READINGS:12/24/2018 ~ 12/25/2018 ~ Nativity of the Christ - 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.
God Whispers
“Mary treasured all these things and reflected on them in her heart.” — Luke 2:19.
The journey from Nazareth had been long and hard. The trip took about eight days. The two of them and a pack animal had traveled over the hills and winding roads of Roman Palestine. Mostly they walked.
Mary was pregnant so occasionally— when fatigue or simply when surges of pain happened— occasionally walking was out of the question. But they could not stop. They needed to get to the City of David by a certain date to register, to be in compliance.
And so at those times when Mary needed to ride, her husband found a good sized bolder on the side of the road, helped her up and nestled the mule— an incredibly patient beast— next to the stone. Using the rock as a platform Mary would then carefully climb on the animal’s back.
And yes, there was noise along the road— a lot of it. They had not expected much company on the journey. They were wrong. Roman soldiers, both marching and riding in chariots, were also navigating these treacherous roads.
If the soldiers did not actually have the right of way, they took it. They were, after all, an occupying army.
And they made noise, a lot of it. Commanders barked orders. Chariots creaked. Soldiers cursed. Hooves pounded. Horses and pack animals seemed to bray constantly.
And then there were the people, hundreds of them, people with families, people in wagons, people riding, people walking, people making noise who, like Mary and Joseph, were headed to Bethlehem. Why were there so many?
The decree from the Roman Emperor declared everyone had to return to the place, the town, from which they claimed lineage. Joseph was a descendant of the house, the lineage of David. David was, of course, the great ruler of Israel, the one from whose linage the prophets predicted the Messiah would be born.
Joseph had a suspicion as to why so many people were going to Bethlehem. Many people wanted to claim they were of David’s lineage were making the trip. Claim was the key word.
People wanted to claim a relationship with David. But were all these people really of David’s lineage? It seemed unlikely.
However, once they registered that relationship to David with the Roman government who would question it? Having that credential made the claim real even if it was not.
Indeed, when Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem the town was packed. There was no place for them to stay.
And so they landed in a stable, in a barn. And that was noisy. There were all kinds of animal noises... and smells, all kinds of animal smells... and it was uncomfortable. Joseph gathered hay in a pile to make a place for Mary to lay down.
Just when she had settled into the hay her time arrived. Now it was she who made noise. And it was loud. She was loud. But the labor was short.
It was then the turn of the infant to make noise. This was her firstborn. She had not realized how loud a child could be. The noise hurt her ears. But this was her child. So she loved the noise.
Nearly right away there was even more noise— shepherds, boys— all very young— excited as only young boys can be, burst into the barn. She did not understand what they were talking about.
They said things about the glory of God and angels and good news and they went on and on and on. They shouted, they pointed to the sky and they pointed at the child. It did not make any sense. And then they ran away as quickly as they had come.
So finally, it was just Mary and her husband and the child alone in the barn. Joseph sighed and sat next to Mary and the infant. At least her husband was not noisy, she thought. He was, most of the time, taciturn.
Just as quickly as Joseph sat, he stood. “We are both hungry. I should go to the inn and talk to that innkeeper. Perhaps I can get some food.”
Mary smiled, nodded ascent. And he was gone. Mary sighed and held the child next to her breast. The crying stopped. In a short time she could feel the steady tempo of the slumber, the warmth of breath against her skin.
She suddenly realized noise had been a constant companion to her for days. But now there was no noise. It was strangely quiet.
The quiet surrounded her, enfolded her, embraced her. She felt warmed by it, comforted by it, blessed by it.
The silence gave her time to think. She reflected on the events of the last months, the tumult, the excitement. Of course, there was that... vision. Then there was the trip to see Elizabeth, the betrothal to Joseph, the pregnancy, the hard journey to Bethlehem.
As was her habit, she tried to understand the place to which God might be calling her. Perhaps because of that vision, the one she experienced, she had recently spoken with her Rabbi and asked what the voice of God might sound like.
“The voice of God has nothing to do with noise,” said the Rabbi. “We humans seem to like chaos. We seem to like noise. Noise is what humans make, not God.”
“The prophet Elijah,” he continued, “stood on a mountain before God. God was not in the earthquake, the wind, the fire. God was in sheer silence.” (Slight pause.)
Mary lifted the cover under which she and the child rested and looked down. The child opened its eyes and looked at her. (Slight pause.)
Mary heard the voice of God. The voice of God was not loud. The voice of God spoke softly, gently, quietly... in a whisper.
Mary heard the voice of God whisper in the eyes of the child. One word was spoken softly, gently, quietly... in a whisper. Love— love. (Slight pause.)
Mary pondered this in her heart. She wondered what it meant that the voice of God could be heard in eyes of this child. She wondered what it meant— that the voice of God said only one word: love. Amen.
12/24/2018 ~ Christmas Eve
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 Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “We live in a very secular world. Hence, I never wish people a ‘Merry Christmas.’ That is a secular term. You see, as Christians at Eastertide we should not greet people with ‘Happy Easter.’ We should say, ‘Christ is risen.’ So, at Christmastide, if somebody says ‘Merry Christmas,’ as a Christian say ‘Christ is with us.’ That is the real Christian sentiment expressed in the Feast of the Incarnation— Christ is with us.”
BENEDICTION: The sun shall no longer be / your light by day, / nor for brightness shall the moon /. give you light by night; / for Yahweh, God, / will be your everlasting light, / and your glory. — Isaiah 60:19-20a.
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
Sunday, December 23, 2018
SERMON ~ 12/23/2018 ~ Fourth Sunday of Advent ~ “Souls Proclaiming Greatness”
READINGS: 12/23/2018 ~ Fourth Sunday of Advent ~ The Sunday on Which the Christian Virtue of Joy Is Celebrated ~ Micah 5:2-5a; Luke 1:46b-55 or Psalm 80:1-7; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45, (46-55).
Souls Proclaiming Greatness
“Then Mary said, / ‘My soul proclaims Your greatness, O God, / and my spirit rejoices in You, my Savior.’” — Luke 1:46-47.
I have delved into the story I’m about to tell before but with a different emphasis. Besides, I have not reviewed or revived this tale in quite some time. So please forgive me as I wade into these waters again.
In 1983 I had a friend who went for a three day battery of psychological and skills tests at the Northeast Career Center in New Jersey. While this is an overstatement, I like to call that process “three days of ‘What does this ink blot mean?’” [The pastor holds up a sheet of paper as if displaying a page with an ink blot.]
The reputation of this organization is ‘they know what they are doing.’ That’s because they have a serious track record. They have been conducting psychological and skills testing since the mid-1920s.
My friend had been working in the advertising business as a copywriter. Having completed the three days of work, the Career Center suggested to my friend there might be a different career to be pursued. The recommendation suggested the legal profession was an appropriate arena for work given his skill set.
So he entered Princeton University Law School. He eventually wound up as the editor of the law review at Princeton and later went to work at a big corporate law firm on Wall Street.
Seeing this result— that a writer changed careers to the law— caught my interest. I was at that time making my living as a writer— often a hand to mouth existence— and the law does seem to be a more lucrative, stable profession than writing.
And so, in 1986 I went through the same three day battery of tests, hoping I also would get a similar recommendation— attend law school. When the tests were done the Center said they had good news and bad news.
They did not recommend the law. But that was really not the bad news. The bad news was, they said, not only should I be a writer, but I was off their charts on that skill set. How is that bad news? Simple— not too many people actually make a living just writing.
Even many people who are famous writers, said the staff at center, do other things to keep food on the table. They teach, especially at the University level, conduct seminars and, for a fee— usually a high fee when you’re famous— give talks at corporate meetings.
But there was good news. Most people test as doing one thing really well and nothing else particularly well. I, on the other hand, tested as doing one thing well and nearly everything else at least adequately well or even a cut above average.
That was good news since— I should add they said I should never be an airplane pilot.— that was good news since writers, if writing is all they do well, wind up as starving artists. But, because I did many things with a reasonable degree of competence, they said, it was unlikely I would ever starve. (Slight pause.)
In fact, the real goal of a place like the Northeast Career Center is not so much to detect skills as to put you in touch with yourself, help you analyze, self-analyze who you are. If you can do that kind of analyzation successfully once, doing it over and over again can become routine.
Understanding who you are, being able to assess where you’re at, digging deep into the soul with consistency is an invaluable asset. And, in order to constantly and consistently assess where you’re at, self examination is the kind of skill which needs to be practiced and practiced and practiced some more.
I think self examination needs to be and to become regular, constant. It was, after all, Socrates who said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” (Slight pause.)
This is found in Luke: “Then Mary said, / ‘My soul proclaims Your greatness, O God, / and my spirit rejoices in You, my Savior.’” (Slight pause.)
A couple weeks ago I was chatting with someone who was retired. This person said one of the pratfalls into which she fell upon retirement was not being able to let go of her work.
Why? She came to realize her identity was tied up with what she had done in her work life. Therefore, her identity was about what she did rather than who she was.
Once she was able to let go of what she did, it freed her to be who she was. But this movement, this change took a couple years.
Frankly, many people find their identity in their work. But is that who we are? (Slight pause.)
The Westminster Shorter Catechism of the Anglican tradition says the purpose of humanity, each of us, is to glorify God. The Baltimore Catechism of the Roman tradition says the purpose of humanity, each of us, is to know God, to love God, to serve God. I want to suggest these two are intertwined, inseparable.
I want to suggest glorifying God, knowing God, loving God, serving God is about who we are, not about what we do. And I also want to suggest glorifying God, knowing God, loving God, serving God— these are not even a possibility unless we first know ourselves.
But that raises questions: how do we know ourselves? How can we know ourselves? (Slight pause.)
First and to be clear, I think we can know ourselves only in part. Testing is invaluable because we can never know ourselves fully. There is always a new avenue to explore, another way to look at ourselves. But second, because we can never know ourselves fully, one of the best ways to find out about our own self is to listen to what others say about us.
Indeed, I believe when we allow others to examine, to explain, to affirm who we are that can be an essential way of getting to better know ourselves. Other people can help us in the process. (Slight pause.)
When this reading from Luke was introduced it was said Luke has a number of stories in the first two chapters. All of the stories, not just the Nativity of the Christ, are important. And we need to pay attention to everything in the first two chapters and not separate out the Nativity because these two chapter are a whole.
Given that, when Mary proclaims the greatness of God she has already been affirmed twice. She has been affirmed by Gabriel and was told (quote:) “Blessed are you among women.” She is then affirmed by Elizabeth who also says (quote:) “Blessed are you among women.”
And so, having been affirmed Mary proclaims. Mary proclaims by and through glorifying God, knowing God, loving God, serving God because Mary knows who she is. Mary knows who she is in part because she has been affirmed.
And Mary knows, because of that affirmation, what her true identity is. She is a child of God.
And this may be key. I think we cannot glorify God, know God, love God, serve God in the most effective way we are able without knowing and affirming who we are, who each of us is individually. And who are we? We are children of God. (Slight pause.)
That presents an obvious question: who am I? The testing helped. But it didn’t really tell me who I am. My answer is, like Mary, I am a child of God. I am a child of God and I am, thereby, empowered to glorify God, to know God, to love God, to serve God
There is, I think, a second, equally obvious question: who are we, as a church? You see, Mary received affirmation from others. And the community of faith, this group who we commonly call a church, needs to be a place where affirmation happens.
I maintain unless we affirm one another we cannot fully, to the best of the ability of each individual and to the best of the abilities of the whole, function effectively as a community, function effectively as a church. And who do we need to be? What do we need to do as a church? We need to empowered to glorify God, to know God, to love God, to serve God.
Hence, as we move forward through these next months it would be wise of us to ask a simple question. Who are we? Who are we as individuals. Who are we as a church? Indeed, this process of self-examination, this process of just asking questions about who we are might help us envision the future.
So to reiterate, do we, as individuals, strive to glorify God, to know God, to love God, to serve God? Do we, as a church, as a community of faith, strive to glorify God, to know God, to love God, to serve God? Amen.
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “New Testament scholar Nicholas Thomas Wright says the Realm of God as it is found in the Gospels is not about getting to heaven. The Realm of God as it is found in the Gospels is about the transformation of life here, now. I say if we as a church, truly glorify God, know God, love God, serve God then we will, as a church, be working toward the transformation of life here, now. What does transformation look like? Mary said what it looks like. It looks like the equity which happens when the proud are scattered, the powerful brought down, the mighty disposed, the lowly raised to high places, the hungry filled with good things. And who will accomplish this?”
[The Children’s Time at the service today had ended with a very large mirror being held up first to the children and then to the Congregation. At this point the pastor took that same mirror and held it up to the Congregation while not saying one word before intoning the Benediction.]
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 peace for God is with us. Go in hope for God reveals to us, daily, that we are a part of God’s new creation. Go in joy for God knows every fiber of our being. Go in love, for we rest assured, by Christ, Jesus, that God is steadfast. Amen.
Souls Proclaiming Greatness
“Then Mary said, / ‘My soul proclaims Your greatness, O God, / and my spirit rejoices in You, my Savior.’” — Luke 1:46-47.
I have delved into the story I’m about to tell before but with a different emphasis. Besides, I have not reviewed or revived this tale in quite some time. So please forgive me as I wade into these waters again.
In 1983 I had a friend who went for a three day battery of psychological and skills tests at the Northeast Career Center in New Jersey. While this is an overstatement, I like to call that process “three days of ‘What does this ink blot mean?’” [The pastor holds up a sheet of paper as if displaying a page with an ink blot.]
The reputation of this organization is ‘they know what they are doing.’ That’s because they have a serious track record. They have been conducting psychological and skills testing since the mid-1920s.
My friend had been working in the advertising business as a copywriter. Having completed the three days of work, the Career Center suggested to my friend there might be a different career to be pursued. The recommendation suggested the legal profession was an appropriate arena for work given his skill set.
So he entered Princeton University Law School. He eventually wound up as the editor of the law review at Princeton and later went to work at a big corporate law firm on Wall Street.
Seeing this result— that a writer changed careers to the law— caught my interest. I was at that time making my living as a writer— often a hand to mouth existence— and the law does seem to be a more lucrative, stable profession than writing.
And so, in 1986 I went through the same three day battery of tests, hoping I also would get a similar recommendation— attend law school. When the tests were done the Center said they had good news and bad news.
They did not recommend the law. But that was really not the bad news. The bad news was, they said, not only should I be a writer, but I was off their charts on that skill set. How is that bad news? Simple— not too many people actually make a living just writing.
Even many people who are famous writers, said the staff at center, do other things to keep food on the table. They teach, especially at the University level, conduct seminars and, for a fee— usually a high fee when you’re famous— give talks at corporate meetings.
But there was good news. Most people test as doing one thing really well and nothing else particularly well. I, on the other hand, tested as doing one thing well and nearly everything else at least adequately well or even a cut above average.
That was good news since— I should add they said I should never be an airplane pilot.— that was good news since writers, if writing is all they do well, wind up as starving artists. But, because I did many things with a reasonable degree of competence, they said, it was unlikely I would ever starve. (Slight pause.)
In fact, the real goal of a place like the Northeast Career Center is not so much to detect skills as to put you in touch with yourself, help you analyze, self-analyze who you are. If you can do that kind of analyzation successfully once, doing it over and over again can become routine.
Understanding who you are, being able to assess where you’re at, digging deep into the soul with consistency is an invaluable asset. And, in order to constantly and consistently assess where you’re at, self examination is the kind of skill which needs to be practiced and practiced and practiced some more.
I think self examination needs to be and to become regular, constant. It was, after all, Socrates who said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” (Slight pause.)
This is found in Luke: “Then Mary said, / ‘My soul proclaims Your greatness, O God, / and my spirit rejoices in You, my Savior.’” (Slight pause.)
A couple weeks ago I was chatting with someone who was retired. This person said one of the pratfalls into which she fell upon retirement was not being able to let go of her work.
Why? She came to realize her identity was tied up with what she had done in her work life. Therefore, her identity was about what she did rather than who she was.
Once she was able to let go of what she did, it freed her to be who she was. But this movement, this change took a couple years.
Frankly, many people find their identity in their work. But is that who we are? (Slight pause.)
The Westminster Shorter Catechism of the Anglican tradition says the purpose of humanity, each of us, is to glorify God. The Baltimore Catechism of the Roman tradition says the purpose of humanity, each of us, is to know God, to love God, to serve God. I want to suggest these two are intertwined, inseparable.
I want to suggest glorifying God, knowing God, loving God, serving God is about who we are, not about what we do. And I also want to suggest glorifying God, knowing God, loving God, serving God— these are not even a possibility unless we first know ourselves.
But that raises questions: how do we know ourselves? How can we know ourselves? (Slight pause.)
First and to be clear, I think we can know ourselves only in part. Testing is invaluable because we can never know ourselves fully. There is always a new avenue to explore, another way to look at ourselves. But second, because we can never know ourselves fully, one of the best ways to find out about our own self is to listen to what others say about us.
Indeed, I believe when we allow others to examine, to explain, to affirm who we are that can be an essential way of getting to better know ourselves. Other people can help us in the process. (Slight pause.)
When this reading from Luke was introduced it was said Luke has a number of stories in the first two chapters. All of the stories, not just the Nativity of the Christ, are important. And we need to pay attention to everything in the first two chapters and not separate out the Nativity because these two chapter are a whole.
Given that, when Mary proclaims the greatness of God she has already been affirmed twice. She has been affirmed by Gabriel and was told (quote:) “Blessed are you among women.” She is then affirmed by Elizabeth who also says (quote:) “Blessed are you among women.”
And so, having been affirmed Mary proclaims. Mary proclaims by and through glorifying God, knowing God, loving God, serving God because Mary knows who she is. Mary knows who she is in part because she has been affirmed.
And Mary knows, because of that affirmation, what her true identity is. She is a child of God.
And this may be key. I think we cannot glorify God, know God, love God, serve God in the most effective way we are able without knowing and affirming who we are, who each of us is individually. And who are we? We are children of God. (Slight pause.)
That presents an obvious question: who am I? The testing helped. But it didn’t really tell me who I am. My answer is, like Mary, I am a child of God. I am a child of God and I am, thereby, empowered to glorify God, to know God, to love God, to serve God
There is, I think, a second, equally obvious question: who are we, as a church? You see, Mary received affirmation from others. And the community of faith, this group who we commonly call a church, needs to be a place where affirmation happens.
I maintain unless we affirm one another we cannot fully, to the best of the ability of each individual and to the best of the abilities of the whole, function effectively as a community, function effectively as a church. And who do we need to be? What do we need to do as a church? We need to empowered to glorify God, to know God, to love God, to serve God.
Hence, as we move forward through these next months it would be wise of us to ask a simple question. Who are we? Who are we as individuals. Who are we as a church? Indeed, this process of self-examination, this process of just asking questions about who we are might help us envision the future.
So to reiterate, do we, as individuals, strive to glorify God, to know God, to love God, to serve God? Do we, as a church, as a community of faith, strive to glorify God, to know God, to love God, to serve God? Amen.
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “New Testament scholar Nicholas Thomas Wright says the Realm of God as it is found in the Gospels is not about getting to heaven. The Realm of God as it is found in the Gospels is about the transformation of life here, now. I say if we as a church, truly glorify God, know God, love God, serve God then we will, as a church, be working toward the transformation of life here, now. What does transformation look like? Mary said what it looks like. It looks like the equity which happens when the proud are scattered, the powerful brought down, the mighty disposed, the lowly raised to high places, the hungry filled with good things. And who will accomplish this?”
[The Children’s Time at the service today had ended with a very large mirror being held up first to the children and then to the Congregation. At this point the pastor took that same mirror and held it up to the Congregation while not saying one word before intoning the Benediction.]
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 peace for God is with us. Go in hope for God reveals to us, daily, that we are a part of God’s new creation. Go in joy for God knows every fiber of our being. Go in love, for we rest assured, by Christ, Jesus, that God is steadfast. Amen.
Sunday, December 9, 2018
SERMON ~ 12/09/2018 ~ Second Sunday of Advent ~ “Repentance and Forgiveness”
READINGS: 12/09/2018 ~ Second Sunday of Advent ~ The Sunday on Which the Christian Virtue of Peace Is Celebrated ~ Baruch 5:1-9 or Malachi 3:1-4; Luke 1:68-79; Philippians 1:3-11; Luke 3:1-6 ~ Sing Out and Celebrate (7:00 p.m. @ BSUMC) ~ Bell Choir.
Repentance and Forgiveness
“John went through the entire region of the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins;...” — Luke 3:3
Most of you know I am in my twenty third year as the pastor of this church in Norwich, as your pastor. Some of you know this next factoid but not everyone. Before I came to Norwich I served as an Associate Pastor at the Waldo County Cooperative of Churches in Waldo County, Maine.
That was a five church cooperative, a five church yoke. (I know— it sounds very Methodist.) When it came to a preaching schedule, the Senior Pastor and I switched off week to week, one week three of the five, the next week the other two.
The towns in this group— Frankfort, Jackson, Monroe, Brooks, Freedom— had a combined population of less than 3,000. Brooks was the largest— on a good day about a 1,000 souls. These were very small churches in very small towns. My first Sunday in the pulpit as a settled pastor serving those churches was September 4th, 1995.
For about two years before that, starting in 1993, I did a lot of work as a supply preacher. In those 104 weeks I filled a pulpit on a Sunday 47 times— just short of half of the possible Sundays.
I must have done all right. A lot of churches asked me back. The church in Belfast, Maine invited me six times.
I am reciting this history to explain something. Since 1993 I have not actually heard a lot of other pastors preach. Obviously, when you’re in the pulpit preaching you are not listening to someone else preach.
Once, however, I attended a service and heard a sermon offered by a good friend. The essence of it was some people think inside the box; others think outside the box. The point was this recommendation: for churches thinking outside the box is a necessity.
Well, after the service I saw my friend and said, “You’ve fully explained my life situation with one sermon. Some people think inside the box; others think outside the box. My take is, ‘Box? There’s a box? Why was I not told?’” (Slight pause.)
I need to be clear. There are times thinking inside the box can be useful, wanted, warranted. Innovation is not always a necessity. But usually innovation, trying something unknown, is the only way you can see if that thing will or will not work. And innovation is often the only avenue which will encourage growth.
Me, personally? Male, older, Caucasian— I may present an image which says inside the box. But don’t be fooled. I’m a theater person.
For theater people, stretching is a given. I would, in fact, suggest stretching, trying something different, outside the box stuff, is good for individuals and for organizations.
Can it be risky? Yes. However, I doubt that, in all of human history, growth has ever happened without stretching, without real risk taking. (Slight pause.)
This is what we hear in Luke. “John went through the entire region of the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins;...” (Slight pause.)
There are a number of things to which we need to pay attention in this reading. First, given the story which precedes these words, the writer skips from the time Jesus is very young— at the temple— to the time Jesus is about to start a ministry of preaching.
Second, since the writer gives us all those names in this reading which, by the way, are not easy to pronounce, there is clearly an attempt at offering information about the historical context. This is not the first time Luke’s author has offered historical context.
The more famous effort reads this way (quote:) “In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.” (Slight pause.)
It is often said Luke was written for, written to and written about the poor and the outcast. The story of shepherds is not meant to depict a peaceful, pastoral scene.
Shepherding was a hardscrabble, marginal, risky, lean way of life. There was nothing romantic or attractive or peaceful about it. Further, in that era shepherds were considered the lowest of the low. On any kind of social scale they were outcast.
That having been said, in these two key passages what is this writer doing? Setting the context. The writer tells us who was in charge in the world, tells us who did not have a hardscrabble, marginal, lean, risky existence. So, at least part of the point Luke strives to make is to draw that contrast, that distinction.
And who appears after setting the context? First the shepherds who are outcast, then the Baptist, who shouts on Jordan’s shore, the one about whom it can readily be said this person is an outcast from respectable society, someone who does not care about boxes.
John, however, can and does tell us about what a relationship of God looks like. And a relationship with God is about a God Who clearly wants to be in relationship with humanity— with everyone— with those in charge, with those not in charge.
Why is it clear God wants to be in relationship with us, with humanity? John claims the place God starts with this relationship is what is commonly called forgiveness. We are forgiven before we do anything, before we have done anything. Further, we do not have to do anything to be forgiven. This is often called God’s unconditional love.
Put another way, because of this relationship between God and humanity— and this is what any solid relationship is or at least should be based on— God starts with a premise: we are trusted. We are trusted with each other’s being, trusted to love one another, trusted to be stewards of the world God created.
John also says we are invited to what is commonly called repentance. As I have often said before, repentance is not about remorse, not about feeling sorry. Repentance means turning toward God, walking in the ways of God, living life to its fullest, living life as God would have us live, living life filled with hope, peace, love and joy.
So, when we hear this proclamation about repentance and forgiveness these are not what popular culture says they are about, what I’ve just outlined. That brings me back to the juxtaposition with which the writer of Luke presents us in laying out the context.
Luke asks who is in charge of society? Who runs the world. Luke then holds up the power brokers and contrasts that with those who are outcast. (Slight pause.)
I think this is a given. Those who are in control— or rather those who think they are in control— are generally comfortable inside the box.
Those in control tend to use bywords and we have all heard from time to time. Don’t make waves. Don’t upset the apple cart. Include only those who are just like us. That is, my friends, clearly inside the box thinking. (Slight pause.)
What is outside the box thinking? Everyone counts. All people are included. Go ahead— eat the apples off the cart. Let’s splash some water— waves can be fun.
And yes, doing new and different, working outside the box means taking risks. But my experience says the only way to fail is to refuse to take risks.
What’s my experience? You remember I mentioned that five church cooperative where served as an Associate Pastor? These were poor churches in a very rural area. End to end the cooperative spanned 40 miles.
But they thought outside the box, took a risk. Each church had its own budget. Then together they formed a separate budget. With that unified budget, they had the where-with-all not to have just one pastor but two. Now, that’s thinking outside the box.
This is also to say the preaching of the Baptizer is not about any kind of ethereal, pie in the sky stuff. Turning toward God needs to be real, practical, substantive and risky.
Perhaps that’s why so many have a hard time with repentance, turning toward God. How much of a hard time do people have with repentance? They turn it into something it is not.
As I said, repentance is not about remorse, not about feeling sorry. But that’s what people turn repentance into.
And forgivingness? As I said, we are forgiven before we do anything. And we do not have to do anything. But people are uncomfortable with free gifts. Don’t we owe God something for this gift? No, we do not. (Slight pause.)
So, this is the Sunday of Advent when we celebrate peace. Biblical peace is not the absence of conflict. Biblical peace means the truth of the real presence of God. Biblical peace means the real presence of God is with us.
And yes, that’s what Christmas is really about: God is with us. And that very idea that God is with us— that make really makes people really, really uncomfortable.
How do I know that? Do me a favor. Go shopping and you see displays of trees, lights, ornaments, electronics, cookware— you name it. But let me know if you see any signs which say, “God is with us.” No one out there has seen that in the supermarkets, in the box-stores. (Slight pause.)
So, let us celebrate Advent with hope, peace, love and joy. Hope, peace, love and joy can be found when we realize the real risk we take in our life is to ignore that God with us and that God is present to us. Of course, that God with us and present to us is the message of the Baptizer. It is the message of Advent. It is the message of Christmas. God is with us. Amen.
12/09/2018
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, NY
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “Secular culture makes every effort it can to take over church culture. After all, secular culture turns the birth of the Messiah, the in-breaking of God, into a buying spree while at the same time claiming there is a war on Christmas. Whose staffing that war? The buyers? After all, when we the last time instead you heard somebody say ‘Have a blessed Advent filled with all the hope, peace, love and joy remembering that God is present to us’?”
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. Let us go in joy for God knows every fiber of our being. Let us go in hope for God reveals to us, daily, that we are a part of God’s new creation. Let us go in love, for we rest assured, by Christ, Jesus, that the love of God is steadfast. Let us go in peace for God is with us. Amen.
Repentance and Forgiveness
“John went through the entire region of the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins;...” — Luke 3:3
Most of you know I am in my twenty third year as the pastor of this church in Norwich, as your pastor. Some of you know this next factoid but not everyone. Before I came to Norwich I served as an Associate Pastor at the Waldo County Cooperative of Churches in Waldo County, Maine.
That was a five church cooperative, a five church yoke. (I know— it sounds very Methodist.) When it came to a preaching schedule, the Senior Pastor and I switched off week to week, one week three of the five, the next week the other two.
The towns in this group— Frankfort, Jackson, Monroe, Brooks, Freedom— had a combined population of less than 3,000. Brooks was the largest— on a good day about a 1,000 souls. These were very small churches in very small towns. My first Sunday in the pulpit as a settled pastor serving those churches was September 4th, 1995.
For about two years before that, starting in 1993, I did a lot of work as a supply preacher. In those 104 weeks I filled a pulpit on a Sunday 47 times— just short of half of the possible Sundays.
I must have done all right. A lot of churches asked me back. The church in Belfast, Maine invited me six times.
I am reciting this history to explain something. Since 1993 I have not actually heard a lot of other pastors preach. Obviously, when you’re in the pulpit preaching you are not listening to someone else preach.
Once, however, I attended a service and heard a sermon offered by a good friend. The essence of it was some people think inside the box; others think outside the box. The point was this recommendation: for churches thinking outside the box is a necessity.
Well, after the service I saw my friend and said, “You’ve fully explained my life situation with one sermon. Some people think inside the box; others think outside the box. My take is, ‘Box? There’s a box? Why was I not told?’” (Slight pause.)
I need to be clear. There are times thinking inside the box can be useful, wanted, warranted. Innovation is not always a necessity. But usually innovation, trying something unknown, is the only way you can see if that thing will or will not work. And innovation is often the only avenue which will encourage growth.
Me, personally? Male, older, Caucasian— I may present an image which says inside the box. But don’t be fooled. I’m a theater person.
For theater people, stretching is a given. I would, in fact, suggest stretching, trying something different, outside the box stuff, is good for individuals and for organizations.
Can it be risky? Yes. However, I doubt that, in all of human history, growth has ever happened without stretching, without real risk taking. (Slight pause.)
This is what we hear in Luke. “John went through the entire region of the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins;...” (Slight pause.)
There are a number of things to which we need to pay attention in this reading. First, given the story which precedes these words, the writer skips from the time Jesus is very young— at the temple— to the time Jesus is about to start a ministry of preaching.
Second, since the writer gives us all those names in this reading which, by the way, are not easy to pronounce, there is clearly an attempt at offering information about the historical context. This is not the first time Luke’s author has offered historical context.
The more famous effort reads this way (quote:) “In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.” (Slight pause.)
It is often said Luke was written for, written to and written about the poor and the outcast. The story of shepherds is not meant to depict a peaceful, pastoral scene.
Shepherding was a hardscrabble, marginal, risky, lean way of life. There was nothing romantic or attractive or peaceful about it. Further, in that era shepherds were considered the lowest of the low. On any kind of social scale they were outcast.
That having been said, in these two key passages what is this writer doing? Setting the context. The writer tells us who was in charge in the world, tells us who did not have a hardscrabble, marginal, lean, risky existence. So, at least part of the point Luke strives to make is to draw that contrast, that distinction.
And who appears after setting the context? First the shepherds who are outcast, then the Baptist, who shouts on Jordan’s shore, the one about whom it can readily be said this person is an outcast from respectable society, someone who does not care about boxes.
John, however, can and does tell us about what a relationship of God looks like. And a relationship with God is about a God Who clearly wants to be in relationship with humanity— with everyone— with those in charge, with those not in charge.
Why is it clear God wants to be in relationship with us, with humanity? John claims the place God starts with this relationship is what is commonly called forgiveness. We are forgiven before we do anything, before we have done anything. Further, we do not have to do anything to be forgiven. This is often called God’s unconditional love.
Put another way, because of this relationship between God and humanity— and this is what any solid relationship is or at least should be based on— God starts with a premise: we are trusted. We are trusted with each other’s being, trusted to love one another, trusted to be stewards of the world God created.
John also says we are invited to what is commonly called repentance. As I have often said before, repentance is not about remorse, not about feeling sorry. Repentance means turning toward God, walking in the ways of God, living life to its fullest, living life as God would have us live, living life filled with hope, peace, love and joy.
So, when we hear this proclamation about repentance and forgiveness these are not what popular culture says they are about, what I’ve just outlined. That brings me back to the juxtaposition with which the writer of Luke presents us in laying out the context.
Luke asks who is in charge of society? Who runs the world. Luke then holds up the power brokers and contrasts that with those who are outcast. (Slight pause.)
I think this is a given. Those who are in control— or rather those who think they are in control— are generally comfortable inside the box.
Those in control tend to use bywords and we have all heard from time to time. Don’t make waves. Don’t upset the apple cart. Include only those who are just like us. That is, my friends, clearly inside the box thinking. (Slight pause.)
What is outside the box thinking? Everyone counts. All people are included. Go ahead— eat the apples off the cart. Let’s splash some water— waves can be fun.
And yes, doing new and different, working outside the box means taking risks. But my experience says the only way to fail is to refuse to take risks.
What’s my experience? You remember I mentioned that five church cooperative where served as an Associate Pastor? These were poor churches in a very rural area. End to end the cooperative spanned 40 miles.
But they thought outside the box, took a risk. Each church had its own budget. Then together they formed a separate budget. With that unified budget, they had the where-with-all not to have just one pastor but two. Now, that’s thinking outside the box.
This is also to say the preaching of the Baptizer is not about any kind of ethereal, pie in the sky stuff. Turning toward God needs to be real, practical, substantive and risky.
Perhaps that’s why so many have a hard time with repentance, turning toward God. How much of a hard time do people have with repentance? They turn it into something it is not.
As I said, repentance is not about remorse, not about feeling sorry. But that’s what people turn repentance into.
And forgivingness? As I said, we are forgiven before we do anything. And we do not have to do anything. But people are uncomfortable with free gifts. Don’t we owe God something for this gift? No, we do not. (Slight pause.)
So, this is the Sunday of Advent when we celebrate peace. Biblical peace is not the absence of conflict. Biblical peace means the truth of the real presence of God. Biblical peace means the real presence of God is with us.
And yes, that’s what Christmas is really about: God is with us. And that very idea that God is with us— that make really makes people really, really uncomfortable.
How do I know that? Do me a favor. Go shopping and you see displays of trees, lights, ornaments, electronics, cookware— you name it. But let me know if you see any signs which say, “God is with us.” No one out there has seen that in the supermarkets, in the box-stores. (Slight pause.)
So, let us celebrate Advent with hope, peace, love and joy. Hope, peace, love and joy can be found when we realize the real risk we take in our life is to ignore that God with us and that God is present to us. Of course, that God with us and present to us is the message of the Baptizer. It is the message of Advent. It is the message of Christmas. God is with us. Amen.
12/09/2018
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, NY
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “Secular culture makes every effort it can to take over church culture. After all, secular culture turns the birth of the Messiah, the in-breaking of God, into a buying spree while at the same time claiming there is a war on Christmas. Whose staffing that war? The buyers? After all, when we the last time instead you heard somebody say ‘Have a blessed Advent filled with all the hope, peace, love and joy remembering that God is present to us’?”
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. Let us go in joy for God knows every fiber of our being. Let us go in hope for God reveals to us, daily, that we are a part of God’s new creation. Let us go in love, for we rest assured, by Christ, Jesus, that the love of God is steadfast. Let us go in peace for God is with us. Amen.
Sunday, December 2, 2018
SERMON ~ 12/02/2018 ~ First Sunday of Advent ~ “Justice and Integrity”
READINGS: 12/02/2018 ~ First Sunday of Advent ~ The Sunday on Which the Christian Virtue of Hope Is Celebrated ~ First Sunday in Year ‘C’ of the Three Year Lectionary Cycle ~ Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25:1-10; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-36 ~ Communion Sunday.
Justice and Integrity
“In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous branch, a branch who maintains a right relationship with Me, to be raised up from the line of David who shall bring justice and integrity to the land.” — Jeremiah 33:15.
When the reading from Jeremiah was introduced this was said. “Prophets sometimes get a bad name for they are too often remembered for their condemnations rather than their word of hope. In this passage a prophet speaks a word of hope to the people of Israel.”
It is also true in our society many think a prophet is someone who predicts the future. But the idea that a prophet predicts the future is a secular concept. From a Biblical perspective that is a false notion, despite the seminars you can find out there about Revelation predicting the future.
Foretelling future events was not the job of the Prophets. The job of a prophet is to speak the Word of God, the truth of God.
That having been said, my bet is most of us have had some experience of foretelling, predicting, a premonition. I’ve had more than a couple. I want to address just one.
In August 1964 I was headed into my senior year of High School. I have always been an avid follower of the news. So on August 4th I was riveted to the TV knowing President Lyndon Baines Johnson was to make an emergency address to the nation.
The President said a Navy destroyer had been attacked by North Vietnamese PT boats. So Johnson asked congress to give the executive the ability to vigorously respond without a declaration of war. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
I was all of sixteen but as I listened I had one reaction. And this is where prophecy or at least premonition might come into play. I immediately realized even though this was the result of something half way around the world, it would in some way effect me directly.
Sure enough, at age 19 I got my draft notice and at 20 I shipped out to Saigon. Now, a lot happened when I was 19, 20 and 21 over which I had no control, the least of which in a sense was me being in the Army.
Much of what happened in those years made it seem there was little hope left in the world. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy were assassinated. There was a revolution in Czechoslovakia, the so called Prague Spring, but it was squashed.
Lyndon Johnson decided to not run for another term as President. There were riots at the Democratic National Convention.
On the other side of that coin, American Astronauts landed on the moon, the Beatles released the White Album, the Who released Tommy. The Jets won the Super Blow (while I was still in Vietnam) and the Mets won the World Series right after I came back. But these are more about fun than hope. We often confuse the two— fun and hope. (Slight pause.)
This is found in the Scroll of the Prophet Jeremiah: “In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous branch, a branch who maintains a right relationship with Me, to be raised up from the line of David who shall bring justice and integrity to the land.”
Those of you who know me real well and know about my sense of humor, know that my sense of humor sometimes even extends to visual humor. About three years before that day in August I described earlier, on my first day of High School— I was 13— my mother literally took me to the door of the house as I prepared to leave. With a tear in her eye she gave me a warm, tight hug and wished me luck. I could not resist.
I walked out the door, did a pratfall down the short front stoop and landed on my butt. Mom screamed. I turned around, looked up at her and said, “You’ve got to watch out. The world is a dangerous place!” I don’t think she ever forgave me for that one.
Despite making that statement in a humorous way I was, of course, right. The world is a dangerous place. How dangerous?
Ask Jeremiah. Again, when this reading was introduced it was said the prophet speaks a word of hope to the people of Israel who seem to be in a hopeless situation, under siege by the armies of Babylon. The world is dangerous. And because of that we sometimes fail to hope. (Slight pause.)
Life is full of coincidences. The Interfaith Council usually meets once a month for breakfast, a gathering intended to be social, and once a month in the afternoon, a more formal session with a speaker and/or discussion.
Even though the breakfasts are social, at a recent repast the conversation turned serious. We started discussing poverty in rural areas, especially in Chenango County.
The coincidence part of this is the next morning I had breakfast with Jack Salo. Many of you may know Jack, a former director at Opportunities for Chenango and of The Place.
Currently and for the last 15 years Jack has been the Executive Director of the Rural Health Network of South Central New York. Jack has an immense storehouse of knowledge on the topic of poverty in rural areas, especially poverty in Chenango County.
So Jack and I got to talking about poverty. Then I invited him to speak with the Interfaith Council. That session happened just this last week.
Among the items we discussed was the study called A.L.I.C.E.— Alice,— Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. It’s an assessment of current economic conditions. The study says 15% of families in Chenango Count live below the federal poverty guideline.
Another 30% of families have members who work but still are not making enough to cover their necessary costs. That 30% are the ones at the A.L.I.C.E. levels, families who must make difficult decisions every day about how and where to spend limited resources. Many are just one paycheck or accident/sick day away from financial disaster.
So, that statistic— which means 45% of the families in Chenango County are in poverty or struggling— leaves us with a question. Is this situation hopeless?
Jack Salo says ‘no.’ This is not hopeless. Jack works at this full time and has what I call a 2 ‘E’ approach. It is a response to any hopelessness that the 45% statistic might evoke. The two “Es” are education and engagement.
In today’s world this is a given: education, more than ever before, is a necessity. But engagement is the real key.
Yes, engagement is a part of education. But on top of that people need to be engaged with one another in many ways, on many levels, in order to achieve results.
And yes, engagement is a two way street. But those who profess to practice what Jeremiah calls (quote:) “justice and integrity” are responsible to keep the flow of that street open no matter what happens, no matter what another party does, no matter how another party behaves.
You see, the practice of justice— God’s justice— is a practice. Therefore you practice it, you do it, no matter what the circumstances are.
And hence, it is not only about justice. As Jeremiah says, it’s also about integrity. And integrity is about constantly giving, about consistent unity, about the wholeness possible through living in and into a full sense of what the community of God might entail— equity for all people. (Slight pause.)
That brings me back to my pratfall and the observation of a 13 year old. Yes, the world is a dangerous place.
But should we fear the world? Should we fear danger? It’s clear a lot of people today from prelates to pundits to politicians want us to be afraid.
So perhaps we should we hide our heads in the sand because the world is a dangerous place. Or perhaps do nothing because we are afraid.
There is another possibility. It is the one I think Jeremiah’s words of hope recommend. We should accept the challenge with which danger presents us and boldly confront this dangerous world. (Slight pause.)
I believe the words of Jeremiah are about hope because they are an invitation from God to us. They are an invitation to consistently, with integrity, confront a dangerous world. These words are an invitation to practice justice— God’s justice.
And justice never happens in isolation. Justice happens in community. God’s justice is, you see, not about my justice. God’s justice is not about your justice. God’s justice is about our justice, communal justice. And God’s community includes all people. If you exclude someone what you are saying is that individual is not a human. That individual is not God’s child. (Slight pause.)
That leads me to this question. Why is this reading assigned on the First Sunday of Advent, the Sunday on which the Christian virtue of hope is celebrated? (Slight pause.)
For me there is an obvious answer. The birth of the Messiah is about hope. The birth of the Messiah is about confronting the world with action, with hope as did the Messiah.
And yes, the birth of the Messiah is about the hope of God. This hope of God to which we are invited insists the Dominion of God will be seen when we act with one another to confront the reality of tribalism in our dangerous world.
This hope of God to which we are invited insists we need to maintain justice with integrity, with action, with working toward the justice of God. And so, here again we are faced with a question.
Are we willing to work with integrity toward God’s justice in this world, God’s world, and be filled with hope in so doing no matter what happens? Your call. Amen.
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “In the New York Times this week David Books had piece titled, It’s Not the Economy, Stupid. Brooks said the biggest factor in the current sociological, psychological and spiritual decay is a crisis of connection. People are less likely to volunteer, go to church, know their neighbors now than at any time over the past several decades. Why? They have fewer resources to help them ride the creative destruction always present in any type of economic system. [1] Well, it seems to me Jeremiah would be predicting the future if we turned that situation around by connecting. After all, that way we would be following the exhortation of the prophet to (quote:) “bring justice and integrity to the land.”
BENEDICTION: Let us go in joy and in love and in peace, for our hope is in the one who has made covenant with us. God reigns. Let us go in God’s peace. And may the face of God shine upon us; may the peace of Christ rule among us; may the fire of the Spirit burn within us this day and forevermore. Amen.
[1] NY Times ~ Opinion ~ It’s Not the Economy, Stupid ~ How to conduct economic policy in an age of social collapse. ~ David Brooks ~ Opinion Columnist
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/opinion/american-economy-working-class.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Justice and Integrity
“In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous branch, a branch who maintains a right relationship with Me, to be raised up from the line of David who shall bring justice and integrity to the land.” — Jeremiah 33:15.
When the reading from Jeremiah was introduced this was said. “Prophets sometimes get a bad name for they are too often remembered for their condemnations rather than their word of hope. In this passage a prophet speaks a word of hope to the people of Israel.”
It is also true in our society many think a prophet is someone who predicts the future. But the idea that a prophet predicts the future is a secular concept. From a Biblical perspective that is a false notion, despite the seminars you can find out there about Revelation predicting the future.
Foretelling future events was not the job of the Prophets. The job of a prophet is to speak the Word of God, the truth of God.
That having been said, my bet is most of us have had some experience of foretelling, predicting, a premonition. I’ve had more than a couple. I want to address just one.
In August 1964 I was headed into my senior year of High School. I have always been an avid follower of the news. So on August 4th I was riveted to the TV knowing President Lyndon Baines Johnson was to make an emergency address to the nation.
The President said a Navy destroyer had been attacked by North Vietnamese PT boats. So Johnson asked congress to give the executive the ability to vigorously respond without a declaration of war. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
I was all of sixteen but as I listened I had one reaction. And this is where prophecy or at least premonition might come into play. I immediately realized even though this was the result of something half way around the world, it would in some way effect me directly.
Sure enough, at age 19 I got my draft notice and at 20 I shipped out to Saigon. Now, a lot happened when I was 19, 20 and 21 over which I had no control, the least of which in a sense was me being in the Army.
Much of what happened in those years made it seem there was little hope left in the world. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy were assassinated. There was a revolution in Czechoslovakia, the so called Prague Spring, but it was squashed.
Lyndon Johnson decided to not run for another term as President. There were riots at the Democratic National Convention.
On the other side of that coin, American Astronauts landed on the moon, the Beatles released the White Album, the Who released Tommy. The Jets won the Super Blow (while I was still in Vietnam) and the Mets won the World Series right after I came back. But these are more about fun than hope. We often confuse the two— fun and hope. (Slight pause.)
This is found in the Scroll of the Prophet Jeremiah: “In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous branch, a branch who maintains a right relationship with Me, to be raised up from the line of David who shall bring justice and integrity to the land.”
Those of you who know me real well and know about my sense of humor, know that my sense of humor sometimes even extends to visual humor. About three years before that day in August I described earlier, on my first day of High School— I was 13— my mother literally took me to the door of the house as I prepared to leave. With a tear in her eye she gave me a warm, tight hug and wished me luck. I could not resist.
I walked out the door, did a pratfall down the short front stoop and landed on my butt. Mom screamed. I turned around, looked up at her and said, “You’ve got to watch out. The world is a dangerous place!” I don’t think she ever forgave me for that one.
Despite making that statement in a humorous way I was, of course, right. The world is a dangerous place. How dangerous?
Ask Jeremiah. Again, when this reading was introduced it was said the prophet speaks a word of hope to the people of Israel who seem to be in a hopeless situation, under siege by the armies of Babylon. The world is dangerous. And because of that we sometimes fail to hope. (Slight pause.)
Life is full of coincidences. The Interfaith Council usually meets once a month for breakfast, a gathering intended to be social, and once a month in the afternoon, a more formal session with a speaker and/or discussion.
Even though the breakfasts are social, at a recent repast the conversation turned serious. We started discussing poverty in rural areas, especially in Chenango County.
The coincidence part of this is the next morning I had breakfast with Jack Salo. Many of you may know Jack, a former director at Opportunities for Chenango and of The Place.
Currently and for the last 15 years Jack has been the Executive Director of the Rural Health Network of South Central New York. Jack has an immense storehouse of knowledge on the topic of poverty in rural areas, especially poverty in Chenango County.
So Jack and I got to talking about poverty. Then I invited him to speak with the Interfaith Council. That session happened just this last week.
Among the items we discussed was the study called A.L.I.C.E.— Alice,— Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. It’s an assessment of current economic conditions. The study says 15% of families in Chenango Count live below the federal poverty guideline.
Another 30% of families have members who work but still are not making enough to cover their necessary costs. That 30% are the ones at the A.L.I.C.E. levels, families who must make difficult decisions every day about how and where to spend limited resources. Many are just one paycheck or accident/sick day away from financial disaster.
So, that statistic— which means 45% of the families in Chenango County are in poverty or struggling— leaves us with a question. Is this situation hopeless?
Jack Salo says ‘no.’ This is not hopeless. Jack works at this full time and has what I call a 2 ‘E’ approach. It is a response to any hopelessness that the 45% statistic might evoke. The two “Es” are education and engagement.
In today’s world this is a given: education, more than ever before, is a necessity. But engagement is the real key.
Yes, engagement is a part of education. But on top of that people need to be engaged with one another in many ways, on many levels, in order to achieve results.
And yes, engagement is a two way street. But those who profess to practice what Jeremiah calls (quote:) “justice and integrity” are responsible to keep the flow of that street open no matter what happens, no matter what another party does, no matter how another party behaves.
You see, the practice of justice— God’s justice— is a practice. Therefore you practice it, you do it, no matter what the circumstances are.
And hence, it is not only about justice. As Jeremiah says, it’s also about integrity. And integrity is about constantly giving, about consistent unity, about the wholeness possible through living in and into a full sense of what the community of God might entail— equity for all people. (Slight pause.)
That brings me back to my pratfall and the observation of a 13 year old. Yes, the world is a dangerous place.
But should we fear the world? Should we fear danger? It’s clear a lot of people today from prelates to pundits to politicians want us to be afraid.
So perhaps we should we hide our heads in the sand because the world is a dangerous place. Or perhaps do nothing because we are afraid.
There is another possibility. It is the one I think Jeremiah’s words of hope recommend. We should accept the challenge with which danger presents us and boldly confront this dangerous world. (Slight pause.)
I believe the words of Jeremiah are about hope because they are an invitation from God to us. They are an invitation to consistently, with integrity, confront a dangerous world. These words are an invitation to practice justice— God’s justice.
And justice never happens in isolation. Justice happens in community. God’s justice is, you see, not about my justice. God’s justice is not about your justice. God’s justice is about our justice, communal justice. And God’s community includes all people. If you exclude someone what you are saying is that individual is not a human. That individual is not God’s child. (Slight pause.)
That leads me to this question. Why is this reading assigned on the First Sunday of Advent, the Sunday on which the Christian virtue of hope is celebrated? (Slight pause.)
For me there is an obvious answer. The birth of the Messiah is about hope. The birth of the Messiah is about confronting the world with action, with hope as did the Messiah.
And yes, the birth of the Messiah is about the hope of God. This hope of God to which we are invited insists the Dominion of God will be seen when we act with one another to confront the reality of tribalism in our dangerous world.
This hope of God to which we are invited insists we need to maintain justice with integrity, with action, with working toward the justice of God. And so, here again we are faced with a question.
Are we willing to work with integrity toward God’s justice in this world, God’s world, and be filled with hope in so doing no matter what happens? Your call. Amen.
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “In the New York Times this week David Books had piece titled, It’s Not the Economy, Stupid. Brooks said the biggest factor in the current sociological, psychological and spiritual decay is a crisis of connection. People are less likely to volunteer, go to church, know their neighbors now than at any time over the past several decades. Why? They have fewer resources to help them ride the creative destruction always present in any type of economic system. [1] Well, it seems to me Jeremiah would be predicting the future if we turned that situation around by connecting. After all, that way we would be following the exhortation of the prophet to (quote:) “bring justice and integrity to the land.”
BENEDICTION: Let us go in joy and in love and in peace, for our hope is in the one who has made covenant with us. God reigns. Let us go in God’s peace. And may the face of God shine upon us; may the peace of Christ rule among us; may the fire of the Spirit burn within us this day and forevermore. Amen.
[1] NY Times ~ Opinion ~ It’s Not the Economy, Stupid ~ How to conduct economic policy in an age of social collapse. ~ David Brooks ~ Opinion Columnist
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/opinion/american-economy-working-class.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Sunday, November 25, 2018
SERMON ~ 11/25/2018 ~ “Trinitarian Continuity”
READINGS: 11/25/2018 ~ Reign of Christ ~ Thirty-fourth and Last Sunday Before the New Church Year in Ordinary Time ~ Twenty-Seventh and Last Sunday after Pentecost Before the New Church Year ~ (Proper 29) ~ 2 Samuel 23:1-7; Psalm 132:1-12, (13-18); Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; Psalm 93; Revelation 1:4b-8; John 18:33-37.
Trinitarian Continuity
“Yahweh reigns, robed in splendor; / You are robed, Yahweh, girded with strength. / Yahweh has established the world; / it stands firm; / it shall never be moved; / Indeed, Your throne, / Your reign is established from of old, / from ages past; / from everlasting to everlasting / from eternity You exist.” — Psalm 93:1-2.
The year was 1996, February 1996 to be exact, my last semester at Bangor Theological Seminary. Back then once a seminary student had entered the last semester that student could circulate a profile, a résumé for a pastor, a 20 to 30 page résumé.
And so, out my profile went to unsuspecting Search Committees all over the United States. Dozens of Search Committees from Iowa, Michigan, South Dakota, Maine, Connecticut and New York contacted me. I did phone interviews with some.
Some wanted an interview, but once I saw their profile I declined. When a pastor sends a profile to a church that church, if interested, sends their profile back. A church profile, is a 20 to 30 page résumé of a church. I declined some interviews because I felt they were not a match for my gifts, for who I am.
I suspect one reason my profile got a lot of interest is, even though I was about to graduate from seminary, I already had pulpit experience. I had served for two years as Assistant Pastor at a five church cooperative in Waldo County, Maine.
Now the profile twenty plus years ago had what was called a “forced choice” survey to fill out. The pastor had to check boxes from a list of 43 choices as to what that pastor thought their own gifts were. Then eight references for the pastor had to do the same— assess the gifts of the pastor, fill out the same survey, check boxes.
This was a “forced choice” survey because there were 43 boxes you could check. You had to choose 8, only 8. That was hard.
There were some obvious boxes to check: an effective preacher, a helpful counselor, makes pastoral calls— obvious. Some were not so obvious but were really good choices— works well on a team, accepting of divergent backgrounds. But all these were binary choices, a yes or no choice. Either the box was checked or it was not.
This history came to mind because of my duties on the Susquehanna Association Committee on Authorized Ministry. We are reviewing our polices for ordination so we looked at the current profile. In the new one the forced choice gauntlet no longer exists.
We now have the Faithful and Effective Marks of Ministry— 48 of them. But this is very different. These marks try to not be at all binary, yes or no. These try to be textured.
A serious and important possibility each mark poses is the idea that every last mark has 4 different levels of understanding. Just mathematics here: if each of 48 marks has 4 levels that’s 192 possibilities to be considered.
I would be the first to insist some marks just do not have multiple levels even though that’s the claim of the profile. For instance, one of the Marks of Ministry says a pastor needs to hold active membership in a local church. Now, either you belong to a church or you do not. That’s binary.
On the other hand the Mark of Ministry labeled as “Praying actively and nurturing spiritual practices” might have not just four levels. That one might have dozens of levels.
There is another mark which sounds binary, or perhaps to our 21st Century American ears it sounds binary. This Mark of Ministry says, “Acknowledging Jesus, the Christ, as the Sole Head of the Church.”
But is this binary? Is this mark a yes or a no answer? Jesus is the heard of the church; Jesus is not the head of the church? Or is the concept that the Christ is Head of the Church subtle, texture, complex with multiple levels? (Slight pause.)
We find these words in the work known as Psalm 93. “Yahweh reigns, robed in splendor; / You are robed, Yahweh, girded with strength. / Yahweh has established the world; / it stands firm; / it shall never be moved; / Indeed, Your throne, / Your reign is established from of old, / from ages past; / from everlasting to everlasting / from eternity You exist.” (Slight pause.)
Pilate, prefect of Rome in Judaea, tries to get Jesus to proclaim some kind of temporal, finite authority. Jesus avoids addressing temporal, finite authority. Instead Jesus speaks of witnessing to truth, eternal truth.
This is one of many truths to which Jesus attested: Jesus is the Christ. This is a subtle, textured complex claim and I think we have a difficult time grappling with how subtle, textured, complex it is.
Let me unpack that. Christ is Greek for Messiah. Messiah is one anointed to do the work and the will of God.
Indeed, as you heard earlier, today we celebrate a feast of the church: the Reign of the Christ. Of course, the word reign implies some kind of temporal authority.
But what do we Christians claim about the Messiahship of Jesus? Is it about finite authority? No. It is not about finite authority. We claim that in Jesus God is revealed— in Jesus God is revealed.
So, it seems to me connecting Jesus to temporal authority might simply be convenient shorthand. But it’s sloppy, not subtle, textured, complex.
We, of course, do not live in a society which particularly appreciates subtle, textured, complex. And this is where I think the reading from Psalm 93 comes into play and is helpful.
The Psalm leads us to a question: Who is the God Jesus proclaims? Jesus not only proclaims the God of the Hebrews, but Jesus refers to God by an intimate name. Jesus does not call God father. Jesus refers to Yahweh, God, as Abba, Daddy.
Please ask yourself what Jesus, in naming God ‘Daddy,’ might be saying about God? This is, after all, the God of the Hebrews, proclaimed in the Psalms, Who in the Hebrew tradition is proclaimed as One.
Further and again, Jesus says temporal, finite authority, is not a part of the picture. Further and again, Jesus also says I am the Christ, the Messiah, anointed to do the work and the will of Yahweh, God.
That leaves us with an obvious question. ‘Who is Jesus?’ People do often and accurately say Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. So, if Jesus is the Messiah and if Yahweh, the God Jesus proclaims, is One, explain how Jesus, the Messiah, fits into the idea, the theological concept, that God is One. (Slight pause.)
It takes the church better than three centuries of thinking about this to respond. The place the church winds up has been given a grand name. We call it Trinity— three persons, One God.
I want to point out two things about this idea we call Trinity. First, Trinity insists we have a connection with Yahweh, God. That connection is Jesus.
Second, Trinity clearly insists there is some kind of relationship, a connection between God and the Messiah. The language Christians have historically used to explain the connection of God and Jesus is relational. Hence, the term ‘Father.’
But again, father is not the word Jesus used. Jesus used Daddy. I think the implication of using this kind of human familial language is not about Father-son, nor about Daddy-child. The implication is theological. It is about the sense of closeness God has with humanity and the sense of closeness humanity might have with God.
So, Trinity— Trinity which might sound like a high faluting subtle, textured, complex idea— Trinity is really about one thing and one thing only. Trinity says God loves us so much relationship matters.
And yes love is a subtle, textured, complex thing. Relationship is a subtle, textured, complex thing.
This brings me back to that Mark of Ministry which acknowledges Jesus, the Christ, as the Sole Head of the Church. Does Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, love us as God, the first person of the Trinity, loves us? If the answer is ‘yes’ seeing Jesus as the sole head of the church should be a part of a pastor’s profile.
And, as was said earlier, it is a Mark of Ministry in that profile. However, I need to point out that acknowledging Jesus as the Sole Head of the Church is not a mark only for pastors.
You see, when I got information from a church in Norwich, New York 20 plus years ago, a profile and a whole packet of information is what I got, one thing impressed me a lot. An enclosed Sunday bulletin said this: “Interim pastor: Charles Maxfield; Ministers: All the people.”
You see, Marks of Ministry are not simply traits for which we look in pastors. Marks of Ministry are traits in churches, traits found in parishioners, in the congregation.
And so for me, the point of Psalm 93, the point of the Messiahship of Jesus is not as subtle, textured, complex as it might seem. In a real way the point is rather simple.
The Psalm says God loves us. The Psalms, all of them, say God loves us. And Jesus, the One connected intimately to God, loves us. Therefore, when we, the church, show the love of Jesus, the Christ, to all people— we, the church— we are showing a Mark of Ministry. Amen.
11/25/2018
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 Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “As you heard earlier the Church, in it’s wisdom, has designated the last Sunday before Advent as the Feast of the Reign of Christ. Advent leads us toward Christmas, the Feast of the Incarnation, the Feast of the Birth of the Messiah. A number of years ago one parishioner told me she now understood Christmas is not about magic babies or angels or stables. What is Christmas about? Christmas is about us understanding the connection of Yahweh, God and the Messiah, the Christ. Christmas is about us understanding our connection, the connection of humanity with Yahweh, God and the Messiah, the Christ.”
BENEDICTION: Let us receive the gifts of God’s grace and peace. Let us rejoice in the freedom to love as Jesus loved. Let the Spirit of God speak through us today. Go forth and reach out to everyone you meet in the name of Christ. And may the face of God shine upon us; may the peace of Christ rule among us; may the fire of the Spirit burn within us this day and forevermore. Amen.
Trinitarian Continuity
“Yahweh reigns, robed in splendor; / You are robed, Yahweh, girded with strength. / Yahweh has established the world; / it stands firm; / it shall never be moved; / Indeed, Your throne, / Your reign is established from of old, / from ages past; / from everlasting to everlasting / from eternity You exist.” — Psalm 93:1-2.
The year was 1996, February 1996 to be exact, my last semester at Bangor Theological Seminary. Back then once a seminary student had entered the last semester that student could circulate a profile, a résumé for a pastor, a 20 to 30 page résumé.
And so, out my profile went to unsuspecting Search Committees all over the United States. Dozens of Search Committees from Iowa, Michigan, South Dakota, Maine, Connecticut and New York contacted me. I did phone interviews with some.
Some wanted an interview, but once I saw their profile I declined. When a pastor sends a profile to a church that church, if interested, sends their profile back. A church profile, is a 20 to 30 page résumé of a church. I declined some interviews because I felt they were not a match for my gifts, for who I am.
I suspect one reason my profile got a lot of interest is, even though I was about to graduate from seminary, I already had pulpit experience. I had served for two years as Assistant Pastor at a five church cooperative in Waldo County, Maine.
Now the profile twenty plus years ago had what was called a “forced choice” survey to fill out. The pastor had to check boxes from a list of 43 choices as to what that pastor thought their own gifts were. Then eight references for the pastor had to do the same— assess the gifts of the pastor, fill out the same survey, check boxes.
This was a “forced choice” survey because there were 43 boxes you could check. You had to choose 8, only 8. That was hard.
There were some obvious boxes to check: an effective preacher, a helpful counselor, makes pastoral calls— obvious. Some were not so obvious but were really good choices— works well on a team, accepting of divergent backgrounds. But all these were binary choices, a yes or no choice. Either the box was checked or it was not.
This history came to mind because of my duties on the Susquehanna Association Committee on Authorized Ministry. We are reviewing our polices for ordination so we looked at the current profile. In the new one the forced choice gauntlet no longer exists.
We now have the Faithful and Effective Marks of Ministry— 48 of them. But this is very different. These marks try to not be at all binary, yes or no. These try to be textured.
A serious and important possibility each mark poses is the idea that every last mark has 4 different levels of understanding. Just mathematics here: if each of 48 marks has 4 levels that’s 192 possibilities to be considered.
I would be the first to insist some marks just do not have multiple levels even though that’s the claim of the profile. For instance, one of the Marks of Ministry says a pastor needs to hold active membership in a local church. Now, either you belong to a church or you do not. That’s binary.
On the other hand the Mark of Ministry labeled as “Praying actively and nurturing spiritual practices” might have not just four levels. That one might have dozens of levels.
There is another mark which sounds binary, or perhaps to our 21st Century American ears it sounds binary. This Mark of Ministry says, “Acknowledging Jesus, the Christ, as the Sole Head of the Church.”
But is this binary? Is this mark a yes or a no answer? Jesus is the heard of the church; Jesus is not the head of the church? Or is the concept that the Christ is Head of the Church subtle, texture, complex with multiple levels? (Slight pause.)
We find these words in the work known as Psalm 93. “Yahweh reigns, robed in splendor; / You are robed, Yahweh, girded with strength. / Yahweh has established the world; / it stands firm; / it shall never be moved; / Indeed, Your throne, / Your reign is established from of old, / from ages past; / from everlasting to everlasting / from eternity You exist.” (Slight pause.)
Pilate, prefect of Rome in Judaea, tries to get Jesus to proclaim some kind of temporal, finite authority. Jesus avoids addressing temporal, finite authority. Instead Jesus speaks of witnessing to truth, eternal truth.
This is one of many truths to which Jesus attested: Jesus is the Christ. This is a subtle, textured complex claim and I think we have a difficult time grappling with how subtle, textured, complex it is.
Let me unpack that. Christ is Greek for Messiah. Messiah is one anointed to do the work and the will of God.
Indeed, as you heard earlier, today we celebrate a feast of the church: the Reign of the Christ. Of course, the word reign implies some kind of temporal authority.
But what do we Christians claim about the Messiahship of Jesus? Is it about finite authority? No. It is not about finite authority. We claim that in Jesus God is revealed— in Jesus God is revealed.
So, it seems to me connecting Jesus to temporal authority might simply be convenient shorthand. But it’s sloppy, not subtle, textured, complex.
We, of course, do not live in a society which particularly appreciates subtle, textured, complex. And this is where I think the reading from Psalm 93 comes into play and is helpful.
The Psalm leads us to a question: Who is the God Jesus proclaims? Jesus not only proclaims the God of the Hebrews, but Jesus refers to God by an intimate name. Jesus does not call God father. Jesus refers to Yahweh, God, as Abba, Daddy.
Please ask yourself what Jesus, in naming God ‘Daddy,’ might be saying about God? This is, after all, the God of the Hebrews, proclaimed in the Psalms, Who in the Hebrew tradition is proclaimed as One.
Further and again, Jesus says temporal, finite authority, is not a part of the picture. Further and again, Jesus also says I am the Christ, the Messiah, anointed to do the work and the will of Yahweh, God.
That leaves us with an obvious question. ‘Who is Jesus?’ People do often and accurately say Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. So, if Jesus is the Messiah and if Yahweh, the God Jesus proclaims, is One, explain how Jesus, the Messiah, fits into the idea, the theological concept, that God is One. (Slight pause.)
It takes the church better than three centuries of thinking about this to respond. The place the church winds up has been given a grand name. We call it Trinity— three persons, One God.
I want to point out two things about this idea we call Trinity. First, Trinity insists we have a connection with Yahweh, God. That connection is Jesus.
Second, Trinity clearly insists there is some kind of relationship, a connection between God and the Messiah. The language Christians have historically used to explain the connection of God and Jesus is relational. Hence, the term ‘Father.’
But again, father is not the word Jesus used. Jesus used Daddy. I think the implication of using this kind of human familial language is not about Father-son, nor about Daddy-child. The implication is theological. It is about the sense of closeness God has with humanity and the sense of closeness humanity might have with God.
So, Trinity— Trinity which might sound like a high faluting subtle, textured, complex idea— Trinity is really about one thing and one thing only. Trinity says God loves us so much relationship matters.
And yes love is a subtle, textured, complex thing. Relationship is a subtle, textured, complex thing.
This brings me back to that Mark of Ministry which acknowledges Jesus, the Christ, as the Sole Head of the Church. Does Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, love us as God, the first person of the Trinity, loves us? If the answer is ‘yes’ seeing Jesus as the sole head of the church should be a part of a pastor’s profile.
And, as was said earlier, it is a Mark of Ministry in that profile. However, I need to point out that acknowledging Jesus as the Sole Head of the Church is not a mark only for pastors.
You see, when I got information from a church in Norwich, New York 20 plus years ago, a profile and a whole packet of information is what I got, one thing impressed me a lot. An enclosed Sunday bulletin said this: “Interim pastor: Charles Maxfield; Ministers: All the people.”
You see, Marks of Ministry are not simply traits for which we look in pastors. Marks of Ministry are traits in churches, traits found in parishioners, in the congregation.
And so for me, the point of Psalm 93, the point of the Messiahship of Jesus is not as subtle, textured, complex as it might seem. In a real way the point is rather simple.
The Psalm says God loves us. The Psalms, all of them, say God loves us. And Jesus, the One connected intimately to God, loves us. Therefore, when we, the church, show the love of Jesus, the Christ, to all people— we, the church— we are showing a Mark of Ministry. Amen.
11/25/2018
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 Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “As you heard earlier the Church, in it’s wisdom, has designated the last Sunday before Advent as the Feast of the Reign of Christ. Advent leads us toward Christmas, the Feast of the Incarnation, the Feast of the Birth of the Messiah. A number of years ago one parishioner told me she now understood Christmas is not about magic babies or angels or stables. What is Christmas about? Christmas is about us understanding the connection of Yahweh, God and the Messiah, the Christ. Christmas is about us understanding our connection, the connection of humanity with Yahweh, God and the Messiah, the Christ.”
BENEDICTION: Let us receive the gifts of God’s grace and peace. Let us rejoice in the freedom to love as Jesus loved. Let the Spirit of God speak through us today. Go forth and reach out to everyone you meet in the name of Christ. And may the face of God shine upon us; may the peace of Christ rule among us; may the fire of the Spirit burn within us this day and forevermore. Amen.
Sunday, November 18, 2018
SERMON ~ 11/18/2018 ~ “Community”
READINGS:11/18/2018 ~ Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost ~ (Proper 28) ~ 1 Samuel 1:4-20; 1 Samuel 2:1-10; Daniel 12:1-3; Psalm 16; Hebrews 10:11-14, (15-18), 19-25; Mark 13:1-8.
Community
“...let us always think about how we can help one another to love and to do good deeds. Do not stay away from the meetings of the community, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another;....” — Hebrews 10:24-25.
I want to share a family story. But I also want to tie that story into American sociological-political history. I know— big concept. The personal family story has to do with the family of one Bonnie Scott Connolly.
Bonnie will tell you she was born in Philadelphia and there is family history connected with that city. But when she was young her parents moved to Westport, Connecticut. Even more family resided there. The year was 1952. (Stop trying to guess her age!)
So she grew up, came to maturity, in Westport— went to Grade School and High School there. Now, in the 1950s and 1960s, in that era, Bonnie describes Westport as a normal town.
Bonnie and I have a running disagreement about that. Me— the kid from Brooklyn— I say in that era the town was at least somewhat privileged. It was a suburb. From where I sat, from my perspective, that was privilege.
However, Bonnie is right. The town was normal. And that is what has to do with sociological-political history. In the mid-1950s the average salary of a CEO was much more in line with that of the average worker.
In the mid-50s a typical CEO made about 20 times the salary of an average worker at the same firm. Last year, CEO pay at a typical Standard and Poor’s 500 firm was an average of 361 times more than the average rank-and-file worker in the same company.
This is obvious. When that spread was closer, diversity in a community was a reality. I think a diverse community can mean a closer community. At the very least it seems a more likely possibility.
The reason I point this out is Westport, Connecticut is no longer normal in that sense. It has become an enclave for want to be CEOs, real CEOs and celebrities. Today it is a town largely cut off from what most people call normal.
But it is still Bonnie’s hometown, her community. And, just like I still keep track of news from the New York City theater scene, theater being my community, also not particularly normal— Bonnie keeps track of news from Westport, Connecticut. She regularly checks a couple web sites and blogs which specialize in Westport news.
One blog is called 06880. That’s the ZIP code in Westport. She is actually a contemporary of and personally knows the fellow who runs the site, Dan Woog.
A couple of weeks ago Dan posted some local news. “Trevor Noah, the host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central— head-liner at the tomorrow’s Anti-Defamation League of Connecticut fund-raiser— had to cancel. But the replacement is another well known name: Whoopi Goldberg.”
Given those names it’s pretty safe to say Westport is no longer normal. But that’s not the point. The point is the response which happened when Dan put up the post.
Somehow that information got re-posted on a web site that is not particularly friendly to people of color. And that other web site contained a link back to Dan’s post on 06880.
What happened? Hate comments started to flood Dan’s 06880 page which, as I indicated, is simply devoted to local Westport news.
Dan said this about the reaction. The comments were nasty, vile, racist. I disabled commenting on the story, took down the most odious ones, left others up. I wanted readers to see what’s out there, beyond the Westport bubble. [1] (Slight pause.)
This is clear. The writer of Hebrews refers to community as if it were a place. The reality is community is often located in a place. A place can be a way local communities self-identify.
Groups meet at a clubhouse, a restaurant, a designated room. I once regularly met with a Bible Study group in a room just off the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. We were a community.
Needless to say, communities also meet in churches, synagogues, mosques, ashrams— you name it. The bottom line: the community label can be applied to nearly any small group no matter where they meet, especially those groups who meet for guidance, for study, for mutual support.
But is that what this writer is trying to highlight, just the local community? My answer is yes and no. I think we have to pay attention to a number of things in an effort to define community as it is laid out in these words.
To do that let me throw out two fancy, $24 words— $64 dollar words? Inflation. The two words: orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Orthodoxy is an adherence to accepted creeds. And Orthodoxy is what this writer is explaining in no uncertain terms in telling us who Jesus is.
Please notice where that explanation starts. (Quote:) “This is the covenant / I will make with them / in those days,....” Covenant— this is the letter to the broad community known as the Hebrews. Jesus is tied to covenant. Now that’s orthodox.
The words continue with more orthodoxy. Christ offered for all time one sacrifice, sits at the right hand of God and with one offering Jesus, the great priest, made perfect those who are being sanctified. So let us hold fast a confession of hope which we profess without wavering. That’s also orthodox, a creedal proclamation for a broad community.
Where does the writer take us next? We are taken to a community location. (Quote:) “...let us always think about how we can help one another to love and to do good deeds. Do not stay away from the meetings of the community, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another;....”
This is where that other $64 word— orthopraxy, practice— comes into play. And yes, a community relies on practice, on action, on participation. This is clear: no participation, no action, no practice equals no community, really. Participation, action, practice, is necessary. It is necessary even with a Bible Study group that meets just off the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. We met with great regularity.
So, orthodoxy— belief— needs to be worked out in orthopraxy— action. What we say we believe is merely that, what we say. Unless there is some consequential action which fosters and encourages community the words are simply words.
I need to be clear about this. Orthodoxy, what we believe, and orthopraxy, what we do, are and need to be intertwined, inseparable.
Put another way, if the One who made the promise to us is faithful and we approach the house of God, enter the house of God filled with faith, filled with sincerity in our hearts— to quote the writer of Hebrews— what do we need to do there, in the house of God?
We need to (quote:) “...think about how we can help one another to love and to do good deeds.” Again, orthodoxy, belief, leads to orthopraxy, action. And not just action— action together, action in community. (Slight pause.)
That takes us to a pivotal question. What is community? Is community a group that meets in a church, a synagogue, a mosque, an ashram or just off the floor of the Stock Exchange? Or is community something different? (Slight pause.)
Too often I think, communities act as a protective bubble. That’s what the writer of the 06880 blog was pointing out. I say community cannot isolate itself in a bubble and be a real, a valid community. Why? I think this Letter to the Hebrews lets us know why.
If, in our practice, we are called to help one another to love and to do good deeds, if in our belief we are bound in covenant, then the community is where we gather for guidance, for study, for support. But that same community, if it is true to loving and doing good, points to other communities, points to never being isolated.
And yes, communities can grow isolated over time. Dan Woog pointed that out to the 06880 community.
Dan was saying ‘look!’ Look at the greater picture, the greater community. Look at what’s happening out there. Don’t get isolated. Don’t let yourself become isolated.’ (Slight pause.)
So indeed, community is larger than a small groups, larger than us, here today. That very concept proposes an obvious question: how is community built, the local community, the broad community?
Community is built two ways. A community who helps one another to love, to do good deeds, invites people in, invites people to be a part of that local community. After all, if what that community shares among its own members is helpful, why not spread the word that the community is wonderful?
And a community who helps one another to love and to do good deeds also goes out from the group. The community, recognizes, becomes involved with other communities. Unless I am mistaken the motto of the national United Church of Christ is, “That they all may be One.” (Slight pause.)
The opening hymn today was Come Let Us Join with Faithful Souls. These are the words of the first verse. (Quote:) “Come let us join with faithful souls our songs of faith to raise; / One family in heart we are and one the God we praise.”
I cannot say it better than that. What is community? We are all one community. We are all one family, the human family. Amen.
11/18/2018
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, NY
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “It is said the Hebrews did not have a theology. Rather, the Hebrews did theology. Western Christians are susceptible to thinking having a theology is enough— if you simply think right thoughts I don’t have to worry about anything. Clearly the writer of Hebrews did not think having a theology was enough. Doing theology— building community is vital.”
BENEDICTION: Go forth in faith. Go forth trusting that God will provide. Go forth and reach out to everyone you meet in the name of Christ. And may the face of God shine upon us; may the peace of Christ rule among us; may the fire of the Spirit burn within us this day and forevermore. Amen.
[1] Note: both of Dan’s statements used here are somewhat truncated for use in this context.
Community
“...let us always think about how we can help one another to love and to do good deeds. Do not stay away from the meetings of the community, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another;....” — Hebrews 10:24-25.
I want to share a family story. But I also want to tie that story into American sociological-political history. I know— big concept. The personal family story has to do with the family of one Bonnie Scott Connolly.
Bonnie will tell you she was born in Philadelphia and there is family history connected with that city. But when she was young her parents moved to Westport, Connecticut. Even more family resided there. The year was 1952. (Stop trying to guess her age!)
So she grew up, came to maturity, in Westport— went to Grade School and High School there. Now, in the 1950s and 1960s, in that era, Bonnie describes Westport as a normal town.
Bonnie and I have a running disagreement about that. Me— the kid from Brooklyn— I say in that era the town was at least somewhat privileged. It was a suburb. From where I sat, from my perspective, that was privilege.
However, Bonnie is right. The town was normal. And that is what has to do with sociological-political history. In the mid-1950s the average salary of a CEO was much more in line with that of the average worker.
In the mid-50s a typical CEO made about 20 times the salary of an average worker at the same firm. Last year, CEO pay at a typical Standard and Poor’s 500 firm was an average of 361 times more than the average rank-and-file worker in the same company.
This is obvious. When that spread was closer, diversity in a community was a reality. I think a diverse community can mean a closer community. At the very least it seems a more likely possibility.
The reason I point this out is Westport, Connecticut is no longer normal in that sense. It has become an enclave for want to be CEOs, real CEOs and celebrities. Today it is a town largely cut off from what most people call normal.
But it is still Bonnie’s hometown, her community. And, just like I still keep track of news from the New York City theater scene, theater being my community, also not particularly normal— Bonnie keeps track of news from Westport, Connecticut. She regularly checks a couple web sites and blogs which specialize in Westport news.
One blog is called 06880. That’s the ZIP code in Westport. She is actually a contemporary of and personally knows the fellow who runs the site, Dan Woog.
A couple of weeks ago Dan posted some local news. “Trevor Noah, the host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central— head-liner at the tomorrow’s Anti-Defamation League of Connecticut fund-raiser— had to cancel. But the replacement is another well known name: Whoopi Goldberg.”
Given those names it’s pretty safe to say Westport is no longer normal. But that’s not the point. The point is the response which happened when Dan put up the post.
Somehow that information got re-posted on a web site that is not particularly friendly to people of color. And that other web site contained a link back to Dan’s post on 06880.
What happened? Hate comments started to flood Dan’s 06880 page which, as I indicated, is simply devoted to local Westport news.
Dan said this about the reaction. The comments were nasty, vile, racist. I disabled commenting on the story, took down the most odious ones, left others up. I wanted readers to see what’s out there, beyond the Westport bubble. [1] (Slight pause.)
This is clear. The writer of Hebrews refers to community as if it were a place. The reality is community is often located in a place. A place can be a way local communities self-identify.
Groups meet at a clubhouse, a restaurant, a designated room. I once regularly met with a Bible Study group in a room just off the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. We were a community.
Needless to say, communities also meet in churches, synagogues, mosques, ashrams— you name it. The bottom line: the community label can be applied to nearly any small group no matter where they meet, especially those groups who meet for guidance, for study, for mutual support.
But is that what this writer is trying to highlight, just the local community? My answer is yes and no. I think we have to pay attention to a number of things in an effort to define community as it is laid out in these words.
To do that let me throw out two fancy, $24 words— $64 dollar words? Inflation. The two words: orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Orthodoxy is an adherence to accepted creeds. And Orthodoxy is what this writer is explaining in no uncertain terms in telling us who Jesus is.
Please notice where that explanation starts. (Quote:) “This is the covenant / I will make with them / in those days,....” Covenant— this is the letter to the broad community known as the Hebrews. Jesus is tied to covenant. Now that’s orthodox.
The words continue with more orthodoxy. Christ offered for all time one sacrifice, sits at the right hand of God and with one offering Jesus, the great priest, made perfect those who are being sanctified. So let us hold fast a confession of hope which we profess without wavering. That’s also orthodox, a creedal proclamation for a broad community.
Where does the writer take us next? We are taken to a community location. (Quote:) “...let us always think about how we can help one another to love and to do good deeds. Do not stay away from the meetings of the community, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another;....”
This is where that other $64 word— orthopraxy, practice— comes into play. And yes, a community relies on practice, on action, on participation. This is clear: no participation, no action, no practice equals no community, really. Participation, action, practice, is necessary. It is necessary even with a Bible Study group that meets just off the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. We met with great regularity.
So, orthodoxy— belief— needs to be worked out in orthopraxy— action. What we say we believe is merely that, what we say. Unless there is some consequential action which fosters and encourages community the words are simply words.
I need to be clear about this. Orthodoxy, what we believe, and orthopraxy, what we do, are and need to be intertwined, inseparable.
Put another way, if the One who made the promise to us is faithful and we approach the house of God, enter the house of God filled with faith, filled with sincerity in our hearts— to quote the writer of Hebrews— what do we need to do there, in the house of God?
We need to (quote:) “...think about how we can help one another to love and to do good deeds.” Again, orthodoxy, belief, leads to orthopraxy, action. And not just action— action together, action in community. (Slight pause.)
That takes us to a pivotal question. What is community? Is community a group that meets in a church, a synagogue, a mosque, an ashram or just off the floor of the Stock Exchange? Or is community something different? (Slight pause.)
Too often I think, communities act as a protective bubble. That’s what the writer of the 06880 blog was pointing out. I say community cannot isolate itself in a bubble and be a real, a valid community. Why? I think this Letter to the Hebrews lets us know why.
If, in our practice, we are called to help one another to love and to do good deeds, if in our belief we are bound in covenant, then the community is where we gather for guidance, for study, for support. But that same community, if it is true to loving and doing good, points to other communities, points to never being isolated.
And yes, communities can grow isolated over time. Dan Woog pointed that out to the 06880 community.
Dan was saying ‘look!’ Look at the greater picture, the greater community. Look at what’s happening out there. Don’t get isolated. Don’t let yourself become isolated.’ (Slight pause.)
So indeed, community is larger than a small groups, larger than us, here today. That very concept proposes an obvious question: how is community built, the local community, the broad community?
Community is built two ways. A community who helps one another to love, to do good deeds, invites people in, invites people to be a part of that local community. After all, if what that community shares among its own members is helpful, why not spread the word that the community is wonderful?
And a community who helps one another to love and to do good deeds also goes out from the group. The community, recognizes, becomes involved with other communities. Unless I am mistaken the motto of the national United Church of Christ is, “That they all may be One.” (Slight pause.)
The opening hymn today was Come Let Us Join with Faithful Souls. These are the words of the first verse. (Quote:) “Come let us join with faithful souls our songs of faith to raise; / One family in heart we are and one the God we praise.”
I cannot say it better than that. What is community? We are all one community. We are all one family, the human family. Amen.
11/18/2018
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, NY
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “It is said the Hebrews did not have a theology. Rather, the Hebrews did theology. Western Christians are susceptible to thinking having a theology is enough— if you simply think right thoughts I don’t have to worry about anything. Clearly the writer of Hebrews did not think having a theology was enough. Doing theology— building community is vital.”
BENEDICTION: Go forth in faith. Go forth trusting that God will provide. Go forth and reach out to everyone you meet in the name of Christ. And may the face of God shine upon us; may the peace of Christ rule among us; may the fire of the Spirit burn within us this day and forevermore. Amen.
[1] Note: both of Dan’s statements used here are somewhat truncated for use in this context.
Sunday, November 11, 2018
SERMON ~ 11/11/2018 ~ “Finite We Are”
READINGS: 11/11/2018 ~ Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost ~ (Proper 27) ~ Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17; Psalm 127; 1 Kings 17:8-16; Psalm 146; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44 ~ Stewardship/Enlistment Sunday ~ Veterans Day on the Secular Calendar.
Finite We Are
In the translation of the Psalm you read earlier in the New Century Hymnal these words were in verses 3 and 4 of Psalm 146: “Do not put your trust in nobles, / in mortals, / in whom there is no help, / When their breath departs, / they return to the earth; / on that very day their plans perish.” — Psalm 146:3-4 [NCH]. I need to say the translations used for the Psalms in our hymnal was done by my Seminary New Testament Professor, the late Rev. Dr. Burton Throckmorton.
In the November Newsletter there was an article by our Director of Music Ministries, Mary Williams. She touched on the idea that we strive to have some unity in our services among the Scripture readings, the hymns, the anthem, the prelude and postlude.
Mary noted she and I meet and review the lectionary readings for each Sunday. As you may be aware, we use and follow what is known as the Revised Common Lectionary. Many Main Line Protestant churches and the Roman Church follow a three year set of readings. Each denomination has some variations built into the lections but the readings are, for the most part, at least similar. We’re kind of saying or hearing the same things in a lot of churches.
Why follow set readings? Certainly part of the point is so parishioners can experience a range of readings over time.
I would also suggest using a lectionary places a helpful constraint on a pastor. You see, when the lectionary is followed parishioners are not being subjected to what may simply be the favorite readings of a pastor week after week after week. Equally, with the discipline offered by following a lectionary the pastor is, in a sense, obligated to deal with readings which may be obscure or difficult to understand when initially read.
Coming back to what Mary said— we strive to have unity in the course of worship. How does that work? How do Mary and I come to that place?
Well, I gather some thoughts based on the readings and send them to Mary. Then we sit together, discuss a general direction, a message, and find hymns that support the readings, as we work on refining a direction for the service.
So, rather than take a look first at the Psalm we read today as happens in my remarks often, I’d like to make a comment or two about the work known as the Book of Psalms, the whole book. The first thing to say is it’s organized into five sections, five books. A lot of people don’t know that.
Second, the words found in Psalms are not just poetry. I think even in translation we can discern these words are lyrics, words meant to be heard with music. Do we know what that ancient music in the Temple might have sounded like? No, we don’t.
Now, as you know, I write lyrics on occasion and I have over time written lyrics with and for three composers. And we, the composers and I all agree: lyrics are not simply poetry. Lyrics are different, take diversions, paths poetry might not, discover and uncover rhythms in syllables and words and sentences.
In any case, the bottom line is the Book of Psalms is a hymnal filled with lyrics. In fact, over time you may have heard me say this Book is the hymnal of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
Which brings me back to the topic of organization. One glance at our New Century Hymnal should tell you it’s organized in several ways. To name two, it’s organized thematically and theologically.
The same is true for the Book of Psalms— it’s organized. And I want to stress the theological organization. You see, Psalm 146 is the opening work in the last book, Book 5, of the Psalms.
Hence, it has a task. And the task Psalm 146 tries to accomplish is to illuminate the entire work, the entire Book of Psalms. It recalls the beginning of the psalter— Psalms 1 and 2— which orients the reader to hear the Torah, the “instruction” found in Scripture. This is one instruction emphasized: we need to trust God. Do not trust human rulers.
Psalm 146 also recalls the message at the theological heart of the psalter Psalms 93, 95 and 99: God reigns. It recalls that message with one phrase. In Burt Throckmorton’s translation it says (quote:) “Praise be to God.” Often that phrase is translated with only one word: “Alleluia!”
That one word is a proclamation which praises God because God reigns. This analysis that I’ve just offered is a simple concept. The hymnal known as the Book of Psalms illuminates and is in service of the Torah, the instruction, the learning.
Now, if Psalm 146 is a hymn from a hymnal that brings up an interesting issue. What do music and lyrics say to us? How do we hear music and lyrics? Do we really, deeply listen? Or do we go on auto pilot, not pay attention to what is being said by the music and the lyrics, especially when the hymn is familiar? (Slight pause.)
Today for the Postlude Bob will play an arrangement of the well known hymn My Eyes Have Seen the Glory. In our hymnal this is # 610. Needless to say, this hymn is also known as The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
To see this work as a patriotic piece of music is to completely and utterly misunderstand what it says, what it means and is a violation of the Biblical context in which it was written and the Biblical message about which it was written. It is a hymn about the justice God seeks, not a hymn about nationalism or patriotism or any justice sought by a human entity.
Julia Ward Howe, a suffragette, an abolitionist, wrote the text to a camp meeting tune, a religious revival tune, when she witnessed a parade of Union troops near Washington, D.C. This was after the election but before the inauguration of Lincoln, just before the onset of the Civil War.
The hymn was intended to expresses not patriotism but a clear sense of a religious call to action. It was a summons to proclaim freedom not just for the privileged in society but for all people, the outcast, the downtrodden, the enslaved.
The hymn, if we are true to the sense of what the words actually mean, remains a call to action, action which might ensure the freedom offered in the reality of the dominion of God. Therefore, to treat this hymn as a call to nationalism or as a call to patriotism entirely misses the point of the sentiments being expressed.
This hymn, if you look at it carefully, is not even about specific nation or country. It is a call to humanity to work for peace, freedom, justice— God’s peace, God’s freedom, God’s justice. It is a call to humanity to do the work of God not the work of governments.
Indeed, as Christians, we need to pay particular attention to the last lines which read, “As Christ died to make us holy, / let us die to make all free:— all free— “all free” / While God is marching on.” If looked at in any light, this hymn should be looked at as sobering. After all, does God’s peace, God’s freedom, God’s justice prevail now, here, today?
If this work stirs up emotions in us, those emotions should inform us that injustice exists in our world, that injustice it is real, that injustice is pervasive and that we need to work at countering it. Indeed, I invite you to examine the insert in today’s bulletin with quotes about justice. [1] I might even say it is important to look at that insert. (Slight pause.)
As you know, today is our Enlistment Sunday. What does that have to do with justice? One of the things we try to accomplish here with our giving is making sure it has nothing to do with paying for the heat or electric bills. We try to ensure what we give is used to further the Dominion of God, the Reign of God, the justice of God.
What does that mean? In a real sense, it means our pledges are lyrics— lyrics which say we trust God, not human rulers. Our giving acts a lyric which says, “Alleluia! Praise be to God!”
One last thing: in making a pledge we need to understand the rulers of this world, the governments of this world are finite. And, yes, we too are finite. We are all here for a limited time.
In that time, in our time, we are called to seek and to do God’s will and God’s work. If what we offer to this church helps just a little in doing what this Psalm calls us to do— seeking justice for the oppressed, giving food to the hungry, setting prisoners free, lifting up those who are bowed down, upholding orphans, widows, then we are seeking to do the will of God, to do the work of God. Amen.
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “Earlier I said we are finite. I hope that’s obvious. However, the Christian apologist C. S. Lewis addressed both our being finite and the possibility of our infinite life with God this way (quote:) ‘You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.’ Since we are a soul I want to suggest our souls need to strive to do God’s will which encompasses justice, mercy and freedom for all people no matter what their station. Where do we need to place our trust? We need to place are trust in God. Why? We are souls.”
BENEDICTION: Let us lay aside anxious toil. Let us give our lives over to the One who grants life. Let us be open to the possibility that the whole of our being should rest in the will and wisdom of God and that the whole of our being should rest in the ways of love taught by God. In short, let us trust God. And may the face of God shine upon us; may the peace of Christ be among us; may the fire of the Spirit burn within us this day and forevermore. Amen.
[1] THOUGHTS ON JUSTICE
“The way of radical Christianity is to stay outside of unjust systems— insofar as possible— so they cannot control your breadth of thinking, feeling, loving, and living out universal justice.” — Richard Rohr
“As mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.”— President George Washington
“Justice is the grammar of things; mercy is the poetry.” — Frederick Buechner
“The work of divine justice always presupposes the work of mercy, and is based on it” — Thomas Aquinas
“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.” — Theodore Parker, Of Justice and the Conscience (1853)
“Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.” — Saint Augustine
“In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?” — Saint Augustine
“[Rebellion’s] most profound logic is not the logic of destruction; it is the logic of creation… the logic of the rebel is to want to serve justice so as not to add to the injustice of the human condition.” — Albert Camus, The Rebel
“Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought.” — John Rawls (1921–2002) Harvard University
“Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.” — Wendell Berry
“If you hate injustice, tyranny, lust and greed, hate these things in yourself.” — Mahatma Gandhi
“Politicians who profit from exploiting hate, from fanning it, must not be tempted by this easy way to profit from fear and misunderstanding. And my fellow clerics, of all faiths, must stand up for the principles of universal dignity and fellowship. Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice.” — Bishop Desmond Tutu
“‘Resurrected’ people prayerfully bear witness against injustice and evil— but also agree compassionately to hold their own complicity in that same evil. It is not over there, it is here.” — Richard Rohr
“Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“We shall awaken from our dullness and rise vigorously toward justice. If we fall in love with creation deeper and deeper, we will respond to its endangerment with passion.” — Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179)
“Justice is truth in action.” — Benjamin Disraeli
“We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice, or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique.” — Benjamin Jowett
“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has his foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” — Bishop Desmond Tutu
“There’s nothing more radical, nothing more revolutionary, nothing more subversive against injustice and oppression than the Bible. If you want to keep people subjugated, the last thing you place in their hands is a Bible.” — Bishop Desmond Tutu
“Liberty, equality— bad principles! The only true principle for humanity is justice; and justice to the feeble is protection and kindness.” — Henri F. Amiel
“Truth and justice interweave with all good things.” — Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179)
“May we, in our dealings with all the peoples of the earth, ever speak the truth and serve justice.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower
“My voice would like to have the strength of the voice of the humble and lowly. It is a voice that denounces injustice and proclaims hope in God and humanity. For this hope is the hope of all human beings who yearn to live in communion with all persons as their brother and sisters and as children of God.” — Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Lecture
“In many parts of the world the people are searching for a solution which would link the two basic values: peace and justice. The two are like bread and salt for mankind.” — Lech Walesa, Nobel Lecture
“If you desire peace, cultivate justice, but at the same time cultivate the field to produce more bread; otherwise there will be no peace.” — Norman Borlaug, Nobel Lecture
“I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.” — Abraham Lincoln
“If we want a beloved community, we must stand for justice, and have recognition for difference without attaching difference to privilege.” — bell hooks, American writer and professor
“Over and above all movements for social justice is God’s movement, [which is] the creative origin of any movement toward human liberation and solidarity.” — Welcoming Justice, by Charles Marsh and John Perkins
“If we ask why the God of the Bible cares about politics, about systemic justice, the answer is disarmingly simple. God cares about justice because the God of the Bible cares about suffering. And the single biggest cause of unnecessary human suffering throughout history has been and is unjust social systems.” — Marcus Borg
“If we are to keep democracy, there must be a commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.” — Billings Learned Hand, Jurist
“Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.” — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Never pray for justice. You just might get some.” — Margaret Atwood
“I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states.... Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail
“Charity is commendable; everyone should be charitable. But justice aims to create a social order in which, if individuals choose not to be charitable, people still don’t go hungry, unschooled, or sick without care.” — Bill Moyers
“To take usury for money lent is unjust in itself, because this is to sell what does not exist, and this evidently leads to inequality, which is contrary to justice.” — Thomas Aquinas, (1225-1274)
“Ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” — James Baldwin
“Justice is like the Dominion of God— it is not without us as a fact; it is within us as a great yearning.” — George Eliot, Romola
Finite We Are
In the translation of the Psalm you read earlier in the New Century Hymnal these words were in verses 3 and 4 of Psalm 146: “Do not put your trust in nobles, / in mortals, / in whom there is no help, / When their breath departs, / they return to the earth; / on that very day their plans perish.” — Psalm 146:3-4 [NCH]. I need to say the translations used for the Psalms in our hymnal was done by my Seminary New Testament Professor, the late Rev. Dr. Burton Throckmorton.
In the November Newsletter there was an article by our Director of Music Ministries, Mary Williams. She touched on the idea that we strive to have some unity in our services among the Scripture readings, the hymns, the anthem, the prelude and postlude.
Mary noted she and I meet and review the lectionary readings for each Sunday. As you may be aware, we use and follow what is known as the Revised Common Lectionary. Many Main Line Protestant churches and the Roman Church follow a three year set of readings. Each denomination has some variations built into the lections but the readings are, for the most part, at least similar. We’re kind of saying or hearing the same things in a lot of churches.
Why follow set readings? Certainly part of the point is so parishioners can experience a range of readings over time.
I would also suggest using a lectionary places a helpful constraint on a pastor. You see, when the lectionary is followed parishioners are not being subjected to what may simply be the favorite readings of a pastor week after week after week. Equally, with the discipline offered by following a lectionary the pastor is, in a sense, obligated to deal with readings which may be obscure or difficult to understand when initially read.
Coming back to what Mary said— we strive to have unity in the course of worship. How does that work? How do Mary and I come to that place?
Well, I gather some thoughts based on the readings and send them to Mary. Then we sit together, discuss a general direction, a message, and find hymns that support the readings, as we work on refining a direction for the service.
So, rather than take a look first at the Psalm we read today as happens in my remarks often, I’d like to make a comment or two about the work known as the Book of Psalms, the whole book. The first thing to say is it’s organized into five sections, five books. A lot of people don’t know that.
Second, the words found in Psalms are not just poetry. I think even in translation we can discern these words are lyrics, words meant to be heard with music. Do we know what that ancient music in the Temple might have sounded like? No, we don’t.
Now, as you know, I write lyrics on occasion and I have over time written lyrics with and for three composers. And we, the composers and I all agree: lyrics are not simply poetry. Lyrics are different, take diversions, paths poetry might not, discover and uncover rhythms in syllables and words and sentences.
In any case, the bottom line is the Book of Psalms is a hymnal filled with lyrics. In fact, over time you may have heard me say this Book is the hymnal of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
Which brings me back to the topic of organization. One glance at our New Century Hymnal should tell you it’s organized in several ways. To name two, it’s organized thematically and theologically.
The same is true for the Book of Psalms— it’s organized. And I want to stress the theological organization. You see, Psalm 146 is the opening work in the last book, Book 5, of the Psalms.
Hence, it has a task. And the task Psalm 146 tries to accomplish is to illuminate the entire work, the entire Book of Psalms. It recalls the beginning of the psalter— Psalms 1 and 2— which orients the reader to hear the Torah, the “instruction” found in Scripture. This is one instruction emphasized: we need to trust God. Do not trust human rulers.
Psalm 146 also recalls the message at the theological heart of the psalter Psalms 93, 95 and 99: God reigns. It recalls that message with one phrase. In Burt Throckmorton’s translation it says (quote:) “Praise be to God.” Often that phrase is translated with only one word: “Alleluia!”
That one word is a proclamation which praises God because God reigns. This analysis that I’ve just offered is a simple concept. The hymnal known as the Book of Psalms illuminates and is in service of the Torah, the instruction, the learning.
Now, if Psalm 146 is a hymn from a hymnal that brings up an interesting issue. What do music and lyrics say to us? How do we hear music and lyrics? Do we really, deeply listen? Or do we go on auto pilot, not pay attention to what is being said by the music and the lyrics, especially when the hymn is familiar? (Slight pause.)
Today for the Postlude Bob will play an arrangement of the well known hymn My Eyes Have Seen the Glory. In our hymnal this is # 610. Needless to say, this hymn is also known as The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
To see this work as a patriotic piece of music is to completely and utterly misunderstand what it says, what it means and is a violation of the Biblical context in which it was written and the Biblical message about which it was written. It is a hymn about the justice God seeks, not a hymn about nationalism or patriotism or any justice sought by a human entity.
Julia Ward Howe, a suffragette, an abolitionist, wrote the text to a camp meeting tune, a religious revival tune, when she witnessed a parade of Union troops near Washington, D.C. This was after the election but before the inauguration of Lincoln, just before the onset of the Civil War.
The hymn was intended to expresses not patriotism but a clear sense of a religious call to action. It was a summons to proclaim freedom not just for the privileged in society but for all people, the outcast, the downtrodden, the enslaved.
The hymn, if we are true to the sense of what the words actually mean, remains a call to action, action which might ensure the freedom offered in the reality of the dominion of God. Therefore, to treat this hymn as a call to nationalism or as a call to patriotism entirely misses the point of the sentiments being expressed.
This hymn, if you look at it carefully, is not even about specific nation or country. It is a call to humanity to work for peace, freedom, justice— God’s peace, God’s freedom, God’s justice. It is a call to humanity to do the work of God not the work of governments.
Indeed, as Christians, we need to pay particular attention to the last lines which read, “As Christ died to make us holy, / let us die to make all free:— all free— “all free” / While God is marching on.” If looked at in any light, this hymn should be looked at as sobering. After all, does God’s peace, God’s freedom, God’s justice prevail now, here, today?
If this work stirs up emotions in us, those emotions should inform us that injustice exists in our world, that injustice it is real, that injustice is pervasive and that we need to work at countering it. Indeed, I invite you to examine the insert in today’s bulletin with quotes about justice. [1] I might even say it is important to look at that insert. (Slight pause.)
As you know, today is our Enlistment Sunday. What does that have to do with justice? One of the things we try to accomplish here with our giving is making sure it has nothing to do with paying for the heat or electric bills. We try to ensure what we give is used to further the Dominion of God, the Reign of God, the justice of God.
What does that mean? In a real sense, it means our pledges are lyrics— lyrics which say we trust God, not human rulers. Our giving acts a lyric which says, “Alleluia! Praise be to God!”
One last thing: in making a pledge we need to understand the rulers of this world, the governments of this world are finite. And, yes, we too are finite. We are all here for a limited time.
In that time, in our time, we are called to seek and to do God’s will and God’s work. If what we offer to this church helps just a little in doing what this Psalm calls us to do— seeking justice for the oppressed, giving food to the hungry, setting prisoners free, lifting up those who are bowed down, upholding orphans, widows, then we are seeking to do the will of God, to do the work of God. Amen.
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “Earlier I said we are finite. I hope that’s obvious. However, the Christian apologist C. S. Lewis addressed both our being finite and the possibility of our infinite life with God this way (quote:) ‘You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.’ Since we are a soul I want to suggest our souls need to strive to do God’s will which encompasses justice, mercy and freedom for all people no matter what their station. Where do we need to place our trust? We need to place are trust in God. Why? We are souls.”
BENEDICTION: Let us lay aside anxious toil. Let us give our lives over to the One who grants life. Let us be open to the possibility that the whole of our being should rest in the will and wisdom of God and that the whole of our being should rest in the ways of love taught by God. In short, let us trust God. And may the face of God shine upon us; may the peace of Christ be among us; may the fire of the Spirit burn within us this day and forevermore. Amen.
[1] THOUGHTS ON JUSTICE
“The way of radical Christianity is to stay outside of unjust systems— insofar as possible— so they cannot control your breadth of thinking, feeling, loving, and living out universal justice.” — Richard Rohr
“As mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.”— President George Washington
“Justice is the grammar of things; mercy is the poetry.” — Frederick Buechner
“The work of divine justice always presupposes the work of mercy, and is based on it” — Thomas Aquinas
“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.” — Theodore Parker, Of Justice and the Conscience (1853)
“Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.” — Saint Augustine
“In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?” — Saint Augustine
“[Rebellion’s] most profound logic is not the logic of destruction; it is the logic of creation… the logic of the rebel is to want to serve justice so as not to add to the injustice of the human condition.” — Albert Camus, The Rebel
“Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought.” — John Rawls (1921–2002) Harvard University
“Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.” — Wendell Berry
“If you hate injustice, tyranny, lust and greed, hate these things in yourself.” — Mahatma Gandhi
“Politicians who profit from exploiting hate, from fanning it, must not be tempted by this easy way to profit from fear and misunderstanding. And my fellow clerics, of all faiths, must stand up for the principles of universal dignity and fellowship. Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice.” — Bishop Desmond Tutu
“‘Resurrected’ people prayerfully bear witness against injustice and evil— but also agree compassionately to hold their own complicity in that same evil. It is not over there, it is here.” — Richard Rohr
“Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“We shall awaken from our dullness and rise vigorously toward justice. If we fall in love with creation deeper and deeper, we will respond to its endangerment with passion.” — Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179)
“Justice is truth in action.” — Benjamin Disraeli
“We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice, or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique.” — Benjamin Jowett
“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has his foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” — Bishop Desmond Tutu
“There’s nothing more radical, nothing more revolutionary, nothing more subversive against injustice and oppression than the Bible. If you want to keep people subjugated, the last thing you place in their hands is a Bible.” — Bishop Desmond Tutu
“Liberty, equality— bad principles! The only true principle for humanity is justice; and justice to the feeble is protection and kindness.” — Henri F. Amiel
“Truth and justice interweave with all good things.” — Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179)
“May we, in our dealings with all the peoples of the earth, ever speak the truth and serve justice.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower
“My voice would like to have the strength of the voice of the humble and lowly. It is a voice that denounces injustice and proclaims hope in God and humanity. For this hope is the hope of all human beings who yearn to live in communion with all persons as their brother and sisters and as children of God.” — Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Lecture
“In many parts of the world the people are searching for a solution which would link the two basic values: peace and justice. The two are like bread and salt for mankind.” — Lech Walesa, Nobel Lecture
“If you desire peace, cultivate justice, but at the same time cultivate the field to produce more bread; otherwise there will be no peace.” — Norman Borlaug, Nobel Lecture
“I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.” — Abraham Lincoln
“If we want a beloved community, we must stand for justice, and have recognition for difference without attaching difference to privilege.” — bell hooks, American writer and professor
“Over and above all movements for social justice is God’s movement, [which is] the creative origin of any movement toward human liberation and solidarity.” — Welcoming Justice, by Charles Marsh and John Perkins
“If we ask why the God of the Bible cares about politics, about systemic justice, the answer is disarmingly simple. God cares about justice because the God of the Bible cares about suffering. And the single biggest cause of unnecessary human suffering throughout history has been and is unjust social systems.” — Marcus Borg
“If we are to keep democracy, there must be a commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.” — Billings Learned Hand, Jurist
“Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.” — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Never pray for justice. You just might get some.” — Margaret Atwood
“I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states.... Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail
“Charity is commendable; everyone should be charitable. But justice aims to create a social order in which, if individuals choose not to be charitable, people still don’t go hungry, unschooled, or sick without care.” — Bill Moyers
“To take usury for money lent is unjust in itself, because this is to sell what does not exist, and this evidently leads to inequality, which is contrary to justice.” — Thomas Aquinas, (1225-1274)
“Ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” — James Baldwin
“Justice is like the Dominion of God— it is not without us as a fact; it is within us as a great yearning.” — George Eliot, Romola
Sunday, November 4, 2018
SERMON ~ 11/04/2018 ~ “What Do We Say to Children?”
READINGS: 11/04/2018 ~ Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost ~ (Proper 26) ~ Ruth 1:1-18; Psalm 146; Deuteronomy 6:1-9; Psalm 119:1-8; Hebrews 9:11-14; Mark 12:28-34 ~ Communion Sunday.
What Do We Say to Children?
“Let these words that I command today / be written in your heart. / Recite them, teach them diligently to your children....” — Deuteronomy 6:6-7a.
Newspaper articles and Facebook postings made many aware the interfaith community gathered at the Chenango County Courthouse steps on Thursday last to offer a vigil for peace. At the vigil we tried to address the current violence against different groups and, therefore, stand against hate.
I am sure many would say: the opposite of hate is love, is it not? And we are all for love? Are we not? So organizing a gathering against hate was a given.
However, that misses the point. The opposite of hate is not love. The opposite of hate is apathy. That is why we needed to gather, needed to take action, the action of shining a light on love which is neither apathetic nor indifferent. Love, itself, is an action.
Members of this church were present. But for those who were not let me offer a précis of how it unfolded— or at least what I remember. A caveat: some who were there may have different details or impressions. This is just my experience. (Slight pause.)
One count put the number of souls assembled at more than 100. At the beginning we heard the steeple bell of this church peal 13 times.
Dr. Tom Holmes started by referring to recent violence. 11 people were murdered while worshiping at a synagogue in Pittsburgh and two African-Americans died in Tennessee while shopping, murdered because of their race.
We were gathered, Tom said, to honor those who died in acts which were clearly hate crimes, American citizens murdered because they were Jewish or African-American. Ken Warner from the Norwich Jewish Center then read the names of the 13 who died.
Ken also recited the Kaddish, the prayer said as part of mourning rituals in the Jewish tradition. There was silence and then Mary Williams rang a handbell 13 times.
Susan Fertig from the Norwich Jewish Center offered context. She recalled how 2 ships carrying Jews seeking asylum, seeking safety, were turned away from our shores just before and during WWII. Many who were refused entry wound up in concentration camps.
Sue spoke of personal history, of relatives who both did not survive the holocaust or lived through it. She spoke about the desecration of the Jewish Center here in Norwich several years ago. The building has still not been totally restored.
Next the Rev. Rachel Morse of Broad Street United Methodist Church read Psalm 5 from the translation known as The Message. Verses 4, 5 and 6 read: “God, You do not socialize with Wicked, / invite Evil over as Your houseguest. / Hot-Air-Boasters collapse in front of You; / You shake Your head over Mischief-Makers. / God destroys Lie-Speakers; / Blood-Thirsty, Truth-Benders disgust You.” And verse 11 says, “...You, O God, welcome us with open arms / when we run to You for cover.” (Slight pause.)
The Rev. Dr. David Spiegel of the First Baptist Church then spoke with passion. David was raised in his mother’s Christian tradition but his father was Jewish. His father, a World War II hero, acted as the personal body guard of General Dwight David Eisenhower.
After the war David’s father tried to join the Jersey State troopers. You can’t do that, he was told. You’re Jewish, too weak. You’ll run when there’s danger. Eventually David’s father became the chief, the commanding officer, of the Jersey State Police.
David’s Dad always impressed on him prejudice was going to be a part of his life. Indeed, when David attended a Christian College in Iowa, since he had name often associated with a Jewish heritage, people asked him why he wanted to go to a Christian school. David’s message to us was clear: marginalization, hate, bigotry have no place.
I was next. I offered some history. I said marginalizing groups and inciting has been around for many, many millennia. In 1949— more recent but still a long time ago— Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the musical South Pacific.
In this work the song You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught is sung by Marine Lieutenant Joe Cable who is in an interracial relationship. He insists racism is “not born in you! It happens after you’re born...” Cable then sings these words.
“You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear. / You’ve got to be taught from year to year / It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear. / You’ve got to be carefully taught. / You’ve got to be taught to be afraid / Of people whose eyes are oddly made / And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade / You’ve got to be carefully taught. / You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late / Before you are six or seven or eight / To hate all the people your relatives hate / You’ve got to be carefully taught.”
Then I said let us, together, understand we must not marginalize, we must not teach hate. Let us understand we must teach love and respect. When we teach love and respect and when we learn love and respect, this will empower us all to be truly free. At that point I offered a Benediction. I will use those words at the end of this service today.
A number of people told me they were moved by this event, moved by its simplicity, its sentiments, its honesty, its attempt at shining a light when light is sorely needed. I take no individual credit for that. I was part of a team. (Slight pause.)
This is what we hear in the work known as Deuteronomy: “Let these words that I command today / be written in your heart. / Recite them, teach them diligently to your children....” (Slight pause.)
We need to understand something about the instruction which tells us to teach our children. What are we invited to teach? (Quote:) “Yahweh, our God, Yahweh alone, is one. You are to love Yahweh, our God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Slight pause.)
This should be obvious. We are invited to love. As I said earlier, love is an action. We are invited to teach. Teach is an action. Why was there a gathering Thursday last? Action was necessary. Action was imperative.
We live in a world where silence is not an option. It does not matter if you are an introvert and say, “Well, I can’t say anything in public. That’s not who I am.”
You do not have to say a word. You can act. Actions speak louder than words. (Slight pause.)
In a couple minutes, in the time set aside for the Prayers of the People, we shall have a Litany of Remembrance. It might be argued these prayers are just words, not action, when action is required.
So let me address my experience with words which are prayers. Prayer centers us to be prepared to take action, to be active, centers us and thereby empowers us to understand God walks with us at all times, under all circumstances.
Which brings us back to action— the action called for by Deuteronomy— that we need to diligently teach the love of God to our children. I think a key question for us as a society is not ‘what are we teaching our children?’ We know we need to teach love. The key question is ‘how are we teaching our children?’
We need to teach our children with action. And yes, sometimes actions are words. Sometimes words are used to spread love of God and love of neighbor. And yes, sometimes words are used to spread violence and anger and hate.
Indeed, I said marginalizing groups and inciting have been around for millennia. So perhaps words and action have always been necessary. To be clear, I think many of us believe in our time silence is not viable option.
I do not think silence, at this time, is golden. I do realize right now there are many who are practicing silence, perhaps with the belief that violence, anger, fear will dissipate on its own or perhaps malice drives the silence. Again, silence is not an option. Silence is a display of apathy.
Let me quote holocaust survivor, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel on the topic of silence. (Quote:) “Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of race, religion or political views, that place must— at that moment— become the center of the universe.” [1]
So, how are we teaching our children? Do our words and our actions invite violence, anger, fear? Or do our words, our actions invite what Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, insisted were the two great commandments (quote:) “...love the Most High God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength” and (quote:) “...love your neighbor as yourself.” (Slight pause.)
Love of God and love of neighbor are irrevocably intertwined with justice— God’s justice for all people. We must not remain silent as we seek God’s justice. Amen.
11/04/2018
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 Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “Earlier I said a number of people told me they were moved by the vigil, moved by its simplicity, its sentiments, its honesty, its attempt at shining a light when light is sorely needed. I hope for those who were not there my description helped you feel some of that. But descriptions are poor substitutes. Living through things, experiencing helps us understand ourselves, understand what life, what justice, what love is about. So to reiterate, silence is not an option. Action is necessary to help us understand ourselves, understand life, justice, love especially when teaching out children.”
BENEDICTION: Here now this blessing and this is the Blessing I used at the vigil for peace on Thursday: Go now— go in safety, for you cannot go where God is not. Go now— go with the purpose of fulfilling the will of God and God will honor your dedication. God now— go in freedom as we know God is the One Who sets us free from all that destroys. Go now— go in hope, for hope sees clearly the promise of God to walk with us. Go now— Go in love, for the love of God endures. Go now— go in peace for it is a gift of God to all people whose hearts and minds honor, respect and love. Amen.
[1] The Nobel Laureate speech of Elie Wiesel:
http://eliewieselfoundation.org/elie-wiesel/nobelprizespeech/
What Do We Say to Children?
“Let these words that I command today / be written in your heart. / Recite them, teach them diligently to your children....” — Deuteronomy 6:6-7a.
Newspaper articles and Facebook postings made many aware the interfaith community gathered at the Chenango County Courthouse steps on Thursday last to offer a vigil for peace. At the vigil we tried to address the current violence against different groups and, therefore, stand against hate.
I am sure many would say: the opposite of hate is love, is it not? And we are all for love? Are we not? So organizing a gathering against hate was a given.
However, that misses the point. The opposite of hate is not love. The opposite of hate is apathy. That is why we needed to gather, needed to take action, the action of shining a light on love which is neither apathetic nor indifferent. Love, itself, is an action.
Members of this church were present. But for those who were not let me offer a précis of how it unfolded— or at least what I remember. A caveat: some who were there may have different details or impressions. This is just my experience. (Slight pause.)
One count put the number of souls assembled at more than 100. At the beginning we heard the steeple bell of this church peal 13 times.
Dr. Tom Holmes started by referring to recent violence. 11 people were murdered while worshiping at a synagogue in Pittsburgh and two African-Americans died in Tennessee while shopping, murdered because of their race.
We were gathered, Tom said, to honor those who died in acts which were clearly hate crimes, American citizens murdered because they were Jewish or African-American. Ken Warner from the Norwich Jewish Center then read the names of the 13 who died.
Ken also recited the Kaddish, the prayer said as part of mourning rituals in the Jewish tradition. There was silence and then Mary Williams rang a handbell 13 times.
Susan Fertig from the Norwich Jewish Center offered context. She recalled how 2 ships carrying Jews seeking asylum, seeking safety, were turned away from our shores just before and during WWII. Many who were refused entry wound up in concentration camps.
Sue spoke of personal history, of relatives who both did not survive the holocaust or lived through it. She spoke about the desecration of the Jewish Center here in Norwich several years ago. The building has still not been totally restored.
Next the Rev. Rachel Morse of Broad Street United Methodist Church read Psalm 5 from the translation known as The Message. Verses 4, 5 and 6 read: “God, You do not socialize with Wicked, / invite Evil over as Your houseguest. / Hot-Air-Boasters collapse in front of You; / You shake Your head over Mischief-Makers. / God destroys Lie-Speakers; / Blood-Thirsty, Truth-Benders disgust You.” And verse 11 says, “...You, O God, welcome us with open arms / when we run to You for cover.” (Slight pause.)
The Rev. Dr. David Spiegel of the First Baptist Church then spoke with passion. David was raised in his mother’s Christian tradition but his father was Jewish. His father, a World War II hero, acted as the personal body guard of General Dwight David Eisenhower.
After the war David’s father tried to join the Jersey State troopers. You can’t do that, he was told. You’re Jewish, too weak. You’ll run when there’s danger. Eventually David’s father became the chief, the commanding officer, of the Jersey State Police.
David’s Dad always impressed on him prejudice was going to be a part of his life. Indeed, when David attended a Christian College in Iowa, since he had name often associated with a Jewish heritage, people asked him why he wanted to go to a Christian school. David’s message to us was clear: marginalization, hate, bigotry have no place.
I was next. I offered some history. I said marginalizing groups and inciting has been around for many, many millennia. In 1949— more recent but still a long time ago— Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the musical South Pacific.
In this work the song You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught is sung by Marine Lieutenant Joe Cable who is in an interracial relationship. He insists racism is “not born in you! It happens after you’re born...” Cable then sings these words.
“You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear. / You’ve got to be taught from year to year / It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear. / You’ve got to be carefully taught. / You’ve got to be taught to be afraid / Of people whose eyes are oddly made / And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade / You’ve got to be carefully taught. / You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late / Before you are six or seven or eight / To hate all the people your relatives hate / You’ve got to be carefully taught.”
Then I said let us, together, understand we must not marginalize, we must not teach hate. Let us understand we must teach love and respect. When we teach love and respect and when we learn love and respect, this will empower us all to be truly free. At that point I offered a Benediction. I will use those words at the end of this service today.
A number of people told me they were moved by this event, moved by its simplicity, its sentiments, its honesty, its attempt at shining a light when light is sorely needed. I take no individual credit for that. I was part of a team. (Slight pause.)
This is what we hear in the work known as Deuteronomy: “Let these words that I command today / be written in your heart. / Recite them, teach them diligently to your children....” (Slight pause.)
We need to understand something about the instruction which tells us to teach our children. What are we invited to teach? (Quote:) “Yahweh, our God, Yahweh alone, is one. You are to love Yahweh, our God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Slight pause.)
This should be obvious. We are invited to love. As I said earlier, love is an action. We are invited to teach. Teach is an action. Why was there a gathering Thursday last? Action was necessary. Action was imperative.
We live in a world where silence is not an option. It does not matter if you are an introvert and say, “Well, I can’t say anything in public. That’s not who I am.”
You do not have to say a word. You can act. Actions speak louder than words. (Slight pause.)
In a couple minutes, in the time set aside for the Prayers of the People, we shall have a Litany of Remembrance. It might be argued these prayers are just words, not action, when action is required.
So let me address my experience with words which are prayers. Prayer centers us to be prepared to take action, to be active, centers us and thereby empowers us to understand God walks with us at all times, under all circumstances.
Which brings us back to action— the action called for by Deuteronomy— that we need to diligently teach the love of God to our children. I think a key question for us as a society is not ‘what are we teaching our children?’ We know we need to teach love. The key question is ‘how are we teaching our children?’
We need to teach our children with action. And yes, sometimes actions are words. Sometimes words are used to spread love of God and love of neighbor. And yes, sometimes words are used to spread violence and anger and hate.
Indeed, I said marginalizing groups and inciting have been around for millennia. So perhaps words and action have always been necessary. To be clear, I think many of us believe in our time silence is not viable option.
I do not think silence, at this time, is golden. I do realize right now there are many who are practicing silence, perhaps with the belief that violence, anger, fear will dissipate on its own or perhaps malice drives the silence. Again, silence is not an option. Silence is a display of apathy.
Let me quote holocaust survivor, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel on the topic of silence. (Quote:) “Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of race, religion or political views, that place must— at that moment— become the center of the universe.” [1]
So, how are we teaching our children? Do our words and our actions invite violence, anger, fear? Or do our words, our actions invite what Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, insisted were the two great commandments (quote:) “...love the Most High God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength” and (quote:) “...love your neighbor as yourself.” (Slight pause.)
Love of God and love of neighbor are irrevocably intertwined with justice— God’s justice for all people. We must not remain silent as we seek God’s justice. Amen.
11/04/2018
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 Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “Earlier I said a number of people told me they were moved by the vigil, moved by its simplicity, its sentiments, its honesty, its attempt at shining a light when light is sorely needed. I hope for those who were not there my description helped you feel some of that. But descriptions are poor substitutes. Living through things, experiencing helps us understand ourselves, understand what life, what justice, what love is about. So to reiterate, silence is not an option. Action is necessary to help us understand ourselves, understand life, justice, love especially when teaching out children.”
BENEDICTION: Here now this blessing and this is the Blessing I used at the vigil for peace on Thursday: Go now— go in safety, for you cannot go where God is not. Go now— go with the purpose of fulfilling the will of God and God will honor your dedication. God now— go in freedom as we know God is the One Who sets us free from all that destroys. Go now— go in hope, for hope sees clearly the promise of God to walk with us. Go now— Go in love, for the love of God endures. Go now— go in peace for it is a gift of God to all people whose hearts and minds honor, respect and love. Amen.
[1] The Nobel Laureate speech of Elie Wiesel:
http://eliewieselfoundation.org/elie-wiesel/nobelprizespeech/
Sunday, October 28, 2018
SERMON ~ 10/28/2018 ~ “Faith Is Vision”
READINGS: 10/28/2018 ~ Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost ~ (Proper 25) ~ Job 42:1-6, 10-17; Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22); Jeremiah 31:7-9; Psalm 126; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 10:46-52 ~ Sometimes Celebrated as Reformation Sunday ~ Annual Budget Information Meeting.
Faith Is Vision
“Jesus replied, ‘Go. Your faith has saved you.’ Immediately Bartimaeus received the gift of sight and began to follow Jesus along the road.” — Mark 10:52.
I want to start my comments today with a word about the polity of the United Church of Christ. Polity— that’s a fancy word which means governance. Polity is the term used to describe how any denomination governs itself.
This is a given for us: the basic unit in the denomination known as the United Church of Christ is the local Congregation. Congregations join into Associations. Part of the idea is churches gathered in an Association can, in unity together, do things an individual congregation might not be able to do on its own.
But part of the idea is churches gathered in an Association should not do some things in insolation from other churches because it would be unwise. Quite specifically, one of those unwise things would for a congregation, on its own, to ordain pastors.
Pastors are ordained not just by the local church. Ordination is done in conjunction with and cooperation from the Association.
Why is this mutuality important? Pastors are, you see, ordained for the whole church. An act this universal needs be done in conjunction with others— in this case with the Association. Why? Ordination is an action for the good of the whole, not just for the good of the local church.
In forming Associations we rely on covenant, a word you’ve heard me say a couple thousand times. We are in covenant with other churches in the Association.
This covenant among churches is about honoring one another, mutually seeking the justice of God and, as well as we are able, striving to be a presence to the world concerning issues of justice. Similar to ordaining, seeking the justice of God in this world needs the intentional involvement of more than one congregational acting on its own.
So, how is covenant established, accomplished, maintained? Covenant is established, accomplished and maintained by listening in prayer and with respect to the other churches in our Association.
And other churches, to keep covenant with us, need to do the same. To be clear, Associations have been a part of our Congregational tradition since the early 1600s. It is part of our heritage, our history, our life as a church. To ignore this ignores our heritage, our history, our life as a church, ignores a bedrock piece of our tradition.
In my time in Norwich we have hosted Association Meetings and we have hosted a New York Conference Board Meeting. Right now I am a member of two committees of the Association and two committees of the Conference.
But this is not about me. We have lay delegates to both our Association and our Conference. Lay members from this church have served on Association Committees and on the Conference Board.
In my time in Norwich we have gathered for our regular Sunday worship with the United Church of Christ in Sherburne. We have gathered for our regular Sunday worship with the entire New York Conference in Binghamton. Each and every Conference Minister who has served us over this time has preached from this pulpit.
Now, there’s a word I’ve just used several times— Conference. What is a Conference?
Conferences are not an aspect or an appendage of Associations. This is not about hierarchy. Just like the process with the Associations, Congregations come together in a Conference, a larger gathering. And in a Conference churches can, in unity, do things together an individual Congregation might not be able to do on its own.
Indeed, churches gathered in a Conference can do some things it would be unwise for a Congregation to do on its own. It would be, for instance, unwise for a local Congregation to embark on pastoral search alone.
Again, in forming a Conference we rely on covenant, this honoring of one another, as we mutually seek the justice of God and, as well as we are able, seek to be a presence to the world on issues of justice. Seeking the justice of God is a task for which a Conference can be even better suited than an Association. It is, after all, a larger body.
To be clear, Conferences have been in the Congregational tradition since the 1800s, by far [re-dating the origins of the United Church of Christ. It is part of our heritage, our history, our life as a church, a bedrock piece of the our tradition. (Slight pause.)
As I said, we are in covenant with the Association and the Conference. I think one of the things we do not understand about covenant is the commitment, the intentionality, the mutual responsibility involved. Covenant does not somehow magically happen on its own.
I’ve said this before. Covenant is a commitment to growth, to change, a commitment to be intentional in relationship. It is a bedrock aspect of faith.
But really, who wants to grow, to change, to be intentional? Why can’t things be just left as they are or even go back to what they were? These are frequently asked questions, are they not?
However growth, change and intentionality are important. These empower real, substantive faith. And, oh yes— a commitment to growth and to change and to intentionality is necessary in seeking the justice of God. (Slight pause.)
Something should be obvious about this story we heard from Mark. There are many obstacles with which Bartimaeus needs to deal.
The text notes a large crowd surrounds the Rabbi. And so, at the side of the road, unable to see, needing to carefully listen amid what was probably something of a tumult surrounding Jesus, is where Bartimaeus starts.
It also seems the crowd is moving along the road. Again, for someone unable to see, probably unable to move too far, this makes perception of what’s happening difficult.
This is also clear: Bartimaeus is a beggar. In that era a beggar cannot be compared to someone in poverty today. This is a station in society. So it’s unlikely people will help. In short and to reiterate, there are many obstacles with which Bartimaeus needs to deal.
So, what does Bartimaeus do? This is also clear. Bartimaeus seeks Jesus. Bartimaeus seeks change, growth. Bartimaeus is intentional.
But this may not be clear. When Bartimaeus calls out the writer of Mark uses a title (quote:) “Heir of David.” This is the first time in Mark we hear a Messianic title.
Therefore, Bartimaeus is intentional about seeking the Messiah of God. And to do that Bartimaeus overcomes the aforementioned obstacles. This poses a question for us to consider: how does faith become empowered? (Slight pause.)
Many churches in the Reformed tradition celebrate this Sunday as Reformation Sunday. Of course, Martin Luther’s theological premise was justification by faith. This is what Luther said about how the substance of justification by faith happens.
(Quote:) “This life is not righteous but growth in righteousness; is not health but healing; not being but becoming; not rest but exercise; we are not yet what we shall be but we are growing toward it; the process is not yet finished but it is going on; this is not the end but it is the road; all does not yet gleam in glory but all is being purified.”
Luther’s contention says life, indeed, the Christian life, is forever an unfinished product. That did not sit well with the power structure in Luther’s time which believed a lack of growth and change was beneficial to power. Nor does it sit well today probably for the same reasons.
Why do the ideas of Luther not sit well today? We live in a society which believes in some kind of magic. We believe things will be just fine when stagnant. Lack of growth, lack of change and an unwillingness to be intentional about growing and changing are rampant in the world in which we live. (Slight pause.)
As was said earlier, after the service today we shall gather to look at some budget numbers. We will decide nothing. That’s for a later date. [1]
But when it comes to finances, for us solvency is not an issue. Indeed, logically our solvency should afford us the freedom to be intentional about covenant. And we do constantly need to be intentional about covenant. We need to intentionally strive to see the world as God might see the world— a place of change, a place for growth, with our eyes intentionally fixed on the justice of God.
And yes, we do need to trust God. Therefore we should not, to use the old fashioned word, trust Mammon.
Why? Trust in Mammon inevitably turns people of faith away from growth and change and intentionality. Mammon inevitably turns people of faith toward the false feeling of safely being stagnant. People of faith are intentional about growth and change.
How do I know that? Please just look at the actions Bartimaeus took. And then look at what happens. The words we heard in the Gospel today say this (quote:) “Jesus replied, ‘Go. Your faith has saved you.’ Immediately Bartimaeus received the gift of sight and began to follow Jesus along the road.” Amen.
10/28/2018
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 Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “The late famous poet Maya Angelou said this about being a Christian: ‘I’m working on trying to be a Christian and that’s serious business. It’s not where you think like, Oh, I’ve got this done. I did it all day— hot diggity. The truth is all day long you try to do it.... And then in the evening, if you’re honest and have a little courage, you look at yourself an say, Hmmm— I only blew it 86 times today. Not bad.’— Maya Angelou. Covenant— the basis of faith— it’s about intentional growth and change.”
BENEDICTION: Go out in the strength and love God provides. Praise the deeds of God by the way you live, by the way you love. And may the steadfast love of God and the peace of Christ, which surpasses understanding, keep our minds and hearts in the companionship and will of the Holy Spirit, this day and forever more. Amen.
[1] After the service the Congregation gathered to look at the first and preliminary outline of the 2019 budget. This Congregation’s solvency stems from an endowment that is around $14,000,000.
Faith Is Vision
“Jesus replied, ‘Go. Your faith has saved you.’ Immediately Bartimaeus received the gift of sight and began to follow Jesus along the road.” — Mark 10:52.
I want to start my comments today with a word about the polity of the United Church of Christ. Polity— that’s a fancy word which means governance. Polity is the term used to describe how any denomination governs itself.
This is a given for us: the basic unit in the denomination known as the United Church of Christ is the local Congregation. Congregations join into Associations. Part of the idea is churches gathered in an Association can, in unity together, do things an individual congregation might not be able to do on its own.
But part of the idea is churches gathered in an Association should not do some things in insolation from other churches because it would be unwise. Quite specifically, one of those unwise things would for a congregation, on its own, to ordain pastors.
Pastors are ordained not just by the local church. Ordination is done in conjunction with and cooperation from the Association.
Why is this mutuality important? Pastors are, you see, ordained for the whole church. An act this universal needs be done in conjunction with others— in this case with the Association. Why? Ordination is an action for the good of the whole, not just for the good of the local church.
In forming Associations we rely on covenant, a word you’ve heard me say a couple thousand times. We are in covenant with other churches in the Association.
This covenant among churches is about honoring one another, mutually seeking the justice of God and, as well as we are able, striving to be a presence to the world concerning issues of justice. Similar to ordaining, seeking the justice of God in this world needs the intentional involvement of more than one congregational acting on its own.
So, how is covenant established, accomplished, maintained? Covenant is established, accomplished and maintained by listening in prayer and with respect to the other churches in our Association.
And other churches, to keep covenant with us, need to do the same. To be clear, Associations have been a part of our Congregational tradition since the early 1600s. It is part of our heritage, our history, our life as a church. To ignore this ignores our heritage, our history, our life as a church, ignores a bedrock piece of our tradition.
In my time in Norwich we have hosted Association Meetings and we have hosted a New York Conference Board Meeting. Right now I am a member of two committees of the Association and two committees of the Conference.
But this is not about me. We have lay delegates to both our Association and our Conference. Lay members from this church have served on Association Committees and on the Conference Board.
In my time in Norwich we have gathered for our regular Sunday worship with the United Church of Christ in Sherburne. We have gathered for our regular Sunday worship with the entire New York Conference in Binghamton. Each and every Conference Minister who has served us over this time has preached from this pulpit.
Now, there’s a word I’ve just used several times— Conference. What is a Conference?
Conferences are not an aspect or an appendage of Associations. This is not about hierarchy. Just like the process with the Associations, Congregations come together in a Conference, a larger gathering. And in a Conference churches can, in unity, do things together an individual Congregation might not be able to do on its own.
Indeed, churches gathered in a Conference can do some things it would be unwise for a Congregation to do on its own. It would be, for instance, unwise for a local Congregation to embark on pastoral search alone.
Again, in forming a Conference we rely on covenant, this honoring of one another, as we mutually seek the justice of God and, as well as we are able, seek to be a presence to the world on issues of justice. Seeking the justice of God is a task for which a Conference can be even better suited than an Association. It is, after all, a larger body.
To be clear, Conferences have been in the Congregational tradition since the 1800s, by far [re-dating the origins of the United Church of Christ. It is part of our heritage, our history, our life as a church, a bedrock piece of the our tradition. (Slight pause.)
As I said, we are in covenant with the Association and the Conference. I think one of the things we do not understand about covenant is the commitment, the intentionality, the mutual responsibility involved. Covenant does not somehow magically happen on its own.
I’ve said this before. Covenant is a commitment to growth, to change, a commitment to be intentional in relationship. It is a bedrock aspect of faith.
But really, who wants to grow, to change, to be intentional? Why can’t things be just left as they are or even go back to what they were? These are frequently asked questions, are they not?
However growth, change and intentionality are important. These empower real, substantive faith. And, oh yes— a commitment to growth and to change and to intentionality is necessary in seeking the justice of God. (Slight pause.)
Something should be obvious about this story we heard from Mark. There are many obstacles with which Bartimaeus needs to deal.
The text notes a large crowd surrounds the Rabbi. And so, at the side of the road, unable to see, needing to carefully listen amid what was probably something of a tumult surrounding Jesus, is where Bartimaeus starts.
It also seems the crowd is moving along the road. Again, for someone unable to see, probably unable to move too far, this makes perception of what’s happening difficult.
This is also clear: Bartimaeus is a beggar. In that era a beggar cannot be compared to someone in poverty today. This is a station in society. So it’s unlikely people will help. In short and to reiterate, there are many obstacles with which Bartimaeus needs to deal.
So, what does Bartimaeus do? This is also clear. Bartimaeus seeks Jesus. Bartimaeus seeks change, growth. Bartimaeus is intentional.
But this may not be clear. When Bartimaeus calls out the writer of Mark uses a title (quote:) “Heir of David.” This is the first time in Mark we hear a Messianic title.
Therefore, Bartimaeus is intentional about seeking the Messiah of God. And to do that Bartimaeus overcomes the aforementioned obstacles. This poses a question for us to consider: how does faith become empowered? (Slight pause.)
Many churches in the Reformed tradition celebrate this Sunday as Reformation Sunday. Of course, Martin Luther’s theological premise was justification by faith. This is what Luther said about how the substance of justification by faith happens.
(Quote:) “This life is not righteous but growth in righteousness; is not health but healing; not being but becoming; not rest but exercise; we are not yet what we shall be but we are growing toward it; the process is not yet finished but it is going on; this is not the end but it is the road; all does not yet gleam in glory but all is being purified.”
Luther’s contention says life, indeed, the Christian life, is forever an unfinished product. That did not sit well with the power structure in Luther’s time which believed a lack of growth and change was beneficial to power. Nor does it sit well today probably for the same reasons.
Why do the ideas of Luther not sit well today? We live in a society which believes in some kind of magic. We believe things will be just fine when stagnant. Lack of growth, lack of change and an unwillingness to be intentional about growing and changing are rampant in the world in which we live. (Slight pause.)
As was said earlier, after the service today we shall gather to look at some budget numbers. We will decide nothing. That’s for a later date. [1]
But when it comes to finances, for us solvency is not an issue. Indeed, logically our solvency should afford us the freedom to be intentional about covenant. And we do constantly need to be intentional about covenant. We need to intentionally strive to see the world as God might see the world— a place of change, a place for growth, with our eyes intentionally fixed on the justice of God.
And yes, we do need to trust God. Therefore we should not, to use the old fashioned word, trust Mammon.
Why? Trust in Mammon inevitably turns people of faith away from growth and change and intentionality. Mammon inevitably turns people of faith toward the false feeling of safely being stagnant. People of faith are intentional about growth and change.
How do I know that? Please just look at the actions Bartimaeus took. And then look at what happens. The words we heard in the Gospel today say this (quote:) “Jesus replied, ‘Go. Your faith has saved you.’ Immediately Bartimaeus received the gift of sight and began to follow Jesus along the road.” Amen.
10/28/2018
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 Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “The late famous poet Maya Angelou said this about being a Christian: ‘I’m working on trying to be a Christian and that’s serious business. It’s not where you think like, Oh, I’ve got this done. I did it all day— hot diggity. The truth is all day long you try to do it.... And then in the evening, if you’re honest and have a little courage, you look at yourself an say, Hmmm— I only blew it 86 times today. Not bad.’— Maya Angelou. Covenant— the basis of faith— it’s about intentional growth and change.”
BENEDICTION: Go out in the strength and love God provides. Praise the deeds of God by the way you live, by the way you love. And may the steadfast love of God and the peace of Christ, which surpasses understanding, keep our minds and hearts in the companionship and will of the Holy Spirit, this day and forever more. Amen.
[1] After the service the Congregation gathered to look at the first and preliminary outline of the 2019 budget. This Congregation’s solvency stems from an endowment that is around $14,000,000.
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