"A Presence" December 29, 2013

Isaiah 63: 7-9 Hebrews 2:10-18 We, people of faith, are a strange lot, trying to keep up with the world, and be faithful. While all the world made lists of gifts, buying and shopping for Christmas, we planned. Some were sorting costumes and rehearsing parts. Some setting platforms and building stables. Some going over and over the Halleluia Chorus. Some taking down stables to put up Pointsettias. Some running off bulletins and sorting candles. Some collecting hymnals and putting out new. Some making trips to the hospital. Now, in the days after Christmas, the world absorbs the depression of debt and Christmas presents being over, while we question how we are to live our lives differently with God's presence with us? The distinction is as simple as this, the world is concerned with finding the perfect tree, covering it with decorations, and gifts, the anxiety of how we will get through four days with family; while in faith, we are concerned with preserving the ornaments, collecting addresses from cards, and adjusting to the bare spots without the tree, stockings, family. Its funny, worshipers always wonder “Who picked the hymns?” Why could we not sing Christmas Carols in Advent, but now that Christmas is over, we sing “Go Tell It On the Mountain” and “Joy to the World”? When preachers wonder at the motivation of those who pick the Bible verses for the Lectionary? Because one of the purposes of a lectionary is that all the churches read the same texts, yet on this Sunday out of the year, the Catholics have different passages, than the Episcopalians, and both different from the Revised Common Lectionary of the Presbyterians, Lutherans, Baptists and Congregationalists. But also because they carefully pried out of context, the most up-lifting and positive words, from Isaiah 63-64 which describe God's anger and destruction of that which God loves. This part of Isaiah describes the Dark Side of God. Almighty God is a Warrior with PTSD. For thousands of years, this Warrior has been the one fighting evil, been the one fighting Pharaoh for us, been the one who knew how hard our own hearts are, so fought for values and freedoms that might not be respected by us when they got home. This All-knowing, All-powerful Warrior God, somehow justified and allowed the drowning of everyone except Noah, Permitted Pharaoh's abuses, King Herod's brutal genocide of children, and God did not prevent the Assyrians, the Babylonians, or the Holocaust of WWII. The text is specific that instead of sending an Angel or providing a Burning Bush for people to See and prevent devastation, God was present with the people in life. These parts of Isaiah and Hebrews identify the Presence of God Not as our Protector; but as our Liberator, our Savior who suffers for us, our Companion, and the Pioneer of our Salvation. There is a difference between God and Cartoon Superheros. Our Fictional Superheros always get the Girl, always arrive in the nick of time, always win so there will be a happy ending. God is Real, we know this because life is at times tragic, and God does not spare us that, God is present in our wounded-ness as well as our victories. There are a lifetime of memories of Christmases gone. Like putting away the ornaments from the tree, saving the addresses of friends and family. There was the Christmas where we sent our children their ornaments. There was the first Christmas with new puppies. There was the first Christmas we spent alone. There was the Christmas when we came to Skaneateles and found a tree all decorated for us. There was the first Christmas with each child. There was the first Christmas after we were married, trying to be present at both our parents' homes. There was the Christmas when we traveled all night to get home from College. In the Lindsey household there is also memory there was the Christmas after Grandpa died, when Grandma lived near-by. Grandma was quite advanced in age, needing a wheel chair, her voice having gone to barely a whisper, and she had to have a companion whom she referred to as a Housekeeper. Grandma knew she needed the Housekeeper to perform chores like cleaning, to drive her places, and carry things for her, but she did not trust the Companion to have labeled packages correctly and imagined at times she intentionally mixed everything up. So it was that after the gifts were bought, after packages were wrapped Grandma changed the labels around. On Christmas morning, we rushed downstairs and Father turned on the lights on the tree. Grandma's companion had Christmas day off, so Grandma had spent the night with us, and sat watching as we tore into gifts. Imagine the scene when my Father received GI Joe Action Figures? My 12 year old brother received a Silk Robe called a Smoking Jacket, though he had been chided against smoking. The 10 year received a Stop-Watch. At 6, I received slippers, and our 4 year old little brother received a subscription to Boy's Life Magazine? My father was totally bewildered, as his mother softly whispered “No, that's not right.” But we were all together, opening gifts, and truly sharing them, as each had been given to another, and Grandma was present with us one last time.

"The Incarnation" December 24, 2013 Midnight

Luke 2: 1-20 Something happens to Christmas when we grow up, and stop believing. I am not talking about whether Reindeer fly or how Santa makes all the toys. As children, we accept knowing that there are things we do not know, we do not control. As children we may ask where Babies come from, without wanting to know anything about sex. As children we want everything, because we believe everything is possible, without any limitations. “Because Mom said so” is a legitimate answer when we are 2 - 10, but from 11 onward does not work. We know too much, we want too much to control and the exchange for control is trust, believing in what we cannot prove, cannot document, cannot ever know for certainty. Not knowing, not having answers, not controlling the future, mandates that we trust, that we believe! Lent, Holy Week, Easter, we can logically reason and accept. We may question IF a Savior would save us, we may question HOW atonement occurs, but the idea of suffering, the realization that we love because God loved us, we forgive because Christ died for us, seem to be knowable realities involving us through our acceptance. Christmas is different. Christmas is a gift. There is no return gift expected from us, the gift is not one we would know how to return, it matters not if we have a tree or stocking, if we were on the nice or naughty list because we know who and where we each are. GOD, ultimate Creator and Judge of time and space, God gives us the greatest gift of all. While miraculous, changing everything of culture and empire in human history, the gift is so simple. GOD became ONE with us. Like Pygmellean, the Creator recognized that the only way to correct the masterpiece, was for the artist to enter in and become a real part of the creation. That is what the Incarnation of Christmas is, that God is one with us. Consider with me, who the Almighty is? How God is different from us? What God would have to give to enter in and be one with us? Because that is the value of the gift beneath all the gift giving. Not to repay generosity with generosity, not to spend excessively, but to stop in holy sabbath to pray and consider who is God and the depth of God's love that no matter what: God chooses to be with us. Life would have been so much simpler, if God had not made us as we are. If like a Rock/Mountain we existed. If like the lake, our role in Creation was to be deep, to be a reservoir for others, home for fish. If we were like flowers or crops or animals whose function was to live and breed and die. BUT instead, God chose to make us to be able to LOVE God back. But of course love only works, is only real, if we are free to chose whether to love or not. The birth of Christ is not about our REDEMPTION. The birth is a gift of love from God, of God's self to us. That is INCARNATION, God changed God's way of being known to us, from the LAW of that time, to God becoming One with Us beginning “In those days”. Have you ever stopped to recognize the intricacies of time? We often complain about things coming at the wrong time. The great irony of Luke's Gospel is that there was no great Census at the time of the birth of Jesus. Luke is not writing History, the Evangelist was writing Theology, the difference being that there were several Censuses as the Caesars continually raised taxes, and this is set as a drama between the Empire of Rome where people must be counted to be assessed taxes and the Kingdom of God where you are known. But, “In Those Days,” identifies an amazing moment in human history. Because of the Diaspora, the great dispersion of Judaism throughout the world, because of the invasions of the Assyrians and Babylonians, Medes and Persians and Romans, Judaism was not confined to the Fertile Crescent of David's Kingdom. The Roman Empire brought Roads and City Governance, clean water and the transfer of sewage. For which the Roman Empire had required all people in their world to name “Caesar as LORD.” For decades they killed the Jewish people for refusing to do so, until Julius Caesar relented and allowed the Jewish people as the only people in the World to say YHWH is LORD and not say Caesar is Lord. When Julius Caesar was killed, the Empire was torn apart by Civil War, between Brutus, Marc Anthony and Cleopatra, until finally 25 years later when Augustus Caesar enforced Peace through military dominance in the Pax Romana, for which Augustus was hailed as being The Prince of Peace. But as we said, while it was a new time, without Civil War, it was a fragile Peace, an Enforced Peace when Jesus was born, and from the Early Church on the Day of Pentecost until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the Roman Empire did not and could not differentiate between Judaism and Christianity, so Christians began proclaiming “Jesus Christ is Lord” and Jesus is “Prince of Peace” during the only time in history in which this could have occurred and been spread throughout the world. A year ago, the Dalai Lama was asked whether he had Hope for the Future? He laughed responding “Of course I have hope! The future is not yet decided!” Is that what we all believe, or do we believe there is No Hope, as if the future has already been determined, that the fragmentation and divisions of our lives is permanent. Christmas is not about overcoming adversity, redeeming the lost, life after death Christmas is simply and purely about God acting in love, in hope and expectation, that maybe, possibly each and every human being on the face of this planet could still act to love. Today, I have had a series of phone calls and visits, from couples wanting to get married, wanting babies baptized, and looking for a church for Christmas. Sounds a lot like Mary and Joseph coming! Honestly, I think represents is a very natural request, that in the midst of our world, where we know every attack, we are informed of every Stock Market tick, we know too much of the world, too much of life. So we come to Christmas, wanting a Sepia-toned airbrushed image of a pristine Stable, aglow with radiant light coming from an unknown source. Because no matter how perfect, no matter how much we have, our lives are not sufficient unto ourself. We know there is something more we do not know, more than we expect. But we listen to Luke's narration, and the story is more earthy. The earthy part comes not only from the animals in a stable, but as any of us who have been present in Labor and Delivery can imagine, Mary as a young mother of 13 or 14 would have been petrified. Joseph would have seen himself a pawn of the world and overwhelmed. The Shepherds who were the first witnesses came not to see the Miracle of a Virgin Birth after-all the Caesars were top have been fostered by the Gods, but the scandal here was that God's Messiah would be born to a poor couple in a barn! So this Christmas, I would like to give you a gift that matters more than anything else. Thank you for sharing you! Our lives matter. Whether it is tucking in a child at night, or reading a bedtime story, making cookies, or visiting a neighbor, pioneering an idea to make others lives more comfortable, or believing that what we know is not all that there will be, your life matters.

December 15, 2013, "Great Expectations"

Isaiah 35 Luke 11:1-15 As any of those who have been in 9th Grade in our schools, or the parent or grandparent of a daughter or son could tell, Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. The authors goal was to write a story so scandalous, so offensive, that it would be a cliff hanger. The story was published in installments, such that every chapter left you wanting to read the next, waiting for what would come. The story opens with the hero Pip, an orphan being attacked by an escaped Prisoner. Throughout, we the audience have great expectations for Pip's education, his career, his love. Our lives are built on great expectations the problem is that no matter our expectations, the world around us is in revolution, transformation; technological, political, economic and social change. Recently, I went to purchase a map of the world, and the order form required that you list your email address so that the publishers of the Map could send new labels of names for countries as they went through revolution, not if they did, but when. Friday, the Dictator of North Korea executed his own uncle for treason. Yesterday there was yet another school shooting in a Colorado town outside Littleton. The population of the world, all humanity, has become traumatized, we have lived with the constant stress and fears of war, of attack of collapse. Expectations are based on our hopes and dreams and prophecies, and our fears, offenses, scandals. Is there anything in the world today, that we believe could not happen? Is there anything, any one, that we are certain of? What is there that we find scandalous, offensive? Our Gospel lesson this morning is odd for Advent. We might expect Mary's Song, the Magnificat, hearing the music, awed by the poetry, missing the point that her song is of revolution, total change of everything in God's world. Mary was not simply a young girl, she was a servant girl, of the class of a slave and this 12 year old is told she is to be the Bearer of God! We might expect Joseph having a dream, because in the Old Testament there was a Joseph with dreams. But those who select our Biblical passages have chosen a reading from after Jesus was already 30 years of age. At that time, all the world was going out to the desert to hear John the Baptist preach. They did not need a ticket. They did not travel by car. The people, from the most affluent and highly educated, to the servants and slaves, walked 20, 30, 40 miles into the desert to listen. People went, not because he was a great story-teller, not because of pyrotechnics or slide presentations, or great intellect or a new spirituality, not because he had a fabulous choir. They went to listen to John because John was an authentic prophet, man of God. John the Baptist was exactly what people expected someone who had lived in the wilderness, totally dependent upon God to look like. John the Baptist was destined to be a little weird. He was a Preacher's Kid, whose father had given up believing, gave up believing in miracles, gave up believing in God entering life to change circumstance, John's father was the priest who offered prayers to God who himself no longer believed in prayer. John was orphaned at a very young age, because his parents were very old when he was born. John was a little weird. John the Baptist grew up in the desert wilderness, playing with scorpions and snakes, talking to cactus and dreaming of water. John was not making a fashion statement by entering society dressed in camel's hair with a cloth tied round his waist like a diaper. John was not advocating a new diet, by eating locusts and wild honey. John had an authentic vision of God's Messiah coming. A Savior sent from God, with a Winnowing Fork in one hand and a Torch in the other, so as to separate the wheat from the chaff, the good from the evil, and where Noah had saved a remnant from flood, this cleansing by the coming Savior would scorch and burn all that was wrong. The problem of John the Baptist was not the sin of his father or mother. Where his father did not believe, where his parents represented an outdated society, John not only prophesied the coming of Jesus, he recognized Jesus. At the Baptism, you can almost hear John chastising Jesus out of the corner of his mouth, “What are you doing here, get out of the water! You will get all wet. This is not for you!” The problem of John the Baptist was not that he did not have expectations, not that John did not believe but rather that his expectations were different. His expectations of the world, of the Messiah, of God, ALL were his expectations. Is that not our problem as well? A few years ago, the Washington Post tested people's Expectations. The paper had a street performer play his violin on the platform of the Subway. Thousands of people walked by without noticing. Some crossed over, to stay as far away from him as possible. Some were impressed by the music he played and tossed a few coins, even a few dollar bills into the open violin case. Except, the street performer in this case was Joshua Bell, one of the world's greatest violinists, and the instrument he played was a multi-million dollar Stradivarius. The night before, a concert of exactly the same music by the same performer had cost people $100 a seat. Here our expectations caused us to not listen, not pay attention, not respond. Our Great Expectations of Christmas, are that we could get everything we ever wanted and more. We could have a celebration with family and friends, where everyone loved one another and got along. We could have a meal that was perfect and everyone was satisfied. We have each created constructs of what our world is expected to be. So when a job lay-off occurs, our expectations are threatened. When a divorce is filed,when Cancer is suggested, our expectations crumble. When a disability happens, our Expectations shift from believing life will get better, hoping for the best, to grasping at shifting sand, that the worst we have experienced might be the best we could ever again hope for. John the Baptist was in a prison cell. The irony of Jesus' questions to the crowd, were that John the Baptist was in the Prison of Herod's palace. King Herod like all the King Herod's of the Bible, wore long soft robes. Herod had minted coins that on one side had the image of a reed bending, as a symbol of the King of Israel, a son of David, being a servant of Rome. The Caesars of Rome had their expectations, King Herod had his expectations, John the Baptist had expectations of what the Messiah would be, so sends a messenger to Jesus asking if he is the fulfillment of John's expectations. Jesus does not give the messenger a YES or NO, but instead describes, the blind receive sight, the deaf hear, the lame not only walk they leap and the dead are raised. Jesus here quotes the Book of Isaiah, naming the blessings promised. Painfully, for John, what Jesus does not quote from Isaiah, is “And the Prisoners shall be set free.” The word “Blessing” and all these are blessings, is the opposite of the word scandal/offense. This passage from Isaiah is among the best known and most loved. But the word which seems obscure is that the water in the desert would provide a road. Most of us see floods and rivers as barriers, as obstacles. But throughout Scripture, the water created the opportunity for dry fertile land to appear. The water washed clean the earth, creating the opportunity for Noah to begin anew. The water of the Red Sea not only drowned the Egyptians but provided a way across safely for the people of God. Water we know in Baptism as sign and seal of a new relationship, an eternal relationship with God.

"Dead Roots" December 8, 2013

Isaiah 11: 1-10 Matthew 3: 1-12 Many weeks ago, a Session meeting began with one Elder asking the body: “Are we Biblical enough?” Immediately a hush fell over the table as the leadership of the Church shifted from business management and administration, to a measurable challenge to our faith. Another member had only just before the meeting received an email from someone dissatisfied by many things in their life, lashing out that the church did not have the evangelical faith they wanted, so responded “No, we are not Biblical enough!” When a third spoke saying that what we have and what we do, is what had attracted their family to this church. I logged all this away for future thought, when this week, someone sincerely asked “So why were Moses and Israel in Egypt in the first place?” and someone else asked “Jesus was a nice guy, he did not seem to have done anything wrong, why was it necessary for this man to be crucified to death?” Having read through significant portions of the Old and New Testaments, our Bible Study is going back to the beginning to read Genesis and share together. These are the same underlying questions Isaiah, and John the Baptist were struggling with in their communities. People are at many different places in their journeys of faith. While we do not ever want to water down the faith, if persons do not understand the building blocks, they can never attempt the meaningful questions of their lives. All the stories of faith, all the separate parables we recall, are like so many dead stumps. Roots of an old forest, grown and cut down long since, whose trees no longer bear fruit or provide shade, or wood for construction. Recall Isaiah was High Priest at the Temple in Jerusalem after the time of King David and Solomon. Recall this was before the exile to Babylon, eight Centuries, 700 years before Jesus of Nazareth or Julius Caesar. Recall that what God had promised to David was a monarchy, a lineage, that all future Kings of Israel would be descendants of David, and that in that lineage, at the beginning of the time of Isaiah, there was King Ahab married to Jezebel who tried to destroy faith in God, bringing Idols and statues of Baal into the Temple. In the 6th Chapter, Isaiah had a Vision, during the funeral of the King, in which Isaiah saw the greater power and majesty of the kingdom of God. In the Throne room of God, there are Angels and Seraphim flying overhead singing “Holy, Holy Holy, Lord God Almighty.” And Isaiah receives a Calling from God, to Preach to a people whose Ears are Fat and Deaf, whose Eyes are Heavy and Blind. As grand of visions as he may share, as eloquent of sermons he might preach, the world is not ready to listen, to hear, to see, and to act in faith. Isaiah describes that the nation of Israel is like a stump, the Monarchy of David will be cut off, dead, decaying and forgot. But Nothing is impossible with God. Although the tree has been dead for centuries, the trunk and branches cut off, still a new shaft, a fresh shoot is always possible. Even 700 years later, Jesus may come from the root of Jesse, a descendant of the tribe, a child of God. What a symbol of hope and new life, to witness something growing out of what had been dead. And yet, like the question of whether a tree falling in the forest makes sound, if a shoot sprouts from a dead root does anyone notice, does anyone care? Even 2000 years after Jesus, we can believe and choose to live life differently. What John the Baptist called for in preaching “REPENTANCE” was not the atonement of Lent. But honestly, carefully and thoroughly examining our lives. How can we get from where we are, to where we want our world to be? His listeners went down into the cold water of the Jordan and washed away everything that reminded them of what they had been, in order to embrace life anew. Isaiah responded with another vision from God, vision of Lamb and Lion laying down together. There is one school of thought that believes all these creatures, are symbolic of the gifts of the first vision. The Lamb is of Peace, the Lion or Righteousness, the Calf of Sacrifice, the Bear of Courage, ALL living together. But Calf and wolf, toddler and snake, all coexisting is also a Garden of Eden, as in the way God designed the world to be. What if, the Garden of Eden was not Paradise Lost, was not only the way God created the world which humanity corrupted, but what life is supposed to become, to regain? How do go from where we are, in this day and age, Cut off Dead Roots even with a sprout or sprig of hope, to become the GARDEN OF EDEN'S PEACE? Is that not what we all desire? We may dream of making our fortune, of changing the world, of finding that one true love, but ultimately in quiet moments, what we each desire is peace. Peace of mind, peace in our relationships, peace in our family, peace in our Nation, peace in the world. A reality without fear, where there are no school shootings. Where there are no terrorists, and no hatred. Where the nightly news is not sensational devastation, but human interest, stories of joy. I have an assignment for us this morning. Take your bulletin or a plain sheet of paper and make a list of all the things you need and want to do before Christmas. What has to be done in the next two and a half weeks? Shopping for presents? Baking cookies? Sending Cards and Family Christmas letters? Singing Carols? Going to a Party? Decorating and watering the tree? Now, in a different column, on a fresh sheet of paper describe your dream, what PEACE would be? What are your hopes and dreams? These are dreams, not practical purchases, so maybe it is lions and lambs laying together, maybe like Nelson Mandela 49 years ago under Apartheid it was belief that black and white could co-exist without dominating one another. That was a dream that he spent 27 years in Prison for. A dream that made then made him the President of South Africa. So what are we willing to do to make dreams a reality? We can water trees without roots, but ultimately they will die. We can bake cookies, but ultimately we are going to have to accept a diet. There is a story from our relationship with the people in South Sudan, that I have never yet told. Nine years ago, when I went to South Sudan to re-unite families separated by war, shortly after the plane landed, I was assigned a translator, who tried to say everything that was said in Dinka to me in English, and to translate everything I said into Dinka. There was a presentation of dreams in which I described my purpose nine years ago, was as a pastor to those of my congregation, this church, where I was trying to re-unite those separated by brokenness. I named the possibility that some wanted to create a clinic to provide health care where none existed. One of the leaders described the depth of their reality, that 8 out 10 babies died before age five years. And in affirmation, I recognized I am a parent with children. That half of the women die in Labor and delivery, and under my breath I named my mother died in my birth. Before I realized it, this too was translated and a quiet fell over the 500 or more that were gathered. DREAMS are personal. Dreams are important. What are you willing to do to make your dreams real? The Bible is not simply a collection of old Dead Stumps, but the Roots onto which we are engrafted. Are we parasites that feed off the decay of dead roots? Are we like Orchids, having a symbiotic relationship to our root? Or are we nurturing dreams that seemed an impossibility?

"Focused On A Distant Shore" December 01 2013

Isaiah 2: 1-5 Matthew 24:33-44 Karlene and Bill Miller in our membership had a grandfather, whose name was Karl Barth in the 1920's – 1950's he was among the most well-known and respected of theologians. Karl Barth described that “We need to prepare for each day with the Bible in one hand and the Newspaper in the other.” Christian Faith must be grounded in Reality! The problem we have is that not only are people no longer familiar with reading the Bible daily, there are not newspapers printed to read! Our Bible lessons reference a Time/Space shift in REALITY, the times we live in, and the times to come. What a pertinent message for today! Because what are all the Reality shows about, if not creating new realities? Whether Inventions, Game Shows or Talent Competitions, Cooking Challenges, or Survival on deserted islands, the goal is $1,000,000 and the challenges to Reality based on what you are willing to do and what $1,000,000 will do to you. What are the political parties, if not opposing ideologies of which reality to create? Why do we have Christmas pageants, if not for an instant to glimpse our child in wings and a halo as being an angel? Jesus' reference point, according to Matthew, is that this is a future reality, different from what we have known, and yet could be at any moment, so we need to prepare. We have not been reading Isaiah, and he is a different kind of Prophet. Both Chapter 1 and chapter 2 begin “The Word that Isaiah the son of Amoz Saw” Isaiah was a High Priest at the temple in Jerusalem, the son of the High Priest, he is a figure grounded in history. But he speaks differently than we do, most often we expect the verb related to what the prophet did related to a word to be HEARD or SPOKE, or Shouted or Sang, but the Word which the Prophet Isaiah SAW is odd, suggesting a different reality. Prophecy is not the reading of Tea Leaves, or the Forecasting of Horoscopes by Astrological Signs; Prophecy is encountering a different sense of reality about the world we know. In Chapter 1, Isaiah describes seeing continued wars in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel. Isaiah sees in the present time, Royalty and Governments so fixated on War, on creating International Realities, that the needs of the poor, of widows and the aged and children, go unfunded and unmet. Up until this point Isaiah could be Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Micah, or the news of our day, whether told by CNN, FOX or BBC, but in Chapter 2 Isaiah sees a different reality to come. Where currently the currents of rivers flow down from mountains, with the exception of The Finger Lakes and Nile, rivers flow from North to South; the WORD Isaiah saw is of all waters and all peoples flowing up to the Mountain of God. English does not translate other languages with the same nuance. Where our translations describe “In the Present Time, and In the Latter Days,” Hebrew describes “the days to come are heavy laden,” the literal meaning is “Time is Pregnant!” Now believe it or not, I have never actually been pregnant. But I have known many who have been, who describe in the months before birth, a sudden awareness that something, a different being/ another reality is moving inside you. Not gas, not stomach grumbling, but a foot pressing outward, a weight lying upon your internal organs, a rhythmic touch from inside. From that moment onward, your life is never the same. Your sleep, your hungers, your worries, your reality has a different point of reference. One of my family's favorite activities in the summer has always been sailing. One of my first memories was after having heard about sailing all my life, one day at the age of three, I was told we were going sailing. I had a new pair of rubber soled shoes. A great orange life preserver was put over my head and strapped round my waist, tied at my chest, and I was lifted from the dock and deposited upon the seat. Where we were told not to move, not to stand up unless told to, that there were no seat belts, so hang on to something even if it is your brother. Initially as we left the mooring we moved with speed and direction, but after a time the vessel rocked very gently and rhythmically almost putting you to sleep. Suddenly the wind came up, the waves began crashing against the hull, and splashing over the deck, even tossing and throwing over each other. As children, we began to look a little green, when suddenly we heard the voice instruct us to sit up straight and point your face into the wind until you could fear the whisper of the wind the same in both ears. Then we were told to look straight ahead and find a spot, some point of reference on the distant shore that would be constant, even though the waves and sky and the boat were moving. With a constant point of reference on the distant shore, with the wind whispering equally in both ears, looking ahead instead of closing your eyes and going with the flow, our stomachs settled, excitement and enthusiasm for what we experienced returned. Living into the Advent of a different Reality requires finding new points of reference to focus upon. New Reality, whether changes in society, economics, technology and culture, or whether embracing marriage and the raising of children, or new careers and vocations in a different place, all are about the Advent of a New Reality. When I counsel couples about getting married, I give them a homework assignment. In part, because as human creatures we learn by establishing new routines, by doing. So if they work at the homework, they may continue this after they move into their new reality. The Homework is to go out on a date together, and not talk about the wedding. To try to have fun together. To try to romance each other and act lovingly. We cannot simply flow along through life, and expect to arrive at a different reality. To prepare for the Advent of a different reality, we must work at it. Beating Swords into Plowshares and Spears into Pruning Hooks, is not about abandoning War to become Farmers. What the Hebrews following Moses and Joshua did not understand and do when they left being Slaves of Pharaoh, when they left being Nomads in the Wilderness, when they came into and took possession of the Promised Land of Milk and Honey, was to work at reforming their tools and identities and relationships for a different reality. There were very clear demarcations. All of the Firstborn were slaughtered, the Red Sea parted for them then closed to seal the fate of those pursuing to destroy. There were rituals and festivals and feasts. There was the Passover, the leaders took twelve stones from the Jordan to place as a cairn marker, they were circumcised for life among a different people. But the people of God did not perceive that they might need to be different in a different reality. I believe we made a horrible and tragic series of mistakes in our past history. At the time of Napolean, when Andrew Jackson was President, and Lewis and Clark were setting out to explore the world, pioneers and settlers floated upon rafts to create a new life here in this new nation. The War for Independence was fought from 1775 until September 1783. In less than 20 years this area at the north end of Skaneateles lake as far distant as Elbridge, Sennett and Marcellus had been claimed as farms and Missionaries from New Hampshire came to evangelize and organize. The first mistake in retrospect, is that we claimed the identity of being the Schaneateles Religious Society. Time and again, we have returned to problems of religion, which separate and divide us, which focus on ritual and curriculum, rather than on our being a Community of Faith, a People of God. We gathered regularly to share as a community in confessing our sins and worship of God, in teaching to read, interpret and apply the Bible, and resolving the conflicts that naturally arise between people as a Court. The second great error that we made was abandoning that identity and practice, to become a church, accepting a legal system of judges and courts of law. Because the original focus of the Courts as the Community was not on who had done wrong, who was going to jail or paying a settlement. The whole purpose of the Courts was to air our conflicts so as to forgive one another. The point of that reality was not on power, or prestige, or rights, but that if we are a Spiritual Communion, if we are the body of Christ then when we do harm when we speak evil against one another, we do so against God. The people flowing to the Mountain of Israel, was for all people to be brought to God. There is a great American Painting, titled The Peaceable Kingdom, in which Lion and Lamb lay together, and in addition to all the creatures of Jungle co-existing, the Iroquois and Pilgrims are trading. Would that we could create a new work of art The Teachable Kingdom with all people learning from one another about God.

What If The Hokey Pokey Is What Life is About?

Do you remember how to do The Hokey Pokey? You put your left foot in and take your left foot out. You put your left hand in and take your left hand out. You put your right hand in and take your right hand out. You put your head in and take your head out. You put your backside in and take your backside out. Finally you put your whole self in, you dpi the hokey pokey and shake it all about. Many of us are so fearful of life, we dare only put our toe in to see if we want to go further, then withdraw. Some dare to risk raising their hand to ask questions. Others risk by offering their hand to shake with a stranger. Many of us, greet one another with our backsides. But to act in faith REQUIRES we put our WHOLE SELF IN! When you put your whole self in, and commit everything, you discover the Hokey Pokey is a lot of fun, life is a kind of dance. What if, The Hokey Pokey is what life is all about?

"Coming Attractions" November 17, 2013

Isaiah 65: 17-25 Luke 21 You cannot listen to the Radio or Television today without Advertisements by Billy Fucillo about buying cars, Zero Down Payment, Zero Paid Per Month, in Debt Forever, And how big is that New York? It's HUGE! Jesus was in the Temple at Jerusalem, The Temple of Solomon, destroyed by the Babylonians and rebuilt under Ezra and Nehemiah, expanded under the Greeks and Romans with exorbitant Tax Dollars. What was to have been the holiest, most sacred and most beautiful Temple in the City of God, in the Nation of God, was HUGE, but had also become a witness to the profanity of King Herod the Puppet of Rome. The Temple at Jerusalem was so HUGE, 400,000 could gather in the Courtyard. Understandably, the Disciples with Jesus said “Wow!” To which Jesus responded, “Do you think this is huge, that widow, just put into the offering Everything she had.” The disciples look at him dumbfounded, and Jesus describes “All of this, Wars and Devastation, Typhoons and Hurricanes, Economic Collapse, all of this must be, in order to prepare the world for what is to come.” It has gotten so that the best part of going to the Movies, is THE COMING ATTRACTIONS. There was a time in which “COMING SOON” was a teaser, an Appetizer intended to lift the lid and show you enough that you wanted to experience it all. Unfortunately, the Coming Attractions have come to include all the very best scenes, the best lines, the greatest special effects as if out-takes, sound bytes of what the film was about. When you sit down for a fine meal, the atmosphere and ambiance, the wine, all are to prepare your palate to savor the APPETIZER, because as the name suggests, the appetizer prepares your appetite. If the appetizer was this good, how much better will be the Main Course and the decadence of dessert? What Jesus describes, is this life, our human lives are the Appetizer, the COMING SOON of all God has to offer, the COMING ATTRACTIONS of ETERNITY. Both of our readings this morning are APOCALYPSES, which to many has come to mean the End of the World. That is not the meaning. A CALYPSE was a Lid. The Prefix APO refers to lifting, or unveiling. So an Apocalypse is “Lifting the Lid of Future” images of What is to to Come. The problem is that we have come to know and expect what FUTURISTS will predict. The field of FUTURISM is based on two things, PAST & PRESENT EXPERIENCE and the EVOLUTION OF WAR. Futurists are people like Huxley who wrote BRAVE NEW WORLD envisioning a time when Science and Technology became our Gods, became our Life Force. Huxley envisioned test-tube babies, and before The Pill a Chastity belt to allow us to conceive only when we wanted to do so. Huxley envisioned the solving of the DNA Code, the excitement over Brave New World was bigger than over anything else published. But to Huxley's dismay what he thought would take hundreds of years, was accomplished within twenty. At the unleashing of the Atomic Bomb, Albert Einstein described that “Everything in the Universe has now changed! Everything, except our way of thinking. Because the Human Mind has not changed, this earth, this life drifts toward unparalleled extinction.” Recent explorations of MARS confirmed exactly what the futurists expected, that like Earth, Mars once supported life, Mars once had water and the Building blocks of Evolution. But what ever was there exhausted the resources, destroyed the creation, all that is left, all that the future holds for humanity, is destruction. Years ago, there was a popular thriller ON THE BEACH about life after World War 3, when the only life left on earth is Australia, and a man wanting to go home, goes across the world in a submarine, arriving at San Francisco Bay. The Sub surfaces, the man gets out into a Life raft with a fishing pole, and paddles toward shore, but because of the radiation fall out he dies before ever landing on the beach. Similarly, George Lucas when at Stanford created a film about Humans living in tunnels under the earth like ants, and periodically, one wearing a helmet with a light and Gieger counter would go up a ladder to see if the world was habitable again, and die. In many ways, the new Robert Redford film is like this, One man alone on the Sea, who despite having the most expensive sailboat, and all the finest technology and resources, is sunk by a shipping container that fell off a cargo ship. One by one, everything devolves. But the point of what the Bible says, is what if our Futurists have the wrong starting point, the wrong assumptions? An Apocalypse is only an image of what is coming, and may not be the full future. What if, instead of beginning by studying the PAST & PRESENT and THE EVOLUTION OF WAR, we began with GOD. God is a GOD of Limitless CREATION, but also a God of REDEMPTION. What if instead of our the future being based on Human limitation of war, the future is based on God's Ability to Create and to Redeem? Winston Churchill was once asked: “Sir Winston, what in your education prepared you to lead Britain through her Darkest hours?” Thinking a moment, he said “The two years I spent in the same grade.” The reporter responded “So Failure?” Churchill retorted “NO, the ability to try again and again until I got it right.” Jonas Salk was the inventor of the Polio Vaccine, who was asked to compare his feelings at discovery versus the 200 failures he had getting it right. Salk dismissed this, saying my family never believed in failure. “They taught me to believe in experiences, and I had 201 experiences getting it right. The solution could not have happened without the 200 previous experiences.” Do you know the name Catherine Lawes? In 1921 her husband became Warden of SinSing Penitentiary. When he came as Warden, Sing Sing was known for having the worst Criminals, the greatest violence, most number of riots and deaths of any prison. Twenty years later when he retired, Singsing was described as one of the most humanitarian institutions. DO you imagine that over 20 years, criminals became less violent? What happened was that on his first day, Mrs. Lawes was told she should never set foot inside the prison, it was too dangerous; whereas she decided if this was where her spouse was going to work, devoting his life, she and her children would be part of it. So she brought her children to basketball games in the Prison. She began visiting the prison daily, and eating her lunch and dinner with the inmates. One day she was killed in an auto accident. The Visitation was held in the Parlor of the Family's home a mile outside the Prison gates. The inmates all gathered like caged animals at the gates, roaring and making threats, getting more and more agitated. The Acting Warden, went down into the yard and said “All right Men, you can go and pay your respects, but be back by check-in.” The gates were opened and the inmates walked with dignity the mile through town to the Warden's home, where they each came inside and said goodbye, then every one walked back to the prison. The Hebrews had a second and third and thousandth chance, Human Life is not about Limitations. Being HUGE sells Cars. Calamity, Crisis, Devastation sells the NEWS and gets Politicians elected. But Human Life, this life is the COMING ATTRACTION of REDEMPTION to live with God. What if your First Love, and the feelings on your Wedding Day, the Joy of Accomplishments, the awe and wonder of seeing our children grow up and accomplish greater things than we knew existed, if all of that were the COMING ATTRACTIONS of our life with God? In our world, there are crises every week, News of Devastation has become so disposable as to be expected. Isaiah 40 was FAR more comforting and encouraging “Comfort, Comfort My People says your God, I will make a Highway in the Desert, Every valley shall be lifted up and the Rough Places a Plain.” When the people were in bondage without hope, they needed encouragement. At Isaiah 65 the Nation have arrived back home, to witness the realities of devastation, which seem monumental. Our frustration is that we approach the future like Mountain Climbing. We look at the Peak, envisioning that if I could just scale that high, I could look out over all the world. But as soon as soon as we reach the top, we see one peak after another after another and we realize our vision was too small. This life is filled with Signs COMING SOON. But far too often we walk up to the door and PUSH and PUSH as hard as we can, ignoring the words that say PULL. This was a people who had experienced everything described, not on the news, not listening to reports from distant countries, they had lost everything. Isaiah, like an old-time Revival Preacher describes to those who have lost everything”Behold, God creates a new Heaven and new Earth, so thoroughly redeemed the sounds of weeping will be heard no more.” I remember years ago, on Maundy Thursday of Holy week, we all wrote prayers on slips of paper, that we nailed to a cross. We carried that cross from Church to Church, everyone nailing their prayers to it. This week I watched a TED Talk about an Urban Planner/ Designer / Artist who transformed a derelict house in her neighborhood, by painting all the walls with that paint that makes any surface a chalkboard. She wrote at the top of every wall “Before I die, I want to:” And one person after another, as they came passed wrote their hopes and dreams on those walls. In many and different ways, we as the Church have become a Community Center a Public Works Project, that this community owns. We were the Alternative School. We are the Music and More Infant classes. The LaLeche Mom's Support and Moms & Kids CoOp and Montessori Nursery, and SkanFest and Masterworks, and when a Husband beat his wife in our community Vera House spoke to the Community here, when 911 happened the community all gathered together. What if we put Chalk outside the Church and on the sidewalks and driveway, and brick walls, the whole world wrote down their vision of what is COMING SOON with God. We are the Chalkboards! We are the Church! As we go through life, we witness to a vision of a new Heaven and new Earth.

"God of the Living" November 10, 2013

Haggai 2: 1-9 Luke 20: 19-38 What an important Word for our time! What we read this morning names: the building of the Temple, Sex, Marriage, Life, Death and Taxes, however what underlies all of this is not about the building of the Temple, or Church, not about Sex, or Marriage, or Life or Death or Taxes, not even about Understanding the Resurrection. There is a great deal of fascination with all those topics today. Certainly about Sex, which is used to sell everything from Soup to Stocks and Bonds and electronic paraphernalia! Marriage has been an increasingly hot topic, as one Church and State after another has questioned the definition and boundaries of marriage. While the Affordable Care Act and the Debt Ceiling have been Political hot potatoes, 3rd Rails that everyone wants to be heard speaking about, and no one knows how to fix, what each of these arguments is about is Taxes. But have you noticed how much interest there is today about Life and Death and the After-Life? How many books, movies and television shows are there about Zombies who come back to life after death, about Vampires and Dracula, and Grimms Fairy Tales, and children and adults fighting over possession to be the Survivor of Never Never Land? But, while all of these provide the Context, the Set-up for the Joke if you will, what the Bible is about is that there is nothing more essential/nothing more powerful/nothing which can ever separate us from the love of God! Throughout these last several chapters of Luke, Jesus has been on the Road to Jerusalem where he will be killed. Along the road, and especially once coming to Jerusalem, Jesus challenged all the preconceptions, and power authorities, who were setting themselves up to decide between Life & Death & about Taxes, Marriage and Sex. In the process he angered and frustrated the Pharisees and Saducees and Powers that be. So here, in the 20th Chapter each set out to trap, to expose Jesus & faith as not only unworthy of believing, but as being ridiculous. Both the Pharisees and Saducees knew that by controlling the Questions, you control the Answers, you have power over what is discussed and what is acceptable and what is real. The Pharisees, who were the 1% of their time, the most highly educated, most affluent, demanded an answer to the same question posed repeatedly today about Taxes: are they lawful? As People of God, as the Religious Society of Skaneateles in this time and place, who provide food for the hungry; housing and food and safety and security for the elderly, who cannot provide for themselves; who have provided clothing to those wanting to work, and education to those who had been expelled; who have given our sons and daughters and spouses for military service; as non-profit corporations who provide free health care, and restoration of sight to the blind, and dream of a Peace Dividend where we can end Wars, Tribal Family Conflicts and Traumatic Stress and Violence, which Governments and the United Nations could not, should we also be required by Law to pay Taxes? And Jesus asks for currency from their pocketbook. Looking at it, Jesus describes this is Coin of the realm, Currency of the Government, with the image of Presidents and Caesar inscribed. Money is necessary for Taxes, for Power in this Society, for influence in this Reality. But you are created in the image of God, so give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God. The Saducees were different from the Pharisees, in that while the Pharisees read and quoted all the Hebrew Scriptures, the Histories, Psalms, Prophets and Proverbs, the Saducees only held the First Five Books, the Pentateuch, the Torah, the Laws of Moses, and therefore the Only Authoritative Word of God. Clinging to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, the faith of the Saducees had no reference to Kings Solomon, David or Saul, to Babylon and the Exile, to anything that did not specifically relate to The Promise, The Covenant, the Law. The Saducees had no Babylonian Myths about Angels or Demons, no Visions of Daniel, no reference to the Assyrians, Babylonians, Alexander the Great, the Medes, Greeks, Persians or Rome, the Greeks were the ones who developed the concept of a Hades as an underworld, and the Romans that were places of Purgatory and Limbo. Consequently, different from the Pharisees who had limited power in the Roman Empire, and who debated Philosophy with the Greeks, the Saducees could only believe in the here and now of this reality, this world. Which is why in Sunday School, we learned that because the Saducees believed in nothing other than what they knew, they were “Quite Sad You See.” What is at stake for the Saducees argument, is not only about Marriage and Resurrection, that would be loaded enough, but for the Saducees this is about Defining Reality. The Saducees believed only in this life and Moses' Law, and not in an after-life, so all that matters is the here and now, where the Pharisees could argue about Philosophy and Imagination and other Realities beyond what we have known. So Jesus' answer must be defended by the Words of Moses and Abraham challenging the rules of reality. The Book of Leviticus is a Law Code, from God written down by Moses, defining the Nation of Israel to be not just a Holy Nation, but The Chosen Holy People of God. Leviticus defines according to Law, what you must do and must prohibit on the Sabbath. How you live daily life. Why and How you make a sacrifice. Why and How you pray to Almighty God. As the Promise given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had been about having a Child who would have inheritance of the Promised Land; as Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy had been about being this enslaved people set free from Pharaoh who came into the land of Canaan as The People of God, laws about inheritance of the Land were vital, not simply as the avoidance of Estate Taxes, but creating reality, real property, for who inherits what from whom. In that ancient world, the Eldest brother was to inherit everything, and women and children and slaves could not inherit, as they were defined as the relationships one inherited, of value just like land and resources. (Ironically, throughout the Pentateuch, while it is the Law of Moses, the Eldest never inherits.... Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses were not the First Born!) One of the Laws of Inheritance dealt with what happens, when a man is married and they have no children, and the man dies. What happens to the wife, to his property, to his lands? Is the lineage and genealogy cut off, or is there any way possible like Sarah using Hagar, like Tamar seducing her Father-in-law for the genealogy to be perpetuated? The Law of Leviticus prescribed, if a married man dies, his next closest relative will inherit his lands and property, so also his wife, in order that if he should produce a child by the wife, the child would be considered heir of the one who had died. The Saducees conjecture, that Resurrection of Life after Death is such an outlandishly silly idea, beyond reality, let us propose the most outrageous circumstance: There were Seven brothers, all of whom in turn took the wife of the eldest as his own, and none conceived by her. SO if the Resurrection is a reality, in the Resurrection whose wife is she, because they all were equally married, and presumably all had sex with her? Jesus response is “The question is not about the quantity of marriages. To grasp the resurrection, you need to believe that the Quality of life in the resurrection will be different. There is no Land in the Resurrection. There are no Children to inherit after you die, because you never die again. Belief in the Resurrection is not something we can explain, not something we can fully understand. All we can do is believe. There are hardships in life. There are Cut-offs in relationships which according to Law, and according to human nature are ENDINGS. The point of the Resurrection is that Life after Death is a different Reality. There is no marriage. There are no broken hips, no Alzheimers or dementia. Because in the Resurrection, life is not about us. There is no land, there is no power, no government, no fear, there is only a new reality and that reality is God. Everything is about God. Several weeks ago, I fell off the roof of my house. Since then, it seems everyone has at least one story about others who have had similar falls, perhaps from even less height, but who had to have surgery, and are paraplegic, or quadraplegic, or Dead. Stories about Football players who had concussions. About teens diving off a cliff. I never rode a motorcycle, because when I was five, my cousin was rear-ended on one and has served out the last 50 years unable to move below the neck. This Life, this reality we know, is very very fragile. I amazed by how many lives have been defined by a tragic accident, by a death, by a cut-off. My parents each died in the last five years. My wife's father died 15 years ago. I thank the members of this church who were here with us, to support us, through that. The day does not go by, when I do not wish for a different reality. To hear their voice. To see the twinkle in their eye. To create a new memory. To hear their reassurance, and their challenge. But I long for the hope to live in a reality where we can throw away canes and crutches, wheel chairs and slings, where we can be done with all the things that separate us and hurt and divide. Have you ever returned to the Junior High School you attended? Recall how huge those lockers were, and how intimidating just walking down the hall? When you return to walk the halls everything is different. There are the same smells, it is the same place, but can never live up to the nostalgia of what that represented. Returning from exile in Babylon, charged with rebuilding the faith community in Israel, Haggai asked the prophetic question: Are there any among you who remember what the Temple once was, and how much less this reality seems compared to that memory? The resurrection is not about walking on clouds, or wearing wings, but about a different Quality to life, Redeemed, and ReUnited, Forgiven and Whole with all Reality, especially with God.

"Commit, Conversion, Confirmation" November 3, 2013

Daniel 7:1-18 Luke 19:1-10 As Believers, we do not make decisions once and for all time. We are creatures who revisit, changing our minds and accepting at a deeper and deeper level, as we live into commitments. Our Commitments, call for a Conversion of our Identity changing who we think we are, which we then Confirm by the activities of life. We fulfill all the requirements of a degree, then are awarded a new identity as a Graduate, a Master, a Doctor, but the reality of our learning comes in the practice confirmed day in and day out. Yesterday, we celebrated a wedding. While at one time there may have been three separate celebrations, where you declared your intentions and dowry, where you committed sacred vows, and where you gave rings as gifts of commitment, today all of this is bound up together. There is a power in that redundancy, as we seek the endorsement and blessing of friends and families, then claim a new identity before God in our vows, finally confirming the relationship with a band we will never take off. That redundancy of Commitment, Conversion of Identity, Confirmation carries through all of life. 496 years ago, one of the challenges of the Reformation, was that in addition to the Apostles, the Church was identifying so many individuals of wealth and power as Saints, there were more Saints than days on the calendar. Therefore, one of Luther's Commitments was for a Priesthood of All Believers, not that some are closer to God than others, but that all Humanity should be seen as Holy and Sacred unto God. All Saints Day was never recognized by Judaism, or in the Early Church, but created as a Day to remember all those who in recent years have gone to be with God, for whom there is no suffering, no broken hips, no dementia. For hundreds of years after, very few new Saints were added to the list, but people have never been fully Converted to acceptance of one another as equal, let alone that our enemies, or those who are different and Other are precious unto God, Holy and set apart, even that their lives might serve as a priesthood bringing each of us into relationship with God. In recent years, just as there are new winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, or the Academy Award, there are more and more people being elevated to the role of Sainthood, so in yet another way we need to reconsider and Confirm the Commitments of the Reformation. Several of you have spoken to me at different times, about anxiety with whether the events of this day are morbid. I too have had my struggles with acceptance and understanding of death. While we agonize over the way people die, whether it is better to go instantly, or protracted over years, the reality is that the end of the body while a clear change, is the smallest part of death. Immediately after death, there are questions of new identities: What are we to do with the business? How do we pay off the mortgage? Can the surviving spouse live on half a pension? Are we still children once our parent dies? Are we now orphans? What is important to keep, and what can we let go? Do we date again, how soon can we marry another? All of these are caught up in the question of our Conversion to a new Identity before God. Only after we have lived into this, according to Old Testament tradition for at least two to three years of Confirmation, are we then ready to let go of who we once were and accept who and what we have become. Our passage from Daniel is Apocalyptic, the text explains this is a series of dreams and visions while in Exile. Different from the Spirit of God brooding over the Face of the Waters in Creation, here Winds from the Four Corners of the Earth stir up the waters of Chaos. This is not a vision of Creation, but a nightmare of Empires. Out of the Chaotic Waters arise four terrifying Beasts worse than Richard Scary's Where the Wild Things Are. Throughout time, Nations and Monarchies, Empires have committed to be Living Creatures: The Bald Eagle or the Serpent saying Don't Tread on Me, The Mother Bear, The Lion of Great Britain. The Nation of Israel, as Prisoners of War in Exile in Babylon, knew the rise of The Assyrians, the Babylonians, The Greeks, the Egyptians, the Persians and Medes, eventually the Empire of Rome. With each new Empire, the conquering of Nations arose the question of survival and circumstance for a marginal people? As we appropriate the text for today, the Beasts arising out of Chaos might be Airplanes flying into Cities on 911, might be Children armed with Assault Rifles in Schools, might be Syria with Nuclear Weapons, Hurricanes, Tsunamis, we have our demons today just as in the time of the Deportation to Babylon. Daniel's Dream while horrific, demonstrates that while there are all these things which terrify, and rightly they should, over everything else, there is the Throne of God, the Ancient of days, who has existed since before time, and will for all futures. In the Far Side Cartoons, God always had long robes, flowing white hair and a beard. For a time in the 1980s Movies, we envisioned God as looking and sounding like George Burns, then like Morgan Freeman. Today, some have envisioned God wearing a Three piece button down suit, occasionally swapped for Overalls, balding with with Bifocals. The point, is that throughout Human history, all these many empires, there has been a constant presence of God with us converting the will of Nations to God's Will. And long before the New Testament, there were visions confirming a human messiah, one who was sent from God as a Sacrifice and Savior to save us. So it was that according to the Gospels, after Jesus had been everywhere else, was known and had a following, he came through Jericho on his way to Jerusalem. As Jesus passed through the City of Jericho, that city which in the Old Testament had been the Gateway into the Promised Land, everyone wanted a glimpse of the Messiah. The last several years, we have seen the motorcades as one President after another have come through our town. Crowds have stood eight and twelve people deep, which was like the scene as Jesus passed through. Now we know that in Jerusalem was Pontius Pilate, Governor of this District of Rome, but in Jericho was a man even more feared and hated, for Zaccheus was not a Roman Soldier but a Jew who was The Chief Tax Collector. Where Tax Collectors served the Foreign Occupation Government, where Tax Collectors were known for Extortion and accepting Bribes, where it was commonplace for Tax Collectors not only to steal from the Taxes, but to impose their own Fee on top of what was owed, Zaccheus was the Chief tax Collector, who it was reported stole from everyone, was hated by everyone, and to make matters worse he was short. Imagine a character like Edward G. Robinson, Jimmy Cagney, or Danny DiVito. Every culture has different expected norms of behavior, in England there is a tradition of Cuing up in a line. In America, at least in years gone by there was a norm of giving up your seat to someone who was older, or a woman who was pregnant. In Israel, the last vestige authority, was that men wore long robes and were dignified. A man of authority expected people to get out of there way and make room for them. Yet, Zaccheus wanted so badly to see Jesus, he makes a Commitment to do whatever is necessary, Zaccheus The Chief tax Collector of the Roman Empire hurries ahead of the crowd and shinnies up a sycamore tree. There dangling from a branch, suspended between Heaven and earth, Zaccheus waits. But instead of passing by, Jesus calls to him: “Zaccheus, come down, for I am going to your house today.” Welcoming Jesus into his home, to his table, Zaccheus is Converted. It is a scene like the Grinch in Dr. Seuss' story, whose heart grew three sizes that day. Zaccheus not only Commits to have Jesus in his home at his table, and is Converted by the experience, he Confirms his new identity by Giving ½ of all he has to the Poor, and if he has cheated any he will repay 4 times over. The Story of Zaccheus is a story of Conversion, it is also a story of extravagance. For while Zaccheus has so much, he is offered complete acceptance and forgiveness, in response to which he donates excess. Eight weeks ago, we as a congregation made a commitment. After 50 years of consideration of alternatives, we committed to have an Associate Pastor. But over our years together, I have learned something about churches. Making a Commitment, is a Cathartic Event, many of us today recall the Meeting where we chose to have a Pipe Organ. Many remember when we chose to End the Co-Pastorate. Many recall, when we Accepted responsibility for Presbyterian Manor. Some still recall when we committed to remove a Pastor in the 1960s. That Commitment is only the first decision. Second is Converting our Checkbooks pledging to support the decision, then Confirming the estimated costs with construction and our fulfilling our pledges. In 1996, we had a total Budget of $186,000 a year, and we pledged $800,000 to repair the existing Church and you voted to Call a new Pastor. Two years later, plans were prepared for bulldozing and reconstruction of the middle of the Church, and while we continued increasing our Regular Pledges for the Budget by 10% per year, and paying on pledges for the First Campaign, we made pledges to pay on a Second building campaign larger than the first. We took out a 30 year mortgage for the debt, many of us thinking that would never be repaid. But at the end of 3 years, we had not only ended the year with a Budget in the Black, we had repaid everything on the first Mortgage and the Second Campaign's Mortgage. Paying this off in advance, we had saved over a million dollars in accrued interest! SO now the Church is debt-free, and we who are part of the Church today, can be thankful all that work was done before the Recession of recent years. The reality is that the Minimum Salary required for an Associate Pastor is less than we had paid for a Certified Educator, and less than we had paid for a Parish Associate. However, with the Recession, to balance the Budget we had to eliminate that salary from our Budget, and in recent years had had a Net Zero Increase for Inflation, and in addition to Salary there is a requirement for Pension and Major Medical coverage. However, as if meeting us halfway, this week, the Presbytery reduced our Administrative Cost of being Presbyterian by $20,000. So what is going to be required for our Commitment to have an Associate become real will be an increase in pledges of about 10%.

"Humbly Trusting Anew," October 27, 2013

Joel 2:21-32 Luke 18:9-14 In another place, the Apostle Paul describes that The Gospel is a Stumbling Block to Many, is true, but one of the great Theologians (Paul Tillich), asserted that our danger is in stumbling over the wrong thing! Such is the case with this morning's parable. Two men went up to the Temple to pray. Before hearing anything else, we know there is going to be a contrast. Last week, we read of the Judge and the Widow, he had all power and prestige, he sat up high behind his bench, where as she stood alone before him. He neither feared nor regarded anyone, not even God. Yet with all his authority, he responded to this little woman who might blacken his eye. Here, one is righteous and one is not, one will be acceptable and one not. The Pharisee has spent his entire life, interpreting the Law, he is not a literalist like the Scribes, he is one who knows the Law so thoroughly as to be able to interpret between contradictions. The other is hated and despised. He not only works for the Roman Empire, he was known to take bribes and steal. This is the Cain and Abel story all over again, this is Pharaoh of Egypt versus Moses and the Hebrews, the Canaanites versus the Israelites, the Good Samaritan compared to The Priest and Levite who crossed over to the other side. There always seems to be two sides, Right and Wrong, In and Out. But what sets this parable apart is there is a trap in application. According to The Biblical Law, the Holiness Code in Leviticus, the Pharisee did everything right! Everything he said about himself was true. He not only fasted once a week, he did so twice! He not only made an offering on his salary, he gave a tythe of all he received, and believing in his own righteousness this would not have been 1/10th but rather 1/7th of everything he had! The Pharisee is the first to draw the line of who is in and who is out: “I thank God, I am not like other men, extortioners, adulterers, unjust, even like that Tax Collector.” According to the Law, he not only did everything required, he did Twice as much! BUT even so, the Parable does not say that he goes home forgiven. The problem is the Pharisee has no humility. He has no need for God. He knows what is right and what is wrong, what is inside and outside, and he justifies himself, like the Elder Brother in the Prodigal Son. The Pharisee never risks getting caught, and always having enough, always being safe and secure, he looks to have great accomplishments, and great possessions, but never to have to be forgiven he has no need for God. Everything about this Pharisee is in the present tense, what happened in the past, tradition does not matter except as being his accomplishment. The Tax Collector on the other hand, knows that he has sinned. The Tax Collector was always looking back over what had happened. He has cheated people. He has not followed the Law. He is so far outside the line, Jesus described “He stood far off” meaning he did not feel worthy to come forward to present his offerings. All the Tax Collector can do was throw himself at the feet of God and beg “Have mercy on me.” He did not admit he was wrong. He did not ask for forgiveness. He did not make restitution to those he had wronged. He did not even make an offering. Jesus says, that because he asked for mercy, this Tax Collector went home forgiven. So the point is “Be Humble”. Would that it were that simple. The trap of this Parable is we cannot have a faith in being Humble, because like the Pharisee we would try to take pride in outdoing one another at being humble. Instead, the point of this parable is whether Pharisee or Tax Collector, whether on the Inside or the Outside, recognize that the only thing that matters is there is a God, God who loves you and will provide for you. Everything comes from God, God is the only thing that does matter. Not profit, not possessions, not right and wrong, not power, not even the Law. Not living in the past, or even in the moment, but believing and trusting in a new future because of God's mercy. If the first lesson of this morning's Scriptures is that We be Humble, The Second is that our focus be on God and only God. Focusing upon God and nothing else, that sounds like the Reformation which is the historic reference of this day. The Reformers came to recognize that all society, especially the church, was distracted by a great number of other things and not focused upon God. So the Reformers attempted to strip away everything except God and how to live in relationship to God's mercy. Preachers wear black or gray, so the focus would not be on our clothes. Jettison all the Interpretations of the Church, the Saints, the rituals, so our focus was strictly on the Word of God and on God. Historically, this created a split within the Church with Mystery of God on one side and Understanding God and ourselves in relation to God on the other. Lest you imagine this is dusty old historic stuff that has no bearing on today, I heard it mentioned this week that Martin Luther was one of the first to use Social Media. In an era 500 years before Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, Martin Luther posted 95 different reasons why the Church needed to abandon the Sale of Indulgences, on the Doors of the Church at Wittenburg. There were no computers at the time. There were no telephones and no mails. There were no Newspapers. Martin Luther used the doors of the Church like a bulletin board. He wrote so forcefully, with such a command on what is important = God, that people coming in to worship stopped, not only to read but to copy down what he had written. Within two weeks copies of what Luther had written in German were in every Village and town at every church and household across Germany. It was simultaneously translated into Latin, and within the month was posted and read all throughout Europe. Ironically, no one recalls what Luther's sermon was on that day! That is the power of Social Media! Earlier this year, before the election of a new Pope, before the former Pope retired, one of his last acts was to redeem Martin Luther, and all those believers following from Luther, that our Baptism is the same, our need for God is the same. What he did was to Trust God, to dissolve the line of separation of who is IN & OUT! It strikes me that the Pharisee claiming “I thank God I am not like that Tax Collector” is a form of bullying. Bullying does not only happen between 12 year olds, but anytime one individual or group tries to get power by abusing and putting down another, by shaming the other, by seeing each other with prejudice as an obstacle, a thing, not valuing the other person as being a gift from God. Bullying is learned from Parent to Child. This week, meeting with a group of clergy, we came up with a fresh idea for the identity of the Presbyterian Church. What the Presbyterian Church needs to focus on is God and therefore our responsibility redeeming relationships, redeeming lost individuals as being gifts from God. A month ago, only 12 miles from here, an elderly man was beaten to death by a man who did not know him, a man who got into his head I want to kill someone, I want to beat them to death. It did not matter who the other man would be, one wanted to act out, he wanted to claim the power he had to destroy, and a harmless individual was killed. When we identify ourselves by who is in and who is out what other outcome can there be? The Prophecy of Joel, is often referred to as a Prophet of Destruction. This year the Cicada came up out of the ground, and these seven year locusts consumed everything in their way. According to Joel, Israel was plagued by four differing kind of locusts, grasshoppers, cicada. I cannot in all good faith look at circumstances in the world, AIDS, Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Forest fires and claim these to be God's vengeance on sinners. That is too easy, too moralistic. However, when circumstances do happen, tragedies, I think we all need to question our lives and recognize that we are mortal, we could die today. If devastation were to come, are we prepared? Have we done all we can? What Joel promises, is that perceiving devastation in this way, we will be all the more glad at what follows. We recall the end of this passage as used by Peter on the Day of Pentecost to describe that “your young men and women shall dream dreams, your old men shall see visions.” We remember the last line, about “All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered,” being used by Paul in Romans as an argument about Salvation. But before we attempt to “Christianize” Joel, picking and choosing parts out of the whole, we need to listen to the first half as well, which is Joel's promise that in the past God destroyed with four kinds of locusts, now God will restore with four kinds of rain, early rain and late rain, sprinkles and downpours. All in order that we need to hear Joel describe in verse 25 the restoration. That in the end nothing will be lost, everything in God's sight will be restored. Even more the Hebrew verb here for “Restoration” is a verb form of shalom, “peace according to God.” We need to recognize, that what happened to Israel in 4 different kinds of locusts devouring their crops and homes, in Babylon beating Israel and carrying the Nation off in bondage as exiles in a foreign land, what happened in the Pharisee justifying himself compared to the Tax Collector, all were about bringing shame. What Joel is describing is that even old shame, buried abuses that have caused us to not trust anyone can be forgiven and healed by God. None of us is a blank slate. Our past experiences color what we see, and whom we trust. The point of overcoming former shame, is that we do not simply trust, but knowing we can be abused, knowing we have been, knowing we are sinners no better than everyone else, we trust Because God created us to Trust.

Unfair Unjust Unrighteous, October 20,2013

Jeremiah 31:27-34 Luke 18:1-8 Of all of Scripture, I cannot recall a more brief parable, nor more misunderstood passages, than these. We each survey the world around us and decry that “The World is Unjust!” “No longer is there right and wrong!” No one seems to care what people think, or what God thinks, we like the Judge each just goes after whatever they can get. In the Justice System there ought to be protections for the poor, and the widowed, not for revenge, but for pure vindication, that they HAD RIGHTS! That our Nation's entire Government would be shut down for two weeks, locking and barring the entrances to FREE Parks and Museums, denying pay to those employees who who do the work, threatening the world's economy, while our Elected leaders continue to be paid to argue over political positions. Surely God must be UNRIGHTEOUS and UNJUST to create such a world, or else God is not all powerful, not even real. Our problem is that too often we take the Bible out of context, we only have patience to listen with one ear for a cursory summary of sound-bytes, and we respond “See, even Jesus has compared God Almighty to an Unrighteous Judge!” But that is not what these passages have been about. Each of the parables told by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke describe what Heaven is like, what the Love of God is like, and the great reversal that as grand as we might imagine, God is beyond explanation. Over the last few months, we have recounted that we need to: Not take the place of honor when invited, but act in humility and you may receive greater honor. Remember all were invited, but most, claimed to be too busy, having other things to do. Know God gave our places to those who never before had been invited the poor, the sinners, the lost. Count your costs, not building a tower if you cannot afford the foundation, waging wars we will lose. Consider the value to the owner of The Lost One, and the value of those who think they never were Lost. Recognize that Christ, God's Steward will do whatever it takes to redeem what is owed to God. See ourselves as The Rich man, with Lazarus at our gates, who afterward will be with Abraham. Forgive, even those closest to you, especially those, even as often as 70 times 7 times/ per day. At which point you could see the Disciples rolling their eyes, muttering “Increase Our faith!” Jesus describes that nothing is impossible for faith... A Mustard seed can grow immense, a Mountain can be moved, Lepers can be cleansed and their limbs and digits healed and regrown to full inclusion. By now, the disciples jaws had dropped, when Jesus told them that: Oh yes, and only the despised Samaritan would be thankful. And Jesus went on to describe that none of us can know when our end is coming. You may have a name for it, Cancer, War, Age, but what if you are taken by God before that ending ever comes? Or if a cure is found and you survive that death? Are you prepared? Today's passage begins “Has your life been lived in constant prayer, or have you Lost Heart?” We do not recognize the power of words any more, or even the power of our Attitudes. In Common Greek, the phrase LOSE HEART means “to give up.” You turn in a claim for reimbursement and your claim is rejected, you claim belief in what seems a basic right, do you give up? Tragically, we go through life with great ambitions, we have callings, we study for careers, we fall in love, but over time we get worn down by the constant rejections, and we give up, WE LOSE HEART. But if Give Up is the Common Greek translation of LOSE HEART, there is also the Classical Greek which has subtle nuance. LOSE HEART means to “Give In,” to condone, to be culpable in our toleration of wrongs. So have we stood up for what we believe, or given in to peer pressure, to cultural acceptance? Ultimately the Judge in the parable: relents, according to the current translations “Or she will wear me out” but the original language was more explicit, in Old English this was translated as “Or she may blacken my eye!” There is this satiric image of the Great and Powerful Judge, with all authority of the Law and Judgment at his command, seated on a Judge's Seat behind a High Bench, and this old widow that everyone has taken from, leaving her weak and powerless. Yet the Judge is afraid she might be desperate enough she will blacken his eye, possibly with her fist, or to his reputation and image and power. Luke claims Jesus said, “If the unrighteous Judge vindicates her, will not vindicate God's elect who cry out day and night?” The grammar here is complicated, requiring us to reason an IF/THEN, that if the unrighteous Judge could be motivated by the poor widow's constant demands, then God who loves you will vindicate you too. But I have to believe Jesus' point was more barbed. First, The point of Prayer, especially Constant prayer, is NOT to whine and complain, so as to change God's mind. If it were, then How many prayers does it take to right a wrong? How many prayers to change the world? NO, instead, while it is important that we name to God our needs, what happens in prayer is we bow down, we recognize there is a God and we are not God, we are not in control, so at some point we will have to accept God's Will to be done. Second, as Jesus' parables always seem to have a reversal, I think the Judge who has no concern for God or what people think, is a painfully apt description of us all. While the Old Widow, the one who continually petitions and will not relent, until vindicated, even though they should have been vindicated for Justice sake, or simply for who they are: is God. The Prophet Jeremiah, informs us of a dramatic shift in the history of the world. God's Chosen People: The Nation of Israel had fled Pharaoh in Egypt, had been saved through the Red Sea, had been saved from Pharaoh's Power and Technology, and on Mt. Sinai the people of Israel received the Covenant with God. God had committed, that God would be their God, and they would be God's people. But a lot of history has passed, for thousands of years the people have lost heart, and been unjust and unrighteous, and sinned, Empires have risen and Monarchies fallen, no after King Saul, David and Solomon, the Nation of Israel is in Exile in far away Babylon. There the people wondered if God was UnRighteous, UnJust, or if God was not All Powerful, or even if God Exists. According to human Law, God is un-Just... God has greater concern for the poor and the lost. God is not concerned with Right and Wrong, God continually redeems the sinners. Here Jeremiah has written to the people in Exile and declared God is doing a New Thing, God is Forgetting what we have done, God is forgiving. No more can we declare, I was Baptized as a Baby. I was Confirmed a Member of the PCUSA at 16. I live in a culture that celebrate Christmas and Easter. But every person will need to listen to what is in their own heart. I heard three stories recently. The first was of a Church in Latin America. On Sunday morning all the Village was in the Church, as the preacher was praying for the people. When suddenly a group of Guerrilla soldiers burst in. The Soldiers demanded to know if they believed in God? The Pastor said, “We Do!” He was dragged from the room outdoors and there was a burst of gunfire. The soldiers came back in and asked the people If they believed. After a long silence one said “Yes, I believe in Jesus Christ” He was dragged out and there were gunshots. This was followed by about dozen others. Then the room grew painfully quiet, as each considered that they would be put to death for what they claimed to believe. The Soldiers pushed all of them out into the light of day, where the pastor, and all those who had confessed stood unharmed. The Soldiers, told the Pastor and the first twelve to go inside, for their faith had saved them. When the others tried to follow, the soldiers blocked their path, asking Why? The second comes from WWII, when Naziism was spreading like a cancer over Europe. The Monarchy of Denmark was taken, but the King whose name was Christian was allowed to remain in power and the flag of Denmark allowed to fly. One day, the Nazis took down the flag of Denmark and raised their flag instead. King Christian went to the head of the Nazi party, reminding him of their articles of War, and that the flag of their Nation would continue to fly. The king proclaimed, I will give you 10 minutes to take down that flag, and raise the flag of Denmark or else one of our soldiers will do so. Ten minutes went by and nothing happened. And the Party leader asked which of your soldiers has the nerve to take down our flag to raise your own? And the King replied “I DO.” Finally, a story from a friend who this summer had a family reunion. All the cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents were there, all that is except the favorite uncle. His Alzheimer's had gotten to the point where he lived in a care facility and could not attend. His daughter brought a message from him”To my family, whose names I do not remember, all the things that happened over life I do not remember. But I remember I love you.” Such is the love of God, all the things you have done, I do not recall, but I remember You.

"Liminal Spaces" October 13, 2013

Jeremiah 29: 1-10 Luke 17:11-19 We begin this morning of this new day, the first day of this week in awe, gratitude and thanksgiving! We stand on the cusp of newness, recognizing we have crossed over and cannot go back, we recognize God is not finished with us in creation and redemption, but by the Holy Spirit Almighty God is leading us to a new identity we do not yet know or understand. That is a liminal space. “Liminality” comes from the Latin word “limens” literally identifying a threshold, a doorway, which is neither where we were nor where we will be, but the point of transition. Liminality is a spiritual position where human beings never want to go, but exactly where the Biblical God is always leading. Liminal Spaces are not the tried and true, the well-worn path where we instinctively and habitually know when we are to turn or what we are to do, or even who we are. Liminal spaces are the points of transition when we are no longer children, but not yet adults. When we have finished our education and yet not yet found a career. When we have buried our spouse and yet we still expect them to come to the table. When we have been diagnosed with a chronic disease, but we are not dead yet. When we have retired, when we have buried friends and siblings and we wonder if God has forgotten us here. When we have come to somewhere new, and we do not yet know if we will ever fit in, or even if we want to. Between us and Europe there is this enormous ocean and from our west coast to China an even larger span. Even by plane soaring across the skies it takes hours to go from here to there. Imagine our Puritan ancestors when this voyage between lands was not a matter of hours while we listened to our playlist or watched movies but months of stagnant water and stale air, being tossed from wave to wave and storm to storm. Christopher Columbus sought a faster more direct route for trade between Spain and the Orient, and on this journey between, once they had gone beyond the limits of their known world and had not fallen off, discovered a whole new world, a new continent they had never know. Even as a Nation, we have struggled time and again if we can be one people under God, indivisible, or whether we are so many different states, different cultures, different peoples, North and South, Red and Blue. Our Biblical ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were wanderers, nomads living in covenant with God, not yet with a name, not yet with a home, not yet with descendants. In Genesis, when the people decided for themselves to settle, God frustrated them, not because they attempted to build great towers, not because they tried to reach God, but God gave to them a babble of languages because we were not yet prepared to live a settled life. The people of God have always been a people striving for the “Not Yet.” For the last many generations the Church has recited stories of David and Solomon who fought against Giants, who built up the monarchy, who built palaces and temples of stone, who fought wars to defend what had been theirs, all the while the Church ignored reading of the deportation to Babylon and life there as refugees. The Babylonian Exile was not a one time event, when Israel was first beaten, the enemy took away the strongest, most educated, the best and brightest. Then they took the shopkeepers and tradespeople, those with skills and crafts of value. In exile, this refugee people, questioned who they were, what was to become of them? The pundits and prophets they most enjoyed, told them to sabotage and work to undermine the Government where they had been brought to live. This is not our land, not leaders of our choosing, so tear it down, anyone who is not for us must surely be against us. When this people in exile receive a letter from home! But the unexpected news they receive is not affirmation that they will soon be rescued or returned. The Letter they receive in exile from the Prophet Jeremiah, tells them instead to pray for the place where they live, to settle there and make homes there, marrying and taking spouses, both because they will not be brought back, they will not be rescued in their own lifetime, and because God is not limited to the mountains of Israel, Almighty God is ruler of all Nature, all nations everywhere. We are instead to believe in a new and different paradigm, that any who are not against us must surely be on our side! The God of Israel, is also God in Babylon and Mesopotamia, and to the ends of the earth! So instead of mourning, give thanks! The Gospel of Luke begins this passage with a strange identification. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, he has set his face on the cross and the redemption of the world is his destiny. As he travels he is in the region between Samaria and Galilee. Our difficulty is there was no greenbelt between these, over and over again historically the borders had been fought over. What was at stake between Israel and the Samaritans was whether we worship God on Mount Zion or Mount Nebo? Whether we are a racially and culturally exclusive people, or whether we encourage immigration and inter-marriage. To be Jewish in the Gospel of Luke was to obey the Laws of Moses, being separate from and set apart. Therefore to be separate from Samaritans. The region betwixt and between was like the De-Militarized Zone between North and South Korea, like territories disputed between Catholics and Protestants in North Ireland, like places fought over in Afghanistan, and in Iraq. Not a wilderness place of safety, but a place of armed aggression and fear. Leprosy covered a whole host of skin diseases, many so virulent that fingers and toes became infected and dropped off. Leprosy was a flesh eating virus, considered so highly contagious, that if the shadow of a person with leprosy touched you, you might acquire the disease. Like being of a hated and feared people, those with Leprosy were shunned, cast out of the cities and towns. I have had to learn by experience this week, for I had never before broken a bone, an arm or a leg. The cold, the flu, Chicken Pox, Mumps and Measles, all are maladies that we recover from in a few days. The concept that our bodies need to heal, that we have to be dependent upon others, that our condition makes us an inconvenience for others, was new. I can tell you, I FAR PREFER being on the other side, being a care giver instead of one who for 40 days and nights will wear a cast and corset. The idea that after 50 bones do not heal as well, and you may have to give up doing things for yourself, is a liminial space, I do not enjoy. Giving thanks requires that we change from being self-sufficient, to naming and claiming our need for others, our need for God. Giving thanks is the beginning of faith, because we recognize our need, not our choice, not our desire, not our purchase, but our need for others and for God. In the region between Samaria and Galilee, outside the city, Jesus saw Ten Lepers. As was the Law, while he was far off they cried out to him. But more than each ringing the bell around their necks, or crying LEPER, they called Jesus by name as with one voice, together they identified him as Master, which in the Gospels only happens four times, and only in Luke, and they asked the Savior for MERCY. Without stopping, without touching them, Jesus responds to their Unison Cry for Mercy and tells them to go as described in the Law of Moses to present themselves to their Priest. The issue of Leprosy was not only having the symptoms of disease, but being shunned and excluded from the city, from family, from home and worship, which only the Priest could redeem. Imagine a they went, each one individually notices that from the stump of a wrist a palm and fingers begin to grow! Imagine the one using a crutch to stand and hobble, suddenly has a new leg to stand upon! Imagine the one, whose face has been eaten away by infection and disease feels their nose and fresh skin as soft as a newborn's begin to grow! No longer Lepers, they are no longer united in misery, no longer a community of exiles in suffering, each one begins to run to the priest on his own. One suddenly stops and turns around. In the Bible, whenever anyone turns around, it is identification of redemption, of turning for forgiveness and new life. This one runs to Jesus, no longer far distant but right up in front of Jesus and bows down to lay prostrate his face in the dirt at Jesus' feet. This one is a Samaritan, this one knows that even if not a Leper he is still a Samaritan hated by Judaism, so he cannot go to the Priest, even if he did, the priest could not welcome him into that community of faith. So he ran to Jesus, bowing down and giving thanks, and Jesus claimed him, blessed him as having faith to give thanks. By turning round and bowing down to give thanks, this one quite literally crossed over to the other side.

October 6, 2013 "Believing Differently"

Jeremiah 32:6-15 Luke 17:1-10 During WWI factories and storefronts closed as soldiers went off to war, and the people believed "We can do without so that our armies have what they need." Then the Stock Market crashed and people believed "Our children will have a better life than we do." During WWII, soldiers were drafted, women began work in factories, each believing "The world our children and their children inherit would be a better place." Yet, over the last three decades, the Stock Exchange topped 10,000, then 12,000, then 15; homes that we bought for tens of thousands suddenly were reassessed in the hundreds of thousands of dollars; we have been experiencing the greatest exchange of wealth and accumulated assets history has ever known; yet we are not satisfied. We believing in more and we believe in instant gratification. The parable which Jeremiah lives out, which Jesus describes four different ways, is that Faith is Not a Commodity, faith is Not a thing, faith is Not being spiritual, faith is neither measurable nor instantaneous magic. When we try to control faith, when we make faith into magic incantation, or scientific formula, or reward for good behavior, faith becomes destructive power, as demonstrated in Goethe's Sorcerer's Apprentice, or Disney's Mickey Mouse in Fantasia, or Tolkien's power of the Ring. Believing in the Gospel does Not guarantee Prosperity. FAITH IS DIFFERENT. Jesus named to his disciples that when your brother sins against you seven times a day, or as described in another Gospel even seventy times seven times, and they repent, we must believe they are forgiven. Here we are not identifying a Get Out of Jail Free card, that all you need do is say you are sorry, but that in this exchange we and they repent of where were were and become reconciled to one another. Faith is a God-given Gift of Grace. Either you recognize you have faith within you, that you have received grace, or you do not. The disciples response to Jesus was “Increase Our Faith” the Greek phrase being “Prostheteo” the same root origin from which medicine created the idea of a Prosthetic. A Prosthetic being a replacement part, a thing which is added on to replace or improve what is missing. Jesus response is a resounding “NO” because faith is not an add on, not a thing to bought or sold, not a replacement from outside the person. Faith comes from within. We are so accustomed to buying and selling what we need and desire, we have all but given up on miracles, on dreams, on hoping against what we know and having faith in a different future. Faith IS taking what we have what we know and going deeper, digging down into our resolve to believe. What I find most odd, most dramatic in this passage, is that unique to Luke, the Disciples do not become Apostles after Jesus' death and resurrection. Instead, several chapters ago, Jesus sent the disciples out two by two, and the identity of being disciples who are sent makes a person an Apostle. An apostle has been called and commissioned and charged to go to heal the sick, to baptize and cure. The apostles had been able to preach, to pick up serpents, to pray for miracles, and these all happened! But afterward, when they returned to Jesus, Jesus commanded them here to be aware of their own sins, the problems they create for their sisters and brothers, AND to Forgive. It is the forgiving of others over and over, that shocks and terrifies the apostles. Seventeen years ago, I came to interview face to face with the Pastor Nominating Committee of this Church. When I got back on the plane, I had a Honey-Do List of all the things this Church identified as needing to be fixed. The problem was not that we did not know that the roof leaked, or the basement had standing water, not that we did not know the building was falling down – you could grasp a brick and remove it from the wall so decayed was the mortar. We were a people who tolerated secrets and avoided confronting one another. We knew so well that what happened in worship could be controversial, we taped a line in the hall outside these doors, in 8” wide blood red tape across the ceiling, down the walls and across the floor. As if to say, the place of worship, the Sanctuary of God is too hot, too dangerous to consider. But oddly what we know needs be done we routinely tolerate... I think that may be why our houses are identified by the persons who used to own them, and only become our home once we move on. And a new owner is willing to invest in replacing and improving upon what they know needs to be done. After all those things on our Honey-Do list were done, the Session asked that we consider where fruit had never grown. To dream new dreams and cast a fresh vision. We preached on having a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, a BHAG, and suddenly there was the challenge of creating a clinic half way around the world in a place you could not get to. As the cheerleader of this church, the most wonderful part is that like a hired servant or slave, we have done only what we needed to do. Just as God has offered us forgiveness, so we as believers forgive. The text from Jeremiah is a hard one, because quite literally Jeremiah has “bought the farm.” Buying the farm is an archaic phrase meaning when you die in battle, the Government sends you money to pay off bills, usually used to pay off thew mortgage on the family farm. The parable is that after decades of prophesying that Israel would be destroyed, Now the war is over, the battle done, and yet money is set aside to “buy the farm” that future generations would know we were here. What can we do to think of future goals? Not things we can accomplish today, or in our lifetime, but that our children's children's children's children will live differently, believe differently because of us?