The Advent and Christmas stories are full of messengers ofGod.  There is John the Baptist and theangel Gabriel.  There are also the HebrewTestament prophets Isaiah and Zephaniah. Angels are commonly understood to be messengers of God.  Spiritual leaders often refer to themselvesas God’s messengers or being called to preach God’s word.  God warns those who preach and teach in God’sname that they will be held accountable for what they say and do.  We commonly hold those who are messengers ofGod to a higher standard and it is probably reasonable that we do so.  However, we are all messengers of God.  We all carry a spark of God within us and weare all called to share with others what they spark of God inspires in us.

I am frustrated particularly at this time of year by thesweet images of angels that abound on Christmas cards, ornaments, and treetoppers.  Angels in the early church wereconsidered to be God’s army.  Theyactively defended God’s people and they spoke harshly, they wrestled withpeople, they were warriors.  In theMessage Bible, Eugene Peterson uses the term God of the Angel Armies.  The human messengers of God were also notparticularly sweet people.  Isaiah andZephaniah along with the other prophets were as likely to be chastising theirlisteners as to be comforting them.  Johnthe Baptist was downright confrontational. He spoke directly and harshly to those who came out to the wildernessseeking baptism.  This week I used aharsh word in a Facebook post and some people took offense because it is a vulgarword for what should be a tender and intimate act.  I grant the word is harsh, I would have somedisagreement with vulgar but that is not the point here.  When John called the people vipers, he wasbeing harsh and offensive.  He was alsospeaking out of his strong conviction that the people had lost their compassionand were seeking a cosmetic cleansing without making any actual change in theirbehavior.  John was speaking out of thelong tradition of God’s messengers to deal directly and honestly with those whosought to hear God’s word for them.  Am Ijustifying my use of an offensive word in a post by claiming some John theBaptist link?  No.  My choice of words was my own and I acceptthe impact of the words even though my intent was to express outrage notoffense.  I am saying, being a messengerof God is not to always be polite and comforting.  Sometimes God’s message is intended todiscomfort us, to challenge us out of our complacency.  Some messages of God are hard to hear andhard to share.  Just read some of theprophetic words of the Hebrew scriptures or spend a little time in the book ofRevelation.  Even the words of Jesus weresometimes discomforting.  His challengeto the rich young man to sell all he had and give it to the poor, or his demandthat we leave behind mother and father to follow him.  And, if taken seriously, his challenge to usto pick up our cross and follow him to Golgotha is not a comfortingthought.  Sometimes, as God’s messenger,we must speak directly and confrontationally to others and to power.

Another challenge to messengers of God is not to lose trackof the truth that it is not our message but God’s that we are called toshare.  The sacred texts and the historyof spiritual leaders is littered with messengers who lost sight of the sourceof the message and began speaking for their own gain.  Moses did well while he followed God but gotimpatient and lost his right to enter the promised land, David was a personafter God’s heart and then got carried away with his own importance and was humbledbecause of his arrogance.  We are allpainfully aware of good people who started ministries in God’s name and didgood things and then they succumbed to the lure of power and wealth and theirmessage lost all Godliness.  Some sayoutrages things they claim came from God just to keep their names and facesprominent.  Pat Robertson may have at onetime had a prophetic voice but he now he speaks such nonsense that whateverconnection he had with God is lost.  Inlight of the tragedy in Newtown, CT. Mike Huckabee and Bryan Fisher both saidGod allowed the killing of children and school staff to happen because we havelegislated God out of our schools. Really, God would abandon those children and adults out of some tempertantrum over not having mandated prayer and Bible reading in our public schools?  I cannot accept that God would prefer thatteachers and other school personnel teach our children how to pray and what theBible means.  I have to believe Godintended for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, Godparents, Sunday schoolteachers, and clergy to guide children in their understanding of God and whatsacred texts mean.  As I understand God,God is present everywhere and God does not judge our worthiness based on theactions of our government or even our immediate families.  God is with us through all things.  God did not condone or plan the tragedy at SandyHook Elementary School but God was certainly present there and was standingwith those who were killed, injured, and all those who have been so deeply scarredbut what happened there.  God was evenwith the tormented man who lashed out so violently for whatever reason.  God does not dole out grace and love based onour worthiness and anyone who says otherwise is not a messenger of God.

It would be tempting at this point to say Jesus was theperfect messenger of God but he wasn’t. Jesus wasn’t a messenger, Jesus was the Word of God made flesh.  Jesus didn’t have to get a message from Godand the speak it out to us, with all the risk of getting it wrong or not rememberingall of it, or adding his own spin to it. Jesus was the message.  Jesuslived out in his words, actions, and life the message of God’s grace and lovefor us.  It was in his love for theunloveable, his advocacy for the marginalized, and his forgiveness for thosewho did violence against him that we are to understand God’s desire for each ofus.  This brings me back to my outburstof anger for those who justify violence as means to end violence and I knowthat my words only added to the ugliness of the situation for some and this isnot the answer to the problem.  I was not,at that moment a messenger of God.  I amhowever, a recipient of God’s grace, love and forgiveness.  Amen.   

Malachi 3:1-4

3 “Look!I’m sending my messenger on ahead to clear the way for me. Suddenly, out of theblue, the Leader you’ve been looking for will enter the Temple—yes, theMessenger of the Covenant, the one you’ve been waiting for. Look! The One is coming!”A Message from the mouth of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

^2-4 But who will be able tostand up to that coming? Who can survive the appearance?

This One will be like white-hot fire from the smelter’sfurnace, like the strongest lye soap at the laundry. The One will act as arefiner of silver, as a cleanser of dirty clothes and scrub the Levite priestsclean, refine them like gold and silver, until they’re fit for God, fit to present offerings of righteousness. Then, and only then,will Judah and Jerusalem be fit and pleasing to God, as theyused to be in the years long ago.

Philippians 1:3-11

^3-6 Every time you crossmy mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is atrigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart. I am sopleased that you have continued on in this with us, believing and proclaimingGod’s Message, from the day you heard it right up to the present. There hasnever been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this greatwork in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the veryday Christ Jesus appears.

^7-8 It’s not at allfanciful for me to think this way about you. My prayers and hopes have deeproots in reality. You have, after all, stuck with me all the way from the timeI was thrown in jail, put on trial, and came out of it in one piece. All alongyou have experienced with me the most generous help from God. God knows howmuch I love and miss you these days. Sometimes I think I feel as strongly aboutyou as Christ does!

^9-11 So this is my prayer:that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well.Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelingsso that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live alover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of:bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all,getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.

Luke 3:1-6

3 ^1-6In the fifteenth year of the rule of Caesar Tiberius—it was while PontiusPilate was governor of Judea; Herod, ruler of Galilee; his brother Philip,ruler of Iturea and Trachonitis; Lysanias, ruler of Abilene; during theChief-Priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas—John, Zachariah’s son, out in the desertat the time, received a message from God. He went all through the countryaround the Jordan River preaching a baptism of life-change leading toforgiveness of sins, as described in the words of Isaiah the prophet:

Thunder in the desert!
“Prepare God’s arrival!
Make the road smooth and straight!
Every ditch will be filled in,
Every bump smoothed out,
The detours straightened out,
All the ruts paved over.
Everyone will be there to see
The parade of God’s salvation.”

There is a supposed war on Christmas going on.  I really don’t understand it but apparentlysome people feel Christmas is under attack when another person wishes themhappy holidays rather than the required merry Christmas.  I had someone send me a choral group singingabout how to respond if you enter a store with “Happy Holidays” posted or ifthe salesperson greets you with “Happy Holidays”.  The singers sweetly sing about turning onyour heel and exiting the store while telling all that will listen that you won’tbe shopping where Christ is left out of Christmas.  It would be easy enough to dismiss this asjust so much silliness if it weren’t for the reality that this level ofintolerance for those who believe different, act different, appear differenthas become increasingly militant.  Thedeclarations in the past election about taking back our country were thinlydisguised assertions about not having a president who is a person of color, notwanting an administration that was sympathetic to the aliens in our nation, notwanting the country to be concerned about the health of its citizens or protectingthe pensions of its elderly and disabled. Just like the so called war on Christmas, there are those among us whofeel there has been a war declared upon their privilege.

What makes this particularly troubling is this backlash onthe war on Christmas completely disregards why Jesus came to the earth a couplethousand years ago.  Jesus did not cometo assert the importance that people strictly observe Hanukah or show properdeference to the religious elite.  Johnthe Baptist did not greet those who came to him in the wilderness with “MerryChristmas!”  He greeted people to preparefor the coming of the one predicted in Malachi, the one who would be like thewhite hot smelter’s fire scrubbing us clean. We get all caught up in this image of a helpless baby in a manager andwe miss the Word of God came in flesh to disrupt the status quo, and to bringus back to God’s requirement that we not use our privilege to exploit others,that God doesn’t have favorites, and we have missed the point when we mistreatthe widows, orphans, aliens, and others we deem less than ourselves.  I am quite certain Jesus would not beoutraged if someone greeted him with “Happy Holidays” if their intention wasgenuine good will.  I am also certainJesus would be outraged if someone said “Merry Christmas” when they could careless whether your life was merry or miserable.

As we live into this time of advent, of anticipation, Ibelieve we are called to examine what we believe the coming of Jesus meant twothousand years ago and then anticipate what the coming of Jesus to us todaymeans.  Are we prepared to encounter theOne God has sent to us as a messenger of God’s justice, God’s compassion, andGod’s love.  Can we stand in front ofsuch a messenger, have we acted out God’s justice, compassion, love forothers?  Can we stand in front of God’smessenger and say we have lived a Christ like life?  Amen.

There is a rhythm to life, a flow of change that islife.  When this flow of change stops,there is death.  One of the reasons theDead Sea is called dead is because there is no outlet for the water so itbecomes stagnant and the salt and other chemicals become concentrated andcannot sustain life.  Similarly, asthmais a threat because it interrupts the natural flow of air in and out of thelungs and the more serious issue with the constriction of air flow is theinability to exhale the oxygen depleted air from the lungs.  We must resist our inclination to hold on, tohorde things.  When we hold on to things,there is no room for life giving change to happen.  Change is not a bad thing, change is the essenceof what it means to be alive.

It is clear this receiving and letting go is a basic elementof God’s plan for the universe and so I must believe God also intends this tobe a critical part of our spiritual life. God does not intend for us to grab onto spiritual experiences, concepts,or people and hold onto them as if they were the unchanging God.  Our spiritual life will become stagnant anddie if we refuse to hear and see new things from God and like the air thatbecomes toxic when it becomes trapped in our lungs, our spirits will lose theirfreshness their life giving qualities if we do not release them and allow themto return to us full of new nurture for the Source.

Change is frightening for us because it brings about theunknown.  It has been said, change cannothappen until our fear of what we are now is greater than our fear of theunknown.  Many members of thiscongregation have not engaged in the interim process tasks.  I believe that is because you are content withthe way the church is and see no need for the church to change, in fact some ofyou may most desire the church change not at all.  It is good to be content with the church butit is futile to believe the church will not change.  The church must change and grow if it is tolive.  This church, any church mustalways be seeking to discover what ministry God has called you to do.  The ministries we did in the past were thefresh spirit blowing through us and now we must draw in new spirit.  It may be a fresh way of doing our currentministries and it may be new ministries all together but in either case, itwill involve change. 

We must also be willing to draw in new leadership, not onlya new pastor but also new members, new ideas, new spirit so we can continue togrow, and to be alive.  I love the storyof the selection of David by Samuel. Everyone was looking for someone who looked like a monarch, or at leastlooked like the monarchs they had known. David was outside the image of a monarch, the youngest, the runt, andsome have described him as not being very masculine, too interested in playingthe lyre and composing songs.  But Godsaid you are looking on the outside and God is looking on the inside.  It is unfortunate that even those of us whohave been looked over by others because we did not fit their idea of how men orwomen should be can still overlook others that we don’t think look like membersof our congregation, or look like leaders, or look like our pastor.  We must be open to looking at the people whocome to us, the people who offer leadership, and the one who comes to be yourpastor as God looks at them and not as we want them to be.

God calls each of us into God’s service with all of ouruniqueness and diversity, with all of our gifts and talents, and with all ofour faults and foibles.  It seems to mewe too often respond to God’s call like the person in the old hymn, I come to the garden.  I would stay in the garden with God but Godbids me go with a voice of woe.  We seeGod’s call as an invitation to rest in God, stay with God and avoid thetroubles and the struggles of the world. But God through the example of Jesus tells us we are called into a lifeof service, a life of giving ourselves in service to others in healing, teaching,and loving others.  God calls us and theexample of Jesus sends us out.  I believeit is equally true that Jesus calls us and introduces us to God who sends usout with God’s Spirit.  It is a flow andrhythm of being called and sent.

It is only in our accepting this rhythm that we remain aliveand usable to God.  If we say no morechange, we are useless to God and to the world and we die.  There will be pain and there will be strugglein embracing the change and we must support each other as we experience thechange.  It is in coming together andsupporting each other that we find the value in being a community offaith.  Just trust if God has called usand Jesus has sent us there is nothing we cannot do.  Amen.

Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more parties withthe intention of coming to an agreement, usually each party is seeking to gainsomething and willing to offer something to gain their desired outcome.  To negotiate with God is to imply we want somethingfrom God and we have something God needs or desires.  We are indebted to the stories in the HebrewTestament for our concept of God as a man we can negotiate with.  Both in the generic sense of man meaninghumankind and the literal sense of God being male, and old, white bearded manat that.  A read a commentary that put itthis way, the creation story tells us God created humankind in God’s own image;male and female God created them and humankind has been returning the favorever since by creating God in human form. God is not human, God does not relate to us as one person toanother.  God does not need anything wehave.  God does desire to have arelationship with us but God does not negotiate with us in order to gain that relationship.

The Hebrew Testament is full of stories of peoplenegotiating with God.  Abraham negotiateswith God to save the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Hannah negotiated with Godfor a child, Moses negotiated with God to spare the Israelites, and so on.  Then to story of Job was revealed byGod.  I firmly believe this story wasgiven to us because God wanted us to understand our relationship with God.  Some suggest that God’s response to Job is ridiculingand demeaning.  I don’t see it thatway.  I see God’s response to Job asbeing honest.  Job and the rest of us donot understand the world as God who created it does.  We do not even understand ourselves as Godwho created us does.  We do not have thefoundation necessary to criticize God for the way the world is.  We do not have the authority to take God totask for failing to be fair or just. When we critique God’s performance, we are speaking out of our arroganceand our refusal to see ourselves as the created.  We do not negotiate with God because we havenothing to offer God to convince God to do things our way rather than the wayGod intends.

How often I have heard people say they asked God to dosomething with the promise that they would change their behavior in some way ifGod granted their request.  I will quitsmoking if You heal someone, I will give more to the church if You get me abetter job or let me win the lottery, I will attend church regularly if You getme out of a tight spot.  How does Godgain by these promises?  Does yourquitting smoking improve God’s situation? Does God need your money to be able to survive?  Does your coming to church out of obligationbring God any satisfaction?  If you areconvicted that God wants you to stop some behavior, it is because God wants youto be healthy and happy and that behavior is preventing you from beingthat.  Giving to your church is not apayment to God in exchange for promised goods and services.  Giving to your church is how you express yourthanks to God for providing you with a place to learn about God, a place whereyou can come in your grief and joy and share them with God and others, and aplace where you can worship God.  Givingto the church is how we assure that others will have a place to learn ofGod.  Coming to church should not be anobligation but a privilege.  God loveswhen we come together to share our appreciation of all God has done for us andto hear what God would have us to do for others.  Church attendance out of obligation rarelysatisfies us and generally annoys God. We should do what we believe God asks of us not to gain favor but thatour life might be all that God intends it to be.

Does this mean we are never to bring our issues, ourconcerns to God?  Absolutely not!  Jesus taught us to pray, to pray to pray forwhat we need, for forgiveness, and for guidance.  Some would suggest the prayer includes a formof barter, forgive us and we will forgive others.  I would suggest the connection between beingforgiven and forgiving is that we cannot realize God’s forgiveness until wepractice forgiveness.  We will find itdifficult to believe we are forgiven if we cannot find it within ourselves toforgive.  Jesus prayed another prayer ofpetition.  In the Garden of Gethsemane,Jesus prayed that he not have to drink from the cup God had given to him.  Jesus did not barter, he did not declare howmuch more good he could do if he didn’t have to die.  He didn’t offer to do something else.  He simply asked if the cup could pass fromhim but that he wanted to do what was God’s will.  This is how we are to come to God with ourgrievances and our concerns.  We ask Godif we or another might be healed and, if not, that God might grant usunderstanding that what happens is in God’s plan.  We petition God that we might have asustainable wage and the wisdom to know what is a sustainable wage.  We petition God to remove bullying, war,famine, natural disasters and we ask God to show us the ways in which we are torespond in loving healing ways to these events.

We are entering a season of change.  You are seeking your settled pastor and I amseeking my new ministry.  Let our prayersbe for God’s wisdom and direction and not attempts to negotiate with God to dowhat we think is best.  We will all behappier if we recognize God is in charge and we are here to serve, not tolead.  Amen.

The book of Job is challenging to most people and even moreso to those who take the Bible literally. The concept of God playing a game with Satin and people are the gamepieces doesn’t work well with my understanding of God, or with the image of Godpresented by Jesus.  It would be easy tosimply dismiss the book but I prefer to open myself up to hear the story withnew ears.  The story of Job is a majorshift in how people understood God and their relationship with God.  The sacred texts prior to Job speak of God asjudgmental.  God intervened in the livesof people by rewarding those who were obedient and visiting calamity upon thosewho were disobedient.  The primary roleof the holy men and women was to interpret for the people what pleased God andwhat made God angry.  Clearly, this gavethese holy persons a great deal of power.

In the story of Job, God reveals that not everything thathappens to us is either a reward or a punishment.  In a world where there are violent storms andupheavals of the earth, people are going to get hurt.  In a world where imperfect persons controlthe wealth and means of production, people are going to go without and beexploited.  In a world where there areviruses and bacteria, people are going to get sick.  In a world with nations and rulers, there aregoing to be wars.  This is not God’s planfor us, it is just the way the world is because we are imperfect people.  Very often when I spend time with people whohave experienced a tragedy, there comes a point when they ask, “Why did thishappen to me?”  The question serves twopurposes.  It explains what we did so wecan change our behavior so it never happens again and we want to know there wasa purpose to what happened so as to make the unpleasantness worthwhile.  It has also been my experience this questionis not raised as often when something good has happened in one’s life.  This is the foundation of Job’s retort to hiswife.

My sense of what we are to learn from Job is that whathappens to us is not dependent upon the level of favor we have found withGod.  Being healthy and wealthy does notequate with being a righteous person in God’s eyes.  Being poor and ill does not mean one hasangered God.  Does this mean there isnothing to be learned from the difficult times of our life?  No, there is much to be learned from thedifficult times in our lives, but what we can learn is more about us than it isabout God.  God has created us with freewill, with wisdom, and with compassion and put us in dominion over God’screation.  When we experience sufferingin our own life or in the lives of others, God expects us to respond with ourwisdom and with our compassion.  We arecharged by God to work in ways to reduce the suffering caused by poverty and byillness.  My experience has been thosewho have not suffered are the least prepared to respond in compassionate waysto the suffering of others.  We don’thave to be poor or ill to be compassionate but knowing the weight of sufferingprovides us with the empathy to respond to others who struggle under itsweight.  One of the most effective waysto move someone from feeling overwhelmed by their circumstances to feelinghopeful they can manage is to remind them of other times when they have feltoverwhelmed and have come through.

I do not believe God sends us difficulties as punishment butI do believe God uses our struggles to demonstrate the depth of our faith andthe strength we find when we trust that faith. I so often hear people saying things like God won’t send you more thanyou can handle or God brought you to it and God will bring you through it.  As well-meaning as these expressions may be,they do not acknowledge the truth that sometimes we are given more than we canhandle and sometimes we arrive at places God didn’t bring us to.  What I believe to be true is God will neverabandon us, God is with us even when life is more than we can manage, and Godis with us when we find us in a place where we are not equipped to gothrough.  Our faith is not that life willnot be too hard or our path too difficult. Our faith is that in those times we can trust that God is with us,guiding us, holding us, and loving us even when we find it difficult to loveourselves.

Life is full of lessons, some of them more difficult thanothers.  The best we can do with thoselessons is to seek to learn how to be more loving, more healing, and to be morewise in the ways we live and the way we treat others.  In other words to be more Christ like.  Amen.

Itr is a sunny day, brisk fall temperatures and it should be a bright Monday but it isn't.  I am at the church and I have received calls for help from total strangers.  They are calling all the churches in the phonebook trying to get help to feed their families, pay their rent, purchase prescriptions, get a bus pass to be be able to find work or go to work.  The stories are heart wrenching and yes, I know, some of them are totally fabricated but some too many are honest accounts of their lives.  I am supposed to know which are which and even if I do believe the story, I have precious little to offer.

I tried to raise my spirit by remembering the story of the person walking along the beach and throwing stranded starfish back into the ocean.  When the person is confronted that there are so many starfish that impossible to save them all so what difference does it make.  The person responds that it makes a difference to the starfish that is thrown back into the sea.  Nice story, probably a good analogy but on my dark Monday I wonder does it really make a difference to that starfish thrown back into the sea throws the starfish back on the beach.  Do we make a difference to someone who has no way to pay rent, buy food, get their medicine, get to and from work and we cannot support them over time.  I understand the unexpected emergency that a one time offer of support resolves and the person can manage from then on.  I understand giving someone assistance for the first couple weeks of a job before they get their first paycheck, and I understand supporting people waiting for their pension, their disability, or unemployment.  But how do we help those who are in pervasive poverty and the social safety net has failed them?

It seems to me the government has failed to provide a basic safety net at the very time when charitable institutions are struggling to meet their own expenses let alone have resources to support those who cannot support themselves.  The true source of my dark Monday is my concern that we have reached compassion fatique and we no longer are willing to be taxed to care for others, we are no longer willing to give from our resources to charitable organizations in such a way as to sustain people over long periods of time. I have received messages from friends I believe to be decent, good hearted people, who have tried to convince me the government was wrong to intervene to protect pension funds of businesses that were failing because this caused the stockholders and the investors to loose money.  Isn't that the risk one takes when one invests?  I cannot help but feel the prevailing culture is to take care of one's self and everyone is on their own.

 I fear that my response may be to stop walking the beach so I don't have to see the stranded starfish and I don't want to feel that way.

“I don’t know how to love him.”  I cannot tell you how much Jesus Christ Superstar” influenced myrelationship with Jesus and consequently with God.  I had a friend who managed a movie theaterwhen the movie came out and he let me in to see it about eight times before itleft the theater.  I own the video.  The movie came out at a time when I wasstruggling with what faith meant and who Jesus was.  I have been a regular church attender all mylife and the Gospel narrative spoke to me but in a bland, other worldly sort ofway.  This movie made Jesus real to me,an earthy, interesting person, a man I could love.  Of course, at the time of its release theplay and movie were criticized by the majority of church leaders, precisely forthe reasons that it so profoundly affected me. Jesus became all too human, and much too sensual to be God in humanform.  This despite the fact that we aretold that Jesus was fully human and tempted in every way that we aretempted.  I expect it will be the samewith the recent announcement of a scrap of papyrus has been found with areference to Jesus speaking of his wife and suggesting she was a disciple.  The Catholic Church has already made thestatement that Jesus was a bachelor. 

What is the fear religious leaders have about Jesus being asexual person and possibly married?  Itdoesn’t change the gospel message.  Itdoesn’t change the acts of teaching and healing.  The possibility that Jesus was married onlychanges what we have been taught about sexuality and about gender, particularlythe place of women in the divine plan. The church has spent centuries teaching us about shame and the evils ofpassion and the need to hide our bodies. We speak derisively about the Taliban and its requirements that women becovered from head to toe but our fundamental beliefs are not that far fromtheirs.  We have people in our legalsystem that suggest that what a person is wearing can be a justification forothers to sexually assault them.  I haveheard preachers speak about what is appropriate attire to be worn inpublic.  I heard one preacher say shewanted to use a Lady Gaga video as a part of her sermon but the clothing LadyGaga was wearing was inappropriate for church. I heard another preacher bemoan the fact that our Pride parade here inLouisville was marred by the fact that some people participated wearing minimalclothing.  Since when did the beauty ofour bodies as God created them become evil?

The Genesis story tells us God first knew the humans haddisobeyed when God came to the garden and the humans hid themselves becausethey were naked.  It is when we ate ofthe fruit of the knowledge of good and evil that we began judging others andjudging ourselves.  God intended for thejudging to be done by God but we took it over and we did so with avengeance.  The reading from the Song ofSolomon is clearly about two people, maybe more, who are excited at theappearance of another.  Their passions arearoused by the beauty and grace of the other, and God thought this was importantenogh to include in our sacred scriptures. God gave us passion as a gift, not as a temptation.  Seeing beauty in another, seeing beauty inourselves is to glorify our God who created such beauty.  The strength of passion for another is whatbrings us together into family units, we are told to cleave to one another asone body.  This may refer to a uniting ofour spirits but it most certainly refers to the uniting of our physical bodies.  This is good, this is God’s plan for us.

Am I saying then that Jesus was mistaken when he warned usagainst lust?  I am not.  Attraction is to lust what appetite is togluttony.  Just because we have anappetite for food does not mean we consume everything we see.  Lust is an uncontrollable desire that doesnot give a thought to the consequences of taking what is desired.  Lust for money, power, or a person is never ahealthy response.  Many fundamentalreligions teach that women must be completely covered from head to foot becausemen cannot be expected to control their lust and therefore the woman must notincite physical attraction.  This is avery sad commentary on men.  It isfoundationally the same argument that has kept same gender attractedindividuals out of our military.  It wasbelieved they would not be able to control their lust when they were insituations where same gender persons would be naked.  It is understandable why the militaryleadership would believe this to be true when we consider the prevalence ofrape within the military.  The truth,however isn’t the gender attraction of the individual, the problem is a culturethat not only tolerates soldier on soldier aggression but actually encouragesas a way of developing a fighting machine. 

God and Jesus teach us the gift of passion, of attraction isa beautiful thing and we should celebrate it. They also teach us that uncontrolled desire to dominate another, to takewhat is not ours, to treat others as mere objects for our satisfaction is eviland we must reject it in others and in ourselves.  God knows how difficult it is for us to loveand treat others as God loves and treats us, but God also has given us thesource of strength and wisdom to do and be better.  Controlling our passions does not require usto deny them or to shame them, controlling our passions requires us to expressthem in the mutually affirming way that is found in our Golden Rule, do untoothers as you would have them to do unto you. Amen.

One of the most common statements I hear from people when weare speaking of funerals and visitations for someone who has died is, “I rarelygo because I never know what to say?”  Iusually respond by asking if they have ever been at a visitation or funeral forsomeone close to you.  The commonresponse is, “Yes, but that doesn’t help because I can’t remember what thepeople said to me.”  And that is thepoint exactly.  The rightness has muchless to do with what we say and is much more about the intentions of our heartand soul.  Two people can say the samewords to me but the impact will vary greatly depending on my experience withthe person and the emotion that comes through with the words.  The greatest drawback to our texting,tweeting, instant messaging, and e-mailing culture is the loss of emotionalconnection to the words sent.  I don’tcare how many emoticons or capital letters you use, the emotion behind thewords is just lost.  My use of humor andsarcasm in instant messages and e-mails (I don’t text or tweet) has gotten meinto more trouble than I would have ever imagined.  The intention of our words is more important thanthe words themselves.  I cannot controlthe impact of my words but I am responsible to work hard to convey myintentions in what I say and do. Communication is never easy, not even face to face and this makes it sovery important that we work at communicating well.

Part of what we have been challenged to do during thisinterim time between settled pastors is to deal with our past.  We are preparing to celebrate 40 years ofministry in the Louisville area. Traditionally use anniversaries to celebrate the good that has happenedand the joys that have been experienced and that is as it should be.  Privately, we should also examine thechallenges and the disappointments that have occurred in those fortyyears.  How often have we experiencedpain, how many people have left this congregation due to words spoken in haste,actions taken without thought, and the failure on both sides to talk through whathappened, what was intended and what was experienced?  I am drawn to the story of Peter and Jesusand their conversation on the road around Caesarea Philippi.  Jesus outlines the plan God has for Jesus andPeter responds that it will not happen without a fight.  I wonder how that might play out in a faithcommunity today.  The pastor outlines aplan for ministry that he or she believes is God ordained.  A leader of the community disagrees that thisis a good plan and expresses disagreement. The leader may choose to avoid direct confrontation and decide to justease this leader out of leadership.  Theleader sensing a change in relationship may choose not to speak directly to thepastor, instead choosing to speak with some other influential members of thecongregation to gain their support in opposing the ministry.  The pastor then decides to attack thedisloyalty of the leader and those who agree with him or her.  The faction may then become incensed andchoose to leave the church.  Or, it couldplay out more like the way Jesus and Peter managed the situation.  The pastor could lay out a ministry plan; theopponent could express concerns and an alternative plan.  The pastor could then respond directly as towhy the plan proposed is superior and the opponent accept the leadership of thepastor and move on together.  It is alsopossible the disagreement could work its way out the way it did in last week’sstory of Jesus and the Syro-Phoenician woman. The pastor could oppose a ministry and a person point out how theministry absolutely fits the mission of the church and the pastor accepts thereasoning and they go forward together in ministry.  The critical point for us to recognize in theway Jesus handled disagreement was in direct discussion and then moving forwardtogether.

We will not always be right in our words, we will not alwaysact in God honoring ways and we must be willing to accept our errors,acknowledge when our words or actions have been hurtful, and ask forforgiveness, even when we never intended hurt. Too often, when there is a conflict, we spend way too much energy tryingto prove that something didn’t happen or that it wasn’t our fault, or theexperience of the other wasn’t our intention. When we do this, any words of reconciliation are unlikely to be receivedas sincere.  Finding the words ofreconciliation rightly spoken requires each of us to seek to hear the other,accept his or her emotions, and then express sincere regret for the pain he orshe felt as a result of our encounter. Speaking words rightly spoken is foundationally about having the wisdomto speak from our soul, from that part of us connected to God and to the restof creation.  Words spoken from our ego,our need to be right, our need to have our own way, and our need to dominateanother can do tremendous damage to the other and to us.  Words spoken from the soul, God inspiredwords, words seeking shared understanding, words of mutuality, and words thatlift others up will do much to heal the world and ourselves.  Amen.

We are a justice loving people.  We have justice ministries.  We love to quote Amos, “Let justice roll downlike water” and Micah, “What does God demand of you but to do justice, and tolove kindness, and walk humbly with your God?” We love the concept of justice and still we struggle with what isjustice.  Justice is defined as actingwith fairness and without bias.  Justiceis acting from moral righteousness. Justice is making decisions objectively and fairly.  The difficulty with these definitions is theyuse words that are just is vague as the one we are trying to define.  What do we mean by fair, moral, righteousness,and objectivity.  We have a Department ofJustice for our nation but what the Department thinks is just varies dependingon who controls the hiring and firing of employees of the Department.  What seems fair to one person will not seemfair to another, morality depends very heavily upon what one chooses for his orher moral code, righteousness depends upon what you believe to be right orwrong, and objectivity is a hypothetical concept as no one is ever completelyobjective, without bias or personal assumptions.  In the recent litigation of California’s Proposition8, supporters of Proposition 8 sought to have Judge Walker disqualified fromhearing the appeal because the ruling would directly affect him as a samegender loving man.  The argument wouldsuppose that there are Federal judges who have no preconceived notion of whatmarriage is.  This would require a judgewho had never entered into a marriage agreement, never been the product of amarriage agreement, and had not officiated at any one else’s marriageagreement.  Clearly all of theseactivities would pose the possibility of the judge not being objective.  While this may sound like mental gymnastics,it goes to the core of how we live lives of justice.

Our sacred texts tell us justice is the ability to treatothers and equals, not giving preference to others based upon their power,their wealth, their nationality, their ability, or their gender.  These were radical concepts at the times whenthey were written and some of them are battles we continue to fight today.  We as individuals and as congregations arestill tempted to give places of honor to those we perceive as having the wealthor influence to affect our future.  I wasrecently participating in a study group of MCC clergy.  We were discussing clergy care and theimportance of setting reasonable boundaries concerning what the senior pastoris responsible to do.  A senior pastor ofone of the larger congregations in our denomination offered the opinion thatwhile senior pastors should delegate the majority of pastoral care visits, theyshould also make time to visit major givers and congregational leaders.  I was surprised at the comment, and surprisedthat no one, except me, challenged his assertion.  I wondered why this attitude of giving greaterimportance to certain persons is so pernicious in our congregations and in ourclergy.

Perhaps we can find some explanation in the Gospel story fortoday.  Jesus has been on the roadteaching, healing, and speaking truth to power. I imagine he has entered a home where he thinks he won’t be recognizedso that he can rest.  However, heencounters a Syro-Phoenician woman asking him to heal her child.  I believe Jesus had a very human response todismiss the woman because he was tired and she was outside his vision of hisministry.  This speaks to me when I thinkof the times I want to define someone as unworthy of my time.  I want to believe I have more importantthings to do.  The woman confronts Jesuson what is just, what is fair, and what is morally right when it comes todealing with another person.  I believeJesus understood how his narrow vision of ministry to only the Jews was notjustice and he consented to heal her daughter. The lesson for those in ministry is not that we must heal, comfort, andencourage everyone who asks.  No, thereare other stories where Jesus moved on when the demands of the people grew toomuch, and there are times when Jesus equipped the disciples to care for thepeople.  The lesson to those of us inministry is we should never fail to care for someone because we see them asunworthy of our ministry.

Doing justice is not something that comes naturally to us,flawed vessels that we are.  We fall backon the rules of the world, where people are treated based on their station inlife.  The truth is even deeper,sometimes we treat ourselves based upon our perception of our station inlife.  We may believe we are not worthyto lead worship or sit in places of importance. We may accept the world’s opinion that we should not call attention to ourselvesbecause we are unworthy.  Equally so, wemay believe we are more important than others, more deserving of God’sblessings.  We may believe we have beengiven wealth and influence for the purpose of making sure the church runs theright way.  The majority of people I havemet who give to the church do so unconditionally.  They do not seek influence as a result of theirgiving or their service.  Those who doare giving for the wrong reason and the congregations who acquiesce to thedemands have lost sight of who the church serves.  The church must always seek to do justice,God’s justice.  Where all are equal, allare of worth, and where our desire is not to control but to serve.  Amen.

Walking by faith and in God’s grace is not as easy as somewould have us to think.  There is a verypopular poem, “Footprints in the sand” by Mary Stevenson. 

“One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Manyscenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were twosets of footprints, other times there was one only.  This bothered me because I noticed thatduring the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow ordefeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord, “Youpromised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But Ihave noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only beenone set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”  The Lord replied, “The years when you haveseen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”

It is a beautiful poem and I know manypeople take great comfort in the vision of God carrying us in the toughtimes.  However, I think it is not a verygood faith walk image.  God doesn’t justcarry us when the times are tough, God always carries us.  To me, that is what it means to walk infaith.  We walk trusting God is taking uswhere we are supposed to go.  I think thepoem would be more accurate if we look back at the footprints in the sand andwe see when there is one set of footprints it is during the times in our liveswhen we are content and the times when there are two sets of footprints arewhen the path gets erratic, heading off into the deep water, or into thethistles, or over the broken glass.  AndGod would say to us, those are the times you insisted I put you down and youwould go your own way.

The story of Jesus walking on the water isnot about ignoring the laws of nature.  Ido not know of any other instance of Jesus walking on water or any of thedisciples walking on water.  The point isthat when God needs to get something done, the laws of nature are notcontrolling.  When we walk in faith, webelieve God can do things with us that the world will tell us is not possibleto be done.  This doesn’t really makelife easier for us.  Most of us prefer tohave the rules spelled out and to know exactly what can and can’t be done andwhat should and should not be done. Living by faith and trusting in God’s grace means we have to be open toGod’s leading in our lives and we have to believe God’s grace is sufficient notjust for ourselves but for all others. We much prefer to be able to go to the rule book and find what is theright thing for us to do and what is the right thing for others to do.  God revealed the law to humankind to providea framework for making decisions about how we live together.  The law really meant to encourage us to thinkabout what we do and how it affects others. The law was about relationship building with others and with the rest ofcreation.  Instead the religious leadersused the law to control and exploit others. Jesus came and said that isn’t what God meant, it is about relationshipnot about hardship and control.

Living in relationship with God means weuse what God has revealed in the Holy Bible, what God has revealed to people weknow to have great faith, and what God has revealed to us to determine what weare called to do.  We will not all becalled to do the same things or to live in the same way.  You will notice Jesus did not tell all of thedisciples to get out of the boat.  It wasimportant for Peter to experience what he could do when he acted on hisfaith.  It was also important for all ofus to see what happens when we lose our focus and let our human weakness takecontrol.  I do not mean to suggest thatliving a life of faith requires us to abandon all reason.  Part of the way God has been revealed to usis in the laws of nature and in the predictability of consequences for certainactions.  The point is God can suspendthe rules when it is in God’s will.  Peterasked to come to Jesus and Jesus said come. It was a teaching moment about faith and focus.  Sometimes God will invite us into a teachingmoment about faith and focus.  We caneither accept the invitation or decide to stay in the security of the known.

Just this last week, I was speaking withsomeone about my future plans.  I wasfrustrated because I don’t really know what I can commit to more than a fewweeks out because I don’t know if I will get an appointment and where thatappointment will be.  I have seasontickets for MSU football but don’t know how many games I will actually get toattend.  I have requests from friends tocome visit in the fall but I don’t know if I will be home.  I was really working myself up into a pityparty about how unfair this interim specialist ministry is and then I thoughtabout Peter in the boat and asking Jesus to let him come to Jesus and thenpanicking when he saw the waves around him. I asked God to use me, to use my gifts and talents and God said come,serve the congregations that are in transition and help them to heal andstrengthen to go boldly into the future and then move on.  These are my gifts and talents and I jumpedin, and then I let myself get distracted by the difficulties swirling around meand I want God to make it easy.  If wewant easy, we have to stay in the boat and then we miss the excitement of doingthings we never imagined we would do and doing things the world will tell us wecan’t do.

It is also important to note that, whenPeter lost his focus and his faith was not strong, Jesus took his hand andbrought him safely back to the boat. Sometimes we will step out in faith and then we look around us, we getscared, and we feel ourselves sinking. It is good to know when we call out for God to save us, God will do justthat.  We are never outside of God’sreach.  God made us, God knows howdifficult it is for us to walk the walk of faith, God knows how tempted we areto take control of our lives and do what makes sense to the world rather thanwhat God tells us is the right way to live. God lets us take control and run to the hazards but God never lets go ofus.    Amen.