"Miracles, Blame and Signs" March 30, 2014

Genesis 45:1-8 John 9:1-12 The first question we ask, the question we always ask is “Who is to blame?” Who did what to whom? Who is responsible? Every year as we start off teaching Confirmation Class, I tell the students a story: that on the way to Church I saw something, bigger than a mouse, smaller than a dog, with tiny ears, a furry tail almost as big as the animal itself, scurrying over the ground leaping through branches of trees gathering nuts in its cheeks. What do you suppose it is? And after an interminable pause one of the students raises their hand to say, “It sure sounds to me like a squirrel, but insofar as this is Church I bet you are going to tell us it was God!” And I remind the class that when in doubt, the answer is probably God. But oddly enough, the story of Joseph is different from those of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in that God spoke to Abraham, God spoke to Isaac, God wrestled with and spoke to Jacob. While Joseph is recorded as having had dreams, and the dreams carry the story, Joseph is not recorded as ever speaking with God. Recall that Abraham's son Isaac was the father of twins: Jacob and Esau, and Jacob ran away, where he fell in love with Rachel, but Jacob was tricked into marrying Rachel's sister Leah. And because Leah knew she was not as loved as Rachel, Leah was consoled by being the mother of several children, where Rachel could not, so like the Sarah before her gave Jacob her maid to have children through, and Leah also gave Jacob her maid by whom to give her more children, until Rachel gives birth to Joseph, the first-born child of Jacob's beloved. Then Rachel gives birth to Benjamin and in the delivery, Rachel died, leaving Jacob whose name is changed to Israel with twelve sons. Joseph's brothers hated him for being the favorite son of their father's favorite wife, so vow to kill him. But at the last minute, instead of killing him, beat him to a pulp and throw his body into a pit, then sell him as a slave to a nomadic band of Ishmaelites. Believing Joseph is gone forever, his brothers tell their father Israel that Joseph was attacked and killed. Over the next many years, through a series of misadventures Joseph is taken from the land of the Canaanites to Egypt, Joseph becomes the servant of a wealthy man, is accused of a rape he did not commit and thrown into prison. In prison, Joseph interprets the dreams of the Jailer, the Butler, the Baker, and eventually Pharaoh, which allows Joseph to prophesy a coming famine. Anticipating the famine, Joseph guides Pharaoh to create storehouses of grain to save Egypt. In return Joseph is set free, made an Egyptian, given an Egyptian name, given the daughter of Pharaoh as a wife who over the next several years bears him sons Ephraim and Manasseh, and under Pharaoh he is made the ruler of all Egypt. Two more years go by, when all the surrounding people also experience famine, and who should come to Egypt seeking help but the eleven sons of Israel. Testing the loyalty of the brothers who had sold Joseph into slavery, Joseph accuses the youngest brother, Benjamin of stealing to see what they would do. And his brother Judah pleads for Benjamin's life, even offering his own life as a slave to save his brother, because it would kill their father to lose another son, especially the remaining son of Rachel. At which, Joseph removes everyone else from the room and confesses to the sons of Israel, that he is Joseph whom they thought dead. Here Joseph interprets for the sons of Israel, that they should feel no suffering or guilt, because God used Joseph's circumstance to provide for Israel. God used Joseph to provide a remnant for the future. The human temptation might have been for Joseph to extract revenge, to punish his brothers for what they had done, to emphasize his power by having them beaten or enslaved as they did to him, but instead Joseph describes God using his life to create a different future for the children of Israel. The point of the story of Joseph is that instead of looking to the past and seeking revenge, instead of seeking blame for who sinned, Joseph names that God uses human circumstance to provide a remnant a different future than anyone imagined. The Gospel of John has more miracles than any other book in the Bible. More stories of Jesus changing water into water, healing the deaf and the blind and the crippled, children with Epilepsy, a woman who had been bleeding for a dozen years who touched his robe and was made well, a child who died and was brought back to life, Lazarus dead and buried in the tomb 3 days resurrected. And yet, in the Gospel of John, these are not Miracle stories, each one is described as a Sign pointing the way to God. The question being what the sign points to in faith. This morning, as Jesus and the disciples are walking along the road, they see a man blind since birth, and the disciples seem to get it... the point is not that Jesus can work a miracle, providing sight to a man who had always been blind, but rather that this was a sign. So they ask, who sinned? Because if blindness from birth is a sign of anything it must be that either the child or the parents sinned, right? And Jesus says NO. The issue is not who sinned to cause this blindness, but rather who can provide sight to the blind, who is the light of the world? This man has lived a different reality. No matter if you closed your eyes, or wore a blindfold, or suddenly were made blind, it is not the same as getting accustomed to life, learning to feed yourself, to walk, to survive without the ability to see, and having well-intentioned people trying to help who sometimes cause greater problems. And Jesus spits in the dust, creating moisture in the dirt, to form clay, then takes this clay of his spittle to anoint the man's eyes, not his eyelids, but his eyes. Then Jesus sends the man to the pool whose names means To Be Sent. And the man washed and he could see. A few weeks ago the phone rang and it was a woman who grew up in our congregation, she was Baptized and Confirmed and Married here. She described she was going through a divorce. Her husband had had multiple affairs, some with prostitutes, some with under age women. He had buried them in over a hundred thousand dollars of debt. I asked how we could help, what did she need? She said, simply to be able to talk, to have my church listen and pray. No blame, but to demonstrate what God could do in the life of another. I punched the answering machine and a voice asked that I call a number, so I did. The woman on the other end described that she had just returned from taking her daughter for drug rehab for meth-amphetamines. She was gone long enough that she had lost her apartment, and while she had found a new place, and given the landlord her entire Social Security Check, she had no been able to afford the Security deposit. The Landlord had offered that if she could come up with a good faith amount, he would credit the balance that she could pay in small installments. What she needed was $75, only $75. I took out my checkbook and wrote the check. No blame, but to demonstrate what God could do in the life of another. Last evening the Confirmation Class went to the Catholic Church. Father Major was preaching, and he gave testimony of his life as a missionary in Sudan. He described how children in Khartoum were taken from the Village Center where they were circumcised and taught to be Muslim. He had gone to his superiors demanding that they decry these acts. And the Church officials had told him to be quiet, that to speak out would cause unnecessary trouble, to speak out could cause him or the church to be evicted from the country. For the last five years, he has been here in the United States because he was exiled from Sudan. Afterward, parishioners described how this 84 year old priest was returning on Monday to Sudan. We named that there is renewed and continual gang violence and warfare. They said the Priest knew this, but he felt he needed to go to minister. No blame, but to demonstrate what God could do in the life of another.

"Seeing You in the Water" March 23, 2014

Exodus 17:1-7 John 4: 5-42 Every good story has something which stands out, which does not fit in, a relationship in conflict. That which goes against the grain, that which stands out in conflict is what makes the story interesting, provocative. Our human problem, is that we often try to avoid conflict, to convince ourselves not to look, not to see. Because if we see, if that other registers in our vision, our intellect, our relationship, then we have to do; but if we do not see, if we ignore and have no name for a stranger, we do not take them in, they are not part of our reality. Makes sense, except that when we have a problem which is unresolved, which hurts, whether intentionally or subconsciously, we do respond. When we have been bullied, we bully others. When we have been wounded, the physical pain leads to shame, leads to shaming others. There is a cycle to human anxiety. We even teach children with Nursery Rhymes like the Farmer in the Dell. The Farmer takes a wife, the wife wants a child, the child wants a dog, the dog wants a cat, the cat wants the mouse, the mouse wants the cheese, and the cheese as an inanimate stinky old thing, the cheese stands alone. The point being that our shame, our pain, conflict never just goes away. The message of the Scriptures is that instead of ignoring conflict, instead of pretending we do not see, in faith we need to see, because in looking for the Messiah, in seeing what does not fit in, we find ourselves and the means of our redemption by witnessing others. Before we begin to see these texts we need to clarify that these stories are similar to ones we know, and we cannot muddle them all together, because these stories are not the others, the persons and stories here need to be witnessed and not ignored or lost. When we hear reference that the People Complained and found fault with Moses so he struck the rock and water came out, and he called the place Massah and Maribah, we immediately recall a similar story in the Old Testament Book of Numbers. In that story, in the Book of Numbers, the people again complained and found fault with Moses, so he took the staff which God had given and without seeking God, Moses took it upon himself to strike the rock in the wilderness causing water to flow, for which Moses is denied the opportunity of leaving the wilderness to enter the Promised Land. But even though in both stories the people were complaining and fault-finding, and in both Moses takes his staff and strikes the rock and water flows in the wilderness, and in Numbers just as here in Exodus Moses calls the place Massah and Meribah, even so, when we look closely we see that this story is unique and distinct. The point of Massah and Meribah in the story of Exodus is that when in Egypt the slaves had cried out from their need, God heard the people and God responded. God gave the Egyptian persecutors the plagues and the people of Israel the Passover, God saw the sacrifice the people had made to God and brought them through the Red Sea. God heard the need of the people for Food and God provided Manna and Quail, enough to satisfy. Again here, the people were in the Desert, they were dehydrated, they were suffering, they cried out to God, and when Moses struck the rock with his staff water flowed in the desert. What we are intended to see, is that the People demanded God hear their need, the People demanded God be God providing what they needed. What we are supposed to reminded of, is Isaiah the Prophet who describes God providing Springs in the Desert! We are supposed to hear Psalm 23 with God leading the flock by Still Waters, because rushing rivers can drown the sheep. But Unfortunately, like Moses we think too much. We believe we know where our story, where the Bible, is going to go. Moses hears the people's complaints and like so many leaders, instead of hearing the needs of the people, Moses hears the people fault-finding, creating a law suit against his leadership, threatening to stone him. That may be an appropriate response to the Book of Numbers story of Massah and Meribah, but in the Book of Exodus, all Moses needed to see was that the people needed God, and God alone could provide miracles like water in the desert. So in this story, God revealed to Moses not just that he take his staff and hit rock, but also that God would be with Moses, God would show Moses which rock to hit. Too often as leaders we ignore conflict, we ignore the real needs of people, we hear people's complaints, we fear litigation and fault-finding, and we take things upon ourselves, instead of seeing what people really need and want, and as leaders trusting we are not alone as we help people resolve what is out of place, as we help people see the conflicts in their lives and how to resolve them. The Gospel of John is about Water as well. John's disciples react to the rumors they hear, with jealousy, “Who does this Jesus think he is?” And John helps his disciples see, that John came to point the way for the Messiah. Sometimes those of us in leadership need to step back and swallow a cold drink, rather than trying to be the ones who lead. To fully hear and see this passage, we need first to remember this is not the story later in John of a woman at the City Center brought before Jesus because of adultery. Throughout this story, see that Jesus never once rebukes her, never blames her, never tells “Go and sin no more” because that is not this story. Also, this takes place at Jacob's Well. Over and over again in the Book of Genesis, the Patriarchs dug a well and the Canaanites took it over. This happened with Abram, and Isaac, and Jacob. Each and every time, the Ancestors of Israel then dedicated a new plot of land and dug a new well, so that those people would not use it. By naming Jacob's Well, this is a story about prejudice. More than 500 years before, King Nubuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded and destroyed Jerusalem. In the aftermath, trying to understand what happened, how God allowed this, people began to blame others, instead of themselves. Ezra and Nehemiah named that there had been intermarriage of Israel with Canaanites, and they should leave their marriages, just walk out. Those who did not, those who had married outside their race and culture, were named as Samaritans, and blamed for others' problems. We have in the past few decades experienced radical challenges to our accepted cultural norms. I can recall in my own childhood, separate drinking fountains, restaurants and restrooms in America for people of differing race. There were fears of touching, of drinking from the same cup, especially of inter-marriage. In the culture of the Gospel, in that time, for a man to speak to a woman in public indicated either that they were family, or that he was soliciting her. So what is out of place in this story: Jesus, is hot and tired and alone in a strange place, Jesus is Jewish and asks for a drink of water. A man speaks to a woman in public. An Israelite speaks to a Samaritan. One who worships in Jerusalem asks a favor of one who worships on a Samaritan mountain. He asks her if he can drink out of her jar. Jesus violates every cultural taboo. Even more, he then becomes even more intimate by asking about her husband, and when she says she has none, he reveals the truth that she has had 5 husbands and now lives with another man. This is not an accusation of sin, this poor woman had the worst circumstance. Possibly her husbands each walked out on her, possibly all five in turn had died. Possibly she was living with her husband's brother in a Levitical Marriage. We do not know. But, we can make an educated guess that because she is not coming to the well in the cool of early morning, or late day, as all the others of the town do, she came at noonday to avoid their gossip, to avoid their comments about her having had five different men and now living a man who was not hers. The marvelous element of this story, is that Jesus sees her, for who she is. When she responds about the place of worship, she is not changing the subject, she is in fact naming what is beneath all the other prejudices. Not only is their skin color and sex different, even according to the ways they worship God they are isolated, and for him to cross all boundaries and see her for who she is, he must be sent from God! And here, in the only place in all of the Gospel of John, Jesus says I AM. See in this, that not only is Jesus allowing her to see that he is the Messiah, but also the name given to Moses for who God is, was YHWH meaning I AM. Something happens to us, when we drop all the pretense and prejudices and cultural taboos, to see each other for whom each really is. There is empowerment. There is claiming of relationship. That which seemed out of place and in conflict, is resolved. Our most basic desire, the underlying reason for bullying, for shaming, for addictions, for hurting ourselves and hurting others, is that we need and want Validation. We need and want to be seen for who we are. We need and want to be loved.

"Journey Unknown", March 16, 2014

Genesis 11:31 – 12:4 John 3:1-21 (The Children's Sermon with this was to play Simon Says with the children, then with the whole congregation. Then describe that our Bible reading this morning is about God saying leave your home, your family, everything you know, your teddy bear, etc to go where God leads. It is okay when several of the children respond that they would not want to, because most of us do not want to, BUT Abram did what God commanded.) This morning's Scripture Passages are more than familiar, these provide the Crossroads of our faith! At these intersections, we are called to faith, to leave behind everything we thought we knew, to leave everything that is safe, to GO, and according to Genesis Abram and Sarai went! Genesis 12 is the fulcrum, in that everything until this point follows the pattern of human nature. In the Beginning, Creation was Darkness, a Void, Chaos, there was no light, there was no land, there was no life. Where there was darkness, God called for balance of Light and dark, Night and Day. Where there was a churning sea of waters, God separated the waters over the earth from the waters of the earth, and the waters upon the face of the Earth God separated into Oceans and and Lakes and Rivers and Mist. From the Beginning throughout the first 11 Chapters, everything has followed the familiar pattern of moving from Chaos to Control, from undisciplined to disciplined, from unknown to known. And throughout, there has been this tension in the text. Because, while it is logical, reasoned and orderly, life itself is struggling against the known, the wilderness... the future... faith is calling. At the end of the 11th Chapter of Genesis, Terah this descendant of Seth the firstborn of Noah, takes his family and leaves Ur of the Chaldeans, the place their family had lived and known for generations. Terah had three sons, Abram, Nahor and Haran. Abram had a wife Sarai who was unable to have children, and Haran had a son Lot, and Haran had died. Terah set out and left Ur of the Chaldeans with Abram and Abram's wife Sarai, and Lot the grandson of Terah. Terah got as far as Haran, a place between the Chaldeans and the Canaanites, and there Terah settled, making a home and a life and a future for his family, where he had settled. And God changes the direction of the story! Rather than going from the Unknown to the Known, from Chaos to Control, from All Creation to Adam and Eve, from all Sinful Humanity to Noah, instead God begins with a particular man, Abram. And God called Abram, who we are told was 75 years of age, to GO! Leave behind, the Nation, the Land, the Family you have known, and go into the Unknown, Wander dependent upon God, Trust. There is nothing in the text to suggest that Abram was any different from anyone else in all the world. He had not accomplished great things. He was leaving behind all their possessions. He was to go into a foreign land, a strange world populated by strangers. There is in the Call of Abram a three-fold Calling. Leave WHAT YOU KNOW, Leave the PEOPLE YOU KNOW, Leave what you OWN & CONTROL & POSSESS. Leaving what you know to go on a Journey into the Unknown is to Embrace what you are Ignorant of. Leaving the People you know to wander among strangers is Expanding your Community through Inclusion. Leaving what you possess and own and control in exchange for experiencing what might be, is an Acceptance of our own Impotence regarding the Impossible, and in all this an absolute acceptance Trusting God. Just as God has changed direction here, from Primordial Chaos to Created Order, instead to follow the repercussions of the particular trusting God, accepting others, sharing with family. Abram was Called to Go where God would lead, to be alien in a foreign land, never controlling, never owning, always being frustrated at those attempts. Because Owning and Possessing and Controlling are about making a Past, rather than living into a Future, a future that may not be within your lifetime. Just as the Call of Abram is from what is known to IGNORANCE, INCLUSION and IMPOTENCE, God promises to Bless Abram and through Abram God will bless the world. God promises Abram to become a great Nation with as many generations of children as there are stars in the heavens or grains of sand upon the shore. God promises a Land flowing of their own. We know as Givens, that Sarai is unable to Conceive, that Abram is 75, in terms of conceiving a new Nation they are as good as dead. To Go with God is to leave behind everything Abram and Sarai knew to be true, to be certain, to possess, instead to experience the impossible, the unknown, to expand your circle from yourself to all the world, and to give up control and dominance for the sheer please of living into the future. The entire remainder of Genesis follows Abram following God, Abram becoming the father of Nations, Abram's Son and his son and his son, all wandering among strangers, blessing those who bless them, cursing those who curse them, until they go down to settle in Egypt, where they give up trusting God, give up the Land, and become slaves, which sets up all the rest of the Hebrew Bible, and in so far as Jesus was a descendant of Abram, also sets the direction for the Christian Gospels. There are several different Crossroads throughout the sacred texts, when God the Creator chooses to enter into Creation, when Jesus chooses to kneel down in the waters and be baptized, when the Savior is crucified and rises from the dead, when Peter has three dreams of a great sheet being let down from heaven containing every creature Clean and Unclean together. All these are Crossroads, just as there are many crossroads on the many journeys of our lives. One is of Nicodemus, if ever there were a Biblical figure who represents the 21st Century American, it would be Nicodemus for here is this one, who is self-reliant, self-sufficient, successful and respected. Nicodemus knows that faith in God is important. Nicodemus is a leader in the Synagogue. Nicodemus believes Jesus to be sent from God. But Nicodemus has compartmentalized all these, so as to make life safe. At the time for worship Nicodemus goes to worship. When it is time for a sacrifice Nicodemus makes an offering. But here under the cover of darkness, in the shadows, where you are uncertain exactly the boundaries between different things, Nicodemus came to Jesus. There is no location of place. And Nicodemus was seeking answers, explanations, help me to know. It is important here, to understand that Jesus was not shaming Nicodemus, but he does try to help Nicodemus see the humor in his circumstance. You are an Expert, a Leader, a teacher of the Law, and you do not the answers? What Nicodemus was to have concluded was perhaps faith is not about conclusions. Instead, Nicodemus took everything Jesus said literally as real answers. What Jesus said to Nicodemus in Aramaic was “anathon”, you must be Born Again. Tragically, just like Nicodemus, there have been those who tried to interpret this passage literally, wanting to know the exact date and time when those who are saved were born again. Tragic, because part of the nature of being born again, is that we are born again and again and again, born anew in every experience and relationship. But also, “anathon” has multiple meanings, in addition to being Born again, anathon can mean “Born from Above,” which is to follow the journey into the unknown, interpreting all life as a parable of God. What Jesus was challenging Nicodemus to do in the dark, was to embrace your faith in all of life, letting your belief in God out of the safe compartment we have known. Doing so, we live life differently, we live life by faith.

"The Temptation of Self-Sufficiency" March 9, 2014

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7 Matthew 4:1-11 The greatest temptation for a preacher, is to assume common knowledge and understanding of these texts. For we each come from differing backgrounds and circumstance, and these are the foundational stories of our faith. The great irony is that in the first chapters of Genesis, commonly accepted as telling of “The Fall of Adam,” “the Sin of all Humanity,” the words Sin, Fall and Sex never actually are used. Sin, Fall, Corruption, are theological identifications, ethical understandings given of these passages by the Apostle Paul, Timothy, St. Augustine, Martin Luther and John Calvin. This morning, we need to listen with fresh ears and read without the blinders of others' interpretations of what the Bible says, allowing God's Word to speak. Genesis 1, 2 and 3, tell the story of Creation entirely differently, from different perspectives, for different reasons. As Abram, Isaac and Jacob wandered the Promised Land, as Joshua led the people into the Land, and eventually, Saul, David and Solomon became Kings of Israel, God's people were surrounded by a Canaanite culture. According to Canaanite worship of the Baal's, the universe, this world, we, were all created by mistake, as the by-products of a great and terrible war between the Gods. The forces of the universe collided in a Big Bang, wherein the Oceans were subdued and dominated by the Land, and Humanity was abandoned here without purpose or identity, and humanity created for itself the worship of Baal. In response, the Hebrew story of Genesis 1, is that the Universe was not a mistake, humanity was not an accidental by-product, but instead, the All powerful God, who could command life into being with a word, formed and created all of life in balance and order, with limits to define each element, light from dark, land from water, heavens from earth, and God's greatest achievement was humanity. Genesis 2 is yet a different story, where the reference point is not an all powerful Immortal, Invisible God, but instead the intimate details of God forming, fashioning, creating us. According to Genesis 2, God got down and dirty by making us out of the dirt of the earth, creating us out of the substance of creation. God created us in God's own hands, by Mouth to Mouth Resuscitation God breathed life into our being. Similar to Genesis 1, and in opposition to the Canaanite Baal myth, The God is exceedingly generous but there are limitations, and God is intentional. We are not God we are created of Creation, and yet our purpose is to guard and nourish Creation, our identity is in relation to God we are to till and keep the ground. As in the beginning there was only one human for God, God put that one in a limited part of all Creation, in the Garden. We are given opportunity to eat as much as we desire of any of all the trees in the garden except one, there has to be limitation for balance and order. Recognize that that limitation provides balance not only All the Fruit except One, but also God allows while limiting. God recognized that as this child was created to be in relationship with God and Creation this child needed a companion and God formed every different creature, but none was a fit companion. The point here is not which rib God formed woman out of, or woman being formed second to man, but rather that out of the substance of the first child of God, the first human, God made a partner, a companion, with all the knowledge of what has taken place, the same purpose and agenda for life, but also that they would share intimate relationship with God, share companionship and trust and love. Notice that in description of the serpent, in Genesis 3, the snake is not identified as evil, not even as bad, not as Satan or the Devil, but simply as more subtle, more crafty than all the other creatures. As more subtle and more crafty, the serpent asks about the generosity of God, in reverse. The serpent does not ask “Did God allow you to have whatever you want?” or even “Did God allow you to eat from all the garden?” But instead focusing upon the negative “Did God say there was anything you could not eat?” Taking the bait, the human creature responded creating greater restriction, “There is one tree in the center of the garden, of which we cannot eat, we cannot even touch, else we die.” Instead of describing God as generous and trustworthy, as an intimate companion, the serpent describes God as other cultures have, that God is jealous and restrictive, emphasizing limits for creatures. While the human does not actually die, their/our relationship of intimate trust dies with the fruit. Instantly there is blame of one another, there is even blame of God “the woman you gave me,” there is shame where they are now no more naked than they were before. By choosing to violate God's trust, by choosing to touch the fire Mom said was Hot, by hiding our desire for what was not ours to take, not only did we know we were naked, we knew we were outside the garden, and the Ground from which we were created, the Ground which we were to guard and nourish has become hard to us. So also with the beginning of Jesus Christ. Immediately after his Baptism, Jesus is taken by the Spirit to the Wilderness. Here the comparison is not with Adam and eve in the Garden of Eden, but the Wilderness references Moses and Israel in their forty years. The complaints of the people are for food and water and land. The Nation of Israel's identity began with Moses on the Mountain, again was named in the building of the Temple at Jerusalem, and now was as a force in comparison to all the Empires and Kingdoms of the World, so Jesus is taken to a Mountain, to the Pinnacle of the Temple, to a view of all the Nations, and asked IF he is the Son of God, exactly what God had just professed at Jesus' Baptism, IF he is the Son of God what is he going to be and to do with that? There is a theological question here, of does God command angels to protect Jesus, protect any of us, from being harmed, or does God send angels to minister to us when we are harmed? Throughout, at every temptation, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy, first when the people have been without food for 40 days and God provides Manna; second when having received Manna from heaven they find fault and complain at Massa and Marabah; third asked whether he would worship Satan, and Jesus responds be Gone. Few if any of us will ever endure a forty day fast. We will not stand atop the Empire State, World trade Center or skyscraper in Dubai wondering if we fell who would catch us. We will never rule the world. But we are tempted every day by vanity, by fears for survival and unemployment, by decision-making that effects others' lives. The point of the Gospel is that the complaining and fault finding of the Wilderness, just like the failures of the Garden of Eden, were based on distrust and Self-Sufficiency, which here were answered by Jesus. We have a different model, a pattern of trusting God and trusting one another. That is what Communion is all about. This is not calling Jesus to come down out of Heaven, this is not magic where we close a curtain say an incantation in Latin and elements change substance, No. Instead, by this sacrament, we are each changed. We forgive one another, and are forgiven, allowing us to finally forgive ourselves. Through forgiveness, serving one another, we are all changed, brought closer into union, and into more perfect relationship with God. Communion is an act in defiance of Self-suficiency, where we intentionally choose to trust, rather than being tempted.

Ash Wednesday "Baptized Dust"

Isaiah 58: 1-12 Matthew 6: 1-21 Ironically, because of the Winter Olympics, the Academy Awards were delayed until Sunday night. Ironically, because in this evening's reading from Matthew 6 the word translated as Hypocrites, “When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand in the Synagogue and on Corners that they may be seen... When you fast, do not look dismal like hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others...” that Greek word hypocrites is actually the word for Actors on Stage. Actors quite literally were hypocrites because as persons they might believe and act one way, while on stage they took on a different role, character, morals and attitudes from who they truly were. Life is a great theater. Moses went up the Mountain and the curtain of cloud closed behind him. Generations later Solomon built the Great Temple, inside of which, behind a curtain was The Holy of Holies, where the High Priest acting as Moses would go in to commune with God, demonstrating other people's burnt offerings, and come out from behind the curtain to bless and pray with the people. Although the culture of Ancient Rome & Today are vastly different, one similarity is that Life is a different kind of Theater than the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, there were Commandments to avoid sinning, the “Thou Shalt Nots,” whereas in the New Testament and our own time, Jesus and we assume all people know “Thou shalt not Murder, Steal, Lie, Commit Adultery, or Covet” and we live in a world of trying to obey the “Thou Shalt Honors.” The difficulty being who we regard as our Parents, Neighbors, God, Sabbath, what it means to honor, how often we honor these, and how to do so without life becoming about appearances, show and deceit. Years ago, before Seminary, I served on a Fund-raising Committee trying to encourage people giving. Someone came up with the idea of having different color offering envelopes, that a $10 Offering would be Beige, a $20 Contribution would warrant Green envelopes, a $50 gift would be Bright Yellow, a $100 would be Gold, a $1,000 would have a flash of light as the Offering plate took your photo, and Direct Deposit from your bank account would cause a Trumpet Fanfare. We laugh about that, but, at one time Alms-giving, making public gifts to those who were in need, was rewarded with a Trumpet Fanfare that all would know what you had done. There was also a time in most American churches where we rented our pews, and the pews down front where everyone could see you being in worship were the most expensive. How odd, that today the front seats are reserved for the choir and the coveted seats are those in the back. Jesus was redefining “Good Theater.” What Jesus actually was identifying was: Choose what kind of Hypocrite you desire to be? Who gave the most outlandish performance, the most off-character, the most believable performance, who was the most entertaining, which performance had the best Computer Animation, OR performances that are true to life reality, with a secret? While all the world sees us perform life, what we do in faith is what we are to do in secret, seen only by God. This is Counter-Cultural! Faith is not about instant gratification, not about immediate solutions, or Advertising, not about Fashion or Popularity. So who are we, behind the facade, the make-up? The message of Ash Wednesday is we have a public personae and a private one. The ashes are the burned residue of the palm branches of Palm Sunday a year ago. But marking with the Ashes, Smudging, is not only about letting go the last year, Ashes have always been a symbol of Mortality. The Public personae is we are dust, common, ordinary and decaying. While we may be very good at a profession or vocation, what we discover in retirement and based on the economy is none of us is defined by being a Salesman, a Teacher, a Doctor, a Pastor, so-and-so's Mother or Spouse. We are dust. In recent decades Cremation has become far more common. I am continually intrigued by those who are troubled by Cremation. What has been lifted up to me is a literal belief that on a final day, Graves will be opened and our bodies will be transported to heaven, so what everyone is looking for is who can have the best make-up and fanciest clothes when they are buried because that is how you will be in heaven. That is utter non-sense. The idea of a New Heaven and New Earth is that there will be no need for Walkers or Canes, Crutches or Hearing Devices, all Creation will be as God intended. But Cremation has gotten us back in touch with elements many of us had hidden. For generations now, we have hidden our feelings and emotions behind having a lovely coffin, a beautiful funeral where no one said an unkind word. We drove to cemeteries where we left the coffin and returned the following day to find green grass growing. By handling the ashes, death is again far more real, and we each struggle with what we are going to do with one another. Many have elected to bury the ashes themselves, or to sprinkle in some favorite place. One of the most real, I experienced was a freshman in College who loved the outdoors. He died in an accident, and all the High School and College Classmates and their families joined together for the memorial. Afterward the casket was carried to the Hearse, and we were all to go have a meal together. But hearing the car door close and watching as the car drove away from us was a little too real. One of my favorites, was that we had a young woman about 35 or 40 who began coming to worship, trying to be anonymous. Coming week after week, people found a way to get to know her. We made the invitation, not that anyone had to, but that you are wanted, and if you so chose we would love for you to become part of this body. She always declined, making it seem as though she would not be in town long enough. Eventually, she stopped coming and while we missed her, we had no way of tracking her down and thought she had moved. One day the phone rang, and a stranger's voice asked if we knew this woman. As the Pastor, I described we did, she had come to worship and fellowship very regularly, then disappeared. The voice on the phone described being the woman's sister, that she had had cancer and had died. Going through her belongings, her sister was quite surprised because their family had never been religious, that she had taken notes on several bulletins, and newsletters, and a church cookbook. Her sister thanked us for having cared for one she loved, though her faith had been a secret from everyone, even her family. A colleague described that when they die, they want a drum to be beating throughout the memorial, to symbolize how everyone gathered was held in this person's heart. Personally, I hope and pray that when I die, there will be consolation, there will be nothing left undone, that life was lived to its fullest and most honest with no regrets. The fact of the matter is that as often as we celebrate Baptisms at birth, what we are claiming is not the giving of a name to a baby, not the Christening of a new addition, but the gift of this soul to God. In the Sacrament of Baptism you are given to God as a gift of love and devotion, that you belong to God forever. That does not end with death. Our Baptism is complete, because our souls are released from this mortal seed. Forever more we are Baptized Dust. Going to the Hospital today, there was fascination, that some individuals had gone to morning Mass and received the smudging, so as to wear the mark of the Ashes all day for others to witness. I would encourage, that when you get home, you go to look in the mirror. Before sleep, that you wash your face clean. The point is not that others see you got ashes, but that tomorrow morning looking in the mirror, and tomorrow night, and all the tomorrows, that you would know that you were smudged and marked with the ashes. We are Baptized Dust, claimed by God for all Eternity, and very very Human.

"Cybercondria" March 2, 2014

Exodus 24:12-18 Matthew 17: 1-9 The other evening my bride asked me whether this morning's was a tough sermon? And I responded “No, it is Transfiguration, the end of Christmas and Epiphany and the start of Lent. The passages are Moses receiving the 10 Commandments and Jesus' Transfiguration. This is Church... But the more I have reflected upon this, I think this is one of the hardest sermons I have ever had to preach, about the reality of faith and fear and circumstance in our lives. Yesterday was not a quiet Saturday, the Youth were coming in at 11 to discuss a Summer Mission Trip and conflicts. The Associate Pastor Search Committee were trying to make SKYPE work on their computers. The Business Administrator was connecting up her computer to the Projector to show how hers worked, even though the Church Apple Computers did not. The Video camera had been replaced. Flowers were being delivered. Communion Elements were being prepared. There were 147 emails since the day before. And someone left on my desk a model of the Clinic in S.Sudan, and like a Voodoo doll, a stake was thrust into the heart of the Clinic with a large black Cloud over the top. The one who had made this said, I don't know what you want to do with this tomorrow but I woke up during the night knowing I needed to make this for you. I wanted to cry, But there was no time. Friends have described having gone to the internet for answers to problems, while those who are doctors have named frustration at patients coming in and instead of being able to listen to their symptoms, they have diagnosed everything it could be and what medications they want to have. So I typed into my Computer: Mission, Loss, Violation, Theft, Graying Hair, Aches, Pains, Brittle Bones, Stiff Joints. Instantly, up popped 37 pages of diagnoses... Dating Websites for Married Men; Lead Poisoning; Bone Cancer; Erectile Dysfunction; Hair Replacement; Eye Surgery; Miracle Foods to eat and avoid; order this pill and this cream; subscribe for Alcoholics Anonymous; and the Diagnosis: “Cyber-Condria.” I clicked on this unknown malady, and the page read: “An addiction to wanting to know, believing anything and everything people type on the Internet as being True!” For the last five hundred years we have been in search of the Laws of the Universe, the absolute truth, enlightenment, answers to what is right and wrong, fact and fiction. We have each wanted to become experts, rather trusting professionals. In the process we have been overloaded with so much possible information, there comes a point we want and need a voice from heaven to proclaim: STOP & LISTEN! This is “The Day of Transfiguration” the last after Epiphany and before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Throughout human history there has been a fascination with “change,” with whether change could be possible, and if so how things are transformed. A Prince into a Frog, an Ogre into a Prince, a Pumpkin and white Mice into a Coach and team of Horses, Cinderella into a Princess with glass slippers, or with Rumplestilskin any substance being spun into Gold. In the Harry Potter series there are a great many magic spells for transformation, specifically to “transmogrify,” as beginning students on their first day try to change needles and pins into matches, and by Fourth year in The Goblet of Fire are to try to change a lab rat into a drinking goblet, although who would want to drink out of a rat or why, is beyond me. Transformation is routinely equated with magic and spells and incantations, that if we had the right words from the Roman Empire and the correct wand, we could change the substance of anything into another, or anyone into something else. One of the commercials which perpetually catches my attention, is the one that says “It's not complicated” where the interviewer is talking with a group of four year olds and the little girl wishes she had a changing machine so she could turn her brother into a puppy, and when asked why she does not just wish for a puppy, she describes bringing him to Show& Tell as the only person ever who had a puppy-brother. The reality is as Protestant Americans in the 21st Century we have a natural predisposition to worship the god: Fact, and to smile knowingly and shake our heads at anything which seems fictional, too good to be true, or mystical as if like a puppy-brother or information on the internet, it is CUTE. Even the Bible and our acceptance of Faith, are based on what we expect to believe to be Fact. But the point of both Exodus and The Transfiguration is neither You nor I are God. We are not Moses. We are not cast as the Savior. The People, the Witnesses, actually do have roles in each story. Moses went up the mountain with Joshua and left leaders with the people to resolve their conflicts. But when a dark cloud appeared over the mountain, with thunder and lightning, and when Moses did not come back right away, the people were filled with fear. They turned to Moses' brother Aaron with their fears crying out give us something to believe in, give us something to worship. Aaron describes having collected all the fears and the gold from the people, putting these together into the heat and pressure of a forge and out popped the Golden Calf. So that before Moses even came down the mountain with the Commandments of Stone, the people had already broken them. Shortly after the disciples had named Jesus as being the Messiah the first time, Jesus went up the mountain with Peter and James and John and Jesus was transfigured before them to be speaking with Moses and Elijah. The point of the text is not what was said, that is not given to us. What is described is that Peter tries to take over the situation, he begins talking making plans, trying to build something permanent out of this spiritual moment. And it is not James or John who answer Peter. It is not Jesus, Elijah or Moses who rebuke the disciple. God Almighty says STOP TALKING and LISTEN. This week, I have prayed and thought a great deal about the last 14 years and the last 10. Mission has changed for us, and changed us. Mission is no longer an offering. Mission is no longer Charitable Giving or having to sacrifice a 10th. Mission became commitment, personal involvement locally and across the world to try to make a difference. Businesses create goods for a Profit. Governments create services for what the community want but business sees no profit in making. Mission is doing whatever is necessary, committing ourselves because people are in need, and as Christians, as the People of God we respond to human suffering. Throughout the last decade, Mission has been about building and creating and expanding, and there were accomplishments and blessings. When I first went to South Sudan, the experience quite literally almost killed me, and I felt quite abandoned and alone. When members of the church volunteered to go to make a difference, as your pastor I felt great concern and overwhelming pride. When I foirst saw the Clinic, and it was only just a building, a colleague described Emperors and Kings have built Palaces, Bishops have created Churches, but you a people who will never see this have created the means of changing the lives of people in poverty, giving health to people in great need. Two years ago, the Supreme Chief of one of the largest tribes in South Sudan described “Women and Children know the name Skaneateles and are singing your praises and blessings.” There were stories shared of people regardless of tribe being healed, eyesight given to the blind. Then the resources provided were looted, dismantled and stolen, for the profit of individuals. What suddenly occurred to me is that the moments of greatest suffering have also been the moments of greatest faith. This is not about the innocence of Christmas, and adoration of the Incarnation of God in Christ. This is about facing the reality of what life is all about, our need to forgive those who have stolen from us, our need to forgive those who have denied others healing. Our need to enter the cloud of mysticism and stop talking to listen. After Jesus was identified on the Road by Peter as being the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Jesus described that that would mean his suffering and death for the redemption of the world. And the same Peter rebuked Jesus. Jesus then responded “Get behind me Satan, for you are not on the side of God but of Men.” I always saw this as Jesus condemnation of Peter saying “Get out of my way,” but I think instead what he was saying was “Get in line behind me.” I pray this is not a Voodoo doll of placing a Dark Cloud over the Clinic, but instead a recognition, of our need to enter into the Cloud of Mysticism, the Cloud of God on the Mountaintop, intentionally going to that place to STOP our doing and to LISTEN for God. It occurs to me that that fits with our Expectations of Marriage when we think we know, when we think we are right, when we have everything all figured out, to STOP & LISTEN. Our Expectations of Religion. In fact all our relationships and all we think we know. To Stop & Listen.