me,
the hour is coming when you will worship God neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know,
for salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when the true worshippers will worship God in spirit and truth,
for God seeks such as these to worship God.
God is spirit, and those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth.'
The woman said to him, 'I know that Messiah is coming' (who is called Christ).
'When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.'
Jesus said to her, 'I am he, the one who is speaking to you.'

Just then Jesus disciples came.
They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman,
but no one said, 'What do you want?' or, 'Why are you speaking with her?'
Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city.
She said to the people, 'Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!
He cannot be the Messiah, can he?'
They left the city and were on their way to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, 'Rabbi, eat something.'
But he said to them, 'I have food to eat that you do not know about.'
So the disciples said to one another, 'Surely no one has brought him something to eat?'
Jesus said to them, 'My food is to do the will of the One who sent me
and to complete God’s work.
Do you not say, "Four months more, then comes the harvest"?
But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.
The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life,
so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.
For here the saying holds true, "One sows and another reaps."
I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour.
Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.'

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony,
‘He told me everything I have ever done.’
So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them;
and he stayed there for two days.
And many more believed because of his word.
They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe,
for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.’

What a great story. It’s probably one of the longer scriptures read in the lectionary readings over the three year cycle. It’s jam packed with things to preach on, but before I get to the one I’ve chosen for this morning, let’s take another look at it.

First, it’s from the gospel of John, the 4th gospel, written last and 60 – 70 years after Jesus, 20-30 years after the first Gospel Mark was written. John had more time to digest who this Jesus was. So many of his stories contain a much more developed theological understanding of Jesus, that John then puts back into the story and the words of Jesus.

In this story Jesus was leaving Judea and had to pass through Samaria to get to his destination of Galilee. Many scholars believe this story written was written at the time the early church was engaged in mission to Samaritans (not just Jews) and was written as a justification for that ministry to people who before had always been considered outcast and beyond contempt.

For Samaritians weren’t really people of Israel, even though they lived in the same land. When Assyria defeated Israel around 700 B.C. many of the Jewish people 27,290 (according to King Sargon the 2nds own records) were taken captive and deported to faraway places. Sargon then moved other captive people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath into the cities of Samaria. These people all brought their religions with them, and even though Jewish priests went into Samaria to teach them about Yahweh, the people built their own shrines and still worshiped in their old ways.

Fast forward 700 years and this is the land with ancient hostilities that Jesus is passing through. It’s hot, it’s noon, Jesus is tired, so the disciples head into town and Jesus stops by the well that Jacob had dug, a well that tradition said bubbled up and overflowed with water.
This wasn’t a self serve kind of well. There must have been a rope, but you had to bring your own water jar to tie to the rope…to let down into this deep well to get any water.

A Samaritan woman walks up to the well and Jesus speaks to her, “Give me a drink”. Recognizing him as a Jew, she was surprised he would speak with her. Just as today, there was considerable sexism in the religions and the culture. Jesus didn’t side with culture and tradition and instead begins to talk about giving her living water. She says, you don’t have a jar to draw water out of this deep well, are you greater than the one who dug this well, Jacob.

Jesus says, drink from this water and you will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give will never thirst; the water that I shall give will be come a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

And the woman says, that sounds like what I’ve been looking for, my soul has been thirsting for something more, I’ve got a good job and a good house and I’m still not satisfied, movies, shopping, food, everything I’ve been trying to consume has been able to quench this deep thirst.
Sir, give me this water.

She then experiences Jesus ability to read her, like the gospels say he could read so many others…recognizing she wasn’t married to the man she was living with. She calls him as a prophet and asks him to settle the question of where people are to worship, on Mount Gerizim (where the Samaritans had built a temple) or in Jerusalem, where the Jewish people had their temple. And Jesus said, the hour is coming and now is, when it’s not location that matters, but worshiping God in spirit and truth.

With that she began to recognize Jesus is more than a Jewish Rabbi or a prophet sitting there and says, I know that Messiah is coming he will show us all things. And Jesus says, “I am he.”

This is the first time in John that Jesus (again through John) points to Jesus divinity, using the name that God gave to Moses in Exodus 3, “I am who I am, say to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you. Six more times John has Jesus says that, “I am he” (6:20; 8:24, 28, 58; 13:19; 18:5-8). It’s also only in John that again seven times Jesus says the other I ams, “I am the bread of life, the light of the world, the door of the sheep, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life, the way, the truth and the life, the true vine.”

To make this long story short, eventually the disciples return and Jesus discusses with them how this “Samaritan field” is ready for harvest and sure enough, many Samaritans believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony and when Jesus stayed around a couple more days, they experienced the savior of the world for themselves.

What a great story for the early church to have under their belt and refer to when people opposed them as they shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with Samaritans. Those people. Those people who lived in their same land, those people who for years were treated with contempt and hatred. And now, the good news of God’s love and forgiveness was reaching the people living in Samaria. What a lesson for us in this day – to keep the doors opened for all those people…those people we may hold in contempt…Those people different from us….those people that may have come into our land without being invited…those people who look different, sound different, act different.

This scripture is about the thirst all people have for life, real life, satisfying life…and the Jesus spirit breaking down the walls of divisions that cultures and nations and belief systems erect around women and race, gender identity, tribe and nationality. Just about the opposite we read in the paper about – nation against nation, Kosova, Serbia, tribes in Kenya, religious in Iraq, denominations separated by gender and sexual orientation issues, sexism and racism on public display in the race for the white house.

But that’s just my introduction to the scripture for this morning. Because what I want to talk about briefly, as you would have guessed from my sermon title, is that section about the woman asking Jesus for water that satisfies her deeply. In our consumer culture, what is it that satisfies our souls thirst?

This morning’s scripture and Christian tradition says the answer to that question is Jesus. Jesus is the living water, bread, way, door, to satisfy the souls thirst. But I’m afraid that John has done what every other religion has done, discover and experience God’s love and grace embodied in one and then says, and it’s only in that one. Yes it is in that one….but no only that one.

I’ve been receiving a daily Lenten email course called Practicing Spirituality with Thomas Moore. Thomas Moore was Catholic, in his youth was in a catholic lay order, then got a Theology and Religion degree and became a practicing Jungian Psychotherapist. He’s written many books, including: Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life; The Souls Religions; Soul Mates; Dark Night of the Soul; The Soul of Sex: Cultivating Life as an act of Love; and the Re-enchantment of Everyday Life.”

The first day of the practice the organizers, Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat gave seven descriptions of what the soul wants, from the writings of Thomas Moore. It was a great way to look at what the soul thirsts for.

1. The Soul thirsts for reflection. “The soul doesn't have to know what is going on in life. It doesn't need interpretations, explanations, or conclusions, but it does require musing, reverie, consideration, wonder, and exploration.” (from Soul Mates). You soul thirsts not for black and white answers, but for pondering the questions, the gray areas, the muddy stuff. Your soul knows the depth of life and knows life is much more complex than an easy answer, it thirsts for ponderings, musing, wrestling with the stuff of life. Many of you have heard that My daughter-in-law Jaina and my son Matt are pregnant again. And they’ve found out that she’s carrying twins. Most of you know their first child died a day after being born, last August 11th. So them getting pregnant so quickly and having twins, is for us something to celebrate, but also something to ponder and wonder about. Kayla Collins is calling them M & M. Miracle and Mystery. The soul thirsts for musings and wonder, not explanations.

2. The soul thirsts “for an intense, full-bodied spiritual life as much as and in the same way that the body needs food.” (from Care of the Soul) A full bodied spiritual life. So much of what we’ve learned in Christianity is about denying the body or even denigrating the body…we are of the spirit, the flesh is bad. Moore reminds us the soul needs a full-bodied spiritual life that incorporates all of who we are. We have an embodied spirituality, the word became flesh and dwelt among us….so your spirituality better include your body or else. Every wonder why so many ministers, preachers, evangelists have trouble with sexual problems? Not just hypocrites, but have denied who they are and left their bodies out of the equation of what it means to be soulful person.

3. “Care of the soul is not solving the puzzle of life; quite the opposite, it is an appreciation of the paradoxical mysteries that blend light and darkness into the grandeur of what human life and culture can be.” (from Care of the Soul) The soul is able to live in the mystery, again not thirsting for the answer, but living with mystery, with paradox, with light and darkness, good and bad, never actually sure which is good and which is bad. “Where should we worship, on Mount Garazain or in Jerusalem which one. Jesus, location not important, worship in spirit and truth. Great zen story about the farmer who buys her son a horse…and all the people say how good it is that she did that. Then the son falls off the horse and breaks his leg and the people say how bad that happened, then the army comes through and rounds up all the healthy boys to send them to war and the people say how good that the son didn’t have to go…and on and on it goes.

4. The soul thirsts for attention. “When soul is neglected, it doesn't just go away; it appears symptomatically in obsessions, addictions, violence, and loss of meaning.” (from Care of the Soul) It’s not a question of whether to deal with our soul or not, it’s a question of when…it will get our attention in a variety of ways. Often through our bodies or our relations, or our jobs or on and on an on. The woman at the well had 5 husbands and the one she was with was not her husband. She had some so work to do and she knew it, men weren’t what she needed. She thirsted for something deeper. Living water, life giving water.

5. The soul thirsts for quiet conversation. “One of the central difficulties involved in embarking on care of the soul is grasping the nature of the soul's discourse. . . . It presents images that are not immediately intelligible to the reasoning mind. It insinuates, offers fleeting impressions, persuades more with desire than with reasonableness. . . . The soul's indications are many, but they are usually extremely subtle.” (from Care of the Soul) The soul is not reasonable and loud and on call for us. It comes subtley in dreams and urgings, in our desires and passions; in deeper yearnings that have nothing to do with our careers or incomes, whether we are Jewish or Samaritan or Christian, resident or immigrant, straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning, queer, white, black, Hispanic, biracial, androgynous, male, female. It comes in images, impressions, desires. It’s not clear cut.

6. The Soul thirsts for nurture. “Care of the soul requires ongoing attention to every aspect of life. Essentially it is a cultivation of ordinary things in such a way that soul is nurtured and fostered.” (from Care of the Soul) Soul is that God part of us moving us to health and wholeness, a shalom place of justice and love, compassion, mercy. And it shows itself in our who life, in the ordinary everyday things of life, eating, cleaning, relating, self talk and how we talk about others. Where are thoughts run and how much our mouth runs.

7. “We care for the soul solely by honoring its expressions, by giving it time and opportunity to reveal itself, and by living life in a way that fosters the depth, interiority, and quality in which it flourishes. Soul is its own purpose and end.” (from Care of the Soul) The soul thirsts for expression, for time to discover and reveal. It comes to us through the arts, music, writing, visual arts, beauty. Try though we might, we can’t just force ourselves into the box that society or our family or our heads think we should be in. Our soul knows what it needs for health and wholeness and like a seed growing in a crack in a sidewalk, it will make it’s will/God’s will known.

That last line gave away my understanding of soul…it’s about the God in us working through us for health and wholeness, doing the soulful work we need to do to nurture in us more love and justice, more willingness to break down all the walls the our fear and our society raise in us, that we may do the will of God who sends us to accomplish God’s. For God knows this world needs more people sowing love and justice, deep soulful love and justice…that has come through quiet and mystery, paradox and shadow, reflection and struggle.

May the deep waters of God’s spirit, cleanse and refresh, nurture and quench our souls thirst. Amen