Wise or Foolish?
Sunday, November 12th, 2017
by Rev. Michelle Webber
Matthew 25:1-13
When Rev. John Robinson said “There is yet more light and truth to break forth from God’s Holy Word” today’s story is exactly what he was talking about. He encouraged the pilgrims coming to the western hemisphere to continue to study and wrestle with scripture in order to understand more deeply the truth and will of God. This is what I have done with scripture as a minister, to encourage others to continue to study and wrestle with the text in order to more deeply understand the truth and will of God. Along the way I have learned a lot from this with whom I study.
When we look at traditional studies of today’s parable we find one meaning, but recent progressive Christian studies are finding a new meaning. There was a tradition in the time of Jesus that bride grooms would gather at their homes and hold a party with their friends. The party would then continue in the streets on the way to the bride’s house. The bride’s friends would stand outside her house, waiting to welcome the groom, to show him the way. One of the duties of the bride’s friends was to light the way in case the groom’s party lasted past dark. The bride never knew quite when the groom would arrive because it depended on the party his friend threw for him.
Jesus likely uses this tradition as an example because one of the common metaphors for the relationship between Israel and the divine in the Jewish scriptures is of bride and groom. In this metaphor God is the groom and Israel the bride, who must remain faithful.
Jesus reforms this metaphor, talking about the coming of the kin-dom of God. It ends with the phrase,
“Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” (25:13) Traditional interpretation has been that this story is a warning to those of us foolish enough to be unprepared for God’s kindom. We are warned to be wise, not foolish. The wise ones are prepared with plenty of oil. “In Jewish Tradition, oil is a metaphor for righteousness or good deeds.[1]” So this teaching is that we must constantly store up plenty of good deeds if we are to always be ready for the kin-dom of God. The bridesmaids do not share their oil because you cannot share your faith and your past actions with people who have not done their own work of faith. And yet…
The first time I prepare worship based on this scripture it was youth Sunday. I was working with a group of about 5 senior high youth to lead worship. I remember it quite distinctly, partly because they handed out kazoos and invited people to make a joyful noise to the Lord for the introit. The sermon was prepared and given by two senior highers, Lydia and Ian. They had an amazing interpretation of this text, which is echoed in the bible study page in my worship planning curriculum today.
Lydia and Ian grew up in a church which began every worship service with the phrase “No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” They lived through their church’s Open & Affirming process; they watched their church live into the radical hospitality of Jesus. And they experienced the welcome themselves. They took issue with the traditional interpretation of this scripture.
To them, using an example in which people were left outside, in which the allegorical church in union with the allegorical divine would bar the door and pretend not to know a group of people because they were unprepared was unthinkable. This could not be a teaching of or about Jesus in their minds. If we are to see the oil as past good deeds, they said, would those not be negated by the hateful deed of barring the foolish bridesmaids outside? How can we exemplify the demonstrated faithful deeds of the wise bridesmaids when they are not acting with good deeds in this story?
And I get their point. The wise bridesmaids are resting on past righteousness and not demonstrating radical hospitality to the foolish bridesmaids. If the wise have racked up the oil of faithfulness by doing good deeds only so they can enter the kindom, ut in the last moment when the door to the kindom is open bar others from entering as well, does that not negate their past righteousness?
And the foolish ones get left in the cold because they realized too late what needed to be done and were busy doing it when the bridegroom came. If oil is a metaphor for good deeds, then they were out doing good deeds when the bride groom came. They were barred from entering because they were acting on their faith and not waiting in faith. It is not their folly that bars the door against them, but the selfish righteousness of the wise bridesmaids.
This is the light and truth that Ian and Lydia broke forth for me from this text. The wise bridesmaids bar the foolish from access to Jesus. I read this week in my study, and I can’t remember where so I can’t site it, that Jesus’ parables are not like fables with a neat and tidy moral of the story. This one ends with just such a moral that for generations has been taken as the meaning, “Be ready, you never know when the time is coming.”
So if parables never end with a neat and tidy moral of the story, this line does not mean what we have thought it means. The story, then, is about how we respond if we are ready, have stored up our good deeds and acted in faith all along, but others have not. Do we bar them from the party because they are late converts? There is more light and truth in our faith than that, I think.
We are in a moment of more truth and light in our country right now. What started as women in entertainment claiming their voice in public for wrongs done to them years ago has turned into a wide spread awakening of the harm done when one gender and one sexual orientation are seen as normal and given preeminence in business, power, and public discourse.
For generations we were told things like "boys will be boys" and don't make a big deal out if this because you will ruin someone's life/livelihood/business. We live in a culture in which women are sexualized at young ages and not so long ago taught to serve the men in their lives. A culture in which women have been valued less than men and heteronormative behavior seen as the only possible public option.
But it's not just women who are speaking out. We are in a moment when the whole narrative of consent and personal body boundaries are being talked about publicly like never before.
We, I hope, are also in a moment of more truth and light around gun violence. I'm sure you all have heard about what happened at a church In Texas last Sunday. I have been seeking perspective on this issue and can tell you that statistically the likelihood that something like that would happen in this church is one millionth of one percent. So let us not react out of fear. It is literally more dangerous to walk across the street.
But there are things we can do to react with integrity and empowerment to this incident. A trio of risk factors has been identified. One is being a man who has perpetrated domestic violence, two is suffering from mental illness, and three is easy access to legally purchasing automatic weapons.
A sensible and loving response to this situation is not to arm ourselves or restrict access to our worship. I keep thinking of Jesus in the garden of gethsemane. Soldiers were literally coming to put him to death. One of the disciples drew his sword. But Jesus said no. We will not respond in violence. In this church we will not respond in violence. And we will not bar the door as we read in the text today.
To respond in love means working for more justice in our systems. What happens when we identify someone has a mental illness? What happens when someone is identified as a domestic abuser? What we need is a comprehensive mental health care system that detigmatizes getting help. A system that values the dignity and worth of each person and can provide wrap around services to heal people when possible and teach people how to live productive lives with chronic mental illness.
What we need is regulation of the public militia such that people who struggle to control their impulses do not have easy legal access to automatic weapons.
What we need is a new definition of masculinity that defines manliness as standing as equals beside women, that values strength and vulnerability equally, that holds up psycho-spiritual wholeness as a standard.
As people of faith we know this change is possible. There is always more light and truth to be had.
For years Christian theologians, wise, big hearted people honestly tying to live the way of Jesus, blamed the foolish bridesmaids for not being prepared. Just as our culture blamed women for the ways men behaved towards them. And blame people for not protecting themselves. But we have seen a different light.
Lydia and Ian showed me how discongruent the locked door was with the other stories and lessons of Jesus. If Jesus is the bridegroom, the door ought not be locked and we ought not blame the foolish bridesmaids for it was not their folly but the folly of the wise bridesmaids who locked them out.
It makes me wonder who we have locked out of the way of Jesus? Who have we locked out of compassionate community? Of wholeness?
This is not an easy answer sermon. Coming to see new truths and new light is not an easy thing, but what joy that our tradition is one in which we look for new truths and new light. And what an amazing moment in history we witness as new truths and new light come forward. Praise be.
[1] Seasons of the Spirit Fusion, November 12, 2017
by Rev. Michelle Webber
Matthew 25:1-13
When Rev. John Robinson said “There is yet more light and truth to break forth from God’s Holy Word” today’s story is exactly what he was talking about. He encouraged the pilgrims coming to the western hemisphere to continue to study and wrestle with scripture in order to understand more deeply the truth and will of God. This is what I have done with scripture as a minister, to encourage others to continue to study and wrestle with the text in order to more deeply understand the truth and will of God. Along the way I have learned a lot from this with whom I study.
When we look at traditional studies of today’s parable we find one meaning, but recent progressive Christian studies are finding a new meaning. There was a tradition in the time of Jesus that bride grooms would gather at their homes and hold a party with their friends. The party would then continue in the streets on the way to the bride’s house. The bride’s friends would stand outside her house, waiting to welcome the groom, to show him the way. One of the duties of the bride’s friends was to light the way in case the groom’s party lasted past dark. The bride never knew quite when the groom would arrive because it depended on the party his friend threw for him.
Jesus likely uses this tradition as an example because one of the common metaphors for the relationship between Israel and the divine in the Jewish scriptures is of bride and groom. In this metaphor God is the groom and Israel the bride, who must remain faithful.
Jesus reforms this metaphor, talking about the coming of the kin-dom of God. It ends with the phrase,
“Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” (25:13) Traditional interpretation has been that this story is a warning to those of us foolish enough to be unprepared for God’s kindom. We are warned to be wise, not foolish. The wise ones are prepared with plenty of oil. “In Jewish Tradition, oil is a metaphor for righteousness or good deeds.[1]” So this teaching is that we must constantly store up plenty of good deeds if we are to always be ready for the kin-dom of God. The bridesmaids do not share their oil because you cannot share your faith and your past actions with people who have not done their own work of faith. And yet…
The first time I prepare worship based on this scripture it was youth Sunday. I was working with a group of about 5 senior high youth to lead worship. I remember it quite distinctly, partly because they handed out kazoos and invited people to make a joyful noise to the Lord for the introit. The sermon was prepared and given by two senior highers, Lydia and Ian. They had an amazing interpretation of this text, which is echoed in the bible study page in my worship planning curriculum today.
Lydia and Ian grew up in a church which began every worship service with the phrase “No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” They lived through their church’s Open & Affirming process; they watched their church live into the radical hospitality of Jesus. And they experienced the welcome themselves. They took issue with the traditional interpretation of this scripture.
To them, using an example in which people were left outside, in which the allegorical church in union with the allegorical divine would bar the door and pretend not to know a group of people because they were unprepared was unthinkable. This could not be a teaching of or about Jesus in their minds. If we are to see the oil as past good deeds, they said, would those not be negated by the hateful deed of barring the foolish bridesmaids outside? How can we exemplify the demonstrated faithful deeds of the wise bridesmaids when they are not acting with good deeds in this story?
And I get their point. The wise bridesmaids are resting on past righteousness and not demonstrating radical hospitality to the foolish bridesmaids. If the wise have racked up the oil of faithfulness by doing good deeds only so they can enter the kindom, ut in the last moment when the door to the kindom is open bar others from entering as well, does that not negate their past righteousness?
And the foolish ones get left in the cold because they realized too late what needed to be done and were busy doing it when the bridegroom came. If oil is a metaphor for good deeds, then they were out doing good deeds when the bride groom came. They were barred from entering because they were acting on their faith and not waiting in faith. It is not their folly that bars the door against them, but the selfish righteousness of the wise bridesmaids.
This is the light and truth that Ian and Lydia broke forth for me from this text. The wise bridesmaids bar the foolish from access to Jesus. I read this week in my study, and I can’t remember where so I can’t site it, that Jesus’ parables are not like fables with a neat and tidy moral of the story. This one ends with just such a moral that for generations has been taken as the meaning, “Be ready, you never know when the time is coming.”
So if parables never end with a neat and tidy moral of the story, this line does not mean what we have thought it means. The story, then, is about how we respond if we are ready, have stored up our good deeds and acted in faith all along, but others have not. Do we bar them from the party because they are late converts? There is more light and truth in our faith than that, I think.
We are in a moment of more truth and light in our country right now. What started as women in entertainment claiming their voice in public for wrongs done to them years ago has turned into a wide spread awakening of the harm done when one gender and one sexual orientation are seen as normal and given preeminence in business, power, and public discourse.
For generations we were told things like "boys will be boys" and don't make a big deal out if this because you will ruin someone's life/livelihood/business. We live in a culture in which women are sexualized at young ages and not so long ago taught to serve the men in their lives. A culture in which women have been valued less than men and heteronormative behavior seen as the only possible public option.
But it's not just women who are speaking out. We are in a moment when the whole narrative of consent and personal body boundaries are being talked about publicly like never before.
We, I hope, are also in a moment of more truth and light around gun violence. I'm sure you all have heard about what happened at a church In Texas last Sunday. I have been seeking perspective on this issue and can tell you that statistically the likelihood that something like that would happen in this church is one millionth of one percent. So let us not react out of fear. It is literally more dangerous to walk across the street.
But there are things we can do to react with integrity and empowerment to this incident. A trio of risk factors has been identified. One is being a man who has perpetrated domestic violence, two is suffering from mental illness, and three is easy access to legally purchasing automatic weapons.
A sensible and loving response to this situation is not to arm ourselves or restrict access to our worship. I keep thinking of Jesus in the garden of gethsemane. Soldiers were literally coming to put him to death. One of the disciples drew his sword. But Jesus said no. We will not respond in violence. In this church we will not respond in violence. And we will not bar the door as we read in the text today.
To respond in love means working for more justice in our systems. What happens when we identify someone has a mental illness? What happens when someone is identified as a domestic abuser? What we need is a comprehensive mental health care system that detigmatizes getting help. A system that values the dignity and worth of each person and can provide wrap around services to heal people when possible and teach people how to live productive lives with chronic mental illness.
What we need is regulation of the public militia such that people who struggle to control their impulses do not have easy legal access to automatic weapons.
What we need is a new definition of masculinity that defines manliness as standing as equals beside women, that values strength and vulnerability equally, that holds up psycho-spiritual wholeness as a standard.
As people of faith we know this change is possible. There is always more light and truth to be had.
For years Christian theologians, wise, big hearted people honestly tying to live the way of Jesus, blamed the foolish bridesmaids for not being prepared. Just as our culture blamed women for the ways men behaved towards them. And blame people for not protecting themselves. But we have seen a different light.
Lydia and Ian showed me how discongruent the locked door was with the other stories and lessons of Jesus. If Jesus is the bridegroom, the door ought not be locked and we ought not blame the foolish bridesmaids for it was not their folly but the folly of the wise bridesmaids who locked them out.
It makes me wonder who we have locked out of the way of Jesus? Who have we locked out of compassionate community? Of wholeness?
This is not an easy answer sermon. Coming to see new truths and new light is not an easy thing, but what joy that our tradition is one in which we look for new truths and new light. And what an amazing moment in history we witness as new truths and new light come forward. Praise be.
[1] Seasons of the Spirit Fusion, November 12, 2017
Love God with Your...
Sunday, November 5th, 2017
by Rev. Michelle Webber
Matthew 22:34-40, 23:1-12
One of today’s sections from the Gospel of Matthew is very familiar to us. In it Jesus refines the ten commandments into two, Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and Love Your Neighbor as Yourself. The other is likely less familiar. It is called in the NRSV “Jesus Denounces Scribes and Pharisees.”
In the first story Jesus gives us what he wants us to say yes to. He wants us to say yes to God and to loving ourselves and our neighbors. In the second story he gives us what he wants to say no to. You see, when you say yes to one thing, you must say no to something else. If you say yes to being vegetarian, for example, you say no to bacon. If you say yes to donating $100 to a good cause, you say no to everything else you could have done with that $100.
Here are the things Jesus asks us to say no to:
Do not do the hypocritical things your leaders do
Do not lay heavy burdens on the shoulders of others
Do not do good things only when others are watching
Do not relish places and titles of honor
Do not allow others to equate you with the messiah
Do not revere any person above God
Do not pretend to know what God would teach us
Do not exalt yourself
So yes to love of God, self, and neighbor; No to being a publicity mongering, self-righteous know-it-all who burdens other people.
Jesus is not denouncing the scribes and Pharisees because of their role, but because of the way they are using their role. He actually says that his followers should follow the teachings of the scribes and the Pharisees because they conveyed the scriptures to the community, but admonishes them not to look at the temple leaders as examples of how to live the law. We live the law by loving God, self, and neighbor. The Jesus Way is the way of Love, not the way of the law. And to those who were at Nadia Bolz-Weber’s talk, I wrote this before I went there so I am not quoting her, “Jesus loves love, not law.” Though I would.
By saying “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets,” Jesus wants us to see that all of the teachings in Jewish scripture are meant to bring us to love and they are useful insofar as they help us live in love.
Our complication comes when we interpret the other way. He boils down lots of commandments about specific actions into two. If we are to live in love, what actions and behaviors do we take in life? How do we take these two and decide what actions and behaviors we say yes to or no to.
On this Nadia Bolz-Weber was particularly poignant in ways I could not begin to duplicate. She gave specific examples of her parishioners who had opposite reactions to one particular behavior. For one of them it was life-giving and for the other life-stealing. And I think this is a beautiful gift that Jesus gave followers of his way. There is no one set of commandments that equals love for all people. We have to be flexible. We have to do the hard work of figuring out what is life-giving, what is love for each of us. And in that work we figure out our yes’ and nos.
19 months ago I preached on Tabitha and the ethics of the textile and garment industries. I remember it because that day I made a commitment that changed my behavior. For that sermon I researched the justice of the clothing company, Justice, and found that their parent company, a store I regularly shopped in, had been called out for unfair labor practices. I made a commitment to love God and my neighbor with my buying power by doing what I can to ensure my clothing dollars do right- express love-by the least of those along the production line. This has meant that all of the clothes I have purchased for myself in the past 19 months have either been Fair Trade or used. My clothing purchases have created justice in the name of my faith. I have said yes to a living wage and safe working conditions
Now, I have not been perfect. I have yet to find fair trade undergarments or shoes in my size in a way that I can purchase them or the ability to say no to purchasing ones that aren’t Fair trade. But I keep looking. And I made the exception to shop at Barb’s Basement Boutique. Some of her things are used and her business model is disruptive to large scale merchandising in a way that I think promotes justice. So while not technically Fair Trade, it works for me. Some of my purchases have been more expensive than I would have bought before, but I know that the money I spend goes to help people thrive. I know I am not funding wage slavery or child labor and this had made it worth it. Has actually made it easier to love myself, knowing I am not supporting these unjust practices. I can say no to the other ways I would have spent that money because I believe in the things I am saying yes to. Making and keeping this commitment has also made me look at the other ways I spend my money. When I bought Halloween treats to hand out, for example, I thought twice about the little plastic doodads and the candy options I provided. It didn’t change my purchasing this year because I didn’t find quick and easy alternatives, but I was aware of the issue as I might not have been otherwise. And I know that if I manage to change this behavior next year, it will increase my love of self.
It is not always easy. My kid and I were in Target and she wanted a rainbow unicorn onesie for Halloween. I wanted one, too. She and I went back and forth
“I can’t have the same costume as my mom.”
“But I want to be a Rev. Rainbow Unicorn at the Rainbow Family Halloween party.”
Then I remembered my commitment, I remembered saying no to child labor and wage slavery and everything became simple. I didn’t know these things were involved in the production of this particular garment, but the fact is I didn’t know. Because I have said yes to ethical choices in clothing, I had to say no to that particular purchase. I have said no to many clothing purchases this year. Along the way I have learned that habits that express my love of God and love of neighbor increase my love of self. I can’t guarantee this will be the case for everyone, just speaking to my little experiment of one.
I was assigned by the Stewardship committee to preach about stewardship this morning and to use the Greatest Commandment text. I don’t always do well when assigned to preach on a certain topic. I have a bit of a rebellious streak. I am preaching from my 3rd version of this sermon because I haven’t been 100% happy with it. But I am naming my discomfort, which takes its power away.
It is difficult to make the ask, to attempt to motivate people to give money to a certain cause. It’s not something we do in our lives, even though we live in a consumer culture. Perhaps because we live in a consumer culture. We are used to setting a sale value on an item or an experience and then someone who wants it can either afford it or they can’t.
Sometimes we assign moral value to someone’s ability to afford it. But we want all people to be able to reap the benefits of church membership There should not be any who “can’t afford it.” And we do not want to assign a moral value to someone’s ability to pledge. If we evenly split our budget between all members we would ask a pledge of $1,000 per member. Two member household, $2,000. And for some people that is a reasonable amount of money. But for some people it is not. We must depend on a different model because we say yes to being a place of welcome for all people.
This year I have been studying reasons people give to charity. There is no question that there is enough money represented in the budgets of all the members of this church to support this church. And yet we have struggled to make our projected budget in years past. So how do we motivate people to give to church?
Some give because they feel obligated. We pledge to church because we should. Some give because we see the good work that an organization is doing. We pledge because we know people eat and that those who have been ostracized by Christianity are healed as a direct result of our church. Some give because they see the organization is a good steward of resources. We pledge because we know the church will be responsible with our money. Some give because they want their resources to do more good things in the world than they can do themselves. We pledge because together as a church we can do more than we can as individuals, because we want to leave a legacy for the future. Some give because it feels good, like the goodness I have gained from my commitment to buying Fair Trade clothes. We pledge because we get a kick out of supporting the church. Most people give to organizations who take the time to make a personal connection.
We happen to have a higher percentage of members who do not pledge than your average church. I don’t know why. We are average in many other ways, our worship attendance as % of members, for example. I would like to encourage any members who have not pledged before to pledge this year, even if it’s a small amount. Think of it as an experiment, to see if it feels good, if it helps you live into the Way of Jesus: loving God, Self, & Neighbor
I have to admit that I have not always been a faithful church giver and perhaps that is why a stewardship sermon is difficult for me. Before I went to seminary I never felt like I earned enough money to give to church. I was a student, then I was paying off student loans. I had a few years working full time when I gave money to church, but then when I became a minister I made less than a living wage. I went into debt about $10,000 a year just living in Silicon Valley. I pledged to the church each year, but I almost never fulfilled my pledge.
I couldn’t afford to. And that felt bad.
When I look back on my student years I wish I had pledged to church. I got so much from the church and I know others did, too. That church, like this one, was involved in the community and sought to bring justice. My little contribution would not have tipped the scales, but it would have included me more deeply in the work of the church and that would have been valuable to me.
If we live in love, what practices and behavior does that mean? I have learned that donating to this church, like buying fair trade, feels good to me. I am proud that I am paid a living wage. In fact, did you know that our church has a policy that our minimum wage is a living wage as defined by the MIT living wage calculator? I am proud to serve a church that has made such a commitment, especially as we are a Fair Trade congregation. We promote products made by people making a living wage. See, we are not like the Pharisees and scribes. If you were to make a commitment today to take on one behavior for the love of God, self, and neighbor what would it be?
Perhaps it might be pledging to our church. Did you know that 25% of the money we have spent as a church this year has gone to justice and outreach? Inspired by this I have increased my pledge by 25% for 2018. I say yes to the ways we make the world a better place. Will you say yes with me?
by Rev. Michelle Webber
Matthew 22:34-40, 23:1-12
One of today’s sections from the Gospel of Matthew is very familiar to us. In it Jesus refines the ten commandments into two, Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and Love Your Neighbor as Yourself. The other is likely less familiar. It is called in the NRSV “Jesus Denounces Scribes and Pharisees.”
In the first story Jesus gives us what he wants us to say yes to. He wants us to say yes to God and to loving ourselves and our neighbors. In the second story he gives us what he wants to say no to. You see, when you say yes to one thing, you must say no to something else. If you say yes to being vegetarian, for example, you say no to bacon. If you say yes to donating $100 to a good cause, you say no to everything else you could have done with that $100.
Here are the things Jesus asks us to say no to:
Do not do the hypocritical things your leaders do
Do not lay heavy burdens on the shoulders of others
Do not do good things only when others are watching
Do not relish places and titles of honor
Do not allow others to equate you with the messiah
Do not revere any person above God
Do not pretend to know what God would teach us
Do not exalt yourself
So yes to love of God, self, and neighbor; No to being a publicity mongering, self-righteous know-it-all who burdens other people.
Jesus is not denouncing the scribes and Pharisees because of their role, but because of the way they are using their role. He actually says that his followers should follow the teachings of the scribes and the Pharisees because they conveyed the scriptures to the community, but admonishes them not to look at the temple leaders as examples of how to live the law. We live the law by loving God, self, and neighbor. The Jesus Way is the way of Love, not the way of the law. And to those who were at Nadia Bolz-Weber’s talk, I wrote this before I went there so I am not quoting her, “Jesus loves love, not law.” Though I would.
By saying “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets,” Jesus wants us to see that all of the teachings in Jewish scripture are meant to bring us to love and they are useful insofar as they help us live in love.
Our complication comes when we interpret the other way. He boils down lots of commandments about specific actions into two. If we are to live in love, what actions and behaviors do we take in life? How do we take these two and decide what actions and behaviors we say yes to or no to.
On this Nadia Bolz-Weber was particularly poignant in ways I could not begin to duplicate. She gave specific examples of her parishioners who had opposite reactions to one particular behavior. For one of them it was life-giving and for the other life-stealing. And I think this is a beautiful gift that Jesus gave followers of his way. There is no one set of commandments that equals love for all people. We have to be flexible. We have to do the hard work of figuring out what is life-giving, what is love for each of us. And in that work we figure out our yes’ and nos.
19 months ago I preached on Tabitha and the ethics of the textile and garment industries. I remember it because that day I made a commitment that changed my behavior. For that sermon I researched the justice of the clothing company, Justice, and found that their parent company, a store I regularly shopped in, had been called out for unfair labor practices. I made a commitment to love God and my neighbor with my buying power by doing what I can to ensure my clothing dollars do right- express love-by the least of those along the production line. This has meant that all of the clothes I have purchased for myself in the past 19 months have either been Fair Trade or used. My clothing purchases have created justice in the name of my faith. I have said yes to a living wage and safe working conditions
Now, I have not been perfect. I have yet to find fair trade undergarments or shoes in my size in a way that I can purchase them or the ability to say no to purchasing ones that aren’t Fair trade. But I keep looking. And I made the exception to shop at Barb’s Basement Boutique. Some of her things are used and her business model is disruptive to large scale merchandising in a way that I think promotes justice. So while not technically Fair Trade, it works for me. Some of my purchases have been more expensive than I would have bought before, but I know that the money I spend goes to help people thrive. I know I am not funding wage slavery or child labor and this had made it worth it. Has actually made it easier to love myself, knowing I am not supporting these unjust practices. I can say no to the other ways I would have spent that money because I believe in the things I am saying yes to. Making and keeping this commitment has also made me look at the other ways I spend my money. When I bought Halloween treats to hand out, for example, I thought twice about the little plastic doodads and the candy options I provided. It didn’t change my purchasing this year because I didn’t find quick and easy alternatives, but I was aware of the issue as I might not have been otherwise. And I know that if I manage to change this behavior next year, it will increase my love of self.
It is not always easy. My kid and I were in Target and she wanted a rainbow unicorn onesie for Halloween. I wanted one, too. She and I went back and forth
“I can’t have the same costume as my mom.”
“But I want to be a Rev. Rainbow Unicorn at the Rainbow Family Halloween party.”
Then I remembered my commitment, I remembered saying no to child labor and wage slavery and everything became simple. I didn’t know these things were involved in the production of this particular garment, but the fact is I didn’t know. Because I have said yes to ethical choices in clothing, I had to say no to that particular purchase. I have said no to many clothing purchases this year. Along the way I have learned that habits that express my love of God and love of neighbor increase my love of self. I can’t guarantee this will be the case for everyone, just speaking to my little experiment of one.
I was assigned by the Stewardship committee to preach about stewardship this morning and to use the Greatest Commandment text. I don’t always do well when assigned to preach on a certain topic. I have a bit of a rebellious streak. I am preaching from my 3rd version of this sermon because I haven’t been 100% happy with it. But I am naming my discomfort, which takes its power away.
It is difficult to make the ask, to attempt to motivate people to give money to a certain cause. It’s not something we do in our lives, even though we live in a consumer culture. Perhaps because we live in a consumer culture. We are used to setting a sale value on an item or an experience and then someone who wants it can either afford it or they can’t.
Sometimes we assign moral value to someone’s ability to afford it. But we want all people to be able to reap the benefits of church membership There should not be any who “can’t afford it.” And we do not want to assign a moral value to someone’s ability to pledge. If we evenly split our budget between all members we would ask a pledge of $1,000 per member. Two member household, $2,000. And for some people that is a reasonable amount of money. But for some people it is not. We must depend on a different model because we say yes to being a place of welcome for all people.
This year I have been studying reasons people give to charity. There is no question that there is enough money represented in the budgets of all the members of this church to support this church. And yet we have struggled to make our projected budget in years past. So how do we motivate people to give to church?
Some give because they feel obligated. We pledge to church because we should. Some give because we see the good work that an organization is doing. We pledge because we know people eat and that those who have been ostracized by Christianity are healed as a direct result of our church. Some give because they see the organization is a good steward of resources. We pledge because we know the church will be responsible with our money. Some give because they want their resources to do more good things in the world than they can do themselves. We pledge because together as a church we can do more than we can as individuals, because we want to leave a legacy for the future. Some give because it feels good, like the goodness I have gained from my commitment to buying Fair Trade clothes. We pledge because we get a kick out of supporting the church. Most people give to organizations who take the time to make a personal connection.
We happen to have a higher percentage of members who do not pledge than your average church. I don’t know why. We are average in many other ways, our worship attendance as % of members, for example. I would like to encourage any members who have not pledged before to pledge this year, even if it’s a small amount. Think of it as an experiment, to see if it feels good, if it helps you live into the Way of Jesus: loving God, Self, & Neighbor
I have to admit that I have not always been a faithful church giver and perhaps that is why a stewardship sermon is difficult for me. Before I went to seminary I never felt like I earned enough money to give to church. I was a student, then I was paying off student loans. I had a few years working full time when I gave money to church, but then when I became a minister I made less than a living wage. I went into debt about $10,000 a year just living in Silicon Valley. I pledged to the church each year, but I almost never fulfilled my pledge.
I couldn’t afford to. And that felt bad.
When I look back on my student years I wish I had pledged to church. I got so much from the church and I know others did, too. That church, like this one, was involved in the community and sought to bring justice. My little contribution would not have tipped the scales, but it would have included me more deeply in the work of the church and that would have been valuable to me.
If we live in love, what practices and behavior does that mean? I have learned that donating to this church, like buying fair trade, feels good to me. I am proud that I am paid a living wage. In fact, did you know that our church has a policy that our minimum wage is a living wage as defined by the MIT living wage calculator? I am proud to serve a church that has made such a commitment, especially as we are a Fair Trade congregation. We promote products made by people making a living wage. See, we are not like the Pharisees and scribes. If you were to make a commitment today to take on one behavior for the love of God, self, and neighbor what would it be?
Perhaps it might be pledging to our church. Did you know that 25% of the money we have spent as a church this year has gone to justice and outreach? Inspired by this I have increased my pledge by 25% for 2018. I say yes to the ways we make the world a better place. Will you say yes with me?
A Cup of Cold Water
Sunday, July 2, 2017
by Rev. Michelle Webber
Matthew 10
Bible translators put these section headings into the text. They don’t exist in the oldest copies of the texts we have, but they tell us something about what the translators think the section is about. The 10th chapter of Matthew has a fascinating list of section headings, in the NRSV:
The Twelve Apostles
The Mission of the Twelve
(the twist) Coming Persecutions
Whom to Fear
(the plot thickens) Not Peace, but a Sword
(and then today’s section) Rewards
They tell the dramatic story of the early church in the form of Jesus’ teachings to the apostles. The very first line of the chapter is “Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits.” He gives them authority, power. Did anyone else see the Facebook article this week about how power changes your brain, decreasing your ability to empathize? This is what Jesus gives to the 12: the power to cast out unclean spirits and cure disease. Then he sends them out on a Mission to use their power without compensation. They are to go from town to town and where they receive hospitality they are to bring the peace that comes from using the authority given them.
Then comes the twist. You’d think if you traveled around healing people that you’d be pretty popular. But people can be rather attached to their disease and dysfunction. We all participate in systems and behaviors that are not healthy for us, but are resistant to breaking them. And many of these systems are designed to perpetuate themselves, so breaking them is rather difficult. This is why Jesus warns of the coming persecution.
By casting out demons, the Disciples will disrupt systems of oppression, bringing the wrath of those tasked with maintaining the systems. For those who accept the healing, there is peace. Have you ever met someone who converted to a healthy lifestyle, perhaps eating all organic, or not using petroleum fueled vehicles? And they seem to be at peace on a deeper level? This is the peace brought by the healing of systems, by exercising the demon of perpetuating unjust systems. And yet if we all did that, ate only organic or stopped using petroleum fueled vehicles, the companies who make money off of non-organic foods and gas powered cars would wage, at least, a publicity war against such actions, trying to convince us that our world will collapse if their companies can not continue making money with those products. These are the coming persecutions
Jesus warns about, the way that those who prosper from the current unhealthiness fight against healing.
And he gets deeper with his warning, telling the disciples exactly whom to fear. If the persecution comes in the form of only harming your body, do not worry. Jesus sees our lives as existing beyond our biology and thus, the years we spend on earth are a portion of our experience, but not its totality. Do not fear what damages only this portion.
Instead, fear those who seek to disrupt your connection to God. If someone damages your soul, somehow cracks the core of who you are, the part of you that remains you when your body dies, those are the ones to fear.
But after explaining about the peace that comes when people are healed, Jesus says he did not come to bring peace. He came to bring a sword. But not a literal sword. He came to sever the intense desire to preserve our biological life over and above our spiritual life. This is a warning for those who value their lives more than their soul, their wealth more than their empathy. He is asking, what ideals are you willing to die for? Not that he advocates hurting our bodies, or that he says it’s ok to hurt someone else’s body, but that if there is a choice between preserving your spiritual ideals and preserving your body, then choose everlasting life over biological life.
And then we get to today’s section, “Rewards.”
For those who go out to use the authority Jesus gives them to heal those outcast because of perceived or real illness, who are able to endure persecution that can harm their body, but not damage the essential relationship they have with Jesus, and who value their spiritual life, their connection to God through Jesus, more than their physical life, the reward is being welcomed, being embraced in God’s love, a love that can never be severed. Indeed anyone who gives even a cup of cold water to someone in this way, because they value welcome more than life, can never lose this reward, can never be cast out of God’s love.
What is most interesting to me is that the reward does not go to the one receiving the cold water. It would be logical to us if Jesus is saying, when you do these things, you will be rewarded with a cup of cold water, that being worthy of the reward makes you the receiver of rewards. But it is quite the opposite. If you are worthy of the reward, you will give the cold water. Because you have been welcomed into God’s love, because you are reconciled to God’s community by the authority given by Jesus, because you value God’s love more than biology, you give someone else a cold drink of water. This is not the prosperity gospel that teaches when you think/act/believe in relationship to God in the right way then God gives you good things. It is quite the opposite. When you are deeply secure in your connection to God, you give others good things.
Jesus is teaching us that with the authority to heal, we might receive persecution, which may even be detrimental to our physical well being. When, in response to this persecution, we give a thirsty person water, then our reward is being forever held in God’s love. Not because the giving makes us worthy, but because in giving we receive more than we give. Being a disciple of Jesus means finding fulfillment in giving the gift.
One Christmas morning when I was a child, my sister and I woke up very early. We knew our parents had been up late the night before and so we decided to give them the gift of sleeping in. So we didn’t wake them up before opening all our presents from Santa.
When my parents woke up they were devastated. My mom was in tears. They threatened to take all the presents back. The lesson I learned that morning is one that my whole family still practices. When we receive a gift, our gift to the giver is the joy of watching us receive that gift. We open the present in front of the giver. It is understood as not just a benefit to the recipient, but that the joy of giving is equal to, if not greater than, the joy of getting. I don’t remember what gifts I opened that Christmas morning. But one of the happiest Christmas’ of my life is when I gave my great aunt a gift that she said was the best, most thoughtful gift she had ever gotten I can tell you in great detail about that gift. Jesus’ teaching for us today is that giving is the reward of being a faithful Christian. When I look at the picture on the bulletin cover it makes me thirsty. I imagine it is a hot day and I take a drink of the cool water and it feels like such a blessing. And it is, but the bigger blessing, the reward in life is to give this drink o someone else, to watch as they are refreshed and satisfied on a hot day.
This week we celebrate the birth of our nation. I am proud to be an American, and yet I know that as a country we have not always found joy in giving. Stereotypical American patriotism values our country, our land, and our people, above all others; and sees the United States as somehow better than the rest of the world. We have much to be proud of, but we also have much that should cause us to be humble.
241 years ago, when we declared our independence from Britain, our first leaders declared that all “are created equal, that they [we] are endowed by their [our] creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
We have spent the past 241 years struggling to live into this ideal, to be a place where all people have free exercise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our first leaders were very careful to not include or integrate religion into secular leadership. While they were overwhelmingly men of strong faith, they put great stock in the separation of church and state. It is a separation I, for one, still appreciate today, as I appreciate the sentiment that all are equal and the struggle we have endured to hold our country to that standard.
And yet I seek, as a church leader, to put our American ideals in conversation with our Christian ideals. I believe Jesus’ teaching from Matthew 10 says that if we have to choose between these ideals, that we are to choose our Christian ideals, that if the choice is between life and soul, we choose soul.
As a justice-seeking denomination, we have long been involved in the struggle for our secular government to live into the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all. We have fought on the side of slaves to gain their freedom, African-Americans to have positions of leadership, women to have voice and vote, migrant farm workers to have safe working conditions, lesbian and gay people to marry, transgender people to be seen as people in public facilities. We have lived into the saying that injustice against one is injustice against all.
For me, our history as a country and as a denomination, whose anniversary was last week btw, goes back to that cold drink of water. If my thirst is slaked, but others are parched dry, I am not satisfied. The rewards of being a follower of Jesus is the joy in giving that glass of water to someone who is thirsty, not in drinking it myself. As an American who is Christian, my joy in being a country of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is not in having those things for me and mine, but in watching others live into that ideal, especially those who have long been denied equal opportunity.
I believe that the writers and signers of the Declaration of Independence and our constitution did the best that they knew how to ensure equal opportunity for their ideals to all those whom they considered people. Our 241 year history as a country is chock full of people brave enough to put their lives and liberty on the line to challenge the definition of who is created equal enough to access these unalienable rights. This week was the anniversary of the Loving Case, the couple who successfully fought for interracial marriage. They are a great example of achieving our American ideals for more people. My old middle school is now named for Fred Korematsu, whose court case declared Japanese internment unconstitutional. There are numerous other recent examples, like Samantha Elauf won the right to wear her hijab while working at Aber Crombie & Fitch. I celebrate her courage and her victory as an American, even though I will never wear a hijab while working at Aber Crombie & Fitch.
As a follower of the teachings of Jesus these are what make me proud to be an American, the times when we have been able to broaden the understanding of who has the inalienable rights. Our reward as Christian Americans, according to Matthew 10, is to give the gift of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to others, especially those who have long been denied. May it be so.
Matthew 10
Bible translators put these section headings into the text. They don’t exist in the oldest copies of the texts we have, but they tell us something about what the translators think the section is about. The 10th chapter of Matthew has a fascinating list of section headings, in the NRSV:
The Twelve Apostles
The Mission of the Twelve
(the twist) Coming Persecutions
Whom to Fear
(the plot thickens) Not Peace, but a Sword
(and then today’s section) Rewards
They tell the dramatic story of the early church in the form of Jesus’ teachings to the apostles. The very first line of the chapter is “Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits.” He gives them authority, power. Did anyone else see the Facebook article this week about how power changes your brain, decreasing your ability to empathize? This is what Jesus gives to the 12: the power to cast out unclean spirits and cure disease. Then he sends them out on a Mission to use their power without compensation. They are to go from town to town and where they receive hospitality they are to bring the peace that comes from using the authority given them.
Then comes the twist. You’d think if you traveled around healing people that you’d be pretty popular. But people can be rather attached to their disease and dysfunction. We all participate in systems and behaviors that are not healthy for us, but are resistant to breaking them. And many of these systems are designed to perpetuate themselves, so breaking them is rather difficult. This is why Jesus warns of the coming persecution.
By casting out demons, the Disciples will disrupt systems of oppression, bringing the wrath of those tasked with maintaining the systems. For those who accept the healing, there is peace. Have you ever met someone who converted to a healthy lifestyle, perhaps eating all organic, or not using petroleum fueled vehicles? And they seem to be at peace on a deeper level? This is the peace brought by the healing of systems, by exercising the demon of perpetuating unjust systems. And yet if we all did that, ate only organic or stopped using petroleum fueled vehicles, the companies who make money off of non-organic foods and gas powered cars would wage, at least, a publicity war against such actions, trying to convince us that our world will collapse if their companies can not continue making money with those products. These are the coming persecutions
Jesus warns about, the way that those who prosper from the current unhealthiness fight against healing.
And he gets deeper with his warning, telling the disciples exactly whom to fear. If the persecution comes in the form of only harming your body, do not worry. Jesus sees our lives as existing beyond our biology and thus, the years we spend on earth are a portion of our experience, but not its totality. Do not fear what damages only this portion.
Instead, fear those who seek to disrupt your connection to God. If someone damages your soul, somehow cracks the core of who you are, the part of you that remains you when your body dies, those are the ones to fear.
But after explaining about the peace that comes when people are healed, Jesus says he did not come to bring peace. He came to bring a sword. But not a literal sword. He came to sever the intense desire to preserve our biological life over and above our spiritual life. This is a warning for those who value their lives more than their soul, their wealth more than their empathy. He is asking, what ideals are you willing to die for? Not that he advocates hurting our bodies, or that he says it’s ok to hurt someone else’s body, but that if there is a choice between preserving your spiritual ideals and preserving your body, then choose everlasting life over biological life.
And then we get to today’s section, “Rewards.”
For those who go out to use the authority Jesus gives them to heal those outcast because of perceived or real illness, who are able to endure persecution that can harm their body, but not damage the essential relationship they have with Jesus, and who value their spiritual life, their connection to God through Jesus, more than their physical life, the reward is being welcomed, being embraced in God’s love, a love that can never be severed. Indeed anyone who gives even a cup of cold water to someone in this way, because they value welcome more than life, can never lose this reward, can never be cast out of God’s love.
What is most interesting to me is that the reward does not go to the one receiving the cold water. It would be logical to us if Jesus is saying, when you do these things, you will be rewarded with a cup of cold water, that being worthy of the reward makes you the receiver of rewards. But it is quite the opposite. If you are worthy of the reward, you will give the cold water. Because you have been welcomed into God’s love, because you are reconciled to God’s community by the authority given by Jesus, because you value God’s love more than biology, you give someone else a cold drink of water. This is not the prosperity gospel that teaches when you think/act/believe in relationship to God in the right way then God gives you good things. It is quite the opposite. When you are deeply secure in your connection to God, you give others good things.
Jesus is teaching us that with the authority to heal, we might receive persecution, which may even be detrimental to our physical well being. When, in response to this persecution, we give a thirsty person water, then our reward is being forever held in God’s love. Not because the giving makes us worthy, but because in giving we receive more than we give. Being a disciple of Jesus means finding fulfillment in giving the gift.
One Christmas morning when I was a child, my sister and I woke up very early. We knew our parents had been up late the night before and so we decided to give them the gift of sleeping in. So we didn’t wake them up before opening all our presents from Santa.
When my parents woke up they were devastated. My mom was in tears. They threatened to take all the presents back. The lesson I learned that morning is one that my whole family still practices. When we receive a gift, our gift to the giver is the joy of watching us receive that gift. We open the present in front of the giver. It is understood as not just a benefit to the recipient, but that the joy of giving is equal to, if not greater than, the joy of getting. I don’t remember what gifts I opened that Christmas morning. But one of the happiest Christmas’ of my life is when I gave my great aunt a gift that she said was the best, most thoughtful gift she had ever gotten I can tell you in great detail about that gift. Jesus’ teaching for us today is that giving is the reward of being a faithful Christian. When I look at the picture on the bulletin cover it makes me thirsty. I imagine it is a hot day and I take a drink of the cool water and it feels like such a blessing. And it is, but the bigger blessing, the reward in life is to give this drink o someone else, to watch as they are refreshed and satisfied on a hot day.
This week we celebrate the birth of our nation. I am proud to be an American, and yet I know that as a country we have not always found joy in giving. Stereotypical American patriotism values our country, our land, and our people, above all others; and sees the United States as somehow better than the rest of the world. We have much to be proud of, but we also have much that should cause us to be humble.
241 years ago, when we declared our independence from Britain, our first leaders declared that all “are created equal, that they [we] are endowed by their [our] creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
We have spent the past 241 years struggling to live into this ideal, to be a place where all people have free exercise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our first leaders were very careful to not include or integrate religion into secular leadership. While they were overwhelmingly men of strong faith, they put great stock in the separation of church and state. It is a separation I, for one, still appreciate today, as I appreciate the sentiment that all are equal and the struggle we have endured to hold our country to that standard.
And yet I seek, as a church leader, to put our American ideals in conversation with our Christian ideals. I believe Jesus’ teaching from Matthew 10 says that if we have to choose between these ideals, that we are to choose our Christian ideals, that if the choice is between life and soul, we choose soul.
As a justice-seeking denomination, we have long been involved in the struggle for our secular government to live into the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all. We have fought on the side of slaves to gain their freedom, African-Americans to have positions of leadership, women to have voice and vote, migrant farm workers to have safe working conditions, lesbian and gay people to marry, transgender people to be seen as people in public facilities. We have lived into the saying that injustice against one is injustice against all.
For me, our history as a country and as a denomination, whose anniversary was last week btw, goes back to that cold drink of water. If my thirst is slaked, but others are parched dry, I am not satisfied. The rewards of being a follower of Jesus is the joy in giving that glass of water to someone who is thirsty, not in drinking it myself. As an American who is Christian, my joy in being a country of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is not in having those things for me and mine, but in watching others live into that ideal, especially those who have long been denied equal opportunity.
I believe that the writers and signers of the Declaration of Independence and our constitution did the best that they knew how to ensure equal opportunity for their ideals to all those whom they considered people. Our 241 year history as a country is chock full of people brave enough to put their lives and liberty on the line to challenge the definition of who is created equal enough to access these unalienable rights. This week was the anniversary of the Loving Case, the couple who successfully fought for interracial marriage. They are a great example of achieving our American ideals for more people. My old middle school is now named for Fred Korematsu, whose court case declared Japanese internment unconstitutional. There are numerous other recent examples, like Samantha Elauf won the right to wear her hijab while working at Aber Crombie & Fitch. I celebrate her courage and her victory as an American, even though I will never wear a hijab while working at Aber Crombie & Fitch.
As a follower of the teachings of Jesus these are what make me proud to be an American, the times when we have been able to broaden the understanding of who has the inalienable rights. Our reward as Christian Americans, according to Matthew 10, is to give the gift of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to others, especially those who have long been denied. May it be so.
To Be Made Whole
Sunday, March 12, 2017
by Rev. Michelle Webber
John 3:1-17
As a child I attended a Baptist church, the kind where Sunday school lessons always had a memory verse. I remember studying to commit verses to memory each week, but I only remember one of the verses. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish, but shall have life everlasting.
I think I remember this one most of all because I was disturbed by it.
I was the only Christian in my family. The idea that everyone who believed in Jesus would have life everlasting was not a comfort to me. The pastor had already told me that my parents, who were not believers, were going to hell. This verse was used in the church of my childhood to hold Jesus up as the exclusive door through which those of us who had been born again in the spirit of Christ could enter heaven. There was no other way.
So when I was assigned this verse to memorize, I went to my bible to read the whole chapter. The verse didn’t describe the God I had experienced and I needed to know more about the context. I was a spiritually precocious child.
After reading the chapter, I memorized 3:16 and 3:17 and recited them together in Sunday School the next week. I needed 3:17 in order to allow 3:16. Here they are together.
For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish, but have life everlasting. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
So here’s this verse John 3:16- used against me as a kid, used to emotionally separate me from my parents- followed directly by “God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world.” This understanding of Jesus, as the access point to life everlasting, is not to be used as a weapon. It implies no condemnation of those who choose not to use the access point. Perhaps, it even allows for there to be other access points.
According to the author of the Gospel of John, Jesus was sent into the world so that the world might be saved through him. So let’s look at this understanding of Jesus, as the savior of the world, the access point for life everlasting.
The phrase “might be saved” is a combination of two Greek words, the connecting “hina,” meaning “in order that” and the verb “sozo” (soedzoe), which can be translated as “to save” or “to be made whole” or “healed.” The Jesus described in the gospel of John saves by making us whole, by healing. Any use of this teaching that harms, is then invalid as it does the opposite of Jesus’ purpose.
When I was 30 one of my best friend’s mom died quite suddenly. My friend is an only child and I was her main support. There were these awful three days between when she was declared brain dead and when my friend decided to remove life support. in this time, someone asked her,is your mom saved? This was someone who believed Jesus to be the only access point to God. And my friend, a much more conservative Christian than myself- she was attending a four square church at the time- was tormented by this question. Her mom was a dedicated church attendee. She was an active member of a Presbyterian church. And my friend agonized over her decision to end life support because, what if her mom never said the right words or committed to Jesus in the right way to gain entry to this exclusive access point? I was righteously angry at the person who asked her the question. It caused incredible emotional pain for my friend.
If only I had the wisdom then that I do now, wisdom gained from 15 more years of bible study and life experience. Jesus didn’t come as a life preserver only for those who know the right code words. He came as an access point for all people, not as the only access point- not to condemn those who do not enter through this door. He came to heal, to make whole. Asking the question about the salvation of her mom’s soul when her brain was already dead did not heal anything. It fractured her emotionally.
Jesus said the wind blows where it chooses and you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. Perhaps being born of the spirit is the same way. He is talking about being born of the spirit when he uses the wind as an example. We are not to know what it is like for someone else to be born of the spirit, we can only see the results of it. Jesus is a beacon for all people, but not a condemnation for those who approach the beacon in an incorrect way or who do not choose to follow the beacon.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus is the light of God come into darkness. Once lit, the darkness can never overcome it. In our story today, Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. The Gospel of John is an artistic masterpiece. There are no accidental coincidences. Each detail has meaning. Nicodemus is a Pharisee, a Jewish leader of the class that got together and expelled followers of Jesus from the synagogues. So the Jewish elder comes to Jesus, the light, in the darkness of night, proclaiming to have seen the things he does as evidence of the presence of God. Nicodemus, though he comes in the night, testifies to Jesus bearing God’s light. But he doesn’t quite get it.
Jesus talks to him about being born a second time- being born again. This is the language used to question my friend about her mom the language used to condemn my parents. Somewhere in history Nicodemus’ question over shadowed Jesus’ teaching. “How can anyone be born after having grown up?”
Jesus teaching is about creating a new way of becoming God’s chosen people. When his followers were born they were born into the lineage of Abraham and Sarah and became part of the 12 tribes of Israel, God’s chosen people. But Jesus redirects the method by which someone becomes part of God’s kin-dom. He universalizes entrance into relationship with the divine. Anyone who is born from above can gain access to the divine. It has nothing to do with your ancestry. This second birth is not a proscribed ritual, but a new thing. God so loved the world that God realized that the exclusive deal the Hebrews thought they had with God actually was not loving to all people. And so this new way of accessing God’s love is happening. You may not see where it comes from or where it is going, but look upon the evidence. Those who were not born into the lineage of Abraham and Sarah can also experience God’s love.
Somewhere we got stuck answering the “How” question of Nicodemus. How can this happen? Does it happen when we are baptized? Does it happen when we accept Jesus into our heart as our personal Lord and Savior? Does it happen after a certain number of good deeds or after sharing about Jesus with a certain number of people? If Jesus replaces the special status of the Hebrews and the ritual purity codes, what replaces it? Here Jesus is saying, its like the wind.
But Nicodemus can not accept this. He is too much of a concrete thinker. If Jesus replaces the physical birth we can see and touch and smell with something else, he wants it to be just as concrete. If Jesus replaces the 613 laws of Judaism, he wants something just as black and white to follow. And Jesus says, it is like the wind.
Moses was concerned no one would believe he spoke for God and so God gave him a staff that would turn into a snake. It is this staff that brought forth water out of a stone when the Hebrews were thirsty in the desert. Jesus says, “I am like Moses’ staff,” when people have trouble believing it is God who is leading them, they can look at me and see God’s spirit. This is how we are born of spirit, we see the spirit in Jesus, held up for us like a beacon. Not only in one proscribed ritual, but it can come to us from any directions.
You see, God so loved the world, all of the world, all people in the world, that God wanted to open up an access point, a way of being in deeper relationship with the divine. He sent Jesus to be a beacon that draws people into relationship with the divine. By creating this access point he does not condemn those who choose not to enter. It is an invitation, not a condemnation. It is a celebration open to all, not an exclusive night club entrance only for those who meet certain standards.
Let us not loose Jesus’ teachings by focusing on Nicodemus’ question. Jesus expanded the definition of who is worthy to be in relationship with God from those born to the lineage of Abraham and Sarah to those who are convicted in their hearts by the movement of the spirit. Nicodemus wanted to know how.
I can’t tell you how. It is like the wind, only I know so much more about why the wind blows where it blows and where it’s going to come from next. This week I think I even saw the wind; it carried so much dirt and dust. I can tell you that if Jesus came to make us whole, than any use of his story to harm people is antithetical to his message.
May we be a place of healing and wholeness, a place where peace and goodwill are given to all. Amen.
John 3:1-17
As a child I attended a Baptist church, the kind where Sunday school lessons always had a memory verse. I remember studying to commit verses to memory each week, but I only remember one of the verses. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish, but shall have life everlasting.
I think I remember this one most of all because I was disturbed by it.
I was the only Christian in my family. The idea that everyone who believed in Jesus would have life everlasting was not a comfort to me. The pastor had already told me that my parents, who were not believers, were going to hell. This verse was used in the church of my childhood to hold Jesus up as the exclusive door through which those of us who had been born again in the spirit of Christ could enter heaven. There was no other way.
So when I was assigned this verse to memorize, I went to my bible to read the whole chapter. The verse didn’t describe the God I had experienced and I needed to know more about the context. I was a spiritually precocious child.
After reading the chapter, I memorized 3:16 and 3:17 and recited them together in Sunday School the next week. I needed 3:17 in order to allow 3:16. Here they are together.
For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish, but have life everlasting. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
So here’s this verse John 3:16- used against me as a kid, used to emotionally separate me from my parents- followed directly by “God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world.” This understanding of Jesus, as the access point to life everlasting, is not to be used as a weapon. It implies no condemnation of those who choose not to use the access point. Perhaps, it even allows for there to be other access points.
According to the author of the Gospel of John, Jesus was sent into the world so that the world might be saved through him. So let’s look at this understanding of Jesus, as the savior of the world, the access point for life everlasting.
The phrase “might be saved” is a combination of two Greek words, the connecting “hina,” meaning “in order that” and the verb “sozo” (soedzoe), which can be translated as “to save” or “to be made whole” or “healed.” The Jesus described in the gospel of John saves by making us whole, by healing. Any use of this teaching that harms, is then invalid as it does the opposite of Jesus’ purpose.
When I was 30 one of my best friend’s mom died quite suddenly. My friend is an only child and I was her main support. There were these awful three days between when she was declared brain dead and when my friend decided to remove life support. in this time, someone asked her,is your mom saved? This was someone who believed Jesus to be the only access point to God. And my friend, a much more conservative Christian than myself- she was attending a four square church at the time- was tormented by this question. Her mom was a dedicated church attendee. She was an active member of a Presbyterian church. And my friend agonized over her decision to end life support because, what if her mom never said the right words or committed to Jesus in the right way to gain entry to this exclusive access point? I was righteously angry at the person who asked her the question. It caused incredible emotional pain for my friend.
If only I had the wisdom then that I do now, wisdom gained from 15 more years of bible study and life experience. Jesus didn’t come as a life preserver only for those who know the right code words. He came as an access point for all people, not as the only access point- not to condemn those who do not enter through this door. He came to heal, to make whole. Asking the question about the salvation of her mom’s soul when her brain was already dead did not heal anything. It fractured her emotionally.
Jesus said the wind blows where it chooses and you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. Perhaps being born of the spirit is the same way. He is talking about being born of the spirit when he uses the wind as an example. We are not to know what it is like for someone else to be born of the spirit, we can only see the results of it. Jesus is a beacon for all people, but not a condemnation for those who approach the beacon in an incorrect way or who do not choose to follow the beacon.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus is the light of God come into darkness. Once lit, the darkness can never overcome it. In our story today, Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. The Gospel of John is an artistic masterpiece. There are no accidental coincidences. Each detail has meaning. Nicodemus is a Pharisee, a Jewish leader of the class that got together and expelled followers of Jesus from the synagogues. So the Jewish elder comes to Jesus, the light, in the darkness of night, proclaiming to have seen the things he does as evidence of the presence of God. Nicodemus, though he comes in the night, testifies to Jesus bearing God’s light. But he doesn’t quite get it.
Jesus talks to him about being born a second time- being born again. This is the language used to question my friend about her mom the language used to condemn my parents. Somewhere in history Nicodemus’ question over shadowed Jesus’ teaching. “How can anyone be born after having grown up?”
Jesus teaching is about creating a new way of becoming God’s chosen people. When his followers were born they were born into the lineage of Abraham and Sarah and became part of the 12 tribes of Israel, God’s chosen people. But Jesus redirects the method by which someone becomes part of God’s kin-dom. He universalizes entrance into relationship with the divine. Anyone who is born from above can gain access to the divine. It has nothing to do with your ancestry. This second birth is not a proscribed ritual, but a new thing. God so loved the world that God realized that the exclusive deal the Hebrews thought they had with God actually was not loving to all people. And so this new way of accessing God’s love is happening. You may not see where it comes from or where it is going, but look upon the evidence. Those who were not born into the lineage of Abraham and Sarah can also experience God’s love.
Somewhere we got stuck answering the “How” question of Nicodemus. How can this happen? Does it happen when we are baptized? Does it happen when we accept Jesus into our heart as our personal Lord and Savior? Does it happen after a certain number of good deeds or after sharing about Jesus with a certain number of people? If Jesus replaces the special status of the Hebrews and the ritual purity codes, what replaces it? Here Jesus is saying, its like the wind.
But Nicodemus can not accept this. He is too much of a concrete thinker. If Jesus replaces the physical birth we can see and touch and smell with something else, he wants it to be just as concrete. If Jesus replaces the 613 laws of Judaism, he wants something just as black and white to follow. And Jesus says, it is like the wind.
Moses was concerned no one would believe he spoke for God and so God gave him a staff that would turn into a snake. It is this staff that brought forth water out of a stone when the Hebrews were thirsty in the desert. Jesus says, “I am like Moses’ staff,” when people have trouble believing it is God who is leading them, they can look at me and see God’s spirit. This is how we are born of spirit, we see the spirit in Jesus, held up for us like a beacon. Not only in one proscribed ritual, but it can come to us from any directions.
You see, God so loved the world, all of the world, all people in the world, that God wanted to open up an access point, a way of being in deeper relationship with the divine. He sent Jesus to be a beacon that draws people into relationship with the divine. By creating this access point he does not condemn those who choose not to enter. It is an invitation, not a condemnation. It is a celebration open to all, not an exclusive night club entrance only for those who meet certain standards.
Let us not loose Jesus’ teachings by focusing on Nicodemus’ question. Jesus expanded the definition of who is worthy to be in relationship with God from those born to the lineage of Abraham and Sarah to those who are convicted in their hearts by the movement of the spirit. Nicodemus wanted to know how.
I can’t tell you how. It is like the wind, only I know so much more about why the wind blows where it blows and where it’s going to come from next. This week I think I even saw the wind; it carried so much dirt and dust. I can tell you that if Jesus came to make us whole, than any use of his story to harm people is antithetical to his message.
May we be a place of healing and wholeness, a place where peace and goodwill are given to all. Amen.
Jesus is the Foundation
Sunday, February 19th, 2017
Matthew 5:38-48
Rev. Michelle Webber
The Sermon on the Mount continues…
We have before us some of the most misunderstood lines in the bible. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. If someone sues you and takes your coat, give your cloak as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second.
It can sound like Jesus is asking us to allow ourselves to be taken advantage of. “Turn the other cheek” has become euphemism for ignoring violence perpetrated upon you. “Go the extra mile” has become code for giving really amazing customer service. But this is not how Jesus’ hearers would have understood these phrases.
The Jewish code of ethics sought to prevent people from extracting excessive retribution. An eye for an eye was more rightly understood as: if you only lost an eye, you can only have an eye’s worth of retribution. It was a way of preventing violent escalation. The Greco-Roman code of ethics also had legal limitations on the ways people could be treated. For example, a subject of Rome, like say a Jew in Jesus’ community, could be asked to carry the burden of a Roman soldier for one mile. You could be just going about your daily routine, when a soldier came up to you and handed you his pack and you had to carry it for him for a mile. These limitations were in place to keep Roman rule from being oppressive to the point of cruelty.
Jesus’ re-evaluation of these codes de-escalates in the most peculiar way. He takes these two codes of ethics, Jewish and Greco-Roman, and he turns them on their ear. Remember he is talking to Jews who live under Roman rule- people who would have been subject to both codes of ethics. He says- if someone strikes you on your right cheek-
Let’s picture this. You are standing facing someone. They strike you using their right hand, because the left hand is only for bodily functions. In order for them to strike your right cheek with their right hand they must use the back of their hand. This is the way a Roman citizen struck a servant, with the back of their hand. It is a way of establishing their power over someone considered legally inferior. If you turn the other cheek, daring them to hit you again, they either have to hit you with the palm of their right hand, which is how a Roman citizen would strike someone who was legally equal, or they would have to use their left hand, which would make them look like a fool because they would be violating codes of decency.
So Jesus is not saying, allow someone to continue abusing you. He is saying, if someone wants to continue to abuse you, make them do it in a way that either disgraces them or elevates you to equal status. Jesus’ way is the way of equality, it is spiritual aikido, using the other person’s negative energy to side step the abuse and highlight the injustice.
Roman culture was very litigious. In fact one way to gain social status was to argue and win cases in court. If you won a case against someone who did not have the money to pay you, the court would award you their coat, or outer garment. This is the most you could get from someone without money. You could not take their inner garment or their sandals because it was seen as a disgrace to you if you caused someone else to be naked. So Jesus is not saying to give of yourself even unto nakedness, but he is saying, if someone tries to gain social status by taking your coat because you are too poor to pay whatever fine would otherwise be levied, they should be just as disgraced as if they took your inner garment, exposing your nakedness. Jesus’ way uses the tools at your disposal, in this case your poverty, to highlight injustice.
If you are going about your daily routine, Jesus continues, and a Roman soldier requires you to carry his pack for one mile, then carry it for two. This would get the Roman soldier in trouble. He could be reprimanded for excessive cruelty. As a student of history, I can tell you that carrying a pack for a mile was pretty mild compared to the cruelty some Roman rulers showed, and yet Jews had no recourse for exacting their retributive justice- an eye for an eye. Jesus is asking people to do something that might look like an innocent gesture of kindness- going the extra mile- to an outside observer, but to someone living under both the Jewish and Roman codes of ethics, it is a way to highlight the inherent injustice in the systems that govern their lives.
These are not passive actions, but they are non-violent. They amend the codes of ethics his Jewish community lived under by de-escalating violence and raising the oppressed to equal status. Jesus tells us we are to de-escalate violence and view and treat all people as equal, oppressed equal to oppressor, enemy equal to lover. For we are all equal in God’s eyes. This is God’s perfect law.
Jesus has been calling us in the Sermon on the Mount to create a community in which God’s law is perfected. Let’s look at this word, translated as perfect, telios. It literally means to come of age, or to reach maturity. Its connotations have to do with fulfilling all aspects of a code of behavior. Jesus says, if we live in the way he explains in the Sermon on the Mount, we will be perfecting God’s law on earth, or brining it into maturity. We will bring about the blessings described in the beatitudes.
We do this by, as we learned last week, respecting each person as a spiritually whole, beloved child of God. We do this by, as we learned the week before, being salt and light to the world, the catalyst for the types of changes that bring blessings and the light that allows others to see spiritual truths. We do this by, as we hear today, performing spiritual aikido in order to use the tools we have to side step injustice in such a way that it highlights systems of injustice.
Jesus is not calling us to live into the Greco-Roman codes of ethics- those of his contemporary oppressors- even as he is asking us to use them against themselves. Jesus is not calling us to live the letter of the Jewish laws either, for bringing God’s laws into perfection is not about perfect adherence to the letter of the law, but about bringing life to the heart of the law. This heart calls us to live with compassion and humility.
I can see why this sermon has so oft been used by protestant groups as their guidepost for reforming Christianity back to something considered a more pure tradition. It points out the things that belong to culture and calls us back to the things that come from God. It points out the things that separate us, diminishing our sense of unity under God. it is both the tradition we inherit and a critique of the tradition we inherit. And it is remarkably hard to live in this way all the time.
Our text from 1 Corinthians brings some depth to this conversation. Paul is writing to the church at Corinth; he acknowledges that he has laid a foundation on which others will build. This is how tradition works, especially in a protestant church. Our tradition is our foundation, our framing, but we are building on it all the time.
Paul calls Corinth to a similar kind of mischievous compassion that Jesus promotes in the Sermon on the Mount. He reminds us that our community is a temple of God. We are the perfecters of God’s laws. In deed, God’s laws can only be perfected by the ways we interact in community. When we act in ways that highlight injustice and bring blessings to those who experience material and spiritual poverty, then we are not just building on the foundations laid for us by Jesus and our protestant ancestors in faith, but we are perfecting God’s laws.
This type of mischievous compassion is exemplified by Ghandi’s homespun movement, in which he raised spinning ones own cloth to a spiritual practice. Not only was the act of spinning spiritually centering, but the result was to cut dependence on British cloth, which was a way that the British kept Indian citizens indebted to them. It is exemplified by the work of the Water Protector’s Respite Network, which provided hospitality to those brought to jail in Fargo from Bismarck, making their time here and travel back to Standing Rock one of welcome and empowerment. It is exemplified by the voices of American citizens who are communicating with our elected officials in record numbers right now, exercising the free speech of American Democracy.
If we are to lay our foundation only on Jesus, (as it says in the UCC constitution, Jesus is the only head of our church), then we build on a foundation of solid rock. Jesus has built on God’s foundation, the early church on Jesus’ foundation, and us on theirs. What are we building now?
Let us build a sermon on the mount community, a community where each person is respected as a spiritually whole child of God, where the things that divide us as humans are set aside in preference for the things that unite us as Jesus’ spiritual children, where we use the tools we have as spiritual aikido to highlight and eradicate the injustice of the systems we live in, giving preeminence to God’s laws and God’s blessings.
Whether you think we need to be acting as individuals, or as a faith community, the call to action is pretty clear in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus does not fill us with only good things, expecting us to go away feeling good about ourselves and our religion. He calls us to fill others with only good things, going into the world, in a spirit of peace, to de-escalate violence and use the tools we have and the systems we live in to uncover the injustice in our world. This is how God’s laws are perfected, how the blessings of the beatitudes come to fruition. Amen.
Rev. Michelle Webber
The Sermon on the Mount continues…
We have before us some of the most misunderstood lines in the bible. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. If someone sues you and takes your coat, give your cloak as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second.
It can sound like Jesus is asking us to allow ourselves to be taken advantage of. “Turn the other cheek” has become euphemism for ignoring violence perpetrated upon you. “Go the extra mile” has become code for giving really amazing customer service. But this is not how Jesus’ hearers would have understood these phrases.
The Jewish code of ethics sought to prevent people from extracting excessive retribution. An eye for an eye was more rightly understood as: if you only lost an eye, you can only have an eye’s worth of retribution. It was a way of preventing violent escalation. The Greco-Roman code of ethics also had legal limitations on the ways people could be treated. For example, a subject of Rome, like say a Jew in Jesus’ community, could be asked to carry the burden of a Roman soldier for one mile. You could be just going about your daily routine, when a soldier came up to you and handed you his pack and you had to carry it for him for a mile. These limitations were in place to keep Roman rule from being oppressive to the point of cruelty.
Jesus’ re-evaluation of these codes de-escalates in the most peculiar way. He takes these two codes of ethics, Jewish and Greco-Roman, and he turns them on their ear. Remember he is talking to Jews who live under Roman rule- people who would have been subject to both codes of ethics. He says- if someone strikes you on your right cheek-
Let’s picture this. You are standing facing someone. They strike you using their right hand, because the left hand is only for bodily functions. In order for them to strike your right cheek with their right hand they must use the back of their hand. This is the way a Roman citizen struck a servant, with the back of their hand. It is a way of establishing their power over someone considered legally inferior. If you turn the other cheek, daring them to hit you again, they either have to hit you with the palm of their right hand, which is how a Roman citizen would strike someone who was legally equal, or they would have to use their left hand, which would make them look like a fool because they would be violating codes of decency.
So Jesus is not saying, allow someone to continue abusing you. He is saying, if someone wants to continue to abuse you, make them do it in a way that either disgraces them or elevates you to equal status. Jesus’ way is the way of equality, it is spiritual aikido, using the other person’s negative energy to side step the abuse and highlight the injustice.
Roman culture was very litigious. In fact one way to gain social status was to argue and win cases in court. If you won a case against someone who did not have the money to pay you, the court would award you their coat, or outer garment. This is the most you could get from someone without money. You could not take their inner garment or their sandals because it was seen as a disgrace to you if you caused someone else to be naked. So Jesus is not saying to give of yourself even unto nakedness, but he is saying, if someone tries to gain social status by taking your coat because you are too poor to pay whatever fine would otherwise be levied, they should be just as disgraced as if they took your inner garment, exposing your nakedness. Jesus’ way uses the tools at your disposal, in this case your poverty, to highlight injustice.
If you are going about your daily routine, Jesus continues, and a Roman soldier requires you to carry his pack for one mile, then carry it for two. This would get the Roman soldier in trouble. He could be reprimanded for excessive cruelty. As a student of history, I can tell you that carrying a pack for a mile was pretty mild compared to the cruelty some Roman rulers showed, and yet Jews had no recourse for exacting their retributive justice- an eye for an eye. Jesus is asking people to do something that might look like an innocent gesture of kindness- going the extra mile- to an outside observer, but to someone living under both the Jewish and Roman codes of ethics, it is a way to highlight the inherent injustice in the systems that govern their lives.
These are not passive actions, but they are non-violent. They amend the codes of ethics his Jewish community lived under by de-escalating violence and raising the oppressed to equal status. Jesus tells us we are to de-escalate violence and view and treat all people as equal, oppressed equal to oppressor, enemy equal to lover. For we are all equal in God’s eyes. This is God’s perfect law.
Jesus has been calling us in the Sermon on the Mount to create a community in which God’s law is perfected. Let’s look at this word, translated as perfect, telios. It literally means to come of age, or to reach maturity. Its connotations have to do with fulfilling all aspects of a code of behavior. Jesus says, if we live in the way he explains in the Sermon on the Mount, we will be perfecting God’s law on earth, or brining it into maturity. We will bring about the blessings described in the beatitudes.
We do this by, as we learned last week, respecting each person as a spiritually whole, beloved child of God. We do this by, as we learned the week before, being salt and light to the world, the catalyst for the types of changes that bring blessings and the light that allows others to see spiritual truths. We do this by, as we hear today, performing spiritual aikido in order to use the tools we have to side step injustice in such a way that it highlights systems of injustice.
Jesus is not calling us to live into the Greco-Roman codes of ethics- those of his contemporary oppressors- even as he is asking us to use them against themselves. Jesus is not calling us to live the letter of the Jewish laws either, for bringing God’s laws into perfection is not about perfect adherence to the letter of the law, but about bringing life to the heart of the law. This heart calls us to live with compassion and humility.
I can see why this sermon has so oft been used by protestant groups as their guidepost for reforming Christianity back to something considered a more pure tradition. It points out the things that belong to culture and calls us back to the things that come from God. It points out the things that separate us, diminishing our sense of unity under God. it is both the tradition we inherit and a critique of the tradition we inherit. And it is remarkably hard to live in this way all the time.
Our text from 1 Corinthians brings some depth to this conversation. Paul is writing to the church at Corinth; he acknowledges that he has laid a foundation on which others will build. This is how tradition works, especially in a protestant church. Our tradition is our foundation, our framing, but we are building on it all the time.
Paul calls Corinth to a similar kind of mischievous compassion that Jesus promotes in the Sermon on the Mount. He reminds us that our community is a temple of God. We are the perfecters of God’s laws. In deed, God’s laws can only be perfected by the ways we interact in community. When we act in ways that highlight injustice and bring blessings to those who experience material and spiritual poverty, then we are not just building on the foundations laid for us by Jesus and our protestant ancestors in faith, but we are perfecting God’s laws.
This type of mischievous compassion is exemplified by Ghandi’s homespun movement, in which he raised spinning ones own cloth to a spiritual practice. Not only was the act of spinning spiritually centering, but the result was to cut dependence on British cloth, which was a way that the British kept Indian citizens indebted to them. It is exemplified by the work of the Water Protector’s Respite Network, which provided hospitality to those brought to jail in Fargo from Bismarck, making their time here and travel back to Standing Rock one of welcome and empowerment. It is exemplified by the voices of American citizens who are communicating with our elected officials in record numbers right now, exercising the free speech of American Democracy.
If we are to lay our foundation only on Jesus, (as it says in the UCC constitution, Jesus is the only head of our church), then we build on a foundation of solid rock. Jesus has built on God’s foundation, the early church on Jesus’ foundation, and us on theirs. What are we building now?
Let us build a sermon on the mount community, a community where each person is respected as a spiritually whole child of God, where the things that divide us as humans are set aside in preference for the things that unite us as Jesus’ spiritual children, where we use the tools we have as spiritual aikido to highlight and eradicate the injustice of the systems we live in, giving preeminence to God’s laws and God’s blessings.
Whether you think we need to be acting as individuals, or as a faith community, the call to action is pretty clear in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus does not fill us with only good things, expecting us to go away feeling good about ourselves and our religion. He calls us to fill others with only good things, going into the world, in a spirit of peace, to de-escalate violence and use the tools we have and the systems we live in to uncover the injustice in our world. This is how God’s laws are perfected, how the blessings of the beatitudes come to fruition. Amen.
Crying Out for a Moment of Peace
Sunday, January 15th, 2017
Isaiah 49:1-6
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Psalm 133 Peace Be Still by Ben Chavis
Rev. Michelle Webber
This has been a tough week for me. And not for any specific reason. I have been struggling to maintain energy. This happens some times. I do my best to live into the light, love, grace, and hope that I find in Jesus, to be a follower of his way. But sometimes it is difficult. The task so daunting, it can be difficult to take the small actions that can eventually add up to change.
I am torn in this time in history between my desire to be fully engaged in the political realm, to be aware of each and every appointment, each act of our government, each new revelation about the possible future of our country, and my need to maintain a sense of hope and balance, which means disengaging for periods of Sabbath and reflection. And this is not unique to my personal political stance. Regardless of political party, or religious affiliation, or philosophical bent, it is difficult to remain fully engaged, fully awake, and mentally healthy at the same time.
And yet- I feel called to be just that- fully engaged and mentally healthy.
We heard a psalm today written by Rev. Ben Chavis. At the time he wrote it he worked for the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice. He had been arrested as a result of his work during the Civil Rights movement and wrote a series of psalms in prison that he described as “part of the overall social context of the witness made by the United Church of Christ…to combat … gross injustice.”[1]
We hear his voice, along with the voice of Howard Thurman, in our worship today as part of our educational theme “Hearing voices.” I read in his psalm “Peace Be Still” the angst I was feeling this week, the desire to continue the struggle for justice in the world, coupled with the need for time and space for Sabbath. “No longer worrying about the problem,” he writes, “but at peace.” He goes on to say,
“Don’t be so upset you can’t struggle.”[2]
It’s not saying don’t be upset. There are times to be upset.
Let us day dream for a moment. Imagine a better world, sometime when there will be justice and love for all people. What does that world look like? What is it that is more just? More equitable? How do people know they are loved? How have we brought about the kin-dom of God that Jesus promises?
When we realize all of the ways that our world is not like our vision for a better future, we get upset and rightly so. But don’t be so upset you can’t struggle.
One of my favorite faith-based organizers, Alexia Salvatierra, wrote that “One of the beautiful paradoxes of our faith is that acceptance of what is does not erase hope for what can be.” What we have celebrated at Standing Rock, or in the quest for lgbt rights, for example, can be easily over turned in the months ahead. And, I imagine, there will be much grieving if that comes to pass. But when we accept the losses we experience, e can access deep reserves of renewed energy. When we weep until tears are exhausted, “the heart is watered and new sprouts grow.”[3]
The problem, for me and for many, lies in the pace of things. In order to grow new sprouts we must take time to grieve our losses, celebrate our victories, nourish our souls, before moving on to the next challenge. We can not just charge back in without this time. Our reserves will dry up.
I am reminded of a lesson I learned singing in the Gospel Choir in seminary. I came to seminary with very little musical knowledge and even less confidence in my ability to sing in any way that would be enjoyable to others. In one of my first couple of rehearsals with the gospel choir there was a note us sopranos had to sing that lasted longer than my breath. When my breath ran out I just stopped singing. The director told us when our breath runs out, we should take a breath and then join back in the singing. My fear was that when my voice dropped out and came back in it would create a discordant moment as I found the right note again. I thought I had to sing, however poorly, or not sing. This dropping out and dropping back in thing made me shy.
But, in practicing this, dropping out long enough to breathe, I learned about the hearing of a collective of voices. When everyone was singing together, one of us could drop out to take a breath and join back in, without disrupting the note. In fact, we could hold the note longer than anyone of us had breath because we each took our breath break at different times.
In today’s section from Isaiah, the prophet has been called by God to deliver a message, but he feels like no one is listening. He has done the work he is called to do, but it doesn’t seem to be working. He has used all of his breath and he feels alone such that if he stops to breathe, the work also stops. He is so upset that he can’t struggle any more.
He says, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing.”
This is, perhaps, where I found myself this past week. No matter how much I do, there is more to do. And I needed to drop out and just breathe for a bit, but the anxiety that the work would not continue as I dropped out kept me from being centered. I suppose this is quite vain. Who am I to think my one person’s worth of work makes a world of difference?
But when we work together… When we discern our collective calling and work together to achieve it, one of us can drop out to just breathe while others keep on. And then, once breath has been caught, we just come right back in. This is the joy of Christian community, that we can have periods of neediness, without diminishing God’s work in the world. Each of us has our time to hold the note and our time to breathe.
We see this sense of communal responsibility in the text from 1 Corinthians, too. Paul reminds the church at Corinth how they have been called by God and acknowledges that they are not lacking in any spiritual gift. Their community has been blessed with all of the gifts of Spirit that Paul identifies, prophesy, healing, preaching…That is not to say that any one person had all of these gifts. One was skilled in healing, one in preaching, one with the gift of prophesy, such that the community was imbued with all gifts. Such is the case with us, too. Some are skilled in building maintenance, some in bible study, others in caring for members who are sick, others in reaching out into our community to seek justice. No individual one of us can or should do all of these things, but together we have all the skills needed for the church.
We learn from Isaiah that when he has used all of his gifts to no avail, he took a moment to reinvest in the source of his strength, God who called him before he was born. He turns from his despair to the source of life. And this is what I did this week. To turn from the anxiety that I can not do it all- to acknowledge that there are times I need to just breathe and not do anything- and connect with the source of life.
Two Sundays from today we will be having our annual meeting, during which we will vote in a new slate of board members. It takes all gifts for our church to work well. If you are in the needing to breathe stage- take time to breathe. If you are able to carry a note, then let us know which note you will carry by signing up for a board or committee. Thank you for being a part of our collective of voices. Amen.
[1] Ben Chavis Jr, Pslams from Prison, Pg. xvi
[2] Ben Chavis Jr, Pslams from Prison, Pg. 150
[3] Alexia Slavatierra, Faith-Rooted Community Organizing, Pg. 172
This has been a tough week for me. And not for any specific reason. I have been struggling to maintain energy. This happens some times. I do my best to live into the light, love, grace, and hope that I find in Jesus, to be a follower of his way. But sometimes it is difficult. The task so daunting, it can be difficult to take the small actions that can eventually add up to change.
I am torn in this time in history between my desire to be fully engaged in the political realm, to be aware of each and every appointment, each act of our government, each new revelation about the possible future of our country, and my need to maintain a sense of hope and balance, which means disengaging for periods of Sabbath and reflection. And this is not unique to my personal political stance. Regardless of political party, or religious affiliation, or philosophical bent, it is difficult to remain fully engaged, fully awake, and mentally healthy at the same time.
And yet- I feel called to be just that- fully engaged and mentally healthy.
We heard a psalm today written by Rev. Ben Chavis. At the time he wrote it he worked for the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice. He had been arrested as a result of his work during the Civil Rights movement and wrote a series of psalms in prison that he described as “part of the overall social context of the witness made by the United Church of Christ…to combat … gross injustice.”[1]
We hear his voice, along with the voice of Howard Thurman, in our worship today as part of our educational theme “Hearing voices.” I read in his psalm “Peace Be Still” the angst I was feeling this week, the desire to continue the struggle for justice in the world, coupled with the need for time and space for Sabbath. “No longer worrying about the problem,” he writes, “but at peace.” He goes on to say,
“Don’t be so upset you can’t struggle.”[2]
It’s not saying don’t be upset. There are times to be upset.
Let us day dream for a moment. Imagine a better world, sometime when there will be justice and love for all people. What does that world look like? What is it that is more just? More equitable? How do people know they are loved? How have we brought about the kin-dom of God that Jesus promises?
When we realize all of the ways that our world is not like our vision for a better future, we get upset and rightly so. But don’t be so upset you can’t struggle.
One of my favorite faith-based organizers, Alexia Salvatierra, wrote that “One of the beautiful paradoxes of our faith is that acceptance of what is does not erase hope for what can be.” What we have celebrated at Standing Rock, or in the quest for lgbt rights, for example, can be easily over turned in the months ahead. And, I imagine, there will be much grieving if that comes to pass. But when we accept the losses we experience, e can access deep reserves of renewed energy. When we weep until tears are exhausted, “the heart is watered and new sprouts grow.”[3]
The problem, for me and for many, lies in the pace of things. In order to grow new sprouts we must take time to grieve our losses, celebrate our victories, nourish our souls, before moving on to the next challenge. We can not just charge back in without this time. Our reserves will dry up.
I am reminded of a lesson I learned singing in the Gospel Choir in seminary. I came to seminary with very little musical knowledge and even less confidence in my ability to sing in any way that would be enjoyable to others. In one of my first couple of rehearsals with the gospel choir there was a note us sopranos had to sing that lasted longer than my breath. When my breath ran out I just stopped singing. The director told us when our breath runs out, we should take a breath and then join back in the singing. My fear was that when my voice dropped out and came back in it would create a discordant moment as I found the right note again. I thought I had to sing, however poorly, or not sing. This dropping out and dropping back in thing made me shy.
But, in practicing this, dropping out long enough to breathe, I learned about the hearing of a collective of voices. When everyone was singing together, one of us could drop out to take a breath and join back in, without disrupting the note. In fact, we could hold the note longer than anyone of us had breath because we each took our breath break at different times.
In today’s section from Isaiah, the prophet has been called by God to deliver a message, but he feels like no one is listening. He has done the work he is called to do, but it doesn’t seem to be working. He has used all of his breath and he feels alone such that if he stops to breathe, the work also stops. He is so upset that he can’t struggle any more.
He says, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing.”
This is, perhaps, where I found myself this past week. No matter how much I do, there is more to do. And I needed to drop out and just breathe for a bit, but the anxiety that the work would not continue as I dropped out kept me from being centered. I suppose this is quite vain. Who am I to think my one person’s worth of work makes a world of difference?
But when we work together… When we discern our collective calling and work together to achieve it, one of us can drop out to just breathe while others keep on. And then, once breath has been caught, we just come right back in. This is the joy of Christian community, that we can have periods of neediness, without diminishing God’s work in the world. Each of us has our time to hold the note and our time to breathe.
We see this sense of communal responsibility in the text from 1 Corinthians, too. Paul reminds the church at Corinth how they have been called by God and acknowledges that they are not lacking in any spiritual gift. Their community has been blessed with all of the gifts of Spirit that Paul identifies, prophesy, healing, preaching…That is not to say that any one person had all of these gifts. One was skilled in healing, one in preaching, one with the gift of prophesy, such that the community was imbued with all gifts. Such is the case with us, too. Some are skilled in building maintenance, some in bible study, others in caring for members who are sick, others in reaching out into our community to seek justice. No individual one of us can or should do all of these things, but together we have all the skills needed for the church.
We learn from Isaiah that when he has used all of his gifts to no avail, he took a moment to reinvest in the source of his strength, God who called him before he was born. He turns from his despair to the source of life. And this is what I did this week. To turn from the anxiety that I can not do it all- to acknowledge that there are times I need to just breathe and not do anything- and connect with the source of life.
Two Sundays from today we will be having our annual meeting, during which we will vote in a new slate of board members. It takes all gifts for our church to work well. If you are in the needing to breathe stage- take time to breathe. If you are able to carry a note, then let us know which note you will carry by signing up for a board or committee. Thank you for being a part of our collective of voices. Amen.
[1] Ben Chavis Jr, Pslams from Prison, Pg. xvi
[2] Ben Chavis Jr, Pslams from Prison, Pg. 150
[3] Alexia Slavatierra, Faith-Rooted Community Organizing, Pg. 172