God of many names and experiences, lead us to know you
well. Teach us to be ever present and
aware to your voice in the wind. Show us
your handiwork in the waves of the ocean.
May we be always alert to your presence in our lives. Amen
I think I
may have told you about my great-grandmother before. Her name was Emma, Emma Deckard. She lived on this earth for 96 years. By the time I knew her, her life was pretty
well contained on the family farm; and when you take her life as a whole, she
has much to teach me and, I suspect, you.
In the late 1800’s she crossed the mountains between Pennsylvania and
Southern Indiana in a covered wagon. She
and her husband homesteaded the multi-acre family farm. I remember that farm well. There were hills (we thought they were
mountains) to climb and streams to play in—they were called “cricks” in
Southern Indiana. There was a magical
spring that we dubbed the “Indian Springs” and we spun yarns to make it all
seem pretty exciting. I tell you all
these things so that you can understand what this farm meant to my
Great-grandmother and to the subsequent generations as well. Her life is a timeline of all the changes in
the 20th Century. She saw the
development of virtually all the inventions that changed this country from an
agrarian society to one centered in big cities.
She also lived to see Neal Armstrong walk on the moon. Think of the paradigm shifts she (and all of
your grandparents and great-grandparents) experienced. I bring my great-grandmother up because her generation
and the generation that followed it are experts in paradigm shifting; that is,
changing one’s world view or ideas about how the world operates and how you
operate in the world. With each new
life-changing invention they shifted and survived. There was little question about whether or
not they could or would be willing to change.
If they wanted to live in the present, they changed. We may want to remember this as we envision a
church for today.
I wish I had
been old enough or wise enough to ask my great-grandmother what it was like to
make all these changes—to go with the flow, so to speak. There is one very sad story in my
great-grandmother’s life. In the late
1960’s the county decided to put in a human-made water reservoir. You guessed it—her farm along with the farms
of all her neighbors were taken (for not much money) and eventually most of her
farm including the farmhouse were underwater.
Everyone, in the midst of their own grief and anger, seemed to be sure
that this would “kill” Emma. It will not
surprise you to hear that it did not.
She moved into the house they were able to purchase and lived there
another ten years or so. She experienced
the loss deeply, I am sure; but, kill her it did not. I am grateful that I was
given an amazing mentor in the art of living with change. I’m sure many of you have similar stories to
tell.
In the
Church Growth Movement everyone wants to talk about the paradigm shift that we
must choose to make. A paradigm shift is
no more than changing the models of how one views the world, including values,
lifestyles, traditions, religion, and spirituality. When we talk about “radical inclusivity” we
are talking about being willing to let go of some of our models that we have
for “doing church”, or, at least change them, and 7+our theology—or
understanding of the nature of God. It
does not mean, as one of you asked this week, giving up your story, your God,
your values or your spirituality. What
it does mean is that your model should not and cannot be declared to be ‘the’
truth. It may be ‘your’ truth and no one
is advocating that you relinquish ‘your’ truth.
That would make you less than authentic.
And in maintaining your authenticity you allow others to maintain
theirs. Radial inclusivity has as its
core the principle of respect for others and ourselves.
There is
more, however. This means learning the
art of listening rather than speaking.
It means listening without judging.
For some of you, Jesus is at the center of your spirituality. However, I have heard some of you say, “Jesus
just doesn’t do it for me.” Radical
inclusivity says, “that’s okay. We can
reach out to each other and love and accept each other in the source of all
love, the Divine. What you need to know
in order to be comfortable in a community of radical inclusivity is that
another’s belief system, their spiritual paradigm belongs to them as it has
grown out of their life experiences.
Yours belongs to you, is sacred to you.
Celebrate that, honor it. In
fact, down the road, you may find that others bring marvelous variations of
faith or spiritual practices with them into a radically inclusive
community. Rather than fear those
variations, we can look at them as opportunities to learn new practices or
alternate understandings. And these
variations may well give you new ways of meditation, worship, and living in
alignment with what you believe. I can
almost guarantee you that learning about other faiths and traditions will
enhance your current spiritual practices rather than threaten or lessen
them. We have much to learn and much of
what we have to learn comes from peoples and places other than Christianity.
We can all sit together as people who
exist in the same pool of Divine Love.
Let’s try it. I want you to turn
to your neighbors on both sides (this is why you might consider sitting closer
together) and tell each other: “I honor
your spiritual journey and where you are in the present.” Again, “I honor your spiritual journey and
where you are in the present”. That’s
all—don’t ask them what they believe, we don’t have time and you don’t need to
know in order to honor and respect them as brother and sister seekers of truth
and love. How did that feel? How did you feel when someone told you that
they honored your journey? And, the
opposite, how did you feel when you told them that you honored theirs’? This is it—we just experienced radical
inclusivity.
Some of you may be thinking, well
that wasn’t hard, we’re all basically the same.
I would suggest that not only is that not accurate, because we have not
yet fully committed to Open Circle being the beautiful kind of place that
everyone experiences acceptance enough to enable them to feel safe to share
their truth with us, many have not. That
causes me sadness. Let me give you some
examples—if this fits you, know that I am not condemning you; but I am asking
that you take some time later today and ask yourself if this is true for
you. If you have ever asked someone why
they don’t partake of communion or why they don’t join this church, you may
have a ways to go to understand radical inclusivity. There are many other things we do and don’t
do which lets us know that we are falling short of an inclusivity which builds
trust between us and those who bring different stories with them.
The title of
this sermon is “Melting Models”—not tearing down models or destroying models of
tradition or spirituality. What happens
when you light a candle?—beyond the obvious flame, there is also the melting or
softening of the paraffin or beeswax which supports the wick. Wicks cannot stand up by themselves. We naturally have core beliefs that hold up
our other beliefs; but, the model of a burning candle is an apt one. As the candle burns, we, being the paraffin,
soften. We change shapes, we send down
long expressions of melting wax which serve many times to build up the candle itself. This is what it means to be radically
inclusive, that we allow our light (the flame of the candle) to melt our edges
and make it easier for others to be accepted into our lives and for us to
lovingly encourage one another as our edges melt and we become more and more
open to experiencing the love of God in those with whom we may have theological
differences. When we think in terms of
softening our edges rather than changing who we are, we may have an easier time
understanding this thing called Radical Inclusivity. Rather than abrupt change it is subtle
softening and re-shaping. We are drawn
toward this metaphor of the burning candle because we are more able to think of
the small, slow change in the body of the candle as the wick burns.
Will you not
share the light of your candle and invite others—though different from you—to
hare theirs. Come, feel the passion and
warmth of shared experiences and mutuality.
Loving each other enough to hear another’s story is all it take—loving,
calling, being true to ourselves while embracing each other and those who are
not currently among the each others of Open Circle. If we are to heal the world, we must heal
each other first. Once we have reached
out to those both like and unlike us we are well on our way to healing the
world. Amen and amen..
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