Sunday, July 28, 2019

God will provide



 Scripture Luke 11:1-9   Message


11 One day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, “Master, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”  2-4 So he said, “When you pray, say,

Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.”

5-6 Then he said, “Imagine what would happen if you went to a friend in the middle of the night and said, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. An old friend traveling through just showed up, and I don’t have a thing on hand.’
“The friend answers from his bed, ‘Don’t bother me. The door’s locked; my children are all down for the night; I can’t get up to give you anything.’
“But let me tell you, even if he won’t get up because he’s a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking and waking all the neighbors, he’ll finally get up and get you whatever you need.

“Here’s what I’m saying:
Ask and you’ll get;
Seek and you’ll find;
Knock and the door will open.

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I sat in my Worship and Church Music class at Christian Theological Seminary following along intently as one of my classmates presented the Pastoral Prayer she had written as an assignment, which was to be followed by the Lord’s Prayer.  When she reached the end of her prayer she said, “Now let’s all recite the Lord’s Prayer together.”   I went slightly nuts, screaming (silently, inside my head) “Recite???!!!  No!!!  We PRAY the Lord’s Prayer together.”  After all, the disciples said to Jesus “Teach us how to pray.”

Several weeks ago we heard the news that “Pope Francis has officially approved a change to the translation of the Lord's Prayer found in Matthew 6:13 that replaces "lead us not into temptation" with "do not let us fall into temptation," which many scholars say is a better translation of the original text. The Pope said he thought the current English translation was not correct because it implies that God leads people into temptation, an action that is against his nature as a good and holy God.” (Christian Broadcasting Network 06-04-2019)  Someone asked me whether I was going to make the change here.  A. The Pope really doesn’t determine what we do here.  B.  We already have enough different versions of this prayer.  At every church you sort of have to guess whether to use debts, sins or trespasses, although no one gets huffy if someone in a “debts” church says “trespasses” by mistake.  And C.  I’m not in charge of that decision. 

One thing that bothers me about this prayer (not counting the “lead us not into temptation” part) is that the disciples simply ask Jesus to teach them the way they should pray, not for the exact words to use, and  yet we memorize it.   So I chose the Message version today, in order that we might hear familiar instructions in a different way.   

I will say that presenting this prayer with different wording doesn’t always work.  In that same class on a different day, another classmate had re-written the Lord’s Prayer in non-gender specific language - which is not an easy thing to do! - and no one recognized it.    But let’s try, anyway.

Father,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.

Father - set the world right.  At General Assembly we attend business meetings.  We hear reports and discuss resolutions that take the sense of the Assembly on a variety of topics deemed to be important.  These are not binding on congregations, but speak to issues that the people at the Assembly consider to be important.  There were many, but I will only talk about a few.  One of the first resolutions presented came from the General Youth Council.  That’s right.  A bunch of high school students!  Their resolution titled “Spirit of Active Listening” called on the Assembly, all its participants and all the many expressions of the CC(DOC) in the United States and Canada, “to Hear and Listen to all voices as we respect our brothers and sisters in faith, free of judgement and preconceived notion, recognizing and accepting our common humanity.”  One person who stood to speak in favor introduced himself as a Trump conservative, and with tears in his eyes, thanked the Youth for this resolution, for he had felt silenced.   The resolution passed unanimously.  Father, keep us forgiven and forgiving others.

Another resolution “A Call to See and Respond to the Crisis of Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence” calls on all of us to become educated about these issues - which affect way more people than you would hope - and be safe places for people to come forward asking for help.  Too often churches are not safe places, pastors don’t understand the issues involved or how to counsel on these topics, denial and shaming are rampant.  We, here in this congregation, are called upon to use the educational resources available to us to educate ourselves and our children and become truly safe places for everyone.  Father keep us safe from ourselves and from the Devil.

A third resolution I want to lift up was “An Invitation to Education for Welcoming and Receiving the Gifts of Transgender and Gender-Diverse People”.  Many people spoke eloquently and passionately in favor of this resolution - none came forward to speak against it.   It calls upon the denomination to produce and share resources for pastoral care and inclusion of trans and gender diverse people, and to learn new ways of speaking in order to be inclusive of all persons.  For example - instead of saying “Brothers and sisters in Christ,” I might say “Siblings in Christ.”   It means trying to know what pronouns to use if we are not certain how a person identifies so that we are not saying “he” when a person identifies as “she” or even as “they.”   It seems to me like this isn’t all that different from learning to use non-gender specific language for God in seminary, except that making that mistake in seminary only affected the grade on my paper.  Making a mistake with a living person causes real anguish and pain.  Educating ourselves, and asking our transgender and gender-diverse siblings for their help in that education, is important if we truly believe All means All.   Father keep us safe from ourselves and from evil.

Some were celebrating the passage of this resolution on Facebook, and one woman said, “I am leaving the Disciples.  It is no longer the church in which I was raised, when a pastor who lives with her boyfriend, unmarried, can preach at me.  All of those responding assumed that she was talking specifically about accepting the LGBTQ+ community into her congregation. Some were considerably less than loving in their responses, so I guess they hadn’t read the Spirit of Active Listening Resolution? Last night I suddenly woke up and realized  she had several times mentioned her unmarried pastor who is living with her boyfriend … and that no one had spoken to that.  Naturally, I could not find the post when I looked for it.  I am sad that this woman feels unwelcome in her congregation, and that our Church, which preaches All Means ALL, still allows some to feel silenced and unwanted.  Lord, Help us listen to each other - to all their words, not just some of them.   Keep us forgiven and forgiving others. 

Jesus told his disciples to pray for the things they need, and assured them that God would provide, if they asked - although they may have to knock and yell so loudly it wakes the neighbors..  

He said, 
“Ask and you’ll get; Seek and you’ll find; Knock and the door will open.”  
He assured them that God will always answer prayers. And God will provide precisely what we need at the very moment we need it.  Of course, what is provided may not look like what we thought we needed.   If we pray for three square meals a day then having to get food at the SMART Center and dinner at Christian Cafe may not look like an answer to prayer.  If we pray for our health to be improved, losing a highly stressful job may not look like an answer to prayer.   If we pray for patience we will get many opportunities to learn patience. (Do not pray for patience! or strength.  Just sayin’)  Sometimes the answer to prayer comes through another person, or words on a billboard, or a Facebook discussion on a General Assembly Resolution or a volunteer opportunity (like fostering kittens) - and it may take us in the opposite direction of where we expected to go.  But whatever we need, God will provide even if we do not recognize God’s hand.   Father, reveal who you are.

When we pray, let us ask for what we need - for those things that Jesus told his disciples are important.  Let us ask God to help us to hear when others speak.  To speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.  To remember that all persons are God’s beloved - even people we don’t like or approve of.  Let us ask God to help us to give where we see need.  To forgive when we have been injured.  To love even when we are not loved.  To keep us safe from evil, and from ourselves.  And God will answer our prayers.  


Sunday, July 14, 2019

Looking for a loophole


 Scripture Luke 10:25-37  The Message  

25 Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”
26 He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”
27 He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”
28 “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”
29 Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”

30-32 Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
33-35 “A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’

36 “What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”

37 “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.
Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”

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We’ve heard this story at least a million times.  Even non-Christians have a pretty good idea of what this story says.  We have ”Good Samaritan” laws protecting people from being sued when they are trying to help someone they find injured or in distress.  And may I just say how terrible it is that people will sue the person who was trying to help them?   Anyway, in an attempt to get a different look at this very familiar story I decided to try the Message version today.  And sure enough, there it was.  The lawyer - which in Jesus’ time meant an expert in the Laws of Moses - was “looking for a loophole.”   

Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School, has this to say about that.  "For our parable, the lawyer’s question is … misguided. To ask “Who is my neighbor” is a polite way of asking, “Who is not my neighbor?” or “Who does not deserve my love?” or “Whose lack of food or shelter can I ignore?” or “Whom I can hate?” The answer Jesus gives is, “No one.” Everyone deserves that love—local or alien, Jews or gentile, terrorist or rapist, everyone.   (Levine, Amy-Jill. Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi (p. 93). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.)

It’s easy to pick out the other, depending on which side of an issue you stand on.   It’s what we do when we are at war - we dehumanize the enemy.  In Basic Training soldiers are taught to think of whomever the enemy is right now as somehow sub-human.  This happens in all nations, in all conflicts.  It is lots easier to hate someone enough to shoot them if they are either less than human or completely evil.  Classic Us and Them - we are all things good and holy, they are demon spawn and criminals.  Which is one thing for soldiers, in war time.  But when the divide between us and them gets as deep as it is in our nation right now, even our best friends can suddenly become the enemy, the other, the not-neighbor.  

Today, in many cities around the country, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are scheduled to begin large scale raids, seeking to arrest and eventually deport thousands of undocumented immigrants.  If you have been following the news you know that some think of the ICE agents as of the devil, while others think the same of the people who are here without proper documents.   I am prepared to state that both opinions are wrong.   

She came to worship one Sunday with her baby daughter Rosie, which of course meant no one heard a word I said all day because, Baby!  We didn’t get a lot babies in worship.  She stayed for coffee fellowship afterwards, and told us she had been an MP in the Marine Corps and was now working for Homeland.  She had been attending her mother’s church which met in our building but preferred an English speaking congregation.  Later she confessed that her job at Homeland was with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and that the people at her mother’s church didn’t trust her.  Many lacked proper documents, you see, and they were afraid she would turn them in and have them deported.   She wouldn’t do that, as long as they were otherwise law abiding people, but they didn’t believe her.   When I think of ICE, I think of her - mother, daughter, Christian, friend.    

For those who may be of the opinion that ICE is heartless and the total bad guy in this situation, this notice was on Twitter yesterday:  “The @CityOfNOLA has confirmed with ICE that immigration enforcement will be temporarily suspended through the weekend in the Hurricane Barry impacted areas of Louisiana & Mississippi. Make all storm preparations to stay safe regardless of your immigration status.  As with all law enforcement agencies, protecting lives is of primary importance. 

He is a Dreamer.  He didn’t even know he wasn’t a citizen until he applied to college.  Then his parents told him they crossed into the US illegally when he was just an infant.   I don’t know for sure why they came here, but probably so their children could have a better life.  His residency has been regularized now, through much hard work on his part.  His younger brother was born here.  Both are college graduates.  But his parents, who have been living and working and paying taxes here for nearly 30 years, are susceptible to deportation.  I think probably everyone here knows or knows of a family like this.  There is a good chance that nearly everyone here knows someone, or lots of someones, who are undocumented and worried, especially today.  

And when we see the horrific conditions in the detention centers where asylum seekers, as well of people caught trying to cross the border unlawfully, are being held, we want to find someone to blame.   Children sleeping on the floor.  Women with no water to drink except the water in toilets.  Hundreds crammed into spaces intended for dozens.   It’s the Government’s fault!  No, it’s Homeland’s fault!  No, it’s the immigrants’ fault!   

It really does not matter whose fault it is.  If we see someone suffering, we are supposed to help.  We are not supposed to worry about whether or not they are deserving.  We are just supposed to help.   We are supposed to find solutions to ease the suffering.  You know - feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the naked, comfort the prisoner.  Don’t care how they got that way.   It would be great if we could solve the problems that caused the refugee crisis all over the globe, but while governments work on that . . . we are to do whatever we can do to help.  There are no loopholes.  

I noticed something else different about this translation.  I am used to seeing Jesus’ question to the lawyer written as “Who was the neighbor to the injured man?”  But here it says, ‘Who became the neighbor?”  Who made a decision to help someone who was so different from themselves that helping them was kind of a big deal?  The Samaritan in this parable provided food and shelter and medical care for someone who would not have sat at the same table with him - who considered him unclean.  He knew that.  He didn’t care.  He saw a person suffering, and he helped.  The image we are using today - a black man helping a white man - could be any one helping an “other.”   An immigrant helping an ICE agent.  A victim helping a rapist.  A parent helping a pedophile.  A Conservative helping a Liberal.  A Liberal helping a Conservative.  This seemingly happens rarely enough that when it does, it becomes a big deal.  And that’s just sad.  It should not be news when people help each other.  There should not have to be laws protecting people who help someone else.  

Our hymn today was written by Carolyn Winfrey-Gillette specifically in response to the planned immigration raids today.   It calls on us to “work for justice for those who live in fear.”    That will mean different things to each of us.  Some may take it as an imperative to help your actual neighbors who are in danger of deportation.  (If that is the case, Leah and I both have links to available resources.)  Others may take it to mean they should work toward changing current policies regarding immigration, especially for asylum seekers.  Still others may hear it as a call to help the responsible agencies in working to ease the conditions in detention centers, where the need is indeed great - because in many cases, the persons working in those facilities are frustrated at not being able to get what they need for the people held in their center (food, water, mattresses, medical care, etc.).  However you hear the words of this hymn, remember that we are to be the neighbor in whatever way we can.  Hear again how the story of the Good Samaritan ends.    

Jesus said, “36 “What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?” 37 “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.  Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”

And so you, also, go and be the neighbor, in Jesus’ name.   

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Hymn     O God, You Give Us Neighbors
tune AURELIA 7.6.7.6 D ("The Church's One Foundation”)

O God, you give us neighbors for whom your love abounds.
They’ve come here seeking refuge; they work here in our towns.
Their children go to school here; they come to church and pray.
O Lord, we grieve when neighbors are being sent away.

O God, you give us neighbors in this world that divides.
We see them at the border; they’re struggling for their lives.
They’re hurting by the roadside, and by the river, too.
You call us to show mercy to neighbors loved by you.

O God, you give us neighbors and call us all to see
our common fears and longings, our shared humanity.
You call us all to listen to burdens they have known,
to hear the truth they tell us, to see the love they’ve shown.

O God, you give us neighbors; and now, what must we do?
This question asked of Jesus is one we ask anew.
May we not make excuses and choose to walk on by
these neighbors fleeing violence— some sent back now to die.

God, may we work for justice for those who live in fear;
may we show Christ’s compassion, and pray and persevere—
and by your Holy Spirit, in all we do and say,
may we stand up for neighbors now being sent away.

Biblical References: Luke 10:25-46; Leviticus 19:33-34; 24:22; Matthew 25:31-46
Tune: Samuel Sebastian Wesley, 1864
Text: Copyright © 2019 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved.
Permission is given for free use of this hymn for congregations
Email: carolynshymns@gmail.com New Hymns: www.carolynshymns.com

Sunday, July 7, 2019

Instant Karma?


 Scripture   Galatians 6:1-10  CEB  


Brothers and sisters, if a person is caught doing something wrong, you who are spiritual should restore someone like this with a spirit of gentleness. Watch out for yourselves so you won’t be tempted too. Carry each other’s burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are important when they aren’t, they’re fooling themselves. Each person should test their own work and be happy with doing a good job and not compare themselves with others. Each person will have to carry their own load.

Those who are taught the word should share all good things with their teacher.  Make no mistake, God is not mocked. A person will harvest what they plant. Those who plant only for their own benefit will harvest devastation from their selfishness, but those who plant for the benefit of the Spirit will harvest eternal life from the Spirit. Let’s not get tired of doing good, because in time we’ll have a harvest if we don’t give up. 10 So then, let’s work for the good of all whenever we have an opportunity, and especially for those in the household of faith.

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This is one of those passages that has so much meat in it that it really deserves to be preached verse by verse.  But that would require 40 minutes or more of your undivided attention, and I think we all know that’s not going to happen.  

Typically, when I am deciding which of four or more possible scripture readings to preach on for each week, I see one phrase or idea that leaps out at me, and I decide at that point where my message is going to go.  I chose a title and a hymn to follow-up the point I want to make, and maybe even the artwork a month or two in advance of when I’m going to preach that message.  Obviously, when I read this one I saw verse 7, “Make no mistake, God is not mocked. A person will harvest what they plant.”  And my mind went immediately to the idea of Instant Karma.

I found this cartoon online and thought, wouldn’t that be nice?   Immediate response from God chastising the person who is literally kicking someone while they are down.  But that’s not how Karma works.  Karma is the way things work out over the long run, and by long run the Hindus and Buddhists meant over a period of lifetimes.   Being a bad person in this life might bring you back as a cockroach, while being a helpless victim in this life might mean you are brought back into a life of ease and pampering - maybe as one of my cats.  Being a Mother Theresa might mean that your cycle through lifetimes was over, and it was time for eternal rest.  (This, by the way, is a very general and only vaguely accurate description of Karma.)   Of course we Christians believe that punishment for bad behavior in this lifetime will come after death, when we come before the Judgment Seat to learn whether we enter into heaven or go the other way.  

But somehow the idea of Instant Karma is alive and well in our culture.  John Lennon may have had something to do with that.  But well before the song Instant Karma was released in 1970, we have used phrases like “What goes around, comes around.”  We somehow fully expect people are good to have good things happen for them, and people who are bad to have bad things happen to them.   For that matter, we expect good looking people to be good, and bad looking people to be bad, and vice versa.  It causes us great discomfort when the opposite happens, when bad things happen to good people, or when perpetrators of horrific crimes against humanity seem to prosper.  Waiting for reward or punishment at the end of our days really doesn’t work for us. We kind of want to see Instant Karma, immediate reward and punishment meted out.  This mindset is not new.   The Book of Job was written in order to try to explain that sometimes bad things do happen to good, devout, God loving people, through no fault of their own.    Y’know, people used to tell me that I should read the Psalms when I was going through stuff, but that never really worked for me.  Then my pastor suggested I read Job.  Yes!  Reading Job always cheered me up.  No matter what was going on in my life, it wasn’t nearly as bad as what happened to him!  

Of course, if Job had been in their midst, our Puritan forefathers would have been convinced that his bad fortune meant he was not one of the elect.  That no matter how hard he tried, or how good a person he was, he was never going to heaven, because they believed not only that “God freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass”  but that God pre-ordained precisely who would be saved and who wouldn’t.  So your actions in this life mattered not at all.  As a result of these beliefs, they equated success in business with salvation. If you were predestined to be saved then you would succeed.  If you did not succeed or had a terrible life, it was because you were predestined to go to Hell.  Kind of the opposite of Karma, or reaping what you sow.  This is what can happen when you read the Bible line by line instead of holistically.  

If, for example, we looked at this passage line by line . . .  Verse 2 says, “Carry each other’s burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ.  But verse 5 says, “Each person will have to carry their own load.   Wait, what?  I am confused.  These seem to be contradictory statements.  The Bible tells us in many places that 1) we are supposed to help each other - remember the Love Commandment? - and 2) we are responsible for and will be judged on our own actions.  Hence verse 4, “Each person should test their own work and be happy with doing a good job and not compare themselves with others.  It is not good or just to say, “Well yeah, I did this, but did you see what that other guy did?  Because each person is responsible for their own actions, we should not try to deflect attention from our own behavior by pointing out the flaws of others.  

Brothers and sisters, if a person is caught doing something wrong, you who are spiritual should restore someone like this with a spirit of gentleness. Watch out for yourselves so you won’t be tempted too.  This is something that is not happening in our world today.  When anyone is even accused of wrongdoing, there is immediate and hateful response.  Ok, I get being angry at a lot of the situations in our world, in our nation, today.   But being hateful, calling names, being violent in our responses to situations is not the answer.  Some months ago, in response to an ongoing and rather ugly disagreement in our City, Jennifer stood up at the beginning of a City Council meeting and gently, spiritually, reminded those present of the need to treat one another with respect and decorum, even though they disagreed.  They listened to her, and behaved better (that night).  That is what we are called to do.  We are called to watch ourselves, to avoid the temptation to get angry back, to repay evil with evil.  We are called to help one another.  Paul says,  Let’s not get tired of doing good, because in time we’ll have a harvest if we don’t give up. So then, let’s work for the good of all whenever we have an opportunity”   

I know how frustrating it can be to keep trying to affect change, not seeing any progress.  It can seem like we are chipping away at a rock with a pencil, hoping to create a beautiful sculpture.  The struggle to change the world, to bring God’s kingdom into fruition on earth as it is in heaven - that struggle is real.  We, Christians, have been working for it for nearly 2,000 years!  But it is our job, to proclaim the Good News, to heal those who are sick at heart, to gently and spiritually reprove and change the hearts of those who have done wrong.  And yes, sometimes turning over tables and public whippings are necessary to get people’s attention.  But over the long run, chipping away at stone hard hearts with the pencil of God’s love will result in change.  It has happened, slowly and painfully.  But it has happened.  Slavery was ended.  Voting rights were extended.  Segregation ended - sort of.  We withdrew from Vietnam.  Christians were in the forefront of all of these struggles and are in the forefront of other struggles for change today.  

John Lennon said, 
Instant Karma's gonna get you
Gonna knock you off your feet
Better recognize your brothers
(in) Ev’ryone you meet”  

Instant Karma may not be a real thing, as much as we would like it to be, but he was right in that we had better recognize our brothers and sisters in everyone we meet - treat them with respect and love, and “work for the good of all whenever we have an opportunity,” in order that we might create a world “where love is lived and all is done with justice and with praise”.  (Marian Therese Winter, O For a World, 1987)  In Jesus’ name.