Joy - The Third Sunday in Advent

Those of you who were present in worship the first Sunday of advent may be a bit nervous today. It was hope Sunday and I began with a description of life behind bars in the federal prison in Angola and it was a bit of a downer. You may fear what I may do to joy, our theme for today.

But how could I dare to mess up joy! I mean joy is the goal of Christmas lights and sleigh bells in the snow. Joy is sharing and remembering. It is warm socks by the fire and hot chocolate with candy cane sticks.

Joy is connection and renewal, forgiveness and forgetting why forgiveness is needed.

Joy is recovery, of health, body and soul.

Joy is giggles and the sticky faces of children. And God bless us everyone!

Joy is snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes.

It can start at our toes and leap to our hearts and it shouts from the rooftops. Singing Joy to the world. All the boys and girls. Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea. Joy to you and me.

Joy is quiet and still and deep and begs only to be whispered.

Joy makes it all worthwhile.

Joy to the world, the lord has come.

Make your own list. Sing your own song.

Hear the words of Isaiah. Read.

I should tell you some about Isaiah. There are at least four different writers in the name of the prophet Isaiah and the books covers a long time in the history of the people of Israel. And at this time, when one of the lsaiahs is writing, things are looking a little rocky. The leader, King A, has to make a decision about which horse he will back, rather said, which army he will instruct his army fight with, this one or that one and frankly everyone is tired of fighting and joy can only be measured in thimbles.

Puts me in mind of where Syria might be today, with the future unknown, except no one believes all the fighting is over, for real. The joy of finding those who were held prisoners, is fast dampened by the grief of finding who is not there. Who is missing. Those who didn't make it to the end.

But this particular Isaiah, puts joy back on the table as a possibility. He says, God knows what you are going through.

God offers you comfort and joy. Water when you are thirsty.

Help.

And Isaiah says, God will save you, so you have nothing to fear. And then there are the three important words, at that time.

At that time, you will celebrate the greatness of God. So, this we understand.

At that time, when the day comes, in that day.

Pick a translation, but it all means the same: not now.

That picture of connection with God is for some time, but not now.

We are possibility people.

We live with the mess and search for evidence of God's work at hand. And we seek the joy we have been promised.

We believe the promise, but we ask for help today. And tomorrow. And in the new year.

The baby was born in a stable, died on a cross, ascended into heaven, and we pray each Sunday for the kingdom of God to come on earth, and at that time, we will shout aloud and sing for joy because of God's wonderful deeds.

Possibility people are faithful people.

We know we are not alone.

We are part of the possibility community that stretches around the globe. We don't have to make God's possibility a reality in isolation.

God is our help.

Possibility people practice faithfulness in the not yet time. We search for justice, we long for peace, we live in hope.

And we follow in the footsteps of millions of people over the centuries who have done the same.

In that day.

I don't want to mess up joy.

It is the fuel for our spirits that makes living in the not yet time liveable.

So, I invite you to make your own list of what gives you joy and find your own song and lift your own voices.

Benediction means the good word and so I give you the good word. Joy to the world. Joy to you and me. Amen.

Peace - the Second Sunday in Advent

As we continue our journey through Advent and towards Christmas, we have a scripture lesson this morning from the book of Baruch.  Most of us know very little about the book of Baruch.  I have never preached from it before.  Baruch is a short book, only 5 chapters long, in what we refer to as to Apocrypha.  The Apocrypha is a group of books that are placed between Old Testament times and New Testament times.  The Roman Catholic Church has recognized these books as scripture, and therefore they are included in some Bibles.  Protestant churches have acknowledged that these books are of historical value, and do contain valuable messages, but have not elevated them to the level of scripture.

Baruch is given credit for the authorship of the book.  He is a companion of the prophet Jeremiah, and often serves as the recorder or secretary or personal assistant to Jeremiah. The first part of the book is pretty much historical narrative of the time during which Israel was in exile in Babylon and contains a confession of sins.  The second part, which contains our text, is composed of two long poems dealing with comfort and restoration.

Picture the scene to which Baruch writes.  You have been living in Israel, a country that you view as being a chosen land given to you as a chosen people, given to you by God.  You imagine that it is implied that therefore God will protect you from whatever evil surrounds you.  You picture that there are no threats to you from the nations around you.  Why? Because God, who chose you and gave you this land, will protect you.

Then the Babylonians conquer your land and take you into exile.  Essentially you become refugees living in a foreign land; not knowing if or when you will be able to return home.  And you begin to question your faith.  How did the Babylonians conquer you? Why didn’t God protect you from the Babylonians? Does that mean that God forgot about you?  Or was there some great sin and the fall of your country, and your exile are punishments from God?  God was with you in Israel.  Is God even here in this foreign land of Babylon?

Some of your people, including you yourself, have been carried off into exile in Babylon.  That was a typical method of operation for the Babylonians.  When they conquered another country, they would take into exile the leaders, both religious and political, the wealthy, the business people, and anyone thought to have some form of power.  They would leave the country devastated by war and without any leadership.  

Yet, some of your people are still in Israel, not carried off into exile.  Some are not refugees.  But all those with wealth or power or education or authority were now in exile.  You are promised that you will be able to return.  But it is taking so long.  We hear refugee stories today of the pain of refugees being separated from part of their families for a few years.  Here the Jewish people were in exile for 70 years.  It is taking so long to be able to go back home that they wonder if it will ever happen.  Even if you are now in safety and have food and clothing and shelter, it still is so incredibly depressing that you are not home.  You are still a refugee in a strange land.

In the midst of that depression, Baruch gives a message of hope.  A lot of times when people are depressed, they look like it, dress like it, act like it.  Baruch tells the people to take off the stuff that keeps them held down in their despair. And instead, dress in the dignity of God’s glory forever.  Dressing in dignity, showing dignity, is virtually impossible when acting like one is downtrodden.  It is not always possible to lift ourselves out of oppression as Baruch puts things.  But he does give us some wonderful images.

I remember, as a small child, at my Grandma and Grandpa Justesen’s.  On a cold and snowy day, we would go out and play in the snow.  While we were out playing in the snow, Grandma would bake.  When we got too cold and/or too wet we would come into the house.  Grandma would have us sit right by the oven, which was hot from whatever cake or cookies she had made while we were outside.  She would wrap each of us up in a quilt (we each got our own quilt because she figured my sister and I would fight over the quilt if we shared the same one) and give us each a mug of steaming hot chocolate, and some of what she had just baked.  Wrapped in a quilt, the warmth felt wonderful.  It was amazing.  Baruch wants us to wrap the justice of God around us like a robe.  Imagine that.  A warmth, a comfort, a security, wrapped up in the justice of God.  Not just a justice that just touches you, but one that wraps around you and you can hold tight to yourself.

Grandma made a quilt for me when I went to college.  All the pieces were denim or corduroy or wool.  They were pieces from work shirts and pants of Grandpa’s.  The quilt weighed a ton, but sure was warm.  She embroidered my name on it, at the top, right in the middle.  It was one of a kind.  And my name was there for all to see, for all to see that it was mine.  It seems like everyone who came into our dorm room would ask about the quilt and the name embroidered on it.  And I would tell them about the special quilt, the one with my name on it.

Do you like your name?  Some people do.  Some people don’t.  Some people so dislike their name that they change it or refuse to use it.  Some people have excellent reasons not to want to use their given name, like memories that are tied to the name. Or family connections with the name, connections that may be better forgotten.

In some traditions a name is given to a person after a life-changing experience.  It may be a name given to someone at their baptism.  It may be a name given after a vision quest of a native American tradition.  It may be like a Roman Catholic tradition of giving a name to a woman when she takes vows as a nun.  Here we have Baruch telling us that God will name us with a name by which we will be called forever.   How special, how wonderful, that the creator of the universe took the time to give you, each of you, your own special name.

Baruch talks about a name that brings peace.  A name that makes you and those around you feel peaceful and comfortable.  And Baruch claims that such a peace only comes from the justice of God.  And the gathering of those followers of God, rejoicing that God has remembered them.

We can buy into that idea, a justice from God that wraps us in the peace of God.  Sounds wonderful.  Many of the things that we do as a congregation and as individuals, are done to show God’s justice and peace to those in need in our community. 

It would be nice if there were a couple magic words for us to say and that then, automatically we would see and live in that justice of God.  It would be nice to just have God wave that divine hand of God and have justice and peace fill our world, fill our land, fill our very hearts.

But, unfortunately, it never seems to work that way.  It seems that peace is something that we need to work for.  It seems that justice is something that we need to work for.  It can be hard work.

If you and I are not getting along, no matter what the cause, or no matter whose fault it is, to work for a peaceful solution and some justice and peace for each other is ideal, and difficult to achieve.  When someone angers us, it is pretty easy to first think of how to retaliate, how to get revenge.  Yet, when we react like that, we usually end up with revenge for our revenge and the cycle continues.  We see that so often in world politics and wars.  With Baruch, with Jesus, we are told and shown that the proper response to anyone, in any situation, is a response showing the love, the peace, the justice of God.

It is not always easy to do.  People have been trying and failing at that for all of history.  If we fail at it today, we just try again.  Someday it will help.  Someday, the hope and peace and justice that Baruch talks about will be ours.  Maybe only for a short time.  So, we keep trying live our lives showing that peace and justice, just maybe we will see it more and more often.  We draw hope from that justice, from that peace.  Amen.

Hope - the First Sunday in Advent

It is a fearful place. No one wants to go there. No one wants to be there.

Angola prison in west Feliciana parish, Louisiana is a fearful place.

It has been called the bloodiest prison in the federal prison system in this count ry.

Think about the bars, the razor wire fences, the heat and humidity of South Louisiana.

If you can, imagine all that could happen to earn that distinction, the bloodiest prison in the country, then you understand it is a fearful place.

And yet.

I could have chosen any number of examples of fearful places, desolate places, God forsaken places. Just watch the news. Listen for the cries of people in war zones, or places where the weather itself has turned on the people withdroughts, floods, mudslides. Places where how you worship makes you someone's enemy, the color of your skin, whoyou love, separates you from the blessed majority.

But there is something about a prison. The loss of freedom. The shame of being there. The isolation from what you knew before. The danger of being in a place where you can't get away from others who would rather be somewhere else.

It is not where we want to be or where we want anyone we love or care about to be. But I'd like to introduce you to the Warden at Angola. His name is Kaine.

And he is a Christian of the southern Baptist persuasion and he takes his job very seriously. His truth, born out of his faith, is that the job of everyone at Angola prison is to keep hope alive. As days grow into years, as people live and die locked away, the most important job he has is to keep hope real and present in the daily living of men who have a good reason to think hope is for dopes and people on the outside. But not us.

Through his efforts and those who followed him as warden, things have gotten better at Angola.

It is also called the plantation prison, because the farm land around the prison has always been cultivated to provide foodfor the prison and work for the prisoners.

It is also known for its rodeos, which provide, again income for the prison and excitement and purpose for the prisoners.

It also believes in returning its prisoners to society with skills and education in a great number of careers; religious programs you can participate in; and this past week on Thursday and Friday the prison was closed so that everyone could practice gratitude. Sounds like hope lives in Angola.

Jeremiah would agree with Warden.

A prophet called by God, Jeremiah's time was before the fall of Jerusalem and Judea. He looked around and saw what was happening and warned the people that things were going to get a lot worse. He said there will be cities filled with the bodies of dead men, and there will be no animals, no crops in the fields, no nothing, because by the sword, famine, and plague you will be handed over to Babylon by my hand, God says, through the prophet Jeremiah. I am angry with you. God says. Chapter after chapter Jeremiah works to impress upon the people ofJerusalem and Judea that God has had it with them.

And you know why?

Because they had forgotten how to be righteous. How to be in good relationship with God, with each other, with creation. They had dismissed the call to be just in their dealings with people. They had neglected to give God credit for what God had given to them.

Before you decide Jeremiah was coming down too hard of the chosen people of God, that it sounds like bringing this up makes the Jewish people look bad, tell me if you can't hear Jeremiah' s words in our world today. Tell me we haven't fallen into the independent self-righteousness of our time. Tell me you didn't squirm just a bit when I suggested being unrighteous can tick off God. Righteous is a slang word nowadays. It is okay to be a righteous dude, but how many times in a month, a year, do you identify righteous as a compliment about another. Or a goal foryourself?

I don't. I don't recall telling others they are righteous.

I can say God is righteous, but I don't really think about naming others.

Makes we wonder, should we be checking our horizons for the armies of Babylon coming, with God's blessings, for us?

That's about as southern Baptist a sermon as you are likely to hear in these pews.

Rather you will hear, I work for justice. I can say that is important to me. We give, we feed, we welcome, we are doing ok. God must be pleased.

But you know, if I were a prophet of God, if I got picked for that part, I think what would distress me the most is the culture of fear that separates us from each other, from creation, and from God. Listen and hear who we should weafraid of, what should strike fear in our won hearts. It’s everywhere. That what we need is for all the others in our world to be kept away from us, because they are going to hurt us. Every other in the world needs a trip to Angola. Or someplace where they can't get to us, because for sure what they intend is to take what is ours, hurt what we love,forget who we are, fill our streets with the bodies of dead men.

Fear is the destroyer of hope. I hope that we will be okay, but I fear we may not.

And fear is epidemic now. Vaccines, the department of education, Mexico, Canada, Russia, depression, recession,job loss, Muslims, transgender children, not enough, not enough, not enough. And the result is that hope is on the chopping block.

And to all this, Jeremiah says, after 30 chapters of telling people, showing people, how angry God is with them, Jeremiah says, but God has made a promise.

A gracious promise.

In those days, I will make a righteous branch sprout from David's line. He will do what is just and right in the land.

In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety.

This is the name by which it will be called: the Lord our Righteousness. Through him we live in righteousness.

And that Lord our righteousness says to his disciples,

Things are going to get bad, but when it seems like the heavens and the earth are about to end as we know them, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. Be careful that your hearts not be weighed down with anxieties of life. That fear not win.

People of faith have said for centuries, the battle is between good and evil.

And good has already won, because Jesus walked out of the tomb and invited us to come along.

But in our time, the fight is between fear and hope. And advent wants to shout hope will be victorious because before there was tomb, God made a promise, I will send you David's heir, to show you how to be righteous, how to liveconnected to me, to each other, to creation.

Jesus came for hope.

HE said 120 times in the gospels, do not be afraid. Jesus knew hope and fear cancel out each other and the struggle within us is ongoing. But hear the call of Jesus when he says.

Stand up. Lift up your heads. Be careful with your heart. Be not afraid.

At least not all the time. Let us carry hope for each other and fortheother. Be not afraid.

Last Sunday after Pentecost

James 5:13-20

We have come to the end of our walk through the book of James, and this Sunday we've come to the end of the church year. Next Sunday begins Advent, a time for looking ahead and thinking about what we're hoping for, what will be new.

Today, we focus on James tying up loose ends. First, he suggests that people should pray- if they are suffering, if they are sick, if they've done something wrong and it's making them sick. The whole community should pray for each other. He suggests that they pray like Elijah who could make it rain or not by praying. This is a clear sign that James is a first century man and not a twenty-first century man. Today we can explain what causes it to rain or not scientifically, and while there are lots of farmers and fire-fighters who frequently pray for rain, there aren't many who think prayer is the cause of the weather- or of illness or of war or of many other conditions we deal with in life.

We know a lot about science these days and we can explain a lot of things. When someone is ill, we have many more tools at our disposal to help them get well. We're grateful for the advances that have made our lives longer and easier for everyone. We don't know much about prayer, because prayer doesn't work by any scientific method. There have been studies that show that prayer has a positive impact on healing. There have been studies that show that meditation can lower crime rates in big cities. We each have stories about when good things happen that we attribute to prayer. But we don't know much about how it works or why.

I'm going to suggest that we don't need to know. Not knowing how a TV works doesn't keep me from turning one on and watching shows. Not knowing how plants grow doesn't keep me from planting a garden. Not knowing how prayer works doesn't keep us from praying and getting good benefit from our prayers.

Let's put a pin in that for a minute and look at the second thing James tells us in closing- keep each other in the truth. I suspect that James would label “truth" those things he's told people in his letter. Truth is the way James understands what God is up to in the world and how people participate in this God-work. I hear that as "stick with the community" and hang in there together. Don't make trouble for each other.

These two bits of advice here at the end of the letter, say to me, "Take care of one another." Build up the community for the benefit of everyone. That’s pretty good advice. How do we put it into practice in our time? How did people put it into practice in James' time?

First, they gathered. They came together. We gather on Sunday (and welcome people who listen in online) because it helps to be connected to each other. If you have to stay home and listen to church on the radio, it's good that's an option, but it's better to be together. To see friends. To wave or shake hands and talk with one another.

When they gathered, they ate. They feasted in fact. Today we are going to feast. If you're listening online and live nearby, come on over after worship. There’s plenty for everyone. Their feasts too k time. They told stories about their week. They told jokes and laughed. They lived in hard times, but that didn't keep them from enjoying life together. We live in what may become hard times. We need to help each other keep our sense of humor and hope, and we do that by being together.

They prayed for each other. We pray every Sunday in gratitude for things that are going well and for help for people and situations that are in trouble. Is prayer magic? Does God intervene in the world in unpredictable ways? I don't think so. But I do believe that all of life is interconnected and that the positive energy we create as we pray is effective in bringing good. I also believe that when we pray for someone or something, we're more likely to do helpful things to make a difference. Prayer opens us up to finding ways to change the world. Prayer reminds us that a friend needs a phone call or a hotdish. Prayer connects us to each other in important ways.

James' friends were followers of Jesus and so are we. What does that mean? I think it means we try to see the world like Jesus saw it. Jesus had a God-sized vision of the world where everyone was loved, and everyone loved folks back. We see the world through a love that values each person and wants the best for everyone. We talked about making a commitment to one another that we would approach this time with the eyes of love, and that's an important way we follow Jesus.

With that vision, Jesus taught people to take care of each other. For him, that meant sharing clothing, shelter and food. It meant accepting those the village cast aside. It meant welcoming the stranger. In my mind, Jesus asked us to form strong, loving communities to take care of one another. We can do that when it's easy, and over the ages folks have done that when it's hard. No matter what, we're in this life together and we can cheer each other on.

At our Justice conversation this week we read an article about Bernice Johnson Reagon, a founder of the singing group Sweet Honey in the Rock. She spoke of how Gospel songs like "We Shall Overcome" started out as "I Shall Overcome." Over time they became collective, not individual, because when you're working for justice and peace, a Jesus-shaped vision, you can't do it alone. A movement has to be "we" because sometimes " I" need a break. Everybody needs to take a rest and pass the work to someone else for a while. But the movement continues, and we move forward together.

Living in community is hard. There are always moments of irritation or disagreement or wrestling over the best menu. But Jesus taught us that it's essential. Faith isn't about me getting saved, it's about us creating the reign of God right here, right now, so everyone can see it. It's a group effort. Everyone is essential and we can all take care of each other.

So, in the days ahead, speak up about what you need. Tell us when you are sad or angry. Tell us what you're worried about, who you're worried about. Don't be shy when you have a good idea. We're creating the presence of God in this time and place, and God is going to add a whole lot of energy and power and hope to that process. To quote a friend,

"We're in this together."

Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

James 5:1-12

We are just one week away from the last sermon (for a while) on the letter labeled James.  Today we have a laundry-list of four topics James want to remind us about.  Let’s take them in order.

First James berates the rich.  They have so many possessions they can’t even take care of them all while thousands of people face despair and starvation.  Jesus did the same, often chastising those with means who took advantage of the poor.

We just had an election where grocery prices were a big issue.  It’s expensive to eat.  But most farmers aren’t getting rich.  In 2022 the USDA tells us farmers/growers received 14.9 cents of every dollar spent on food (and spend 7.9 cents on their own costs, which includes the wages of farm workers).  Processors, wholesalers, retailers, all take a chunk.  Food service gets the biggest bite – which means more food dollars go to eating out than to grocery stores in our country, an amount that would include food prepared at universities and in hospitals and nursing homes.  I looked this up because I thought it would tell us someone was getting rich from our need to eat, but it just told me that food is very complicated.  It doesn’t take Robert F. Kennedy Jr to tell us that lots of folks aren’t eating very well for all the money we spend.  Or we could point out that for all the funds put into rent, there’s a lot of folks unhoused.  For all the funds going to health care, there are too many going without.  We can believe in the benefits of a capitalistic system without signing on to the belief that rich folks should have unlimited ability to get richer.  Jesus, the prophets before him, James and the first century church all preached that people deserved to be fed, clothed, housed, and made well.  Everyone does better when everyone does better.  When Jesus said, “The poor you have with you always, he wasn’t endorsing poverty.  He was citing reality.  Then he fed people and taught his followers how to form communities where no one was left out.  Now that Elon Musk is in charge of the world, I’m pretty sure Jesus has some suggestions for how he spends his time and wealth.  I’m not thinking Elon is interested.  But we sure are.  We have our work cut out for us standing up for those who don’t have the power to stand up for themselves, and inviting them to join us.

Second, James encourages us to be patient.  He connects patience and endurance in the face of hardship.  We don’t have to go looking for hardship these days; there’s about to be plenty to go around.  Enough that we don’t need to make up extra by worrying about what hasn’t happened yet.  But like our ancestors, we need to be watchful.  We need to be ready when our neighbors are about to be harmed.  The ACLU is making plans.  The teachers’ unions and labor unions are making plans.  We can watch for what part of protecting the vulnerable comes to us, and then we can make plans.  Or we can support those who are in position to have the best effect.  Marsha from the Connections group said that in the week after the election, she added $5 to several of her monthly gifts to people who are watching out for others.  Not a bad plan.  James would approve.

James would also approve of our commitment to love which we made 2 weeks ago.  It’s still in effect.  There are lots of reasons to be angry and divisive, but we’re going to act with love.  Tough love.  Tomorrow I’m going to begin calling Senators’ offices to remind them how smart they are about what makes cabinet officers qualified.  We’ll have lots of reminding to do in the next weeks because we deserve qualified public servants, not folks looking for wealth and retribution.  We can do it with love, and the expectation that we’ll be heard. 

Finally, James tells us not to swear.  I have just spent the weekend with half of my grandchildren, one of whom is getting frequent flyer miles on words his grandmother has never once spoken and hopes to never speak.  That’s not the kind of swearing James is talking about.  James is talking about promises you make and don’t intend to keep.  Campaign promises, perhaps.  Empty promises, for sure.  This isn’t a time for promises without substance.  This is a time when we need to keep faith with one another.  We need to be able to trust each other.  When we say we’re paying attention to what’s happening, we need to really be paying attention.  When we say we’ll contribute, we need to do it.  When we say we’ll show up and stand up for one another, we need to follow through.  Those are promises we can make and keep if we help each other do it.  No one can do it all.  Everyone needs a break from time to time.  This is a tag team project and we all need to be on the team.

James doesn’t say, “remember to laugh,” but I’m saying it.  Remember to take a break.  Rachel Maddow says, “Close the refrigerator and hydrate.”  Mr. Rogers says, “Look for the helpers.”  We need to do all of those good things to keep ourselves strong.

Two thousand years ago the followers of Jesus faced hard times.  They stuck together and they made it through.  So far, our times don’t come close to the hardships they faced.  If we stick together, we will more than make it through.  We aren’t doing this just to be self-righteous or to look like the good guys.  We’re doing it to show what God’s way of life looks like when we live with love and joy.  Which means, God is in the thick of it and we aren’t alone.  We can do it and we will.  Together!

Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

James 4:13-17

 All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well…for there is a force of love moving through the universe that holds us fast and will never let us go.          

-Julian of Norwich

 Last week we were wondering what this week would bring. We committed to one another that no matter what, we would love people and support each other.  Then this week happened and here we are.  I’m reminding you that we are facing current events with love.

I’m hearing from lots of people this week.  A few are exuberant.  Most are feeling depressed or angry or anxious or uncertain.  Whatever part of those words fit you today, welcome.  Here we are.

People I know are asking each other how they feel and what they are going to do next.  I’m feeling a little pressure to say something wise and helpful.  So far I’ve discovered two things that aren’t helpful:  eating lots of ice cream and playing games on my phone in the middle of the night.  Neither made me feel better.  Truth is, I have no idea what comes next.  One author I read, Ann Lamott, I think, suggests that “I don’t know” is the best answer of all.  When life makes big shifts, we truly don’t know how we’ll react or what we should do.  For at least a little while, it’s a good idea to do nothing.  Go for a walk.  Drink lots of water.  Wait for clarity.  Life is going to go on whether we have answers or not, whether we understand what’s happening or not.

James comes through for us in that vein today:  You do not even know what tomorrow will bring.  So, he suggests, don’t get caught up in grandiose plans.  Just say, “God willing.”  Maybe we’ll get a big new job and move across the country.  God willing.  Maybe we won’t.  God willing.  I don’t think James is telling us that we need to wait for God to micromanage our lives, but rather that we don’t have to know what the future will bring to be alright.  Who said, “The only thing certain is death and taxes?”  Right now, taxes are pretty much up in the air.   And it’s clear that at least for now death isn’t on our agenda.  So that leaves this moment, and we can manage this moment.

Someone else I read suggested that middle class white folk should just get over all this election anxiety.  Black folk, indigenous folk, immigrants, poor folk have all been waking up every morning in a country that wasn’t very much on their side, and they’ve made it through.  They’ve even managed to live good lives and be happy.  Chances are we will too.  At least today and probably tomorrow, God willing.

Sometime in the early morning Wednesday someone posted on Facebook the quote from Julian of Norwich that we read today.  Julian was an anchoress in the church of St. Julian in Norwich, England, which was a major city in the 14th century.  As an anchoress she lived in a single room attached to the outer wall of the church.  Once she entered the room, she never left it until her death, although people could bring her food and clothing as needed and come to ask her to pray for them.  She had a window which looked at the altar at the front of the church so that she could see and hear daily mass and participate in the prayers.  Julian is known for a vision she had in 1373 of the crucifixion of Jesus which convinced her of his overwhelming love.  She wrote about that in a book, which is earliest known writing by a woman in English.  Her vision convinced her that God’s love was the strongest reality of our lives, and we can count on it without reservation.

We’ve read a lot about how hard life was in the first century, yet Jesus’ followers lived in communities of joy, caring for and supporting each other.  Julian lived through plague and wars and the hardships of life in the 14th century, but she writes of the great joy of God’s love.  People have gone through hard times in the history of our country, but they have lived with joy and taken care of each other.   All this week as I’ve talked with people who are worried about the future and who will suffer from new government policies, I’ve also been reminded that the love of God is strong for each an every one.  God isn’t going to fix our country or our politics or convert a lot of people to our way of thinking.  But not one thing can happen in the days ahead to take God’s love away from us. 

What does it mean for God to love us in this moment?  Some folks want us to think that God shows love by answering prayers and helping us get our way.  Maybe by winning an election.  Maybe by getting rich off new tax cuts or deportation programs.  That God sits somewhere called heaven and decides who gets good things and who doesn’t, who is happy and who isn’t.  That’s not what I mean by God’s love.  More and more I’m convinced that God is Life and God IS Love.  God is the life energy that’s in our veins and in the universe.  God moves through all that we are – our breath, our thoughts, our actions, our relationships.  God connects us with everything that is.  God moves in our living by drawing out love as we go through each day.  God isn’t going to intervene on anyone’s side to heal our country, but God is going to be mightily present wherever people are coming together and caring for one another.  We may feel a little bit abandoned right now, but God is just as present as ever and the power of love is as strong as ever we need it to be.

So what do we do next?

• We wait for clarity.  I don’t know what will be helpful or important.  But time will tell and we will see it.

• We watch for God-shaped opportunities to do good and show love.  We will see them.  Eight years ago when I was in Mayo Clinic for bone marrow transplant (with Pat’s good help and care), we kept a gratitude journal.  Every night before bed we wrote down all the good things that had happened that day.  I think those were hard days, but I don’t remember any of the hardship, I only remember the gratitude.  I suggest that you try it – keep a journal of every kindness you see in the days ahead.

• We stand ready to protect those we can protect from harm.  I don’t know what that will mean.  Maybe calling our representatives to protest harmful laws, or calling attention to bad policy or going with people to court.

• We believe in the power of God which is the power of love.

As Julian reminds us across the centuries:

All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well…for there is a force of love moving through the universe that holds us fast and will never let us go.

All Saints Day

James 4:1-12

This is the last sermon before a very important election.  I must admit that it’s intimidating me, trying to find something helpful to say about this moment in time.  Every day I’m hearing the same messages over and over about how this is a pivotal moment in our nation’s history.  If we don’t get this one right, we might not get another chance.  The future of the world depends on us.  It feels really heavy.  All the commentators are talking about being unable to sleep at night.  I’m buying in to their anxiety and investing lots of energy into hoping millions of people see it my way.

Sometimes I listen to folks on the radio echoing all my fears about what comes next.  If we don’t win, we’re doomed.  The other guys will destroy life as we know it.  Then I realize that the person being interviewed thinks I’m “the other guy.”  They are just as afraid of me as I am of them.  Chances are that when they vote, they’re going to cancel me out.  Maybe we’re both right – we’re doomed either way.  Or maybe we’re not.

James doesn’t have any election advice for us today because James couldn’t in his wildest imagination envision a world where people get to vote about their government or any policies.  The amount of influence we have over our daily lives would never have seemed possible to people in the first century.  But when we read today’s passage, we see folks with the same kinds of fears we have.  They were having just as much trouble getting along as we are. 

James says part of it is because they each want what the other guy has.  I suspect that most of the people James was talking to were significantly poorer than we are.  Many of them would have wondered about having enough to eat or wear.  Some would have had enough, and maybe some to spare.  James implies that none of them should worry, but just ask for what’s needed.  Is that a suggestion that we’ll get anything we pray for if we do it right?  I think not.  I think it’s about trusting the community of God’s people to take care of one another.  Rather than competing for what each one can get, they can work together.  I hear lots of news about how people should vote on Tuesday for the candidates that are going to give them the most – the best handouts, the strongest economy, the biggest tax cuts.  The question is “what’s in it for me?”  I don’t hear many people asking “what’s best for us?”  James, I think, would want us to ask how we can be sure everyone has enough – safe housing, food to eat, a chance at a good education and meaningful work What’s better for everyone, not just my bank account?

Then James tells us that not being envious is a way of being humble.  Clean hands and pure hearts are more important.  “Humble yourselves before God and God will lift you up.”  There’s an old song about that running through my mind as I think about this verse.  I remember singing it in worship and being glad that God was going to lift us up.  How very American of us to focus on what we’re going to get as a reward for humility.  I suspect James would tell us humility is a reward in itself.Humility lets us listen to each other and hear the dreams behind the words.  Humility lets someone tell us what they think without formulating what’s wrong with their ideas.  Humility lets us feel the pain in our neighbors that precedes their politics.  Humility gives us the courage to talk back with respect, to share what’s important to us and why. Humility invites conversation.

James tells us that when we start out humble, we don’t find a need to judge our neighbor.  Instead we live by the law and leave judging to law.  James would have been referring to God’s law, which was explained in his time by many regulations about how to live together.  Jesus was asked once to summarize that law and he said this:  Love God; love your neighbor as yourself.  That’s it.  God is love and if you want to align your life with God, you love:  yourself, your neighbor, God, everything that is. 

Life gives us lots of choices about right and wrong, do this or that, but Jesus tells us we can make all those choices on one basis:  love.  What is the most loving thing to do?  Elections give us lots of choices.  Which policies will build us up?  Which ones won’t?  Which ones will help us love and respect our neighbor, give everyone dignity, encourage community?  Marianne Williamson often rus for President on the platform of love.  We need to treat everyone with love.  I think she’d be a terrible president, but she’s right about love. 

So are we to let everyone do whatever they want because we’re supposed to love them? That’s no way to run a community or a country.  But we can stop people from doing harm and still love them.  We can disagree with people’s politics and still love them.  We can make choices and judgments about policy without rejecting people who disagree with us.

I don’t know what’s going to happen this week.  I do know that the Christian response to whatever lies ahead is love.  Not sappy, like everybody love.  This love is going to be hard.  There are going to be winners and losers.  There are going to folks acting up and acting out.  It’s going to be hard to tell what’s true and what’s not.  It’s going to take a lot of working together to get through whatever lies ahead.

One of the most important commitments we can make to each other is to hold ourselves accountable for acting with love.  Speak words with love.  Respect all people with love.  Stand up for what’s right with love.  Vote with love.  Walk into the future with love. 

No gloating.  No despair.  We are in this together and the world needs us to love it and all our neighbors no matter what.

Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost

I was fascinated by what I was seeing. 

A video had been sent to us showing a psychic healer performing surgery on people, using just her hands, pulling suspect parts from the bodies of the sick who had come to her for healing.   I was the associate minister of a large culturally diverse congregation in downtown Oakland, CA, and our building was being used by members of a orean congregation to host this healer from the Philippines.  I was intrigued.  How does she do it?  I looked hard at the video and determined I would be present on the night of the healing to see how she did it.

It was a packed house.  I sat with friends in the radio booth above the sanctuary floor, where we could see it all. But I was disappointed to learn that because CA has rules about who can perform surgery, there would be no healing requiring surgery, psychic or otherwise, that night.  Instead, the procedure that followed for all kinds of ailments, was for the person who wished a healing to turn their backs to the congregation and drop their drawers.  Then you could hear a loud clap as the psychic healer would smack their exposed buttocks, followed by shouts of hallelujah!   For hours, the flow of people from the pews to the chancel never stopped.  I came away from this experience knowing two things:  I didn’t need to see another bare bum for awhile and no one was healed that night in our church building.

Healing is one of those bugaboos in ministry that many of us struggle with. There are people who use scripture to soften the consequences of illness or injury.  That is good, but you have to be careful which scriptures you rely on:  the bible says, I am healed by his stripes, I remember one patient proclaiming just hours before he died. The bible says so.  Or another popular one from today’s text:  your faith has made you well….quantifying and qualifying what is a gift from God and not your own creation.

Or the fatalist who believes the illness is God’s will.  Its all a part of the plan. 

Or the many folks who declare their condition is simply my cross to bear, everyone has a cross to bear.

Or others claim their diagnosis is a test of their faith.

I’ve been to Fatima in Portugal.  I’ve seen the faithful and felt the hope they carry with them.  I would never challenge the strength people in need of healing find in scriptures.  Maybe that is why healing stories are hard for me.  troublesome

So, I am thankful to Mark for helping us with this subject.

To remind you of what you already know:  Mark is short, he is in a hurry, he wrote in the first century, and his audience was Jews living in that time.  He wanted them to know that even if Jesus had not ousted the Romans and put Israel back in the hands of the chosen ones, he was still the Christ, the messiah, the savior they had been waiting for.  From the first chapter of Mark, when he quotes Isaiah about the man we call John the Baptist, then to the calming of the storm, and the feeding of the four thousand, and Jesus’ question to Peter, who do you say that I am? Mark is all about Jesus’ identity.  Healing people just stacks the evidence in Jesus’ favor, this is the one.  So we conclude the healings continued Mark’s mission and are signs that point to who Jesus truly is. 

The one the prophets had told was coming.  That’s it.Mark says healings happen to the glory of God and to validate what Mark believed, that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, the One whose coming was foretold by the prophets. That helps a bit.  With the healing stories.  Understanding their purpose

So what do we say? The healing stories of the Bible are arrows that point to Jesus as the Christ. If we try to extract a roadmap to healing from these stories, we are concentrating on the arrow and not the one it points to.

The story you know of the lepers who were healed. They who had been cast out of community, family, denied the opportunity to work, to worship, were healed and their lives restored.  That says what about Jesus?  In the least it says Jesus is the one who recognizes our need for others and makes that possible.  Knows that healing can make it possible for one to go home.     The healing of the paraplegic man.  He was lowered through the roof and Jesus said, your sins are forgiven. What does that say about Jesus?  I have the authority to forgive sins, the great high priest.        

 And this story. 

 So what can we learn about the one identified as the Christ one from this story? What does it tell us about Jesus? Jesus hears the man calling to him and stops and asks him what do you want? Over the din of the streets and the crowd telling the blind man to be quiet, Jesus hears the one in need of healing.

So do we say, in all the noise of life, Jesus hears our pleas and has mercy. And who doesn’t need to be heard?  When we are hurting, doesn’t it mean something to us to know however simple our words, however broken our spirit, however painful our nights, to be able to speak and to be heard? 

Listening is healing.  You may not have a miraculous and the lame walk story, but I am willing to bet you have a healing because I was heard story.   I hope you do. At Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, a long time ago, I’ve come to think I was wrong.  Some healing did happen.  After the noise and commotion of all that theater in the church, people gathered in small groups outside on the lawn and talked quietly with each other.  The kids jumped on the steps, and the people who had come in wheelchairs, returned to their wheelchairs, and the shouts of hallelujah drifted away into the night.  And they were like neighbors, friends talking together, supporting each other, exchanging phone numbers, offering rides.  Laughing.  Listening.  What do you want?  Hearing the calls have mercy.   And responding with mercy.         

And as Jesus healed, so may we live in his likeness. Amen.

- Nell Lindorff

Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

James 3:13-18

Since the Renaissance, we’ve been exalting the individual and not the community.  That, coupled with modern social mobility, has only entrenched that emphasis.  Therefore, in modern times, we are all in a diaspora and all exiles in our own land.  Therefore, the need for community and the re-learning of the skills to build community around the world is essential.

 – Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

It was my idea to preach my way through James this fall, but I’m beginning to regret that decision.  It’s not that I disagree with what James says, but when I read the scripture and sit down to write, I think, “Well, that’s the truth.  What else can I say?”  James is writing to groups of people who have heard about Jesus’ teachings and want to put them to practice in their lives.  Why do they want to do that?  Because they see other people doing it and those folks’ lives are better for it.  These people are choosing to follow Jesus because it’s the best way to live.  If we’re going to be Jesus-followers in our own time, then we need to pay attention to how to live this way.

There are vast differences between the first/second century and the twenty-first century. Early Jesus followers lived in the Roman Empire.  Some of that was good – safe roads, relatively stable government, most people worked, nice public baths to enjoy, great shows in the colosseums for entertainment.  Some of living under Empire was hard – most people were slaves or peasants living at a subsistence level, there were no rights for most folks, there was no getting ahead, violence was everywhere, death and disease were rampant.  Compared to the first century, we live in paradise.  We are solid middle-class citizens with health care and pensions, education for ourselves and our children, even better roads, modern conveniences.  We have it pretty good. 

Some parts of life are the same in every century.

There’s a divide between rich and poor.  In our lifetime that’s become more extreme in our country.  We think no one’s hungry, but that’s not true.  There are folks in our neighborhoods going without meals.  When I listened to the church’s phone messages this week there were six calls from people facing eviction and wondering if we could help.

Those in charge want to pit us against each other.  This election season there’s talk of immigrants destroying our cities and taking our jobs.  We know immigrants; that’s not true.  There’s talk of folks who practice other religions being a threat – Moslem, Jew, Christian Nationalist, atheists …Some extremists in any movement can be dangerous, but we know folks who claim these beliefs; some of them are our family. 

Most of us have been taught that our country is the best in the world.  Patriotism is a good thing, but as we travel and learn more about the world, we realize that there are good things in many places.  We can be proud of who we are without having to destroy others or fear others.

In just over two weeks we’re going to finish an election.  It looks closea.  Each side thinks it’s essential to win because the “others” will destroy our country.  Somebody is going to lose.  Then what?  How are we going to be a community on the other side of this great divide?

James tells us that we’re going to get along with everyone by treating everyone with dignity and honor.  Just because we’re told those of different viewpoints (or genders, or colors, or languages, or…) are dangerous, doesn't mean we have to believe it.  Believe the best of all our neighbors.

Rabbi Schacheter-Shalomi suggests we learn the skills of community.

• Listen to one another.

• Understand where each one is coming from.

• Pay attention to what people fear and what they hope for.

• Value what people offer to the group, particularly those who come at things differently from us.

• Trust that we can find common ground.

• Don’t give up on possibilities.

We’re told that American individualism is a barrier to community building.  But in the same years that we were claiming to be self-made and self-sufficient, we were also looking out for each other.  We were threshing grain together.  We were taking soup to sick neighbors.  We were buying stuff we didn’t really like or need from kids’ fundraisers. We know how to do this.  We have built community before and we can do it again.

Some things Family of God does through groups: Connections, Justice Conversation, Valley Senior Living

Some things we do out there where we each live: Connecting with neighbors, supporting lots of difference causes we believe in, speaking up for truth or kindness at work or card club

As a group or on our own, we’re still in this together.  We are becoming a community of people who follow Jesus’ teachings because they show us a better way to live.  They help us create a better world, take care of one another, stand up for those who can’t protect themselves.   

It’s a big job, this world-changing.  It happens one word or one kindness at a time.  To be like Jesus isn’t to set ourselves above everyone else and claim great wisdom, it’s to do the best we can to be a good neighbor to our real life neighbor in this moment, one day at a time.  We do it because Jesus asked us to.  He asked us to do it because it’s the best way to live.

Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

James 3:1-12

Today James is warning us not to be eager to take a leadership role in the community. Leaders, he suggests, are held to higher standards of truth and accuracy and those standards are hard to meet. Then he goes on to remind us how important truthful speech and kind speech are for everyone. I suspect that like me you heard this advice as a child, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Sometimes nice isn’t honest. Then “Silence is golden.”

I suspect every one of us can remember words we wish we hadn’t spoken, and words spoken to us that hurt like a whip. James is realistic about how often that happens, yet still insistent that we need to be careful what we say and how we say it. We might add, why we say it as well. Those who follow Jesus use words to encourage people, to strengthen our connections and community, and to support those marginalized by power. We care careful about how we phrase our opinions so as to show respect to others, even those we think are quite wrong about stuff. Words matter.

This passage is a good reminder to us to be careful in our own lives. We can refrain from gossip and call out those who want to engage us in hearing untruths about others. We can, in this new time, think twice before we share information on social media, being sure our sources are reliable and we aren’t amplifying false rumors. When we need to confront a wrong or injustice in our family, an organization we belong to, or in government, we can do so kindly. Some actions or policies demand a strong reaction, but kindness is stronger than belittling or cruelty.

A lot has been written and spoken about the way we talk to and about each other in our country right now. We aren’t living up to Jesus’ standards much of the time. We aren’t working to find ways to communicate lovingly across differences, or to reach compromises, or to be truthful. It’s easy to point fingers at “others” who get this wrong, and important to make sure we’re doing our best to engage in careful and thoughtful speech ourselves.

This week the ELCA Council of Bishops confronted the need for honesty in political and other national speech. What they wrote aligns with what James is asking of us and I want to share it with you.

In a perfect garden, created by God for the sake of humanity, evil entered in the form of deception and lies. Christians refer to this story, found in the biblical book of Genesis, as the fall of humanity. This foray into human sin began when Adam and Eve, the first humans created in the image of God, were deceived. Humans have contended with the powers of deception ever since.

Yet we are a people who know and proclaim the power of God at work in the world. We proclaim the power of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, the one who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). We know that the power of truth is greater than the power of deceit.

We, the members of the Conference of Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, speak with one voice to condemn the hateful, deceptive, violent speech that has too readily

found a place in our national discourse. We lament the ways this language has led to hate- fueled action.

We refuse to accept the ongoing normalization of lies and deceit.

We recommit ourselves to speaking the truth and pointing to the one who is truth. We find courage in our collegiality and implore the members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, as well as our partners and friends, to join us as we:

1. Pledge to be vigilant guardians of truth, refusing to perpetuate lies or half-truths that further corrode the fabric of our society.

2. Commit to rigorous fact-checking, honoring God’s command to “test everything; hold fast to what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

3. Reject the use of humor that normalizes falsehood, remembering that our speech should “always be gracious” (Colossians 4:6).

4. Boldly advocate for the marginalized and oppressed, emulating Christ’s love for the least among us.

5. Courageously interrupt hate speech, standing firm in the knowledge that all are created in God’s image.

6. Lean in with curiosity, engage with those who think differently and “put the best construction on our neighbor’s action” (Luther’s explanation of the Eighth Commandment).

7. Amplify voices of truth.

Emboldened by the Holy Spirit, may we resist deception and lift up the truth that all members of humanity are created in the image of God.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all as we respond to the Spirit’s invitation into this intentional commitment against deception and for truth.

In Christ,
The Conference of Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The bishops have outlined several ways in which we can be careful about our speech. We can be careful to speak the best about everyone, even when we are criticizing policies or actions which are hurtful to others. We can condemn a behavior without condemning a person. We can hold politicians and those who advocate for particular candidates to accuracy as they campaign. We can speak truth when someone shares information we know to be false or misleading. We can stand up for immigrants, people of color, those who experience poverty, those who are ill, those who are incarcerated or anyone who can be marginalized by refusing to accept or repeat stereotypes which dehumanize anyone. We can be honest AND kind.

Sometimes the advice that comes from Jesus or the biblical witness seems removed from daily life. This time it applies every day in this moment in history. We can be a force for change, just by being careful about what we say or what we allow others to say without challenge. This one we can put into practice right now. If we work together and support each other, we can do it.

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

James 2:14-26

We’re a few weeks into our reading of the book of James and I’ll bet you’ve got his main argument down:  it takes both faith and action to model your life on Jesus, which is how James understands what God wants of us.  He gives good examples that people of his time would have experienced daily.  You see someone hungry, you feed them.  You see someone without clothing, you give them something to wear.  When you see a need, you meet it.  Later he tells us that’s what Rahab did when the spies from Israel scoped out Jericho:  she helped them escape capture. Later when the walls fell, Rahab’s house built into the wall stood. I don’t think Family of God needs much encouragement to meet needs that we see in the community.  Although there will always be new opportunities, we are pretty good at seeing a need and meeting it, at least so far as we’re able.  We also identify what we do as a “faith response.”  But I suspect that part is harder for us to define.  So, let’s take a crack at it today.

One way to understand “faith” is believing things that are hard to believe.  The more unlikely that something is true, the more faith it takes to believe it.  Resurrection would fall into that category.  It might be the biggest one.  So would the walls of Jericho tumbling down after the Israelites marched around the city seven times blowing trumpets.  Or Ezekiel preaching to a field of dead bones that become living men again.  There are lots of Bible stories which on the surface seem unlikely to have happened.  Many are allegories or fables, or other tales told for the point and not the details.  Remember our friend Marcus Borg who taught us, “The Bible is full of many true stories, some of which happened.”  Faith as believing the impossible isn’t what James is talking about.

Another way of defining “faith” is believing that the doctrines of the church are true.  “Jesus died for our sins,” is a doctrine, as is “Jesus’ body rose from the dead.”  “Anyone who isn’t Christian is going to hell” is one of my least favorite doctrines.  From time to time the teachings of the church get adapted by new scientific knowledge or changes in culture.  I suspect that a majority of people who identify as “Christian” today couldn’t tell you many of what the doctrines are.  But James isn’t talking about being doctrinally pure because when he wrote, the doctrines hadn’t been defined yet.  We’re talking about early second century when all there was for Jesus’ followers to go by was Jesus. 

Which leads us to what I’m guessing James meant by faith:  trusting Jesus and the stories about his teachings to be helpful.  For the earliest followers Jesus was a reliable guide to the best way to live in what Jesus called “the reign of God.”  Martin Luther King Jr. called it the “Beloved Community.”  We often refer to it as “becoming whole.”   Jesus described it with encouragement to “love one another,” “love your neighbor as yourself,” “love your enemy,” “share with those who have less than they need,” “trust God to care for you.”  When we’re reminded of these teachings, we can understand why James links faith and action so closely.  None of these teachings is something you just think is true.  They are all actions.  It isn’t just knowing the story that matters, it’s putting the point of the story into practice in your daily life. 

Here's an important distinction that I hope I can explain…faith isn’t just believing the right things; it’s becoming a person shaped by Jesus and his love of God and humanity.  There’s a strong thread of what’s called Christianity which stresses what we believe. Think the right things and repeat the right things and you’re in.  You’re “saved.”  That kind of salvation is a ticket for a future reward.  Accept Jesus, say the words, go to heaven when you die.  James is saying that faith is about becoming a new person.  Understand the teachings of Jesus so you can live them, and you enter a new way of life right now.  You put what you know (faith) into action (works) and you ARE both of those things combined.  When we do that together, we’re being the reign of God in our own time and place.

Let’s take another whack at making sense of this.  There are a lot of Christians who separate what they believe about God from how they live.  Or they separate “religion” and “Life” into two separate compartments of daily living. You go to church, hear the ancient stories, sing old or new songs, drink coffee and eat donuts – that’s the religion part of your life.  Then you go into the rest of your week, go to work, take your kids to school, hang out with friends, go to the game or the movies – that’s the Life part of your life.  They can be separated.  How you behave or think at church might not be the same as how you act at a hockey game. 

James is saying that what you believe can’t be separated from how you live.  Even if you say holy things, if you don’t live by them, you don’t believe them.  How you live day by day can’t be separated from who you are, and your faith is how you define who you are.  Your life is the consequence of what you hold true.  Whatever you believe to be true is your faith.  It may sound like Christian doctrine, or it might not.  James is telling us that if we don’t live by it, we don’t believe it.  Because faith is who we are, not what we think.

Someone asked Nadia Bolz Weber how she could have faith when life is so hard, and resurrection seems so unlikely.  Here’s part of her answer:

Maybe faith isn’t about the intellect or even “feelings”.  Maybe it’s about a deep knowing.  And I suspect that if you can quiet down all those church-y messages you received, you might, in the moments between your breaths, in the moments between your doubts, be just barely still enough to know that God is.

I know people who can tell us exactly what that means.  God is.  But I can’t.  Most of the doctrines that have explained it to me over the years seem self-serving and doubtful to me.  But I believe it’s true.  James believes it’s true.  The word that comes to me this week is possibility.  God is the possibility that we can love one another.  It’s the possibility that we can live in chaotic times and not be afraid.  It’s the possibility that the hungry can be fed, the damaged can be healed, and the world can become a beloved community.  One story goes that when Moses wanted to know the name of God, he was told it was, “I am.”  Paul Tillich called that “the Ground of Being.”  Eckart Tolle once told Oprah, “I am God.”  It scared her to death, and I believe it’s true.  None of us replaces God, but God is the heart of all that we are.  God is our “being-ness”.  The Shema tells us to love God with heart and mind and strength – the word strength translated literally is “muchness.”  James is telling us that we can’t separate faith and action because faith is knowing God with all that we are.  When we know ourselves to be filled with the presence of God, what we do is love our neighbor and create community.  We live our faith because we ARE our faith.  When we know that to be true in our deepest places, the possibilities are endless.

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

James 2:1-13

We’re reading the book of James this fall.  It’s a project to discover what the first followers of Jesus thought was important as they tried to form communities of faith.  It’s also a project to help us think about what’s important to us 2000 years later as we try to form communities of faith.

When your community is small, new and struggling, it makes sense that you want to attract important new folks.  James would agree that new folk were important, but he’s pretty clear about which ones matter most – all of them.  Don’t just pay attention to people with money and influence.  Everyone matters.

Paying attention to wealth has plagued the church throughout its history.  I remember a treasurer telling me I couldn’t offend a particular family because they had money.  (She was very irritated when I found out they had influence but weren’t actually donating anything toward the church budget.)  I suspect each one of us could name an organization we’ve been part of over the years where a person’s influence became outsized because of wealth or family name or length of tenure or something not related to actual wisdom.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once preached that 11 a.m. Sunday is the most segregated hour in America.  That’s true still.  We are racially segregated, and I believe we are economically segregated.  We’re probably divided in many other important ways.  The churches which should be the gathering place for people all across our community actually reflect self-selected groups of like folks – like-minded, like-educated, like-aged, like-whatever.  It makes sense that we group ourselves with people with whom we feel comfortable.  But the reign of God isn’t about being comfortable.  It’s about many things, including being inclusive.

James is asking us to stretch beyond our comfort zone.  I’m as guilty as most of not wanting to do that very badly. It’s relatively easy to hang out with folks whose lives are just like mine.  It’s harder to connect with people whose life experiences are quite different.  Thinking economically, we’ve become friends with people at LaGrave who live on much less income than most of us do.  I’m happy to give those people food.  It makes me feel good.  But many of them have asked me about our church and I haven’t yet provided a ride so they can join us.  I know they’d be welcome, but thinking about welcome and actually picking people up on Sunday morning aren’t the same thing.

The divide cuts in multiple directions.  I remember my grandmother telling me about how she was a great tennis player as a young adult.  Some of her friends offered her a free family membership to the country club if she would come teach them to play tennis better.  My grandfather wouldn’t let her do it.  He was a machinist who was uncomfortable with the thought of his family joining the country club.  He couldn’t believe he’d fit in with “those rich people.” 

Beyond the logistics of forming communities of multiple income levels, multiple education levels, multiple political parties, multi anything, is the underlying principle which makes James believe being inclusive and welcoming matters:  God loves us all.

We all belong together because God loves each and every one of us.  No one is better than any other; all are loved.  James quotes, “Love others as you love yourself.”

That starts with believing that we are loved.  It’s a temptation to compare myself with others and feel like I come up short.  James reminds us that God loves us all the same.  None of us has to be the best at everything to matter.  It’s OK to just be on the team.  Love is the great leveling field.  There are a great many big theological ideas in the world today.  Here’s the most important one:  you are loved. We can’t hear too many times or too many ways:  God loves you.

God’s love doesn’t depend on us getting the rules right (although James tells us that it’s helpful if we try to follow them).  It doesn’t depend on us loving God (although that’s a good basis for life).  It doesn’t depend on our success or failure at anything (although we can enjoy times life goes well for us).  God loves us because God IS love.

The best response to God’s love is to share it.  James isn’t asking us to love the peasant more than the ruler, but to love both.  We form community best when we value every single person.  Then we give each one what they need – a seat where they can hear best, a bland diet at the potluck, a ride home…  We treat people according to what is best for them, not according to what they can do for us.

We’re living in a time that’s becoming more and more divided.  Last Tuesday some of the statewide candidates for office held a town hall in Grand Forks.  It was advertised on Facebook and the comments caught me by surprised.  One I remember noted that the person would never go to hear a Democrat.  She didn’t, in fact, know any Democrats, but she did know that all of them were terrible people and electing them would destroy our state.  I thought about being offended.  Some of my best friends are Democrats.  Then I realized that we could switch the name of the political party and there would be just as many people saying the same thing.  When did we stop listening to each other?  When did compromise become a negative word?  When did we stop agreeing on common goals and working to help everyone?  How can we get back what we’ve lost?

Because God loves everyone, everyone deserves respect.  Everyone’s opinion matters.  Everyone has value.  Value doesn’t come from income or degrees or skin color or gender or any of the ways we judge each other.  Value comes from being alive and being loved.  James tells us over and over that behavior matters, but value falls equally on everyone.  A community gets to set norms and standards about how they will work together, but they don’t get to discard anyone as being without worth.  We can practice how we think about one another until we get this right.  I can disagree with you, but not devalue you.  I can ask you do behave differently, but not devalue you.  When I catch myself wanting to put someone down or disparage their ideas, I need to remember that this is a person God loves – as much as God loves me.  Here’s what that means (from the wedding yesterday and the letter to Corinth):  love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. 

We can build this community and our wider community on love.

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

James 1:1-5, 12-18

 Over the summer we’ve spent a lot of time hearing from people who have commitments to shaping a better world.  We’ve heard from those who want the world to be safer, with fewer guns and more respect.  We’ve heard from people who want the world to be wider and more welcoming – of people from other countries or cultures or different understandings of self.  We’ve heard from letter writers and labor advocates and we’ve heard from one another.  All these stories are good.  And if truth be told, all this dreaming has made me a little bit tired.  I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that there is a lot to fix in this world and sometimes I need a bit of a break from fixing.  A little rest.

 So then, we come to fall and the question:  what do we do next?  The lectionary of suggested scripture passages suggests that we hang out in the book of James for a while, and while I hardly ever pay much attention to what a list tells me we should do, I’m thinking, “Why not?”  Let’s read the book of James and see what we can find there.

 Truth be told, I’ve always liked James, and I like it even more after I found out that Martin Luther wanted it removed from the Bible, “an epistle of straw” he called it.  Let’s start with why that might be.  James talks a lot about what people need to do to connect with God in Jesus’ way.  We’re going to read several suggestions for our behavior in the weeks ahead.  Luther may have read those suggestions as requirements for salvation.  And he didn’t like that.

 Those of you who came to the film showing of “God and Country” on Thursday night heard me say that all theology (or thinking about God) is culturally conditioned.  What we believe about God always makes sense in our particular time and place.  One of Luther’s pet peeves was the common practice of his day of using salvation as a fundraiser.  The Church in Luther’s time needed money.  It was building expensive buildings.  It had been fighting expensive wars or crusades. There were disputes over whether the Church owned massive land holdings or if they belonged to others.  Some of its leaders had developed expensive lifestyles.  It needed someone to pay the bills.  In our day when churches need money, they sometimes hold a bazaar and sell stuff.  In Luther’s day, the church sold salvation.  They called it “indulgences.” For a price you could buy a piece of paper that guaranteed you were going to heaven.  You could buy one for yourself or for a family member who had died or for your children.  You could buy them for folks who seemed like heavenly material or for those who seemed quite unlikely to qualify.  Make a donation and secure your spot in eternity. 

 Martin Luther hated indulgences.  He insisted that the Bible says salvation is a gift, given freely by God because God is love and wants us to have eternal life.  We’ve come to call this gift grace, the outpouring of God’s love for everyone.  It’s a wonderful concept.  When Luther read in James that faith requires certain behaviors, “Faith without works is dead” we’re going to read, he cried, “NO!”  Faith is a gift of grace.  Salvation is the free gift of God!  I think he was right, but I don’t think he understood the context of James.

 When we were hanging out for a while in the first century with a variety of Jesus groups, their primary question wasn’t, “Are we saved?” or “What do I have to do to have eternal life?”  It wasn’t the question Luther and the church’s indulgences were asking or answering.  Their question was, “How do I make it day to day in the Roman Empire?”  People were asking Jesus about how to live with Roman violence and crushing poverty and the separation of families and communities under slavery.  Jesus’ followers in the first century were remembering Jesus’ advice and forming communities to put it into practice.  Their focus wasn’t “How do I guarantee eternal life?” it was, “How can I be a follower of Jesus when so many forces want to make that hard?”  And when we read James in that context, it makes sense.  He tells us how to live in Christian community in the face of hard times.

 So we make a beginning today.  James is writing to people who lived in hard times.  Who doesn’t?  Although the specifics of hardship and their degree vary a lot from generation to generation, everyone struggles at times.  He starts out writing to his friends who are struggling, “Be glad for these difficult times because they help us get in touch with our faith!”  Sometimes those words are comforting and sometimes they just make me angry!  James is very clear about one thing folks often miss in this context:  Hard times don’t come from God.  God doesn’t send hardship to punish us, or to makes us stronger.  God is good, and if something isn’t good in your life, it’s not from God!

 I remember when I buried a young man in his 20’s killed in a head-on collision on a foggy night.  People were comforting his widow, barely out of high school with her whole life turned upside down, by saying his death was God’s will.  I wanted to deck them!  Accidents happen, illnesses happen, wars happen…and none of them is God’s punishment for us.  God doesn’t send us hardship, God stands with us in hardship.  Life is sometimes breathtakingly painful, because that’s the way the world is.  But we never face the pain alone.

 Pema Chodrin, a Buddhist nun, writes about how to cope with the disasters that come into our lives.  It doesn’t matter what form disaster takes – the end of relationship, a natural disaster, a business closing, and illness – and it doesn’t matter if it’s big or small.  When a disaster is ours, it’s overwhelming and it hurts.  Chodrin tells us the way to healing isn’t turning away, it’s going through.  The way to returning joy is through the pain.  But not on our own – with those who surround us with help.  James says the same thing God is pouring light into your life whenever there is darkness. 

 I want us to read James this fall not as a formula for earning eternal life – do this to be saved.  I want to read it as a guidebook for taking care of one another when the road is rough.  It’s not a question of whether or not God loves us or God is good or there is Light in darkness.  It’s not a question of being saved.  It’s a promise that there is a way through because God loves us and God is good and there is Light in every darkness.  That’s what Jesus was talking about.  God IS love!

 So here’s step 1:  We’re in this together.  We can make a good and godly life together.  We can face whatever storms we face together.  Before we talk about anything we’re going to do for each other, before we decide how we’re going to fix the world around us, let’s begin with what James says first of all, “God is pouring Light into this world, all over us, all around us.”  When you see it, name it.  When you can’ t see it, take the hand of someone who does.  Let’s become the light of the world together.

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Matthew 25:31-40

Restorative Justice recognizes that crime hurts everyone – those who have been harmed, those who have done harm, and the community.  It creates an obligation to make things right.  The foundation of restorative justice is genuine accountability based on 3 R’s: respect, responsibility and reimlationships.

-Minnesota Department of Correction

We were looking forward to having Jennifer Compeau with us today, but a death in her family meant she needs to reschedule.  Jennifer has her own story to tell of addiction and incarceration and of recovery and new beginnings.  She’s been awarded a grant from Minnesota ACLU to collect the stories of people in NW Minnesota who have been incarcerated because of addiction and to propose programs which help people into recovery, jobs, family and all those  things we all hope for. 

Before I knew that Jennifer wasn’t going to be able to be with us, I went looking for information about restorative Justice to include as a reading for today.  I was pleased that the first place that popped up when I did a google search was the Minnesota Department of Corrections.  I find it hopeful that a state department tasked with jailing people, also works with programs that avoid jailing people, but finding better ways to be, as they say, respectful, responsible and in relationship.

Most of us have some connection with the correctional system – a friend or family member, a friend of a friend, Michael the valve-turner with whom we corresponded when he was in jail in Bismarck.  We know how simply putting someone in jail does nothing to correct the problems which led to crime in the first place.  Jail isn’t a great place to get treatment for addiction, to finish an education which was hard in the first place, to learn interpersonal skills about how to get along with family or co-workers, to overcome poverty.  Restorative justice programs hold people accountable when they harm others AND provide the resources needed to prevent future crimes, giving people a chance to create a better life for themselves and others.

Restorative justice says “people matter.”  All the people involved in crime or other difficult situations matter, and they can all be involved in finding a way to make amends and change directions.

Our scripture lesson today says the same thing, “People matter.”  People who are ill, people burdened with poverty, people without adequate nutrition, people in jail.  That was the list of People-Problems in the first century.  We could add to it today – people with mental illness, those with addictions, those victims of domestic violence or sexual violence, those with physical or mental disabilities, those without friends, those without job skills, those without transportation or housing, those displaced from their countries and now refugees…  There’s no shortage of people with needs in our world.  And if truth be told, there’s also not a shortage of people willing to help. 

This past week some of us were glued to the Democrats’ political convention, where we heard over and over stories of people helping their neighbors.   It was fun to hear so often, not that there weren’t problems in this world, but that there were solutions, and those solutions often looked like ordinary people doing something to help out. 

We’ve spent this summer hearing about some of the many needs in our community.  This series started out in my head looking like prophets calling us to action, and we’ve had some of that.  It looked like helpers in the community reporting on ways to make a difference, and we’ve had some of that.  It looked like all of us talking about our own good ideas for making life better for folks, and we’ve had some of that.  The cumulative effect has been a little heavier than I’d hoped, but we are smarter than we began.

I’m pretty committed to Christian community being about helping folks.  Family of God is perhaps the church I know most committed to making a difference in the world.  But not even Family of God is going to solve all the problems of the world!  This is a good time for us to remember that none of us is called to do it all, and each of us is called to do something.  How do we know what part of the need is our job?  It’s the part that moves our heart and gives us joy.

When we do light signs, those of you who like to talk out loud share the things you’ve done that week.  There’s a pretty big variety – driving, cooking, sewing, repairing, weeding.  Some of you take part in policy and program meetings.  Some of you roll back your neighbor’s trash bin.  All of those things and more are light signs.  When something is our job, it shows up.  We trip over it.  We say, “Oh, I can do THAT!” and we do.  It comes easy to us.  We’re glad to do it. 

When something isn’t our job, it seems distant from us.  It’s about people we haven’t met or places we haven’t been.  We can’t imagine how we would help.  How would we make peace in Gaza?  How would we design a job-training program for inmates in Stillwater prison?  It’s beyond us.  But it’s not beyond everybody.  It’s somebody else’s job.

It matters that we do what we can where we can.  It also matters that we think about what else needs to be done. We’re smarter now than we were in June about what other people are doing in our community.  We’re at the time in our political cycle that we dream about policies we’d like to see candidates support.  Our energy around these needs matters because it makes space for possibility.  It creates hope and room for dreaming, and someday the right person will trip over that need and it will happen.

One of the most important things we did during light signs this summer is say “no” to sponsoring a refugee on our own.  Hopefully another church in town is going to step up to that plate this week.  But it wasn’t our job.  It didn’t give us energy or joy.  Because we’re no doing it, someone else will, and we’re ready for the right thing that comes our way, someday.  You all know how much I like to feed people.  You get in on the action, probably more than you wish you did.  But I can’t feed people in Gaza or Ukraine or Sudan.  The United Nations does that.  World Central Kitchen does that.  I give an insignificant amount of money to those folks, along with millions of others, and they do the work.  Because they know how and they find joy in doing it. It’s not our job to fix the world.  It is our job to do the part we care about most.  And then we hear Jesus say to us, “Well done.  Thank you.”

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Today Rosemary Hoverson and Kathleen Ness told us about their work with "Results" writing informed letters to the editor about policies to address poverty.  Their guide is attached.  We thank them for their work and for making it easier for us to also write effective letters.

HOW TO WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR/LEGISLATOR/CONGRESSPERSON

 The letter has three parts:

• A HOOK TO GRAB THE READER’S ATTENTION

• A STATEMENT OF CONCERN WITH AN EXPLANATION OF WHY THE READER SHOULD BELIEVE IT IS URGENT

• A CALL TO ACTION

1. START AT THE END: WHAT IS IT YOU ARE ASKING FOR? (i.e., I ask that you support increased funding for . . .

2. THE MIDDLE: EXPLAIN YOUR CONCERN. Why should they join you in supporting this cause: What objective data can you provide to prove a compelling need? What story can you tell to illustrate the need? Facts make you credible; stories make you memorable.

3. THE BEGINNING: WHAT HOOK CAN YOU USE TO GRAB THEIR ATTENTION? (If you are writing a letter to the editor, your hook can be a reference to an article they published recently.)

REVISE. Letting the letter sit overnight so you can read it with fresh eyes the next day really helps in editing.

REALIZE your letter is not an end in itself. It is a means to establish or further a relationship. The tone of your letter not only tells the reader what your opinion is of the topic at hand, but also conveys your feeling toward them. You are always setting the stage for the next communication.

ONCE YOUR LETTER TO THE EDITOR IS PUBLISHED, send the link to your legislator/congressperson, asking that they take action. Communicate strategically. Find out who is key to furthering your cause and send your letter to them or their aide responsible for your topic of interest. If you receive a response, reply, if only to say thank you for replying. 

“RESULTS is a movement of passionate, committed everyday people. Together they use their voices to influence political decisions that will bring an end to poverty. Backed by the in-depth research and legislative expertise of staff, RESULTS advocates realize the incredible power they possess to use their voices to change the world.”  From RESULTS website, results.org

“Raise Your Voices, Children!” is the name of the song. Lyrics by Kathleen Ness, music by Ron Franz.

Here are a couple of readings taken from  our UU hymnal:

• Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season.
  It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year.
  It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow.
  Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime.

By  W. E. B Du Bois

•  Save us from weak resignation to violence,
  Teach us that restraint is the highest expression of power, that thoughtfulness and tenderness are the mark of the strong;
  Help us to love our enemies, not by countenancing their sins, but remembering our own.

Christian Prayer

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

“If there is anything I have learned about men and women, it’s that there’s a deeper spirit of altruism than is ever evident.  Just as the rivers we see are minor compared to the underground streams...the idealism that’s visible is minor compared to what people carry in their hearts unreleased or scarcely released.  Humankind is waiting and longing for those who can accomplish the task of untying what is knotted and bringing these underground waters to the surface.”  (Albert Sweitzer). 

What if our purpose in each generation is to inhabit the human struggle on Earth for what the experience does to us? What if the goal is not progress but embodiment, not advancing knowledge but increasing compassion?  What, then is knotted within us and between us, and how can we unravel the knots?  Despite the harshness of reality, survival of the fittest isn’t the only rule of nature…As humans, we always have a choice to stand on the neck of the fallen or to lift them to their feet.  We can choose whether to dominate and be alone or to cooperate and mate for life. 

-Mark Nepo, Better Together than Alone.

Our scripture passage from Ephesians gives us good advice for living together in community.  Everybody works the best they can.  Those who earn extra, share.  When there are disagreements, you resolve them before bedtime. When you talk about each other, you do so with grace and compassion.  Everyone is kind.  We look out for one another. 

We’ve learned that the earliest followers of Jesus were all about forming compassionate communities.  They gathered in small groups; they ate long meals with conversation between courses; they took care of each other and welcomed those who were traveling through.  These groups stood in intentional contrast to the Empire which controlled their lives.  The Empire was violent and brutal.  In Empire people did whatever it took to get ahead, even if that meant lying, cheating, or betraying those close to you.  Empire looks out for those in power.  Jesus’ people made a choice to turn away from the values of Empire and to live in a different way.  They did so under the radar, simply by living out Jesus’ values of love and compassion in the privacy of their own homes.  They built communities that lived by Jesus’ example.

Many contemporary authors are writing about community these days. Mark Nepo, the author of our second reading, is one of those, calling us to learn how to live together in ways that build everyone up.  In our century the values of community still stand in contrast to the values of our Empire. What is the American dream? To get ahead?  To be a self-made man, taking advantage of the opportunities of the frontier to build a business and a fortune?  To spend a fortune on luxury for yourself and your family?  To do whatever it takes to build a good life for those closest to you?  Many folks are suggesting that this dream has never been a reality and that it doesn’t serve us well anymore.

Alongside our image of the pioneer family staking a claim and becoming real, prosperous Americans stands the also-true reality of homesteads claimed for almost free, transportation on government-subsidized railroads, land grant colleges educating generations, and communities of neighbors looking out for each other, forming schools and churches, sharing tools and labor and more.  America has always been a place where someone could start with almost nothing and get ahead.  It’s never been a place where those people succeeded alone.

Religion has been impacted by the idea of the self-made man.  Much of what goes by the name of Christian today is about the individual getting right with God by agreeing to the doctrine and following the rules set by those in charge.  Agree and you’re in, “saved”; differ and you’re out.  There’s not a lot of compromise or compassion or celebration in any of it.

I’m intrigued by Nepo’s suggestion that we are called to “in habit the struggle of human life” in a way that shapes us.  To “embody” community rather than to meet personal markers of progress.  To become compassion.  When we end worship each week, we sing about being the body of Christ – the actual hands and feet of Jesus among the people of our community.

Let’s take a minute and remind ourselves where we are embodying or inhabiting compassion…

I think it’s true, that when we do more than just volunteer some time or money, but we BECOME compassion and care, we see things differently.  Let’s start with people.  Who do you see with different eyes because of the ways we’re being compassion in our community?

When we connect with people, even people much different from ourselves, with compassion, it changes the way we understand the purpose of community.  It’s not just “us” with resources and “them” with needs, but all of us with a variety of gifts and needs we can meet together.  We become family.  And because we live in a place where it’s possible to impact the way the “empire” works, we can ask for changes that make life better for everyone, not just those with wealth or power.  So, given what we care about and the people we connect with, what changes would we like to see in our piece of the Empire?

I suspect we could write a 900-page document about changes we would like to make, just like some folks have done in Project 2025, but the content of our document would be quite different from that.  It would be different because we begin from a different perspective.  It’s about how we’re connected to everyone and want what’s best for the whole community.  Rather than protecting our advantage, we look for ways to share available resources so that everyone benefits.  We wouldn’t write the program and impose it; we’d invite those impacted to be in conversation about what’s needed.  We wouldn’t decide what the best outcome would be for everyone, we’d ask people what outcome is life-giving to them. 

I’m dreaming of a time when Christianity isn’t a religion, it’s a way to be; a way to live, from the inside out embodying the love of God for every person, every country, every being.  I want those who know God is love to love folks around them, all the folks.  I want those who know the stories of Jesus to practice radical inclusion and abundant hospitality and contagious hope.  I want us to start from “how can we be the presence of Christ in the world?” and move to “what can we do to make life better?” and “how can we think about life in a more holistic and compassionate way?”  I think we’ve made a good beginning.  I look forward to hearing what you think comes next.

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

John 6:1-14

In our time, when many seem to think that Christianity goes hand in hand with right-wing visions of the world, it is important to remember that there has never been a conservative prophet.  Prophets have never been called to conserve social orders that have stratified inequities of power and privilege and wealth.  Prophets have always been led to change them so all can have access to the fullest fruits of life.

-Obery Hendricks Jr.

The Gospel of John is organized around a series of signs that prove Jesus’ power.  He has been healing, a sign, and great crowds come to see it happen or to have him mend a bad back or a crooked foot.  Jesus and the disciples try to escape, to take a day off.  They climb a mountain to get away from it all, and the people find them. It’s a little like that car insurance commercial where the man finds a secluded, beautiful spot, only to be joined in a few seconds by 100’s of people waiting their turn to see the view.  John tells us in advance that another sign is going to happen.  Jesus asks the disciples, “Where will we buy bread for these folks?”  Did you notice any bakeries on the way here?  How’s the money bag holding out?  The disciples, of course, want none of it.  They want to be alone, not emptying the treasury to feed uninvited guests.  But there’s a young boy who offers loaves and fishes, what fits in his backpack.  And the rest, as they say, is history.

In my lifetime I’ve preached a couple thousand sermons, most of them unremarkable.  But I remember early on preaching about this passage.  I remember because when I was studying in preparation, I had one of those lifechanging insights – a real aha! Moment – that I’ve never forgotten.  Something suggested to me that the sign of this story, the real miracle, isn’t about Jesus taking a bit of food and miraculously multiplying it a thousand-fold.  The real miracle is Jesus, and the little boy determined that what little there was would be enough.  The little boy shares.  Jesus acts like the problem is solved.  They start passing out the food, and little by little other folk start reaching into their backpacks and bringing out a loaf of bread, a dried fish, a handful of figs.  Five thousand people didn’t come out into the countryside for the day with nothing in their bags.  They were prepared to feed themselves.  But when you’re packed into a crowd, nobody wants to be the first to pull out what you tucked away and eat in front of everyone else. It’s likely everyone would have gone hungry because no one wanted to be first.  Except for the little boy.  He was willing to share, and Jesus believed it would be enough.

All my life I’ve believed that there is enough.  People are willing and able to share what they have when someone gets them started.  Every month I remind people that we have a checking account for LaGrave food, and no one ever asks me for money for groceries.  Each one decides they have enough to cover a meal.  We spend a lot of money from our community fund, and it fills up again.  Sometimes when we’ve paid rent for several people, I have to tell a social worker no.  When that happens, another church steps up and needs are met.  Whenever we study the first century groups of Jesus followers, we learn that they fed people who were hungry, gave shelter to travelers, taught skills to people without work.  Following Jesus meant that there would be a way to meet the needs of the day.  There would be enough because each one would give part of what she or he had, food, clothing, time, knowledge, until the need was met.

There’s a lot of talk these days about building our country on Christian principles.  You can call it Christian Nationalism or whatever you want.  I too think we should do everything we do based on the teachings of Jesus, or one of the other great spiritual leaders, because at the heart of their teaching, they mostly say the same thing.

Christian Nationalism seems to be based on rules and on those who have power making rules everyone else must follow.  It’s based on saving what you’ve got so no one else gets it.  These folks want to post the Ten Commandments everywhere (although they tend to follow them selectively).  They want to tell women what medical decisions they can make. They want to tell poor folk that they must work to eat, but not provide public transportation or daycare so they can get to jobs and leave their children in safety.  They want to tell immigrants they aren’t welcome, so no one takes the jobs no one wants anyway.  You can make your own list.  We hear their demands every day in the news.

Here's my simple guideline for whether or not a policy fits the teachings of Jesus:  is it generous and is it joyful?  What’s the sign that Jesus is a great prophet?  He puts on a potluck picnic for 5000 people and gathers up 12 baskets of leftovers.  When people believe there’s enough for everyone, there is enough for everyone and some to spare.  You think that wasn’t a good time?

Obery Hendricks Jr. is a new scholar to me, but he’s spent his life reminding people that Jesus was on the side of the ordinary folks, the poor folks, the sick and disabled, the women and children.  He can do that because it’s true.  Jesus could do that because he stood in a long line of prophets who denounced the rich, the selfish, those who used power to accumulate wealth rather than to serve the people.  God is on the side of the people.  And God has provided enough for everyone to thrive, if we are willing to share and if we trust that what we have will be sufficient.

Family of God Church has a really good time giving away some of what we’ve got.  We feed people – lots of people.  We house people, through our community fund and Pat Moore’s work with Homeless Helpers.  We help people with prescriptions so they can be well.  We help buy phones so people can make appointments and apply for jobs.  We help people with diapers and household supplies.  We plant flowers to make the neighborhood pretty and green beans to share.  It’s a good time!  If we can do it, so can the community.  So can the country.  So can the world. 

Don’t let anyone tell you to be afraid of immigrants.  They are our friends.  Don’t let them tell you to be afraid of spending money on education.  The children are the future.  Don’t let them tell you to be afraid of those who don’t match a preferred color or gender orientation or political party.  Jesus let everyone come.  He fed them all.  He loved them all.  So can we.

Let’s hold the vision of Jesus up against all the policies and promises of those who want to hold power in our nation, and then let’s choose the ones that match.  Is it generous?  Is it joyful?  That’s the way to build a future for everyone.

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Romans 12:10-13

The purpose of life is not to be happy.  It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you lived and lived well.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today’s conversation is about how the United States, among all the world’s advanced countries, has the highest rate of gun violence, far beyond any other nation except those who are actively at war.  There are no scriptures about gun violence in the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament, because there were no guns when those books were written.  There were any numbers of wars fought with swords and spears and bow and arrow.  In the first century there was a great deal of state sponsored violence meant to keep the Roman Empire entertained and under control.  What we know of Jesus’ teachings were clearly nonviolent.  His followers also found ways to resist empire without violence, even when their Jewish cousins staged armed insurrections in the second century.  Paul’s guidance in today’s reading from Romans suggests ways that they lived together without violence, following very different values.

Talking about gun violence is a hot button issue, often framed in all-or-nothing terms.  Should we have no guns?  Should everyone be armed?  It’s hard to have a conversation about how to keep innocent people safe from shootings and still allow for hunting sports that have been a part of our culture forever.  Today’s speakers come from a group committed to helping us have that conversation in respectful and productive ways:  Mom’s Demand Action for Sensible Gun Control.  I want to introduce you to Cheryl Blller who is going to lead our conversation today.

Cheryl introduced herself as someone who came to Mom’s Demand Action after her nephew’s friends were killed and injured in a school shooting in Spokane, Washington.  Most people involved in the conversation about gun laws that reduce the number of shootings in the United States have and “enough” moment when one more death pushes them to action.  On average there are 120 deaths and 250+ injuries from firearms in the US every day.

Cheryl helped us join in conversation about the complexity of regulating guns to keep people safe and allowing gun sports which are important to many.  There were many suggestions from the congregation of ways we could reduce gun violence.  Then Cheryl shared with us two laws which would significantly decrease the number of deaths:  background checks laws which closed the loopholes for small shops or private sales and red flag laws which allowed law enforcement to remove guns from someone who may be a threat to themselves or others until there can be a hearing to determine when it is safe to return them (if ever).

We started out saying that there isn’t a biblical position on gun control.  There isn’t a single right, faith-filled answer to this situation.  Even though the Bible doesn’t give us a clear answer about guns, it does show us that Jesus communities lived with respect and care for each other.  They practiced the virtues Emerson mentioned:  usefulness, honor, compassion, making a difference.  They worked together to create the best possible situation while at the same time they lived under difficult circumstances.  That might be the most important lesson for us as we wrestle with parts of our world that are broken and think about how to make them better.  Respect, problem-solving, compromise – these are qualities our faith teaches us and we can use them to find a better way.

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Galatians 3:27-28

The Work that is Theirs to Do

-Joanna Fontaine Crawford

And the day came when finally they put down their burdens
And said, “That’s enough of that.”
The moment was full of sorrow but also relief
Arms exhausted from carrying the burdens
Of trying to entice, persuade, people to be more
Compassionate, wise
They continued their own work of building a world more just
But were freer, lighter
The responsibility for others’ thoughts was gone
They taught through their actions
For anyone willing to read their lives
You can see them now at work in the daytime
Singing and laughing in the evenings
Ask for their views and they’ll give a mysterious smile
You can join them, you know, but you cannot fight them
For they just continue on their way
Doing the work that is theirs to do
They do not seek your agreement, your approbation
When they encounter an obstacle, they find a way over it
I have never seen people who worked so hard
Look so at peace.

Our reading from Galatians is often quoted by those who want the world to be more equitable and the playing field more level.  It’s an ideal that we know wasn’t achieved by the early Jesus followers, at least so far as the Roman empire goes.  Some scholars suggest that Paul quoted this passage from a baptismal formula.  When people were baptized into a group of Jesus followers, they repeated these words as the ideal for their life together.  And then in their small group, they lived by them.  It didn’t matter what country you came from, if you were enslaved or wealthy, if you were male or female…you interacted as equals and everyone had the same status at your meetings.  It was a beginning of reshaping the world. 

That’s a process we’re still engaged in today.  Roxanne is going to help us think and talk about one part of the process – becoming equals as male and female, or better yet, as human beings of all sorts.  She will help us frame our discussion questions.

In closing I want to lift up our second reading for today.  Trying to reshape the world into a more just and equitable place is hard work.  It’s scary and exhausting.  We’re in the midst of an election cycle where the stakes are incredibly high and the way forward is murky.  We’re learning about Project 2025 which is determined to remake the world by a very different standard, and we’re not sure how to win and what to do if we don’t.  Our reading and our scripture give us the same suggestion – no matter what the world does, live by your vision and your standards.  Just go about being the people we choose to be – just, fair, accepting, valuing everyone.  Maybe we’ll get to make laws and set policies that include and respect everyone.  Maybe we won’t.  At any rate, we get to choose who we are and what we value.  We can be a community that lives by those values. 

One important reminder as we do that – keep love at the center.  Love for God, love for self, love for each other. These are fearful times, but scripture reminds us that love casts out fear.  There’s strength in the quiet determination to hold fast to our values no matter what.  We’re not fighting for what’s right; we’re living by what’s right.  We’re letting our actions be our witness and the example for others.  We hold fast to the idea that love is stronger than fear or hate.  Together we change the world around us simply by being who we are.  In that we can find peace.

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Micah 4:1-4

The Christian response to aggression is not revenge and is not one of neutrality, rather it is to challenge evil and injustice with good.  It is choosing to see the image of God in the other, even in our enemy.  This logic of love seeks to engage the humanity of the other and transform an enemy into a friend.  This is the ultimate Christian mandate.

-Richard Rohr

I am in the process of lining up speakers to help us think about justice issues this summer.  July is filling up, today was blank.  So although I’m not an expert on peacemaking and warfare, I have a few decades of reflection about that – perhaps enough to help us have a discussion today.

Our scripture from the prophet Micah envisions all the nations coming to Jerusalem, high on a mountain, to worship at the temple of Israel’s God and to make peace.  There is a lot in the Hebrew scripture about war, in both the books of history and prophecy.  That’s at least partly because Israel was a small, weak nation almost always at war with its neighbors and fighting a civil war which divided it into two nations. The organizing principle of the history books is this:  keep God’s law/win the wars; ignore God’s law/lose the wars.  Kings are pronounced good or bad on that basis.  The prophets who give many calls for justice and keeping God’s way of life predict defeat as the result of disobedience, and they were usually right. Micah tells us there will be a time when not only Israel but all nations will acknowledge God and keep the law, and the result will be peace. That is a beautiful vision for the future, and I’m not sure God’s people have ever believed it applied to them.  My amateur view of history suggests that “God likes you if you win the war” is more of an operative vision for people.  It’s used to justify war for the winners.  The United States has applied this principle for our history, at least until we stopped winning wars. 

Christian theologians, many of whom worked for secular rulers, have over the centuries developed a theory of just war – when it is right to fight and noble to win. We can think about Just war theory ourselves.  Which wars would you say that the United States has been right to fight?

Which ones were a mistake?

I got in significant local trouble on the first anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center when I suggested we would only heal from that travesty if we included forgiveness in the response.  I didn’t suggest that we should allow terrorists to destroy property and murder citizens, but that retaliating only proved that their bad opinion of us was justified.  I am naïve enough to believe that there might have been a point when we could have listened to young men becoming terrorists and addressed their desire for a safe home for their families, jobs and education and food, and acknowledged their religious values.  That listening with respect might have turned their hatred into at least tolerance.  Fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan only made them hate us more and cost thousands of lives.

Israel finds itself in a similar position now.  A terrible terrorist attack demands some kind of response.  We can’t let people cross a border and murder innocent civilians.  Yet many leaders agree that bombing thousands of civilians to death and maiming many more isn’t going to end the threat from Hamas or other terrorists.  It’s not going to make people forget decades of oppression, the stealing of land for settlements, denying the freedom to travel, to be educated, to work.  What other options are there to resolve the conflict in this place?

Some of us or our family members have been in the military and some have participated in wars.  I wonder how that personal experience shapes their understanding of war and peace…

Let’s read the quote from Richard Rohr again.  Does Rohr have a point or is he an unrealistic dreamer?  What enemies we once had have become friends?  Which ones haven’t?   Is it possible to apply his vision to the war happening now in Ukraine?  Or to the violence in Sudan?

I’m old enough to remember when church folks talked about peace – a lot.  Women’s groups help annual peace banquets and denominations took up offerings.  Even the Rotary Clubs supported international peacemakers and sent young leaders to peace academies.  Now we seldom hear about peace.  Has climate change and poverty pushed it aside?  Have we given up because it’s too complicated?

Rohr talks about “seeking to engage the humanity of the other and transform an enemy into a friend.”  Maybe if we can’t do anything else, we can begin there.

We can begin by treating folks we don’t like with new respect, taking a second look at what makes them human and what God loves in them.

We can begin by learning more about people we’ve rejected – terrorist groups, authoritarian leaders, undocumented immigrants…  Knowing a person’s story can help bring understanding, even if it doesn’t bring agreement.  Even when we still hate the actions or beliefs of another, we can learn not to hate the person.

And we can encourage others to join us in looking more closely at those we fear. There’s a lot of rhetoric in contemporary politics that demonizes the other – the immigrant, the Christian nationalist, the socialist, the person of color, proud boys. If we fear someone, it’s easier to hate them. If we hate, it’s easier to justify harm. Yet we’ve all heard stories of minds and hearts being changed by friendship and respect. Sometimes even beliefs and policies change. We have the capacity to resist those who speak evil of others and to teach ourselves to change the way we ourselves talk about folks. It’s not easy to do. It is important.