Christmas Eve 2012

Joy to Be Shared Christmas Eve 2012 Some of you may be familiar with the name of Karl Barth. He was a Swiss theologian who died in 1968. He wrote, among other things, a thirteen volume series of books titled Church Dogmatics. He wrote hundreds of pages outlining great theological thought. It seems that late in his life, he was asked to give a lecture to a group of young seminary students at Chicago Divinity School. It was quite a lecture although he was already failing in health. At the close of the lecture, the president of the seminary said this to the students, “Dr. Barth is not well and while he would like to take your questions, he is unable to do so.” He then turned to Barth and said, “I would like to ask you just one question on behalf of all of us. Of all the theological insights you have ever had, which do you consider to be the greatest of them all?” What an amazing question for a man who had penned some of the most complicated explanations of theology ever written. Apparently, the students put their pens to paper, ready to record the answer. It is reported that Dr. Barth, closed his eyes for just a moment, and then replied, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” And, that was that. As I reflected on these profound words of Karl Barth, well-known to me through my childhood, I tried to grasp what those words really mean—Jesus loves me, this I know. Now I will admit to you that I have thought about this reflection for weeks—you know, it’s Christmas Eve, and all preachers know that their words should reflect the importance of this night. And, then, I came across this story of Dr. Barth and the seminarians and it knocked me to my knees. Forget all the lofty words, the deep theological insights—this is Christmas Eve and Jesus loves me—this is what I know and of this is what I should speak. Jesus, this tiny babe in a manger, loves us. Jesus, this man who walked and talked with the poorest of the poor and the sickest of the sick, loves us. Jesus, this man, both God and servant of God, loves us. Jesus, the Rock of Salvation, Wonderful Counselor, and Prince of Peace, loves us. US! Beckoning to us to come and see, the Light of God shows us the way. And we come, not as children, the passage of time knows better; but we come as children of God—each year, welcomed anew to deepen our relationship with all that is Holy in our lives and with the God, who created all things. We come to be forgiven and healed, comforted and made whole, embraced and filled with joy. And, so, together we go—these are some of my private musings with this tiny baby, loving teacher, servant God. I picture myself standing in front of Mary, gazing at the child. I remember to tell Mary that her baby is beautiful and she smiles. Then my eyes and my heart rest on him. My soul sings as Mary’s did just a few months before. And I know that I am blessed. I know that God has chosen me to love and to use in this world as a servant of Divine Love. God fills my heart with Joy and sets my feet to dancing to the rising of a heavenly song. I am aware on this night, like no other, that God has created me to be the person that I am—all that I am—and has guided me through all my life. It occurs to me that I am twice the age that Jesus was when he began his ministry on earth. And, here I am, still a beginner in this experience called life; but God calls me to learn more and more of the Sacred Truths of what it means to be God’s child. And, here in front of this baby, I begin anew, on the holiest of nights to seek and find the peace that surpasses all my understanding but is freely given in the light of this Holy Child. Tonight, I open my heart wider still to receive the grace that God longs to pour into my life. Tonight, I invite you to place yourselves in front of the manger, for I believe that God has Sacred Truths in store for every one of us. I invite you, to find a place of quiet even if only for a moment, to seek out what God has nestled in the manger along with this baby that is your gift from God tonight. This Christmas Eve may you find the song that shapes your souls and may you travel to Bethlehem and stand with lowly shepherds and proud new parents and see the child that was born for you. May you hear and feel God’s gracious and loving embrace of you and all that you are. May you know the blessed peace that comes from journeying to the silent place in your heart where God waits ready to speak your name and call you to joy. Tonight, all God’s people whisper, Amen and amen. And we are family tonight. I invite you to turn to those around you and say “Merry Christmas, Jesus loves you!” Joy to the World

THe One-of-a-Kind Glory 12-23-12

The Reading—Isaiah 2: 1-5 The Message Isaiah got regarding Judah and Jerusalem: There’s a day coming when the mountain of GOD’s House Will be The Mountain— solid, towering over all mountains. All nations will river toward it, people from all over set out for it. They’ll say, “Come, let’s climb GOD’s Mountain, go to the House of the God of Jacob. He’ll show us the way he works so we can live the way we’re made.” Zion’s the source of the revelation. GOD’s Message comes from Jerusalem. He’ll settle things fairly between nations. He’ll make things right between many peoples. They’ll turn their swords into shovels, their spears into hoes. No more will nation fight nation; they won’t play war anymore. Come, family of Jacob, let’s live in the light of GOD. The Middle Reading--from “How the Light Comes” by Jan Richardson I cannot tell you how the light comes. What I know is that it is more ancient than imagining. That it travels across an astounding expanse to reach us. That it loves searching out what is hidden, what is lost, What is forgotten, or in peril, or in pain. … I cannot tell you how the light comes, but that it does. That it will. That it works its way into the deepest dark that enfolds you, though it may seem long ages in coming or arrive in a shape you did not foresee. And so may we this day turn ourselves toward it. May we lift our faces to let it find us. May we bend our bodies to follow the arc it makes. May we open and open more and open still to the blessed light that comes. The Gospel—John 1:1-18 The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one. Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing! came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness: the darkness couldn’t put it out. There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light. The Life-Light was the real thing: Every person entering Life he brings into Light. He was in the world, the world was there through him, and yet the world didn’t even notice. He came to his own people, but they didn’t want him. But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves. These are the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten. The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of- a-kind glory, like Parent, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish. John pointed him out and called, “This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word.” We all live off his generous bounty, gift after gift after gift. We got the basics from Moses, and then this exuberant giving and receiving, this endless knowing and understanding—all this came through Jesus, the Messiah. No one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse. This one-of-a-kind God- Expression, who exists at the very heart of the Creator, has made God plain as day. The One-of-a-Kind Glory 12-23-12 God, Source of all Light and life, call us to sit up and watch for the coming of the Life-Light anew in our hearts. It’s almost Christmas, and we’re not sure we’re ready for all you have in store for us. Open our hearts wide that we may receive every blessing you for us. May the words of my mouth be inspired by your Holy Spirit and may our listening be an upturning of our faces to greet your light this day. Amen Do you know the first recorded words of Biblical history? I’ll give you a moment---“Let there be light!” That’s what God said upon seeing the creation of the world. And there was light! And we, the people of God, have been searching ever since for ways to experience that light which God called into being before life itself. You’d think it would be easy for us to understand—why look around “light” is everywhere. And, if the day is gray or night has fallen, we simply flip a switch and light abounds. And yet, we struggle and struggle and struggle some more to know how to make that same light alive in our spirits, our minds, and yes, even our bodies. Isaiah tells us that to live in the light is to live in the way we were made. Living in God’s light, in tune with the plans of our Creator, produces change in the world—right and fair relationships between all nations and peoples, swords changed into shovels and spears into hoes, war a thing of the past. Christ has come again at almost 2000 Christmases and, still, we fail to comprehend the radical righting of relationships when we live as God called us to be as people of the Light. The verses in the Gospel of John that were read today are called the Prologue. There are no pretty angels here, rugged shepherds or well-heeled sages—nothing to get in the way of understanding that which John would have us understand. Poet that John was—he speaks in words that call us to have to try hard to grasp their meaning. But grasp we must if we are to participate in this Life-Light that blazes out of the darkness in John’s interpretation of the coming of Jesus into the world. Jesus and God, intimately linked from the beginning of time, waiting for the right time to be revealed to the world. And when this divine Life-Light was revealed in the coming of Jesus to earth, it could not be extinguished. Building on the basics from Moses, Jesus gives us an in flesh expression of God that we can all understand. In fact, this Jesus has made God plain as day. Most of us may say today, “Really? God plain as day?” We’ve been asking a lot of questions in the last two weeks or so about where God is. Several of you asked me the question all preachers fear. “Why does God let things like that happen?” It doesn’t matter what the “that” is in the sentence, it’s all the same question. Who is this God, anyway? And, if omnipotent and all powerful, why did this (whatever the this may be) happen?” I’m going to give you an answer that is horribly unsatisfying and dangerously honest. “I don’t know.” But, I do know where God is in the seconds after the evil (wherever it is—in Connecticut, Tucson, the Pentagon, New York City or Uganda) is perpetrated. God is in the teachers who shielded children with their own bodies, God is in the first responders at every single scene where evil has played out its torturous renunciation of all things holy, God is in the words of the pastors called upon to preach in circumstances that no one can prepare for. God is in the songs of the Children’s Christmas pageants that continue to take place in every church determined to let God’s light shine for all to see, and God is in the prayers of the broken-hearted and desolate. The world comes dangerously close to extinguishing the Light in my opinion. Wars, wounded soldiers, murdered children, abused women and men, and people dying by the thousands of AIDS—a disease we should have been able to eradicate decades ago—all cause us to ask “why?” We, much like Mary, ponder all these things in our hearts as we watch the unfolding of the Christmas story again this year. But, John calls us back to reality—the Light shines in this darkness because the darkness has not overcome it. Everyone is invited to experience this one-of-a-kind glory. That’s a close as John gets to celestial beings or magical messages in dreams and visions. This glory is for all, that is, all who participate in this Reign of Light and Life. Here, we encounter more than a little resistance. How does this work, this experiencing of glory? Many of us will say, I can’t identify with this. My religion is practical, none of this mystical, soul-shifting stuff for me. Here’s where “Glory” gets a bad name. We convince ourselves that this interior, life-altering experience of God is just for monks, nuns, preachers or others who devote their lives to walking with God. Not so. If Jesus came to make God known for all of us, then we can truly understand God by looking to the incarnation of God. I believe that God intends for the experience of God’s presence to be universally available. But we must want it, we must want to experience God’s fullest fullness. Fr. Henri Nouwen describes it like this: “We must be attentive and interiorly alert. For some people the experience of the fullness of time comes in a spectacular way, as it did to St. Paul when he fell to the ground on his way to Damascus (Acts 9:3-4). But for some of us it comes like a murmuring sound or a gentle breeze touching our backs (1 Kings 19:13). God loves us all and wants us all to know this in a most personal way.” What does it mean for us to know that God loves us in a “personal way”? This, I think, is the crux of the Christmas story, at least for John. We know that, later in life, the teacher and prophet, Jesus, turned the world order upside down when he called the humble to the front of the line, the meek to rule the earth, and told the hungry that they would never be hungry again. Are these just stories? You must know, by now, that I would not have dedicated myself to the telling of mere stories over and over. No, I believe with everything in me, and I know that there are others here, too, who believe that the story of this Christ child can and will change our lives if we are fully open to hearing, digesting, pondering and interacting with the Divine in our inner, sacred lives. So when, we find ourselves craving something more this Christmas time, we are called by John to experience this glory for ourselves. Ah, this may be it—we have told the story so many times, or heard the story so many times, that it is something we rarely stop and take inside our hearts. We may plan, each time Advent or Christmas rolls around to spend more time in preparation for our encounter with Christ anew. But, rarely, do we actually manage to do so. And, so today, I call us to the quiet, to that sacred alone place where we can hear the call of God. It is in this quiet space, this open, humble space where God can be heard above all that clamors for our attention. And when, we are in the manger of our hearts, God is born again, clothed in humble clothes and worshipped by poor and probably dirty shepherds. Friend to our troubled hearts, this Baby calls to us in soft infant smiles and troubled infant tears. And we reach out to lift and love this baby into our hearts—those hearts made tender and whole by our encounter with this divine infant—this Light in the world. And we, in turn, will light the world for all to see. Marianne Williamson reminds us: “Christ is born into the world through each of us. As we open our hearts, he is born into the world. As we choose to forgive, he is born into the world. As we rise to the occasion, he is born into the world. As we make our hearts true conduits for love, and our minds true conduits for higher thoughts, then absolutely a divine birth takes place. Who we're capable of being emerges into the world…” And, so, today, we wait. We wait for the holiest of nights to unfold tomorrow. And, as we wait, God waits to show us all that we were planned to be. God loves us and has a plan for our lives—and that plan involves growing and becoming, recognizing and reclaiming. We are, in many cases, a wounded people, but God calls us to wholeness—a divine wholeness that comes in God’s time, filling us with the unmistakable knowledge that God shines the Light so that we would come to love ourselves, each other and the world with the passion and power of sacred servanthood to God. And to God we say, we are open to your calling, your words, and your silence. Perhaps this is what Mary, epitome of sacred servanthood, pondered as she encountered God in Jesus in the manger right where he lay. Amen and amen.

Blessed Among Women 12-9-12

The Reading— Isaiah 42: 1-8 “Here is my Servant, whom I uphold my chosen one, in whom I delight! I have endowed you with my Spirit that you may bring true justice to the nations. You do not cry out or raise your voice, or make yourself heard in the street. So gentle that you do not break a bruised reed, or quench a wavering flame, faithfull you will bring forth true justice. You will neigher waver nor be crushed until justice is established on earth, for the nations await your teaching! Thus says Yahweh, who created the heavens and spread them out, who gave shape to the earth and what it produces, who gave life to its peoples and spirit to its inhabitants. I, Yahweh, have called you to serve the cause of right; I have taken you by the hand, and I watch over you. I have appointed you to be a covenant people, a light to the nations: to open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison, and those who sit in darkness from the dungeon. I am Yahweh! This is my Name!” The Middle Reading--from Jan Richardson and is entitled Drawing Near. It is difficult to see it from here, I know, but trust me when I say this blessing is inscribed on the horizon. Is written on that far point you can hardly see. Is etched into a landscape whose contours you cannot know from here. All you know is that it calls you, draws you, pulls you toward what you have perceived only in pieces, in fragments that came to you in dreaming or in prayer. I cannot account for how, as you draw near, the blessing embedded in the horizon begins to blossom upon the soles of your feet, shimmers in your two hands. It is one of the mysteries of the road, how the blessing you have traveled toward, waited for, ached for suddenly appears as if it had been with you all this time, as if it simply needed to know how far you were willing to walk to find the lines that were traced upon you before the day that you were born. The Gospel Reading: Luke 1: 39-43 Within a few days Mary set out and hurried to the hill country to a town of Judah, where she entered Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why am I so favored, that the mother of the Messiah should come to me? The moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who believed that what our God said to her would be accomplished!” Oh, I see you’re all here. She told me you would be. I’m Elizabeth. I want to tell you a story, several stories actually—it all took place a long time ago, but I want to tell you my story of miracles. It all started with my husband, Zechariah. A good man, my Zechariah—anyway, Zechariah was a priest. Out of thousands of priests it came to be Zechariah’s turn to go the Sanctuary to offer sacrifices and to pray. This is how he tells the story. While everyone waited expectantly outside, he went into the Sanctuary. There he saw an angel that told him several incredible things—my poor Zechariah, how he must have trembled in the sight of the angel. This angel told my dear husband that I would become pregnant and bear a child. Now, this, my chosen friends, was pretty hard to believe. We were too old to think about having children—why my body was already telling me that childbearing days were over and, quite frankly, we had given up. Zechariah was even older than I was, so I can imagine that Zechariah was more than doubtful. But the angel insisted and told him that I would bear a very special boy, one who would grow to be a very important man—the man who would announce the coming of the Messiah. The Messiah—the one we had waited for all those years. My poor Zechariah couldn’t believe his ears—in fact, he didn’t believe his ears and for that God struck him deaf and dumb. He came back out of the Sanctuary, but he couldn’t tell anyone what happened—even when he tried to draw pictures. Everyone knew he had been touched by God, they just didn’t know how. Zechariah came home and I comforted him and, well, then, and this causes me to blush, I became pregnant. I did, in fact, have a baby boy, and we named him “John” just as God insisted. Just at the time we named our baby, Zechariah could again speak. There he was, my Zechariah, who had been silenced during my pregnancy, praising God and telling all who would listen about his time with the angel, Gabriel, who had told him all that John would do. The announcer of the Messiah, my John was chosen to clear the way for the coming of the Messiah. But, in my excitement to tell you of my own child’s birth, I’ve gotten way ahead of myself. I know that you will forgive me, I waited so long to even have a child and that God would choose me to bear this special baby, filled me with such wonder and joy that it is very hard for me to stop talking about my John. So, please, be patient with me. My John was not the only miracle in my family that year. So let me tell you about Mary, and her son, Jesus. Mary was my cousin, sort of. I can’t remember exactly how we were related, but we were. She was much younger than I—much, much younger. She was only just starting the time when she could become pregnant when I was long done—trust me, long, long done. During the same time as I was pregnant with John, something very strange and wonderful happened to Mary and her husband-to-be, Joseph. Mary, why she couldn’t have been more than 14 or 15 at the time, was promised to Joseph. Joseph was a kind man, and I was thrilled for her that she was so fortunate as to be engaged to such a wonderful man. Now, there is something you need to understand—when you were engaged, it is the same thing as being married in our law. And then—the real miracle happened. I tell it to you the way Mary told it to me, so young and trusting she was. Mary said that the Angel Gabriel, I suppose the same one as visited my Zechariah, came to see her. He told her some very strange things indeed. He told her that she was one of God’s favored ones. She was scared, poor little thing, and who wouldn’t be—some angel appearing out of nowhere. She said the angel told her not to be afraid, and that God was going to use her to bear the child who was the Messiah—the Messiah, she said she couldn’t believe her ears. But Mary, was a smart one, she knew just how babies come to be, if you know what I mean. So she says that she worked up her courage and asked the angel how this was going to happen, since she and Joseph were not married. But the angel goes right on and says that the Holy Spirit would enter her and she would become pregnant with God’s son. Now, I’ve got to stop this story right now and ask you, what would you have done? 14 or 15—knowing that being pregnant before she married Joseph would cost her everything, everything, Joseph, her family, everything. But Mary kept listening and then the angel told her about me and Zechariah and the baby I was carrying at the time. The angel said, “with God, nothing is impossible”. Well, I was living proof of that, you know, so she couldn’t argue with that. And then, it seems that this sweet young child surrendered to the will of God, and told the angel that she would do exactly what God told her to do. I’m so proud of my little cousin-of sorts, what a brave young woman she became in those few moments. At least I had Zechariah, she didn’t know if she had anyone. Did you know that she could have been disowned by her family or even killed for her so-called Holy pregnancy? It was all up to Joseph to decide her fate. So, she came to see me. I wasn’t going out anymore, as I was pretty big, that John was a big baby, don’t you know. But, wait, I forgot to tell you about Joseph. Joseph was a good man, but couldn’t bear the thought of having a wife made pregnant by someone else. But he wanted to spare her public disgrace—he was working on what to do when he got his own visit from an angel. After that, he was a changed man and he agreed to marry Mary anyway and raise her baby as his own. So, through the door she comes. I am rising slowly, seems as if I was doing everything slowly those days. As she entered the room, that baby inside me started doing flip-flops. And, I knew immediately that something very special was happening. I told Mary that I knew the baby she was carrying was God’s son. I felt so blessed to be in her presence, like a great white light was pouring peace into the room. I couldn’t tell where the light was coming from but it flooded over us both as I just stood and gazed at her. In my heart, I wanted her to truly know how honored I felt to be in her presence, it was as if I encountered God in a completely new way. I told her that she and her baby were blessed. I told her that I could barely believe that I was standing in the presence of the mother of God. I told her that my baby knew, too—that he recognized that her baby was the Son of God. It so amazed me that this mere child was carrying the earthly incarnation of God. I wish I could help you understand—to you the coming of Jesus is nothing new—happens every year, so I hear. But, not in my time, our people had waited hundreds of years for this baby—this baby who now filled Mary’s belly as she stood in front of me. As I was trying to take this all in, Mary sang the most beautiful song. Let me see if I can remember most of the words. My soul belongs to God. My spirit is full of the joy of God. God cared for me, a woman of no importance— Until now. Now, I am blessed and all will know of God’s work in me. I am humbled, even to say the Name of God is a holy act. Those who know God intimately believe in this sacred love— And not just at this moment but for all time. Every generation who walks this God-created earth know of God And of God’s acts of power and might. God disarms those who are proud and think they know it all— Confuses them in their hearts and minds. God, our Creator, fills all the hungry people--those who are Hungry for food and those who are hungry for God. But those who feel no need for God because they think they are Rich have been sent away. God remembers the promise to Israel—the promise to always be Our God. The mercy and love that flows from that promise Are for all of us, now and forever. And, then she was just Mary again, but somehow different, always changed, never the same. She stayed with me right up to the time of John’s birth—it was such a joy to have her with me during those months and watch her grow into a beautiful young woman, called to be the Mother of God. Well, you know the rest of the story, I guess. You certainly don’t need me to tell it to you. I wanted to tell you my story, though, to tell you of the miracles that I saw, that I experienced, that I know to be true. Most of all, I wanted to tell you what it felt like to be in the presence of God, even before that baby who would change everything was born. I felt so humbled and yet so lifted up at the same time. This God, the God of our forefathers and foremothers, of Abraham and Sarah—this same God had visited me and filled me with a divine sense of the grace and love of God, and my life was never the same. Is that what happens for you, I wonder—this time, each year. Do your hearts open so that you can feel the presence of God in your heart, in your mind, in your body and spirit? I wish for you, what I had—an encounter with God that changes you for now and forever. My time with you is over, but I pray for you this day. And so, as I leave you, I say, amen and amen.

The Sacred Yes 11-25-12 Rev. Donna Twardowski

First Reading: Psalm 46:4-10 There’s a river whose streams gladden the city of God, the holy dwelling of the Most High. God is in its midst, it will never fall—God will help it at daybreak. Though nations are in turmoil and empires crumble, God’s voice resounds and it melts the earth. Come, see what the Creator has done—God makes the earth bounteous! God has put an end to war, from one end of the earth to the other, breaking bows, splintering spears, and setting chariots on fire. “Be Still, and know that I am God!” I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted upon the earth.” Contemporary Reading: from LETTERS FROM THE INFINITE as revealed to Rev. Deborah L. Johnson “When you say Yes, my children say Yes to me, say Yes to us, say Yes to our Oneness. If only you would start from this point. When you say Yes there does not have to be a particular something that you are agreeing with. The agreement when you say Yes is to our Oneness….your understanding that, in the acknowledgment and acceptance of that Oneness, all plans come together for your Good. Yes is your understanding that despite all appearances, despite all the facts and seeming circumstances, I am alive and well and working in all of them AND have a way of transforming all of them into something that is for the benefit of all. The Yes is the starting point. The Yes is the underlying basis through which all facts are interpreted.” Gospel: Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. You don’t build a city on a hill, then try to hide it do you? You don’t light a lamp, then put it under a bushel basket, do you? No, you set it on a stand where it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, your light must shine before others so that they may see your good acts and give praise to your Abba God in heaven.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ While I have been here preaching before, this time I get to see you during the week after the sermon, to hopefully hear how you may have reflected on the words which you heard. I am optimistic that will be a positive event!  I am blessed to be speaking to you today, the first of many occasions as we share our future together. Will you pray with me…Holy God, it is through You all things are possible, all things unfold in the midst of time, and all things are in the fulfillment of your plan for us. During unforeseen times, let us remember You are the creator of the plan and as we live into this plan, may Your will be done. So, may the words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, God, for you are our Rock, our Redeemer and our Resource, Amen. While the title of this sermon is “the sacred yes,” I’d like to begin by telling you a story of the life of someone who followed a path that was the alternative to the sacred yes. As an adult, she went to Bible study because in the religious tradition in which she grew up, the Bible was not taught. It was a book that was read from on Sunday mornings, and only the priest was allowed to touch the “Holy Pages.” The attraction and the desire to know more about these writings that influenced the actions of so many people in the world, across so many centuries, came from her deep desire and calling. That began one day in her young life, at 8 years old, while sitting in the church pew. She observed the “special relationship” the altar servers and priest seemed to have with God. She was never told she too, could have that same relationship. In fact, in that time and place she was told just the opposite; and it must have been true since she was humiliated every Sunday as she had to wear a hat and at times the silly doily on her head when she entered the church! (Thank you St. Paul) She could serve God as a nun. It appeared God and the priests had an intensely close relationship. If there was a place to be close to God, that is where she wanted to be. And while many a year had passed, and her relationship with God had taken many shapes and directions, the unwavering element was her faith in the God who created her being. The God who created the entire physical world, and who kept her gratefully moving forward. Trying to fulfill what she thought was a call and being told she was unworthy to answer it, life pushed her in all different directions and occupations. First a Master’s Degree in Education, since being a teacher seemed to be an acceptable job for a woman at the time. Then return to school to a career as an Occupational Therapist, certainly one could fulfill God’s calling by taking care of those who are hurting and suffering through rehabilitation. Then a college professor, teaching hundreds of students how to care for those in need. Surely God, this will satisfy your call. Back to the Bible Study, while having a phone conversation with a person in that Bible study group, I recall saying, “I just want to know what God wants me to do. What is my life’s purpose?” My friend Bob replied, (though he does not remember this) “the answer is really in John 6:29.” Which reads, ‘This is the work of God: to believe in the one whom God has sent.’ (Inclusive Bible, 2007) Well, I wasn’t prepared for such a direct answer! (I was used to hemming and hawing, processing and philosophizing as lesbians and academics do so well.) I remember sitting in my office at Ithaca College contemplating this Scripture over and over and trying to put it into context for my life. Then it came to me, well, duh, Donna it means just say YES to the call. But still I took no action on it until Marilyn figuratively “kicked me in the butt”, when she asked, “Are you going to do something about this or just keep talking about it?” I finally said YES and acted on it, and began the journey through seminary and into the life as clergy. YES is the answer to the call, the answer to the small voice which was relentless, which I tried to ignore, a call to which I felt I was not worthy.…. Fast forward about 15 years… It was about four years ago, as Marilyn and I were setting up and settling in after our move to Florida from central NY, that I went into Rev. Lisa’s office at Trinity and said, “I just graduated from seminary, and I am here to help in whatever way you can use me.” Rev. Lisa is a very demonstrative person and said, “THANK YOU JESUS! You are an answer to prayer!” So this October, when I was visiting friends at the Villages, I called Rev. Carol to see if I could stop by to see the new property and the renovations that were taking place here. Remember, I told you that Open Circle has always been close to my heart, so I kept up with what was happening here. Rev. Carol gave me a tour of the campus and we began talking about all that was going on and how she had spoken to the board about an administrative position. Our conversation continued and I began to see a look in her eye that indicated something clearly was formulating inside her. A while later, she then asked me how soon I could start work. When I got back to her a few days later, she said, not quite as demonstratively as Rev. Lisa, I was an answer to her prayers! I am sensing a theme here….which is incredibly humbling. A theme from using the simple word YES. I gave Rev. Carol a ‘sacred’ yes. There was no other choice. As I, as a person of faith was still, and prayed; and as I was available for a conversation with God, it was incredibly clear this opportunity was presented as a gift to me. YES was the sacred answer. Each of you can invite the sacred yes to be a part of your life as well. I think that requires three ways of being in the world. Be You. Be Still. and Be Available. Be YOU. In our reading for today, Jesus says, “You are the light of the world….let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your God in heaven.” We all have light within us. You have light within you. That light is the essence of God’s image. Your light shines bright all the time, whether you choose to share it or not. Sometimes we go around trying to pick and choose who deserves the sacred brightness of ourselves. How is it that we are the one to determine how the light gets used? In many ways, some of us have not figured out that we have a light or that we DESERVE a light. I am here to tell you, You have the light of God within you, and you need to shine that brightness upon yourself and those you encounter. Learn to be the brilliance that you are. You may need to start to acknowledge a 2 watt night light at first, and as you let that light shine and as it is reflected back to you in thoughts, words or deeds, the brilliance of your life will blind you! No longer will you be trying to figure out whether or not you should share your light. Your light will be unleashed energy that knows no bounds. Be you and Say Yes to this oneness with the light of God and for heaven’s sake, let your light out from under your personal bushel basket! Be still. My favorite Psalm is Psalm 46:10.. Be still and know I am God. It is my refuge when I get nervous, unsettled, or frustrated. “Be Still” as my favorite meditation as part of the Sign Chi Do meditation series which I will be offering in the future. I don’t think it is a coincidence that still is a part of both the reading and meditative experiences. Being still allows us to listen and hear what is next for us to shine our light on and say Yes to. As you are still, you may hear something that nudges or calls to you; it may start as a whisper, as it did for me in a pew 50 years ago. These days finding somewhere quiet and void of noise, cell phones, or drama is difficult. If you find a place to listen, you may hear something calling or beckoning you in the silence. Or, you may choose to ignore the whisper like it will go away; sometimes, instead it appears to get louder. Some people say they cannot hear God’s voice. Perhaps it is because you are unwilling to hear God. Or you think you are unworthy to hear God? What are you afraid of? You are a child of God, created in God’s image. You do not need to protect yourself from this listening for God. To me, the important question is, if you don’t say yes to God’s request, who or what are you saying yes to? For nearly 40 years I was wandering in the wilderness of life, ignoring the voice of God. When I said YES, life unfolded in an amazing plan. When you do say yes, without knowing how, or why, or what the plan is, or whether the plan will unfold, trust that it will. When you say Yes, and acknowledge this Oneness that God is asking to you join, all plans come together to make the yes possible. Certainly that is how it all unfolded for me to standing here today and to be able to say yes to be here at Open Circle. Be You, Be Still and… Be Available. Be Available to say Yes. Christ asks us to be disciples. That means looking forward. When you hold onto things that have happened in the past as many of us do, they take up space, they take up energy and they take up your light. When the same dramas, sagas and situations repeat themselves, you use precious spiritual, emotional and physical energy and space in your life. What is it that really has your attention? My question to you is, are you here to be a disciple or here to be discontent? What is it that you are running toward? OR What are you running away from? What is your intention? Are your intentions outwardly focused to replay past hurts or are you available to yourself to do your own spiritual work…to go into places and spaces where you have been hiding from God? Christ asks, “Are you available to me to do my work in the world?” If you answer YES and you pay attention, it becomes clear how effortlessly and easily everything works out without having to control it all. [Like finding a place to live in the Villages]. When you are available to the Spirit, there is a new vitality in your life; you feel more alive, and with this aliveness comes love. You are in love with life and become more available to God to say YES. Maybe you have heard the voice and didn’t know what to do with it…be you…be still and listen to what you are called to do with your life at home, at work, at church and to what ministry is the voice of God calling you. Maybe it is being a greeter or usher at church. Maybe tending to the campus through the ministry of nurturing God’s plants and property is what is calling to you. God generously provided that space for Open Circle to continue its ministry of justice and truth. Be available to say Yes to the oneness with God and your path will be shown to you. Maybe your YES will allow YOU to be the answer to somebody’s prayers! Most of all, as the Gospel of Matthew tell us, may your Yes mean and be the Yes God wants to hear. May it be so. Amen.

With All Your Passion 11-18-12

With All Your Passion 11-18-12 God, we thank you that when we turn to you, you are always there—lead us to know that we can be ever in your presence—ever in the peace that comes from knowing we are right where we belong. Let us move and live and have our being in you. Amen It occurred to me when I began to write this particular sermon that many of you were not present almost 3 years ago when we met at Genette and Noreen’s house for a “Meet and Greet”. There was no service at that first meeting, but there was a lot of excitement about starting an MCC Church even though many did not know exactly what that meant. I told my story that night and so a few of you know the truth about my experience with patience and passion, but most of you do not. So, here goes— I grew up like many of you. My mother became a single parent when I was 10 years old and my sister and I learned to be creative in order to spread the little bit that my mother had a little further. I went regularly to church—it was my whole life. First a Methodist, I later discovered the more exciting Southern Baptist Church down the street. By that time, I was already singing in many churches and my commitment to the both churches meant that most, if not all, of my spare time was spent in church. By the time I was 21, I “felt the call” as we Southern Baptists say. I had a passion for Christ’s church that would not go away. Folks were supportive, but I learned a few years later that most of those who were originally supportive had no idea what I intended to do, and when that became clear they withdrew their support immediately. I taught school for a couple of years and then I went to seminary. When I first arrived at seminary, I learned that the only degree available to women was a degree called an M.R.E. which meant that I could work or direct work in Religious Education. I had no intention of doing only that and I and some other brave women went to the President and advocated for a chance to earn the same degree as the male pastors were earning. We compromised—we had to agree to earn the Religious Education degree along with the more useful M.Div. degree while our male counterparts had only to earn the M.Div. degree. Not to be deterred, I did just that. Now, I also married a man who was becoming a Southern Baptist Pastor as well. For a while this gentle and intelligent man and I tried to co-pastor a church. Even though I had been ordained in Texas by a forward-thinking church, my “call” was rejected in favor of his. Now those of you who know me well have to know that I was not going to be able to deal with this for long. Change had to occur. After a stab at the wonderful world of academia, the money finally ran out, and I had come out and left the acceptable world of heterosexual marriage behind. In spite of my continually knocking at God’s door, it became clear to me that I would need to do something else to earn a living. So, for 25 years, in the midst of lots of adventure and drama, I worked in the fields of social work, training, child welfare, and domestic violence while always, or almost always working a second job in a church. My jobs led me to develop a multitude of skills, but I continued to wonder why my answering God’s call was not being acknowledged by God’s people and, it seemed, by God. And, then, in the last half of my life, I found the Metropolitan Community Church. I had come home and I was ready for God to use the passion that I had been given as an ardent adolescent to the fullest expression of God’s grace that was possible. I have, of course, left out the years of struggle, pain, anger and feelings of abandonment not because they are unimportant to the story, but because they can wait for another day. Working first at Joy MCC in Orlando, and then coming to The Villages to begin this church, my life, my “passionate patience” as Paul says, was rewarded with this great gift we call Open Circle. I look back on my life and wonder how I maintained this passionate patience through so many ups and downs and then I realize a great truth, it is not I who maintained this “passionate patience” it is God who kept it alive in me. And today, I have the rare and wonderful gift to live fully from my passion. In my gratitude to God for this great and amazing experience, I got to wondering about why it seems so hard to find people who are living out their passion. It is an old saying, and yet completely true for me—“there is no greater joy than being home”. Finding and living one’s passion is, at once, God’s greatest gift to you and your greatest gift to the world. Motivational speaker, Michael Hyatt, gives us this challenge: “Just think of how the Kingdom of God would explode if we dared to live from our passion!” I want to let that sink in for just a moment. Michael Hyatt isn’t talking to or about preachers. He is talking to everyone—not just me, but to all of us. And, so I want to be clear—passion is not just for preachers or pastors—if it were, not only would we be very lonely, isolated from the very folks we are called to serve, we would also be quite useless in the world. God calls pastors to walk the daily walk among all those who are given a passion for something that will not only change their lives, it will change the world. Let me put that another way. All of you have a passion that, if you allow it to, will change your life, and by doing that, will change the world. There are lots of reasons why we find it hard to discover our passion. Some of them are: • It’s difficult to admit and address our long-held insecurities. So, we’re more comfortable living there than we are in discovering and living our hidden dreams and callings. • Somewhere along the line, we learned that it’s not appropriate to “brag about ourselves:, so we use this as a reason to shut off that still, small voice that says, “with God, we can do anything.” • We look at all the needs in the world and think that we don’t have anything that could possibly help. • Somebody, somewhere, (you gotta love those Puritan ancestors)taught us that it is wrong to spend time on ourselves, thinking about what we want or being introspective. • We’re already so busy that it feels impossible to think about adding anything else, when what we need to think about is why we’re working ourselves to death at all. • Here come those Puritans again, we’ve learned that doing work we don’t like is somehow “good” for us and we believe that our characters are made better with hard, unrewarding work. • The last time we tried doing something we really loved, we experienced rejection and we’re not about to go down that road again. • Our fear of failure is strong. We believe that if we never identify our passion, there will be no need to take action; and, therefore, no need to risk failing. Do any of these reasons sound familiar to you? They do to me. But if we return to both are scripture lessons, we see that there are words relating to passion and living out our passion. Jesus calls us to love God with all our passion and prayer, intelligence and energy. That sounds to me like a call to discover what it is that God is calling you, unique you, to do in this world. Daphne Rose Kingma, author and speaker says this: “The task is to recognize that you are uniquely special, have something to give, some talent no one else shares in quite the same way. This gift needs to blossom so we can appreciate and enjoy the benefits of it and acknowledge you for it. You owe this to yourself and to all of us to honor your gifts, for only when you share your unique joy with the world does the entire world benefit… Don't let shyness rob you and the world of the power and the passion that lies within you. No one can be all that you will be except you yourself.” These kinds of challenges are hard for us to hear, especially those of us who are stuck back in one of the reasons I discussed just a moment ago. Before we close, we must take a look at what Paul is saying—it’s as if he knows exactly our struggle: When we throw open our doors to God, we find God already there. And suddenly we are where we’ve wanted to be—in the “wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.” But wait, God isn’t done—there we are, shouting God’s praise even when things are not going well. Paul says that we will grow “passionate patience” which makes us strong and committed. When we are always alert to God and the passion for life God gives us, we’ll be unable to hold all the blessings that God puts into our lives and, by using us, in the lives of others. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church says, "When you set yourself on fire, people love to come and see you burn." We could be a people—a fire—who the world would love to see—alive and on fire for God’s justice. We, each in our own way, find first our own passion and then share the fire from our souls with one another. Each day, in each new way, God gives us the beauty of another day. The sun rises and all of God’s world wakes up. May we wake up as well, alive and on fire in God’s plan for all of us, together and apart. Amen

A Small Loaf of Bread 11-11-12

The Reading: 1 Kings 17:8-16 Eventually the brook dried up because of the drought. Then GOD spoke to him: “Get up and go to Zarephath in Sidon and live there. I’ve instructed a woman who lives there, a widow, to feed you.” So he got up and went to Zarephath. As he came to the entrance of the village he met a woman, a widow, gathering firewood. He asked her, “Please, would you bring me a little water in a jug? I need a drink.” As she went to get it, he called out, “And while you’re at it, would you bring me something to eat?” She said, “I swear, as surely as your GOD lives, I don’t have so much as a biscuit. I have a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a bottle; you found me scratching together just enough firewood to make a last meal for my son and me. After we eat it, we’ll die.” Elijah said to her, “Don’t worry about a thing. Go ahead and do what you’ve said. But first make a small biscuit for me and bring it back here. Then go ahead and make a meal from what’s left for you and your son. This is the word of the GOD of Israel: ‘The jar of flour will not run out and the bottle of oil will not become empty before GOD sends rain on the land and ends this drought.’” And she went right off and did it, did just as Elijah asked. And it turned out as he said—daily food for her and her family. The jar of meal didn’t run out and the bottle of oil didn’t become empty: GOD’s promise fulfilled to the letter, exactly as Elijah had delivered it! The Middle Reading-- from"Spirit of Life" By Barbara Hamilton-Holway Spirit of life, in us and around us, here is our chance, once again,to live like we wish the world would live. May we find within ourselves the courage to be who we are. May we know when it is time to listen and when it is time to speak. May we trust ourselves to be the ones to find the words that need to be said or to do what needs to be done. May we trust one another and know there are many ways to go through life. May we know that though we cannot change some of what life gives to us, we can choose how we deal with what we are given. We are coming into our power, and together we can make possible justice and love. We are all connected; we depend upon one another more than we know. We are one body. So be it. Blessed be. The Gospel Reading: Mark 12:38-44 In teaching Jesus said, 'Beware of those scribes who like to walk about in long robes, and to be greeted obsequiously in the market squares, to take the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets; these are the ones who swallow the property of widows, while making a show of lengthy prayers. 'The more severe will be the sentence they receive.' Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the treasury, and many of the rich put in a great deal. A poor widow came and put in two small coins, the equivalent of a penny. Then Jesus called the disciples and said to them, 'I tell you solemnly, this poor widow has put more in than all who have contributed to the treasury; for they have all put in money they had over, but she from the little she had has put in everything she possessed, all she had to live on.' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Small Loaf of Bread 11-11-12 Holy and Omnipotent God, we ask for your blessings of insight and understanding. Speak to us through your Word and through the love we have for each other. We praise you for the light of the Holy Spirit in our seeking and in our finding. Amen In today’s readings we look at two very different women in two very different times. There’s nothing that says they need to be women, they could just as easily be men, and in our congregation, if we’re talking about baking, it is twice as likely to be a man. So we are talking about two people. It’s interesting to me that these two passages are paired in the Lectionary, that universal listing of scripture passages for each week, that I sometimes follow. In my study I began with the feeling that these are two very different kinds of people. By the end of my study, I saw the real similarities between them and no longer regarded them as different. Let’s start with the baker. Elijah, who was a major prophet for the Hebrew people, is hungry and thirsty. The water has dried up, there is no food in the land. God sends Elijah to Zarephath in Sidon to live because God has a plan. There is a widow living there who is to feed Elijah. He goes to Zarephath and indeed finds the widow. But this is not a wealthy widow, no, this is a person near death, alone in the world, except for her son. We learn that she is planning to feed herself and her son one last time and then they will lie down to die. What hopelessness this woman brought with her to her encounter with Elijah. More than likely, she could barely walk, so close to starvation. For all we know, her son is already unable to walk, he does not escort his mother on her quest for firewood. Can you feel the heaviness in her heart? I can as I imagine her state of mind—knowing nothing to do other than have a last meal and then die with her son. Nevertheless, for some reason unknown to us, she makes this last trip into town. Along comes Elijah, probably not looking much better. It is hot and dry. We don’t know how Elijah gets to Zarephath, so I imagine him ragged and dirty. He, too, is alone, but he is following faithfully the word he has received from God. Walking along, he finds his destination—there she is, right at the entrance to the city. He asks her for a drink and as she turns to retrieve a drink from an unknown source, he asks her what must have surely sounded like a foolish question: “Would you bring me something to eat?” She does not ridicule his question, she simply tells him of her heartbreak—her truth—that she and her son will soon die. He tells her not to worry—that God has a plan for all three of them. Notice that God’s plan was not just for Elijah, it includes the poor woman and her son as well. Elijah asks her to make him a small loaf of bread and in the making of it, the miracle will happen—the flour and oil will be accessible for this family for all time. And so it is. Imagine what it must have felt like to venture forth one last time, leaving your child behind dependent on you for food. Thinking of it makes it difficult to move our feet, to walk forward, or seek an answer. But something caused her to do it one last time. I do not believe that she knew that she would meet Elijah who would answer her prayers. I do believe that it was the Spirit of creation, the holiness of God, that led this woman to be in just the right place at just the right time. Coincidence? I think not. An openness to allowing God to move us into the place that we are intended to be, sets the events in motion by which we find God’s plan unfolding right before our eyes. Through her willingness to be in tune with the Spirit of God, even if she did not consciously think it at the time, she receives the blessing of food and oil for all time. I can’t imagine that she thought this all out, not in the condition she was in—but God led her to fulfill the components of the prophesy thereby caring for Elijah and eliminating her own hunger as well. We don’t know what she thought—we only know what she did. In our Gospel lesson, we come upon another widow woman. There is no interaction with her in the story. Jesus has just finished the teaching we hear in the beginning of the reading. Warning us against people for whom life is always about them, he notes that they will receive their just reward—and a stern reprimand it will be. Then, he sits down. But he isn’t resting, he’s watching—observing all the people put their money and gifts into the Temple Treasury. He notices that many of the rich people put in a great deal of money. That did not garner Jesus’ attention. Suddenly, this poor woman, comes into the Temple and drops two small coins into the Treasury. Two small coins that equaled no more than our penny—something most of us don’t even stop to pick up they are so insignificant. You can see her, if you look, shuffle in, bedraggled, perhaps? We don’t know much about her except what Jesus tells us about her. Jesus says that she has given her all, but unlike the baking woman in the Old Testament, this widow receives no promise from God, no instructions that will produce food for the rest of her life. No, this woman just gives. We don’t know her experience with giving. We don’t know what she believed or what motivated her to give her last penny, but, give it she did and Jesus noticed. I do not believe that Jesus, in this teaching, is calling us to give our last penny, although this passage has been used repeatedly, throughout all time, to suggest just that. I believe that Jesus is calling us to change our attitudes about giving and believing and living out the Good News in the world. Jesus shuns those who give so that they can be seen and, instead, favors those who give from a pure attitude—caring nothing for praise or personal gain, just giving because he or she wants to give. The widow, according to Jesus, gave her all—but mostly this story is about the way she gave, and, even more importantly, about the way she lived her life. Jesus calls us to be the offering—the offering given in the very same way the New Testament woman gave her all and the Old Testament woman gave of what she thought were the last moments of her life. What does it look like to “be” an offering? I believe that it looks like this: • It is a life of constant prayer—not that we are consciously praying all the time, but that we are open to the moving of God’s Spirit in our lives—knowing full well that when we are in tune with that Creative Divine Spirit, that we will find ourselves, just like the woman who experienced a life-altering encounter with Elijah—we too, will find ourselves in the right place at the right time. But it is God’s right place, right time, not ours. Our attempts to take over and exert control over God’s Spirit to move at our pace, in our time, obscure what God is wanting to share with us. • It is a willingness to give all of whatever we have been given to give. I have found that this is about far more than money—I have found that this is about time, and energy, and the willingness to drop what I think is important and devote the time to God’s call, offering praise along the way. Giving my all also includes giving those things I have never felt that I was worthy before to give—talents that I think are too small, gifts that I question or doubt anyone can use. Pushing myself past my own comfortability to give those things God is calling me to give, instead of those things that I am merely willing to give. That first, still, small voice that says “I could do that”, before it gets stifled by all our intellectualization—that is the voice that shows us how to give our all. That nudge, so easily pushed aside by our fears of inadequacy and incompetence—that nudge is the one we act on when we give our all. • Finally, it means that we do the same for all those around us. We point them to God’s offer of complete acceptance—not just acceptance of sexuality or gender identity, of difference, or background, or belief—but also in complete acceptance of our offer of all our gifts and talents given to us by that same Divine Spirit. As we have been given and called, so we call others to give and be the ones who, alive in the power of God, will be the bridge—our bridge--to God’s peace and justice in the world. So be it. Amen and amen

Giving--Growing in Grace 11-4-12--Consecration Sunday

The Reading— Romans 12: 4-8 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. The Gospel Reading: Matthew 13: 31-33 “God’s kingdom is like a pine nut that a farmer plants. It is quite small as seeds go, but in the course of years it grows into a huge pine tree, and eagles build nests in it.” Another story. “God’s kingdom is like yeast that a woman works into the dough for dozens of loaves of barley bread—and waits while the dough rises.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Giving: Growing in Grace 11-4-12 God of ages past and all time to come, show us the way you have planned for us. Plant our feet in the footprints of those who come before. May your truth be in all that happens here today. Amen It feels as if this Sunday has been a long time coming—particularly for those of us who have monitored the ongoing transformation of the property that we will consecrate later today. And yet, as time goes, it has not been that long. Today is one of those Sundays when church just seems to come together. We celebrate All Saints’ Day on this, the Sunday after the official feast day and we honor all that we are and will become in this special church on this very special day. We celebrate all that has come before, all who have come before, all who make it possible for us to be in this place. We honor the saints in our lives—the founders of MCC Churches all over the world and those individuals in all times and places in our private and communal lives who have taught us what it is to be a child of God. So, it makes sense that we would talk about grace, because, in the end, it’s all about God’s wonderful, matchless grace in our lives, in the lives of those gone before, and in the hopes and dreams of those still to come. And, so here we are on Consecration Sunday, one giant day of consecration and commitment. We’ve spent the last month looking at various aspects of giving, and many of us now look at giving just a little differently. Today is no different, so I start with a story. Many of you will remember the story several years ago about the Women’s College Softball Regional Tournament where the winners appeared to be obvious even before the game was played. Then something strange happened. One young woman, who had never hit a home run in her life, hit one over the fence. It was a grand slam, or so they thought. But this woman was suddenly and inexplicably hurt and fell to the ground. Later she learned it was a torn ACL, at that point all that was clear was that she could not get around the bases. Now the rules of softball are a little more complicated than they look. Her team knew that they could not help her or touch her in any way or the run would not count as a home run. But one young woman on the opposing team, a hitter of more home runs than any other player on the field that day, knew what to do. In an act of complete unselfishness, she and another player picked up the injured player and carried her around the bases so that her homerun would count. It lost them the game, but it made them women their parents, coaches, and friends could be proud of. The story was all over YouTube, and both of the young women who sacrificed their own needs to help this injured player simply said, “she hit a home run, she deserved to see it count.” To this day, I cannot watch the video of these women helping an injured stranger across home plate without tearing up. This story is not singular, but it is an important one that shows us what a simple act can accomplish across the world. In those little seeds of grace, the Reign of God’s Justice is born in our hearts. Those young women did not do what they did to inspire people all over the globe, but they did just that. The number of hits on the various postings of this story is phenomenal. And, to this, Jesus, I believe, would say “Amen, do you get it?” Jesus starts our Gospel lesson this morning with perhaps one of the most famous of all parables. Our contemporary interpretation changes the species of tree, but you recognized it, nevertheless. One little seed, be it pine nut, or mustard seed, grows into a tree large enough for birds to build their nests in. One tiny seed. Now one day this week when I arrived at the Campus, I found Joe, the general contractor, planting grass seed in the place where the little house had stood before we tore it down—not because we paid him to, but because he wanted to contribute to the beauty of the Campus. I told him he was doing great, and he responded that he was planting seed for the future. I told him that the sermon would reflect the same story and he was very excited—it’s been interesting to talk to Joe along the way about what makes this church, well, this church. We are, each of us, quite small seeds, but when watered by God’s grace and formed by God’s unconditional love and acceptance for each of us, a great ministry will continue to grow. Paul reminds us and the Christians at Rome that all of our gifts are different, but are all manifested through the same blessing of grace—the grace of being gifted by God. “Amen, and do we get it?” This day has come with great sacrifice on the part of some and the prayers and time and talent of many. It’s a day when we rejoice, it is also a day that should give us pause. For almost three years, the phrase “when we have space of our own” has pervaded every conversation that we have had about our future ministries and our call to live out God’s justice in this world. My friends, today we have our own space—“amen, and do we get it?” Do we get that with the blessing of God’s grace comes the call to divine responsibility. Why divine responsibility? Because God has both planted and watered the seed, and we are set to harvest it. “Amen, and do we get it?” Do we get that Jesus is calling us to greatness—a greatness that can only be called forth through the sacred grace of our Creator’s love. Do we get that Jesus is calling us to greatness because the world, our world, needs greatness today; more than anything else, the world need those of us who are willing to stand up and be great—to do not just the right thing, but the great thing—to bring the glorious good news that our Creator loves us, each and every one of just as we are divinely created—all as sacred children of God created to bless and be a blessing to each other—“amen, do we get it?” And so we turn to the second short little parable for today. It’s about flour and yeast, mixing and kneading many, many pounds of flour. This woman, so trusts and follows the call of Christ to make a difference in the world that she understands just how much she can do with the right ingredients. The proportion of yeast to flour is small, but each small bit of yeast, just like each small touch of grace, moves through and radically impacts the world for God’s Reign of Justice, Equality and Peace. “Amen, do we get it?” I think we do get it, but the proof will be in what we do with these blessings that we have received. As we walk the land God has given to Open Circle today, and view the beautiful offices and meeting spaces, may we keep our eyes focused on the call to greatness. May our celebration be a glad rejoicing that God has chosen us to inhabit this sacred land, and may we seek to ever and ever in new and deeper ways understand the power of God in us to change the world. Amen and amen.

Giving As a Way of Bearing Witness 10-28-12

The Reading— 2 Corinthians 9:8-11 God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it, Yahweh throws caution to the winds, giving to the needy in reckless abandon. God’s right-living, right-giving ways never run out, never wear out. This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. [You are given] something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God. The Middle Reading—Anna Burke Yes, I am a King! But my kingdom is not in the boundary of time. It is a new way of branching out, and a new way of rooting down. It is a new way of looking at things. It can be here or there or anywhere you want it to be because it is a way of living and loving, of giving and receiving. Yes, I am a King! And I change your understanding of life. I want you to see that in every moment there is more, in every loss there is gain, in every gain there is loss, and beyond the way of the cross there is clearer vision. Yes, I am a King! I will do whatever it takes to draw you to the place of freedom. Where the bonds of affection will be strong as life and where human hearts will find their home. The Gospel Reading: Luke 12: 22-34 He continued this subject with his disciples. “Don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or if the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your inner life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the ravens, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, carefree in the care of God. And you count far more. “Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? If fussing can’t even do that, why fuss at all? Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don’t fuss with their appearance—but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don’t you think [you will be attended to], take pride in you, do [the] best for you? “What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way God works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how God works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! [God] wants to give you the very kingdom itself. “Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bankrobbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Giving As a Way of Bearing Witness 10-28-12 Holy and Creative God of all being and life, we come into your presence knowing that you have much to teach us today. Mold us into all that you have created us to be. May the words of my mouth reflect your truth and may our thoughts bring you glory and pleasure. Amen We begin our sermon today with Jesus teaching. I start with this because I do not want to lose sight of the importance of teaching—teaching as a practice and teaching as a way of life and teaching as a way of giving back to God. Teaching, itself, is “bearing witness” to God in our innermost being. At heart, I am a teacher. I come from a heritage of teachers. My grandparents were both teachers in one-room school houses when all you had to have to teach was your own high school diploma and a love to teach. Although my grandmother went on to raise children and my grandfather became a rural letter carrier their teaching roles continued. My grandmother’s wisdom was first learned by her own children and then gobbled up by a series of grandchildren, myself among them, who loved to hear what she had to say as long as it didn’t involve some personal wrong-doing that day. My grandfather was a “mailman” back in the day, where he carried far more than just letters and packages to the hearts of the people who loved his daily visits and would stand waiting at the end of their driveways at his expected time, just to hear his daily word of wisdom and care which he dispensed freely as he passed out letters along those winding, gravel roads. My mother, as you know, was first a teacher of Latin and Spanish, and then, went on to become a Librarian, where she opened the world of reading not just to me but to hundreds of children. When she died, my Facebook page and mailbox was filled with tributes to her, not just as a person, but as someone who taught them the joy of reading. Teaching is a gift, listed among the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and something we learn to treasure when the teaching is insightful and impactful on our busy lives. So, Jesus is teaching. And, we, if we are truly listening, if we are truly present, we are learning. First, he talks to us about our natural urge to complain about what we have before us. He tells us to pay more attention to our inner lives than to our outer ones. The exact nature of what is before us on the table, or what hangs in our closet, is not nearly as important as what goes into our inner lives—our hearts and our minds. He says, “take a look at the birds”. Do they worry? No, and, if God will take care of birds, then God will take care of us. Jesus teaches by example—this is not one that I’m particularly fond of—think about it, if I or any other of my height-challenged brother or sisters stand in front of a mirror and stretch and pose, and stretch and pose, can we really hope to add even a single inch to our stature? Of course not, God created us the way we are and, ultimately, all the fussing in the world doesn’t change that. Then he calls us to a precious truth. Look at the wildflowers. Do you see them trying to change who they are—no, they simply give to us—viewers of God’s creation—an amazingly beautiful array of color and design. I once was driving in Texas where I lived for a brief while. I almost passed a field of wild poppies growing by the road. For once, I listened to my inner desire and pulled the car off the road. I went running into those poppies absolutely overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of each flower, each color, each pattern laid out in that field by our Creator God. It was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen and 30 years later I can find myself still amazed at the sheer beauty that was before me. Jesus’ lesson here is obvious—he says that most wildflowers are never even seen and yet God still creates then in glory and splendor—and yet we worry over just the way our clothes hang or emphasize what we believe are our good points. Envision yourself in the most beautiful field of flowers you have ever seen…..is there any way we can dress to outshine that beauty? And, then, the finale—Jesus calls us to stop focusing on “getting” what we want. Jesus wants us to know that that very focus stops us from really receiving and seeing what God is “giving” to us each and every day that we live. Think about your field of wildflowers—make it a place you can go when you want to experience God’s grace in your heart and mind. Let yourself relax, as Jesus says, knowing that God will provide for you just as for the fields, and mountains, and seas. Let God remove any fear or worry that you might miss out on something that you need. Jesus tells us that God wants to give us everything—the “very kingdom itself”. Finally, Jesus hits us where we live—calling us to invest in the reign of justice, in God’s work. “It’s obvious, isn’t it”, Jesus asks us. The place we put our focus, those things upon which we put our thoughts, that is the place we will not only most want to be, but it will be the place we end up being. Now the hard part about that teaching is truly understanding where our hearts are. We want to focus them on God, but other things get in the way. We want to “be generous” as Jesus calls us to be, and other priorities call out to us, often much louder than the “still, small voice of God” who waits for us to be willing and wanting to hear. I don’t know about you, but if my phone rings one more time with a political call I going to scream. I know who I am voting for, have never been in the “undecided” column that both parties seek, and yet, still, the calls keep coming. You see, the world, whether it is politics or someone wanting to evaluate your home for the new windows they are selling, never stops—never stops calling out to us to place our focus someplace else. We have to make a decision to listen. We have to make a decision to be willing to be taught God’s holy and gracious Truth. Think about the teacher of all teachers, Socrates. I like Socrates—mostly, I like that he taught by encouraging his students to ask questions. During his trial for heresy, he is reported to have said: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I agree with Socrates, I agree with his method of allowing someone to ask us questions while we learn. His insight about the shadows in our lives was brilliant—even though not very popular then or now. You remember, his metaphor was about living in a cave. As long as you stayed in the cave of self-absorption and self-centeredness, you did not know what it was that was casting the shadows on the walls, only that there were shadows. Once you chose to leave the cave, you could see reality—the real things that caused the shadows. Jesus calls us to look beyond what throws the shadows on the walls of our cave-like lives and enter the bright sunshine of God’s love to determine where our focus and purpose lie. And we are called to examine our lives, to turn to trusted others and allow them to ask us questions and encourage us to answer honestly and openly. Here is a simple question that I cannot take credit for, but which I will share: If two people set out to arrive at a destination, which one is likely to arrive—the one with a map, or the one without? This is a no-brainer—she who has a map will arrive first. When you faithfully and truthfully examine your life, you get to choose your destination—you get to set your own goals. Better yet, you get to lay out the path and how many “proverbial” miles you will walk each day, or year. You establish your own map and you have the opportunity to decide when and whether you are on track or have taken a detour. In other words, when you set as your goal, following Christ and becoming all that you are created by God to be, you have a way to actually get there. When you engage in this questioning through spiritual formation, this examination of life brings great freedom. However, it is not always so easy to get started. Paul calls us to remember that God’s right-living, right-giving ways never run out. If this God, who creates the seeds that the farmer plants that later become bread for your journey, think of all God gives to you—that which will grow and be given away by you in your own generosity. We rarely understand the greatness of God’s generosity to us, or all that our Creator wants to pour into our lives. That’s why C.S. Lewis said, “Our problem is not that we want too much, it’s that we’re satisfied with too little.” This year, let’s not be satisfied with “little”. Let’s walk boldly into God’s presence and say, we are ready to learn all that you have to teach us. We are ready to be your people and to be your church. And all God’s people said, “amen and amen”.

Giving as an Act of Resistance 10-21-12

The Reading: Philippians 2: 12-18 What I’m getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you’ve done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I’m separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure. Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing. Even if I am executed here and now, I’ll rejoice in being an element in the offering of your faith that you make on Christ’s altar, a part of your rejoicing. But turnabout’s fair play—you must join me in my rejoicing. Whatever you do, don’t feel sorry for me. The Middle Reading Psalm 119 Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word. I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. The Gospel Reading: Matthew 5:13-16 “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage. “Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Holy Parent in heaven. Giving as an Act of Resistance 10-21-12 God, we come to you with open hearts. Fill us with your ways and guide us in our steps toward you. May all that we think and all that I say bring you honor and glory. Amen I love cantaloupe—I love everything about cantaloupe. I love its color, its texture and its taste. I love it alone, I love it in juice, and I love it in fruit salad. I love the way the outside gives nothing away about what a cantaloupe looks like on the inside. It’s always exciting for me to cut into a cantaloupe—one that I’ve used the technique my grandmother taught me to use when I pick it out—it’s always exciting to get that first rush of cantaloupe fragrance and see just how good a cantaloupe actually came home with you from the market. Now, cantaloupe has one tragic flaw—no matter where you are, it is only “in season” for a brief while. I still remember the two weeks in August when the NJ cantaloupes appeared in every store or fruit stand in NY—best cantaloupes in the world, and then, woosh, they’re gone. Now, since I love cantaloupe so much, I do not want to limit my eating of cantaloupe to just a few weeks of the year. By the way, when is the true ‘season’ for cantaloupes in Florida? I can’t seem to figure it out. Anyway, I love cantaloupes all year, so what to do about the less than fully tasty ones that find their way into my refrigerator? It’s simple, really—you add salt. When you add salt to a cantaloupe that is less than fully the true taste of a wonderfully ripe cantaloupe, some, if not, most, of the taste is restored. The salt brings out the cantaloupe’s taste and, I am happily eating my cantaloupe once again. As strange as my “ode to the cantaloupe” might seem to you, it is exactly what Jesus is saying to us about salt in this passage. The translation that we used today is from The Message and I love the words that are used. “You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.” How cool is that? Our call is to bring out the God-flavors that are already present here on this earth. The God-flavors that have always been here. Just like my less than tasty cantaloupe was always a cantaloupe with hidden tastiness just waiting to be called forth by the salt I sprinkled on it, we are called to be the salt in a world that has pretty much hidden most of the God-flavors that lie inherently, just below the surface, waiting for the salt that we bring with our words, our actions, our acts of resistance, and our love for God and others. And, Church, the Body of Christ is where we learn about the ways and means of being salt in the world. Now, just like the cantaloupe, the Church has a major flaw. Fr. Henri Nouwen, one of the most compassionate men God ever created, says this about the church: “Over the centuries the Church has done enough to make any critical person want to leave it. Its history of violent crusades, pogroms, power struggles, oppression, excommunications, executions, manipulation of people and ideas, and constantly recurring divisions is there for everyone to see and be appalled by. Can we believe that this is the same Church that carries in its center the Word of God and the sacraments of God's healing love? Can we trust that in the midst of all its human brokenness the Church presents the broken body of Christ to the world as food for eternal life? Can we acknowledge that where sin is abundant grace is superabundant, and that where promises are broken over and again God's promise stands unshaken? To believe is to answer yes to these questions.” Nouwen calls us to be the yes, to be the salt that reminds people that “God’s promise stands unshaken”. Not content with just one metaphor, Jesus adds another—“Light”. We are called to be the light in the world. Not “of” the world, “in” the world. That’s a confusion that some, if not many, well-meaning Christians make—we are not to be the light that everyone looks to and admires, we are to be the light that shows the way to those still seeking to find the path that leads to divine acceptance and grace-full peace. President Woodrow Wilson told a story about his experience of this Light in the world. He said, "I was in a very common place. I was sitting in a barber chair when I became aware that a personality had entered the room. A man had come quietly in upon the same errand as myself, to have his hair cut, and sat in the chair next to me. Every word the man uttered, though it was not in the least didactic, showed a personal interest in the man who was serving him. Before I got through with what was being done for me, I was aware that I had attended an evangelistic service, because Mr. D. L. Moody was in that chair. I purposely lingered in the room after he had left and noted the singular effect that his visit had brought upon the barber shop. They talked in undertones; they didn't know his name, but they knew that something had elevated their thoughts. I felt that I left that place as I should have left the place of worship. My admiration and esteem for Mr. Moody became very deep indeed." Notice that when President Wilson was in the presence of Dwight L. Moody, one of the greatest evangelists of the early Twentieth Century, he remembered, most of all, the “presence” of Mr. Moody. The barbers also knew that something had happened, though they could not explain what it was—they just knew that their own thoughts had changed and they were focused on what they called “higher” thoughts. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, calls this presence “God energy”. Be energetic in your life of salvation, “ says Paul, “reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God willing and working…” We learn from Paul that the energy to be the kind of presence in the world that D.L. Moody showed in the barbershop that day comes directly from God. And what happened in that barbershop is called “influence”. What kind of influence do you have as a Christian on your world? Do I have as your pastor? Does this church have in this community? How are we shining a light in this world to make a difference? Because we are in this world, in this community, we will have influence—we will make our community better or worse because of what we do. Jesus calls us to take seriously the impact that we have on this world. Knowing that some, indeed, put the lamp of their influence under the nightstand, Jesus calls us to break free from all that would tell us to stay under cover. Jesus calls us to shine the light of God’s love into every corner of the universe. Do we take seriously the impact for good or evil that we have in this world? I’m not sure that we always do. In the early 19th Century, there lived a man named Elihu Burritt. Because of the death of his father, he was forced to become an apprentice to a blacksmith at age 15. He continued to study, though, especially languages from around the world and he became a great and well-known advocate for world peace. He helps us figure out what we are saying and showing with our own lives by this statement. Please listen carefully: "No human being can come into this world without increasing or diminishing the sum total of human happiness. Not only of the present, but of every subsequent age of humanity. No one can detach himself [or herself] from this connection. There is no sequestered spot in the universe, no dark niche along the disc of nonexistence to which [she or] he can retreat from his relations to others, where he [or she] can withdraw the influence of his [or her] existence upon the moral destiny of the world. Everywhere, his [or her] presence or absence will be felt. Everywhere, [she or] he will have companions who will be better or worse because of him [or her]. It is an old saying and one of the fearful and fathomless statements of import, that we are forming characters for eternity.” How does all this salt and life talk fit into our conversations about giving? The title of the sermon is “giving as an act of resistance”. I believe that anytime we are salt and light in this world, we are resisting what the world, itself, calls us to be. We are resisting the call to materialism, the call to hatred and mistrust of the stranger, and the call to put our needs before the needs of others. I love the short, incredibly packed with meaning quotes from Albert Schweitzer. This man, who spent over 50 years of his life working in the African jungle as a medical missionary, was meeting with a group of students who admired him. He said this to them: “I don’t know what your final destiny will be, but one thing I do know: The only ones among you who will be happy are those who have sought and found how to serve." In our living and giving, we have the ability to seek and find how to serve. This week, we have the opportunity to seek and find how to serve right here, right now. And when you do, your life and the lives of all those around will be brighter and more full of the flavor of God’s grace because you sought and you found—the grace-filled life of service. Amen and amen.

Giving--God's Reign of Justice 10/14/'12

The Reading— The Reading: Isaiah 61: 1-4 The Spirit of GOD, the Master, is on me because GOD anointed me. He sent me to preach good news to the poor, heal the heartbroken, Announce freedom to all captives, pardon all prisoners. GOD sent me to announce the year of his grace—a celebration of God’s destruction of our enemies—and to comfort all who mourn, tTo care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion, give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes, messages of joy instead of news of doom, a praising heart instead of a languid spirit. Rename them “Oaks of Righteousness” planted by GOD to display the divine glory. They’ll rebuild the old ruins, raise a new city out of the wreckage. They’ll start over on the ruined cities, take the rubble left behind and make it new. THE MIDDLE READING—Jan Richardson For all that enfolds us For each word of grace and every act of care; For those who offer refuge for each shelter given And for every welcoming space; For the healing of our souls for balm and rest For soothing and sleep; For vigils kept and for lights kept burning; blessed be! The Gospel Reading: Luke 4: 14-21 Jesus returned to Galilee powerful in the Spirit. News that he was back spread through the countryside. He taught in their meeting places to everyone’s acclaim and pleasure. He came to Nazareth where he had been reared. As he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written, God’s Spirit is on me; God has chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free, to announce, “This is God’s year to act!” He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, “You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.” Giving--Participating in God’s reign of Justice 10-14-12 Holy and Just God, help us to hear your call to our hearts. Open our eyes, our ears, our minds and fill us with that which You know we should know and, then, grant us understanding. Grant us your peace in the midst of your call. We listen and yearn for more. Amen For some strange reason this week, I got to thinking about the fine art of debating. And regardless of your candidate of choice, I think it safe to say that all four of them would be the better off if they learned the fine art of packing a larger value into a smaller number of words. For some of us, all four candidates included, the longer we talk, the more likely we are to get ourselves into just a little trouble. Either you turn your audience or congregation off completely because of the length of time they have been sitting (kinda like the first time I was forced to sit through the movie “Lawrence of Arabia”—I mean, really, who makes a movie that long?) or you wind yourself up in the maze of your own words so far that even you can’t find your way out of what you are saying. So, we might all agree that “short is good” whether in politics or preaching and I will admit that the older I get the more I appreciate necessity of keeping the length of the message I am asked to remember short. Some think our Gospel passage represents what was Jesus’ finest hour—this sermon so short we barely have time to realize he is preaching. Some think Jesus gave his listeners way too much credit to even think they could understanding the great mysteries of which he spoke. Some think that all preachers should learn to preach in one sentence. And some just don’t know what to think at all. Most of the folks who heard Jesus in the flesh offer up this sermon probably fell into the later category. But through the magic of history, we are afforded the time to look thoroughly at this really, really short sermon “Today this has been fulfilled in your hearing” and see what it means to us in this time of year when we are thinking of giving and thanks-giving, and giving and receiving gifts. You really won’t understand the challenge that is given to the people in that synagogue and the people in this synagogue unless you understand what Isaiah is talking about in this brief passage. This command of God—called the year of Jubilee—was met with great resistance in Old Testament times and, as far as we know, never actually happened. Nevertheless, it is a command of God and it means, simply, that every 50 years everyone’s debts were to be forgiven. If you were in jail for debt you would be released. Any land that had been sold during the previous 50 years would be returned to the family who originally owned it. In other words, every 50 years the wealth was completely redistributed among all the people, those who were previously rich and those who were previously poor. Now, one would think that since this is a command from God, that the people would be happy to do it! But, the wealthy folks were not so keen on such an idea and, quite frankly, it simply never happened. But this is the state of economy, both physical and spiritual, that Jesus is calling us to when he reads from Isaiah, sits down, and says—this is the time that the scripture is fulfilled—I am here! Now there must have been a lot of folks who, after giving this brief sermon some thought, whoa, this man is going somewhere we’re not sure we want to go. Jesus calls us in a single instant to understand that he is, in fact, the Messiah. No playing the waiting game, no excuses for less than right relationships, no reason not to turn the world upside down. In the coming of the Messiah, the Year of Jubilee is inaugurated for all the years to come. It’s time for a new world order—a new way of relating to each other—a new way to celebrate the everlasting reign of God’s justice. Now the rest of this brief story goes like this: no one says much at the time, but, stay alert, because the next thing Luke records is that the crowd tries to lynch Jesus. So much, for the crowds’ appreciation of short sermons. Charles Spurgeon, reputed to be the greatest preacher of all time must have learned a lot from this story—they say his sermons were never shorter than 2 hours. We must not miss the challenge that Jesus is issuing to his unappreciative audience and the challenge we must answer now. Jesus’ very life is a challenge to us, every moment he spent healing, every sin he forgave, every time he slipped away to spend quiet time alone with God. Jesus, quoting Isaiah, lists four activities that, taken together, make up the core of the Good News: good news to the poor, freedom to prisoners, sight to the blind, and freedom from oppression. Now, I know that there are a lot of teachers in this room, retired, active, and those of you doing a marvelous ministry at Wildwood Elementary. Most of us would acknowledge that, as much as our students might have wanted us to, it is not a teacher’s job to make his or her students happy. No, the job of a teacher is to bring change into the lives of their students—to give them new ways of thinking and new ways to ask the questions that need asking because it is in the questions that we grow and flourish in our mental and emotional lives. It seems to me that, in faith circles, we may almost do the opposite—we focus on answering the questions when we haven’t even figured out what the questions are. Those of us in ministry focus on helping people feel good. Jesus shows us that this isn’t the task of preaching or teaching, for that matter. Jesus tells the truth—a truth that few people probably wanted to hear. The Jewish people were waiting for a King—a king who would, once and for all, restore them to their glory as the people of God. Jesus turned their expectations upside down in one short sentence in one brief story. Jesus, stood, read from the Word and then sat down and told the truth. We can, all of us struggle with the unwillingness to do the hard work of growing and changing. Have you ever seen the slow motion video of a seed turning into a sprout that has, literally, pushed aside pounds of dirt to make it through to the sunshine. Churches that are planted do the same hard work. But the reward for the hard work is participating in God’s Reign of Justice. Following Christ is hard work—it is not for the timid—it is not for those looking to take the easy road. The same is true for a church—it is true for this church. If we follow the mission that God has entrusted this church with, that is, to share God’s unconditional love, and to participate in Jesus’ invitation to all to the new covenant through grace, we will change. Change is hard and change is what Jesus brought to this world. We are called to be a different kind of people; I am called to be a different kind of pastor. And in this growing, we will struggle. The dirt through which we must struggle as we sprout and see the sunshine is heavy. We may each try to get through that dirt on our own, but together, we are stronger. As we “grace” ourselves through the changes ahead, we will grow together to meet the challenge that Jesus issues to all those who would follow him. There is a story about Conan O’Brien. You may remember several years ago that many ugly things happened and Conan was replaced with veteran talk show host, Jay Leno. It was an awful time for Conan and something that NBC probably wishes they had handled differently. During the final show, Conan, after giving thanks to NBC, for all that they had done for him and thanking his fans for their support, he said this: "And all I ask is one thing . . and this is . . I'm asking this particularly of young people that watch . . please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record, it's my least favorite quality. It doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen." His fans were touched and even those who thought him without talent had to admit that he had chosen the right thing to say. It calls to all of us. Cynicism is toxic—it causes us to doubt people that we trust and perhaps to trust those whom we should doubt. Jesus calls us to give up cynicism and bitterness. Jesus calls us to a higher path—a path focused on those we are challenged to serve. Think about where Jesus was in his heart as he risked it all and issued the challenge to the world—a challenge that the world was not ready to hear. He knew, through being centered and grounded in God’s Holy Spirit, that the time was right. He understood who he was—and all that it meant. He knew the challenge would not be popular, after all, those kinds of challenges never are, but he understood what he was sent to do on this earth. When we are full of the Holy Spirit, thoroughly grounded and centered in the knowledge that we are the children of God, we are called to answer and act upon this challenge for Christ’s church. We know who we are and to whom we belong. We know that we are not without the support of all the other children of God in this place and we are upheld by the grace of Jesus Christ every time we step out and welcome the poor into God’s kingdom, give sight to the blind, freedom to the imprisoned and quality of life to those oppressed by this world. And, so, as we know, so we go—forward in our ministries, leaving our cynicism behind and moving toward that vision that God has planted in this place, this Body of Christ called “Open Circle”. And, so, as we know, so we go! Blessed be the name of the Lord, Who is worthy to be praised and adored; So, we lift up holy hands in one accord— singing blessed be the name, Blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Amen and amen.