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. 

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Acts 3:1-10

We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world.  We have been wrong.  We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us.  And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it.

-Wendell Berry

There are so many healing stories in the Bible we could choose for today’s topic of health care!  I like this one from Acts.  A beggar wants a coin or two to buy bread for the day.  Peter and John have no change to spare, but instead they heal his twisted feet so he can work and feed himself.  Being made well doesn’t just fix his body, it gives him a productive place in society, lets him participate in the community in a new way, and restores his dignity.  In every age health care is about more than medicine.

From the earliest days those who followed Jesus have been healers.  In the first century some used energy healing to perform miracle cures.  In the middle ages monasteries and convents opened the first hospitals and cared for the sick and dying.  In the years of the great missionary movements people traveled the world bringing not just religion but education and health care to far-flung places.  Today my brother-in-law  started 20 years ago as a doctor in a remote clinic and now in that same place he oversees a hospital, a clinic, a TB sanitorium, trains nurses and doctors, funds training for teachers and more.  Faith and health care go hand in hand.

In this first of our summer justice series, Brad Gibbens is going to help us have a conversation about health care.  Brad is the director of the Center for Rural Health at UND where he’s spent decades helping rural communities provide care for their people.  He’s going to help us reflect on that experience and on next steps in health care in our country.

Brad, would you start us off by telling us some things that have improved in the time you’ve been working in healthcare in North Dakota?  What are we doing right?

If you could name just one or two ways we could improve health care in our country, what would you like us to do differently? 

We want these messages to be conversations this summer, and I know you have a question to pose to us for discussion.

As we close this conversation today, I want to bring us back to the Wendell Berry quote for a minute.  Berry suggests that we need to reframe our perspective as we think about the common good. Whether health care is a right or a privilege fits with his reframing.  Health care as a privilege of those with resources benefits us in many ways.  Wealth funds research and brings important advances in knowledge and treatment.  But that system leaves many people out.  Worldwide there are many treatable diseases which go without care.  In our own country those who can’t afford insurance are treated for advanced disease rather than receiving preventive care over a lifetime.  How does seeing health care from a global perspective benefit us as well as others?

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Acts 2:44-47

“Don’t ask the mountain to move, just take a pebble each time you visit.” 

-John Paul Lederach

The work of change takes time and commitment, one pebble at a time. …the Hebrew phrase Tikkun Olam means You are here to repair the world….The Jewish understanding is that we repair the world by making the fragmentation of creation whole again.  The work of repairing the world is endless and beautiful.  (Mark Nepo)

I have always loved the description of the earliest communities of Jesus followers from Acts.  They were together, they shared all they had, the took care of one another.  In one way this description is a pipe dream, more of a wish than a reality.  The author of Acts was trying to convince readers that all the earliest communities who sprang up around the Jesus story were unified and coherent.  We’ve learned in the last few years that they were all diverse, believing a variety of things which they lived out in many different ways.  But the theme of caring for one another holds true from one to another. 

When I was younger it always confused me that American churches were so opposed to socialism, because this description sounds like socialism to me – all things in common, each receiving according to need.  There’s no evidence from the first century that this model ever was practiced on a large scale.  It didn’t replace the Roman economic system and become the rule of the day, so it doesn’t describe an economic model adopted by the Jesus folk.  Rather it was implemented across many small communities.  When it says, “All things were held in common,” we’re not talking about joint checking accounts.  Many of these people were enslaved and literally didn’t own themselves.    It must have been true that a few sold properties to fund the needs of others, because there are at least two times that’s mentioned, but there’s no evidence that everyone was pooling resources.

 I think this passage describes not socialism but compassion.  Those with plenty of food fed those with too little.  Those with a place to stay took in travelers.  Those with work trained those without with skills to support themselves.   These are the kinds of things we read about a few years ago when we read The Didache over a summer.  People helped each other get by.  Historians tell us that was common in the first century not just among followers of Jesus, but among many small groups of people – supper clubs, discussion groups, burial societies, trade associations and more.  It was a way to make life easier for everyone and be sure someone had your back.

And it’s surely accurate that these were joyful gatherings – people with common mind enjoying life together.  We know that joy.  Several times this week Victoria and I have shared joyful moments when she wrote a check from the community fund for me to deliver.  Some of you were able to gather at the celebration of World Refugee Day at Town Square.  Yesterday folks gathered in our building for meditation and lunch.  When we connect with one another and help each other, it’s joyful!  That sets the tone for our enterprise this summer as we enter into conversation about how we live more justly in contemporary times.  If we’re going to spend a few weeks talking about how we can care for people better, we need to remember to ground that in joy.  Otherwise, it will overwhelm us.

John Paul Lederach also gives us good advice for this journey – take small bites of big problems.  Lederach is a professor whose specialty is conflict transformation.  His theories suggest that people or groups in conflict need to look not just at a particular problem (like unhoused people in winter) but at the systems that give rise to that problem (like lack of affordable housing or adequate mental health care).  He encourages conversation and creativity and trains groups to find their own solutions rather than have one imposed from an outside authority.  For example, if my awful lawn is causing a neighborhood eyesore, my neighbors can report my weeds to the city, or they can offer to teach me what they are doing to eliminate their own weeds.  Lederach’s goal is world peace, so when he says move a mountain one pebble at a time, he speaks from experience.

This Lederach quote is from a book by Mark Nepo about building community in ways that make our world healthier, and he introduces us to the concept of Tikkun Olam or repairing the world.  This comes from the Jewish tradition and begins with God’s creation.  God has given all creatures a beautiful world to enjoy and to nurture all life.  We share that story with our Jewish ancestors.  But where some Christians see the world as a perfect creation broken by human sin and the solution to that lying in God’s action of salvation, Tikkun Olam sees the world in need of repair because Creation isn’t finished.  God began what was needed, and then placed the world in human hands to continue creating until it comes to perfection.  Lederach would be a part of that creation as he researches ways to make peace.  We are part of that creation when we help our neighbors or plant a garden.

All of these readings today come from the same foundation – the world is better when we work together.  We have resources.  We have knowledge.  We have human connections.  We connect with all creatures.  What if we view life not as a competition for who can get the most, but as an invitation for all to share their best?  Some folks want to define the world as limited and if I don’t get what’s coming to me, I’ll lose out.  It’s a competition for jobs and education and recognition and money.  Others describe the world as sufficient.  There is enough for what everyone needs.  We don’t have to be afraid that if we share, we’ll run out.  We do have to be clear about needs.  That may mean that Elon Musk doesn’t need a $45billion salary.  He may be that much more helpful to the world than we are, but I doubt it.

My hope for this summer is that our sermon time will be a conversation.  Today I’m trying to set some foundation for that, and honestly to give myself time to find folks to help us make those conversations informed and helpful.  But a little conversation is a good thing.  Let’s return to the idea of Tikkun Olam.  It’s similar to our sharing of Light Signs each Sunday.  Let’s spend a few minutes thinking together – how are you repairing the world?  How would you like to repair it?

Pentecost

Acts 2:14-21

Our North Dakota native theologian Marcus Borg once wrote: The Bible is full of many true stories, some of which happened. As many of you know, this is one of my favorite days in the church year, Pentecost, and I very much wish that all of it happened just like the story said. I want God to move the people with wind and fire so that they can't help but rush out and share good news. I want people to hear that news in every language and understand. I want there to be thousands of people converted to following Jesus with one sermon. Heck, I'd settle for two new members a year! Yet the more we learn from scholars about the early church, the more we know that none of it happened just the way Luke tells it in the book of Acts. Does that mean we can't use this story to celebrate? Of course not! Do we not keep the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy and Santa Claus? We keep them because they make life magical and celebrate great moments in living. And the Pentecost story does the same.

Luke tells the Pentecost story in this particular way because writing 100 years or so after Jesus lived, he wanted to suggest that there is a large, unified movement that we know as the Christian church, which had a single origin. This is how it all began. In part he's right. It began with the conviction of the men and women who followed Jesus that even though he died, he was still with them. Even though Rome executed him, what he taught them made life better and should still be shared. The roots of the church really do lie in the followers of Jesus who were fired up about what he had taught them and wanted to share that good news with others. That part of the story is true.

Our assumption that they then created the Christian church as we know it is not true. No organization, no creeds, no common theology, no Bible, no Sunday school, no ordained preachers who've been to seminary. What they created was small groups of people who gathered to talk about things Jesus taught them, to share how they were putting those principles into action in daily life, and to support one another when life was hard for any one of them. And they ate. They broke bread and honored Jesus like he was still with them because they believed he was. Today we're going to get that part right when we share communion and then take the bread and add it to the potluck meal after worship. That simple act of eating bread together connects us with our spiritual ancestors back 2000 years ago, and that's a big deal. It matters.

What else is true about this story? I don't know if Peter actually gave a sermon and suggested that ancient prophets had looked forward to a day when God's Spirit moved the people to action. All the children prophesying. Young and old seeing visions and dreaming dreams. Even the enslaved, the insignificant in the culture, getting in on the action. I like to think about those claims as all the people fired up about possibilities. In spite of all the evidence of Empire around them, Jesus' followers believed God could change the world, their world. And if they couldn't change the big picture of politicians and occupying armies, of poverty and violence, then they could change the small details of how they lived. And that made a difference. They couldn't make Rome compassionate, but they could love their neighbor and care about each other. They couldn't equalize the economic system, but they could be sure everyone in their group had bread. They couldn't stop senseless executions or even most disease, but they could remember their members who died and give them a decent send-off. The origin story of Christianity is mostly about simple people taking care of each other the best they can as an act of resistance to a society that dehumanizes almost everyone.

Sometimes I get discouraged about the times we live in. There's a lot more war than we want. Just this week I've read about leaders wanting to give Ukraine to the Russians and some suggesting we drop nuclear bombs on Gaza and a report that once again there is mass genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Last night there was a young mom holding a sign at the corner of Sam's parking lot as a way to provide for her kids. On a global scale and the smallest scale there's a bunch of stuff broken about how the world works.

I suspect that you and I were raised to believe that because we live in a democracy, we can vote in good people and change the world so it works for everyone. I have a hard time when life proves that's not so much true. I want it to be so. But lately learning about the early church has given me hope. Their world was much harder than ours and there was much less they could do about it. We can and do make a difference on a large scale every once in a while. But even when we don't, we can follow their example and do what we can right here, right now. Every week we feed some folks and pay bills for some folks and that matters. After church we drink tea and coffee and talk about how we are, and that matters. Sometimes we write a letter or make a phone call and impact policy. That matters.

As a congregation we've been working toward a mission statement for a year or more. Who are we, what do we do and why? This week the Council made a commitment to a draft of that statement. First, they agreed our big vision is the words of Chris Gable's song: We're here for good. That sounds a lot like the early church to me. It also sounds like us. Then after lots of words we settled on this mission statement: We share God's light by being progressive servants in our community. We'll print that so we can all try it on for size and live with it a while. Maybe it's captured who we are and what we do. Maybe our why is the same why of the early church - this is God’s work and God is empowering us to do it.

I'll be honest with you, this week the weight of the work the world needs felt heavy to me. I'll bet you have weeks like that, too. So, I'm really glad to remember Pentecost today. I want to believe that the Spirit of God can move in us and through us and give us energy. I look forward to being empowered by good news. I'm excited about a little bit of rushing around telling people that life can be better, even showing people how life can be better. I want to be inspired by the dreams of young people and the wisdom of the old. And I dare to hope that even though 2000 years later there's a lot that's still broken in this world, there's a lot that's better than it used to be and tomorrow it will be better still.

Today is a day to celebrate! Tomorrow is a day to live into the joy of Jesus, creating a world of dreams come true.

Seventh Sunday of Easter

Luke 6:12-16 and Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

A list of names. If I asked you to name off the 12 disciples, how many could you name off? Most of us can name some of them. Not many of us can name all of them. Even if you memorized them in Sunday School or confirmation, not many of us can name all of them. Some of those we hear a lot about, some we hear virtually nothing about. We remember Peter and James and John, and a few others.

How many of you remember anything about Judas, the son of James?

What is in a name? Why list all these names? None of the people listed were people of influence or high standing in their communities of that day. Maybe Luke, the Gospel writer here, wants to simply remember these dozen men. Maybe he wants to get the names out in case the readers of his Gospel know some of them, or some of the families. Maybe it is simply to show us that anyone can be a follower of this Jesus.

The word disciple means a learner. So, if we are learning anything in our lives, we are disciples. The word apostle means one who is sent. There were a bunch of people we followed Jesus. Only 12 of them were set apart to continue the ministry of Jesus.

What is in a name? As the 12 apostles are listed in Luke, qualifiers are listed for some of them. Simon, whom Jesus named Peter, his brother Andrew, James and James the son of Alphaeus. We need to remember that there are 2 named James as well as a second Simon who was called the Zealot. And maybe the most important may be that there is Judas, the son of James and Judas Iscariot. And to be sure we notice the difference; Judas Iscariot is labeled as the one who became a traitor. And Matthias, who replaces Judas Iscariot, has no description of who he is at all, other than he had been following Jesus all along.

What is in a name? We use names for a lot of purposes. Of course we use names to identify people. We also use names to describe people, as we identify them. Like when I say, "this is Nell, my wife." Instead of just saying, "this is Nell." In New Ulm, Minnesota, I often have no name, but am recognized as "Karen's brother". In Cavalier I am often known as Logan and Lincoln's grandpa, or Kari's dad. The name is important, but sometimes we want to add something as a description or title to be sure people really understand who the person is.

What is in a name? All my life, my sisters and I have known that we were Danish. Both of our grandfathers were born in Denmark. The parents of both of our grandmothers were born in Denmark. My sister, Shirley, did a bunch of genealogy searching. She followed, as best she could, the family trees of our grandparents back a few hundred years.

To do that, she needed to follow the names. That was not always easy. Sometimes it was difficult because someone had changed their name, or had a different last name than the parent whose name Shirley was trying to follow. Sometimes the names were just too common.

We found that in many of the old records in Denmark, the people were not just listed by name, but also by occupation. My grandpa Justesen is specifically listed as a farmer. My grandpa Lindorff is specifically listed as a blacksmith. I was in Denmark recently. It was nice to drive through the farmland and picture my grandpa growing up there, farming there, and then coming to Minnesota. And to look at the ocean, a long and narrow and shallow bay, and to think of my grandpa working on ships there, before coming to Minnesota.

Following a name can get us to a person, their family, where they live or lived, what they did. It can tell us a lot about what was important to that person, even what was important to that family. It

can guide us toward a person or place or family. It could make us want to run from or hide from a person or place or family.

Over the years we forget a lot of the details of events that are going on around us. It is good when we have some of those important things recorded, so that we can remember. In that case, a name can be a very important thing in helping us to remember. It is so important to our remembering that we often get frustrated when we can't remember a name.

What's in a name? We have listings of the 12 apostles. We try to honor and remember those names.

Lately we have heard a lot of stories on the news of problems with airplanes. I remember a story of a new passenger plane being introduced. There was a big media event. Lots of media people and local dignitaries were invited to take the first flight on this new plane.

Soon after takeoff the voice of the pilot came over the intercom. "For those of you on the left side of the plane, you might see flames coming out of that engine. But don't worry, we can extinguish the fire. We can easily continue our flight safely". A few minutes later "For those of you sitting by the center aisle you may notice a crack developing that is running down the aisle. No need to worry. We can safely fly with no problem." A few minutes later, "for those of you on the right, you can see flames coming out of the right engine. We can easily extinguish the fire and make it back to the airport." A few minutes later, "For those of you sitting by the aisle, you can see that the crack has become much bigger. You can look through the crack and see the ocean. If you look closely, you can see a small boat. In that boat is someone waving to you. That is me, your pilot. Now is the time to worry."

What is in a name? When the angel appeared to Joseph and told him of the coming birth of Jesus, the angel said that Jesus would be called Emmanuel, which means God with us.

What's in a name? That pilot would never be called "with us".

And Jesus would never be leaving us when a problem is arising. Rather, Jesus is with us.

What's in a name? How will we be remembered? No matter how we are remembered, may we always remember that God is with us.

Amen.

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Matthew 11:2-6

John the Baptizer has been put into prison for offending people in power.  He wants to know that his life’s work has some meaning and that he’s not endangered himself for nothing.  So he sends his disciples to ask Jesus – his cousin, his successor, his friend – to ask, “Are you the One we’ve been expecting, or are we still waiting?”  Are you the one who is going to bring change to this broken world?  Are you the one God uses to overthrow Rome and create a new way of living here?

It would be nice if history recorded Jesus giving a simple yes or no answer to that question.  It would settle a lot of arguments.  Instead Jesus answers with a question:  What are you expecting?  What are you waiting for?  What is it that you think God should do?

He also says, “Take a look around at what’s happening wherever I go:

The blind see; The lame walk; Lepers are cleansed; The deaf hear; The dead are raised;
The wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side.

If this is what you’re expecting, then I’m the one.

This story put me in mind of the story the gospel of Luke tells about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  Jesus is attending a gathering of men and is asked to read scripture.  He chooses to read from the prophet Isaiah.

God’s Spirit is on me:
God’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
To announce, “This is God’s year to act!”

Then Jesus rolls up the scroll, gives it back to the attendant and says, “You’ve just heard Scripture make history.  It came true, just now in this place.”

We often take that to mean Jesus is announcing that he’s the Messiah Isaiah predicted, but maybe it means something more ordinary than that.  Maybe it means Jesus is committing himself to doing those things God wants for the world.  After this day, that’s what he does:  he heals, he teaches, he brings good news to the “burdened and battered.”

I’m in the middle of reading Jim Wallis’ new book False White Gospel, which is a critique of Christian Nationalism (and the politicians who have embraced that).  He summarizes Christian nationalism something like this:  The United States is a Christian nation because God wants it to be.  That means rich white men get all the good stuff because God likes them best.  Then he goes on to explain by many examples that the best information we have about the real Jesus looks nothing like Christian Nationalism.  Wallis would like today’s scripture. It shows Jesus doing what he did best:  taking care of people and encouraging them to take care of each other.

It seems to me that Jesus didn’t say to John’s disciples, “Yes, I’m the one.  God has sent me,” because we aren’t to expect a “one.”  We aren’t waiting for a person, even a person as amazing as Jesus.  God isn’t sending just one person to fix the world.  

• I think that because it’s not God’s job to fix the world.  God didn’t break the world.  Generations of people had a hand in that.  Like your mother always told you:  You have to clean up your own messes.  If we wait for God to fix the world in some mighty action, we’re going to be still waiting.

• I think that because what’s broken in the world isn’t that people aren’t believing in the right person, it’s that they aren’t treating each other well.  Jesus (and a whole lot of amazing Jesus people) show us how to treat one another better.  “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Believing Jesus is important doesn’t matter much if you don’t also believe what he told you and try to do it.

So if we want to live in a Christian nation – or even a nation in which the values of many great religions have impact – we have to ask the right questions and expect the right things.  Jesus asks if people are getting well.  My Sunday school teachers used to tell me that Jesus could heal people but we can’t because we aren’t God.  That let us off the hook as far as health care and religion goes.  But it seems to me that we shouldn’t abide a world in which it’s okay for some people to be sick because only rich people can afford health care.  Of course some things are beyond modern medicine, but not good preventive care, or regular dental appointments, or equal access to physicians.  If those who are sick aren’t getting well, this isn’t a Christian nation.  And while we’re talking about the poor, let’s ask Jesus if he thinks it’s okay for some people to be hungry because they don’t get paid enough.  Or let’s ask him if he minds that immigrants have to wait months before they are allowed to work when they come to our country.  Or if he agrees that the best spots at the national table should be saved for people who look like us.  Let’s ask the man who said, “The wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side,” if it’s okay that 35,000 people have died in Gaza and those who still live are starving to death.  I wonder if he minds that we’re doing all we can to prevent abortion but nothing to stop rape and incest.  Or to care for children after they’re born.

It seems to me that maybe those who declare we are a Christian nation aren’t expecting that to mean the same things Jesus would mean by it.

And yet, look around.  There are folks who eat because of us.  They are folks who get well because of the care we give them.  There are folks who have hope because we believe in them.  There’s an army of case workers in this community who are on the front lines helping people figure out life and we are backing them up every day.  Through them we are telling lots of folks, “God is on your side.”

Jesus, are you the one?
What do you see?

I see a lot of work that still needs to be done.  I see a lot of expectations that need to change.  And I see a beginning.  I see folks trying hard to be on God’s side and to tell others there’s room for more.  Let’s not wait for another.  Let’s put our support behind the one who has already come and learn from him how to show other’s that God is on their side.

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Song of Solomon 2:10-13

The Thanksgiving Address of the Onondaga People

We are celebrating Earth Day today and our readings reflect that celebration.  This year our Wednesday Kids have been using materials provided by the Jane Goodall Foundation to think about ways they care for the earth and all creatures.  They have made toys and small blankets for cats and dogs at Circle of Friends Humane Society.  They are planning for a small garden of indigenous plants which have healing properties.  In the process they are learning that all creatures are interrelated and we have a responsibility for the health of this complex life system we call Earth.

The Thanksgiving address reminds us of the important ways Native peoples respect the Earth and the gifts we receive from her.  We benefit from their wisdom.  Their ancient practice of using the land for sustenance without owning land individually reflects the deep roots of the Judeo-Christian tradition.  Our oldest spiritual ancestors were nomadic herders who traveled looking for pasture and didn’t own land of their own.  When they were given land allotments, there were rules about allowing tilled land to lie fallow and rest every seven years, and about returning purchased land to its original owner every 70 years.  Custom held that the land was meant to feed everyone, so those who grew crops left the edges of their fields unharvested so those without land could glean grain there and feed themselves.

In our time some people use the biblical creation stories to say God has given Earth and all her resources to humans and therefore we have the right to use all the land, water, oil, or minerals we want, regardless of long-term consequences.  That’s not true to the Bible, to science, or to the good of all creatures.  Humans were entrusted with the care of the first garden on earth, an origin story which promotes the truth that Earth can only care for us if we care for her.  

This Earth Day we’re asked to think about the consequences of the growing use of plastics in our modern culture.  It’s difficult to purchase food without also buying plastic packaging.  Now we learn that microplastics are found in our water and soil, that we are consuming them daily without knowing it, and that the health of humans and all other species is being impacted by them.  The rise of plastic packaging came with the explosion of the use of oil as one of the most basic resources for life.  We often ignore the fact that fossil fuels are a finite resource and can be used up, just as we ignore the fact that their residue in chemicals and plastics may be with our descendants for countless generations.  

So people of faith are asked to be responsible in our use of resources.  That’s been a call in the background for almost all of my life, and still I manage to ignore it more than I pay attention.  It’s easy to agree to the theories of caring for Earth and harder to put principles into action.  I’m by no means an expert at that.  So today, I want us to think together about what Earth Day and Earth Care can mean for us.

First, I’d like to know what you are already doing to preserve the Earth, her creatures and her resources…

Second, I’d like to know what one thing you are going to do next.  As I’ve been thinking about this during the week, I’ve realized that I’m a lazy recycler.  I don’t do a good job of rinsing the cans and containers I put in the recycle bin, and that means most of them end up in the landfill and aren’t recycled.  So I’ve started rinsing before I toss things in the bin.  What will you do this coming week in the effort to care for the Earth?

Earth Day is a good reminder of our responsibility to care for Earth.  Like so many good ideas, one day a year isn’t nearly enough to get the job done.  It’s not easy to use less, to reuse more, and to make the lifestyle changes that have a long-term impact on the health of Earth.  But it’s important.  Together we can encourage each other to do our best.