I have always been awed by folk that seem to have an internal sense of direction. I am one of those who can get lost in the Village of Skaneateles. Over the years it got so bad, that when pulling up to an intersection I would consider which way to go and if right seemed correct, I would intentionally choose left instead and more often than not it turned out to be correct after all. Yet, over a lifetime, confidence and experience increased, and brovado dissipated, to developing a sense of trust that any road could get you there. The point of this morning's Scriptures is questioning:
whether we have a clue where we are and where we are going?
Often, the mistakes of life are NOT that we chose wrong, but that we forget where we are going and we drift aimlessly, instead of knowing that where ever you are, God is with you.
The purpose of RELIGION, is not to give people faith. The purpose of RELIGION is to establish processes and methods for one generation to share their faith, their ethics and morals, and even more their exerience of God with another. The pain and frustration is that it is entirely possible to follow all the rules and procedures and still get lost.
As educators we can teach our students to attain 100 on standardized tests, yet have no idea what they are learning or why.
Nearly 600 years before the birth of Jesus, the Nation of Judah was invaded by Nebuchadnezzer, King of Babylon. The leaders of the Nation of Judah were carried off in bondage as exiles. This passage from Jeremiah reflects that they were not sold and dispersed as slaves, but kept together as prisoners of war in a foreign culture, communicating with the people back home a sense of desperation. Like Dorothy in that scene from the Wizard of Oz, where locked in the Witch's Tower she can witness her Aunt M through the Crystal Ball searching for her, weeping, knowing she is lost feeling helpless to do anything. Communicating to those left behind, was to instill in them a political leverage to friends and family, to be subserviant.
Like us, those far from home, adopted a stoic identity that we could put up with anything for a short time. But the prophecy of Jeremiah was that they would never come home again. The new and different hope offered is that in 70 years, your children, or children's children might. How different life appears, if we are not short-termers, but in a Covenant that will endure for generations to come. We can imagine 6 weeks of hardship, or 6 months, a year or even 5-10, but 70 years, a lifetime. 70 years ago, in the midst of the Great Depression, who would have imagined what life would be like today? 70 years in the future, what might life be like in 2077? What if our concerns were not the immediate ones, not about us, or today's worries, but decisions effecting our children's children? None of us will be alive in 2077, will any of the problems we are weighed by, still matter? AnnaMargaret will be a 70 year old, a professor of Mathematics, Physics and Engineering, a preacher and author, with six children and 14 grandchildren. Will it matter, will anyone even remember, that before she was five she had open heat surgery three times? Traumatic to us all this last month, these next several years, but in the scheme of things, a brief time that makes one resolved to live.
Up until this time, the RELIGION of Israel had become demonstrative. When you are thankful, make an offering of two turtle doves or the first fruits of the harvest. When you are guilt-ridden, make a sacrifice of an unblemished lamb or a heiffer. But Jeremiah's message changed that for ever. FAITH has less to do with the outward actions and appearances, and everything to do with where your heart is. Judaism and Christianity each have endured persecutions through societies hostile to the presence of faith. These have endured because belief in God is not about CIRCUMCISION, or KOSHER foods, or KNOWING the WORDS of Confessions or Hymns.
Belief in God is a willing, intimate, personal covenant, circumcising one's heart. Knowing and claiming what is good and right and heplful and choosing that, choosing to stay away from what is not. Not muttering and mumbling archaic phrases, but singing, especially when you sing poorly, choosing to not hold back but to sing praise of God. A SACRIFICE is NOT cutting a thing in two on an altar, SACRIFICE is GIVING what we most love for, those we cannot live without.
If all we learn through the experience of Cancer is that we can survive without hair, without a breast or uterus, or that we can endure impotence; then we have followed the therapies, made all the right turns and gotten through, but life is pretty empty. How different is that life, to know that parts of ourselves were so infected we were trying to kill us. That without hair, or breasts or a uterus, without the ability to share intercourse, you are of course still loved, not only valued but prized, not for your accomplishments or earning potential, but for your presence in our lives.
For the time, LEPROSY was a Social Disease, an affliction that austrocized people as excluded. Driving to University Hospital or any of the interchanges in Syracuse, there are men with signs saying “Disabled Vet”, “Unable to Work” and cars slow at intersections to hand off a few coins to help these persons get by another meal, another day. We have made DEPRESSSIONinto a social disease, Post-Traumatic Stress from being part of WAR, something that separates as not acceptable.
What if, you could give that person, what would not only meet their needs but change their life.
Would you?
Would they notice?
Would change, really change a person's life or only circumstances for a moment?
10 people with LEPROSY BEG Jesus for help. Jesus not only helps them, he heals them of their Leprosy, and tells them to go to show themselves to the priest so as to be recognized as no longer socially outcast, but claimed, a part of the community of faith.
They received the direction they were seeking. Not only did they receive the help they requested, they were told what next to do, where to go. 9 out of 10 went on unchanged. Only a tenth, one who actually was a Samartan, stopped to look at what he had asked for, and realized he had been healed, which alows the wordplay that he was not only “healed” he was “cured” he was “saved”. We have come to expect “SALVATION” as an event, that at 10:43 am on the 2nd of October, the clouds parted a ray of sunlight appeared and something like scales fel from our eyes. Here, in Luke, SALVATION is the persons' own acceptance that life has changed.
The problem the Pharisees needed to be healed of, was believing RESURRECTION could only come in a Future time, far off. They trusted that ater death, in seventy years for a future generation CHANGE MIGHT COME, but all around them, persons who had been blind were suddenly able to see, persons who had been deaf were able to hear. Can we allow ourselves to see what God is doing among us, or can we only cling to the hope that one day maybe.
Each of us, all of us, at differing times become lost, the only question that matters is whether we know that NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE, GOD KNOWS YOU ARE THERE.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Catalytic Mechanisms Oct 7, 2008
A few years ago, many of us read Jim Collins book Good to Great, which describes establishing BHAGs, BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOALS. We set out to establish our own Big Hairy Audacious Goal, TO BE THE CHURCH, not just a Presbyterian Church in Skaneateles, but AS THE CHURCH TO EMBODY TRUST, FAITH and COMMITMENT. The Church is not a denomination, not a building, programs, staff, music or education, all these are elements like fingernails of the WHOLE BODY, but we will be a RESOURCE OF THE COMMUNITY, standing with the powerless, offering a place for those with Cancer, and for Children, and to Gather Food, and to make a home for Refugees, to assist our elders to change from independent lives to living in a community of caring. As Robert Hudnut described 35 years ago, the CHURCH IS A SLEEPING GIANT, and we would finally wake up.
This week, while on vacation, I was lying on the beach reading old articles from Harvard Business Review, I have told you before that for Minister's the BUSINESS REVIEW is like reading a trashy Danielle Steele novel. And here was a juicy fresh idea from Jim Collins, who said ANY LEADER CAN CREATE A BHAG, but to make the dream a reality, to fulfill your goal, you need to implement methods to change. Change is not a little thing, but a radical departure, creating mechanisms that if followed will result in Creating the BHAG.
Two weeks ago, we read in the 16th Chapter of Luke, the Parable of the DISHONEST STEWARD who was caught unfairly charging debtors, they were dissatisfied, so the steward invited them to short pay their bills, paying only the principal of their debts. Collins described that there is a company out in Colorado called Granite Inc. whose Big Hairy Audacious Goal was to provide the same level of CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AS NEIMAN MARCUS LUXURY STORE, but this from men working in a Quarry. What they did was to copy a few sentences on the bottom of every bill and their letterhead, stating that “Our Goal is Your Satisfaction. If there is some part of your bill you are not satisfied with, cross it out and pay the balance.” This is not a refund, or invtation to argue disputes, but a clear CATALYTIC MECHANISM to ENSURE SATISFACTION. Pay for what is right. Naming what is wrong, we will then know to change it. Imagine, after a meal, or after a plane trip, deducting what really was wrong, this would force the business to make corrections. The point is not to Haggle, or to try to get away with something for nothing, but that everyone should be able to be satisfied.
A Teacher in their classroom realized that whenever a question was asked the same three or four hands would shoot up. Recognizing that often times a very insightful idea goes unshared and that the goal of education in a classroom is the sharing of ideas, they created a new Catalytic Method. In the classroom were redflags, and if you had something important to say you were to wave the red flag, and all discussion would stop, as you claimed the mechanism to share your idea. Over time, the teacher added that each student could only use the red flag once per semester, could not give or sell their flag to someone else. What if, on a given Sunday morning you have a great joy, or deep confession, a burning question or concern, should we not, could we not listen?
Over the last several weeks, this Autumn, we have been reading the Gospel according to Luke, and have described that while you can pull out and memorize individual stories or teachings, THE 15th CHAPTER that describes FINDING THE LOST becomes the lens through which everything else in Luke is understood. When one lamb is lost, God seeks out that one until finding it to bring home; when one coin is lost, God lights the whole house and searches without relenting until the lost is found; when a parent has children who struggle for their independence, they can become lost, and God goes out and waits to bring them home. As IMPORTANT as the GIFT of the SAVIOR at CHRISTMAS, as REDEMPTIVE as the Crucifixion and Resurrection at EASTER, FINDING, FORGIVING, RESTORING THE LOST AS FOUND is at the heart of LUKE's Gospel.
The CRUX of this morning's reading from the 17th Chapter is that a THING IS WHAT IT IS! Forgiveness is Forgiveness, Sin is sin, Duty is Duty, and Faith is faith.
Regardless of whether we Lie to one another OR we Steal from one another, or we have an Affair in violation of our vows to one another, whether we hate and murder in our hearts or with our hands, a SIN IS A SIN. It matters not whether you cut a little, or cut to the core. When we sin, we have done serious harm to another and to ourselves and to God. There are no LITTLE SINS versus BIG ONES, a betrayal is a betrayal, a violation is a violation. And TOO FORGIVENESS is FORGIVENESS.
We have become too familiar with forgiveness, we have so watered down and made common our relationships, that Forgiveness has come to mean DISMISSAL AS IRRELEVANT. “It is okay, I didn't really care.” NO. Forgiveness costs! Forgiveness is total and absolute. We change relationship, the LOST is no longer LOST, but now is FOUND. IF all we have done is to dismiss the broken, we have not truly forgiven, we set it aside to pile up, we added to the insult of the sin our acceptance, but to truly forgive means that we change relationship, naming the wound and dealing with it openly.
Faith whether the size of a mustard seed, or a mountain, whether the faith of a child, or the faith of a 94 year old, IS FAITH IN THE POWER OF GOD. Too often we believe in RITUAL, in Rote Practices, in our own control, going through the motions of life together, of believing in God. Those disciplines and routines are important as helping us name our dreams, drawing castles in the sky, but as Thoreau names at the end of Walden, “If you have built castles in the sky, that is where they belong, the challenge is how we can create foundations for them here on earth.” Faith is the painful struggle named in LAMENTATIONS. There are very real seasons of our life, that seem too much, and we ask, we demand “WHY GOD?” and the realizations of God's presence, God's healing only come later. Lamentations is hard for us to read and understand. In part because we are not sure who is talking. Possibly it is a PROPHET, a BELIEVER, struggling with, lamenting life. But my reading of this is that this is the LAMENT OF GOD.
The Hebrew Scriptures never try to convince us whether there is or is not a God, BUT RATHER describe this very Fleshy God who Hopes and Loves and gets Angry, and Forgives. These laments are leter quoted by Jesus, butb they were present there hundreds of years prior, as GOD IS THE ONE, the defender of the Powerless, the orphaned, the weak, who has seen and experienced the pains of this life on humanity, who is wounded by these and yet still clings to hope.
It is difficult for us, but we can reconcile each of these, A SIN is a Sin; Forgiveness that changes us is real and total forgiveness; Faith is not simply ritual and dogma, but Faith that GOD CAN BE GOD and all we can ever be is believers, can make the impossible possible.
But the PARABLE OF A SERVANT'S DUTY is hard for us. We have each been trained to believe in skills and abilities, that the harder you work and the greater your investment, the greater your reward. BUT the reality is that LIFE IS FULL, we owe one another and God our care and service of one another. We were formed to be servants caring for creation, caring for one another, being companions to one another. We can CHEAT OURSELVES and ONE ANOTHER of That. But in the end, we are Mortal, we are Creaturely, our duty is to serve.
That is the Big Hairy Audacious Goal of Life, that we would serve one another and serve God.
The Catalytic Mechanism God has given us to bring this BHAG about, is that we share in serving Communion. What we have done is not simply bread and juice, or a sacred ritual of the Church, but Communion is an opening and outpouring of ourselves to share with one another, praying for real forgiveness. There are times we feel unworthy, unable, but with faith all things are possible.
This week, while on vacation, I was lying on the beach reading old articles from Harvard Business Review, I have told you before that for Minister's the BUSINESS REVIEW is like reading a trashy Danielle Steele novel. And here was a juicy fresh idea from Jim Collins, who said ANY LEADER CAN CREATE A BHAG, but to make the dream a reality, to fulfill your goal, you need to implement methods to change. Change is not a little thing, but a radical departure, creating mechanisms that if followed will result in Creating the BHAG.
Two weeks ago, we read in the 16th Chapter of Luke, the Parable of the DISHONEST STEWARD who was caught unfairly charging debtors, they were dissatisfied, so the steward invited them to short pay their bills, paying only the principal of their debts. Collins described that there is a company out in Colorado called Granite Inc. whose Big Hairy Audacious Goal was to provide the same level of CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AS NEIMAN MARCUS LUXURY STORE, but this from men working in a Quarry. What they did was to copy a few sentences on the bottom of every bill and their letterhead, stating that “Our Goal is Your Satisfaction. If there is some part of your bill you are not satisfied with, cross it out and pay the balance.” This is not a refund, or invtation to argue disputes, but a clear CATALYTIC MECHANISM to ENSURE SATISFACTION. Pay for what is right. Naming what is wrong, we will then know to change it. Imagine, after a meal, or after a plane trip, deducting what really was wrong, this would force the business to make corrections. The point is not to Haggle, or to try to get away with something for nothing, but that everyone should be able to be satisfied.
A Teacher in their classroom realized that whenever a question was asked the same three or four hands would shoot up. Recognizing that often times a very insightful idea goes unshared and that the goal of education in a classroom is the sharing of ideas, they created a new Catalytic Method. In the classroom were redflags, and if you had something important to say you were to wave the red flag, and all discussion would stop, as you claimed the mechanism to share your idea. Over time, the teacher added that each student could only use the red flag once per semester, could not give or sell their flag to someone else. What if, on a given Sunday morning you have a great joy, or deep confession, a burning question or concern, should we not, could we not listen?
Over the last several weeks, this Autumn, we have been reading the Gospel according to Luke, and have described that while you can pull out and memorize individual stories or teachings, THE 15th CHAPTER that describes FINDING THE LOST becomes the lens through which everything else in Luke is understood. When one lamb is lost, God seeks out that one until finding it to bring home; when one coin is lost, God lights the whole house and searches without relenting until the lost is found; when a parent has children who struggle for their independence, they can become lost, and God goes out and waits to bring them home. As IMPORTANT as the GIFT of the SAVIOR at CHRISTMAS, as REDEMPTIVE as the Crucifixion and Resurrection at EASTER, FINDING, FORGIVING, RESTORING THE LOST AS FOUND is at the heart of LUKE's Gospel.
The CRUX of this morning's reading from the 17th Chapter is that a THING IS WHAT IT IS! Forgiveness is Forgiveness, Sin is sin, Duty is Duty, and Faith is faith.
Regardless of whether we Lie to one another OR we Steal from one another, or we have an Affair in violation of our vows to one another, whether we hate and murder in our hearts or with our hands, a SIN IS A SIN. It matters not whether you cut a little, or cut to the core. When we sin, we have done serious harm to another and to ourselves and to God. There are no LITTLE SINS versus BIG ONES, a betrayal is a betrayal, a violation is a violation. And TOO FORGIVENESS is FORGIVENESS.
We have become too familiar with forgiveness, we have so watered down and made common our relationships, that Forgiveness has come to mean DISMISSAL AS IRRELEVANT. “It is okay, I didn't really care.” NO. Forgiveness costs! Forgiveness is total and absolute. We change relationship, the LOST is no longer LOST, but now is FOUND. IF all we have done is to dismiss the broken, we have not truly forgiven, we set it aside to pile up, we added to the insult of the sin our acceptance, but to truly forgive means that we change relationship, naming the wound and dealing with it openly.
Faith whether the size of a mustard seed, or a mountain, whether the faith of a child, or the faith of a 94 year old, IS FAITH IN THE POWER OF GOD. Too often we believe in RITUAL, in Rote Practices, in our own control, going through the motions of life together, of believing in God. Those disciplines and routines are important as helping us name our dreams, drawing castles in the sky, but as Thoreau names at the end of Walden, “If you have built castles in the sky, that is where they belong, the challenge is how we can create foundations for them here on earth.” Faith is the painful struggle named in LAMENTATIONS. There are very real seasons of our life, that seem too much, and we ask, we demand “WHY GOD?” and the realizations of God's presence, God's healing only come later. Lamentations is hard for us to read and understand. In part because we are not sure who is talking. Possibly it is a PROPHET, a BELIEVER, struggling with, lamenting life. But my reading of this is that this is the LAMENT OF GOD.
The Hebrew Scriptures never try to convince us whether there is or is not a God, BUT RATHER describe this very Fleshy God who Hopes and Loves and gets Angry, and Forgives. These laments are leter quoted by Jesus, butb they were present there hundreds of years prior, as GOD IS THE ONE, the defender of the Powerless, the orphaned, the weak, who has seen and experienced the pains of this life on humanity, who is wounded by these and yet still clings to hope.
It is difficult for us, but we can reconcile each of these, A SIN is a Sin; Forgiveness that changes us is real and total forgiveness; Faith is not simply ritual and dogma, but Faith that GOD CAN BE GOD and all we can ever be is believers, can make the impossible possible.
But the PARABLE OF A SERVANT'S DUTY is hard for us. We have each been trained to believe in skills and abilities, that the harder you work and the greater your investment, the greater your reward. BUT the reality is that LIFE IS FULL, we owe one another and God our care and service of one another. We were formed to be servants caring for creation, caring for one another, being companions to one another. We can CHEAT OURSELVES and ONE ANOTHER of That. But in the end, we are Mortal, we are Creaturely, our duty is to serve.
That is the Big Hairy Audacious Goal of Life, that we would serve one another and serve God.
The Catalytic Mechanism God has given us to bring this BHAG about, is that we share in serving Communion. What we have done is not simply bread and juice, or a sacred ritual of the Church, but Communion is an opening and outpouring of ourselves to share with one another, praying for real forgiveness. There are times we feel unworthy, unable, but with faith all things are possible.
Reading Both Bibles, Sept 30, 2007
One week ago, the temperature was 35 degrees and we hoped and prophesied we would see 80!
Syracuse had not won a game all season, and Louisville had not lost a home game in their last 20, and we hoped against hope. Across the Nation, the Housing bubble had burst and we hoped for a renewal of faith in the market, and interest rates have come down. A newborn with a serious problem in her heart, is growing so much stronger and healthier that her father and mother have been able to hold her in their arms and take her outdoors away from all the tubes and monitors. Those with end stage cancer have not been alone, and are surviving, free and clear, with renewed possibilities. It would be foolhardy to believe WINTER will never come, SYRACUSE no longer needs to practice or struggle, to go into greater DEBT and take foolish risks, to ignore the reality that this family has not yet come home and will face many more surgeries, BUT what greater proofs do we need to HOPE, what greater incentive to PRAY and BELIEVE and STRIVE FOR?
This morning's readings make the emphasis from the other side... The days are coming, an account is being called for, barns and storehouses catch fire and burn, then what will you do? SHALL we repent, do we turn round, do we choose another path, do we try to make a deal, OR as HARDHEARTED HUMANS do we plunge ahead knowing all the time we are wrong, choosing not to believe laws apply to us, convincing ourselves that we could get away without punishment for our sins, or that what we do affects anyone but ourselves? Jeremiah voices for God, that not only do our actions afect one another, harming ourselves we do pain to God.
A few weeks ago, I was listening to a friend who asked a group of students “WHAT ARE YOUR PRIORITIES? He claimed that for most Americans, we can no longer answer that question. We know we we have a deadline to meet. we know we have a budget to stay within. We know we have customers and shareholders to keep happy. But we no longer know what our priorities are!
The Bible contains texts that have been used by each side of the church routinely to defend their PRIORITIES, their path, and to judge the other, rather than hearing both texts and being challenged to repent and reform our very lives.
One part of the faith community believes Sin is spelled S-E-X and usually that Men should be in leadrship while women subserviant; while the other half of the body declares that women have just as much potential and right to preach and make decisions as men, that cultural mores about divorce and about sexuality are changing.
Those affirming the rights of others also challenge each of us about our responsibilities, claiming the root of Evil is M-O-N-E-Y and the sin is not so clearly this action or that relationship as what we do with what we possess and whether we can possess anything, or if possession is corruption; while the other heard Moses declare the PROMISE is of POSSESSION of a land of Milk & Honey. Recall that Moses went up the Mountain, and coming down, was he angry because the people had melted their jewelry to make a golden calf, or that they were worshipping it with profane acts? Moses went back up the mountain to plea for humanity, and came down with the promise of a land of their own, as well as the 10 Commandments.
Faith is not so simple as DO THIS and LIVE. Get MARRIED and Ride Off Happily Ever After. In the time of King Josiah, after David and Solomon, there had been an earthquake, and when the dust settled within the Temple there was revealed a hidden ancient scroll.The King recognized the need for Change and set about to Reform the Nation based on the ideals of this ancient scroll. But despite all the reforms, a decade later the people were again lost. Jeremiah's complaint was not that the people did not know, but worse that they did and they no longer cared.
40 years ago, our Nation was ripped apart by racial hatred. Laws were changed, opportunities created, but we have to question whether change has really happened. In Jena, Louisanna a student asked their teacher if they could sit underneath a paticular tree to read a book. The student was black skinned. The next morning a hangman's noose hung from that tree as a threat and warning. It was harassment, it was racist. The act incited violence, and six of those fighting were black, who were then charged with attempted murder. Has anything really changed?
By the time of the writing of the New Testament, those who perceived Sin to be SEX and those who perceived Sin to be MONEY personified their enemies as PROSTITUES and TAX COLLECTORS. And Jesus Accepted both. NOT with a cheap grace that says everything is acceptable, but with a very real challenge that we not hide our vices by pointing out those of others, that we not make ourselves feel better by making others feel greater guilt.
There is a wonderful subtlety to the Gospel of Luke. As the inheritors of Scripture, we tend to read in blocks, of a single story, or a chapter. But Luke introduced this section with “All the People were complaining that Jesus spoke with Tax Collectors and Prostitutes and even trusted them to sit at table, and eat with them...” then tells the parable of the LOST SHEEP that was FOUND, the LOST COIN that was SEARCHED OUT and FOUND, the Father with TWO LOST SONS, yet for those sons the relationship is ALL or NOTHING. This morning's parable follows immediately upon that with a Steward who is called to Account. It was common practice in the Roman Empire that every level of bureaucracy added a fee for their services. SO when you borrowed money or grain or oil, you owed not only the principal and the interest to the boorrower, but also a service fee to the Steward. Years ago, travelling in the border towns of Mexico, the people described that water was free, and delivered in 500 gallon drums, but you had to pay a bribe to the delivery man or else they would skip you for others that would pay.
This Steward is caught, found to be overcharging and cheating his master. So that evening calls all the debtors and offers to deduct the amount he had charged. Instead of making any profit for his work, he will have treated people fairly and equitably, and perhaps they will re-assess and change. In the morning, the Householder has been repaid everything he was owed. The Debtors all have been able to settle their debts without an unjust burden added. And the former Steward has little financially, but has the respect and renewed trust of the Householder and the former Debtors. As such WHO is the Steward, the LOST that has been FOUND? Each of these other parables DO NOT describe the feelings and actions and thoughts of the sheep or the coin, but only the one SEARCHING TO REDEEM? So, is the Steward “Perceived to have been unjust” who gives his own portion, to bring back into harmony the Master and the Debtors, Jesus?
What would happen if we each in this Autumn, as we consider our Pledged Giving, and the VALUES of our lives, considered personally what can I offer? We tend to equate the Season of LENT with REPENTANCE, but actually the point of Autumn of this “Time of Atonement” is for us to question what can I do to seek the lost? What if, in addition to our pledges for the heat and insurance on this building for the community, in addition to paying for the staff and the missions, we each considered What can I do? Imagine, you had an extra $100, what would you do? Imagine you had an extra day with nothing to do? Perhaps as an Event Planner you would coordinate an event like the Russian Folksingers... We have had someone in the community, who is not actually a member, but whose family have taken part in many of the activities of the church who has been volunteeering their time and labor weeding the gardens and repairing plumbing. Someone sugested, we have a lot of folk that are downsizing, kids have gone off to college, they are closing up one of their houses, what if we had a one day sale of really good quality furnishings, what would you like to do with what you earn?
Twice recently, I have been meeting with couples about getting married, who asked about the cost for our services. I explained that we are the only church in town that has made a commitment that we want to be of service when people need us. So it does not matter if you are Presbyterian, or if you are active in any church. The cost for the use of the Sanctuary with all the renovations, and the need for maintenance is $500. The cost for the accompanyist is $150. And the cost for my providing as many counseling sessions as you need, the rehearsal and officiating at the wedding, and occasionally running interference with the mothers is $200. And the couple have looked incredulous. We are paying $2000 for the flowers! $100 a plate for the guests. And the wedding itself is less than $1000. And we have quietly stated we want to be here when you need the church.
How different our lives might be, if we worried less about deadlines and costs, about sex and money, and more about our priorities.
Syracuse had not won a game all season, and Louisville had not lost a home game in their last 20, and we hoped against hope. Across the Nation, the Housing bubble had burst and we hoped for a renewal of faith in the market, and interest rates have come down. A newborn with a serious problem in her heart, is growing so much stronger and healthier that her father and mother have been able to hold her in their arms and take her outdoors away from all the tubes and monitors. Those with end stage cancer have not been alone, and are surviving, free and clear, with renewed possibilities. It would be foolhardy to believe WINTER will never come, SYRACUSE no longer needs to practice or struggle, to go into greater DEBT and take foolish risks, to ignore the reality that this family has not yet come home and will face many more surgeries, BUT what greater proofs do we need to HOPE, what greater incentive to PRAY and BELIEVE and STRIVE FOR?
This morning's readings make the emphasis from the other side... The days are coming, an account is being called for, barns and storehouses catch fire and burn, then what will you do? SHALL we repent, do we turn round, do we choose another path, do we try to make a deal, OR as HARDHEARTED HUMANS do we plunge ahead knowing all the time we are wrong, choosing not to believe laws apply to us, convincing ourselves that we could get away without punishment for our sins, or that what we do affects anyone but ourselves? Jeremiah voices for God, that not only do our actions afect one another, harming ourselves we do pain to God.
A few weeks ago, I was listening to a friend who asked a group of students “WHAT ARE YOUR PRIORITIES? He claimed that for most Americans, we can no longer answer that question. We know we we have a deadline to meet. we know we have a budget to stay within. We know we have customers and shareholders to keep happy. But we no longer know what our priorities are!
The Bible contains texts that have been used by each side of the church routinely to defend their PRIORITIES, their path, and to judge the other, rather than hearing both texts and being challenged to repent and reform our very lives.
One part of the faith community believes Sin is spelled S-E-X and usually that Men should be in leadrship while women subserviant; while the other half of the body declares that women have just as much potential and right to preach and make decisions as men, that cultural mores about divorce and about sexuality are changing.
Those affirming the rights of others also challenge each of us about our responsibilities, claiming the root of Evil is M-O-N-E-Y and the sin is not so clearly this action or that relationship as what we do with what we possess and whether we can possess anything, or if possession is corruption; while the other heard Moses declare the PROMISE is of POSSESSION of a land of Milk & Honey. Recall that Moses went up the Mountain, and coming down, was he angry because the people had melted their jewelry to make a golden calf, or that they were worshipping it with profane acts? Moses went back up the mountain to plea for humanity, and came down with the promise of a land of their own, as well as the 10 Commandments.
Faith is not so simple as DO THIS and LIVE. Get MARRIED and Ride Off Happily Ever After. In the time of King Josiah, after David and Solomon, there had been an earthquake, and when the dust settled within the Temple there was revealed a hidden ancient scroll.The King recognized the need for Change and set about to Reform the Nation based on the ideals of this ancient scroll. But despite all the reforms, a decade later the people were again lost. Jeremiah's complaint was not that the people did not know, but worse that they did and they no longer cared.
40 years ago, our Nation was ripped apart by racial hatred. Laws were changed, opportunities created, but we have to question whether change has really happened. In Jena, Louisanna a student asked their teacher if they could sit underneath a paticular tree to read a book. The student was black skinned. The next morning a hangman's noose hung from that tree as a threat and warning. It was harassment, it was racist. The act incited violence, and six of those fighting were black, who were then charged with attempted murder. Has anything really changed?
By the time of the writing of the New Testament, those who perceived Sin to be SEX and those who perceived Sin to be MONEY personified their enemies as PROSTITUES and TAX COLLECTORS. And Jesus Accepted both. NOT with a cheap grace that says everything is acceptable, but with a very real challenge that we not hide our vices by pointing out those of others, that we not make ourselves feel better by making others feel greater guilt.
There is a wonderful subtlety to the Gospel of Luke. As the inheritors of Scripture, we tend to read in blocks, of a single story, or a chapter. But Luke introduced this section with “All the People were complaining that Jesus spoke with Tax Collectors and Prostitutes and even trusted them to sit at table, and eat with them...” then tells the parable of the LOST SHEEP that was FOUND, the LOST COIN that was SEARCHED OUT and FOUND, the Father with TWO LOST SONS, yet for those sons the relationship is ALL or NOTHING. This morning's parable follows immediately upon that with a Steward who is called to Account. It was common practice in the Roman Empire that every level of bureaucracy added a fee for their services. SO when you borrowed money or grain or oil, you owed not only the principal and the interest to the boorrower, but also a service fee to the Steward. Years ago, travelling in the border towns of Mexico, the people described that water was free, and delivered in 500 gallon drums, but you had to pay a bribe to the delivery man or else they would skip you for others that would pay.
This Steward is caught, found to be overcharging and cheating his master. So that evening calls all the debtors and offers to deduct the amount he had charged. Instead of making any profit for his work, he will have treated people fairly and equitably, and perhaps they will re-assess and change. In the morning, the Householder has been repaid everything he was owed. The Debtors all have been able to settle their debts without an unjust burden added. And the former Steward has little financially, but has the respect and renewed trust of the Householder and the former Debtors. As such WHO is the Steward, the LOST that has been FOUND? Each of these other parables DO NOT describe the feelings and actions and thoughts of the sheep or the coin, but only the one SEARCHING TO REDEEM? So, is the Steward “Perceived to have been unjust” who gives his own portion, to bring back into harmony the Master and the Debtors, Jesus?
What would happen if we each in this Autumn, as we consider our Pledged Giving, and the VALUES of our lives, considered personally what can I offer? We tend to equate the Season of LENT with REPENTANCE, but actually the point of Autumn of this “Time of Atonement” is for us to question what can I do to seek the lost? What if, in addition to our pledges for the heat and insurance on this building for the community, in addition to paying for the staff and the missions, we each considered What can I do? Imagine, you had an extra $100, what would you do? Imagine you had an extra day with nothing to do? Perhaps as an Event Planner you would coordinate an event like the Russian Folksingers... We have had someone in the community, who is not actually a member, but whose family have taken part in many of the activities of the church who has been volunteeering their time and labor weeding the gardens and repairing plumbing. Someone sugested, we have a lot of folk that are downsizing, kids have gone off to college, they are closing up one of their houses, what if we had a one day sale of really good quality furnishings, what would you like to do with what you earn?
Twice recently, I have been meeting with couples about getting married, who asked about the cost for our services. I explained that we are the only church in town that has made a commitment that we want to be of service when people need us. So it does not matter if you are Presbyterian, or if you are active in any church. The cost for the use of the Sanctuary with all the renovations, and the need for maintenance is $500. The cost for the accompanyist is $150. And the cost for my providing as many counseling sessions as you need, the rehearsal and officiating at the wedding, and occasionally running interference with the mothers is $200. And the couple have looked incredulous. We are paying $2000 for the flowers! $100 a plate for the guests. And the wedding itself is less than $1000. And we have quietly stated we want to be here when you need the church.
How different our lives might be, if we worried less about deadlines and costs, about sex and money, and more about our priorities.
End or Resurrection Sept 16, 2007
This morning, this bitter cold morning of 35 degrees in September, we gather together to believe, to HOPE. That is what we need to hear and are afraid to believe, that we can HOPE.
In Central New York, where we annually anticipate 200 inches of snow,
where taxes and utilities are high, the housing market is in pain, SU's Organemen lost their third in a row, we awake to frost on the ground, And WE ARE CALLED TO BELIEVE in a future where we could again reach 80, Indian Summer, HOPE.
We read therse parables from Luke , and WE Hear The
Story of THE LOST SHEEP, THE LOST COIN, THE PRODIGAL SON, or the ELDER ONE,
when the focus of these parables especially in the telling of Luke is on The Shepherd whose sheep was Lost but was FOUND. The Woman who lost a Coin and searched UNTIL she found it. The Father who had two sons, who each were lost, and he went out until they were found.
In the Gospel of Matthew's telling, one of the sheep “WANDERS OFF”, and according to the old Gospel Hymn with the others safely held in the sheepfold, the shepherd searches, and IF HE FINDS IT he rejoices. Not so in Luke, here for Jesus the Ninety and Nine are not a focus, the SHEPHERD'S ONLY REAL CONCERN is returning the lost, and searches UNTIL IT IS FOUND.
We are a pessimistic people preoccupied with principles of Rationalism. We govern our lives with laws that Whatever goes up, must come down; rather than believing, HOPING that that which came from heaven must return to heaven. We not only see the GLASS AS HALF EMPTY, we never imagine that the reservoir could ever be replenished and the half-full become whole anew. We are preoccupied with holding onto what we have, protectionism, security, especially from Death. As a POST 911 People, SURVIVORS of CANCER, it is said we have lost our innocence, our sense of security that bad things cannot touch us. We are a people living in the present moment, blinded by excess and the fears of reality of loss, Cancers and death, separation and brokenness. There is a difference in this, and being a RESURRECTED PEOPLE hoping and believing that God may use even these horrors, the pain of our lives, to humanize us and give us compassion, faith, hope.
We hear this prophecy from Jeremiah, and IF WE KNOW our Bible, we recognize the poetry of Creation as described in Genesis 1, but something is terribly wrong.
Genesis begins with the world as a waste and void, and God voices hope, light and life, possibility; one builds upon another and all are interdependent, inter-related, filled with life!
Here in Jeremiah, the prophet dreams of destruction, death and loss, we are mortal and creaturely, created, there must be a death.
One by one, everything is taken away, until there is no sound, no one.
BUT, this is a lament from the 4th Chapter of Jeremiah.
All that is to come, all that occurs is built upon this word having first been voiced.
Six years ago, what was beyond our worst nightmare, took place, terrorists used commercial airlines to destroy the Towers at the World Trade Center, and one of the five sides of the Pentagon I remember that morning, consoling people working on the line at WelchAllyn who questioned “Is this THE END, the end of the world?” Our Nation's Capital and New York City were in terror and in ruins. Thousands and thousands of people walked across Manhattan across the bridges, covered in dust and debry, to try to escape. And the most incidious part was that as businesses pledged equipment and dollars to rescue those who were victims, as the Red Cross collected blood donations for the wounded, there were none... NO ONE was coming out.
Like Jeremiah's vision, there was no sound.
Tsunamis and Hurricanes beat down and destroyed whole cities in Indonesia and New Orleans, Florida and Texas. In Minneapolis, bridges collapsed. At every News Cycle story of destruction, we feel beaten down and humbled, yet there is always resurrection.
We cannot blythely dismiss the human condition of suffering.
SIX YEARS and FIVE DAYS ago we did believe this could be the end of the world, the beginning of a holocaust the world had never known. The devastation of Hurricane RITA was absolute and the feelings of abandonment of those left, horrifying. When a loved one is in the midst of Depression, when you have the word CANCER over your life, all you want is for it to be over.
According to the Scriptures there is that which is worse than DEATH, that which we fear more than the END OF DAYS,... Worse is to be LOST, FORGOT, as if your existence never mattered.
But the WORD of HOPE is that we are never lost, our lives do matter, not only to our family and friends and co-workers and church, but WE EACH MATTER TO GOD.
There are those out in the community who have said, what a wonderful thing, that this church has provided health care to a people who NEVER before had it. When the World Health Organization estimates there will be 10 Million more Orphans in Africa by the year 2020, and you have made a difference.
BUT I Would tell you there is a Selfish benefit as well.
We in the First World, in North America in the 21st Century, we have become so preoccupied with our possessions, our reputations, our accomplishments, that serving others, having compassion for a people who have lived through genocide;
Providing food to our neighbors in this community;
Clothing to women who have endured domestic violence from their fathers and their husbands and who strive to earn their own way and to believe the future for their children might be different,
COMPASSION (Offering Hope to the Hopeless) HUMANIZES US.
This is not CHARITY, not the rich casting off scraps, claiming tax deductions for used underware and broken things donated for others; but sharing our time, sharing our lives, praying for someone in need, these acts of compassion cut us to the core of what it is to be human and allow us to hope.
The Shepherd is different from a Hired Laborer, because the Laborer is content grazing the 99. The Shepherd's whole life is identified in caring for and protecting the most vulnerable, the LOST The Collector is oblivious to all that she has, she knows one is lost, and cannot rest until that one is found.
There is something I think Mothers experience later in life, that Fathers feel from the very beginning, it's why there is such anxiety in children going to school, or away to college, there is an identification with -- and yet separation from, that is compassion. We forever yearn for our child to come home, our children are what make us FATHERS and MOTHERS. As much as we may become engrossed in our careers, in projects, we are only family by choosing to identify with one another, that is what humanizes us.
There are dreadful, horrible moments of life, when it appears we may face THE END, when even more than dieing, we feel helpless in the loss of our dignity, our decisionmaking, our career, our very identity. But the END did not come SIX YEARS AGO on the 11th Day of September. Cancer may take our strength, our dignity, our hair, our control of our bowels and our sex, but we are not lost, and there is hope after.
This day we celebrate Baptism. which is a SACRAMENT, a SACRED MOMENT not because we recognize the birth of a baby, or a family's joy at naming.
As human beings we are BORN and as such we know that we will DIE, we are mortal, creaturely, vulnerable, human.
But, KNOWN by GOD, LOVED by GOD and the People of God, we can never be LOST, every day is a new day after, a fresh beginning, the sights and sounds of life are always new.
In Central New York, where we annually anticipate 200 inches of snow,
where taxes and utilities are high, the housing market is in pain, SU's Organemen lost their third in a row, we awake to frost on the ground, And WE ARE CALLED TO BELIEVE in a future where we could again reach 80, Indian Summer, HOPE.
We read therse parables from Luke , and WE Hear The
Story of THE LOST SHEEP, THE LOST COIN, THE PRODIGAL SON, or the ELDER ONE,
when the focus of these parables especially in the telling of Luke is on The Shepherd whose sheep was Lost but was FOUND. The Woman who lost a Coin and searched UNTIL she found it. The Father who had two sons, who each were lost, and he went out until they were found.
In the Gospel of Matthew's telling, one of the sheep “WANDERS OFF”, and according to the old Gospel Hymn with the others safely held in the sheepfold, the shepherd searches, and IF HE FINDS IT he rejoices. Not so in Luke, here for Jesus the Ninety and Nine are not a focus, the SHEPHERD'S ONLY REAL CONCERN is returning the lost, and searches UNTIL IT IS FOUND.
We are a pessimistic people preoccupied with principles of Rationalism. We govern our lives with laws that Whatever goes up, must come down; rather than believing, HOPING that that which came from heaven must return to heaven. We not only see the GLASS AS HALF EMPTY, we never imagine that the reservoir could ever be replenished and the half-full become whole anew. We are preoccupied with holding onto what we have, protectionism, security, especially from Death. As a POST 911 People, SURVIVORS of CANCER, it is said we have lost our innocence, our sense of security that bad things cannot touch us. We are a people living in the present moment, blinded by excess and the fears of reality of loss, Cancers and death, separation and brokenness. There is a difference in this, and being a RESURRECTED PEOPLE hoping and believing that God may use even these horrors, the pain of our lives, to humanize us and give us compassion, faith, hope.
We hear this prophecy from Jeremiah, and IF WE KNOW our Bible, we recognize the poetry of Creation as described in Genesis 1, but something is terribly wrong.
Genesis begins with the world as a waste and void, and God voices hope, light and life, possibility; one builds upon another and all are interdependent, inter-related, filled with life!
Here in Jeremiah, the prophet dreams of destruction, death and loss, we are mortal and creaturely, created, there must be a death.
One by one, everything is taken away, until there is no sound, no one.
BUT, this is a lament from the 4th Chapter of Jeremiah.
All that is to come, all that occurs is built upon this word having first been voiced.
Six years ago, what was beyond our worst nightmare, took place, terrorists used commercial airlines to destroy the Towers at the World Trade Center, and one of the five sides of the Pentagon I remember that morning, consoling people working on the line at WelchAllyn who questioned “Is this THE END, the end of the world?” Our Nation's Capital and New York City were in terror and in ruins. Thousands and thousands of people walked across Manhattan across the bridges, covered in dust and debry, to try to escape. And the most incidious part was that as businesses pledged equipment and dollars to rescue those who were victims, as the Red Cross collected blood donations for the wounded, there were none... NO ONE was coming out.
Like Jeremiah's vision, there was no sound.
Tsunamis and Hurricanes beat down and destroyed whole cities in Indonesia and New Orleans, Florida and Texas. In Minneapolis, bridges collapsed. At every News Cycle story of destruction, we feel beaten down and humbled, yet there is always resurrection.
We cannot blythely dismiss the human condition of suffering.
SIX YEARS and FIVE DAYS ago we did believe this could be the end of the world, the beginning of a holocaust the world had never known. The devastation of Hurricane RITA was absolute and the feelings of abandonment of those left, horrifying. When a loved one is in the midst of Depression, when you have the word CANCER over your life, all you want is for it to be over.
According to the Scriptures there is that which is worse than DEATH, that which we fear more than the END OF DAYS,... Worse is to be LOST, FORGOT, as if your existence never mattered.
But the WORD of HOPE is that we are never lost, our lives do matter, not only to our family and friends and co-workers and church, but WE EACH MATTER TO GOD.
There are those out in the community who have said, what a wonderful thing, that this church has provided health care to a people who NEVER before had it. When the World Health Organization estimates there will be 10 Million more Orphans in Africa by the year 2020, and you have made a difference.
BUT I Would tell you there is a Selfish benefit as well.
We in the First World, in North America in the 21st Century, we have become so preoccupied with our possessions, our reputations, our accomplishments, that serving others, having compassion for a people who have lived through genocide;
Providing food to our neighbors in this community;
Clothing to women who have endured domestic violence from their fathers and their husbands and who strive to earn their own way and to believe the future for their children might be different,
COMPASSION (Offering Hope to the Hopeless) HUMANIZES US.
This is not CHARITY, not the rich casting off scraps, claiming tax deductions for used underware and broken things donated for others; but sharing our time, sharing our lives, praying for someone in need, these acts of compassion cut us to the core of what it is to be human and allow us to hope.
The Shepherd is different from a Hired Laborer, because the Laborer is content grazing the 99. The Shepherd's whole life is identified in caring for and protecting the most vulnerable, the LOST The Collector is oblivious to all that she has, she knows one is lost, and cannot rest until that one is found.
There is something I think Mothers experience later in life, that Fathers feel from the very beginning, it's why there is such anxiety in children going to school, or away to college, there is an identification with -- and yet separation from, that is compassion. We forever yearn for our child to come home, our children are what make us FATHERS and MOTHERS. As much as we may become engrossed in our careers, in projects, we are only family by choosing to identify with one another, that is what humanizes us.
There are dreadful, horrible moments of life, when it appears we may face THE END, when even more than dieing, we feel helpless in the loss of our dignity, our decisionmaking, our career, our very identity. But the END did not come SIX YEARS AGO on the 11th Day of September. Cancer may take our strength, our dignity, our hair, our control of our bowels and our sex, but we are not lost, and there is hope after.
This day we celebrate Baptism. which is a SACRAMENT, a SACRED MOMENT not because we recognize the birth of a baby, or a family's joy at naming.
As human beings we are BORN and as such we know that we will DIE, we are mortal, creaturely, vulnerable, human.
But, KNOWN by GOD, LOVED by GOD and the People of God, we can never be LOST, every day is a new day after, a fresh beginning, the sights and sounds of life are always new.
Mephibosheth No ReservationsSept 2
This summer, amid all the blockbuster films of Pirates of the Caribean III, Shrek III, Harry Potter, Pan's Labyrinth and Bridge to Terabythia, there is a little film that probably will not win any award, it has no great special effects, no Bad Language, no Viloence, no Sex, and yet, NO RESERVATIONS still manages to be a memorable and delightful little film. Set in a restaurant, it plays off the double entendre of restaurants so popular you can get NO Reservations, and those so personal and quaint you need No Reservation, the pressures and stresses of trying to be the VERY BEST, versus living a life with NO RESERVATIONS.
NO RESERVATIONS, Perhaps that is the recognition of an Anniversary at 35 years of marriage...
Phases of having been newlyweds; putting one another through school; then the infancy of children and watching them grow to school age; then into adults; standing beside our own parents when one day we recognize our nests are empty. Fiddler of the Roof had a song that was popular in weddings 35 years ago SUNRISE SUNSET SWIFTLY PASS THE YEARS, but as much as that song focuses upon the child maturing, “the swift sunsets” come after we are adults. Funny, how we are always in a hurry to grow up, to figure out what we will be, nobody told us how many stages of being an adult there were. And we reflect upon a lifetime together with NO RESERVATIONS.
Possibly that carries over to this morning, still SUMMER, with bright blue skies, temperatures in the 80s, people swimming in the lake, the sounds of children's laughter, the smells of flowers in bloom, picnics and barbeques, but tomorrow night when the last boom echoes, and the smell of gunpowder hangs like a cloud in the air, the Fall Schedule will have begun. Live life as if there were NO NEED RESERVATIONS, an endless summer. Then, put away your white, get out notebooks, as everyone plays catch-up to return to routine in a competitive cut-throat world where NO ONE CAN GET RESERVATIONS. I am never certain whether our pace and lives, slow down during the summer, or whether regardless of how fast and hard we work at summer we ratchet up that much faster in the Fall.
Biblical passages about the Hebrew idea of “HESED”, honoring and fulfilling one's commitment.
This morning, with NO RESERVATIONS, we talk together about “LOYALTY”, commitment and confidence, come what may.
We live in an era of radically shifting values, commodities and investments, that seem secure, and suddenly are worthless, while the worthless become of value. In a world where one's home radically shifts from being appraised at $40,000 to being assessed at $1,000,000 and just as quickly back again. We wonder if anything has worth? If anyone is RESERVED. If anything, anyone, can be believed? Is everything people say, just words, or does The WORD have integrity?
Do we only take people seriously, who are a threat to us, who can compete? Is there still LOYALTY? If they retire, or demonstrate a HUMILITY, their own humanity or weakness, do we think of them an invalid, or IN-Valid? Can we have competititons for the IRON MAN as well as claiming a place for everyone? Can we accept as well as forgive?
Among all the privleges of life, I think I have one of the finest. For on several occasions, women and men of wisdom have asked if we could sit together, to get their life in order. Not the work of an accountant, valuing possessions, or an estate planner determining who will have what, sitting and listening as persons reflect upon a lifetime, of what truly had meaning and worth. Often these are reminisences of loyalties and trusts. At times, it includes walking into a library or workshop or sewing room, as the other asks, “Does any of this have worth?” Which is not about what the auctioneer might value, but validation of our lives, who and what we have invested ourselves in. Who and what we have been loyal to.
The book of Samuel and Kings turns at this 9th Chapter. Up until this point the nation of Israel, the boy David have been growing, the shepherd boy takes on Goliath, the harp player comes to live in the palace of the King and becomes best friend with Jonathan the King's own son and heir. Nations go to war, and children become adult in worries far too quickly. Long years transpire, and David is settled as the King of one nation reunited after Civil War. There are those, who believe the Old Testament is a book of War and the New Testament a book of Peace... this morning's passages turns that on it's head, as David seeks restoration and reconciliation of one who lost everything; while Jesus takes on his host and fellow guests to outdo one another in humility.
In the course of a lifetime, and the course of battle, David has done a great deal he is not proud of. In the war for who would lead the nation, David was pitted against the greatest warrior in the History of Israel : King Saul, and against Saul's son Jonathan, and all Jonathan's brothers and all their generals. In the deathly quiet after the war cries have ended, with the smells of battle and death hanging in the air, David suddenly remembers his commitments of 35 years before, when he and Jonathan, the son of Saul, had been best of friends, and David questions , “Is there anybody left, anyone who could claim relation to Saul and Jonathan?”
Imagine the story 15 years before. It was the midst of Civil war, rumors of terrorists had been circulating, whole neighborhoods had been destroyed, the king's family had been anxiously waiting n hiding for any word. In the dark of the middle of the night, word comes that you have to get out, you have to get into hiding. The guerilla army of mercenaries is coming. No one will be left, take whatever is of value. They take up children in their arms, then begin grabbing for memories, what will be important, what can we not live without. There is too much to hold, there is no time, they are coming to destroy us. When suddenly someone trips and falls, and among all that had been in her arms, that which cushions her fall was the baby. His legs are crushed, his screams are incessant, but there is no time, we have to go, we have to hide. For the next 15 years they live in hiding, always on the outskirts, always running, running from being killed. The infant, whose legs were crippled has acquired a name, Mephibosheth, Prince of SHAME.
One afternoon, as every able body was out working, there is a cloud of dust on the horizon, as they come closer, the cloud is made out to be warriors on horseback, and the flag they are carrying, the colors are those of the New King, David, who had led an army against your grandfather and your father. They now were dead, as were all your uncles, and all their generals, and all who could protect. All your life, you had been in hiding, your legs are broken and twisted, you can run no more. There is a pounding on the door, and they drag you out and take you. Filthy dirty, covered in rags, you are brought to the palace that should have been your home. The palace of your father and grandfather, the palace of the King. You cannot stand on your own, and two soldiers march you before this enemy upon the throne. They let you go, and you crumple before the King, unable to stand. You feel lower than low, less than a dead dog. When this king describes he and your father had been best of friends. He wanted to HONOR his LOYALTY to your father, his friend, by restoring you. Crippled and In-valid, this ALL POWERFUL ONE, claimed you as a son of the King, with a perpetual place at the Table.
That is LOYALTY, that is what HESED is all about. There may have been enemies, there may have been war, others may see you as “less than”, as crippled, but still you have a place at the TABLE, you are a son of the King.
After 35 years of marriage, the commitments that were shared, the words recited, have grown to mean something far different.There are often places we feel wounded, this other has seen us in all our humility and humanity, and still they are LOYAL, with NO RESERVATIONS.
In a culture that believes, each of us should try to be first, to be best, to win. Jesus establishes this wonderful comedy, of guests at a dinner, trying to take the owest place, in order to be recognized and brought up higher.
In the book THE DIFFERENT DRUM, Scott Peck tells the wonderful story of an old monastery. The times have not been gracious and things are pretty much falling apart. realizing their desperation, the Abbott finally goes to see his long time friend the Old Rabbi. He explains that the number of priests is becoming increasingly few, they rarely have visitors, and the old Monastery is in terrible ruins. Before leaving, The Rabbi ffers a prophetic word, saying to his friend, I know from a dream, that among you is the Messiah sent from God. The Abbott, takes this word back to the others. The next several days they each begin thinking and praying about this, wondering which it might be. For fear of not recognizing the Messiah and treating him graciously, they begin outdoing one another n graciousness. In the weeks that follow, there are picnicers on the grounds of the Monastery, who observe the Monks treating eachother which such kindness and hospitality, and they are impressed. They begin coming more freequently, seeking the monks for counseling and prayer. As the Monastery becomes more and more popular, hey begin making repairs. One day, the Rabbi stops to see he Abbott, and the Abbott gathers up his curiousity to ask, and good friend, which of us is the Messiah? And the rabbi retirted, I did not say one of you was the Messiah, but that the Messiah was among you.
NO RESERVATIONS, Perhaps that is the recognition of an Anniversary at 35 years of marriage...
Phases of having been newlyweds; putting one another through school; then the infancy of children and watching them grow to school age; then into adults; standing beside our own parents when one day we recognize our nests are empty. Fiddler of the Roof had a song that was popular in weddings 35 years ago SUNRISE SUNSET SWIFTLY PASS THE YEARS, but as much as that song focuses upon the child maturing, “the swift sunsets” come after we are adults. Funny, how we are always in a hurry to grow up, to figure out what we will be, nobody told us how many stages of being an adult there were. And we reflect upon a lifetime together with NO RESERVATIONS.
Possibly that carries over to this morning, still SUMMER, with bright blue skies, temperatures in the 80s, people swimming in the lake, the sounds of children's laughter, the smells of flowers in bloom, picnics and barbeques, but tomorrow night when the last boom echoes, and the smell of gunpowder hangs like a cloud in the air, the Fall Schedule will have begun. Live life as if there were NO NEED RESERVATIONS, an endless summer. Then, put away your white, get out notebooks, as everyone plays catch-up to return to routine in a competitive cut-throat world where NO ONE CAN GET RESERVATIONS. I am never certain whether our pace and lives, slow down during the summer, or whether regardless of how fast and hard we work at summer we ratchet up that much faster in the Fall.
Biblical passages about the Hebrew idea of “HESED”, honoring and fulfilling one's commitment.
This morning, with NO RESERVATIONS, we talk together about “LOYALTY”, commitment and confidence, come what may.
We live in an era of radically shifting values, commodities and investments, that seem secure, and suddenly are worthless, while the worthless become of value. In a world where one's home radically shifts from being appraised at $40,000 to being assessed at $1,000,000 and just as quickly back again. We wonder if anything has worth? If anyone is RESERVED. If anything, anyone, can be believed? Is everything people say, just words, or does The WORD have integrity?
Do we only take people seriously, who are a threat to us, who can compete? Is there still LOYALTY? If they retire, or demonstrate a HUMILITY, their own humanity or weakness, do we think of them an invalid, or IN-Valid? Can we have competititons for the IRON MAN as well as claiming a place for everyone? Can we accept as well as forgive?
Among all the privleges of life, I think I have one of the finest. For on several occasions, women and men of wisdom have asked if we could sit together, to get their life in order. Not the work of an accountant, valuing possessions, or an estate planner determining who will have what, sitting and listening as persons reflect upon a lifetime, of what truly had meaning and worth. Often these are reminisences of loyalties and trusts. At times, it includes walking into a library or workshop or sewing room, as the other asks, “Does any of this have worth?” Which is not about what the auctioneer might value, but validation of our lives, who and what we have invested ourselves in. Who and what we have been loyal to.
The book of Samuel and Kings turns at this 9th Chapter. Up until this point the nation of Israel, the boy David have been growing, the shepherd boy takes on Goliath, the harp player comes to live in the palace of the King and becomes best friend with Jonathan the King's own son and heir. Nations go to war, and children become adult in worries far too quickly. Long years transpire, and David is settled as the King of one nation reunited after Civil War. There are those, who believe the Old Testament is a book of War and the New Testament a book of Peace... this morning's passages turns that on it's head, as David seeks restoration and reconciliation of one who lost everything; while Jesus takes on his host and fellow guests to outdo one another in humility.
In the course of a lifetime, and the course of battle, David has done a great deal he is not proud of. In the war for who would lead the nation, David was pitted against the greatest warrior in the History of Israel : King Saul, and against Saul's son Jonathan, and all Jonathan's brothers and all their generals. In the deathly quiet after the war cries have ended, with the smells of battle and death hanging in the air, David suddenly remembers his commitments of 35 years before, when he and Jonathan, the son of Saul, had been best of friends, and David questions , “Is there anybody left, anyone who could claim relation to Saul and Jonathan?”
Imagine the story 15 years before. It was the midst of Civil war, rumors of terrorists had been circulating, whole neighborhoods had been destroyed, the king's family had been anxiously waiting n hiding for any word. In the dark of the middle of the night, word comes that you have to get out, you have to get into hiding. The guerilla army of mercenaries is coming. No one will be left, take whatever is of value. They take up children in their arms, then begin grabbing for memories, what will be important, what can we not live without. There is too much to hold, there is no time, they are coming to destroy us. When suddenly someone trips and falls, and among all that had been in her arms, that which cushions her fall was the baby. His legs are crushed, his screams are incessant, but there is no time, we have to go, we have to hide. For the next 15 years they live in hiding, always on the outskirts, always running, running from being killed. The infant, whose legs were crippled has acquired a name, Mephibosheth, Prince of SHAME.
One afternoon, as every able body was out working, there is a cloud of dust on the horizon, as they come closer, the cloud is made out to be warriors on horseback, and the flag they are carrying, the colors are those of the New King, David, who had led an army against your grandfather and your father. They now were dead, as were all your uncles, and all their generals, and all who could protect. All your life, you had been in hiding, your legs are broken and twisted, you can run no more. There is a pounding on the door, and they drag you out and take you. Filthy dirty, covered in rags, you are brought to the palace that should have been your home. The palace of your father and grandfather, the palace of the King. You cannot stand on your own, and two soldiers march you before this enemy upon the throne. They let you go, and you crumple before the King, unable to stand. You feel lower than low, less than a dead dog. When this king describes he and your father had been best of friends. He wanted to HONOR his LOYALTY to your father, his friend, by restoring you. Crippled and In-valid, this ALL POWERFUL ONE, claimed you as a son of the King, with a perpetual place at the Table.
That is LOYALTY, that is what HESED is all about. There may have been enemies, there may have been war, others may see you as “less than”, as crippled, but still you have a place at the TABLE, you are a son of the King.
After 35 years of marriage, the commitments that were shared, the words recited, have grown to mean something far different.There are often places we feel wounded, this other has seen us in all our humility and humanity, and still they are LOYAL, with NO RESERVATIONS.
In a culture that believes, each of us should try to be first, to be best, to win. Jesus establishes this wonderful comedy, of guests at a dinner, trying to take the owest place, in order to be recognized and brought up higher.
In the book THE DIFFERENT DRUM, Scott Peck tells the wonderful story of an old monastery. The times have not been gracious and things are pretty much falling apart. realizing their desperation, the Abbott finally goes to see his long time friend the Old Rabbi. He explains that the number of priests is becoming increasingly few, they rarely have visitors, and the old Monastery is in terrible ruins. Before leaving, The Rabbi ffers a prophetic word, saying to his friend, I know from a dream, that among you is the Messiah sent from God. The Abbott, takes this word back to the others. The next several days they each begin thinking and praying about this, wondering which it might be. For fear of not recognizing the Messiah and treating him graciously, they begin outdoing one another n graciousness. In the weeks that follow, there are picnicers on the grounds of the Monastery, who observe the Monks treating eachother which such kindness and hospitality, and they are impressed. They begin coming more freequently, seeking the monks for counseling and prayer. As the Monastery becomes more and more popular, hey begin making repairs. One day, the Rabbi stops to see he Abbott, and the Abbott gathers up his curiousity to ask, and good friend, which of us is the Messiah? And the rabbi retirted, I did not say one of you was the Messiah, but that the Messiah was among you.
What and Whose, Sept 9, 2007
Jeremiah 18: 1-11
Luke 14: 25-33
This morning, in order to begin,we entreat you to shake off all distractions, to take a deep breath and let it out, to center yourself, breathe in and out, listen and feel the rhythms of life all around us, shaping you, molding you. As we sang together earlier, Spirit of the Living God, melt me, mold me, fill me, use me. We are as clay and God is our Potter.
Years ago, I worked for a pottery studio. The wonderful lesson there, is that nothing is EVER wasted. As described by the Prophet, the Potter center's themselves, and sets the wheel in motion. All that we see and know is atop the upper wheel, but beneath this reality, are the larger wheels of the universe, that the potter kicks into motion, and consistently, in rhtythm what happens out of sight, keeps the wheel spinning smoothly. The potter leans against the moving clay, and the friction, the motion and resistance over and against, bring the lump of earth to the very center. Then, like the opening of a flower, the potter places their thumbs into the clay, pulling and lifting, as the walls of clay open.
Occassionally, more often than we would like, things happen. There is an inconsistency in the clay, a thin spot or a thickness, or a speck of grit, the very motion of the wheel, that can take the pot out of true, off center. Frustratingly, the potter cannot recenter or go on with a spoilt pot. If the clay is off-center, it is off and everything about that piece will be off. At which point, the potter cuts the clay, never throwing anything away, for nothing is ever wasted. But cut off, the clay, is thoroughly reworked, kneaded and rubbed, dusted to take out excess moisture, allowed to rest, then kneeded and rubbed anew, in order to be centered once again, to begin to be molded by the potter.
This passage is more beautiful in the Hebrew Language, where the word for CLAY, for EARTH, for HUMUS is ADAMA. and ADAM is the word for Mortal being, the Earthling from the Earth, humanity from out of the HUMUS, Adam from Adama.
When the potter has worked a piece, that clay is set aside to age and mature. Again, things happen the days are too hot, the night's too damp, and the clay cracks. If so, the dried out clay is dropped into water, to soak and saturate over time. Then, the water is rawn off, and all the muck, the sediment at the bottom is poured out together, until the potter, takes a fresh clump and kneads and works the mass into a ball of clay. Even after being aged in the fire of a kiln, becoming hard as rock and brittle as china, if spoilt, the potter can grind the clay to shards and the shards to dust and ash. And the ashes and dust, are used sparingly throughout the clay to provide binding grit and fiber. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, we return from whence we have come.
The problem as Jeremiah sees it, is that the clay does not recognize the potter's efforts. While being kneaded and centered, the clay imagines it is being pummelled and beat down. Our sense of time and space are so brief and limited that we focus on our imperfections, on being cut off and left aside, rather than witnessing that God is using us, working and blending us together to become what we never imagined.
Jeremiah testifies to FREE WILL, to our desire to do our own thing, even when it is wrong; and YET also to GOD'S SOVEREIGN POWER that never abandons, always watches over and uses us. We tend to believe in a world of Absolutes, black and white, right and wrong, good and bad, free and enslaved. But RELATIONSHIPS OF FAITH undercut this, challenging us to Forgive. Not to FORGET, but to choose to forgive, knowing our rights, knowing what we have done wrong, Choosing to Forgive and to accept different relationships, different understandings, a new normal.
In CONTRAST to FREE WILL could there be any more subjugated and controlled identity than ONESIMUS? Born into slavery, bought and sold, considered as property and whipping boy, ONESIMUS fled.Throughout Western history, the Letter to Philemon has been used to justify slavery, because Paul never states that SLAVERY IS WRONG. Paul even sends Onesimus back to his owner, Philemon. BUT What Paul does, is to undercut Slavery which identified one people as human, and another as described by the Constitution of the United States as 3/5ths human or as property, and instead declare the slave and owner are brothers.
How often, we are blinded by our Perceptions of INHUMANITY to another, perceiving only our side. The answer to AGGRESSION cannot be matched with greater and greater acts of AGGRESSION, nor as is our temptation with DEFENSIVENESS. All these do is perpetuate a WIN/LOSE relation. IF we are focused on WIN/LOSE, Onesimus is a runaway slave and the slave belongs to Philemon. But what Paul declares is that while in Prison, Onesimus has become a Christian, claimed as part of the Body of Christ, your BROTHER and TEACHER.
How different, for Philemon to receive Onesimus back, not anly as SLAVE but as TEACHER.
It is indeed hard to stand up to one another, to challenge and accuse, yet even so, how hard also to accept and claim anew, when that other returns home.
Luke 14: 25-33
This morning, in order to begin,we entreat you to shake off all distractions, to take a deep breath and let it out, to center yourself, breathe in and out, listen and feel the rhythms of life all around us, shaping you, molding you. As we sang together earlier, Spirit of the Living God, melt me, mold me, fill me, use me. We are as clay and God is our Potter.
Years ago, I worked for a pottery studio. The wonderful lesson there, is that nothing is EVER wasted. As described by the Prophet, the Potter center's themselves, and sets the wheel in motion. All that we see and know is atop the upper wheel, but beneath this reality, are the larger wheels of the universe, that the potter kicks into motion, and consistently, in rhtythm what happens out of sight, keeps the wheel spinning smoothly. The potter leans against the moving clay, and the friction, the motion and resistance over and against, bring the lump of earth to the very center. Then, like the opening of a flower, the potter places their thumbs into the clay, pulling and lifting, as the walls of clay open.
Occassionally, more often than we would like, things happen. There is an inconsistency in the clay, a thin spot or a thickness, or a speck of grit, the very motion of the wheel, that can take the pot out of true, off center. Frustratingly, the potter cannot recenter or go on with a spoilt pot. If the clay is off-center, it is off and everything about that piece will be off. At which point, the potter cuts the clay, never throwing anything away, for nothing is ever wasted. But cut off, the clay, is thoroughly reworked, kneaded and rubbed, dusted to take out excess moisture, allowed to rest, then kneeded and rubbed anew, in order to be centered once again, to begin to be molded by the potter.
This passage is more beautiful in the Hebrew Language, where the word for CLAY, for EARTH, for HUMUS is ADAMA. and ADAM is the word for Mortal being, the Earthling from the Earth, humanity from out of the HUMUS, Adam from Adama.
When the potter has worked a piece, that clay is set aside to age and mature. Again, things happen the days are too hot, the night's too damp, and the clay cracks. If so, the dried out clay is dropped into water, to soak and saturate over time. Then, the water is rawn off, and all the muck, the sediment at the bottom is poured out together, until the potter, takes a fresh clump and kneads and works the mass into a ball of clay. Even after being aged in the fire of a kiln, becoming hard as rock and brittle as china, if spoilt, the potter can grind the clay to shards and the shards to dust and ash. And the ashes and dust, are used sparingly throughout the clay to provide binding grit and fiber. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, we return from whence we have come.
The problem as Jeremiah sees it, is that the clay does not recognize the potter's efforts. While being kneaded and centered, the clay imagines it is being pummelled and beat down. Our sense of time and space are so brief and limited that we focus on our imperfections, on being cut off and left aside, rather than witnessing that God is using us, working and blending us together to become what we never imagined.
Jeremiah testifies to FREE WILL, to our desire to do our own thing, even when it is wrong; and YET also to GOD'S SOVEREIGN POWER that never abandons, always watches over and uses us. We tend to believe in a world of Absolutes, black and white, right and wrong, good and bad, free and enslaved. But RELATIONSHIPS OF FAITH undercut this, challenging us to Forgive. Not to FORGET, but to choose to forgive, knowing our rights, knowing what we have done wrong, Choosing to Forgive and to accept different relationships, different understandings, a new normal.
In CONTRAST to FREE WILL could there be any more subjugated and controlled identity than ONESIMUS? Born into slavery, bought and sold, considered as property and whipping boy, ONESIMUS fled.Throughout Western history, the Letter to Philemon has been used to justify slavery, because Paul never states that SLAVERY IS WRONG. Paul even sends Onesimus back to his owner, Philemon. BUT What Paul does, is to undercut Slavery which identified one people as human, and another as described by the Constitution of the United States as 3/5ths human or as property, and instead declare the slave and owner are brothers.
How often, we are blinded by our Perceptions of INHUMANITY to another, perceiving only our side. The answer to AGGRESSION cannot be matched with greater and greater acts of AGGRESSION, nor as is our temptation with DEFENSIVENESS. All these do is perpetuate a WIN/LOSE relation. IF we are focused on WIN/LOSE, Onesimus is a runaway slave and the slave belongs to Philemon. But what Paul declares is that while in Prison, Onesimus has become a Christian, claimed as part of the Body of Christ, your BROTHER and TEACHER.
How different, for Philemon to receive Onesimus back, not anly as SLAVE but as TEACHER.
It is indeed hard to stand up to one another, to challenge and accuse, yet even so, how hard also to accept and claim anew, when that other returns home.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Recapitulate September 18, 2007
Isaiah 65:17-25
Luke 21:5-19
What if,
instead of going through the motions of life, planning to meet deadlines, responding to circumstance,
WE RECAPITULATE that this is a Spiritual world, a world of Divine Imagination.
What differences might there be, if instead of following conclusions of the reality we know, we perceived that God was continually reconciling the world in and around and through even us?
As a child of the 1960s, there was a marvelous toy called a SpiroGraph, with interlocking plastic wheels, that turned and worked off of one another. You placed a pen in the whole of a gear and as the teeth meshed and gears worked a beautiful design appeared. But choosing a different gear, beginning from the perspective of another starting point, the design was completely unique.
That is the point of Isaiah.
STOP where we are in this moment in time. Imagine all the circumstances and relationships and responsibilities we have. Because “the different” is only appreciated as different when compared to what we know.
Now imagine what life would be like, if Adam and we, had never broken Covenant with God?
If the child, baptized this day were not the third of this family, but truly known as a Child of God?
Like a parent waiting for the Prodigal to return, like Jesus walking up to the tree of Zachaeus, surely God desires for us to RECAPITULATE and Start afresh from a new perspective.
In a reality where lion and lamb do lay together, where ox and predator both eat straw. Imagine a reality without war, or hostility of prejudice. Imagine a reality without FEAR.
Such a simple, tiny change. To imagine life, not as we have come to fear, but as a gift from God.
A message was recently sent out from the Comedian George Carlin upon the death of his partner.
“The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings and shorter tempers.
Wider freeways and narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but continually have less, we buy more but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses for smaller families,
Greater conveniences, yet less time.
We have more degrees of education, but less common sense, more knowledge and less judgment.
We have more experts and greater problems, more medicine and less well-being.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read far too little, watch too much TV and pray seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, while reducing our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom and hate too easily.
We have learned how to make a living, without living life.
We have added years to life, but not life to our years.
We have been to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing our own backyard to meet a new neighbor. We have done larger things, but not better.
We have tried to clean the air and water, while polluting our souls.
We have split the atom, but failed to unite across prejudice.
We write more, communicating less. We plan more, accomplishing less.
We have learned to rush and multi-task, rather than to wait and to do one thing well.
We build more computers, to hold more information, to produce more copies, we text in acronyms, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast food and slow digestion,
big men with small character,
steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are the days of two incomes and McMansions, but more divorce and more broken homes. These are the days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morals, one night stands, overweight bodies and pills to do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.
It is a time when there is so much in the showroom and nothing in stock.
These are days where we attend LAUGH THERAPY because Laughter makes us feel good, and we have so little to laugh or feel good about.
A time when technology can bring you these ideas, and the ability to save them or delete.
This week when you are gathered in Thanksgiving with loved ones, remember to give thanks, because they will not always be around forever.
Remember to say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person will soon grow up and leave your side.
Remember to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart that doesn't cost a cent.
Remember to say “I love you” to your partner and loved ones, but more importantly to mean it.
A kiss and an embrace can mend hurt, when it comes from deep inside, or be a betrayal when not.
Remember to hold hands, and cherish the moment.
Give time for love to grow and take time, make time to speak!
Give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
And always remember:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away.
The Gospel of Luke records Jesus saying that,
In the world we have made there will be wars and rumors of wars. There will be persecutions, and fires and floods. But this in not how God intended life to be.
He offers three instructions: DO NOT BE LED ASTRAY,
DO NOT CHASE AFTER THEM,
DO NOT TRY TO PLAN OUT WHAT TO SAY, But trust God.
ULTIMATELY we have one power, one ability.
We may not be able to stop a war, or prevent the Earth from Quaking.
We may not be able to preserve buildings from becoming ruins, but...
We can make our minds to Believe,
We can choose to live our differently because we believe, or we can react and respond to every wind that blows, defensively trying to fight against life.
BAPTISM is making up your mind to believe, that NO MATTER what happens, this child is a gift from God, and we will pray for her. MARRIAGE is making up your mind, right now, before the moment, that you want to love and be loved, to put their needs first.
COMMUNION is a willingness to share and receive, not knowing what is in the heart of another, but committing to be there with them.
Luke 21:5-19
What if,
instead of going through the motions of life, planning to meet deadlines, responding to circumstance,
WE RECAPITULATE that this is a Spiritual world, a world of Divine Imagination.
What differences might there be, if instead of following conclusions of the reality we know, we perceived that God was continually reconciling the world in and around and through even us?
As a child of the 1960s, there was a marvelous toy called a SpiroGraph, with interlocking plastic wheels, that turned and worked off of one another. You placed a pen in the whole of a gear and as the teeth meshed and gears worked a beautiful design appeared. But choosing a different gear, beginning from the perspective of another starting point, the design was completely unique.
That is the point of Isaiah.
STOP where we are in this moment in time. Imagine all the circumstances and relationships and responsibilities we have. Because “the different” is only appreciated as different when compared to what we know.
Now imagine what life would be like, if Adam and we, had never broken Covenant with God?
If the child, baptized this day were not the third of this family, but truly known as a Child of God?
Like a parent waiting for the Prodigal to return, like Jesus walking up to the tree of Zachaeus, surely God desires for us to RECAPITULATE and Start afresh from a new perspective.
In a reality where lion and lamb do lay together, where ox and predator both eat straw. Imagine a reality without war, or hostility of prejudice. Imagine a reality without FEAR.
Such a simple, tiny change. To imagine life, not as we have come to fear, but as a gift from God.
A message was recently sent out from the Comedian George Carlin upon the death of his partner.
“The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings and shorter tempers.
Wider freeways and narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but continually have less, we buy more but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses for smaller families,
Greater conveniences, yet less time.
We have more degrees of education, but less common sense, more knowledge and less judgment.
We have more experts and greater problems, more medicine and less well-being.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read far too little, watch too much TV and pray seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, while reducing our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom and hate too easily.
We have learned how to make a living, without living life.
We have added years to life, but not life to our years.
We have been to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing our own backyard to meet a new neighbor. We have done larger things, but not better.
We have tried to clean the air and water, while polluting our souls.
We have split the atom, but failed to unite across prejudice.
We write more, communicating less. We plan more, accomplishing less.
We have learned to rush and multi-task, rather than to wait and to do one thing well.
We build more computers, to hold more information, to produce more copies, we text in acronyms, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast food and slow digestion,
big men with small character,
steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are the days of two incomes and McMansions, but more divorce and more broken homes. These are the days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morals, one night stands, overweight bodies and pills to do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.
It is a time when there is so much in the showroom and nothing in stock.
These are days where we attend LAUGH THERAPY because Laughter makes us feel good, and we have so little to laugh or feel good about.
A time when technology can bring you these ideas, and the ability to save them or delete.
This week when you are gathered in Thanksgiving with loved ones, remember to give thanks, because they will not always be around forever.
Remember to say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person will soon grow up and leave your side.
Remember to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart that doesn't cost a cent.
Remember to say “I love you” to your partner and loved ones, but more importantly to mean it.
A kiss and an embrace can mend hurt, when it comes from deep inside, or be a betrayal when not.
Remember to hold hands, and cherish the moment.
Give time for love to grow and take time, make time to speak!
Give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
And always remember:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away.
The Gospel of Luke records Jesus saying that,
In the world we have made there will be wars and rumors of wars. There will be persecutions, and fires and floods. But this in not how God intended life to be.
He offers three instructions: DO NOT BE LED ASTRAY,
DO NOT CHASE AFTER THEM,
DO NOT TRY TO PLAN OUT WHAT TO SAY, But trust God.
ULTIMATELY we have one power, one ability.
We may not be able to stop a war, or prevent the Earth from Quaking.
We may not be able to preserve buildings from becoming ruins, but...
We can make our minds to Believe,
We can choose to live our differently because we believe, or we can react and respond to every wind that blows, defensively trying to fight against life.
BAPTISM is making up your mind to believe, that NO MATTER what happens, this child is a gift from God, and we will pray for her. MARRIAGE is making up your mind, right now, before the moment, that you want to love and be loved, to put their needs first.
COMMUNION is a willingness to share and receive, not knowing what is in the heart of another, but committing to be there with them.
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