September 24, 2017 "The Importance of Murmuring"

Exodus 16:2-15 Matthew 20: 1-16 My father had a favorite joke about the ministry. “Do not let people into the, they will ruin all your plans.” Which I found far funnier, when I learned every profession tells the same story, Lesson plans at School are changed because of students; Medicine is changed because of patients… HOWEVER I would tell you that I believe the Murmuring of people is the most important part! Is it important to us that God is the Almighty Prime Creator of Heaven and Earth? Is it important that God hears people in their suffering and enters in for salvation? Is it important God cares so much about us, that Almighty God abandons all power and humbly enters into Creation, with God becoming One with us? Is it important God suffered and died at our hands for our salvation? Is it important that Death and what we have done in the past could not stop God from loving us? BUT all that is meaningless historic fact without our wrestling with what these facts mean for us. Our Murmuring together allows us to consider other realities outside what we have known. Murmuring is not gossip. Murmuring is not retelling the same stories over and over again, nursing our wounds and our anger as if righteous. Murmuring is not counting how many times we have been wronged, refusal to let go the past to live the present. Murmuring is our trying to come to a new understanding, together, when our constructs of reality, our Laws of the way things are no longer work. Murmuring is our retelling stories in order to understand meanings we never understood before. I recall in this Village when a husband beat his wife to death, and people questioned “I always believed in the Death Penalty, but this was a boy from our school system, he played hockey with my kids, I was at their wedding, I don’t know what to think.” I recall when Sept11 happened and people murmured about whether we could trust the sky was not falling, that the world was not ending, that planes were safe to fly in and we had to go through metal detectors and scanners. It is in the murmuring that we try to make sense out the facts of life. AND I am convinced that part of our human problem with forgiveness is when it comes to forgiving ourselves we do not listen to anyone else. We convince ourselves that we are hopeless, we convince ourselves of the reality of darkness and our lack of forgiveness of ourselves and we fail to listen to any voices of love, of hope, of grace. A friend describes these passages as being about our having to choose between Justice and Love. The people complained, according to the Law they should have been punished, but God acted out of relationship out of love. The Laborers who were hired first deserved to be paid more, yet God chose to pay the others for having worked. I do not believe that goes far enough, I think these are passages about EQUALITY and GRACE. That throughout civilization we have created Reality based on Laws of EQUALITY, on our Control of Fairness of RIGHT & WRONG, but miraculously God operates on LIMITLESS GRACE that is not deserved. We have a naïve way of collapsing history. Between the time of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph at the conclusion of Genesis and the birth of Moses in Exodus 700 years transpired! Try to imagine all the cultural changes, all the societal adaptations that have occurred from the time of the Revolutionary War and today, now Triple that! The people who Moses led across the Red Sea into the Wilderness, had been slaves as long as history could remember. The people had been treated as wild beasts, caged, chained, beaten, killed, bought and sold as property without identity, relationship, without feelings, as things. But slaves were given water and food. When you take away that reality, when you set an animal free, how is it going to survive? Throughout the last generation, America has been about Nation Building, but it is not enough to Cease Fighting and Stop Wars in order to create a new Nation. I recall learning Hebrew in Seminary, having to look up and translate each word. Coming to this passage, we read: And the people murmured against God and Moses, saying Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us? And God rained upon them… and our minds jumped to Sodom and Gomorrah with raining Fire and Brimstone, jumping to Massah and Maribah where the people complained and God sent snakes, but here we were surprised that God rained “Bread from Heaven.” Imagine the conversation of people, and how the murmuring changed, when God provided for them, every day, every week, for the next two generations in the wilderness. Years ago I wrote a Vacation Church School Curriculum about Moses and the Wilderness, and on a week such as this, when the temperatures exceeded 80 degrees, we scattered silver foiled Hershey Kisses over a field for the children to gather. Just as with the Manna, it sparkled in the sunlight. If you gathered too much, in the heat it would melt and be a great mess. If you ate too much it would make you sick. But there was enough for everyone. The children murmured about the joy of fields of limitless chocolate; but having to limit yourself, and sharing with others. Probably no Parable upsets people’s sense of right and wrong as this Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. Recognize Jesus does not say this is the way things should be in Rome or Jerusalem or Galilee. This is what the Kingdom of God is, a Bizarro World, a different reality, calling attention to what is different from the reality of our control! This story could have been told with the Workers who worked all day being paid first, and everyone would go away happy. BUT the point is that the people MURMUR, the point is this is different from our sense of control of what is right and Just. Notice, the Landowner does not hire workers because the Landowner Needs, but negotiates with those who came first for what is Daily Bread, a minimum wage for the day and sends them to labor. I love the fact that in the Parable, what the Landowner and laborers agree is a Day’s Wage is a DENARIUS, because we have no exact monetary value for a DENARIUS, only hat it was worth a Day Laborer’s Wages. When the Laborer finds others, it is not that the Landowner needed more, but that Workers needed Work, so agrees to pay “WHAT IS FAIR”. To the last, “Go and work.” There is no pretense that Jesus is teaching Economic Theory or Fair Hiring Practices, or Management, the Rabbi is teaching what the Kingdom of God is. To God, everyone is needed and wanted. Everyone is of Value. Everyone has something to contribute. This Reality is not based on Payment for Services. This Reality is not based on our Control. The Kingdom of God is solely based on our being loved by God and loving God. There is no one who is beyond God’s love or forgiveness. In this reality, there is no one who is unloveable or unforgiveable…the difference is whether we can give up control, to forgive God, to forgive others, to forgive ourse

"Limits to UnConditional Forgiveness" September 17, 2017

Exodus 14:19-31 Matthew 18:21-35 Forgiveness is not for the sake of the one forgiven, but is for the forgiver. There is an old joke, about an Amish Couple leaving the Church after their wedding. As the Groom attempts to climb into the Buggy the horse reared up on its hind legs, and the man took a book out of his pocket and making a mark said “That’s One.” Along the road, the horse kicked, its hoof striking the buggy, and he said “That’s two!” About three miles from their farm, the horse lost a shoe and began to limp. At which the man declared: “That’s Three!” got out of the buggy and killed the horse. Horrified, the Bride began to chastise her husband, as to how they would get home, and how he would plow the fields having killed their only horse. And the Man took out his book, made a mark, and declared: “That’s One.” Our Scripture passages this week beg the question of us, “Do we keep track, counting how many times we have been offended, forgiving, making allowances?” We have a tendency to make Christianity all about our being forgiven, rather than recognize the huge responsibility placed upon us personally by Jesus Christ… Our lives and our relationships actually do matter. We are instruments of God’s Forgiveness. What you forgive, is Forgiven, by God. Resurrected for eternity. What really matters is what we Bind on earth, is bound in Heaven. Simon Peter asks Jesus, “How many times must we forgive? As many as 7 X 7 =49?” Seven is considered a number representing Infinity, completeness, so depending upon our translation Jesus says, “I tell you no, but 70 X 70 or infinity times infinity!” This as description of compassion; unlimited forgiveness. Several years ago I came to realize, if we are counting, we are not really forgiving. But what occurs to me today, I have not found elsewhere, is that Jesus is describing What we ask of God. Not simply to forgive, or to forgive 49 times, but over and over thru life. If this is what we routinely ask of God, praying each day “Forgive us our debts” and we are emulating Jesus Christ, do we not as Christians need to forgive the same? The Lost Sheep, last week’s passages all are about Forgiveness, based on Jesus’ instruction: What you forgive is forgiven, what you bind is bound in heaven. The heart of the Christian Gospel is Unconditional, Unlimited Forgiveness. Our title here is intentionally circuitous, because if forgiveness is Un-Conditional, how can there be Limits to limitless forgiveness? The difficulty is that particularly over the last generation we have so watered down Christianity, that it is believed Christians have to forgive everything, Christians are happy-faced Emogies, who tolerate abuse and smile no matter what. In the Wednesday evening Bible Study, we began discussion, that instead of leaving Christians at a 3rd Grade understanding of Sunday School, we need to be challenged with the hardest issues so our faith is prepared for the realities of life in a hostile and changing world. It is far too simplistic to accept the Old Testament had a vengeful God, the New a Loving, Compassionate Jesus! The New Testament describes life and death as an oppressed race in the Roman Empire, the animosity between religious groups who each claimed to be more righteous before God than all the others. NO, The First Testament is a love-story of Almighty God caring for us, but being forgotten and rejected, and God forgiving and forgiving over and over for centuries. We begin with The Passover, The 10 Plagues and Crossing the Red Sea. Read from the context of the Egyptian Empire, this is a bloody awful story of war’s devastation. Witnessing the drowning of Armies, Soldiers and Horses. We did not read the 15th Chapter of Exodus, which some describe as The Victory Song of Moses, others as the Song of Miriam with Singing, Dancing and Tambourine, at Egypt’s Loss! BUT this is not a story of war between Moses and Pharaoh, or the Egyptians and the Hebrews, as a human history this is only a bloody awful story… However, Exodus is the story of God’s love for Israel. Pharaoh had declared himself to be God and that there was no other God like him. Pharaoh committed genocide, killing all the Hebrew babies who would be men. Pharaoh had used the technology of his weapons against this enslaved people. The Passover of God, the 10 Plagues, Killing of the First Born of Egypt and the Red Sea, are like the Battles in a War, like Fort Sumter, Atlanta, Gettysburg… or Dunkirk, Normandy, and Berlin, but here between Egypt’s God The King of Egypt and God Almighty (who loved Egypt’s Slaves, heard their prayers and set them free). Is that not the definition of forgiveness? To have been enslaved to the past. Locked in a reality that you cannot escape. So trapped, as to be enslaved in debt, unable to envision a different future is even possible. Yet God hears and cares... Our debt, our past history, is Cancelled! The Permanent Record you have had since Grade School is Forgiven. We start life anew Resurrected. This is not condoning what happened. Not forgetting it occurred. While it takes two to fight, and three to reconcile, it really takes only one to forgive, because as the ones caught in the past we cannot escape, until we forgive. This is not letting go, it is the most intentional of actions, recognizing there is nothing worth arguing over in the past, choosing to live for a different future. I do not think I can elaborate or improve upon Jesus’ parable. The persons and amounts of debt here are extravagant, representing a lifetime of debt from having embezzled, being forgiven by the King. Instead, I share two true stories about the atrocities of the Nazis treatment of others. The first from the book Sunflower describes, Samuel Weisenthal was a survivor of the Concentration Camps. Weisenthal was imprisoned for being born Jewish. One day, he was put in hand-cuffs and shackles, made to walk under guard to the hospital, where an SS Officer lay dying. The Soldier lay in a clean bed with starched white sheets, propped up by pillows, sunlight, his arms folded across his chest, as he reported that he could not die in peace until he had confessed something… to a Jew, any Jew. The Dying Soldier described he had been in a Russian Village, where he herded all the Jews into a building filled with cans of gasoline and locked the doors. 200 people inside this house. Then the Nazis threw grenades through the windows. When the Jews tried to escape, he shot them. These were Russian Jewish Peasants and he was an SS Officer of the Reich, but it bothered him, so he wanted forgiveness from a Jew. Weisenthal described the painful silence in the room, as he stood in rags and chains, exterminated to a living corpse, while this dying Officer was propped up, indignant. At last, Weisenthal decided to leave the room without saying a word. He described that for the rest of his life, he wondered what he should have done. Weisenthal carried “this not-forgiving” with him the rest of his life, choosing not to forgive is choosing to give power to our darkest memory. Weisenthal’s story leaves us with the question: “What would you do?” Herman Engel had been a notorious Nazi General during WWII, who was arrested and tried at Nuremberg. Instead of being executed, Engel was sentenced to a Maximum Security Prison for 30 years. When Engel served the 30 years, he was released. He and his wife resolved to live out their days incognito, in a cabin in the woods. But among those who had been killed by General Engel had been a family named Morrieaux. Their son grew up to be a Journalist, who had been outraged Engel was not put to death, nursing his anger and hurt, replaying it over and over for 30 years. When Engel was released, Morrieaux went to the Village nearest the woods and heated up a mob with the righteous vengeance of killing Engel that night. But Morrieaux decided before Engel died he wanted to look Engel in the eye and tell him what was going to happen and why. So Morrieaux went to the Cabin. Instead of the monster he expected, Morrieaux found a very tired shell of a very old man, who had been so changed by his imprisonment he was not the same. Morrieaux, himself was so affected by this change in Engel, he offered to help Engel escape before the mob came. But Engel responded he would only go with Morrieaux, if Morrieaux will forgive him. According to the play The Black Angel, Morrieaux left Engel inside the cabin. Morrieaux was willing to help Engel escape the mob Morieaux created, but Morrieaux was not willing to forgive. Forgiveness is not for the sake of the one forgiven, but for the forgiver. Each of our lives, our relationships actually do matter. We are instruments of God. What really matters is what we Bind on earth, is bound in Heaven, what we forgive, is Forgiven, Resurrected for ever. As your pastor, I know you folks are perfect, but I also truly confess that I have been forgiven a great deal over the course of my life, blessed with more than I can name. Having been forgiven so much by God, I cannot burden God with the stuff I remember others have done to me.

"Rallying Our Faith" September 10, 2017

Exodus 12:1-14 Matthew 18:15-20 This morning is about trying to do the impossible! To quote our Calvinist ancestors, “Christian Faith is Pre-Destined from God”, so sinners are going to go on hurting themselves and everyone else, until God opens the hearts of individuals, absorbing God’s Grace, and we choose to forgive. Origins of Rally Day come from early 1700s after the Mayflower and before the Revolutionary War, when Protestant Revivals were held, described as “The Great Awakening”, followed from 1800-1870 with the Second Great Awakening, that left this area of the Northeast as The Burned Over District. These Religious Revivals sought to challenge the convictions and commitments of believers to deeper faith, to experience beyond understanding. After 300 years of Cultural Expansion, Theology, Science, Church History, Progress, all that has happened in our world, the task of a preacher today to ratchet our faith to a higher plateau, to deepen our relationship from “pseudo-community” who happen to pray at the same time, in the same pew, and listen to the same sermon, into one body: the Body of Jesus Christ, often seems impossible… But far more, this September, when we join in a “Rally together”, we cannot avoid memory of the many Protest Rallies and Protesting Protest Rallies that have given strength to so much hate, The New Covenant of Jesus Christ: that we would Love one another, Forgive one another, …is trying to do the impossible. Try to imagine how impossible the task before Moses! At any given worship service, we are thankful to have 100-120. Even Christmas and Easter, combining attendance at all our gatherings, there are always people missing. The Hebrew people living in slavery under The King of Egypt, were 40,000 souls. This morning, just as in the Book of Exodus, we are at the 10th Day of the Month. We start a new Program year, a new School year, Rally Day, Let us consider the past to be passed, and this the first day of the rest of our lives! Realize you were spared the end of the world, we, all our extended families and businesses have been saved from the flooding of Hurricane Harvey, Irma, Jose that is to come, and Kim Jon Un creating a Nuclear Missile for the United States. What if these were not by fate, but by God’s protection, what do you give for having been saved? Today, this day, each family, be that: an individual, a couple, or three and four generations, are required to commit to making an Offering to God in Thanksgiving for your life, the life of your beloved, the lives of your children, grandchildren, your neighbors, and all in your household. However, everyone must provide the same Offering, because this is not about personal salvation. God has saved us all! And by an offering, we are not talking about that 25 yr old jar of Sauerkraut at the back of your pantry. This is to be the best each of us could do, an unblemished perfect 1 year old lamb, that you are to take home, take into your home as part of your family, one with you, sleeping beside your children, eating from your hand, for the next four days. THIS Thursday night, after Choir practice, we are to gather together for the sacrifice, and with the blood of the sacrificial lamb still on our hands, we are to touch the doorposts of our home. Then, everyone is to roast the lamb with the same herbs, no boiling, no refusals. Everyone is to eat it the same way, together. With shoes on, prepared to run, ready for a long journey. Worship led by Moses was not about our understanding. It did not matter if you liked the hymns or anthem. It does not matter if you do not like lamb, the cost of lamb, or if you have a favorite recipe for mint jelly from your grandmother. Faith is experiential, driven by the purpose of Rally, Reviving our Relationship to God, affirming the Faith Reality that your life matters to God, you were saved by God! Imagine the impossible task before Jesus! How do you convince people to forgive? Especially when asking them to forgive their own brothers and sisters. Of all the people in God’s Creation, Church people, like you and I are the worst sinners, because we are people who concern ourselves with The Law, with Rules. During the 1700 and 1800s Great Awakenings in Massachusetts and New York, people responded to Jonathan Edwards condemnation of Sinners and Call to Faith, because they all knew themselves to be sinners in need of forgiveness. Today, we have been taught for at least two generations: I am Okay, you are Okay. That our parents and earlier generations did without so that we could have what we have, so we have indulged ourselves and our children. Instead of trying to acclimate to be part of the community, to repent and change to be part of the One Body, to get-along, we have excluded those who disagree with us, seeking out only a group of like-minded thinkers. I love the earliest identity of this congregation as the Religious Society, who acted as the Courts concerned that everyone forgive each other. Because the presence of Sin, a lack of forgiveness, has a way of festering like a wound, and becoming contagious. In those years, life was fragile. Today, between politics and global climate change we have a thousand other things to blame our problems upon, we have even named them Harvey, Irma, Jose, Kim Jon Un. What Jesus was teaching was not another Law or Rule, but a Relationship. Our lives are dependent upon our neighbor. Communion is not simply something I consume, Communion was/is a vulnerability to share ourselves wholly with God and everyone. Sin therefore is an infection that can and does harm us. Travelling with a group of Medical Students to the Hospital we built, we saw that Tuberculosis begins by a person getting a cut from a sharp reed, branch or blade of grass, not only becoming an infection, but now becoming contagious from the blood and breath of that person. I believe the problem with this passage for most of us, is that we confuse forgiveness with vengeance and atonement. I will forgive only if and when he says he is sorry, she pays for what she did. What we want is for those who have wronged us to suffer, to pay a debt for what we want to believe was taken from us. Forgiveness is realization that the wound to our relationship hurts me, wounds me so deeply that I become mortally ill until forgive. So I forgive, not because they atoned, not because I got what I wanted, but because relationship with one another, my wholeness with the body of the community is worth more to me than what I believed was taken. Someone taught me an old Medieval saying: The Church is like Noah’s Ark, a thing of Grace. The stench inside is often over-powering, but outside the world is being washed away in sin. Several years ago I recognized a problem in our church, this congregation. There were folks who came for worship Sunday mornings and left, receiving without participating in anything. When asked about membership they sheepishly replied, but if we join the church, you will ask us to do stuff. I responded “There is a simple solution: You do not have to be a member to serve, to be on Committees, to sing in the Choir, to teach our curriculum: everyone is welcome.” Is something going to be asked of you, if you serve on a committee, Yes, that you participate, that you think about your offering and your sacrifice, and your faith. Will students ask you questions, you may not be prepared to answer, Hopefully, they will make each of us think! What you receive by becoming a member is authority to participate in decision-making, the opportunity to truly make an offering as a sacrifice of this Body of Jesus Christ.

"Where DO You Stand?" September 3, 2017

Exodus 3: 1-15 Matthew 16:21-28 Throughout the last decade Professor Niebuhr member of this community of faith, and good friend, has on this Sunday at the end of summer entreated us to pray for the Parents, Students, Faculty beginning the journey of discovery and self-sacrifice. Late this summer, I heard parents and grandparents of 2, 3 and 4 year olds, describe awareness of their child turning their head to take in and to absorb, trying to learn, to make sense and master their world. There are basic lessons of algebra, geometry, geography, economics, literature, chemistry and biology, we each must learn in order to compete professionally, and to play Jeopardy at 7:30 each evening. But what occurs to me this morning, is that while we assume universal public education, where intellectually we build upon what we know, we memorize and practice in order to repeat and perfect and understand; …that we are Called by God, Called thru Jesus Christ, stepping into what we do not know, to step out of our comfort-zones, to make new applications, to venture where no one has ever gone before, because that is where we make a difference in the world, where problems are confronted/solved. Nostalgically, it seems our ancestors mastered trades. Working as an apprentice they learned plumbing, in order to earn a living fixing any problem of water, waste or gas. Working as a Carpenter, they learned how to choose boards as straight, grains which were tight, to miter and to dove-tail joints. A Banker was a Banker, a Lawyer a Lawyer, a Salesman a Salesman. But the reality is that throughout the world, prior to WWII, every person did what they had to do to survive, life was not so specialized, or disposable. In eulogies, what many most admire about their parents and grandparents is that they could do anything, no circumstance was ever insurmountable! This summer, as a theologian and doctor of ministry on vacation, I found exceeding joy working with my spouse, not only in the carpentry of cutting and nailing oak floors for our home, but also converting a double sink to a single, connecting the dishwasher through the disposal, and finishing before family arrived. We recall from Charleston Heston’s Moses in the 10 Commandments and Sunday School, Moses led the people for 40 years from Egypt to Israel. However, the story of Exodus is not so simple. If it were, there would be no mystery, no struggle, no God, nor need for God. Moses would simply have followed his GPS. But in addition to people (we claim to be ancestors of our relationship with God) going from Egypt to Israel, The Book of Exodus is about an enslaved people, whom God heard in their suffering, learning to trust and act in faith, in relationship to God. Representative of this people of God, Moses is a Foreigner in an alien world. Preparatory to this story, remember a few weeks ago, that Jacob (Abraham’s grandson) wrestled 20 years with his parents and brother Esau, then 20 years competing with Laban, before returning to wrestle with God. Jacob survived, although his hip was put out of joint, he could not receive a name for the one he wrestled with, but Jacob was given a new identity as Israel, who wrestles with God and everyone else. Whether literally double, or figuratively for two full generations, the Chapters of Moses’ life are recorded in 40 year allotments. Last week we read of Moses, a baby of Israel in a time of infanticide-genocide, drawn out of the waters to live the next 40 years in Pharaoh’s family. One Hebrew under the care of Pharaoh while Egypt was killing all Hebrew babies, in a time of slavery. Something in Moses recognizes injustice, that when he witnesses an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, Moses kills the Egyptian. When Moses learns others know who he is, a Hebrew in Pharaoh’s protection, who killed an Egyptian, he flees to the Wilderness. For 40 years Moses lives in the household of Jethro, a Priest of Midian, taking Jethro’s daughter as wife, and caring for Jethro’s flocks as a Shepherd. There are circumstances uncommon to us, which elsewhere happen routinely. This week in Texas’ flooding, chemicals no longer refrigerated suddenly exploded. Years ago, I had travelled through the Maquiladoras in Mexico’s border communities, when suddenly the ground beside the roadway exploded in fire from chemicals dumped on the roadside. In the wilderness, in extreme heat, it is not un-natural for bushes to spontaneously ignite. What is of importance here, is Moses pays attention, he leaves his flock to go witness why the Bush is on fire but not burned up, never consumed or exhausted? A voice Calls him by name! … Moses, Moses! Mario! Dave! Ginny! Donna! This is not an exchange with a submissive, humble shepherd, saying “Who am I?” Moses is a wily conniving murderer, who thinks he got away with it, hiding out from the world, hiding from God. The instruction to remove his shoes has many dimensions: Wearing shoes meant you were prepared to run, this comes up with eating the Passover with your sandals tied, girded, staff in hand; Jesus sending out disciples without extra sandals, to stay. Sandals are a barrier between you and the place, so you did not leave footprints, or take on the cuts or dirt of the place…but with God, there can be no barriers between. Historically shoes have been recognized as from different places, Italian Loafers, French Stilettos, California Earthshoes…the earth, all earth is holy, belonging to God. Even more, according to Genesis, humanity was formed by God from out of the dirt, this is our essence, you are not taken out of the waters of chaos, you are taken out of the dust God separated from chaos when Light, Order, Time and Space were Called. But the response of Moses, is not THANK YOU LORD, but instead “Whom do I say?” Just as with Jacob wrestling, He wants to have a name for God so that he can have God on a leash to call upon whenever he desires something. Instead, God replies I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE, when pressed: The Name God gives is not a noun, but the verb “To Be” recognizing that everything that exists or ever will be is because of God and God adds “Tell them, The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has sent me to you.” Subtly, the Call of Moses, becomes his being Sent. So what Moses thought he could step aside to know, to understand and own, has instead required he take off his shoes and be known, instead of being an alien, an unknown in no-man’s land, Moses is sent as a representative of God, on behalf of the people of God, to confront Pharaoh. The curiosity of Christian faith is that caring for others, compassion, changes where you stand, changes what you represent and stand for. Peter made the greatest affirmation of faith ever stated: “You are the Son of God!” but having done so, having named Jesus as the Christ, Peter cannot control Jesus. The name Jesus, comes from Joshua, meaning “Savior sent from God” and Christ comes from Messiah, meaning “Anointed of God”, again descriptions of belonging to God, not identities to be used when we want to call our genie. Jesus identifying “Whomever would follow me needs to take up their cross” is not about personal burdens of my family members illness, or problems, the cross we have to bear, is about self-desires being sacrificed for God’s will. Many of you will recall Steve Thomas who was the Interim Pastor here before me, and we became close friends. When Steve arrived, Session members looked to him stating we need to do a Building Campaign, and he responded saying I am an Interim Pastor, we do not do building campaigns, I do not know how to do building campaigns. But this was one of the needs of the church at the time, and he learned. After serving here for ten years, Preaching and Praying, going on Mission Trips, teaching Bible Study and leading Building Campaigns, the refugees we sponsored asked “who will go for us”, and I stepped out of my comfort zone, as have many of you in creating this mission. The part that has often been misconstrued and misunderstood about Mission. By “Being Sent by God”, while there were accomplishments for that other people of God, we each grew in our faith and understanding, we stood in a different place, representing something more than ourselves, representing God to the world.