Sunday, June 25, 2023
Sunday, June 18. 2023
June 18, 2023 Worship - YouTube
June 18, 2023 Worship - YouTube
Sunday, June 4, 2023
Communion Sunday
No video
Communion Sunday
No video
Sunday, May 14, 2023
Special Collection - SiCM Emergency Food Pantry
Mother's Day
(13) May 14, 2023 Worship - YouTube
Special Collection - SiCM Emergency Food Pantry
Mother's Day
(13) May 14, 2023 Worship - YouTube
Sunday, April 9, 2023
Easter Sunday
Special Collection - Heifer International
April 9, 2023 Worship - YouTube
Easter Sunday
Special Collection - Heifer International
April 9, 2023 Worship - YouTube
Sunday. April 2, 2023
Palm Sunday
Communion Sunday
No Video
Palm Sunday
Communion Sunday
No Video
Sunday, March 12, 2023
Third Sunday of Lent
Special Collection - SiCM Emergency Food Pantry
(64) March 12, 2023 Worship - YouTube
Third Sunday of Lent
Special Collection - SiCM Emergency Food Pantry
(64) March 12, 2023 Worship - YouTube
Daylight Savings Time begins Sunday, March 12th at 2:00AM.
Sunday, February 12, 2023
Special Collection - Heifer International
(19) February 12, 2023 Worship - YouTube
Special Collection - Heifer International
(19) February 12, 2023 Worship - YouTube
Sunday, January 8, 2023
Epiphany Sunday
Special Collection - SiCM Emergency Food Pantry
(272) January 8, 2023 Worship - YouTube
Epiphany Sunday
Special Collection - SiCM Emergency Food Pantry
(272) January 8, 2023 Worship - YouTube
Sunday, December 25, 2022
Christmas Sunday
Joy to the World!
No Video
Christmas Sunday
Joy to the World!
No Video
Saturday, December 24, 2022
Christmas Eve Service 3:00pm
Oh, Holy Night
(250) December 24, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Christmas Eve Service 3:00pm
Oh, Holy Night
(250) December 24, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Sunday, December 11, 2022
Third Sunday of Advent
Special Collection - SiCM Emergency Food Pantry
(228) December 11, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Third Sunday of Advent
Special Collection - SiCM Emergency Food Pantry
(228) December 11, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Sunday, December 4, 2022
Second Sunday of Advent
Communion Sunday
(219) December 4, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Second Sunday of Advent
Communion Sunday
(219) December 4, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Sunday, November 20, 2022
(195) November 20, 2022 Worship - YouTube
(195) November 20, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Sunday, November 13, 2022
Special Collection - Heifer International
(185) November13, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Stockade-a-Thon - Check your route to/from church
Special Collection - Heifer International
(185) November13, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Stockade-a-Thon - Check your route to/from church
2022_stockadeathon_course.jpg | |
File Size: | 45 kb |
File Type: | jpg |
Sunday, October 30, 2022
(164) October 30, 2022 worship - YouTube
Today: Church Conference at 1:00pm. Location: Eastern Parkway UMC, corner of Eastern Pkwy and Palmer Av.
Clocks "fall back" one hour on Sunday, November 6th at 2:00am.
Next Sunday, Nov. 6th is All Saints' Sunday, we will honor this past year's saints at worship service.
(164) October 30, 2022 worship - YouTube
Today: Church Conference at 1:00pm. Location: Eastern Parkway UMC, corner of Eastern Pkwy and Palmer Av.
Clocks "fall back" one hour on Sunday, November 6th at 2:00am.
Next Sunday, Nov. 6th is All Saints' Sunday, we will honor this past year's saints at worship service.
Sunday, October 23, 2022
No video
No video
Sunday, October 9, 2022
Special Collection - SiCM Emergency Food Pantry
(129) October 9, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Special Collection - SiCM Emergency Food Pantry
(129) October 9, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Sunday, September 11, 2022
Special Collection - Heifer International
(91) September 11, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Special Collection - Heifer International
(91) September 11, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Sunday, July 17, 2022
(238) July 17, 2022 Worship - YouTube
(238) July 17, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Sunday, July 10, 2022
Special Collection - Emergency Food Pantry
(229) July 10, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Special Collection - Emergency Food Pantry
(229) July 10, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Sunday, July 3, 2022
Communion Sunday
Welcome Rev, Mackey!
Communion Sunday
Welcome Rev, Mackey!
Sunday, June 26, 2022
Goodbye & Best Wishes, our well-loved Christian Jewell, we will miss you!
(207) June 26, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Goodbye & Best Wishes, our well-loved Christian Jewell, we will miss you!
(207) June 26, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Sunday, June 12, 2022
Special Collection - Heifer International
(193) June 12, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Special Collection - Heifer International
(193) June 12, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Sunday, May 29, 2022
Ascension Sunday
Ascension Sunday
Sunday, May 22, 2022
(149) May 22, 2022 Worship - YouTube
(149) May 22, 2022 Worship - YouTube
The Annual Crop Walk to fight hunger will be held May 1, 2022. This event helps to fund the SiCM Emergency Food Pantry as well as other food pantries in the area. You may donate to a specific team member (Bev Borawski, Pat Kinal or Pat Scholtz) or have your donation divided evenly between the three of them. Please make your donation checks payable to "Faith United Methodist Church" and write Crop Walk on the memo line.
Sunday, April 24, 2022
Holy Week Services
Maundy Thursday, April 14th, 7:00pm at Faith UMC
Good Friday, April 15th, 2:00pm at Scotia UMC, Ten Broeck St.
Maundy Thursday, April 14th, 7:00pm at Faith UMC
Good Friday, April 15th, 2:00pm at Scotia UMC, Ten Broeck St.
Sunday, April 10, 2022
Palm Sunday
Special Collection - Heifer International
(81) April 10, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Palm Sunday
Special Collection - Heifer International
(81) April 10, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Sunday, April 3, 2022
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Communion Sunday
Next Sunday is Palm Sunday, the special collection is for Heifer International.
Due to technical difficulties, the video only shows the benediction and postlude.
(69) Worship Service, April 3, 2022 - YouTube
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Communion Sunday
Next Sunday is Palm Sunday, the special collection is for Heifer International.
Due to technical difficulties, the video only shows the benediction and postlude.
(69) Worship Service, April 3, 2022 - YouTube
2022_easter_flower_order_form.docx | |
File Size: | 180 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Sunday, March 13, 2022
Second Sunday of Lent
Special Collection - SiCM Emergency Food Pantry
Easter Flowers Order Form for download above.
(35) March 13, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Second Sunday of Lent
Special Collection - SiCM Emergency Food Pantry
Easter Flowers Order Form for download above.
(35) March 13, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Sunday, February 13, 2022
Special Collection - Heifer International
February 13, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Special Collection - Heifer International
February 13, 2022 Worship - YouTube
Sunday, February 6, 2022
Communion Sunday
Click the link below to view the video:
February 6 worship - YouTube
Communion Sunday
Click the link below to view the video:
February 6 worship - YouTube
Sunday, January 23, 2022
Copy and paste the link below to view the video
https://youtu.be/F849LQZiI5Q
Copy and paste the link below to view the video
https://youtu.be/F849LQZiI5Q
Sunday, January 9, 2022
Special Collection- SiCM Emergency Food Pantry
Special Collection- SiCM Emergency Food Pantry
Sunday, January 2, 2022
Communion Sunday
Wishing you a happy, healthy New Year!
Scripture:
Hymns:
What Child Is This UMH #219
We Three Kings UMH #254
Click the link below to view the video:
January 2, 2022 - YouTube
Communion Sunday
Wishing you a happy, healthy New Year!
Scripture:
Hymns:
What Child Is This UMH #219
We Three Kings UMH #254
Click the link below to view the video:
January 2, 2022 - YouTube
Friday, December 24, 2021
Christmas Eve Service
Click the link below to view the video:
Christmas Eve Service - YouTube
Christmas Eve Service
Click the link below to view the video:
Christmas Eve Service - YouTube
Sunday, December 19, 2021
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Scripture
Hymns
Here I Am, Lord UMH #593
We Walk by Faith FWS #2196
Click the link below to view the video:
December 19, 2021 - YouTube
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Scripture
Hymns
Here I Am, Lord UMH #593
We Walk by Faith FWS #2196
Click the link below to view the video:
December 19, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday. December 12, 2021
Third Sunday of Advent
Special Collection - Heifer International
Scripture
Isaiah 12:2-6
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18
Hymns
Good Christian Friends, Rejoice UMH #224
In the Bleak Midwinter UMH #221
Click the link below to view the video:
December 12, 2021 - YouTube
Third Sunday of Advent
Special Collection - Heifer International
Scripture
Isaiah 12:2-6
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18
Hymns
Good Christian Friends, Rejoice UMH #224
In the Bleak Midwinter UMH #221
Click the link below to view the video:
December 12, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, December 5, 2021
Second Sunday of Advent
Communion Sunday
Scripture
Malachi 3:1-4
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6
Hymns
Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus UMH #196
Angels from the Realms of Glory UMH #220
Click the link below to view the video:
Sunday, December 5, 2021 - YouTube
Second Sunday of Advent
Communion Sunday
Scripture
Malachi 3:1-4
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6
Hymns
Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus UMH #196
Angels from the Realms of Glory UMH #220
Click the link below to view the video:
Sunday, December 5, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, November 28, 2021
First Sunday of Advent
Scripture
Jeremiah 33:14-16
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36
Hymns
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel UMH #211
How Firm a Foundation UMH #529
Click the link below to view the video:
November 28, 2021 - YouTube
First Sunday of Advent
Scripture
Jeremiah 33:14-16
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36
Hymns
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel UMH #211
How Firm a Foundation UMH #529
Click the link below to view the video:
November 28, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, November 21, 2021
Scripture
Hymns
Come Ye Thankful People, Come UMH #694
Rejoice, the Lord Is King UMH #715
Click the link below to view the video:
November 21, 2021 - YouTube
Scripture
Hymns
Come Ye Thankful People, Come UMH #694
Rejoice, the Lord Is King UMH #715
Click the link below to view the video:
November 21, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, November 14, 2021
Special Collection Heifer International
Opening Prayer
Creator God, we are surrounded by signs of your presence and power,
and we are grateful for your gifts!
Forgive us when we take them for granted,
and find things to complain about in the midst of your bounty.
Fill us with your joy!
Amen.
Scripture
Psalm 127
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44
Hymns
Blest Be the Tie That Binds UMH #557
Take My Life, and Let It Be UMH #399
Click the link below to view the service:
November 14, 2021 - YouTube
Special Collection Heifer International
Opening Prayer
Creator God, we are surrounded by signs of your presence and power,
and we are grateful for your gifts!
Forgive us when we take them for granted,
and find things to complain about in the midst of your bounty.
Fill us with your joy!
Amen.
Scripture
Psalm 127
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44
Hymns
Blest Be the Tie That Binds UMH #557
Take My Life, and Let It Be UMH #399
Click the link below to view the service:
November 14, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, November 7, 2021
All Saints Sunday
Communion Sunday
Scripture
Isaiah 25:6-9
John 11:32-44
Revelation 21:1-6a
Hymns
This Is a Day of New Beginnings UMH #383
For All The Saints UMH #711
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling UMH #384
Click the link below to view the video:
November 7, 2021 - YouTube
All Saints Sunday
Communion Sunday
Scripture
Isaiah 25:6-9
John 11:32-44
Revelation 21:1-6a
Hymns
This Is a Day of New Beginnings UMH #383
For All The Saints UMH #711
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling UMH #384
Click the link below to view the video:
November 7, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, October 31, 2021
Scripture
Psalm 146:1-10
Hebrews 9:11-14
Mark 12:28-34
Hymns
A Mighty Fortress UMH #110
More Love to Thee, O Christ UMH #453
Click the link below to view the video:
October 31, 2021 - YouTube
Scripture
Psalm 146:1-10
Hebrews 9:11-14
Mark 12:28-34
Hymns
A Mighty Fortress UMH #110
More Love to Thee, O Christ UMH #453
Click the link below to view the video:
October 31, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, October 24, 2021
Scripture
Hymns
My Faith Looks Up to Thee UMH #452
O How I Love Jesus UMH #170
Click the link below to view the video:
October 24, 2021 - YouTube
Scripture
Hymns
My Faith Looks Up to Thee UMH #452
O How I Love Jesus UMH #170
Click the link below to view the video:
October 24, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, October 17, 2021
Scripture
Isaiah 53:4-12
Mark 10:35-45
Hymns
Sing the Almighty Power of God UMH #152
All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name UMH #154
Click the link below to view the video:
October 17, 2021 - YouTube
Scripture
Isaiah 53:4-12
Mark 10:35-45
Hymns
Sing the Almighty Power of God UMH #152
All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name UMH #154
Click the link below to view the video:
October 17, 2021 - YouTube
poetjesus.docx | |
File Size: | 19 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Sunday, October 10, 2021
Special Collection for Heifer International
Scripture
Hymns
The Summons FWS # 2130
O Jesus, I Have Promised UMH #396
Click the link below to view the service:
(10) October 10, 2021 - YouTube
Special Collection for Heifer International
Scripture
Hymns
The Summons FWS # 2130
O Jesus, I Have Promised UMH #396
Click the link below to view the service:
(10) October 10, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, October 3, 2021
Communion Sunday
Scripture
Hymns
Tell Me The Stories of Jesus UMH #277
Jesus' Hands Were Kind Hands UMH # 273
Click the link below to view the video:
(83) October 3, 2021 - YouTube
Communion Sunday
Scripture
Hymns
Tell Me The Stories of Jesus UMH #277
Jesus' Hands Were Kind Hands UMH # 273
Click the link below to view the video:
(83) October 3, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, September 26, 2021
Scripture
Hymns
What A Friend We Have In Jesus UMH #526
Living for Jesus FWS #2149
Click the link below to view the video:
(72) September 26, 2021 - YouTube
Scripture
Hymns
What A Friend We Have In Jesus UMH #526
Living for Jesus FWS #2149
Click the link below to view the video:
(72) September 26, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, September 19, 2021
Scripture
Hymns
Blessed Assurance UMH #360
O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee UMH #430
Click the link below to view the service.
(60) September 19, 2021 - YouTube
Scripture
Hymns
Blessed Assurance UMH #360
O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee UMH #430
Click the link below to view the service.
(60) September 19, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, September 12, 2021
Special Collection - SiCM-Emergency Food Pantry
Call to Worship
Leader: If we want to follow Jesus, let us deny ourselves and pick up our crosses.
All: But that isn’t easy
Leader: No. It demands intention and energy.
All: It will change our whole lives.
Leader: Come, all of you. Come and be led, not by self, but by Christ.
All: Christ, we come, seeking your clarity and your guidance.
Amen.
Scripture
Psalm 19
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38
Hymns
Nearer, My God to Thee UMH #528
How Great Thou Art UMH #77
Click the link below to view the service
(48) September 12, 2021 - YouTube
Special Collection - SiCM-Emergency Food Pantry
Call to Worship
Leader: If we want to follow Jesus, let us deny ourselves and pick up our crosses.
All: But that isn’t easy
Leader: No. It demands intention and energy.
All: It will change our whole lives.
Leader: Come, all of you. Come and be led, not by self, but by Christ.
All: Christ, we come, seeking your clarity and your guidance.
Amen.
Scripture
Psalm 19
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38
Hymns
Nearer, My God to Thee UMH #528
How Great Thou Art UMH #77
Click the link below to view the service
(48) September 12, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, September 5, 2021
Communion Sunday
Unison Prayer:
God of the cosmos, your love reigns,
and rains over us with reckless abandon,
yet we are often unaware of the ways you grace us.
Help us in this hour to open to your word,
relax into your presence, and grow into your likeness.
Amen
Scripture
Psalm 125
Mark 7:24-37
Hymns
Open My Eyes, That I May See UMH #454
He Touched Me UMH #367
Click the link below to view the worship video:
(37) September 5, 2021 - YouTube
Communion Sunday
Unison Prayer:
God of the cosmos, your love reigns,
and rains over us with reckless abandon,
yet we are often unaware of the ways you grace us.
Help us in this hour to open to your word,
relax into your presence, and grow into your likeness.
Amen
Scripture
Psalm 125
Mark 7:24-37
Hymns
Open My Eyes, That I May See UMH #454
He Touched Me UMH #367
Click the link below to view the worship video:
(37) September 5, 2021 - YouTube
There will be a Church Conference Wednesday, September 1st at 5:00pm. Our D.S., the Rev. Debbie Earthrowl will serve as Elder. The purpose of the conference is to elect church leadership. The conference will be a hybrid in-person/Zoom meeting. A slate of nominees and details regarding the Zoom link will be sent closer to the date of the conference.
Sunday, August 29, 2021
Scripture
Psalm 46
Galatians 2:15-21
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Hymns
Fairest Lord Jesus UMH #189
Lord of the Dance UMH #261
Click the link below to view the Worship Video:
(25) August 29, 2021 - YouTube
Scripture
Psalm 46
Galatians 2:15-21
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Hymns
Fairest Lord Jesus UMH #189
Lord of the Dance UMH #261
Click the link below to view the Worship Video:
(25) August 29, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, August 22, 2021
Scripture
Hymns
How Lovely, Lord, How Lovely FWS #2042
God of Grace and God of Glory UMH #577
Click the link below to view the video service:
(15) Sunday, August 22, 2021 - YouTube
Scripture
Hymns
How Lovely, Lord, How Lovely FWS #2042
God of Grace and God of Glory UMH #577
Click the link below to view the video service:
(15) Sunday, August 22, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, August 15, 2021
Special Collection - Heifer International
Scripture
Psalm 111
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58
Hymns
Be Thou My Vision UMH #451
Now Thank We All Our God UMH #102
Please click the link below to view the video:
Special Collection - Heifer International
Scripture
Psalm 111
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58
Hymns
Be Thou My Vision UMH #451
Now Thank We All Our God UMH #102
Please click the link below to view the video:
Sunday, August 8. 2021
Special Collection - Heifer International
Scripture
Psalm 130
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
John 6:35, 41-51
Hymns
O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee UMH #430
God Be with You Till We Meet Again UMH #672
Click the link below to view the video:
August 8, 2021 - YouTube
Special Collection - Heifer International
Scripture
Psalm 130
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
John 6:35, 41-51
Hymns
O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee UMH #430
God Be with You Till We Meet Again UMH #672
Click the link below to view the video:
August 8, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, August 1, 2021
Communion Sunday
Scripture
Psalm 51:1-12
Ephesians 4:1-16
John 6:24-35
Hymns
Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken UMH #731
Forward Through the Ages UMH #555
Click the link below to view the video:
August 1, 2021 - YouTube
Communion Sunday
Scripture
Psalm 51:1-12
Ephesians 4:1-16
John 6:24-35
Hymns
Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken UMH #731
Forward Through the Ages UMH #555
Click the link below to view the video:
August 1, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, July 25, 2021
Scripture
Hymns
My Hope Is Built UMH #368
How Firm A Foundation #529
Click the link below to view the video:
Sunday, July 25, 2021 - YouTube
Scripture
Hymns
My Hope Is Built UMH #368
How Firm A Foundation #529
Click the link below to view the video:
Sunday, July 25, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, July 18, 2021
Scripture
Hymns
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind UMH #358
Tell Me the Stories of Jesus UMH #277
Click the link below to watch the video:
Sunday, July 18 2021 - YouTube
Scripture
Hymns
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind UMH #358
Tell Me the Stories of Jesus UMH #277
Click the link below to watch the video:
Sunday, July 18 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, June 27, 2021
Scripture
Psalm 45:10-17
1 Corinthians 3:18-20
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
Hymns
Softly and Tenderly, Jesus Is Calling UMH #348
What a Friend We Have in Jesus UMH #526
Click on the link below to view the video:
Sunday, June 27, 2021 - YouTube
Scripture
Psalm 45:10-17
1 Corinthians 3:18-20
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
Hymns
Softly and Tenderly, Jesus Is Calling UMH #348
What a Friend We Have in Jesus UMH #526
Click on the link below to view the video:
Sunday, June 27, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, June 20, 2021
Happy Father's Day! Scripture Psalm 9: 9-20 2 Corinthians 6: 1-13 Mark 4: 35-41 Hymns Be Still, My Soul UMH #534 God of Grace, and God of Glory UMH #577 Click the link below to view the video: June 20, 2021 - YouTube |
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Sunday, June 13, 2021
Scripture
Psalm 20, 2 Corinthians 5:6-17, Mark 4:26-34
Hymns
Come, Ye Thankful People Come UMH #694
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name UMH #155
Click the link below to view the video
Sunday, June 13, 2021 - YouTube
Scripture
Psalm 20, 2 Corinthians 5:6-17, Mark 4:26-34
Hymns
Come, Ye Thankful People Come UMH #694
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name UMH #155
Click the link below to view the video
Sunday, June 13, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, June 6, 2021
Communion Sunday
Scripture
Psalm 138
2 Corinthians 4: 13-5:1
Mark 3: 20-35
Hymns
This Is My Father’s World UMH #144
Lord of the Dance UMH #261
Click the link below to view the worship video:
June 6, 2021 - YouTube
Communion Sunday
Scripture
Psalm 138
2 Corinthians 4: 13-5:1
Mark 3: 20-35
Hymns
This Is My Father’s World UMH #144
Lord of the Dance UMH #261
Click the link below to view the worship video:
June 6, 2021 - YouTube
#Sunday, May 30, 2021
Scripture
Psalm 29
Romans 8: 12-17
John 3: 1-17
Hymns
Of The Father’s Love Begotten UMH#184
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty UMH#64
Click the link below to view the service:
May 30. 2021 - YouTube
Scripture
Psalm 29
Romans 8: 12-17
John 3: 1-17
Hymns
Of The Father’s Love Begotten UMH#184
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty UMH#64
Click the link below to view the service:
May 30. 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, May 23, 2021
Pentecost Sunday
Scripture:
Acts 2:1-21, Romans 8:12-17, 22-27
Hymns:
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling UMH #384
Open My Eyes, That I May See UMH #454
Click the link below to view the service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kILsAzjsmZs
Pentecost Sunday
Scripture:
Acts 2:1-21, Romans 8:12-17, 22-27
Hymns:
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling UMH #384
Open My Eyes, That I May See UMH #454
Click the link below to view the service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kILsAzjsmZs
Please see the message from the Reopening Task Force on the Home page.
Sunday, May 16, 2021
Ascension Sunday
Scripture:
Acts 1:1-11
Ephesians 1:15-23
Luke 24:44-53
Hymns:
Thine Be the Glory UMH #308
Crown Him with Many Crowns UMH #327
Clickthe link below to view the service:
May 16, 2021 Ascension Sunday - YouTube
Ascension Sunday
Scripture:
Acts 1:1-11
Ephesians 1:15-23
Luke 24:44-53
Hymns:
Thine Be the Glory UMH #308
Crown Him with Many Crowns UMH #327
Clickthe link below to view the service:
May 16, 2021 Ascension Sunday - YouTube
Sunday, May 9, 2021
Happy Mother's Day!
Scripture:
Psalm 98
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17
Hymns:
The Summons FWS #1230
What a Friend We Have in Jesus UMH #526
Copy and paste the link below to your browser to view the worship service.
May 9, 2021 - YouTube
Happy Mother's Day!
Scripture:
Psalm 98
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17
Hymns:
The Summons FWS #1230
What a Friend We Have in Jesus UMH #526
Copy and paste the link below to your browser to view the worship service.
May 9, 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, May 2, 2021
Communion Sunday
Scripture:
Psalm 22:25-31
1 John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8
Hymns:
I Need Thee Every Hour UMH #397
Lord, I Want to be a Christian UMH #402
Copy and paste the link below to your browser to view the service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ODpC2TxnHk
Communion Sunday
Scripture:
Psalm 22:25-31
1 John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8
Hymns:
I Need Thee Every Hour UMH #397
Lord, I Want to be a Christian UMH #402
Copy and paste the link below to your browser to view the service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ODpC2TxnHk
The Committee on Native American Ministry wishes to thank all who generously donated the over $90. collected last Sunday.
Sunday, April 25, 2021
Native American Ministries Sunday
Special Collection
Scripture:
Hymns:
Abide with Me UMHH #700
O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing UMH #57
Cthe link below to view the worship service:
Sunday, April 25, 2021 - YouTube
CROP WALK DONATIONSMAY BE MAILIED TO THE CHURCH!
Native American Ministry Moment:
Native American Ministries Sunday
Special Collection
Scripture:
Hymns:
Abide with Me UMHH #700
O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing UMH #57
Cthe link below to view the worship service:
Sunday, April 25, 2021 - YouTube
CROP WALK DONATIONSMAY BE MAILIED TO THE CHURCH!
Native American Ministry Moment:
nam_sunday2021.docx | |
File Size: | 91 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Sunday, April 18, 2021
Scripture:
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19, 1 Peter 1:17-23, Luke 24:13-35
Hymns:
Be Thou My Vision UMH #451
He Touched Me UMH #367
Copy and paste the link below to your browser to view the worship service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahko7qq9V-w
Scripture:
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19, 1 Peter 1:17-23, Luke 24:13-35
Hymns:
Be Thou My Vision UMH #451
He Touched Me UMH #367
Copy and paste the link below to your browser to view the worship service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahko7qq9V-w
The 2021 Crop Walk will be a virtual event this year. Donations may be left in an offering plate designated for Crop Walk donations at the church in-person worship or by check. You may mail a donation addressed to the church, attention of Eileen or Pat S, be sure to write Crop Walk in the memo line. Thanks as always for your generous donations providing food to those in need in our community.
Sunday, April 11, 2021
Scripture:
Hymns:
Breathe on Me, Breath of God UMH #420
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling UMH #384
Copy and paste the link below to your browser to view the Worship Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLczN-34VVc
Scripture:
Hymns:
Breathe on Me, Breath of God UMH #420
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling UMH #384
Copy and paste the link below to your browser to view the Worship Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLczN-34VVc
Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021
He Is Risen! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Scripture:
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24, Acts 10:34-43, John 20:1-18
Hymns:
He Lives UMH #310
Christ the Lord Is Risen Today UMH #302
Click the link below to view the video:
Easter Service 2021 - YouTube
He Is Risen! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Scripture:
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24, Acts 10:34-43, John 20:1-18
Hymns:
He Lives UMH #310
Christ the Lord Is Risen Today UMH #302
Click the link below to view the video:
Easter Service 2021 - YouTube
Sunday, March 28, 2021
Palm Sunday
Scripture:
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29, Philippians 2:5-11, Mark 11:1-11
Hymns:
Tell Me the Stories of Jesus UMH #277
All Glory, Laud and Honor UMH #280
Click the link below to view the service:
(1) Palm Sunday Service - YouTube
Palm Sunday
Scripture:
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29, Philippians 2:5-11, Mark 11:1-11
Hymns:
Tell Me the Stories of Jesus UMH #277
All Glory, Laud and Honor UMH #280
Click the link below to view the service:
(1) Palm Sunday Service - YouTube
Sunday, March 21, 2021
5th Sunday of Lent
Scripture:
Hymns:
Here I Am, Lord #593
Lord, Dismiss Us with Thy Blessing UMH #671
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/kvSsx4gZWCw
5th Sunday of Lent
Scripture:
Hymns:
Here I Am, Lord #593
Lord, Dismiss Us with Thy Blessing UMH #671
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/kvSsx4gZWCw
Sunday, March 14, 2021
4th Sunday of Lent
Scripture:
Numbers 21:4-9
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21
Hymns:
Of the Father’s Love Begotten UMH #184
Living for Jesus FWS #2149
Please click the link below to view the video service:
https://youtu.be/A_pYcmQ6R74
Sunday, March 7, 2021
3rd Sunday of Lent
Communion Sunday
Please have your bread and cup prepared
Scripture:
Exodus 20:1-17
1 Corinthians 1: 18-25
John 2:13-22
Link to video referenced in Pastor's sermon:
https://youtu.be/wc4uKXgA3-U
Hymns:
How Great Thou Art UMH #77
Beneath the Cross of Jesus UMH #297
Communion Service UMH p.14
Click the link below to view the service:
https://youtu.be/c3ZwWBx67h4
3rd Sunday of Lent
Communion Sunday
Please have your bread and cup prepared
Scripture:
Exodus 20:1-17
1 Corinthians 1: 18-25
John 2:13-22
Link to video referenced in Pastor's sermon:
https://youtu.be/wc4uKXgA3-U
Hymns:
How Great Thou Art UMH #77
Beneath the Cross of Jesus UMH #297
Communion Service UMH p.14
Click the link below to view the service:
https://youtu.be/c3ZwWBx67h4
2021_easter_lily_order_form.docx | |
File Size: | 13 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Sunday, February 28, 2021
2nd Sunday of Lent
Scripture:
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38
Hymns:
The Summons FWS #2130
Be Still, My Soul UMH #534
Click the link below to view the service:
https://youtu.be/qhxjFwmd1P4
2nd Sunday of Lent
Scripture:
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38
Hymns:
The Summons FWS #2130
Be Still, My Soul UMH #534
Click the link below to view the service:
https://youtu.be/qhxjFwmd1P4
Sunday, February 21, 2021
1st Sunday of Lent
Scripture:
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11
Hymns:
Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days UMH #269
Come Thou Almighty King UMH #61
Click on the link below to view the service:
https://youtu.be/2A4SuWGXfOs
1st Sunday of Lent
Scripture:
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11
Hymns:
Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days UMH #269
Come Thou Almighty King UMH #61
Click on the link below to view the service:
https://youtu.be/2A4SuWGXfOs
Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Click the link below to view the service:
https://youtu.be/56jXa2sNeGs
Click the link below to view the service:
https://youtu.be/56jXa2sNeGs
Sunday, February 14, 2021
Transfiguration Sunday
Scripture:
2 Kings 2:1-12
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Mark 9:2-9
Hymns:
Open My Eyes, That I May See UMH #454
Come Away with Me FWS #2202.
Click the link below to view the service:
https://youtu.be/qm6gtEAKQt0
Sunday, February 7, 2021
Communion Sunday
(Please have your bread and cup prepared before viewing the service.)
Scripture:
Isaiah 40:21-31
I Corinthians 9:16-23
Mark 1:29-39
Hymns:
Take Time to Be Holy UMH #395
Precious Lord, Take My Hand UMH #474
Communion Service UMH pp. 12-14
Click the link below to view the service:
https://youtu.be/fnVpeTi7YPc
Communion Sunday
(Please have your bread and cup prepared before viewing the service.)
Scripture:
Isaiah 40:21-31
I Corinthians 9:16-23
Mark 1:29-39
Hymns:
Take Time to Be Holy UMH #395
Precious Lord, Take My Hand UMH #474
Communion Service UMH pp. 12-14
Click the link below to view the service:
https://youtu.be/fnVpeTi7YPc
Sunday, January 31, 2021
Scripture:
Deuteronomy 18:15-20
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Mark 1:21-28
Hymns:
Spirit of Go FWS #2117
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah UMH #127
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/W0TdcswYF_M
Scripture:
Deuteronomy 18:15-20
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Mark 1:21-28
Hymns:
Spirit of Go FWS #2117
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah UMH #127
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/W0TdcswYF_M
Sunday, January 24, 2021
Scripture:
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
I Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20
Hymns:
Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling UMH #348
Lord of the Dance UMH #261
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/uF_b8u_7bSI
Announcement: Please see the Online Giving Tab above for information about using Zelle to donate to Faith through your online banking.
Scripture:
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
I Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20
Hymns:
Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling UMH #348
Lord of the Dance UMH #261
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/uF_b8u_7bSI
Announcement: Please see the Online Giving Tab above for information about using Zelle to donate to Faith through your online banking.
Sunday, January 17, 2021
Scripture:
1 Samuel 3:1-20, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, John 1:43-51
Hymns:
I Am Thine, O Lord UMH #419
Here I Am, Lord UMH #593
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/uLUvp4Pzj4A
Announcement: Please see the Online Giving Tab above for information about using Zelle to donate to Faith through your online banking.
Scripture:
1 Samuel 3:1-20, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, John 1:43-51
Hymns:
I Am Thine, O Lord UMH #419
Here I Am, Lord UMH #593
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/uLUvp4Pzj4A
Announcement: Please see the Online Giving Tab above for information about using Zelle to donate to Faith through your online banking.
Sunday, January 10, 2021
Hymns:
Shall We Gather at the River UMH #723
I Sing the Almighty Power of God UMH #152
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/lhRGbJZ_GY0
Hymns:
Shall We Gather at the River UMH #723
I Sing the Almighty Power of God UMH #152
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/lhRGbJZ_GY0
Epiphany, Wednesday, January 6th
https://www.umc.org/en/content/ask-the-umc-how-do-united-methodists-understand-epiphany-and-three-kings-day
Sunday, January 3, 2021
Hymns:
We Three Kings UMH #254
This Is a Day of New Beginnings UMH #383
Click the link below to view the recorded service:
https://youtu.be/IbuZGp7r9J8
https://www.umc.org/en/content/ask-the-umc-how-do-united-methodists-understand-epiphany-and-three-kings-day
Sunday, January 3, 2021
Hymns:
We Three Kings UMH #254
This Is a Day of New Beginnings UMH #383
Click the link below to view the recorded service:
https://youtu.be/IbuZGp7r9J8
Sunday, December 27, 2020
Hymns:
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing UMH #240
Joy to the World UMH #246
Click the link below to view the service:
https://youtu.be/9uyD1xQQAjo
Hymns:
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing UMH #240
Joy to the World UMH #246
Click the link below to view the service:
https://youtu.be/9uyD1xQQAjo
Thursday, December 24, 2020
Christmas Eve Service
Click the link below to view:
https://youtu.be/p8fjW466ttk
Christmas Eve Service
Click the link below to view:
https://youtu.be/p8fjW466ttk
Sunday, December 20, 2020
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Hymns:
Gather Us In FWS #2236
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear UMH #218
Click the link below to view the Worship Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0EsU6rikmA&feature=youtu.be
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Hymns:
Gather Us In FWS #2236
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear UMH #218
Click the link below to view the Worship Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0EsU6rikmA&feature=youtu.be
Sunday, December 13, 2020
Third Sunday of Advent
Hymns:
Once in Royal David’s City UMH #250
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing UMH #40
Click the link below to view the Worship Video:
https://youtu.be/KQzCAJiEMq0
Third Sunday of Advent
Hymns:
Once in Royal David’s City UMH #250
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing UMH #40
Click the link below to view the Worship Video:
https://youtu.be/KQzCAJiEMq0
Sunday, December 6, 2020
Second Sunday of Advent
Communion Sunday
Please have your bread and cup ready to participate in the Communion Service
Hymns:
Angels from the Realms of Glory UMH #220
Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming UMH #216
Please click the link below to view the Worship Service:
https://youtu.be/LhknRMs3dHc
Second Sunday of Advent
Communion Sunday
Please have your bread and cup ready to participate in the Communion Service
Hymns:
Angels from the Realms of Glory UMH #220
Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming UMH #216
Please click the link below to view the Worship Service:
https://youtu.be/LhknRMs3dHc
Due to the rise in confirmed Covid-19 cases in Schenectady County, cases rose above the 3% threshold on Friday, November 27th, Faith UMC will return to virtual only video worship services beginning Sunday, December 6th and continue in this way until the cases drop below the threshold. Links to the virtual service will be posted here each week and should be available by 9:00AM each Sunday morning.
Sunday, November 29, 2020
First Sunday of Advent
Hymns:
O Come, O Come Emanuel UMH #211
Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus #196
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/kkQLjA7iOIk
First Sunday of Advent
Hymns:
O Come, O Come Emanuel UMH #211
Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus #196
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/kkQLjA7iOIk
Sunday, November 22, 2020
Thanksgiving Sunday
Hymns:
We Gather Together UMH #131
Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven UMH #66
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/oJgjt6bB1IQ
Sound is muted during the first hymn. It is less than two minutes and occurs during minute 14 of the video,
Thanksgiving Sunday
Hymns:
We Gather Together UMH #131
Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven UMH #66
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/oJgjt6bB1IQ
Sound is muted during the first hymn. It is less than two minutes and occurs during minute 14 of the video,
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Hymns:
Together We Serve FWS # 2175
Ode to Joy UMH #89
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/PlTvouf_ZSU
Hymns:
Together We Serve FWS # 2175
Ode to Joy UMH #89
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/PlTvouf_ZSU
Sunday, November 8, 2020
Hymns:
The Summons FWS #2130
I Love Thy Kingdom Lord UMH #540
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/HaXvo6Jfrpg
Hymns:
The Summons FWS #2130
I Love Thy Kingdom Lord UMH #540
Click the link below to view the video:
https://youtu.be/HaXvo6Jfrpg
Sunday, November 1, 2020
All Saints Sunday
Scripture:
Hymns: UMH#711 - For All The Saints
UMH#568 - Christ for the World We Sing
Click the link below to view the Worship video:
https://youtu.be/_2MWPwRe-pg
All Saints Sunday
Scripture:
Hymns: UMH#711 - For All The Saints
UMH#568 - Christ for the World We Sing
Click the link below to view the Worship video:
https://youtu.be/_2MWPwRe-pg
Daylight Savings Time ends Sunday, November 1st at 2:00 A.M.
Remember to set your clocks back one hour before bedtime Saturday!
Remember to set your clocks back one hour before bedtime Saturday!
Sunday, October 25, 2020
Scripture: Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17,
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8,
Matthew 22:34-46
Hymns: A Mighty Fortress. UMH #110
O Master Let Me Walk with Thee. UMH #430
Click the link below to view the Sunday service:
https://youtu.be/7N29D35gcF8
Scripture: Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17,
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8,
Matthew 22:34-46
Hymns: A Mighty Fortress. UMH #110
O Master Let Me Walk with Thee. UMH #430
Click the link below to view the Sunday service:
https://youtu.be/7N29D35gcF8
Sunday, October 18, 2020
Laity Sunday
click the link below to view the Worship Service:
https://youtu.be/RPG8xsumYto
Laity Sunday
click the link below to view the Worship Service:
https://youtu.be/RPG8xsumYto
Sunday, October 11, 2020
Click the link below to view the Worship Service:
https://youtu.be/65mWz7zLtd8
Click the link below to view the Worship Service:
https://youtu.be/65mWz7zLtd8
Sunday, October 4, 2020
Click the link below to view the Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLxZgLQGOJ8
Due to technical difficulties with the Faith UMC video there is no audio until minute 17:28.
The full Scotia UMC recording is available below:
https://youtu.be/GcnpA-2nHpw
Click the link below to view the Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLxZgLQGOJ8
Due to technical difficulties with the Faith UMC video there is no audio until minute 17:28.
The full Scotia UMC recording is available below:
https://youtu.be/GcnpA-2nHpw
Sunday, September 27, 2020
Click the link below to view the Worship Service:
https://youtu.be/wS6iMhz8hfg
This Sunday's Altar flowers given by Eileen and her friend Heather.
Click the link below to view the Worship Service:
https://youtu.be/wS6iMhz8hfg
This Sunday's Altar flowers given by Eileen and her friend Heather.
Sunday, September 20, 2020
Click the link below to view the Worship Service:
https://youtu.be/muD5WbaXsdA
Click the link below to view the Worship Service:
https://youtu.be/muD5WbaXsdA
Sunday, September 13, 2020
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://youtu.be/Kiy-JK6WA10
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://youtu.be/Kiy-JK6WA10
Sunday, September 6, 2020
Communion Sunday, please have your bread and cup prepared if you wish to participate.
Please click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://youtu.be/FKyg9mKDeTo
This week's altar flowers given in loving memory of Marjorie Sheffer by her family.
Communion Sunday, please have your bread and cup prepared if you wish to participate.
Please click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://youtu.be/FKyg9mKDeTo
This week's altar flowers given in loving memory of Marjorie Sheffer by her family.
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Sunday, August 30, 2020
Click the link below to view this week's Worship Service:
https://youtu.be/shj0o8KEqWE
Click the link below to view this week's Worship Service:
https://youtu.be/shj0o8KEqWE
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Sunday, August 23, 2020
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf2JqcoaexY&feature=youtu.be
Today's altar flowers were graciously donated by Pat & Terry Kinal.
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf2JqcoaexY&feature=youtu.be
Today's altar flowers were graciously donated by Pat & Terry Kinal.
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Sunday, August 16, 2020
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09ypKl8RWhM&feature=youtu.be
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09ypKl8RWhM&feature=youtu.be
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Sunday, August 9, 2020
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_Xi5v07ufc&feature=youtu.be
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_Xi5v07ufc&feature=youtu.be
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Sunday, August 9, 2020
Our passage this morning is not an ancient form of journalism. It is not a first century news report about a couple of guys walking on water—it is an exquisite little story that points toward our deepest human potential, in other words, it is a story that points toward the divine within us…this is a story about you and I walking on water—and that changes things
This morning our passage begins with Jesus making the disciples get into a boat to go across to the other side of the sea of galilee…in scripture whenever we hear about “crossing the water to go to the other side”, we know we are on a journey to a new level or stage of spiritual development, to a new type of awareness. When he invites the disciples to cross to the other side, Jesus is inviting us—the church across the ages—to cross to the other side, he is inviting us to do what Jim Morrison and Meister Eckhart call “breaking on through to the other side”. In other words, this is simply a mythic or poetic way of speaking about going from one level of spiritual understanding to another…and, then, in a verse that is intimately connected with breaking through to the other side, we get a reminder of last week; after Jesus dismisses the crowds, he “goes by himself up the mountain to pray”…last week we saw how important it was for Jesus to go off alone to pray…and this is a major factor once again for this morning’s lesson…
This morning’s gospel contains the famous image of Jesus walking on the water. This is found, with slight variations, in 3 gospels, mark, Matthew, and john. And very significantly, in every one of those versions, the story of walking on the water is preceded by Jesus going off to be alone with God…the gospel writers obviously wanted to connect in our minds, Jesus walking on water with going off alone to pray…for, in every version, it is when he comes back from being alone that he walks on water...going off to be alone is closely connected with realizing a new awareness, our deepest or divine potential.
So let’s just walk through some of this passage…(read 22-27)…as we heard, Jesus has gone off alone to pray through the night…he sees the disciples in a boat that is being battered by the waves and the wind, and in the morning he comes walking on the water, the disciples are frightened, they think it’s some ghost, but Jesus says, “take heart, don’t be afraid, it is I.” Now this is a big moment in the story. For Jesus here does not actually say don’t be afraid, it is I, he actually says, don’t be afraid, it is I AM. That’s right. Right here in Matthew, we get an I AM statement. Many think those are only found in John. But here Jesus uses I AM, the divine name. This is a very important for understanding this story. In Judaism, I AM, the divine name, is a way of speaking about the God that lives within all of us…
Jesus calling himself I AM, this prompts Peter to say, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” And Jesus, or I AM, says “Come”. Peter gets out of the boat and starts walking on the water. This is also a big moment…it’s not just Jesus that walks on water, but Peter does so as well. If Peter does, so can we. Again, if Peter does so can we. Peter is very human, but here he is walking on the water. But, then he takes his eyes off of Jesus, off of I AM, he notices the strong wind…he is frightened and he is sinking…he cries out and says “Lord save me!” Jesus immediately reaches out his hand and says, “You of little faith, or better yet, you of little trust, why did you doubt?”…when they get into the boat the wind ceases.
What is this story saying to us…well, it’s a very practical message. Like Jesus going off alone, our Going off alone, our solitude, allows us to step outside of the storm, those waves, those storms, within us…here we contact, or we realize, our true, original nature—the Christ, the I AM—that divinity within us, that peace within us, that Paul says transcends our thinking; I AM does not get swallowed up or sink in the storm, I AM walks on it…now Peter on the other hand, he starts out pretty good—he shows faith, trust, he steps out of the boat and begins heading for Jesus, FOR CHRIST, FOR I AM…but then—he notices the strong wind—he is frightened and he begins to sink—he gets absorbed into the storm--…
how much trouble in our lives, and by extension, how much trouble on the world stage, comes about due to fear-driven human beings being tossed about and sinking into their storms? That begins the moment we take our eyes off of I AM, the Christ within. THAT IS THE MOMENT WE lose our faith, our trust, in that AWARENESS THAT TRANSCENDS OUR STORMS. AND THAT IS THE MOMENT we begin to get lost in, sink into, become, the turmoil, the trouble in our minds… by the trouble in our minds, I mean the thoughts, emotions, and demands, that push and pull us this way and that…when we become those emotions, those thoughts, those reactions, when we sink into them, well, everything from anxiety, depression and addiction to the political—you know what—storms that litter God’s creation with ALL of those ANTAGONISTIC YARD SIGNS, FLAGS, AND SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS—all of this comes from losing trust in, awareness of, I AM, the Christ within and SINKING INTO OUR STORMS…when you lose your peace, when you sink in the storm, the world goes with you…as MARTIN LUTHER KING JR SAID IN HIS FINAL SPEECH, EITHER WE GO UP TOGETHER OR WE GO DOWN TOGETHER…and going up together doesn’t mean trying to get everyone to see it your way—that’s just talkin’ on the way down…THOSE ARE JUST FEAR-BASED IDEAS AND OPINIONS TIED AROUND OUR ANKLES LIKE CINDER BLOCKS DRAGGING US DOWN. Going up together means doing what Peter does as he begins to sink—it means crying out to the Christ within, to I AM, and being lifted up and out of the stormy sea…going up together means you, and I, EACH OF US ALONE LIKE JESUS, going up the mountain TO REALIZE A NEW PERSPECTIVE, A NEW WAY OF SEEING, AN AWARENESS THAT STANDS OUTSIDE THE ONE THE WORLD CAN TEACH US. GOING UP TOGETHER MEANS CROSSING TO THE OTHER SIDE TO that I AMNESS, TO THAT AWARENESS, TO THAT CHRIST WITHIN THAT WALKS ON WATER.
AMEN.
Our passage this morning is not an ancient form of journalism. It is not a first century news report about a couple of guys walking on water—it is an exquisite little story that points toward our deepest human potential, in other words, it is a story that points toward the divine within us…this is a story about you and I walking on water—and that changes things
This morning our passage begins with Jesus making the disciples get into a boat to go across to the other side of the sea of galilee…in scripture whenever we hear about “crossing the water to go to the other side”, we know we are on a journey to a new level or stage of spiritual development, to a new type of awareness. When he invites the disciples to cross to the other side, Jesus is inviting us—the church across the ages—to cross to the other side, he is inviting us to do what Jim Morrison and Meister Eckhart call “breaking on through to the other side”. In other words, this is simply a mythic or poetic way of speaking about going from one level of spiritual understanding to another…and, then, in a verse that is intimately connected with breaking through to the other side, we get a reminder of last week; after Jesus dismisses the crowds, he “goes by himself up the mountain to pray”…last week we saw how important it was for Jesus to go off alone to pray…and this is a major factor once again for this morning’s lesson…
This morning’s gospel contains the famous image of Jesus walking on the water. This is found, with slight variations, in 3 gospels, mark, Matthew, and john. And very significantly, in every one of those versions, the story of walking on the water is preceded by Jesus going off to be alone with God…the gospel writers obviously wanted to connect in our minds, Jesus walking on water with going off alone to pray…for, in every version, it is when he comes back from being alone that he walks on water...going off to be alone is closely connected with realizing a new awareness, our deepest or divine potential.
So let’s just walk through some of this passage…(read 22-27)…as we heard, Jesus has gone off alone to pray through the night…he sees the disciples in a boat that is being battered by the waves and the wind, and in the morning he comes walking on the water, the disciples are frightened, they think it’s some ghost, but Jesus says, “take heart, don’t be afraid, it is I.” Now this is a big moment in the story. For Jesus here does not actually say don’t be afraid, it is I, he actually says, don’t be afraid, it is I AM. That’s right. Right here in Matthew, we get an I AM statement. Many think those are only found in John. But here Jesus uses I AM, the divine name. This is a very important for understanding this story. In Judaism, I AM, the divine name, is a way of speaking about the God that lives within all of us…
Jesus calling himself I AM, this prompts Peter to say, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” And Jesus, or I AM, says “Come”. Peter gets out of the boat and starts walking on the water. This is also a big moment…it’s not just Jesus that walks on water, but Peter does so as well. If Peter does, so can we. Again, if Peter does so can we. Peter is very human, but here he is walking on the water. But, then he takes his eyes off of Jesus, off of I AM, he notices the strong wind…he is frightened and he is sinking…he cries out and says “Lord save me!” Jesus immediately reaches out his hand and says, “You of little faith, or better yet, you of little trust, why did you doubt?”…when they get into the boat the wind ceases.
What is this story saying to us…well, it’s a very practical message. Like Jesus going off alone, our Going off alone, our solitude, allows us to step outside of the storm, those waves, those storms, within us…here we contact, or we realize, our true, original nature—the Christ, the I AM—that divinity within us, that peace within us, that Paul says transcends our thinking; I AM does not get swallowed up or sink in the storm, I AM walks on it…now Peter on the other hand, he starts out pretty good—he shows faith, trust, he steps out of the boat and begins heading for Jesus, FOR CHRIST, FOR I AM…but then—he notices the strong wind—he is frightened and he begins to sink—he gets absorbed into the storm--…
how much trouble in our lives, and by extension, how much trouble on the world stage, comes about due to fear-driven human beings being tossed about and sinking into their storms? That begins the moment we take our eyes off of I AM, the Christ within. THAT IS THE MOMENT WE lose our faith, our trust, in that AWARENESS THAT TRANSCENDS OUR STORMS. AND THAT IS THE MOMENT we begin to get lost in, sink into, become, the turmoil, the trouble in our minds… by the trouble in our minds, I mean the thoughts, emotions, and demands, that push and pull us this way and that…when we become those emotions, those thoughts, those reactions, when we sink into them, well, everything from anxiety, depression and addiction to the political—you know what—storms that litter God’s creation with ALL of those ANTAGONISTIC YARD SIGNS, FLAGS, AND SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS—all of this comes from losing trust in, awareness of, I AM, the Christ within and SINKING INTO OUR STORMS…when you lose your peace, when you sink in the storm, the world goes with you…as MARTIN LUTHER KING JR SAID IN HIS FINAL SPEECH, EITHER WE GO UP TOGETHER OR WE GO DOWN TOGETHER…and going up together doesn’t mean trying to get everyone to see it your way—that’s just talkin’ on the way down…THOSE ARE JUST FEAR-BASED IDEAS AND OPINIONS TIED AROUND OUR ANKLES LIKE CINDER BLOCKS DRAGGING US DOWN. Going up together means doing what Peter does as he begins to sink—it means crying out to the Christ within, to I AM, and being lifted up and out of the stormy sea…going up together means you, and I, EACH OF US ALONE LIKE JESUS, going up the mountain TO REALIZE A NEW PERSPECTIVE, A NEW WAY OF SEEING, AN AWARENESS THAT STANDS OUTSIDE THE ONE THE WORLD CAN TEACH US. GOING UP TOGETHER MEANS CROSSING TO THE OTHER SIDE TO that I AMNESS, TO THAT AWARENESS, TO THAT CHRIST WITHIN THAT WALKS ON WATER.
AMEN.
Sunday, August 2, 2020
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E6J5xz1dwY&feature=youtu.be
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E6J5xz1dwY&feature=youtu.be
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Sunday, August 2, 2020
IN 1970, GEORGE HARRISON, THE QUIET BEATLE, WROTE THE FOLLOWING LYRICS…LYRICS THAT POINT TO THE TRUTH OF OUR GOSPEL STORY TODAY
You don't need no passport
And you don't need no visas
You don't need to designate or to emigrate
Before you can see Jesus
If you open up your heart
You'll see He's right there
Always was and will be
He'll relieve you of your cares
THE STORY OF THE FEEDING OF THE MULTITUDES OCCURS IN ALL FOUR GOSPELS—AND IN EACH IT TAKES PLACE IN THE DESERT, OR THE DESERTED PLACE. IT IS NOT THE FIRST CHURCH DINNER OR POTLUCK…THE FISH AND THE LOAVES IN THIS STORY CANNOT BE BOUGHT AT HANNAFORDS, NOT EVEN WEGMANS…THE FEEDING OF THE MUTLITUDE IN THE DESERTED PLACE, IS A PROFOUND STORY REGARDING “THE PLACE” HUMANITY GOES TO BE FED, TO BE MADE WHOLE.
Rabbi Jesus is, like a great teacher, modeling an ancient practice for us this morning—he is showing us the way HUMANITY WAKES UP, REALIZES WHOLENESS—AS I HAVE MENTIONED SEVERAL TIMES, Christianity was once called “the way”—the way was and is, “the way” OF WAKING UP TO OUR INHERENT WHOLENESS, I SAY INHERENT BECAUSE CALLING CHRISTIANITY “THE WAY” can mislead us into thinking we are going or getting somewhere…not so, Jesus’ way is the way to that which you already are…
WHAT DO I MEAN BY WHOLENESS? All of the world’s traditions, including Jesus’ Judaism and early Christianity, teach that humans have lost their way due to be being CONSCIOUSLY disconnected from our divine origins. ---We are broken—we are fragmented because of this. Where there was once a whole circle there is, in a sense, now a circle broken in half—the human half and the divine half---we are consciously estranged from God…WE ARE NOT ACTUALLY ESTRANGED FROM GOD, WE THINK WE ARE…we are lost in a kind of illusion. Our tradition says we have fallen away from God—you know the Eden story. Other traditions say that people have not fallen away from God—they have forgotten God—they have forgotten their divine origins. But all of the traditions, all of the world’s great spiritual geniuses, including Jesus and Paul, agree on this point—most of us are consciously estranged from God…AND THIS HAS REAL CONSEQUENCES THAT ARE EASY TO SEE…EARLY CHRISTIANITY CALLED THAT STATE OF ESTRANGEMENT SIN. The way of Jesus is the way toward making that broken circle whole again…in fact Jesus or Yeshua means “salvation”, or healing—we are saved, our brokenness is healed, through reconnecting with God—this, and only this, makes our hearts whole again. This you might say is the point of Jesus’ ministry—to WAKE US UP, TO reconnect us to our divine origins, to who we already, actually, are. This is the meaning of the gospel statement, “Jesus will save them from their sins”. His whole mission was concerned with waking us up from the illusion of our separation from God. The New Testament gives us a great clue as to how these first century Jews reconnected to God…Today Rabbi Yeshua or Jesus is INVITING US ONCE AGAIN INTO CONSCIOUS REUNION WITH GOD. Conscious Re-Union with God equals wholeness. All of the stories in the New Testament point to this—through Jesus the human being is Re-United with the divine. And the circle is whole once again.
Verse 31 contains a very important message, Jesus says to the exhausted disciples, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while”. The Greek word here is AIR—EEE—MOS. It is the word for a deserted place, a wilderness, or desert. This is a very important word in Christianity. At the very beginning of the very first gospel, Mark, John the Baptist appears in the eremos, the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance. SO THE PREPARATION FOR THE COMING OF CHRIST OCCURS IN THE DESERT. After Jesus goes out to John to be baptized, the Spirit drives him out into the eremos, the desert. SO Jesus’ ministry, Christianity itself, literally comes out of the eremos, the desert. The desert has always been a special place for Jewish holy people, they hear and are fed by God in the desert. The desert is outside the noisiness and chaos of the town. It is in the silence and the openness of the desert that one can hear God and so they wake up from the noisy, chaotic dream of the town. Jesus today calls his disciples into a deserted place. This talk of going off to deserted places opens up a window onto the practices of Jesus and the early Christians. As I mentioned, Jesus’ ministry comes out of the desert. The New Testament repeatedly tells us that Jesus often went off by himself to lonely or deserted places to pray. He does so again after our story today. THE DESERT WAS JESUS’ SANCTUARY…WE MIGHT SAY THE DESERT WAS THE PLACE JESUS WENT TO BE SPIRITUALLY FED…JESUS’ SANCTUARY WASN’T DESIGNED, BOUGHT, OR CONSTRUCTED BY PEOPLE…JESUS’ SANCTUARY WAS THE VAST EMPTY SPACE OF THE DESERT. JESUS’ SANCTAURY WAS OUT THERE, BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES, BEYOND THE EDGE OF TOWN…WHEN I THINK ABOUT IT, JESUS OFTEN GOT HIMSELF INTO TROUBLE IN TOWN, NEARLY THROWN OFF A CLIFF AFTER HIS FIRST SERMON IN HIS HOMETOWN, AND THEN FINALLY CRUCIFIED DURING HIS FIRST TRIP TO THE BIG CITY. NO WONDER HE LIKED THE DESERTED PLACES. JESUS DIDN’T GO TO HIS SANCTUARY TO HAVE AN ORDAINED PASTOR OR PRIEST, THE REPRESENTATIVE OF AN INSTITUTION, TELL HIM ABOUT GOD, HE DIDN’T GO THERE TO BE ENTERTAINED…TIME AND AGAIN, WHEN JESUS NEEDED A BREAK, HE DIDN’T GO TO DISNEYWORLD OR SOME CROWDED PLACE—HE SIMPLY WALKED OUT INTO A THE SILENCE OF A DESERTED PLACE…Modern Jewish scholars like Gershom Scholem and Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan note that internal and external seclusion was very important for the ancient Jewish experience of God. There is a strange Hebrew word I want to introduce you to, “Hitbodedut”—it is a word that literally means “self-seclusion”--and it points toward an ancient Jewish way of connecting to God that is still practiced today. For thousands of years Jewish Rabbis and prophets have gone off to deserted places to commune with God—to rest or abide in the presence of the divine. They go off by themselves--and then they go into themselves. This is where people are spiritually fed and that is where people are healed. That is where they are RE-UNITED WITH THEIR TRUE, DIVINE, ORIGINS, THAT IS WHERE THEY ARE RECONNECTED TO THEIR OWN HEARTS. THAT IS WHERE THEY ARE MADE WHOLE. THAT IS WHERE THEY RE-MEMBER THE CHRIST THAT LIVES WITHIN THEM. IT IS IN THE DESERTED PLACE THAT WE RECOVER OUR TRUE IDENTITY, OUR ORIGINAL FACE, THAT FACE THAT IS UNDERNEATH, BEYOND, OR PRIOR TO, THE PERSONA, THE MASK WE PUT ON, THE ROLE WE PLAY IN “TOWN”. MANY OF US GO SEARCHING FOR THIS TRUTH, THIS WHOLENESS, IN ALL KINDS OF PLACES, RELIGION, BOOKS, BARS, DRUGS, SEX, FOOD, MONEY, JOBS, TRYING TO BE WHAT OTHERS WANT US TO BE. PEOPLE WILL RUN ALL OVER TOWN FRANTICALLY MAKING THEMSELVES BUSY, DOING DOING DOING, LOOKING FOR “THE GOOD LIFE”…OUR WORLD REFLECTS THE FRANTIC, NERVOUS SITUATION IN VERSE 31—“FOR MANY WERE COMING AND GOING AND THEY HAD NO LEISURE EVEN TO EAT”…IN OTHER WORDS, THEY HAD NO TIME TO BE FED THE ONLY “FOOD” THAT MAKES US WHOLE…WHETHER IT’S THE FIRST OR THE 21ST CENTURY, WE SEE PEOPLE RUNNING HERE AND THERE DOING, CHASING, WHOMEVER AND WHATEVER THEY THINK WILL MAKE IT ALRIGHT”…
WE MUST GO INTO THE DESERTED PLACES TO BE FED SPIRITUALLY, TO RECOVER OUR TRUE IDENTITIES BECAUSE WHILE WE ARE “IN TOWN” WE SO OFTEN GET LOST IN THE ILLUSION OF WHO WE HAVE BEEN TOLD WE ARE, WE CONFUSE OUR MASK, OUR PERSONA, OUR ROLE, IN OUR PARTICULAR GROUP, FOR OUR TRUE SELVES.
In verse 33 we hear that some people see Jesus and the disciples leaving for the deserted place and they follow them. Just like the people in our text today, as disciples, we need to follow Jesus into the deserted places—that is where we will truly “feed” the people that come after us. If we continue to go on to verse 35 we see that the feeding of the five thousand takes place in a deserted place where the people have gone to see the Christ. IT IS THE DISCIPLES THAT ACTUALLY “FEED” THE PEOPLE, JESUS SAYS, “YOU GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO EAT”. AGAIN, THIS IS A METAPHOR—NOT THE KIND OF FOOD WE CAN FIND AT HANNAFORDS, THIS IS THE FOOD WE FIND IN THE DESERT. All churches must ask themselves these questions---ARE WE REPSONDING TO JESUS’ INVITATION TO COME AWAY TO A DESERTED PLACE? ARE WE RESPONDING TO JESUS’ INVITATION TO JOIN HIM IN HIS SANCTUARY? Are we providing a space in which people can recover who they really are beyond the role they play? SIMPLY FEEDING PEOPLE LITERAL FOOD WON’T DO IT, Simply giving money won’t do it—IF IT DID THE US GOVERNMENT WOULD BE LEADING MILLIONS INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD…AND simply having fun with people won’t do it. We must re-unite people with their own hearts--“heart” in the New Testament means, “inner-life”, or the deepest part of one’s being. For that is where God is—in our hearts, or in the deepest part of our humanity. The great theologian Paul Tillich said that modern western religion lacks a “dimension of depth”. If that is true—that is a serious crisis. We are not simply a community center—a place to hang out with friends—a club—we are not merely a place to serve. We are a church and a church must help people access Tillich’s “dimension of depth” or it is NOT ACTUALLY A CHURCH. In this era of uncertainty, even before our current crisis, we must remember the Christ, the Christ within, and that is the same as re-membering who we truly are—first and foremost we are children of God--that means we are people of depth, people concerned with their hearts, their inner-lives. We will make disciples, we will feed people, we will heal, if we lead people along the way—the way that leads to their own hearts, their true selves, the way that leads to wholeness.
The Gospels offer us several examples of people following Jesus into deserted or secluded places—to name just a few, Luke 4, Matthew 14, Mark 1, and our text today. As I said earlier—we are a church—we are people of God--as all actually are. As followers of the way—do we go with Jesus into the deserted places? Our culture is undoubtedly the noisiest in the history of the world—our phones, our TV’s, our radios, our computers—they’re all fine—even useful at times—but does anybody doubt we overdo it? We are too often distracted from our own hearts, our own inner lives. Maybe our hearts, our inner-lives, ARE the deserted places we need to follow Jesus into. Can we shut off all distraction for twenty minutes a day and just be with God? Can we go away with Jesus to the deserted place and just rest? For ironically, that is the only way we can feed people the bread that endures to eternal life.
Even a few minutes a day with Christ in the desert—that one small taste—it miraculously multiplies…THAT IS THE BREAD OF CHRIST THAT FILLS the very world we live in, in fact, it is revealed to be the very world WE ARE---in the deserted place is the bread that re-unites us with the God that dwells in our hearts…and that is the bread that puts it all back together.
AMEN.
IN 1970, GEORGE HARRISON, THE QUIET BEATLE, WROTE THE FOLLOWING LYRICS…LYRICS THAT POINT TO THE TRUTH OF OUR GOSPEL STORY TODAY
You don't need no passport
And you don't need no visas
You don't need to designate or to emigrate
Before you can see Jesus
If you open up your heart
You'll see He's right there
Always was and will be
He'll relieve you of your cares
THE STORY OF THE FEEDING OF THE MULTITUDES OCCURS IN ALL FOUR GOSPELS—AND IN EACH IT TAKES PLACE IN THE DESERT, OR THE DESERTED PLACE. IT IS NOT THE FIRST CHURCH DINNER OR POTLUCK…THE FISH AND THE LOAVES IN THIS STORY CANNOT BE BOUGHT AT HANNAFORDS, NOT EVEN WEGMANS…THE FEEDING OF THE MUTLITUDE IN THE DESERTED PLACE, IS A PROFOUND STORY REGARDING “THE PLACE” HUMANITY GOES TO BE FED, TO BE MADE WHOLE.
Rabbi Jesus is, like a great teacher, modeling an ancient practice for us this morning—he is showing us the way HUMANITY WAKES UP, REALIZES WHOLENESS—AS I HAVE MENTIONED SEVERAL TIMES, Christianity was once called “the way”—the way was and is, “the way” OF WAKING UP TO OUR INHERENT WHOLENESS, I SAY INHERENT BECAUSE CALLING CHRISTIANITY “THE WAY” can mislead us into thinking we are going or getting somewhere…not so, Jesus’ way is the way to that which you already are…
WHAT DO I MEAN BY WHOLENESS? All of the world’s traditions, including Jesus’ Judaism and early Christianity, teach that humans have lost their way due to be being CONSCIOUSLY disconnected from our divine origins. ---We are broken—we are fragmented because of this. Where there was once a whole circle there is, in a sense, now a circle broken in half—the human half and the divine half---we are consciously estranged from God…WE ARE NOT ACTUALLY ESTRANGED FROM GOD, WE THINK WE ARE…we are lost in a kind of illusion. Our tradition says we have fallen away from God—you know the Eden story. Other traditions say that people have not fallen away from God—they have forgotten God—they have forgotten their divine origins. But all of the traditions, all of the world’s great spiritual geniuses, including Jesus and Paul, agree on this point—most of us are consciously estranged from God…AND THIS HAS REAL CONSEQUENCES THAT ARE EASY TO SEE…EARLY CHRISTIANITY CALLED THAT STATE OF ESTRANGEMENT SIN. The way of Jesus is the way toward making that broken circle whole again…in fact Jesus or Yeshua means “salvation”, or healing—we are saved, our brokenness is healed, through reconnecting with God—this, and only this, makes our hearts whole again. This you might say is the point of Jesus’ ministry—to WAKE US UP, TO reconnect us to our divine origins, to who we already, actually, are. This is the meaning of the gospel statement, “Jesus will save them from their sins”. His whole mission was concerned with waking us up from the illusion of our separation from God. The New Testament gives us a great clue as to how these first century Jews reconnected to God…Today Rabbi Yeshua or Jesus is INVITING US ONCE AGAIN INTO CONSCIOUS REUNION WITH GOD. Conscious Re-Union with God equals wholeness. All of the stories in the New Testament point to this—through Jesus the human being is Re-United with the divine. And the circle is whole once again.
Verse 31 contains a very important message, Jesus says to the exhausted disciples, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while”. The Greek word here is AIR—EEE—MOS. It is the word for a deserted place, a wilderness, or desert. This is a very important word in Christianity. At the very beginning of the very first gospel, Mark, John the Baptist appears in the eremos, the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance. SO THE PREPARATION FOR THE COMING OF CHRIST OCCURS IN THE DESERT. After Jesus goes out to John to be baptized, the Spirit drives him out into the eremos, the desert. SO Jesus’ ministry, Christianity itself, literally comes out of the eremos, the desert. The desert has always been a special place for Jewish holy people, they hear and are fed by God in the desert. The desert is outside the noisiness and chaos of the town. It is in the silence and the openness of the desert that one can hear God and so they wake up from the noisy, chaotic dream of the town. Jesus today calls his disciples into a deserted place. This talk of going off to deserted places opens up a window onto the practices of Jesus and the early Christians. As I mentioned, Jesus’ ministry comes out of the desert. The New Testament repeatedly tells us that Jesus often went off by himself to lonely or deserted places to pray. He does so again after our story today. THE DESERT WAS JESUS’ SANCTUARY…WE MIGHT SAY THE DESERT WAS THE PLACE JESUS WENT TO BE SPIRITUALLY FED…JESUS’ SANCTUARY WASN’T DESIGNED, BOUGHT, OR CONSTRUCTED BY PEOPLE…JESUS’ SANCTUARY WAS THE VAST EMPTY SPACE OF THE DESERT. JESUS’ SANCTAURY WAS OUT THERE, BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES, BEYOND THE EDGE OF TOWN…WHEN I THINK ABOUT IT, JESUS OFTEN GOT HIMSELF INTO TROUBLE IN TOWN, NEARLY THROWN OFF A CLIFF AFTER HIS FIRST SERMON IN HIS HOMETOWN, AND THEN FINALLY CRUCIFIED DURING HIS FIRST TRIP TO THE BIG CITY. NO WONDER HE LIKED THE DESERTED PLACES. JESUS DIDN’T GO TO HIS SANCTUARY TO HAVE AN ORDAINED PASTOR OR PRIEST, THE REPRESENTATIVE OF AN INSTITUTION, TELL HIM ABOUT GOD, HE DIDN’T GO THERE TO BE ENTERTAINED…TIME AND AGAIN, WHEN JESUS NEEDED A BREAK, HE DIDN’T GO TO DISNEYWORLD OR SOME CROWDED PLACE—HE SIMPLY WALKED OUT INTO A THE SILENCE OF A DESERTED PLACE…Modern Jewish scholars like Gershom Scholem and Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan note that internal and external seclusion was very important for the ancient Jewish experience of God. There is a strange Hebrew word I want to introduce you to, “Hitbodedut”—it is a word that literally means “self-seclusion”--and it points toward an ancient Jewish way of connecting to God that is still practiced today. For thousands of years Jewish Rabbis and prophets have gone off to deserted places to commune with God—to rest or abide in the presence of the divine. They go off by themselves--and then they go into themselves. This is where people are spiritually fed and that is where people are healed. That is where they are RE-UNITED WITH THEIR TRUE, DIVINE, ORIGINS, THAT IS WHERE THEY ARE RECONNECTED TO THEIR OWN HEARTS. THAT IS WHERE THEY ARE MADE WHOLE. THAT IS WHERE THEY RE-MEMBER THE CHRIST THAT LIVES WITHIN THEM. IT IS IN THE DESERTED PLACE THAT WE RECOVER OUR TRUE IDENTITY, OUR ORIGINAL FACE, THAT FACE THAT IS UNDERNEATH, BEYOND, OR PRIOR TO, THE PERSONA, THE MASK WE PUT ON, THE ROLE WE PLAY IN “TOWN”. MANY OF US GO SEARCHING FOR THIS TRUTH, THIS WHOLENESS, IN ALL KINDS OF PLACES, RELIGION, BOOKS, BARS, DRUGS, SEX, FOOD, MONEY, JOBS, TRYING TO BE WHAT OTHERS WANT US TO BE. PEOPLE WILL RUN ALL OVER TOWN FRANTICALLY MAKING THEMSELVES BUSY, DOING DOING DOING, LOOKING FOR “THE GOOD LIFE”…OUR WORLD REFLECTS THE FRANTIC, NERVOUS SITUATION IN VERSE 31—“FOR MANY WERE COMING AND GOING AND THEY HAD NO LEISURE EVEN TO EAT”…IN OTHER WORDS, THEY HAD NO TIME TO BE FED THE ONLY “FOOD” THAT MAKES US WHOLE…WHETHER IT’S THE FIRST OR THE 21ST CENTURY, WE SEE PEOPLE RUNNING HERE AND THERE DOING, CHASING, WHOMEVER AND WHATEVER THEY THINK WILL MAKE IT ALRIGHT”…
WE MUST GO INTO THE DESERTED PLACES TO BE FED SPIRITUALLY, TO RECOVER OUR TRUE IDENTITIES BECAUSE WHILE WE ARE “IN TOWN” WE SO OFTEN GET LOST IN THE ILLUSION OF WHO WE HAVE BEEN TOLD WE ARE, WE CONFUSE OUR MASK, OUR PERSONA, OUR ROLE, IN OUR PARTICULAR GROUP, FOR OUR TRUE SELVES.
In verse 33 we hear that some people see Jesus and the disciples leaving for the deserted place and they follow them. Just like the people in our text today, as disciples, we need to follow Jesus into the deserted places—that is where we will truly “feed” the people that come after us. If we continue to go on to verse 35 we see that the feeding of the five thousand takes place in a deserted place where the people have gone to see the Christ. IT IS THE DISCIPLES THAT ACTUALLY “FEED” THE PEOPLE, JESUS SAYS, “YOU GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO EAT”. AGAIN, THIS IS A METAPHOR—NOT THE KIND OF FOOD WE CAN FIND AT HANNAFORDS, THIS IS THE FOOD WE FIND IN THE DESERT. All churches must ask themselves these questions---ARE WE REPSONDING TO JESUS’ INVITATION TO COME AWAY TO A DESERTED PLACE? ARE WE RESPONDING TO JESUS’ INVITATION TO JOIN HIM IN HIS SANCTUARY? Are we providing a space in which people can recover who they really are beyond the role they play? SIMPLY FEEDING PEOPLE LITERAL FOOD WON’T DO IT, Simply giving money won’t do it—IF IT DID THE US GOVERNMENT WOULD BE LEADING MILLIONS INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD…AND simply having fun with people won’t do it. We must re-unite people with their own hearts--“heart” in the New Testament means, “inner-life”, or the deepest part of one’s being. For that is where God is—in our hearts, or in the deepest part of our humanity. The great theologian Paul Tillich said that modern western religion lacks a “dimension of depth”. If that is true—that is a serious crisis. We are not simply a community center—a place to hang out with friends—a club—we are not merely a place to serve. We are a church and a church must help people access Tillich’s “dimension of depth” or it is NOT ACTUALLY A CHURCH. In this era of uncertainty, even before our current crisis, we must remember the Christ, the Christ within, and that is the same as re-membering who we truly are—first and foremost we are children of God--that means we are people of depth, people concerned with their hearts, their inner-lives. We will make disciples, we will feed people, we will heal, if we lead people along the way—the way that leads to their own hearts, their true selves, the way that leads to wholeness.
The Gospels offer us several examples of people following Jesus into deserted or secluded places—to name just a few, Luke 4, Matthew 14, Mark 1, and our text today. As I said earlier—we are a church—we are people of God--as all actually are. As followers of the way—do we go with Jesus into the deserted places? Our culture is undoubtedly the noisiest in the history of the world—our phones, our TV’s, our radios, our computers—they’re all fine—even useful at times—but does anybody doubt we overdo it? We are too often distracted from our own hearts, our own inner lives. Maybe our hearts, our inner-lives, ARE the deserted places we need to follow Jesus into. Can we shut off all distraction for twenty minutes a day and just be with God? Can we go away with Jesus to the deserted place and just rest? For ironically, that is the only way we can feed people the bread that endures to eternal life.
Even a few minutes a day with Christ in the desert—that one small taste—it miraculously multiplies…THAT IS THE BREAD OF CHRIST THAT FILLS the very world we live in, in fact, it is revealed to be the very world WE ARE---in the deserted place is the bread that re-unites us with the God that dwells in our hearts…and that is the bread that puts it all back together.
AMEN.
Sunday, July 26, 2020
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaBoU4ZO11U&feature=youtu.be
Next Sunday, August 2nd, there will be an outdoor service at Faith UMC at 9:15AM, See the notice on the HOME page tab.
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaBoU4ZO11U&feature=youtu.be
Next Sunday, August 2nd, there will be an outdoor service at Faith UMC at 9:15AM, See the notice on the HOME page tab.
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Sunday, July 26,2020
This morning we once again experience the poetic genius of Jesus and the early Christians. Like the mustard seed itself, the parable of the mustard seed is small, two verses. But it contains within it a new world. It contains within it the mind of Christ. And speaking of the mind of Christ, this leads me to an important truth about Jesus’ parables. Last week we heard Jesus say to his disciples, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables, in order that they may indeed look, but NOT perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand.” Why would a great teacher seemingly make his teaching incomprehensible? I believe it is because he is teaching us that the words of his parables will always be incomprehensible as long as we focus on the words, and not on the key to understanding the words. That key, in our tradition, is called by Paul, “the mind of Christ”. And in order to be IN THAT mind, you have to GO OUT OF YOUR MIND. In other words, we can’t under-stand the parables until we lose our minds and let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus.
Before we look at the parable, I want to share a short excerpt from a sermon by the great theologian Paul Tillich—if you don’t know Tillich’s work—and you’re interested in understanding Christianity on a deeper level—I recommend reading him…this is from a sermon titled “He who is the Christ”, Tillich says, “Whenever the divine appears in all its depth, it cannot be endured by men. It must be pushed away by the bearers of the cultural tradition…in the picture of the crucified, we look at the rejection of the divine by humanity. Whenever the divine manifests as the new reality it must be rejected by the representatives of the old reality”…Tillich has offered us a profound truth that we should keep in mind as we go into the parable of the mustard seed……
This morning we once again experience the poetic genius of Jesus and the early Christians. Like the mustard seed itself, the parable of the mustard seed is small, two verses. But it contains within it a new world. It contains within it the mind of Christ. And speaking of the mind of Christ, this leads me to an important truth about Jesus’ parables. Last week we heard Jesus say to his disciples, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables, in order that they may indeed look, but NOT perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand.” Why would a great teacher seemingly make his teaching incomprehensible? I believe it is because he is teaching us that the words of his parables will always be incomprehensible as long as we focus on the words, and not on the key to understanding the words. That key, in our tradition, is called by Paul, “the mind of Christ”. And in order to be IN THAT mind, you have to GO OUT OF YOUR MIND. In other words, we can’t under-stand the parables until we lose our minds and let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus.
Before we look at the parable, I want to share a short excerpt from a sermon by the great theologian Paul Tillich—if you don’t know Tillich’s work—and you’re interested in understanding Christianity on a deeper level—I recommend reading him…this is from a sermon titled “He who is the Christ”, Tillich says, “Whenever the divine appears in all its depth, it cannot be endured by men. It must be pushed away by the bearers of the cultural tradition…in the picture of the crucified, we look at the rejection of the divine by humanity. Whenever the divine manifests as the new reality it must be rejected by the representatives of the old reality”…Tillich has offered us a profound truth that we should keep in mind as we go into the parable of the mustard seed……
- In Jesus’ parables, we are invited to really listen…we are invited to go deep, to get to the bottom, to the heart of the matter. We don’t go deep if we just listen superficially like the crowd—we have to be the called out ones, the church, we have to be disciples, we have to go deeper…
- The mustard seed parable is not gardening advice and it almost certainly goes back to the historical Jesus, it is found in the in all three synoptic gospels, that’s Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It is also found in the gospel of Thomas and the lost gospel Q. The fact that it is found in the Q or source gospel is significant, for the Q gospel is a document put together by the top Jesus scholars in an attempt to reflect the words of the historical Jesus. So, in other words, according to the top Jesus scholars—Jesus actually, probably, told someone the parable of the mustard seed.
- In the first version of this parable, the one in the gospel of Mark, Jesus asks, “What is a good image for God’s Kingdom?” here he is intentionally asking a question that raises a particular image in the minds of the people. That image is a cedar of LEBANON. A big beautiful tree like the redwoods of California. Tall—probably 2 or three hundred feet. This was the dominant image for the Kingdom of God—a big, highly valued, very useful, gorgeous tree (Hear Then The Parable—Brandon Scott)
- But Jesus, the guy who’s always saying strange stuff, says, “The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed”. People must have been thinking, here we go again with this guy…RIGHT AWAY WE SEE THAT WE ARE BEING CALLED OUT OF ONE WAY OF SEEING THE KINGDOM, WE ARE BEING CALLED OUT OF OUR IDEAS, OUR MIND, AND INVITED INTO THE MIND OF CHRIST
- Now, in Jesus’ time, planting mustard was illegal—it was strictly forbidden to cultivate mustard in your field—and still today in Galilee, mustard is thought of as a weed—it grows on its own, spontaneously—it can spread like wildfire through a cultivated crop and overtake it (Brandon Scott)….so farmers actively tried and try to keep it out of their fields… In fact, our neighbors to the north are the world’s largest exporter of mustard and on a Canadian government website there is a warning that mustard can cause problems with other crops if it is allowed to get into your fields.
- And there is something else about mustard that makes it a very interesting metaphor for the kingdom. People at the time thought eating Mustard would cause insanity…so, while this mustard seed parable might seem to be getting weirder and weirder, this actually makes mustard a perfect metaphor for the change of mind Jesus is concerned with…the perfect metaphor for “losing” our mind and letting the mind of Christ be in us…
- Jesus just likened the kingdom of God to an illegal weed that people were afraid of because they thought it could make them to go crazy, make them lose their minds. And, to make matters worse, this illegal crazy-makin’ weed grows like wildfire and overtakes their cultivated crops. This is Jesus at his subversive best…he is undermining and challenging the dominant image for the kingdom—why would he use such a strange, provocative image for the kingdom?
- For one, this image ridicules and undermines the conditioned response of the people—in other words, here, Jesus has acted like mustard, he has come into the world, he has invaded our field, the field of our minds and he has undermined the ideas about God planted there. This shocks his audience, it disturbs them, and gets their attention—much like soil must be disturbed, turned, tilled, prior to planting, this image prepares the soil of the mind for the seed that Jesus is planting—or the seed that Jesus is…Jesus is saying the kingdom is not what you have been taught about it. The kingdom is not like a cedar of Lebanon—it’s like a weedy mustard plant
- This image of the mustard seed also challenges and subverts the culturally conditioned pattern of success and grandiosity. The kingdom is not like a big beautiful tree that your culture is going to readily accept and love. It’s actually like this tiny seed, a weed that your culture rejects. Jesus seems to be saying you’re like the kingdom when you’re like this dangerous weed—to the dominant culture of his day Jesus himself was a dangerous weed. He was, like mustard, causing people to lose, go out of, their minds. In fact, in the gospel, Jesus’ own family literally says of him, “He has gone out of his mind”. Jesus grew out of native Palestinian soil and was spreading a message the good religious people of his day did not like. Jesus is also saying you’re like the kingdom when you’re not very awe inspiring—no you’re like the kingdom when you’re seemingly insignificant and maybe even a little wild. Our culture loves the big, the successful. We even speak of successful churches this way. That church is doing well—look at it—it’s big—it’s rich—its popular…it looks like a successful church. To touch on something I mentioned a few weeks ago—a message like Jesus’, one that challenges our culturally conditioned ideas is by definition, unpopular…remember Tillich’s crucified messiah, the new reality is rejected by the keepers of the old reality?
- But here is the truly interesting point Jesus is making with this remarkable, subversive, image of the mustard seed…The kingdom is something you actually try to control, the kingdom is something you actually try to KEEP OUT of your fields. JESUS IS TELLING US, YOU ACTUALLY RESIST THE KINGDOM. Jesus’ first audience must have responded much the same way most of us do to this—wait a second, we like being good to people, we like trying to build the kingdom, what do you mean we try to keep the kingdom out of our fields? I’m a good person, I invite the kingdom into my field.
- But, no matter how you slice it Jesus is suggesting otherwise here. If Jesus is telling us the truth, and the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, then we try to keep it out of our fields and we don’t like it very much. We’re afraid it will corrupt and overrun our nice-neat, cultivated crops.
- I can imagine someone saying to Jesus, I’ve got some news for you, you crazy nut, I like my field. I’m very careful about what goes in there, I carefully plant and then water, and then I worry about how it’s doing. I want a nice, neat, pretty, controlled, successful field!
- And to this Jesus says, yes, and what you’re keeping out is the Kingdom. Just quit trying to control it. But that is exactly what many of us are afraid of doing…
- And this begs the question, how do we plant kingdom seeds—how do we grow the kingdom? By not trying to, by letting go, by letting God…a great way to do this is the same way Jesus did—BY REPENTING, BY TURNING TOWARD—and LISTENING TO God…let go of our need to be in CONTROL and listen to God…this way God is invited into our fields, this is the Spirit interceding with a sigh too deep for our words…THIS WAY WE LOSE OUR MINDS AND LET THE SAME MIND BE IN US THAT WAS IN CHRIST JESUS… when we let go our resistance comes down and we receive the new reality—God. And that takes real faith….it takes trust…we have to actually trust God… in this We stop acting like farmers trying to keep mustard out of our fields. We stop trying to control, we stop trying to cultivate our ideas of what the kingdom should be because ultimately that brings conflict. This group has their idea, that group disagrees. LIBERALS THINK THIS, CONSERVATIVES THAT, GOD DOESN’T CAUSE SUCH DIVISION, OUR IDEAS ABOUT GOD DO…You have yours and I have mine. The kingdom will grow on its own—if we let it. You, as an individual, may be, like a mustard seed, small in relation to the cosmos. But if you lose your mind, and let the mind of Christ be in you, a whole new world emerges…it defies our expectations, as it grows on its own like wildfire. The kingdom grows wild, like a mustard plant, like a wildflower, it is not engineered like a bridge, an airplane, a bomb, or a farm…the kingdom is more like a rainforest than a farm…the mustard seed parable challenges our ideas about the kingdom, in fact it is an invitation to lose our minds and live into the mind of Christ…and when we do we will see the kingdom everywhere…We will see it erasing all divisions as it crosses all those borders and boundaries we have created…and that is the kingdom on earth as is in heaven.
Sunday, July 19, 2020
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ094o-901E&feature=youtu.be
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ094o-901E&feature=youtu.be
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Sunday, July 19, 2020
He got a sweet gift of gab, he got a harmonious tongue
He knows every song of love that ever has been sung
Good intentions can be evil
Both hands can be full of grease
You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace
Those lines form Bob Dylan fit perfectly with our parable today…for they concern the power of illusion, the fact that humans often confuse an illusion for reality, IN THE LANGUAGE OF OUR PARABLE TODAY, THEY OFTEN CONFUSE THE FALSE, THE WEEDS OF SATAN, FOR THE TRUTH, THE WHEAT OF GOD.
Earlier in Matthew’s 13th chapter, just before our passage today, the disciples come privately to Jesus and ask him why he teaches the crowds in parables. Jesus responds by saying to the disciples, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them, the crowds, that is, it has not been given.” …in other words, the disciples who come to Christ in private, they are aware of the mysteries of the kingdom, the crowds, on the other hand, they lack awareness, in the language of today’s parable, they confuse weeds for wheat, with them the prophecy from Isaiah is fulfilled, that prophecy, in part, is…
You will indeed listen but never understand. You will indeed look but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull. WHILE THE CROWDS WILL LOOK BUT NEVER SEE, THE DISCIPLES, JESUS SAYS, HAVE EYES AND EARS THAT ARE BLESSED, FOR THEY SEE AND HEAR THE TRUTH.
In this short exchange between Jesus and the disciples, the gospel writer diagnoses the major “problem” for the human race, and also tells us what the true function of Jesus and the church is…the major problem for the crowd or the world is not lack of food, is not a pandemic, is not this or that political issue…the major problem is a lack of awareness. A lack of awareness of the mysteries of the kingdom. JESUS’ WHOLE MINISTRY POINTS TO AN AWARENESS OF GOD BEING THE KEY TO SALVATION. AS HE SAYS IN MATTHEW 6, “THE EYE IS THE LAMP OF THE BODY, IF YOUR EYE IS HEALTHY, YOUR WHOLE BODY WILL BE FULL OF LIGHT”. AND IT’S NOT JUST JESUS THAT EMPHASIZES AWARENESS OF GOD…EPHESIANS SAYS, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” CLEARLY, AWARENESS IS KEY. As we will see in our parable today, the major problem is that people, being asleep, live within an illusion, they confuse the false for the true, in the language of the parable, they mistake the weeds for the wheat….and so if a lack of awareness is the major problem for humanity…then THE CHRIST and his church are concerned with AWARENESS, WITH HELPING US TO STOP CONFUSING THE WEEDS AND THE WHEAT, WITH HELPING US TO STOP CONFUSING THE FALSE FOR THE TRUTH, WITH HELPING OUR EYES BE HEALTHY, SO THAT OUR WHOLE BODY, OUR COMMUNITIES, WILL BE FULL OF LIGHT…
In the beginning of our parable today, Jesus says someone is sowing good seed in his field; and here is the key moment—while everyone is ASLEEP, AN ENEMY COMES AND SOWS WEEDS AMONG THE WHEAT. THE WEEDS THAT JESUS IS SPEAKING OF HERE ARE CALLED IN HIS LANGUAGE, ZEEZANA—A NOXIOUS WEED THAT IS VIRTUALLY INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM WHEAT UNTIL IT IS FULLY GROWN. AND THIS IS THE POINT OF THE STORY…WHILE WE ARE ASLEEP, WHICH IS SIMPLY PARABOLIC LANGUAGE FOR A LACK OF AWARENESS, WE WILL OFTEN MISTAKE THE WEEDS OF SATAN FOR THE WHEAT OF GOD, WHILE WE ARE UNAWARE, WE WILL MISTAKE THE FALSE FOR THE TRUE—AND REMEMBER JESUS SUGGESTS MOST, THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE HUMAN RACE, LIVES WITHIN THIS ILLUSION OF MISTAKING THE FALSE FOR THE TRUE. THE BIBLE SHOWS US THAT WE CAN DO EVERYTHING HUMANS HAVE ALWAYS DONE—WE CAN GO TO SCHOOL, CHURCH, WORK, MAKE MONEY, GET MARRIED, MAKE AND RAISE BABIES, RETIRE, AND DIE, ALL WHILE WE ARE, “ASLEEP”, WHILE WE ARE MISTAKING THE WEEDS FOR THE WHEAT, WHILE WE ARE MISTAKING WHAT WE MERELY THINK IS TRUE FOR WHAT IS ACTUALLY TRUE. WHILE WE ARE, IN THE LANGUAGE OF DYLAN’S SONG, MISTAKING SATAN FOR A MAN OF PEACE.
AND THE CHURCH IS NOT IMMUNE TO THIS PROBLEM. THIS MISTAKING OF WEEDS FOR WHEAT, FALSE FOR TRUE, WAS ILLUSTRATED FOR ME THIS PAST WEEK, WHILE I WAS IN A PART OF THE COUNTRY THAT I LOVE. ONE EVENING I TOOK A WALK THROUGH THE PLACE THAT MY MOTHER GREW UP IN…THIS IS A FORGOTTEN LITTLE TOWN SUNK TO THE BOTTOM OF A SEA OF TREES CALLED THE SHAWNEE NATIONAL FOREST…AS I SLOWLY MADE MY WAY FROM ONE VACANT STOREFRONT TO ANOTHER, I SAW A SMALL CROWD WALKING TOWARD A LITTLE COUNTRY CHURCH THAT SITS LIKE A SAD OLD MAN RIGHT IN THE HEART OF TOWN. IT SEEMED I HAD WANDERED INTO SOME KIND OF STRANGE RITUAL OR PILGRIMAGE. OUT OF THE SHADOWY WOODS THAT SURROUND THE TOWN CAME THE SOUND OF RATTLING BONES AND POUNDING DRUMS, OR MAYBE THAT WAS SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL COMING FROM A WINDOW OPENED BEFORE I WAS BORN. ANYWAY, I DECIDED TO INVESTIGATE. IT TURNED OUT THAT THE CHURCH WAS PASSING OUT BOXED DINNERS…IT SEEMED LIKE THE WHOLE TOWN WAS OUT THERE IN THE HEAT WAITIING FOR FOOD. AND I WONDERED WHAT IS THIS? YOU COULD TELL BY LOOKING THAT THE REAL PROBLEM HAD BEEN MISDIGANOSED. THE PROBLEM WAS NOT ECONOMIC, A LACK OF MONEY---THE REAL PROBLEM WAS NOT THE WRONG POLITICS OR EDUCATION—THE LOOKS OF DESPAIR AND DEPRESSION ON THOSE FACES WAS THE SAME LOOK I HAVE SEEN ON PEOPLE WHO HAVE EXPENSIVE EDUCATIONS AND A LOT OF MONEY. IT WAS THE SAME LOOK I HAVE SEEN IN THE MIRROR. AND, YOU COULD EASILY SEE THAT THE TRUE PROBLEM WAS NOT A LACK OF FOOD, A LACK OF CALORIES. BUT THIS KIND OF OUTREACH, LIKE A WEED MISTAKEN FOR WHEAT, MERELY LOOKS GOOD, IT MIGHT MAKE US FEEL GOOD. A LOT OF PEOPLE WILL SHOW UP. YOU CAN MARK IT DOWN IN YOUR END OF YEAR STATISTICS, YOU CAN QUANTIFY IT. AND INSTITUTIONS LIKE NUMBERS. BUT IT DOESN’T ADDRESS THE REAL PROBLEM…A LACK OF AWARENESS. THE LOOKS ON THOSE FACES DIDN’T CHANGE AFTER THEY RECEIVED THEIR BOX OF FOOD. AWARENESS OF THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM DOES NOT COME THROUGH PLATES OF PANCAKES, PASTA, AND MASHED POTATOES—IF IT DID, OUR CULTURE WOULD NOT BE IN THE CONDITION IT IS OBVIOUSLY IN. THIS IS WHY JESUS TELLS THE CROWD IN JOHN, “DO NOT WORK FOR THE FOOD THAT PERISHES BUT FOR THE FOOD THAT ENDURES TO ETERNAL LIFE.” NOW, OF COURSE IF HUNGER IS THE ACTUAL PROBLEM, THEN WE ADDRESS THAT. BUT WHEN CHURCHES DO THIS SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO OR BECAUSE THEY ALWAYS HAVE, OR BECAUSE THEY DON’T KNOW HOW TO OFFER THE FOOD THAT ENDURES TO ETERNAL LIFE, THEN IT IS A WEED…IT LOOKS GOOD, IT LOOKS LIKE WHEAT, BUT IT ISN’T…IT DOES NOT ADDRESS THE PROBLEM. HOW CAN YOU HELP PEOPLE TELL THE WHEAT FROM THE WEEDS IF YOU YOURSELF CAN NOT?
SO HOW DOES AWARENESS COME? JESUS IS TELLING US…HE IS INVITING US TO LOOK AT OUR WEEDS…THIS KIND OF AWARENESS IS NOT A MATTER OF CONSUMING INFORMATION, IT IS A MATTER OF SELF-OBSERVATION…OF BEING AWARE OF WHAT YOU’RE DOING, WHAT YOU’RE THINKING, HOW YOU’RE ACTING, WHAT YOUR MOTIVES ARE, WHAT YOUR AGENDA IS…THEN YOU WILL WAKE FROM THE SLEEP JESUS MENTIONS IN THE PARABLE AND THEN YOU WILL BE AWARE OF THE WEEDS AMONG THE WHEAT…JESUS IS INVITING US TO BE AWARE OF THE ILLUSION THAT WE TOO OFTEN MISTAKE FOR TRUTH…HE IS SAYING, YOU TOO OFTEN FALL FOR THE TRICK, YOU OFTEN LIVE IN THE ILLUSION, YOU OFTEN CONFUSE THE WEEDS AND THE WHEAT….JUST LOOK, JUST BE AWARE…THERE ARE WEEDS IN THERE AND OUT THERE, JUST BE PASSIVELY AWARE OF THEM, AND THEY WILL BE SEPARATED FROM THE WHEAT…BUT IF YOU ARE BLIND TO THEM, IF YOU CONFUSE THEM WITH THE WHEAT, THEY WILL MAKE YOU SICK…THE CHILDREN OF THE KINGDOM ARE THOSE WITH AWARENESS, ARE THOSE THAT HAVE BROKEN THROUGH THE ILLUSION, THE CHILDREN OF THE KINGDOM ARE THOSE THAT CAN SEE THE FALSE AS THE FALSE…AND ONLY THEN CAN THE TRUTH COME…WE CANNOT BE AWARE IF WE DON’T PAY ATTENTION TO OUR WEEDS, TO WHAT IS FALSE WITHIN US… AND HOW DO WE DO THAT? THAT AWARENESS CAN ONLY COME TO THOSE WHO, LIKE THE DISCIPLES, COME TO JESUS IN PRIVATE—THE CROWDS ARE LOST IN AN ILLUSION, UNAWARE--DISCIPLES ARE CALLED OUT OF THE CROWD, DISCIPLES COME IN PRIVATE TO CHRIST SO THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE EYES AND EARS THAT ARE BLESSED, SO THAT THEY MIGHT SEE AND HEAR THE TRUTH. AMEN
He got a sweet gift of gab, he got a harmonious tongue
He knows every song of love that ever has been sung
Good intentions can be evil
Both hands can be full of grease
You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace
Those lines form Bob Dylan fit perfectly with our parable today…for they concern the power of illusion, the fact that humans often confuse an illusion for reality, IN THE LANGUAGE OF OUR PARABLE TODAY, THEY OFTEN CONFUSE THE FALSE, THE WEEDS OF SATAN, FOR THE TRUTH, THE WHEAT OF GOD.
Earlier in Matthew’s 13th chapter, just before our passage today, the disciples come privately to Jesus and ask him why he teaches the crowds in parables. Jesus responds by saying to the disciples, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them, the crowds, that is, it has not been given.” …in other words, the disciples who come to Christ in private, they are aware of the mysteries of the kingdom, the crowds, on the other hand, they lack awareness, in the language of today’s parable, they confuse weeds for wheat, with them the prophecy from Isaiah is fulfilled, that prophecy, in part, is…
You will indeed listen but never understand. You will indeed look but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull. WHILE THE CROWDS WILL LOOK BUT NEVER SEE, THE DISCIPLES, JESUS SAYS, HAVE EYES AND EARS THAT ARE BLESSED, FOR THEY SEE AND HEAR THE TRUTH.
In this short exchange between Jesus and the disciples, the gospel writer diagnoses the major “problem” for the human race, and also tells us what the true function of Jesus and the church is…the major problem for the crowd or the world is not lack of food, is not a pandemic, is not this or that political issue…the major problem is a lack of awareness. A lack of awareness of the mysteries of the kingdom. JESUS’ WHOLE MINISTRY POINTS TO AN AWARENESS OF GOD BEING THE KEY TO SALVATION. AS HE SAYS IN MATTHEW 6, “THE EYE IS THE LAMP OF THE BODY, IF YOUR EYE IS HEALTHY, YOUR WHOLE BODY WILL BE FULL OF LIGHT”. AND IT’S NOT JUST JESUS THAT EMPHASIZES AWARENESS OF GOD…EPHESIANS SAYS, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” CLEARLY, AWARENESS IS KEY. As we will see in our parable today, the major problem is that people, being asleep, live within an illusion, they confuse the false for the true, in the language of the parable, they mistake the weeds for the wheat….and so if a lack of awareness is the major problem for humanity…then THE CHRIST and his church are concerned with AWARENESS, WITH HELPING US TO STOP CONFUSING THE WEEDS AND THE WHEAT, WITH HELPING US TO STOP CONFUSING THE FALSE FOR THE TRUTH, WITH HELPING OUR EYES BE HEALTHY, SO THAT OUR WHOLE BODY, OUR COMMUNITIES, WILL BE FULL OF LIGHT…
In the beginning of our parable today, Jesus says someone is sowing good seed in his field; and here is the key moment—while everyone is ASLEEP, AN ENEMY COMES AND SOWS WEEDS AMONG THE WHEAT. THE WEEDS THAT JESUS IS SPEAKING OF HERE ARE CALLED IN HIS LANGUAGE, ZEEZANA—A NOXIOUS WEED THAT IS VIRTUALLY INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM WHEAT UNTIL IT IS FULLY GROWN. AND THIS IS THE POINT OF THE STORY…WHILE WE ARE ASLEEP, WHICH IS SIMPLY PARABOLIC LANGUAGE FOR A LACK OF AWARENESS, WE WILL OFTEN MISTAKE THE WEEDS OF SATAN FOR THE WHEAT OF GOD, WHILE WE ARE UNAWARE, WE WILL MISTAKE THE FALSE FOR THE TRUE—AND REMEMBER JESUS SUGGESTS MOST, THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE HUMAN RACE, LIVES WITHIN THIS ILLUSION OF MISTAKING THE FALSE FOR THE TRUE. THE BIBLE SHOWS US THAT WE CAN DO EVERYTHING HUMANS HAVE ALWAYS DONE—WE CAN GO TO SCHOOL, CHURCH, WORK, MAKE MONEY, GET MARRIED, MAKE AND RAISE BABIES, RETIRE, AND DIE, ALL WHILE WE ARE, “ASLEEP”, WHILE WE ARE MISTAKING THE WEEDS FOR THE WHEAT, WHILE WE ARE MISTAKING WHAT WE MERELY THINK IS TRUE FOR WHAT IS ACTUALLY TRUE. WHILE WE ARE, IN THE LANGUAGE OF DYLAN’S SONG, MISTAKING SATAN FOR A MAN OF PEACE.
AND THE CHURCH IS NOT IMMUNE TO THIS PROBLEM. THIS MISTAKING OF WEEDS FOR WHEAT, FALSE FOR TRUE, WAS ILLUSTRATED FOR ME THIS PAST WEEK, WHILE I WAS IN A PART OF THE COUNTRY THAT I LOVE. ONE EVENING I TOOK A WALK THROUGH THE PLACE THAT MY MOTHER GREW UP IN…THIS IS A FORGOTTEN LITTLE TOWN SUNK TO THE BOTTOM OF A SEA OF TREES CALLED THE SHAWNEE NATIONAL FOREST…AS I SLOWLY MADE MY WAY FROM ONE VACANT STOREFRONT TO ANOTHER, I SAW A SMALL CROWD WALKING TOWARD A LITTLE COUNTRY CHURCH THAT SITS LIKE A SAD OLD MAN RIGHT IN THE HEART OF TOWN. IT SEEMED I HAD WANDERED INTO SOME KIND OF STRANGE RITUAL OR PILGRIMAGE. OUT OF THE SHADOWY WOODS THAT SURROUND THE TOWN CAME THE SOUND OF RATTLING BONES AND POUNDING DRUMS, OR MAYBE THAT WAS SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL COMING FROM A WINDOW OPENED BEFORE I WAS BORN. ANYWAY, I DECIDED TO INVESTIGATE. IT TURNED OUT THAT THE CHURCH WAS PASSING OUT BOXED DINNERS…IT SEEMED LIKE THE WHOLE TOWN WAS OUT THERE IN THE HEAT WAITIING FOR FOOD. AND I WONDERED WHAT IS THIS? YOU COULD TELL BY LOOKING THAT THE REAL PROBLEM HAD BEEN MISDIGANOSED. THE PROBLEM WAS NOT ECONOMIC, A LACK OF MONEY---THE REAL PROBLEM WAS NOT THE WRONG POLITICS OR EDUCATION—THE LOOKS OF DESPAIR AND DEPRESSION ON THOSE FACES WAS THE SAME LOOK I HAVE SEEN ON PEOPLE WHO HAVE EXPENSIVE EDUCATIONS AND A LOT OF MONEY. IT WAS THE SAME LOOK I HAVE SEEN IN THE MIRROR. AND, YOU COULD EASILY SEE THAT THE TRUE PROBLEM WAS NOT A LACK OF FOOD, A LACK OF CALORIES. BUT THIS KIND OF OUTREACH, LIKE A WEED MISTAKEN FOR WHEAT, MERELY LOOKS GOOD, IT MIGHT MAKE US FEEL GOOD. A LOT OF PEOPLE WILL SHOW UP. YOU CAN MARK IT DOWN IN YOUR END OF YEAR STATISTICS, YOU CAN QUANTIFY IT. AND INSTITUTIONS LIKE NUMBERS. BUT IT DOESN’T ADDRESS THE REAL PROBLEM…A LACK OF AWARENESS. THE LOOKS ON THOSE FACES DIDN’T CHANGE AFTER THEY RECEIVED THEIR BOX OF FOOD. AWARENESS OF THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM DOES NOT COME THROUGH PLATES OF PANCAKES, PASTA, AND MASHED POTATOES—IF IT DID, OUR CULTURE WOULD NOT BE IN THE CONDITION IT IS OBVIOUSLY IN. THIS IS WHY JESUS TELLS THE CROWD IN JOHN, “DO NOT WORK FOR THE FOOD THAT PERISHES BUT FOR THE FOOD THAT ENDURES TO ETERNAL LIFE.” NOW, OF COURSE IF HUNGER IS THE ACTUAL PROBLEM, THEN WE ADDRESS THAT. BUT WHEN CHURCHES DO THIS SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO OR BECAUSE THEY ALWAYS HAVE, OR BECAUSE THEY DON’T KNOW HOW TO OFFER THE FOOD THAT ENDURES TO ETERNAL LIFE, THEN IT IS A WEED…IT LOOKS GOOD, IT LOOKS LIKE WHEAT, BUT IT ISN’T…IT DOES NOT ADDRESS THE PROBLEM. HOW CAN YOU HELP PEOPLE TELL THE WHEAT FROM THE WEEDS IF YOU YOURSELF CAN NOT?
SO HOW DOES AWARENESS COME? JESUS IS TELLING US…HE IS INVITING US TO LOOK AT OUR WEEDS…THIS KIND OF AWARENESS IS NOT A MATTER OF CONSUMING INFORMATION, IT IS A MATTER OF SELF-OBSERVATION…OF BEING AWARE OF WHAT YOU’RE DOING, WHAT YOU’RE THINKING, HOW YOU’RE ACTING, WHAT YOUR MOTIVES ARE, WHAT YOUR AGENDA IS…THEN YOU WILL WAKE FROM THE SLEEP JESUS MENTIONS IN THE PARABLE AND THEN YOU WILL BE AWARE OF THE WEEDS AMONG THE WHEAT…JESUS IS INVITING US TO BE AWARE OF THE ILLUSION THAT WE TOO OFTEN MISTAKE FOR TRUTH…HE IS SAYING, YOU TOO OFTEN FALL FOR THE TRICK, YOU OFTEN LIVE IN THE ILLUSION, YOU OFTEN CONFUSE THE WEEDS AND THE WHEAT….JUST LOOK, JUST BE AWARE…THERE ARE WEEDS IN THERE AND OUT THERE, JUST BE PASSIVELY AWARE OF THEM, AND THEY WILL BE SEPARATED FROM THE WHEAT…BUT IF YOU ARE BLIND TO THEM, IF YOU CONFUSE THEM WITH THE WHEAT, THEY WILL MAKE YOU SICK…THE CHILDREN OF THE KINGDOM ARE THOSE WITH AWARENESS, ARE THOSE THAT HAVE BROKEN THROUGH THE ILLUSION, THE CHILDREN OF THE KINGDOM ARE THOSE THAT CAN SEE THE FALSE AS THE FALSE…AND ONLY THEN CAN THE TRUTH COME…WE CANNOT BE AWARE IF WE DON’T PAY ATTENTION TO OUR WEEDS, TO WHAT IS FALSE WITHIN US… AND HOW DO WE DO THAT? THAT AWARENESS CAN ONLY COME TO THOSE WHO, LIKE THE DISCIPLES, COME TO JESUS IN PRIVATE—THE CROWDS ARE LOST IN AN ILLUSION, UNAWARE--DISCIPLES ARE CALLED OUT OF THE CROWD, DISCIPLES COME IN PRIVATE TO CHRIST SO THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE EYES AND EARS THAT ARE BLESSED, SO THAT THEY MIGHT SEE AND HEAR THE TRUTH. AMEN
Sunday, July 12, 2020
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o7M0nEWOq0&feature=youtu.be
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o7M0nEWOq0&feature=youtu.be
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Sunday, July 5, 2020
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0DhBKsn_Ys&feature=youtu.be
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0DhBKsn_Ys&feature=youtu.be
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Sunday, July 5, 2020
At that time Jesus said, “I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and have revealed them to infants”…Here Jesus uses metaphors to discuss two very different modes of consciousness, two very different minds…One he likens to “the wise and the learned”, the other to an “infant”…
As a metaphor, “the wise and the learned” stands for all of us, for your typical human being…the Greek word here for “learned” is connected to our word for synthesizing, and it is almost always used in a negative way in the NT…it points to a mind weaving together facts and concepts…you can think of this synthesizing as weaving together a kind of MENTAL OR IDEOLOGICAL screen or veil that hides the mysteries of the kingdom…as we all grow up our minds become occupied with the things of the world that hide or cover up, the “things of God”…
Jesus says being “wise and learned” hides the mysteries of the kingdom… and later in the passage he says that these things of the world that we become occupied with, these ideas and concepts, these, he says, are a burden. When Jesus says come to me all of you who are carrying heavy burdens, The image he has in mind is that of an animal that has been loaded up and is carrying a great weight…and this is a metaphor for a mind occupied and burdened by the things of the world…from the time we are born we have this weight added to us…ideas and conclusions, this is right, that is wrong, you are good, and he is bad, God is this—this religious dogma or that, this church or that, this economic system or that, this government or that, the worship of this or that flag, this or that colored piece of fabric that we fight over; the defense of this or boundary or border…and where does all this come from? Are we born with all of these ideas and ideologies—like we are born with hearts and fingers and toes? Nobody is born an “American”, a “Russian”, “White” or “Black”. Those are all social constructs. They are superficial stories that we learn. This is the stuff that gets added to us through being conditioned by a particular culture.
And Jesus’ way is fundamentally counter-cultural…it is fundamentally subversive…it concerns the way we as individuals construct or de-construct reality…WHEN HE SAYS, you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and revealed them to infants…the Greek word we translate as hidden here is krupto, it is where we get our word cryptic—this is telling us that, for the wise and the learned, the “things” of God, what Jesus elsewhere calls the mysteries of the kingdom, these things are concealed, something is covering them up…what is covering up the things of God?—well, the learning we do, the conceptual architecture that is built through our experiences in the world, the ideas we accumulate…for the wise and the learned, in other words, for that mind that is the result of all our conditioning, the kingdom is cryptic—it is hidden…and it is revealed to what Jesus calls infants…he tells us elsewhere that unless we change and become like little children, we will never enter the kingdom…that is a saying we ignore at our own peril…you can see from these sayings of Jesus that the “learning” we must do as disciples of Christ is actually a kind of un-learning—we all, as the wise and the learned, as those who have learned the ways of the world, we must learn to unlearn…a proper CHRISTIAN EDUCATION consists OF UNLEARNING…consists of ASSISTING THE OLD AND THE YOUNG to UN-LEARN THE STUFF WE, MEANING SOCIETY, INEVITABLY TEACH THEM. THIS IS WHAT JESUS MEANS WHEN HE SAYS, UNLESS YOU CHANGE AND BECOME LIKE LITTLE CHILDREN YOU NEVER ENTER THE KINGDOM…CAN WE HELP THOSE THAT COME TO OUR CHURCH ONCE AGAIN be like little infants—so that they might re-turn, to THE KINGDOM, TO THE GARDEN OF EDEN?…THIS IS WHY JESUS IS COUNTER-CULTURAL. JESUS IS NOT COUNTER-CULTURAL LIKE SOME GROUPS FANCY THEMSELVES TO BE…JESUS IS COUNTER-CULTURAL IN THE SENSE THAT HE IS THE DE-CONSTRUCTION, THE UN-LEARNING OF ALL IDEOLOGIES. INCLUDING THOSE THAT USE HIS NAME.
WHEN YOU READ JESUS’ METAPHORICAL TEACHINGS CLOSELY, YOU SEE THAT WE DON’T FALL AWAY FROM GOD, WE DON’T FALL OUT OF EDEN, WE LEARN OUR WAY OUT OF EDEN, WE THINK OURSELVES AWAY FROM GOD…AS MEISTER ECKHART SAID, “GOD IS ALWAYS HOME, IT IS WE THAT HAVE GONE OUT FOR A WALK.” PAUL DESCRIBES THIS IN ROMANS TODAY WITH HIS DESCRIPTION OF THE INNER CONFLICT…WHICH, PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD SHOWS US THAT “I”, MY EGO, THAT IS, CANNOT, THROUGH ITS OWN EFFORT, THINK ITS WAY TO SALVATION, TO FREEDOM. THIS IS WHY PAUL CALLS IT A BODY OF DEATH. IT CAN’T BECAUSE of MY EGO, OR SELF, THAT WHICH JESUS REPEATEDLY SAYS WE MUST LOSE, THAT WHICH GIVES US THE sense of SIN, separation and estrangement FROM GOD, IS ITSELF THE RESULT OF a conditioned THOUGHT process. ACCORDING TO JESUS, WHO I THINK I AM IS NOT WHO I REALLY AM. AND SO THINKING AND ESTRANGEMENT FROM GOD GO HAND IN HAND…AGAIN THIS IS WHY PAUL CALLS IT “THIS BODY OF DEATH”…ANY EFFORT TO THINK MY WAY TO SALVATION IS SELF-ENCLOSING…TRYING TO THINK MY WAY TO GOD BECOMES LIKE ONE OF THOSE CHINESE FINGER TRAPS…THE HARDER YOU TRY TO PULL OUT THE TIGHTER IT GETS…THE ONLY WAY “OUT” IS TO RELAX…IF YOU GIVE IT A REST, RELAX THOUGHT, YOU RELAX YOUR SENSE OF SEPARATION AND ESTRANGEMENT, SO, IT MAKES SENSE THAT THE ANCIENT PSALMIST SAID, be still, or better translated, RELAX AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD…HOW DID PAUL’S OWN INNER CONFLICT RESOLVE? THROUGH HIS SELF—THAT WHICH IS THE RESULT OF THOUGHT, BEING CRUCIFIED, COMING TO AN END, THROUGH LETTING IT REST…
JESUS GIVES US HIS VERSION OF RELAX AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD THIS MORNING WITH HIS, “COME TO ME ALL YOU WHO ARE WEARY AND ARE CARRYING HEAVY BURDENS, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST. MY YOKE IS EASY AND MY BURDEN IS LIGHT
WHEN JESUS SAYS HIS YOKE IS EASY, WE COULD TRANSLATE IT AS HIS YOGA IS EASY, YOKE AND YOGA MEAN THE SAME THING, BOTH WORDS POINT TO UNION, HARMONY, WITH SPIRIT OR GOD…HIS YOKE IS EASY BECAUSE WE ARE UNITED TO GOD WITHOUT SELF-CENTERED EFFORT—IT IS SIMPLY THROUGH STOPPING, SABBATHING, RELAXING, THAT WE REALIZE CONSCIOUS UNION WITH GOD…HIS BURDEN IS LIGHT BECAUSE IT IS THROUGH THE LETTING GO OF THOSE IDEAS AND CONCLUSIONS, THOSE FEARS AND PREJUDICES, THOSE SYSTEMS, BOUNDARIES AND BORDERS THAT WE BECOME LIKE INFANTS AGAIN AND WE REST, WE RELAX, IN THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM.
AND HERE IS MANIFESTED THE SIMPLE, YET PROFOUND CHRIST WITHIN WHICH IS OUR ORIGINAL IDENTITY AS A CHILD OF GOD. HERE IS REVEALED, ALL BARE, THE BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPE OF THE BETHLEHEM WITHIN, HERE IS WHERE THE CHRIST CHILD IS RE-MEMBERED. THERE IS A STRAIGHT PASSAGE OPEN AND UNOBSTRUCTED, WHICH IS THE WAY OF THE CHRIST. THIS IS SO WHEN YOU COME TO CHRIST AND LAY DOWN YOUR HEAVY BURDENS AND REST. THIS IS WHERE THERE IS PEACE, SHALOM, THE GARDEN OF EDEN, RIGHT HERE AND NOW. THE GOSPELS AND THE LETTERS OF PAUL ARE NO MORE THAN COMMUNICATIONS OF THIS FACT. ALL THE PROPHETS, ANCIENT AND MODERN, HAVE EXHAUSTED THEIR ENERGY AND THEIR CREATIVITY TO NO OTHER PURPOSE THAN TO POINT THE WAY TO THIS. IT IS LIKE BEING HANDED THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM, IT IS LAYING OUR BURDEN DOWN SO THAT WE MIGHT KNOW, THE ETERNAL, MYSTERIOUS, PEACE OF CHRIST.
AMEN.
At that time Jesus said, “I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and have revealed them to infants”…Here Jesus uses metaphors to discuss two very different modes of consciousness, two very different minds…One he likens to “the wise and the learned”, the other to an “infant”…
As a metaphor, “the wise and the learned” stands for all of us, for your typical human being…the Greek word here for “learned” is connected to our word for synthesizing, and it is almost always used in a negative way in the NT…it points to a mind weaving together facts and concepts…you can think of this synthesizing as weaving together a kind of MENTAL OR IDEOLOGICAL screen or veil that hides the mysteries of the kingdom…as we all grow up our minds become occupied with the things of the world that hide or cover up, the “things of God”…
Jesus says being “wise and learned” hides the mysteries of the kingdom… and later in the passage he says that these things of the world that we become occupied with, these ideas and concepts, these, he says, are a burden. When Jesus says come to me all of you who are carrying heavy burdens, The image he has in mind is that of an animal that has been loaded up and is carrying a great weight…and this is a metaphor for a mind occupied and burdened by the things of the world…from the time we are born we have this weight added to us…ideas and conclusions, this is right, that is wrong, you are good, and he is bad, God is this—this religious dogma or that, this church or that, this economic system or that, this government or that, the worship of this or that flag, this or that colored piece of fabric that we fight over; the defense of this or boundary or border…and where does all this come from? Are we born with all of these ideas and ideologies—like we are born with hearts and fingers and toes? Nobody is born an “American”, a “Russian”, “White” or “Black”. Those are all social constructs. They are superficial stories that we learn. This is the stuff that gets added to us through being conditioned by a particular culture.
And Jesus’ way is fundamentally counter-cultural…it is fundamentally subversive…it concerns the way we as individuals construct or de-construct reality…WHEN HE SAYS, you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and revealed them to infants…the Greek word we translate as hidden here is krupto, it is where we get our word cryptic—this is telling us that, for the wise and the learned, the “things” of God, what Jesus elsewhere calls the mysteries of the kingdom, these things are concealed, something is covering them up…what is covering up the things of God?—well, the learning we do, the conceptual architecture that is built through our experiences in the world, the ideas we accumulate…for the wise and the learned, in other words, for that mind that is the result of all our conditioning, the kingdom is cryptic—it is hidden…and it is revealed to what Jesus calls infants…he tells us elsewhere that unless we change and become like little children, we will never enter the kingdom…that is a saying we ignore at our own peril…you can see from these sayings of Jesus that the “learning” we must do as disciples of Christ is actually a kind of un-learning—we all, as the wise and the learned, as those who have learned the ways of the world, we must learn to unlearn…a proper CHRISTIAN EDUCATION consists OF UNLEARNING…consists of ASSISTING THE OLD AND THE YOUNG to UN-LEARN THE STUFF WE, MEANING SOCIETY, INEVITABLY TEACH THEM. THIS IS WHAT JESUS MEANS WHEN HE SAYS, UNLESS YOU CHANGE AND BECOME LIKE LITTLE CHILDREN YOU NEVER ENTER THE KINGDOM…CAN WE HELP THOSE THAT COME TO OUR CHURCH ONCE AGAIN be like little infants—so that they might re-turn, to THE KINGDOM, TO THE GARDEN OF EDEN?…THIS IS WHY JESUS IS COUNTER-CULTURAL. JESUS IS NOT COUNTER-CULTURAL LIKE SOME GROUPS FANCY THEMSELVES TO BE…JESUS IS COUNTER-CULTURAL IN THE SENSE THAT HE IS THE DE-CONSTRUCTION, THE UN-LEARNING OF ALL IDEOLOGIES. INCLUDING THOSE THAT USE HIS NAME.
WHEN YOU READ JESUS’ METAPHORICAL TEACHINGS CLOSELY, YOU SEE THAT WE DON’T FALL AWAY FROM GOD, WE DON’T FALL OUT OF EDEN, WE LEARN OUR WAY OUT OF EDEN, WE THINK OURSELVES AWAY FROM GOD…AS MEISTER ECKHART SAID, “GOD IS ALWAYS HOME, IT IS WE THAT HAVE GONE OUT FOR A WALK.” PAUL DESCRIBES THIS IN ROMANS TODAY WITH HIS DESCRIPTION OF THE INNER CONFLICT…WHICH, PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD SHOWS US THAT “I”, MY EGO, THAT IS, CANNOT, THROUGH ITS OWN EFFORT, THINK ITS WAY TO SALVATION, TO FREEDOM. THIS IS WHY PAUL CALLS IT A BODY OF DEATH. IT CAN’T BECAUSE of MY EGO, OR SELF, THAT WHICH JESUS REPEATEDLY SAYS WE MUST LOSE, THAT WHICH GIVES US THE sense of SIN, separation and estrangement FROM GOD, IS ITSELF THE RESULT OF a conditioned THOUGHT process. ACCORDING TO JESUS, WHO I THINK I AM IS NOT WHO I REALLY AM. AND SO THINKING AND ESTRANGEMENT FROM GOD GO HAND IN HAND…AGAIN THIS IS WHY PAUL CALLS IT “THIS BODY OF DEATH”…ANY EFFORT TO THINK MY WAY TO SALVATION IS SELF-ENCLOSING…TRYING TO THINK MY WAY TO GOD BECOMES LIKE ONE OF THOSE CHINESE FINGER TRAPS…THE HARDER YOU TRY TO PULL OUT THE TIGHTER IT GETS…THE ONLY WAY “OUT” IS TO RELAX…IF YOU GIVE IT A REST, RELAX THOUGHT, YOU RELAX YOUR SENSE OF SEPARATION AND ESTRANGEMENT, SO, IT MAKES SENSE THAT THE ANCIENT PSALMIST SAID, be still, or better translated, RELAX AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD…HOW DID PAUL’S OWN INNER CONFLICT RESOLVE? THROUGH HIS SELF—THAT WHICH IS THE RESULT OF THOUGHT, BEING CRUCIFIED, COMING TO AN END, THROUGH LETTING IT REST…
JESUS GIVES US HIS VERSION OF RELAX AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD THIS MORNING WITH HIS, “COME TO ME ALL YOU WHO ARE WEARY AND ARE CARRYING HEAVY BURDENS, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST. MY YOKE IS EASY AND MY BURDEN IS LIGHT
WHEN JESUS SAYS HIS YOKE IS EASY, WE COULD TRANSLATE IT AS HIS YOGA IS EASY, YOKE AND YOGA MEAN THE SAME THING, BOTH WORDS POINT TO UNION, HARMONY, WITH SPIRIT OR GOD…HIS YOKE IS EASY BECAUSE WE ARE UNITED TO GOD WITHOUT SELF-CENTERED EFFORT—IT IS SIMPLY THROUGH STOPPING, SABBATHING, RELAXING, THAT WE REALIZE CONSCIOUS UNION WITH GOD…HIS BURDEN IS LIGHT BECAUSE IT IS THROUGH THE LETTING GO OF THOSE IDEAS AND CONCLUSIONS, THOSE FEARS AND PREJUDICES, THOSE SYSTEMS, BOUNDARIES AND BORDERS THAT WE BECOME LIKE INFANTS AGAIN AND WE REST, WE RELAX, IN THE MYSTERIES OF THE KINGDOM.
AND HERE IS MANIFESTED THE SIMPLE, YET PROFOUND CHRIST WITHIN WHICH IS OUR ORIGINAL IDENTITY AS A CHILD OF GOD. HERE IS REVEALED, ALL BARE, THE BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPE OF THE BETHLEHEM WITHIN, HERE IS WHERE THE CHRIST CHILD IS RE-MEMBERED. THERE IS A STRAIGHT PASSAGE OPEN AND UNOBSTRUCTED, WHICH IS THE WAY OF THE CHRIST. THIS IS SO WHEN YOU COME TO CHRIST AND LAY DOWN YOUR HEAVY BURDENS AND REST. THIS IS WHERE THERE IS PEACE, SHALOM, THE GARDEN OF EDEN, RIGHT HERE AND NOW. THE GOSPELS AND THE LETTERS OF PAUL ARE NO MORE THAN COMMUNICATIONS OF THIS FACT. ALL THE PROPHETS, ANCIENT AND MODERN, HAVE EXHAUSTED THEIR ENERGY AND THEIR CREATIVITY TO NO OTHER PURPOSE THAN TO POINT THE WAY TO THIS. IT IS LIKE BEING HANDED THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM, IT IS LAYING OUR BURDEN DOWN SO THAT WE MIGHT KNOW, THE ETERNAL, MYSTERIOUS, PEACE OF CHRIST.
AMEN.
Sunday, June 28, 2020
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Video Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVJ7IW6L5OY&feature=youtu.be
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Video Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVJ7IW6L5OY&feature=youtu.be
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Sermon - Sunday, June 28, 2020
Last stanza of Dylan Thomas’ poem…
Dylan Thomas’ poem of rebirth fits well with our scripture today…Jesus and Paul both ask us to dream our genesis—to “seek the sun” with new strength…
“We know that our old self was crucified”…Our scriptures this morning speak to us of losing an old life, of deliverance and transformation…deliverance is transformation…what are we dying to, losing, being delivered from? Quite simply--who we think we are…an old identity…to use a metaphor from our computer age, we die to, are delivered from, our old operating system. This is really early Christianity in a nutshell—it starts with a call to repentance, metanoia—literally, changing our minds…and it goes to the resurrection, the victory of the new state of things….all of our great Christian symbols point toward this.
Why did Jesus and Paul think we need to be delivered from—or “die to” our old mind? Simply put—our conditioning. It is an obvious fact that our minds are influenced greatly by, shaped by, our conditioning. We are conditioned according to a pre-established pattern or system. and those patterns have edges, boundaries that often divide us from and clash with, those who are conditioned according to another pattern. And too often our minds are bound by that pattern we are conditioned into. So they are not free. It is only a liberated, a delivered, or free mind that can directly encounter, be in, that which is beyond the binding pattern. A mind shaped according to any system or pattern—that mind is the pattern; it is in, the system that shaped it--be it eastern or western, Christian or capitalist. Conditioning is conditioning, no matter what you call it. Jesus and Paul saw that there must be deliverance, there must be freedom for God, that which is beyond all conditioned patterns, to be seen, directly encountered. The NT speaks repeatedly of freedom in Christ…this is freedom from our conditioned selves…how much clearer does Paul need to be on this than his words in Galatians, “ there is no more Jew or Greek, slave or free, there is no longer male or female—but you are all ONE in Christ Jesus”…and we could add, there is no more white, black, straight or gay, democrat or republican, American or Chinese…this is dying and rising with Yeshua, Jesus—the one whose very name means deliverance. This is dying and rising with Christ…and that is what Yeshua, Jesus, delivers us from…what Paul calls our crucified old self in our scripture today…Paul was himself, through encounters with the risen Christ, delivered from his old, conditioned identity as a Pharisaic Jew… Where does this old identity, this old operating system that Paul says is crucified and buried come from?
Our passage today from Matthew is not the only passage in which Jesus is depicted as being tough on the institution of the family…far from it…Jesus was, as Marcus Borg and others have noted, a post-conventional teacher, meaning he challenged the conventional morality of the culture—conventional morality is the moral code that most people learn just by growing up in a culture. It is almost always based on reward and punishment—you do this, you get that. Conventional morality shapes one according to a pattern, it creates hierarchies and boundaries—we know how much Jesus liked those—and it becomes the unconscious basis for a socialized identity…Jesus challenged his culture’s conventional morality and he challenges ours as well. This is why he was tough on the institution of the family… The family is the fundamental unit of society—it is the root of the old identity—it is the original conditioner, shaper of the old self that Paul says has come to an end in Christ…through the family the psychological architecture of society begins to take shape… this is why the current trend of turning churches into centers for the celebration and maintenance of a particular culture’s family values diminishes and distorts the original message of Jesus and will, of course, result in conforming to society, the pattern one is shaped by, not freedom from it…when Jesus says “one’s foes will be members of one’s household”—he means one’s foes will be the members of the culture one leaves psychologically behind like a cracked egg-shell at his or her feet when they are resurrected, born again into a new reality…a post-conventional message is by definition unpopular…the conventional morality of any society, macro or micro, does not like being challenged…the conventional will find ways to destroy the non-conventional, either physically or psychologically, everyone from Jesus to Martin Luther King learned that…Life in Christ is the de-construction of society, the de-construction of the psychological architecture of society. So, unless one is radical, meaning concerned with root causes, in one’s spirituality, one will not be in Christ…without being radical one may learn about Christ—but one will not be in Christ…the social architecture of greed, competition, power, position, conformity—if one is not free of that, if that is not uprooted, life in Christ remains an abstract idea--not an immediate experience, not the very atmosphere one lives in—why does this matter? Can’t we just go out and change the world without worrying about individual transformation? No. we can’t. The transformation of the whole, the world, the cosmos, comes through the transformation of the part, the self, because the self is the result of and the transmitter of that which the world is. If the self is divided, if we are trapped in our old divisive conditioning, the world is divided—however, if we have been delivered from that old self—if we can say as Paul did, “My old self has been crucified, It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me”—then there is a new healed and healing reality…this is what we are delivered into, a new state or stage of wholeness and freedom…this is a love that must be directly encountered, not defined—because as soon as you define it—you are simply setting up a new system—a new law—the conventional in a slightly modified form.
Jesus in our passage from Matthew today sounds like a mal-content…with his talk of swords and foes in one’s household…we tend to think such people are just being negative—and we don’t like that, we certainly don’t like that in our religion—we want that to make us feel good—to draw crowds …but, it is inescapable Jesus had some tough things to say about the family—about society…isn’t discontent necessary in life, to any investigating, questioning, isn’t discontent essential if we are to come to the Truth? We may be rebellious when we are young—but then we start making money and this fire goes out—we have to settle into a pattern and my rebelliousness, my discontent, is squashed—but in order to be truly creative—to ask probing questions—it is necessary to be discontent—this is threatening in a world and a system that wants us to conform to and wallow in some kind of contentment…then we settle for what we are told is true—not what we discover to be true ourselves.
I will close with this, As our passages this morning clearly show, Jesus, Paul, and the early Christians were doing something radically new, and they are stoking the fire of discontent within us so that we will look at—rather than merely look through our old selves, our old conventional morality—going back to Dylan Thomas, the beautiful challenge of Jesus calls us out…out, and into, the freedom of a new beginning…Jesus calls on us to dream our genesis…Amen.
Last stanza of Dylan Thomas’ poem…
Dylan Thomas’ poem of rebirth fits well with our scripture today…Jesus and Paul both ask us to dream our genesis—to “seek the sun” with new strength…
“We know that our old self was crucified”…Our scriptures this morning speak to us of losing an old life, of deliverance and transformation…deliverance is transformation…what are we dying to, losing, being delivered from? Quite simply--who we think we are…an old identity…to use a metaphor from our computer age, we die to, are delivered from, our old operating system. This is really early Christianity in a nutshell—it starts with a call to repentance, metanoia—literally, changing our minds…and it goes to the resurrection, the victory of the new state of things….all of our great Christian symbols point toward this.
Why did Jesus and Paul think we need to be delivered from—or “die to” our old mind? Simply put—our conditioning. It is an obvious fact that our minds are influenced greatly by, shaped by, our conditioning. We are conditioned according to a pre-established pattern or system. and those patterns have edges, boundaries that often divide us from and clash with, those who are conditioned according to another pattern. And too often our minds are bound by that pattern we are conditioned into. So they are not free. It is only a liberated, a delivered, or free mind that can directly encounter, be in, that which is beyond the binding pattern. A mind shaped according to any system or pattern—that mind is the pattern; it is in, the system that shaped it--be it eastern or western, Christian or capitalist. Conditioning is conditioning, no matter what you call it. Jesus and Paul saw that there must be deliverance, there must be freedom for God, that which is beyond all conditioned patterns, to be seen, directly encountered. The NT speaks repeatedly of freedom in Christ…this is freedom from our conditioned selves…how much clearer does Paul need to be on this than his words in Galatians, “ there is no more Jew or Greek, slave or free, there is no longer male or female—but you are all ONE in Christ Jesus”…and we could add, there is no more white, black, straight or gay, democrat or republican, American or Chinese…this is dying and rising with Yeshua, Jesus—the one whose very name means deliverance. This is dying and rising with Christ…and that is what Yeshua, Jesus, delivers us from…what Paul calls our crucified old self in our scripture today…Paul was himself, through encounters with the risen Christ, delivered from his old, conditioned identity as a Pharisaic Jew… Where does this old identity, this old operating system that Paul says is crucified and buried come from?
Our passage today from Matthew is not the only passage in which Jesus is depicted as being tough on the institution of the family…far from it…Jesus was, as Marcus Borg and others have noted, a post-conventional teacher, meaning he challenged the conventional morality of the culture—conventional morality is the moral code that most people learn just by growing up in a culture. It is almost always based on reward and punishment—you do this, you get that. Conventional morality shapes one according to a pattern, it creates hierarchies and boundaries—we know how much Jesus liked those—and it becomes the unconscious basis for a socialized identity…Jesus challenged his culture’s conventional morality and he challenges ours as well. This is why he was tough on the institution of the family… The family is the fundamental unit of society—it is the root of the old identity—it is the original conditioner, shaper of the old self that Paul says has come to an end in Christ…through the family the psychological architecture of society begins to take shape… this is why the current trend of turning churches into centers for the celebration and maintenance of a particular culture’s family values diminishes and distorts the original message of Jesus and will, of course, result in conforming to society, the pattern one is shaped by, not freedom from it…when Jesus says “one’s foes will be members of one’s household”—he means one’s foes will be the members of the culture one leaves psychologically behind like a cracked egg-shell at his or her feet when they are resurrected, born again into a new reality…a post-conventional message is by definition unpopular…the conventional morality of any society, macro or micro, does not like being challenged…the conventional will find ways to destroy the non-conventional, either physically or psychologically, everyone from Jesus to Martin Luther King learned that…Life in Christ is the de-construction of society, the de-construction of the psychological architecture of society. So, unless one is radical, meaning concerned with root causes, in one’s spirituality, one will not be in Christ…without being radical one may learn about Christ—but one will not be in Christ…the social architecture of greed, competition, power, position, conformity—if one is not free of that, if that is not uprooted, life in Christ remains an abstract idea--not an immediate experience, not the very atmosphere one lives in—why does this matter? Can’t we just go out and change the world without worrying about individual transformation? No. we can’t. The transformation of the whole, the world, the cosmos, comes through the transformation of the part, the self, because the self is the result of and the transmitter of that which the world is. If the self is divided, if we are trapped in our old divisive conditioning, the world is divided—however, if we have been delivered from that old self—if we can say as Paul did, “My old self has been crucified, It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me”—then there is a new healed and healing reality…this is what we are delivered into, a new state or stage of wholeness and freedom…this is a love that must be directly encountered, not defined—because as soon as you define it—you are simply setting up a new system—a new law—the conventional in a slightly modified form.
Jesus in our passage from Matthew today sounds like a mal-content…with his talk of swords and foes in one’s household…we tend to think such people are just being negative—and we don’t like that, we certainly don’t like that in our religion—we want that to make us feel good—to draw crowds …but, it is inescapable Jesus had some tough things to say about the family—about society…isn’t discontent necessary in life, to any investigating, questioning, isn’t discontent essential if we are to come to the Truth? We may be rebellious when we are young—but then we start making money and this fire goes out—we have to settle into a pattern and my rebelliousness, my discontent, is squashed—but in order to be truly creative—to ask probing questions—it is necessary to be discontent—this is threatening in a world and a system that wants us to conform to and wallow in some kind of contentment…then we settle for what we are told is true—not what we discover to be true ourselves.
I will close with this, As our passages this morning clearly show, Jesus, Paul, and the early Christians were doing something radically new, and they are stoking the fire of discontent within us so that we will look at—rather than merely look through our old selves, our old conventional morality—going back to Dylan Thomas, the beautiful challenge of Jesus calls us out…out, and into, the freedom of a new beginning…Jesus calls on us to dream our genesis…Amen.
Sunday, June 21, 2020
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Video Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMx8UIwwFkk&feature=youtu.be
Click the link below to view this Sunday's Video Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMx8UIwwFkk&feature=youtu.be
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Thursday, June 18, 2020
After hearing two adult human beings talk themselves into corners, I remembered the following quote from Thomas Merton. I offer it to you for our midweek reflection.
“The deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity. We discover an older unity. My dear brothers and sisters, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.”
After hearing two adult human beings talk themselves into corners, I remembered the following quote from Thomas Merton. I offer it to you for our midweek reflection.
“The deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, it is beyond speech, and it is beyond concept. Not that we discover a new unity. We discover an older unity. My dear brothers and sisters, we are already one. But we imagine that we are not. And what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.”
Sunday, June 14, 2020
Click the link below for the video Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz64MVvY6UY&feature=youtu.be
Click the link below for the video Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz64MVvY6UY&feature=youtu.be
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Thursday, June 11, 2020
Sabbath-ing is an act of healing and love as we simply rest on the holy ground of the eternal Now. In preparation for our midweek Sabbath, I invite you to reflect on the following quote from Alan Watts…
“Peace can be made only by those who are peaceful, and love can be shown only by those who love. No work of love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.”
Sabbath-ing is an act of healing and love as we simply rest on the holy ground of the eternal Now. In preparation for our midweek Sabbath, I invite you to reflect on the following quote from Alan Watts…
“Peace can be made only by those who are peaceful, and love can be shown only by those who love. No work of love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.”
Sunday, June 7, 2020 Communion Sunday
Click the link below for the video Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlwtSW_qImE&feature=youtu.be
Click the link below for the video Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlwtSW_qImE&feature=youtu.be
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Sunday, June 7, 2020
Today is designated peace with justice Sunday. The Greek and the Hebrew words we translate as peace, these words mean not just peace but wholeness. In fact, the Hebrew word we translate as peace, shalom, means not just peace and wholeness, but also justice. In shalom or wholeness, each person enjoys justice. The Greek word, I-ray-nay- the word the gospel writer used today when Jesus said peace be with you, means to tie together into a whole. Tie together into a whole. We know peace when we are whole. This is important for us right now. We have once again heard the call for justice and peace. Like the biblical idea of peace, the biblical idea of justice also points to wholeness—for biblically, justice is an order, as in a social order, dictated by love—an order without the estrangement, division, and separation, that come about through ideological boundaries of all kinds, racial, religious, political, economic. The actual experience of Peace, wholeness, and justice, a harmonious integrated, social order dictated by love, will only be realized when we acknowledge and understand the roots of injustice, brokenness, and conflict, and violence. But let’s not fool ourselves, in order to be effective, this requires deeper work than we have been willing to do before. The roots of conflict and violence run deep and through, each of us. Realizing peace, and justice, will involve a transformation in the way we construct our society—in the way we construct our reality itself—and to connect us with last week, this will only occur through repentance—changing our minds. The ideological boundaries and divisions we draw in our minds are the beginning of segregation, discord, and conflict. Why? Because we are cutting ourselves away from the rest of the human race. We are tearing ourselves away from the whole. When we separate ourselves on the basis of belief, political party, race, nation, orientation, denomination or tradition, we take the first step toward conflict. A house divided against itself cannot stand. If we wish to understand and transcend violence and conflict, if we’re serious about peace and justice, we must begin by observing the ways in which we separate ourselves, the way we cut ourselves off behind the boundaries we draw in our minds. If we wish to understand violence and conflict we must come out from behind the personal, racial, political, and religious boundaries we draw in our minds and we must concern ourselves with the whole. This is the original meaning of church—the called out ones—we are called out from behind the boundaries we draw in our minds…and we are not called out from behind one set of boundaries only to close ourselves off behind and defend, other boundaries—even if we label them good or religious. This work is for each of us, individually, and communally, regardless of age or background. Only talking about this in meetings and social media—will not go deep enough—in fact using language, so often dualistic, and separative, usually only serves to drive people deeper into their respective positions because we are all conditioned to respond to language, to words, in a particular way. And we can be very cunning in our use of language—making it appear to others and, most harmfully, to ourselves—that we are more open or enlightened than we actually are. Many reform movements that claim they are trying to bring unity through an odd obsession with, and manipulation of, words have been plagued by this. Each of us, as individuals, and communities, We must do the deep work of spirituality—which is ultimately, the recognizing, acknowledging, and releasing or letting go of separateness, of ideological boundaries—only this will allow us to pass, as the crucified and resurrected Christ did this morning, through the locked doors in our minds into Peace, wholeness, and justice, an order dictated by love. The crucified and risen Christ passing through a locked door, this symbolizes the fact that No boundary, or barrier holds him. In the NT Christ is the Truth. And the crucified and risen Christ is our true self. So maybe the Truth is that all boundaries and barriers are illusory—they don’t actually exist in reality. Maybe we can pass through them if we see they’re not really true. Maybe these boundaries are all just part and parcel of a grand story we like to tell ourselves? A story we too often, and tragically, mistake for Truth?
We shouldn’t be surprised that Christ is depicted as passing through a locked door—a boundary—a barrier. His whole ministry called us to look at and come out from behind locked doors, boundaries. He called a Samaritan, an enemy of the group he came from, good. He told a crowd that a Roman had a deeper faith than any in Israel—and Romans were an occupying force—don’t you think that broke through, and challenged, the boundaries his followers had formed in their minds regarding Romans? Over and over again, he challenged the way people saw one another, he embraced those that were considered to be impure—Jesus in the gospels, what Paul calls the mind of Christ, symbolized a consciousness, a mind, in which those boundaries, those locked doors, were wide open.
Christ even challenged us to release the primary boundary in our minds—the locked door that separates us from God and neighbor, that of the self…
When he said, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even their own life--such a person cannot be my disciple’, The Christ was addressing boundary-formation in the mind—he was addressing the roots of separateness…the roots of conflict. For the primary way we cut ourselves from the whole—or, in religious terms, the primary way we are separated from God, and neighbor—is the self, what some call, the separate-self sense. This is what Jesus refers to as our life. And this has its roots in the conditioning we receive in the family. This is why he connects this teaching on family ties with picking up our cross and following him. We cannot be his disciple if we do not Crucify or die to the boundaries we have drawn in our minds and this ultimately means transcending our old identity. Tribal roots run deep. Many of our racial, economic, religious, political, national, boundaries begin to take shape very early in life, they are part and parcel of our separate self-sense, and that means the roots of conflict and injustice run deep. Jesus does not mean we need to literally hate our families…that’s silly…he does however, ask us to die to or transcend the sense of self that has its roots there. This is behind the symbolism this morning of Christ showing his wounds to his disciples—these wounds are the mark of denying self, of dying to, crucifying, our separateness, our boundaries. This is the door we pass through so that we are resurrected into shalom, peace—into wholeness—and justice, an order dictated by love.
I will close with this, Jesus said to his disciples—Peace, wholeness, justice, be with you…just as God sent me, I am sending you…and then he breathed the Holy Spirit into them…he finished by telling them, “now its up to you, you can forgive or retain sin.” Here he is saying to us, …its up to us now, we can hold on to separateness, to brokenness, or we can forgive it, release it, let it go… It really is up to us--all of us.
Amen.
Today is designated peace with justice Sunday. The Greek and the Hebrew words we translate as peace, these words mean not just peace but wholeness. In fact, the Hebrew word we translate as peace, shalom, means not just peace and wholeness, but also justice. In shalom or wholeness, each person enjoys justice. The Greek word, I-ray-nay- the word the gospel writer used today when Jesus said peace be with you, means to tie together into a whole. Tie together into a whole. We know peace when we are whole. This is important for us right now. We have once again heard the call for justice and peace. Like the biblical idea of peace, the biblical idea of justice also points to wholeness—for biblically, justice is an order, as in a social order, dictated by love—an order without the estrangement, division, and separation, that come about through ideological boundaries of all kinds, racial, religious, political, economic. The actual experience of Peace, wholeness, and justice, a harmonious integrated, social order dictated by love, will only be realized when we acknowledge and understand the roots of injustice, brokenness, and conflict, and violence. But let’s not fool ourselves, in order to be effective, this requires deeper work than we have been willing to do before. The roots of conflict and violence run deep and through, each of us. Realizing peace, and justice, will involve a transformation in the way we construct our society—in the way we construct our reality itself—and to connect us with last week, this will only occur through repentance—changing our minds. The ideological boundaries and divisions we draw in our minds are the beginning of segregation, discord, and conflict. Why? Because we are cutting ourselves away from the rest of the human race. We are tearing ourselves away from the whole. When we separate ourselves on the basis of belief, political party, race, nation, orientation, denomination or tradition, we take the first step toward conflict. A house divided against itself cannot stand. If we wish to understand and transcend violence and conflict, if we’re serious about peace and justice, we must begin by observing the ways in which we separate ourselves, the way we cut ourselves off behind the boundaries we draw in our minds. If we wish to understand violence and conflict we must come out from behind the personal, racial, political, and religious boundaries we draw in our minds and we must concern ourselves with the whole. This is the original meaning of church—the called out ones—we are called out from behind the boundaries we draw in our minds…and we are not called out from behind one set of boundaries only to close ourselves off behind and defend, other boundaries—even if we label them good or religious. This work is for each of us, individually, and communally, regardless of age or background. Only talking about this in meetings and social media—will not go deep enough—in fact using language, so often dualistic, and separative, usually only serves to drive people deeper into their respective positions because we are all conditioned to respond to language, to words, in a particular way. And we can be very cunning in our use of language—making it appear to others and, most harmfully, to ourselves—that we are more open or enlightened than we actually are. Many reform movements that claim they are trying to bring unity through an odd obsession with, and manipulation of, words have been plagued by this. Each of us, as individuals, and communities, We must do the deep work of spirituality—which is ultimately, the recognizing, acknowledging, and releasing or letting go of separateness, of ideological boundaries—only this will allow us to pass, as the crucified and resurrected Christ did this morning, through the locked doors in our minds into Peace, wholeness, and justice, an order dictated by love. The crucified and risen Christ passing through a locked door, this symbolizes the fact that No boundary, or barrier holds him. In the NT Christ is the Truth. And the crucified and risen Christ is our true self. So maybe the Truth is that all boundaries and barriers are illusory—they don’t actually exist in reality. Maybe we can pass through them if we see they’re not really true. Maybe these boundaries are all just part and parcel of a grand story we like to tell ourselves? A story we too often, and tragically, mistake for Truth?
We shouldn’t be surprised that Christ is depicted as passing through a locked door—a boundary—a barrier. His whole ministry called us to look at and come out from behind locked doors, boundaries. He called a Samaritan, an enemy of the group he came from, good. He told a crowd that a Roman had a deeper faith than any in Israel—and Romans were an occupying force—don’t you think that broke through, and challenged, the boundaries his followers had formed in their minds regarding Romans? Over and over again, he challenged the way people saw one another, he embraced those that were considered to be impure—Jesus in the gospels, what Paul calls the mind of Christ, symbolized a consciousness, a mind, in which those boundaries, those locked doors, were wide open.
Christ even challenged us to release the primary boundary in our minds—the locked door that separates us from God and neighbor, that of the self…
When he said, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even their own life--such a person cannot be my disciple’, The Christ was addressing boundary-formation in the mind—he was addressing the roots of separateness…the roots of conflict. For the primary way we cut ourselves from the whole—or, in religious terms, the primary way we are separated from God, and neighbor—is the self, what some call, the separate-self sense. This is what Jesus refers to as our life. And this has its roots in the conditioning we receive in the family. This is why he connects this teaching on family ties with picking up our cross and following him. We cannot be his disciple if we do not Crucify or die to the boundaries we have drawn in our minds and this ultimately means transcending our old identity. Tribal roots run deep. Many of our racial, economic, religious, political, national, boundaries begin to take shape very early in life, they are part and parcel of our separate self-sense, and that means the roots of conflict and injustice run deep. Jesus does not mean we need to literally hate our families…that’s silly…he does however, ask us to die to or transcend the sense of self that has its roots there. This is behind the symbolism this morning of Christ showing his wounds to his disciples—these wounds are the mark of denying self, of dying to, crucifying, our separateness, our boundaries. This is the door we pass through so that we are resurrected into shalom, peace—into wholeness—and justice, an order dictated by love.
I will close with this, Jesus said to his disciples—Peace, wholeness, justice, be with you…just as God sent me, I am sending you…and then he breathed the Holy Spirit into them…he finished by telling them, “now its up to you, you can forgive or retain sin.” Here he is saying to us, …its up to us now, we can hold on to separateness, to brokenness, or we can forgive it, release it, let it go… It really is up to us--all of us.
Amen.
Mid-Week Reflection Thursday, June 4, 2020
Many people say, "Don't just sit there, do something." But doing more things may make the situation worse. So you should say, "Don't just do something, sit there." Sit there, stop, be yourself first, and begin from there.
Thich Nhat Hanh
For many of us, the above message from Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Zen monk, is a counter-cultural one. We live in a society that often reacts with a cry to “do something!.” But Jesus, a first century Jewish mystic, is also counter-cultural when he asks us to begin where Thich Nhat Hanh does. He knows responding out of our confusion only begets more confusion. Therefore, Jesus opens his ministry with, “Repent! Change your minds!” Begin from there…
Many people say, "Don't just sit there, do something." But doing more things may make the situation worse. So you should say, "Don't just do something, sit there." Sit there, stop, be yourself first, and begin from there.
Thich Nhat Hanh
For many of us, the above message from Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Zen monk, is a counter-cultural one. We live in a society that often reacts with a cry to “do something!.” But Jesus, a first century Jewish mystic, is also counter-cultural when he asks us to begin where Thich Nhat Hanh does. He knows responding out of our confusion only begets more confusion. Therefore, Jesus opens his ministry with, “Repent! Change your minds!” Begin from there…
Sunday, May 31, 2020 PENTECOST SUNDAY
Click the link below to view the Pentecost Service
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYMcANSSbr4&feature=youtu.be
Click the link below to view the Pentecost Service
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYMcANSSbr4&feature=youtu.be
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FATHER"S DAY TOOLS OF HOPE Sunday, June 21, 2020 Order form below:
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fathers_day_tools_of_hope.docx | |
File Size: | 16 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Sunday, May 31, 2020 PENTECOST SUNDAY
The story of Pentecost is one of the most well-known in all of Christianity. It is a great story, it is a story that refers us to a powerful experience…a powerful experience that, as we will see, comes out of what early Christianity called, “the way”. This morning I want to emphasize that the story of Pentecost must be understood practically—meaning that we must understand that the experience that the story of Pentecost refers to comes out of a practice, a practice that the book of acts called the way. Pentecost is an example of the experience Paul Smith speaks of in the following quote, “Christianity began in Palestine as an experience, it moved to Greece and became a philosophy, it moved to Italy and became an institution, it moved to western Europe and became a culture, and it moved to America and became a business. We’ve left the experience long behind.”
If we read the story of Pentecost out of context—if we lift it out of the bigger picture that is early Christianity, we miss an opportunity to understand the experience our spiritual ancestors are trying to convey to us in the story of Pentecost. If we read it out of context, we miss the experience of Pentecost, because, while this experience comes out of heaven, it doesn’t come out of nowhere—it comes out of a practice of reconciliation laid out by Jesus and the first Christians. R eading the story disconnected from that bigger context or practice of reconciliation, we then miss what the book of Acts calls “the way” that allows for our own powerful experience of Spirit and reconciliation…our own experience of Pentecost. And that is a tragedy—really, a tragedy of cultural proportions. Because, as recent event have shown us—we live in a deeply divided society--as the recent headline in the Boston Globe put it—America is burning… And if we hear the message from Jesus and the NT—we hear that only a change of mind, a transformation of consciousness, will allow for the reconciling, spiritual experience of Pentecost.
The Pentecost story shows us what happens when human beings are, as Paul said this morning, “led by the Spirit.” When we receive the Spirit and IT leads, we are reconciled—to God—and to one another. The setting for the story is the Jewish festival known, in Hebrew, as Shavuot. It was among other things, a time of renewing the covenant between God and humanity. In the story we hear the disciples are gathered together when from heaven, comes a sound like a rush of a violent wind, it fills the entire space---then divided tongues as of fire appear among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. This is the mystical language of ancient Judaism—it has much in common with other biblical, metaphorical stories that are meant to convey the presence of God, an intense spiritual experience. Next we see Jewish folk of many languages, nations, and backgrounds, all gathered together at this sound. All of these people represent different languages, cultures, nations—next these people hear the disciples speaking in their own language—the disciples are speaking a universal language—the universal language of Spirit…as we see verse 12, this is a strange experience, This language of the Spirit. We hear that people are amazed and perplexed. And some scoff and say the disciples are drunk. Of course some say this. Like drunkenness is a change of mind, a transformation of consciousness, so is what they are witnessing a change of mind, a transformation of consciousness. But this is not drunkenness as Peter will say, this is the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit has allowed humanity—in all of its diversity—to be reconciled, to come back together. Scholars have noted for along time that this is the reversal of the story of Babel. In Genesis 11 the story of the tower of Babel concludes with the scattering of nations into different language groups so that they can no longer understand one another, so that they are no longer unified. And they didn’t even have social media. As we see, one of the deep meanings of Pentecost is that the Spirit descends, and there is reconciliation, not just between God and humanity—but also a reconciliation of the human race…where before Humanity was, in the story of Babel, scattered and torn apart, now it comes back together through the Spirit in the story of Pentecost. Now this can and does happen everyday…everyday there are mini Pentecosts in which people receive the Spirit and old divisions are transcended—people are reconciled to God and one another…we all have probably felt those in our own lives. But—as recent events have once again shown us--we live in a world that is deeply divided along political, racial, economic, national, cultural, lines. And the Christian church is certainly not immune to this. In fact, in recent years we have once again seen deep divisions erupt in churches over political and cultural issues. And the vast majority of churches are still segregated along racial, economic, and cultural lines. So much so that churches are often like bars—in that there are two things we don’ t talk about religion—and politics. So, what can we do about it? Pick a side—get more deeply entrenched in our positions? “Hug it out”? And feel better—but remain unchanged? Talk it out? We in the high tech age of social media often confuse more communication for meaningful communication.
Maybe. Or can we look to understand the transformative experience that is depicted in the story of Pentecost and where it comes from. It just might offer us some good news—some good news that suggests a cure for what ails so much of humanity. We have in Pentecost an example of the reconciliation, the coming together, that occurs individually and communally, when the Spirit is received. But, without seeing how the story of Pentecost is connected to the program that Jesus and early Christianity laid out, what Acts calls “the way”… we may miss the way that allows for the experience of Pentecost. we, as they say, unpack, the inner meaning of this story? We can. And, its not even that difficult. To do so, all we need do is turn to the greatest of Pentecost sermons—the first one. The author of Acts depicts Peter preaching a sermon on the day of Pentecost…during it, the crowd asks Peter the question I just asked, the question so many of us ask when we look at humanity and its condition. What can we do about it?
Following the strange, mystical, scene of Pentecost in which the disciples speak the universal language of the Spirit, Peter addresses the crowd. As I mentioned, he assures them that the disciples are not drunk. He goes on to tell of Jesus, that Jesus received the Holy Spirit from God and he has Now poured out the Spirit, bringing about this remarkable scene. And he goes on to tell the crowd that they have crucified Christ, in other words, the crowd has rejected the way of Jesus, they have refused to change their ways and go the way of the Christ… this brings about a response from the crowd. The crowd, realizing that they have crucified Christ, realizing their own salvation and reconciliation has been jeopardized, we hear they are cut to the heart—in other words, Peter’s words have penetrated deeply, so the crowd asks, “What should we do?” This is the pivotal moment that stands for the pivotal moment in every person’s life, in humanity’s life…this is the question that every generation must ask when faced with the realization of the conflict and division of their lives, of their world, this is the pivotal moment for every individual, for every generation, when faced with the realization that they have rejected the way, the way of the Christ, they, we, each one, must turn and ask like the crowd, “What should we do?” And Peter’s response is brilliant, a complete summary of the way of Christ in ONE VERSE. For two thousand years we have complicated and side-stepped the message, the way, have asked, what to do? But its right here in ONE verse. The whole thing.
Peter says, “Repent, and be baptized, all of you. And you sins will be forgiven.” He opens with Jesus’ own call to repent—again, the Greek word we translate as repent is metanoia, and it actually means to “change your mind, or go beyond the mind you have right now.” This is the key word for understanding the experience Pentecost points toward. This is what facilitates reconciliation. Reconciliation is contingent on each experiencing for him or herself, metanoia, a change of mind. This is the fundamental experience that Christianity started out as. Next Peter says, “be baptized, all of you.” He is not speaking of the ritual as we know it—sprinkling water on a baby’s head. They didn’t baptize infants. He is speaking of the experience that that ritual points toward…when we first hear about baptism, at the very beginning of the gospel, we hear that John the Baptism was proclaiming a baptism of repentance—of metanoia—of changing minds—for the forgiveness of sins—when we hear about forgiveness we are listening to the language of letting go… Forgiveness means to release, to let go. This is part and parcel of changing one’s mind—you let go of your sins—in other words, you let go of that which separates you from others.… and as the word metanoia suggests, what you are letting go of—is nothing less than the “mind you have now”… this is how you go beyond it, change it, “you” let it go. Think of the symbolism of Pentecost, how it reverses babel, the dividing and separating of humanity— what separated them? Their languages— which simply symbolize the conditioning they received at the hands of their cultures… as the disciples show, there is something deeper than that, something infinitely deeper and more universal than the mind, the experience shaped by our conditioning at the hands of our culture. This is the Holy Spirit that we receive or more accurately, realize, when we change or go beyond our minds through the process of letting go. The universal language of the holy spirit that the disciples are speaking could also be called the true language of the heart—as in love—love not merely as emotion that makes us feel good—but love as that power, that energy, which overcomes all estrangement and separation—estrangement and separation between humans and God, between human individuals and groups. This is why this story is depicted as occurring at Shavuot, the Jewish festival that was a time of covenant renewal. Peter lays it all out for us in three lines—repent—change your minds, let go of that which separates you from others—and you will receive the Holy Spirit—you will renew the covenant with God—you will be reconciled to one another.
I will close with this, Changing our minds and letting go may be difficult… some may think they are above that—they don’t need to—they have the right ideas, the right position in life—but everybody thinks their ideas are the right ones---that they’re on the righteous side of that line, that fight. Maybe that’s why Peter’s Pentecost sermon, and the gospel period, instructs everyone, regardless of their ideas, their position in life, to change their minds by letting go. On Pentecost 2020, as we look into our own world and ask the same question the crowd did on the first Pentecost, “What should we do?” The answer is the same as it was 2000 years ago—change your mind, let it go, there is a power, an energy, that will lead if you let It…you will fall, you will fail, but if you return to It, if you let go of your ways and let It lead…It will blow through your hearts and minds—you will be reconciled.
Amen.
The story of Pentecost is one of the most well-known in all of Christianity. It is a great story, it is a story that refers us to a powerful experience…a powerful experience that, as we will see, comes out of what early Christianity called, “the way”. This morning I want to emphasize that the story of Pentecost must be understood practically—meaning that we must understand that the experience that the story of Pentecost refers to comes out of a practice, a practice that the book of acts called the way. Pentecost is an example of the experience Paul Smith speaks of in the following quote, “Christianity began in Palestine as an experience, it moved to Greece and became a philosophy, it moved to Italy and became an institution, it moved to western Europe and became a culture, and it moved to America and became a business. We’ve left the experience long behind.”
If we read the story of Pentecost out of context—if we lift it out of the bigger picture that is early Christianity, we miss an opportunity to understand the experience our spiritual ancestors are trying to convey to us in the story of Pentecost. If we read it out of context, we miss the experience of Pentecost, because, while this experience comes out of heaven, it doesn’t come out of nowhere—it comes out of a practice of reconciliation laid out by Jesus and the first Christians. R eading the story disconnected from that bigger context or practice of reconciliation, we then miss what the book of Acts calls “the way” that allows for our own powerful experience of Spirit and reconciliation…our own experience of Pentecost. And that is a tragedy—really, a tragedy of cultural proportions. Because, as recent event have shown us—we live in a deeply divided society--as the recent headline in the Boston Globe put it—America is burning… And if we hear the message from Jesus and the NT—we hear that only a change of mind, a transformation of consciousness, will allow for the reconciling, spiritual experience of Pentecost.
The Pentecost story shows us what happens when human beings are, as Paul said this morning, “led by the Spirit.” When we receive the Spirit and IT leads, we are reconciled—to God—and to one another. The setting for the story is the Jewish festival known, in Hebrew, as Shavuot. It was among other things, a time of renewing the covenant between God and humanity. In the story we hear the disciples are gathered together when from heaven, comes a sound like a rush of a violent wind, it fills the entire space---then divided tongues as of fire appear among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. This is the mystical language of ancient Judaism—it has much in common with other biblical, metaphorical stories that are meant to convey the presence of God, an intense spiritual experience. Next we see Jewish folk of many languages, nations, and backgrounds, all gathered together at this sound. All of these people represent different languages, cultures, nations—next these people hear the disciples speaking in their own language—the disciples are speaking a universal language—the universal language of Spirit…as we see verse 12, this is a strange experience, This language of the Spirit. We hear that people are amazed and perplexed. And some scoff and say the disciples are drunk. Of course some say this. Like drunkenness is a change of mind, a transformation of consciousness, so is what they are witnessing a change of mind, a transformation of consciousness. But this is not drunkenness as Peter will say, this is the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit has allowed humanity—in all of its diversity—to be reconciled, to come back together. Scholars have noted for along time that this is the reversal of the story of Babel. In Genesis 11 the story of the tower of Babel concludes with the scattering of nations into different language groups so that they can no longer understand one another, so that they are no longer unified. And they didn’t even have social media. As we see, one of the deep meanings of Pentecost is that the Spirit descends, and there is reconciliation, not just between God and humanity—but also a reconciliation of the human race…where before Humanity was, in the story of Babel, scattered and torn apart, now it comes back together through the Spirit in the story of Pentecost. Now this can and does happen everyday…everyday there are mini Pentecosts in which people receive the Spirit and old divisions are transcended—people are reconciled to God and one another…we all have probably felt those in our own lives. But—as recent events have once again shown us--we live in a world that is deeply divided along political, racial, economic, national, cultural, lines. And the Christian church is certainly not immune to this. In fact, in recent years we have once again seen deep divisions erupt in churches over political and cultural issues. And the vast majority of churches are still segregated along racial, economic, and cultural lines. So much so that churches are often like bars—in that there are two things we don’ t talk about religion—and politics. So, what can we do about it? Pick a side—get more deeply entrenched in our positions? “Hug it out”? And feel better—but remain unchanged? Talk it out? We in the high tech age of social media often confuse more communication for meaningful communication.
Maybe. Or can we look to understand the transformative experience that is depicted in the story of Pentecost and where it comes from. It just might offer us some good news—some good news that suggests a cure for what ails so much of humanity. We have in Pentecost an example of the reconciliation, the coming together, that occurs individually and communally, when the Spirit is received. But, without seeing how the story of Pentecost is connected to the program that Jesus and early Christianity laid out, what Acts calls “the way”… we may miss the way that allows for the experience of Pentecost. we, as they say, unpack, the inner meaning of this story? We can. And, its not even that difficult. To do so, all we need do is turn to the greatest of Pentecost sermons—the first one. The author of Acts depicts Peter preaching a sermon on the day of Pentecost…during it, the crowd asks Peter the question I just asked, the question so many of us ask when we look at humanity and its condition. What can we do about it?
Following the strange, mystical, scene of Pentecost in which the disciples speak the universal language of the Spirit, Peter addresses the crowd. As I mentioned, he assures them that the disciples are not drunk. He goes on to tell of Jesus, that Jesus received the Holy Spirit from God and he has Now poured out the Spirit, bringing about this remarkable scene. And he goes on to tell the crowd that they have crucified Christ, in other words, the crowd has rejected the way of Jesus, they have refused to change their ways and go the way of the Christ… this brings about a response from the crowd. The crowd, realizing that they have crucified Christ, realizing their own salvation and reconciliation has been jeopardized, we hear they are cut to the heart—in other words, Peter’s words have penetrated deeply, so the crowd asks, “What should we do?” This is the pivotal moment that stands for the pivotal moment in every person’s life, in humanity’s life…this is the question that every generation must ask when faced with the realization of the conflict and division of their lives, of their world, this is the pivotal moment for every individual, for every generation, when faced with the realization that they have rejected the way, the way of the Christ, they, we, each one, must turn and ask like the crowd, “What should we do?” And Peter’s response is brilliant, a complete summary of the way of Christ in ONE VERSE. For two thousand years we have complicated and side-stepped the message, the way, have asked, what to do? But its right here in ONE verse. The whole thing.
Peter says, “Repent, and be baptized, all of you. And you sins will be forgiven.” He opens with Jesus’ own call to repent—again, the Greek word we translate as repent is metanoia, and it actually means to “change your mind, or go beyond the mind you have right now.” This is the key word for understanding the experience Pentecost points toward. This is what facilitates reconciliation. Reconciliation is contingent on each experiencing for him or herself, metanoia, a change of mind. This is the fundamental experience that Christianity started out as. Next Peter says, “be baptized, all of you.” He is not speaking of the ritual as we know it—sprinkling water on a baby’s head. They didn’t baptize infants. He is speaking of the experience that that ritual points toward…when we first hear about baptism, at the very beginning of the gospel, we hear that John the Baptism was proclaiming a baptism of repentance—of metanoia—of changing minds—for the forgiveness of sins—when we hear about forgiveness we are listening to the language of letting go… Forgiveness means to release, to let go. This is part and parcel of changing one’s mind—you let go of your sins—in other words, you let go of that which separates you from others.… and as the word metanoia suggests, what you are letting go of—is nothing less than the “mind you have now”… this is how you go beyond it, change it, “you” let it go. Think of the symbolism of Pentecost, how it reverses babel, the dividing and separating of humanity— what separated them? Their languages— which simply symbolize the conditioning they received at the hands of their cultures… as the disciples show, there is something deeper than that, something infinitely deeper and more universal than the mind, the experience shaped by our conditioning at the hands of our culture. This is the Holy Spirit that we receive or more accurately, realize, when we change or go beyond our minds through the process of letting go. The universal language of the holy spirit that the disciples are speaking could also be called the true language of the heart—as in love—love not merely as emotion that makes us feel good—but love as that power, that energy, which overcomes all estrangement and separation—estrangement and separation between humans and God, between human individuals and groups. This is why this story is depicted as occurring at Shavuot, the Jewish festival that was a time of covenant renewal. Peter lays it all out for us in three lines—repent—change your minds, let go of that which separates you from others—and you will receive the Holy Spirit—you will renew the covenant with God—you will be reconciled to one another.
I will close with this, Changing our minds and letting go may be difficult… some may think they are above that—they don’t need to—they have the right ideas, the right position in life—but everybody thinks their ideas are the right ones---that they’re on the righteous side of that line, that fight. Maybe that’s why Peter’s Pentecost sermon, and the gospel period, instructs everyone, regardless of their ideas, their position in life, to change their minds by letting go. On Pentecost 2020, as we look into our own world and ask the same question the crowd did on the first Pentecost, “What should we do?” The answer is the same as it was 2000 years ago—change your mind, let it go, there is a power, an energy, that will lead if you let It…you will fall, you will fail, but if you return to It, if you let go of your ways and let It lead…It will blow through your hearts and minds—you will be reconciled.
Amen.
Thursday, May 28, 2020
During our midweek Sabbath, we simply stop and breathe together. To prepare us, I offer the following image from the Persian poet, Hafiz.
“I am a hole in a flute that the Christ’s breath moves through.”
--may we all be.
During our midweek Sabbath, we simply stop and breathe together. To prepare us, I offer the following image from the Persian poet, Hafiz.
“I am a hole in a flute that the Christ’s breath moves through.”
--may we all be.
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Click the link below for Sunday's Worship Service video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xl-oxkJIvI&feature=youtu.be
Click the link below for Sunday's Worship Service video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xl-oxkJIvI&feature=youtu.be
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Sunday, May 24, 2020
As I mentioned earlier, today is Ascension Sunday. We just read the story of the Christ’s ascension as written in the acts of the apostles. What did this story mean to the early church? Well, a disciple of Paul’s writing in the late first century says of the ascension of Christ, “He who descended is the same one who ascended, far above the heavens, so that he might fill all things.” That he might fill all things. In other words, the ascension was the transfiguring of the world of mere things into a God infused New Creation…why would the Christ’s ascension be spoken of in this way? …since Jesus was no longer localized in one time and place on earth—he was now with God—and since God was everywhere—the Christ was now everywhere—the old creation was now New because the divine Spirit of Christ now permeated all of creation, the entire universe…. When earth and heaven meet, the whole world pulses with the Truth that the author of Ephesians says fills “all in all”… all of reality becomes a poem revealing the sacred as IT fills all in all, every blade of grass, every grain of sand, every face. This Truth, the Truth that Christ had embodied, is now not just localized in this or that place, but is every-place at once—as the angel says to the men of Galilee, “Why are you looking for Christ up there?” The Truth is no longer localized, just over here or up there, no walls, physical or ideological, own or hold the Truth… it is here, in this building, but also, there, in the wind, in the stream, in other buildings, in other traditions, in what we call the good and the bad of life—the Truth is all in all, the Truth fills all things… like so many other Christian symbols, the ascension is concerned with the realization of the non-duality of heaven and earth, in other words, heaven and earth, God and humanity, the Spiritual and the material, may seem to be two, but they are Truly One… in the sense that there is no separation between them. Where is the Truth, where is God, where is heaven? Every-where all at once, here and Now…Spirit and matter, earth and heaven are One… This Truth shows up in several Christian symbols—in a piece of bread that is the body of Christ—in the nativity scene, in an animal’s room that is the home of the humble Christ child, Emmanuel, the God who is with us… as Jesus says in the gospel of Thomas, “It is I who am the all. From me did the all come forth, and unto me did the all extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone and you will find me there.”
In our dualistic thinking we separate good and bad, God and humanity, earth and heaven. In our language we often separate sacred and secular…like the men of Galilee, we look for Christ up there, in some particular high or holy place, we speak of “going to church.” How can you “go to” that place you already are? In the light of the truth that fills all things, that is all in all,
every-thing, all space, is filled with the sacred, so “Your church” is whoever you are with, wherever you are, right now. At times, the way we talk of “going to church” shows the degree to which institutional and building-centric thinking have affected our society’s religious understanding.
To conclude, I offer these words from Chief Seattle, a man who embodied the “ALL IS SACRED” wisdom of the ascension, a man who realized that heaven and earth were not two—but One… Chief Seattle wrote these words to the American government in 1852 (READ HERE)…may each of us be open to the One that fills all things, so that our home is with that One that is all in all…
Amen.
As I mentioned earlier, today is Ascension Sunday. We just read the story of the Christ’s ascension as written in the acts of the apostles. What did this story mean to the early church? Well, a disciple of Paul’s writing in the late first century says of the ascension of Christ, “He who descended is the same one who ascended, far above the heavens, so that he might fill all things.” That he might fill all things. In other words, the ascension was the transfiguring of the world of mere things into a God infused New Creation…why would the Christ’s ascension be spoken of in this way? …since Jesus was no longer localized in one time and place on earth—he was now with God—and since God was everywhere—the Christ was now everywhere—the old creation was now New because the divine Spirit of Christ now permeated all of creation, the entire universe…. When earth and heaven meet, the whole world pulses with the Truth that the author of Ephesians says fills “all in all”… all of reality becomes a poem revealing the sacred as IT fills all in all, every blade of grass, every grain of sand, every face. This Truth, the Truth that Christ had embodied, is now not just localized in this or that place, but is every-place at once—as the angel says to the men of Galilee, “Why are you looking for Christ up there?” The Truth is no longer localized, just over here or up there, no walls, physical or ideological, own or hold the Truth… it is here, in this building, but also, there, in the wind, in the stream, in other buildings, in other traditions, in what we call the good and the bad of life—the Truth is all in all, the Truth fills all things… like so many other Christian symbols, the ascension is concerned with the realization of the non-duality of heaven and earth, in other words, heaven and earth, God and humanity, the Spiritual and the material, may seem to be two, but they are Truly One… in the sense that there is no separation between them. Where is the Truth, where is God, where is heaven? Every-where all at once, here and Now…Spirit and matter, earth and heaven are One… This Truth shows up in several Christian symbols—in a piece of bread that is the body of Christ—in the nativity scene, in an animal’s room that is the home of the humble Christ child, Emmanuel, the God who is with us… as Jesus says in the gospel of Thomas, “It is I who am the all. From me did the all come forth, and unto me did the all extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone and you will find me there.”
In our dualistic thinking we separate good and bad, God and humanity, earth and heaven. In our language we often separate sacred and secular…like the men of Galilee, we look for Christ up there, in some particular high or holy place, we speak of “going to church.” How can you “go to” that place you already are? In the light of the truth that fills all things, that is all in all,
every-thing, all space, is filled with the sacred, so “Your church” is whoever you are with, wherever you are, right now. At times, the way we talk of “going to church” shows the degree to which institutional and building-centric thinking have affected our society’s religious understanding.
To conclude, I offer these words from Chief Seattle, a man who embodied the “ALL IS SACRED” wisdom of the ascension, a man who realized that heaven and earth were not two—but One… Chief Seattle wrote these words to the American government in 1852 (READ HERE)…may each of us be open to the One that fills all things, so that our home is with that One that is all in all…
Amen.
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Today is Ascension Day. Like all Ascension Days, it comes during trying times. But it also comes with grace. I offer this reflection on the grace of Ascension Day from Thomas Merton.
That is the grace of Ascension Day: to be taken up into the heaven of our own souls, the point of direct contact with God. To rest on the quiet peak, in the darkness that surrounds God. To live there through all trials and all business with the ‘tranquil God who makes all things tranquil’.
Today is Ascension Day. Like all Ascension Days, it comes during trying times. But it also comes with grace. I offer this reflection on the grace of Ascension Day from Thomas Merton.
That is the grace of Ascension Day: to be taken up into the heaven of our own souls, the point of direct contact with God. To rest on the quiet peak, in the darkness that surrounds God. To live there through all trials and all business with the ‘tranquil God who makes all things tranquil’.
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Click the link below for Sunday's Worship Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQYiqQUT-Ls&feature=youtu.be |
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Sunday, May 17, 2020 Spirit of Truth
This morning our gospel once again tells us that the world and Christ are, as we might say, on different pages. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the gospel of John mentions several times that the world did not know Christ. As the first chapter says, He was in the world and the world did not know him. Verse 17 speaks of the Spirit of Truth that the world neither sees nor knows. And for just a second I said, why can’t the world see or know the Spirit of Truth? And then I watched 1 minute, maybe less, of internet news…and then I said, of course the world doesn’t know the Spirit of Truth because it’s too busy planning and pursuing its own agendas…this led me to think about a practice we started recently, just as nature itself, reality itself, seemed to be asking all of us to stop, slow down, become monks even…
For the past few months, we have been observing a mid-week Sabbath. Thursdays at noon we have been stopping whatever we’re doing in order to pray in silence for the health and well-being of the world. When we do this, when we pray in silence for the health and well-being of the world, we actually contribute to the health and well-being of the world by NOT contributing our own anxious behavior to the world, by NOT contributing our own controlling behavior to the world, by NOT contributing our own competitiveness and selfish ambition to the world. We do this by laying down our agenda, by NOT thinking about where our money comes from and where it goes. We “do” a lot by NOT doing. Jesus’ whole way speaks of the negative leading to the ultimate, mysterious positive. The way of Jesus teaches us to love through losing, we love one another by losing or laying down our lives—in other words, we love one another by laying down our agendas. When we pray in silence, when we let go of our own agendas, or the world’s agenda that we have been conditioned to pursue, we keep Christ’s commandments, his commandment, to love one another AS HE LOVES US…AND, we prepare ourselves to receive the Spirit of Truth that the world cannot see or know as it noisily pursues its agenda or agendas. Now, this letting go of our agenda can be scary for a society that is hell bent on and lives by agendas…
If we are to receive or know the Spirit of truth, we practice Sabbath-ing…the ceasing, the silencing, of the world’s agenda. Importantly, this allows for the dismantling, the undermining, of the psychological infrastructure of an un-loving, un-just world or system, an unjust world or system, that, again, according to our gospel today, cannot receive the spirit of truth. We might wonder how these worlds, these systems, perpetuate themselves—well, they live in us, we are their hosts, they are conditioned into and then they are spread, by us. They don’t live out there somewhere, they don’t grow on trees. Without addressing injustice at this fundamental level, our doing, our helping, winds up being, at best, a band-aid on a cancer; the psychological roots of that cancer remain in place, as it grows and morphs beneath the surface, outside our field of vision.
So, let us Sabbath…in that way, we are not of the world, but we are with the mysterious Spirit of Truth. It will abide in us, it will guide us. And this, perhaps ironically, is the transformation of the world. Amen.
This morning our gospel once again tells us that the world and Christ are, as we might say, on different pages. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the gospel of John mentions several times that the world did not know Christ. As the first chapter says, He was in the world and the world did not know him. Verse 17 speaks of the Spirit of Truth that the world neither sees nor knows. And for just a second I said, why can’t the world see or know the Spirit of Truth? And then I watched 1 minute, maybe less, of internet news…and then I said, of course the world doesn’t know the Spirit of Truth because it’s too busy planning and pursuing its own agendas…this led me to think about a practice we started recently, just as nature itself, reality itself, seemed to be asking all of us to stop, slow down, become monks even…
For the past few months, we have been observing a mid-week Sabbath. Thursdays at noon we have been stopping whatever we’re doing in order to pray in silence for the health and well-being of the world. When we do this, when we pray in silence for the health and well-being of the world, we actually contribute to the health and well-being of the world by NOT contributing our own anxious behavior to the world, by NOT contributing our own controlling behavior to the world, by NOT contributing our own competitiveness and selfish ambition to the world. We do this by laying down our agenda, by NOT thinking about where our money comes from and where it goes. We “do” a lot by NOT doing. Jesus’ whole way speaks of the negative leading to the ultimate, mysterious positive. The way of Jesus teaches us to love through losing, we love one another by losing or laying down our lives—in other words, we love one another by laying down our agendas. When we pray in silence, when we let go of our own agendas, or the world’s agenda that we have been conditioned to pursue, we keep Christ’s commandments, his commandment, to love one another AS HE LOVES US…AND, we prepare ourselves to receive the Spirit of Truth that the world cannot see or know as it noisily pursues its agenda or agendas. Now, this letting go of our agenda can be scary for a society that is hell bent on and lives by agendas…
If we are to receive or know the Spirit of truth, we practice Sabbath-ing…the ceasing, the silencing, of the world’s agenda. Importantly, this allows for the dismantling, the undermining, of the psychological infrastructure of an un-loving, un-just world or system, an unjust world or system, that, again, according to our gospel today, cannot receive the spirit of truth. We might wonder how these worlds, these systems, perpetuate themselves—well, they live in us, we are their hosts, they are conditioned into and then they are spread, by us. They don’t live out there somewhere, they don’t grow on trees. Without addressing injustice at this fundamental level, our doing, our helping, winds up being, at best, a band-aid on a cancer; the psychological roots of that cancer remain in place, as it grows and morphs beneath the surface, outside our field of vision.
So, let us Sabbath…in that way, we are not of the world, but we are with the mysterious Spirit of Truth. It will abide in us, it will guide us. And this, perhaps ironically, is the transformation of the world. Amen.
Mid-Week May14, 2020
For our mid-week reflection, I offer this gem from Henri Nouwen. And, I re-invite you to participate in our mid-week Sabbath. Thursdays at noon we stop what we are doing and pray in silence for the health and well-being of the world.
"As ministers our greatest temptation is toward too many words. They weaken our faith and make us lukewarm. But silence is a sacred discipline, a guard of the Holy Spirit."
For our mid-week reflection, I offer this gem from Henri Nouwen. And, I re-invite you to participate in our mid-week Sabbath. Thursdays at noon we stop what we are doing and pray in silence for the health and well-being of the world.
"As ministers our greatest temptation is toward too many words. They weaken our faith and make us lukewarm. But silence is a sacred discipline, a guard of the Holy Spirit."
Sunday, May 10, 2020
Click the link below to view the Sunday Video Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBqmMgUFEaw&feature=youtu.be
Click the link below to view the Sunday Video Worship Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBqmMgUFEaw&feature=youtu.be
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hymn189.pdf | |
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Sunday, May 10, 2020
As I mentioned this week, in a reflection, there have been several reports telling us that the current pandemic has aggravated our mental health crisis. Anxiety, depression, and addiction have been at epidemic levels for a long time. The situation we are in seems to have made it worse. So, what does this have to do with church? Even a superficial reading of the gospels will show us that Jesus talked a lot about what we call “mental health issues”. In fact, he begins his ministry with a call for what we would refer to as a psychological transformation—a call for a new mind. When he says, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand—the Greek word we translate as repent is metanoia—which means to “change your mind”…as we see Jesus begins with inner transformation…in fact, his whole ministry can be seen as one long call to change our minds…he doesn’t start with trying to change the outer world—with trying to fix this problem or that problem, with getting behind this cause or that cause—no, he went to the root of all problems…our thinking…he knew that if we don’t address the inner problem, the outer problems will persist….to use one of his metaphors, he knew the futility of cleaning the outside of the cup, while ignoring the INSIDE of the cup.
Our gospel passage shows us the early church’s deep concern with the alleviation of the suffering that too often comes from our mental dis-ease—and we can see it by simply exploring a few verses…in two short verses, we find the problem—and then we find the solution—really, in two verses—that’s how great this writing is…in John 14:1 we read, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” First, when the NT speak of “hearts” they mean our inner selves, what we would call our minds. It, the Greek word we translate as “troubled” means—“to put in motion, to agitate by putting in motion that which needs to remain still.” Jesus here is talking about an agitated, anxious mind…this is why Jesus was RADICAL…the root of the word radical, radix, means ROOT…Jesus was concerned with root causes—that’s why he’s no mere politician…politics is reconciliation of effects, and because it doesn’t effectively address the problem, its activity amounts to shuffling the deck chairs on the titanic…Jesus, the radical, is pointing out the root of so much trouble in the world—trouble in our minds. In pointing out that we must start with individual inner work he does not send a message that he doesn’t care about the “outer work”, the world. Jesus saw in his time that what we might call the political solution is not effective…it tends to lead to a situation where adults sit like school kids in a sandbox arguing over toys…The outer world reflects what we are inside. And yet we seem to pour so much effort into changing the external world—which causes us to literally overlook or over-think the root of the problem—what’s going on within. Neither politics nor superficial religion with its easy emotional fixes go deep enough…and politics and superficial religion have a lot in common—they both like distractions and quick fixes--using the word love a lot may make us feel good, but merely using the word love is not the same thing as love---it doesn’t go deep enough to uproot the problem--even a quick look at our recent history will show us that—sometimes these approaches do great harm as they simply distract us from what’s actually going on inside--And here we get the actual meaning of the word sin—“to miss the mark”—it’s an image from archery--sin doesn’t mean being naughty, it means “to miss the mark”…without going deep, without paying close attention to our inner lives, to our minds—we get stuck in what the bible calls sin because we miss the mark as we are distracted by literally overlooking, both the root of our troubles—and the “cure” for those troubles—they both lie inside of us…this is behind Jesus’ line to the Pharisees—“you blind pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup so that the outside may become clean also.”
Jesus contrasts a troubled heart, an agitated mind, that is bouncing all over the place with another image…
In verse 2 Jesus the poet gives us a great metaphor to point to an inner reality that he has realized, he says, “In my Father’s house there many dwelling places”. The Greek word we translate as dwelling place actually means “an abiding place, not transitory, in other words, a place of stillness.” When Jesus speaks of “dwelling places in My father’s house”—he is poetically pointing to--not a place—but a state of consciousness…a new way of seeing, that is “where” we “go” deep to experience God….in fact the rest of our passage from John simply contains more metaphors that point to this abiding “place within”….where we realize that we don’t have to bounce around looking for peace out there or in this or that because we are already there…God is within us—we are within God…there is no separation between us and God…this is where “making disciples for the transformation of the world” must begin… with the inside of the cup, our minds…again, Jesus himself starts his ministry with a word that means a new mind—metanoia—which is poorly communicated by our word repentance. Think about that Jesus’ ministry starts with a call for a new mind--not with a call for the same old minds to go out and do something… to use an analogy from AA, you don’t send drunk people out to get someone sober…If we don’t have the inner peace that comes with “dwelling in God’s house”—and dwelling in God’s house does not necessarily or just mean being a member of an institution--God’s house is not a building---literalism has done a number there—it means living in peaceful hearts and minds--if we don’t live in peaceful hearts and minds, we don’t live in a peaceful world. These two verses say it all—rather than living in a troubled, over-thinking, anxious mind, Jesus is saying we can abide in still, calm, peaceful minds.…We will simply never have “world peace” if we do not first have inner peace. We can focus on the external—but if our minds are not peaceful, we will simply screw it up every time.
If the church doesn’t have as its primary purpose this transformative, direct encounter with God, what Jesus calls dwelling in God’s house—well, then they are not a church--And many people like to use religious language, labels, even when their activity has no relationship to the divine…many churches are completely secular, they just use language they have co-opted from religion…they may be a service organization, a social club, or political activists—but without facilitating the transformative encounter with God that gives true inner peace, shalom—they are over-looking the real problem, they are missing the mark…
As we all know, times are tough out there, they always have been, let us begin in here—there is no greater gift we can offer a troubled world…amen.
As I mentioned this week, in a reflection, there have been several reports telling us that the current pandemic has aggravated our mental health crisis. Anxiety, depression, and addiction have been at epidemic levels for a long time. The situation we are in seems to have made it worse. So, what does this have to do with church? Even a superficial reading of the gospels will show us that Jesus talked a lot about what we call “mental health issues”. In fact, he begins his ministry with a call for what we would refer to as a psychological transformation—a call for a new mind. When he says, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand—the Greek word we translate as repent is metanoia—which means to “change your mind”…as we see Jesus begins with inner transformation…in fact, his whole ministry can be seen as one long call to change our minds…he doesn’t start with trying to change the outer world—with trying to fix this problem or that problem, with getting behind this cause or that cause—no, he went to the root of all problems…our thinking…he knew that if we don’t address the inner problem, the outer problems will persist….to use one of his metaphors, he knew the futility of cleaning the outside of the cup, while ignoring the INSIDE of the cup.
Our gospel passage shows us the early church’s deep concern with the alleviation of the suffering that too often comes from our mental dis-ease—and we can see it by simply exploring a few verses…in two short verses, we find the problem—and then we find the solution—really, in two verses—that’s how great this writing is…in John 14:1 we read, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” First, when the NT speak of “hearts” they mean our inner selves, what we would call our minds. It, the Greek word we translate as “troubled” means—“to put in motion, to agitate by putting in motion that which needs to remain still.” Jesus here is talking about an agitated, anxious mind…this is why Jesus was RADICAL…the root of the word radical, radix, means ROOT…Jesus was concerned with root causes—that’s why he’s no mere politician…politics is reconciliation of effects, and because it doesn’t effectively address the problem, its activity amounts to shuffling the deck chairs on the titanic…Jesus, the radical, is pointing out the root of so much trouble in the world—trouble in our minds. In pointing out that we must start with individual inner work he does not send a message that he doesn’t care about the “outer work”, the world. Jesus saw in his time that what we might call the political solution is not effective…it tends to lead to a situation where adults sit like school kids in a sandbox arguing over toys…The outer world reflects what we are inside. And yet we seem to pour so much effort into changing the external world—which causes us to literally overlook or over-think the root of the problem—what’s going on within. Neither politics nor superficial religion with its easy emotional fixes go deep enough…and politics and superficial religion have a lot in common—they both like distractions and quick fixes--using the word love a lot may make us feel good, but merely using the word love is not the same thing as love---it doesn’t go deep enough to uproot the problem--even a quick look at our recent history will show us that—sometimes these approaches do great harm as they simply distract us from what’s actually going on inside--And here we get the actual meaning of the word sin—“to miss the mark”—it’s an image from archery--sin doesn’t mean being naughty, it means “to miss the mark”…without going deep, without paying close attention to our inner lives, to our minds—we get stuck in what the bible calls sin because we miss the mark as we are distracted by literally overlooking, both the root of our troubles—and the “cure” for those troubles—they both lie inside of us…this is behind Jesus’ line to the Pharisees—“you blind pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup so that the outside may become clean also.”
Jesus contrasts a troubled heart, an agitated mind, that is bouncing all over the place with another image…
In verse 2 Jesus the poet gives us a great metaphor to point to an inner reality that he has realized, he says, “In my Father’s house there many dwelling places”. The Greek word we translate as dwelling place actually means “an abiding place, not transitory, in other words, a place of stillness.” When Jesus speaks of “dwelling places in My father’s house”—he is poetically pointing to--not a place—but a state of consciousness…a new way of seeing, that is “where” we “go” deep to experience God….in fact the rest of our passage from John simply contains more metaphors that point to this abiding “place within”….where we realize that we don’t have to bounce around looking for peace out there or in this or that because we are already there…God is within us—we are within God…there is no separation between us and God…this is where “making disciples for the transformation of the world” must begin… with the inside of the cup, our minds…again, Jesus himself starts his ministry with a word that means a new mind—metanoia—which is poorly communicated by our word repentance. Think about that Jesus’ ministry starts with a call for a new mind--not with a call for the same old minds to go out and do something… to use an analogy from AA, you don’t send drunk people out to get someone sober…If we don’t have the inner peace that comes with “dwelling in God’s house”—and dwelling in God’s house does not necessarily or just mean being a member of an institution--God’s house is not a building---literalism has done a number there—it means living in peaceful hearts and minds--if we don’t live in peaceful hearts and minds, we don’t live in a peaceful world. These two verses say it all—rather than living in a troubled, over-thinking, anxious mind, Jesus is saying we can abide in still, calm, peaceful minds.…We will simply never have “world peace” if we do not first have inner peace. We can focus on the external—but if our minds are not peaceful, we will simply screw it up every time.
If the church doesn’t have as its primary purpose this transformative, direct encounter with God, what Jesus calls dwelling in God’s house—well, then they are not a church--And many people like to use religious language, labels, even when their activity has no relationship to the divine…many churches are completely secular, they just use language they have co-opted from religion…they may be a service organization, a social club, or political activists—but without facilitating the transformative encounter with God that gives true inner peace, shalom—they are over-looking the real problem, they are missing the mark…
As we all know, times are tough out there, they always have been, let us begin in here—there is no greater gift we can offer a troubled world…amen.
Thursday, May 7, 2020
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Have faith in God, have faith also in me.”
-John 14
“Great changes start with individuals; the basis for world peace is inner peace in the hearts of individuals.”
-The Dalai Lama
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
-Mark 4
There have been several reports telling us that the current pandemic has aggravated our mental health crisis. Anxiety, depression, and addiction have been at epidemic levels for a long time. The situation we are in seems to have made it worse. So, what does this have to do with church? Even a superficial reading of the gospels will show us that Jesus talked a lot about what we call “mental health issues”. In fact, he seemed to think “the way of the world” was less than healthy, mentally speaking. That certainly seems true in our time, as our culture continues to get more and more anxious, addicted, and depressed. When addressing such mental dis-ease, he always offers the same antidote: faith. And when he speaks of faith, he means something quite specific. In the statement above from John, Jesus says, “do not let your hearts be troubled”. The Greek word we translate as “troubled” means “to set in motion that which should be still”. It points to something being thrown back and forth. When our minds are troubled or set in motion in this way, our minds, and by extension, our worlds, are like the stormy sea that Jesus tells to be silent! Both biblical passages are referring to the restless and stormy mind that the Buddhists call the “monkey mind”. Perhaps Jesus spoke to us about our mental health, our mental dis-ease, because he was preaching the same message as the Dalai Lama, that world peace depends on inner peace. It has often occurred to me that it is impossible to realize the stated mission of the United Methodist church, “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world”, without the church acting as a kind of midwife for individual inner peace. In this way the church helps birth what the Gospel calls “peace on earth”.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Have faith in God, have faith also in me.”
-John 14
“Great changes start with individuals; the basis for world peace is inner peace in the hearts of individuals.”
-The Dalai Lama
He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
-Mark 4
There have been several reports telling us that the current pandemic has aggravated our mental health crisis. Anxiety, depression, and addiction have been at epidemic levels for a long time. The situation we are in seems to have made it worse. So, what does this have to do with church? Even a superficial reading of the gospels will show us that Jesus talked a lot about what we call “mental health issues”. In fact, he seemed to think “the way of the world” was less than healthy, mentally speaking. That certainly seems true in our time, as our culture continues to get more and more anxious, addicted, and depressed. When addressing such mental dis-ease, he always offers the same antidote: faith. And when he speaks of faith, he means something quite specific. In the statement above from John, Jesus says, “do not let your hearts be troubled”. The Greek word we translate as “troubled” means “to set in motion that which should be still”. It points to something being thrown back and forth. When our minds are troubled or set in motion in this way, our minds, and by extension, our worlds, are like the stormy sea that Jesus tells to be silent! Both biblical passages are referring to the restless and stormy mind that the Buddhists call the “monkey mind”. Perhaps Jesus spoke to us about our mental health, our mental dis-ease, because he was preaching the same message as the Dalai Lama, that world peace depends on inner peace. It has often occurred to me that it is impossible to realize the stated mission of the United Methodist church, “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world”, without the church acting as a kind of midwife for individual inner peace. In this way the church helps birth what the Gospel calls “peace on earth”.
Sunday, May 3, 2020
Please click the link below for the Sunday Video Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2lj7imy4S0&feature=youtu.be
Please click the link below for the Sunday Video Service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2lj7imy4S0&feature=youtu.be
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hymn348.pdf | |
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Mid-Week Reflection, Thursday, April 30, 2020
“Every moment is the last moment and every moment is a rebirth.”
-Ippen Shonin
Over the past few weeks, I have been involved in several conversations about the way forward. And those conversations are fine, even necessary. But the intense anxiety that has fueled a few of those conversations, while understandable, is probably not necessary. As we all know, there are many things “up in the air” right now. Things have changed—and nobody knows for how long. Perhaps we can all look at what it means to be disciples of Christ with the eyes of a newcomer—a beginner, a person who does not have conclusions. The beginner’s mind, like a small child’s, is not attached to the past. And so it does not judge people and situations against the background of their concepts, conclusions, ideas, and “the way things have always been”. The little child’s mind lives in and importantly, plays in, the present moment. Our tradition greatly values and has many metaphors for the state of consciousness that other traditions refer to as the “beginner’s mind”. For example, the divine comes to us as a newborn, the Christ child. And Jesus himself asks us several times to be like small children. So, as we take it a day, a moment, at a time, let us all remember and live Jesus’ words, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Peace,
Chris
“Every moment is the last moment and every moment is a rebirth.”
-Ippen Shonin
Over the past few weeks, I have been involved in several conversations about the way forward. And those conversations are fine, even necessary. But the intense anxiety that has fueled a few of those conversations, while understandable, is probably not necessary. As we all know, there are many things “up in the air” right now. Things have changed—and nobody knows for how long. Perhaps we can all look at what it means to be disciples of Christ with the eyes of a newcomer—a beginner, a person who does not have conclusions. The beginner’s mind, like a small child’s, is not attached to the past. And so it does not judge people and situations against the background of their concepts, conclusions, ideas, and “the way things have always been”. The little child’s mind lives in and importantly, plays in, the present moment. Our tradition greatly values and has many metaphors for the state of consciousness that other traditions refer to as the “beginner’s mind”. For example, the divine comes to us as a newborn, the Christ child. And Jesus himself asks us several times to be like small children. So, as we take it a day, a moment, at a time, let us all remember and live Jesus’ words, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Peace,
Chris
Sunday, April 26, 2020
Link below to Sunday Video Service https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAJaR6-OIjQ&feature=youtu.be
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Sunday April 26, 2020 Native American Sunday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=XKOXZD_vK4E&feature=emb_logo Link above to Native American Sunday Special Video |
SUNDAY SERMON, April 26, 2020
Back in the mid-70’s, Jimmy Webb, a great songwriter, wrote a song called Highwayman…it was later recorded by the Highwaymen, a country music group consisting of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson…here are a few of the lyrics
They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound
But I am still around
I'll always be around and around and around and around and around
This morning we encounter a mysterious highwayman that the world buried in a tomb…
The story of the walk to Emmaus illustrates the state of mind of many disciples after the crucifixion—on the day of the resurrection—utter disappointment and despair. They are going away from Jerusalem—they have given up…despite the reports of the resurrection coming from the women, they have apparently decided their life as disciples is over…The one in whom they placed great hope had been a public failure—rejected. The disciples missed his message—in verse 16 they don’t recognize him--when this mysterious stranger on the road asks them what they are discussing, they, with a sad look on their faces, say, “What, are you the only stranger around here that doesn’t know about the crucifixion of Jesus, a mighty prophet that we had hoped would deliver Israel?”. In other words, they had old culturally conditioned ideas about the Christ and his mission—and those ideas blind them—one was that the Christ would be a political hero that would knock hell out of Rome. The Christ would serve the national hopes, would be an ethno-centric hero—serve their group. They wanted him to make their nation, their church great again. But, he wouldn’t wear their hat; wear their t-shirt, put on their bumper-sticker. The Christ crosses all boundaries including insidious cliquey ones—Jesus made it clear he was no nationalistic hero but our cultural conditioning—our conditioned needs—are so powerful that we don’t hear messages that don’t address them—those conditioned needs, they make us deaf—and we will simply dismiss as crazy, or reject, people that don’t satisfy us…Jesus met with a lot of rejection.....He was rejected when they saw he had nothing—no-thing or things to offer…they wanted to gain something—and this nut was asking them to lose it all…crucifixion for God’s sake! …Think about that, Jesus, Jesus was rejected…what does that say about the ones we don’t reject? Why do we accept them?.........In our passage today he calls them fools for not understanding Resurrection involved suffering and loss…he says, look at the prophets…your selfish agenda caused you to miss the Truth they offered you…
In verse 30 we come upon a remarkable scene that cracks a hole in reality itself…
This is a revelation—revelation, as I said a few weeks ago is poetry. This mysterious stranger draws them close…something is going to happen…
“He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. then their eyes were opened and they recognized him” What they didn’t know—couldn’t know, was that this highway-man, this stranger, carried a pulsing, a pregnant, emptiness within---he had lost all—to the point of suffering death on a cross--in the breaking of the bread, the breaking of his body, there is the necessary disturbance—the cracking open of, the death of, the old form—with it the pulsing, the pregnant, light of Christ is released--it is the poetic, the Spiritual, equivalent of the splitting of the atom—… the great release of energy sweeps away ancient walls, boundaries…a flash of light in a hollow darkness and prejudices, hard—angles—sharp edges—of self—turn to ash…
“ he vanished from their sight”--Truth appears and then it vanishes--it cannot be possessed or owned—we don’t get to store it up—like money in a retirement account—this is why claiming to possess religious Truth is profoundly ignorant —Truth can’t be accumulated, owned, Truth is always new, always now--the stranger vanishes—the old form, the old reality, is no more….even as it dies for us and feeds us New Life, it falls like a husk onto the dead ground of yesterday…where the dead bury their own dead…that is what the bread of life, the Christ, delivers us from, the old way that keeps us from recognizing the Christ, the old way that keeps us from seeing the radically True, always new, presence of Christ…
the disciples begin to understand, to experience, the interiority of the resurrection--…they go to tell others what happened during their trip…when the light of Christ appears…the darkness is dispelled…and we see Reality for what it is…we see that it freely renews itself…it is completely free, unlimited…it is never deteriorating…it gives itself away, it, without resistance, dies, ends eternally…therefore it is always Rising, always new, always Now.
…when you meet a stranger on the road, listen…your eyes might open…you might hear…
I fly a starship
Across the Universe divide
And when I reach the other side
I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can
Perhaps I may become a highway-man again
Or I may simply be a single drop of rain
But I will remain
And I'll be back again, and again and again and again and again. Amen.
Back in the mid-70’s, Jimmy Webb, a great songwriter, wrote a song called Highwayman…it was later recorded by the Highwaymen, a country music group consisting of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson…here are a few of the lyrics
They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound
But I am still around
I'll always be around and around and around and around and around
This morning we encounter a mysterious highwayman that the world buried in a tomb…
The story of the walk to Emmaus illustrates the state of mind of many disciples after the crucifixion—on the day of the resurrection—utter disappointment and despair. They are going away from Jerusalem—they have given up…despite the reports of the resurrection coming from the women, they have apparently decided their life as disciples is over…The one in whom they placed great hope had been a public failure—rejected. The disciples missed his message—in verse 16 they don’t recognize him--when this mysterious stranger on the road asks them what they are discussing, they, with a sad look on their faces, say, “What, are you the only stranger around here that doesn’t know about the crucifixion of Jesus, a mighty prophet that we had hoped would deliver Israel?”. In other words, they had old culturally conditioned ideas about the Christ and his mission—and those ideas blind them—one was that the Christ would be a political hero that would knock hell out of Rome. The Christ would serve the national hopes, would be an ethno-centric hero—serve their group. They wanted him to make their nation, their church great again. But, he wouldn’t wear their hat; wear their t-shirt, put on their bumper-sticker. The Christ crosses all boundaries including insidious cliquey ones—Jesus made it clear he was no nationalistic hero but our cultural conditioning—our conditioned needs—are so powerful that we don’t hear messages that don’t address them—those conditioned needs, they make us deaf—and we will simply dismiss as crazy, or reject, people that don’t satisfy us…Jesus met with a lot of rejection.....He was rejected when they saw he had nothing—no-thing or things to offer…they wanted to gain something—and this nut was asking them to lose it all…crucifixion for God’s sake! …Think about that, Jesus, Jesus was rejected…what does that say about the ones we don’t reject? Why do we accept them?.........In our passage today he calls them fools for not understanding Resurrection involved suffering and loss…he says, look at the prophets…your selfish agenda caused you to miss the Truth they offered you…
In verse 30 we come upon a remarkable scene that cracks a hole in reality itself…
This is a revelation—revelation, as I said a few weeks ago is poetry. This mysterious stranger draws them close…something is going to happen…
“He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. then their eyes were opened and they recognized him” What they didn’t know—couldn’t know, was that this highway-man, this stranger, carried a pulsing, a pregnant, emptiness within---he had lost all—to the point of suffering death on a cross--in the breaking of the bread, the breaking of his body, there is the necessary disturbance—the cracking open of, the death of, the old form—with it the pulsing, the pregnant, light of Christ is released--it is the poetic, the Spiritual, equivalent of the splitting of the atom—… the great release of energy sweeps away ancient walls, boundaries…a flash of light in a hollow darkness and prejudices, hard—angles—sharp edges—of self—turn to ash…
“ he vanished from their sight”--Truth appears and then it vanishes--it cannot be possessed or owned—we don’t get to store it up—like money in a retirement account—this is why claiming to possess religious Truth is profoundly ignorant —Truth can’t be accumulated, owned, Truth is always new, always now--the stranger vanishes—the old form, the old reality, is no more….even as it dies for us and feeds us New Life, it falls like a husk onto the dead ground of yesterday…where the dead bury their own dead…that is what the bread of life, the Christ, delivers us from, the old way that keeps us from recognizing the Christ, the old way that keeps us from seeing the radically True, always new, presence of Christ…
the disciples begin to understand, to experience, the interiority of the resurrection--…they go to tell others what happened during their trip…when the light of Christ appears…the darkness is dispelled…and we see Reality for what it is…we see that it freely renews itself…it is completely free, unlimited…it is never deteriorating…it gives itself away, it, without resistance, dies, ends eternally…therefore it is always Rising, always new, always Now.
…when you meet a stranger on the road, listen…your eyes might open…you might hear…
I fly a starship
Across the Universe divide
And when I reach the other side
I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can
Perhaps I may become a highway-man again
Or I may simply be a single drop of rain
But I will remain
And I'll be back again, and again and again and again and again. Amen.
Mid-Week Reflection 4-23-2020
The Easter that is, not the Easter that should be
Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”
--- Luke 24
The above lines from the gospel of Luke are part of the well-known story known as “the walk to Emmaus”. It is the day of the resurrection and the two disciples in the story represent the state of mind most of the disciples found themselves in following the crucifixion. They are in despair. They are going away from Jerusalem. The one in whom they had placed all their hopes had been a public failure—rejected. Death on a cross. As they walk along looking sad, the risen Christ appears but “their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” What keeps the disciples from seeing the risen Christ that is right in front of them? To answer this, we must remember that the disciples had never really understood the way of the cross. The disciples had culturally conditioned ideas of what a messiah should be. They were looking for a political messiah—they were looking for the one that would “redeem Israel”. They were looking for a messiah that would fix their external circumstances—knock the heck out of Rome. But Jesus had made it clear that his “kingdom is not of this world”. His way, “the way” of the cross was primarily concerned not with fixing the external, but with transforming the internal. Jesus came to give them “eyes to see”. And here they are on the first day of the New Creation blinded by their ideas of what a messiah should be. So they miss the one that is. The resurrection is Now. The New Creation is...Now.
God bless the disciples. If not for them, I would have no one to relate to in the story. I too have certain culturally conditioned ideas that give rise to a conflict between what is and what should be. Do I miss the glory that is right in front of me because I am looking for the glory that should be? Do I miss the risen Christ that is right here, right Now? Do my ideas about what the Christ should be turn the Christ that is into a stranger? Do I miss the resurrection that is, the New Creation that is, because I am looking for the New Creation that should be?
The Easter that is, not the Easter that should be
Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”
--- Luke 24
The above lines from the gospel of Luke are part of the well-known story known as “the walk to Emmaus”. It is the day of the resurrection and the two disciples in the story represent the state of mind most of the disciples found themselves in following the crucifixion. They are in despair. They are going away from Jerusalem. The one in whom they had placed all their hopes had been a public failure—rejected. Death on a cross. As they walk along looking sad, the risen Christ appears but “their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” What keeps the disciples from seeing the risen Christ that is right in front of them? To answer this, we must remember that the disciples had never really understood the way of the cross. The disciples had culturally conditioned ideas of what a messiah should be. They were looking for a political messiah—they were looking for the one that would “redeem Israel”. They were looking for a messiah that would fix their external circumstances—knock the heck out of Rome. But Jesus had made it clear that his “kingdom is not of this world”. His way, “the way” of the cross was primarily concerned not with fixing the external, but with transforming the internal. Jesus came to give them “eyes to see”. And here they are on the first day of the New Creation blinded by their ideas of what a messiah should be. So they miss the one that is. The resurrection is Now. The New Creation is...Now.
God bless the disciples. If not for them, I would have no one to relate to in the story. I too have certain culturally conditioned ideas that give rise to a conflict between what is and what should be. Do I miss the glory that is right in front of me because I am looking for the glory that should be? Do I miss the risen Christ that is right here, right Now? Do my ideas about what the Christ should be turn the Christ that is into a stranger? Do I miss the resurrection that is, the New Creation that is, because I am looking for the New Creation that should be?
Sunday Service April 19, 2020
Click the link below to view the service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPEXNH8iE8w&feature=youtu.be
Hymn lyrics, should you wish to sing along:
Click the link below to view the service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPEXNH8iE8w&feature=youtu.be
Hymn lyrics, should you wish to sing along:
hymn315.pdf | |
File Size: | 939 kb |
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hymn420.pdf | |
File Size: | 749 kb |
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Sunday Service April 19, 2020
Before we explore our text, I want to spend a few minutes “fixing our eyes, our attention, away from something we see…and fixing our eyes, our attention, on what Paul calls the unseen—the eternal Spirit”…I invite you to close your eyes, just breathe…if you notice you are engaged with a thought or thoughts—just release them, let them go—and return your attention to the breath…the Spirit…
(keep these in mind during sermon)
Do not cling to me, I have not yet ascended to the Father—Jesus to Mary Magdalene
Do you have faith because you have seen? Blessed are those who do not see yet have faith—Jesus to “doubting” Thomas
We fix our eyes NOT on what is seen, but on what is UNSEEN, since what is seen is TEMPORARY, but what is unseen is ETERNAL—Paul to the Corinthians
We all know, with social distancing, our way of doing church has been different lately—we are not together in the same building, etc. …the form of our church life has been altered…this morning our scripture speaks to this…our scripture asks us…does our “religion” depend on the form our it takes? Does it depend on seeing, literally seeing, some-thing familiar?
Here is a question I want you to keep in mind—in our religious or spiritual life, do we cling to a particular thing or form—in other words does our faith depend on some-thing? Some-thing or form that we must, in the words of Doubting Thomas, see in order to believe?
Before we look at our “doubting Thomas” passage this morning, I want to look back at an interesting moment from last week’s Easter scripture. In the gospel of John’s first post-resurrection appearance of Jesus—the one to Mary Magdalene—something very important is said…and it gives us a clue as to what Jesus and the gospel writer are trying to teach us this morning. Just after the resurrected Jesus makes himself known to Mary outside the tomb—she says to him Rabbi! And then he says something to her that might seem strange to some…he says, “Do not cling to me”. If you read this literally you might think, “Really, don’t cling to me?” Can you imagine? “I know you thought I was dead—but give me some space here”…is this post resurrection social distancing? No—Jesus’ statement to Magdalene, “do not cling to me I have not yet ascended to the father”—is not to be read literally, historically--this is poetry referring us to, initiating us into, a new spiritual reality, a new spiritual understanding. The early Christians are fine-tuning our hearts and minds so that we can receive a more subtle spiritual reality…in telling Mary not to cling to him, Jesus is in essence telling Mary to let go. He is telling Mary to let go of Jesus in the form that she has known him. Metaphorically he is telling her to not cling to, to let go of, an old understanding of Jesus. That form is ascending to the father—in other words, it is going away, won’t be here anymore. So she will need to—we will need to—in the words of Paul this morning, “fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary, what is unseen is eternal”. We will need to fix our eyes on the eternal, the unseen, the in other words, form-less, Spirit…
All of the world’s great religious traditions, at their finer levels of understanding, teach people to move from dependence on the forms of their religion, to an awareness of the unseen, form-less spirit of God. This scene in John is an early Christian version of this. The scene john has painted for us, Jesus telling Mary to not cling to him, not be attached to him, to let go of him, however you want to say it, this can symbolize any form that we can cling to—be attached to—even a particular idea of Jesus—ideas are formed—ideas are forms—and these forms change, they come and go …so if our faith clings too much to any particular form we are setting ourselves up for suffering because they come and go—but we are also setting ourselves up for conflict because forms clash with one another—as the history of religion—our own included—shows. Our tradition--and the forms that it comes in--has been undergoing changes for a long time—and there have been many arguments over this—everything from arguments over styles of music to arguments over the bodies, the forms, that stand in the pulpit…some couldn’t stand it when women stood in there—and we know the silliness going on with the argument over who can or should stand in there in now. People will cling to, fiercely hold on to, and defend the forms their religion depends on. And these are the “things”, literally the things, the forms that lead to arguments, even schisms. Some think pastors should look, music should sound, buildings should be, what they were 50, 60 years ago. Some think congregations should be the size they were 50 years ago—sometimes we cling to the temporary things, forms, that we can see… we all know there are small churches dealing with big buildings that belong to another era.
and that weigh us down, keep us stuck in yesterday--
The gospel writer and Paul telling us not to cling to or have our faith depend on any particular thing that we can see, this is not a rejection of the physical, of the forms or things of creation—on the contrary—it is a total embrace of them—when our faith is fixed on the unseen--when we have faith in the unseen—when our faith is fine tuned to the more subtle formless spirit that creates all forms, that is behind and within all forms, then the whole world and all its forms are sacred…all things, all forms, are metaphors for the unseen creative spirit within them…but if your faith clings to or depends upon seeing a particular, temporary, form or forms—then those particular things or forms are elevated above all others---then that is idolatry, that is addiction—not faith…that is also bound to create conflict with people who elevated other forms or things…
We can confuse our faith in God with our attachment to, our clinging to, particular religious forms—forms, styles of worship, ideas or conclusions about God…as Paul says we can fix our eyes on what is seen—the temporary forms—and that can distract us from the formless, the unseen eternal spirit of God… which is exactly what Jesus offers to, leads his disciples into, this morning…the unseen eternal, Holy Spirit or breath of God…
And, just in case, he didn’t make his point regarding a faith that clings to or is dependent on, the things, or forms of religion, the gospel writer gives us the famous case of doubting Thomas…
Thomas says, I won’t believe in the resurrection unless I see him---then the Jesus shows him his wounds and Thomas profess faith—and now the statement that is the point of the whole Thomas story--“do you have faith because you have seen? Blessed are those that have not seen and have faith” this is a question for all of us—do we believe or have faith because of something we can see? this sounds an awful lot like his words to Mary, don’t cling to me, I am going away…if we take that with Paul’s statement that our faith is not in the temporary things we can see—but in the eternal unseen—then we find that these earliest Christians were intentionally leading us past the things or forms that our faith can depend on, into a direct relationship with the unseen eternal spirit
These forms come and go—and if we cling to them or our faith depends on them—we are setting ourselves up for even greater pain and suffering—because they come and go
What forms do we cling to? Do we have faith because we can see certain forms or things?
Does my faith depend me being able to see something? A particular building? A ritual? A particular form of music
Blessed are those who trust in the unseen—blessed are those who fix their eyes on the unseen--
A dependence on, a clinging to, the things or forms of religion--This is the source of not just silly religious arguments, but all religious conflict all throughout history—religious people fighting over their religious forms—including their idea of God—which is perhaps the most potentially dangerous form that we shouldn’t cling to too tightly—how much conflict has arisen from people fighting over their idea of God?…as Satan says in the Rolling Stones’ Sympathy for the devil, “I watched with glee while your kings and queens fought for ten decades for the gods they made”
As we move from the resurrection to the ascension our hearts and minds will need to be fine-tuned if you will, so that they can receive—or pick up on the subtle spiritual reality that lies beyond and behind the more concrete forms our religion can at times, depend on…this is why Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into the disciples—the Spirit is that formless, more subtle, spiritual reality…he’s saying, I’m going away—this body—this particular form is going away—so don’t depend on it—receive the formless, the “unseen,” spirit.
Before we explore our text, I want to spend a few minutes “fixing our eyes, our attention, away from something we see…and fixing our eyes, our attention, on what Paul calls the unseen—the eternal Spirit”…I invite you to close your eyes, just breathe…if you notice you are engaged with a thought or thoughts—just release them, let them go—and return your attention to the breath…the Spirit…
(keep these in mind during sermon)
Do not cling to me, I have not yet ascended to the Father—Jesus to Mary Magdalene
Do you have faith because you have seen? Blessed are those who do not see yet have faith—Jesus to “doubting” Thomas
We fix our eyes NOT on what is seen, but on what is UNSEEN, since what is seen is TEMPORARY, but what is unseen is ETERNAL—Paul to the Corinthians
We all know, with social distancing, our way of doing church has been different lately—we are not together in the same building, etc. …the form of our church life has been altered…this morning our scripture speaks to this…our scripture asks us…does our “religion” depend on the form our it takes? Does it depend on seeing, literally seeing, some-thing familiar?
Here is a question I want you to keep in mind—in our religious or spiritual life, do we cling to a particular thing or form—in other words does our faith depend on some-thing? Some-thing or form that we must, in the words of Doubting Thomas, see in order to believe?
Before we look at our “doubting Thomas” passage this morning, I want to look back at an interesting moment from last week’s Easter scripture. In the gospel of John’s first post-resurrection appearance of Jesus—the one to Mary Magdalene—something very important is said…and it gives us a clue as to what Jesus and the gospel writer are trying to teach us this morning. Just after the resurrected Jesus makes himself known to Mary outside the tomb—she says to him Rabbi! And then he says something to her that might seem strange to some…he says, “Do not cling to me”. If you read this literally you might think, “Really, don’t cling to me?” Can you imagine? “I know you thought I was dead—but give me some space here”…is this post resurrection social distancing? No—Jesus’ statement to Magdalene, “do not cling to me I have not yet ascended to the father”—is not to be read literally, historically--this is poetry referring us to, initiating us into, a new spiritual reality, a new spiritual understanding. The early Christians are fine-tuning our hearts and minds so that we can receive a more subtle spiritual reality…in telling Mary not to cling to him, Jesus is in essence telling Mary to let go. He is telling Mary to let go of Jesus in the form that she has known him. Metaphorically he is telling her to not cling to, to let go of, an old understanding of Jesus. That form is ascending to the father—in other words, it is going away, won’t be here anymore. So she will need to—we will need to—in the words of Paul this morning, “fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary, what is unseen is eternal”. We will need to fix our eyes on the eternal, the unseen, the in other words, form-less, Spirit…
All of the world’s great religious traditions, at their finer levels of understanding, teach people to move from dependence on the forms of their religion, to an awareness of the unseen, form-less spirit of God. This scene in John is an early Christian version of this. The scene john has painted for us, Jesus telling Mary to not cling to him, not be attached to him, to let go of him, however you want to say it, this can symbolize any form that we can cling to—be attached to—even a particular idea of Jesus—ideas are formed—ideas are forms—and these forms change, they come and go …so if our faith clings too much to any particular form we are setting ourselves up for suffering because they come and go—but we are also setting ourselves up for conflict because forms clash with one another—as the history of religion—our own included—shows. Our tradition--and the forms that it comes in--has been undergoing changes for a long time—and there have been many arguments over this—everything from arguments over styles of music to arguments over the bodies, the forms, that stand in the pulpit…some couldn’t stand it when women stood in there—and we know the silliness going on with the argument over who can or should stand in there in now. People will cling to, fiercely hold on to, and defend the forms their religion depends on. And these are the “things”, literally the things, the forms that lead to arguments, even schisms. Some think pastors should look, music should sound, buildings should be, what they were 50, 60 years ago. Some think congregations should be the size they were 50 years ago—sometimes we cling to the temporary things, forms, that we can see… we all know there are small churches dealing with big buildings that belong to another era.
and that weigh us down, keep us stuck in yesterday--
The gospel writer and Paul telling us not to cling to or have our faith depend on any particular thing that we can see, this is not a rejection of the physical, of the forms or things of creation—on the contrary—it is a total embrace of them—when our faith is fixed on the unseen--when we have faith in the unseen—when our faith is fine tuned to the more subtle formless spirit that creates all forms, that is behind and within all forms, then the whole world and all its forms are sacred…all things, all forms, are metaphors for the unseen creative spirit within them…but if your faith clings to or depends upon seeing a particular, temporary, form or forms—then those particular things or forms are elevated above all others---then that is idolatry, that is addiction—not faith…that is also bound to create conflict with people who elevated other forms or things…
We can confuse our faith in God with our attachment to, our clinging to, particular religious forms—forms, styles of worship, ideas or conclusions about God…as Paul says we can fix our eyes on what is seen—the temporary forms—and that can distract us from the formless, the unseen eternal spirit of God… which is exactly what Jesus offers to, leads his disciples into, this morning…the unseen eternal, Holy Spirit or breath of God…
And, just in case, he didn’t make his point regarding a faith that clings to or is dependent on, the things, or forms of religion, the gospel writer gives us the famous case of doubting Thomas…
Thomas says, I won’t believe in the resurrection unless I see him---then the Jesus shows him his wounds and Thomas profess faith—and now the statement that is the point of the whole Thomas story--“do you have faith because you have seen? Blessed are those that have not seen and have faith” this is a question for all of us—do we believe or have faith because of something we can see? this sounds an awful lot like his words to Mary, don’t cling to me, I am going away…if we take that with Paul’s statement that our faith is not in the temporary things we can see—but in the eternal unseen—then we find that these earliest Christians were intentionally leading us past the things or forms that our faith can depend on, into a direct relationship with the unseen eternal spirit
These forms come and go—and if we cling to them or our faith depends on them—we are setting ourselves up for even greater pain and suffering—because they come and go
What forms do we cling to? Do we have faith because we can see certain forms or things?
Does my faith depend me being able to see something? A particular building? A ritual? A particular form of music
Blessed are those who trust in the unseen—blessed are those who fix their eyes on the unseen--
A dependence on, a clinging to, the things or forms of religion--This is the source of not just silly religious arguments, but all religious conflict all throughout history—religious people fighting over their religious forms—including their idea of God—which is perhaps the most potentially dangerous form that we shouldn’t cling to too tightly—how much conflict has arisen from people fighting over their idea of God?…as Satan says in the Rolling Stones’ Sympathy for the devil, “I watched with glee while your kings and queens fought for ten decades for the gods they made”
As we move from the resurrection to the ascension our hearts and minds will need to be fine-tuned if you will, so that they can receive—or pick up on the subtle spiritual reality that lies beyond and behind the more concrete forms our religion can at times, depend on…this is why Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit into the disciples—the Spirit is that formless, more subtle, spiritual reality…he’s saying, I’m going away—this body—this particular form is going away—so don’t depend on it—receive the formless, the “unseen,” spirit.
Mid-Week Reflection April 16, 2020
To understand Easter and live it, we must renounce our dread of newness and of freedom!
Thomas Merton
The resurrection is Now. Easter, the new reality, is Now. Do we participate in it? Living in the freedom and newness of Easter sounds good. So, quoting a young friend, “why does it always seem that Easter comes and goes and nothing changes?” What’s the problem? With the above statement Merton names it. He calls it our “dread of newness and freedom.” It seems to me that Merton is rightly pointing out that, rather than living in the newness and freedom of Easter, human beings tend to go with what can be called our default setting—being attached to and living in the old reality, the past. How might I be attached to and live in the past? An example is: if you ask me who I am, I am likely to tell you who I was. My “I”, my ego-identity, is an abstraction from memory. I can easily confuse who I am with who I was.
As we continue social distancing and staying at home, we are offered a great opportunity to look within. So, this week, the mid-week reflection is a mid-week invitation to reflect on the above statement of Thomas Merton. As you do so, I invite you to ask yourself questions. Some examples are…
Chris
To understand Easter and live it, we must renounce our dread of newness and of freedom!
Thomas Merton
The resurrection is Now. Easter, the new reality, is Now. Do we participate in it? Living in the freedom and newness of Easter sounds good. So, quoting a young friend, “why does it always seem that Easter comes and goes and nothing changes?” What’s the problem? With the above statement Merton names it. He calls it our “dread of newness and freedom.” It seems to me that Merton is rightly pointing out that, rather than living in the newness and freedom of Easter, human beings tend to go with what can be called our default setting—being attached to and living in the old reality, the past. How might I be attached to and live in the past? An example is: if you ask me who I am, I am likely to tell you who I was. My “I”, my ego-identity, is an abstraction from memory. I can easily confuse who I am with who I was.
As we continue social distancing and staying at home, we are offered a great opportunity to look within. So, this week, the mid-week reflection is a mid-week invitation to reflect on the above statement of Thomas Merton. As you do so, I invite you to ask yourself questions. Some examples are…
- Do I agree with Merton? Do I recognize humanity’s dread of newness and freedom? Do I personally dread newness and freedom? If so, how does it play out in my life?
- Do I find myself attached to and living in the past, the old reality? Does this interfere with “understanding and living Easter?”
Chris
Easter Sunday Service April 12, 2020
Click the link below for the video worship service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9Lg2wuRMP8&feature=youtu.be
Lyrics for hymns, if you wish to sing along:
Click the link below for the video worship service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9Lg2wuRMP8&feature=youtu.be
Lyrics for hymns, if you wish to sing along:
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Link to Village of Scotia's Good Friday Worship (Pastor Chris did a scripture reading)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PvjK_A_O-M&feature=youtu.be |
Good Friday Reflection April 10, 2020
Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?” Luke 9:23-27
I have always been fascinated by—and a little intimidated by—the above statement. It reminds me of a wise “old man” who once told me, “Chris, if you want to change, then you have to live that change every day.” I didn’t much care for the sound of that. And at times, if I am completely honest, I don’t much care for the sound of Jesus’ call to “pick up my cross daily”. Maybe once a year—but every day? Come on. Well, the truth is, whether I care for it or not, in the above statement Jesus lays out his whole program of transformation, his whole “way” that we celebrate this week. We mark it on our calendars and think of it as an annual event—something we do once a year. I suspect that is why Christianity is often watered down and less than effective when it comes to radical personal transformation. I mean, if I exercise once a year, I’m not going to change physically. But, we can’t blame such ineffectiveness on Jesus. He couldn’t be more clear: if we are to be his followers, every day is Good Friday.
In their own way, all of the world’s great religious traditions tell us that we must “die before we die”. That should tell us something—all of the world’s religions say this. The phrase “die before you die” is used in the Sufi and Zen traditions and Jesus’ whole ministry points to this. Jesus’ invitation to “take up your cross daily and follow me” is a call to let go of, die to, all that we have accumulated. All our known opinions, resentments, attachments, pleasures, and fears that we carry from one day into the next. If we pick up our cross daily, if we, as Paul says, “die every day”, we will know Easter morning every morning. We will know resurrection not only after we die, but before we die. And that is how the world changes…it can’t afford to wait for me to have resurrection after I die—it needs me to change today. It needs me to live the transformation that is Good Friday and Easter not only once a year but every day. There is no better time than Now.
Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?” Luke 9:23-27
I have always been fascinated by—and a little intimidated by—the above statement. It reminds me of a wise “old man” who once told me, “Chris, if you want to change, then you have to live that change every day.” I didn’t much care for the sound of that. And at times, if I am completely honest, I don’t much care for the sound of Jesus’ call to “pick up my cross daily”. Maybe once a year—but every day? Come on. Well, the truth is, whether I care for it or not, in the above statement Jesus lays out his whole program of transformation, his whole “way” that we celebrate this week. We mark it on our calendars and think of it as an annual event—something we do once a year. I suspect that is why Christianity is often watered down and less than effective when it comes to radical personal transformation. I mean, if I exercise once a year, I’m not going to change physically. But, we can’t blame such ineffectiveness on Jesus. He couldn’t be more clear: if we are to be his followers, every day is Good Friday.
In their own way, all of the world’s great religious traditions tell us that we must “die before we die”. That should tell us something—all of the world’s religions say this. The phrase “die before you die” is used in the Sufi and Zen traditions and Jesus’ whole ministry points to this. Jesus’ invitation to “take up your cross daily and follow me” is a call to let go of, die to, all that we have accumulated. All our known opinions, resentments, attachments, pleasures, and fears that we carry from one day into the next. If we pick up our cross daily, if we, as Paul says, “die every day”, we will know Easter morning every morning. We will know resurrection not only after we die, but before we die. And that is how the world changes…it can’t afford to wait for me to have resurrection after I die—it needs me to change today. It needs me to live the transformation that is Good Friday and Easter not only once a year but every day. There is no better time than Now.
Palm Sunday Message April 5, 2020
Click link below for video service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2XMQFrXxpQ&feature=youtu.be
Palm Sunday Sermon April 5, 2020
Welcome to our Palm Sunday service. We all know we are going a crisis that is unlike anything we have been through before. It is anxiety provoking, heck—it is down right frightening. As a church we know our services have been cancelled, our usual way of doing ministry has been disrupted. But—the good news is—the gospel truth is—Jesus’ revolutionary message, his challenge to us—has not been cancelled…it would be too easy to say, oh, we can’t hear Jesus’ challenge in such trying times—well, his times were trying—but that didn’t stop him from challenging the world he lived in…his Truth transcends circumstance…our usual way of “doing” Palm Sunday may have been cancelled—but Palm Sunday has not—Jesus is still riding into Jerusalem, Jesus is eternally riding into Jerusalem, to challenge his culture’s way of life, to challenge our culture’s way of life.
On Palm Sunday Jesus delivers a revolutionary message…he is announcing the coming, and in some sense, the arrival, of that which his whole ministry has been pointing toward, the kingdom of God…as Jesus rides in on a donkey, he is telling us that in the kingdom of God, the way of power and wealth is NOT king, the way of wealth and power is not the ultimate power…what is king? In the Kingdom of God, humility is “King” …in humility is the ultimate power—in humility is the creative power of God …I’ll say it again--in humility is the creative power of God. This is revolutionary in the 1st and the 21st centuries…… today, Jesus the revolutionary is challenging the ordinary way of doing things, you know, this is the guy that said, the last will be first…here at the beginning of Holy week, Jesus is showing us the way, asking us to walk with him into Jerusalem…
As I mentioned recently, entering Jesus’ world is like Alice entering her wonderland: we often find things are upside down and backward relative to our everyday world. We find that we must lose our life in order to save it. We find the first shall be last and the last shall be first. We find the dead become the living. We find the rich and the powerful are on the outside and the poor are blessed. This morning we find a humble king…Is it any wonder this man’s own family thought he was crazy? Is it any wonder the good religious folks of his day thought he was wrong? Is it any wonder the religious and imperial authorities saw him as a dangerous revolutionary? Is it any wonder he hung out with outcasts and sinners?
I said earlier that the story of Palm Sunday is “drenched” in Jewish spirituality…Aryeh Kaplan, a brilliant Rabbi, said that the Hebrew word for “I” is related to the word for nothing--the true “I” is nothing or no-thing. God is nothing. God is No-thing! !...which is why the ultimate sin in Judeo-Christian religion is idolatry—the making of any-thing God—because God is no-thing (in particular)…
The brilliant Christian mystic Meister Eckhart said, “Spiritual life has much more to do with subtraction than addition” Instead of asking people what they do for Jesus maybe we can ask what they are not doing for Jesus. imagine how counter-cultural, how crazy, how out-of-your mind you would sound if, when people asked you what you do for Jesus you said, “I’ll tell you what I’m not doing…I’m not trying to be something--
The people go on shouting, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord”. Most of us, if we’re willing to be completely honest, spend too much of our lives “coming in our own names”. We spend too much time anxiously concerned with self-centered interests. When we are young we are conditioned to compete with others to be something—and then we condition others to compete to be something. We value, emulate, admire, and then elect, the some-bodies, the some-things. Our consumerist culture depends on this. Only a humble-King, this nothing man riding into the Holy city on a donkey can truly come in the name of the Lord--
It is the beginning of Holy week and WE are riding into Jerusalem. It is the beginning of Holy week, are WE ready to empty ourselves? Are we ready for Good Friday, for the cross? Are we ready to be nothing? It is the beginning of Holy week in whose name do we come?
Click link below for video service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2XMQFrXxpQ&feature=youtu.be
Palm Sunday Sermon April 5, 2020
Welcome to our Palm Sunday service. We all know we are going a crisis that is unlike anything we have been through before. It is anxiety provoking, heck—it is down right frightening. As a church we know our services have been cancelled, our usual way of doing ministry has been disrupted. But—the good news is—the gospel truth is—Jesus’ revolutionary message, his challenge to us—has not been cancelled…it would be too easy to say, oh, we can’t hear Jesus’ challenge in such trying times—well, his times were trying—but that didn’t stop him from challenging the world he lived in…his Truth transcends circumstance…our usual way of “doing” Palm Sunday may have been cancelled—but Palm Sunday has not—Jesus is still riding into Jerusalem, Jesus is eternally riding into Jerusalem, to challenge his culture’s way of life, to challenge our culture’s way of life.
On Palm Sunday Jesus delivers a revolutionary message…he is announcing the coming, and in some sense, the arrival, of that which his whole ministry has been pointing toward, the kingdom of God…as Jesus rides in on a donkey, he is telling us that in the kingdom of God, the way of power and wealth is NOT king, the way of wealth and power is not the ultimate power…what is king? In the Kingdom of God, humility is “King” …in humility is the ultimate power—in humility is the creative power of God …I’ll say it again--in humility is the creative power of God. This is revolutionary in the 1st and the 21st centuries…… today, Jesus the revolutionary is challenging the ordinary way of doing things, you know, this is the guy that said, the last will be first…here at the beginning of Holy week, Jesus is showing us the way, asking us to walk with him into Jerusalem…
- We will see that the story of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem is a rich, deep, story drenched in Jewish spirituality and religious history…it starts with Jerusalem…Jerusalem is a very important city. And Jesus’ relationship to Jerusalem would have been ambivalent. For the ancient Jews we call the first Christians, Jerusalem was, on one hand, the home of the corrupt temple authorities that were in cahoots with Rome…in this it symbolized the corrupt way, the way of the accumulation of wealth and power, the way that is not humble…at one point in his ministry, Jesus cries out that Jerusalem is the city that kills the prophets. In doing this he sounds very much like a prophet. So Jesus going to Jerusalem was a confrontation with power…On the other hand, there was a heavenly or New Jerusalem that the first Christians heard about from Ezekiel, Paul mentions this in Galatians, “the Jerusalem that is above is free, she is our mother”…
- In this way Jerusalem symbolized the transcendent home of God…in this way Jerusalem was truly Holy Land…both of these meanings are in play in our story…and this is why Jerusalem is the perfect setting for the story. For like Jerusalem, human beings contain both—the way of ego, the way of power and wealth—and as human beings we also have within us Holy Land, the way of humility, that way that Jesus represents—for his whole ministry Jesus has been trying to get us to take that way…the way of humility and peace. Paul tries to get us to take that way when he says this morning that we should let the same mind be in us that was in Christ. Jerusalem is the perfect metaphor for the territory, the spiritual geography we all have within us. And so we can say Palm Sunday sets before us two ways or minds—the mind or way of ego, power, control—or the humble way of Jesus, the mind of Christ. Jerusalem was the home of both—and so are we….entering the kingdom of God, or letting the same mind be in us that was in Christ, requires that we the confront the way of power and wealth within ourselves—we cannot adequately confront the way of power out there if we don’t first confront the way of power IN HERE, in our hearts and heads.
As I mentioned recently, entering Jesus’ world is like Alice entering her wonderland: we often find things are upside down and backward relative to our everyday world. We find that we must lose our life in order to save it. We find the first shall be last and the last shall be first. We find the dead become the living. We find the rich and the powerful are on the outside and the poor are blessed. This morning we find a humble king…Is it any wonder this man’s own family thought he was crazy? Is it any wonder the good religious folks of his day thought he was wrong? Is it any wonder the religious and imperial authorities saw him as a dangerous revolutionary? Is it any wonder he hung out with outcasts and sinners?
- This morning we once again drop into the rabbit hole. In Zen Buddhism there is something called a koan. Now a koan is a short phrase from a teaching or a story from the life of a spiritual master pointing to the nature of God—of ultimate reality. Most ancient cultures used stories in this way—including the first Christians and this morning we have what I call the Palm Sunday koan. Most of us know the story of palm Sunday like we know our phone numbers—but if we never get past the surface of the story and get to the meaning waiting within it, we never crack the coconut and get to the life giving stuff inside…as a koan the Palm Sunday story does not offer easy, ordinary answers… it invites us into another level of comprehension… in other words, it invites us deeper into “the mind of Christ.”
- As we slide down the rabbit hole we drop into a world where nothing is the ultimate something. I’ll say it again, nothing, No-thing is the ultimate something and this has the power to save us….to deliver us… deliver us from what? From our-selves. Remember this guy Jesus has been telling us we must lose our life to save it—telling us that we must deny ourselves and pick up our cross if we want to be his disciples. That is the other way we get trapped in…Zechariah likens it to a pit this morning, he says, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Jesus, Yeshua, meaning the deliverer, is here to set us free…
- As we slide down the rabbit hole, we land in the beginning of Passover week 2000 years ago. Passover marked the passage from winter to spring when new life emerges—a really big deal for an agricultural society. It was also, is also, a time when Jews tell stories of political and spiritual deliverance. It is very significant that our story takes place during Passover—Jesus the humble king is riding into the Holy city…he is saying new life emerges through humility…through being nothing.
- Mark has Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a colt—a young donkey. The author is implicitly referring to a passage in Zechariah. Zechariah 9:9 says, “Rejoice greatly o daughter Zion! Shout aloud, o daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The message is clear: Jesus is a humble king. Again, we must be in wonderland—we are encountering a humble king… Why would Mark, the first gospel writer, reference this line from Zechariah about a humble King? What is he saying about Jesus? As usual we can turn to Paul for a clue. As I have said before, All of the gospels are heavily influenced by Paul--none more so than Mark. The lines from Paul that we hear every Palm Sunday about Jesus humbling himself, emptying himself, making himself as nothing, they tell us what Mark is describing here. A person who is ready to be as nothing is humble—a person who is proud is trying to be something. Fear of being nothing causes us to fill ourselves…as human beings we will fill ourselves with anything—with “screen time”…newsfeeds, emails, text messages, and lately, many will fill shopping carts with toilet paper and canned goods…we also fill ourselves with the approval of others, trying to be what “they” want me to be…we fill ourselves with ideas, materials, achievements, to try to become something rather than nothing…Humility was and is a very important virtue for Jewish Holy men and women…Rabbi David Cooper says, “Humility, (Hebrew, anavah) humility in Jewish mystical teachings means self-lessness. Self-lessness is to let go of all of the trappings of self-identity, which include our notions and beliefs about who we are, our preferences, our desires, and our expectation or aspirations. One may realize this state of humility or avanah through the contemplative practice of bittul-ha-yesh.” Jesus, as a Jewish mystic has realized the state of humility. He is a humble “king” that has emptied himself, he is the nothing man riding into Jerusalem at the beginning of a week that will end with the crucifixion on Friday and the silence of Holy Saturday…we shouldn’t be surprised by his humility, he has been nothing his whole life, after-all he was born in a manger, a pig-sty…there is another way Jesus showed his humility—he wasn’t what a counselor friend of mine called a “people pleaser”. Jesus challenged cultural expectations. His own followers wanted him to be a political messiah…and he says, no, the way of the cross, of humility is the way. That certainly was not what the disciples wanted to hear. True humility is impossible if we are doing anything to fill ourselves with the approval of others. Trying to be humble is the denial of humility. Jesus’ way of humility flies in the face of our culture. Most of our lives are spent trying to be something, to be powerful, to be anything, all to escape from being nothing. Could this incessant demand, pressure, to be something, to get somewhere, be a factor in everything from hoarding groceries to anxiety and depression to war? Is this why Jesus, when his own disciples argued over who was the greatest, challenged the disciples’ power-seeking with the statement, “whoever humbles him or herself like this little child will be the greatest in the kingdom”? And was he challenging the notion that we need to concern ourselves with being something, when he said, “do not worry about your life—not easy now—look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, or fill their grocery carts—and yet your heavenly father feeds them…and was Jesus again challenging this trying so hard to be something when he said, “look at the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these”…Lent is sometimes thought of as a time when we give up something, coffee, or hamburgers, but really that is part of the reshaping and repackaging of Jesus to make him more acceptable to the culture—Lent is not about a self giving up something, while it remains intact, Lent is about giving up self itself. Lent is about being nothing, so a new creation can take place…creation—new creation happens out of nothing…whether it is the nothingness of the formless void in Genesis or the nothingness of the silence of Holy Saturday…creation, new creation comes out of nothing…now this state of being nothing, no-thing, is mysteriously full of possibility, mysteriously full of potential…when one is empty one rests in God, in the God for whom all is possible…
I said earlier that the story of Palm Sunday is “drenched” in Jewish spirituality…Aryeh Kaplan, a brilliant Rabbi, said that the Hebrew word for “I” is related to the word for nothing--the true “I” is nothing or no-thing. God is nothing. God is No-thing! !...which is why the ultimate sin in Judeo-Christian religion is idolatry—the making of any-thing God—because God is no-thing (in particular)…
The brilliant Christian mystic Meister Eckhart said, “Spiritual life has much more to do with subtraction than addition” Instead of asking people what they do for Jesus maybe we can ask what they are not doing for Jesus. imagine how counter-cultural, how crazy, how out-of-your mind you would sound if, when people asked you what you do for Jesus you said, “I’ll tell you what I’m not doing…I’m not trying to be something--
- At the beginning of Passover week, at the beginning of this time of deliverance and liberation, this man who emptied himself, who allowed himself to be nothing, is riding into the Holy city. And the people are screaming Hosanna, which means “save us”. A humble man, a nothing man, is the savior. Why? Because only a person that is humble, that allows him or herself to be as nothing is a doorway into the kingdom of God, the immense creative power and potential of God…whether it is the emptiness of Genesis 1 or the silence of Holy Saturday, creation happens out of nothing—when we are NOT IN THE WAY. Jesus, the nothing man, comes in the name of the Lord, he is the representative of the most potent power—a power that saves us from the kingdom of power and control as it delivers us into the kingdom of God.
The people go on shouting, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord”. Most of us, if we’re willing to be completely honest, spend too much of our lives “coming in our own names”. We spend too much time anxiously concerned with self-centered interests. When we are young we are conditioned to compete with others to be something—and then we condition others to compete to be something. We value, emulate, admire, and then elect, the some-bodies, the some-things. Our consumerist culture depends on this. Only a humble-King, this nothing man riding into the Holy city on a donkey can truly come in the name of the Lord--
It is the beginning of Holy week and WE are riding into Jerusalem. It is the beginning of Holy week, are WE ready to empty ourselves? Are we ready for Good Friday, for the cross? Are we ready to be nothing? It is the beginning of Holy week in whose name do we come?
Mid-Week Reflection April 1, 2020
The Jewish philosopher and mystic Abraham Joshua Heschel was convinced that God is always present to us, albeit in mysterious and often subtle ways. The problem, according to Heschel, is that we are often not present to God. We are inattentive and have lost our way. He wrote the following:
“When Adam and Eve hid from God’s presence, the Lord called: Where art Thou (Gen. 3:9). It is a call that goes out again and again. It is a still small echo of a still small voice, not uttered in words, not conveyed in categories of the mind, but ineffable and mysterious, as ineffable and mysterious as the glory that fills the whole world.”
During the anxious days of social distancing and “stay at home” orders, it is so easy find ourselves isolated in our homes, consuming the disturbing newsfeeds of the day. This is a crisis. But, like all crises, it is also an opportunity. It is an opportunity to be present to God. Somehow it seems fitting that it comes at Lent, a time for fasting and journeys into the desert. So, for the next two weeks I invite all of you to establish some sacred space in your home. This is your place…a sacred place where the noise and the news of the world cannot reach. Go there a few times a day like Jesus went to the desert. Go there to fast. Turn off all newsfeeds and screens. “Stay at home with God”. Go into the “desert” and listen…God is calling us…
Peace, Chris
The Jewish philosopher and mystic Abraham Joshua Heschel was convinced that God is always present to us, albeit in mysterious and often subtle ways. The problem, according to Heschel, is that we are often not present to God. We are inattentive and have lost our way. He wrote the following:
“When Adam and Eve hid from God’s presence, the Lord called: Where art Thou (Gen. 3:9). It is a call that goes out again and again. It is a still small echo of a still small voice, not uttered in words, not conveyed in categories of the mind, but ineffable and mysterious, as ineffable and mysterious as the glory that fills the whole world.”
During the anxious days of social distancing and “stay at home” orders, it is so easy find ourselves isolated in our homes, consuming the disturbing newsfeeds of the day. This is a crisis. But, like all crises, it is also an opportunity. It is an opportunity to be present to God. Somehow it seems fitting that it comes at Lent, a time for fasting and journeys into the desert. So, for the next two weeks I invite all of you to establish some sacred space in your home. This is your place…a sacred place where the noise and the news of the world cannot reach. Go there a few times a day like Jesus went to the desert. Go there to fast. Turn off all newsfeeds and screens. “Stay at home with God”. Go into the “desert” and listen…God is calling us…
Peace, Chris