"Broken Creation Being Broken Again," Easter 2014

Matthew 28:1-10 For each of us, there are moments frozen in time. Often, no one else even knows about about these. Defining moments. Times when you found yourself accused, suspended, having to defend yourself. When the doctor said “We need to run some tests...” When an envelope came from the IRS stating your Return had been flagged for an audit. The first time you went to a bank to try to qualify for a mortgage, and you were not sure you would. When you brought the baby home and realized another person was wholly dependent on you. The first time you lost someone you loved with your whole heart. Easter morning is one of our Defining Moments, an event in history when Everything, not just the World was changed but Everything in Creation was changed. How odd that most often we identify Easter as a day, an annual event, like a Birthday, Anniversary, St.Patty's, Halloween, April Fools, New Years. We mark it on our calendars, and back up forty days and forty nights before to know Ash Wednesday, and how long we must wait, how long we do without. Defining Moments, Life Changing Events, there are supposed to be those in every life, not simply that we are born and mature, progressing seamlessly through life unchanged toward death, but we are defined by the people and circumstance and moments. I have known those who lived life unchanged by defining moments. The adult who acted like a twelve year old, believing they would never get caught, that if they were caught their father could bail them out of anything. The husband who acted as if they had never taken vows, never took responsibility, had dates and relationships as if nothing mattered to anyone except him. The woman who went from her father's house to her husband's, to her second husband's, and third. Ironically, whether we have read the Scriptures or simply absorbed the idea from society, we know and have accepted the presence of Evil, the Fall of humanity. We know people sin, wound and undercut one another. Whether done by us, or to us, we know that Creation is not the Garden of Eden. Regardless of Evolution, or Divine Intervention, How we got here is not the basic question of life! We can all agree Life is not perfect, there are wars, ships that overturn, planes that are hijacked, divorces, family feuds, job losses, horrible circumstance. Somehow Creation that was called Good, was broken. But like the adult who never grew up, like the man who never took his marriage seriously, or the woman who never questioned who she was as a human being, we have all continued through history ignoring that on Easter the world changed again. Broken Creation as it had been reformed in our image, got broken. I love Matthew's telling of Easter morning. Mark is extremely brief, The Tomb IS Empty, the women ran in fear. Luke describes how the women found Peter, who found the other disciple Jesus loved and they ran to see, while Mary stood weeping. John includes all these other stories of other resurrections. Matthew is filled with details, and in the details, Excitement and a little Anxiety. The last time there were Angels in the Gospels was at the beginning. In Luke, The Angels announced to Shepherds in the field the Savior was born. At his baptism he was driven off into the wilderness by an angel. In each, after the temptation in the wilderness, he was ministered to by angels. Since then, this has been a very human story, about the human Jesus going back and forth between Judah and Galilee, between the People of God and the Gentile World. When the Powers and Principalities of the World conspired with the Religious people to kill Jesus, not a quick death, but crucifixion which was designed to make people fear, to watch for hours and days as a person suffered to death. And when they were dead, to bury the body as gone from sight and mind. The Marys, Mary Magdeline and the Other Mary, are recorded as having wept and watched and prayed. Now that the Sabbath is over, they go to relieve their anxiety. There are several different interpretations of what took place, that do not reconcile. Possibly, like a comet streaking across the sky, an angel comes to earth pushing the stone aside and in a sign of dominance and victory the angel sits down on it. The other three Gospels all state that the Tomb was already opened by the act of resurrection. Matthew is the only one to mention an earthquake. My youngest son works as an Engineer with earthquakes. Being thoroughly trained in Engineering of Earthquakes, with the experience of having been a Theologian's Offspring, and a degree in English Literature, I asked him. He responded: “This is so incredible! Most often, people see Earthquakes as frightening destruction. Like a scene out of the Exorcist, plates fly off the walls, silverware leaps out of the drawers, the foundations of buildings crack and collapse. BUT Here, the Earthquake seems to be a symbol of the power of God. The Earthquake points to burial being denied, reality being changed. What Geologists imagine is that deep beneath the earth's crust, Earthquakes are these plates larger than continents pulling apart to allow new magma to flow, creation being formed. How cool to have Easter related to Earthquakes, as old Creation destroyed and new Creation being formed.” Personally, I imagine Creation itself could no longer sit by. Creation was a witness when God called Life Good. Creation was a witness when God washed the world clean with Noah. Creation was a witness when Abram and Sarai set out with the Promise of future generations. Creation was witness to the 10 Commandments. Creation was witness to the Babylonian Exile. When the Messiah was made to suffer and die, was buried for 3 days, and God raised Jesus from death to life, I imagine Creation itself responded, all creation shook. Matthew records the Guards being traumatized, so filled with fear they are like dead men. When the Angel speaks to the Marys, those who have been filled with fear and loss. We want so desperately for Handel of Beethoven to have written the lyrics of the Angel. A voice like James Earl Jones resonating throughout Creation “I Bring you Good Tidings of Great Joy!” But instead the Angel is like the UPS Man, who simply points out the obvious. “Fear Not. As he said, He is not here. Come see.” They feel Creation shudder. The See the Messenger. They hear. They run not like in Mark where they run in fear. Not as in Luke where Mary stands weeping. They run unable to contain their excitement at loss being turned into love. I remember when I was about 6, spending summers at our grandparents farm. My brothers were older and rarely let me play with them. I recall coming into the house in tears that they had made up a rule you had to have a cap to play baseball on their team, and I had no hat. When my grandfather let me wear one of his hats, I put it on, turned around and ran smack into the door. Staggering a bit, I kept going ran off the porch right into a tree. When I came to, my Grandmother adjusted the size of the cap to fit, so I could see, and I ran off to play. That is how excited the Marys were, they ran to tell the disciples and ran smack into Jesus. Jesus again tells them, “be not afraid.” They go to tell the disciples, that Jesus will meet them in Galilee, the gateway to the Gentile world. One of the details, I find most striking about the witnesses to Easter are that here, it is not only Mary Magdeline, but also “The OTHER Mary” and in Luke it is Simon Peter and also “The OTHER Disciple”. That is who we are is it not, the OTHER Mary, the OTHER Disciple. This Easter is another Defining moment in our lives. It is like when the person who makes your heart flutter says “I love you”. When your child is placed in your arms the first time. After their crying all night long, for you to get them to sleep. For the doctor to tell you “We got it all, and it was benign.” When you are audited and they discover a bigger return than you believed! Be Not Afraid! He is Risen. Broken Creation formed in our image, has been broken again by God.

"At Table Together" Maundy Thursday 2014

Exodus 12: 1-14 John 13:1-17 & 31-35 I Corinthians 11: 23-26 Week in week out, we come to take for granted that we do what we do without recognizing that when in worship we are gathered At Table Together. Whether for Nourishment, for Worship on Sunday, for Communion, for the birth and Baptism of a new member of the family, birthdays and becoming Adults, Holidays, Marriages, Anniversaries, Memorials, we gather at table together. There is importance in routine, there is also meaning to every element and tradition. How often we have each noted that for Marriage and Parenting and Coping with life there are No Instruction Manuals! The central purpose of worship, the purpose of all celebrations and rituals is our passing on of core beliefs and relationships through tradition to new eyes, ears, mouths and generations, be they children or strangers. The point of the Passover and the point of Communion is you cannot be an observer, a stranger, ALL of us are honored guests, there is no greater or lesser place of honor, all are welcome, all are to participate fully. Palm Sunday, I was struck by all the references to The Ear and the Eye. We see this parade. We hear the marching footsteps of the horses and troops, contrasted with the children and foal of a donkey scampering beside Jesus. The Psalter referenced unwaxing our ears, and being given a Word to sustain. The following morning an unoccupied drone was lowered into the Ocean to search for a lost plane... that drone had cameras to see and to hear, even in the cold darkness over 3 miles down at the bottom of the sea. And Yet, as human creatures formed in the image of God, we are about so much more, we smell and taste and touch and feel, we think and pray and reflect and sacrifice and feel, we have a sense of past and present and we anticipate the future. Gathering at Table Together, there are smells and tastes, touches and feelings, related to every memory. Perhaps it is the times we grew up in, possibly the way my brain is wired, but my oldest memories are in b & w and the memories are silent. I remember the smell of pot roast, the scent of roast lamb, the stench of Brussels-sprouts, the smell of Turkey on Thanksgiving. Often times, especially Sundays there were candles. Recall the smell, the humidity, and the feel of a hot bath relaxing your muscles and joints. I remember every holiday waiting and waiting for relatives to arrive, relatives who always were late. It seems as though at least five years went by, when every night one of the four of us going through the spasms of puberty spilt a glass of milk, wetting the table and our laps. There was the sugary sweet taste of Wedding cake icing. There was the smell of brandy when my parents tried to make cherries-jubilee and plum pudding and neither time would they light. I recall the salty taste of tears as we prayed and sat in silence at the Table when my 13 year old brother had run away from home. The feel of a newborn in your lap, the anxiety of trying to host family in your new home. I remember the silence, after siblings boisterously told a story that was an embarrassment. It seems as though every important family occasion, every discussion took place At Table Together. The Passover and the Sacrament of Communion are sacred meals, shared at Table Together. You cannot celebrate Passover alone. You cannot have Communion by yourself. It is such a simple nuance, but vitally important that you do not simply serve lamb for Passover... You begin with a new beginning, as if this is the first day of the rest of your life. We all know things have happened before this, but this is a point of a new beginning spiritually. And you take an unblemished lamb for every household. The lamb was supposed to live with you for at least four days, breathing the air in your home, hearing the sounds and voices, sleeping under your roof, becoming a part of you and your family. When this has become personal, you prepare the sacrifice. Sacrifices are hurtful, sacrifices are bloody. So you take of the blood of the sacrificial lamb, and you write the name of God upon the doorposts and the lintel, that all who enter and exit would know you belong to God. In the sacrificial lamb, in the footwashing, there is a cleansing atonement. For as long as I can remember we have taken the Confirmation Class to worship at the Jewish Synagogue. Ironically the last several years, the Rabbi has had the same reading whenever we have attended which is on the most obscure Law of the Torah. There are 613 laws in the Torah, 10 of which we know as the 10 Commandments, but for 3 there is no explanation: not wearing Cotton & Wool together, not eating Dairy & Meat together, and the Red Heifer. The Red Heifer is obscure, not only because it requires finding a completely red heifer, without a whitespot, white hoof, blemish or scar; but also because the purpose of the Red Heifer is to be sacrificed for the atonement of someone who has been shunned from the community. You are to acquire this Red Heifer, and sacrifice it, and burn all its parts, then collect the ashes and take to the one who is shunned, you cannot do this for yourself. Then you are to anoint the other with these ashes of the purely obscure sacrifice for atonement. However, after which the one atoned for is pure and forgiven, but the one who made the sacrifice, who anointed the other, they have acquired the sin of the other. Part of Judaism is that you are never done with atonement, the sin can be passed, but never fully gotten rid of. THAT is the point of Christianity! Jesus' sacrifice is a complete atonement for our sins. Also recognize that in the Ancient Middle-east, people did not regularly wear sandals, did not wear socks, and as there were camels, cows, oxen, horses, sheep and goats everywhere, there was a lot that people had stepped in. So the most basic act of hospitality when you had a guest was footwashing. As it was so unclean, and intimate an act of cleansing, this was done by the lowest scullery slave. Those who have watched Downton Abbey know that there is a Class system, a hierarchy of jobs, even and especially among those who were servants. This was the job for the lowest of the lowest. No wonder Simon Peter freaks out at Jesus wanting to wash their feet. The point of Baptism is not bathing, the point of Communion is not satisfying hunger, the point of footwashing was not sweet smelling feet, but that the job of atonement, the most basic caring for another was done by the Son of God! One of the most amazing parts of the Last Supper, for me, has always been that Judas did not leave until after Jesus washed their feet, after all had been fed and given the cup. Jesus knew what was going to take place, he knew Simon Peter would deny him not just once but three times over, he knew all the disciples would run away, he knew Judas was in the process of betraying Jesus, but still Jesus washed the feet of all twelve, Jesus offered the bread as his body broken for all, he passed the cup naming this as the sign and seal of the new covenant in his own blood to all twelve. And after Judas left, then Jesus described the new Commandment, that we are to Love one another. Sometimes the monumental accomplishments are the easy ones. You are given a great quest, an enormous task, to change the world so you break it down into pieces, conscript others to help and get it done. But the basic, simple things, Love One Another, it seems so easy we take it for granted, but it is an entirely different outlook on life. I was listening to NPR yesterday, as they described a project in a tough inner city school where they showed a film about the Genocide that happened in Rwanda. The point of the project was to change attitudes about hate, violence, the things which lead to genocide. The students were then given a writing assignment of describing how they felt when they had been bullied, and when they had attacked someone else. They were not allowed to say “I feel sad or bad” they needed to describe. One of the youth described that “In the real world, forgiveness is seen as weakness, as if you do not have the nerve to stand up and fight for yourself.” This Commandment from Jesus to Love One Another seems even more appropriate today than ever before! Communion always seemed like the thing we do in Church. For 2000 years we have broken bread and drunk from the cup. Several years ago, reading through the history of this church, the Session named that when the church had been in conflict “We crucified our Lord all over again!” Suddenly it occurred to me, the Crucifixion is not only 2000 years ago but happens in our relationships, in our doing harm to each other that we crucify the Lord all over again. So also the breaking of bread, and serving the cup are the occasions each day when we have chosen to love another. Among the final words of Jesus, were not; “Keep the Faith” or Go out and die with me” or “After I am gone remember what I told you” but simply: “Love One Another.” So when have each of us chosen to love? To overlook having been slighted... To put aside your goals for the needs of someone else... To simply check in with someone whom you imagine might be afraid... Love One Another.

"Survival or Salvation?" April 13, 2014

Psalms 118:1-2 & 19-29; 31: 9-16 Matthew 21:1-11 Could there be anything in Christian culture more steeped in tradition & Triumph than Palm Sunday? Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Maundy Thursday, Easter, there are reasons why we celebrate each, and feelings, actions, things to do, transformations which still continue to occur, related to each. We know Jesus rode a donkey, we know people shouted Hosanna, we know they waved Palms, but other than perpetuating a 2000 year old tradition why do we celebrate Palm Sunday? This is not celebration of a Triumph! This is not the Climactic entrance, that is yet to happen on Easter. Palm Sunday is about something we rarely speak of anymore: Not Survival, not Winning, but Salvation! We each remember where we were on September 11th 2001 when Commercial planes were made to crash into the World Trade Center Towers. Prior to that day and time, we took safety and security for granted. Pearl Harbor had happened in Hawaii, but on the continental United States despite bombings of Government buildings and Ships in Harbor, we felt secure and un-threatened. Since 9/11, whether by the economy, escalating computerization, institutional - social change, fear, gang violence, bombings... all the world has doubted our survival. When Malaysian flight 370 disappeared the immediate reaction was terrorism and hijacking. Speaking with a group of clergy recently, we agreed that when we began in ministry: the Church, the world, our expectations, all were different. Searching to name what was different, we named being hopeful, having progress, but what we came back to were issues of survival. When we moved to Skaneateles, Auburn had a Rope Factory, Mottville a Chemical Factory, a Chair Factory, Camillus had a Cutlery Industry and also a Casket Company, Oneida manufactured Silver. All those and many others are now gone. Century old businesses: closed. The City of Detroit is Bankrupt. Schools and Governments, Police and Volunteer Fire departments, all are being down-sized, closed or consolidated. Regardless of denomination, Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, Jewish, Muslim, all are closing Houses of Worship. Rotary, Elks, Masons, Kiwanis, Legions, Odd Fellows, all are in survival. This week, on Good Friday, Hollywood is releasing a new film called “Transcendence” the plot of which is whether humanity will allow the consciousness, the intelligence and identity, of one individual to rule and provide for the whole world, what Centuries of Government leaders, Democracies, Empires and Dictatorships could not solve... Survival is to be provided through the World Wide Web. 350 years before Palm Sunday, Alexander the Great had led his army into Jerusalem as Liberators, victors, riding his enormous black war-stallion Bucephalus. Alexander's had been a triumphal entry as the people were liberated, they waved palms and sang of being Saved. Since then, empires rose & fell. In the time of Jesus, Pontius Pilate: Roman Governor of Jerusalem, re-enacted this military Triumph, wearing full armor and weapons driving a chariot pulled by six horses through the streets of Jerusalem. Like a scene from The Hunger Games, Pilate led the Parade of force, followed by row upon row, battalion after battalion of the marching soldiers of the Roman Legion, proclaiming Rome as Savior of the World. Compared to constant warfare, Barbarian invasions, disease and unrest, the PAX ROMANA did guarantee an enforced peace, albeit at the cost of human rights, freedom, dignity, choice, humanity itself. Pilate had intentionally chosen this day, not only as reminiscent of Alexander, but because this was the start of Passover. Pilate was emphasizing to the people that he was the Current Pharaoh, and Passover was being dominated. Jerusalem at the time was not an extremely large city maybe 30,000, and Pilate and his Legions marched from the west into the City Center as the people stood silent. As Pilate entered from the West Gate with Rome in the background, Chariots and Armor and Horses and Power, Jesus entered from the East, from the Mount of Olives, from a place called Bethphage: The House of Affliction. Jesus rode upon a Nursing mother Donkey, with her little foal trotting beside. Not in a Chariot, not upon a stallion War horse, not even with a saddle but a pauper's robes as his saddle. Jesus entered, not with a red carpet and ticker-tape parade, but a carpet of beggar's cloaks and palm branches. Not marching to a Garrison military procession, but to the voice of children singing. Not surrounded by soldiers as people accept their domination, but surrounded by prostitutes and lepers, children and those who have been blind, and crippled giving thanks for salvation. Palm Sunday is not about a Triumphal Military Entry, Security, Safety, Survival, if anything Jesus' entry on a donkey is a parody, the Clown following the Elephants at the Circus, this is a dramatic presentation of humility. Instead of Power and Domination, this is a parade of Salvation. The words “Have Mercy Upon Us” in Aramaic, the common colloquial language, was “Hosanna!” The emphasis being more than SURVIVAL; SAVE US, REDEEM US, show us Life is Worth living! All throughout the Gospel, people in need turned to Jesus crying “Hosanna!” After Jesus was Baptized, he was at a Wedding where the wine ran out, his mother said “Have Mercy”and he supplied limitless wine. Lepers cried out to him: “Have Mercy on us,” their fingers, toes, ears and nose all grew back! That flesh eating MERSA virus was not only healed, lives were restored to where they could smile and sing. Those who were blind came to him saying “Son of David have mercy” and he made mud to put in their eyes and the blind were made to see! A child died and Jesus returned her to her parents. Nicodemus named Jesus as having come from God, and asked for some sign, and Jesus gave the phrase Anathon, “Born Again, Born from Above, Heaven Sent” that has been a sign and symbol, misunderstood and misconstrued for what it meant, ever since. A Samaritan Woman who came to a well was offered Living Water, and she witnessed that he knew everything she had ever done. Martha and Mary confessed Jesus to be the Son of God, and their brother Lazarus who was dead and buried, Jesus restored from death to life. Where on the road to Caesara Philippi Simon had named Jesus as being The Messiah and at Lazarus Tomb Martha had confessed You are the Resurrection and the Life, in the Gospel of Matthew, the Crowd has an identity and here on Palm Sunday, for now the third time Jesus is confessed as being the Messiah, Prophet and King. Remember back, 33 years before in the Gospel of Matthew. The Caesar in Rome, demonstrating power and domination called for a Census to tax the people. There was a King Herod fearful of a savior. And to poor shepherds out in the field, there was a heavenly host singing Glory to God, and Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Here, the poor and the crippled, the prostitutes and children became a choir singing Glory to God and Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! This morning we have read through several of the Psalms, not about Triumph, not about Victory, but like Passover about Redemption for those who were shamed but did not give up. Whipped, beaten, spat upon and yet they persevered. Faith in life is not about Survival. Belief is not a recipe for Prosperity. The ultimate Goal is not to WIN! What we are claiming here is Salvation. Almighty God opening to us the Gates of Righteousness, is not about storming the castle, not dominating God, but instead humility, simple integrity. Rather than the Battle Hymn of the Republic trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored, rather than a rallying cry, this is like the Simple Song of 'Tis a Gift to be Simple, tis a Gift to Free, or Amazing Grace. We are too easily seduced into accomplishments, easy victories, we practice the Game of Winning. But if there is to be a Winner, everyone else has to lose. We each and everyone here has had moments of salvation, times when we knew life was not in vain. There have been struggles, real and crushingly difficult struggles, but I have heard you pray “Have Mercy upon us” “Lord help us” and we have at so many different times witnessed salvation. Are we looking for Winner? The Sole Survivor of a “Reality” Game Show? Or do we seek Salvation? Salvation is like a family photo. Not a posed shot, where everyone is looking in the same direction, their hair perfect, their makeup just so, every child smiling. But the family photo that is a bit dis-shevelled, with the Matriarch and Patriarch not beaming from ear to ear, but simply satisfied at all God has done in our lives. Maundy Thursday, family dinners where there are betrayals and hurts shared with a kiss, will come. Good Fridays, when it seems the sky turns black and we know crucifixion and death, do occur. But there also are times like this, when in the midst of life, we pray to God: “Have Mercy!

"Lord, There Will Be A Stink" April 6, 2014

Ezekiel 37: 1-14 John 11:1-45 This morning is not about the resurrection of the dead. Eternal life overcoming the power of death, the Resurrection, those are themes of Easter, and we are not there yet. Ezekiel led by God to the Valley of Bones, Lazarus buried behind a rock, are less about death, being brought back to life, Zombies or the Undead, than about stripping away the bindings of death, restoration of our humanity, Jesus weeping and all of us needing to mourn for our cutting one another off, sealing one another away, our burial of what disturbs us, the desiccation of God-given Creation to Life! We seem to have developed a taste for Zombies, Vampires, bodies brought back from the grave, the theme of death is all around us. But this is more than an Elephant graveyard, different from standing in the middle of Arlington Cemetery seeing grave-markers as far as the eye can see. In the Dark, after the sounds of warfare's killing stopped, there is no weeping, no sound of agony, no telltale heart-beat. Ezekiel is not on a mountaintop, but down in the lowest of places, the most desolate, in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, there where there were trenches and rifts ripped open in the earth's surface where the bodies of the unknown dead were pushed and abandoned. Painfully, for Ezekiel, this was not Flounder's Field, or a graveyard, a place with the stench of death, not a place of decay, but a wound in creation where forgotten lives were left and lost. So much time has passed, sun-baked, wind whipped, dried out of all moisture by ice and snow and sun, the bodies are no longer whole, but scattered, not one bone left beside another, no longer appearing as human, as skeleton, as bone, but only as fossilized artifacts, windswept, dried out, dust beyond rock. This is a forgotten place, without sound, without scent, where in the dark Ezekiel cannot tell the rock he trips over from a somebody's bone. Years after, there is no memory, no recollection of who these persons were, whose daughter, whose son, was this the hand of a blacksmith, or a surgeon, or a gardener, was this even a hand? Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekkah, Jacob and Essau, and the twelve sons of Israel, had survived for 400 years as slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, where this remnant had been led out by Moses across the Red Sea into a Wilderness of Dependence upon God, and after generations, 40 years in the wilderness they were led into the Promised Land, where they became a Monarchy, not just any nation but the Kingdom of David, the Empire of Solomon. The people of God forgot who they were, what they believed, they no longer sang their songs or told stories, they worshiped death. And the Barbarians, the Assyrians and the Babylonians each invaded, not just one battle, one war, but year after year they were beaten down and carried off to a different world, where they were taught to forget who they had been, what they believed, what mattered, how we live, who Abraham and Sarah even were. Then in far away Babylon, there were the invasions of the Persians, the Medes, the Greeks, the Egyptians. After all this time. After all these successive empires, does hope still exist? Can faith live? Is there a place in our lives for faith? Ezekiel, like an Old Testament Prophet, a human figure representing all humanity, is led through the dark to this depression, where all that once represented life is gone beyond decay, where God asks: Is hope possible? Can these bones live? In what could be a statement of faith in the Almighty, but could as easily be a desperate reply in absolute desolation, Ezekiel says: “You alone know God!” We are fascinated by the Science of Forensics. Through meticulous examination of wear and decay, even millennial after a body has died, we have advanced to point of determining not only how they died, but how they lived, and age and sex and diet, whether they were a parent, a herdsman or hunter, in short who they were. In a recent edition of National Geographic, an article titled the “The Lost Tribes of the Green Sahara” details the find of 200 graves near a vanished lake in what once was a fertile valley, and now is the Sahara Desert. One people, named as The Kiffians ate coarse grain, drank local water, and never traveled more than a radius of 20 miles. Another, generations later, in the same place, are identified as The Ternarians who were hunters, fishermen and herdsmen. All this, can be known from bones and skeletons in burial places. But Ezekiel stands in a place where lives were scattered, there is nothing whole left, no remains of life. And as commanded Ezekiel prophesies to the bones to come together into skeletons, for organs to grow inside, for sinew and muscle to knit upon, and the flesh of skin to cover. But still, this is a people of death, a people without breath, without spirit, in short without life or humanity. And God calls upon Ezekiel, to pray for the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Life, of Creation to come from the Four Corners of the earth, as if Four Winds, to empower the people to breathe, breathing to have life, living to believe again as a people in their own humanity and in God. John's story of Lazarus is odd. No where else is this story told. Far more, the translators and scholars are divided what this means. Why, when in other places, Mary and Martha are named was Lazarus not? Why, if Jesus loved Lazarus, did he delay? It is unclear from the text, when Jesus arrives, whether he trembles, or is in rage, or frustrated, or snorts like a horse... What is the Raising of Lazarus about? Years ago in College, I had roommate and close friend. We had known each other several years, his younger sisters each went to the same school with us. When traveling in England, we had run into his family and shared supper and the evening with them. One day, his sister named they had another brother, whom the family did not acknowledge, did not talk about. His legitimacy was in question, and he had always been in trouble. I was gullible enough to believe anything she said, and cared about what had happened to this estranged one and why, only to learn there was no brother after all. But many of us have family stories like that. A mother who was too young, conceived out of incest, whose own child was raised like a sibling. A miscarriage that never was spoken about. A child traumatized by an accident. Those who never really returned from War. The College Senior who is about to graduate with honors, prestigious firms have made offers, everyone is so proud of her, but she has this ache in her of no longer knowing who she is or where she is going or why. The doctor, the counselor, the pastor, the teacher, who have seen the world change and no longer are their lives about the Calling to lead and to minister, but about administering the survival of the institution. According to Judaism, there were anecdotes of people being resuscitated 36 even 48 hours after death, so a person's death was not considered hopeless until they had been buried 3 days. They had no means of refrigeration, or embalming,preservation, sickness and decay do have an odor, a stink of death. When a person died, they were not mummified, but rather with the washing of the body and anointing with oils for burial, the arms and legs and mouth were tied with bandages to prevent rigor-mortise constricting the muscles again. The face was wrapped in bandages to cover the person from others looking upon them, staring into their eyes. It was 100 degrees in a town outside Jerusalem, and Lazarus had been dead 4 days when Jesus arrived. Even Martha and Mary, who were as close to Jesus as Disciples, whom he loved like the family we claim, believed in Jesus as a Rabbi, a Teacher, that the resurrection was a philosophical concept, or prophecy of something to come. Jesus said to them: I AM. Jesus stood outside the tomb, seeing how people had shoved a rock in the opening of the earth, sealing away all smell and remembrance of the man buried. The paid mourners had scapegoated Lazarus, that if they could scream the loudest, if they could wail, they could give all the hate of death, all the anger at God, to this one buried. To which in frustration and remorse, and anger, Jesus shuddered and snorted. When a Stallion snorts, it is not simple breath but an all consuming ripple of life that consumes the horses being. I think that is what Jesus did in reaction to the stone, then to cry out COME OUT!

"Miracles, Blame and Signs" March 30, 2014

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

"Seeing You in the Water" March 23, 2014

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

"Journey Unknown", March 16, 2014

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