Compassion in the Desert

Genesis 21:8-21

There is something about summer and reading.  You go on vacation and choose a mystery thriller for the long flight or car ride to your favorite destination, or you pick a romance novel to read as you sit in your beach chair sipping iced tea with sunscreen slathered on your body listening to the waves lap up on the sandy shore. Or maybe you decide to read an autobiography or a biography about some influential person or movie star as you just get home early from work and relax.

The New York Times bestseller list profiles ‘Mr. Mercedes’ by Steven King, ‘The Goldfinch’ by Donna Tartt, or ‘Hard Choices’ by Hillary Rodham Clinton as excellent offerings for our summer reading pleasure.  Oprah is not far behind with her list; ‘Mr. Mercedes’ makes her cut also as does ‘Heartburn’ by Nora Ephron and several other books.  Now I haven’t read any of these books nor do I intend to so this is not an endorsement for you to read them. 

This is however to point out that summer reading is different.  It implies that our days are less rushed, less programmed and far more relaxing so that we can loose ourselves in a ‘good and juicy book’.  So it is with summer preaching, or rather summer preaching from the lectionary.  Often the summer lectionary offers some sort of lengthy saga from the Old Testament such as the many stories of David or in the case of this summer the stories of the descendents of Abraham. 

And so this is what I am going to be preaching from this summer, the likes of Abraham and Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael, Isaac and Rebekah, David and his brothers all the down to Moses.  There are many good nuggets of inspiration for our lives from these stories and they are not to be missed.  No doubt these were the stories of the Hebrew faith that Jesus would have heard and loved.  He probably asked Mary to tell him the story of David and the giant Goliath over and over again because it is a delightful and provocative story to the child’s imagination.

So let’s settle in now as we begin our summer reading from the Old Testament books of Genesis and Exodus.

A man named Abram has been called by God to leave his country, his father’s house and to go to a land that God will show him evenutually.  God tells Abram that a great nation will be made out of his descendents.  And so Abram leaves and takes his wife Sarai and they set off and wind up in Egypt because of a famine.  Many things happen to them during that time but Sarai was barren.  So out of desperation she calls for her slave-girl Hagar to ‘be with’ Abram so that he may have a child and of course Hagar conceives and a son is born to them.  The boy child is named Ishmael.

When Abram was 99 years old God comes to him and makes a sign of a covenant with Abram.  God says, “I will make of you and your offspring a great nation and I will give you the land of Canaan for a perpetual holding.  Each male child shall bear the mark of my covenant by circumcision and your name now will be Abraham and Sarai’s name shall be Sarah.”

And the blessings continue.  God comes to Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre and tells him that he and Sarah will also have a son.  Sarah conceives and has a son and they name him Isaac.  Now things in the tent of Abraham begin to turn a bit sour.

Let us now pick up the story in Genesis, the 21^st chapter.

           

The child (Isaac) grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, ‘Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.’ The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son.

But God said to Abraham, ‘Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named after you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.’ So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, ‘Do not let me look on the death of the child.’ And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, ‘What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.’ Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.

God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Not one of Sarah’s better moments, what do you think? But God works with what God has, imperfect humans for a larger, divine purpose in the book of Genesis.  We can figure that Isaac in this scripture reading is between 2and 3 years old because they have just had a festival to celebrate his weaning.  He’s off and running, as they say.  I would assume that Sarah was fairly close to Hagar, especially since she lent Hagar to Abraham for a specific purpose and once that purpose was fulfilled Ishmael became part of the mishpaha, the family.  It seems that at the point when Isaac was old enough to play with Ishmael that her jealous streak reared its ugly head. 

And what about God in the first part of this passage?  Well to understand why God would endorse her actions you need to understand that earlier God makes a clear distinction between Yitzchak or Isaac and Yishmael or Ishmael’s covenants.  Yishmael meaning ‘God will listen’ in Hebrew. 

They would both receive a blessing and someday, as Abraham’s sons, become the father’s of great nations.  It’s just that this Book of Genesis was written by and for the Hebrew people and Isaac would become the progenitor of the Jews and ultimately Christians.  Whereas Ishmael would become the forebearer of the Arab people.  Hence the term “Abrahamic” faiths. 

So Abraham once again, in faith, follows God’s instructions.  Hagar is banished to the desert of Beer-Sheva with her son Ishmael with some rations.  This is where this passage, for me, becomes heart wrenching. 

Hagar wonders about with little Ishmael and just enough food and water to last them a very short time.  The desert is parching and the sun’s rays are relentless and there they are alone.  Left to die Hagar separates herself from her child so that he would not hear her cry out of her pain and sorrow and so that she would not have to look upon her dying child.   It is in this deep and throbbing grief that God hears and listens to her cry.

Then, in one of the most tender and compassionate moments in the Bible God asks, ‘What troubles you Hagar, do not be afraid, I see you, I hear you and I will save you, take little Ishmael’s hand’.  And her eyes were opened to the well of water in front of them.  Not only did God send a drop of water but and entire well to Hagar so that she and Ishmael but be refreshed and live.  

You see God works through complex and very sad situations and that is why Ishmael’s story needs to be told.  We learn that God saves those who are cast out from home and hearth, from the swell of society’s mainstream.  The refugee, the migrant, the other, those of us who feel as if we have been all but forgotten, God sees and hears our cries and saves us.   You might feel as if God is distant and aloof, but God is not.

God sees and hears and sends an angel, a well, someone or something that will redeem us from our suffering.  How will you know?  The proof is all around us.  
Dawn follows a dark night, spring has always managed to appear after a snowy winter, a shower breaks a hot, hazy and unbearably humid summer’s day, the proof is around us that redemption exists and God’s ultimate redemptive act for our lives is just around the corner. 

Be of faith.  Embody hope.  Live into Hagar’s story.  This is also the living gospel for our lives, that where we are Christ is too. 

Amen!

In Your Voice

Acts 2: 1-21

Each Generation

While I was at Andover Newton Theological School Dr. Carole Fontaine, one of my Hebrew Bible teachers quoted the rabbis who said, “every generation reads the Torah anew”.  What she meant by that was each generation lives in a different time and space then the previous generation.  Therefore how we approach the Torah, or for us Christians the entire Bible, Old and New Testament is different than that of our parents and grandparents.  

Times change.  People change.  Voices change. Women’s voices and stories are now being told which, in previous generations, were all but ignored. For example Shiphrah and Puah, remember them?  They were Egyptian midwives during the time of the Exodus when the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt.  These women were commanded by Pharaoh to kill all of the Israelite male babies.  But they didn’t do that knowing that there was something much greater and stake here. 

Their story and many others have enriched our understanding of just how gently or mightily the spirit of God can move through peoples lives in each and every generation and how redemption is possible and real. It is a good thing that each generation reads the Torah truths anew because our voices change and the context of our living changes, which adds immeasurable richness to the tapestry of God’s word.

Radiant Light

Elizabeth Wang

Pentecost Story

Today we celebrate the Christian Festival of Pentecost.  The church recalls this great story of when the breath of God, the wind, the Holy Spirit came rushing through the room where the apostles were gathered.  Tongues of fire rested on their heads and they began to speak in other languages because the Spirit had given them such ability.  They were powered by the Holy Spirit like a battery powers your computer or transistor radio! 

Without the help of Rosetta Stone or Berlitz the apostles spoke in other languages and it wasn’t jibberish; they didn’t speak in glossalalia or in tongues. NO. They spoke in intelligible languages so that all of the tribes and people who were gathered at that time could understand what they were trying to say. 

The Medes who happened to be in Jerusalem that day could understand the message because one of the disciples was speaking their native dialect of Persian.  The Mesopotamian folks could understand the message because other disciples were speaking in Sumerian and Acadian.  Each one unique voice was an individual expression of what they had witnessed about the life and death of Jesus Christ. 

And although people thought they had been hitting the bottle a little too much, this was the way in which the Spirit of God expressed itself.  You see, each apostle was given a voice, and each voice was heard and understood.  They were, in effect, reading the Torah anew divinely sanctioned through the Holy Spirit.

Confirmation

Today we also celebrate Confirmation and the affirmation of faith that was expressed at baptism.  What an exciting time for all of us on because we all have the opportunity to confirm and affirm once again the story of God’s love come down to us.  These youth have certainly given voice to their faith; they’ve broken bread together several times, they’ve worked side by side and individually in service to God for the global community, the surrounding communities and the Orange Community. 

Let me read a thank you from the Orange Community Services, “On behalf of the Town of Orange…I would like to thank Orange Congregational Church for the most generous donation….to the Community Assistance Food Pantry.  I would also like to thank the Church Confirmation Class and their families for the numerous bags of….groceries donated to the Food Pantry.  These thoughtful gifts are so greatly appreciated and will provide assistance to Orange residents.  We are privileged to have you in our community,” signed Joan Cretella, the Director.  Now that is making your voice for compassion and justice heard.

Let me tell you that these kids have voices!  They were not afraid to talk (some incessantly)! We talked about silly things, about faith, about God, about the Holocaust and injustice.  We talked about death and life and where God is in all that.  They even got to sit in the God seat and be God and try to answer our questions.  That conversation took on a life of it’s own.  They found out that being God is not so easy and that everyone thinks that they are God. 

And yet they believe.  They believe that God created and creates and that God can and will always forgive them, no. matter. what.  They believe that God accepts everyone completely for who they are and what may happen in life to them.  They also know and believe that God doesn’t do everything for us that we have choice in every matter under heaven.     

To the Confirmands.

Confirmands, the Holy Spirit is no small thing and neither is your faith.  Each generation (YOU) reads the Torah anew-each generation gives voice to the awesome power of God.  I believe the Spirit has grabbed each one of you and has taken up residence in your heart.  You may not feel it or acknowledge it now, but you will perhaps when you least expect it.  You now too add your unique voices to the harmony of witnesses and like the apostles of that first Pentecost you will go out and tell your story imbued with God’s story, just like the rest of us old timers. 

So be at peace with yourself and know that you are right where you are supposed to be.   So relax.  Know also that OCC is a home for you. In the words that you will offer us later, ‘Settle down, it'll all be clear.
Don't pay no mind to the demons, they fill you with fear….trouble it might drag you down,
If you get lost, you can always be found.  Just know you're not alone because OCC is your home.’   

Amen.

Wisdom Listens

2 Chronicles 1: 7-13

As far as kings go in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, King David is known as one of the greats, if not the greatest or at least the one that’s gotten the most press time since 970 BCE.  He’s got quite an impressive Curriculum Vitae: he conquered the City of Jerusalem from the Philistines, he brought the ark of the covenant also to Jerusalem thus consolidating worship, he set up a striking dynasty again through covenant, he whipped enemies, you know those pesky Amalekites, Moabites, Ammonites and so on and so forth.  Most probably his most noted accomplishment was that he untied the Northern and Southern kingdoms of Israel.  Not an easy task but something that the people cried out for.   And, in his spare time he composed and wrote a few Psalms.  It’s pretty remarkable what one person can do in their lifetime.

And yet David had equally as many flaws.  I think he acted on impulse most of the time.  He was filled with pride, which caused all sorts of difficulties for him.  He was always on the brink of despair causing tremendous anxiety, not to mention the very vengeful acts he performed and his incredible lust and love of women.  In fact that is how our main King for consideration today King Solomon was conceived. 

Solomon was the son of David and Bathsheba.  The apple does not fall far from the tree.  Solomon too was flawed even though he also had an outstanding CV.   He built the very first Temple on Mount Moriah thus bringing together Jerusalem as the religious and political capital of the united kingdom.  He built many other buildings too and installed advanced water systems throughout.  But unfortunately, he was a murderer, a lust filled man with over 700 wives and he loved worldly riches.  He could probably be compared to Donald Trump, sans murder, when it comes to brokering deals and amassing wealth.  Of course, in the end he falls away from Yahweh (God) because he meets the Queen of Sheba and she brings all of her foreign gods with her.

And yet, God loved both David and Solomon and was willing to give each one anything that they asked for. 

God appeared to Solomon that night in a dream and said, “Solomon, ask for anything you want, and I will give it to you.”

Solomon answered:

Lord God, you were always loyal to my father David, and now you have made me king of Israel. I am supposed to rule these people, but there are as many of them as there are specks of dust on the ground. So keep the promise you made to my father and make me wise. Give me the knowledge I’ll need to be the king of this great nation of yours.

God replied:

Solomon, you could have asked me to make you rich or famous or to let you live a long time. Or you could have asked for your enemies to be destroyed. Instead, you asked for wisdom and knowledge to rule my people. So I will make you wise and intelligent. But I will also make you richer and more famous than any king before or after you.

Solomon then left Gibeon and returned to Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel.

Solomon didn’t ask for money, or to be famous, or to have power, or to be the most educated man in the Ancient Near East.  No.  He asked God for wisdom.  He asked God to give him wisdom so that he would be able to handle whatever task being ‘the King’ could possibly need.  And that, is remarkable because he really did make some wise decisions that were recorded in the Bible. 

Oh that we all had the wisdom of Solomon to make the best choices possible for our lives at all times.  Oh that we could foresee into the future our current day actions so that our lives and those around us would be lifted up to our highest and greatest potential.  Oh, if only we knew when to speak and when to keep silent there would be a whole lot loss broken hearts and hatred in this world, if we only knew.  But alas, we, like Solomon and his father king before him, are flawed.

But that doesn’t mean, by any brushstroke of our wildest and most imaginative dreams, that we should not try.  God has given us incredible minds to think with, to explore, to solve problems, to wonder, to compute with, to make value and jugement statements with, all with the intention of making this world and your surroundings a better place.  So it behooves us to give it ‘the old college try’ that is, our very best most fervent effort.  And that brings me to you graduates today.

We love you, and although reluctantly, it’s time to let you go to further your education.  And this you will certainly do, some of it will even come from books!  But all of the education that you will garner will not be useful unless you use it wisely.  Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen”, or, more plainly adapted ‘they’ say by Jimi Hendrix, ‘Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens’.  Who knew? 

You see you need education and knowledge to get along in this world and to accomplish the wonderful things and attain the ideals that you hold today.  Hopefully, some day then you’ll be able to impart that knowledge to others.  But more importantly you need the wisdom to know when to speak and when to be silent, when to act and when to listen because there is a whole lot that can be gained by listening.  In the listening comes discernment and discernment sets your course for action.

Barbara Brown Taylor says in her book, ‘An Altar in the World’, “Wisdom is not gained by knowing what is right.  Wisdom is gained by practicing what is right, and noticing what happens when that practice succeeds and when it fails.”  That is wise discernment, it’s knowledge, reflection and doing with all intentionality so that understanding will come.

They say wisdom comes with age but it doesn’t have to because wisdom also comes by inviting God into the process, and onto your path of life.  That’s what Solomon did.  He invited God to be a very active part and partner in his life and that’s what we must do as well.

God won’t ‘make’ everything go right, but if God is present in your mind wise decisions and actions should follow.  With God in your heart you have everything you need as you start this new chapter in your life.

Amen.

No Greater Love

John 15: 10-17

Memorial Day is a transcendent moment in time where our past, our present, and our future converge.  It is a time when we mend together the pieces of our societal fabric that have been torn apart and frayed, into a quilt of hope that gathers us together as a union built upon freedom and liberty.

We call upon God to consecrate this moment for it is sacred.  We honor and remember America’s war dead within the collective memory of those who live.

To date, according to statistics gathered from the Revolutionary War and beyond, over 1.3 million men and women, named and unknown, dearly loved by their families, beloved to God, have laid down their lives so that we might live in a democratic society that values each and every human being as free and equal women and men.  They have fought battles for us and have shown strength and courage.  They have understood the benefits of a just society and have strived for a better way to live for all people both here and on foreign soil.  Freedom stretches far beyond our beaches and it, unfortunately comes at the cost of human life, for which we grieve.

It is from our Christian story that we can understand that cost and begin to  make sense of it all. 

No greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends and fellow travelers in the journey of life.  No greater love, not sacrifice – love – than to lay down your life.  To love in this way, for one’s own fellow humanity, and for God is a transformative act towards wholeness and healing.  To lay down one’s life is the ultimate expression of God’s commandment to love one another.  They have shown their love, their compassion for life, their determination towards justice, they have understood and obeyed the commandment to love.  Just as God has loved us, they have taken to heart, through their commitment to and actions for our nation, and for the lives of many, that there is absolutely no greater love than to lay down their very life so that others may live.

In the church we continually reconcile the living with the dead, and the grief that will eventually turn to hope for the future.  Death within the context of war is a sad reality of a nation with strong political and ethical values.

As one war memorial emphatically states… “They gave, we have…and their glory shall not be blotted out but their name shall live forevermore”.  We must not forget them.  And so we remember them today, Memorial Day.

When I was in seminary I developed an independent study of war memorials with Dr. William Everett, an ethics professor at Andover Newton Theological School.  The task was to study, read and view, and write about the ethics, aesthetics, and theological aspects of war memorials.  These granite stones, the monuments to those who have died from the necessity and destruction of war are indeed political markers of a country who has vigilantly fought so hard for liberty.  Their beauty and art reflect the time and ideals in which those men and women fought and the actions of those who carry on those ideals.

There are some who perish, and some who survive. This is inevitability when a society engages in war.  Whether there is victory or defeat in the war, suffering from the loss of life is great and there is an overwhelming need for a people to remember and pay tribute to the cause.  The commemoration of soldiers, through memorials and monuments, is the juncture at which the surviving must come, to reconcile the vestiges of political action and the loved one who perished.  Memorialization of war is a crossroad between public acknowledgment and personal intimate losses.

The process of memorialization is a time for people to work through feelings of shock, horror, anger, grief and loss, pride, reconciliation, and national identity.  Lives have been dismantled; our ethics, values and theological understanding have been tested, stretched, and for some even beyond repair.  At some point, both collectively and individually, we must begin the task of putting it all back together again.  We will invent and reinvent the significance of the war and revision our society for years to come.

We stand in reverence at a memorial not because it is a beautiful piece of art but because it is a moving and transformative experience. It brings death and life together, full circle, and invoke the respect for life and love of God.

But war memorials, monuments, markers mean nothing unless we, the living, tend to their meaning.  Unless we clean off, and cut down the weeds that might grow around them, unless we decorate and remember those graves as the original intention of Decoration Day or Memorial Day calls for, then their death was meaningless.

They gave, and as Pericles says in his funeral oration, “take them as your model, and judging happiness to be the fruit of freedom and freedom as valor, never decline the dangers of war.”  Do not shy away from what these men and women have chosen to do and do not shy away from the task that is before us now.

These men and women have challenged us; and we must respond.

No greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life.  What would laying down our lives look like in an absence of war context?  If we think together I’m sure that we can come up with some alternative ways in which we can lay down our lives for others while we are still living.  We already do some of that by our outreach efforts.  Preparing and serving meals at Columbus House allows us to lay down or put aside our own needs to help those with greater needs of the very basic sort.

Christ didn’t come into this world to serve himself, far from it, he came into this world to serve others. And he did so by healing the bleeding woman, by curing blind Bartemeaus, by feeding 5,000 people on a moments notice, by being a friend, a confidant and a mentor to his disciples.  Ultimately he did give of his life so that others, me and you could enjoy life.  So that we may see each day anew with all of the promises that his resurrection offers and then to help others.   

So too, we, the church must follow his example.  The church is not about itself but about serving others.  We don’t exist to make the green in Orange a prettier place (although we do) but we exist through the grace of God so that people might be free from that which keeps them from fulfilling the highest potential. Free from prejudice, from hunger, or societal restraints.  The church exists to show kindness in a world fraught with pain.  The Church begins with us.

No greater love than this, is to lay down one’s life for another.  Let us practice the love the Christ came into this world to show us. Let us thank those who have already laid down their life as we pick up the mantle of peace and walk forward confidently because of Christ’s ultimate love for us.

Amen.

Troubled Hearts; Grateful Hearts

John 14: 1-14

Not too long after my father died suddenly in 1967 I had a ‘toll’ painted small plaque made for my mother with the words, “Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled” John 14:1.  It was her favorite Bible verse.  The plaque I still remember but, as with many items from the past, has been gently laid aside, never to be seen again.  It was a Robin’s egg blue color with the words in a beautiful and serene typeface with some daisy’s painted around the words.  

I didn’t know back then that I would pray and read that passage often at the bedside of dying people and at memorial or funeral services as both chaplain and pastor.  I didn’t know back then that it would become a significant passage of comfort to me, “Let not your hearts be troubled….in my father’s house there are many mansions.”

 For mom is was a reminder of God’s love that calmed her from birth until her own death and that it would bring her closer to Daddy someday.  It brought it solace for her broken heart.  For me now it has become a sweet reminder of my parents and that God, too, has claimed me and has prepared a place for me too in the great beyond.  And isn’t that our most burning desire?  To know that there is a place for us, that this life that we live is not in vain?  We wonder, what does God have planned for me when I finally take my last breaths on this earth?

In the grand scheme of the Gospel of John our scripture reading today falls just after Jesus washes his disciples feet and foretells his betrayal, so this is a pre Easter passage.  The disciples have questions, they have fears, they have doubts about their own mortality and in this farewell discourse Jesus attempts to show them how to live once he is gone and to convince them that, in the words of Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”  Let us hear those comforting words in the Gospel….

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

The disciples hearts are very troubled.  They have come to the realization that their time on earth with Jesus is limited now. Thomas asks, ‘Lord, we just don’t understand where you are going, how can we know this?’  And then Philip also questions Jesus, ‘Lord, just show us the [father] meaning, God.  Just show us and then we can understand and be satisfied.  Their hearts were truly unsettled and troubled.  They know he is leaving but they don’t understand to where he is going.

Jesus tries to make it as pastorally compassionate and direct as possible for them.  It’s pretty clear that the disciples and his other followers were to believe in him and to live in his ways, that is to live into each day as a gift and blessing from God and to live into the truth of who we are as God’s beloved and named children.  He was preparing not only a home with many rooms, one for each but also showing them how to live after he dies because he knows that life and death, living and dying are intrinsically bound together.

Death has got to be the saddest reality of our living.  It makes me sad to think of losing my parents so very long ago, it horrifies and saddens me to think that I could loose one of my children and it saddens me to think about my own mortality because I love life, I love my life and what I choose to do with it.  So it is in sad and distressing times that the words of Jesus become powerful words of hope, “Let not your heart be troubled”. 

These words also encourage me to live boldly today and be grateful for the gift that today really is and for the wonderful blessings that are before me.  The only time that we have is right before us so it bids us to live, to cherish and dream, to be content and to be grateful in the moment, and to love deeply, dearly, and compassionately.  To enjoy the people around us as other children of God. 

I want to share some reflections of Henri Nouwen, Catholic priest and author,

“Hope and faith will both come to an end when we die.  But love will remain.  Love is eternal.  Love comes from God and returns to God.  When we die, we will lose everything that life gave us except love.  The love with which we lived our lives is the life of God within us.  It is the divine, indestructible core of our being.  This love not only will remain but will also bear fruit from generation to generation.

When we approach our deaths let us say to those we leave behind, "Don't let your heart be troubled.  The love of God that dwells in my heart will come to you and offer you consolation and comfort."

We often wonder how death will occur for us.  Through illness, accident, war, or a natural disaster?  Will our deaths happen suddenly or gradually?  There are no answers for these questions, so we really should not spend time worrying about them.  We don't know how our lives will end, and this is a blessed ignorance!  But there is an important question that we should consider:  When our time to die comes, will we die in such a way that those we leave behind are not devastated by grief or left with feelings of shame or guilt?

How we leave others depends largely on how we prepare ourselves for death.  When we can die with grateful hearts, grateful to God and our families and friends, our deaths can become sources of life for others.

And so it is.  Our living can be a source of life for others just by looking and living today as an abundant blessing of God’s love.  Now don’t let you heart be troubled, there is way too much living to be had.  Let us be grateful for our very lives and live them as a blessing to others.

Amen.

Rev. Suzanne Wagner

Orange Congregational Church

Gateways, God and the Great Life

John 10:1-10

My hometown, the city of St. Louis, Missouri, is known as the “Gateway to the West.” During the 1800s it was starting point for the westward movement of settlers in the United States and served as a travel stop for many pioneers, settlers, hunters and others who were ‘westward ho’.

Explorers Lewis and Clark started out from St. Louis in 1804 to explore and chart the Louisiana Territory that had been purchased from France.  Many followed the trail of Lewis and Clark from St. Louis to the new frontier.  St. Louis was the last big city that these pioneers encountered before they took to the west.  Here they could pick up supplies before headin’ out.  Many a merchant and entrepreneur made a fine living, even their fortune on the commerce and trade to these adventurers.

A page from the journal of Lewis and Clark

 So it’s no surprise, to me at least, a child of the great state of Missouri, when in the 1960’s they began construction on the St. Louis Gateway Arch.  We took rides downtown to the Mississippi riverfront to see how it was coming together; if the two legs would meet up at the top was the question of the day.  It was a grand day when the Arch was finished because truly now our history was validated and we really did become the “Gateway to the West”. 

In St. Louis you are neither east nor west, you are in a liminal place.  I’ve always been fascinated with liminal places, thresholds if you will and in today’s passage we find Jesus at a gate, and in fact he is the gate. 

From the Contemporary English Version….

Jesus said:  I tell you for certain that only thieves and robbers climb over the fence instead of going in through the gate to the sheep pen.  But the gatekeeper opens the gate for the shepherd, and he goes in through it. The sheep know their shepherd’s voice. He calls each of them by name and leads them out.

When he has led out all of his sheep, he walks in front of them, and they follow, because they know his voice.  The sheep will not follow strangers. They don’t recognize a stranger’s voice, and they run away.

Jesus told the people this story. But they did not understand what he was talking about.

[So] Jesus said:  I tell you for certain that I am the gate for the sheep.  Everyone who came before me was a thief or a robber, and the sheep did not listen to any of them.  I am the gate. All who come in through me will be saved. Through me they will come and go and find pasture.

A thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy. I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest.

Shepherd, gatekeeper, gate!  Geesh it’s hard to tell just who Jesus is trying to portray himself as on first read of this passage.  And if it’s not confusing enough to us we see that the people were confused also, which is why there is repetition or sort of a retelling of the story.  Well to understand this passage we need to understand the tension in chapter 9 because this gives us some context with which to get a grip on what Jesus (or the author of John) is trying to tell us.

If you remember from a couple of weeks ago we heard the story of the man born blind that Jesus healed with mud.  The man was brought to the Pharisees and they refused to believe that he had been healed by Jesus.   On both sides, questions of exclusion and inclusion began to rage; who was in and who was out on all levels was topic of discussion and disagreement.

So by the time we get to chapter 10 Jesus’ discourse really targets at his opponents and his is pulling no punches with this metaphoric story.  And, if you remember the Christology in John is high and what that means is that Jesus already knows he is the Son of God and speaks of himself as the fully imbedded word incarnate.  He knows people by name, he ensures their safety, and he lays down his life so that their salvation is affected.

There are many ways to look at this passage with the different roles Jesus ascribes to himself in this pastoral setting but I want to stay with the image of gate because it is a provocative image for us to think about.   

Certainly gates are those liminal places where you cross from one place to the next.

Liminal places are those places where worlds come together, where you are betwixt and between.  The confirmation kids are now preparing to affirm the baptismal vows that their parents made for them long ago.  We look at them now as children of the church when in a few weeks, when they stand at the gate of confirmation we will look at them as full adult members of this church.  They are in a liminal place right now.

A gate gives us access to what is on the other side.  Sometimes we just have to walk through a gate, or doorway, or archway to get relief, find true happiness and acceptance, or feel protected and secure.  

A gate provides a way through a barrier and we all have certain barriers in life, don’t we?  Writers block, financial woes, threatening illness…haven’t you ever prayed for God to help you over or through the thickness of life’s blockades? That’s where a gate comes in handy.

It is true that a closed gate provides for us protection from the ‘bad guys’, the wolves and coyotes that are out to hunt us down.  But it is also true that a closed gate can be a mechanism for exclusivity and we must be ever vigilant that we practice inclusivity and not exclusivity because heaven knows that the church of the ages and still today has not been as open as they could have been to each person who walks this earth.  They have not affirmed each person as a beloved and adored child of God, which I believe we all are.   We probably never should use Jesus as ‘the gate’ to hide behind our own prejudice and hatred, not a good idea.   The gate should swing far and wide for anyone who wants to walk through it because we know what is on the other side.

Jesus shows us how to pass from a normal existence to a life of abundance by walking through the gate.  The key to unlocking the Johannine puzzle is verse 10.  Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  The gate is about abundance.  Jesus is about abundant living.

Abundant living in Jesus doesn’t mean that we will have jewels like King Tut or wealth like Warren Buffet.  Abundant living in Jesus means that we will find grace in our living, fortitude to walk through the darkest valleys, peace in our humble circumstances, joy even in the leaner times of life. 

Abundant living means nurturing your gifts and using them so that you can be happy and in turn make the world a happier place and isn’t that what we really all want?  Christ’s resurrection has given us a way to understand all of this.  The gates of righteousness, shaare zedek in Hebrew, gates of mercy, gates of abundance are open for you to walk through; so what are you waiting for?  You are not alone! 

Amen.

Behind Closed Doors

John 20: 19-31

Last week we heard the resurrection account from the Gospel of Mark.  Mark is the oldest of the Gospels as well as the least descriptive in that there are no embellishments.    Mark ends shortly after we hear about Jesus’ victory over the tomb without much fanfare.  In the words of Dragnet’s Joe Friday Mark it’s ‘just the facts ma’m, just the facts.’

           

Outside of next week when we will hear the word proclaimed from Luke, the next six Sundays we will be focused on the Gospel of John, which is clearly the most theologically imbued Gospel.  It contains a high “Christology” meaning that Jesus is already portrayed throughout the Gospel as the risen Son of God.  I know, Christology, right?  It’s a seminary SAT word, that’s used by seminary professors and their students who want to do well in their classes.  But that’s what makes John such an endearing Gospel to read.  Jesus say’s I am the vine and you are the branches, I am the resurrection and the life, and I am the good shepherd.  After reading the Gospel of John there is no doubt that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.  

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

 Carravagio

It’s too bad that Thomas didn’t have this Gospel in his back pocket to pull out and read when he doubted that Jesus was really, none other than his Jesus, now risen.  Throughout time a lot has been written about this doubting Thomas, who is somewhat an arrogant disciple.  Many menacing sermons have been written about this Thomas who had a few qualms about who Jesus really was. Was this man who claims to be Jesus for real?  So he had a few doubts.  Your doubts, my doubts, Thomas’ doubts, ok...most of us have doubts at some time or another.

Generic Art Solutions

There is so much more that is happening in this passage that begs our close reflection however.  It still had not been twenty four hours since Mary Magdalene stood weeping at the empty tomb and Jesus, disguised as the gardener, appears to her.  She does as he requests and tells the disciples that she has seen her Lord.  They didn’t know what to do and they needed some time to process what had just happened over this particular Passover. 

A joyful procession, anxiety in Jerusalem, an intimate meal, betrayal, denial, whipping and weeping, death and then this resurrection.  That was their week.  It is no wonder that they are hole up in a house with the doors locked because of their disbelief at everything that happened and their fears of a few religious leaders.

It’s through these locked up, shut up tight, barred doors that Jesus appears the second time after his resurrection.  Seems to me this would instill even more fear.  They thought they were secure behind closed doors but somehow they just weren’t able to keep Jesus out. “Peace” he says, “Peace be with you”. 

That familiar, strong and calming voice.  Perhaps it sounded like a mother’s lullaby, or a favorite hymn from your childhood, or like a much loved story told to you over and over even though you know the end, or even a voice calling for the sea to stop raging.  It was calm.  In those four words, ‘Peace be with you’, Jesus is really saying, be still, be calm, relax, let your fear and doubts melt away, let the wholeness of my love reside in your heart.  He is saying I am with you.  I will not fail you.  Trust in me.  I will walk next to you wherever you want and need to go.  I’ll be by your side even on those roads that you really shouldn’t be going down.  I’ll manage to get in when the doors have been closed.

Jesus shows them his wounds and again says, “Peace be with you.  God has sent me, so now I’m sending you.”  He breathes on them and at once they are filled with the Holy Spirit.  Jesus gives them his peace, he commissions them for greater work and he empowers them to go out and do this work. 

But alas, Thomas wasn’t there and we know that second hand stories, particularly miraculous events kind of stories never quite pull the same punch.  A week later when they all were gathered in that house again with the door shut, at an opportune moment, Jesus comes to them.  Thomas was with them this time with all of his doubts.  Once more he says, “Peace be with you.”  He didn’t tell Thomas off, or give him a good talking to, no reprimands, chastisements, or sarcasm.  Simply he says, “Peace” like he did the first time he came to the others and allows Thomas all the time and evidence that he needs to come around and believe

As I understand this passage this morning, this passage is not so much about Thomas.  He’s human just like us.  It’s really about Jesus.  It’s about his tenacity to find us in our deepest, most locked away places.  Those places where we shut him out rather than let him in.  It is about his persistent love and his ability to be incredibly patient with our human foibles, our less than desirable habits, or our want or need to keep him at arms length.  It is about Jesus loving us with grace through our doubts.  That’s the kind of Jesus I want.

Just when the disciples didn’t know what to do next after Jesus resurrection, they decide to stay behind a locked door.  Why take a chance on the unknown?  It’s Jesus who comes to them.  It’s Jesus who shows them what to do next. It’s Jesus who lifts them up and instills the spirit within them.  It’s Jesus who moves them from inaction to action; he dissipates their inertia and readies them for service.  I guess you never really know what goes on behind closed doors.

Behind closed doors is a phrase that gets kicked around a lot but I think we know them all too well. They are those closed doors that we stand behind trembling with fear, hiding like an animal from its predators. 

We’ve all sat behind doors that have shut out the world to our inner workings, the messy and fearful closets of our souls. While it may seem ok at first, the door gets locked and then dead bolted and then even we ourselves can’t get out.  It’s not a healthy or good place to be.  Thank goodness God doesn’t let us alone but persistently and consistently figures out how to enter in and grants us that peace which passes all of our human intelligence and understanding.  That’s the kind of God I want.

Once God gets in we are never left in the same place.  We are changed as Anne Lamott reminds us in her book “Travelling Mercies”, “I do not understand the mystery of grace, only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us”.

God moves us.  God readies us and equips us with the Holy Spirit to worship, to live our lives faithfully, to witness love eternal and to serve others and work towards justice and peace.  True discipleship is risky business yet we must live our faith courageously.  May the doors to this sanctuary, this sacred place swing wide open so that you can embrace this broken world.  If you need ideas on what to embrace, I’ve got plenty.

May that same Spirit who was breathed on the disciples behind their closed door light upon us to comfort and energize us for whatever the future holds for we are an Easter people.

Amen.