It Can All Be Yours

Matthew 4:1-11 (NRSV)

4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,

‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,

‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,

‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”

11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

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When I looked at the slide show yesterday and got to this one, I thought to myself, “Who is that guy?”  It occurred to me after a minute that it’s Bob Barker from The Price is Right, and that this picture is exactly what I asked for.  I just never realized how much he looked like a preacher before!  People have been going on that show to win great prizes since 1956!  Bob Barker was the host from 1972 until 2007.  And he was sort of a preacher . . . every episode ended with him talking about how important it is to spay and neuter your pets.   But the reason I wanted a picture of him is because he would say things like, “It can all be yours!  If the Price is Right.”  And people would come on the show to demonstrate how well they knew the prices of common and unusual products, and even, sometimes, the price of A New Car!!!  Of course, even on the Price is Right, the prizes aren’t entirely free.  You have to pay income tax on the full list price of whatever you win.  Everything in life comes with a price, also known as, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.”  

Jesus went away into the wilderness, to fast and to pray and prepare himself for the ministry that lay ahead.  He went away by himself to be closer to God, to avoid all the day to day worries and temptations so he could concentrate.  You know the sort of things I mean - the phone call that comes just as you are about to start your personal Bible Study, or the invitation to go do something with a friend instead of your daily workout, or the smell of Kentucky fried chicken in the air when you are looking at the spinach salad you brought from home . . . all those little daily things that interfere with doing what we know we are supposed to be doing.  Jesus went away into the wilderness to avoid all that, and what happens?  Satan shows up.   

According to Matthew, God’s Spirit led him into the desert to be tempted by Satan . . . and maybe that is so, because Satan did have a job to do, after all.  Throughout the scriptures, Satan fills his role as the one who is sent by God to test those most loyal.  He did a serious number of Job, you will remember, but Job remained faithful.  So now it’s Jesus’ turn. Here’s a man hungry and tired and dirty, who has just spent forty days and nights off on his own, camping rough and fasting, and Satan shows up to tempt him to use his powers for his own personal comfort.    “Are you really ready for this Jesus?”  “Yup, Satan.  I’m about as ready as I will ever be.”   

I don’t know about you, but when I read this I sort of puff up a bit thinking, “See, there Satan?  You can’t tempt Jesus!  He’s Jesus!  Perfect in every way, sinless, and un-temptable!”   But I am not sure that’s right.  After all, if Jesus was un-temptable, why would God set this up?  And Matthew makes it pretty clear that God set it up, just like Job’s temptation was a set up.  We have to remember that Jesus was fully human, which means not only that he got hungry and dirty and tired like the rest of us, but that he was also prone to temptation, like the rest of us.  The whole point of Jesus being human is so that we would understand that what he did was do-able for all of us.  The whole point of Jesus being human is so that we would know he grieved when Lazarus died, just as we grieve.  So that we would know he felt the pain of the lash and the nails, and of death, just as we do.  So that we would know that he had to push aside temptation . . . that his saying “No” to the temptation to turn rocks into bread and let angels rescue him and take ownership of the world was real.  Not the “No” of someone who was never tempted to say “Yes,” but the “No” of someone who had to think about if, even if just for a second.  The whole point of Jesus being human is so that we would not sit around saying, “Well, yeah, but that was Jesus!   I’m not at all like Jesus!  He’s God!  I can’t do what he did!”

It’s tempting, though, isn’t it?   To decide that we can’t follow in Jesus’ footsteps because we aren’t Jesus?  We aren’t perfect.  We aren’t the son of God.  We don’t embody God’s Word, as Jesus did.  We can’t do miracles, or cast out demons, or make the blind see or the lame walk, or feed the 5,000, or raise someone from death.  We’re just human.  It is so tempting to think that we are just human and that Jesus wasn’t and so, of course, we can’t do what he did.  But the thing is, Jesus was human.   Jesus was like us, and we can be like him.  And the temptation to believe that we can’t be might be the most terrible of all the temptations we face.

A side note:  For those of you who remember comedian Flip Wilson’s character “Geraldine” - the devil can’t make you do it.   For those who don’t remember, Geraldine (who was Flip Wilson in drag) would tell all these stories about things she and her boyfriend Killer got up to, and would always excuse her behavior by saying, “The devil made me do it!”  That is just plain not true.  The devil can’t make anyone do anything, but can only present us with temptation.  Some are small temptations - like cookies.  Some are larger - like Grand Theft Auto.  But the devil can’t force us to behave badly, and God won’t force us to be good.  We have free will.  We get to choose in every situation what we will do.  Sometimes the choices we are faced with aren’t great, but we always have a choice.   

Just like Jesus did.  More than once in his ministry, he had a choice.  He could have given in to Satan’s suggestion that he turn stones into bread.  He had been fasting for 40 days, so minimal food and drink for over a month!   And the idea of bread, right now, must have been tempting.  But he said no, that God’s word was more satisfying than bread.  Satan’s other offers may have held more or less attraction, but I think the food thing after 40 days of not much food would be hard to resist.  Of course, that’s just me.  I always find food hard to resist, and that’s without fasting.  Maybe being king of the world would have been more tempting to Jesus.  I dunno.  But I do know that later on, right near the end, Jesus asked God if he could let the cup pass from him.  He could have chosen, even at that late date, to walk away from the hard road ahead.  He could have given into the temptation to prolong his life.  But he chose to go forward to the cross.  

Jesus was human, just like we are.  There is nothing he did that we cannot do.    We maybe can’t do it to the extent that he did, but listen.  How many people do we feed at Christian Cafe?  How many people do we feed at the SMART center?  Maybe not 5,000 all at once, but still, a lot of hungry folks are fed.  How many hearts do we heal every time we make it really clear that at this church, “All means All.”?  How many demons of pain and fear and unworthiness do we drive out when we hug someone who has never felt truly accepted before?  Maybe we can’t say, “Get up, take up your mat and walk.” But we can say, “Your sins are forgiven” and know that we have spoken the truth.  That’s what Jesus did.  And that’s what got Jesus in trouble.   

Jesus mostly did human things, not great marvels. If he had done great marvels, I suspect it would have been harder for the Temple to act against him.  I mean, if someone could make armies of angels appear at his back, would you stand against him?  No.  Jesus didn’t do those huge things that Satan suggested.   Jesus mostly did small, every day things. Human things.  Do-able things.  He healed hearts and souls.  He inspired others to share their food.  He laid his hands on people who weren’t used to being touched.  He encouraged people to help one another.  He welcomed those who felt unwelcome.  He turned away from those who would have him hold himself apart, who would treat him like a celebrity instead of “just” a teacher.  He reminded everyone of God’s desire for all of us to be reconciled with God and with one another.  

Our theme for the season of Lent is “With faith the size of a mustard seed.”  The way to avoid the great temptation to think that you cannot possibly follow in Jesus’ footsteps is to have just that much faith - faith the size of a mustard seed.  The Good News is that a tiny speck of faith is all it takes to step out and do the things that Jesus would have you do, the things that Jesus did.  Feed the hungry.  Heal the sin sick soul.  Comfort the lonely, the tired, the rejected.  Remind people that they are forgiven.  Assure people that they are loved.  Love the unloveable.  Stand against oppression - against bullying and hateful talk.  Act in all ways like a child of God, with faith that in Him all things are possible.  Go out from this place today, and be like Jesus.  

Foundations and Futures

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23 (NRSV)

10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

18 Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written,

“He catches the wise in their craftiness,”

20 and again,

“The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise,  that they are futile.”

21 So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all belong to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

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 Every week Leah and I conspire together on the artwork for the message.  Sometimes we giggle like little girls, sometimes we share that evil geek laugh that means we have come up with something seriously outlandish, and sometimes we have an idea that just seems to come from God.  This week felt more like one of the God weeks - and we didn’t quite get what we were hoping for, but we did pretty well.  I was working toward getting a clear-ish shot of the foundation stone through the rose bush, symbolizing new growth sort of obscuring the beginnings.  When my photography skills weren’t up to the challenge, we asked Jordan to give it a shot.  But I forgot to tell him the concept.  So he went to great lengths to carefully bend the rosebush out of the way, so he could get a clear shot of the stone.  (No musicians were injured in the taking of this photograph.)   

And maybe his concept is better, anyway.  Because here we are, in the now, celebrating our past and looking toward our future.  And right now today the new growth that is the rose bush is sort of covering up the foundation stone, but in a beautiful way.  Not obscuring it, exactly, but enhancing it.   No one looking from the street can see what year we built this building, but everyone can see the beauty that is produced on this land.  And that’s kind of the point of church, don’t you think?

The church in Corinth was having growing pains.  And it was having trouble remembering whose church it was, exactly.  Paul had founded the church, but after he left various other evangelists came and preached for a bit - you know, new pastors, bringing new ideas with them.  As a result, some of them thought they were Paul’s church, and some thought they were Appolos’ church, and some thought they were the church of Cephas.  And Paul says, “All of y’all are wrong.  This is the church of Jesus Christ.  He is the church’s foundation.  I’m just the guy who laid the stones. And they are guys who helped you all build it stronger. But it’s Jesus’ church.  He is the foundation.” 

You know, that still happens sometimes.  Congregations, and even pastors, sometimes forget whose church this is.  Sometimes a cult of personality is built and it seems to be all about the pastor.  You know, like the way people sometimes talk about Joel Osteen’s church, or Rick Warren’s church, or Robert Shuller’s Crystal Cathedral.  As if they are all about the pastor, and the real foundation got lost in translation somehow.  

But if you were here last night, if you were here and heard former pastors Patty Evans and Janet Chapman talk about this church and this congregation, you would know that here, at First Christian Church in Selma, nobody forgets who the church’s one foundation is.  Their stories were about Jesus on the roof, and a congregation caring for its pastor, and about the love that flows out of this place like a river.  If you were here last night, you heard the folks from Visalia Church talk about they love they felt in here, and about the joy with which they made a gift to enable us to move forward.  If you were here last night, you heard us celebrating the building, but even more than that, you heard us celebrating the people whose love for Christ’s church caused this building to be raised, on a foundation of chicken dinners.  And a successful pledge campaign.  You see, I was listening to Alan’s excellent history lesson.  

The church in Corinth was having growing pains.  It wasn’t the same small group of believers that started a house church with Paul as their founding pastor.  It wasn’t even the established church with a Sunday School of over 200 people whose picture normally hangs in the church office.  Or am I getting it confused with the Disciples church in Selma?  Never mind, the church in Corinth did get through their growing pains and changed in ways that no one could have imagined.  They continued to have internal conflicts and theological conversations, some of them a bit heated, and Paul continued to try to help them understand that it really wasn’t just about them.  It was about Jesus.  It was about helping others.  It was about becoming whatever they needed to become to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world.  He said to them, “let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours,  whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.”  The church in Corinth grew and changed and moved and spread the Gospel, and that is all Paul hoped for, that this church he started would spread the Good News across the land.

So here we are, a couple of thousand years later, celebrating our 100 year old building.   And we look at pictures of Sunday School classes of 200 people and wonder why it’s not like that any more.  Sometimes I think we forget - and some of you may not even know this - but once upon a time there weren’t any businesses open on Sunday - in 1916, for example, and 1960 as well.  There weren’t places to go and people to see on Sundays, or children’s sports teams playing, or totally important TV shows, or social networking, or video games, or malls.  Most people didn’t work on Sunday.  There really wasn’t much else to do except go to church.  It was entertainment, of a sort. Today, it’s different.  Today, when we are all expected to multi-task and be involved in everything, and we are bombarded with all kinds of opportunities and ways to spend our time, it can be hard to decide where to put our priorities.  The fact that this many of you show up here on Sunday morning says a lot, not about me or this particular church, but about you and your dedication to God.  

The church is going through growing pains.   It’s not like it was in Paul’s day, or like it was when this building was built.  When they built this building it was cutting edge - the very newest thing!  It was, and is, beautiful, a magnificent testimony to architectural creativity and the gifts of an unknown stained glass artist.   And it would be awesome if we could just stay here and bask in this beauty for another 100 years.   But . . .

“We are Disciples of Christ, a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.  As part of the one body of Christ we welcome all to the Lord’s Table as God has welcomed us.”

We welcome all to the Lord’s Table….except we don’t.  We can’t.  We are limited by architecture, which, as beautiful and awe inspiring as it is, is not welcoming to all persons.  Our tech guy, Jason, can’t come to this church.  Our older members who have trouble walking, can’t come to this church.  Folks who are in wheelchairs and can’t manage stairs, can’t come to this church.  Oh, they can get in to the sanctuary, but heaven forbid they should need to use the bathroom, because that’s down a couple of sets of stairs.  Engineers have been consulted and long ago the decision was made, with great pain I am sure, to build a new building.  

I take welcoming all persons very seriously.  Sometimes it seems that when we say “All” we have particular sets of persons in mind.  But All means All - everyone!  Including folks with accessibility issues.  My Uncle Frank only had one leg and I saw how hard it was for him to get around.  A dear friend in Florida was paraplegic, and an activist for the Americans with Disabilities Act.  My ex-husband spent the time we were at Chapman caring for a quadriplegic and his service dog, Shadow.  In seminary I was student chaplain in a retirement community, which had been designed with the ADA in mind.  Accessibility is important to me.  Welcoming All persons is important to me.  And I believe it is important to you.

When I was interviewing with the Search Committee they told me about their plans to build a new building.  They were so proud of the concept, and so sad that the economy tanked right at the height of their enthusiasm.  The building was delayed, the ground it was to occupy lay fallow, the building campaign came to a halt.  And, like all search committees have done since the days of that little house church in Corinth, they asked me to grow the church.  But here was a real opportunity to do just that.  A new building, a dream already in place, a place where the entire community can gather, a congregation who is more than willing to take the lead in doing Christ’s work in the world.  I can seriously get behind that.  Or in front of it.  Whichever.  

I know there are still some who aren’t sure we need to go ahead with a new building.  I know there are some who worry how we will come up with the money.    And I want to remind you what our theme for the year is . . . Fear not, for I am with you.   

Fear not.  Have faith.  For God is with us in every circumstance.

If you were here last night, you heard two Disciples from Visalia talk about the future of our church, and how their gift to us of $10,000 for our new building fund is their way of staying alive, in us.  If you were here last night, the Spirit brought you to your feet, applauding and crying out with joy at that sign of love and faith.  If you were here last night, you know that we need not fear the future, that our past makes it clear that we came this far by faith, and that God will take us where ever we need to go in the future.   If you were here last night, you know that this celebration weekend is not just a birthday party, not just a celebration of the past, but a going ahead party.  I believe that those 100 year ago Selma disciples, who had outgrown their beloved wood church over by Berry Park, are standing in heaven cheering us on as we move forward, into the future, into another new building, which hopefully will last through another 100 years of making Disciples.  

The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ, our Lord.  But we are the stones and the mortar and workers who will raise that church from its foundation.  We are the hands and feet and voice of Christ, who will continue to carry the Good News to the ends of the earth, and who will make a place where all persons may come and worship God, and be made whole again.  We are Disciples of Christ, a movement for wholeness . . .   Let us go forward into our fragmented world, to make it whole.  

A Matter of Life and Death

Sirach 15:15-20 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

15 If you choose, you can keep the commandments,

    and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.

16 He has placed before you fire and water;

    stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.

17 Before each person are life and death,

    and whichever one chooses will be given.

18 For great is the wisdom of the Lord;

    he is mighty in power and sees everything;

19 his eyes are on those who fear him,

    and he knows every human action.

20 He has not commanded anyone to be wicked,

    and he has not given anyone permission to sin.

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Some of you may be wondering about the reading this morning.  Sirach is part of the collection of books in the Bible known as the Apocrypha.   These are books of Wisdom sayings, stories, and prophetic writings that are considered to be informative and important as to matters of living right, but are not thought to be authoritative in matters of doctrine.  They are generally found in between the Old and New Testament, and more often in study Bibles than in personal or pew Bibles.  They are included in the Revised Common Lectionary used in many Protestant churches - like this one - for the selection of scriptures to be preached each week as one of the Old Testament selections, as all of them are believed to have been written sometime between the last of the prophets and the birth of Jesus.  That belief is pretty much backed up by the fact that many tell the story of what happened in and to Israel after the exile.  I am quite fond of some of the readings to be found in Sirach.  My very favorite is one I use for folks who don’t want to cooperate with their doctors, which ends with the words, “He who sins against his Maker, will be defiant toward the physician.”  (Sirach 38:15).  

Just so you know, all of today’s passages speak of good and evil, obedience and disobedience, the choice between life and death.  I chose this reading because i just really liked how plainly the dichotomy was stated in Sirach.  “If you choose, you can keep the commandments.”  

The reading in Deuteronomy 30:15-20 says the same thing, but somewhat less clearly.  “15 See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God. . . then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, . . . 18 I declare to you today that you shall perish;”  The problem with this reading is it also seems to set up the concept of “Do right and good things will happen.  Do evil and bad things will happen.”  It was this concept that the Book of Job was written to address, because bad things DO happen to good and obedient people, all the time.

When I was a student at Chapman I said to my advisor one time, apropos of I don’t remember what, “It must have been God’s will. It happened because it was meant to happen.”  He asked if I really believed that.  When I said yes, he asked if I thought God had planned for me to be a drug addict, and if God had caused all the bad things that I experienced before and after those years to happen.  I said no, of course not, because God is good and loving.  I told him I believed that we have a choice, that one of the greatest gifts God has given us is free will, and … at that point my voice kind of drifted off and I realized that I was busy believing two opposite things at the same time.  That’s not terribly unusual.  Lots of us believe in contradictory things all the time.  But in this case, the next thing I knew I had agreed to do my senior project on Free Will, and so I spent the next 3 months doing research, meeting with him to discuss my research, and writing my thesis.   

That work has been incredibly helpful to me.  One man used to ask me all the time if I believed that God has a plan for everyone.  He was especially worried about children who are killed in war zones, or die from horrible, preventable diseases, or die of hunger.  He wanted to know what kind of God makes a plan like that for someone’s life?  Another man, who had once been a very active member of his church, told me he left the church when his teenaged son was killed by a drunk driver.  He couldn’t forgive God for taking his son like that.   Even though he understood the concept that the drunk driver made a decision to get behind the wheel of his car, he still couldn’t get past the belief that God could have stopped it.  He couldn’t accept that God’s plan for his son was to die at age 17 because some dude decided to drive drunk.  

I do, in fact, believe that God has plans for all of us.  But sometimes other people’s decisions, or our own, or even natural disasters, interfere with that plan, and because God is not a puppet master, God’s plan doesn’t come to fruition.  I don’t believe that God’s plan is for children to die of preventable diseases, or in a war because one group of people want the land and rare metals or gems that another people live on, or in drunk driving accidents.  I believe that God has a magnificent plan for everyone’s life.  But droughts and wars and decisions by governments continue to kill children and cut short God’s plans for them.  An individual’s bad decision killed the young man and many others like him, and destroyed the magnificent plans God had for them.  

This is not to say that God is not all powerful.  God is more powerful than we can possibly imagine!  But I believe strongly that God has given us free will, that we get to choose between good and evil, life and death, blessing and curse.  And because God has given us that gift, I believe He feels it necessary to allow our decisions to bear whatever fruit they will.  I believe that, because God has given each of us that choice, when my bad decision impacts someone else, as it often does, I have to live with the consequences.  I find that this passage in Sirach says that so much better than any other reading I have come across.  First, we make the choice to either be obedient or not.  And then, “He has not commanded anyone to be wicked, and he has not given anyone permission to sin.”  God is no puppet master, and wants us to do what is right. But we have to make the choice to do God’s will, or not.  It was never God’s plan for me to become a drug addict, and while maybe it is good now that I have had all those experiences, still, all those years of doing the wrong thing were by my choice.  I believe that I started doing God’s will when I realized that I was dead inside and wanted to live.  I believe I started doing God’s will when I made the decision to change my life, and that decision eventually led me here.  

“If you choose, you can keep the commandments.  and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.

He has placed before you fire and water He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.   

17 Before each person are life and death,  and whichever one chooses will be given.”

Making the right choices, the obedient choices, can be incredibly difficult.  We talked about that last week - trying to decide what is right and just can be really hard.  There might be no one right answer, no one obviously right choice.  Sometimes it really does come down to, “What will hurt the least number of people?” or “What will do the least harm?”  If the decision I make is on the side of love and compassion, I have probably made the right one.  If the decision I make is a result of selfishness or fear, anger or hatred, then it is probably not the best choice.  

God’s choice for the people of Israel, from his very first conversation with Abram, was for them to follow his commandments, treat each other with the kind of extravagant love that He poured out on them, and be his hands and feet and mouth in the world.  Unfortunately, over and over again Israel wandered off, made the wrong choices, and eventually had to be rescued.  Over and over again, God sent rescuers - judges like Samson and Deborah, prophets like Samuel, Kings Saul and David and Solomon, even foreign kings, like Cyrus the Great.  And then he sent someone different, someone who wasn’t as obvious as David or Samson or even Cyrus.  He sent Jesus, an ordinary man, to simply speak God’s Word to everyone he encountered.  To teach the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness.  To make disciples and spread that Word across all the earth.  To tell everyone that we have choices today.  That we, as descendants of Abraham by adoption, have the same choices that God gave the people of Israel so long ago - to choose the ways of God, or the ways of the world.  That we can choose to do what Love demands and live, or what the world demands and die inside.  

I think I like it best the way Joshua said it, when he faced the Hebrews on the banks of the River.  “Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, . . . but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”   (Joshua 24:15)  

May we all choose to follow Jesus, and serve the Lord, our God. 

The Guiding Light

Isaiah 58:1-12 Common English Bible (CEB)   

58 Shout loudly; don’t hold back;

    raise your voice like a trumpet!

Announce to my people their crime,

    to the house of Jacob their sins.

2 They seek me day after day,

    desiring knowledge of my ways

    like a nation that acted righteously,

    that didn’t abandon their God.

They ask me for righteous judgments,

    wanting to be close to God.

3 “Why do we fast and you don’t see;

    why afflict ourselves and you don’t notice?”

Yet on your fast day you do whatever you want,

    and oppress all your workers.

4 You quarrel and brawl, and then you fast;

    you hit each other violently with your fists.

You shouldn’t fast as you are doing today

    if you want to make your voice heard on high.

5 Is this the kind of fast I choose,

    a day of self-affliction,

    of bending one’s head like a reed

    and of lying down in mourning clothing and ashes?

    Is this what you call a fast,

        a day acceptable to the Lord?

6 Isn’t this the fast I choose:

    releasing wicked restraints, untying the ropes of a yoke,

    setting free the mistreated,

    and breaking every yoke?

7 Isn’t it sharing your bread with the hungry

    and bringing the homeless poor into your house,

    covering the naked when you see them,

    and not hiding from your own family?

8 Then your light will break out like the dawn,

    and you will be healed quickly.

Your own righteousness will walk before you,

    and the Lord’s glory will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;

    you will cry for help, and God will say, “I’m here.”

If you remove the yoke from among you,

    the finger-pointing, the wicked speech;

10     if you open your heart to the hungry,

    and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted,

    your light will shine in the darkness,

    and your gloom will be like the noon.

11 The Lord will guide you continually

    and provide for you, even in parched places.

    He will rescue your bones.

You will be like a watered garden,

    like a spring of water that won’t run dry.

12 They will rebuild ancient ruins on your account;

    the foundations of generations past you will restore.

You will be called Mender of Broken Walls, a Restorer of Livable Streets.

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I love this passage. It’s long, but every word is golden.  The people of Judah had complained to God that they weren’t being heard.  They were tearing their garments as in mourning.  They were putting ashes on their faces. They were praying more loudly. They were making more and larger sacrifices.  They were fasting!  And yet, for some strange reason, God wasn’t giving them what they wanted.  It was as if they thought that if they did these things, that they would sort of buy God’s goodwill and receive a reward for their outward show of religiosity.   And God said to Isaiah, “Tell my people that they are making the wrong sacrifices.  I don ’t need them to sacrifice bulls to me, when there are people starving in the streets.  I don’t need them to give up food for a day or a week when there are children dying of hunger.  I don’t need you to put more gold in the Temple treasury when there are families who can’t pay their rent.  I don’t need you to tell me how good and obedient you are to My will, when you oppress your workers.  I don’t need you to bow down in humility, when you fight among yourselves to prove who is most powerful.  Why do you ask me what I want from you when I have told you over and over and over again?  Did I ask you to do any of these things?  No.  This was all your idea.  What I asked you to do is justice.  What I asked you to do is take care of the hungry, the oppressed, the widow and the orphan, the stranger from another land who has come to live among you. I asked you to speak kindly to one another, with compassion and mercy.  When you are doing all those things, then you will be like a watered garden.  When you are doing these things, then all good things will come to you, and your name will live on forever.”  

Well, we know what happened to Judah.  They did not do what God said.  And they were defeated.  The Temple of which they were so proud was torn down, it’s gold and treasures taken off to Babylon.  The people were enslaved.  The rich and powerful were taken away in chains.  

You would think it would be easy, doing justice the way God asks.  I mean, how hard can it be to make sure all the hungry are fed, and all the homeless are housed, and all the mentally ill are cared for, and all the elderly widows and orphans have a safe place to live, and all the immigrants are treated fairly?  

I know.  That’s a trick question.   It’s not easy at all.  The Temple was supposed to receive 10% of everything every person earned.  And with that 10% they were supposed to feed the hungry, care for the widows and orphans, pay the priests and temple workers, do all the upkeep for the temple - buy the lamp oil, keep a stock of incense, buy the wood to burn sacrifices, and so on.  They depended upon over and above gifts to do other necessary things - roof repair or whatever.  (Does any of this sound familiar?)   It simply wasn’t possible, given the ever increasing population, to care for everyone and do everything else God required with just the 10% that (hopefully) came in from every person.

Nor did the law say in any way shape or form that only the Temple was supposed to help the helpless.  This was the responsibility of every individual.  Some, then as now, didn’t see it as their problem.  Some, then as now, thought the Temple should do all of that sort of care.   Some, then as now, thought only those who deserved help should get it.  The leaders of the nation were constantly being called out by the prophets for their lack of care for those who most needed their help.  And, then as now, the leaders very often ignored the words of the prophets.  In the case of Israel, that always led to a bad end.

Today, given the current political climate and the news stories that are pinging my phone every hour or so, many of my friends and colleagues are going to be preaching strong sermons about exactly what justice is today.  They are going to be telling their people, plus everyone who reads or listens to or or watches their sermons on the Interwebz, exactly what everyone needs to do to make sure that justice - God’s justice- is served.   They will speak of demonstrations that can be joined and political actions that can be taken.  They will speak strong, harsh words and give very specific direction about what everyone needs to do next.

And while I personally have opinions about what is right and just, I also know something that we really hate to say out loud.  Justice is hard.  Deciding what is just is hard.  There is no black and white, right and wrong, one way or another, my way or the highway with social justice.  I wish there was, but there isn’t.

For example.  I am kind of Green.  When I lived in Southern California I went to Sacramento once a year to lobby for clean energy bills and against those that would add more pollutants to the air.  If if was up to me, the Parsonage would have a nice yard of river rocks or maybe be xeriscaped, so that we didn’t have to waste water keeping the grass alive.  But . . . if we do that, what will Arthur do?  Who’s Arthur?  He’s the lawn guy.  He has a family to feed and rent to pay. If we took out the lawn, we wouldn’t need him.  So, is justice saving water or saving his job?  I will choose saving Arthur’s job every time.  

When I lived in Pennsylvania back in the day it was a no-brainer to boycott California grapes.  I was all for the Farm Workers Union.  I even sent a copy of Cesar Chavez’ biography to my brother for a Christmas gift one year.  He was not pleased.  You see, my brother was a produce broker in Texas.  I thought I was doing the just thing. (Well, except for the book.  That was just me tormenting my big brother.) Then I came here, and heard another side of the story.  And I have to wonder if I did the just thing, after all.

Some of you know that I don’t shop at Walmart.  It was not easy to make that decision, but until the way Walmart employees are treated changes dramatically, I will continue to boycott.  No - you don’t have to.  Because here is the thing.  Although they have a bad reputation for employee care, and although every time they come into a town all the small businesses that can’t compete eventually close, Walmart does a lot of good stuff in the community.  They give employment opportunities to the mentally challenged and elderly.  They give scholarships and school supplies to local kids and they make large donations to a growing number of charitable organizations.  Opposing the way they oppress is justice.  Supporting the good they do is also justice.  So, your choice.  And quite frankly, it would save me a lot of time and gasoline if I would shop there instead of Target, and I’m kind of Green, so there’s another justice issue I get to deal with.

Justice is hard.  Deciding what is just is hard.  Doing the just thing is often even harder.  And yet, this is what our Lord requires of us.  To do justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly with our God.  To feed the hungry, to lift the yoke of oppression from the workers and the strangers in our land, to bring the homeless poor into our shelters, to cover the naked with clothing.  

And now, like so many of my colleagues and friends, I will give you all very specific directions about what to do next.  

Pray.  Pray for discernment, so that you can say to yourself and to God that you have made a decision about what it means to act justly.  And then, go, out to where the restless, hungry, homeless, oppressed crowds are thronging, and do what is just, following God’s guiding light, which is Jesus, the Christ.  

United in Christ

1 Corinthians 1:10-18 (NRSV)

10 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. 12 What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” 13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.

18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

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I know how much you all love learning new music.  Especially new music in languages you don’t happen to speak.  We’ll be singing a hymn later that was originally written in Spanish.  Now what usually happens when a song is written in one language and then translated into another is either the translation is good but the words don’t match the notes very well so it’s hard to sing, or the translation is off a bit but it’s easier to sing.  I realize it’s a given that no translation is totally accurate, but I’ve read some musical translations that are so far off the original meaning of the song that we might as well be singing a different hymn altogether.  That’s not the case with today’s hymn.  “We are united in Jesus” is about as close to “We are one in Christ” as you can get and fits the notes.   You all will be invited to sing it in English or Spanish, or once in each language, as you prefer.  And yes, I know I did this to you last week too, but I’ve had unity on my mind a lot lately and somehow unity through the language of hymns just feels right to me.  At least this week there’s no Swahili.  

Have you ever noticed how, when you have something on your mind, everything seems to be about that?  It’s one of those eternal truths, right up there with the fact that a sore finger will bang into everything nearby.   It seems as if the entire world is conspiring to remind you about the sore finger, or in my case, unity.  I read a daily meditation from a 12 Step Program and yesterday morning’s meditation was titled, “Unity and Uniformity.”  I’d like to share parts of it with you.  

“Unity is not uniformity.  Unity springs from the fact that we have unity of purpose.…  Even so, we often find that while we strive to fulfill the same purpose, our means and methods may be radically different.  We can’t impose our ideas of unity on others or confuse unity with uniformity.  In fact, a big attraction of [our] program is the absence of uniformity.  Unity springs from our common purpose, not from standards imposed on the group by a few well-meaning members.  A group that has the unity which springs from the loving hearts of its members allows each [person] to carry the message in his or her own unique way. . . We need unity to help show [others] that this way of life works.”  (Just for Today.  pg. 21  ©1991-2017 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc., Van Nuys, CA) 

And, of course, as a nation we are currently experiencing pretty significant division.  I was so saddened by reports of violence at the demonstrations on Inauguration Day, while lifted up by the peace and unity displayed in the Women’s Marches all over the country yesterday.  In the first case it was loudly declared that the violence came from groups who were not part of the individual organized protests - one of the violent groups even stated on Twitter that its anger was not directed only at President Trump, and that it would also have demonstrated had Hillary Clinton won the election last November.   In the case of the Women’s March, the organizers were primarily leaders of religious organizations and not-for-profits whose purpose is to help the poor and disenfranchised, victims of racism and religion-based hate, women, the LGBT community, Native people, immigrants, etc.,  whose aim is to peacefully protect the rights and freedoms of those groups, working within the framework of the law and the Constitution.  I am proud that so many of my friends and colleagues made their presence and intentions known, as one unified body with singleness of purpose.   May we all soon remember that we are one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all persons.

The church in Corinth was having a problem with unity.  They were divided and arguing over which leader was better, who preached the Word better, who baptized the most people, who they owed their personal allegiance to.  And Paul said, “Really?  Did you forget already that you are all one?  That you are all followers of Jesus, and only Jesus?  I am just a person, just as Apollos and Cephas are just people.  But Jesus is the Christ, the one in whose name you are baptized.  He is the only one who matters.  The cross is what matters.”

I think we forget that, sometimes.  I think we get so worried about the details that we forget what’s important.  I think there’s a good reason for that old saying, “The devil is in the details,” because it’s always the details, the minutia of a given situation, that we get tangled up in and argue over.  I mean, churches have been known to split over the color of the sanctuary carpet!   Or over who gets to be an Elder.  Or over how to administer a community center that has grown out of the ministries of the congregation.  And all that has what, exactly, to do with the Gospel?    It’s one thing to disagree on the matters that fall under the heading of “church business.”  It is another to let those disagreements keep us from being church.  

Our purpose as church is to heal the world.  Our purpose is to do what Jesus and his disciples did - feed the hungry, comfort the prisoner, clothe the naked, provide shelter for the homeless, heal the sick, and get justice for those who have no one to stand up for them.  Our purpose as church is to proclaim the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness for all the world - and that All Means All.  Everything we do as church needs to aim us at that purpose.   Everything we do as church needs to tell the whole world that this way of life, this cross remembering, Jesus following, God loving,  Spirit trusting way of life works. 

As we go forward into a New Year, with new board members, new elders, new deacons, new team leaders, looking toward a new building, and yes, singing new music, let us go forward united in Christ.  Let us go forward without fear, for we know that God is always with us.  

What Does That Mean?

John 1:29-42 (NRSV)

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

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I like pretty much everything about the TV show “Bones.”  I mean, what’s not to like?  A love story between a brilliant and gorgeous yet socially inept scientist and a handsome, brash FBI agent,  an entire lab full of geeks and tech nerds, science stuff, murders being solved . . . it has everything.  Except, at the very end, when they run the name of the production company, there’s a voice-over of some kid asking “What does that mean?” in the most annoyingly whiney voice ever.  Really annoying, you know?  But when I read this passage that whiney kid’s voice flashed through my mind, and I knew where I had to go with this today.

So, a bit about language and word histories.  Did you notice how John gave translations for some of the words and assumed his listeners would know what he meant by others?   He wrote this Gospel in Koine Greek, which was the Greek used by ordinary folks on the street, not the classical Greek of the great scholars and philosophers.  Although his writing is lyrical and beautiful, his grasp of Greek wasn’t as good as the other Gospel writers, especially Luke, who from his writing was clearly a very well educated man.  (I only say that because when I was studying Koine Greek, the translation part of our final exams were always from John,  because our professor, Dr. Marvin Meyer, said John’s writing was at a level we were more likely to get right than the others.  Like translating something written by a junior higher instead of a grad student.  And in case you are wondering, if I work really hard at it I might be able to translate a couple of lines, but I mostly took Greek so I could avoid Psych.  And cause I really like Marv Meyer.)    At the time this Gospel was written, most of the world could speak Greek.   It was written some 20 or 30 years after the Temple was destroyed by the Romans and kicked the Jews out of Jerusalem, (some 60 - 80 years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus). Many had already gone to other lands centuries earlier, during and after the Babylonian captivity, so by John’s time even the Jews spoke Greek more commonly than any other language.  So John had to tell his audience, generally considered to be Jews in exile, what the Hebrew and Aramaic words he used meant. 

So, some definitions to help out going forward:

Rabbi - Hebrew for teacher.  Now we use that term pretty specifically for an ordained person who is the leader of a congregation, like minister or priest in the Christian world.  But at that time the title belonged to anyone who taught, and Jesus was definitely a teacher.

Messiah -  a Hebrew word meaning “anointed.”   It sounds and looks a bit like the Hebrew word for “savior” so the two were often confused in early translations.  Among other people named messiah in the Bible are Saul and David, both anointed by Samuel at God’s direction, and Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who overthrew the Babylonians, returned the exiled Judeans to Jerusalem, and even helped pay to re-build the Temple.

Christ -  the Greek word meaning “anointed.”  It is not a name, but a title.  So to say Jesus Christ is to say Jesus Anointed.  Jesus the Christ is Jesus the Anointed [One].

Cephas - means Rock in Aramaic, which was the common language spoken in Palestine at the time of Jesus (and today).  Jesus and his disciples would have spoken Aramaic in their day to day lives, and Hebrew in religious situations - for prayers and worship, in study of the Torah, visits to the Temple, and so on.

And the big one . . . Disciple.  “a person who believes in the ideas of a leader, esp. a religious or political one, and tries to live according to those ideas: For example, Jesse Jackson was a disciple of Martin Luther King, Jr.”  (Cambridge University Academic Dictionary)  

Now that we have all that language stuff out of the way, what did John mean?  When John the Baptizer said, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  What did he want his disciples to understand?  What are we to understand?   

First, we are to remember that this was written long after the death, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.  John the Evangelist himself was not present to hear John the Baptizer speak.  No other Gospel writer reports this particular encounter along the road.  And, oddly enough, John doesn’t report on the baptism as the other Gospel writers do.  Instead, he has John the Baptizer describe it from his perspective, as the one performing the baptism, who heard God’s voice speaking.  But we know from our reading of this Gospel that John had a particular theological view that is not as easy to spot in the other Gospels, of Jesus as the perfect sacrifice for a sin-sick world.  More than a mere rabbi, more even than a prophet, Jesus was the Word made flesh, sacrificed on the altar of of greed, fear, and lust for power.  In the other Gospels John’s personal interaction with Jesus is restricted to the baptism.  Here, however, John calls attention to Jesus, points him out as God’s own son come to live among us.  John calls out that this is the Lamb of God, the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit, and thus change lives.  John testifies as to whom Jesus is, and points the way to others recognizing him as the Christ, the Son of God, living among us that our lives might be changed, our souls healed, our sins washed clean.   John the Baptizer was so persuasive in his description that two of his own disciples left him and went to follow Jesus instead.

There’s another word that has often confused me.  I like words, and I like to try to figure out where the come from.  So - Christian.   I know where Christ comes from. That’s anointed, and we use it almost interchangeably with Jesus.  But the -ian part is what confuses me.  Is it simply someone who follows that particular philosophy, like a Marxian?  Or is it someone who lives in that Anointed One, like a Philadelphian?  You see, I like the Philadelphian model of Christian.  Living in Christ, not living like Christ.  

I read a story about a young woman who received a WWJD bracelet and wore it, but wasn’t really comfortable about it.  One of her teachers tried to explain what it meant, and that we have Scripture to help guide us in terms of what Jesus would do in various situations, and she assured him she knew that part.  Her problem was that she was fully human, whereas Jesus was fully human and fully divine.  She said, “It’s not fair to assume that I could imagine what Jesus would do because I am not God!”  And I see her point. I mean, if we pay close attention to all the “turn the other cheek” and “walk a further mile” and “give up your coat as well” and “forgive seventy times seven times” instructions, how do we get from there to overturning the money changer’s tables and cleansing the Temple courtyard?   That’s a question that deserves a great deal of thought and prayer.  

But what if we were to live in Christ?  Theresa of Avila, a 16th century nun and mystic, reformer and author, whose writings were so profound and important that she was named a Doctor of the Church, wrote in a letter to her Carmelite sisters,   

Christ has no body now on earth but yours; 

no hands but yours; no feet but yours. 

Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. 

Yours are the hands with which He is to bless His people.

(Feasting on the Word, Year A Volume 1. p 263. Westminster John Knox Press 2010)  

No need to try to be just like him, or make the sorts of decisions he would make.  As that young lady with the bracelet pointed out, we are not him.  We can’t possibly know what he would decide for sure.  But we do know how to do good. We know how to be compassionate.  We know how to help the poor.  We know how to stand up for the oppressed.  We know how to be a blessing.  We know how to touch the sick with healing hands.  We know how to do the work of the church in the world.   We know how to speak kindly to others, to reach out to help those in pain, to pray for those whom we don’t know any other way to help.  

Those two disciples who left John to follow Jesus had no idea what lay ahead for them.  Three years of walking from Judah to Galilee and back again, tired and hungry much of the time, dusty most all of the time, confused more often than not.  But they stuck, they stayed, they were there for the end, and for the new beginning of the resurrection.  They changed through knowing Jesus, and by teaching his ways, they changed others.   Let us do the same.  Just as John’s disciples left him to follow Jesus, so let us too commit to leave behind our old ways and do a new thing.  Let us walk forward without fear into a future where all we know for sure is that God is with us.   Let us go forward to follow Jesus, to be like him, to live in him, today and every day.  

Walking Hand in Hand

Isaiah 41:4b-10, 13   NRSV

I, the Lord, am first,

    and will be with the last.

5 The coastlands have seen and are afraid,

    the ends of the earth tremble;

    they have drawn near and come.

6 Each one helps the other,

    saying to one another, “Take courage!”

7 The artisan encourages the goldsmith,

    and the one who smooths with the hammer encourages the one who strikes the anvil,

saying of the soldering, “It is good”;

    and they fasten it with nails so that it cannot be moved.

8 But you, Israel, my servant,

    Jacob, whom I have chosen,

    the offspring of Abraham, my friend;

9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth,

    and called from its farthest corners,

saying to you, “You are my servant,

    I have chosen you and not cast you off”;

10 do not fear, for I am with you,

    do not be afraid, for I am your God;

I will strengthen you, I will help you,

    I will uphold you with my victorious right hand

.

13 For I, the Lord your God,

    hold your right hand;

it is I who say to you, “Do not fear,

    I will help you.”

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You may or may not know that the scripture readings and titles of these messages are set long before the week they will be written.  Dee Anne, our office administrator, asks me for the scripture reading, sermon title and hymn of commitment for the coming month about a week before the end of the previous month so she can publish them in our church newsletter.  In this case, because Christmas and my vacation were at the end of the month, I had to figure all this out right at the beginning of December.  So if I ever knew what I would be preaching about on any given week, I may have forgotten unless I made some notes to myself about that particular passage.   That was not the case this week.  In fact, when I was looking for images that portrayed Walking Hand in Hand, and finding only sort of sugary boy/girl walking together pics, I was getting discouraged.  Then I thought of the Sistine Chapel, and that magnificent ceiling fresco, where God is reaching out to Adam, but not quite touching him . . . and then I found this picture of God reaching out to Adam, who is holding an adorable kitten!   Leah agreed that it was the perfect picture, even though at the time neither of us had any idea what it might have to do with the scripture reading.  But, kitten!  And so the game continues . . . 

I took a week’s vacation, as most of you know, during the week between Christmas and the New Year.  I activated the vacation response for my email, and I even stayed mostly off of Facebook during that week, because I knew Facebook would drag me into mind sets I didn’t want to deal with while I was entertaining houseguests and resting and reflecting and preparing myself spiritually and emotionally for the season to come.   When I returned to the office and Facebook I discovered, much to my dismay, that many people on my friends list were talking about how to show their displeasure over the election by doing something protest-like on Inauguration Day.  Some are going to refrain from spending money all day, while admitting that this is more likely to hurt small businesses than anyone else.  Some are going to a variety of protests and demonstrations.  The Interfaith group in Fresno will be gathering at the corners of a park to hold up signs naming things they hope President-elect Trump will consider important during his term.   My Spiritual Director will be gathering with a group of like minded folks for a time of centering prayer.  (To be honest with you, I won’t be watching the inauguration either, but then I haven’t watched any inauguration in decades.  I do have basic cable, but my TV isn’t even connected to the cable box.  I know, crazy, right?)   Some are even sporting t-shirts and signs that say “Not my president.”   And I get it, that they are angry and afraid for their futures.  But all I can think is, “Really?  Do you remember when you were complaining about the folks who were behaving this way after President Obama was elected?  Remember when you asked them to respect the office if they couldn’t respect the man?  Can you please practice what you used to preach?” 

It is often the same, sadly, between Christians.  We hear this group say, “Well, those folks over there aren’t really Christian,” while those folks over there are saying the same thing about the first group.   It’s sad, that a religion based in the teachings of one who came to explain how all of God’s children are precious and loved, who came to show us how to reach out even to the leper, the weak, the disrespected and disenfranchised, should somehow become increasingly exclusionary.  In the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) we don’t have to agree on everything, not on what the pastor is preaching, not even on how to do communion, but we do have to get along.  We do have to be willing to work together.  And we manage it.  Not easily, but we do manage it.

That’s one of the things I find most amazing and wonderful about the city of Selma, California.  In other places the idea that all the different variations of Christian thought can come together to work as a team is a dream.  Ministerial Associations in many other areas tend to be boys clubs of the fundamental and evangelical persuasion, with women and mainline pastors allowed a seat at the table grudgingly, if at all.  Here, however, everyone is truly welcome to be part of the work, to be part of the leadership, to be included in community church events.  We disagree, some of us, over some pretty fundamental theological points, and yet we have no problem working together in Christ’s name.  Selma is a microhabitat where that very rare thing known as Christian Unity exists and even thrives.

Isaiah said:  6 Each one helps the other, saying to one another, “Take courage!”

7 The artisan encourages the goldsmith,

    and the one who smooths with the hammer encourages the one who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good”;   

Among the many emails I get every day is a reflection on scripture from the United Church of Christ.   Yesterday that reflection was titled “Liberals dancing to Ted Nugent.”  I know, right?  That seems a bit, like, never gonna happen.   I read further.  

"The wolf will romp with the lamb,  the leopard sleep with the kid." - Isaiah 11:6

The leopard's claws exist so she can tear flesh efficiently. Remove her hunger and who is she? 

A vegetarian leopard is like a sophisticated liberal who loves Ted Nugent.  God wants coastal progressives to dance down the aisle of a heartland Walmart singing "Cat Scratch Fever" with anti-choice evangelicals who think global warming is a hoax.”  (Matt Fitzgerald, StillSpeaking Daily Devotional, United Church of Christ, January 7, 2017)

Whoa. Think about that for a moment.  Can you be part of that dance and still be you?  Can you be a vegetarian leopard?   Can I live without prejudice and without fear of the other?  I grew up in a household where racial, religious, and ethnic slurs were common.  I had to go out and make friends among those groups of people that my father used to disparage to learn that they are all just people like me, with the same kinds of prejudices and fears of the other, oftentimes even fear, or at least suspicion, of me.  I have learned much from those others - mostly about me, and my fears, and prejudices.  

We stand at the edge of a new year, a new political reality, a new future filled with possibilities.   Regardless of our individual stance on any given topic, we know for sure that we stand there along with people who disagree with us profoundly.  To some the way ahead looks like a precipice with an unknown distance to fall.  To others it looks like a walk in the park.  To some an adventure.  To others an obstacle course of untold difficulty.  But we are all standing on the edge of that future together.  We are all about to take a step forward into the unknown.   Just before we step forward, let us remember  . . .

God said, do not fear, for I am with you,

    do not be afraid, for I am your God;

I will strengthen you, I will help you,

    I will uphold you with my victorious right hand

.

13 For I, the Lord your God,

    hold your right hand;

it is I who say to you, “Do not fear,

    I will help you.”

Do not fear, the other, the future, the possibilities, for God is with us. God will help us.  And this image, which was simply adorable when I first saw it, becomes the image for going forward.  As we reach out toward each new thing, and each new person, let us see that thing, that person, as Adam holding an adorable kitten.  How can you not want to reach out to the other, when you know they have such adorableness in them.  For disagreement, even on fundamental topics, is not evil, and those who disagree with us are not evil.  They are simply people with different opinions.  Let us be the vegetarian leopard.  Let us be the hand reaching toward the new life, new possibilities, new opportunities represented by Adam’s kitten.  Let us be the ones who see the beauty in even those with whom we disagree, and let us dance together into the future.

God said, “Do not fear, I will help you.”   Let us remember that, today and on Inauguration Day and all year long, as we deal with whatever comes our way, good and not so good, encouraging and frightening.  Let us remember . . . and let us hold out our hands for everyone to hold, so that we might walk with Jesus.