Recent Sermon Titles & Excerpts:

 

January 7, 2007 - Vagabond Teachers

Have you ever stopped to consider we follow the teachings of a vagabond?  In fact, the Jesus depicted in the Bible comes off as just short of itinerant.  Maybe, just maybe, there's something divine about them.  In point of fact, the ancient Greeks believed traveling beggars were gods in disguise, spending time among mortals to test them.  Think of that the next time you pass someone on the street with their hand out.   

December 31, 2006 - Proof of Faith

Proving the existence of God is not the central issue of religious debate.  Proving you've got the guts to have faith - that's the tough one.  It's easy to tell people to buck up, that when the chips are down, they've got to be able to cut the mustard.  Thing is, not everybody has the luxury of mustard to be cut.  But proving you have faith by extending a hand to those people who don't have any mustard, and then stepping back, giving up control, allowing others to make decisions based on your help  - that's an enormous challenge, a true test of faith. 

December 24, 2006 - The Child

Today, members of your congregation looked deeply into the eyes of the children at the homeless shelter and offered them food, clothing and Christmas presents.  But it was more than that.  They gave them something much more valuable: Hope.  And for all of us, but particularly children, there is nothing more important than the gift of Hope.

December 17, 2006 - Adventing

In the Gospels of our Biblical New Testament stories, we are told Elijah came first, then the Messiah.  John the Baptist, as we have come to call him, is said to have called on the people to prepare for the advent of the Christ.  We cannot be Messiahs, but we can all be children of God, we can all embrace each other, we can all overlook our differences and faults and figure out how to love each other unconditionally and, particularly in this advent season, we can all aspire to be Elijahs.

December 10, 2006 - Joseph's Dreams

Whether drawn from Genesis 37 or Luke 1, the dreams of Joseph evoke wider stories, highly personal, within each one of us.  If you'll permit me, tomorrow is the 11th anniversary of the passing of the finest person I have ever known - my father, at once a humble Ag teacher and a noted historian, a lover of people who took selfless joy in their many accomplishments, cried with them during their difficulties, and represented the human spirit, and the spirit of Christmas, so beautifully as to fully prove the value, and importance, of decent living and affecting positive change in a small town.  To this day, his influence reaches out to the wider world, through his students and his family, as they live his dreams.  His name was Clifford Joseph Sichta, and he dreamed.  Oh, did he dream.

December 3, 2006 - Happy Feet!

One would think media pundits would have more important issues on their plate than that of denigrating a children's movie.  I am dumbfounded, wanting to know what is wrong with the message that, as the third-highest form of intelligence on the planet (remember: dolphins and white mice are smarter - okay, okay, that's a joke, but remember: we all sang "So Long And Thanks For All The Fish.") we are all stewards of God's world.  Can't that be okay as a children's message, or is it too adult a theme? To those somehow offended by the joy of watching fictional penguins dance as part of an effort to preserve their habitat and way of life, may I please offer the immortal words given us by Joan Rivers, "Oh, grow up."

November 26, 2006 - Assurance and Protection in God's Land

God's land is every land.  God's world is every world.  God's people are all people - even those we don't like very much, who don't look like, act like, or think like us.  We are all stumbling through this life together, which means that every person we meet is entitled the same grace as are each of those we hold closest.  Let us assure ourselves of protection in God's land by assuring the protection and love of all.

November 11, 2006 - War and Remembrance

It is time to study war no more.  In fact, it is past time.  We must stop finding ways to thump our macho selves in the chest about how tough we are as an armed military force and, instead, read the words of the writers of 2 Corinthians 10:2-4:  "I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.  For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We domolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."  It is time to stop the killing and start the thinking.  God wants people who use their minds.

October 15, 2006 - Harvest of Shame

It has been nearly half a century since, on the day after Thanksgiving in 1960, Edward R. Murrow broadcast the television documentary Harvest of Shame.  It centered around the conditions of migrant workers in the area of Belle Glade, Florida, not far from here.  The Harvest goes on, as witnessed by those who would begrudge the least among us the opportunity to live like the rest of us.  One would have thought our collective consciences would have gotten the better of us after the death of a man from El Salvador a few weeks ago, run down by an errant driver while hoping to pick up work from passers by at the Cutler Ridge Home Depot.  Since then, however, the security guard at the Home Depot and the owner of an adjacent piece of land have made it their job to go out to the neutral public ground where men gather each day to find work, pull guns on them, physically threaten them, drive their cars ever closer to them, and further up the stakes of intimidation.  Do we not understand Christ's message?  Why are we still in the midst of a Harvest of Shame?

October 8, 2006 - Families Forward

Think beyond, to all you know, all you meet, all you experience.  Accept - no, don't just accept, revel in - the fact that we are all moving forward on this planet as members of the same family, each one of us called and named by God, each one of us included in the message of Christ, each one of us loved - and there's nothing we can do about it!

 

October 1, 2006 - All In The Family

When we read the words in the Book of Mark where Jesus, told his mother, brothers and sisters are waiting outside to take him home, responds by saying all are his brothers and sisters, the writer is including everyone.  Everyone.

September 17, 2006 - The Architectural God

When oh when is God going to get around to doing things my way?!  I wanta know - now!

 

September 3, 2006 - Laboring Days

If we are truly open to the message of Christ, we are open too to those people who give us their labor, their very lives.  The three men run down by our local Home Depot on August 15th, one from Colombia and two - one of whom was killed - from El Salvador, were trying to do just that.  The facts belie the spin about aliens, legal and illegal, who seek to give us their labor in exchange for a piece of the American Dream. 

 

August 20, 2006 - Swan Songs

Swans are among the world's most beautiful birds - but have you ever heard one sing?

 

August 13, 2006 - Back to School

There is no word more prominent, no word more revered in the English translations of the Bible than that of Teacher. 

 

August 6, 2006 - Flowing Robes

We become too caught up in the ceremony of things and forget too quickly about the people we are called to serve.

 

July 30, 2006 - The Minimum

Yes we can pay a decent living wage to the people who break their backs to put food on each of our tables.  Particularly here in Homestead!

 

July 9, 2006 - Schoolyard Bullies

We have met the enemy, and they are us - both home and abroad.

 

July 2, 2006 - Jefferson's Bible

God is still speaking!

 

June 18, 2006 - Father's Day

According to the stories in the scriptures, Abram was 99.

 

May 28, 2006 - Memorial Day

Allen Mummert was 21 years old.  He was an only child, raised to one day take over his parent's farm in the Plum River Valley of northwest Illinois.  He never got the chance.  On February 18, 1968, he was declared missing in action.

 

 May 14, 2006 - Mother's Day

A wife of noble character, who can find.  She is worth farm more than rubies.  

 

April 16, 2006 - Resurrecting Faith

Blood sport is not in God's cards. 

 

April 9, 2006 - The Triumphal Entry - and You Are There!

We've got it on tape.

 

April 2, 2006 - Dress Codes

Consider the lilies of the field...

 

March 26, 2006 - One-Eyed People

In the world of the blind, the one-eyed person is in charge.

 

March 19, 2006 - Being Carefully Taught

The language in Mark reads, "Whoever is not against us is for us" - not the other way around.

 

 March 12, 2006 - Truth is Truth, to the End of Reconing

Where is Shakespeare today, when we really need him?

 

March 5, 2006 -    ...And Justice Never Will Be...

To paraphrase August Wilson, I have seen Justice, and she is a low outside curve ball that seems to hang, then breaks your arm when you swing.

 

February 26, 2006 -   ...Justice is Not...

Oh, that we would be stirred by that which flies in our faces, too easily ignored as someone else's problem.

 

February 19, 2006 -   ...Justice Is...

Something, in over thirty years of practicing law, I've only seen at a distance - and even then, I wasn't entirely sure.

 

January 22, 2006 - Counter-Reformations

It never goes away, this idea that can be conjured from a box.

 

January 15, 2006 - Listening to the Crowd

On this Martin Luther King Sunday, we would do well to understand how rare is the person who listens first to their heart, and therein searches for the voice of justice.

 

January 8, 2006 - With New Resolve

The only way to avoid breaking New Year's Resolutions is not to make them.  The only way to bake a cake is to break some eggs.  The only way to make change is to take the uncomfortable chance.

 

January 1, 2006 - Maccabean Light

God's miracles are waiting on you.  Make them happen.

 

December 18, 2005 - Sunday Dinner

Pass the potatos - or words to that effect.

 

November 20, 2005 - Knowing the Mind of God

Are you kidding me?

 

October 9, 2005 - Are We There Yet?

When you read the John-writer's story about the woman caught in adultery, you need to ask yourself one question: Where is the man?  The religious law at the time of Jesus was abundantly clear.  Read Leviticus 20:10.  Both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.  You can look it up.  So, again, where was the man?  It's not much different today: we continue to operate with double standards.  And it's not just about men and women, either - despite the great disparity in pay and treatment for performing the same jobs.  Take the rich and the poor.  I once lived in trendy Westport, Connecticut - well, okay, I rented a room there for awhile.  If you think houses are expensive in south Florida, don't even think about what they cost in Westport.  And the people who live in those houses are wealthy and well known.  Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Martha Stewart all had beautiful estates within a few miles of each other.  And I noticed that when a Westport person had an alcohol problem - like getting stopped by the police for a DUI, or a drug problem - like buying or selling and using cocaine, or a spousal abuse problem - like husbands beating their wives, they were universally referred to clinics and diversion programs that kept them from accumulating criminal records.  Down the road a piece - about thirty miles away in the Bronx of New York City - when any of those things were involved, those nameless, asset-less people went to jail - and not for a short time, either.  Sometimes, we like to look back and appreciate the idea that we rich North Americans have come a long long way.  When that happens, you might also want to ask yourselves: Are we there yet? 

 

October 2, 2005 - High Holy Days!

This week we enter into the year 5766 - on the Jewish calendar, that is.  Tuesday night at sundown, Rosh Hashana begins, followed ten days later by Yom Kippuer - the Day of Atonement.  People go around saying things like L'Shana Tovah (For a Good Year, or, Happy New Year)!  They also say things like L'Shana Tovah Tikatev V'taihatem (May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year).  These days are referred to as The Days of Awe, during which every good person of faith is expected to approach one another and say, "If I have done anything this past year to offend you, please forgive me."  This is especially important in Judaism because of the ancient belief that, as between oneself and God, the Day of Atonement atones; however, as between oneself and others, the Day of Atonement does not atone - you must go to that person and seek their forgiveness, and you must do it before the end of Yom Kippur, before God's Book of Life closes for another year.  While most people of the Jewish faith - particular Reformed and Conservative denominations - do not follow the idea that their opportunity for atonement is limited to ten days a year, the idea is incredibly important, as is their concept of fear.  Their description of the Days says it all: they are in awe of God, and they recognize the importance of making peace with one-another or, at the very least, risking attempting that peace, regardless of the response they might receive from the person they approach.  At the end of it all, as the shofar is blown in the Temple for the last time as the last part of Yom Kippur, the musician playing the last note sounds what is called the Tekiah Gedaliah, otherwise known as the Grand Tekiah, lasting ten long seconds.  During that time, not a voice can be heard as everyone meditates and seeks God's peace as they enter the new year.  Not a bad heritage, I should think.  We can learn a lot from the lovingkindness tradition of our religious forebearers.  Oh, and by the way, If I have done anything this past year to offend you, please forgive me.  May it always be so.

 

September 25, 2005 - Why Me?

 Have you ever wondered why, when everything goes your way, you're not raising your hands in the air and asking God, "Why me?"  You are, after all, by all accounts, a privileged North American.  Even in some of your worst situations, your living conditions, food, educational facilities, communications systems, and methods of transportation place you in a small small percentage as compared to the rest of the World.  Just by being here, everyone in this church has beaten long odds.  God has blessed us, not because we deserve it, but because - for most of us - of an accident of birth.  Which creates for each of us an obligation to reach out into the less privileged parts of the World and make a positive, caring difference on behalf of those people who have much more right than do we to task, "Why me?"

 

September 18, 2005 - And the Winner Is...

The story about the Syrophoenician woman appears only in Mark.  Other stories with a similar idea show up in Matthew and Luke, but only the Mark-writer tells us about a woman who stands her ground and insists on being heard in a desperate effort to save her dying daughter.  It is also a revolutionary tale in which, admittedly after much dramatic pleading, Jesus relents and heals the woman's daughter.  It is revolutionary because, in the First Century, most women had little value and no legal voice.  A child had even less to lean on, and a little girl, particularly one who was terminally ill, was considered virtually worthless.  And yet Jesus healed the child.  Everybody counts in God's world, something the Mark-writer wanted us to know; this story really pushed the envelope of an all-loving, ecumenical God.  Along the way, the story gave us value, too.  Remember, after all, the best way to insure rights for yourself is to give them to everybody else, too.  When that happens, you can put your own name in the blank at the end of the announcer's proclomation, "And the winner is..."  As Thomas More said, I give the benefit of justice to all, in order to proect myself!"  The Mark-writer gave us a Jesus who knew that 2,000 years ago.

 

September 11, 2005 - East of Eden!

Many of you know that Florida is famous for its electric chair.  "Old Sparky," its caretakes call it.  And with some affection, I might add.  An eye for an eye, we hear people say, not for a moment taking into account the idea that when that legal injunction was written, it was considered an improvement on the idea that wholesale retaliation was okay in response to the smallest offense.  And eye for an eye mitigated, it did not grant license.  The Genesis-writer who was among the last to revise the story of the first family - probably the Redactor, but maybe even as far back as the J-writer - saw God's injunction differently, too.  Has it ever occured to you, for example, that when Cain killed Abel, God did not kill Cain.  Oh, God marked him, alright, to keep him safe, in fact, from being put to death by others.  Yes, if the Genesis first family story is any guide, when Cain went East of Eden, God's protection, and statement in  opposition to capital punishment, went with him.

 

August 28, 2005 - Paying the Price!

How much are you worth?  My doctor tells me my precious metals content is around $12.  My bank tells me I'm regularly overdrawn.  And my wife tells me she's got my life insurance policy paid up to date.  The Matthew-writer, however, says we're worth much more than all that.  In fact, that same writer gave us one of the greatest philosophies in the world: stop sweating the small stuff; tomorrow will take care of itself.  Now, I know if we took a poll, many of us would have lists of ways in which our lives could stand improvement, or detailing things we wanted to accomplish, and things that simply had to get done right now.  And I'd be the last person to tell you to completely drop out of life.  But I do want to encourage you to take the occasional risk, to work on ways to let go and let God.  You may not believe it, but many wealthy entrepreneurs will tell you making money is the easy part.  And while we'd probably offer to take the place of mega-lottery winners who complain their newfound wealth has brought them nothing but trouble, the simple truth is we are unwilling to search for ways to simplify our lives and bring about stronger relationships with God because we are unwilling to pay the price.

 

August 21, 2005 - Aliens Among Us!

As residents of Miami-Dade County, no one needs to tell us what it's like to live among people who were not born in this country.  That's particularly true here in Homestead, with all our farms and migrant laborers, many of whom are here illegally.  I want you to know that, for my own part, I have never been bothered by the idea that people have found their way into our country, and work here, illegally.  If anything, I have often wondered why we don't make it easier for them to get here. We have room, and despite what you might think, we have the wealth to sustain them as part of our community and our economy.  And, despite the horrible treatment of aliens in Chapters 9 and 10 of the Book of Ezra - where we read the doubtful story where all the foreign wives and their children are sent off, exiled, into the wildness - we know full well that even the earliest of the ancient laws inscribed in our Biblical canon enjoin us to treat aliens just as we would be treated ourselves.  The ancient Israelites are reminded, in fact, that they were once aliens too, and that they should take that into account in their treatment of others.  One of my biggest fears on the subject involves whether we aren't in fact practicing covert racism when we rail about illegal aliens crossing our borders.  For example, I seriously doubt we'd get in an uproar if we were told that 3,000 illegal Canadians were risking their lives to cross our borders every day, in search of a better life, a better job, the opportunity to send money home.  We are a nation of immigrants.  In fact, for the most part, we are a continent of spoiled North American immigrants who need to get a better grip on our collective senses of false indignation about those from less fortunate places who would risk all they have to live among us.  Go out among the tomato farms here in Homestead, take a look at the trailers housing ten Mexican men where there should be two or three, living there as virtual indentured servants, having been sold to the farmer by a Coyote till they - though most never do - work off their debt, in the midst of which their biggest fear is deportation.  They're in our midst.  And they are being terribly exploited.  We all know this, which makes us complicit.  We've got to stop ignoring the aliens among us!

 

August 14, 2005 - Levites All!

There is so much story going on in the Bible, so much of it passing us by.  Particularly when we want to see it literally.  When that happens, we deprive ourselves of the much larger message.  Take the story in Mark about Jesus dining with the tax collector.  Remembering that, though it doesn't preceed Paul's letters, Mark is the oldest Gospel in the New Testatment.  The Mark-writer was a great story teller, in part because that writer was able to provide information that caused a great deal of introspection - particularly for the people of the First and Second, if not the Third and Fourth, Centuries.  Which means that when we are able to tune our ears to that time, we are able to hear some really important stuff.  Right from the get-go, in fact, the Mark-writer perks up our ears by saying Jesus saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax collector's booth.  In its day, a remark like that would have gotten immediate attention; everybody would have listened up the way we do when wit sit around a warm campfire in cold weather and tell ghost stories.  Ooooh, we'd be thinking, this is gonna be great!  We would have know that leading off a story by saying the protagonist's name was Levi, that his father was Alphaeus, and that the man was a tax collector would have been dead giveaways, the same way we start a story by saying something like, a priest and a rabbi were sitting on a park bench arguing over which was better, ham or marriage.  Levi, remember, is a reference to the priestly clan, together with all its real and perceived abuses that people know about or have experienced over time; and - keeping in mind the importance of all the begats in the Bible - Alphaeus is a widely-used attribution to that lineage.  Add to it the profession of tax collector, and you've got an incendiary story that gets everybody's immediate attention.  And yet Jesus dines with Levi, at his home, of all places.  Because, I believe, the Mark-writer is trying to tell us that we are Levites, all.

 

August 7, 2005 - The Kingdom of God!

You probably don't remember the dead-pan comedian Jackie Vernon.  He would come out on stage, never crack a smile or a frown, and tell how, despite his pear shaped body, he managed to impress girls at the beach.  "Oh, excuse me," he'd say.  "I'm looking for my Medal of Honor.  I lost it around here somewhere.  Oh, never mind, I've got another one at home."  At the end of his routine, though, he'd break into a huge, full-faced smile that told you it was all an act, and that he was a kind, warm human being.  When we read stories in the Bible about Jesus explaining things like the Kingdom of God to inquisitive people, the story of the rich young man who is unwilling to give up his worldly possessions always comes to my mind, and with it, the things Jackie Vernon might have said.  Keep in mind, after all, when we read the Biblical passage that says it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle - meaning the small, after-dark opening in the city wall, put there as a difficult entry point for security reasons - it is an expression of First Century humor.  The people who heard it would have been laughing, rolling on the floor, even as Jesus, as depicted in the story, utters the sobering upshot injunction that with God, all things are possible.  Time and again, we see stories about Jesus describing the Kingdom of God to his questioners.  Jackie Vernon might have replied, "Lemme see.  Has anyone seen the Kingdom of God around here anywhere?  'Cause I had it with me a minute ago, and now I don't know where I lost it."  And yes, we know the ultimate answer attributed to Jesus, too: it cannot ever be lost, because the Kingdom of God is within you.

 

July 31, 2005 - Locked Out!

A few years ago, when I was living in the Beach, I arrived back at my apartment just in time to see an indignant young fellow standing by the side of his car, shaking his fist at a tow truck driver who'd nearly hauled his vehicle away.  The man's girlfriend was sitting in the car watching as he postured with all his might, shouting obscenities and railing at the man behind the seat, high up in that truck.  I knew the tow truck driver, having befriended him one night by slipping him a $20 bill while slipped a jimmy stick down the side of my car window and helped me regain entry after I had left my keys in the ignition.  I had been locked out, and he had come to my aid when even the police would do nothing but commiserate, and considering the cost of having to call a locksmith at one in the morning, I had considered the $20 as money well spent.  He was a patient man, this tow truck driver, knowing he and his kind were the bane of the Beach, as he sat there in his truck cab while the young man did all he could to show off in front of his ladyfriend, after having gotten away with parking illegally in a Resident space.  For my own part, I readily admit having little sympathy for the out-of-towner, since parking spaces were at a premium in the Beach, and I had paid handily for the decal on my car that allowed it to be parked in one of those precious Resident spaces too often taken by callous visitors who figured an $18 parking ticket was cheap and worth the risk, thereby depriving we Residents of reasonable access to our abodes.  As the young man continued to blather when he should have long since driven away and considered himself fortunate for not having to go to the impound lot to retrieve his vehicle, a crowd began to gather, in the midst of which I glanced up at my friend in the cab as if to say, "How long you gonna take this?" It was at that point that, after glancing at his watch and taking a call on the radio directing him to another tow, my friend leaped down from the cab and stood beside me.  It was only then that I recalled that, although I am 6'4" and weigh well over 250 lbs, he was twice my size, with long black hair, institutional tatoos on both his sleevless arms, and a bushy, angry looking beard.  He pointed at the young man with one of those long arms, and I watched that young fellow wilt as the tow truck driver said, "I don't think you're big enough or bad enough to back that up, buddy.  Never mess with a repo man!  Never!"  As the young man buckled at the knees and quickly sought sanctuary in his car, my friend jumped back up in his cab and drove away, leaving all of us wiser for the experience. 

 

July 24, 2005 - Always Eat Your Desert First!

Work, work, work.  Even the Bible beats us up with work, work work.  Work hard, it tells us, finish your outdoor work, get your fields ready; after that, build your house.  A little sleep, a little folding of the hands to rest, and bad things will happen, you sluggard, you!  Contrast that with one of the stories in Mark - our oldest Biblical Gospel - where Jesus is looked down upon for not fasting.  "What?" Jesus responds.  "While the bridegroom is still with you?  The night is young - party on!"  You know, I cannot find one single person on this planet who, knowing they are terminally ill, says, "Omigosh!  I'm late for work!"  When my father, the finest person I will even know, the person who used to say to me, "I dig this guy Christ," first learned he was dying of a cancer that would eventually ravage his body, he wrote to me, "Last night, I felt a great peace.  I wish had felt it sooner.  I would not have worried so much.  Son, if you have a choice in life, always eat your dessert first."

 

July 17, 2005 - Summer Heat Reprise! 

Everyone has a favorite Psalm.  Mine is Psalm 15.  Not to be confused with our Family Psalm which has been, as evidenced by the worn bindings of the brown cloth pocket Bible carried by my maternal great uncle Lawrence Martin Proctor in World War I, now in my possession, within the pages of which Psalm 91 is prominently marked.  One can only imagine what it must have been like for him to sit in the mud and disease and living Hell in the trenches on the front while seeking comfort in the assuring words that God would lift him up on eagles wings and protect him even from dashing his foot against a stone.  And not to be confused with the universally known and beloved and recited 23rd Psalm.  Is there a more stirring message than the words of assurance found within its poetry?  Doubtful.  But for me, as personal choices, they are too obvious.  For me, Psalm 15 says it all.  Maybe it's because, when the world heats up around me, its words remind me of those things that are truly important.  Maybe it's because, as ancient as its words truly are, it continues to ring true today.  Now, I'll be the first to tell you our readings of the Psalms, and the Bible as a whole, include the imposition of a lot of things that were never on the minds of the people who wrote them - or the people who learned them by singing them in ancient times.  It's all derived from languages long since lost, none of which translates cleanly to English.  And I'm not prepared to accept them in any literal sense as God's word.  Anyone who reads the last two lines of Psalm 137 will know what I'm talking about in that context.  Just the same, when I sit around on a hot summer night and wonder what it takes to succeed in God's World, I find great comfort in being reassured that it's not the money you make or the house you own or the car you drive, or the title next to your name - or even the deference many people are willing to show you.  No, those things are nice, but none of them really matter at the end of the day.  Speaking truth from your heart, refusing to slander or slur others, not using your material blessings in a way that is usurous, turning away from bribes for personal advantage, keeping your word even when it hurts.  We take a lot of heat in this life in God's World, but if we will do these things, the Psalmist tells us, we will never be shaken.  How great is that?

 

July 10, 2005 - Summer Heat!

We are in Homestead and it's hot!  Temperatures are thriving in the 90's, the humidity seems like it's over 100%, and the rains won't stop!  It's hot, I tell you - hot - and it's great!  Because all we have to complain about this glorious Florida summer is the heat!  So, in the words of the owners of the Green Parrot Bar in Key West, "Quit sniveling!"  After all, we are meeting in a church that's air conditioned!  We are able to gather in safety and peace!  We are blessed with the luxury of being able to complain!  Which means, of course, that once we've gotten our complaining out of our systems, it's time to get back on our proverbial feet, look around for those in greater need, and extend a hand.  God has blessed us with summer heat!  Let's get to work!

 

July 3, 2005 - On The Road!

 Ah, vacations.  Nothing like 'em.  Time off, time away, time to rest, relax - time to spend quality time with those we love.  Of course, if you've experienced any of those things, it probably wasn't on a vacation.  In fact, as most over-privileged North Americans know, most people come back from their vacation looking - and feeling - like they need one.  Which is especially true if you take your vacation on the road.  Particularly if you rent an RV - one that breaks down in Vero Beach while your on your way to, say, Ohio, on a Friday evening when all the repair facilities are closed and all the hotels are booked.  Of course, this has never happened to me personally - or should I say, will never happen again!  At least not since last year's Road Trip From Hell.  I cannot - though my wife probably can, and my son certainly can - describe everything that went wrong on our planned tour of the the southeastern and midwestern US last summer in our rented RV.  With constant mechanical problems, a complete - as the RV Rental Service called it - "change of equipment," refrigerators that wouldn't stay cool, gas tanks that always seemed empty, and a radio that died - just died (something I hadn't experienced since the '50's), we ended up racing from place to place to make up for lost time, stopping only for $80 fill-ups and to curb the dog.  Though we swear we would never do it again, the time together on the road was priceless, giving us memories and stories and laughter to feast on for the rest of our lives.  Which is why, sometimes, we look at each other as if to say, "Wanna take a ride?"  That's how it is, that's life - that's the way God does it - whenver we have the courage to go on the road. 

 

June 26, 2005 - New Things!

We are so caught up in stuff - something I'm sure we all realized during the church clean-up we held here, yesterday.  Did you know we owned a barbeque grill and a tree saw?  And not one but two plungers.  And more old cans of paint than we could shake a stick at.  Of course, we ended up throwing a lot of it away.  That's the nature of cleaning things up - throwing out the old, useless stuff that's no longer needed, gotten to rusty, or spoiled somehow.  And it was a blast, wasn't it?  Sure, the work was hard and the weather was hot as blazes - and the air conditioner repairman didn't show up until we were nearly done, while we were enjoying that delicious pot luck luncheon together that included a knockout casserole, killer chili and (...ahem...) chocolate mousse.  Maybe that was best, feeling that cool air take over our sanctuary as it wafted across our big dining table, sort of sending us the message that we were done for the day.  And now, it feels almost as if we're in a brand new building!  It's wonderful!  Still, nice as it is, it's just a building.  And the stuff we found, and the stuff we salvaged, and the stuff we gave or threw away was, well, just stuff.  Ask any of the ten homeless men from the Hac who volunteered their Saturday morning to help.  I'll bet it didn't take any of us long to realize these were people who didn't have any "stuff."  And weren't they a joy in our presence - didn't they make a difference: not just in the providing twenty more good hands to help, but in what they taught us about our own lives.  They gave us a newer, truer perspective, didn't they.  Which is a way of saying that when we toiled around this church yesterday, we found many things we probably thought we'd lost long ago, the most important of which was each other.

 

June 19, 2005 - Picturing God

How does God look to you?  My sister-in-law, the Rev. Jane Courtright of the First Congregational Church in Geneseo, Illinois, says she looks like her.  And Rev. Courtright's not kidding.  That's exactly how she sees God - by looking in a mirror.  What an opportunity - the chance to see God in ourselves!  How does any wisdom improve on that?

 

June 12, 2005 - Fred McCallum

Fred McCallum was a friend of mine.  When I met him, he was 72 years young, seven years past the age at which he'd wanted to retire but couldn't.  His bishop wouldn't let him.  He was a Roman Catholic priest.  Instead, he had used those intervening years to build a church where, before he'd started, there was nothing but flat ground on the southern end of Arapahoe County, outside Denver, Colorado.  On that ground, he built a gymnasium that he used  as a sanctuary, with an altar on one end, enclosed by some folding doors.  On the side of that building he installed a restaurant called The Padre, complete with a liquor license.  He was, after all, Catholic.  When, five years after I'd met him, we were watching the final construction of a formal sanctuary where, today, over 5,000 families meet, I asked him, "Why the restaurant?"  His answer was simple.  "I'm a priest," he said, "because I love serving communion.  And I love dining with people."  "That still doesn't explain things," I said.  "Yes it does," he insisted.  "You see, when we break bread together, at communion or over a meal, we see Christ in each other."

 

June 5, 2005 - First Things!

When Peter returned to the rest of the surviving disciples after, according to the writer of Acts, visiting the house of Cornelius, he had a lot of explaining to do.  Why did he go into a Gentile house? he was asked.  And why did he do the unforgivable thing of eating non-Kosher food? Peter's response was, of course, according to that same writer, who also wrote the Gospel of Luke, "I had a dream."  And in that dream, according to Peter's explanation, he was told that everything God made was clean.  According to the text, the other disciples accepted Peter's explanation.  Dreams and visions were, in that day, considered a sign, a puzzle to be intepreted, a premonition.  So they accepted what he had to say, what Peter, perhaps the most human of all the disciples, told them.  And from that, they grew - as a people, as community, some would even say as a church.  So it is with us today.  We are here, together, at this church, people from two denominations.  We have all gone to Cornelius' house today, and we will leave the same way we arrived: together.  We are all God's children - not just those of us here today, not just those we love or like; we are all God's children, and it all starts here, at this house.

 

May 29, 2005 - Small Town Saints

Life in a small Midwest town is a microcosm of life everywhere else.  The only real difference is, instead of having many, you've only got one or two.  For example, in my hometown of Lanark, Illinois, we had only one town drunk.  There wasn't room for more in a town of 1,500 people.  We had one town grouch, one rich family, one grocery store, one lunch cafe, one gas station, one lumber yard, one doctor, one lawyer and one dentist.  Curiously, we had two barber shops - probably to accomodate the farmers who showed up on rainy days to get a standard white-side-wall cut.  Not a fancy haircut, but certainly utilitarian.  Which is what life is all about in a small town. Things are practical, useful.  But that's not the reason you choose to live there.  It's the people - the lady at the malt shop who puts a few extra sprinkles on your milkshake, the auto mechanic who fixes it right the first time so you won't have to worry when you're taking his daughter on a date, the local cop who, instead of giving you a ticket for spinning your wheels in front of the fire station, pulls up alongside your car and says, "Next time, I'm telling your Dad."  Or the neighbors who treat you just like one of their own - rewarding you when you're good, and letting you known in no uncertain words when you've been bad.  Those people are small town saints.  Looking back, I can't believe I was actually anxious to get out of town and a way from thoswe people when I graduated from high school and turned eighteen.  Today, as we huddle in our gated urban communities where we no longer known our neighbors, I miss them.  I'll bet you do, too.  But I'm here to tell you we can get them back.  We can reclaim the places where we live, get to know the people next door, turn our neighborhoods into small towns, become small town saints ourselves.  Let's pass it on.

 

May 22, 2005 - Going Home!

It has been a great experience, these past ten months, holding our Sunday meetings here at the Community Partnership for the Homeless - what those of you who live, and have lived, here call the Hac.  Trust me when I tell you those of us who have not lived here have learned more from you than you will ever have learned from us.  But the time has come to move on.  In two weeks, we will be meeting elsewhere, in a more permanent building, an actual church building, with pews, hymnals and an organ.  We will call that other place our place of worship - but nothing could be further from the truth.  We will say on our Website that we're holding services at the Hac on an adjunct basis - but that won't be true, either.  Good people, gentle, wonderful, beautiful people, this is our home.  And it always will be.  We're going away for awhile, out further into the World, to build what people more conventionally understand to be a church.  Oh, someday, a couple of miles away, we may own some land.  And on that land we may construct a few buildings, conduct services with people wearing flowing robes backed up by melodious choirs, operate programs during the week and weekends, and call ourselves church.  But that place will never be our home.  This, this multi-purpose room with its makeship altar, with a sandwichboard sign outside proclaiming services are going on inside, with our acapella singing and our too-long sermons and too-short prayers, this will always be our home.  To paraphrase the anonymous poet, we are going out into the World; may our journey be a long one - but we'll be back.  And when we do, we'll be telling all we meet along the way, "We're going home."

 

May 15, 2005 - The More Things Change...

You know the old saying: The more things change, the more they stay the same.  That's why I never throw away my old neckties or, now that I'm, hopefully, fully grown, my old shoes.  I'm figuring that, if I live long enough, they'll come back in style.  Unfortunately, as much as we'd like to pretend otherwise, some things have never gone out of style: discrimination, jingoism, zealotry.  Sometimes I look around and wonder what happened.  It was my generation, after all, as baby-booming heirs to the Greatest Generation, that was supposed to make all those things go away.  I'm here to tell you we've failed.  And that saddest part is, we've failed in the face of people who have abused their positions as leaders - in governments, civic organizations and, yes, churches.  We've failed because we've allowed those people to convince other people that, acting under the banner of Moral Values, they occupy the high ground.  I want you to know that nothing could be further from the truth.  Using government or civic position or religion to advocate the separation and, in too many cases, the hating and even killing, of people because of their skin color, national origin, country of residency, or sexual orientation, is just plain wrong.  Worse yet, those same leaders can be seen using the excuse that the actions of those on the "other side" are worse.  Our government teaches us to dehumanize those other human beings they would portray as our enemies, even to the point of find ways to avoid adhering to the Geneva Convention.  Our civic leaders feed us skewed information in the form of documents and papers and opinions that wouldn't pass for honest research in any high school freshman's classroom and then try to call it science.  Our religious leaders tell us to exclude other people - other human beings - when they don't pass their self-proclaimed litmus tests, and then they become even more insulting by trying to justify their conduct or positions by point to various parts of the Bible.  I'm here to tell you God doesn't see the World that way.  God takes the high road, not the low road.  God doesn't wrap God's self inside the pseudo-protective clothing of falsified research, hate-mongering disguised as righteousness, and out-of-context quotes.  I challenge you, from this day forward, to open yourselves to God's entire World - of loving, caring, and seeking to understand.  I call upon you to honestly discern what constitutes moral leadership, the composition of moral values.  And in the process, I plead with you, when those who call upon you to hate, to exclude, to limit your care of the neediest among you: Do not give in to their easier way; stop insulting God!

 

May 8, 2005 - Mother's Day!

Nobody loves you like Mom.  It's just a fact.  And that despite the fact that Mom knows everything about you.  Like the old saying, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, but you cant' fool Mom."  Mom's are mysterious, and sometimes even - from our own perspectives - naive, the way they love us so.  "How could you love me after that?" we ask ourselves.  "Who can I call for help?  Who out there in the World will understand?"  Mom, that's who.  And because our Mom's love and understand us so much and so well, they make sacrifices.  You know, like when they say, "Don't worry about me.  You go ahead and have a good time.  I'll be fine - sitting all alone here at home, eating my baloney sandwich, in the dark, with a warm glass of water."  Which is a way of saying Moms are good at other things, too - like guilt.  Yes, few of us escape our childhood without a good solid does of that stuff - which is one of the reasons why today, Mother's Day, is the busiest telephone and restaurant and florist delivery day of the year.  Which is as it should be.  We are talking Mom's here, after all.  People who would run out in front of trains for us, throw themselves into moving traffic, literally take a bullet if it meant keeping us from harm.  Yes, I know I'm painting a glossy picture.  I know not every Mom is perfect, that some have done some pretty unspeakable things.  All you have to do is turn on the TV and watch the evening news.  Bad things happen, and there are bad Moms - few, but they exist - virtually all, I'm convinced, out of some tragic sense of emotional or mental imbalance.  And even the bad ones want only the best for us deep in their hearts.  Which is probably the only difference between Mom and God: when you shuffle off this mortal coil, God will greet you in the great beyond by saying, "Welcome, what took you so long?"; Mom, on the other hand, will not let you go without first making sure you've got warm mittens, a sandwich, and bus fare - oh, and don't forget to call when you get there so she knows you've arrived safely, otherwise, she'll won't be able to sleep - and don't pretend you can't remember the number.  God  "Mothers" us.  That's because, like our Moms, God loves us and knows that, at the end of the day, that's all that matters.  

 

May 1, 2005 - Speaking in Tongues!

Today is Pentecost Sunday.  According to our religious calendar, we are now fifty days after the resurrection of Christ.  It is the day, according to Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit arrives and infects the Apostles.  Which is taken by some as meaning that prior to the Pentecost event people didn't have the Holy Spirit in their lives.  Well, fine.  Notwithstanding the many Old Testament Biblical references to the Holy Spirit -not the least them including the Luke-writer's story of Jesus reading from the Isaiah scroll in his home synagogue, saying, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me..." - I think it's fair to say God's Spirit is always with us, working in and through us.  As Marcus Borg is fond of quoting Carl Jung as saying, "Bidden or unbidden, God is present."  Or perhaps better said, by the same sources, "Our breath is God breathing us."  Yes, the Holy Spirit was around long before the Biblical account of the Pentecost event.  This is also the day that, according to some more Petecostal sects, people were given the "gift" of speaking in tongues - something carried to extremes by more than a few groups who believe they are, through the Holy Spirit, empowered to handle poisonous snakes.  Please, whatever else you do, don't try that at home - or anywhere else, for that matter!  I'll tell you the story some other time about a bunch of snake handlers I knew when I lived in southwestern Virginia, but that's not the message here today.  What we should be taking from the goings-on from the Pentecost event in Acts 2 can be found in the way Peter, and later Stephen, are portrayed.  Something has happened to them - something wonderful.  They are not the same people.  All their timidity is gone.  And they are no longer unlearned.  No!  They are able to, and in fact they do, speak out about how Christ has touched their lives.  They are no longer afraid.  In fact, you could say they have found true freedom, true security, because of the way they have allowed God to infect their lives through the lessons they have learned, lessons that have now come home to them, from Christ.  Cataclysmically, they have opened themselves up to God's embracing presence - which was theirs, and is ours, for the taking all the time.  They have recognized God's free gift, available to each of us, to speak in a tongue that is unmistakable, a tongue everybody understands.

 

April 24, 2005 - The Springtime of the World!

A Rabbi friend of mine once told me he considered the Exodus from Egypt to be the Springtime of the World.  What a beautiful sentiment.  The World is waiting for Spring just now.  Oh, I know, you may have thought it was already here.  I mean, according to our calendars we ushered it in over a month ago.  But there's another Spring that needs to arrive - and we need to help it get here.  It's the Spring of tolerance.  Not just for people of other faiths.  Oh no!  For other people!  We need to understand we are all God's children.  Not just Christians, not just Jews, not just Moslems, Buddhists, Hindus, Shintoists or people of other religions.  Not just Baptists, not just Methodists, not just Presbyterians, Episcopalians, or other denominations.  Not just fundamentalists, not just creationists, not just segregationists.  Not just non-believers, agnostics, aetheists or people who practice Wica.  Not just murderers, not just thieves, not just child molesters, not just rapists, not just people who commit domestic violence.  Not just polluters, not just pillagers, not just warmongers.  It's an exhaustive list, isn't it?  We are charged to love everyone.  But we'd much rather hate.  Yes, we'd much rather find reasons why those who don't share our own agendas or our own points of view should be hated.  No, not just disliked or mildly tolerated - hated!  And we want everyone else to hate those we hate, too.  We want to hate right now in this World.  We have decided to refuse to look to the root causes of poverty, disease and violence.  We have decided to refuse to look other people in the eye and see ourselves.  We are far away from Springtime in this World - and we want it that way!

     

April 17, 2005 - Hearts On Fire!

When you truly believe in something, it sets your heart on fire!  There is no limit to the distance you will go, no mountain too high for you to climb!  Not even the sky is high enough - it is only the beginning - when your heart is on fire!  Ah, but if that fire goes out, it's the lowest of lows.  You can slide beneath a doorway if that fire is gone.  Giving up is so easy.  It's the least difficult thing to do.  It makes the results predictable, too.  Keeping on when there's no sign of hope is as tough as it gets.  But the reward - oh, the sweet reward - of feeling your heart on fire!  Sometimes, just the anticipation is worth it!  Of course, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.  But like my friend Jim Hagan of Mobile, Alabama is fond of saying, in his big deep LA ("Lower Alabama") voice, "Ah know you already know this, but ah still think you need ta hear it."  Life is difficult, and sometimes things are so tough you'd settle for just being treated well.  That's when you've got to get back in touch with God's Good News: there are times when you may give up on God, but no matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, God never gives up on you.  No, there are no entrance requirements, nor are there any special tests.  No, you don't have to say certain prayers in a certain order, and no - though it would be nice - you don't have to perform certain random acts of kindness.  And no, you don't have to pull certain passages out of the Bible and quote them like some magic formula that ends in your being "saved."  You are saved, for one simple solitary reason: you exist. God made you, God loves you, and God doesn't quit on you.  Because no matter where your heart is in the ups and downs of your life or the life of the World, God's heart is always on fire for you!  Oh, there are times when it may not seem so.  In fact, even now you may be wondering why God has it in for you.  That's when you have to remember: God is not mad at you.  You know, there's a passage in the Book of Proverbs (24:10): "If you fail in times of trouble, how small is your strength."  And yes, I know that sometimes there's no strength to muster.  But you've got to try.  Even if the end seems inevitable, you can't quit.  Because at that end, God waits for you.  In fact, when you get to that end, you just might hear God say.  "Hello.  I've been waiting for you.  By the way, what took you so long?"

 

April 10, 2005 - A House For ALL People

If the words of the writer of Luke 4:14-20 are intended to tell us anything about the mind of Jesus, it is that he knew the book of Isaiah.  I mean he knew it - had read it, studied it, probably memorized it and, most important of all, understood it.  How else can you explain a Gospel that cries out on the subject of forgiveness?  How else can you explain the inclusiveness the Luke-Acts writer (Yes, the same writer - or writers - wrote what scholars call "Luke-Acts," though it was later split down the middle by the insertion of the Gospel of John when the Council of Nicea met in 325 AD and put together the basic Bible) portrays when it comes to the words and actions attributed to Christ within its pages?  There stands Jesus, in his hometown synagogue, picking up the scroll of Isaiah and reading, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because God has annointed me to preach good news to the poor.  God has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim a year of the Lord's favor."  We're talking the first part of Isaiah 61 here; you can check it out - inclusive of Chapters 56 through 66, which were probably written around the time immediately after the Babylonia Exile, during the early 500's BC (Keeping in mind, the entire Isaiah scroll took over 200 years to complete, the first 39 chapters - called First Isaiah - probably put together between the eight and seventh centuries BC, chapters 40 through 55 - called Second Isaiah - probably written during the sixth century BC, and those 56th through 66th chapters - called Third Isaiah - probably being written down in the early 500's BC, as I've already mentioned.  And No, Isaiah didn't live over 200 years and write it himself).  So why the history lesson?  Why I am rambling on so with stuff you probably find boring?  My favorite pastor, the Rev. Dr. Garth Thompson, is fond of saying, after all, "Nobody cares about what happened to the Amalekites."  I'm saying these things because they are important. They are part of your Christian foundation.  I'm saying these things to help you understand that, as portrayed by the Luke-Acts writer, Jesus emerges from Nazareth to literally preach the Book of Isaiah - part of which, Chapter 56, may be the most ecumenically inclusive chapter in the entire Bible.  Here is a chapter that first talks about the importance of doing what is right and then, in a revolutionary move, exhorts the reader to be open to the inclusion of eunuchs, foreigners and exiles - three kinds of people looked upon with great suspicion some 2,500 years ago, much the same way we look upon gay people, people from other cultures and faiths, and people with different skin colors, today.  In it's 500 BC context, the writer of Third Isaiah welcomes them all.  And, five hundred years later, so does Christ!  In no lesser place than the synagogue.  Isaiah, the Luke-Acts writer is implying - Isaiah says it all.  Isaiah, when portrayed as being read within the synagogue by Jesus, makes that house - and all houses of worhip - houses for ALL people!  So should we, today!

 

April 3, 2005 - The New Morality

I'm constantly amazed at the way we rationalize excluding people from our lives - even in our churches.  Worst of all, we seem to like to use the Bible to make our case for doing harm to others.  Recently, for example, there was a news item about a woman in Colorado who took her King James Bible into the deliberation room of a jury on which she was serving.  It was a criminal case, and the charge was murder.  The defendant had already been found guilty.  The question was whether to sentence him to death or recommend imprisonment for life.  This well-meaning lady directed her fellow jurors' attention to Leviticus 24:20, where it says, "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth" - you know the phrase; you've heard it often enough - following which she and the other jurors proceeded to recommend the defendant be sentenced to death.  That sentence was reversed on appeal, on the grounds that jurors are not allowed to take extraneous written materials with them when the deliberate.  Love the Bible though I do, the appellate court was absolutely correct: our entire system of justice fails if we allow any non-evidentiary material - even the Bible - in a jury room.  But that didn't stop people with varying agendas from emerging from the woodwork claiming our moral base as a nation was gone if people couldn't take the Bible with them when deliberating a criminal case.  Those people will always rise up when they've got a chance to promote themselves, so I wasn't suprised by their reaction.  I was truly bothered, however, when that same lady who had so used the Bible, when later interviewed by the press, said she had done so out the sense of duty she felt as a Christian.  That poor lady.  How sad that she should see her Christian duty in that sort of light.  How sad that she could not have found her way to Matthew 5:38 - part of the Sermon on the Mount (You know that one, too, don't you?), where the writer portrays Christ as saying, "You have heard it said, 'Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.'  But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.  If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to them the other one also."  At the very least, one would have thought that anyone calling themself a Christian would have first checked out the New Testament. But that didn't fit with her agenda.  The jury wanted vengance - and they wanted it with a clean conscience.  What better way to absolve themselves than by selectively quoting the Bible.  But they didn't absolve themselves.  No, they cheapened their faith instead and, by example, told Christians and non-Christians around the world that it's okay to do whatever you want - just make sure you first find a passage in the Bible that justifies your conduct.  Then, agree as a group that you're right.  That, brothers and sisters, the drawing of a conclusion and then searching for evidence to back it up, is nothing but a clear abuse of the Bible for one's own ends.  That, brothers and sisters, is a sign of moral decay.  You've heard people proclaim the importance of moral issues?  There it is!

 

March 27, 2005 - Still I Rise!

There are times when I wish we didn't have the resurrection story.  (You know, of course, our oldest gospel, Mark, did not, in its original version, contain a resurrection story, ending at verse 8 of Chapter 16.  Verses 9 through 20 - the first resurrection story - were added later.)  I say this because without a resurrection story, it would truly require faith to believe in Christ's message of Good News to the World.  Without a resurrection story, a lot of people might otherwise consider Christ to have been some sort of crackpot.  Sometimes I think people only buy into Christianity because of the "reward" they expect on the other side, of the idea that they, too, will end up at God's side in their own private version of Heaven.  That may well happen to us all - and I mean all - at least I hope it does - but in the meantime, if all we're thinking about is some some-day reward, we're missing the big picture.  Please let's not forget that Christ's life calls out to each of us to rise up each day and take part in making the World a better place.  Armed with Christ's messages of love and forgiveness, each of us is given the opportunity, even single day, to make a difference - even if it seems (at the time) to be in the form of the smallest of ripples.  But ripples are the beginnings of waves the same way snowballs rolling downhill become avalanches. So get out of bed, get out into the World, and proclaim Christ's messages of love, forgiveness and caring.  Be ready, each day, to stand in the face of injustice and say, "You can try to intimidate me, you can beat me, you can even try to kill me, but it's not gonna matter because, in the words of Maya Angelous, no matter what you do to me, Still I Rise!

March 20, 2005 - Yesterday's Hero

When Bill Thornburgh of the Centralia Orphans, who hadn't missed a freethrow in the entire Illinois State High School Basketball Tournament, failed to make what would have been the winning freethrow in the 1963 Finals, he became yesterday's hero.  He didn't get the big-time scholarship -   no big time college wanted to give an athletic scholarship to yesterday's hero.  Bill's fans disappeared in an instant, and he was left standing all alone at the freethrow line as if no one knew his name.  And he was never heard from again.  When Jesus rode an unbroken colt into Jerusalem on what we now celebrate as Palm Sunday, he was everybody's hero.  Hosanna, they shouted.  But when, just a few days later, he was crucified, those same people deserted him completely.  It can be dangerous, being yesterday's hero.

    

March 13, 2005 - On The Road

In the time of Jesus, life was a brutal sport.  For most people, two things were lacking that most of us take for granted today: leisure time and discretionary income.  Probably everyone in the historic kingdoms of Israel and Judah knew the religious commandment that prohibited working on the Sabbath.  Don't kid yourselves, though: most people couldn't afford to obey it.  For most people of that time, staying alive and getting enough food were daily struggles.  If you took time off - even a single day - you ran the risk of losing everything you had.  That is, unless you were working as a servant or slave for someone else - in which case there was no time off.  And, other than the few wealthy folk of the day, people didn't live all that long then, either.  Life was hard, and most people generally worked themselves almost literally into the ground.  Which is a way saying that, though we are told by the writers of the scriptures that when Jesus began his formal Gallilean ministry he was about 30, we would be making a big mistake if we thought Jesus looked the way a person does today when they turn that age.  Remember, in the year 1900, the lifespan of the average American was 47 - today it's nearly 80.  Which means it's a pretty sure bet that 1900 years earlier, life spans were much much shorter - unless you were rich, which is what the Psalmists and writers of Proverbs who lamented the brevity of life as being seventy, or eighty if you had the strength, were talking about.  But Jesus was a peasant, and when he turned 30 he probably looked pretty worn down - physically, anyway.  And he clearly had a pretty good hunk of wisdom between his ears.  So when he began preaching throughout Gallilee, and he began to draw large crowds - crowds of people, many of whom did not have leisure time or disposable income - it was not only remarkable, it was also scary to those people of power and wealth who planned to use their power and wealth to live a lot longer than 30.  Their concerns probably became even more urgent when Jesus began his final journey toward Jerusalem, when he began walking in the company of his followers and greeting people in each of the villages and towns betweeen the Sea of Gallilee and Jerusalem, when he made it no secret that he intended to go to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover - when for the last time Jesus went on the road.  Because there were people on the other end of that road, all of whom had heard about him in advance - the stories about Jesus had long since reached Jerusalem each of whom was preparing for his arrival in their own special way.  Some were scared, some were curious, and some were filled with joy and expectation.  Some probably planned to go see him, some were probably trying to figure out how to get rid of him, and some were probably wanted to join up.  All of them, in any event, anticipated his arrival in Jerusalem the following week on what we today call Palm Sunday.  Yes, all of them knew that Jesus was headed their way, and for too many - like too many of us today - there was a real concern as to how his arrival would alter the established order of things, how this person who talked so much about caring the poor and the needy and the widowed would deal with, and be received by, those in power, those possessed of material abundance.  Too often, those then and now with leisure time and disposable income did not and do not want to be reminded that Jesus is on the road - that Jesus is coming.   

 

March 6, 2005 - The Ten Commandments

There is a passage in Isaiah (29:13) that talks about people's worship being made up of rules taught by men.  That same passage is attributed to Jesus in Matthew 15:9.  It's not a demonstration of prophecy, by the way; it's a way of saying that Jesus is a learned person, knowledgeable about the sacred scrolls, particularly Isaiah.  Now, at the risk of boring you, it is important to remember that the Isaiah Scroll was written over a period of more than two hundred years, starting around 740 BC.  Which means the 66 chapters contained within its pages were not all written by the same person.  In fact, they were probably edited and re-edited many times by many religious scholars, to the point that we really can't be sure what Isaiah said and didn't say within its language.  But there's one thing of which we can be certain: it was all - at least all the rules it contains - written by men.  And I mean men.  To our great detriment, I might add.  Because if you're honest with yourself you know women have had very little to do with the laying down of rules in Western society.  Like the Ten Commandments - or at least the rules that interpret them.  Depending, of course, on the version, because between Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 there are two versions and three interpretations of the Ten Commandments - yes, all of them found in the Bible.  So when somebody tells you they'd like to see the Ten Commandments carved in stone on the walls of every public building and classroom in the land, you might want to ask them, "Which version?"  Not that they aren't pretty similar, and not that they don't each proclaim ideas and concepts that are fundamental to the development of the rule of law in Western traditions.  But keep in mind there are people in this world willing to kill each other over the slightest of religious differences, including their interpretations of those differences, so those "minor" distinctions between what we today call the Jewish, Roman Catholic and Protestant versions of the Ten Commandments can end up being pretty important - particularly if it's not your version that's showing up on some classroom or courthouse wall.  Now if you're willing to read each of those three versions in the broadest sense you'll probably be just fine, but if you're inclined (or if you'd like to be by placing a chip on your shoulder) to parse words, you just might end up with a fight on your hands.  (Keep in mind, too, that no matter which version of the Ten Commandments you choose, you're talking about religious precepts and concepts.  I've heard people try to pass them off - and their public display - as "historical" in nature - but that is being disingenuous if not dishonest.  They are religious writings, and their display, no matter which version, makes a religious statement.)  Because the person in charge of selecting the version is almost always the person who ends up making the underlying rules that apply to their version.  And, as the Isaiah writers remind us, those rules, and the underlying versions on which they are based, were written by men.  Men with an agenda, intent on being the ones who get to do the "interpreting."  That is not the Christian way.  It is a way, instead, of co-opting the rules to suit yourself and your own little clique; it is a way that leads to the suppression of the vast majority of the people by a self-appointed rule-writing-and-interpreting elite.  And it is certainly not what we should be about.  It is our job to be inclusive; it is our job to make sure the rules are written by everyone.  It is also the best way to be sure the rules apply to everyone.  You get the picture.  Now go and do likewise.     

 

February 27, 2005 - All God's People!

Today we celebrate Black History Sunday.  It is a worthy celebration with a shameful past.  It is worthy because of the incredible heritage each of us receives from the African American people who live - and have lived - not just in this country but in the world.  It is shameful because we cannot wipe the history of slavery from our past, nor can we erase the horrendous treatment feted out to people of color in the continuing eras of post-slavery and ongoing civil rights.  I say post-slavery because of the way we - and I mean we: each of us is culpable - treated African Americans after they were supposedly freed by the 13th Amendment.  And I say ongoing because you don't have to do anything more than walk around this campus or look across the street to the neighborhoods a few feet away to see how discrimination still plays itself out in the form of substandard neighborhoods, substandard jobs, and substandard educational opportunities - to name only a few.  There are times when I cannot bring myself to understand why black people have defended this country in its foreign wars, knowing how they were nevertheless going to be treated when they returned "home."  German prisoners of war being held in Georgia during World War II were more welcome in local restaurants than African Americans.  And African Americans continue to receive tougher scrutiny for things as simple as car loans, telephone hookups, and walking into department stores - where their presence is more quickly monitored by security systems.  And if an African American is arrested and has to go to court - please, let's not even go there.  I don't have to draw a picture.  But I want you to know it will not always be this way.  Yes, we all know people who tell us things have gotten better - but I have to ask: "Better for whom?"  Let's not kid ourselves: most African Americans in this country still get the short end of the stick on everything from earned income to unemployment.  So why am I an optimist?  The answer is found in looking among us.  Look at yourselves, look at each other here at church today.  What do you see?  We are so many colors in this room - we are a beautiful rainbow.  And as long as we continue to gather like this, and share like this, the more likely we are to go out into the rest of the world and work for change.  You, every single one of you, from every color, creed and past, make up all God's people.  And that makes all the difference. 

  

February 20, 2005 - An Eye for An Eye!

I'm here today to ask each of you to do something special when it comes to reading what you want to read into the Bible, and thereby deciding that what you're doing is okay because the Bible tells you so:  Please grow up!  In Exodus 21:24, you find the old law - one that worked pretty well 3,000 years ago when the world was hugely different, when life was more violent, more about day to day survival than it is today: An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  It was a way of making sure the law would be fair to all, that wrongs would be righted in a way that was proportionate - not disproporationate - that we didn't level entire villages for the death of someone's cow.  According to the Luke-writer, that law - and many others - got modified about 1,000 years later.  Beginning at Luke 6:17, where we read the Luke-writer's version of Jesus' Sermon on the Plain, we get an entirely different approach to dealing with those who have wrongfully wronged us - particularly at Luke 6:27, where we are exhorted to love our enemies, even give them the cloaks on our backs.  Do to others as we would have them do unto ourselves, we are told.  Be merciful - just as God is merciful!  Do not judge - and remove the log from your own eye before criticizing the speck in someone else's.  This is revolutionary stuff.  Unfortunately, it's even revolutionary stuff 2,000 years later.  So join the revolution - throw off that old, superceded stuff that allows you to justify your revenge.  Become a true 1st Century person (and a 21st Century person, too).  Instead of trying to figure out how to get even, try figuring out how to get ahead - by working on figuring out ways to forgive.

 

February 13, 2005 - LOVE!

Tomorrow is St. Valentine's Day - a day on which we officially celebrate love!  Jesus was all about love, and so should we be.  It is God's greatest unconditional gift - given freely to all.  When somebody asks, "Why do you love me?" it can be hard to satisfy them with our answer.  "Because you're beautiful - or handsome," we might tell them.  Or, "Because of the wonderful things you do - or say."  Or maybe, "Because of the way you behave towards me."  All of which end up begging the question, "But how do I know you love me?"  Can't you hear God entering into this conversation?  Can't you hear God saying, "I just do."  Love is difficult, maybe impossible, to describe - but we all know it when we see it, feel it, experience it.  I'm not sure anybody on this planet can adequately explain their feelings for another person.  It's like oxygen - it exists, we breath it, and it makes us feel fully alive.  Here it is:  God loves each of us, unconditionally.  God just does.  Despite our shortcomings, despite what we sometimes think of ourselves - or of someone else - God never stops loving.  So go out there and love each other, already.  And don't worry about why.  Like the Nike ad says, "Just do it."

 

February 6, 2005 - Harumbe!

We humans are a diversified lot.  Even if we call ourselves religious, we break ourselves down into Buddhists, Moslems, Jews, Christians - and many more faiths.  Even if we call ourselves Christians, we break ourselves down into Catholics, Presbyterian, Baptists and yes, even UCC'ers - and many more.  And within each of those religions, and each of those denominations, we have all kinds of sub-groups - some of which, unfortunately, don't even talk to each other.  None of that, however, makes us any less members of God's community - or any less responsible for its well-being.  Which is where "Harumbe" comes in.  It's a Swahili word, taught to me by my good friend Ed Mukuri, who lives near Nairobi, in Kenya, Africa.  Ed says it's used when they need to get every available person together for something important.  Ed is an agriculturalist: he lives in a rural area where they get heavy seasonal rains and, with them, lots of mud.  Cars get stuck in that mud and, when that happens, the call goes out.  Cars are expensive where Ed lives, and the community can't afford to lose one.  So everybody joins together on various sides of the vehicle - personal differences don't matter.  Each person leans on a section of the car -  it doesn't matter who they're standing next to - and they rock the car back and forth.  It is imperative that they save that car! While they're doing that, as part of the way they keep things organized, they chant, "Harumbeeee!  Harumbeeee!  And in so doing, by working - and chanting - together, eventually they free the car.  According to Ed, Harumbe cannot be defined in just one word, it can only be defined by a phrase: "We will all lift together, and together we will carry the load!"  What a perfect word for overcoming differences.  What a perfect expression of community - everybody, lifting together, to better God's world.

 

January 30, 2005 - The Greatest!

In the Beatitudes, found in the 5th chapter of Matthew, we read about the blessing of being poor in spirit.  Nobody wants to be poor in spirit, down and dour all the time, so is that what the Matthew writer is getting at?  Hardly.  We are being told that if we are willing to give up ourselves, if we are willing to help enhance somebody else's spirit, our life will be enriched.  The same holds true for the meek, for the merciful, for the peacemakers - for everyone willing to be humble in order to enhance the lives of someone else, for everyone willing to love (hint:  that's what "merciful" means in this context), for everyone willing to offer peace to others: all who live their lives that way will find their lives so full to overflowing they'll be beside themselves with joy.  Remember: the Beatitudes are not a series of tenets that require you to give something up.  They offer, instead, the opportunity to give to others and, in so doing, to give yourself the greatest gift of all.  God wants you to have it all, so stop trying to go for great; go for GREATEST, instead.

 

January 23, 2005 - Productivity!

Just in case you are wondering whether you've been working harder than ever at your job, you are and you have been.  That is, if you are fortunate enough to have a job. Employers have not exactly been hiring people in droves these past few years.  Instead, they've been doing all they can to get all they can out of you.  It's called productivity - and as long as it keeps going up, you can rest assured employers won't be hiring new people.  No, despite record profits, particularly over the past two years, there hasn't been a surge in hiring - and there won't be.  Not, at least, as long as employers are able to get even more and more out of you - productivity, that is.  And as long as it keeps going up - productivity, that is - you are going to find that you're spending less time with your family, less time involved in leisure pursuits, even less time trying to find a better job.  Even so-called "time off" is being taken up by the virtual requirement that everybody show up at the company picnic, the office party, and some sort of company team-building exercise.  Now, there's nothing wrong with giving a good day's work for a good day's pay.  But there is something wrong with giving so much of yourself that you don't have time for other things - like being a productive Christian.  Sure, you can be a "good Christian" on the job - but it's also nice to a good Christian at a food kitchen, helping young people, building a new church, or singing in the choir.  You need that, too, to be a well-rounded, reasonably-rested, more productive human being.  God wants you to enjoy all of your life - not just "on the job," but on God's jobs, too. 

January 16, 2005 - It's Not About YOU!

If you think it's more important to be righteous, redeemed and saved, you're missing the boat - and the point.  It's not all about YOU.  It is, however, about how YOU can make a difference.  There is talk these days about the creation of an ownership society.  That's fine for the owners: it was fine for slaveowners, it was fine for people giving orders from a distance while their soldiers fought and died on the front lines, and it's fine today if you have enough money to insulate yourself from the rest of the World.  But the simple truth is, buying into the idea of becoming a full-fledged member of an ownership society is a red herring: it's a way of saying that so long as YOU are okay everything is fine.  That's not what we should be about.  And besides, the admonitions in our Biblical canon that it's all about you just aren't there.  What is there, however (by way, for example, of the 31st Book of Proverbs, verses 8 and 9), is the repeated exhortation to speak up for those who cannot speak themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute, to defend the rights of the poor and needy and, when doing so, to speak up and judge fairly.  Not just individually, mind you - though helping individuals in need is a good place to start.  No, even within the Biblical canon, the word you is rarely used to refer to an individual person.  Which is a way of saying that finding ways to address the needs of everyone should be your individual goal.  And that's not done by "saving" somebody's soul, or making sure they are "redeemed," or assisting them with some act that you believe will insure their "salvation."  It's about making sure people are fed, clothed and housed, about making sure they are able to earn enough money on which to live or, if they're unable to work, making sure their needs are met in a manner that insures their self-respect.  It's about making sure everybody is treated fairly - which means equally - regardless of the size of their bank account or their so-called social status.  It's about insuring the needs of even the least of us are met - which is a way of insuring your needs are met, too.  That is what Martin Luther King, Jr. did.  That is why he succeeded: because it was never about him.  With Martin Luther King, Jr. - and the reason we celebrate his life today - it was about what we can do for others.  I cannot imagine him saying, "It's all about YOU."  I can, however, hear his voice ringing out, proclaiming, "It's all about ALL of us - it's INDISCRIMINATELY about EVERYONE." 

 

January 9, 2005 - Moral Issues

Until we are willing to recognize that we are all members of the same club on this planet, until we are ready to recognize that we need to find ways to share our abundance with those who are without, until we learn not be drawn in by false and polarizing hot button issues like whether you are for or against abortion or gay marriage, or whether you believe in virgin birth, evolution, and a literal translation of the Bible, all you will ever assure for yourself will be the privilege of being among the last people to starve.  Living Christ's message isn't about whether you have been personally "saved" or gained some measure of "personal salvation."  Believe it or not, it's not all about you.  It's about what you can do for others: whether you are able to help them, sometimes literally in their fight for survival, to keep the lights on, to keep food on the table, to be able to live without fear.  Those are true moral issues.  Those are the issues on which people who call themselves Christians - of all beliefs - should be working.

 

January 2, 2005 - Suffer the Little Children

Nobody gets it right, no one is ever the perfect parent.  All we can ask of ourselves is no more than God ever asks of us: to do the best we can.  When we fail in this regard, when we don't measure up to opening up our hearts and our lives to the needs of the children among us, when we don't pay attention, we are not condemned - nor are we excluded from God's table.  But we are the poorer for our failures, because they result in lost opportunities to share community with each other, lost opportunities to further enrich our lives through what we are able to add to the lives of others.  We are all, after all, children.  And when we deny other children the chance to experience a fuller, richer, deeper life, we miss out on our own opportunity to experience a greater relationship with God.  Who among us would not regret missing out on that?  This is the relevance of Christ's message passed down through the writers of Mark: "Suffer the little children not, for of such is the kingdom of God."   

 

December 26, 2004 - When Knowledge Speaks to Power!

When people use their position - political, occupational, sexual, religious, it doesn't matter - to control your thinking, when they want you to be afraid, to adopt their way of thinking out of fear, they are mis-using power.  There are many points of view when it comes to how the World should operate - particularly from the perspective of religion.  In the United Church of Christ we let you decide.  You decide your theology, how you see the Bible, how you understand your relationship with God, how you see Christ.  When you establish your point of view out of other people's thinking - at least when that thinking is one that demands you parrot what those others want you to think - you are not acting responsibly, and neither are they!  God calls upon each of us to be knowledgeable people, to use the minds we have been given.  To consult other good minds, yes - but not in a way that allows even the most well-intentioned person to control our individual thinking. We achieve true freedom, and a more complete relationship with God, when we do our own thinking!  That is how knowledge speaks to power! 

 

December 19, 2004 - Family Rules!

In the whole wide world, there is nothing more important than family.  And one of the great things about being part of a family is that there are no membership rules: you are a member of your family simply because you are, simply because you exist.  Which is a way of saying that there is nothing more tragic than someone alone, forgotten, who has no family.  Which is one of the reasons why we do church: because it allows each of us to be part of a family.  In fact, it is the responsibility of (the members of) all religious institutions, be they churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, shrines, or any other place of worship, to serve as a place that provides both community and, more importantly, family.  Religious institutions need to do that because they - and I include our church in this - need to tell the World that no matter who you are, where you are from, what you do, how much or little money you have, who you know, or where you live (the list is endless), you are part of God's family.  In the eyes of God, there is no membership test, no form to fill out, there are no Family Rules.  As a religious institution, even we as a church need to remember and practice the fact that we are all members of God's family.  And in God's family everyone is welcome at the table.  In God's family everyone is accepted and acceptable.  In God's family, Family Rules! 

 

December 12, 2004 - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner!

In a couple of weeks many of us will be sitting around sumptuous tables enjoying each other's company and gourging ourselves on holiday meals.  Many more of us will not.  For too many of us, Christmas will be a time of exclusion; for too many of us, Christmas will be an empty time - some materially; some, more tragically, through a death of the heart.  For too many of us, we will choose to ignore the words given to us by the writers of Luke-Acts, particularly those words found in the second chapter, portrayed by those writers as being spoken by angels.  The birth of Jesus was not the first Messiah story to be proclaimed by heavenly beings - many traditions bring their heroes into the world that way - but the Luke-Acts writers did something different, wrote something different, portrayed their angels as saying something different.  "I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people," their angels said.  And the word all was not accidental.  The Luke-Acts writers wanted their readers to know that their Messiah had not come only a few, for the rich, royalty, for the more respectable or reputable people about town.  Their Messiah had come for all the people.  And those same writers proclaimed their message in a revolutionary way: by telling humble shepherds in star-lit night fields.  That's a revolutionary message even today, when we face enormous pressures to exclude those we - or those to whom we grant power over ourselves- don't want around, don't like very much, don't find respectable, don't consider acceptable.  Which is when and why we're called upon to respond to those pressures of exclusion by crying out to those who would limit God's world, "All are welcome at my table."  Remember, everyone is welcome at God's table - even the excluder!  At God's table, everyone is coming to dinner!

 

December 5, 2004 - Signs of Christmas

One of the central messages of Christmas is the idea of rebirth, or creating an atmopshere of Emmanuel: God with us.  But it goes further, deeper, than that.  It is also a time to rekindle the child within us.  We are all God's children and, lest we forget, we need to find ways to embrace the child within is - looking for ways to console instead of worrying about being consoled, searching for hope instead of sadness, driving out darkness with our light.  Perhaps most important of all, we need to find ways to understand each other instead of wondering why we are not understood.  Becoming children again, seeing the light of God inside each other - those are the signs that we understand Christmas.

 

November 28, 2004 - Why Wait?

In the words of Rev. Dr. Priscilla Felisky Whitehead, during her sermon at Church by the Sea, "We need to find ways to re-connect with the real reason for the Christmas season.  We need to understand that it is not about things but about people.  We need to decompress, to get in touch with the message of Christ.  And it's not something on which we need to wait.  We can do it now!"

 

November 21, 2004 - Missing Pieces

According to our own Dr. Peter Savage, "We are not paying attention to the need for affect, for love.  A child's need, a child's hunger, for affect is established during the first eighteen months of life.  When that doesn't happen, when what happens instead is a mother, in our society at least, going back to work after three months of maternity leave, the child is left too much adrift, to much without affect.  And when that child becomes an adult, we find that the largest users of hard drugs are people who are searching for affect - for what they did not receive as a child.  ...We need to give each other affect, it's not too late.  We need to give each other hugs, to show each other we care.  We need to enjoy each other, to see Christ in each other - not as people in need but as people who are each individually beautiful.  When we do that, when we see each other as beautiful creations of God, we are able to enjoy each other, to give each other affect, to replace some of that which was lost in our childhood.  And when we do that, we are fulfilling God's purpose, for ourselves and for each other."

 

November 14, 2004 - Breathe (Reprised)

"We need to find ways to extend our hands to each other, to reach accross divides.  We need to find ways to accept each other and understand we are all God's children. We must rid ourselves of the idea of enemy and reach out even in situations that do not benefit us.  Change takes place slowly, almost imperceptibly, one small piece at a time. But over time, the way we touch other people takes effect.  Remember those black soliders who served in World War I for a country that didn't want them, then came back, worked decades for peace, worked with Martin Luther King, Jr., and saw in their own lifetimes that, though we have a long way to go, they were able to achieve something worthwhile - by non-violently reaching out to other people in a loving, Christlike way!  Remember Doc Hulen, who was no less hesitant to heal an enemy soldier than he was his best friend that solider had just killed while the rest of us stood by and did nothing, hoping that enemy soldier would die.  God calls upon us, the message of Christ calls upon us, to help everyone on this planet to breathe."

 

November 7, 2004 - Isaac Tested

"The story of Abraham taking his only son Isaac to the top of the hill in order to sacrifice him in accordance with what he thought was God's will is not a tale of Abraham being tested - it’s a story of Isaac being tested!  I say that because Talmudic scholars tell us Isaac was probably about thirty years old at the time.  If that's true, it was not a little boy who was being sacrificed but a fully-grown man.  More than three thousand years later, we all know the outcome of the story, - we all know about how God is said to have spoken to Abraham at the last possible second, of how God told Abraham to stop, and spared Isaac's life.  But at the time Abraham was about plunge the knife down into his son’s chest, Isaac's life was an open issue, and if Abraham had gone through with it, if he had actually killed his son, that conduct would have been understood if not accepted by all those around, particularly those in the region who worshiped the god Molech by sacrificing their first born child.  From many perspectives, in taking his only, precious, long-awaited son to the top of the hill in order to kill him and burn his body as an offering, Abraham was doing the socially acceptable thing.  And if Isaac was a fully-grown man, he would have known that.  In that context, for Isaac to have gone along without complaining, to have allowed his father to tie him up and lay him down on the altar, to have submitted himself completely to his father's will, to have placed his trust completely in his father by putting himself in a completely helpless position, was an ultimate act of courage, an ultimate act of faith.  Can't you hear Isaac screaming, "Go ahead and do what you need to do; I don't care!  I trust you, Father, even to the point of laying, bound and helpless, beneath your knife!"  In those circumstances, as between the two, being Abraham was easy: do what everyone expects you to do.  Being Isaac, however, was as tough as it gets.  Oh, that in times of great testing we had the courage, the faith of Isaac."

 

October 31, 2004 - Intimidation 101

"There are those in this world who would keep you from being all you can be in the eyes of God, those who would make you afraid, and then try to use that fear in the name of God.  Leaders who use fear and intimidation to gain your support - or your silence - are only pursuing their own agendas.  Leaders who seek to intimidate you, in order to keep you from acting, are only pursuing their own agendas - and when they invoke God to achieve their ends, they also engage in hypocrisy!  And in so doing, they are demonstrating the sort of failed leadership being talked about in the scriptures, particularly in Matthew 23, the famous speach of the Seven Woes, where the writer portrays Jesus as saying - and I'm paraphrasing here, "Woe to you leaders who would place burdens on the backs of people, burdens you are unwilling to carry yourselves!"  Anyone, particularly a person in a leadership position, who uses fear and intimidation to prevail is not looking our for you, nor are they talking about God!  They are only looking after themselves, they are only after power.  We need to stand up when leaders do that, we need to join hands!  We need to stand up and be counted!  We need to stand up and say, "By the grace of God, We will not be intimidated!  By the grace of God, all are welcome at the table!"

 

October 24, 2004 - Praying Right

"When we pray, the words don't matter.  It's the heart that counts.  We cannot conjure up God in a box.  There is no magic formula.  If we follow Hezekiah's example in 2 Chronicles 30, we know that's true.  Though the beliefs of that day were more ancient, God was still the same.  So when Hezekiah said, in so many words, "God, we've done all we could with what we had, and our hearts were in the right place.  We do not wish anyone any harm; we only wish to do what is right and good in your sight.  Please let that be enough," it was enough.  The beauty of our words don't matter to God.  We are loved unconditinally by God.  But it we want to show that we love God in return, it is the beauty of what's in our hearts that will matter.

 

October 17, 2004 - Cutting the Mustard!

"A mustard seed is so small.  It is nearly impossible to cut it with a knife.  But it can be ground down into fine yellow powder.  And when that happens, it is as if it had been endlessly multiplied: everything it touches turns to yellow, the slightest breeze can blow it everywhere, and when it lands on fertile soil, even that yellow dust is enough to plant a new tree and produce more seeds.  We need to be ready to believe that, like a grain of mustard seed, when we are completely crushed we are not defeated.  We are, instead, only ground into fine powder, enabling us to spread wider, and grow larger, than we might otherwise have ever imagined.  That is why having faith the size of a mustard seed is enough.  And when we do, we can truly cut the mustard."

 

October 10, 2004 - Opportunity Won't!

"We cannot define justice, but we have all seen injustice.  Until we are willing to speak up for all who are unable to speak for themselves, until we are willing to fight for the rights of all who are destitute, until we are willing to defend all who are poor and needy, we are unjust, we are nothing but air.  When we fail to speak up and judge fairly, and instead allow nuance to replace truth in order to preserve the status quo, we end up denying justice – and we allow others to make a case for treating us unjustly whenever it suits them; we violate God’s dream of respecting the dignity of each other.  When that happens, it is no wonder we know too well the face of injustice."