"God is Real" December 21,2014

2nd Samuel 7: 1-11 & 16 Luke 1:26-38 This morning I have a question for you? Do you believe God is an active person in your life today? More than Do you believe in God, or do you believe in Santa Claus, that God is alive? The last several days I have heard one interview after another of personalities confessing under their breath I used to go to Church, almost like I used to believe in the Easter Bunny. I fear most of us are like the Bette Midler song of a few years ago “God is watching us, God is watching us, God is watching us from a distance.” God is in the high hills where our help comes from. Like King David we believe in the footsteps poem, that we never see God, or know God, but are assured whenever we have needed, when overwhelmed God was there. In that kind of belief, God is an energy of Moral Good, of Right, that there was a time long long ago at the dawn of the universe when God was real, and there shall come a time when we will be judged, but this is the 21st century, this is reality, the height of technology and information, when provided we have batteries enough and reception bars we are the Masters and Kings of our World. King David was a success story, the shepherd boy who became King of a Super Power! David the seventh son of a seventh son, exiled from the court of King Saul, who led a guerrilla army to become ruler of the Ancient world, with all the power of a Pharaoh. Although he was Prophet to the King, when asked for God's blessing Nathan tells David what David wanted to hear. Until in the dark night of the soul, Nathan encounters the reality of God. And instead of telling Nathan to say to David “Well done Good and faithful servant, you have proven yourself over a little, now I will set you over kingdoms...” God says “Just whom do you think you are?” You thought because King Hiram of Tyre built a cedar house for you,You thought as a demonstration of your power and wealth, you could bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, and you thought you could build a lovely cedar box to keep it to visit when you wanted? God is not a thing to be kept in a box! God is not housed in a place! When Abraham and Isaac and Jacob wandered the face of the earth, when Moses and Joshua led the people through the wilderness, did God ever ask, how come you never built me a temple? NO! Who do you think took you from being 7th son of a 7th son, from being a shepherd boy to being king of Israel? I God, will shepherd you. You thought you could build a house for God, I will make a house out of you. This passage in 2nd Samuel is not only declaration that David had been too much involved in killing to build the house of God. This passage is not only setting up that Jesus would be descended from the house and lineage of David. This is the climax of the Nation of Israel from Moses through Judges to Saul to David with renewal of the promise as given to Abraham. This is Nathan's and David's encounter with God, that God is real and active, not a passive bystander in life watching us, waiting to use fate and circumstance for good. Recently, a family asked for a different kind of funeral. Instead of gathering in the church for a worship service. Instead of a public viewing or wake. Instead of the singing of hymns and reading of sacred texts. We gathered in their living room in this season in front of the hearth of their fireplace, and we each reflected on who this person was to us... The one who affirmed “My daughter works so hard!” She could upbraid you and reprimand you like no one else, but if anyone else tried she would defend you. “Grandma was my best buddy and confidant.” It was not the celebration of death we are accustomed to, but was a celebration of who the person was to each who were gathered together as a body. In like manner a wedding, where there was no dress, no aisle, no sand or unity candle, no public profession but sincere confession of love and devotion. In so many different occasions, we have come to realize what seemed impossible is real. It is perplexing. We cannot imagine why this would matter, why it is important to say the words, to confess God as real, or why God would want to enter into our lives when so often we wish we could escape. But God does! That is Luke's telling. In Mark, the only reference to Mary, is that along with Jesus' brothers, Mary comes to take Jesus home when they interpret he is crazy. In Matthew, she is only one of the visitors at the tomb. In John, Mary is not even mentioned. But Luke takes time to demonstrate for us, instead of being a Saint, instead of being Mother of God, instead of being Holy and Pure, Mary is the first Believer. Time and human culture have seized upon the miracle of Mary being a Virgin, Luke's point was in contrast to her cousin Elizabeth who was far beyond the age of conception but who like Hannah of the Old testament of Israel prayed to be given a child and was the mother of John the Baptist, so Mary was too young. The scandal and miracle of Mary being the mother of Jesus, is first that she was a commoner, like any of us. When the angel Gabriel appeared to her, and described her as “favored” the point is not that she is recognized for having been good, but like any of us this is announcement of God's grace. You have been chosen. You are blessed by God. However, whereas in some parts of our nation today being a teen-ager and getting pregnant is status, Mary's world makes the Taliban Honor Killings seem pedestrian. Accepting this gift from God put her life at risk, put her engagement and marriage at risk. She was accepting family disgrace, probable stoning and at the least shunning not only of her family but her world. Luke's Gospel reads too quickly. When Gabriel announced that Mary was favored by God, she responds by being perplexed. We ought to stop there, because that is where each of us stop adjusting our reality. You want to marry me? My parent, my partner, my child has died? I have cancer? There is a disorientation that is perplexing. God is real? Then there is confusion? Why me? Why now? Does God not have better things to do, more important than me? Has God thought this through? Being incarnate, becoming human? Being human means feeling, suffering, dying, being afraid, being vulnerable, God wants that? Afterward, Mary responds with Commitment... “Here am I” and the Angel departs. That, I believe is the hardest part of all for Mary, the point at which we too often idealize Mary . Once you make the commitment. Once you accept your Calling, saying “Here Am I Send Me” there is a point of loneliness of realization, God what have we gotten into as the Impossible becomes real. Too often, we see ourselves as being King David, ruler of all we command, with everyone telling us what we want to hear, believing we are self- made, and in control. Too often we believe we are pure and holy and righteous, as if we were the Mother of God. This morning's passages demonstrate that we, all of us are human. But God is real, and God enters into our lives to challenge us with accepting blessings that will turn our lives upside down and inside out, not because we are so good, but because God chooses to use us. Nothing is impossible for God. God has formed every element of creation from a baby's eye lashes to a spider's web to volcanoes, tsunamis and polar vortex. God stood toe to toe with King David, and confronted Mary with the reality of God being born, and God is with each of us at all those perplexing times, Calling us by saying “YOU ARE FAVORED!” To which the awaited reply is “Here am I.” “You are favored...”

"Peace of God" December 7, 2014

Isaiah 40:1-11 Mark: 1:1-8 In all the Nativity Creche Sets, all the Christmas Pageants over all the years, we have had Joseph, Mary and the Baby, Shepherds, Sheep, Angels, Wisemen, Camels, a Donkey, Cows, an Inn Keeper, some years even Martians, Giraffes and Pigs. The one figure in the Gospel not in our Pageants or Creches is John the Baptist. What would it be, if going to see the Lights, one house after another were illuminated with icycles and wildly changing colors, Dancing Snowmen, Jolly Fat Santas, The Grinch, Rudolphs and Reindeer, then as you stopped in front of the Church there was a man, with long unkempt hair, wearing a camel skin and leather belt, his beard and tunic matted with smeared honey, pieces of locusts in his teeth, and a voice that bellows over all the Ho Ho Hos, Jingle Bells and Carols, to proclaim “Repent, For the Kingdom of God is coming!” John the Baptist is not what we think of as Christmas, or Advent. We expect Love & Joy, Light, Hope, Peace and Good Will. But this is December 7th, A Day that will Live in Infamy, when over 2,400 Americans were killed and 1178 wounded, an act of hostility designed to destroy us, instead forcing our Nation into War. The last several weeks, we have heard reports of ISIS beheading Journalists, and of race riots against the police in Florida, Ferguson, Missouri and New York City. Isaiah and Mark were correct this is not a time to preach Peace on Earth, Good Will among men! But Repent! for this season this time in human history is about the Peace of God coming into the world! Before we make out our Wish Lists of all we want and desire, there is a forgotten step, of sitting on Santa's Knee questioning if we have been Good or Bad. If we are planning our dress for a Christmas Party Christmas Eve or if we are planning to come to worship? If we have been distracted by Piano Recitals and Meetings, Parties and Cookies, or if we have considered lowering our Pride, and Rising from our depressions? We tend to hear Isaiah as having been the High Priest at Jerusalem prophesying the judgment and history of punishment of Israel and all the Nations of the Ancient World. For the first 39 Chapters, that would be accurate. There is a credible understanding, that after the 39 Chapters of historic judgment, we were then to read the Book of Lamentations, as the people mourned their loss. But Chapter 40 announces something new and different. No longer in the Past Tense, the Chapter begins with God speaking to the Heavenly Host announcing Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. The shift from past to future declares that human history was on a trajectory toward death; the Nations have been judged, have faced Exile and Punishment and Almighty God declares, the time is over. When a criminal has served their time, we envision their release, with stern warning and expectation of recidivism. Instead, God proclaims, compassion and concern. There is a recurrent image in these passages. According to Isaiah, the Captives set Free are to be brought home to the Promised Land through the Wilderness where this disembodied voice speaks. What Isaiah describes is a Renewal of The Exodus. In order to come to Promised Land, Israel needed to wander through the Wilderness. John the Baptist came from the Wilderness, embodying the Wild. Jesus immediately after being Baptized was driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. The Wilderness is not a place of Comforting the Afflicted, or Speaking Tenderly. Wilderness is a lonely place, a reflective retreat, a place where we are not concerned with how many presents under the tree, or whether this tree is better than all the rest, but only with survival, with absolute dependence upon God. But in this Exodus, there is no complaining about how much better it was to be slaves, no longing for the flesh pots of Egypt, no weeping for Jerusalem, instead all the obstacles have been removed, all the high places, all the rough, all the depressions. The difficulty is that on December 7th, after 353 planes bombed Hawaii, after 4 of our 8 Battleships were sunk and 3 others damaged, 188 planes destroyed and 159 planes damaged, 3 Cruisers, 3 Destroyers destroyed, 2,400 killed and more than 1100 others wounded, you do not simply say PEACE and have everyone accept it. When a young Black Man reaches through the window of a police car to take the officer's gun, when commanded to stop he does not, but instead charges the officer. When for months tensions escalate, stores and neighborhoods are destroyed, and the Police Force is embarrassed Peace, Comfort seem irrelevant words. When a young Black Man was shot by a White Police Officer, who then collected the evidence, while the young's dead body lay in the street for hours; is followed by another man in another city being choked and held down by Police, protesting he cannot breathe as he dies, Speak Tenderly of Peace and Consolation, seem hollow. Instead, Isaiah describes there are two different Orders in the World. The Human Order compared to the Divine Order of God. All Flesh is grass, the grass withers, the flower fades. Like waves of the Ocean, the Prophet describes the collision of these two orders. Human History, growing in progress and dying. Like some great Greek Tragedy, we have accomplishments building upon accomplishments, only to realize we are mortal and our greatest Empires and Societies fall to decay. There is an order to Human Development and History, but at the horizon of history is this other order declaring that human struggles are not in vain, there is human greatness in history, there can even be righteousness, there are nations which have created freedom and a level of equality, all of which are subject to arrogant Laws of Self-Destruction. But just as we have glimpsed the Divine, knowing reality greater than our own, so also God acts, unexpectedly, in paradox, the Weak display a strength, the poor know riches beyond wealth. Like the Book of Job, when rationally pushed for explanation of Why, why there is suffering, why there is death, why there is not Peace, God points to the greatness of Creation which cannot be measured according to human righteousness. In the tension of our struggles: 1) Humanity recognize our World is not God's World, we cannot make Peace. 2) Humanity ultimately is dissatisfied with everything we have done, all flesh withers. 3) But Humanity is gifted a glimpse of something greater & the infinite within our finite is touched. 4) While we can never force Peace, or Perfect Humanity, the truth is that The Divine Order and the Human Order are each within the other. God becomes One With us. What is beautiful about John the Baptist, is that he did not suddenly proclaim himself to be the Messiah sent from God. Instead, this man embodying Wilderness, embodying that disembodied voice called, and all the World responded. As uncouth and unkempt and wild as John the Baptist was, he displayed a vulnerability of saying “It's Not Me!” After me comes one for whom I am not worthy to even untie the sandal. And Jesus, did not come onto the scene in Mark declaring himself to be the first, but recognized the life accomplishments of John, the Law and Prophets before him. The Gospel of Mark begins in this unique manner. Realize that Matthew with the Genealogy of Jesus, and Luke with historic identification in the time of King Herod, Augustus Caesar, Zechariah was Priest, John's eloquent poetry about the spirit of Christ being present at Creation, were not written Mark was first published. The Gospel of Mark begins “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, The son of God.” The wonderful part of that is that Mark's telling does not have a Resurrection Appearance. This Good News stops with the burial and witnesses who came to the tomb but ran away in fear. So the whole of the Gospel of Mark is only the Beginning. The Evangelist declares this is not just a story, not one that will end “Happily Ever After” but instead this is Gospel, Good News of the son of God who is our Savior. Comfort, Comfort, My People, Says Your God, Speak Tenderly to Jerusalem... In response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, demonstrating the power of the Bomb. Would that in response to the deaths of Black Men in Florida, in Missouri, in New York, all of us would stop to reflect and repent on the ways we react to the color of a person's skin, answering violence with violence until double the punishment has been paid. What will it cost for all flesh to see it together? The Grass Withers, the Flower Fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever.

Watch, Weep, Witness, November 30, 2014

Isaiah 24 Mark 13:1-37 Last Week was Christ the King Sunday, the Ultimate Climax of the Christian Year, when we declare Jesus born in a manger in a stable who suffered and died on the Cross and rose again, to be the Christ, Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, Very God of Very God! “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” On Thursday we watched the parade and gathered at the Table, not Christ's Table, but our Family Feast, because at Midnight began the biggest shopping celebration of the year. Even before we turn the calendar from November to December, we have already entered into the Advent of Christmas. But Advent is more than counting down the number of days until Christmas Eve, more than the singing of Carols and eating of Cookies, we have entered The Season of Shadows. “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” Like so many Christmases of recent years, this is not like our childhood, cutting out snowflakes/making snow-angels. We hear of bombings and war, a gunman shooting indiscriminately; thousands of people killed by Ebola; instead of our leaders offering hope, they trade threats; in order to end the year with lower costs companies experience lay-offs. So we pull on our layers, pull down our caps, cover our ears with earbuds and earmuffs, to go out into the world of shadows and fear. The isolating part, which makes us the more afraid, is everyone seems by themselves. We push passed one another, we cut each other off, we try to get there first, so we can also be first to leave. In the shadows, we never see those crossing in the cross-walk. In the shadows with their caps pulled over their eyes, we cannot see the other's face, their fears, their tears. Rushing faster, trying to make a quota, the truck-driver does not see the black ice and their semi jack-knifes. These fears, these shadows, the darkness that pervades our thoughts, these have become part of our human condition. Nostalgically we fool ourselves that long ago there were White Christmases, and Wonderful Lives in Bedford Falls, but even those stories began with tragedy and fear. “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” In the Bible Study, we were reading Isaiah, when it occurred to me, I have never heard a sermon on Isaiah 24. More than a passage of devastation and destruction, this is affirmation of faith, that from the Old Testament time through the birth of Jesus right through today, there has been tragedy, there have been tears wept, but the words of the prophet are that we have never ever been alone. Everything that has effected us, has effected the world around us, and touched God. One of the most powerful stories I have ever heard about a congregation, was this church, that following years of conflict, tore up the last five years of their Minutes and Actions inscribing the next page, “We recognize that in our hurting each other, we have done harm to God and God's Creation! We have crucified our Lord, by hating one another. Acting in hate we have killed our faith. SO we repent and begin again anew.” “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” It occurs to me that there are many different ways of watching and waiting. There is the watching and waiting from bed, for the night to be over to begin the day. There is watching and waiting for the College acceptance packet or rejection letter. There is watching and waiting for the airline to land, and be cleared for our safe travel. There is watching and waiting for your parents to get home, when punishment will take place. There is the watching and waiting on a street corner, when you hear footsteps, when you feel afraid. There is watching and waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to arrive. There is watching and waiting in the Hospital, during surgery, when the baby is coming, or on hospice. All the while we repeat “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” We have created for ourselves the expectation that like Homeland Security, if we are on watch, we can keep fear from coming, we can lock the door and raise the threat level. But the more security we put in place, the more insecure we feel. What if our watching is not for shadows, for clouds, for destruction, but is for God to enter into the world? There is an ancient mantra that has been repeated since the days of the early church “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” It seems odd to begin Advent with Mark's Apocalypse. Jesus and the disciples were in the Temple at Jerusalem, and as they left, one commented “How beautiful the workmanship!” to which Jesus named that all of this would one day be destroyed. More than being pessimistic, the disciples ask “When?” Somehow we think we can wait more easily when we know how long. The difficulty is that in the early church, there were two different ideas. One was that “Just as Creation was a long long time ago, so the end will be a long long time from now, as there was a beginning there must be an end, and we who have faith must keep the faith alive.” The other is that “Christ could come at any minute, when we least expect, so live as if this moment may be when Christ enters in.” Mark 13 would read much more smoothly, if we read verses 1-2, 8, 14-22, 24-30 and again verses 3-7, 9-13, 21-23, 32-37. But we have received the text as it is, so know and believe that Christ has come. Christ is coming. Christ will come again. Jesus' description to the disciples was not to scare them into believing. But just the opposite, that when clouds form, know that The Christ will come riding on a cloud! Just as there are earthquakes, know that all creation suffers birth-pangs. This may be of a time to come. But the sky turning dark, the sun being eclipsed, earthquakes and a tearing of the curtain, are exactly what happened at the Crucifixion, so when Christ had come and died on the Cross, the whole creation and God suffered. There are times of fear in all our lives. Gunmen are real. Accidents on the highway do happen. Wars and Earthquakes all of this make our shadows and long winters seem pretty bleak. But know for certain that Christ has already Come! Week after week we recite his teachings, his actions, his parables, watching and waiting to see similar events in our lives. There will be times for weeping, for sadness and fear and loss. But Christ is coming! Our loss and our fears help us to recognize the need for a savior, the need for hope. Our role and purpose is to name the needs of the world and to direct care and concern to making a difference. Possibly Christ is Coming through you! Christ would not be seen or recognized by another, they might miss recognizing the hope the love the joy, if not for you. Advent takes time, more than four weeks of waiting and watching, because God is becoming Tangible. The Invisible, Immortal is becoming One with us. How many of our stories, how much of our desire is for humans to become like God? But the miracle, according to Holy Scripture is that God actually became human, mortal, one with us in Jesus Christ. Another way to envision Advent is that in the Beginning, and over and over throughout the text, we returned from our cultivated fears, our wars and domination, our Empires and Creations, to Wilderness. Adam and Eve, The Tower of Babel, Abram, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob all wandered in the wilderness. Moses, and eventually the Exiles, even John the Baptist, all were asked to become one with Creation. This Advent is not for us to acquire all the stuff to give to others, but for us to work through all the layers of fear and doubt, the layers we have bundled ourselves in, to get down to who we really are and what matters in a primal sense for each of us. December 25th is going to come, whether we are prepared or not. I believe in the ultimate and absolute power of God to accomplish whatever God desires whether we choose to recognize God or not. But how much more full life will be, how much more Christmas will mean if we prepare ourselves to the reality to recognize “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” We end this week, with a story from our church. That decades ago there was a fight between two siblings, each shaming the other. For years they did not speak. Through their partners, eventually they began to hear about one another receiving that ubiquitous Christmas letter now become an Email. Finally, the one decided too many years had passed, who was at fault what was said really did not matter, only that they needed to forgive and be forgiven. But that very day a card came in the mail. Opening it, the card named that their sibling had died, and their greatest regret had been that they had never tried to get back to being family, to forgiving and being forgiven. The apocalypse may be the end of the world, it may only be the end of the world as we know it, as Jesus is quoted “No one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, only God. – WATCH”

Punishment

Ezekiel 34:11-16 Matthew 25:31-46 Each and everyone of us have unresolved issues. Relationships we wish we could return to to redeem. We want, not simply to get it right, to express ourselves better, but we want to avoid the shame we feel, the loss, we want vindication for ourselves but especially for those we feel we could have saved. Part of the human condition is not only guilt and remorse, but shame that we are not in control, and that what we do control, does not come out as we intellectually know we should. For a congregation and Pastor who regularly preach the importance of relationships, grace and caring, the last several weeks the Scripture passages have emphasized the coming of a Judgment Day. When a parishioner moved to Vermont, she pledged that if ever I preached Hellfire and Brimstone she wanted to come back to see it, because that did not seem in my character. But, we have to preach the Bible, and Matthew is the only one of the Gospels with this emphasis. The Son of Man will come riding on a CLOUD, the difficulty is we know not when, so like the 10 Virgins BE PREPARED; like the Master of servants TREAT OTHERS WITH GRACE & KINDNESS because you know not when, like the Servants entrusted with Talents RISK EVERYTHING, DO NOT BE GUARDED or DEFENSIVE. The difficulty is that being human, we do not like to think about our shame, or being Judged, so as a Church we describe emphasis on Christ as King of Kings, while as a Nation we focus instead on Thanksgiving which becomes focus on Parades and a Meal, which becomes focus on a Turkey. This morning in the last of these passages from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount of Olives, he begins by naming that ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE GATHERED. What a powerful claim, that this is not just for Israel, or for Christianity, or for Rome, but all Creation, all the Nations and Kingdoms. Like the Vision of Daniel, or Isaiah, or Revelation of John, there is a fluidity between God, Christ, the Son on Man, who is Shepherd and King and is for us the Lamb Sacrificed as Atonement. This morning is CHRIST THE KING SUNDAY, the Climax and resolution of everything from the Fall of Adam, the Monarchy of David and Solomon, the Exile and Diaspora, the Birth of the Savior, Calling of Disciples, Betrayal, Abandonment, and Resurrection. This Day is Claim that Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Begotten not Created, being of one substance with God! At times we are overwhelmed by the claim that God the Creator entered into God's Creation our world, and Almighty All-Powerful God was born a baby in an overcrowded world. We listen to the stories of Miracles, of Jesus' Baptism and the Last Supper, and we wonder if this is real. We cannot look away at the horror of the Crucifixion, the finality and hopelessness of the death and burial, or the surreal beauty and power of the Resurrection that not even death could keep God in Christ from us. But, compared to all of that, this is more, not simply a LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM, Or JERUSALEM, or JUDEA or GALILEE or even THE EMPIRES OF EGYPT, GREECE or ROME, but that All Peoples of All Nations would one day turn to God as KING OF KINGS. According to tradition Bishop Hugh Latimer, the Bishop of London in the 16th Century, looked out one morning in worship and saw King Henry VIII sitting in the front row. Realizing the power and responsibility he had in preaching that morning, as he prayed he spoke in an audible whisper “Be careful Latimer, King Henry is Listening!” then with renewed insight spoke even louder “Take care what you preach Latimer the King of Kings is Listening too.” There is a common identity here, that undercuts all the worlds Religions. As much as wars have been fought and continue to be waged between Islam and Christianity and Judaism and Hindu and Buddhist, of the right words, the true Messiah, or the right way of worshipping, all believe in Salvation, in both an ultimate reconciliation of the world as well as our responsibility for one another, especially the weakest. This passage has always been special to me, because the Morning of our College Graduation, I was asked to read the Gospel, this Gospel, this Good News, at the Baccalaureate. After everything of College was done, after the last test and paper were completed. After the Diplomas were printed, and all the bills had been paid. The word that was to be read was a realization that in the end what matters is not what school you attended, or which Fraternity, whether you had a degree in LAW, ARTS or SCIENCES, what truly mattered was not what you believed so much as what you do, and doing not because it is what is expected, or what you are supposed to do or be, but the sacrifices and caring you do for those who cannot help themselves. In the Fourth Century of the Common Era, Emperor Constantine of Rome was preparing for war, when he had a vision of being led into battle by the Cross. After the fighting had ended, Constantine converted to Christianity and was Baptized. When the Emperor of Rome converts from one religion to another, all the Empire converted as well. As amazing as the stories of conversion in the Book of Acts of the Apostles, where 6,000 were baptized in a single day, 4,000 a week later, when Rome became a Christian Nation, this meant the Roman Legion, with military power and the support of the Senate and government converted as well. But within a Dozen years, Constantine called for the Council at Nicaea inviting 1800 Bishops to gather to resolve by debate and simple majority, what we believe about the nature of Jesus Christ. Was he co-Eternal with God? Created by God or Begotten? Do we believe in One God, or in Two, or in Three with the Holy Spirit? Or do we, along with Dan Brown affirm the Divinity of Mary as the Mother of God? Of monumental importance in defining what we as Christians share in belief: the Trinity of One God in three persons, the Council of Nicaea ended with division of the Church East and West. But a more defining circumstance for Christianity had happened even before Constantine was Baptized. There were plagues, not unlike Ebola today, where whole Villages and tribes of people died of disease. The epidemics reached such crises, that families would carry their dead, and their sick out into the streets. When the death-toll continued to escalate, neighbors, family, community leaders would flee the city, abandoning the ill to die. But Christians began acts of compassion. Providing a cool clean cloth to a person's forehead. Washing them, keeping flies and mosquitos away. Keeping people hydrated and fed. Surprisingly, those who had been abandoned to die, instead lived. What greater representation of resurrection could there be? Your family, your entire village abandons you as dead, diseased, unable to be saved, and through compassion and care, you are brought back from death to life. The most marvelous part of this passage from Matthew comes from the people in response to being judged. “Lord, When did we see you and care, or when did we see you and not care?” “When you did anything to these others, who are the least in the kingdom of God, you did so to me.” I am certain, that were those who were the members of this church in the 1860s, knew what a defining act it was, they would be embarrassed, but in those years our congregation was torn apart by conflict so extreme there were two First Presbyterian Churches, with separate worship, separate Sessions, separate memberships. The only evidence we have of this, is inscription in the Session's Minutes “We have done harm to God! We have crucified our Savior Jesus Christ, because we as the Church have been divided. So we have purged the Minutes of all record of these five years, and we have begun again.” There is a certain irony conveyed in the prophecy of Ezekiel. We think of Shepherds watching over the flocks, trying to fatten them up, protecting the sheep from wolves and bears. But part of the payment of the Shepherds was that they were able periodically to cull out a sheep to eat. The nature of Shepherding was that the shepherds would kill the fattest, strongest sheep, so as to give a chance to the weaker, smaller sheep to survive and grow. This morning, we would end by trying a Spiritual Discipline. Center yourself, placing both feet on the floor. Close your eyes and take a deep cleansing breath. First, imagine the most beautiful scene of nature you have ever seen... Perhaps it is looking out at the lake as the sun sparkles in the morning... the Grand Canyon which seems to extend for ever... the depths of the woods... the expanse of stars in the Milky Way... Now realize God the Creator formed this, created this as part of the order of the Cosmos. Breathe deeply, and imagine the face of the person you love the most, maybe it was a Mentor, your Mother or Father, Spouse or First-love, or the face of your child when they were born, or on their wedding day. See their eyes, look deeply into their eyes to see who you are to them. Know that God is responsible for creating this relationship for you to be who you are. Breathe deeply, and imagine the face of someone homeless, someone alone in the hospital, someone impoverished, someone in prison waiting to die, now look deeply into their eyes and search deeply for that person you saw in the eyes of your love. Jesus said, when you cared for the least of these, you cared for me. A Franciscan Blessing is a Benediction in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi who gave up everything he had, in Thanksgiving to God, to care for the poor. May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you may live deeply within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, exploitation that you may do something about it. May God bless you with tears for those who suffer pain, rejection, starvation and war, that you might turn their pain into joy. May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, that you can try to do what others claim cannot be done.

"Sacrifice," November 16, 2014

Judges 11 Matthew 25: 14-30 The world is so pervasive, our culture so much with us, it is difficult to listen in faith rather than seeing and hearing as the world does. The Parable of the Talents has been preached so often as a Stewardship Sermon, conveniently the Man gives each one, two, five Talents instructing them to use them. We each know we possess talents, some One talent, some several different talents, and there is a temptation to hide our gifts. If we hide our talent, much like hiding your light under a basket, it does no good. That sermon usually ended with a fear of judgment, that one day the Rich Man will come back wanting an accounting and you better be able to show you used your talents to double what you were given, if not there was utter darkness where people weep and gnash their teeth. A dozen years ago, a Pastor Denny took this to extremes by withdrawing $10,000 from the church asset and giving 100 people each $100, instructing them 1.This belongs to God. 2.Use it, Money like Manure is intended to make things grow. 3.In 90 days there will be an accounting. Dateline and 60 Minutes each came to film the miracles, as these 100 common parishioners had used what they were given to advance the Kingdom. Each story more fantastic than the one before, people were outdoing themselves and each other, with what they possessed for 3 months. But, while good American television, evidence of a prosperity gospel where the rich get richer, that does not sound much like Matthew, let alone Jesus. The difficulty is envisioning what belongs to God as $100. In fairness that is what Pastor Denny gave each and told them, “This $100 belongs to God.” However the Parable was specific that those to whom the Talents were given were slaves of the Master. All that they had, belonged to the Man. In the Greco-Roman culture compared to all other coins, there was one of greatest value, the “Talenthon” named here, was the equivalent of the wages of a lifetime. Imagine that as slaves who own nothing, we are owned, and you were given $20,000,000 and another $40,000,000 a third was given $100,000,000. Who is to say that the $100 you were given on a Sunday morning belongs to God, but that your life, your marriage and children and grandchildren, your home, the full value of your stock portfolio and IRAs does not belong to God. When you were baptized, when you were confirmed, whenever you changed churches, we asked you: “Who is your Lord and Savior” “Do you trust him” and “Will you give of yourself in every way?” Did we mean it? We have established a construct, in which we work hard and we play hard, and ne'er the two shall meet. We work at our jobs, competing for all we can get. We purchase land and build our homes with sweat of our brow and the talents of our arms. Like Ants instead of Grasshoppers we invest and set aside, building up nest-eggs, in order that we can possess enough to retire, to live in comfort and luxury with everything we desire, before we die. Overtime we have also given offerings of our charity to establish churches and good works. We have titled these as Non-Profits to be clear that they are not businesses. As the CEO and Head of Staff for this Corporation, I would confess to you that is a fallacy. We are held accountable to the best business practices, to the IRS, to the Federal, State and Local governments, to our creditors and you our stock-holders, we attempt to provide the public with the highest quality product in music and the arts, education in ethics and values and faith, opportunities to change the world, and we are in competition not only with the business across the street, but in competition for your time, for your love, for survival. The difficulty is how to succeed without the church becoming only an institution of religion, a business. The third difficulty with Pastor Denny's $100 Parable, is that it was for 90 days. Jesus described he went away with no return date, went on a distant journey for a long time. Implicit in this parable is how life affects us. The Master divided up his possessions for them to care for as their own. Some did, they lived and became like the Rich Man, when the settling occurred he treated them as if equals. In that day and age, it was common practice to bury in the ground things of great value. Like a pirate treasure, generations later, someone could come and dig it up having exactly what was put aside. But doing so, you live unaffected, autonomous to the gift given you. You have been given marriage, a love affair to last a lifetime; you have been gifted children and grandchildren; you have been given the ability to hear and make music, you have been given the gift of changing the lives of other people; can you chose to not do so? The point of the value of the Talent was not that one received 5 times as much and one only received 1, but that one Talent was a gift of value so far out of our imagination, you have no idea how to manage. What if, instead of being worth money, the Talents given represent faith in God? You have been given the ability to relate to God, to care for God's creation as if your own... What will you do with life? Do we treat others with contempt, with fear, do we hide and bury our faith, or do we risk everything making this our own? Jepthah was a soldier, a warrior in battle. This week in celebration of Veteran's Day, it occurred to me this is is a different kind of holiday. Veterans' Day is not based on religion as Christmas or Easter, it is not a day in recognition of Labor or business. Originally, at the end of WWI, months before the signing of the Treaty at Versailles, this was Armistice, the End of War, it came at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, to emphasize just how close to the 11th hour, the end of life as we know it, we came. But also, that our Veterans live with (what many of us name as) an unrealized ideal. We make offerings, like giving our least coin to a charity, like making a bid at an auction, to buy and to own. Sacrifice is precious and painful, sacrifice costs us more than we knew it would. Sacrifice is intended to atone for the shame and debt that is owed to God. So while soldiers take an oath to defend our Nation, what they are sacrificing is years out of their lives. What they are sacrificing is sometimes an arm, sometimes a leg, their hearing or vision, sometimes their psyche and reality, in war we sacrifice our loved ones, as well as our morality and ethics demanding the killing of others, demanding vengeance. Faith is not a philosophical proposition. Faith is not a set of theories and ideals and beliefs or myths. Faith happens in the midst of life, as we struggle to care for a gift that is more than we can ever imagine. Faith is owning the shame of life, the debts and responsibilities, and choosing to sacrifice even/ especially, what is most precious to us. Would that the cost were only our risk, but there is more, more than the fear of losing it all and being cast into the darkness. This is a terrible, horrible story, from a time when each person decided for themselves in their own heart what was right and what was wrong. Time and again, after they suffered, they turned and repented and came together to trust God. Sacrifice is giving to God, in recognition that everything we have, everything we are, so much more abundant than we could ever control, already belongs to God. The point is not “Well done, good and faithful, you have been faithful over a little, now I will set you over much...” Life is not a success story. But rather the simple invitation: “Enter into the joy of your Master.”

"The Oil Indicator Light" November 9 2014

Amos 5: 18-24 Matthew 25:1-13 For over 2000 years we have read this passage from Matthew, supporting values of our culture, “Be Prepared,” “Don't be late,” in crises “Hoarding and Saying No” are what are demanded. In Seminary this was affectionately referred to as the Boy Scout's Parable: “Be Prepared!” To the point that at a recent wedding, the day arrived, the flowers were exquisite, the bridesmaids and groomsmen were in place, the Prelude music had all been played, but guests were still arriving, when one of the Wedding Coordinators suggested “So, is now when we lock the doors, that they arrived too late?” I looked at them incredulously as if to say, everyone is turned around to watch the Bridal Entry and you want to create a scene of people outside pulling on the doors, screaming and pounding to get in? As the Bride is walking up the aisle, you want people distracted by guests coming in the back door across the Chancel? That is not what the wedding or this passage are about. In trying to better understand the passage, I attempted to use the parable in combination with other Bible passages so as to have Scripture interpret Scripture. Except that I wound up with “Do not store up treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume, thieves break in to steal...Unless you are storing Oil, we need large Oil Reserves.” “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, or about what you will wear. Worry about Oil, possessing Oil is the main thing.” “Ask and it will be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door will be opened, unless you are late and the bridegroom answers, in which case, forget about it.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, unless it is about borrowing oil, where it is every woman for herself.” The more I prayed and listened to this passage, the more I came to the illustration “For 2000 years a warning light has been flashing, like an Oil Indicator Light, saying “Second Coming” and we ignore it but although that Oil Indicator Light has been flashing 2000 years, one day he will come.” I turned to the Old Testament, where Amos describes “The Day of the Lord's Coming should not be hoped for! This is not a day of affirmation, Well done good and faithful servants! This will be a frightening nightmare, as if you were running away from a lion and ran into a bear, you put your hand out to steady yourself only to grasp a snake!” So it seems the sermon for this morning should be: Be afraid, be very afraid! Be prepared, bring extra virgin olive oil. I never before understood that it was about Extra oil for the Virgins, not Extra Virgin Olive Oil! I tried taking the parable apart, but there were 10 Bridesmaids, all in identical Dresses, all had been friends since School, all 10 brought Lamps, all fell asleep, so why were five included as being wise and five rejected as foolish? Martin Luther claimed the oil was Good Works, it was not about the people or wisdom or foolishness, but good works. But can you run out of good works? Thomas Merton rewrote the Parable as the Poem of 5 Bridesmaids, rowdy women who run out of gas on the way to the wedding, so show up late for the wedding feast. BUT they were told to hang around, because they knew how to dance, because at the Wedding of the Lamb in Revelation there were 10 Virgins. Certainly if this were a parable from Jesus, about the Kingdom of God, the Bridesmaids would share their oil, and standing at the door knocking with Jesus as the Bridegroom the door would be opened... So why is this so strange? Then it hit me, something no Scholar, Commentary or Blog has identified, the context of this Parable was Jesus last set of teachings before the Crucifixion, describing that there would be a judgement day... Know that If the Householder knew what hour the thief were coming, they would have locked the door! If the manager anticipated the coming of the Master he would treat the servants with respect and care! But suppose that servant is wicked and begins to mistreat the servants. The master will come early, when unexpected, at an hour not prepared for. And here comes our parable, THEN, AT THAT TIME, THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN will be like 10 Virgins who took their lamps to greet the Bridegroom. This is not a parable about the Kingdom of God, but of Judgment like the Parable of the Servant who mistreated others. Throughout Matthew we are told You are the Light of the World, You are the torch to light the path of others, the Bridegroom may as easily be late as early, will we still have faith to persevere, or will we be like salt that has lost its savor, and if so what can you do? At midnight, when your oil has run out, and time is of the essence where will you go? In Christianity, we have placed great emphasis on Baptism and Confirmation, claiming this individual as our sister or brother, as a child of God, and their own affirmation when they are ready that they are prepared to accept responsibilities. We have great emphasis on identification of The Call, Abram was Called, Moses was Called, Jeremiah was called before he was born, Jesus called his disciples. Here the question is not Are you called, or When, or How. But where do you go, what do you do, when your oil is out? Because you will run dry. What replenishes you, what fills you when you are spiritually dry? Because you cannot be a light to anyone else, when you are spent. Imagine it's 5:30 and you have had a really hard day, just as you are done taking your coat off, your spouse and kids ask “What's for dinner?” As you search imaginary possibilities, you feel Godzilla taking over your being, and when you finish your rant, your teen-ager looks at you calmly and says “Out of oil?” When a two year old does not get their nap, they have a melt-down. When you and your partner have not had a conversation in three weeks that has not revolved around schedules and logistics, you are do for a crash. If you have worked 80 hour work weeks as long as you can remember, relationships will suffer. Running out of oil, having the Oil Indicator Light come on is not something you can avoid or ignore. It happens. Replenishing your oil cannot be bought from a store like fastfood. No one can give you Peace of Mind. We all say, “Someday I will quit working so hard and spend quality time with my kids.” One of these days, I am going to take up sailing, or painting, or volunteering. We all do it. We all doze off caring for ourselves spiritually. Last week it hit me, after everyone had left, I made one last tour of the Sanctuary as pastors often do. In one place was a tissue, in another a baggy of cheerios, there was an empty communion glass in a pew. What occurred to me, is all that has been left here over all the years. In one pew someone had cast off their grief and left it behind. In another was a man's sense of failure and disappointment at life. On the floor was some secret sin, real or imaginary, no longer much trouble left behind. The remains of a heated argument before worship, the left-overs of a bruised ego. Marriage Vows broken. All of that poured out, exchanged for Grace. That is the Happy-Ending to this Parable, that even when shut-out, with no oil left, sitting in the darkness, unable to party, there is a renewable resource of Grace. Jesus tells us, it comes when you stop your schedule to serve others, when you feed the hungry, clothe the naked, when you welcome a stranger. That is when we find the source of replenishment, when we gather the fruits of the spirit: Love, Peace, Patience, Joy, Kindness, Generosity, Faith, Gentleness, Self-Control. For over 2000 years, I think we have missed the point of this Parable, missed the Point of the Day of the Lord, people cannot be scared into trusting, into believing. You do not fill up your spiritual lamp because you are afraid of being left out, locked out of the Kingdom of God, or because you want to have enough to turn others away. No, there come dark nights for all of us, when it feels like everywhere you turn, is a snake or a bear or lion. And in that dark night of the soul, you realize what you really want is to share in that communion. You fill your lamp out of Joy. That is the price of the oil, the only cost, wanting to meet your savior, to meet God when God comes. Which he will soon, very soon.

"The Blue Pill or the Red," Nov 2, 2014

Joshua 5:1-12 Matthew 23:1-12 Fifteen years ago, the movie The Matrix opened with a scene from the future with millions of bodies asleep in suspended animation, their bodies serving as the power source for the world, when suddenly one wakes up to who he and where he is. As he pulls himself free, it seems all the world is focused on capturing, holding, killing him. When suddenly he runs into a warrior, a strange hulking man with mirrored sunglasses who says “You must choose. There is no turning back. You take the Blue pill and return to whatever you want to believe to be safety and security where you are the center of the masses. You take the Red Pill, you stay here in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” More than a statement about how drug addicted we are, the focus becomes on the Self, who am I separate from all the world? Am I just one individual among the masses, so able to blend in without responsibility? Or am I responsible, do I make a difference, does my life matter? In part this is a question of what is reality, does what we believe make a difference? In part, this is an indictment of our hypocrisy. We are self-absorbed, posting on Facebook and Twitter, a permanent electronic record of our every thought and action, posting Selfies of who we are with, and where we are. US Forestry Park rangers have now had to offer a new set of instructions to tourists entering the parks, to not try to take Selfies with Bears, are we really that self-absorbed? To which, Jesus proclaims that we should obey what our leaders say, for they are elected to sit in judgment, but do as they say not as they do, because human beings are hypocrites. Insofar as there are very few among us who would claim to be Pharisees, Saducees, or Scribes, I am going to take Jesus' Words as addressed to all of us today. For most of us do love the spotlight, we want to be photographed in the Central New York Magazine as having been at the best party, we want the television camera to find us at the SU Game, regardless of what we do behind the scenes we want to be seen as successful. For us, temptation becomes a quest for power, for prestige and notoriety, to be remembered as having been. There are also those of us, who simply want to go unnoticed, to have been part of the right crowd at the right time, but not to be recognized, for whom temptation is belittling our self, losing who we are because we stand for nothing and believe we make no effect. I can hear the words of Baptism, as we carry in arms the newest part of this body...There will come times when you will scream for attention, run up and down the aisles hoping others will notice, and we will encourage that you listen and pay attention to the needs of others. There will come times, when you try to shrink in the pew and hide, but we will call you to ask your questions to confess what you believe, because through you we learn more and more about God. There is not a prescription of one size fits all, here, but what is agony to one is grace for another, and what is the norm for one may well be the hardest thing for another. I love this passage from Joshua, everything gone before is remembered in miniature as suddenly Joshua sees God's purpose differently. Joshua was there with Moses throughout the forty years, fighting for survival, the people struggling for water and for food, to not be slaughtered by the enemy. Moses died, leaving Joshua to lead. As they crossed over Jordan carrying the Ark of the Covenant, the waters parted as they had forty years before; they recognized that born in the wilderness they were again an uncircumcised people so they were circumcised and rested; the manna from heaven that they had received day after day in the wilderness stopped so they had to rely on the resources of this new land. For forty years, Joshua had followed Moses, following God, in leadership of the people, knowing that they would come to the land of the Canaanites and they would have to conquer the people them. This is an us against them. Throughout everything that will come after, the future of faith depends upon whether Israel eliminates the Canaanites, or tolerates this enemy. Early, before dawn Joshua dresses for battle, dresses like Jesus' parable generations later of a king before battle surveying whether his troops outnumber the opposition, Joshua prepares to lead his people against the enemy. Suddenly he sees a stranger, a warrior with sword unsheathed, is this an enemy who has snuck into their camp? Is this a stranger who has come to join them? And the “other” says No, Neither, but as Commander of the Army of the Lord.” What if, our battles are not us against them, but as was repeated throughout the War between the States, if we both claim God is on our side, who is on the Lord's side? How routinely, we perceive circumstance as our battles, win or lose, and how rarely we question if God may be doing something through us, using us. We glibly read of God using Noah as a remnant. We read of Joseph having been used by God to establish a future for Israel in Egypt. We read of Babylon and Assyria being used by God to tear down and exile Israel until they were ready to be returned as a remnant to the Promised Land. Yet in all these circumstance of God using people of faith, using nations still when judging ourselves we imagine we are chosen, not that we might be used by God for others. This is our Communion of All Saints' Day. As such, I am reminded of the words of Committal: “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, we return from whence we have come.” While, Genesis describes that God formed us from dirt, this morning I want to question if perhaps as part of the primordial chaos, the substance of creation, the humus and dirt, we are filled with limitless possibility. And in this life, as we struggle to create our individual identities and judge others, we embody a singular limited reality, we are bound by time, by place, by responsibilities. What if, in death the point is not that we return to lifeless dirt, but to the limitless possibilities of God's grace to be present to those we have loved? I hope you enjoyed last Sunday, as much as I did, the opportunity to share with another church, to listen to another preacher. I enjoyed the Dr. Seuss story of the Zode and the need to make a choice at the fork in the Road. But the Preacher included a throw away line “If you do not like what you have heard, don't worry about it, I am getting on a plane this afternoon, to leave and you will never see me again.” The difficulty is that listeners, be it our children, or our colleagues, tend to listen to throw away lines, to see what we do, and remember more what we do, than what we say. What I have struggled with, knowing my own hypocrisies, is we will not get on a plane, but instead we have and we will continue to be in communion, to be in ministry with one another. When I was questioned for ordination, I came to a resolution that had never been taught in Seminary, but is a personal conviction based on the Scriptures, particularly the words and actions of Jesus, that this is God's World, God's House, Christ's Table, and our role our responsibility is to host one another until the real host arrives. First among the 10 Commandments is that I believe in one God, Father Almighty. I am not God, nor is any idol, or government, or power, to be worshipped, other than God alone. God is Alpha and Omega, the Creator and Judge, and the source of Grace. So my function, our role in ministry is to try to serve others, to be open and caring, no matter what. That has meant that when persons have cared for a dying spouse, and after devoting themselves to the other, soon after death the widow found another for company and love, that we stood up to critics, to those who would judge. When couples had been divorced and finally found someone to commit to who would hold them accountable, we celebrated their marriage. When a spouse was in the midst of adultery, we have confronted them, not rejecting them but sitting together instructing them to cut it out. When grandchildren have been arrested for drug possession, we sat with and cried with those who worried for their grandchildren. When this week, a young man was arraigned for Drunk Driving, killing a young mother with his car, we remember and grieve. With Health Care Workers traveling to Africa, possibly returning with Ebola, I recall becoming deathly ill in South Sudan. With troops going to so many places, I recall placing a newly baptized infant into the arms of a Special Forces soldier telling him that if you are going to carry a weapon into battle, you also need to know what it is to carry a baby in your arms. We do not have the freedom to get on a plane and leave. We do not have the ability to take a pill and go back to sleep, ignoring reality, ignoring one another. We cannot be hypocrites claiming God's grace and love, without representing that grace and love to others.

"Spiritual Pacifier" October 19, 2013

Exodus 33: 12-23 Matthew 22:15-22 There is in each one of us an odd balancing of polar extremes. Each of us are sinful saints, sainted sinners. We have compartmentalized our lives, so that when we are with our parents – we are their children, when we are with our children – we are their parents; when we are at work we are devoted to that business, when we are with our spouse/ our loved ones/ our soulmate we are devoted unconditionally to them. We are SU fans during Basketball season, and Yankees fans during the summer. We are people who work hard and play hard. The difficulty is that each and everyone of those realities is only a compartmentalized self of who and what we are committed to. We are hypocrites! We are trying to be several selves all at once without a single self mastering life. In good Presbyterian fashion we tend to function as if a Committee of selves, with each being a rank individualist, uncooperative, shouting all the louder when voting time comes. We feel the pull of many interests and are left feeling distraught and disgruntled by trying to fulfill our many opposing obligations. What we seek is to be pacified, placated, assuaged, bought off until the next time. Life was created to be lived from the center outward, to be in balance, yet we live weighted by so many competing interests. All of which virtually guarantees the perpetual existence of the temporary reality of the church, as a place for confession, for atonement and absolution. There is nothing in the whole of the Old Testament or the Gospels which describes the need for Church. Among all of Creation, there were to be believers, who through their actions, their lives would inspire and call others to believe in God. Creation was formed incomplete, with creatures able to choose to believe, and our role, our purpose was to bring about the belief of others until all the world trusted God. More than questions of the existence of Heaven and Hell, or judgement as to which a person is going, the most frequently asked question of Clergy is whether we believe in Free Will or God's Plan. Either, we are accountable for our decisions, able to make choices of good and evil in life, OR God is all powerful and God has a divine plan. When a virus like Ebola is able to be transported from South Africa to West Africa, and through one individual kill thousands of others, we want and need to believe in an all powerful, ultimately good God. When Adolph Hitlers, Saddam Husseins, and Osama Ben Ladens strike, we want to believe in the ultimate good of God's plan that will not allow those horrors to succeed. But when given choice between alternatives, we want to believe we are in control, free and able to choose to win. When I was about five, my Grandmother taught me to play Solitaire with the hope and expectation that against the unknown shuffle of fate you could by skill, by intelligence, by experience, win! But she also taught me how to peak under the piles for what is hidden where, and how to reshuffle the deck during play, my Grandmother taught me to allow myself to cheat in order to win. We compromise, we compartmentalize, we pacify, that we will allow ourselves one piece of chocolate, if no one sees and we can dispose of the wrapper. We can have a cookie if no one hears the cookie jar. The speed limit does not apply to us because we are in a hurry, unless we get caught and then it was because it was a speed trap. Everything in the Biblical books of Genesis and Exodus, from the Creation of the Universe and everything therein, through Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Egypt's Pharaohs, the 10 Plagues and Crossing of the Red Sea, Manna from Heaven, and Water from solid rock have led to the climax of the story of God, that up on top of Mt. Sinai the mountaintop of God, hidden within a cloud, surrounded by fire, thunder and lightning, Moses received the 10 Commandments from God. Had God only given to Moses those 10 Commandments, he could have brought these to the people and they could have lived according to the Law, BUT at the same time God gave to Moses instruction for building the tabernacle as a place to worship God, with instruction for creation of the Altar, the tools for sacrifice, the robes of priests, when and how to worship. By the time Moses came down the mountain with Commandments from God, the people had created the golden calf to worship. The problem of the Golden Calf was not that they did not believe in God, but that the people wanted something tangible, they wanted to see for themselves the invisible God. The people sought Spiritual Pacifying, they did not want to respond to God, they wanted to have god in a particular place to worship when and how they wanted to worship God. Their sin was wanting to have God on their terms, to make ourselves God in order to have it all. The people were afraid to go up the mountain with Moses, afraid that they were unworthy to see the glory and purity of God, but still they wanted to peak, they wanted to see the invisible. Recall those moments in life, when you know you have to make amends, when you have to apologize to those who have been wronged. Imagine being Moses, having to hike back up Mount Sinai, Moses who led the people, who received the 10 Commandments, who now needs to apologize to God for the sin of the people. The immediate response of God is “Let's do another Noah!” Destroy this people and begin with Moses, as one person of faith. It was good enough for Abram, for Isaac, for Jacob, why not for Moses alone? If not, if this people are allowed to live, then they can go their way and God will go the way of God. Have you ever imagined saying “Enough!” I do not want to believe in God anymore. But does that mean God no longer exists? Moses recognizes the people of God are only escaped slaves in the wilderness, and the wilderness is a dangerous place, life is hard enough with God, who could survive without God. Listening to Moses, God yields, God repents from wanting to destroy. So you are Moses, you have been chosen by God! You have beaten Pharaoh! You have stood on the mountain top with God and held in your hands the 10 Commandments! You have apologized to God for the people and atoned for the wrongs of the world. You have stood toe to toe with God arguing the case of humanity! What do you do now? While Moses is all of this, Moses is also a man. Moses sought his own spiritual pacification. Moses asked for what the people had wanted. He asked to be able to see God. In Hebrew, looking someone in the face, looking them eye to eye, is about seeing the whole person, knowing and fully understanding who the other is. God responds, “But Moses, you are a Man.” So, you may stand in the presence of God and see where God has been, but not to see where God is going, not stare into the face of God. The irony of this is that God is a God of the Living, all that matters is where God is and where God is going. Consulting Ouija Boards and Seances, and Fortune Tellers, is communicating with the Walking Dead, the past, not knowing the meaning of the present or the outcome of the future. Ultimately, an autopsy tells you the scientific causes of death, the weight of organs, but not the meaning of why. Compartmentalizing. Pacifying. The Saducees did not believe in the resurrection. The Scribes believed in a literalistic interpretation of the Law. The Herodians were the political party supporting King Herod The Pharisees trying to entrap Jesus between these many different groups, posed a legal question about paying taxes to the Roman Emperor, recognize that this is being asked while standing in the Temple at Jerusalem, the holiest place in the City of David. But who created the Laws of the Roman Empire? Who minted the coins of Rome? Civilization costs, armies, boots on the ground, infrastructure of roads and bridges and clean water are paid for by taxes. The Roman Empire imposed Village, County, State and Federal Taxes, Property taxes, Business Taxes, Personal and Worship taxes. But Rome was also the occupying military power, so the coins and currency for taxes not only bore the likeness of the Emperor, they bore inscription. We have come to know people as having first and last names, so Jesus Christ and Julius Caesar, or Augustus Caesar, when identification of Caesar meant “Absolute Military Authority and Power of Domination.” August meant “Divine, Son of God.” The Roman coin called an eichon from which we in English get the word icon, was worth a laborer's wage for one day, and both made an image of God, and worshipped a false God. Having the coins in our pockets, particularly when in the Temple was perceived as being owned by the Empire. Recognizing the Trap, Jesus claimed to have no coins and asked for a coin from their pockets. The real irony would have been if the Pharisees had asked the question the other way. “Is it right to give to God what belongs to God?” Just as Laws and Taxes and Currency are the creation of Empires, Righteous belongs to God, righteousness is not about holiness or Good versus evil, righteousness means being in right relationship with God. So of course it is right to give God what belongs to God. Often, we look over our estates, our checkbooks and determine that after paying for housing and cars, entertainment and gifts, we have only so much left to give away. What if instead, our first priority was God. Not paying taxes. Not giving to Charity. But making an investment of ourselves and our priorities in God, because we are in God's image, trusting that everything else will work itself out.

Responding to Grace, October 12, 2014

Exodus 32 Matthew 22:1-14 There are passages of the Bible, that before your read the words, you know what you are to believe. “Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, when Jesus said 'Woman why are you weeping?' Supposing him to be the gardener she said 'Sir if you have taken him show me where and I will care for the body' and he called her by name 'Mary' and she responded 'Rabbonni!'” And then there are other Scripture passages that make us wonder how to respond to the grace of God? The very nature of Grace is that Grace expects not response. If you pay for it, this is not Grace. If you expect it, if you demand, if you beg, it is not Grace. Grace is unmerited, unwarranted, and yet in response to Grace, we mirror, we act with grace ourselves. This morning I want to tell you Exodus 32 is about more than worship of Gold. Years ago, as a sermon illustration, the preacher at that time asked that everyone place their jewelry, their bracelets and rings in the offering plate, yet after the service, at least one of the rings was missing, raising people's anxiety lowering their level of trust. The first point of this passage, is the binding identification of our anxiety with things. We cannot cope with fear, with mystery, danger, so we link them, bind them to the stuff of life. Far more than a simple chip of carbon, that diamond represents the hopes and dreams we shared when first we imagined life together, different from our lives before. The people in the wilderness were not a highly educated people, they had been slaves, who hungered and thirsted, and were filled with fears. How can God transform this people into a people of faith, the people of God? A people thankful for Manna from heaven, or for the grace of freedom and enjoyment of life that come with God? The people cried out for FREEDOM and God set them free. They cried out for food and received bread. They cried out for water and received it from out of a rock. They cried out for security and God gave them faith, laws and commandments. The people were a stiff-necked people who whined and complained. How do you change a people to be thankful? The generation from 1945 until 1970 were described as the highest attending, the most practicing Church-goers in history. They were a generation born in the Depression, threatened by World War, who survived the first explosion of the Atom Bomb, and they were Thankful simply to be alive. But they could not imagine how to teach this to their children. We have become a people of Anti-institutionalism, tearing down and replacing everything that was established. Moses went atop the mountain where God provided the Commandments, and before Moses even came down, the people had already violated the first several. More than the content of the commandments, more than the worship of idols and graven images, this Chapter begins that Moses had been away and the people doubted if we would return. One of the first games we are taught as infants is peek-a-boo. We do a great deal of mirroring. Responding because we interpret what is the expected response. If the other is hidden, how do we know what we are to do, or to feel, are they even still there? Do they exist if we cannot see? I would propose that all of our fears of absence, whether we are still loved, our fears of death, the agony of Alzheimer's, all go back to this basic fear of mirroring when we cannot. So the people became impatient, that is what is beneath the surface of this wilderness: Impatience. The people wanted something, not an abstract idea, not law, but that which they could see and touch, a thing of substance, a sacrificial calf of gold. But possessing the calf as their god, the people no longer needed. Our created identity is as a people wanting, that is the spark that is to be created in the image of God. God formed us, in order that we would chose to want God. The Tower of Babel, was about a people who decided not to search any longer, not to wander, but instead to build walls and security, and towers to their own greatness. We are a people with hopes and dreams. What is there that you imagine when we have this, we have it all? When we have children? When they graduate College? When we pay off our Mortgage and own our home? When we Retire giving up what we have trained to do? When we have grandchildren? When we die? When do we possess what we most desire or fear? This morning's Biblical passages are gruesome, these are Stephen King Halloween passages of gore. Moses came down the mountain, ground up the golden calf that he makes the people swallow, then he and the Levites slaughter 3000 of the people, each man his brother, before going back to God. Jesus entered Jerusalem, went into the Temple at Jerusalem where he overturned the Moneychangers. To which the leaders asked By what Authority do you do this? Jesus asked them about John the Baptist, then told them the parable of the Vineyard workers who killed the servants of the master as well as killing the Landowner's Son and heir. Then he gave ANOTHER PARABLE. To say ANOTHER is not to describe something as being the same as what has been, but something different. There is a version of this parable in Luke and another in Thomas, which are striking because the guests invited, choose to have other things to do. One owns a farm, one a business, one has just gotten married, so cannot be bothered with the King's Son's Wedding. Instead, the King invites Prostitutes and Thieves. Often, we have interpreted the Guest without Robes as being in that Parable. This guest becomes one who even though he was common, still needed to put on the right attitude. I can recall when a neighboring pastor was consecrated as a Bishop, and I struggled with whether to participate and what I believed about a peer becoming a Bishop, but as it turned out on the day of his Consecration I was downtown at the Hospital, so decided to attend. Being a Saturday, visiting the hospital, I had not thought to bring a robe, or to wear a collar, so just walked in the door of the Cathedral, and because of my clothes instead of processing with the clergy to sit up front I was seated in the basement watching on closed circuit television. Still with that parable, we struggle, because how many of us identify ourselves as Prostitutes? How many of us are Thieves? How many of us own land? How many are married? And the landowners and married are rejected, but the thieves and prostitutes are welcomed at the Table. And actually the Guest without Clothes is not in that Parable, but this one. The Bible was not written as theoretical teaching of morals. This is not abstract philosophy. Faith, whether in the time of Moses, or Jesus, or Matthew, or Martin Luther, John Calvin, Karl Barth, or us today is dealing with real people and circumstance, and trying to find meaning and faith in life. We can all recall the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, of the Queen in Yellow, the men in Uniform, the Fascinators. One of the only occasions as filled with pomp and pageantry as a Wedding, is the Coronation of a King. During the Roman Empire, the Caesars and Mark Anthony, proposed putting puppet kings of the race of the people, who would subjugate their own people for Rome. Herod was of the House and Lineage of Royalty, but a cruel and evil man. He had come to power by assassinating members of his own family. He had the Roman Army at his command, but he wanted to be welcomed by the people, and the people of Jerusalem rejected him. As a King with an Army and a people who do not want him, Herod invaded the city and his army killed indiscriminately. Then conscripted whomever they found, that they had to worship Herod. So in this telling of the Parable, instead of the man who wore no robes being considered a sinner, this is Jesus' response to a questioning of his authority, he is quite possibly Jesus himself. Who represents not participating in what the crowd is doing. Not going along with Herod, or the Empire, but being true to himself and to God. Recognize that he is still bound hand and foot and exiled. But how different the parable becomes, when seen as a challenge to Authority, when the one who chooses to not participate acting out, is seen as Jesus. How do we respond to acts of generosity and grace? How do we mirror others? How do we chose to respond to what we know to be wrong, to go along, to challenge, or simply to not participate?

October 5 A LoveSong In Any Language

Isaiah 5: 1-7 Exodus 20: 1-20 Matthew 21: 33-46 Recently I saw the Video “Joyeaux Noel” the story of December 24 1914, when the troops on the front lines of WWI stopped fighting and began singing Silent Night, then exchanged gifts, took time and energy to honor and bury their dead together, and being Christmas Day to play football! Afterwards I wondered, this happened because the German, French and Scottish Troops, were all Christians. What would unite opposition soldiers today? Where is the commonality between Muslims and Christians? There is one God and we have killing each other, even between Christians we have perpetuated a kind of Cold War, with Episcopalians across the Street, Baptists, Methodists and Lutherans down the Block, and further out this way Catholics, further the opposite way Pentecosts. Perspective matters. We need a reframing of the Bible, particularly the 10 Commandments, because somehow, whether from Charleston Heston or Sunday School, we acquired the mistaken conclusion that these were Laws, that the Old Testament is all about Law and Judgment and Punishment, while the New Testament is about Grace. The fact of the matter is Torah means “Teaching” and as described by Isaiah, this morning's prophecy in fact all these passages are LoveSongs. Remember when you were three or four, and someone gave you a goldfish. One day each week, was reserved for changing the water and cleaning the bowl. Every morning and night you gave the fish, just the right amount of food, and she would swim back and forth to thank you, and you loved having something to care for. But one day, your little sister tried to feed your fish and dumped half the container on top of the water. There was a blanket so thick the gold fish could not breathe, and shortly thereafter burial services were held in the backyard, as the goldfish bowl was taken to the basement. When you were seven, you saved your allowance for a Hamster. Better than a goldfish, your Hamster would do tricks, running the treadmill, taking a sunflower seed from your fingers into their hands. But even though you could pet your hamster, and feed and care for them, they always seemed to have a desire to hide from you, or to escape your grip. And one day all too soon, their were additional funeral services in the backyard. When my bride and I were newly weds, I brought home to her a puppy. The unrealistic parts were that we happened to live in a Studio Apartment in Harlem, and while puppy's mother had been a beautiful Irish Setter, she had gotten pregnant by a huge Malamute. So as this brute grew, she had all of her father's strength and power and her mother's scatterbrained excitement. Whenever the doorbell rang, she greeted the guests with her six foot frame balancing her forepaws on your shoulders. One day, left alone, she ate the couch. But however unrealistic, you gave your love to this creature, wanting only to have that love returned. When we got our first house, and our second dog, we went to obedience training, which in hindsight was far more about teaching the owners than teaching the puppy. Each of the earlier Covenants in Genesis, were about the love of God, with nothing reciprocal required. God formed this wonderful Garden for them to live in, with every kind of tree and animal. God washed the earth clean and gave Noah responsibility to be fruitful and multiply. God chose Abram, that God would lead, Abram and Sarai would follow, and God would give to them as many generations as stars in the heavens, sands upon the shore, a land flowing with milk and honey, and a name that is known and remembered. Somehow I recall from Vacation Bible School being taught that one night they ate the Passover, and afterward crossed the Red Sea, to Mt. Sinai where God gave to Moses the two tablets of Law. But the last several weeks, we have painstakingly read, how after the Passover, after the crossing of the Red Sea, God provided for this people by changing the reality of brackish salt water being turned clear. Of Bread falling from heaven,.. of Water spewing forth from solid rock. The Covenant with Israel was different,God chose to make of them a Holy People, IF they would love God. The added nuance, being that being chosen as God's people, was not for themselves, but to bring others to God. Isaiah's Love-song of the Vineyard is about what happened when that which God created chose instead to be wild, to bare bitter tiny fruit instead of lush sweet grapes of harvest. A Covenant is a love-song, a voluntary choice of commitment, an emotional investment in this other. They probably will break your heart, but they are dependent and in need, which touches something emotional. Far more than skin color, or having two arms, two legs and a face, I think this is what was meant by being created in the image of God, is that God loves and desires love in return, just as we do. The Ten Commandments are not Laws and punishments, but are our earliest Constitution, written not as Civil Law but Constitutional. And where the American Constitution begins “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” the Ten Commandments begin “I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage and set you free!” This is the lost Instruction Manual of Life. Reality is created in balance, when God is God, when we allow ourselves to be human, all is right with the world. When we lie, and steal, and covet, commitment adultery, murder, when we fail to keep life in balance by stopping to give thanks to God, we destroy the balance of life. Reality needs to be in balance, when God is God, when we allow ourselves to be human, all is right with the world. Years ago, we had new neighbors who were newly-weds building a house that would be their home. About three years later they gave birth to their first born daughter. Several weeks later, there was a frantic pounding on the door, and I opened it to find this young mother with the child in her arms. She described having for the first tried to give the baby a bottle, and she was sure she had given her too much because the infant was so bloated and lethargic. I recall telling that life was just a little out of balance, and in a moment what was out of balance would come out one way or the other. Sure enough, a few moments later the infant belched and filled her diaper, and once cleaned up, was her happy contented self. According to Matthew, Jesus retold Isaiah's love-song, in a different time, place and language. As we hear it, we need to be careful to listen to hear the story in the same way as told by Isaiah and Jesus. For in Isaiah's Love-song of preparing and planting the vineyard, the ones who destroy the harvest, the ones not yet ready to love, who need teaching and discipling and love, are the vines themselves. The balance when the Vineyard will not produce good grapes, is that gardener takes down the walls and hedges, allowing the Vineyard to know what it is to be wild. In Jesus' Parable, there are human characters, here we recognize the Landowner as God. The Servants sent by the Landowner, to bring home the harvest, are the Prophets, who were often rebuffed, rebuked, and killed. This is a crazy kind of story, because who in their right mind, when their representatives were attacked and killed, would not respond by sending Police, or Military, but instead risk sending their own Son? Who would imagine killing the Son of the Landowner, imagining that they could get away with both not paying for their harvest, killing the Heir, and somehow they would take the Land without punishment. A Crazy-kind of love, but God did send God's own Son. What we cannot do, is to take the teaching out of context, imagining we would be any different, judging the Pharisees and people of that time, rather than listening and judging our own lives. Because as horrible as this story is, Jesus' Parable, like Isaiah's is a Love-story. Like King David, with the Prophet Nathan's parable about the Wife of Uriah, the listeners judge themselves, declaring that those who Stole and killed the Son deserve to be punished. But Jesus responds with the proverb of the Stone which the Builders rejected becomes the Head and Cornerstone, so when order and balance are restored, God tries to love again. A Crazy Love-story, the Lost Instruction Manual of Life. But it makes greater sense than any other story ever told, because like God, we do have hope-filled/ hopeless loves, we are ruled by our emotions and we make commitments carved in our flesh for all time to come.

September 28, 2014 Into the Wilderness

Exodus 17:1-2 Matthew 21:23-32 In the Musical “Into the Wood” Stephen Sondheim helps us as adults to see that all the Nursery rhymes and stories we heard and blithely passed along to our children, include danger and threat. Exodus takes us not into the Wood, but into the Wilderness, an even more dangerous place to lose your way. Ironically, Exodus, which means to Go Out, to Leave, is less about leaving Egypt, and going away from Pharaoh, than about Whom to trust, where do we look to for leadership, for power for authority? The wilderness is a place where we are concerned with daily needs and how are we going to survive? Wilderness is a frightening place which we entered out of desperation, with some life-altering horrific experience, where we no longer know where we are going. Wilderness is where we have all been since September 11th 2001, where we are no longer certain what the future holds or what our goals are in life, except that daily we hear of international threats, economic threats to our survival and our children's, physical threats from Ebola or Triple E virus, and out of fear we doubt our leaders, doubt anything we cannot see and control. In the Book of Exodus a group of former slaves, ran headlong toward the sea certain they would drown but the waters parted. They were pursued by those wanting to destroy them, and yet the natural elements of chaos protected the vulnerable and eliminated the threat. The people found water, which was polluted, but when they cried out to God, the resource was made sweet and clear. They were hungry, starving and in need, complaining that they were better off when they had been slaves, and bread fell from heaven. Now they were thirsty, not just thirsty but dying for lack of life's most basic element. And the people cry out to Moses “Was life not hard enough when we were Slaves, did you need to bring us here to die?” God reassured Moses, both by reminding him that he still possesses the staff of authority with which he demonstrated his power to Pharaoh, and that God will stand before Moses on Mt. Horeb as he strikes the rock to make waters flow. Immediately after God provides water from a stone, the people were attacked by the Amalekites, and the only thing that separates the people winning or losing, is whether Moses lifts his hand or drops it. But the battle is long, and Moses is only human, there comes a point when he can no longer even lift his arms, so they set up a rock for him to lean against and they hold his arms up for him. The demand of the people is not only for water, for life, but whether they can trust Moses, whether they can trust God? Is the Lord among us or not? Wilderness is not simply about facing life's hardships, or how to survive; in the wilderness, we must embrace a different way of living, embrace our vulnerability and our dependence upon God, because everything seems to have multiple layers of meaning. Just at this moment, when Moses seems worn out from responding to crises, when the people seem worn out from doubting, Moses relatives show up. Remember back before the Exodus, when Moses had run away from Egypt, he had gone to the edge of the wilderness, where he had married a woman and become the shepherd of his Father-in-Law Jethro's sheep? Shepherding Jethro's sheep, was when Moses had first witnessed the Burning Bush and been assured of God's presence with him. Jethro looks at all that has been taking place and offers wisdom to Moses: If you continue trying to respond to every need of every person, you are going to wear out the people as they are going to wear you out! Instead, you need to delegate authority and responsibility to others who will be accountable. But therein is the problem with authority, can we trust others to be accountable? Will they be like the one who says “Yes” but does not follow through, or will they be like the one who says “No” but then acts as is needed? Reading the Gospels, we approach the text with bias and suspicion. We have previously come to know that in the Gospels, Prostitutes and Tax Collectors, Lepers, Sinners are not automatically condemned; Scribes, Pharisees and Saducees who were in authority, are to be treated with doubt and apprehension. We have a tendency of reading the Bible, like opening Email. Before we understand the context or content, we instantly reply: Junk! Delete! What does Judas want? But what we need to remember here, is that according to the Gospel, Jesus had entered Jerusalem, he had gone into the religious Temple, where he had overturned tables, taken up a whip and began chasing people out of worship. I have to believe that as healthy and vital as this congregation now is, if someone were to come into the middle of worship and begin overthrowing tables or whipping people, calling them heretics, we would at the least be dialing 911 on our cell phones, and probably having a visit from the Presbytery Committee on Ministry. Part of the irritation of politics in other parts of the Church, is that these concerns disrupt our peace. I can recall as a teenager, living in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the 1960s, and First Presbyterian Church was in the shadow of that great University. I recall one beautiful Sunday morning, where the day before the Wolverines had won the Homecoming Game, the Sanctuary was filled with Faculty and Alumni in business suits, when the Leader of the local Black Panthers marched up the aisle, took over the pulpit and began reading the Black Manifesto. In response to such an affront, would we not ask: “By what authority are you doing these things? And Who gave you this authority?” In the same way, enough time has now passed for us to be able to question... The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has now become immortalized in American culture, his "I have a Dream" taught to all our children. Like John the Baptist, we need to ponder, whether he was doing God's Work, or Human Civil Rights? The thing about Authority, is that it is given in TWO Ways. Not only is authority bestowed upon an individual from those with power, authority also needs to be accepted by those who listen. I remember being a child, when my father reprimanded me for having not followed through, and I challenged him for making me feel bad. He responded that no one can make you feel anything. You are in charge of your feelings. Now realistically, we try to make people feel things all the time. Advertizing is based on making people feel, and most often we are each motivated by feelings of guilt. But actually 99% of the time, those with authority over us, have it only because we have given the authority to them. We may have been victimized, we may have been bullied or abused, but by replaying the circumstance, by choosing to stay in that position, we allow ourselves to continue to be victims. We allow the past to have power over us, to influence our thinking and our futures. Rather than Jesus Parable only being “You are judged by your actions rather than your words” I think this parable is about choosing a different Open Future, rather than a Closed Past. The first child goes along with whatever is asked, but is then limited by what has happened in whether to follow through. The second child may have had all kinds of reasons for saying “No.” This child may have been overwhelmed by other responsibilities, may have been annoyed by the father always asking for something, may have been nursing a grudge. But this child chooses to change, to let go the past and trusts a different future. I remember years ago, when our children were quite small. We had been at the lake, I was working on the house, and being sweaty and tired had sat down on the grass with a tall glass of water. Just then one of the children came up asking if they could have a sip? As they put the glass to their mouth, you could see the wheels suddenly turning inside their head, as they remembered something from a Kindergarten teacher about sharing the germs and infection they had on their hands or in their mouth, then used the wrong word when they asked “Dad, am I going to catch your dreams?” I remember saying, as family we have all been exposed to each other's stuff, but as they ran to play, I thought “I hope and pray you do catch my dreams, and have dreams of your own with futures I never imagined.” We live in this wilderness, where none of us know exactly where we are going. We imagine a future generation making it to a Promised Land flowing with Milk and Honey. We struggle from day to day, especially with our fears and doubts of survival. In the midst of all this we question IS THE LORD AMONG US OR NOT? But part of what we are learning to do, is to imagine everything spiritually as well as physically. What if, our hunger and thirst is also about our need for someone and something to trust? What if, our drinking water were having everything we needed to satisfy our desires? What if, we could catch one another's dreams by drinking of the same stuff?

September 21, 2014 The Parabolic Problem

Exodus 16:1-15 Matthew 20: 1-16 This morning, the children found the Chancel covered in sparkling manna (Chocolate Kisses) to illustrate the gathering of manna. Another time, as a children's moment, I told the children we had a gift for them. I then gave each child a Kennedy Half-dollar; until the last two, and as I had $20 worth of half dollar pieces left, I gave these two, twenty half-dollars each. We then asked the children how they felt about getting the half-dollars, and they were thankful, but when we asked about those who received more, they said “It's not fair!” That is the problem of this morning's parable. It is not fair. Garrison Keilor described the problem with preaching this parable is that you get the idea that you only need show up for the last 5 minutes of the sermon to get the same value as coming early. We can each anticipate the problem with this parable is the following day or the following season, when the owner goes to the marketplace to hire laborers. Will they hire on for a full day, or only for the last hour, expecting to be paid for the full day? Titling this as “The Parabolic Problem,” I am reminded that years ago, I bought a stained glass window for a church, but the Church had round walls. A Carpenter in the congregation said “Not a problem.” and he proceeded to make a Parabola, a flat plane that intersects a curved wall as a shadow box frame. The wood touched at every point, so light did not escape around the edges, and the flat window matched as it intersected the curved wall. There are other problems too. A parable is intended to be a metaphor, a comparison as a figure of speech for shock value, to catch us off guard and make a point. “All the world's a Stage and all the men and women merely players, each with their entrances and exits and roles to play.” But this is not the first time any of us have heard this parable. We have heard the parables over and over enough that rather than metaphors they have become similes, where instead of making a point, we have been given the meaning of every player and every comment that is made. We know, or at least we think we know what is fair and what is not, what Manna is, and what this parable is about. Our sense of reality operates according to several different natural laws, We know that gravity causes things to fall...We know the Laws of Motion and that every action has an equal and opposite reaction... The Enlightenment was a Scientific Experiment to catalog and know all the Laws of of the Universe. The people of the Exodus had for 400 years been slaves of Egypt. They knew, that as hard as life was, as unfair, as much as they were slaves who could be beaten and whipped, bought and sold, raped and bred, who were of less value than a horse or cow, still they had a place to sleep and bread or stew to eat. It may be rancid, it may be hard, but you were given food and rest and security that tomorrow would be much like today. The plagues had come upon Egypt, the people had listened to Moses and Aaron, had sacrificed a lamb rubbing the blood on their doorposts, and despite the devastation of the Empire of Egypt, that the firstborn of every family died, their own children were spared. The people were allowed to leave, were chased by the Egyptian Chariots, yet as they waded out chest deep into the water, suddenly the wind blew and the water receded and they walked across on dry land. This was like some Bizzaro-world where the Natural Laws of Reality were suspended, like Alice through the Looking Glass, you were never certain whether something was what it appeared. They came upon a Salt-lake too polluted to drink and Moses threw a Tree into the water, and suddenly it became pure sweet refreshment. SEVEN days have gone by without food and there are hundreds of thousands of men, along with their wives and children. Rationally we have to wonder how are all these people going to be fed. In the good old days in Egypt, we had food every night, here we do not know from day to day what is going to happen. In the morning, as far as the eye could see, there was something sparkling on the ground. Moses called it Manna. Historians believe that there is a variety of lice, which in the wilderness eat the Tamarind seed and the lice secrete a sweet substance that dries to the consistency of flour. The point is not what Manna was, it probably was Sweet lice poop, but it was a new reality, a substance in great quantity, high in protein and basic nutrients. But the real point of Manna, was that it conditioned the people day after day after day, week after week for forty years to a different reality. Instead of having stew or bread handed to you by your owners, instead of having left-overs added to the pot day after day Every person had to trust that as little as there is, there would be enough supplied by God for tomorrow How much, an “omer” per person, about a mouth-full, but it was enough. If they gathered too much, it rotted and was infested with worms. If they did not gather enough, still it would be enough. And weekly, every six days, they were able to gather enough for today and tomorrow, so that for one day each week you did not have to worry, for one day every week you could trust there would be enough and think about other things. I am a simple man, while I enjoy cooking and have a younger brother who is a chef, one of our favorite foods growing up was meatloaf. I can recall the first time trying to share this delicacy with our children. They looked at the substance on the plate and said “What is it?” And when it was explained they refused to eat. So after a while, I took their plates to the kitchen, put the meatloaf on a hamburger bun covering it with catchup, and they devoured it as they best burger they had ever eaten! Manna, is not about what it was, but rather the parable of trusting God, and weekly taking time to trust and dream. The Parable of Paying the Laborers is about Grace, and the Generosity of God. Every laborer is paid enough to meet their daily needs. Those first hired were paid exactly what they had agreed to work for, but those last hired were not paid for the hours they worked, they received grace. AND here, the Parable takes on a twist because the real problem with this parable is that it is about “Coveting” wanting what others have, or not wanting them to have what we receive. The ending which states “Do you look envious because of my generosity?” literally translates “Are you giving me the Evil Eye?” In the Ancient World, they understood that the way others look at you, the way we treat each other, our giving each other the Evil Eye, can destroy another person. Many carried good luck charms so as to ward off evil. One of the simplest methods of protecting against the Evil Eye was to demonstrate an act of charity and act of generosity, which may or may not benefit the one who was going to give the Evil Eye, but would help others in the community to see the donor was going out of their way to do nothing wrong. We live in a world of change. Like the people of the Exodus, our good old days really were not that grand, none of us in those days could have imagined the freedoms and opportunities afforded to us all. The cartoons, The Flitstones and Jetsons, envisioned a future time, with dishwashers and microwave ovens, and vitamin pills, where we got carple tunnel from repetitive finger motion, and blurry eyes from computer screens. But we knew that if we worked hard and kept your nose clean, there would come a day of retirement, when you had the mortgage paid, grandchildren and friends. But then again most of us died before age 70 and many other parts of the world were Dictatorships. Over the last many years, we have struggled to open the bounds of community as wide as imaginable. When couples have come wanting to be married in the Sanctuary, one of whom was Jewish and one Christian, we have erected the Chuppa and broken the Glass shouting Mazoltoff! When couples have brought their children to affirm their faith and commitment to God, we have encouraged that one spouse could confess their faith in Jesus Christ, and another could name Adonai, or simply God. Last February, we learned that there were those in the world who wanted to be Anti-Semitic and to rewrite history regarding the creation of the State of Israel. As a Church we held open discussions about Israel and Palestine and our ecumenical role as Presbyterians. For a Church which historically has acted to not be political, every person who spoke out about this was in agreement, that this set of overtures was wrong. Our Session took Action against this. We contacted our representatives and educated them about the issues which they previously knew nothing about. Some from our leadership even went to the General Assembly, and used our Church's story to demonstrate mission and acting in grace and love. But, in that we have agreed to follow majority rule and to work together, while the BDS action was defeated, the General Assembly was told to sell its investments in Caterpillar, Motorola and Hewlett Packard for other stocks. There were no requirements upon the local church or upon our people. Three years ago in 2011, NYS legally allowed marriages between people of the same sex. Last summer our denomination allowed marriages in the Sanctuary between people of the same sex, and also that ministers would not be prosecuted for performing these. As your pastor, I have come to realize that our congregation is very diverse, so have recommended that while it would be legal in the State of NY to do so, while in some Churches it is allowed, and Ministers are permitted to perform weddings for people wanting to be married before God, because it would cause greater division among us, until something changes among us, the act of grace would be that I will not. I know and understand that these actions of the denomination infuriate many of you, but as Your Church we have tried to act in faith, with grace and commitment. SO the question becomes, will you act with an Evil Eye or with generosity? None of us know what the future holds, whether the world we have known will still exist, but we preach trust, and faith in God that although our sense of reality may be challenged we can still act as the Church.