"For Us or Everyone Else?" August 11, 2013

Hebrews 11 Isaiah 1: 10-20 Luke 12: 32-41 One Sunday morning in worship, I looked out upon the congregation, and saw that here upon the floor in the second pew was a child turned around backward engrossed in coloring her bulletin program. The parents smiled that everything was as it should be, and I smiled back reassuringly. But during a pause in the preaching of the sermon this cherubic voice spoke out “Mommy is he talking to us or everybody else?” Rubbing her back, her mother said “Shhh, it's all right dear go back to what you were doing.” Suddenly it hit me that this is what we have done to faith. Instead of Salvation being our hope and goal and longing, rather than teaching the stories of Scripture as the foundations of our faith, we have conditioned and reassured our children that they do not need to pay attention to reality. We distract them with games and devices, teaching them that being polite is saying “Thank you” and “I am sorry” and “I love you” to family, even when you are not. It happened again this weekend, that we had a wedding. A beautiful affair with all the friends and family gathered. The couple described that what was unique, was something they had gotten from Amazon.com. Throughout the wedding, there was an empty vase before the couple. At the climax of the wedding, the parents came forward each with vial of sand in shades of silver, gold and brown, which they poured into the vase to form a foundation. After the parents were reseated the couple took their own vials of colored sand and layered these in a beautiful pattern upon their parents foundation of silver, gold and brown. Then, when the vase was almost overflowing, they took an oil candle and placed it upon the top, which became their unity candle. It was a beautiful thing, and a symbol of the sharing this couple hoped to have based on all their parents had provided. But as we walked down the aisle one of the guests leaned over asking “So what difference did that make for their staying married?” We are easily distracted and caught up in ritual, in the drama of the moment, without realizing there is a great deal more to life than going through the motions of saying please and thank you, and I am sorry... without meaning. That the simple words “I love you” are a promise and re-assurance of faith that together we create meaning, together we can believe in more than everything we have seen and known. The current Matt Damon Sci-fi “Elysium,” like the “Matrix” series, follow the theme of John Bunyan's classic Pilgrim's Progress, in which at the very beginning the hero awakens from the reality of everything they have known to believe there is something far better, another world. In each of the current manifestations the goal becomes shattering the difference between worlds, bringing that reality down once and for all to be in concert with what everyone else knows as real. In the Puritan classic, Pilgrim's Progress, the Character “Christian” reads a book, and suddenly realizes the reality he has known is a City of Destruction focused upon its own consumption, a Sodom and Gomorrah, and he sets out on a journey for The Celestial City of God. Each of these are about more than a quest, a great journey, stories are our search for meaning. A quest for whether what those before us claimed to know and believe has meaning, or where we find salvation. The Word of God as it comes from Isaiah, names God's frustration with a people who only go through the motions of life. At the time of Isaiah, worship in the Temple had gone on for hundreds of years. Over those Centuries, instead of worship being about the celebration of our faith, about wrestling with priorities and ethical values, worship had followed a formula. We are sinners. Sin is a debt owed to God. Sinners must make a sacrifice to atone for their sins. There are two corruptions here: The corruption that the more sacrifices that were offered, the more sinners who said they were sorry, the more successful the Temple Worship. There were more people. There was ore money.This is success, Right? And also, whether we are anything more than sinners? God, who only wanted to love, to have relationship with Creation, is drowning in the blood of all the sacrifices that people had made. There was a constant parade of people, bowing down, saying I am sorry, and after hundreds of years of this, according to Isaiah, God said “ENOUGH!” So what do we think has changed in the thousands of years, we have continued? The point is not in making a sacrifice. Not in saying “I am sorry” or “Forgive me” or “I love you.” The point is whether we are transformed and changed to live in love, to live in forgiveness, or not? Years ago, there was a young man who went searching for faith. He found a great teacher, and asked that the teacher would show him what he needed to believe. The teacher took the man by the neck and forced his head under water and held him there as the novitiate wrestled and struggled to survive. Finally, the drowning man was allowed up. As he coughed and sputtered, and pushed the water from his face, the teacher asked “Why did you struggle, what were you searching for?” The waterlogged man replied, “I was struggling for air, searching only to breathe so as to survive.” The teacher replied, “Come back to me, when your struggle for faith, your need to believe is as desperate as for air.” The other day, I spoke with a man, who described that after 64 years of marriage, knowing his wife was dying day by day for the last many years, had held her in his arms as they slept. When he awoke, she had died. And he described feeling like he had been kicked in the stomach. That is to be desperate to believe. I hope that you know, your pastor is not so sadistic of a teacher as to try to drown you. And I do not believe God intentionally causes us pain. The point of faith is not to shock, or to entertain, or to console. For years now, we have celebrated in worship, in many and different ways. Barking like a dog. Praying in Confession. Laughing and Singing. Making Offerings. Sharing Communion. Serving one another. We could replace the Bibles in the pews with Kindles to read the Scriptures. We could replace the Hymnals with projections of words. We could replace the preacher with pyrotechnics, or actors, or a live band. The point of faith, is not whether we said the right words. Not whether we got the right people, or how many people. The point is whether we believe, and believing whether we pray and act, as we believe. We began worship this day, with the 11th chapter from the Letter to the Hebrews, which has a succinct recap of the journey of Abraham and Sarah. One day when he was 70 years young, Abram was called by God to leave home and family, and everything they had ever known to follow God. He took his wife and followed. Day after day, for years and decades they journeyed in hope of an inheritance. The nuance there, is that an inheritance is not fulfilled in your own lifetime. You are struggling, you are on this journey, so that there will be future generations after us, who might receive, who might believe. We said last week, that part of the nature of an inheritance is whether our parents, our loved ones, loved us as much as we thought, as much as they loved others; in this case whether God loves us; but even more whether we treasure their love. The particulars of Genesis, include that Sarah was very beautiful. Year after year as they journeyed, they encountered powerful, kings and pharaohs. Being afraid, Abraham had told his wife Sarah to tell the Kings and Pharaohs that she was only his sister instead of his wife. She bore this indignity. She bore their flirtations and gifts. Every time, their secrets would be found out, because secrets can never be hid. Finally, when they had wandered the earth on a journey approaching 40 years, when Sarah was 90 and Abraham over a 100 years of age, Abraham told his wife they were going to have a child. She laughed. After everything she had been through, journeying beside this partner. Now, when he was as good as dead, when it was long past the time of conception for her, they were going to have a child? But though she laughed, still she believed. Searching for our Celestial City... searching for what will be home for us... searching for fulfillment, can we believe? Jesus said: “Fear Not, little flock, for it is God's pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” We know God's desire. The question is whether we believe this is for us, or everybody else?

"The Illusion of Individualism", August 4, 2013

Hosea 11: 1-11 Luke 12: 13-31 There is an irony to Preaching. Ministers do not simply read or perform a prescribed speech. The craft of writing a sermon is in taking archaic texts, from different languages for different cultures, and developing a thesis elaborating upon their themes as application for our time and our concerns, developing meaningful ideas, pearls of wisdom, that will be worth the time of diverse people, different every week. Yet, week after week, at social engagements, on the street and at home, the Preacher is asked in One Word, or in Sound Bytes: What is the Sermon about? Last evening when I was asked, I quoted the title: “The Illusion of Individualism”. No one is an island! But part of the power of this morning's Scriptures is that each goes somewhere, there is a change a “Therefore!” In Amos and Hosea, we have read how frustrated God was with Israel, with humanity, God wants to destroy creation, God sees just how out of plumb we are and resolves Never Again to Pass-By, to Forgive, to Passover Israel. But Hosea having put away Gomer, God having resolved “Enough! No More” to forgive, ultimately recognizes that God cannot be alone. The Luke passage is about Money, Inheritance, Consumerism: Barns that are filled with surplus so the owner resolves to build bigger barns, The American Dream, yet this is the only Parable in all the Gospels where God speaks, and what God says is “YOU FOOL!” This is a sermon about The Beatles' Song “Can't Buy Me Love.” The problem is not that money is evil, not that the American Dream of Success is Corruption, but underlying both the Old Testament and the Gospel is the sin of Covetousness, of Greed, of Want not because of Need, but only because I Want. David Noel Freedman was a genius of Biblical Scholarship. Quite literally, he graduated from High School at age 13, College at 17, and had earned his first PhD before age 20. Freedman was the Editor of the Anchor Bible and an Old Testament Scholar at the University of Michigan, later at Princeton Seminary. After decades of research, Freedman came to the conclusion that the first 10 Books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel and Kings, all were demonstration of Israel's violation of the first NINE of the Ten Commandments. Honoring God, Idolatry, Reverence, The Sabbath, Honoring Parents, Adultery, Murder, Stealing. Evidence of the first Nine, because for Murder there has to be a Body. For Adultery there has to be a liaison. For Theft, some thing has to be stolen. But according to Freedman, to Covet is internal, and therefore has no outward manifestation. Underneath everything else, the hardest sin of all is Desire, Covetousness, Greed. Adam and Eve was not about knowledge, not about Apples, but that when they could have anything and everything, this couple coveted what they could not taste. David and Bathsheba, was not about only about adultery, and about murder, but what prompted both was coveting the spouse of another. Not because we need, but because we want. Oddly enough, Greed is not born out of Drought and Economic Collapse. Greed is created out of success and prosperity. Having our needs met, we want to consume more. It is a human condition, our wants translate into desire for satisfaction. But when our our wants are filled, we still want, not because we are hungry, not because we need, but because we are not satisfied. Prosperity creates a sense of fear of scarcity. If my needs are currently met, but still I want more, will more stuff be there when I want? Coveting is not about Money, not about the possessions themselves, but Coveting is the insatiable desire to satisfy what can never be satisfied, to accumulate in a culture that can never have enough, to possess a monopoly in a world of scarcity. I have a couple of scandalous suggestions for you this morning. Scandalous because we live in a Village that sells a lot of stuff, stuff that we may not actually need... Can you go a month without buying stuff? Not that we halt the economy by not making any purchases, but all the excess stuff that we buy just for the sake of buying, that at the moment we had to have, to consume, to possess, we might go without. I heard about a grandmother, who decided that this year, her son had enough ties, her daughter had enough scarves, and sending a check to the grandchildren did not seem at all satisfying. So for her own birthday, she sent each family $1,000 with direction that they should use this to make a difference in the life of someone other than themselves. The sum was large enough, they could not forget to send a thank you, they could not ignore what the gift had been used for. The $1,000 was unexpected and had not been needed, so how would each choose to use it? The difficulty of the Bible is that the parables have become so familiar to us, life is so familiar, as to have lost the shock value of having been heard the first time. We think we own the passage, we know the meaning before we listen. The parable of the Rich Man and his Barns must be told within the context of the question posed. One in the crowd cried out to Jesus “Make my brother divide the inheritance fairly.” Growing up, I had three brothers and there was always a question of fairness. Our mother created a game, that whoever was in charge of division, of sharing, of cutting the desert or pouring the juice, could not be the one who was able to chose first. Knowing that yours was the leftover, the last chosen, ensured that every portion was exactly the same. But I have come to realize something, from all the years of memorials and funerals, what is important is not that we sung their favorite hymn, not the flowers, not that the worship service was beautiful, not that they were eulogized with all their accomplishments, not even that Aunt Jeanne did not make a scene. Funerals, Memorials, Death is about Closure, and as human beings as much as we covet reconciliation and resolution, we do not like the finality of closure. Throughout life there are all these unresolved threads, which dangle after death. Our desire for closure is to resolve what had been unresolved, to weave in and end what had been spurious living things. Related to this, inheritance is not about that lamp, or the Trust fund or portfolio, or the house on Skaneateles. The division of inheritance is about our parents' love. Whether Mom and Dad rewarded me the same or more than everybody else, whether I got more of their love and attention than anyone else? Painfully, we have each already made our lot in life, we have found careers and employment that have allowed us to meet our actual needs. Inheritance is about possession and control of the stuff beyond what we need. The reality is, that life is not about us in isolation. Our identity is composed of all the relationships we have, the accumulated worth of being our parents' children, our siblings' sibling, our neighbor's neighbor. Like God in the Book of the Prophet Hosea, there do come times when we want to cry out “Enough, No More!” But also like God, we look through our memories like a photo album. Instead of the baby coming home, we see the home we made for them. Instead of seeing the child taking their first steps, we see our finger holding them up. Instead of seeing their first birthday, we see the fuss we made over them, the cake, the party, our desire to love. I have come to realize that the prophecy of Hosea is not about taking a Prostitute as a spouse. None of us is so filled with self-hatred as to do so, or to name our children: Valley of Death, or Not my Child, or Unloved. While there may come times, when we want to send our children or our spouse away forever. I have come to believe that Hosea is the story of having to take responsibility for your Mom or Dad over their wishes, taking charge of your Husband or Wife, of your own Child. At Weddings we emotionally commit to “For Better and Worse and Richer and Poorer and Sickness and Health” which with the little we have experienced at 23 or 43 years is a monumental vow. But the heartache of Hosea, is if and when because of Worse and Poorer and Sickness, you take responsibility and take control for the other, how can you ever approach one another again as partners, as equals, with trust and the freedom to love? According to Hosea what God came to realize, is that God is not a human being. Faith is not ordinary or rational. God is God and as Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of Life, God must find a way to love anew. We so often imagine Jesus as having been betrayed by Judas, abandoned by the Disciples, Arrested by the Sanhedrin, put to death by Pontius Pilate and the Roman Empire. But also, presiding at the Table, giving the disciples bread and wine as his giving his body and blood, his life, was Jesus' gift that instead of closure offered the possibility of redemption and life different, never again alone or isolated by living our lives as part of the body of Christ, sharing the riches of God.

July 28, 2013, "A Marriage Made in Heaven"

Hosea 1: 2-10 Luke 11: 1-13 To what shall we compare God's Love, not as an abstract but God's love for You and me? What we as a congregation know best are weddings, we celebrate more weddings than any church I have ever known, and where some churches have restrictions about only being married inside on Saturday afternoons we try to accommodate people's needs and desires wherever they are, as sacred. Imagine a wedding...As you come up to the Sanctuary the pastor is waiting outside beaming as this is a Marriage made in Heaven. There is space for every guest. You enter the wedding and the most beautiful music is playing. There are flowers and ribbons. Once everyone is gathered, the Bridegroom escorts his mother and father to their place and intently watches the door for the coming of the Bride. The Bridegroom has been transformed from that infant whose existence changed the lives of everyone, and that gawky teenaged boy asking questions beyond his years, to a man, robust and poised, exuberant and joyful. He stands at the Communion Table in full tuxedo and smiling from ear to ear at having found the partner for all time. This is a Marriage Made in Heaven for the Bridegroom is God the Creator, is Christ one with humanity, and the partner, the Bride was chosen by God, is the Creator's own creation. The command is given to rise, the trumpets fanfare, the doors burst open and the Bride enters. But something is amiss. Where the Bridegroom is in love, is captivated and committed with everything they have and are to this other... The Bride is distracted, appearing as though they would rather be anywhere else, with someone else. As the Statement of Intention is asked, the Bridegroom's voice quivers, he pauses to swallow and commit himself fully for ever saying “I AM and I DO”. When the Bride is asked whether she will love, honor and cherish her partner, she replies “Whatever, I Guess.” The problem named in Hosea is prostitution, in its most base sense: whoredom! But the problem of prostitution is not SEX, but that the common person sells themselves, sells their very soul for money to feed their addiction. Ironic, in that there are so many unnamed women in the Bible, that the bride of the prophet Hosea is personally remembered. Hosea's prophecy makes faith scandalous, shameful, intimate and personal and real. Something happens to us, something hard and calloused when we sell our intimacy, our emotions, our love, our soul for what can never satisfy. This week a 17 year old from this community died of heroine overdose. Not in Auburn, or Syracuse, but here in this, our Village, under our watch, a child is dead. I remember when a husband got passed security in the hospital and beat his wife to death, and the community was so outraged that hospital security was changed and there were community discussions about domestic violence and abuse. I remember when there were alcohol related deaths on the lake and the streets, and there was rage, who could have left a couple for dead, who could have provided liquor to those underage. Why then, when a 17 year old is dead from Heroine, are we ashamed to talk about it, to do something about it? The problem is not drugs, or alcohol, or prostitution, or all the things we often blame as evil, but that all this stuff represent addiction, addiction to escape, to avoidance, to what can never bring joy or satisfaction. Week after week at weddings, I watch as Father's escort their daughters down the aisle and kiss them goodbye. I watch as they dance at their weddings. We treat one another as precious, as sacred, as a gift to this one in love. None of us could imagine committing to a relationship of “Yeah, whatever, I Guess.” Recently, I was in conversation with a health care tech caring for people with active HIV AIDS, and with a Hospice Nurse caring for those who are terminal and actively dying, and with a spouse caring at home for their partner with Alzheimer's. The AIDS tech described the dangers of a stray needle stick, or a cut. They spoke of how normal and ordinary their patients were, a lawyer, an engineer, a mother, a son, not the GRID that was feared and ostracized a few decades ago. The Hospice Nurse described being called any hour day and night. Named cleaning wounds and bed sores, and trying to provide comfort, closure, dignity; but that the hardest thing of all was the accumulation of so many deaths that you fear becoming numb to mortality, to suffering, to humanity. The spouse caring at home, named that doing stuff was the easy part, the hard was when the one you love cannot figure out who you are. One who had gone with us described Sudan, where nothing is clean, where cattle are everywhere, and feces and flies and smoke. Where just to survive due to poverty and climate is miraculous, but there are diseases and war that make us fear anyone who is different. Each one in turn described “You could not pay me a Million Dollars to do that.” And each one in turn realized, they did not do the work for money. One had a father who had died alone in a hospital, where everything seemed sterile, scientific and cold. One had a sister, lost to the family, maybe by caring for people with AIDS she might find someone who knew someone who knew her, or if not at least she had cared for one like her sister. The spouse had committed to better and worse and sickness and health, and believed that somewhere beneath that vacant expression was the one who still loved them. “Hard” does not begin to describe the level of commitment. In relationships like these, like Hosea's love for Gomer, like God's love for us, there come times when you say to yourself, “No more, I Cannot” but you see them struggle, you see their need and you have to care. It is scandalous, far beyond what any one imagines on their wedding day but that is the commitment of God to humanity, distracted. These passages this morning are about shameless relationships. Not only that Hosea loves Gomer with a love that cannot be returned, that God loves us wanting only love in return and we are instead distracted. We question the mechanics of love and marriage, like our questioning the mechanics of prayer. The disciples, as faithful students ask, “Teach us how, what, when to pray.” But prayer is not a magic incantation that if we do the right things and say the right words, will be guaranteed a desired outcome. The great pain of prayer is when our prayers go unanswered, was it that God did not care, that God was not able, or that we did not pray had enough, faithfully enough? What Jesus described to his disciples is that God loves us shamelessly, without any reserve, so we need to pray shamelessly without reserve! Prayer is not about following the right formula, or paying enough, or being more faithful than anyone else. Prayer establishes relationship. Not How, When, Where or What to Pray, but who are You and to whom do we pray? I am dismayed how often we get hung up on which is more correct “Forgive us our Debts, or Trespasses, or Sins” and whether to end “For Thine is the Kingdom, Glory and Power, Forever” or not. Luke is not worried about getting all the words right. First, who is God? Religions throughout time have identified God as Master, and identified with with different attributes, praying to a God of War versus God of Love. Judaism prayed to One God, Law-giver, Emancipator, who set us free in a Promised Land. But from Jesus we have an identity with God as being personal, even intimate. This God is not separate and objective, up on Mount Olympus, but messy, passionate and caring just as we are. God is to be honored and revered and Other, so Hallow God's Name. Recognize and claim from the outset that God's Will will be Done. We can plead and beg and shame, knowing that ultimately God's will will be done. That is our safety, like having a Moderator or Referee, we can try anything and everything available to us, confident God will keep us from going too far. Having recognized God as God, honoring and revering God's identity and that all life is God's will, WHAT DO YOU NEED? ...FOOD, FORGIVENESS, FIDELITY. Give us this day our Daily Bread. Forgive us our Wrongs. Although we may deserve it, Do not ever abandon us or lead us into temptation. The point of prayer is not whether we did it right or wrong, whether we prayed hard enough or enough times, whether we were worthy to pray. The point of prayer was without regard for Shame, did you pray sincerely for what you need and want to be in relationship with God. It is not about the needs, or the wants, or desires, but about being in relationship with God. From 1930s Sunday School Classes many of us have this iconic image of a Blonde Haired Blue Eyed Jesus in white robes smiling as he stands outside the door quietly waiting. THAT is not what Jesus himself described. In that culture even more than our own, demonstrating Hospitality was paramount. In an age before robo-calls and SPAM solicitations, before commercials selling us anything and everything, if someone was desperate enough to express need, we needed to be desperate to respond. Every person had obligation to respond when asked. If a neighbor appeared at your door at Midnight, asking even for a piece of bread for someone else, you needed to respond. We need to envision not Jesus gently tapping outside our door, but a neighbor, one who looks like us pounding on the door, and God in pajamas inviting us inside!

July 21, 2013, "One Thing Is Important"

Amos 7:7 – 8:7 Luke 10:38 – 42 I greatly appreciate the opportunity to have been away last weekend to have a Bus drivers' vacation by officiating at a family wedding, and understand that Elder Weiss preached on The Good Samaritan. One of the difficulties of our recalling that passage is that it has become so familiar to us that we all want to be Good Samaritans, instead of perceiving that the Samaritans were a feared and hated people. The shock and surprise of the Good Samaritan parable for Jesus' listeners can only be heard today, if the Samaritan were compared to a member of Al Qaida who stops to help a stranger. If instead of Trevon Martin and George Zimmerman each “standing their ground” with weapons, the Neighborhood Watch guard had protected and accompanied the other on his way to his parents' home. The point of Jesus' parable was not to choose to be a Samaritan, but rather that even one we have no expectations could act in faith, can act as neighbor in the way God intended for us. Some react to the hearing of that parable by interpreting, what the Samaritan did was to busily do stuff. Where the Priest and Levite walked by on the other side, the Samaritan got down, cleaned and bound his wounds, placed him upon the Samaritan's own beast, took him to an Inn and paid for his care. In response to which comes Luke's passage for this morning. Martha acted with compassion and hospitality by inviting Jesus to her home, but then realizing that the Messiah sent from God was coming to her home with 70 of his closest disciples, she anxiously frets and is distracted by many things. The verb Jesus used to describe Martha, was that she was being pulled in many different directions. The model for Martha's behavior is Abraham. Our Call to worship this morning Genesis 18, is readily used to describe acts of hospitality and hosting, the Chuppa in a Jewish Wedding is a dwelling like Abraham sat in, when it was over 90 degrees, open on all four sides so as to greet strangers. However, before these visitors could even introduce themselves, Abraham rushed to get water to bathe their feet, instructed his wife to bake bread, milked the cows, butchered and cooked a goat. Jesus' response to Martha is not “Well done good and faithful servant. Mary act more like your sister!” but instead “Martha, you are distracted by many things, one thing is important. Mary has chosen that thing and it shall not be taken from her.” Faith is not a problem to be solved, not a challenge of figuring out that one thing, but rather a lifelong journey in discerning and making applications to our lives. The Bible does not change, but every time we read a passage, we hear new elements based on who we are different from ever before. The Book of Amos is not one most pastors choose to model their lives upon. About a year ago, the Wednesday Bible Study challenged that someday they wanted me to preach a hellfire and brimstone sermon. I do so here, with fear and trepidation, because Amos well loved, is not caring and compassionate and forgiving, but if our faith is to have integrity we must hear the gospel both in words of challenge and rebuke as well as words of comfort. Even more, Francis of Assisi is credited with having said “Preach the Gospel everywhere and in all things, if you must use words!” Roger Shinn was professor of Ethics and Theology at Union Seminary, who was fond of asking “What is Theology?” Students would respond “God, Spiritual stuff, Teachings of the Church.” And he would say “NO, Theology is about everything!” There are religions of people's own manufacture blessing God for our comforts, prosperity and securities. But Judaism and Christianity emphasize that God cares about everything, everything in all Creation God uses for us to be in closer relationship. According to the Book of Amos, on the occasions where the prophet finds God, the Almighty is angry. Periodically, people will lift up the “moral decay” of our times, in reference to personal relationships, sex, family values and divorce. But according to the Book of Amos, God's anger is over Economic Injustice, over Systems created to protect and make safe those with excess while buying and selling the poor as if no longer people. First, God is fashioning a swarm of Locusts and Cicada to consume all food so people rich and poor will be equal in their suffering. And the Prophet says “No, Lord.” Next God is creating a heat and drought, not dis-similar to our last several weeks, a fire so hot as to burn the oceans, lakes and rivers. And the Prophet entreats God “No.” But God having relinquished twice, names to the Prophet that the People have not changed from their sin. God shows the Prophet a third vision. In the original Hebrew of the Old Testament, the vision is of “anak” which is translated as Plumb-line. The traditional interpretation of the vision, is that God is revealing just how corrupt and off-base the culture is. The only solution to a wall being out of plumb is to tear it down and build again. The difficulty is that “anak” in Hebrew does not mean “plumb-line.” In the Syro-Phonecian language, anak means plumb-line, but in Hebrew it means “tin”, which could refer to the weight at the bottom of the line, or that God was smelting tin to copper to form Bronze weapons to wage war against Israel. However, we need to remember that just as the Bible was not originally written in English but translated, neither was the Bible originally written using a printing press or computer, but a crude pen and ink on parchment or skin. The difference between anak and anah is simply the addition or subtraction of a dot inside the letter, but anah with a soft “h” did not mean “plumb-line” but rather “a sigh.” So what the Lord showed to Amos in the third vision was not a hard and fast line, but rather a sigh, that God is distressed by the inability to change us. The real vitality of this prophecy then becomes the verb of what God is promising to do because we refuse to listen to God's sighs. God vows to never again “abar” to never again pass by Israel. Recall that what identified Israel was not Circumcision, not eating a Kosher diet, what identified Israel for all time to all peoples was that God had “passed over” Israel bringing judgement on Egypt and the Canaanites. So for God to reveal that God will never again “pass-by” is that no more shall Israel have “passover!” No more shall Israel be protected by God's forgiveness, but the people of God shall suffer like everyone else in the world. Finally, God provides a pun. God asks the Prophet Amos what he sees, and Amos says “a bowl of ripe summer fruit” what the Prophet is supposed to recognize is summer is quickly vanishing, Fall is approaching, and with Fall comes “The Fall” of all of us. The point of which is not rush trying to hide everything in the closet because company is coming. The point is so recognize how important is sharing every moment with one another and with God. People are funny in our reactions. Amaziah was the King's own prophet, something like being the Chaplain at the United States Senate. If you were pastor and prophet to the Congress, would you speak truth to power, or bless those elected in everything they decide? Amaziah's response to Amos was “If you want to prophesy doom do not do so in the King's Temple. Who do you think you are?” As clergy, when asked “by whose authority” often respond with our pedigree, that my father and father-in-law were Presbyterian ministers, my father within the church, my father-in-law in alternative ministries; we list the schools and seminaries we attended; we bring out our resumes of serving on this committee or that; or when pressed we describe the nature of our Calling. Amos when challenged by Amaziah responded “I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet. I am a herdsman and dresser of sycamore trees, whom God took.” Years ago, I recall John Dau asking for someone to go for the Sudanese refugees to S.Sudan. I turned to the person next and said “I do not want to presume, but I just had all my plans cancelled and I could go if it would be helpful.” Over the next six weeks I wrote letters to everyone in every position of authority for support and guidance, hearing back nothing. I got all the shots and bought everything I could think to carry. When I arrived at Kenya and was greeted by the Pastor of Duk who had been displaced by war, he asked “By whose authority are you here? This is my parish, I am the pastor and priest, who do you think you are ministering on my turf?” I responded that I had written letters to his Bishop and other leaders but got no response. He said “That's correct. By not responding to you, they were denying you permission. But now you are here, so we each must pray asking God what to do with you!” The following day, he volunteered to act as my companion if I would pay his way. The difficulty of being a Presbyterian pastor with a church, is there is no Bishop, not outside authority with abstract guidance for how things should be done. Instead a pastor and Session are installed, as human beings in relationship. We are a very human church, of very human people, who listen to one another, sometimes laughing, often “sighing” but in relationship with one another. Arriving in S.Sudan, one of the chiefs took his one year old child, stood him up on his own legs and steadied him by allowing the child to grasp the adult's finger. He said, this is who we are. “We do not need you to do for us, to give to us. We need you to stand along side and offer support while we learn how to stand and walk on our own.” How hard it is for us, when we see a need, or feel threatened to not act, but to be in relationship as true partners and companions.

"There IS A God" July 7, 2013

2nd Kings 5:1-14 Luke 10:1-20 Life exists on many different planes simultaneously. We begin with biological needs for survival, accompanied instantly thereafter by the need for love. This week, in addition to having been the celebration of our Nation's Independence was the birthday of our firstborn, whom I delivered. I recall that first cry, searching one another's eyes and face for recognition, the first bath, the smells and touch of that intimate moment of claiming. The great disappointment of the last Century has been an assumption that either there was Scientific explanation about reality, OR there was a Religious explanation, and we both had authority and need to choose. One might as easily differentiate between whether you believe in a Political Reality to life or a Communal, belief in Economic Competition versus Human Compassion. When Jesus sent out the seventy in pairs, which was the more powerful that they/we were given authority to tread on scorpions and snakes, to cast out demons and cure problems, OR that they took nothing accept one another and had to trust on each other and on those who welcomed them? Speaking with a family whose father had been their most significant relationship, they described talking about sports, relationships, careers, money, fears, dreams, but never about God. Speaking with a groups of “Millenials,” those between 20 and 30, they named that their peers do not go to church, do not talk about God, are not even certain there is a God. I have to believe there is a relationship between one generation speaking about everything except our faith, and the next not practicing, not believing. What I hope to make clear this morning, is that all realities are happening simultaneously. The world is political, our survival is based on economics and awareness of the biological impact of our actions, and the world is also personal and intimate, and we are motivated by compassion and caring, and while all of this is going on, THERE IS A GOD. The last several weeks, we have been reading the stories of Elijah and Elisha, dramatic tales demonstrating proof of the reality of God, yet throughout, these are very human stories and it is easy to believe Elijah had called upon fire to come down form heaven and it did. He called upon God to act and God did. He went to the cave where Moses had witnessed evidence of God, and he saw Fire and Wind and Flood. And we begin to question whether reality only exists (whether God only is manifest) in our own imagination, in our reality? Then there is the story of Naaman, A Great Man, a powerful Warrior, a Syrian Military Officer who has made his King great. But also, following all the descriptions of Naaman's personal power, reputation and authority, he was a leper. More than an Infection, a Virus, a Chronic condition unto death, Leprosy carried a social stigma. For many of us, while Leprosy is not common, social stigma is very real: fear of how others would treat us if they knew we had Cancer, had Parkinson's, had Depression or Alzheimer's, or had lost our job, or had an addiction, or an affair, or were getting a divorce. Naaman recognizes that this social stigma, this illness, is his one barrier to success, to acceptance. Syria under King Aram had won one victory after another over their enemies, over Israel; and Naaman had given those victories to the King of Syria (though the Biblical text explains to the reader that God had done so through him). Out of respect and obligation to Naaman, the King of Syria sends with Naaman a letter to the King of Israel commanding him to to heal Naaman. Often times I feel like this at weddings, baptisms and funerals. Peoples' expectations are that if the wedding takes place in the church, if an Ordained minister pronounces the blessing, the couple will live happily ever after; and as pastor I profess to you the secret that I do not have that power! Like the King of Israel, the response of many in our culture today is to say “So why get married at all?” or at least “Why get married by a minister in the church, why not go on the internet to be ordained and solve our own problems?” The King of Israel received and read this letter from the King of Syria as a Political issue, of one power commanding a lesser power to act, with the threat that if he personally could not fix it, he would be destroyed. The Prophet Elisha asks the King to send Naaman to him. Imagine that Naaman the greatest most powerful General of the army of Syria, with all of his horses and chariots and gifts of reward to offer comes riding up to the hut of Elisha, commanding that this prophet of Israel come out and fix him up. Naaman expects Elisha to come running out and bow down, to say the right words and wave his hands to magically fix him, that is how religion works is it not like magic. Naaman is a Syrian compared to this Israelite, Naaman is the greatest most powerful warrior, Naaman exudes pheromones, he is every inch a Man. This is Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Arnold Schwarzenegger, compared to a prophet from a beaten vassal kingdom, not even a legitimate pastor or priest or king, just a powerless person of God. But where Naaman has these expectations, Elisha does not even come out to acknowledge him. Naaman has traveled all this way, is surrounded by all this power, yet this Elisha does not even come out to look him in the eye or speak to him. But eventually Naaman does what Elisha had told him to do. I have to believe that it was not the chemical composition of the Jordan river that healed Naaman. But that in the act of vulnerability, accepting what another had told him to do, stripping down naked, and in essence being baptized, seven times doing so, that Naaman changed and instead of trusting only in his armor, his shield, his power, his Race, his Nationality, his reputation and influence, Naaman came face to face with whether or not THERE IS A GOD and was healed. According to Luke, Jesus had already sent out the Twelve to preach and teach and heal, casting out demons. Eventually, after the Resurrection, according to Luke, Jesus would give the Great Commission making his Disciples into Apostles “those who are sent”. But here, Jesus sends out 70 persons as Special Envoys of God. They are not sent out as individuals, but as pairs. They are not to take anything for security, for safety, for comfort, for any assistance, but simply to go where they are sent. They are sent to share with the world that the Harvest is ready. Not that they are able to create the Harvest. Not that they are to do the Harvesting. But rather, that as Special Envoys of God, we are sent out into the world in twos and threes to share with others that there is a Harvest, there is a God, and God's Harvest is ready! We are sent out, to also give evidence of that Harvest. When a crop is ready, a farmer goes into the field to pluck and carry back a few grains, several ears of corn, a handful of cherries, a ripe peach, so that others will know and will share in the harvest. Being sent out, we are not to gather corn or wheat, or peaches or apples, but stories of the presence of God in one another's lives. We are to recognize that going out in this way is dangerous, you are confronting your own fears and the evils of this world, by naming what we have witnessed. A year ago, a refugee from Civil war had come to America and had found a home, and wife and children, a new life. His brother who had remained was shot dead, and distraught, seeking compassion and to make sense out of life, this man had come before his church for prayer. A woman who feared ever having Cancer, was diagnosed with this. Fearing Radiation, she needed to have the Cancer killed, and to wear a monitor of her vitals. Wearing the monitor, those supporting her were able to see she was having problems with her heart, and to have these corrected. Had she not had the Cancer, not had the Radiation, she might never have known the other problem that could be repaired. Living next to the lake, our worst fears were realized when a child drowned. Yet the family was not alone to drown in their loss, they have been continually surrounded by family and friends and the church. Recently, I was speaking with the Catholic priest, who described that the ArchDiocese sees this Village and town as being a plum position, where a pastor can enjoy the lake, and the social life, and relax. The reality is that this Village has known more loss and pain and suffering than most places in the world. Oh, we complain about the heat, or the snow, but the reality is that we have known friends and family in Domestic Violence. The weekend does not go by when there is not a Rescue call about a drunk driver on the road or the lake. Drug abuse is normal and available to all our children. Rape. Mental Illness. Victimization. Economically having your home taken, are realities. But also, there is a God, a God who cares, and as we minister to one another, and hold each other up in prayer, lives are changed. Luke's telling of the Sending of the Seventy, Commissioning us to go out into the world in twos and threes, is different from the sending of the twelve, and the commissioning of the apostles. We are to live our lives, in all the other realities we know, witnessing and believing, and sharing with others that GOD IS REAL, the HARVEST IS READY, and to speak to one another about what is important, what we have witnessed.

Single-Minded in a Multi-Tasking World

I Kings 19:19-21 II Kings 2: 1-8 Luke 9:51-62 Increasingly, we are surrounded by competing priorities and pressures. Immediate Family, Work, Extended family, Mortgage debt, School loans... What must we do to get our kids through High school and College? Will Cancer treatments work? Will Marital counseling help? Throughout all human history, we each have been searching for the same thing, called by a wide variety of names, but it is all the same: Paradise, Heaven, Tranquility, Peace, Home. In response to all the other stuff of life, there is one single-minded reality, One-ness with ourselves, one-ness with God, True Communion, Spiritually Centered, Completion. This single-minded search is why we marry, why we search for our career vocation, why we have children, why we join a church, why we align with different parties, why we pray. HOWEVER, in the midst of all the competing priorities, all of the distractions and complaints, as we multi-task listening to the news, while holding a conversation with our loved ones, while texting or cooking or cleaning, that “spiritual homing mechanism” becomes one more competing goal instead of listening to our true self. The only answer to life's competing questions and pleas, is to be single-minded in faith. A week ago, as we read together, the Great Prophet Elijah as an act of faith had taken on 450 prophets of Baal, King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, Elijah had called down fire from heaven and it happened, his sacrifice, his altar, even the water it was all soaking in was utterly consumed, whereupon he killed all 450 prophets of Baal. When confronted what he had done, Elijah ran away, ran away from the Promised Land, ran away from himself, ran away from God, searching for a cave, a particular cave, the home where God had hidden Moses Moses needed assurance from God. But finding that place, meeting God on Elijah's own terms, still God was not in the fire, flood, wind, or earthquake. After listening to Elijah, God gave the prophet a list of things to do, acts of faith to follow. Anoint a king for Samaria, anoint a king for Israel, anoint a king for Judah, anoint these persons as priests and these as prophets, and anoint Elisha as a companion to continue your work of faith. Seeing a possible way out, Elijah goes looking for Elisha. Now this is a strange circumstance, because Elisha was plowing in the field working with 12 yoke of oxen, when Elijah draped his mantle over Elisha. On a crowded street corner, in an elevator, as an act of worship for a religious leader to drape their stole over another is possible, but Elisha would have been in the middle of this huge field being plowed, and he did not see Elijah coming? Immediately, Elsiha responds. Allow me to build an altar, allow me to sacrifice these 24 oxen, allow me to break the plow and use the wood to create a great fire, allow me to cook the meat and feed the poor, allow me to say goodbye to my family, and I will follow. Everything about Elisha's response emphasizes his single-minded commitment, he can have no turning back. He will have no Oxen, no plow, no field, he will have used these to make a sacrifice to Gods and to feed the community, he will even have left his parents for ever. It seems a paradox then, that when Jesus meets followers on the road who want to wait to bury a father, or dispose of a single pair of oxen, Jesus says NO. But the point is that they are distracted that these other responsibilities are just as important, even that they must be done first, where Elisha is acting in faith to make the commitment. Where Elisha had only been asked to act as a companion with Elijah, the text jumps to Elijah's final day. While Elijah and the prophets and priests of every community are distracted by this, Elisha has a single goal: “Wherever you go, I go, I will follow you to the very end and continue your calling.” Even when asked directly by Elijah what Elisha wants, he describes “Double Your Faith” which is not a quantity matter, but to know what you have done in life and continue that work to completion. Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his classic treatise The Cost of Discipleship, names that the most costly final sacrifice is giving up our own self-will, our desire for what we want in order to serve as God uses us. The Gospel of Luke is different from the other Gospels. Up until this point, Luke has pretty strictly adhered to the biography laid out by Mark, yet at this point in Mark's Gospel Jesus sets his face to Jerusalem and he goes there. In Luke, when Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem, it is the beginning of 10 chapters of teaching along the road to Jerusalem and he and the disciples do not arrive until Chapter 18. The Samaritans as an outgrowth of Judaism were also seeking the Messiah sent from God, and they listened and followed Jesus as a possibility. But the Samaritans were seeking a Messiah who would meet them where they were, affirm their holy places as sacred, and settle with them. When Jesus set his face on Jerusalem, when he accepted that single-minded goal, the Samaritans rejected him. In the other Gospels, these occurrences along the road are times for teaching about discipleship. But the focus of Luke's Gospel is not about Discipleship, at every occurrence the Disciples of Jesus do wrong, they fall asleep, they are incompetent. For Jesus to set his face of Jerusalem, in Luke, is naming of why the incarnation happened, what God is doing here. As stated so simply in the Gospel of John, God so loved the world, God gave God's only begotten child. Luke's entire Gospel is description of what that gift means. When the Disciples ask if like Elijah they should command fire to come down from heaven to consume the Samaritans, Jesus says NO. He does not act in retaliation or vengeance or hate or anger. Jesus acts in compassion and one-ness with those in need. Jesus single-mindedness is assurance that the fulfillment of his life as this gift of God, demonstrating God's own single-minded absolute love, is to suffer for others and die on the cross to bring us into relationship with God. As each of these followers come to Jesus, he responds with statements that have been taken out of the story: Foxes have holes, Birds have nests but the son of Man has no where.” “Let the dead bury the Dead.” “Anyone who puts their hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God.” Within this story, these are demonstrations, that the single-minded nature of faith requires abandoning honor and prestige. How many people have described meeting Mother Theresa, or meeting Gandhi, yet each was doing the work of God not looking for followers. Jesus' foxes and birds metaphor is the paradox that while all of us seek that relationship, that place within ourselves and in the world where we can be at one, that place of home, the Messiah sent from God has no Home, because his whole life is about bringing us into full commitment and relationship. The point is not about abandoning the dying, abandoning responsibility, or abandoning family, but rather that at times these competitions for our attention, for our priority, mean that we continually react and respond rather than following our faith. This is not about seeking safety or security, or sanctuary from our problems. The single-mindedness of which we speak is devotion of ourselves to full commitment, to complete communion with God and the needs of others. The Great Italian Composer of Operas Puccini was working on a final opera “Turandot.” He was gravely ill and gathered his students together, telling them that this work was more important than anything he had done, and if he had not completed it when he died, their responsibility as his disciples was to complete the symphony for him. Toscanini conducted the debut performance without an ending. The following evening, the audience sat in rapture listening. When suddenly, the conductor named “This is as far as the Master got. This is our fulfillment of his calling.” The completed work is described as the greatest of all Puccini's masterpieces. What are we searching for? And How can we devote ourselves to helping one another.

"Identity in the Silences", June 23, 2013

I Kings 19: 8:15 Luke 8: 26-39 We create ridiculous expectations. At Graduations, at Weddings, Anniversaries, even Funerals, we expect someone to stand up and hand us Wisdom that will satisfy. At 5am this morning, there were already 150 folding chairs set up around the Gazebo. We expect Salutatorian, Valedictorian, Commencement speakers, Scholarships; yet for 13 years, since our children were in Kindergarden, what we looked forward to was leaping in the lake. No one will remember the words said this day or any of those days. Years ago, here in the Village, the clergy tried to have a Baccalaureate and not only could we not get the graduates or families to come, we could not even get the teachers, Principal or Superintendent, because they all wanted to be at Bacchanalia parties. The point of this morning is not a David Thoreau's Walden “Go off into the wilderness, searching for silence and solitude!” But afterward, when in the night you awake to find you have a spouse sleeping on the pillow, when after 9 months you lay your baby on the mattress, when the party is over, when the last relative leaves, when your graduate is left at College, there will be SILENCE. And in that silence the identity question, “What are you doing here?” or as spoken by Legion: “What has God to do with my life?” The point of the story of Elijah, was not that God is NOT in Earth, Wind, Fire or Silence. Just before this, is one of the most dramatic Miracle Stories of the Old Testament, the Man of God stood up before the entire Nation, with confidence and resolve questioning everyone: “How long will you try limping in two opposite directions?” Either worship and serve the Fertility Idols made by your own hands, or serve God. Human culture has continually told us that we are lacking, we are in need, and fulfillment will come with New Shoes, a Car, the Lottery, purchase of some thing not in us. Elijah boldly stands in opposition to 450 Prophets of Cultural Worship. Almost 500 Prophets choose the best sacrifice, and pray together, and whip and beat themselves to attract attention, to stimulate feeling, but nothing. Old Man Elijah, with his own hands, lays one boulder atop another to make an altar to God. Elijah sacrifices a bull, then lays half a steer, on top of half a steer. He has 12 buckets of water poured over it. Then Elijah prays to God and God responds with lightning bolts from heaven to consume the sacrifice and all the water. Arrogantly, boldly, with absolute dominance in his belly, Elijah sacrifices all 450 prophets of Baal. Suddenly, in the silence after the contest is over, Elijah loses his nerve, loses his own prophetic voice, questioning “Who am I? What has God to do with me?” God did not need to be present in a miracle in earth, wind or fire, God had already shown the King, all the Nation and World the power of God, and God's relationship with Elijah who believed in God. Perhaps like me, you have discovered there are times, when what we want most of all is to be heard, to state our case and be proven right; but what this story tells us is often what we want is to be able to hear ourselves, as God reminds us that there are still 7000 other believers who also never gave up on God. I think when JR Tolkien set out to write The Lord of The Rings, he patterned the character of Gollum/Smeagol after this creature Jesus finds at Garrison. Abandoned, unclean, no longer Human, unable to wear clothes, unable to stand upright, hurting himself and hurting others, shackled with broken chains, he dwells among tombs and graves. When asked his name, this stranger does not say “I am Possessed by a Demon” because in truth he is more than possessed, he is occupied by an army of demons, the Roman Legion was 6000 voices and weapons laying siege to a place and people. One of the points of this story, is how often we allow circumstances, the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, a divorce, to define who we are. Our language is painfully clear, when we make someone an “invalid” what we are saying is they are “In-Valid” when we claim a handicap, we are labeling a person as “incapable or incompetent.” What Jesus does first is to listen and to treat the man as a human being. As vegan animal rights people of the 21st Century, we may react to this story, that Jesus sent the demons into poor pigs, who ran off a cliff, or as capitalists we may identify with those who owned the pigs. But in that time and culture, pigs like these spirits were horrible, unclean, creatures of destruction, and what was left when they were gone was a whole human being, a rational and compassionate mind. Naturally the first request of one who had been chained, who had been shunned, who had been treated as less than human for a lifetime was “Take me with you” but Jesus sent him into his own community, his own people to describe what God had done for him. Often times, particularly in the Silences of life, we question our identity. Ironically, for the last 100 years our search for identity has been, if abstracted from everything else, if we could go back and fix our relationship with our Mother, our Father, who are we, pure and whole without anything else. However, a great part of who and what we are, we develop in relationship with our community, and with God. We cannot live unto ourselves without God. So the Baptismal question in times of silence is “Almighty God, What would you have me do?”