Number in Series: First

We Are Reservoir: Values Everyone

I moved to Boston for this job here at Reservoir Church from San Francisco about seven years ago. At that time, I knew only a few things about Reservoir Church.

  • 1. That it was a church that affirms LGBTQIA folks.
  • 2. That they were specifically seeking out a person of color to join the pastoral leadership team.

And honestly, that’s all I needed to know at that point in my life. A church that likes the gays also usually affirms and respects women. Because there are plenty of churches that blatantly say women or gays are not allowed to be in leadership (and plenty more that’ll never say it explicitly but string you along to do all the service, work, help but never leadership or vision or teaching), so this was critical to know for me. 

We’re in a new school year, also in church world a new ministry year…as a time of starting things anew, a new school, new program, maybe for some of you, new city, new church. But, also for the old timers and those who have been here a few months to a year or so, it’s a good time for us share with one another who we are – Reservoir Church, what we are doing here, and why we do ’em like that. So we’re in a brief short sermon series called “We Are Reservoir.” And, as Steve said to our staff earlier this week, this series is less about the “sermon series” but it’s more about everything we do, what we do, that makes us who we are.

To display who we are, today I’ll focus on one of our values: Everyone. 

Everyone is one of our core values that you’ll find on our website under Vision and Values. FYI, our Vision statement is: 

We find Jesus utterly compelling and believe that a life connected to him simply has more—joy, hope, wholeness, and vitality. We envision a day when many in North Cambridge and Greater Boston (and I think the world since we’ve started online worship) are connecting with Jesus and our church in deep ways and absolutely thriving as a result.  We also seek to be a physically, emotionally and spiritually safe place. (I love that last sentence)

Our Core Values include Connection, Everyone, Action, Freedom, and Humility. Like I said, we’re not going to go through all of them in our sermon series but Steve, Ivy, and myself are going to touch on aspects of them. For me today, mainly Everyone. You can read more about the rest on our website. 

For Everyone, it says:

We seek to welcome people in all their diversity, without condition or exception, to embrace a life connected to Jesus and others.

The key word here is all. And the language is “seek to welcome.” It’s not forced, there’s no prerequisite, it’s not the end all be all or else, it’s a longing and an invitation. It’s not passive but it’s not aggressive either. Seek to welcome.

Here’s a practical way it shows up in our worship. 

Have you guys noticed the words that we say when we’re doing communion? It’s kind of casual, and no strict liturgical wording that’s set but we always say something along the lines of, “everyone’s welcome to the table.” This really messed with my Presbyterian upbringing, that was strict about “crossing the line of faith” or “baptized into the family.” Because what did that really mean?

What about the folks that didn’t “cross the line” or not baptized, then are they not family? And that might be one of the “craziest” things about Reservoir in my opinion. For membership, we say, “You belong before you believe.” I have no idea where that line is from. But it’s doubling down on the Everyone value. Baptism is not a prerequisite to membership, an invitation maybe but not a must. And I’ll tell you, many many churches would lose their shoes over this. 

Because the thing is, I remember having this question when I was young, a teenager. If they are not believers of Christ, if they are not baptized, all those people, are they going to hell? 

Back in 2011 a book by Rob Bell came out that did some sifting of our core theologies in the church circles. It’s called Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. It caused some kind of ruckus. Because essentially the book concluded in one sense, that there is no hell. To which many many people got offended and really caught up on. Now I’m not going to fully get into it. It’ll become a really boring sermon.

I’m pretty sure there’s a Reservoir blog post about this somewhere, and if you’ve been around long enough, you might know the gist of how we approach the theology around hell and brimstone. If you’re new, and right now offended or confused, that’s okay, you’re gonna be okay, let’s give it time and talk it through. I won’t answer all your questions in one sermon. (Sermons often never do but relationships and meals and coffee and texting actually does, in a real meaningful way!!!) I think the sermon’s job is to jab. I’m just poking you guys. And then you guys need to work it out in  your community, perhaps at a table. A Beloved Table possibly? 

Look. There are biblical textual interpretations that point to our modern day concept of heaven and hell being wildly different from the biblical ancient near east’s understanding of it. But furthermore I think it is shocking to some of us to hear things like,

“maybe our understanding of hell is not exactly what it is”

because for so long, many church and Christian books and theology pounded this hell notion into us. And lastly, I think it touches upon our real sense of justice- that there is right and wrong, and good and bad, and heaven and hell. Although I think it might be a surface level or the first step towards recognizing justice. 

Our world is shifting to get at the sophistication of this concept too. I remember back in the day superhero stories or children stories were more black and white. The hero saves and the evil is defeated. And I read more modern day superhero books or watch the shows and they curve the story of the “evil villain” towards a moment of learning and/or our understanding of their motives nowadays.

Spidey defeats the evil Green Goblin! And Green Goblin was just trying to steal the books from the library so he could learn more. Or like the musical Wicked, we get the back story, the compassionate story of the struggle of the evil Wicked Witch of the West. I love me a back story of a witch. Because it turns out, hurt people hurt people. 

And yet it’s easier, simpler, to villainize them and say, they are bad. They need to be punished. But that is not the way of Jesus. 

In all the stories of Jesus interacting with people, they all had somewhat tainted reputations. They all failed in some way. They all were not enough or lacked something. They were sinners. Or rich rulers that took advantage of their people. They were Pharisees or from a foreign land like Ethiopia. But the Bible shows that again and again, every one of them is claimed and loved. We know that right? That God’s love is big and grand. But I do think it’s harder in practice. Because your initial child-like sense of justice screams when you see bad people getting away with it, we cry like a child, “It’s not fair!” 

This was especially hard for me when I began to be awakened to racial injustice, sexual violence, gender discrimination, and economical inequality. Things that are not just “issues” but actually touched my life personally and the people closest to me. And in the beginning of such an awakening journey, you start finding someone to blame. The perpetrator, the system, your parents, really anything to blame. I remember in my own healing journey from sexual abuse, I journeyed alongside a book called The Wounded Heart, which is such such such a good book. If you’ve experienced sexual abuse, please check out this book by Dan Allender, The Wounded Heart.

I’m not going to say this lightly, please understand, it’s not an easy journey, it’s definitely not forgive and forget. But there was a moment in my healing journey that I (out of my own volition, not because anyone told me to, because if they did, that would be insensitive and triggering), I imagined my abuser standing in church, holding the communion plate, and wondering what it would feel like for me to go up and receive communion from this man. This sick, horrible man that really really hurt me. That God loves him, and even welcomes him. Does that make God a sick God? 

If we really try to understand the expansiveness of God’s love, it should offend us.

  • Even him?
  • Even them?
  • Do you know what they’ve done?
  • Do you know the damage they’ve caused?

God does. And God loves all. It knocks on our knee jerk justice, but God’s justice is greater than our justice. Yes, even those people. 

I’m going to make a hard pivot to Universalism. Cause I don’t have a lot of time left. 

Christian universalism is a Christian theological school that believes all people will be saved and restored to a relationship with God. This doctrine is based on the belief that a loving God would not condemn some people to eternal punishment.

And sometimes universalism is super annoying. Cause it’s like. Oh everyone, everything, whatever, anything! It feels wishy washy. It doesn’t feel like it has any grip on anything and can even sometimes feel extremely naive. 

My parents came to visit me a few years ago. They are strict Presbyterians. And we have a pretty good relationship these days. They love talking to me about church and ministry. But we also know that we have some differences. They asked me to pray for one of our family meals. I prayed and then at the end, I simply said,

“Thanks God. Amen!”

And we all ate. On the last day of their trip my mom said,

“I need to talk to you about something. When you prayed, you didn’t say ‘In Jesus Name.’”

Now my parents are more traditional and I know that. I was annoyed as their daughter that this is the last thing they want to talk to me about, calling me out on wording in prayer. I was offended but I’ve done some maturing in how to engage conversations like this. I said my piece,

“Yeah, I do believe that Jesus connects us to God, but I also am not strict on the magic words, so sometimes I say it, sometimes I don’t. I think God always hears us.”

It was a healthy discussion.

You see, when universalism goes too far, it can feel like the words are just going to fall flat on their faces, just as my parents felt that fear. But what I really think universalism is doing is fighting against the strict particularity and the confidence in that if we do it this way, if we only do it this particular way, we’re doing it right. Because it’s been frankly abusive and presumptuous, we have to say these words, with these people, at this time, in this manner, for this reason.

It lacks the freedom and humility (the other values we have), and it lacks creativity too! And yes, it is harder. It is easier to say, it has to be done this way, for all people, at all times. Yes it’s harder to journey with, what, you’re dating someone who practices Buddhism, what you’re reading about tarot cards, what you love Oprah, oh no they are on slippery slopes! They’re falling away from the faith, NOOOOO!!!

To embrace a life connected to Jesus and others, we don’t say in fear, don’t listen to non-Christian music. And don’t read any other books from other religions. Because we’re not possessive. God is not possessive. This jealous God thing, it’s like kind of cute when a boyfriend is jealous, but it’s not cute when your husband is jealous.

Jealous God is not a thing. God is not petty. God loves. God trusts. God cares. And no matter what you do, God will always pursue you in every way possible. And many of us, a lot of us at this church believe that Jesus is that persuasive and compelling and beautiful way and that Holy Spirit is accessible and powerful to you now. 

But do we know for sure that it’s the only way? We honestly don’t and we never will and that’s just being human. And people get bent up on text like, but Jesus said,

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Look, it only says this in John. Not Matthew, not Luke, or Mark. And John was the most poetic guy ever!

“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God.”

It’s not meant to be taken literally. Again, I won’t go into it, ooooh why do I feel so pressed for time today? But there’s debate whether or not Jesus really said this, or if it’s a mistranslation, or that it might be impossible to translate idioms. Maybe it was a hyperbole. I’m not trying to debunk the statement I’m just injecting humility into us, but really, catapulting us to the expansive love of God. 

I saw this awesome post on Instagram by Bri Rivera, our youth group director, she’s amazing. It was a quote by Richard Rohr that says,

“A mature Christian sees Christ in everything and everyone else. That is a definition that will never fail you, always demand more of you, and give you no reasons to fight, exclude, or reject anyone.” 

Everything and everyone. Even non-Christians! Non-believers! 

Wider is God’s love than the ocean. Small are our minds, even our greatest minds. Wider is God’s grace and mercy that covers all. 

Cause when you really begin to do that, do you know what happens? When you come to a place when you feel like you did the worst thing, you made a huge mistake, you feel unworthy, you will know and be familiar with the concept of unconditional love and grace for them, and for you, yes even you. 

When I really let that person down.

When I feel extremely depressed that I can’t do anything or function, I’m useless and I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

When I can’t keep a job.

Or find the right person.

When I keep pushing people away and no one chases after me.

When I feel so alone, please know that Everyone, includes you. 

Paul said this in

1 Timothy 1: 12-17

12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service.

13 Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.

14 The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.

16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.

17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

He calls himself the worst. Do you ever feel that way? You don’t have it all right? Maybe you’re not the best Christian, you go in and out of faith you say, an on and off church goer. Doesn’t matter, I’m sorry, God is always with you no matter where you go, even in the depth, 

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

Psalms 139:7-10 

If you know this, then let’s practice it in our community. Everyone. Really practice that everyone Richard Rohr was talking about. That might mean going to your edge. Someone who’s not like you, who you don’t understand, who you can probably assume that your lives are so different that you speak different languages. Go to them and engage in Christ love. Invite them to your community group. Invite them to an awkward relationship with you because you’re awkward and you don’t know how to talk to people that’s wildly different from you.

Go to your edge and take action (another value! It’s like Reservoir values bingo today!), take the action of including, affirming, loving, and caring. And point them to Jesus, not forcefully, affirm who they are, their culture, their diversity, their uniqueness, what they are going through, who they are, and say, yes and, check this out. Look at this shiny thing I’ve found, I love it, wanna hear about it? If it works for you. No pressure. 

You’re welcome and invited, just as you are, in all your complexity, without condition or exception, to embrace a life connected to Jesus and others. That’s what we seek to do here at Reservoir church. And if you want to, you’re invited to membership to do the thing with us as an invested, committed, taking ownership, like a co-op. You don’t have to if you don’t want to. But also let’s do this together intentionally and strategically.

That’s what We Are Reservoir is saying. So yeah if you want to join as a member, just talk to one of the pastors, reach out. I’m thrilled about what we do here. Look, it’s hard out there, to find a church, but really there’s a really good thing going on here, not the most right way or the only way, but I’m just telling you, you might love it. I do. We’re really lucky to have this community and one another. Thank you guys, for being a wonderful church to be a pastor at. You are Reservoir and I love it. Okay I’m done. Let me pray for us. 

Juneteenth 2004 At Reservoir

Reservoir’s Juneteenth service honored Black American freedom struggles and victories, and our past, present, and future victories and longings for freedom for bodies and spirits. Thanks to our small planning committee who volunteered to shape this time. Below are the in person and online sermons from our guest preacher, Rev. Darrell Hamilton, Executive Pastor at First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain.

In Person Service – The Invisible Man 

In this fifth chapter of Mark, Jesus has entered the region of the Gerasenes outside of Judaea, and is approached by an  unnamed man, the text reads,

who has been forced to live his  life among the tombs.

I say forced because this man does not live among the tombs solely because he has a spiritual issue.  But this man lives his life among the tombs because of a more sinister and prevalent set of issues rendering him invisible to the rest of the world. 

In Ralph Ellison’s book, The Invisible Man, it is an unnamed, self-professed “invisible man” who is trapped living his life in a sewer beneath the streets of Harlem. This man says he has  been made invisible not because of anything he can control  about himself, but because when people approach him, they do  not see him –

“only my surroundings, themselves or figments of  their imagination [do they see], indeed, everything and  anything except me.” 

Mark, like Ellison, is telling the story of an invisible man. An unnamed man. A man trapped in an abyss. An invisible man whom the world only sees his surroundings, themselves, or  figments of their imagination – presuming him to be the victim of his own spiritual deprivation rather than the byproduct of  systemic failures.  

During my second year of graduate school, I took my first international trip to Cairo, Egypt. I have many fond memories of  that trip like seeing the pyramids. Sailing the Nile. Taking a day trip to Alexandria. Being woken up at 5 a.m. for morning prayers.  But one of the most striking memories was seeing off the  highway a cemetery where many of the homeless lived. I learned that this was not an uncommon reality in this part of the world for people to build homes for themselves in a cemetery. But for many on the trip, seeing people live in a  cemetery was a jarring and shocking experience. 

However, if I could talk back to my graduate school self, I would remind him that seeing people live among the tombs is not unfamiliar to me. That whether I am driving to work, walking into a store, riding on the T, there are people all around me living in proverbial cemeteries – forced to live their lives among  the tombs. 

The 3.1 million people in Massachusetts who are poor or low income. The 365,900 people in Massachusetts who are at risk of losing Medicaid coverage. The 300,000 children in Massachusetts who do not have health insurance. The 62% of  Americans living paycheck to paycheck while costs for food, rent, and basic necessities are increasing, and three individuals have wealth equal to half the United States’ population. I would remind my graduate school self that people are living their lives  among the tombs every day.  

And on this Father’s Day/Juneteenth Sunday, I must name the countless number of black men and boys who are also living  among the tombs because of various forms of “lethal violence” that include murder, police brutality, unemployment, as well as child sexual and physical abuse that is inflicted on our flesh.

Black men, a study reports after the murder of George Floyd, that states because of racism, and associated poverty and injustice, life expectancy at birth of black men is 71.9 years, far below white women (81.2), black women (78.5), and white men (76.4) . . . mainly because of black men’s higher risk of dying  from several types of cancer, stroke, HIV, and homicide.  

[That] Despite overall declining numbers of homicide in the U.S., homicide remains the number one cause of death for black males 10 to 24. 

Per ACLU data on mass incarceration, one in three black boys are still expected to go to prison in their lifetime.  

And from a young age, black men and boys are said to be like the man from Mark 5, suffering from behavioral and spiritual challenges that brand them for life “as living terrors” or  “superpredators” who must be sedated, medicated, or  incarcerated in order to be meaningful contributors to the classroom or to society.  

This gives a whole new meaning when we say the names George Floyd, Philando Castile, Jonathan Edwards, father’s whose black children must now grow up without. Black boys like Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown who were  denied the blessing of living long enough to become.  

Yet, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or nation of  origin, the truth is that the longer anyone is forced – systemically, spiritually, psychologically, you name it, to live among the tombs, the more it will begin to throw dirt not only on your body but also on your spirit. 

Yet, Jesus makes a way for those living their lives among the tombs to be restored into the right community. Jesus makes a way  for those living among the tombs by proclaiming freedom and liberation for both our bodies and our spirits. 

And this is where we find ourselves this morning. With Jesus encountering an unnamed man living among the tombs. Jesus casts out the man’s unclean spirits, and after tells him to go home to his own people, and to tell them about all the good the Lord has done for him and the mercy that was shown to him.  

There are three things we learn from Jesus that I want to invite  us to consider as we worship together on this Juneteenth Sunday about how Jesus brings this man freedom and I will get out the way. 

First that Jesus sees the man 

My daughter, who is two years old now, her favorite movie came out when she was only two months old. Since she was two months old this movie has stayed on repeat at home. She has the toys. She has the bed set. And she loves singing the songs.  

The movie is called Encanto, and one of the songs from the movie she loves the most is the same song that topped all the music charts called “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.” And church, this is powerful as well as catchy song because it names for us the need to face up to the Brunos we do not see because we refuse to talk about them.  

The estranged cousin or sibling or auntie who never chooses to attend the family functions (Bruno). The gay niece or nephew who moves away so they can be free to be themselves by  themselves (Bruno). The “problem child” – whose teachers say they cannot educate, whose doctors try to medicate, and who police then try to incarcerate (Bruno). 

The parent who raised you but was emotionally unavailable to  you (Bruno). The person who was virtually non-existent in your life, and despite your best efforts all you seem to know about  them are the things you pieced together from the pieces of information you would hear said about them (Bruno). 

I’m talking about Bruno because until we can talk about Bruno, we will continue to fail to see Bruno. And this is what Jesus teaches us in this text, because by seeing Bruno, by seeing the invisible man, he then can see that there are other factors  about him that make him the way he is.  

That there are, as the Apostle Paul says, some principalities and powers, forces of spiritual wickedness in both heavenly and  earthly places, that make him the way he is. There are some  policies and legislation that make him the way he is. There is  some unaddressed grief that makes him the way he is.  

He is not the way he is because he is bad. He is not the way he  is because he does not care. But Bruno may have actually lived  through some things, experienced some things, seen some things. And these things may have been imprinted on Bruno in such a way that the version of them we meet may not have  been the version of them they’ve always been.  

We have to talk about Bruno, because lest we talk about Bruno  then we cannot see Bruno.  

The second thing is Jesus hears the man. 

There are two elements in this we need to unpack.  

First, the text says that when the man saw Jesus from a  distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him as an act of  worship. Then he shouted at the top of his voice,

“What do you  want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name  don’t torture me!” 

And Reservoir Church, I want us to chew on this question of  what does it mean about a person’s experience that when they come and approach Jesus, they are fearful they will be tortured? What does it say about a Church that professes to  follow Jesus – that when someone comes to worship, they leave feeling protective against being tormented? You have made a ministry out of answering that question. 

But while you chew on that, I want us to also think why when Jesus asks this man his name he would say

“My name is Legion,  for we are many.” 

What I want to suggest is happening in this text is this man has  already been tortured and tormented. The text says in verse four,

“4for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains.”

Often means repeatedly. 

Thus, Jesus is encountering a man who has been shaped by a torturous cycle of repeated incarceration that has created the conditions for him to be possessed with a legion of unclean spirits. 

  1. That the more an individual is incarcerated,  
  2. The more time they spend in an environment meant to  create unclean spirits. And the more they remain in an environment meant to create unclean spirits,  
  3. The more susceptible they become to being possessed by unclean spirits, and the more they become possessed by unclean spirits,  
  4. the more likely they end up being incarcerated repeatedly.  And… 

Therefore, this man was tortured by a carceral system, an education system, a patriarchal system, that was not meant to  rehabilitate nor set people free. But was built to keep people shackled in a never-ending cycle that brutalizes, demonizes, and ultimately traumatizes. 

But you might look at the text and ask,

“preacher, didn’t the  man break his chains, tear his shackles into pieces, and was no  longer able to be subdued?”

Yes! But even though the man had  broken his chains, torn his shackles into pieces, and was no  longer able to be subdued, the man was still wandering the  wilderness and living among the tombs. 

Meaning, even though his body was no longer chained/incarcerated his mind was still chained/incarcerated.  And because his mind was still incarcerated, instead of going  home and to his people, the Bible says,

“5 Night and day among  the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and  bruising himself with stones.” 

Howling because he was trying to be heard. Cutting himself  with stones because he was trying to be heard.  

And there are folks in church today who, day and night, have been crying out to be heard. You have been crying out from your wilderness. You have been crying out from your pain. You  may even know what it is like to turn pain in on yourselves because you have been crying out and made to be invisible. 

But I want to encourage you this morning because Jesus hears your cries. Jesus sees where you are. You are not by yourself.  You are not uncared about! And it is not your destiny to remain  living your life among the tombs.  

I know Jesus hears your cries because Jesus heard this man’s cry. And Jesus desires for you to be well, healed, and restored. 

Therefore, after Jesus hears the man, Jesus restores the man. 

Jesus restores the man by casting out the man’s unclean spirits.  Jesus restores the man and puts some clean clothes on his  body. Jesus restores the man and sets him in his right mind. Jesus restores the man not only by setting him free, but also by instructing him to go home to his people, and to tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you. 

In Greek, where it is translated “tell them” the word is apangeilon which means “report” or “share the message.” Therefore, Jesus instructs the man to go home to his own people and tell them (report, share the message to them) how  much the Lord has done.  

The root word of apangeilon is angellos which is where we get our English word angel (a messenger). So, after restoring the  man, Jesus gets in the boat to leave and the man begs Jesus to  come with him, but Jesus says,

“no you cannot come with me. Because I didn’t restore you so you could come be like one of  my disciples. But I restored you so you could be my angel by sharing the good news so other people can be free.”

And this is the good news today, that Jesus calls the man who had at one time been possessed by unclean spirits to be an  angel of the Lord and to go home and to his people to tell them  about all that Jesus has done for him. 

Tell them about my amazing grace. Tell them all about my  goodness and mercy.

Tell them  

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, 

 because he has anointed me 

 to bring good news to the poor. 

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives  and recovery of sight to the blind,

 to set free those who are oppressed, 

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 

Go home and to your own people because you are no longer an invisible man. But you are an angel of the Lord! A child of God. Healed! Redeemed! And set free! 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” 

Say a prayer!

Online Service – God in the Ghetto 

Antithesis: The gospel is told from the point of view of ghettoized  people 

As the earliest written gospel, Mark 1:9-15 is the first introduction to Jesus in our Bible. On its face, this may seem like a simple introduction.  There is no annunciation of Jesus’ birth. There are no wise men coming from the east or shepherds working in the fields. There is no mention of  Jesus as the word (logos) of God made flesh. Who is declared by John the baptizer as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  But in a single sentence, Mark says,

“in those days, Jesus came from  Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.” 

Black liberation theologian, James Cone, as written that in those days Nazareth was an “agrarian ghetto.” In the book, “God in the Ghetto,” William Augustus Jones describes how the word ghetto was first applied in the sixteenth century to the section of town where the  Jewish colony was located. And since the term ghetto connotes a place of

“racial, social, and economic oppression.” 

Therefore, Mark saying

“in those days Jesus came from Nazareth”

connotes that Jesus comes from this type of place in Galilee. A place of low repute. A neighborhood of questionable value and worth. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? 

Coming from this place, he is baptized by John in the Jordan. And as he is coming up out of the water, Mark says, Jesus saw the heavens torn  apart, the Spirit descending like a dove, and

“a voice came from  heaven, You are my Son, the Beloved, and with you I am well pleased.”  

In Greek, the phrase “well pleased” comes from a word meaning worthy. In a legal sense, it means that something has met all the  standard procedures and has been given a judicial stamp of approval.

Therefore, before Jesus had ever healed any sickness; before Jesus had ever cleansed any unclean spirits; before Jesus had ever walked on water or fed 5,000 men (not including the women and children) with five loaves of bread and two fish. All Jesus has done was come out from Nazareth, baptized by John in the Jordan, and already had God’s stamp of approval on his life!  

In his autobiography, Malcolm X told the story of when he was in the seventh grade his English teacher, a white man, asked Malcolm what he wanted to be when he grew up. Malcolm said that he wanted to be a  lawyer. But his teacher told him that he had to be realistic about being a n-word and that the only future for black boys was to get a job in manual labor.  

And Malcolm said that this “crushed him” on the inside because even though Malcolm had a good reputation among his teachers and peers, that a black boy, because he is black, could never be good enough, never be smart enough, never be worthy enough for a profession where he had to use his mind. He would never be expected to excel intellectually, and he would never be given the opportunity to do something in life that would unlock his full potential and possibilities.  

And there continue to be Malcolms and Maxines who are crushed on the inside because they are told they can only aspire to be what the world said they could be. Malcolms and Maxines who are not provided with the right encouragement and resources. Malcolms and Maxines who may not have come from the greatest circumstances.  Who may not have come from a literal ghetto, but nonetheless came  from an environment of teachers, professors, parents, neighbors, pastors, and where they are crushed by the voices telling them they are not worthy.

But I want us to imagine with me the implications of a passage like this.  The implications for all the people who have heard all their lives that they are not good enough because of where they come from. That they are not smart enough. Not worthy enough. Do not have God’s stamp of approval because the Bible says when Jesus came out of the water a voice came from heaven,

“YOU are my Son, beloved, in who I am well pleased!” 

And Church, this is good news on this Sunday morning because it was not a voice coming from the world that validated Jesus. But the voice  from heaven that validated Jesus. A voice from heaven saying it does not matter where you come from. It does not matter where you may be going. It does not matter if everything in your life is the way you would like it to be. But there is a voice from heaven saying you are enough! 

The money in your bank account does not make you enough! The degrees on your wall do not make you enough! You, by yourself, are enough.  

It does not matter what folks say about you, you are enough! It does not matter what mistakes you may have made in your life, you are enough.  

Therefore, I believe there are two important details about Jesus that we must understand to fully grasp the man and his ministry.  

First, that Jesus is the word (logos) of God made flesh. That Jesus came through 40 and two generations and that He would save His people.  That Jesus is the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. That he died on a Roman cross, was buried in a borrowed tomb, and on the third day rose with all power in his hands. 

Annnnnd this same Jesus was a man from the ghetto of Nazareth. Mary and Joseph’s baby. A man who was heaven sent and heaven approved. 

Proposition: Jesus’ life proclaims the story of God by the way he lives his life and speaks a message of hope.  

That his 30 years of being raised in the ghetto is what gave him the courage and conviction for His journey in the wilderness after his baptism. That gave him the knowledge and strength to overcome any and all temptation by the devil.  

And after Jesus returned to Galilee, he was able to confidently preach the good news of God. 

That God lives among those whom Howard Thurman called the disinherited, whose backs are pressed against the wall of  oppression.  

That God is revealed among those Franz Fanon called the Wretched of the Earth.  

That God is whom womanist theologian Kelly Brown Douglas says are

“marked black by oppression.”  

And God is among those who Rev. Munther Isaac, pastor of the  Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, says have their existence within the rubble.  

And it was with His ghetto, disinherited, wretched, black, and Palestinian life that Jesus told the story of God and unapologetically,  gave a message of hope and liberation to deliver His people.  

Thus, on this Juneteenth Sunday how might we respond to this message of hope? 

First, we must listen to the voice coming from the ghetto.  

In his theological treatise on rap and hip hop, Michael Eric Dyson talks about hip hop as the artform of ghettoized people. Like the genres of  the spirituals, blues, gospel, jazz, rock n roll, and yes, even country music, hip hop has its origins in the psalms and hymns of enslaved and  disenfranchised people poetically and rhythmically communicating the pleasures and pains of living life in the underground.  

In an interview describing his contribution to hip hop, the artist Nas says, 

“Really, I saw, like a hole in the rap game, so, if I wanted to put my  little two cents in the game, then it would be from a different  perspective. I thought that I would represent for my neighborhood and tell their story, be their voice, in a way that  nobody has done it. Tell the real story.” 

Jay- Z, in the song Renegade with Eminem, says, what I believe, is the  essence of what hip hop is, saying:  

Say that I’m foolish I only talk about jewels/ 

Do you fools listen to music or do you just skim through it?/ 

See I’m influenced by the ghetto you ruined/ 

That same dude you gave nothing, I made something doing/ 

What I do through and through and/ 

I give you the news, with a twist it’s just his ghetto point-of-view/ 

The renegade, you been afraid/ 

I penetrate pop culture, bring ’em a lot closer to the block 

Therefore, as Dyson again states hip hop is not merely “pavement poetry” but is also prophetic. Prophetic in its proclamation of truth to power. Political in its analysis. Artful in its imagery. Conscience of the realities plaguing its community. Subversive in the ways it comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.  

Hip hop has its imperfections that aids and abets in homophobia.  Transphobia. Violence. Hedonism. Misogyny. Patriarchy. Capitalism. But the same can be said, and is said, about our Bible. Our Christian tradition. That Christianity today traffics in the abuse and violence of marginalized and oppressed people. 

And yet, Jesus, founding member of the hip hop group N.W.A  (Nazarenes With Attitude), tells the real story of the people and places  from whence he came. 

That the gospel is the poetic, prophetic, political, artful, conscience, and subversive message to “bring us closer to the block.” Closer to the margins. Closer to the truth! Closer to the devastation that is left behind when tradition is placed above the commandments of God.  Closer by putting his two cents in the game for those who have neglected the weightier matters of justice, mercy, and faith! Closer by revealing God’s plan for the world. Not being bringing us to heaven but  by bringing heaven down to the earth

(“Do you [sic] listen to music or  do you just skim through it?”) 

Therefore, we respond to the message of hope when we remember to listen to the voices coming from the ghetto because the ghetto is where God is often speaking. The ghetto is where God is serving. And the voices coming from the ghetto have the power to save and bring us new life.  

But to listen, we must repent to the voice coming from the ghetto. 

In Greek, repent means to turn; to turn from or return to. Thus, on this  Juneteenth Sunday, how are we invited to consider turning to the voices from the ghetto? How might we need to turn from the things making us deaf to hear the voices that are revealing deep and prevailing truths about our world? 

For four hundred years, black people have articulated through our music and art the deep seeded realities that we are faced with. For centuries people have danced to our music, clapped to our art, sung the lyrics of our songs, but never turned to listen! 

And now, people are talking about Project 2025 that is described as

“a real threat to democracy.”

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley said about Project 2025 that it is

“a thousand-page bucket list of extremist policies that would uproot every government agency and disrupt the lives of  every person who calls America home.” 

Key policy proposals include the elimination of the Department of Education that would cut millions of students off from civil rights protections and ending essential title one funding for K through 12 schools. The weaponization and expansion of the Department of  Justice. A federal ban on abortion care. As Congresswoman Pressley succinctly summarizes, “If enacted, Project 2025 would destroy the federal government as we know it.” 

But are people turning to listen? Because in the ghetto is where these policies are first practiced and perfected before they expand to the rest of the nation. And in these places is where they will have the harshest impact.  

Therefore, we must repent to the voices whose ears are to the street.  And are sounding the alarm that can hopefully save our nation!  

Which is why, finally, we must believe in the voice coming from the ghetto. 

We must believe in the voice coming from the ghetto of a black, Palestinian man on whose body the Spirit descended like a dove, and a voice came from heaven

“You are my Son, Beloved, in who I am well pleased.”  

A man born from a woman from the ghetto. A man who lived within ghetto community.  

A (black) man who did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many! Who shed tears for the city. Who shed his blood because of our sin. Who died and was buried. But after three  days has risen so we might rise and live with Him forever!  

We must believe in the gospel so the good news of God would be proclaimed throughout the world from Boston to Benin, Atlanta to  Angola, Southside Chicago to South Africa, Cambridge to Quincy to Kenya, Jamaica Plain, MA to Jamaica in the West Indies – so that all  people will respond to the message of hope that they are beloved, children of God and a part of the gospel story of God. 

We must believe in the gospel as good news from the ghetto because 

“God’s story is the [ghetto’s] story, and the [ghetto’s] story is God’s  story. And that is the Christian story.”

And that, beloved, is hip hop! 

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent,  and believe in the good news.”

Amen 

(Say a prayer!)

Reservoir PRIDE Sermon 2024

Good morning everyone, I’m Ivy a Pastor here — I use she/her pronouns. It’s a joy to be with you on this beautiful June morning. I’m so thankful for your presence here this morning with the Spirit of God. At Reservoir we welcome everyone without exception to discover the love of God, the gift of community and the joy of living. I sure hope you experience some of that this morning. 

Today’s service is celebrating Pride. It will vary a bit from our traditional service format. It will consist of prayer, spiritual practice, story, and song. Members of the Reservoir community who are also part of LGBTQ2IA+ community have curated the service this morning with vulnerability and care — and they will be leading this service and I’ll let them introduce themselves as they join us.  

At Reservoir we see the teaching of Jesus as anchored in love — love for God, love for our neighbor, and love for ourselves. We hold and practice this love — as a liberative, inclusive love that affirms the dignity, the value, and the worth of all God’s children…everyone without exception – who bear the image of God.  

We are glad you’re here today and we hope you will lean in with an attentive and open heart.

I’ll invite Emmett to join us now.

I’m Emmett and I want to offer some context behind pride as we begin this service. Pride marches commemorate the seven days of the Stonewall riots, an uprising during a police raid on June 29th, 1969 in Greenwich Village. The riots were led by queer and trans people of color like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy. At Pride each June, we celebrate how far we have come and we protest for how much farther we have to go.

Our ancestors remind us of the victories won — with their storytelling and coming out, with their lobbying and work from the inside, with bricks and sugar shakers thrown through windows of oppression. We start this service honoring and remembering their legacy that is ours to carry on and will have slides before and after service honoring some meaningful ancestors. 

God sees themself reflected when they look at people celebrating and protesting at Pride, God sees the fullness of themself in the margins of society and says

“this is good”

at people being wholly and beautifully themselves and among community. We may not have the capacity to fully understand God’s depth of love and capacity for inclusion but we can awe and wonder at it. 

I want to share briefly about some words and acronyms we will use during this pride service. You will hear different variations of the acronym “LGBTQ” or “LGBTQ2IA+” during the service.

  • LGBTQ2IA+ is an acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer/questioning, two-spirit, intersex, and aesxual.
  • The plus represents the many other identities not specifically named in this acronym.
  • “Queer” is often used as an umbrella term to encompass many identities in the LGBTQ2IA+ community and will be used during this service.

Historically, queer has been used as an insult and a slur. This term has been reclaimed by many people in the community but some still find it offensive or harmful and we want to acknowledge the heavy history of the word. 

I’d like to invite Bri up to share a prayer and call and response. 

I’m Bri and my pronouns are she/her.  I’d like to share an opening prayer by M Jade Kaiser.

God of infinite manifestations, 

Free us of shame that confines and judgment that destroys. Bring healing to the wounds of being told we are too much or too big or too proud or too young or too old or too queer. Ground us in the truth that sets us free: We are the work of a Divine hand – the holy lives in our flesh. Wherever we struggle to believe, meet us there. In Christ we pray. 

Amen.

by M Jade Kaiser

We, of many backgrounds and identities, personalities, and ideas,

gather collectively in shared pursuit of the Sacred.

Together, we make up the body of Christ.

Wherever one of us is in pain,

our whole body aches.

Whenever one of us is cut off,

the whole body is wounded.

Whoever is kept away by discriminatory policies or practices or prejudices,

Our collective soul suffers the loss of their presence.

We need one another in order to be whole,

God make us the body of Christ as you envisioned.

May we become your presence enfleshed, in service to the world and one another.

I’d like to invite Lee up to share today’s scripture. 

I’m Lee and this morning’s reading is from the book of Isaiah. We will read together from Chapter 58 verses 8 – 12. In this text God is communicating the abundance of love and blessings that are available to everyone without exception — and the promise that God is always, always, always with us. It is also a call for each of us to embody justice, mercy and compassion as we seek to create beloved community.

Isaiah 58:8-12 (Common English Bible)

8Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

    and your healing will quickly appear;

then your righteousness will go before you,

    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;

    you will cry for help, and God will say, “I’m here.”

If you remove the yoke from among you,

    the finger-pointing, the wicked speech;

11 The Lord will guide you continually

    and provide for you, even in parched places.

    He will rescue your bones.

You will be like a watered garden,

    like a spring of water that won’t run dry.

12 They will rebuild ancient ruins on your account;

    the foundations of generations past you will restore.

You will be called Mender of Broken Walls,

    Restorer of Livable Streets.

I’d like to invite Becki to share part of her story with us.

I’m Becki and my pronouns are she/her. 

When I think of my life’s journey it has so many identities to it:  Christian, parent, technology worker, friend, preacher, son, daughter, husband, wife, LGBT+ activist, bisexual, transwoman.  So many identities. Some of these lives, these identities seem in conflict with the other. And I suppose they are. But they are all lives I have lived or live now. Sometimes I lived at peace with myself and the world and sometimes I lived in terrible conflict. There is one thing that has proved true through them all:  When I have called out to the Lord, the Lord has responded. When I cry out, He replies,

“Here I am”

Around age 25 or so, I gave my life to the Lord and became what is known as, at least in Evangelical Circles, Born Again – a spiritual rebirth. I was baptized, started reading my bible, and found myself fully committed to my church, family, job, and friends. In the midst of the ebb and flow of life, I found that I had a real connection to them, a God I had suddenly found myself in relation with. I say

“found myself in relation with”

because before my Born Again experience, I hadn’t shown much interest in God. But I had been searching for peace. And that search was through any means I could. But my relationship with God truly did bring me peace. And without knowing it, my faith in God became the one thing that would sustain me as my life journey continued.

While  life was happening outside: jobs, grad school, growing a family, backyard bbqs and fun summers camping, stuff was happening inside me too. When I was  younger, I knew, deep inside me, that I was different. I thought that I might be gay but I was determined not to let that be my future.  But the suppressed sense of who I am slowly ate away at me, making what seemed like a calm, cool, executive on the outside feel like a volcano ready to explode on the inside. I sought help from therapists, read books, talked endlessly with my then spouse, journaled my childhood and  adulthood and slowly realized that I was not gay but I was transgender. While I was assigned male at birth, I am really a woman.

That realization explained a lot about my past and my present. And it was terrifying. How would I navigate this truth – did I have to navigate this truth at all?  Couldn’t I just sweep it under the rug and kind of not think about it anymore?  My brain was filled with anxiety and, as Isiah wrote, in

Isiah 58:9,

“call out, and the Lord will respond;”

you will cry out, and he will reply,

‘Here I am.’ 

Knowing that and actually doing that really sustained me.

I read about so many of us in the LGBTIQA+  community having felt that God now hated them, once they started living their truth. I and my friends experienced the hate of religion, and the attempt by some to convince us, our families and our friends that God no longer loved us now that we were living our truth. 

But I didn’t believe that God now hated me, I honestly couldn’t. This couldn’t be the God I had read about in the bible. I was ok with churches rejecting me, but not our God. And that firm belief was not unlike what Isiah had written in

Isaiah 58:11

“The Lord…will feed you even in parched regions. He will give you renewed strength, and you will be like a well-watered garden.”  

And so, my life journey continued. My transition to my correct gender was long and hard and I lost nearly everything. So I turned to the one thing that had sustained me, I called out to the Lord like my life and the lives of those I loved depended on it. I pressed into the God I knew. At times I did doubt. Maybe God really didn’t  love me, and that my living as myself was actually judgment from God. But I refused to believe my own demons and those created by anti-LGBT rhetoric. I thought, what is the downside of my pressing into God?  Of my being persistent with God with my cries? And in that I pressed into a good, loving God that is always with  me, always watering me in times that are hard. He really did renew my strength and my life became like a well-watered garden.

I’m Mitch and my pronouns are he/him. 

I’d like to share the trans prayer of divine understanding by M Jade Kaiser.

Creative Spirit,

Holy Momentum,

Ever Transitioning One,

Do you hold the prayers of trans people close,

like the embrace of someone who understands –

a source of comfort or hope?

We share this joy – you and us:

Taking on new forms

that life might thrive.

Shedding what no longer fits;

or never did.

Struggles, we share, too:

Religious beliefs that confine being and becoming.

Enduring acts of violence

born from fear and fueled by power.

Though even we endure too much, too long,

how burdensome is your lot…

Centuries pass and still,

so few who claim to love you

believe you are who you say you are –

calling you an excuse for bigotry,

when you are a river of Love.

Do all the theologies of hate,

and songs of Sunday apathy,

land on your ears like a deadname –

something given to you

that you never asked for

and just won’t go away?

Do you wince

each time a prayer ascends to “Him” –

because more than anything,

you know what that means to do

is distance you from the likes of “Her” or “Them?”

When you stretch out your arms

as the embrace of a gentle man,

or kick out your feet

as the dance of a woman,

or run wild in open fields

through every gender-less,

or gender-abundant,

or nonbinary kiddo

loving their flesh,

do you take delight in every fit,

finding a spot of home

in every body?

The glory of your Multiplicity cannot be hidden away.

We may be a long way from safety yet,

but your mercies are new every morning

and with each day dawns new possibilities

of Sacred Transition

into a world more fitting for everyone.

May your blessing be upon all your trans beloveds.

Take pleasure in us, your stunning incarnations.

And as we care for our each other,

may the god we practice be a comfort and a strength.

In your abundance and love,

Amen.

I’d like to invite the band and Ivy to share a song and some breath prayers. 

We’re going to move into a time of reflection, breath, and prayer, paired with some music. The song that we’ll be singing, called Wishes, explores the concept of wishing things could be different, wishing we know how to handle the various challenges that we face, and also having the courage and space to explore the longing for things to be different.

While there are pieces of this song that everyone can relate to, as I listen to this song, as well as many of my friends in the Queer & Trans community, it becomes really powerful because many themes are so deeply connected to our experiences related to identity; challenging relationships with family, complicated relationships with our body/expression, and the general feeling of our identity being a burden or issue for those around us, and that we need to hold space for them. 

As we were preparing for this service we were reflecting on experiencing Pride as a protest or as a celebration, and for me, that can shift depending on the year and everything happening around us. As we go through this practice I invite you to explore that balance, of holding space for things we may wish for and also celebrating who we are in God’s Love. So as we sing feel free to reflect and absorb and we’ll take some pauses for guided breath and prayer. 

Verse 1

I wish I was a reader, and I wish I was

The kind of child that calls their mom

With stupid questions or anything at all

 

And I wish that I was different, or I wish I was

Better at being kind to the one body that I’ve got

After all, it keeps me breathin’ ’til the day it just cannot

  • Breath Prayer 2x

Inhale: My wishes are too much to hold

Exhale: So we hold them together

Verse 2

I wish I didn’t linger on every thought

Reshapin’ every moment to the point of losin’ touch

Wish I was in my body ‘stead of hoverin’ above (Ooh-ooh, ooh)

And I wish that I was harder, and I wish I was

Less of a feeler so it wouldn’t hurt so much

But I offer all my pillows and I give my bed to lay

I’m a shoulder for a cry until the tears melt me away

Chorus

I wish I didn’t feel like a burden

All the time

I wish I wasn’t so scared of something

all my life

  • Breath Prayer 

Inhale: I am not a burden

Exhale: I am worthy of care 

Verse 3

I wish that I was smarter, and I wish I could

Communicate a thought without being misunderstood

But it’s better keeping quiet, yeah, it’s easy staying put

And I wish I didn’t cater when I know I should

Stop beggin’ for forgiveness and start puttin’ down my foot

I’m just used to people-pleasin’, yeah, I’ve gotten way too good

I think I’ve become the person that I said I never would

Chorus

I wish I didn’t feel like a burden

All the time

I wish I wasn’t so scared of something

all my life

  • Breath Prayer 

Inhale: I will not be silenced by fear

Exhale: A trembling voice is still sacred (credit: @Blackliturgies | Cole Arthur Riley)

Chorus

I wish I didn’t feel like a burden

All the time

I wish I wasn’t so scared of something

all my life

I wish I didn’t feel like a burden

Oooh

I wish I wasn’t so scared of something

Ooh

Tag

I know these wishes aren’t all for nothing

I am loved

  • Breath Prayer 3x

Inhale: I am 

Exhale: God’s beloved wish

Now I’ll invite Emmett up to share a prayer and lead us in a spiritual practice.

Hello again, I’d like to share a prayer that has excerpts from the Prayer for Pride Flag Raising by the Rainbow Pastor and the Rainbow Christ Prayer by Patrick Cheng and Kittredge Cherry as well as my own prayers. This is both a prayer and a spiritual practice. I invite you to envision something of each color as we go through the colors and find meaning in them or if you happen to have those colors in the room, I invite you to grab that item or write in the chat why that color is meaningful for you.  Pray with me. 

Rainbow Christ, you embody all the colors of the world. Inspire us to remember the values expressed in the rainbow flag of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, two-spirit, intersex, and asexual community.

Red is for life, the root of spirit.  Living Christ, you are our Root.  Free us from shame, and grant us the grace of healthy pride so we can explore, question, and follow our own inner truths. With the red stripe in the rainbow, we give thanks that God created us just the way we are. 

Orange is for healing, the mending needed desperately in individuals and our community as a whole. Let us heal one another through love, radical acceptance, and coming alongside each other in our hurts, losses, and burdens. Lord, may we lay those hurts and burdens at your feet and allow the wholeness of community and self to be reconciled.  With the orange stripe in the rainbow, be a balm to our wounds and sorrows. 

Yellow is for sunlight, the brilliant light of queer and trans joy. The smile on Your face shining down upon us. Interconnected Christ, you are our Wisdom, creating and sustaining the universe. With the yellow stripe in the rainbow, may we feel Your radiant light reflected in our innermost beings. 

Green is for nature, the grounding of life. May we seek nature to commune with you and all of creation. May we see ourselves reflected in the beauty, purpose, and intention of every rock, raindrop, and leaf. With the green stripe in the rainbow, connect us with others and with all of your creation. 

Blue is for serenity, the sense of tranquility and calm that comes with knowing you are exactly as God made you to be. God knew your true name when you were in the womb and They smile as you come into your own. Serenity is also inviting the most marginalized into an open and welcoming community. Liberator Christ, you are our Voice, speaking out against all forms of oppression. Free us from apathy, and grant us the grace of activism. With the blue stripe in the rainbow, let us find peace within our Body-Spirit and motivate us to call for justice. 

Purple is for spirit, the union of one’s spirit with the Holy Spirit and the spirit of community. Lord, may we find connection with you and one another. May we offer love and compassion and encourage those around us to live their authentic lives. Fill our hearts with untamed compassion for all beings. With the purple stripe in the rainbow, may our spirit find rest and encouragement in our truths, one another, and the Holy Spirit. 

These colors come together to make one rainbow, one symbol of Pride. Free us from rigid categories and grant us the grace of interwoven identities.  With the rainbow, lead us to experience the whole spectrum of life. 

Bless our pride in who we are, in all our diversity, as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, two-spirit, intersex, asexual, and questioning people, as an expression of your creative love. Bless our differences that we may draw strength from them. 

Bless our celebration that it may show our joy in living and hope. Bless those for whom it takes great courage to be present, that they may not feel alone. Bless those for whom this is one in a long series of Pride celebrations, as they continue to teach us about courage and wisdom. 

Bless our calls for equality as we seek justice for all your people. Bless those who support us and are also working for freedom and justice. Bless each of us here with your presence, and our presence, one with another.  Amen. 

I’d like to invite Mitch back to share a part of his story with us. 

I am fascinated by mystical experiences. More than one shelf of my bookcase at home is devoted to stories about peoples’ direct encounters with God. 

Folks one moment carrying on with a life, and then the next – radically changed.

“Light breaking forth like the dawn.”

Something so indescribable, so wonderful, so reality-shattering happened to them, was revealed to them, that in a blink they’re never the same.

I don’t know about you, but that’s never happened to me – at least, not yet. And I admit I’m a little jealous sometimes of the prophet Isaiah and the others. 

But that’s not to say, when I take a moment to reflect, that I haven’t had epiphanies – sudden unveilings of Truth that radically changed me and the trajectory of my life. In the moment I can’t always see – or sometimes flat-out resist seeing – God’s place in them. But my experience might just be something divine, if I choose to look at how it all adds up. If I peer backward, it turns out that the Lord is my rearguard. 

So, I’ll give you all just two of my biggies. 

Picture me, age seventeen. I’m in my high school library; I pick up a book called Transgender Warriors and see myself reflected in it. Then picture me, 19. I’m in my first or second feminist studies class in college, learning about structural oppression for the first time. Both instances something lands with me, I feel electric, and I suddenly have a new knowing on a higher level. Some part of the curtain “pulled back” and a little of the Matrix of the real-real peeking through.

I can’t un-see what I’ve been shown. And now I’ll never stop being called to respond to it.

I’m still here, over a decade later, being called. And I can tell you that having been shown essential knowledge, living a changed life because of it, can at times be so exhilarating — like every step has been on this 13-year journey of inhabiting the livable streets of my male body & identity — and, at other times, so hard — like stumbling through the ancient ruins and broken walls of an inherited social system shot through with “isms” and phobias towards the so-called “other.” And crying out, at times, to God for help. Like, “What can I even do about anything beyond my own nose?”

I’ll bring it back to the beginning.

So, Epiphany #1: that I’m transgender — I was assigned female at birth, but know myself to be and live my life as a man. God truly is Mender and Restorer, in my experience! I was held back and He showed me how I could get free, be comfortable. On an individual level. 

Epiphany #2: Oppression works structurally; individual cruelty, or even “well-intentioned” harm, is just a surface symptom of a deep sickness. We’re all intertwined. No one’s truly free and well until we’re all free and well. 

I look back now at my two great revelations – how the first clarity about ME happened before the second about US. I can see God at work in this. 

Dismantling structural oppression. It’s felt, at times, too big an ask to take part in, until I look at myself where I’m at – my gifts, my internal modes to repent — which means to turn — from. 

So where do I start? Well, here’s something. 

Someone once asked me: What are the spiritual gifts of trans-ness? Well – many. For me, in my own life, the clearest is a kind of vision. I was handed the system that we all are, and which is so ingrained as to be invisible and nearly unquestionable – in this case, the gender binary and its supposed permanency – and yet the nature of my very being causes me to look outside it. To question it, challenge it, see its rigid enforcement as human-made rather than God’s intention. My very life and thriving depends on this. I was lovingly crafted to imagine something other than “that’s just the way things are, live with it.” God sketched me into a template but then let me go free to keep writing a different future.

And that’s a start.

I’d like to invite Emily to lead us in a call and response prayer.

I’m Emily and my pronouns are she/her.  I’d like to invite you into a time of prayer, called Prayers of the People by M Jade Kaiser.  After each prayer, I will pause and then you are invited to respond “God, hear our prayers.” This will also be on a slide.

Let us pray. 

In the midst of all that keeps our spirits frantic, overwhelmed, or troubled, we pause.

We pause to remember each other as those whose precious and precarious lives

are inherently bound together.

We pause to remember the basic gifts of water, of trees, of beauty, of the land we gather upon.

We pause to remember our neighbors – distant and near.

And so to the One who is Love, we bring the prayers of our communities. Where we share in joy or concern, let us respond together, “God, hear our prayers.”

We pray…

for all the queer, trans, and intersex children and youth across the globe. For the ones who are struggling with feelings of isolation and shame. For those who have no safe place or people to retreat to. For those who must be teachers to the adults in their lives. For those who are unsafe in their communities.

God, hear our prayers.

We pray for our elders whose labor we are indebted to. For the ones who never tasted the freedom they fought for. For the ones who were forced to the fringes of their own movements. For the allies who suffered beside us, casting their lot with us in true solidarity. For the ones forgotten and betrayed.

God, hear our prayers.

We pray for all those who hunger for justice and liberation today. For the ones who lay down their lives for their friends. For the ones who tell the truth. For the ones who take risks, who dream, who feed and pray, who fight for bread and roses, both. For the ones who are eager to learn and grow and offer their gifts to the work of enfleshing your dreams.

God, hear our prayers.

We pray for all who are suffering in the church and the world at the hands of white supremacy. For those imprisoned by the state. For those whose land has been taken. For the earth that groans beneath us. For those without food or housing. For those who have yet to repent.

God, hear our prayers.

We pray in gratitude for all that nourishes and sustains us. For the gifts of beauty and friendship, shared meals, and art, and love. For laughter. For pleasure. For the friends, lovers, and comrades who lift our spirits, always by our side when the days are heavy. For the freedom we have in Christ.

God, hear our prayers.

For your presence within and around us, in our highs and lows, our hope and our despair, God, we give you thanks. Hear our prayers and deepen our willingness to show up with and for one another, sharing in each other’s burdens and working for one another’s protection and care. Amen.

I’d like to invite Maddison to lead us in communion.

Source: enfleshed.com/liturgy/lgbtq-related/

I’m Maddison and my pronouns are she/her.

We will now move to a time of communion. 

Where we give thanks for the presence and love of God. God’s presence that is not at a distance –  but intimately in our lives – as intimately as our own skin.

God gifted us with bodies and through them we come to know God:

Through touch.

Through taste.

Through struggle.

Through rest.

In God’s love for us and for all creatures and creations, God took on skin like ours – entangling, forever –  the (H)oly with our flesh. God showed us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that we love through our bodies, we seek justice for bodies, we live out our faith in these bodies – not despite them.

Jesus took care and rest of his own body –  fed people, healed people, ate with people. 

He met the physical and spiritual needs of bodies.

And when his own body was threatened by political and religious execution, he turned to the Table. He sought, first, in his hour of need, to share a meal with his friends.

On the night of his arrest, he gathered around a table with his companions.

He took bread, blessed it, broke it (as his own body would break), gave it to his disciples and said,

“This is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.”

He did the same with the cup after the supper, saying,

“This cup that is poured out as a sign of the new covenant.” 

A new way forward with love and infinite possibilities.

The body of God was crucified.

And the body of God was resurrected.

Not only in spirit, but in flesh.

God has shown us that our bodies are good, holy, precious, and full of possibility.

At Reservoir we practice an open table. All are open to come and receive the goodness and love of Jesus. I invite you to get some food and something to drink and receive with us. 

I’ll pray for us, 

Prayer: Spirit of God, Come, bless this bread and this cup, that we might encounter your presence as we touch, and we taste, and we feel. As we come to the table, may we become one body. And may we be relentless pursuers of your Kin-dom, until every body has its needs met, every body is recognized as beloved, and every body is treated with dignity and care. Amen.

Benediction:

Holy One, You call each of us beloved.

Each of us cherished.

Each of us desired.

Each of us good.

Each of us sacred.

As you leave today, may you know that you are treasured and surrounded by the Spirit of love and authenticity.

Many thanks to this incredible resource: enfleshed.com/liturgy/lgbtq-related/

How Is Wisdom Calling Out to You?

In my first month as a high school principal, I inherited a master schedule that was pretty messed up. A lot of kids didn’t have the classes they would need in less than two months. The former administration that had built the schedule were either retired or laid off. And not many people work in schools in July and August. So I had just a few weeks to learn a scheduling software I’d never used before and to fix as much of it as I could. 

There was this one central office administrator who knew this computer program and was working during the summer, and it was her job to show me the ropes. 

Now I can be a difficult student. I like to learn things really quickly, and I have a million questions, and sometimes I struggle to not interrupt people when I really get focused on something. So a few days into working with Marilyn, the district administrator, and she said to me:

Steve, you’re a damn comet. 

I thought she was complimenting me. Comets sound cool. These objects flying through space, looking like they’re stars or on fire or something. And I was pretty sure Marilyn was complimenting me at how fast I was learning and getting stuff done. Comet.

But later I realized I was only like 20% right about this. Because Marilyn was like – it was helpful that you were learning quickly and trying to fix things. But mostly, this is frustrating.

She was like –

You have to slow down. Take a breath. Listen for a while. Slow down, and you’ll learn this thing, and do what you’ve got to do.

I wish I could say I listened to Marilyn’s advice, but I mostly didn’t. I think I tried to convince myself that her whole comet line, which after all she had said “damn comet” and had sounded frustrated when she said it, but still I wanted to think it was a compliment and maybe didn’t listen.

I’d sort of been like this my whole life – that old proverb “haste makes waste” was for other people. When I first got my drivers’ license, I had a number of speeding incidents. And those had cost me money, but never an accident, so maybe it was fine. When I learned to ski, I liked to fly and take jumps and all and I had some spectacular crashes, but no permanent damage, so again, maybe it was OK.

I’ve been a bike commuter most of my adult life, and at that point, my habits on the bicycle were kind of embarrassing. I rode fast, I was really hit or miss about following traffic rules, and when I couldn’t find my helmet now and then, I just rode without it. 

I thought I didn’t need this wisdom, because I was a damn comet, and it was working out OK.

Well, later in that same first year as a principal, I was biking home from work one day. And that was one of the days I was riding without a helmet, because I was rushing to get to work early and couldn’t remember where I’d left it. I was also talking on the phone while I was riding because a student at the school had been getting in trouble, and their dad was an important person on the school committee, and this was kind of an awkward situation for everyone, so I was trying to talk it through with this frustrated dad who was also more or less one of my boss’ bosses, and that made things urgent. 

I wasn’t biking all that fast, but I was on the phone and not paying attention, and I hit a patch of sand left over from the winter storms and started to lose control of my bike. I don’t remember what happened next. Except that I was on the ground, and my head hurt like hell, and I reached back and it was wet and red. I tried to get up and start walking in the direction of my house, and someone walking by yelled at me not to do that and grabbed and started directing me toward the emergency room of the hospital which I was right in front of when I crashed and split my skull open in a couple places.

A few staples and a concussion recovery later, and I thought:

Maybe haste makes waste. Maybe I have to learn to slow down.

So like 14 years later, maybe my head’s not 100% right anymore, and I still rush into action sometimes, but I’m trying. 

Because if you want to reach old age, and you want to not keep getting concussions, you eventually need to listen to wisdom.

Learning wisdom is what makes our lives work. Like however talented we are or not, however attractive, however so-called smart in different ways, our lives don’t work if we don’t grow in wisdom. 

They get stuck. Or they fly off the rails, Or we self-sabotage again and again. And the catch all word for the stuff we learn – not just here, in our head – but in our hearts, in our bodies, in our whole selves – the stuff we learn that makes our lives really work well, that’s wisdom.

And that’s what we’ll talk about in our sermons from now through when summer starts on Memorial Day – what makes life work, as we read together some of this part of the Hebrew scriptures, the Bible’s Old Testament, that is called the wisdom literature. 

The centerpiece of this wisdom literature in the Bible is a collection of all kinds of earthy advice that’s called Proverbs. We’ll read part of its first chapter today. It starts like this:

Proverbs 1:1-7 (Common English Bible)

The proverbs of Solomon, King David’s son, from Israel:
2 Their purpose is to teach wisdom and discipline,
    to help one understand wise sayings.


3 They provide insightful instruction,
    which is righteous, just, and full of integrity.


4 They make the naive mature,
    the young knowledgeable and discreet.


5 The wise hear them and grow in wisdom;
    those with understanding gain guidance.


6 They help one understand proverbs and difficult sayings,
    the words of the wise, and their puzzles.


7 Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord,
    but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

This here is like a title or an introduction. It says these proverbs will teach us what is righteous, just, and full of integrity. What will make us less naive, and more mature. Which sounds old-fashioned maybe or religious, or maybe condescending. But I think the wisdom literature is here to help us develop lives that work. That go about things the right way, that are fair and equitable, that help us be the same, trustworthy person no matter where we are or who we’re with.

It’s like Marilyn saying to me –

try and stop being such a damn comet.

You’ll burn up, or crash, or just be annoying to work with. That was true. And that won’t do you or anyone else any good. 

Try wisdom. 

This ancient near eastern tradition of wisdom literature is really old. The earliest Babylonian wisdom literature was mostly about magic and exorcism. It was like in a weird and scary world, how do you master the power to be less vulnerable and more in control?

But over time, wisdom literature in these ancient cultures shifted to be less superstitious and more practical. So that wisdom literature became like the self-help material of these cultures – it was about the art of being successful. About life mastery, growing a life that works.

Wisdom literature started to focus on the important, practical matters of life that our schools don’t always teach. Like how do you develop the character of a trustworthy, dependable person? How do you get some wealth but not have it ruin you? How do you not be the kind of person that doesn’t derail your own life, whether by accidents caused by your own foolishness, or by blowing up your friendships or your marriage, or by being unable to commit to things for the long haul, or just otherwise being a fool? How do we keep growing into a life that works?

Proverbs wants to help with this. 

But it’s not just self help. Because that’s not how growth works. We don’t do it alone. We need each other, and we need the wisdom that came before us. We need the wisdom of our teachers, the wisdom of our elders, the wisdom of our ancestors, and the wisdom of God, our creator. 

This is where wisdom starts, Proverbs says, by slowing down and listening. It starts with respect for what came before us. It starts with the kind of humility and awe that makes us want to listen. This is the kind of attitude Proverbs calls the fear of God. Admitting we’re small, and listening.

Where do you start, though? And what does wisdom sound like?

Let’s see where Proverbs starts as we keep reading.

Proverbs 1:8-19 (Common English Bible)

8 Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction;
    don’t neglect your mother’s teaching;


9         for they are a graceful wreath on your head,
        and beads for your neck.


10 My son, don’t let sinners entice you.
    Don’t go


11     when they say:
        “Come with us.
        Let’s set up a deadly ambush.
        Let’s secretly wait for the innocent just for fun.


12         Let’s swallow up the living like the grave —
        whole, like those who go down into the pit.


13         We’ll find all sorts of precious wealth;
        we’ll fill our houses with plunder.


14         Throw in your lot with us;
        we’ll share our money.”


15 My son, don’t go on the path with them;
    keep your feet from their way,


16     because their feet run to evil;
            they hurry to spill blood.


17 It’s useless to cast a net
    in the sight of a bird.


18 But these sinners set up a deadly ambush;
    they lie in wait for their own lives.


19 These are the ways of all who seek unjust gain;
    it costs them their lives.

So we read this in my community group the other Saturday and it seemed funny to some of us. Proverbs talks itself up as this well of wisdom, and then as it gets going, we listen in on a parent sitting down their kid for a huge life lesson, figuring we’re going to start with the most important stuff, what we all need to know.

And get this advice – don’t join in with the local street gang. Like don’t jump into the next band of armed robbers that appear. Which, fine, maybe good advice for your kid, but really, is this the thing we most need?

I mean I have made my share of mistakes, but I have never set up a deadly ambush just for fun. I promise. I mean when I’ve done it, it’s been for other reasons, I swear, not just for fun. And my three kids – they have their problems. But we never sat them down before school and were like today, please, do not rob your classmates and share your plunder with us. And please, today, do not spill blood.

On the surface, it seems basic. Is this all that Proverbs has got? 

But then as we talked, we were like, hold on, the schools we went to were full of bullying, groups of kids ganging up on someone they thought was weaker or different. And our kids’ schools are like that still, where people get bullied, just for fun.

And aren’t there other ways that when people just go with the flow around us, our schools or our workplaces remain toxic, or our communities remain unwelcoming and inequitable, like the dances some of our suburbs are playing right now to try to skirt the law and keep from building more housing. 

See this is another way that Proverbs isn’t self-help literature. Because like all the best wisdom literature, it isn’t just personal, it’s collective. We rise and fall together. If one of us is getting wiser, if God is doing something good in our lives, the sign isn’t so much that we think our life is getting better, it’s that the people around us think this. 

And the more I read this first bit of wisdom with this in mind, that it’s not just private, personal advice, the more I’m like I wish any of our societies would slow down and listen. 

  • Would the explorers that traveled from Europe to these lands I’m on today have wondered – what can I learn from who’s there already?
  • And what can I share?
  • And how can we do something together?

Instead of running their feet to evil and becoming extractors and enslavers and using my faith to justify it all.

  • Or would that when this country I’m a citizen of started emerging as the wealthiest, most powerful country in the world when my grandparents were young, what if we hadn’t decided to become the world’s biggest arms dealer, thinking might makes right, and rushing to spill blood?
  • What if we’d just focused on being a food dealer, or a love dealer, or a justice collaborator instead? 

I think this ancient wisdom still speaks. It can still still tell us the truth about ourselves. And I still think it’s urgent that we listen. 

Because our lives are at stake. I love the wisdom here that people who seek unjust gain, the ultimate harm is it costs your life – not just other people’s lives, but your own life. 

Get caught up in violence and extraction and just looking out for you and your own and not others, and you’ll lose yourself.

What will it cost us,

Jesus said,

if we gain the whole world but lose our souls?

Having pastored and counseled people reckoning with serious harm they’ve done, this is true. The harm we do comes back to eat us alive. 

And living in this country with decades of innovation and power and wealth and success behind us for some of us at least, I think man if America isn’t soul-sick and defensive these days? Something has cost us our life. 

So in walks wisdom to the room saying don’t neglect your mother and father’s teaching. Listen to your elders. Listen to your ancestors. Listen to God. 

And then we don’t get laws per se, instead we get a set of stories and a ton of earthy advice.

How do we personalize this, knowing what’s for us? And how do we really take it in? How do we not be like me, when someone tells us we’re moving too fast and mistake the warning for a compliment? 

Where do we start? 

I think the end of this passage gives us something to take away today. 

Proverbs 1:20-23 (Common English Bible)

20 Wisdom shouts in the street;
    in the public square she raises her voice.

21 Above the noisy crowd, she calls out.
    At the entrances of the city gates, she has her say:

22 “How long will you clueless people love your naïveté,
    mockers hold their mocking dear,
    and fools hate knowledge?

23 You should respond when I correct you.
    Look, I’ll pour out my spirit on you.
    I’ll reveal my words to you.

Proverbs insists that not only does wisdom speak, she is shouting in the street, calling out above the noisy crowds. Wisdom is personified in Proverbs as a woman. Later the gospel of John says that Jesus was Lady Wisdom come to life. It says that eternal Logos – the wise Word of God – became flesh and dwelt among us. And so in the Christian tradition, Wisdom is always personal. It’s never a set of facts we learn. And it’s kind of gender-bending. Wisdom is the wisest of women who beckons us to sit at her feet. And wisdom is Jesus Christ, son of the living God, who invites us to follow him. And wisdom is the androgynous, beyond gender, Holy Spirit of God who is the truth-telling voice both without and within. 

And so we may wonder: If wisdom is a woman shouting in the street, and if wisdom is the truth of Jesus the word of God, and if wisdom is the Spirit of God seeking to speak life-giving truth to us still, what is wisdom saying to us? What is wisdom saying to you? 

One way to start to answer this question is to ask –

what has life been trying to teach us recently, whether or not we’ve been listening. 

What truth is crying out to you, to make your life work better, for you and for others?

For me, it’s not so much the haste makes waste thing. I don’t derail my life this way so much anymore. Maybe sometimes, but not as much.

But last year, when I was gifted some time off by this community, in the form of a sabbatical, there was a course-correcting wisdom that came my way. The word I learned is called Enclosure.

I stayed in a monastery a couple times during my sabbatical, and there an enclosure is the place where the public can’t go. It’s the private space, sacred to the monks or nuns that live there permanently. Where they preserve the way of life to which they are called.

And for me, enclosure has become this metaphor for the sacred commitments in my life that I am called to, that make my life work. And over the past several months, I’m thinking more and more about the people and habits and commitments that form the core of my life, and that I don’t let anyone or anything interrupt. 

As a person who has tended to want to YES to everything that interests me in life, I’m learning that the small set of people and things I say yes to needs more protecting, and that has meant working on saying NO a little more often too. And that’s taking a lot of practice for me, but man if it isn’t important, and protecting me from regret down the road, I believe. 

That’s me, though. You may be in the opposite place today – the kind of person who’s been saying NO too often and needs to learn more YESes. I don’t know. So my encouragement today isn’t to do any particular thing in your life, but to ask:

What has life been trying to teach me? 

Where is Wisdom crying out to you with her fierce and gentle voice 

What’s calling to you? 

We’ll ask this repeatedly in the weeks to come, but perhaps we can close by taking a quick minute on this…

  • How is the Spirit of God trying to lead you toward a more healthy, abundant life?
  • How is Lady Wisdom crying out to you, with her voice of encouragement or correction?
  • If you could sit at a table today with your ancestors assembled, or perhaps even with the living God, what observations might they make about your life? What might they have to say?

New Life When You Are Walking Away

Hello, and happy Easter, friends!

I want to start with a bit of a good news/bad news moment, maybe depending on how old you are.

I read a while back that at least according to one large social science study, we know what on average is the least happy age in people’s lives.

Anyone have a guess when that is? Least happy age, on average.

Apparently, it’s 47.2 years old. 

Now obviously this is just an average, but for me…

I turned 47 in 2020 – great year, right? 

2020 was gonna be a big year, like the best year. 

I had done some serious inner life work in my early 40s, and I was feeling kind of happy and free those days. And our church had done some hard change work during those same years. That had been really stressful. But by early 2020, things at church here too were also kind of awesome. Probably the happiest, healthiest season I’d seen in our church as a pastor. And I had my first sabbatical ever coming up in the summer. And our family had been saving up for years for our first ever trip to China, where our Chinese-American kids had never been. 

Our oldest kid was graduating from high school that year, and that big trip together just afterwards – it all was going to be epic.

Until it wasn’t. Hello, Covid. And goodbye, everything else. Our schools shut down. Church shut down. Everything was shutting down. We all thought we’d chill out for a couple of weeks and let this weird virus blow over, but then it didn’t. 

And the season of canceling began.

We canceled the trip to China, and then we canceled the smaller trip we’d booked instead. 

School was canceled, kids’ prom, graduations, canceled. My sabbatical, canceled. Everything, canceled. And we all worried – just how bad would this get? Who would we lose? Just how much would this hurt? 

Some of you all were out there being heroic as essential workers in that season. Me, I was figuring out how to properly disinfect our groceries every couple of weeks, and how to be a professional gatherer of community when people weren’t allowed to get together. 

We were trying best we could as a church to respond to isolation and fear and grief and then to a movement for racial justice. It was an important time, and in some ways, we did well by each other and by what was happening in this world.

But it was hard and tiring, and then right after we sent our oldest kid off to college. While I was tired and drained, I ended up in a weird and stupid extended family conflict that was the last straw for me. 

I was done and I found myself dreaming of walking away from it all. 

Like, maybe I could peace out on the people that had done me wrong and just be done with them. Maybe I could walk away from the sources of conflict in my life.

And I’ll admit to you all that for the first time ever in that fall of 2020, I was wondering what it would be like to walk away from being a pastor too. I found myself daydreaming about exit ramps and ways I could live a smaller, simpler life where I could nurse my disappointments in peace or carve out a little world with my family where nobody and nothing could hurt us any more.  

So yeah, 47.2 years old landed right on time for me, most definitely one of the least happy moments of my life. 

Three, four years later, though, thinking about where I find myself now in a new decade, it’s striking just how often help found me. It’s striking just how often new perspective and new growth found me. It’s striking where love would not let me go, where new life found me. 

Again and again in these years, it’s seemed like I’ve met the risen Jesus, coming my way and bringing me back to peace.

So friends, this Easter, I want to talk about the risen Jesus and new life when you’ve given up and you’re walking away. 

Each of the four gospels in the Bible tells the resurrection story differently. Here’s a story that the book of Luke tells. 

Luke 24:13-24 (Common English Bible)

13 On that same day, two disciples were traveling to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.

14 They were talking to each other about everything that had happened.

15 While they were discussing these things, Jesus himself arrived and joined them on their journey.

16 They were prevented from recognizing him.

17 He said to them, “What are you talking about as you walk along?” They stopped, their faces downcast.

18 The one named Cleopas replied, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who is unaware of the things that have taken place there over the last few days?”

19 He said to them, “What things?”

They said to him, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth. Because of his powerful deeds and words, he was recognized by God and all the people as a prophet.

20 But our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him.

21 We had hoped he was the one who would redeem Israel. All these things happened three days ago.

22 But there’s more: Some women from our group have left us stunned. They went to the tomb early this morning

23 and didn’t find his body. They came to us saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who told them he is alive.

24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women said. They didn’t see him.”

We’ll pick up more of the story in a minute. 

I think Cleopas and his friend are 47.2 years old. Maybe. They are also colonized oppressed people who have lost what they thought was their way forward. 

They’re disappointed, grieving. 

We had hoped, they say.

We had hoped. 

They thought the promises of God for their liberation, their ancestors’ dreams, were coming true.

And now they are walking away.

They are walking away from Jerusalem.

They’re walking away from God, given that the truth they thought they knew about God has let them down.

And they’re walking away from the life they thought they’d have – victorious, fulfilled, redeemed, as they put it. 

Then Jesus shows up like that friend of yours who never pays attention to the news.

He’s like –

you all seem bummed out. What’s wrong?

What’s wrong?!? Who are you to ask that kind of question? “What’s not wrong?”

they say. 

Friends, what are you walking away from today? 

And where do you feel like you’re living in a time of cataclysm that if people would wake up and pay attention, they’d see it like you do?

Beyond that terrible moment at 47.2 years old, I had spent parts of my 40s walking away from a lot of things. Walking away from the easy lives or the happiness I thought my kids would have. Walking away from religious systems and communities that I’d once called home. Walking away from some bad ideas and some old stories about myself that weren’t true and didn’t set me free but were still hard to leave behind.

In my life as a pastor among you, I hear so many stories of disappointment and walking away. Stories of people walking away from a dream, disappointed with where they haven’t yet arrived at this time of life. I hear people walking away from ways of being in their marriage, or ways of being in their bodies, or ways of being in their faith that weren’t walking out? And sometimes you’re glad to be making a change, but dang, if it isn’t hard?

So much walking away.

And just about everyone I talk to feels like we are living in times of cataclysm – big and scary threats and changes that aren’t going anywhere. A lot of us name the cataclysm differently. We don’t all rank order the worst, most apocalyptic things going on in the world the same way. But most of us have got a list, don’t we?

I was spending time with some engaged and newly married couples recently talking about whether or not they’d have kids and if they did, what that would be like. And someone brought up, as someone always did these days, that maybe it’s a bad time in history to have kids. Maybe the future is too bleak. 

And not everyone was leaning this way, but no one challenged the premise. 

This is part of why I love this resurrection story, that it seems like times of cataclysm – when all is wrong with the world – and times of disappointment – when we’re walking away from our dreams, disappointed – are perfect times for the risen God to appear to us again. 

Let’s pick up the rest of the story. 

Luke 24:25-32 (Common English Bible)

25 Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! Your dull minds keep you from believing all that the prophets talked about.

26 Wasn’t it necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?”

27 Then he interpreted for them the things written about himself in all the scriptures, starting with Moses and going through all the Prophets.

28 When they came to Emmaus, he acted as if he was going on ahead.

29 But they urged him, saying, “Stay with us. It’s nearly evening, and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

30 After he took his seat at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.

31 Their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight.

32 They said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts on fire when he spoke to us along the road and when he explained the scriptures for us?”

Let’s look at how Jesus appears, how resurrection appears to these two friends who are walking away. 

Jesus is a little spicy with them because loving as Jesus is, he doesn’t want to nourish our dysfunction or our bad ideas. Jesus is always kind, but he is not always nice. There’s a lot in the world and if we’re honest plenty in us too that needs interrupting, and nice doesn’t interrupt very well. So Jesus takes the time to interrupt their story. 

And in this case, he’s like,

well, with what you know, walking away makes sense. But there’s a lot you don’t know.

And he goes on to tell them.

You didn’t know that suffering always had to be part of the story.

You didn’t know how long good things can take, how un-straight the road to them always is.

You didn’t know that new life usually takes some death to clear the way. 

You didn’t know.

And in the coming to terms with all they didn’t know, these two friends find room for Jesus to tell them the truth.

That’s one of the benefits of walking away. Of disillusionment, disenchantment. 

Sometimes it makes room for the truth. Sometimes it lays the ground for resurrection. 

One of the weird things about Easter is that Jesus rose in secret. No one saw it. Too dang early. (Jesus!) Whatever happened physically, scientifically, whatever the mechanics were, whatever the nature of Jesus’ risen body, no one was there for it. 

Our faith just tells us: God raised Jesus from the dead. 

But then the fun starts. The resurrected Christ appears to people as they’re hiding out or walking away. Two disappointed friends are walking away in midlife, and Jesus appears as a companion who wonders what they’re thinking. Jesus’  grieving fishermen friends are out on the lake at dawn unable to catch anything, and Jesus appears frying up fish on the beach. Two people welcome a stranger to a simple, small meal in their home, and Jesus is recognized as he breaks bread, blesses it, and offers it to them. Two friends tell a story of their disappointment, how all is lost, and Jesus appears as he offers them a better perspective and they find their hearts on fire.

That last one happened to me too. 

During that awful fall and the year beyond, a few friends walked with me and listened, good help and provision and counsel came my way. And by 2022, getting toward the end of my 40s, some things were shifting in my life, but I was still kind of stuck internally. And I noticed this as I was talking with a friend of mine.

I met up with that friend around the anniversary of that last straw conflict in 2020, which was also around the anniversary of another big trauma in my life, and I asked my friend if we could talk about it that day. And as we did, I shared with him how everyone was doing, myself included. And I was like:

things are better, but there’s so far to go, and that’s so disappointing. 

And my friend listened to me, and he let me know he understood how big this is to me, how heavy the ache is. 

But he also asked me:

can I share what I hear as you tell these stories? 

And I told him:

please do.

And he said:

it’s your life, your truth. I don’t want to tell you what to think, but what I hear are stories of resurrection. 

And he told a different story of my life than what I was seeing – same facts, but different angle. How despite suffering, this person was alive and not dead, and this relationship may be cut off but wow, how this other one was better than ever, how so many things were so much better than I could have imagined not too long ago.

And he said:

I know you hope for more, I know you hope for more but remember that when Jesus rose, he rose with scars. And you have your scars too. I see them. But a scarred resurrection life is still life, isn’t it? It’s still life. It’s a miracle. You live within a miracle.

And as he shared the truth he saw, I was tearing up because my heart was on fire with the truth of all this.

So many signs of life. The buds and shoots of resurrection blossoming everywhere. 

Because Jesus rising from the dead is not only an event in history. It’s not only the foundation of a faith in which we stand here. The resurrection of Christ is also an invitation to a new way of being in the world, where we can have reasonable faith and hope that a way will be made where there is no way. That disappointments and loss are gardens where extraordinary new things can be cultivated. That crappy year after crappy year in midlife can be an invitation to the work of renaissance. That every dying seed tucked into the ground is just waiting to burst back out with life. 

Recently, I’ve found myself with a new spiritual habit. I call it looking for signs of resurrection. Where my instincts tell me there’s no way forward, I wonder what way is going to appear. When something in me or someone I love seems lost or stuck, I’m asking God –

where can I be seeding and watering the next resurrection? 

I’m looking for stories of resurrection. Because resurrection is looking for us. 

Let’s finish our story.

Luke 24:33-36 (Common English Bible)

33 They got up right then and returned to Jerusalem. They found the eleven and their companions gathered together.

34 They were saying to each other, “The Lord really has risen! He appeared to Simon!”

35 Then the two disciples described what had happened along the road and how Jesus was made known to them as he broke the bread.

36 While they were saying these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

Ha, here it is again. Tell one story of resurrection, and another may be right on its tail. Jesus keeps appearing, in weird and funny ways.

My wife Grace and I heard an interview once with a strange, old fundamentalist lady who had this funny phrase she’d say. She’d say:

Jesus is a tricksy one. 

It’s a silly, weird phrase, and I have no idea what she meant, but it’s stuck with me, and now I think it’s true. Nothing Jesus says or does in the gospel’s resurrection stories is predictable. And I think the stories of new life that the Spirit of the Risen Christ is working on today aren’t predictable either. 

We call God our creator, and if the Spirit of the Risen Christ is anything, it is endlessly creative. That Jesus is a tricksy one. 

When we hit our bad days and our bad years and our walls of awful stuckness and discouragement, we don’t usually feel like new life is on the horizon. 

So even if we’re walking away, we are given tangible symbols, sacraments by which to remember Christ, and to stir faith and hope in his risen life among us.

One of these we call communion, a tiny little meal we take in worship every week, where we remember Jesus, broken out for the life of this world that we could be renewed and that we could become the body of Christ ourselves, blessed, and given for the healing of the world. 

Another of these we call baptism. We are about to have the joy of baptizing six people with water. And so a moment on what this means. What this means for these six, what it means for you if you’ve been baptized before, or if you haven’t and you want to – just let us know! – what it would mean. 

In baptism, we are welcomed into a faith of resurrection.

In baptism, the cleansing water of forgiveness and healing tells us that we are never the sum of our worst days. 

In baptism, the water which represents the Spirit of God tells us that God will be with us always, that the faithful, loving accompaniment of our God is everlasting.

And the water we go under tells us too that if we die with Christ, we will live with him. That new life after death is the pattern of our present and the destiny of our future.

We’re not promised an easy road in this life. The faith of the risen Christ doesn’t even protect us or our world for the cataclysms that come, mostly the ones our species brings upon ourselves. 

There will keep coming times we want to walk away from.

But the faith of the risen Christ assures us these times are not the end of the story but the beginning of knowing again that we live within a miracle, that our life is again a miracle of goodness, another impossibly great story we wouldn’t have seen coming. 

Pray with me.

Spirit of the Risen and kind of tricksy Christ, fall afresh on us. 

In the taking of communion, in the bearing witness to baptism, in the kind  presence of a friend, in the sharing of a simple meal, in the generosity of every hospitality, in the truth that comes to us and sets our hearts on fire, remind us that we live within a miracle, that we are a miracle, and that with the help of God, the pattern of our present and our future can always be new life. Amen.

On Fire For God

Each year, in the weeks before Easter, our church embarks on a season of spiritual formation. We take time and attention to look reflectively at our lives, to welcome God’s guidance and presence. This season in the year where winter meets spring is called Lent. Lent comes from an Old English word meaning “spring.” It’s used to refer to the six-week period before Easter Sunday. For centuries, Jesus followers have marked this period of anticipation for Easter through prayer,  fasting and giving. 

A few years ago we decided by whim and by Spirit – I believe… that we should plan for a 4-year series of  Lenten seasons in advance. And the series should be on the elements – Water, Earth, Wind and Fire. The last two year’s Lenten themes were Water and Earth. This year’s theme is Fire. It feels right, it feels timely. 

Fire, whether regarded as a controlled source of warmth or an incinerating force, offers us intensity. And in my own spirit I’m grasping for an intensity that can meet the fervor of the world around us. Fire that’s unabashedly mesmerizing, beautiful, and powerful. A metaphor that you can really lean into that stands up —  that doesn’t look away from the realities of the world – but looks at it squarely, blazing and crackling as it does. 

This Lent we’ll turn to the spiritual significance of fire through many lenses.  Each Sunday to come we will explore a different theme of fire. We’ll talk about what to do and where to find hope when it seems the world is on fire. We’ll think about the passion and light and power of God.  We’ll talk about the cleansing and purifying fire of the Spirit, and discuss less-toxic, kinder ways to think about concepts like judgment and hell. *Not only will our Sunday services cover this — but so does our Lent Guide which covers all that good stuff and more!!*

We hope through this journey of Lent we’ll remember that on this Earth – we too are the fires that take light, that roll through our landscapes – schools, workplaces, sidewalks –  signaling  how to be in partnership and action with a God that is “larger, free-er, and more loving” than we could ever imagine (as James Baldwin emboldens us to do).

This morning, I invite you to wonder what a season like this could kindle in you? I invite you to wonder if the warming presence of God could flame and breathe new urgency into your love of life. THIS LIFE. All of this life, its beauty and its brokenness.

Prayer: 

God of fire — thank you for your presence this morning that offers us warmth, clarity, rest, and light. In ways that we need more of all those things – greet us this morning with your Spirit that never holds back – but comes full force in abundance with what our heart needs. Fold into us the embers of your light that never are extinguished —  the divine sparks that keep us going, keeps us hoping — and you, the Divine spark that keeps us. Keeps us close.

In the name of the Fire,

The Flame

And the Light,
(John O’Donohue)

Amen

Story: “On Fire for God”

Now there’s nothing I love more than being warm. . . maybe other than being ‘hot.’  I talk about the weather all the time,  the forecast, the temperature — it’s not just small talk to me, it’s part of the way I experience the world and God. I grew up in Maine, with a wood stove in our kitchen — our only source of heat and there wasn’t a day that I wasn’t as close to that stove as possible. I take scalding hot showers, do the dishes in blistering hot water, I have the seat heaters on in any car all year ‘round in the middle of summer … I love to be warm. 

So when I first heard the spiritual question,

“Is your heart on fire for God?” 

when I was eight or nine years old from one of my summer camp counselors.

I was stunned. “Wait – that’s an option?”

My heart could be a source of heat and warmth?  Well I’m not sure it is — but I am game to find out!

I didn’t grow up with Lent as part of my tradition or yearly rhythm.

But I did grow up with going to an annual Christian summer camp! It was a small camp on a small lake, about 15 minutes from where I grew up in Maine. 

And this camp was a highlight of my year. I’d pack a good three weeks in advance, I truly looked forward to it. 

Each year, toward the end of the week of camp we’d build a fire, a big bonfire  – as a culmination – and there’d be some sort of spiritual talk (during which I’d usually be strategizing how much money I had left in my snack bar kitty and whether it was enough to get both Swedish fish & sweet tarts). I’d know the end of the talk was finally coming when the cadence and volume of the leader would get a bit amped.. And then the invitation would come,

“If your heart is on fire for God – come on up!”

And all of us would gather up around the bonfire.. 

Faces aglow. 

Hearts on fire – as best as we knew.

I wonder what memories or thoughts come to the surface as you hear the question, “Is your heart on fire for God?” 

Part of the beauty of the Lent Guide this year is that in addition to selections of scripture and some provoking commentary written by Steve… is that it is peppered with a bunch of ‘wondering questions.’ Taking the nod from our kids church philosophy of Godly Play that to wonder kindles curiosity, reflection, and engages the Spirit of God in ways that unveil God’s great love for us. 

And this is the richness of Lent. 

Perhaps for many of you Lent is a season of self-denial, of fasting, of giving something up. I know that these components are so meaningful to many of you. We’ll make room for that but also lean into wondering questions, reflection, prayer… to illuminate just how this season is also about God’s fiery love for us.  

But Lent doesn’t always lead with the “God’s great fiery love for you” vibe. I mean it starts with the remnants of fire… the absence of fire – ash.  Ash Wednesday – a reminder of our human limits, our mortality, that we’ll all die.

“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” 

Lent is an acknowledgement that life can be gritty.  And it doesn’t try to soften that – it actually invites you into that reality — with nothing to buffer. That’s what I appreciate so much about Lent.  There is no cheery Santa, or candy canes to balance the darkness and somberness.  It’s an invitation to a landscape of ash. Of nothingness — to see what can begin again. Of wilderness and God’s voice asking,

I wonder from the ashes what we can find/create with one another? I wonder what embers I can fan for you?

I wonder how you’ll find and hold on to God’s love in your fears, trauma, doubts – when it feels like there’s nothing in your hands to grab on to – it’s all just silt.   

Lent is a deep, deep season. 

It is about God’s love for us — us that God created from dust. 

It’s about God’s love in us – – given life by breath.

It’s about God’s love moving through us —  by the fire of the Spirit of God.

Reminding us that these elements — dust, breath, fire — that seem like nothing, prove to be everything.

And Lent invites us to consider what living a life with this love at center, “with a heart on fire for God” looks like.  

I think this passage in Romans captures some of its essence: 

ROMANS 12:9-12

Love should be shown without pretending. Hate evil, and hold on to what is good. Love each other like the members of your family. Be the best at showing honor to each other. Don’t hesitate to be enthusiastic—be on fire in the Spirit as you serve the Lord! Be happy in your hope, stand your ground when you’re in trouble, and devote yourselves to prayer. 

2- Story: “On Fire for God”

When I heard the invitation. “If your heart is on fire for God, come on up!” 

I went up.

I went up  in good faith. But I think I was mostly pretending. 

I so wanted my heart to be on fire for God. 

But I didn’t know what it really meant – and I didn’t know what it really felt like.

I wanted what seemed like this unwavering blaze of faith and courage — and just steam-rolling through life with confidence. My friends at camp weren’t hesitating  – they were enthusiastic – running to that fire.

I wanted that “high” of friendship and what seemed like a fun and joyful GOD – to sustain me once I left camp… But when I got home my life felt the same as I had left it – annoying four brothers, boring, and cold. 

It felt bewildering to me – – how to fan that flame out in the wilderness of life.

Each year after camp ended, we would be invited to give our testimony at a Sunday service —  a reflection of our time and I never shared because I felt like I’d failed somehow – that I was just “smoldering” – not “on fire!”

Part of that sense of “smoldering” was:

  • My childhood imagination pretty quickly was challenged once I learned that I didn’t in fact carry around with me a personal inner furnace that kept me warm at all times
  • some of it was just naturally developmentally appropriate, and 
  • some of it was the foundational theology that underpinned my experience.  All the ways Christians have historically and still do misuse the metaphor of fire to say all kinds of wild things about the character of God, eternal judgment and hell that try to scare and control us — this was true of my upbringing and also influenced a sense of “being on fire” or “not” as a result of good or bad choices. We’ll press into this reality a bit in the middle of the Lent Guide – – it’s a good one, “The Fires of Judgement!”

Anyway – I did think that 

-“If” I was to be a heart-on-fire girl I surely would have  figured it out by now, after multiple summers.

– I did think “if” my heart was on fire for God, I certainly would be more like Peggy Jones in the couple pews over from me – – opening her Bible and taking notes.. 

– I did think that “If” my heart was on fire for God, I certainly should give up thinking about candy during a sermon.

There were definitely some conditionals that were setting up in my thinking.

And there are likely easy I can tell this story – or you can hear this story as a point in time – an adolescent summer camp story. But I think there are elements that get woven all through our not just spiritual life – but all of life… and the Lenten journey mirrors how this ‘same dynamic’ goes down with Jesus in the wilderness as well. 

LENT

Lent is commonly described as a commemoration of Jesus’ 40-day fast in the desert, when he was tempted by evil that prowled around him. And interestingly the voices that came to tempt Jesus start with this conditional  word “if” — — – –  which is perhaps the greatest evil..

The voices challenge him: 

“If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

“If you are the Son of God,  throw yourself down.”

“If you will bow down and worship me” – I will give you all this…

“If” it’s such a destabilizing word.

“If your heart is on fire for God… then….”

But Jesus rejects all of this the very premise of it — he says,

“No thanks, I live by every word that comes from the mouth of God, don’t test the Lord your God, worship the Lord your God.”

He gives IN –  He doesn’t give in to the conditions, or the temptations.

He gives in –  ALL IN – to the love of God.

This is the invitation of Lent – to give “in” – not necessarily “give up” something.

It’s not “if”  you are “doing Lent” then you are “giving up” x, y, or z.”

The irony of Lent as Richard Rohr says, is that it’s not about “trying hard” it’s not a “trying” at all – it’s a foundational “giving in.” 

Now, Lent is to in solidarity accompany the journey of Jesus in the wilderness….. and it is to reflect on our lives. And examine where our faith has picked up some grime – some sediment.. where we’ve attached to false premises … .or collected extra things on the back of our own ambitions.

And it is time to re-set, to take note, to orient again to the love of God. And our reflection is not in vain, it is to open up our stories to the stories of our spiritual ancestors… The stories where their hearts were ablaze with the goodness and trust and faith of God, even in their very own wildernesses, and where we can sit in the glow of their joy, their strength — letting it fan our own heart’s embers. 

In Psalm 126 we read these words of our ancestors:

When the Lord changed Zion’s circumstances for the better,

    it was like we had been dreaming.

 Our mouths were suddenly filled with laughter;

    our tongues were filled with joyful shouts.

It was even said, at that time, among the nations,

    “The Lord has done great things for them!”

Yes, the Lord has done great things for us,

    and we are overjoyed.

Lord, change our circumstances for the better,

    like dry streams in the desert waste!

Let those who plant with tears

    reap the harvest with joyful shouts.

Let those who go out,

    crying and carrying their seed,

    come home with joyful shouts,

    carrying bales of grain!

This Psalm is one in a special group of psalms, the Songs of Ascent  comprising Psalms 120—134. They are also called Pilgrim Songs.

This is a scripture where our ancestors declare,

“We have faced and we DO face exile and loss of fortune. But we live in hope – hope of the return of DREAMS”

I wonder if we could dream again? 

Hope to have our mouths filled with laughter, and hope to have the nations declaring that God is good. God has done great things for us. As our ancestors sang in memory and nostalgia, WE catch their flame and continue to pray, even as they did,

‘Restore our dreams, O God and cling to the promise that while, in fact, we do live in exile and wilderness sowing in tears and sorrow, we can move forward with our ‘hearts on fire’ in belief of a good and life-giving God — a “God that has done great things for them – and a God who does great things for us.”’

Here’s the thing — Lent has often been given a quick descriptor as a season of “giving something up.” And it’s true we might just find ourselves giving up a lot of things as we return and give in to the love of God.  

We may find where we have attached ourselves to things that have promised us relief, escape, even momentary joy — and we may find that those are tangible things in our lives that do – as we end up giving in to the love of God –  end up burning off like dross.  

Some of the ways that that feels most doable is through prayer. We are just ending a whole series on prayer.. And it’s great timing because Lent is also a season of prayer. Prayer that helps identify all of that excess stuff we might be carrying around… it helps clear the hazardous brush that’s built up around us – that is in jeopardy of engulfing us in flames of despair.

This Psalm was a prayer often sung by Jews traveling to Jerusalem for one of the three main annual Jewish festivals (to remember the wilderness and God’s provision within it,  and God’s continual promise of being with them in the future).  They would sing and pray these prayers on the “ascent” – as they traveled up the hill to the city. Recalling a history of standing their ground when they were in trouble and devoting themselves to prayer. A present day invitation to us too. 

Lent is a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage of the heart – a pilgrimage of descent and ascent. One, that if we can make the journey illuminates the world around us – in such a way that we can see the landscape riddled with fracture, and war and division — but also see in the cracks the blazing beauty of God’s love roaring through.

Geologists tell us that at the heart of the earth, there is no neutral or cold center, but rather a great heat.

Thousands of kilometers below the earth’s crust there is a heart of fire, molten magma. — John O’ Donohue

Maybe that’s what Lent helps us see – that molten magma rippling under the surface of everything. Piercing love – for us, and for the world around us. A world that is worthy and so greatly in need of such love. This is the work of Lent —  … where we pray together for strength for the dreams of this world, our households, our kids, our nation – our year ahead.  

Throughout this Lenten Guide there is a beautiful simple prayer practice that you are invited to try. You can try it alone – your household, your family – no matter the age… with a community group … The practice includes a candle — actual fire!, and integrates some wondering questions for you to form your own prayers…..whatever they might be  — Padraig O’Tuama the poet and theologian, says,

“Prayer is a small fire lit to keep cold hands warm”

and maybe you’ll find that it will keep your hearts aflame as well. 

We have lots to pray for, friends. 

Oppression will continue to course through the veins of society. Dominant and evil forces will push and pull on our collective life. But Lent gives us an intentional time to sharpen our clarity:  

To “Hate evil, and hold on to what is good.” 

“TO SHOUT – CHANGE OUR CIRCUMSTANCES GOD!  RESTORE OUR DREAMS!” I don’t want to live in this cold, junky, broken down “house.” I KNOW GOD YOU HAVE DONE GREAT THINGS! I KNOW YOU CAN DO GREAT THINGS” HELP US. RESTORE US. 

Set my heart on fire!

Help me find again that my story and the story of Jesus are bound together in hope, faith, love and community.

2024 is already on fire. It absolutely has all the components of being combustible.

  • Wars across the globe. 
  • An election that we are already feeling the heat of.
  • The actual temperature of the Earth rising. 

Richard Rohr says that

“Lent is just magnified and intensified life.”

All of it, the tears, the laughter, the forces of empire, the forces of love –  the beauty, the singing, the prayer – some of it burning off, some of it flaming the flame. And us drawing closer to God and closer to others as we sift through it all – unto to a more just, more free world for all of us.   

3 – Story: “On Fire for God”

I could imagine an alternative to the summer camp invitation, “if your heart is on fire for God – please come up..” could have been. “You all are fire!” “You all such awesome, fun, curious kids!”  Come on up here – let’s light something on fire — (like sparklers).”

I wonder if that would have registered as a little less conditional and a little more of the

“Love each other like the members of your family – be the best at showing honor to each other!”

I was at the GBH event a little over a week ago – that Steve mentioned last Sunday. And I was taken aback by the conversation between two colleagues who were introducing this new podcast called, “What is Owed?” (coming out Feb. 15th) – a podcast seeking to understand what reparations might look like in Boston. Saraya (who’s the host), and her colleague Jerome both were on the panel. And the interviewer asked Jerome,

“what did you enjoy most about producing this podcast?”

And Jerome turned to Saraya and said,

“It’s been working with you.”

And then he proceeded to go on –

“the thoughtfulness, humor, the quick-wittedness that you brought to the work made me be able to say after every interview — that was the best interview. No, that  was the best interview.. Actually this one, this last one — was the best interview…. And mean it!”

And there sat Jerome just flaming the fire of goodness in Saraya.

He flamed this inner-part of her – “You are fire!” – and what you touch – what you bring voice to, what you unveil – the work you do, is also fire. 

Maybe that’s what this Lent can feel like to you too. That God could just be fanning the indwelling of the Spirit of God that is already within you. Helping you peel back some of the layers that have crowded it – to make room for your heart to really fire… So you can hear God say day after day .. 

“wow, I love you the most today. And then the next day say, “actually today, today — I love you the most …”  

I do think we need our hearts to be made incandescent by the Spirit’s fire. 
I do think that’s what is going to help us all LOVE LIVING OUR LIFE. 

And I do think that this Lent can aid you, guide you in experiencing some of the warm love of God –  jump in a community group, do it with a friend – definitely download the Lent Guide! 

Let me pray for us,

God could you help us love this life, one another, and you – without pretending?

Could you help us to name and hate what is evil and hold on to what is good. 

Could you help us to love each other like the members of your family and show honor to each other?

Could you help us to be enthusiastic – to be ON FIRE IN THE SPIRIT with you God?

May we be happy in your hope, stand our ground when we’re in trouble and devote ourselves to prayer.  

In the name of the Fire,
The Flame,
And the Light.   
(John O’Donohue)

– Amen

The Value of a Daily Prayer Practice

We’re going to talk about prayer today and do some praying together for those of us who would like, but first we have some new year celebrating to do!

Last year we celebrated our church’s 25th anniversary in many ways.

Two years ago, I had my real conversation about this anniversary. It was with Ann Bakun, one of our Board members, who has a gift for celebrating people and things.

We spoke on the phone about what this anniversary year should feel like, and we both thought – let’s spend a little bit of energy celebrating where we come from and a little bit on where we are going, but a lot on who and where we are today. So many of us love and are grateful for this community – we thought how do we celebrate that?

And we thought – there should be a party and cake at some point. And one Sunday in May we had a party. We had a worship service where the mayor of Cambridge at the time, Sumbul Sidiqui, now a city councilor, spoke and thanked us on behalf of the city. Our state rep, Steve Owens, brought a proclamation from the Massachusetts State House, celebrating this community. And we had some food, I’m pretty sure a cake, afterwards. It was great. 

During that conversation with Ann, or shortly thereafter, we were thinking we should tell some stories too. So we had a 25 Stories for 25 Years Project, where 25 people or couples shared a story about good things in their lives through their time at Reservoir. Those stories are all up on our YouTube page; I think those are pretty great too!

I realized our church was turning 25, the same year I was turning 50, and celebrating 10 years with you as senior pastor, so I took a sabbatical for the summer. Going away for a little while may sound like a strange way to celebrate, but for me and my family that was great too. And then when I got back, I renewed my ordination vows last fall, which was really sacred and important to me. To commit to God to continue to serve as the pastor and person God has called me to be, and to commit to you all that I’ll keep doing that here as long as you’ll have me as well. 

One thing I remember from that first conversation with Ann, though, was that I was like: I don’t want to raise money. You know, nonprofits and churches and stuff use big anniversaries for fundraisers a lot of the time. And I guess I just wasn’t in the mood for that or didn’t see the vision or need. Or probably I just didn’t want to do the work. Whatever. But I remember saying: no fund-raiser.

Well, a few months later, our executive pastor Trecia and I were realizing – dang, a number of things are breaking around here. Like a whole bunch of pipes for instance. And we need to do something about that. And as we started pricing out some of the infrastructure work around the church and a couple of facilities projects that were just overdue for us, we brought that to our Board. And we just didn’t have enough money in reserves for it all. 

So I was like, well, I guess we’re gonna have a fundraiser after all. It was going be like $250,000, which seemed like a heck of a lot of money to me.

But then two things happened to make it much bigger. 

The second one, I’ll tell you about in a minute.

But the first was that two different Board members, each in their own way, were like – that’s too small, Steve. You’re uninspiring. Like, we can go bigger than that. One was like, hey, remember your goal of paying off all our debts and doing some new things with those funds, why aren’t we going for that?

And another one had pledged a certain amount of funds toward the whole fix up the church campaign, but when they heard we could go bigger, they were like, well, this actually inspires us. We’ll triple what we talked about giving before.

So we went in big. Just over a year ago, we launched this 25th anniversary capital campaign to raise $1.4 million dollars in giving last year and this year. And I started asking people, and then brought it to you all – let’s raise a ton of money, pay our debts, fix some stuff up, and reimagine the big things we can do together with this freed up funding.

And then, friends, all year, I went back and forth, almost every week, from like, oh my goodness, this church is so generous and committed, we’re going to do this thing. It’s going to be so great! To maybe a week later, thinking, why are we even trying to do this? It’s too much money. We’ll never make it. 

And then we got over half way there before I took the summer off, which felt great at the time, but then I got back to work at the end of the summer, and it was like, really, we have to ramp up this campaign again? What are we doing? It’s too much money. We’ll never get there.

Well, friends, I am pleased to tell you in this first week of the new year, that WE DID IT! Yeah, we did it! 

By December 31, our pledges and giving were at $1.46 million dollars. We beat our goal by more than $60,000.

Amazing!

Now there’s a lot more I could say about this campaign – it’s not technically over. Only about ⅔ of those funds are in the bank already. So we’re obviously hoping that all of you who made pledges for giving this year will fulfill those. And there’s tons to talk about in terms of what’s next – how we’ll be paying down our debt, what projects we’ll do, how we’ll be getting some new ministry goals off the ground. 

But all that is for another day. We’ll check in on that stuff a little at our members meeting on February 11th. And there will be quarterly updates for you all on what’s up and how to get involved. The first of those will probably be next month too. 

For today, two things. 

  1. Celebrate. You all are a generous, abundant community, and we dug deep together to really change this church’s financial future. And free us up to do some really cool things for our community. I’m so proud of us all. I hope you are too!
  2. But the other thing I want to mention today is that this campaign wouldn’t have happened without daily prayer practices.

I mean quite a number of you made choices about giving that you came to in your prayers for this church and your prayers about your own finances, and what to do with those. At our best, Reservoir, we are a praying church – people who ask God to be good to the people and causes we love, and people who ask God to lead us toward being people of love and faith and generosity and are open to God’s creative ideas for us in that.

But even for me. I mentioned that were two things that changed my mind about that campaign.

One is that challenge or dare from our Board – when they told me I was uninspiring to them, too cautious, too small.

But the other is what I did with it next. I didn’t feel great about how that landed for me, and one of the things I do with things that don’t sit well with me is I talk about them in prayer. 

And so I remember asking God,

  • am I lacking in boldness or courage around the church?
  • Am I thinking too small?

And in kind of a gentle way, the sense I had in me was: absolutely, yes, Steve. I felt called back to ask:

  • what do I really want for this church?
  • And what does this church want for ourselves? 

And in that prayer time, my hope, my faith, my vision and courage started to grow.

Friends, I don’t spend a ton of time in preaching talking about what happens when I pray because 1) it’s private. And 2) I don’t want anyone thinking that because I’m a pastor, I have a special connection with God you don’t have or that God is going to speak to you through me.

But I do know that it’s harder to have a sense that God is with us, and it’s harder to feel like God communicates with us or helps us day to day without some kind of daily prayer practice. 

So we’re going to talk a little bit about how to have a daily prayer practice if you want one. 

I’ve been reading a part of the gospel of John from the Bible this past week. Let me share just a few highlight verses with us. 

John 15:5 (Common English Bible)

5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me, you can’t do anything.

John 14:26-27 (Common English Bible)

26 The Companion, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I told you.

27 “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I give to you not as the world gives. Don’t be troubled or afraid. 

John 17:24 (Common English Bible)

24 “Father, I want those you gave me to be with me where I am. Then they can see my glory, which you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

 

We just finished up the Christmas season. At Christmas time, we remember Jesus as Emmanuel, a name that means God with us. That’s at the center of faith in the Way of Jesus, that the teaching and life of Jesus shows God to us 

But then the gospel of John tells us about this long, late night chat Jesus had with his disciples in a stone room in Jerusalem, the night before his death. 

It was an intense, late night conversation, as you’d expect.

These verses I read capture some of Jesus’ most radical, important hopes. Jesus says,

soon I’m not going to be around anymore. But the God-with-us experience can continue, uninterrupted, long past my years on earth. 

He says

stick with me, remain, abide, and we’re going to stay connected. Like a branch to a tree. Tight. 

He says

that in that connection, you will be a resource to bear valuable fruit. You will grow, be sweet and useful. You can participate with God in things of everlasting value.

Jesus says,

you can know God has a companion, a companion that will grow peace in you.

I used to think it was an insult if people thought Jesus was my imaginary friend. Now, I’m like, you know, yes, he is. And it’s real. It’s true. The God we can’t see is my friend, and God gives me peace. 

Jesus says

that connection, that peace can be so deep, it’s like you are with God.

We can be where Jesus is. That’s very mystical, but it speaks to a connection of depth and wonder.

And Jesus says that

God can keep teaching you the truth you need. God will speak to you, communicate with you, beyond what I’ve had time to tell you.

Obviously, nowhere here does Jesus use the word prayer, but this promise of companionship and peace and friendship, even union with God, where God speaks with us, and good things grow in our lives – it’s hard to experience anything close to this without a regular prayer practice. 

Before I say more, I’m going to be honest. 

When I began learning the Way of Jesus, decades ago, daily prayer was both over-commanded and filled with over-promises. 

I was told again and again, Jesus said we should pray. 

And I was promised that if I prayed and read my Bible every day, kind of magical things would happen in my life, and fast. 

This was motivating for me at first, so great! In my mid-teens to early twenties, I read the Bible just about every day, and I asked God for things, and shared my hopes and concerns with God, told God: you’re awesome. Really, I believe it, you’re the best. Because I thought God needed me to say that a lot. 

But over time, my interest in all this kind of came and went.

It became more and more of a “have to” and less of a “want to.”

Some of this was disappointment. My prayers didn’t always change my life as fast or as deep as I wanted them to. They certainly didn’t always seem to change the world or anyone else’s life, at least not most of the time. 

And some of this honestly was boredom. The Bible wasn’t always interesting, and neither were many of my attempts at conversation with the divine. 

And you know, you disciplined people in the world, some of you have the capacity to do things for a long time, even when they’re not always interesting to you or when you believe they’ll help you in the long run but you’re not sure if they are helping you today. 

And God bless the naturally disciplined people of the world, but I am not one of them. If things are interesting or helpful to me, they usually aren’t happening. 

And I’m not alone in having had my ups and downs with prayer. I know that.

You all may be more disciplined than me but you don’t necessarily pray more. This church is full of people I know who used to pray more in the past than you do these days. I know that because you tell me that. 

And this church is also full of people for whom prayer has never consistently connected either, so you try now and then, but not a lot. 

That’s why we’re starting the new year with this series on prayer

We are not going to command you to do anything. That’s not really our way at Reservoir. We don’t shame anyone or boss anyone around. We try to create an environment where we can all walk in the way of Jesus and flourish, but we’re not going to tell you what you have to do.

We are also not going to over-promise. Be like, if you pray, you’ll be happy, healthy, powerful, and rich. Or whatever. No blowing smoke in anyone’s ears here. 

But we will explore how to pray if it’s never clicked for you and you wish it would.

Or how to pray again if you don’t so much any more and would like to try again. 

Because prayer, and a daily prayer practice in particular, isn’t magic. And it can take some time to deliver. Sometimes you’ve got to try some different approaches too, to see what works best for you, or what works best for you in this particular moment of life. 

But over time, a daily prayer practice is one of the best ways, maybe the best way, to feel closer to God. To have faith in a loving God grows good things in your life. To have a sense that God communicates with you. And to have God grow more peace in you.

For me, over the past few years, daily prayer has become a want to and a need to – like, oh, I need this – instead of a “have to,” instead of a burden.

Daily prayer centers me in what’s most important. It anchors me in what I find to be most true and beautiful. In daily prayer, I am so often reminded of all the ways God is with me. And I very often gain tremendous direction and peace.  

And I’d love that for all of us who are interested. 

So how we’re going to finish today is we’ll try something out together. There are three ways of praying that are often part of my daily prayers – all ancient modes of Christian prayer that fit well in our contemporary world, and over time, have given me huge, huge benefits. Both interesting and helpful to me!

  1. The Examen – a prayer of self-reflection for discovering God with us and what we have to talk about with God.
  2. Silent contemplation – slowing down, getting some of the crud out of our heads, including the crud we think about God, and anchoring us in peace, in the truth. 
  3. Imaginative prayer in the gospels. Reading a story from the life of Jesus and using our imagination to see where we place ourselves in the story and how it speaks to us.

EXAMEN

From https://www.reservoirchurch.org/how-and-why-to-pray-the-examen/

How to Pray the Examen

  1. Acknowledge presence and ask for God’s guidance.
  2. Review your day – 3-5 highs and lows
  3. Reflect on, talk to God about what you notice.  (Thank you, sorry, please)
  4. Look forward to the day to come, with hope, resolution, and prayer.

Why to Pray the Examen

  1. Over time, you’ll discover God in all things.
  2. It’s a powerful tool for personal growth.
  3. It can be endlessly adapted. 

SILENT CONTEMPLATION & IMAGINATIVE PRAYER IN THE GOSPELS

Alright, friends, more in the weeks to come – here in the sermons, and in the workshops Ivy will lead as well. But for now, a closing prayer. 

The great vine of Heaven and Earth, source of life and abundance and good fruit, help you stay connected.

The Great Companion – Spirit of God and friend to us all, be with you and teach you everything you need to know.

May you be open to the great peace of Christ, so you can be centered and anchored, and not so troubled or afraid. 

May you be right where Jesus is, in awareness of the glory and goodness of our loving God. 

Amen.

To Be A People of Blessing | Participatory Liturgy

Scripture: Luke 1: 26-50

Song: “Wherever Your Heart Is” by The Lone Bellow

Voice: John O’ Donohue 

WELCOME 

Good morning! I’m Ivy, a pastor here, I use she/her pronouns – it is a delight to have you all in this space together this morning, the first Sunday of Advent. 

Advent is the season before Christmas, marked by the four Sundays leading to Christmas.  It’s a season where we long and wait for the coming of Jesus – and revisit all that it meant, and consider all that it still means for us and the world today.

And today we are holding a participatory liturgy service to start this season.

I’ll explain this service, and your involvement in it, in just a moment .. …but first a couple Advent -related announcements: 

Our Advent focus this year is the God who speaks – and this guide will help walk you through scripture, reflection questions, and invitations of exploring how that might be true -through our listening, imagination, our encouragement, and blessing.  Grab one on your way out – and explore it with a community group or others if you’d like! 

  • 12/17 – Christmas Choir
  • 12/17 – And an after-service Nativity experience with our elementary school kids.
  • 12/24 – And on Christmas Eve, we will have special candlelight services in person at 10:00 a.m. and online at 7:00 p.m. (Note the different times for that holiday!)
     

TODAY

Today, you are about to engage and experience a participatory service. 

We offer these types of participatory liturgies about two times a year – and each time I’m excited to see what will unfold with the Spirit of God. So much of what is to come really is a choreography of your story and God’s story intersecting – with familiar prompts of scripture, prayer, and communion – but with a less front–of-the-stage-centered focused “teaching.”

We trust the Spirit of God to be our great teacher today, the one who guides us in communal and creative ways to deeper experiences of God’s love.

We realize that these services take a little more “work”… The word, “liturgy” in Greek roots, means work of the people. And so much of the experience, this morning –  as is often true – will rest on your willingness to lean in and engage, participate and create.  All of which we will give space for… and all with freedom.

*If you need a little space please take it, there are chairs setup around the edges of the Sanctuary – the prayer team will be available later in the service if you need it as well… but please do participate to the degree you are comfortable, as I trust you’ll find a rich return from that. As always we hope that you will experience the love of God, the gift of community and the joy of living – from exactly where you are at this morning, and know that you are welcome in this place – without exception. 

BLESSINGS
The focus of our Advent season this year is the ‘God who speaks.’  And we will get to wonder together how God is speaking still, how we discern God’s new possibilities for us, and how we join God in speaking good into being.

One way God speaks good into being is in the realm of blessings.  “The Bible is full of blessings. They are seen as a communication of life from God.” And one way we join God in speaking good into being is by blessing one another. 

In this service we are going to explore what it is to “be a people of blessing” – not in a soft/platitude – hashtag#I’m-blessed-sort of -way.  But in an empowered –  ‘standing in the darkest month of the year, standing in a (dark) world that is breaking over and over again – kind of way’… believing and embodying that there could be something so lovely about rediscovering our power to bless one another. In a way that could heal and renew one another – could rekindle a ‘little bit of fire’ in us – where we remember what and who we care for, who and what we are passionate about and love – and are called to love.

Throughout this service you’ll be invited to explore the power of blessing – through individual reflection, communal response, and movement.  I’ll guide you through what these “more communal” moments will look like and how to respond to one another in your groups.  You will be companioned by Mary’s story and song found in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 1 – as well as Irish poet and priest John O’Donohue.    

Let me pray for us, and then lead us into the first portion of our time.

Oh God, the one who blesses us – from the beginning until the end – help us to bless one another, to be a people of blessing.  We sit here with you now – maybe eager and maybe slightly anxious – of what this morning might bring.   And so I ask you now to remind us of your promise to us, that you are always with us –  that by and by you are by our side – that you will never leave us or forsake us.  And as we join with you today, may your deep, unending, love for us – be revealed at even greater depths.

Amen

Ivy:  Now we will move to our first Movement: Blessing Wherever Our Heart Is  – 

Let’s get started. 

1–

MOVEMENT# 1 |  Bless Wherever Your Heart Is

1- Song | Band 

1st two stanzas and refrain

🎵I’m getting real good at talkin’ to strangers

Good with the silence, cussing and prayer

It’s a long way to our house, we should get started

I’ve seen the signs of tall tale dangers

Why do you say when the words are not there?

It’s a long way to nowhere, we should get started

We should get started

I’m still searching for wherever your heart is

We should get started, wherever your heart is

I’m still searching for wherеver your heart is

We should gеt started, wherever your heart is🎵

1- Scripture | Grace

Luke 1:26 -35 

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”  But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 

Mary said to the angel, 

“But I am a virgin – How can this be?” 

How can this be?” 

Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be… 

 

Let it be…  

1- Song | Band 

🎵🎵🎵

I’m getting real good at talkin’ to strangers

Good with the silence, cussing and prayer

It’s a long way to our house, we should get started

 

I’m still searching for wherever your heart is

We should get started, wherever your heart is

I’m still searching for wherеver your heart is

We should gеt started, wherever your heart is🎵

 

1- Ivy | Words & Invitation to Sharing
I wonder where Mary’s heart was when the angel greeted her?

I wonder if her heart skipped a beat and she lost her breath?

I wonder if she cussed – a million holy cusses – under her breath?

I wonder how much silence she needed to gather herself?
I wonder how much silence she needed to unravel herself?

I wonder how she prayed? What she prayed? 

I wonder if she wondered why she should even pray?

I wonder if God was searching for wherever Mary’s heart was? I wonder if in that searching her heart was blessed?

“Cussing, silence & prayer.”

You’ll find three strips of paper that have these words on them in your envelope – please take them out. 

I’m going to invite you to write on these strips of paper – and also scan your own heart, as you spend a moment with each of them.

There may be things in your personal life, or in your community, or in the world that light up ONE or all THREE of these words – cussing, silence and prayer – and there may be, even more words that reflect better the state of your heart today – but we are going to take a moment with these three.

1 Let’s start with silence.

  • Silence could be holy/connective/generative  – altogether good silence.
  • Silence could also could also be loneliness – emptiness – numbness…

How does silence resonate with you? Jot some thoughts or reasons ‘why’ down as they come.

2 Next is cussing:

  • Cussing could be a reveal health – an outlet – a relief valve for deep feelings
  • It could also be a state of unwanted surprise, dead-ends, despair, anger, fear, frustration

How does cussing resonate with you? Jot some thoughts or reasons ‘why’ down as they come.

3 Next is prayer:

  • Prayer could be alive, good, it could feel like action – movement.
  • Absent, like work, rote, or a longing 

How does prayer resonate with you? Jot some thoughts or reasons ‘why’ down as they come.

SHARE & WALL

Now what I’m going to invite you to do now is to share one thing that you wrote down that you are comfortable sharing with the group about “wherever your heart is.”  (After you share your name and your pronouns if you’d like).

The group will only say one thing in response to your sharing, and that is

“We bless you, wherever your heart is.” 

Take turns – and after you’re all done – you can take your three strips of paper to the wall and place them in an any-shade-of-green envelope.

–2–

MOVEMENT # 2 | Bless Those Throughout Your Life

2- Song | Band 

2nd stanza & refrain

🎵You always told me, go where the light is

Nobody showed you, how to get there

It’s a good time for trying to walk through the darkness 

We should get started

 

I’m still searching for wherever your heart is

We should get started, wherever your heart is

I’m still searching for wherеver your heart is

We should gеt started, wherever your heart is🎵

 

2- Scripture | Grace

Luke 1: 39 – 45

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth, her cousin. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, 

“Blessed are you among women,

“Blessed are you among women,

and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

2- Song | Band 

2nd stanza & refrain

🎵You always told me, go where the light is

Nobody showed you, how to get there

It’s a good time for trying to walk through the darkness 

We should get started

 

I’m still searching for wherever your heart is

We should get started, wherever your heart is

I’m still searching for wherеver your heart is

We should gеt started, wherever your heart is🎵

2- Ivy | Words & Invitation to Reflect & WALL

I wonder if Elizabeth’s blessing changed the atmosphere in that room? In Mary’s heart?  Jumping in darkness and light, from overwhelm to movement, clenched heart  – to – open.?

I wonder if Elizabeth’s blessing despite the signs of tell-tale danger of Herod the Great, showed Mary how to walk?

I wonder if Elizabeth held some of Mary’s doubt until she could enwomb her own infinite possibilities? I wonder if it shirred up her dignity and belief in who she was meant to be.

The people throughout our lives – they have the capacity to shape, break, and save us. 

Likely this is true for you whether you are 15 or 80. 

You’ll find in your envelope three square cards.

1-One reads: “Blessed be those who have loved us, into becoming who we were meant to be.”

2-Another reads: “Blessed be those who looked for you and found you, with their kind hands. When desolation surrounded you.”

3-And the last one reads: “Blessed be those who have crossed our lives with dark gifts of hurt and loss. That have helped to school our minds in the art of disappointment.”

  • You aren’t going to share out loud in your groups this round – but take a moment to write the names of people throughout your life – who come to mind. And if you can – next to their name write how you knew or know them. 
    Example: Sally Powell, piano teacher *OR* Holly Potts, 5th grade lunch lady.
  • And when you are ready you can put these cards on the wall. You’ll find little tabs of red tape that you can stick them up with.
  • One exception is the person/people in your life that have hurt you – you can put that card in the envelope that you have, seal it, and put it on the wall if you’d like.

I’ll call us back in a couple of minutes.

As a body we’ll now communally bless all of these people who are represented on the cards and sealed envelopes. I’ll  read the blessing – and then we can all say the response that seals that blessing together (it will be on a slide). 

1- “Blessed be those who have loved us, into becoming who we were meant to be.”

RESPONSE: May those who love us be blessed. 

2-Another reads: “Blessed be those who looked for you and found you, with their kind hands. When desolation surrounded you.”

RESPONSE: May those who search for us be blessed.

3-And the last one reads: “Blessed be those who have crossed our lives with dark gifts of hurt and loss. That have helped to school our minds in the art of disappointment.”

RESPONSE: May God, Bless the space between.

–3–

MOVEMENT #3 | Bless the fire in you 

3- Song | Band 

2nd stanza  

🎵Feels so good to know

That there’s a little fire left

There’s a little fire in left in you

 

Feels so good to know

That there’s a little fire left

There’s a little fire in left in you🎵(repeat as many times as makes sense)

 

3- Scripture | Grace

Luke 1:51-55

And then Mary praises God, and with a little fire in her belly she sings;

He has shown strength with his arm;

    he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones

    and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things

    and sent the rich away empty.

He has come to the aid of his child Israel,

    in remembrance of his mercy,

according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

    to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

 

3- Song | Band 

3rd stanza  

🎵Feels so good to know

That there’s a little fire left

There’s a little fire in left in you

 

Feels so good to know

That there’s a little fire left

There’s a little fire in left in you🎵(repeat as many times as makes sense)

3- Ivy | Words & Invitation to Share

Elizabeth’s words flame the embers of knowing in Mary. Something Mary knew deep down, these ancient, yet prophetic words of Isaiah… and she sings them anew for herself and for the world. 

It’s the little bit of fire left in her… as she stands in the face of all that is overwhelming.

This little bit of fire – that keeps her in it – that keeps her searching to see the world as God sees it. 

And some days this is all we can do, keep trying to see the world as God sees it – even if our reality defies it at every turn. Even if the powerful are still on their thrones, and have their hands full of riches – and even as the poor and powerless are still in the trenches – hungry and suffering. Even if our embers of hope for justice and love are cold. Some days all we have is the mystery and promises of God that feel so ancient – but that reside deep within us… A found little fire left in us – – that in and of itself might be a blessing.

I wonder if Mary’s ancient song is our song too?

  • What do you think? Do you have a little fire left in you? And if so – what is it for? 

Are there things you care about and for? 

Things that keep you up at night that you are passionate about?

  •  The health of your family system
  • Local neighborhood issue
  • Hope of the world
  • Events of the world
  • Your work/vocation
  •  Share in group

 

  • Take a minute to sit with this question – you should have one last card in your hands.
    You can jot your thoughts down – and as you are ready you’ll share one thing you feel  comfortable sharing in your group.
  • The group’s response this time will be: “We bless the fire in you”

 

DON”T GO TO THE WALL  – SAVE IT FOR INTERLUDE

*Ivy words before interlude

Everytime we have said a blessing today  – we have used the word, “MAY” –  “May you be blessed”…”May those who love you be blessed.” etc. This is because the word “May” is a spring through which the Spirit of God is invoked to come forth with full presence and effect. It is not of our own power. The Spirit of God is the presence and secret energy behind every blessing here and in your days. (xvi)

To be a people of blessing is to move around our days, walk upon this earth – bumping up against people – like all these envelopes on these walls – wherever their hearts are –  in grief, in joy, in stress, in numbness – and yet as best we can we are called to notice, pay attention and care for the people around us.

But to live our lives in this manner – we need sustenance. We need to return to and draw from God, the source of all blessing. 

So during this next time – you are invited to continue to search for wherever your heart is – and the hearts of those around you. 

And here are your options:

  • Take your fire paper to the wall, stick it in a green envelope & take some time to read a few green envelopes.  
  • In the red envelopes are blessings – that you can take for yourself, or move to a green envelope that you think might need one.  
  • You can take communion – the source of all nourishment.
  • You can receive prayer from the Prayer Team. 

 May you find the sustenance you need along the way.

*INTERLUDE* | Searching

*Song | Band 

3rd stanza …….into 4th stanza

🎵Feels so good to know

That there’s a little fire left

There’s a little fire in left in you

 

Feels so good to know

That there’s a little fire left

There’s a little fire in left in you🎵

 

–4–

MOVEMENT #4 | The Blessing of God

4- Song | Band 

4th stanza – on repeat****

🎵Feels so good to know that

By and by, I am by your side

By and by, I am by your side

By and by, I am by your side

By and by I am by your side

 

I’m still searching for wherever your heart is

We should get started, wherever your heart is

I’m still searching for wherеver your heart is

We should gеt started, wherever your heart is🎵

 

4- Scripture | Grace

Luke 1:47-50

And Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger.

And she said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,

 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant.

    Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed,

for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

    and holy is his name;

indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him

    from generation to generation – because by and by he’s by their side…

  from generation to generation – because by and by he’s by our side.

And Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 

 

4- Song | Band 

4th stanza – on repeat****

🎵Feels so good to know that

By and by, I am by your side

By and by, I am by your side

By and by, I am by your side

By and by I am by your side🎵

4- Ivy | Words  

The span of history  – from Abraham – to the immediate descendants of Abraham – to our ancestors, to us, and to every generation in between – and to the next generation, and the generation after that – we are blessed to know that 

God looks upon us with favor,

The Might One has done great things for us

God’s mercy is for all of us… for everyone… 

By and by  God is by our side. 

  

These are the found blessings – things that are just true of God 

It feels so good to know – that By and By God’s by our side.

So we are going to invite all the generations in this room to sing this refrain together …..

 ***Song | Band  – Lead this part…

If you feel like you are in the older generation sing with us:
🎵Feels so good to know that

By and by, I am by your side

By and by, I am by your side

By and by, I am by your side

By and by I am by your side🎵

If you feel like you are somewhere in the “middle” generation sing with us:
🎵Feels so good to know that

By and by, I am by your side

By and by, I am by your side

By and by, I am by your side

By and by I am by your side🎵

If you feel like you are somewhere in the “young” generation sing with us:

🎵Feels so good to know that

By and by, I am by your side

By and by, I am by your side

By and by, I am by your side

By and by I am by your side🎵

 

Then Band leads congregation the whole song from top to bottom:

🎵
I’m getting real good at talkin’ to strangers

Good with the silence, cussing and prayer

It’s a long way to our house, we should get started

I’ve seen the signs of tall tale dangers

What do you say when the words are not there?

It’s a long way to nowhere, we should get started

We should get started

 

I’m still searching for wherever your heart is

We should get started, wherever your heart is

I’m still searching for wherеver your heart is

We should gеt started, wherever your heart is

 

You always told me, go where the light is

Nobody showed you, how to get there

It’s a good time for trying to walk through the darkness

We should get started

 

I’m still searching for wherever your heart is

We should get started, wherever your heart is

I’m still searching for wherеver your heart is

We should gеt started, wherever your heart is

 

Feels so good to know

That there’s a little fire left

There’s a little fire in left in you

Feels so good to know

That by and by, I am by your side

By and by, I am by your side

By and by, I am by your side

By and by, I am by your side

 

I’m still searching for wherever your heart is

We should get started, wherever your heart is

I’m still searching for wherеver your heart is

We should gеt started, wherever your heart is🎵

Ivy – Prayer/Benediction
Oh God who blesses, blesses and blesses us – so that we can in turn bless bless bless one another – May we treasure all the words spoken, shared, and those tucked away here today and ponder them in our hearts. And may they shape the blessings we become as we move about our days  – searching for your heart Jesus in this world. AMEN

The Way of Jesus When the World Breaks

Hello, friends, it’s an honor to be speaking with you today. 

Today I’m going to be talking about the way of Jesus when the world breaks. That’s the title: The Way of Jesus When the World Breaks.

We’ll unpack those words some more.

You’ll be hearing that phrase “the way of Jesus” a lot in the weeks to come, probably well beyond that. 

And “when the world breaks” is the title of a recent book by a fellow pastor in the post-evangelical collective. His name is Jason Miller. The subtitle of that book is “the surprising hope and subversive promises in the teachings of Jesus.” It’s a good book. It’s a reflection on the scripture I’m about to read for us, a famous passage the tradition has called the blessings, or the beatitudes. 

Words like these – hope, promises, blessings – they can be hard to access, strange words to say when the world breaks. And yet they are words we need, they are words faith calls us to. 

We’re going to talk about different ways the world breaks, about the kinds of wounds that don’t heal, or at least that don’t heal all the way.

That means we’re going to talk about the wounds of war, and specifically the conflict, the war in Israel and Palestine. 

And we’ll talk a little about personal wounds like trauma as well. 

I don’t aim to say anything graphic or retraumatizing or anything today. But I’d planned on speaking on something like this to start our “Way of Jesus” series, and then personal and global events both pushed me into proximity around so many wounds. So I’m very tender this week. Perhaps you are as well. If so, let’s be tender for a moment together, trusting in the kindness of God and the kindness of this community. If you need to step back or step out at some point, though, that’s welcome too. We value freedom here. 

These are huge topics. When it comes to the trauma of war, the pains of multigenerational trauma and violence, even the topic of personal trauma, none of us have the answers. It’s too big. When it comes to wounds that don’t heal, world-breaking pains, we only ever have the beginnings of what to say, but we’ve got to say what we have, I believe, and not be silent. 

And I think what I have to say is a couple things about the way of Jesus toward finding God, finding life when the world breaks, or maybe about God’s ways of finding us, and helping us find ourselves and one another again when the world breaks. And I think that’s important, I think that’s good news.

So let me read today’s scripture, and pray, and get into it.

This is the fifth chapter of Matthew, the first 12 verses. It’s set in Matthew at the beginning of the longest, maybe the most important set of teachings of Jesus that the world has. People call it the Sermon on the Mount. And it starts like this.

Matthew 5:1-12 (New Revised Standard Version)

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.

2 And he began to speak and taught them, saying:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Blessed are you. Happy are you…. as your world is breaking apart.

Jesus’ words are so strange.

Matthew sets Jesus up within his tradition to be a new Moses here: a mountain-top revelator, a wisdom maker, a law giver for his people. 

But Jesus doesn’t start with law old or new. He’ll get there. We will too in a couple of weeks. But Jesus begins with these blessings, these pathways to God, these promises of the good life. 

The Greek word we translate as “blessed” or “happy” is makarios. Jason Miller calls this “the blissful existence of the gods.”

And Jesus says that god-like blessing – comfort, peace, mercy, an inheritance befitting the children of God – it can all be yours.

And the way in is poverty, humility, mourning, hunger. The hard work of kindness and peace-making and love in the face of opposition. 

Some commentators think Jesus is commending a way of being in the world. If you want the blissful existence of the gods, here’s the way. It’s purity of heart, it’s mercy, it’s peacemaking.

Some commentators think Jesus isn’t commanding a way of being, but promising a path to happiness and blessing for people who think they’ve missed it. If you’re poor, if you’re small, if you have suffered loss, if you long for a better life or a better world, you’re not excluded from the happiness of the gods. No, no, there’s a way in for us all.

A promise for those who think the gates have been shut on us. Or a surprising path to what’s best for us all. I think it’s some of both of those things.

But they’re strange words. They’re meant to catch us off guard, I think, to stop us in our tracks for a minute, so we can shift our assumptions. So we can break open a little more and let the light in. 

One of the years when my life broke open was in 2017. It felt at first like it was just breaking apart.

I don’t want to swim into the details too much, but I’ll tell you three things.

In 2017, Larry Nassar was on trial for the sexual abuse, the sexual assault of hundreds of girls in America’s national gymnastics program. I found myself following the coverage relentlessly and sitting in my car or my living room just crying and unable to focus on much else.

At the same time, someone I knew and trusted sent me a critical email which casually mentioned by name the neighbor who had sexually abused me when I was a preteen. This person mentioned what had happened to me as a bad thing that happened to me as a kid, but at least not so bad – after all, I turned out OK, didn’t I?

And then thirdly, in response to that email, and the sadness and anger it provoked in me, I looked up that neighbor to discover that in recent years, he had reoffended again, had abused another pre-teen boy, and was tried, convicted, and returned to prison. 

Those three things were hard for me to process.

I was well into my forties. I had done a lot of healing and growth work around my childhood and these issues, but that year broke my world open again. 

And I needed help.

To be clear, I am not thankful for any of these things – the horror of widespread sexual abuse and assault of children, my own scarred wounds, people who touch our wounds without care or kindness. 

These are curses, not blessings. 

But with the help of God and friends, amidst these curses, I was drawn deeper into understanding the beautiful and broken story of my life in ways that in time increased my peace, hope, and faith. I am so grateful for this life of mine. It is so good. I was also drawn deeper into love – love for myself, love for the living God, love for life, love for you. 

Jesus says it can be like this. The poor in spirit, the meek, the humbled – God’s kingdom, the beloved community, is especially for them. Comfort, nourishment, the full inheritance of the children of God is for them. For us. 

How is this so? I don’t think I can reduce it to a formula, but I find the words “mourn” and “hunger” helpful. 

To mourn is not just to be sad, not just to grieve, but to do something with that grief – to bring that grief into the light of day, into relationships or community of some form.

And to hunger and thirst is to want things to be made right. This word “righteousness” – dikaiosune – really means righteousness and justice. It’s not just about personal morality, it’s about all things, all things, being set right, just, whole. 

In my case, I was so sad, so angry, day after day, that I couldn’t function fully. I knew I needed help. I asked a few people I trusted to help me in finding a therapist. And after a couple months, I found someone I thought would be OK, maybe just good enough, but who turned out to be great. 

I also chose, I chose very carefully, two other people to talk with these wounds about. Our wounds are not for everyone. We can’t trust everyone to be safe with our wounds. But if we trust nobody, things usually get worse. Time alone never heals. Time alone never heals.

We need the help of God and friends. 

In my case, the therapy and the friendships helped me to feel and express and understand some very old griefs. It was a time of mourning for me. Thanks be to God, my therapist, my wife, one other trusted mentor and friend met that mourning with great compassion and encouragement for me to more deeply learn and practice compassion for myself as well. 

Knowing I’d hit a moment in life where I needed more time and space for healing in my inner life, I also embarked upon an ancient, year-long structure of reflection and prayer designed to come more deeply into an awareness of God’s great love for us and into discovering the reality, the presence, and the work of God’s spirit with us, day after day. 

That’s the way of Jesus. Part of it, at least. To live in a beautiful, but terribly broken world, and out of our poverty of spirit, to mourn, and to hunger and thirst for things to be set right. And to hope that God is with us, that we still have an inheritance of blessing. And to ask for help in finding it. 

Some people call trauma that wound that doesn’t heal. 

A clinician in Psychology Today published an article on the 7 Hurts that never heal. They are:

  -the death of a loved one

-mental illness or chronic illness

-addiction

-betrayal

-permanent injury

-and trauma.

These are wounds that cut so deep, or persist so much, that they never fully leave us. Pain can lessen, but it may return. And the healing that comes will still leave scars. 

The article said that we cope with these hurts that never heal by sharing them – not with everyone, but not alone either. We share them. And we look for pathways for growth, and for some way they can become incorporated in our purpose. We hope to become wounded healers for ourselves and for others. 

There’s nothing about fixing or removing these things. Not possible. But we heal in part when we don’t bear them alone, and when with the help of God and friends, this garbage starts to compost into material through which we grow and help. 

Bad religion shames us for these hurts. Or like another addiction, it tries to offer us ways to deny or escape these wounds that never heal. 

The way of Jesus names our wounds. None of us go through life without any of them. But it names our wounds as beloved children. It names our wounds as access points to pathways of healing – to mourn, to long for a better way, to ask for help, to give and receive mercy, to grow into peacemakers ourselves, no matter the cost. And to take joy in the goodness that comes our way in all this. 

The way of Jesus does promise a life free from hurt. I can’t promise you that either. But the way of Jesus promises that our wounds can take us into the holy, to be held, to be accompanied, to taste the bliss of the gods, amidst the hurt of this life. 

Friends, if our world were not at war, that’s the talk. The way of Jesus in our hurts that do not heal. But remember those seven hurts that do not heal – death of a loved one, permanent injury, trauma, etc. – they’re all playing out in Israel and Palestine right now, and for many who have loved ones there. 

And to be alive right now and to care about this is to be in a constant state of exposure to trauma.  

A lot of people have had a lot of words to say this past week. Many of those words have missed the mark, have dug into one wound or another. 

But with the help of God, and with your trust, in prayer, and in relationships with many who are grieving, I’ll do my best for a minute.

Last weekend, Hamas militants from Gaza attacked civilians in Israel. Hundreds of civilians, perhaps over a thousand, including children, elderly, were killed, brutally, in a large-scale terrorist attack. 

Friends and colleagues of mine, world leaders as well, have named this as the largest attack on Jews since the ending of the Shoah, the Nazi Holocaust, nearly 80 years ago. Each victim a beloved community member, an image bearer of our Creator God. 

It’s also true that this attack, and these deaths, have occurred within a context. Palestinian people and lands have been occupied by Israel for decades. Numbers are contested, but many, many, many thousands of Palestinian Arabs have been injured and killed in the generations-long conflict. 

Israel proper is a very small nation, and it is filled with Jews and Arabs who have suffered losses in violent conflict. It is also filled with people whose parents and grandparents and great-grandparents were killed in the 20th century’s largest, most infamous genocide.

It is also true that Palestinian lands are occupied and encircled. Palestinians are a stateless people who suffer large rates of poverty and suffering and human rights violations. Israel has declared war against Hamas, the perpetrators of the terror attack. That war now includes a siege of Gaza, a strip of land the size of an American city, containing over two million people, half of whom are children, all of whom also beloved community members and image bearers of God. Access to electricity and food and medical supplies is being cut off, which is its own war crime. 

There’s more to say. And it’s changing every day. I don’t want to keep describing world events and trauma to you. I will likely not get it all right or say it all right. I am not an expert on any of these things.

But I say this to say that children of God have suffered, and are suffering, enormous wounds that do not heal. Most of us are proximate to this suffering not just through the news but as American tax-payers. And many of us, in our networks of family and friends and travel, are proximate to these wounds relationally. I know I am. I’ve reached out to and heard from friends, neighbors, colleagues and partners in our interfaith justice work. I’ve been offering my shared grief and listening to what people had to say. 

Let me just pass on some of their words to you – as models of grief that hold wisdom and compassion as well. 

From one rabbinic friend: I am sad to see the news of innocent civilians killed & terrorized in Israel with surprise attacks by Hamas. I am also worried about the innocent civilians in Gaza who may pay a terrible price. This horrific cycle of violence is endless. May God not extinguish our hopes for peace.

From a Palestinian Christian with ties to our church: You can condemn the killing and kidnapping of civilians. And you can condemn eight decades of occupation and oppression. There’s room enough for both.

From an Muslim scholar and journalist who has preached with me here before: In Islamic law, non-combatants are never legitimate targets in war. There are no exceptions for “colonial settlers” — which Muslims themselves could be, in various contexts. It is a principle all Muslims should defend — and call on Israel to respect.

From the Israeli newspaper Haaretz:

You can’t have it both ways: It’s morally indefensible to kill Palestinian civilians, even when framed as a fight against terrorism. And taking the lives of Israeli civilians is equally inexcusable, even when framed as a battle against occupation.

Lastly, from leaders Telos, Americans working for just peace for Palestine and Israel and in other global conflicts:

There is no doubt that Hamas committed a war crime against Israel and Israeli citizens. These unjustifiable atrocities must be condemned and prosecuted. Hamas must be held accountable. All hostages must be returned home safely and at once. Israel has a right to defend itself from Hamas. And to pursue justice for the victims of its crimes and freedom for all hostages. Israel does not have the right to indiscriminately retaliate against the millions of civilians in Gaza. International law and the rules of war prohibit collective punishment in any form. War crimes do not justify more war crimes. Atrocity does not justify atrocity. 

Friends, as I listen, there’s a lot that I don’t know. But here’s four things I do know about this suffering when the world breaks. 

One, I believe that victims, the wounded, need the way of Jesus. I’m not saying Israelis and Palestinians need to become Christians or believe in Jesus or anything like that. That’s an offense. People can choose their faith, their religion, and their lack thereof. No, I’m saying victims, the wounded, need the way of Jesus we’ve talked about here. They need to grieve and mourn in the kindness and relationship of others’ compassion. They need to grieve and mourn their community’s losses, and as I hope you heard in some of our friends I quoted, for our healing, they’ll need the power, the love to grieve their enemy’s losses as well. This giving and receiving of mercy saves us all, even if that mercy is in the hows and whys of how we defend or resist. 

Secondly, If we have passion around this conflict, if we find ourselves thinking unmerciful thoughts or saying or writing unmerciful words, we might want to slow our roll for a minute on our most strident opinions and try to listen to someone else’s pain. So we can be sure that when we advocate, we do advocate for a justice that is merciful, a justice that heals. This week, I’ve tried to listen more than talk and have reached a place where I have some clarity about what I’m asking my national representatives to do and not do, as well as things I will and won’t say in the court of public opinion.   

Three, if we’re not directly impacted by this conflict, we still have the opportunity to mourn with those who mourn, and so to walk in this way of Jesus as friends. People who mourn with others listen more than talk. People in mourning need to be embraced, they need our presence more than answers or judgment. That gets complicated sometimes because grief includes anger, and people can say some pretty raw things when they’re angry. Mostly, though, when we show up for others in their grief, they experience this way of Jesus immediately. There’s a blessing that comes. I’d invite you, my friends, to join me, in showing up for the grief of your neighbors. You can do that personally, with anyone you know that might have ties and stakes to Palestine or Israel. You can do that publicly too. On Monday, I went with my neighbor to a Jewish organized event for Israel, and then later I went to a Palestinian event by myself as well. There was more going on at both events than grief. There were things said at both events that I can not abide. But I stood there in silence to grieve with those who grieve. 

Lastly, in addition to advocacy and shared grief, I urge you to pray now. To turn your questions and grief and anger and humility and poverty of spirit to God and ask for peace, ask for access to your inheritance, ask for help and mercy. 

In our GBIO community, an ancient prayer has been circulating the past few days. A prayer from two hundred years ago, prayed by a rabbi in what is now Ukraine. I’d like to share that prayer with you all, to close in praying this prayer together, that in the worlds’ hurts that are not healing, and in our own world-breaking hurts as well, we could know the presence, the help, the nourishing love and blessing and peace of God.

Rabbi Nachman’s prayer for peace:

May it be Your will,
Holy One, our God, our ancestors’ God,
that you erase war and bloodshed from the world
and in its place draw down
a great and glorious peace
so that nation shall not lift up sword against nation
neither shall they learn war any more.

Rather, may all the inhabitants of the earth
recognize and deeply know
this great truth:
that we have not come into this world
for strife and division
nor for hatred and rage,
nor provocation and bloodshed.

We have come here only
to encounter You,
eternally blessed One.

And so,
we ask your compassion upon us;
raise up, by us, what is written:

I shall place peace upon the earth
and you shall lie down safe and undisturbed
and I shall banish evil beasts from the earth
and the sword shall not pass through your land.
but let justice come in waves like water
and righteousness flow like a river,
for the earth shall be full
of the knowledge of the Holy One
as the waters cover the sea.

So may it be.
And we say:
Amen.

Old and New

A few years ago, it seemed like an old friend and I were drifting apart. At least one of the reasons was that we’d both changed over the years – changed some in our faith, our religious practice, some of our values and lifestyle. It was bothering me, because I knew other people who had lost old friends, who had even best friends cut them off when they went through these kinds of changes, like friends can’t worship differently, or live differently, or believe differently. I didn’t understand this, but I also didn’t want to lose an old friend, so I flew out to visit him and asked if we could talk about this. 

Long story short, we haven’t lost our friendship. We’ve stuck in it across our differences. But part of how this made sense to him was interesting to me. He was like: Steve, some of us are really focused on innovation – looking for new and better ways to do things, to live, to believe. And that’s good. He used the spiritual language of calling, like maybe for some of us, our purpose, our destiny, our way of living in God’s call for our lives, is to focus on innovation. 

But for some of us, my friend said, we’re more interested in preservation – how to hold on to old things and transmit them to future generations, how to not lose ways of doing things, ways of living, ways of believing that we’ve inherited from the past. He said:

This is good too. Some of us are called to preservation, especially when everything is changing so fast. 

He said it seemed like he was more about preservation – in his religious life, in some of his beliefs, and that maybe I’m called more to innovation. Different interests, different calls maybe, but why couldn’t we respect and appreciate each other? Of course we could still be friends. And we are.  

I’ve kept thinking over the years about my friends’ categories, his values for both preservation and innovation. He had churches in mind, for instance. 

He thinks of us here at Reservoir as innovators. This church started in the 1990s to explore the life and teaching and ways of Jesus for a very secular, not very churchgoing culture. And that’s given us a commitment to some things which haven’t always been traditional our faith –

  • to use ordinary language for religious ideas,
  • to chip away at the patriarchy and racism in our tradition,
  • to value the love and the relationships of queer people,
  • to integrate faith with science and day to day working lives and other parts of so-called secular culture.

We’re not the only ones doing these things, but they’re really important to us. I guess that makes us innovators. 

This summer, though, while I was on a sabbatical, I took a couple of retreats and worshiped with a very different Christian community nearby. More than they read the Bible in worship, they chant it, kind of like you would have heard in a church seven, eight hundred years ago. They remember and celebrate the faith and example of other believers that have been dead for hundreds of years. They’re preserving an old tradition, so their worship is very unfamiliar to me but also beautiful and rich. 

This goes way beyond church and religion of course. There’s a business in my neighborhood that does all kinds of delicious things with the flavors they add to the croissant. Innovators. And there’s another business that likes to say they serve the best Middle Eastern falafel in Greater Boston. Friends who are from that region are like – meh, it’s nice that they try. But still, A for effort. They are preservationists.

I taught middle and high schoolers for years in a small, start-up public school in Boston. We were trying to do something really special for the kids in our community. And so we merged some best practices we could find for small school innovation in public schools, with a holistic approach we borrowed from a Christian ministry in Hong Kong, and a kind of elite private school college prep curriculum. I know we were the only school in the world playing with the combination of sources we were using. Innovators.

But then I went to be the principal of a comprehensive public high school in a nearby city. It was the only high school in town, it was something like 150 years old, and for a lot of the community, what they most wanted to see was that their kids’ high school experience would be just like theirs. Change sometimes came hard and slow. There were a lot of preservationists around.

Old and new. Some of us focus on preserving the old, some of innovating the new.

The more I’ve sat with this, though, this doesn’t seem quite right. I feel like at least the best things in life value the old and the new. The best things are preservationists and innovators. 

That old-school falafel joint – they’ve gotten into online ordering.

That trendy croissant store – they’re working with a miracle of butter and flour developed in the 13th century.

The monastery I like to visit. They may chant 12th century hymns, but one of the monks texts me the security code to get around the building when it’s time for one of my retreats.

Even us at Reservoir, we may be doing new things to be an accessible and winsome community for the times and place we live in. But we’re still committed to the Way of Jesus, an itinerant 1st century rabbi, himself an innovator in an ancient wisdom tradition. 

The best of just about everything is old and new. It’s preserving and innovating. Maybe this sounds obvious, but it’s something Jesus felt the need to affirm and say some stuff about. 

Here’s one place, in the 13th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew 13:52 (Common English Bible) 

52 Then Jesus said to them, “Therefore, every legal expert who has been trained as a disciple for the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings old and new things out of their treasure chest.”

Treasures old and new. 

Jesus is most specifically talking about a group called scribes. They were religious experts in his culture, but also legal experts. So these were the people who drew up contracts like marriages, land sales, mortgages. 

Jesus has a word for teachers, for pastors, lawyers, real estate agents who want to do their work God’s way. 

He says it’s like a person who has an old family heirloom, passed down for generations. And they also have the newest gadget they picked up this year. And they love and use them both.

Old and new, preservation and innovation. 

This is good life advice. In any profession, we should draw upon the established norms, the best practices, the accumulated knowledge passed down over time. Preserve it, use it, learn and be wise. 

And we shouldn’t only be stuck in the past. Teachers can adapt new technologies when they make classroom learning more efficient or more engaging. Pastors, lawyers, property managers, you name it, we can do things differently when we find a better way.

Old and new, preservation and innovation. 

It’s part of the Way of Jesus as well. 

There is wisdom in the roots and heritage of the faith – in the ancient sacred texts, in the tradition – that is worth learning and using. And yet the Way of Jesus is also ever-evolving. Nothing stands still, everything is changing, religions, faiths, spiritual quests as well. 

This wisdom of old and new reminds me of something else Jesus said, something a little more specific, this one from the 9th chapter of Matthew. 

Matthew 9:14-17 (Common English Bible) 

14 At that time John’s disciples came and asked Jesus, “Why do we and the Pharisees frequently fast, but your disciples never fast?”

15 Jesus responded, “The wedding guests can’t mourn while the groom is still with them, can they? But the days will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they’ll fast.

16 “No one sews a piece of new, unshrunk cloth on old clothes because the patch tears away the cloth and makes a worse tear.

17 No one pours new wine into old wineskins. If they did, the wineskins would burst, the wine would spill, and the wineskins would be ruined. Instead, people pour new wine into new wineskins so that both are kept safe.”

This is a friendly conversation between old and new. A few folks are like – we fast. This religious practice is really important to us. Part of our heritage, our faith. And notice, Jesus isn’t like – that’s stupid. You don’t need to do that. 

He respects their practice. He says his own disciples will return to it at some point. But something else is going for them now, so they’re doing things differently. 

And then he tells this little anecdote from the worlds of clothes-mending and wine-making. Everyday life. He’s like: if you want something new, you can’t only use the old to get it. Old wineskins are great for holding old wine – which can be a treasure. The container and the wine have aged and stretched together. But to get something new – to make new wine – you need a new container as well. 

Jesus is not saying the old is bad. 

He was what we’d call poor. Everyone in his circles kept wearing and passing along old clothes. And Jesus has a word about how to best preserve them. 

Jesus lived in the patterns of an old faith tradition. He didn’t start anything from scratch. He learned how to pray from the psalm book in his Bible. He learned about rest and joy and justice and the goodness of God from the best ancient wisdom and practice of his tradition. 

Respect and preserve what’s worth keeping. 

But he also said:

there are some things I’m doing differently for a reason.

New wine in his culture can be a metaphor for the new activity of the Spirit of God. The hope, the redemption, the new possibilities God is making available at this time in history. And Jesus says:

to keep up with what God is making possible, you have to innovate. You have to try new things, to not be afraid to adapt and change. 

This is the nature of life, the nature of God, and the nature of this church community too. 

When I worked in schools, there were always debates going on between old and new ways of doing things. What books kids would read, what assignments they would do and how those would or wouldn’t be graded, how teachers would impart material to their students and lead discussions, just about everything in the profession had these old vs. new debates around them. 

And a lot of those debates went nowhere because they got stuck in old vs. new, right vs. wrong, when the truth is that there are things about education and learning that have been practiced over decades or centuries that are worth preserving and there are also new things we’re trying to accomplish that require new tools. 

  • What’s worth keeping?
  • And what new things do we need to try to accomplish new goals?
  • Were much more interesting questions than is the old or the new better?

Same with almost any area of life. When our kids were little, we picked up on so many debates on the best way to parent young children.

  • How do you help them sleep better?
  • Teach them right from wrong?
  • Help them learn how to read?
  • Do you want them to depend on you more or less, and in what ways? 

And again, it felt like everyone in the conversation was like: the old way is good. It worked when I was a kid. Or the opposite – the old way sucks, it’s gonna ruin your kids. Now we know this way is better. Old or new, right or wrong. I wish it could have all been a little less judgy, a little humbler, and we could have asked more: what’s worth keeping? What do we appreciate about the old ways? And what new things are we trying for, that might take some new tools? 

Friends, I believe that life isn’t just like this. God is like this as well. In our faith traditions, we like to emphasize the unchanging nature of God. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. 

And to a degree, this is right. God’s nature is unchanging. Three times the Bible says God is something…. That God is Spirit. That God is Truth. That God is Love. I don’t think that ever changes. God is always omnipresent spirit, never sometimes all contained in the body of one cricket or something. God is always true. God is always love. And you could add things… God is always just, kind, creative, and so on. 

But the Bible at least teaches that God tries new things. God does new things. God doesn’t just set a plan for the universe in motion and lets it go. No, God adapts. God responds. God improvises. 

For instance, let’s say God hopes one good thing for our lives. Maybe God hoped that last year we’d break some toxic pattern in our lives, some addiction we use to numb out, some habit of criticism or meanness or self-sabotage. And God was helping people and resources show up to help us. But we missed it. We weren’t paying attention. We resisted the growth. We just didn’t have it in us. 

God’s not going to just hit replay on last year’s experiences and hope it goes differently. God notices the same fail and might try something different and hope we have it in us to respond this time. 

That’s what Jesus was saying in his generation. He was embodying a tradition of spiritual teaching and of prophetic witness. He was revealing ways to be in relationship with God, to be in loving connection with self, neighbor, enemy, and creator, and to live more fruitfully and justly as well. All of this was shaped by the best of an old tradition, but the ways Jesus was doing that were new. New wine. New divine activity. New possibility. 

So Jesus says to these curious seekers, don’t be distracted by the tradition you don’t see. Notice the new thing God is doing. It’s here for you. Receive it, adapt and change. It’s worth it. 

This by the way is what Reservoir is up to. 

This week and the next four weeks, we’re in our annual We Are Reservoir series. It’s a time when we remember some of our shared values and purpose. We try to make it easy to connect or reconnect with others. And we invite everyone to find ways to belong and to contribute to a community that we hope nourishes each of us while also connecting us to something bigger than ourselves.

So you’ll hear a lot of invitations… invitations to belong, to connect with community, to eat together. Invitations to become a member or to remember why you’re still a member. Invitations to give and volunteer – to contribute to the good our community is shaping together. We hope you’ll say YES to the invitations that seem right for you, and know that for anything you don’t say YES to, that’s OK as well. You’re in charge of your own life, and we all can trust one another to find our ways. 

This month, our sermons will in part explore part of the vision of Reservoir, the way we do things, the life together we’re promoting, that we think has value of the church, but also has value for our lives beyond the church too.

And part of that vision is our spirit of innovation, our willingness to stay rooted while adapting, not being afraid of change. It’s our way of old and new. 

So, on the most basic level, Reservoir is a Christian church. It’s a community that is promoting a way of being human that is rooted in a deep and ancient tradition. 

We read and study and teach sacred texts that are millennia old. They teach us about God and humans and justice and the good life, and how to be in community, and how to live in our bodies, and find more love, joy, and peace in a troubled world or in a restless self. 

Some of our technologies of worship and prayer and ethics and learning and being in healthy relationships are super old too. Because we think the Way of Jesus has life and wisdom to it. It’s worth learning, preserving, and transmitting. 

But Reservoir is also trying to be a new wineskin in which God can do new things for us, our neighbors, and our broader communities. 

When we were getting started, people were realizing that the age of churches as the moral cops of their communities had passed. More and more in this region of the Northeast United States, and really much of the country and the world, people just aren’t looking to churches to tell the whole world what’s right and wrong anymore. That age has passed. To be honest, churches blew it. That’s part of why that age has passed. 

So Reservoir doesn’t do that, even when some people want us to. We don’t lay down the law for all our members, let alone for the community at large, saying if you want to be part of this church, or you want God to approve of your life, you’re going to live exactly this way. 

We don’t do that. We try to create a community where people can be in meaningful relationship with an ancient and wise spiritual and moral tradition, where people can be in a safe and kind community that values personal growth and goodness and justice, where people can even learn relate to an all-wise, all-loving unseen spirit we call God. And we trust that to work. We trust that to help us move in greater love, purpose, health, and goodness.

A generation ago, more followers of Jesus started to realize that people of different sexual identity or orientation shouldn’t be stigmatized anymore, that there are healthier and more helpful ways of re-reading a few ancient texts in our Bible that had been condemning of our queer siblings.

We were like, we want in on that. We can learn how to practice some of our old values while also respecting the love and dignity of our queer siblings and queer selves, and celebrating some different expressions of holy and good gender expression and faithful loving relationship.

Same with a lot of things. Reservoir is at its best when we set our anchor in the deep well of an old faith while at the same time setting our sails to catch the new winds of the Spirit of God. 

I know that metaphor breaks down as all metaphors do, but I hope you get the picture. This is a community of old and new, of preservation and innovation, of profound respect for the ancient faith tradition we keep returning to and of bold and hopeful embrace of new ways of living that faith, when those better match the new wine, the new possibilities that God is presenting in our times. 

I hope you find this community a beautiful and helpful place to support your own best life and faith. I also hope for your lives as a whole, you can enjoy asking those questions in all the arenas. What is worth keeping? What is worth preserving? Since the old is sometimes good and helpful and true. While also not being afraid when lives change, when times change, when needs in your life change, and asking: what new things are worth trying this day, this season, so I don’t miss the new things God is doing around me too.