The title today is a lyric from the classic Bruce Hornsby song The Way It Is and clicking the title will take you to his website.
This is the opening of a sermon I gave a while ago. I reworked it for the post and took out about seven pages of less powerful writing. There is a larger less churchy point to be made with this analogy, but I thought it was a good follow up to my Pat Robertson gripe session. Hope you guys dig it.
A familiar scene in my childhood, Wile E. Coyote unrolls a scrolled blueprint for his latest ACME product, a bulging box of things to assemble into the perfect weapon. Soon we see him construct a wall made of explosives arranged like brick with a tunnel painted on it. Above the wall on a teetering cliff edge sits a massive boulder. The idea is that his nemesis the tricky Road Runner will ‘meep-meep’ his way naively into the trap and burst into charred ash of a once elusive prey, lay in the smoking ash long enough for the Coyote to push the boulder down the lip of the cliff, and be smashed once and for all. For extra measure Wile E. has a rocket strapped to his own back with a long hanging wick, and a single match to light it with. The stage is set for what he is certain is the last time he’ll have to deal with that pest of a bird.
The desert rings forth with a simple joyous utterance, ‘meep-meep’, the sound barrier breaks into a gentle jet engine purr, and a cloud comes rolling in a straight line through the desert canyon.
From his perch on the cliff above the road the Coyote smiles as the Road Runner comes flying toward the wall of rigged explosive and mirage asphalt. The Road Runner, cool smile, head down, eyes focused, speeds toward the barrier and waiting boulder. ‘Meep-meep’, yards from the wall, feet from the wall, inches, and suddenly, the Roadrunner doesn’t hit the wall at all; no crash, no splat. To the Coyote’s dismay the bird keeps right on running on the path painted on the wall by his would be assassin.
So what does the Coyote do? As the Roadrunner speeds out of sight in the wall, he runs toward the wall to follow, the rocket on his back, he lights the match, then the fuse and speeds ahead to catch the bird. And just seconds before he follows the path it occurs to him that he is speeding toward a solid wall of wired explosives. The path is fake. All attempts to blow the fuse out are in vain and with a painful look on his face the Coyote smashes into the wall, his teeth are knocked out, his ears mangled, his eyes swirling but he is okay, but just then a thud can be heard and slowly a giant boulder comes toward the now crippled Coyote. His efforts to run also fail, and in a large cloud of dust and crunches and cries for help, as he holds up a sign that reads “Who Knew?” the Coyote is buried under a heap of his own creation. All he can do is wave a ragged arm and a white flag from beneath the rubble.
This I offer to you as the two fates of the modern Christian. We will either be buried in our own crumbling structures or we will find a path onward where once we thought none existed. We will either race on into an unknown path with a clear vision or we will be buried beneath a toppling set of schemes and shortsighted visions. The Coyote is diligent, and a modern world would tell you that technology is the answer, the more gadgets and gimmicks we can utilize the better, but this is not true. For the Coyote can’t see past the walls he himself has created. All the ACME toys in the world cannot help you see beyond yourself. The Roadrunner isn’t especially in tune to the Coyote’s ploys, his part in the story is quite simple. The Roadrunner has a clear vision, and puts to work his greatest talents to get him there, his speed and vision.
The Coyote fails because all he can see is the wall, and the Roadrunner succeeds because all he can see is the way.
So that we’re clear, let’s talk about the differences between walls and ways.
What does a wall do? It keeps things in or it keeps things out. A wall is meant to separate one space from another. Think of all the famous examples, The Great Wall of China or The Berlin Wall for instance. Walls are structures that divide, in from out, east from west, neighbor from neighbor. Walls are defined by space. A room extends just as far as it need to and then stands a wall. At the same time walls define space. Walls provide clear markers for what constitutes a border between things.
Sometimes these divisions are good. They provide shelter and warmth and safety inside.
But often we get so hung up on who is on what side of our walls, or what side we find ourselves on the walls we create in our hearts that we distance ourselves from people.
We suffer a loss, personal or spiritual, insignificant to the world or catastrophic, and we build a wall that the next person who wants to love us has to chip through to get to the real us. And so we build doors, passageways in that we allow only certain people to open. But this is not really sharing, this is screening. Jesus was a man of wide open spaces, not walls. How can you love your neighbor or your God with all you have if you’ve guarded it? Being a Christian, being a human means hurting and loving and hurting and loving and ultimately understanding that the love received is bountifully more powerful than the hurt endured. So we must live not seeing the walls, but seeing the way.
A way is a continual thing, a journey, something we are always traveling on, until we reach some desired goal.
A way is defined not by space, but time, the very moment determines the way. For what was a logical path 50 years ago is no longer logical. But also the way defines the time. Like disgruntlements nailed to a church door the way is constantly telling the moment what it is. And so we must be travelers on the way, not spectators at the wall. A way consists of stop after stop, that compound themselves. The past and the future both influence the present and the watchful eyes of the travelers learn form both experience and vision. If we see the way, we’ll not have to contend with walls, because they won’t matter.
See if I hit a wall my options are few, go through it or go around it, and if we live life seeing the walls it must seem like one sprint after another, like the Coyote, rockets blazing, faster, faster, faster, SPLAT-Wall-Recovery, start over. And I admire the people who can always relight their rocket, but I do not envy them. Can’t we learn from our mistakes? When we see life as a way, a continual journey, we take the past with us and we never stop looking at the future. It’s a marathon and so each stop is just that, a stop, not catastrophe, not a painful impact, just a tap on the brake, a ‘meep-meep’ perhaps and then back on our way. The mainline Protestant church pulled up to a wall and stopped sixty years ago. And how long ago did we stop honking our horn? Some of the people in the car got out, they left, they walked around the wall and kept going. But here we are parked in front of a wall. So what now?
We must be like the Roadrunner, we must use our talents to make it further on the way.
We must focus on where we are going, not what lies between us and our goals.
The Roadrunner is wise, he has but one talent, speed, and he uses that to it’s fullest. He is simplistic, he says, I want to go there, further down the road, and he goes. Beep-beep and he’s off. We must also find our talents and decide where we’re headed. This is a new world, I’m not saying its better, but it exists. The world I grew up in and many of you grew up in are night and day from each other. That can be a wall that separates us, or the very thing that brings us together to move forward. We have to be able to say to the world, this is where we’ve been, and this is where we’re going.
By the Red Sea, the Israelites must have felt like there present dilemma must be surely leading them to a future much like their past, or worse perhaps. Pharoah and his men were waiting to rush toward them and return them to slavery or kill them or who knows what. I imagine myself there looking at Moses like he was Sgt. Bilko. “Real good, Moses, we’re trapped between a wall of fire and a huge body of water. Thanks a lot!” But Moses did not see the walls, he saw the way, and with God as his focus, head down, staff high, he parted the sea, and the people found a way across. What will get our church across the sea we now stand before is the same kind of faith and talent. For starters, we must all see the way in which we can help. What can you do, what’s your miracle?
The church today must make the church of tomorrow reflect its membership, not its leadership. There are creative people in the church, and talented people, and conservative people, and liberal people, and old people, and young people, white, black, yellow, brown, red cheeked people, big people and little people, loud people and quiet people. But the world looking in can’t see this. We’ve put God in a cookie cutter and every version of Him is politically correct and socially lukewarm.
It is time we started to find a way foward, by looking around and realizing who we want to travel with and what part we're willing to play in getting there.
Jan 21, 2006
Jan 19, 2006
I got soul, but I'm not a soldier!
The title today comes from a song by The Killers that I just downloaded called All These Things That I've Done. It's a great track and these words happen as part of a breakdown in the bridge. Click the title to visit their website.
This is a sermon I gave two years ago next month. It's pretty weird to read something like this in light of the last few months. And I think I am a way better writer these days. Too many metaphorical ship references, too disconnected. But there is some value to it I suppose. I know it was a good thing for me to think about for a few minutes-that push and pull between faith and fear.
On Second Thought
Sermon for First UCC February 8, 2004
I begin with a question that I cannot answer.
How would we react if Jesus performed a miracle here?
The people in our scripture reading this morning in the region of the Gerasenes saw Jesus bring out a demon and heal the mind of a troubled soul, but were afraid at this display, and they asked Jesus to leave there community. It is human nature to fear, or at least our conditioned existence here in 2004 in the United States of America.
In the 90’s the crime rate and murder rate dropped in this country, drug use decreased across all age groups, but especially among high school kids, our life expectancy soared to the mid 70’s, we found life improving medications for literally thousands of diseases, and we had the most successful economy in the history of the wealthiest nation in the history of the world.
But to watch the news you wouldn’t have known these things. Headlines full of gun violence, murders, kidnappings, drugs, gangs, suicide bombings, police brutality, all the way down to shark attacks have led to great ratings for news organizations and that has led to 24 hour news organizations which pump these images over and over into the homes of in-creasingly scared Americans. In this post 9-11 world we have come to ignore already orange alerts and elevated security. We expect longer lines at the airports, we expect to take off our shoes to be scanned, and we expect the people that “look like terrorists” will be watched closely at all checkpoints.
Our politics too has been consumed by fear. We support who we support based on how safe they make us feel or how protective of us we perceive they are. At least in a terror related way, because we have long ignored the atrocities wreaked on our environment and our culture and our civil freedoms and our economy. As long as we are safe we can deal with these problems later it seems we are left to decide. And listen to any politician speak, in any political party, and you will hear their commitment to safety and security these days long before you hear them speak on other things that affect as many or more Americans.
And our advertisements are chock full of fear. Buy this product or you won’t get the girl, be popular, have money, have health, or have happiness. This is the world of living up to the neighbors, or rather being superior to them. New and improved, best, better, everywhere you want to be, the quicker picker upper, the breakfast of champions, the ultimate driving machine, when it has to there overnight, when you care enough to send the very best, the right stuff, the real thing, this is the language of advertisements, and I’ve left out the most vile offenders like beer distributors, cigarette manufacturers, and drug companies.
All of these slogans and lines have an opposite and ad agencies know this; the old, the worst, nowhere you want to be, the slower dropper downer, the breakfast of losers, when it needs to arrive 3 days late, when you don’t care enough to send much, the wrong stuff, the fake thing. And these opposite things are negative and what we’re supposed to fear and why we’re supposed to buy their product.
I don’t understand from a logical perspective why these things are as they are in our country.
Do we actually think that 24 hours a day all that is taking place in America is the most evil bad thing we can conjure?
Do we actually think that one group of upper class middle age white men make us safer than another?
Do we actually think that our happiness can be somehow altered by our clothes, our car, our cereal our cola preference?
We are a scared group of people. And if you think I’m making a large leap then you look me in the eye and tell me you’ve never done anything to fit in or avoid rejection, for that’s one of things we all fear.
And there are other fears closer to home. We fear superficial things like being alone, gaining weight, losing hair, and having no money. And that’s just me. We fear lifestyle changes, institutional changes, physical changes, changes to our routine, changes to our perceived understanding of the world, and changes to our knowledge and norms. But perhaps saddest of all we fear changes and challenges to our spiritual understanding of things.
The people in the story of the demon possessed man must have been glad in a way that Jesus saved the man, drove a demon from among them, and righted some cosmic wrong. But their fear of what seeing this and meeting him meant drove them to drive him away. I wonder how much differently we would react?
Now, I promised to you a long time ago, that I would use my time at this pulpit to check in and tell you my experiences and my concerns. When I first wrote this sermon I was confronted with two of my own fears that have changed how I interact with you and brought pause to my work here. The first is a fear I have echoed in the past few weeks, it is probably my deepest personal fear. I have seen a group of timid and questioning kids, numbering at a youth event between 6 and 10 depending upon which age group, become strong and inspired young men and women, numbering at a youth event somewhere between 12 and 23 depending upon which age group. They are vocal and they are focused and they are committed and they are amazing. When they were griping to me about how some of you refuse to get out of your comfort zone a couple weeks ago I challenged them to get out of theirs.
They looked over the upper deck of their ship and saw colder waters below, but they leaped into it, because they value words only if those words are followed by action. They stand on the back of this vessel we are traveling in and they want so much to chart a course that leads to bluer skies and calmer waters, and I wish so much that I could give it to them. But they will lose their anchor in coming years and they will not have a captain to guide them unless you bring them to the front of the ship, or some of you join them in the back of it.
My fear is that the work God called me to do will not be continued when I am called away from it.
This has changed me in recent months, this joyous work has become a little sad. My other fear is a greater one in scope and a much more discouraging one as I look to the future, for I know the kids I now serve will be fine in the long run, I do not however know if the vessel we are standing in can survive the storms ahead. And we have big storms coming if we are to travel anywhere but here. My fear isn’t that you cannot sail through the storms, my fear is that you won’t choose to.
I fear you will very much anchor yourself to a past and a way of thinking that I for one don’t think is relevant in the world today. And while I understand how comforting it must be to have one place in the world that has not changed in a lifetime while all else has, I cannot understand and will not try any longer to comprehend why so many Christians seem to prefer a museum and a reenactment to a living evolving relevant church.
But these two fears are for another sermon, a sermon I’m not going to give, because I realized something when undertaking this idea of fear. And that is simply, that it has no place. It has no place in my life or in my heart because I pledged over a decade ago that those two things belonged to someone else. It has no place because for all my doubting, for all my sadness, for all my anger at those of you who cannot see what is at stake, there is this voice that has not gone away and will not go away that continually tells me that I have nothing to fear. This is the voice of God.
I don’t know when we as a society, as a community, as a church, as people stopped listening to this voice. I know I only hear it when I’m desperate or brave enough to shut out all other voices; the ads, the 24 hours news, the politicians, the people I know that say this voice doesn’t exist, the people I know whose fear has overcome this voice. And I can’t help but wonder when I see Christians crippled with fear but think if they are still listening for and to the voice of God.
There are no times in the Bible where the words stay put appear. There are 3 times the words stand still appear in the Bible. Once in Joshua chapter ten there is a reference to the sun standing still. Once in Isaiah there is a reference to standing still to see the great thing God has done in chapter 12. And once in chapter 39 of Job the Bible reads one cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.
On the other hand the words go, follow, come, move, walk, run, and stand make appearances totaling 3,346 times in the Bible. This says to me that God is a moving acting God, and we should have a moving acting faith.
Faith, what is that? Could it be the answer to fear? Could it be the thing we are forgoing and forgetting when we show fear, is faith? I hate to keep bringing this up, because I now how sparingly we use such knowledge in our daily lives, but did you know in the Bible all the times God uses the phrase “Do not be afraid.” God the Father is credited in saying this directly to Abraham, to Moses, to Joshua, and to Daniel. Angels are credited as saying it to Elijah, Jesus’ mother Mary, Joseph, shepherds on the night of Jesus’ birth, and to Mary Magdeline and the women at the tomb three days after he was crucified. Jesus is credited as saying it to the disciples numerous times, to the men on the road to Emmaus, to Paul on the road to Damascus, to John the writer of Revelation, and to somebody else…who was that? Oh yeah, US!
In The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says in Matthew chapter 10:28-31
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Wait, is he saying that we shouldn’t fear dying? This guy is a radical. Worth more than sparrows, can’t kill my soul, numbered hairs, yeah, yeah. And I guess it would be easy to pass this off as some weak teaching if Jesus hadn’t lived it out. It’d be easy for us to make this message trivial if we didn’t have an account for the painful way in which Jesus’ community killed his body. Am I saying there is such a thing as a soul, yes, I believe so. I am waging my life on it. Am I saying Jesus died and went to Heaven, yes, I think we all do. Am I saying that when we realize the thing we would fear the most has been conquered, can be conquered by us, that it makes all of our fears in this life petty, yes, we should have faith.
Not blind faith, I don’t want us to start passing out the snakes or anything, but faith that informs our actions. Our faith should affect what we buy, what we watch, and who we vote for, and what we base those decisions on, not fear. And so I come back to my biggest fears and I offer this new outlook.
On second thought, I believe that our Youth group will be stronger in five years than it is now. I believe this because I have faith not only in God, but in the kids who sit in this sanctuary and the adults who love them as much as I do. I believe there is a limitless future to what they can do as youth and as people, because I have spent a great deal of time with them and there are few people who have shown me more of what God’s love is.
I believe this church is about to set sail for uncharted waters, not because it has to, but because it wants to. Because you, sitting in your comfort zone, in your designated spot, in your museum of uninfected continuity are slowly beginning to hear God speak to you about what could be. I believe it will be the back rows, the gal-lery, the saints who built this church the first time who will inspire it the sec-ond time. I believe they will see that this world has become one continuous half-time show of standards below what they should be, of ploys for things that are not of value, of dreams that are no longer lofty or visionary or chal-lenging, but are the weak conjurations of scared half believers. I believe those of you who won’t change love the church more than I do. I know it, because I could walk away from it if it drops anchor and refuses to set sail.
But if you love something, the test of that love is what you’re willing to sacrifice to save it.
There were three people crucified the day Jesus of Nazareth was. One criminal to Jesus’ side hurled insults at him, in this moment of fear, that we all will face in some way, this dying man was furious at God and wondered why Jesus wouldn’t just save himself with a miracle. The other criminal saw it a different way, he knew Jesus was not a criminal like he, but a man being unjustly punished. For this Jesus offered him these words according to Luke, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” The miracle of the cross is not that a good man was killed unjustly, that has happened many times throughout history even in our day.
The miracle of the cross was that Jesus had said there was a bigger picture, a much longer never ending timeline, a purpose to his life and his death and that was love and he lived it out and he carried through his message.
You all know this story, you’ve heard it, and say you’ve believed it. Then why are we so scared? Why are we not miracle expecting, miracle creating people? Why do we not look at this world like Jesus did and say, I can make it better because I can do this. Have you considered that? No matter who you are or what you are figuring out what you have to give.
Someone I love dearly said something I disliked greatly to me recently, she said I couldn’t understand what I was talking to her about because I wasn’t old enough. Okay, when am I old enough. Simultaneously, I hear many of you say things lie, “I’ve served my time” or just frankly “I’m too old.” How short is the window of time one is allowed to do anything, to think anything, to know anything?
Do I have to wait until I’m thirty and then stop when I’m fifty-five doing my part? Something tells me no! Something tells me that as long as I have breath, from my first one to my last one I have a part to play. Something tells me that that forty-something telling me I was too young, and that seventy something thinking they are too old are just two more instances of fear.
That something telling me this is the same voice I call God, the same gut feeling that tells me I will see all of you again and we’ll spend forever together.
I apologize if that ruins the afterlife for you that I expect to be there.
Is the world consumed with fear? Yes, and that is in itself a reason to be scared. But on second thought, it is a reason to be active, to be the people of God again in this world. And it starts today. Today, all of us, ALL of US have to commit to doing our job, some job. Those little jobs will become one big job. It’s the job of giving faith to people instead of fear, the job of lifting each other up regardless of age and ability, the job of acting and moving in this world as soon and as long as we are in it to share love without fear.
This is a job we are all capable of doing in our way. This is the job of letting God into our hearts and asking him to stay when he begins to perform miracles here. Nothing happening is not a miracle. Staying put and standing still is not a miracle.
Any weak-minded spiritually crippled person can do nothing.
But the faith inspired soul who listen for God cannot stand still, cannot stay put, cannot drop anchor for too long. I believe there are miracles coming to this place, to our church and to our world, and we may not see them as such, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are miracles. It may be a tiny thing one of our kids do, or a tiny thing one of our grownups do, or it may be a big thing they do together, but if you listen to God and sail ever onward my faith in God gives me faith in the promise of a miracle for you in the coming voyage.
Which brings me to the final question that I cannot answer.
How would we react if Jesus performed a miracle here?
May we all find that we not only have soul, but find our own ways to be soldiers!!!
This is a sermon I gave two years ago next month. It's pretty weird to read something like this in light of the last few months. And I think I am a way better writer these days. Too many metaphorical ship references, too disconnected. But there is some value to it I suppose. I know it was a good thing for me to think about for a few minutes-that push and pull between faith and fear.
On Second Thought
Sermon for First UCC February 8, 2004
I begin with a question that I cannot answer.
How would we react if Jesus performed a miracle here?
The people in our scripture reading this morning in the region of the Gerasenes saw Jesus bring out a demon and heal the mind of a troubled soul, but were afraid at this display, and they asked Jesus to leave there community. It is human nature to fear, or at least our conditioned existence here in 2004 in the United States of America.
In the 90’s the crime rate and murder rate dropped in this country, drug use decreased across all age groups, but especially among high school kids, our life expectancy soared to the mid 70’s, we found life improving medications for literally thousands of diseases, and we had the most successful economy in the history of the wealthiest nation in the history of the world.
But to watch the news you wouldn’t have known these things. Headlines full of gun violence, murders, kidnappings, drugs, gangs, suicide bombings, police brutality, all the way down to shark attacks have led to great ratings for news organizations and that has led to 24 hour news organizations which pump these images over and over into the homes of in-creasingly scared Americans. In this post 9-11 world we have come to ignore already orange alerts and elevated security. We expect longer lines at the airports, we expect to take off our shoes to be scanned, and we expect the people that “look like terrorists” will be watched closely at all checkpoints.
Our politics too has been consumed by fear. We support who we support based on how safe they make us feel or how protective of us we perceive they are. At least in a terror related way, because we have long ignored the atrocities wreaked on our environment and our culture and our civil freedoms and our economy. As long as we are safe we can deal with these problems later it seems we are left to decide. And listen to any politician speak, in any political party, and you will hear their commitment to safety and security these days long before you hear them speak on other things that affect as many or more Americans.
And our advertisements are chock full of fear. Buy this product or you won’t get the girl, be popular, have money, have health, or have happiness. This is the world of living up to the neighbors, or rather being superior to them. New and improved, best, better, everywhere you want to be, the quicker picker upper, the breakfast of champions, the ultimate driving machine, when it has to there overnight, when you care enough to send the very best, the right stuff, the real thing, this is the language of advertisements, and I’ve left out the most vile offenders like beer distributors, cigarette manufacturers, and drug companies.
All of these slogans and lines have an opposite and ad agencies know this; the old, the worst, nowhere you want to be, the slower dropper downer, the breakfast of losers, when it needs to arrive 3 days late, when you don’t care enough to send much, the wrong stuff, the fake thing. And these opposite things are negative and what we’re supposed to fear and why we’re supposed to buy their product.
I don’t understand from a logical perspective why these things are as they are in our country.
Do we actually think that 24 hours a day all that is taking place in America is the most evil bad thing we can conjure?
Do we actually think that one group of upper class middle age white men make us safer than another?
Do we actually think that our happiness can be somehow altered by our clothes, our car, our cereal our cola preference?
We are a scared group of people. And if you think I’m making a large leap then you look me in the eye and tell me you’ve never done anything to fit in or avoid rejection, for that’s one of things we all fear.
And there are other fears closer to home. We fear superficial things like being alone, gaining weight, losing hair, and having no money. And that’s just me. We fear lifestyle changes, institutional changes, physical changes, changes to our routine, changes to our perceived understanding of the world, and changes to our knowledge and norms. But perhaps saddest of all we fear changes and challenges to our spiritual understanding of things.
The people in the story of the demon possessed man must have been glad in a way that Jesus saved the man, drove a demon from among them, and righted some cosmic wrong. But their fear of what seeing this and meeting him meant drove them to drive him away. I wonder how much differently we would react?
Now, I promised to you a long time ago, that I would use my time at this pulpit to check in and tell you my experiences and my concerns. When I first wrote this sermon I was confronted with two of my own fears that have changed how I interact with you and brought pause to my work here. The first is a fear I have echoed in the past few weeks, it is probably my deepest personal fear. I have seen a group of timid and questioning kids, numbering at a youth event between 6 and 10 depending upon which age group, become strong and inspired young men and women, numbering at a youth event somewhere between 12 and 23 depending upon which age group. They are vocal and they are focused and they are committed and they are amazing. When they were griping to me about how some of you refuse to get out of your comfort zone a couple weeks ago I challenged them to get out of theirs.
They looked over the upper deck of their ship and saw colder waters below, but they leaped into it, because they value words only if those words are followed by action. They stand on the back of this vessel we are traveling in and they want so much to chart a course that leads to bluer skies and calmer waters, and I wish so much that I could give it to them. But they will lose their anchor in coming years and they will not have a captain to guide them unless you bring them to the front of the ship, or some of you join them in the back of it.
My fear is that the work God called me to do will not be continued when I am called away from it.
This has changed me in recent months, this joyous work has become a little sad. My other fear is a greater one in scope and a much more discouraging one as I look to the future, for I know the kids I now serve will be fine in the long run, I do not however know if the vessel we are standing in can survive the storms ahead. And we have big storms coming if we are to travel anywhere but here. My fear isn’t that you cannot sail through the storms, my fear is that you won’t choose to.
I fear you will very much anchor yourself to a past and a way of thinking that I for one don’t think is relevant in the world today. And while I understand how comforting it must be to have one place in the world that has not changed in a lifetime while all else has, I cannot understand and will not try any longer to comprehend why so many Christians seem to prefer a museum and a reenactment to a living evolving relevant church.
But these two fears are for another sermon, a sermon I’m not going to give, because I realized something when undertaking this idea of fear. And that is simply, that it has no place. It has no place in my life or in my heart because I pledged over a decade ago that those two things belonged to someone else. It has no place because for all my doubting, for all my sadness, for all my anger at those of you who cannot see what is at stake, there is this voice that has not gone away and will not go away that continually tells me that I have nothing to fear. This is the voice of God.
I don’t know when we as a society, as a community, as a church, as people stopped listening to this voice. I know I only hear it when I’m desperate or brave enough to shut out all other voices; the ads, the 24 hours news, the politicians, the people I know that say this voice doesn’t exist, the people I know whose fear has overcome this voice. And I can’t help but wonder when I see Christians crippled with fear but think if they are still listening for and to the voice of God.
There are no times in the Bible where the words stay put appear. There are 3 times the words stand still appear in the Bible. Once in Joshua chapter ten there is a reference to the sun standing still. Once in Isaiah there is a reference to standing still to see the great thing God has done in chapter 12. And once in chapter 39 of Job the Bible reads one cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.
On the other hand the words go, follow, come, move, walk, run, and stand make appearances totaling 3,346 times in the Bible. This says to me that God is a moving acting God, and we should have a moving acting faith.
Faith, what is that? Could it be the answer to fear? Could it be the thing we are forgoing and forgetting when we show fear, is faith? I hate to keep bringing this up, because I now how sparingly we use such knowledge in our daily lives, but did you know in the Bible all the times God uses the phrase “Do not be afraid.” God the Father is credited in saying this directly to Abraham, to Moses, to Joshua, and to Daniel. Angels are credited as saying it to Elijah, Jesus’ mother Mary, Joseph, shepherds on the night of Jesus’ birth, and to Mary Magdeline and the women at the tomb three days after he was crucified. Jesus is credited as saying it to the disciples numerous times, to the men on the road to Emmaus, to Paul on the road to Damascus, to John the writer of Revelation, and to somebody else…who was that? Oh yeah, US!
In The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says in Matthew chapter 10:28-31
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Wait, is he saying that we shouldn’t fear dying? This guy is a radical. Worth more than sparrows, can’t kill my soul, numbered hairs, yeah, yeah. And I guess it would be easy to pass this off as some weak teaching if Jesus hadn’t lived it out. It’d be easy for us to make this message trivial if we didn’t have an account for the painful way in which Jesus’ community killed his body. Am I saying there is such a thing as a soul, yes, I believe so. I am waging my life on it. Am I saying Jesus died and went to Heaven, yes, I think we all do. Am I saying that when we realize the thing we would fear the most has been conquered, can be conquered by us, that it makes all of our fears in this life petty, yes, we should have faith.
Not blind faith, I don’t want us to start passing out the snakes or anything, but faith that informs our actions. Our faith should affect what we buy, what we watch, and who we vote for, and what we base those decisions on, not fear. And so I come back to my biggest fears and I offer this new outlook.
On second thought, I believe that our Youth group will be stronger in five years than it is now. I believe this because I have faith not only in God, but in the kids who sit in this sanctuary and the adults who love them as much as I do. I believe there is a limitless future to what they can do as youth and as people, because I have spent a great deal of time with them and there are few people who have shown me more of what God’s love is.
I believe this church is about to set sail for uncharted waters, not because it has to, but because it wants to. Because you, sitting in your comfort zone, in your designated spot, in your museum of uninfected continuity are slowly beginning to hear God speak to you about what could be. I believe it will be the back rows, the gal-lery, the saints who built this church the first time who will inspire it the sec-ond time. I believe they will see that this world has become one continuous half-time show of standards below what they should be, of ploys for things that are not of value, of dreams that are no longer lofty or visionary or chal-lenging, but are the weak conjurations of scared half believers. I believe those of you who won’t change love the church more than I do. I know it, because I could walk away from it if it drops anchor and refuses to set sail.
But if you love something, the test of that love is what you’re willing to sacrifice to save it.
There were three people crucified the day Jesus of Nazareth was. One criminal to Jesus’ side hurled insults at him, in this moment of fear, that we all will face in some way, this dying man was furious at God and wondered why Jesus wouldn’t just save himself with a miracle. The other criminal saw it a different way, he knew Jesus was not a criminal like he, but a man being unjustly punished. For this Jesus offered him these words according to Luke, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” The miracle of the cross is not that a good man was killed unjustly, that has happened many times throughout history even in our day.
The miracle of the cross was that Jesus had said there was a bigger picture, a much longer never ending timeline, a purpose to his life and his death and that was love and he lived it out and he carried through his message.
You all know this story, you’ve heard it, and say you’ve believed it. Then why are we so scared? Why are we not miracle expecting, miracle creating people? Why do we not look at this world like Jesus did and say, I can make it better because I can do this. Have you considered that? No matter who you are or what you are figuring out what you have to give.
Someone I love dearly said something I disliked greatly to me recently, she said I couldn’t understand what I was talking to her about because I wasn’t old enough. Okay, when am I old enough. Simultaneously, I hear many of you say things lie, “I’ve served my time” or just frankly “I’m too old.” How short is the window of time one is allowed to do anything, to think anything, to know anything?
Do I have to wait until I’m thirty and then stop when I’m fifty-five doing my part? Something tells me no! Something tells me that as long as I have breath, from my first one to my last one I have a part to play. Something tells me that that forty-something telling me I was too young, and that seventy something thinking they are too old are just two more instances of fear.
That something telling me this is the same voice I call God, the same gut feeling that tells me I will see all of you again and we’ll spend forever together.
I apologize if that ruins the afterlife for you that I expect to be there.
Is the world consumed with fear? Yes, and that is in itself a reason to be scared. But on second thought, it is a reason to be active, to be the people of God again in this world. And it starts today. Today, all of us, ALL of US have to commit to doing our job, some job. Those little jobs will become one big job. It’s the job of giving faith to people instead of fear, the job of lifting each other up regardless of age and ability, the job of acting and moving in this world as soon and as long as we are in it to share love without fear.
This is a job we are all capable of doing in our way. This is the job of letting God into our hearts and asking him to stay when he begins to perform miracles here. Nothing happening is not a miracle. Staying put and standing still is not a miracle.
Any weak-minded spiritually crippled person can do nothing.
But the faith inspired soul who listen for God cannot stand still, cannot stay put, cannot drop anchor for too long. I believe there are miracles coming to this place, to our church and to our world, and we may not see them as such, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are miracles. It may be a tiny thing one of our kids do, or a tiny thing one of our grownups do, or it may be a big thing they do together, but if you listen to God and sail ever onward my faith in God gives me faith in the promise of a miracle for you in the coming voyage.
Which brings me to the final question that I cannot answer.
How would we react if Jesus performed a miracle here?
May we all find that we not only have soul, but find our own ways to be soldiers!!!
Jan 16, 2006
I've got God on my side, but I'm just trying to survive. What if what you do to survive, kills the things you love?
Proving yet again what a prolific songwriter he is, at least for me, the title today marks Bruce Sprigsteen's third lyrical reference within my blogspot. This is from his grammy nominated 2005 song Devils and Dust. The link today will take you to my friend Chase's blog post from today, where he honors a man that we all should admire. This man was at the opposite end of the spectrum I rant against today and Chase has a great tribute to him.
Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. day in the United States; a day when we honor what most of us consider to be a great American. A Pastor/activist/teacher/author/leader and then martyr. Take the link above to read a good tribute blog to him. Today I'm writing about another Pastor/activist/teacher/author/leader who is very much alive and not considered by most of us to be worth listening to.
Here is a sampling of some of Pat Robertson's greatest quotes!
The 700 Club, January 14, 1991; "You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalian's and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrists. I can love the people who hold false opinions but I don't have to be nice to them"
He clearly hadn't heard yet about the UCC!
The Washington Post, August 23, 1993; "(T)he feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."
Glad my mom isn't a feminist. Sheesh!
The 700 Club, January 2, 2004 "I think George Bush is going to win in a walk. I really believe that I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election of 2004. It's shaping up that way. The Lord has just blessed him.... I mean, he could make terrible mistakes and comes out of it. It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad. God picks him up because he's a man of prayer and God's blessing him."
A walk? Well, John Kerry is a Catholic, so maybe God had trouble deciding. Ofcourse John Kerry's a bad Catholic, so ultimately W (a methodist-see above)was tapped to be President, because God sits upon his golden throne trying to pick the right guy.
The New World Order, p. 218 "When I said during my presidential bid that I would only bring Christians and Jews into the government, I hit a firestorm. "What do you mean?" the media challenged me. "You're not going to bring atheists into the government? How dare you maintain that those who believe in the Judeo-Christian values are better qualified to govern America than Hindus and Muslims?" My simple answer is, "Yes, they are.""
If only he had been elected, then we could have pissed off everybody a long time ago.
The 700 Club television program, August 6, 1998, on the occasion of the Orlando, Florida, Gay Pride Festival 1998 "I would warn Orlando that you're right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you."
Imagine God on his throne, as I'm sure Pat does, trying to pick a President when, 'what's this? Homosexuals walking down a street? Release the natural disasters!'
Quoted from the American Muslim Council press release, "Statement regarding anti-Muslim comments made by Pat Robertson on October 27,1997" and elsewhere. "The Islamic people, the Arabs, were the ones who captured Africans, put them in slavery, and sent them to America as slaves. Why would the people in America want to embrace the religion of slavers."
I don't know. Oh, I got one for you! Why were we slave owners in the first place? Supply and demand Pat. White Christian Southerners bought and owned slaves and white Christian northerners let them do it.
700 Club, August 22, 2005 regarding Venezualan President Hugo Chavez "I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop."
The ancient Christian ritual of assassination...
700 Club November 10, 2005 to citizens of Dover, Pennsylvania who voted out of office all seven members of the school board who support "intelligent design."
"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city. And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there,"
I also heard him talking about New Orleans once, how the very day Katrina hit there was to be a gay pride parade and that's why this happened. I couldn't find a documented version of this statement, but I will say that if God was mad at gay people he shouldn't have let the hurricane largely miss the French Quarter where most of them live and work.
Last one, last week...
700 Club January 5, 2006 in regards to Israeli prmie Minister Ariel Sharon's massive stroke. "He was dividing God's land, and I would say, 'Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the [European Union], the United Nations or the United States of America. God says, 'This land belongs to me, and you'd better leave it alone,'"
Now many of you are wondering why I posted these here, perhaps because you think this guy is a kook or think his opinion doesn't matter. If you agree with him a majority of the time I'd like to know...how do we know each other?
What Pat Robertson says matters to me because every time he speaks, someone is watching and listening and painting me with the same brush as him, because I identify myself to be a Christian as he does.
Is Pat entitled to his opinions. Absolutely. And he's entitled to shout them all over the planet. That's the freedom I believe he deserves, regardless of how much I think he squanders it. I think this freedom is given to everyone by God and I'm proud to live in a country that upholds it. What I find ridiculous about Pat is that his love of God takes this freedom away from many of us. We are not entitled to believe what we believe if we disagree with God and Pat, or God/Pat as I'll write it from here on out. God/Pat want us to be in line and we're damned, condemned, hurricaned, assassinated, and stricken if we fall out of line. But how naive and simple minded is this philosophy/belief?
I don't believe God sits on a throne watching us and and alters human events according to his will. I don't believe Dover, PA should be worried about an earhquake or Orlando should fear a hurricane hitting only the gay district. We're in this together and that seems to be the point God/Pat have missed as presented by Pat.
Think about it. Let's say Pat was right and Dover, Pennsylvania has a fault line break open and the whole city falls into the Earth. Am I to surmise they were all godless infidels? Does that sound familiar to anyone else? Pat Robertson is the Christian equivalent of the Mulsim fundamentalist calling for jihad against the US. And while he has evry right to believe what he does and say what he does, he ought to open his Bible back up and read what Jesus called us to do, because the 700 Club seems to not be that, and Pat seems to not be that, and this God that sits on a throne and watches the soap opera he created and creates seems to not be that.
Matthew 22:37-40 `Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: `Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Seems all this damning and cursing doesn't jive with Jesus.
And it doesn't jive with me. I'm struggling with the fact that I'm associated with people like Pat Robertson. It seems there are a lot of them in the world. There are a lot of them in the church I serve. I don't know how you can be a Christian and not seek to love all people. And loving them requires being nice to them Pat. And loving them requires accepting them church. And loving them requires opening ourselves up enough to share that which connects us all. Instead Pat finds the smallest places iside of himself and his followers to seperate his version of God from us all.
I think prayers matter, at least in the positive energy they concentrate in a certain place. I think God is where love is and so people praying for each other focus God in specific places. I think what happens in this life matters forever, but not in some way that damns those that haven't reached the same conclusions about how to live.
Pat Robertson, and a whole lot of people that probably mean well, use the damnnation God doles out as a scare tactic to convince people to believe. They say that there are consequences to not believing in Jesus Christ, in God, in the structure of belief Christianity represents. Maybe. Maybe, I don't know. What I do know is when someone lives a life based on Jesus' two commandments the world is changed. We all know the real thing when we see it. Today was a day to celebrate the genuine article. It gives me hope that he existed His words stand in opposition to some of those above. And proudly, I get painted with the same brush as he does, because I identify myself to be a believer in the same God.
The title lyric has haunted me since I heard it. The song isn't about me or Jesus or the church, but every time I hear, "What if what you do to survive kills the things you love?" I get all reflective about my life.
The truth is I am tired of being a Youth Minister. I'm not tired of the kids, camp, retreats, or counseling. I'm tired of the times that people assume because I serve a church I believe a whole lot of stuff that I do not. I'm tired of having the stuff I don't belive thrown in my face by the people who do.
What Christianity does to survive is find all kinds of ways to persuade people to become Christian. I think that all of those tactics are less than sincere. I think that most of those tactics are ineffective. I think that Christianity is killing the things it loves.
When I hear Pat Robertson I have two immediate and stark reactions.
One-I want to become a minister, so someone with that title speaks in oppositioon to the horrible things he says. Deep down I fel called to this.
Two-I want to run as far away from organized religion as I can, because it's killing in me the things that I love.
Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. day in the United States; a day when we honor what most of us consider to be a great American. A Pastor/activist/teacher/author/leader and then martyr. Take the link above to read a good tribute blog to him. Today I'm writing about another Pastor/activist/teacher/author/leader who is very much alive and not considered by most of us to be worth listening to.
Here is a sampling of some of Pat Robertson's greatest quotes!
The 700 Club, January 14, 1991; "You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalian's and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrists. I can love the people who hold false opinions but I don't have to be nice to them"
He clearly hadn't heard yet about the UCC!
The Washington Post, August 23, 1993; "(T)he feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."
Glad my mom isn't a feminist. Sheesh!
The 700 Club, January 2, 2004 "I think George Bush is going to win in a walk. I really believe that I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election of 2004. It's shaping up that way. The Lord has just blessed him.... I mean, he could make terrible mistakes and comes out of it. It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad. God picks him up because he's a man of prayer and God's blessing him."
A walk? Well, John Kerry is a Catholic, so maybe God had trouble deciding. Ofcourse John Kerry's a bad Catholic, so ultimately W (a methodist-see above)was tapped to be President, because God sits upon his golden throne trying to pick the right guy.
The New World Order, p. 218 "When I said during my presidential bid that I would only bring Christians and Jews into the government, I hit a firestorm. "What do you mean?" the media challenged me. "You're not going to bring atheists into the government? How dare you maintain that those who believe in the Judeo-Christian values are better qualified to govern America than Hindus and Muslims?" My simple answer is, "Yes, they are.""
If only he had been elected, then we could have pissed off everybody a long time ago.
The 700 Club television program, August 6, 1998, on the occasion of the Orlando, Florida, Gay Pride Festival 1998 "I would warn Orlando that you're right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you."
Imagine God on his throne, as I'm sure Pat does, trying to pick a President when, 'what's this? Homosexuals walking down a street? Release the natural disasters!'
Quoted from the American Muslim Council press release, "Statement regarding anti-Muslim comments made by Pat Robertson on October 27,1997" and elsewhere. "The Islamic people, the Arabs, were the ones who captured Africans, put them in slavery, and sent them to America as slaves. Why would the people in America want to embrace the religion of slavers."
I don't know. Oh, I got one for you! Why were we slave owners in the first place? Supply and demand Pat. White Christian Southerners bought and owned slaves and white Christian northerners let them do it.
700 Club, August 22, 2005 regarding Venezualan President Hugo Chavez "I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop."
The ancient Christian ritual of assassination...
700 Club November 10, 2005 to citizens of Dover, Pennsylvania who voted out of office all seven members of the school board who support "intelligent design."
"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city. And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there,"
I also heard him talking about New Orleans once, how the very day Katrina hit there was to be a gay pride parade and that's why this happened. I couldn't find a documented version of this statement, but I will say that if God was mad at gay people he shouldn't have let the hurricane largely miss the French Quarter where most of them live and work.
Last one, last week...
700 Club January 5, 2006 in regards to Israeli prmie Minister Ariel Sharon's massive stroke. "He was dividing God's land, and I would say, 'Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the [European Union], the United Nations or the United States of America. God says, 'This land belongs to me, and you'd better leave it alone,'"
Now many of you are wondering why I posted these here, perhaps because you think this guy is a kook or think his opinion doesn't matter. If you agree with him a majority of the time I'd like to know...how do we know each other?
What Pat Robertson says matters to me because every time he speaks, someone is watching and listening and painting me with the same brush as him, because I identify myself to be a Christian as he does.
Is Pat entitled to his opinions. Absolutely. And he's entitled to shout them all over the planet. That's the freedom I believe he deserves, regardless of how much I think he squanders it. I think this freedom is given to everyone by God and I'm proud to live in a country that upholds it. What I find ridiculous about Pat is that his love of God takes this freedom away from many of us. We are not entitled to believe what we believe if we disagree with God and Pat, or God/Pat as I'll write it from here on out. God/Pat want us to be in line and we're damned, condemned, hurricaned, assassinated, and stricken if we fall out of line. But how naive and simple minded is this philosophy/belief?
I don't believe God sits on a throne watching us and and alters human events according to his will. I don't believe Dover, PA should be worried about an earhquake or Orlando should fear a hurricane hitting only the gay district. We're in this together and that seems to be the point God/Pat have missed as presented by Pat.
Think about it. Let's say Pat was right and Dover, Pennsylvania has a fault line break open and the whole city falls into the Earth. Am I to surmise they were all godless infidels? Does that sound familiar to anyone else? Pat Robertson is the Christian equivalent of the Mulsim fundamentalist calling for jihad against the US. And while he has evry right to believe what he does and say what he does, he ought to open his Bible back up and read what Jesus called us to do, because the 700 Club seems to not be that, and Pat seems to not be that, and this God that sits on a throne and watches the soap opera he created and creates seems to not be that.
Matthew 22:37-40 `Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: `Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Seems all this damning and cursing doesn't jive with Jesus.
And it doesn't jive with me. I'm struggling with the fact that I'm associated with people like Pat Robertson. It seems there are a lot of them in the world. There are a lot of them in the church I serve. I don't know how you can be a Christian and not seek to love all people. And loving them requires being nice to them Pat. And loving them requires accepting them church. And loving them requires opening ourselves up enough to share that which connects us all. Instead Pat finds the smallest places iside of himself and his followers to seperate his version of God from us all.
I think prayers matter, at least in the positive energy they concentrate in a certain place. I think God is where love is and so people praying for each other focus God in specific places. I think what happens in this life matters forever, but not in some way that damns those that haven't reached the same conclusions about how to live.
Pat Robertson, and a whole lot of people that probably mean well, use the damnnation God doles out as a scare tactic to convince people to believe. They say that there are consequences to not believing in Jesus Christ, in God, in the structure of belief Christianity represents. Maybe. Maybe, I don't know. What I do know is when someone lives a life based on Jesus' two commandments the world is changed. We all know the real thing when we see it. Today was a day to celebrate the genuine article. It gives me hope that he existed His words stand in opposition to some of those above. And proudly, I get painted with the same brush as he does, because I identify myself to be a believer in the same God.
The title lyric has haunted me since I heard it. The song isn't about me or Jesus or the church, but every time I hear, "What if what you do to survive kills the things you love?" I get all reflective about my life.
The truth is I am tired of being a Youth Minister. I'm not tired of the kids, camp, retreats, or counseling. I'm tired of the times that people assume because I serve a church I believe a whole lot of stuff that I do not. I'm tired of having the stuff I don't belive thrown in my face by the people who do.
What Christianity does to survive is find all kinds of ways to persuade people to become Christian. I think that all of those tactics are less than sincere. I think that most of those tactics are ineffective. I think that Christianity is killing the things it loves.
When I hear Pat Robertson I have two immediate and stark reactions.
One-I want to become a minister, so someone with that title speaks in oppositioon to the horrible things he says. Deep down I fel called to this.
Two-I want to run as far away from organized religion as I can, because it's killing in me the things that I love.
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