12/24/2014 - 12/25/2013 ~ Nativity of the Christ, Known in Some Traditions as the Feast of the Incarnation, Known in other Traditions as the Feast of the Birth of the Messiah, Commonly Known as Christmas Eve and Christmas Day ~ Proper I ~ Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14, (15-20) ~ Proper II ~ Isaiah 62:6-12; Psalm 97; Titus 3:4-7; Luke 2:(1-7), 8-20 ~ Proper III ~ Isaiah 52:7-10; Psalm 98; Hebrews 1:1-4, (5-12); John 1:1-14.
The Name
“For a child is born to us, / an heir given to us; / authority, dominion rests upon the shoulders / of this One, who is named: / Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, / Everlasting Sovereign, Source of Peace.” — Isaiah 9:6
A cold, biting wind chilled her face. But she was determined to climb the hill in front of her. And... she was angry.
She had covered quite a distance out of the town and up the hill. Her legs screamed in pain. But she was not going to stop now. She was angry.
Despite the cold wind, paradoxically, a dense fog also surrounded her. Fog at this time of year— the Spring— in this place— Bethlehem, seemed odd. [1] So despite her strong steady pace, she shivered from the damp, the cold. And... she was angry.
Near the top of the hill she suddenly burst out of the fog. A clear, dark, indigo sky was above. Stars twinkled. A crescent moon offered a limited slice of light.
She turned around and saw the fog bank in the valley below. Knowing she was still angry and knowing she needed to both rest and to let some of that anger flow out of her, she found a good sized stone on which she could sit and did so. (Slight pause.)
Her name was Mary. She had given birth only hours before this angry hike. The pain before the birth had gone on for many hours. It was not an easy birth. It left her weak. So climbing a hill was not the best thing she could have done. But she did.
She was angry and needed to get away, be alone, think. Mary sat on the rock and pondered all the things which had happened. (Slight pause.)
She could see many hills all around her, fires ablaze on most of them, fires meant to warm the boys who herded sheep. Mary presumed the shepherds who came into Bethlehem climbed down from one of these hills. She could not quite comprehend how they found their way into and through the town, then somehow located Mary and her husband and the child. But they did.
At first she thought they were drunk. What they were saying made absolutely no sense— angels and a message from God. On the other hand, she knew something about angels and a message from God, herself. So she listened.
At least an hour, maybe two after the shepherds had left she still could not sort out her reaction to what the boys said. Was that a part of her anger?
Or was it simply that she was afraid? Or did her lack of understanding have to do with hope? After all, hope never seems to make sense. Hope follows no rules. The source of hope is often unseen. Hope is not logical in any way. But this she knew: the child gave her reason to hope.
There were, of course, many reasons for hopelessness. There were many reasons to be angry with the world. And she, like many people, was angry with the world.
She was angry about the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It was forced, brought on because of a census mandated by the Romans.
The Army of Rome occupied the land of her people and ruled with an iron hand. They were not hesitant to collect taxes, to loot, to murder people at will... and at random.
She was puzzled as to why they considered, their Emperor, Augustus, a god. There was only one God. But these Romans had many gods.
And besides calling Augustus a god, the Romans called their Emperor a mighty counselor who brought peace. That puzzled her also. After all, Prophet Isaiah used these words— a counselor who brought peace— to describe the promised Messiah.
But call a Roman Emperor a counselor who brought peace? Never! Mary took a deep breath and sighed— these were titles reserved for the Messiah, the hope of her people. (Slight pause.)
There was, of course, another reason she was angry: the fight with her husband. It seemed so silly now that she was sitting on a rock gazing at the stars. Quietly looking at the sky had given her a sense calm, time she needed to reflect, time to release anger.
The fight, itself, stemmed from what she thought of now as a minor difference. She insisted the child be called Yeshua— Jesus in the Greek. The word means God saves.
Her husband suggested the name Emmanuel. The word means God is with us. And after the shepherds left, from out of nowhere, they started arguing about the name.
Finally Mary said, “Look— I need to be alone. Stay with the child. I’ll be back.” She turned, left and climbed a hill. (Slight pause.)
And now— and now— Mary found herself sitting on a rock, pondering all the things which had happened. (Slight pause.) Suddenly she felt a need to be with the child, with her husband. Which name would that child be given? It did not matter.
After all, Yeshua— God saves— Emmanuel— God is with us— were these not essentially the same? She needed to be with the child, needed to be with her husband.
She had climbed the hill in haste fueled by anger. She went down the hill even faster nourished by a sense of serenity. As Mary wove her way through the streets of the town she noticed the fog was gone and wondered how and when that had happened.
She also noticed a streak of dawn out toward the East lit her path. She turned a last corner and saw her husband standing with his back to her. The child rested on his shoulder. Its eyes were closed.
She approached and whispered, “I’m here. I’m sorry. I just needed a little time to think. You are right. Let’s call the child Emmanuel.”
“Well,” said her husband, “I’ve already been calling the baby Yeshua. In fact, while you were away every time I said Emmanuel the baby cried. Every time I said Yeshua the baby giggled. So it’s settled. Yeshua— God saves— it will be the name forevermore.”
Mary stood at her husband’s side, touched the hand of the infant and said, “Yeshua.” A tiny head turned toward her. A smile broke out.
She looked into the eyes of the child. She was overwhelmed. In those eyes she could see hope, peace, freedom, justice, joy, love. She was sure that was true with every newborn.
But in her heart she also somehow knew that the senselessness of hope was deeply imbedded in this infant. So, yes— Yeshua— God saves would be the name— a message of senseless hope.
Her wish and her dream was that this message of senseless hope was embodied and alive here, now, in her child. And perhaps... it was. Amen.
12/24/2014 ~ Christmas Eve
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York
[1] It needs to be noted at the start of the service the pastor did say many scholars think it’s likely the birth of the Messiah happened in the Spring of the year we would call 4 B.C.E.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Sunday, December 14, 2014
SERMON ~ 12/14/2014 ~ “Collaborative Eschatology”
12/14/2014 ~ Third Sunday of Advent ~ The Sunday on Which We Commemorate Love ~ Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Psalm 126 or Luke 1:46b-55; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28 ~ Note: Music Sunday Canceled and moved to 12/21 Due to Inclement Weather.
Collaborative Eschatology
“For, I, Yahweh, God— I love justice; / I hate robbery and wrongdoing; / I will faithfully compensate, / and I will make an everlasting covenant with you.” — Isaiah 61:8.
This is a truth of American life in 2014: we all interact with computers. Do you have a cell phone? Do you drive a car? Do you have a bank account, use an ATM? Then you interact with and even operate computers.
Now, rumor to the contrary, computers are not particularly intelligent. They can do one thing exceptionally well. They count. But they don’t count like you and I count.
This gets a little technical— a shout out to John Kolb who knows a lot about computers here— this gets a little technical but whereas you and I count sequentially— one, two, three, four, five, etc., etc., etc.— the basis of the hardware we call a computer counts only two numbers: zero and one (as John nods his head). Anything more than that is way too complex for a computer to handle.
Mind you, computers count zero and one really, really, really fast. That’s what gives the illusion of what some see as intelligence: they are fast.
We, besides working slower, don’t have hardware. We have wet-ware— a brain. It is not computers, but we who are able to think creatively, intuitively and that is real intelligence. Computers do not, never have had and, given current research, it is becoming quite clear never will think creatively, intuitively.
Computers are amazing. But they are a tool. We invented them. We provide the real intelligence, and, as I said, these days we often interact with them. Now, it used to be people interacted with a single computer— one on one interaction, person and machine.
About twenty years ago the development of Internet changed that. With the Internet people began using computers to interact not with just one computer but to interact with each other— wet-ware, one of us, interacting through hardware, a computer, with other wet-ware, another one of us. It made a difference. Because of the Internet we are now empowered to interact with hundreds of thousands of sets of wet-ware, other humans, simultaneously.
To be clear, there is a downside and there is an upside to all this wet-ware interaction. It’s called Facebook.
Facebook is simply one example of interaction with others. Facebook is nothing more than communities formed over the internet but formed in a way which could not have happened only twenty years ago.
However, just like any community, internet communities have a compatibility problem. The problem? How do we, how can we live with each other? In order for community to happen this is a necessity: people with deferring views need to understand how their wet-ware can learn to interact with other wet-ware when they don’t agree with the opinions displayed by the wet-ware of others. (Slight pause.)
In the mid-1800s Alexis de Tocqueville published in two volumes of the work Democracy in America. This is a quote from that writing: “The tradition of founding voluntary societies was especially strong in early America, evidenced in cooperative ventures ranging from quilting bees to barn raisings. In no country in the world has this principle been more successfully used or more unsparingly applied to a multitude of different objects than in America.”
A little earlier in our history Ben Franklin was more succinct and placed a more theological bent on these interactions. (Quote:) “To pour forth benefits for the common good is divine.” (Slight pause.)
These words are from the Scroll of the Prophet Isaiah: “For, I, Yahweh, God— I love justice; / I hate robbery and wrongdoing; / I will faithfully compensate, / and I will make an everlasting covenant with you.” (Slight pause.)
Today we heard from Second Isaiah who addressed the nature of God and the covenant God makes with humanity. And in this passage we hear about good news.
As was said when the passage was introduced, this was written at least 500 years before the birth of the Christ. So Isaiah was not necessarily addressing the Messiah, specifically, but was addressing good news for the people then, 500 years before the birth of the Christ.
We also heard about the Baptizer today. When it comes to John, there is agreement in Scripture about two things. First, the mission of John is to prepare the way for the Messiah. Second, John is very odd— lives out in the wilderness, wears strange clothes, eats strange food, is not acceptable in polite society.
I think, despite proclaiming the advent of the Messiah, John is labeled as odd in the Gospels because the writers realize the message of John was not the same as the message of Jesus. John had it wrong. John’s message said, “The Dominion of God is approaching, therefore the end of the world is going to happen shortly.”
Jesus also says, “The Dominion of God is approaching.” But Jesus asks what might that Dominion look like here, now, in our time.
The message of Jesus is not that the end is near. The message of Jesus says we are here to help each other envision the picture God has of that Dominion, what that Dominion might be, what that Dominion might look like right here, right now, as we participate in the covenant God offers. This is the same covenant, the same vision of covenant, Isaiah addressed: a covenant with a God who loves justice.
Theologian John Dominic Crossan calls this message of Jesus collaborative eschatology. Put in plain words, the end result of the world— that what eschatology is, the end of the world, right?— put in plain words the end of the world is not destruction. The end result of the world is construction— not destruction, construction. The covenant to which God calls us challenges us to cooperate with God and each other in building the world anew each day, in building a world overflowing with the justice of God. (Slight pause.)
In my comments last week I quoted the famous science-fiction writer Ursula Le Guin who said hard times are coming in part because we live fear-stricken society. To counter that, she said, we need to be able to imagine real grounds for hope, be see a larger reality beyond fear. And to conquer fear, she said, we need to embrace creativity— to conquer fear we need to embrace creativity. (Slight pause.)
The Herberger Institute at Arizona State University has been studying what competency in the 21st Century might look like. What they have found can be summed up in a single word: creativity. Those who are competent will be creative.
These are several aspects of creativity the Institute highlighted: improvisation, idea generation, agility, flexibility, tolerance for ambiguity, curiosity, risk taking, collaboration. (Slight pause.) Collaboration— that brings me back to computers.
In a book which delves into the history of computers, Innovation, Walter Isaacson says creating the computer as we know it today was a cooperative effort. The computer was not invented by one individual nor one organization nor one generation
So, here’s my take: on what the 21st Century does and will look like: the future needs to be a collaborative effort, an effort which includes everyone. The Baptizer’s vision will not do. We need to embrace the vision of Jesus, a vision of cooperative competence.
I think the vision of Jesus, the Christ, includes 21st Century aspects of life. And these attributes are creativity, improvisation, idea generation, agility, flexibility, tolerance for ambiguity, risk taking, curiosity, collaboration. And for Christians, for Christians this collaboration must be about seeking justice for everyone.
In order to do that, in order to seek justice for everyone, we need to cease being driven by fear, a popular stance today. And, in fact, the apocalyptic, fear filled vision of John which says the end times are upon us, is a common vision today on the left and on the right. It is a vision we need to overcome.
How can that prevalent vision of fear be overcome? We need to practice and embrace the four aspects we find surrounding us in this Season called Advent: hope, peace, love, joy.
All this is also to say the call of Christ to us, the call of God to us, can be summed up in one word: covenant. And the call to covenant is a call to creative collaboration.
And so yes, God calls us to covenant. And I believe if we are willing to cooperate with the covenant to which God calls us we, the church, will be and are well positioned to face and to tackle the challenges of the 21st Century. Amen.
12/14/2014
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York
ENDPIECE— It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “There is a falsehood commonly believed about Christianity that if you believe exactly the right things or can recite exactly the right things you have passed the test. You are a Christian. However, historically what has defined someone as a Christian is not a set of beliefs. what has defined someone as a Christian is the actions they take. Do you follow Jesus? In order to follow Jesus in the 21st Century, it seems to me one needs to be fearlessly creative as we seek to collaborate with each other.”
BENEDICTION: Let us go forth with hope. Let us be led in peace. Let us find places of love. Let us know the joy of God’s presence. And, indeed, as the Psalmist states: all the mountains and hills shall break into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands because God reigns! Amen.
Collaborative Eschatology
“For, I, Yahweh, God— I love justice; / I hate robbery and wrongdoing; / I will faithfully compensate, / and I will make an everlasting covenant with you.” — Isaiah 61:8.
This is a truth of American life in 2014: we all interact with computers. Do you have a cell phone? Do you drive a car? Do you have a bank account, use an ATM? Then you interact with and even operate computers.
Now, rumor to the contrary, computers are not particularly intelligent. They can do one thing exceptionally well. They count. But they don’t count like you and I count.
This gets a little technical— a shout out to John Kolb who knows a lot about computers here— this gets a little technical but whereas you and I count sequentially— one, two, three, four, five, etc., etc., etc.— the basis of the hardware we call a computer counts only two numbers: zero and one (as John nods his head). Anything more than that is way too complex for a computer to handle.
Mind you, computers count zero and one really, really, really fast. That’s what gives the illusion of what some see as intelligence: they are fast.
We, besides working slower, don’t have hardware. We have wet-ware— a brain. It is not computers, but we who are able to think creatively, intuitively and that is real intelligence. Computers do not, never have had and, given current research, it is becoming quite clear never will think creatively, intuitively.
Computers are amazing. But they are a tool. We invented them. We provide the real intelligence, and, as I said, these days we often interact with them. Now, it used to be people interacted with a single computer— one on one interaction, person and machine.
About twenty years ago the development of Internet changed that. With the Internet people began using computers to interact not with just one computer but to interact with each other— wet-ware, one of us, interacting through hardware, a computer, with other wet-ware, another one of us. It made a difference. Because of the Internet we are now empowered to interact with hundreds of thousands of sets of wet-ware, other humans, simultaneously.
To be clear, there is a downside and there is an upside to all this wet-ware interaction. It’s called Facebook.
Facebook is simply one example of interaction with others. Facebook is nothing more than communities formed over the internet but formed in a way which could not have happened only twenty years ago.
However, just like any community, internet communities have a compatibility problem. The problem? How do we, how can we live with each other? In order for community to happen this is a necessity: people with deferring views need to understand how their wet-ware can learn to interact with other wet-ware when they don’t agree with the opinions displayed by the wet-ware of others. (Slight pause.)
In the mid-1800s Alexis de Tocqueville published in two volumes of the work Democracy in America. This is a quote from that writing: “The tradition of founding voluntary societies was especially strong in early America, evidenced in cooperative ventures ranging from quilting bees to barn raisings. In no country in the world has this principle been more successfully used or more unsparingly applied to a multitude of different objects than in America.”
A little earlier in our history Ben Franklin was more succinct and placed a more theological bent on these interactions. (Quote:) “To pour forth benefits for the common good is divine.” (Slight pause.)
These words are from the Scroll of the Prophet Isaiah: “For, I, Yahweh, God— I love justice; / I hate robbery and wrongdoing; / I will faithfully compensate, / and I will make an everlasting covenant with you.” (Slight pause.)
Today we heard from Second Isaiah who addressed the nature of God and the covenant God makes with humanity. And in this passage we hear about good news.
As was said when the passage was introduced, this was written at least 500 years before the birth of the Christ. So Isaiah was not necessarily addressing the Messiah, specifically, but was addressing good news for the people then, 500 years before the birth of the Christ.
We also heard about the Baptizer today. When it comes to John, there is agreement in Scripture about two things. First, the mission of John is to prepare the way for the Messiah. Second, John is very odd— lives out in the wilderness, wears strange clothes, eats strange food, is not acceptable in polite society.
I think, despite proclaiming the advent of the Messiah, John is labeled as odd in the Gospels because the writers realize the message of John was not the same as the message of Jesus. John had it wrong. John’s message said, “The Dominion of God is approaching, therefore the end of the world is going to happen shortly.”
Jesus also says, “The Dominion of God is approaching.” But Jesus asks what might that Dominion look like here, now, in our time.
The message of Jesus is not that the end is near. The message of Jesus says we are here to help each other envision the picture God has of that Dominion, what that Dominion might be, what that Dominion might look like right here, right now, as we participate in the covenant God offers. This is the same covenant, the same vision of covenant, Isaiah addressed: a covenant with a God who loves justice.
Theologian John Dominic Crossan calls this message of Jesus collaborative eschatology. Put in plain words, the end result of the world— that what eschatology is, the end of the world, right?— put in plain words the end of the world is not destruction. The end result of the world is construction— not destruction, construction. The covenant to which God calls us challenges us to cooperate with God and each other in building the world anew each day, in building a world overflowing with the justice of God. (Slight pause.)
In my comments last week I quoted the famous science-fiction writer Ursula Le Guin who said hard times are coming in part because we live fear-stricken society. To counter that, she said, we need to be able to imagine real grounds for hope, be see a larger reality beyond fear. And to conquer fear, she said, we need to embrace creativity— to conquer fear we need to embrace creativity. (Slight pause.)
The Herberger Institute at Arizona State University has been studying what competency in the 21st Century might look like. What they have found can be summed up in a single word: creativity. Those who are competent will be creative.
These are several aspects of creativity the Institute highlighted: improvisation, idea generation, agility, flexibility, tolerance for ambiguity, curiosity, risk taking, collaboration. (Slight pause.) Collaboration— that brings me back to computers.
In a book which delves into the history of computers, Innovation, Walter Isaacson says creating the computer as we know it today was a cooperative effort. The computer was not invented by one individual nor one organization nor one generation
So, here’s my take: on what the 21st Century does and will look like: the future needs to be a collaborative effort, an effort which includes everyone. The Baptizer’s vision will not do. We need to embrace the vision of Jesus, a vision of cooperative competence.
I think the vision of Jesus, the Christ, includes 21st Century aspects of life. And these attributes are creativity, improvisation, idea generation, agility, flexibility, tolerance for ambiguity, risk taking, curiosity, collaboration. And for Christians, for Christians this collaboration must be about seeking justice for everyone.
In order to do that, in order to seek justice for everyone, we need to cease being driven by fear, a popular stance today. And, in fact, the apocalyptic, fear filled vision of John which says the end times are upon us, is a common vision today on the left and on the right. It is a vision we need to overcome.
How can that prevalent vision of fear be overcome? We need to practice and embrace the four aspects we find surrounding us in this Season called Advent: hope, peace, love, joy.
All this is also to say the call of Christ to us, the call of God to us, can be summed up in one word: covenant. And the call to covenant is a call to creative collaboration.
And so yes, God calls us to covenant. And I believe if we are willing to cooperate with the covenant to which God calls us we, the church, will be and are well positioned to face and to tackle the challenges of the 21st Century. Amen.
12/14/2014
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York
ENDPIECE— It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “There is a falsehood commonly believed about Christianity that if you believe exactly the right things or can recite exactly the right things you have passed the test. You are a Christian. However, historically what has defined someone as a Christian is not a set of beliefs. what has defined someone as a Christian is the actions they take. Do you follow Jesus? In order to follow Jesus in the 21st Century, it seems to me one needs to be fearlessly creative as we seek to collaborate with each other.”
BENEDICTION: Let us go forth with hope. Let us be led in peace. Let us find places of love. Let us know the joy of God’s presence. And, indeed, as the Psalmist states: all the mountains and hills shall break into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands because God reigns! Amen.
Sunday, December 7, 2014
SERMON ~ 12/07/2014 ~ “Good News”
12/07/2014 ~ Second Sunday of Advent ~ The Sunday on Which We Commemorate Peace ~ Isaiah 40:1-11; Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13; 2 Peter 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8 ~ Communion Sunday.
Good News
“The beginning of the good news of Jesus, the Christ, Child of God.” — Mark 1:1.
In years past the ceremony at which the National Book Awards are presented has not been a place of particular controversy. It was, in fact, controversial this year.
Like many awards, the prizes known as the National Book Awards are announced at a formal dinner. And like many awards the organizers of the event often line up a master of ceremonies type to crack a couple of jokes and move the proceedings along.
Daniel Handler, best known for working under the pen name Lemony Snicket, filled that role this year. Using the Snicket pseudonym, Handler wrote thirteen episodes of the successful children’s book series known as A Series of Unfortunate Events.
So, at the National Book Awards, Handler/Snicket, a friendly chap in his mid-40s, author of award winning children’s books, was tapped to be the master of ceremonies. What could possibly go wrong? (Slight pause.)
At that same event Jacqueline Woodson, an African-American writer, received the National Book Award in the young-adult category for her memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming. Handler and Woodson are friends. They have been in one another’s homes. What could possibly go wrong? (Slight pause.)
Well, the last place in the world Woodson thought she would hear a racially insensitive joke, especially from her friend Handler, was after she got a standing ovation with her acceptance speech. What was the joke?
In this particular case it was a reference to the fact that Woodson is allergic to watermelon. Handler, her friend, because they were close, knew that his friend, Woodson, an African-American writer, was allergic to watermelon.
And so yes, Woodson never thought she would hear a watermelon joke, a racial insensitive joke, escape from the lips of her dear friend Daniel, right after her acceptance speech. But that... is exactly what happened. Handler cracked a joke about Woodson, an African-American, being allergic to watermelon.
As I said: what... could... possibly... go... wrong? (Slight pause.) To be clear, Mr. Handler has profusely and very publically apologized for his actions— as well he should. (Slight pause.)
We find these words at the beginning of the Gospel we know as Mark: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus, the Christ, Child of God.” (Slight pause.)
The opening words of Mark pose a number of challenges. Prime among them is this: what exactly is the good news?
There are a myriad of possibilities people suggest these days. In our times most prominent and popular among them are probably these: the sacrifice of Jesus was sufficient and Jesus was raised, therefore everything is fine; the resurrection of our bodies as we now know them is a real promise fulfilled; eternal life with God is a given.
But what take does the writer of Mark have on the good news? I think we need to look at two things in this passage and examine how they interact. First, the mission of the Baptizer. (Quote:) “Prepare, make ready the way of our God.” Second, where is the message proclaimed? (Quote:) “...in the desert, in the wilderness,...”
This writer is obviously referring us to Isaiah, the passage we heard today. And if we are sensitive to Isaiah’s message, we realize the prophet, by addressing the wilderness and insisting it be made straight, thereby sends us to the opening words of Genesis.
Why? In the opening words of the Torah, what does God do? God creates the universe. And in Genesis, this new universe is described as (quote:) “unformed and void, wild and waste, filled with chaos and emptiness,...”
Which is to say, we need to recognize how precisely this message in Genesis ties into how the message of the good news of Christ is expressed in Mark. The universe is nothing but chaos. God creates order from chaos. And in the wilderness, in the chaos, John is to prepare the way, to make things straight— order from chaos.
Another way to see these connections is to say order is created from chaos by the presence, by the power of God. Therefore, certainly once aspect of the good news being proclaimed by the writer of Mark, is that through the presence of God in Jesus, through the power of God in Jesus, chaos can be transformed into order. (Slight pause.)
The power of God— power— now there’s a word that makes many uncomfortable. Why? Because most of us associate power with force. But does the kind of power— the power of God, the presence of God which is addressed here— have anything to do with force?
I think not just modern culture but human culture gets in the way of our understanding the difference between human power and the power of God. So, let’s start with some basic questions to try to unpack God and power.
Does power exist? We would be foolish to deny the reality: power is real. Power exists. But what is the power of God? Is it force, something we humans associate with power or is the power of God a different understanding of power? Is the power of God more about the real presence of God than about force? (Slight pause.)
We are in the portion of the church year known as Advent. On the four Sundays therein we commemorate four separate aspects of our walk with God: hope, peace, love and joy.
It is really, really hard for me to connect hope or peace or love or joy with force of any kind. Why?
Since these are aspects of our walk with God, hope and peace and love and joy express a sense of the presence of God, a sense that God is with us. And if we are true to that journey with God, true to that walk with God, the use of force is simply not a consideration. (Slight pause.)
So, lets come back to that National Book Awards ceremony. The same evening another award was presented. Science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin, now 85, was presented with a life-time achievement award for her Contribution to American Letters.
In her remarks Le Guin said (quote:) “Hard times are coming,... and we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live, writers who can see through our fear-stricken society... to other ways of being and even imagine real grounds for hope. We will need writers who can remember freedom— poets, visionaries— realists of a larger reality. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings....,” she said. (Slight pause.)
I think the Advent message of hope, peace, love, joy, the message of the good news, tells us something about the real presence of God and how we need to live our lives. Yes, we need to live our lives understanding that power is real. And we also need to live our lives understanding that power and force are not the same.
Power exercised with brut force is based in the very human emotion called fear. And we live, as Le Quin suggests, in a fear-stricken society. If the events of recent days have not proved to us we live in a fear-stricken society, we are not paying attention.
The power of the presence of God, on the other hand, helps us remember what true freedom— freedom from force— what true freedom is. And with the power of the presence of God comes an understanding that a life filled with hope, with peace, with love, with joy is available.
So yes, we need to acknowledge that racism— even the kind of passive racism displayed by cracking a racial joke— we need to acknowledge that racism, sexism, economic oppression, gender inequity, social oppression— all these are inappropriate expressions of power. Hence, by definition, all these are also products of fear. (Slight pause.)
I think all this calls us to be attentive to two things. First, we need to admit power exists and is real. And we even need to be aware each of us has power.
Second, because of the presence of God, the presence proclaimed by the good news, we need to exercise power, individually and collectively— especially collectively— in the way God would have us exercise power. We need to exercise power not through all the ‘isms’— racism, sexism, etc.— all the ‘isms’ so prevalent in modern society, a society which is clearly fear driven.
Indeed, we need to exercise power with and through hope, peace, love, joy. We need to exercise power with an understanding that if any one of us is denied freedom, if any one of us is denied our God given inalienable rights, we are all denied our rights.
Put another way, we need to be attuned to the presence and to the power and to the will of God. When we do so, the good news proclaimed by the writer of Mark— that God is present and real— becomes a tangible part of life, a tangible way we live, a real sense that God is with us. After all, God is with us. Is that not what the Christmas message says? Amen.
12/07/2014
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York
ENDPIECE— It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “I recently saw this on a tee shirt: ‘Keep Christ in Christmas— Feed the Hungry; Shelter the Homeless; Welcome the Immigrants; Forgive Others; Embrace Outsiders; Share with Those in Need; Advocate for the Marginalized; Confront Those Abusing Power.’ And that would keep Christ in Christmas.”
BENEDICTION: Let us be present to one another as we go from this place. Let us share our gifts, our hopes, our memories, our pain and our joy. Go in joy for God knows every fiber of our being. Go in hope for God reveals to us, daily, that we are a part of God’s new creation. Go in love, for we rest assured, by Christ, Jesus, that God is steadfast. Go in peace for God is with us. And may the peace of God which surpasses understanding be with us this day and forevermore. Amen.
Good News
“The beginning of the good news of Jesus, the Christ, Child of God.” — Mark 1:1.
In years past the ceremony at which the National Book Awards are presented has not been a place of particular controversy. It was, in fact, controversial this year.
Like many awards, the prizes known as the National Book Awards are announced at a formal dinner. And like many awards the organizers of the event often line up a master of ceremonies type to crack a couple of jokes and move the proceedings along.
Daniel Handler, best known for working under the pen name Lemony Snicket, filled that role this year. Using the Snicket pseudonym, Handler wrote thirteen episodes of the successful children’s book series known as A Series of Unfortunate Events.
So, at the National Book Awards, Handler/Snicket, a friendly chap in his mid-40s, author of award winning children’s books, was tapped to be the master of ceremonies. What could possibly go wrong? (Slight pause.)
At that same event Jacqueline Woodson, an African-American writer, received the National Book Award in the young-adult category for her memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming. Handler and Woodson are friends. They have been in one another’s homes. What could possibly go wrong? (Slight pause.)
Well, the last place in the world Woodson thought she would hear a racially insensitive joke, especially from her friend Handler, was after she got a standing ovation with her acceptance speech. What was the joke?
In this particular case it was a reference to the fact that Woodson is allergic to watermelon. Handler, her friend, because they were close, knew that his friend, Woodson, an African-American writer, was allergic to watermelon.
And so yes, Woodson never thought she would hear a watermelon joke, a racial insensitive joke, escape from the lips of her dear friend Daniel, right after her acceptance speech. But that... is exactly what happened. Handler cracked a joke about Woodson, an African-American, being allergic to watermelon.
As I said: what... could... possibly... go... wrong? (Slight pause.) To be clear, Mr. Handler has profusely and very publically apologized for his actions— as well he should. (Slight pause.)
We find these words at the beginning of the Gospel we know as Mark: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus, the Christ, Child of God.” (Slight pause.)
The opening words of Mark pose a number of challenges. Prime among them is this: what exactly is the good news?
There are a myriad of possibilities people suggest these days. In our times most prominent and popular among them are probably these: the sacrifice of Jesus was sufficient and Jesus was raised, therefore everything is fine; the resurrection of our bodies as we now know them is a real promise fulfilled; eternal life with God is a given.
But what take does the writer of Mark have on the good news? I think we need to look at two things in this passage and examine how they interact. First, the mission of the Baptizer. (Quote:) “Prepare, make ready the way of our God.” Second, where is the message proclaimed? (Quote:) “...in the desert, in the wilderness,...”
This writer is obviously referring us to Isaiah, the passage we heard today. And if we are sensitive to Isaiah’s message, we realize the prophet, by addressing the wilderness and insisting it be made straight, thereby sends us to the opening words of Genesis.
Why? In the opening words of the Torah, what does God do? God creates the universe. And in Genesis, this new universe is described as (quote:) “unformed and void, wild and waste, filled with chaos and emptiness,...”
Which is to say, we need to recognize how precisely this message in Genesis ties into how the message of the good news of Christ is expressed in Mark. The universe is nothing but chaos. God creates order from chaos. And in the wilderness, in the chaos, John is to prepare the way, to make things straight— order from chaos.
Another way to see these connections is to say order is created from chaos by the presence, by the power of God. Therefore, certainly once aspect of the good news being proclaimed by the writer of Mark, is that through the presence of God in Jesus, through the power of God in Jesus, chaos can be transformed into order. (Slight pause.)
The power of God— power— now there’s a word that makes many uncomfortable. Why? Because most of us associate power with force. But does the kind of power— the power of God, the presence of God which is addressed here— have anything to do with force?
I think not just modern culture but human culture gets in the way of our understanding the difference between human power and the power of God. So, let’s start with some basic questions to try to unpack God and power.
Does power exist? We would be foolish to deny the reality: power is real. Power exists. But what is the power of God? Is it force, something we humans associate with power or is the power of God a different understanding of power? Is the power of God more about the real presence of God than about force? (Slight pause.)
We are in the portion of the church year known as Advent. On the four Sundays therein we commemorate four separate aspects of our walk with God: hope, peace, love and joy.
It is really, really hard for me to connect hope or peace or love or joy with force of any kind. Why?
Since these are aspects of our walk with God, hope and peace and love and joy express a sense of the presence of God, a sense that God is with us. And if we are true to that journey with God, true to that walk with God, the use of force is simply not a consideration. (Slight pause.)
So, lets come back to that National Book Awards ceremony. The same evening another award was presented. Science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin, now 85, was presented with a life-time achievement award for her Contribution to American Letters.
In her remarks Le Guin said (quote:) “Hard times are coming,... and we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live, writers who can see through our fear-stricken society... to other ways of being and even imagine real grounds for hope. We will need writers who can remember freedom— poets, visionaries— realists of a larger reality. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings....,” she said. (Slight pause.)
I think the Advent message of hope, peace, love, joy, the message of the good news, tells us something about the real presence of God and how we need to live our lives. Yes, we need to live our lives understanding that power is real. And we also need to live our lives understanding that power and force are not the same.
Power exercised with brut force is based in the very human emotion called fear. And we live, as Le Quin suggests, in a fear-stricken society. If the events of recent days have not proved to us we live in a fear-stricken society, we are not paying attention.
The power of the presence of God, on the other hand, helps us remember what true freedom— freedom from force— what true freedom is. And with the power of the presence of God comes an understanding that a life filled with hope, with peace, with love, with joy is available.
So yes, we need to acknowledge that racism— even the kind of passive racism displayed by cracking a racial joke— we need to acknowledge that racism, sexism, economic oppression, gender inequity, social oppression— all these are inappropriate expressions of power. Hence, by definition, all these are also products of fear. (Slight pause.)
I think all this calls us to be attentive to two things. First, we need to admit power exists and is real. And we even need to be aware each of us has power.
Second, because of the presence of God, the presence proclaimed by the good news, we need to exercise power, individually and collectively— especially collectively— in the way God would have us exercise power. We need to exercise power not through all the ‘isms’— racism, sexism, etc.— all the ‘isms’ so prevalent in modern society, a society which is clearly fear driven.
Indeed, we need to exercise power with and through hope, peace, love, joy. We need to exercise power with an understanding that if any one of us is denied freedom, if any one of us is denied our God given inalienable rights, we are all denied our rights.
Put another way, we need to be attuned to the presence and to the power and to the will of God. When we do so, the good news proclaimed by the writer of Mark— that God is present and real— becomes a tangible part of life, a tangible way we live, a real sense that God is with us. After all, God is with us. Is that not what the Christmas message says? Amen.
12/07/2014
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York
ENDPIECE— It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “I recently saw this on a tee shirt: ‘Keep Christ in Christmas— Feed the Hungry; Shelter the Homeless; Welcome the Immigrants; Forgive Others; Embrace Outsiders; Share with Those in Need; Advocate for the Marginalized; Confront Those Abusing Power.’ And that would keep Christ in Christmas.”
BENEDICTION: Let us be present to one another as we go from this place. Let us share our gifts, our hopes, our memories, our pain and our joy. Go in joy for God knows every fiber of our being. Go in hope for God reveals to us, daily, that we are a part of God’s new creation. Go in love, for we rest assured, by Christ, Jesus, that God is steadfast. Go in peace for God is with us. And may the peace of God which surpasses understanding be with us this day and forevermore. Amen.
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