July 29, 2012 "The God Particle"

2nd Samuel 11:1-5 John 6: 1-21 On the 4th of July this year, after almost 50 years of research, Particle Physicists discovered what they had known existed but could not find. The Higgs Boson Particle, as I understand it, is a sub-atomic particle by which things have mass, matter and being. 30 years after Peter Higgs published his theory of the reality of this particle, Leon Lederman wrote about it in his book: The God Particle. Ever since there has been debate because at least on the surface, physicists were attributing the creation of matter, mass and being: to God, even that discovery of this God Particle might prove the existence of God. Except, the Particle Physicist Peter Higgs never identified his theory as “The God Particle,” instead, after searching for decade after decade for proof he could not find, Higgs had named the missing particle as That Gosh-Darned Particle, quite literally the God ________ Particle. Rather than proving the existence of God, his euphemism identified that which gave him the greatest vexation and tormented his life, as the thing that was missing. More than attributing that anything we cannot explain must belong to God, the point of our scriptures this day are that when we chose to act as if there is no God, or God is unknown to us, we get into trouble, and yet when we attempt to live our lives in faith miracles are possible, and nothing, not a single particle of matter will ever be lost from God. When we think of King David, some of us recall the Shepherd Boy battling Goliath with a slingshot, some recall the beloved King of Israel author of the Psalms, while others jump to Bathsheba. We hear this story and know that the sin of David was adultery. But that is not what this passage is about. Others of us, pay attention to the introductory words, and note that “In the Spring of the year, when other kings went off to war, David stayed home...” and we interpret that David was having a Mid-life Crisis, or Burned out, and rather than getting a sports car or an earring or tattoo, King David had an affair. But that is not the point of this story. In the Chapter prior, Israel had gone to war, while King David stayed safe at home. Israel was being soundly beaten, when God told David to get up, and he went, and seeing their King leading them, the army of Israel rallied and Israel won. A long winter has taken place and again in the Spring it was the time in which armies and kings went to war, but David stayed home. This is a passage like Jonah to the Ninevities and Elijah in the Cave, a Calling where God instructed David to go, and instead he preoccupied himself with other things. From which came the affair with Bathsheba, the murder of her husband Uriah, and the division of the monarchy with Absalom. All because David chose to not listen to God, to not trust to go where God directed in faith, but practically, reasonably, King David stayed at home. Turning to the Gospel of John, imagine with me if you will, what would happen if suddenly on this morning in late July quite unexpectedly 5000 people came to worship? The Deacons would probably break the copy machine by trying to making additional bulletins. The Music staff would be concerned how we could get hymnals and Bibles for each person to be able to read the words. The Property Committee would be going nuts because at the end of one of the worst droughts in recent history, when the grass is brown and crunchy, thousands of people are trampling and sitting down breaking the blades of grass. The preacher would be grinning from ear to ear looking out upon the masses, concerned whether his words could possibly be worthy. While the Women's Association and the Membership and Outreach Committee wonder how they could provide enough Presbyterian punch for Coffee Hour. The difficulty with appropriating this passage is not identifying with the disciples, but that rationally in the 21st Century we do not believe 5000 people would ever turn out to worship God! I went to Seminary in a skeptical age, where when confronted with a passage like this, we were taught to reason out the most human of interpretations. Like the Children's Story of Stone Soup, it must be, that when the child offered all he had 5 loaves and 2 fish, the adults were shamed into each offering what they had hoarded away, and in the end there was a multiplication more, than at the first. But to follow this interpretation makes God some great Social Worker, who manipulates peoples sense of generosity. Jesus becomes one who preys upon peoples' sense of shame and guilt, and that is not the Savior whom we know and love. NO, the power of this story is not in rationally reasoning out human behavior, but instead believing in the power of God that all who are hungry should be fed. John Calvin's explanation was that the five loaves represented the 5 Books of Moses, the Pentateuch or Torah, the Books of Law, which when given to the people and distributed returned in the ministry of the 12 disciples, and what was most important to Calvin that not one particle of matter was lost, for nothing could ever be lost from God. The problem of those of us who received our education from the time of the Great Enlightenment through the 20th Century, was that in what was called The Modern Era, we believed Knowledge was Power, that ultimately everything in the universe could be known, and knowing we could master our world. Ironically, with the discovery of the micro-processing chip, computerization and telecommunication, we shifted from the Modern Era to the Information Age. In this time, we are constantly plugged in and bombarded with knowledge. We channel surf between Reality Shows and Sit-Coms, Game Shows, Talk Shows and News Shows, as if all were equal, all were for our entertainment, and as if this were not enough at the bottom of the screen teletype scrolled by with highlights of other stories to distract our focus. Tragically, we have replaced the era of Knowledge, with a Time of being Passive, Isolated and Alone, where we do not know what to do with all the information available to us. In recent years, we have responded to Tsunamis, Flesh-eating Viruses, Mine Cave-ins, Shark Attacks, North Korean Rocket launches, the killing of Osama bi Laden, European Debt, Chimpanzees ripping the face off of a woman, Job Loss Numbers, and the Olympics. I would admit that within the church, we are no better, as sometimes it seems we go from crisis to crisis, the list of concerns is an overwhelming multitude. At times I feel as though our prayers are like plate spinners on old Variety shows, where we are focused on spinning concern for this woman recovering from unending surgeries for cancer, then for this man with depression, then this child, when suddenly we learn of a neighbor falling from a roof. How do we respond and minister to 5000 concerns and in our shock everything begins to crash around us like shattering plates. To treat any of our stories as miracles enables our faith to become a consumerism of magic incantation, if only I pray harder I can save my sister from Cancer. If only we believed more, our child would not have died. If I had been a better parent... And if not me, then it must be “the Will of God” and what a merciless God to cause such suffering! The POINT of Miracles is not to FIX broken things, Prayer is not purchase of the Missing God Particle that will explain the universe, or even the Gosh-darned particle, but redeeming the Lost. Prayer, Faith, Reading the Scriptures, all require that we stop, we re-orient ourselves, to listening for God, watching what God may do, believing all things are possible with God. We need to sit down on the grass, as Moses did with the people in the wilderness when giving to them the Law, and as Jesus did here with the loaves and fishes. The point is not to make any one of these circumstances of our neighbors a testimony to our faith, our latest miracle story, but instead to know that nothing has ever been lost to God, there is a superabundance of grace that can suffice. In 1946 a young woman named Agnes took her vows to become a nun. In the ministry, there is not always choice of where and how you serve, and she was sent to Calcutta to work with those with Leprosy, the untouchables, whose own families had shunned them. Agnes was a young woman of 18 who along with 16 other nuns were given responsibility of ministering to thousands of people with a disease that at the time was incurable. Overwhelming odds, daunting, but the experience made Agnes into Mother Theresa. How easy it is for our fears of what is missing to take possession of us and to toss us in a sea of chaos, instead of listening to God, welcoming Jesus in, and discovering we are already on the other side.

July 1, 2012 "Touching"

2 Samuel 1 Mark 5: 21-43 Four weeks ago a daughter of the Church was married and insofar as the Groom's family were Chilean, I officiated at the marriage, while our Parish Associate translated the entire ceremony into Spanish. A difficult enough task, but there are certain idioms in any language that do not have an immediate equal. The most difficult became description of the wedding band, because what we tried to emphasize was a pun, in that what is worn as a gift of love also wears upon the receiver. Erosion did not seem right, nor dressing up, and we had quite a search for what is related to the feeling of touch and being touched. Increasingly, we are becoming a sensory stimulated society, lighting and colors are made brighter, music and sound louder, I have a brother in the dairy business who tells me that they are having to make stronger and stronger flavors and smells of cheeses because our taste buds are becoming dull. Yet, as stimulated as we are in sight, smell, taste and sound, we are becoming ever increasingly isolated and sterile. We have sanitary lotions everywhere to wipe away the germs of one another. What happens if we become a society afraid to touch, afraid of being touched. For hundreds of years, anthropologists had speculated what might happen to a person if denied human touch. Would we revert to something primordial and vicious? Would we find ways to touch and soothe and satisfy ourselves? Would we withdraw into our own thoughts and a world of our imagination? Tragically in the 1980s, with the Fall of Romania, we witnessed first-hand the effect of not touching, President Ceausescu had enforced bizarre laws about social interaction. The result were thousands of children warehoused from birth in grossly overcrowded institutions, never having been held, touched, soothed, tickled or pinched, or embraced. As adults, we would have difficulty describing them as human creatures; they fully grown, fully mature beings, but incapable of emotion, incapable of interaction, incapable of speech, unable to relate to anything outside themselves. This is the importance and power of human touch. Is it any wonder that in order to be our Messiah, to be the Savior, God became human, a vulnerable baby to be touched and to experience life? Who then as an adult, as the Rabbi, healed and touched. So many describe the difference between the Old and New Testaments, as the one being filled with love and forgiveness, while the other has such brutal violence.Yet, in all human history, over and above any other religion, Christianity in the four gospels narrates a story of human suffering and death more brutal than any other. If we heard this morning's readings as “How David became King” and “Jesus Healed Two People” we miss each of the stories, for these are stories of faith in human intimacy, human interaction, trust and touch. Last Sunday we shared the epic tale of David and Goliath, which provided numerous changes. David the Shepherd boy became a Mighty Warrior. Little David was brought into the household of King Saul, raised as if a brother to Saul's son Jonathan. But also, recall the vow of Goliath, that as one Warrior competing against another, the winner would take the losers head, and the army of the loser became the personal army of the winner. Unfortunately, in preaching, we skip over whole sections of the Bible, dozens of years in a person's life, decades of human history. When the Tribes of Israel had escaped from slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt, there ere other tribes as well. In addition to the Canaanite tribes of the Hittites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, etc, there were the Amalekites. Different from the Egyptians who were Masters, and the Israelites who had been slaves, the Amalekites preyed upon the weak. Like Wolves or Coyotes, the Amalekites followed after the Israelites through their journeys from Egypt to the Promised Land, enslaving and killing anyone who fell behind, anyone weaker than themselves. Their stories, their reputations, their hostility was fearsome. So it was, in the passages we skipped between the people wanting a king and Samuel being told to anoint Saul, and the following week where Samuel mourning that Saul had not been a good king, so out of all the sons of Jesse God chooses David, what happened was that God had told King Saul to eliminate the Amalekites. It is a hard passage, one which makes little sense to a Post-Modern world. Yet, the point of the story is that King Saul decides he knows better than God, and he chooses to not listen to God, to allow the Amalekites to go free. After last week's passage, David comes to live in the Palace with Saul and Jonathan, until one day in a rage, Saul throws a spear and narrowly misses David. SO David runs away to save his life. When suddenly he remembers the vow of Goliath, and claims the Philistine Army as belonging to him. But now David has a problem, because while David has been anointed by Samuel to be King of Israel, and while David is commander of the Philistine Army which had proven they could beat the army of Israel, still David did not want to destroy Israel! Despite Saul trying to have David killed, David revered the King and loved Jonathan as a brother. Repeatedly, when given opportunity David spares Saul's life, for Saul is the Anointed Installed King of Israel and no one not even David has the right or power to lay hands upon and kill God's Anointed. All of which sets up this morning's reading, as news comes to David from the front lines. If you were David, how would you respond: Did this man provide mercy to Saul, killing him to spare suffering? As an Amalekite, whom God had ordered Saul to kill and he had not, this one who preyed upon the weak, dared to lay hands upon and kill God's Anointed, and take the Crown and Armlet, was this treason? The distinction that is present in the Bible, is that the Old Testament is about The Law, The Amalekite had preyed upon the dying king, he was of a tribe that was to be exterminated, and he dared kill the anointed one of God. Whereas the New Testament emphasizes the fulfillment of the Law, is not always black and white, sometimes humanity, forgiveness, faith, intimacy, touch make all the difference. To understand these stories from Mark, we need to recall this as a Caste Society, where those who have power are esteemed and revered, and those who are unclean according to the Law, cannot socialize, cannot speak or touch those who are clean. Jesus had been preaching and teaching and healing, had gotten into the boat of fishermen to cross the Galilean Sea and awakened from sleep Jesus calmed the wind and sea. Their boat arrived on the otherside, where they were greeted by what was left of a man possessed by a legion of Demons, casting the demons out of this man into a herd of pigs, the swine ran off a cliff, for which Jesus was chased back into their boat and out of the region. Arriving back on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, before their boat is even on shore, the most esteemed and respected leader of the Synagogue named Jairus comes running to Jesus. Middle-eastern Men, leaders of the Synagogue do not ordinarily run. He bows down and humbles himself before Jesus begging for Jesus to come immediately to save his 12 year old daughter. Throughout the Gospel of Mark , the most common word, used over and over to emphasize that this is a Crisis Moment a Chiros moment, is the word “IMMEDIATELY.” Yet, Jesus has to go through the marketplace to get from the shore to Jairus' home, and a woman who had had bleeding for 12 years, a woman who was ritually unclean, reached out and touched the robe of the Anointed one of God. Here the leaders of the Synagogue had just bowed down and humbled himself before Jesus, and this un-named, unclean ostracized woman dared to try to touch Jesus! Is that the way we think faith works? Touch the magic hem of the robe and be healed? In a crowded busy marketplace, Jesus who had touched 10 people with Leprosy, Jesus who had been accused of eating with hands defiled, Jesus who himself would strip and kneel before the disciples to wash their feet, Jesus who held babies and children, do you imagine would be upset by this woman touching him? Yet, instead of rushing to Jairus' 12 year old daughter, Jesus stops to acknowledge that this unclean, unacceptable woman has been made well by her wanting to touch him. When they arrive at Jairus' home, the father and the anointed one are told that the 12 year old is dead. Oddly, what is described is that paid mourners, are in chaos what to do, and when Jesus responds we must pray to bring the dead to life, the paid mourners laugh. If I were Jairus I would want my money refunded. These are people paid to grieve and display mourning, and instead they are talking and gossiping and laughing! Jesus instead goes into the house, into the child's room and treats her, not as unclean, not as a dead corpse, but as child, he takes her hand and lifts her up, to sit up and stand and eat. The point of these passages about touching and being touched, are that we question, whether we allow ourselves to feel and experience faith? Whether like Saul we become so caught up in our being right, that we defy God? Or like the Amalekite we risk killing God's anointed one for us in order that we might gain? Or whether we are desperate enough to cross boundaries and risk to touch, whether we really want to be made well? Whether we treat a child as a child, and death as prelude to everlasting life, or whether we are in chaos uncertain if we are to laugh or weep, or gossip, and are only motivated by who is paying us? David's response to the Death of King Saul and Jonathan is one of the classics of literature. As experienced at the Memorial of President Kennedy. As experienced at the Assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. As experienced on September 11th. We as a Nation, as a people of God, stop in Sabbath to recognize that life will never again be the same. Over and over again, with the Foreign policy, with the Economy, there have been assumptions that we would get back to normal... to life as we are comfortable with it... The point of the raising of Jairus' daughter, the healing of the unclean woman, and mourning the deaths of Saul and Jonathan are that we allow ourselves permission to feel, to touch and be touched , and experience life wearing upon us. The Scottish Philosopher John MacMurray has described “I need you, in order to be myself.” We each need one another to wear upon.

"Peace, Be Still" June 24, 2012

PEACE, BE STILL. This is the Day the Lord has made, This is the Day of Salvation. This is Graduation Sunday. I remember our family's Graduation Sundays, not only for hearing the name of your child for their accomplishments and scholastic prizes, but with all the family from out of town, with a schedule that literally we had to go from a Graduation Breakfast to Worship, to a Graduation Brunch at Krebs, to Commencement, to the Parties. I recall the worry, about how we would ever afford University, we had only a decade before finished our school loans. What would happen to our children, would they graduate college, would they find employment, would they find satisfaction and friends, would their lives have meaning. The anxiety was not that we were not proud, not they would not graduate, but that something would be missed, something forgotten, it is the anxiety of waking in the middle of the night when you cannot recall if you put paprika on the Deviled Eggs, or put the Potato Salad back in the Refrigerator. Churches are known for making bloopers. There is a Broadway Play about The Church Basement Ladies... there are always Newsletter and Bulletin problems of syntax, like: “Next week we will be using the Baptismal font at the Altar and the one at the Narthex, infants may be Baptized at both ends.” One of the current favorites come from a Church sign which reads: “Don't let Worry Kill you, allow the Church!” Worry, Anxiety Fear are faith killers. Worry, Shame, Fear cause our minds to shut down and our worst nature to take over. Anxiety transforms us, from the persons we want to be, into people we do not know or recognize. I made a mistake a few weeks ago. Preaching on the Gospel of Mark, we named the power of Shame, as Jesus' own family question if he has a demon. The mistake was in naming Shame and anxiety, and due to time and length not naming the reality of Evil. Anxiety, Worry, Fear are Evil, they blind us to the truth, and distort reality, so we become a house divided against ourselves. The story of David and Goliath has become so popularized over time, as to become a cultural icon about the Underdog versus the Giant. But the faith story is about so much more. We hear and we imagine the Philistine has as weapons Shield, Sword & Spear, the Shepherd boy has a slingshot and stones. Goliath the Giant stands 6 cubits, that is over 9'6” tall, weighing over 300 pounds, his armor alone weighs 125 lbs of bronze. More agile, fighting differently, the little boy David like Jack and the Beanstalk: kills the giant. Because of anxiety and fear, the child David is changed into a warrior. Not with the armor and weapons that King Saul shares, but the things which actually make for killing another: hate, fear, desire to dominate and control. We have witnessed censored video of Al Quaida beheading their enemies. In the French Revolution, the Guillotine was a favorite method of demonstrating that those who were powerful, those who as Aristocracy saw themselves as more than common humanity, could have their brains separated from their bodies. As one blood-thirsty warrior had pledged to another, after the slingshot David decapitated Goliath. Throughout the Renaissance, the image of the little half-naked boy David holding the severed head of Goliath was a romanticized image of true power and strength in a next generation. But setting aside the fear and anxiety of Goliath's taunts and intimidation, the Champion of Israel entered this battle not with Shield or Spear, but with faith in the Name of the Lord God. The problem is that our cultural icon, is of Davy and the Slingshot, the five smooth stones, and the severed head as the Philistine army runs away; rather than lifting up that where the hearts of King Saul and his army had melted, the champion of Israel was armed with faith, so it did not matter how tall he was, or how strong, he could not lose. My fear as a preacher, is how often because of fear, because of anxiety, we become warriors, combatants, rather than considering if we are fighting for the Lord, for righteousness or only self-righteousness as every side loses its head. Due to the longest war in American history; due to our feelings of helplessness as the economy continues to hurl into the abyss and make only minor gains in part because of fears of Europe's economy and our oil dependency; due to worry about what fracking will due to our groundwater, we each, everyone of us believe we are the underdog, we and we alone are fighting for truth. As much as we struggle, as much as we work and try, the giants/everyone else, does not seem to understand what is on our minds. Our affection is that we are the Underdogs, singing “We are the Champions of the World,” and we never question if our fears and anxieties have made us Goliaths spouting threats. PEACE, BE STILL. After a long and emotional day of being with family and friends, of preaching and teaching, and healing,... along toward Sunset, at the end of the day, Jesus the Carpenter, the Rabbi, Messiah, puts himself into a boat, places himself into the hands of his disciples, the territory of professional sailors and fishermen, and his disciples set out to cross the Galilean Sea. As the exhausted Jesus sleeps the wind begins to lift and the sea begins to churn, like the primordial vision of chaos the water becomes a tumult. The Gospel harkens back to the Book of Jonah, as the Sailors do everything in their own power to control the situation, the Man of God is sound asleep, and the sailors and fishermen in each story wake him saying “Do you not care, that we are perishing!?” Different from Jonah, Jesus calms the troubled waters with a word. Then at the center of this pericope asks the question “Why are you afraid, have you no faith?”. Just as with the Church Bloopers, we need to be very careful about what is really being said. Often times, we confuse saying “There is nothing to be afraid of” with saying “Why are you afraid have you no faith?” In the middle of the night, when your three year old is screaming, and as parents we bust into the room, to take them up in our arms, and wipe their sweaty locks from their forehead, we vainly try to convince them, our children: “There is nothing to fear.” But there is. Maybe they heard Mom and Dad arguing. Maybe the child picked up on the unnatural silences of their father staring off in space in worry. Maybe the child is afraid of graduation, of leaving home, of college and the economy and war, of the unknown. Jesus' disciples as fishermen knew the dangers of being out on the sea at night. Peter and James and John, knew the power of that body of water that was beyond their professional ability to control. Jesus did not say to them, “You have nothing to fear,” but rather instead of letting your fears add to the chaos of the churning water, instead of allowing yourself to be dominated by fear: act in faith, faith in God, faith in one another, faith in the church. Ultimately, this morning, I find myself clinging desperately to several strands: Can we name our anxieties, why we are afraid and so own these by bring these into the light? We as the church took a solemn vow to encourage our leaders, to trust them to lead us in the way of Jesus Christ. And Paul's Letter to the Corinthians which we began with this day... From now on, we regard no one from a human point of view; though once we regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer. If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old has passed away, behold the new has come! All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to God, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to God's self, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are Ambassadors for Christ, God making God's appeal through us. We beseech you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, God made him to be sin who knew no sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Working together with Christ then, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain. For Christ says, “At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation.” Behold, Now is the acceptable time. Behold, Now is the day of salvation! We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watching, hunger, by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything. You are not restricted by us, but restricted only in your own affections.

June 17, 2012 "Seeing the Heart"

I Samuel 15:34 - 16:13 Mark 4:26-34 What a marvelous word for our time! As simple and common as these stories are, I can think of nothing More Counter-Cultural! Everything in our society screams: Time is Money, Money is the Value of all things, Time is Wasting. Make a decision. Choose the fastest, smallest, most unique, sexiest, most expensive, most experienced. And Be careful not to do anything to offend the existing power structure. Yet Samuel, the last in the line of The Judges is told to go to a family with no great lineage, no power, they are not royalty, not great warriors, or heroes, not even the most faithful or devout. Jesse's great great grandmother seduced her father-in-law. His great grandmother was a Canaanite Prostitute; his grandmother was a foreigner from Moab. Now, Samuel from among this lineage, select a new King, Not the First-born, Not the most experienced, the most attractive, the strongest, the wealthiest, the most secure but instead choose the most child-like. The point is not the quality of the seed, or the skill of the planter, but to trust that God is doing what God needs do. A parable is not reasonable, a parable is not learning a different language or higher level math. If anything, hearing a parable is like looking at the world cross-eyed, perceiving everything spiritually through faith, as if all life were pointed to the cross, not as a symbol of persecution and suffering, not even as a symbol of the Church, but that Nothing not even death can separate us from the Love of God. Samuel was seeing the world through captivity to his fears. He had known it would be a mistake to ordain a King, yet God told him to do so. The people wanted Saul to be King, and Samuel warned them the cost, but he had had to anoint Saul King, and Saul was a vicious and terrible king. So now what? Saying I told you so will not change reality. Saying or doing anything may bring the wrath of Saul upon your head for treason or even blasphemy. And God instructs Samuel, “DO SOMETHING RELIGIOUS” Because No one will pay any attention! Samuel goes to anoint a King to displace Saul, and he does not simply go to pray, he takes a sacrifice, not a handful of grain, or pair of turtle doves, or a lamb, even a young calf, but a full grown heifer. And as instructed, he comes to Jesse of Bethlehem. And Samuel looks on the first born, Eliab... And God says No And the second Abinadab is prettier than the first... And God says No And the third Shammah is stronger than the two... And God says No And the fourth is more educated... the fifth more experienced... the sixth... the seventh... Then Samuel asks the question we often neglect to wonder after seeing seven sons... Are there others? And Samuel anoints David the Shepherd of the flocks to be Shepherd of Israel. We need to look with our hearts and not with our eyes! This is a table, like the dining table in each of our homes, where we gather with family and friends. The bread is only bread, the cup is only a common cup, yet gathering, this is our most precious meal. The pitcher filled with water, yet we hear the sound of Baptism, pouring out, empty, and receiving in. The couple profess their love, and kiss as they have a thousand times before, and now they are married. A child is only a child, yet as parents through a lifetime we look upon them in so many different ways. We have known they were coming, yet they arrive, we cannot stop smiling, speaking softly, rocking. I would dare to say, that in all of the Bible, there are few more profound words than this: Jesus spoke in parables, as they were able to hear; he did not speak without a parable. A parable needs to seep and soak and marinade upon you. The point of speaking in parables, is not only the wisdom of the saying, but in learning to see the world, to look beyond circumstance, as if everything were a parable of faith. As spectacular as our windows are, and as gorgeous as the refracted light, by removing these few this morning, not only do we see light differently, not only can we see with greater illumination, not only do the dynamics of this space appear to change, but instead of feeling as if in an ivory tower, a place apart where everything is sacred, we see the world outside this upper room, cognizant that there is sacred in the midst of the community. This week, I had contacted John to suggest that as we are planning for the 5th Anniversary of the Clinic, I remember the words of the Paramount Chief, a man I deeply respect and love, that if you do this thing that you vow you will be blessed, and if you lie you will die a miserable death and be forgot. I asked John if for the 5th Anniversary, the Paramount Chief might now confer his blessing upon us. And simultaneously, John reported that at the dedication of the completed clinic compound the Chief had died and been buried, but that Senators, and Governors, had affirmed what a blessing had been given, how lives had been changed, and like the baskets above the door our lives were interwoven together. Hearing these parables this morning, we need to confirm what has been said a hundred times before, yet never heard. Our economy demands that we spend money, our world decries that we make purchases and investments, and the value of a thing is only in the moment when it is new. When we replaced the administrative offices and nurseries, we rebuilt THE CENTER of the Church. When the floor joists of the Sanctuary were rotting and cracked, we lifted UP THE FOUNDATIONS. When we commissioned the creation of an Organ, we committed ourselves as a Patron of the ARTS & MUSIC for the community. Every act, is an act of faith. Often times, we plan for these, we manage every detail and worry about the outcomes. The parable from Mark is that like a farmer to sleep and wake and work, and sleep, confident that God is causing the world to go on, the Sun to shine, the rains to fall, the seeds to grow and winds to blow. The most telling piece about this passage from Mark, is that after describing three parable about planting seed, that the farmer sleeps and wakes to do the work of God, and that everything is a parable about the Kingdom of God, when evening comes the disciples get into a boat and set out to sea. In the boat at night, these fishermen are filled with fear, while Jesus sleeps. They wake him to say, do you not care we are perishing? Jesus says “PEACE, BE STILL then asks his own disciples: Have you no faith.” The parable is not only, the specific stories Jesus told, but his entire presence, our entire lives. Do we see as we have been taught? To look with prejudice? To rationalize and make excuses? To count up the abuses we have endured, to nurture our anger and resentments, Or do we look with the heart, do we look CROSS-eyed seeing every relationship as opportunity for forgiveness and compassion. This is Father's Day, which in our community means Pancakes and Scrambled Eggs. I thought having known and loved my father, and loved my children, I understood well what Father's Day was all about. But in the years since my Father's passing, I have come to recognize many in our midst, who have served as mentors, father-like figures who provide for us, care for us and occasionally offer wisdom, who want only to be proud of where we go in life as we fly our nests. I am a great lover of Systems theory, of recognizing that we tend to apply and replicate the patterns and systems we have experienced, as if this were the only way there is. Often it is a problem for couples to recognize that other families do things differently. The power of Samuel anointing the 8th son of Jesse, the power of the seeds growing, is realization that we do not have to control life, only live life taking joy that this this is God's Creation.

"Binding the Strong Man", June 10, 2012

I Samuel 8:4-20 Mark 3: 20-35 One of the wonderful things about reading the Bible is that the text does not always mean exactly what we thought or want it to mean, and new things are continually revealed. This passage of a House Divided, we discover Lincoln took out of context when addressing the Republican National Convention and actually is a passage about Family, and about the ways we undermine and humble the Strong Man, which could be a description for anyone Powerful, The Government, The Devil or even God. From the Reformation, one of the teachings of the Church has been, rather than being certain what a passage says for all time, to allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. Imagine you are the younger brothers and sisters of Jesus. As you live your life, reports come back that your brother is disturbing the peace. He stood up to the Pharisees and Priests, he is even getting into trouble with the Roman Empire. Everyone is talking about him, and what they are saying is he hangs out with Prostitutes, he eats with Dirty Hands, he consorts with Lepers and touches the Untouchable. Your resolution is to have a family intervention, to take him out of the spotlight. To do so, you need to find a way to confront him, that will isolate him from his followers, that will weaken him, and make him a man alone. First Samuel, describes a time when being the people of God was in its infancy, after Moses and Joshua, and Judges, the people had come into the Promised Land and continued to fight the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizites and Jebusites. This was a time of instability and threat, when what the people most needed and wanted and felt was for safety, security, to be accepted in order to risk independence. The traditional commentary about this passage focuses on cultural temptation to try to blend in and be like everyone else, to adopt the customs of others, which ultimately leads toward secularism. This week as Great Britain celebrated their Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the commentators described that despite our Revolution against a Monarchy, how many Americans were following this, and speculated that we might actually prefer this celebration to that of our Presidential Debates and robo-calls. The challenge which comes to the Prophet Samuel is that the people abandon trust in his leadership for something different. How similar this cry sounds to the Arab Spring of a year ago, and the societal evolution from Chiefs and Judges and Dictatorships and Monarchies to free elections and Democracy. Like leaders in our own time, Samuel responds defensively. But God intervenes, revealing that this is not a rejection of Samuel, but Rejection of God. The implicit message of this story, more than a desire to be like everyone else, is that “The Nature of Humanity is to Shame God, to reject; yet God Endures.” Psychotherapist Marc Miller published that Shame is one of the most basic of human responses and biggest problems for people to resolve, and yet shame has been virtually ignored in psychiatry. We teach people to deal with anger, love, aggression, lust, loss, sexuality, fear, excitement, but rarely if ever Shame. We are ashamed to discuss our feelings of shame. The exception to this has been a Child Developmental Specialist: John Bradshaw, who describes that the very First thing we learn is a sense of Trust greater than Distrust. Next after Trust, we learn Shame, but there is Healthy Shame and there can be TOXIC Shame. Healthy Shame is learning control to use the Potty instead of a diaper, and learning the word No. We have a need for structure and for discipling. Toxic Shame is a shame at feeling feelings, a shame at needing perceived as being needy, or wanting what we can never possess. When we lose touch with reality, lose touch with what we need, when we lose touch with what we want,. or what we feel, we lose touch with our humanity. Every form of Addiction comes back to this toxicity at the core of our being. A child is a precious gift of God, filled with grace and spontaneity. Addiction is when we no longer know what we feel, what we need, what we want so we satiate our needs and wants and feelings with what anesthetizes. Shame is a sickness of the soul....the humiliated one feels naked, defeated, alienated, lacking in dignity and worth. The shamed avert their eyes and bite their lip, and when the shame is especially exercised, shame disables the ability to think, to speak and to react. The point of shame is to crush the humanity of the other, forcing their submission to your will. Mark's Gospel of Jesus is personal and intimate regarding shame, far more than the Book of Samuel, and as such: painful. This is not about a Nation and leadership, but about family, one's own family. To grasp the Gospel of Mark, we need a perspective different from any other author. According to Mark, the domain of the Devil is NICENESS. If everyone just got along, if no one questioned, no one doubted, the rulers of this world would be in absolute control. To Culture, to Empire, to Church, to Community, to Family being nice and going along translates as dominance. According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus ripped open the heavens and unleashed powers that were not control-able. Shame is a unique and dangerous experience, because shame is not rational. You cannot think your way out of shame. Most often, when embarrassed, when shamed we look for others to project our shame onto. None of us like feeling anxiety, worry, apprehension, guilt, shame. We find ways to bind our anxiety. Most often these begin privately, with only our knowing a problem, an indiscretion, a sin. We have difficulty accepting our responsibility and ownership of what we have done. We try to convince others of our righteousness and the sin of others. But the privacy of this knowledge, manifests what has been hidden as a Secret. Secrets gain power by their being secret, by being in the shadows and not being known by others. Secrets suck everything from our lives, until all we seem able to do is to protect the secret. The irony is that as soon as what is secret is brought into the light, the secret loses its power. Yet instead of making the secret open and transparent, we bind the anxiety to other persons. While Jesus' family felt shame, they attempted to shame him by describing him as possessed by Beelzebub. Shame is the means of undermining the powerful. Shame destroys political campaigns. Shame destroys marriages. Shame puts down the other's sense of self and makes of them only what we tell them they are. Strangely, the means of coping with shame also requires that we think outside ourself. Here I want to use three examples, one from Literature, one from Counseling, and one from Scripture. The year was 1871, roughly when this Sanctuary was first built, Napoleon Bonaparte was Emperor and France was in the midst of revolution. Babette Hersant was a wife and mother and the chef of one of the finest restaurants in Paris. Suddenly, Babbette's husband and child were murdered, and she needed to flee. Babette found herself on the peninsula of Jutland, north of Denmark, North of Germany, with the North Sea to the West and the Baltic Sea to the East. Searching for work and housing she found a tiny church in the community run by two sisters after their father, the founder, had died. All of their faith was about denial of self, denial of pleasure. The whole community wore black. Their food was intentionally bland. Following the death of their pastor, they had become a people without hope. Babette became the servant of the Sisters of Denial. Babette had one remaining relative, who weekly would play the lottery in Babette's name. Suddenly one day, a letter came in the post, for Babette. Inside was a letter of verification from an attorney, and a check for $10,000 that she had won the lottery. Babette was thankful to be alive, to have found a home and work. So she decided to create for the whole village the most elaborate feast anyone had ever seen. Two boats arrived, with fine crystal and china, and all manner of different exotic foods. When the appointed time came, everyone in the village was there, dressed in black, looking somber, saying nothing to anyone. But as they ate, their senses began to respond with pleasure, with variety, with tastes and textures they had never known. At one point, the Mayor's wife could not contain herself and belched, to which the man beside her said “Halleluia! I have been wanting to do that for an hour.” People began interacting, sharing expressions, looking one another in the eye and talking about what they enjoyed. As they finished the feast, the Village began asking Babette what she would do with her fortune. Babette responded that she had already spent it on this feast. She had withheld nothing for herself, but given it all and all her talents as a Chef, to give those who had given her a home and renewed purpose pleasure. Close your eyes and imagine a picture of yourself at any earlier time, perhaps a year ago, maybe 20, possibly as a child, a time when you were your most shamed, most humiliated, most vulnerable, when you were unclear what you wanted or needed or felt, because you were so alone. Got the image. Now, see yourself today walking into that space. Sit down beside your wounded-self. Take their hand in yours and speak in a soothing way...It is normal to Feel...It is normal to have Needs... I know what you wanted at that moment... I am here as your companion and champion... I will be here with you when ever you need. In both of our readings this morning, God and Jesus reframe who they are to those around them. Instead of the Period of Judges the People of God will now have a Monarchy and yet God will continue to be God. When rejected and embarrassed by his brothers and family, Jesus claims all those he loves as family. Binding the Strong Man, is about how we chose to deal with Shame... Whether we are shamed by shaming, Whether we shame others for our embarrassment, or if we can act in grace for others as an act of reclaiming them differently in faith.

"Divine Order", May 13, 2012

John 15:9-17 Acts 10:44-48 Boundaries are important and are all around us. Floating lines marking the lanes in a swimming pool to prevent swimmers crossing into one another, or to separate the deep end from the shallow. Lines on a basketball court identifying what is in-bounds and what is out. Rivers and Mountain ranges which mark the separation of States and Countries. Boundaries provide definition and security, creating identity and order. We are taught order, one, two, three, four, five, as basic building blocks to all we will ever know. As we learn different languages, we always begin learning: Uno, duos, thres, quatro sinq; Un, du, troi, cat, sinc, cis; Eins, zwei, drei, fier, funph. We learn order, to understand progression, and differences and ways of knowing. But what if, all that we learned in this life, all the created orders and boundaries, had been learned as the parameters of life we need to reject and overcome? A means to the end of discerning where there have been voids in our order. Where limitations and boundaries control, where ends restrict and divide that we are challenged to surpass. This morning we are given only the punchlines to these passages, assuming we understand the context. Centuries before the Roman Empire, in the primordial stories of Genesis, Abraham was given commandment by God of what foods are clean and unclean, kosher and non-kosher. Different from vegetarian and non-vegetarian, Kosher ordering segregated reptiles, shellfish and certain birds, as well as animals with cloven foot or toes, as unclean; versus those with a hoof and fins were clean and good. In the days of the Apostles, following the Resurrection, Simon Peter was told to go to Caesarea. After a long journey Peter went up to the rooftop and had a dream. In this dream, a great sheet was let down from heaven, as a dining room table cloth, on it were all the creatures of the earth. In response to which Peter rejected what was offered as unclean, while a voice from heaven declared what God has made is not for you to decide, and this happened three times. After the third vision, a knock came at the door of the house where they were staying, and the companions of a Roman Centurion named Cornelius led Peter away to Cornelius own home. Now just as there were boundaries separating different foods, there were religious laws that segregated who you could talk to and whose home you could enter. But being invited, Peter went into Cornelius home. Cornelius, the Centurion of Rome declares he had a vision in which he was to send for Simon Peter and he did. Simon Peter begins what is one of the most eloquent of sermons ever preached, that Peter now perceives there is no separation between clean and unclean, Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free. While Peter's companions are astonished at what he is saying, Cornelius and his household are baptized in the Holy Spirit. Peter asks the question which the Ethiopian Eunuch had asked in last week's reading, Is there any reason why these should not receive Water Baptism? The great irony was that the early church understood there was and is an ordering: Jesus was Jewish, Jesus called Jewish Disciples, each disciple had been baptized in water, and later following Easter's resurrection on the day of Pentecost, the one's Jesus had chosen received a Baptism of the Holy Spirit. There was a Baptism of Water as believers chose to be disciples with tangible earthly elements, and later, if chosen by God the disciples were Baptized with the Holy Spirit as a spiritual kind of confirmation. This spiritual baptism, the gifting of the Holy Spirit was what distinguished the Confirmed from the Baptized infants in faith, the ordained from common believers. Here, the order was wrong! Gentiles, Not Jews but Romans, a Centurion of the Emperor no less, had been given the gift of the Holy Spirit! Had God made a mistake? To suggest that God could make a mistake was blasphemy! So how and why had this Cornelius received the gift of the Holy Spirit, and he did so before receiving the Church's Water Baptism? Peter's solution, which everyone acquiesces to accept is that he should be baptized with water. The painful reality is that in the church today, we practice baptism with water NEVER expecting that there could be, let alone would be a baptism of the Holy Spirit as well. The historic understanding of this is simply that baptism is for everyone, Jew or Gentile. But, what if the point of this experience is that not only is our Ordering, our segregations not the DIVINE ORDER, but that in every person there not only could be, but is a Baptism of the Holy Spirit? Not only an in-borne gift, but a time of spiritual awakening, a questioning of priorities and commitments, which then commissions them as Apostles serving others? The problem with the church is that we always attempt to concretize experience. We had an experience once, so we endeavor to create practices that force the Holy Spirit's hand. Jesus said, This is my commandment: “That you love one another.” In the turbulence of the 1960s, with Race riots in Watts and Harlem, with sit-ins and protests at the Presidential Campaigns, with fire-engine hoses and attack dogs turned loose on people for riding buses together through Alabama and Mississippi, the Beatles sang “All You Need IS Love”. FAR more than a blessing “Can't we all just get along” to love is a commitment to care about this other person. We take “friendship” for granted. On Facebook, any acquaintance of and acquaintance can “friend” us, sharing photos and thoughts and relationships. Throughout our lives, we worship and work to go from being part of the masses and crowds which followed Jesus, to actually being a disciple, obeying his word. Yet, according to the Gospel of John, on the night of the Last Supper before Jesus' betrayal and arrest and trial and crucifixion, in the Upper Room with his disciples, after washing their feet, after breaking bread with them and after sharing the cup, after sharing in communion with Jesus, he called them friends. How powerful if we actually treated one another as Jesus treated his friends. Aristotle claimed there were three kinds of friends. There are friends who are useful to us. Who for business or political reasons we want to keep close. There are friends whose company we find pleasurable. The third kind, the best kind of friends, are friends whom we enjoy as friends. These are formative friends. Their company effects us, keeping us out of trouble and forces us to consider what otherwise we would miss. These are friends we allow into intimate contact to know us without pretense as we are. What I find intriguing in the Gospel of John, is that according to the DIVINE ORDER, it is not Jesus' friends who become Jesus' disciples, but his disciples who become his friends. We long to be his disciples, to follow where he leads. According to the Gospel lesson, after Jesus had befriended the disciples, after their spending three years together, learning from his teaching and admonitions, they celebrated communion together where he washed their feet, he broke the bread and gave them the cup, Judas walked out of them, and only after all that, Jesus invites the disciples to a different kind of intimacy as friends, a trust where nothing is withheld, where there is absolute caring. The Divine Order is not the Order we routinely follow, not the logical progression, Divine Order is continual digging deeper, trusting more.

"Unless Someone Guide Me" May 6, 2012

John 15:1-8 Acts 8: 26-40 When you read the Bible, do we listen to the story, entertained by the characters and plot, or do we read the Bible looking for ways to process our circumstance and condition in life? When you read the Bible...You do find time regularly to read the Bible, don't you? This is not a guilt trip. There is no attendance requirement regarding worship, there is no financial tax levied for paying offerings, we want believers to want to come to worship as each have needs, to give as we are able. However, as human creature, just as we need to breathe, just as we need eat and drink, so also we each have a spiritual need to reflect on life seeking if not understanding at least empathy to know we are not alone. Our lives are far too busy, too scheduled. Yesterday, I listened to several, who described that after a busy week caring for others, doing our jobs, were at a Breakfast at 8:45 to listen to Martha's witness as a woman who had survived Civil War in Sudan and immigrating to America. What I found especially poignant was her reflection on how for all the years of survival, years of living as a refugee, years of making your way into a new world and new culture, for many there had been denial of feelings and repression of self, which for many survivors had led to depression and anger, guilt and loss of identity. I listened and watched, as these same people who had come so early, left to attend a funeral, then left that funeral to attend a Memorial for another friend, and left that for other engagements of our days. We each have a human spiritual need for sabbath. Not necessarily adhering to a law of staying put from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, or from the chiming of the bell at 9:30 Sunday morning until the preacher drops their hand at the Benediction, but time to reflect, and regular space in our lives to pray. Call it meditation, call it Tai Chi, call it your devotional time, “decompression to prevent depression”, your “Me-time”, your time walking the dog or going for a run, not going golfing to compete, to socialize or to perfect pour game but maybe standing at the Tee and walking a whole bucket full of balls. We each need regular opportunities to pour out all we have taken in. We happen to exist in one of the most incredible places in all the world, our lives are richly blessed, yet we are so busy, running from crisis to crisis, adhering to our schedules, being at the right place at the right time, we fail to notice who we are, what we are becoming, where we are, and just how blessed we are. We are refugees running from ourselves. We have adopted an attitude of survival of living from day to day, because to consider more might overwhelm us. I in no way want to minimize the horrors others have endured. We have not had to live with the terror of being afraid where you step, or what you touch blowing up. We routinely take off our shoes to ride on airplanes, rather than running away from the sound of planes for fear of being shot or bombed, let alone the idea of taking off our shoes because the ground beneath us is “holy”. But denial of self and repression of feelings in order to survive, these have become the norm throughout the world. We pray and read the Scriptures, in order to listen to ourselves, to listen for God, to know that there is something, and someone more grand and larger than ourselves, allowing our lives to be redeemed. The passage from Acts is about one who is reading the Bible to try to redeem their circumstance, to try to understand. Where so often the Bible deals with a beggar, three lepers, a boy with convulsions, who are difficult for us to identify with, this passage is about a person with great responsibilities and great stresses. The identification of this person as needing healing is that they have had to give up family for their career, they have been humiliated and subjugated, yet have worked and dedicated their lives to service which has given them certain authority and reputation and title. What is implied is not a racial separation, by identification as an Ethiopian Eunuch, but this is one from the farthest corners of the earth, who has come seeking wisdom in Israel. To be a Eunuch, a Priest of the Candace means that before puberty this child had been chosen to serve others. This child was designated as one who would serve women, and live among women of prestige and wealth. To ensure that this child had no thoughts of himself, no desire for women, no ability to reproduce, he was CASTRATED before ever becoming a man. Not only had this one lived life in service to others. All their life they would have been teased and tormented, flirted with knowing that no longer was he able to respond as a man. From far distant lands, this Eunuch of Ethiopia had heard of the mighty acts of God, was intrigued and wanted to worship to believe. As one of great power and authority, this one had the ability to travel, to come to Israel,... but once again having been castrated, not only could he never be circumcised in order to convert to Judaism, according to the Books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus being a eunuch he could not be allowed into the Temple as one unclean. Yet, according to the Book of Isaiah, all things are possible. According to Isaiah, even the eunuchs are welcome at the Mountain of God. So this eunuch wonders, which is true? When the Bible seems to disagree, which do we believe Deuteronomy and Leviticus, or Isaiah? How do we know what to believe? Do we just make it up for ourselves? Do we seek answers that make us feel better, or is there truth? Suddenly, there was Phillip. This is a wonderful story. Imagine being in Washington DC or Manhattan, a foreign dignitary is riding in the back seats of his limousine or SUV, it is a beautiful morning like this so the windows are rolled down, and the dignitary is reading allowed. Researching this, it seems our routine of quietly reading to ourselves only began about a 150 years ago. That throughout the Ancient world, even up until the mid 1800s, people who could read, read aloud. This only became a problem when more and more people learned to read, and their reading became a distraction to one another. SO this Limousine is driving down Columbus Circle or Riverside Drive, with the windows open as the dignitary is reading aloud, when someone comes running up alongside the car, and asks “Do you understand what you are reading?” And the door opens and allows the person on the street to climb in. The response of the Dignitary is not to be insulted, not to take offense. But instead to respond, “How can I understand without someone to explain?” Often I hear people describe that “I tried reading the Bible once.” Like trying to read War and Peace. While just as thick and complicated, this is not a novel to digest and take to Book Club. Instead, to read a chapter, or a story, and pause to examine, to apply to wonder about. In this case, Phillip validates this one as a child of God. Yesterday following the Memorial, someone who was a lifelong Catholic commented, the Preacher described Chuck and Marg would invite people to come with them to worship... wonder why they never invited us? Immediately someone extends a welcome that they could convert. At which we stopped together, and said, there is no need for conversion, in this house of God, at this table, You are welcome. It is like the Eunuch asking Phillip, so there is water here, is there reason why I may not be baptized? When as clergy we are trained at Seminary, we are taught the rules of Ordination. Regarding Baptism there are few restrictions, but they are significant. A person is baptized only once in their lifetime, and we baptize into the church into the living community of faith, so it is not necessary to baptize the dead. Yet every minister I know has some story about stretching the boundaries, often it is knowing the baby had died in-utero and as the baby is born, before the chord is cut, the minister baptizes, because it is what the family needs. My favorite story was of an 80 year woman in the church who came to me saying my daughter needs help. When I was pregnant with her 60 odd years ago,I was taken to the hospital because they could not find the baby's heartbeat. The priest was called, who administered last rights, yet two days later the baby was born healthy and strong. Subsequently the priest refused to baptize her because he had already done so, in anointing my belly. All she wants is to be able to receive communion with her family, but she cannot do so having not been baptized. At which point we remembered the story of the Eunuch, and the pastoral question “Here is water, can she not be made whole, can she not be baptized?”