Village Congregational Church
Weekly Message
—Liza Neal
Isaiah 25:6-9
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And God will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cat over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of all people God will take away from all the earth for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord from whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in salvation. I Corinthians 15:53-55 For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
“Feasting on the Mountain”
Village Church
November 1, 2009
Today we celebrate All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, and Day of the Dead! All Saints Day— or Hallow Mass— is a day to honor all the saints, known and unknown. When I was young, I thought saints were supposed to be like superheroes. People who look human, but have special powers they use for the good of humanity. Some anthropologists argue that superheroes are the Greek Gods of our time. Our reflection of the mingling of the human and power beyond the human. However, saints are not superhumans. Saints are ordinary people, trying to lead holy lives. Saints are people trying to walk with God. They are both ordinary and extraordinary. Often times in our culture, we do not recognize this in people until they have left us. So today on this All Saints we celebrate the ordinary and the holy for those we have left behind, and in each one of us.
All Souls Day is a day to honor all of our ancestors. In Mexico and in Latina homes in the U.S. it is called the Day of the Dead. The dead are believed to be closer at this time. So people will bring candles, flowers, pictures, and mementoes creating altars in their homes or in the cemetery. They will clean the graves of their loved ones, leave treats they would have loved, pillows and blankets for their long treks, and have picnics sometimes even staying all night telling stories. It is a joyous and humorous time, a celebration.
We are a bit more squeamish in our culture. Generally, we are solemn and austere when we visit the cemetery. After the funeral, we do not have ceremonies for the dead, except for Memorial Day. Even then, we certainly do not celebrate.
Death is a natural part of life. The leaves fall and the plants die, the seasons changing incorporates death as part of its cycle. We lose many people throughout our lives, and we ourselves will die. Yet in our culture we fear this truth. We try to keep death as hidden as possible. In mainstream white American culture, when we lose someone, we grieve quietly—no keening, no professional wailing, no sitting with the body for days and days. We allow for a decorous amount of grief at the funeral itself, but then we are expected to move on. If our grief is “extreme” or lasts for more than our acceptably allotted time, we are offered drugs. We spend thousands of dollars on skin creams and plastic surgery that we might look as young as possible for as long as possible. We spend millions of dollars trying to prolong our lives even when we can no longer enjoy it. Most people say they would prefer to die at home, yet many die in hospitals as measure after measure is taken to push away the spectre of death.
Some fear being left alone, some fear oblivion, some fear the unknown. Whatever our fears about death, though, in the church we have an assurance, a comfort, and a promise. We have been promised that although death is a natural part of they cylce of all our lives, death is not the end. God is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, our birth begins in God and in our death, we return to God.
Some insist there is no proof of this, disregarding the beliefs and personal experiences of the living communion with the dead. Waiting for their individual enlightenment, they ignore the truths of people throughout the world and throughout history. Even science, tells us there is no energy lost in the universe. Still, our hope does not rest purely in ghost stories or science, our hope rests in the Divine. Our hope rests in God.
Paul tells us the perishable will put on the imperishable, the mortal will put on the immortal. We will be changed in the twinkling of an eye when the last trumpet sounds. We will hear the call of the Holy, and we will be transformed. Our physical body will lose its primary relevance and our spiritual body will be revealed. We will sing with experience, what we now sing with hope, “Where, O death, is thy victory? Where, O death, is thy sting?”
This is a promise made not just to you and I, not just to Christians, not just to the Chosen People, but to all peoples. On the holy mountain that is God’s dwelling place, God gathers all peoples. The prophet Isaiah writes, “And God will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; the Lord will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of the people God will take away from all the earth for the Lord has spoken.” All grief will be comforted. All sins forgiven. All sickness healed. All brokenness made whole. All injustice made just. All irredeemable redeemed.
And then what happens? Well, of course, God “will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.” A feast, a party, a celebration beyond anything we can imagine!
And so, we begin now. We begin with a ceremony and a celebration remembering those who have passed on, to pray for them, to call them into our presence with stories and pictures, to cook their favorite foods, laugh and sing, and enjoy our love.
We begin celebrating those whom we love, knowing they are not separated from us. We begin celebrating the ordinary and the extraordinary, the holiness within one another, here today and long passed on. We feast now, knowing that when we return to our home in God, there will be joy, imperishable joy.
Let us pray.Job 42:1-5
Then Job answered the Lord, “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak: I will question you, and you declare to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees you.”
Mark 10:46-52
They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.
"Seeing Harvest Change"
Village Church
October 25 , 2009
All over the country this weekend, people will be imagining they are monsters and princesses and superheroes. They will be contemplating the darker side of life with scary stories and movies, haunted houses and hayrides. Children will be eating candy, meeting neighbors in an act of generosity and not fear. There will be parties and parades of music and costumes; stores will give treats away for free. Whole communities will engage in frivolity for no discernible reason.
A friend of mine was telling me the other day that her family did not do anything for Halloween. They did not leave their light on so children would know they had candy. They stayed home like any other night, watching television, eating dinner, going about their usual lives. They did not see the point of Halloween. They thought it was silly, and therefore why do it.
Personally I think silliness is enough of a reason to engage in such a playful holiday. However, Halloween also has a deeper meaning. A confluence of the ancient Celtic new year Samhain, the English All Hallows’ Evening, the Mexican Christian Day of the Dead, and the European Christian All Saints and All Souls Days come together in this festival of celebrating those who have passed on, the dying of the season, the intermingling of the sacred and the profane, the divine and the human.
When I was in Ireland, Father Sean took us to a stone circle to show us what a Samhain celebration would be like. The stones mark the sun, moon, and stars’ path through the year. At different times the light falls on different stones. We went into the center of the circle and lit a fire. This 75-year-old monk beat a drum and led us in a circle around the fire as he sang. Then he burnt a symbol of the green and growing time of the year, and so the wheel of the year turns and the seasons give way to winter.
The Celts believed that this time of year the veil between this world and the other was particularly thin. Therefore it was a time when one’s loved ones who had passed on from this world could be with us. Gifts of their favorite foods were offered to those gone, as well as to the divine who also drew especially near. One offered the divine a treat, that one might not receive a trick.
This intermingling of the divine and human begins the night before, as holy celebrations begin on Christmas Eve. Sometimes we like to think our traditions are purely our own, but in truth cultures and religions feed into one another, affecting, changing, and enriching symbols, practices, and faiths. As the traditions of different cultures blended through contact and time, the English named the eve of Samhain All Hallow’s Evening, or All Hallow’s Eve, or Hallow’een. Hallow means to make holy, to set apart for holy use, to respect greatly, to venerate. So in this time, we are to be engaged in the process of making ourselves and our lives holy. All Saints and All Souls became one name for the holiday in its Christian form, or in Mexico, the Day of the Dead, which we’ll talk more about next Sunday, when we bring our gifts and pictures to celebrate our loved ones.
Officially in our calendar year, winter begins in December. But practically for us, now is the time of change. We have already had a snowfall here in Cummington. This week will be the last regular pick up at our farm. The harvest has come in, and been distributed. The snow and freezing temperatures are not yet here, but the wind has changed. The birds are flying south. This is our time to prepare. The land bursts into fiery color proclaiming loudly, brilliantly: pay attention! This is beautiful! This will pass, as all things pass, so take note now. This is holy.
Bartimaeus understood the importance of paying attention. He was blind, and yet could see more deeply than any of those around him. He is one of the only people in the Gospel of Mark to use the title “Son of David” for Jesus. He understands, without seeing or having had contact with him or having heard him speak even, that Jesus is the anointed one, messiah. The holy is passing by him on the road, and he is not going to allow himself to be unaffected. He knows the importance of not only taking note but also calling out. Those around him try to silence him, but he will not be silenced. He will call and call more and more loudly until the Divine stops for him.
Jesus heals Bartimaeus’ blindness, yet he saw more deeply before he was ever given sight. As so often happens when Jesus heals someone, he tells Bartimaeus, “Go; your faith has made you well.” It is not just that Jesus is powerful. Bartimaeus called out for divine help. Jesus stopped. In their meeting, a sacred trust blossomed. Bartimaeus had the power to heal himself, and yet needed Jesus’ confirmation. Yes, it was possible. Yes, he did have that faith. Yes, change can happen. Change, even for the better. Change that brings rebirth, renewal, and wholeness.
There is a vast difference between knowing this in your head and experiencing it in your heart. Job is a lot like Bartimaeus. He too calls out for God. He too has friends who attempt to silence him, to tell him that it is all his fault, and what right does he have to call out to God anyway, just be silent and accept the way things are. But Job refuses. He will not go silently into that good night. He demands that God explain God’s self. He demands that God appear.
Now, mind you, as we talked about last week, God does not explain God’s self. God does not tell Job why he has suffered. Jesus does not explain to Bartimaeus why he was blind in the first place. Still, for Job and for Bartimaeus, the Divine arrives. The Divine reveals not reasons, but relationship. God reveals God’s heart, God’s soul, God’s body. God shows up, literally. For Bartimaeus, in the Teacher and Healer that gives him mercy. For Job, in the whirlwind that shakes his foundations. Job quotes God’s response saying, “‘Hear, and I will speak: I will question you, and you declare to me,’” and then Job responds, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees you.”
I tell you week after week about God. Nevertheless, there is a difference between hearing and seeing. I can tell you about God. Heather can play heavenly music. But you must see God for yourself. You must call out to God yourself. You must demand that the Holy be revealed. You must pay attention when the Divine is passing by, that you might experience God’s self, God’s soul, God’s body for yourself.
This is what we call out for in this Holy time of year. This is what we engage in when we attempt to experience that intermingling of the human and the divine. The dying of the year, the dying of our loved ones, the brilliance of fall, the sunlight that give us light and life, the laughter of our children, the joy of our silliness, all these are the passing of God on the road. Pay attention! Call out!! See, and be healed.
Let us pray.Genesis 7:7-10, 17-20; 8:6-7, 10-11; 9:8-13
And Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, of birds, and of everything the creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth. The flood continued forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains on the whole earth were covered; the waters swelled above the mountains covering them fifteen cubits deep.
At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent out the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth.
He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I make between me and you and ever living creature that is with you, for all future generation. I have set a bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
” When the Waters Overwhelm”
Village Church
July 19, 2009
In cultures all over the world, there are stories of a great flood and the heroes that survive it. Not only the Hebrew people, but also Islam, the Sumerians, Babylonian, China, Greece, Lao, India, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Laddo, the Inca, the Aztecs, Polynesians, the Menominee, the Mi’kmaq, the Hopi, Malaysia, the Irish, Finnish and Germanic peoples all have stories of the great flood.
There are differences in the stories. There are small differences such as the number of humans that survive and the amount of time spent in the boat for some forty days and for others ten years. Then there are larger differences, such as the number of gods involved the one God who created the earth or the gods of thunder and storm or half-human, half-god giants, or the number of floods that occur, or whether it is rain or the blood of God that covers the earth. In some, people are being punished for idol worship. In others, they are being punished for their evil actions. In some, animals are a part of the cause, like the aboriginal frog who first causes a drought and then a flood or the Indonesian snake who shakes the earth off its back plunging it into the waters again.
Despite these and other differences, there are quite a few basic similarities. In each one, a flood covers the earth because of certain choices and actions. A hero escapes with a few others usually members of his or her family who go on to repopulate the earth. God grieves or repents the destruction, and a new day begins for the earth.
There are a number of theories about why this particular story crosses so many cultures. The first of course is that it is an actual event that happened many thousands and thousands of years ago. There is a man in the Netherlands who has built an ark with the specifications in the Bible just to prove it would be able to float. Some argue that it is not a universal flood but rather that when a local river or sea flooded, the people in the area thought it was universal. Speculations are made that a meteor may have hit the earth causing the flood, or a great tsunami. Another idea is that the people as early scientists saw fish skeletons and seashells on their high mountains and decided there must have been a flood at one time. Others argue that the people as early mythologists, theologians, and storytellers incorporated the stories of their neighboring peoples into their own.
Psychologists postulate that rather than being an actual event, certain psychological truths are being expressed. The flood story demonstrates human beings concern for our survival. We are concerned with making sure that if we cannot live forever, then at least that something survives of our species. The flood expresses a common anxiety that our selfishness will destroy the world. As leaders of the world gather to attempt to agree on ways to interrupt global warming while others continue to perpetuate the use of oil and the building of nuclear weapons, this does not seem like an unreasonable anxiety.
Then there is the more individualistic interpretation: water represents the emotional side of the unconscious. Thus we are flooded with our emotions, the depth of all that we do not understand and fear within ourselves. Yet despite this, aspects of our consciousness allow us to ride the surface and survive whatever torrents we experience. These emotional realms will subside and out of this creativity springs.
On the other hand, the waters might represent the womb, giving birth to all of life. Just as the seas gave birth to life in the beginning, whenever there is destruction the waters will give birth to life again. The flood in this view is an act of cleansing and rebirth. It demonstrates that forgiveness is attainable, not only individually but also on a cosmic scale.
Forgiveness is not just psychology. Forgiveness is theology. It is about our relationship not just to one another and ourselves but first and foremost forgiveness is about our relationship to God. These flood stories, whether they reflect literal events or the fears and realities of our psyche, are a story of our founding, how our world has been formed and reformed, and what our relationship is to God and the earth. These stories tell us who we are, who we should be, and how we connect to all that exists beyond our own experience.
What does this story have to teach us theologically? The flood story begins with our actions, our choices and decisions, and the consequences of where they can lead. We have the capacity for destruction. We fight wars, as if they will have consequences only for those whom we attack. We continue to exploit the earth for its resources, despite the fast disappearing of all that we structure our society upon. I read a book recently detailing through history the collapse of various societies due to their destruction of their own environment. It is a frightening and gruesome tale as people cut down the last tree, kill the last animal, descend into cannibalism, and starvation. And that is history.
At the same time, the flood story demonstrates that we have the capacity to be better. We have the capacity to make different choices, to live differently. We may have to go against the prevailing way of thinking and living. People may ridicule us and call us crazy, yet it is our actions that may save us in the end. Can you imagine those seven days that Noah spent inside the ark before the rains came? Or all the time he spent before that building this gigantic boat, insisting that destruction was coming while his neighbors lived it up around him? Consider those who began the environmental movement, when there was no recycling, when no one believed in global warming, when we insisted that we could do whatever we wanted without having to consider where it might lead, that living simply and reusing was not only unnecessary but an impediment to progress. The question is whether or not we will act on the words of the Noahs in our own time.
The flood story is both global and personal. It is both the universal flood, and the particular personal flood of our own small geographical psychological arena. In other words, it is not just about the earth’s destruction but also about our own destruction, the ones that confront us throughout life and the one that we all come to in the end. The flood story makes a theological promise to us. Whatever death and destruction we experience, God will guide us through even the terrible choices we make to new life. God does not promise that we will not experience the consequences of our actions. God does not promise that we will not experience trying and traumatic times. God does not promise that life will not be difficult, painful, and even devastating at times. However, God does promise that it will not be the end. There will be new life.
The waters will overwhelm. Yet they will also recede. God will guide us. Help us with instructions on how to build a boat, give us messengers to send out over the waters to find the new life beginning despite what has gone before. In Genesis, in one of the unique aspects of the Hebrew flood story, God makes a covenant. This covenant is with the entire earth, with each plant, bird, animal, and human. God promises not to destroy the earth again.
This does not make us immune to the potential for our own destruction. This does not mean that we can sit back and do nothing about our pollution and plunder of the earth. It does mean that if we seek out God’s guidance, we may find a way through this after all. It means that whatever happens, the Divine way leads to life, again and again. It means that we are connected, to each plant, bird, animal, human, planet, star, sun. It means that even after death, new life begins.
Let us pray.Amos 7:7-15
This is what God showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in the hand. And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against he house of Jeroboam with the sword.
Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam if Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the word, and Israel must go into exile away from the land.’”
And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”
Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
"Seeking Justice and Redemption in the Land of the Lost"
Village Church
July 12, 2009
In March and June as some of you know I spent time with high school and college youth down in New Orleans helping to rebuild the community devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Five years later some of the city has been rebuilt but most of the ninth ward still stands devastated and half empty.
The ninth ward is a unique neighborhood. Unlike most neighborhoods in the United States, it was not segregated by class. It included the desperately poor as well as middle and upper income people. It had the highest home ownership rate in the country. There were restaurants and stores owned by local people. Within its border exists the oldest community of free African-Americans, former slave quarters, the history of the birth of jazz, and the homes of modern musicians like Fats Domino and the Nevilles.
Now fields stand barren in the lower ninth with the occasional sign of rebuilding either individually or by programs like Common Ground or the Pink Project. The middle and upper ninth are a hodge-podge, with one house rebuilt next to another house with sheetrock half up next to another house still marked with the signs of those first weeks- tfw for toxic flood water, the date and organization by which the house was checked, the number of bodies found, human and other, and specifics like “chicken under house.”
Many people have not returned because it is just too traumatic. They cannot deal with the losses, not only of property but also of life. Yet most people want to return. Charles told me of a friend of his who had gone outside and saw one of the levees break. He ran into his house and got his mother and daughter but the water rushed so fast it had already reached the second floor. He swam holding them on either side as their house submerged. He started to drown, and realized he could not save all three of them. He was going to have to choose. How do you make that kind of choice?
Yet even this man has returned to rebuild his home. So why does the community stand so many years later as if hardly any time has passed? Much of the devastation of Katrina happened not because of the hurricane itself but because of the lack of care. The earthen levees did not break, only the ones built by technology. In one area because they had not been strengthened or repaired and so the water just pushed underneath them. In another area, the water burst through. Some believe with natural force and others believe they were blown with dynamite as they had been in the 1927 hurricane to save the wealthier sections of the city.
Days went by before there was any response, and when it came, it was inadequate. Looters plumaged through whatever had managed to survive killing people when they were discovered or interrupted. People are even now, five years later, still waiting for money from FEMA. The city has seized people’s land initially for not gutting their house or going to long without water or electricity or even now just for not cutting their lawns though they may not be able to return or may be elderly or disabled. Corrupt contractors took people’s money and then left without doing their jobs or did them so poorly they would have to be redone.
This last week I worked on the house of a couple named Georgia and Blue. We cut their lawn, which was about the height of me. The moment we arrived, they put a pot of red beans on the stove for us for lunch. Every day Blue fishes in the Mississipi River, feeding not just his family but most of their part of the neighborhood. I thought he was teasing when he told me he had caught a catfish that came to my shoulder, but then I saw the picture. Georgia and Blue had tried coming in from Mississipi where they were staying with family to meet the inspectors but every day they would come, they were told they had been there that morning or the day before or would be by tomorrow. Finally Blue stayed afraid he might lose their house. He spent six months in his house without water or electricity waiting.
Somehow despite the injustice of all they had experienced, Georgia and Blue, like many of the people we met, were grateful. They were grateful for the life they still had. They were grateful for the volunteers who came to work and hear their stories. They had an opportunity to rebuild better than they had been before. Georgia and Blue have ten grandchildren who used to live with them. There were so many holes in the ceiling that they had to sleep around the buckets they put up to catch the water when it rained. Now they have a new ceiling and their home is dry. This did not come from FEMA money. It came from the coordination of a neighborhood association and the work of volunteers from all over the country.
The prophet Amos condemns the people of Israel for their actions, for the corruption of their government, for the injustice in their society, and their indifference to it. He is not being paid. He does not tell fortunes for a living, but he cannot escape the call of the Lord who has given him a message. The prophet has come to tell the government and the people, though they do not want to hear it, that there are consequences. Not only individuals but also societies do reap what they sow, and the consequences reign down on the corrupt and the innocent.
A plumb line is a line that points directly toward the earth’s center of gravity using a metal weight to determine true verticality or the depth of water. It is a line from the top to bottom of a structure directed exactly toward the earth’s center of gravity. God is the center of gravity. The weight of justice draws down to the depths, in line with God’s intention for the earth. Somehow for human beings, we often have a blind eye to that line. We sit by while people suffer and die. We do not stop to think about how we live may be affecting others. We do not stop to think that we have a responsibility. Injustice dwells around us yet we wonder why the world is the way that it is and where is God.
God draws a line dividing the people, between what has come before and what will come to pass, between their actions and their consequences, between the land of Judah and the land of Israel, between the just and the unjust. Proverbs says, “do not withhold good from those who need it when it is within your power to act.” This cry for justice and responsibility is echoed in every major religion. Often we tell ourselves that it is not within our power to act. We cannot afford to go and volunteer in New Orleans. We cannot afford to donate to a worthy cause. The truth is though that we can all do something, with our own hands, right in our own communities. There is injustice here in our own backyards and we have both the responsibility and the resources to fight it in one way or another.
Prophets cry it is better to be hot or cold. The lukewarm God spits out. It is our indifference that destroys us. We are called to love one another, but this is not a romantic feeling of affection or warmth. It is a visible action. It is binding of wounds, welcoming the strange, the different, the hated. It is restoring that which has been broken, building a life and community of justice. After his many words of destruction, Amos tells the people, “Let justice roll down like rivers and righteousness flow. Seek good that you might live, and it may be that the Lord will give to Joseph’s remnant few the fullness of God’s grace.”
The remnant few are those who have survived. The remnant few are those who have sought out some kind of redemption, for themselves or for others. They are those who have been lost, but are willing to be found. God offers grace. Grace is a free gift, without strings attached, completely undeserved. It is love and forgiveness, release and renewal, healing and redemption offered despite what has come before. It is mercy given to us, and if we accept that grace, then we have a most wonderful gift: the chance to offer mercy and grace to someone else.
We are called to live a just life, to take a broken world and restore it better than it was before. We have been given the strength, the ability, the resources, and the grace to begin again. Let us begin again.
Pray with me.Ezekiel 2:1-5
God said to me: O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you. And when the Lord spoke to me a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard God speaking to me. God said to me, Moral, I an sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord God.” Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them. Mark 6:1-13
Jesus left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sister here with us?” And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.
Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. Let Me Hear Your Story”
Village Church
July 5, 2009
This last week I went to New Orleans for the second time to help rebuild. This time I went to the place where the levees broke. Empty green fields stretch out in all directions. The foundations of houses vanished are visible on the ground. The main thoroughfare of the lower ninth ward that used to be packed with stores and restaurants stands empty barren even of trees. Here and there in random spots stand gutted heaps of debris and houses in various stages of rebuilding.
Miss Bobbie Banks and her husband live in a Fema trailer outside their house. Miss Bobbie and her husband were the first people to return to the lower ninth. The three houses around them had crashed into their house, which had been remodeled just before Katrina hit. The city insisted they could not possibly live on that land because nothing was there. Over and over Bobbie told them, my house is there, strewn out over my land. They did not listen.
Fortunately, and miraculously considering all they had lost, Bobbie found the paperwork which proved they owned those plots of land. Fema gave them a trailer, but months and months went by while they were told they could not move into it until it was inspected. Finally, they stopped waiting and just moved in. She told us, “We would sit outside and hear nothing all around us.” Can you imagine sitting outside on a street formerly lined with houses and people and hearing nothing but silence? Can you imagine coming home to rebuild your life entirely alone, the sole pioneer? “It’s okay though,” she smiles. “We like the quiet.”
Her children are in Houston, Atlanta, and Miami. She cannot ask them to come back when there is nothing for them to return to. Her sister had come back but all the schools have closed. Her children were bussed three hours to and from an already overcrowded school on the other side of the city, and she just could not take that. On top of that, the first contractor that Miss Bobbie hired cheated her out of $105,000.
Looking out on the empty field behind her house, Miss Bobbie told me, “When I saw my garden for the first time after Katrina, the cantaloupes I planted were still growing. That’s when I cried. It’s funny the things that make you cry. This time, I’m going to plant flowers, greens, and a miratrope bush.” As she said this, tears began to fall. She wiped them away and went on with her story and we listened, not only of Katrina but also of her return and all that had happened to her. When we left, she began to tear up again. She thanked us over and over for all that we had done, telling us how grateful she was.
The truth is we had hardly done any work on her house. We primed a few rooms and cleaned up. Yet her gratitude was not just for the work. Her gratitude sprung from the fact that we listened to the story that she had to tell. Her life had been devastated, but she was rebuilding. Again and again, despite every setback, she kept at it. The sorrow weighs her down and she felt alone. Yet we have witnessed her life and heard her story. It is in telling her story, having her troubles and challenges being witnessed, that she finds strength and healing.
Healing in the Bible is not just being cured from disease. Healing is restoration to life, to community, and to God. We cannot heal unless we tell our stories, and we ourselves cannot be healed unless we hear the stories of others. In Ezekiel, the people of Israel have stopped listening to God. They are so busy seeking after the comforts of life they no longer hear God speaking, urging them to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly. The one who is listening becomes the prophet, and is called then to speak to the people.
So often we only know prophets in retrospect. We do not listen to them while they are amongst us. We are too busy with our lives. We do not honor them. We do not even recognize them until after they are gone. Until we see their words and actions bear the fruit that is inevitable when we follow where God leads. We do not recognize them, not only because we are not listening, but also because they never look or act the way that we expect them to. We expect to be dazzled. We expect superstars. We do not expect the humble and the unnoticed. We do not expect those who stand amongst us to be the ones to speak to us the word of God.
In Nazareth, when the people did not recognize Jesus, he could do needs of power there. They would not hear what he had to say. They would not hear his story, and so he could not heal them.
Hospitality is the cardinal virtue in the Bible, the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. The people of God are required to welcome the stranger, to give the stranger food, clothing, and shelter. This lack of hospitality is the great sin that Sodom and Gomorrah are punished for. Welcoming the stranger is not just giving them the basics of existence, but welcoming the stranger is also hearing that stranger’s story, listening to what she or he has to say.
This hearing and sharing of stories is communion with one another, a communion that we are all called to. If any place will not welcome you, if any place “refuse to hear you”, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them. The disciples have come to tell their story of healing, the healing they have found in Jesus. Jesus does not tell them to shake the dust off their feet if they do not believe but rather if they do not listen to what they have to say.
This lack of hospitality, of hearing and sharing stories, becomes part of their story, their testimony. What stories will be told of us? Will our story be one of hospitality, or one of refusal? Will our story be one of reaching out to those broken and taken advantage of, or one of rebellion, turning our back on the need of others?
Not everyone’s stories get told, much less listened to. Until this moment, no one had heard the story of Miss Bobbie Banks. She is elderly, disabled, African-American, and poor. I would understand if she was furious or completely discouraged, and yet she is grateful. We listened to her story, and she became a prophet. In her words, we heard the voice of God speaking, telling us that when we know that someone has been abandoned and broken, it is our calling to respond and heal. The disciples are sent out to heal. That is our calling as disciples.
We do not only heal others by hearing their stories. We heal ourselves. In hearing Miss Bobbie’s story, we were healed. We were healed of our hopelessness, our belief that the little we could do would make any difference to her or to the world. We were healed from the sins of our indifference and consumption. We were healed from our fear of difference and our alienation from one another. We were healed from our ignorance and our belief in our own power and control. We were healed from our separation and the idea that we are alone with our struggles. In hearing, we find communion, with our selves, with another, and with God.
Whether or not we hear, God hears. God hears our story. God hears the story of the most desperate and alone, the dying and the abandoned. We can trust in that, and allow it to be for us strength and sustenance for the journey that we have been sent upon. That we might seek to heal and be healed, that we might hear another’s story, that we might recognize the prophet amongst us and hear the word of God in every story.
Let us pray.Luke 24:44-53
Then Jesus said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you when I was still with you- that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father has promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.
Acts 1:1-11
In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them after many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking to them about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So when they had come together they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set for his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Ephesians 1:15-23
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the work of the great power. God put this power to work in Jesus Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power, and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age that is to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
The Power and the Glory”
Today is Ascension Sunday, the day that we celebrate Jesus’ return to heaven. This is the confirmation that the disciples have not followed Jesus in vain. All is not lost. The mission is not over. There is still more to be done. Their lives have not lost meaning, and God has not abandoned them.
May 17, 2009
Village Church
Jesus is, of course, still planning to leave. This time he is actually planning on it. Roman guards are not dragging him out. It is just time for him to go. How sad this must have made them! They had only just gotten him back. Sure, he promised that they would be getting the Holy Spirit, but who knew what that was. After having lost him once, here they are losing him again, and only forty days later.
Of course we do not know how many literal days this refers to. Forty has a special meaning in the Hebrew Scriptures. It denotes sacred time. The rain fell on Noah for forty days and forty nights; the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years; Jesus fasted in the wilderness for forty days. Forty conveys the idea that this was a special meaningful period, a holy time which would give them new wisdom for all that was to come.
Even after all of this however, they still misunderstand what Jesus has told them. The disciples are still expecting the kingdom to come in earthly power. “Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” they ask. It is not surprising then that so much of Christianity has lived a life of power in direct contradiction to all Jesus taught. The disciples who were with him on the last day that he was on earth were still hoping to be able to rule powerfully over their fellow men with riches and authority. It is not surprising then that in only three centuries, the moment that Christians stop being oppressed by the Roman government, a path begins leading to money, power, cathedrals gilded with gold while the poor starve on the streets outside.
It is hard to live a life of simplicity and service. Even more than that, it is hard to understand how a life of gentleness, shared resources, love and giving is the power that Jesus promised. We are still waiting for the glory, not realizing that is the glory.
During his lifetime, most of Jesus miracles are acts of healing. The ascension into heaven is also a healing miracle. The ascension is Jesus returning home. In resurrection, Jesus’ death is redeemed. In ascension, Jesus’ suffering is redeemed. This is an amazing moment. It is not a demonstration of or giving of power, or even a demonstration of glory, though it is glorious. The ascension is an evolution out of this world into the next, beyond the limits of matter and humanity into the limitlessness of the infinite.
The disciples are given comfort by the angels who appear to them as men. Jesus will return the way he came. Does that mean through the heavens? Does that mean through birth? What will they receive in Jerusalem? They do not know the answers to any of these questions, but they wait all the same not only with patience but also with joy.
I wish that I could have this kind of joyful patience. Sadly, when I am seeking answers and understanding, most of the time I am neither joyful nor patient. I want things to make sense. I want to be comforted without having to endure vulnerability and mystery. I want to feel and know the power and glory without having to be tested or prepared or challenged.
God does not care what I want however. There is a process to the universe. There is a process to growth and education and enlightenment, and I have to go through it like everyone else, like it or not. Rather than being angry and frustrated about this truth, I could be like Paul. I could pray, not only for my own understanding, but also for the understanding of others. Frankly, this is usually not my first or even second reaction. Yet it is my model, and thus the goal that I work toward.
Paul prays that we may be given wisdom and revelation. Without wisdom, we cannot hope to understand. Without revelation, we cannot get to know Jesus. Paul tells us that Jesus has called us to hope, to riches, and to power. These are metaphors. We are not being given a throne in this life or the next. We are being given the hope of eternal life, the riches of redemption and healing, the immeasurable power of unending unconditional love.
Paul tells us that God made Jesus head over all things for the church. This is the founding agreement of the Congregational, Christian, Reformed, and Evangelical denominations when we united to become the United Church of Christ. Jesus is the head of the church. We may believe whatever we choose about Jesus. That he is the messiah, or that he is a prophet. That he is the savior, or that he is a teacher. That he is literally resurrected, or that his resurrection is a metaphor. That he is God, or that he is an emissary of God.
We may believe as we choose, but we agree that Jesus is our authority. It is not you or I, or the ecclesiological structure of the church, or the pope, or the government of any particular country that we answer to. Jesus is the head and we are the body. Jesus directs our thoughts and our understanding, and we respond with our heart and our actions. We study Jesus’ life and teachings that we might figure out how to live ourselves. That we might gain wisdom and understanding, that we might learn to love the way that Jesus loved, to heal the way that Jesus healed, to trust in God the way that Jesus trusted, to live and die that way that Jesus lived and died, resurrected and ascended.
This is the power that we have, not riches or control, but that we put our lives in Jesus’ hands; that we act in a way that reflects the teachings of Jesus; that we follow a life of love and are loved in return. We hold fast to the hope that in the end, love redeems, all will be healed, and we will return to the God that gave us birth, that we may ascend home in the path that Jesus led.
Let us prayJohn 10:11-18
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away- and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, that I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
"The Good Shepherd”
Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He is always there. Whatever the circumstances, he will not leave. He will be with us to the end, no matter what we go through or what dangers we face. He is not a fair-weather friend. He is not like the hired hand, that may run away when the going gets tough. The hired hand is bound only by duty and the desire for what he will get out of it. Jesus is bound by love.
May 2, 2009
Village Church
In Jesus’ time, the shepherd is a simple, every day metaphor. A shepherd is an intimate concept, unimportant in the hierarchy of power, but close to the people’s reality. We do not really have a metaphor like that any more. Some of us here in Cummington may know some shepherds though. They work incredibly hard. They cannot punch out at the end of the day. Their sheep are always with them. Their lives are entwined with one another.
When I was in College, the sheep at Hampshire used to get out all the time. It was a neighborhood joke in the dorms and surrounding areas. You would hear bleating, step outside of your room, and large numbers of sheep would go running by. Those sheep were cared for by someone who was distracted, who was paid to care for the sheep, but did not consider the sheep’s lives as important as his own life.
The good shepherd watches at all times. He gets into the muck and the dirt with the sheep. It’s a profound image, though not a very glamorous one. Jesus had more typically powerful images at his disposal. He could have compared himself to Elijah who was taken up in a fiery chariot. He could have compared himself to the angel with the flaming sword at the gate of Life. He could have compared himself to the Messiah King who was to restore the kingdom of Israel driving out Roman invaders. Instead, he chose a shepherd.
Shepherds are not famous or inspiring. They tend to smell like sheep and keep to the hills. Our modern images of Jesus are much more elaborate and flashy. Jesus is a rock star, or a comic book hero fighting for justice and truth and the American way. Jesus is Superman.
You might laugh, but this is the idea that we have overlaid on top of Jesus’ simplicity and humanity. We want Jesus to be larger than life, to have special powers, to rescue us. When we hear him say that he chose to lay down his life, we imagine that had he wanted to he could have cut down the guards with his x-ray vision, leapt down from the cross, and got away with a single bound.
This is not what he was talking about. It is not that he could have escaped from the cross in those last moments. It is not about super powers but rather about the way he chose to live his life. He could have lived his life differently, made different choices. He could have stopped preaching. He could have stayed out of the temple. He could have changed his message so it was not so threatening to the power structure. He could have left Jerusalem, stuck to Galilee. He could have stuck to high-minded spiritual subjects, like the proper ways of worshiping God, rather than focusing in on the actual intricacies of our lives and the consequences of our ethics. He could have stayed away from things like economics and the real life consequences of whom we exclude and whom we include. For Jesus it is not about the crisis moments. It is about the choices you make every day. That is what leads to the cross. Yet, Jesus promises us that also leads to resurrection.
We have the opportunity to know God intimately. We have the opportunity to be as intimate with God as Jesus is, as intimate as a parent and child. We do not have a word in our language like Abba. We translate it as Father. Yet this term carries a distance that is not reflected in the Aramaic. Modern translators have tried using the word daddy to express that intimacy. Yet this term loses the respect that the word Abba carries. Respect and intimacy, love, and the reality of knowing fully while being fully known; that is the relationship that God offers us.
The community that Jesus is speaking to, even the disciples, do not yet know that when Jesus talks about bringing others into the fold he is speaking about the gentiles, about those who are of different races, about their enemies. He is telling them that the boundaries they have constructed do not exist in the eyes of God. All will be included. No one is exempt from salvation.
When they do figure it out, they react badly. They do not like the idea, they grumble and complain. They want to go back to the way it was before. They want to create barriers and hoops to jump through. Still, they hear his voice. When sheep hear the shepherd’s voice, they move in that direction. They follow where they are led. For those who belong to Jesus, it is the same. Even though they do not like it, they must follow. They must go where they are shown, do what they are called to do. You see, it is not their beliefs or their identities that show they are followers of Jesus but rather the choices that they make. When they hear God’s voice, what do they do?
What communities are being excluded now today in our time? Who is in need of healing? What choices are we being asked to make for the sake of God? Are we willing to lay down our lives, in order to take them up again? Do we hear the voice of God? What will we do?
God will not leave us. Whatever threatens us, whatever challenges we face, God is with us. God is not Superman, or Batman, or Spiderman, or Wolverine. God will not swoop in like an avenging angel rescuing us from our plight. Still we are here for a reason. We have something to learn, something to do, a life to live, a life to save. God will never ever leave us, in this life or the next. God is the good shepherd, more powerful than the wolf, more intimate than an outside force. God is a part of us, and we are a part of God. We are not alone.
Let us pray.
