The best revenge

 Scripture   Romans 12:9-21  NRSV

12:9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;

Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.

Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.

Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.

Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.". No, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads."

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. 

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In our prayer this morning we asked blessings on all those affected by natural disasters, including the California wild fires, the inland hurricane in the MidWest, and Hurricane Laura on the Gulf Coast.  Week of Compassion is the relief fund of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and works with partners - like local congregations and Regions of the Disciples - to alleviate suffering throughout the world. If you want to help people who have been affected by any of these recent natural disasters, please send a donation to the Week of Compassion and write what you want the money to go to on the memo line of your check, or in a comment section on their website.  You can find the WoC information on our website - www.selmadisciples.com. 

I know some people who think that we really don’t need the Old Testament at all.  We have a new covenant with God through Jesus Christ, with all new teachings, which replaces all the other.  Then we come to a passage in the Gospels that talks about fulfilling the word of the Prophets, or this one in Paul’s letter to the Romans in which Paul quotes Proverbs 25:21-22. 

“21 If your enemies are hungry, give them bread to eat;

    and if they are thirsty, give them water to drink;

22 for you will heap coals of fire on their heads,

    and the Lord will reward you.”.   

This was not new information for the Jewish Christians.    It is, in fact, an extension of the law of hospitality which was practiced throughout the ancient world and even on through Medieval Times.  If anyone -friend, stranger or even an enemy - shows up at the door seeking food or water or shelter, you provide what they need.  Period.  “...for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads."

I am probably not alone in having thought that this meant me being helpful to someone who had hurt me would really upset them. AND because It would be silly of them to complain to others that I had been helpful when they needed help, that would upset them even more.  They might even spend time and energy worrying about when my real revenge would come and what form it would take.  As a method of getting even, that is pretty cool. 

But, what to do about that pesky “vengeance is mine, says the Lord” quote from Deuteronomy which comes right before this. If vengeance is God’s, why am I being given instructions for the world’s coolest revenge?

The people of Paul’s time would have read that whole heaping burning coals on their head line entirely differently than we do.   In those days, the only fire a family had was kept in a brazier, which they used for simple cooking as well as for warmth, and was always kept burning. If it should go out, some member of the family will take the brazier to a neighbor’s house to borrow fire.  She could give them a few coals, just enough to get the fire started again. Or she could be extravagant and heap the coals into the brazier, which they would carry home on their head. To feed an enemy and give him drink was like heaping the empty brazier with live coals – which meant food, warmth and almost life itself to the person or home needing it, and was the symbol of finest generosity.” (Barbara Bowen, Strange Scriptures that Perplex the Western Mind). This kind of generous hospitality is a means of showing extravagant love for the other.  In fact, it is more likely to create a friend than hurt an enemy.  There is a well known quote, “The only safe and sure way to destroy your enemy is to make him your friend.” which was originally said by Mark Twain.  Or maybe Abraham Lincoln.  Or perhaps the 15th century Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Sigismund of Luxembourg. No one knows for sure.  But this sentiment is what the heaping burning coals on your enemy’s head is about - ending hatred and anger through love.

Live in harmony with one another. . . . Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

If we were to condense this passage down to its most basic meaning - without reverting to “love one another” - I think this would be it.  If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

So far as it depends on you. . . Clearly, it is not possible to control the words and actions of others.  Any parent, whether their child is a toddler or a teen, knows this.  How we respond to the words and actions of others does, however, depend on us.  If we are upset by the words or actions of another, if, for example, we take insults thrown around in political or religious conversations personally, we can choose to respond in kind - repaying evil for evil - or we can respond peacefully, with an attitude of love, taking thought to what is noble in the sight of all. 

I have to tell you, it can be really pretty ugly out there.  It is one thing when politicians and their handlers throw personal insults at the opposition.  We don’t like that. We would prefer if they stuck to the issues.  But we all know that this become normal in political campaigning.  But . . . when I see my friends and colleagues, ministers and other religious leaders - on both sides of the political divide - also stooping to name calling and demonizing the opposition. . . 

Y’know, we are supposed to be better than that.  Christians are supposed to be better than that.  

Mind you, I do see some who respond to the ugliness and personal insults politely and with respect for that person’s opinion.  I see some who are able to ignore the name calling and calmly discuss the issue at hand.  I see some who do not lump all whatevers into the same box.  I do see some who - while they may indeed become angry over issues and situations - do, nevertheless, control their response.  Who seek to show honor to one another, by listening to their opinions respectfully and peaceably.

But I see way too many - on both sides of the political and religious divides - who do repay ugliness with ugliness, who do resort to personal insults and name-calling, for whom logic has flown out the window, for whom every issue has one right and one wrong solution, everything is either this or that - there is no in between, no possibility of both/and, no room for compromise - and who allow their emotions to lead them.  Daily I am reminded of a line in the 1967 hit song For What it’s Worth  . . . “Nobody’s right, if everybody’s wrong.”  

Christians are supposed to be better than that.  Christians are supposed to love one another with mutual affection.   Christians are supposed to try to outdo one another in showing honor - like Chip and Dale, the cartoon chipmunks, who spend so much time saying “after you,” “no, after you,” “no really, after you,”  that they finally have to walk through the doorway together.   Christians are supposed to walk through the door together.  We don’t have to agree, but we do have to genuinely love one another. We do have to hate what is evil.  We do have to overcome evil with good.  We do have to live in harmony with each other.

If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.  This is hard.  Sometimes it really seems impossible.  It is so easy to be dragged into an argument, to get sidetracked from important conversations, to allow anger or hurt feelings to take over.  Sometimes we think the only way to react to attacks and insults is to attack back, and call it self defense.  We might even decide that the best defense is a good offense and engage in what one of our previous presidents called pro-active self-defense.  But . . . 

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." 

If your enemies are hungry, give them bread.  If they are thirsty, give them water.

We are Christians, the food and drink we have to give is love.  

And The best revenge is love.  

Radical love.  

Extravagant love. 

Heaping coals of burning love.  

And the world will know we are Christians 

- by our love.

Why Change?

 Scripture   Romans 12:1-6a NRSV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God--what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.   

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Good morning. First - A public service announcement. Because of all the fires around the state, the Air Quality  is really bad.  The air quality on  Monday is forecast to be even worse.  Please, if you love your lungs, and especially if you have asthma or other lung conditions, stay inside.  Don’t go for a walk.  Close your windows.  Hydrate.  Stay well.  Please. Thank you.

Paul said to the churches in Rome, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God--what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

It has always been hard for the Church, for Christians, to live in a way that is substantially different from the way society expects folks to live.  It’s hard to resist peer pressure.  We know this because every mother in the history of motherhood has at one time or another responded to her child’s argument that, “Ma, everyone is doing that!” with “If everyone was jumping off a cliff would you do that, too?”  (A different example must be used if the child is asking permission to go cliff diving or BASE jumping.)   As we get older, the peer pressure changes, but it’s still there.  

(Warning:  I am about to enter into the realm of Generalizations.  Please know I realize that “not all whatevers” are the same.  Here we go.)   Baby Boomers, people born during the post-World War II baby boom, currently range in age from 56 - 74. (*raising hand*) This age group is pretty in charge of the world right now.   In addition to being called Baby Boomers, they (we) are known as the “Me Generation” because of the quality of being self-absorbed that they (we) are known for.   Hence the rise in the popularity of American Individualism as a way of life in the 1960s, where “my rights” or wellbeing are more important than the rights or wellbeing of the whole.  We  invented the term “My way or the highway.” We also invented Team Building Exercises in the 1990s because it’s hard to work as a team when it’s all about me.    And yet, although we are all about ourselves, we seem to want to be ourselves in  the same way everyone else is being about themselves.  We love to join stuff.  We love to organize in big groups with a common goal. Like AARP.   And church.  Heaven forbid anyone should try to change that thing we belong to, even if the change will “improve” it.  We are suspicious of “improvements.”   It’s ok if everyone else is doing it, but we aren’t going to do it first. 

Society has always found it a bit strange when a group of people put the well being of the community ahead of their own desires.  That’s why Christians stood out so much from the rest of the population.  It’s not that they dressed differently or anything that obvious.  But they behaved differently. They responded to situations differently.  They were learning to think differently.  And Paul encouraged that.  Paul told the Church in Rome, “You need to take on a whole new way of thinking and doing.  You need to be transformed from the way you were so that you aren’t focused on what you want, or what your friends and neighbors want or what internet influencers say you should want, but rather on what God wants.”. (Ok, that is from the Maria translation of the Bible.) 

On October 2nd, 2006 a man walked into an Amish one room schoolhouse in Lancaster County, PA, and shot 10 young girls, killing 5, then shot and killed himself.  Within a few hours the Amish community reached out to the shooter’s family to comfort them and offer forgiveness, and then, they set up a charitable fund to help support his widow  and three children.  The world went nuts! What?  They are forgiving that man?  They should hate him!  He was evil!  But . . . A grandfather of one of the murdered girls warned some young relatives “We must not think evil of this man.” One of the fathers said, “He had a mother and a wife and a soul and now he is standing before a just God.”.   They did not conform to the ways of the world, which was screaming for revenge, but rather sought to do God’s will, follow God’s commandments.   Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  Forgive even as you are forgiven.  Take care of the widows and orphans among you.   

Renewing our minds, being transformed, so that we may discern the will of God . . .  This is hard!   We do “my way or the highway”.  We do “but we’ve always done it this way.”  We do “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”.  

Thing is, the way we’ve always done it doesn’t really work for everyone.  Racism is the way of the world. But it isn’t right and it really only benefits white people.  Skin color has nothing to do with ability, or intelligence, or potential for criminality, but judging people on their skin color is the way of the world.  When a teacher told me that my step-son would probably end up in jail - not because the kid had ever been in trouble, but because he was not white - that was not right!   But the school to prison pipeline for young men and women of color is the way of the world right now.  The Black Lives Matter movement and other movements intended to bring greater awareness to the injustices that people of color experience daily stand against the way of the world.  Their purpose is to seek justice for the oppressed.  The oppression they speak of is hard for white people to grasp, because trying to understand a reality we have never experienced requires opening and renewing our minds to a huge degree, but justice for the oppressed is one of the things God requires of us.  

Hating on people because of their political affiliation or gender identity or sexual orientation or nation of origin - even just treating them differently than I would treat someone who is more like me - those things are not right, either, even though they are the way of the world.  Loving one another, regardless of the  differences between us - that is God’s will.

I want you to know - I really hate change.  I tend to default to the things I learned growing up.  I have to deal with the fact that I am now aware of a lot of things that I would have been perfectly happy never knowing - like my white privilege, and the way Native Americans have been and are still being treated, and the one-sidedness of our history books.  I will never forget my shock when my late mother-in-law told me she didn’t mind if her son married a white woman.  It never occurred to me that might be an issue. Him being Navajo might be an issue for my family, but me being white?  I have learned that I don’t know what I don’t know, so I have to be willing to listen, at least.

Lest anyone think I am saying it is God’s will for all of us to think alike and agree on everything, I am not.  I am saying we need to be willing to listen to diverse opinions, to accept that people have different experiences of the world, that there might be another legitimate viewpoint.  We need to try to understand where the other is coming from before we reject their position.  Don’t start shaking your head as soon as someone presents an opinion that is different from yours.  (And yes, I know I do that.)  We need to learn to communicate with one another - to listen in order to learn, not in order to formulate arguments.  It isn’t easy.  Because we know what we know.  And it takes real work to replace what we already know with new information.  

Paul told the church in Rome, “present yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.” Being Christian requires sacrificing our desire to be like everyone else.  It requires doing things the hard way - forgiving the murderer, accepting the demonstrator, loving the hater. Being Christian requires that we give up being all about ourselves, and become all about the community - the Beloved Community, where God’s righteousness and justice prevail over the ways of the world.  Let us go out to face hatred with love, anger with a peaceful spirit, cruelty with compassion, so that Christ’s sacrifice is not in vain.

Mountain Dew

 Scripture   Psalm 133 NRSV 

1 How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!

2  It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, 

on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes.

3 It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. 

For there the LORD ordained his blessing, life forevermore.

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Good morning!  It is Sunday again.

If Jordan has done what we discussed, there is a picture of a Mountain Dew soda can on the screen where the sermon title goes.  Today’s message is titled Mountain Dew because that is the first thing I thought of when I read the line “It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion.”  The dew in the morning is cool and refreshing - like the soda.  And right away I wondered if the people who invented Mountain Dew got the name from this psalm.  So, me being me, I started researching.  It seems that Mountain Dew is what moonshine was called in some places beginning in the late 1800s.  And you know - moonshine kind of works even better for unity than the soda - because when unity happens it is surprising and refreshing.  Even perhaps intoxicating,  like the moonshine the soda was named after.  

How is unity intoxicating, you ask?  I mean, unity is a churchy kind of word.  The Disciples of Christ are all about Unity. It is one of our founding principles. Barton Stone and both Thomas and Alexander Campbell believed that all Christians should be able to work and worship together, and share in the Lord’s Supper together.  (This is what got them all kicked out of the Presbyterian church.)  “Unity is our polar star!”  we say.  “In essentials - unity.  In non-essentials - liberty.  In all things - love.”  This dedication to unity is one of the reasons we are congregational in nature.  Disciples congregations are all different from each other - some more liberal, some more conservative, some emerging, some progressive, some traditional.  Even within one congregation there can be people whose beliefs range from “God is love and Jesus was a good teacher” to “Everything in the King James Version is the inerrant word of God” and every where in between.  But we have a covenant between us - within each congregation and between all the congregations - that allows us to work together regardless of any differences of theology or even (dare I say) politics.  And while all that is very nice, but it’s not really intoxicating.

So, consider football fans. I know, the football season is going to be really weird this year.  But, leaving that aside... football fans come in many types.  There is the totally dedicated fan. Their team is the only team!  They wear team shirts and hats and stuff all year long.  Their houses are painted in team colors.  Ok, maybe not that.  But they are serious about their team, and no matter what they are loyal and devoted fans.  Then there are fans who are kind of meh. They enjoy the games if they’re not doing something else that day.  They don’t pay much attention to who the players are.  But, you know, they like the team.  Then there are fans who just root for the team nearest where they live and happily switch allegiance to a different team when they move.  When I lived in eastern Pennsylvania I was an Eagles fan.  When I lived in South Florida I was a Dolphins fan.  When I lived in Indianapolis I was a Colts fan.  When I moved to California I remained a Colts fan until I became a Broncos fan, because I was really a Peyton Manning fan.   The point is . . . All of those fans are different.  They are in no way uniform in their fan-hood. But come game time they are unified.   They cheer together.  They celebrate or grieve together.  When all of those fans come together, when they experience that unity of purpose, it is intoxicating!  

On July 9, 2017 at the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the US and Canada, there came a moment when the crowd surged to its feet and erupted into cheers and hugs and high fives!  It was as exciting and intoxicating a moment as any last minute tie breaking field goal.  We had just elected the Rev. Teri Hord Owens to the position of General Minister and President - the first Woman of Color to become the head of any mainline denomination in the world.  

When we all came down from our intoxication, and came home to reflect on our experiences at the Assembly, we could see the divisions.  It was noted, with great concern, that people who dissented from or disagreed with any given resolution or position felt, rightly or wrongly, unable to stand and speak their opinion.  They said that they felt apart from, not a part of.  They worried that the Disciples of Christ were becoming more devoted to uniformity than true unity.   And it is quite true that there were few people speaking at the Con microphones at any time during the Assembly.  This is not good.   

Mind you, it is very pleasant to attend events like that one and not hear a lot of arguing and fussing and anger during the business meetings.  But not all things that are pleasant are good – and not all things that are good are pleasant.

 

How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!  

It is sweet smelling like precious oil.

It is refreshing and intoxicating like mountain dew.  

So why don’t we try for it more often?

In the 14th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans, he says that it is ok to have different practices.  Some of them were Jewish Christians and some were Gentile Christians, so some would follow Jewish Law on diet and Sabbath observance and some would not.  Not a problem - until people began judging each other, saying one way was right and the other was wrong.  Paul told them, in effect, that unity of purpose is the important thing, not uniformity. He encouraged them to do as they individually believed was right, that their choice of what to eat was fine, as long as it harmed no one else.  We don’t have issues today with clean versus unclean foods, but consider if you will a pot luck.  We could just not concern ourselves with anyone else's dietary requirements, allergies, and moral choices.  But today we do.  We make sure there are vegetarian and vegan choices for those who choose not to eat meat.  We are careful to indicate which food items contain gluten or some allergen that is effectively poison for some people.  We actively make the effort to not cause any  one harm.  Unity of purpose means that we come together for this meal in such a way that all are able to enjoy it, even though the contents of each person’s plate are different depending on their needs. “For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” 

It is important that people be able to make their differences known, to speak openly where there is dissent and disagreement over issues within the church and without.  Disagreement and dissent are not bad or wrong in and of themselves. The wrong comes when we judge each other and try to insist that we must all have the same opinions, understandings, and beliefs.   Unity means we have a common goal, a common purpose, a common belief that holds us together.  AND unity means that we do not allow our differences to tear us apart.  We are not good at unity.  We are very good at divisiveness.

If we are to know righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, if we are to know true unity, then we must be willing to put aside our tendency to judge one another.  We must allow others to hold different opinions, to be different in their understanding of issues that are important to us and to them, without name calling and ugliness.  We must follow Paul’s instructions to the churches in Rome, that we pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding.   We must seek to love one another without judgment, and pray to be made one in the Holy Spirit, even in all our differences, bound together by our desire to serve God and God’s children, so that we may together enjoy the refreshing and even intoxicating dew of the mountains of Zion, that is unity in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Let us pray, therefore, for unity of purpose that God might be glorified through our words and our actions, and that the world might become a better place, the beloved community that God has called us to build.  

The Sound of Silence

 Scripture    1 Kings 19:9-13.   

At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

He answered, "I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away."

He said, "Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.

When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

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Message   The sound of silence

Good morning!  It is Sunday again - or maybe not depending on when you are watching on YouTube.  It has been a week full of pretty disturbing news from all over the world.  We come to worship, not to get away from all of those things, but to learn how to live in a world where life is so fragile.  We come to pray for ourselves, our family and friends, and all the world -  and for guidance in doing God’s will.  We come to worship to celebrate God’s love, recognize that God is present where ever we are, and share a meal of remembrance even though we are doing that in lots of different places.  We come to worship to hear amazing music from the Quarantine Qrew, and to sing with their leadership.  We come to worship to offer ourselves and our lives to God, to be used in whatever way is needed to bring God’s peace and justice into our world.  

There are some memes on Facebook that make me laugh every time I see them. One of them is: That moment you turn down the radio to see better.  I mean, we all do it, right?  We need to watch closely for the exit sign on the freeway, or the street number on a building, so we turn down the volume on whatever we are listening to in the car.   Similarly, we close our eyes when we are listening very closely to something - like when someone says, “What’s that noise?”  Never mind that our ears and eyes are not connected.  Our brains are wired to do whatever to reduce distraction whenever we need to concentrate on a particular task.  I did try to read a  scientific article that speaks to the how of that, but it was much more complicated than I was willing to deal with right at that moment.  Or ever, actually.

I imagine most of you recognize that I have used the title of Simon and Garfunkle’s first hit song, “The Sound of Silence” as the title of this message.  I chose this title a month or so ago.  And I have to tell you, because this is the way things work in my world.  As I sat at my computer working on this the lawn people came.  And made a lot of noise.  And I couldn’t concentrate.  So I had to tell Jordan that I might be running a little late getting it uploaded, and that I totally got the irony of noise distracting me from writing a message titled the Sound of Silence.  

Anyway, Paul Simon said that he wrote the song in the bathroom with the lights off and the water running, because he could hear himself better that way. Hence the opening words, 

“Hello darkness my old friend, 

I’ve come talk with you again.”  

Sitting in the dark in order to hear - in order to communicate.    When asked about the meaning of the song, Art Garfunkle said it was about people’s inability to communicate, especially emotionally.  

Then later in the song, it says

“my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light 

that split the night  

And touched 

the sound of silence”.   

Light touched sound - that’s not possible, physically.  Neither light nor sound can be felt or touched.  Neither one is necessary to the other, as smell and taste are, yet they are somehow linked in such a way that we close our eyes to hear better, and we reduce noise to see better.  

Silence tends to make us uncomfortable.  We think of it as the absence of sound.  As empty.  We want to fill it somehow.  We have to really concentrate in order to meditate silently.  When there is silence, we often think we hear sounds, like the ocean when we put a sea shell to our ears or voices murmuring just quietly enough we can’t distinguish words.   This would be why so many use white noise to keep these distractions from preventing sleep.   And our minds run when it is silent, distracting us from the silence, that place where we might hear God speaking.

For some reason we tend to believe that bigger is better.  We get our burger combos supersized.  We buy Costco sized packages of things that we only need two of.  We have to be reminded that “good things come in small packages.”  It’s not surprising that we think of God as really really big.  God created everything, after all.  God is everywhere, knows everything.  We expect God to show up in the big things, to interact with us in big ways.  We expect God will strike evildoers with lightning - and  destroy cities the way Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.   We refer to powerful earthquakes and floods and hurricanes and tornados and wild fires as acts of God.  And yet, in today’s passage we are told God did not speak through the wind or the earthquake or the fire.  God spoke through the silence, or as the King James Version describes it, “a still small voice.”  And when Elijah heard that silence, that stillness, he covered his face in order to hear God.  He blindfolded himself, in order to hear God.   

We expect God to show up in the big things, but more often than not, God shows up in much less flamboyant ways, in fairly ordinary ways.  God spoke of caring for Jerusalem and her people like a hen who gathers her brood under her wings.   God describes the  relationship with Israel as one of bride and bridegroom.  

As Jacob slept by a river, stranger came to him and challenged him.  They wrestled all night long, and at the end of the match Jacob realized that he had been wrestling with God, who had come to him in the guise of an ordinary man.  And Jacob set up an altar, because this place were he saw God was holy ground.

God does this all the time, showing up in small things, in ways that mightn’t seem terribly impressive.   Kings, for example, were expected to be born in palaces surrounded by pomp and circumstance.  

But David, who was to be Israel’s greatest king, was tending his father’s sheep when Samuel found and anointed him.  He defeated Israel’s greatest foe with a slingshot and a stone, not fabulous arms and armor.  

And Jesus, king of the world, was born to ordinary, common parents - a young woman and a carpenter.  Not in a palace surrounded by servants, but in a stable surrounded by animals.  His visitors were shepherds, not nobles.  

There are so many examples of God showing up in the ordinary things, the small things.  

Here’s another.  God appeared to Moses in a bush - a burning bush, but still, an otherwise ordinary bush in the wilderness.   And even though it was just a bush in the wilderness, God told Moses to remove his shoes before he came close, because this was holy ground.   It wasn’t a temple or cathedral or even a tent holding the Ark of the Covenant. Still, it was holy ground.  Because God was there.  

Where ever we are, God is there.  Where ever we come to worship, to speak with God, to listen for God, God is there.  Where ever we find God - whether in a building or by a river and by a bush in the wilderness - God is there.  And that place, where ever it is, is holy ground.  As the psalmist said,

Where can I go from your spirit?

Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there.

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

If I take the wings of morning 

And settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

Even there your hand shall lead me,

And your right hand shall hold me fast.

 

God is the light in darkness, 

and the sound of silence. 

God is every where all the time,

God is where ever we are.

And where ever God is, 

is holy.

Amen

Never did I ever

Scripture   Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21  NRSV

8 The Lord is gracious and merciful,

    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

9 The Lord is good to all,

    and his compassion is over all that he has made.

14 The Lord upholds all who are falling,
    and raises up all who are bowed down.

15 The eyes of all look to you,
    and you give them their food in due season.

16 You open your hand,
    satisfying the desire of every living thing.

17 The Lord is just in all his ways,
    and kind in all his doings.

18 The Lord is near to all who call on him,
    to all who call on him in truth.

19 He fulfills the desire of all who fear him;
    he also hears their cry, and saves them.

20 The Lord watches over all who love him,
    but all the wicked he will destroy.

21 My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,
    and all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever.

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Message   Never did I ever

Good morning on this 9th Sunday after Pentecost.  It is only 3 months till Advent!  That might seem like a long time, but for people planning worship it’s like next week.  In the Before Times the Spiritual Growth Team would soon be meeting to talk about themes and decorations. Right now, however, it’s hard to plan for anything that far ahead.  Our current pandemic situation makes the concept of living one day at a time almost necessary.  That can be a really uncomfortable way to live, or a really liberating way to live.  Kind of depends on, I dunno, personality type?  

I’m a little obsessive, (see, this is when I miss having humans in front of me. I’m pretty sure some of you would be snickering about now.)  Anyhow, because I’m a bit obsessive, when I first learned about living just for today I kind of took it to extremes.  As in, I would buy just enough groceries for today.  I chose not to plan ahead for anything. Except maybe showing up for work every day.  It took a while but eventually I learned it was ok to shop for a week or more at a time.  It was ok to prepare a hurricane box with everything I needed to sit out a hurricane for like a week without power.  It was ok to plan ahead for necessary trips, and so on.  The thing that was not ok was to count on any of those things happening exactly the way I planned.   You know what they say.  I make plans, God laughs.  Lots of plans do come together, but probably just as many don’t.  

Planning is good.  Being willing to adapt those plans at any given moment is also good.  That’s where we are right now.  We are kind of in the “never did I ever” zone.  I haven’t heard anyone say, “But we’ve never done that before,” in months!  Because just about every week we do something we have never done before.   Never did I ever think we would be doing worship entirely online. I mean, sometimes I daydreamed about what it would be like to have church without a building, but never in my wildest daydreams did I consider online worship. I’m not a fan of televangelists . . .  and now I am one - sort of.   

 Never did I ever hear a description of a loving and merciful God - until I was 38!   I had heard all my life about the punishing part - “All the wicked he will destroy”  But not any of the loving and kind parts.  My extreme dislike of poetry for much of my life meant that I didn’t read the Psalms until I took Freshman English in my mid 40s.  So I never saw these songs that celebrated God’s mercy and compassion.  Mind you,  the Psalms are not the only place in Scripture or in other literature for that matter, where God’s love is celebrated.  

I read many books over the years where the author claimed God was loving, but lots of those were novels.  I mean, I had a hard time believing that the fictional Father Blackie in Andrew Greeley’s mysteries was a fair representative of the Church.  Even when I read biographies of saints like Therese of Avila and devout people like the boxer Rocky Graziano, I did not understand how they could love God so passionately, if they had been taught to understood God the way I did.  I did not understand why so many people were willing martyrs for their faith, for the God of their understanding.  They really seemed to believe in God’s goodness and love and mercy  . . . 

Now I have to wonder, how did I miss that?  Did I just misunderstand my teachers?  Or were they teaching from the premise that people are more likely to behave due to fear of punishment than as a response to love?  Looking back, I think that might be it.   They thought that “be good or you will burn in hell forever” was more persuasive than “If you truly love God you will be good, because it makes God sad when you do wrong.”   When I truly love anyone I do not want to make them sad. On the other hand, threats tend to make me rebellious.  I imagine I am not alone in that. 

Sadly, way too many teach an image of God that is judgmental and quick to anger, more likely to see deliberate wickedness than missteps … and then take on those attributes for themselves in their treatment of any who are different, who stand outside of their particular theological understanding, or who simply disagree with their worldview.  Or they claim to love the sinner but hate the sin, then identify the person with the sin and hate both.  That often results in the person hating themselves . . .  (That quote is not Biblical, by the way.  It comes a writing by St. Augustin in the year 424.  The actual quote is “With love for mankind and hatred of sins.”)  

The Psalmist gives us a different view of God than that - pretty much the opposite view.  Rather than quick to anger and punish, slow to anger and abounding in love.  Compassion for everyone - everyone.  Good to everyone.  Listens to our cries.   Holds up all who fall, raises up those who are bowed down.  Loving - compassionate - merciful - just - kind - always near when we call out.  Fulfills our desires, our needs.   All we have to do is ask. 

I am not saying that God will not punish the wicked - we have evidence in God’s treatment of Sodom and Gomorrah that the unrepentant will be punished.   We also have Nineveh as evidence of God’s mercy extended to the truly repentant.   We know that God forgave Israel over and over again for wandering away, and came to their rescue when they cried out for help.   Jesus told his disciples they must forgive not just once or twice, but as many as 70 times 70 times.  The psalmist tells us that God extends mercy to all who truly love him but punishes the wicked. The wicked, by definition therefore, are those who do not truly love God, who reject God as their Lord, and neither fear punishment nor want to please the One who loves them.   

We, Christians, are supposed to love one another, to take Christ as our model in our behavior and our attitudes toward others.  And we typically speak of Jesus as Lord.  So what if, in order to understand what we are supposed to model, we replace “Lord” with “Christian” and said, 

the Christian is gracious and merciful,

    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

The Christian is good to all,

    and their compassion is for all.

The Christian upholds all who are falling, 

and raises up all who are bowed down.

The eyes of all look to the Christian,
    who gives them food in due season.

The Christian is just in all their ways,
    and kind in all their doings.

Imagine if Christians, all Christians, held ourselves to this standard.  If we lived according to these attributes.  We wouldn’t have to wonder how to love one another because here is the very definition of Christian love.  If all Christians held ourselves to this standard, the world would certainly become the beloved community.   We would see God’s will being done on earth all the time, by multitudes of people.  We could see an end to Hunger.  We could see an end to Racism.  We could see an end to Homophobia and Transphobia.  There would be no more Slavery.  Victims of all kinds would be cared for.  Wars could come to an end.  Even poverty could be a thing of the past.  

Given that we are human, and prone to error, I don’t imagine we will all adopt these Godly attributes any time soon, although it is a lovely dream.  

What we can do, though, is teach that this Psalmist’s view of God is accurate.  It is who God is.  What we can do is reach out to assure all people that God loves them, forgives the repentant, hears the cries of the needy, provides for our needs.  

What we can do is praise the Lord constantly, at every time and every where, 

so that all the world learns of God’s greatness, steadfast love, kindness, justice, compassion, and mercy.   

And all flesh will bless God’s holy name, forever and ever.  Amen.