Together on the Journey

Authority

2012-01-30T12:21:00.002-05:00

Mark 1: 21-28

January 29, 2012

J.W. McNeill

This Passage centers on authority.

Contrast authority of a teacher with the authority of apolice officer. I understand there is some overlap, but consider a couple ofdifferent kinds of cases.

· Teaching to read or play tennis – trust what Iam telling you, learning to follow directions.

o It is for the student’s good

o Student chooses whether or not to grantauthority

· Police officer in the midst of a traffic stop –a certain kind of trust, but also following directions because of the fear ofconsequences.

o Not for the arrestee’s good – for social good

o No choice about granting the authority – policeofficer takes it.

· In our story today, Jesus shows both kinds ofauthority.

1. First,we see Jesus teaching with authority.

a. Rationaland relational: head component and a heart component

b. Informationand encouragement: content and blessing

i. God came alive out of the book

c. Inspiringtrust and confidence – drawing them into his authority

2. Onthe other hand, we see Jesus cast out the unclean spirit with authority.

a. Jesusis coercive here, not persuasive.

b. Teachingis not enough for unclean spirits.

c. Theyare not teachable.

i. And actually, they know the truth about Jesus. Theunclean Spirit knows that Jesus is the Holy One of God.

ii. But the spirit resists or refuses to consent to livewithin the truth.

iii. Jesus forces it to obey, ignoring the question ofconsent.

3. Thepeople in the synagogue are amazed at his authority.

a. Theyhave seen that he has the authority of a teacher that inspires trust andloyalty.

b. Healso has the authority to take charge of spirits and make them obey.

4. Let'salso notice for a moment that this spirit -- whatever it is -- is able torecognize Jesus for who Jesus is: theHoly One of God. Somehow the unclean spiritknows who Jesus is before anyone else in the Gospel has figured it out. Yet Jesus tells the spirit to be quiet and tocome out of the man. Jesus has powerover this spirit.

You might be wondering why Jesustells the spirit to be quiet.

Why does Jesus silence the spirit?Jesus is not ready to be revealed as the Holy One just yet. Jesus is not to befully revealed outside of the context of his crucifixion and resurrection – butthat’s a longer story for another time.

5. Nowwith all that as background, I would like to bring us back to the immediacy orour own situations. What has authority over us?

a. Lastweek Pastor Margaret preached about the passage immediately preceding this one.She told us that we are being called to follow Jesus and live out the kingdomof God. That kingdom of God language means that we are being called to enterinto a different culture. A culture with understandings and assumptions thatcompassion, cooperation, reconciliation, forgiveness and grace are to be thedominant, operative motivations, for these are the dominant themes of Jesus’proclamation of the coming culture of God.

b. Thatmeans that we are called to rely on the authority of this Jesus to liveaccording to the way of the God culture that is supposed to be coming into beingamong his followers.

c. Weare called to be ruled by Jesus’ authority as we go about our lives in ourhomes, in our school and workplaces, in our neighborhoods, at church,everywhere.

d. Sothe question is, is Jesus my authority so that I can be living in such a waythat reveals Jesus as my authority?

6. Nowthe people in the synagogue that day were impressed with Jesus. They said thathe taught and acted with authority. Butthe Bible doesn’t tell us that they went ahead and followed. Yes, here is anauthority, but will I make that one my authority? Or will I be continuallyhanded over to some other authority? Well, I’m not ready to do that quite yetthank you, very much.

7. Thepeople in the synagogue may well have been impressed. They may well haverecognized Jesus as teaching with authority, but they did not take him as theirauthority. And what about us?

a. Towhom or what have we given authority over us? Who or what is directing ourpriorities and our attitudes?

b. Howcan we tell? Can we be sure that we are being honest with ourselves about that?

c. PastorMargaret suggested some ways last week:

i. Calendar

ii. How we use our money beyond necessities

iii. Where are our priority commitments?

1. Entertainment

2. Sports

3. Whatare we passionate about?

4. Whatwon’t we miss? Church? An opportunity for ministry?

5. Arewe more willing to miss church or our favorite television show?

iv. What about our attitudes?

1. Arewe cultivating generosity?

2. Arewe seeking reconciliation?

3. Arewe seeking to be free of resentments?

4. Arewe spending time seeking to connect with God and people who will help usconnect with God?

v. These are all ways in which we might honestly questionourselves about whether we are taking Jesus as the authority for our lives.

8. Oris something else going on in our lives? Are we being dominated by otherspirits, perhaps without being clearly aware of it. Are we being driven byother spirits that have taken hold of us? What might they be?

a. Fearsand anxieties

b. Rivalries

c. Jealousy

d. Ambition

e. Desiresfor pleasure

9. Orperhaps we are keeping ourselves back not willing to fully commit our lives, tofully follow any one or any path. We tell ourselves we’ll make a commitmentlater. Perhaps that was the attitude in the synagogue of those who wereastonished by what a good preacher and exorcist had come to church thatmorning. This one deserves another look. Some day. We’ll see how it turns out.Maybe we’ll do all right in the culture of the scribes or the culture of Romeafter all.

But come back to the distinction I made at the beginningbetween Jesus’ authority as a teacher and Jesus’ authority as one who cast outthe unclean spirit. As we try to understand under what authority we live weneed to understand that Jesus is inviting us into the culture of God that isset up for relationship and invites us with mind and heart, invites us withencouragement and inspiration. It is about entering into the freedom to be ourbest and truest selves. The people we were created to be in joy and peace.

But is that just so we are happy and content? So that we canbe free from guilt or fear? No.

What happens as we do that? We create and become thatauthority. We and others begin to trust it.

The teachers with whom Jesus is contrasted were thescribes. The scribes were theprofessional readers, copiers, and interpreters of the Scripture. Their role was to teach and preserve thewritten word of God. People of faiththen in Jesus' day as well as now need help in understanding the Bible and howto apply it to their lives.

This passage tells us of a time that Jesus went into thesynagogue and began to teach. Heastounded everyone there because he taught with authority. That is not more fully described. Was it his tone of voice? Was it the content of what he said? Was there something about his gestures? Was there a special sincerity in hiseyes? We are not told.

Let’s come back at this from a slightly different angle:

If they were astounded at Jesus' teaching, here theonlookers in the synagogue are amazed by the exorcism. This combination of spiritual power andteaching is something marvelous. Whatstands out is AUTHORITY. It is whatdistinguishes Jesus from the scribes.

What is this about?

Here we must contrast the Word of God written with the Wordof God living.

The Word of God written is a book. It is a book that allows us to tell and tohear a grand tale. It is a book that isa source of inspiration and insight into the ways of God. It is a book that invites us to learn of ourheritage as spiritual descendants in a great line of persons who have beencalled into fellowship with the God who has been revealed in Jesus Christ. The Word of God written is a source and basisfor us as a Church to understand our mission and ministry.

But I want to tell you something that will surprise you andmay even offend some of you: The Biblehas no authority in itself. Hear mecarefully here. It cannot be anauthority because it cannot act, it cannot make a judgment, it cannot applyitself.

The Bible only has authority as it is interpreted and livedout in the community of faith. Itsauthority is only the authority of the community that is molded by it. And theauthority of that community is only the power of God that is unleashed withinthat community and from that community into the world.

The critical question that faces us as the people of God isnot whether or not the Bible is true, but whether we will live out its truth aswe struggle together to understand its message to us and to the world and livethat message out. Will we become theliving word of God?

As we give ourselves over to the power of God, we will see in ourselves and one another theauthority of Jesus Christ because we will see our lives transformed togetherand we will see the transforming power of God set free into the world.

We are the ones as the Church of Jesus Christ who take onauthority in this world to apply in our life situations the power and love ofGod as is revealed to us in Scripture. To become the word of God living.

The difference between Jesus and the scribes in thatsynagogue 20 centuries ago was that Jesus embodied the power of God, while thescribes had simply a head-knowledge of a holy book. The people who looked on there in that placeknew the difference and they were astonished!

Will we simply look on? Or will we follow the one who calls and live out the power and authorityof the God of love in the world?

We are called to become the living word of God by the powerand authority of Jesus Christ.

Call, challenge, commission

2012-01-22T16:53:00.002-05:00

(Today we used Psalm 62, Nan Merrills version, with a reflection on my silence experience in airport meditation room--see Facebook entry from early January)

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Around church you’ll see all these orange flyers from last week’s SS classes: Jesus is the good news. Well, we could surely use some good news. But in today’s text Jesus isn’t the good news. It’s quite clear-- Jesus PROCLAIMS the good news, which is not a private, individual message saying believe in me and you’ll get into heaven.

The good news is that ‘the kingdom of God is drawing near, coming close’—the good news was a public, political message for an impoverished and oppressed people….a people who knew they needed God to break into their culture and free them.

Now this kingdom of God, or even kin-dom of God, would be a phrase they’d understand. They knew things weren’t right. They wanted God to come and replace the kingdom of Caesar with a new social order, but they imagined it would be simply with a replacement king of their own.

We too know things aren’t right; all around us are the signs that Empire forces, not God forces, are in charge. For us, kingdom language doesn’t really work, so try this. The good news Jesus brings is that the culture of God is coming close, a new social order is possible, but it requires a cultural change.

God’s culture is very different from ours, but unlike the people in Jesus’ day, we quite like ours, we’re quite comfy thanks. So if you’re quite satisfied with things as they are, and don’t really want to hear any more, you can stop listening now. I just ask that you don’t do anything that will prevent someone else from hearing God’s good news.

Moments like that experience in Newark airport, the culture of God is this close….

days when our youth are offering a free lunch in a downtown park, the culture of God is this close….

times when a child in SS ‘gets it’, the culture of God is this close….

when urban gardens transform empty lots and a child sees her first butterfly (from On Being this morning),

the culture of God is this close….

when a stranger offers you a random act of kindness —those are points when we feel the culture of God coming close…almost here….almost tangible, this close.

This is the good news Jesus proclaimed, and we, like those first disciples, are called into it, to embrace it and enlarge it.

When we talked about this cultural change at SLB on Tuesday, someone said it’s spelled LOVE. And wouldn’t that be a major cultural shift! Imagine a social order based on LOVE….imagine a church that actually lived its mission statement to bring God’s LOVE to all the world….hmmm

Follow me, says Jesus. It’s invitational, we have a choice; but it’s not wimpy. It’s actually quite a challenge: if we’re going to say we’re Christ followers this becomes a commanding tone and we need to actually follow (!) through.

We all, at some time, and in some areas, are followers --who do you follow on Twitter or Facebook? Or what teams do you follow, or which political party or candidate?

It is vital that we are discriminating in who and what we follow—look at your political party’s manifesto for example, or your company’s investment policies, or your family’s calendar or your own checkbook, or your church’s mission statement—are they in line with God’s culture? Does your participation in them bring about the culture of God? Who or what are we following?

Follow me means we go where Jesus goes (as opposed to inviting Jesus to come to where we are, which is how we often treat God)

AND learn about Jesus so we can BE like Jesus

AND move out of our cultural mindset into the culture of God.

That movement is the real challenge: disciples left their nets and livelihood for a whole new way of life. Some Christians ARE called to leave behind everything and go off somewhere, but most of us are called to leave behind everything and start out new where we are, with a new identity, Jesus people, a new attitude, following, and a new purpose—gathering people in.

Imagine still doing what you do, but with a God purpose.

Imagine saying what you say, but with an “other” orientation.

Imagine being who you are, but with a Jesus identity.

What would be different? What must be different if the culture of God is to reign in our world? Starting with you, with me, then with our families, then our church, what must be changed? Then our society, our policies, our politics, what must we work at changing?

To follow Jesus is a social action with personal, public and political dimensions.

Fish for people, Jesus said. This is not a call to add one more thing to your already overcommitted lives. No, Jesus calls us to change our inward, self centered mind into an outward, other-centered life, so that we can gather people in to this good news that’s transforming the world.

Good news is exciting! It’s worth sharing. Does this good news get you excited? As excited as the current political hype? As excited as the thrill of the road to the Superbowl?

If we get more excited about a sports event or political process than we do about God’s good news, no wonder nothing changes, no wonder God’s culture is still a ways off. We keep it at a safe distance. Shame on the church, which is supposed to be a movement that brings the God-culture close: visible, tangible, practical.

Get fishing! Share the good news that God’s realm is alive and well here at FUMC;

get involved in the God-culture stuff that’s going on and leave behind the cultural stuff that’s like wet fishing nets, heavy and useless.

And follow Jesus, nothing else. For it is Jesus who’s been there, done that, and can show us the way.

Thanks be to God.

baptism is dangerous

2012-01-11T11:52:00.002-05:00

Waterwashed and Spirit-led January 8, 2012 Gen. 1, Ps. 29, Mk 1

Margaret Scott

(streamers of blue crepe paper hang in the sanctuary doorways; the font is front and center with blue waterlike fabric streaming down from it; there was a water fountain bubbling on top of font)

It should be pretty obvious today that things are a bit different; decorations gone from Christmas, new things here—what’s with the streamers and fabric and stuff?

If you’re on our weekly email list, you’ll be somewhat prepared for something that’s not business as usual…I commented in that email that we ‘ve made Christmas much bigger than it is in the bible- Jesus’ baptism is much bigger in scripture. Maybe we should be celebrating baptism anniversaries like birthdays, wedding anniversaries, Christmas. Hmm, but maybe if we did, we’d just tame it, like we have Christmas.

And baptism isn’t tame, no matter how sweet we’ve made it with babies and photos. Baptism is dangerous.

One big clue to that is the combination of scripture readings for today, and the biblical imagery of water…..water shows up in all three texts, and none of it is gently dribbling from a tap, nor is it barely wetting a baby’s head

In genesis, the author imagines waters as the deep chaos before creation begins—everything is dark and formless and empty.

In the psalm, an ancient song sees the massive force of a storm lashing the country, whipping up waters below and driving rain from above while thunder echoes and lightning flashes.

In the gospel, the water imagery is a river, but not just any river, it’s the Jordan: a river that is vitally important historically and deeply symbolic to the people who’re coming to be immersed in its waters to prepare themselves for the one God will be sending to straighten them out…water that was a crossing point to a new life in the people’s history is now a turning point in their present, and a decision point for their future.

Does any of this sound tame?

This past week I was in Scotland, and the country was lashed with violent gales and rain for three days, causing much damage, power down, traffic disrupted, and people told to stay home as it was dangerous….and that got me thinking about how all of these biblical water images are great images for times in our lives:

· Chaotic, out of control times, when we’re waiting for something creative to come out of it, waiting for a voice from God to bring order out of our chaos…times when everything feels dark and empty

· Stormy times, when we are disoriented by life (one of the Brueggemann stages John talked about last week) and we see the trouble we’re going through as somehow God’s fault, if not God’s activity, when God’s voice may seem angry and punishing…..

· Transition times when we are faced with the need to make decisions—confronting the past and turning to the future

No, none of this is tame; today is not business as usual in any way whatsoever. And into this rich water imagery steps Jesus.

The liturgical day called Baptism of our Lord is a day that confronts us with the waters of life, whether we’re in chaos or storm or decision, or even if we walked in here today in business-as-usual safety mode.

Some of its danger and discomfort is that it’s sacramental. It’s God’s work. Oh, yes, we might choose to be baptized or to bring a child for baptism, just as those people came to John. Just as Jesus decided to come too.

But what happens at baptism is God’s work. That’s why we ask you not to take pictures during baptism that distract all of us from the mystical power of water-washed grace that comes upon that child or you through the pastor and water. Joyous it may be, serious it is.

It’s a moment like Mark describes, a tearing apart of the heavens, eliminating the dividing line between heaven and earth, bringing the power of God’s Holy Spirit and indicating a very special relationship with God. Not tame. When the heavens are torn apart, nothing can ever be the same again—this is a permanent rupture. No more barrier between us and God, no more compartmentalizing God into a safe place up there somewhere.

To be sure, God says the affirming and loving words to Jesus, and to each of us: you are my child, I love you and you give me pleasure. But it’s more than a Mr. Rogers’ “It’s you I like” kind of affirmation, important as that is.

It’s a whole new image of God trying to break in on us….imagine a God who pours out grace without your having to do anything, a God who takes pleasure in you yourself, in who you are at your core, even if you’re the worst sinner in the world or can’t believe anyone would love you, let alone the God of the universes. The God whose Spirit hovers over chaos, whose voice thunders in nature….takes pleasure in me?

If/when I really believe that, it’s life-changing. But we’ve tamed the image of God into a sweet, loving, fairly harmless God.

Last week John quoted Brian McLaren, who challenged readers to step outside their small minded judgments into “God’s larger more gracious space”—to be able to see people like God does, “each one precious, each one in need, each one at once beautiful and broken and dangerous and dignified”

To see people that way is not tame; that’s not business as usual. That’s a whole different mindset. But as baptized Christians, that’s our call as beloved children of God; we don’t just receive God’s affirmation—like Jesus we allow it to direct the rest of our lives.

It’s in the torn places where God comes through, whether in our chaos or stormy days or decision making dramas, or in the torn places of our world that other people are experiencing, where Nobodies need to become Somebodies through the love and justice of God.

The call of baptism is a call to much more than the material level of life—ho hum, baptized, went to church, now back home to dinner and business as usual. No! It’s a call that involves all of us, body, mind and spirit.

The call of baptism is for us to move out of the water and on to the wilderness, to change our lives so we can be used by God in the cosmic business of world transformation. Nothing tame about that.

If you hear God’s voice, loving and calling you, and if you’re willing to say yes again to this dangerous mission, then I invite you to come forward as we all sing together Water River Spirit Grace—John and I will hold ordinary water, and you can use it in any way that means something to you (wet hands, touch a wet finger to your forehead or heart, etc).

Those not coming forward are invited to be in a spirit of prayer through the song where you are, and those who come be sensitive to those who are staying in the pew, for this act may not be for everyone.

But for all of us, let us open ourselves to the Holy Spirit’s sweeping over us so God may give us what each of us needs, and God may make of us what the world needs…come to the water…..come.

A Time For...

2012-01-02T18:34:00.002-05:00

A Time For…

Ecclesiastes3: 1-13

January 1,2012

J.W.McNeill

Ecclesiastes3:1-13
3:1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

3:2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluckup what is planted;

3:3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time tobuild up;

3:4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

3:5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time toembrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

3:6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throwaway;

3:7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time tospeak;

3:8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

3:9 What gain have the workers from their toil?

3:10 I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with.

3:11 He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a senseof past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has donefrom the beginning to the end.

3:12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoythemselves as long as they live;

3:13 moreover, it is God's gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasurein all their toil.

Some ofyou may recall the version of this text put to music by folksinger Pete Seegerin a song, Turn, Turn, Turn. It hadits widest circulation in a recording by the group the Byrds in the latesixties with a memorable 12 string guitar accompaniment.

I wasimpressed at the time that a song with lyrics from the Bible managed to be sopopular, but I also was uncomfortable with the song because of a couple oflines in particular that I could simply not accept. I could not accept thatthere was a time for war and I could not accept that there could be a time forhate.

Surelythat could not be right. Hate is wrong and war is wrong. Case closed. Or atleast in my teenage way of looking at things at the time.

TheBook of Ecclesiastes is one of several so-called Wisdom books in the Bible. Itis traditionally attributed to King Solomon, although Biblical scholars thinkit unlikely that Solomon wrote it.

To readthis book in the context of the rest of the Bible is to notice a piece ofwriting that is unusual. The tone is often described as cynical or somewhatjaded. In the first chapter, the author says that everything is vanity and astriving after wind. That is: all is meaningless and hopeless.

Therehave been those who have wanted to remove the book of Ecclesiastes from theBible because of its apparent pessimistic tone. But I think those who would dothis have missed the point.

I thinkEcclesiastes is written for a time in our lives when our experience of failureor frustration or even despair is about to overwhelm us. It is a word from apreacher who reaches out to us when ourideals or our hopes or our dreams have been shattered and we are left confusedabout our place in the cosmos and God’s connection to it.

TheBiblical theologian Walter Brueggeman outlines three stages that we mightexperience along with the Biblical writers of ancient times:

Orientation:God gives instructions, guidance, judgments, about what is right and good. Welearn about justice and peace. We learn about God’s love and power. We hear anencouragement to be God’s people and what that means about how we should actand how we should be a part of virtue and blessing. We learn about God’sgoodness and how God is at work in the world and how God has delivered theoppressed and the suffering into security and peace. These teachings and these stories ORIENT usin the world. They give us a behavioral compass by which to assess or evaluateour own actions or the actions of others. This stage of orientation is a fundamental part of getting us tounderstand and act in the world. It sets the stage for our striving and ouractivity in the world so that we may be energetic partners with God’s creativeenergy. We are on the path to be God’s people.

Disorientation:But for many of us, we eventually move into a stage of disorientation. We findthat our experience of the world sometimes fails to live up to what we imaginedwere God’s promises. We find that even apparently good and righteous people arenot always successful. We find that disappointments are common and frustrationsare easy to come by. We discover that the world does not live up to ourexpectations and we can come to imagine that God has failed us. We can evenfind that our own actions and attitudes do not live up to the ideals that wehave set for ourselves.

Thereare three basic alternatives when we find ourselves in the stage ofdisorientation:

1. Some give up on God.

2. Some give up on truth andlive in denial.

3. Some begin an argument withGod and a kind of struggle that won’t give up until there is a resolution.

Thisresolution is what Brueggeman calls reorientation. If orientation is coming tounderstand the ideals that God’s love would embody in creation; and ifdisorientation is becoming aware of the gap between the ideals we came toexpect and the realities we actually experience, then reorientation is comingto a more mature awareness of how God is mysteriously present even when wecannot yet make out God’s hand.

Thewriter of Ecclesiastes counsels that in this world, from our limitedperspective, we are not able to see in all things how God is at work, or whatGod will be able to make out of the circumstances of our lives or the lives ofthose dear to us. From our limited perspective we are not even able always toknow what is best for ourselves or our loved ones.

And sowe are invited by the author of Ecclesiastes to turn our attention to what wedo experience in this world: love and hate, war and peace, seeking and losing,gathering and scattering, weeping and laughing. These contrasts are surely apart of our lives and the lives of our love ones.

I don’tthink that the author is saying that we are to think that everything is ok andwar is as good as peace or hatred is as good as love. Instead, we are offeredthe perspective to lay aside for a moment our need to judge or evaluate orcriticize or even strive to correct what is wrong – because much of the time wecan’t fix what we think is wrong. We are sometimes called to simply trust thatGod is at work in all things and often the best thing we can do is simplyappreciate it.

BrianMcLaren, a favorite author of mine, has written a book, Naked Spirituality 12 Simple Words. I’ve been reading it slowly.Putting it down and coming back to it. I’m getting toward the end of it. Theprayer word I’m reading about now is “Behold.” The stance toward the world thatsimply takes it in and appreciates God’s glory in the world. Here is one of theexercises McLaren recommends that might come out of an understanding of today’spassage from Ecclesiastes (From page 204):

…you could go to a public place andpractice beholding people with God. You'll no doubt hear your chattering,analyzing, critical mind assessing each one in accordance with its own agendas,desires, drives. and neuroses: fat, thin, rich, poor, stylish, frumpish,sexually attractive, sexually unattractive,my kind of person. not my kind of person, Christian. non-Christian, and so on.Instead of living within this cramped space of judgment, observe it-behold itfrom a distance. "There it goes again." you might say with amusement.My limited human mind is acting as I were God and I were qualified to judgethese people." Consciously separate yourself from that small mental courtroom;step outside it and above it into God's larger, more gracious space. Allow theSpirit to help you see these people in God’s light- each one precious, each onein need, each one at once beautiful and broken and dangerous and dignified.Whenever you find yourself shrinking back into the dualist, courtroom mind,simply observe it, name it, and step outside it as you return to a more generous,gracious beholding with God.

Thisbrings me back to my judgment of this passage in the song Turn Turn Turn. In those days my narrow judging vision held me backfrom appreciating that like it or not there was going to be war and hate. I donot have to lead with my judgment into the world.

I canlead with my wonder. I can lead with my compassion. I can lead with the loveGod has been trying to offer me. I can lead with the freedom that trustingGod’s goodness and not my critique can provide.

Lord’sSupper is free time. Time to behold in ourselves, in those around us, in themeal itself the awesome presence of God.

Behold.Be open to love. God is here.

Thanksbe to God.

repeat the sounding joy

2011-12-25T01:22:00.002-05:00

“Joy to the world”, the carol goes, and sends us out of here with lifted spirits and momentary warmth, maybe even a renewed hope for a little while. I have to admit, it’s not one of my favourites. But this year one verse in it struck me as I heard it the other day on the radio…that ALL of nature sings: fields, floods, rocks, hills, plains…repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy, repeat, repeat the sounding joy!

What IS the sounding joy? Is there such a thing? I can’t tell you what it is for you; I only know what it is for me, but hang in there with me and we’ll get to that…

And why is it repeated? That’s the easier question; as a mother, and as a pastor, I have often caught myself thinking, if not actually saying: how many times do I have to repeat myself? And last Christmas Eve a young man came to me and complained that it was just the same old story all over again.

Well, duh. It bears repeating because we haven’t really heard it. We don’t GET the message of Christmas that is transformative. And what is it? What is the sounding joy?

Well, for me it’s also contained in this same unfavourite carol, and it’s two fold: 1. The Lord is come and 2. The savior reigns.

The sounding joy worth repeating for me is that God comes. God is not some distant ethereal being that created us and sits back and watches us mess up, intervening now and then. The message of Christmas we still don’t get is that God comes:

God is here, and there, and there and here.

AND that's not all! God is involved

…in all the smells of stable life: God is there

…involved with the lonely, lowlife characters in the fields tending sheep: God is there

…involved and caring about the young uncertain woman facing shame and rejection: God is there

AND that's not all! God is not just here and involved, but this God of the universes chooses humans as partners in the renewal and transformation of the world…

chooses young people like Mary to carry life forward, to be radical thinkers who’ll challenge what’s normal in favour of what’s life-giving…some of us old folk have really messed up the world, and my sounding joy is that there are some young people willing to bring life out of that mess.

chooses fine moral people like Joseph to take on responsibility for nurturing and teaching the next generation, when culture says it’s not worth the aggravation… chooses lowlifes like the shepherds to be witnesses because they’re the ones who’re desperate enough to be open…. chooses angels to sing God’s repeated song so others can learn it and sing along.

God chooses us too. God comes to and chooses YOU who like Mary, need to ponder all this more seriously

YOU like Joseph who are afraid to step up and stand out

YOU who feel discounted and need to be accepted,

YOU who know that somewhere deep inside you is a song you haven’t yet sung.

Repeat the sounding joy: God comes, God gets involved, God chooses us as partners.

The other sounding joy worth repeating is the savior reigns

One big turning point in my life came when I realized that to say Jesus is Lord means I am not. I am not the center of the universe; I am not the ruler of my life. God is.

To say the savior reigns is to admit that nothing else has complete rule of my life, our community, our nation, the world: not me, not politics or government or institutions like the church, not stuff, not consumerism or capitalism, not corporations and companies. The savior reigns.

This is the song I have found deep in my soul worth repeatedly singing—a new song, as different from the culture that surrounds and enslaves us as the angels’ song was to an occupied poverty-stricken land 2000 years ago.

Let ALL their songs employ, the carol goes: don’t leave it up to fields and rocks and all nature, nobody listens to them….YOU sing it. You repeat the sounding joy.

What is YOUR song? It may be close to the surface, or buried deep in your heart’s desire…listen for it: you may have to sort through all sorts of layered noise first, but when the God of the universes sings a song of love to you, and you say YES, like Mary, Joseph, shepherds and angels and 60 year old pastors, it will bubble up, I promise.

Then let it rip, sing it out for all you’re worth: repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy, repeat repeat the sounding joy until others find their own God-song and the world is changed.

Amen.

antipodean christmas

2011-12-24T08:29:00.002-05:00

A light dusting of snow. orange sunrise lighting the bare trees, a hint of blue sky..remind me of a poem Brenda shared at our Heart Listening group yesterday; her father in law had written it about what you really need to have to make Christmas Christmas....what would be on or off your list?

Snow scenes aren't on the list-we don't need a white Christmas to have Christmas. We then wondered about the southern hemisphere when Christmas is mid summer, not mid winter.....what's on their Christmas cards?

Point is, Jesus comes again, and again, and again as a vulnerable infant, just so he can come to my vulnerability....how do you put that on a card? You don't, you put it in your soul.

May this Christmas Eve be full of the day's richest blessings, which are there, slightly hidden only by the busyness.

shepherds and other low life folk

2011-12-22T17:36:00.002-05:00

As we count down to Christmas, I am aware of the lowliness of all concerned, much more lowly folk than I'm used to being around....Mary, young single pregnant, Joseph, proper but compassionate, shepherds, the dirty low life types who're left out in the cold......
And what strikes me is that God comes to them where they are.
Still true.
Where we are is where God comes; we just need to be watching....

Scottish wisdom

2011-12-21T10:04:00.003-05:00

There's a twisting, mountainous road in northern Scotland which had, almost to the top, a steep sharp curve where there was a slight widening of the road. Many years ago, someone put a park bench there, and it forever became known as the Rest and Be Thankful. Its nickname stuck, long after the road was straightened and widened, once the crooked was made straight and the rough places plain. And it entered into our language as a phrase with much deeper meaning.
So today, my sabbath day, the phrase comes to me...rest, and be thankful.

it's coming, ready or not

2011-12-20T22:48:00.003-05:00

Am I ready for Christmas? I can't tell you how many times I'm asked this. No, I say, I am never ready for the ludicrous hilarious ironic entering of my life by God! I get all sorts of prepared, with all the dumb trimmings that really have nothing to do with Christmas. But still God surprises me. The stupid humility, the mess of shepherding, the smell of stable....Luke's very concerned to let us know God comes to the most unlikely people, who're probably the most ready, unlike me.

you're invited

2011-12-19T08:25:00.003-05:00

John preaches.......
You are favored.
You are invited into a great project.
You will be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
You may submit yourself to all this to be an entry point for hope, peace, joy, and love in this world.

Mary's song, also used yesterday in worship, comes as a response to her welcome from Elizabeth, but it's also her RSVP to God, who has already begun to do transformational things. Whether we say yes or no, God comes, God acts.

So favored women, you are invited to join us for our Women's Advent Communion service tonight at 7pm, when we will welcome and support one another like Mary and Elizabeth, and move forward together as entry points of Love.

Angels!

2011-12-18T20:45:00.000-05:00

Angels!

Luke 1:26-38

December 18, 2011

JW McNeill

Theangel, Gabriel, is sent to Mary.

Thisis not the first time the Gospel writer Luke has told us something aboutGabriel. A few paragraphs earlier, Gabriel visited Zechariah.

Zechariahwas a priest. He and his wife, Elizabeth had a problem. They had no child andthey were getting on in years. They had been praying for a child for a longtime.

Asthe story goes, Zechariah was in the sanctuary of the temple offering incenseto God. As he was doing so, an angel of the Lord appeared – Gabriel. Zechariahwas terrified. Gabriel tells him not to be afraid. Moreover, Gabriel tells himthat God has heard the prayers of him and Elizabeth and that Elizabeth wouldhave a son. Not only a son, but a son that “will be great in the sight of theLord.” That son, of course, would be the one whom we know as John the Baptizer.

Zechariahis dubious. He asks how he can rely on this promise. The angel replies, “I amGabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to youand to bring you this good news.”

Angelsare spiritual beings that are able to be the bridge between God and the world.As the Bible thinks of angels, by the way, they are not the spirits of humanbeings who have died. They have their own existence and power and purpose.

Often in the Bible, when God has aninteraction with a person, an angel is the form in which this takes place. Whenangels visit, it is as if to say that God is visiting. Since God does not havea body with which to interact in the world, it is angels who take a physicalform in the world by which God can communicate. Angels are one form of theinbreaking of God into the world. Or, we might say, angels can be amanifestation of God in the world.

Inthe case of Zechariah and Elizabeth, Gabriel’s appearance was the answer toprayer. Gabriel came to tell Zechariah something he wanted to hear, butcouldn’t believe. It was an announcement that Zechariah could scarcely believebecause it was desired so desperately.

Nowsome of us can think of times when it has seemed that some sign of God’spresence in our lives has come as something welcome and refreshing. Somethingwe had prayed for and a relief.

Someof us can recall a time when our lives seemed empty and without purpose,without meaning that gave them direction and fulfillment. Or we can think ofsome time of trouble when we were about to give up hope and something happenedthat restored our confidence that we would be able to see through to healing oreven joy.

Someof us can think of a time when we have been burdened by guilt or regret orvindictiveness that has kept us from peace and we have prayed to be restored tothe wholeness that set our hearts at rest.

Wedo at times pray for this kind of inbreakingof God’s presence. A sign that God is still involved. An indication that wehave not been exiled from God’s care and concern. And when those prayers areanswered it is as if an angel has visited as a sign that one whose loveembraces the world has once again connected with our hearts.

Butsometimes, for some of us, we have not asked for anything. We have not beenseeking the presence of God in our midst. We have just been minding our ownbusiness. Travelling along our own merry way.

Thiswas how it was with Mary. When Gabriel told her of what was to happen in herlife, she was perplexed. This was not something that she had anticipated or hadasked for. This inbreaking of God’s messenger angel was not an answer to prayer– at least not an answer to herprayer or her desire. She had other plans.

Instead,it was the announcement of her being taken into a story that was beyond herunderstanding, beyond her experience, and beyond her expectation.

Let’sconsider how this sort of divine encounter with an angel went for Mary.

Thereare four stages to this encounter and these four stages may be a part of ourencounter with God as well.

1. Favored One

Maryis told that she is favored by God. The angel says to her: "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is withyou." I inviteeach one of you to listen for that in your heart this morning. Greetings,favored one! The Lord is with you.

Iespecially say that because I suspect that some of you might be sitting herethinking, well this has nothing to do with me. I'm not that religious, or I'mnot good enough, or I've done too many bad things in my life, or I'm notdisciplined enough. But God refuses tobe bound by our limitations. Instead, God makes our limitations part of thestory.

Godhas this remarkable habit of choosing the most unlikely people and places. Many times when an angel of God makes aninvitation, the person to whom the invitation comes, gives some excuse orreason to doubt the appropriateness of the invitation. Why did God choose Israel, after all to bethe chosen people? Why not a big power like Egypt or Babylon? Why have the Sonof God born in a barn? Why to parents who are on the road?

God isn't limited by our expectations. Instead God begins with us where we are. And then God can shape and transform ourlives beginning right where we are. Wemight not know where God is eventually leading, but we can trust that God'spromise of faithfulness and steadfast love will go with us.

Greetingsfavored one. The Lord is with you. This leads to the second stage.

2. You are to be part of a great project

InMary’s case, the message is “You will have a son who will be great.” But forus, more broadly, we are invited in all that we say and do to become entrypoints for God's love to come into the world.

Iask you, Can you imagine anything more wonderful than that opportunity? We areinvited to bear the Christ into the world. Each of us is being called to do so according the grace given to us andthe situations into which we live each day. We are offered the opportunity tobring forth Christ into the world.

Ourlives are not insignificant. What we do does matter. Our actions are beingwoven into the fabric of God’s tapestry in a way that is magnifying God’sjustice and compassion or not.

Isometimes wonder whether (apart from the money) folks who are desperate to goon some reality television show are not thinking that by doing so their liveswill gain significance. But the fact of the matter is that what we are about assons and daughters of the living God is part of God’s wondrous activity. We areeach day being called to be a part of the wonders of God’s ongoing blessing ofcreation – whether or not anyone seems to notice.

Thisgreat project moves forward as we show compassion, as we listen to the needs ofthose around us – even our own family. This great project moves forward as wepractice forgiveness and seek reconciliation. It moves forward as we set asideretaliation. As we practice patience and look for ways to love and serveothers, we see this project gain increasing traction all around us. It allcounts! It all creates the atmosphere in which God’s goodness is revealed inabundance.

Thisis how Christ enters the world through us.

Youare favored. You are invited to a great project. Which leads us to the thirdstage.

3. How can this be? The Holy Spirit will come upon you; the power of themost high will overshadow you.

Mary,of course, wonders how this can be. She is aware of how small she is. She hasno position in the world from which to do great things. How can she have suchan impact? Gabriel tells her that the Holy Spirit will overshadow her. And inthat connection, Jesus will be conceived.

Again,this does not depend on her strength, or her talent, or her feeling“religious.” Instead it depends on herletting go and opening herself to the powerof God.

Sofor us: this does not depend on our strength, or our talent, or our feeling“religious.” Instead it depends on ourletting go of our need to prove ourselves and instead open ourselves to be provenby the power of God that embedded in all of creation – even us.

Itinvolves risking ourselves in participation, trusting that we will be givenwhat we need, and discovering that God is already at work preparing us andopening the way for grace to shine through.

Youare favored. You are invited into a great project. You will be empowered by theHoly Spirit. This brings us to the fourth stage.

4. Here am I. Submission.

OnceMary has taken this in she says: Here am I. Let it be with me according to yourword.

Marysubmits herself, trusting that God is present in this encounter.

Sometimesthis passage has been presented as a choice that Mary has as to whether or notshe will go ahead with this and be the mother of Jesus, the messiah, theChrist, the son of God. I may have even spoken in this way as well – imaginingthat Mary somehow was being offered the opportunity to say no.

Butas I read the passage again as it is written, I do wonder whether that is thebest way to understand it, actually. It is not so much a choice as a surrender:this is how it is to be and I offer myself to it so that I will be fully opento be the vessel of God in this circumstance. I will embrace this offer to beGod’s entry point into creation.

Iwill embrace this encounter with God so that the world will encounter God inhuman form to share this life together in this time and place so that God’spurpose will take root in this new way to burst the powers of sin and death forlove and life.

Sowe, too, are offered the possibility to embrace our encounter with God –whether in answer to our prayer or out of the blue as an intrusion to awell-planned path of our own – and surrender ourselves to be an entry point forhope, and peace, joy and love in this world. To create that space where thepresence and power of God can gestate in our lives, so that our attitudes, ourwords, our actions can each be a womb in which the presence of Christ growsstrong enough to be birthed into reality by our words and deeds.

Youare favored. You are invited into a great project. You will be empowered by theHoly Spirit. You may submit yourself to all this to be an entry point for hope,peace, joy, and love in this world.

Gabriel,an angel of God, stands in the presence of God and, at the same time,encounters human beings in the world, telling them what God needs them to hear,so that they may be prepared to join in.

Gabrieltells Zechariah that he and Elizabeth will have a son. That child will grow upto be John the Baptizer. Gabriel tells Mary that she is to have a child by thepower of the Holy Spirit and that child will grow up to be the messiah, the Sonof God. Gabriel bridges the realm of God and the realm of earth.

Thereis a sense in which this is what Jesus does, as well. The Word of God takes onflesh and lives among us in this world as an inbreaking into creation. In fact, there was some thought that perhapsJesus was simply an angel, and that was a way to explain his power and hisgoodness. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews takes some pains to arguethat this is not the way to understand Jesus.

[Thatwas the wind up. Now here’s the pitch.]

Itis not too much of a stretch to say that we might understand ourselves asangels in this sense: as we offer ourselves to God’s plans and purposes, we canbridge the realm of God and the world. We can be messengers of God’s peace andcompassion, God’s love and mercy.

Wecan approach others as the answer to their prayer or as an invitation that theymight grow closer to God.

Overthe next week, emotions come nearer to the surface and tenderness in many waysbecomes the order of the day. Some of the callouses that build up over thecourse of life become softened in the holiday sentiment. Over the next weekmany of us will notice that our hearts are somewhat more open to God’s messagesof love: both as receivers and senders.

Iinvite you to pay attention to those messages as angelic visitations connectingyou to God’s call on your life and an opportunity once again find yourselfbeing drawn closer into God’s embrace and more deeply into God’s designs on theworld.

Maryand Zechariah are not the only ones to be touched by the power of God. May theLord also be with you!

where the christ child comes

2011-12-17T13:12:00.004-05:00

Last night I spent some chaotic but fun time with children and youth at a city church's Youth Cafe, making Christmas crafts mostly, but also just listening.....clearly they do not have all that I have materially, and some of them also lack many of the social and familial advantages I have as a privileged white woman. Like those uncertain what tomorrow would bring, they used up every piece of craft supply I brought, ate seconds (and in one case thirds and fourths!) of the taco dinner provided, and devoured many of the sugar cookie someone else brought for decorating fun! And I remember that this is the world into which the Child is born in a refugee, homeless family. And THEY know that in ways I don't.....for in their Bethlehems they have something deep, within them, among them, and most of all for their families, something the Christ child brings, even to those who've never met him, something that church and its faithful volunteers bring to places the rest of us rarely see.

an incredible gift

2011-12-15T19:31:00.000-05:00

here's a wonderful gift to each of us from one of our members who's undergoing chemotherapy:

As I began my morning ritual today with "what to have for breakfast that won't make me nauseous", check my mouth for sore spots, run a comb through my hair to see how much more is gone, weigh myself, get my elastic sleeve and gauntlet on, and slather on a gallon of moisturizer, I realized that I probably won't feel much like writing next week after the second chemo. SO, please hear me out.

Never did I think that I would be a statistic or how I would manage not being in charge of my life. We all know intellectually that we are not in control but I have to tell you, we don't really know it until it happens to us. You are all very special to us and even more so now. Each day different people come to mind whether because of a card, some soup, or just a special memory which crosses our minds.
Don't ever forget how special you are.

And so as this special season of Christmas approaches, be good to each other, enJOY a beautiful season with loved ones and find that Peace which we all so longingly seek. I had hoped to see more of you this fall but we can look forward to spring and new beginnings.

full moon murmurings

2011-12-14T08:50:00.003-05:00

A teacher friend was commenting that she could tell it was a full moon, given the behaviour of her children; compounded of course by the anticipation of Hanukah and Christmas! I'd been watching the moon for several nights, thinking it's almost full, anticipating it myself, as I love the sense of cosmic completeness I feel when I meditate on a full moon. She pointed out I'd actually missed the full moon four nights ago, and it was now waning.
How much else do I miss, even when I THINK I'm paying attention? How easily does a special moment slip by when I'm looking at the details and not the whole thing? Do I miss God's advent this way? Sometimes I think "Did I just miss something important?" because it was almost indistinquishable from what was around it?
Maybe it's the process of waxing and waning that's as important as the climax itself....

how can I keep from singing?

2011-12-12T08:25:00.002-05:00

Some days the joy just takes over! It began with yesterday's sermon reminder that joy and happiness aren't the same.....then the joy of children sharing a handmade gift with their pastors.... the sound of music and an uncanny vision seen in a stained glass reflection...... a woman's smile as she says "I'm letting myself feel the joy"..... and finally an evening reading from Jan Richardson who quotes the folk song, How Can I Keep from Singing:
My life flows on in endless song, above earth's lamentation;
I hear the real, though far off hymn that hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife I hear its music ringing;
it sounds an echo in my soul: how can I keep from singing?

What is your song?
May the joy of the unexpected well up in you, and may your heart sing its unique song for a world gone wild.

dona nobis pacem

2011-12-11T17:43:00.003-05:00

In my younger years as a parent, I'd occasionally sigh, "oh just give me a minute's peace!"--little did I know then that that would become my life's mantra: give us peace. But today at our church's annual cantata, called "Dona nobis pacem-give us peace" I would be profoundly reminded that the demand, "give us" is very childish. A grown people of faith, peace is up to us. One of the quotes (or misquotes-I never get these things right) is from Mother Teresa: Peace isn't something we wish for; it's something we do.
May you BE peace for someone today.

oops

2011-12-11T08:33:00.000-05:00

those who actually read this blog noticed my exclusive concept of God! N is for nobody, who God excludes!

soul spelling

2011-12-10T12:47:00.002-05:00

A is for Advent - coming of something new...do I really expect God to come with something new?
D is for decorate....my house is decorated, the tree, the sanctuary....how about my heart?
V is for volumes....volumes of tissue and tape.. volumes of blessings in their midst?
E is for everywhere...like it or not, that's where God comes
N is for nobody....like it ior not, that's who God comes to, and through
T is for today....God waits while we delay. Be here now.

it's contagious!

2011-12-09T09:03:00.002-05:00

This morning as I drove through Dunkin' Donuts for my coffee, the person in the car ahead of me paid for my drink! "She wants to start something" said the woman at the window. And she did - I paid for the one behind me, and said to wish them a merry Christmas! I don't know what it did for them, but it certainly changed my heart and attitude this morning. That old 'random acts of kindness' is well and thriving, thank God.

Christmas lights sparkle everywhere

2011-12-08T14:41:00.004-05:00

In this season of increasing darkness, as we approach the shortest day, it is no accident that faith traditions celebrate light in Hanukah, Advent, Kwanza, for it is in our deepest darkness we can learn to trust the Light.
Today I led a funeral service for a 28 year old woman, who had a heart for the unlovely, for she had experienced it in herself in her short life. She carried the Light of God's love through her recovery from addiction, then through her cancer to her death, in ways many older people never manage. "You are the light of the world" says Jesus. As we notice all the lights sparkling in neighborhoods and stores and churches, let's pause each time and give thanks for the gift of Light, and pray for the grace to be Light.

talking trash

2011-12-07T08:17:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is trash day, which means today's the day I get it ready to put out (so I'm not doing it at 5am tomorrow!). There's more recycling than trash, which I suppose is a good thing, but it's scary how much stuff there is to dispose of every week--newspapers (yes, this is a family that still reads real newsprint!), plastic, glass, excess packaging. At this time of year it strikes me as excessive, and we haven't even hit Christmas yet...then a walk down the street on trash day really makes me realise how MUCH we have, when so many have so little. We have a couple of regular trash trawlers in the neighbourhood, whose income is augmented by my discards. When did I lose the sense of 'enough'?

this is good news?

2011-12-06T11:25:00.002-05:00

I'm not always sure that the "gospel"/good news is good, especially when it challenges me and confronts me with my own need for repentance! John the Baptizer is clear that we need to clean up our act....any slight attention to the human condition tells us that hasn't changed. But do I want to change? Yes, I do. I may not like the confrontation, but it IS good news that God cares enough to call me out, and comes to help me live the good news way. In a world so determined to live parasitically on bad news, it is up to us to believe the good news and live it. God cares. God comes.

The Beginning of the Good News

2011-12-05T12:22:00.001-05:00

Sunday Morning Message from December 4,2011

Mark 1:1-8

John W. McNeill

1) A couple ofrelatively recent pieces of personal news that had a significant impact on me.

i) The weekbefore Thanksgiving I had a stress test.

ii) InSeptember I received news that my father died.

iii) Thesepieces of news framed my activities for the next few days.

2) We all getnews: what we did not know before. Predicted, guessed, feared, hoped for, whatever.But we did not know it. News changes things for us. It puts us in a differentplace. Minor or major impact.

i) Personal

(a) Health news

(b) Financialnews

ii) Global

(a) War andpeace or terrorism

(b) EconomicCrisis

3) Good news

i) Births

ii) Weddings

iii) Expressionsof generosity

iv) Unexpectedblessings

4) Opening ofthe Gospel of Mark

i) Not acomplete sentence. Beginning, origin, elementary

ii) Good newsof Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

5) Good newsin and of itself: J the B is the herald who proclaims God is coming so clean upyour act. Prepare the way of the Lord! Be ready to welcome God’s entrance intohistory. Something extraordinary is about to happen and you don’t want to missit. These are not ordinary times.

6) Then thereis more good news in and of itself: the message of Jesus Christ. God isentering into human history into the world to make things right out ofcompassion and care for those who suffer and are oppressed, those who areexcluded and shunned. God has entered history to begin to set things right.

7) So this isnews in and of itself, but perhaps more important is that this entrance of Godinto human history becomes the “framing story” by which we understand all othernews. Here’s what I mean by a “framing story:”

i) A framingstory shapes/ interprets/forms our understanding of what we hear.

(1) We fit apiece of news into our broader story about how things are and how things oughtto be

(2) Into whatstory do we place the news we receive?

(3) A varietyof stories – interesting project to identify some of them. Maybe we’ll do thatanother day.

ii) The goodnews of Jesus that we proclaim is embedded in a larger story that we affirm:

(1) God is thecreator – intentionality of love and goodness and justice and beauty

(2) God acts inhistory – the world is full of the blessedness of God blessing, love, if wehave eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to feel and hands to cooperatewith it.

(3) That God’sgoodness in mercy and compassion and forgiveness who is drawing all things innot excluding all things out. In the end, love wins.

(4) The framingstory of the world is a (classic sense) comedy: the end is reconciliation.

iii) Any givenpiece of news may change our situation in a large or small way - put us in adifferent place, so to speak - but as we become the people of God, disciples ofJesus Christ, we fit that news into the larger story of God’s grace.

iv) When ourframing story is the good news of Jesus Christ we are able to listen for theway in which any piece of “news” offers the opportunity to be an instrument of thejustice, compassion, and mercy of God. Offers us an opportunity to be or becomethe people of God.

(1) This is notto say that there is might not be sadness, fear, anger – those are real – butthey are not the demoralizing powers that would hold us hostage to despair.

(2) News of anaccomplishment becomes an awareness of a new position from which to contributeto the good of the community.

(3) News thatsomeone has taken offense and is withdrawing from us becomes an awareness that wemust launch an effort toward a deeper understanding of that person’s experienceand renewed effort toward reconciliation.

(4) News thatfamily members are at odds with one another becomes a call to prayer, comfort,and encouragement of those who are experiencing real loss and real sadness.

(5) News of healthset-backs can become times to once again open up to God’s healing power, thesupport of persons around us, and renew our confidence that we are in God’shands.

(6) News offinancial set-backs remind us that this life is not about the accumulation ofstuff and our well-being is not secured on our own, but by our cooperationtogether in an environment of trust.

(7) News of violenceand wars and terrorism remind us that Jesus calls on us as his disciples, hisstudent followers, to pray for our enemies and tells us that the peacemakersare blessed and are the ones who will inherit the earth. It is a call to jointhe psalmist who proclaimed centuries ago: some trust in chariots and horses,but we trust in the Lord, our God.

(a) We areinvited to step out of the retaliatory spiral of threat and violence into thevirtuous circle of negotiation and confidence-building.

(8) News ofnatural disasters makes us once again aware of our human limits and that eventhe earth and its systems are not ultimately the rock on which we stand. We are small players in the enormity of thenatural world in which we are opened to humility and awe at powers greater thanourselves.

(9) All thesekinds of news become meaningful, take their significance from the framing story– the framing good news – that we have heard and believed in Jesus Christ.

(a) Framed inother stories they could become cues for revenge, despair, panic, retaliation,dishonesty, shaming, or abandonment.

(b) Here’s thepunchline: How we frame the news can be much more important than what the newsis.

8) This meansthatr for those who are becoming the people of God, for those who areintentionally committed to living as followers of Jesus, news becomes more thansimply news. It sets the stage for us as the The Church to be what we have beencalled to be:

a) The Church,the people of God, are here to be the bearer and sign and reality of that goodnews:

i) Tocelebrate God’s presence

ii) To love andserve others

iii) To seekjustice and resist evil

iv) ProclaimJesus: crucified and risen, our judge and our hope.

b) Because theGospel story that Mark shares with us is not the end of the Good News. It is,as he says, the beginning of thegood news. We are called to continue to live out that good news so that who weare and what we do continue to frame all the news in God’s world as openingsfor the good news of God in Jesus Christ to shine through.

9) We enact thatgood news in the Eucharist. We enact the good news of the open table to whichall are invited to be reconciled with God and one another and anticipate thefeast of the Eternal Banquet of Almighty God!

Thanks be to God!

dreary monday thoughts

2011-12-05T10:42:00.003-05:00

A dreary day in Rochester, NY, and it's Monday to boot! I'm taking a vacation day, and the hours stretch out before me with little of vital importance on the to-do list! What a treat! I think they call it Sabbath rest.
The weather is sort of Scottish-like...a damp but not really cold day, misty, with uniformly pale grey sky. It gets me thinking about my father, at 100 years old facing his mortality and wondering often why he's still alive....which in turn gets me thinking about purpose and meaning in life, and into my in-box pops the following from Joan Chittister:
Having a sense of purpose and meaning in life ranks high in the cluster of the commonplaces of happiness. No matter where we are on the economic chart, it’s knowing what we exist for that counts. No matter how mundane our gifts may seem to be, even to ourselves, the world will be the poorer without them, and we will be poorer, too, for not having given them as best we can. My life has meaning to every life I touch. It’s knowing that and living accordingly that counts.
Clearly, life does not give us meaning. Life has only the meaning we give it. Without a reason larger than myself for which to get out of bed in the morning, I am losing my life one day at a time, like water drops in an ocean, without so much as a ripple to show for it.
I invite you to take a moment or two this day, to stop what you're busy with, and wonder with me.....what do I/you exist for? And how does it impact 'every life I touch'? Sure, it's a bigger question that a moment or two's reflection might answer, but perhaps the act of stopping long enough to even ask the question might offer you some advent hope, and if we know the answer, stopping momentarily to remind ourselves of it may offer centering peace.

answering the door

2011-12-04T07:05:00.002-05:00

The Rule of Benedict has a whole chapter on how to answer the door. Of course, it has whole chapters on all sorts of actions, because it's a very balanced guide to life, for all it's 15 centuries old! But answering the door?
I've been thinking about hospitality since David posted a comment on a previous blog, and as I watch people - including myself - at church, in the store, on the road, and observe how we greet people, or don't.
When I'm not expecting someone, and my doorbell rings at home, it can seem like an intrusion; but it's Nate and Vi, a couple who work our neighborhood looking for recycling bottles and cans. Can I greet them as Christ, as Benedict instructs?
At work, Kathy might warn me about an incoming phone call, you're not going to like this....and it's sure to be something that disrupts my agenda. Can I welcome that caller as Christ?
At the store, as I hurry through my list, someone tries to help me when I don't need help....can I respond with grace?
Then this morning, I was listening for a word from God as I read and reflected and journaled, and it suddenly came to me....how do I answer the door when God is knocking, wanting my attention, needing my gifts, seeking my help, offering to help me? Ignore it? Put it on the back burner for later? Make a note and take a message to think about it later? Or open the door, no matter what the implication?
How do you answer the door?

Got hope?

2011-12-03T10:26:00.003-05:00

As the first week of Advent draws to a close I think about repetitions. This season rolls around year after year, and we hear the same stuff over and over that we heard last year and the year before .....it bears repeating of course, as each new time our needs and desires are different, and iI ask myself: have I moved forward in my spiritual journey from where I was last year?
Clearly, like a parent, God and maybe the church need to repeat themselves over and over till we get it! So...got hope?

Who ARE you?

2011-12-02T08:13:00.002-05:00

That's the question in this morning's Bible reading, asked by the religious authorities of John the Baptizer. Clearly he's up to something that has them puzzled...wish we Christians could say the same. And his answer: a voice crying in the wilderness. Ah, now that I understand! As a mother I often feel that way, not to mention as a pastor.
But he goes on, prepare the way! Hmmm. I'm preparing the way for Christ/Christmas, with personal spiritual habits and household stuff, but he's doing it for others. How am I, how are you, how are WE as people of God, inviting others into the journey of preparation?

God's coming can be most unexpected

2011-12-01T09:09:00.001-05:00

A friend sent me this poem by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, and it reminds me as the weather changes, yet again, that life is full of surprises....and there is nothing, and no place, and no time, where God cannot be....

"Advent Calendar" by Rowan Williams

He will come like last leaf's fall.

One night when November wind

Has flayed the trees to the bone, and earth

wakes choking on the mould,

the soft shroud's folding.

He will come like frost.

One morning when the shrinking earth

opens on mist, to find itself

arrested in the net

of alien, sword-set beauty.

He will come like dark.

One evening when the bursting red

December sun draws up the sheet

and penny-masks its eye to yield

the star-snowed fields of sky.

He will come, will come,

will come like crying in the night,

it's all about me?

2011-11-30T08:24:00.002-05:00

In this Sunday's text, John the Baptizer clearly points away from himself to the one who is coming, and our Spiritual Lunch bunch wrestling with the text wondered what our lives point to.....hmmm. Often we revel in the attention we get, or resent all the attention we have to give to other people. Is it all about me, I wonder? It reminded me of a story about an ancient spiritual leader who was close to death and was asked what he wanted to be remembered for. "I've spent my life sitting by the river, handing out water," he said. " I want people to notice the water." As we walk intentionally through Advent, may our lives, our attitudes, our words point beyond ourselves, to the one who comes.

the color purple

2011-11-29T09:20:00.002-05:00

During some midnight wakefulness I found myself thinking about the color purple, the liturgical color for Advent as well as the title of a classic by Alice Walker. NOTHING in our society at this time of year is purple, except in the walls of a church or on our home advent wreaths--it's all green and white and red and glittery silver. And my reading this morning from the Rule of Benedict was all about being intentional about the work of the spiritual life. SO....I am going to spend Advent looking for and celebrating the color purple, for as Shug says in the book, God is trying very hard to get our attention with the color purple, and our attention wanders all over the place in red and green and glitter.

advent musings

2011-11-28T18:58:00.003-05:00

I will occasionally post some random thoughts that come to me this season, notably through my daily reading of scripture and the Rule of Benedict!

today, at midday prayer at church, the chimes played Make Me A Blessing, an old favourite hymn. It occurred to me that this is a time of year when we seek blessings for ourselves in the guise of blessing others with gifts. We want to feel good, to seem generous, to enjoy the season.... but I for one am often so frazzled I am more an irritation than a blessing! May you, and I, be a blessing for someone today.

2011-11-28T18:54:00.000-05:00

As we begin another Christian year with Advent, we enter a tender time in our lives—some of us because we’re grieving or hurting, some because we’re frazzled by our own choices, some just because it’s a season that touches deep places in our souls.

All of us yearn for something to be different. We look around in our own live, in the economy, in our politics, in the world, and we yearn for change, yet despair of its coming. And sometimes we are paralysed by that despair.

Both of our texts for today speak to both of those - desire for change and despair of its ever coming – they’re evocatively deep ancient texts, and touch places in our souls that we rarely allow to see the light of day. And they’re every bit as evocative of what we need 2500 years later!

Both sound like laments: You can hear the plaintive cries--

O God, come

Lord, let your face shine—let us know you’re there!

How long must we wait?

Tear open the heavens and come down!

The people cry out for God to be made known.

And like us, as soon as they recognize their need for God, it spurs them into a reality check—they recognize where they have gone wrong. Like the bumper sticker says, if God seems distant, guess who moved?

In this coming season it’s easy to move away from God—life gets in the way, and in our culture there’s no such thing as Advent, just Christmas – and even that has little to do with God anymore. We’re not so different from the ‘we’ of the text.

So, we too must do a reality check. We need to take Advent seriously and look hard at what is wrong or missing that we so yearn for change.

Let’s go back to the Isaiah text and take some reflection time with the ancient people…..

Listen as they pray….listen with the ear of your heart; it may help to close your eyes or whatever your prayer posture may be….

v. 3 We look back at what you’ve done in the past God—awesome deeds that we did not expect, that shook us up…..

Looking back, how has God been there for you in the past?

v. 5 We see how we’ve messed up, God, and blamed you for not guiding us…

Looking back, where have we not taken responsibility for our own behavior, or lack of action?

v. 6 And now we’re held in the grip of our own mess, God, carried away on a wind of our own making…

Looking at now, what’s engulfing you?

v. 7 We’re disconnected from you God, and sometimes it feels like you don’t even exist!.......

where do you wish God was? What do you yearn for God to do?

AND YET. And yet, we say….O God, you are connected. We DO believe it.

You are our Father and Mother who gives us life….., the shepherd who gently steers us towards the safe and healthy places, and seeks us out when we wander off…..the Potter who yearns to make something of the clay that is us. We ARE all the work of your hand.

So come God, come!

For those of us who need a loving father or a strong mother, come and wrap us in your embrace….

For those who need guidance, come and mold us into what YOU want us to be for once.

For those who have messed up, come and help us begin again in your way

For those of us blown about by circumstances, come as a solid rock on which we can rely………..

For God DOES come. All the time. Trouble is we don’t see it.

God the embracing father comes in that person who so deeply cares for you that you dare to believe you are worth loving

God the life giving mother comes in the regularity of a sunrise or season

God the shepherd comes in the strength of others during your tragedy times

God the potter comes in that small group that’s holding us accountable for our own growth

There is no limit to the times and ways and places God comes

We’re so busy calling for some far off God to ‘rend the heavens and come down’ that we’ve forgotten how to put ourselves into the Presence of the God who is already here. All around us…all the time.

Here is hope. Hope is in the calling for help, the calling for the God you’re not even sure you believe in…the calling itself is an act of hope.

But as we said last week and the week before, it has to be intentional. God does not force us into this relationship.

Song Seek God, in every one and every thing, every day of your life.

In this season of tenderness and vulnerability, let us try to seek God, not the right gift, the perfect recipe, the prettiest decorations, the best job, the happiest family, the greatest bargain….. but seek God, who is already seeking us.

And the change we yearn for will come. Because we will become the change we want to see, for we will be the people of God, the people of hope.

Reign of Christ - now

2011-11-21T16:30:00.000-05:00

Reign of Christ – now 112011

Matthew 23:31ff

Margaret Scott

Children’s message

Mirrors—see yourself.

Screen—see all the children

Out into congregation—see everyone

God wants us to see everyone, notice if they’re happy or sad, and try to help them.

Sermon

In the Christian tradition, this day is the high point the culmination of the Christian year. It’s the day we celebrate the Reign of Christ, sometimes called Christ the King Sunday, when the year that begins with the anticipation of Jesus’ birth ends with his return as King of all creation.

Some people have seen this as some future time when he’ll come back and in one fell swoop fix the world—condemning some of it to endless torture and rewarding some of it with endless life, when the kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. That’s sort of what our text today suggests.

Yet we are also people who believe we are called to bring about the kingdom, or kin-dom as is more realistic and more challenging, here and now. It’s in this way that I am most challenged and comforted by this story Jesus tells.

Whether you read this text as being about a future or after-death judgment, or hear it as a judgment on your behavior now, it’s still judgment.

Like it or not, judgment is a fact of life. Break the law, society judges you. Live a lifestyle of constant stress or abuse of substances or abuse of time, our bodies and our souls will judge us.

But let me be clear about something. This is not a story, nor is this a sermon, intended to be about guilt. I overheard someone say, oh that’s Margaret trying to guilt you into something.

Oh sure, guilt has its uses , but the church is NOT about guilt. We are not called to operate on guilt and threat—if it feels like that then we need to listen to what that says about our lives and how we’re influenced by the culture, which DOES operate on guilt and threat.

WE ‘re about love. Because we try to follow Jesus, we are called to love God and serve others.

Our culture has those two tools, guilt and threat—ours are love and service

listen to how coaches coerce while Jesus invites

notice how bosses bully and God embraces

see how politicians function on fear and disciples function on trust.

Love and service, this is what we do as the people of God. Not because of guilt, when our ‘doing’ becomes a burden, nor because of fear, of that eternal damnation or some rejection more immediate, but because it’s who we ARE, or at least who we are becoming.

Which brings us to the story.

We’ve always heard, around here at least, that we’re supposed to see Jesus in everyone we meet. And while that’s one part of growth in the spiritual life, lots of us ain’t there yet. And that’s not the judgment in this text. There’s no emphasis on Jesus, on the Christ, on the king himself even.

Did you notice in Jesus’ storytelling that neither group recognized Jesus in the hungry, sick imprisoned and so on? Both are equally puzzled by the king’s comments. “When did we see you…?”

Many of us still have to learn to see EACH OTHER, let alone Jesus. Let’s not worry about seeing the face of Christ in everyone we meet until we can see the face of everyone we meet, and see what need is reflected in it. Only then might we meet Jesus.

Do I recognize when someone is lacking something, hungry or thirsting for something more? Do we notice someone who is imprisoned by their lifestyle or behavior? Can I recognize the sick at heart?

When we can see that so and so is hungry, that that village has no clean water, or that family has no electricity, that such and such a person I work with is sick and weary of life…..then we’re on the way to becoming the people of God.

But that’s not the judgment in the text either. We’re not judged on whether we have observant eyes or not. BOTH groups saw the hungry, the stranger, the imprisoned, the sick.

The judgment lies in how we treat the people we see, those who are usually considered ‘the other’, different, the least and last in our society…or in our social circle…or even in our classroom….or, gasp, even in our family……..or even in our own soul.

John said last week that becoming the people of God means being intentional not just about our beliefs, but also about our practices.

The judgment on us in this story is on how we respond, act, offer help, to the stranger, the thirsty, the sick and so on.

The judgment, whether on some final reckoning for the “Left Behind” folks, or on me today, isn’t about whether I can claim Jesus as my Lord (Christ the King of my life), but on simple acts of compassion, which is how I act out my belief in Jesus as Lord of my life.

That might be enough of a sermon to chew on, but it doesn’t go quite far enough for the text. You see there’s this other troubling little phrase in what the king in the story says, you did it, or you did NOT do it, to the least of these who are members of my family.

There’s two ways to look at that definition of the God- family. We can say that we have to be compassionate and charitable to the hungry and stranger and sick in the church; we are God’s family, and we must behave tenderly toward one another.

But this can also be read to say, the least of these suffering people are members of my family. Maybe it’s the human family, not the holy family.

I believe in this story God is challenging us to draw the circle wide.

Those, anywhere, who hunger, for food or for love, belong to the family

Those who are thirsty for clean water or for meaning, are members

Those who are sick in body or in spirit,

Those who are imprisoned by society or by the calendar

We might start that circle small and face up to the fact that God’s family includes you and me, personally: God cares about how we treat our own strangeness, our hungers and thirsts, our sickness, our prisons. Maybe in you there’s a hunger you need to attend to, a hamster wheel that imprisons you. Name it, address it, and maybe you’ll meet Jesus there.

Then draw the circle wider to include most of the people we know: the folks who SEEM to have their act together, the middle class and well educated, the gainfully employed or sadly unemployed, or the happy homemaker

Can you see the need? Will you address it? Maybe you’ll meet Jesus there.

Then draw the circle wider still

In the pew beside you someone needs a word of welcome,

up ahead someone is hungry

Over there someone is hurting

Can you see that everyone here belongs, deserves love and respect, needs something you can offer, or has something to offer you.

Maybe you’ll see Jesus there.

Then draw the circle wider still and see everyone beyond your private world that includes church. Go into the school and workplace and store and gym and shelter and tutoring sites: look! see what you can see, then see what you can do

I KNOW you’ll meet Jesus there.

Becoming the People of God Part 5: God's

2011-11-14T15:23:00.001-05:00

Becoming the People of God

Part 5: God’s

1Thessalonians 5:1-11

November 13,2011

We havebeen talking over the last few weeks about becoming the people of God. *Whatdoes it mean to become God’s people? We’ve talked about how it means beliefcommitments and practices. These beliefs and practices frame our lives together so that we live inparticular ways. We believe and do particular things.

We do not become the people of God accidently. If we are tobecome the people of God we will do so by intention. We will do so on purpose.It is God’s purpose that we become God’s people. What is in question is whetherwe will become God’s people.

We must be intentional about these beliefs and practicesbecause the cultural environment in which we live does not have the same commitmentsto which Christ invites us. We have been looking at those over the last fewweeks.

I have wanted to repeat these so that we can fix them inour minds as distortions of our faith and recognize them as propositions thatare not Christian. When contrasted with the Christian faith, we find among themsome falsity, some distortion, or a failure to go far enough. They will notlead us to the God we affirm.

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

· A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over life on earth.

· God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.

· The central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about yourself.

· Good people go to heaven when they die.

Some of these sound plausible, but we’ve reviewed how theycontrast with our particular commitments as Christians. Christianity isoffering a contrasting alternative to these positions.

Our Affirmation of Faith

· Webelieve in God: who has created and iscreating, who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh, to reconcile and makenew.…

o God who isengaged and comes to us.

· Weare called to be the Church: to celebrate God’s presence, to love and serveothers, to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus, crucified andrisen.

o Beyond nice and fair to proactivelycelebrating and being God’s presence in the world for service and justice withJesus’ way as our way.

· Webelieve in God...who works in us and others by the Spirit. We trust in God.

o It’s not about us. It’s about ourtrusting that God is at work in us. It’s about trusting God through all thingswhether we are feeling happy in any given moment or not.

· Jesus,crucified and risen, our judge and our hope. In life, in death, in life beyonddeath, God is with us.

o Godrespects us and cares for us enough to take our lives seriously and we believethat ultimately God desires our healing and restoration to the persons Godcreated us to be.

To become the people of God is to live allowingthese statements and these practices to shape and form us into whom God hascreated us to be and to discover God’s call on our lives. Just as we will notbecome accomplished violinists, or carpenters, or gymnasts without attending tocertain consistent practices, we will not become Christ followers unless wetake on particular beliefs and practices that will form us in a particular way.

We turn now to today’s proposition of MTD

· God is not involved in my life except when Ineed God to solve a problem.

This is another proposition that is emblematic of our contemporarycultural situation and goes along with the first proposition of MTD that weconsidered. It is the companion to the God who stands back until we beckon Godto come back. This one is about our standing back from God until we are introuble.

We are generally in a position of confidently taking careof ourselves. In our world of relative abundance and comfort and safety, it iseasy to imagine that we have no need of God. If we want food we go to thegrocery store, if we are sick we go to the doctor. If we are bored we turn onthe TV. If we are cold we put on a sweater or turn up the heat. It is ofteneasy to believe that we are in charge.

This is falling asleep to God. This is being intoxicated bysimply trying to be on top of the affairs of the world. Paul says in our lessonthis morning:

So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let uskeep awake and be sober;

When we can’t solve our problem we turn to God. We wake up.

But here is the question: When our crisis/problems begin tooverwhelm us, will we be able to recognize God?

God is always there, but we don’t always have the eyes tosee and ears to hear.

We need to practice. There is certainly a sense in which wecan find God anywhere, but we need to know how to look, how to listen. How torecognize God’s presence. It can beespecially difficult in times of crisis or trouble.

The classical language for this is that we are to attend tothe means of grace. We have already spoken of these in a way when we consideredthe four particular tasks to which we are called to:

· Celebrate God’s presence.
· Love and serve others.
· Seek justice and resist evil.
· Proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen.

It is in doing these things that we come to that we becomemore and more practiced in recognizing God and how God is at work in theworld. This list could be made morespecific and extended to include other practices of the Christian life:

Prayer, worship, reading and studying the Bible. Silence,solitude, fasting. Feeding the hungry, serving the poor.

Some of us require help in knowing how to engage in thesepractices. There are many ways to learn. Some of them are offered here atFairport United Methodist Church. Some of us require a regular group to supportus in these habits. We offer some of those here too.

Let us not fall asleep. Let us not remain intoxicated byour management of the comforts of the world.

A colleague of mine, Doug Spencer, a retired pastor, gavethis analogy. He said that we might very well run into our physician at themall or the grocery store. We might very well run into our barber orhairdresser at the library or the movie theater. But if we want to be treatedfor an illness or consult about our health. If we want our hair cut, that ismuch more likely to happen if we make an appointment.

The means of grace are like making an appointment with God.It is the experience of God’s people through the ages that God will show up forthese appointments.

And it turns out that the more familiar we get God bykeeping these appointments, the more we will come to recognize God even inthose times when we are not particularly keeping an appointment.

If we believe that God is only worth bothering with when wehave a problem to solve, it is unlikely that we will recognize God even in thosetimes in any meaningful way.

The more we keep those appointments of the means of grace,or our four tasks we have talked about, the more we will come to know todayscontrasting statement from our affirmation.

· We are not alone; we live in God's world.

We will know this not just as a proposition of belief, but wewill know it experientially as the frame of our life.

There is a great temptation to believe that we live in ourworld. Our affirmation is very clear that we live in God’s world. We have noworld but God’s world.

It’s not about us inviting God into our world, rather it’sabout recognizing that there is no world besides God’s world.

St. Paul is telling us to wake up to that fact. Wake up tothe fact that this is God’s world, whether we open our eyes to notice it ornot.

To become the people of God is to live as though we areconvinced that we live in God’s world and we are not alone

This raises the challenging question. Maybe it’s even a kindof judgment: are we attending to these means of grace, these beliefs and practices,so that we are experiencing this world as God’s world and know each moment thatwe are not alone. That we are always and everywhere in the midst of God?

Becoming the people of God means that we are connecting withGod through the means of grace.

But notice this also: We have been talking about becoming thePEOPLE of God. Not persons of God or individuals of God. To become people ofGod also means that we are to be connecting with one another about being thepeople of God.

Paul says: (5:11) Thereforeencourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

Paul recognizes that community (peer) reinforcement isneeded. He recognizes that the becoming the people of God project is acommunity development project.

Becoming the people of God is a community effort. TheChristians in Thessalonica were doing it. Paul says, “as indeed you are doing.”How about us?

So here is the challenge that crystallizes this here andnow. The reality is that sporadic connection to this community of faith is notgoing make this happen. Is not going form us into the people of God.

Sporadic church attendance is not going to make thishappen. Hanging back from participation in church activities is not going tomake this happen. Not connecting with a smaller group for service or learningor conversation is going to keep this from happening.

If we want our children to become people of God, irregularSunday school attendance and the lack of sufficient adult leadership is goingto keep this from happening.

These are the kinds of contexts in which we can build eachother up. These are the kinds of activities and opportunities that will form ustogether into the people of God.

Again: We do not become the people of God accidently. If weare to become the people of God we will do so by intention. We will do so onpurpose. It is God’s purposethat we become God’s people. What is in question is whether we will becomeGod’s people. Some of us are well on the way. Others are just catching on. Someare still looking for a way to engage more fully. Please, don’t give up. Thoseof us who are more involved must invite those who are less involved.

I know there are other things to do besides being here onSunday mornings and at other times for other activities. I know that there arelots of stuff that pull people away from regular participation. But I also knowthat we won’t become the people of God together unless we are together. Unlesswe spend time with God and one another. Unless we focus our priorities to reflectwhat we say we believe.

Keep your eyes open for opportunities to engage more fully.The invitation is not simply to imagine. The opportunity isto make this real for one another and for ourselves.

We are being invited to become God’s people. We are beinginvited to live the reality that is already true:

We live in God’s world. We are invited to become God’s people.

Imagine that.

2011-11-07T14:32:00.000-05:00

Becomingthe People of God

Part 4: TheEnd

November 6,2011

J.W.McNeill

Over the last few weeks we have been taking time tounderstand some of our core beliefs and practices that help us to become thepeople of God. We have been contrasting what our Affirmation of Faith says withan alternative set of beliefs that researchers have found to be prevalent inour culture.

The first week we contrasted our belief in God who createdand continues to create with a God who watches over from a distance. We believein God who does not stand back, but has come in Jesus to show and be thetransforming presence of God in this world. We understand God to be always andeverywhere at work in our lives and our world.

The second week, we considered that we are not here as arandom collection of people, but rather we have been called out as God’screated people to be the Church – to behave in some particular ways:

· To celebrate God’s presence

· To love and serve others

· To seek justice and resist evil and

· To proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen.

And last week we put this into thecontext of how we are not on this earth to be happy and to feel good aboutourselves, but instead we are called to trust God no matter what ourcircumstances and to further trust that God is at work in us as the church (andin others) as we live out the four critical dimensions for being the Church.

Last week’s contrast allowed forthese three points to help us on our way to living a life worthy of God,becoming the people of God:

That contrast todayhighlighted three central points that can help us on our way to becoming thepeople of God:

1. We need to be awareof a pervasive egoism/selfishness that is a dangerous and seductive basis ofour consumer culture.

2. We trust in God. Wetrust that God is at work in us, so that we can together open ourselves everwider to the Holy Spirit’s work within us and among us.

3. We are not the onlypeople in whom God is at work. God is not bound by those whom God has calledand part of our joy is to notice that God’s spirit is already at work evenbefore we arrive. That is part of the basis for trust.

This morning’s contrast brings ourattention to what happens after death. Paul reminds us the Thessalonians in ourlesson this morning.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers andsisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do whohave no hope.

For since webelieve that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bringwith him those who have died.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism wouldhave us believe:

Goodpeople go to heaven when they die.

This statement is a widely heldposition on the matter. It leaves a number of questions unanswered, of course.

· How good is good enough?

· How is goodness measured?

· Does repentance and improvement count?

· Does sincerity matter if we are mistaken about what isgood?

· What about the Christian notion of salvation throughJesus Christ? How does that fit in?

Here again we have a bland positionthat does not approach the richness and depth of the view that our Affirmationsets out.

We believe in,

Jesus,crucified and risen, our judge and our hope. In life, in death, in life beyonddeath, God is with us.

· Jesus, crucified and risen

· Judge

· Hope

· Life beyond death.

Let’s take each of these in turn:

· Jesus,crucified and risen

As St. Paul writes to encourage andgive hope to the Christians in Thessalonica, he bases his confidence rests on hisknowledge of Jesus Christ. Paul knowsthat Jesus was crucified, he was killed. He was dead. He suffered at the handsof those who rejected his message andfeared that he would overturn the power structures of the world. So theytortured and killed him. But St. Paul also had the testimony of those who hadencountered Jesus as alive after that. Death was not the end of him. He hadbeen raised from the dead by the power of God, almighty. Jesus could not besilenced. He could not be finished off.

Like St. Paul, like Christians downthrough the ages, we also proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen.

· Judge

And it is this very Jesus,crucified and risen, whom the Bible tells us will be our judge.

I am, of course, aware that talk ofjudgment is sometimes not very popular. It tends to be popular only when we aretalking of someone else’s being judged. Bad people. Evil people. People whohave hurt folks we care about. When it comes time to talk about judgment of me,us, that’s another matter. Then it’s a little more tricky and we prefer to talkabout a more gentle and forgiving God.

Indeed, the bland notion that “Goodpeople go to heaven when they die,” is a way of avoiding the difficultquestions of judgment.

Now, it must be said that the Biblehas no single picture of what the judgment is and what it is based on. But thenotion of judgment itself is not in question.

So why is there judgment? Why isthat important in the divine plan? Perhaps the most important reason is thatGod takes us seriously. God has created us and takes our lives seriously. Godhas a stake in who we are and who we are becoming. God does not look at ourlives and just say – Oh never mind about all that. God takes us seriously. Weare to take ourselves seriously as well.

So we can imagine that through ourlives and at the end of our lives God checks in and goes over how it’s been.“That business there, when you were patient with the grouchy person in lineahead of you? That was great! I was soproud of that!” “That time you wouldn’tlet your spouse finish her sentence? That was really disappointing. How could you have handled that better?”

If we got a pass on our liveswithout comment or consideration. What would that say about how important ourlives were? What would it say about how seriously God takes us?

No. The message of the Bible isthat God take us seriously. Seriously enough to engage us in some rigorousexamination and reflection about what we have made of what we have been given.

Another reason for judgment is thatGod cares about justice. When the weak are abused by the strong, when thepowerful oppress the powerless, God is angry. God abhors evil because it hurts God’s creation. Judgment is God’sresponse to the abuse of creation. It is an acknowledgment that the gift ofcreation has not been received with gratitude, but with indifference orrebellion.

· Hope

And yet this judgment is not todestroy us or condemn us. It is for our good. It is a diagnosis for ourhealing. In fact, it is for the healing of creation: that we and all ofcreation may be restored to wholeness and peace.

Our affirmation states that Jesusis our judge and that means there is hope. We see that Jesus is not aboutretaliation, but about reconciliation. Judgment is to lead to reconciliation,not condemnation.

Our hope lies in our confidencethat God loves us enough to offer healing and restoration.

· Life beyonddeath.

Finally, our affirmation speaks oflife beyond death.

Our life here on this earth islimited. It is limited in years – thestrongest of us live only a few years beyond a hundred. To live 90 years isunusual. But we are not just limited by time. We are limited by our fears, byour frustrations, and by our distractions and our frailties. The mostsignificant impact these limitations have is on our ability to love. To loveourselves, to love one another, and to love God. And not only that: we arelimited in how much love we can receive. How often we push the love of othersaway!

And so we long for freedom to liveour dreams and our aspirations to love and be loved.

Our confidence is that beyond thislife of limitation, our capacity to love and be loved might be refreshed andrenewed in a life beyond death.

St. Paul invited his friends inThessalonica to live in hope. Despite the persecution they endured, despite theadversities they faced, despite the difficulties they had at times with oneanother, he called them to be people of God who lived in hope that this lifewas not the end, but a prelude to a fuller life of love in God in their midstthen and forever in eternity.

That same invitation: that JesusChrist is our judge and our hope, in life, in death, in life beyond death isour invitation to our own fuller life of love in God as we become God’s peoplein this time and forever.

Imagine that!

Stay tuned. More next week.

2011-10-30T14:17:00.001-04:00

Becoming the People of God 3:The Goal

October 30, 2011

1 Thessalonians 2:9-13

J.W. McNeill

The first week of this series wecontrasted these two statements.

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism	Our Affirmation of Faith
A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over life on earth.	We believe in God: who has created and is creating, who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh, to reconcile and make new.…

The second week we contrasted thesetwo statements:

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism	Our Affirmation of Faith
God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.	We are called to be the Church: to celebrate God’s presence, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen.

In today’s Scripture lesson, St.Paul writes to the people of God in Thessalonica:

As you know, we dealt with each one of youlike a father with his children, urging and encouraging you and pleading thatyou lead a life worthy of God, who callsyou into God’s own kingdom and glory. (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12)

What is a life worthy of God?

To live a life worthy of God is toseek God’s call on our lives and then to live out that calling. This flows fromthe two pieces of our affirmation that we have already considered:

Week 1: God has created us.

That is, in JesusChrist, the Word made flesh, God’s purpose was to

reconcile and make new:Jesus Christ has come for the transformation of us and our relationships. Notto judge and condemn us, but to renew us into a different way of life based onjustice, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.

God is not at adistance simply watching over. God is continually, always and everywherecreating and refreshing not only the world around us, but us. Refreshing us tobe God’s people, student followers of Jesus Christ for the transformation ofthe world.

Week 2: God has called us to be theChurch.

We have been created and called outto a particular way of life that reveals God’s love and grace in our lives.

That particular way is summarizedin our Affirmation as we talked about last week:

We are called to be theChurch: to celebrate God’s presence, to love and serve others, to seek justiceand resist evil, to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen. This is energizing andengaging! Not wimpy.

Called to be theChurch:

Celebrate God’spresence:

· That is, we worship. This is our centralactivity. This centers us and orients us to God. Because it is celebration, weare called to adopt the positive attitude that God is at work. We are notcalled to be whiners!

Love and serve others:

· To love others means that we will wanttheir good and work for their good, even if it costs us something.

· We are intentionally living so as to be makingreal that kin(g)dom/dream/feast of God among us and pouring out into ourneighborhood and our world.

Seek justice and resistevil:

· Social holiness as well as personal. Itmeans working to rid the world of social evil as well as personal evil. To be apart of seeing that the strong and powerful do not dominate the weak andpowerless. To see that we ourselves do not become harbors, shelteringdestructive forces in our own hearts.

Proclaim Jesus, crucifiedand risen

· There is some clarity about who we havebeen called to follow. Jesus is our model. His teaching and his life are thecentral images to which we look as we understand how we are to live. As we saidlast time, Jesus is the Word made flesh – God living among us.

To live such a life:

CelebratingGod’s presence.

Lovingand serving others.

Seekingjustice and resisting evil.

ProclaimingJesus, crucified and risen

That is a life worthy of the loveand creative being and energy God has lavished upon us and poured into us.

Last week I read a passage fromC.S. Lewis’ book The Silver Chair, one of the Chronicles of Narnia. You may remember that in that book Aslan, thegreat lion instructs Jill with four signs. He tells her that she must rememberthose signs to complete her mission. Those were four very specific and trickysigns to complete a unique mission give specifically to her.

I tell you this morning, howeverthat these four activities are what we need to remember and keep clear about aswe live the lives God has called us to.

Aslan told Jill:

But,first, remember, remember, remember the Signs. Say them to yourself when youwake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in themiddle of the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothingtum your mind from following the Signs.

And secondly,I give you a warning. Here on the mountain I have spoken to you clearly: I willnot often do so down in Narnia. Here on the mountain, the air is clear and yourmind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take greatcare that it does not confuse your mind. And the Signs which you have learnedhere will not look at all as you expect them to look, when you meet them there.

That is why it is so important to knowthem by heart.

And so I encourage you tomemorize at least this section of our Affirmation of Faith and to repeat it toyourself again and again so that you are always in touch with the broad outlineof our call to become the people of God.

To live life worthy of God that St.Paul talks about is to seek God’s call on our lives and then to live out thatcalling.

This week is the midpoint in theseries and this contrast is perhaps the central contrast and the central focus aswe consider what it means to become the people of God in this day.

This morning we are looking at thisfundamental contrast:

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism	Our Affirmation of Faith
The central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about yourself.	We believe in God...who works in us and others by the Spirit. We trust in God.

Why is this contrast fundamental?

I suggest three reasons.

Because

1. TheMTD statement is so basically pervasive and at odds with how we are called toorder our lives as Christians.

2. Thiscontrast highlights our affirmation tenet about trusting in God is the firsttask of faith.

3. Thistenet of our affirmation makes clear that we believe that we are not the onlypeople in whom God is at work. This third point is important to recognize sothat we do not succumb to arrogance as the people of God.

Let’s look at the first point:

1. TheMTD statement is so basically pervasive and at odds with how we are called toorder our lives as Christians.

How is at odds?

First this statement of what ismost important is egoistic. It is saying that the most important thing is howthings are with me. It is about the BIG SELF. And it says that I should feelgood about myself being in the first instance having my most important goal asbeing happy.

To be fair, this may just be amatter of confused thinking. There is a sense in which we might think thathappiness is our goal because we are happy when we achieve our goal. If I havea goal of helping someone out of a distressing situation, then I will be happywhen I have achieved that goal. However, let’s be clear that my happiness wasnot the goal of my action, it was the byproductof achieving the goal.

Indeed, Jesus was quite clear abouthow at odds egoism – the desire for our own satisfaction – is from the way oflife to which he directs:

If we try tosecure our lives we will lose our lives. But if we give up our lives for Jesus’sake, we will secure them.

To give up our lives is to putJesus’ way before following our own desires for our own happiness on our ownterms. Jesus assures us that fulfillingthe goals Jesus sets before us will secure our lives – will satisfy us. Willmake us happy. Not in an egoistic sense, but because we will have fulfilled ourgoal to be worthy of God.

God is at work within us totransform us into folks who will be satisfied with nothing less than becomingthe people of God.

Where this third tenet ofMoralistic Therapeutic Deism goes wrong is when it identifies my happiness withmy comfort and convenience.

This is a difficult point. In theculture and the world in which we live, it is very hard to escape the notionthat my activities ought to be directed most importantly toward me and myfamily’s comfort and convenience. That is what almost all advertising isdirecting us toward.

That is what our consumer cultureexists to encourage. That is the Spirit of the Age. That is the chiefcompetitor to God’s call on our lives.

Have a look at this brief video.

I daresay that keeping ourselvesactive in the consumer culture and preparing our children to achieve in theconsumer culture is the dominant obstacle not only to our fully becoming thepeople of God, but to our even fully desiring to become the people of God.

How do we begin to make inroads sothat we are not overwhelmed by this seduction?

This is the second point:

2. Wetrust in God. We trust in God. We trust in God.

Becoming the people of God meansthat we need not worry. We need not be anxious. We need not let fear overwhelmus. We are on a mission. There will be difficulties. There will be opposition.There will be discomfort. There will be setbacks. There will be times ofuncertainty. But we trust God that God is with us. It’s about being God’speople, not about trying to work out our best interest with respect to ourcomfort and convenience.

And if we as the people of God aredoing this together we willhave companions on the mission so that we can encourage each other, supporteach other, comfort each other, and celebrate together those times when we seehow God has been clearly at work as we live out our call, and find the patiencetogether when we just don’t see how we will manage to make it through. That iswhy it is important to be connected in personal ways. Small groups for studyand for service and mutual support. Until we catch on to those, we are notgoing to be at full strength.

Some of you may be skeptical aboutwhat I’ve said this morning. You might be thinking, I could never do this. Thisisn’t me. Precisely!

It’s not just that we trust in Godin some abstract way, we trust that God is at work in us by the Spirit. Our jobis to open ourselves to the activity of the Holy Spirit to work within us. Welet the Spirit begin to take over and as we keep in mind an intention to followGod’s call on our lives.

Trust in God is not an abstractbelief or theory about God, it’s about trusting that God is at work in us aswe:

CelebrateGod’s presence

Loveand serve others

Seekjustice and resist evil

ProclaimJesus crucified and risen.

Which leads us to the thirdimportant point:

The Affirmation states that webelieve that God is at work in us andin others by the Spirit.

To become the people of God is notto reach some position from which it is up to us to condemn or to bully orjudge others. It is in reality a vantage point from which to notice andappreciate all the ways that God is at work in folks who are also loving andserving others, seeking justice and resisting evil.

Of course, being the churchconnects us to the way of Jesus Christ in a particular way and that makes adifference. And there are plenty of folks who will be helped by finding a placewith us becoming the people of God along with us. Plenty of folks will behelped by getting to know Jesus. Our proclamation is an invitation for thoseothers whom God is also calling. We are not called to arrogantly assume thateveryone is meant to join us on the journey to which we have been called.

So our contrast today highlightsthree central points that can help us on our way to becoming the people of God:

1. Weneed to be aware of a pervasive egoism/selfishness that is a dangerous andseductive basis of our consumer culture.

2. Wetrust in God. We trust that God is at work in us, so that we can togetheropen ourselves ever wider to the Holy Spirit’s work within us and among us.

3. Weare not the only people in whom God is at work. God is not bound by those whomGod has called and part of our joy is to notice that God’s spirit is already atwork even before we arrive.

St. Paul wrote to the Christians inThessalonica:

When you received the word of God that youheard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is,God’s word, which is also at work in you believers. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

He had proclaimed to them JesusChrist, crucified and risen. They had received that message and openedthemselves to that word, that spirit, to work in them to become the people ofGod. They began to trust that God and live as God’s people.

Theybegan to celebrate God’s presence.

Theyloved and served others.

Theysought justice and resisted evil.

Theyproclaimed Jesus, crucified and risen, who Paul had proclaimed to them.

Imagine that!

More next week. Stay tuned.

A short video that takes this further: Are You a Trader?