Don't Lose a Minute 9-23-12

The Reading— 2 Peter 1:5-9 So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books. THE OTHER READING— from The Way of Perfection by Teresa of Avila Let us imagine that within us is an extremely rich place, built entirely of gold and precious stones…within us lies something incomparably more precsious than what we see outside ourselves. Let’s not imagine that we are hollow inside. A prayer by Mary Ruth Broz, A Religious Sister of Mercy: O Spirit of Life, You call us to be more than we can ask or even imagine. Help us to uncover the rich inner life that is ours. Surprise us with hidden treasures we never knew we had. Give us the courage to uncover a mystic and prophet within ourselves. And show us the way to bring their wisdom with us as we struggle to leave this world a better place. The Gospel Reading: John 17: 18-23 Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth; Your word is consecrating truth. In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world. I’m consecrating myself for their sakes so they’ll be truth-consecrated in their mission. I’m praying not only for them but also for those who will believe in me because of them and their witness about me. The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind— Just as you, my Creator, are in me and I in you, So they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me. The same glory you gave me, I gave them, so they’ll be as unified and together as we are—I in them and you in me. Then they’ll be mature in this oneness, and give the godless world evidence that you’ve sent me and loved them in the same way you’ve loved me. Don’t Lose A Minute 9-23-12 God, we turn to You in troubled times and when others ask us to pray for them. Teach us to pray continually that we might learn more of You and grow into the people You intend us to be. God, turn our hearts toward You in the words that I speak and the reflections that we share together. Amen How many of you remember being measured as you grew up by marks or notches in some door. Now I was always excited to see where my next mark would be. I was, as you can clearly see, often disappointed, but, nevertheless, I would wait with excited anticipation to see if I had indeed grown any since the last 6 month measurement. Our passage from the apostle Peter today, gives us a list of the elements of spiritual growth and we could easily draw up a measurement stick using these qualities instead of numbers. Seems that Peter is pretty clear about the elements of spiritual growth that he believes should be on every Christian’s measuring stick. Our contemporary translation gives us some very good meanings of each of these elements. First, Peter lists “good character” which others have described as virtue or having spiritual energy. Second on the list is spiritual understanding with knowledge in scripture and spiritual practices. Third, we find a call to alert discipline closely linked to self-control. In the fourth place, Peter lists passionate patience or steadfastness, faithfulness, and consistency. The fifth element is reverent wonder, Godliness, or worshipping well. Peter’s last two elements are closely connected, warm friendliness or the desire to be a blessing to others, and, finally, generous love—a love for serving Christ and others without self-regard. I don’t know about you, but this would take me a lifetime or two to be able to mark a notch for all six of those characteristics of spiritual maturity. Fortunately, Peter is not writing to us as completely mature followers of Christ. He says that if we are actively cultivating these characteristics, we will mature and complement what Peter calls our “basic faith” with the more mature, but desirable attributes that he names for us. The urgency of the journey is evident—“Don’t lose a minute”. Begin immediately on the building and maturing process. This increasing maturing is the way we grow in our experience of God’s forgiveness and grace. Urgency, though, does not necessarily mean that we rush out and tackle all these growth areas at once. Now I love the Peanuts gang. I must admit that I used to picture myself in the Lucy character—always with a quick comeback, dispensing wisdom and knowledge from behind a counter for a very small charge. The longer I am in the ministry, the more I see myself as Linus, perhaps, or even PigPen. Snoopy’s wonderfully creative imagination has always played just a little part in my alter ego. Anyway, there is a Peanuts story that fits here. Charlie Brown is at bat. STRIKE THREE. He has struck out again and slumps over to the bench. "Rats! I’ll never be a big-league player. I just don’t have it! All my life I’ve dreamed of playing in the big leagues, but I know I’ll never make it." Lucy turns to console him. "Charlie Brown, you’re thinking too far ahead. What you need to do is set yourself more immediate goals." He looks up. "Immediate goals?" Lucy says, "Yes. Start with this next inning when you go out to pitch. See if you can walk out on the mound without falling down!" Every time I walk up here and stand in front of you, I feel just a little like Charlie Brown trying so hard to just get to the mound without falling down. What would Lucy’s advice be to us, right here, right now? With just a glance back to Peter (no that’s not a cartoon character, I mean Peter, the apostle), we will notice that he is not advocating that we focus on only one attribute at a time. He is clear that “each dimension” fits into and develops the others. So what if we merely started with a vision of loving one another and loving this particular expression of Christ’s body? We have talked much about worship in the last 5 weeks. It would seem that if our focus during worship is to bring glory to God and share the love of Christ for us all, will not love for each other and for this church not be a natural outgrowth of our worship? I rarely take illustrations from the business world, but this one seems to fit the odd and particular place in growth in which we find ourselves. It seems that we may be able to learn something from Domino’s Pizza. Thomas Monaghan was founder, president, and chief executive officer of Domino’s Pizza, Inc. From 1970 to 1985, Domino’s grew from a small debt-ridden chain to the second largest pizza company in America. When asked to account for the phenomenal growth of the company, Monaghan explained, "I programmed everything for growth." And how did he plan for growth? "Every day we develop people-the key to growth is developing people." Not special cheese, not a tasty crust, not fast delivery schedules, but people! Dominos has the slogan, "Our most important ingredient is our people!" Taken completely out of context, we might answer a similar question the same way. How do we account for the phenomenal growth of Open Circle in it first 18 months as a fully affiliated MCC church? Our answer must be the same as Mr. Monaghan’s—it is the people—only this time it is the people allowing God’s Spirit to work through them and in them that makes Open Circle what it is and is becoming today. It isn’t fancy robes or the liturgy or even the choir—it’s the people involved in all of those things. Of course, the other side of this is that we really are people and as truly alive human beings living our lives in the context of this community we sometimes run into events and circumstances that we do not like and do not want to embrace. And that is where our true maturity is either present or it is noticeably absent. Let me ask you a question and I hope you will think about it before you answer it for yourself. Why do you come to church? One of you sent me an email this past week and I couldn’t believe how perfectly it fit into our discussion today. A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all." This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: "I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this. They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!" Here at Open Circle, we acknowledge that we are real, sometimes tired, cranky and suffering human beings. Things don’t always go the way we want them to. But what sets us apart from many churches that I have attended is that we are real with each other. Real with our support, real with our challenges and real with our love. We may disagree, we may even fight every once in a while, but our relationships, established and nourished in God’s love, will always emerge stronger giving us more inspired to walk beside each other no matter what. Now, of course, it is the “no matter what” that sometimes gets the better of us. But I trust that no matter who it is who is experiencing some of life’s ups and downs, from the newest member, to the oldest to your pastor herself, that we will recall the spiritual maturity that we are called to again and again by the Gospel writers, the apostles, and Jesus himself. For those who have difficulty traversing this sometimes bumpy terrain we call Christian community, this can be a challenge, but Peter is clear when he says, “Don’t lose a minute, be about your own Christian maturing and utilize it to help bring others to a better understanding of this call that we are following to ‘share the unconditional love of God and, to call us, through the grace of Jesus Christ, to ministry by all for all.’ A little paraphrasing goes a long way, but keeps us focused on our mission and call. You may, along the way—make that, you will—along the way run into people who simply cannot grasp the notion of loving and forgiving, forgiving and supporting and loving again. This is what you must do, invite them into this warm and loving circle and provide them with the context in which to place their misunderstandings, disappointments, and confusion. Most of all, be true to what you have experienced here and welcome, again and again if need be, those who have not yet discovered that which we hold so precious in our fellowship and care for each other. Perfect, no—growing, oh, my, yes. And we find comfort in the words of Jesus Himself. Jesus is praying for us! Can you hear him? Calling us to be united in Him—shining forth with the possibility that people can experience this union with God through their unity with Christ Jesus. Jesus calls us to understand that this oneness is for only one reason: to give the world evidence that is behind all this loving—both for each other and for God. Let us be about the process of maturing in Christ in worship and in other activities where we come together as God’s children. Let us stand together, united in the knowledge that God loves us, that Jesus shows us new ways to live, and that the world is dying for the unconditional love of God. Don’t lose a minute. Stand with us and allow the Holy Spirit to use you and fill you as you are used. And, we say, yes, Lord, yes. Amen and amen Yes, Lord, Yes

Word to Build a Life on 9-16-12

The Reading— Romans 14: 1, 13-14, 22-23 Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do. And don’t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don’t agree with—even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently. Forget about deciding what’s right for each other. Here’s what you need to be concerned about: that you don’t get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it already is. I’m convinced—Jesus convinced me!—that everything as it is in itself is holy. We, of course, by the way we treat it or talk about it, can contaminate it. Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don’t impose it on others. You’re fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. But if you’re not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways inconsistent with what you believe—some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them—then you know that you’re out of line. If the way you live isn’t consistent with what you believe, then it’s wrong. The Other Reading—sayings by Dr. Seuss • “My alphabet starts with this letter called yuzz. It's the letter I use to spell yuzz-a-ma-tuzz. You'll be sort of surprised what there is to be found once you go beyond 'Z' and start poking around!” • “If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too.” • “Don't give up. I believe in you all. A person's a person no matter how small.” • “And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed.” • “So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. And remember that life's A Great Balancing Act.” • “Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!” The Gospel Reading: Luke 6: 47-49 These words I speak to you are not mere additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundation words, words to build a life on. “If you work the words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who dug deep and laid the foundation of his house on bedrock. When the river burst its banks and crashed against the house, nothing could shake it; it was built to last. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a dumb carpenter who built a house but skipped the foundation. When the swollen river came crashing in, it collapsed like a house of cards. It was a total loss.” Words to Build a Life on 9-16-12 God, we know that you call us to see the holy in the everyday things—the things that are so close to us we sometimes trip over them without seeing them. Help us to build our lives on the foundation of your love and grace. Teach us to listen. May the words that I speak and the reflections of all our hearts reflect the holy in this hour. Amen Today our reflections about worship ask us to take a closer look at ourselves as individuals, in all our shared and separate pasts, our hopes and dreams for the future, and our gifts and blessings which call us to different and differing kinds of worship experiences. Not necessarily different kinds of worship, but certainly, different kinds of worship experiences. And so, here we are, joined in our circle of a faith community all trying to reach out for those things that touch us and call us to the divine wholeness that lies at the core of each of our beings, WHILE simultaneously trying to love each other and call each other into shared worship in a community of radical welcome! WOW! That’s some heady stuff—I want to try to unpack it for us as we go along to day. And, along the way—don’t forget about last week’s porcupines! Some of our quills left over from last week are stated in the negative—this is NOT what I want or don’t think I’m going to do this. And some we can state in the positive—this is what I want or need or think would be a good idea for worship—but they are all quills just the same and we sometimes chafe against the prick of those quills no matter what they look like. Now, lest you think your pastor went away for the week, and lost her mind completely, I want to explain why Dr. Seuss found his way into our sacred readings for today. Thanks, Jamie, for answering the call to read today even after you discovered you were going to read from Dr. Seuss. You did great! Some of you may remember that my mother was an elementary school librarian for over 40 years. She instilled in me a great love for the written word. Strangely enough, I did not much care for Dr. Seuss as a child—I thought his books were quite silly and, because I was a literature snob, they seemed just a little below me. As an adult, reading those same books to my own child, I came to appreciate the great wisdom in his writings. His commitment to the good in all of us must surely seep just a little into the minds of little children reading such lines as the ones we heard today. I’d like to think he played a role in my spiritual development even if I did not appreciate him the first time around. Most of all, he calls us to think and act and be beyond how we currently describe ourselves, our abilities, and who we think we are. Of all his sayings that I chose for today, the one that most calls to me today is “Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!” And here we are today, thinking about what worship means to us as individuals, all sitting together in this place. I have challenged myself and challenge all of you, to try thinking of some things you may never have thought of before. But as we think and answer the questions of why worship, why here, why now and what do I really need and want to find a way to return to or discover for the first time that sense of divine wholeness. I want to speak just briefly of our Gospel Lesson here. Jesus is telling a story and we, in Florida, should be pretty familiar with the elements in the story. It’s a simple story: two people build a house. One of them takes time, hires an engineer, figures out the best way to anchor his house deep into the ground. Why? Because he has seen the pictures of houses blown away by fierce hurricane winds. The second person is much more interested in the outside of the house. She consults with decorators and orders the fanciest of outdoor décor to set her house apart from all the rest. You know how this story ends—the hurricane comes and all that is left of the second house is a pile of fluff and frill in the midst of empty space where the house once stood. Worship is not so different. When we take time to make sure that our worship is anchored deep into the sacred by knowing the scriptures that enable and enhance our learning of God, and the prayers, praise, and common bond that calls and holds us together as a community of faith, we are well on our way to a corporate worship that makes possible the appreciation of individual elements about which we may differ in preference and style. Just as we do not all learn the same, we do not all experience the sacred in the same ways. But the foundation of worship finds itself embraced by that which calls people to experience the holy. This is far different from entertainment or motivational speaking. We have but one purpose for worship and that is to align our thoughts, our hearts, our desires, and our minds with the sacred place of wholeness in our very selves. Hear what Quaker mystic Thomas Kelly says about this phenomenon: Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continuously return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto Itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, utterly and completely, to the Light within, is the beginning of true life. It is a dynamic center, a creative Life that presses to birth within us. It is a Light Within which illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories upon the face of [humankind]. It is a seed stirring to life if we do not choke it. It is the Shekinah of the soul, the Presence in the midst. My response is this: What, then, does it require of us to enable as many as possible of you to enter this holy place, this place where, if we do not choke it, will stir itself to life. Now, this may sound a little “out there” to some of you, perhaps, even a little frightening. But, just for a moment, I want you to pretend that you are alone in this room. Would everyone please close your eyes so that you block out your neighbors visually. Now that you are alone with your thoughts and your heart, I want to ask you just three questions: First, when was the last time I truly felt the presence of God, the Divine Light in my spirit? Where was I and what did I experience? It may have been here at Open Circle, and it may have been some place else. Don’t limit your answer. Some of you may have a difficult time with this question—that’s ok, if you cannot think of an actual time, try to imagine what this might feel like. PAUSE Second, is the experience of the Sacred Presence something I value in my life? Do I long for that sense of connection? Have I perhaps shut myself off from that experience, having tried before and been dissatisfied with the result? What are the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that might be limiting my natural ability to enter into that sacred time and space? Are there elements of worship missing for me? PAUSE As I suggested earlier the purpose of worship is to align our thoughts, our hearts, our desires, and our minds with the sacred place of wholeness in our very selves. With one more brief moment with eyes closed, think on this question: what can I do to transform the worship at Open Circle from one where there are sparks of divine grace and where there are moments of Shekinah glory to a worship that invites us all of us in as many ways as possible to enter a place where we are fed when we don’t even know we are hungry and where our hearts are joined together in common purpose however that may emerge from each of us as individuals. PAUSE Feel free to open your eyes if you have not done so already. This sacred place of wholeness, comes directly from God’s unconditional love and radical welcome. I am not speaking of new things here. I am asking us to think deeply and clearly about what worship could be in this embodiment of the Body of Christ. Worship is sacred, but it is not concrete—it can flow and change and try on new things. Paul tells us quite clearly to stop trying to decide what is right for others and to cultivate our own relationship with God. This is what I have called us to this morning—the willingness to share with each other, with me, with Bill, with Elaine and others who have leadership in the worship—to share your thoughts from your divine place of centered relationship with God. Our shared investment in drawing each other to that Holy Place of God calls us to honesty and willingness to change. And, for many of us, change is hard and rather frightening. We remember those quills—they have a way of reminding us they are still here. A line of advice from our good Dr. Seuss might be in order: “So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. And remember that life's A Great Balancing Act.” God welcomes us to this great balancing act we call community; and as we are called we say together: Amen and amen.

Hundreds of Ways 9-9-12

The Reading— Ephesians 5: 18a-20

Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Special Reading--Rumi

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.


The Gospel Reading: John 4: 23-24

"It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Creator is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before God in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship God must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration."
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A Hundred Ways 9-9-12
O God, our God, we are so different from each other and, yet, here we are—gathered together as your people—hearing, singing, breathing into your holy presence. Help us learn to love each other with the same love as you love us. May I speak your truth and may our hearts be turned to you. Amen

We’re in a sort of informal series of sermons surrounding the topic of worship. How often we say that we are going to worship and we usually mean that we are coming to a place such as this or this place at a particular time each week. We may give a great deal of thought to what we expect and even need; or it may be an action that we take because it makes us feel good, gives us a place to gather with God’s people; or, for some of us, it is the lifeline which keeps our heads above water for the week to come. There are many, many reasons we come to worship and, while we may sometimes examine our hearts and minds regarding worship, it is a conversation that we—as a church—must encounter and explore with each other.
Last week we talked about the ‘what’ of worship. We talked of longing for holy ground and the availability of the ‘holy’ at all times, but, particularly during this hour we call worship. We are called here—I truly believe that. I do not see any reason for any of you to get up on Sunday and come to this place unless you are called. Now, it may not be an audible call, but the call is there—everything from a quiet little tug at your heart to the cries of a deeply wounded person looking for a place of healing and rest. And, just as there are many reasons for coming, there are many more expectations, hopes, and desires all placed upon this one hour of the week. Here’s the rub—all those expectations, hopes, and desires can come crashing into one another and cause us to slide a little backwards on this holy ground upon which we stand.
One of you sent me an email this week so I can’t take credit for this story; but it fits right in to today’s study of who we all are in worship, in the beauty of difference,. I am always amazed at the simple ways God’s Spirit shows me where we are all headed together. You may have received this same email—listen to it with new ears. It seems that it was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, realizing the situation, thought they had a good idea. They decided to group together to keep warm. This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions. After awhile, they decided that the pain was too intense so they decided to distance themselves one from the other to keep from hurting each other and getting hurt. They began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth.
Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. They learned to live with the little wounds caused by the close relationship with their companions in order to receive the heat that came from the others. This way they were able to survive. This story finishes with this simple truth—the best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person's good qualities. And, as much as I would like to deny it, we all have quills. Some of us have quills of pain and grief. Some of us have grown quills in the scars of past hurts. Some of us have quills of defensiveness born of a deep fear that we are simply not good enough to be here in this place with these people. Some have quills of sadness, or bigotry, or fear, or hate birthed long ago by some imagined or real offence. But they are quills nevertheless and we will hurt each other along the way when we gather close together to pray or study, sing or share our stories. And some will ask “Why?”—why get that close when one risks the painful prick of disagreement or misunderstanding. Because, my friends—the alternative is a kind of spiritual death born of isolation and loneliness.
Our reading from Rumi is one of my favorites. In its truth, perhaps, lies the secret to what we try to follow in our worship planning—“there are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” You see, in MCC, we talk a lot about honoring diversity and facilitating an environment where everyone can feel and experience God’s radical welcome. And, we say, “Come, just as you are”. But, this is a lot harder than it looks or sounds. Why? Because it is really, really hard to set our own prejudices and preferences aside long enough to celebrate those expressions of authentic faith by someone who doesn’t know and may not care about our preciously held traditions and habits. The brief passage from Ephesians 5, if we really read it for understanding, should open the door to wonderful conversations about what worship looks like. But here’s the amazing thing—Paul never really describes what liturgy the church should use, how to evaluate the theological significance of our hymns and songs, nor whether the preacher should preach from notes, a manuscript, or walk around speaking, as some would say, as the Spirit leads. In other passages Paul insists on order in worship to honor God’s Spirit which is not a spirit of confusion. Within the parameters of order, however, Paul here gives us all complete permission to worship “from our own hearts to God’s” with little to no explanation of what that actually looks like.
In our Gospel lesson, from the Gospel of John, Jesus makes it clear that who we are and how we live out our lives is what matters to God. Your worship, says Jesus, must speak to your Spirit who leads your heart in the pursuit of God’s holy truth. God wants people to be “simply and honestly themselves” in their worship. Because God is being itself—that is—Spirit, we must worship from the core of our being, our spirits, who, since they are our true selves, will lead us in adoration of God. We will worship, as Jesus says, “in Spirit and in Truth”. When our worship is true worship, authentically connected to the core of our beings, we will be drawn to the Divine Holy—to God, who embodies the very meaning of diversity in a Sacred Trinity, made up of three persons, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. True worship will result in a sacred fire in our hearts, fueled by the direct interchange of God’s Spirit to ours and ours to God, and will lead us to action and response. In other words, within the context of authentic worship, our hearts will be ablaze with the desire to share with others the wonders of simple honesty before the God who made us.
Now, I would like to suggest that being “simply and honestly ourselves” in worship is a bit of a puzzle for some of us. We are called to engage with God on a spiritual level—and so our worship must touch us in our innermost places, our spirits as well as our bodies and minds. How does this get us back to porcupines and the quills that stick and sting others along the way? Quite simply, it calls us to allow our own preconceived ideas regarding the nature of worship to be pricked by the needs, wants and preferences of others. It says to us that living together and loving together is more important than any single decision about form or style of worship. It says that staying warm—sharing the Very Good News that God loves us and accepts us right where we are—is more important than a prick now or then, when we might struggle to find meaning in a particular moment in worship.
Rev. Elder Lillie Brock says this about styles of worship in MCC churches—and I am paraphrasing: “there will always be elements of the service that not everyone finds meaningful or worshipful. That is the time to remember that what fails to set your heart on fire is igniting the heart of the person sitting next to you.” And so, we sing and celebrate with each other, welcoming the new and traditional, young and older, and rejoicing in the fact that together we open ourselves and each other to the light of the Gospel made plain in the diversity of the Triune God in whom we move and live and have our being. Amen and Amen

The Center of our Lives 9-2-12

The Reading— Ezekiel 37 (Portions)

God grabbed me. God's Spirit took me up and set me down in the middle of an open plain strewn with bones. God led me around and among them—a lot of bones! There were bones all over the plain—dry bones, bleached by the sun.
God said to me, "Ezekiel, can these bones live?" I said, "Creator God, only you know that." God said to me, "Prophesy over these bones: 'Dry bones, listen to the Message of God!'" God, the Creator, told the dry bones, "Watch this: I'm bringing the breath of life to you and you'll come to life. I'll attach sinews to you, put meat on your bones, cover you with skin, and breathe life into you. You'll come alive and you'll realize that I am God!"
I prophesied just as I'd been commanded. As I prophesied, there was a sound and, oh, rustling! The bones moved and came together, bone to bone. I kept watching. Sinews formed, then muscles on the bones, then skin stretched over them. But they had no breath in them. God said to me, "Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, God’s Child. Tell the breath, 'God, the Creator, says, Come from the four winds. Come, breath. Breathe on these slain bodies. Breathe life!'" So I prophesied, just as God commanded me. The breath entered them and they came alive! …
"When your people ask you, 'Are you going to tell us what you're doing?' tell them, 'God, the Creator, says, Watch me! I'll take the Joseph stick that is in Ephraim's hand, with the tribes of Israel connected with him, and lay the Judah stick on it. I'll make them into one stick. I'm holding one stick.' …They'll be my people! I'll be their God! My servant David will be king over them. They'll all be under one shepherd.
"'They'll follow my laws and keep my statutes. They'll live in the same land I gave my servant Jacob, the land where your ancestors lived. They and their children and their grandchildren will live there forever, and my servant David will be their prince forever. I'll make a covenant of peace with them that will hold everything together, an everlasting covenant. I'll make them secure and place my holy place of worship at the center of their lives forever. I'll live right there with them. I'll be their God! They'll be my people! "'The nations will realize that I, God, make Israel holy when my holy place of worship is established at the center of their lives forever.'"

The Gospel Reading: Luke 7: 11-17

Not long after that, Jesus went to the village Nain. His disciples were with him, along with quite a large crowd. As they approached the village gate, they met a funeral procession—a woman's only son was being carried out for burial. And the mother was a widow. When Jesus saw her, his heart broke. He said to her, "Don't cry." Then he went over and touched the coffin. The pallbearers stopped. He said, "Young man, I tell you: Get up." The dead son sat up and began talking. Jesus presented him to his mother.
They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery, that God was at work among them. They were quietly worshipful—and then noisily grateful, calling out among themselves, "God is back, looking to the needs of his people!" The news of Jesus spread all through the country.


The Center of Our Lives 9-2-12
Eternal and holy God, bring us to that place of holy mystery—that time of knowing without a doubt that your Holy Spirit is in complete control. Lead us in your way everlasting and bless us with your truth. Amen

Noreen, you, did a great job bringing those bones to life as you read the passage from Ezekiel. The older I get, the more fascinated I am by this story—how God reaches out and makes these old, bleached out bones come to life. Now I will admit that I almost asked the choir to sing “Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones”, but thought better of it. Our Gospel passage brings us another moment of absolute worship and I thought about calling the sermon “Quietly worshipful and noisily grateful” but, that sounded a little too much like the title of a recent movie. Both passages, though, have much to tell us about worship—the nature of worship, why we worship, and how we are to worship.
Look at what happened. Right from the start God is in control. Ezekiel tells his story: “God grabbed me”. There was no gentle nudging of God’s Spirit, no still small voice, no, God grabbed me. The Spirit of God carried me somehow to the middle of an open plain where everywhere I looked there were bones. And there were lots and lots of bones, all dried out and bleached by the sun. It was a pretty incredible sight. I got lost in looking at those bones and forgot all about God for a moment.
Out of the blue, God says to me: “Can these bones come to life?” Now, I’m wondering just exactly what the right answer to this question is. Seems pretty obvious, but this is God I’m talking to, so, perhaps, I should rein it in a little and not say what I’m thinking. “Creator, God” I say, “you are the only one who can know the answer to your question”. God says, “Prophesy over these bones!” What, they’re just bones and ugly bones at that. God, then speaks directly to the bones: '”Dry bones, listen to the Message of God!" God, the Creator, told the dry bones, "Watch this: I'm bringing the breath of life to you and you'll come to life. I'll attach sinews to you, put meat on your bones, cover you with skin, and breathe life into you. You'll come alive and you'll realize that I am God!"
So I, Ezekiel, began to prophesy just as God commanded. Saying words that were directly from God’s Spirit, I let go and told those old bones all I knew about this God who created them and who could bring them back to life. Suddenly, there was a rustling sound. I looked, in unbelief, as those old bones began to move and come together just as they were supposed to—leg bones to hip bones and wrist bones to arm bones. And then, the muscles that hold the bones together began to form, followed by the skin. They looked like people, but they were still—they had no breath in them.
God said to me, “Prophesy to the breath—prophesy, you are my child, you can do it. Tell the winds to come from every direction and breathe life into these bodies”. And so I did, again, letting the words spill out as the Spirit inspired me. And suddenly, “Winds blew, and the breath entered them and they were alive.
And then, God told them directly what this was all about. God was pulling together the separated tribes of Israel. God pulled those tribes together in a way just like those dry bones. God united them and reclaimed them, appointing David to be their King and shepherd. These reclaimed people will follow God’s laws and obey all the rules. They will live in the original land that was given to the Jewish people. And this will be for all time—so that their grandchildren and grandchildren’s grandchildren will live there as well. And David will be their prince forever. God said, “I'll make a covenant of peace with them that will hold everything together, an everlasting covenant. I'll make them secure and place my holy place of worship at the center of their lives forever. I'll live right there with them. I'll be their God! They'll be my people! The nations will realize that I, God, make Israel holy when my holy place of worship is established at the center of their lives forever."
Well, there is more to the story, but we’ll let Ezekiel go back to what he was doing before God grabbed him. What is important from this story is not seeing the bones dancing wildly around as real human beings after God brought them back to life, though that would have been quite a sight to see; we must come to grips with the fact that God intends for worship to be at the center of our lives. And that should stop most of us dead in our tracks. For most of us, the question “What is worship?” is not an easy question to answer. Is it praise? Is it teaching? Is it communion with God and others? And, just how is it like God making those old dry bones alive again?
Interestingly, people have been asking those questions for a while. So, I looked at the writings of a specific Anglican Bishop, named William Temple. He wrote and ‘bishoped’ in the first half of the Twentieth Century. He answers the question “what is the purpose of worship?” with five specific attributes.
First, the purpose of worship is “to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God”. I want us to take another look at our Gospel lesson. Jesus and his disciples are walking to a village. They have quite a large entourage following them. They came upon a funeral procession. Jesus soon learned that the deceased was the only son of a widow. She could not be consoled. Luke records that when Jesus saw her and understood her circumstance, his heart broke for her. He then stopped the procession and quickly, with no fanfare, healed the young man. Let’s not lose sight of what happens next. Luke states this: “They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery; that God was at work among them.” Let’s sit with this for just a moment. Is God at work among us? If so, this place is a place of holy mystery. Now the people who witnessed the healing had three responses. First came quiet worship, then noisy gratitude, and then they spread the good news about Jesus. Perhaps this is a possible litmus test to determine if we, too, are experiencing the holy mystery of God at work among us? Let’s think about that in the coming weeks.
Second, Bishop Temple suggests that the nature of worship is “to feed the mind with the truth of God”. This calls us to listen to God’s word—spoken and sung and preached. We gather each week for a new understanding of God’s truth. For me, and I think for many of you, that truth is wrapped in God’s unconditional love and radical welcome into the Reign of Justice. Each week, our worship, if it is true worship will fills us with the sense of that truth—that we, and everyone on this earth, are acceptable to God exactly where and who we are. And so, our participation in worship is the visceral acting out of the Good News of the grace and forgiveness, the mercy and love of God, made known to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
In the third place, Bishop Temple invites us to experience worship as a place and time “to to purge the imagination with the beauty of God”. The beauty of God has different meanings and I will not try to give you a universal definition. The scriptures call us to “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness”. Each week our service includes a brief prayer called “Commitment to Worship”. I hope that you do not miss the intent of those prayers and that they have not become mere wallpaper for you. I invite you to engage your whole self in our beginning readings each week—they invite you to worship—to put off the things that leave you unable to be present in this moment. Each portion of our worship service has its own significance and is part of a whole experience of worship that takes us to a place of the possibility of the beauty of God. We, each, take responsibility for our real participation in this act of formal worship, just as you invest yourselves fully in the small or large experiences of worship throughout your week. God invites us each week to give ourselves over to divine beauty and grace.
The fourth purpose of worship for Bishop Temple is to give us a place where we are called “to give the heart to the love of God”. This is not mere poetry, this is a call to hand over our hearts and allow God to change them, to fill us with the love of God for each other and for ourselves. When we love God with our whole hearts, we are filled with love that transcends bitterness, or dissension, or difference. Worship is the place where we allow God, in the breaking of bread and the sharing of the cup, to enter and transform our hearts. This is why we slow ourselves as we enter into the time of communion at God’s table. If you do not already take advantage of the moments of reflection and prayer in the process of communion, I invite you to do so—to invite God to open your hearts anew.
Finally, Bishop Temple says that worship is the time that invites us “to devote the will to the purpose of God." We close every worship celebration with the singing of the prayer that Jesus taught to his disciples. “Thy will be done” we sing, “on earth as it is in heaven”. At this moment, if not in other moments, we, caught up in the love and beauty of worship, pledge ourselves to the will of God, to the coming of the Kingdom and to the ongoing experience of the beauty, majesty, and love of our Creator God. “For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever!” Amen and amen.